Author: Bobby Cox smeghead_76@dodo.com.au
Disclaimer: Some of the characters are mine. Some aren't. The 'verse in which this is set, however, belongs to Peter F. Hamilton (the 'Night's Dawn' trilogy 'verse). There may or may not be characters and situations belonging to ME productions and the team that writes Buffy. I'm just covering my arse there. No money will be made from this, but if someone *thinks* it's good enough to make money, I'd be flattered :)
Summary: This is a parallel story to 'In Their Shadow' by rei_ite (and later on, myself), and provides back-story for Xander's activities on Earth. Basically, vampires and the Light Bringer sect - a Satanic cult (no, really!) - are starting to bump heads with each other in the Downtown section of the Los Angeles arcology. Normally, the authorities wouldn't pay too much attention to something like this.
However, when the fighting spills over to the Uptown sections...
AN: The follwing text formats will be used for datavises and affinity:
Affinity will be represented as such: AffinityDatavises will be represented as such:{Datavise}
'I do not know which is more disturbing - the fact that a vicious underground war has been waged on Earth for thousands of years, or the fact that, up until now, no-one has noticed that it was being fought.'
- Samual Aleksandrovich, First Admiral of the Confederation Navy (2614)
Jovian Consensus
Jupiter orbit, Sol system
3rd June, 2614
From above the north or south poles of Jupiter, the view was spectacular.
The largest gas giant ever discovered, with its attendant moons and ring systems, Jupiter was also home to the largest industrial enterprise in human history, the Jovian Helium-3 mining operations.
The backbone of the Confederation economy and industry, the Edenist Helium-3 mining operations took pace in virtually every settled system - with the exception of the Kulu Kingdom - and gave Edenism political and economic clout that was previously unimaginable. Fortunately, the strong sense of ethics that was a part of Edenism meant that this power was not abused.
Ironically, the Jovian mining operations also contributed significantly to the destruction of Earth's environment, since as more and more Helium-3 powered fusion plants came on-stream, the amount of waste heat generated rose exponentially. Eventually, the situation became so dire that the population was forced to retreat into the arcologies.
Four thousand, two hundred and fifty habitats circled the giant, adding another ring to the already impressive ring system. But they were more than simple lumps of gene-tailored coral. They were alive.
Alive, and intelligent.
The heart of Edenism, the Jovian habitats were home to over nine billion people, and that didn't count the population of the three hundred habitats orbiting Saturn. When an Edenist died, his or her memories and personality were stored in a habitat's neural structure.
Sometimes, this was not possible, so voidhawks were able to store a limited number of personality patterns. In extremis, even neural nanonics were able to store a personality pattern.
But it was within a habitat's neural structure that the personality pattern showed its true worth. The combination of all the personality patterns stored within a habitat's neural structure gave rise to the habitat's multiplicity consciousness - its intelligence.
Habitats were entirely self-sustaining environments, utilising mass taken from ring particles and asteroids, and using organic induction cables extruded from the habitat shell to generate power from the magnetosphere of the gas giant they orbited to provide a viable biosphere and food for their inhabitants, although imported luxury items were always well-received in any habitat.
A habitat also governed itself, with the consciousness enforcing all laws operating within the habitat. A mayor was elected to serve five-year terms, although this was a holdover from the early days of Edenism, when it was uncertain as to how effective the consciousness would be at government. As it turned out, there was no need to worry, although tradition is very hard to get rid of.
Also, the inhabitants could use affinity to 'link' minds to create a giant debating forum - the Consensus - where all major decisions affecting either a single habitat or all of the habitats orbiting a gas giant could be discussed, approved, and implemented.
It was in Consensus that the dream of mankind had been realised - perfect participatory democracy.
Consensus wasn't limited to the human inhabitants, though. Consensus could also be called between the habitats themselves, although it was much, much rarer. The last time that the Jovian and Saturnian habitats had called Consensus amongst themselves had been during the possession crisis, during the debate on whether or not to aid the Mortonridge Liberation. Before that, it had been to marshal resources to hunt down Laton after he destroyed the Jantrit habitat, killing well over a million people and wiping half a million stored personality patterns.
The Harris File, as it was now being called, and Henderson's report were considered important enough to justify such an event.
****
Consensus happened extremely fast - no sooner was the thought generated than acted upon.
This is most disturbing. The fact that the creatures previously cast as legends actually do exist is bad enough, but the fact that they generally kill for amusement and have been known to attempt to bring about the end of human civilisation is infinitely worse.
True. In fact, it seems that humanity's only line of defence against these creatures has been a young girl known as the 'Slayer'.
Calling the exchange of information a discussion would not have been strictly correct, as all parties were essentially parts of the same personality. A more accurate description would have been 'an extremely sophisticated way of talking to yourself', but even that would not have been correct.
Who, it seems, has worked alone, with only one person, described as a 'Watcher' to provide guidance, support and training. This is unacceptable.
What is even more astonishing is the fact that, up until the end of the twentieth century, each Slayer has accepted these limitations. According to the Harris File, this has resulted in an extremely short lifespan for a Slayer.
Yes, the Slayer called Elizabeth Summers seems to have been the first to buck that tradition, and seems to have received some difficulties from the organisation that controls the Watchers and monitors the Slayers, this 'Council of Watchers'.
We accept that the Harris file is valid, then?
Yes. If it is a fabrication, it is a needlessly elaborate one. What is there to gain from such a thing?
Ione Saldana and Tranquillity did well to bring this to our attention, as well as that of Govcentral and the Confederation Assembly. The report from the Los Angeles law-enforcement officials is most disturbing, however.
It is the corroboratory evidence that proves the validity of the Harris File.
The implications of the report are disturbing in the extreme. Govcentral's resources may not be sufficient to deal with the threat posed by the vampires operating in the Sunnydale Dome.
Yes, the Hellmouth. We must commit resources to aid the Los Angeles authorities to deal with this threat.
Our ground-combat capabilities are minimal. Engineering warrior servitors in sufficient numbers would take too much time.
That is true. However, an alternative is available. One possibility is the Mortonridge possessed who acquired the bodies of Tranquillity serjeants. Another is petitioning Ione Saldana to supply sufficient numbers of serjeants.
Agreed, with the proviso that any ex-Mortonridge possessed who agree do so on a voluntary basis.
Of course.
The blackhawk that carried the original message from Tranquillity is about to leave Earth carrying a copy of the Henderson report to the Lord of Ruin, along with normal message traffic. It will be a simple matter to add our petition to the messages already carried.
And as simply as that, it was decided.
****
Emergence zone YTA-5069, 500,000-kilometre orbit
Tarron orbit, Kulu system
4th June, 2614
The blackhawk *Kerisal* emerged from the wormhole interstice near the centre of the emergence zone, and reconfigured its distortion field from the pattern required to open and sustain a wormhole to the pattern required for normal-space travel. Almost instantly, it felt the affinity hail from Tranquillity. After identifying itself, approach clearance was granted at once.
Welcome back, Kerisal. Was your voyage eventful? Tranquillity asked.
Thank you, Tranquillity. No, the trip was quite uneventful, although my captain seems to be quite bemused. On the trip to Earth, we carried a message from the Lord of Ruin. And now, on the return voyage, we find ourselves not only carrying a message from the President of Govcentral, but the Jovian Consensus has also availed itself of our services to send a message.
That is most unusual. The Jovian Consensus would normally use a voidhawk for courier duty.
Yes.
I have informed Ione Saldana of your messages, and she is most anxious to ascertain the contents.
We'll hand them over as soon as we dock.
Very well. Your docking pedestal is two-one-alpha. You will be met on arrival.
****
Belvior Palace, Tranquillity
Tarron orbit, Kulu system
4th June, 2614
There were actually three messages for Ione in the blackhawk's cargo.
Two were on standard data fleks, while the third was stored on the type of bitek processor used to store affinity messages that were for people out of the thirty Astronomical Unit affinity range of a habitat. No prizes for guessing which one was from the Jovian Consensus, then.
Of the two that were on standard fleks, one bore the official seal of Govcentral, and the other was a basic commercially available flek. One official message and one non-official message, then.
Ione received a veritable deluge of messages on a daily basis, most from within the habitat itself, and it was only with Tranquillity's help that she was able to stay sufficiently ahead of the traffic to oversee the day-to-day running of the habitat's affairs.
I do most of that, anyway, Tranquillity said, slightly affronted.
I know, Ione replied. But people want the human touch every now and then. It reassures them.
Humans, Tranquillity said with a slightly piqued tone.
Hush, you. Just for that, you can help me decide which message to access first.
A quick scan of the message headers reveals that the two flek messages both come from Los Angeles, specifically the Sunnydale Dome.
Do you think there's a connection?
It is likely, Tranquillity admitted. I would suggest that you read the official message first, though.
Very well, Ione said, and slotted the flek into place, allowing Tranquillity to view the contents as well.
My God. She was somewhat shaken. The threat is still there, and as strong as ever.
Did you think that it would have gone away in the last six centuries, after being present for uncounted millennia?
No, but I could hope. Do you believe the final part, the bit where it says that outside help would be required?
Yes. Law-enforcement officers are ill-equipped to deal with something like this.
Sadly, that is more than likely. Do you think that the Slayer would be in a position to help?
This sort of thing does fall within a Slayer's area of responsibility. But it will be next to impossible to locate one person on Earth, especially when we do not even know her name.
Where's your optimism? Ione chided gently.
I prefer to remain realistic about our chances, Tranquillity replied.
Ione sighed. All right, then. Have it your way. I suppose I had better read the message from the Jovian Consensus next.
When she tried to access the bitek processor, though, she noticed that it was locked. Now why would they do that? she wondered, and used her identity trait - akin to a mental fingerprint - to unlock it, sharing the contents with Tranquillity.
Now, that is interesting. Tranquillity said, somewhat surprised.
You mean the fact that the Consensus agrees with the Henderson report and requests that we send assistance?
Yes. The Confederation will more than likely send help of its own. I can only assume that the Consensus is hedging its bets.
That sounds in character for Edenists, Ione agreed. Now, the mystery message.
This message, too, was shared with Tranquillity, which was just as well, for it allowed Ione to gloat. You see? Just when we decided that we needed a Slayer, we get a message from not one, but two Slayers!
It is interesting to note that the two-Slayer arrangement has survived until this day, Tranquillity noted. More to the point, how did they gain access to the information from Alexander's debrief nanonics?
Well, the message does mention that one of their group is a police officer.
That's true. Did you notice the name they gave themselves?
Yes, they called themselves Slayerettes. Isn't that what Xander called the group that he was a part of that helped Elizabeth Summers?
Yes. And it is more than likely that the current-day Slayerettes are an ideological extension of the original group. If the Council of Watchers can survive for millennia, it stands to reason that other groups can imitate their longevity. Tranquillity paused for a moment, as it knew that the next subject was likely to be delicate. Regarding Alexander, do you wish to inform him of these developments?
No. Ione's tone was flat, brooking no argument, but Tranquillity argued anyway.
May I enquire as to why? If it is to 'protect' him, may I point out that his compatriots' negative attitude towards him stemmed from a desire to 'protect' him?
It's not that, Ione replied. In five years of fighting vampires - a time span longer than that of most Slayers, I might add - he's had only one real vacation from it, and even then he couldn't completely get away from it. I just think he's due for a break. That and the fact that he hasn't yet fully adjusted himself to life in this century. I'm taking him to Norfolk tomorrow to meet Joshua, and to begin the process of adjusting to where and when he is.
Very well. But you do know that he will be less than happy when he does find out that you kept this from him.
I know. Hopefully I'll be able to explain it to him. And besides, given the amount of resources that will be concentrated on the Sunnydale Dome before too long, it won't be as if one person will be able to make a decisive difference now, will it?