Brendan wanted to break something, proof that humans hadn't evolved to the point where emotions always aligned with rationality.
It wasn't because he hadn't won his own race, although his flippant reply to Adrian about how he'd marry the girl who could beat him on the spot was currently challenging his pride. Pride had made him use every trick he had left to at least place second, even though it meant that he'd almost failed to make it into the cargo ring system. He was torn between admiration and humiliation when he realized that the girl who won had already scheduled her place accurately ahead of him.
Pride had made him burn the last of his air to reach the dock he was expected to arrive at instead of letting himself coast into a cargo pod dock. But even his sense of pride was torn concerning what he should do next. If he actually offered to marry her on the spot and she accepted, he'd be throwing her into a position that she couldn't possibly be ready for, although technically she'd still have until he became King to prepare. If he didn't offer, he'd be going back on his word, even if that word had only been a joke between him and his friend.
He ought to just throw away his pride, have her sign the contract, give her the prize money, and then inform her that they wouldn't suit. Everything was a mess, and his stupid little race was probably going to start a full blown war, even if the rest of the Solar System didn't realize it yet. And if his orders to the Eks Corp Security ships ever became public, everyone would believe that he had expected this outcome.
Four of the five of girls that he'd marked as the most likely targets for the powers behind the seemingly system-wide anti-original movement, had placed within the top six in his race to select his future wife. And the fifth had been in the top six until she'd fallen out of the race at Gyrfalcon. Only two girls with the standard LM gene pair had even come close to becoming his future queen, Zinnia Pensword, and the half beyonder who had actually won the race.
The implications were disturbing, even to Brendan who had nothing against originals. Those who lacked a complete LM pair had generally taken more risks, reacted faster, and used more of the navigational opportunities he'd set the course up around. Even he had always taken for granted the common belief that hereditary memories let people avoid repeating the mistakes of their ancestors, build better strategies with more experience to draw from, and generally react faster and with more confidence.
Brendan instructed the station AI to inform him when the entrant registered as 'Cinderella' arrived. Then he pasted on a bland smile that he'd copied from his grandfather's grandfather via his hereditary memory library, which he reflected was probably the source of the very similar expression that his father tended to use on formal occasions, as the airlock opened.
An Eks Corp Security team took up positions around him as he stepped through, and the team leader reported, "The conference room, the venue for the official announcement, and every dock in the station passed a full security check, as you ordered prior to your arrival." The man looked at him with a long suffering expression that seemed to add, 'You paranoid brat!'
"Thank you Captain," Brendan replied calmly as he strode forward, catching them by surprise, although they all reacted quickly enough that he could barely tell. "I'm heading for the King's office," he added more politely.
A flicker of confusion flashed across the team leader's face as he informed Brendan almost apologetically, "The King is not currently in residence."
"I know," Brendan replied dryly.
He made it into the third level of the inhabited station sectors before the team leader worked up the nerve to tell him, "No one is ever given entry to the King's office when he is not present."
"I know," Brendan replied again. He didn't need to be given entry, because he could just walk up and open the door if he wanted to, but he didn't explain that.
--
Brendan's fingers danced across the screen as he worked in silence. The Eks Corp Security team who had escorted him to the King's office had looked almost frightened when Brendan had walked up to the door, placed his hand on it, and watched it open.
None of them had argued when he'd said, "Wait here, I'll head to the conference room after the winner docks with the station."
Normally he would never have broken the illusion that only the current King could enter the King's private offices on Eks Corp's core stations. But normally he wouldn't be preparing to inform the King and Queen that he might have incited a system-wide purge of originals and people who, for one reason or another, lacked a functional genetic memory library.
The station AI informed him that 'Cinderella' had arrived as he examined the list of corporate royals who were in residence, and likely planning on attending his engagement announcement in C station. Every major corporation had someone aboard. His fingertips hovered over one name, Elektra Perrot Rian Donatella current head of SkyWater, and another possibility coalesced as his mind turned over the data stored up in his head.
Her genetic daughters both lacked the M gene, a quite rare occurrence. Especially given that most of the old families, even if they didn't create their heirs 'in a lab, the way civilized people do it', as Adrian would say, had the embryos examined immediately and either repaired or discarded any that were defective in some way. What if she knew that having a fully functional M gene was impairing people in some way…
Her abrupt inheritance of her second husband's company was unusual too. Normally a corporation stayed with a particular family's genetic line. She'd already been investigated after the SkyWater freighter vanished, but a glance at history could prove that many convenient accidents often had a helping hand behind them, and that the owners of the hands successfully hid their fingerprints quite often.
She was well connected too, and with two 'genetically impaired' daughters she was probably quite aware of the current quiet persecution of those who were 'different' that he'd only recently faced. Her intentions could be relatively benign, simply a ploy to give the system a queen without a standard LM genotype, and make it harder for anyone to look down on those who shared that status, but they could also be quite dangerous.
It was entirely possible that the war he was afraid of could be started by the side that was currently the subject of popular prejudice rather than those who were discriminating against them. His pride might be hurt, but accepting one of SkyWater's entrants as his future queen might be the most dangerous thing he could ever do.
"How long until she reaches the conference room?" he asked aloud.
"It is unlikely that entrant Cinderella will ever reach the conference room you have reserved. A security team took her into a maintenance passage where she attacked them, two severely wounded and one possible death estimated. She is currently taking an erratic course away from the conference room," the AI reported calmly.
Brendan bolted to his feet, and then used his mouth to give the station AI orders instead. There was no reason for a security team to take one of the race entrants into a maintenance passage. He'd gotten distracted and forgotten that she was one of the most likely targets for any corporation that might object to her mother's origins. The fact that if she didn't complete the final paperwork, it was her eldest stepsister who would take her place, only made the situation more confusing.