A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 74

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 74

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

…

I brought Parvati in, she explained that there’s a turf war in space, and everyone decided to take a break.

Parvati, of course, approached me and Seran while my friend was muttering to herself.

Something along the lines of having to come up with a way to deal with orbital invasions.

“Designation: Egress, why can’t you ever be left alone without stumbling into a new conspiracy or problem?”

“I stick my nose out looking for money, then trouble just finds me while I’m out looking, I guess.” We were still in Headmaster Lucille’s office. The only change since Parvati arrived was that the coffee table between the two sofas where all the snacks were had a hologram of the solar system on it. Dozens of asteroid bases, several large ships, and whole cylinder colonies were up there. Yeah. It was probably a lot to take in for a bunch of people going the aristocracy route in the face of the apocalypse. “Hey, I was looking to help Seran here. I just put together the info they gave me with what you gave me.”

Parvati, apparently, had noted drive plumes of starship engines in Earth orbit several times. Usually just for a day or two, since neither side up there wanted each other touching the planet. It was like a bunch of kindergarteners around a shiny rock in the center of the playground. If someone took it, everyone will have a fit or fight over it, but if it was everyone’s then there wouldn’t be problems.

“I see. At the very least, you’ve discerned a reason as to why there are ships regularly in Canada’s northeast. They are effectively participating in a form of neo-imperialism with the neo-Nazi movement of the northern Atlantic.” Parvati stated it simply, but I knew the AI long enough to be able to tell when it's being calm or when it's being terse. The sentences dragged on a bit, because it forgot to pretend that it needed to breathe. “I am willing to offer ground-to-orbit defenses to your people, Mayor Seran, and Lady Edel’s as well. However, it will need to be extensive enough to deter reprisal attacks. Unfortunately, with the current state of both your nations, I fear that such defenses would be misused.”

“I… yeah. I understand that. Whatever you’ve got in mind would have to be big to deter what’s up there.” I gave Seran a reassuring grip on the shoulder to steady her nerves. Some would say that she shouldn’t be surprised by what she’s heard, since she’s an elected official. I would say that finding out that there are hundreds of thousands of people in space waging war in spaceships and using Earth as a pet store is grounds to be a bit frazzled. “I need to talk to the council and present this information. Parvati, I’ll need your assistance to answer questions. God, so many people are going to accuse me of bringing you in just to stay elected.”

“I will be glad to help you stabilize your region and lock it down against threats from the rest of the solar system.”

“If you think it’s manipulating you, just give me a call. I’ll space the whole mountain complex it has.”

Parvati glared at me for my statement, but I shrugged it off.

Doing that would probably give me a stroke, but I’d probably be able to pop over to Seran to get fixed up.

“I will be presenting this information to Kaede Walker as well. She has enough infrastructure and talent at her disposal to build her own defense systems, but a unified system working together in concert will better protect the North American continent.” That statement drew everyone in the room’s attention. Guess that knowledge wasn’t particularly widespread. Parvati paused, and decades of cringing at itself probably passed in an instant, before it spoke again. “I retract that statement. I am unsure if Kaede Walker’s current nation state is capable of such a thing.”

“Probably, I mean the fusion plant will be up and running soon. A few mass drivers and we’ll get our airspace secure. Hell, Kaede can just fly a battle station or two in LEO and give ourselves a shield.” Having a lift capacity of ‘yes,’ pretty much made establishing space defenses and infrastructure hilariously effective. Out in space people had to worry about weight limit, thrust, and propellant. Maelstrom can just lift several thousand tons into low orbit and put massive guns and sensors on it. Heck. I’ll help for a ton or two of crops, basically free. I’d love to see some super-scientist’s prized, one-of-a-kind ship find itself looking meters of armored plating and massive amounts of guns and missiles. “Or, we could do the old classic and make a sun gun to protect the whole planet… or maybe a whole asteroid just armed to the teeth?”

Parvati stared at me like I grew a second head, while Seran snorted.

“The eighties called. They want their schlock back.”

“The bargain bin has never failed me.”

Parvati shook its head, before sighing.

“I’ll consider the proposals. The asteroid battle station is interesting. Barring the discovery or creation of some new type of material that can house vast amounts of energy and release it on command, the ‘sun gun’ of fiction is impossible. A massive laser system that uses solar power would be destroyed well before its completion, as well.”

“Drat. There goes that idea.”

Parvati sighed and shook its head before moving on.

“I’ll coordinate efforts to remove factions off Earth from the equation. This planet has seen enough of humanity subjugating humanity. In fact, if those fighting in space now are not stopped, we will see this world ruled by superhumans and their masters forevermore.”  On that, I agreed. People having advanced tech and industry led to empires being formed and most of the world placed under a handful of flags through spheres of influence through blue water navies. Scale that up to spaceships and people on Earth may as well all be considered backwater natives of lands ripe for exploitation. “Lady Seran, your people are cohesive and industrialized to a very high extent, and well educated. I would like to propose a joint venture between your people, Walker’s, and I to kickstart the technology sector on Earth.”

Seran, surprisingly, was decisive at that statement.

“That… I know that I can make that happen for sure. Everyone back home wants that. Anything to end what happened after the bombs fell.” Seran gave a serious nod, and actually stood up to offer her hand to shake towards Parvati. Respect and satisfaction filled my chest. She’s really done a lot of work on herself, and she’s doing great at her job. Man, I’m proud of my friend. I’ll set up a section on Mars in my shelter for her to be a NEET in. Heck, I can probably pop over to Japan and get a few hard-drives of the good stuff as a present for her. Yeah, that sounds good. “I’ll work with you Parvati, and I’ll talk to my people to do the same. And, I’ll try to help you convince Lady Edel and the rest of the budding nobility here.”

“Then, I look forward to working with you, Mayor Seran.”

They shook hands and I did my best to sniff as quietly as possible.

Seran’s really gotten better!

…

Headmistress Lucille approached me with her charge, Demond, in tow.

“Mister Egress, I appreciate your policies regarding taking jobs from children. However, with the recent revelations in mind, I have come to bring a bargain to you. House Demond has capital to invest in trade.” Headmistress Lucille nudged her charge forward. Lady Demond looked like she just sucked on a lemon, but she took a breath and recalibrated made a curtsy. I made sure to give a respectful nod/bow in turn. “And, with my oversight and permission, I would like for her to acquire a trade route with you. You not only have access to goods we do not have, but you also have allies that we wish to align ourselves with.”

Hm.

I had a feeling that Lady Demond was probably just past her teens, if Lucille had to explain it like that.

Rebellious, full of it, and stupid.

Hell of a mix.

Perfect for swindling, too.

“House Demond holds control over fifty acres of maple trees and from that we harvest over a thousand gallons a year. We have various products available for sale at this very moment, stored in freezing warehouses, ranging from butters to syrups and ice cream made from duck eggs and heavy cream.”

Oh, damn. I really want to swindle this kid.

It’s too bad Seran wants to ally with these guys.

“Plenty of sugarcane over in China, but you’ve got markets available in Japan, California, and the southern states. You’re sitting on a fortune, and I’ll be happy to assist you in getting that for a cut. I’ll do it for ten percent of the profit.”

“Five.” Demond countered.

“Done. Thanks.” I was fine with 2 percent. That must’ve been obvious, as Headmistress Lucille sighed and the heiress glared at me. “Hey, I went easy on you. Only five percent of profits are ridiculously low for intercontinental shipping today.”

The young adult novel protagonist gritted her teeth, but managed to take a deep breath and cool off. Honestly? Respect. She might be inexperienced and hot-blooded, but if she can stop herself from talking, she’s better off than most people on the planet for business. Lots of people fuck over good deals by just needing to have the last word.

“Very well. That is how it shall be.” Demond stated and then gave me a curtsy, before walking a few paces… and storming off after ten or so steps.

“She’s got a bright future ahead of her. Just need a bit more polishing up.” I commented, and Lucille sighed and nodded.  “Don’t worry. Two years tops, and she’ll be as mature as can be.”

“I have no doubt of that. This world forces children to age quickly.” Now that she mentioned age, I was real curious as to how Lucille and Lady Edel looked like they were in their twenties, but talked like they were nearing sixty. I thought about asking, but decided against it. Again, Seran wanted to ally with these people. Best to not snoop around or ask questions like that. “You said you were recently in Japan and China?”

“Helped bring back the old government in Japan, and I had an old friend in China that I contacted. Japan’s looking down at food shortages, but good population size, while China’s still pretty much broken up into loads of territories held by warlords.” She’d find out about everything with Parvati speeding up the process of getting them onboard. The fact that people in space were coming here to steal people galvanized the AI a lot. I mean, I’m sure Maelstrom wasn’t going to react well with it, too. Might need to deal with the cartels encroaching past the Rio first, though. Parvati had the assets and the spare time and processing power, though. “Pretty sure both would like the normal stuff, too. No need to get just Maple syrup. Anything you can grow and harvest will be perfectly fine. The whole world’s underweight now. One global famine and we’re going to see the population halved. Again.”

“I’ll keep that in mind and contact a few allies. We can bring more to our faction with generous trade lines between us and the rest of the world.” Headmistress Lucille stated. She crossed her arms over her vest and tie. Without the large jacket over her shoulders, she was quite small now that I thought about it. Spinal compression, or just tiny? Probably best to not ask. Or, in other words, just mind my own business. “Egress, you’ve ventured around the world. Tell me. Is it a place where children can live? Not survive. Live.”

“Fuck no. We’re looking at least two or three generations of tough times for most of the planet. We’re going to get past subsistence living in a few years, but industry? Not stuff built by superscientists or scavenged? That’s two decades at a minimum.” The supply lines for everything are shot, and a lot of modern infrastructure worked only through economies of scale. Absolutely massive fields of crops, strip mines that used cargo lifters the size of buildings, and foundries meant to spit out hundreds of tons of steel every day. Forget making electric gadgets for convenience, just the raw materials needed to build concrete buildings with indoor plumbing had to be built from scratch. “Anything high-tech is basically built in enclaves and not factories. Parvati’s the only real shot at getting some sort of economy running… and that’s basically handing our future over to an AI. One that’ll control everything we use to make things and whatever things those assets make.”
“…I see. That is what I expected, but it remains disappointing.”

“I mean, you guys seem to have it pretty good. All your clothes are new, all these buildings are nice and sturdy, and you’re going to start trading excess goods off. Everyone’s got a sweet tooth, so that market’s can get cornered by you all.” I’d been looking around. A lot of the stuff here was new. The gates we went through, the stone walls around the academy, and a lot of the furnishings in the office. The knickknacks weren’t, but if they were new, they wouldn’t be knickknacks, would they? “If you call living what came before the bombs, then no, you’re not getting that and the kids aren’t either. Not starving, having a home, and having enough to trade for more stuff? A lot of people would kill for it, if you gave them the chance.”

Lucille took a moment, before nodding.

“Your insights are noted. I’ll see my curriculum for the coming years amended for that in mind. I had hoped that the children would have a need for more art and culture, but I see that may just waste their time.”

“Eh, give them a special class or two every week. College-style. Have them pick and choose what they want to do, so that they’ll do it, and they only need to show up every couple days.” I suggested with a shrug. I could only relay my own experiences in college, since it was the most recent. High school and elementary were just a blur of looking for food and passing classes. “Parvati will probably give you a whole library for free if you ask. It’ll have computers, and they can just spend their excess time there researching what they like.”

“…I shall consider that route. Thank you very much, Egress. I apologize for attacking you when we first met. Sincerely.”

Damn, a real and honest apology?

“You’re forgiven. I look forward to working with you in the future.”

I’m going to work my ass off to keep these people as clients.