{"id":240,"date":"2012-09-02T00:00:47","date_gmt":"2012-09-02T04:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/?p=240"},"modified":"2012-09-01T22:29:32","modified_gmt":"2012-09-02T02:29:32","slug":"chapter-thirty-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/?p=240","title":{"rendered":"Chapter Thirty-five"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Quizibian got it right when he said that humanity to a man is bred for war.\u00a0 We are consistently sucked into internecine squabbles that will eventually be the end of us all.\u00a0 The bombing of Mimir is reflective of this behavior, but it\u2019s only made more heinous by the fact that not only were millions of innocent people killed, but the knowledge of ten thousand generations was lost. \u00a0Someone has to pay the price for that.\u00a0 It\u2019s my job to find the son of a bitch and make him pay.<\/h3>\n

— Frederick Rose, Chief Commonwealth Inspector, circa 5222<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

20 Novem, 5249 PD<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDo we have confirmation on those reports yet?\u201d<\/p>\n

Padraig had been wearing the same clothes for the past forty-eight hours.\u00a0 He\u2019d forgotten to eat, barely slept, and was running on a cheese danish he\u2019d eaten eight hours ago and five cups of coffee in as much time.\u00a0 It was the beginning of the end, he could feel it in his bones.\u00a0 Ten years with theNewEarthCommonwealth\u2019s Colonial Office had taught him more than a few things, chief amongst them when the congloms began to stop respecting the authority of other entities, it was a prelude to war\u2014or worse.\u00a0 In this, he was hoping only for war, but suspecting worse, far worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing across now, Padraig.\u201d\u00a0 Miriam leaned closer to her screens, squinting at the tiny text of the bulletin scrolling across it.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s confirmed.\u00a0 An Argopian LCC trawler just made it into New Ardis and confirms that the Whispers have been bombed almost to bedrock.\u00a0 They\u2019re not reporting any survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNone that we know of.\u00a0 Yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miriam looked over her shoulder and smiled at him weakly.\u00a0 \u201cRight.\u201d\u00a0 She turned back to the screen and resumed her checking, brow furrowed as she read on.<\/p>\n

Padraig tried not to shake his head.\u00a0 He suspected that here in the Colonial Office, they already knew who was responsible for the bombing of the Whispers but couldn\u2019t admit to knowing.\u00a0 The why, that was more tricky.\u00a0 He suspected it had more to do with E-557 than anyone else might believe.\u00a0 The Whispers was a trade hub, an all-but-neutral port of call.\u00a0 Yet it had been the first target in what was sure to be another bloody war.<\/p>\n

He could feel it in his bones, like an old man could feel the coming rain in his gnarled, arthritic joints.<\/p>\n

A hand fell lightly on his shoulder and he glanced to the side to see Amie standing at his elbow with a paper-wrapped sandwich in her hand.\u00a0 \u201cYou need to eat, Padraig.\u00a0 I\u2019d tell you that you need to sleep, but you\u2019re not going to until someone over all of our heads tells you do.\u201d\u00a0 She pressed the sandwich into his hand before she slid quietly into the chair at the station next to Miriam\u2019s and settled her headset on again.\u00a0 Amie, who probably had felt this coming, too, but maybe had seen something else.\u00a0 And Miriam, who was starting to understand, slowly but surely, exactly how high and deadly the stakes had become.<\/p>\n

None of it was supposed to turn out this way.<\/p>\n

It had all started when Mimir died.<\/p>\n

\u201cSir?\u00a0 I\u2019m getting some funny chatter over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Padraig turned sharply toward one of the younger technicians who sat with a hand pressed against his earpiece as he frowned at a screen.\u00a0 \u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSir\u2026it sounds like Mission Systems is responding to the attack at the Whispers by shutting down operations at their plant near Xingaou and getting ready to dismantle their orbital platforms at Tarsis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d\u00a0 Padraig frowned.\u00a0 That didn\u2019t make any sense.\u00a0 Unless\u2026<\/em>\u00a0 \u201cWas anything nearing completion at Tarsis?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUhm\u2026let me look.\u201d\u00a0 It took the sandy-haired young man a few long moments to sort through some file data.\u00a0 \u201cYes, sir.\u00a0 An older style battleship commissioned circa 5220.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the Psychean Guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, sir.\u00a0 How\u2019d you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Behind them, Miriam and Amie exchanged a look.\u00a0 Amie went back to her board with a slight frown.\u00a0 Miriam watched a moment longer before she went back to her work.\u00a0 Padraig shook his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a sneaking suspicion that Mission Systems will be shifting more of its operations to the outer reaches of the homosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would they do that, sir?\u00a0 I mean, I know they don\u2019t do as much business as they used to before the Psychean Guard fell, but they still have a lot perfectly good operational areas and a lot of resources at their disposal here in the inner rings.\u00a0 Why would they head out to the fringes?\u201d<\/p>\n

Padraig patted the young man on the shoulder.\u00a0 \u201cBecause they can see the writing on the wall better than most.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSir?\u201d<\/p>\n

Padraig waved off the question and walked toward the screen that displayed the map of the homosphere, dotted with star systems that were color-coded by the conglomerate that held sway in each system.\u00a0 Some of those colors\u2014the red of Chinasia Corp and the violet of the Eurydice Compact\u2014covered far more territory than they had when he\u2019d joined the Colonial Office as a much younger, much more idealistic man.\u00a0 He stared at the map for a few long moments before he glanced over his shoulder toward Miriam.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave they announced who\u2019s going to be heading up the investigation into the attacks yet?\u201d<\/p>\n

Miriam shook her head slightly.\u00a0 \u201cNot yet.\u00a0 Who do you think it\u2019s going to be?\u201d<\/p>\n

Padraig turned back toward the screen and stared at it for a few long moments.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said quietly.\u00a0 \u201cBut I have the feeling that whoever it is will go the way of Frederick Rose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miriam and Amie exchanged another look in silence.\u00a0 There had long been a conspiracy theory about Frederick Rose: that he\u2019d actually found out who killed Mimir but been murdered before he could tell anyone who it was.\u00a0 Whether that was true or not didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

The last time a claim filed with the Colonial Office had been grossly violated in this way had lead to the death of a Chief Commonwealth Inspector on top of the millions of lives lost on Mimir.\u00a0 There were already at least a quarter of a million dead at the Whispers.\u00a0 Whatever was brewing could be the death knell, the final toll of the bell for the human race.<\/p>\n

\u201cE-557 is sounding better,\u201d Amie murmured to Miriam.<\/p>\n

Miriam shook her head slightly.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think anywhere\u2019s going to be safe soon, Amie.\u00a0 Least of all here or there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes you say that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCall it a hunch.\u201d\u00a0 Miriam stared at their supervisor\u2019s back for another few, long moments before she got back to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quizibian got it right when he said that humanity to a man is bred for war.\u00a0 We are consistently sucked into internecine squabbles that will eventually be the end of us all.\u00a0 The bombing of Mimir is reflective of this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-last-colony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p25yjF-3S","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}