Chapter 024: Society

Solar Commonwealth’s fall was caused by both the War of Purity - and by its end. Decades of total war and billions of dead citizens swallowed a significant portion of the Commonwealth’s industrial and demographic potential. Once the country attempted to return to the peacetime economy, the resulting economic collapse ruined it even more.

What’s worse, after twenty-six years of continuous total war and the emergency dictatorship of Admiral Singh, very few people in the Commonwealth’s government and administration even knew how to operate during peaceful times and how democracy worked. Once the transhuman threat was vanquished, and Admiral Singh stepped down and retired, the corruption within the increasingly authoritarian government ran unchecked.

Once attempts to restore democracy and reform the administration through legal means failed, many reformist politicians and disgruntled war veterans led by senator John Semann and now retired Admiral Singh staged a coup. It failed as Aran Singh died of a heart attack merely an hour before the coup began. Without his public appearance, many undecided military commanders in the Solar System either remained neutral or sided with the legal (yet authoritarian) government.

The Commonwealth government belief that the worst was behind them turned out to be wrong. When brutal suppression of dissidents thought responsible for the coup started, an age of civil wars that brought an end to the Commonwealth also began.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 7, page 345

***

A squad of infantry managed to flank the heavy troopers. While woefully lacking in heavy weaponry, their rain of fire was still enough to fell a few heavies and interrupt the assault.

“Are you willing to concede defeat?” Tendrik grinned at Rukh, who answered with an irritated growl.

Christopher chuckled. A few more minutes and his tanks would roll through both of his opponents. He was more than content to watch his two opponents fighting for a barely important checkpoint.

The living quarters of the recovery team were quite rich in entertainment. This included the option to use the screen (which was very, very large) as a board for a tabletop wargame. The screen could be moved around and was currently placed in the middle of the room, with the display facing the ceiling. Rukh, Tendrik, and Christopher stood around it, observing the battle, and with specialized UI overlay censoring parts of the map their side wasn’t aware of to simulate the fog of war.

How smart it was to place that deep recon squad there, huh? Now I can watch an entire company of mechanized infantry with several tanks hiding right behind that hill and ready to roll through them both only when I get bored of watching that two butcher each other. Just. As. Planned.

“I’m going to master that game. And then I’m going to show you your place.” Rukh half spoke, half growled. His intense competitiveness never changed.

“Good luck with that!” Tendrik managed to shake off his earlier wariness in Rukh’s presence. “I might suck in Longest War, but that game’s my strong po… wait, really?” Christopher’s tanks crossed the hill and began rolling down towards the forces of Tendrik and Rukh that were still engaged in all-out combat. They opened fire, taking full advantage of their position. Both the cyborg’s and the Variant’s support vehicles blew up one after another.

“Yep.” Christopher nodded, unable to stop his grin. “It’s a mystery why none of you had an idea to seize that hill.” The nearest enemy forces started breaking apart. Christopher’s tanks tore apart vehicles and heavy weapons positions that were placed to face the wrong direction. Infantry and APCs’ that followed the tanks were sweeping the survivors.

Rukh’s forces broke quickly, as Tendrik’s earlier maneuver already had them on their knees. The cyborg managed to muster one counterattack with his reserves, but Christopher expected that to happen. One quick flanking maneuver and Tendrik’s forces were in a total rout.

“Like… HOW?!” Tendrik scowled. “How do you keep doing that to me in every game other than Gates of Infinity?!”

“Maybe I’m just naturally gifted?” And I played a certain popular tabletop wargame like a maniac for a while. Astra Militarum, mmm. This game is a combination of tabletop mechanics governing the mechanical side of the engagements… but played more like a real-time strategy. I was good at those, too. “Seriously though, how did both of you overlook that hill?!”

“I officially forbid you to complain about how Tiriel seems to be too good at everything.” Tendrik was bitter. “You are Tiriel’s equivalent in videogames. And that’s ATROCIOUS. Though at least in the Longest War she managed to defeat you.”

“Three times out of five, remember. It was a close defeat.” I’m going to beat her next time.

“And you? You see this as insufferable too, right?” Tendrik said to Rukh. The wolfman shrugged.

“He was better than me. Complaining instead of trying to get better to return the favor is a loser’s attitude.” Christopher considered calling Lith to their quarters for a while because that was quite a third-degree burn.

“You…” Tendrik reacted with anger, but he quickly remembered that Rukh could twist him into a pretzel with his bare hands. “Guh. A rematch? Or we could do a campaign mission together. I’d like to see Christopher’s commanding skills from a different angle.”

“Why not. What about you, Rukh?” The wolfman nodded. Once he began opening to other members of the team, he turned out to be a rather interesting person. Very short-tempered and not talkative at all, but for as long as you knew how to handle him it was manageable.

Ryan rushed into the living room coming from the direction of the bedroom corridor. When he saw them standing around the table, he approached them quickly.

“Uhm, sorry to interrupt, but how do I look? Any issues?” Christopher, Rukh, and Tendrik stared at him for a short while. The engineer looked surprisingly elegant. Which, for Ryan, meant that his buttoned shirt wasn’t smeared with grease.

“You look ok. What’s happening? Another date?” Christopher inquired.

“Yeah. The third one with Ela. I have greeeat hopes.” The engineer smiled widely.” Thank you for the help, but I need to go. I’ll return later. Much later, hopefully.” He left the quarters through the main entrance.

“Ela?” Tendrik said. “Wasn’t it Aria? Or Mena?”

“He goes around, doesn’t he?” Christopher replied. “I don’t think I saw him in that mood earlier. Was he dating the earlier crew members only for the sake of dating? I think I did hear him mentioning that it was the only form of entertainment that the Tavian regime didn’t outlaw, but I have no idea if he meant dating or sex.”

“Hmph. Probably both?” Tendrik looked thoughtful. “Lots of totalitarian regimes are happy about their less fortunate citizens hooking up at random because it helps dismantle traditional family relationships in the long term. As people are less likely to go on a revolutionary rampage after the regime executes someone they occasionally hooked up with than a wife of thirty years. This also makes children look like a problem interrupting the hedonistic lifestyle, thus making the masses less prone to thinking about the future.” As Rukh and Christopher were gazing at him with shock on their faces, Tendrik added. “Hey, I’m just quoting Tiriel here.”

“Sounds like Tiriel alright.” Christopher admitted. She was a bit preachy at times. Christopher failed to dislike her for it, especially as there was not even the tiniest bit of hypocrisy accompanying her words. She lived up to every rule she suggested to others and was ready to risk her life to save her comrades even when they didn’t share her values. That made him respect her.

He still hoped she’d get slightly less talkative about certain subjects.

“So, uhm, should we… I dunno… do something about Ryan?” Tendrik looked unsure of how to phrase what he wanted to say.

“Like what? Ask him for tips?” Rukh spoke concisely. And triggering an outburst of laughter in Tendrik and Christopher.

“Yeah, good point.” Tendrik commented. “We’re not exactly the most popular people aboard, right? I can understand myself and Rukh, but have no idea why Christopher counts in too.”

“Because not only do I have no idea how much dating and relationships have changed during the past seven hundred years, I also have no interest in exploring that field.” Christopher replied. “I’m dead set on returning to my times. Safe, less warlike, and politically volatile, and my family is there. I love my parents, I love my brother, and I… ok, so my sister is a bit bitchy, but I’m starting to miss her too.” He shook his head. “Being forced to choose between a love interest and a family after finishing the mission is something I’d like to avoid. Parting with friends will be painful enough.”

“Fair point. Though I don’t think that things have changed that much.” Tendrik looked thoughtful. “In Techtria when you sign up for procreation duty you get assigned a person of the opposite gender whose tastes align with yours, and you live together until your child becomes an adult.”

“That’s… totally different than my times.” And sounds like someone trying to breed robots instead of humans for some crazy reason. “Okay, so I’m almost scared of finding out, but… Rukh?”

“You find an unclaimed adult citizen. Issue a challenge. If they lose the duel, you can claim them. Or their property, if so you wish..” Rukh replied with a calm, matter-of-fact voice.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! How am I even supposed to comment on that? Contrary to popular beliefs, even goddamn cavemen had ‘marriage’ rituals more complicated than ‘’bonk her in the head with a club and drag her to your cave”.

“Yeah, I almost forgot what sort of hyper-violent social darwinistic hellhole Numena is.” Tendrik said, saving Christopher from the need to say something.. “I hope I didn’t insult you, but what I said was objectively correct and I’m not apologizing.”

‘You don’t have to. Why do you think I am on the Echo?” Rukh closed the subject swiftly. “Having to kill someone every other day to steal enough food to survive gets tiring after a few years.”

“Okay. So you know what, I’m going to make a bit of a test here.” Christopher said. “An exercise in social skills. Imagine that you walk into a room and see a woman who looks like Tiriel, but it’s not her. You don’t know anything about her, but you somehow managed to start a talk. Imagine that you want to compliment that woman. What sort of compliment do you make?” Let’s not mention how compliments aren’t always a good tactic. I just need to find out where we’re standing. “Tendrik?”

“Err… I tell her she would look fabulous with some cyberware implants, as long as they are designed to maintain her biological shape?” Tendrik’s early enthusiasm quickly faded away when his eyes met Christopher’s. The dead fish stare was a sure sign that the petty officer wasn’t amused.

“Rukh?” The wolfman, to Christopher’s surprise, decided to answer.

“I tell her that she has wide hips. This means healthy children.” Christopher counted to ten before answering.

“You need to talk with Tiriel.” When both of them looked at him questioningly, he added. “She should find you some perfectly isolated all-male monastery of the Church where you should spend the rest of your lives. Never again seeing a human being without a long beard. It’s worse than I imagined.”

“It can’t be that bad.” Tendrik decided to interject.

“You do know that such text would spook every woman who isn’t a Mechanist? Maybe save for some hardline cybernetic transformationist.” Hell if I know what’s the difference between these two categories. “And when I say ‘spook’ I mean ‘having her organize an angry mob with pitchforks and torches to hunt you down’?

“Well, probably. It’s just more of an issue with no such woman being around.” Tendrik replied. “No outcast Mechanists, not a lot of cybers. A big-titty AI girlfriend with whom I could establish a mostly platonic relationship composed of programming and playing computer games together would be ok, too. But the ship’s AIs are only a fairly advanced Simulated Intelligences. It’d be like trying to date Nekia’s cat.”

Christopher decided to not dig into the subject. AIs were still a slightly spooky subject to him. Was that ‘big-titty AI girlfriend’ some sort of Mechanist meme he was too organic to understand?

“Tendrik.” Cyborg looked at Christopher. “I said that the girl in question is supposed to look like Tiriel. You just complimented a biopurist-looking elf by saying she would look great with cybernetic implants.” Cyborg facepalmed. “Now, Rukh. What sort of crazy place is Numena?”

“The survival of the fittest.” He replied. “The Numenan Union is an alliance of the strongest warlords of the planet. They keep rivaling and fighting each other. They cooperate only in space.”

“Survival of the... “ Christopher stared at the wolfman for a while. “So, uhm… public education? Healthcare? Law enforcement? Any sort of charity organization helping poor people survive?” The wolfman shook his head. Christopher broke as a result. ”This is officially the dumbest fucking thing I heard about since I arrived in the future. Holy shit, I thought I reached the bottom of this swamp. But once again I found a trapdoor leading to an even lower level of that greasy shitlake.” He took a deep breath. He let it out slowly, calming himself. “Time for a saving throw for the Numenian Union. I don’t want it to sound racist or something, but… there are, uhm, NORMAL countries of your Variant, yes?”

Wolfman nodded once again.

“Roll failed.” If all of them were as crazy as locals, I could shrug that down as being caused by some genetic malfunctions increasing aggression or something. But, alas, nope. It’s a shitty culture, not side effect of humans tampering with their genome. “Can’t you just visit that Numenian destroyer... Strength, was it?” Wolfman responded with a scarce nod, making Christopher ponder if he forgot how to make any other gesture. “Yes, so can’t you visit Strength, find some nice looking girl, beat the shit out of her, and bring her here?”

Wait, did I just suggest… ugh, this is somehow rubbing onto me. It’s still a better fate than to stay a part of Numena, but I should probably not mention that idea to Innocent during our next training. He’d probably not enjoy the idea of club weddings.

“All claimed.” Rukh answered.

“What? By whom?” And let’s not ask how he is aware of that.

“By the ship’s officers.” As Christopher could feel the dam of his self-control get overtaken by another overwhelming wave of idiocy and gross violation of common decency, Rukh continued. “Female crewmembers by male officers. Male crewmembers by female officers. They were claimed before they joined the crew, though. And the officers are all stronger than me. Currently.”

“Uhm, Rukh, let me clarify that before I get screechy.” Christopher said calmly. Of course, the calmness was fake. “You’re trying to tell me that Numena’s entire culture is based on ‘might makes right’ and merciless natural selection, to the point where ownership-by-defeat is the main foundation for any hierarchy, even in the military? And the entire ships are crewed with several warriors and their harems?”

“Yes, all to make sure that the genes of the strongest warriors are spread as wide as possible.” Rukh showed his teeth in some sharp-looking equivalent of a mocking grin. “The only reason why Numena and the country that sent its founders here still exist is because their allies need a source of expendable and unquestioningly loyal meat shields. But the warlords and warriors alike are too stupid to notice. In retrospect, having your warrior caste beat and enslave scientists, artists and politicians was a bad move.”

“Okaay, so now I get why that Numenian destroyer was so horrible during the battle with the Seekers.” Tendrik’s face was covered with a combination of unhealthy curiosity and disgust. “The Plesjans were barely better. Two-thirds of the missiles shot down by the destroyers were done by the Tavian and Techtrian ships. This probably explains why those two countries are the main contenders for the control of the subsector. Plesja and Numena are behind them.”

“Numena has a ground army too stupid to retreat and crazy enough to terrorize enemies.” Rukh added. “Plesja has money. Techtria has industry and machine precision. Tavia has numbers and technology. Simple as that, and stupid as that.”

Rukh seems much, much smarter than people give him credit for. It makes me wonder how far he would go if he had proper education right from the start? I’d like to see him after university, in some crazily high-level debate with Tiriel. I’d pay to see that!

“Ok, how about we change the subject?” Christopher suggested. He had to talk about something else. This talk has been a rollercoaster ride of a disappointment thus far. And he wanted it to finally end.

“Ok. So which girl aboard the Echo do you like the most?” Tendrik decided to keep digging, though not in the most atrocious subject of the day.

Tendrik, dammit.

“Rukh? You have someone you like one-sidedly?” Tendrik decided to inquire further, as neither of his companions answered him for a short while.

“Lieutenant Nowak.” Rukh threw a bomb. “I admire her strength. And I wouldn’t mind getting claimed by her. Or claiming her, if I ever become strong enough.” The silence lasted for a while. Finally, Tendrik managed to form an answer.

“Err… you’re like twenty-two or something, right?” Rukh nodded. “And isn’t she like… forty-something?” Rukh nodded once again. Christopher was surprised by that almost as much as by Rukh’s confession. She looked like she was thirty years old. A very well kept thirty years old.

I should probably ask someone how long people live nowadays. I can’t believe it took me close to four months to think of that!

“She’ll stay fertile for at least twenty more years. And she is strong. Why should I care about how old she is? Or how she looks? Or about anything else?” Rukh said while staring at them with a genuine lack of understanding on his face.

You can take a Numenian out of Numena easily, but taking Numena out of a Numenian is much harder.

“Ok, Rukh. We’re going to rehabilitate you into actually fitting into modern society. Eventually.” Christopher decided to close the subject for now. “Tendrik, uhm…” He was about to add ‘let’s call it a day, ok?’ but he was interrupted midway.

“Almost no one interesting out there, honestly.” The cyborg said with almost unnerving enthusiasm. “And all the girls on the Techtrian destroyer are… how should I put it… too societally compliant. If they are serving in the Navy, they choose to become more mechanical. Procreation duty is typically for those less cybernetic. They might still be sexy in my book, but they are thoroughly uninterested in the idea.” He shook his head. “I’m more interested in exploring non-Techtrian forms of relationships. What about you, Chris?”

I can’t exactly stay silent when both of them spoke about it, right? I listened to it, so now I have to talk about it.

“Well, to begin with, absolutely everyone in the 28th Century looks great.” Christopher started. “And I like almost all the people I met thus far. Because of that, there are so many women to choose from, each of them beautiful in their own, distinct, way.” For some reason, he got their complete attention. “Let’s start with Nekia. She is cute. Clingy, but in a nice way. Always tries her best. A bit… explosively optimistic. Just enough assets to have something to play with, especially when you add her ears and tail to the list. She’s certainly the best person to cuddle with in your free time, and if she channels that infinite energy into lovemaking, a relationship with her would be great indeed. Though with me being her superior, lack of any sort of romanticism, and the fact that she is struggling with becoming an adult when it comes to behavior and emotions, she feels more like a little sister. At least to me. Questions?”

“No. Please continue.” Tendrik replied quickly. Rukh nodded.

“Ok, so I’m not going to talk about her mother, mostly because it’d be a bit disturbing. So let’s focus on our team.” Christopher continued. “Kivanna’d be the hardest choice. Plesjans as a whole have it troublesome. Being supportive to her could blossom into something else entirely. She is also rather cute. Almost, errr, flat. But there are people out there who like it. Best choice for someone less interested in sex and more with finding a soulmate, honestly. Though if you hurt her, Innocent will probably throw you out of the airlock without a suit on.”

Innocent was very protective of her. To be exact, if Christopher’s occasional talks with him were any indication, protective of everyone who was a part of the Echo’s crew. And of everyone who was a part of the Church. And, lastly, of everyone who was seriously wronged in their life and suffered due to that. Kivanna was a part of all three categories.

“And Tiriel?” Tendrik urged Christopher.

“Well, she’s quite special.” Christopher answered. “Almost too perfect for this sinful Eart… space. Body to die for. Beautiful, unblemished skin. Face both sensual and cute in equal measures. Beauty among the beauties. Wonderful cook, but to be honest she is equally great in all sorts of housework. Sense of humor. Might get you a comfortable life as a noble, if you play it correctly. Essentially a perfect candidate for a wife. However, she is going to expect a lot from you, you’d better be religious and practicing, and you should expect to have your every wrong action pointed out. Also, how the marital sexlife with her would look like is anyone’s guess.”

Christopher wasn’t going to admit that publically, but this lack of knowledge was in a way exciting. She was showing absolutely nothing, so trying to fill this gap with your imagination was a fairly natural reaction.

“Err… are you sure you don’t want a girlfriend?” Tendrik commented when Christopher ended his lecture. Rukh supported the cyborg with yet another scarce nod. “You sound like you’re in a need for one.”

“I’m just observant.” Christopher replied angrily. “Plus, I’m a young and healthy man, for some reason surrounded by women who would have a very high chance of seizing the title of the most beautiful woman on Earth in his time. If not for three facts, I’d go the standard way of protagonists of various ‘woke up in another world’ stories and assemble my own harem.” Christopher joked. Tendrik chuckled for some reason.

Is it because he is a fan of whatever passes for an anime and manga today? Wait… no way. Are they STILL making isekai harem stories even after seven centuries?! What a hellish world to wake in.

“First, I want to go back to my times.” Christopher reiterated his earlier argument. “Second, this ship is two accidental deaths away from becoming a Christian theocracy, and close to half of the crew is religious in a fairly serious way. Religious in a way incompatible with harems. Third, unlike the girls in the stories I mentioned, those girls have actual personalities.”

In his opinion, trying to not make a single person hate you after a decade or two together was hard enough. Trying to do that with more than one person required them to be extremely bland. And there were no bland people on the Echo.

“I get a feeling that you’re omitting something.” Rukh said slowly. Christopher sighed painfully.

“Okay, so I also have a history of finding girlfriends only for them to quickly discover I wasn’t mentally adult enough for a stable relationship.” And by the time I became mentally adult, I was also a burning wreck riddled with depression, too socially recluse for anyone to be interested in me. Guh, I hate my past self. “I consider this trip into the future as a way to find myself and perhaps become someone reliable. Then I might think about relationships, but by the time I achieve that, I’ll be back in the 21st Century.”

“Err, what do you mean by ‘becoming reliable’?” Tendrik replied with surprise written on his face. “Aren’t you pretty reliable thus far? I mean…”

Nekia suddenly entered the living room, coming through the door leading to the quarters' corridor. She was wearing a T-shirt - decorated with sweet kittens, of course - and a knee-long skirt. Patches was following her.

What a cat overload!

“Oh, hello.” She waved to them. “What are you doing?” If Christopher remembered it correctly, she just finished her ‘sleep’ shift.

“Playing a wargame. And talking about relationships.” Christopher replied. “Coincidentally, do you have a boyfriend?” She might give those two a tip or two. They certainly need them, and I’m not really in a position to advise them. Even a person acting childish probably has more social skills than those two!

Nekia froze midway between the quarters' door and them.

“W...wh...what do you mean?” She answered, stuttering. Her face started getting red.

“I asked you if… wait, you are here. So the shift is about to end, right?” Christopher glanced at Tendrik who nodded. “Oh shit, I was supposed to meet with Chief Tiaa ten minutes before the next shift.” Goddamn paperwork!

Christopher launched towards the changing room, shouting some half-formed apologies. Nekia was still in the living room, with an expression of shock and disbelief on her face, when he entered it. When he left it, Rukh and Tendrik were playing the Longest War. And Nekia was nowhere to be seen.