Over the next few weeks, Scott paid more attention to the news and tried to spend time with the Security guys, hoping they would know more how the current conflict was going. This meant he had to participate in more combat training, so he also found himself spending more time in the hospital after taking his daily beatings. Scott initially wondered if the guys were feeling sorry for him because it seemed like he was lasting much longer in the fights. To his surprise, he actually won a few spars. Whatever Melinda had done to his brain kept him calm during fights, and it even seemed like his opponents were moving just a little slower.
Today was not a day he was going to win. His opponent was Carl, who was currently ranked number three in their informal fight club. To Scott’s surprise, he landed a few hits before Carl knocked him senseless.
“Hey Scott, you are getting better!” Carl grinned, for once skipping the trash talk.
“Ouch. I can’t believe anyone can still beat you!” Scott complained.
“I think I’m going to beat the old man this week,” Carl bragged. In this case, the ‘old man’ was Sergio, the leader of the security forces. Carl was actually older by a couple of years, but Carl had received cosmetic improvements, so he looked much younger.
“Carl, are you going on any missions soon?”
“Well, I skipped a couple. I’ve been working with Barry on converting his Ferrari into a fusion powered, flying car. I’m not sure why I agreed to help. It was a ton of work, and we ended up with an expensive pile of junk that we can’t put back together.” Carl’s brow wrinkled.
“Hah, no wonder he hasn’t bragged about his car recently.” Scott laughed, “So where were those missions?”
“You could just ask Melinda. She’d tell you what’s going on.” Carl teased, then drank deeply from his water bottle. He swished around a bit before spitting out some blood into the water fountain.
“I’m a little scared of her since she declared herself Queen of the Sea or whatever.” Scott said, while limping painfully towards the medical station. He had been a bit slow on his feet, and Carl had kicked him in the side of his knee shortly before the end of their spar. Even at less than full power, Carl hit as hard as a baseball bat.
“Oh, she was just taunting Victor. Mexico doesn’t really know what to do about us,” Carl explained. “I thought they’d be gung-ho throwing everything at us, but it seems the President is pissed at the military for listening to the Americans. Also, Nadia called a bunch of politicians, and they are still supporting us.”
“I thought the Americans were threatening to release all this information that would cause scandals.” Scott waved over the medical technician, then pointed to the worst of his injuries. It was annoying how Carl almost never needed medical care. Between various upgrades to his skeletal system and his freakish speed, Carl rarely needed more than an injection to speed up healing a few bruises. The hit Scott landed on his jaw would have knocked out most people, but Carl just laughed it off. Scott thought he may have broken another bone in his hand. He had actually considered getting the skeletal upgrade, despite the high risk of organ failure and long recovery time. Scott was tired of breaking bones every time he fought these monsters.
“Nadia convinced them that if one person was tagged with a scandal, they’d lose their election. If they were all tagged with scandals at once, people would get bored with it, and most would only take a minor hit. They were already angry at the Americans for pushing them to attack us, so the government is not decisively against us. There is also a large distraction with what is happening in Texas right now.” Carl was relaxing while Scott was treated for various injuries.
“I heard the governor was in prison, and the US news says that one small town controlled by rebels will soon be crushed. Do you know more about that?” Scott asked, wincing as they stuck a robotic surgery device into his knee joint. It looked like a big needle, but he knew there were tiny arms that extended from the end once it was under the skin. The technician had numbed the area, but the cold pressure always made him cringe.
“Oh yeah, Terrance’s group took over that town a few weeks ago and the US press is still saying it’s a small town that will soon be crushed. They fortified an iron mine in Cass County, north of Longview, in the Northeast part of the state. One of Matt’s robot factories is cranking out drones, and so far, they crushed everything sent at them. The best thing is, they are running it all remotely. They are building up supplies to make a big push before the end of the year, unless SPAI drops a nuke first.”
“That’s a scary thought,” Scott paused. Could that really happen?
“Yeah, Nadia says it’s a low chance. All their press downplays the threat, and then they drop a nuke? They would tell the story that we were trying to build a device, and something went wrong. It might fool some people. All the equipment is deep underground, so they would only destroy some surface structures, and the robots would just rebuild in a month. The government would look really dumb if they had to nuke the same location twice.”
“So, we’re assuming SPAI doesn’t do something that dumb. What is their next move?”
“Good question. I just hope Nadia is ready for it.”
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Adriana walked through the latest section of Proteus. They had started the luxury area shortly after the first section, but it was taking much more time to complete. It was already two months past her original schedule. So many small details depended on imports, which had been shut down. The products sourced from Trinidad’s factories had also been delayed, as he had been forced to relocate his whole factory.
With a sigh, Adriana admitted that she couldn’t blame most of the delays on the blockade. It was just so much pressure, designing an underwater city center that would impress billionaires. She found herself making design changes almost every day after reading training articles on architecture. Halfway through, she decided the whole mermaid city look was too on the nose and scrapped most of the plans. Similarly, she discarded the pirate hideout theme, and more reluctantly a Jules Verne steampunk look.
Attempting to try something original, Adriana hired some artists to compete for a design, with the goal that it would not be too cliché. The winning design was a set of structures made up of tall towers anchoring to the sea floor. As the towers approached the surface, they spread out in a gentle curve into wide flat circular structures a few meters below the surface. The top sections were over a hundred meters in diameter and had several floors with windows all around which could enjoy the view of sea life, buildings, and various submarines moving around. On the roof were lifeboats for emergency exits, but also extensive artificial reefs seeded with live coral. Several points extended to the surface where residents could exit for snorkeling or electric jet skis. The interior spaces had elevators, a cafeteria, fitness center and spa in each tower. They also had space for conventions or large events in several towers. Taking the central elevator down below the seafloor allowed access to what would be an extensive underground retail space, a casino, a nine-hole golf course, and an indoor ski slope. The larger spaces were being excavated by hundreds of mining robots. Adriana expected they could finish these features within a few months of the first residents moving in. Deeper down, they were carving out additional factory and office spaces, plus an underground rail system connecting to the other sections of Proteus. To accommodate the large amount of rock that was removed, they kept large sections flooded and used angled shafts leading to the sea floor, where the robots could dump materials. These were sent on a conveyor belt to the site where the artificial island was rising from the seafloor.
The structure of four of these towers had been built and pressurized, so crews of workers were busy finishing the interiors. Condominiums in the towers were expected to sell for over a million dollars for smaller units, up to ten million for the largest units. Despite the blockade and potential war, units in the first four towers had buyers lined up with significant deposits. Adriana thought the first spaces would be ready in the new year, but it would depend on the political situation if anyone outside their company would be able to move in. She decided to give Melinda a call to get an update.
“Hello dear,“ Melinda greeted. “Are you having any trouble with your project?”
“As you know, we have to rely more on Trinidad for finishes thanks to the blockade. He has his new factory nearly ready and promised he’d get my orders done first. I think he’s excited about living there. With all the equipment they abandoned when the Army showed up, he's only going to be running at a quarter of prior capacity for several months, but it will be enough to keep up with our internal requirements.” Adriana was impressed they had managed to save even a fraction of their factory equipment when the Army made their move.
“Our ships have been able to reach Cuba and Venezuela without getting attacked. We are still negotiating but should have substitutes for some of the supplies we needed.” Melinda looked distracted. Even getting one fifth of her attention was apparently too much to ask.
“How is it going with Mexico right now?” Adriana asked.
“Eh, not really sure.” Melinda admitted. “We have a long line of suits waiting to talk to us about various government stuff and lawsuits. Unfortunately, the weather is cloudy today and in the seventies. There is a nice breeze, so those tie wearing idiots are fairly comfortable.”
“You really have a problem with people wearing ties!” Adriana laughed.
“It’s a relic of patriarchal society. Plus, anyone stupid enough to wear that in Southern Mexico is almost guaranteed to be a waste of my time.” Melinda said harshly.
“So were you serious about us declaring Yucatán independent?” Adriana asked, eyebrows raised.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Not really,” Melinda admitted. “They came at us with an offer that we surrender and get executed, so I just spouted out something equally absurd. I have too much on my plate already to worry about governing a new country that doesn’t even want independence. I wanted to see how they would react. So far, it seems like they are sending a small army of lawyers.”
“You should probably at least find out what they want.” Adrianna chided.
“Oh, you too? I already got this advice from Scott and Angela.“ Melinda sighed and hung up without another word.
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Melinda eyed the line of annoying, overdressed intruders. She enviously thought that a cartel boss would just throw these guys down a mine shaft. Reluctantly, she indicated the first man waiting could enter to speak with her.
The first man was an aide to some Mexican politician, serving her an arrest warrant, which she tore up and had him carried out. The man protested that he was willing to go in peace, but it was simply too much fun to have Sotero walk out with him in front of the others waiting their turn, carrying him over his shoulder.
Next in line was a lawyer representing SpaceX. The man surprisingly offered to drop any charges if the spaceship was returned intact as soon as possible. Melinda countered, offering to pay for damages from their attack and return the ship, but only after they used it for one mission. She said she would also pay the usual fee for a satellite launch, plus any missions that would have been scheduled during the current month which could not be handled. In exchange, they would drop charges and send technical advisors to help make sure the launch was successful. The lawyer seemed surprised but agreed to pass this back to his employers.
Melinda looked outside and groaned at how many were still waiting to speak. She perked up a bit seeing a man dressed in military uniform arrive with a couple bodyguards. The man looked fit and appeared to be in his fifties. She admired his dark, gray streaked hair and rugged features.
“Greetings, I am General de División Eduardo Quintanilla,” the man announced in accented English. “Can you direct me to your leader?”
“Melinda White, I’m in charge.” Melinda smiled. She barely refrained asking if he was here to discuss terms of his surrender.
“My apologies, I expected you to be older,” the General appeared surprised for a second, before quickly getting control. “I wonder how much more of my information is inaccurate. Regardless, I was pleased that you allowed me to speak with you, despite the situation we have been forced into.”
“Honestly, I didn’t know you were coming here. I had my messages turned off after I kept getting pinged with notes about various officials showing up,” Melinda admitted. “Regardless, I’m happy you are here. I lost my temper a bit with the Governor coming here and demanding my execution. I hope we can have a more reasonable discussion of how to end this pointless conflict.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that,” the General replied cautiously. “You are currently holding one hundred and twenty-three of our soldiers prisoner and have declared independence for Yucatán. This conflict has caused billions of pesos in damage to our Naval ships and Army vehicles.”
“First of all, we are giving your soldiers excellent medical care and will release them soon,” Melinda countered. “Sorry, it’s only one hundred nineteen. Unfortunately, four didn’t survive their injuries. Sorry, we are not going to pay damages to your equipment. You sent it at us with hostile intent, so it’s your fault it got wrecked. Up until that point, we were following your laws and paying taxes, so I don’t want to hear this whining about the consequences of your poor decisions.”
“Hold on now!” The General protested, “This conflict was not my decision. I spoke up against it from the start. This disaster has strengthened my position. There is a strong minority coalition in the government who also believe this conflict was the result of American manipulation.”
“OK, I’m listening.” Melinda replied.
“I read the accounts of the skirmish and I think my country would be better served buying technology from you instead of trying to intimidate and steal. What tipped the scales against you in public perception was when you stole that spaceship. Frankly, this was an embarrassment to my country and turned a lot of moderates against you. Can you at least explain why you thought this was necessary?” the General asked intently.
“You probably know that the Russians hit us with a cruise missile and attacked our base early this year. The technology they stole will allow them to build orbital weapons that could shift the balance of power in the world, but also will likely lead to further attacks against us. We just wanted to be left alone, but the threat was too large to ignore. We came up with a desperate plan to get our own space program to the point where we could defend ourselves. My strategic planner thinks that it is going to be a close race, but it was our only chance to survive.” Melinda admitted.
“Surely the Americans would have worked with you. Now they want to destroy you and have made it very difficult for us to stay neutral or support you,’ the General protested.
Melinda shook her head, “No, the United States is a mess right now. An AI project is quietly taking control of their bureaucracies and media. They almost destroyed their own government! We were already on their kill list before we stole the spaceship. My group rescued a programmer that was forced to work for them, and he had proof of what was going on. Reports from that system, some of the source code, internal emails and his own testimony. I’ll share some of this information with you so you can verify.”
“This meeting took a strange turn that I didn’t expect,” General Qunitanilla seemed to be at a loss. “I’ll need some time to look at all this. If what you are saying is true, what do you think Mexico should be doing right now?”
“Hold on a second. Let me get my strategic advisor in here.” Melinda called and waited until Nadia joined them. After introductions, Melinda asked Nadia to answer the General’s question.
Nadia thought about how to answer for about twenty seconds, then replied.
“Mexico should support the Texas rebellion once they have a bit more success. SPAI is currently attacking multiple enemies. In Texas, they tried propping up a doomed rebellion, intending to sabotage and pull support at a critical time. This would crush the rebellion and justify removal of political opponents. Along with some other moves, this would help them control almost the entire power structure after the next election. So we need Texas to succeed,” Nadia explained before continuing. “In Mexico, they are pitting your government against us while guiding the Russians to destroy us. The AI’s programming seems to be defective. Its actions have created adversaries where they could have had allies. As far as we can tell, it places too much weight on control and gathering power instead of developing good will or finding mutually beneficial compromises.”
“I’m having a hard time believing this, but I agreed to look at your evidence and share it with others if it is convincing,” the General seemed to have reached his limit and was looking at the exit.
“General, if you end up believing us, we could really use your help.” Nadia pleaded.
After the General left, Melinda commented, “So, things must be going badly if we are begging our enemies for help.”
“Sort of. As I expected, the US military brought in multiple artillery units and destroyed the surface facilities at Cass County. We damaged some of their equipment, but they buried the place and have a unit sifting through the wreckage.” Nadia had just received the bad news while Melinda was in meetings.
“What about Marcus Ortega’s group?” Melinda asked.
“They set a trap. Made it look like they were living in a town near the Cass County facility, but it was rigged with explosives and robots around the perimeter. They routed a mobile infantry unit. There are many more casualties than our conflict here. We don’t have the luxury of trying to minimize damages when we are outgunned and outnumbered a hundred to one.” Nadia explained.
“I don’t like that so many people are getting killed,” Melinda admitted. “Yes, I know that if we fail here that a nuclear war is almost inevitable and many millions will die, but it’s still hard to make these decisions based on probabilities.”
“In other bad news, the Russians are likely to launch their first orbital weapon in five weeks. We are at least three weeks behind.”
“If SpaceX sends experts to help us, and if Mexico lets us launch from inland, we could cut the time down by a couple of weeks.” Melinda offered, then added. “Why is SPAI letting them build up space weapons? Seems like it would be a big threat to them if Russia takes out some internet hubs and data centers.”
“I’ve been trying to figure out what SPAI is doing in Russia this whole time. We don’t have very good visibility there, but we can still track people’s employment with Glitch_HR and correlate it with social media and news. As far as I can tell, SPAI has left some fingerprints on the orbital weapons program, but no signs of sabotage.” Nadia admitted. “There have been various politicians and military leaders shuffled around, but we haven’t figured out the pattern.”
“Remind me what we think their weapon can accomplish?”
“We think that they are still limited to our first-generation tech which allows the larger scale units and has a lot of excess heat. We don’t think they have the advanced thermocouples needed to make the small-scale units. The Russians will need a heavy lift rocket, and the device they build will have trouble radiating enough heat to avoid melting down. Everyone thinks Space is cold, but vacuum is a great insulator. It’s a common SciFi misconception that you would freeze quickly in space. It’s actually a larger problem getting rid of excess heat, especially if you are exposed to solar radiation. Their satellite will probably have a short lifespan unless their engineers are much smarter than Glitch_HR has been ranking them. We figure it will stay active for a few days at most, and it can only fire roughly once per hour during this time.”
Melinda thought ten or twenty blasts from a high-powered space weapon could cause plenty of problems, especially since some of it would be targeted at her property. As she started to get a headache, another unpleasant thought occurred. “Has SPAI gained access to our fusion tech?”
“Unfortunately, the answer to that is yes. They are building a deuterium refining plant and have hired some people that make it likely they will catch up with the Russians soon. They have the wreckage of some of our robots now from the Texas fighting, so they will be able to determine elemental composition, which will help them to reverse engineer our second-generation designs. The Americans might have something working that could power a robot or vehicle in less than six months. They will be limited by how much iridium is available. We have been hoarding it since our first shipment, and it is only available in very limited quantities outside of Proteus. I have some plans to delay their progress, but our best chance is if Russia hits them or if we can get an orbital weapon up.” Nadia explained.
“Will our satellite have a longer life than the Russian’s design?” Melinda asked.
“Yes, our second-generation reactors are smaller and have less waste heat, so we can use more of the satellite’s mass for heat dispersion and shielding. Our attacks will be much lower power, but we should theoretically be able to go for years assuming no collisions or external attacks.” Nadia replied. “We can also fire much more rapidly. Our platform is designed for defense against other satellites and spacecraft. Using it against ground targets will be ineffective.”
“Thanks. Keep me informed if we need to make any other risky moves.” Melinda dismissed Nadia. With a groan, she returned to meeting with the suits waiting impatiently outside.