“Penny, bunny, this has all been arranged by your hot wife. Do not sour our relationship with your blathering.” A distinctly Vladivostok accent chirps through my mind.
“I didn’t mean to offend Svetlana. And Katie is busy, or I’m sure she’d stop by and flirt with you, while taking care of ‘business’.”
She chuckles at my innuendo, “Oh? If you have talked about me, then perhaps the move to your Empire is ready, yes?”
“Yes. We currently have room for several thousand, but we cannot currently accept people incapable of contributing to society.”
She scoffs at me, the anger in her eyes very apparent. “I will attempt to not be insulted. But perhaps I will take it as you assume we would try to fill your ships entirely. We will not. More than 150 of my people are interested in this opportunity. I will talk to Katie on the specifics, but you have our support for two months, then we expect to be transported to our new homes.”
“That is acceptable. And for that support, perhaps you know some enterprising Russians that want to expand their opportunities on Earth?”
“Ah, there is the Admiral. I was wondering if you were only bunny.”
“Cute. You have a week to get to Bikini Atoll if you want a piece of this.”
“Remember that you asked me, Admiral.” She sneers at me.
“Then remember that I asked nicely.” I threaten in return.
I normally wish Katie were near, but in this case, I needed her. She developed a rapport with these folks and I’ve really done nothing but institute the Matrix into their lives.
“These were your supposed friends?” A white haired old man with unyielding resolve shuffles into the room.
“Yeah. Svetlana doesn’t like that I won’t play into her games. And just like most people, she thinks I’m to young, to new to power to be demanding things.”
“Ah, that kind of Diplomacy. Don’t let the give and take fool you. Russia and the remnants of USSR power have wielded soft power like it’s a national sport. They’re the best because that’s how they live. Just like Americans like to pretend to use ‘Big Stick’ ideology, but we like to shout and trample things too.”
I laugh at that, stick toting elephants. “Which is why I like knowing people like you. You’ve breathed this stuff for decades, but you seem to realize that everything can’t just ‘go back’ because we want it to.”
He smirks, tired but amused about something that probably has to do with my youth, even though I’m almost 40 now. “I’ve been in the Navy for a lot of change. I put a nuclear reactor in space, something I never could have dreamed of. But I’m still a cantankerous old man that just wants everyone to leave me the hell alone.”
“Chief of Energy lets you do that?” I can’t help the smile that comes to my face.
“Listen here you little shit.” He chuckles and so do I.
“Speaking of energy, these damned restrictions we’re under are keeping us from being able to quickly order parts that we need to build better infrastructure.”
“I mean, currently published energy tech is low to mid tier 1, unless I’ve missed something?”
“We’re stuck at tier 0 until we get a sufficient percentage of blah blah, system bullshit.”
“There’s the curmudgeon,” I tease. “Well, Admiral, my best advice is to talk to some aides that understand what Game the System means, and re-structure whatever government you have left to include a lot of smart people. Makers and the breakers. Get into those governance menus and get to satisfying those percentages.”
“You want me to start a new government?”
I start laughing at that. Like, inappropriately hard. The frustration, desperation, and confusion in his voice echoes how I currently feel about starting an Empire. “Sorry about that, new Empress identifies with that. Anyway, no need to start over, I mean do if you want to, but you have to figure out what’s more important to you, to the Joint Chiefs. Will it be desperately grasping for the pieces breaking off and trying to glue them back together, or engineer that tier upgrade, build a sturdy core and then reclaim what you’ve lost?”
“Yeah, I don’t think I’m the right person for that job. Might know some people that are though.”
“Awkward question time: who control’s the country’s interface?”
“Awkward is right. Ugly business that. Whole line of succession got taken out the same week. The Secretaries got together and started this council and then most went into hiding. So, we’re lucky and the Council controls the credits and the interface.”
“Let me guess, the States were already given their cut?”
“The way our laws are laid out, it was automatic. Any more than that wasn’t explained to us military folk, nor would I have likely remembered it.” He breathes a laden sigh. “I suppose I got what I came to see you for. Not the answer I wanted, but what can you do?”
“Yeah, sorry Rich, not my hand that put those restrictions on.” I had a little to do with it, but I can blame the Forum.
He just grumbles as he walks out.
Three days later a small flotilla anchors within my atoll and I’m fit to be tied. They ask me for all kinds of shit but I point them at the barracks that I set up all over the atoll and tell folks not to venture to the northern islands yet. All in all, around four thousand Sailors and Marines are parked in my pool.
“Absolutely not. You all get basic subsistence. Your meals are fucking free.” I have to answer for the thirtieth time about the food choices in the Rec Center I built with the Administration building. I made it for emigration purposes, and a barracks and entertainment for those forced to wait, but what this has shown me, is that I had not planned a size-appropriate facility.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“It’s not about the meals Ma’am, Its about the credits,” the Navy Captain says. “The US had not converted before change of power. Two months isn’t a lot of time.”
It was fucking nine months, but I can see why no one would switch before the Sector Host went online. “Captain, I’m going to link you a finance module that my Consul of Trade put together. Send it to the Chiefs and all they have to do is set the exchange rate for the dollar and then your Sailors and Marines can get their money changed free of charge.”
I ping my network on Astoria and send the Captain the ‘web address’. He thanks me and dismisses himself.
With no other people waiting in line to talk to me for the moment I check in on my boarding team.
/Lt. DeGurgis, SITREP/
/Fuck is it good to hear from you Admiral. This mind chat is pretty sweet. Anyway, we’ve secured the ship aft of the accelerator, and shut down everything but battery power, but they maintain control of the bridge and the HAB spaces./
/Say the word and I’m there, Lieutenant./
/Copy, Ma’am, but the bigger issue is that the Kepler and the Brahe are coming about and heading toward the Moon. I think they detected our laser discharges and are trying to take advantage. Well, Lemoore thinks anyway. He knows how the sensors work./
/Is there still a forward airlock near the bridge?/
/Wait one/ It really is weird just standing around chatting in mu brain. I still instinctually twitch my fingers to type though. /Yes Ma’am, but I’d wager they’re under the same advanced security protocols that we can’t bypass on our end./
Overriding ship safety protocols while on battery power is a bold move, Morris. Jackass. Moreover, I don’t think he’s even onboard. Ah well, time for some aggressive diplomacy.
I tell the Chief’s aides that I need to step out for a few hours and that no one is allowed on my island and then summon my shuttle. It takes less than two minutes to clear atmosphere and I warp toward the Moon and DeGurgis’ signal.
I pop out five kilometers away and ask Tessa to tie me into the sensor suite that Katie and Mel put in.
You’re fortunate that Melissa was accomplished in a niche field. This shuttle is capable of both piercing the interference and working around it.
Ahh, I was wondering why it was so easy to chat with folks when the ansible system here is on the fritz.
Indulgence has detected multiple launches from both Kepler and Brahe, headed this direction ETA twenty minutes.
Twenty minutes? That has to be close to max range right?
Vacuum enhances many capabilities of rockets, including effective range and control range.
Yeah, I should have known that. I think I use you as a crutch sometimes. In that vein, can you avoid the incoming ordinance if I hand over shuttle control to you?
Greater than 90% chance that I can out-maneuver the missile for long enough to exhaust their adjustment thrusters.
Fantastic. Now I just need a place to teleport into without anyone seeing me, preferably attached to the bridge. I pull up a schematic of the Galilei and see an elevator, an electronics trunk, and . . . no way that would work. Would the door be locked on both sides? Heh, I can always teleport to a nearby room if it doesn’t work.
With a grin, I double-check my target position and vector, and teleport into the Captain’s Cabin. Though decorated much differently than Morris’ cabin, I remember the layout enough to avoid furniture tripping me up. My pistol already in my hand, I sweep the room and find someone strapped to the rack, gagged and blindfolded.
I get closer and pull the bunched pillow case off their head and find an Asian woman with fear in her eyes. She scans me and starts squirming and mumbling into the gag. I gesture with a finger in front of my mouth while I check for hearing protection. Whomever did this wanted the Captain isolated completely. She fidgets when I reach for her ear, so I quickly restrain with one hand and pluck with the other.
“Captain,” I remove my hand and speak closely and softly, “I’m Admiral Astoria and some of my Sailors and I are trying to liberate this ship from the hostile Copernicus crew. I need your help to understand the situation. I need you to nod that you understand before I un-gag you.”
She nods because why wouldn’t you. To her credit, she didn’t shout afterward, just a sigh and a few deep breaths.
“I’m going to un-tie you, and I want you to hold still until I back up okay?”
“Okay.” Her voice is raspy and broken, as though ruined by screaming.
To my great surprise, she did as I asked after I untie her hands and release the cargo straps. I didn’t untie her feet for obvious reasons. I take half a dozen steps back and point my pistol at the deck near her.
“Thank you for untying me.” She unties her feet and massages her wrists before doing anything else.
“Has your crew been integrated, or exposed to a swarm or the System?”
“We heard about it when we warped back, which is when Commander Zhao took over the ship. They used the promise of power of the swarms to lure much of my crew to their side. From what I heard before I tried to rally my crew and got tied down, they are holding my crew in various airlocks and the brig.
/Security, I need you to check the maintenance bay and the aft airlock you didn’t come in through for captured personnel./
/We can check the aft, but maintenance is in engineering forward, Ma’am/
Shit, I forgot about that.
“Can you do anything about the security locks on the hatches coming forward from aft engineering?”
She quirks her head to the side before replying, “Unless Morris found a way around it, my assess should be encoded into the core of the operating system of the ship. It was one of the reasons they tied me down. I can release them, but I may not be able to change the access codes.”
“Do what you can please. I don’t have a security tech on this mission.” Or at all now that Melissa’s gone. “I take it any crew that are out and about are not your crew?”
“I don’t sanction the murder of fellow sailors, despite what they have done to us.” She rises and walks over to a desk with a terminal.
/Security, confirmed that all non-captured crew are considered hostile./
“I can force specific doors open, but I have to basically hold them open. But now’s when I tell you, I won’t continue to help you unless you give my crew the swarm as well.”
“I don’t love blackmail, but I get it. You can wait until we take you to Earth, and you’ll be inoculated for free, or I can arrange it right now, and you will owe me.”
“I will owe you, but my crew will be treated and inoculated and be free of obligation.”
“I agree to these terms.” I say and ask Tessa if I and summon my strain.
I can facilitate that, but the number of doses will cost you three tech imbalance.
Oof, that’s a lot. How about one canister of mine and the remaining generic? Tessa populates a calculator in my vision to adjust sliders. Two ten dose canisters for a tech point. Okidoke. Summon me them things in a crate please.
It appears at my feet and I remove one of the canisters in Astoria’s colors. I show her the syringe with a wide body and a small needle before quickly stabbing her with it and clicking the plunger to the next stop before pulling it out and setting it on the table.
The shock on her face transitions into anger “How dare you!”
“Captain, you asked for now. That syringe has 9 charges left and each of these have ten. The purple and pink canisters have an upgraded strain, so choose wisely.”
She taps a few buttons on her console and I get a communication ping with a priority list.
“Okay, I’ll have my AI access the personnel files so I can dose appropriately.”
/Security, linking Galilei actual to this chat, let her know when you need a door open, Captain, I’ll be going through to the bridge in five minutes./
/Copy Admiral, Captain, we’ll be at the access door in four minutes./