Author's Note: Holy crap, 35 reviews last chapter! You guys are awesome.
Preparation
Celestial Maiden, Luna. March 12, 2157 AD
Roma could only stare in shock at the man in front of her. He just sat there grinning at her. "It's OK toots, take your time. I realize it's a lot to process."
The man was Albert Mucha and Roma couldn't stand him. The two of them almost never agreed on anything and she hated that he was constantly called her names. While Thurgood gave her various nicknames there was never any malicious intent behind it, Roma always knew it was done affectionately. Bert did it purely to belittle her. Bert probably never would have been hired in the first place if he hadn't have gotten along so well with Jeff, which wasn't really a surprise in retrospect. While Roma was sure Jeff had never really been a 'popular' kind of guy she knew that when he was younger he didn't have this absolute hatred for people that he did now. Years of dealing with aggressive reporters, self-righteous politicians, and ignorant naysayers had just eroded whatever patience he had until Jeff was at the point of simply not caring what most people thought of him. Jeff only cared about ensuring the Collective would live on after his death so that they could carry on his legacy. Though it was unclear on what, exactly, his legacy was. Neural-transceivers? Space travel? Nanites? Just his name? The Collective has a whole? Roma wasn't entirely sure. What she did know was that Bert had made it a point during the hiring interviews to talk about how much good the Collective was doing and how much more good it could do if they were in charge instead of the 'idiots running the Alliance.' That had been all it took for Jeff to insist Bert be hired, the drones had acquiesced without an argument.
Part of the problem was the drones themselves. Yes, they did a lot of good. Yes, things might even be better if the Collective was in charge of humanity instead of the Alliance. But they weren't perfect, years of living with the drones had dispelled some of the wide-eyed optimism Roma had had when she first started working for the Collective. Roma knew from talking with drones that ever since he started working for the Collective, Jeff spent more time with drones than he did with non-drones, especially so after his semi-retirement. He was used to the drones doing what he wanted, when he wanted. He was used to getting praise from them. Nowadays, his only exposure to non-drones was when Bert, Roma, Thurgood, or one of the other PR agents talked to him. Jeff didn't go out and meet people, he didn't have to, the drones took care of him. Thurgood was actually in a similar situation. Despite being over a century old Thurgood still acted like a twenty-something college dropout. He didn't take anything seriously, he was constantly getting high on various drugs, he didn't know how to take care of himself. If Thurgood ever got fired he would be dead in a week because he wasn't really an adult, he never had to grow up. The drones coddled him, just like they coddled Jeff, because that was all that needed to be done to get them to do their jobs. Rather than slowly becoming capable of functioning in normal society Thurgood and Jeff had had their eccentricities become more pronounced because it was what enabled them to do their jobs so well. They had never made any attempts to improve themselves because they had never been pushed to do so.
Roma couldn't look down at Thurgood and Jeff too much though. She was well aware that she was not above the drones' influence. After all, she had long ago been injected with cosmetic nanites. The nanites regulated her metabolism and weight, prevented sagging and wrinkles, cleaned out her pores, and kept her hair healthy. Roma turned one hundred this year but she looked like she was in her early thirties. Roma knew that if she ever quit working for the Collective (not that she would, she liked it here) they would stop giving her free upkeep on the nanites and that she would have to pay the exorbitant rates they charged for modelesque looks. That was just the physical aspects, who knew how they were affecting her personality. Robert was the most obvious example. He may be a Deva but he was still her son and she loved him and knew she wouldn't be allowed to see him if she quit.
Still, while Jeff hated the majority of humanity he wasn't as bad as Bert. Jeff hated people because he thought they were too stupid to know what was good for them and that the Collective could guide them into the proper future. Bert just wanted the Collective to rule over everyone because it had an impressive military. He wanted power and control purely for its own sake, not as a means to an end. Bert thought giving people as much freedom as they had on the planets the Collective controlled was stupid and that since drones were already monitoring almost everyone, why not go a step further and just assimilate them? Roma was never more thankful for Thurgood than during arguments such as those. Given time, Bert could argue a point to convince Jeff of almost anything and if Jeff thought it was a good idea then the drones thought it was a good idea but Thurgood would almost always (usually unintentionally) point out flaws in Bert's logic and Jeff would refuse whatever Bert was trying to convince him of.
It was actually interesting seeing how between just four people, opinions on the Collective could be so different. Roma could remember before she started working for the them, she didn't understand why people hated drones, why they couldn't see how much good the Collective was doing. But now she understood it. Even though all drones were the same, they were different things to different people. Thurgood saw the Collective as a parent that would take care of him so long as he didn't screw up. Jeff viewed the Collective the way a parent in a retirement home views their child, a means to carry on the family name/business/genes/whatever-it-was-Jeff-cared-about and as someone that would take care of him as he needed more and more help. To Bert, the Collective was weapon, plain and simple. Roma saw the Collective as a force. Like fire, it was dangerous servant, a fearful master, a useful tool, and a wondrous discovery. To get mad at the Collective because they assimilated someone would be like getting mad at the ocean because someone drowned in it, it is simply a hazard of being around something that you will never fully understand or control. Roma's train of thought was derailed when she realized Bert was staring at her chest.
"You aren't much of a gentleman, you know that?"
"I say, verily, thou art an astute witness to the manifest veracity," Bert said smugly.
"And you're an ass."
"See my previous statement," Bert's smirk quickly faded off his face and he sighed. "Alright look, as fun as it is staring at your sweater puppies we do kinda need to get on this. According to the few drones active on Shanxi, the planet is going to come under alien invasion very soon. The Borg aren't exactly popular there so I doubt they will accept our help until the planet is a glass parking lot so what, exactly, are we going to do about the all the stuff we're storing there?"
Roma rubbed her forehead in thought. "Honestly, I'm not sure why the drones are even asking our opinion at all. This sounds like a logistical matter, not a PR one."
"Are you serious?" Bert asked, his voice laced with contempt. "How long have you been at this job? You know what, nevermind. The reason they are asking is because how do you think it will look if a Borg ship arrives in orbit around Shanxi, picks up some supplies, and then leaves during the middle of an alien attack? While we may be good at manipulating the worthless plebs of Earth into believing the Collective is the resulting love child of a drunken tryst between Isaac Newton and Mahatma Gandhi, no one could explain away something like that."
"Alright alright, I see your point," Roma conceded. "What's Thurgood's opinion on all this?"
"Ah, that would be the other thing I need to tell you but didn't get around to it because you were dumbstruck by the news of actual aliens." Roma gave Bert the evil eye but he continued on as if he didn't notice. "Thurgood took a week off to go visit a relative who is celebrating his 50th birthday. That relative is System Alliance General John Williams, care to take a guess what planet the general is stationed on?
"Roma could only stare at Bert. "No. . .no, there is no way we could be that unlucky."
"Oh, there is a way because Thurgood is currently on Shanxi."
Roma put her head in her hands and stared at the floor. "Alright, what about the other PR reps? Jorge? Luke? Or the Boyer twins, everyone loves them, they have to have ideas."
"Between the uproar over that auto-polo guy dying and the Collective's decision to move its biggest phaser production plant to Chiron, Jorge has too much work to do. Luke is-you know what, it doesn't matter. I'm not going to explain why everyone else is busy. Just because humanity has discovered hostile aliens doesn't mean society is going to grind to a halt. That means we all have jobs to do and at the moment, you and I are the only ones free to think up solutions to this problem so start thinking."
"Well I'm sorry, this isn't exactly something that was ever covered in any of the training seminars or college course I took! Not to mention that I just found out one of my closest friends is stuck on the same planet that is going to become a warzone so excuse me if I need a few minutes to collect myself. We can't all be emotionally barren, chest-pounding, power-hungry, nerfherders!" Roma shouted as she stood up to glare at Bert.
Bert remained in his chair and just raised an eyebrow. "Nerfherder? Only people I hear using that insult live on Miranda, when did you go there long enough to pick up some of their slang?"
"That's none of your damn business. Now excuse me, I don't feel like talking to you anymore," Roma huffed as she walked off.
As soon as she left the room Roma felt embarrassed for letting Bert get the better of her like that. She knew he liked pushing her buttons just as much as he knew she hated it. Still, Roma had, more or less, a grip on the situation until she had heard about Thurgood. She was worried for him, while she knew the drones with him would do everything they could do protect him (which was quite a lot) drones were not invincible, they could be killed, which would leave Thurgood at the mercy of a bunch of Borg-hating civilians, overworked soldiers, and evil aliens.
Roma took several deep, calming breaths as she walked through the halls. Once she calmed down she would have to go back and talk to Bert, they really did need to figure out what to do. While the Alliance government officials and high ranking military officers had been notified of first contact, most people weren't even aware anything was going on. Soldiers were told they were mobilizing for 'training exercises' and the media blackout at Shanxi was being blamed on space debris damaging the transmitters around one of the phase gates. Those stories would only last so long, eventually the truth would get out and hopefully it would not cause a full-blown panic. Actually, if managed correctly, rather than cause panic an alien attack could be a major unifier for humanity. After Robert's birth there had been a lot of rioting and terrorist attacks, typical anti-Borg sentiments really. However, those actions were the dying gasps of a movement on its last legs. There had not been any major anti-Borg actions taken since then. While the Collective certainly wasn't the darling beloved of most people, it wasn't viewed as an evil entity out to take over the world either. It was just another company, a really big company, but still just a company. That being said, while many people were apathetic towards the Collective, there were still certain groups that did not like drones. The most obvious group was government officials. There were exceptions (the Collective had had good relations with Japan for decades now) but for the most part, people of high rank in governments, whether it was civilian or military, totalitarian regime or elected through democracy, government officials did not trust the Collective (didn't stop them from buying the Collective's products and services though). Roma understood this and accepted it. The Collective straddled the line between company that could enrich your nation and a foreign power that you needed to keep an eye on. But if the Collective showed that it was willing to help and work with governments, not because it saw an advantage to take but because it wanted to help with mutual defense, that might be enough to gain some trust. Or failing that, it was an excuse to flex some muscles and show that it was better to be an ally than an antagonist. Either way it was win, though that still left the problem of how to rescue Thurgood as well as retrieve all the items placed on Shanxi for storage.
Systems Alliance Base Baikal, Shanxi. March 12, 2157 AD
"Come on John, your birthday is tomorrow dude. You need to loosen up a little," Thurgood said as he looked at General John Williams, the man in charge of the defense of Shanxi.
General Williams was normally a patient man, he rarely raised his voice when dealing with people especially with family. Granted, Williams wasn't even sure how he was related to Thurgood, grandson of a stepsister from previous marriage or something. It was weird, being around a man old enough to be his grandfather and yet Williams was the more mature of the two. He might have had a better idea of how to deal with Thurgood if they had spent more time together but the man tended to only show up for birthdays, weddings, and funerals so there was usually another family member to pass him off to whenever he got to be too much to handle. Still, family was family and you had to love them regardless of how much they annoyed you. And right now Thurgood was really annoying him. Williams barely slept since the reports first came in about the aliens. First the expedition to activate a nearby phase gate had been attacked, only one ship managed to make it back. Williams had ordered the fleet stationed around Shanxi to go defeat the aggressors, which they were successful in doing. Unfortunately, apparently the Shanxi fleet had only destroyed a scouting flotilla because a much larger alien fleet showed up and destroyed every last ship Williams had sent out. A comms officer on the SSV Gallipoli had managed to send back a message warning that the aliens were going to win and that Shanxi needed to prepare for an attack, so they had at least been given a little warning. Thank God for small miracles like that. It was a little over four hours ago that Williams had been given the warning from the Gallipoli which was enough time to mobilize all the troops under his command but not enough to evacuate all the civilians. Hell, Williams wasn't even sure where he would evacuate them to. There certainly weren't enough ships to get them off planet and it wasn't like there were a bunch of fortifications people could take refuge in. His initial thought had been to have the entire population scatter and hide in the wilderness but that idea had way too many problems with it. He didn't know how long this was going to last, didn't know if the aliens were better equipped for wilderness or urban warfare (what if they were a race of giant bear people?), didn't know how many of the civilians were capable of surviving in the wilderness, and he didn't have any guarantee that they would listen to the order to abandon their homes. While not hated, the Alliance was viewed as a necessary evil by most people on Shanxi and in a situation like this Williams was not sure if the people would listen to him so he had decided to play it safe for now and tell everyone to bunker up in their homes.
At the moment, Williams wanted nothing more than to curl up in a corner somewhere and sleep for a week. He knew that wasn't an option though so Williams was taking this opportunity to have (what would probably be his last until this was all over) a nice, sit-down meal. Everything that he could have done to prepare had been done so now it was just a matter of waiting for the aliens to show up. OK, there was still some last minutes packing and moving of equipment but nothing a general could help with. Williams was reminded of the the military maxim 'hurry up and wait' which seemed quite apropos for the current situation. He glanced up from his meal to look at Thurgood who was staring at him.
"Thurgood, I can't just 'loosen up' when we have an alien invasion set to occur any minute now. This is on my shoulders until reinforcements show up, I have an entire planet of people to look after, many of whom don't even like me so probably won't listen to any order I give."
"Well yea, but you can't really blame those people, they lack good judgement on military type matters. Good judgement comes from experience, and experience only comes from bad judgement. Trust me on this one, I know a lot about bad judgment, bit of an expert in the field really. If you're ever on a game show and they ask you about bad decisions," Thurgood gestured at himself, "I'm definitely your man. Call me up and I guarantee I'll win you some money."
"That's uh, good to know," Williams answered. The weird thing about talking to Thurgood was that he could be really insightful and yet simultaneously be utterly nonsensical. While Williams really just wanted to be left alone to eat his meal he had to admit Thurgood did force him to think about things in different ways, which was good, you didn't want to be stuck in one mindset during a war, failure to improvise in a bad situation could result in death.
"Besides General Johnny, you really shouldn't worry. I know we will win this thing."
"Really? You're that confident?"
"Of course. I mean, anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough."
"That!-" Williams began but then paused as he thought about it, ". . .is depressingly accurate," he finished with a heavy sigh as he stared at his plate of food, suddenly no longer hungry.
"That sounds like a good band name, 'Depressingly Accurate.' They would sing songs about how their parents caught them cross dressing in their girlfriends' clothes and now they can't find love."
"I. . .uh, what?"
"What?" Thurgood asked with genuine puzzlement in his voice. "Did you not find that depressing or did you not think it was accurate?"
"I'm not sure how to answer that question," Williams said as he stood up. "Look Thurgood, I appreciate what you're doing, trying to keep me in a good mood before everything goes to hell, but I really think you should find somewhere safe to stay. We plan on evacuating this building before the invasion starts and it would be better if civilians were gone by then."
"Oh come on Johnny, I'll travel with all of you when you hit the Labyrinth. No sense in me leaving early, I might get lost." The Labyrinth was the nickname given to the tunnels under the eastern half of Jia Siang, the capital city of Shanxi. Several years ago, after a particularly bad rainstorm, several sinkholes opened up which lead people to discover a massive underground network of caves (how a city could be built on unstable ground without a geologist or building inspector or someone saying something was beyond Williams understanding). The metal in the ground made scanning the area near-impossible so it seemed the best place to hide for now. The Shanxi government had already been sent there for protection, Williams would be commanding the planetary defense from there once all the equipment here was packed up. A military base was too obvious a target to stay in, the aliens certainly attack this building when they showed up so it was imperative that they got everything important out before then.
"There are plenty of people there already, plus your drones can show you the way. You aren't going to get lost," Williams said as he picked up his half-eaten plate and walked it over to the trash.
"Alright," Thurgood said as he grabbed his plate and got up to follow Williams. "What if you get lost then? I came all the way to Shanxi for your birthday, do you have any idea how bad I would feel if I didn't get to congratulate you on your special day?"
Williams put his plate in the sink of the kitchenette of his office (though he wasn't sure why he bothered, this place was going to be abandoned soon, it wouldn't matter where he left the plate) and took Thurgood's plate after he had literally licked the last of the food off of it. "You know Thurgood, if you're so hungry that you're licking off the crumbs then you could just go to one of the vending machines down the hall for a snack."
"Oh, I'm not actually hungry, I don't get hungry. Stomach implant, I just plug myself into a power outlet while I sleep and that keeps me going throughout the day. I didn't like it at first but the Borg fixed the weird aftertaste electricity left in my mouth after I complained about it for a solid year."
"Right, well I'll make sure to give your compliments to the chef then."
"Thanks, but don't give too many compliments. I wouldn't want him to get the wrong idea. If he thinks I'm too into him then he'll go all fanboy and squeal and when he finds out I'm not looking for a relationship he'll take to the Internet to write sad stories about how our love was meant to be and that I need to be with him. After I travel off planet he'll follow me and stalk my bodyguard drones before trying to impersonate one using a halloween costume. . .it'll be a mess, so go easy on the compliments."
Williams raised an eyebrow as he looked at Thurgood. "I can't tell if you were speaking from experience or if you were making that up as you went along."
Thurgood laughed as they walked out of Williams' office. The two drones assigned to guard Thurgood that had been waiting in the hall followed the two men as they walked past. "When I'm bored at work I'll google myself. Did you know there's fanfiction of all the PR reps at the Collective? It's flattering in the most disturbing way possible. I did not know what pegging was until I started reading some of them but apparently a lot of people think I would enjoy having it done to me."
"I'm sad to say I do, in fact, know pegging is. Some of the officers stationed here get pretty foul mouthed when they're drunk, I've heard too many stories that should have stayed in a small circle of close friends."
"Oh, but those are the best stories! Like this one time, at a charity event, I was in a wedding dress while Roma was dolled up like Abe Lincoln-"
"You're going to have to explain to me why you were in a dress," Williams interrupted.
"You're a general, you should know why. Tactics, man! I needed her to watch my back. Besides, those gabardine dresses are surprisingly comfy, it's not often I get an excuse to wear one."
"I'm not sure what's more surprising, that you used the word 'gabardine' or that you've worn such a dress more than once. I really just have one question: why?"
"You can't open the book of my life and jump in the middle. Much like nadion particles, fourth-dimensional math, hyperspace, and women, I'm a riddle wrapped in mystery inside of a Twinkie."
"What the hell is a Twinkie?"
"Awesome snack food from when I was younger. I used to get the suckers deep fried at carnivals. Man, I can feel my arteries starting to clog just thinking about it," Thurgood said with a big smile on his face as he started rubbing his belly. "Man, there was some good eating at those carnivals. Besides twinkies there was deep fried Oreos, red velvet funnel cake, big ass boardwalk french fries smothered in Old Bay along with freshly squeezed lemonade. Yummy."
The two men (plus the drones, but they didn't count because well, drones) walked down the hallway in silence. Williams was actually glad Thurgood was distracted by thoughts of food, it gave him a reprieve from the chatterbox. Just as Thurgood seemed about to open his mouth to say something a soldier came running up to the group allowing Williams to focus on him instead of Thurgood. He noticed the man pull back slightly as he came to a stop. After a moment's thought, Williams decided he didn't blame him. The soldier had just approached a frustrated looking General, two drones decked out in full combat cybernetics, and an old man with a stupid grin on his face dressed like a tourist visiting Disney World, they were not a normal looking group of people.
"Uh, General Williams, sir. I'm here to report that all necessary equipment has been loaded, sir. Also, all critical information stored on the remained computers has been wiped. We are ready to move to the Labyrinth at your order sir."
"Good, start up the vehicles and move everything out. Last thing we want is for the aliens to show up while we're on route," Williams said as he turned to Thurgood. "There, see? Everyone is moving out together, so you and your drones go get yourselves in some transportation and I'll see you in the Labyrinth."
"Well, what if we are attacked on route like you said?" Thurgood asked. "I think the drones and I should travel with you Johnny."
"Sir," the soldier said, addressing Thurgood. "I've been assigned to guard the general, he is under my protection. If anything happens to him, anything at all, I swear to you, I will get very choked up. Honestly, there could be tears."
"Huh. . .good enough for me, you two have fun then. I expect to see you in the caves at some point," Thurgood said, pointing at Williams for emphasis. And with that the man and his drones walked off down the hallway.
"Thanks for that," Williams said as he turned to examine the soldier more closely. It took a special kind of person to so easily deal with Thurgood like that. "How did you know to do that...?"
"Service Chief Alexander Drzewucki, sir."
"Drew. . .Derez. . .alright Chief," Williams said, giving up on pronouncing the name. "So how did you know how to deal with Thurgood?"
"My parents were one of the first people to permanently move to Klendathu, sir. My father was in charge of the mining operation that the Venture Trading Company set up there so he often had to deal with the Collective and their PR representatives. I grew up hearing stories about Thurgood and the various ways people had for handling him."
"Well, good on you then. Now come on, I get antsy whenever I'm around booby traps so let's hurry up and get out of here."
"Booby traps, sir?"
"This is an important military base that we're abandoning. Of course we booby trapped it, Chief. There should be enough explosives in the basement to turn this place into a crater big enough for a cruiser to land in."
The Service Chief stopped dead in the hallway at that news. "Oh. . .wow. That's serious."
Williams turned to look back at the man. "This is war soldier, what did you expect?"
"I don't rightly know, sir. I just kind of assumed we would hold out until reinforcements arrived and then everything would be back to normal. I didn't realize. . .I just. . ."
"You've never seen actual combat before, have you?"
"No sir, this was my first posting after basic," the Chief nervously admitted.
"Don't worry about it son. You'll adjust to it. . .or get yourself killed. Either way, you won't worry about the fighting."
"That's awfully binary."
"That sounds like a good band name," Williams said to himself with a grin as he turned to continue down the hallway.
"What was that, sir?"
"Nothing important, let's move."