Chapter 007: Friction

The Confederation of Mankind is one of two main contenders to the seat of the successor of the Solar Commonwealth. It was born as the ‘Great Alliance’, a desperate agreement of the remaining warlords and governments of the Frontier created to withstand the assault of the undefeated legions of the Solar Republic.

The Confederation is a loose alliance pretending to be a country. It currently spans 92 star sectors, 472 subsectors and approximately 100 000 fully terraformed Terra-like worlds. Their space is inhabited by approximately fifteeen trillion citizens of 327 fenosculpts, 34 variants and 5 lines. There are also aliens from seven species that managed to coexist with Mankind, of which only berserks, sidhe and scythes matter from a numerical point of view.

These citizens and territories are divided between 3411 independent countries, 6344 protectorates, enclaves and autonomous regions and 3543 international organizations important enough to receive a seat in the Supreme Council of Mankind (the Confederations’ legislative). The majority of the last category are either charity groups operating directly under Confederation’s authority (211), international religious organizations (1512) or transnational megacorporations (897).

These countries and organizations are also divided between fourteen factions, sub-alliances that also double as political parties of the Supreme Council of Mankind. The wars between factions are almost a daily occurrence. They die out only when an outside threat (either the Solar Republic or aliens) emerge to challenge the Confederation as a whole.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 5, Page 232

***

The next few days were both hectic and entertaining. Once the acceleration phase had ended, Christopher and Ryan began their education. Captain Keller assigned each of them a teacher to train them. For Christopher, that was Tiaa Sistonen herself.

Each of them chose a different way of introducing their pupils to their work. Tiaa had Christopher sit down in front of a terminal in her office… and spend the next eight hours doing paperwork. To rub salt in the wound, she then informed him that all of that was redundant as the computer could perform that on its own - though the computer’s ability to do that ‘mysteriously’ depended on Christopher’s motivation during the training.

This ended with Christopher concluding that Chief Tiaa’s methods were unique yet very efficient. He immediately felt very motivated to learn. Of course, there was also the possibility that the spooky paperwork was some onboard meme he was too ‘old’ to understand.

He also got to wear the skinsuit. It was…a unique experience. The suit was tight, at first, but it shaped itself to fit him better. A few seconds later, and he barely felt like he was wearing anything. He almost felt naked. Modern technology was impressive, he had to admit. The only part where he sensed something was his back.

According to Tiaa’s explanation, that’s where the suit’s power source and oxygen storage were located. With the technology of the far future, all of these components were squeezed into a slightly thicker segment of the suit (still flexible) instead of a large, backpack-like container.

There was also the slightly thicker part around the back of the neck, which, apparently, was a helmet. Just ‘compressed’. He had no idea how that worked.

Of course, due to constraints in space, the suit had oxygen for around five minutes (less if he tried to use it to move around in space). But these were work clothes, not a real spacesuit. The whole point was to be easy to move around, protect against scratches and other simple accidents, and resist cold and heat to a reasonable degree. Plus to adhere to skin close enough so that it could be used as underwear, allowing crewmembers to wear proper spacesuits on them.

From Christopher’s point of view, the weirdest part was parading around in a suit that you couldn't feel was there. It was downright unsettling when Tiaa was around. Or any other woman.

***

EGS Echo - Command Deck

11:12 30.03.2610 STT

Commander Lena Drathari

Commander Lena Drathari was the ship’s executive officer (exec in short, first officer in some fleets). Theoretically that made her the third after God aboard the ship. But, however much of a big deal she was in theory, practice was something else.

She was severely out of the loop, and other officers were still big mysteries to her. Due to being the ship’s exec she could even order Lieutenant Commander Innocent and Colonel Nowak around. But once again theory clashed with practice. She wasn’t sure if they would listen, so it was best to avoid giving them orders. Nothing ruined an officer’s authority more than an underling refusing an order and them not being able to do a thing about it.

She had time to get the hang of the crew.

At least, in theory.

The work wasn’t a very intensive one. Eight hours of sitting on the captain’s seat (which technically wasn’t the captain’s - whoever was the head of the present bridge shift got to sit there). Occasionally acknowledging reports coming from various sections of the ship. One or two signatures per hour and a comfy seat.

The Echo’s thermal sensors showed every heat source within the system. Even if something did move to intercept, the Echo would have at least twenty-four hours to react. Calmness (with a bit of boredom) was one of the perks of ships being extremely slow on the cosmic scale.

She spent the first three hours of her shift in VR, slowly but surely fighting and negotiating her way through the outermost layer of an incredibly complex dungeon created by Innocent. She was in the middle of dispatching a large crowd of skeleton knights when the message arrived.

She logged out of the game through the emergency off-switch. After checking the data she immediately contacted Captain Keller and Lieutenant Commander Innocent. This was a bit above her competence level.

The Captain arrived first.

“We might have a small problem.” Lena said to him. “I don’t think it’s just an anti-pirate patrol.”

“True.” Captain replied swiftly, his eyes fixed on something displayed on his personal computer. “One battlecruiser, two light cruisers and four destroyers. I could understand the cruisers and destroyers, but who sends a battlecruiser to hunt for pirates? And isn’t that the flagship of the local Navy?”

“Yes.” Lena replied. “RTS Guardian.” The locals lacked the ability to construct anything above light cruisers. The battlecruiser was bought twenty six years ago from the Schwartz Stellar Industries megacorp in exchange for cash and rights to exploit a number of interesting asteroids within the Republic’s territory. Which meant it was relatively modern and an apex predator within the subsector.

The Captain knew that, of course. She wasn’t the only person to check such things in the network. Of course, the Echo was much more technologically advanced. But the Guardian was twice as heavy and had escorts.

And now this group was accelerating to the edge of their inertia dampeners’ capability - on the very same course as the Echo.

“Looks like we’ve pissed off the Hereditary President Johnson a bit more than I estimated.” Keller said, still staring into nowhere. “Did you try to contact them yet?”

“I planned to do that.” She admitted. “But I decided to wait for your arrival. Besides, I can already predict what we’ll hear.” The Captain looked at her for the first time in a while. “We’ll hear that something urgent happened on either Casmotia or Texia, and they just received news on that so they are in a hurry. They will also kindly refuse our proposal to fly there together, citing that this is an internal issue of the Republic of Triana. And then they will pass by us with a much higher speed, enter the Hyperspace and then wait for our arrival there.”

“And then we’ll mysteriously disappear in Hyperspace.” the Captain nodded. “Yeah, that’s my prediction as well. They’ll try to damage and board us, steal any exotech they can find and then they’ll pretend to have captured a pirate ship that destroyed us and claim all the goodies they got as their loot according to the law.” Alexander sighed loudly. “Yunqi is letting the local idiots do whatever they want, doesn’t he?”

She recognized the name. The Rear Admiral in charge of the Guild’s assets within the subsector. She hadn’t had the pleasure to meet him. According to what she read, he was a good administrator and decent tactician, but playing politics seemed to be too hard for him.

“So… can we defeat them?” Lena asked. For as far as she was aware, there was no way for a heavy cruiser to defeat a battlecruiser unless the difference in technology was truly absurd. There was also the escort. But the Echo was equipped with a fair number of exotech systems and these could change a lot. Besides, Keller had a reputation of being a genius tactician.

“Yes.” Keller replied. “But if your question was ‘can we defeat them without sustaining potentially crippling damages and casualties’, the answer would be no.” That more or less confirmed Lena’s fears. “We might be more advanced technology-wise, but that comes into play mostly during the missile duels. They know of that, so they will fight us in Hyperspace, where missiles are useless. We only have a chance of knocking out the battlecruiser by firing from a close distance, so they will use the escorts to ward us off while the Guardian will slowly butcher us without getting close.”

This sounded like a fairly reasonable prediction. The only way to see if the Captain was spot on was to engage in a losing battle. Lena decided to wait for another occasion to see if Keller was as good as in the stories.

“So… combat speed?” If they accelerated further, they could still outrun the Guardian. Their soon-to-be enemy had greater speed (achieved by accelerating with almost 20g to a slightly faster speed than the Echo’s 0,03c), but this could be negated.

“No.” Captain shook his head. “We’ll empty our fuel tanks too much. They’ll arrive in Casmotia a while after us and then quickly tell the local colony to ‘accidentally’ destroy their fuel storage. Save for a precisely measured amount reserved for them. So they will refuel, but we’ll stay there with our tanks half empty. All that we’ll achieve is delaying the combat for one system.” This did, in fact, seem to be a correct prediction of events to Lena.

“Combat speed until Hyperspace, then ambush?” It was part of the exec's job to shower their captain with ideas. Unless the Captain told them to shut up. Since it hadn’t happened yet, Lena continued to act by the book.

“Might be the best option, yes.” Captain nodded. “But we’ll need to be super tricky to get all of the ships with their entire crews. If even one ship escapes, we’ll end up being the ‘pirates’ that suddenly assaulted an innocent task force of the Republican Navy.” Lena sighed.

She wasn’t precisely happy with the prospect of having to execute everyone that survived. Then again, chances of someone surviving their ship being destroyed in Hyperspace were pretty much zero, so there might be no executions.

The Confederation of Mankind’s standards in the human rights department weren’t exactly high, but what was happening in this subsector managed to be significantly below even that. It was a delicious irony for Lena that the only transhuman state (the Techtrian Hierocracy) was the least evil regime in the region.

The Republic of Triana might not be as bad as the Divine Directorate and the Council. Honestly, very few countries Lena ever heard about approached the level of these two places. But it was still a rather horrible place and an evil regime. However, it wasn’t exactly enough for Lena to feel calm and collected about killing more than 1500 crew members of the approaching ships.

Especially not if the Echo was supposed to kill some of them when they were defenseless and defeated. It wasn't Rethan's way. And she treated that seriously.

“Any other ide…” She started, but that’s when Lieutenant Commander Innocent entered the room.

“Hurried Apology but without Actual Regret: I apologize for being late. I was leading a Mass, and I lack the appropriate clearance level to call off the Transubstantiation in the middle of it.” Lena felt an internal pain while hearing that. They were part of a crew of a warship. It might not have been a combat alert, but Innocent’s priorities were obviously rather skewed.

The berserk stood next to them for a few seconds, checking the sensor records. Then he suddenly turned towards them.

“Smug Statement: It is done.”

… what?

***

RTS Guardian - Command Deck

11:25 30.03.2610 STT

Vice Admiral Jonathan Evans

Vice Admiral Evans - the ‘field’ commander of the entire Republican Navy - was never the most loyal supporter of the Hereditary President Johnson. He always saw himself as a person dedicated to the Republic as a whole. He tried to keep away from politics unless he really needed to (it was hard to get a promotion without getting at least a bit political). But he had enough connections to allow him a certain degree of freedom when it came to voicing his opinions.

However there was one opinion that he always kept to himself. The Republic did not tolerate betrayal, and while he didn’t see it as a betrayal, others might. But in his thoughts he could be honest to himself.

Hereditary President David Johnson was an absolute, godsdamned idiot that shouldn’t be left in charge of anything. Making him an unquestioned overlord of fifty-seven million inhabitants of the Republic was a mistake on a cosmic scale. A mistake Viceadmiral Evans would have corrected long ago if not for the fact that eliminating Johnson and his five sons (each of them a miniature copy of himself) at once was almost impossible. And anything less than an instant success would mean a civil war which the Hierocracy or the Divine Directorate would take advantage of.

For now, he had to listen to that parody of a president. Even when his orders were idiotic. Especially then - it could as well be a loyalty test. The Vice Admiral was almost sure that a kill-team of the Republican Security Bureau was conveniently strolling through the street near his house when he had received the mission. A single ‘no’ and his family could receive an unexpected visit.

The President was an idiot. And this sort of thing was something an idiot would do.

Keller was an expert tactician. There was no doubt he already figured out what was happening. Viceadmiral Evans wasn’t sure what that man was plotting. Mostly because he had no idea what the Echo was capable of.

Sending the flagship of the Republican Navy to attack a Guild’s cruiser despite knowing nothing about its exotech armaments was a stupid idea in the Viceadmiral’s opinion. Doing it, because the Security Bureau was ‘insulted’ by Keller seizing an elimination target from them and the Echo’s marines sending ten of its members to hospital changed his opinion, however.

It was no longer a stupid idea. It was now the second most stupid idea in the history of Mankind after the Solar Republic’s assault on the Unity Sector during the Second Great War. Although the Solarians at least had the luxury of not being able to know that the Confederation had moved the jumpgates to low orbit around local stars. So while half a million crewmembers burned alive aboard their ships, they simply didn’t know what was coming.

Hereditary President Johnson knew what was coming. Because Jonathan Evans described the results in detail. But no. Because the battlecruiser is bigger and better armed. Who cares about exotechs, right?

Keller will push the thrusters to their limit and hide in Hyperspace. Then he will welcome us by trying to knock out the battlecruiser with everything he has. And I have no godsdamn clue what he has, so I can’t even prepare accordingly. Johnson you fucking idiot.

His chief of staff stared at him with something resembling a reassuring smile. Her thoughts on the issue were similar to his, though as a normal citizen (rather than an Elite like Evans) her options for voicing this opinion were limited.

She was supporting him. He wasn’t naive enough to trust her, but she knew that she climbed so far only due to Evans. Besides, the ‘tradition’ of Elites using their non-Elite subordinates for their own pleasure was something Evans personally disliked due to its effects on military discipline. He was only going through the motions in public to avoid standing out. If something happened to him, she could end much worse.

If we survive this, I’ll take her for a date. To one of these ‘Only for Elites’ super-expensive restaurants. Let the others stare in shock, I don’t care. If I succeed in this mission they can all kiss my ass.

“They are still not accelerating.” She suddenly interrupted his thoughts. “And you should calm down a bit, sir. The last thing we need right now is you getting a heart attack.” She added, this time in a whispering tone.

He was about to reply that it might actually be for the best, but he bit his tongue. Sure, it would be a decent explanation for calling the operation off, but it wasn’t something he could talk about aloud. Cameras were everywhere.

“That’s what I don’t get.” He said instead. “Keller’s certainly better in this game than me. He should figure out what's happening by now. It’s as if he wants us to fly past them… I’d suspect that he wants to suddenly engage us in Realspace when we’ll be passing by them if it wouldn’t be an incredibly stupid move.”

Triana would then possess a perfect, multi-perspective footage of Keller suddenly murdering a significant part of the Republican Navy. Evans would be dead, and so would be his crew. But the Republic could hope for gargantuan reparations from the Guild. And Keller’s head.

“Well… did you corner him enough to try that?” Her question was rather flattering, if naive.

“No... “ He shook his head. It would be too convenient and nice. “He is plotting something. But I don’t know… “ That’s when all displays, both those presented through his personal computer and those physically existing suddenly went black.

Vicedmiral Evans glanced at the captain of the Guardian - the man who was directly responsible for the ship that was carrying Evans and his staff around.

“Looks like a sensor malfunction. We should get the feed back soon.” The man answered. Evans reminded himself that throwing idiots out of an airlock would only force him to deal with their equally stupid replacements.

It was something that influenced more systems than just sensors - Evans wasn’t a programmer, but this much was obvious to him.

Another idiot promoted through knowing the right people. Sure, I know the right people as well, but I at the very least have results and some skills. Connections were helpful for my promotion rather than the sole reason for them. Ugh, sometimes I seriously start hating my own Navy.

A few seconds later the lights died out, leaving the bridge crew alone in darkness illuminated only by the life support sections that had somehow returned to life.

Then all the other displays lit up again. All of them displayed the same picture of a building with white walls, stained glass in the large windows and a cross adorning the tower. All of it accompanied by a large text.

‘Meet hot, single churches in your vicinity?!’ What the f…

***

EGS Echo - Command Deck

11:30 30.03.2610 STT

Commander Lena Drathari

“You did WHAT?!” Lena had somehow retained her ability to ask rational questions through Innocent’s explanation. The Captain, in the meantime, was on the verge of asphyxiation caused by laughter.

“Repetition of an Answer: I have infected all ships of the Republican Navy that were in the system during our stay with sophisticated computer viruses.” It was amazing how smug Innocent could sound despite speaking in a robotic voice. “Once switched on, they mess up everything other than life support systems. That’s one of my best viruses. They will require at least two days to purge all computer systems, as nothing less will work. Then they will have to do a clean reinstall of absolutely everything. They can do it faster by copying the programs from the escort vessels, but that only counts for the hardware they have in common. Unless their commander is deranged, he will not attack us with his entire heavy artillery completely dead. I estimate that they will require at least three days to repair everything besides their heavier guns, and before that they can’t even decelerate, much less shoot us.”

“Not precisely what I meant.” Lena said while the captain abandoned all pretenses of decorum. He laughed so hard that he lost breath, falling on all fours yet still laughing like a madman. Sometimes he enjoyed exaggerating. For comedy’s sake, as he once told her.

“Smug answer: What can I say? Each age gets the method of evangelism that it deserves.” Innocent replied. “Besides, if there’s something that Triana needs as a country, it’s Jesus Christ.” Lena respectfully disagreed with that, unless "Jesus Christ" was a cryptonim for an orbital bombardment.

“Uhm, Lieutenant Commander?” She decided to ignore the religious bit. “I know this might be a surprise to you, and I’m generally rather happy that we’ve avoided bloodshed, but… you aren’t supposed to do stuff like this. Much less without telling your superiors about it.”

Of course, there still could be bloodshed. Innocent seemed certain that it would work, but they weren’t going to know for a while. He sent an activation signal earlier and it was supposed to reach the ship right around now. But with the light being painfully slow on such distances, they weren’t going to see the results for a while more.

Innocent stood there silently for a few seconds, without answering. Finally, Lena had enough.

“Innocent? What are you doing?” If this confrontation had to happen, it could as well happen right now.

“Answer: I’m currently calculating my survival chances if I’m thrown out of the airlock.” Lena started counting to ten in her thoughts. It always calmed her down. “Additional Answer: I’m also trying to decide if it was worth it.”

Lena started counting to ten again. The Captain in the meantime figured out what was happening and stood up, but didn’t intervene. Instead he was watching things unfold on their own.

“The spread of malicious programs can be considered an act of war.” Lena finally reached ten and answered. “Or, at the very least, a terrorist attack. Making sure that nobody died would at best be a mitigating circumstance.”

“Swift Reply: Triana going to the court is unlikely.” Innocent seemed to be ready for the battle as well. “Clarification: Only the Supreme Tribunal of Mankind has the right to process such a lawsuit. The fact that we were certain that this was an attack together with our response being non-lethal and carrying only marginal damages to their hardware is enough for the Tribunal to judge us not guilty.”

“Yes.” Lena knew enough about international law to know that much. “However it's up to Captain Keller to decide if he’s willing to take the risk. It’s small, yes, but what if the Republic’s faction would take that incident as a good occasion to mess with the Guild and hire some pretty good lawyers?”

The Pact of Steel had extremely good lawyers, despite including nothing but totalitarian regimes who repeatedly trampled on any law and rule they could. Worming their way out of accusations of war crimes, human rights violations and other crimes against Mankind was a daily thing for them.

“Reply: That’s exactly why I didn’t say anything.” Innocent continued to resist. “If something happened, Captain Keller could use the security recordings of Echo as proof that neither he nor you knew what was happening, and that it was all done by me.” Lena didn’t expect things to proceed in this direction.

“Continuation of an Answer: The Church has long ago offered its unconditional legal, political and even military support for anyone that launches any sort of attack or an act of sabotage against the Pact of Steel and its associates, for as long as population centers aren’t the target.” Innocent said. “Even if I would be branded an international terrorist, it would all be seen as a Church-sanctioned operation. And it doesn’t care for one more fine, as it has simply refused to pay them for one hundred and eighty six years since its inception, for as long as the recipient would be the Pact of Steel or any of its clients and associates. As a result, the Echo and its crew would not be punished. In fact, if the Church suspected that any of you knew about the attack and let it happen, it would probably reward you in secret.”

As much as I love seeing people from the Pact or any other disgusting piece of shit faction dying or generally being troubled as hell - for as long as they wear uniforms, that is - this just can’t stand.

Lena was about to voice her opinion - but the Captain spoke first.

“Innocent.” The robot turned to face him. “We had this talk already. I’m all for making life harder for people who deserve it. I really do, especially as we have too many of them in the Confederation. You saw my opinion on them up close during our trip to Plesja.“ Lena could scarcely believe the ‘our’ trip part.

They send him there!? Well, if both Keller and Innocent landed on the surface of any world of the Divine Directorate, I think I can understand why the Echo is on their shoot-on-sight list. I wonder if they kept a recording anywhere? It should be fun to watch.

“But please, remember that you are currently on a break from the Society.” Keller continued, leaving Lena wondering what sort of ‘society’ he was talking about. “For now, you are part of the Explorers’ Guild. So please, act more like a member of it. At the very least, let me know next time what you are planning! If it’s something as hilarious as this, there’s no way I wouldn’t approve it!” Lena made a tortured sigh, though in her mind only. “So you’re banned from doing anything to anyone outside of this ship without approval of me or Commander Drathari.”

The last minute of this talk is such a rollercoaster of feelings.

Innocent’s face suddenly displayed a picture of a rather adorable puppy. Then the picture started slowly closing in on the puppy’s equally adorable eyes.

“A no is a no, Innocent.” Captain sighed. “No more terrorist attacks without my approval, even if the victims have it coming.”

There goes my dream of working in a disciplined and professional atmosphere.