Dark Fate, Chapter 240

Bit under the weather today, but still got a chapter for y'all.

Chapter 240 – Trade

Thankfully, that was all for the major naval issues. There were some minor concerns that needed my signature to move forward, but nothing that needed more discussion than that. Unfortunately, that did not mean I was done for the day. No rest for the wicked, and all that. No, the Lieutenant from Commonwealth Naval Intelligence, Nyana Keldi, wanted a meeting with me, both in her role as an intelligence officer, and as nominal leader of the merchant convoy that had come to start trade between Ceres and the Commonwealth.

“I must admit, you responded to my request quicker than I anticipated, your Majesty,” Keldi said as she moved to one of the comfortable chairs in the sitting room I’d chosen for the meeting.

“Color me intrigued,” I chuckled as I leaned back in my own chair. “You’re coming in a joint role means this isn’t strictly military and not strictly commercial. Your government knows I won’t be selling any of our nastier weaponry, and you haven’t been here long enough to have a full scope of our other offerings. More to the point, any smaller trades for commercial goods would be handled with the actual merchants involved. So, I am left wondering what your government might be after.”

“Well, I won’t insult your intelligence by saying we haven’t been looking for anything we can on Sol System and Ceres in the System Shop. Most of what we discovered was basic stuff. From the looks of it, other than a couple interesting bits of technology that work slightly differently than our equivalents, I was mainly sent to acquire encryption programs and language matrices.”

“Ah, because sometimes a code doesn’t need to be revolutionary, so long as it is a different scheme. Perhaps using a different number base, or alphabet, and ‘encrypting’ messages in a language others aren’t expected to know means that there is extra security there, even if they do decrypt things. Even if you don’t add any extra layers of security on top of it, having a message in Japanese kanji will stump anyone who doesn’t know to have that specific language and alphabet loaded onto their machines.”

“Precisely. And while there are spells to translate written and spoken words from one language to another, they tend to be very literal with the translations, meaning that context may be missed, or there will be errors due to intricacies of the languages involved, especially with written words. For instance, in your English, minute is a measure of time, but minute is a descriptor for something small. Both words are spelled the same, but have very different pronunciations. Translation spells often make mistakes with situations like that.”

“And mistakes in translation are where spy agencies thrive,” I nodded. “But you wouldn’t have asked for a meeting just for that.”

“Well, as I was doing my research, I saw reports about the Outlaws that you’ve sold to the North Koreans, as well as the ones you stationed in your new territories. I was informed to not even bother asking about the Renegades or pulse torpedo technology, but the different Outlaw variants have a great deal of potential. A stealth-capable craft capable of supporting a crew of two on a deployment of months, with proper supplies? Or as something that can be left in hiding, so that an agent can escape if needed? That is something very interesting, indeed.

“And it isn’t just the Navy who would be interested. The Medevac shuttles cover an interesting niche in some of the systems we already have in the Commonwealth. They would do well as emergency first responders. Not that we plan on emergencies, but it seems like there is always something going on in the Commonwealth, and if we waited for local forces to rally, or for a full hospital ship to make orbit, then a lot of people who could have been saved would die.”

“Ah, well, the Outlaws are designed to be used both internally, and for external sale. Putting together a trade deal should be simple enough. Though I’m surprised that you wouldn’t already have something of the sort?”

“We do. However, your Outlaws have multirole functionality, and they can be reconfigured between variants without too much trouble. In the Commonwealth, we have a transport shuttle, a passenger shuttle, and so on, each with different designs and capabilities. Each ship is purpose-built and while a transport shuttle could carry people, it is not exactly recommended. Specialization rather than generalization.”

I nodded slowly. “There are some advantages to specialization. A tool designed for a particular job is going to do that job much better than a tool designed for a general purpose, and even more so against a tool designed for a different specialty. A machete and a scalpel are both blades, but trying to conduct surgery with a machete or clear brush with a scalpel is going to go poorly.”

“Precisely,” Keldi agreed. “And, back before the Incux invasion, the benefits of specialization outweighed the usefulness of generalized platforms. We had the population and industrial base to support the production and supply chains needed for specialized platforms, which were more efficient at their designed tasks. It wasn’t until ten galactic standard years into the war, when the industrial world of Therock 4 fell, that we began to understand.”

“What did they make, there?”

“No finished goods, but parts for many different lines. The most important parts were those which went into shield generators. While we did have redundancies with other industrial worlds having the ability to keep creating the parts, this created shortfalls in other areas of production, which started causing more failures. We had been fighting the Incux for twenty-five standard years when Earth rejoined the System, and for the last fifteen we’ve been forced to try and expand our production of goods while also changing production lines that had been streamlined, so that all the parts got made. It wasn’t the only reason we were losing the war before the intervention of Ceres, but it was one of the major ones.”

“Ah, I see. And you’ve been too busy trying to staunch the bleeding, that you haven’t been able to devote the manufacturing capability to making multirole craft. Which makes the Outlaws an attractive prospect. So, what exactly was your government thinking in terms of numbers?”

“Well, once the counterattack begins, there will be need for fortifications and rebuilding on worlds we take back. All existing Incux infrastructure will need to be blasted away, to ensure that they cannot use it to try and regrow their hives behind the front lines. However, initial construction projects are one of the areas where specialized tools are less efficient than ensuring more generalized tools are available. And they would give a better rapid-response capability.”

She paused, and then said, “Not just the Transports and Shuttles, of course. Having some of the Medevac variants on frontier or newly-reconquered worlds would give those settlements an immediate boost, even after an actual medical center is built. And they would help keep casualties down during the reconquest phase, as well.”

“I see. Getting several Outlaws, even the Civilian models, would allow you to easily and flexibly move people or materiel as needed. The only one that can’t easily switch styles is the Medevac, and that is mainly just because you need medical equipment in the back. That makes perfect sense for your civilian rebuilding projects, as you start pushing the Incux back. But I noticed you haven’t talked about why Intelligence would be interested.”

“Well, the answer to that should be obvious, your Majesty. The military version of the Outlaws are basically the Renegades without the pulse torpedoes. They are still small, relatively fast, capable of extended missions, and stealthy. That naturally appeals to any intelligence operation. More importantly, the production of the Outlaws is not tied to any of the significant players in the Commonwealth. Since many dedicated production lines have shifted to more visible wartime goods, that puts a bit of a focus on ships and small craft that would be useful for any agency. It is too easy for those with the right software to track how many spy ships we produce, and where they’re being deployed.”

“Hmm. Well, the military version of the Outlaw has an FTL drive capable of doing twenty times light-speed, but the civilian version is limited to twice light-speed. Shields are the same on each. Military version has launchers for torpedoes or missiles, while the civilian version uses the launchers to fire probes or other instruments. As far as stealth goes, the military version does have basic stealth systems. Nothing too advanced, but it should be enough to deal with people who aren’t using active sensors.”

I paused, and said, “Of course, if you were looking for something to conduct extended-duration missions out on your own, I would go with the Transport version, since it still has crew berths. The space is too cramped for too many people to be in it for extended durations. Even if the environmental systems held up, I wouldn’t want to see more than six, including the two crewmembers, try to share that space for more than a week or two at a time. Less, if you’re using the Shuttle or medevac layout. However, those numbers change if you have someplace you can land, and let people walk around.

“That said, I would be lying if I didn’t see the potential implications of this. Simply outfitting a few of them to your advance bases would allow you to quietly move people around. Perhaps enough to do a full evacuation, if the Incux stumbled on one of your stations, and decided to attack. And it would allow your people to more easily slip behind the lines in the first to establish new listening posts.

“Although,” I continued, “if you were going to do something like that, then you might want to consider investing in something like the Huntsman-class pocket carrier we’ve designed. Made to look like a light freighter, when it isn’t using the stealth systems, but it can carry a full squadron of fighters. Using one of those as a base would allow you to extend your reach, and give you better flexibility in sneaking people around. More importantly, it would allow your crews to stretch their legs, at least a little, which is more than you can say with them being stuck on an Outlaw for weeks. Not to mention the fact that the Ghost stealth fighters are ready for field testing, now.”

That caught her interest, as I knew it would. “Stealth fighters? Tell me more.”

“Twin cannons equivalent to the ones on our Hunters, and half-size internal torpedo bays. But, some sacrifices to speed and defense make it stealthy enough to be near invisible, while under power. When coasting, you’d have better chances getting visible confirmation on a black hole. No matter however fast it is, though, the Ghost was designed primarily for reconnaissance. If it is blowing things up, then something bad has happened.”

“Hmph,” Keldi chuckled. “People think that being a spy means sweeping people off their feet while getting in shootouts and generally looking like a hero, when, if people know a spy’s face, or they left any trace behind of themselves, their employer, or what, things are already ‘problematic’, and the mission has probably failed. Unfortunately, those types of stories don’t make for good telling. No one wants to hear how someone sorted the mail to check for addresses and spent a day cross-referencing everything for patterns. Simply not as juicy as a chase, battle, or bed scene.”

She took another breath, and said, “Well, one of these pocket carriers and the ghosts definitely sound interesting. Especially with the Outlaws as well. How much would you want for some of those?” I named a price that was two-thirds of what the different craft would cost from the System Shop, and she grinned. “Naturally, I did not come with that much coin, however, once the Commonwealth embassy is set up, I’ll be able to contact Quel’thalas more easily.”

“Embassy, hmm?”

“Oh, it must have slipped our minds, what with all the excitement. A couple of the trading ships have some diplomats aboard, but they wanted to spend some time exploring Ceres before stepping up to meet you. Get a feel for the real Ceres.”

“And you didn’t think to keep this secret from me?”

“No. You have a reputation for not caring about spies, so long as they aren’t causing active headaches. So, they decided that finding a way to mention an embassy with as few people around as possible would give them the best chance to not only make a deal on the embassy’s existence, but also its location. Some areas are more valuable to diplomats and spies than others, after all, and those are rarely put at the top of a merchant’s to-be-sold list.”

“Ah, glad to see that’s still paying benefits. Very well, schedule another meeting when the ambassadors know what plot of land they might want. I won’t promise it to them without examining it first but there shouldn’t be an issue.”