Giants
Captain Adri Ottawa had never possessed much love for Cav Anaton.
Right now, few people in the Imperium did. Most of them would have likely never heard the name "Cav Anaton" for staters – access to information wasn't always equal after all. Some planets might speak an entirely different language. And beyond that, in light of recent events, the Faculty had deemed it prudent to minimize any mention of the good commander from its databases. Failure wasn't something that they wanted the good people of the Imperium to know about. Having since done a search of both the public and military databases, and looking at the hits of both…
Guess I'm right.
Glory was fleeting. Ignominy was forever. Adri didn't know who'd first coined that phrase. Only that it was from the time of the Ancients, that it had been translated a thousand times, and it had somehow retained its meaning, or at least, its relevance. People rose high in the Imperium…when it allowed it. The Bioweave wasn't that conducive to individuals breaking free from the shackles the Faculty imposed on them. And while the climb to the top was long, the fall could be very short, and very quick – short drop, sudden stop sort of thing.
Which was why Cav Anaton and his wife were, to the best of Adri's knowledge, rotting away on an ice world, and their son was missing.
"Captain Ottawa?"
She shooed the holograms in front of her desk aside – technically she wasn't doing anything illegal. She was captain of the Gladius after all. Still, better safe than sorry.
"Captain Ottawa?"
Hence, why she activated a second hologram and saw the face of one of the faceless mooks that operated on this ship. Cannon fodder little different from the rest of the cannon fodder that the Imperium used.
"Yes, Crewman?"
"Lady Kai has arrived."
Adri smiled. "Good. Send her up."
The hologram winked out, allowing Adri to remove that fake smile of hers, and reflect that Lady Kai being here was anything but "good." And also prompt her to delete her search history. Again, not illegal. But then, people like Kai rarely operated in the bounds of legality – what was legal in the letter of Imperium law could be deemed something else at the drop of a hat.
"Hello Captain."
Nor did people like Lady Kai waste time – somehow, she'd gotten to her office already. Adri sprung up to her feet.
"Oh don't do that, I won't be long."
Thank the stars. Adri, nonetheless, remained standing. Watched Kai pace around the room as if she owned the place. As if she owned the ship. Which she did, technically.
"What can I help you with?" Adri murmured.
Adri was a captain. Kai was a lady. She didn't have a rank, because her position in the Imperium transcended the concept. All Adri knew was that Lady Kai reported only to people like General Vykar. And people who reported to Vykar tended to be only slightly less insane than he was.
"Hmm, well that depends…" Kai said, moving over to a glass cabinet on the side of the room. It held a replica of every ship Adri had served on.
Where's Vykar anyway?
That was another rumour Adri had heard of – that Vykar had destroyed an entire planet all to retrieve Prisoner Zero, and to retrieve the Rogue. He'd failed at both. Having dug up what she could, going through files more secure than even those that had belonged to Cav Anaton, she'd discovered that such a planet had existed. And that 5 billion people had lived on it when the Spire left it a debris field of super-heated rock, spinning through space.
"Hmm," Kai said, looking at one of the replicas. "I don't recognise this one."
Adri sighed. "Get to the point Kai."
She glanced at her, smirking. "So short, Captain Ottawa?"
"You know it's a Ballista-class carrier. And I know that you didn't come here to talk about ships."
"Well, you're wrong there, Captain, because I am here to talk about ships." Kai turned away from the glass and walked over to the desk. Adri remained standing. "One ship in particular."
"Oh, so you're not here for ships, only a ship. World of difference Kai."
The lady's smirk became a frown.
"And I assume by 'ship,' you mean, the Rogue."
"Imperator."
"Really?' Now it was Adri's turn to smirk. "Thought it was called the Rogue now."
"It's called the Rogue only because the degenerate currently commanding the thing calls it that."
"Funny. I thought it came from translations off those letters on the hull."
"And how would you know that?" Kai asked.
Adri didn't say anything.
"Rhetorical question of course," Kai said. She walked around the desk to Adri's seat, leaving the captain with no choice but to allow her to take it, and furthermore, head round to the other side of the desk. "This is a black ship, designed to pick up on any rogue transmissions."
"It is," Adri murmured.
"Indeed. Which, of course, explains why you might know a bit more about recent events than most citizens of the Imperium."
"I would."
"Yes, so, obviously you can guess why I'm here, no?"
"To see if there's anything that might help you in your attempts to get the ship back?" Adri smirked. "How is that going, anyway?"
"Not relevant to the discussion, Captain."
"Vykar's still in command of the hunt, no? Strange. I didn't think the Faculty looked kindly on failure."
"Cav Anaton failed when he let the ship fall into the hands of subversives," Kai said, her voice making it clear that she wasn't interested in discussing the fortunes of her benefactor. Her smirk matched Adri's own. "And what's it to you? I never got the sense that you were one of the biggest supporters of Commander Anaton."
Adri said nothing.
"You weren't? Well, good. Wind's blowing in one direction Captain Ottawa. You can either be blown with it, or sucked out."
Space is a vacuum, it's not sucking anything, so that damn airlock analogy isn't going to work. She forced a smile. "Of course, my lady. If I may…" Kai stepped aside and Adri adjusted the hologram into a scanner. "Here. Press this, and it'll give you full access to the ship's database."
Kai followed suit. "Thank you."
You're not welcome.
"I'll be in touch," Kai said, as she walked out the door. "And I expect you to give me any help I require."
Adri lowered her head, and kept it lowered until Kai walked out.
Insufferable bitch.
She took a seat at her desk and sighed. Kai had been right about one thing – she had little love for Cav Anaton. But she doubted that Kai knew the reasons why.
Commander Cav Anaton was one of the highest figures in the Imperium. Cav Anaton even had the ear of General Rakshiff Vykar. Cav Anaton must have known the kinds of excesses that Vykar was getting away with…and he'd done nothing. Absolutely nothing. His loss of the Imperator might have been the failure that had doomed his career, but Adri would shed no tears for the man. Vykar's destruction of Arkadia might have been his most heinous crime, but it was far from his only one. Adri knew that the Imperium wasn't paradise among the stars, but surely they were better than the kind of leadership that Vykar provided, no? The type of person who could get rank thrown to the wind and get his protégé on any ship she wanted?
Speaking of which…
Adri activated the feed. She'd given Kai access to the ship's data hub. What Kai didn't know was that thanks to a little 'glitch,' she'd be seeing everything the good lady was looking at. Adri's mandate didn't extend to spying on servants of the Imperium, but Kai and Vykar were so beyond the pale at this point that she was comfortable breaking protocol. Information was power. The Imperium controlled information, and through information, controlled its people. Adri had her own Bioweave, as did everyone else. Thankfully not so severe that she couldn't engage in some acts of discretion.
What you after Kai?
Kai was searching through any and all data pertaining to the Imperator, or Rogue as it was now known. Information that should have been available through means other than a black ship. Which meant that either this was an op that Vykar wanted kept off the books, or they were covering all their bases. Which meant that either way, Vykar really, really, really wanted that ship.
Adri sighed – Cav Anaton had never been a saint, but the thought of what Vykar could do with that firepower…with the Spire alone, he could sail the stars unchallenged. With the Rogue…
Adri's train of thought came to a halt. Something very interesting was on the screen. A visual feed, showing a gargantuan hall. Like an underground cave, almost, with thick, green walls arranged like a cathedral. Her first impression was that it was some kind of planetary ruin. But the feed made it clear that it was the fifth level of the Rogue.
But didn't Anaton only survey the first four?
Officially, yes, Adri reflected. But it appeared that someone on his team had at some point gone down an extra level and peaked around before the good commander had lost his ship.
Did the Ancients even make this?
Adri had heard the rumours. Officially, the Rogue had been an Ancient ship, in humanity's long forgotten past. But there'd been reports that the ship had been even older than that – that it wasn't an Ancient ship, but that the Ancients had simply appropriated it, as others had done before them. Little facts that the Faculty didn't want broadcast.
The galaxy belonged to Man. None came before Man. A lie, as most people knew, but one that was comforting enough to swallow, even by those who knew better.
The creatures that built this, Adri reflected. How large were they?
It was technically possible that they were just the size of humans, but she doubted it. The size of the deck was too disproportionate to the upper four. Squinting, she-
"Having fun Captain?"
Gah!
Kai's face popped up on the hologram. Adri did her best to compose herself.
"I…I..."
"Not interrupting I hope?"
"No," Adri spluttered. "Of course not."
"Good. Though I must ask why I'm even asking that. I mean, when I saw that little blip on my suit alerting me to a peeping Tom, I thought that someone might be trying to interrupt me."
"Oh, really?" Adri said. "I'll get right on that."
"Do that, Captain. I suspect that someone in your position could solve that problem just by the press of a button."
Adri frowned – Kai had made herself clear. All that remained to see was how far she was willing to push her luck. Information was power. But so was firepower, and influence. Kai had both. Adri just had a ship.
"What do you want Kai?" Adri asked.
Kai snorted. "What do you think?"
"Information."
"That's right, information. So ask yourself, when I report back to Vykar, and give him information on how you performed today, what kind of information do you think I'll be giving him?"
"Doesn't matter," Adri said. "He's too caught up in chasing a ship and slaughtering billions to care."
"Are you so willing to take that chance, Captain?" Adri said nothing, and Kai smirked. "Thought not." She nodded her head to the image of the halls. "Magnificent, aren't they?"
Adri couldn't help but nod.
"Do you think they were built by giants?"
"I…" Adri sighed. "I don't know."
"No, you don't. And you never will. And do you know why?"
Adri shook her head.
"We are the giants now, Captain Ottawa."
"Is that why it's so easy to step on people?"
"Easier than you know. Now terminate your link to mine."
Frowning, Adri obliged. She lay back in her chair, thinking…
Thinking of all the data that Kai would erase. Because she would erase it, of that Adri had no doubt. Vykar was up to something. Kai was helping him achieve that 'something.' And she was willing to go anywhere, do anything, to help him achieve that goal. Right now, she and Vykar were the giants.
While people like her, and even Cav Anaton, were left below.
A/N
So, admittedly stretching things a bit here, given that the original Imperium crew of the Rogue apparently never got past the first four decks, so when Zero and co. enter the fifth deck, apparently it's a new thing. Still, couldn't get this kind of conversation to go between them in the same way.