She's Got One Thing And I Try To Respect That
05 Aug 2021User319792
"What? Who?"The man in the black suit was staring at Coral when I joined the comm. I'd been sitting in Goldstein Port, in Lembava, thinking through my combat flight exercises while waiting on Catiline and Descartes to be shipped over when I received the request with the subject line, "Urgent: possible contract- high earning potential." Coral, whose eyes followed a zigzagged pattern after something just behind her holo sensors, finally found her bearing, despite her pony-tail sticking straight out from the side of her head like a ladle from a crock pot.
"Is it worth it?"
"Is what worth it?"
The man in the black suit looked over to me, when I asked, before looking back at Coral. Coral looked at me, then back at the man in the black suit before typing out some commands on her desk. We waited a few seconds, as she looked to be scanning something, before she finally spoke,
"Well... it sort of depends on what your definition of value and worth is, dad."
The man in the black suit furrowed his brows. He looked at me as Coral continued,
"I mean, Kuwembaa is- and this is the best case scenario for President Hudson- an eventual problem, in terms of its governability. The closest Federation system is probably HIP 47947 and that's in Shadow President Winters' sphere of influence. Other than that, New Kuwembaa Labor is tucked pretty securely in the Emperor's SOI. All of these places are- and again this is the best case scenario for President Hudson- eventually going to present problems in terms of their governability. Each of these secessionist factions are based in systems outside of Federation space, each of which also just so happen to be tucked behind or within the sphere of influence of another power, be it Li Rong-Yui and Sirius or Mahon and the Alliance. Politically, I give it a thumbs down, in terms of any potential risk/reward calculation for long-term involvement. I suppose we could send Cadence in to blow stuff up, though, right?"
I looked at Coral and laughed. I wasn't keeping up with what she was saying, having lost track when she started talking about government, but it sounded like this thing was priming up to be a contest between the Federation and its adversaries on all fronts, mainly the Empire in this Kuwembaa place.
"We'd have to keep her out of her Imperial ships for appearance sake, but apparently people are giving rewards for combat bonds on either side. She could probably just go over there and blow everything up for everyone, right?"
The man in the black suit laughed and looked over at me. I was still sitting in Hadley's small captain's quarters, having spent the last night trying to get a better understanding her movements- which seemed to favor lateral strafing- and the thought of taking her into a combat zone seemed fun, albeit less helpful to me than staying in her and doing what I'm currently doing.
"Cadence, what do you think? Hudson is calling on Federal Auxiliary pilots to help with the effort to secure and quell the rebellion. You happen to be an Admiral."
Coral looked over at me and raised an eyebrow and I looked out the door toward Hadley's bulkhead. All these factions were seceding in response to the increasing surveillance measures backed by Hudson, who was still the Federation President- regardless of what Winters and the Rochesters might want to affect. I thought about The Empress for a second before looking at the man in the black suit.
"I couldn't care less. Seems like a good opportunity to bring in some credits, but Coral's the expert on this kind of stuff. If she says Hudson's probably better off in the long run letting them go, then I don't see why we'd involve ourselves in securing some territory that would cause him nothing but problems. Admiral or not, I'm not beholden to anybody to have to go and fight for their cause. I'd just as well do it for the credits as not at all. Besides, aren't we still looking into this Sirius situation? One of GALNET's affiliates just did a fluff piece on them."
Coral's eyes widened and the man in the black suit rocked backward. They both stared at me, hazarding quick glances at each other before returning their eyes in my direction. I looked at both of them, one after another after another.
"What?"
Coral looked away first, mumbling under her breath.
"WHAT, CORAL!?"
She slowly turned her head toward me and whipped her neck in a circle. The man in the black suit looked at her and laughed. Our eyes locked and I could see the man in the black suit coughing down a longer laugh out of the corner of my eyes. Coral cleared her throat and her voice was soft,
"That was so adult of you."