Someone's Gotta Do It
Admiral Jacob Valent felt like he was caught in a storm of information as requests and reports began streaming through this command and control unit interface. They came up one after another, sometimes several at a time, crowding his vision as they were projected from his arm units to his eyes directly. The Ascent One was a huge ship with a long history - first with the Regent Galactic Corporate Fleet, then the Order of Eden - and the discoveries they could make might be important.
On his tactical interface he directed hundreds of Haven Fleet personnel who came aboard to secure and investigate the vessel while the ship's staff were all presented with their rights, stripped, wrapped in a basic vacsuit then transported to the War Forge in a shuttle that was just as basic. Their rights were adapted from an old document called; 'The Statement of Democratic Rights in The Automated Age.'
It was required study when Jake attended school as a boy. Well, he didn't actually go to that school, but a murky memory from Jonas' earlier years made him feel like he did. The rights each Order captive were informed of caught many of them by surprise. One of the nine officers that they captured on the bridge - that was a massive coup, since each was looking to defect and share everything they knew - actually grinned when she heard it, seemingly recognizing the phrase one of his squad members recited. "As a captive of Haven Fleet, you are entitled to the same level of safety, nourishment and basic comforts as our lowest enlisted soldiers. You will be protected from physical and mental abuse while you are given access to an artificial intelligence that will assist you with legal representation. The voracity of your defence is entirely up to you."
"I'm only a follower," the Officer objected quietly, her grin fading as the vacsuit wrapped around her on its own, drawing her wrists together. "I request asylum. I want to be a citizen."
The squad member, Veras was his name, retracted his helmet and fixed her with a reassuring look. "I'll read you the part we don't have to share with everyone." Then he did just that in a gentler tone. "If it is determined that you are not a threat, then you may apply for citizenship. Your incarceration will continue during the processing time, which is currently estimated at three days. If you are accepted as a citizen, you will be granted the privilege of shelter, food, and other essential provisions along with a right to vote as a citizen and earn luxury credits. You may be enlisted for military service if a state of emergency is called. For more information, please touch the question mark on your wrist and inquire on the interface that appears."
"Okay," the Officer said, brightening a little. "I have a lot to share."
"Good, tap there and start telling the system all about it," Veras said, pointing to the question mark on the wrist of her vacsuit. A pair of Haven Fleet regulars in a military vacsuits led her and the rest of the Order officers away, connecting them to each other with a line that affixed to the backs and fronts of their bright green prisoner garb.
The bridge was filled with security and technical staff an hour later. Jake was still there, watching over the data collection, getting updates from several of the Rear Admirals and staying connected to the rest of the Admiralty. The Merciless was already patrolling the outer solar system while damage control teams worked through the extensive list of problems. They'd managed to weather the storm with no loss of life, just a number of close calls, and the ship was still functional enough. Captain Agameg Price had proven himself.
Frost and Stephanie were already aboard the War Forge being debriefed. There were questions about their final reports on the occupation of Tamber. Jake made sure that there were nice quarters waiting for them. They'd have some time off, but he would be visiting them before long. Good commanders were hard to find, and he was already scheming, building a proposal for them so they could be in his chain of command again. Frost was easy, Jake knew what would get him back on board. Stephanie was a harder nut to crack and he knew there were other commanders looking at her file. The thing that was foremost in his mind was her miscarriage. Whatever offer he made had to keep them together and there had to be time allotted for them to recover, to rest. He knew Stephanie well, perhaps better than Frost did. If he gave her a mission or made her any offer that would put too much distance between her and Frost, she might not see her way back to him, and Jake knew how happy they made each other, so he wouldn't be the one who showed her a way to restart her life and leave her partner behind. It was something he'd seen her do with boyfriends before.
As he directed the next team of investigators from the main landing bay to the main engineering section of the Ascent One, a message from Minh-Chu came up. Jake selected it immediately, so quickly that it became a live call. Ronin was in his Uriel fighter, which he'd taken twenty minutes to re-outfit with an Explorer Module, the best sensor and scanning suite that the War Forge could produce for that fighter type. "I'm flying around what's left of that mobile station," he said, gesturing through his cockpit window with a gloved hand. "It's gone. Well, not completely. They cut nineteen tons of outer hull and compartments away to get rid of everything that was marked or tainted then got out of here. I used the new scanning profiles from our Order friends, you know, the ones that see through our cloaking and Citadel's, to look around, and there's no sign of the ship. I'm putting a call out for volunteer pilots who aren't above the fatigue threshold to start scanning the whole solar system using those settings but I don't think we'll find any trace of Citadel."
"So…" Jake thought about his response for a moment before continuing. It would be frustrating to discover that they managed to capture thousands of Order personnel but not one Citadel Officer. Even though he suspected Haven Fleet hadn't faced their best people that day, Jake hoped to capture someone other than the strange frameworks they managed to bag. Then a thought occurred to him. "Do you think there could be Citadel ships hiding in Kambis' atmosphere?" There were still chemical fires on the surface of the planet, but the skies had been blackened by smoke that let just enough light through to turn whole seconds of the world red when viewed from orbit.
"I'll put a fleet wide request in with the Fleet for nearby ships to scan the planet. Good thinking, Jake," Ronin replied. "I wish I had better news about this mobile base, but our techs are probably going to have a good time studying this hunk of junk they left behind." The view over his shoulder showed that he was turning his fighter, accelerating away from the leftover chunk of station. "I'm off, need to take a few hours to reset and prove that I'm in one piece to Ash."
"Give her a hug for me, and take as much time off as you can," Jake said.
"You got it, Admiral. Oh, she's already planning a get together. I'm sure you'll hear about it."
"I'll be there if I can," Jake replied. It was just like Ashley to do her best to give everyone some time to gather and see each other right after a dangerous, tense time. It might be a doomed idea unless she waited a few days, though.
The message window closed and Jake was left with a list of topics that covered the left side of his vision. He knew there was even more than that, he only need scroll down to discover more issues awaiting review. He picked one contact request simply entitled: WHEELER STATUS.
After a moment Examiner Regis Cross appeared in a window that hovered in the left-hand side of Jake's vision. He was overseeing the mental examination of all the Order of Eden captives, but the brief scrolling under his image stated that Regis spent the last hour with Wheeler exclusively. The man's face was round and plain except for overly long black eyelashes and big eyebrows, probably a fashion choice from wherever he originally hailed from. What struck Jake most was how bored the man looked. Maybe he was tired? "Greetings, Admiral. Thank you for taking my contact request in advance of my preliminary report filing."
"You're welcome. Your request said it was urgent?"
"Yes. I wanted to personally advise you and everyone who has the clearance level to see Wheeler that it is imperative that you don't visit him in person or communicate with him in any way. By doing so you would be further inflating his overdeveloped sense of self-importance. Furthermore, you'd engage a trait I've found in him that is so prevalent in his personality that it's practically taken over. He truly believes that he is a paragon of justice in the galaxy, that he has an understanding of right and wrong that must be enforced. Couple that with a persecution complex, the perception that he is always the victim in any situation, and add a deeply rooted sense of paranoia, he is a truly troubled man. Maybe some of this has been put-on, I have only seen him for an hour so far, so it's possible, but I severely doubt it."
"I know health care professionals don't like to use this term, but…" Jake regarded the passive looking expression of the man, who was a civilian consultant but important to speeding up the placement of their Order captives, then said exactly what was on his mind. "… it sounds like Wheeler is crazy."
"As a bag of highly caffeinated squirrels fighting over the last peanut," he replied with a sigh. "Oh, and you have me confused with a therapist. I use labels to indicate what level of treatment these people need, and where they should be placed. I love labels. I don't fix anything, I just assess and recommend."
"Right," Jake said, trying not to snicker at the mental image the examiner drew. "So, what injustice is Wheeler looking to correct?"
"Oh, Freeground and anyone who is related to the First Light voyage, especially you, Admiral Ayan Anderson and your associates, are apparently going to cause the complete downfall of humanity by spreading a message of passivity. That's in conflict with his belief that you're all violent killers who hate him personally and are out to cause him every kind of harm and misery. He also believes that the leader of the Order is sending him signals that will cause sudden change or destruction using his framework system, which we've confirmed is no longer present. These are all horrible injustices that he has to correct using propaganda of his own making and any other means. I advise you to be careful whenever you or your people come in contact with anything he's designed or had a hand in placing."
"Thank you, Examiner," Jake said. "I won't visit, and I'll tell my people to watch for his traps as they examine the solar system."
"Good. After a therapist has had some time with him, you may be able to visit, but I still wouldn't advise it. The recommendation I'll be putting in my report will suggest a deep brain scan and a non-public execution. Use his body and scans for further investigation after his death. The alternative is even more grim. This construct would require invasive biological correction before you could expect any real progress in his condition."
The suggestion surprised Jake, who had never dealt with an examiner before. "Did you recommend this kind of disposal for anyone you've seen before?" He wasn't opposed to the notion of executing Wheeler, but it would be the first official act of lethal punishment for the Haven Government.
"No. This is the first. The Order, or Regent Galactic, whoever made this thing created something that was already broken. He's hard wired for sociopathy and hate. The only thing he doesn't hate is himself. The Wheeler creature will never stop trying to destroy everything you're associated with. If a day comes when he can no longer pursue any of you, he'll find something else to corrupt or destroy in the name of just correction. This is most likely why he was put in charge of the remaining forces in the Haven System. Forces that, by my estimation from what I've seen so far, were largely untrained and sub-par. This part of the Order Fleet mostly consists of greedy incompetents with the exception of some of the command branch. Many of the best ships and personnel were quietly moved out of the Haven System before we arrived. I'll have a clearer picture of things in the coming days, as me and my people have a chance to scan more captives, but I doubt my assessment will change. Do you have any other questions, Admiral?"
"Not right now, thank you, Examiner," Jake replied, reeling at the man's estimation that the Haven System was being held by tens of thousands of the Order's least effective people. That's ringing true, though, he thought. There were so few Order Knights. Most of the capitol ships we've boarded don't have a single squad. There were other signs as well, including the gun-shyness of the fleet in general and the unwillingness of Citadel to work with them.
"Very good, Admiral. Please contact me anytime with questions. I'll be filing reports daily. I'd ignore most of them, since it's a normal part of processing and I'm sure you have a dozen or more people under you who can give them a look, and I'll be sure to mark anything warranting your attention for you."
The window disappeared and Jake looked around the large bridge. Technicians quietly scanned the stations, copying local data and looking for hidden files. His squad guarded the door or stood nearby. Some of them were officers, and they assisted with the direction of the recovery teams.
Jake thought about what he just learned, ignoring the interface as it passively competed for his attention. He'd faced zealots from the Order before, they definitely seemed more dangerous using less equipment. There was an ominous feeling brewing beneath the tide of data he was facing, under the growing desire to join Ayan aboard the War Forge and continue attending his duties from there.
Where the ominous sensation came from eluded Jake for a moment, then he put his hand down on one of the arms of the command seat. A chilling thought occurred to him. If this fleet, multiple battle groups, is what the Overlord will give officers he sees as largely incompetent, then what kind of hardware is everyone else using? What about their specialists? The next wave of knights and captains? He thought he'd seen most of the technology that the Order had, at least in blueprint form if not in person. There were fewer than a thousand framework soldiers in the fleet holding the Haven System. What happened there? He did a search of the data Haven had already collected from the ships they were capturing. After a few moments, he found what he was looking for. Wheeler ordered them to be boxed and sent out of the system. He actually thought the Overlord would take direct control and use them against him. Wow, that is a very serious kind of crazy.
With an intention to look into it more later, Jake moved on, thinking about the expensive ships the Order had in the system. The new cruiser class was a problem, but they couldn't have too many of them in the Cluster, could they? Even the ones they'd run into were new to him, not actually new. Most were over ten years old, relatively new, sure, but not compared to what Haven Fleet was using. He hadn't checked the ages of the ships they just captured, though, and that felt like an oversight.
Then, with hurried gestures he brought an entire holographic interface up using his command and control unit. Flicking through data collected from all the capture teams, he focused on one fact to start, one thing that would prove his theory: the average age of the vessels. That proved nothing, since it came up as fourteen years. With a hurried hand, he looked for other things the large capitol ships had in common and found it. With the exception of the ship he was standing on and several destroyers, every vessel in the Order's fleet in the Haven System had failed at least one shakedown cruise test then been sent back for refurbishing. All the ships that didn't fit in that category were from Tafford's main fleet. Jake looked into the commanders of the ships, most of whom were in the Shard when it was destroyed, and found that they were all guilty of unlawful fraternization, and black files were kept on them that tracked signs of disloyalty. The signs ranged from the consumption of foreign propaganda to favouring profit over fealty to the Order.
It was only when Veras cleared his throat from where he stood nearby and asked; "Are you all right, Admiral?" that Jake realized he was clenching his jaw, nearly sneering.
"We just culled the weak from the Order's ranks for them," he forwarded his findings to the rest of the admiralty, the commanders immediately beneath him, closed the holographic display, then let out a rueful laugh. "We wiped out their rejects and idiots, taking a beating as a reward." It was time to move on. Jake predicted that taking more time to thoroughly examine the ships they captured wouldn't produce anything they couldn't find in the data they copied from them. "Pass the order: begin a full spectrum hard scan of the entire ship, finish data collection, and complete the retrieval of all captives. We have one hour to get it done. We'll watch droid ships feed this thing into the War Forge's intake systems by this time tomorrow. First round's on me."
"Yes, Sir," Veras said, happy to hear the change of plans. Maybe he felt that the processing of the Ascent One was taking too long as well, or he liked the idea of having drinks with Jake. It was something he could find out tomorrow. For the moment, Jake started making his way to the nearest functioning launch bay. It was time to take his place aboard the War Forge.