by Aer-ki Jyr
deals for some of the prime ones, but overall their proposals are more goods
oriented. They want to integrate further with Star Force without actually
joining and we’re hammering out the details. They’ll be here for another week
at least and we’re done for the day. What’s on your mind?”
“I’ve finished my theoretical retooling.”
Davis’s mood perked up slightly. “And?”
“We have some options.”
“I’ve got time,” Davis said as he sat back down in his
chair. “Lay it out for me.”
Wilson sat as well. “As Star Force grows we have an
increasingly difficult task of command and control, which we’ve dealt with by
developing and maintaining a core group of trustworthy individuals, whether
they be Archons, Monarchs, Administrators, etc. Everything functions off of
them, and remove that spine and you’d see the empire fall apart. Not
immediately, since the factions and systems are redundant and somewhat
self-sufficient, but we are the glue that holds it all together and the larger
our territory gets the more glue we need.”
“Agreed.”
“The question has been whether that glue needs to be
Human. The answer is no. It needs to be Star Force. Already you have a few
non-Human Monarchs, so there’s no issue there, but with regards to the Archons
it’s not so simple a matter because of their psionics. Ask yourself this
though…could you ever see a very skillful Calavari becoming a trailblazer?”
Davis frowned. “We aren’t producing any more
trailblazers, Calavari or Human.”
“Kara says otherwise. Special circumstances elevated
her into their ranks, more or less. Assume something drastic happened and it
involved a Calavari.”
“They would tell me whether or not they wanted him. I
wouldn’t make that decision.”
“What would they judge him by?”
“Skill, obviously. Trustworthiness. Experience would
also be a factor, I imagine.”
“You’re missing one.”
Davis raised an eyebrow.
“Brotherhood. That’s what bonds them together more
than anything else. The things you mentions are prerequisites, but it’s the
bond they have that’s the real glue with them and allows them to function
without a chain of command. The rest of the empire has a structure, but they
don’t. We don’t. You run things because you’re best at it, I’m best at training,
but we never get into a bickerment over who gives orders.”
“Bickerment?”
Wilson smiled. “A term I coined long ago. There’s a
difference between arguing and bickering.”
“So there is. Bickerment then. I’ll add that to my
vocabulary list.”
“You and I are a team, without any constraints
whatsoever. Originally I was your employee, but that didn’t last long.”
“You’re saying we don’t dare mess with that core
bond?”
“We’re also all Human, and that factors in as well. We
also all went through the process of building Star Force…and therein lies the
key. We are Star Force, and we’re not going to be replaced. We can add a few
worthy individuals to our ranks, but there’s no way anyone else has claim to
our personal club. We built it, we earned it, and we’re the gatekeepers. Humans
aren’t the gatekeepers, we are, and that’s a distinction that needs to be
highlighted.”
“Noted.”
“So the real question becomes the lower elite ranks.
You’ve already established protocol for the Monarchs…which is?”
“I hand pick them all, mostly from existing
Administrators, though a few from other placements.”
“All experienced?”
“To a degree, yes.”
“That’s not how we choose Archons. We take them fresh
off a testing package.”
Davis nodded. “Should that change?”
Wilson shook his head. “No, not at all. The process is
very refined now. No need to tamper with it…for Humans anyway.”
“If you’re going where I think you’re going with this,
you don’t want non-Humans in the Archon basic training?”
“I don’t want them in Archon training at all.”
“That’s a much simpler thing to say, so I assume there
is a caveat?”
“Brotherhood develops in many ways. To make it the
most potent you have to all be the same. Same race, same skills, same
challenges. No one without the full psionic package can be Archons. We can etch
that in stone right now.”
“Consider it etched then. What else?”
“The Protovic are close to Human physiology, no one
else is. A few are similar, but the only real Archon question is them. If we
give them, one day, full psionics, could they also be Archons?”
“I’m guessing no, but I’d like to hear your reasons
for it.”
“For one they’re more rigid, due to their exoskeleton,
and don’t have the flexibility range. That and other small differences are
present, and aside from physically changing them into Human there’s no point in
trying to make them Human. Archons are Human, pure and simple. That doesn’t
mean the Protovic can’t be valuable to the empire, but they’re not Archons.”
“Which brings us back to your trailblazer question.”
“If they accepted a Protovic into their midst, how
would they do it? I used Calavari because it’s a more drastic example, but
either will suffice.”
“Either way they’d have to be able to hold their
ground in a fight,” Davis said, thinking hard. “Strategic skills…heavy dose of
sarcasm.”
“Would they expect them to match them exactly?”
“I think Paul would say that Grand Admiral Thrawn
answers that question.”
Wilson laughed. “I was considering using that example.
Odd how they got both of us to literally memorize those bits of fiction.”
“They’re useful metaphors,” Davis agreed. “Thrawn
wasn’t Human.”
“No, and he had a slightly different way of
commanding, but he still got the job done. I think that’s the bottom line.”
“So if an individual can meet Archon standards,
however they get around to it…”
Wilson shook his head firmly. “No.”
“No?”
“We’re not going to hold back individuals trying to
fit them into Human standards. We have some very good Calavari that have been
serving as Commandos in the Human Mainline armies for centuries. They’re
operating off of Human standards and ranked lower than their combat potential
because they fight in different ways. At the time this wasn’t a problem because
all of Mainline was Human. Now we have Mainline factions of Calavari, Bsidd,
etc and there’s no need to integrate units except where advantageous. Those
units that are hybrids function far better because each piece is suited to its
role rather than being crunched down into a one form fits all.”
“How does this affect the Archons?”<
br />
“It’s simple. We allow them to have sidekicks.”
Davis looked at Wilson for a few seconds as he tried
to wrap his head around that idea. “What exactly are you inferring?”
“If we create psionics, we create them specifically
for the races and not to match what Humans have. They can become equals on the
battlefield, in theory, doing it their own way. They won’t be Archons, won’t be
part of that core group, from the beginning…but they could be adopted into it
later as sidekicks.”
“Define ‘sidekick’ then.”
“Think of Archons like brothers and sisters, with
sidekicks being cousins.”
“Ah,” Davis said, almost in a sigh, as it finally
clicked. “A strong bond but not quite what exists between Archons. Yet
battlefield comradery and the potential to advance up to our level if they
proved themselves worthy.”
“You’re already doing that with the Monarchs.”
“Their field involves giving orders, which can be
accomplished by any race. Physical combat is far different.”
“And I’ve already covered that, in theory,” Wilson
said as he fished a data chip out of his pocket and tossed it to Davis. “My
ideas of how to upgrade all the races we have someday. Not on the whole, but
for select individuals. There won’t be a training program like the Archons,
it’ll work more like the Arc Commandoes in that select individuals will be
chosen based on experience and merit. They’ll work with the Archons and operate
within that chain of command. Each will exist as part of Clan and organize in
that fashion, with their skills being utilized for what they can and can’t do
rather than trying to make them conform to Archon standards…which I’ll remind
you, are designed to master all 5 divisions.”
“I don’t think we really master aquatics,” Davis pointed out, “but we’re at least average compared
to the Elarioni.”
“We can do it all, and so can the Protovic. Not as
well, but they can. Most of the other races are more slanted towards
specialties. Specialists can’t be Archons. Archons have to do it all.”
“Sidekicks can be specialists?”
“Yes, and depending on how they’re psionically
upgraded that may change in certain areas.”
“And the current blue Protovic?”
“You mean the new blue or the old blue?”
“New blue.”
“Theirs is a racial program, which seems to be working
out well so far. We’ll have to wait and see what happens when they get some
depth. I don’t think we need to mess with their abilities anytime soon. Leave
them alone, with maybe a few bits of tinkering down the road. Let them be what
they can be and forget about being Archons. If they have the merit to lead the
empire, it’ll be as Protovic.”
“They’re not getting my job,” Davis scoffed.
“Nor should they. My point is Archons are Human for
numerous reasons, and not just psionics. True equality comes on the
battlefield, whether it be combat or economic, and not in the route you take to
get there.”
“We always have been fond of doing what works. This
would be no different.”
“It’s going to take a lot of trial and error to get
the other races pegged down, even without giving them psionics. I haven’t
trained them like Archons, and I’ll need to get to know how their bodies and
psyches work better before I try to develop a really deep elite program for
them. Their current training programs are solid, don’t get me wrong, but
they’re not built for someone meant to hold so much responsibility, let alone
problem solving, like the Archons are. I’ve got a lot of work to do if you want
to head down this road, and it’ll change every time we can add a psionic or
other ability.”
“Other ability?”
“We kind of use the word ‘psionic’ to refer to
superpowers…and even that isn’t a strict definition.”
“Guilty as charged.”
“Getting some of the air breathing aquatics races
liquid breathing upgrades would be one example.”
Davis paused for a moment.
“I don’t think we can do that with our bodies though,”
Wilson added. “Too much tissue change.”
“I wonder. The V’kit’no’sat didn’t include that in our
genome or theirs, and I wonder if that’s because the backup oxygen is for more
than just being under water.”
“They didn’t use Zen’zat for underwater operations
anyway.”
“Not that we know of, but their armor still had an
aquatics module. So it’s possible they were used in that sense on occasion.”
“I’ve never seen any files detailing that.”
“Neither have I. We’re too slow in the water compared
to the swimmers to be worth deploying save for emergency situations. Unaugmented
anyway,” Davis said as he slipped the datachip into a slot on his desk and
pulled up the reports Wilson had compiled for him, seeing that, as usual, Star
Force’s head trainer had been excessively thorough. “Who do you want to start
with?”
“I’m assuming we’re nowhere near developing any custom
psionics?”
“The timetable on that has gotten considerably hazy,
but assume no for the foreseeable future.”
“Then I want 100 Calavari here, on Earth, in Atlantis
so I can personally develop this program. We’ll need some considerable
remodeling first, though.”
Davis nodded. “You still don’t trust the Archon
trainees to anyone else?”
“I want to be able to troubleshoot if needed, but most
of the duties can be handled by others. That and I want to be the face they
know from the outset. I won’t lose touch completely, but I can free up a lot of
spare time if needed for this.”
“How do you plan on choosing the candidates?”
“These aren’t candidates. This is an advanced training
group, pure and simple. I need to learn the Calavari better before I design the
real one. I just need experienced, intuitive individuals that I can press and
study. I need to know how they think and respond under pressure, and to do that
I need to poke and prod them in very specific ways.”
“Will a seafloor expansion suffice? We’re kind of
lacking in internal space as it is.”
“So long as I don’t have to hop on a dropship to move
from one group to another.”
“I’ll have them build you a private transit system to
an adjacent facility. We have several nearby that can be repurposed easily and
they’ll function as part of the city if the link is fast enough, which it will
be.”
“Adequate. How soon can I get my experiments?”
Davis bit his lip. “I can rush the conversion inside
of a year. Finding and recalling the volunteers might take longer. Do you want
to handle that as well or should I just ask the Archons to do it?”
“If this were the actual first class I’d do it, but
/> since I’m not sure what to look for in Calavari they’d probably be better
judges. Just ask the ones that have worked with them extensively. The others
probably know less than I do about them at this point.”
“Done deal.”
Wilson nodded. “I don’t know how long this will
actually take.”
“No rush. No rush at all. Just another puzzle piece we
need to get in motion.”
“We have a lot of those, don’t we?”
“The bigger the empire, the more pieces.”
“About that…I have another request. A side project
that’s long overdue.”
“Yes?”
“I need to run the Archons through psionic armor
challenges. For that I’ll need an army trained to use them…which I’ll have to
develop if no one else gets around to it. It’s been on the Archons’ to-do list
for some time, but they’ve never implemented it as far as I know.”
“Gun shy?”
“Might be. Either way, it’s better something that I
handle than them. Same reason they can’t create their own challenges…at least
not ones as good as I can. You can’t think like yourself and your enemy at the
same time.”
“Terrorize them as you like.”
“That’ll actually be a bigger logistical project than
the Calavari.”
“Recruit what personnel and resources that you
need…although I would make one recommendation.”
“Which is?”
“Involve Vermaire. From an Archon’s point of view,
nothing is more intimidating than a Black Knight immune to your powers, and
Vermaire knows the trailblazers well enough to figure out how to hurt them.”
“Vermaire isn’t here.”
“He’s not?” Davis said, raising an eyebrow.
“They came and got him not long ago. Said they needed
him and his best Arc Knights on the front.”
“I didn’t realize that. He rarely leaves Earth.”
“They asked and he went. I don’t know much more than
that.”
“Do you know where he went?”
“To the core world that the 2s are assaulting.”
January 6, 3108
Menchet System
(lizard core)
Tess
“Are we sure about this?” Riona asked, looking down
the narrow chasm that was the innards of one of the connecting columns that ran