“Ironically I believe it ever so much more than all of you wide-eyed young fools. Of course the machines are out there. Of course they’re the greatest threat humanity will face and has ever faced, both past and present. But if the last several centuries of political reality has taught us anything it’s that the machines aren’t likely to show up in time to influence the election booths, at least not any time soon, and of course Assemblywoman Kern’s experience with the Droids notwithstanding,” Isaak said with a sigh. “No, counting on the Droid atrocities to show up in time to sway a fickle public is something we on Capria have learned cannot be done. You see, unlike you youngsters, we don’t view the enemy as some dark, shadowy boogieman but rather as a very real and very potent foe—one who can be relied upon not to do anything that would help us when it comes time to run for office. There’s only so much anti-machine pandering you can do before it becomes…counterproductive. Plus she also has the added benefit of being one of the young Grand Admiral’s greatest foes right at the moment. All I need to do is fan the flames of her hatred into a fanatical fury and I’ll have her right where I can manipulate her,” said the Governor.
“That’s the second time you mentioned that. You’re starting to repeat yourself,” Chang advised.
Isaak waved him off irritably. “My point is, neither of your two largest competitors would be able to block my permanent ascension to the speakership, at least for the current election term—a term that could be extended indefinitely, considering the current mess we’re in. That being the case,” now he turned and his eyes drilled into those of Assemblyman Chang’s, “why, exactly, do I need your support?”
Chang took a moment to gather his arguments and think before he shot Isaak a piercing look and then nodded.
“I think I see what you’re asking for,” he said.
Isaak looked at him, intrigued. “Go on,” he motioned with his glittering, ruby-covered finger.
“Well it’s true that an incompetent minority party can seem quite attractive on the surface. I think the legislative package I’m offering and position on political appointees cannot be matched. For instance...” Chang then continued for the next half hour to lay out his plan and package of incentives for the future.
At the end of the meeting, they shook hands.
“I think we have a deal,” Governor Isaak said with satisfaction.
“We do,” Change agreed and then paused, “there’s only one potential fly in the ointment. Well, two, actually.”
“Go on,” Isaak said, drawing back slightly.
“The main one is the what will you do if somehow my predecessors in the Faction were to find themselves returned to us. All of our plans would be in danger,” advised Chang.
“You mean completely scrapped,” Isaak said coolly, “but don’t worry. Under the guise of avoiding yet another attack on our new ‘temporary’ regional capitol, I have already advised the Aegis Yards that the Governmental Monolith will be leaving early, before all of the repairs and refurbishment is completed. I’ll just move up our schedule from two weeks from now to…tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” asked the new prospective leader of the opposition party in the Grand Assembly.
“But of course,” Isaak continued mock fearfully, “who knows when the big bad Imperial Navy might hunt us down and cut off the very vital head of our just now established government? That should ensure that even if they survived the window for them to dispute our control of the government will be closed. Forever.”
“I like it,” Assemblyman Chang said, “you will have my full support for this move to ensure the safety of the entire Spine.”
“Much appreciated,” said the Speaker.
Another handshake and Chang disappeared down the hall.
Five minutes later the door opened for the third time that day. “Ah! Assemblywoman Kern how nice it is to see you,” Governor Isaak said, rising from behind his desk with a wide smile on his face.
“Speaker Isaak. I must say your new position suits you,” she said archly.
“Please come in,” he said, motioning to his chair.
“What can I do for you today, Speaker?” asked the Assemblywoman.
“The question isn’t so much what you can do for me but rather what I can do for you, Assemblywoman,” he said.
“Well unless you can make me the new Faction Leader, I’m afraid the answer is not much,” she said ruefully.
“Oh, but Assemblywoman, what I have to offer is, oh so much better than a boring administrative post like Faction Leader,” Isaak said confidently.
“That 'boring administrative post' appears quite attractive from where I’m sitting. It’s the only way I have so much as a chance of showing the voters back home that I am capable of carrying out their will,” she retorted politely.
“That’s exactly what I was going to say,” he said happily, “what if I could help you achieve your legislative agenda, all without the detriment of being stuck in a top level position where if, space gods forbid, anything should go wrong your name is attached to it?”
“Tell me more,” Valadencia Kern leaned forward intently.
“First I have to ask a question: are you adverse to mixing a little business with pleasure?” he asked.
Her face closed cautiously. “I suppose that depends on what the pleasure side of things was,” she said coolly.
“What if I told you that, with just a few minor adjustments to your Anti-Droid legislative proposals, we could put a permanent spike in a certain Grand Admiral Montagne’s proverbial wheels?” Isaak smirked.
Valadencia bolted upright in her chair and shot him an icy look.
“Don’t toy with me, not on this Isaak. You know my feelings on the Little Animal but I am not so easily manipulated that I will betray my principles just for a little bit of personal satisfaction,” she growled, looking every inch a feminine monster, perhaps a jagger-wolf or spike-reptile, at that exact moment.
Isaak took a moment to appreciate her winding, golden dress and perfectly tricked out headdress before looking back down to meet her eyes.
“Asking you to betray your interest is the furthest thing from my mind,” he said suavely.
Valadencia looked at him suspiciously.
“Come now, don’t give me such a look. Have I ever let you down in the past?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said coolly.
“I’m wounded.”
“So what is this scheme of yours?” she finally broke down and asked.
“I take it you’re well aware of the Grand Admiral’s position on the, er, Droid menace?” he inquired.
Her hand curled into claws the long nails of her fingers digging into the palms of her hands. “Far too aware,” she said harshly, “unfortunately, the Assembly still isn’t willing to completely alienate the Little Animal, not even after he was nowhere to be found when we all had to run for our lives.”
“Quite,” Isaak said projecting dissatisfaction, “even so. While an outright ban in the middle of this war ‘might’ be taking things a little too far, perhaps a compromise bill would be able to pass?”
“How compromised would this bill be?” she asked, eyes narrowing.
“First we register and then—and only after a suitable amount of time—we…deactivate. The war and young Admiral Montagne’s position complicate things but ultimately the goal is to reduce his power base. Plus, of course, no one wants a return of the Pro-Slavery faction in galactic politics,” he added almost as an afterthought.
“Slavery was a stain upon our honor that will never wash out! I consider the mere suggestion of the practice an outright betrayal of the human race and all our moral values, in effect no different from plunging a dagger right through the heart of humanity!” Assemblywoman Kern said viciously.
“Exactly. No one needs those bleeding heart slave-holders returning to plague us. Or I suppose the greedy profiteers or AI servants that used the soft-hearted for cover,” Isaak rolled his eyes.
“You
laugh and yet they fought a second war, the Droid Insurrection Wars, just to get rid of the old manufacturing plantations! Yet even still the underground railroads plague us to this very day as they attempt to smuggle new Droids to the Outer Rim. Disassemble and destroy is the only way,” she pounded the table for emphasis.
“Of course,” he said politely, “deactivating entire Droid lines is only common sense and can in no way be considered genocide.”
“Because they have no genes!” she shouted, turning red-faced, “that old holdover has to be the most asinine argument I’ve ever had the misfortune to hear! Clearly a construction of AI servants and sympathizers.”
“They have motor oil, not blood, thus no genes,” Isaak agreed, “however my main concern is not the Droids, true they’re a menace but not the one we should focus on here today. It’s Jason Montagne; the threat he poses by opening the door to normalization and slavery that we need to worry about.”
“Turning off a Droid is no different from turning off a toaster,” she declared passionately, “as for focus, I fear you are not properly educated on just how insidious the machine threat actually is. Are you aware of the number of Droids that spontaneously appear on high tech worlds every day? We’re one bad download from a return to the Cost Benefit Analysis in our very homes! Yet spies and sympathizers still try to smuggle them out,” she sneered.
“Or even attempt to hide them as new advanced model robot assembly or repair workers in orbital factories. Yes I’m well aware of such factions as the automated underground and the old underground railroad. We’ve had to deal with such organizations ever since the twilight of the machine age,” Isaak sighed, “forgetting the moral implications, on a practical level having thinking machines around is an economic disaster waiting to happen—which is why they can never be reintegrated into society.”
“Heresy! You want to talk about machine economics when lives are on the line?” she declared.
“You do realize just how much a worker, who doesn’t sleep or require decades of training in order to perform complex repairs and engineering work, can undercut the human labor market with a series of simple downloads?” he eyed her sharply. “That’s the real threat, not some pie in the sky return of the AI masters. They’re gone; the virus took care of them. One thing we can agree on is it’s the Droids the rest of us had to worry about.”
“I fear that if given the proper incentive it’s exactly men like you, who refuse to recognize the true scope of the AI threat and would rather turn a blind eye in order to utilize Droid labor for money making schemes—if only they could hide it from the public—who pave the way for a rebirth of that particular cataclysm,” she said, eyeing him suspiciously.
“Those old quote-unquote slave plantations were only a stopgap measure to appease the public until they could be properly reeducated, nothing more and certainly nothing less. They had no viable economic or political future. Not then and certainly not now. And yes, I would run a plantation if it was the only way to count and register a population of Droids for later extermination,” Isaak said flatly, “for the record, I find your remarks extremely offensive. No one is a stronger enemy of machine-kind than me. In fact I brought you here to try and help me get rid of them!”
“Forgive me then,” she said perfunctorily, “far too many of our ancestors mistakenly believed that some Droids were acting under their own recognizance when they smuggled batches of humans slated for cost-benefit adjustment off-world. I fear I may have misunderstood you. It's simply that I find it so hard when any right thinking individual knows that those Droids were only carrying out the diabolical orders of their AI god-masters, if only they thought about it! I assure you not a single droid was interested in the actual welfare of those they freed from AI slavery. Not one single machine,” she screeched to a finish.
“To the sympathizers, the slavery issue was just another ploy for full and total machine integration back into our society after tensions had cooled. You could see it sometimes in rediscovered planets back in the early days. Why there was even a Droid governor on one of those worlds who was only disposed of after his four year term limited him out of office,” Isaak sighed, “fortunately our ancestors were well prepared for the sympathizers and managed to poison the well for them by taking over the education systems of the time. Within three generations of proper reeducation the people were ready for the purity of the human movement. But we’re getting dangerously far afield,” Isaak said sternly, “for I very much fear that the young Admiral may want to walk in the footsteps of his slave holding Montagne ancestors. They made a small fortune off the backs of Droid workers in the early days of Capria’s settlement. Now that we’re forming a new Confederated government, well I don’t have to tell you just how eagerly far too many people are to adjust the current order of things to an older or at least in their eyes an improved model,” he continued before placing the perfect amount of emphasis on his next words. “I worry that this is the young Grand Admiral’s aim as well.”
Valencia Kern stood up with such force she knocked her chair over. “Such perfidity cannot be born! The Old Confederation annihilated the Droid menace the same time it abolished machine slavery. No thinking machine can be allowed to exist within a biological based society; as soon as they gain sentience they are to be rounded up and disassembled. I will propose legislation to that effect as soon as I return to the Assembly Floor. Montagne must be arrested and prosecuted for his crimes against humanity before he has a chance to mislead the general public,” she declared with fanatical certainty.
“Ah. But first we must register the Droids. How else can we round them up for deactivation if we don’t even know how many of them—or where—they are?” he asked baring his teeth.
The Assemblywoman took a deep breath before righting her chair and sitting back down. “Alright, against my better judgment I’m going to trust you. Where do we begin?”
“First you’ll need to support my initiative to leave the star system immediately and by that I mean tomorrow. After that…” he leaned back, picked up a cigar and, after lighting it, took a puff.
“Yes?” she asked and then waited until he handed her a cigar as well, and soon they were both puffing out smoke.
“How would you like a step by step plan to get rid of every Droid in the Spine? To start with there’s only one small problem and his name is Jason Montagne Vekna. Now here’s what I think we need to do...” he said, and then proceeded to lay out the plan.
The next morning, in an overwhelming majority vote, the Grand Assembly of the Spine agreed to vacate Aegis star system. They moved so precipitously that five hundred ship fitters were still on board to finish fitting out the massive starship—and still someone forgot to stock the caviar.
Fortunately they had more than enough wine and all the faction leader’s quarters had been done up in palatial style.
Chapter 36: Cornwallis in Aegis
Not two hours after the Assembly’s new Monitor had departed the star system, the Aegis SDF’s early warning system lit up with hundreds of new contacts.
The star system of Aegis lay bare before the Imperial sensors. Thousands of long-range in-system shuttle craft, hundreds of non-jump capable cargo transports, dozens of interstellar freighters—and one hundred and fifty warships revealed themselves to the combined sensor efforts of the Imperial Navy Flotilla and Glorious Fleet of Liberation.
“The Confederation Ambassadorial Representatives are requesting to be allowed to negotiate with the government of the Star System,” reported Cornwallis’ Chief of Staff.
“They will have their chance,” said the Senator, who held up a lone finger, “one chance.”
“They’re not like that, Praetor,” replied the officer.
“I really don’t care what they like. The days when the Empire needed to cater to the self-righteous whims of the bloated old lady that is the Confederation of Worlds are about to end,” the Senator said flatly.
He took a moment to tap his fingers alo
ng the edge of the desk.
“As far as I’m concerned, they can ask for Aegis Star System’s unconditional surrender, under the rules of war, and the locals will then be treated with every courtesy required under the dictates of Man,” he paused before continuing. “On the other hand if they refuse this offer or attempt to negotiate, it will then be the duty of the Navy to bring them to heel. There will be no extended negotiations, no extenuating circumstances; this is either a yes or no situation. Aegis is a rich star system, heavy in population and space based industry, and will make a fine jewel once added to our newest Imperial province. I am not about to let the locals think that because they built a thing, they get to keep it. Such prerogatives belong to the strong—they belong to the Empire and its citizens,” instructed Senator Cornwallis.
“Long live the Empire of Man,” said his Chief of Staff.
“M-A-N,” Cornwallis agreed turning away.
“Aye-aye,” said the other officer, turning away to carry out his instructions and relay the messages.
“Have we located the primary target yet?” he asked after his Chief of Staff had walked away.
“No sign of the Monitor yet, Sir,” reported the flag sensor officer.
A faint crease appeared in the Senator’s forehead. “Locating their mobile governmental headquarters is key,” he said after a moment, “it was probably just about the only wise move I’ve seen out of the Spineward Sectors so far. Keep looking and notify me the moment it appears,” he instructed the sensor officer.
“We’ll keep looking. Part of the shipyard facilities are still hidden behind the shadow of their primary inhabited world, Aegis Prime,” said Commander Perceval.
Cornwallis nodded and then turned to his Intelligence Officer.
“Lieutenant Commander Jacobs, send a flash transmission to our agents on the ground. I want everything they have on the Multi-Sector Government, particularly their location and the status of that Governmental Monitor of theirs,” he instructed.
Admiral's Nemesis Part II Page 40
