Chapter 27
The Lathe Nation
Artru
14th April, 3025
Markham
Relaxing back into the jump couch, I felt a sense of returning home. To get back and see Kane and the crew for the first time in person for over a year. The Jumpship was one of Otto's as we headed for Artru taking a vacation was the official reason for our presences here. "So Markham, one more jump and we get to see your friends again. Maybe they'll have something else to market to me." Otto remarked pouring a measure of whiskey.
"How long?" I asked not bothering to check the jump clock, I didn't feel like turning around.
"Seventy seconds." He said, "Nervous?"
I chuckled. "Nervous, no. But Behemoth has to be pretty close to popping, and I wouldn't mind spending a few months with them all again. Good friends and business partners are too valuable to let slip through your fingers." There was a moment when everything went strange for the jump, but then we were in clear space and the Invader's gravity deck began to rotate once more.
"Let's go to the bridge and send a transmission to let them know we've arrived." I said standing and heading for the bridge of the Invader. Otto was quick to follow, the luxurious appointments of his private transport jumpship almost worth admiring. The bridge was more spartan and practically appointed, given the occasional necessity to be running without gravity and the crew were sleepily paying attention, not overly worried about the situation.
"If you want, you can send your transmission any time." Otto said planting himself in one of the free chairs.
"Thanks." I headed for the communications console as I looked out into space at the system. It was a nowhere place, and yet the transmissions had indicated they were temporarily based here. "Raven Guard, this is a transmission from Jumpship Indelicate Gambit from Markham, I've decided to surprise you with a visit to what you l..."
"Sir. Massive anomalies on sensors..." One of the operators said.
"Oh gods, tell me our sails haven't been deployed yet."
"No Mr Davion, the sai.. MASSIVE GRAVITATIONAL ANOMALY!"
My heart dropped as I realised how unfortunate our timing was. He was moving that monster ship of hi... Outside of the window we watched as five jump signatures rocked space, massive graviton waves rippled through space at their arrival and they were deposited into space. There was no way this was possible. I could see it there, the Kane's Legacy. And yet, there were four more massive ships. And space was being distorted by their very arrival.
"Cameron's Blood. What in the name of... anything..." Otto said racing to the viewport.
I picked up the comms mic again.
"Kane's Legacy. Kane's Legacy. This is Markham. THIS IS MARKHAM!" And slammed the transmission into repeat hoping that it wasn't too late to prevent any rash action. After almost ten minutes the lights on each ship began to snap into relief and Otto was muttering 'Impossible, totally impossible... they can't exist...'
"This is Kane, Markham, what the hell are you trying to do give me a heart attack. I had the gunnery crews running to stations before the comms came back online." The transmission wasn't coming from the Legacy, but the absolute nightmare monster ship. "Markham, here is what you have to do. I'm ordering the deployment of the Spacedock Piers, I need you to dock with one of them, I can't accept anything else at the moment. I'm going to have some people meet you and bring you to me, damn but it's good to hear your voice. Sorry I've been out of contact, but I have news, and not all of it's good."
I watched as the massive leviathan of a ship began to change. Massive piers began to extend out into a configuration of a massive space-based shipyard. One far larger than anything that had ever existed, even in the height of the Star League. Or perhaps I was wrong.
Otto looked panicked. "Helm, commence a fas...."
"Otto, don't. It's Kane, I am a bit behind the times, but I recommend you use maneuvering thrusters and pull into one of those docks. Right now, Kane's no doubt in full security mode, and I have no doubt those guns pack as much firepower as they look like they do." I said. Otto nodded, trusting my judgement.
"Do it."
Over the next half hour we carefully maneuvered into the embrace of one of the Piers, a vast airgate extending out and mating to one of the airlocks. Though Otto lamented as the powerful clamps actually buckled the hull around them slightly before the operator pulled back on the tension.
As the airlock opened Otto's bodyguards stood ready, unsettled as everyone else. Beyond stood a younger woman in an unfamiliar uniform, and a large security team. "Welcome to the Forgeworld, I am afraid that at the moment, the security situation necessitates that your entire crew is to disembark and be temporarily remanded to our custody until the Duke decides on an appropriate course of action." I nodded and Otto requested his people to obey and, surprisingly, they did not choose to take the weapons of Otto's crew. When prompted on it she simply said it was a matter of trust.
"Let's go." I said signalling for Otto to follow.
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Of all the fucking luck. Markham just happens to arrive mere minutes before our own translation in system, in a Lycomb-Davion Jumpship, with his good friend, Otto Davion, in tow. Gods but it'd be good to see the old man, but damned if it didn't put me into a conundrum. The impulse to simply space Otto's crewmen was strong, but I avoided it as I cheated and had us teleported to the Arboretum. As such, when one of the lower dockyard Lieutenants brought Otto, Markham and his Bodyguard, they found me fishing out of a small pond in the Arboretum. Miranda was reading as Glitch and Ostergaard played 'regicide'.
"What the fuck." Markham said looking around at the trees. "What is this." He marched up and I took him into a bear hug.
"Welcome to the LNNV Forgeworld." I said by way of response. "Another part of my Uncles Legacy recovered, I don't think there is anything else 'out there' to really recover, but the cogitators of the Legacy and Forgeworld leave a lot to be discovered. Otto Davion, it's a pleasure... and pain... to have you here."
"What? Worried i'll steal your secrets and share them with the galaxy?" Otto said with a grin as we shook hands.
"Yes." I replied honestly, "The Legacy, which will remain my flagship, is a secret i've quite literally killed to protect, and you stumble across my fleet just after I rediscover the Forgeworld and her escorts." I indicated some steel chairs and sat down, "Frankly, your presence here is a huge security nightmare."
"I'm sure it's not as ba.." Otto began but I cut him off.
"It is, you've witnessed ships massing far far above anything you're familiar with jumping." I said taking a few beers from a cooler and passing them around. "The KF drive limitation means, with your technologies, you can't build anything greater than two point five million tons, including air, provisions, cargo, dropships et cetera." I sat down. "The Watchman is five point seven million tons, the Guardian is six point one million, the Legacy is twenty point nine and this fine ship is sixty million tons. If I stripped a panel of armour off the prow, it'd likely weigh more than your Jumpship."
Markham took the beer and went over to give Miranda a hug, a few exchanged words pitched too low for me to hear, but congratulatory from the expression on her face. But he sat down and took a mouthful.
"That.. you're right, that isn't possible by any laws of physics I know. The limit is a hard limit, we simply cannot feed enough power to..."
"We are far beyond that point, though I still don't understand the science behind it, it isn't my field. But then there are the other problematic implications. Like the fact that by any nations definition, we have a fleet consisting of four Warships and a Yardship. We have technology that even by the Star League were theoretical skunkworks projects undertaken so far off the grid the entire galaxy forgot about it." I sculled what was in the bottle and tossed it at the eski. "The technology we shared with you, that was stuff stuck on coffin-ships. Blueprints for personal arms, technology that we considered simple and wide-spread by the time of our fall are all but science fiction to you and yours."
Markham leaned forwards. "You're debating whether you should just kill them and be done with it..." His voice turned worried.
"No Markham, I am not killing a friend and benefactor in the Federated Suns, or you, for secrecy we can't maintain forever," I sighed leaning back, "fact of the matter is, sooner or later, whispers are going to get out about the Legacy being sighted at Coromodir. And somebody is going to start putting the pieces together about how the 'ghost ship' appears when we do. And the answer is to build our nation. Begin pulling the disparate parts of the Periphery under our banner and be the change we want to see."
Otto frowned. "Your nation?"
"The Lathe Nation. Our plan is to bring the disparate worlds under a new prosperous banner. Erase the stain of religious extremism and burn the pirates out of their holes," I said putting away the fishing pole, "I'm hoping to work more closely with the Federated Suns on the matter."
Otto stood up and began to pace. "I don't know Kane, pirates have always been a problem, and religious extremists are never popular, what do you intend to do kill them all?"
"Yes." I answered plainly.
"I.. uh, ok. Can we retire somewhere more dignified, I can't help but feel i'm going to be rained on." Otto said as Markham chuckled getting up.
"It's a good idea Kane, this is fine for a social gathering, and you bet I plan on joining you all for that, but this conversation is a bit more important." Markham said.
"Certainly, if you'll all come and stand here?" I said arming the teleport beacon. They all made their way to me and I grinned to myself, Otto and Markham had no idea what was about to come next. "Now I warn you, this will come as a shock and be extremely surprising, if your bodyguards can restrain themselves from panicking, that would be great."
Otto chuckled. "A well disguised elevator is nothing new to us."
I just issued a wry grin and activated my microbead. "This is Kane, I need a site-to-site teleport to the bridge." Otto's eyes looked at me like I had just gone mad, then the maroon unlight enveloped us with a crack of ozone. As it cleared we stood at the back of the bridge. Before us stretched the crew working at their stations, only a few turning to look at us as I indicated we should retire to the conference room.
Otto and Markham were shaking as we entered the conference room and the bodyguards looked about ready to gun me down out of sheer unsettled fear. Miranda took a seat and tied her hair back as Glitch and Ostergaard took up seats. It was time for real discussions.
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The room was well lit and holographic displays showed all sorts of information. I took my seat at the head of the table after retiring for a moment to don more official clothing. Re-entering I saw Otto talking quietly with Markham, both a fearful and excited tone evident in his very body language.
"Now, if I may, I am formally introducing myself as Duke Kane Giordino of Lathe. Aboard my fleet the last of my people serve as crew, or wait for a new home to be found for them." Markham listened as intently as Otto did, much of the revelations not having been passed onto him due to the insecurity of using ComStar.
I stood rigid, at attention. "The fact is, my world was born out of secrecy beyond anything mapped by the Inner Sphere or ComStar, or even Kerensky's lost fleet. It was born out of a skunkworks development project started by the Camerons, who are my ancestors. A secret so profound that Kerensky himself didn't know about it. One so profound that all project heads, bar Zachariah Cameron himself, were headed by illegitimate children born of Cameron seed. Originally begun in the Castle Nautilus, whose remains we are here to remove and transport safely to a more secure location, the project was vast in scale, and soon required the creation of a colony to support it. Lathe." Holograms came up, provided from the Cogitator archives.
"The purpose of that project was to develop any technology that they could think of. To ignore the wisdoms of what is possible and instead of seeing barriers, simply seeing obstacles to be removed from conventional path. Obstacles like the KF drives mass limitations. Or ultra-heavy mech designs not reliant on myomer bundles. Even immortality, teleportation, genetic and cybernetic augmentation. There were no restrictions on what the project was responsible for developing," I paced thoughtfully, "the original purpose, no doubt, was simply to secure the power of the Camerons as the undisputed Imperial might in the galaxy. But that purpose has been lost to time and I was sent back by my Uncle when the political situation became unstable and a war of self-annihilation loomed as my Uncle refused to share his own technologies with violent plutocrats from other states."
I showed footage that the Legacy had recorded. "Eventually. They snapped and attacked and my homeworld was torn apart in nuclear fire leaving me to follow the breadcrumbs my Uncle left for me. Breadcrumbs that lead to the recovery of probably our entire technological basis for power." I moved and called up more images. "I've been fighting in the Periphery for most of that time, either for and with the Aurigan Restoration and Coalition, or for various employers who wanted mercenaries. The technologies i've offered and traded are, as you can see, probably the least of the advanced technology we have available."
"And frankly. I can't sit back and watch Pirates raid repeatedly time and time again only for us to come in and clean up the mess afterwards for pirates to turn up later, beginning the whole process over again. I can't sit back and watch powers like the Theocratic regime of Mandalas butcher its people for simply refusing to share the same level of fanaticism or beliefs. And so I plan to build the Lathe Nation, an Empire founded on advanced technology and a code of honour, respect and beliefs."
"I suppose you plan to introduce democracy, elections and votes as well?" Otto said with a polite chuckle.
"Gods no. People can be the greatest thing you can ever imagine, but they're dumb as fuck. If I put people to vote for their leader and one was an older portly man with decades of experience and one was a young thirty something with tits the size of your head, half these backwards hicks would vote for the woman even if her only campaign promise was 'i'd let you touch them'." I sat down. "Fact is, most people don't give a fuck about the politics. Most just want to know that they'll have water, power, food and a hope to get out of whatever debts they're in. They want security, comfort, to know the government isn't going to cut them down because they don't follow the state mandated belief system. And for most of them, the threat of piracy is more significant than anything else."
I dismissed the holograms.
"I want to work with the Davions to finally secure this region of space. Yes, there is a bit of difference in our regions, but I happen to know that the Federated Commonwealth is on the cards, the contracts we signed were very revealing. And I plan to add my own investment to the pot, we have our own enemies in the Capellan Confederation, and have plans for dealing with that. But with the blessings of Hanse, we can strike and begin conquest of the southern end of the Capellan Confederation to unify our borders."
Otto looked both terrified, and in awe, at the same time as the scope of my plans unfolded.
"Kane, your ambition is, frankly terrifying." Otto said and even Markham was calling up data on the slate he had trying to figure out what was going to happen. "But it's nothing that isn't common enough in the Periphery. But to get our support... that might require something more. I had planned to tell you at how well the NAIS was progressing on your jump battery, but the discovery of these ships... it may just render the entire concept obsolete."
"Not even remotely." I said, "the megatonnage of these ships is far and above beyond what most of the powers produce. I'm happy to offer help to the Federated Suns on several technological fronts."
Otto held up a hand. "I want you to go to New Avalon. To speak with Hanse personally, I may be a Davion, but i'm far down the totem pole of power outside of Lycomb-Davion Introtech. You need to speak with Hanse direct."
AUTHORS NOTE: I had planned other stuff. But this chapter has turned out surprisingly long. So Jaime Wolf is going to have to wait for the next chapter