B00BKLL1XI EBOK, page 32
The planet killers would attack outposts with their thunderbolts of raw energy, tearing through planets and rendering them unusable. Destroyers, bombers and fighters didn’t engage their opponents, but simply protected the planet killer as it pierced through countless tons of rock and ice, splintering the planets’ and planetoids’ surfaces and heating their insides into magma which would seep out of the cracks and fault lines stretching for hundreds of miles.
The devastated worlds would be left as they were, often leaving surviving battle cruisers and gunships to tell their superiors exactly what happened. It was an obvious tactic, but the Dark Gods couldn’t see any other choice than to try and defend their outposts with more warships and pushing more and more of their military to the edges of their vast empire. It seemed that an area 21,600 light years across was too much to control without additional help. Their struggles finally answered the question as to why they needed proxies and why they wanted to create the Nation. It was all about securing their space and expanding their armada with the help of other, powerful species who had the industrial capacity to build and maintain large militaries.
“Excellent,” approved Ace as he finished reading the analysis. “I was hoping to see something like this. Now, what about Earth?”
The computer tallied the reports from the Child High Council on a wall sized holographic screen. Very few of them were positive. In the time between the first reports of a slowdown in business and the surge of hostility towards the cyborgs in the media and the attack on the Dark Gods’ capitol world, anti-Nation protests erupted across the globe. Neo-traditionalists organized angry marches in front of nearby embassies, complete with furious slogans and songs which talked of an Earth “made by real humans for real humans.”
Others went even farther, trying to publish the home addresses of Ace, Dot, and Nelson on Earth and hinting that it may be good if the Nation’s emissaries don’t have a place to which to return. Making an alien occupied residence no more, they wrote, would clearly tell the cyborgs that they’re not wanted.
Progressives made the battle of the words even worse by staging counter-protests so they could have an excuse to clash with the neo-conservative demonstrators, declaring that once Ace, Nelson, and Dot came back, humans would be given eternal life in cyborg bodies and publishing the home addresses and contact information of those who tried to encourage assaults on the cyborgs’ properties. They justified their actions by saying that they were only giving the agitators a taste of their own medicine.
Companies, labs and military entities spooked by the chaos, sat on orders to which they committed months in advance and delaying the delivery and payment of fulfilled requests. The Nation’s business on Earth suffered a sharp, 37% drop in volume and was 33% down in order value. Ace looked at the charts, shaking his head. Newman managed to rise from his political grave and wreak enough havoc to warrant the attention of the High Command.
Next day, in a High Command meeting, the Newman problem was the main topic. Dot and Nelson were brought in to consult on a course of action as the Commanders debated how to help the companies taking major hits. They accepted the legal argument that it was their duty to remove political barriers between trading partners and uphold trade agreements. And they needed to keep the cash flowing to fund the war with the Dark Gods. But how to do it was the big question.
“I think that Councilor Grey was on to something,” said Sergio. “If there are a few friendly faces, even remotely, we could reassure the humans and put an end to these nonsense protests.”
“Maybe, but then Newman would just whip them up again with a new talking point,” frowned Alice. “I understand what Grey said to Cynthia and I agree. Because we’re not there to set the story straight with the same people they’re used to seeing on TV, they don’t know what to believe and both Newman and the progressives can spin any story they want and get plenty of people to fall for it.”
“First and foremost, we need to take care of the Newman issue,” chimed in Nelson. “Then we use the same charm offensive as before. Ace and Dot clear things up, I act as an official voice backing them up and reassuring the humans that there’s nothing to worry about. If we put the issue of human to cyborg conversion on the back burner, we could refocus on the war.”
“Ok,” agreed Ace. “But you know what? I’ll take care of the Newman problem myself and we’ll go from there.”
“What are you going to do?” asked Dot. “Remember not to get too crazy now...”
“Don’t worry,” Ace gave Dot an offended, sideways glance. “I just want to talk to him, that’s all.”
A sleek limousine stopped in front a skyscraper housing an embassy of the Nation. Newman stepped out and mentally sized up the tower, wondering just how much of a thorn he became in the cyborgs’ side if they invited him for a meeting with the enigmatic and highly secretive High Command.
As he walked into the lobby, he was greeted by three Children in their traditional uniforms decorated with silver tribals. They lead him to a big, comfortable room on one of the top floors of the building and invited him to relax and make himself at home as the connection to Abydos was being established. On a table next to a beige couch with an asymmetrical back stood several bottles of fine spirits, square edged glasses and a metal tray with crystal clear, perfectly square ice cubes. With a polite bow, the Children left the room and softly closed the door behind them.
Newman settled in for a long wait. He expected that the Nation’s representative would take a long time to contact him and he had very good reasons to think so. After all, at the apex of his power, he made many a person wait for him. Running late with supposed meetings or presenting his time as a great favor was an excellent way to disarm a lobbyist or a rival since it made his time look far more valuable than anything on their calendar.
But the Nation didn’t make him wait long and right on time, Ace appeared on a wide holographic screen. The cyborg sat on a chair, backwards, dressed in human clothes. The sleeves of his aquamarine shirt were rolled up and the shirt itself was not tucked in. It was the way he usually wore human clothes on global TV. His face showed no anger or frustration like Newman hoped. Instead, Ace was smirking with an ominous air around him.
“Evening Mr. Newman,” he said, putting an extra emphasis on the casual salutation.
“Commander Ace,” respectfully nodded Newman in reply.
“Well, well Mr. Newman. You’ve really done it this time. After how you slathered us in shit for a year when we came here to defend your home world, I thought you couldn’t sink any lower than that. In fact, I was sure of it. But somehow, you managed.”
“Flattery won’t get you anywhere,” Newman shook the glass so the ice cubes clinked as he confidently beamed into Ace’s cold glare and took a sip.
“Mr. Newman, let me ask you something.”
“By all means.”
“Are you out of your mind? I mean there’s a war engulfing a third the galaxy and you’re dedicating your time to stripping the Earth of its technology and defenses. What is wrong with you?”
“No, no Commander. I’m removing your technology from Earth, not ours. I don’t like you and I don’t trust you and I trust those weird machines you sell by the million even less. I’m protecting Earth, not trying to endanger it. You did that already.”
“First of all, you own the technology. You bought it. It’s yours. I don’t think it takes a genius to figure that out. Secondly, I don’t care if you like me or not. Believe it or not, my universe will not collapse in on itself because you don’t like me. You don’t like me? Get in line behind all the other aliens and humans who aren’t that fond of me or my crew. And I have to tell you it’s a long line so keep those drinks up because you’ll be in that line for a long, long time.”
Newman took another sip and put down his glass with a chuckle. He sighed and began his counterattack.
“You know Commander, you should probably think about some kind of a spokesperson. Someone more refined around the edges and who knows how to deal with people. Someone less forgiving would find your approach pretty rude and uncivilized.”
“You talking about civility is an oxymoron Mr. Newman. Please do me a favor and cut the crap. You’re not dealing with the Children, their Council, or their salespeople. You’re dealing with the Nation.”
“How is that any different?”
“I don’t think you get it Mr. Newman. Or should I call you Andy instead? Seems a little more fair since you get to call me Ace?”
“Mr. Newman will work just fine,” growled Newman.
“You see Andy,” winked Ace, “the Children are the nice friendly face of the Nation. They’re the merchants, the politicians, the helpful creatures who come down from the sky and shower you with gifts. If you didn’t understand it by now, that’s their role. Do you know what the High Command’s role happens to be?”
“Let me guess, a shadow government? You send in the Children and manipulate them with the High Command from above, right? Or am I missing something?”
“We don’t need a shadow government. We have one that works, one that does more then make empty promises at election time. What the High Command does is black ops.”
“Say what now?”
Ace bared one of his gleaming fangs as he stretched in his chair, feeding off Newman’s shock.
“Oh yes Andy. Commanders like me do all the dirty, dark things no one wants to talk about. We lie, we cheat, we steal, we kill, and all of it for the sake of survival. All of it necessary. All of it dirty deeds that have to be done by someone to keep a nation safe. I spent over a thousand years doing what you, your cronies, and the slime in a black suit like you always denounced and washed your hands of, because God forbid, you have to get your rosy little palms dirty and do something other than sling shit and take bribes... err... donations.”
Newman was silent.
“I’ve done a lot of bad things Andy,” resumed Ace after a pause. “A lot of people in my place probably wouldn’t be able to look in the mirror anymore. I literally have fangs and claws. Do you know how many creatures I’ve sunk my claws and fangs into? Do you have any idea how many aliens I slaughtered with bombs and lasers? I’ve lost count by now, but I do know that thanks to me, some alien life forms are now extinct. As a scientist, knowing that I caused it hurts. But I had to do it even though the only thing these creatures did wrong is to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, in the crossfire of wars so much bigger than them, they couldn’t even grasp what was going on if they tried.”
“So why kill them if they don’t know better?”
“Because it’s a zoo out there. There is no galactic union or some sort of galactic police force. It’s a primal place where you have to be a killer and where you can’t live in peace until you’re in charge. And even that peace doesn’t last long.”
Newman sighed and took a long swig of his whiskey. He wasn’t expecting Ace to divulge government secrets and he had no idea how to respond. All he could do is watch the melting ice cubes churn and tumble in the amber colored liquid.
“Andy, I’m not going to try and stop you or change your mind, or silence you,” continued Ace after giving Newman a few moments to think. “All I’m asking is that you just hold off for a bit and relax. We can’t handle the biggest war we’ve ever fought and a revolt on Earth against us and our companies. You have to prioritize your fights. I’m going to come back to Earth if I survive and you can fight with me to your heart’s content. You can fight with me until your testicles turn bright purple from the strain. But please, not now. Not with riots and protests.”
“The riots and protests are unfortunate,” purred the ex-Councilor, “but I’m sure you understand that as a commentator I have... particular obligations to my audience. I can’t just stop covering topics they care about because an alien commander tells me to.”
“Ok, here’s an idea. If you really want to regulate trade between the Earth and the Nation, why don’t you take a 3% stake in the Fusion GEC/Advanced Kinetics partnership and the board seat that goes with it? From what I understand, Andrea Gayle announced that she would be retiring in mid-3510 so the board of directors is looking for ways to manage 22% of all technology trade between us. I’m sure that someone with your media and political connections will be much appreciated. And all we ask in return is a little slack until we finish a very brutal and high stakes war. That’s all.”
“And where exactly does that stake come from?”
“A black ops group needs certain resources. Let’s just leave it at that.”
Newman finished his drink in two draws and slammed his glass on the stand next to the couch. He stood up and took a deep breath as he locked eyes with the cyborg on the screen.
“Very well Commander,” he said. “We’ll continue this after you finish your campaign and return safely.”
“Thank you Mr. Newman,” nodded Ace. “I knew we could find a compromise.”
The holographic screen went blank. Newman took another quick glance around the opulent room and walked out with great satisfaction. A board seat and hundreds of millions in solid, blue chip stock was certainly worth backing off Ace and the Nation for a while. But only until the war was over. Over the decades, he made many deals with a wide variety of Devils. As far as this one went, it was pretty good.
[ chapter _ 040 ]
Newman kept his word and convinced his friends to move on to other topics in their commentaries. Ace, Dot and Nelson reappeared on global news networks. After months of speculation, the mascots of the Nation were finally answering questions and updating humans on the status of the galactic war complete with broadcast quality footage from the front lines. By some magic, a calm settled over the planet as people turned their attention to familiar figures of authority.
Ace’s first appearance was on a prime-time newscast. Dressed in his human clothes and talking from one of the libraries in the Temple of the Shades, he was following Nelson’s request not to remind the audiences on Earth that he was in an alien solar system clear across the galaxy. Although technology made it possible to follow current events in real time, Nelson was concerned that any alien artifacts or background views would make geocentric humans doubt that anyone could keep in touch across such vast distances.
“Ace, how do you feel about the negative press the Nation has been getting?” asked one of the anchors. “Do you think that some of the commentators stepped over the line there?”
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t see any lines,” Ace laughed in reply. “When there are sudden changes, negative press is expected and it’s just a question of how negative it will get. It just seemed to me that the pundits were much more interested in fighting with each other than to get to the bottom of the story. If you take a good look, all of their editorials focus on how bad their rivals are and frankly, if they want to tackle a topic like human to cyborg conversion, they owe it to their audience to get the real story.”
“And may we ask what the real story is?”
“Certainly. When it comes to the actual technology we’re pretty much there, just ironing out some potential issues with gene therapy and its effects on the DNA of a human born on Earth. We’re adding two nucleotides to the DNA and the RNA and reprogramming the body to create an extra 17 or so amino acids. It’s nothing we haven’t done before. The robotic body is very easy to program as well. But from the social or economic standpoint, there are just too many things that are up in the air. We don’t want to withhold anything from you, but it’s very, very obvious that conversions should be made slowly, by choice and with respect to how fast you’re willing to accept change.”
“So what you’re saying here is that you want us to decide what we want and how we want to do it and the technology will take of itself from there?”
Ace replied with the charming, knowledgeable smile of an old, wise man, momentarily showing his advanced age.
“Technology always does,” he said. “By itself, technology will let you do whatever you want. The question is why you want it to do it. We care about the population of Earth and we don’t want to hand them something they’ll eventually grow to despise. Becoming immortal is the most far-reaching decision anyone could ever make and it can be made only once without completely obliterating a society that’s just not ready for it. We can only make the technology available once or never because once it’s out there, there’s no going back. We never had a choice. What I became was decided for us. But you have a chance to really mull it over before you say yes or no.”
“What do you think Earth needs to do?”
“Why does my opinion matter? Sure I could pick in ideological stance, quote from the talking points and tell some people what they want to hear. But my opinion isn’t fact, I’m not an expert on modern sociology and I can’t give you any definitive answers. If I give you a sound bite opinion, it’ll be all style and no substance.”
“Ok, well...” the anchors tried to find a new line of questioning, not used to someone refusing to opine on global TV when given the opportunity. “Having gone through the conversion, can you give us a little more detail as to what areas of human life would be affected?”
Ace paused for a moment before replying to gather his thoughts, massaging his chin with his thumb and index claws.
“I think ‘what wouldn’t be affected?’ is a more accurate question here,” he said. “It would change the definition of society, family, and even what it means to be human. It would also change acceptable and unacceptable behavior, goals in life and what exactly constitutes a legacy. Human life is very organized and structured, milestones are very clear and we can pretty easily describe the life of a person from cradle to grave. All those clear markers and milestones are going to disappear because with an unlimited lifespan, they become moot. If I live until an accident kills me, when do I have kids? What do I do for a living? What’s my overall goal in life? How many kids can I have if I’m going to be fertile for thousands of years? All of that’s going to have to be answered.”
