Interesting Times

February 12th, 2174

14:23

Terra Nova, Asgard-System

Private Retreat, near Lake Teutates, outside Scott

I leaned back on my sun lounger and closed my eyes as I enjoyed the comfortable warmth of the sun shining down.

The weather had been perfect for a vacation during the last week, except for a single day of rain, and I had tried my best to stay those days outside and far away from any work.

If I looked back on the past years, it was high time to take a vacation since I couldn't remember when I did take one since the Alliance became a player in galactic politics.

Even before that, I hadn't taken off time for more than two weeks each year since the establishment of the Alliance itself, often interrupted by emergencies that needed my input.

And now?

Now, I hadn't done anything work-related since the beginning of February aside from regular check-ins so that I could reassure myself that everything was running smoothly without my input and that nobody was having a crisis that needed me to solve.

Surprisingly, it worked out.

Well, not truly surprising. After all, it would be impossible to run Ad Astra if the company couldn't function without my input. Otherwise, my time on Illium and focus on the Arbiter situation would have ruined it.

Furthermore, the company had grown far too large since I took it over from my father and turned it into what it is today. The shipbuilding and mining sections were large enough to need a copy of myself each to understand everything about them.

Thankfully, I had capable managers who sent me summary reports about past events, current and future operations, and projected costs and profits monthly so I could focus on politics and other topics.

Their loyalty and truthfulness were ensured by my reputation and the big paychecks they got, which showed numbers on them that others saw during a lotto draw.

Besides, I sent out auditing teams at irregular intervals to check if a rotten egg was hiding among them. Sometimes, it was better to check than to trust unequivocally. After all, I wanted the books to be without any hidden or wrong entries when the tax authority of the Alliance knocked at our door.

There was one thing even my reputation and influence couldn't save me from, and that was taxes. And the Alliance was a monster that devoured those taxes, and may whatever being one believed in help if someone tried to evade them. Even star systems could be held accountable by the tax authorities if something was wrong with their statements.

I slowly breathed out, letting any thoughts on taxes and potential betrayals from my employees disappear.

This wasn't the time to think about such things. Right now was the time to relax before I had to deal with business people and politicians again.

Yet, as I was about to slip into a light sleep with the sun tickling my face, a shadow fell over me, and I opened my eyes to send the interloper an annoyed look.

"I thought I told you I was taking a vacation and didn't want to be disturbed by you and yours," I said to Andrew Clark, who stood above me and rolled his eyes at my words.

"You did, and I did," he replied before letting out a sigh. "Yet, that was before you arranged a meeting with every leader of the different oppositional political factions and our former president."

"So what?" I asked. "Is the current head of government so insecure in their position that they have to send the director of the Alliance's Intelligence Services to me just because I'm going to talk with their political enemies and the person they replaced?"

"They did request me to ask what you're doing, that's true. But that is only part of the reason why I am here today."

"Concerning the political leaders: Officially, it is simply to understand their positions and perhaps find a way to compromise on certain political agendas. Finding solutions everyone can work with is hardly perfect, but it was better than the alternative. And Micheal? That is simply a meeting between two old friends, and we're going to simply discuss some things. Loudly. And in public."

"Is that your revenge for them trying to put you under house, or territory, arrest?" asked Andrew with a raised eyebrow.

"It certainly is not!" I protested vehemently and had an expression of overblown indignation that even a toddler wouldn't have believed. "I am above such petty revenge!"

"Well," commented Andrew and sat down on a chair nearby, "at least you're not actively plotting to overthrow the government. If I tell our dear president that she has to do some publicity work, everything should be fine in a few months. As long as you're not publicly endorsing a new candidate for the presidential position."

"Elections are in, what? Two years?" I asked, sending a look to Andrew.

"Two years," he confirmed with a nod.

"They are in two years. Enough time to do damage control and for the whole thing to blow over."

"Sometimes I believe you're forgetting how much sway you hold over the public. If you wanted, you could start riots in the streets throughout the Alliance territory, calling for elections tomorrow."

"And that's why I am not going to do that," I stated, waving his concerns away. "Just don't tell our dear Madam President and let her sweat a little. I just stopped a plan to throw the Alliance into chaos, and I am not throwing it into that state by myself. Not as long as it wouldn't help the Alliance to emerge stronger."

"But you would if you believed it would help the Alliance?" 

"Of course, I would coordinate with you first," I assured Andrew. "Having the spy faction on my side would help to kick it off and end it without too much blood spilled by our citizens."

"Blood is going to be spilled in the future in any case. So, please don't start anything. I have enough work to do without adding any madness to it."

I looked up at the tone Andrew was using and saw him grimacing at something unseen.

"You know something I don't?" I asked, trying to find out about whatever was going to happen that caused Andrew to make a face so full of exhaustion and weariness.

"At the end of the year, or the start of the new one, a combination of slavers and pirates is going to attack one of our colonies. Hard."

"Is that confirmed?" I asked, my focus sharpening despite my unwillingness to do anything work-related at the moment.

Andrew shook his head in response. "Nothing concrete. It's more the rumor mill working with a lot of signs that there is some truth to it. Yet, we can't find anything solid other than that the Batarian Hegemony is sponsoring one of their own to build up a fleet from the less-than-savory elements of the galaxy."

"Can we make a preventative strike?" 

"We have no idea who the head of the operations is, and at this moment, the Hegemony would simply replace him with another. Furthermore, there are talks that we should let the attack happen. Of course, only for a short time before our fleets rush in to push them out of the targeted system and colony."

"To have a reason for a far more damaging counterattack? To show the galaxy how far we have come since we held our own against the Turians at Shanxi and that they shouldn't mess with us?"

I could see the positives in letting the attack happen, yet it left a stale aftertaste on my tongue. From a purely logical standpoint, it would be great PR for the Alliance.

The commiseration from being the victim of a slaver raid, the relief and the sense of security created by liberating the colony in a timely manner, and the vindictive feeling of striking back against the scourge of the galaxy that is the slavers and pirates running free.

Each of those points alone could be exploited for propaganda.

On the other hand, you had the morale factor to consider. Nobody but a sociopath could see the amount of people that would suffer from an attack by pirates and slavers and think them nothing more than numbers on paper.

Perhaps it was easy to decide such a thing, yet it was an altogether different thing to live with the consequences, especially if they stared you directly in your face, as the people who had the power to let the attack happen would have to visit the affected world to save face and to keep the morale in the Alliance high.

Being confronted by the loss of life that happened at your word or hand was something one needed a strong will for.

Yet, perhaps I shouldn't preach on the subject too much since my hands weren't exactly clean, and I dirtied them for, as some would call them, 'lesser' reasons like greed. Besides, I once shot a Batarian pirate with my own hands just to desensitize me to the act of killing, to harden my heart, and to become ruthless when needed.

I would lie if I said that it didn't have its uses, yet the aftertaste of such an act wasn't something I wanted to become accustomed to.

A leader who didn't blink at such acts and saw them as ordinary wasn't the kind of person I wanted to put my complete trust into, and would be someone I would never turn my back on since I wouldn't know if a dagger would find a way into it if this hypothetical leader found it necessary to advance its goals.

Again, maybe I was a bit hypocritical and should take a look in a mirror, but I was human. I was allowed to be hypocritical. It was basically hardwired in our DNA!

In the end, the people who managed to balance both the logical and moral sides were those who got far in life and managed to gather loyal and competent followers around them since they generated a certain kind of charisma that made people believe in them.

Perhaps that was why I was so grateful to see my mixed feelings reflected on Andrew's face at the impossible decision he had to advise the president of the Alliance on.

Doubly so, since he was the director of the most powerful and influential intelligence service within the Alliance, after all. I would have hated to have a sociopath in that position.

Furthermore, it was a sign of the trust and closeness between Andrew and me that he let down his guard when we were alone to let me see what he was truly feeling instead of hiding it behind the mask he wore when he acted as the director of the AIS.

It was something I would do my best to never betray, not even by accident. Everybody needed a place and people they could relax around without the nagging thought of potential betrayal hanging above. That Andrew could do so around me was something of an honor to me, and I naturally responded in kind.

"All of the above and more," answered Andrew after a short pause with a sigh. "Another driving factor is that we want to warn the Batarians not to even think about going to war with us. Both our governments may be part of the Citadel and have embassies there, yet I think neither of us two believes that the Batarians give a single fuck about that. And the Batarians are gearing up for something which does not bode well for the Alliance. So, we want to use the counterattack to show them how far we are willing to go to avenge our citizens."

"You act, we overreact?"

"Exactly," answered Andrew with a nod.

Deciding that I wanted a new drink after I noticed that the ice cubes in my glass had turned to water, I stood up and walked over to a small freezer and pulled out two bottles of beer. One of which I held out to Andrew, who took the offered drink with thanks.

He emptied a third of the bottle in one go and gave off a satisfied sigh.

"We should change the topic," Andrew declared, holding the cold beer to his neck to cool it down. "Talking about raids and our hypothetical reactions is not a topic I want to think or talk about for too long. Instead, I wanted to ask how it goes with your clean-up on Illium. Found anything interesting?"

"The spoils are so-so. I could grab everything that the Circle put its name on quite easily since I am the last living member of this club and had all the appropriate codes and rights, yet anything the Arbiter put down as her private property, even Circle resources, is a bit trickier to get to. And don't get me started on what belonged to her and the others under their public personas. If I didn't already have agents in Cicerio's and De'Tiyovi's organizations, it would have been near impossible to grab as much as I did before the other sharks in the sea noticed they were up for grabs. At least, Nessara's holdings under her Arbiter pseudonym were hidden enough that it took longer for them to notice that there wasn't a person holding the leash anymore. The only regret I have is that my analysts took too long to break through her encryption to get everything she had to her name."

"Did you get at least a good yield? Probably, peanuts in comparison with what you already have."

I shook my head in response. "You're right. The amount of credits and actual worth is minuscule in comparison. If it was just about that, my 'Illium-Adventure' would have been a complete disaster since after subtracting everything I put into it, only a third to two-fifths remain as profit. Furthermore, it took far too long for such a small profit."

"Yet, you don't seem too unhappy about your gains," Andrew deduced from my expression and tone, pointing his half-empty bottle in my direction.

Raising my own in response to his deduction, I answered: "It's not about how much I got, but the what and where. Among the various investments of the Circle, there wasn't a single one that would give me a controlling interest or even a major voice on any company board, yet they were various and diversified. I've got now a foot in the door all around the galaxy, so to speak."

"And sometimes, a foot in the door is all you need to bang it open and rush into it to take everything."

"Exactly!" I laughed.

In truth, the outcome of my little adventure on Illium was even less satisfying than I hoped. Time, credits, and my attention to it were not wholly compensated by my gains, and even the information I pulled out of the other Circle members' databanks was less than I expected.

That is to say, it wasn't a complete failure, especially after looking through the secrets Nessara had squirreled away.

It was a surprise to discover that she was at least two centuries older than her public figure stated, close to becoming a Matriarch too, yet after seeing her proficiency with her biotics, it was easier to believe than to think she was some savant who probably could have become one of the most powerful and skilled Asari-Commando currently active in the galaxy if she went into military service.

Since she had planned to return to Thessia after she was well into her Matriarch phase, which may have taken another century, so not too far away for an Asari, she had already started to collect blackmail material and information on a number of other Asari that would have become her rivals on her homeworld.

Furthermore, and that was by far the most useful and important information I got out of her systems, she collected some rumors about the Temple of Athame. Those rumors were by themselves less than useful, and Nessara clearly hadn't known what she had in her hands if I interpreted her decision to ignore and not follow up on them correctly, yet I couldn't help the elated laugh that escaped me when I read them for the first time.

I had always worried about how I could plant a convincing false trail on how I came to the knowledge that the Asari hid a Prothean beacon in that temple if I ever had to use my knowledge. Having an excuse ready was far better than letting the Asari, who would undoubtedly want to know how I came across this little nifty fact, search through everything and maybe find something I didn't want them to know.

Blackmail was only useful insofar as the other side didn't have something equally as damaging about you in their hands.

Thankfully, no matter what they would find, nothing could beat the fact that the Asari had hidden an active Prothean beacon since the inception of the Citadel Council. It would be extremely damaging to their position and their reputation across the galaxy, especially since it had been they who had been the driving force behind the creation of the treaties that stated that every piece of active and inactive Prothean technology had to be reported to the Council and analyzed by scientists of their choice for the good of the galaxy.

I would say we have a winner for the biggest hypocrite of the galaxy.

"Also, I found some data caches that your analysts should look through. Perhaps something useful for you is among the data," I stated after taking another sip of my cold beer.

"Thanks," said Andrew. "The guys in Information Research are always happy to have new data on their desks to sift through. Can't understand how they like it so much, but maybe that's why they're there and not in the field."

"Everybody has their strengths and hobbies."

Andrew held up his empty bottle in salute, and I held out my hand, wordlessly asking if he wanted another one, which got me a nod.

"So, what are your plans going forward?" asked Andrew after I opened a new beer for him and handed him the bottle. "I mean, except driving our president up the walls with your meetings."

I took some time before I answered. After all, the list I put together was rather long for the next year, and a vague outline for the year after also already existed.

"First of all, I am going to enjoy this vacation as long as I can, and besides this little interruption, I simply want to relax and shut out reality for a moment."

"Naturally," replied Andrew with a wistful look. "I wish I could take a vacation. But I think if I did, part of our intelligence apparatus would collapse due to infighting. There are a lot of ambitious people in the AIS, and everyone wants to climb up the ladder."

"Ever thought of finding a successor?" I asked.

"Of course, but among those wanting the position, I haven't found one I want to mentor for the position yet. Furthermore, anyone I train to succeed me will have to fend off attempts to discredit them constantly and gain their respect and loyalty at the same time."

"Sounds like a pain."

"Oh, it is," agreed Andrew with a roll of his eyes. "Thankfully, that is the only problem within the AIS. And it isn't something that is having an effect on any of our operations."

"It is not?"

"No," said Andrew with a shake of his head. "Everybody knows what is at stake if we don't do our jobs perfectly. We are humanity's guardian in the shadows, and if we don't do our duty, it's the lives of our fellow humans that are lost in the end."

"It is good to know that the people preventing the worst from becoming reality take their jobs seriously."

"It is. Now, back to my question. What are your plans?"

"I don't plan anything special in the following months. A tour of all my holdings within the Alliance, starting with a visit to the university here. They asked me to give a couple of lectures for the business course, and everyone interested in it."

"Considering a teaching position?" teased Andrew.

"Not really," I replied, shaking my head. "At least not for now. Perhaps when I am in my eighties."

Thanks to the increasing average lifespan of humans, it wasn't too strange to consider a teaching position in an university at an age where two hundred years ago, one should be happy enough to still be alive.

Nowadays, unless due to extraordinary circumstances, it was normal to have enough energy, health, and motivation to accomplish goals as if one were in one's fifties during my previous life. 

"After that," I continued, "I am going to visit different holdings, and meet with the people working there. It should be good to make my presence known. They haven't seen me take notice of them for quite some time, and they deserve to be commemorated for their hard work and loyalty."

"Good old PR work, right?"

"Yes," I agreed. "There is nothing better than showing you care personally about them to keep discontent low."

"Anything else?"

"Nothing too strenunous. If you need me for anything, you can call me. I should get away from my plans without much trouble."

"And you still didn't say what you will be doing. Are you evading my question on purpose? Something you don't want me to know? Or are you simply difficult for the heck of it?"

I grinned at Andrew and saw him rolling his eyes good-naturedly when I answered: "The latter."

"It is nothing special. I want to pay the people Nessara nd Cicerio contacted about my potentials demise and the opportunity it presents a visit. A simple reminder that an opportunity for success can turn sour quickly if one bets on the wrong horse."

"And what are you planning?"

"A few lost contracts. A bad quartal or two. As long as they are wise, there will be no further consequences. If not? Well, they won't like it."

"You are only giving them a warning? That sounds quite merciful from you. I would have expected you to grind them into the dust for daring to go against you," commented Andrew.

"They didn't go against me directly. They were presented with an opportunity and didn't conspire against me. A warning should be enough, especially for those uninvolved. Furthermore, I lately spent too much time on minor things, letting them distract me from leading my company and everything else. I am not going to repeat that mistake if I can help it," I responded with a wry smile.

Hopefully, I would stand by my words. One could never know what the future brings, but I would do my best to concentrate on my goals and evaluate chances more thoroughly before jumping in.

"Well," said Andrew, holding up his beer, "at least I won't have to deal with the fallout of you going on a rampage through the Alliance's businessworld."

"Now, why should I go through a rampage through my kingdom?" I asked, clinking my bottle with Andrew's.

"To our kingdoms," he raised a toast, which I returned with a smile, and despite my unwillingness to acknowlege it, I was quite eager to get back to work.