Corebound Chapter 3-29 (Patreon)

Jacob checked the welds as maintenance drones zipped back and forth. He was once again working to repair Melody. It was a job that wouldn’t be complete any time soon. With his attention elsewhere, more air leaks had developed than he would have preferred. Those sections were closed off, so he wasn’t super concerned about that problem right now. The patches and extra armor were temporary anyway. True repairs wouldn’t happen until he could return to the shipyard.

He was about to move on to the next section of Melody’s hull when he received a ping from Director Wycliff. A few moments after that, he got one from Tabitha Shank of the Western Alliance. They wanted to have an in-person meeting.

Jacob groaned. He knew the meeting was going to be annoying, but if he dismissed them to continue work on Melody and his other projects, they could make his life miserable. Jacob had some personal production on the surface, but he still relied heavily on the civilian production centers that were set up post-t’uk attack.

He hopped into a drone on the surface and made his way to the meeting room. Upon entering, he got the distinct feeling that people were annoyed with him.

“Nice of you to show up,” Wycliff snapped.

“Did I miss something?” Jacob asked, standing awkwardly in the doorway.

Tabitha Shank and the director weren’t the only ones in attendance. General Vokner sat to the left of Wycliff, and an unknown man sat next to Shank. Jacob assumed that was another member of WA’s leadership.

Finishing off the assembled group were two people of Chinese descent. Jacob realized one was a soldier from the search expedition. He didn’t know the man’s name, but he looked uncomfortable even being in the room. The older man next to him was wearing a sharp suit and looking completely unimpressed by everything going on.

Those have to be the new Chinese representatives.

Jacob had heard that Barry had started bringing on more local leadership to help break up responsibilities and ease the transition into a one world government. While it was annoying, people tended to react better when dealing with people who looked and sounded like them.

“Ignore the Director,” Shank said, giving Wycliff a reproachful look. “He’s under a lot of stress, as are all of us, which brings us to the reason for this meeting.”

“I apologize,” Wycliff said. “Mrs. Shank is right. Everyone is just a bit stressed out after having to run for cover after we assured them the aliens were gone.”

Jacob wasn’t sure why they would promise people that, but that wasn’t his problem, so he let the man continue.

“Some of our efforts have hit severe setbacks, as a portion of the people we saved fled back into hiding when we issued the evacuation alerts. Some returned, but most haven’t, and a few even ransacked the bases during the emergency before disappearing.”

Jacob was surprised to hear that. Well, not the ransacking part. People tended to be rather shortsighted when panic set in. “This is the first I’m hearing of this. Why wasn’t I notified sooner?”

“You were a bit busy, dear,” Shank answered for Wycliff. “We didn’t want to distract you during preparations. We aren’t like the previous governments, who I’m sure ordered you around, or tried to during the t’uk assault.”

There actually hadn’t been a whole lot of ordering around during the attack, not that he would have listened to the idiots who were in power back then anyway. He chose not to correct the woman’s assumptions, however. It was better if they thought he would react negatively if they tried to control him. And he would, very much.

“And now that everyone’s coming back out of the bunkers, it’s safe to tell me. Got it. How can I help?”

Wycliff cut in, trying to retake control of the meeting, which earned a slight smirk from Shank that only Jacob caught. “The citizens are concerned. They want assurances that the aliens are gone for good.”

“Why haven’t you taken this issue to Barry?”

The group glanced around at the others before Wycliff spoke again. “We have. Barry said that the situation is still fluid. We were hoping that you might be able to shed more light on what that means.”

Jacob silently cursed Barry. The man was smart not to mention the possibility of a third attack so soon after the last one, but he should have known that not giving them anything would cause the civilian leadership to look for a more concrete answer from someone else.

He needed to be careful with how he worded his response. He didn’t want to cause even more unrest or panic. Outright lying to them might be the best option. At least until the Astryx war fleet showed up. Then there would be panic, and he would have burned any trust he had accrued, much like the government heads who went into hiding to save their own asses.

Back when Jacob first returned to Earth, he didn’t care that people hated and despised him. Now that he had put so much time and effort into saving humanity, he felt a bit possessive. He wanted to see humanity thrive, because he had helped it reach that point, not because he felt any attachment to his home planet.

It was a completely self-centered outlook, but he didn’t care.

“The fleets that attacked are gone. None of those vessels survived. I can assure you of that. That being said, I can’t guarantee that more won’t come looking for them. What would you do if a large part of your army just vanished?”

“I would send in scouts to see what happened or a force large enough to ensure whatever happened to them couldn’t happen again,” General Vokner replied.

“So the threat remains,” Shank said.

“Will there ever be an end to this?” the unnamed man next to her demanded. “Perhaps we should just bow toward their power. We can’t expect to win against an entire council of species with a single ship.”

The group glared at the man while Jacob just stared in confusion. He hadn’t expected such a vocal response after just meeting the unnamed man.

“Hush, Sebastion. The adults are talking.”

Sebastian’s face went bright red at Shank’s rebuke. “I will not sit here and be treated like a child. I will also not subject my people to endless wars for the sake of war. We had enough of that with the US. If the Astryx offer a way to survive, we should throw aside our pride and take it. Survival at any cost is better than being wiped out.” With that, the man stood and strode out of the room.

“What the hell is with him?” Jacob asked.

Shank sighed. “Sebastian is a bright man, but something in him broke when the t’uk attacked. Now fear rules his thoughts.”

“Yeah, well, maybe tell him to keep thoughts like that to himself,” Jacob replied.

“He’s not wrong, though,” Wycliff added. “Reports indicate you took serious damage during the last attack. Can you fight off another fleet by yourself?”

Jacob didn’t mention his new allies, mostly because he didn’t know if the High Chancellor and his people were truly allies. He did, however, have an answer for the director. “I won’t be by myself. Earth can’t build a full warship in a few months—” Neither could Barry at the station, but that was mostly a material constraint rather than production. “—but I’ll be sending out designs for a small crew fighter. I estimate that a single fabricator can have a ship built in a little over a week. I would suggest starting with ten fabricators.”

Building actual ships had been a long time coming, but every time they got close to starting one, something happened that derailed that timeline. With access to all of Earth’s resources, and the defensive satellites in place, that was no longer an issue.

“I don’t know, Jacob,” Wycliff hesitated. “We already turned over some fabricators to Junior. Losing ten more is going to hamper our efforts to save more people.”

“In the short term, sure, but with new fabricators still being produced, that issue will solve itself in short order. Slowing down will also give you time to train up new representatives. I know your people have been struggling to get new onboards up to speed.”

Wycliff winced at that. The man knew that the lack of local representation was one of the major reasons they were seeing so much pushback in South America. China was the same way, but working with the Chinese reservists had opened up cleaner lines of dialog to smooth out any ruffled feathers before it became an actual problem.

“What about training?” Vokner asked. “I assume this program will be for merge-capable individuals?”

“Actually, no,” Jacob said, earning a surprised look from the General. “I don’t want to take away any of your merge-capable people. You have few enough of those as it is. They can also pilot drone combat ships, so there’s no need to build a new ship specifically for them.”

Jacob actually did design a new drone combat ship. It had layered shields and better weapons based on the design specs he got from the High Chancellor. Not that he needed assistance during the last fight. Speaking of drone ships, he still hadn’t replaced most of the ships he lost during the t’uk fight. He would see if he could squeeze a few in.

The new fighters were nothing like an actual fighter jet. They were about the size of Hallik’s gunship. Jacob and Junior had scaled them down slightly, without sacrificing any of their offensive or defensive capabilities by removing any sort of creature comforts.

The insides were so tight, you had to crawl through the corridors to get to your station, and then you were surrounded by close metal walls and screens. It was very reminiscent of older tanks or submarines.

Jacob hadn’t greenlit the design because he was a sadist; he did it because it used the fewest materials. He also hoped that the ships, with their phase coils, would show the Astryx that humanity was indeed an FTL species now.

That didn’t mean they wouldn’t still attack, but there was a chance when everything was over and done that the Astryx might actually see reason.

Yeah, probably not, but he could dream.

Maybe it would be for the best if the High Chancellor took all their worlds while they were waging war on Earth.

The conversation continued for a bit, but he was having a hard time convincing anyone other than General Vokner or the Chinese soldier that more ships were better.

After more rounds of fruitless discussions and assurances, Jacob came away with only five fabricators initially. It was annoying that Director Wycliff was wholly fixated on saving more civilians over having more military power, but Jacob could see where the man was coming from.

It wasn’t a complete loss. Jacob had wanted all ten from the get-go, but he knew he wouldn’t get that before he even suggested it as an option. He would have been happy with three, so five was better than his estimates. When a new fabricator came online, another would be added to the construction queue, up to the full ten.

Even with the reduced output, Jacob estimated he could have a few hundred of the fighters ready before the enemy could even arrive at Earth. As long as Vokner could find enough people willing to train to fly them, that would certainly even the odds.