Bryce
“Excuse me, I was told that we could find Milohsh down here. Would you be able to point us in their direction?” I asked a nearby man who was working on an electrical conduit embedded in the floor. He looked up at me with a vacant stare before nodding slowly then wordlessly going back to his conduit. We were deep in the bowels of Paradise, near the center of the station. Here, the ships that made up the super-structure were extremely dated. I could even recognize a few designs from history texts. Although, they were surprisingly well-maintained despite their obvious age.
“Captain Virra?”
I turned to see a middle-aged human walking towards us. He was a little taller than me, and his neatly trimmed, gray-streaked black hair gave him something of an elegant appearance. One that even his grease coated coveralls couldn’t fully hide. “That’s right. I was told to prioritize meeting with Milohsh now that I’m a captain, and that they could be found down here.”
“You were informed correctly. We apologize for not having a verbal individual here when you arrived. We weren’t certain you were coming.”
“That’s entirely fair. I was originally planning on arriving earlier, but we had an unexpected visitor last night, which complicated things. Then further complicated the matter when they returned this morning.”
“This visitor wouldn’t happen to be Captain Fiona, would it?” Milohsh frowned at me. “She assured the rest of the council that she wouldn’t approach you until after your introductory meeting, and that she wouldn’t leverage the fact that you’re currently docking in her sector. Although, she’s no doubt expecting that to reflect favorably in future dealings.”
“Is she now? Maybe if she’s dealing with Ithnaa, but I wasn’t here when that deal was made and I fully intend to move to my own sector as soon as possible to avoid exactly those sorts of obligations. But, no, it wasn’t Captain Fiona.”
Their frown deepened. “You misunderstand. The favor she’s looking to garner is from the other council members, not you.”
“Excuse me?” I stared back at them, not sure how to respond. Thea, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have the same issue.
“Oh, gods. Princess, she’s babysitting you because nobody else wants you in their territory.”
Milohsh gave me an apologetic half-smile, all but confirming Thea’s theory. “I believe the term used was placating, not babysitting. The prevailing sentiment is that you’ll be useful in the upcoming war against the Syndicate, and that you’re likely to leave when it’s over. Historically, gods haven’t stayed on Paradise for long before moving on to other projects.”
“I mean, are they wrong?” Thea asked. “We don’t really have any plans for after we kill Mother, do we?”
We didn’t, but that was mostly because I wasn’t convinced we could actually kill her. Even if we somehow managed, then I would still need to convince Tess that I should be allowed to live. Which was a problem, because I wasn’t actually sure I should be.
Not because I wanted to die, I definitely didn’t, but because of how dangerous the spells I knew were. If we couldn’t stop Mother from casting my mana engine spell, then any argument I could come up with around protecting dangerous knowledge would almost certainly fall on deaf ears. And rightfully so.
“I’m not sure what we’re doing after we kill Mother,” I finally admitted. “Although, I don’t exactly appreciate being doubted when I haven’t even been a captain for a full day.”
“If it’s any consolation, we have yet to see anybody question your power or ability. Just your motivation.” Milohsh nodded back down the hall. “Would you mind following us to an office space? There’s quite a lot to go over, and this individual is needed for work elsewhere.”
“Of course. Please, lead the way.”
We followed them through the hall, deeper into the station and past any number of ‘individuals’ silently working, until eventually reaching a nondescript metal door. Milohsh tapped a code into the nearby console, causing the door to open and revealing a nearly bare office. A blonde, feminine elf sat primly behind a desk in front of a holographic display, typing into a terminal.
“Please, take a seat and this individual will go over the vital information as well as answer any questions you might have.” The masculine individual directed us inside, and we sat in the two comfortable chairs in front of the desk.
“Captain Dimitri’s territory was the third largest amongst council members,” the feminine elf started without any preamble. “Unfortunately, his crew has a history of killing any individual we send to handle maintenance. As a result, the infrastructure is severely lacking, and in some cases, completely non-functional. That’s to say nothing of the sanitation and living conditions, which are both extremely sub-par.”
“I read the reports. Do you have an estimation of how long it would take to undo the damage if you were given complete access?” I asked, and they nodded.
“Four days assuming there’s no interference. Are you planning on exterminating the current residents?”
“Uh, no. Not if it can be prevented,” I answered distractedly. Four days was unbelievably fast to undo more than three decades’ worth of damage across what was a truly massive territory. “What can you tell me about the goblin political situation? It wasn’t included in the reports, and I’m assuming you’ve been monitoring it.”
Milohsh raised an eyebrow as they finally stopped typing on the holographic keyboard. “You’re serious about replacing Dimitri as the leader of the goblins? It would be easier to simply wipe them out and lease the space to freelancers. Likely much more profitable as well.”
“Possibly, but my understanding was that Dimitri had the largest crew on Paradise. Which could easily translate to the largest fleet, given enough time and resources. Whereas if I leased the space to freelancers, it would mean going from the largest crew to by far the smallest.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“We believe that to be… optimistic,” Milohsh responded after a short delay.
“That’s me. Glass is always half-full,” I deadpanned, which caused Thea to snort. I ignored her and repeated my previous question. “Do you have information on the politics? It’s hard for me to believe that you don’t have some method of watching the sector.”
“We do, of course.” Milohsh went back to typing as they continued their response. “There are five clans in total, but two of them seem to have the majority of decision-making power. Dimitri was able to leverage this by marrying the two clan leaders, and using them to force the other three into line.”
My girlfriend, the four-hundred-year-old devil, was giggling beside me, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. “No, Thea, I’m not marrying a pair of goblins.”
“Come on, Bryce, you were the one who brought up polyamory in Hel, right? You should keep an open mind here. I mean, you haven’t even met them yet.”
“If we were opening up our relationship--which we definitely are not doing--then I could think of so many other women I’d rather bring in than a pair of random goblins.”
“Oh really? Now, you have to name names.” Thea leaned over and was grinning up at me.
“I refuse.” There was no way I was outing myself here, so I returned to the actually relevant conversation with Milohsh. Who was now grinning to themself while pretending to ignore us. “What can you tell me about the three minority clans?”
“Nessy is one of them, isn’t she?” Thea asked, and I didn’t respond, but I could feel a blush creeping in on my cheeks. She definitely noticed. “I knew it!”
“I never said she was,” I countered.
“Didn’t have to. It was all over your face.” She finally sat back into her seat, and I didn’t even need to look at her to know she wore a smug grin. “Just wait until I tell Es. He’s going to love this.”
“I must say, Captain Virra, you’re not at all what I expected from your reputation.”
“So few people are.” I sighed as I leaned forward. “Now, please, the minority clans. What can you tell me about them?”
“I can provide you with an extensive written report, but individually, there’s nothing particularly interesting about any one of the clans. At least, from an outsider’s perspective. The only thing that really sets the decision-making leaders apart is an uncanny ability to work together. Something entirely unheard of amongst goblin clans.”
“And you suspect that was caused by Dimitri’s marriage?” I asked, which caused Milohsh to frown at me.
“As far as we’re aware, that’s the only unique variable.”
“As far as you’re aware? How confident are you, actually?” They mentioned earlier that the individuals they sent to the sector were killed, but they were still somehow able to gather information and I was curious as to how.
“Far less confident than we would be if the sector core were still intact, but despite that we’ve managed to maintain a nearly thirty-seven percent coverage with mycelium, which provides something akin to audio-visual feedback. Then another seventy-eight percent coverage through spores capable of limited audio perception.”
I had a million questions and absolutely no idea where to even start. Thankfully, Thea solved that issue for me by asking the first question. “What’s a sector core? Is it like what Softie has on the ship?”
I was about to say that was ridiculous when Milohsh stopped me in my tracks by nodding. “That’s correct. Paradise is far too large of a station for a single navigation core, instead we install one in each sector. Ideally, that’s thirty-six in total, but as we previously mentioned, the core in your sector has been destroyed.”
“How do you manage thirty-five cores at once?” I asked. “That seems like an absurd amount of information to process, and if each contains a fragment of your soul like a normal navigator’s core, then how do you deal with losing one?”
“We use high-capacity individuals to process the information. These individuals also offer a portion of their soul for the creation of the core as to not risk the soul of the collective. Typically, this is a low-risk endeavor since the station is rarely in danger of catastrophic damage and the cores themself are very heavily defended. However, the goblins have proven to be… tenacious.”
“You actually want me to kill them, don’t you?” I asked in surprise. They had said earlier that they were expecting me to exterminate the goblins, but I had assumed that was just because of my reputation on Paradise. Not because they were hoping I would.
“That’s correct. Typically, the residents of Paradise and the station are symbiotic. Both by providing individuals for the collective and by adding to it with the ships that they capture. The goblins, however, are far more parasitic. Borderline cancerous. It caused no lack of tension between us and Captain Dimitri.”
“Why haven’t you just killed them yourself?” I asked, then added another possibility that I didn’t understand well and was hoping bringing it up would cause them to explain. “Or even assimilated them into your collective?”
“We took a binding oath not to harm or assimilate residents of Paradise unless they willingly offer themself to the collective. There are exceptions, but none that apply here.”
“What sort of exceptions?” Thea sounded worried, and I didn’t blame her. Accidentally meeting the requirements for one of those exceptions would be pretty bad.
“There’s self-defense, of course, but only if the collective as a whole is in danger. Additionally, a captain may offer a member of their crew, or in the event of a unanimous vote, the council may elect to offer one of their own. Naturally, the individual being offered is excluded from the vote.”
“How often does that happen?” I asked in a surprisingly small voice.
“It’s only happened once since the founding of Paradise, when Captain Aoyama orchestrated a political coup against the then council leader, Captain Aeliana Milohsh. Her position has remained vacant ever since, and there’s an unspoken agreement amongst the council to never suggest that a member be offered again.”
That was something of a relief. Although, an unspoken agreement wasn’t actually worth all that much in the scheme of things. I didn’t doubt for a second that it would be conveniently forgotten if the council considered one of their members to be enough of a threat. That was problematic for me, since I hadn’t exactly been all that diplomatic while dealing with the other captains.
Thea interrupted my musing by bringing up something I definitely should have noticed earlier. “So, Captain Aeliana Milohsh, that’s where your name comes from, right? And probably also the elf in the council chambers?”
“That’s correct on both accounts. Prior to assimilating Captain Milohsh, we were simply referred to as ‘The Collective’, or less accurately but more commonly, ‘The Station.’ Using Captain Milohsh as the individual to attend meetings was suggested by Captain Aoyama. Likely as an attempt to remind the remaining council members of the exception. Now, it’s more of a tradition than anything else.”
“Well, it’s a tradition that I won’t soon forget. Would you mind sending the report on the goblins you mentioned to my navigator? Then I was hoping to schedule a council meeting. Captain Penn told me you would be the one to talk to about that.”
“We can, and that’s correct. When would you like to schedule it for?”
“The day after tomorrow, in the evening, if that’s not too soon.”
“It’s not. However, attending a council meeting isn’t mandatory, and with the current council size, at least five members are required to establish a quorum. Anything less and decisions can’t be made. It’s possible that such short notice may make it difficult for people to attend.”
“I understand. Please, go ahead and schedule it.”
“Consider it done. Was there anything else you needed?”
I thought about it for just a moment before nodding. “One last thing. Could you reach out to Captain Aoyama to let her know that I’m on my way to Zen’s bar and would appreciate it if she met me there?”