Dark Fate, Chapter 69 (Patreon)

Chapter 69 – Spreading the Word

With one month until the aliens arrived, all my preparations suddenly needed to go into the final phase. Things that I had put off, because I didn’t have a timeline, and needed to be available to respond if the first raiders came with only a few hours’ warning, I could now get to. But, before I could go and do those final preparations, I needed spread the word, so others could do what they needed to do to prepare.

Obviously, my first call was going to be to Shadraus. He was my main contact in this timeline, after all, the main person who wasn’t part of my camp, but still on my side, as much as anyone who had bound themselves to the System could be on a side. It would be an insult to not inform him first.

Actually, I wasn’t going to risk the panic if this got out in an uncontrolled manner. Best case scenario, if that happened, was that there would be all kinds of riots, and other ‘fun’. Obviously, that kind of chaos would only make my job more difficult, and would probably give the raiders a good chance to get in and get out with whatever they could carry, while everyone was too busy fighting each other to concentrate on them. That would, in turn, give them a chance to go and tell their friends about all the plunder that could be had here. Not what I wanted.

And yet, that wasn’t the worst case. Worst case, the military gets involved, with something big enough that it drives the raiders off, but doesn’t destroy them. That was obviously bad, because it not only told the raiders that there was a whole world of potential plunder, waiting for the taking, but also that they needed numbers to deal with things, which meant that the next visit we got would be one of the bigger names in the raider world, the kind of name that came with a fleet attached to it.

That, obviously, wasn’t something Earth could handle. And, while I was no longer the Black Knight, fighting to defend the world from the alien invaders, that didn’t mean I wanted the Earth to get invaded and its people sold off on the slave markets. All my stuff was here, and I was going to get pissy if people started trying to steal my stuff, or my people.

With all that in mind, I decided to visit Shadraus at his shop, rather than trusting that humans, some of whom had entirely too much time on their hands, hadn’t figured out some way to hack into the System’s communications protocols and listen in on conversations. I didn’t know if it was actually possible, but I did know that, if there was any race out in the entirety of the galaxy that could do it, it would be humans. And then they’d leak everything on 4chan, which would make any kind of discretion impossible. No, a physical meet was much safer.

But, if I was doing a physical meet, then I could get ahead of the game, and do both the main meetings I needed to have about this at the same time, in a space that I knew was secure. So, I had a brief chat with Detective Clark, letting her know that I had something to share with the SCTF, and it’d be good if they swung by the System Shop for a chat. Then, I sent Shadraus a message, asking to rent one of the conference rooms for an hour or two, and suggested he’d want to hear what I had to say.

Stepping through the door of the System Shop with Talia and Ciliren, Shadraus was already there, waiting on me. “Ah, my friend! Your associates just arrived, and are waiting in the Taupe Room. I understand you discovered something interesting?”

I nodded once, as we headed to the conference room. “Interesting, but expected. And exactly what you believe it to be.”

“So soon?”

“Yes, I brought Ciliren along to explain it, since it was her find.”

“Very good.”

Stepping into the room which was colored an interesting shade of brown, with just a hint of green, I was happy to see that the entire SCTF (all five of them) was there, waiting for me. Detective Austin nodded when he saw me enter. “Greene. Happy to say it has been a while since I’ve seen you. Detective Clark told me you have something for us?”

I nodded, and sat at the table, with Talia and Ciliren standing behind me. That got a raised eyebrow or two from the police officers, and they looked a bit uncomfortable when Shadraus sat, as well. Before anyone could say anything, I said, “Shadraus is here by my invitation, since things are going to get a bit wild, and he can comment better on some of the specifics of what this will mean from the technical side.”

Officer Nixon frowned. “Well, I know they say that no news is good news, but I think anyone knows that only is true when there aren’t people out there planning shit. Even so, that setup makes it sound like you got quite a bit of bad news in store. What gives?”

I grinned at that. These people weren’t in it for the politics, or the glory. They cared about closing cases, and getting shit done. Which was a welcome change, from most cops, but that’s why I was working with these guys.

“Well, remember back when we busted that insane demon who was brainwiping and killing people because the System was basically putting him at war with his own head? When we did the ‘after action review’ over a couple beers, I mentioned timelines, and what happened the last time. One of those things I mentioned was raiders coming to make all kinds of trouble.”

Officer Rose nodded. “Yeah, you mentioned that. Something about them coming, and then everything breaking down, right? So, we have an invasion fleet on the way?”

I shook my head. “Not a fleet. Just a single ship, from the looks of things. They’re about a month out, according to my information, so there’s still a bit of time to prepare.”

Clarke winced. “That’s great, but one ship could literally set down anywhere. If we put that kind of information out there, people are going to freak! There will be riots on a planetary scale! It will be complete anarchy!”

“Yes, which is why we are having this conversation in a room that is perfectly secure, rather than talking on the phone or a video conference, to limit the chances of this information getting out to the public in an uncontrolled manner.”

Austin nodded. “All right, then. I’m guessing you have something up your sleeve, since you’re not panicking, and are still worried about keeping things quiet, rather than just giving the information out. Start with this ship. What can we expect?”

“Pirates and slavers, for the most part. Your general scum of the universe, since they’re the ones who can just drop everything and make the trek out, between worlds at the drop of a dime. They smell a world that isn’t quite ready to defend itself, meaning easy pickings, and bountiful prey, so they’ll be coming in, as quietly as they can, to ensure they get the best slices, before any other outfits get here.

“Now, as for the ship? Probably going to be a converted freighter or merchantman. Up the armor and shields, strap some guns on it, and call it a day. Same as most pirate ships back in the age of sail, at least the ones that weren’t privateers where the hulls were paid for by a government.”

Officer Costa grunted. “Same as most pirates even today. Even the virtual ones. They don’t actually build their own shit, they take things that are available, and then twist it to their own needs, upgrading as they can. So, what kind of force are we looking at?”

“If the ship lands, then probably forty at the high end. They’ll want to have plenty of crew, for capturing prizes, and to make sure that anyone who dies can be easily replaced, but there’s only so much room on a ship the size we’re looking at, and keeping people cooped up with not enough room for a month or more with no escape is a great way to be needing those replacement crew before you even get to your destination.”

Nixon raised a hand. “Yeah, about that month or more bit. Why would it take that long? Don’t they have some kind of fancy magic warp drive, or something like that?”

“Sure, there’s several forms of FTL, but the quickest ones require things the raiders won’t have. Not for this first trip. Which is part of the reason we can’t let people know about this, or even get the military involved. The absolute worst thing that could happen is the military chasing the ship off.”

Shadraus nodded. “Because, once they arrive, they will have the coordinates for Sol, and can simply use their other means of travel, rather than spending a month in FTL making the trip from Alpha Centauri to Sol?” It was not really a question, but a statement, and I treated it as such.

“Exactly. I brought Ciliren, a recent acquisition of mine through the System Shop, to explain that part of things. Ciliren, for those of you who haven’t [Analyze]d her yet, is a Knelfi. In other words, an alien. Ciliren?”

“Yes, Master. As Master said, I am a Knelfi, and I am also what you might term an astronomer, though I utilize magic in the process of conducting my studies. At any rate, it is true that there are multiple means of traversing systems faster than the speed of light. However, due to the sheer size of space, a ship moving with the standard ‘hyperdrive’-style engine would take an Earth month to get from the star you call Alpha Centauri to your system. This sounds like a long time, but it takes light over four of your years to make the same journey.

“Now, a ship with a Wormhole Drive or a Folding Space Singularity Drive, which are both separate things, have certain requirements which must be met before they can safely travel to unknown locations. The Wormhole Drive is very expensive, and usually only used on dreadnoughts, or ships belonging to heads of state. The idea of a raider having such a drive is laughable, at best, so we can safely ignore them.

“With a Folding Space Singularity Drive, commonly known as a tesseract drive, you can fold space, allowing a ship to instantly travel between two points. However, for that to work, it is necessary to have the proper coordinates. Without the right variables for time and space, and the local fluctuations of various formulae, you could easily fold yourself into the event horizon of a black hole, or into the middle of a planet, or any number of horrible fates, and you’d be lucky if you lived long enough to even start trying to fix things.”

Rose nodded. “And that is why we don’t want the raiders to get away, right? Because they’ll be back the coordinates they need, and everyone else will be able to come straight here!”

Ciliren nodded. “Yes, that is correct.”

“Thank you, Ciliren.” I brought the group’s attention back to me. “Now, to try and keep the raiders from landing somewhere randomly around the world and escaping, I’ve laid a trap, to try and get the raiders to land outside the city. If it works, then there’s a chance we can keep the trap going for at least a few more raiders.”

Clark nodded. “And I guess you’re telling us about this, in case any rats get out of the trap?”

“Right. Also, you’re the closest to government contacts I have, so, once the first ship is captured, so I can sell off the ship, or perhaps get a proper crew for it. I mean, I don’t need a pirate ship at the moment, but I could probably find a use for it.”

Austin chuckled. “Yeah, I’m sure you could.”

Costa looked thoughtful. “You know, I have a friend from college that works at Boeing. I could give her a call, once you have something. Their R&D people would love you for it, I’m sure.”

“Sounds good to me. Thanks, Officer.”