Oort Cloud
Sol system
11:23 Unity City Time
10 January 2784
Aleksander Kerensky’s perspectiveOfficially he was out here searching for lost Cameron heirs. If any had truly survived they would be among the Belters because the Oort Cloud was nearly as massive a haystack to get lost in as was humanly possible without leaving the Sol system.
He never really believed Amaris when he sent the message and the carnage he found in the throne room, that just cemented it for him.
The pain of the Devil’s deal he made was heavy on his soul, moreso after that. On some level he knew he had asked the impossible of Amaris.
The campaign had also been a humbling lesson about just how little he really knew about running an Army.
A beeping from his communication terminal grabbed his attention.
“Yes?” Kerensky knew he let his frustration and lack of sleep make him sound more terse than he intended.
“A signal from Oort Cloud Object
Albion General. Seems there is still a Belter burrow there and they have decided to talk to us finally Sir.” The young man on the other side answered.
“Good. I also apologize for my poor conduct.” Aleksander felt the throbbing in his temples from not having properly slept for many days now.
The nightmares of the campaign and the throne room were frequent companions now.
Never again.“It has been a long campaign for all of us General. Patching them through now Sir.” The commstech did not seem phased.
“Greetings General Kerensky.” The voice seemed off to Kerensky but it was feminine.
“May I know the name of the person I am speaking with?”
“You can call me Victoria. I actually represent someone who wishes to speak to you privately. No outside ears.” Victoria seemed inhumanly monotone.
“Well Victoria I am a tired old man who has just earned enough sin to haunt them for ten eternities so I hope you will forgive me if I am in no mood for games. If they wish to speak to me they may do so. I trust my men to not listen in.” Kerensky scoffed.
“Still they would appreciate it if you would scramble your comms to ensure privacy. I have been instructed to mention the name Joan Lestrade and a conversation you had with her in 2750 at an official function.”
Kerensky felt the color drain from his face. Lady Lestrade as far as he knew had never told anyone about that conversation and thus been true to her word. There were many who would have used the content of that discussion against him.
“Scrambling comms now.” Kerensky entered the appropriate commands into the terminal.
“Hello General Kerensky.” The voice of a ghost that would haunt him for the rest of his days came through the speaker.
“Lady Cameron.” Kerensky answered barely above a whisper.
“I know we do not have the time to talk about everything we really should.” Helena’s tone was neutral.
“I… I… “ Kerensky was at a loss for words.
“It is okay General. I know about your devil’s bargain. So you will have to forgive me if I do not turn myself over to you or any other forces under your command.” Helena let out a small chuckle.
“If you have come to claim your throne I have no choice but to prevent that.” Kerensky reached for a microgravity tumbler of vodka on his desk.
“It is likely you would be able to stop me and rather easily. I have sat on the sidelines for far too long in this conflict for enough of your forces to believe me about who I am but enough that it would tear apart the last of the Star League. That last seed would ruin everything.” Helena answered.
“So what is it you want?” Kerensky gathered himself.
“We both know what is coming next. You do not want the throne for yourself and I must admit you are right about more things than I initially gave you credit for. I cannot take the throne either. Besides I find Terra is just a place to me now. One that haunts me thanks to Amaris. As much as it will condemn many citizens of the Star League and Terran Hegemony to being helpless in the face of what is coming you and your followers need to leave Hegemony space. I do not care where you go but the sins you have committed mean I cannot tolerate you staying either.” Helena’s voice had a low tone of anger.
“What a pair of monsters we make. We will both have much to answer for in the afterlife. In a way I look forward to meeting you in hell. We both deserve it. It will take some time to make the preparations. For what it is worth I will try and preserve as much of the Star League and Terran Hegemony as I can by taking as much with me as possible. We cannot let the Member States have it all.” Kerensky sipped some of the vodka out of the tumbler.
“More points I find myself forced to agree with. Oddly I find myself wishing you a good journey.” Helena closed the channel.
Kerensky looked at his journals.
“In a way it seems I have to thank you Helena Cameron. Maybe I can atone for my sins by carrying out my grand experiment to create a better humanity. It never would have been possible on Terra or anywhere in the Inner Sphere for that matter. You have just given me the nudge I needed for that.” Kerensky leaned back in his chair.
Helena’s perspective“That went better than I expected.” Helena leaned back in her chair.
“It seems bouncing our comms off satellites and through other burrows has worked as General Kerensky is not pursuing.” Vicky strode up next to her in the human form drone.
“I know there are reasons for the path I have now set us on but it still feels so wrong. The General is right. I am going to hell for my moral cowardice.” Helena craned her neck back.
“There is an argument to be made that by removing at least part of the SLDF it will actually reduce the upcoming fighting. Besides the infrastructure of the Hegemony is in ruins or already getting gobbled up by the Member States. There seems to be no right answer and which ever choice we could have made instead would have it’s own share of consequences. Many arguably worse.” Vicky countered.
“Yeah and as much as he blundered the handling of the campaigns even Kerensky can do that math. He was already having to rely on Member State support and that has all but vanished now that Amaris is dealt with. I wonder how long it will take the nightmares to stop now.” Helena started working the jump board.
Out on the Hull of [/i]Albion’s Grace[/i]
Nadir Point
Lazarus System
6:00 Unity City Time
9 August 2789
Stacey Cameron’s perspectiveStacey was working to free a sail line that had jammed up. Learning to be one of the Folk was hard work but it was better than the alternative.
Walter came up to help her after finishing checking the winch itself.
“So Roberts what do you say? Go on a date with me tonight?” Walter smiled at her through his helmet.
Stacey had taken the name Roberts to help hide who she really was among the Folk but it was one of those open secrets. A lot of people knew who her mother was.
“Dinner and dancing?” Stacey laughed.
“I…uh….” Walter stammered as ‘dancing’ had a slightly different meaning in microgravity.
“I’m just teasing. Dinner and a trivid would be lovely.” Stacey smiled.
“And you better have her back to her bunk by 18:00.
Alone.” The faint light of the local star was suddenly blotted out by nearly 700,000 tons of overprotective chaperone.
“Billie Hoel I swear you are the worst.” Stacey cursed over the comms.
“Yes ma’am. Excuse me, I think I need to tend to something.” Walter stammered.
“I am glad I am understood. I would hate to have to express my displeasure in the terrajoule range.” The Caspar drifted off.
“You know you just scared the piss out of that poor boy.” Stacey was still angry but the line was free now.
“I will not apologize for having standards for those who date the daughter of the First Lord.” The AI seemed rather self-satisfied.
“No wonder mom got so frustrated at times.” Stacey started for the hatch.
I am so totally getting out of here first chance I getOnce she got in she changed. She had a Pathfinder to see.
Helena’s personal office
Lazarus
9:00 Unity City Time
9 August 2789
Helena’s perspective“Your daughter is falling in more and more with the Folk. She is starting to date them now.” Vicky relayed Billie’s latest update.
“I cannot say I blame her. I was 17 when I was pregnant with her. Here she is 18 and she looks like she could be my sister, not my daughter. It strains our relationship a great deal and honestly I understand since for a long time I was rather frustrated too. A woman does have needs.” Helena smirked.
Vicky suddenly looked rather uncomfortable.
“There is one other matter. Some of the others are complaining that you are prioritizing the Folk jumpships for yard time and investing too many resources on the refugees.” Vicky eventually broke the uncomfortable silence.
“An unfortunate reality. We need the refugees to establish mines and factories but to do that we first have to make sure we can house and feed them. We also can only bring them in on Folk ships and with their own yards becoming strained they are starting to be in the same situation we are. Things are getting worse out there and will continue to do so for a while longer.” Helena knew most of the AIs actually understood this.
They were just becoming restless as their core programming was to ultimately be weapons of war. All this idleness was not good for them. But it was the only realistic choice.
As much as these new conflicts were creating more refugees that they could tap only so many could be brought here. After Amaris and Kerensky and now this new round of conflicts the various factions of the Folk were more divided than ever. Golden Hind was already at their limits before this and now their ships were overworked and breaking down.
“You really should reconsider the hibernation treatments. It would do you good. We have everything rigged to minimize muscle atrophy and between Simon and the drugs it will just seem like a night’s sleep.” Vicky prodded.
“First work. Then maybe after Stacey earns her next certification.” Helena closed the book she was reading.
She began typing on her computer. The current rate of growth versus the drop offs from accidents and ship wear out painted a bleak picture. The most optimistic projection showed that it would be about 3060 before they could have even an entire Destroyer Division operating at the same time.
Main Street
New Unity City
Lazarus
5:22 Unity City Time
8 October 3006
Helena’s perspectiveHelena walked along the street of the city that had grown up from the refugees that had started coming here so long ago. Despite her best attempts to remove herself from governance the AIs and the people insisted that as long as she was able she was their First Lord.
They had at least relented that the position should no longer be hereditary.
But what was probably more unsettling were the whispers and gasps of the people around her. They had taken to calling her the Eternal Princess.
The underground facility she took her hibernation treatments in was hollowed out from a cave with giant crystal growths which made the sort of Arthurian
religion growing around her even worse as they had come to call it the Crystal Caverns.
“People hear me. I am no goddess or divine being. I do not deserve your worship or adoration. I bleed as you do. I must toil as you toil to accomplish my deeds.” Helena addressed the gathering crowds.
She hated this. She seemed to be having to make this speech everytime she was out in public now. It used to be able to buy her a year or even a decade.
Being the youngest daughter of the First Lord was bad enough. Now she was inspiring a
religion just by being alive and no matter what speeches she gave or what measures she took it was never quite enough.
“I understand. I seem to be a walking miracle. But I serve you, not you me.” Helena walked up to a coffee cart.
The man had her usual order ready for her by now.
Helena had a trail of people behind her as she walked back to her office.
Mostly children.
“Now you all mind your parents.” Billie Hoel had the gate guard duty today.
“You know you could avoid this by having someone bring you your coffee.”
“Tried that and the coffee was not the same.” Helena replied.
“That is because the coffee guy when you tried that is retired now.” Billie smiled.
“Really? ****** it Kerensky was right. I am losing touch with my people.” Helena sipped her coffee.
“Speaking of Kerensky 66 has an interesting report.” Billie ushered Helena into her office.
Helena got to her desk and sat down.
“66?” Helena tapped the comm.
“Lady Cameron. An interesting development. Our friends in Golden Hind sent us this image.” 66’s voice came over the speaker.
A picture of the senior leaders of Wolf Dragoons came up on the display.
One of them caught Helena’s attention right away.
“So your kids had kids and they are back. 66 have Golden Hind keep forwarding what they can about these Dragoons. In the meantime show me what you have already.” Helena smiled.
Helena wished she could exploit this. But the problems that had forced them to stay bottled up for nearly the last 125 years were still plaguing them.
One of them that had been added to the mix was Comstar. Helena almost decided to risk contacting them during Silver Shield but a breakdown meant that by the time any of her AI friends could actually jump again had delayed long enough that Comstar started spouting a bunch of pseudoreligious nonsense that frankly disturbed Helena.
Their ROM had really been hampering access to the stuff they really needed.
Including skilled workers. A ROM Operative even managed to get in with some refugees expressly because they wanted to find where a bunch of specialists were being shipped off to.
At first they tried being subtle. Trying to arrange passage back out of system or even getting in with Golden Hind. But that all failed. Everyone understood how important it was for this system to remain off every one’s charts.
So the agent switched tactics to try and sow dissent. That did not go as they had hoped. Turns out when you try and preach a new religion that runs very contrary to one that has the focus of worship walking among the faithful is a good way to get mobbed and horrible things done to oneself.
Helena had to admit there were some decent thoughts in Blake’s works and some uncomfortable truths about humanity pulled from the woman’s hidden cache of belongings.
Still though to protect themselves there was no more inbound traffic.
Cell 175, Block F
Devil’s Breath
Date and time unknown
Elizabeth Cameron’s PerspectiveThe pain all over her body was somehow different this time. Somehow she felt an emptiness inside her. Like she had been full of something. Something that should have meant something to her.
Whatever it was it had earned her a few months of reprieve from the beatings and sleep deprivation.
Vague memories of two blurry pink shapes being pulled from her was all she could recall.
But now that it was gone the horrors were back.
She had no strength to resist anymore. Who she was no longer mattered.
Someone was coming. The terror caused her to soil herself. She did not even really notice it as her cell was a fetid hellhole.
She curled up into a ball pulling her knees into her chest as tight as she could, trying to make herself as small as possible as she heard what sounded like weapons fire.
Then the door swung open with a slam that made her jump and start to cry.
“Mein Gott…” The man said.
He was new. Different somehow. He had not started beating her, berating her, or other terrible things.
She heard him step back, clearing the way for someone else.
The feel of gloved hands on her arms made her try and pull away from the person.
“Please… No more… Just kill me already….” Elizabeth sobbed.
“Shhh… There is no need for that now ma’am. I am a medic with the 199th Royal CAAN Regiment. Star League. I am here to help. You are safe.” A soothing gentle feminine voice spoke.
“Can’t be. Others said they were the Star League. They did things to me… Uncle Aleks never came for me.” Elizabeth tried to recoil away from the woman.
“Aleks? Who is Uncle Aleks? Who are you?” The medic let Elizabeth move away from her.
“I’m not her. I’m no one now. I don’t matter.” Elizabeth was now in the corner hugging her knees into her chest.
“No one will hurt you again. Here. It looks like you could use something to eat.” The medic tried a soothing voice as she dug into her bag for a ration bar.
“Could it be her?” The man asked from the hall.
“Maybe? Her face is pretty swollen from recent beatings so it is hard to be sure. One thing is for sure. She has been through a special kind of hell.” The medic held out the ration bar.
Elizabeth looked at it with suspicion then took it.
She realized that was part of why she did not feel whole anymore. They had fed her better for a while. Then they stopped again. So now in the empty pit of her stomach was also the pangs of hunger along with the sense that something important was missing.
If she could remember what that was… But no, remembering that would mean remembering other things too.
After she finished the ration bar she felt sleep overtake her.
“You drug the food?” The man asked.
“No. She is probably just exhausted. From the look of her she probably hasn’t slept in days. Come on, let’s get her up and out of this filth.” The medic started wiping Elizabeth’s face clean.
As Elizabeth slept for once she did not have a nightmare, just a pleasant warm moistness. What she did not know was as she slept was that she was getting her first bath since the coup.
