A Complex Answer

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

02/20/99:

I was almost home free. After spending nearly two days
straight in the office, I was almost home free. Navigating
my way though the lobby of the Organization's offices, I was
trying to keep from being noticed. Too often I had gotten
this far only to be pulled back, or had managed to get home
only to be called back-- not this time though! No, this time
I was ready for them all! It had taken me hours to talk
Ravindar out of following me around the office; I was even
going to leave him behind was well.

I was planning to stop by home, then go to my base. I wanted
to take the flitter out for a while. There was no way anyone
could contact me unless I wanted them to. Even for that, I
had told them to go through Brian instead of calling me
directly. I didn't want to be hassled.

"Fox," a familiar voice said from behind me. I stopped in my
tracks, grimacing hard, and pulling my shoulders tight. I
wanted to throttle someone, but instead I took a deep
breath, put on a pleasant face, and turned around.

"Hello, Rachel," I said, keeping most of the anger out of my
voice.

She wasn't fooled, she raised one eyebrow and crossed her
arms over her chest. "Trying to slip out?" she asked,
smiling slightly.

I nodded, "Yes, I need some time away from here. Suddenly it
seems like everything is happening at once. It's driving me
crazy. By the way, I like the suit."

She glanced down, she was in a casual dress suit, with a
skirt and jacket. It wasn't fancy, but it looked good on
her. Lifting her eyes back to me, she looked a bit cross. "I
need to talk to you, if you have time."

I let out a long sigh, rubbing my forehead slightly. "All
right, I suppose if I must."

"You must," she said with a smile, then placed her paw on my
arm. Pulling gently, she guided me out of the lobby.

"When did you get back from your good will tour?" I asked as
we turned down one of the hallways, walking past office
after office. Most of them were occupied, and a few had
their doors open.

She gave me a sideways glance. "Three days ago, don't you
keep up with the news anymore?"

I shrugged. "When? Most of my time is spent here, some at
the shipyards, and the rest is at home, asleep."

She responded with a pleasant laugh. "Ah, I remember those
days myself. No time to have time, but it's usually worth
it. From what I hear IMF is coming along nicely."

I nodded, turning a corner with her. "We have some good
people now; most are in training, a few are working with
their teams. No missions yet, I'm kind of glad for that."

"So am I. It's always good to have covert operations doing
nothing," she paused for a second, twitching her ears and
tail. "Either that, or it means our intelligence agency
hasn't a clue what's going on. Let's hope for the former
shall we?"

I laughed in spite of myself, "Yes, lets hope for that."

Turning one last corner, we passed three more doors, and
came to my office. Punching in the code, I unlocked, then
opened the door, holding it for Rachel as she stepped
inside. We were alone, as my secretary had already gone for
the day. Turning the lights on, I closed the door behind me.

Rachel took a seat at the secretary's desk, letting out a
short sigh as she settled down into the plush chair. "I've
been on my feet all day. It's nice to sit down." She
adjusted herself in the chair, smiling widely. "This is a
nice chair."

I grinned, pulling out one of the wooden chairs, flipping it
backwards and sitting down across the desk from her. "I
always believe in pampering my secretaries. They help more
when they're treated right."

She smiled, adjusting herself a bit more before she settled.
"I'll have to remember that."

I nodded, crossing my arms over the back of the chair and
leaning forward slightly. I was about to ask her what she
wanted to talk about, but she spoke first.

"I've never seen that bracelet before," she said, leaning
over the desktop.

I smiled so wide that it hurt. The bracelet was the symbol
of my marriage. It was a silver band, engraved with a few
words of luck and praise on the inside. Mounted on the top
were the three blood stones, one for me, one for Oria, and
one for Rhea. Its weight was still unfamiliar, but was a joy
to have.

"It's my wedding band," I explained, extending my wrist to
show it to her.

She frowned, her ears swiveling back as she bit the top of
her lip. "I'm sorry about that," she said, in a lower tone
of voice.

I pulled my hand back, sighing softly. "It's OK, it was
probably for the best."

She nodded, locking her eyes with mine. "Who did you find to
replace me?" she asked the question quietly, almost like she
couldn't believe that she was even saying the words.

"Believe it or not, Rhea."

She started, almost hard enough to bring her to her feet, as
a startled look spun over her face. "Rhea? The animal? I
didn't think that was possible, or acceptable."

I smiled, "It worked out perfectly, she's enough of a
different person that no one seemed to mind. Anyway, she and
I are almost as close as Oria and I are. It's hard to really
explain in words."

She nodded, settling herself back down in the chair. "Yes, I
see. I suppose it makes perfect sense. Enough of that for
now, though," she waved her paw as she said this, smiling a
bit. "I have other things I would like to talk to you
about."

"Shoot," I answered.

Taking a breath, she reaching inside her jacket and pulled
out a small cube. Setting it on the desktop between us, she
tapped the sides twice. There was a flicker in the air above
it, and an image of a planet hung there, spinning slowly,
looking for all the world like a movie.

Reaching out, I touched the surface; my fingers passed
though with minimal resistance. It was almost like touching
water. Reaching down, I spun the cube slowly, observing that
the image was complete.

"A hologram," I whispered a bit. "I didn't think they could
make projectors this small."

She smiled, "It's a new toy from one of the non-member
worlds of the Consortium. It works on an entirely different
principle than any other projector. There's a lot that can
be done with this kind of device. That's not why I'm showing
it to you, though. It's the planet, a place called 'Grathe
4'. Remember it?"

I shook my head. "Not offhand."

She smirked. "You recommended blowing it up a little over
half a year ago to solve a colony dispute."

"Oh, ya," I said with a laugh, "That was right before we
ended up at Metamor."

Rachel nodded her head like she knew what I was talking
about. "Yes. There is a point on the southern continent,
approximately ten miles by seven miles square that holds
almost a gross of naturally forming folds. There is also a
large desert area thirty miles away and a thousand feet
below sea level that would be perfect for a space port."

I nodded, not sure where she was going with this.

"It's located just off a dozen major trade lanes, has one
colony in the northern area, and has access to ten Member
Worlds within five hundred light years."

"Ok, that's all fine and good. What's the point though?"

She nodded, biting her lip again. "There has been discussion
along the Member Worlds about the isolation of Prid. At the
time the Council was formed, being well away from everyone
was a boon, now it's a hindrance. Before I left on my trip,
there was a motion on the floor to move the Capital of the
Consortium off Prid."

I blew air though my teeth, leaning back in the chair.
"You're kidding?"

"I wish I was, Fox. Part of my trip was to survey possible
worlds to relocate the capital to. This one is the best, and
since it's in dispute between two Member Worlds, we can get
it easily."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked, "Taking control
of a disputed world?"

She gave a sharp nod of her head. This was clearly something
she had been thinking about herself for a while, I could
tell. "We plan to negotiate between the two worlds. We'll
take control in return for giving them trading boons with
the Consortium. We'll also contract part of the construction
to them."

I rubbed my forehead with one hand as I leaned forward, the
other resting on the chair back. "When does this come up for
a vote?"

"Two weeks," was the answer. "I expect the vote to be nearly
unanimous."

I shook my head, "Damn, I can't believe you want to move
everything; the cost would be stupendous. How many years
will this take?"

"I don't know," she answered, resting her paws on the
desktop, "three years, maybe more. We'll have to construct a
whole city, the buildings, the spaceport, stations,
faculties. It will be a massive project, but most of it can
be done in parallel."

"I don't know... moving everything? Do you know how many
business based here on Prid would have to move? The
Organization, the Hunters? There's more to this than just
moving the Capital."

"I know, Fox," she said, sounding frustrated. Nodding her
head as she spoke with her ears twitching. "We plan to just
move the major offices, and the representatives of Member
and Non-Member worlds. The Organization and the Hunters will
stay here. As will many of the trade lanes for the time
being. Prid has more on it than the Marble Hall."

I let out a long sigh, "I can't believe you plan to do this.
You're the leader of this government, you can veto this move
once it gets to you. It doesn't have to happen."

She shook her head, spreading her paws out palms up on the
table. "Fox, I don't have that kind of power. I can not stop
this motion once it's been passed. We don't work that way."

"The leader of the government doesn't have the power to
control it?" I asked, sounding snide as I said the words.

She nodded again, "Not yet. Once the provisional documents
have expired, we will be able to create a much better one.
For now, though, the Member worlds have final say."

"Fuck," I muttered, standing from my chair. "This is stupid!
You just can't up and move the seat of a government.
Especially to a world that hasn't even been decently
surveyed." Reaching over, I picked up the holo-cube, finding
the proper mechanism, I turned it off. "This is as silly as
trying to build something like a Dyson Sphere to put it on.
It will be a bad decision, it will hurt the local economy,
and probably disrupt the trade around this new world of
yours. It is not acceptable."

"I know," she responded, staying calm, even though her ears
were twitching back and forth. "I know all those things, but
the Member Worlds want to see the capital off of Prid. They
want it to be in the middle of things, not off to the side,
watching the multi-verse go by."

"Damn it," I growled, clenching my fists, the tips of my
claws pressing against my palms. "Is there nothing we can do
to stop this?"

"Not much," she answered, pulling her paws into her lap. "We
can dance around it, but Prid has its own Member; I do not
represent its interests. I have to do my job, which is to
oversee the successful creation of this government before
the provisional documents expire."

"Your hands are tied then," I stated, setting the cube back
down on the desk.

She sighed, slumping slightly. "It would be unhealthy for me
to show opposition for this right now. I can raise doubts,
but I can not say we should not do this. You, on the other
hand, can say as much as you want on how bad it is. You're
just an advisor to me, you can voice whatever you wish, and
you will have to. Once this comes out, you'll be one of the
first people the media comes to talk to."

I rested my hands on the edge of the desk, leaning forward
slightly. "All right then, _that_ I can do. I suppose you
have a copy of the official press release, and any other
pertinent documents?"

She reached into her jacket, setting a PADD down on the
desk. "That has the motion as it existed this morning, the
full press release and expense estimates. There's nothing on
the effect on Prid, but I expect the media to provide that
for us."

I picked the PADD up, flipping though a few pages of the
complexly worded documents. Shaking my head, I sighed. "This
is stupid, they can't think that this would work."

She shrugged, "Don't ask me, I got this job because of my
lack of understanding in politics. In the years I've held
it, I haven't learned anything that I can understand. They
all just want to get away from Prid for reasons that they
can't agree on."

I nodded. "All right, I'll prep myself for this. When is the
announcement going to be made?"

"The motion will be entered into the official records in
three days. At that point it will become public knowledge. I
suspect that an outcry will be immediate, and will allow me,
and my office, more power once the official government
documents and rules are drawn up, to prevent something like
this from happening again."

I smiled, "And you said you haven't learned anything. I'll
make time in my day to talk to the press then. I'll call in
Eliza as well, let her take the snaps for it."

"Of course. Thank you Fox," Rachel said, standing up from
the chair.

I nodded, "It's what I should be doing anyway. Sooner or
later I'm going to have to get into this mess for real.
Might as well have a track record before then."

She smiled, patting my shoulder softly.

"Come on, let's get going," I said, turning around, and
starting for the office door.

"Fox?" Rachel's voice was suddenly soft, trembling slightly.
"Um... there's something else I want to talk to you about."

I turned back around, Rachel was now setting on the edge of
the desk, kicking her legs slightly, her eyes turned down,
and her ears hanging to the side.

"Why, what's wrong?" I asked, walking over to her, sitting
myself up on the desk as well. Unsure of what kind of
gesture I should make, I placed one of my hands on her leg.

She sighed, suddenly reluctant to talk. She dropped one of
her paws over my hand, pressing down gently on it. The other
was rubbing at her left knee.

I didn't say anything, I just took my other hand, and placed
it over her paw.

We sat there together for a few moments, before she sighed,
kicking her legs again. "You know I was married once, Fox?"

I nodded. "You've mentioned it before."

She sighed. "I think I should explain then, so you know why
I turned you down."

"Only if you want to," I answered.

She licked her lips slowly. "Understand that I would have
loved to have been with you and Oriana. You're both very
close friends, and are special to me as well. But things
have happened to me, and I can't do that again."

I nodded, saying nothing, just squeezing her paw gently.

She leaned closer, resting her head against my shoulder. "In
my first year as a teacher, I was married to a great man who
was loving, caring, but a bit unstable. He was on medication
for some problems, but everything was under control."

Heavy emphasis on the past tense there. She didn't use it,
but I could feel it. This was going to be pretty bad. I
wrapped an arm around her shoulder, holding her close.

"It was getting close to the harvest break, four months off
for the farming. We were going on a vacation to the one of
the desert resorts. I guess he got a bad batch of his
medicine, I'm not sure, but he started acting strange around
me.

She sighed again, whimpering slightly, she was trying not to
cry. I held her tighter. "The day before we were supposed to
leave, I woke up in the morning to find myself tied to the
bed. I thought something had happened, some kind of
break-in. It was two days before he returned to me. I begged
him to unlock me, but he laughed, accused me of cheating on
him with one of the other teachers."

"It was a silly accusation, I had never betrayed my vows,
but he would not believe me. So he keep me tied to the bed.
For a week I stayed like that, listening to him rant louder
and longer about how I was a tramp and a whore. Eventually
he started with the pain.

"He, ah..." she hesitated, gulping softly. I pulled her
closer to me, petting the back of her neck with my free
hand.

"He started with my toes, used anything he could, breaking
each one slowly, as painfully as he could. Every time I
passed out, he woke me up and did it again. Then he did my
feet, my ankles, legs, knees, tail, pelvis. Over a month he
systematically pounded every bone in my lower body in to
dust. He hurt me so badly that I can never have kids; all
that is gone now."

She paused again, licking her lips once more, now crying
long and hard sobs, but trying to hold them back as she
spoke. "Finally, one day, one day I found that I had lost so
much weight, I could get out of my bindings. I was almost a
wraith by then, but I could move. It took hours but I
managed to get to the kitchen. The phones were gone, the
windows all closed tightly and all the doors were locked
with a key on the inside. I was trapped, I couldn't call for
help. So I did the next best thing.

"I managed to get a knife from one of the drawers. I can't
remember how anymore, but I managed to do it. I waited for
him to come home, and waited. It took two days before he
came home, but I was ready. I surprised him, forcing him to
fall somehow. Once on the ground, I stabbed him twice in the
chest, then managed to pull myself though the door.

"One of the neighbors saw me, and came to help. She took me
away from there, to the hospital, and called the police. I
spent three years in rehabilitation, having my body rebuilt
so I could walk again. My husband survived my attack, we
found out that it was the drugs that caused his problems,
but that was no defense. He is spending the rest of his life
in a psychiatric ward, drugged up so high that he can't
think at all."

I hugged her tightly, petting her head as she cried into my
shoulder.

"I still love him," she whispered, "love what he was before.
I just can't leave that by marrying again. I just can't,
Fox."

"I understand," I said, petting her fur gently, working my
claws though the soft strands, rocking slightly with her.

Nothing was said for the next hour, we just held each other
as two close friends, one who was in a time of need, and one
who was there for comfort. After it was over, I was never
quite sure which one I had been.

-----

This story is (c) 1999 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one per person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.