more ficdump.
it felt important to show what Juliet did after she landed the Dayspring, so...here it is.
warnings: Earth-339. OCs: Juliet Richards (née Keller) is the daughter of Julian Keller and Laura Kinney, her husband Mike is the son of Franklin Richards, and Katie Ashton is the girl Tom Shepherd died to save in 2019. sci-fi. world-go-boom. language: pg-13 (for s***).
pairing: none/gen (background Juliet/Mike).
timeline: begins shortly after (We Will Be) Invincible.
disclaimer: i doesn't owns the movies, comics, or characters. or the assorted objects of pop culture reference.
notes: 1) when Juliet says "mils," she means "milliSieverts (mSv)" a measurement of exposure to ionizing radiation (the kind that harms your cells and can cause cancer). to put it in perspective, the average person receives around 3.7 mSv of radioactive exposure annually, from cosmic rays, naturally occurring potassium in the body, minerals in nearby bedrock, etc. coastal areas and high-altitude areas have slightly higher background radiation, as do areas with coal power or nuclear power. 10 mSv over the course of year isn't all that high (even 10 mSv in an hour wouldn't cause readily apparent symptoms of radiation poisoning); US regulations allow radiation workers to be exposed to up to 50 mSv annually. 2) if you're curious, a dental X-Ray delivers about 5 microSieverts (.005 mSv). at present, the real state of California averages around 4 mSv background annually, but it's more interesting to think that various acts of technology or supervillainy in Earth-339 have raised the background dose of Californians in 2019 to 8 mSv annually. 3) a sovereign nation (or sovereign state) is one that has an independent system of government (i.e. it is not dependent on or subject to any other power) usually with a single head of state (sovereign of the realm). if you need an example, the Vatican City-state is technically a sovereign state ruled by the Pope (within the walled enclave, the Pope holds supreme authority, even over other governments such as the Italian government). 4) "de facto" is a Latin phrase which means "by fact" (as opposed to "de jure," "by law"). when Juliet says she is "de facto leader," she means that she has not been made leader by any form of legal proceeding or election, but is nevertheless the person with the responsibilities and powers of leadership. 5) these days, the names of government systems have been mired in connotation and misconception-democracy is simply a system in which a certain populace (usually citizens of the age of majority) vote to make decisions for all, and socialism is a system in which resources and production are controlled either by the state or cooperatively by the populace. these two systems (and others, such as monarchy, republic, communist, and representative systems) can be combined in various ways. the major weakness of a direct democracy (in which each vote is counted directly toward an outcome) is that it cannot make sweeping decisions (such as declaring war) quickly, and the major weakness of socialism is the unreliability of human goodwill (especially in positions of power and among large mixed populations). 6) "it always starts with one" is a reference to (We Will Be) Invincible. 7) the Sandman is a mythological/folktale figure who brings good dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto the eyes of sleeping children. in metaphor, the Sandman represents sleepiness and exhaustion.
Transition
It's not easy to lead thousands of people. It's harder when you're replacing a reliable incumbent who could see the future.
Wade is deified somewhat in the eyes of the civilians of Providence. Everything he told them has come to pass. The Big One. The fall of the Federated Skyfleet. The rise of the Valse Faction. The Flotilla War. The end of the United Nations. The Skywar.
They're happy enough to go along with his last order: land in the Catskills, eighty miles or so northwest of the NYC ruins, and convert the ship into a ground settlement. But as with any final order from a vanished religious figure, the interpretations vary greatly.
There are people who think the Defense Force should be dissolved, that they should draw up a constitution and vote on new leadership. There are people who think they should start trying to grow real plants again, that the matter synths should be used only for medicine, just in case the wear-and-tear of food construction could contribute to breakdown. There are people who think they should be building weapons and defensive systems, and people who think they should be preparing a counterstrike against the Valse Faction. There are people who think they should stay on the ship, even landed, rather than risk going out into the ash and radiation.
Juliet honestly has no idea what she's doing.
Mike and Katie are supportive, but it's not like they know what to do, either.
The old regime is gone. No more X-Men, no more Avengers.
All she's got is her chain of command and a little schooling about politics and sociology.
She shoots down the idea of voting on new leadership. They need the last remnants of military structure from the Defense Force if they're going to survive things like scavenger raids. She lets them work on that new constitution of theirs while she plans the settlement and supervises the work.
They dig into the mountain with some laser drills Stark put on the carriers for that purpose. After the digging is done, they move the shield emitters (they have to move the ship's secondary computer in order to coordinate the controls). As soon as that's done, they move the photonic converter (they drilled a light shaft for it), the air processors, and the matter synths, and start packing people in.
"What about the radiation?" a man demands, pointing out the window to the smothered sunlight and the ash-covered ground.
"We ran the scans," Juliet tells him. "It's ten mils a year in the caverns, and you'll get more radiation poisoning from a dental X-Ray than walking from here to there."
"But we don't have dental X-Rays anymore, and don't we have less than two mils a year on the carrier?"
She growls. "Ten mils a year will barely even faze your body. The state of California was rocking eight a year before the Big One. This ship is being dismantled whether you like it or not—you can leave and face forty mils a year elsewhere or stay and take your ten. Manhattan's still glowing, so I wouldn't recommend trying that way."
He shuts up. For about five seconds. "Who the hell put you in charge?" he yells.
And because Juliet has had a long, trying day (long month, long year, long decade), she shoves him against the bulkhead and holds her claws up to his face. "I am Commander Juliet Richards of the Sovereign Nation of Providence, and as such I am the senior surviving officer and de facto leader. I have been a military tactician for Providence for the past twenty years. I have lost every single member of my extremely hard-to-kill family and I was given the solemn responsibility of defending eighteen thousand, six hundred and seventy-one civilians by the Supreme Commander himself. If you don't like it, that's fine by me—I'll only have eighteen thousand, six hundred and seventy left to worry about."
He gapes. The claws tend to have that effect on people.
She takes a long breath and steps back. "Now pack your shit and get off my ship so it can be broken down to finish up our settlement. What you do after that is no concern of mine."
God, she hates civilians sometimes. It's like they don't know the damn definition of 'sovereignty.'
A few nearby duck their heads when she passes, clutching their packs and duffels and makeshift carts and meekly joining the line.
She understands now why it had to be her. In the beginning, anybody who doubted Wade shut up when he said 'play nice or I'll throw you out an airlock,' because they knew he could and would do it. So since she's strong and has half a dozen six-inch claws that can cut through certain metals, they'll keep quiet long enough for her to become the status quo.
It's not very nice, but there it is. Their position is too isolated and precarious for real democracy, and their population is too big for proper socialism. They'll have to remain a sovereignty for the foreseeable future.
Moving the people is the most annoying part of this whole process. They bicker about space, about arrangement, about neighbors. Juliet lets her aide (Madiah, who's been a SHIELD administrative aide for thirty years and was a field agent before that) handle it.
Moving and converting supplies, however, is the most time-consuming part.
Dismantling the carrier would go much faster with more manpower, or with a high-level meta helping out. Shit. Rachel would've been a ton of help. So would Carol, but drinking yourself to death tends to keep you from helping out twenty years down the line.
She can't recruit from the civilians yet, either—they have to secure the weapons and computers first. Only fleet personnel can handle that stuff (god knows what a civilian would do to or with such dangerous and sensitive equipment).
As a result, she ends up doing most of the heavy lifting.
It takes an entire day before a young man sheepishly comes forward and confesses to having the ability of telekinesis. He's no Rachel, but he's pretty strong, and it turns out he has a knack for taking apart the bulkheads.
Juliet still does most of the heavy lifting (restricted tech is restricted tech), but disassembly speeds up.
Once all the classified tech has been moved, they break the Dayspring down starting at the top. Juliet calls the civilians together and asks for labor volunteers—and then she offers the chance to join the Defense Force.
"You'll be trained and armed," she tells them. "Meta-human abilities are useful, but not necessary. The only requirement to join is a commitment to the safety of the citizens of Providence."
She gets seven right away (including the telekinetic from before), pushing through the crowds to her. She memorizes their names and faces. New links in the chain. Fresh growth in the forest.
The Fleet Defense Force is nine strong. One telekinetic, one thermal manipulator, and one technopath. It's a start.
When they finally have the Dayspring stripped down to the main officers' deck, Juliet sees her quarters again for the first time since the retreat.
Ah. That's what their settlement's been missing.
She takes one last load of steel to their warehouse and goes to the central cavern, the gathering area. In the glow of makeshift lighting, she picks a place to start and extends one claw.
Gradually, people take notice. Most of them never knew or even heard of the people whose names she's carving, but they can see what she's doing and the sentiment behind it. Someone pulls an old pocketknife and starts to cut a name of his own, clumsily. Other tools surface, other people start to carve, other names appear.
Juliet runs out of names that she can remember. There are hundreds on the wall, maybe thousands; nothing like the number on Wade's walls, and some of the names are civilians, but it's a start. She can go through the personnel databanks later and finish the job.
As it should be, the first name is the biggest.
She turns to the people working beside her, and the people gathered to watch, and settles her hand against the deep groove of the O in 'Tom Shepherd.' "It always starts with one," she reminds them.
They nod, but they don't really know what she's talking about. They think they do, but they don't. Katie's going to be important, and she'd be dead if it weren't for Tommy.
The need for sleep finally hits her. Staying awake for a week can make the Sandman's touch hit like a ton of bricks. She doesn't know how she gets to her new room, but she pauses to carve her family's names on the wall over her bed.
She'll never get to see how important it is that she passed on Wade's lesson.
.End.