 |
| Generated by Google Workspace Labs text-to-image Duet AI software |
Tinaya Leithe is First Chair now. She’s been that way for nearly a month.
This was never part of the plan, but ever since she was first asked to run,
it’s the only thing that ever made any sense. She didn’t technically win by
a landslide, but she won the greatest majority of any non-incumbent
candidate on the ship so far. And that goes for all elected positions. This
is good, because the Extremus has been historically divided, which only ever
makes things more difficult for everyone. Good laws don’t get passed, bad
laws do get passed, and the people are just generally unhappy. She doesn’t
have the highest approval rating out of everyone, but when combined with
everyone else, the current administration enjoys the most support from the
populace. It’s looking like this is going to be a peaceful three years. She
hopes that she’ll be reëlected at that point, and then again, and then
again, but she’s not thinking about that at the moment. The least successful
leaders are the ones who focus so much energy on maintaining power that they
don’t actually do anything with that power. She has some ideas, and she
wants to see them through, even if it means she has to get them all done
during her first time, and then go back to civilian life after a loss.
Her first major order of business was going to be changing the way the
Council is run, and how it’s structured. They’ve been accumulating power,
and they can’t be left unchecked, or it could get out of hand.
Unfortunately, it’s looking like that’s going to have to wait. The Bridgers
have been asking for a meeting, and she’s run out of excuses to put that
off. She doesn’t know exactly what they’re going to say to her. She doesn’t
even know whether they’re happy or mad that she’s chosen this career path.
But she knows that the conversation is going to be awkward and
uncomfortable, and she’s not looking forward to that. Lataran has been
putting off her own meeting on the other ship too, and they’ve decided to
increase their strength through numbers by going together. The Bridgers
would have probably not agreed to that, which is why they’re not warning
them of this. They’re just going to show up at the same time, and that’ll be
that.
“The First Chair and the Captain gone from the Extremus proper at the same
time,” Lataran points out. “Sounds risky.”
“They’ll be fine,” Tinaya replies as she’s waving her hand in front of the
door to the portal that will take them to the Bridgers. It used to involve
time travel, but that experiment has been abandoned. It’s just too
complicated, annoying, and headache-inducing. It may just be a coincidence,
but Tinaya did suggest they get rid of it, so maybe they actually listened
to her. Wouldn’t that be nice?
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. Things are going smoothly on my end,” Lataran
replies as they’re walking down the hallway.
“Same on mine.”
“And on mine,” comes a voice from behind them. It’s fellow spy, Rodari
Stenger. They’ve not seen each other in years. That’s what happens with him;
he disappears for long periods of time, and then pops up again.
“What do you do again?” Lataran asks him.
“I run Year 217 now.”
“I thought that Year 217 just meant—”
“I know what you thought,” Rodari interrupted. “The Bridgers are liars. I’ll
explain another time. For now, we need to talk about our strategy.”
“Strategy for what?” Tinaya asks. “The meeting? Are you going to be there
too?”
“I’m meant to just be a fly on the wall, but I don’t think that’s the right
way to play it. We should come up with a secret code that lets us
communicate with each other on the downlow.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Tinaya decides. “Whatever they’re going to
say to me, they can say it, and I’ll respond appropriately.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” he says.
“Do you know Leona’s Rules for Time Travel?” Tinaya asks him.
“By heart,” he replies.
“Rule Number Fifteen, don’t—”
“...antagonize the antagonist. All right. I’ll follow your lead, but you
should know that I’m on your side, not theirs. Whatever happens in there, we
stick together.”
One major disadvantage in him constantly disappearing on her is that she has
to constantly relearn to trust him. It’s impossible to know what he’s been
through since last she saw him, or how much he’s changed. She’s changed. But
he’s not let her down so far, so she’s just going to jump right back into it
this time.
“We stick together,” Lataran echoes. She sidesteps over to him, and takes
him by the hand.
“Wait. When did this happen?” Tinaya questions.
“A few years ago,” Lataran explains. “I would have told you, but...”
“But we’d drifted apart. I get it, I’m not upset. Just...”
“Surprised?” Rodari guesses. He kisses Lataran’s hand, then gently separates
himself from her. “We shouldn’t get used to it. We don’t know what they’ll
say in there.”
What should have taken less than a minute took them a million years to cross
the distance, but they can stall no longer. They’re at the door. It opens on
its own, reacting to their presence. No one is on the other side to greet
them, but lights flicker on and point their way down to the right location.
Tinaya doesn’t come here often, but when she does, she doesn’t ever go to
the same place twice. In fact, the hallways never look quite the same, even
though they literally look alike. It’s entirely possible that they can be
moved around to create confusion in case of some kind of intrusion. That or
she’s just crazy, and everything is the same way it always has been.
They follow the lights all the way to their destination. This door opens on
its own too. A woman is on the other side of it. “Tinaya Leithe, Lataran
Keen, Rodari Stenger. Thank you for coming. And thanks for coming together.
That’s exactly how I wanted to do this.”
Of course it was. Tinaya reaches out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you,
Madam...”
“You can call me Spirit. I’m Spirit Bridger of the Bridger Section Bridgers.
Please, have a seat. There’s water on the table. Those dials on the glasses
adjust the temperature instantaneously. You’ll find teabags on the buffet
behind you, if you would like.”
“Thank you,” Lataran says politely.
They all three sit down, the girls on one side, and Rodari at the far head.
Spirit then sits across from the First Chair and Captain. “Thank you
for—I’ve already said that. Sorry, I’m new. I’m..your new...handler. Let me
start over. I’m Spirit Bridger, your new handler.”
“What happened to—?”
“Shift change. We do them over on this side too.”
“I hope not to sound rude, because I genuinely don’t know, and sincerely
want to know, what is this about? We were not told any details, so I’ve not
come prepared.”
“Normally, when a new Captain is selected, or a new First Chair is elected,
an onslaught of meetings will be called, designed to go over all the things
that they were not allowed to know before. The temporal engineers will
reveal any secret projects, they’ll be read into the Three Bears War, and
we’ll call our own to reveal everything they’re now entitled to know
regarding the Bridger section.”
“What the hell is the Three Bears War?” Lataran questions.
“That’s nothing I’m authorized to discuss.” Spirit is very confused. “You’ve
been the Captain for months. You should have been told about it by now,
though.”
“Well, I wasn’t.”
“Reach out to Omega and Valencia. It’s not really my problem, so any attempt
I could make to read you in would be pointlessly unhelpful.”
“I see.”
“Perhaps when Tinaya is read in, you could sit in on that meeting as well,”
Spirit goes on. “But today, we’re here to talk about this place. Of course,
you both already know about it. And you know a lot of things that a normal
First Chair and Captain would not be told. Good for you. And good for me;
this’ll be easy. I only need to say one thing.” She looks between Tinaya,
and then Rodari, and then back to Tinaya. She does that a few more times.
“Don’t get married.”
Now Tinaya is the one who’s confused. “Are you talking to me? Are you
telling me to not get married, or him?”
“Both of you. Don’t marry each other.”
“Why would we get married?”
“Yeah,” Rodari agrees, “why would we get married?”
“I dunno,” Spirit admits convincingly. “That’s just what the cards say.”
“What cards?”
“The tarot cards.”
“You read the future through tarot cards?”
“Not literally; it’s just an expression.”
“No. It’s not.”
“Well, whatever, I don’t, but our seers say that you’re somehow on the path
to getting married, and I have been asked to ask you to take another path.”
“We’re already on a different path; we’re not together. I’m...” He stops
himself from saying anything about Lataran. It would actually be fine if he
really were with Tinaya, but not Captain Keen. That’s a no-no.
“We can be honest with her,” Lataran determines. “She has no legal pull on
Extremus proper. “We’re together.”
Spirit narrows her eyes at them. “Hm. I don’t know anything about that. Like
I said, the seers only mentioned a path towards marriage. They never told me
what might cause it. But then it goes for you too. Don’t you two get married
either. That would compromise your position just as much. We’ve never had a
captain, nor a first chair. Now we’ve got both at the same time, and we’re
not going to take that for granted.”
“We weren’t planning on it,” Rodari promises.
Lataran hangs her head low. They’ve not seemed to resolve their situation
yet, though they’ve probably been trying for the last year. Lataran isn’t
allowed romantic entanglements in most cases. If Rodari still has a real
identity on Extremus, he doesn’t qualify as someone who’s allowed to
distract the Captain from her responsibilities.
Tinaya can see that her friend doesn’t want to think about this anymore. The
only thing she can do to save her is redirect attention. “Can I marry
someone else? I just need to know whether your seers are planning to control
every aspect of my life, or what.”
“They didn’t make that clear,” Spirit replies, “but I wouldn’t recommend it.
I believe it too would go against their plans for you.”
“The whole reason you people supposedly chose me is that I’m apparently more
in control of my own destiny than most people. I will not be boxed in.”
“Tinaya...” Spirit reaches towards her, placing her hand nearby, but having
no intention to touch her. “I’m on your side. I’m your advocate. That’s what
a handler does. You don’t have to convince me of anything. You do whatever
you feel like you need to do, but you have to understand that there are
consequences to every action. If they don’t like the choices you make, you
may find yourself regretting them. That’s not a threat. It’s just a concern.
No one lives in a vacuum.”
What are the Bridgers playing at here, and who is this Spirit Bridger? She
looks young, which could mean that she wasn’t part of the original crew, but
was born later, or she could just be sufficiently ageless. They have access
to technology that regular Extremusians do not. This is beginning to feel
more like a conspiracy, and less like a vital mandate. The Bridger program
was formed to ensure the continuity of the mission, but if it’s become
corrupt, then that mission is compromised anyway. It’s time for internal
affairs. If it’s necessary, and no one else can do it, then Tinaya will
bring them down, even if it means that she goes down with them. “We
literally live in a vacuum.”
“I’ve said what I needed to say.” Spirit taps her handheld device. “You all
have my number now. I would like us to communicate more than you did with
your previous handlers. That is all. The lights will show you out.”
Tinaya leaves the Bridger section alone, letting Lataran and Rodari have
whatever conversation that they need to have in regards to their
relationship. She has to get to another meeting. It’s just with Arqut,
though, so it probably doesn’t have anything to do with this bear war, or
whatever. He surely doesn’t know anything about it either. Once she’s back
on the Extremus, she teleports to the Mirror Room, which has become their ad
hoc meeting place, even though they have no use for the mirror, and it’s not
like they have to meet in secret. It takes her a moment to notice that he’s
not alone.
“Ah, we were shootin’ the breeze. We didn’t think you would be here so
soon.”
“My other meeting was shorter than I thought it would be,” Tinaya replies.
She nods at the other man in the room. “Council Leader.”
“I’m not Council Leader anymore,” Cleader clarifies. “I’m not even on the
Council anymore. I’m too old to last beyond the next twelve years anyway, so
I might as well pick sides. I’ve chosen yours, of course. If you’ll have me,
I would like to serve you in any way I can. I have some pretty good ideas,
if you would be willing to hear them.”
“Oh, yeah? Tell me one big idea?” He’s not a bad guy, but she’s in a bad
mood.
“Well,” Cleader begins timidly, which is unlike him. One of these days,
she’s going to have to learn his name once and for all. “I did notice one
demographic that you missed out in the last vote, and if you want to secure
reeëlection, you’re probably going to need them in three years. Officials
who start out at your approval rating generally go down a little. Just a
little, but it could be enough to get you out of office.”
“A missing demo, huh? And who would that be?”
“The utra-monogamists. If you want to win again...you should get married.”
No comments :
Post a Comment