“To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them.”
–William Shakespeare, “Hamlet,” Act III, Scene i
“Sally Ride, this is Captain Lauryna Gwenn of the Gyfjon. Your orbit’s decaying badly; not sure you’ll make another one.”
“Tell me something I don’t know, Gyfjon. This is Sally Ride Actual, going to try to skip off the surface of the atmosphere, when you’re done at the station, we’d appreciate you trying to locate us.”
“Won’t have to, Captain Martínez, and frankly, it’s easier to grab you now than send a ship out later
. We’re closing on your position. Stand by, we’re going to bring you aboard.”
“Wave off, Captain,” Ted said, trying to use the little fuel left in the maneuvering thrusters to change the ship’s attitude. “Go to the surface.”
“Captain, as my best friend has told me many times, it’s important to be able to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. We’re bringing you in. Stand by, do not alter your course. Gyfjon out.”
“Damn it,” Ted said hitting the console. “Seventeen minutes is all we’ve got. Go down there!”
“Ted,” Hala said, quietly, but he was in no mood to listen.
“We’re not going to be the only fucking survivors of this, damn it!”
Hala sighed. She knew him well, knew he was desperately trying to find something, anything to do that could help, even if it just meant saving a few seconds’ time for the Titan ship. Not that she didn’t want to find something, anything to do, too, but she had always been good at focusing on the possible, and what was possible now was very limited.
“So you’d kill the two of us to add to the toll? You think the Shang Xiao would approve of that strategy?”
“Hala….”
“You think Tig wants you to die?”
“No, but….”
“More than that,” she said, standing and touching his shoulder, gently, “shouldn’t we survive so we can tell Earth what happened? That it was one man who tried to kill us, and many more people who tried to save us? Don’t we owe that to them?”
“I don’t like it,” he said. “It shouldn’t be me.”
“And it shouldn’t be me. But it had to be somebody, and the Shang Xiao picked us,” Hala said. “So we don’t get to die gallantly, we owe it to her to live.”
“Damn it, dying’s easier.”
“Yes, it is. Now, take a deep breath, and grab the controls, because you know what happens after they pick us up?”
“What?”
“We go help our crewmates.”
Ted sighed. It was true; even if all they could do was recover their bodies. “All right,” he said.
Suddenly, a huge ship passed by the Sally Ride, blotting out the stars. “Wow,” Ted said, as it overtook them; it was beautiful, gold and steel, graceful in its style and in its flight. The vessel dropped slightly, opened a hangar bay door, and grabbed them with a gravitic beam.
The Sally Ride was pulled aboard the Gyfjon. The deviation had cost them less than a minute. And less than a minute later, the Gyfjon entered the Titanian atmosphere.
* * *
Rixie held Alex against her chest, staring straight ahead at the terminal.
She had heard Xú’s decision – she’d stayed tied in to the watch room; she wasn’t going to break the link with her friends.
It was so brave. Amazingly brave. She was in awe of it, and she wanted that to be what she was focused on, but it was not.
She was not focused on Xú’s bravery. Nor was she focused on Kir’s willingness to sacrifice himself for two humans, his making it right. No, she hated the emotion she felt, hated the selfishness behind it, for the feeling that coursed through her veins was relief. Not relief that she would live – she’d come close enough to death not to fear it – but relief that Alex would live. That he would not be killed with the other humans.
She was furious that she felt this. Furious that she could view the sacrifice of twenty innocent people as acceptable, so long as it spared her…well, she’d never admit to him that she sometimes thought of him as her husband, and frankly, that didn’t seem like quite enough.
But that emotion overwhelmed her. Despite it all, she was relieved, and happy, and spent.
She closed her eyes.
“Alex?” she said, quietly.
“You know, we’re gonna have to get your voice fixed soon.”
“Shut up. Alex…I…um…if this had been it, you know…you know, right?”
Alex pulled back to look up at the chin of his everything. “You wrote it in your own blood, Rix,” he said, softly. “I know. I’ll never doubt it for a second. And you know too, right?”
“I do,” she said, softly. “I do.”
He nestled in tighter, as if he could burrow inside her. “This voice is starting to grow on me a bit,” he said, and gave her chest just one kiss.
* * *
“And what about Niall?” Aertimus asked, as the crew of the Lem filed back into the cell.
“I’ll go with them,” Freeman said, quietly.
“No!” Naskia and Sorcha said, together.
“Petal, Sorcha,” he said, from his perch upon his wife’s shoulder, “for me to die in order to give you both a chance to live? This is the easiest decision I have ever made.”
“You’re going to have to get through me,” Sorcha said, wiping away a tear.
“Tuppy, killing your father to keep him from dying isn’t a very good strategy,” Naskia said, gently. That brought a half-laugh, half sob from their daughter. Naskia turned to Niall.
“Sweetie, you can’t go sacrifice yourself,” she pouted, eyes misting over. “I own you, remember? I’m not letting you go.”
“You don’t have to,” Dantas said, quietly, removing his dress coat. “I believe there has been a great deal of confusion. I doubt Solis knows exactly how many humans are in custody, and if he got a count earlier, thanks to Tatenda and Viktor, we have more. So who’s to say I’m not Niall Freeman? I probably am. We look to be about the same age. If he questions, point to me, Navarchos.”
“I can’t let you sacrifice yourself for me.”
“I’m already sacrificed! Your survival helps make it worth it, doctor. Besides, I would not want to make your wife upset, nor your daughter.”
“Wise man,” Niall said.
Gustavo was rather surprised to find himself plucked off the ground and brought to Naskia’s lips, a soft, enormous kiss planted on his face by her. “Thank you,” she said, softly. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Gustavo said, as he was planted on the ground, a bit unsteady. “That experience alone was worth dying for, gatinha,” he said with a smile. “Thank you. It was wonderful to meet you, Dr. Freeman – and you too, Niall,” he added, before going to join his crewmates.
“You don’t have to do this, Shang Xiao,” Eyrn said, quietly.
“I do, Eyrn. Live a long and happy life. When Ted and Hala get back, tell them both I’m glad they survived, that they are doing us no wrong by living. And last….”
Xú stumbled, just a bit, before regaining her words. “My friends call me Mùlán. I would be honored if you would call me that as well.”
“Mùlán,” Eyrn said, from her position on the ground, sitting cross-legged, just outside their cell and execution chamber, “the honor has been mine.”
The door began to shut.
“Attention!” Aertimus called, in full military cadence. He clicked his heels together and brought up a salute; Tig mocked it, as did Darren, Lysis, and Zhan. The others stood, some sobbing, some dry-eyed, at least one furious. But all showed their respect.
“Crew of the Lem,” Xú said. “Return their salute.”
The door slid shut.
* * *
“Anything. I don’t care what. Anything.”
“Captain Gwenn,” Rovlan Tam said, grimacing, “the only thing we could do is fire disruptors, and there’s no target that helps end this well.”
“I don’t accept that!” Lauryna shouted. So close. They were so gorram close. Five minutes to landing. Ten to get into the station. They were flying beyond the edge of safety, but they could not push it further. Anything more and they’d start flying apart.
But at present speed, they’d get there just in time to watch Solis gas the station.
Lauryna pounded the arm of her chair. If she’d waited. If she hadn’t rushed to the Xifos. If she hadn’t been a sucker….
She didn’t have time for this. She would, but not now. “Ms. Horous, increase speed three percent,” she said, feeling the shudder through the ship as it cut through the atmosphere. “Commander Tam, prepare your assault team.”
* * *
Ziah Solis’s lips curled in a twisted, triumphant grin. He hadn’t planned on this – this was, he had to admit, quite a move by the human captain. It was impressive, being willing to serve as the sacrifice, the first wave in the Tol-bot match. Her death, and the fact that she chose it, could make things dicey for Solis’s plans. If too many humans had her clarity of vision, they might not attack. Not right away, anyhow. They might wait for a better time. And that would never do. He’d studied Gernhatt’s treatise, and moreover, the data from Titan Station; he knew that at their present rate of advancement, humans would pass Titans in but 94 years. If they could wait that long, their revenge would be unstoppable.
If he just let the humans from the ship die, he could lose the entire game. But he was no fool; he was more than willing to adjust his strategy. Indeed, he had been doing so since the Porfirayon first collided with their shuttle. His original plan had been so much cleaner. If there hadn’t been the collision, he would have had time…but a good commander knows that a battle plan never goes as scripted. Indeed, he’d enjoyed the improvisation; it was so much more sporting. So much more fun.
And he knew that the human’s sacrifice had given him his best counter yet.
If the humans in the cell survived, while the rest of the people on the station died…well, given that records would show that the air regulator had been tampered with, who’s to say the humans hadn’t planned this all along? Mass murder, to seize the station for themselves? Helped along with saboteurs who were known to be sympathetic to humans, who stated flatly that they were willing to die to protect them?
It would change everything.
He chuckled as he finished the program. The human captain’s grand sacrifice would never happen. Instead, she’d be arrested as a war criminal. And in the few hours he had left, he could scrub the record of her self-righteousness. He’d been planning to kill himself, but instead, he would make the announcement, decrying the Floor Leader and officers who worked against him as he tried to save Titan Station. Oh, he would still be arrested, but it would sow confusion – and with the deaths of hundreds as the backdrop, there would be little choice for the Empire. They would have to act.
He had paused the countdown for just a moment while he fed the new directions into the system. He entered his command codes, and hit the button to activate it again.
* * *
They waited.
And waited.
And waited.
“Time check?” Aertimus finally said, as his arm began to grow weary from holding his salute. Something was wrong. More wrong than just twenty humans being executed for no reason, which was already so wrong as to challenge his belief in right.
“Zhe-plus-two minutes,” Sorcha said.
“He hasn’t released the zamik?”
“No,” Lysis said, watching the crew of the Lem.
“What’s his game? Is he still on the line?”
Tig slid into comms, not expecting anything different than what she found. “No, sir. External comms are still offline.”
“Rixie, any changes down there?” Aerti asked.
“No, sir,” Rixie said, puzzled. “Air intake is unchanged, zamik isn’t being deployed.”
Aertimus dropped his salute. What was Solis up to?
There was a flicker of lights, and the power went off. Emergency lights winked on, barely illuminating the room.
“Sitrep!”
“Don’t know, sir,” Tig said. “All the controls have gone dark.”
“What is he playing at?” Aerti barked.
Inside the cell, it should be noted, there was no more clarity, but much less concern. “What do you think is happening?” Tatenda asked Xú as the lights turned off.
“I’m not questioning it,” she said, checking the time on her gool. “We’ve gotten two minutes of extra life. I’m just enjoying it.”
The lights came back on.
* * *
Solis jammed his thumb into the pad, swearing a blue streak.
“Gorram piece of tuppshaka…that’s the gorram code!” he barked, looking at his input. “All right, voice authorization, Solis, Ziah, Navarchos Imperii, Nay-Sigma-Duvazha-Pi-Seven-Four-Seven-Two-Kapezhe. Authorize.”
“Authorization Invalid,” the pad replied.
“It is not! Solis, Ziah, Navarchos Imperii, Nay-Sigma-Duvazha-Pi-Seven-Four-Seven-Two-Kapezhe. Authorize.”
“Authorization Invalid.”
“Solis, Ziah, Navarchos Imperii, Nay-Sigma-Duvazha-Pi-Seven-Four-Seven-Two-Kapezhe. Authorize!”
“Credentials Revoked.”
He stopped dead at that. “What? What do you mean, ‘Credentials Revoked’?”
“Credentials for Solis, Ziah Aenki, Navarchos, Discharged Dishonorably, Revoked by Imperial Order Two-One-Two-Four-Yay-Hoth-Zero-Zero-Four-Vazha-Rhombil, filed by Secretary Zhalem Ro on behalf of His Imperial Majesty….”
The pad did not complete its statement, as Solis had hurled it across his office with every bit of his strength. It shattered into a half-dozen pieces, falling to the ground in a heap.
“They can’t have,” he said, pacing. “The Emperor couldn’t have. Not without violating the law. I don’t care what Zeramblin told him! It’s not possible!” In his anger, he missed the sound of the blast doors unsealing. Which was why he was so surprised when there was a knock at the door, followed by a rather insistent bang.
* * *
“Sir…I….” Tig said, not quite believing her eyes.
“Ms. Belfsec?”
“I think…I think we have full control of external comms.”
Aerti looked at Tigoni; he didn’t have to tell her to open a channel. “Krypter, krypter, krypter,” she said, “this is Titan Station, priority one distress. Any ships or stations receiving, please respond.”
There was only a moment’s pause. “Titan Station, this is Archiploiarchos Lemm Tam of the Xifos. We have three ships inbound to your position – ourselves, the Gyfjon and the Minatar. What is your status? We were told you did not have comms or control of your station.”
“Lemm, this is Gama Actual,” Aerti said, jumping on the line. “We didn’t have comms until about a minute ago. As for the station…we’re trying to see what control we’ve got.”
“Any casualties?”
“One fatality – Kir Oden,” he sighed. “Several injured. But the crew from Earth made it through safely.”
“What’s happened? We heard that Navarchos Solis was going to poison everyone on the station, kill all the humans and Dunnermacs.”
“Believe it or not, that wasn’t the worst it could’ve gotten,” Aerti said.
“Shaka. Sorry, sir,” Lemm said. Aertimus chuckled in spite of himself.
“If ever a situation called for a shaka, this is it, Lemm. I don’t know that we’re secure yet. Keep those two ships inbound and tell them to be ready for ground assault.”
“Aye, sir. And…Aerti? It’s good to hear your voice.”
“Yours too, Lemmer. Frankly, good to hear any voices at all. I’ll get back to you shortly. Bass out.”
No sooner had he terminated with Lemm than the internal comms buzzed. “This is Bass,” Aeritmus said, picking up the hardline. “Opito Starati, are you okay? Yeah, it’s an omnishambles, but we’re coming back online. Sitrep? Hangars are open – that’s wonderful! Open Hangars One and Two, we have the Gyfjon and Minatar inbound, bring them in. They’ll be sending in security personnel on my orders. Oh…also, send a medical team down to the detention level on the double. No, the peacekeepers are kind of tied up at the moment,” he said.
He looked around. Save for Kir, nobody was dead, including the humans. With a start, he realized he hadn’t freed them yet, an error which he rectified with one keystroke.
Xú walked out, cautiously, blinking despite the dim subtitanian light. “Navarchos Bass,” she said, “I don’t mean to question our being alive…but why are we alive?”
“That,” Aertimus said, “is a really good question.”
* * *
Solis dove back for his desk just as the door flew off its hinges.
“Solis! Down on the floor! Hands where we can see them!” called the first imperator into the room, her weapon drawn.
He lunged for his sidearm, but got no closer than a unit before two more imperators tackled him and brought him to the ground. They wrestled his arms behind his back. “Secure!” they called, as Praetor-Imperator Vanser Nix strode into the room, his eyes blazing.
“Ziah Solis, by order of the Emperor, you are relieved of your command. You are under arrest for suborning perjury, issuing unlawful orders, violating the Terran Conservation Act, ordering the death of unarmed class two sentient creatures without authority, an undetermined number of counts of attempted murder, attempted genocide, lying to the legislature, lying to the Floor Leader, and High Treason against the Emperor. Cease your resistance, tuppshaka!”
Solis looked up, ashen; the Imperator held a disruptor rifle bare centiunits from his temple. “You gorram fools,” he growled. “You gorram fools. You’ve destroyed the Empire.”
Vanser kicked him in the side, hard. “The Emperor ordered your arrest, Solis. He is the Empire.”
“He can’t,” Solis spluttered, as another imperator locked braces on his wrists. “Even the Emperor must obey the law. Where are the statements against me?”
“Ever the barrister, eh, Ziah?” said Praetor Carva Lagvul, who had just entered the room. “You want to know your three statements? You want to know that the Emperor crossed his ishaytans correctly while he was preventing you from committing treason? Well, he did Ziah. He did.”
“Impossible.”
“Hardly. The first report was from the Floor Leader – that can’t surprise you. He told us of you suborning perjury and plotting to deceive the legislature. The second was a statement from Archiploiarchos Tam from the Xifos, averring that you had issued unlawful orders, violated the chain of command. So two, right? Honestly, the Emperor might have moved anyway based on those two offenses. I’m told they discussed contacting Captain Gwenn or Captain Los, having them duplicate Tam’s statement. Oh, it would have been of dubious legality, but by the time you got around to challenging it, you’d be out of a job anyhow. He didn’t have to do that, though, because we got our third. This one’s my favorite, Ziah.”
Lagvul broke into a wide grin. “Listen closely, I recorded it just for you.”
He pulled out his pad, and pressed play.
“Archiploiarchos Tam, this is Captain Ted Martínez; by our countdown, Navarchos Solis is due to contact Navarchos Bass in two minutes; he has said he will release poison into the ventilation system in thirty-two minutes.”
“Gorram! Xifos Actual to Gyfjon Actual, Captain Gwenn, what’s your best possible time to ground?”
“Thirty-four minutes, ma’am, at least with ingress. We’ve been trying to get access to their hangars, no response.”
“You probably won’t Captain. Navarchos Solis has control of most of the station, he’s used command codes to lock out Navarchos Bass.”
“Say again, Sally Ride, the Navarchos Imperii used command codes to lock down the base?”
“Affirmative.”
“Comms, send a priority one message to the palace updating them on the situation. Captain Martínez, what is your ship’s status?”
“We are in a decaying orbit, we took off under duress, but that is not important. Whatever assistance you can render to Titan Station has to be the priority. Archiploiarchos Tam, there are two of us on this ship. There are a lot of good people down there. And not just humans.”
Lagvul laughed as he stopped the playback. “Those crazy humans! Did you catch that? He wanted them to ignore his ship and focus on saving the people on the base – not just his crewmates, but us! Isn’t that adorable? Everything you put them through, you pile of vomit, and he still was able to trust us, to care for us.”
He leaned in close. “That was what swayed the Emperor to act, you know. He couldn’t leave you in office when a human from Earth was clearly better suited for it.”
“You fools,” Solis said, quietly. “How can you take the word of a human over me?”
“He isn’t a traitorous bastard,” Lagvul said.
“Sir!” a young imperator said, on a sweep of the room. “There’s…there’s a casualty, sir.”
Vanser walked over to the closet, where the body of Tobin Gernhatt was slumped. “Well. We’ll add a preliminary charge of manslaughter; get forensics up here,” Vanser said. He looked over at Lagvul and shook his head.
Lagvul mirrored the gesture; he’d been annoyed with Solis in the past. But he’d never dreamed he was capable of this. “I’ll head back to my office for now, let your people do their job, Praetor-Imperator. In the meantime, take him to a maximum security holding cell, suicide watch.”
“Gladly, Praetor Imperii,” Vanser said, hitting the last word hard. He didn’t have to be here to do this – he was the head of the Imperators Corps, strictly speaking, he didn’t have to do front-line work anymore – but he felt like it was important for him to take care of this personally.
Lagvul nodded to Nix, and headed out through the anteroom, where imperators were busily interviewing staff. “Now,” he said, pulling out his pad, “time to start cleaning up this mess.”
* * *
Aertimus had arrived back in the command center to confusion compounded by chaos. In the twenty minutes that had passed since they regained control of the station, only one thing had become clear: The last two hours of Titan Station’s life had left wounds that would take a long time to heal. Nobody knew quite who was in charge or what was happening, and Aerti was torn between trying to assert control over the situation, and trying to tend to the twenty humans standing in the back of the room, still dazed from their brush with death.
“Sir! Incoming communication from the Navarchos Imperii!” called a comms officer.
The room went dead silent; Aertimus and Lemm had relayed Solis’s actions to the command staff; they were all ready to depart for Archavia immediately, the sooner to avenge Kir. The comms officer checked the transmission, though, and gasped. “Pardon me, sir. Incoming communication from the Praetor Imperii.”
Aerti’s eyebrow shot up. There was one officer-Imperii at a time. If that officer was no longer a Navarchos….
“Open the channel. This is Navarchos Aertimus Bass, Titan Station Actual.”
“Aerti Bass! This is Carva Lagvul. There’s been a bit of a shake-up here; I’ve replaced Navarchos Solis, at least for now. We saw you were out of communication for a while. What’s your status?”
“Praetor Lagvul…we’ve had a significant situation here.”
“So it would appear. It seems my predecessor was issuing a series of confusing, contradictory, and unlawful orders targeted at undermining command and control of the station – and that’s not the worst of his crimes, I’m afraid. I hope the damage there hasn’t been too great.”
“One casualty,” Aerti said. “Not sure of total injuries, but it’s dozens.”
Lagvul looked grim. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ll order standards to be flown with a black ribbon throughout the fleet,” Lagvul said. “You’ll also be happy to know that former Navarchos Solis is currently being detained at the Emperor’s personal order. I will make sure to ask the Imperators Corps to add another count of murder to his charges.”
“Thank you, sir,” Aerti said. “And – another count?”
Lagvul nodded. Aerti shook his head sadly. “Well. Sir, good luck on your end, and both my staff and I are happy to provide depositions at the Imperators Corps’ convenience.”
“All in good time. Such a shame, though. We’ve heard a few rumors here on Archavia about goings-on at Titan. This should have been a happy day, if we’ve heard right. I’m hoping, despite the chaos, that we’ve seen some positive developments.”
“We have, sir,” Aerti said, standing a bit straighter. “In fact, we have some rather important news to relay.”
“Proceed, Navarchos.”
“Praetor Imperii Lagvul, Titan Station reports that a vessel from Earth, the Stanisław Lem, is grounded at the station. Its crew has initiated first contact.”
On Archavia, Lagvul nodded. He couldn’t quite beam – not with the way the day had gone – but he definitely was cheered by it. “Well! That is wonderful news, Navarchos! Have they been understanding of the chaos there?”
“Far more so than we could possibly expect, sir.”
“Very kind of them. I’m going to be horrified when I read your report, aren’t I?”
“Aye, sir.”
Lagvul cleared his throat. “You know, coincidentally, I just received a memorandum from the Floor Leader. The House will be formally giving you permission to initiate first contact with Earth later today, should any of their ships request it – as they already have, obviously. He authorized me to tell you, however, that the vote is a formality, it will pass overwhelmingly, and you have his permission to proceed at your discretion.”
“Aye, sir. We will proceed apace.”
“Excellent. Anything else, Navarchos?”
“Quite a bit, but it will take time to catalog. We have…well, honestly sir, we have a lot to take care of here.”
“I should say so. We’ll talk in a few hours, Aerti, if not before, and if you need anything, this channel is open. For now, greet our guests, and get our station back in order. Lagvul out.”
Aertimus looked around the command center as if he was dreaming. Rixie stood beside him, literally covering her mouth in shock. With her exception (well, hers and Alex’s), the contingent from Avalon sat on the floor by the crew of the Lem, all of them in awed silence. Eyrn was hugging her knees, beaming; she offered her hand to the Shang Xiao, who walked toward it as if her legs had been recently frozen.
The whipsaw change in emotion was almost too much to bear, but it was Aerti’s job to bear it; he pressed a button on the comms panel, and a tri-tone announced him to the station.
“All personnel and civilians, this is Navarchos Bass,” he said. “Condition amber. Stand down double black alert.”
He looked down at Shang Xiao Xú; Eyrn had carried her over, and set her gently on Aerti’s workstation. Xú stared, first at Eyrn, then at Aertimus in near-disbelief, a bewildered smile fixed on her lips. Aertimus suspected he looked about the same.
He took a deep breath, and continued. “Also, all civilian and military personnel, all staff of Titan Station and all visitors to it, attention to orders: It is my great honor to announce the arrival of the first Earth vessel ever to travel to Titan Station. The Stanisław Lem, under the command of Xú Mùlán, landed here earlier today. We have been authorized by the Praetor Imperii and the Floor Leader to initiate first contact procedures. It is my order that our friends from Earth be treated with the honor and respect they deserve. Bass out.”
There was a pause, and then a cheer went up that was deafening; Aertimus sat down wearily in his chair and leaned back, laughing and crying tears of joy. Xú sat down weakly on the console, beaming. They’d done it. Somehow, some way, they’d done it.
When he finally recomposed himself, Bass stood, and pulled himself to full attention. Xú saw what he was doing, and returned the gesture.
“Shang Xiao Xú, I am Navarchos Aertimus Bass, commanding, Gama Fleet. On behalf of the Empire, I welcome you to Titan Station,” he said, saluting her.
Xú reciprocated the salute. “Navarchos Bass, the crew of the Terran Space Ship Stanisław Lem is honored by your hospitality. We look forward with hope to the future we share.”
Bass offered her a finger, and she grasped it with both hands.
And the celebration began.
I do hope that there was something to Solis — some sort of conspiracy or greater threat — beyond an arrogant, paranoid mustache-twirler trying to keep away the bogeyman of the evil Humans.
That certainly came down to the wire. I always expected the Emperor would pull Solis’s command. I didn’t expect his arrogance in changing his plan to murder the rest of the station would be what gave the good guys the extra two minutes they needed. Once again Nix is there for the high profile bust. He’s certainly done well for himself.
Also good to see the floor leader has the decency to give first contact the go ahead with the vote now being a formality. I’m glad this isn’t the end because I want to see the immediate aftermath of these events. Speaking of which, someone needs to get in touch with Earth pronto. Hopefully the station is capable of broadcasting on Earth frequencies. With the Sally Ride fried, it’ll be a pain otherwise for the Lem to keep traveling to orbit and back to the station to send updates.
Nix was there pretty much because he now works in the Dodecahedron.
And Titan Station can definitely broadcast to Earth. They did it before at the beginning of the story.
Dear lord I thought this was going to be the end of me. Everything summed up perfectly here, and im more than satisfied of not having to mourn anyone from the main cast. Such a relief.
By the way, its just me or has vanser been promoted?maybe it has to do with pursuit?
I suppose one could mourn Kir. Though if Vanser was promoted I can’t help but assume he well earned it.
Vanser keeps making busts like this and Darren will start calling him Sgt. Friday…dum–de-dum-da!
I like the Shawshank Redemption final scene (I know its not final..) better.. I think someone watched that movie 🙂 Too bad he didn’t get to fully re-enact it.
Sholish (ish) isn’t alone in the ‘conspiracy’ he has got to have partners. So all this yelling and shouting over humans and their itty bitty planet? Talk about paranoid… Hmm soooo you put a paronoid racist xenophobe in charge of your military? Smart..
Soo by his reckoning only 600 human years to overtake the empire? Not too shabby, I was hoping it would be sooner…Time for a new boss if ya’ll know what I mean….
It’s amazing what a few minutes can do, without Xu’s self sacrifice they probably couldn’t have stripped Solis of his authority in time. Solis getting captured was fantastic, his whole rant about the legality of it while he’s trying to murder everyone on the station and has a dead body in a locker was just wow.
His whole plan has just backfired immensely, the Lem crews at self sacrifice have probably gifted the human rights movement an incomprehensible boon.
Of course as happy as all of this is there’s still the Titan sized elephant in the room. Solis was one hell of a distraction from the fact that millions (if not billions) are bought, sold and owned within the Empire, including Titan station (hope they don’t forget to pick up Moze btw). If they’re serious about building good relations with Earth that will have to be addressed.
Addressed..that should be interesting…
Even worse, while it might theoretically be possible for Titans and the other races as a culture to treat humans with an accurate assessment of their emotional state and capabilities when addressing earth specifically, something that alone is in question when the closest comparison for a human are Tups and Sharrs, species that so far as we’re aware do not possess a form of communication (I do realize I am uncertain of the other pets are class 2 or class 3, I’ve yet to actually hear of any other class 2 sentients beyond Dunmerac and their upgrade to class 1) if only because of the embarrassment of watching a species develop into a space travel and fly out to meet you …
Imagine these same Titans who’s current attributes “personhood” to the monetary gains you’ve acquired and personal experience with their specific methods of space travel, whom still act under the logic that if it isn’t intelligent then there is no harm in abusing it and that so long as it’s not a person it’s opinions and feelings don’t matter, then having to address the other, smaller elephant babies sneaking behind the sofa.
The fact Earth isn’t the only collection of humans with a form of government, but rather multiple unconnected groups of varying degrees of wealth and advancement, some of which are bound to be actively hostile toward Titans as a whole the same way the Maris farm tribe was. Not just Avalon which is simply the most advanced of the non-earth human organizations, but still tribal societies living out in the wild, be it hiding or just in someone’s barn living off scraps.
Imagine this same Empire trying to deal with the fact the Maris farm has it’s own independent country with it’s own government and leadership, working within the bounds of Empire laws and entirely unrecognized. Then imagine explaining that to the humans of earth.
What of the other tribes? We know Degu is the lone survivor of a tribe that used to thrive, and it’d be silly to assume that others don’t exist elsewhere across the myriad of planets where a human might have escaped or gotten lost and then managed to hold its own in some park or woodland area, or an abandoned building next to some source of food. Rixie and Alex finding a dead woman and child, no father in sight, is proof enough of this.
These are groups of humans where you can’t claim “They built spaceships, that must mean we have to respect them” because at most you’d only attain the same tribal culture that the Empire originally labeled as primitive and unworthy of respect, and the best tech they might wield are sticks and rocks. Baring Titan intervention, at which point its too easy to dismiss any accomplishments as it being the owners who taught them how.
Even if the Empire as a whole chooses to avoid mentioning this issue to the humans of earth, Avalon has ready means to contact Earth, directly if required, and knowledge of at least one tribe. Tribes of humans with LEGENDS of their homeworld, stories passed on from generation to generation, to the point if even one finds out somehow that people of Earth came to their world, it’d be silly to imagine them not sending their bravest warrior on an epic quest to meet with the travelers from Earth. Someone, somewhere, would try to do it. At which point Earth has even more awkward questions about how this came about to ask, in which any tribe with a recorded history (IE: all of them stable enough to pass down a story) might have yet more horror tales of situations similar to the accidental massacre the Maris family caused so many generations ago.
After all, these would all be humans with a strong and lingering reason to not associate with Titans.
All of this, without even getting to the worst part of the pet trade that can’t be readily retconned without massively weakening the impact of Noonah’s character in Titan: Physics, the fact that, at least 20 Titan years ago, in at least one pet shop (probably Lyroo’s, given her father’s shameless criminal behavior and her direct, blatant emotional torture of the pets under her care) deliberately trains humans with the intention of being used as a sex toy, or a sex partner, or … in reality, a sex slave, with simply a very high chance of finding a kind slave keeper who might not be interested in that.
Admittedly the pet shops were getting better even as quickly as Titan: Exile, and it’d be fairly easy for them to have improved further to the point it’s not a damningly terrible bit of evidence to go talk with people from the shop, what we saw of how Tapp was purchased certainly proves this. But the existence of owners who believe that the best way to protect someone they care about is to leave them naked, defenseless, uneducated, unable to read, with no means of long distance communication to call for help, a tracking implant that for some idiotic reason the human can’t activate themselves to say “Help, I’m in trouble, can you come rescue me please” as if Titan vets don’t understand the concept of adding a cell phone to the one pet species that can talk might be a good idea (I assume, if other common pets can speak then Earth might have even more reason to be pissed) and locked in cages that only open from the outside, then the effectiveness of Titan “protection” is cast in even more dubious light.
…
And then comes the bit of awkwardness that Solis himself brought up.
They witnessed the holocaust, and did nothing to stop it. They witnessed the nuclear detonations on hershima, and did nothing. They were right there, watching whatever war in which nanoweapons threatened a Grey Goo scenario on earth. And did nothing to help.
Protection from the hive is certainly nice of them, but there is a big difference between protecting someone out of altruism and a willingness to defend the weak against aggressors, and simply protecting your property from someone who wants to steal it from you.
While dunnermacs received some awful treatment they were never considered Class Two Sentient. Dunnermacs had already invented warp drive before they and the Empire made contact. Basically the titans of the past saw the dunnermacs as a lesser people while the titans of the present see humans as animals almost but not quite smart enough to be people.
There is no such thing as Class Three Sentient. Anything below Class Two is a normal non-sentient animal.
The only other Class Two Sentient species besides humans that’ve ever been mentioned are the H’klatu ocean dwellers, and those mentions are rare. Humans appear to be the only sentient species that are regular pets rather than either exotics kept by only a handful of folk or a species existing only in the wild.
Ah, thanks for the explanation. So it’s explicit that the class system judges primarily by a species capacity for space travel, and having and understanding warp drive is a requirement?
And to be fair, the opinions of the present day Titans (as with the Titans of 100 years ago) appear largely to be a result of withholding information, deliberately choosing not to make public any of the studies of Earth societies, ancient disinformation in which pets are actively trained to act a certain way, then the pets trained behavior being used as a means to prove it’s lack of intelligence. Or more often, if it does act intelligent and express opinions then clearly the human needs to be trained better.
Hmm … seems odd that you’d have Class 1 for full sentience, Class 2 for sentient but not enough, and … no listing at all if you don’t qualify for class 2. Class 3 being everything else makes more sense in my mind than there being creatures without any measure on the scale at all, makes the class system seem even more incomplete and ill-suited to the task than my previous impressions of it.
Well, in theory warp drive itself is not required, just enough technological development to demonstrate that the eventual development of warp drive is inevitable barring calamity. But all of the non-titan species we’ve seen so far that are recognized as Class One Sentient had already developed warp drive when the titans first encountered them. So the Empire has no definition of what technologies demonstrate that a pre-warp species is capable of eventually inventing warp drive.
For more details about sentience classification, check here: http://titanempire.wikia.com/wiki/Sentience_Classification
You made lots of good points.
The pet (slave really) industry as shown in the stories is “mild”, the worse aspects of it, such as sex training, or forced “reeducation” are only brushed upon, or implied. But any dealings between Earth and the Empire will put all that front and center and I doubt the reaction of the public will be good. The public from Earth I mean.
While the necessity to forge at least a temporary military alliance or protectorate with Empire will come as obvious to Earth’s leaders, Earth public will be greatly reluctant – to put it mildly – to associate with giant alien slavers, who for the most part, still view Humans as animals. And that is not gonna change until the most senior generations of Titans pass away : that’s a century or two in Earth time.
I really hope the story doesn’t end on cop out or an unreallistic kumbaya.
As for the excuse of titans not knowing what’s going on Earth, the series is pretty inconsistent. If recently (Exile, Contact) we’ve been told that the imperial military keeps what’s going on on Earth a secret, other stories (Physics, Titan) told us that reports on Earth’s technological advancement are public record (Niall’s hearing) and cultural elements such as stories, movies and songs do manage to get out into the Empire (several characters mention it).
I think maybe the authors are doing a bit of retcon from the earlier stories.
ps : by the way, I wanted to mention how grateful I am for the steady pace of one story or chapter a day these past few weeks. It really makes my day when I know that, after work, I can come home and there’s an update to the titanverse waiting for me.
Thanks. 😀
Addressing one small point in your blurb; Degu was not from a tribe. Bedra said the humans there were more wild, and a lot less civilized. They were scavengers and got a lot directly from the titans that lived there. They never organized villages or communities.
On the other hand, The Tribe has records that imply other tribes in the Maris farm’s forested area. They directly merged with one after the incident with the runaway robotic farmhand, after all.
While Solis’s campaign of terror is over, the hardest part is still yet to come; Equality.
Equality is coming in the natural course of events. The tricky part is everybody surviving until that happens.
2102: “I foresee a future far more bleak than Spekrios, Darren, the tides of power are shifting and the empire is ill prepared for what lays ahead. The Insectoids, the Drazari – and the Drazari claim the K’Gapiti are an even graver threat. Darren, if we are to survive, we are going to need to start embracing our allies, rather than enslave them.
2124: They might wait for a better time. And that would never do. He’d studied Gernhatt’s treatise, and moreover, the data from Titan Station; he knew that at their present rate of advancement, humans would pass Titans in but 94 years. If they could wait that long, their revenge would be unstoppable.
The Insectoids and the Drazari and the K’Gapiti might not be quite as well informed as Pryvani Tarsuss and Ziah Solis but after their military intelligence figures out what happened on Titan and how vulnerable the empire was to a single madman they’ll soon come to the same conclusion. The titans are not invincible now but given time for the humans to become fully integrated with the empire collectively they might be. That’s an open invitation for a preemptive strike against both the empire and Earth. It’s also the practical selling point to equality for titans who may not like or respect humans but understand the fear of what lies in wait beyond the empire’s borders and can understand acting in their own self-interest.
For the politicians on Earth this is going to be a matter of selling the people of Earth on the immediate need for at least a military alliance with the titans in the form of continued titan occupation of Titan Station in exchange for protection of Sol System with the promise of economic, cultural, and intellectual exchanges in proportion to the empire’s moving forward on equality.
That could stretch for at least a 100 Titan years, I’m referring to more than just getting legislation passed but changing the mindsets of titans themselves and involve the great grand children of our heroes.
History doesn’t always flow at the same steady pace even for a titan. Contact is the story of a major breakpoint in the history of the galaxy. What happens now and how fast it happens going forward will bear little semblance to what has come before. The authors literally have an almost new universe to play in telling us how everyone makes the transition.
I imagine Ted and Hala are going to receive some major honors from the emperor for their actions. As well as pretty much everyone else who resisted Solis’s psychotic campaign.
Everyone indeed. Really makes me wonder where Tig’s ex-boyfriend is in all this, if not outright one of the traitors who helped cause the whole mess. Especially considering it was his blunder that saved both the earth, and the empire, and far more lives than we could ever have imagined.
Tigoni’s ex-boyfriend, Navir Salus, was among the group firing at the Sally Ride and appeared to be leading them. He mentioned that Ziah Solis had contacted him directly and offered to give him a promotion (thus avoiding the expected downcheck for turning his chair around while he was supposed to be piloting) if he kept the humans from leaving.
Ahhh! Thank you so very much, for as you might have been able to tell I’d completely forgotten the man’s name.
And now he can be charged with sedition and murder of a superior officer. Solis did an end run around the chain of command to issue that order, so Navir knew that it was an unlawful order, but he was more concerned about his own personal gain than his oathes.
So Navir is on his way to Rura Penthe, at the very least, and at the most headed to whatever the Archavian justice system does for the death penalty.
They did mention that Hala would’ve been in the Imperial Clade for her actions, and in addition to honours, replicating Ted a proper uniform would be a nice gesture.
Among others Kir will get the OTE or Martyr of Archavia. The crew of the Lem will get the Star of the Great Ocean for volunteering to save the Dunnermac on the station. Ted & Hala will get the Friend of Archavia which is what the empire awarded Dunnermac before the equality act. Xu and Bass will share the Nobel Peace Prize.
I wouldn’t mind a vignette where the Lem crew travel to the Great Ocean and Archavia for those medals.
What an adrenaline rush!! Too freaking awesome! And I deem the casualties acceptable, under the circumstances… Whoo- hoo!
And by the way, as with the sojourner chapter, I received zero notifications… Good thing I know where to find the story…
Oof! That was way too close for comfort. I hope Hala and Ted will get to find out how instrumental the Sally Ride‘s communication was. Because that was what made the Emperor decide to act immediately rather than deliberate a little longer. And Zolis only needed a few more minutes to kill everyone on Titan Station (besides the Stanislaw Lem crew). That would have included all the titans too, because after Zolis decided that more deaths would serve his cause better, he no doubt programmed the environmental system to pump lethal amounts of zamik into Titan Station rather than just enough to kill all the humans.
You know, I hadn’t expected Imperial forces to capture Ziah Solis alive. I like it though. I really want to see him stand trial and realize how utterly he has failed.
So I guess the next order of business is to update Earth on all that has happened, followed by telling Mùlán and her crew about the two elephants in the living room (or maybe vashanas; even elephants can easily go unnoticed in a titan living room), namely the whole Class Two Sentient pet thing and Earth’s proximity to Hive Prime. That’s not going to be a pleasant conversation.
I hope we soon get to see the reactions of the general public to all that has happened. It shouldn’t be long now before the news media get hold of most of the details regarding recent events and start reporting them.
“He clicked his heels together and brought up a salute; Tig mocked it, as did Darren, Lysis, and Zhan.” Was it just me who was initially confused by the ‘mocked’ from that last sentence? Because while it can be used as a synonym for straight mimicking, I’d never before seen it used that way. Instead whatever was getting mocked was always being ridiculed in the process.
Yeah, a bit strange.
And who was the furious one ? Sorcha ?
I always assume the furious one is Sorcha. 🙂
I think so too. 😀
I fully expect a conversation with Earth soon, and I’m thinking that an apology from the Emperor would be a good thing.
I certainly hope this Isn’t the end. There are a few loose ends to tie up, such as the general reaction of those on titan station that aren’t with our main group of protagonists.
Oh, there’s a good third of the story left. Stay tuned. 😀
good to know that it isn’t the end. happy ends don’t bother me but still lol.
I predict that there will be a Second Intermission next, and then 10-15 more chapters.
Good to hear, hope we’ll get to see the political side next. I can’t imagine Loona and Pryvani’s reaction to everything they missed.
Ending now wouldn’t feel out of place to me but if you say we’ve got a third of it left, I’m willing to read on.
Well that last 3rd of the story will have quite a challenge to equal the first 2/3rds but the scope will be much, much more broad. From Earth, throughout the empire and Hive Prime and beyond everybody will have to take in the news, formulate strategy, and start choosing up sides. Well done.
i’ll only say it because DX already did, but not only is this story not finished but coming up soon are some of my favorite parts… and, not just the scenes i wrote… *cough*
Is it wrong to say I really, really hope there’s more story content for these long novels, because the idea of you writers running out of material or more ideas for the continuation is deeply depressing?
I wouldn’t worry so much about us running out of ideas… I’ve got like fifty just by myself… No, whats more likely is us just not having *time* lol
“They can’t have,” he said, pacing. “The Emperor couldn’t have. Not without violating the law. I don’t care what Zeramblin told him! It’s not possible!”
This comment is perhaps my favorite line out of the entire series, when the criminal who’s constantly breaking laws left and right makes the assumption that everyone else will obey the same laws he’s disregarding. As if he were the only one smart enough to realize breaking policy was a possibility.
I was laughing hard at that. It takes real balls to complain about the legality of his removal when he’s attempting to commit mass murder and has a dead body stuffed into a locker.
The fact Solis didn’t think possible his codes could be revoked in time was sheer arrogance on his part. Ans as Vanser said, the Emperor could well have killed the codes anyway, even illegally : Solis would still have lost.
Anyway, I hope this isn’t the end. I’m really looking forward to the actual contact, I mean on a cultural and political level, maybe something more like Campaign and Background Chatter.
Also…notifications seemed to have failed entirely again for the last few posts. Hopefully you’ll find something that works reliably.
I’m not sure if this is the end, but if it is, what a wonderful story it has been. Keep ’em coming.