Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. My finger cracked upon the top of the desk as I rapped upon it, increasing in rhythm so as to produce stress in the young woman in the corner, her eyes puffy with wasted tears. I had been waiting for an hour, and expected her partner in the door any moment and needed her to be on edge so that they would be unable to collect their bearings and create a united front.
When the door opened, a man walked in and glanced at her before turning to me with worry in his eyes. I looked him in the eye without speaking, forcing him to speak first, “What happened?”
I stopped my rhythmic tapping and stared coolly while keeping unblinking eye contact. Seconds passed, and he finally broke and looked away, shuffling uncomfortably. “You will not address a senior officer in that way, Ulysses.”
The woman broke under the pressure, “Please, it wasn’t my fault! I was just trying to…” I ignored her pleading while resuming my tapping and my eyes dared his to look back at mine.
“… That’s enough…” he whispered in defeat.
“But I-” the lady sobbed.
“Enough!” he screamed, breathing heavily as he trembled.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap. “Well then,” I spoke strictly now that the two had fallen silent with despair, “let’s discuss the charges. Your partner here has been found in noncompliance with provision 302, section eight. This has been her twelfth offense this year, and she will be subsequently forfeiting all social services due to established precedent. This includes food, medical, and your allotted utilities.
The pair mumbled an acknowledgement, so I continued, “There is of course procedure first. I will need to sign off on the charges and if I am being honest, it is far from my priority at the moment, so it will be going on the bottom of the stack of paperwork.”
The man perked up as he realized the implications and said, “You will? Thank you!”
I held up a hand to stop him, “I am not letting her off that easy. You may think of this as an… extension if you will. And since I have so much paperwork it could remain at the bottom of the stack indefinitely if you provide… certain provisions.”
He didn’t even hesitate. “What do you want?” Once I had someone at the bargaining table I had already won.
I left my office a few minutes after dismissing the couple, and my yeoman, a young piece of eye candy I had handpicked waited outside with his tablet in front of him as he addressed me, “Commander Juliet, you’re 0800 appointment with the Five Star is today. At 1300 you have your meeting with the prisoner for his citizenship briefing. 1400 the review with the auditor will commence. I have tentatively scheduled an appointment at 1700 as well.”
I stared the young man up and down as I asked, “And what’s happening at 1700?”
“Alloy returns from his mission this afternoon and should be free in his office at that time.”
I smiled politely at him, “Excellent, congratulations are in order after all. See if you can procure something to celebrate the occasion. A pair of new boxing gloves for the returning hero would do nicely.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied with practiced professionalism.
At a brisk pace I headed towards the office of the Five Star and knocked, waiting for permission to enter. His administration met me at the door and ushered me to a waiting lounge. While there I opened my tablet and began reviewing and signing the mountain of paperwork awaiting me.
I oversaw Unit Two, one of the Crossroads’ elites. Unit One, Two, and Three were reserved for the top three ranked Alpha pilots. Each provided a specific need for the city and functioned as the public faces of the military. Unit One served as a deterrent towards Atlantis, armed with our best naval technology. Unit Three was for Olympus, offering unparalleled air superiority even in the face of the artificial storm. Unit Two oversaw policing, and my Alpha served as the last line of defense in the event of an invasion.
“He'll see you now,” a woman informed me, so I closed and stored my tablet for later. I stepped into his room, he was staring out a window facing towards the central pillar of the city. Lights illuminated the steel and iron construction, and some smoke was wafting from a dimly lit bridge.
The Five Star greeted me with a large smile as his voice boomed with pride and joy, “Juliet, welcome, how has your morning been?” I smiled back and traded useless niceties with him. The Five Star always wasted time with trivialities that could have been skipped. Many said he was personable, but I found it to be an enormous waste of time.
After finally offering me a seat he sipped from a mug and said, “So your operation was a huge success.”
“We were able to triangulate and locate Atlantis then?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. I had proposed that the Atlanteans would attempt to intercept us as we took El Dorado and that we place Unit One in hiding. When their main force appeared we could use that to locate the hidden city and send an Alpha to finally eliminate our enemy.
“We did, and we sent them a warning so that they won’t bother us again.”
“A warning?”
“Yes. I took your idea to sink Atlantis into consideration and decided it would be better to just send a message that if we located them once, we could do it again. I suspect we’ll be resuming trade again shortly. With this we will have peace again.”
I looked at the daft idiot who had screwed up my entire plan. I should have known this unqualified fool would try to take the ‘peaceful’ option. Atlantis may have the ability to make GEL in mass, but we had long reverse-engineered its production. The real purpose of our trade is it avoided raising costs for us and dissuaded them from outright hostilities, but we had the opportunity to eliminate them in one fell swoop and he had given it up to reach a status quo that was unreliable on a good day. The recent hostilities were proof enough of that. We would never be able to fully control Atlantis. This ’peace’ was temporary and left open the possibility for real war, but I expected no less from an idiot who had never faced combat before.
Our military consisted of fifty Units, each with a hundred men and women. Of those, only those lead by an Alpha would face real combat against the Atlanteans. The brigadier generals managed ten units each, and each general reported directly to the Five Star. The problem was Alpha pilots almost never made rank from Unit Commander. We were too precious an asset in most cases, at least that’s what the fools in charge believed. In reality our real-life combat expertise made us if anything even more valuable as higher ranking officers.
“I see. The problem is we won’t be able to locate the city again.”
“Oh, why not?”
“Their city is mobile; it’s why we have had such trouble locating it in the first place. We also only found it by tracking back the way the Neon Cathedrals came, and they are unlikely to send a direct force like that for us to follow again. They probably already know that’s how we found them and have made immediate preparations to move.”
“Hmm,” mused the Five Star, “That is unfortunate, though I still think it is best we let them be. What you proposed would have been an unimaginable loss of human life.
The cost of leaving them alive was worst in the long run. “Understood, sir,” I said instead.
“Speaking of, did you see the report from the El Dorado mission?”
“I did.”
“Over a hundred people dead, and three Olympian airships downed. If it wasn’t for us having procured the cache this would be an unmitigated disaster. I should have never sent Alloy out there.”
A disaster? I could laugh at the absurdity of it. To a sheltered desk jockey, it may seem like a disaster. I could imagine the amount of meetings with the corporations and contractors would take weeks, and having almost the entirety of a Unit wiped out would drastically effect operations for sure. But to call it a disaster was to completely miss what had happened. We had wiped out the equivalent of six Alphas and two Bravos at the hands of a single pilot. That’s not even mentioning the human-sized super soldier that almost took him down. More importantly, Alloy had the foresight to bring back the body and half of one of their large nanofiber behemoths for reverse engineering. He had succeeded against a stacked deck, and had not only secured the resources, but brought home fruits of war.
“Sir, I think you’re looking at this the wrong way.”
“How do you mean?”
I knew better than to explain the logistics of the situation, he only cared about political optics. “This was a victory, at the hands of one pilot. Sure, some nobodies died, but a single pilot stood up to a pair of Bravos, countless Alphas, and even a new super soldier. And then he single-handedly won.”
The Five Star laughed, “Did we read the same report?”
“We can redact the report, sir. Sanitize it for consumption to a story of unprecedented heroics. The corporations will scramble for new contracts just to get Alloy on their payroll. Hell, the man is handsome enough to make the face of the military. And don’t forget Olympus either. The optimists and dreamers up there love a good story. The idea of having access to a living legend will give us top priority for contracts with their workshops.”
The man turned away and looked out his window as he mused, “Hmm, you have a point. I’ll still have to explain we have lowered mission capacity, being down a Unit, but this will cushion the blow. We can even argue we get priority on our next graduation for recruits.”
“Exactly, sir. Not only that but Unit One will be needing a new commander in a couple years since he announced he would be retiring to caretaker in two years. Alloy of Justice is a clear nomination.”
He turned back to me in surprise, “Rank one? I thought you couldn’t stand the man, and you think we should make him rank one?”
“I can stand him fine. He just does not conduct himself befitting an officer, and I call him out. He is a top tier pilot, a brilliant strategist, and is the obvious choice for Unit One.”
“I figured you would want number one.”
“Rank one leads Unit One because they are the best, and therefore best suited to serve as a deterrent for Atlantis. While I may have been able to take down Atlantis at El Dorado, Alloy is the one they saw. They will know and fear him, not me.”
He sat down back into his chair, “I still find it hard to believe you would pass on raising your rank.”
He could struggle to comprehend it all he wanted. Rankings for pilots was a consolation prize for not being able to receive a promotion. I had my eye on a real reward, “Actually sir, I would like to request consideration for promotion.”
His eyes narrowed, and he smiled falsely, “You know how I feel about my Alpha pilots.” I didn’t much care for how he felt, what mattered was that I was more than qualified to be a brigadier general. “I have a strong case for you to consider, sir.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
He sighed in exacerbation, “Let’s hear it then.”
“Thank you, sir. First off, I am already in Unit Two, which confines me to the city. Promoting me will not prevent me from piloting my Alpha in cases of emergencies. I might also add that we have not been directly attacked in hundreds of years. I spend most my days wasting time on administrative work, so it’s not like you’re utilizing me as a pilot anyways. You yourself have admitted I’m one of your best strategists, which is why you insisted on me getting rank two in the first place. I could easily perform my job as deterrent from any position in the city. We both know that when it comes to operations, you defer to me over your own brigadier generals. All I’m asking for is the authority that comes with what you already have me do.”
The man continued to smile, although the smile stopped short of reaching his eyes. I already knew his answer, before he spoke, “I see you’ve thought this through. But think of it from the other commanders’ point of view. Think of it from the other pilots’ point of view. If I promote you, I open the door to any pilot making brigadier general.”
The fact this man thought this was an actual issue was beyond me.
“Besides, I would get pushback from others considering your less than stable home life.”
Of course, he would bring that up. “Sir, has the death of my partner ever impacted my performance?”
The man looked in deep thought as he struggled to come up with an example before conceding, “No, I suppose it hasn’t. Still, having no partner has been shown in studies to affect mental health and job performance, and it would be irresponsible of me to put the burden of general on anyone in that situation.”
My yeoman followed me as we walked towards the prisoner’s cell. He asked, “Commander, how did it go?”
“The man is a fool and is more liable to lead the Crossroads into a disaster than space.”
“Terrible, understood,” he said, though I heard a sliver of sympathy from him. If nothing else at least those under my command had my back. A small condolence, but a condolence, nonetheless. We walked the rest of the way in silence before the guard stood at attention and verified our credentials before entering the containment. There was a corpsman who was standing by who entered with us.
Per my orders Kristoff was out cold, gassed before I entered the room. “Get to work.” The corpsman rolled the man who had collapsed on the ground onto his back and made an incision on the back of the Atlantean’s head, where a fresh scar from his earlier surgery was still pink. The man worked quickly, placed an object into the prisoner’s head, and then sewed him back up.
“Done.”
“Good, both of you are dismissed.”
“Ma’am?” asked my handsome assistant.
“I will be fine. I need a word with our… new citizen.”
He acknowledged and then both he and the corpsman left while I opened my tablet to work on additional paperwork while I waited, taking a seat at the provided table to do so. It was as usual a bottomless pit of me having to sign approving contracts, updates to instructions, and innumerous other pointless things that could easily be handled by someone else. The fact I was even wasting time with briefing Kristoff was proof enough of how my talents were being wasted, but as Unit Two, we oversaw the prisoner and the Five Star himself wanted me to have a hand habilitating the man. I was of the opinion we were under no obligation to honor our deal with the Atlantean. Allowing him to have any freedom was asking for espionage and sabotage, but Alloy had negotiated and insisted that if we didn’t honor his agreement, he would make everyone’s life hell, and the Five Star agreed with him. One of the few times where those two seemed to agree.
It was perhaps Alloy’s only flaw, his penchant for focusing on people on the individual level. It wasn’t necessarily a bad way to see the world, and had its uses, but when considering the safety of the future of mankind it was flawed logic on a good day.
I saved my work and put my tablet away as soon as I heard the man groan as he came to.
“What the hell…?” came a deep bass voice that I could feel vibrate through me as his hand grabbed the table and he pulled himself up. As his head raised his eyes locked with me and he paused before saying, “Uh… morning?”
“Have a seat, KR1570FF.”
“It’s Kristoff,” he grumbled but settled himself into a chair. “What did you do to me?”
“I had the suicide chip reinstalled on you,” I said coldly and waited for the immediate outburst as the man’s eyes widened.
“You did what!?” He started screaming, and continued while I began my incessant tapping.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Well, this was proving pointless. I had hoped he would at least attempt to attack me with my provocation, but it would appear the man was of cooler head than his shouting would lead me to believe. He didn’t even raise a hand to point at me accusatorily to give me an excuse. I needed video evidence of his violence to excuse using force to shoot the man with the turrets in the room, but he seemed to be keenly aware of his situation. Fine, plan b, while not preferred, would at least give me some peace of mind.
“Are you done?” I asked nonchalantly through his yelling.
“Excuse me?”
I pulled out my tablet and began resuming my work, “Are you done? I have paperwork to do if you still need to get your frustrations out, otherwise would you like me to start with your habitation brief?”
He glared at me, so I began signing the last form I had been reviewing, “Fine. What’s a habitation brief?”
I opened a file on my tablet and showed him a presentation on the screen, “It’s to prepare you for your life in the Crossroads, you are, after all, a citizen now.”
His eyes lit up a little, “I am?”
“Yes, El Dorado was obtained a few days ago, and I’ve been spending the last few days processing you into all our systems. We’re releasing you tomorrow morning but wanted to be sure you knew what to expect.”
“That’s…” his voice trailed off as realization returned to his eyes, “Then why the FUCK did you put that chip back in my head?”
I leaned towards him and looked him dead in the eye, “Oh, that. That’s on me. I personally don’t like the idea of an Atlantean roaming our streets free. It’s not the same chip however, this one has… different requirements for its activation. Indeed, we have about five more minutes before it becomes active and if you violate its protocol, well that’s the end of KR1570FF.”
His eyes narrowed, “You reprogrammed it?”
“I’m not the one who worked on it, so I don’t know the details, but I don’t advise on asking anyone else from the Crossroads about it. See that’s its first caveat. If you so much even mention it to any of our citizens, it’ll take you out. Even though it is within my authority to install that chip, just knowing that it is there will make others… we’ll say uncomfortable. This could lead to unnecessary protests, and while it wouldn’t change anything I figured I’d at least stop them ahead of time. The other caveat is instead of being anti-Crossroads it’s anti-Atlantis. Think of it as a reverse suicide chip to what you had before. See, I used to work in the field, and I have a good idea of how your chips work. If we gain the ability to capture you, it goes off; if you talk to us, it goes off. The only ones who can even talk to us are your operators, who negotiate trades with us. I’m assuming they have a modified version of the chip. Regardless, I believe it won’t be a problem, you’ll be staying within the confines of the city anyways, as we have no need for a possible renegade on any of our scouting parties.”
The rest of my meeting with Kristoff went well, as he did seem genuinely thrilled to be leaving the cell. All that mattered to me was I had insurance on him that he would behave. Obviously, it wasn’t perfect, but I figured if the incentive of a suicide chip worked in Atlantis all this time, then I could repurpose it to control this rogue element.
I honestly was relieved to be ending my day with Alloy as I knocked on his office’s door. I had a box containing his gift in my hands, and had let my hair down so that it felt more relaxed. The audit had gone poorly, in large part due to a rogue element I had not even been aware of. “Enter,” came the response. I stepped inside to be met by both Alloy, who was sitting behind his desk, and his yeoman, 33. “What do you want, Juliet?” asked Alloy.
“I came over to congratulate you on your mission success, though I do need to have a word with your yeoman.”
“Go right ahead.”
“I meant in private, Alloy.”
“You can say whatever you need to say in front of me,” he growled. I was slightly taken aback by his harshness and irritation, though I did not show it. He was not normally this hostile, and while he disagreed with my methods, he treated me with at least a modicum of respect. Right now, though, he was clearly mad, and from 33’s reaction I wasn’t the only one caught off guard by the sudden aggressiveness.
“Very well. It has come to my attention during today’s audit that some evidence was checked out of our locker. Particularly important evidence.”
“Get to the damn point,” Alloy interjected. My guess was he had a rough flight here from Olympus. He may have even gotten airsick, though that was just speculation.
I took a moment to collect myself and then spoke carefully. Normally I would draw out the delivery to try and make who I was interrogating slip up, but he wasn’t letting me. “The point is she checked out equipment confiscated from the Atlantean. A small machine of unknown purpose that we believed was of Olympian design. It was never returned, but according to our paperwork it was. If she stole from the evidence locker that’s grounds for immediate removal from the military."
Alloy raised an eyebrow and looked at 33, who looked nervous now, and back to me. “And what if she was following orders?”
Was he seriously about to…? “33,” I said, “you are dismissed. Wait outside.” She stared at me, back to Alloy, and then complied. Once the door shut, I turned back to Alloy and demanded, “Are you seriously going to take the fall for her?”
“How do you know I didn’t order her?” he said with lazy conviction. He knew I wasn’t going to buy his crap, but he was at least going to put up a façade.
“You’re an asshole, not a dumbass.”
He nodded and smiled at my admission, “Alright, fair enough. Still, I’ll be taking the credit of the theft.”
I sighed, and sat in the chair opposite his desk, “And what purpose does that serve, hmm.” I started tapping on his desk.
Tap.
Tap.
Ta- “Touch my desk again and this conversation is over,” Alloy of Justice said while leaning back, gaining control of the situation. He was all too familiar with my tactics to set others off guard, and if anything, my attempt seemed to relax him. He knew I was the one unsettled.
I sat back and gave up my usual tactics, since honesty was the best method with him, “Are you obsessed with sabotaging any chance you have of making rank?”
“Not like the idiot,” he didn’t clarify he was referring to the Five Star, and didn’t need to, “would let me make rank anyways. I might make a fucking fool out of him.”
“Which is why I recommended you for rank one today.”
Alloy looked at me with curiosity, “Alright, I’ll bite, how do you think that will benefit you?”
“Benefit me?”
“Everything you do is to benefit yourself.”
“Everything I do is to benefit the Crossroads.”
“As long as you’re the one in fucking charge.”
“Oh, so the Five Star should be in charge?”
“Didn’t say that either.”
I sat back in frustration and crossed my arms. We were getting nowhere and fast. “Fine. Getting back to the issue at hand, you’re taking the fall for a mere driver. Sure, she might be a good yeoman, but that doesn’t make it worth halting your career for her.”
“She just put in for Charlie Pilot.”
“And? Will she be able to qualify for Alpha someday?”
“Yes.”
That did explain it. Sure, if she was found out now, she’d be kicked out and likely starved to death, but a pilot. Those were rare, and a precious resource. Even someone as hard to control as Alloy was worth keeping around. “So, you’re going to take the blame so she can become a pilot.”
“I’m going to take the blame, so she doesn’t die. If she loses her job at her age no one else will accept her. It’s a damn death sentence.”
I now knew the root of the issue, and I saw an out for both pair. One that would set me up nicely. “Then I think we can come to an agreement, one that will sweep this whole issue under the rug.”
The man let out a loud groan, “Fucking hell, what shit are you on about now?”
“Just hear me out.”
He sighed, and then said, “Out with it, Juliet.”
“I can make this issue… disappear. Claim our investigation found that the evidence had been misplaced due to a clerical error. I’ll have to answer some annoying questions with the auditors and my brigadier general, but I’ll be able to get out of it without it impacting my career at the very least. You’ll have nothing standing in the way of you making rank one.”
He laughed as he crossed his arms, “You think I’ll be making rank one?”
“I think as long as you keep your head low you are the hero of both the Crossroads and Olympus right now. I finished a meeting with the Five Star, and I recommended you myself for rank one. You probably aren’t aware, but Unit One’s commander just announced his retirement in two years. Everything is in position for you, all I need you to do is shut up and listen.”
He stared coldly back at me. I legitimately didn’t understand why he was being so hostile. Sure, we butted heads professionally, but we normally were able to see eye to eye that everything was for the betterment of the Crossroads.
“And what do you get out of this?” He wasn’t a fool at the least. Nothing comes for free.
“In exchange I want 33 to transfer to my unit. It would look good for me if I trained up another Alpha pilot. Allow me to take credit for her, and possibly negotiate a promotion.”
“No deal.”
“Alloy, don’t be a fool. This benefits all of us.”
“I said no deal.”
“Why?”
He grinned, but it didn’t reach his eyes. It was a dangerous grin, one that warned me to be careful, cause at any second it could turn into a snarl. “Here’s a fucking question for you. Who was the last pilot you trained?”
“90, but I fail to see what that has to do with anything.”
“Yes, 90. And he’s dead. But you haven’t even asked me once about him and the mission.”
“I read the mission brief. He died without even adding anything to the mission. What is your point?”
That was the trigger, and his face contorted to rage, “My point, bitch, is you don’t even care! Not even asking if he went quick! A young pilot, one you trained, is dead, and all you care about is that he didn’t contribute to the mission. No. Fuck letting you have 33!”
I stared at him coolly while he continued to rant. Finally, he stopped and was panting while glaring at me, and I spoke carefully, “We can’t afford to get emotional in our line of work.”
“Get out of my fucking face. Go ahead and file that she took the evidence on my orders. I’ll take the ass chewing. And Juliet?”
I had already gotten up and was walking to the door with box in hand, “What is it, Alloy?”
“You used to be in charge of Unit Forty-Three, right?” His eyes stared at me accusatorily, and I didn’t bother responding. It was rhetorical. He was sending me a message, and a simple one. It was a shame too. Alloy really was the best suited for rank one. If he couldn’t learn to play ball though, well I couldn’t afford to let such an uncontrollable element out into the wild. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do at the time. At least not until I made brigadier general.
I turned around in response to his question, approached his desk, and set down the box, “Consider this a gift. Congratulations on your mission.”
I didn’t turn around to see him open the box. To see the letter held inside I had written. To see the look on his face when he saw the boxing gloves. He had burned down one too many bridges, and those gloves now represented a single declaration. Get ready to fight for it.