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“The saboteurs have been found,” the Solar King’s voice proclaimed to his advisors as the morning dawned. “Their plans did not end with last night’s attack, however. They intended to carry out several more such attacks.”

Most morning meetings only held a selection of his advisors but today’s meeting was not one to be missed so all of them were there, packed into a meeting room that was more like an auditorium.

“They came from the fringe worlds,” the Solar King went on, “as a way of voicing their grievances.”

“We should crush them,” someone said, though in the large gathering it was difficult to pinpoint who exactly it was that had spoken. “Kill their leaders like we did their saboteurs.”

“The saboteurs aren’t dead at all,” the Solar King said, quieting the room. “Unusual, I know, but my necrologists and I have recently perfected a new procedure that’s perfect for dealing with such people.”

The discomfort in the room was palpable at the mention of the necrologists and the insinuation of what had been done to them. It made the Solar King angry. How long had he led these people, used these tools, and still they were afraid of them. Afraid of even hearing their use being mentioned. He wanted to find the advisor who had spoken out earlier and make an example of him for interrupting. Instead, Chester had him keep the threatening tones out of his voice when he next spoke.

“Come now, all of you, you’re acting like children scared of monsters in the dark and I’ve had enough of it. In fact, it’s time you all witnessed it for yourselves. Nothing like seeing how the sausage is made to remove the mystique.”

He gestured and a dozen people standing along the edges of the room stepped forward. They joined the Solar King, standing at attention and looking straight ahead. Their various uniforms marked them as all being from different departments.

“A selection of the fringe’s saboteurs,” the Solar King said with a nod. “A few hours ago, they were spitting in my face, shouting insults and proclaiming how they’d never tell me their secrets. Now?”

He turned to the one nearest to him.

“Has your opinion of me changed at all since we met?” he asked.

“No,” came the calm response.

“But you’ll do everything I tell you to do?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me, then, where are you from?”

“I’m from the Saturn gas mining station, Ops.”

“And who organized and sent your team?”

“We came on our own, after the leadership of the fringe worlds decided what we proposed was too dangerous.”

There was a slight stirring in the crowd of advisors at this.

“Do you know what the fringe worlds are planning to do instead?”

“They intend to declare independence.”

Someone laughed in the audience.

“You think this a minor threat?” the Solar King asked. “Consider what would happen if the gas shipments alone were to be interrupted. What if they began attacking the mining operations in the asteroid belt? We would have to defend the entire ring while all they have to do is find one weak spot and suddenly we lose an entire mining outpost. Without gas from the fringe we have to rely on what we have here in the core.”

“We have stockpiles,” someone ventured to reply.

“Of course we do, but how long will they last? Consider the full consequences of a protracted war with the fringe. There’s a lot of space out there to hide a strike team. Better yet,” he turned back to the saboteurs, “why don’t you tell them about the centripetal accelerators the fringe worlds have hidden away.”

That got the advisor’s attention.

“There are over one hundred centripetal accelerators in fringe space,” one of the saboteurs said. “Each is armed with a payload capable of resurfacing Earth, Mars, and Venus.”

The Solar King nodded slowly as they spoke to the shocked audience.

“And each projectile is less than a quarter mile across,” he said. “Virtually impossible to track or locate until it’s too late. Our planetary defenses will certainly catch some of them, but not enough.”

“And we can do the same to them,” an advisor called out. “They have a hundred accelerators? We have thousands. Just give the word and we’ll wipe the solar system clean of their arrogant –

“Yes, let’s just destroy over a hundred years worth of infrastructure, personnel, and institutional knowledge!” The Solar King bit back. “Instead of having rebels withholding resources, we’ll be left with no rebels or resources. We’ll have to rebuild everything out there! Train entirely new crews to run it all, and that’s even if we can convince anyone to actually go out there in the first place. And all the while we’ll be starved for resources.”

No one else spoke up and the Solar King dismissed the saboteurs.

“I have the means to convert their leadership over to our side,” he said. “It’s a process that takes minutes. Once completed, we can avoid any such drastic events from taking place. The only difficulty is scale and accessibility. Currently, the needed chemicals are only produced on a small scale. That can be easily rectified. The other problem of gaining access to the fringe leadership can be resolved by using our newly loyal visitors. I propose we allow the other attacks on us continue so we don’t raise suspicions among the fringe. Let them think we haven’t caught them. Let us condemn the attacks and let the fringe deny involvement. We open negotiations and stall any drastic actions. In the mean time, we send the little team of saboteurs back to the fringe, along with the materials they’ll need to begin converting the fringe leadership to our side. Once we have enough of their higher ranked officials, it won’t be all that difficult to get the rest. All we need to do is delay them a little while longer.”

“Where are the other attacks going to be?” someone asked.

“It’s doesn’t matter,” replied the Solar King. “We’re going to act as though we don’t know they’re coming. Maybe we’ll find one or two of them around the more important areas, but if we get too lucky with them or react too easily to them, then it’ll be obvious we knew what was coming.”

“So long as none of us are in any real danger,” another voice muttered from the back of the room. It was spoken in an off handed sort of way but there was a strong undercurrent of expectation for the Solar King to assure them that none of their homes or businesses were in any danger.

Instead of answering, the Solar King waved his hand dismissively. The doors were opened and there was nothing for any of them to do but leave. It was clear they were all expected to be on alert, but that he wouldn’t be giving them any sort of advantage beyond knowing to expect more attacks. Upset, but keeping it to themselves, the advisors filed out. The saboteurs also left to go back to their regular routines, though this small selection of them wouldn’t be involved in any more of the plot since the advisors would obviously have them followed.

Once the room was empty, the Solar King sat down and slumped over. Not very far away, in a different section of the building, Chester all but collapsed from the strain. His head was pounding with dozens of voices and minds he was having to filter. Thankfully, everyone besides His Golden Eminence could manage themselves, more or less, for now. It wasn’t until he wanted them to do anything specific that he had to focus more on them. But there were still so many of them that even just the minor updates were threatening to overwhelm him.

He’d considered turning one of the saboteurs into a processing node for him, but didn’t want to risk the process not working right on someone he literally couldn’t easily replace and any disappearances or deaths among the saboteurs this early on would be an obvious red flag.

After a moment, once Chester cleared his head and slowed his breathing and heart rate, he had the Solar King order a small batch of criminals slated for execution to be sent to necrology for testing instead. As Chester began making his way down to the lab, he could feel a headache building and he hoped his process would work right away.

Experience told him he was foolish to think any new process would work as intended on the first try. It was a clear sign of his desperation that he’d almost tried it on Tamara. Just thinking about that made him cringe, but he didn’t have time for self-deprecation. He needed to focus and he needed to work fast. There were only a few days before the next attack would strike, and this one would make further research all the more difficult.