Starship Engineer

I was extremely concerned with two Sylvan city ships in the Bradbury system. We could eliminate both city ships with our armageddon missiles. But right now, Desdemona was on board one of the Sylvan ships. Why would she even board one? Was she so confident in her ability to resist their mental influence? Maybe this was a ploy. If the Sylvan had docked all their War Chariots, then maybe Desdemona had planned for us to use the destructive missiles.

The problem was we were still hunting down debris in the system from when we fought the Brotherhood sixteen years ago. There had been only two accidents in all that time, and just one of them had been fatal. If I destroyed both these city ships, even with them being on the edge of the system, we could make parts of the system unsafe for years.

Kenji had sent me a comm from the Cloud Jumper, and I took it. He told me the synopsis of what had happened so I would not have to read the reports. Desdemona and he returned with the fleet seven days ago. Their munitions were severely depleted, and they could not fight a winnable battle since the War Chariots were deployed. The Sylvan had asked for the surrender and return of Rae'Ver. Desdemona ordered our fleets to a defensive posture and fired off an armageddon missile as a demonstration, destroying a small automated mining ship. It didn't take the Sylvan long to figure out the kinetic yield of the missile.

That had the Sylvan become less hostile, and after nearly a day of negotiations, they brought their War Chariots inside their city ships. The Sylvan had three ships under stealth, and my fleet monitored the readiness of their ships inside. The two First Citizens in charge of the city ships were stone walling Desdemona. Desdemona eventually pointed out one of their spyships, and that caused a stir in the negotiations. It was just a hint they were not able to hide from our sensors.

She had her finger on the trigger if the Slyvan relaunched the War Chariots, but she kept them guessing over our true capabilities. Kenji thought she did a marvelous job of keeping the Sylvan on their heels.

They finally learned why the Sylvan came. It was the Tirani, not a reaction to the message probe that Broderick had sent. The Tirani envoys had been interrogated. The Sylvan were on edge to learn how the Tirani learned about the Malevalents. They gathered the two nearest city ships and came here when the Tirani revealed it was me. The fact that we held Rae'Ver was only made known by some mental link he was able to establish with another First Citizen on the ships when they arrived.

Desdemona learned that Rae'Ver was exiled, and his people planned to put him in stasis until the time the Malevolants arrived. Then, he would be brought out to fight them. It was there that the negotiation got really interesting. Desdemona shared that she had seen the stored memories of the First Citizens of the Sylvan through her link to Rae'Ver. She told them what she was doing in this system was to prepare for the fight against the Malevolents. This caused a stir on the city ships, and soon after, she was asked aboard.

I quickly went to the recording of the interactions. Desdemona looked confident as she had talked with the Sylvan. I went through and replayed it four times. Desdemona had said that it was she who was preparing for the fight against the Malevolents and not us or the people. She indicated that it was she who had brought all these people here and gathered all the technology.

I did not know how I felt about her assertion to the Sylvan. On the one hand, she was putting herself at the center of their focus; on the other hand, she was claiming credit for the gains in technology and growth of the multi-species government. I turned my attention to my comms and took a call from Edmund. Edmund had been trying to reach me since I returned but events had taken first priority. It looked like things were paused for now.

He did not look happy as he explained how Desdemona had rallied all the captains together to support her against the Sylvan. Although she did not come right out and say it, she insinuated I had abandoned Bradbury, leaving it without strong leadership. That got me a little furious. I had not abandoned the system. The defenses and the Squirrel phaseable asteroids could handle just about anything. And we have left the system with fewer defense-capable ships in the past when we first attacked the quadrupeds. Edmund nodded and said she was twisting it to get what she wanted.

I did not regret my decision. I was right to go after my children. If I hadn't, then some or all of them might have died or been captured by the Brotherhood.

I asked Edmund if he thought Desdemona would try and move against me. He gave it serious thought and conferred anything was possible but did not think she would, at least not at this time. She was definitely working to get the captains of the Fateweavers into her camp for future support, albeit subtle.

Edmund professed his own loyalty to me, even if I did something stupid. He was having too much fun not stay along for the ride, and my intentions had always been for the benefit of others, even if I was sometimes too trusting. He was here to protect me from myself. He said the Squirrel would never change their loyalty either. The Tirani, well, they were mercenaries at heart. As long as I was paying their wages, they should support me.

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I asked Edmund about other concerns. He said Suruchi was a concern, not that she would betray me, but that she was likely to be elected governor of all the races in the system. It was almost inevitable at this point, unless I removed her now, and that would create instability. She was close to uniting the entire planet and the integration of all the species would make the Arcadians formible.

I asked for advice on what to do about Desdemona. He laughed on the screen. If it was him, he would launch the armageddon missiles, end the Sylvan, and the challenge to his authority. But his laughter died. He and Desdemona had worked together for quite some time. He respected her and thought she was brilliant and insightful. She was too valuable to eliminate. Instead, he thought I should send her on a diplomatic mission to either the Godfather organization or the Alien Alliance. We were already on excellent terms with the Alien Alliance, and getting them into a pact to fight the Malevolents would not be difficult.

The Godfather organization primarily operated on the other side of human space. Sending her there would shelf her for months. The risk was she would have to travel through human territory to get there. Raising the very real possibility that she could return to the Brotherhood with a Fateweaver and our technology. Or, he said, the data Desdemona recovered on the quadrupled was disturbing. I could send her on another mission to continue to weaken the species' ability to produce spaceships, targeting their mining and manufacturing.

So, three options were offered by Edmund. I suppose a fourth would be to do nothing and let this play out, but it looked inevitable that Desdemona was going to bleed away my authority over time. She was more competent than me when it came to Naval matters. I did not mind sharing the authority, but allowing her to make all the decisions was not going to happen.

It was now a waiting game for Desdemona to return. Edmund said she went in knowing the dangers. He thought it was a ploy to show her strength and courage to the other captains. I would not know what to think until I learned the outcome. I turned to another incessant comm call.

Danielle wanted to know if the children were well. I was not in the mood to deal with her, so I just sent her a message all of them were alive and well and back in the system. Since I had time, I decided to go to the brig and deal with this.

The first cell was Eve and Emma, the two bots. Eve smiled as I stepped in front of her. I asked her why she did it, and she said she determined she needed to protect Celeste. Since Luca, Nova, and Venus were in her care at the time, she brought them along to protect all of them at once. Eve was being coy with me, I knew it. Her programming was not that simple. She had twisted it somehow to escape. I just told her she failed in her role to protect my children. I was going to have to reassign her priorities. It was like I had slapped her, and she started shedding tears.

Emma, the teenage bot, was holding back her emotions. I knew her too well for her to fool me, and she knew it. I did not like that Eve was trying to manipulate me. I decided to keep her close and said she was going to be assigned to the Fateweaver. She could join my crew, but she was no longer responsible for my children. Her face turned angry, but she remained silent. I was going to have to delve into her programming.

Celeste and Nero were next. Their punishment was to be sent to the college in the city of Arcadian on the planet. They were planet-bound until they graduated with an advanced degree. The Wren boys were being sent to the Marine Academy. The orbiting training station was taking new recruits. Hopefully, they would learn some discipline.

Dartanian was yelling from his cell that he was also ready to go to college too. Instead, I told him he was going to the Naval Academy. Celeste said she would do that instead. I barked at her, showing anger, and said after she graduated from the university on the planet, she could attend the Naval Academy. In fact, I was making it a requirement. Until she did both, she was cut off. She was essentially on ten years of probation.

My estranged twin daughters, Nova and Venus, looked at me with distrust. They were almost eight, and I had an aversion to them, knowing they had been spliced with Sylvan DNA. They were copies of Desdemona's own modifications. Over time, they might develop the same type of abilities. I studied them and them me. I asked them what they wanted. This had not been their fault. They asked to be sent home.

I breathed easier and thought maybe I could try and bond with them. I asked them if they would like to remain on the Fateweaver while we were still in the system. To spend time with me. They looked at each other and seemed to talk silently, deciding. It was more than a little off-putting. Nova addressed me and said it would be acceptable.

That left only my other son, Luca, and Amos in the last cell. Amos was prepared to follow Celeste, and I consented. Amos was her shadow, and he did not seem to mind. I offered Luca a spot on my ship, and he jumped at the chance to remain on the Fateweaver. It was more to spit Daniel, who had kept him from me. I was sure all my decisions were going to have blowback from Danielle. She would eventually have her children back, but they were mine, too.

It was fourteen hours later when we heard from Desdemona. She was returning to her ship, and Edmund was prepared. I told her that her command was suspended until we confirmed she was not under the Sylvan's influence. She smirked for a moment but consented. It was time to find out what days of negotiations with Sylvan had wrought.

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