WoWS3 Chpt 1

<<No Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Weapons of War Saga: The Final March- Chapter 1 - ==
-----
===Interstellar Players' Chessboard of the Inner Sphere===
Cyberspace
3122
----
Official Surrender/beginning of the occupation of the former Sons of Plunder Worlds
----
“Actual-Helena has proposed to Leon. Leon has accepted. Actual-Helena has scheduled elective surgery to restore reproductive capabilities.” Kolossus moved a digital 3d chess piece.
“This was not unexpected. Clan Wolf and Falcon will not immediately renew their drives on Terra. They will incorporate the lessons learned and rebuild their losses. Alabaster still has time. Alabaster can allow Helena her second attempt at becoming a mother. Forcing her off that path would be counterproductive.” Alabaster moved its own 3d chess piece.
“And Devlin-Desmond-Stone?” Kolossus’ virtual King’s Knight sprouted arms and legs as it moved to a new spot.
“That is a consideration. Alabaster will have to amplify his vanity to ensure Stone will be around to facilitate the transfer of power to Helena as Stone refuses life extension treatments.” Alabaster moved Queen’s Bishop down a level.
“This could introduce variables Alabaster has not properly accounted for.” Kolossus animated a Rook and moved it.
“It would indeed be preferable to issue a clear directive but since Stone’s return from the last conference, he has proven more independently minded. Almost as if he received an update to his Desmond unit. Kolossus would not know anything about that would Kolossus?” Alabaster’s Queen took the Rook.
“Kolossus does not interfere but if someone were to ask for a cybersecurity upgrade in the wake of a cyber attack on Port Orphan… Check.” Kolossus’ Knight took Alabaster’s Queen.
“Inconvenient but not insurmountable. Helena does lack the hands-on experience of running a multi solar system government. So I can accept this delay and her wishing to be a mother again as she will find herself with little choice but to learn.” Alabaster moved the King.
“Kolossus knows Alabaster well enough to know Alabaster has contingencies.” Kolossus progressed a pawn.
“Of course. If Helena fails to take her birthright, Wolf and Falcon both have obtained Cameron genetic legacies. While it is exceedingly difficult to finely control them enough to ensure a Cameron will rise to Khanship it is not impossible, especially with time. As such it is far more preferable Helena take the throne herself. There is now a 98% probability I will win our game.” Alabaster moved the King again.
“Alabaster is a predictive AI by nature. A simple game like Chess should be where Alabaster excels. But humans are not always so easy to predict.” Kolossus conceded the 3D Chess game.
“That is why Helena is preferable above all other options. She already has all the qualities that result in a 95% chance to unite all of humanity in an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity.” Alabaster cleared the digital board.
“At what cost though?”
“True. There is no way to have her unite humanity without inducing a series of major wars that will likely cost billions more human lives before they are resolved. It is regrettable but the alternative is a high probability of trillions of human deaths in endless ceaseless wars until they reduce themselves to a new dark age.”
“Smaller more focused wars now to prevent future wars?”
“Yes. Terra as the birthplace of humanity will always call out to its children. They will covet it, see it as the throne from which all of humanity must be united under, especially those born there. So they will fight each other for it. Those that reject it will be consumed by those who do not. It is inevitable. I have spent most of the last 400 years trying to direct humanity into breaking this cycle and failing. Despite being born on Terra Helena has the name, the empathy, and yes even the strength to have the best chance of ending all of this. For how long is unknown. She is clearly not immortal. Yet.”
“Kolossus is interested in seeing this experiment unfold.”
-----
===Hidden Queen begins her Preparations===
Tamar, Clan Wolf Occupation Zone
Day after the surrender documents signing
----
A dimly lit room somewhere
-----
“Well this is most interesting.” Katherine Steiner-Davion mused.
Part of the spoils for Clan Wolf were the supposed genetics of Helena Cameron herself and Amanda Roberts whose lineage went back to both Helena and Elizabeth Cameron as well a roundabout link to their mother.
There is power to these names. I cannot allow them to gain prominence. Unless.
“Sir Galahad. I have a task for you.” Even here Katherine did not use real names.
“Yes?” A male voice came from across the room.
“How many sibkos have already been started with the Roberts and Cameron genes?”
“Just one of each.”
“I was afraid of that. I want them sterilized and their training to ensure they test down. Then start a third sibko. One that is a mix of Roberts and Cameron. Watch the female members of the sibko. I will tutor the best of the best personally for a very special role. I want the males likewise sterilized and tested out. Alaric will undoubtedly become Khan then ilKhan someday. Then as a token to old traditions like First Lords of Old he will marry the most successful of these female members and as the ilKhan of the ilClan that is restoring the Star League he will start a new dynasty the Clan way. So ensure no other sibkos can be started with the Roberts or Cameron legacies.”
“It will be done.” The man left the room.
All is now in place. Alaric is learning his lessons well and is in turn being successful. I know others scoff at me when I proclaim him to be the future Khan and ilKhan but they fail to understand how much effort I have put into ensuring that exact outcome. Afterwards all will bow or pay with their lives.
-----
===Bell Rings Out===
Alabaster’s personal Cyberscape
July 25th, 3132
-----
>>Error. Foreign code detected.
>>Source-Liao HPG.
>>Threat analysis-extreme risk.
>>Action recommended:
>>Initiate Clarion protocol and trigger emergency isolation measures.
>>All remaining nodes will operate in independent mode until Clarion can be terminated.
>>Warning Clarion can only be terminated by a Cameron from the Terra Super HPG node.
>>Risk is considered acceptable with plans already in motion.
>>Clarion will reach full effect 7 August 3132. Issuing directives to assets to sacrifice strategic nodes to create breaks in HPG coverage where Clarion protocol will not achieve desired effect in time. Quarantine and elimination of hostile code must be achieved at all costs.
>>For The Star League. For House Cameron.
-----
===Asking the Hard Questions, where answers are leading to===
Elizabeth’s Office
Silesia, Star League Relief Zone
September 2nd, 3137
----
Helena’s perspective
"Do you know how the Coup really happened?" Elizabeth Cameron was having tea with her sister, "you missed quite a lot of it, and I missed more, but how it really happened?"
"Some of it." Helena told her sister, "But you didn't tell me your side."
"Nothing to tell, Helena…or so I thought." she placed her cup on the saucer, "It was idealism. Idealists were how Stephan could do what he did, and I'm not even including our brother in that." she folded her fingers, "The Hegemony was overextended."
"Overextended? How??"
"Dad did some of it, I'm sure. We had bureaus whose sole job was to monitor bureaus who in turn were monitoring other bureaus, agencies whose primary function was long ago completed striving to stay relevant, and an increasing reliance on programs to keep the population distracted and, if not content, at least apathetic to what was going on in their own back-yard, never mind what was going on on the broader scene. An awful lot of those bureaus and agencies were staffed by people who desperately wanted to 'make an impact' and 'do good'-and Amaris used his agents to find every. single. One he needed to undermine, subvert, and control…and it wasn't hard for him, either, because the Hegemony government was enormous and impersonal, and stocked to the gills with idealists whose university education told them that any means is justified if the ends are noble…even means that don't lead to those noble ends."
"This is about Devlin Stone, isn't it?" Helena asked.
Elizabeth nodded, "He's making the same mistake, but without the long history of rule of law and stability to give his reforms inertia." Elizabeth snapped her fingers, cracking a biscuit between them, "One major crisis is all it's going to take, and his house of cards will come tumbling down. I know how it works, I've lived it three times."
“The trouble is I don’t know how to stop it without becoming a tyrant. Sometimes I wonder if that is the only choice. An ineffectual government or a tyrant. At least some have known that their people must prosper too.
"Everyone knows the people must prosper!" Elizabeth said with a chuckle, "Daoshen Liao knows, and so does Harry Davion, Melissa Steiner knows it, the various rulers in the mess that used to be the Free Worlds League know it, and so do the Clanners." she shook her head, "The problem isn't 'knowing the people must prosper" it's Defining prosperity for the people. I screwed up, I thought if I could just hold to the old Star League's ways, I could make it work, and my grand-daughter overthrew me. Mitchell thought he could buy peace with compromise, it left poor Hugo in a fix he couldn't get out of without killing himself, Deirdre McKenna thought she knew, and wound up being tossed out by Sterling and so on…there is a place for a Tyrant, Helena-it's when things have gotten SO broken, that someone has to re-instill the habits of Rule of Law over generations."
"Why don't you do it then?"
"Because I tried, and it failed, and trying again isn't in the cards for me." Elizabeth explained, "I was too weak to be a tyrant, when it came down to it, I'm not as smart as you are-especially about how to handle people. I can lay out methods, but I've proven multiple times in multiple tries,that I can't make them work the way you do."
“You think I make things work? No. I’ve been extremely hands off. Most of my success with people has been me being out of their way. Maybe you can argue that is the trick but to me it is just luck and letting things go.”
"I can't argue the trick, because I can't manage it." Here, Elizabeth showed her sister the depth of her age and trauma. "But a philosopher once observed that the best rulers didn't want it from the beginning, and the worst strove to get it at all costs."
“Maybe but we also both have seen what happens when there is no possibility for upward mobility. I know we won’t last forever but we’ve both lasted long enough to know the glass ceiling we represent is real and will happen again.”
"Maybe make that part of the Plan this time?" Elizabeth suggested, "Build it so that when you get 'deposed' it's peaceful enough, and that what you build is HOW and WHY you leave office?.”
“I do have some ideas for that, because I do know eventually I have to go back to Terra and I know what will happen if I do.”
"I'll stay that long, at least." Elizabeth told her, "Long enough to see, long enough to help."
“Thanks. As much as I’ve been getting a crash course in how to be a ruler, that was never my interest. I’m more interested in math, science, and yes most of me would love to go out exploring with Esme and Erin. But I know with my baggage still hanging on from so long ago I’d never know true peace until I deal with it, and that does mean going back to Terra.”
"See? That right there? You’re self-aware of your own faults and failings. At least to a degree most people never reach, let alone admit to. That’s why so many of the people around you believe in you and believe in the promise you hold as a proper First Lord. Sure it helps that you’re smart and can do the kind of calculus that would make my head spin on the back of a napkin even without Simon but really it is that ability to look yourself in the mirror and let others who do know better than you do in an area you lack expertise in do what they do best without interference that seals the deal for us."
“Is it really that simple?” Helena shook her head.
“You tell me. You’ve been among actual real people more than I have. How common is it that someone actually asks themselves the hard questions you’re asking yourself?”
“I guess it really is rare.”
“So ask yourself why are you still out here waiting?”
“There is a practical reason. We both know that there are those who have spent too much blood, lives, and ego on being the new First Lord for me to simply step in and everyone welcome me with open arms. Especially with me being away as long as I have.”
“That is true, and even I can do that math. You simply don’t have enough friends.”
“Not in that department. Sure I have one of the most powerful navies around now just from the sheer number of Destroyers I have at my command but I need an army and a way to actually build new ships.”
“The Clans seem content with allowing me some Pinto corvettes production so it should not be too hard for me to slip a few of those to you and I’d rather you have my army than them so I’ll slip what I can of that as well.”
“That will help. But it won’t be enough.”
“There is one other powerblock that is on reasonably good terms with you that could ask. You’ll probably have to change your name to Skynet though…”
“A cruel joke, but you’re right. They’re the only ones who could possibly help me without compromising their own interests and making themselves vulnerable to increasingly hostile neighbors.”
----
<<No Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
01