SImp

It was an easy cleanup—until it wasn't.

The surprise is the most powerful weapon in existence. The Xiǎo Māo in the palace was taken down with no losses. They were easy to spot once you figured out what to look for. However, just because we captured them alive did not mean that they stayed that way.

Between Bit and Imp, we had shut down every interstellar port on the planet. You could still step on a port on a downtown street corner after work and find yourself in your home town at the corner port within a leisurely walk from home, (Unless you were rich enough to have a port in your home….) But anything that took you off planet was shut down.

Imp's new DNA screening detected Xiǎo Māo, who were not wearing sclera lenses but had been surgically altered, as they ported. Once we identified Xiǎo Māo DNA patterns the plan was that Imp would take over the port and deliver the person to a confinement cell instead of their destination, be it a predefined destination such as going home after work, or a verbally entered destination to override your usual pattern and stop by the pub for a drink first. The kicker was that among the first Xiǎo Māo detected was our old friend the Duke of Paldonia.

Now we understood why his reflexes were so fast. We realized how he escaped being fried along with Captain Sul. We understood his love of combat—his disregard of life.

Imp kept Serina, and I informed about the meeting concerning the Xiǎo Māo going on in the senatorial chambers on the bottom floor, and safest location, of the shelter. The Deputy Sergeant at Arms had announced dignitaries and the joint chiefs—that were still alive—and His Imperial Highness the Emperor of the known universe had been announced and finished his walk up to the rostrum, it seems even in an emergency that ceremony controlled the empire.

Serina and I managed to find time to attend arriving mid-speech just as the Emperor had finished his status update and report on the discovery of who our enemy was and why so many of the senators were absent. "…this is going to cause some changes in procedures, and I now declare a state of emergency and impose martial law on the empire."

Pausing for the effect the Emperor continued, "Let me introduce to you her imperial majesty and princess of the realm the daughter of my blood, Jane Greystoke, and her consort and Prince of the realm Lawrence Young."

Rolling with the punch, we both continued past Tori and Aliana who were standing guard in light armor at the door, and who fell in behind us as we walked to the rostrum where Dad was. If we had practiced the timing could not have been more perfect. [Did you know?] I asked Serina.

[No, did you?] Serina replied.

['I' didn't even know,] Imp replied to both of us, [just keep walking and go with the flow. Did I say that right,] Imp anxiously asked.

[That was a perfect use of casual speech Imp, well done.] But inside I was about to bust a gusset at how worried Imp was about improving his speech patterns ever since Bit showed up.

In the hushed background, we could hear whispers of wonderment, "His daughter?" "I didn't know he had a daughter." "Isn't she wearing a marine uniform?" and the like.

The press corps was going quietly nuts at being under communication blackout and unable to get this historic news out. They had been just fine with the discovery of a new species, and with the Imperial capital being under attack, but a princess? Now that was news of the highest magnitude.

Dad brought us up next to him and placed his arm around us, Serina on his right and I on his left. "Yes, this is my biological daughter, named after my first wife. And I was a witness at their marriage, contest this at your peril."

Again, he paused to let everyone absorb this, before continuing, "Lawrence has worked his way up to the rank of Senior secretary in the diplomatic corps while Jane has advanced to the rank of Capitan in the Imperial Marines. But I am advancing Lawrence to the position of Imperial Secretary of Defense, and Jane is advanced to the rank of General, retired, in the Imperial Marines. As an imperial princess, Jane is second only to me. Secretary Young, can you report on the current status?"

I stepped up to the microphone and said, "We have caught Sir James Rathsmor, Duke of Paldonia, and the former Regent of the twelfth galactic region and the former head of Imperial security, who was presumed to have died protecting the Emperor during the attack of the changing of the guard, which was led by him." I pointed up to a private box, normally reserved for the Emperors' guests, but which now contained the Duke wearing chains and platoon of my children in light armor."

Sir Rathsmor stood at attention and looked defiant, as Serina continued, "As well he is a confirmed member of the species, we have named the Xiǎo Māo, and is to be treated as a spy and agitator of a race that has attacked us unprovoked and without warning."

At that bit of news Sir Rathsmor jerked his head up, and we could see his eyes go wide open at this news. He twisted his head into an unnatural angle and held that position for just a second before collapsing dead. Ashley broke in and said, [Check your heads up display I'm sending you a direct feed from the Enterprise.]

In the display we saw, the attacking sh.i.p.s were exploding like it was my father-in-law's birthday. Ashley further reported that [We did not do a hundred percent clean sweep of those Xiǎo Māo embedded in our government and protective services. However, they all just died. Under the influence of a knockout, walking down the sidewalk, or sitting at their desk. Awake or asleep they just dropped dead.]

It was when Sir Rathsmor figured out that we knew he was an alien that every Xiǎo Māo on the planet or above it died. Eventually, we found that they all had embedded poison suicide devices that could be triggered by the wearer or by remote control. Sir Rathsmor was able to trigger the remote control when he twisted his head in that weird angle. The bad news was they all died before we could interrogate a single one.

I reported the latest facts to the gathered dignitaries and said, "The short story of all this is we were back to ground zero. Probably standing on it, and everything was about to hit the fans."

I continued, "Paraphrasing Isoroku Yamamoto from the nineteenth century, I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant. We have the tools to detect the Xiǎo Māo, and it appears that every Xiǎo Māo on this planet is now dead. We can plan safe from discovery. We have used an advanced computer to analyze their communication system and will shortly be sweeping all military and governmental offices for bugs. We are currently in the process of propagating the method to detect Xiǎo Māo, surgically modified or not anywhere in the Imperium; this means that their only means of attack is via military methods.

Our advantages? We know that we can completely trust only one team. We have a general staff that does not have any Xiǎo Māo, although there could be turncoats. And last but not least, we have one super-powered ship."

We also have Bit and Imp, but no one outside our team and the emperor needed to know about them.