Post by YueFei on Mar 2, 2022 21:55:06 GMT
Lady Mu monitored Yue Fei's vital signs as he slept in the tube behind her command chair. She wondered if he really slept, or what sleep was even like, for someone whose mind could reach as far out as his could. She'd have paid anything to get him out of the tube, to talk to him without the glass and gel between them. It wasn't happening though. Still, a girl could dream. It wasn't her fault the first man she'd had any lasting interest in happened to be an alien stuck in a suspension chamber.
Ok, well maybe it was her fault, at least a little bit.
Shaking her head to clear it of such thoughts she flipped through a series of reports. The evening shift was quickly making way for the night shift which would leave this particular command chamber empty, aside from herself and its permanent occupant. Spending time here gave her time to be herself, to clear her mind of the stresses of the day, and to spend time around Yue Fei--even if it was supposedly asleep. None of the reports pulled up were of any interest and she swiped the screen off. Lady Mu closed her eyes and rest her head back against the seat. The room was so silent it was easy to hear the soft hiss of a door opening and the sound of shoes on deck plating. The crew wore boots.
She opened her eyes and found the elder Sun Tai standing at the entrance to the chamber, eyes on the alien. He was an older man, well beyond the years at which he should of retired and he wore the traditional robes of an Imperial Scholar Class. His grey hair was kept short, likely unable to grow much on its own these days anyway, and the folds of his eyes seemed heavy with the weight of years. "I have heard stories," he said.
She stood immediately and bowed deeply. It was absurdly unusual for a personal emissary of the Jade Emperor to travel beyond Earth, let alone visit a warship at the fringes of Human territory. He returned a much shorter bow, at last giving her his attention.
"To what do I owe the immense honor?" She asked, not daring to emerge from her bow.
"Please, rise," he said and she did so. "I have orders for you," he said.
She couldn't keep the surprise from her face. Orders delivered by one such as he meant orders personally written down, yes written down, by the Emperor himself.
"Quite the beast you have here," he said, not responding to her expression and returning his gaze to the tank.
"He's wonderfully unique and he's pushed our mechs to capabilities their designers never dreamed of."
"So I've heard. The Heavens shower us in gifts when we least expect it and in ways we could not dream." He walked to the tank and placed a feeble hand on the glass. "The Emperor has need of you and your beast."
"Of course! Whatever the Son of Heaven requires, may he reign for a thousand years."
"Understand this need is personal. You will be carrying out the will of the Emperor and no other. He will effectively be placing you and your ship outside the chain of command."
More unusual events, but at this point she half expected the Emperor himself, may he reign in glory, to walk through her chamber door.
"Whatever is required of me, my crew, and Yue Fei, we will do. We are but extensions of His will."
The old man smiled and withdrew his hand. "You will set course for the coordinates I give you. Once you arrive you will take on several passengers. Each has been carefully selected by other organizations to partake, none has any idea why they will be there. There is one in particular I want you to keep an eye on. She is named Cory, she's one of those--outworlders." He spoke the last word as if an outworlder, the less than polite name for those citizens who chose to live on a far away world and talk about their wonderful Australian heritage all the time, were the lowest form of life in the universe. "We believe the outworlders might soon try something. Watch her, but use her abilities as you see fit."
She bowed again. "Of course, whatever is required."
"Good, inform the crew. We depart immediately."
We?
From there messages were sent by the top ranking members of the Three Pillars Alliance to the chosen few who would participate. Little information was provided them, coordinates, rate of pay, and a promise to explore some of the most exciting, most secret alien ruins of our time. They would be working for the alliance itself and provided good pay for their work. They would be allowed to write however many papers, do whatever research they wanted to do. They could not report to anyone where they were going. Security was to be provided for by the Alliance.
Each person was contacted either through the entity they worked for (or the mobile fleet they lived in) or whatever other immediate means of contact was available. In Cory's case there was a secret caveat attached by way of intermediary. INITIA had evidence pointing to some sort of new Chinese weapon. It had been deployed primarily to testing facilities well beyond colonized space but the fear was if the planet pushed for independence, that weapon would make its way here. A contact within Alliance Command had strong reason to believe the weapon was stored aboard the ship that would be taking Cory and the team to wherever they were going. She was to find out if that was the case, and if it was, find out what they were dealing with.
The coordinates given in all cases were the same, a small rocky solar system with two protoplanets and a brown dwarf star. Their transport from there would be waiting.
Ok, well maybe it was her fault, at least a little bit.
Shaking her head to clear it of such thoughts she flipped through a series of reports. The evening shift was quickly making way for the night shift which would leave this particular command chamber empty, aside from herself and its permanent occupant. Spending time here gave her time to be herself, to clear her mind of the stresses of the day, and to spend time around Yue Fei--even if it was supposedly asleep. None of the reports pulled up were of any interest and she swiped the screen off. Lady Mu closed her eyes and rest her head back against the seat. The room was so silent it was easy to hear the soft hiss of a door opening and the sound of shoes on deck plating. The crew wore boots.
She opened her eyes and found the elder Sun Tai standing at the entrance to the chamber, eyes on the alien. He was an older man, well beyond the years at which he should of retired and he wore the traditional robes of an Imperial Scholar Class. His grey hair was kept short, likely unable to grow much on its own these days anyway, and the folds of his eyes seemed heavy with the weight of years. "I have heard stories," he said.
She stood immediately and bowed deeply. It was absurdly unusual for a personal emissary of the Jade Emperor to travel beyond Earth, let alone visit a warship at the fringes of Human territory. He returned a much shorter bow, at last giving her his attention.
"To what do I owe the immense honor?" She asked, not daring to emerge from her bow.
"Please, rise," he said and she did so. "I have orders for you," he said.
She couldn't keep the surprise from her face. Orders delivered by one such as he meant orders personally written down, yes written down, by the Emperor himself.
"Quite the beast you have here," he said, not responding to her expression and returning his gaze to the tank.
"He's wonderfully unique and he's pushed our mechs to capabilities their designers never dreamed of."
"So I've heard. The Heavens shower us in gifts when we least expect it and in ways we could not dream." He walked to the tank and placed a feeble hand on the glass. "The Emperor has need of you and your beast."
"Of course! Whatever the Son of Heaven requires, may he reign for a thousand years."
"Understand this need is personal. You will be carrying out the will of the Emperor and no other. He will effectively be placing you and your ship outside the chain of command."
More unusual events, but at this point she half expected the Emperor himself, may he reign in glory, to walk through her chamber door.
"Whatever is required of me, my crew, and Yue Fei, we will do. We are but extensions of His will."
The old man smiled and withdrew his hand. "You will set course for the coordinates I give you. Once you arrive you will take on several passengers. Each has been carefully selected by other organizations to partake, none has any idea why they will be there. There is one in particular I want you to keep an eye on. She is named Cory, she's one of those--outworlders." He spoke the last word as if an outworlder, the less than polite name for those citizens who chose to live on a far away world and talk about their wonderful Australian heritage all the time, were the lowest form of life in the universe. "We believe the outworlders might soon try something. Watch her, but use her abilities as you see fit."
She bowed again. "Of course, whatever is required."
"Good, inform the crew. We depart immediately."
We?
From there messages were sent by the top ranking members of the Three Pillars Alliance to the chosen few who would participate. Little information was provided them, coordinates, rate of pay, and a promise to explore some of the most exciting, most secret alien ruins of our time. They would be working for the alliance itself and provided good pay for their work. They would be allowed to write however many papers, do whatever research they wanted to do. They could not report to anyone where they were going. Security was to be provided for by the Alliance.
Each person was contacted either through the entity they worked for (or the mobile fleet they lived in) or whatever other immediate means of contact was available. In Cory's case there was a secret caveat attached by way of intermediary. INITIA had evidence pointing to some sort of new Chinese weapon. It had been deployed primarily to testing facilities well beyond colonized space but the fear was if the planet pushed for independence, that weapon would make its way here. A contact within Alliance Command had strong reason to believe the weapon was stored aboard the ship that would be taking Cory and the team to wherever they were going. She was to find out if that was the case, and if it was, find out what they were dealing with.
The coordinates given in all cases were the same, a small rocky solar system with two protoplanets and a brown dwarf star. Their transport from there would be waiting.