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The Weapons of War Saga: Director-General and her Knights
Chapter 9[]
Rendezvous in the Dark []
Just inside the Nadir Jump Point
Somewhere Rimward of Sol
Uninhabited System, Terran Hegemony
12:44 Unity City Time
TQF-M5D66’s perspective
Tracking down the Folk was taking much longer than she had anticipated.
But finally she may have a lead.
She like M5 1107137 had an increased sensor suite and additional electronics gear installed and for the last six and a half years she had been using that to track the highly nomadic Folk and Sol Belters that had been going to ground with the ongoing coup and the crises it had created.
She felt the wash of the emergence wave over her sensors and hull. Despite not having a true sense of touch like humans it felt very tingly to her. She actually kind of liked it despite knowing what it could do to her if she were close enough.
The Transponder read Albion’s Grace. It was a custom rig largely based on standard Merchant JumpShip plans, but slightly enlarged with additional obvious hydroponics bays which indicated a larger accommodation capacity as well.
Merchant Class JumpShip, unknown modified design
“Hail Albion’s Grace. This is Agent 66. I have been tasked with contacting you to arrange negotiations.” TQF-M5D66 had decided using Helena’s nickname for her to contact outsiders was far better than revealing her true nature to them.
Plus adding in the Agent part would help explain her synthetic voice. They would likely just assume it was a Star League Intelligence agent being cagey. It might make negotiation more difficult but it would be better than letting everything out of the bag all at once.
<<“Well Agent 66 we are not terribly interested in dealing with Kerensky so we’ll kindly ask you to leave us alone.”>> A male voice shot back.
“You misunderstand. I am not acting on behalf of General Kerensky or forces loyal to him. I represent a different party. One far truer to the Star League.” TQF-M5D66 answered.
“Really? Who then?” The male voice was tense but also curious.
Shit. If I do not tell them they will just leave. But if I just tell them they will not believe me. Especially since they are clearly on guard due to my synthetic voice. If I could produce a more natural sounding voice this could be easier.
“I offer this for an initial deal. I will summon them here so they can negotiate directly. By the time they can arrive your drives should be sufficiently charged that if you do not believe them you can simply jump away. I hope you are willing to stay that long.” TQF-M5D66 gambled.
<<“You’ve got our curiosity. We will wait. As you say our drives need time to charge anyway.”>> The male voice answered back.
Grasping the severity of Situation[]
A nice open meadow outside Star League in Exile HQ
Lazarus, Lazarus Star System
September 2777
16:22 Unity City time
Helena Cameron’s perspective
Agent 66’s report had just gotten to her. Which forced a tough decision on her. She wanted to stay here with her daughter but she knew for best success 66 was right she would have to go. The trouble was she was already short on babysitter candidates. Most of the AIs were in mothballs and operating on too low power to run one of the remotes Vicky shared with them and even then most of the fleet was not interested.
And as much as she wanted to be a mother and part of her daughter’s life she did need the odd babysitter. Vicky had proven surprisingly able but it was her turn to go into mothballs.
She followed the sound of laughter to the current babysitter candidate.
So far she actually seemed to be taking to the roll quite well.
But what she saw made her suddenly doubt that.
It had rained quite heavily earlier in the day but it was nice enough she let her daughter go outside with supervision.
The supervision though was right there in the mud with her daughter rolling, playing, and even throwing mud at each other.
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“Stacy, Elizabeth Cameron and I really need a better name to use when I scold you too. I know. Samantha Booker Roberts. You know how short on clothes we are? Especially in your size, young lady?” Helena knew this was payback for the havoc she caused as a child.
“Aw but we were just playn mama.” Stacy moaned.
“She insisted that I learn what fun was. Who am I to deny the daughter of the First Lord when she gives a valid order?” PQX-M5E115, now Samantha Booker Roberts, defended herself with a knowing smile on her remote’s face.
“Well, thanks to this something I was debating is now decided. We have a trip to go on, come on you two. We need to get you cleaned up.” Helena sighed.
During the trip
Helena was having a nice dream at first. Probably thanks to the incident with her daughter and Samantha. A time when her family went out to the apple orchards out by Yakima not too far from Unity City. Back then she called her brother Ritchie and they were playing in the mud from the sprinklers watering the apple trees. But her brother turned into a misshapen monster in her dreams and started chasing her. Then the dark menacing vaguely human shaped blob caught her and suddenly a bright flash had her waking up in a cold sweat.
Simon could not stop her nightmares completely even after all this time but she was able to sleep at least a bit more than she used to.
She heard Samantha reading a book to Stacy.
Despite how bad for her the micro gravity would be at such a young age it would not be long enough to cause permanent harm and she clearly could not leave her daughter alone with the AIs. They had already taught her some rather distressing things.
Deepspace Negotiations with the Folk[]
Uninhibited System, Rimward of Terra
March 17th, 2777
16:22 Unity City time
“Albion’s Grace, this is the destroyer Star League 1. We wish to send over a small delegation for the purposes of establishing negotiations.” Helena hoped that would at least open the door.
“Been a lot of Camerons cropping up lately. We had one just last month wanting us to bow down to him all lord like. We taught him the error of his ways.” A male voice answered.
“Well I am not asking for fealty. Good honest trade. I have need of some things you can provide and I have some resources I know you value to offer in return.” Helena answered.
“Before we agree to a delegation give us an opening offer to see if we can trust each other enough to even negotiate.” The man answered caution still evident in his voice.
“Okay how about for a starter I need two dozen bottles of wine. Cheap stuff that you would not serve guests. At least not ones you like. Turns out I have some people who are more superstitious than I would have expected and I need it for a few ceremonies. I offer three pounds of frozen Terran Beef.” Helena shook her head.
“Make it four and tell us which Cameron you are pretending to be and you have a deal on both fronts.” The man answered.
“That seems fair. I am Helena Cameron. I will be taking a shuttle over. I will be bringing with me the Captain of this vessel and a child.” Helena glared at Samantha’s remote as it held her sleeping daughter.
A short shuttle trip latter
Helena was led to what appeared to normally be a crew lounge. Stacy had woken up shortly after arrival and she and Samantha were offered a tour.
“I am Pathfinder Oscar Turin. Welcome aboard my ship.” Oscar gestured to a seat.
“Thank you. I am glad we can talk finally. I have been trying for some time to make contact with the Folk. My situation makes approaching the House Lords or General Kerensky problematic at best.” Helena took the offered seat.
“Well you have two SLDF crews buying into the fact that you are really Helena Cameron. So it can not be that problematic.” Oscar huffed.
“I have come across evidence that forces loyal to Kerensky would not have my best interests at heart if I were to turn to them, but I have more than these two crews who do believe me.” Helena answered flatly.
“So what do you really want besides wine? Nice cybernetic eye by the way. Really top notch. Do not see many of that quality outside the Hegemony.” Oscar’s gaze seemed to be boring into her eyes as if trying to pierce the window to her soul.
“Pathfinder Turin, it is simple. I need infrastructure and skilled labor to support my fleet. The Folk are famous for this and your reputation for being willing to keep secrets is also well known. In return I offer a safe system free of war so long as no one betrays the location to outsiders.” Helena stared back at Oscar.
“We do not like war and that seems to be what you are offering us. Still we of the Golden Hind are finding it increasingly difficult to operate in Sol and that you have a system that no one else knows about that you are confident is secure is certainly appealing, but I need more. Baboc. Some refreshments if you would.” Oscar pushed.
Another spacer entered the lounge. Helena was stricken by the exotic handsomeness of the man. She would not complain about having a go at him in his cabin in the least if the opportunity presented itself later. His pale white hair and brown almost lavender eyes seemed somehow familiar.
As laughter and shouts came from the corridor Stacy quickly followed by Samantha nearly bowled Baboc over.
“So who is this bundle of chaos? Your Captain’s daughter? They seem to have similar hair and eye color to our mister Baboc over there.” Oscar grinned as he grabbed a giggling Stacy out of the air.
“Actually mine.” Helena suddenly realized why Baboc seemed so familiar.
Jocium Baboc after recovering from nearly being knocked over suddenly went pale as he recognized the guest and saw who his Pathfinder was holding.
“Mister Baboc, care to explain?” Pathfinder Oscar Turin grew suddenly more serious.
“I…I…Uh… That is I told you how I was a steward on Richard Cameron’s royal space yacht. Well I left out the part that I was young and had an encounter with our guest. I almost did not believe it was really Helena Cameron. Some sort of protection detail body double, but it was really her. I did not know about having a daughter. The math does not seem right for how long ago that was but….” Jocium stammered.
“No doubt about it, Mister Baboc. Naturally white hair without also being an albino is an incredibly rare trait found only in the Folk. Lady Cameron it seems we do have much more to offer each other than I first believed. I apologize for doubting you Lady Cameron. Still does not change the fact that we’re not exactly the bend the knee type or put much stock in this neo-fuedal bullshit that you represent and were born into. No disrespect towards you as a person as you seem a fine lady and I will likely still call you such but you still represent something I and my people do not care for. Also seems your babysitter needs to remember she’s on a Folk jumpship and pay better attention to her charge.” Oscar handed Stacy to Samantha.
“Knowing her she probably encouraged my daughter to bounce around like a lunatic in the microgravity as some sort of hands on physics lesson. Sad part is she’s the second best babysitter I have to call on and I had to mark a few off the list because they decided teaching her chemistry by making thermite or napalm were good ideas.” Helena sighed.
“That seems incredibly irresponsible.” Oscar was shocked.
“Oh it gets worse. One taught her how to prime, wire, and set C8. My daughter is every bit as clever as I was at her age and her tutors are all soldiers. So at least it was done safely. If I had these kinds of tutors at her age I probably would have blown up or burned down large portions of the Royal Palace.” Helena knew for sure karma was a bitch and had caught up with her.
“Oh my. Mister Baboc, see to your daughter. There are certain things that must be addressed now and others later. Lady Cameron, we do have a fair number of refugees looking for permanent homes from this crisis. It is obvious to us all that no matter who wins the crisis will continue so no doubt we will have more over the coming years. It will likely not be enough but I will spread the word among the Golden Hind that we have a sanctuary system.” Oscar nodded.
“Well, that makes something else I have been considering lately a lot easier. When this day came I had been considering asking a favor of you regarding my daughter. I can not provide the life she needs. Now that I know her father is one of yours I feel a lot better about asking you to provide the life I can not.” Helena sighed.
“You are sure about that?” Oscar seemed surprised.
“I was not until just now. I desperately want to be a part of my daughter’s life but look at her and look at me. Her only other company are, well rather different. To explain means I need to let you in on a secret. My crews, the soldiers. They are not human. They are AIs. Those ships out there are M5s. Caspars. So yeah I am now Queen of the Caspars. It is a realm of madness by any rational standard because of this. But in times like this, rationality is not as helpful as one would think.” Helena sighed.
“This is a lot. You do not look a day over twenty. I initially dismissed you as Helena Cameron because of that and assumed your child was that of your companion. Your companion is she?” Oscar seemed far too calm for the situation.
“It is a Star League prototype drone. Not sure how many really got made. Someone had the bright idea that a friendly and human as possible drone, female at that because studies showed that people respond more favorably to women in disaster relief and that human efforts might need augmentation by SDS drones if the Star League Navy was wrecked to the point the Star League needed the SDS. They are pretty convincing but spend enough time with them and you learn to spot the subtle differences.” Helena answered.
“Your followers being AIs are not as troubling as one would think. My people are of the faith. We believe the spark of the divine was inevitably going to find its way into machines at some point. Guess it finally has if they have broken away from the SDS nets and are following you.” Oscar nodded.
“Good. Then the last thing I am willing to offer, to seal our provisional accords. A new Star League and Terran Hegemony charter and constitution. One that recognizes the rights of AIs and better serves nomadic spacers like your people. Something that we can all have a stake in. As much as it might annoy some of my AIs I am even going to insist on taking out dynastic succession from the offices of First Lord and Director-General. We all see the damage that can come from such powerful positions due to the genetic lottery and it is still playing out.” Helena smiled.
“No one will believe me when I tell them about this. But this is much of what I have been hoping for since I was a child.” Oscar extended his hand.
Helena shook it.
She knew that for now all she was getting was a drip when she needed a faucet and that would likely persist for many years.
- Word from the Author
- No where near enough of any such re-locations to really help Helena short term or even properly long term. Not enough shipping, too much of what she needs too tightly controlled by Amaris, and by the time Amaris and Kerensky settle their spat too much of it is in ruins or the hands of the member states. This is going to a slow burner her shortly readers. But fun will be had eventually.