Brave New World
IAV Sherwood was a stealth corvette.
It was practically invisible to any kind of scan. Infra-red, radar, x-ray…Its hull was composed of a special alloy that disrupted its own gravitic effect, ensuring that the bending of space-time as per relativity was actually reduced. And its hull was jet black, so that visual scans would be useless as well. For all intents and purposes, the vessel was undetectable.
Which was good. Because the trade-off for stealth had come at the expense of weapons. Weapons being weapons could allow the ship to be seen upon their use, and would add extra weight to the craft. And drifting within a few hundred kilometres of a fleet of Reaver ships, those weapons would have come in handy if the vessel were seen.
Which Captain Leong wasn't counting on, as per the stealth technology that the vessel was equipped with. And it was just as lucky that Reavers had shown no signs of tracing transmissions, or else they might have intercepted the words he'd sent to Londinium:
100% casualty rate. Population of Miranda deceased. No survivors of investigative team.
Psychotropic conversion of 0.1% of population confirmed. Pax confirmed agent of both cases.
Assessment of options:
Assault: Negligible cost-benefit.
Blockade: Excessive resource allocation, unlikely to go unnoticed.
Recommendation: Stay course. Hope ships stay confined to system. Continue observation for deviations from norm.
He watched the screen, displaying the words in a plain green text that betrayed the callousness of what he'd just written. It did his soul some good to be reminded that he at least possessed enough of a soul to be aware of how horrible the words were. Hope that no-one would worry about a few thousand colonists, that the ones who had gone mad would tear themselves apart before becoming a problem. After all, he told himself, the insane would hardly be capable of piloting starships.
"Any word back from home?"
But of course, he reflected, he was potentially insane himself. Why else would he have accepted an assignment to come to the arse end of the 'Verse to see how feasible it was for the Alliance to cover up its little boo-boo?"
"Sir?"
He looked back at Commander Morgan. The man was a few years his junior, but looked like a lieutenant. The type of person who'd follow orders without question in the hopes of getting into the position of being able to give those orders himself.
"You know this is bullshit right?"
Which Morgan wasn't. Younger, yes. Less experienced, yes. But that was where any preconceptions of youth and lower rank ended.
"I mean, how many people were there?" the commander asked, floating through the corvette's hull to reach the cockpit (part of its stealth systems involved disabling gravity generation). "One-thousand? Two?"
"Five-thousand," Leong said, staring at the planet before him, as well as all the ships that hung in orbit, like floating coffins. "But it doesn't matter. We're here to observe."
"Observe. Right." The commander sighed. "Oh what wondrous creatures are these. How beautiful mankind is. Oh brave new world that has such people in it."
Leong stared at him.
"Shakespeare," Morgan said. "Specifically The Tempest."
"Dammit Morgan, I know what that quote is," Leong murmured.
"Well, it's appropriate isn't it?" he asked. "Brave new world. Miranda. An entire population wiped out by accident. I think that's a new feat for humankind isn't it?"
"Tis new to thee," Leong said. He met Morgan's gaze. "And yes, that's the next line in that piece of dialogue.. If Miranda bothers you Commander, you best find yourself a new line of work."
"You telling me it doesn't bother you?"
"Of course it does," Leong said, returning his gaze to the space before him. "I just don't end up quoting Shakespeare as a result."
Silence remained in the cockpit. The breath of the man appeared before them, misting up the glass before them. In a way, Leong welcomed it. The less he saw of Miranda and the ships orbiting it, the better. It was like the planet had become Caliban. Present, and always would be. But out of sight for the play that was life. For the most part.
"What's on your mind, Commander?" Leong asked suddenly.
"Shakespeare," he said. "I'm trying to think of the best villain. I'm personally going for Lady Macbeth."
"Try Iago," Leong said. "Manipulative, sociopathic, callous…" He sighed. "We need new literature here."
"To pass the time?"
"That," the captain said, "and taking our minds off Miranda." He sighed. "The Tempest was always my least favourite of Shakespeare's plays you know."
Morgan remained silent. And Leong couldn't blame him.
Eventually, people always ran out of things to say. Eventually, silence always came. The silence of space. The silence of unease.
And the silence of those who had died without a word.