Chapter 030: Feelings

Missile Weapons (MWs) are the second (after the artillery, either MAW, EW or SRW) part of the standard shipbound weaponry. Like MAWs, they use solid rounds, though the difference is that the MWs rounds possess independent propulsion and are capable of following their targets.

This means that they excel in long-distance engagements. The maximum range of artillery is defined by two things - the fact that ship sensors are limited to lightspeed and the round travelling speed (which is why EWs are typically much more precise and have longer effective range than the MAWs, as they fire with light speed as well).

Missiles can be fired from a much larger distance,possibly from light hours away if the target is stationary. They will be launched with an initial velocity, not using their fuel storage until they get close, when they will activate their propulsion to accelerate and correct their course before the attack. Against targets that can change their course to avoid contact with propulsion-less missiles, the effective combat range ranges from ten to twenty million kilometres.

Missiles are decimated during the last stages of their approach by the enemy defenses. Due to that, most of them are armed with warheads capable of causing damage from a distance of dozens or hundreds of thousands of kilometres. The cost of an increased chance of a hit is that the indirect offensive warheads are rarely lethal, though it’s a good method of softening the enemy before artillery engagement.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 9, Page 572

***

EGS Echo, Crew Deck

06:35 17.07.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

“Well, on Techtria the whole thing is rather well organized.” Tendrik replied, while repositioning his tank brigade. “You sign up for procreation duty. You get assigned a person of the opposite gender whose tastes align with yours. Then you live together until your child becomes an adult.”

“This sounds like someone is trying to breed robots.” Christopher immediately decided that it was an atrocious way of social organization. Not as bad as what Plesja had in place, but still. His opinion of Techtria fell a bit - was it possible that Triana was actually the least horrible of all the horrible dystopias of the subsector?

Tendrik shrugged in answer. He was probably used to that. Christopher decided that he had to be really lonely, despite his generally cheerful exterior. He didn’t think that the cyborg signed up for that duty, which meant he was totally alone, the one and only person with a sense of humour on his planet. And he was aboard the Echo, with a crew that might have been more tolerant towards his kind than the galactic average, but probably not to the point of entering a relationship with him.

A quick skirmish with the PGC’s recon team later, Christopher decided to step on the landmine.

“Okay, so I’m almost scared of finding out, but… Rukh?” The wolfman raised his head and looked at Christopher questioningly. Probably. “How does it work in your world?”

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

Christopher decided that if the angels prove unable to bring him back to his time, he will use his wish on having the entire subsector occupied by the Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy. Or the Equality Front. Even the Res Publica Christiana was fine, he actually looked forward to its crusade hitting the Divine Directorate of Plesja and the Numenian Council. That’s something that he would gladly observe with some popcorn in hand.

“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 while.”

A wonderful place to live. A world where ‘might makes right’ is the only law, and the entire planet is kept under a permanent state of civil war between warlords, where becoming a child soldier was considered akin to joining a grade school on normal worlds. With the most successful warlords and their pretorians lifted off-world, to join even greater wars.

Even if the civil war was engineered to have some ‘rules’ in order to prohibit damages to valuable infrastructure (mostly factories staffed by locally-taken slaves), this had to be one of the most dysfunctional ideas for a society that Christopher ever heard about.

He had recently tried to read about countries in other subsectors. It was an unbelievable rollercoaster of hatred and disappointment. Sure, there were good guys. But they were prone to getting swarmed by their neighbours who wanted to make sure that they won’t use their less-dysfunctional government perks to conquer the subsector.

“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?”

He was knowledgeable enough to know that compliments right at the start didn’t work on any girl. Tiriel, certainly, wouldn’t be influenced. He just wanted to find out how bad it was.

“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 a comment would spook every woman who isn’t a Mechanist? Maybe save for some hardline cybernetic transformationist.” He had absolutely no clue what the difference was. For him transformationism was just transhumanism, but without the stigma. “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 relationship composed of programming, playing computer games and some romantic tête-à-tête in Artificial Reality would be ok, too. But the ship’s AIs are only 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.” The 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.” The Cyborg facepalmed.

“Now, Rukh.” Chritopher turned towards the wolfman. “This sort of compliment will certainly not work on anyone outside of Numena. I hope you are aware of that. Can’t you visit the 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. Unless it was going to be a shotgun wedding?

“All claimed.” Rukh answered. The troop placement and their preparations were almost done, the PGC’s infantry division in the fortified valley had no idea what was coming to them.

“What? By whom?” Christopher decided to not inquire on how Rukh knew 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 extended 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.” Strangely erudite for Rukh.

“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 Trianan 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 and connections. Techtria has industry and machine precision. Triana 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 the 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!

Orders were issued. The battle started. Christopher was the author of the general strategy, but he issued general combat plans in the game, to avoid it messing up with their talk. Tanks and mechanized infantry moved forward.

“How about we change the subject?” Christopher suggested. He had to talk about something else. This talk was a mess.

“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.

“Rukh? Do you have someone you like one-sidedly?” Tendrik decided to inquire further, as neither of his companions answered him for a short while. In the game, the tides of the battle were turning in their favour.

“Colonel 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?” 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.

“She is fifty-seven.” Rukh announced, with a look on his face clearly stating that he has no idea what it was about. “Visegradians are further from two-zeroes than me. Together with the longevity treatment, she’ll stay fertile for at least a decade, if not more. 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?”

They cornered him. Not even intentionally. Both of them talked about it, even if against Christopher’s wishes. Was he in a position to say no?

“Well, to begin with, absolutely everyone in the 27th Century looks great to me.” Christopher started. “And I like almost all the people I’ve 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. Why couldn’t they offer it to him when he was trying to remind Tendrik of communication protocol or Rukh that he lives in society was beyond him.

“Let’s start with Nekia.” He said. Since she was a bit of a… controversial subject. “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, the 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?”

He omitted the part about her being in love with him. A small part of him hoped that one of them would straighten themselves up and get into a relationship with her. Freeing him of the unwanted attention.

“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.” Primarily because she felt like an unassailable fortress on every field, including this one. “I don’t know many people outside of our team other than her, so let’s focus on our teammates.” They nodded.

Why are they so attentive on such a dumb subject but ignore me on the really important ones?!

“Kivanna’d be the hardest choice.” He continued. “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.

Christopher had no idea how Innocent had Kivanna convert right after being rescued from that hell. On the other hand, if he did what Christopher suspected - namely, torn the people responsible for the horror that her life was limb from limb - then it certainly worked as a compelling theological argument.

“And Tiriel?” Tendrik urged Christopher. He refused to just give up.

“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 is anyone’s guess.”

Christopher wasn’t going to admit that publically, but this lack of knowledge was in a way exciting, especially in tandem with her occasionally impish behaviour and always absolutely modest clothes. She was showing absolutely nothing, so trying to fill this gap with your imagination was a fairly natural reaction.

“Err… are you sure you shouldn’t be searching for a girlfriend?” Tendrik commented when Christopher ended his lecture. Rukh supported the cyborg with yet another scarce nod. “You sound like you’re in need of one.” True words, but Christopher stuck to the principles.

“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 my 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 anime and manga today? Wait… no way. Are they STILL making isekai harem stories even after six centuries?! What a hellish world to wake in.

“First, I want to go back to my times.” Christopher stated this quickly, hoping to not have to explain it again. “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.

“Yeah, also my history of relationships of that type is also a history of general and total failure.” He really didn’t want to get into details of that mess. “I consider this trip into the future as a way to find myself and perhaps become someone reliable. Then I might think about actually having a relationship. Since I never really get to that stage. But by the time I achieve that, I’ll be back in the 21st Century.”

He could only be happy that Tiriel was away from the quarters. If she heard him talking about not being reliable, she would probably nag him about it for hours.

“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, taking advantage of the relatively brief time of no acceleration to stretch his little legs a bit.

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.

“Talking about relationships.” Tendrik said, before Christopher could figure out some sort of white lie to get the car out of the collision course. “Coincidentally, do you have a boyfriend?”

Dancing on minefields seemed to be a popular pastime aboard the Echo.

“Rererelationships?” Nekia suddenly blushed red. “Boy… boyfriend. Uhm.” Process Nekia.exe seemed to have malfunctioned catastrophically. She quickly uttered some intelligible explanations and disappeared in the corridor leading to the bedrooms. Patches stared at the boys with the contempt that all cats secretly had for their two-legged slaves before following her.

“Congratulations, Tendrik.” Christopher said to the dumbfounded cyborg. He said it exactly as sarcastically as possible. “You had to do that, didn’t you?”

The battle ended with their victory, but everyone seemed to have forgotten about it.

“What do you mean?” Tendrik asked, still surprised.

“You two have to be the only people in this team who are yet to notice, aren’t you?” Christopher shook his head. “She fell for me. Reaaaal hard. And now you casually, and with me around, asked her if she has a boyfriend.” Realization dawned on the cyborg’s face.

“Oh… oopsie?” Tendrik said, but Christopher stared him down. “Dude, why don’t you just ask her out? That has to be the easiest way for you to get a girlfriend.”

“He is right.” Rukh added. “Just go and claim her.” Rukh was certainly the last person to give anyone love tips.

“Brilliant idea.” Christopher decided to be even more sarcastic in hopes that it would finally reach them. “Let’s go and club Nekia in the head, then take her to my bedroom. How long would it take for Tiaa to club me in revenge, I wonder?”

“Well, it’s a win too?” Rukh asked, clearly puzzled by Christopher’s reaction. “Her mother is strong and beautiful.” Christopher’s boat was sunk by a torpedo of Numenian culture. Yes, from its point of view it did count as a win. If you were into being dominated by strong women.

He could only be happy that Rukh didn’t try to establish a relationship with any crew member of the Echo with the Numenian style of seduction. If Christopher’s subordinate had legal problems, he wouldn’t be able to avoid becoming a part of it.

Christopher suspected that someone had a serious talk with Rukh about trying to find girlfriends aboard the Echo, and the importance of the other side's consent for the duel (while being aware of what it means according to Rukh’s culture).

“You are… absolutely hopeless.” Christopher conceded defeat. “This is a mess on the scale that even Tiriel would lose against. And I’m much less knowledgeable in that field than I’d like to. You guys need help. Professional help. Or just some really understanding women.”

He considered asking Ryan to show them the ropes, but he was terrified that he would be too successful in this. If all other male members of the team were so successful with women, how long would he remain stalwart in his resolution to avoid relationships and return home? He didn’t want to have to choose between family and love.

“Also I’m not going to go anywhere with her.” He added, but less loudly. Just in case she was listening. “She is cute, but seriously not my type. In a few years, maybe. Now? Nope. And I hope to be back in my time in a few years.”

Returning within a few years was the most optimistic scenario. After all, just how long could his ‘mission’ actually be? On the other hand, he was here for more than three months and he had only a very rough gist of what sort of mission he had. The angels were rather scarce in the details.

“I think that you’re missing a lot.” Despite Christopher’s best effort, Tendrik just refused to give up. “But I kinda get what you mean. She is a bit… young.”

Nekia was something like twenty-three years old. But longevity treatment sometimes kicked in with a different speed. In his opinion she was biologically fifteen or sixteen years old. He had no idea how much Tiaa paid for eighteen development years being written into her file (a basic necessity to join the Explorers’ Guild), but it was money well spent.

Besides, it was apparent to him that the entire ‘development years’ was pretty much akin to reading tea leaves. So it could even be a mistake on the doctor's part, but he had problems believing in that.

Christopher would have been ready to ignore that (if he ever decided to settle in the future after all), as she was in all ways ‘legal’. But her behaviour was a bit too much for him to handle. Petting her head was one thing, preparing to spend his life with her was another thing altogether.

She simply wasn’t ready for that. And going for a one night’s stand would be a perfect way of messing her future up.

“I still think that you should just claim her.” Rukh added. Christopher wished he would just stay silent in the background instead. “But it’s your choice. Do we play another game?”

And that was a very good question.