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Tinaya never did figure out how to get back into the Bridger Section so
her son could make a mirror call to the past. Security there is tighter
than it ever has been, but that’s okay. Silveon was spiraling, and he
wanted guidance, but he will be okay without it. He has his family and
friends. Well...he has one true friend and peer. He has not bothered to
make friends with anyone else, because they’re all so much younger. It
wasn’t just romantic connections that he was potentially forgoing when he
sent his consciousness back in time. He really is going to be okay,
though. He decided to reassess his priorities, and recommit himself to his
mission to help Waldemar. Even though Audrey is the one who is closer to
him now, they’re all still friends, and Waldemar needs all the guidance he
can get, even if he doesn’t know it. This mission is more critical than
ever, because today is the day that Waldemar announces his campaign. If he
goes through with his speech, he will be the only one in the race, and
that’s because the position he’s vying for doesn’t exist.
“First Chair?” Tinaya questions.
“Yeah, that’s why he said,” Silveon confirms. “He’s been working on this
operation in secret. That must be what this press briefing is about. He
didn’t specifically say as much, but what else could it be? He still won’t
give me any details, but I suspected that it was about finding another girl
to get pregnant, so I guess I’m relieved.”
They both look over at Audrey, who responds, “I’ve been laying it on pretty
thick. He can pretty much have me whenever he wants. Before you ask, I
am on birth control now. I don’t want to get pregnant again, and he
doesn’t want that either. The way he sees it, this is the best outcome. He
gets the sympathy votes for the dead kid, and bonus, he doesn’t have to
pretend to raise the thing. Silvia’s job is done.”
A twitch of a smile flashes on Silveon’s face at the sound of the baby girl
who was named after him. It falls back down, however, when he realizes that
she’s also talking about her sex life with the enemy. “Just be careful.”
Audrey nods solemnly, but doesn’t say anything.
“How is he gonna pull this off?” Tinaya asks, getting back to the matter at
hand.
“He took a page out of your book, mama,” Silveon goes on. “Speaking of the
way he sees it, the way he sees it, you were able to abolish the position,
so he should be able to revive it.”
Tinaya shakes her head. “I was able to abolish it because
I was First Chair. It was in my best interest to keep it, which means
I was sacrificing something. I actually rose in popularity that day. He’s
asking to bring it back so he can gain power. It’s the exact opposite
of what I did. And anyway, I thought he was destined to become captain.”
“We’re in uncharted territory,” Silveon replies. “We have changed so much in
the chain of events, but I don’t think I’ve done much to change him.
I suppose I managed to lure him away from the captain’s chair, but I
couldn’t take away his ambition. He has evidently set his sights on civilian
government instead.”
“And he’s going right to the top,” Tinaya says, “to a job that he would
first have to create in order to get it.”
“That’s from your book too,” Silveon says sadly. “Before you, there was no
such job as Director of Population Maintenance.”
Tinaya exhales exasperatedly. She came to hate that title. It’s too broad.
She was there to promote population growth, but it could easily be
reversed to oversee population control, and that should never be the
objective.
Arqut shifts awkwardly. It was he who came up with the title in the first
place, and he too regrets it. “I’ve already submitted a provision to the
charter that, if the need for the job arises again, it should be changed to
Director of Family Planning. That way, the change will outlive me and-or my
tenure as Superintendent.”
“Thank you, honey.” Tinaya turns back to the kids. “How do we stop him, or
should we?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Silveon replies. “I’m starting to think that
everything we do is a waste of time. Maybe what we should really do is flip
to Plan C.”
Audrey shakes her head as she suddenly looks exhausted.
“Wait, what is this Plan C?” Tinaya questions. “Plan B was straight up
murdering him. Would you also kill his mother? What’s Plan Z, then,
destroying the whole ship?”
“They don’t go in order,” Silveon explains. Plan C is not selected because
Plan B fails. It’s a secondary alternative, equally as likely as the first
alternative. It involves shifting focus away from my relationship with
Waldemar, and towards the creation of the resistance.”
“Unlike before,” Audrey adds, “these resistant forces would be composed of
those who have forewarning on what’s to come. Rather than being reactionary,
and fighting an uphill battle, like we did in the original timeline, we
would be in a place of advantage. That’s the hypothesis anyway.”
“It sounds too late for that,” Arqut reasons. “If he’s already campaigning,
has enough damage not been done?”
“It’s the perfect time,” Audrey contends. “Imagine going back to 1922 and
trying to warn people that Hitler’s a bad guy. They would be all,
who the hell are you talking about? We were always going to have to
wait before the right circumstances triggered Plan C. Though your logic is
sound, we do have a short window. Gaining power is one thing, but gaining
popularity could make forming this preemptive resistance all but impossible.
We have to decide now.”
“We?” Tinaya echoes. “We’re just the old fogies. We can give you
advice, but you’re the ones with the intel, and it’s become quite clear that
we barely know anything about what you’re doing here, or why. How many of
these letter plans are there? Hopefully not the full twenty-six.”
Silveon and Audrey exchange a look.
“I don’t even wanna know,” Tinaya says before they can elaborate.
“I will say,” Arqut begins, “at the risk of overstepping, there is no coming
back from Plan C. Once you go down that road, you lose all friendly ties
with Waldemar. He may not find out that you’re a part of it right away, but
he will one day. You’ll recruit someone that you were wrong to trust. Or
someone will turn on you. Or you’ll just slip up and say the wrong thing to
him. Once you become his enemy on the outside, you lose all hope to change
him. Plan A doesn’t have to lead to Plan B, but if Plan C fails, it might.
Success means either putting him in hock, or in the proverbial ground.
There’s not much wiggle room.”
“That’s why I hate it,” Audrey tells them. “That, and we already tried it.
Sure, maybe we started too late, but I’m not sure a time advantage gives us
that much of an edge. It will just make him angry. Leona’s Rules of Time
Travel, Number Fifteen, don’t antagonize the antagonist. Just like
killing him, there’s a reason it’s not Plan A.”
“There’s a way to have the best of both worlds,” Tinaya suggests
cryptically. “You could continue with your camaraderie with Waldemar, trying
to keep him on the best path while recognizing that his personality is out
of your control, and you can’t stop his thirst for power. Meanwhile,
completely separately, there is a slow-burning faction of dissidents, ready
to keep him in check from the outside. You wouldn’t be involved with them.
You would feed them information, but get none in return. This would allow
you to keep focus, and keep them from ever needing to be activated.”
“That’s shockingly diabolic of you, mother,” Silveon points out.
“Yeah,” Audrey agrees.
“It is.” Arqut is less impressed, and more disquieted. “Who would do this?
Surely not us, we’re an obvious connection.”
“No, we’re too old anyway,” Tinaya says. “I have one or two people in mind.”
There’s a knock at the door. No doorbell, no proximity alert; just a knock.
It surprises and confuses all of them. “Thistle, what gives?” Tinaya asks to
the aether.
“The Thistle Central Systems Intelligence is presently offline for
maintenance. For basic assistance, please state your query using clear and
unambiguous syntax.”
“Do you think they found out that he’s real?” Tinaya asks as she’s heading
towards the door.
“He’s real?” Audrey asks, quickly having to accept the fact that no one
would answer her.
Pronastus Kegrigia smiled from the other side of the doorway. “I believe
that I’m supposed to be here?” Yeah, he was Tinaya’s first idea. They know
they can trust him, because he’s the one who took care of little Silvia
while they were waiting to deliver her to Verdemus. He’s always felt like
the anti-Waldemar—just as ambitious, but with an ethics book in his hand.
Once Tinaya and Arqut are dead and gone, he may be the only person left on
the ship who would be conceivably powerful enough to counteract anything
that Waldemar might try to do. It’s also hard to keep secrets from him,
which Tinaya recognized from the start. She knew that it was better to keep
him on her side than let him end up in opposition.
They get Pronastus up to speed, but they leave a lot out. They take Tinaya’s
advice to her son seriously, and just claim to have knowledge of the future.
Nobody is a time traveler, and nobody is older than they look. Waldemar is a
known future threat who can’t be allowed to assume full control over this
ship. That doesn’t mean he can be stopped by any means necessary, and it
doesn’t mean his power can be blocked entirely. Pronatus will have to carry
a heavy burden, navigating this new mandate with his regular future duties
as some kind of official pathfinder for Extremus. He literally asked for it,
though. He came to this suite looking to help, and they’re going to take him
up on his offer. There is still plenty of time for him to back out. He’s
young, and Waldemar has not yet shown himself to be a genuine threat, at
least not in this timeline.
It’s time for the press conference, so they head to the briefing room, but
separately of course. Audrey is expected to stand next to Waldemar, quietly
like a good partner. Silveon has an invite because he’s a friend, but there
aren’t enough seats, so he joins the people who are just standing against
the back wall. Pronastus told them that he is going to use his pathfinding
powers to sneak in, but doesn’t elaborate on what that will entail. Waldemar
is not there when they arrive, but everyone else is. Lataran waves Tinaya
and Arqut over from the front row, having saved them seats.
Captain Jennings is the last to walk in. He sits on Lataran’s other side, in
a seat that is always reserved for him, even if he’s the one standing on
stage. He doesn’t know what any of this is about, and he doesn’t know all
that much about Waldemar, but due to the latter’s sad history with baby
Silvia, he was granted permission to hold this conference. Obviously, they
can’t just let anyone stand up there and say whatever they want, but you
don’t have to be super famous to make an appointment request either.
Children have presented their book reports, and shared interests clubs have
used this space to attract new members. It’s always broadcasted, but people
don’t have to watch if they don’t want to. It’s usually not quite this full
during such mundane announcements and speeches, which speaks to Waldemar’s
social magnetism. He’s getting better and better at drumming up intrigue,
and people are all terribly curious as to what he’s about to say. Some are
members of the press, while others are just well-connected, and work in
related fields.
Finally, Waldemar steps out from the backroom, and approaches the
microphones. Audrey mousily walks in, and stands obediently at his flank.
She’s changed her clothes into something more stylish, and quite frankly,
more revealing. He does like her body, even if he can’t form a healthy
emotional attachment to her. He clears his throat, and taps on one of the
mics. “Thank you all for coming, ladies and gentlemen. I understand that
you’re all very busy, and I won’t waste too much of your time. There has
been a lot of talk lately about what I’m going to do with my life. I didn’t
receive high marks in school, and I did not choose a specialized track. I
considered pursuing a career on the crew, even maybe to one day become a
captain. In the end, I just wanted to keep my options open. This has led
many of you to believe that I have my eyes set on the passenger government.
I’m not ruling that out, but it’s also not my concern right now.” Waldemar
looks over his shoulder at Audrey.
She breathes deeply through her nose, and forces a smile, but hopefully most
people see it as sincere.
Waldemar smiles widely, and looks back at the audience and cameras. “This is
about what truly matters...family. I have gathered you all here today to
declare my undying love for Audrey Husk, and to announce to the world that
we...are getting married.”
Shit.
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