Star Force Perseverance (SF81) (Star Force Origin Series) (11 page)

her into their ranks, more or less. Assume something drastic happened and it

involved a Calavari.”

“They would tell me whether or not they wanted him. I

wouldn’t make that decision.”

“What would they judge him by?”

“Skill, obviously. Trustworthiness. Experience would

also be a factor, I imagine.”

“You’re missing one.”

Davis raised an eyebrow.

“Brotherhood. That’s what bonds them together more

than anything else. The things you mentions are prerequisites, but it’s the

bond they have that’s the real glue with them and allows them to function

without a chain of command. The rest of the empire has a structure, but they

don’t. We don’t. You run things because you’re best at it, I’m best at training,

but we never get into a bickerment over who gives orders.”

“Bickerment?”

Wilson smiled. “A term I coined long ago. There’s a

difference between arguing and bickering.”

“So there is. Bickerment then. I’ll add that to my

vocabulary list.”

“You and I are a team, without any constraints

whatsoever. Originally I was your employee, but that didn’t last long.”

“You’re saying we don’t dare mess with that core

bond?”

“We’re also all Human, and that factors in as well. We

also all went through the process of building Star Force…and therein lies the

key. We are Star Force, and we’re not going to be replaced. We can add a few

worthy individuals to our ranks, but there’s no way anyone else has claim to

our personal club. We built it, we earned it, and we’re the gatekeepers. Humans

aren’t the gatekeepers, we are, and that’s a distinction that needs to be

highlighted.”

“Noted.”

“So the real question becomes the lower elite ranks.

You’ve already established protocol for the Monarchs…which is?”

“I hand pick them all, mostly from existing

Administrators, though a few from other placements.”

“All experienced?”

“To a degree, yes.”

“That’s not how we choose Archons. We take them fresh

off a testing package.”

Davis nodded. “Should that change?”

Wilson shook his head. “No, not at all. The process is

very refined now. No need to tamper with it…for Humans anyway.”

“If you’re going where I think you’re going with this,

you don’t want non-Humans in the Archon basic training?”

“I don’t want them in Archon training at all.”

“That’s a much simpler thing to say, so I assume there

is a caveat?”

“Brotherhood develops in many ways. To make it the

most potent you have to all be the same. Same race, same skills, same

challenges. No one without the full psionic package can be Archons. We can etch

that in stone right now.”

“Consider it etched then. What else?”

“The Protovic are close to Human physiology, no one

else is. A few are similar, but the only real Archon question is them. If we

give them, one day, full psionics, could they also be Archons?”

“I’m guessing no, but I’d like to hear your reasons

for it.”

“For one they’re more rigid, due to their exoskeleton,

and don’t have the flexibility range. That and other small differences are

present, and aside from physically changing them into Human there’s no point in

trying to make them Human. Archons are Human, pure and simple. That doesn’t

mean the Protovic can’t be valuable to the empire, but they’re not Archons.”

“Which brings us back to your trailblazer question.”

“If they accepted a Protovic into their midst, how

would they do it? I used Calavari because it’s a more drastic example, but

either will suffice.”

“Either way they’d have to be able to hold their

ground in a fight,” Davis said, thinking hard. “Strategic skills…heavy dose of

sarcasm.”

“Would they expect them to match them exactly?”

“I think Paul would say that Grand Admiral Thrawn

answers that question.”

Wilson laughed. “I was considering using that example.

Odd how they got both of us to literally memorize those bits of fiction.”

“They’re useful metaphors,” Davis agreed. “Thrawn

wasn’t Human.”

“No, and he had a slightly different way of

commanding, but he still got the job done. I think that’s the bottom line.”

“So if an individual can meet Archon standards,

however they get around to it…”

Wilson shook his head firmly. “No.”

“No?”

“We’re not going to hold back individuals trying to

fit them into Human standards. We have some very good Calavari that have been

serving as Commandos in the Human Mainline armies for centuries. They’re

operating off of Human standards and ranked lower than their combat potential

because they fight in different ways. At the time this wasn’t a problem because

all of Mainline was Human. Now we have Mainline factions of Calavari, Bsidd,

etc and there’s no need to integrate units except where advantageous. Those

units that are hybrids function far better because each piece is suited to its

role rather than being crunched down into a one form fits all.”

“How does this affect the Archons?”

“It’s simple. We allow them to have sidekicks.”

Davis looked at Wilson for a few seconds as he tried

to wrap his head around that idea. “What exactly are you inferring?”

“If we create psionics, we create them specifically

for the races and not to match what Humans have. They can become equals on the

battlefield, in theory, doing it their own way. They won’t be Archons, won’t be

part of that core group, from the beginning…but they could be adopted into it

later as sidekicks.”

“Define ‘sidekick’ then.”

“Think of Archons like brothers and sisters, with

sidekicks being cousins.”

“Ah,” Davis said, almost in a sigh, as it finally

clicked. “A strong bond but not quite what exists between Archons. Yet

battlefield comradery and the potential to advance up to our level if they

proved themselves worthy.”

“You’re already doing that with the Monarchs.”

“Their field involves giving orders, which can be

accomplished by any race. Physical combat is far different.”

“And I’ve already covered that, in theory,” Wilson

said as he fished a data chip out of his pocket and tossed it to Davis. “My

ideas of how to upgrade all the races we have someday. Not on the whole, but

for select individuals. There won’t be a training program like the Archons,

it’ll work more like the Arc Commandoes in that select individuals will be

chosen based on experience and merit. They’ll work with the Archons and operate

within that chain of command. Each will exist as part of Clan and organize in

that fashion, with their skills being utilized for what they can and can’t do

rather than trying to make them conform to Archon standards…which I’ll remind

you, are designed to master all 5 divisions.”

“I don’t think we really master aquatics,” Davis pointed out, “but we’re at least average compared

to the Elarioni.”

“We can do it all, and so can the Protovic. Not as

well, but they can. Most of the other races are more slanted towards

specialties. Specialists can’t be Archons. Archons have to do it all.”

“Sidekicks can be specialists?”

“Yes, and depending on how they’re psionically

upgraded that may change in certain areas.”

“And the current blue Protovic?”

“You mean the new blue or the old blue?”

“New blue.”

“Theirs is a racial program, which seems to be working

out well so far. We’ll have to wait and see what happens when they get some

depth. I don’t think we need to mess with their abilities anytime soon. Leave

them alone, with maybe a few bits of tinkering down the road. Let them be what

they can be and forget about being Archons. If they have the merit to lead the

empire, it’ll be as Protovic.”

“They’re not getting my job,” Davis scoffed.

“Nor should they. My point is Archons are Human for

numerous reasons, and not just psionics. True equality comes on the

battlefield, whether it be combat or economic, and not in the route you take to

get there.”

“We always have been fond of doing what works. This

would be no different.”

“It’s going to take a lot of trial and error to get

the other races pegged down, even without giving them psionics. I haven’t

trained them like Archons, and I’ll need to get to know how their bodies and

psyches work better before I try to develop a really deep elite program for

them. Their current training programs are solid, don’t get me wrong, but

they’re not built for someone meant to hold so much responsibility, let alone

problem solving, like the Archons are. I’ve got a lot of work to do if you want

to head down this road, and it’ll change every time we can add a psionic or

other ability.”

“Other ability?”

“We kind of use the word ‘psionic’ to refer to

superpowers…and even that isn’t a strict definition.”

“Guilty as charged.”

“Getting some of the air breathing aquatics races

liquid breathing upgrades would be one example.”

Davis paused for a moment.

“I don’t think we can do that with our bodies though,”

Wilson added. “Too much tissue change.”

“I wonder. The V’kit’no’sat didn’t include that in our

genome or theirs, and I wonder if that’s because the backup oxygen is for more

than just being under water.”

“They didn’t use Zen’zat for underwater operations

anyway.”

“Not that we know of, but their armor still had an

aquatics module. So it’s possible they were used in that sense on occasion.”

“I’ve never seen any files detailing that.”

“Neither have I. We’re too slow in the water compared

to the swimmers to be worth deploying save for emergency situations. Unaugmented

anyway,” Davis said as he slipped the datachip into a slot on his desk and

pulled up the reports Wilson had compiled for him, seeing that, as usual, Star

Force’s head trainer had been excessively thorough. “Who do you want to start

with?”

“I’m assuming we’re nowhere near developing any custom

psionics?”

“The timetable on that has gotten considerably hazy,

but assume no for the foreseeable future.”

“Then I want 100 Calavari here, on Earth, in Atlantis

so I can personally develop this program. We’ll need some considerable

remodeling first, though.”

Davis nodded. “You still don’t trust the Archon

trainees to anyone else?”

“I want to be able to troubleshoot if needed, but most

of the duties can be handled by others. That and I want to be the face they

know from the outset. I won’t lose touch completely, but I can free up a lot of

spare time if needed for this.”

“How do you plan on choosing the candidates?”

“These aren’t candidates. This is an advanced training

group, pure and simple. I need to learn the Calavari better before I design the

real one. I just need experienced, intuitive individuals that I can press and

study. I need to know how they think and respond under pressure, and to do that

I need to poke and prod them in very specific ways.”

“Will a seafloor expansion suffice? We’re kind of

lacking in internal space as it is.”

“So long as I don’t have to hop on a dropship to move

from one group to another.”

“I’ll have them build you a private transit system to

an adjacent facility. We have several nearby that can be repurposed easily and

they’ll function as part of the city if the link is fast enough, which it will

be.”

“Adequate. How soon can I get my experiments?”

Davis bit his lip. “I can rush the conversion inside

of a year. Finding and recalling the volunteers might take longer. Do you want

to handle that as well or should I just ask the Archons to do it?”

“If this were the actual first class I’d do it, but

since I’m not sure what to look for in Calavari they’d probably be better

judges. Just ask the ones that have worked with them extensively. The others

probably know less than I do about them at this point.”

“Done deal.”

Wilson nodded. “I don’t know how long this will

actually take.”

“No rush. No rush at all. Just another puzzle piece we

need to get in motion.”

“We have a lot of those, don’t we?”

“The bigger the empire, the more pieces.”

“About that…I have another request. A side project

that’s long overdue.”

“Yes?”

“I need to run the Archons through psionic armor

challenges. For that I’ll need an army trained to use them…which I’ll have to

develop if no one else gets around to it. It’s been on the Archons’ to-do list

for some time, but they’ve never implemented it as far as I know.”

“Gun shy?”

“Might be. Either way, it’s better something that I

handle than them. Same reason they can’t create their own challenges…at least

not ones as good as I can. You can’t think like yourself and your enemy at the

same time.”

“Terrorize them as you like.”

“That’ll actually be a bigger logistical project than

the Calavari.”

“Recruit what personnel and resources that you

need…although I would make one recommendation.”

“Which is?”

“Involve Vermaire. From an Archon’s point of view,