Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Two: Government Meetings (Patreon)

The corporal led me to a smaller tent next to the command centre. Inside, a table had been set with six chairs. 

Pemberley and Anne sat across from Vohra, Kalachakra, and a suited man I didn’t recognize. The stranger shot me a condescending look, even as I took the sixth chair. 

Kalachakra inclined his head in acknowledgement. “Thank you for joining us, Belessar.”

“Is it necessary to include the foreign ultras in this discussion?” the stranger interrupted. “We are speaking of national security matters.”

“Global security, as it were,” Pemberley interjected smoothly. “Belessar is a major shareholder in BAE-Dragonfly, the only manufacturer of fullersteel. Considering your position, I believe his presence is required.”

“And the child?”

I had to give credit to Anne - she didn’t react visibly, as she once might have. Instead, she ignored the comment, as if it was beneath her dignity to respond. 

Pemberley, on the other hand, was not so constrained. “May I remind you, Joint Secretary Kumaraswamy, that Nanocloud is an integral part of our command and control network. As such, she can observe the proceedings of this meeting even if she is several kilometres away. It would be far more prudent for her to officially be a part of this discussion.”

Kumaraswamy snorted, evidently not impressed. 

That was fine; the feeling was mutual. 

Kalachakra spoke up. “We have the updated reports from Mumbai, assessing the effects of the Archon weapon. It is now clear that the radiation was deployed through some unusual means; the dosage delivered to every citizen, regardless of age, weight, whether indoors or outdoors, or any other factors, was precisely calibrated. Just enough to sicken them, not enough to kill them instantly.”

“That is a very precise weapon,” Pemberley replied. “Has this been confirmed by independent doctors?”

“Multiple doctors, and several ultras as well. Three Savants and two precogs have been able to confirm the effects of the radiation. Between eleven and thirteen months from now, each of these people will suffer cascading multi-organ failures resulting from cancerous growths in their body.” 

“Twenty-five million people,” Vohra said, “who will die without proper medication.”

“Do standard anti-radiation drugs work?” asked Pemberley.

“Not standard ones, no. There is a specific drug called Aerovascar that is effective against the radiation.” Kalachakra paused. “A Chinese drug, as it were, and patent-protected.”

“I’m sure that, given the circumstances, it can be made available.”

“Therein lies the problem,” Kalachakra said. “It took us a few hours to figure out the effectiveness of various drugs - and it’s quite suspicious that only Aerovascar works. Furthermore, it’s only manufactured in China - which has offered to supply limited quantities, at an appropriate price.” 

“... A price for a life-saving medicine used against the Hierarchy?”

“Quite. Sixty thousand dollars per dose, to be specific.”

My jaw dropped. “That’s insane.”

Kumaraswamy let out a ‘hmphf’. “This is expected. The Chinese have a tendency to gouge us on pricing, and provide sub-par materials. We do not have any faith that the drug will work. Plus, they can only provide a hundred thousand doses of it, claiming that is all that’s available on-hand.”

“It should be possible to reverse engineer and manufacture locally,” Pemberley replied.

Kumaraswamy sniffed. “A Britisher is advising us to ignore patent protection laws? Not that we need your advice, but this is already being considered. Unfortunately, the price is not - completely unrealistic. We have already checked Aerovascar’s production costs.”

“And?”

“Due to the limited efficiency of the extraction process, even if we make it locally, each dose will cost fifty thousand dollars.” Kumaraswamy looked Pemberley in the eye, as if she were personally responsible for the production cost. “We can reverse engineer it, set up factories, and mass-produce it at scale - and we still have a high chance of failing to make enough in time. Meanwhile, once the public come to know, panic will set in.”

“Twenty-five million doses, at fifty thousand a dose, will cost one and a quarter trillion dollars,” Kalachakra said. “The current budget of the Indian government - for everything put together - is one point two trillion dollars. To save the people of Mumbai, we would have to cut costs everywhere. Including, unfortunately, the military.”

“The Earth Defence Base project already stretched the country’s finances,” grumbled Kumaraswamy. “This will completely collapse our economy.”

“What do you mean,” Pemberley asked, “cutting costs in the military?”

“It means, madam, that we will not be able to replace the destroyed equipment of today,” Kumaraswamy replied. “It means we will have to freeze recruitment for at least ten years, and ask many of our currently serving personnel to retire, or continue to serve without pay. It means a complete hold on procurement of new weapons, or ammunition for existing weapons.”

“You are in the middle of war,” Pemberley said.

“And we will have to bear the price,” said Kumaraswamy. “Either we let twenty-five million people die, or we take the risk of leaving ourselves exposed to alien attacks while we try to save as many lives as we can. Also, we will not be able to send troops to fight in any international actions for the near future.”

“That would be a grave loss. The Indian Army has always been a stalwart ally in the fight against the Hierarchy.”

“You mean our soldiers have done the dying for your people, as they have in the past,” Kumaraswamy almost spat out. 

Kalachakra made a calming motion with his hands. “Now is not the time to rehash ancient history, Joint Secretary. We are asking the aid of our allies in a difficult time; let us at least treat them with courtesy.”

“Can you at least tell us what you want?” asked Pemberley. “While I can’t promise anything, I can at least speak to my superiors.”

“Three things,” said Kalachakra. “Firstly, you understand that we will have to demobilize a significant chunk of our military in order to save the lives of our citizens. During this time, we would be vulnerable to alien attacks.”

“The Stratospheric Guard would of course assist in case of any attacks,” Pemberley said.

“We know, but that’s not enough,” Vohra spoke up. “We cannot be reliant on external powers to protect our country. If we have to go with a smaller military - or release troops to the reserves for a short period of time - we need to replace quantity with quality.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, we need to equip at least two divisions of troops with fullersteel armour and appropriate weapons,” Vohra said. “Like the nanothorn kukri I’ve heard so much of. Or more advanced combat suits, that can actually take the fight to the enemy.”

Pemberley sucked in a breath. “General Vohra, the entirety of the Stratospheric guard has one regiment of Boar armour. We can’t possibly equip two divisions.”

“Can’t we?” Vohra turned to me. “You’re the manufacturer. Two divisions of fullersteel equipped armour. Can you do it?”

I swallowed. “How many men are we talking about in total?”

“Thirty thousand.”

Thirty thousand Boar Armour suits? 

Each suit needed thirty-eight kilos of fullersteel, apart from the more mundane components, and required twenty-two thousand, four hundred and fifty MP over and above that to forge.

If I did nothing but make Boar Armour….

I’d need eleven hundred and forty tons.

Each furnace produced a hundred kilos per day, and blocked some of my MP. I had four running, which were fully booked. I could handle a maximum of another seven - at the low, low price of my MP regen dropping to a mere 18 MP/second, from its current rate of 568 MP/second. 

At that rate…

I shook my head. “General. It’ll take four-and-a-half years to produce that much fullersteel. Not counting assembly.”

“Manpower is not a problem,” Vohra said. “You can build the factories here, and we will provide you with workers. How many people do you have at Farnborough? Thirty, forty? We will bring in a hundred thousand workmen, and you can have the pick of any materials you want. Name your price.”

“It’s not that simple,” I said. “Fullersteel production is limited by a … power of mine. There’s only so much that can be made at a time, even if we run multiple furnaces.”

“Why not admit that you cannot part with the technology?” Kumaraswamy huffed. “There is too much profit to be made, after all. What do you charge for those suits - half a million pounds each?”

“If you like the suits so much, you’re welcome to make them yourselves,” Anne said, a dangerous smile on her face. “We won’t ask for royalties.”

The expression on Vohra’s face showed disappointment. I couldn’t blame him - the discussion was spiralling down a path that promised nothing but frustration for all involved.

Kalachakra spoke up. “Belessar. Surely you understand that we are going through a difficult time. A large number of our citizens may die a slow, agonizing death, unless we sacrifice many things to stop them. One of those things is our ability to defend ourselves.”

“I understand, Kalachakra, but I literally cannot increase fullersteel production beyond a point. At most, a fullersteel production line can make a hundred kilograms per day.”

Kumaraswamy snorted. “That’s not a manufacturing process, that’s a cottage industry.”

“There is a reason we aren’t fielding entire armies of Greyhound-class armours,” Pemberley replied. “In any case, now that Belessar has revealed the top-secret maximum production rate of his synthesis process, can we talk about what’s realistically possible?”

Vohra shrugged. “Our defences will be seriously weakened for the better part of a generation. We need a military we can afford, not the one we have now.”

“Which we also cannot afford,” said Kalachakra, “but as Commodore Pemberley pointed out, we are at war. Hence we have been financing the expanded military through deficit borrowing. Which we were aware would someday come due - but at this point there is no more money to be had.”

“Would you be willing to accommodate an allied self-defence force?”

“Foreign troops on Indian soil?” Kumaraswamy snorted. “That’s worked out brilliantly in the past.”

“Mr. Kumaraswamy, let’s be realistic. We can’t give you technology - or materials - that we don’t have. You won’t let us provide a standing military presence to protect your cities from Hierarchy attacks. What can we do?”

A thought came to me. “What’s this drug - Aerovascar - made of? Do we know the formulation?”

Kalachakra frowned. “I’m not sure, but the data should be available online.”

“Here,” Anne handed me a tablet with the image of a complex chemical structure on it. “I looked it up while Mr. Kumaraswamy was ranting.”

Kumaraswamy’s expression darkened. Fortunately, he decided to keep his thoughts to himself, as I checked out the chemical structure.

The first thing about Aerovascar I noticed was that it was a fiendishly difficult molecule. Structurally speaking. There were a couple of iodide ions, a long-chain alkyl group which linked to another complex molecule through a weak bond - huh, specific bio-substrates would act on that molecule and release DTPA, which binds heavy metals like plutonium, americium and curium. And then there were several long, complex amino acid chains.

Overall, it looked complex as hell, but ….

Not as complex as saffron.

Ideas swirled in my head.

“How much of this drug do you need to treat a single individual?” I asked.

“Three grams,” replied Anne. “It’s a series of doses administered over a time period of two weeks.”

Kumaraswamy’s eyes bulged. “How did you know that?”

Anne replied sweetly, “I read up on it while you were ranting.”

“You were right here!”

“It’s true what they say,” Anne remarked, “the older generation really struggles with multi-tasking.”

Kumaraswamy’s mouth was flopping like a fish. Ignoring him, I turned to Kalachakra. “I would like to try a synthesis process for Aerovascar. It won’t be perfect, but I should be able to make a lot more of it - and a lot more cheaply.”

“That is a massively complex pharmaceutical,” Vohra pointed out. “We have thousands of biochemists in this country, and the best they can do is the fifty-thousand-dollar price tag.”

“Belessar invented nanofibre weave, fullersteel, plasmium and four new types of batteries,” Anne pointed out. “I’d say he qualifies as one of the world’s top chemists. It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”

“We cannot put all our eggs in one basket,” said Kalachakra, “but I see no reason you should not try.”

“Try is not the same as succeed,” Kumaraswamy pointed out. “It does not sort the problem. We will have to start building pharmaceutical plants, and work on mass production in parallel. That means the cost will still be there, and we will need to cut back on defence expenditure.”

“Leaving us exposed,” Vohra admitted. “What do we do about that? We cannot have foreign troops placed permanently on Indian soil.”

A thought struck me. “Can you hire mercenaries?”

“... Are you joking, Belessar? Mercenaries are untrustworthy, backstabbing liars who run at the first sight of conflict, and you want us to hire them?”

“I want you to hire one. Me.”

Five sets of eyes swiveled in my direction. 

Vohra was the first to speak. “Explain please, Belessar?”

“You want to maintain a standing military response to an alien attack, right? But you can’t park tens of thousands of troops near each city like you normally do. You don’t have the equipment or the ammunition for it. You might also benefit from my skills as a chemist, in figuring out a way to make Aerovascar more cheaply. Plus, I have healing skills.” I held up a hand, golden light crackling in it. “If all else fails, I can help heal some of the more critical cases when they start showing up in hospital rooms.”

“Can you heal radiation sickness?”

“When it starts to manifest, yes. However, there’s a limit to how many I can heal in a day.” Cure cost me 750 MP for one case of radiation sickness - even if I used it continuously, I could at best save eight hundred people an hour, or thirteen thousand in a day. (I did need to sleep, after all.) Twenty-five million people by my lonesome would take six years. 

“The best use of my time, Kalachakra, is to figure out a more efficient way to make Aerovascar - or make a chunk of it myself. If I can make the active pharmaceutical ingredient, can you package it?”

“Easily,” replied Kalachakra. “The active ingredient is what’s expensive to make. How soon can you tell us?”

“Give me a week, and I’ll have an answer for you. Then - well, you may not want to park foreign troops on your soil, but one mercenary slash consultant who gets a paycheck for his work, and stays available for any attacks, shouldn’t set you back so much.”

“How much do you charge?”

“Say, ten thousand dollars a day? Plus materials.”

“Ten thousand a day?” snapped Kumaraswamy. “Preposterous!”

“Yes,” replied Kalachakra, “for what you are offering, you could charge a hundred times as much, and we’d pay.”

“I’m not greedy,” I replied. “But since you’re offering - I’d like rights to battlefield salvage. First pick of any alien tech left behind on the battlefield, and no questions asked.”

“You can have it all,” Vohra said. “We owe you that much, for your courage in battle and for healing our men.”

Kumaraswamy pursed his lips. “I see no issues with that. It’s mostly burnt-out garbage anyway.”

“Are you sure you can synthesize cheap Aeroscar?” asked Kalachakra.

I stared at the twinkling message on my interface.

NEW QUEST ALERT: SAVING A CITY.

THE CITIZENS OF MUMBAI ARE SUFFERING FROM THE RESIDUAL EFFECTS OF A DEADLY HIERARCHY WEAPON. THE ONLY CURE FOR THEIR CONDITION IS AEROSCAR, A FIENDISHLY COMPLEX MOLECULE TO SYNTHESIZE.

USE YOUR SKILLS IN CHEMIST TO MAKE ENOUGH OF THE MOLECULE TO SAVE THE PEOPLE OF MUMBAI. 

OBJECTIVE: SYNTHESIZE 75 TONS OF THE ACTIVE PHARMACEUTICAL INGREDIENT OF AEROSCAR, ENOUGH TO MAKE INJECTIONS FOR 25 MILLION PEOPLE. 

REWARD: 

+3 XP PER PERSON WHO RECEIVES A DOSE OF AEROSCAR DERIVED FROM YOUR SYNTHESIS.

RELATIONSHIP IMPROVED WITH FACTION: GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

+25 ETHICS.

GAIN NEW BASE: MUMBAI.

SKILL UPGRADE: CHEMIST. 

“I think, Kalachakra,” I said cautiously, “that there is a decent chance.”

No quest is ever impossible, after all.