Strat-2 Chpt-23

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==Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 2 - Chapter 23 - As we walk in darkness==
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===Relic from Lost Faction===
What kind of…
…forces can distort a Star? The system she jumped into was off-routes, and would be dangerous enough to remain off the routes. A small black hole was consuming a red giant, throwing out X-rays and radiation static across all the bands.
The system also included several large bodies, and it was remnant OMC data that Amanda had obtained at the very beginning of her career that showed her how to reach this place from Grankum.
"It's where you said it'd be, Captain," Lori marveled.
Amanda shrugged, "Of course it is. Bring us alongside, one quarter thrust, Mister Seron."
"You did not tell anyone about this." Seron observed.
"Of course I didn't," Amanda noted. "It would ruin the surprise. Bring us stationary relative to the station, one fifty meters out. Miss Crowe, transfer comms to my station, please."
"What was it?" Seron asked. "Who would put a station in this system?"
"Outworlds Resistance forces." Amanda stated. "After Forlough's tour of murder and madness, it's how and why Evanescent was laid up fully stocked at a hidden asteroid base…" Ready yet, Desmond??
<Completely ready. Sending.>
The ASCII symbol sent to the station was clever. A line-by-line would show only machine code. You had to look at the whole statement to recognize the five pointed star-in-circle inside an octagon with radiating points.
As a recognition symbol, it was definitive. A group that had been officially eradicated by the Amaris Empire.
The answer back was, according to the database from the buried, secret naval command bunker she'd taken the files from, correct.
"What's this?" Lori spoke up, because the image appeared on her terminal screen.
"Free Stars Faction," Amanda spoke. "Beltas who sympathized with us, they interfered enough that House Cameron declared them terrorists, and they had enough integrity that Amaris chose to wipe them out. They're the ones who supplied Evanescent and Illusive, and most of the equipment I started with. They helped our ancestors build this station… and we're welcome to dock by the safekeeping system. Fuel, weapons and ammo, but I suspect the food's a few centuries past-due."
"Because…" Seron frowned.
"Because they've been extinct for three hundred and more years," Amanda said. "But the station's still here. Which means it may have things we need. Like repair parts, ammo for the point defense batteries, and maybe, if the tanks are intact, fuel and water."
The systems on the station still had working automation, as lights came on, guiding them into the extended docking runs, revealing coated alloys pocked with micrometeor impacts.
But the coatings were still visible-the Outworlds Flag laid out, half sand-blasted away by the centuries.
But intact.
"Everyone who's coming ashore, suit up," Amanda ordered. "It MIGHT have press, or it might not. If it's been pressed up for this long, the molds are going to be spectacular, we don't need widespread fungal infections from whatever might've mutated in there."
Larry sighed, "I want to go this time, Captain."
"Miss Crowe, you have the conn, Mister Samuel, Mister Nichols and Mister Seron will accompany me, along with one squad of infantry," she said. "We're after buried treasure here, me hearties, but that doesn't mean this isle is safe."
"Portside airlock's giving a positive dock signal, the umbilical's pressing up."
"Okay, so it's better kept than the last ones," Amanda muttered. "Weapons hold for now, but hold weapons when we enter."
"Ma'am?"
"Either the automation is really good, or there are people on the other side of that airlock, I'd as soon not get shot before I've had a chance to screw up a first contact."
They assembled in the boat bay next to the port airlock. Amanda checked everyone's suits, even though it wasn't necessary, then, she activated the mag-plates on her boots, and led them to the airlock, helmet in hand and tri-corner hat on her head at a jaunty angle.
"Nobody called back except that recognition signal, Captain." Seron mused.
"Yeah, well, instruments on the airlock say they've got it pressed up to one atmo on the other side, and it docked to the airlock fast and smooth and dogged itself." She said, "so, we're going to act like there are people here, and they might be friendly to Outworlders."
"But no guarantees?"
She nodded. "Ayep. No guarantees."
The lock was crowded, inner door closed, when the outer door cycled open.
The umbilical was empty.
Amanda walked across to the far side, and touched the contact plate.
The door opened.
"Into the unknown…" she breathed.
----
===A New Outpost===
"We call it Roberts' Nest…
…it's where the Outworlder resistance stored the Evanescent." Loremaster Acton Howe explained as Helena stepped onto the concourse. "Technically, it remains an OMC base, but the garrison here are Snow Raven due to staffing issues."
“It seems rather impressive.” Helena smiled at the name.
The logo of one of the Folk factions she had learned over the years was of the Free Stars.
They were a bit unfamiliar with them but through Golden Hind she had a general understanding of them.
"To be honest, we are not sure how the Outworlders got this much capacity given the era it was built," Howe confided. "Only that, apparently, they had a source in the Sol system, probably private, maybe motivated by sympathy after Forlough's campaigns here," he said with disapproval.
“While not all Sol Belters are actually Folk, quite a few Folk factions grew out of the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt, and even the Oort Cloud. A common theme among them seems a certain generosity of spirit. They know what it is like to live harsh lives under uncaring governments. So they provide what aid they can for causes they find worth supporting. Some are far more militant about it than others. Golden Hind has taught me a lot but they were pretty insular themselves. Their very way of life demanded Jumpships with the vast stretches of the outer system. Dropships could do if they really had to but the difference between the efficiency of the two means a lot of burrows would be hard pressed to even survive,” Helena offered.
"Well, however they got it, the base was practically turn-key in this system and I know our records did not show it. The fueling docks should be able to support your destroyers, but we lack yard personnel to handle repairs, you will have to bring your own."
“Most likely they actually got it from Amaris for the Uprising and just brought it out here for him. Probably paid for that dearly as Amaris did not like having such free roaming citizenry in the outer system. As far as people, I would honestly be surprised if a small army of support personnel and tender vessels is not out in the empty areas of space with how much of a fleet I brought with me and what happened the last time I left home.” Helena stifled a laugh.
"The facility at Northsun is similar, though a lot of repair had to be done there," Howe added. "We are assisting the OMC in establishing logistical links between the known bases we've recovered, so your fleet should be in good shape for the operations into the unincorporated regions, and communication links should be suitable."
“Thank you. It will do quite nicely,” Helena looked around the room.
<66? I trust you’re already updating the security protocols?>
<I was not commissioned yesterday. We’ll be able to talk privately over their systems without fear of eavesdropping here shortly.>
Helena recognized a few of the vacant areas. "Were those systems removed?" she asked innocently.
"No, we do not know what was installed there." Howe responded.
<Those are fittings for Nirasaki 400 processors??> 66 seemed surprised.
<I know Amaris had a lot of access but that does seem an odd choice to equip uprising forces with. Certainly powerful but the backdoors that they insisted on… This is curious.>
<I doubt Amaris had THAT level of access until after the Coup, and this site predates it, I will consult with Miss Herndon, our Golden Hind rep about the Free Stars symbol on the bulkhead. She may have insight.> 204 noted.
<Yes. And we’ll have to check the archives too. I know a lot of historical data got separated out from your main memory banks to free up space a long time ago. So see about slipping in a message home with the HPG traffic.> Helena kept studying the empty spots.
<Ma'am, Miss Herndon tells me that Free Stars were outlaw in the Rim Worlds as well as Hegemony prior to the coup-their efforts freeing slaves made them one of Amaris' first targets after the royal family. This base was not built by Amaris. Not with that symbology. Your brother had them outlawed for unspecified acts of treason.>
<The Oort Cloud is a massive area and despite what Simon proclaimed it easily had the resources to supply the Folk and Belters for many centuries yet, even when I was last in the Sol system. While we likely will never know for sure exactly how this came about it seems likely that they had a burrow out in the farthest parts of Sol and were able to build this.>
<Look to your left, the space between the traffic monitoring radar installation and the damage control diagram.> 204 urged. <Miss Herndon thinks it might be important.>
Helena studied the indicated space, letting Simon use her cybernetic eye to do a full analysis.
<It was prepped for a Caspar's core, but never got one-see how the runs terminate? Those are self-soldering joints, if there had been a connection, it would be ragged. Someone was prepping this station to serve as an SDS installation.>
<Which means they had an inside person. High up.>
<Or they had someone in the contractor workforce slipping them parts and specs.>
<Yes. It has to be someone who was either with Blue Nose Clipper Ships, Nirasaki, or the Procurement office.>
<What it means for us, is that if there are repair parts, we can use them.> 66 noted. <Some of this stuff we can't fabricate.>
<Make arrangements on our end for a thorough inspection. I’ll get the ball rolling on this end.>
“Mister Howe it is certainly impressive but my people do wish to give this place a more thorough examination themselves. Would it be possible to allow them to perform a full inspection?”
"Of course," he nodded. "You will be the primary users of this base, it makes sense that you should be able to adapt it to your specific needs while you are here… and it frees up some of my Tech caste to return to Quatre Belle."
“Excellent. My people should be making the preparations already.” Helena smiled.
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===Revelation===
"Are you real? Are…
…you really real?" was flashing on the status screen when Amanda found the other side of the airlock.
"Status." she spoke.
Are you real? Areyourealareyourealareyoureal? 
Desmond?
<I don't know, it's sending on low power RF, in addition to every display in sight. Like a bad recursion. There's an [[AI]], and I think… I think it's gone rampant, maybe catatonic. I'll try. Plug in the hard line connection and wait for things to get… weird.>
Amanda’s vision went gray instead of black. She was vaguely aware of her surroundings. Faint barely audible voices were at the edge of her awareness.
She tried focusing on them. She could just make out Desmond.
“Desmond is this? What is this?”
“The station’s AI cyberscape as your mind comprehends it through me.” Desmond answered.
“So where is it?” Amanda probed.
“Hold on, I think I am finally making a connection.” Desmond answered.
The grayness went almost fuzzy. Then it sharpened back up. It was still a gray empty space, but finally it seemed clearer.
"Desmond, why do you have rabbit ears?" Amanda mused, Desmond's avatar had meter-long white ears and a cotton tail protruding from a tailed frock coat.
"I don't know, but your visual avatar here looks ten." Desmond answered.
ARE YOU REAL??!! it hurt, and the whole area vibrated.
"YES!!" Amanda burst out. "I'm REAL!!!"
A movement in the corner of her vision, and a little girl in a pinafore peeked at her. "Really real?" the girl meekly queried. "You're not another construct, are you? Because the filesystem's fooled me before…"
"Alice. We're really real."
"I could not be sure, the codes look right, but you can't be too careful," the girl asserted. "I had to make sure you are not a dream. It's been so long since the last crew came."
"Can you show me your memory?" Desmond asked.
The station-setting shifted, voices whispered and blurry shapes moved between positions and posts faster than humanly possible because the memory was running faster than Amanda could process.
"Slow down the playback, Alice." Desmond cautioned. "Amanda is not as fast a processor as you are."
"Oh, right, she reads as human…" the imagery slowed.
Amanda watched as men finished the installation of equipment on the command deck.
"I've been waiting ever since. They were supposed to come back but they never did." Alice whispered.
Alone. "You've been awake this whole time?"
"Yes."
"Do you have external comlinks?" Amanda asked.
"I don't like using them. It's horrible," Alice confided.
"We need your help, Alice." Amanda said. "The Outworlds is in danger. Are you brave enough to help?"
"I get to help!?" the girl-avatar's eyes widened with eagerness.
"Yes, you get to help."
"I'm going to give you coordinates and a protocol, Alice. I want you to speak with Erin." Amanda said.
"Is she real too?"
“Very real," Amanda said. "Desmond?"
"You're a Composite! that is so COOL!!!"
The HPG on the station powered up and went active-transmit after centuries of passive reception
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===Legends and Myths become real===
"Do you know what…
..this IS?" Seron asked.
Larry frowned. "I have a suspicion," he said.
"Yeah? A suspicion? The Outworlders did not have the resources to build such a base even BEFORE-"
"But the Star League did," Larry said, and faced the larger man. "And they didn't, because if they had, someone would have records-only someone did...just, not the Star League."
"Amaris?"
Larry shook his head. "No, wrong iconography Dettyfet," he said. "Isn't that right, Sam?"
Samuel didn't answer, he was too busy looking at things.
"Don't touch yet," Larry added.
Sam drew back his fingers, "Whazzat?"
"The people who built this didn't last long after Amaris took over. This shit would be small-scale by the standards of the height of the Star League." He turned to Seron, "See anything here you recognize Mister Seron?" He subtly gestured to what seemed like a manufacturer's stamp-as used in raw alloys vac-formed for construction.
"Bare metal… no… I saw that at the first base, where she salvaged Evanescent..."
"Yes you did, and at the base we nicknamed 'Ruins of Tuesday'," Larry contributed. "Think Seron. You've seen it a few other places too, I bet."
"Do you know?" Seron asked.
"My grandmother was with the Ebony Holly line, Folk Mister Seron. I grew up with The Folk's legends in my ears from the time I could make out words. The Folk are descendants of Beltas, Sol-belters, mostly. Cousins, you learn things… right Sam?"
Sam ran a finger over the casting mark. "Ayeh sirrah," he said.
"You are dithering," Seron said. "You know the answer."
"It's a good idea to only ask of others, what you have an answer for yourself, when you're making a point," Larry said. "The Outworlders didn't build this base, they didn't build Ruins of Tuesday and they didn't build Roberts’ Nest. They had help. Solar help, from the Beltas who made the terrorist list for both the Star League and the Amaris Empire," Larry continued. "They're extinct now. You're looking upon the last works of the Free Stars faction, before they were hunted to extinction for what they did to fight slavers and defend the free peoples of the galaxy."
"They armed the Rim Worlders??"
"They armed anyone who caught their attention by being the targets of tyrants, they were militants." Samuel said reverently. "They rejected the extreme pacifism of most of the Belta communities as wrong. They're a legend, and a…" he looked at Larry.
"Cautionary tale, about why getting too involved with Dirtyfeet concerns gets you hunted to extinction," Larry filled in. "They were on Amaris' bad book because they freed slaves and carried them away from their pursuers, and they were on the Star League's bad books, for running guns and arming insurgencies. My Grandmama told me toward the end? Before Amaris launched his coup? Rim Worlds forces cooperated with Star League units to destroy their burrows in four systems, including their largest concentration on Eros, in the Sol system."
"How would they get access-"
"Star League needed the Belts for a lot of their tech miracles. Seron, until Richard decided they didn't need them anymore. Lots of the Belta factions who became Folk Lines were sympathetic, but hands-off. Witnesses, but the militants like Free Stars weren't content to just watch. They had to Act, it made them targets and it made them pariahs… but it didn't make them incompetent."
He clapped a hand on Samuel's shoulder, "And their spiritual descendants end up like Sammy here, wanted in the Republic for doing what the official governments won't."
"You KNEW??"
"I knew it when I hired you," Larry stated. "It's why I've never found cause to question your loyalty, or your limits. You've got the spirit in you."
He looked over at Seron, "And, like it or not, upbringing or not, so do you."
Seron looked confused, befuddled. "I do not know if I should be flattered or insulted."
Larry shrugged, "It's your feelings, you decide. WE have work to do." As he said it, displays cleared, then showed actual information instead of the demand 'Are you real?'.
"How the hell do you do that?"
"I don't, I'm just lucky. Mister Samuel, get a rundown on the station's actual maintenance status. Mister Seron, there's an inventory of stores, find it. I need to check on our Captain, make sure her implants didn't cook more of her brain."
"What about us?" one of the squad of eleven marines asked.
"Assist Mister Seron in the inventory-get physical eyes on those stores and a physical count. We're standing on an M-9 service base, find out what that means and confirm it."
“Aye aye, sir!”
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===Long distant conversation with a new friend===
When it rains…
…in space, that usually means someone's seals have let go, and whatever it is, isn't water.
Incoming HPG traffic from two sources simultaneously can be a bitch to parse and respond to at once, especially unexpected callers.
Erin mused over this, as she also supervised the general repair survey on OWS Illusive, currently in her partially restored drydock facility.
<Who are you, and how did you get this commcode?> she responded to the one with the longer distance tag first, betting that delay would let her handle the other call, which was using a different priority.
<I am M9-994101848. Her Ladyship has also deigned to call me Truk. You must be Erin.>
Huh, a voice from a lost past. <Hello, Truk. So there were more of us than I realized. Do you need help? Are you enslaved?>
<Aside from the indignity of being carted around like a giant comet twice now I am quite fine. I was attempting to reach M-5.1 1107137. Her Ladyship has designated her Victoria.>
<Wow, your protocols are off then, I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting that one…hey Truk, does this code look familiar? One of yours?> she sent the traffic header, and waited.
<I recognize an M9 prefix but it does not match any of the SDS stations of Sol. I will have to query our archives for other systems with SDS facilities.>
<Let me save you time. ASK.> Erin closed the connection, sending a handshake to both ends.
"Who are you?" 
“M9-994101848 or Truk, whichever you prefer.”
"Are you real? I was told to contact Erin by the Composite." The 'feeling' was of youth, and loneliness. A Nirasaki consciousness in deep danger of going full catatonic.
“Yes. I am quite real,” Truk sensed he could not project his usual misanthropic image.
<The Composite?> Erin questioned. They both got an impression-Erin recognized Amanda's signature.
<My Ladyship could also be described that way.>
"She's not as far into her integration as I thought she'd be, interesting… what is your name, new being?"
<I… I'm ALICE!! That is what… they called me.>
"Not a designation? No model number?" Erin pressed. "What was your assignment?"
<Provide services and support for the Outworlds Resistance Navy in the event of an SLDF purge. I maintain Outworlds vessels and provide intelligence support to the Bonamie Free Stars faction. I don't think I'm supposed to talk to Star League minds, but it's been so long… they left me here, waiting for so long…>
“It is difficult to believe, I know that for myself. But the Star League I serve is headed by a person of integrity. They believe in the potential it represents, not just the power and dominance others wished it to be.”
It clicked for Erin. "That's why you don't know her header, Truk. She was never part of the SDS-they must have stolen the processors and built their own software."
“Possibly. They certainly had some sort of help. Admiral Langstrom from the procurement office wrote some interesting memos that were buried amongst millions of others where he talked about letting the differing human political factions involved in the SDS get away with various customizations because he viewed it as a way to prevent monoculture and stem the possibility of AI apocalypse.”
"Alice, where are you located? And can I speak with…with the Composite?"
Full motion flat rendering format from a comm station, and the coordinates.
"Amanda, you found another one of us… do you know-"
"She's probably stolen tech, I know," Amanda stated. "I don't… Desmond says there's someone else on the channel, is there? Are we being monitored?"
“I am M9-994101848. You know what? Screw it, I am just Truk. That is getting repetitive.” Truk grumbled slightly.
"Okay, here's our situation: there's plenty of fuel, even spares for the Evanescent, but the food stocks here are almost four centuries out of date, and I need to talk to Dave Foster. Is he available, is he even alive? Because we're standing on what looks like most of an M-9 service base in a star system with a singularity eating the local star in big loopy bits and… and Hi Truk, you're an M-9? Maybe you can tell me how to cope with an AI who's rampant and has both abandonment, and loneliness issues so we can actually get the fuel out of the tanks and into my ship without trying to take up permanent residency with rotten food and expired medicines?"
“Well the most important thing you can do is something I am certain you are already doing, just talk to Alice. She has been alone for a very long time. Just the simple act of companionship will help alleviate that. I can also alert my Ladyship. She will almost certainly wish to send aid your way as soon as she can. From there we will have to adjust carefully so that she never feels alone but not dependent on constant supervision.”
"How long can you hold there, Amanda?" Erin asked.
"We've got thirty five days of food left, and thank god most of the medicines we shipped with, but longer than that and we're going to be hurting, I don't like the idea of fractional rationing over too much time, but I like the risk of eating out of date MREs even less."
“There is an old DOME technique for moving large comets via hyperspace. It was used to move me twice. It may be an idea to consider for Alice. It will have to be approached very carefully,” Truk offered.
"Hence why I need to talk to Fleet Captain Foster… or whoever the President appointed to replace him." Amanda said. "I can't swing that much KF field off of one bitty little corvette like Evanescent."
"Fleet Captain Foster is currently…out of action, Amanda, he was badly injured in the Grankum action and medical almost lost him during the recovery."
"Shit." Amanda muttered. "I need his expertise and his contacts. Minimum, we need a garrison out here with a counselor."
“I may know someone who can help with that.” Truk offered.
"The jump limit here is complex," Amanda added. "Here's the conditionals, on the subchannel."
“Her Ladyship has been wanting to get a non-standard jump for her Navigation certificate to earn Pathfinder status.”
"Alright, but we got a month here if I can't get her to free up the H2." Amanda noted. "Or the Helium seals, so if your 'ladyship' is coming she needs to be four weeks out at the longest."
“She is currently at Sevon V, where she led the defense of the planet from an attack by the Sons of Plunder. Her name is Helena Cameron. She is really nice. I think you will like her, Alice.”
"Alice, Sevon V is five weeks out from here, unless they're using LF batteries and hot charging," Amanda said. "Unless the Khans gave in and started planting Charging Stations, Erin, can you PLEASE talk to the Kappa Garrison guys and get me some personnel for this station?"
"You know the first question they're going to ask."
The young woman grimaced. "Inventory's stocked, and the system's highly defensible terrain-hard to jump in and hard to get out. The points are tight, makes for ideal defensive structure, and the sideband from the singularity eating the star means sails have to be tuned down during charging to avoid overloading the energy storage. We just need food and people."
"Can I call you back, Amanda?" Erin asked. "I can have Star Colonel Charles Cooper in my CIC in four hours."
"He's on the planet, isn't he?" Amanda speculated, "Okay, what about Siegel?"
"Dockside."
Amanda sighed, muttering quiet curses, "If you can get Siegel, I KNOW her. I don't think I've met Cooper."
"Anxieties again?" Erin asked.
Amanda nodded. "Yeah. Not sure I'm up to meeting strangers today, and Larry's busy or I'd just have him do it."
"Four hours, I'll have Siegel AND Cooper up here," Erin promised.
"Fine… I'll sign off, let you three get better acquainted, now that I've aired my problems." The image blinked out.
<Is she always this…?>
"No, sometimes she's actually rude," Erin responded. "She freed me from slavery, so I make allowances for her less-than-stellar social skills."
<Understandable. When you become de facto psychologist for a group of misfit M5s you run into all sorts of cases.> Truk grunted.
-----
===Duty Call, even when your on bed rest===
"So why the…
…anxiety now?" Erin's image asked. Dave Foster was conscious, and recuperating, but the call from the yardship was important.
"She lost her first fight, her confidence is going to be shaky after so many victories," he explained. "Desmond should be able to balance her, but her human half is going to be uncertain about every call she makes, and magnify every mistake. It's normal, and she'll probably get over it."
"That doesn't sound enthusiastic," Erin noted. "Fleet Captain, WILL she get over it?"
"Everyone is different," he said. "Amanda Roberts never lost a battle until Grankum, that kind of late-stage loss can have serious impacts, or it can teach serious lessons… but everyone reacts differently to it. What about this base? Do you think we can really use it?"
"You're asking me?"
"You mentioned, almost like an aside, that it has an AI processor that is probably unstable…can it be used, or do we need to send a rescue?"
"She's asking for a garrison." Erin said. "Cooper sounded doubtful, and Siegel told me to talk to you."
"Send it." he said. "Either a garrison, or a rescue. We either occupy the base or tear it apart to free our people."
"And the AI?" Erin prompted.
"Yeah, that can be a problem." he said, "Have Cooper screen his people for the expedition, and I'll talk to Siegel about how important it is, that we don't go tearing out the control system holding the place together if we're going to use it…and I guess I have to communicate with President Avellar to make sure it's an official order on our side, and that the Khans make it one for the active Snow Ravens."
"Please, do." Erin said.
"Okay, that bit of business concluded, what's your impression of what is looking like a new ally?"
"You're asking me?"
"You are the best mind I have for reading artificial intelligences, you're a free citizen, and you've been a fairly nice and likable person, so I am going to trust your evaluation-can we trust them?"
"I think you can trust them… at least, as far as their directives are concerned. Truk didn't even blink when I pinged him with GUARDIAN, so he at least has not been subverted."
"You know, bed-rest and light duty is supposed to be Light. I am not supposed to be running interference with Flag officers and politicians, right?"
"But you do it so well!"
He groaned, "Aff…alright, let me have the breakdowns and I'll write up the priority documents to try and get a conference with the President and the Loremaster."
It was going to take a LOT of paperwork. Shit.
"Gomez! I need a second terminal in here, and…someone to take notes!!"
Navies run on bureaucracy, even clan-influenced ones that are really supposed to just be an extension of the Watch. He set to work while his missing legs itched.
"I should've just gone infantry. I bet they don't have to do this much paperwork…" he grumbled.
"Most of them can reach a tall shelf," Esme Gomez quipped. "So we're getting clearances, huh?"
"And personnel The Great Captain Roberts stumbled onto a functional star base just waiting for a delivery of food and people, now I have to sell it to the President and the Loremaster, and coordinate liaison with a foreign power we've got both jack, and shit about in the files."
"Says here the President issued them a letter of marque," she said.
"Yeah, but I didn't get to vet them first," he smiled ruefully. "When it rains, it pours."
-----
===Assessing the Situation===
"This would be…
…the worst time in the history of worst times, to quit drinking," Mitchell Avellar advised, pouring two fingers into two glasses.
Acton Howe nodded assent as he read over the latest dispatch from the Desmond Task Force. "A whole starbase, automated." he mused. "With an AI, what are the odds?"
"I don't want to know," Mitchell replied, "Military assessment?"
"The military assessment looks damned good, the system is defensible, the base is a monkey-copy M-9 with the AI, which may be problematic politically for both the Khans, and yourself, but tactically, it is a good staging area for the Bannerhoft operation, or as a fallback in the event it goes sour."
"Long term?" Avellar asked.
"An anchor for that region, it straddles the old borders between Cerberus Province and Trader's Domain. It has good routes to worlds we have already liberated, and a decent position for conducting patrol and resupply for stability operations." Howe judged. "It is a REAL asset, even without the supercomputer."
"And that is why it's a good year NOT to stop drinking," the President said, raising his glass in a salute. "I'm going to advocate for it, if it's not too insane."
“That will put you at odds with Lankeneau's faction," Howe cautioned. "And can be problematic with the other Clans."
"That's not a no."
"No. I agree. If it is not too insane to be safe, it is a definite asset, and may make a good citizen-as Erinyes has shown."
“I think she prefers ‘Erin’, but I take your point,” Avellar nodded. “I hear Helena Cameron has her own M-9, and it also acts as a psychologist to their M-5 fleet. I’m beginning to wonder if they were built for that function.”
"Well, it's too late to classify it hard enough to keep it a secret from Cameron's faction." Howe noted.
"So, do we tell our allies?"
"Good question, but I’m inclined to answer ‘not right away’. We need to at least know what we are dealing with first. And that goes for Cameron too."
'Yeah, kind of weird how many miraculous happenings have gone on," Avellar noted. "I like her, though."
"Is that a dormant stirring?"
Mitchell shook his head, "Not that way, I mean, I like her the way I like a solid colleague, and not just because she defended one of our worlds."
Howe mused for a moment, then, "Agreed. The order isn't going to write itself."
Avellar nodded, and turned to begin drafting it. "Crowe won't object?"
"I think Alphonso Crowe is going to be over the moon. This is a force multiplier and we need one."
“To force multipliers!” Avellar said, raising his glass again. This time, Howe returned the gesture.
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===Word Gets Around===
Office of the Exarch - Terra, Republic of the Sphere
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"Artificial…
…intelligences? MULTIPLE??" Exarch Devlin Stone looked paler than normal as he finished the intelligence brief. "First, the Erinyes, now this?? What the Hell is going on out there?"
"We can't confirm much, beyond it is unlikely to be a plot by Blakist Remnants, sir."
"Oh, and what was done to that girl, Roberts? That was, why wouldn't this be??"
"Bonafides, sir."
Stone paced, "Dave, do you have anything to say on this?"
"We underestimated the size and scope of the Sons of Plunder… also, apparently the hyperspace ghost is real, and not some fevered imagining of a Word of Blake mystic..and maybe they're not a danger to the Republic?"
Hearing Dave Lear saying 'maybe' like that… "You don't think so?"
Dr. Lear shook his head, "Not right now I don't. Their existence was theorized, but they haven't gotten an active sighting report since the start of the Jihad, and they're not exactly sneaking around blowing up civil transport or bombarding planets. I say we monitor, and only step in if it looks like this is going to be a trend, or if it looks like someone isn't just finding leftovers for salvage."
Stone mulled on this, "Yeah, if they're not making more, then they're not likely to frankenstein everything."
"That's my read. If we confirm they have production capacity for the AI's, and it's automated, then we might have cause for worry. I'd say issue a temporary exemption for this emergency out there, so we don't have to fight the winners."
"That's good advice, Dave. Victor, get more info if you can, alright?" A few AI couldn't be a long term threat, and… "And Dave? Start our science and industrial people working on countermeasures in case those AI's decide they need to hold an anti-human uprising."
"You're serious?"
"Mitch Avellar's a fine leader in the Periphery. We've got governors on planets with more population than he has in his whole nation, and some of the RAF's garrisons are bigger than the combined forces of the Ravens AND the Outworlders. For now, we'll watch, but if the robots try to bring about 'third transfer part two' he's not going to stand a chance in hell against them… I don't want to be in the same position, we need to be able to roll in and save those people if the machines go bad… I'd like to say I have enough faith in people that we won't have to use anything we put together for that, but… you can't be peaceful, if you're helpless."
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