USD: 78 days after the battle of Dedia IV

Location: 92 Pegasi, Ackman Orbit, A3123Y Orbital

 

Repairs on the station had rapidly restored most sections to acceptable integrity. Despite the number of perforations and explosions, the automated army of repair drones had made quick work of them. The only serious damage had been done to the main mooring bay where two rebel miner ships had detonated inside a hangar.

Well, Amy considered the loss of two dozen mining ships and crews a serious loss, but they had shown their true colors when they had attempted to seize the station. Neither Wyles nor Whitely had helped her come to a satisfying conclusion about why the miners would think they could get away with seizing A31 for themselves.

Abbey and Whitely were supposed to meet her to go over what would finally be done with the prisoners that had been taken, including two of the ringleader captains. Over 1400 people had died, most of them had been crews or part of the coup attempt, but there had been casualties among the crews and newer residents that weren’t involved.

It had put a heavy dampening on the desire by a lot of Ackman Station residents to reorganize.

The two freighters that had been under construction had finished their build outs into Frigate configurations and were now operable and in service alongside the captured destroyer. The… ‘Alpha’ core Captain Yalof had them added to his patrol formation.

Amy still was terrified by the ramifications of the Captain’s fate, but no one had any inkling what had actually happened. Most had assumed, as she hoped, that they had been spaced. And now Abbey was controlling the ships directly. That wasn’t too far from the truth, from how she understood the Alpha cores worked.

They weren’t much more intelligent than a standard GAI, but with enhanced decision making and out-of-the-box thinking that used the person’s previous knowledge and experience. Abbey had admitted that one large complication would be if another NAI appeared, they would need to remain close to her to prevent their subordination.

A high-bandwidth signal was required at all times to a higher NAI core to prevent capture. The young NAI said she was working on a way to prevent that, but the explanation had gone down a rabbit hole of technology that Amy had little knowledge of.

Basically, Abbey was working on a kind of firewall to protect them from being taken over. Unless they came into physical contact with another NAI Avatar, they’d be fine.

Amy had encouraged her to make that a priority, since it was likely that eventually either Corpo or Solarian NAIs would probably come to investigate. The Coup had set back their production schedule by half a month, even with the quick fixes Abbey had put in place.

One thing foremost on Amy’s mind was the same thing couldn’t happen to the miners. Everyone was intent on the decision to be made about what happened to them.

Most opinions ran from execution to some type of harsh incarceration.

The latter would require expanding the prison system to be something that could be sustained long term instead of relying on Abbey’s attention.

The control room for the prison module was untouched by the conflict, and Amy looked out from the observation window to the large gymnasium sized bunk room the current prisoners were living in. Double bunks were set out in multiple rows, and one section had been set up with tables and a kitchen for meals.

Those meals were stripped down to low resource alternatives of several types of soups and finger foods Abbey had assured her contained all the nutrition a prisoner needed to live healthily. Although Amy’s taste test had confirmed they certainly were receiving a kind of punishment already.

The door to the control and observation tower slid open behind Amy, and Abbey entered the room. The NAI had been wearing her power armor for over a week after the attack before transitioning to a federation blue naval uniform. It was reminiscent of the one Alex had used to wear, with modifications for Abbey’s small size.

It was the comically large naval captain’s hat that made the outfit go from serious to cute in Amy’s opinion, but Abbey didn’t seem to figure that part out. Although to be fair, no one else would dare to give Abbey headpats. Not even Logan.

Abbey looked at her and frowned. “I have developed further medical treatment options for the scar tissue on your face and expanded the medical facility for advanced treatment of trauma and related injuries.”

During the attack, Amy got a nasty cut on her cheek that went all the way to the bone. She hadn’t even noticed it happening. Things had been so hectic until someone put a patch on it while they were in the APC. It hadn’t completely healed yet and was likely to result in a scar. Amy could almost see the frowny face emoticon floating over Abbey’s head.

“Thank you, Abbey. We can visit the medical center and see about it after we determine what we will do with the prisoners.”

Abbey tilted her head, then walked up to the window. She was just barely tall enough to see over the half wall.

“You said we can’t use them, so I don’t understand why we can’t get rid of them. They are wasting resources being stored here. We could use this module as a production facility or habitation module.”

“You can’t undo killing someone. Neither people nor NAIs are things to be used or stored, Abbey.” Amy replied calmly.

Abbey bit her lip. “You taught me that, but they betrayed us and caused some people to die. They broke a lot of things. We should dispose of them in the most efficient manner possible; they would make good nutrients for the fishie tanks.”

Amy winced. “Never mention that as a joke again. People would stop eating the station supplies if they thought we made it from reprocessed humans.”

“Perhaps less than you would imagine.” A new voice answered, and Amy almost jumped as Stationmaster Whitely joined them.

She hadn’t noticed his entry, until he spoke up and she swiftly greeted him with a nod. “Stationmaster.”

Whitely nodded to both of them and joined them at the window. “I am afraid I agree with our Station NAI in this case, Ms. Tanis. These men have violated a critical piece of law that has had only one punishment in all of history. The response to mutiny is death.”

“They weren’t technically our employees or crew,” Amy hedged, feeling uncomfortable.

“No, but they used the station’s services. Lived off of its production and largesse. They sought to take that for their own to enrich themselves further. If you treat them lightly, then others will take note and more transgressions in the future will occur with the expectation of further leniency.”

Amy frowned, looking between Abbey and Whitely, before slowly nodding.

“But I don’t want to just space them all. We should at least give them a trial or something. I don’t want to rush into it without considering everything,” Amy said, still feeling hesitant about the decision. “These people have lives and families that our application of the law will affect. Yes, they did a bad thing, but they at least deserve the chance to speak for themselves.”

Whitely nodded in understanding. “I agree with the sentiment. Achieving justice, and not just following the letter of the law, is something that is difficult at the best of times. But keep in mind that these mutineers endangered the lives of many more people than just themselves and did a tremendous amount of damage. We cannot ignore this, and we must hold them accountable.”

Amy sighed and nodded. “I know.”

Whitely patted her on the shoulder. “Sometimes we must make tough decisions in order to do what’s best for the greater good of everyone involved. It is possible we can mitigate the sentence for some of the lower-ranking crewmen who were following orders. I’m afraid for most of them, they knew what they were doing.”

Amy took a deep breath and repeated herself. “I know. I just want to make sure we do this the right way. We can give them a fair trial, and we don’t rush the judgements.”

Looking out the window at the prisoners who had lined up for their meals, Amy continued. “How do we start, though? I’m afraid I am going to have to lean on your experience, Mr. Whitely.”

The stationmaster nodded. “First, we’ll need to assign several teams of people to gather all the evidence and testimony. This will take some time if each prisoner’s case is to be heard individually. Thankfully, I have a legal and investigative staff on Ackman that should be able to handle the number of prisoners we have if you will bring them over to work on it now.”

Amy nodded. “We don’t really have the trained staff for this. The MilTech employees are excellent at security and maintenance jobs but not really suited for legal work.”

Whitely continued, “We will also need to gather a group of judges that can sit in a panel. It will be their jobs to assess each case and reach a decision on punishment and guilt.”

Amy frowned. “So they will be the jury, essentially. Who will be on the panel?”

“I was thinking we could have a mix of individuals from different departments from Ackman Station. They have been least affected and while they could have some relations to the crew, it will be much easier to source personnel to perform the duties from there than from out of system.” Whitely answered.

Abbey opened her eyes and rejoined the conversation suddenly, raising her hand. “I can help!”

Amy raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure you would be the best choice, Abbey. Everything won’t just be black and white and the panel of judges will need to consider nuances that might not be obvious to you yet.”

Abbey tilted her head, then shook it. “Noo! Not that. I mean, I can provide evidence.”

Whitely nodded. “I was counting on that, actually. I doubt we have enough personnel to quickly go over the footage required for every case.”

Abbey shook her head again. “Not just that. I can determine if a human is lying or telling the truth by several methods that add up to a 99.7% accuracy rate!”

Whitely frowned. “Those types of tests aren’t generally admissible in courts. Even if they have low error rates, people don’t like to be judged by a machine.”

Abbey’s nose flared, and she looked unhappy. “The error rate for witness testimony is an order of magnitude higher than my lie detecting capabilities!”

Amy patted Abbey’s shoulders consolingly. “We’ll use it. We can add it to the information the judges see.”

“Very well. I don’t object to it per se. Just keep in mind that some might feel uneasy about such things. Especially here on the frontier, where many have come to avoid overbearing NAI interference,” Whitely added.

Abbey nodded. “I can go over the footage relevant for each prisoner with the help of A31 as well. It should only take a few hours. There shouldn’t be any issue with that?”

Whitely agreed, “No issue there, no. It will be very helpful for the legal teams.”

Abbey smiled, “Great! Since we are having the trials, I want them to be as unbiased in determining guilt as possible!”

Whitely raised an eyebrow, “Oh? Why is that Abbey?”

“Because it seems important to Amy.”

Amy encased Abbey in a hug. “Thanks, Abbey.”

Looking back up to Mr. Whitely, she frowned. “So about those education courses… Do you think we could have a professor transferred over soon? I have been meaning to get Abbey started on some course work and personal tutoring in some subjects.”

Whitely’s eyes moved to Abbey. “Civics? I can work on that, yes, but… I think it would be more important for Abbey to remain with you to learn morality.”

Abbey looked surprised and raised her hand. “I already know what morality is! Morality is the principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong, good and bad!”

Amy bit her lip. “That sounds like the definition from the dictionary.”

Abbey smiled. “Of course, that’s where I pulled it from!”

Whitely nodded before looking Amy in the eyes. “I definitely think Abbey should stay with you more often. More than any lessons, she needs a role model.”

Amy nodded quietly.

 

***

 

USD: 79 days after the battle of Dedia IV

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, Intra-system Flight #7,385,235,248

 

Alex stretched and yawned, cracking an eyelid to look out the small digital window port beside her seat. It wasn’t an actual window, but the shuttle had a simulated camera that showed what a window might have shown if they had built it into the hull.

The view was filled with the orange and white swirling clouds of VB30’s gas giant. As they had approached, a small pebble had grown in size until she had made it out to be Meltisar. The smaller moon felt absolutely dwarfed by its parent even if it was three quarters the size of humanity’s ancestral home, Earth.

The other passengers were almost exclusively made up by the Iron Horse’s crew, with a few exceptions composed of some military crewmen and officers from station MIL-3A that had been waiting for a transfer.

Alex looked at her HUD’s clock. They would arrive soon. Flight #7,385,235,248 had taken over 24 hours, and Alex had checked on Elis several times, but mostly she had slept or read the new literature and news available to her.

The inner system had many more available sources of information, and StarWikipedia’s monopoly was broken here.

A crewman walked down the two rows of seats and gently woke up the passengers that were still asleep. The dim lighting gradually brightened as a stewardess opened the curtains that had been separating the section Alex was in.

The Captain had offered to give her seats in the ‘first’ class seating at the front of the shuttle, but she’d declined, opting for the seating furthest back and closest to the medbay where Elis was being cared for by the shuttle’s medical personnel.

Alex realized the shuttle must have made a turn when the orbital came into view on the virtual window port. Her eyes widened at just how massive it was, and she had seen several stations she thought were massive, including Dedia Prime’s space elevator.

The military space elevator designated MIL-1A was a hundred times larger. A massive drydock of C clamps spread out in a curving forest of dozens, hundreds of warships of various sizes. Massive towers rose above and below the rectangular structure, and trains visibly flew up and down rails along the station’s outer skin.

She spotted two massive elevators large enough to be ships themselves moving in alternate directions up and down the massive cable that reached all the way to the planet’s surface from their place in orbit.

Alex unclicked her restraint and moved to get her bag out from the overhead compartment. She didn’t have that many belongings, but Alex smuggled away her ShipCore in her carry-on, wrapped in a few of the uniforms that had been donated to her.

She’d avoided having her bags checked and security scans with the help of Captain Thraker. There would be another one for most of the passengers, but not for the injured, so she was to stay with Elis on their way out.

As she turned to go toward the rear, a crewman halted her. “Ma’am, you need to return to your seat and strap back in. We will arrive shortly.”

Alex blinked, drawing a blank for a second on what to say when a stewardess came to her rescue. “It’s fine. She has permission to stay with the patient.”

“Ah.” The man looked at her and moved out of the way. “Sorry, I didn’t know.”

“No problem. Thank you.” Alex said politely, then headed on to the back of the shuttle. She found Elis sleeping in her medical bed that MIL-3A had supplied. It had a small panel showing Elis’ vitals, as well as its own oxygen and power supply.

She set her bag at the top of the bed above Elis’s pillows and found an elastic strap to hold them down, before plopping down herself in one of the small seats beside the beds. The ready nurse smiled and waved at her while Alex waved back with a fake smile.

Her stomach didn’t feel good, and she felt a nervousness that she had been forced to deal with before. She was getting a handle on it, though. One thing that being on the Iron Horse had taught her, while mindless tasks might be one way to escape from everything, it wouldn’t fix it.

She needed to come up with some kind of plan for her future, for helping Nameless and Elis, and for getting back to 92 Pegasi and A31 and H32. She wasn’t sure what Admiral Darren would have to say, or if Captain Thraker was right about his assessment, but whatever she decided, she wanted it to be on her terms, not theirs.

She had done her best to research what the Captain had said, and she could find nothing that contradicted him on the public net at least.

A buzz annoyed her right ear, and she swatted at an imaginary fly when her HUD suddenly updated.

|Welcome to MIL-1A, Meltisar. |

A moment later, the overhead comm system made an announcement.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Meltisar. Please prepare to disembark at checkpoint 36-B1 and follow the directions of all flight and station crew.”

Alex swallowed the last of her nervousness. They had arrived.

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