Extraction [06] Interlude - Alesa deVorcelk


- - People always underestimate wealth as a form of power. Power
- - that derives from the barrel of a gun, the closed fist, or poisoned
- - pen, or the pulpit, all are considered stronger than merely being
- - wealthy. Violence has the potential to claim wealth, while wealth
- - alone is not enough to incite a revolution.

- - These people believe that wealth is money.

- - They are also idiots.

- - And that is why, no matter how much they struggle, they fail to
- - achieve wealth and strain in futility to achieve their goals unless
- - helped by others with more fiscal acumen.

- - Wealth is not money. Money is an exchange unit. Wealth is access
- - to resources.


I was born to be great. This I do not say out of arrogance, nor to demean others' achievements, but because it is a fact. My parents had spared no expense in tweaking my unborn form for the optimal advantages. I was one of those children called "Perfect."

And nothing was spared to make sure my skills and my knowledge matched up to my genes.

It was not a bitter childhood, though. I went to an elite private school because "it is essential for a lady to learn how to socialize", I learned quickly how to speak eleven languages by the time I was nine years from vacationing in the nations having those native languages. My accent had to be perfect. Science and mathematics – I was never bored with them. Great teachers tended to me.

I knew fifty ways to kill a man by the time I was ten. But I was not raised to be an assassin who could blend into any scene. A lady just has to be prudent and able to protect herself, after all. It gives confidence, like nothing else, to know you have the ability to end lives with your bare hands.

By fifteen I knew how that felt. My mother insisted on it.

Perhaps it should be made clear at this point that my mother was

- a) Trying to live vicariously through her daughter

- b) A functional lunatic.

She loved me, and treasured me, and let me know that everything she did was to protect me. Whatever trauma she experienced in her life, she was determined that a piece of her would rise above all that. "Alice… the world is a cruel and ugly place. There are Red Queens who would cut off your head, chop chop, like that. But if people say no, if everybody says no, what power does she really have? What makes her special?"

I sat in my mother's lap, while she rested her chin on my head. An open storybook lay open in front of us. I remember it was a mild sunny day, we were reading in a gazebo.

"What is Wonderland's theme, Alicia?"

"Wonderland was designed to evoke a chess game, mother."

"What was Alice, in the end?"

"Alice was a pawn. But when she reached the end… she was promoted to a Queen?"

I heard the approaching whine of a VTOL craft. The wind whipped at our faces, the storybook flew away as if given wings, and from the black assault craft armed in balaclavas and battle armor approached our gazebo. Their rifles were pointed towards the ground, but they were ready to shoot.

"Lady Oppenheimer. You are under arrest."

My mother carefully picked me up and put me aside. "Don't worry, my precious. I'll be back in while." I wanted to cling to her, and cry. I was frightened by all these strange men. But it would not be proper.

She returned after a week, seemingly none the worse for wear. Her smile was just a little bit more false, her energy just a little bit more sapped than before.

The next time a VTOL arrived, they were there for me. My mother's own handpicked squad, there to teach me how power also pooled in the underside of society. Whatever the situation, I must rise beyond my circumstances.


- - Wealth is the interaction between individuals and the system that
- - allows them to gain what they want. A person that is physically
- - powerful can be wealthy, because his first resource is his body. A
- - person that is mentally gifted can be wealthy, because his first
- - resource is his mind. A person who is a loyal friend can be wealthy,
- - because being trustworthy is his first resource. A person who is
- - wealthy with only money is not
wealthy in ability, if he does not
- - know how to preserve and expand his reach of influence.


My father did not know what to do with me at all. I was too mature too early to pamper as his adorable daughter, but at the same time I was too well-behaved to worry about. My mother's control over my life was absolute, she was the goose that laid the golden egg for his business.

I had a younger brother, who would inherit most of the business. Yet, it was obvious he resented my existence. While he would be wealthy and powerful, he just had to wait for it to fall into his hands, I could go anywhere and with my abilities – fit in and do anything. He was no spoiled brat, and if anything what he resented the most was that while I was 'playing around' his time was spent on more important things like learning how to manage the business.

I left that house as soon as I could.


- - Power is the capacity to enact change into the world in the manner in
- - which you desire.

- - Wealth is also a form of power. It is, in fact, the surest form of
- - power – because if you cannot achieve that change on your own, you
- - can find others with the qualities you lack, and give them what they
- - want in order to create that change. And if you cannot buy, you must
- - make. It is the exchange that powers the engine of progress.

- - Thus, a rich man is one who is rich in experiences, and rich in ambition,
- - and rich in ability. A rich man is not alone, but is surrounded by others
- - great as he. He is the glue which holds together disparate talents into
- - a greater whole.

- - There are no boundaries to wealth. Is a genius diminished because of
- - wealth? Do muscles shrivel the moment you earn your first million?
- - Does a mother suddenly love her newborn child any less just because
- - there's stocks in the portfolio? Do not dehumanize those who have
- - wealth, all have the right to seek happiness and fulfillment no matter
- - what their circumstances.


Nwabudike Morgan. I was drawn like a moth to his flame. The "Ethics of Greed" was required reading at my college in almost all courses. He was a genius in his own way, and it was as everything he touched turned to gold. He was brilliant, witty, with a way to make you feel like the closest of friends mere seconds after meeting him.

I was on his security detail.

"You have three different Doctorates, Alicia." he said to me. "One in Philosophy, one of Medicine, and another in History. Why do you choose instead to risk yourself by getting in the way of a bullet?"

"You know my background, sir. Opportunities for those of my genetic profile are… limited."

"That sounds like an excuse." he replied with some disappointment.

"The Unity is far too important to all humanity to fail, and you are far too important to lose before we launch. Making sure you survive… is a much more productive use of my time than engaging in wealth-building activities."

I was posing as one of his perennial secretaries. And I'll have you know, I was a very good secretary too. It was surprising how much useful intelligence one could gather when trying to work out scheduling conflicts. A little flirting and flattery hurt no one.

The rumors of being just another one of his trophies was completely unsubstantiated, and a fine cover. I did many… unsightly things… for CEO Morgan, everything except go between his legs. All the rumors about his proclivities was just that, rumors. Never had I seen such a wonderful marriage, the deep faith and affection that Morgan and his wife had for each other. He was wealthy in all the ways that mattered.

"Hmm. Is that your limit, then? Do you dislike being wealthy that much?"

"Wealth on this planet is worthless. What is my value here? I want to discover my value out there. Here, my genes define me. There, the acquisition of wealth may truly become a creative process. You said it: Wealth is potential realized." I smiled. "So why not look after you, sir? Why not protect my investment?"

"And if your life is cut short in the carrying out of your duties?"

"I like my job. No one can make me enjoy anything else that I 'should' be doing."

I was there, standing outside the room, as Morgan stayed with his wife in her final moments. Radiation sickness. There was only one he needed by his side, but not even all his wealth and power could save her. Great men and women, I realized, are great because of how they struggle against their imperfections. Greatness is a power of the mind and of the heart, not of the blood.

After that, there was only the Unity. Humanity's last and best hope for something good out of this benighted planet. Morgan was determined to be a part of it, and yet… it was crushing to learn that he was denied passage. How could they think he was not vital to humankind's new destiny? I wondered if it was last jealous insult thrown in by those who much less accomplished in their own dimming lives.

I was given a ticket. Due to my inherent longevity, I was one of the crew that would be periodically awakened to perform maintenance through the 40-year journey. I was embedded into the general staff under Pravin Lal's command.


- - Wealth is the transformation of capital investiture, be it manpower, or
- - ideas, or material goods, into a form that is much more consumable. To be
- - truly rich is to astride the world as a colossus, not to trample it beneath
- - your feet, but to walk towards the sun. There are many who foolishly
- - believe they are the epitome of wealth, but lacking vision they are simply
- - as parasites as those who refuse to work. The truly rich man moves the
- - world, and becomes ever-more-wealthy in his dealings; ever-more with
- - access to resources, allies, and tools. To be truly rich is to challenge
- - society towards progress.

- - The market is not just a place where goods are traded, after all. It is a
- - place where we prove that human beings have the right to rule the world.
- - The creation of wealth is what sets us apart from mere animals. Our brains,
- - our thumbs, these are but biological advantages. It is the capacity to create
- - from raw materials and assign value that brings us to greatness.

- - It is the capacity to solve problems that defines us. To value each other, to
- - trade our unique skills, with this we all grow stronger. Our economic systems
- - evolve through competition, and to stifle this is to deny the true nature of
- - mankind.


I only returned home once, when I learned that my brother was stonewalling resources needed for the Unity's construction. I had to remind him of his… obligations. As I feared, he was doing it simply because I was affiliated to the project.

Sadly, I had to crush his illusions about power. Wealth alone was a poor shield. Morgan knew that wealth was primarily a tool to acquire other tools, for protection and for reprisal. I never had to use violence in that house.

My mother's eyesight was clouded over back then. She still looked youthful, but I could tell her every movement was already strained. She was having difficulty breathing without an artificial lung. All she asked from me was "You're going on that ship, aren't you, Alice?"

"Yes, mother."

"Good. Good… Find your Wonderland, Alice. Topple the Red Queen where you meet her."


- - Wealth is the language that all human beings can speak, because wealth is
- - the language that answers a need.

- - You know the old saying; give a man a fish, and you will feed him for a day.
- - Teach a man to fish, and you will feed him for the rest of his life.

- - The pursuit of power is competition, and far too many believe that it is a
- - zero-sum game. Those who deny wealth believe that by spreading it around,
- - the destruction of wealth can be minimized. They rob the future to pay the
- - present, and why destroy wealth – resources, talents, ideas! – than employ it?
- - A closed system is not stable, but even more prone to entropic decay. It is the
- - failure of imagination, it is the failure of willpower, and it is the failure of weak
- - men who cannot tolerate that others may become greater than they when given
- - the chance. They seek power in its most naked, and least useful form.

- - Wealth is the key opens up the world! When you do not have wealth, your
- - options are limited. When you only focus on one type of resource or ability, you
- - can only see goals in the context of your limited means. When you settle for
- - little, you have little. And with that little, you can do little, when others want to
- - take it away.


I was thirty-one when the Unity was launched, and still looked barely out of my teens. Once on the ship, it was a trivial measure to change my name, the name I would earn in that new world. "Why this…?" I was asked by the information specialist on my team. "Why something that sounds like 'divorcelle'?"

"I think it's supposed to be pronounced 'devours elk'" his partner put in.

"Dee- vor- shelk" I replied. "And it means precisely what I want it to."

An emergency from a meteorite strike forced the automatic activation of the command crew. It wiped out two whole cryobay sections and damaged the engines. Unless repaired, the Unity would overshoot Alpha Centauri and die in the cold emptiness of interstellar space.

Yet it was not just them that were roused from coldsleep. A hidden self-executing agent also woke up fifty more cryopods and their leader.

Santiago.

Santiago promptly tried to demand a whole Landing Pod – food, supplies, and tools for a thousand people – just for her and her band of fifty insurgents.

I hate Santiago so very much.

Fighting in the confines of the Unity, with shredder guns that could barely penetrate anything or else we might break something important behind the walls, debilitating psych-whips that were useless when we were the ones closely packed - it was hell. In the dim red lights, it was knife work, and it was hard to tell the level of wounds being taken. The only way to be sure was to go in for the kill, every time, and mutineers that Santiago had gathered around her had far less hesitation compared to the engineers that rallied in support of Captain Garland.

I barely survived our encounter. Fist to knife, and she had me beat. The only reason I didn't end up with my throat slit was that the psych-whips could put me down just as effectively in less time, while the Spartans were engaged on a fighting retreat towards the cryopods. What burned me most of all was that she recognized me.

"Morgan's little play soldier…" she sneered as I screamed in pain until I knew nothing more.

I woke up to learn that Morgan was out of his secret cryopod, hidden in the ship through when the Russian government collapsed and Morgan Industries took over that phase of construction. As I expected, he easily slid into place among the command staff without being officially part of the crew. He was a reasonable man amongst reasonable people, and you would be surprised how many groups are naturally driven to act in a way to make that flattering assertion true.

I laughed to learn that Santiago was captured by Deirde's botanical engineers. Command cut off the air to the hydroponics section, making Santiago believe that they would rather consider the hostages lost than allow her to imperil the ship's repairs any further. Zakharov pulsed the reactor, and in that moment of inattention and changed frame of reference, Santiago was thrown across the Greenhouse and knocked unconscious. No one ever expected the little band of gardeners to fight back.

When the command module blew up from another mysterious saboteur's sonic hammer, so went the hope of keeping the Unity Mission together. Incidentally, the ones we now call the faction leaders were in a meeting, discussing the expediency of separating into different Landing Ponds and set off into the planet independently and immediately. That is why they survived, while the rest of the command crew did not.

Lal considered it tantamount to mutiny, but he was the only one that objected. The Unity was beyond anyone's ability to fix. The engines were wrecked, the ship would soon splinter and burn in the atmosphere. This is why all the cryobays had to be forced open, and dazed people hurriedly funneled into the Landing Pods. There was little time to separate between bays and potential colonists by ideology, it would have to rest upon a number of those like-minded pre-selected ahead of time.

Who killed Captain Garland? No one knew. His last message was to his friend, Pravin Lal, and his last act to release the locks that kept the Landing Pods secured to the Unity.

Explosively our Landing Pod disengaged, and I experienced a feeling of relief overpowering to the point of psychotropic bliss. At that moment, our destinies separated from Earth. Our mother and home. This new Planet would be whatever we wished it to become.


- - Greed has become a pejorative – but since when has it been a sin to try and
- - protect yourself and those you care for? They call it selfishness, when they
- - seek to make the multitude hungry just to feed the few.

- - The truly wealthy man wants others to be wealthy too. The market benefits from
- - a wider customer base! The miser that does not loose his pockets is wrapped in
- - poverty. The wealthy who do nothing but waste their potential in frivolous
- - pleasures, seeking to deny it from others, are prisoners in their own flesh.

- - And I say to you, who wonders: How can I be rich, when I am not born to wealthy
- - parents? That you are your own treasure. The world is full of opportunities. You
- - only need to open your eyes and identify the needs that drive those around you.

- - Must you live in humility for petty praise? Must you stay in one place? The self-
- - made wealthy become so because they do not spend anything in frivolity. Nor do
- - they waste their resources lying idle for someone else's consumption. Look at your
- - days and hours, ticking away never to be regained. How much of it do you waste on
- - things that will not return your original expenditure of energy? How much do you
- - spend just idling around, unwilling to risk your pride? Why would you labor only for
- - someone else to reap the rewards?

- - Be greedy for victory. Be greedy for improvement. Do not be trapped by your doubts.
- - Never stop moving. Never stop hoping. Never stop trying to make your vision come
- - true. Let every minute of your day be valuable.

- - All things derive from one small decision each time you pause, and one step every
- - time towards the realization of your desire; to be better off in all ways tomorrow than
- - you were yesterday.


Twenty-six years since Planetfall.

I was there when something great, and terrible, and truly alien arrived upon Planet.


Morgan Bank Fourth Branch
142 Bluemoon Plaza, First Level
Morgan Transport

- - "… you can see my submarines out there, right? Forget the torpedoes for a moment.
- - They have communication systems. And what they can do is receive everything
- - I'm recording right now."

A brash, if babbling voice resonated through the dim meeting room. On the overhead projector, we saw the insides of a ship's bridge – one made of bare, faintly greenish metal. Morgan Security Force in full battle armor were pointing guns at unarmed Gaian sailors, and their sergeant had just pistol-whipped someone who owned the largest waterborne craft that Planet had ever seen.

That should have been enough clue not to go in trying to close the event before it could embarrass the Morgans.

"Wir sind in arsch…!" I groaned as I lay my face upon the table. This level of idiocy was painful. They proved why so many equated greed to sheer idiocy, instead of as a perfectly valid motivation for self-improvement. "There is no way to cover this up."

Beside me my partner, Joachim Hasbruck, stared with dry sleepy little eyes at screen. He had the straight-backed lethargy of a man who could kill six people before breakfast and still balance the books by the afternoon. He still looked the very picture of the fat, useless banker. A sumo wrestler or a bear were both rounded forms that were nearly all muscle.

He pulled out the photographs from a file folder and laid them onto the table. But it was his keen analytic mind that made him so valuable for my team.

He said: "On a more positive note, only police brutality is the charge that the Gaians may raise against us. There remains no proof that there was a security leak to warn the Spartans about approaching Gaian colonists."

I laughed. "I pity the Governor trying to convince anyone of that. This is a time when any proof at all would be counter-productive to everyone involved."

"Politics is a dirty business. Ours is logistics." There was a shot of the cargo ship named Matilda as approached the port, only for all to realize it was too big to service. He tapped the photo. "And this – this is much more dangerous than the incompetence of the MSF."

"Correct, Little Jim." I pushed off the table and calmed myself. In privacy with Joachim, I could exercise a little loss of propriety. In all my years living (not counting the 40 years spent in coldsleep) I had seen my share of epic stupidity. None of them was to the level of 'Let's alienate a potential trade partner and poke a possibly nuclear-armed new faction with a pistol-whipping'.

I pointed to the map of the area, at the place where the Gulf of Phylira opened out to the Sea of Nessus. My manicured nails stabbed into the paper. "It is too… random? Someone named Nemo appearing out of nowhere to save the Gaians. Exactly after the deed is done for a valid casus belli. It is far too convenient. There is no proof either, but a heavy implication that there is a Spartan or Morgan information leak."

"Do the Gaians even have anything approaching an intelligence service?" Joachim huffed.

I clacked my tongue in response. "Or have we been severely underestimating them all this time? Who is the primary actor in this farce? Three roles – Santiago, Deirde, Morgan, now it is as if member of the audience stepped up as a fourth onstage to turn it avant-garde."

Large cargo ships implied the need to transport massive amounts of goods, resources, or units. Submarines implied nasty things about a complete industrial base, but it remained that the only reason to have a dedicated transport ship is to bring things from one base to another.

Much of the Planet remained unexplored.

Perhaps, instead of Nemo, he should have named himself Prester John.

"This man essentially is holding our entire society hostage. We cannot afford to eliminate him, because we do not know who he represents. Nor can we pursue any more gains from the Gaians, because we do not know how deeply they have allied themselves with such a force." I said while one by one laying out the other photographs.

Like a crime scene profiler, there was a mystery here, which we sought to solve by getting into the mind of the suspect.

Morgan Bank did the usual things banks were meant to do – take deposits, release loans, process statements of ownership, and facilitate sales. The main difference was that ours was still a survival economy. We had to establish an industrial base and an economy out of whole cloth, and much of the 'lending' that Morgan Central Bank did was to transport filled fuel cells, workers, and prefab structures.

CEO Morgan surely did not have a secret police or secret service. That was for more… autocratic governments.

However, when Colony Governors treat their cities as their own fiefdoms, the great invisible hand of the free market sends its agents. Sometimes to help, sometimes to slap some sense back into those who forget the Ethics of Greed.

Morgan Bank merely solved problems. Facilitators employed by Morgan Bank had a keen discernment for people's needs and wants, and were dedicated to providing them with the means to achieve their goals. Customers then owed us either a generous schedule of loan payments… or someday, which may never come, we might ask from them a small favor.

Joachim scowled. Behind his eyes, he was starting to build up the picture. "This 'Commander Nemo' asked for representatives from Morgan Central Bank. Specifically, from Morgan Bank, not the government."

"What does he know…?" I murmured. "Nemo" seemed to be a young man with a pleasant yet homogenous face non-indicative of any ancestry. Black wavy hair, strangely sad and watery eyes… like a puppy. Or a psychopath.

Up on the projector, another clip of Nemo's activities showed.

- - "Gentlemen, I would just like you to know –" He spread his arms wider and
- - bared a feral grin. "that I… am still recording!"

In a tone devoid of all emotion, Joachim said "A secret base. Attack submarines. Letting himself get beaten up to prove a point. Holy. Shit. This mutterficker is a supervillain."


Penthouse Suite
Morgan-Ritz-Carlton
008 Bond Park, Third Level
Morgan Transport

The two Gaian guards were sailors, men toughened and blasé with death from their constant struggle against Planet and its inimical native life. They were exactly the wrong sort of person to have defending against assassins.

Joachim nervously twiddled his fingers, a gesture that meant 'It's a TRAAAAAP.'

I raised my hand up to flip back my hair. 'Standard Charm and Compromise Ploy Number Seven. Just chill, Little Jim.'

He signed back 'Be careful, Big Alice.'

A mousy little Gaian greeted us. Her eyes were narrowed in a completely ineffectual glare. How cute. I restrained myself from patting her little helmet of a hairstyle, for I had learned my lesson about doing that to skittish Gaians. It would either end in tears and people looking at me as if I had done something much worse, or a savage gnawing.

I bowed slightly and introduced ourselves.

"Morgan Bank representatives Alesa deVorcelk." Dee-vor-selk; the girl had excellent auditory recall. "and Joachim Hasbruck here to see you, Commander!" she shouted into the room, without facing away from us. Prudent.

She stepped back and allowed us to enter the room. Always just a few steps ahead, so that if ever we made any sudden motions she could throw her own body into the way. I glanced aside to Joachim, and by his far too bland expression he understood.

We should forget any and all preconceptions against Gaians. We could no longer afford the ego boost of underestimating them. For all we knew, Deirde was now someone's puppet figurehead. Or the opposite; she picked up an attack dog from somewhere.

Nemo stood in a solid parade rest, facing away from us, and looking out at the cityscape through the closed plate glass windows of the veranda. That was… foolish? He was a perfect sniping target.

Then I remembered, who would dare? If he were wounded now, what would hold back the submarines – and whatever else he may have in store – from retaliating? Would it not be the height of irony that after a false flag operation to advance our interests, banking on the Spartans to do something foolish, the Morgans would then face subjugation from another false flag operation?

I took a deep breath and placed my most sultry, disarming smile. My fashion for this meeting was that of an intelligent and sexually liberated woman. Let us see how he reacts to that. The only thing more cliche than this strategy was how so very effective it is in most cases. I was looking forward to a very… interesting… conversation.

He turned around, and I could see a similar pleasant yet utterly false expression on his face. "Good day to yo-" and promptly, his façade cracked. That was recognition, and not a little amount of fear on his eyes.

And he breathed out "… hellooo, Alice."

My smile and apparent delight at meeting him only heightened. Never show surprise, I internalized early on. Always respond to the unexpected by doubling down on your current persona.

Internally, I was screaming "Scheißhaaaauss!"

####


MEMSTOR from DATALINKS keyword "Industrial Base"

- n received

The first colonies lacked any kind of factories or heavy industry, so the creation of an Industrial Base became a high priority for any economic growth. This Industrial Base emphasized small-scale manufacturing with some primitive assembly lines and simple currency instruments. Improvements in mining, refinery, and storage systems also allowed the creation of rechargeable power cells that would soon be used in Industrial Economics to coordinate industrial activity across the colonies.

MEMSTOR keyword "Earth"

- n retrieved

Synonym: ground, planet, soil, arable land

MEMSTOR keyword "Earth humanity"

- n retrieval error

No such entry exists. Would you like to create one?


AN: Santiago's characterization here is, sadly, canon. Demanding her own pod is in the official web story "Journey to Centauri". However, in this instance it is also a statement from an unreliable narrator. I'm messing with canon wherever it may prove more interesting. Alpha Centauri, bereft of supplemental material, is all about an emergent story rooted in gameplay.

I also apologize for the bad German. However, neither Alesa nor Joachim are actually culturally German - the use of these words is like Firefly using Chinese for profanity.