Considering the Order of Eden
Pope was an enemy combatant but in their custody. The recently formed code that everyone in the Haven System abided by gave him rights, but it was still new, still malleable. If she, as the Defence Minister, broke them before they were a year old it would show everyone that the rules were made to be bent or broken. "What does Intelligence say about me interviewing him again?" she asked.
"Pope is a classic idol worshipper. He looks to people with status and fame with reverence and envy. I've wanted to approach you about interviewing him, getting him to tell us anything honest, but my people are still working on the best line of questioning. The more he lies, the easier that gets, but it's slow," Lamonthe said.
A little further down that hall there were Lorander politicians, real representatives of an organization she had barely considered since they were put there. "Do we know anything more about our newest guests?"
"The Lorander delegation?" Lamonthe asked. "They stopped talking as soon as we put them in cells. We're thinking that moving them to guest quarters and securing them there may improve their spirits, but we are keeping them here until the crisis is over. It's safer, and there are already psionic blockers in place. Quan is aboard the Excalibur, he's the only one away from the base. We're trusting him at the moment, but also managing him. He wants to transfer here so he can serve as an arbitrator between us his people."
"Bring him over, but secure him in quarters. Is there anything I can do to help with the Lorander situation in the meantime?" Ayan asked.
"Eventually. We'll conduct interviews, get the ground work done while you figure out what information you need from them most. Give it some time, you'll find gaps in our knowledge of them and what we need to know most."
"Right now, it seems like there are nothing but gaps. Everything I know about Lorander leads to more questions, but that's nothing new," Ayan said, looking at the door that would take her to Order of Eden Commander Darius Pope. "So, any honest thing will help you and Intelligence?"
"Anything. Even when our systems start telling us that he's being honest its only so he can hook us to get to the next lie."
"Here I go," Ayan said, passing through the secure hatch. Her command and control system switched to silent mode automatically to prevent Pope from seeing anything he wasn't authorized to.
He turned away from the flip-down sink, and immediately regarded her with a surprised smile. "Your Highness, I'm honoured." In the space of a few seconds, his yellow vacsuit and hair were straightened. "I would offer you refreshments, but the barrier between us is an unsurmountable impediment. I keep telling everyone that I pose no danger to the staff, but that doesn't seem to sway anyone."
Ayan looked at the hand that the medical team recently replaced. "I thought I'd check on you, since you came to us in pretty bad shape."
"Oh, there will be no scars, thanks to your talented people. This hand is starting to feel like my own again, too. It's as if we were never parted. That's not the real reason why you came, Ma'am."
"Then why am I here?" Leon entered, bringing her a stool, and she sat down as gracefully as she could, doing her best to be queenly.
"Perhaps I'll be executed soon, or there has been some kind of agreement with the Order for a prisoner exchange? I often dwell in optimism and pessimism at the same time, it's one of the reasons why I rose as quickly as I have."
"That is a unique talent," Ayan said. "You're not being executed, and the Order hasn't replied to my request for a parlay." Leon nodded at her, about to retreat, but she shook her head and glanced at the floor beside her.
With a nod, Leon settled in beside her and resumed his watch over the private fleet feed he had on his command and control unit. He knew what kind of news she was waiting for and would alert her if anything came up.
"I didn't realize you would want to speak to the Order. Everything I knew about your society is in opposition to ours." Pope stood as straight as he could on his side of the transparent metal barrier, his hands clasped behind his back, all his attention on her.
"I don't agree, but then, I've only read the propaganda we have on hand. There aren't many first-hand accounts from people like you, people who are successful in the Order's system. I may be one of the only people in the entire fleet who's willing to admit that I don't really understand it. That's why I'm really here, to form an understanding that doesn't come from stolen data or reports."
Pope regarded her quietly for a long moment before commenting. "It won't help. The more your people know about us, about the opportunities in the Order, the less they'll want to stay with you."
"Maybe there's something about your way of life that could help us?"
"Not even a little, the Order way is in opposition, there's no compatibility."
"Now I know I don't understand how the Order works," Ayan laughed. "When I look at it, I see that there may be a way to bring in some of the graduated systems you have in place. It would combat one of the biggest problems we've had with new recruits: where to place them in our organization and how much to trust them. I mean, your graduated system only leaves good people on the bottom for a little while before they're recognized and elevated. It seems so… automatic." Ayan knew her wording was key. There had to be enough of an understanding for him to believe she saw the literature, but enough breaks in her knowledge to make him want to correct her.
"You really don't understand anything about us," Pope said, pacing the length of his cell a few times, it didn't take long.
"Help me, then maybe I can have a better start with your people if I get a chance to negotiate."
Pope stopped, his narrow eyes focusing on her. "I always wondered how useful humility in a leader would be. That's not something you see much, it's not considered a strength where I come from."
"Everyone in Haven Fleet is encouraged to keep learning, and humility can keep us open to new lessons. We grow with every new idea, even if the paths they lead to aren't followed."
"Propaganda. No military organization can be effective while maintaining that kind of flexibility."
"We have a rigid system in place and regulations like any military organization, but we're willing to evolve," Ayan said. "I'm sure the Order has changed since you joined."
"Of course not," Pope replied. "The system was built by our founder, who spent years looking into the future, ensuring that the truly successful members would share a fate of immortality and prosperity. Lister Hampon was beyond genius, he was nearly omnipotent."
"That's why he became infected by temporal radiation and was killed," Ayan said.
"He knew it would happen! He knew it, that's why he created the Child Prophet, why he brought Eve to us. His sacrifice and the work he did while he was alive ensured that his followers would be able to achieve eternal life in this plane, and he can still see us from the Victory Machine's Temporal Stream. That's where he lives now, where he continues his work and sends his most prized followers messages from. I reached the rank of Commander, so close to him, so close to being able to hear his whispers."
It was a side of the Order she hadn't examined closely, in fact, most of what he was saying had never come up in the reports that she'd seen. She wondered if it was true. "I've never heard any of this before." It was ridiculous. She's watched people close to the Victory Machine die, of course she wanted to believe they still existed in some kind of temporal stream, but there was no evidence of that.
"You should know Hampon, that he was a miracle among us, an evolutionary leap that will lead us to perfection. How could you and your people miss it? Some of you met him. We, the Order, are fated to become immortal guardians and lords of this reality, he was the first to say it, then he was the first to prove it by making some of his followers immortal with framework technology."
"We've killed plenty of people who had framework technology," Ayan said.
"Don't push that too far, everything he's told you is the truth and some of it is new information," Lamonthe's voice said in her ear. No one else would be able to hear him thanks to the private link to her in-ear emitter.
"Of course, he grants immortality through technology, but that doesn't excuse us from interference. Your people fight us because they don't understand, most of you never will, so you stand in the way of progress, hold the universe back from its true destiny. Keep us from our ultimate fate."
"I don't understand how you get there. From a person who joins the Order to someone who can hear Hampon, who can become immortal, a custodian of the universe." There were many ways to be immortal. The stop shot she took kept her from aging for several years, and the emergency implant in her breastbone, the one everyone in Fleet was given, could restore her to life under most conditions. With continued treatment, she could live as she was for centuries without framework technology, but she followed Lamonthe's advice and didn't push it. "Can you help me? Tell me about your journey."
"Mine is simple. I was a business man, and when the Order of Eden began to warn us about a coming darkness, I paid the fee, the hundred thousand credits to become a true citizen of the Universe. I was sceptical, but followed the literature, loaning hundreds of people the money they needed to buy their way in, and that started my rise. I charged them interest as I was instructed to do, even though it seemed brutally high, but it worked, and I only got richer. The day I saw the machines turn on everyone who wasn't recognized as a citizen, I joined the Order military because I saw all the good the Order led me to do. I saved one thousand twenty-three people that day, just by loaning them money. My labours and donations showed my dedication to the Order, so I rose in rank right away. I was amazed at how I was regarded, at how many more people came to me to borrow money so they could rise too, and when I was told that one more rank up would earn me the right to put the debtors that weren't paying me back fast enough to work for me, to force them into joining the Order Military, I started working harder."
"So, the number of debtors you have is a positive in the Order?" Ayan asked.
"No, the income you bring using interest and the people you bring in under you are positives. The Order rewards recruiters like me by paying part of their debt for them, and I'm allowed to make some of them into my own servants."
"I've seen Eve recruit several people who weren't in debt to anyone. There are recruiting drives all the time and I don't hear anything about money or fees anymore," Ayan prodded.
"Oh, sure, there's that, but they depend on charm and fame. For every one of those there are a thousand of me, who have growing wealth and is willing to share it so people under him can move up, so new people can buy their way into the Order. They get a purpose, food, a system to enter their children into so they can be raised properly, prepared for the new Universe the Order is making. I gain in wealth, expand my control and rise higher, so I can help more people. Eventually my fame will equal my wealth, and I'll be able to recruit entire crowds, reap rewards from the Order for every person who joins, but for now I am rich, and my reach as a Commander is immense." His face drained of all enthusiasm, and he looked away.
Ayan didn't like what she was hearing. It sounded like a debt trap designed to drag people into the Order, but she wanted to know more. It looked like he just realized that his power and wealth were gone, so she had to push. "We already got our hands on your money, you could be wealthy again. I have that power, I can make that happen, even add a significant bonus for cooperation."
Pope looked at her, taking her in from head to toe. "You're telling the truth. You really would give me every credit I had and more."
Ayan was, but it would take months of complete cooperation, something she was sure he'd never go through with.
"What do you want to know?" His expression wasn't enthusiastic like before, but intense, even desperate.
"Why would anyone join the Order military now? Our intelligence reports that Order worlds are stable, there aren't many problems there. Other than backwaters and impoverished outer worlds, where do you get your recruits?"
"Most of our military members come from Order of Eden worlds. How can you not know this?"
"Pretend I know nothing. Most of our recruits don't come from Order worlds."
"That's because they know you'll be crushed any moment," Pope said, shaking his head. "What you don't know about your own situation astonishes me. As for your earlier question, people join the military on Order worlds because keeping yourself housed and fed is expensive. It costs about fifty-five credits, or almost fifty platinum to eat enough to stay alive and pay for a coffin sized space to sleep in where you won't get robbed or worse in the middle of the night. Most of the jobs require Order of Eden Military affiliation as well, so debt is the norm. You're allowed to borrow as much as you need, but once you reach a certain threshold - one that normally takes two to three years to meet - you are forced to work it off. A recruiter like me takes that debt on, most of which is forgiven by the Order, and I get control of whatever that debtor earns. I decide the interest rate, and how much of their income they get to keep. It's only fair, they proved they weren't industrious or smart enough to manage on their own."
Ayan was stunned. Intelligence must have known about that situation, but it never passed through her data stream. There was always too much going on in the Haven System for her to examine the Order that closely.
"You can't tell me you don't have a monetary system that excludes debt. The concept can't be new to you," Pope said, shaking his head.
"The concept isn't new," Ayan said. "We know that someone in deep debt can be resourceful, but their quality of life is much lower leading to disease, shortened life expectancy, and long-term damage caused by the stress it brings. That's why we provide life's essentials and more to our people. Our luxury credit system prevents deep debt in most cases, and since its separate from their essential comfort, each person's productivity tends to be higher and they have time to be a part of a healthy community. They join our military because we show a need and they want to be of service."
"No wonder you're about to lose," Pope said. "When can I get my money?"
"Push, push for the deep scan right now," Lamonthe said in her ear.
"Consent to a deep memory scan. That'll go a long way to…"
"This is going to be a coin on a string," Pope accused quietly. "Just when I think I'm about to snatch it, you pull it a little further away."
"Cooperation is your only currency," Ayan said.
His brow furrowed deeply as he looked away. There were consequences to betraying the order, and it seemed like he was thinking his way through each one before her eyes.
"What if I gave you immortality?" Ayan asked. "We can implant a regenerative system that counters the aging process today. It'll even cause regeneration in an emergency. Our deep scan will include a full image of your mind, your memories, so it can recreate you if the worst were to happen."
"You're lying. You'd never do this for an enemy," Pope said, looking to her.
She met his gaze steadily. It was within her power, and her promise didn't include freedom, it never would. Being honest about her offer was easy. They could give him immortality, make sure he had all his money, but opening the door to his cage was another matter entirely. "I promise you will receive your immortality at the same time as we perform the deep memory scan."
Startled, he stepped back. "I only need to consent?"
"That's all."
"I do," he said. "If you have lied to me, and nothing comes of it, I'll still gain. I haven't been fooled in a decade, it would be refreshing to meet someone who can lie so well they can trick me."
"I'll uphold every promise, you'll see." Ayan wanted to say one more thing before leaving but held her tongue until she and Leon were through the hatch and it was closed. "If he thinks he's caught every lie anyone's told him for an entire decade, then his ego is greater than his common sense."
Lamonthe snickered, and Leon laughed aloud for a moment before looking to her. "That's a bit pessimistic, even though his ego barely fits in that cell."
"For someone who believes the All Seeing, All Knowing Hampon the Great is living in a data stream from the Victory Machine? If he thinks he caught every lie, then I'd say he missed a big one."
"You have a point," Leon conceded with a decisive nod.