Chapter 008: Overload

The Solar Commonwealth was the first and last country to successfully unify the entirety of Mankind. It was created through the Second Treaty of Deimos in 2160, and officially collapsed in 2335 (however some regions and armed groups still considered themselves part of it until approximately 2350).

Its history is divided into two phases. The first one is sometimes considered to be the golden age of Mankind, during which the Commonwealth grew from a single star system to more than a thousand. Finally realizing Mankind’s dream of interstellar dominion. Then, however, the War of Purity happened. And after it, the collapse had begun.

The economic and demographic fallout of the War of Purity caused a decades-long period of financial turmoil, only worsened by rampant criminal activity and a plague of mental disorders and drug abuse brought by the horrors of the war. The Commonwealth's government failed to tackle these issues due to political strife, financial debt, Discord raids and the rise of numerous extremist groups.

The result of the crisis of democracy was its collapse. The Commonwealth’s Armed Forces stepped in to restore order. However, the autocratic reign of the military dictators had merely postponed the inevitable, exchanging legislative gridlocks for succession wars. The Commonwealth finally collapsed when the Third Succession War ended with the defeat of all of its participants.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 5, page 874

***

EGS Echo - Crew Deck

10:43 05.04.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

“So, what’s your impression after the first few days of service aboard the Echo?” Ryan asked, not interrupting his vigorous petting of Sir Patches for even a second. He didn’t even glance at Christopher, almost wholly invested in his untamed hedonism. Sir Patches - who nested on Ryan’s lap with that in mind - seemed absolutely ok with this.

Ryan was still slightly pale. The discovery that ships needed to decelerate all the way to zero before entering Hyperspace was a devastating blow. Deceleration was acceleration but in reverse - which meant twenty more hours of tormenting spacesickness.

Christopher had to admit that his second acceleration felt slightly less miserable than the first one. A sign of his body adapting to it. Ryan was knocked out cold just as bad as the first time.

“Mmmm... “ Christopher felt content sitting on the couch, with his back and head resting on the seatback. He felt exhausted. Chief Tiaa’s lessons were one thing - they were quite harsh, yet nothing he couldn’t handle. However, after a few days of instructing him on the more mundane matters of his duties, she abruptly concluded that he needed to bulk up a bit and directed him to train his stamina and strength with the Echo’s marine detachment.

The entire marine gym was oozing with testosterone and concentrated manliness. Prolonged training was an excellent way of contracting an inferiority complex unless you were a two meter high body-builder. At least nobody was making fun of him, and some of them even dropped some useful tips (which was probably responsible for his current exhaustion).

“It’s ok, I guess.” Christopher finally answered. “It’s draining, and I need to learn a lot, but it’s both interesting and, in some weirdly masochistic way, entertaining.” It was easy enough to say that after twenty hours of spacesickness. He almost forgot all the terrors of the physical training, because of it. “So, it’s today?”

“Yes. First Hyperspace travel.” Ryan answered with a worried look on his face. “They claim that all will be ok, but... “

The very fact that everyone seemed eager to reassure them that everything would be ok made the whole event look ominous. Especially as they embraced the tactic of ‘sure, from time to time something bad happens, but it’s really, really rare’. A terrible choice for reassurance.

It sounded like the real world was overly realistic in its approach to trans-dimensional FTL travel. ‘Realistic’ as in ‘flying through another dimension isn’t a walk in the park’. For some reason, all non-essential personnel were to retire to their quarters for the time of the Hyperspace entry. This included the entire Recovery Team 8.

“For the past few days all we hear is ‘it’s ok’, ‘it’s not a problem’, ‘it will be alright’. Time to get those claims verified.” Ryan nodded in return, and concentrated on petting Patches.

Christopher was envious of Patches. Not due to the petting part, but because the cat had its own small isolation box where he spent time during the acceleration period. It apparently stabilized the inertia dampening fluctuations, making him spend this accursed time in comfort.

Nekia entered the room, coming out of the quarters’ door. She looked horrible. Even worse than Chief Tiaa before her morning dose of caffeine. At times like this, it was really easy to see that the two of them were related.

She was wearing a highly conservative set of pajamas, adorned with copious amounts of adorable kittens. It was hard for Christopher and Ryan to not start laughing. It was both absolutely cute and totally out of place on a warship.

“Awful night?” Christopher asked once he regained his composure.

“Ho... “ She yawned. “...rrible. Entering Hyperspace while asleep always gives me dreadful nightmares, so I’m trying to…“ Another loud yawn. ”… make it awake. But I forgot about it and surfed the shipnet a moment too long.” She walked towards the entrance of the kitchen (for either a dose of coffee or some future equivalent of energy drinks), but miscalculated her route. She ended up walking into the wall, about ten centimeters to the left of her destination.

This culminated in a loud ‘Ouch!’ and a catgirl landing with her butt on the floor. Christopher resolved himself to be a gentleman - if only because he was arriving at the limits of his willpower, and he wanted to avoid bursting into laughter. He stood up and gently led Nekia (who was busy rubbing her eyes to regain her sight, still fogged with slumber) back to the couch.

“Lie down before you bump into something explosive.” He had no idea if they had something explosive in the kitchen, but he had heard enough tales about Nekia’s ‘accomplishments’ to not be in a mood for risk-taking. “Take a nap, I’ll wake you up right before we enter Hyperspace.”

Until this moment, neither Christopher nor Ryan had found out what Tendrik had meant when he mentioned that cathumans had issues with personal space - the closest to it was when Nekia sat really close to Christopher, in VR. Their lack of experience changed at this very moment, as Nekia (half-consciously) decided that Christopher’s lap was an appropriate place for a nap. Without asking him if he was ok with it.

“Err…” He was dumbstruck. He had no idea what to do. Should he push her off? Or maybe wait until she decided her position (with her head and limbs beneath her chest, which was resting on his legs) was uncomfortable and got off on her own?

What if it was comfortable? He had no idea how much her spine differed from his own.

There was also one more option. Such an opportunity didn’t present itself often. And if something awful happened, he could always play that as reprisal for her sudden violation of his private space.

His right hand moved, lying down on her head. When she didn’t seem to react, he pet her head, offering some additional attention to her cat ears.

To his undying amazement, she rewarded him with a quiet (but rising in volume) purr. She also started adjusting her body to better position her head for the petting. The look of dreamy bliss on her face made the entire experience even more rewarding.

There was also the tail. But Christopher wasn’t going to go that far, even if he was slightly fascinated by its relaxed movements.

Christopher glanced at the purring cat on Ryan’s lap, then on the one he was busy petting. Then he sighed.

If only these scientists had spent half the time they did on refining a human-cat hybrid on uncovering the reason almost everyone around me is crazy! Or on making Mankind resistant to spacesickness. Then again… this is almost equally great.

He continued petting her, trying not to notice the wry smile on Ryan’s face. Unfortunately, the conscious attempt to limit contact with reality had its negative side effects, as he also failed to notice Ryan’s attempts to warn him.

“Having fun?” A sudden voice coming from right behind him startled him. He looked up to see Tiriel in her skinsuit looking down at him, with a mocking look on her face. Nekia must have consumed much more of his attention than he thought, as he didn’t notice Tiriel’s approach.

“Oh, you’re back from work!” The look didn’t change. “Uhm, ok, so… yes, in a sense this is fun.” The look remained unchanged. “Ok, ok, I’m finishing it now! Don’t stare at me like that, it’s scary.“

“Excellent. While I can perceive why you are doing this, I require you to understand that indulging in your hedonistic pleasures makes it much harder for me to train Nekia out of her bad habits.” She replied. The subtle mockery on her face was replaced by a very stern look.

If I wasn’t afraid she would throw me out of the airlock, I’d make a joke about how this would sound much better if she wore some leathers and had a whip in her hand.

“Fine, fine. Nekia, wake up.” She didn’t react. “Nekia, wake up. Now.” Still nothing, save for the purring getting quieter.

“Let me try.” Tiriel said, and kneeled in front of them, leaning towards Nekia’s ear. When she got close enough, she spoke one word. “Neekiaaa.” It was like magic. Nekia jumped up and back simultaneously, retreating to the far edge of the couch, completely conscious though startled by the sudden awakening.

“Wh… what happened?” The catgirl said, her eyes jumping around the people in front of her.

Seriously, what sort of ‘training’ is Tiriel giving her?!

“You invaded someone’s private space, without requesting their approval first. Again. Because she didn’t ask you, right?” She asked Christopher, who answered with a nod. Normally, he would have sought to reign Tiriel in, as what Nekia did wasn’t a hideous crime. Hell, he would probably agree to it if she asked him - the discovery of how it feels to pet a catgirl’s head was crucial research for the sci-fi book he was going to write after returning to his times.

However, he didn’t feel like meddling with Tiriel’s attempts to teach Nekia how to live in non-cathuman society. Especially as it was Chief Tiaa who requested it to happen. Headpats could wait until Nekia got the hang on the whole ‘society’ thing.

As Tiriel began carrying yet another training talk with Nekia, Christopher did his finest to switch off his hearing. He failed, as another person appeared, ready to challenge the tranquility of the quarters.

“They are at it again?” Now it was Tendrik who seemingly materialized out of thin air. “What did Nekia do?”

“Let’s just say Ryan wasn’t the only human with a cat on his lap.” Christopher replied, trying to be as neutral in tone as possible.

“And that Ryan would gladly exchange the cats.” Ryan decided to add, winking towards Tendrik.

Tendrik answered with a thoughtful nod, followed by a mischievous smile. “So… how was it?”

Christopher shook his head. He wasn’t going to admit that petting his de facto subordinate’s head was highly pleasant and made him lose all contact with reality. Tendrik would make fun of it for weeks.

“Could we talk about something else, please?” He said instead. Tendrik nodded.

“Sure!” Of course, it wasn’t the entire answer. “Do you want to hear some urban legends about spooky things in Hyperspace?”

Darn it, Tendrik.

“Tendrik.” Tiriel reacted before Christopher could. “This is a horrible thing to talk about with people about to make their first visit to Hyperspace. Have some sensitivity, please.” It seemed that the feud between Tiriel and Tendrik had no intention of dying out.

“Oh, oooohhh…” This time Tiriel’s spear struck a weakspot. “I vow on the First Programmer’s name, Hyperspace travel is a routine business. Sure, the first entry can be a bit… turbulent, but we all went through that, and as you can see, we’re fine!”

An alarming thought suddenly gripped Christopher’s mind. What if the fact that all of them (save for himself and Ryan) were weird was because of Hyperspace? What if he would become weird too? Or maybe as the only normal people aboard they already were weird?

“I am adding ‘Tendrik is forbidden from reassuring people’ to the list of regulations Christopher should introduce.” Tiriel said loudly, interrupting them.

“Christopher, and Ryan, take notice of what I am about to say.” The elf continued. “Hyperspace travel is not something scary. Most people’s reaction to it can be summed up as disorientation and stomach upheaval. And not as getting spirited away by mysterious shadow people living in the ship’s Hyperspace Drive. You went through the spacesickness, and that’s worse than what you are about to go through.”

“It’s still a super-mysterious place!” Tendrik said. “It has its own weather patterns which might influence your behavior, and if you look at it with your naked eye or spend too much time inside it, you will go irreversibly insane! Besides…” The cyborg suddenly went silent as he noticed the look Tiriel was giving him.

Suddenly a countdown popped up on Christopher’s UI, counting down from 5 to 1. He was actually happy that he didn’t have more than five seconds to freak out. But when the countdown reached zero, a pain exploded in his chest. He fell to the ground as darkness swallowed everything. The last thing he saw was Ryan, slumping down from the chair, his hands on his chest.

***

EGS Echo - Command Deck

21:05 05.04.2610 STT

Commander Lena Drathari

An executive officer can rarely afford to turn an invitation down - even when it comes from the crew, it’s a good idea to respond favourably. It really helps morale when the crew likes their officers. Of course, when the one inviting is the captain himself, it’s no longer an invitation but an order pretending to be something else.

She found him in the briefing room. The current shift was headed by Lieutenant Commander Innocent, so both of them had some free time. She had no idea why he was in a place such as this, reading a printed book of all things.

“Captain Keller.” She said officially. “You wanted to see me.”

“I’d like to say ‘at ease’ and remind you that we are off duty right now.” Keller put the book down and pointed towards the chair on the other side of the table. “But that’s pretty much the core of our current problems, isn’t it?”

She bit her lip. It was going to be that talk.

“Lena.” He said. She wasn’t used to ship captains referring to her by name. “I understand your problem and the source of it. The crew of this ship isn’t exactly what comes to mind when you say ‘discipline’, hmmm?”

She nodded. Scarcely.

“And I also do understand that you Rethanis aren’t exactly, how should I put it, flexible.” He continued. She swiftly subdued the desire to punch him in the face. He was correct, after all. “And if you were angry about it, I’d let it slide. Instead, however, you went passive, which is worse than being angry, as it tends to indicate that someone gave up.”

“I didn’t give up on anything.” Lena decided to correct him. He was off the mark on this one. “I’m doing my job. And what I’m doing off duty is up to me to decide.”

Captain sighed. Loudly.

“Lena, I understand that, as a follower of a religion that’s so focused on the concepts of duty and responsibility, you might have problems with adapting to such a radically unorthodox crew.” Alexander said. “If you call it ‘religion’, you know that’s rather debatable in this case.”

She nodded. She knew what he meant.

“Naturally, I got to read your dossier.” He continued. “Your government sent it to the Guild when they decided to second you to it… oh, my bad, you volunteered.” It seemed like it was a journalist secret that Lena’s ‘voluntary decision’ to join the Guild wasn’t really her own.

“Let’s just say that I didn’t resist the decision, despite being able to.” She replied calmly. There was no use in pretending. Especially as she was never very much into that and had long ago decided that if someone asked her about it openly, she'd admit to everything. Honesty was a virtue.

“Fair enough.” Captain nodded. “I’m well aware that you prefer things done by the book and feel at home in a regular military. By the way, it never ceases to amaze me that a VRMMO-guild-turned-country has a military that is so disciplined and orderly.”

“Roleplaying can easily change into a lifestyle when you’re rewarded for it.” She replied. These words could as well be her country’s motto.

She really couldn’t wait until he got to the point.

“I initially wanted to refuse the offer to take you in, you know?” She didn’t know. Nor did she expect to hear it. “Not due to you being a transhuman, mind you. I get where Lith takes his ferocious anti-transhumanism from, and I honestly think looking like you do is a bit of a stretch.” That was the point. A reminder for herself. “However I do not share the sentiment. It was due to my fears that you wouldn’t fit in.”

“Thus far, well grounded fears.” She replied. Sure, it was merely a week. But it started to become an obvious problem.

“Well, yes.” He agreed. “But, you know, I still need to tell you why I changed my mind.”

She was actually curious about that herself.

“Lena.” He looked at her, more serious than ever before. “You have your heart in the right place. If you have it, but let’s skip the useless anatomy jokes.” Lena decided that Keller was simply pathologically unable to speak straight for more than two or three sentences. “You were an excellent officer in the Navy. Most of the Guild’s captains would have capitalized on that. But I don’t really see the point - you are already good enough. However you can’t play by the book in this line of work. Because we are the guys responsible for writing the books.”

“I thought… I thought that it was mostly derelict pillaging, search and rescue, archeological work and chasing pirates.” She replied. That’s what the Guild was doing, everyone knew that. “I get that there might be unexpected things, but…”

“You thought wrong.” He interrupted her, with a stern face. “The talks about cult-like structure and initiation levels? All of that’s true. When I look at you, I see someone who can get really high in the Guild. Not higher than myself, of course. There are no higher levels than mine, though if there were, I’d probably not be informed about them.” He chuckled. There was a joke in all that, a joke she wasn’t sure where to look for. “Stay vigilant, diligent, and curious about everything. You’re an avid fan of fantasy VRMMOs, so I don’t need to remind you what happens when a sword is too strong and unbending, right?”

“Yes. It breaks.” It was one of those common knowledge things every fantasy MMO had to mention at least once when people were learning the basics of smithing. “Ok, I’ll play ball. What do you expect from me? Just please, speak openly. I’m not really in the right mind to hear some oriental mentor talk.”

He laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not one to use strange parables and weird metaphors.” Keller said once he had calmed down. “You can start by not being angry at the antics that Innocent pulls while working. I’m not expecting you to join him, and I do expect you to rein him in if he goes too far.”

“This… is asking for a lot.” He nodded.

“I know. But you see, when you look at him, you see either a priest, a programmer or a tactical officer.” It sounded like a good summary of Innocent according to Lena. “What you do not remember about him is that he is also the ship’s psychologist. He is the person responsible for the mental well-being of every member of the crew. His antics? He is doing his best to keep everyone happy. Because trust me, when you end up having to spend a year or more in the wilderness, VR games and other entertainments just aren’t enough.”

“So… he is just entertaining people?” Sure, it was hard to say what Innocent really thought. The lack of a face did that to people. But it was hard to imagine it was simply a job to him.

“Hell no.” the Captain laughed. “It’s more like a deep-seated need to make everyone around him happy and relaxed. Work is just a pretext, he would do the same thing even if I hadn’t made him the ship’s psychologist. For a robot, that’s some extraordinary empathy. Unless you are from Discord, the Pact of Steel, and so on. Then you get to see the scary side of him.” That she managed to figure out from the recent incident. “Even if you exclude his antics, he is still an incredibly talented ‘normal’ psychologist, mind you.”

“I… see.” Lena wasn’t convinced.

“His shenanigans really draw attention, don’t they?” She replied with a scarce nod. “You should have seen him at his peak. I once entered the bridge only to run into him practising together with his Christian metal band. Its name was something like ‘Drum, Bass & Mass’.” He immediately inferred from her face that this wasn’t the best way to approach the issue.

“The point is…” He was obviously trying to salvage the talk. “... try to be slightly more flexible. Be as attentive to details and dutiful as you are right now, because that’s what execs and captains are all about. But try to understand that our other officers are eccentric, but also competent. If we ever run into a crisis, you’ll see that they are even hypercompetent, in fact. They also know much more than you about the Guild’s secret, though this is something that will start to change during this trip.”

“‘They’?” It was something hard to believe in. “Even Innocent and Athalia?”

“Especially Innocent and Athalia.” He replied dead serious. “It’s rare to find dull people among those really knowledgeable. The borderlands tend to make people either eccentric or crazy. Occasionally also either fanatic or broken. Or any combination thereof.”

“So, in short: Be more flexible, stay dutiful, don’t get discouraged over people acting strange, and try to rein them in when they go too far off the edge.” Lena summarized. She would need some time to get over Captain’s revelation about the two strangest people aboard.

The Captain replied with a nod.

“Figuring out the exact balance between seriousness and understanding of people’s personal character quirks is going to be key.” He decided to continue. “Of course, that depends entirely on whether your curiosity for the unknown triumphs over your dedication to your nation. If you decide you have enough, I’m pretty sure that I can arrange some unexpected accident which will make you return to your Navy, with everything suggesting that your career in the Guild fell victim to anti-transhumanism. And not to your own decision. That should sell well with your superiors, hmm?”

“I think you are underestimating my dedication to the doctrine of Rethan.” She replied. He had made her angry. It would be a betrayal of everything she held dear.

“Quite the opposite, Lena.” He looked at her without batting an eye. “That’s why I’m completely sure that you are going to do your best to fit in, for both your country and the crew who relies on you. All I’m doing is offering you an alternative to cushion your fall.”

Is he testing me? Or is he purposefully making it feel like some character test to make me try my best? But he is right in one place. Sulking and doing only what’s absolutely necessary was a dereliction of my duty towards the crew.

It was shocking to see herself cornered like this- And so easily at that. It’s not what she had expected from the Captain. His character seemed to have some layers she hadn’t noticed yet. Then again, she had only been aboard for a week. Enough to get a rough gist of someone’s character, but not enough to actually know someone.

“Very well.” She had to surrender. He had cornered her too much. Appealing to the central pillar of what she was, was almost an overkill. “I promise I’ll do my best to fit in. And rein your officers a bit without sending them to the corner or forcing them to wear a dunce hat.”

“Awesome!” He nodded with a wide smile. “Because, between the two of us, I’m almost sure this is going to be an interesting trip. I’m going to need you. We are all going to need you.”

“Oh?” That sounded strangely melodramatic. And she had no idea where it was coming from. Was Keller into hypermancy? The superstitions about being able to somehow read future events from the Hyperspace remained alive among various spacers. And the accident with those two recruits during the entrance could count as a good - or bad - omen, if she remembered that stupidity correctly.

Wait, recruits?

“Is it about that guy from the past?” She didn’t believe it when she heard about it for the first time. But after a week of the Captain being adamant, she was on the verge of believing. Unless it was just a long and elaborate prank, which was still a possibility.

“Yes.” He replied with a nod. “Still unconscious and in Athalia’s little realm. The same with his companion. I believe that coincidences exist in the wild. But I also believe people greatly exaggerate how common they are.” He chuckled. “I actually think that, when they wake up, you might have your first contact with some of the things that officially don't exist.”