MGiS 6 - Proportional Response - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Of all the stuff back home that I miss, it’s the strangest stuff that keeps coming to mind. Having the occasional data drops from Ambassador Steelbender is a nice boost, so I don’t have to go without music and the movies that I enjoyed. And I know the girls really enjoy the new material too, which has spurred on an interesting exchange as the other crew members have broken out their own supplies to share too.

Learning the differences between the holo-vids that they have out here in the Hegemony vs the ‘quaint’ movies that I have from Terra that the girls enjoy makes me wonder.

Do they have things like streamers in the Hegemony?

And with the level of technology that they have out here, what sort of games are out here? I feel like I’ve been missing out on that with how focused I’ve been on my training. But in my defense, between magic and the girls, I had a good reason to be distracted.

~Desmond McLaughlin, personal journals.

“I think that your choice to offer the last spot on your team to someone you can trust was a good one,” Gregor said with a thoughtful hum, rubbing his thick jaw with one large hand.

“Yeah, but we are still waiting to hear back from her. I’d rather not elect to add someone from another ship that I haven’t talked to before, but the longer I think on it, the more risks I see in waiting,” Desmond replied, pouring himself a steaming mug of caff from the pitcher he’d brought with him this time.

A day had passed since he’d made the offer to Bell, and he’d been giving the Gaur woman her space to think over her choices and what she wanted to do next. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t on Desmond’s mind. Something that Gregor had noticed immediately when he’d called for the second of the lessons that Desmond had scheduled.

“At this point, you can’t really do anything about it. Those seeds are planted and it is time to let them grow. If they bear fruit, then you will have to decide what comes next. But it is out of your hands,” Gregor said simply as he folded one leg over the other.

This time, the Uth’ra man was dressed in an outfit that reminded Desmond of a certain Disney movie about a street-rat and a genie, with the poofy pants and vest over a bare chest. But Gregor wore the outfit a lot better over his muscled frame and skipped on the little round hat, something that made sense given how his wiry Uth’ra hair would have immediately knocked it askew.

“You are right,” Desmond said with a sigh and a nod. “It’s just difficult to get myself to let go and relax. I know that I need to, but it’s still difficult to actually do.”

“Desmond,” Gregor said amongst a booming laugh and a broad grin. “If you can figure out how to just let things go like that, as if it were a switch? And could teach others? Then you would be rich beyond your wildest dreams. Some of the most powerful people in the galaxy continue to stress about things that are well beyond their control.”

“If I can figure out how to do it, I’d teach you and Bree for free. The captain has enough to stress about already, I’m sure she could use it,” Desmond answered earnestly, getting a wink from the big man.

“We should stick to the plans for today, Desmond. If you let me get off on a tangent about my wife, then we will never get anything done and I would feel bad with how much you are paying for this connection.”

“It’s not that bad,” Desmond insisted. “The ambassadorial pipeline carries most of the weight.”

“I thought I taught you that lesson before, Desmond,” Gregor insisted, wagging a finger in the air. “Never give companies more money than you absolutely must. Voidnet definitely has more than enough money as it is with their monopoly on the communication lines.”

Not wanting to argue with the other man, Desmond took another sip of his drink before tapping on his comm-cuff with his pinky. A bit of navigating got him to the list of topics that he needed to cover with the older man today.

“We spent most of the first session talking and planning the next few sessions, so right from the top I guess? Can you fill me in on the actual structure of the clans and how they interlock with the Hegemony’s noble castes?” Desmond asked finally, looking up from his list.

“A simple enough beginning, but also very important to be familiar with.” Gregor said with a thoughtful nod. “I’m sure that your mates can answer the most general of questions for you, but unless they are part of one of the… well for lack of a better way to phrase it: ‘clans that matter’ then they won’t really know or care about it.”

“Neither of my Uth’ra mates had a clan to begin with, but I have a feeling that Clan McLaughlin will end up clashing with people that do care. If only because of my being an adept.”

“A wise concern. So are you familiar with how the Hegemony is divided?” Gregor asked and Desmond gave a small shrug.

“I get that it is reminiscent of the old feudal empires from my homeworld, just on a far larger scale. There are ranks that report up to the empress with duchess and dukes being the closest ones underneath her, and it flowing down into baroness and so on.”

“Close, but not quite,” he said, stroking the beard that he didn’t have in idle habit. “I should see about preparing a display board for next time to make this easier. There are kings and queens under the empress, but that title is chiefly reserved for the vassal kingdoms. You are right that beneath the empress it is primarily duchesses though.”

“So does that mean that Terra will end up being represented by a king then?” Desmond asked, grimacing at the political infighting that he knew would be coming as a result of that particular title being thrown about.

“They will need a representative that is the primary point of contact, yes,” Gregor answered with an empathetic sigh. “But they are not guaranteed a title like that. There are a half-dozen queens and a single king that I am aware of in the entirety of the space held by the Hegemony. All of them represent various interstellar nations that were absorbed wholesale, and often represent large and ancient factions of a given species. The Hyreh, Dwerg, and Uth’ra are three that have queens other than Aelfa of some sub-breed.”

“Okay, so how does this extend to the Uth’ra then?” Desmond asked, setting his steaming cup down to begin typing away on his comm-cuff taking notes. “And most importantly, how does it relate to me?”

“The last part is the most important one, but also the one that you can take the most time on,” Gregor explained after waiting for Desmond to be ready with his notes. “Your direct relation to the power structure won’t matter until you pledge your clan under someone. For now, you exist outside the existing power structure of the Uth’ra Kindred due to the newness and size of your clan, as well as the protection of the military.”

“Then why have I been getting so much mail from people proposing that I elect to join their faction or support their interests?” Desmond grumbled as he typed away.

The speed that he could hammer out words with a single hand still caught him by surprise, but at least he’d gotten used to how the Hegemony wrote, with individual strokes assembling to form singular word-glyphs and punctuation acting as connectors and other, smaller words.

Reminds me a bit of the Asian languages back home, with a lot of it relying on context, Desmond thought idly as he looked up questioningly to Gregor.

“Because they want to prey upon your lack of knowledge. My Bree told me that she’d already advised you to decline those proposals, and you yourself said that you have help from one of your squadmates in drafting up inoffensive answers, correct?”

“Yes, Audra has been a lot of help in that,” Desmond chuckled. “I really need to find something special to give her as a gift in thanks. I’d have just been sending flat refusals and have made enemies by now.”

“Two things,” Gregor said while proffering two raised fingers. Oddly enough, they were his thumb and pinky and that made Desmond blink in surprise. “Firstly, you’ll have already made enemies by refusing them, but those are the kind that would have ended up your enemies on general principle.”

“And the second?” Desmond asked when the granite-skinned man just stared at him thoughtfully.

“You should definitely reward your guard with something she likes. But make sure you keep in mind any cultural taboos around gifts.”

“Like giving an Aelfa a pendant or charm?” Desmond suggested, thinking back to the explanation that he’d gotten from Lila about her species’s practices for proposals.

“Or the horn-rings for Taari,” Gregor replied with a knowing smile. “Exactly. Audra is a Nagat, yes?” When Desmond gave a confirming nod, the Uth’ra man hummed thoughtfully while rubbing at his naked chin. “I can’t think of anything offhand that you should avoid, other than expensive foods. So much of their culture surrounds the size of a Nagat as a sign of their power, and they will continue to grow as long as they consume nutrient-rich foods.”

“And giving her expensive food says what?” Desmond asked in confusion. “I would think that it’d be one of the best gifts, if their species needs a lot of food to grow.”

“It does, but the meaning behind that gift is the biggest part. If a Nagat were to get their hands on some especially rare or dense foods, they would consume it themselves to fuel their own growth. Offering up food like that to another Nagat is a sign of submission from the giver, as well as a plea for protection.”

“Which, as her superior, wouldn't be good?” Desmond asked, trying to wrap his head around it.

“It symbolically places you under her power. Normally, males do this in a request to breed with a female Nagat during courtship.”

Desmond had been in the middle of taking a sip from his drink when Gregor said that and choked, sputtering and nearly spraying caff all over the table in front of him.

“Warn a man next time,” Desmond croaked in between spluttering breaths while the big man chortled at him.

“I had no idea you’d react so explosively to the idea,” Gregor said while snickering. “You’d think a man with four mates wouldn’t be that opposed to gaining another.”

“I’m not,” Desmond protested. “But Audra knows that already. She knows that I’m interested, I’ve shown that with my helping her groom her scales. But back to the food thing—”

“Bringing her food from the galley wouldn’t count, neither would buying her a meal while you are out on a station, so rest easy there young man,” Gregor answered, prompting a relieved sigh and slump from Desmond that made him laugh again. “But if you were to bring her a gift of rich food, specifically rare meats or the like, that are for her specifically, then it would be akin to propositioning her.”

“So I need to find something to give her as a gift to show my appreciation, but not fancy food. Do you know if they have any prohibitions on jewelry too?” Desmond grumbled, making the other man snicker again before Gregor continued.

“No, you should be fine with jewelry. But something more practical might also be a good choice. Does she have a passion you can encourage?”

“Investing?” Desmond suggested helplessly. “I don’t really know. She’s been training so hard to catch up to the other girls that I can’t be sure, and whenever we aren’t training and just resting, she’s doing research using the stored information on stocks, investments, and business opportunities.”

“Hmm… maybe equipment for her to better monitor and plan such things, if that is really a passion of hers… She could just be overly focusing on proving herself useful to you too, so something to consider there.”

“Gregor, I stopped expecting easy answers when I realized I would be surrounded by women,” Desmond replied dryly. “At least my girls do me the honor of speaking plainly with me, but back in my homeworld it would be far easier to end up in a mess due to lacking communication.”

“Also fair. But back to your previous question because we really have been letting the subject wander quite a bit,” Gregor said, rising from his seat to pace in front of his chair.

The hologram shifted slightly, as the sensor tracked his movement and revealed a little bit more of the Uth’ra’s home. Tribal decorations and trophies hung from the walls as well as carvings and other knick knacks that wouldn’t have been out of place in a house on Terra either. Hunks of driftwood, large rocks with crystal formations inside hollow cores, and small pottery figures to name a few.

“So as you are now, you are outside the traditional power structure. The clan that you owe your fealty to right now is the Tre’Killandra clan, as you are in active duty to the Hegemony military,” Gregor began to explain, waving his hands around like he was indicating a tree with many branches. “Once you leave your military service at the very latest, you’ll be expected to join factions. There are three different factions right now that dominate the Uth’ra Kindred.”

“Okay, and do all three answer to the queen who is the representative to the empress?” Desmond asked, returning to taking notes once more.

“Two of the three do, with one being ‘her’ faction. The Suneater Clan is ascendant as the largest clan and their leader, Queen Hannah Suneater, is the representative of the Uth’ra Kindred in the empress’ court. She is also supported by the Bonesong Clan, who are the second-largest.”

“Got it, Suneater and Bonesong are currently on the ‘winning side’ right now, and the third of the factions?” Desmond asked while clicking away.

“Amberheart, they formed relatively recently in the scale of things at around two hundred years ago. Mostly made up of disaffected smaller clans who were unhappy with the Uth’ra being subordinate to the Aelfa in the Hegemony. They don’t outright push a genetic superiority line, but they make no bones about the fact that the Kindred shouldn’t be considered a vassal nation,” Gregor continued, taking a moment to collect his large mug and drink from it before he continued.

“Under these three, the clans further spread out. For ease of example, I’ll use the Suneater’s. Roughly ten-percent of those under their banner are actually members of the Suneater clan, while the other ninety-percent are made up of over seventeen thousand subordinate clans that number anywhere from a hundred members to hundreds of thousands. None of which make up more than a single percentage of the total population of the faction.”

“How, though? I thought the clans all circled the males, how would they go about that?” Desmond asked in astonishment, his brain fighting with comprehending the sheer scale that was being described.

“Generations and generations of spreading branches will do it,” Gregor explained with a shrug. “The Kindred keep meticulous family records to prevent interbreeding of close family and the males are traded between the clans to strengthen ties in a political sense. You mentioned that clans back on your homeworld were separated by potentially dozens of generations?”

Desmond nodded in understanding, pulling his reeling mind back to something that would make a bit more sense. He’d known before, conceptually, the sheer number of sentients in the galaxy, but having these numbers described as such was daunting. Millions of people, all bearing the same clan name like they were close family.

Puts into better perspective how hungry Raegan was to have a clan again, Desmond thought, blinking for several moments before looking back to Gregor and gesturing for the man to continue.

“It’s the same idea as that, but over the course of thousands upon thousands of years,” Gregor explained simply. “The Suneater’s have lead the Kindred for the last six millennia and are looking likely to carry it on into the seventh. But the scale isn’t what is important, what is important is the structure beneath it.”

Gregor paused with one finger held up thoughtfully before turning about and hurrying to one side. The sensor adjusted to follow him for about twenty feet before reaching the edge of its range and pausing.

“One moment!” Gregor’s muffled voice sounded tinny with distance as he called from out of sight. “I know I had it here… where did that damn thing go? The little ones brought it in to show off. Haha!”

Gregor stomped back into view, the poofy legs of his pants flowing with the movement as he walked while brandishing an odd looking plant in one hand. It looked vaguely like a palm-sized head of cabbage with extremely thick leaves, but dangling underneath it was an absolute mess of pale white roots branching off of a singular, thick tap-root in the middle.

“This is a good example of how the Kindred Clan structures are set up,” Gregor said while brandishing the vegetable towards the scanner. “This central root? That is the central clan of the faction, while each branching root coming off of it is a subordinate clan. The thicker the root, the more important they are. But you can also view this as the inner clan structure.”

Gregor moved closer to the sensor so that Desmond could see the hundreds of tiny, hair-thin roots that came off the thick central stalk.

“I’m astonished that your kids managed to get that thing out of the ground in one piece,” Desmond drawled as he peered at the root. “I’d have expected that they’d break the tap-root off or something digging it up.”

“My little ones are ingenious and clever when making a mess. I just wish they wouldn’t be playing excavators in my garden,” Gregor said fondly before tapping the root once more. “Now, the inner clan structure is much the same, but you would consider the clan-mothers to be the central tap-root, while the points where the roots come off? Those are the clan males. The clan-mothers control everything in the clan and its distribution, but what brings new, fresh life in are the clan males.”

“Okay, that all makes sense in a very convoluted way,” Desmond said after studying the root structure once more. “Going back to the larger factional view, does that mean that individual clans can change in position based on what they are able to bring into the faction?”

“Exactly!” Gregor barked happily, waving the root about some more like a very awkward sword. “Beyond the organization of the faction, each one can be broken down into sub-factions that tend to have a leading clan. But it is entirely possible for a smaller clan to overtake the clan they are subordinate to and rise in power. For example, the Amberheart clan is the fourth clan to lead their particular faction in the last two-hundred years.”

“How can power change hands so quickly and without bloodshed?” Desmond asked in surprise and Gregor shrugged almost immediately.

“Not entirely sure. I know at least one change in power was because of scandal, while there are rumors that another was due to infertility issues ravaging the clan males. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the political infighting at work there.”

“Awesome, all stuff that I don’t want to know and don’t care to know about,” Desmond sighed.

“Fair enough there,” Gregor said with a nod. “It’s very doubtful that you’ll ever need to concern yourself with something like leading a faction given the small size of Clan McLaughlin. But many clans would wish to ally with you for the support of an adept regardless, as such things can bring honor and that will elevate the clan who can gather your aid. And it would flow upwards to the higher clans as well, as the superiors are credited with the results of those under them.”

“Oh goody, someone taking credit for my hard work,” Desmond drawled in annoyance, his lip curling.

“Not quite,” Gregor reassured quickly. “Your own actions would still be your own, and the honor that your clan gathers would still be that of Clan McLaughlin. But a portion of that success is reflected upon the clan you are subordinate to, and then to the clan they are subordinate to, and so on.”

“That is… a bit better at least,” Desmond said with a sigh. “And I have to pick one of these factions to join before my term is up?”

“You can pick one now if you want, but I would recommend against it,” Gregor said before holding up his hand to indicate he wanted Desmond to wait.

Gregor trotted out of sight once more before returning without his vegetable and rubbing his hands together to clear them of dust. Only once the big man had reclaimed his drinking vessel and taken a deep drink did he continue.

“I would, of course, be honored if you were to consider supporting the Skytreader’s, and through them the Suneater clan,” Gregor explained formally, his eyes twinkling in amusement. “But that is a choice you must make yourself. We are a far-removed clan from the powerful people who lead the Kindred, and considering the mischief you have gotten up to so far? You may find the Skytreader clan swearing to you one day.”

Not losing his amused grin, Gregor lifted his mug to toast Desmond. Without any reason to refuse it, Desmond grabbed his own mug of caff and raised it in toast to the other man.

“Regardless of the future, may both of our clans grow and benefit. I’d rather have allies and friends,” Desmond said. Gregor nodded in agreement and they both drank to the toast.

“It’s why your education in this is so important. Many are the unscrupulous and it is your job as the clan Sire to shield your clan from them, and to know when to unleash your clan-mother’s upon an enemy who has pushed too far.”

The grin that Gregor gave him at that point was fierce, and showed off every one of the large Uth’ra man’s razor-sharp teeth. It was only made more ferocious by the stern figure of the male as well as his brightly glowing orange eyes.

Oddly though, Desmond didn’t see it as intimidating. It was fierce, for sure, but he knew that Gregor was a friend and an ally. So rather than send a chill down Desmond’s spine, it gave him confidence instead, knowing that he had a strong ally in Gregor Skytreader already.