I could feel the hull of the ship ripple as I did.

  I hadn't really thought of how the hull was built, I know nano-bots were a part of it, growing and repairing the hull, but I hadn't really thought of what that would mean visually.

  I had expected the turrets to descend into the ship on some kind of elevator, a hatch closing over them.

  Instead it was like... waves. Like the tide coming in on a beach, the hull rolled up and onto the turrets, each wave covering more and more, until there was just a relatively smooth surface with a slight bulge over where each of the turrets had been.

  Similar events happened all over the ship, as hatches were covered.

  It was like the hull was partially liquefying and rippling forward over the sites that needed to be closed, the whole event was honestly mesmerizing.

  “This is really pretty.” I said, as I watched the ripples go from sealing holes and smoothing out the hull to extending 'control surfaces' I guess? I honestly did not know much about what those were, other than they sounded like something a pilot would think about. They just looked like wings growing out at relatively shallow angles to the horizontal plane of the ship. At least I think they were control surfaces, maybe they were just to look cool. That sounds like something Bait would have programmed into her ship.

  “I am glad you think so Captain Cofey.” Hook said.

  An alert pinged on my display, and I saw that Hwang, Megan, and Rekki-Ricky were trying to get my attention in Hwang's room. They were all dressed and it looked like Rekki-Ricky was pressing random buttons on the wall. That hadn't actually been what alerted me though. Megan had actually found a text messaging program and has sent me what looked like... a friend request?

  I checked briefly on Carolina, but she was passed out, half on the bed, and I swear her snores were causing the camera to shake, so I let her be.

  “Hey, you, you're finally awake.” I said in my best skyrim meme voice in the PA in Hwang's room.

  They all blinked up at me.

  “Are.... Are you feeling okay Captain Cofey?” Megan asked, genuine concern in her voice.

  I chuckled. “No, just an ancient meme that felt appropriate.”

  Hwang groaned.

  “I've heard about this. He's acted so normal I forgot, but all of C.O.G. Are fuckin weird. Everything they do is laced with meme's and references and references to references and something called 'meta'. You got my hopes up Brayden, I thought you were normal!” Hwang said in exasperation, her feet swinging in the air where she sat on the room's flip out desk.

  Rekki-Ricky laughed at Hwang and Megan suppressed a snicker.

  If I had a face at that moment that could have given her a glare I would have.

  “I'm not nearly as bad as the rest of them...” I muttered, to another round of snickers.

  “Anyway, getting back to what I wanted to talk to all of you about, We haven't really had time to take stock of what happened and I'd like everyone to be on the same page.”

  Hwang suddenly looked up serious, and Rekki-Ricky looked grave.

  I paused.

  “Well?” Hwang asked.

  “I don't really know where to start.” I replied.

  “How about we tell you what happened from our perspective, and you can fill in the gaps.” Megan said. I was really starting to appreciate her level headedness.

  “That's a good way of doing things.” I answered, lamely.

  Hwang looked like she was about to object but looked at Rekki-Ricky, who gave her a little shake of his head.

  Now THAT interplay made me suspicious.

  Hwang, despite her obvious misgivings, started.

  “Yesterday morning... no this would have been two days ago now? Three?” She paused and checked a bulky square wrist device which I assumed told her the time, and probably a lot more. “Two and change, we were woken up by an explosion. No alarms, no lights, nothing in our barracks. We mustered out thinking it was some kind of drill to see the base in utter pandemonium. Racked power armor had fired their attached weapon systems, those that were loaded anyway, and hit the munitions depot, wiped out nearly half the base. Then the commander's car impacted the side of the base at about 200 km/h. It was at that point our company captain ordered us to grab what gear we could and fortify the motor pool. We figured out it was a cyber attack pretty quick after that as we all tried to reach people over the net and failed.” Megan took a pause.

  “That would have been about right after the virus got beamed down. I think it just swept the planet for whatever receiver's were open and dumped the malware in.” I interjected.

  Megan nodded, and continued. ” After a tank detonated it's own ammo stores with the auto loader about fifteen seconds after we booted it up we started removing all the wireless transceivers from our gear and the vehicles in the motor pool. Or, you know, the ones left that hadn't been blown to shit in the initial attack, or overturned, or had so much wireless bullshit worked into every system that pulling them all would have bricked the machine, so really we were down to a single hover APC, two tanks older than me, and three tractor trailer's for moving the armor around.”

  “Surprised the tanks weren't full of integrated electronics.” I interjected into the space.

  “They were literally eighty years old.” Megan said.

  “Yeah but... I mean when I was young they were integrating electronics into eveything, I figured even something old now would have em.” I said.

  Megan actually looked a little perplexed, till Hwang chimed in.

  “Ooooh, a question I can answer. This is a military history part. So, more electronics, more vulnerability to cyber attacks. About a century ago a major hacker group infiltrated and overloaded the original arks engines on Hou-Ji, so there was a mandate from the government to harden all government structures and institutions against info-war attacks, and that resulted in a bunch of military contracts going to companies building military hardware with minimal attack surfaces open to exploitation!” Hwang said, looking super happy to drop an info bomb on us.

  “Then... then shouldn't there have been fewer military things affected?” I asked.

  “They government started taking down parts of that mandate before we were born. There's none left at this point, though if they're smart they'll reinstate it now. Anyway, sorry Megan, back to the story.” Hwang said, before taking over the story.

  “That took most of the day, then we heard in the cab of one of the tractor trailer's comm units. I don't exactly understand why that one worked, a certain specialist had a nerdgasm over how old it was, but it was orders from the president's staff for any available units to pack their shit and get to Jecheon airport asap to protect the president.” Hwang continued.

  Rekki-Ricky interjected. “It wasn't a nerdgasm, it was astonishment that something that old was still in working order, and that the transmission was clear enough that we could make out ANYTHING. “

  I chuckled. “Radio's had a century and a half to get super durable and refined back on earth, both by the military and civilian market. Wasn't unheard of to find a radio out of the second world war and still be able to transmit with it.” I realized my gaff.” By that I mean a radio nearly a century old. They were built to last. Seems like they kept that durability. Alright, let me fill you in on what happened at that time from my perspective.” I paused to gather myself.

  “I jumped into the system and saw a battle underway. Actually that's wrong, I saw a bunch of heavy jamming fields and debris. For certain reasons, due to what had happened prior, we thought a friend of a friend may have been involved in the fight and that the hostiles may have been pirates that we owed an indecent turn to. Also I needed a doctor, and the only ones were, you know, on the planet. So we dove into the fight. I did not expect Berzerker's. They had ambushed an under-strength imperial squadron that had just come from fighting the pirates previously mentioned, and they were getting chewed up by the time we arrived. We were able to tip the scales, but barely, I took some damage and ate a viral attack that disrupted a number of my systems. And the imperial squadron was reduced to a single Baron class ship.”

  Rekki-Ricky whistled.

  “Shit. That means they killed their flagship.” He said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Imperial squadrons are always built around a great honking flagship. Imperials are very backstabby, so they won't risk resupplying at any station not directly aligned with the houses involved in putting a squadron together, so the houses that put said squadron together will get a great big honking battleship hull and fill it with munitions so they don't have to resupply anywhere but their own territory. That goes double for expeditions beyond imperial space. You never see an imperial squadron without one. You know, unless it's been destroyed.” Rekki-Ricky said.

  “Are they hard to kill?” I asked.

  “As hard to kill as any battleship I guess. Like all imperial ships they are built around a great big cannon though, so you don't want to engage one of them with a battleship of your own or they'll blow it away. They specialize in killing anything their size or bigger. But you were saying, end of fight, one Baron class left.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Right, Baron Hannity and I tried to contact the surface, got no reply, and then quickly realized there weren't any signals coming at us at all. Which, you know, even the tiny little mining outpost I passed on my way here was spewing out signals into the void like a leaky tap. Baron Hannity said that the colony probably got hit by a viral like what hit me, and he... suggested that if I were able to shrug off that viral attack I may be able to help the people on the planet. Since I still really needed a doctor, and it felt like kind of a dick move to leave you all to die to a robo-apocalypse when I could maybe prevent it, I flew down. Landed at the airport, Jecheon I guess, we couldn't pick up any transmissions so didn't really know it's name at the time. Landed, got chased into the airport by robots, then I spent way too long clearing up the airport systems, got menaced by the Deaconess and her lacky, then the vice president showed up.”

  Rekki-Ricky shuddered at the mention of the Deaconess.

  “The way you spoke about her, you know something about that religious nutter don't you Rekki-Ricky.” I said.

  Rekki-Ricky nodded.

  “The deacons are... terrifying.” He said.

  “So there are a lot of them.” I asked.

  “No. Not many. Fewer than there used to be at least. The genetic profile needed to create them is extremely heavily restricted, a planet that wants to gestate one needs to request a a majority vote from the head's of at least five alliance planets, and each of those planets needs to send a pair of individuals with a minimum cognitive resistance value of nine point five to participate in raising them.” Rekki-Ricky said.

  Hwang and Megan both stared at him, looking like they didn't know where to start.

  I didn't either, but that never stopped me before.

  “There were so many things there that I need to know more about. First of all, cognitive resistance value?” I asked.

  “It's a measurement of many things, neuroplasticity, mental resistance, stubbornness, all combined into a score that essentially determines how resistant you are to being influenced against your will. Whether you are being honeypotted by an enemy spy, interrogated by a cop, or being... influenced by a deacon, those with a higher cognitive resistance value give less away and are less affected than those with a lower rating.”Rekki-Ricky answered me.

  Hwang broke in “So, what, they breed you guys to have a higher resistance rating or something?” she said, her face a little... disgusted maybe? At the thought?

  “The opposite actually, a lower cognitive resistance value is preferable for the average person, because it's resistance to ALL kinds of mental influence, including learning. Most individuals with a high cognitive resistance value are also diagnosed with some kind of learning disability, autism, brain damage, etc. Most require more time to get through basic education than others, so the gene-committee's tend to select against excessively high values, but having some in your population is always a good thing, for instances like this.” Rekki-Ricky exposited. I think he was actually enjoying talking about his home and what they did there, even if it was in an odd context. He seemed energized talking about it at least.

  “Okay, so just from context, I guess this means that Deacon's are... mind benders? You said that you were originally... selected to be a telepath? Sortof like that?” I asked.

  Rekki-Ricky shook his head.

  “No, I mean not really. Telepaths are... They can talk to people, like a radio, but no telepath is alike in how their power works. Some of them have to make contact with someone to talk to them, some can broadcast to everyone around them, but all Deacon's work exactly the same way. It's one of the restrictions on their profile, no genetic drift is allowed, every Deacon works exactly the same as any other. They may as well be clones.” Rekki-Ricky continued.

  “Okay but why though?” Megan asked, her normal professional and uptight nature seeming to disintegrate slightly. She seemed severely creeped out by what Rekki-Ricky was implying.

  “Deacon's make everyone around them think like them.” Rekki-Ricky dropped the bomb.

  I blinked.

  “I'm sorry what?” I asked.

  “Exposure to a Deacon will passively make people see things their way. If they think a specific person should be a pariah, then eventually everyone they make regular contact with will. If they think that a certain person should be deified, eventually everyone around them will. If they think a certain planetary leader isn't doing a great job and would do better if they just listened to the Deacon's every word... eventually everyone will believe that, even the planetary leader.” Rekki-Ricky said.

  Hwang whistled.

  Megan stared at Rekki-Ricky.

  “So you are telling me that Deaconess now has control of our entire government?” Megan said.

  Rekki-Ricky shrugged. “I don't know, maybe, it sure sounds like it. What the Vice-president did is not rational, and no matter what you may think of her Hwang, she isn't dumb or irrational. And the Deaconess was actively exerting her power, I could feel it the instant we stepped into that airport.” Rekki-Ricky said.

  “So what, the alliance uses these Deacons to control their populace?” I asked, I could see the writing on the wall.

  Rekki-Ricky shook his head in a violent no.

  “No, they are too dangerous, they are raised very strictly and indoctrinated literally from conception for a specific mission, and then are sent outside of the alliance to complete said mission. It is illegal for a Deacon who is fully grown and with an active power to come down to an alliance world. Best they are allowed are short term visa's to stations, and even then they have to be escorted by people with high C.R.V.'s wherever they go.” Rekki-Ricky stated.

  “Sounds like there is a story behind that.” I said.

  “You can probably guess it.” Rekki-Ricky replied.

  “One of these Deacon's went rogue and took over a planet huh?” I said.

  “No. Five. All at once. An entire sector of Alliance space just turned into their own personal fiefdom.” Rekki-Ricky replied.

  “How did the Alliance handle that? I can't imagine they'd take it lying down.” Hwang said.

  “Assasin's.” Rekki-Ricky answered.

  “Ah, killing em turned off the effects then?” I said.

  “Nope. All changes enacted by a Deacon have a permanent effect on your brain's neural structure and chemistry. Those with high neuroplasticity, I.E. a low C.R.V. Can typically return to a semblance of normalcy if placed in an environment and routine similar to what they were in before exposure to a Deacon, but those with higher C.R.V.'s or those who are simply unable to return to their old lives will find their minds permanently affected.” Rekki-Ricky said, looking grim.

  “Shit.” Hwang said out loud.

  “So what happened to the planets that became part of this cult.” I asked.

  “Same thing that happens to every cult of personality that loses it's leader. Religious schism and holy war. The alliance let them fight themselves out for a few decades, then offered them membership back into the alliance in return for aid. I am fairly certain they trained a few new Deacon's specifically to pacify the populace, as two decades is just about the amount of time you would need to grow a new Deacon to adulthood and indoctrinate them into being a bland peace loving individual that despises religion.” Rekki-Ricky answered blandly. Like I would if someone had asked me about the civil war or the Boston tea party. Or you know, if someone asked me and I injected my own commentary.

  “So yeah, now all Deacon's are made for specific tasks and then sent out of the Alliance.” Rekki-Ricky said.

  “So what, Deaconess Etelweiss was sent to Hou Ji to spread the alliances religion?” I asked. She had the definite feel of a religious fanatic to me.

  Rekki-Ricky shook his head. “Not the alliance's religion, the alliance doesen't have a state religion, whatever that was she picked it up from her home planet. If I were to guess she is supposed to groom the citizens of Hou-ji to being more open to becoming a part of the alliance, or at least to giving up details of their genetics. Or...” Rekki-Ricky looked tired all of a sudden.

  “Or what?” I asked.

  “It could be an experiment. Alliance eggheads love to perform experiments outside the alliance to keep any fallout from coming back on them. Maybe they taught her that red is blue and they want to see how long that takes to permeate through the population on Hou-Ji or something, the scientists in charge do weird things all the time and as long as no one in the alliance calls them on it no one cares until they publish the results.” Rekki-Ricky finished.

  That was alarming.

  “So she was sent there either as an experiment or to... ferment some kind of alliance sympathy?” I said.

  “Possibly both. Or she was labelled as a problem and sent off far away to be someone elses' problem. We are pretty close to C.O.G. Space here, they could have just thought 'let's make her C.O.G.'s problem.'”

  Rekki-Ricky shook his head. “Sorry, we got off topic, the Deacon's scare me. I spent a month aboard a transport with one when I left the Alliance, I started keeping a journal when I realised what he was and, going back over it after I landed, the changes... I'm pretty sure I'm still not back to who I was when I left.” Rekki-Ricky said bitterly.