[Story] Von Neumann's Children - updated to part 9

[Tenlar Scarflame]

See, I pwomised!

Anyway, short part. Sets up for the next part in this thread, though there will be Thrk/Jane/Adrian action in between.

November 7, 2942 Anno Domini / 772 Argon Era / 4 Reunion Era

The captain wasn’t sure what had roused him from his sleep.

Of course, there was always some kind of background noise in Torus Alpha 705. Not the aching rattle of a Teladi station or unsettling thump and murmur of a Boron station- the Torus was massive enough that its heartbeat was drawn to little more than a distant ringing in the ears. It was uncannily quiet, in fact, for a spaceborne installation. The air filters were next to silent, and the nearest power plants were many kilometers downspin in Torus Alpha through Gamma 696. There was the odd buzz or ratchet of a mechanical system, but in a Commonwealth station it was always so close- here on the Torus, or on most Space Command and ATF-built installations, it seemed to be coming from miles away, which was quite amazingly possible.

The noise was from the movement of people. There was always someone moving in Ta705’s hallways. He supposed Ta705 had quite a lot else going on besides keeping him confined to a single tower of the Torus, hell, a single bedroom that would make Split accommodations seem welcoming. Perhaps there were other persons of interest that the ATF was protecting and interviewing. There were certainly enough Task Force personnel to handle a large group- there were at least fifty doctors, not counting their assistants and nurses, that he’d seen just on this floor. At least one hundred interviewers (or so he gathered, since they were carrying the same pad of paper and wearing the same “invisible” ear piece that his own interviewer had,) a few dozen scientists of various fields, perhaps a dozen specialists of professions he couldn’t place, and twice as many armed and armored guards as anyone else.

The show of force interested him greatly- of course the captain was a high value asset that needed to be defended against many organizations from Sol and beyond. Solar anarchist groups, tinfoil hat types, mafias, Far Planets unions, Xenos. The ATF had made sure to inflate his ego enough that every imaginable high-profile organization seemed to want him as their pawn. And why not? He was, both in the Commonwealth and Sol, a living legend. Perhaps he was simply monumentally lucky, but that was what usually made legends.

But the captain, for all his travails, was incredibly perceptive. The AGI task force was not keeping him here to protect him as a high value asset, that much was certain. He wondered why he’d never met any other guests on Ta705. He knew they were there, of course- he’d seen more than one, all of them Terran- but the ATF seemed to make doubly sure that he would be steered away from them and into another interview. There were ATF marines at almost every door, all of them armed with EMP rifles. He suspected that if he ever tried to pass by them, they’d cross their guns in front of him, just like a pair of medieval pikemen, and gruffly deny him access. He’d have to try that some day.

He rolled on to his back, grimly accepting that he was becoming quite aware of each coil in his mattress. It creaked- not harshly, but just enough to bounce the noise around his head quite annoyingly. How he missed the Commonwealth. To be fair, not all parts of it- he could have died happily without being so intimately acquainted with The Mind of the Beast- but his earlier experiences were the most exciting times of his life. He had missed his homeworld acutely, every day. But there was so much unknown between the gates- so much opportunity, beauty, adventure! And now the ATF wanted to keep him chaperoned in Ta705 like a twelve-year-old boy asking him pre-canned show-and-tell questions about it. Madness. This ball of red tape was not the Earth he had missed for fifty years.

The captain’s floor was surprisingly quiet. He wasn’t sure of the time- they hadn’t provided him with a clock, of all things, and his nanocom was in his pants pocket under the bunk. The lights were on in the hallway as always, and the thinnest sliver of light made its way under his door, always uncomfortably bright, but little enough that the rest of the room was kept inky black. It was not conducive to sleep. Though, the captain mused, he generally didn’t have problems sleeping at this age.

Which reminded him- what woke me up in the first place? It must have been four in the morning- not a footfall to be heard. No shadows of feet creating ripples in the sliver of light at the base of his door. He couldn’t remember if he’d ever been awake for it like this. In a few ways it was refreshing, but in infinitely more ways unsettling. There was always someone awake in Ta705. Or had he always been asleep for this? He wished he knew. He also wished he’d discover what had awoken him. Wasn’t there always a marine squad making rounds in the guest quarters’ hallways?

Then, the room was abruptly flooded with light as the man who had been standing in the corner opened the door and left, leaving the door to slowly swing shut behind him.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

So I SUCK at updates. This part took me way too long to write. It should come out faster now though. I have a bit of free time, so there may perhaps be a few more subsequent posts in the near future. Here's more Thrk and Jane. ^^

November 9, 2942 Anno Domini / 772 Argon Era / 4 Reunion Era

Three sectors south of Family Rhonkar lay the easternmost sector of the Old Independents, Hatikvah’s Faith, the easternmost part of Old Commonwealth space.

Milky Gray was replaced by turquoise, then black, as Conestoga breached plane of the north gate and returned to real space. Thrk fired the freighter’s primary engines to guide it away from the apparition cylinder as Betty, his multiship CAI, spoke up in her distinctive low-resolution voice.

“We’re entering Hatikvah’s Faith, Thrk. What are your instructions?”
“Betty, can you give me a read on Siegmund One?” Thrk spoke to his console. Conestoga was considerably lighter now without a good eighty passengers stowed in the uncompressed freight bay. The slaves had been dropped in Company Pride on their way south from Family Rhonkar- the nearest place they could be reasonably certain the Commonwealth Rights Council would be able to keep their eyes on them. Company Teladi detested the slave trade outwardly, but the Split-dominated business inevitably found its way to the pirate clans, and pirate clans were profitable. Company Pride, at least, was within the boundaries of the Old Commonwealth. He hoped the poor creatures he’d found aboard the Imperial Trading Port would be returned to their homes, or at least offered honest work.

They’d also ditched the commandeered freighter in Company Pride, setting it on an auto-piloted course for Brennan’s Triumph. Thrk doubted that this would trip up the Family Rhonkar’s “Red Operatives” for long, but it would at least cause them a second guess.

Betty replied quickly. “Yes, Thrk. I’m requesting Hatikvah’s Faith’s public navigation network. Siegmund One is twenty-eight thousand miles distant from Hatikvah Prime, at heading two-sixty-three, fifteen high. The navigation network does not report large trans-gate activity behind us.”

“Thank you, Betty. Can you take us to Massa, Hatikvah Prime?”

“Yes, Thrk. Travel time from this location approximately six hours, eighteen minutes. Shall I engage SETA?”

“Yes. Thank you Betty.”

“Affirmative. Perceived travel time will be one hour, three minutes.”

“Faith?” said Jane as the cockpit door slid open.

“Yes ma’am,” fired back Thrk, without looking. Though Betty had taken control of Conestoga, his eyes remained on the rapidly expanding Gray-Blue disk of Hatikvah Prime. “Faustos is almost on the ground. He’ll watch ahead for anything that looks Rhonkar.”

“Should we be worried about him?”

Thrk smirked. “There’s plenty of Teladi in Massa. He’s more than okay.”

Thrk managed to take his eyes off of Hatikvah Prime and turned to Jane. He was immediately impressed- only four days removed from brutal slavery and she seemed almost her old self. Emergency protein and a long shower had her looking much less malnourished, though it would take another week for the treatment to heal her completely. Her cheeks remained a bit too hollow, and a persistent bruise still colored her right brow an unfortunate blue. She’d found some of her old clothes aboard Conestoga- her usual form-fitting leather jacket and tight pants. Her perfectly straight, fire-orange hair reached just above the small of her back. The spark of bright blue remained behind her eyes- though, Thrk thought for a moment, it was changed. Not less intense- quite the opposite. She was very much her old self, much too soon after she’d been extracted from beneath the slave master’s whip. He’d have to keep an eye on her. Adrian, he assumed, would not be able to.

“You look quite well,” he smiled, obscuring his concern as best he could. He stood, deliberately stretching his wiry arms.

“You look like a pirate.” She fired back, looking him over. He had on a thin white dynamic flak vest and the bottom portion of a civilian flight suit. Three laspistols were hooked to his belt, along with the electron sword, and a bandolier of energy cells crossed his right shoulder. The cargo pockets on his flight suit pants doubtless contained an assortment of explosives.

“I do what I can.” Thrk passed her and left the cockpit for the galley.

“Betty gives us an hour. I suggest you eat something before Massa.”

Jane managed to suppress a scowl. She would eat when she damn well wanted to. “Exactly how much of Massa are we going to cover to look for Adrian?”

“Not much. I have my suspicions. Faustos will be able to leverage the planetary network to some degree.”

“Why not just contact him?”

Thrk strategically chose not to respond. Jane did scowl this time. She turned to the armorglass screen- outside, a thick field of small rocks and rubble sped past, though under the effects of SETA, the Singularity Engine Time Accelerator, they were perceived as moving at six times their true relative speed. Beyond the rocks, the gray-green disc of Hatikvah Prime grew.

Arguably, The Faith was the most cosmopolitan of all the Old Independents. To the north lay All Split territory, and just beyond that, Teladi Company space. To the east was the Aladna Hill Confederacy, the first Argon state outside the Old Commonwealth. To the south lay a gate to recently discovered territories claimed by the Second Duchy of the Paranid Empire. Through Paranid space it was only a few jumps to Boron territory. As a result, the residents of Hatikvah’s Moon and Hatikvah Prime were incredibly wealthy and more than a little underhanded, and jealously guarded their crossroads.

This did not mean there was no threat of piracy: quite the opposite was true, and any intelligent pilot knew to hire a few escorts before venturing into the Faith, unless he was quite sure of his own speed or firepower. The sort of piracy that occurred on the fringe of the Old Commonwealth was, however, generally not the fatal kind. There were always a few spaced-out weedheads that would fire two or three too many impulse rays at their target, but the Hatikvah’s Faith Independent Guard were quick to stamp out these types. Major pirate clans like the Yaki were kept beyond the borders of the Faith, lest it be branded a “Pirate Sector” by the Commonwealth Senate and subjected to a war of occupation that the Guard knew they couldn’t win. As one of the few Independent Sectors with a legitimate standing government, the Faith was at least given a modicum of recognition from the Commonwealth: the first sign of any breakdown of their establishment would likely result in their being annexed by one or another race.

Through-traffic in the system saw very little other than some unusually dense rock fields- the whole system was littered with planetary shards- and a couple of food processing stations for various races. What was kept out of sight was the planetside life- a surprisingly thriving and wild culture with entertainment and tourist traffic that even rivaled Spaceweed Drift and Teladi Gain. Massa, the cultural center of Hatikvah Prime, was a fantastic den of brothels and black market transactions, from the destitute to the hyper-rich.

The Teladi, of course, were the masters of entertainment and deal-making, and as such Massa supported an incredible population of Company and Zuran outcasts alike. The native population, however, was largely Argon, an offshoot of the colonies that eventually became the Aladna Hill Confederacy. A few wandering Boron called the place home, and there was the usual insular enclave of Paranid present in the city, but these two races largely steered clear of the Faith. The Split loved Massa and the lesser cities of Hatikvah Prime, and were notorious for their predilection for consuming far too much space fuel and starting exactly as many fights as they were able to finish. All races converged here, and for good or for ill, the city and the sector thrived for it.

Thrk, however, harbored a persistent dislike for Massa. Of course he enjoyed a stiff space fuel and even the occasional fast woman just like any honest Split. What set him off was the ostentation. Not the places the tradesmen would ever see- that Massa was a hive of edginess, punks, tight clothing and neon glow. But everyone knew the natives when they saw them- plump, smiling men and women on the bleeding edge of fashion, flowing garments immaculately kept and ornamented with tens of thousands of credits worth of cut nividium and boroshell. They made an unimaginable profit running Massa, siphoning off the greed and vices of any trader with a streak of lawlessness, and quickly working to convert those who lacked one.

It didn’t help that Massa served as shore leave for Family Rhonkar naval crews; not necessarily as observant as the Red Operatives, but considerably more numerous and quicker to arms.

Thrk re-entered the cockpit, holding a half-eaten Vita Bar. Jane had taken his seat. He grunted. “I do suggest you eat something before we’re planetside.”

Wordlessly, she left her seat, brushed past him, and left the cockpit. He sighed, taking another bite of his Vita Bar. He would certainly need to keep an eye on her.

[SOTS]

Yay, politics ¬_¬ you know this means more work for me, writing my spinoff, to keep it in the same Universe, right?

In other, less whiny news, glad to see more of this! Good to have you back

[Tenlar Scarflame]

You know, I do what I can...

Also, good to be back. ^^ Part 10 is (and I actually mean this) in the works. It's more Thrk and Jane, which is the easiest of the three threads to write on...

[The Zig]

Nice work setting the scene. Gives us a good sense of what they're about to walk into.

Very curious how the next part will pan out. Good stuff