Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Four: Trust-Building Exercises (Patreon)

My lab area wasn’t the worst organized, but there was still clutter. I could see Clegg wince as he noted the unsecured spanners, the screwdrivers left on the table, and the power packs stacked haphazardly off to the side.

“So much for seiso,” the engineer grumbled good-naturedly. Fortunately, the other two seemed to take the mess in stride.

Once we were all seated, I asked: “Why did you sign up to work with me?”

Puzzled looks crossed their faces. “Beg pardon?” asked Gideon.

“You’re all civilians,” I pointed out. “And I’ve had enough close experiences with - people - that I don’t trust easily. You were nominated by BAE to help set up this firm and use my technology, but I know very little about you. Or why you chose to join BAE-Dragonfly in particular.

“Will, you’re an experienced construction man and former Royal Army … something which I didn’t know. Sarah, you could be teaching somewhere, or doing cutting edge research on your own. Gideon - from what I understand, you could be making three times as much as you do here by being CFO of some large financial corporation. So what gives?”

Gideon looked taken aback. “Are you asking why we’re working here?”

“Exactly. I have zero idea about your motivations. So tell me.”

The three of them exchanged looks.

Gideon was the first to speak up. “I understand that you don’t trust us very much.”

“Enough to keep you at arm's length, not enough to really tell you what I know.” Or what I need.

"What can we do to bridge that trust?"

"Tell me why you're here. The real reason."

Gideon pursed his lips. "You understand that this is deeply personal information. I can speak for myself, but I'd ask that you allow Sarah and Will their choices."

"I’m willing to share,” Dr. Palmer spoke up. “If it helps get us past this wall of distrust, then I’ll answer any questions you have.”

“Not like I have anything to hide,” grunted Clegg. “Sure. Ask your questions.”

“Why’d you join, Clegg?”

“After I left the Engineers, didn’t have much to do. A friend suggested BAE, they have a program for people who’re ex-military. Got on board, worked on stuff across the world for the last eight years.”

“Where all?”

“Lots of places. Europe, Middle East, Africa. Building bases, maintaining equipment. Then London happened, and I decided to head back to the homeland.”

I tapped into Observe as Clegg spoke. Details began to pop up - more than I’d seen before.

WILL CLEGG

LEVEL 6

CLASS: CONSTRUCTION ENGINEER

A FORMER ROYAL ARMY ENGINEERS VETERAN, WILL CLEGG BUILT STRATOSPHERIC GUARD BASES IN DUBAI, PARIS, OSAKA AND EAST TIMOR.

OFFERED A CHANCE TO LEAD THE GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE DEPARTMENT, HE TURNED IT DOWN FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK WITH A SMALL, INCUBATING SUBSIDIARY LED BY A MYSTERIOUS ULTRAHUMAN. THAT WOULD BE YOU.

There’s a trick to Observe. It gives you a little information to start with, but every time you use it on the same subject, it adds more. Up to a certain limit. You can’t burn MP endlessly to discover the secrets of the universe.

Any information you find out independently, however, pushes the limit upwards.

When a person tells you about themselves, Observe fills in blanks that they might not talk about. And adds more details, on top of that.

And when the subject is in the middle of a lab with more than a hundred of my custom-designed sensors pointing at them, the amount of additional information you can get with each revelation skyrockets.

“Why this job specifically?”

“They said they wanted someone who didn’t panic around ultras. I worked with Hifara down in Dubai, she’s a sweet old lady. Told ‘em that. They seemed impressed and sent me down here.”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION UNLOCKED: HIFARA AND WILL CLEGG MAY HAVE A PAST. POSSIBLE FAMILY RELATIONSHIP.

“How well do you know Hifara?” I asked casually.

A slight tension in Will’s shoulders was the only giveaway. “Worked with her. A lot. She’s one of the leading voices in the Middle East construction industry, you know.”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION UNLOCKED: HIFARA IS WILL CLEGG’S AUNT.

More than I needed to know….

Unless Hifara had it in for Agni for some reason, Clegg wasn’t a security risk.

“Sarah?” I asked. “What about you?”

Dr. Palmer gulped. “I’ve been a researcher for BAE for two decades. Worked with every kind of material, normal and inventech. Most inventech materials can’t be duplicated in a lab.”

The hint of pride in her voice gave her away.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION UNLOCKED: DR. PALMER HAS SYNTHESIZED NANOFIBRE WEAVE IN LABORATORY SETTINGS.

“Your stuff is different. It’s materials science, but just out of reach materials science. Fullersteel is something we could duplicate, given time. Nanofibre weave… it’s very close. If we can make it at scale…”

“We could significantly improve the survival rate of human troops against the aliens?”

“Of course. And there are so many other applications, too. It could transform industry, transportation, electricity… Either nanofibre weave or fullersteel would be a wonder material by itself.” Palmer’s eyes shone. “And, um, I would like to be a part of making that happen.”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION UNLOCKED: DR. PALMER IS DEEPLY PASSIONATE ABOUT HER RESEARCH, TO THE EXCLUSION OF ALL OTHER HUMAN CONTACT. THIS HAS HURT HER IN THE PAST.

“That didn’t need you to join us here,” I said. “You could have worked on it in a lab somewhere remote. Sent us the documentation, done everything offsite.”

“I needed to be here. It’s not enough for me to see it happen from a distance anymore - I want to be part of the team that first mass-produces nanofibre weave. It’s … sort of a huge deal.”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION UNLOCKED: PALMER HAS STRUGGLED WITH FUNDING FOR HER WORK FOR YEARS, BEFORE HER RECENT BREAKTHROUGH.

“You want to do this for the recognition?”

Sarah Palmer swallowed for a second. Then inclined her head slightly. “I can’t say my motives are entirely pure. Yes, I’m a scientist, and yes, I’d like to be recognized for my work. Our work, rather. The scientific community is very publish-or-perish.”

“Well, at least that’s honest,” I said.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION UNLOCKED: SUCCESSFUL MASS PRODUCTION OF NANOFIBRE WEAVE WOULD GUARANTEE DR. PALMER UNLIMITED FUNDING FOR ALL FUTURE RESEARCH.

I turned to the last member of the team. “Gideon. Why are you part of this?”

The CEO loosened his tie. “It’s a long story. Might take a while.”

“I’ve got time.”

“I started out as a Chartered Accountant in 2061, you know. The alien raids had just started, and we were all terrified. At first there was an attack every week; people didn’t know which cities would be hit, or when. They were talking of going back to remote working across the world, avoiding large clusters of people in cities.

“That’s when I met Rose. We were part of the same batch of accountant trainees at Colby-Fischer, we got along well together. She believed we needed - all the countries of the world needed - to unite, work together, to fight the aliens.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION UNLOCKED: ‘ROSE’ AND GIDEON WERE IN A RELATIONSHIP.

“At first, the ultras were trying to fight the aliens by themselves, the militaries of the world by themselves - it was a mess. Then in May, Nachtsturm happened. Suddenly, it wasn’t just Skymaster’s flailing about against the aliens - there were ultras, actual ultras, who could fight back against the Hierarchy, who could go toe-to-toe with them.

“So Rose told me one day that she had powers. She could make things float, shoot them at enemies. She was going to fight the aliens, along with Skymaster and Nachtsturm and everyone else.

“I begged her not to go. Told her she needed to be there for me - for us. It got to a point where I asked her to choose between us and the fight.” Gideon swallowed bitterly.

“Wrong thing to do, as it turned out. She left. Took the name Tailwind, joined up with a team of heroes led by Skymaster, and started to put herself - and the others - in the middle of Hierarchy attacks.”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION UNLOCKED: ARGUMENT OVER JOINING SKYMASTER’S TEAM WAS GIDEON’S LAST CONVERSATION WITH ROSE / TAILWIND.

“Things went okay for her until Tokyo. The aliens got the upper hand there; Skymaster and most of his team were killed. Including Rose. I got to watch on live TV as an alien strikefighter burnt her alive.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“It’s all right. I got over it. The next day, I resigned from Colby-Fischer and applied to every defense firm that I thought might hire me. Lockheed Martin, Thales, Rolls-Royce, EADS, a dozen others. BAE was the only one that responded. I got in, and I’ve spent my entire career making defence plants run efficiently and productively.

“When they asked for someone to set up this place… I thought, if Rose had a nanofibre weave suit - if she had some sort of armor - maybe she might have survived. Nineteen years, and this is the first help I could give her. That’s why I’m here, that’s why I’m involved, and that’s why I’m not going to leave until we can put a suit of armor around every human being who has to face the aliens.”

Can’t argue with that.

I’d spent the last three months tiptoeing around the BAE executives, forgetting that they were human beings first. With very human motivations.

Trust calls for trust.

“I’m in a relationship with Agni,” I said. “The men who attacked today were from the Pakistan Unification Front - a radical terrorist organization that holds her personally responsible for the 2070 civil war.”

“That’s why they attacked us?” asked Clegg.

“As best as the police can tell. The man leading them was a former Pakistani military officer. He lost family in the war, and wants revenge.”

“How do you know that?”

“It has to do with my power. Look - today wasn’t even the most dangerous it could get. I’ve been helping out with construction for more than one reason.”

“You built extra defenses into the factory without telling anyone.”

“Inventech defenses.”

“Can you tell us about them?” asked Gideon. “So we don’t accidentally trigger something?”

“First, you need to be sure you want to continue with BAE-Dragonfly. The attack today was carried out by a bunch of incompetents - the next one may be far more dangerous. Sarnak raiders. Ultrahuman mercenaries. Hierarchy airstrikes. Carnotaurs. Anything.”

“I’m in,” replied Sarah. “If that means risking my life, I’ll do it.”

Clegg grunted.

“You won’t scare us off that easily, Belessar,” replied Gideon. “You know why I’m here. So… what’s it going to be? Can you work with us, or not?”

In for a penny, in for a pound.

“I’ll tell you as much as I can,” I said. “It’s need-to-know only, and doesn’t leave this room. The first thing you need to know … is that I’m not exactly an inventor.”

Puzzled looks appeared on their faces.

“First, let me explain how my powers work…”