The Noose Around His Neck

If there was one thing about life on a starship that Aetna despised — it was the hollow thud of his footsteps echoing against the vast emptiness outside.

It was jarring to him as someone who had lived his entire life on a planet his entire life.

He could not understand how some people were so fast at adjusting to interstellar travel when the only thing that separated them from death was a couple of reinforced metal layers.

It felt as if he was traveling in a giant metal coffin rather than a state-of-the-art warship or a technological marvel to Aetna. And though that was usually enough to give him sleepless nights, as of recently, another reason had appeared to gnaw at him whenever he tried to sleep...

It was the conversation that he and Commander Telam had a week ago.

'Dammit...! I shouldn't have asked that stupid question. If only I kept my mouth shut!'

It was a tale as fantastical as the creation myths that humanity used to believe in when they had been little more than bumbling troglodytes. When they had been forced to make up gods to cope with the things they could not explain.

"I realize it is difficult to accept, but it is the truth," said Larfuc with a sympathetic smile. "For fantasy and reality to intersect at such a unique crossroads is... troubling, indeed."

Aetna shook his head and wryly said, "That's a massive understatement. What you're talking about is quite possibly the most unscientific thing I've ever heard of in my life."

"But it's the truth, whether you believe it or not — the gods our ancestors worshipped millennia ago... were real. They are not fiction but rather verifiable fact. But I can't tell you any more than this until you inherit your father's title..."

Commander Telam's words echoed in Aetna's mind like an irritating earworm. Aetna knew that he was probably being baited, but he couldn't help himself from thinking about it.

What little information Commander Telam had given him had taken hold of his mind. In fact, he had been so caught up thinking about what Commander Telam had told him that he had not even planned an escape attempt since then.

His entire world had been thrown in disarray. He had met someone who had been born more than three centuries ago and was still alive. Even people who had been genetically modified did not have lifespans that long.

Not only that, but he had been made privy to an enormous secret of unknown magnitude.

Aetna wanted to laugh, but he couldn't force himself to actually do it. Especially not after what the Commander had shown to him during the final moments of their conversation.

He had done something that defied the laws of physics as humanity understood them.

Were it not for the fact that Aetna had gone to the medbay and gotten himself tested, he would have suspected that the Commander had drugged his tea.

The Commander had spoken a single word, and the world had seemingly obeyed his command.

"Rise."

Everything within the Commander's quarters had begun to float upwards towards the ceiling as if the gravity in the room had disappeared.

Perhaps he had manipulated the artificial gravity in his room, but that would have also affected the entire ship. And that would've been logged as either a malfunction or a change in the ship's gravity drive settings.

And if it truly had been a malfunction, the Commander and Aetna would have also floated up with everything else in the room, but they had not.

That, in itself, proved that something truly unexplainable had happened that day.

Everything he had learned was like a tantalizing loose thread, one that was begging him to pull on it. There was obviously much more to what Larfuc knew, and the only way he'd get to know was by inheriting his father's title.

But that would mean being an obedient cog for the Solastora Empire, so he wasn't too thrilled about that. Not a single bit, to be honest. He loathed the idea of actually becoming the Count of Kolinto.

Either way, he still had some time before he had to make a decision. Aetna wouldn't be eligible to formally inherit the title of Count until he finished his training and became an officer in the Imperial Forces.

There was still time before the noose tightened around his neck, so to speak. Not that he'd be able to make use of that time to reflect on what he'd do in the future because...

The chime of a small bell rang next to his ear. It was the sound of his alfet, which had begun to chime incessantly.

"Pick up the line," said Aetna with an annoyed grumble.

"Oh, is our resident criminal too cool to pick up my calls now? I thought we were closer than that," said a young man as soon as the call connected.

"What are you, my fucking wife? I'm busy. Lay off, you rat bastard," said Aetna.

"Well, you won't be busy once you get sent to the brig," said Kejt Nauntia hurriedly in a muffled voice. "Yunfeer's saying that if if you don't show up in five minutes, everyone's going to get an additional two miles in the gravity chamber!"

Aetna's closest friend in the Imperial Forces and legendary slacker, Kejt Nauntia, had gone out of his way to warn him about the impending disaster that was about to befall him. But not of the kindness of his heart. He simply did not want to run another two miles at the end of the day.

Nevertheless, Instructor Yunfeer's threat was a very dangerous one, indeed.

Making enemies out of his fellow cadets was a shitty idea for obvious reasons. Aetna preferred not to get his ass beat up while he slept one day or have someone try to space him during a training exercise...

Life wasn't the same after he got transferred into the 1st Fleet, to the extent that Aetna almost regretted the stunt he pulled off a year ago. His former life in the 21st Fleet was heaven compared to the hyper-regimented hellhole in the 1st Fleet.

His workload had increased almost three-fold since he had been transferred to the 1st Fleet. It had gotten so bad that at one point, he and the other cadets had gone a day and a half without rest. Aetna had been sure that they had been trying to kill them via overwork...

Most of that work had been assigned by Specialist Yunfeer, though. Hence, the particular grudge Aetna had with the hardboiled bastard. He was a royal pain in his ass and had it out for Aetna the moment he transferred to the 1st Fleet.

Aetna was certain that Yunfeer would definitely punish the entire troop for his misbehavior, so he quickly got dressed and ran as fast as possible to join up with his fellow cadets.

But as soon as he arrived at the designated area, the frigate's auditorium, which was called the Observatory, he was verbally assaulted by the human incarnation of a megaphone.

A booming voice said, "What the fuck took you so long, maggot! Trying to test my limits, huh?! Get the hell in formation, Erandeusi, before I give you five miles in the gravity chamber!"

Aetna didn't even dare utter a word as he ran into his troop's formation and stood at attention in his designated spot.

Today's assembly felt different. Though Senior Specialist Yunfeer, their chief instructor, was usually a total hard-ass, Aetna heard a cold stiffness in Yunfeer's voice. It almost sounded like... panic in his voice.

In the fourth months that Aetna had known the wooden bastard, he had never seen do that — reveal even the slightest iota of fear.

This was the man who the ship's automated defenses had targeted in a 'freak accident.' And a month before that, Yunfeer had unfortunately donned a 'faulty' EVA suit that had its oxygen tanks malfunction during a training exercise...

All sorts of terrible, life-threatening 'accidents' had befallen this man and not once had Aetna seen him flinch. As far as Aetna knew, Yunfeer and Commander Telam were made of the same ultra-hard stuff, much to his dismay. Aetna couldn't break them as he had with the others.

And yet, Yunfeer was... turning paler as the minutes continued to pass by. Almost as if he had turned into a terrified cadet himself, in a somewhat humorous and pathetic sort of way.

For Aetna, it was a humbling sight. Seeing Yunfeer buckle under some kind of mounting pressure made him wonder who or what had that sort of imposing power. He was intrigued; that was the sort of power he wanted to cultivate — the type that could turn even hardasses like Yunfeer and Larfuc into cowering pansies...

Aetna whispered in as quiet a voice as he could manage, "What the fuck's got Yunfeer so damn scared? Is his mom coming to visit or something?"

A small wave of hushed remarks and disappointed sighs passed across the troop when Aetna said that.

Kejt, who was behind him, said, "Oh my fucking god... Are you for real, man? This is unbelievable, even for you..."

"Stop being a melodramatic whore and tell me already. It can't be that serious," said Aetna.

"The Lord Admiral is visiting us today for a joint-troop exercise, you ignorant chucklefuck! We've got a goddamned Savugh coming over! You know, our fucking royalty?!"

"Oh..."

Maybe Yunfeer was right to be scared, thought Aetna. Because he suddenly felt scared out of his mind.

And for a good reason — the House of Savugh was nightmare fuel to those who were knowledgable enough about the early history of the Solastora Empire. There was a reason why the Solastora Empire's banner had a mythical hydra as its centerpiece and nothing else.

It was founded by a family that had no qualms about spilling blood and making a show of it to keep the others in check. A monstrous family that purportedly has tens of thousands of family members ready to die for their Empire at the word of their Emperor.

There was even a special word to describe the... 'inspired' pain and suffering inflicted upon enemies the House of Savugh deemed worthy of its wrath — Gaa'fero (The 10th Layer).

Even Aetna, for all his passion and rebelliousness, suddenly felt butterflies form in his stomach...