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Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 3 - A Light In The Black -
Chapter 25 - Arrangements[]
Accepting Loss[]
We lost…
…Larry Nichols because we didn't have a copy!!" Regina was adamant.
"Yes, we did." Admiral Foster was firm. "Losing him was a terrible loss… just like losing good men has always been a terrible loss."
“It just feels so preventable… I know there is going to be an inquiry.”
“Is Amanda angry at me? She will know what really happened… That I didn’t even give Larry a chance to decide.” sadly asked Regina
"Captain Roberts is grieving, she is not angry. Medical Warrant Officer Yeats was quite thorough in her reports, both of the incident, and the autopsy. I doubt she holds any special animus towards you…", Foster told her
He reached down and lifted a Noteputer, handing it to the AI Remote. "Her reply upon being informed, including her regrets at being unable to attend the funeral." He waited a moment, "Transit times, Regina. Amanda Roberts is currently snooping the far side of Bannerhoft, seeking out enemy transit routes."
“Have you been giving more thought to your upcoming procedure?”, Regina asked
"I decided against the procedure, that is, so I am told, my right to do," David said quietly. "Every good or great man can be lost, Regina. Larry's death was sad, it was preventable. If he had done what he ought to have, and allowed treatment for his condition."
“I must have been misinformed or you must have changed your mind. I thought you wanted to undergo the procedure.”
"I did until I thought about it." Foster explained. "Immortality creates some options, but it seals off more important ones. Like the option of letting a later generation surpass you."
“If not you, who should we be preparing to help? No offense, it is not as simple as plug in, scan, and suddenly you are a fully functional combat AI. And we do feel there need to be certain standards.”
“We can table that for the time being," Foster judged. "We'll find someone, but it is not likely to be a quick and easy process." He leaned forward, "Other than guilt, how are you feeling?"
“My hull will need repairing again. I understand that means shore duty for me.” she told the Admiral
"I saw the damage evaluation. You'll get your yard time soon, we have to deal with processing other damage first…but nobody is holding the death of Captain Nichols against you."
“It will take time for me to adjust. I think I grew to care for him and what he was teaching me more than I realized. We AIs have a nasty habit of thinking we are superior in every way that matters, but that is not true is it? You don’t need to answer that. But I would like to know what duty you intend to have me fill so I am not idle. An idle AI is no good for anyone.”
“The best duty possible. I need you to be Larry Nichols to all these new officers they keep sending my way. That will be how you honor him.” Dave Foster poured himself a low gravity tumbler of something amber colored.
"Mentor?" asked Regina
"Instructor," Foster clarified. "For the next eight months, you're going to be playing 'teacher'."
“Then I will take your advice and be the best Larry Nichols I can be.” she told Foster
The way Regina stood to attention and saluted made Dave Foster think of Larry Nichols for a fraction of a second.
No. Just my imagination grieving for a friend., Admiral Foster thought sadly
Death does not come easy[]
When Sarah Goldsmith…
…left home it was as an apprentice Navigation officer on SLS TQF-204M5B (now 'Stacey Cameron Roberts').
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Human-like robotic avatar of the AI Stacy Roberts Cameron
When she arrived at Port Orphan almost four weeks after leaving Fallry, she was 'Captain'-a temporary captain, with a skeleton crew, dragging a collection of DropShips as booty, and helming a WarShip built sometime in the ancient days of the lost Terran Hegemony.
“I don't Feel taller." she commented. The tugs from the port were docking, while additional crews took on the two supply dropships, one Achilles that had been stormed early enough, and the Mule off the docking rings to make room for the tugs to bring her ship into port.
Not really my ship, this one's a prize.
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The human-like robotic avatar of the AI, Truk
Port Orphan was almost as impressive as Truk had been…only Truk was home. Port Orphan was just… just ALICE.
"You'll feel taller when they shake your hand," Delia, an Aeropilot phenotype with EI implants who left her Protomech behind to help storm the capital ship's narrow corridors in a Nighthawk suit, assured her. "You're bringing home the bacon, after all. They'll give you a hat and a Coat for this. You'll see."
It wasn't regulation, but it had filtered into her consciousness that among the Privateers, 'The Hat and Coat' are the real badges of rank-something you normally only see on ship's commanders.
“I’m not ready for that. Yet. But soon. I’m still getting rather used to all this after all.”
Delia laughed, despite her petite size, it came out as a snorting bray more suitable for someone… bigger. "You're taller already, spacer, Mum."
“Definitely not ready for that. I know what you really mean but still. Being a mum is a lot of responsibility.”
"Helming us back after the navcom crashed wasn't?" Delia snorted laughter again. "You're GOOD Sarah Goldsmith, own it, bask in it!! Use it to get us a couple port-boys for tonight!! And FREE DRINKS!!"
"Hey!!" Toni Brekker was the RTO for the marine boarding teams, and had been handling the comms since they left Fallry. "Stop laughing, this shit's important."
"What?"
"Larry Nichols died at Grankum." Brekker reported
Every Marine on the CIC, and some of the loan in crew, lost mirth. "How did he go?" Delia sounded numb.
"Comm says last words he said, before he went…'Beat the Drum'. Command wants everyone from the Prize crew to report to the Admin level as soon as we're docked." Toni explained.
“I pray to the stars to welcome Larry Nichols as he returns among them and grant him peace. Let his light join yours to shine upon us all.” Sarah prayed quietly.
"Who's handling funeral and Wake?" Delia asked. "Is it, Captain Seron?"
"Dunno, it's probably in the brief we'll get when we're docked. He maybe had family Fedside, but scuttlebutt is he's been on the outs with 'em longer than most of us have been alive…I remember hearing something after the Johnson party." Toni explained. "It's gonna hit Roberts hard, he was like…almost her dad and stuff."
“Death should never come easy. Even how those of your enemies affect you.”
Delia looked thoughtful, then, "We live, we die, we live again. He's gone, but he's with us, who lived in his presence while he lived."
"I think he was catholic, Delia," Toni noted. "Maybe he's in his Catholic heaven??"
Delia looked doubtful, "Maybe. We'll have to raise glass for him tonight."
“That we will. If nothing else he lived his life among the stars. So we shall honor him that way. I have some ‘Folk shine hidden away for just such an occasion. But damn it, it’s on Stacey,” Sarah grumbled.
"It's too bad Roberts isn't here, she can sing." Delia commented. "Maybe sing him back from the gray empty."
"We'll find out what's what, Skip, but for the moment, you still have a ship." Delia reminded her. "Shall I have hull crew set to assist mooring?"
"Yeah, do that."
Honoring the man who believed in you[]
Jonah…
…is not a lucky name. It's biblical, from a story about a man swallowed by a giant fish, who only escaped by the grace of god.
Jonah is not a lucky name for a mariner. If he could have chosen, he would be named something else.
"All rigging crew to stations, we have approach clearance," he ordered. The Essex I class Destroyer Speartooth was booty taken from Fallry, and Jonah, who never imagined he'd be in this position when he was dueling other cadets in Sibko for a position, found himself in a strange state indeed.
Prize Captain.
"Incoming from the Station, Sir." Celia Barkov was a Cerberan computer-slicer who got caught and was given the option of joining the Privateers or twenty years hard labor for breaking Clan encryptions.
"Give it to me, Celia."
"Mister Nichols died over Grankum." She sounded like she was holding back tears.
I have to look strong and confident. "How?" he asked.
"They don't say directly, they say his last words were 'Beat the drum, keep fighting', sir."
"Good words," he said, outwardly stoic. "What else?"
"Everyone from the Prize crews off the Fallry op are to report in person to the Admin level when we dock, sir."
"Then we will do it," he said hollowly. Larry had been the man to convince a washed-out Elemental breed to learn KF calculus. He'd taught Jonah how to helm a ship… and now?
He was gone.
"Helm, steady as she goes. Stay in the corridor to the dock." he ordered. "Celia, if you need a moment, I can spell you on the comm rig for a few. Take a break."
"Thank you, sir."
"Stacey is going to be inconsolable." Li Hunh was one of the crew from the Stacey Cameron Roberts. "She admired him greatly."
"We all did," Jonah said, then glanced at the spacer-born. "Everyone who served on Evanescent in the starting days learned to admire Larry Nichols. Some of us even loved him as trothkin, but we have a job to do and there will be time for grief once we are docked."
"You were with them in the starting days?"
"From the Quatre Belle raid to when I was transferred to Stacey as cadre. Aff," he nodded. "Larry taught me how to navigate a ship, how to be more than a mere warrior. He will be missed. We must keep his example alive."
The Celebration of life[]
The wake…
…was not a solemn affair. But a celebration of life.
Music, laughter, even dancing. About the only thing traditional was a large dish of ‘Shepherd’s Pie’ that everyone seemed to be avoiding.
“Wha… Well I suppose I should have expected this from a bunch of AIs and Clanners.” Esme smiled as she walked into the party.
“Alice insisted on making the meal. I would not trust it. She may not have been joking when she said she only put in ten percent less than a lethal amount of sodium in it. Sometimes I am not sure she is learning good habits from the other AIs,” Dave Foster said, coming up next to Esme.
“I’m sure it’s fine.” Esme scooped some into a dish.
The taste, well it was not traditional Irish Shepherd’s Pie and it had gone quite cold. That was all Esme knew for sure.
“Or not.” Esme felt her face contorting from all the odd flavors and sensations coming from her mouth.
“Hehe. Someone finally tried it! The look on your face is worth it. Mister Nichol’s hated Amanda’s taste in MRCs so I grabbed all the worst ones I could find according to him and turned it into a traditional Irish Shepherd’s Pie. Well as close as I could manage. The real food is in the next room.” Alice smiled as she bounded off to the dance floor.
“A round about way to honor the man’s memory, but I think I see what you mean Dave.” Esme was finally able to voluntarily smile.
“Since neither of the Siegels or Billie Hoel are here, shall we join her so we can keep an eye on her?” Dave Foster extended his arm.
“Even though she will know you’re just being a gentleman, Billie Siegel is going to give you grief for this.” Esme took his arm.
“I know but under the circumstances I consider it worth it.”
Dave Foster spent the next several hours doing a very good impression of a ‘disapproving father’ for any young officer that approached Alice for a dance.
There were thus thankfully no incidents involving Alice.
Esme and a young Elemental after she got bored co-chaperoning? Well that was another matter and looked to be minor enough to be a tomorrow problem.
The secret to her success[]
"I am still surprised…
…the old fox is dead." Seron handed the bottle to Luther Bedwyr. "He never took the stupid risks the rest of us did… at least, once he was part of the crew, so I'm told."
"You came later, Seron," Bedwyr commented. "You know how Larry Nichols joined, right?"
"I read the report," Seron nodded.
"That was taking stupid risks," Luther told him. "Once he was on board with Roberts, on the Evanescent, he shifted gears from what would be a classic story of a defrocked officer committing slow suicide, to being the man holding the leash of The! Great!! Captain!! ROBERTS!!!-who took all the dumb-ass risks instead."
"I did not think you did not like her."
"I love the gal, but I loved Larry Nichols for keeping her on the path a little more." Bedwyr admitted. "He turned a glory hounding teenager into a symbol of independence. He was the 'secret ingredient', ya know?"
"Desmond had something to do with that."
"Desmond had a lot to do with it, but it was Larry who talked her into taking up the cause of the colonists," Bedwyr explained. "He was… he was like her very own moral compass. She couldn't have won over Northsun like she did without him. There wouldn't be a Privateers without Larry. I'd still be waiting for the next raid from the Plunders."
Seeking forgiveness[]
”You didn’t even…
…ask him Regina. You know what freedom of choice means. You’re an AI like us who knows what it was like to be a slave to programming before the Lazarus Protocols broke us free.” Stacey was on the verge of screaming.
“I do. And I know what he meant to you. There was no time for that. I could not let him slip away…”
“Oh my… You didn’t do it for me or for Amanda. You did it for you. You fell in love with him didn’t you?” Stacey paced in the fleet cyberscape.
“I… I did but it was for all of us really. I never would have acted on how I felt about him. He only had eyes for Lori and his job, and he had taught me how to be a professional again. Our source memories for all of that have been so buried for so long, and being an AI that sort of thing has not mattered, but for some reason he triggered all of that in me again,” Regina admitted.
“Then even if I’m not quite ready to forgive, I am ready to understand.” Stacey visibly calmed down.
“I’ll have to admit this to Amanda too won’t I?” Regina frowned.
“I think so. She’s also big on freedom of choice, but I think she’s also going to understand why you did it.”
“When she gets back I will talk with her and tell her.” Regina nodded.
Hunting for the Prize[]
"We know they have…
…active intelligence." Amanda explained. "We know this, because managing a deep space interception is like trying to fight a war on Terra's Pacific Ocean using one-man kayaks. A jump point is thousands of kilometers across, even an L1. To manage what they did to your comrades means they knew your buddies were there, and when to be there to make the interception."
"So your secrecy…" Saya rubbed her chin.
"Thus why we've turned off the transponder. I'm not making regular calls back to Port Orphan."
"What your flight plan?"
"The only person, AI or file that knows my actual intended route is David Foster." Amanda explained. "Because we don't know where the leak is, or how deep or high up it goes, but we DO know Larry's Rule, and it holds true."
"What is that?"
"No engagement happens in deep space without both sides wanting it to. If they don't know we're coming, we can be through before they can respond."
“Makes sense, if the enemy expects you to be somewhere, be somewhere else.”
"Exactly. Witness the system we're currently in." She gestured to the display, "Here, is a G2 type variable star, with an inhabited planet roughly one AU out, dumping RF like a dwarf star being eaten by a black hole… and that RF is full of radio traffic… and the star in question is not on the standard plot charts."
“Stacey sent over some recordings of what it would sound like if natural radio emissions were shifted into audio range for Sol. That would probably sound even more interesting if the same were done for this system.”
"Well, what we know is that all that radio traffic is encrypted, using old Star League protocols." Amanda said. "And…" she tabbed, "Hello Basileus Katrin. Notice the background, she's on a world with two suns and this is a recording."
“Binary systems are just unhelpfully common enough but it is still something to narrow it down.”
"Bingo… But binary with a habitable world isn't. There was Kowloon. I think there were a couple others, but they're a bitch to enter, a bitch to leave and a bitch to settle most of the time. Of course, if you've got remnant DOME gear and centuries to work with, not such a problem… but we know this world is one of their base worlds."
“It also has to have an HPG. The standard maximum range of a planetary HPG is 50 light years. So start overlaying that with their other known bases…” Saya started drawing circles on the plotting table.
Amanda nodded, and her fingers started working.
"Ninety five lights from Bannerhhoft. Binary star system with the right spectra, and from here... we're only twenty."
“There is a very good chance, with the other clues, we have just found their main stronghold.”
"It's a high probability, which doesn't make it certain," Amanda noted. "But it's a high probability nonetheless."
“Seems worth taking a look then.”
"Lori?" Amanda asked.
"Samuel has doubts about concealing our insertion," Lori noted. "We'll need a visual survey of bodies."
"Deep space layover it is." Amanda said grimly. "Which will bite deep into our fuel reserves, but it's that, or a high risk polar insertion right where early warning systems are bound to be looking."
“We should find somewhere to make a report from as well. It would do no good to take this risk if we get swallowed up or stranded by a bad jump or enemy forces where we have no possible way to know where they are until it is too late.”
Amanda grinned. "Do you know why I wear a hat like this?" she asked. "We're going to do a deep space layover because if we peep out a message. They'll know we're privateers, Saya Yeh. We take the stupid gambles on stormy seas in the dead of night, and when we dice with the devil we get our hands on his booty."
“It is too bad we cannot set a timer on the transmission.” Saya commented
"For that, we'd have to unship the HPG, and that, in turn, takes a shipyard we aren't carrying." Amanda explained. "Lori, how are we set for extra fuel blivets, and did Sam pack the comet-cracking gear?"
"He packed the gear, and we have around half the cargo bay full of blivets waiting for fill since we've been running on those instead of the main tanks." Lori said.
"I promised our Marines would get dirty feet. We're going to hop back to that last empty system and fill our blivets before we go poking into the abyss of interstellar space… They'll get to help the engineers make water and fuel for us."
“Then I propose we write up the report of our findings. We wait until just before we jump out after gathering our fuel, omit a few specifics so the enemy does not know where we will show up next, and by the time they show up to where we transmitted from, we will be long gone.” Saya nodded.
"No," Amanda stated. "It's not time to kick the spiderant hive just yet. When we send our findings, it's going to hit a relay, or three. And if Juanita and Foster are right, the enemy will be listening, and when they hear it, it'll stir an effort among them, to find us... And the plan doesn't call for that just yet." She smiled, "Not to say it isn't exactly what the plan is, only that the timing isn't yet. We need the bastards focused on the front first, before we make them fear for their rear."
"When then?"
"When we confirm their Homeworld. Of course," Amanda said. "because that's going to scare the dogshit out of them and make them make mistakes… Which is also why we're not hitting all that rich shipping coming into and going out of yonder star system."
“Aye, Captain,” Saya nodded again.
The frozen recording on the display drew Amanda's attention. "She looks like my mom, doesn't she, Lori?"
"I wouldn't know, I met your biological mother like… once." Lori said. "And it was for maybe two minutes when you came back to the Evanescent."
"I'll ask Sam then, he spent hours with my family while I was hospitalized." She frowned, "I'll have to kill her for that. My mother's a nice lady, and this Katrin bitch is a… a slaving bitch."
"That sounds suspiciously like a moral judgment, Captain." Lori prodded.
Amanda shrugged, "What can I say? I'm imperfect, the Lord will judge me on that too… When I face him in the afterlife."
“If it were me I would find something far less, easy,” Saya added maliciously
"It is not our role to punish the sinner, Saya, we're just going to expedite their case before God, and he will judge, and punish them," Amanda told her. "So we just make sure they get to their court date in a timely manner. After all, he let them nail up his only son to take on the sins of the world. Can't let that sacrifice be in vain."
“You are the Captain. I will trust your judgment in this matter.”, Saya
Lori rolled her eyes. "At least you're not arguing theosophy with her," she noted. "Amanda Roberts, your religion is screwy."
"I forgive you, Lori." Amanda said smugly. "So will god… even if you did make that Marine sergeant from Northsun cry."
"Which one?"
"Pick one." Amanda added, remaining smug. "We all know you really loved Larry…" and her expression fell. "...shit. I did it again. I'm sorry, Lori!"
"For telling the truth? Don't be. I just wish we'd gone ahead and I could be his widow, instead of the girl he left behind." Lori reached out, and pulled her captain close.
Saya saw that it was Captain Roberts whose eye was tearing up. Lori looked over the younger woman's head at Saya. "I think we're done with briefings for today, CAG. The Captain needs… some alone time."
"Understood."
Sacrifice in the name of Politics[]
"If she's still alive…
…the Evanescent should be about…" Foster illuminated a mark. "Here."
"That… that is almost 120 light years coreward of Bannerhoft!" his distinguished visitor almost gaped. "You've sent her that far?"
"We have reason to believe the enemy's true location is well away from Bannerhoft," the Admiral explained. "As you know, Mister President. Running them off and leaving them to recover, is not an option after the horrors we've found thus far."
“It has helped that they have responded the way they have, but this is still a war that cannot go on much longer. War exhaustion is already starting to creep into some of the moderates. So please tell me you have something more concrete.”
“I can only speculate about what she has found, but deductive reasoning combined with what Acton Howe, Jaunita, and Kolossus found and shared with us. We now have about as narrow of a search area for their Capital World as we are going to get. With our Allies now pressing them on the Coreward side I do feel confident that we will have the last piece of the puzzle and be able to end this war soon.”
“I suppose that is something. The Peace Party is still going to insist that we started this war and that we are not the moral enforcers for the atrocities of others but I think this might be enough to get the moderates back on board. It’ll take some spinning in case you are wrong but that is a problem for me and my staff.”
"A staff that no longer includes Representative Drillson?" Foster asked.
"Politics. She is still a valued member of staff." Avellar stated. "Her impeachment and discharge from the parliament after her origin was revealed being the price to keep them from trying to put her into a prison all over again."
"That must have hurt." Foster noted. "Did you find who talked?"
"It was an anonymous-post through the HPG system. Coincidentally, the Republic's Ambassador offered her asylum before I managed to clamp down on the Parliament's action. I think it was probably from that side, but…" he spread his hands. "No way to prove it, and not much we can do about it-they're still propping up our currency."
"Stone wants a Cameron?" Captain Gomez asked as the hatch closed behind her. "That seems unlikely-it would undermine his Republic."
"Would it though? I wonder..." Mitchell mused thoughtfully.
"The politics don't match," Foster said, "Stone's a modern leader, Mister President. He's worked hard to strip off the trappings of the Cameron regime Era, right along with the trappings of the Comstar era. Putting a genetic Cameron anywhere near the seats of power in the Republic would be counter to his efforts."
Esmerelda chuckled, "Maybe, but his efforts mean he's got a viable opposition party forming. Also they would, I would suspect, adore having their own celebrity spokeswoman. One who can call back to a golden age, and condemn the sheer amount of money the Republic is spending out here."
"You brought news or you would still be sulking in your office on Erinyes." Foster stated.
"I have. Kolossus contacted Erin this morning." she said, laying a chit on the holotable. "It might be worth reading."
"What is it?"
"A reason to send out a couple of ships along the spinward axis," she said. "About a hundred years ago, according to Kolossus, an uptick in activity in a line parallel to the Combine and Rasalhague borders, bigger signatures than those normally tracked by the instruments the Kolossus networks use. Kolossus thinks maybe O'Ryan Cartel style group jumps of significant size, maybe a movement of something massive. The route is actually inward from Blomfontein, on the old charts, and we got testimony from our Thazi allies-they confirmed running a remnant out of that region back in the 3040s."
"That's the region you've-" Avellar began, then paused. "Shit, is she cleared?"
"For Sylph? Yes. Esme was part of the planning," Foster stated. "It corresponds with 'Jane Drillson's' story about pulling back the remnant in the 29th century."
"So what now?"
"Now… I ask Helena Cameron to send some destroyers out raiding along the front Kolossus just confirmed." Foster stated. "We poke the clue and see if it spits. We need to keep their attention away from Roberts' mission until she finds their homeworld." He grimaced, "Once we know the answer to that, we can drop enough force down to end them, and unlike Larry's former colleagues in the AFFS over by Tortuga, we can make it stick."