Chapter 212 - The Price of Victory

USD: 6 days since Ertan Fleet surrender and clearing of the orbitals.

Location: Meltisar, MIL-1A, Fleet Medical Bay 12e, Recovery Ward

Alex hurried down the corridor at the fastest walk she could manage without being disrespectful. She’d worked her way through the maze of bureaucracy and security all the way from the Ironhorse’s mooring arm to finally arrive on the same floor as her sister’s recovery room.

There had been a dozen other places calling for her attention, including a priority request from Tia, but she’d ignored them all. Or well, she told Tia to wait unless they were going to die, and ignored the rest of them.

Thea’s report on her sister’s injuries had been vague, but what she had gleaned was that Elis would have likely died if not for timely nanite medical intervention.

That she’d taken down an Ertan NAI and boarding assault team during the battle wasn’t comforting.

Actually, the entire wormhole incident had been a disaster, opened a third point in the sun somehow, and spilled out a massive amount of energy that fried any unprotected electronics in the system.

There weren’t very many of those—the entire civilian infrastructure was already hardened against worse things, just as a matter of course. But it had still fried a lot of handheld devices and soft things on the moon’s surface. Which meant it wasn’t able to be hidden.

The fact that it had confused and wiped out the Ertan fleet was a minor comfort.

Alex turned the corner and then spotted the room number she was looking for. The door was slightly ajar, and she slipped inside quietly.

Elis was lying in the bed, her eyes closed, chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. The room was quiet, and the lack of beeping machines was a good sign.

It felt like déjà vu.

Maybe it was because it was the second time she’d found herself in one of MIL-1A’s recovery rooms with her sister.

“You got here fast,” a voice sounded from behind.

Alex muffled her startled squeak as she spun around to find Thea leaning against the wall.

The woman raised an eyebrow. “You alright Big Blue?”

There were a lot of questions that came to mind, but Alex settled on the one that was most important to her. “How is she?”

Thea’s expression softened, blue eyes sliding over to Elis. “She’s doing fine. The doctors pumped her full of growth hormones to speed up her recovery. I was there before she went unconscious and have been sitting on her since.”

“I hope not literally,” Alex said, her lips pressing together.

Thea huffed. “No, not literally, although I ought to. She was well beyond her suit’s capabilities for triage. Nothing but a NAI would have been able to plug all of her holes.”

Alex glanced over at the bed. “I heard there were a lot of boarders. That she had to fight a NAI.”

Thea nodded. “Up close and personal, too. It was dicey there for a bit, not just the boarding but the fleet action itself. Luckily, they were interested in figuring out what the hell we were doing instead of just torpedoing the rock.”

Alex nodded. “Did they get any information?”

Thea shook her head. “Not from the boarding, but you might want to give it more than two seconds of thought. They will know about the wormhole drive. The moonlet was the only thing that could have opened it.”

“I know. That was a given, since we had to use it.” Alex sighed. She had thought about it. It was part of the negative mood. “Tia wants to have a meeting about it.”

“Well, unless you want to have a digital meeting or have it in your sister’s room, I won’t be able to come,” Thea said. “I can’t maintain her nanite patches, and while she is stable, her own tissue hasn’t finished regrowing.”

Alex blinked. A digital meeting. That was a good idea, although it made her feel slightly anxious.

The insanity that had occurred when she had been struggling for a plan before the battle had been a bit much. Nameless had been strange as well, almost like he was ignoring her.

When they had come within range to reconnect in real time to Meltisar’s system-net, she had expected him to take back over management of the moon’s infrastructure.

Except Tia’s MainComputer had adapted in the time they were away, and he had just offered some minor suggestions and went silent again.

“Nameless, can you ping Tia and ask if we can have a digital meeting?” Alex asked.

[Affirmative: Request dispatched.]

“Thank you,” Alex replied.

Thea shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind looking after red. Honestly, I don’t know how she pulled it off even with her fancy armor suit.”

Alex blinked. She had meant to thank Nameless, but then realized Thea had thought she was talking to her. Because MainComputer and Avatar were supposed to be the same person, and thanking herself was silly? It was still hard to wrap her head around that.

Maybe that was why Nameless was sulking, or upset?

“I think the modern suits have functions stripped out. Giving people anti-NAI armor would be a bad idea for maintaining NAI supremacy, and despite how different Ertan, Imperial, Corpo, and Solarians are... they all seem to want to maintain that,” Alex said.

Thea nodded. “You realize that we’re both NAIs and reversing that trend might be a negative for our life expectancy?”

Alex nodded. “I know. But it would be great if we could get along, and being a NAI or not didn’t really matter...”

“That’s a big ask for Humanity. I think the academy has skipped out on teaching a ton of history lessons to their most important cadet,” Thea replied.

“They... they cut out most of the book learning for me,” Alex said with a frown. “Otherwise, there just wasn’t enough time to send me to where I was needed while attending classes.”

Thea’s expression turned sour. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s the greatest method for teaching someone. I get that you’re trying to go full authentic, but why not download what you need from your MainComputer?”

Alex blinked. “D... download? I asked about that once, but Nameless said it would wipe my personality and I’d stop being me.”

A look of horror appeared on Thea’s face. “Not refactor yourself! I think you’re just fine as you are... I wouldn’t want you suddenly deciding to be a different person.”

Thea huffed. “What if you decided honoring our deal wasn’t worth it and you suddenly started throwing directives around?”

“Then what did you mean? Download the information?” Alex’s brow furrowed. If there was another option, why hadn’t it been presented to her?

[Informative: Subcore Thea likely meant to suggest using digital space in time dilation mode to acclimate the information in a short period.]

Thea’s eyes slid to the wall where Nameless’s digitized voice had come from. “Yes, that’s what I meant. I thought the academy used it for naval exercises and training. Why aren’t you using it for other things as well?”

Alex shook her head. “I... didn’t realize it was possible. No one suggested it to me. I mean... we had the simulator training. It didn’t work normally for me, but Nameless fixed it somehow.”

Thea’s brow furrowed. “I know you mentioned having a hard time with digital spaces before we had computronic units all over, but I didn’t realize it just didn’t exist for you before.”

Alex nodded. “Things just don’t work the same for me...”

Thea’s expression wasn’t quite grim, but it was serious. “We should talk to Tia about it. I know Chi and Psi ranks are different, so she might have a better idea on how to help you.”

Alex nodded, but the question came to mind was... help with what? She turned back to Elis and approached the bed. She had come to visit her sister and gotten side tracked.

But one thing was sure... she needed some time to think about things. A lot had happened since Dedia IV. She’d met many people, made friends... and got caught up in a lot of things.

A lot had been put on her shoulders that she hadn’t really asked for.

Helping Tia, and helping Meltisar... the fleet...

It wasn’t resentment she felt, but it felt like they had taken a part of her she hadn’t really been aware of before.

She’d sent the smart munitions to their deaths. That wasn’t something she’d done in desperation, either.

It had been her idea. Nameless had methodically helped her plan it out. Then things had fit together like a perfect puzzle, and she’d slaughtered tens of thousands of people with them.

She’d done that.

She hated it.

If turning that feeling on the four ruling PSIs would make the world a better place, she thought she could do it.

But...

How did she know things would be better? Changing the people in charge... no matter how that happened, people would suffer because of it.

From what she had learned, they had some sort of a secret agreement in place... and it involved making sure NAIs were in control.

But why?

She didn’t know.

She didn’t know anything.

She was the wrong person to be the ‘Omega.’

She was just a young woman, who happened to wake up in a manufactured body and with an artificial voice in her head.

“I promise I’m not dead this time, either,” Elis mumbled.

Alex’s eyes widened in surprise as her sister’s hand came up to cup her cheek. “Sorry for worrying you.”

Alex took the warm hand and held it. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Thea was there a few seconds later. “You’re supposed to be resting.”

Elis’ eyes slid onto the previously Corpo NAI. “I don’t need a mother hen. Maybe a girlfriend who can put up with me, but not a mom.”

Alex’s eyes widened as Thea spluttered uncharacteristically.

“Besides, who could sleep when their little sister is in distress?” Elis added.

“Sorry. I came to see you, and then... got sidetracked in my head,” Alex replied.

A small smile appeared on Elis’ face. “I’m glad you’re okay. What’s going on that has you upset?”

Well... wasn’t that the problem? Everything felt like a jumbled mess. “I’m trying to figure that out,” Alex replied. “I think having these reunions with you being in a hospital bed might be a starter.”

Elis choked on a laugh and then coughed. “I’ll try to break the habit.”

Before Alex could think of anything to add, Thea suddenly froze, then jerked toward the offline holo monitor on the wall. A wave of a hand turned it on.

The screen showed a large rally at some sort of outdoor monument, with tens of thousands of people in attendance.

Meltisar’s colors and dozens of different banners fluttered in a soft breeze while the crowd waved them about. As the camera zoomed in, the roar became audible.

Alex recognized the man behind the podium immediately.

It was Thraker.