Space Odyssey: Spectre

Chapter 548: Recognized

Jace was escorted through the hotel lobby by several guards. But after they arrived at the entrance to the hotel restaurant a different set of guards who were more heavily armed and armored stopped them and Pliro. West led him the rest of the way inside.

The restaurant was almost completely empty aside from a waitress that was waiting near the bar. A bartender. Along with a rectangle table with Sherlock and two other individuals he had never seen before. All around the edge of the restaurant were the same guards that stopped the others at the door.

"Ah! Finally the guest of honor arrives!" The middle aged man who wore a gold and red color accented suit raised a glass of white wine. "You must be Gladiator. The mysterious visitor from beyond our galaxy who is causing the lord of this planet such a headache."

Jace smiled as he moved to sit across from the man. But suddenly a guard stepped in front of him and blocked his path. "You need to be searched and disarmed first." The guard explained as he reached for Jace.

Jace scoffed and grabbed him by the top of his front armor breastplate and lifted him up and then set him to the side. "If I wanted your boss dead. I would have blown his transport up when he came down a few hours ago." Jace then looked at the man and sat down across from him. "I hope you do not mind, but I dislike it when people touch me without permission."

The man nodded his head. "Understandable." He waved off his guards. "If you ’lot’ want to make yourselves useful. Figure out how he knew when I landed planetside." The guards nodded and backed away while West sat next to Jace.

Sherlock scoffed. "Shall we get to the main point of this meeting?"

"Certainly." The man nodded and then leaned forward. "Breakfast. What would you like?"

"What-" Sherlock spun around and glared at the man.

"Eggs Benedict, I hear they do an amazing one here." Jace answered with a nod.

"Mhmm... Can I get a Cinnamon Roll?" West asked as the waitress came over and quickly began writing down their orders.

"Toast." The other woman next to the man said. But Jace frowned as he felt like he recognized the woman’s voice even if it was only for a moment.

"I will have Waffles. I always like waffles whenever I come to this part of the Galaxy." The man declared before looking at Sherlock. "How about you?"

"What?" Sherlock shook his head. "We need to-"

"Get him some french toast." The man told the waitress who nodded and walked off. "And a round of orange juices for all of us!" He called out to the bartender who gave a thumbs up before turning away to prepare their drinks.

"Your majesty..." Sherlock mumbled in exasperation.

"Ah! Yes, introductions." The man seemed to remember as he held up a finger and then gave a slight head bow as he rolled one of his hands. "My name is Axion Toran Theodore Harry the Fifth. I am the second prince of the Toran Empire. Which rules a rather large chunk of this galaxy. This is..." He waved his hand at the woman in a gold mask with black hood who bowed her head.

"I am the Archivist." Yeah, Jace definitely felt like he recognized this person’s voice. She then switched to a dialect native to the Vexical Empire which caused Jace to flinch in surprise. "I actually came here many years ago as well."

Jace frowned as he switched into the same language but used a dialect riddled with military slang. "Figuring out which part of the galaxy I am from by using my dialect. Clever."

The Archivist flinched and grunted before switching back to the local language. "Well, I confirmed he is from the human nations at least."

"Oh?" The prince raised an eyebrow. "Sherlock did say he was highly intelligent. But let us move on. Mister Gladiator. I would appreciate it if you would consider surrendering yourself peacefully to my nation since you are unlikely to go back to your own galaxy. Not to mention that ship you crashed in on was one of those angels ships. So chances are your galaxy is under invasion by a troublesome group."

Jace raised an eyebrow before a smile slowly crept up onto his face. "Oh... you do not know their name. How many times have you communicated with them?"

"What? Communicate. You can’t communicate with them. They attack you on site." The Archivist cut in.

Jace burst into laughter, "how about the other ones. What do you call them?"

"You mean the demons?" The prince asked and Jace laughed even harder. "What is so humorous?"

"Here I was dancing around you people just to be cautious but you did not even earn the privilege of knowing their names." Jace declared as he slapped his knee. "We will not be joining your nation. But it would be a good idea to stay out of our way. Because I will send out a message to my people letting them know the kind of threat you pose. Which is none."

"I may not have been able to figure out your exact birth place. But this pride in individualism and strength only comes from one nation. You are from the Vexical Empire. I am guessing you are- or rather you were a nanohuman as well." The Archivist informed them. "Huh... there is no point in the guards. If he was a leader of a special operations team like we suspect then he could easily kill or disable them bare handed."

Jace noticed the guards around the room tense up. He chuckled. "This is correct, but my nation has a neutrality stance when it comes to new nations. Although, I do have the capacity to decide the stance if say... you attack me." Jace informed them.

"Ha... you are bluffing. The Vexical Empire does not have a military position with that capacity.

"No they did not. But the Victorium does." Jace informed her and could almost see the wheels turning.

"Huh..." The woman seemed contemplative for a moment.

The prince on the other hand jumped in. "I am sorry, but I do not remember a nation called the Victorium ever being mentioned."

"That is because it was just a rumor. Are they real?" The archivist asked.

"Very, they revealed themselves to the human nations a few years ago. Every nation swung back at them. But Vexical was the only one to give them a black eye. So we reached an agreement and became one of the first nations to join their nation which spans for a rather large chunk of the galaxy." Jace explained as he leaned back as the orange juices and the woman’s toast were brought over.

The waitress wordlessly set them down and then walked away. "What about technology? Is there any way we could get from you? I am aware you have advanced technology that lies in categories we have not yet explored. We could give you something in exchange."

"I am going to refuse. We do not need your assistance or your technology. But it would be best if you left us alone." Jace’s eyes glanced over as the Archivist removed her mask and took a bite of her toast. He bit the inside of his lip to hide his reaction as he recognized her face.

"For a person who is so intelligent. Why do you think you can get away with going up against a whole nation?" The prince asked as his demeanor changed completely. Going from the carefree person he was acting like to the ruthless shadow king that Jace had figured out he was already.

"Because you are going to have your hands full enough without tacking on a specialist with a reputation for being ruthless." He then looked at the woman. "Besides, you should be thanking me as it is. If I had my way, this woman would be dead and I would have to drag her corpse back to my galaxy to collect the sizable bounty."

The woman flinched and stopped midbite as Jace glared at her. The prince frowned. "You recognized her when you saw her face?" He asked in reasonable confusion considering the woman’s face had a scar going across it.

"I did indeed. Catherine Hex, is wanted for theft, murder, and a variety of other far more obscure crimes like grave robbing." Jace declared. Both West and Sherlock looked at the woman and then the prince who frowned but seemed unsurprised about the list of crime.

"Oh please!" She tossed down her toast. "I only committed those crimes because they would not let me investigate the time between the nations settling and when we arrived in that galaxy."

"For good reason." Jace chuckled.

"Besides, they would want me dead anyways." She pointed out. "Which is part of the reason I left."

"That is true. But then... Why did you leave your only son behind?" Jace asked with annoyance hidden behind his grin.