The Significant (13 page)

      
“I’m not upset,” she assured. “I am,
however, concerned. What has you so worked up?”

      
Kailynn groaned and rolled her eyes, her
entire body tensing in preparation for the rant. Isa dismissed Tarah and walked
to the fallen pillow, picking it up.

      
“Have you seen the reviews on me?”
Kailynn demanded, watching the Elite.

      
“Pardon?”

      
“Have you seen the reviews on me as a
Significant? Have you read them?”

      
“No,” Isa said, returning the pillow to
its proper place on the couch.

      
“Are you lying?”

      
“No.”

      
“Well, they’re all lying!” Kailynn
barked. “I mean, this one was saying shit about how I’m desperate for money and
that I don’t care about the person I’m with. Damn right I don’t! I’m
paid
to be there! I don’t know these
people! I don’t give a shit about their sob stories! But I sit there and listen
and do whatever they want me to do because this society is so fucked up people
have to pay other people to talk to them! Do you realize how fucking
demented
that is?!”

      
Kailynn stopped when her eyes met Isa’s.
She suddenly realized that she had just blown up at her client—a client who
also happened to be the most powerful person in the planetary system. Isa
appeared to be amused, but Kailynn still forced herself to calm down before she
said something stupid.

      
“Something I have found,” Isa started,
when she realized that Kailynn was finished, “is that many who say things in
that manner are generally trying to hide their own insecurities. It’s a very
elaborate, and pathetic, form of making one feel better about oneself. More
likely than not, that client had certain inadequacies when he was with you and
he decided to blame you for them rather than acknowledge his own faults.”

      
“There was that one idiot who spent the
first half hour drinking and then ten minutes pawing at me, trying to figure
out what the hell he was doing, and then he was done before he even got to the
sex because he got off on me calling him “Baby Johnny.” Maybe that was his
review. Creepy bastard.”

      
“That sounds like Imothy Rex,” Isa said,
her eyebrows furrowed in thought.

      
“What?”

      
“The man, what you just described. He’s a
powerful figure in the economy, but a complete bastard,” Isa clarified. “His
advisors, but only his female ones, call him Baby J.” Her eyebrows went high.
“He seems incompetent enough to not know a thing about women.”

      
“I don’t remember what the idiot’s name
was,” Kailynn groaned, flopping down on the couch opposite of Isa, rubbing her
eyes and shaking her head. “I mean, that’s out there for anyone to see now!
They’re going to think I’m into all kinds of kinky shit, and I’m
not
! I mean, everyone’s curious, but
kink is not the same thing!”

      
“I can’t say I know what qualifies as
kink,” Isa said with a gentle laugh.

      
“Ugh, I hate this,” Kailynn continued.
“This is even worse than whoring. At least there no one pretends that they’re
there for other reasons. There’s all kinds of pretense around Significant
work.”

      
“That is true.”

      
“It just pisses me off when people assume
shit about me,” Kailynn pressed on. “Just because I look and act the way I do,
people think that I’m some sort of slutty thug, or something.” Isa smiled as
she saw Kailynn get more upset, winding herself up again even as she sat still
on the couch. “I mean, I
waited
. I
was sixteen when I first had sex.”

      
Isa barked a laugh before she could help
herself. Kailynn glared at the Golden Elite.

      
“Oh, to
you
, I’m sure that
is
slutty,” she snapped.

      
Isa shook her head. “I first had sex at a
younger age.”

      
The shock of the statement calmed Kailynn
down almost immediately. For several long moments, she could only stare into
Isa’s blue eyes and process the words.

      
“What?”

      
“I had barely turned fifteen.”

      
“But…I thought…” Kailynn’s brow creased
in confused. “I mean…were you raped? Elites aren’t supposed to…”

      
“I was not raped,” Isa said, shaking her
head. “Just rebellious.”

      
“
You
?
Rebellious?” Kailynn barked a laugh. “How can you be rebellious when you end up
leading the government?”

      
“You rebel intelligently, I suppose,” Isa
said with a laugh.

      
“Then you were never caught.”

      
“I was,” Isa contradicted. “There were
cameras in every room of the Elite Academy. We had guards upon us in no time.”

      
Kailynn studied Isa’s expression.

      
“That explains how you know that sexual
desire is beaten out of Elites,” Kailynn said with a nervous laugh.

      
“Indeed,” Isa said. “I learned
first-hand.”

      
“What happens if an Elite has sex?” Kailynn
pressed, her curiosity taking hold.

      
“I assume it’s no different than humans,”
Isa teased.

      
“No, I mean, the punishment,” Kailynn
clarified. “Say one of the Elites were to have sex with someone. Would they be
killed?”

      
Isa sighed heavily, thinking about how to
answer.

      
“Not likely,” she admitted. “It would
depend on how public the incident became. Should any of my Bronze Elites be
caught in a public sex scandal, they would have to be immediately removed from
their position. If it was a very public affair, then death would likely be the
sentence.”

      
“
Why
?”
Kailynn hissed. “Yeah, Elites are supposed to work, but everyone has sex.
Literally everyone. What’s the big deal if Elites do as well?”

      
“I have never been able to fully
understand why, myself,” Isa said. “My assumption is that abstaining from
sexual activity creates an image to humans that we are infallible, that we are
not controlled by basic human desires and, therefore, we are superior.”

      
“But didn’t you prove that that wasn’t
true when you had sex at fifteen?” Kailynn pressed. “You wanted sex, so you had
it.”

      
Isa shrugged.

      
“I do not know that that is the reason
Syndicate Elites are forbidden from sexual relationships,” she said. “That is
only my hypothesis.”

      
“But, you
do
have sexual desires, right?”

      
“Yes,” Isa admitted, her eyes averting to
the coffee table. “Biology is still biology. We can try and cover it up and
control it with rules and rationalization as much as we want. That does not
change that the body wants what it wants.” Isa’s expression fell a little
further and the change surprised Kailynn. It was not an extremely noticeable
difference, but it did catch the Significant’s attention. “Of course, Elite’s
don’t
want
anything, so perhaps it is
easier for us to forego our desires.”

Chapter
Eleven

      
Kailynn was getting more and more nervous
around Isa. Everyone in the house could sense it. Tarah would ask her every day
if everything was alright. She would mechanically answer yes, but she never
meant it.

      
The look on Isa’s face had haunted her.
She had seen the pain in the Elite’s eyes as she talked about the Elite’s not
having desires. Kailynn was sure she had never thought about a single moment as
much as she mulled over the moment Isa’s expression changed.

      
Kailynn did not know what it was, but the
look had broken her heart. Kailynn did not get upset or sad over many things.
She was not a bleeding heart, something that she was often teased about as a
younger girl. However, Isa’s pained expression struck a chord deep inside
Kailynn’s being.

      
Her strange attraction to the Golden
Elite was reaching a dangerous level.

      
Near the middle of her third week with
the Golden Elite, someone came to visit the household.

      
When the front door opened as Kailynn and
Tarah were playing a game on the coffee table’s interface, Kailynn was
surprised to find herself startled by the visitor.

      
She had become used to the quiet of the
house. To have someone suddenly appear surprised her.

      
Tarah’s face lit up immediately when she
saw the man.

      
“Rayal!” she gasped, her tone raising
excitedly as she clamored to her feet and ran to him. Kailynn slowly stood,
watching the man smile at Tarah. Kailynn was surprised at how
handsome
Rayal was. He had a defined jaw
and defined cheekbones. His brown hair was neatly cut and swept away from his
face. He was also tall and broadly built. However, his right eye was a deep,
powerful brown color, while his other eye was glassy and grey, surrounded by
light scarring that extended into his hairline, showing he was blind in one eye
due to injury.

      
“Tarah,” he greeted, smiling gently at
her, exposing his perfectly white teeth. “How have you been holding up?”

      
“Fine,” Tarah said with a nervous giggle.
“It’s actually been nice to have Isa home. I don’t worry as much.”

      
“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Rayal
chuckled. “As soon as the month leave is up, she’ll bolt out of here faster
than you can blink.” The former caretaker to the Golden Elite turned to look at
Kailynn, who was standing awkwardly in the sitting area. His warm nature faded
quickly, surprising Kailynn. “Are you the Significant?”

      
Kailynn tried not to be offended by his
tone and the way he addressed her, but her indignation came through her voice
when she spoke back.

      
“My name is Kailynn.”

      
“Kailynn,” Rayal repeated.

      
“Rayal, there’s no need to be worried,”
Tarah assured. “Isa has actually been very happy to have her here.”

      
Rayal and Kailynn shared an intense look.
Kailynn could not help but be intimidated by his stare. However, she held her
ground, staring back at him, waiting for him to look away.

      
Tarah was the one who broke the staring
contest.

      
“Rayal, please, be nice.”

      
“I’m always nice,” he chuckled. Once his
gaze was off her, Kailynn relaxed.

      
“Well, not
always
,” Tarah teased.

      
“Why not
always
?”

      
“Because you don’t come to see me
anymore,” Tarah pouted. “That’s not nice of you at all.”

      
“My apologies, my dear,” Rayal said with
a bow of his head. “I shall try to be more sociable from now on.”

      
Tarah giggled, her cheeks quickly
reddening. Kailynn could not help but laugh at the obvious crush Tarah had on
the former caretaker.

      
“How about we have lunch together
sometime in the next few days?” Rayal suggested. “Isa is going to be very busy
for a while.”

      
“What? Why? What happened?” Tarah asked
worriedly.

      
Rayal tapped the briefcase he was
carrying.

      
“Emergency came up a couple hours ago,”
he admitted. “From my understanding, she’s already in a conference call to try
and deal with these morons, but I have some information she’ll want.”

      
“She’s in her office,” Tarah said.

      
Seeing the two caretakers walk toward
Isa’s office and worried about Rayal’s serious tone, Kailynn followed them. She
watched Rayal carefully, not sure what to make of the former caretaker.

      
However, her study was halted when Rayal
opened the door to Isa’s office and the three stepped inside.

      
Isa was sitting in the NCB chair, but it
was sitting upright, not restraining the Golden Elite at all. The upper ring
was higher, extended on a stand on the back of the chair. Across from the
Golden Elite were four standing holograms. One was in the middle of his
sentence when the group walked in.

      
“—damage dealt. Predicting such a
catastrophe would have been almost impossible.”

      
“I find that very difficult to believe,
Yurim,” Isa said.

      
Isa’s face was very different now that
she was working. Her eyes were sharp and powerful, even as she looked at the
holograms in the room with her. Her perfect posture accented her power and
control while still showing that she was furious at whatever had happened.

      
“Please, try to understand, Elite Isa—”

      
“Try to understand what?” Isa challenged
coldly. “That I have an entire planet being held hostage by the Ninth Circle?”

      
“We do not know that the Ninth Circle is involved,”
one woman said. “They are always warring with one another. I doubt they would
come together to take over a single planet.”

      
“Even someone on the outskirts of the
Ninth Circle would have the intelligence to know that attacking and occupying a
planet of the Crescent Alliance is suicide.”

      
“Caroie is not just a member of the
Crescent Alliance,” Isa said sharply. “They are also under special protection.
For an attack, taking over Caroie is a brilliant move. Or have you forgotten
that it provides goods to fifty-four of the sixty-one planets in the Alliance?”

      
“Yes, the hit to trade could be
catastrophic,” the final hologram agreed.

      
“Then, why is it that ships from the
Ninth Circle were able to land on Caroie and initiate a planetary take-over
without detection?” Isa said, her eyes traveling over the other holograms. “The
four of you surround Caroie. There is no reason this should have occurred.”

      
The other four in the meeting were
silent.

      
“I have intelligence that Caroie sent
distress signals for nearly twelve days as the capital was being overtaken and
thousands of people were being killed. These signals reached three of you. Yet,
you chose not to act.”

      
Still, everyone remained silent.

      
Isa sighed heavily and leaned forward in
her chair, putting her hands on the armrests and getting to her feet slowly.

      
“Let me make sure I understand this,” she
said, her voice powerful and cold, sending shivers down everyone’s spines.
“Caroie is under special protection, and therefore, by law, their distress
signals are to be met immediately, regardless of confirmation of an emergency.
And yet, those closest to the planet ignored these signals that were repeated
for
twelve
days before communications
were interrupted. According to my intelligence, these signals were not lost,
they were deliberately ignored. Now,
I
must come in and not only negotiate with Ninth Circle terrorists, but I must
also try and mend my relationship with Caroie so that most of the Crescent
Alliance does not fall into depression and famine. And this is all because
those sworn to protect Caroie were, not unable to help, but
unwilling
to help.” Isa stopped slowly
pacing in front of the holograms. “Is that correct? Am I misunderstanding
anything?”

      
“Elite Isa, surely you understand that my
planet is in no condition to render help to any planet,” one man said
nervously.

      
“Yes, including your own citizens, which
is why I have deployed seventeen-thousand of my own troops to maintain what
little order is left on your planet after your chancellor tore down the mockery
that was your economy,” Isa said. “Let me repeat that. Seventeen-thousand of
my
troops are already stationed on
Imala. Even if your planet is in disrepair from your civil war, it takes
thirty-seven seconds for a transmission to come from your planet to mine. If
you had informed me, I would have sent what forces I could to assist Caroie.”

      
“Seventeen thousand would not be enough
to handle an invasion of that magnitude,” one of the women said incredulously.

      
“Indeed,” Isa said, turning to her. “But
an army of Hyunen soldiers, such as the one-hundred ninety thousand in your
possession, might have been able to assist my meager seventeen thousand and we
could have provided reasonable protection for the capital.”

      
“Where did you obtain those numbers?” the
woman asked sharply.

      
Isa’s expression turned dangerous.

      
“Are those numbers inaccurate?”

      
“Of course they are!” the woman snapped.

      
“Then should I expect more?” Isa asked.

      
“You cannot build any troops in excess of
one-hundred and fifty thousand in the Alliance,” one man said, turning to the
woman nervously. “You are in violation of the law.”

      
“That is several counts against you, Miss
Yuta,” Isa told her. “Abandoning a special-class planet in need, treason, and
violation of the Crescent Alliance Peace Act.”

      
“Those numbers are too high!” Yuta cried,
her eyes becoming angry and frantic.

      
“Are they?” Isa asked. “I have been
monitoring the trade routes, Miss Yuta. I know what you have purchased and I
know the parts that go into making troops. I did my own calculations based on
how many Soldier data chips you bought, and how many parts you obtained to
craft your own.”

      
The other three holograms turned to the
woman, their eyes worried.

      
“Care to tell me your exact numbers, Miss
Yuta?”

      
“How dare you accuse me of violating our
laws?!” the woman bellowed.

      
“How dare you think me foolish enough to
believe your word when you abandoned Caroie and left them to the mercy of the
Ninth Circle?” Isa challenged, her voice even. “Because of your inaction, the
death toll is already over eighty thousand civilians, and those numbers continue
to rise by the minute as more casualties are discovered.”

      
“I am not alone on Caroie’s protection
front!” Yuta cried.

      
“You’re correct,” Isa said. “However, you
are the only one who has met with any member of the Ninth Circle ruling class
in the last year, and your troop numbers are soaring, even more so since
Colonel Ikan’s visit.”

      
“I am not consorting with those
barbarians in the Ninth Circle!” Yuka barked.

      
“We will see if that is true,” Isa said.
“I am ordering, under Title Four of the Crescent Alliance Peace Act, that an
investigation shall take place in order to discover any evidence of treason and
consorting to overthrow the Alliance.”

      
“How dare you?!”

      
“You are innocent until proven guilty.
However, under Title Four, trade with your planet will be halted and all
transmissions will be monitored. Anything found during conduct of the
investigation will be brought to the Courts and will be admitted into evidence
without question.”

      
“You cannot do this!” the woman bellowed.

      
“I will program your monitoring system
and it will go into effect today,” Isa completed. “As for the rest of you, I
ask that you submit your schedules to me as well as the last three months of
your trade numbers, and the number of troops you have in your possession.
Should any of these orders be ignored, I have full authority from Venus to
place all of your planets under investigation.”