"Imagine this Admiral:
You are a man, unfairly, being considered a humorless bore by the men you are trying to train into respectable officers of a highly classified, and for the moment secret, organization. You have left them alone to study schematics of the truly beautiful flying aircraft you had the honor of overseeing most of the construction of so that they will be familiar with it when they finally step foot on it.
You return three hours later and discover they have finished studying the schematics and now:
A: are discussing Cloudbase in a professional manner and with perhaps some ideas for an improved layout in the sections that will be finished once they have been properly trained and assessed.
Or
B: having somehow found more paper tubes, cardstock, and helium-filled balloons than you knew was on base and each constructed an approximation of what they believe it would look like. And now were having mock battles with their floating constructions.
Charles, I think you know what I found.
I was actually quite impressed. After all, we were seeking out officers who would think outside the box.
The question, however, is what do now?
A: Yell at them for behaving like children and not taking the whole thing seriously?
B: Reprimand them sternly, but admit that their ingenuity will be an asset?
Or
C: Surprise them by rolling with it, and judge each creation on the merits of how well they followed the schematics and how well it holds up in battle with the others, thus completely catch them all, barring Scarlet, off guard?
This was a fun afternoon for me, Admiral.
And they are completely bewildered."
Colonel White sat back and closed his tired eyes. He was completely bewildered. He was going back over everything. Reports. Evaluations. The off the cuff notes and letters Conrad had attached to reports. Trying to find something to use to try to start a dialogue with his old friend now hellbent on destroying the Earth.
Except that wasn't correct, now was it?
Captain Black wasn't trying to destroy the Earth, just tear human society apart at the seams. Shoving a mirror into its face and force them to take a good look at itself without the polite lie of civilization masking it.
There had been minimal civilian casualties directly caused by his hand. But...
England and Greece had ceased all diplomatic relations. There was a deeper divide in the United States than usual. Half of Australia wasn't speaking with the other half. For the first time in living memory Brazil canceled Carnival. The tenuous unity of the United Asian Republic was almost completely dissolved. Even Bereznik , known for gloating when disaster struck its enemies, was quietly pleading for help.
And as for military targets, now that the Devil's Due had been seen, the attacks on military locations had ramped up. Spectrum itself had lost three bases in as many weeks. Infuriatingly it didn't matter if they were far inland, they still were destroyed.
Black did still give warnings, so loss of life was down, but so was morale.
They had contacted the Mysterons, as it was apparent that Captain Black had received technology from them. Infuriatingly, the Mysterons had responded that they hadn't given Captain Black anything, but they entered into a treaty and exchange with the underwater Kingdom of Titanica, who had not been included in the original Mysteron-Earth Peace agreement. That was bad enough, but then it had come out that the Mysterons could not perceive any aquatic sentient, sapient lifeforms, and thought it was all a delusion in Captain Black's head. When asked why they had not ceased in that belief when it was obvious that that was not the case, the Mysterons had answered:
"Show us one of these so called Aquaphibians."
And since they simply could not perceive them, it was akin to that old song about the bucket with the hole in it. It beggared the question why they entered into a treaty with what was they thought was a delusion of Captain Black's, and their answer was simply "Because it amuses us." (Colonel White was of the opinion that the Mysterons had absorbed some of Turner's sense of humor, but he kept that to himself.)
Which still left the Earth's governments to contend with the problem of an angry Conrad Turner.
And so far his only comment on the matter had been a blunt: "Fuck You."
The News Media had had a bit of field day with that response.
Colonel sighed and resumed his crawl through the archive.
It was Lt. George 'Phones' Sheridan that finally came up with an idea.
"Well, if the Mysteron Treaty was with Titanica, why don't we try and make one of our own?" the Lieutenant had drawled in the background of an intense meeting of the Heads of the World Military. Once he had accidentally gotten their attention, he continued, "Titan's got to believe he's the one calling the shots; his soldiers are crewing the Devil's Due right?"
Titan was surprisingly amiable to meet. Well, arrange a meeting. Actually, set up a meeting to discuss if a proper meeting was even possible.
Still, in the meantime, the Devil's Due would cease all attacks, and be the location of the first pre-meeting meeting.
No one was happy with that.
"Fine," was all Black had to say, "but they're staying off my bridge, there will be no tours, and they need to cater the damn thing; this is a war-sub, not a pleasure yacht."
"You shouldn't believe everything you see on TV," Colonel White overheard Captain Black growl at a some diplomat, and the penny finally dropped for him.
And when he saw an opening to corner Black, he took it.
"So, this is about that idiotic television program?" White asked incredulously.
"This is about a great many things, but that was the last straw for me," Black didn't even look at him, his attention focused on the group in front of them, "I would have expected a little more consideration, I had given most of my adult life to the duty of protecting others, barring the time I was enslaved by the Mysterons."
"I had to find the best way to conceal Scarlet's nature; it isn't general knowledge and he requested we keep it that way," White tried to explain, "I had to make a choice on how to convince the media as to why we were so successful without revealing that Paul Metcalfe was indestructible."
"So, I was thrown under the bus, because you assumed I wouldn't or couldn't retaliate at the assassination of my character – the only thing I had left."
"I assumed you were dead," White retorted.
"And that makes it any better?" Black asked in disgust.
Silence fell and they both people watched for a few moments
"If Titan wants Peace, and gets whatever else he wants, then I'll be fine with it," Black finally said, "He won't turn me over to the Surface world, Teufel won't allow it. That fish likes me for some reason or another. So you can tell the World Governments that's completely off the table," He paused, "I've gotten what I wanted anyway."
"And what is that?"
Conrad smiled grimly.
"Entire world now knows that if I had truly been in collusion with the Mysterons, working with them, for them, instead of against them, the Earth would have been broken in a week," he finally turned to look at Colonel White, making the Colonel take a step back from the grief, hurt and bewilderment in Black's eyes, "You of all people should have realized that."
He looked as if he was going to say more, but the small Aquaphibian that had been hovering nearby took his elbow and pulled him away. White couldn't hear what the Aquaphibian said as they moved away, but the pain cleared from Turner's face, and he genuinely smiled.
Charles Grey, in turn, quietly grieved.
"You've burned that bridge," X-20 gently escorted his friend toward the ridiculous but intriguing display of food the surface dwellers called a hors d'oeuvre buffet. He had come to notice that Conrad, unfed, tended to be more confrontational than a fed Conrad. A prelude to a potential summit was not a time for a grumpy Captain Black.
"It was a bridge that needed to be burned," Conrad said, then smiled more brightly than X-20 had ever seen him smile, "I made the right choice, Artura."
X-20 nodded in agreement, but privately thought perhaps only time would reveal if that were true.
