Interstellar Age



When Erich and the others arrived at the penthouse, they were not surprised to see Mala was throwing a bit of a fit. She was attempting to bash down the door, which locked them all inside the penthouse. And as strong as she may be, the door appeared to have been made by some kind of dwarven technology, because it did not budge in the slightest.

It was only after Erich and the others stepped into the suite did Mala finally calm down. She rapidly approached the man like a loyal puppy whose master had just returned and was quick to greet him. 

"Husband, you are back! I feared the worst after these bastards boarded the ship!" 

Erich sighed heavily and shook his head before confirming that he was alright. 

"I'm fine, but unfortunately, it looks like we are now being confined to this suite against our will. They claim that they are investigating the fugitive, but I fear they are simply trying to stall until he can reach an agreement with the Ennead themselves. Perhaps we underestimated the influence that the sages have over the galaxy."

Kali was in the middle of trimming her nails with her four hands. She was absolutely furious that she had been taken prisoner by the sworn enemy of her people. And was quick to bitch about it. 

"The mighty Kali, now nothing more than a captive of the jackals, and carrions, what a fucking joke..." 

It was clear by her words that she did not hold the Ennead people in much regard. After all, they were in a way chimeras, with animal like heads, and human like bodies. But then again, the majority of the milky way was highly xenophobic. They cared only about the success of their own race, and saw any other intelligent lifeform as little more than competition at best, and outright enemies at the worst. 

Erich had done the unthinkable and gained wives and lovers from several races. Which he did not actually realize the significance of. Instead, he looked upon his crew and shook his head, while trying to come up with an idea to escape their current predicament. 

  "We are free to leave the penthouse so long as we have an escort, so perhaps we should get some rest, and use tomorrow to gather information from the locals? After all, there should not be too many elves in this quadrant of space, now should there?" 

Unfortunately, his hopes were dashed by Sinari who informed Erich that there would be quite a few dark elves within the Ennead Theocracy. 

"I wouldn't be so sure about that. The Federation and the Theocracy have strong ties that go back millennia. Trade is quite common between our two civilizations, and because of that, there might be more than a few million of my people currently on Duat. If the sages were trying to gain the support of the Ennead, then they would definitely be sending a Dark Elf so that they might blend in easier. 

You should know that the support of the Sages is quite high among members of the federation, and if you just blatantly ask about whether or not a sage has been wondering about, they are unlikely to help you, even if they see me by your side. 

I fear that because of this, it will be a lot more difficult to find out information regarding the Sage or Sages who have infiltrated this world. Especially if they are being treated as a valued guest by the Ennead.

I mean, I know it's a little late, but you probably shouldn't have said you were a representative of Lunaria. I know you may think the status of an Archon makes you an honored guest, but in both the Federation and Theocracy, it simply makes you a target to be watched closely.

Erich glared at Sinaria, as he questioned why this woman hadn't come forth with such information at an earlier time, despite knowing that they would be visiting the Ennead Theocracy. 

"And you waited until now to inform me of this matter? We were in warp space for literally a month! At any point, you could have approached me and told me this!"

Sinaria looked at Erich in the same way Mirage had done a million times before, while she outright admitted her thoughts aloud. 

"Honestly, I didn't think you would be stupid enough to announce that you were an Archon on the spot.... I clearly underestimated just how ignorant you are of galactic politics. Isn't this something you should have learned at the academy?"

Mirage sighed heavily as she explained why Erich was so ignorant of the galaxy as a whole. All while she shook her head. 

"It's not Erich's fault. The Empire is adamant that all other species and cultures are inferior. Aside from Alfheim Dominion, and our direct allies, we really don't' spend much time talking about the rest of the galaxy, let alone their cultures and customs, which are considered beneath our people. I only know so much, because I worked in Imperial Intelligence, and our job is twofold. Monitoring our own people and monitoring those threats to the Empire that exist beyond our borders. 

For someone like Erich, who is essentially an up jumped grunt, he wouldn't know shit about any of this. So far he had been treated like royalty for announcing he was an Archon. It is only now that we are essentially in hostile territory that he realizes his title comes with just as many downsides."

Sinaria scoffed when she heard this and shook her head before voicing her disbelief. 

"Fucking Germans... Out of all the xenophobic races I have come across in the galaxy, yours is definitely the worst.... Whatever. We're stuck in this position now, so we have to find a way to get out of it. First, we should probably do something about these bugs." 

Contrary to what Sinaria was expecting, Mirage smiled and shook her head, before assuring Sinaria that everything was alright. 

"Don't worry about it. We already have that covered. Isn't that right, Erich?"

From the moment Erich entered the penthouse, he had made use of his cyberkinesis, and advanced neurolink which had been upgraded by Tia's enhancements, to slice into the security system, where he altered the translator so that it mistranslated the words that Erich and the others were speaking. When Erich revealed this to the group, Sinaria looked at the man with amazement.

This was the second time that Eirch had been able to hijack a security system that was meant to keep him under control. He had once shocked her by doing so in the Svartalfheim Prison, and yet he had done it again so effortlessly. 

She was beginning to think that Erich had abilities far beyond her understanding. Abilities that he had somehow hidden from the diagnostic scan that he underwent after being taken prisoner by the Svartalfheim Federation.