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Beyond Hope
- Chapter 68 - The ripples before the tsunami[]
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Inflight Meal for dignitaries[]
Outbound for Boojam
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran States)
3065
The conveyance to the Archive was a Silver Streak class dropship, this one a semi-non-military fit with passenger accommodation instead of nuclear weapons. "Lady Helena, you only have had these for a few years…"
"Production. By producing a civilianized variant, I keep the military lines in shape for military needs without needing to spend on storage or cache sites. Besides, it's comfortable and well appointed for this role."
Khan Sennet looked thoughtfully at the display showing the outside. "No windows."
"Better structural integrity. Ferroglass doesn't weld. By keeping the hull and frame homogenous, it reduces stress problems in the spaceframe from re-entry plasma or temperature fluctuations. This hull will likely last centuries with minimal maintenance to the structure itself. Which is good when you’re competing with manufacturers like Federated Boeing who guarantee their dropships for fifty to ninety years of hard service," Helena answered. “Plus when it comes to the primary use of this vessel, visual range in space is such by the time you see it with a mark one eyeball, it’s already not a problem one way or the other.”
Wolf Khan Vlad Ward spoke up, “When are we lifting?"
"We've been under way for about twenty minutes now," Helena told him. "If you want a real-time view, you just need to tell the display next to your seat."
“Voice control. Interesting.” Vlad mused.
"Wait, we are flying?" Khan Karianna Schmitt asked.
"Yeah. Inertial Dampeners ease the stress on cargo and passengers," Helena explained. "Artificial gravity to maintain health and muscle tone for the duration of the flight. Arthur Steiner-Davion cracked the secret a few years ago. It's why these are so useful for trips like this one. We'll be at Spider Moon in a bit over twelve hours, instead of needing to use a Jump Ferry and waste four hours burning in… or several weeks at one gravity thrust."
“How… A system of two billion people and you have accomplished all of this?” Ariel shook her head.
"I stopped asking Arthur where he gets his ideas, Khan Suvarov, because when he starts talking about advanced theory? He confuses me." Helena teased. "Elizabeth is better at explaining it, but only when she's very, very drunk. And to be fair, we’ve had a lot of subcontractors and out of system manufacturers contributing too."
A steward in Star League livery came down the aisle with a drinks cart.
"The snacks and drinks are complementary, Khans. Indulge if you wish," Helena offered.
“These are diabolical…” Ariel commented as she ate candied fruits from a small package.
“Those are my favorite too. I import mine from Terra though. Straight from Yakima,” Helena smiled. “The ones on today’s flight are from Donegal though. They’re not bad.”
"Food imports?" Vlad asked.
"The local cuisine is a little bit… spicy." Helena said. "This is supposed to be friendly, not a dare."
“Perhaps later then. Some of us are feeling in need of a ‘dare’ so to speak,” Khan Sennet spoke.
"Try the ijero tarts: the red ones on the second shelf," the Steward offered. "They're Vin Drin Lap style."
Khan Sennet took a package and ate one experimentally. Then her face flushed and everyone had a good laugh at her agony.
"Try the two-star packets. Four-Star is usually for the flight crew," the Steward said. "And the red tea, to ease the burn."
"How…" But the Diamond Shark Khan was already grabbing a second one.
"It's good for you. Full of vitamins and minerals, and it warms the blood."
Schmitt grabbed one with the most stars she could find.
It was sweet, at first, tart, warm… Then… "Oh Founder!! This is good! Finally something with some taste on this journey!"
Vlad tried a one star bag. Moments later he was coughing, sweating, and almost gagging. For the second time everyone had a good laugh at someone else’s misfortunes.
'Savashri, you EAT this?"
"Well, I don't. Two star is usually about as low as we go at home, or with guests." the Steward confessed. "My family has a barbecue restaurant with a proper four and five star menu up in Ia Drang. You might have heard of Mama Ji's, or maybe not."
“Best brisket in light years. That part of Roshak’s reports strangely made it through,” Marthe nodded. "What time is the lunch scheduled?"
"We'll be serving lunch at turnover in five hours. Would you like a menu?" the Steward asked.
"Aff." Marthe accepted a plasti-koted menu from the cart. "And Ca'phe, large size, extra cream?"
"Of course." The steward set to work on the cart, preparing a coffee drink via a miniaturized barista array. "Here you are. Do let me know if the temperature is to your liking. Would you like elements of Chicory, or Chocolate?"
"Chocolate," Marthe said. "Two spoons? That is the correct term, quiaff?"
"Yes ma'am, two spoons."
"Where do you get the chocolate?" Ariel asked.
"The rimjobs set up plantations up by New Saigon. It wound up growing wild out there, so cultivation was pretty easy. And it's a good export. Not a lot of worlds have the right soils and growing conditions for chocolate, even in their equatorial areas," Helena explained.
"Ours is a bit rougher in texture than Terran chocolate, but Camranh's coffee plantations make the best in the Commonwealth. The beans are smooth and the fruit gets big up there on the North Continent. During the Occupation, millions died on those plantations. Worked to death, starved. We decided we'd keep them out of spite, once the bastards were gone."
“Mocha latte, with whipped cream, vanilla, and caramel.” Vlad ordered.
The Steward had his order whipped up rapidly. "Apologies on the vanilla. The beans were less… fruitful this year, so it's cut with foreign grown varieties, which are somewhat bland."
He accepted his drink skeptically, then tasted it. "Bland? Neg, subtle."
“Black. Straight,” Ariel ordered.
"Bonkers or regular blend?" the Steward asked.
"What is 'bonkers'?"
"Higher caffeine content, but bitter."
“Bitter. I like my coffee bitter.”
Helena almost said 'you were warned', but kept her peace.
The cup was delivered piping hot, and filled the cabin with the rich smell of fresh ground light roast coffee.
“Surprise me,” Schmitt spoke.
"Hmmmm…" then the Steward set to work. What came out, had a cinnamon stick as a garnish, and was coal black with a golden head.
Schmitt took the offered drink, smelled it, then took a deep drink.
“Perfect.”
Khan Sennet looked perplexed. “Herbal tea will suffice.”
"I have several varieties, if you would care to peruse a menu?" the Steward suggested.
“Peppermint if you have it.”
"Ooh, I hardly ever get to break that out!!” Happily, he went to work again. "Any preferred additives or flavorings? Honey or sugar?"
“Neg.”
"So this is to impress us?" Vlad asked. "The variety, I mean?"
"Nope. We barely had time to load up for a commercial flight before you arrived at the port, so we're running a little shy today," the Steward said. "Normally, I'd only have to man the coffee station, but security concerns meant that most of the regular staff had to stay behind, we've got enough cooks and stores for the trip, and a lot of the rest of the ship is cargo this run, so we can make payments."
“And I appreciate the effort. Chamomile with a little honey please,” Helena ordered.
"One sleepytime special coming up." The Steward clearly enjoyed his job.
"Since this IS a business class flight, your display window can be set to a variety of entertainment applications, or business and administrative software if you have incomplete business activities. A keyboard is provided in your seat for word processor applications with a multicontroller if you wish to use the computer aided drafting software. Since this is a hurried flight, any brand-specific options will, unfortunately, be unavailable until you reach your destination," the Steward explained. "But we do have an RF frequency networking and communications suite if you wish to send or receive P-mails. We can't guarantee lag time on chat options, so those are not included."
"A Communications suite?" Schmitt asked.
"Yes ma'am. It's limited, Einstein's rules apply even in warp travel, but texts can be sent and received if you're okay with the lightspeed delay. And there’s a channel to monitor the flight real-time from the flight deck, if you’re curious about our relative velocity or nervous about reaching your destination on time… But that one is only one-way."
"Interesting… how many passengers would normally be aboard?"
"Usually around a hundred fifty," he said. "Sometimes more, especially during holidays. We try to get as close to a Star League era experience for our customers as possible. We're not there yet. At least, we don't think so, but… we are making the effort."
Schmitt was studying the Steward.
“Perhaps later, when you are not on duty, we can discuss a few things. Privately,” Schmitt almost purred.
The man blushed, but finished taking their lunch orders with admirable professionalism.
"That was cruel, Karianna Schmitt," Marthe commented once he was out of hearing range.
“How so? He made some really good coffee. And he is interesting. I would couple with him.”
"I could take notes on how this operation is run," Sennet said, looking at Helena. "A commercial flight instead of a government vessel, for example."
"I didn't want to stare at primer painted walls and bare decks," Helena commented. "Not to mention the seating is so much more comfortable."
“And it further underlines the statement you and Liz are making. You have so much, you can afford to waste on such frivolous luxury,” Vlad noted.
"It enhances efficiency, ergo, not frivolous," Helena shot back. "Think it through: austerity is a fine ideal, but how much efficiency does a worker who gets little to no rest versus one that is rested, and happy? How many mistakes can be avoided if your labor pool isn’t exhausted when they show up for work?"
"So you are arguing this is actually practical?"
“Very much so. I know you test your people to match them to what they have the best aptitude for. But that misses two very basic problems of economy. There is no incentive to work harder or longer, and good at a job is no substitute for both good and happy,” Helena answered.
"Where is Duchess Ngo?"
"Oh, she's on the flight deck, getting her hours in," Helena commented. "She’ll be joining us for lunch."
“And what of the War Witch? Do you fly as well?” Vlad asked.
"I’d love to get qualified. But I have an interstellar coalition to hold together, two corporations I’m on the board of, and most importantly, I’m a mother. I just don’t have the hours because people keep insisting we can’t have shiny nice new things, or peace.”
"So how does she do it?" Vlad pressed.
"Lizzie does it because she always has," Helena allowed. "More than a third of her population live out here. If she can't understand what they live with, she can't govern them… And her work ethic is much like yours is said to be, Khan Vlad Ward. She pulls twenty two hours out of thirty, working most of the time." Helena paused. "Though, I’ve been able to get her to back off on it, and Arthur's had more success that way than I have. Imagine someone having to run at top speed, everywhere, all the time."
The forward doors opened and Elizabeth came down the aisle.
"Thought you were going to be up there until lunch?"
Liz shook her head. "Pilot kicked me out," she said. "I was being a pest… Everyone comfortable?"
“You a pest? Never,” Helena chuckled.
She found a seat and turned to face the group before locking it down and sitting. "Apparently that impression is false," she said, leaning forward on her cane like a prop. "Jerry Silvermann signed my logbook for the takeoff, at least, so I'm only about a thousand hours shy of my Guild cert. At this rate, I'll make it to qualified status sometime next century."
"Do you expect to LIVE that long?" Schmitt scoffed.
"Nope. But then, I wasn't sure I'd live this long," Liz responded. "So, y'know, gotta try everything while I have time to do it."
“So you seek martial competence as well now?” Marthe asked.
"I know my limits," Liz said. "I let the Soldiers decide the Soldier things, because I'm not stupid enough to think I can overrule them and succeed. I do put a lot of effort and time into getting people in those positions who know more than I do."
“No point in hiring experts if you don’t listen to their advice,” Helena nodded.
Liz nodded. "Thus, when Silvermann tells me I'm in the way, I get the hell out of the way."
“We have so much to contemplate still,” Ariel nodded.
"As for 'martial competence'..." Helena began. "Liz has fought a victorious battle."
"I launched eight missiles. Only two hit. That's not what I consider 'competent', Highness," Liz deflected. "Neither of the hits were nukes, those got splashed early."
"What?"
"During the Steel Viper incursion, Elizabeth was on the submarine that almost shot down their flagship," Helena prodded. "At a gunnery station, even!"
"And I didn't shoot it down, so it's a failure." Liz asserted.
“Semantics. Point is, you knew what needed to be done. You might not have gotten it right, but the knowledge was clearly there.”
"If I'd let the professionals do their jobs, that warship would be razorblades," Liz countered. "It was a childish, vain mistake, and I learned from it."
“Instead, it looks lovely in FedCom Navy Blue.”
Liz nodded. "There is that… Better still, the experts took the Star Adder navy apart and delivered it to the Star League, so I picked the right experts and let them do their job."
“Leadership is picking the right subordinates and supporting them in doing their jobs,” Helena nodded.
"What influence did you actually have on that, Duchess?" Vlad asked.
"I read the operations plan, asked a bunch of questions, and signed the requisitions," Liz told him. "Then, I sat on tenterhooks while it was going on, because I could imagine all the things that could go wrong, including things we didn't do properly as contingencies. It was only a ninety five percent chance we'd succeed."
“Ninety five?” Vlad seemed shocked.
"We knew their capabilities. We knew the terrain. We knew their numbers, time of arrival, likely arrival points, the designs of their ships, and their overall doctrine," Liz explained. "Know your enemy, and know yourself. We knew, they didn't… but Murphy and Finagle still get a say, and any mistake can be the lethal one."
“Painful lessons are often the most important.” Ariel said quietly.
“Aff. And now we are here. Learning, But without paying such a heavy price tag, because we are not letting foolish pride get in the way,” Marthe added.
Preparing for Judgment Day[]
Outbound for Boojam
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran States)
3065
The gas giant Boojum loomed, a super-jovian with a system of thirteen moons and rings to rival Saturn's display. Some of the static arcs were almost visible.
Boojam super-jovian gas planet of the Kowloon system
"The third moon is Spider Moon. It's about a third less mass than Mars," Elizabeth explained. “For perspective, if it were warmer on the surface, the snow you see would be gas, and would have outgassed away before the first ships entered the system. There's an ocean of water-ice under most of that dusting. Actual solid ground is around thirty percent of the surface, if you include the frozen sea."
“For a while, Spider Moon even hosted the current Star League Council before more permanent facilities on Kowloon itself were constructed. Earth became non-viable due to a breakdown in relations between Comstar and the Word of Blake,” Helena added.
"The base we're approaching is built on the entrance to a tunnel network dug by mining companies during the Rim Worlds Occupation. They were digging for Germanium and a few other light rare earths because they could guard the mines."
"Not anymore?" Vlad asked.
"Not anymore. It's less expensive to just let wildcatters run the belts, rings, and rocks than digging a tunnel in a moon. Less expensive, higher rate of return, and more profitable, so digging tunnels now is just making living space."
“So now Spider Moon is primarily a military facility. There are civilian habitats to support that too.”
"We do have around forty million people who call it home, but those are 'service burrows', like the towns outside any military base. And there's the shipyards in accompanying orbits." Liz shrugged. "Really a happening place, all told."
“Which means safety briefing time. Parts of the base are still separated by hard vacuum, and the archive itself is contained in a non-reactive pressurized atmosphere. So we all get to go through vac suit procedures,” Helena said.
"In case you're concerned about a potential 'Holy Shroud' event? We keep offsite backups of everything. This is the primary facility, and yes, I know it's a target. Which is why we copied everything and put the copies somewhere else," Liz stepped in.
“Not to mention all the copies we’ve distributed to various university programs and back ups to the backups,” Helena completed.
"Uhm, HOLY SHROUD? What is that?" Karianna Schmitt asked.
"Once upon a time, the Earthers decided to make everybody dumb by killing scientists and burning libraries. They were 'trying to limit the spread of dangerous knowledge', so they drove everyone into ignorance and nuked anyone who looked like they might be recovering knowledge. That's 'Holy Shroud', and it's why Comstar personnel have to get a pass to leave their compound on Kowloon," Liz explained. "Because I'm not keen to let them do that to me, the way they did before."
“We said Comstar should not be trusted. Then look what happened when they finally figured out what our true target was.” Khan Sennet said.
"Well, you were right," Liz commented. "The Terran Communications Ministry was carrying forward something called 'The Mother Doctrine'. Only they called it 'Holy Shroud' during the Succession Wars, and it helped them provoke some of the Succession Wars Greatest Hits. The only major reason WE didn't get a visit was because we weren't important or obvious enough to be a target."
"Scorpion," Vlad nodded as if a suspicion were confirmed. "When did you know we were the Descendants of the SLDF that left with General Kerensky?"
"Right about the time you hit us," Liz said. "At least, right around thirty fifty one. Helena figured you out. NOBODY believed the aliens story who had any… history? Knowledge?" she shrugged. "A few of Mom's friends on Donegal thought you were maybe a break-off group from Kerensky's exodus, but it wasn't confirmed until later."
"Bitter?"
"Not really. If my dad hadn't died in your first wave? He was a big fan of the Legends about Kerensky and his armies," Liz said easily.
"You are not."
"Nope. Sorry. Maybe it's not being a 'MechWarrior. I look at what your ancestors did, and all I see is an outright betrayal of oaths, broken promises, and abandonment of duty. But you're not them. Their sins are not yours…" She adjusted Helena's suit, and turned to the Khans. "...So, if you guys hadn't listened to Comstar, if you'd come with a parade instead of an invasion? You would have been welcomed home by most of the people you fought. Maybe even embraced… but you didn't know because the Communications Ministry didn't tell you anything."
"What an interesting… if wrong, perspective you have," Khan Ward said.
"Maybe. It's all gas out the airlock now. Can't get it back. There's no way to stuff the mushroom clouds back into the casing or un-fuse the Helium. It's done, so we deal with the universe as it is rather than as we'd wish it to be."
“Comstar thought they could have their cake and eat it too. And your insistence on ‘might makes right’ played right into that. But then when they found out Terra was the end game…” Helena nodded.
"We would have been welcomed, you say?" Marthe was intrigued.
"Yeah. The legends around your ancestors everywhere-but-here would've guaranteed it. If you'd shown up and said 'We are the SLDF Returned!' in 3048? People would have been overjoyed, because it would have meant an end to three centuries of civil war, privation, loss of knowledge, and uncounted horrors because someone strong enough to stop it was suddenly here."
“You need proof? I didn’t want to be First Lord. But the legend and power of my name ensured I became First Lord anyway.”
"I think I was the only abstain in that vote," Liz commented. "Being as I'm the only person on that council who's limited to a single star system, and technically Helena's liege: Spider Moon's her barony. Though I added parts of Ia Drang to it, and most of Hue County."
“Victor released me from those oaths and titles though. So I could be a palatable option for the others. Before he made Kowloon a jointly administered system,” Helena corrected.
"Yeah, but you still pay your vig. I can show you the receipts if you don't believe me, Helena," Liz teased. "Technically speaking…to be absolutely precise, I should be paying you."
"But then, I'd have to administrate..." Helena teased back. "And you people are notoriously difficult to do that with."
“Your arrangement seems complicated,” Vlad observed.
Marthe chuckled to herself, then, "Khan Vlad Ward, this is Khan Helena Cameron, and her Loremaster Elizabeth Ngo-Steiner-Davion. Now does it seem complex?"
“I suppose that is a fair way to put their arrangement,” Vlad admitted. “Though I note they have a certain vibe, ‘an old married couple’ I believe is the term that fits.”
"Sisters," Karianna Schmidt said. "Trothkin, really. Though not physically, they could have come from the same sibko and served a lifetime together."
“Aff. That would be more accurate,” Ariel nodded.
Elizabeth focused on checking everyone's gear, then having everyone check each other, to make certain that no detail was missed.
"Why not a pressurized dock?" Ariel asked.
"Because I don't want too many visitors to the Archive," Liz said offhand. "I prefer to contain visitations so we know who's coming, who's going, and who's staying. I didn't even let Victor visit it when he was still the boss of me."
“Could you imagine the mess we’d still be cleaning up from his head exploding from some of what’s in there,” Helena smirked.
"I'm more worried about some of his bodyguards taking shit that doesn't belong to them," Liz stated. "Some of those guys have far too much personal transport allotment, and could you imagine the mess we'd have to deal with to set up doors for their Battlemechs?" She shook her head.
“Oof, yeah. Then there’d be the headaches of trials for theft and jurisdictional disputes.” Helena patted down Khan Schmitt’s suit making sure everything was fitted correctly.
"Yeah, so I never brought it up to him. He never asked, so I never had to outright tell him no."
"Yet you are bringing us here?" Khan Schmitt asked.
"You don't feel insecure without a seventy to ninety ton war machine wrapped around you, and I didn't have to find seating for a regimental retinue," Liz shrugged. "So, practicality."
“We are Clan Warriors. Even without our mechs or Battle Armor we are capable of great deeds.” Vlad boasted.
"Exactly. You're not dragging an army in your wake because someone might hurt you, maybe, on an off chance. House Lords arrive, and the headaches of dealing with an army of bored soldiers shortly follow, because they aren't allowed to just 'show up' without it."
“And I made Ariel in particular promise not to get any ideas about taking anything with her,” Helena added.
They made their way to the airlock, and a suited steward thanked each of them for flying Silvermann Lines before cycling the exit.
The landing field was painted in the flashing orange and hellish yellow of Boojum looming across the sky.
"Nice view isn't it?" Liz offered. "Spider Moon doesn't have an atmosphere, but we do have a nice magnetic field here, Iron core, probably kept liquid and circulating by tidal forces from the gas giant."
Threads of static discharge flashed along the rings randomly, and some of it was powerful enough to generate static on the suit radios, and an endless radio-wave growl.
Of the assembled Khans only Ariel seemed truly at ease.
"You just wanted to impress visitors with the view!" Helena teased.
Liz waved, "This way folks."
Haunting Words[]
Spider Moon, The Archives (Entrance)
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
3065
"Do you know what they're going to see there, in the archive?" Cham Mosovich poured tea for his guest.
"No, not really. I've heard rumors…"
"Shame. That's what she's going to show them. Shame," the retired Kowloonese General said frankly.
"You've seen it then?"
Cham nodded. "I have. If they believe what they see up there, it will be an idea that savages accepted paradigms. A cognitohazard, that is, an idea so different that it endangers the perception of one's existing reality. Such ideas are sometimes more dangerous to those who reveal them, than they are to the target of the reveal."
"More dangerous than the evidence in the dig?" Eddie Vanh accepted the cup.
"Far more," the General told him. "What's in the dig is a sad story. But it's consistent with many common ideas, even these days. What's up there on Spider Moon? That's going to shake some world views among our smug visitors. Especially given the history they've been taught to treasure. I doubt they'll handle that particularly well."
"Why, General? What could be so terrible?" Gabriel accepted her cup.
"Imagine what would happen, if, one day, you found out that instead of being the inheritor of freedom fighters, your ancestors were the worst sort of villain?" Cham asked. "That a thing still floating along in your concept of law and good, was instead, an unspeakable atrocity? How would you cope with that?"
"This is not hypothetical, is it?" she asked.
"No, it really isn't," he told her. "What would you do, if a person descended from… the 'not named' Clan, Wolverine, were to come into your sights, even now, Gabriel?"
"Are there such persons?"
"No, but what would you do in the hypothetical scenario? Keep in mind, the founders of the Clans, some of them signed what Her Grace and Her Majesty are now going to show them… Something that makes that entire sordid affair not one of justice, but instead, a war crime… One that’s still ongoing, if the data recovered from the Star Adder incursion fleet is any indicator."
"I… I do not understand."
"Genocide is the systematic extermination of a people or ethnic group, Gabriel. The methods include forced sterilization of a population, as well as the indiscriminate killing of its members for the crime of belonging to that population," Eddie recited.
"Gold Star, Mister Vanh," Cham said approvingly. "You remembered your civics lessons, you were taught well. Miss Gabriel, a former Khan of Clan Steel Viper, after the defeat at Tukayyid, launched a personal crusade to find the otherwise unrelated descendants of relatives of the SLDF personnel who were part of Clan 'Wolverine'. For the purpose of killing them for being relatives of members of Clan Wolverine."
"That was an individual madness. Besides, she was stopped."
"Yes, she was. Cassius N'Buta's fleet was delayed for several months after finding an abandoned site that might have been once, long ago, held by Clan Wolverine. They sent out searchers, to seek out any sign of them. Wasted weeks, with the intent of killing them off… Now, keep in mind, even House Amaris stopped hunting family members after the third generation, and did not even do that much except when House Cameron was distracted elsewhere. Now, what would it look like, if the officers who agreed to that initial judgment of 'annihilation' had signed off on a general order, one that forbade such practices because they were too inhumane to do to enemies. That delay? Bought us the time to be warned of their approach. So a Clan force, with most of their navy and a huge portion of their warriors, sacrificed operational capability to hunt ghosts from two hundred fifty years ago. To finish an order that was anathema to the values of the original Star League, and Star League Defense Force."
"Not the first time. The scourging of House Amaris-"
"A possible defense, well done," Cham nodded approvingly. "Supported by historical evidence, even… but in what context? Are you going to argue that House Amaris, itself, as in the family, were a distinct ethnic group? At what point does killing become murder, murder become Genocide? At what point does it stop?"
"Where did YOUR ancestors stop?" she parried.
Cham smiled gently, and handed her a book. "This is a reprint of Tranh Truk Ngo's war diary. It’s been a… popular read… on Kowloon and in the Kowloon system since the first printing of his post-demise memoir in 2788. But this version has forward and commentary by Helena Cameron and others who came with her forward in time. People who knew the man in a way the rest of us can never know him. In preparation for this conversation, I marked the relevant pages."
She examined the book, then opened it.
"...fifteen million men, women, and children parted out like used cars, like loose equipment, tissues typed, preserved and stored for re-use as medical spares here at Running Deer Mountain. They cut up children."
"This can't be allowed, this…atrocity must be answered. The innocent cried out to god, and god did not come. They pled for mercy, and there was none. But there will be justice.'"
"I will wreak a justice so harsh and public that no one will ever dare contemplate something like this again so long as there is a memory of it burned onto the eyes of the world…"
"He's angry there. Go to the next book mark."
"...Winters and Gilmour understand it, I think maybe because they're as sickened by seeing this, as I am. There's been some vehement arguments from Truscott and Hollis. 'It's escalating a bad situation'. But then, Truscott seems the kind of man who would bury this to keep things 'stable' and 'civilized' when we're fighting the kind of monsters who can do this. And do it systematically. Plan for it, even."
But, I'm going to take the criminals down. We'll turn over the survivors to a Provost unit for internment. I'm going to do this, because even if some of the higher ups don't understand, or don't want to? I was visited by locals. By a delegation including people who'd been on those cattle cars, waiting to be taken in and dismantled. People betrayed by neighbors and state."
"The civilians asked me to stop, so I'll stop. I will remember that I'm still a man, and a man has limits. A man has morals. A man doesn't do this… If the abyss stares back into me, it is because I am a man, and can resist its siren call." She closed the book. "Albeit imperfectly."
"So, where do you suppose the limit truly lies?" Cham asked her. "Is it internal, or external? Is it malleable, and if it is, then what of honor?"
"He hated it," she breathed. "Even while he did it, he hated it."
"Yeah," Eddie nodded. "I didn't like some of the things I did in the Smoke Jaguar war. Or some of the things I did to the Jade Falcons on Coventry… But I didn't glorify it either. And I sure as hell didn't try to claim it was 'righteous'... and those were enemy soldiers. We tried hard to avoid killing kids, even when the Jaggies were trying to send kids at us. There were rules, things you don't do unless it's actually necessary. And you stop when it's over. You don't keep doing it after the other side's stopped fighting you."
"What the Khans are going to see, is what came out of Elbar, what Aleksandr Kerensky's answer was to Running Deer Mountain and to the impalement of Rim Worlds officers," Cham said. "And it's going to conflict hard with the very core of their society."
Strategy of Personal[]
Kowloon Coast Guard Complex, Spider Moon
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
3065
On the display, a man from more than two hundred years ago died cursing Aleksandr Kerensky for Operation: Exodus.
"Why did you not show this to everyone?" Vlad could barely hold his anger in, the raw offense of it.
"My father idolized Aleksandr Kerensky, Khan Ward," Elizabeth said evenly. "He was a 'MechWarrior. And he chose being a 'MechWarrior over his duty to his people as Duke. I think he sympathized more with Kerensky than he did with our ancestors, and his opinion was not… uncommon." She switched it off. "So I'll ask you what my grandfather answered a similar question from my brother, the man who should have been Duke." She nodded at the now blank screen, "What good will it do? What minds will be changed by that? Your pupils are contracted, your left hand is making a fist. I don't think it changed your mind, did it?"
"Neg."
"There's your answer," she said. "Some beliefs, some legends, are more powerful than all the facts in a thousand archives. This is history, not legend. History isn't legendary. It's legends that motivate people to do vast, glorious things, isn't it?"
Her tack confused him for a moment. "Then you… agree?"
"I told you all on the trip up: if the Clans had come in the open, as lost cousins, you would have been welcomed as old friends… But you didn't. That that recording would have a lot more traction as a result of what your Clans did, is true. Ah, but would it be useful traction?" she shook her head. "I don't think so. But then, my goals aren't Victor's goals, or Focht's goals, or Kurita's goals. Your war was useful to me for a while… but it's not useful anymore, we're past that point."
'What point?" Ward asks.
"The point where an existential threat from the outside can be leveraged to get the House Lords to Think and Talk instead of plot and attack. We've surpassed you technologically, and organizationally. Can you really say the Steel Vipers or Star Adders were incompetent as Warriors?" She shook her head. "They were Warriors in a Tribal Warband, facing an army and navy of soldiers and sailors. The outcome of that is almost fore-ordained from the moment they lost the technical edge, and you know it. You're too intelligent not to."
"What possible insanity could cause you to believe that?" he scowled.
"Because you haven't hit me yet, and your sidearm remains in its holster," she told him. "That means you're capable of reason and logic, not just vanity and pride."
"Loremaster in truth," he said, forcing his hand to unclench. "Did you really miss?"
"I may have triggered the abort," she allowed. "Putting something like a Nightlord into the ocean at re-entry velocity during cyclone season? I may have considered that and made a different choice than winning easily… but I'll never admit it to Helena. I'll take the whispers of incompetence and instability over a public realizing I was willing to throw a fight to avoid swamping a few thousand coastal villages. There have been advantages to 'Duchess Headshot'. My enemies underestimate me."
"Neither is true," he narrowed his eyes. "But both are true. You are a political animal."
"We are as our nature dictates," she said icily. "Among your kind I would have been put down early, when they found the markers in my genes. Or maybe I wouldn't have been born at all, just a defective set of genes washed down the sink or something. Until the late 3050s, Cholmann's syndrome was one of the six incurables known to the Star League and by extension, the Inner Sphere. Four of those were released after Exodus, from weapons labs, and they slaughtered worlds. The fifth hasn't seen a case in seven hundred years, and then…" she spread her hands. "God made me defective, it doesn't mean I get to feel sorry for myself. Not when there's still work to be done."
"Still…"
"Still work to be done, Khan Vladimir Ward. Today's work includes showing you things that you don't want to see, probably tomorrow as well."
"Why?"
"Because tomorrow comes whether or not we're there to meet it. That's what Kerensky forgot, when he planned Exodus. That tomorrow comes regardless of our desires, our ideals, or our guilt."
"Guilt?"
"It's time for you to see the Elbar Declaration, and to see who signed onto it," she crooked her finger. "Follow, the others are waiting. I want everyone to see it. That makes showing it off rather difficult when one of you might pull a pistol to make it go away."
Revelation of possible ruin[]
The Archives - Spider Moon
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
August 7th, 3065
Helena was in the chamber waiting for them when Elizabeth brought the group in.
“Welcome to the main attraction. Come on up,” Helena said calmly.
The Khans stepped to the display.
Vlad’s face reddened as he studied the document.
Marthe had a much better poker face.
Karianna looked to Helena, back to the document, then back to Helena.
Ariel just smiled.
“I heard rumors. But now I think our Founder’s copy may have been destroyed if they did indeed still have one...” Khan Sennet was the first to speak.
“This will ruin us all.” Ariel was on the verge of laughing.
“It cannot be…” Vlad was still in denial and angry.
“I was there. That’s my signature. Hell that’s my copy.” Helena Cameron pointed out.
“Well played,” Marthe said.
“What do you mean? We could agree here and now to not reveal this to our Clans. Then the declaration becomes meaningless,” Vlad said.
“I will not agree to such a thing,” Ariel countered. “You will have to kill me first.”
“And so it begins. It’s true you could keep what you’ve seen here to yourselves. Except…” Helena pointed to the security cameras. “We’ve been transmitting to your ride. Along with a copy of the Declaration. A risk I know. They could get angry and do something rash. But if they do, we’re as ready for that as we can be.”
“Even with a Khan’s order this will get out Vlad. They have played us like fiddles. We will find shortly after our return that many of our Warriors will not handle this well. We may even have to fend off entire Clans,” Marthe smiled. “But those that are able to handle this? We will have the advantage of being part of the Star League.”
“This is what my vision meant,” Ariel said. “Why Yeh must have also seen this coming, but much sooner.”
“Why Yeh?” Khan Schmitt asked.
“One of my Warriors. A Star Colonel now. His actual name is Sarak Yeh, but because he asked so many questions, and often difficult ones, he became known as Why Yeh instead. His views on how the Clans must adapt to reality had him on the verge of being declared ‘unClanlike’. But then the defeats and discoveries happened. I could see he was correct, and he is now one of our most prominent Warriors.”
“Our tasks have just become more difficult. We have given our words now to provide peacekeepers. The revelation of the Elbar Declaration means we will have to hand pick them. Those who can handle the truth and still do their duty,” Marthe nodded.
Vlad brought his right hand up in a fist then pounded it down in his left palm.
“Since Coventry you’ve all known that I’m back. That I’m for real. You might have not believed it, but the truth was out there. Back then, I never could have been First Lord. Hell, I still might not be mentally sound enough. But I’m doing the job anyway, to the best of my ability. I still hold a lot of anger and resentment that so much of the SLDF went with Kerensky on Exodus instead of honoring their oaths. Your ancestors left. Three hundred years of savagery and brutality followed. Some of that, I will always feel responsible for due to the misjump that displaced me three hundred years.” Helena met each Khan’s eyes in turn as she spoke. “Now I know this is the second uncomfortable truth I have forced upon you. This has made some of you angry. Some of you despair.”
“We’ll tear ourselves apart.” Khan Scmitt said.
“But as Marthe said, you’re part of the Star League now. So you’re eligible for our help. We’ll help evacuate your civilians as best we can and we’ll uphold the Elbar Declaration. So if someone decides your entire Clan needs to pay for the decisions you have made here and the ramifications of the Elbar Declaration, we’ll be there,” Helena said.
“And what happens when you’re no longer First Lord? Your position has a time limit.”
“True. I can’t make a binding promise on the next First Lord. But I can make one for myself. So as long as I live, every resource I have will be dedicated to ensuring the Elbar Declaration is upheld, something like Holy Shroud never happens again, and that there is always a path towards peace. All to the best of my abilities.”
"The Not-named," Vlad scowled.
"Yeah. My people are pretty good at holding a grudge, but the officers who did that, they're dead," Duchess Ngo said from behind him. "All the witnesses would be dead a long time ago, too. It's no longer history, Vlad. It's migrated to legend... Sorry I couldn't keep up, Helena. You told them your big reveal?"
“They’ve gotten a look at the Declaration. I’d say they’ve taken it pretty well. Though I think Vlad might need a punching bag in the near future to work out some frustration,” Helena answered.
Elizabeth evaluated the Wolf Khan with sharp eyes. "Nah, it's got his feelings up, but he's smarter than to let his thinking be done by his glands on something this big. I think when we show Phelan, you'll see the irrational emotional reaction. HE bought ALL THE WAY in. It's already going to ****** with Phelan's Exile Wolves that we're letting Vlad send troops to the Sarna region."
“Yeah that’s going to be a day,” Helena nodded.
“You have not shown them? What of the Nova Cats, Ghost Bears, and Snow Ravens?” Vlad asked.
"West had a mild tantrum, the Ravens said 'no' to the invite, and the Bears are quietly discussing things. But here's the thing about me inviting Phelan… I mentioned the criminals and all the witnesses, and victims are long dead on the Wolverine thing? Well… Phelan is a kẻ phản bội. He's a Collaborator. I can hold it against him. My brother was on Tamar, and he gave intel that helped Clan Wolf kill my brother Patrick, and look! I'm no longer bound to uphold Victor's policies by law." Elizabeth's expression was as dark as her hair. "He can read off someone else's copy-he's not welcome here… just like Henry wouldn't be, Marthe. If he were still alive."
“Now if he did show up I might plead with Liz that Phelan or Henry be put in shackles, shown the Elbar Declaration, the dig site, and then put to the gallows. Just so their last thoughts can be how they betrayed what they claimed to believe in.”
"My middle brother, it wouldn't do any good. He knew about those, and he still turned his coat. He's dead. As he is dead, he can be forgiven. But if he were still alive…"
Marthe crossed her arms. "Fool. Do you know why? Why he chose us? What it took to bring him over?"
"If it didn't take brain surgery, I'll be impressed," Liz said. "Still be angry and vengeful, but impressed."
“Our medical technology. It exceeds even the Star League’s. We might have been able to save you. That was what brought him over.”
"It's too late for that now. Wolf's Dragoons shared medtech, and we had a Star League medical researcher. Between them, my death is no longer predetermined to be in screaming agony while going insane before the age of forty."
“Aff. We were merely beaten to the finish line,” Marthe said.
"Thing is, I can forgive Henry for taking that risk, now that he's dead. I can't, and don't have to, forgive Phelan Kell for switching sides in the middle of an invasion. He swore oaths."
“His actions spared the lives of a great many people though. He secured the surrender of an entire world all by himself,” Vlad admitted. “I hate him, but I still must recognize his accomplishments.”
"I already despise the man, you don't have to sell me on why. His father was one of MY father's heroes. I heard nothing but stories about the great Morgan Kell, and Morgan's a good guy, but his son? No." She shook her head. "His son turned Collaborator. I'll forgive the man when he's dead, maybe. If you get a chance to visit the University Library, look up 'Vidkun Quisling', who also 'saved' a lot of people the same way, in another war, in another time, by ideologically converting to the invaders of his homeland."
“Perhaps we should move our discussions to a conference room,” Helena prompted.
"Lunch?" Liz suggested. "Or is it 'dinner' in proper society, Helena? I never could keep the terms straight. It used to drive the nanny crazy."
“Last meal of the day before going to sleep is either dinner or supper.”
"English is weird," Elizabeth chuckled. "Let's see what the Oaken Cudgel has on special tonight."
"Oaken Cudgel?" Sennet asked.
"Officer’s Club," Ariel clarified for her colleague. "A euphemism that was once common on SLDF bases, based on an English pun."
“Yeah, and they got a real spacer chef on staff. He knows how to make tofu not taste completely awful.” Helena smiled.
"Yeah… but I delivered a side of beef. They should have it unloaded and in the prep-area by now," Elizabeth confided. "So we don't have to suffer bean curds."
“Fair. A good steak does sound nice,” Helena licked her lips.
“Could you imagine combining their gifttakes? With the right sibko trainer, their bloodhouse would be formidable,” Schmitt observed.
"You'd have to do a LOT of purging," Liz overheard and responded. "Marthe knows, Vlad knows. I was born with a defect. We THINK the kids don't have the markers, but that doesn't mean it can't resurface."
“Perhaps. But the end result would almost certainly be worth it.”
"That's sweet, it really is, god bless you, but no." Elizabeth palmed the airlock to the elevator. "See, I'm married, so there's only one way the genes go on now… and admittedly, it's a lot of fun… But maybe Helena might be okay with doing it the artificial way," she teased.
Helena made a face of discomfort.
Lizzy's hands are shaking. Helena's 'little voice' noted. I’m having to hold myself back too.
"They have a pretty decent beer they brew up here, top-fermented off the second moon's grain caverns, not sure what they did breeding the yeast, but it's pretty good," Liz commented. "Kind of a liquid bread. Foreigners seem to like it okay though…"
The lock cycled and they went up.