Plummet

(Starspeak)

The ultimate problem we were facing was time.

Peudra's peace summit wasn't a popular idea. Despite the presence of two fleet Marshals, an Assemby Senator, and the highest executive in the Margatha government, there were just as many Vorak on the planet who, if they knew of those involved, would storm the spaceport by force and arrest everyone here just on principle.

The mayor of Pudiligsto probably wasn't one of those rak, but I couldn't say for sure. But there were a lot more authorities than that.

Prolocutor Unee was an elected figure like any other: they had political enemies. I doubted many of them were lining up to sabotage peace talks. But, come on, what were the odds no one would be willing to try crashing this summit, arresting the Coalition figures in attendance, and claim a big political win? It wouldn't even be that hard to paint Peudra's summit as corrupt. Meeting with enemy military leadership in secret? Sure, the intelligent interpretation of that scenario wasn't suspect, but politics preferred most other interpretations.

So we'd decided the simplest way to keep ourselves uninterrupted was to simply meet someplace impossible to access, or rather, some time.

With the hurricane raging outside, it didn't even matter if anyone knew. They couldn't get here to do anything about it.

But it also put us on a clock. The same high-profile names that made Peudra's summit possible also guaranteed that, sooner or later, someone would come knocking.

I vaguely recalled the president hosting peace summits at Camp David that lasted weeks. We didn't have that luxury. Two days. Maybe three if the storm stuck around, but it didn't look like it would.

The stress was showing on Peudra's face.

"Fighting won't stop as long as Casti systems are occupied," Cursozi insisted.

"The occupations aren't just for military presence," Senator Adavir countered. "Assembly sympathizers in Coalition systems are under serious threat."

"Please!" Peudra said, actually standing to intervene.

"We are not haggling for peace today," they insisted. "Let us limit ourselves strictly to what is needed for an armistice, or barring that at least a ceasefire? We're but a dozen people. I think all of us can admit that formulating a proper agreement is beyond our meager capabilities. Whatever our differences, we must limit ourselves to setting the stage for a peaceful conclusion instead of bickering over offenses from the first act."

Peudra was a good speaker. They pointed their gaze at individuals on just the right words to make the speech a personal rebuke without actually shaming anyone in particular.

Madeline had mentioned the Coalition Admirals fighting like toddlers on the way here. It was strange to see it in person, even if it was aimed at their enemies now.

"…Our gracious host is correct," Hakho said, and the conversation managed to refocus. "The largest obstacle for the Coalition is the safety of Coalition-supported clandestine forces. Would continuing to smuggle aid occupied territories constitute a breach?"

"Yes," snorted the two Marshals.

"I'm surprised you would admit to smuggling so openly," the Senator sneered.

I didn't miss the look the two Marshals gave them. It was a war. How could that be anything but an open secret.

One of the vice-Admirals at Hakho's side not-so-subtly leaned over and whispered something. Not psionically though. It was Tockunot, Laranta's de facto envoy. I knew she was squeamish about carrying psionic secrets in her head, but apparently that extended to her subordinate officers too.

Hakho scowled at Tockunot, but relayed the message.

"The key negotiating point for the Coalition is that Coalition sympathizers, military or civilian, cannot be made to suffer from any potential armistice," Hakho said. "If a call for peace is simply meant to buy time and reorganize your war-footing, we can't accept."

Peudra looked like they were about to explode, but Hakho tactfully addressed their outburst before it could happen.

"So… in the spirit of our hosts' suggestion, what assurances can the Assembly give to ensure the scores of people sympathetic to the Coalition—in all systems, not just our own—aren't to face retribution in duration where your fleets' attention isn't so preoccupied?"

"You speak as if the Assembly does not have identical concerns," Senator Adavir spoke. "There are billions of Farnata and Casti sympathetic to the institution that's kept stability for more than a century, and they all enjoy fear and suspicion every day having the misfortune to be outnumbered in the rebel systems."

"The difference being, in Assembly systems, Coalition sympathizers have to wonder if they'll be put on watchlists or arrested," Hakho joked, "while in Coalition systems, Assembly sympathizers wonder if they'll be elected to the diets or the legislature."

The poor Senator. He was quickly betraying himself as the least qualified delegate here. He began to open his mouth to protest, but a raised hand from the Prolocutor cut him off.

"I'm sure the Admiral has a suggestion," Admiral Tox cut in.

"I actually didn't," Hakho admitted. "It's a serious problem for both factions that I don't believe has an easy answer."

"We can offer to steeply increase the penalties for soldiers engaged in targeting those civilians," Fute offered. "But that is an incomplete solution to just one small part of the problem."

<I think I have something,> I told Peudra.

<No,> Peudra said, joined in by Tox and Halax both.

<I'm serious,> I said. <It's relevant to them worrying about the military lull.>

<What is it?> Halax asked.

<The envious topic,> I said vaguely.

<It might actually help,> he admitted.

Peudra gave Halax the most concerned, agonized look I'd ever seen on their face.

<…Do it,> they said.

I raised my hand.

All eyes in the room turned to me.

"If I understand the problem correctly, both militaries face problems with soldiers being in limbo, unsure if the war is ending or not, while peace hangs uncertain in the interim?" I said. "If so, I have a solution: don't put them in limbo."

"Ceasefire tends to do that," Admiral Cursozi said, just a little too glib not to be intentional.

Yeah, he knew where I was heading and wanted to tee me up. Thanks…

"Don't kill each other," I said. "That doesn't necessarily mean demilitarizing. Both Coalition and Assembly have a common enemy."

"Oh yes, your auto-mechanized abductors…" Marshal Cacallay mused, voice oozing doubts.

I ignored them, focusing on the Prolocutor instead.

"Harpe Unee, I'm sure your office received at least one or two intelligence reports from a certain moon of Hashtin?"

Unee's eyes narrowed at me. They had.

"Do you want to tell everyone?" I said. "Or should I?"

"…Within the last month, a very strange series of modifications were discovered in the foundations of a certain freight-mass-driver on Omag," they said. "An agency team, along with some Flotilla personnel, ran into some rather concerning machinery and computer data."

"Our forces have also crossed paths with these robots," Vice-Admiral Tockunot offered. "Admiral Laranta has identified no fewer than twenty infiltrating agents acting on behest of…unknown figures."

"Both your factions have been infiltrated," I said. "And I mean that wording quite intentionally: factions. We're not talking about one or two pockets. Civilian, military, even criminals on both sides of this war have been hired, coerced, or otherwise made to act as their agents."

"And you would have us believe that there are no people on the other end of those screens, just powerful and inscrutable machine gods?" Cursozi asked.

I frowned. He'd teed me up, but this didn't actually sound all that supportive.

"They're not gods," I said. "They're fallible and even beatable. Just days ago we penetrated one of their most secure facilities on this planet. My crew is already working on decoding the drives we stole from them, and—at least for the Vorak half of this room—the bottom line is this; the same clandestine group that abducted us also secretly maintained a facility guarded by specialized warbots capable of going toe-to-toe with skilled combat Adepts."

I looked back and forth between the two delegations, but neither one seemed moved.

"There's a militarized faction with extraordinarily developed manufacturing capabilities, and you don't think that's enough for the militaries to sink their teeth into during a ceasefire?" I asked.

The military minds eyed each other suspiciously, and the moment dragged without anyone responding.

"I doubt anyone here is actually involved," the Empress spoke up for the first time in hours. "But look at them: both sides think the other must be involved."

The way she looked at me made me want to both shrivel up and die as well as punch her in the face: bored condescension, like she was pointing something out to a child.

"You've identified this faction as 'clandestine' based on your encounters," Marshal Tox said to me. "But it simply isn't feasible for a faction to both stay secret and wield the industrial capacity you describe. The only possibility is that your robot-prone faction isn't secret; they are…supported."

I wanted to break something.

"And both of you know you're infiltrated, so you're just fine assuming that it's your enemies doing the infiltrating," I followed. "Even if you suspect that, a ceasefire is the perfect opportunity to coordinate and find out for sure!"

<Caleb,> Peudra interrupted me, <bench it for now.>

<They're not going for it,> Halax said uselessly. I wanted to throw something at him just for saying something so pointless.

<Spending the ceasefire hunting the AI siblings is pointless for the militaries,> our Tox said, <because they both think that means hunting each other, which…>

<Removes the whole point of the ceasefire,> I acknowledged. <They already are hunting the AIs on their own.>

Both the Coalition and Assembly were willing to work with us humans to hunt the AIs, but not also with each other. But what did that matter? That had been true the last two years.

The pattern was clear in retrospect. Every time we got too close through the Coalition, CENSOR or ENVY had drawn on Vorak and Assembly resources. The reports from Nora, Ken, and Dustin said similar things. Every time a Void Fleet was a little too successful rooting out agents, Coalition moves happened.

The AI siblings were hiding between the two halves of the war, disguising themselves as the opposite side so any of their activities were thought of only as espionage coming from the conventional sources.

I hated it, but I followed Peudra's advice and sat back down.

·····

What followed over the next twelve hours was a total breakdown of diplomacy.

Without realizing it, I'd set off a landmine between both delegations, both intent on blaming the other very politely for espionage and subversion—surely conducted only by leadership not attending our peace conference, but nonetheless, allied with both sides of the table.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

It was the most profoundly frustrating thing to realize that this hurricane wasn't going to end with even the possibility of a ceasefire.

The only one more devastated than me was Peudra.

There wasn't any one thing I could point to, but with twelve hours left on our deadline, neither side was any closer to a plan to make a plan for a ceasefire.

Six hours left, and they were just retreading the same points about fleet positions and orbital weapons restrictions.

Three hours left and I realized it was on purpose.

<They're probing,> I said. <Neither side is even trying to go for an agreement anymore. They're just trying to keep up the appearance so they can keep fishing for potentially valuable information.>

<Sorry to tell you, Caleb,> Halax said, <but you're the last one in the room to realize that.>

I glanced at Peudra. They hid it well, but in the taught corners of their face you could see despair, frustration, and powerlessness.

<And we're just going to let them?> I asked.

<Feel free if you think you can stop them,> Halax offered.

I didn't hesitate. These were supposed to be leaders, but I'd let their prestige trick me into forgetting that adults could be childish too. Alien adults were no exception.

"Are you all just going to keep wasting our time?" I asked. "Because if so, I can leave right now and go help with the hurricane."

"No one is trying to waste anyone—" Vice-Admiral Tockunot started.

"Both of you are acting under the stupid assumption that my abductors are just clandestine agents of your enemies," I said. "Both sides of this war have been infiltrated by a completely opaque enemy, quite possibly even instigating the war between you two, and you're just going to ignore it?"

Both sides' faces were like aliens caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Which was just silly. Whose benefit had they been pretending for?

Each other's, of course. I knew. They were just hedging their bets. Even if both sides knew the other had given up on a ceasefire agreement, they'd both pretend otherwise just to bank on the tiny chance the other side was behind the curve.

"There are certain enemies you can trust," the Prolocutor said. "They act in their own interests. You can trust them to do that…but I think I speak for all of us when I say: experience has shown the Coalition hasn't been around long enough to always act in its own interests. Fact of the matter is some Coalition fleets are just willing to kill us all even if it means they lose too."

No one on the Coalition side actually disagreed with that characterization.

"There's just no peace without trust," Tox Serignar said.

Tox Frebi next to me couldn't keep his agreement from showing. He wasn't part of the Red Sails anymore, but it wasn't exactly surprising there were still sympathies.

"What about you?" I said, turning to Hakho. "I saved your whole star system from escalating with the Ironwill. You're just willing to keep fighting for no reason?"

Hakho at least had enough humanity to wear the guilt on his face, and Cursozi answered why.

"We're winning," he said simply. "And frankly, the Assembly doesn't always act in its own interest either. But...honestly, it's mostly because we're winning. We can't get what we want through diplomacy, but it's completely within reach through force."

I closed my eyes, squeezing my grip on my emotions. I had psionics to help guide my brain, keep calm, focused, rational. But it was only a guide, and I was ready to lose it.

The Coalition was winning. Because of me.

Tactics won battles. Strategy won campaigns. But logistics? Logistics won whole wars, and psionics made all three easier.

Years ago at Demon's Pit, Nai and Tasser had tried to sketch me a picture of the war, and too much had gone over my head. But I had understood they were on the back foot. The Assembly and its Vorak just had more Adepts.

In manufacturing and the economy, and on the battlefield, more Adepts was just a crucial advantage.

I hadn't really understood then just how impactful my meager psionic aid would be. And it really was meager. I hadn't given them my best constructs, the best tricks, my best anything.

And it was still making this much of a difference.

Fine.

So my past carrots hadn't given me the pull I needed here.

I still had our stick.

"My Flotilla and I are capable of psionic FTL communication," I announced. "I'm going to give that knowledge to the enemy of anyone who abandons these talks. So unless anyone here has an ultimatum better than that one? Steer things toward a real ceasefire."

"Are you really?" Marshal Tox asked.

Their brother and Halax looked equally surprised. I hadn't told them. Peudra didn't look hopeful.

"Yes," I said, ready to explain psionic superconstructs and just what Jordan's was capable of.

"Fascinating," Cursozi grinned.

It was the most engaged I'd seen him since landing on the planet.

But worst of all, none of them looked worried.

<…It's a good move, threatening us,> Hakho admitted, beaming directly to me. <You should have lead with it. Stood at least a chance of working.>

I just glared at him.

<Both sides already know the other is walking away,> Hakho said. <You can't follow through on the threat now without giving it to both of us. And…>

And that served no purpose other than to intensify the fighting.

I had nothing.

All I could taste was ash. I sat back down in the shameful silence of failure and tried to hide how much I felt like a sulking child.

·····

Peudra was crying after the summit ended.

The two delegations had mostly broken up. The Coalition Admirals were looking to reboard the A-ships they'd come here on as quickly as possible, and the Marshals made themselves scarce quickly.

Empress eyed everyone suspiciously while the Coalition delegation left the bunker first.

Peudra was left just sitting in the bunker's empty conference room letting tears run down their fur.

Up close, the tri-part pupil of Vorak eyes gave me flashbacks to my worst memories, but with Peudra like this…

They looked pathetic in the same way that I felt.

"I knew it," they said bitterly. "As soon as I saw the delegation. As soon as they landed. I knew it."

I stayed silent. Nothing to offer.

"The Coalition delegation," they explained. "They only sent soldiers."

"Is that really meaningful?" I asked.

"Not on its own, but I had the hunch," they said, choking back tears. "It's a showing of strength. It's the space-age diplomatic equivalent of…of…thumping your chest! You heard what they said!"

'We're winning'.

"The worst part is they actually did a good job!" Peudra seethed. "Fute was prepared for civic and economic negotiations, Cursozi and Hakho were more than ready to orchestrate their military negotiations…"

"They came here ready to negotiate for peace…but also knowing they'd never agree to it?" I asked.

Peudra nodded.

"Not like my side was any better!" they shouted angrily. "They showed up with the exact same attitude!"

"Really?"

"Admiral Tox only showed up because his brother asked," Peudra said. "Cacallay's a warhawk. He basically forced his way into the delegation, and they sent one of the most obnoxious, most partisan, least sympathetic Senators alive! The only way my people could have been any clearer in their communication is if they'd showed up armed."

"…Both sides attended a peace summit with no intention of following through," I followed. "Because even if you're unwilling to make peace for the moment…"

"You always leave diplomatic channels open," Peudra said. "Even when you close an embassy and withdraw your ambassadors, the channels themselves remain open. They might be clandestine. They might be illegal. But they're always open, and we just witnessed that in action."

"…Sorry to bother you more then, but do I need to worry about my ships taking the Coalition crew out of the system? Are they going to get stopped?" I asked.

"They should be okay," Peudra said. "Watch them closely, but it's still just as bad for the Assembly if the Coalition can raise the cry about diplomats being harmed under truce—even if the diplomats are all military."

"I'm sorry it didn't work out," I said. "I know how much work you put in."

"You don't know the half of it," Peudra said. "I made promises to make today possible. I ransomed my future. Even if we got a ceasefire today, my future career is basically dead. I knew that going in, but…I thought it would at least be worth it if we could force an agreement."

"Wait, why would it be dead even if we'd succeeded?" I asked.

"I'm a diplomat," they answered. "A representative. We're not supposed to get proactive. We're supposed to represent the leadership. I most definitely wasn't representing my leaders, contacting Coalition personnel, arranging passage to the Vorak homeworld? As soon as the executive leadership back in V4 hears about this, I'm going to be fired if I'm lucky. If not? They might even try prosecuting me."

"It almost sounds like you think you deserve it," I said.

"I do," Peudra said quietly. "You asked me why I wanted this? I told you I couldn't answer, but you gave the 'right' answer seconds earlier. 'To end a war'. I could have agreed with that, but I didn't. Peace is important to me, but…I did this because I wanted to. Because I know better than all those… bloodthirsty idiots!"

Any English version of her words would fail to capture the personal breakdown that showed itself in her pronouns.

She'd started today speaking 'tuen' , the Starspeak first-person pronoun. But by the end of it, they were weaving in 'enna' the informal Tarassin feminine pronoun. They— she no longer cared about formality in this moment.

"I did this because of ego," she said, failing to hold back tears. Every word she spoke threatened to turn into a snarl of anger, because her body couldn't decide between misery and fury. "I thought ending the war would be a challenge. I thought it would be a good way to prove just how good of a diplomat I could be."

"Even if you thought succeeding would end your career?"

She almost managed to laugh at that.

"Doesn't it sound perfect?" she scoffed. "What better way to end a career than ending a war that spans the cosmos?"

"Well…beat yourself up all you want," I said. "Ego or not, I still think you tried to do a really good thing. And…honestly I don't think someone doing this out of ego would take it this hard…It's why you're still going to have a job after all this."

"What?" she sputtered. "I told you, I'm probably going to be prosecuted."

"Yeah, but even I know those charges would never stick."

"Still enough to ruin what very little is left of my professional credibility," she said. "My ambassadorship is going to be revoked before sundown, I'm telling you."

"Yeah, but I'm not talking about that," I said. "Technically, the Coalition's arrangement with the Flotilla is that I'm humanity's representative, and Tasser is the Coalition's. But…I don't know if you've noticed? I get up to a lot of 'undiplomatic' hijinks. Tasser ends up wearing both hats. If you get fired from being the Vorak's representative to us humans? We humans are more than prepared to hire you to act as our representative to your people."

"T-that's absurd," Peudra said. "You can't have someone who isn't Human represent Humans!"

"Why not?" I asked. "None of us are really trained for the job. We're mostly just making it up as we go along and hoping for the best. Plus, you're qualified, trustworthy, you have rapport with the Flotilla, you know Vorak politics, how is this not a perfect fit?"

"I'd be useless to you now," she said. "I cashed all my favors. Burned all my bridges."

"Sounds like your only option left is to start building a few then," I said. "Sounds perfect, really."

"Shut up," she growled, still tangled into angry sad knots over the day's outcome.

"Yeah. I get where you are right now," I said. "Just wanted to let you know: technically you're still on the Jack's crew for the remainder of this mission. So, I'm acting under the assumption you're accepting the offer by default, and if you really want to turn it down, you can find me again when you're in a more stable headspace, okay?"

Peudra said nothing to that, simply clenching her fists…enough to draw dark violet drops of blood from her palms.

"If you promise to get that bleeding looked at, I can leave you alone for now," I offered. "Sound good?"

The Vorak more than twice my age gave a frustrated grunt of agreement. She really did take failure so personally…but I couldn't bring myself to admit that was a bad thing.

·····

Margatha Prolocutor Unee Brabalk found me inside the Jack's hangar.

They were flanked by a dozen armed rak—the local equivalent of the Secret Service, no doubt—and half of them gave off the vibes of skilled Adepts.

"Lightbringer," they said. "Not how you hoped the day would turn out?"

"No [shit]," I said dryly, eying up the entourage. "What do you want?"

"Well, I'd like to offer what information I can to make your day end a little better, because…I unfortunately know it's about to get even worse."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.