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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3816601" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 527: FamilyThere were a fairly large number of species in the galaxy that had some kind of hive mind like activity. Sometimes it was very strong and literal like in most insectoid races, and other times it was much more implied and more like a collective conscious. For the Alraxians, it was somewhere in between, and even then was hard to really nail down when compared with other species.    The natural link that all Alraxians shared in the form of the so-called Network, wasn’t as much an independent thing like would be normally expected. It was there in a natural form, but not very strong and hard to really grasp by the average Alraxian. It took a very strong mind, almost always an Alraxian gifted in the Force, to pull it all together into one single Network that most of the species took for granted. Truthfully, this duty was the most important thing that the Alraxian Empress performed, essentially being the focus of the entire Alraxian Network and bringing all of the individuals together.    But this tendency for the Alraxian species to be more group oriented than individualistic was usually much stronger, naturally, in siblings. For twins and the like, it was the strongest. Because of this, twins were usually extremely close and very rarely went far from one another. It wasn’t so strong that direct thoughts and words could be felt from one mind to the other, but at least when they were in close proximity to one another, feelings and emotions were rather easy to pick up on.    But as Alyx BlueIce sat across from his twin sister, he found himself wondering, once again, if there were more differences between the two of them than similarities. He knew he should be able to read her better, especially while being just a few meters away, but her mind was just...blank to him. This wasn’t new to him. Marix had always been like that, especially in the last few weeks.    Part of him wondered if it was because he seemed to have no real connection with the Force. Of course, she’d always told him if he’d just stop and try, he’d find he was more skilled with the Force than he wanted to believe...but Alyx just never seemed to ‘feel’ it like he was supposed to. His mother had tried to teach him years before, but he just never could grasp it.    Marix was standing on the other side of the rather large, open room that was a sort of living area near the top of one of the Palace’s spires, staring blankly at the opposite wall so that all Alyx could see was her back. Just a days earlier, there had been Mrrakesh in this very room. The smell was still in the air, distinct but, thankfully, fading. At least the tension of the last few days was finally beginning to fade, though Jyren’s father was still safely offworld with Alyx’s niece and nephew.    “We could be at war right now, Alyx,” she said almost suddenly, having barely said a word to him when he’d arrived an hour earlier. Marix was standing with her arms crossed behind her back and had that worrying intensity to her entire presence that always bothered Alyx.    “You did the right thing,” the way he put the words together made it sound more like a question than a statement. While Alyx had gotten better about being so quiet over the years, even to the point of working as a sort of emissary between the various peoples in the Empire, his sister just had a way of throwing all of that away and making him act like the scared little child who didn’t know what to make of his twin.    He watched Marix shake her head, the black stripe getting slightly lost in the mess of white that had obviously not been touched in a few days...which meant that she had managed to keep the attendants that drove her insane away, at least. Tilting her head slightly, Marix looked over her shoulder to him, “The Jendari would have done it, Alyx. If I’d asked them to cross the border and go into Mrrakesh space, they would have done it. We would have won. They would have to fight on two fronts and they would lose. We could have been safe but I...” she turned her head again so Alyx couldn’t see anything but her hair, “...I told them to just hold the border.”    Alyx just stared at her. Like most of the people in the Empire, Alraxian or not, war was a very foreign concept for him. He knew about it, academically at least, but had never really, truly understood it. The whole idea of killing another being was unsettling to him. Of course, he knew that Marix was just the opposite and considered these things quite normal, but even she knew that she wasn’t the norm for the Empire. But because war was such an odd idea, Alyx just wasn’t sure what to say.     Of course she’d made the right decision! Alraxians didn’t go to war! The Empire wouldn’t! That was what set them apart from the Mrrakesh! But...    “But the chance was there,” Marix finished his thought, though Alyx had a distinct feeling he wasn’t going to end the thought exactly like that. Finally, she turned to face him completely, leaning forward on the chair she stood behind, “The Mrrakesh made a desperate move to survive, thinking I was gone and attempted to kill my children. Then, still following likely the same philosophy, outright attacked our worlds in a way that has no happened for thousands of years. But they barely had any ships. They thought we had nothing but unarmed Kanyaks. And every single ship they sent across the border to attack us was either destroyed or put out of commission. They failed completely. But not only that, they’ve failed and they’ve shown us their hand. If they could only spare that many ships for such a widespread attack, then they likely have very little to on this side of their territory...which means we could send a small force and do to them what they tried to do to us. But we’d succeed. We could end the Mrrakesh threat to our people right now. We would never, ever have to worry about them again. All of the empire would be safe.”    Marix sighed heavily and looked down at the chair she was leaning on, “It’s the kind of situation any commander would dream of. The very people that have terrorized us for so many thousands of years and we have the chance to stop it, end it now. And the Jendari would have done it. They would have gone across the border and destroyed them. Now the Mrrakesh will think we’re weak, and come back again like they always do.”    “I didn’t even know the Jendari had a fleet,” Alyx mumbled. He’d been dealing with the Jendari for the last six or so years and something that was suddenly very important had somehow managed to stay under the scanners so easily, “I don’t think they even hid it! I just...I don’t know how I didn’t know.”    He was supposed to know those kinds of things. That was what he did. But for Alyx to miss something so important, something that literally saved the Empire...well...it made him feel so damned useless. Here he was, sitting across from his sister who was probably the most accomplished Alraxian alive, and he couldn’t even manage to figure out something so major as to the fact that the Jendari had a very large, very powerful fleet of warships. Next to Marix, Alyx just felt so useless. She was just so...    “I’m sorry, Alyx,” the words sounded so alien coming from her. They were two words he’d actually her say before. When he looked up in surprise at what he’d just heard, Marix was walking around the chair and moved to sit next to him a bit awkwardly, “I’m really not any good at this sister thing...”    Alyx stared at her, eyes still wide in shock, “What are you talking about?! Marix you’re...gods, did you hit your head or something?”    There was a long moment where she just stared back at him, but Alyx could see something behind her eyes working. Then, almost suddenly, that cold mask of a nothing on her face cracked and she grinned, even laughed very softly before shaking her head, “You really know how to word things just right.”    And then, the tension was gone. Alyx wasn’t the type to take credit for it, as he’d really done nothing, but he had a much greater affect on his sister than even he knew. And seeing her smile like that again did nothing but make him happy. Maybe the Mrrakesh would come back, Marix was rarely wrong about those kinds of things. But what she hadn’t done was to drag their people into a war. She’d done the right thing, even if she didn’t really like it.     For all the worry that many in the Empire had about their Empress being overly exposed by the rest of the galaxy, Marix still make decisions like the Alraxian she was. Even thought Alyx knew she could see the situation from a tactical mind, she still could put that aside and do what was right for her people.    That was why Alyx was always so much in awe of her. She was everything that their mother had wanted her to be, even if Marix didn’t realize it.</blockquote>

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