The Watchers: A Space Opera Novella Read Free Page A

are being treated as Royal guests.”
    “That cannot leave,” Teren says.
    The Regent breathes in through his nose. The action straightens his posture at the same time a slight whistle from his nose fills the silence.
    “I will have no part of this,” Teren continues. “I encourage each of you to remember Watch Director Plaiselle. He would not bow to the Regency in the second millennium, and we should not here.” He sits back down.
    The air grows heavier. The two RIU agents on stage glance at each other and the Regent. The plants in the crowd sit forward, ready to leave their chairs.
    Vinita, a female Acolyte, stands. “I believe the Masters are in error in this—”
    The first half-smile for the Regent appears as he finds his first ally.
    “—However—”
    The smile slips.
    “It is intolerable to have Watchers removed from Watch Station against their will. It is against the law. If you will return them, I will Watch Evaga.”
    “And I.” Xiao stands.
    “And I.” Efren stands.
    Regent Teife studies the crowd before responding. “I will agree to return them so long as they are confined to quarters, so as not to make trouble. Agreed?”
    All three shake their heads, yes. At this secession another five stand, including me. I am on team Plaiselle after-all. I’m pretty sure Teren chose our team since Joslyn’s being detained, and she’s till tutoring me, on top of me being her ex-acolyte.
    Watching represents a potent power and a significant advantage. Starting at the Acolyte level, we’re all trained in various counter-takeover scenarios. In the three thousand years we’ve been operating, there have been sixty-three distinct takeover attempts, some more successful than others. So now a small group of us will appear to cooperate and work from the inside, while the rest work to organize, plan and wait from the outside. Strategy dictates that half the Directorate will attempt to return while the other half remain where they are to keep an eye on things.
    One of the first strategic rules of warfare: Get a small force behind enemy lines to feed intelligence while the rest of the force surrounds them.
    ***
    Part of appearing to cooperate is actually cooperating. The officials the Regent appointed to run this operation aren’t stupid. They had read all our profiles and devised a plan to efficiently execute the goals while catering to our strengths. They even asked for input from us after they got done briefing us—a pretty brilliant move actually.
    We couldn’t be sure they were making bad mistakes on purpose to try and see if we would or wouldn’t correct them. So to be safe and protect our cover, we made adjustments that improved the plan. Not just correcting the obvious mistakes, but using years of experience to strengthen the approach. Watching the officials, my guess is that they did put some red herrings in there on purpose but didn’t see seventy-five percent of the problems we pointed out. It was a great first step in establishing trust.
    Now, I lay in the consciousness projector at fifteen hundred hours, the neural patches attached to my skull, breathing evenly to prepare for my first foray into the minds of Evaga. Nerves eat my stomach like before all jumps—focus on breathing. The metal is cold under my forearms as I settle in—focus on the mission.
    My limitations in skimming large groups is well documented and widely known in the community. My assignment therefore is to Watch the hospitals. This will keep it to anywhere from one to eight mothers, or about thirty people total including support staff, at any given hospital in my region.
    The much touted statistic is that less than half of a hundredth of a percent of all births will show the genetic predisposition to commit these atrocities, or one in every twenty thousand births. My objective is to skim along until a test is done that turns up positive and observe everyone in the process. Watch the emotions of all involved, how they handle the