Flowers in the Black - Part I
24 Jun 2018Jellicoe
Finney Ring, Jitabos SystemFinney Ring is a smart, trim, well maintained Coriolis station whose high-tech economy services most of the surrounding systems, it is well governed by its new owners the LOSP after a long period of Federal misrule and has become the capitol and centrepiece of a large and expanding domain. Life on Finney Ring has a different flavour to almost anywhere else in the galaxy, here life moves at a slower pace, here mealtimes are an event to be savoured rather than just a pause for nourishment. The food is superb, continuing a tradition stretching back deep into antiquity but blended with bold innovation, the wine is similarly excellent with the finest vintages imported from across the bubble served alongside a growing range of locally produced verities.
In a secluded booth of the 'La Patrié' hotel a tall blonde man sat halfway through his second course while reading reports from friends and contacts throughout the core and beyond, on his data-slate, his face alternately darkening then breaking into a smile.
"Monsieur Jellicoe?" The immaculately turned out waiter asked approaching the solitary diner.
"Oui?" The man replied.
"Votre guest sont arrivé Monsieur."
"Mon guest?" Jellicoe asked, feint surprise in his voice.
"Monsieur is not expecting anyone?£ The waiter asked, smoothly switching to English as he recognised the mans clumsy pronunciation.
"I hadn't been, did they give a name?"
"Yes Monsieur, a Mademoiselle Kira Goméz." The waiter replied and Jellicoe's heart skipped a beat as his stomach lurched in a mix of joy, terror, hope and dread and then there she was, never a woman to wait on protocol Kira was standing behind the waiter looking magnificent in a black evening gown that perfectly highlighted her pale, flawless skin while a mischievous smile played at the corners of her mouth.
"So this is where you've been hiding." Kira said once the waiter had discreetly withdrawn.
"I'm not hiding," Jellicoe answered a little awkwardly, Kira raised an elegant eyebrow, a mocking expression on her face, "I'm taking a holiday."
"You take your holidays in Daras ever since that Federal bounty stopped you going to New California."
"I Like it here."
"From what I've seen I like it here too, but it's hardly a holiday resort."
"Alright maybe I am keeping a bit of a low profile."
"Hiding then." Kira replied, her eyes gleaming and her voice thick with warm humour."
"Not exactly hiding..."
"I'm not surprised after what you got up to in Coma." She cut him off.
"You heard about that then?"
"You were hardly discreet about it were you darling? Putting your name to that declaration, making yourself the most wanted man in the system then signing up with that very odd Russian to wreak havoc for Patreus across the sector. I'm sure all of you had a wonderful time but where's it got you?"
"We'll be back." Jellicoe said with grim resolve.
"Do you ever look up from your gun-sights at what's going on in the galaxy? Don't answer that I know perfectly well you don't," the teasing smile remained on Kira's lips but her eyes hardened, "I presume you won't have heard about the ATR initiative?" Jellicoe shook his head, a blank look on his face, "Advanced Tactical Response, the superpowers solution to people like you and your friends."
"People like me?"
"Marauding gangs of independents who descend on a system and make it completely ungovernable, the superpowers are sick of it so they're raising a new corps of military police to deal with you."
"Bring them on, it's been a long time since the local system filth could give me a decent fight."
"Do put your penis away Stannis, it might impress your gangster friends but it does nothing for me," Kira replied sweetly, "these aren't just system cops, these are the best pilots they have, in the best ships they have and trained to fight together just to kill people like you."
Jellicoe sat back, deliberately chewing his steak before washing it down with a sip of wine while trying to keep a proud, slightly smug smile off his face. "You forget, my ship is fitted way beyond factory standard."
"Oh Stannis you really are adorable. Do you really think those tinkerer friends of yours are the only people working on upgrades for ships and weapons? Did you never imagine that governments might just have their own R&D programs with top people and vast budgets? Because they do, and these are the result, so their pilots will be just as good as you and your friends, their ships will be just as good as yours and their weapons will be if anything better, and they won't come one at a time to give you a fair fight, they'll take you mob handed and they won't stop until you're either dead or leave the system."
Jellicoe took another long sip of his wine, cut another piece of steak and felt rather foolish, less than five minutes it had taken her.
"I presume you didn't track me down just to warn me about that?" Jellicoe asked.
"No, because I know I'll be wasting my breath. There's a couple of things, one is the Pleiades."
Jellicoe's ears pricked up at that "We'd heard there'd been attacks, I was thinking of going back there myself for a look around."
"I was hoping you'd say that," Kira said favouring him with a warm and expansive smile, "it's a lot worse than people are being told, they've his us hard, a lot of capitol ships down, smaller battle groups as well and there are these flower ships everywhere, but there's a lot that doesn't add up."
"Such as?" Jellicoe asked
"They're not attacking on sight, if you leave them alone they leave you alone, that's not a hostile enemy is it? but there's something else - they're collecting escape pods."
Jellicoe took a long, thoughtful breath through his teeth while stroking his chin. "There's nothing strange about taking prisoners," he began, they could be for interrogation or just to keep trained enemy combatants out of the fight or I suppose it could even be some kind of respect for sentient life, the worry is that it's for some kind of experimentation."
"You know something?" Kira asked picking up on something in his tone.
"Possibly," Jellicoe replied marshalling his thoughts, he looked around the dining room, oak panelling from Earth itself, the walls adorned with antique paintings showing blue coated soldiers from Earths ancient past advancing into a storm of canon fire under the proud standard of a golden eagle. Was war more or less terrible in the days of Earths ancient past Jellicoe wondered, or was it only the weapons and uniforms that changed? "The Thargoids have taken human prisoners for experimentation before, almost thirty years ago but it was in collaboration with a human turncoat."
"Thirty?" Kira asked, surprise momentarily showing on her face. "I know the official story on a hundred and fifty years ago is rubbish and that something happened in the fifties with Mic Turner but thirty years ago?"
"Claude can give you chapter and verse, you know how good he is at finding things on the grid, but one of your scientists was involved, a Doctor Carl Linnaeus."
Kira blanched. "Linnaeus? There's a name I've not heard for a good while. I tried to find out what happened to him about ten years ago, he was a bit of a hero of mine when I was an undergraduate."
"And?"
"And I was very forcefully told not to ask, was he working for the Alliance with them?"
"I don't know, do you think he might have been?"
Kira took a deep breath as she composed herself and gathered her thoughts. "The Alliance knows something, I never had full access but there was enough that I did see to know that there's something big that they're hiding."
"I think I'd better visit the Pleiades then." Jellicoe said with a thoughtful frown on his face, "What was the other thing?"
"You're going to marry me." Kira said smiling sweetly.