Chapter 207 – Quarter

USD: Several days after the 92 Pegasi jump-point battle.

Location: 92 Pegasi, SNS Ferun, Solarian Battlecruiser

The brisk click of boots on the metal deck marked Lieutenant Lavigne’s approach toward Captain Larret’s office. The XO had arrived and hastily released him for the sudden summons, escorting him toward the bridge and command center of the ship in awkward silence.

Lavigne recognized several crew members and even Morrison was standing nonchalantly along the way, nodding at him covertly. Apparently, the crew weren’t being kept busy enough to not gawk at the LT that had been stuck in the brig for months.

At least it was a polite stay in the brig; access to the ShipNet, fresh uniforms, and a trip to the officer’s mess and wash to clean up were included. Under careful watch, of course. Good behavior came with bonuses, especially when extenuating circumstances were involved.

Unfortunately, he had an idea on why she was calling him to talk.

Everyone on the ship had seen the footage by now—of A3123Y’s surgical excision of an entire Corporate Systems battle-fleet. Not “a” battle-fleet, either. The battle-fleet.

The number of warships had marked it as the Corporate System’s 1st Fleet. It had no business being on the frontier, or being used in the limited war scenario that both sides, all sides really, had agreed to by limiting Inner System warships to the central systems.

It would have likely enough force to punch straight through 13 Centauri’s naval base and run all the way through Solarian Space until the Home Guard Fleet found itself in position to stop them. He tried to do the math in his head, but he suspected Alpha Velorum would have been lost before the fast pickets could transmit the incoming incursion to Solaria.

There were grim looks on most of the crew’s faces. For good reason. The Corpos had changed the game from one of polite war to something else.

And then Starlight Revolution had smashed the gesture like it was a child’s toy. Not without damage, but having met the little blue girl that ran the battlestation himself—he was sure it would be repaired soon. Far sooner than anyone could imagine, because the idea of a new NAI faction sprouting up on the frontier wasn’t… something that would come to anyone.

Except he had thought about it. A lot. From what he’d seen, even if they tried to exterminate them now, by the time a joint response fleet was assembled—if it could be assembled considering that the Corpos had attempted to backstab them all—he doubted they’d succeed.

Because even if they pushed young Abbey back out of 92 Pegasi, he doubted Heeler was idle. Nothing would stand a chance to harm Hades if it became operational—except maybe a PSI’s battlemoon—and no one even knew if they could leave their systems. They never had before.

The door to the captain’s office slid open with a pneumatic hiss. A framed holo of the Solarian flag glowed on the wall behind her desk. She stood waiting, and her sharp gaze flicked to him immediately.

“Lieutenant Lavigne as requested, ma’am.”

“Thank you, Commander. That will be all.”

The man looked unhappy, like he wanted to stay and hear what was said, but he nodded and left as directed.

“Lieutenant, I need you to tell me everything you know about them.”

He had. Multiple times.

He would do so again. “Yes ma’am.”

He didn’t think she’d learn anything new that might get the squadron out from behind Starlight Revolution’s blockade—that would be impossible from what he had seen and knew.

The fear that she might try something anyway, and get them all killed, lingered.

***

USD: Almost two weeks after the 92 Pegasi jump point battle.

Location: 92 Pegasi, SRS Firelight, CHI Amy Tanis’ corvette.

Amy watched as the Bellerophon came into focus on the main screen. The corporate flagship idled in the dark, drifting as the SRS Firelight matched course to prepare for a rendezvous.

The Corporate Fleet’s flagship had been converted into a makeshift prison barge, its weapon emplacements and defenses plundered in a painful assault on the ship’s dignity. But it was large enough to house the survivors of the fleet, of which there were over a hundred thousand.

A hundred thousand prisoners.

She had watched Abbey’s battle at the jump point from Ackman Station with horror as it unfolded, and then just as she thought they had lost it had ended in their victory.

Everything that had unfolded had been a whirlwind of panic and confusion as word slowly filtered through the resident station population despite Portmaster Whitely and her attempt to keep things quiet as long as possible.

But that was impossible, considering the scale of devastation that had erupted, and the repeated incursions had left most independent miners and frontiersmen in the belt with much better tuned equipment than they had before Starlight Revolution had arrived.

The equipment and upgrades that they had provided the population had ensured that there was no preventing the events that had unfolding from at least being spotted and noted.

The delay in the news had been enough for them to figure out what to tell everyone to prevent chaos, although in hindsight that announcement had been simple: The Corporate Fleet had been defeated and its remnants had surrendered to A-3123-Y.

The damage that had been done to Abbey’s battlestation and drone armada—and armada was the only word for it—had been catastrophic. It was only mitigated by the voracious appetites of the engineering drones that had scattered to bring as much debris and wrecked ships to a relative halt for salvaging and repurposing.

While rescuing trapped survivors and lost Corporate crewmen to be shepherded to the Bellerophon of course.

The Firelight was one of their newest ships, a sleek and fast corvette that had been designed based on Alex’s Federation Shrike class. It was small, but it was fast and had enough internal storage to ferry supplies and survivors to the Bellerophon.

That had been her job since Aurea had been... traumatized from the encounter with Abbey. Even though from what Amy had been able to tell the Corporate NAI was doing her best to help moderate and take care of the survivors, she had been shaken by the experience. Enough that being the go between the CHI NAI and Abbey herself seemed… like the right thing to do.

There was a genuine fear that was present when Aurea had to interact with Abbey from what Amy had seen.

Being converted from Corporate to... Starlight Revolution... that was something you only really saw in holovids or read about in the history books. Combat between NAIs was rare and usually resulted in at least one of them being destroyed.

But this had been different. Despite the nearly fatal encounter, Abbey had tricked Aurea into dropping her firewall… and since the young NAI was higher rank...

That the victory had only been achieved because no one imagined it was possible for there to be a random PSI NAI on the frontier was something that Amy knew they couldn’t rely on again.

There was a momentary flicker in her mind as her MainComputer updated her on the Firelight’s status and she realized she had been staring at the Bellerophon’s image for a long time.

“MainComputer, open a channel to the Bellerophon,” she said, shaking her head to clear it.

The screen flickered, and then the image transitioned from the exterior to a loading bay. The image was crystal clear, Chi Aurea’s concerned face looking back at her. Behind her were several Corporate crewmen that appeared to be preparing for the supply shipment.

“Amy, is there any word on more survivors?” Aurea asked immediately.

Amy nodded, but couldn’t hold back a frown. “There’s been a few more in several of the larger wreckages. But Abbey’s run through the debris has been thorough, and we’re not finding many more.”

Aurea’s face fell, and Amy could see the pain in her eyes. “There are still so many missing.”

“I know,” Amy said, her voice soft. “We’re doing everything we can to find any that might still be holding out.”

Aurea nodded, and then her eyes flickered to the side. “The Bellerophon is ready to receive the supplies. The crew’s morale is low, but there have not been any attempts to escape or sabotage.”

Amy nodded. “We’ll be in range to offload in less than an hour. There are twenty-seven crewmen waiting to be transferred as well, but no officers.”

Aurea nodded. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

The screen flickered and then went dark as Amy finished the transmission with a thought. That was still strange. All of her NAI abilities had started to come as a second nature, and the more complex tasks had become easier to... delegate to her MainComputer. It had seemed to adjust itself to her more quickly than ever before.

[Query: Continue?]

Amy nodded. “Proceed with a rendezvous with the Bellerophon. Send a note to the cargo crew and survivors to let them know we’ll be there soon.”

[Affirmative: Sending message. Rendezvous intercept confirmed. No hostile action or danger detected.]

Amy leaned back in her command chair and let out a long breath.

Now they just had to figure out what to do with a hundred thousand prisoners added on top of the ones they already didn’t know what to do with.

Portmaster Whitely’s strategy of allowing them free rein on the station in exchange for labor and services had worked for the smaller numbers that had been held on Ackman Station, but the population of the Corporate crew now housed on the Bellerophon was larger than the entire population of the station!

Supplies were not going to be an issue, thanks to the industrialization and overproduction of food that Abbey had built up in the belt. But that didn’t mean that the Corporate crew would remain cooperative if it didn’t appear that they were working towards returning them.

And that was a problem. They had no idea how the Corporate Systems would react to having their fleet annihilated by another PSI NAI.

Amy’s eyes flickered to a second monitor showing the strategic locations of all the orbitals and Starlight Revolution ships going about their business in the belt and orbit of Ackman. There were hundreds of little transports and other ships all moving about, automated by Abbey’s GAIs or even crewed by the independent miners and frontiersmen doing contract work.

There was already a new cluster of drones forming in the belt in an orbit almost 45 degrees off from Ackman Station that resembled the fleetworks that Heeler had built in Nu Crateris.

That was prudent... somehow, she didn’t think things would end peacefully. Not unless they fortified the system further and made it clear that it would be impossible to take it by force.

No matter how many Inner-System type battleships they sent.

A ping erupted from her console, a comm link message coming in from Ackman Station. Portmaster Whitely’s face appeared on the screen; his eyes tired. “Ms. Tanis, you asked me to inform you when the shipment for the Theta Corvi relief was ready. It’s prepared and ready for transport to the jump point.”

She immediately sat up and began to chart a transport course for one of their freights in her mind. They’d have to wait for one of the scouts that Abbey had fired through the jump point to return and report on the situation on the other side, but the two-week wait-time was almost up.

If things were signaled as clear... Starlight Revolution would be taking another system.

No. Not just another system. They’d fortify the 90 Pegasi jump point, and then they’d have effectively taken the entire sector.

Amy swallowed and began to record a response, but her mind wasn’t focused on it.

Was this the right thing to do?