Sliding Reality: Chapter 8 Part 1 of 7 (Patreon)

Chapter 8:

7/04/2242

Luke secured the last of the crates in the personal hold and climbed up the ladder to the main deck.

They had been a hive of activity since they went through Ramirez's information. His mother had talked to her Uncle and set up their next pickup in Korzh's system while his father coordinated their transfer at Tiankong Gong-Dian, speeding up the offloading and reloading mostly empty containers.

Joey and Marissa coordinated the consumables they'd require for a long voyage, topping off water, getting maintenance pulled up ahead of schedule. They still had half full fuel tanks and Korzh had a Helium three plant.

They could effectively hide out in the darkness between systems for months, or allow them to move between less popular systems moving freight without requiring to dip into more populated and controlled systems for specific parts.

Luke had acted as labor and figured out just how to drop Ramirez's information.

He dropped into his seat, they had been travelling for nearly half a day, none of them had slept since they got the files. He was the last to arrive.

"Extending projectors, destination Korzh," Adeline said, she'd taken over the piloting, Marissa was her second. Stephen sat at communications and Joey at engineering. Luke was at navigation but Marissa was coordinating it and Luke was a backup for anyone else.

He pulled up his messages, prepared and ready to go.

"Jump in ten minutes, Luke do what you've got to."

"Yes mom."

>Hey Jynx, this is the file I was telling you about FILES [Luke]

>You going to tell me what's in them? [Jynx]

>Take a look if you want, it shows the Federation stealing from an unarmed station, engage an unknown ship, destroying it and then the station. Your father and Uncle need to know about the Federation. [Luke]

>Shit, you serious? [Jynx]

>Yeah [Luke]

>Fuck. No wonder you wanted all of those contacts. Sending it to them now. As soon as I know what it is I'll let you know. What you going to do? You going to Sphere World? [Jynx]

Luke paused, With the station modules, once they were built, then going to Sphere World wasn't out of the realm of options.

>I dunno, just got to go dark for a bit, you can get me through my private chat. [Luke]

>Okay, yeah, stay safe.

>Try my best, got to go. [Luke]

Luke pulled up the message he had drafted together, the to and CC bar filled with addresses. His finger hovered over the send button, he let out a breath and pressed the button.

The message closed, heading out across the stars.

"Okay, I just sent them, Jynx said that she's going to get the information out to her father and Uncle.

"Just sent it out to the trading networks," His father said from communications, catching Luke's eye and nodding to him.

Luke pressed his lips together and nodded. Not sure what to say, his world having turned upside down and inside out into a new form that he didn't recognize. I don't even know what this will do.

"Forming wormhole." Adeline said, the projectors hummed and the lights dimmed as they punched a hole through the fabric of space.

***

Brad was having a hard time stopping himself from bouncing his leg. Sally was sending him constant updates on what the inspectors were doing. While he was stuck in the second day of talks. Arguments more like.

"Turning Orion system into a trade zone will incentivize companies to move in and grow what is already there. Sphere World controls thousands of factories, and miners, selling these off and using the funds to develop businesses around Sphere World infrastructure will lead to the creation of billions of jobs." Li Wei stated.

"Sell off the assets to the corporations and then use those funds to pay the corporations back? So they get them for free? How will those assets be sold off? Are you going to auction them? In that case then there will be no one other than the largest of corporations that can get access to them. That will only increase the barrier to entry! We need to look at what is the best for the majority of humanity. We should break up the assets of Sphere World by population. That way everyone owns a part of Sphere World." Lucy Hahn glared at Li Wei.

“Barrier of entry? You want every idiot that can jerk off having access to nuclear grade weapon systems?” Admiral Walker barked. “With your benefit system, it is no wonder that you have the largest population, have a kid and get paid for them. Sphere World’s factories create military hardware. Civilian councils will only screw up and slow down anything that should happen. If we allow these factories to be used by amoral corporations or a bunch of leeches, we might as well shoot our damn selves.”

"We can’t leave these weapons in the hands of civilians, that is correct, but we also can’t have Sphere World just focused on building weapons.” Aramand tried to smooth over tensions. “Let us not forget that there are clans and guilds within Orion system that have members from all of our different groups. This is a delicate situation, it is not something that will be easy to fix or complete. This needs a careful experienced hand to guide its transition. Sol is the mother of us all, we have struck a balance between the groups the formed on Earth and with each of your groups. You know that we are fair and understanding in our dealings. Sol should take over the administration for Sphere World to make sure that balance is maintained."

“Those that already have assets within the game should maintain, them, the people, all military hardware should be turned over to the military for safety and what is under Sphere World itself should be broken down by population. It is the cleanest solution,” Lucy Hahn shook her hands as if she could shake the skulls around the table.

"Bean counters and accountants." Walker’s voice was low and powerful.

A chime sounded, the tension in the room pulling back.

"Our planned recess begins for thirty minutes,” Aramand smiled.

A door opened at the side of the room, some disappeared, others headed into the room, different groups aides mixing together in quiet conversation.

“I’m heading back to the office lobby.”

“I’ll join you.” Stuart said.

His vision scrawled to a wood and black metal room, one wall looking from Sphere World down onto Valhalla.

Stuart appeared next to him, standing out of his chair.

“Looks all rather peaceful from here.”

“Still have shuttles dropping off supplies, coming in from across the system,” Brad pointed at the moving lights against the stars. “All the dropships and fighters are on the planets and through the system. Not as busy today.”

The silence was reassuring.

“What you think of the talks today?”

"I think they just like the sounds of their own voices," Stuart stretched.

" I don't know how much of it is real and how much of it is positioning." Each of their demands is unreasonable, it would cut the others out of the picture. He summoned a messages terminal, checking what he’d received through the meeting.

Catching a message from Jynx marked URGENT.

>You need to see this ASAP, Federation looting and destroying a station, fight with new ship prototype.