Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Williams stepped out of the meeting and sighed. Things had not gone so well. The meeting had been about the alien prisoner they had picked up. Williams knew they couldn’t really afford to keep prisoners, yet not one of her suggestions had been taken seriously. It irked her to no end how little she was listened to. Sure it was only one prisoner, but what if they took more? Every additional person was another mouth to feed, another strain on their resources. There was a limit on how many people their resources could support.

Sure the life support was regenerative but it could only clean so much air at a given time. In addition, while they had a hydroponics bay, it took time to grow food, and there was a limit to how much could be grown at a given time. Those resources in her opinion should be reserved for humans and humans alone. The Cathamari were proof that aliens couldn’t be trusted. In her opinion, they should have crushed the uppity Valorian fleet without mercy. Not let them go, and certainly not take prisoners. Not that anyone listened

This had been the final meeting before the trial. In other words, this was the meeting where they officially decided her fate. That girl wouldn’t be informed until the trial. The meeting had been interesting, even if it had gone all wrong. The young Valorian woman Sali was difficult to classify given the total lack of prior relations, the lack of any formal treaties between their two races, or even a formal state of war. She was however a captured combatant, who had attempted to detonate her fighter in the hanger bay. There had been a lot of debate on what to do with her, and what was the appropriate actions in regards to the poor girl. What they did, in the end, didn’t sit right with Williams. Of course, the entire question was a difficult one to answer from both moral and practical perspectives.

She pushed the matter aside for now. Williams figured she would correct their errors on this later, once she had fixed the whole matter about that machine being in command. This whole incident was just one more item in her mind in a long list of reasons why that thing should never have been allowed command. Not that anyone was listening. She would punish them for that failure. In the meantime, her big problem was actually getting command. Something that was increasingly becoming apparent that she would have to outright seize from that machine. At the moment she was not even close to ready for that. It would take time for the pieces to fall in place for her mutiny. At the moment, her hand was rather empty she needed more cards if she was to stand a chance.

Countryman stepped off the lift. While the meeting for Sali’s fate was over now, he still had a rather busy schedule. Which is why he was now down here on the lower decks. Not to see Sali quite yet, but rather for two other reasons. Both of which could be done at the same location. He needed to check up on the ship’s factories and see how progress was going with the Erudite enhanced plating production run. The Erudite-enhanced plating was not all that different from the normal plates. The main difference was that erudite had been added to the Titan alloy they normally use. In the optimized mix, they maintained all of the elements already in titan alloy with the same amounts and ratios to each other. They ended up adding ten point four six seven percent by weight Erudite to the alloy. The result was an even heavier alloy, but it did demonstrate vastly enhanced resistance against energy weapons such as plasma and particle weapons. Given this similarity to the standard Titan alloy, it was officially listed as Titan-Erudite Alloy variant. The alloy being somewhat heavier than the standard version meant that the weight of the Enterprise without cargo would increase. That base weight increase was something he was going to have to keep in mind as it had certain implications. Small ones, but still notable. He felt the trade-offs were worth it though, especially on a heavier capital ship like the Enterprise. Smaller vessels like the Coto, and Umikaze however were probably better off with standard plating.

The other item on his list was to talk with the factory manager. Sali was going to be assigned work in the ship’s factories, at least for now. That might change later when they review her case in five years. Until then she was going to be working down here during the day. Not only would that give her something to do, but it would mean one less idle hand. It wasn’t the only thing he had to do in regards to the young lady. Sure some of it could be delegated, but he would rather do it himself.

One of the big tickets would be completing Sali’s registration as a resident. Given her status, he was able to unilaterally do that for her. Especially since she had no recognized rights. That was largely due to the fact that they had no prior contact with her people and not to mention they had little prior contact with alien races. With only the Krall being friendly. That had played into their previous policies regarding the Cathamari. It also meant there weren’t any precedents of alien races having recognized rights or much of anything else either. Something he was going to have to fix. Sali being here was also going to be useful. As he knew his people needed more contact with aliens. Which brought to mind another reason for why he was putting her to work in the factories. A large number of prisoners also ended up working there, but so did a good number of civilians. The job was worth a fair number of ration credits, and thanks to the widespread use of nano construction techniques and anti-gravity technology it wasn’t too strenuous. That made it a fairly attractive job. Sali however wasn’t going to be getting any credits out of the job. Although she won’t need them since her needs were going to be taken care of. In fact he had made that his responsibility, after all it was his orders that led to her being aboard.

Countryman made his way down the corridor while putting those thoughts aside. His mind moved on to their course. His mind recalled what he knew of those star charts they had obtained. There was a sector of space on the far side of Valorian space that he was interested in. The fastest route would be to head straight through Valorian space, but with recent events, he felt it best not to enter their territory. That left him with two other routes. One of them would involve traveling through Krall space. Nothing too problematic there. The problems came later, as actually reaching the sector would involve crossing a region of space labeled as the Velosa cluster.

The Velosa Cluster was a rather vast stellar region dominated by dense nebula, and subject to dangerous interstellar phenomena including plasma storms. Navigation in the region was reportedly difficult at the best of times, and the weather was known to sink ships. It sounded like a region best avoided. Something the Valorians seemed to agree with since their space surrounded the cluster on several sides, with core sectors on either side of the cluster. Yet they had no claims to the systems actually in the cluster. The Krall also had a border with the cluster, yet they too had made no attempts to expand into it either. Having seen the warnings he thought it wise to avoid the cluster himself as well.

That left only one other route to the sector he had in mind. It involved going around the vast perimeter of the Valorian Trade Confederation’s territory. Even then they would still encounter outposts, and colonies beyond the core territories of the Confederation. Not only that but the route would involve passing through regions of space that were politically unstable and rife with dangers. War was a constant in those sectors of the galaxy, and because of that the region had rampant issues with piracy and marauders. It was dangerous, but those were dangers he felt more comfortable facing. They were alien, but not beyond his ability to predict or defend against.

One thing he did have to consider was that in either case they were talking about a journey of years. With that second route, it would be years from any remotely friendly port. As such they would have to be certain that their supplies could last. Especially since there was little guarantee that they could find a safe harbor from which to resupply.

That thought made some of his current projects far more important. Putting that aside, he had arrived at his destination. He reached out to a panel, and pressed the chime button. Alerting the occupant inside, to his presence. He centered his thoughts on the conversation ahead, as the voice of an older woman bade him to enter.

He entered the room to find the surprised face of the factory floor manager. It seemed he had managed to surprise her with his visit. He had sent notice that he would be here today, but perhaps she had not yet read it. She was an older woman, she looked even older than he did, but was actually younger, although only by a couple of decades. The two of them were among the oldest people on this ship. Although he honestly didn’t know the woman all that well. His impressions of her however were quite favorable

She composed herself quickly, and said, “Captain! To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

“I sent a memo outlining that, but I guess you haven’t read that. I actually came here for several things. First I would like to discuss the Valorian prisoner, Sali of Clan Arimae. We’ve come to a conclusion on her upcoming trial.”

“Ah, forgive me. I’ve been behind on my paperwork lately, and things have been hectic lately. I must have missed the memo. As for the other thing, I presume you want to assign the young lady to work down here?”

Countryman nodded, “Yes, I believe she would do well down here.”

She turned to her monitor and pulled up a few sheets. “Hmm, we do have a few open positions. We don’t have enough people for all the work we do down here, and I could use another hand moving materials where they are needed.”

Countryman smiled and took one of the available seats. This discussion was going to take a while. Although not too long, and it would get one more item off his list of things to do.

Richards made her way down the corridor. She was on her way to the brig. Recently she had been talking with Countryman and had learned a few things about their prisoner. Now seemed to be a good time to introduce herself, and also she was hoping to pick the girl’s brain. Valorian technology was different from their own, but interesting. She figured the girl might have some insights into things they hadn’t considered. Ruri had a few things as well that she would like to know. Although it wasn’t a huge priority.

Part of why she was down here was that she had a little time. At least until the computer finishes that diagnostic of the shield array that she had requested, which might take some time more than usual. The demand for computer resources was fairly high at the moment, and the shields weren’t exactly high priority. They weren’t going to need them until they started work on replating the hull. So she had time. As for why she was running the diagnostic, well the shields were not working correctly. They were powering up. The shield matrix was also forming, but energy wasn’t consistently reaching all of the emitters. As such gaps were formed in the shield matrix, most notably in the forward shields.

That was going to be a problem later, since they were fairly close to one of the local suns. Close enough that radiation levels were high in this part of the system. Without those shields, external work crews could be exposed to fatal levels of radiation while working on the hull. People inside the hull not so much, but a replating job of this magnitude would require external work crews. The repair arms were meant to make such tasks easier, but they didn’t eliminate the need for human hands. Not entirely anyway.

Thankfully for the rest of the ship, removing the hull plating even without shields won’t cause a spike in internal radiation levels. That was because the radiation hull lining was positioned underneath the armor, and it was only the outermost layer. It also wasn’t on the list of things to be altered during the refit. Well minor refit anyway.

Reaching the cell, she found the young woman Sali. The Valorian was laying on her shelf bed, eyes staring at the ceiling. She seemed a little lost in thought and practically jumped a moment later when her cell door was opened. The girl rushed to her feet perhaps a little too quickly, causing her shift to ride up a little. Sali blushed deeply, bringing red to her light blue face and turning it to a decidedly purple tinge.

She giggled, “Might consider moving a little slower next time. Unless you plan on flashing everyone that comes to visit.”

Richards didn’t know it was possible, but the girl blushed far more deeply. Her emotions were very plain to read. She muttered something as well, but Richards wasn’t sure she heard that right. In any case that didn’t seem to be something to press right now. Instead she ignored it.

“Anyway, that wasn’t why I came here. I’m Megumi Richards, and I believe you are Sali correct?”

She nodded. “Um, yes. That is me. Can I help you?”

“Actually I figured you could use a friend, and came to introduce myself.”

Sali shifted in her seat. The alien woman Richards was interesting. She had brought her out to the observation lounge for a chat. There wasn’t much to see out there, it was just the usual swirl of dust and clouds. At least at first. Something bright and hazy could now be seen in the distance. Not that she was focusing much on that.

Instead, she was having a surprisingly pleasant chat. One completely unrelated to her present circumstances. It was a welcome distraction, and helped her keep her mind off the farce of a trial she knew was coming up. Sali knew by now her fate had been decided, but no one had informed her of it. She had tried asking Richards, and it seemed she knew, but wasn’t allowed to reveal it.

She wasn’t entirely sure how it happened, but at some point the conversation had drifted to their schooling days, and they had been swapping some stories. The alien’s school days stories were also surprisingly relatable. The culture may have been different, but there were enough similarities. That last one Richards had shared had been interesting. Although she was glad she didn’t have someone like that boy in her own school.

Richard sighed, and leaned back. “He might not have been so bad if his parents hadn’t died in that accident. I think he mainly did all that for the attention. I had my mother, and my friends, but he had no one.”

Sali gave her a look, “Um, what about your father?”

“I never knew my father. Mom always had a look of regret every time I asked her about him, and then she would deflect the question.”

Sali sighed, “I see. Sometimes I wish things had been better with my father, and I very much had the misfortune of knowing him.”

A frown graced the alien’s face, “What do you mean?”

“My father took a turn for the worst after mother died. It was a heart condition, incurable. My father took it hard, very hard. He was never the same after that.” she sighed, “I haven’t heard from him in years. My sister used to say it was for the best, but I still wish I could see him again.”

Richards was silent for a moment, “he doesn’t sound like a very good father, but grief does things to people.”

Sali nodded, and agreed. She had seen people change after being stricken with grief. Not only her father. “Sometimes I wonder what life would have been like if mother hadn’t died. Its a pointless fantasy though, its not like a cure for her illness actually existed.”

Richards frowned, “Maybe not. What kind of condition was it?”

Sali confused recalled what she knew of her mother’s condition.

Richards replied, “It really is a shame our two races didn’t meet earlier.”

Sali frowned, “Huh? What do you... You don’t mean!?”

“Yes, we could have cured your mother. I’m not all that well versed on the details, but our medical science is quite advanced. We could have easily cured that condition.”

Sali sighed, “That would have been nice. It’s too bad we didn’t meet under better circumstances, but I guess that is just my luck. It seems my luck is just terrible.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. I kinda wish I had a chance to grow up knowing my father. At least you had the chance to know him. I didn’t.”

Sali could understand that, but she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe the alien woman’s father had died. Something she must have muttered aloud.

“No, he’s not dead. I know that much. The captain knows who he is, but won’t tell me. Although I think I have an idea of who he is.”

Sali gave her a look, “you do?”

She nodded, “I suspect that my father is the captain.”

Sali blinked. That wasn’t an answer she suspected. “Why?”

Richards replied, “Well I don’t have any proof but I do have some clues...”

She was interrupted by the door opening, and a young boy rushed in. “Ma’am! You aren’t going to like this.”

Richards looked at him, and sighed, “Not going to like what?”

“That diagnostic you ordered is finished.”

Sali noted the shift in her features, “How bad?”

“The relays are shot, and there are burnouts across half the grid. It will take days to fix.”

She sighed, “That doesn’t seem right.”

Richards turned to one of the guards, “I want a full investigation. Look for evidence of sabotage.”

Frowning Sali interjected, “Um, why the suspicion about sabotage?”

None of them seemed to pay attention to her and ignored the question. Instead, she found herself ushered out of the room, and back to her cell moments later. Making a rather eventful end to something she had been enjoying, and leaving her with a fair number of questions.