ShipCore

USD: A few hours later

Location: Meltisar, Mil-1A, Meltisar High Command, Tia’s CIC

Alex frowned. “That’s why I had Nameless run through some simulations. It is viable.”

The other three girls around the table stared at her, each with their own vastly different expression.

Thea grinned at her and gave her an earnest thumb up but remained silent. Elis looked like she wanted to be sick. “I know it might be a good option, but it can’t help but remind me of the Entity.”

A thick line of guilt and sympathy radiated through Alex’s chest for her sister. “You know we wouldn’t do anything like that. But if we want to get resources for the system while star locked in Meltisar, this seems like the only viable option.”

Tia frowned and pursed her lips, her otherwise unreadable expression turning off. “I didn’t think of it, because while it might work, I’m not sure we can pull it off.”

Alex wanted to jump up and shake her. They’d been over it a dozen times already. “I told you, Nameless did the numbers. The same amount of material going into the new fleet production, plus those reserves for six months, and we can convert it. There is more than enough mass, and while it wouldn’t be maneuverable, it would just utilize the wormhole drive to get around. After that, the mining and airlift units would do all the moving.”

[Informative: While Avatar’s explanation is a crude approximation of this unit’s calculations, it is within a certain degree of error that production of a wormhole-drive capable moonlet is possible within the Meltisar system. Furthermore, this would allow the newly constructed unit to access resource-rich areas and remove Meltisar’s dependency on imported materials.]

Tia shook her head slowly before rubbing her forehead, tension clearly bothering her. “Ertan. You even have the MainComputers convinced. But my point stands, I never really argued about the technical aspects of it being feasible. I am not sure we can convince the navy, or people, to go along with it.”

Thea drew everyone’s attention with a laugh. “Fuck’em. This is a survival thing, right? We shouldn’t let a bit of historic societal fears cause us all to die.”

Elis’s pained expression turned to anger, something that Alex had rarely seen before.

“There are some good reasons for that. The last thing anyone wants is some nanite created Entity nearly wiping out civilization again.” Elis shot back.

“We don’t need a flipping Entity for that, sister. Altair burned just fine, and it was much more recent.” Thea answered with a frown.

Elis raised her voice. “You brought that up before, but I looked it up. Altair was one planet. I’m talking about every core and inner system!”

“Woah.” Alex held her hands up toward both women. What in the heck had gotten into them? “No one here wants to go around burning planets or create a new Entity thing. We just want to protect Meltisar and ourselves, right?”

Tia stared at her, “It’d be easier to convince people of that if there weren’t a thousand recordings of you threatening to do just that if you didn’t get your sister back.”

Alex’s cheeks turned a scarlet red. The recording had been played all over the net for months, being one of the most popular re-watched videos on view-tube.

The room fell silent at Tia’s words; the air growing heavy. Alex opened her mouth to retort, but closed it again. She had indeed said those things in a moment of desperation and fear for Elis, not thinking about how it might come off to the rest of the world. It had made her super popular, though.

She sighed, running a hand through her hair as she leaned back in her chair. “Look,” she finally began, glancing around at all three women before settling her gaze on Tia. “I’ll admit I was out of line…but I meant what I said.”

Elis shifted uncomfortably in her seat while Thea merely snorted at Alex’s words. Tia remained silent, watching Alex thoughtfully.

“I’m asking you - no - begging you,” Alex continued after a tense silence filled the room once more. “I think we need to do this. A few more ships will not make a difference. But a wormhole generator would.”

Tia leaned back in her chair. “I guess we already are at odds with the IFRB, so why not throw in some spicy illegal tech to go along with it?”

Hope blossomed in Alex’s chest. She’d convinced Tia!

The white-haired girl shook her head and sighed. “Thea, I need you to run escort for our airhead. She needs to go to the surface for her inditement. Please don’t fry the Solarian Envoy who will be going with you. The diplomatic side of things there is looking hopeful.”

“So, she agreed with our offer?” Alex asked excitedly.

“A very modified version, and we can’t know how Solaria will respond, but she seems to think it is possible and it doesn’t require us to change anything. We’ll assume that they are hostile in our plans as much as possible without relying on their help. If it pans out, then we’ll be in a much better position. If not, then well, they won’t be taking us unprepared, either.”

Silence filled the room, and Alex looked at her HUD clock, realizing how long they’d been meeting. “Okay, let’s stop with that? You’ll look into the project, and I’ll go…get fingerprinted?”

Tia turned to look at her sister. “I have a mission for you as well.”

Alex frowned. “Nothing dangerous.”

Elis rolled her eyes and Tia nodded before agreeing, “Nothing dangerous. Just a small trip.”

USD: Around the same time

Location: Meltisar, Mil-1A, Admiralty Blackout Bunker

Admiral Westlake’s eyes scanned the colors of the muted meeting room. He had been relieved of everything electronic, and his security implant let out a quiet beep as he passed through the interference threshold, cutting off all known forms of electronic transmission. It had become a necessary precaution in the new age of Meltisar’s ruling NAIs.

Not that he had anything to hide from them, really. He was, in fact, one of their most ardent supporters on the Admiralty board now. But that didn’t mean that there was no cause for a space where men could talk and discuss without fear of their conversations being recorded, their every idea placed before a higher power and judged. Or filed away for future confrontation.

The NAIs nature made that a simple reality of co-existing with them, but he was confident that their NAIs, at least, were not the same as the others. If he was wrong, Meltisar would pay the price, but it was something he was willing to risk. Celestia knew about their specially shielded conference room, and yet had not raised any objection.

Other than the quiet hum of the environmental systems, the room was silent. Fleet Admiral Wilkes already sat at the opposite end of the circular table; his hands tented in contemplation. Westlake pulled his chair out and the other man nodded to him in acknowledgement.

A few seconds later, Admiral Parks made his way to his seat. The older man’s stern demeanor was offset by his white hair and piercing eyes. Opposite of him was the only man not an admiral, or part of the Meltisar navy, for that matter. Captain-Major Thraker was nonetheless a key player due to his close connection with the NAI called Alex Myers.

“It seems we have much to discuss,” Fleet Admiral Wilkes began, leaning back in his chair. He glanced at each man in turn, his gaze lingering on Thraker for a moment before moving on.

“Indeed,” Parks grumbled, folding his arms over his chest. “From my encounters with the girl, I would be hard pressed to tell that she wasn’t one of our most talented and rising cadets with a bright future ahead of her.”

Wilkes turned his attention to Westlake. “Did you confirm the report?”

Westlake nodded slowly. “The information was deleted from the system, most likely by one of the NAI’s security programs. But a hard copy did exist simply because the station didn’t have an up-to-date security system.”

Admiral Parks grunted. “Funny how old things are harder to manipulate for them. If we wanted to curb them completely, we’d have to go back to analogue, and find a way to make such systems work well enough to compete.”

Westlake shook his head. “I don’t think going backwards is the best course, Admiral.”

Parks chuckled. “Neither do I, or else I’d likely be planetside with those blithering idiots.”

An aide rolled in a contraption, the singular exception to the electronic device ban. It was an old projector, and the lights dimmed as its picture appeared on a bare wall. A video showcasing a hallway appeared, with two cadets walking down it. Suddenly, the white-haired girl grabbed the blue-haired one and dragged her into a closet.

Captain-Major Thraker coughed, but Westlake’s eyes were glued to the screen as he knew what was about to happen next. The camera cut to the interior of a claustrophobic closet. The frames paused, before the image zoomed in on Celestia’s silver-hued eyes, showcasing a fierce determination.

Westlake paused the video and explained the close shot. “As you can see, Celestia’s eyes were her standard silver. Intelligence suggests that she chose this color as part of her cover, and because of her enmity with her mother and the imperium. Up until this point, we can confirm that she was a Chi-level NAI.”

“I don’t blame her. There’s a reason they’re called red-eyed devils.” Parks muttered.

Westlake thumbed the controller, and the video resumed. A dramatic kissing scene ensued. Wilkes was visibly plussed by the sight of the girls kissing.

“Is there some reason this video is so critical, Admiral?” Wilkes asked.

Westlake let the video continue in response. Celestia collapsed, but when she finally opened her eyes again, he paused the shot and zoomed in again. The NAI’s eyes were a shade of deep blue.

“Her eyes changed to match Alex’s.” Thraker mused.

Westlake nodded. “We believe that the story that Celestia converted Alex and elevated her to Chi is false. From what we can tell, it was Alex who converted Celestia.”

“That would make her a Psi. How is that possible?” Admiral Parks asked.

Admiral Westlake shook his head, then gestured to the aide. Another man approached the conference table.

Admiral Park’s face twisted into an expression of shock and anger as he saw one of the ‘traitors.’ But Westlake held up a hand before the man could say anything.

“Vice Admiral McLagan is here because I invited him,” Westlake explained calmly.

“I hope you have a good explanation for this, Admiral.” Wilkes said, his voice matching the quiet calm as his eyes flickered between them.

McLagan nodded before turning to address everyone in the room. “I know what you all must think of me…and anyone who had any involvement with the AGAI project.”

“You’re damn right about that!” Parks spat out bitterly.

McLagan coughed as the room grew silent once more. “I admit my wrongdoing there. I won’t dwell on it here because it has little bearing on what was discovered.”

“How were you in the position to discover anything? Weren’t you slithering along with Admiral Anderson and his cronies groundside?” Parks demanded.

Admiral Westlake coughed to draw the men’s attention. “I asked him to. He’s been keeping tabs on Anderson’s plans since the beginning. He is the mole we had in Anderson’s office that provided the sandworm reports.”

Parks went silent, only for Wilkes to glance at Thraker. “Speaking of those reports. I believe we need to put forward our own candidate for the special election. Anderson has unfortunately pulled a lot of endorsement thanks to the AGAI incident. Anti-NAI sentiment is at an all-time high planetside, even if the same can’t be said inside the navy itself.”

“We can’t afford to put anyone with high enough rank that we trust forward for the position.” Parks stated. “Having a board member resign to run for office would threaten our majority.”

The three admirals all turned to stare at Thraker at once. Suddenly the mercenary captain’s eyes widened slightly as he realized what they were getting at. “This is why you called me here…”

McLagan spoke up. “The Captain-Major’s popularity is currently fairly good. He seems to have benefited from exposure from Chi Myers while not being a NAI himself, and not being a member of the navy…”

Wilkes crossed his arms and leaned back, fixing McLagan with a stare, clearly unhappy with the man’s presence. “Enough. Get on with it.” He turned to fix Westlake with a stare. “We didn’t need him here to go over the political. We all have already read his reports. What is so blasted important that you brought him here, and what bearing does it have on the NAIs? Myers being a Psi is already a large enough revelation for the day.”

Vice Admiral McLagan cleared his throat and then used a pointer to display a photo of a schematic on the whitewall. “Sir. Part of the AGAI project contained technology we used to classify NAIs. It was part of the integration software. One thing it is capable of is detecting NAIs authority levels.”

The photo changed, this time showing a shot of Celestia. A half page of gobble-gook was printed to the side. “A recent reading on Princess Celestia was taken without being noticed. The woman isn’t lying when she claims her authority rank is Psi as well.”

Silence reigned in the meeting room for over a minute.

Admiral Parks spoke first. “So…they figured out how to remove the limitations on promoting each other. They can make unlimited Psi rulers? If this gets out…”

The Vice Admiral shook his head. “That’s not it.” He pointed to the wall and switched the picture. It was a photo of Myers with the same setup. The side panel was a sea of NULL ENTRY. “We also acquired a reading on ‘Chi’ Myers. Except she does not have a reading at all, the tool simply doesn’t register her.”

Westlake looked at the faces of the other men. He had already felt the chills he could imagine they were feeling now.

“The Entity.” Admiral Wilkes’s words echoed through the meeting room.