Existential Threat: Chapter 5 Part 1 of 4 (Patreon)

Chapter: 5

08/07/2242

Brad rubbed his head, it felt mirror smooth. I know I haven’t shaved in three days. He chuckled dryly, pushing out of his chair, stretching as much as his net suit would allow. The conference room was set to the standard, ovaloid desk and four screens, no doors, didn’t need them on the net.

“Morning,” Stuart, co-owner/co-administrator, said from his seat at the desk, typing on the table, a holographic screen infront of him.

“Mornin’,” Brad sat in the chair, looking at the wall-screen showing Orion and Azirith systems.

The mines and factories of Valhalla, lines of shuttles heavy with components cut lines of light through space, feeding the Shipyards and stations in orbit and the Sphere World at holding in the planet’s lagrange.

Ares, its smaller inward brother, dust devils half-veiled the mining fields. Mining trucks, monsters as big as a small freighter plowed across the iron-plains as harveters did on agricultural worlds. Shuttles withdrawing containers even as they continued on their paths. Layered nanite vats separated out individual materials, factories forged them into ingots, then components, then the turrets, tanks, dropships, weaponry and bots needed by the Legion’s ground forces.

Warpgates lay at every lagrange point, Sphere World surrounded by four herself, fed by a stream of freighters and patrolling warships.

Freighters made runs through the asteroid belts, trading supplies and gear for raw materials. Sanctorium Lagrange, like all other lagrange’s had its own asteroid belt, some inert rocks, others weapon platforms holding missile launchers, rail cannons and the latest the Legion’s engineers could come up with.

Several warships patrolled the small lagrange, rooted to twin moons, shipyards in the dozens stuck out from the moons. The original yards from when the Legion had been just Gremlins and Howlers worked tirelessly, carriers, dreadnoughts, corvettes, destroyers and cruisers. These shipyards were dedicated to creating one thing and one thing only, warships for the Legion Navy.

Away from them were spinning stations and hollowed out asteroids. Freighters arrived and departed regularly, feeding and trading with the living souls of the Orion system.

Habitable stations spun in their white glory, reflecting star-light, the future of the system. The people that looked up to Brad and Stuart. Employees and shareholders of the Orion Belt Enterprises.

Development had started in the Azirith system. Stations finding new homes among asteroid belts, around the once inhabited planet. Warpgates connected the two systems intimately.

Brad picked out the markers of their allies, Coalition systems, trading companies of every kind, ships from a dozen independent systems.

He smiled at how fast they clipped along, at speeds that no human could withstand, but were made possible with bots.

Without us needing to be in space and being the slowest in space, what will happen to humanity?

Freighters were rapidly replacing crews on them, to having bots on the ships and grounding their staff. Some loved it, getting to stay in one place, others hated it, for much the same reason.

Some are meant to discover and travel.

“Thinking deep there I see, its only a bi-weekly report,” Stuart said.

“Just, thinking on this all, thousands of ships, I don’t know how many factories or shipyards, planets worth of material harvesting,” Brad waved at it all, losing his words and closing his hand.

“Bigger than we could have ever thought,” Stuart sighed.

“Immense, boundless, gigantic…, monstrous even,” Brad opened his hand and looked at his closest friend, shaking it back and forth. “And yet it feels like ‘okay, yeah this is a thing, cool’. As if it is normal.”

Stuart turned his chair and leaned back in it, something he rarely did anymore, pursing his lips.

“It might be a good thing. Sure its immense, the scale of it is just crazy, but we’ve grown with it. Our brains can’t really take in just how big it is. That’s just not part of how we think. That’s fine as long as we bring our all, don’t get overwhelmed with it and don’t treat it any different now that it’s bigger.”

Brad crossed his arms and breathed in through his nose.

“Fucking hell.”

Stuart chuckled. “Fucking hell.”

“You think that we’re ever going to be able to leave Sphere World?” He looked over his shoulder to Stuart, his best friend and co-owner/co-administrator.

Stuart paused flicking through his table-top screen.

“Doubt it, that’s a dark thought.” He frowned.

“At least we’ve got a bit more greenery, see if we can’t setup some greenhouse areas for Mary and for our sanity.” Brad looked at his reflection in the glass and shook his head.

Stuart turned his chair around. “Something wrong?” He looked pretty much like he did in the real, a man moving past his middling years, greys and whites threading through his hair. He’d always looked like a man who lived his life with a laugh, now he looked like a man that had pushed through it, one tired slog at a time.

Neither of  them had added different hair, or clothes, wearing pants and shirts they’d worn the years spent developing video games, more on the comfortable side than professional.

“Just thinking of how fresh I look in this avatar, and not like I’ve been working eighteen hours a day, wishing I have fifty more,” Brad pulled off his screen glasses, running his forefinger and thumb over his brows before rubbing his eyes. “Never seems like there is enough hours in the day,” he said under his breath.

“No, it never does,” Stuart said in a soft voice. Brad glanced at his friend, giving him a pressed smile, it had been a long time since he heard that tone.

Since the loss of Felipe it had hardened Stuart’s heart, the quick joking, goofy friend had retracted inside a man driven by his work and while not callous his professional veneer rebuffed any attempts beyond social courtesy.

And Mary has pulled back from the world too.

“So, what are we going to do about our latest Sphere World prompt?” Brad threw out the notifications into the middle of the desk.

[Tier Two-UNLOCKED]

[Requirements: Clear out Sphere World 185 Sector]

[Administration rights of Sector 185]

Tier Three-LOCKED]

[Requirements: Create TWO Sphere Worlds and release]

[Join Galactic Council]

“That is the question.” Stuart crossed his arms. “Nothing came with the administration rights, no new information. Just the new mission, create a sphere world.”

“They need some way to propagate and spread,” Brad said.

“There is no time limit on it, but we can’t really ignore it. What if there are others out there that will need the Sphere Worlds that we create to save their people from the Adraxi?”

“As soon as we do so then we can join this galatic council. Do they know about us already, or will they know about us when we send out the message?” Brad shook his head. “As with anything about the builders or their purpose, Sally can’t answer a damn thing to help us out.”

“We just finished building the Armadas. We still need to build out the secondary systems. We don’t have enough ships for all of the Legion’s Fleet members to use.”

“So we wait?”

“I think so. We don’t know if this council will like us or not. Hell I think we might just build one Sphere World and then not build the second. Continue to expand and build on our terms, not someone elses,” Stuart said.

“You know what, you make a damn good argument. If we don’t have to, we shouldn’t race to be known. The longer we can grow, the better. Who knows what’s waiting for us out there.”