Kick the Sphere 32

Kick the Sphere

Chapter 32

-VB-

My children went out on their missions, and I found myself feeling … a little lonely. 

Maybe a little upset, too.

It almost felt like they were eager to leave me behind. 

Yes, they were kids I never quite expected to have.

Yes, they weren’t little kids but fully fledged logically developed beings.

No, it didn’t change the fact that when I saw them disappear from the Dansur System, I felt like a bad father for not having done more. 

I should have … given them more of my time, I think. I should have done more to teach them even a little bit of wisdom and common sense. 

Apollo, Ares, and Hermes were gone.

So perhaps I should do the right thing - now that I am aware of it - and spend more time with my other people. Like Janice and the little shit Turry. And all of the T-Dolls. I wondered what they saw me as. Did the T-Dolls see me as their father, too? Or was I just their commander and general? Would they even be happy and satisfied that I wanted to be more connected to them? See it as an interference or distraction of their duty and work? 

Questions, questions, questions…

I looked at the holographic display of the Celestial Forge, and dismissed it. I had a thousand points stacked up, but the Atlantis Database alone was keeping me very much occupied. I didn’t need to recklessly keep purchasing more technologies and items when what I had was already overwhelmingly advanced for the people of the Inner Sphere. 

I stood up from my office chair and made my way toward the cafe that most of the T-Dolls hung around. I opened my office door to leave and -.

“Ah, general.”

I paused when I saw Jericho, or otherwise self-declared as Tammi, right outside my door. Still dressed as she usually did in her formal military dress and jacket. She wasn’t carrying her usual crutch-gun with her right now, though. She also looked a little upset, which extentuated her “strict onee-san” type appearance. 

“Tammi. What brings you to my office?” I asked her, curious. 

The stoic T-Doll stared at me for a bit before shaking her head. “How long do you intend to hole yourself up, general?”

“... What?”

“Sir, you have been ruminating and brooding for days now ever since the latest attack,” she frowned. “You sat in your office, rarely talking to anyone outside of Janice, Hermes, Negev or Spas.”

Oh, uh, yikes. She was referring to Rebecca and Sabrina by their production names. 

Jericho was not a T-Doll who went out of her way to try to get my attention, unlike some of the others like Rebecca. In fact, she was exactly what she portrayed herself as: stoic, strict, and studious. It was just my fault, I guess, that she was turning those traits against me.

Because, I must admit, I have been holed up in my office for the majority of the waking hours of the past week or so. 

… Was she here to drag me out? 

“... I will admit that I -.” I paused. “No, you’re right. Sorry. I should have … been doing more.”

“And what is that more?” she continued on, pushing the issue. 

“... Aside from asking for help?”

“You are the general. You do not ask for help, sir. You delegate, which you did not. You left us to twiddle our thumbs. We are very cross with you, sir.”

I scratched the back of my head abashedly as she continued to schold me. I glanced around and noticed that there wasn’t anyone else in the usually busy corridor, either. Did she plan this with the rest of the T-Dolls and staff? 

How long did I really keep myself disconnected? 

“You are also completely ignorant of the deeper intricacies and byplays of the people and factions that have sprung up around you. From where I stand as a bystander to it all, I see a command structure that will devolve into infighting the moment you become incapacitated. Or worse.”

I paused my scratching and looked at her.

“... What factions?” I asked, a little perturbed. 

“Exactly, general. You need to learn what exactly that you have been ignoring.” 

-VB-

It took me over a full day to grasp the situation. 

While I have been so busy with the “trinkets” provided by the Celestial Forge, I have truly neglected the people that I should have been talking to and getting to know. In my absence, something ugly had sprouted.

The Reupgrade Workshop group, for example, took to “helping” people who came to them by extensively and invasively augmenting them with cybernetic augments. It was a less dystopian Cyberpunk 2077. And this “group” was the one that Tammi (Jericho) herself nominally aligned herself with because it was, in her eyes, the least troublesome. 

The Temple of Ares was an outright religion among the locals. They worshipped my replicator children, especially Ares, who accepted that worship and in turn gave them the means to “rise above” their station. 

The Marble Court of the White Sisters (what the hell was that name?) was headed by the AK Sisters, Anastasia (AK-12) and Alanna (AK-15) and brainwashed the poor into becoming some sort of fanatical army. 

There were others. Including multiple seditious and rellions that had been brutally put down by my children, T-Dolls, and loyalists. 

Oh, and apparently, the aforementioned “major” factions have recruited and taken many people from Dansur to serve as soldiers and officers in the expedition fleets. 

“What the fuck…?” I muttered to myself. 

I wasn’t … I wasn’t mad per say. I was just unpleasantly surprised by what appeared to be cults forming under the command of my kids! 

Oh God.

I’m that parent, aren’t I? The benevolently neglectful parent. I was so obsessed with my own spaceships, my technologies, and what I could do with them that I abandoned the people I brought into this world. 

Worse, because they didn’t have a normal parent to help them, they turned to what they saw around them, and they adopted and adapted to the madness of the Inner Sphere. 

“You finally see it,” Tammi grunted. “Then go and fix it because the others start to do something truly horrific.”

“What can be more horrific than starting pseudo religions around themselves?” I asked hoarsely.

“Hermes, Ares, and Apollo intend to turn multiple systems into their own worlds. Some of the others still on Dansur are waiting for an opportunity to conquer their own planets to become nobles of your newfound empire.” 

I looked at her incredulously. “How? What? Do I look like someone who will just let that kind of thing happen?”

“No, but many people do not know you, your children, us T-Dolls, and what other future you might bring. So they make their own plans. Some of them do it to give themselves agency in these uncertain times and others do it just because they can.”

I grumbled. “... I’m going to be honest, I don’t know what to do about this. All of it.” 

“The answer is simple.”

“Simple?!” I nearly snapped.

She nodded. “Handle it one at a time from most important to least important.”

I stared at her before laughing helplessly. “Yeah. I … I guess I can do that.” I took in a deep breath. “Can you send a message to the Replicator fleets? Halt advances. I want Ares back home for a talk.”