Book 1 - Chapter Ten.2

Pushing those unpleasant thoughts to the side for now, I followed close behind Dan as he made his way towards business end of the Lyran Commonwealth with purpose, dipping back into the side wing to bypass some crowds around some of the displays -ohh they had Pizza up this end! - before emerging up much closer to the VIPs and giving me a close up look at the Throne itself. It was impressive in a way it hadn't been on the Vid, sitting on the top of a series of elevated terraces that made it clearly visible to the entire room (or would without the Christmas tree halfway down), the massive war machine machines standing left and right of them still painted in the colors of the Kell Hounds and Davion Guards towering over everyone. The throne itself was empty of course, roped off from the rest of the room to keep people away - although frankly with the Battlemechs looming above I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to try and sit in Katrina's chair. On the back wall hung the banner of the Lyran Commonwealth itself directly above and behind the Throne, with the flags of the 1st and 2nd Royal Guards to the left and the banner of the 3rd to the right. There was a distinctly empty space where the banner of the 4th presumably was supposed to sit and I suppressed a smile at that before looking away to seek out our target.

I wasn't surprised to find Katrina, Melissa, Hanse and a gaggle of other VIPs standing around together on the lower tiers above the throne room floor, sort of holding court inside the court I suppose. But I was surprised to find they were openly accessible and not being swamped by the crowd. I guessed some kind of Royal Protocol was in action - and again I felt a tinge of how hopelessly out of my depth I was.

Was there a 'you don't approach them, they approach or send for you' rule in place or something?

At any rate, I spotted Quintus towards the side of the group with a cluster of suits and nudged Dan, nodding towards him. The younger Allard in turn nodded, an unasked question in his eyes that I think was 'coming?' that I shook my head lightly too and with no further hesitation the MechWarrior strode away with purpose to his father, who smiled in pleasure at his approach before Dan leaned in to talk quietly into his ear and Quintus's gaze turned back to 'poker face'. He glanced back at me past his sons back and I mouthed 'Lestrade' (guessing that the master spy would probably be a decent lip reader) and I saw a flash of something chilly in his eyes for a moment before he took Dan's shoulder with a hand and led him off to the side and out of sight, probably to find a quiet back room somewhere and talk.

In all honestly, I wouldn't give terribly good odds for the continued health of Aldo Lestrade given both how many people he was pissing off and how many of his dirty secrets had been exposed by me...

On that happy thought I glanced around, deciding that avoiding being seen with the Kings of the Castle as it were would be more sensible than not, moving off to investigate the other wing of the Throne room, to find it as Dan had promised, filled with all manner of Christmas fun as I moved down the steps into it. I couldn't help but smile as I saw hundreds of children were enjoying Santa Clauses attention right up this end, the classic figure laughing as he handed out presents to them - after they assured him they had been good boys and girls, as their parents looked on with tolerant smiles. While further along...

Okay, I had to check all this out I decided, dropping my empty champagne flute onto a passing server's tray and joined the winding path making its way through the next display which was the first in a long line of them stretching down the wing.

It was a miniature Christmas Village on a grand scale, crafted with astonishing detail that soon had me smiling broadly as I made my way through it. To my delight, it was not limited to simply the Lyran Commonwealth, but showed off roughly the entire Inner Sphere with all the Great Houses and their Christmas traditions laid out. Although it was no surprise to me that the Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns were by far the most detailed and 'positive examples', followed by the Free Worlds League … and the Confederation and Combine with far more somber displays, with notes on how tightly controlled Christmas celebrations are in those states and urges to remember it was Christmas there too and hopefully one day they would all be able to experience it as we did…

There was also plenty of cute of course; the tiny little Katrina and Melissa waving from on top of the Triad across the room to Hanse waving back on the top of his palace, was adorable I must admit … and reminded me of something.

Mental note, check if Lego exists and, if it doesn't, invent it, trademark it and distribute the fuck out of it...

Outside of the 'It's a Small Sphere after all' as I had dubbed it, I found that the area opened up into dozens of Christmas displays I spent some time wandering through, in a bemused, happy sort of state over the next couple of hours, taking in the air of general revelry and celebration. From a moving animatronic Santa's workshop with elves hard at work (in all honestly I didn't recall them in my time using Industrial Exoskeletons with Achernar Industries logos all over them...) and eventually wound up moving into a large crowd who were cheering watching a holographic flight simulator … of Santa's Sleigh?!

Raising an eyebrow I stepped closer, finding a place in the crowd who were cheering on the current challenger. It looked like a rail shooter with a holographic projection instead of a screen, but the projection gave it surprisingly nice visual depth as the sleigh zigged and zagged on its way, seemingly packing enough firepower to burn through a McKenna.

Apparently Lyran Santa had the guns.

All the guns.

And the 'Grinch Fleet' (who looked suspiciously Kuritian in their design and colors looking units) were very determined to stop him on his mission to bring presents to the children, throwing themselves with increasing frequency and firepower as the level wound on at 'Santa', the 'sleigh' itself on gimbals that had it pivoting and moving surprisingly harshly … but it didn't seem to impact the pilots accuracy one bit.

Okay, this looked awesome.

And whoever the current pilot was, he had frigen mad twitch skills, the crowd growing ever more excited as the pilot got closer and closer to the end of the level until I could barely credit this guys (or girls!) reaction times, the guns never stopping in their firing and seeming to hit a target with every shot until with a sudden spin and dive the sleigh blasted past the last line of shattered enemies to streaked over the city to loud cheers and applause as a nicely rendered cutscene showed presents dropping into countless chimneys with a 'Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!'.

The man at the controls unstrapped himself, stood and turned to take a bow to yet more cheers and applause.

Okay, no surprise a new high score had been set I thought in mild amusement as Patrick Kell, his face beaming with that confident cheerfulness, stepped down to back slaps and congratulations from a handful of his officers waiting for him as the crowd started to disperse, accepting his uniform jacket back … as some of said officers with expressions of either annoyance or glee started swapping varying amounts of Kronor.

I smiled at that again and started to wonder if I should go up and say hello … when a voice spoke up behind me.

"Mister Smith, I trust that you are enjoying yourself tonight?"

Not recognizing the voice I instantly went on guard, taking a second to school myself into a calm state before turning with my best 'pleased to meet you' expression on my face - and almost lost it in an instant as I saw who was standing directly behind me.

What, I got 'Tweedledee' so I get 'Tweedledum' for free? Fucking BROB!

I wasn't stupid enough to SAY any of that of course. Morgan Kell might have been able to cross swords with this man at a similar party (while dueling with Lestrade to boot!) but then he was someone with such a towering reputation, a man they knew was perfectly able and willing to kill them if they decided to press the issue beyond words, so they knew to only go sofar.

I … wasn't such a person.

"The Archon has indeed put on a splendid celebration tonight, My Lord" I nodded to him in a way I hoped would be considered polite. "It is an honor to be here - and I am pleased to have been invited" I said calmly and formally, extending a hand completely unsure of if that was acceptable protocol.

Alessandro Steiner nodded ever so slightly back, one his hands gripping a tumbler of something golden as he extended another to take mine and shake it. No contest of strength or anything silly like that, just a simple straightforward handshake.

"Yes - you seem to be showing up in curious places Mister Smith" he observed with a knowing twitch of a smile at me as he let go of my hand, regarding me in an appraising way. Beyond him I think I spotted a few people I took to be flunkies who had sort of spread out to isolate us even in the middle of the crowd. Not physically exactly, but I supposed they formed another of those Royal Rules things understood by the court as people were clearly giving us a wide berth as if they were directing traffic. "Just yesterday, my Nieces, the First Prince and both realms Intelligence Chiefs called in the unit commanders from your little raid as soon for debriefing" he noted, his gaze focused rather directly at me even as he kept his tone perfectly cordial. "As is proper, of course. And in such ... impressive company, the unknown doestend to stand out".

He paused at that, as if he was expecting me to say something - but I kept my mouth glued shut tight as he took a sip from his tumbler, his grey eyes burning into me before his expression softened into an almost grandfatherly one. "But I do hope that you are enjoying your stay in The Triad so far?"

Translation; 'I don't know who the fuck you are. I do know you walked into a meeting with some of the most powerful people in the Inner Sphere and that you are staying as a guest of Katrina Steiner personally … and I want to know more'.

Alessandro of all people having sources on things like this wasn't that big of a surprise, he was a former Archon after all. And just as clearly beyond the fact that I was an 'unknown' operating in close orbit of the power players on the planet, he didn't seem to really know anything.

But honestly, even that was too much!

On the plus side, the man in front of me would most probably be dead in five years from long term radiation poisoning … but that seemed a very long time away from here and now.

"Yes, the Archon has been most generous to let me stay as her guest in her home. I take it you are as well, Lord Steiner?" I replied, trying to be polite and inoffensive with bland small talk … before the darkening expression in his eyes suggested to me that he had probably not taken it the way I meant … and in a flash it hit me why.

The man had probably taken THAT as a subtle dig - or not so subtle dig - at the fact that he was now a guest in the house he had once owned.

Whoops!

Fortune smiled upon me however as the deposed Archon held back whatever he had been about to say, his gaze shifting over my shoulder as he seemed to rapidly collect himself … and perk up as if he had found a new plaything.

"Ah Lieutenant Colonel Kell" Alessandro smiled thinly at him with the slight stress on his rank clearly deliberate. "It has been too long. The Kell Hounds are well, I take it?"

"Very well Your Grace" Patrick thanked him as he edged around me to stand at my side and with a thump have his hand land on my shoulder in a friendly sort of way that still almost had my knees buckle before he removed it.

I embraced the impact though, as a sign that reinforcements had arrived as the older Steiners gaze shifted fully away from me. Even if it only seemed to reinforce the point he had been making about the people I was chilling with. "Thank you for asking".

"But of course" Steiner nodded with a smile. "And your brother, I take it, is well? I'm hoping you've at least kept in some contact, since ... 'The Defection' I think you call it?"

And now the tension around me became an almost physical thing and I fought the instinctive urge to cringe. It had been almost a decade now since Morgan vanished after the legendary duel on Mallory's World ... and from the way Patrick seemed to still as I felt the tension spike, I knew this conversation wasn'tgoing good places … and that Morgan, indeed as in Btech canon, had not been in contact with his brother or his unit of whom he had asked so much.

'The Defection' was a watershed moment in early Battletech history - another one of those things that was fantastic and mysterious in scenario books for the game, but made rather less sense in 'real life'.

Simply put, Morgan had gone round the bend to abandon his brother, lover and fire two thirds of his unit after 'winning' the duel against Yorinaga Kurita, going into seclusion, with no explanation given then or since. It was utterly verboten as far as topics went to the Hounds and from he way the flunkies behind Steiner seemed to suddenly start paying more attention, I'm guessing Patricks officers were making it clear by their looks-

"You have my sympathies, of course" Steiner added after Patrick didn't respond, a faux-but-real look of apology also on his face in contrast to the stiff coldness of Kells expression. "At this time of year especially, it must be hard for you and the Hounds family to have no word or explanation from him. Even after all this time, loyally carrying the torch for him, waiting for him to come back without any word as time marches on must not be at all easy..."

Great, so first Lestrade hits Dan Allard in the heart now Alessandro goes for the gut punch? 

Or were these assholes just so determined to poke at Katrina after her huge political win today started to undercut their little schemes, so they are going for any shot they could find?

Patrick impressed me however by not decking the man on the spot - given that his expression suggested he would quite like to do so.

But damn it, as much as I loathed the elder Steiner for being a complete prick; the fact was that the bastard did have a point. It was one thing after the duel on Mallory's World for Morgan to decide that he needed a time out … but firing two thirds of his unit off then turning command over to his brother before cutting him off for ten years without any explanation but a heavily implied order that he would keep the Hounds exactly as they were until further notice?

Oh I knew Morgan had a plan that he finally put into motion … after Patrick died … but frankly, his plan sucked and had left Patrick, loyal good Patrick, trapped in an impossible position. There was a reason that after Patrick had died in his place fighting Yorinaga Kurita and Dan Allard had been given the horrible task of having to go and tell Morgan Dan had quickly enough let him have both barrels with quite the 'Reason you Suck Speech'. And why Salome Ward, bless her soul, had just greeted Morgan with a rather vicious right hook on his return as she stomped past him into the briefing room.

But, in the end … blood in the Kell Hounds seemingly ran thicker than water. They were family and had rallied to Morgans calls quickly enough.

Family.

That word again brought to mind a surge of loneliness. I was stuck here, in a universe of spoiled brats fighting over a dead Throne, crazy genofreaks who wanted to wipe out Homo Sapiens in favor of Homo Kerensky and a phone company who wanted you to kneel before the Yellow Pages … while my family and the 'real' me carried on their life unknowingly somewhere in the multiverse.

But my self-pity passed through me and dissipated as once again I thought about that day in Davion Peace Park … or even Melissa Steiner playfully kicking me in the shins to hide her own insecurities. The times that it hit me, really hit me, that this was not a tabletop game or an RPG or video game … but a living thriving universe just as real as my original one, filled with hundreds of billions of people. Good people, bad people - but mostly just normal, very real people who had to deal with very terrible, powerful monsters in the dark with far too few good people trying to beat them back.

Because assholes like Alessandro (who combined the worst parts of Cersei Lannister, President Snow and Hugo Drax) would burn down everything so long as they could rule over the ashes no matter how many billions died.

And I found myself suddenly determined to slap him down, not even thinking that this wasn't my fight and that my profile needed to be kept at least somewhat low.

Mostly, I was just realizing I had a whole fuckload of virgin 20th and 21st century quotes to throw around and mangle horribly that I hadn't tried out yet...

"Life is never easy my Lord Steiner" I softly interjected, causing a collective sort of 'blink' across many sets of eyes turned to face me as I interjected myself into the conversation. "Life in the Inner Sphere these days ain't sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean, very nasty place that doesn't care how tough you are. Doesn't care if you're a Noble or vaunted MechWarrior because nothing will ever hit you as hard as life does. It will beat you to your knees and keep you therepermanently if you let it" I said with the conviction of someone who had drifted closer than I wanted to admit to rock bottom when I found out the truth of what had happened to me.

Much closer than I wanted to admit honestly, even to myself.

"But life ain't about how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It's about how much you can take and keep moving forward - that's how winning is done" I said emphatically and noticed vaguely that the MechWarriors standing around who were increasingly paying attention to my bad attempt to channel Stallone were nodding in agreement. "Archon Steiner for example" I continued, glancing at Alessandro who looked just a tiny bit smug at the promotion, then again as Morgan Kell had pointed out in the OTL, what do you call a deposed Archon? "When she lost the love of her life" -annnnnnd now his expression dropped back to an absolutely rock solid poker face, gee I wonder why? - "she had a choice of either getting lost in the past or striving to make his life mean something by building a future for their daughter. Prince Davion?" I continued as my adrenal glands seemed to work overtime to sew this speech together that was drawing more and more attention, making me vaguely wonder why the hell I couldn't have this eloquence in front of the Archon or First Prince. "He lost his brother and was thrust into a position he never expected. He could have crumpled under the impact, but took the hit and kept moving forward. Lieutenant Colonel Kell?" I glanced at the man who stiffened slightly but was looking at me with an expression of utter seriousness I had only seen before in the Helm briefing as he waited for my judgement. "He honored his brothers trust in him by trusting him in return by rebuilding the Kell Hounds into the best damn reinforced combined arms Battalion in the Inner Sphere that's added battle honor after battle honor to their standard" I lied convincingly as a loud rumble of agreement from quite a few people behind me as I turned back to face 'Mister Wants To Be Archon Again' and felt a kind of secret smugness at the sour look in his eyes at me derailing his attempt to poke at the younger Kell brother that seemed to be winning the crowd over.

Get the hint it yet? The Lyran Commonwealth has moved past you, concentrated moron...

"Respectfully, as I see it" I continued, lifting my gaze slightly to make use of my slight height advantage over the older man, "Morgan Kell having little contact with his family is simply proof he has such trust and confidence in them. That he sees no need to look over their shoulders then or now. Knowing that the Hounds will only go from strength to strength until the day he returns to rejoin them … knowing they will be waiting and ready with him to punch life in the face until it falls to the ground".

Okay, I wasn't expecting applause at that and -ouch- there was Patricks hand back on my shoulder giving it a firm squeeze and a look of fierce … what? Pride? Understanding perhaps?

On reflection, feeling the emotions rolling around me, it started to hit me that perhaps a lot of that had been as much as anything, a pep talk to myself to wipe away the last of my moping around Christmas.

Reminding myself that life had dealt me some implausible, impossibly harsh body blows over the last year to change my entire reality. It had stripped my family away from me. My friends. My world. My reality. And possibly for a short time, my sanity.

But it hadn't stripped me of my agency to stand up, make a decision and start moving forward.

…

Although on reflection, perhaps figuratively stepping in the face of Alessandro Steiner and farting in his general direction after he started gleefully poking at Patrick, wasn't the best idea?

Oh well, too late to worry about that I suppose. I'd just dump that onto Simon Johnson's desk, wouldn't be fair to get both Tweedledee and Tweedledum to only one of the two...

As if he could sort of read my mind (and who the fuck knows how Phantom Mech bullshit might express itself given that Takashi Kurita seemed awfully convinced he could read people's auras or something) Patrick nodded once and smiled as he proudly took in his people around him, their tension gone and replaced with just pride in each other and themselves.

His people … ah crap.

"Colonel Kell" I yanked Patricks attention back, lowering my volume. "As you're here now, I'm afraid I just received some bad news around one of your officers I should pass on. Specifically, about Captain Daniel Allard".

"Dan? What is it?" Patrick asked instantly as he let go of me but turned to face me fully, turning his back on Steiner to focus on this news. A leader instantly more concerned for one of his men than himself…

I opened my mouth as if to respond but then paused and slowly turned to face Alessandro … who was clearly observing this twist listening in with great interest to this news and hadn't moved a millimeter.

"Ah, if you'll excuse me Your Grace? This is a somewhat private matter" I said with as perfectly an innocent expression as I could muster, as if entirely unaware I had just TSM slapped back the man's attempt to poke at Patrick and goad him into losing his cool in some way to embarrass Katrina.

"But of course Mister Smith. Colonel, once again, my compliments for your units achievements" the man said with the same calm attitude he had held through the entire little verbal skirmish, getting a stiff nod from Kell … but Steiner let his piercing grey eyes seem to pan over all of us as if memorizing us to put on a 'to do' list titled 'do something unpleasant to them later'...

It wasn't a happy feeling but I didn't give the man the satisfaction of breaking my guileless smile as he turned away and started moving back towards the main floor, his toadies falling into orbit around him and hangers on started to move in on him.

"Hatfucker" I muttered not quite under my breath when he was out of earshot.

"Hatfucker?" Salome Ward asked incredulously, before bursting out into a snort of laughter as she came around from behind me with a half dozen other officers of the Kell Hounds. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Actually I'm not entirely sure" I frowned, trying to remember that one. It was an old insult, I think back from the pre Spacebattles days on the internet, the days of Usenet when curses were just so much more original. "But I'm pretty sure he's one of them".

"You know what? I think so too" the Major said after a pause before cracking a smile and quickly there were snickers all around at that one.

"The 'Hatfucker' aside, what was this about Dan?" Patrick asked, stepping closer and lowering his volume as, with a glance at his officers, the other Kell Hounds sort of spread out to give us some privacy.

In a few short sentences I explained the situation of what we had overheard from Aldo Lestrade and Dan going off to see his Father. Patrick, while grimacing at my relaying of what Lestrade had said, thanked me nonetheless. I could sense he wanted to ask me more, but instead he just gave me another backslap I know he intended to be friendly and grateful, but I swear came this close to dislocating my shoulder before he started to lead his officers off at a brisk walk.

Well that was enough excitement for the night I think and I decided to see if I could sneak across to grab some food and then make a discrete exit when the most recent Christmas music finished to another smattering of applause through the vast room, followed then unexpectedly by a voice over the speakers politely noting that the final song of the night, the 'Archons Choice' was about to be performed and instantly the crowds were in motion, making it near impossible to get across to the other wing. After a few moments, I gave up to just go with the flow as everyone closed in on the front half of the main floor, walking back up onto the rapidly filling up first half of the main court. My height gave me a bit of an edge to look over the crowd from a position about halfway between the Christmas tree and Throne and I used it, studying where the power trio were chatting to a group of young children.

I had utterly no idea what was going on, so I decided to ask the man next to me.

"Excuse me Sir" I asked politely. "Would you know exactly what is this is about?"

"It's a tradition" the man sniffed at me in surprise, seemingly mildly scandalized I had addressed him at all in his black leather pants and shirt, with a sparkling blue suit jacket and crazy ponytail like hair that suggested he was either crazy, or a blueblood wearing edgy fashion. One taking offense at a non-blueblood daring to speak to him so casually.

Or both.

Then he caught the Steiner-Blue shade of my outfit and I swear he actually seemed to double take, before seeming to grudgingly calculate based on that I at least deserved an answer.

"Every year the Archon, before retiring, closes her presence out with a selected Christmas song of her choice. Traditionally, one somewhat rare and even occasionally commissioned specifically for this" he deigned to explain a little more. "But it would seem this year she has decided to gift this choice to a song brought by Hanse Davion, which may prove … interesting" he allowed.

If 'interesting' meant good or bad, well, I suppose he was an expert in the court technique of saying something that after the fact could easily be claimed to be one or the other.

Finally however Hanse Davion stepped up as the rooms lights dimmed somewhat leaving the massive Christmas tree as the main source of light as the thousands of people fell into an awed hush as a soft spotlight isolated The Fox, the Archon and her Daughter. Hanse then smiled thanked the Archon for offering the honor of the song to him, explaining that that this song had been found in the legendary Hoff Library collection on a media data core and only recently decoded, along with an amount of other music from the distant past on Terra. And that this would thus be the first Christmas in quite possibly a thousand years this song had been heard -with some minor updates to the lyrics of course, generating a buzz of genuine excitement in the massive room.

That of course raised my interest too and I watched as the power trio stepped slowly back into the darkness to leave in turn a trio of adorable children in their place -

Wait, hang on a second; did Melissa just look directly at me and smirk before vanishing? I blinked as she stepped back into the dark - then what sounded like chimes played a suddenly familiar rift-