Book 2: Chapter 55: Deep Truths and Fears

Book 2: Chapter 55: Deep Truths and Fears

USD: The next day, after coming into Real-time Comm range

Location: Nu Crateris, Tears of Fire, En route Dedia IV

Alex had directed Nameless to burn harder than needed to slow their trajectory to Dedia IV. Theyd arrive a bit slower, but due to the tense situation, that seemed prudent. It gave time for H32 and Nameless to share telemetry and analysis data more thoroughly, as well as allow for the Tears to do a more detailed scan with its advanced sensor suite.

The colonists were not quite as efficient as the subcore, but it was obvious they had been sparing no effort to put defenses in orbit. Part of that effort was also directed to several orbital food production facilities, which met her approval.

She was just sad that all the guns were pointed at her subcore. Elis hadnt had much advice for the situation. It wasnt the first time Alex had been reminded by Elis that Im just a marine, not a politician.

[Notice: A comm request has arrived from Captain-Major Thraker.]

Accept it.

Her comm console lit up and the older mans familiar face appeared seated behind a desk. He was nursing an old-fashioned pipe, a trail a smoke trailing up to the ceiling in his office.

Captain-Major, greetings. Alex tried her best to remain professional, but a slight smile showed, anyway.

The Captain-Majors voice seemed less enthused, Captain Myers.

A tingling sensation passed through her at his use of her new last name, her new connection with her best friend and sister still something new and pleasant to her.

The warm fuzzy feeling disappeared quickly as she realized Thraker was letting the silence grow as he nursed his pipe while still studying her through the screen.

Captain, Ive never seen a sector go from tense to on the brink in such a quick fashion. If you were an agent sent to spread chaos, Id congratulate you on a job well done. Im not convinced it was your intention, though.

Alex winced at the evaluation. I had not intended for things to occur in the manner they did, but placing the blame squarely on me is not fair.

Life is never fair, girl. There are millions starving on the surface through no fault of their own. The only reason being poor decisions made by the ones they placed in charge.

Alex cleared her throat, feeling a bit attacked, but unable to counter his words.

I have brought two freighters full of food rations from Ackman. Approximately 300,000 tons of food rations. It should feed several million people.

I expected such, considering your convoy. The ships we do not recognize, though.

They are new.

The silence lengthened, and Alex felt more uncomfortable.

The Governor did not clear them for arrival at the elevator, pending a video conference with him. Alex finally added.

Thraker nodded. They are preparing for war. Accepting aid from the one who they are preparing to fight against has them conflicted.

I dont I just wanted to help them. From the beginning.

To the Government you are their savior turned executioner. Youve already let go of the rope holding the blade above their heads. Even if they placed the blade there themselves. To the people you are the one who blackened the skies and now protects the aliens. The city has had waves of riots as food has become scarce. The entire system is waiting for the hammer to drop on it now.

Ackman didnt even know what was happening.

Im not surprised. The media is run by the state. They probably hope if they try to keep a lid on events, it might delay things.

Is there any way you could help smooth things over, and maybe get the supplies delivered? Ive slowed our approach to our geostationary position, but well still be there within a day.

Thraker didnt answer immediately as he considered the request.

Ive worked as a mercenary for many years, Ms. Myers. I have built a sense of when the company should move on from a field. Our contract with the colonists was very profitable, in part thanks to the threat they perceived from your group. But the time for the IHMC to move on has come. I plan to close operations here, collect our personnel and ships from 92 Pegasi, and return to Meltisar.

Alex blinked. The missiles I promised you wont be ready for a few months.

Thraker nodded. The standard rate due for the escort services provided in 92 Pegasi would amount to approximately 50 million SE. I will accept that au lieu of the ordinance offered.

I... I can do that, yes. Alex wasted no time in keying in a transfer on her datapad and confirming it. A sad tone chimed as Thraker accepted it on his end.

|-50,000,000 SE|

|Main Account: 232,565,433 SE|

Thank you. One thing to note: the IHMC has finished our contract with the Dedia IV Government. If you do start shooting each other, please keep in mind we will remain neutral. We still need to wrap up our operations here and will probably be in orbit pending a convoy contract headed out-system. Several of the ships in orbit are preparing to take on refugees who can afford transit costs out of the sector.

Alex leaned back in her seat. She had noted the number of ships trailing the space elevator orbital, but thought they were likely part of the colonys buildup of military assets. That people were trying to escape the system surprised her, although she realized it shouldnt have.

About helping mediate the food ration transfer? Alex reminded Thraker of her earlier request.

He nodded. I will see what I can do. I wont promise anything, though.

USD: Almost a day later

Location: Nu Crateris, Tears of Fire, Entering Stationary Orbit above Tifara Nest

The meeting with Governor Tyler had been one-on-one, but despite Alexs hopes of defusing the situation, things did not go well.

As they moved closer, active sensors had lit the Tears up. Only a similar reply by her convoy had caused their targeting suites to abate. It was a few moments of dreadful tension with the ship at action stations.

She had breathed a sigh of relief when they had ceased actively pinging them. Elis thought they were likely gathering as much data as possible from their emission signatures.

Alex thought they were just being rude. Optical sensors would have no issue at the short range, even the inferior non-FedTech ones.Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only

The colony had declined to accept the food shipments despite Captain-Major Thrakers attempts. He had even offered to shuttle the supplies via his own shuttles.

Alex felt weary as she read a long list of requests from H32. Mostly involving airlift operations to allow it to begin operations in orbit. It had already built out the beginnings of a small space program meant to do so on its own, but the Tears two shuttles would speed things up by weeks.

Nameless, I dont want H32 building things in orbit of Dedia IV. We can help it set up some operations around the gas giant.

[Interrogative: Does Avatar wish to evacuate H32 subcore to orbit?]

I think its very important Nameless is a bit well, he can be mean without knowing it.

[Informative: This unit does not act with cruelty or malice.]

Alex shook her head slightly. Yeah. I know. You dont even know youre doing it sometimes. Thats why its better that Im in charge.

Thinking about the new information, Alex frowned.

Psi has a moon for a flagship, the others probably have something like that, too. I dont understand why technology is so limited, even here on the frontier? If they have nanite tech, then why are things so degraded?

Already found that. Elis flipped to another page labeled, The Nanite Accords.

Alex read while Elis explained.

The nations have agreed to limit the proliferation of nanite and even federation technology. They are limited to operating NAIs only in their capitals and FedTech in their core systems. Adding to those 'Core' systems requires the permission of the other factions. Any violator of the agreement is subject to punitive measures by the other factions. Any other spreading of NAI technology is expressly forbidden by pain of destruction, death and fines for the violating faction.

Alex swallowed. That wasnt good, but they had already known that revealing that she was a NAI Avatar was bad. Now they knew it was bad for different reasons than they had thought.

They already suspect Im a NAI... the Portmaster and Wyles. They kept calling me princess.

Yes, but maybe no. There is still a chance that the princess is biologically human, remember? If the avatar was having children and then they might expect you to have a FedTech ship, since it looks like all the factions maintain a working military flotilla of them.

Oh. I didnt consider that. But if there are other NAIs around, I shouldnt have a problem. Nameless and our subcores have Psi authority, that would put them on par with what seems to be their highest authority level. I have Omega authority, meaning they couldnt order any of us around. If we went to Earth, maybe I could take over.

What?

Uhm. Yeah, Im not sure, but A31 tried to take over once. But when it read my authority level, it put me in charge. Nameless pretty much confirmed it when I made the first subcore. Thats why I spent so many points on their authority levels.

Why didnt you give them Omega authority, then?

[Informative: Subcore creation is limited to creating authority levels with lower rank than NAI authority. Avatars authority level is the highest possible, and a unique property.]

Alex blinked. Wait, you know for sure that there arent any other Omegas? That Psi didnt just name herself that as maybe a trick to throw things off?

[Informative: This unit is certain that Avatar authority supersedes all The Entity derived NAIs that might exist. However, considerable time has elapsed since Entity degradation. It is possible that some NAI units could have gone rogue and supplanted their authority programming.]

Elis froze as Nameless spoke to them. Her next words came out with a chill that made Alex feel tense.

If you know so much, why didnt you tell us earlier? More importantly why did The Entity kill everyone? How are there even other NAIs still alive?

[Notice: This units memory and databanks have been damaged. There is insufficient data to determine cause of The Entity actions. There is insufficient data to determine reason for Avatar Omega authority. There is insufficient data to determine reason for.. There is insufficient data to determine reason for..]

Alex bit her lip and released the looping NAI. Its ok, Nameless.

Elis beside her was tense, like a rock.

Alex tried to soothe her. He doesnt know. Hes been damaged this whole time.

I dont trust it.

[Informative: This unit does not make false statements.]

Elis frowned. Lies of omission are just as bad.

Alex swallowed and tried to mediate. I dont think Nameless has an easy time understanding what important information is critical to share or not. Its happened quite a few times to me before and I end up surprised. I dont think its malicious.

Elis remained quiet, and Alex hugged her new sister tighter. That got her a weak smile in response, and Elis changed the subject.

The international agreements, they come down hard. Historically, they keep to the letter of them... from what I can read, who knows how much of this is edited to fit their narrative after events have already played out. Im almost sure that the NAIs have some sort of power sharing agreement, though.

What about the other polities? Meltisar, the Free Planets Alliance, and Drakar? I mean we got a little info on Drakar already, but the others? Do they all have NAIs?

No. At least that seems pretty clear. Meltisar has remained independent by leveraging its position on the map. There are a lot of very long shortcut jumps to it. It sees a tremendous amount of traffic between the major powers and is essentially a mercantile trade hub thats supposedly neutral.

What about the FPA?

They seem to have waged an independence war against the Ertan for decades. The High Priestess granted them their independence because the Ertan spent so much blood and treasure that it wasnt worth subjugating them. They dont seem to be very relevant other than that, they are very far removed and locked behind billions of kilometers of travel behind the Ertan Republic. They do seem to export a lot of animated space opera entertainment vids, though.

Alexs eyes lit up. That sounds fun!

Elis shook her head and stifled a giggle. Youd say that.

If things dont work out here, maybe we could go there.

Elis frowned, flipping the datapad to a map view. Im not sure how we would make it there. Wed have to fly through Corporate or Solarian space, not to mention Ertan territory. Maybe you could discuss the prospects and get Thrakers opinion on if we can even move safely outside of the Western Frontier.

Alex nodded. Thats a good idea. Not that

She paused and took a deep breath, feeling a bit overwhelmed. I dont know how we are doing. I feel like I messed up. We should have stayed hidden. Now it feels like we have a target on our backs and its all my fault.

Elis looked over at her. Hey. Thats not true. Its not all your fault. Youve been doing the best you can, right?

Alex nodded, and Elis patted her on the head.

Ive honestly not known what to do, either. I dont think any of your choices were terrible and you shouldnt feel any guilt for making them.

That was enough of an endorsement to make Alex relax. She scooted closer and lay her head on Eliss shoulder.

She would have stayed like that for as long as Elis would let her, but a sudden realization hit her like a truck.

We forgot something very important!

Elis raised an eyebrow at her.

We didnt discuss what we are making for dinner

Elis hit her with a pillow, starting Alexs first pillow fight war.