December 17th, 2267. 09:17 Vosture Prime – John’s Homestead
John was stunned at the revelation. Then he grew deeply disappointed at the deceased agents assigned to this world. He didn’t know any of them personally, but their adherence to the standards of Naval Intelligence was awful. Agents were never allowed to use personal electronic devices due to their being at risk of being tracked.
A regulation that John himself violated numerous times. A bit hypocritical on his part as he broke that very same standard innumerable times in the past. Though in John’s defense, his personal devices were much more challenging to source back to who owned them.
“I wonder how many other agents eschew the rules. You lucked out that not one, but all of the agents here violated the regulations,” John said before taking a drink.
“It wasn’t luck…”
“You misunderstand me, I’m not making light of the efforts of you and your team. They, and you, completed an intelligence blitzkrieg that is seriously impressive. But that was due in no small part to their eschewing of the rules. They allowed themselves to be easily tracked.”
Elias stared at John, “Don’t interrupt the enemy when they are making a mistake.”
“So true. We must take advantage of our mistakes whenever we can,” John said, “Tell me, how did you convince Dale Rosberg to join your side?”
“He never joined our side per se.”
“Surely you corrupted him in some way. How did you accomplish that?”
“It’s a tale as old as time,” Elias grinned.
“Money. You became the primary donor for him.”
Elias nodded.
“But you had to have done more to get this man to so completely buy into your plan. You mentioned that you made contact with him while you were traveling to us.”
“I suppose since you’ll either be dead or in our custody forevermore it can’t hurt to tell you. We have numerous paper corporations, left behind before our exodus, that was hidden. We’ve been sending our agents to your space, posing as immigrants or individuals requesting asylum for over sixty years.”
John nodded, “They come here for two reasons, right? The first getting practical experience on how to blend in and become better agents. The second is to manage these funds, which enable you to do and afford missions like this.”
Elias smiled, “Smart guy. Yes, that is correct. This was the first time that the money was used for such an overt operation beyond the necessities of our personnel living in this space.”
John wanted to smile, but he hid his emotions well. An intelligence cache was acquired by him several months ago, during the killing of one of Elias’ lieutenants. How would he extract the key to opening the cache? He would partition that away within his mind while the two men conversate.
“Ok, so that explains how you were able to donate to his campaign. That also means, and I’m assuming here, that you have communication buoys that are able to tap into the extra-net signal.”
“You are correct. Though the buoys are low power, so we really only have access to text communications and don’t have the ability to have video feeds until we’re much closer to your territory.”
“I’m sorry for diverging this conversation a bit, as I do want to circle back to this topic, but why are attempting an invasion?”
“To unite mankind,” Elias said proudly.
John was confused, “For what gain? Purpose? Humanity is and always has been a fractious group. Let’s say you take out each of the three governments here, you don’t have the numbers to occupy all the worlds. Rebellion will be commonplace across the space here.”
“We will put down those rebellions.”
“The more you squeeze, the more the people will escape and fight back. Could the Confederacy defeat the Alliance in a war? You are damn sure we could,” John said before taking another sip of his drink, “But holding that space? Good fucking luck with that. We may be able to secure and hold a few border systems but that’s realistically all that we could do.”
“You think we are attempting the impossible?”
“Let’s face facts, Elias, starting a war is simple. You and I both could easily accomplish that feat, though it may end in our deaths. But we could start a war with the right action. There is no way that you Xenuians have the number of ships and bodies necessary to take over all of this space.”
“Our ships are far more advanced than yours. And we’ve been focused on growing our population at an exponential rate.”
John nodded, “The only way that would be possible is artificial wombs. And doing that for any period of time degrades the family unit. Does the state determine the donors?”
“I suppose I must provide wisdom to the unwise. When we reached our home world our first leader, Admiral Cato Olson helped form our society.”
“Another Roman name. I don’t suppose that’s related to all of these Roman names and ranks?”
“His parents were archaeologists and he himself was quite fond of Rome,” Elias chuckled, “Less so the times Rome itself was sacked or when it fell. He is quoted as saying that Rome represented the most optimal way of governing people and running a professional army.”
“I’d argue otherwise but the way in which they ran the professional army was impressive at the time. Though I think we are doing a better job of that in modern times.”
“Obviously he made a fair few modifications to suit our more modern times. He took up the position of Legatus Legionis, the high commander of all of our armed forces. The leader of the military also sits at the head of the senate, though the senate themselves does have the ability to override his decisions on laws.”
Elias continued, “One of the ships contained a prototype artificial womb. Additional prototypes were constructed. By the time we reached our home world a final design was then put into mass production. You may find this repugnant but enshrined in our laws is the expectation that couples produce large families. The state will provide the children for them to raise if they are unable or unwilling to have their own. Betrothals are quite commonplace, the state can even step in and force certain pairings.”
“Forced betrothal?” John asked curiously.
“It was expected that families work with one another to find partners for their children. Failure to accomplish that would result in the state finding a genetic match. In the early days, the state had to sign off on such betrothals.”
“For what reason would the state need to sign off on such a union?”
“For genetic purity.”
John sighed loudly, “Your government was conducting a widescale eugenics program. Trying to build the perfect society with perfect people.”
“Home sapiens plus was viewed as a step back genetically. We had a view of perfecting our genetics, the second generation was the first to receive gene modification in utero to produce a more hardy and better species.”
“Are you finding the need for more modifications now in comparison to previous generations?” John asked.
Elias looked confused. He paused and thought deeply about the question. There were reports that their purported gene purity was more difficult to achieve, but those reports were often linked to salacious rumors. What did this ape of a man know?
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“Why would that happen?”
“Human life, at least from the eugenic programs that the trio of superpowers here has conducted, has proven that our species possesses an innate tendency to fight back rather aggressively to being shoehorned into what we’d like it to be. Are any children naturally conceived?”
Elias ignored John’s first comment and answered the second, “No more than three children of the family are conceived that way. Though when that is done the women are required to go to our hospitals and ensure the fetus meets purity standards. If not, modifications to their genome are done in utero.”
“By the second or third kid the women are done being poked and prodded are they not?”
Elias nodded, “All families now are expected to have not less than ten children. In the early days, only three were allowed to be biologically their children. Now it is a fairly rare scenario for any family to be given a child that is not biologically theirs. But it is not unheard of either.”
“One way to eliminate family lineages is the state dictates whether people can breed. By the way, how large were the families initially?” John asked.
“Some could handle a child a year, but most families didn’t exceed twenty-five children during their prime years.”
John chuckled to himself.
“You mock our society building?”
“I understand the necessity of doing what you did to expand the population rapidly. I can even appreciate the use of technology to accomplish that. But you lot have been away for a hundred and thirty years. That’s three to four generations at most. The math dictates that you don’t have the sheer numbers required for occupation of our space.”
“You have…”
“The Confederacy also has artificial wombs, though its use is much rarer in comparison to yours. We had hundreds of families for every one of you during the great expansion. Four to six children per family. In just one hundred fifty years humanity, at least those loyal to the Confederacy, has gone from eight billion people to within sight of a trillion. Certainly, a trillion when we add up the totality of human souls in the galaxy.”
“Our technological superiority will enable us to win the void war. Taking control of the planets will be…”
“What will you do to disloyal planets? Glass cities and colonies from orbit? That’s a good look, no?” John asked sarcastically.
“You are a man without vision. I cannot help the blind see the light.”
“And your arrogance and supposed superiority have blinded you,” John grinned, “I killed eight of your agents leaving behind no evidence. The locals took out nine of your group. Imagine what will happen when you piss off whole colonies.”
“There will be turncoats.”
“Of course, there will be some, but not enough my friend. There will be far too few of them to ensure control of all of our worlds,” John said slowly rising from his chair.
Elias took note of the conversation, as aggravating as it may be. He was taken aback by the honesty of the agent. But this society-building conversation was going nowhere fast, neither he nor his adversary were experts on this matter.
“Let us change subjects to ones we are more familiar with, I doubt you’d disagree that neither of us are experts on this particular subject.”
John grinned as he grabbed a new Glencairn glass and poured a twenty-year-old scotch, “On that, I wouldn’t disagree. Are you sure I cannot entire you for a drink?”
“You know why I shouldn’t drink.”
“Fair enough. I am trying to be a good host. But by all means, ask your question.”
Elias took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before asking, “You were sent because we killed your three agents, correct?”
“Not just that. The loss of the agents coupled with the cessation of certain messages and reports caused Naval Intelligence to raise an eyebrow. But none of the fleets could be bothered with sending a ship this far out of the way.”
“Are you telling me the bureaucracy was actively ignoring a potential rebellion in a colony?”
John chuckled as he sniffed the amber liquid, “Yup, though to be fair the political critters no one knew exactly what was going on, not that they really cared about a colony in the middle of bum-fuck Egypt. Naval Intelligence had a pretty good idea of what was going on.”
“Why didn’t they send a warship to investigate?”
“Tell me,” John paused, “If we had what would you have done?”
“Hide.”
John nodded, “That’s why Naval Intelligence wanted to send me.”
“They sent a single asset…” Elias couldn’t finish his thought.
“It’s all they needed to send,” John took a drink of the scotch and savored it for a moment before he continued, “I excel at everything I do.”
“Arrogance was your downfall,” Elias stated plainly, “Men like you always fall the hardest.”
“I’ve fallen from far worse heights,” John smiled, “Those physically hurt much more than the wound you are inflicting on me at the moment.”
“You’ve fallen more than this?”
“Well, the first time my target got the drop on me was when I was sixteen in Alliance territory. Fucker shot me in the shoulder. I did kill him, but I wasn’t expecting to get into any gunplay on that mission. Thankfully my body was pretty hardy and by the time I got back home I was all healed up.”
“You healed from a bullet wound in weeks?”
“Muscle fiber was mostly repaired within four days. Was bloody sore for a good two to three weeks after that,” John shrugged, “I’m sure you’ve already examined my DNA, I’m a Homo Superior. Probably explains why I solved that incident with a docking umbilical slamming into me. That was properly scary, that one took a couple of months I think to get back up to speed.”
“A docking umbilical slammed into you?” Elias’ face changed to one of great confusion, “How in the hell did that happen?”
“I was in a suit of power armor inside the umbilical as a ship was trying to leave, while it was still attached. I got out into the void, but the umbilical snapped, and well,” John chuckled, “The part that was attached to the station whipped me.”
“There’s no way a human body could survive that impact.”
“I would agree. I was lucky that it wasn’t a direct hit. It was more of a glancing attack. It shattered my shoulder blade and rendered most of my suit’s systems inoperable. Including my communications,” John’s eyes grew wide for a moment, “If it wasn’t for my psychic capabilities at the time then I would’ve definitely died.”
“I meant to ask you about that. Do human beings actually have psychic abilities here? Like the ability to read one’s memories?”
John nodded, “Telekinetic, cryokinetic and pyrokinetic abilities as well. Oh, and a strong enough telepath does have the ability to bend someone to their will. Now, it takes an exceptionally skilled telepath to not only probe one’s mind but alter their actions against that person’s will. I can think of only one person that could do that to some people and they can’t do that kind of thing anymore.”
“You must be kidding. That is just a delusional thing to occur.”
John shook his head, “No, it’s very true. This colony has a handful of telepaths that are licensed by the state. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some unlicensed people, though it’s rare for someone to be both strong and unlicensed.”
“Hold on, you said there was one person that could do something like that. Who are they and why are they unable to do that anymore?”
A large smile grew on John’s face before he took a sip of scotch, “Well, I was off the charts strong telepathically. And telekinetic for that matter too. But I hid the latter bit because of how tightly they regulate those kinds of people here. Probing someone’s mind without consent will land you in a nasty psychic jail. Sensory deprivation tanks are fucking pure hell, or so I’m told.”
“Why do you no longer have those abilities?”
“Well, it’s mostly because I’m a vengeful kind of asshole. There was this chap that was trying to advance humanity to fight off something. Guy was seriously delusional with thoughts of grandeur and superiority. Well, he created two rather psychotic individuals that were gifted psychically. I modified a psychic amplifier that was embedded into my suit of power armor. I damn near fried my whole brain fighting those two assholes, but as it turns out I only fried that part of my brain.”
Elias could hardly believe his ears. The casualness of retelling this story riddled with ridiculous psychic capabilities confused him greatly. Human beings couldn’t be psychic, that was reserved for literature and television tropes. There’s no way that the evolutionary process would allow human beings to do that.
“Presuming you are telling the truth, why would you give up all of those abilities and the benefits that you can derive from them? It seems foolhardy to casually give up those abilities.”
“Make no mistake Elias, nothing about that was casual,” John said as he turned to watch the shuttle on the viewscreen finally enter orbit, “But I had a mission to achieve and those two needed to die. The god’s honest truth is had I been smart and dialed it back I could have fought them and still overpowered them.”
“Then that means you neutered yourself for no reason?”
“That is an accurate assessment of the physical predicament I find myself in. But not hearing voices anymore is just wonderful. If you were as powerful as I was you could hear stray thoughts from everyone miles away. You get used to that dull noise in the background, but it is irritating. Especially since most people aren’t trained how to close one’s mind to telepaths.”
“So normal people can prevent others from getting in?”
John nodded, “That’s true to an extent. Any sufficiently powerful and driven telepath will be able to get into the mind of a non-telepath. That is not true of telepath-on-telepath mind scans. There it will absolutely depend on the strength and mental well-being of both individuals.”
“I must admit that I find all of this a bit far-fetched, but your earnestness in discussing this suggests to me that you aren’t lying.”
John sighed, “I told you I wouldn’t lie about any question you ask of me. I would refuse to answer a question you have of me before I lie. I’m not in a position where lying is at all beneficial to me.”
“How could anyone with these powers live a humble life?”
John laughed, “Most try to do just that. They want to live a life as if they don’t have these abilities. I knew I was exceptional from a dreadfully early age. Couple that with an eidetic memory and that means I advanced rapidly in my learning.”
“No wonder you are as arrogant as you are, presuming all of that is true.”
“Well, as I said before, I am quite exceptional at everything I do.”
“Yet you're caught like a rat.”
“Too true. That did happen,” John then smiled, “Was my arrival flagged by y’all?”
Elias shook his head, “Not initially no. We had access to outgoing messages, but we didn’t, at that time, have access to immigration records. That happened after Linus was murdered. Did you run into any issues getting into the colony?”
“Besides my handlers booking me seats in peasant class, nothing happened that I wasn’t prepared for.”
Elias then took in a deep breath, “Tell me about how you got into the colony.”