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Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 4 -
Chapter 1 - Dreams are Mirror into the Soul[]
Dreaming of Yesterday, Planning for Tomorrow[]
Cameron Estates North America - Terra, Terran Hegemony, 2756
"They… what?"
"Uncle Alex!! Uncle Alex!!! Look what I can do!!!" Helena Cameron is seven years old, and proud as punch of what she's worked out how to do to impress the most important man in her life.
"He's not interested." Elizabeth didn't even look up. "Richie's having a day." At nine years old, Elizabeth was already boring.
"Read-read-read! All you do is READ!!!" Helena scowled as the man who was as close as Helena ever had to a father passed by with older brother Richard following in his steps.
"Someone has to." Elizabeth said. "Richie sure isn't… shouldn't you be practicing for your recital?"
“Uggh… I don’t like the violin, I’d rather learn the piano…”
"Tell Maria, she'll change it for you." Elizabeth stated. "She got me out of ballet."
“Really? She says I misbehave too much and violin is better for discipline.”
Elizabeth snorted, "If you weren't such a brat to her, she might listen more… she was different when Mom was still here."
"Different?"
"She used her hand instead of the belt, and she didn't just do it because Richie said so," Elizabeth stated bluntly. "OR because Richie screwed up."
“What was mom like?”
"Harder than Maria. Fair, though-when mom was still here, Richie got punished when he did bad things, same as we are. Only WE didn't get punished for the bad things he did too."
“Richie is mean.”
"Yep." Elizabeth looked at her sister. "He's spoiled, like that dead mouse at the cabin on Lake Superior last year. Rotten."
“That was gross.”
"Before they made Mister James go away for being too old? He told me Richie was rotten inside, like that dead mouse is on the outside. They let him do what he wants because he's going to be the First Lord, and 'Uncle Alex' loves him, but he doesn't care about us."
“Uncle Alex is a bit off too, but I guess that’s because he works too much.”
Elizabeth snorted, and closed her book. "Want to do something fun?"
“Yes, please!”
Elizabeth put her book down. "Come on, I memorized the codes to the special locker. Remember when Colonel Schmitt took us shooting last year?"
“That was fun. I liked how the big one made my whole body tingle.”
"Richie cried when it was his turn, remember that? It's why we're not allowed to touch them now."
“Scaredy cat.”
"I figured out the codes, we don't need a servant. Let's go make cans bounce!"
“Yay!”
They didn't make it to the gardens, and that night, Helena was sent to bed early.
In the morning, Elizabeth was bruised from her neck down to her private parts, but not her arms, and she wouldn't talk about it, but Helena remembered what she DID say, all day.
"Heir and a spare, that's us. And when Richie has kids, we'll be useless to them."
She didn't, at the time, know what that meant and it was not until later that Richie really focused his attention on her instead.
By then, Elizabeth had already left for the Naval Academy, a fitting role for a spare.
/\/\/\/\/\Discontinuity/\/\/\/\/\
"Status??" Helena demanded as she recovered from the jump.
"All systems Green, Your Ladyship." Helmsman announced. Helena reassured herself she wasn't still seven years old or more than 300 years ago.
"Bad one, Love?" Leon asked. "The jump-dream, I mean?"
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Lady Helena Cameron
“Yeah, all this stuff about the Star League is dredging up painful old memories. But it is helping that I’m doing something about it. I wonder if my last surprise is here yet. Dave has been giving me grief about misspelling Tabiranth on my reports.”
"Emergence wave… port bow, if you want to see it." Vicky's PA announced.
A Farragut class Battleship slid into view, and Helena recalled something… Elizabeth never went to the Naval Academy, Richard forbade it!!
The Dreams, are just dreams.
But dreams are windows into the soul. So why did I dream of Elizabeth going to the Academy?
<Like we're just chopped liver or something, she only has eyes for the Decatur!> an amused presence on the AI net announced.
<Give her a break, Tabby. Her Ladyship's got priorities is all.> Vicky's snippy goading was almost audible. <DID you ever pick a humanoid remote?>
<You know I love you all. Even if some of you were a bit naughty.> Helena chuckled.
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Farragut Class Battleship, SLS Stephen Decatur
<I have a Crew and a Captain to do those jobs. I'll stick to using remotes for actual work. The rest of Special Squadron has arrived, Madame Director-General. All hulls accounted for and ready for orders.> Tabby transmitted. <Also, the Decatur's crew are low on their surface time. Captain Malcom O’Donnell requests permission to issue shore leaves to the planet, and authority to enforce them.>
"Enforce them?" Helena asked.
<We brought what we could reliably train, Highness, and the Decatur's crew are about 41% pure space-borns. Some of them have Planetophobia. Northsun base isn't big enough to generate one gee and lacks a medically appropriate biosphere for immune system maintenance.>
<Right. Tell Captain O’Donnell he has my permission. I just hope the regs and procedures we’ve tried to implement for this situation actually work as well as we hope.>
<Like Betty's loyalty, there's no test like a stress test.> Tabby stated.
<She and Phoenix been behaving on the trip here?>
<I didn't have to freeze them out of their systems, so yes.>
<Good. I don’t like the thought of doing that, but practicality demands it be an option. I have faith you know when it is needed.>
<Are you really intending to send Olivia and Betty to rendezvous with Illusive or have you come to your senses?>
<I honestly do wish I had another option. As it is, Betty might not be able to meet up with them in time lacking a spare battery.>
<Suggestion? Send Olivia to meet up Evanescent instead, and slot the Decatur to back up Illusive and Tenebrous at the Wynn's Roost rendezvous.>
<Agreed, she’s probably the only one who can meet up with Evanescent without burning up way too much fuel and fast charging.>
<That, and Olivia's smart enough not to pick fights she can't win. The Evanescent data dump suggests that's going to be important.>
As the AIs spoke with Helena, on the screen Northsun Base loomed. Clearly in the field of view, Tabiranth was wrapped in gantries, buckled hull plates being cut away by work crew, the scars of taking on too much at once clear.
<I fear I am asking too much of you all, not letting you have each other often enough for support.>
<It's mostly cosmetic. You're seeing me now, aren't you?> Tabby replied. <We stopped a squadron of bombers from delivering nuclear sunshine to the Kerensky's Hope, that's the job. Most of my crew are fine.>
<I’m glad we put AMS on you all to help with that. I may have to break open the piggy bank for more anti-fighter guns too with all this.>
<I didn't take it as badly as Capricious-that crazy duo took it into the upper atmosphere to play blocker for a battery of Peacemakers. I understand their captain's going to be in deep treatment for radiation sickness.>
<Yes. I’m just glad he’s alive and so much of his crew is too. I do thank you all for being so accommodating of your human crews and looking out for them the way you have been.>
<Then I'm glad Sikh's going to recover. She owes me a good story for my other half to dream.>
<Indeed she does. Especially with her current duty station. It is fun watching her squirm a bit with that. Be sure to tease her a little.>
<Saving the teasing for Cossack,> Tabby stated. <I understand her QM is a real piece of work.>
<Quite possibly the only human she cannot intimidate or emotionally break. Billie’s betting on her to date him for it. Me? My bet is still on Ottillie dating a human first. She’s just impish enough to take it too far and have no choice but to follow through.>
"We are cleared to dock, Ladyship. Prep for null gee ten minutes after turnover," Victoria made the announcement as much for Leon, as for Helena.
“Sorry about that Leon, I have been neglecting you there for a bit.”
"I am… a big, strong man. I can survive a bit of neglect when you need to gossip with your friends." he said, and draped an arm over her shoulders. "I can deal." His embrace was warm, muscular, and firm.
“I know and I adore you for it.”
The docking clamps engaged as mooring crew set about connecting external power to allow the WarShip's own power plants to shutdown and conduct maintenance, fill the fuel tanks, and top up the Helium containment.
"So, do we go shopping on the planet this week, or wander the halls of Northsun base while you attend meetings?" he asked. "I vote meetings and quarters, but…"
“Oh we’re going to be having plenty of alone time this week. I’m pretty sure Vicky’s already uncomfortable enough with what we’ve got up to on board during this trip. But yes I need to see to these meetings. I suspect Dave Foster is still kind of sore at me for keeping my reserves a surprise as long as I did. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I can sense the end of this conflict is coming and there’s a lot we still need to sort out for after the war as well as planning the next offensive.”
"Foster isn't the one you're meeting with," Leon pointed out. "saKhan Ibn Lankeneau and a Wolf Star Colonel are." Leon observed. "Also, without the ablative shield that is President Avellar. THEY are the ones who might be upset that you kept a reserve."
“Shit. And there it is in my planner and everything. I must be getting forgetful.”, Helena gripped
He chuckled, "No, you have let weeks underway to get here allow you to slip on the paperwork, which most assuredly WOULD disappoint Admiral Foster." He smiled, "However, you have someone besides a six hundred eighty thousand ton warship to remind you when you neglect to fully examine your appointments."
“Old habits die hard, but I am taking my duties a lot more seriously now. I think he might even be impressed with how organized my desk is now, compared to when I started.”
Leon nodded, "You're welcome, Dear."
“You will be duly rewarded later.” Helena kissed Leon.
===Paperwork, the relentless enemy
"Why can't it…
…ever be simple?" Cossack growled.
"Because you make it too complicated. Fast processor, slow mind!" Jonah shot back. "Form 8163R, third pile, you need to read it before you sign it."
“Poor trees that have died to fuel the human compulsion for paperwork.”
"Poor trees? If we do not get these taxes and payroll done, poor us, especially poor you, as in Cash Poor and unable to purchase things," he scolded.
“We had a much simpler economy back home.”
"Obviously, you wanted Nose Art, somehow you thought it would be free." he said, shaking his head…
“My enemies should know to fear me on sight. Seems such a silly thing to charge so much for some paint.”
"Which, is why we're doing paperwork to sneak it into the maintenance budget! Form 2131/A-0113B, second pile, again, read it first."
“At least I will understand these forms better in the future as I digitize their layout to make filling them out much easier.”
"OR, you could have asked me to arrange it for after we get the audit." He shook his head. "If you'd said, 'Hey, Jonah, I want some artwork to feel prettier', I could have arranged the financing ahead of time so that the Budget Office didn't blink when you showed up with a six meter tall female steppe raider with sword on your forward Portside!"
"Do you really think it makes me prettier?"
"What's not to like about a female steppe raider brandishing a sword?" he asked. "The only important part is how it makes you feel, since unless I get the right forms filled and backdated and bribe Fleet Captain Gomez, you're going to be paying for it out of pocket."
“I… I am not sure what to say beyond ‘will you help me’ and ‘thank you’.”
"Form 66213, lower paragraph," he said. "You'll be welcome if we get this paperwork done."
“I’m a highly advanced combat AI, surely between the two of us we can make this paperwork our bitch.”
"That, Madame, is the plan."
"God, that is cruel." David Foster shook his head. "He is really making her help with the audit?"
Miss Goldsmith nodded, "Ayeh, sir. He really is."
"Well, if she didn't hate humanity already, doing the budget will surely cure that one." Foster turned, "Why aren't you helping?"
"Frankly, sir, Cossack scares the shit out of me when she's in a good mood... Which is why I'm submitting my Shore Leave chit. I'm 189 hours shy on my ground leave requirement, and there's a supply run to Johnson."
"Johnson?"
"It's uncrowded and quiet... and there's enough space at the surface complex I don't have to go outside without a suit. Sir."
"And is one jump away… gotcha." He took her form, and made a few changes. "One hundred eighty nine hours means you've been shorting for over a year… The annual is ninety-six… Planetophobe?"
"It's in my medical, sir."
"Okay, Johnson ground complex it is then."
"Thank you, sir."
"Make sure you actually land, Miss Goldsmith… And stop at medical for your immune boosters."
"Yes, sir."
Small Victories[]
"I know it LOOKS bad…
Sikh, but the doctors say he made it just in time-they can save him." Esme Gomez stood with the AI from OWS Capricious in the critical care ward of the Port Orphan base hospital. "If you hadn't told us the rad readings he took ahead of time, we might not have gotten him into treatment."
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Esme Gomez
“Small victories then. It was difficult not being able to do more. Even when I was just a core before I could at least communicate more freely with my fellow AIs.”
"Sikh, I have good news… and I have bad news," Esme said. "The good news is we were able to fix the networking systems in your hull. You won't be silenced again by a close-range EMP burst-we found the flaw in the original shipyard's shielding."
“So what is the bad news?” she asked.
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Human-like robotic remote drone of the AI, Sikh
"You're stuck with Capricious, at least, for the duration. Fleet rejected your request to transfer to the Stephen Decatur, and by 'Fleet' I mean Billie laughed when she told me."
“I should not be surprised. Cossack and I did fight over it pretty badly. Her Ladyship had to declare no one got it. The two of us got that out of hand.”
"There's good news too, even there." Esme continued.
“Oh?”
"I won fifty Escudos off David Foster when Billie showed him your request form, and stamped it 'rejected' while laughing. And a hundred off Captain Seron when I conned her into not forwarding the rejection to Helena. So your sacred honor remains intact."
“Thank you, Esme.”, thanked Sikh
"We take care of our own, and sometimes we get to enjoy it." She reached into her briefcase, and handed Sikh a leather-bound volume. "I understand you enjoy a bit of light reading, this is a heroic saga written by a Sikh Poet in the thirteenth century."
“Stacey has her bad movies, I have my books. I appreciate it, Esme. I owe you greatly. I do not look forward to my next duty posting though.”
"Try not to get so torn up next time, okay?"
“I will do my best.”
Esme ambled away, and Sikh opened the book and read the publishing date.
1875 AD
“Esme. One would almost think you are trying to court me with such a gesture. But thankfully, I know the truth.” Sikh thanks her friend.
Fighting the Heart[]
"What the hell…
…man?" Lt. Johnny Johnson sat on the medical monitor. "Bedwyr, there's no sacred pact for us. You're sweet on Amanda, doesn't mean you need to play 'iron man' and eat a bunch of nukes to impress her, dude!!"
"Y'r no…rea’."
"No, I'm in your head, dumbass. What the ******, dood? They're wannabe Terrans. You risked your ship for a bunch of guys who worship the goddam Star League-the same one that set Forlough on us!!"
"Y’r no… not real. Go 'way, John…y’r not real."
"Dude…" it wasn't Johnson anymore, it was Luther standing there, over himself. "... Seriously, you knew that battery would toast you."
He sat up, and realized his body was still laying on the bed. "I did what was right."
"Not questioning that, except was it smart to hide it?" he asked himself.
"No… is this what dying feels like?"
"No, this is what you get with the really good drugs. The stuff the dealers are afraid to sell in the conurb. Remember the Conurb? Of course we do. It's why we left in the first place, remember that? Go to the planet, get some space, get some uncanned air."
"Besides, it's not Amanda you're pining for, it's Boni Lori with the raven black hair and fiery eyes, ain't it?"
"Yeah…"
"She's not gonna be impressed either, that you tried to hide the rad sickness. Hey, does Sikh know?"
"She's an AI, she doesn't care."
"I bet she does."
"****** off, I'm healing here."
“Oh come on, admit it she’d be a nice side piece and she digs you too. She’s just gotta keep it a secret.”
Luther's attempt to throw a punch at a phantom in his dream triggered crash alerts as his heart tried to stop pumping blood in his ravaged body.
For the next little while, doctors and corpsmen were busy-too busy to speculate on the sudden jump in his EEG that announced it.
The heart wants what it wants, Luther. Even if she's mostly made of silicon and illusions.
Poetry Written in the Dark[]
That we dream in silent sleep
Again amongst the star,
The Stellar Winds our secrets keep,
Again we journey far.
Amanda…
…stared at what she'd written, and then erased it in disgust. Puerile. She was anchored to the prow of Evanescent, looking at the glory of the Galaxy made plain without the obscuring clouds of dust and comets, true interstellar space.
"Well?" Saya's voice interrupted her before she could fall into a funk.
"Well, we're still here." Amanda said. "Which is something I guess. It's going to be hell getting around them for the next four jumps. Did we get pingback on our last transmission?"
"XO says yes." Saya stated, joining her at the railing. "So why so, Maudlin?"
"Because…" she sighed. "I don't know. Desmond doesn't either. He claims my brain chemistry is 'balanced'. I should be thrilled. The Prize Crew, if they sent back, got through to our lines and is either at or near Port Orphan."
"But you're not thrilled."
"No. Has Sam locked down that leak?"
"Yes."
"I guess it's time to get back to work then… figuring out how to avoid the enemy as we pass through their core systems on the way home, after stirring the hell out of their nest."
- Word from the Author, cannonshop
- For those following along, yes, this is the Fourth installment of Strategos, and it's the conclusion. Things we've been setting up since Ridiculously Overboard!! and Weapons of War Saga: The Director-General and her Knights are going to be resolving here, while setting up for the next one.
Hopefully, y'all are enjoying it.