Chapter Two
The Yard, Ark Orbit
Tricticus, Emarl System
8/3555
Moretti waited in his office. Everything seemed to be coming together well enough. But there was some back chatter he was catching from Tricticus that he was unsure about. High King Desialias had indeed given him all the right places to watch and listen in, but it was his oldest son, Cronus, who passed him a few names that he didn’t have. They were proving more useful.
Pulling up a screen, he listened in to a conversation between the two remaining cities, Crisidium and Gtrul. They weren’t very agreeable on their sides to the negotiation; it seemed, however, that a few members from Camp Epsilon were stepping in to sort it out. The conversation seemed to grow in anger and then Moretti heard a voice he recognized. Hael’s younger son, Julieus. He was arguing against this? No, surely not. After all, he’d seen inside the Yard. But the more he listened in, the more he was sure. Julieus didn’t want this; he didn’t like the mergers and he didn’t like his sister being one. It was obvious now, and Moretti decided straightaway to get someone else on the inside to keep a very close eye on Julieus.
Usually recording all conversations he listened in on, Moretti deleted this one and sat, thinking over the eye-opening revelations. The smaller cities that had been devastated by the Maraukians were being rebuilt. But their progress was immensely slow. Forty-two cities reduced to thirteen. Moretti wondered whether Tricticus would ever recover fully. Of course, they would; with the Yard sitting on its doorstep, he shouldn’t ever doubt it. Tricticus was going to be a place they would have to defend heavily. The next load of ships to be built would need to be heavily weaponized. Something his designers were also working out now. If they could get more manpower and more equipment, the Yard would expand so much more.
Chapter Three
The Ark
Tricticus, Emarl System
8/3555
Moretti waited with a few of his trusted men while High King Desialias’s shuttle docked. There was something that shook him on the inside, seeing something dock with their entirely functional mini world. They’d thought of everything, right down to fresh produce and other supplies that weren’t so easy to fabricate. The sheer amount of people involved something more than most planets had.
Now it was time to bring together some of the other planetary governments and resources. There was no better way than doing this with a tour.
Moretti had spoken to the lead at Mining City Twenty-One. It was, after all, the largest of the cities on Osdal and most productive and he’d brokered a meeting. For the most part, the EMF still had a stiff grip on her. He needed to make sure that he could get in underneath them and sway not only their pockets but their loyalty.
It had been Mark’s NIAI Sarah who had put this idea in his head. Here he wanted to get to know Hael some more, to see what made Ava’s father tick. Once he had started his first negotiations, and secured the movement of Alcubierre drives between them all, he knew his plans would mean a very long travel to Hellenica. Within the next few months, he hoped ships from Tricticus to Osdal would be a regular and very fruitful operation for the VC.
The waiting around, in orbit, wasn’t something Moretti was used to.
Hael and his men were escorted through and toward him, General Orbel proud at his side and of course, Julieus. Moretti’s instinct about this young man told him everything: he needed to be wary. It was the way that he held himself and seemed to hold him with contempt.
High King Desialias smiled and held out a hand for him to take.
Moretti shook it firmly. “It’s good to have you aboard. We’ll take a tour, show you the best parts of our facilities and then we’ll discuss the Skill School.”
Hael smiled to Orbel and Julieus. “See—a man who doesn’t waste his words. I like that.”
Orbel looked around the bay areas. “From the outside, this place looks nothing more than some rusted old materials and largely space junk. You’re already impressing me with what you’ve got going on inside.”
“I agree.” Hael waved a hand around their area. The crisp, clean air they breathed and the shiny surfaces abounded.
“It might not seem like much, but the people who live here are very proud of what they have.” Moretti motioned for them to follow him.
The entourage moved with him and they made their way to a small corridor with a rail track. “Fastest way to get around. If you please.”
There were only enough seats for four, so Moretti asked the guards of his to follow on the next one. They didn’t seem that keen, but knew their place.
Hael joined Moretti up front while the small cart then made its way off and into the space of the Yard itself. “To see her from outside, you wouldn’t get all this.” Moretti waved to the walls as they sped up. The walls then seemed to shimmer and become opaque.
Now able to see the outside of the corridor, Hael gasped. “The sheer size of it never computed.”
Julieus and Orbel seemed to agree from behind him, but Moretti wasn’t as interested in their responses as their leader’s.
“To your right is the very first ship we’re pushing out. She’ll be ready in less than twenty-four hours now we’ve settled back into creation rather than flight.”
The VCF logo was clearly visible from their spot running alongside the ship. But so was her name. Maritime.
“This is the ship you want to send out with one of my sons on?” Hael said in slightly hushed tones.
Moretti eyed him carefully. Julieus sat right behind him, but he’d not heard. “Yes. You would sooner it not be Julieus, though?”
Hael didn’t need to answer this one. “Your Skill School will be around here?”
“The opposite side of the Yard. We’ll go there now.” Taking a left tunnel up ahead, they made their way across and over the top of the Maritime.
Hael’s eyes widened even more and he brought out a reading device for Moretti to look over. “There are certain conditions I would like from you, if you will please take a look through them.”
Moretti took the device, reading over the pages that King Hael had introduced. He knew that Hael watched him as he read but he stayed non-emotional. There was nothing too extreme, but then he spotted it.
Code within code, almost an old school hack.
“I see.” Moretti nodded at the king. “Let us see the Skill School and then we’ll discuss this while Julieus and Orbel are shown some of the more meaningful training rooms.”
With a nod, Hael looked back out to the Maritime. “One big ship. Will all of them be this size?”
Moretti hoped not. The sheer amount of resources used for the three freighters now almost finished was a gamble. The ships he’d slated next were sleeker, more refined and hopefully with a few hidden tricks. He had hoped to be on one out of Tricticus, heading for the new trading routes of Osdal and Fernix. But he realized he would be heading to Hellenica instead.
Finally reaching his real destination, Moretti moved to step out of the tram and watched the king and his son off. Two guards were at a wide entrance to part of the station, protection he knew for some of the equipment inside.
What Moretti wanted them all to see now was in full flow. The men and women being trained inside the shop were going through the motions that Mark and Jerome had instilled upon them: sciences, hand-to-hand combat, weaponry simulations.
He hoped that this would sway Hael and that they’d see together, with the tech and manpower from Tricticus, that they were stronger.
Tricticus still needed a lot of building up, but again, they’d be much better working together.
The guards stepped aside and Moretti showed them into the main open arenas. “Here—you can’t see what they do without these.”
Moretti passed them all eyepieces so that they could witness the simulations the others did. What always surprised Moretti was the sound that seemed to suddenly engulf him, alongside the glasses.
He watched on as Hael glanc
ed around the area, now able to see what was transpiring inside. The large room had around three hundred men and women training in various forms of combat. This excited Julieus and he stepped forward. “General, I think we should observe some of this, while my father and Mr. Moretti talk.”
Orbel seemed to agree and Moretti allowed them to wander away, skirting the training men and women.
“You wanted that to happen,” Hael said.
“Of course. No better time for us to talk than while they’re being distracted properly.”
“Do you have somewhere in mind?”
Moretti moved to a secure room at the back of the main lobby. There he checked it over quickly and then motioned for Hael to take a seat.
Moretti placed Hael’s reading device near his computer system. Here he was able to copy and effectively rout out the code hidden inside it.
Hael smiled. “You’re everything that my investigators have informed me of.”
“I hope you see that in good light?” Moretti asked.
“I’m going to be honest here.” Hael glanced to the door.
“No one will disturb us, don’t worry,” Moretti assured him. “The cities were disturbed by the offers the Victor Corp has made them. They think a too-good-to-be-true offer means that there will be something down the line that they don’t like. They’re still thinking about their allegiances.”
“On the whole, yes. I can only persuade them with the truth, the facts that Mark and you have given us, the Maraukians themselves, and the true sciences. There’s no hiding these things, and they know they are the truth. They’re scared that they’ll be betrayed, and that you’re no better than any other corporation or military.”
Moretti nodded. “The Skill School and its trade are supposed to be both ways for that reason alone. Here we need those skilled workers, and we’ve teachers to help train them. To get your citizens interested, we must assign them a debt; to pay off that debt, you work. It’s not a bad thing. We’re not assigning them to war, just to help prepare for that war.”
“There are interested parties for that effort, you know.”
Moretti’s eyes glanced back to the document. “To protect your own planet, you want to train with the best, learn everything you can in defense.”
“And offense. We do not want to be left in the dark. I know for certain there are also men who are willing to offer themselves up for merging.”
Moretti raised an eyebrow. “Mark and the mergers were lucky to escape Edani city.”
“Please, I have only seen reports on losses… not who.”
“You’ve not spoken to Ava?”
“No. I fear the worst, though.” Moretti saw the High King deflate, and then shake it off. In a split second Hael turned the subject on its heels. “Do we have an agreement for the Skill School, even with the changes?”
Moretti moved back to the reader. “Without the extras hidden, yes, the ten percent lower offer is acceptable and I believe your locations for the Skill School on Tricticus are good. We’ll be able to mix our teaching staff so that we’re training in both locations with the best possible outcomes. I believe we have a deal.” With that, he moved to place his thumbprint over it, and assigned his own personal codes.
Chapter Four
The Yard
Ark Orbit, Emarl System
8/3555
Esamai didn’t know why Moretti insisted on calling the planet the Ark, when its name had been Erotus, and she wasn’t sure why they were here at the fourth planet in the Emarl system instead of closer to the asteroid belts or Tricticus.
She knew he had his reasons for it and that he liked to keep his secrets, so she let it be.
Although they weren’t at the asteroid belt or in Tricticus’s orbit, they had regular freighters to connect them to both locations, turning them into a sort of midway point at least some of the time in the nearly eight hundred days it took for them to orbit Emarl system’s sun.
Many of the people who worked in the Yard had been part of the EMF or related to people from the EMF. Others were descendants who had come with their grandparents and settled on the Yard.
Although people were uncertain of the future that lay ahead of them, they were excited and relieved.
Technology and ideas were flowing through the Yard like they had never done in the past. Those who had joined from the EMF might have put on their uniforms again, but the Yard’s workers were pushing themselves harder than before. Here they had a chance to not only have a life but to build up an entire system.
They knew that a fight was coming and instead of shirking away from it, they threw themselves into their projects. Those who had gone to pull back Mark and support the legion were made up of the fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters of those on the Yard.
It was their people out there fighting. They might not be on the front lines but they sure as hell were going to make sure that they had the best gear when they were fighting for their lives.
The Yard’s production had nearly stopped altogether as they were in transit. But now as the Yard was opening up, once again the engineering teams were combining together, making up for the losses and getting into work.
Esamai checked Tyler, who was asleep in the protective sling. Thanks to medical aid, it hadn’t taken her long to recover and get back on her feet. Even when the doctors and nurses wanted to keep her back, she wasn’t having any of it.
It was her husband and brother-in-law out there.
She knew Moretti was a capable man, but he was an intelligence officer—he could manage the Yard for some time but he wasn’t able to run it as it was supposed to be run. He didn’t know the crews, their habits, which ones worked best together, where they were best suited. Right now he was holding on but later on, issues would start to appear.
Esamai and her family had run the Yard for four generations. Now Mark had named her as head of the Yard. It was time that she got back into office.
She looked at the male and female troopers with her. They both wore their body armor and helmets. Their hands rested on their pistols, ready to defend her if needed.
She didn’t like the extra security but she understood it.
She passed through security checks. Even before the Yard had moved, the security checks had been in place. The Yard had many secrets they didn’t want getting out.
To date, none of the Ministry of Intelligence operatives was able to get out with any information the Yard wanted to keep secret.
In fact, all of the Ministry of Intelligence operatives had been secured in the bridge and were now being offered their old jobs as long as they swore not to sell information to anyone and were strictly monitored. In the world of AIs, privacy was a thing of the past.
Troopers and people moved out of her way, nodding and greeting her as she walked past. Seeing the determined look in her eyes, none of them moved to stop her.
All of them sensed that a change was coming. An electric feeling ran through them as Esamai looked to take control of the Yard once again.
She walked to where her office was located to find Moretti standing outside it.
He smiled at her and nodded. “Kept the seat warm for you. Let me know if you’ll need anything. I have compiled all of my reports for you.” He sent her a message; the information uploaded to her NIAI, filling in any blank spots she had.
“Thank you,” Esamai said. “What will you do now?”
“Now? Well, it seems that it’s time we got to know what is happening within the EHC and the Union. There are a lot of people eyeing us now. Best to know who our enemies are and where they are,” Moretti said.
“Good luck.” Esamai didn’t have the patience or the ability to try to deal with all that information gathering, the sabotage and intelligence games. Thankfully, Moretti and his people were there to steer them along and let them know of the hidden dangers that lay ahead.
Moretti looked down at Tyler, who was moving in his sleep. The intelligence officer’s facade left completely as
he stroked the little one’s face.
Esamai knew that Jerome and his fellow troopers had seen the worst and lived through situations she couldn’t even understand. Though when seeing Tyler and interacting with him, she got to see a side other than the military personnel that had been groomed by the EMF.
She got to see the soft and caring side that lay at the heart of them, the part that would put their life on the line for the ones on either side of them, that would run into weapons fire yelling and screaming, just to support their friends and keep the people who stood behind them safe.
Moretti left, leaving Esamai looking at her office.
Instead of walking inside, she turned down the corridor and headed to the command center. The doors opened for her.
The command center was broken down into rings, with areas for people to walk in between.
In the center, there was a large, three-dimensional representation of the Emarl system being manipulated by different techs as they talked about different areas where scans showed places that could have asteroids filled with the raw materials they needed.
Outside of them, there were several consoles with different communication personnel talking to one another and coordinating with the people across the Yard and the Emarl system, their information updating the main projection as needed.
After them, there were the different workstations that managed the activities happening in Emarl, broken into the asteroid mining and the Yard.
The station control had been given over to the team that was based on the station currently.
People were moving around, talking to people across the system. The chatter made Esamai feel alive. She felt as though she had stepped into the nerve center of the entire system.
Esamai took a moment to take it in. She nodded and waved to people she knew.
“All right, you slackers! I hope you’ve had a nice vacation. Now it’s time to earn your pay!” Her voice carried through the room as she moved to the central console.
An Empire is Born (Maraukian War Book 3) Page 2