Chapter Ten: Among the Ruins

Emperor Mengsk of the Dominion had chosen to hold his meeting in a room overlooking Umoja. One could see the creep spreading over the surface in various parts of the world. Where before billions of people had dwelled, now they had fled. Most were perfectly safe, but that was hardly a consolation.

They had lost their home, all of their belongings. Many had probably been separated from their family and friends. Mengsk swore to himself he'd do all he could to lessen the damage he'd inflicted. But that was no consolation to them now.

What disturbed him was that no one cared.

Not even Serena, who Mengsk had taken to regard as his moral conscience, cared. She seemed to regard Umoja as nothing more than one more military target. So long as they avoided civilian deaths, it was perfectly acceptable to destroy it. When had she changed? And when had Mengsk changed?

"The Umoja population is being redirected to the pre-established refugee camps. Most of them established during the Great War. They are operating well beneath capacity anyway," said Davis. "No serious issues have been run into, and we've had no trouble housing them. Our recolonization efforts have left a lot of empty space.

"The UED, meanwhile, has withdrawn back to its holdings. However, they did not take major losses during the battle. The loss of Umoja weakens their access to allies. In addition, it means that Schezar has just raised in importance a great deal."

"...I see," said Mengsk, lighting a cigarette. "Everything seems to be going as we'd hoped. Serena should be able to ensure their safety and well-being alongside my son."

"Yes, well, there is a possible problem," said Davis, shifting her files. "You remember that information we got from Aldaris? Well, I took the liberty of compiling a profile on Sarah Kerrigan. I recommend she be assassinated immediately."

"What?" said Mengsk. "Why?"

"You know why," said Carolina simply. "She tried to murder Judicator Aldaris and nearly caused a civil war on Shakuras. This kind of stunt ought to have warranted a ghost in the night anyway. Because of her potential assets, I held my tongue. But then I looked at her history and detected a pattern.

"Looking at Kerrigan's employment history. It more or less consists of a series of abusive relationships.

"Generally, she is brought into a faction who believe her to be a serious asset. From there, she proves valuable while working with other competent soldiers. However, after a brief heyday, the success goes to her head.

"She becomes overconfident and imagines that her success is solely due to herself. Invariably this arrogance causes friction with her faction. This leads to friction, and, eventually, her betraying that faction for short-term gain.

"Usually, she suffers immediate consequences for these actions. Having alienated one faction, she abandons them and works with their enemies. At first, he is smart enough not to overstep herself, but after a brief honeymoon period, repeats the cycle.

"It's a perfect pattern that she has been doing her entire career.

"At first, it was subtle. But her use to each faction has become steadily less, while her status as a liability only increases."

Mengsk didn't like this idea one bit. For one thing, he'd planned to do exactly this indirectly at New Gettysburg. At the time, he'd been utterly disgusted with himself, but the universe seemed to have a sense of humor.

Now here he was, being asked to do what he'd wanted to do for years. Well, Mengsk had no intention of doing so purely for convenience. "Lieutenant Kerrigan isn't stupid, Carolina. If she betrays us, she has nowhere else to go."

"Do you think she's actually thought that far ahead, Mengsk?" asked Carolina flatly. "She's a sociopath with a massive ego and no impulse control. At best, she's a loose cannon who could cause us serious problems with what she knows.

"Why don't we make contact with Praetor Mojo of the Aiur remnants. He has access to a massive fleet. Why don't we just inform him of the infestation, pull out and leave it at that?

"It'll also wipe any evidence of our cooperation with her."

"Kerrigan hasn't betrayed us yet," said Mengsk. "She played her role in this mission perfectly. More than perfect, I was expecting the number of civilian casualties to be ten or twenty times what it was."

"While all but declaring that she meant to betray us," said Carolina. "Her scuffle with Calabas already shows signs of the Zasz debacle. Let's just put a bullet in her and be done with it.

"No loose ends.

"Our responsibility is too great to do any less."

The same words had been said to Mengsk by Serena long ago, and now he realized how she'd felt. Mengsk felt like he was looking in a mirror and talking to his old self. Shaking his head, he sighed. "...No. I'll give her a warning, and we'll make contingency plans. I'm not going to have her murdered just in case.

"That is not what the Dominion stands for, Carolina. Or do you want us to become like the Confederates?"

"Arcturus," said Davis. "This isn't some reporter who leaked information we wanted secret. Kerrigan is guilty of genocide. She tried to exterminate the protoss colonies on Char systematically. She nearly succeeded.

"And that's only what we have clear records on.

"The woman has burned entire worlds."

"So have I, Carolina," said Mengsk, looking down at Umoja. "So have I."

The discussion ended there.


Kerrigan had screwed up.

She'd screwed up a lot.

And what made it worse was that she'd kept having to relearn the same lesson over and over again. It was only because Duran hadn't chosen to kill her that she was alive and had this victory. And now that she was looking at her broods. Then she realized that they'd been hurt a lot worse than she'd thought they'd been.

It was going to take a massive amount of work to restore her swarms after this. Even now, Kerrigan was sending drones all over the place to make hatcheries. It would cut into her ability to harvest resources, but it had to be done. She needed a rapid recovery.

Why had she gone after Mark anyway? Had she expected him to remember her? As if she were the absolute center of the universe and everything revolved around her. Kerrigan had felt a personal desire to fight him, so he must have as well.

Kerrigan was stupid.

So stupid.

Either way, she had to make a report to Arcturus. Opening the transmission, she sent it out to the flagship Mengsk was using. Kerrigan couldn't remember its name at all, which was terrible. How was it possible that she hadn't even taken notes on that?

She'd never have been that sloppy before.

What had happened to her?

Mengsk appeared on the screen before Kerrigan could come to any kind of conclusion. "You have a report for me, Kerrigan?"

"Arcturus, I'm not going to be able to help in any more battles after this?" said Kerrigan.

"And why is this?" asked Mengsk.

"My broods are near exhaustion," said Kerrigan. "They've taken massive casualties. I'm going to need a few months to restore my numbers and get resettled."

"Duly noted," said Mengsk. "Your broods were only necessary for False Flag purposes anyway. In ordinary circumstances, I'd have launched a direct assault.

"Still, I congratulate you. Civilian casualties were far lower than on most terran invasions of comparative size. And I expect the Dominion will benefit a great deal from the extra labor."

"Do you think they'll learn from this?" asked Kerrigan, in something of a daze.

"Of course not," scoffed Mengsk. "I'm sure Umoja will hold a grudge and eventually figure out what we did. And, once they've found their feet, I'm sure they'll be just as cowardly, mercenary as ever. We'll be having trouble from them until they, or we, are conquered.

"But perhaps they will be a little bit more hesitant to start wars they can't finish in the future."

"Well, that's something," said Kerrigan, trying to smile.

It wasn't coming to her.

Mengsk paused. "Kerrigan.

"I received a notice from Shakuras. Apparently, there were reports that you had assassinated Judicator Aldaris."

Kerrigan had known this was coming, and yet she hadn't worried about it until now. She'd just sort of assumed she could talk her way out of it. Or that Mengsk would ignore it. Actually, she hadn't thought about it at all.

"I see," said Kerrigan. "What of them?"

"Well, the report was given to me by Judicator Aldaris," said Mengsk, "so I wouldn't put much stock in them. He recommended I have you killed here, but I told him I would handle things myself.

"If you had killed the leader of the Judicator Caste, however...

"We'd have a serious problem.

"Keep it in mind."

"Yes, I understand," said Kerrigan, knowing full well not to argue the point.

"Good," said Mengsk. "Mengsk out."

Idiot.

Kerrigan was in no position to fight the Dominion, let alone the Dominion and the protoss. If the UED weren't invading, Arcturus would have had an army on her doorstep. What had been her plan exactly?

Oh, she'd had one.

This elaborate idea of playing all the factions against one another, but it had been a rough outline. The details had been kept fuzzy because she hadn't wanted to think about them. It was easy to make grand plans, less easy to enact them.

Kerrigan found herself of two minds. And as she did, she looked up and saw herself as she had been. Or perhaps not, she wasn't sure.

"Queen of the Zerg? Wasn't that what you called yourself, Kerrigan?" asked her old self. "Zeratul had you pegged better. Concubine of the Zerg fits you.

"Oh yeah, you look good dressed up in leather and with blades, but you're never the one making the decisions. Kaloth defeated Raynor and Duke and laid waste to Aiur. At the same time, you couldn't even track down Tassadar.

"Pathetic.

"Queen of the Zerg?! You're not even a concubine. A concubine at least gets picked for their looks or personality. They have to take care of themselves, make sure they don't gain weight, and apply makeup.

"You didn't do any of that! You got handed massive psychic powers when you were a child!"

"I did not!" snapped Kerrigan. "I earned my powers! I had to train nonstop to learn to use those powers! I had to fight for years to keep from becoming just another ghost!"

"Yeah, and that worked out so well for the universe, didn't it, Kerry?" asked the other.

"Without me, Mengsk-" began Kerrigan.

"Don't even say it," snapped the other. "Mengsk didn't need you, Kerrigan. He would have found a way to take Antiga Prime and overthrow the Confederacy with or without you. All you did was speed things up a bit.

"And you weren't any better as a subordinate when you joined the zerg were you?

"Kaloth thought of you as family! You were like a sister to him; he cared about you and was completely loyal? And how did you repay him, huh?

"Celebrating Zasz's death? As if Zasz ever did anything to you.

"You didn't hate Zasz because you had a reason to. You hated Zasz because he was interfering with your little power fantasy. He refused to acknowledge you as the perfect messiah of the Swarm, so you went and proved his every fear right!

"What would have happened if the Overmind had taken Serena instead, Kerrigan? If he had successfully turned her, what would the Swarm look like?"

Kerrigan looked away, not wanting to think about it. "...It wouldn't be any different."

"Of course it wouldn't," scoffed her other. "Don't sell yourself short, Kerry, you're very important. If Serena had found herself hailed as the messiah of the zerg, they'd try to live up to those expectations.

"But you didn't want to live up to high expectations, did you?

"The universe was your playground, and you wanted to watch your old toys break."

"That's not true!" said Kerrigan.

"Then why are you working for the Dominion?!" said her other.

"I..." Kerrigan shifted.

"You betrayed them," said her other. "First, you betrayed Mengsk and Jim and Serena and everyone else for the Overmind's power. Then you got Zasz killed, and you didn't even care. Then Daggoth gave you a second chance. An important responsibility, and you stabbed him in the back for Zeratul. And then when Zeratul didn't trust you enough to put you in charge of the Swarm you threw a temper tantrum!

"The protoss want you dead! And the only reason Mengsk isn't killing you is that Aldaris played you like a fiddle. Duran doesn't even think you're worth killing.

"Look at yourself!

"You started out as a competent and powerful ghost fighting for the freedom for the sector! Now, what are you?! A depraved, morally bankrupt mutant. One who fantasizes about torturing her own allies to death because they don't put up with your crap! And you're planning to betray them too! The last people willing to give you any kind of chance!

"And for what?

"So you can become Queen of Blades.

"Why do you deserve to rule the Swarm? Why are you qualified to rule the Swarm? WHY DO YOU WANT TO RULE THE SWARM?!"

Kerrigan said nothing, nothing whatsoever. Looking out over her broods, she watched them working to grow larger. Yet there was uncertainty within the Swarm. It was the uncertainty of survival, uncertainty in the Overmind.

That was her fault.

The answer was obvious, in the end. "...I don't," admitted Kerrigan. "It's just about ego."

The Dominion, right now, was Kerrigan's only lifeline. So, she'd have to play her role to the best of her ability, which brought to mind Duran's explanation. She ought to tell someone about this. Hailing Arcturus, he reappeared on the transmitter. "What is it, Kerrigan?"

"I have information for you, Arcturus," said Kerrigan. "I...

"I fought with Duran while trying to retrieve the Psi Disruptor. He's infested and working for Daggoth."

Mengsk paused. "...I see. That would explain a great deal."

"I think he is planning to backstab the UED once they take power," said Kerrigan. "And he is far more powerful than he lets on. I think...

"Well, if it's only a god complex, he's able to back it up."

Mengsk nodded. "I'll take it into consideration. Fortunately, I've managed to establish some contacts with the UED conscripts. They might be useful in coordinating with him.

"How is the recreation of your broods going?"

"Well," said Kerrigan. "As you requested, I avoided setting up hives in any of the major population centers. My broods have detected a number of stragglers who didn't make it to the ships. I've ordered them to ignore them unless directly fired on.

"You don't have to worry. I'll carry out my orders."

"See to it that you do," said Mengsk. "Mengsk out."

Kerrigan looked at the communications array. Then she sighed and got back to work. She had a lot to make up for.