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Back Into The Darkness, Part 9
  • "Back Into The Darkness, Part 9"
    31st Ykrett, 6 (2183)
    Naomi Of Unity

    "Naomi, come quickly. We found a live Minamar." It's Vorosh.

    Immediately I make the following deductions. He or she will have been in one of the ship canteens, living off preserves. Most likely maddened by isolation. High risk of having been tortured before I get there, with Daas trying to hold them back, my presence is necessary because anyone else will take out their rage on them. "Coming."

    I follow Vorosh back to the ship as quickly as we can, very grateful that we gave her people motorised skateboards. As soon as we arrive, Daas ushers me in.

    An emaciated woman stands there. I sift through my memories.

    Oh bother. I recognise her.

    "Vopisca?"

    She turns, surprised at hearing her name. It takes her a while, as recognition takes her back. "Ah, Naomi." She looks me over. "So you can wear clothes."

    I choose to deflect. "Vopisca, half the population will want to cut off and mount your head on a pike, and the other half want to mount your head on the pike with your body still attached. Cooperation is the only way you live."

    She stares. "You were so much better when you were submissive."

    "You know who killed Hortensus?"

    "You, obviously. He never treated you nicely."

    "Stop it. I'm married now." I make sure she knows. "To a man."

    "Pity." She turns away from me.

    I look at Daas. He shrugs.

    "Naomi, you can't intimidate me. So don't try."

    "Vopisca, all that keeps you alive is my assumption that I can turn you. Otherwise I will feed you to the gathering mob outside."

    "You can play hardball if you want. But I know who you really are Naomi."

    I force myself to concentrate. Vopisca hasn't changed at all. Realistically, there's nothing I can actually do to get through to her. She sees me as what I was before.

    I draw Hortensus' pistol. "Would you prefer a quick death by me, or would you prefer the mob?"

    She looks at my eyes. "Insignificant ant."

    I try to mimic her insults. "Vopisca, at this point all that's keeping you alive is that I'm wondering what you did to end up here anyway. Remus failed to get you somewhere?"

    She tries to slap me. But she's weak from starvation rations, and I grab her hand. "Do not presume to speak my father's name."

    "Why, because he abandoned you?"

    "You jumped up whore." She tries to take the gun, but Daas takes it first. I grab her wrist. She squirms. I've found one lever to pull.

    I yank it as hard as I can. "It was obvious that he never wanted you, you were the third child."

    She screams as she throws herself at me. But I've got twenty kilograms of muscle mass on her, and I pin her up the wall.

    We're face to face.

    I can smell her perfume, faintly. She always used too much. She kisses my lips, and the shock makes me recoil, by which time her hands are seizing the blade.

    Gunshot.

    Vopisca falls to the ground. She's in shock.

    I try to hold her up. "Daas, medical kit now!"

    She pours her venom into one last rasping insult. "All you will ever be, is what we had you be."

    Edit for spelling.
     
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    Back Into The Darkness, Part 10
  • "Back Into The Darkness, Part 10"
    31st Ykrett, 6 (2183)
    Naomi Of Unity

    Vopisca isn't quite dead, we managed to get her to the medical bay in time. I had to leave Daas and Vorosh to her - partially to sort my own head out, but also to clear a way for the most wanted person on Unity to get to treatment.

    Vorosh approaches me at the doorway. "She is unstable, and critical. We have tied her down, she's too dangerous to operate on. It's a matter of time."

    "Awake?"

    "Yes. I fear that if she goes to sleep, she won't wake up." She leans in close. "Naomi, are you really sure you want her alive?"

    "No. I'm not. But I want to believe that they can change."

    Vorosh turns away quietly to review monitoring instruments. I walk towards our prisoner.

    She is barely awake, muttering under her breath.

    We grew up together. I was twelve, she was thirteen, when we first met.

    She manages to look at me. She laughs, before coughing up blood. "Stupid slave."

    "Is this really how you want to die?"

    She smirks this time. "It amuses me. Here you are, one slave comforting a dying Olinbar, while another slave monitors my health. I take pride in that."

    Insulting her parents didn't work. Different tactic this time. "I remember the way we used to make art together in the playroom."

    She softens. "Life was good then." It doesn't last. "But then I learned, and I understood our places in the world. You were only ever there to serve." She's strained herself talking too much; more blood coughs up.

    She looks past me, but not for long, lifting her head takes too much effort. I don't fall for it, not this time.

    There's a tug on my arm. "Mum?"

    "Yes Rivkah?"

    "Who's this?"

    Vopisca strains to lift herself up. "Mum?"

    "Married, with daughter."

    She tries to laugh. More blood, and a chunk of flesh. Then coughs. More chunks of lung. And more. As the coughing fit takes over, her last look is at Rivkah, and she collapses still.

    Just like that, someone I once called a friend is gone from the worlds. "Good bye Vopisca. I wish it had been different."

    Edit for spelling.
     
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    Back Into The Darkness, Part 11
  • "Back Into The Darkness, Part 11"
    1st Pik, 6 (2183)
    Ykrett

    If I was organic, I would be sick from fear.

    Instead, I am surrounded by them. Bevkirans are somewhat underrepresented on Unity...

    I am face to face with torture itself. Again. The cables dangle like a tentacled monster from the depths before a gaping maw that seeks to drown me, imprison me, devour me whole in the deep places of the worlds.

    And the worst part?

    The people preparing to strap me in, are my friends.

    The darkness calls, the void summons with every check Daas and his team conduct. The machine looks down on me like a demon encased in steel, ready to battle in the mind, to spew all the horrors it can array, drag me down beneath the waves and the light, where no Bevkiran returns from.

    I look away.

    But little Rivkah sees me.

    She smiles encouragement, just like her mother does. Doesn't quite look the same with her sabre teeth of course, but in a way, there's a bite her mother never could have. I nod to her.

    Naomi arrives at last, just as Daas finishes his checks. He looks at me. "Ykrett, I've done my best, but I have no idea if this will work properly. It could kill you."

    I look at the vampiric, infernal device. Sights and sounds reverb through my consciousness as the demon starts fighting, haunting me with memories, trying to drown me out of my own head. The battle, my mind against it's mind, has begun.

    The last time I faced one, I was afraid, dragged kicking and screaming, defeated. Eighty years of my life that demon stole.

    But not this time. I am not defeated. I am not trapped. This time, I will Win. I look at Naomi. She smiles the smile that united us all. Rivkah punches the switch, and I beat my boulders in defiance as lights blaze against the beast. I turn to my enemy, watch it recoil in fear. "If this be the end, then I will rage towards it."
     
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    Back Into The Darkness, Part 12
  • "Back Into The Darkness, Part 12"
    1st Pik, 6 (2183)
    Rivkah Of Unity
    Ykrett is inside. Now we wait.

    What will happen?

    I worry for Ykrett. "Mum, why do you believe that we can do this? That this won't kill him? What if we lose? I mean, if we fail here... Everyone we know and love, will be lost. They'll kill some, enslave others... What if we are better off giving up?"

    "Hope."

    "Is that all we have?"

    "It's what Rebellions are made of, Rivkah. Hope."

    "But MSI..."

    "What about them?"

    "I've seen the battleplans. You are actively expecting them to send warships so powerful they can leave our home a wasteland of melted slag."

    "Yes. I'm counting on it."

    "Isn't it risky?"

    "In a way, yes. But in more important ways, no."

    "We're outnumbered, outgunned..."

    "But, we have something more."

    "What though?"

    "Estel." Mum looks at Ykrett. I follow. Her face does that searching for a quotation look she does. "'And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite.'"

    I curl up on the floor. Mum sits beside me, still looking at Ykrett. "I don't know where that's from."

    "Ainulindalë, Tolkien. My Mum recited the whole story, but I can't remember as much as I used to. But this bit sticks with me."

    "That doesn't explain it."

    "In the book, it's where Eru establishes that he is in control, and for all Melkor's schemes, he can only bring to pass what Eru ultimately wills."

    "Eru being God?"

    "Yes."

    "Why would God make MSI though?"

    "Made in the sense that He created them, I'm honestly not convinced that they were made by Him; I believe that they were Human once, before they were made into what they are today."

    I know what she means. "They self-modded."

    "No, I don't think that."

    I look at her. "What do you think?"

    "I think someone once uplifted them, and modified them, much more than two thousand years ago based on what I remember of Roman society. And being uplifted, they began to seek to uplift others. But darkness took hold, and they marred the good with evil."

    Ooh. That's... That explains why she is like this, there's a part of her that thinks that they could be good. I'm not sure though... "But why would God allow them?"

    "Think of what good they could accomplish."

    Like most things Mum says, what she really means is hidden in the lesson. I connect the dots. "Is a good version of MSI part of what you are aiming for with Life2.0?"

    "Yes."

    I have an idea. "Following on that Melkor guy, do you think God made MSI just so that it would lead to us?"

    She smiles. "That is estel."

    I look at Ykrett again. "I just hope he makes it."

    Mum smiles. "He will."

    "How do you know?"

    "Estel."

    We wait. He has to wrestle with the system to overcome the lockouts they use to separate the subconscious processing from the active mind, then win mental control over the processing, after which he inputs his activation, and becomes the system. In theory. And Daas said that was the most simplified explanation he could give. Think I need to study more, Mum got the full explanation. The signal that he has control? He'll turn the lights on. And more importantly the main computer unlocks.

    And there's nothing we can do to help him; if we interrupt, the system activates the failsafes and delivers a massive electric discharge straight into his brain. Daas has put an interrupt in, but we can't test it because if we don't have control over the system, it realises it's been tampered with and self-destructs.

    Turns out MSI did think about what happens when someone tries to hack their systems...

    Still, if Ykrett can't do it, no one can.

    Minutes turn to hours. Mum is sorting paperwork while we wait. Not very well though.

    I'm about to curl up and sleep, when I notice the lights are on. Mum sees it too, and she calls the guy on the Captain's console. It's working again.

    Daas sprints into action, shutting down MSI countermeasures now that we are back to command level control. Mum wants all the security measures offline, and then the main computer made public access, and then we'll start sifting the data for useful things. I run to Ykrett. Daas unhooks him. He falls, hits the ground. I try to lift him, but I can't.

    I look in his eyes.

    Mum, well her eyes are black, but they sparkle. But Ykrett's eyes are cold. Grim. "Ykrett?"

    He stirs. "I saw the abyss." He speaks slowly. Eyes flicker rapidly, like he still sees monsters. He's calming, steadily.

    I smile. "And slew the horrors."

    He nods. "Thank you little Rivkah, for sending the light so far down."
     
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    "Rivkah's Diary" 4th Odoos, 6
  • "Rivkah's Diary"
    4th Odoos, 6 (2184)

    It's been three months since Ykrett unlocked the main computer; everyone has been sifting through the records for useful things, and we're just getting back to normal. There's some damage to the records from the crash, but a surprising amount is recoverable. Not all of it good; Dad stopped an attempted lynching of Shendredie and forgave him publicly. Shendredie's people have started coming back to the colony now.

    With internal sensors back, we now know there won't be any more surprise Olinbar discoveries. I'm not sure if I like that or not. It would have been interesting to have a proper conversation with one.

    Mum reckons the recovered data will save years of research and development of our own.

    The more I learn though, the more afraid I feel.

    I get nightmares of purple skinned Humans wearing masks coming and taking me away in the night. I started sleeping in the day, but it's not helping that much. I've been doing Mum's job at night while Mum and Dad are away. Monica is back from Heinrichstadt, she's been helping too; she loves her husband, but Heinrich is... Heinrich. Her job is so mentally demanding that I can sleep at least. Mum wept when I told her about the nightmares. She wanted us to not have them.

    The thing is, I'm afraid. I have a comfortable life here. I look at what Mum, Dad, Ykrett, Rhizome of Ebony, Daas, Odoos, Shendredie, all of them, went through, and I don't know how I'd cope with if we went through that again.

    I need to go toughen myself up.

    I need Mum back, she understands me.

    What I really need is hope. But I suppose that we don't really have hope until MSI is dealt with. Maybe my children will be the ones who grow up free at last.

    Actually, you know what? The Olinbar have to earn the right to stress me out like this. They probably decided we weren't worth caring about years ago, so why waste my life worrying that they'll come here? Until they actually turn up, I'm not going to worry about them.

    And if they do come, I'll eat them.
     
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    Renegade
  • "Renegade"
    2184/05/10
    Valerius Albanius

    I walk the factory for the last time; the leasehold closes tomorrow. It's cost me everything, all I own that's left is loaded on the biggest freighter I can get. There's this man, named Hortensus Dexcius. He leased a ship on a grand Asset Collection voyage all around the cluster, and he proclaimed that he was supposed to take a ten year trip and bring back millions of Assets. Contact was lost six years ago, and he's missed his final return deadline, three years late; a bunch of Shareholders who had futures investments in Indentured Asset Ownership have lost big on it.

    And it sparked an idea.

    I can't save all the Indentured Assets. Not even all the ones who work for me, I can't afford that. But I can save my Indentured Assets. I've spent the last year picking out the ones I can take with me, and I'm going to set out on a similar mission. A naval contact who owes me a favour has given me the coordinates where he last reported in, and I figure that it's worth a trip; I did some investigating, and these coordinates correspond to a Continental world that was previously only notable for a race of predatory Reptilian Pre-Sapients who were evaluated as too dangerous to provolve.

    He would have had years to assemble a collection, and the chances are it was them who took him out; I spoke to the harbour master who sent him on his way, and he told me that he hired a personal Companionship Asset. So, I spoke to the sleaze on the docks, and he says that this Companionship Asset was a former high society Companionship Asset, who he got cheap because she couldn't afford clothes, which meant the parlour that leased her before him let her go after the clientele she grew up with moved on and stopped hiring her. Didn't give me a name as he never bothers to learn his Companionship Assets names, but I know those high society ones. I was given a few way back then. They are taken in as children, and as children they are used to teach us how to relate to slaves, and they grow up learning how to persuade you to get you to do what they want, so that when you grow up you see through the manipulation that comes from their desperation.

    My take? The idiot probably never saw her revenge coming.

    If they haven't survived, I'll keep looking for a place where we can be free.

    But, if they have survived this long, it'll be because they're working together. My crew can stay with them; they'll have a better chance of surviving themselves if they join a larger group, and a freighter would be immensely helpful for a fledgling society.

    The survivors will probably kill me - I'm an Olinbar Pacification Asset factory owner and all that.

    I might be able to bargain for my life, but it's a risk I have to take - what matters most is it gives my crew a chance of survival and freedom.

    I have to help them; there is no choice.
     
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    Rivkah's Diary 9th Sor-Gor, 6
  • Rivkah's Diary
    9th Sor-Gor, 6 (2184)


    The ship - our first proper spaceship, built in space - comes into view. The survey data we found on the main computer included information on the other planets in the system, and Vorosh spent the first month after unlocking the computer going over the data, and she found something really good. The sublight engines on the shuttles are Deuterium-Helium reacting. Deuterium we can get; it's found in seawater. Not much, but enough that we can filter it out. But the Helium isn't the stuff that's normal Helium; normal Helium is the product of radioactive decay, whereas we need the non-radioactive decay originating version.

    Thankfully, there is a relatively small gas giant inwards from Unity that has an atmosphere mostly composed of the Helium we want. We immediately started refuelling there - basically, we attach a massive scoop with a massive tank and fly at high speed into the atmosphere to scoop off the gases and then filter them once back in space - and Mum decided we need to develop a proper refinery.

    Which means we need the ship that she's doing the final docking approach to now. There's a useful launch window coming up that can insert a ship with our rocket engines into orbit for low fuel and time cost. This one will head to the gas giant - we need to figure a proper name for it - and setup a bootstrap mining system, extract the Helium we need, then use a massive solar-powered coilgun to fire fuel canisters back to Unity.

    Once that is working, we can refuel the shuttles with much less losses in propellant, and once we figure out how to build our own engines like them, supply our own ships with fuel, at which time the coilgun will basically become that world's first artillery.

    It'll need a couple of years before we're importing anything, but once we are, we can use the shuttles to rapidly repeat the process of setting up similar mining operations elsewhere in the system. Mum says the general practice in the wider galaxy is to send massive Construction ships that go from location to location and build stuff there, but we can't do that yet.

    It has sparked a lot of debate. We're nowhere near having the ships to actually start moving people off Unity. Rhizome Of Ebony has spent this time trying to salvage the hyperlane accessing propulsion system on the crashed ship, but she says the aborted self-destruct basically left it a melted pile of landfill; too radioactive to scrap even. She thinks we can salvage the control system, but none of the hardware is repairable.

    There's a large amount of people who want to return to their homes, and because we now have astro-navigation charts, we theoretically can - Mum was hoping they would be able to take the crashed ship's drive. Shendredie has volunteered to lead the efforts to develop our own hyperlane accessing propulsion system. He's very busy now, he and his people have really gone for it; they've set up a whole new university and technology centre just to do research into physics and teach other people how to research physics.

    ---

    Had to go do stuff.

    It is exciting. For one, I get to spend much more time in space.

    I like it. It makes you feel really strong when you throw stuff around that you couldn't even lift back on Unity. I like floating. Mum switches off the artificial gravity most of the time, she doesn't like artificial gravity, gives her a kind of motion sickness. There's probably a technical term for it.

    She took me to a moon of the gas giant earlier, and we had fun in the low gravity, it was only a third of Unity's gravity. I could jump really high and really far, and fencing practice was really weird.

    Fencing...

    I worry about it. We have early warning systems now; Odoos wasn't allowed to place mines at the hyperplane breach points, but we do have radar satellites there. I used to worry MSI would just come in the night and capture me. Now I worry about the time that the siren goes off to report new contacts arriving.

    No. I do not worry about them. Not until they are here. Then I eat them.
     
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    Contact
  • "Contact"
    16th Vorosh, 8 (2186)
    Naomi Of Unity

    I wake in Buri's arms to the sound of the communicator calling. It's a nice clear night, so, I brace for the worst; if it wasn't bad, it would wait.

    "Naomi here."

    "Hyperlane tracking; we have a MSI vessel entered half an hour ago."

    "On my way."

    I turn to my sleeping husband and daughter. I clear my throat, loudly. "We have a problem."

    Rivkah wakes first, then Buri. "What is it?"

    "I'm driving."

    Her eyes go wide.



    It's a grim cloudy morning by the time we get to the command centre. Everyone is armed and armoured.

    Vaki notices us first. "Arch-Imperatrix."

    I nod to her. "Status report."

    "All combat Assets are readying."

    I turn to the main viewer. A hazy photograph looms large, with annotations added. Ykrett looks at me. "Your orders, Ma'am?"

    "Have the general population been informed?"

    "We have had an officer briefing the radio broadcasters since two hours ago."

    I smile. "Thank you. Have they reported?"

    "Not yet; they broadcast in twenty minutes." Ykrett points at the recording booth.

    I'm proud of them, they've done exactly what I trained them to do. I look at each of them in turn. "No matter what happens, I love you all." I march to the booth.



    "Welcome to the Colony News Service eight am broadcast. I'm your host Li Nakuma. It's a grey morning here at the Colony News Service, and we have with us on the line Naomi Of Unity."

    "Morning."

    "So, we were planning to launch our normal broadcast, but recent events have changed the plan. Naomi, would you explain?"

    "Approximately eight hours ago, we received visual confirmation that an MSI vessel entered our star system. Our analysts have been working through the night on the data, and we believe that the vessel is a freighter. There are no escorting warships, nor is it operating under cloak. We estimate that the vessel will take three weeks to arrive here. I am officially invoking the self-defence protocol on a colony wide basis. All reservists should have received call-up notices, and anyone wishing to volunteer is welcome."

    "Obviously, this is a really huge concern for everyone. How can a normal person ready themselves?"

    "As said, various aspects indicate this is a freighter, which we believe will be on either on some trade route and ignore us, or be an Indentured Asset Collector. The latter is what we expect, and therefore the main threat is that they will attempt to take captives once they arrive. I have therefore authorised the issue of arms to the general public in the form of small arms for anti-infantry and anti-armour rifles for use against shuttle craft. In addition, we will be making EMP grenades available."

    "How soon can people come collect?"

    "Our weapons production has been ordered to total war readiness standards by the book, and I expect armament for everyone who wants a weapon within two weeks. We should then have a further week of training before they arrive. For those wishing to collect earlier, I would advise that our colony is composed of many races, and some of us are more physically dangerous than others. As firearms are a great equaliser, we are therefore prioritising equipping our less dangerous friends first in order to give them just as good a chance of defending themselves."

    "What combat plans are being readied for engaging the enemy in space?"

    "I'm afraid that due to the risk of enemy decryption of our broadcasts, I am not able to disclose that information."

    "What encouragement would you offer the colony at this time?"

    "No matter what happens, I love you all."
     
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    Freedom
  • "Freedom"
    2186/08/05
    Valerius Albanius

    We've arrived in orbit above the continental world. We are at as high a stable orbit as possible; I don't want to risk unnerving them and sparking hostilities, as it is extremely unlikely that an MSI vessel will be welcomed.

    I wish I had been able to get another race's ship, but, well, that was a non-starter. I have ordered the ship sabotaged however; hopefully, they will perceive the damage as caused in a rebellion. My Human crew have painted - in a very convincingly sloppy manner that conveys that it was a successful rebellion of Indentured Assets - "USS Freedom" on the side in one of their languages; I'm hoping that Humans will be among the downed vessel because their homeworld, Earth, was specifically selected for visiting by the Shareholders.

    Their new homeworld?

    It's beautiful; vast forests, searing deserts, open ice caps... This is a world where many races could live, ringed by a field of rocky asteroids. Settlements are steadily spreading across the planet, and sensors indicate that they are thriving. Off world development has begun within a maximum of eight years, which is highly impressive; less than two percent of colonies founded in rebellions achieve spaceflight again in less than ten years, according to corporate estimates.

    I've got my crew working on building a radio transmitter so that we can communicate our intentions; our own communications are long past the radio stage, and it appears that either their transceiver is not used or too damaged to be used as our hails go unanswered.

    I'm hopeful though.
     
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    "Starry Night"
  • "Starry Night"
    15th Qutrok, 8 (2186)
    Naomi Of Unity

    Buri and I lay on our little precipice away from it all again, looking up at the night sky.

    We're completely alone together. Which is what I want right now. My headaches are getting headaches. I just want to snuggle up in my Buri's fur.

    While the solutions to our problems are so helpful, it's also thrown old issues back into play. Namely, how many of us want to be back home.

    The Xenaya are the only race who are fully committed to staying with the colony, because of me, Buri, Rivkah and Vaki.

    Odoos has been reduced to an opposition leader within the Lokra-Kitan following the revelation that they defeated a Flagship; probably would have been out completely if it wasn't for Valerius documenting the extortionate tribute MSI demanded as repayment.

    This has put Monica in a tough position too, as her opposite number among the crew of the Freedom - Alexandra Whyte - is sizing her up. And her defining characteristic is that she's as ambitious as her namesake.

    Shendredie is now one of the most colony supporting Thostrunaeans as he has decided that we are stronger together after all, and says that we must not take away the freighter until it is reverse-engineered. Ykrett was in shock for a good five minutes when he explained his change of perspective.

    Tryykad has been able to use the Lokra-Kitan's victory to consolidate his position on leading the Kyaese into self-defence, which is helpful.

    I used to count nine of twenty races who were mainly supporting the colony, but it's not that clearly defined any more. In some ways that's good as it means we're forming new cohesive social structures that move past racial differences, but in others it causes tensions as different members of the same family want different things.

    I snuggle closer to my husband. He wraps me up tighter in his sleep, pulling me close the way only someone who can bench press half a ton can. I listen to his chest; a thump every two seconds. Here I am, first Human woman to be happily married to a Xenaya. And all around me division is setting in again.

    Hopefully, I will sleep tonight.
     
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    Firepower
  • "Firepower"
    19th Qutrok, 8 (2186)
    Naomi Of Unity

    It's been a long time since I last inspected the weapons laboratories. Half a dozen races are here, coming up with new ways of killing Olinbar. It's where we keep the psychopaths employed in useful activities, which does contribute to why I avoid coming. Honestly, if Geoffrey hadn't told me to come, I wouldn't, but he believes he has a concept that can be competitive with thermonuclear weapons, which is preferable.

    He sees me. "Ah, Naomi! Come over here."

    I approach to see an artists' render of an extremely long railgun barrel with a ship attached to it. "We've been working on refining the design for years now, and we believe that we have a realistic solution."

    "What can it do?"

    "The design is capable of sending a three gram projectile at ninety eight thousand kilometres per second. Need we say more?"

    The numbers fly through my head, e equals mv squared over two... Fourteen and a half megajoules per pellet. Or, about the same as being hit by a car at over four hundred kilometres per hour. Ouch. "How many pellets? Armour penetration?"

    "We're using ridiculously thin Osmium rods - like assembling them in space because they bend under planetary gravity type thin. We've got the reloading time down to almost sixty six milliseconds; it looks like a beam weapon in the simulations. We can use this both against capital ships and shuttlecraft, even as flak."

    Fifteen rounds a second.... "How soon can we get them operational?"

    "As said, the rods need to be produced in space, we just can't keep them from bending. And the mineral surveys indicated that barely trace levels of the Zirconium we need for the barrels and Hafnium for the capacitor are available on Unity, but there's deposits on some of the moons in the system. We'll need to make them off world."

    "How could the enemy counter them?"

    "Well, multilayer whipple shields would basically ignore these without concentrated fire. But we've been testing the slave ship's armour; it should shred them."

    "How would they be affected by shields?"

    He shrugs. "We don't really have the technology to test them against shields."

    "What kind of ship could make them mobile?"

    "We envision that a small agile ship is built around the weapon, and it repositions to aim."

    "Are ships to mount them on designed?"

    "No. We designed the weapon as a stationary mount first."

    "How bad is the recoil?"

    "The gun masses over three hundred tonnes."

    "Point taken." I look at the design. There are advantages. For one, I don't have to authorise warships carrying thermonuclear warheads if we adopt these. But I'm a little worried. "What kind of range can we achieve?"

    "The barrel being over a hundred metres long gives it immense precision; the simulations say we can hit a nought point one square metre target at thirty kilometres away."

    I run the mathematics. Thirty kilometres to intercept a missile-sized target... That only gives a few seconds. Not so sure about them now. "And for larger warships?"

    "Simulations say we can hit a four thousand square metre target at over eight hundred kilometres away."

    If only I knew how that compared to Flagship bombardment weapons. Could be brilliant, could be useless, and I don't know. Hopefully Valerius would know. But do I trust him with this information? "I will do some checking to find out the range on MSI artillery, and if we've got the range, we'll put these into production."

    He smiles deviously.
     
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    Alexandra
  • "Alexandra"
    21st Qutrok, 8 (2186)
    Naomi Of Unity

    She reclines in a pattered red dress over her armour; it is relatively loose at the top, weighted to reveal her bronze breastplate before trailing to her bare feet, braided brown hair tied in a series of buns behind her head, sandals beside the sofa, a short spear leaned on the wall. Most interesting is that she is reviewing a star system display of defence installations. She doesn't hide it as I approach. "Good morning Alexandra."

    "It is, isn't it?" She offers wine. "Would you like some?"

    "Teetotal. Family tradition."

    She moves over on the sofa for me to sit. "What did you think of my request?"

    "I wanted to have this meeting so that we could discuss it."

    She shows me her analysis. There are some interesting proposals there. "I've been reviewing the system's defences."

    "The issue you have is that I inherently do not know what you are capable of."

    "I want to build the empire my ancestor would have built had he our technology."

    "You'll find that this is a peaceful world."

    "Don't you want to strike back at them?"

    "Of course. But that does not mean I want to conquer the galaxy."

    She shakes her head, smiling. "Why would I stop at just one galaxy?"

    "Because we're a rebellion, we're outnumbered a hundred to one, and are below our enemies in technology."

    "I believe it is my birthright to take from them." She stares at my eyes. "I don't want to make an enemy of you Naomi."

    I stare right back. "Good, I'd kill you if you did."

    She smiles again. "Really?"

    "How many Olinbar have you killed?"

    "None." Her voice is soft, briefly. "Yet."

    "Five confirmed one on one kills, possibly more in the battle that followed. First one while unarmed and naked against a starship Captain with a knife and pistol. Then I led the revolution."

    Her eyes go wide, then quizzical. "Why were you naked?"

    "I was a Companionship Asset."

    She smiles as she figures out what that meant. "That must have felt so cathartic when you put that Captain on the ground."

    "I was busy thinking about how I needed to link up with the rest of the slaves so that we could take the ship actually."

    She knows I don't intend to let her lead, I can see it in her eyes. "I am asking here, Naomi."

    I point at the display. "Alexandra, you have seen our situation. I cannot risk having someone in command who is seeking their own glory - we're outnumbered a hundred to one at least, we're way behind our enemies on technology. We're a rebellion."

    She leans in, wanting to cling to a chance. "I can do teamwork too."

    I smile to her. She realises she has just walked straight into my trap.

    "Damn. You're going to hold me to that, aren't you?"

    "If you can do teamwork, then you can lead."

    She takes my hand. "We can work together."

    "I'd prefer we did." Now I leverage my hook. "Alexander believed in 'to the strongest', yes?"

    "True."

    "What if we had a wargames contest?"

    Her eyes light up. "I'll start preparing."

    "Just remember what I am looking for here."

    She smiles. "I will. Teamwork."

    She turns back to her display, and I walk away; I might be able to make a useful officer out of her.
     
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    Wargames, Part 1
  • "Wargames, Part 1"
    27th Qutrok, 8 (2186)
    Ykrett

    "Naomi, a word."

    She spins her chair to face me. "What's on your mind?"

    "This wargames exercise."

    "Yes?"

    "We agreed Buri would command ground forces, I would command space, and you would be Arch-Imperatrix."

    "Yes."

    "So what is the point of it?"

    "I need you and Buri to put Alexandra in her place before she decides to become a problem; I'd rather she sees that she's not as good as you two and decides to settle down, and not become a problem that means I have to kill her before she tries to kill me."

    That has to be exaggerated. Has to be. "How bad is she? I know you make contingency plans like that, but you don't normally reveal them."

    She shakes her head. "She threatened that she might try to kill me in the first proper conversation I had with her."

    I sit down. It's worse than even I thought. "Naomi... We should get rid of her, now."

    "If we humble her enough to make her not quite as over-confident, she has the makings of a good officer."

    "And what if she is the second coming of this Alexander?"

    "Alexander conquered his first nation as a child Ykrett. Alexandra by contrast, read books on her ancestor's exploits. And we can skew the test against what she studied as Alexander never fought a conflict like ours."

    "Are you really sure she'll lose?"

    "She has knowledge, but no experience beyond being Valerius' tactical officer. Besides, if she does win, I can keep Buri with me."

    "What if she beats me and loses to Buri?"

    "Well, we will need Admirals more than we need Generals. And we decided on us three because we were the best from the colony; we are in a situation where the right officer could mean the difference between victory and defeat, and that works in both directions dealing with someone like Alexandra."

    "I don't like the idea Naomi. She's the kind of person who kills to get what she wants. Leaving her undealt with will cause issues."

    "I agree. But I hope that I can show her the error of her ways, rather than going straight to taking her out. Besides, if we don't try to reshape her, she could slip away and become a much bigger problem. I'd rather have her where I can see her."

    "May I speak freely?"

    "Always."

    "You're making a mistake. I want to go on record as saying there is something wrong with her, and I don't want to risk having her being in command."

    She nods. "Understood, and you aren't alone on that; she's Starscream to my Megatron. It isn't you and Buri who are in her sights. But, I'm still asking to set up the wargames."

    I wonder what those references are to. "Why?"

    "Because when this war starts in earnest, we will still need a test to put prospective officers through."

    It's a reasonable suggestion in that sense. "I hope you know what you are doing."

    I walk away. At least my position is secure.
     
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    Heiress Of Macedon
  • "Heiress Of Macedon"
    30th Qutrok, 8 (2186)
    Alexandra

    Everybody wants to rule the worlds.

    Me especially.

    It is the destiny of Humanity to rule the universe.

    Anaxarchus told my ancestor that there were an infinite number of worlds. He knew then our destiny. 'Do you not think it a matter worthy of lamentation that when there is such a vast multitude of them, we have not yet conquered one?' He died too early to see his empire outlive him. Too early to achieve what he could have achieved. Another twenty years would have seen him vanquish Rome before it headed east.

    I'm the heir of Alexander. Not by lineage, but through strength of will - he left his empire to the strongest.

    I will be, must be, the strongest.

    But also, I'm not so blinded by my brilliance to think that I'm there already, or that I can't think things through. I was definitely the best on the freighter, but there's a lot of really good people here - Naomi especially is someone who makes me worry. I don't know if I can beat her.

    Do I have the logical consistency to acknowedge that she might be the strongest, and the implications thereof?

    One of the best things about being a woman is that it reshapes how you view competition; there's less 'win-at-all-costs' mentality. A relationship diarchy isn't going to happen - she's married to a Xenaya. But we could be Strategoi together.

    But, I owe it to myself to try to prove myself better.
     
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    Goodbye
  • "Goodbye"
    1st Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
    Duxanek

    I wear the shawl of remembrance as I walk their colony's graveyard. It's first light, filtering through the trees. It's a small graveyard, for there are few who are elderly among the slaves. Nearly all these people died in accidents; mostly accidents with local fauna, or industrial accidents.

    There's two memorials to those killed by MSI; one for confirmed dead, the other for presumed dead. The names are handwritten, with a movable protective panel to protect them from the elements.

    The first begins with "To all those who could not be with us; you are not forgotten. Requiescat in Pace."

    I can't bear to read the list. I try, but I'm in tears facing the prospect by the time I've read just 'Mum and Dad, Atalyah and Marcus HaMaadimi; Naomi'. Her now husband wrote next, 'Mother and sister Duri and Bini B'Than'. The third person is Odoos.

    Oh, no...

    My heart breaks for Odoos, he wrote his wife and all his eight children...

    I persevere through what must be millions of names of those not forgotten, and I pick up the pen.

    'Brother Faragulek; Duxanek'

    I can contain it no more - I weep beneath open sky as twilight descends.
     
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    A New Beginning
  • "A New Beginning"
    2nd Hoggagha 8, (2186)
    Naomi Of Unity

    "Mrs Naomi Of Unity, are you available for a conversation?"

    I look at the reptilian. A Quzzi, she stands a little over a metre and a half. Wearing an MSI medical gown that has definitely seen better days. "Yes. Who are you?"

    "I'm Duxanek. It was my brother who..." She pauses, takes several deep breaths. "...I am Valerius' Chief Medical Officer. I wanted to offer my services in a similar position here at the colony."

    "We don't actually have a CMO, so if you want the job, you've got it for lack of anyone else to be compared to."

    "Wow. Um, why not?"

    "Duxanek, I have more than two hundred thousand people who will follow me into battle, but I have no one with sufficient breadth of medical knowledge to adequately treat the twenty two races represented here on Unity since your arrival. As a result, I decided to make it policy that we would have each race have it's own medics trained in their own care."

    "I understand. Would I be allowed to try to form a communal health service?"

    I smile. "Sure." I reach across to my filing cabinet. "Somewhere in here is my directory for all the trained medics in the Colony., give me a moment." I find it, and pass it to her. "I'm curious as to why you ask?"

    "I visited your graveyard and the memorials to the dead and the missing. I noticed that the most common causes of death were accidents."

    "It's a statistical overrepresentation because of the demographics of slaves and the implications on natural mortality rates."

    "I know. MSI recycle the sick and the elderly. But I thought I could do some good too."

    "And I'm grateful. Are you still living on the freighter?"

    "Yes, I haven't moved to the planet yet."

    "Ok, well, I'd suggest it would be better to take up residence planetside."

    "Who should I speak to for housing permits?"

    I laugh. "Please, as long as the structure is safe, we literally do not care what you build or where. Once our population grows to the point Unity is fairly well settled, that may well change, but for now we have all agreed that having spent years, decades or more being cooped up with hot bunking, nearly all of us hate that and so people can put up a home wherever they like, however they like it. We do have a policy that we only subsidise the first dwelling though, simply because we are still building up the industrial capability to support expected population growth."

    "I understand now. Thank you, I look forward to meeting you in the future."

    I try - and fail - to stifle a laugh. She looks horrified. "Oh I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry..."

    "It's ok Duxanek, I couldn't help it. I look forward to seeing what you come up with."
     
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    Canvas
  • "Canvas"
    6th Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
    Duxanek

    As I walk down Marius' Passing - the city is laid out as an inner circle with the civic functions inside the inner circle with the main distribution spokes leading to habitation, commercial and industrial districts - what strikes me is the words of a Quzzi Governor several centuries ago; 'Architecture is the identity of a people, writ large in a canvas of durocrete.'

    For a start, the road names. They are either numbered if they are minor routes or they consist of Olinbar name and a synonym for end if a major route. It's simultaneously impressive and disturbing in what it reveals about the person who came up with it.

    But what stands out...

    I'm walking past a plain white painted brick house. What's remarkable about it is just that; no other building on this route is painted white, or made of uniform bricks put together to form four external walls. The house next to it consists of a wide tree with thick fabric walls hanging down. The next is huge, with doors four times my height. For a moment I think the next house is just an adjacent garden until I see it's Plantoid residents basking in the daylight.

    Now, I don't think Carax had this quite in mind when he made the statement, but he's correct here. This street alone has dozens of architectural styles, and they clash!

    But somehow it brings a vibrancy, a feeling of freedom, of creativity.

    It makes me think of my own house, now I'm moving down from the freighter. Quzzi architecture was always a functionalist style, we are not a people who are fond of extravagance. But what is functionalist architecture in a place like this? A place where a handmade (you can tell by the way none of the cuts are straight) wooden cabin will sit beside a massive boulder that has nesting tunnels carved into it?

    Should my house be something crazy that fits the eclectic neighbourhood, or something traditional? Would traditional be out of place here?

    But that's when it hits me; a traditional Quzzi home would be no more out of place than anything else here, that's what the colony is all about, bringing together so many different people and creating something new together.

    At last, I arrive at my destination, a unique blend of a stone raised platform, with a wooden building, painted a light brown with decorative pictograms, with an ornate and multilayered tiled roof around a radio broadcast tower poking high out above the roof. Time to propose my idea to the public and see what the response is.
     
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    Wargames, Part 2
  • "Wargames, Part 2"
    6th Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
    Alexandra

    One of the perks of staying aboard the freighter is I have access to the sensors; they're much more sophisticated than the probes built by the colony, and can track the star system in real time, without the light travel time delay.

    And with most other people moving to the surface, I've gained two more quarters for my use; I took everything out, even the walls of one so that I could use the sensors to build a scale map of the star system in one of them. From here, I can plan all my scenarios for the wargames.

    Naomi still hasn't announced when the wargames will be, as the colony's plan is to integrate the Bevkirans as sapient combat computers, with Ykrett volunteering as proof of concept. While it absolutely convinces me of Ykrett and Naomi both being willing to win at all costs, which gives me a great deal to think about, it does mean that it really isn't right to have the wargames yet - it doesn't answer the question of who is better because Ykrett's fundamentally brilliant plan has teething difficulties.

    Still. I've been reviewing fleet capability.

    Naomi's colony is very much into building weapons, as you'd expect for a bunch of furious ex-slaves. She's developed the best case for realistic boarding I've seen for a space-combat scenario given the situation in hand, and every day that passes the more militant members of the colony are developing bigger weapons. For example, Geoffrey Erickson announced last week his team has had a breakthrough in their understanding of capacitor design and materials that allows him to make a revision to the kinetic artillery, and is now aiming for combat-effective ranges in excess of a thousand kilometres by the end of the year. Everyone was delighted, until Valerius pointed out that in order to have any chance in a head to head fight we need combat-effective ranges in the light seconds; that's three hundred times further.

    Geoffrey has gone back to the drawing board. His new plan, published this morning, calls for figuring out how to use a thermonuclear bomb as the propulsion for a similarly tiny projectile; we don't have any other feasible way of generating the terawatt inputs needed without putting enough nuclear reactors into each weapon to power the entire planet's electricity demand.

    And that is still only at the very minimum of light-second combat-effective ranges, if we can even manage it.

    I am very glad Naomi's plan relies on beating the Olinbar in wits and tactics, as we are stuffed if they fight as clever as we will.
     
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    A Day In The Life Of:
  • A Day In The Life Of:
    Valerius Albanius - 6th Hoggagha 8 (2186)
    6am:
    I awake in my small home, go to my garden where I pick some seasonal fruits and collect eggs, before heading back to the kitchen for breakfast.

    7am:
    Wide awake and off to the Council Chambers. Once again, I wonder why Naomi opted to name the roads into the junction after two former CEOs of MSI, and once again I decide I don't really want to know the answer.

    8am:
    Listen to the morning address; learn Duxanek is giving a talk on the Colony News Service about her ideas for a ministry of health at 3pm. Should be interesting.

    9am:
    Sit in on Naomi's video-conference on Geoffrey's latest weapon idea before he does the public announcement for peer review.

    10am:
    Consult with Daas and Ykrett on their project.

    11am:
    Stop for lunch.

    Midday:
    Listen to Geoffrey's announcement.

    1pm:
    Call in about whether he has evaluated the old Human concept of the Orion Drive when he opens discussions for comment.

    2pm:
    Listen as Li Nakuma gives a brief explanation of Humanity's history with nuclear weapons, including about how - many generations ago - he had an ancestor who survived both of the atomic weapons used in their World War Two.

    3pm:
    Duxanek outlines her proposal for a communal health service based on the easiest areas to make interspecies-capable; immediate accident and emergency care, linked to species-specific services for non-immediately life-threatening medical situations, and proposes some areas that she believes could be handled more efficiently by a centralised service.

    4pm:
    Return home to tend the garden and animals.

    5pm:
    Drive to an overlook.

    6pm:
    Look out from the overlook over the city.

    7pm:
    Return home, retire to bed.
     
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    Arsenal Of Freedom
  • "Arsenal Of Freedom"
    27th Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
    Alexandra

    I arrive at the main building. On the gateway is this: 'Give me liberty, or give me death.' Carved in the stonework. The graffiti on the doors of the gate?

    An Olinbar head riding a mushroom cloud. Says it all really.

    And when you stop to think that five races progressed to Early Space era technologies and developed nuclear weapons, the rate of progress doesn't sound so surprising.

    Three weeks since Geoffrey put forward a proposal for using nuclear bombs to propel a kinetic artillery weapon. That's how long it's taken them to put together a proposal on how to make it happen. I sit down in the conference; I'm with Ykrett and Rhizome Of Ebony on the military side of the seating area. Naomi and Rivkah sit in the middle. Monica and various non-military staff on the far side.

    Geoffrey enters. "Ladies and gentlemen. Me and my team have spent the last three weeks developing our ideas for thermonuclear boosted kinetic artillery. As always, we began with brainstorming ideas."

    A slide with an asteroid with a cylinder dug out is placed on the projector.

    "This is what we believe is the most feasible weapon we can build. This is a single use platform, we don't expect most asteroids to be strong enough for repeated use - they must be more than five hundred metres in radius to have sufficient confidence that the asteroid itself will not be reduced to a mini debris field."

    Slide changes to a mechanism display. "The bomb detonates in the middle of the asteroid, with our projectile in the tube. The immense pressure releasd by the bomb vaporising the silicate hits the projectile and partially vaporises it, accelerating the rest of the projectile."

    Slide changes to a pie chart depicting the expected energy distribution. "As can be seen, the process is highly inefficient; real world scenario I'd consider anything over one percent as brilliant."

    Next slide; series of calculations. "The good news is, by the time we come up with optimised distribution of mass that leaves as much of the projectile vaporised as possible and the remainder heading towards an enemy vessel extremely fast, we should be able to eventually achieve muzzle velocities in the region of three million metres per second."

    The slide changes again, to an extremely long tube. "As said in the introduction, that was the assessment if you were to ask us 'MSI warship inbound, we need it ASAP.'. If we have more development time and resources, we believe that we can make this."

    Slide changes to a close-up. "This is a multi-staged and far more controllable weapon that detonates numerous much lower yield weapons to give a smoother acceleration with more consistent results. The downside is it is incredibly big and bulky, as the sheer volume of metal needed to resist the forces of repeated nuclear detonations leaves us contemplating a barrel several hundred metres thick. However, as said this is in the region of two hundred million tonnes of steel."

    He places the last slide; a graph showing the expected variations in performance. "As can be seen, the expected outcomes are highly variable. We are still in the position of hiding in asteroids and luring them in. But now we can kill a Flagship."

    He removes the slide. "Any questions?"

    I put a hand up first. "How soon could you build one?"

    "The asteroid type I can have combat ready in a few days from arrival at the asteroid; we could start immediately if needed. The second type needs far greater space industrialisation to build."

    I review my list of asteroids in the system. Hmm. "How tight is that five hundred metres radius?"

    "If the asteroid structure is compromised, there is no control over the direction of the projectile, or the highly radioactive materials that will remain. I cannot stress enough that as little as five hundred metres in radius is an absolute minimum; even at that size the damage to the asteroid can seriously affect projectile performance."

    "Was staging within the asteroid considered?"

    "Yes. We evaluated however that sequential detonations would cause greater shock within the asteroid, and would be more likely to cause structural failure."

    Daas asks the next question. "I noted that Valerius advised a consideration of an Orion-type propulsion. Was this evaluated?"

    "Yes. Unfortunately, while it makes a workable space ship propulsion, the resulting craft is effectively a high payload fraction rocket, and therefore is subject to much longer acceleration times that mean the critical advantage of this type of weapon system is lost."

    Monica puts her hand up. "Supposing a suitable asteroid is within Unity's ring, what would be the expected effects on Unity of using such a weapon?"

    "Assuming that the asteroid does not suffer structural failure, then the damage to the planet should be less than our previous scenario of utilising nuclear warheads against orbital bombardment capable MSI vessels, and from that perspective we are in substantial improvements. Adverse effects are still expected however, most notably we still anticipate the need for EMP shielding for several thousand kilometres of Unity's surface."

    "And if the asteroid explodes?"

    "The effects would be somewhat reduced relative to an otherwise normal nuclear detonation, but there's a risk of deorbiting asteroid debris, of which most would burn up in the atmosphere, with some chunks surviving to impact."

    I look at Naomi. "I have my list of asteroids here. None of the ones around Unity are suitable."

    She looks at me. "Which candidate is nearest?"

    "MSI charts called it Kidore IV-Tethys MCIX. Six hundred and twenty metres average radius, minimum point is four hundred and three though..."

    Everyone looks at Geoffrey. He shakes his head. "I have to veto."

    Rivkah speaks. "What if we restructure it ourselves, and fill in the gap?"

    Geoffrey replies hesitantly. "We'd need to trim it to approximately spherical anyway. It might be feasible. But I would not recommend putting a bodged together asteroid in Unity orbit for this."

    Naomi has a decision. "Next nearest?"

    I look at the list. " Kidore BT-Icarus XII, in the asteroid field, on the innermost edge. Right size too." It's a bit far. "The energy to move it would be massive though."

    Naomi goes into her contemplative face. "Let's move Icarus that little bit closer to the star. I want a plan put together and up for review best possible speed."

    Geoffrey smiles. "On our way, Arch-Imperatrix."
     
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