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Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 3 - A Light In The Black -
Chapter 11 - Details[]
Life Saving Decision[]
"She's become…
…a war hero, do you have any idea how rare one of those is, in the Outworlds?" Larry Nichols stormed, "Dave, we knew she had problems from day one!"
"Her 'problems' are getting worse Larry," Fleet Captain Foster treated Larry Nichols like an equal and a peer in private.
"Dave, I don't know anyone, including most Snow Raven personnel who wouldn't react the same way." Nichols argued. "Hell, she was mild about it."
"Most Snow Raven officers do not lose between five and fifteen minutes incapacitated by malfunctions to their brains every time they go into a KF jump," Foster stated.
"She won't pass a psych exam, she wouldn't when we began this." Larry observed. "You'll be putting her on the beach if you convene that kind of board, right when we might just desperately need her where she is."
"I said 'Medical' board. I looked at Director-General Helena Cameron's list of charges, and referred to OMC regulations. Amanda's not guilty of anything we can beach her for… but she is medically unsound, and getting worse. SO… I'm putting her ashore temporarily on medical grounds and convening a medical board under Article 4."
"Temporarily medically unfit for duty??" Nichols frowned. "That means you can order treatment against…"
"Against her objections. Yes. I checked with lawyers in both the Clan, and Outworlds, to verify that the regulation can be applied. It can, so that is what we are going to use."
"There's more to it than that, isn't there?" Larry asked.
"Yeah, there is." Foster reached over and activated a large, tablet-style PADD. "This is her last exam here at the station…and this is her first exam shortly before her Presidentially ordered visit to Sevon V."
"That… there's dark areas… new ones."
Foster nodded, "Aff, there are. We saw similar 'dark patches' in the brains and nervous systems of early Protomech pilots. She is recoverable currently, but not for long if we do not address the problem… And the problem can be addressed."
"What do you need me to do, Foster?" Larry asked.
"Stay out of the way, and keep the rest of your fellow officers from the Evanescent from getting IN the way." Foster told him. "Keep a lid on your people, we do not need any…'wacky hijinks' or rescue attempts. Captain Roberts needs this treatment, even if she is inclined to refuse it."
Nurturing the Next Generation[]
Dinner with the President…
…at nineteen hundred. "Scandal, Mister President," she smirked. "You realize you should be attending to your dynasty."
"The Dynastic succession is well in hand, Jane." he said. "I suppose the scandal-mongers might have something to say about the apparent age difference of a widower making time with a freshman Minister."
"The only issue might be they'd get the age difference reversed," she agreed.
"You're still determined to retire?" he asked.
"I tried to hold power for long enough that my grandchildren rotted from the soul outward." she asserted. "Helena had far better luck with Stacey than I did with Jennifer's kids. She doesn't know it yet. With luck, she will never have to learn it. You should keep it in mind, Mitch. Sooner or later your sons or grandsons are going to want your job. Make them wait too long, and they might take… other measures. Speaking from experience, I don't recommend it."
"Point taken, so two terms is all I can talk you into?"
"Two terms, ten years, is quite sufficient. I think the post-career options are significantly better as a farmer, than the alternative. Watching for a coup is tiring, Mitch, and I'm growing ever more obsolete myself. We grow old and die to make room for the next generation. I failed to attend to that, and spent a century praying for death. Let's talk about more pleasant things. Being the Struldebrug is… wearing."
He sighed. "You blame yourself for what they became, don't you?"
"Shouldn't I?" she questioned, "Imagine if I'd had the decency to die of old age in 2853, maybe after abdicating? They might have tried to honor the legacy instead of polluting it? Maybe my successor would have been Jenny, who was compassionate and energetic right up to her heart-attack, and not Sylvia, who maybe might have been different if she didn't need to conspire to remove me from power? I screwed up raising them, and they became the monsters they were supposed to prevent. Maybe if… we're playing 'what if'." She shook her head, "The chicken smells wonderful."
"How do I avoid those mistakes?" he asked.
"Okay, so this IS a working dinner." she straightened. "The Cameron Dynasty didn't just 'take over' from the McKennas, it was a dedicated effort." she said seriously. "The existence of political prisons should tell you that: Nice people don't hold empires together or forge them. My family turned the Terran Hegemony into The Star League. That involved a lot of forging empires and crushing opponents and opposition, and I did my share and then some with the SLDF survivor units out here in the Outworlds-I was not a nice ruler, but at the time, I thought we needed a tyrant, and I was absolutely a tyrant-Mitchell, I deserved what I got for that."
"So…"
"Forlough was an intent, Mitch. They could have done it another way, but the horrific things he did? Were entirely the intent of the Camerons at the time, and I wasn't much better after spending twenty years in a cell. I was ready to embrace the idea that the ends justified the means. And that, as much as anything, was my downfall. A mistake I won't make again… I forgot that the means you use decide what ends you have to live with. By the time I was ready to try and make amends, my grand-daughter was ready to palace-coup me back into a cell at Devil's Breath."
“You sound like you are remembering much more than you were not long ago. Things that make me wish you could forget forever.”
She chuckled. "I remembered it then, too, but I was denying it. I am less inclined to deny my failures and actions now… because I was reminded I have a choice-but that choice can only be valid if I'm honest with myself. And it would be lovely to forget. Maybe I'll do that after retirement," she smiled. "A TRUE retirement, into private life, not 'retired into a cell and kept alive for her access codes'."
“Then I take it you and your sister have reconciled?”
"She writes me. I sometimes write her back… we have centuries of different experiences between us, there isn't a lot I can tell Helena that she hasn't already learned. At least, that's relevant," Jane said. "I love reading her letters, along with Natalie's and Samantha's stories about what the Roberts grandchildren are doing. It's nice to see the family getting something RIGHT."
“Then perhaps a toast to family.” Mitch raised his glass.
"To family!" She clinked her glass to his. "May yours be better than mine!"
“You know the Roberts family also traces back to you directly. You should allow yourself some credit for that too.”
"Jenny's second child, Johnathan." she said. "I found his grave. He… left home under a bit of a cloud. I suspect he got the best of his mother in him, at the time I thought he was too soft to succeed. Another regret."
“I seem to keep dredging up poor memories.”
"I have centuries of bad memories and regrets, Mitch. To avoid them is to suffer in silence. Let's talk about YOUR success, instead. Your plans, your ideals.. I can pretend to be the younger woman, star-struck by your brilliance (which you are, you know). And you can lay out a vision for a better world that avoids all the horrible mistakes I made." She smiled, "It will be a nice change from self-examination."
“Well then I must oblige. You see it all starts with a simple principle…”
There was much conversation had and the next day tabloid news would be filled with photos and exposés, but none of that mattered.
News of Family[]
"Your sister…
…made the papers." Victoria's avatar handed Helena an offprint.
President Avellar caught in a possible rebound! was the headline, with an image of Mitchell Avellar dining with 'Freshman Minister of Parliament Jane Drillson of Sevon V.'
The copy below was half a rant about the president 'dating a much younger woman'.
“Good for them. They’re bonding. What? I actually remember how bad the tabloids got back home. This is cheesecake stuff.” Helena chuckled.
"The board of inquiry came back on your… cousin." Victoria said.
“Yeah. That is one weird family tree, but at least it had the decency to wait a lot of generations before it started looping back in on itself. How bad?”
"You called it, by the way. The medical boards ruled Amanda 'unfit for service at this time'. She's been remanded to in-patient treatment… you knew, didn't you?"
“It’s in the SLDF manuals. By all rights I should be barred from a Warship command too. I still kind of wish I was wrong though.”
"Well, her appeal's been rejected all the way up to the President." Victoria continued. "Which smells a lot like it was pre-arranged."
“I’d actually almost feel better about it if I did have that kind of pull. Then I could be the focus for Amanda’s resentment. No. They also knew. She needed to be rotated off the front and proper treatment. The good news is she’s a strong girl, so I think she’ll be back sooner than anyone expects.”
"I was speculating, Ladyship, because you had me inventory my medical systems for implant related surgery, and you made sure I got her medical file."
“Yes, she needed time off for that too. It was something else everyone was dancing around but could not force until we gave them what they needed: a fresh batch of command officers. I put you forward because I trust you and you have the prior experience so you make the most logical choice for taking the lead on that surgery to me. Mine will need a consult first. Simon clearly needs more work again, but he can’t fully turn off for the kind of rebuild he needs. Even if he does that while I’m unconscious, I’ll build up toxic levels of neurochemicals faster than you can handle. Clan Snow Raven thinks they have a solution for that.”
“One of the Clan advances over even the Star League is in the field of medicine. I would think with their DNI and EI usage they would also have plenty of experience.”
“Honestly I am a little shocked they didn’t fight me on that. I suspect there must be some not obvious political angle at play. Maybe it’s them giving me a way to have a face saving measure. So I don’t look like the outsider that brought their hero low. This way I will also be the one who helped heal her. Still, I expect before that happens we’ll have to entertain some visitors. So put out the good china.”
When friends part ways[]
"Amanda is…
…understandably upset." Desmond said with her mouth. "You will need to use enhanced soporifics, once I release control she will lash out."
"Why are you cooperating, 001?"
"Because she needs this. Her opposition is purely emotional-traumas from her previous experience. The surgeries that put me here, they were not… they were traumatic, as was the entire situation, Victoria." The body climbed into the surgical couch. "Be sure the restraints are secured."
“Understood. Her Ladyship wants me to express that she is okay with Amanda hating her for this. She would be here to say it herself but given the circumstances I think it is understandable she is not.”
"Given the circumstances, I am sure those two will have words." Desmond said. "Left arm collar is too loose, I can slip the hand out with only minor fractures, and my host has an enhanced resistance to pain. Tighten it."
“Better?”
"Better. We are ready for the anesthesia."
“Starting now. For what it is worth Amanda, we AIs apologize for our part in this.”
<Desmond!! WHY!??!> Amanda railed.
<Because you are my host, and I intend to keep you alive.> he told her. <There are side-effects that must be addressed, this is the way to address them. You wouldn't cooperate, so I have to do it this way.>
<We will be here to help you through this too. I promise we’ll take good care of you and Desmond. We know how close you two are.> Stacey intruded.
"Opening the skull cap now…savashri. Victoria, this does not look like the materials we were supplied with at all!"
“We will just have to adapt on the fly. Good thing I have one hell of a library at my disposal and hands faster and more precise than any human. I still predict a 99.5% chance of success.”
"Some of it has grown into the implant, that cannot be normal."
“It is not. But it is not unexpected due to how young she was when installation was first made and having no maintenance surgeries since then. The butchers that did this were not skilled enough for this either. This is going to take some time. We need to repair the EM shielding as well.”
"That is the biologically neutral metals imprinted on the inside of her skull, quiaff?" the Clan doctor asked.
"Yes… Shit, no wonder she has an epileptic attack every time she goes through a K-F jump…it's a wonder this didn't cook her!"
A few chips were burnt inactive in there, and some dead tissue around them. Victoria removed the ruined components and bridged the gaps. "They'll be faster now," she noted. "So some of it DID damage…" she pointed out the areas. "These bridges here? That's to correct for damage to areas related to regulating emotional response in normal brains. Her increasing ruthlessness is related to those neural pathways being blocked. We stopped a descent into psychopathy."
“Good. She’s suffered enough. I am glad we can help her,” Stacey’s voice came over the medical bay’s speakers.
The robotic arms of the surgical suite moved with incredible speed and precision as Victoria’s avatar and the Clan Doctor started freeing more damaged components.
"I found the source of her perpetual wound, do we keep the input/output port installation, or close over it?"
"A second IO port?"
“Early models did feature it. The exact reason why seems to have been redacted even from my records, so I have to speculate it was to interface with some sort of additional mission equipment or earlier versions of augmented reality hardware.”
"Cap it or remove it?" the doctor asked. "We can have an EM shielded cap, but it looks like the work wasn't completed on this one, it might be easier on her if we pull it and replace it with medical grade coral and an extension of the shielding instead."
<Desmond, you get a vote in this as the only part of her that is awake through this.>
<It's for installation of a control chip-I woke her up the first time before they could connect the override module, remove it please.>
<Gladly.>
“We’re pulling it completely. Then we can make her quality of life much better.”
<Not to mention preventing someone from using an SL-624 to turn her into a slave.> Desmond added.
<That is an improved quality of life is it not?>
<Indeed.>
“If you need a break let me know. I will adjust as needed.” Victoria slowed down for some of the more delicate work now ahead of them.