The End of the Beginning
21 Jul 2017Jellicoe
Stannis Jellicoe stood at his window looking out. He loved this view, the lights and bustle of the port far beneath him combined with the ships manoeuvring as they came and went was something he found strangely relaxing, the true visual diamond though was the clear vista of the distant blue gas giant and its spectacular ring system of which this moon was effectively a part. He sometimes felt little guilty at helping himself to this apartment when the Children of Raxxla had seized this city, but not that much, he had done more than his bit during the war, flying multiple sorties every single day and as one of the Children's ruling council rank surely had to have some privileges? Surely a penthouse suite in a newly conquered port wasn't too much to ask? Since then though everything had changed, their leader was now dead and the Children themselves were pariahs, scattered and often hunted. Revealing the truth had come at a price, and the question was what now? Fight back was the obvious answer, but how? and with what? How did anyone fight an enemy who had eyes everywhere but hid silently in the shadows?"Incoming holo-coms." His computer broke the silence, he moved away from the window, poured himself a drink and sat in his favourite armchair.
"Alright put it through." He sighed, he had not wanted to be disturbed but in these uncertain times and any message could be vital, but it was not one of the Children or their allies who shimmered into view, it was a small, almost delicate looking woman with short, raven black hair setting off a face of haughty, severe beauty, a malicious twinkle in her eye and matching half smile on her lips wearing the uniform of a full Federal Admiral.
"Admiral Sleer." He said struggling to keep the surprise from his voice. "To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"
The woman smiled with all the warmth of a day old cadaver. "I wanted to personally inform you of your dishonourable discharge from the auxiliary and demand that you return to the Federation to face trial, Mister Jellicoe."
"On what charge precisely?"
"For the murder of Post Commander Skirving and a number of other naval personnel assigned to you in the Delkar system." She replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the galaxy.
"You and I both know that isn't true, so go on what deal are you offering me?"
"Deal?" She replied with a smile that somehow combined innocence with pure malice. "Why should I offer any deal?"
"Because I have something you want. I worked that out in Delkar."
Her smile changed to one of pure triumph. "This may come as a crushing shock to your ego Mister Jellicoe but there is no deal. You might once have had knowledge that may have been useful to me, but that time is now long past. You don't count anymore, you are nothing."
"I know the truth, so does the whole of humanity now, we showed it to them. Your time is running out Sleer."
The womans smile deepened slightly. "The truth is whatever we decide it to be, and the masses will believe us. The people do not want the truth Mister Jellicoe, they want reassurance, they want to believe that tomorrow will be the same as today and that the day after will be the same. Give them bread and circuses and they will be compliant, nothing has really changed in three thousand years."
"Except you can't give them that, we both know what's out there, what's coming."
"And you know that there are plans in place. Plans for all eventualities."
"You can't control the independent pilots."
"Yes we can. They are the most compliant of all, we just have to wave credits under their noses and they come running, never questioning, never even thinking. We could run a community goal for shovels to dig their own graves and they would bring them, they are pathetic. You have a handful of misfits and we have the rest of humanity. Goodbye Mister Jellicoe."