Octavia Girl

Chapter Twelve

Son of a Gun

Jenna sat in the dining room with Scion. She was having dinner alone with him. Well, not completely alone. Sardius stood like a totem pole behind her while she sipped on a line of multi-flavored shot glasses Vash had prepared for her. Scion had asked to have the same dinner as Jenna, but it was obvious he regretted his choice immediately.

“You can order something else from my chef after we’ve had our talk. By that point, you may or may not feel like eating,” she said with an ironic little grin.

He nodded, more polite than anything as he downed a yellow drink that made his face twitch.

“I want to know your feelings,” she said, leaning forward in her black and white dress. “Do you want to be a diplomat?”

Scion had a good face. He was too young, much younger than anyone else Jenna had crowned. He didn’t seem anything like a crafty old goat when he spoke. “To be honest, I didn’t realize what a big deal this was before I came here. I thought it was a simple assignment with simple rules. I didn’t understand that my actions would have cosmic consequences.”

“Does that scare you?” Jenna taunted.

Scion wouldn’t be taunted. He flexed the muscle in his jaw and replied smoothly. “It doesn’t scare me, but it does worry me. No matter what my father said, I can see that I’m a person you never would have chosen for the post due to the other people you have chosen. Two doctors, a TV personality, and a person who was already a diplomat. I’m from the opposite end of the spectrum. I have a suspicion that this is a farewell dinner.”

“I didn’t treat Voguen to a farewell dinner,” Jenna pointed out. “I just put him on a pod. I am still open to the idea of crowning you, but we need to come to an agreement about a few things. Firstly, we need to control the media about you. So far, you’re very unpopular. Did you see the stats from when Celestina aired your interview?”

He shook his head in the negative.

Jenna didn’t pull any punches and explained. “You were unpopular, but you don’t need to worry about that. Rennett and Voguen were unpopular too.”

“Which one of us was the most unpopular?” he asked curiously.

“Rennett.”

“Yet, you sent Voguen home first.”

She took a swig from an orange shot glass. “Yes, well, my decision was not based entirely on what the popularity charts said. If I’m going to turn your image around, I need your cooperation. What I want from you is a particularly hilarious gag.”

“You want me to humiliate myself in front of trillions of TV viewers?” Scion asked with narrowed eyes.

“Not at all,” she said, waving her hand and his suggestion away. “Here’s what I want from you. When we go on TV together, you can say whatever you want about whatever you want, but no matter what, you must also say how much you adore me.”

Scion’s eyes went wide. “Excuse me?”

“Yes. You must always say how much you respect me and value my opinion. In exchange for this, I will do the same. No matter what jacked up, flat-out insane thing comes out of your mouth, I will repeatedly insist that we are the best of friends and we can always hang out, drink shots, tell each other what we think of each other and the night ends with us laughing. We must stress that we are besties. How does that sound?”

“It sounds crazy. No one will believe it.”

“Yes, they will,” Jenna affirmed. “We’ll make them believe it because we will never say anything else. You will say how welcoming I was to you and I will say how much I enjoy having you around. We will respect each other in public no matter what the other does. We will wear matching bracelets and pretend to kiss each other’s cheeks whenever we meet in public.”

“How does that work?” Scion asked, baffled. “I’ve never even seen that kind of a relationship in real life.”

“Air kisses. Mwa, mwa.” Jenna gave an example, kissing the air.

“No one will ever believe that came naturally to me,” he complained, touching the hair on his face like it had been there for less than twenty-four hours.

Jenna smiled at how wet he was. Maybe they could train him to do more than just give kisses. “Even if that seems like a reasonable answer to you, Ryatt assures me that no one will think it is unreasonable. Everyone who knows you will think it’s amazing that you get to be so close to me.”

Scion’s eyes almost reflected the scenario playing out in his mind. From the way the corners of his lips curled, Jenna thought she had him.

Jenna continued, “You don’t have to kiss me the way I just did it. You can do it your way. Maybe a hand kiss? You can also say that you changed when you met me because you’d never met anyone who lit a light inside you the way I did.”

“We don’t know each other,” he said, outlining the roadblocks that still existed in his head.

“We will never know each other if you can’t do as I instruct,” Jenna retorted. “Do you want to leave? If you say you’re opting out of the program and would rather not be an OA diplomat, I’m fine with that. Is that what you want?”

His face fell.

Jenna took that as an answer that he wanted to stay and went on. “You need the PR boost and I am the only diplomat willing to help you. If you can be grateful for what I’m willing to do for you, all of the good feelings we pretend to have in front of the cameras will one day become the truth.”

Scion leaned back in his chair and stared at her like she was a crazy woman. “You must need more from me than just that. What else?”

“You have to forgo having a personal assistant. For reasons that I can’t get into, personal assistants are incredibly hard to come by right now. I can’t get you one even if I trusted you to the moons of Octavia. You have to agree to go without. In exchange, you may have an extra person on staff who will act as a personal assistant for you.”

Scion clearly didn’t understand the difference in scope between a personal assistant who hung by your elbow with a tablet in their arms and someone like Ixy because he said immediately, “I can agree to that.”

Jenna went on listing her conditions. “You will not be allowed to receive packages from outer space. If your mommy wants to send you cookies she has to send her order to a company here on Octavia Prime and have them deliver them to you. Any package sent from outer space will be confiscated by the Octavian police in orbit, threat assessed, and then disposed of. No matter what is sent, you’ll never see it.”

Scion’s well-groomed eyebrows came together. “Does that mean they’ll fire it back into outer space?”

“That’s exactly what it means,” Ixy said in Jenna’s ear.

Jenna nodded for Scion’s benefit. “The last thing you’ll have to submit to is the recording of all your personal transmissions.”

“That’s insane!” Scion said, rising to his feet.

“Do calm yourself,” Jenna said, rolling an empty shot glass around in her hand. “This precaution has nothing to do with you. When I first got here, all my conversations were recorded and transcribed. It’s not about your allegiances. We want you to be here to represent your people, whether they are warmongers, or the AAMC, or whoever. That’s all fine. The issue here is that we need to protect our diplomats and if I crown you, that will include you. Capish?”

Scion slowly sat back down. “You were recorded?”

“Yes. Every move I made was watched, even when I was naked. Try to understand, the diplomats are the most important thing here. We need to open a channel of communication with the Octavians and if you are going to be a hindrance, I can send you home now. What do you say?”

“Can I speak to my father before I agree?”

“Yes, just so long as you understand that the call will be recorded.”

***

Jenna watched the video of Scion’s father speaking to him about whether or not he should agree to Jenna’s terms. The most notable thing about the conversation was that the old arms dealer was floored that Jenna was even considering taking his son.

He called her himself five minutes after his call with Scion ended.

“Hello,” Scion’s father said, looking at Jenna like she was a lounge singer in a 30s mob movie. It fit his look since he wore a suit like one of those old mobsters. It fit Jenna too since she was dolled up for her photoshoot with Favel. “My name is Rold Xant and I want to talk to you about my son.”

Jenna smiled and prepared to be as accommodating as she could be. “Yes, I’ve been having meetings with your son for the past few days. Entrancing young man.”

Rold took a cigar from a box and rolled it between his fingers before taking it between his teeth. “What’s this I hear about him accepting a lifetime role as an Octavian diplomat? Have you read his resume?”

Jenna chuckled. “Have you read the resumes of the other candidates the AAMC has recommended? I agree Scion’s resume is not great, but that doesn’t concern me particularly. I was crowned when I was an infant when I had no talents or achievements to recommend me. I only had my grandmother and she was an incredibly exceptional person. Scion is in a similar situation.”

Rold had not expected Jenna to flatter him so blatantly or so immediately and he drew his eyebrows together curiously in an expression Jenna had seen many times on Scion’s face. “Do you know who I am?”

“I know you split planets apart on your testing stations. Are they like eggs? Do you need to break a few to make an omelet?” she asked coyly.

He took in a sharp intake of breath, as his eyes rested on her crown. “Who are you?”

Jenna shrugged and offered him a half-smile like she was a surprise just for him. “I’m someone who gives people what they want. That’s what diplomacy is all about. I find out what the two sides want and I give it to them. What do you want?”

Rold took his unlit cigar out of his mouth and tapped it on the knee of his burgundy suit. “I want my son to stay out of trouble.”

“You don’t think he’ll be able to do that as a diplomat on Octavia Prime?” Jenna loved this moment. She felt like a leopard about to pounce. All of this sounded like they had sent Scion because they hadn’t believed for one second that Jenna would crown him, so he made the perfect stalling device if they wanted to prevent Jenna from achieving quorum. It also sounded like having him there might make someone think twice about killing all the diplomats in one fell swoop. It made her want to keep Scion forever.

Rold lit his cigar. “I don’t see how he could stay out of trouble with all you polyamorous freaks living around him. Aren’t you marrying an octopus?”

Jenna laughed and threw her voluminous blonde curls over her shoulder. “For the time being, it is not on our agenda to arrange a political marriage for him. As it stands, he is free to have as many lovers as he sees fit, but that was true before he came here. Nothing has changed. If you wish for a particular political ally for him, you are welcome to sort it out with him privately.”

Rold was playing his cards badly. It was clear to Jenna that he didn’t have a problem with the eight-spouse policy no matter what he said. His problem was that he had been told that his son would fail the interview process and would be sent home. The AAMC had been hunting for the most egregious candidates they could find when they chose him. Rold was trying to formulate a strategy where he could convince Jenna to send Scion home. He had made the comment about polyamory to try to piss her off. It hadn’t worked.

All of which made Jenna want to crown Scion even more. It made her think of him as a hostage on Octavia Prime that might stop Rold from supplying arms to invaders.

“You must be so proud of your son,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “Would you like to be here for the crowning? I’m sure I could find a palace to put you up in. If you’ve never been to Octavia Prime before, we could arrange for you to see some of the planet while you’re here.”

Rold was an old lion, but he was not as stupid as Admiral Lou Denver, who flew into a rage when Jenna baited him. Instead, Rold sat there and contemplated Jenna like she was either someone to be ravished or someone to be disassembled. He was struggling. She had been dolled up prettier for the pictures with Favel than she had ever been in her life before. It was having a strong effect on Rold. He was the type of man who had her type on his arm, doing what he said, not the other way around. He was struggling with how he felt about the new position.

“How many marriage proposals have you had?” he suddenly asked. “I have heard rumors about your husbands.”

“Doubtless, you’ll hear more,” she said with a click of her tongue.

“Do you charm everyone like this?”

“No. Only men who can do something extraordinary.”

“Like split a world in half?” he asked gruffly.

She chuckled. “No, like give me their son so I can reach quorum.”

Rold had a moment where he almost lost control of himself. “What the hell does that mean?”

Jenna looked into his eyes and gave him a straightforward answer, which was what he needed at that moment. “It means that I need eight Adamis diplomats to vote on treaties in order to pass them to the Octavian council. Without eight, I’m done for. I need your son to vote. Surely, you knew that.”

He looked sour. He didn’t like what was happening, but from what Jenna had observed in his conversion with Scion, Scion wanted to stay. He wanted Jenna to get up in public and talk about how they were best friends. He wanted a beautiful and powerful woman to air kiss him in public and say how much she liked him. Jenna had not made that offer to anyone else. It made him feel special, but that wasn’t the only thing he had on his mind. Scion wanted to have a lifelong appointment where no one could force him into outer space where his muscles would lose definition and atrophy. What he told his father was that he would vote according to AAMC interests and that they could trust him to convey their wishes. He was going to do the job they asked him to do.

That wasn’t what his father wanted at all. Rold was wondering if he had any method that would force Jenna to give up his son.

If Jenna was having a strong-arm match with Rold, she was winning. The thing was that Rold did not have a woman of Jenna’s quality waiting in the wings for Scion. The friendship and constant approval she was offering would be the hottest aphrodisiac any man had ever known. Women cared a lot about each other’s opinions and for Jenna to give it freely would be giving Scion a free pass to any woman he wanted in the universe.

“You asked me what I wanted a moment ago?” the arms dealer asked as he sucked on his cigar.

“Yes.”

“I want you to promise me that you will not get involved with my son,” Rold said stiffly.

Even though his words were ambiguous, his meaning was perfectly clear. He didn’t want her sleeping with Scion. Jenna had either brought him to his knees so that he was willing to settle, or he had a completely different plan up his sleeve. Jenna was willing to bank on the first one. She bet he didn’t have a non-warlike method of retrieving his son, and he had people on the other side of the camera who didn’t want him to. They wanted Scion as their little mole on Octavia Prime even if it put him in danger.

Jenna had a sneaky little plan of her own.

Jenna had already sent a message to Admiral Lou Denver that he had been most pleased to receive. She had told him her plan to crown Rennett and Scion and asked him to send her one of the disgraced majors she’d had stripped of rank. She’d talked it over with Vash and he gave his recommendations for which of the men he thought would be the least pig-headed. She gave the Admiral the name and promised to crown Iker Hu without an interview. Denver thought he was going to get enough AAMC members on the council to have a majority for most votes. Therefore, stalling Jenna was no longer important.

She smiled at Rold. “I can promise that. His crowning will be tomorrow evening. Will you be able to attend?”

“Nah,” the old space lion said, blowing smoke instead of fire. “I’m halfway across the universe. I don’t know when I’ll be able to accept your offer of hospitality. Out of curiosity, do you always keep your promises, Jenna?”

“I’m a diplomat, so there are plans within plans within plans, but if you’re concerned about me and your son, you may rest easy.”

Rold heaved another huge puff of smoke into the air and when it had cleared, he was gone.

Ten minutes later, Jenna figured out that the reason Rold Xant did not want her sleeping with his son was because he was planning on doing the honors of sleeping with her himself. She was the kind of woman who belonged on his arm and he was going to find a way to put her there.

It was a dangerous game Jenna played.

She swallowed and returned to the photoshoot.