Chapter 1: Life before the plants…
Some of the events in this prologue are borrowed from stuck_in_pi’s One Analyst’s Opinion. I strongly recommend this story, but not if you are new to HDG. There are a few stories out there that explain the universe better than I can.
Delaney Wilson sat in her office and looked out the window. The weather looked like it was going to turn nasty again; only a few weeks ago the first floor of the building that she and her family lived in had flooded, trapping them in the building until the waters receded. She was hoping that the same thing wasn’t about to happen again… She heard a sound through her open office door and looked over to see her partner, Natalie standing in the living room sitting her bags down on the couch. Delaney’s ey es wandered to the baby monitor where she could check on their daughters sleeping, they had remained asleep. Delaney held her finger to her lips; Natalie nodded and walked into the office.
Natalie gave Delaney a kiss on the lips and then looked at the display for the baby monitor. “How long have they been down?”
“About an hour and a half,” Delaney glanced up at Natalie. “What are we going to do for dinner, Mommy?”
“Do we have anything in the fridge?” Natalie asked, turning her attention to the window. “If we don’t we should probably go do a stocking run. I don’t like the way the sky looks.”
“We don’t really have anything in the fridge,” Delaney said, standing. “I guess I should go wake the girls and make sure that they are ready to go…” She paused and looked out the window. “What’s it like out there?”
“It’s chilly.” Natalie replied, shrugging. “I’d make sure Kirsten and Lilly are bundled up, you know how they get cold easily.”
Delaney nodded, and walked off to the room that the two ‘kids’ shared. Walking up to the full sized bed that was tucked into a corner to simulate it being a crib, she started speaking softly. “Kirsten, Lilly,” she said, her voice barely audible. “Mommy is home and we need to run to the store, so we need to get up.” Both girls opened their eyes slowly.
“Hi Mama…” Kirsten said groggily. “Imma need a changies.o“
Delaney chuckled. “You always do, little one.”
”Mama….” Kirsten blushed.
Lilly giggled. “I’m dry, Mama.” Kirsten turned to Lilly and stuck her tongue out.
“Don’t tease your sister…” Delaney said. “It’s not her fault that she has issues with nighttime control…” Lilly stopped and turned to face Delaney.
“But it’s not night time,” She said, causing Kirsten to blush.
“You know what I mean, now go get your hair brushed and get your boots on. Mommy said it’s cold out.” Delaney said, helping Kirsten up onto the changing table. The twenty year old could change her own diaper and did so if one of her mothers wasn’t around. It was hard on the girl. Between the almost constant waking up at night, and the close calls during the day; the girl had a diaper on all the time. One of the only things that helped was that she was always in skirts or dresses. “You really soaked through this one, kiddo.” Delaney removed the soggy diaper and tossed it into the diaper pail where it landed with a thud. She quickly pulled out a disposable and diapered the girl. “Alright, go put on what you had on before your nap and we will get you bundled up so we can go to the store.” She pulled her phone out and looked at the amount of credits they had in the account. There weren’t enough… There were never enough; she just hoped that they could stock up on stuff just to get through the apparent upcoming storm.
“What did Mama say to wear, Lilly?” Delaney heard Natalie ask Lilly.
“Mama said I should put my boots on, but I don’t want to wear them.. I want to wear these shoes…” Delaney heard Lilly say.
“Then I suggest you wear your boots…” Delaney said from the bedroom that her and Natalie shared. Her tone was that tone that moms use that means ‘Don’t question me about it, just do as your told.’ Lilly couldn’t even see the look that Delaney was giving but Delaney knew that she felt it.
“Yes, Ma’am…” Lilly said; Delaney could hear the dejection in her voice. The girl was almost always trying to get away with… something… She was a brat, after all. Delaney walked out of the bedroom and looked at the three of them.
“Everyone ready?” Delaney asked.
The general atmosphere when the four of them walked out on the sidewalk, such as it was outside, was one of defeat and foreboding. Kirsten grabbed Delaney’s hand and held on tight while doing her best to walk one step behind and to the right of her Mama. Lilly walked a step in front of Natalie, her face still wearing the pout from not being allowed to wear the shoes that she wanted to wear. Bringing up the rear was Natalie; The four of them made for a semi normal looking group on the streets, but there were some that lived in the district that didn’t like the fact that a group of four girls lived together, let alone that two of them hadn’t always been girls. Lilly and Kirsten both walked, focusing on Delaney’s heels; Delaney and Natalie’s heads were on a swivel, watching for threats. Nothing presented itself as such as the four of them walked into the store that was located down the street from the building that their apartment was in. Once in the store, Delaney grabbed a cart and headed toward the aisle where the synthcubes were. Natalie sighed as she grabbed as many as they had the credits to purchase. “I’m so sick of these things…” Delaney said, sighing. It was the first thing that any of them had spoken since they had left the apartment. The sentiment around the synthcube was somewhat universal; and most people didn’t make enough credits to be able to afford real food.
By the time they had gotten back to the apartment building it had started to rain again, it was light, for now, but glancing at her data pad, she could see that there was going to be a sustained period of heavy rain soon. The owners of the building knew that the first floor would flood, and they did nothing about it as no one would force them to. Delaney wished that they had the credits to move, but, as the housing was provided by her employer, she knew that finding anywhere else to live would cost more. As they entered the apartment, her datapad made a sound indicating an incoming message. Before she had set the bag down, there was a second chime. This time from both her office and the datapad; more dings as she ran to her office to see what the fuss was about. Her datapad rang. It only did that when her boss wanted her. She pulled it out and looked at it. Sure enough, Jason was calling her.
“Yes?” She said, answering the call and starting to skim the now thirty plus messages in the chat for the newsroom.
“So, we’re hearing chatter from highly placed government sources that some kind of antimatter missile was being tested against an Affini ship and the thing shunted these missiles to hyperspace or… something.” Jason said, clearly agitated; usually any news from the government was propaganda, but they had been watching as Terran Cosmic Navy ship after ship with tens of thousands of personnel just simply went missing. The sailors were presumed to be killed in action. To have the government announce the failure of a weapon that should have obliterated an Affini vessel was saying something: the Accord was losing this war. “They have asked that we not make any broadcasts about it, but something might be happening.”
One of the things in the messages on the computer was a video. Delaney was only half paying attention to the voice on her datapad as the rest of her attention was directed toward the video. On the screen a TCN warship floated there, stricken and disabled, an Affini ship jumped in as a destroyer uncloaked from behind a moon and fired what appeared to be a bunch of missiles at the Affini ship before the missiles all disappeared. “Have you seen this video that Tess posted in the chat?” The video showed vines reaching out to engulf the two ships on the screen and then it abruptly ended, the video looping back to the beginning.
“No, there’s video of it?” Jason said, the sound of him getting up and tapping on something. Delaney guessed he was pulling up the video to watch it himself. “What does this even mean for the war effort?”
“I have no idea…” Delaney heard a noise behind her and saw that Natalie was staring at the screen, mouth open. “I’ll call you back, Jason, Wilma is calling me…” Without waiting for a response, Delaney hung up the call on the datapad, reached over and pulled Natalie into the office, shutting the door. “You can’t tell anyone that you’ve seen that. If anyone knows that you’ve seen it, you might be in danger. I suspect that this has been very suppressed…”
“Understood,” Natalie said, watching the video play again. “Since I have contacts, I’m going to see if I can find out what happened there. Those look like our vessels, but it could just be more Affini propaganda…” That had been a problem plaguing Delaney for a few weeks. Every so often, even though the security codes for the planetary broadcasting system were changed regularly, The Affini would broadcast a message to the populace and the engineers were powerless to do anything about it. It was almost as if the Affini were trying to flaunt their technical prowess.
“For some reason, I don’t think this is propaganda…” Delaney said, “This happened… I think we need to make escape plans, just in case…” Natalie nodded, understanding the reasoning: things could go south in a hurry…
Delaney sat at her desk in her office, looking out the window. It had rained for several days and, like she anticipated, the access to the first floor of the building was cut off. Natalie walked up to the door of her office and knocked. Delaney spun and looked at her spouse. The baby monitor showed the girls sleeping; Rain almost always made them sleepy. “Got a minute?” Natalie asked.
“Yeah,” Delaney watched as Natalie closed the door and sat in the chair that sat next to the desk. “What’s up?”
“I have some info for you…” Natalie smiled. She like to take her time to provide information; the windup was almost always worth it though.
“About?” Delaney asked, There was quite a few things that Natalie could have information about.
“The video,” The smile widened. “I know what it was about.”
“Oh…” Delaney questioned, She had watched that video enough times that she could practically view it if her eyes were closed.
“Ok, but,” Natalie paused and looked at Delaney, knowing what she was about to say didn’t need to be said, but better safe than sorry. “This is off the record, deep background only.”
“Understood.” Delaney said. She had gotten information from Natalie before and it was always off the record.
“The video was from an OCNI vessel called the Whisper; the subject of the video was an Appalachian class cruiser called the Serpent; and the vessel that fired the missiles was the Lancer class destroyer, the Jenkins.” Natalie glanced out the window before turning her attention back to Delaney. “There is a team that is trying to devise a way to beat the Affini in battle. What you saw was a video of them testing something called the Vanish missile, rumor has it that the Vanish missiles had anti-matter. Officially, these things don’t exist.”
“They vanished all right, but they didn’t touch that Affini ship…” Delaney said quietly.
“Yeah…” Natalie said, her voice very quiet now. “There is chatter that I’ve been seeing of a recommendation to surrender and for the Accord to fall.”
“There’s no way…” Delaney said, shaking her head. “We might have lost a few engagements, but there’s no way that they would just roll over and surrender.”
“I’m just telling you the chatter I’m picking up,” Natalie said, shrugging. “This team seems to be a team that is comprised of the best of the best of engineers and analysts, but I can’t find anyone who knows who is on this team and I don’t want to ask too many questions…”
“I’ll start digging and see what I can find,” Delaney said, movement on the baby monitor catching her attention. “Looks like the girls are starting to wake from their nap. Should probably go get them up so that they don’t sleep so much sleep doesn’t happen tonight.”
It had been days since the video of the twenty missiles vanishing and two Accord vessels being captured had been distributed to the team that Delaney worked for. She sat at her desk and pondered. Natalie walked up to the door of the office and knocked. Delaney turned and looked at her, pausing the video that showed a plant and a human. The human, a short looking man sat smiling at the camera, the lights glinting off of a shiny collar around his neck, the Affini next to him relaxed, and a vine reaching over to hold the collar.
“Got a minute?” Natalie asked, taking note of the video on the screen. “Another one?”
“Yeah, this is apparently Conner Remaldi, first floret and his owner, Temus Remaldi.” Delaney shrugged. “According to Conner, he had volunteered for the live fire test on the CNS Jenkins.”
“Wait, volunteered?” Natalie asked, her voice confused. “The crew wasn’t assigned to the vessel?”
“Apparently not…” Delaney said, consulting her datapad. “Everything that I have found says that with the exception of the principals in this ‘Operation Battery Staple’ are 100% volunteer; and the principals were all hand picked by the person heading the operation.”
“I’ve heard a lot of strange code names,” Natalie said, shaking her head. “That takes the cake… Any ideas about who is in charge of this group?”
“Most code names are generated by a computer and offer little to no information as to what the operation is…” Delaney said. ”I’m not surprised that the name doesn’t mean anything. But, with the name, I will see if I can figure out who is in charge of this group. I’ll also see if I can find anything on this Connor person. That’s what they want to do to all of us; take us as pets, turn us into mindless drones, at least if you listen to their propaganda… They obviously have technical superiority, Our encryption methods are trivial to them, as is pretty much everything else about how we live. I’m wondering if it won’t be so bad if they just take over…”
“I mean, they do keep doing things to show the populace that they are simply trying to help and that we would probably be better off as a species with them in charge…” Natalie said. “I have a whole slew of these propaganda videos saved; they all look similar. Always some captured Terran singing the praises of the Affini; It doesn’t look coerced either, scripted, maybe, but not coerced.”
“Would you?” Delaney asked, looking at Natalie. The stress of her work was showing on her face and in her red hair slowly starting to grey. “If it were just you and not the four of us?”
“If it were just me?” Natalie said, her right hand reaching up to scratch the back of her head. “I might…” She looked at Delaney. “What about you?”
“I would.” Delaney replied. “But it’s not just me, it’s the four of us. I don’t know that they would take the four of us as one.”
Delaney glanced up at the six TV’s hanging on the wall of her office. All six of them were showing various programming that was being broadcast by TNN, or the Terran News Network. While the planet only had one news agency, they were responsible for most of the broadcasting, with content provided by the various media corporations for the various channels. As Delaney worked for the news division, she mainly kept the others on because sometimes there would be breaking news that she would have to bring into the fold and move to the main news channel. All of the sudden all six TV’s showed a news desk that looked like the one the TNN used, with the exception of the fact that it had the letters TPN instead.
“Mommy!” Kirsten's voice came from the living room. “Something is wrong with the TV.” Delaney fumbled with the remote and unmuted one of the TV’s so she could hear what was being said.
“— seeing and hearing this, Affini fleets are warping into the Sol system. Within hours, Terra will fall and a peace treaty will be signed, folding the Accord into the Compact as the new Terran Protectorate.” A female human said. There was no Affini in the frame, but there had to be one near by. Both anchors were dressed in somewhat dressy attire, but not too far off from what anchors of TNN would be wearing.
”We know this is a frightening prospect. Rumors and propaganda have told you stories of forced labor, slavery, and torture. None of these things are true.” The male on the screen said. His blonde hair was kept and looked professionally taken care of. The collar around his neck reflected the lights that lit him for the camera. Delaney’s datapad started ringing, but she couldn’t bring her self to pull away from the video on the TV.
”What the Compact offers is freedom. Freedom from everything that oppresses you under the Accord. Freedom from the job you hate, freedom from the societal roles the Accord has stuffed you into. All the Affini will ever ask of you is to be yourself, no matter who that might be.” The female reached up and moved some of her brown hair back behind her ear.
“Gone are the days of struggling to make ends meet. Gone are the days of synthcubes, the days of figuring out how to afford medical treatment. The days of doing something you hate because it’s the only way to keep your family fed are over.” The Male anchor said. Natalie burst into Delaney’s office and stared, transfixed. Delaney barely processed the multitude of chiming sounds coming from her computer.
“The Compact provides for all its citizens. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what you want to be. They can make your dreams come true, and the Affini want nothing more than to do just that: make your dreams come true. We’re only here because we chose to be, because we believe so much in our new lives that we wanted to share this with you. It’s been..." There was a pause as the anchor searched for the word she wanted. "magical.” The female said, a smile on her face. Something about this broadcast was different from all of the other propaganda videos. Delaney glanced at her monitor and saw that Jason had promised whoever took this broadcast off the air would have time off.
“In fact, the entire production team is here of their own free will. We’ve all chosen, by ourselves, to be here and give this message to you. You do not need to be afraid for your future. Will things change once the Affini arrive, of course they will. But only changes for the better.” Based on the volume of messages, nothing was working to take the broadcast off the air.
”Unfortunately, we may not make it to your system for some time still. The Compact needs to ensure each sophont under their care is properly supported, and doing so takes time. But we promise you, we are coming. For those of you on a planet yet to be liberated, we ask only for your patience. Do not waste your energy or lives fighting a fight that you no longer need to fight. Your freedom is at hand, all you need to do is wait.” The female looked calm. Neither of the two anchors looked like they were under the influence of anything. They looked even more sober than the TNN anchors.
“For the remnants of the Terran Cosmic Navy, we ask all ship commanders to surrender immediately. The war is over, the Accord will soon be no more. All your continued resistance would do is waste time needlessly. We will find you, disarm you, and bring you into the Compact, giving you a chance to find out what your life would have been like if you hadn’t been caught in this cycle of violence.” The Male glanced at his female co-anchor and watched as she spoke.
“What is going on?” Natalie said, still trying to process what was happening on the screen. Delaney ignored her.
“And for those of you conscripted into the TCN, know this. We do not wish to harm you. We want nothing more than to disarm your warships and bring you home safely. We know this may be difficult, that you may be serving under officers who will not heed our call for surrender. But we will find ways to help you, to ensure that as many of you are brought home safely as possible.” The female smiled again; it looked genuine. She turned her head toward the Male anchor. This didn’t look rehearsed, it looked as if they were seeing this for the first time.
”The Affini do not practice punishment. They do not practice torture. If you surrender, you will not be harmed. You will be welcomed with open arms, invited to join a society where you might live without fear of reprisal. A society where you can, after a lifetime of strife, relax.” The Male anchor said, turning back toward the female anchor.
”A society that will soon be yours. Take care of each other. A new day is coming soon.” And with that, the screen faded into a new flag and some ancient instrumental music played. Delaney and Natalie looked at each other as datapads and computers in multiple parts of the apartment started making a bunch of alerts.
“Uh…” Delaney said. “I think the war might be over soon…” She glanced at her datapad and answered the call from Jason.
“Delaney!” Jason sounded like he was about to blow a gasket. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know,” Delaney said. “All of the sudden they had the six streams I had running in my office. I don’t think the source was terrestrial.” She glanced at the TV, still showing the flag and playing the music.
“Figure out if you can get it off our air or consider yourself fired.” Jason said. “I’ll send the police to you if it doesn’t happen, you will be tried for Treason.” Delaney and Natalie looked at each other. “Do you understand me?” Delaney looked at Natalie and nodded. She left the room. She was going to be getting the girls ready to leave.
“I understand, but I tried the kill codes and they didn’t do anything while they were broadcasting.” Delaney said “I don’t know how they did it, but it wasn’t the normal way they get in.”
“Then figure out how to make it not happen again…” The call disconnected.
“Where are we going to go?” Natalie asked, she had the girls and they all had backpacks on, they contained the essentials that they would need for a multi day stay somewhere.
“Take the girls, go to your parents place,” Delaney said. “I will be along in a few days. I just need to occupy them long enough to make sure you three are safe.” Natalie gave Delaney a hug and a kiss. Delaney did the same to Kirsten and Lilly. “Be good for Mommy. I’ll contact you when I acquire a new comm unit.”