It was a week after our brush with the Coyote fragment. I had spent the last couple days getting Colin's new team integrated and off to a flying start. For the last few hours, I'd sat in a communication center, watching them take on a smaller and less ornery fragment. They'd worked together flawlessly with panache and exactly the sort of out-of-the-box problem-solving skill we'd looked for.
It was weird watching someone else in action, rather than being part of it myself, but kind of enjoyable. Allison was excited about the new team. “I have all sorts of strats I want to talk to them about," she said. "I think they'll come up with plenty on their own, but I want to see if I can help."
Somewhere around the 8-hour mark, Grandpa pinged me and told me to come over to Hatfield's office. I found him with the Air Marshal, Major Armstrong and Colonel Ames. The mood was cheerful, though I could do without the rarefied air. I must have been the only captain anywhere regularly summonsed to meetings with folk so much higher than me who actually wanted to hear my input.
"Captain Williams," Air Marshal Hatfield began, "We've just finalized plans for the independent command under your grandfather. It's going to come with a promotion for him once we get all the paperwork sorted out. Can't have a mere colonel running an operation of this size."
Grandpa looked smug. I nodded. "Congratulations, sir."
"Our main task will be to interface with the civilian contractors and deliver specialized teams to locations that the Joint Task Force has decided. The retrofit of the Ad Astra should be wrapping up shortly."
Hatfield said, “I’m working on the paperwork to transfer you to the new command, Williams. I would like you able to consult with Armstrong here even after the transfer is completed.”
"I'll be taking over the training course for our newly inducted armed forces," Armstrong said. "I'd be a fool not to get your advice. I'd also like to see about a short-term contract with some of your civilian experts."
It felt like a big weight had been taken off my shoulders. Colin and his team would handle the fragment integration. Armstrong would train the boot recruits. Leaving me to do... well, I wasn't entirely sure what yet. I didn't think I would be running a lot of missions myself. It felt like I had started to see the main problem we humans were having here was organization. I needed to sit down with Allison, Arjun and Juana and see how they did things. I was starting to have a vision for it.
"We'll have time on the cruise over to Epsilon Indi to hash some things out," Grandpa told me. "The Ad Astra will have a largely civilian crew since she's owned by Misfits Guild. Being a corporate-owned vessel actually makes it a lot easier for us to gain access to other systems. Very few inter-system ships are owned by governments. Apparently, a lot of systems will refuse to let them through their jump gates."
"Sounds good, sir," I said. "So, we go out there, we get ethereum, then what's next?"
"Next is we start making our presence known at future exploits," Hatfield said crisply.
I didn't like the sound of that, but a captain does not tell off an officer multiple grades higher than him. I gave Grandpa a sidelong look and saw the set of his expression.
Hatfield was looking at him too. "You have a concern, Colonel?”
"We're gonna go help perpetuate the system that we've suffered under?"
"The answer is yes and no. Ultimately, one of the objectives of my new command will be looking at alternatives. But until we understand the ins and outs of the current system, we can't replace it, even if we weren’t the new kids on the block. We need to get out there. It'll give us a chance to talk to folk like the Grignarians who are on the outs. Not everybody can be happy with the status quo. But securing our place in the galaxy getting out there, acquiring etherium, showing the rest of the galaxy that we aren’t weak. If we show weakness, they’ll pounce."
I didn’t much like it, but I had to admit she had a point.
“We need to know how many reality engines are out there,” Hatfield said. “Are they nearly limitless, or is there a chance that the supply of new ones will dry up, leading to fights over control of the existing engines? How about Ethereum? How is it processed and created? That’s the stranglehold the Galactics have on us right now. What if some species out there decide that we Earthlings are a valuable commodity? What if they kidnap another couple million of us? Right now, we can’t stop that. We need a presence in the galaxy.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said.
“Anyway, Williams, this is just to let you know that the transfer will be taking place soon. Dismissed.”
I left, but I didn’t go back to the control center. Colin was doing fine. If there was a problem, Allison or someone else would ping me. Instead, I checked where Juana was. To my surprise, she was at her mother’s restaurant. I headed over there, found her in the back with her sister, cooking.
“What’s all this?” I said, looking around the bustling kitchen. The two of them were making a batch of fresh tamales. My mouth started to water from the smell as Juana looked up and smiled.
“Oh, hey, Shad.” She wiped her hands on a towel and gestured for me to step out of the kitchen and into the back rooms where Misfits Guild had its headquarters. These days, the rooms were largely empty most of the time. Since our people had scattered to different star systems or other tasks. "I needed to clear my head," she said as we went.
"It's been a rough couple of weeks for all of us."
“You can say that again,” she said. I told her what Grandpa had told me in the briefing. She nodded. "He asked me if I wanted to come along as Misfits Guild representative, and I tentatively said yes. I’d like to lean into my role there. The Guild structure’s been undercut in the last year as people go off to other reality engines temporarily. The work’s piling up and I’ve been ignoring it while I focus on side projects.”
“What about the council liaison role?”
She shook her head. “I’ll hand that over to someone with more patience. It's pointless and stupid. It took me a little while to realize that. The answer to almost every problem that the Council has is just move people into reality engine levels. Now that we have so many fragments of Kronos properly integrated, there's plenty of stable levels and Etherium reserves to support them. I was sitting listening to them fight and complain about how many units of Etherium were being allocated to create meals for ungrateful immigrants, and I just thought, 'This is stupid. I'm wasting my time.' "
“I agree, and you’re well shut of that. So, what does focusing on the guild look like? More meetings? More delegation.”
“Actually…” She bit her lip and took a deep breath. "I've been looking into galactic law programs."
I blinked. "What?" Of all the things I hadn't expected, this was definitely on the list.
"Hear me out," she said, holding up a hand. "There's an entire system of galactic law that we humans don't understand. We have to hire advocates or representatives, and some of them have done good work for us. But it's a huge disadvantage. We need humans who understand how it works, not just the basics, but in-depth. What does corporate law look like? What's civil code? Criminal? Remember how they railroaded Veda in that trial? They couldn't actually get her for malfeasance, so they had to come up with some sort of stupid fiduciary duty nonsense. Well, that's exactly the sort of thing that could destroy one of our endeavors. I want to make sure we know what we're doing.”
“And that dovetails with taking more interest in running the guild? Shouldn’t you be studying, I don’t know, business?”
She shook her head. “Not the way the galactics do it. I’m starting to understand we really don’t get how they see guilds. They’re more than companies, more than just affiliations — it’s most peoples’ deepest identity. Anyway, if I want to be an effective leader, investing a couple of years in legal study is the way to go.”
"What would that entail?" I asked, having visions of Juana jetting off for three years in an alien system. I wanted to be a supportive husband, but I had a chain of command. I couldn't just up and move. I didn't like the idea of being apart from her.
"Don't worry," she said. "I've already started looking into it. We can have custom law school programs sent to me that I can run here at Kronos. I’d have to visit the parent school a couple times a year for examinations and in-person lectures. But I'm looking into programs based out of systems where we're likely to have business dealings anyway. Ethereum refueling runs, exploit support… that sort of thing.”
I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding. "You know I wouldn't stand in your way, but I'm glad to know you can do this and still be home at night."
"More often than you have been lately," she said.
“That’s fair,” I admitted. “So when do you think you'll hear about it? You have to apply and be interviewed?"
"My cohort and I are sending off our application to three prospective schools in a couple of days. I just wanted to talk to you about it first. I've been messaging Veda, and she says she thinks I'll have no trouble getting in. She says the Galactics are as curious about us and our rogue engine. It's just the academics haven't had much excuse to come visit yet."
"Well, that's wonderful," I said. “I’m excited. I want you to sit down and tell me all the details over a plate of tamales.”
She rewarded me with a broad smile. "It maybe isn't what I ever expected," Juana admitted, "but none of this is. Four years ago, if you'd told me, I'd be living inside a supercomputer on Ganymede while my cowboy husband keeps looking for new and inventive ways of getting himself killed. I wouldn't have believed you, but I can't imagine anything better."
I stepped in close and kissed her. After a moment, she pulled back, looking at me with her beautiful dark eyes.
"Something else I wanted to ask you about," she said. "Now that we have a little more time freed up, and maybe an idea of where we're going to be for the next few years, I think it might be time to start our family."
We'd talked about it a couple times over the last year. We both wanted kids, but everything had seemed too unsettled, with Juana and I running in opposite directions 18 hours a day. "Wait. You want to do law school and have a baby at the same time?"
"Compared to everything I've been doing, it should be a walk in the park," she said.
“I love the idea.” Her broad smile was like the sun warming me, and I knew I'd said the right thing. "What's the point of all of this if we're not trying to leave a legacy?" I said, feeling a bit giddy all over. "Let's go for it."
Her fingers twined in mine. “After the tamales, then?”