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Thu 10th Jun 2021 06:20

Interlude: Conception

by Thaddius Cromwell

"Your thumbprint here," he said, holding out the dataslate.
 
The room was cramped, no bigger than a hive city overnighting pod. After so many months on board this vessel where everything was grandiose as if to cow any observer into submission with its ostentatious display of glory, I wondered what sin the adept had committed to warrant this punishment. And how long ago. Still, the aged gentleman sitting on the other side of the desk seemed in his element. All the tools of his trade were nearby. Autoquills, reams of parchment, stacks of dataslates, and open tomes lay scattered across any available surface, the floor included. Perhaps I had interrupted some of his research with this errand.
 
"Come now, I don't have all day."
 
I hesitated. This was it. The thing I had been working for since before the Inquisition got hold of me. I pressed my thumb on the dataslate, and the edges flashed green.
 
"There you go. Lt. Cromwell's body was found by a reclamator crew and has been marked as killed in action. You are Arathis Fairfax, only son of Henrietta Fairfax, a Loian seamstress of little talent in Aro hive. Father unknown. You left home when you were young due to financial difficulties, and fell off the grid." He paused, as if remembering something fondly. "She was one of our finest agents, I'll have you know. Highly dedicated. But you, young man, are now nobody. This data update will be part of the regular synchronization as we reach Calixis, and so should arrive ahead of you in your travels. Your DNA re-sequencing treatments are nearly complete so that any scanners that have not yet been updated will reveal an unknown citizen instead of anything else, and ..."
 
I stopped listening for a moment and sighed, years of stress feeling as though they were lifted off my shoulders. I was free! Or at least, as free as I could be.
 
"... and he'll never eat tomatoes again."
 
I shook my head suddenly. "I'm sorry, what?"
 
The adept pursed his lips, obviously annoyed by my inattention. "Is there anything else you need? I have other assignments." He gestured at the literature scattered around the office.
 
It was now or never.
 
"The other request I had. Can you tell me what happened to Carlotti?"
 
"Are you sure you want to know? Thaddeus is dead. The news will reach her before you would, or before our masters would ever let you near her. I am sure she will weep at the funeral."
 
"Just some closure. It's been so long since I heard anything."
 
He tapped on another nearby dataslate and peered at the contents. "Yes, here we are. Last scion of your former household. Married into the Whitstone family. Hmm. It appears that she was expecting when we received the last update."
 
Whitstone, eh? I knew them. It sounded terribly unlike her, She was always better at the political game than me, though. And I was to be an uncle! Or would have been. No, I had to start thinking like a new man.
 
"One last question," I ventured.
 
"Of course."
 
"Did you really need my thumbprint?"
 
"Of course not," he grinned. "Emperor's blessings to you, young man."
 
Arathis, now. The name had grown on me over the last year and a half. It felt right that I kept it.