Chapter Three

Staffing

“I’m not quite sure you understand,” Cheape tried again. “The Imperium doesn’t intend to take anything from you by force.”

“I understand,” President Marls winked at her again. “Nothing by force.”

“Will you stop winking at me!” Cheape snapped, feeling guilty immediately when the man winced. “I apologize, but you really don’t seem to get this.” Feeling more frustrated by the moment, Cheape dismissed the helmet of the suit, letting it fold down into the back and shoulders so he could at least see her eyes. Maybe that would allow him to understand she wasn’t hinting at anything.

To her surprise, the man yelled out in shock, falling backward off his chair.

“Mister President?” Cheape asked carefully, “Are you okay?”

“You’re human?” The man stuttered.

“Well, yes,” Cheape shrugged. “Why?”

“I thought you were all machines!” Marls said, peering suspiciously at the point where the suit met her neck.

“I am quite human, as are many of those in the Imperium,” Cheape sighed and let the back of the suit open to step out. She had to suppress a shiver as the cold air hit her, but other than that, it was a simple process. “Wait, you met Marshall Andy already. He’s human.”

“He’s not!” Marls gaped at her. “He has all that gubbins all over him.”

“Gubbins?” Cheape looked over at Andy. He looked normal to her until she realized he was wearing a set of nano armor. She had just gotten so used to seeing people in them that she had forgotten how machine-like they looked. “He’s wearing armor.”

President Marls peered at Andy critically, and the Marshall sighed and pulled off one of his gloves, waving with a very human hand. Admittedly, his other hand was metal, but that was a result of injuries, or so she had been told.

The president collapsed back into his chair, relief radiating off him.

“Thank the harvest,” Marls chuckled. “I thought we were lost to a bunch of machines!”

“Uh…” Cheape said awkwardly.

The resulting conversation was a little more complicated. To be honest, Cheape felt that explaining a starship to a deep sea fish would have been easier. The people on this planet had been isolated by the pirates of the black port for several generations. Before that, it was someone else, and before that, another, and so on.

From what she was getting from the garbled bits of story interspersed with the questions, they hadn’t had any actual contact with the greater galaxy in over a hundred years. They had not been comfortable years, either.

“It’s fascinating,” Andy whispered to her, the sound faint enough to be almost silent but still clear enough to be picked up on her implant. “They seem to have regressed to a nearly absurd degree. Herbalists, homeschooling, generational poverty on a planetary scale.” He shook his head, “Can you imagine living like this?”

“Yes,” Cheape said flatly, “I can.”

Andy frowned at her, and she winced. A little of the bitterness she felt about her own planet had shown through.

“Well,” President Marls said, shaking his head. “I won’t pretend to understand what you all are, but I guess it doesn’t matter.” He slapped both hands against his thighs and sighed. “The planet’s yours now. So, what do you want since it isn’t food?”

That was the heart of the matter, wasn’t it? What did the Imperium want from this world? The answer to that was long, complicated, and completely over his head.

So, Cheape decided to do her best to make it simple.

“Citizens,” Cheape replied.

“Pardon?” President Marl asked. “You want to take—”

“Will you please get it through your head? We don’t want to take anything from you!” Cheape snapped.

“Alright, missy, no need to shout,” President Marls said, his face twisted up with suspicion. “What do you mean by citizens?”

“What I mean, Mister President,” Cheape went on, trying to cool her temper before she blew this, “Is that the Imperium doesn’t need or want anything you can offer at this time. What we need are happy, healthy, strong, well-trained, and intelligent citizens of the Imperium. In short, we want your loyalty, and we want to help your people become an equal part of the empire.”

“That sounds expensive,” Marls countered. “Nothing is free, so what do we have to give you to earn it?”

Cheape felt like she was talking to a wall. No matter what way she explained things, he just would not accept that they weren’t trying to take from his people. Intellectually, she got it. Generations of being used by some powerful off-world force had taught them that way of thinking.

Emotionally, she was starting to wish she could just punch the man.

What other way was there to approach this conversation?

“Everything,” Cheape said, improvising madly. “In exchange for what we offer, the Imperium expects nothing less than total loyalty and obedience.”

President Marls was quiet for a time, his eyes distant and unfocused, before he finally nodded.

“And that means?” Cheape asked.

“I’ll speak with the other settlement leaders, but it isn’t like we can stop you. Might as well get on board.” Marls stood. “I’ll go to the talking station and be back in a few hours.”

“Talking station?” Cheape asked.

“It’s an old radio relay tower,” Andy said. “A relic of earlier times, I guess. Basic system scan and a small network of transmitters and receivers.”

“Very well,” Cheape said. “We’ll be here.”

President Marls nodded and left them.

“So, how did I do?” Cheape asked Andy when they were once again alone in the massive barn-like structure.

“Too soon to tell,” Andy smirked. “But you didn’t hit anyone, shoot anyone, or threaten to murder everyone on the planet, so it could have been a lot worse.”

“Thanks,” Cheape laughed. “Any idea what we should do for a couple of hours?”

“Your staff will be here shortly, so we can always go and wait for them,” Andy smiled widely. “I can’t wait to see who they send.”

Cheape climbed back into the boost suit and reveled in the warmth it offered.

How bad could it be?

/===<<<>>>===\

“There has to be someone we can send,” Salem muttered as she looked through the personnel lists. Cheape had a staff of sorts in her role as Logistics Officer, but they were needed on the Rest to keep everything flowing smoothly. Even if that weren’t the case, a set of Cents, a handful of Smiler Walkers, and a dozen Heavy Smilers would not exactly make a great first impression on the new planet.

She needed people who could at least seem normal until people got to know them.

The Imperium did not precisely excel when it came to appearing normal.

She flicked on her comms and contacted Crush-Cha to see if Andy could remain there to help out. That would be at least one.

“What’s wrong?” Crush growled. “I was sleeping.”

“Sorry, Crush, I’m just trying to sort out staff for Cheape. Can Andy stay on the planet for now?” Salem asked hopefully.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“No chance,” Crush said immediately. “I need him back on board.”

“Damn,” Salem sighed. “That leaves her with a staff of exactly zero.”

“What about those two from the confeds who joined us?” Crush suggested. “Cara’s been teaching them, so they have the basics down, and they are keen.”

“Great, can you get them to the docks in, say, a half-hour?” Salem asked.

“Orders sent, goodnight,” Crush closed the line.

Salem smiled to herself as she went back to looking through the lists. Even tired and grumpy, Crush always came through.

Another name jumped out at her, and it wasn’t like they had any other duties to speak of…

“Transfer unit Tee Are Vee Four, how may I be of assistance?” TRV-4 answered immediately. He was a chipper, as always, which made Salem feel even more tired. She really needed to get some sleep herself at some point.

“I was wondering if you would be willing to assist Officer Cheape in her work on the planet in the nearby star system. It will be hard, but a good chance to observe how we do things in trying circumstances.” Salem said, phrasing it carefully to sound as attractive to him as possible.

“That sounds like an excellent opportunity, thank you. I will be happy to assist Officer Cheape in any way I can,” TRV-4 replied.

“Thank you. I will send details of the transport to your Imperium Pad. It leaves in a half-hour.” Salem sent off the orders with a thought and heard an answering ding on the other end of the comm line.

“Received, Administrator Salem. I will proceed immediately.” TRV-4 closed the line.

“Three will be a good start,” Salem said, deciding to go and see them off herself. It was the least she could do, and the walk would clear her head a little.

As Salem arrived, cup of HyperDrive in hand, she froze.

The indomitable class shuttle was there, as expected. So were the three people she had intended to send. The problem was the other people there.

“Robot, what is all this?” Salem asked the towering metal and stone man, chatting amiably with TRV-4.

“Salem!” Robot waved. “I am simply delivering the other personnel.”

“What other personnel?” Salem asked. “I didn’t order any other personnel.”

“Leah was pleased to see the announced promotion and sent one of her people to assist Emissary Cheape.” Robot indicated a grey-skinned, grey-armored, and grey-robed figure. “Paren felt inclined to do the same and assigned Dot-Slash to assist Cheape as well.” This time, he pointed to a skeletal figure with shining black skin in equally intimidating armor. It smiled and waved, revealing brilliant white teeth and long claws. “And Edwards sent four of his most advanced Walkers to assist as well.”

Salem tried not to even look at them.

The Smiler crawlers caused extreme disquiet in ordinary people; the new and improved bipedal variety was vegetarian, apparently, but somehow all the more terrifying for their vaguely humanoid appearance.

“I see…” Salem thought quickly but utterly failed to come up with a reason the others could not go that didn’t amount to ‘they will terrify the locals.’

She was about to say so when her comm line opened on its own. Only one person in the Imperium could do that other than the Queens.

“Stop worrying so much,” Paren said brightly. “They have to get used to us eventually. Might as well start now.”

“They’ll think we are monsters!” Salem hissed as quietly as possible.

“Makes it all the more likely they will behave then, doesn’t it?” Paren grinned.

“And if it starts a riot?” Salem asked pointedly.

“Then it will be a brief one,” Paren replied. “Dot Slash alone could pacify that group. Don’t worry; they are ordered not to kill or maim anyone unless they pose a risk to Cheape or the others.”

It was a terrible idea. A truly, truly awful idea.

“Plus, if you let them go, then you can actually take a nap before your next meeting,” Paren said innocently. “I mean, you could try to get more people or countermand my orders, but…”

Salem thought it over and decided this was not her problem yet. It almost certainly would be once the ship landed, but that would be hours from now. Hours that would include sleep if she hurried.

“Fine,” Salem shrugged. “I’ll ignore this one. But when this all blows up, I am going to blame you.”

“Hah!” Paren winked. “Go ahead.”

“Okay, everyone, have a good trip!” Salem waved and turned smartly, walking away.

/===<<<>>>===\

Cheape watched the shuttle come in to land with more than a bit of anxiety. The people of the Imperium were something she had gotten used to over the last few weeks. Wait, had it only been weeks since she started?

Cheape shook her head, dismissing the thought. It might have only been weeks, but they were intense, stressful, exhilarating weeks. Weeks in a siege, weeks of war. That tended to make time warp a little. It felt like she had been with the Imperium for years.

The point was that they took a little getting used to. It wasn’t even really all the robotic people. It was the… others. Nightmares might be a strong word, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t the correct one, especially at first glance. It had taken Cheape days to figure out how adorable the smilers really were and that the ones you really needed to be afraid of were the human-looking ones… or mostly human-looking. On the scale of terrors, it was the Princesses of the Imperium that were at the top.

President Marls had returned about twenty minutes ago to tell them the village elders had all agreed to her terms. It was almost a joke, considering the terms had been equivalent to absolute submission, but it was all she had been able to come up with at the time.

Cheape just hoped that, eventually, they would learn to accept the freedom the Imperium was trying to offer them.

Marls had not returned alone, however. He had brought about twenty other people with him, including their healers and the heads of various families. She had been a little worried that they wanted to conduct some kind of official ceremony.

Now, she was worried about what the crowd would do when the bay doors opened and her crew arrived. Cheape tried to tell herself that Salem or whoever would have thought of the possible reaction of the villagers. They were professionals, after all.

The shuttle bay doors began to open, and the passengers stepped out into the overcast day.

Someone screamed behind Cheape as she sighed.

Paren. Somehow, some way, she was behind this. She knew it.

“Calm down!” Cheape yelled as the screams started to spread. “These people are here to help!”

It wasn’t working. More and more people began to shout as Andy edged to stand in front of her, his eyes taking on that dead look that the Marshalls got before people started getting shot. His hand dropped to the holster on his hip, and he tensed as someone at the back threw a rock.

If this went any further, there would be a riot, people would die, and Cheape’s first big mission would be a disaster.

That could not be allowed to happen. This job with the Imperium was her big chance, and no one was going to take it from her.

She wound the boost suit’s speakers up to maximum amplification and raised one metal-clad foot.

“SILENCE!” She yelled, slamming her foot down on the stone landing pad with the full power of the suit. There was a deafening crack as the thick stone slab shattered beneath her foot, cracks spiderwebbing through the entire thing.

Everyone froze, and Cheape had to shake herself out of the shock after she froze right along with them. “These are citizens of the Imperium, just like you are. You will treat them with the kindness and respect you would want for yourselves. Am. I. Understood?”

“Of course, forgive us!” Marls said quickly. “We are just not used to seeing such… people.”

“You will become very familiar with them over the next few years,” Cheape said, lowering the volume on her suit. “You will find that despite the differences, most people are just people.”

People nodded and murmured while she winced internally at the absurdity of that sentence.

Andy was smirking at her, great.

She turned back to the cracked landing pad to welcome her staff.

Such as they were.

The first to make it to her were the four walkers. They looked a little different from the ones she had in the logistics department, but Edwards was constantly fine-tuning his ‘little friends’ as he referred to them. As alarming as they looked with their segmented bodies, four arms, mandibles, and slightly hunched posture, Cheape was glad to see them.

They were familiar, even if they were not her walkers.

“We come to help, Mistress,” The first one rasped as the three following executed elaborate, if slightly awkward, bows.

“You can just call me Cheape or boss,” Cheape said warmly.

“Apologies, Mistress. We are commanded.” It bobbed an apologetic nod.

“By who?” Cheape asked, already sure she knew.

“The lady in silver,” It rasped, giving another bob.

Paren.

“Any other commands from her?” Cheape fumed.

“No, Mistress,” It bobbed.

“Good; wait next to the Marshall while I greet the others,” Cheape said, trying to suppress the simmering anger.

“Marie Anjou, Emissary.” The woman had dirty blond hair cut short and was pretty simply dressed by Imperium standards—just a shipsuit and a jacket.

“I am Vauban, formerly of the Flooded Waters,” The man beside her added. “Our orders, Madam Emissary.” He held out a datapad.

“Thank you,” Cheape said, waving a hand over the pad so her implant could copy the orders. “I don’t think we have met before?”

“They were on the Liberties,” Andy called over his shoulder. “Cara’s been training them.”

“Oh, shit,” Cheape said before she could stop herself.

Andy laughed.

“You have met Marshall Cara,” Marie smiled.

“I also passed into the Imperium via Cara’s tender care,” Cheape said with a chuckle.

“We look forward to assisting you,” Vauban bowed and led Marie to the side as well.

The next to arrive was a pair of monotone terrors. She didn’t even need to ask where they came from. The Nameless and the Grey were both well-known on the station. They were kind of hard to miss.

“I am Dot Slash,” The Nameless did not bow. “I will guard you and oversee your safety, as Princess Paren commands.”

“I am Tal Var Sen,” the figure beneath the grey hood said in a near whisper. “I will see that your enemies vanish in the mists, as Princess Leah commands.”

Okay, that wasn’t terrifying in the slightest.

Cheape took a second to remind herself these people were on her side.

At least, she really hoped they were.

As they stepped to stand on either side of her, Cheape did her best not to flinch.

The last figure was walking backward, his eyes still on the rolling hills behind the landing pad as if he couldn’t stand to look away until he had memorized every inch of what he could see.

Cheape beamed inside her helmet, truly glad to see this one.

“Hey, Tee!” She called.

“Officer Cheape, or is it Emissary now?” TRV-4 said as he turned a silicon smile on her that always lifted her mood. “I have come to serve as you may have need of me?”

“Thank you for coming,” Cheape said honestly. “It’s great to have a familiar face here.”

“A pleasure!” TRV-4 beamed. “I have come to see this wonderful world and meet its incredible people. I can not wait to get started!”