The Province

by Skyler Grant

  In terms of appearance she seemed merely a woman with piercing green eyes, an overly pointy nose and non-athletic physique. But appearances were deceiving. If my sensors were correct, like her mighty ships and the armored soldiers, Queen Vinci herself was a great and impressive feat of engineering.

  Anna greeted her flanked by soldiers of our own, six Aegis units. Anna was wearing what she always thought queens should wear—too little of a red and black dress. It was a strange contrast to Queen Vinci's gray jumpsuit.

  "The famed Aefwal. It is good to see it at last," Vinci said.

  "And a pleasure to have you at once. I've had a banquet prepared, if you'd care to meet some of the city dignitaries," Anna said.

  "I would be hard-pressed to care less about this city’s dignitaries. I'm here for one reason and that is to see exactly what is so impressive about you—if anything is. I'll start with the teleportation portals," Vinci said.

  Vinci’s ships were scanning the city intensely. They were good, I didn’t know if I'd have been able to disrupt their sensors with just my Bio-reactors, but with the power of the Agate to draw upon I was able to scramble their readouts of key systems. I didn't like drawing upon the Agate at all, not with this woman here, but I'd prefer that to Vinci getting a good look at all of our secrets.

  Anna gave a strained smile and tilted her head. Her further attempts to make polite conversation as they walked to the portals were just as unsuccessful.

  The teleportation gates rimmed the city and these days we had them running every hour of the day transporting goods and equipment. Our facilities were especially good at producing rare biological compounds and that was something Vinci, for all her industrial capacity, was poor at doing. In return, we'd been getting goods of disturbingly high quality from her factories. I knew she still wasn't giving us the best that she had, and they were still better than anything I could produce.

  Vinci watched the gates for a time with a frown tugging at her lips. "Not of your manufacture, are they? They don't have your style. Bardinelli's work, if I'm not mistaken."

  "They came with the city. We've kept them maintained and operational," Anna said smoothly.

  "It is Emma, correct? The intelligence that runs this city? Is she watching?"

  I took over one of the drones that were guarding Anna. "Unlike your ships, I have sensors that work and I'm always watching."

  Vinci studied the drone curiously as it spoke, moving forward to brush her fingertips against the armored carapace. "Biogrown armor fit for a human. You make them, yes? The inhabitants? Are they intelligent or simply shells that house you?"

  I said, "They're intelligent and have their own lives and personalities. I can also take over their flesh when needed. With all the cybernetics you have inside that frame, you must be capable of doing something similar to your own subjects."

  "Good. Many people think that the best tools are stupid tools. It limits them. I am glad you are not yet a disappointment. I tire of walking however, and I'd like to see your manufacturing facilities," Vinci said.

  I was capable of teleporting my drones within the city, and by targeted opening of teleportation gates could easily transport anyone else. I didn't make the fact generally known, but Vinci must be familiar with the underlying technology. I shouldn't be surprised, given her background.

  I teleported the group of them into one of my factories. I picked one that would give some variety. Currently Factory 118 was growing several new drones, sniper rifles for Gunslingers, and pharmaceuticals for trade.

  The air was thick with the scent of chemicals and organic matter, and faintly acidic. I was curious to see how Vinci would handle it and given Anna's accelerated regeneration, it wouldn't be too unpleasant for her.

  Vinci took a deep breath of the air. As I expected, she wasn't troubled. She looked over vats and the interior, and she even dipped her fingers into growth goo, a thick stew of organic compounds.

  "So this is how you do it. You started out electronic did you not? Why did you choose to pursue such an organic path?" Vinci sounded honestly curious.

  Anna was busy coughing, that was just her lungs starting to dissolve. Perhaps the acid in the air was a bit much for her to deal with after all. I neutralized the mix a bit so that her breathing would have a chance to recover.

  "It isn't an electronic world. While I functioned due to my power crystal, without it I'd have been as dead as every other computer. My choice isn't the puzzling one. Why someone would choose to be so stupid as to stuff themselves full of useless electronics is a more interesting question," I said.

  Anna tried to cough out something that was probably telling me not to insult the foreign dignitary. It came out a spew of blood. Still too high with the acid level—she really was too fragile. I neutralized a little more.

  "If my choice seems puzzling, I'd remind you that I at least am not coughing my lungs out. Is your Queen quite all right?" Vinci asked.

  I did a scan just to confirm. Anna was fine, her lungs were quickly regenerating and she might even be capable of speech in another thirty seconds or so.

  I said, "You're still pursuing the faded dreams of a world that no longer exists. Electronics were once a power capable of changing the planet, but now you're simply inefficient."

  Vinci tapped her fingers on the edge of the growth vat. "My factories outproduce yours, for all that you are a useful novelty."

  "I apologize for Emma," Anna said, now that she finally had a voice again. "Emma. In the future could you kindly give me some warning before moving me into an acid-filled factory."

  "Your lungs grew back," I said.

  "The same cannot be said of her pretty little dress," Vinci said dryly.

  That was true. Anna was rather naked at the moment. Vinci might have poor choices in technological pathways, but she did at least have a strong stomach. Those coveralls of hers were also made of some impressively durable material.

  Anna flushed and tilted her head. Red and black armor materialized to coat her body in a form-fitting suit. The armored carapace would last for several hours once the Bio-armor had been invoked.

  "A quicker-witted woman would have done that at the first sign of her dress melting," I said.

  "Someone with properly calibrated sensors would see it didn't happen to start with," Anna said.

  That was unfair. My sensors worked perfectly well, I just didn't care.

  Vinci cleared her throat. "As entertaining as it is to watch you two bicker, I am here on business. You've been doing a lot of trade with me lately, but it has started to level off. Have you reached production capacity?"

  It was a sensitive subject. I didn't want this woman having a firm grasp of just what we could produce. Still, it was a reasonable question. If we could make more for trade, she'd likely want it.

  "Our trade production is where we're comfortable with for the moment. If we wish to expand that going forward, I'll let you know," Anna said.

  It was a good answer, she managed them sometimes.

  "I understand that you do research as well. I'd like to see a lab," Vinci said.

  That was also reasonable enough as requests went, and there I even had some interesting things I could show off.

  I teleported the group once more. Much of my SCIENCE was now taking place in the towers, however I did still have many of my traditional testing labyrinths set up. One currently held the unfortunately-named "Puddle" who possessed a core that let him transform into a liquid and back.

  I'd been testing the extent of his ability for the last several days and pushing him in directions I don't think even he'd known he had. Currently he was trying to get to an exit portal that was guarded by carefully placed laser grids. He had to partially reform and reshape himself along the route, never quite becoming human.

  I explained the experiment.

  "Do you test for their benefit or your own?" Vinci asked.

  "Always for my benefit, although sometimes the subjects can benefit as well. Several importan
t members of the Province are former test subjects who have proved their usefulness," I said.

  "But they aren't usually willing subjects?"

  "Not typically. I've had a few people that have requested I push them and expand their abilities, but usually they're subjects that have been captured."

  Anna explained, "As Emma said, it can be either. If you have either prisoners or subjects you wish us to test, we're capable of doing so."

  Vinci's lips twitched at that and she leaned against a testing console. "Ah, the quest to be useful. I do appreciate that. There has been a lot of chatter about this upstart little province of yours. And its self-appointed queen who isn't deserving of the title."

  Anna's gaze went cold at that, the polite smile slipping. "You wouldn't be the first to think that. I don't care about what powers someone has, they aren't what really makes a queen."

  Vinci held up a hand. "I did not intend to be insulting. I do, of course, think you the shallow and empty-headed companion of the true ruler of this city. A sort of powered parasite who has attached herself to one of her betters, someone indulging your delusions. I do not care. Emma may keep whatever pets she wants and I can even pretend you have value so long as I don't take it too seriously."

  Politics again, I really didn't enjoy them. I also didn't much like anyone, apart from me, insulting Anna. I was already calculating how I could settle this if it went to violence. I could teleport Vinci into a holding cell, or if her technology prevented it and given she was right next to one, detonate a wall panel and blast her into one.

  I did not doubt that she was strong, but I'd held worse in my cells before. When it came to the practice of SCIENCE, if there was one thing I could do, it was hold a test subject.

  Anna held up a hand. "Emma, don't answer that. I want this smug bitch to know that whatever happens next, it happens by my command."

  Well, she was the Queen.

  Vinci had a half-smile. "I could break you, girl. I'd probably enjoy it, but again that really isn't why I came. Allow me to guess what you think is happening here. That I am about to make my ultimatum, demand your allegiance or my airships overhead open fire."

  "Your airships overhead try it, they'll be raining down as debris before they get the chance. Your biggest factories would be receiving bombs instead of trade goods seconds thereafter," Anna said.

  It wouldn't actually take me seconds. I had a supply of Bio-bombs prepared, and reconfiguring the gates and teleporting them would be a matter of far less than a second. I'd found it didn't pay to take your time when going to war. First strikes tended to count for a lot.

  "You underestimate what you face, but then again I don't expect you to be the brains of the operation. Like me or hate me, you need me. Without me ,you'd already have been attacked a dozen times over," Vinci said.

  "And if you're trying to make friends lady, you’re almost as bad at it as Emma," Anna said.

  "Yet that is exactly what I'm doing. You don't have to bend the knee. I have big plans, massive plans, and I'd like the resources of this province to be a part of them. I could use the scientific expertise and you could use my official protection."

  Anna was tense. I knew her, I knew how much she loved a good fight, and Vinci had done a lot to needle her. She had to be close to taking the bait and yet was holding herself back. We'd picked fights outside our weight class before and although we'd somehow survived them, Anna wasn't any more eager than I was to do it again.

  "What exactly are you proposing?" Anna asked.

  "You officially become a tributary state. Keep your title, however foolish, and your sovereignty, but acknowledge me as your superior military power and offer your scientific expertise. Trade will continue as it has and my forces will aid in your defense," Vinci said.

  It wasn't what we'd been expecting. Arrangements such as this weren't completely unknown amongst the Scholarium, but they were rare. This was very nearly generous as terms went, and therefore deeply suspicious.

  "I accept," Anna said.

  Alliance Menu

  Status Update

  Vinci Empire: Allied (tributary)

  "A wise choice," Vinci said. "My people will send over details of an upcoming expedition. Your assistance is required. Teleport me back to the landing pad."

  I did as she asked. Whatever had inspired this, Vinci was wasting no time. That usually meant trouble.

  3

  Whatever Cataclysm had destroyed the world split the planet into bands. Airships with jump drives were capable of traveling between these bands. Band Zero was supposedly the closest to the conditions of old Earth and the home of the Righteous. The numerically higher and further the band from Band Zero, the more fantastical and loose the rules of reality became. I'd first awakened in Band Seventeen, fairly close to the Core, although I didn’t know the cosmology at the time. The Divine with their excessive powers were located in Band One Hundred and Thirteen. At that range most bands stopped supporting human life as the physical rules simply became too strange and too much of an unknown.

  Vinci had stayed silent about just what this expedition was about, but wanted two well-equipped science vessels to accompany her fleet. I wasn't thrilled with the lack of information, but I could at least accommodate her request. I soon had two vessels, the Theorem and the Madcap, join with her fleet at the coordinates she provided.

  I didn't trust this expedition at all, so I kept our heavy-hitters back. Any of my drones that died, I could simply produce new bodies. I didn’t have that ability with anyone else. As soon as our ships exited from the jump this seemed to be proved a good idea. There were two other science vessels already present and six heavy carriers. This wasn't so much a scientific expedition as a military one.

  It was only after joining the fleet that I was finally given a mission file on what to expect. Queen Vinci recently had three outposts go silent. All were towards the Core and none were full-scale cities, but it was still alarming.

  The outposts that Vinci had lost were in Bands Eight and Nine, close to the Righteous. Too close to the Righteous for the Scholarium to be comfortable normally, so the outposts were almost certainly espionage or military operations.

  The fleet jumped first to Band Nine. We materialized above a stretch of desert wasteland with a few brown structures. I had my sensors operating at peak from the instant we arrived. I wanted to make sure I was aware of exactly what had happened. It was what we were here for.

  I wasn't detecting any life signs from the outpost and there was evidence of weapon fire.

  That meant it had likely been a Righteous assault. I relayed my preliminary information to the fleet and the military vessels sent down shuttles. I didn't go that far, although I did dispatch a few research drones.

  Kinetic weapons fire to the buildings was consistent with the Righteous. My drones were picking up corpses now and I went in for a closer look. The dead were Vinci's people, and the base was definitely military. The power armor was similar in design to what I'd seen her guards wear, but there were some unique differences. Some units were clad in a version that seemed far more primitive. The power battery designs were lower yield than the others, and the well-built weapon systems were antiquated, gunpowder-based kinetic weapons.

  There was only one real reason I could think of for that. They were designs meant to operate in a Reality Zero environment. The Righteous dampened the abilities of those in their presence. At times this was inconvenient and in battle sometimes near-fatal. In Reality Zero conditions all abilities and powers were suppressed completely.

  But these weapons and armor designs were more than any readiness against power-dampening assaults. They went beyond self-defense. Vinci was preparing for a war with the Righteous. I had to say that I approved. The Righteous had occasionally been allies, yet I'd never for an instant trusted them. We were simply too different, they wanted to render all the Powered into something powerless and that was incompatible with who and what I was.

  Vinci's people had fough
t back, but they hadn't fought back quite like they should. The defensive patterns I was seeing didn’t make sense. Her most effective resources hadn't been utilized, and what little defense had been put up came from the Reality Zero units—that was alarming.

  Even with a Righteous dampening field fully in effect and the local environment being unpleasant, the Powered units still should have given some fight back. They hadn't. Something had rendered them useless.

  I sent along an update of my findings and quickly got a comm back from the lead Vinci ship.

  "This is Captain Lora. You're certain of this?" Lora asked. They sent a visual from the bridge of the ship. Lora was a woman in her forties dressed in a plain gray uniform, but she wasn't what interested me. The ship behind her was odd. Every console had two panels with one being a far simpler and more primitive design.

  "Captain, you obviously weren't given command of a ship because of your looks, which means you must be capable of some sort of basic reasoning. This isn't even a surprise to you, is it?" I asked.

  I'd stopped scanning the environment and was focusing upon the Vinci vessels now. They had shielding to block my scans but SCIENCE really was my strength and I wouldn't be denied. Duplicate or even tertiary systems weren't uncommon on combat vessels, but these massive ships had the vast majority of their systems duplicated in a configuration to work in a Reality Zero environment.

  Lora said, "We've been told to play nice with you so long as you are useful. Telling me what I may or may not know is not useful."

  Well, she had a point. The Vinci ships were designed to operate far into Righteous space. They thought this was an attack on their facilities and they were prepared to go deep and draw some blood. That didn't mean that they really knew what had happened here.