Chapter Six

The Sagacity

The Harbinger came out of the jump point at minimum velocity.

Nellie watched as the turbulence from the Transit Energy dissipated and the scans populated with traffic.

“Sagacity ships detected!” Erikson called urgently.

“Shields! Bring the weapons online!” Morton yelled.

“Hold that order!” Nellie said quickly. “They are expecting us.”

“Yes, Captain,” Morton stood down, but his body as rigid as he kept his eyes fixed on the plotting table.

Nellie saw the ships on her own screen, and it was an impressive force.

Seven Golden Capital ships were waiting in a loose ring around the jump point, and she could see the shields and weapons signatures were glowing strongly on all of them. Each capital was flanked by a pair of silver Heavy Cruisers, similarly armed and shielded.

“Captain?” Morton urged.

“Open a comm line to the lead ship,” Nellie said calmly.

“Captain, if they fire—” Morton said quietly.

“Then we will obliterate them,” Nellie replied quickly. “Our shields would be up before they had a chance to do any real damage.”

“Assuming they don’t have a trick up their sleeve,” Morton said, eyes on the scans.

“I have the Fleet Command for you, Captain,” Erikson reported.

“On my monitor, please,” Nellie sat back, forcing her face into a relaxed look.

“This is Professor Lenix, Commander of the Reliquary wing. Who am I speaking to?” The Professor was a thin man with an overly large head. His deep-set eyes and prominent nose gave him a hawkish look.

“I am Queen Bonne Chance of the Nanite Imperium. I understood I was invited to visit the Spiral Benediction to open diplomatic relations. It seems that was not the case.” Nellie replied, putting a little ice into her voice.

“You are expected, Queen Bonne Chance,” Lenix replied stiffly. “We are to escort this warship to a stand-off point near the Spiral. Once we are in position, a shuttle will be sent to carry you aboard the station.”

“Negative, Professor.” Nellie shook her head. “I came in good faith to open diplomatic relations and am met by an armed force with powered weapons and shields. That in itself is insulting enough or would be if they represented an actual threat to my ship. Now, you ask me to leave my ship aboard one of your shuttles? I think not.”

Salem and a counterpart on the station had agreed beforehand on all of the details of this visit. This was a simple power play to see if they could get away with it. The trick was to push back enough to show she was not intimidated without going so far as to start a war.

“Respectfully, Queen Bonne Chance, I have my orders,” Lenix replied.

“Understood,” Nellie sighed theatrically. “I shall have my people relay a message to the Benediction, and we can try this again at a later date. In a neutral system, perhaps.” She pointedly looked off-screen. “Navigator, plot our return jump.”

“Wait one moment, please,” Lenix said. “I will relay your decision to the Benediction.”

“Go ahead,” Nellie made a point of relaxing into her chair as she waited.

“We are receiving a comm signal from the station,” Morton called loudly.

“One moment, Professor,” Nellie said, waving the comm line closed and allowing the other to connect.

The screen shifted to show a man sitting behind a table piled with pads, both paper and electronic. He was peering into the pickup through a pair of small glasses. She examined them and decided the glass was clear and didn’t alter his vision. An affectation to make him look more studious, perhaps?

“Your Highness, I understand there is a problem?” He smiled thinly.

“Only if you consider ignoring the agreed rules of this meeting a problem,” Nellie replied. She made a point of not asking his name or who he was.

“We reconsidered the level of threat you and your flagship posed to the station,” he gave a clearly fake apologetic look. “As such, we made changes.”

“I see; well, in that case, I will take my leave,” Nellie shrugged. “I had hoped to meet with the Sagacity first in an attempt to smooth relations, but this clear provocation is simply juvenile. I will have my people rearrange the meeting at a later date. I suggest a neutral system next time to allay some of your fears.”

“I did not mention fear,” the man replied sharply. “And I must inform you that failure to establish relations at this juncture will force us to take a more defensive stance.”

“I fail to see how that matters,” Nellie shrugged. “What you do in your own space is none of my concern.”

“If you wish, but I will have to report to our neighbors that your attitude was confrontational when faced with reasonable precautions,” he smiled as if he had won something.

“Mister Morton, are we connected?” Nellie asked.

“Of course, Your Highness,” Morton replied with a smile. “The transmission is ready at your command.”

“Connected?” the man asked with a smirk.

“I worried that some miscommunication might arise, so I have recorded all details and interactions with the Sagacity. I will simply transmit that on an open channel when we leave. That way, everyone can judge for themselves.” Nellie smiled politely. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have many matters to attend to back in the Imperium and do not wish to waste any further time on a fool's errand.” She nodded to Maya to start powering the EXO-Drive slowly. “Should the Sagacity wish to establish relations later in a more even-handed manner, I would, of course, be willing to do so.”

“Prepare transmission,” Morton called.

“Jumping in five, four, three—” Maya counted down.

“Wait. Perhaps we can adjust things slightly,” the man hurried to say.

“I will not disrespect the work my people did to arrange this visit by finagling it now.” Nellie shook her head.

“Very well.” the man glared as his eyes narrowed. “We will stick to the agreement, but only under protest.”

“No, that would make it look like we forced your hand, which I have no intention of doing,” Nellie replied sharply. “I hoped our societies could move towards friendship. If that is not to be, it is not to be.” She shrugged.

“Sagacity fleet has powered down their weapons,” Maya called.

“Tell me, are we done with the posturing?” Nellie asked.

“We will proceed according to the agreed terms,” the man said through clenched teeth. “But I suggest that allowing us to set the terms, at least a little, would have been wiser in the long run.”

“Ah, I see the misunderstanding,” Nellie nodded.

“Misunderstanding?” he asked.

“Yes. I do not allow others to dictate terms to me or my people. The last ones to try were the Imperial Line.” Nellie smiled grimly.

The man paled slightly but covered it well.

“Proceed according to the agreement.” He cut the line.

A number of small ships moved back toward the station and other jump points as the Harbinger began to move toward the spiral. Nellie had several of them scanned and noted that their broadcast emitters were all much stronger than usual.

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“What were they up to?” Nellie wondered as she tapped the signal icons on the C.I.C.’s command table.

“Watching for a negative reaction?” Morton suggested. “We raise our shields or weapons; they record it and claim we acted in a hostile manner.”

“To what end?” Nellie asked. “If they want a fight, there are a lot simpler ways of doing it.”

“I don’t think they would have pushed it that far,” Morton smirked. “Not against the Harbinger. More likely, they just wanted us to look like the aggressor.”

“Politics is going to be much more difficult than breaking a blockade, isn’t it,” Nellie chuckled.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Morton nodded. “In war, they just try and kill you. In politics, they try everything they can think of, and you may never even find out why.”

“Wonderful,” Nellie sighed. “How long until we are in position?”

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

The screens in the CIC all dinged at the same time, and each one showed the same thing.

“A test?” Maya growled. “I was sure Berenice was taking the piss when she claimed they had to do that!”

“No, all true,” Morton sighed. “Captain? Do we indulge them?”

“Go ahead,” Nellie replied with a smile. “Feel free to use every advantage the nanites give you. After all, we want to make a good impression.”

The crew smiled as they turned back to the screens, eyes and fingers blurring as they answered the questions in record time.

Nellie looked down at her own screen, tendrils of nanites responding to her will to enable her to see all the questions and answer each one at the same time. The screen frizzled, and Maya laughed as the comm line blinked immediately.

“Yes?” Morton asked the control.

“Your Queen’s test failed to compute. There must have been a transmission error.”

“Ah, one moment,” Morton turned to Nellie. “Ma’am, their computers were too slow to keep up with you. Would you mind doing it a little slower?”

“No problem,” Nellie smiled.

“I will have to oversee this one myself,” The stuffy control woman said, fingers flying over controls in front of her.

A question appeared on Nellie’s screen, and she answered it the moment the question formed.

Having her brain move at several times normal speed while she tapped into the Harbinger's information banks helped with that. She repeated the process about a hundred times, pointedly drinking a cup of HyperDrive while doing so.

“Are we done yet?” Nellie asked after almost a minute had passed.

“Yes, yes, of course,” Control cut the line.

“Well, nice to make an impression,” Nellie smiled at her smirking crew.

There was more to the little demonstration than merely irritating the control tower or showing off. Everything that the Marshalls had seen and what Bryant had told her suggested that the Sagacity set a person’s level of worth according to the level of intelligence you showed in their tests. As such, showing themselves to be beyond that kind of test should ensure at least a reasonable level of respect.

Crush-Cha’s recording of the tests he and the others had taken was crucial, as it showed they were simple IQ tests. They had been a fad for a few years back on Earth, at least until people learned how broken they were.

The same weakness existed in every version. The more tests you did, the better your results were. Nellie had her people do dozens of tests a day since she decided to come. Considering they had been set by Lucy, she had not been surprised to see that the Sagacity’s version was much more basic.

“Docking clearance received,” Morton reported. “Permission to dock, Captain?”

“Go ahead,” Nellie stood. “I better go and get ready for my first formal outing as Queen.”

What Nellie wanted to wear was her nanite armor. Unfortunately, that would make the Imperium look a little aggressive. To be fair, she could understand that. She didn’t want to step off the Harbinger looking like some evil queen, but she also had no intention of stepping off looking like some kind of fairytale princess either.

Paren, luckily, had her covered.

Nellie slipped into the microplate bodysuit, the black metal looking like scales as it conformed to her body, adjusting itself until it was as tight as a glove. Over that she wore a black and white ship suit in a formal, admittedly militaristic style, but it was definitely more stylish than anything else she owned. Finally, she added a set of silver boots, gloves, and a choker. Each one was made of densely packed nanites that would expand to cover her entire body in silver if she was threatened.

Looking in the mirror, Nellie admitted that she looked good, just not like a Queen.

A flex of will brought more nanites to her, forming into a high collar and a simple metal band across her forehead in place of a crown. The collar darkened to match the rest of the outfit, and she was done.

She did not take a weapon.

Firstly, she had no reason to.

The second reason was waiting for her in the main airlock.

The four Queen’s Guard saluted smartly, absolutely bristling with weapons.

“No weapons on the station, I expect,” Nellie warned them.

“Understood,” The lead guard nodded. He had a red heart on each shoulder guard. “Covert mode.”

They dropped their weapons in lockers on each side of the door before forming up again. Their internal weapon ports closed over and sealed.

“Ready to proceed, Your Highness.”

She nodded, and the doors began to open, releasing a burst of steam that she knew for a fact was unnecessary.

Still, it was best to make an entrance.

A large group of officials were waiting, but they had wisely decided to wait at the far end of the docking arm. The Royal Guard would have been more than happy to walk over anyone who had been too close.

Walking in the center of the square of guards, Nellie felt no fear from the people at the station. Her outfit could seal against a vacuum, and they would be hard-pressed to do enough damage to outright kill her. Anything less than that, and the Harbinger and its troops would cut their way to her right through the side of the station.

They were docked on the top level of the spiral, the docking arm reaching out to the Harbinger, ending in a sizeable atrium-like bay that showed off the massive structures behind. A large shield kept the atmosphere in, and Nellie took a moment to admire the overlapping fields of magnetic force and energy. It was quite a show, which made it a pity that her normal vision just showed a pale bubble.

It was like hiding the Mona Lisa behind a coat of whitewash, but each to their own, she supposed.

Reluctantly, she turned to look at the group awaiting her at the far of the walkway.

They were led by a trio of smiling men in golden robes, which all seemed to have been purchased before they ballooned into their current size. They were not so much overweight as heavily built. It reminded her of when a weightlifter retired, and they started to sag a little. They were still fit, but without that constant strain, they went a little soft around the edges.

The glint of glasses behind them showed that the man who had tried so hard to provoke a reaction was present, as well as a series of others, all in various colors of robe.

Off to one side was a man in plain black robes, a dome-like hat on his head, and the image of a scroll on his chest.

Looking around, she saw several of the others had a similar symbol on their garment in one place or another.

Nellie came to a stop several paces back, and the trio moved forward smoothly, offering tiny little bows before they spoke.

“Welcome to the Benediction, Your Highness.” the first said.

“It is our pleasure to greet you,” the second added.

“As the triumvirate of doctrine,” the third finished.

She opened her mouth to reply, but they had already moved aside to allow the man in the black robe to approach.

“I’m afraid there is a serious matter to address before we continue,” He spoke as if everyone would listen and obey, so Nellie let him continue. “We suspect academic malpractice, and as such, we must clear it up before you may enter the grounds of the college.”

“Pardon?” Nellie was thrown a little.

“Your test, Your Highness. The results are impossible. You will retake it. Now. In my presence.” He pulled out a shielded datapad with the ports sealed over with wax.

“I must protest,” Nellie replied. “Being unable to access the ports will restrict my abilities.”

“How?” He squinted.

“I can answer multiple questions at once, so doing it this way will be slower.” Nellie shrugged.

“One moment,” he waved, and four more tablets were brought forward by more people in black robes. He fiddled with the settings for a moment and then snapped his fingers, bringing out a table.

He arranged the pads on the table next to each other. “This will have to suffice.”

“It will still be slower,” Nellie sighed. “Unless I am allowed to answer with nanite tendrils in addition to my hands.”

“No, hands only, but we will take the restriction into account.”

Nellie seriously considered turning around and leaving. These people were pushing all kinds of buttons, and their level of disrespect was getting to the ‘make an example’ stage. However, she was also curious as to how well she would do.

“Very well.” She nodded. “I’d move back a little. My guards can be a little overprotective at times.”

He stepped back, and Nellie moved to the table, moving the pads until she was able to reach them all quickly. Once they were arranged to her satisfaction, Nellie did something she normally avoided.

She let the nanites loose.

So much of her time was spent ensuring she didn’t move too fast, or talk too fast, or lift too much weight, and so on. After all the replacements and upgrades, appearing human was a conscious effort.

Now, she let that all go, hands moving in a blur between the pads as she stopped bothering to move her eyes. The sensor readings were plenty, and actually moving her eyes was more habitual than anything else at this point.

Twenty questions per tablet, and it took her less than two seconds to answer all of them.

She stepped back as all the lights on the tablets went green.

“See, so much slower,” Nellie shook her head. “I really need a more direct connection for a serious attempt.”

The man in black took back the tablets with trembling fingers before reaching into his robe and placing a small metal badge on the table.

“Hmm,” Nellie examined it. “Platinum? I don’t think I know that badge.”

“It has only been awarded twice before in the history of the Sagacity.” The man’s voice was awed. “You are the intellect of a generation, Your Highness.”

Nellie laughed before she could stop herself.

Angry faces glared at her.

“Sorry, sorry,” Nellie sighed. “But if you think I am something, you should meet my daughter.”

“She is more intelligent?” The man asked.

“Significantly so,” Nellie smiled broadly. “So, shall we continue?”

“Examiner Remble?” The triumvirate asked, all three speaking at once.

“It is confirmed. A platinum badge is awarded.”

Nellie looked up to see every person in the delegation bowing so low their foreheads nearly touched the floor.

Okay, this just got awkward.