Y: 2142
Inter-Academy Round 5 Fortescue Points: 578, Rank: 5, PR: 0.578
Term: 4, Round 3
Daedalus Financial Position: +500,000 bitcreds
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Picard dodged and weaved before she kicked Mace’s side. The diminutive girl expertly deflected the blow and her power achieved the desired result as she knocked Mace off balance. She then effected a roundhouse punch bringing her opponent’s eyes up high it was almost cheating because of their height differential but, as Daedo liked to say, there was no such thing as cheating in war. Mace was her closest competition apart from Barran but, much to her chagrin, he was busy with her father.
Current physical training was focused on martial combat and her father, who they all now referred to simply as ‘Master,’ dictated the regime. He had a few titles within the Daedalus structure but, technically when it came to education, he was a Chief. It was a homage to his recent days in the EUDF where he was known as the Master, a nickname, and his Daedalus Private Military rank of Master Sergeant.
Who was responsible for his title of Master? Picard grimaced for the fifteenth time in forty minutes because Barran was, of course. What made it worse was Daedo approved, stating it would cut down confusion and, despite their no nickname policy, that was it. Everyone agreed and liked calling him Master. Even Picard didn't mind it deep down. She searched her feelings about why she was angry about it. It didn’t take long, she wasn’t unhappy with the title itself, it was the blossoming relationship between her father and his new pet student.
She was ordered to be his second in martial combat, running drills, sparring with all the cadets. While the ‘Master’ played with Barran far too much that she wanted to critique her father because he was supposed to train everyone, but it was impossible; he was impossible. They both were!
Mace surrendered, “I need a break.” She rubbed her sides and limped towards the medibot. It was then, her father, deemed to show his presence as he danced past, he whispered, “Spar just above their capability; that was too heavy-handed.” She glared at him because she knew this. She wasn’t a noob to be so ignorant and he knew she knew this. It was his fault she was angry and lost control, she spat, “Bah,” and he probably knew that too.
The Master whirled around the cadets giving a tip or adjusting a motion and then allowing them to proceed to practise the adjustment. He then whirled back to Barran, “Had enough?” he asked mildly. He is an evil son of a bitch and there was only one response to a question phrased like that.
“Never, Master,” Barran replied grinning. Without further warning, he leapt at the Master. An aggressive punch and kick combination opening himself up for a counter, a counter which would result in the master taking a blow. That was all that Barran wanted to do and his satisfaction and outright glee were never higher than when he landed a blow on the master. He was up to three in two months which was very satisfying.
“Good,” Master grinned as he knocked both aside easily. He proceeded to state the obvious to cement the tactical thinking of his student, “You gave me a choice, defend or be hit. I couldn’t counter without taking at least one blow. “Again,” Master ordered, which meant Barran had to do the exact movement, and the Master would show him a different way to defend than the conventional method. He stepped inside the first blow while remaining outside the second. Barran gawked, that should have been impossible. The Master was thin, but not that thin. “How did you do that?” Barran asked.
“It’s a long journey,” Master Picard stated, “It starts with balance, here, here and here.” The Master pointed to his head, heart and then indicated his entire body.
“Aw man,” Barran whined, “You rarely give straight answers.”
“Son, that was a straight answer, you just don’t see it, yet”
Barran looked at the ground, contemplating what the Master was trying to teach. “Okay,” he said, “I want to learn so what do I need to do?”
“I can teach you balance of the body and the mind, but you will have to work out the last part yourself, it is different for everyone.”
Barran nodded. “Let’s start with the body.”
“We already have,” the Master replied, “Next, you learn Tai Chi and practise your yoga seriously.”
“Tai Chi?” Barran queried, “That old people shit?”
His master laughed, “Tai Chi is a martial art and an important one. I want you to learn to meditate so you can do both at the same time and it's a much more efficient way.”
Barran readied as if for a drill, “I’m all about shortcuts Master so teach me Tai Chi.”
“It will be more efficient for me to teach everyone so we will begin tomorrow. Watch some tutes I will send you on that but also watch the meditation ones. Then, come prepared!” Barran and the Master continued to spar and talk whilst Picard, his daughter, continued to fume.
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“Did you hear that?” Picard asked Axel-Zero and Kang.
“What?” Axel-Zero said dutifully, knowing it was going to concern Picard’s father and Barran. Her friend was obsessed with their relationship whereas all she saw was a good teacher bringing out the best in a talented cadet. Up until now, no one had inspired and engaged Barran, even to a tiny percentage, and that their new master had achieved this in his first few weeks on the base was a positive thing.
“He called him, son,” Picard fumed, “bloody son,” and she stormed up the corridor. “He doesn’t have a bloody son because he has a daughter, but he clearly wants a son!”
Axel-Zero looked at Kang who shrugged and smiled weakly as if to say, ‘I’m not getting involved.’
“How’s my father going?” Kang asked Axel-Zero.
“He comes to all our business meetings, hasn’t missed one. He’s doing really well, better than anyone expected,” Axel-Zero replied.
Kang’s father had shown up in Dead Beat of all things. He was distraught but, after a week on the base, he left with a new role in life. He had a Master’s in Business Administration and a degree in marketing from Korea. He was also going to help on the outside and agreed to do so for the normal agent's fee plus he would pay all his own costs so it was a very good deal for Daedalus with someone they could trust.
“Do you know if he will go back to the circuit next season?” Axel-Zero asked.
Kang shrugged, “Even if he said he was, it’s a few months away, and my father changes his mind all the time.”
“Hmm,” Axel-Zero speculated, “That’s not a good thing but he’s doing great now so I hope it lasts.” Kang chuckled.
“What?” Axel-Zero asked, sensing Kang was laughing at her.
“You’re fourteen, and my father is forty. It’s funny you’re his boss,” Kang said.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“No, I’m not,” Axel-Zero specified. “He’s his own boss. I don’t tell him what to do, just to go and sell, sell, sell and he loves having stuff that no one else has, like the PPCs, the shields and the new reactor that will be online soon, I hope that will kill!”
“Kill?” Kang asked, she was great at metallurgy, but her father always handled the business stuff because she stayed right out of it.
“Yeah, think about it. Imagine a reactor that is a thousand times more powerful for the same size and fuel than anything else we have. Okay, we can’t make small ones, not yet anyway, but it will revolutionise space travel.”
“So, will it make a lot of money?”
Axel-Zero smiled, “It’s so big, I have no idea but, in the future, we could be bigger than Svarski.”
“No, surely, you’re shitting me?”
“Why do you think your dad is so excited? Imagine getting two percent of all sales of a revolutionary power supply even if it's just the royalties from the patents.”
“Won’t we be helping the bastards we hate?” Kang asked as they began walking to the cafeteria.
Axel-Zero shrugged, “They were leaving anyway, may as well milk them dry first in order to fund what we need.”
Kang had an idea suddenly, “If they’re leaving why do they care about bitcreds?”
Axel-Zero stopped in her tracks, looking at Kang in astonishment.
“I…” she stammered, “I’m going to talk to Daedo, I’ll be right back.” As she ran off, she called back to Kang over her shoulder, “start lunch without me, keep Picard company.”
Kang sighed. The last thing she wanted to be was the only person sitting with Picard at lunch. The topic was sure to be the same as it was every day. Kang walked to the cafeteria and sat down dejectedly with Picard. They had taken so long, Picard had already ordered, been served and started eating.
Kang touched the air screen four times, ordering her third-day rotation meal, she stopped thinking about it a long time ago and just rotated the same four meals every four days. It would arrive in a couple of minutes, popping up through the centre of the table. It was exactly like the cafeteria at the Fortescue Academy which was one of the few things that they liked about that place. Picard opened her mouth to speak, and Kang could tell from her expression she was going to whinge about Barran and her father, “Shut up,” Kang said. Picard’s mouth closed, more from the shock, than the command. She didn’t say anything but looked at Kang askance, “Look, I’m sick of hearing about your issues with your father and Barran. Go sort them out or get over it,” Kang could be savage when she wanted to be.
Picard flopped down onto the table, resting her head on her arms. There was a look of hurt on her face, a rare sign of vulnerability. She usually covered it up with practiced bluster. “What can I do?" she pleaded. Kang decided to take pity on her, hoping that she could make some progress.
“Well, you could yell at them both, call them stupid men or ask your father if he wants a son so much perhaps you should go and get gene therapy.”
“Kang!” Picard exclaimed.
“Or just tell him how you feel, try that!” Kang advised.
Picard looked at her friend as if wondering if an alien had possessed Kang in the night. “I do Human Studies too!” Kang protested knowing exactly what Picard was thinking. Master Picard glanced at the table with his daughter and Kang as he entered and heard the exclamation. He gave a small wave in the way of a hello to the pair. He then moved across the cafeteria and sat with Barran who entered immediately afterwards.
“Go on,” Kang said. “Do it now and stop torturing your friends.” Picard stood and said, “Fine, I will.” She tried to move but she suddenly became locked in fear and apprehension. Kang sighed, stood and got behind her friend and began to push her towards her father’s table.
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“Daedo,” Axel-Zero interrupted; he was in a VR session with Vannier.
“Come in,” he said. Axel-Zero donned her helmet and accepted the invitation. She was whisked into their secure VR room.
She looked around at all the charts, plans, schematics; they were everywhere. This was his fabled special room, the one that was always offline. It was also the one with all the tech he had memorised from Master Nader apparently from the aliens. It also was the home for all of the plans for Daedalus.
“Wow,” she said.
“Don’t record anything; instruct your AI,” Daedo ordered.
“Okay,” Axel-Zero nodded, “so is this where you have the plans for anti-matter containment?”
“Everything is here,” he admitted.
“Kang said something,” Axel-Zero began, “and I felt stupid that we hadn’t thought of it before.”
“What’s that?” Vannier asked, putting away the chart she had finished working on and giving Axel-Zero her full attention.
“The major corporations, the rich and powerful, why do they care about bitcreds if they are leaving?” Axel-Zero said.
“Because they have a plan to continue society, just a much smaller society, and want to keep everything stable on Earth,” Daedo replied.
“Oh, so you thought of this?” Axel-Zero asked.
“Term two, round one,” Daedo replied but he hadn’t stopped working and he seemed to be working on a Physics problem.
Axel-Zero would have gaped if she weren’t in VR.
“Anything else?” he asked.
Axel-Zero was about to say ‘no’ but then she realised something, “You should write a paper or do a stream on it.”
“No,” Daedo said, “not yet,” he qualified.
“Explain it to her, Daedo. Just don’t say no, it's rude. We are all pulling together, and everyone needs inclusion. Your days of hiding important facts, even if trying to protect us, is over, you agreed,” Vannier lectured him.
“I know, I agreed, sorry Axel-Zero!” he said and closed his virtual screen for the moment. “We already pumped the net with posts about the alien invasion problem during term two and, if I came out with everything, the big companies would come after us for upsetting the status quo. We're becoming a financial threat to them which is one thing although they'll probably invite us to join them one day.
“However, if we become a major destabilising influence, the Organisation will be the least of our problems. Imagine if DaVinci, Svarski and Huawei attacked us? Or even if they discredited us and attacked us financially and legally then they could easily make all of our business ventures fail.”
Axel-Zero nodded in understanding, “You really have thought this through,” she observed.
“It’s something we all need to learn to do,” Vannier said remembering her first meeting with Master Nader.
“Are the patents all accruing income?” Daedo asked Axel-Zero changing the subject as he couldn’t remember the last time he checked the financials. “It’s just starting to take off and Mr. Kang thinks we’ll be soon going ‘gangbusters,’ his terminology but the big ones will be the Troika Reactor and the anti-matter storage devices,” Daedo said.
“Won’t it disrupt everything?” Axel-Zero asked, recalling the conversation they had just had.
“Yes, but they will overlook that because they want the technology. We only have to ensure they don’t try and take it from us without paying,” Daedo said.
“We have it registered with the IPO,” Axel-Zero stated.
Daedo looked at her, “And who do the IPO serve?” he asked.
“The people of the world, all the inventors,” Axel-Zero said.
Daedo smiled, “The elite have already shown they don’t care for the people of the world and, when it comes down to it, they run things.”
“What can we do!” Axel-Zero said in alarm. She just realised that they could steal everything off them, no matter what she did to legally protect Daedalus.
“We have the Maces on it, all three of them,” Daedo said.
“They can only do so much,” Vannier said, but she was worried as well.
“We all can only do so much. If everything goes to shit, we will just mine here, grow our own food and become as self-sufficient as possible, living off the crumbs that are left to us,” Daedo said, “but if we cooperate, and not rock the boat too much, I hope they will allow us to continue, and if we can get them to see us as one of them, even better.”
“They could get the Organisation off your back?” Vannier asked.
“If I were to ever bet again,” he said remembering the IBA debacle, “I would bet the Organisation works for them.”
“Shit,” Axel-Zero allowed a rare swear word to escape.
Daedo waited patiently to see if Axel-Zero had any more concerns, taking to heart what Vannier had just said before he went back to work.
“Anything else?” Vannier asked.
“Oh,” Axel-Zero said, “Just one thing, I was going to wait for the next business meeting, but it would really boost our account.”
“What is it?” Vannier asked.
“We have an offer from Fortescue,” Axel-Zero said. “They want to create a new contract, cancel the old one and, pay us out, plus extra. The catch is that they want to keep the tech and, under our current contract, they have to return it all. It’s obvious they aren’t concerned with this year anymore, but they're worried about next when they won't have our gear.”
“Did you scan the contract and have an expert review it?” Vannier asked.
“Yes, it came back with some minor changes which they accepted.”
“Wait,” Daedo said.
“Hmm?” Vannier asked.
“It’s not logical,” he said, “they’re up to something.”
“Ugh, when will they ever give up being …,” Vannier searched for a word, “douchebags.”
“They want the equipment next year, yes?” Daedo asked.
Axel-Zero nodded in the VR.
“And the amounts are to payout this year and pay to own the equipment?” he asked.
She nodded again.
“Then why not just make an offer to purchase the equipment at the end of the year and have us sign now so they know they are getting it. Why change the current deal?”
“I see,” Axel-Zero said, “so do you want me to tell them to go to hell?”
“No,” Daedo said, “I want you to find the loophole in the new or possibly the old contract. Take it on as a learning project. You’ll know when you find it, and they won’t like it.”
“This is the best project ever,” Axel-Zero said genuinely.
“In Daedo’s own words,” Vannier joked, but out of character, “Feck Fortescue.”