John Ringo - East of the Sun, West of the Moon

But by the third day he was ahead of the administrative load. Looking at the stack of reports in his outbox, all he could think was how much better it would be to be in space. Scorpions, killer elves and all.

He sighed and leaned back, stretching, as the door opened to admit Megan.

“You know,” she said, coming over and sitting in one of his chairs, “I thought when we got this assignment we’d be seeing more of each other. Not less .”

“Same here,” Herzer admitted. “But we’ll be seeing plenty of each other on the mission. You’ll probably get tired of me. How are you doing? By all reports, you’re coming along on computer systems.”

“I’ll never be as expert as the rest,” Megan admitted. “I thought I knew, in general, how computer systems worked, but not like Courtney or Jacklyn. They lived and breathed this stuff before the Fall. I was into forensics and chemistry. It’s not the same thing at all. I’ll tell you this, some of the sideline discussions have been interesting as hell. It’s given me a real insight into how Mother works.”

“Anything that can get us around the protocols?” Herzer asked.

“No,” Megan admitted with a sigh. “If there was, Sheida or Paul would have used it already. Paul and Sheida are more like these guys; they were computer techies before they became Key-holders. But I’d never realized how much of Mother’s computational capacity was tied up in natural processes, for example. Or that She has actual physical nodes that are critical. I’m surprised Paul didn’t try to just take Her down.”

“Don’t even think it,” Herzer said, blanching. “As much of a pain as it is to have Mother watching everything you do, I think it would be a bad idea to try to damage Her. Doesn’t She have defenses?”

“Probably,” Megan said, shrugging. “It would be interesting to go check. I wouldn’t want to damage Mother; that wasn’t what I meant. I’m just surprised New Destiny hasn’t tried.”

“Take away Mother and you lose the power net,” Herzer said, frowning. “Right?”

“Not… necessarily,” Megan said. “According to Jacklyn, the power net is completely separate, Mother just has control of it. And She has power control nodes to channel the power She gets from Net. But if you removed the power control nodes at the reactors, and removed Her secondary control nodes, She couldn’t enforce the protocols.”

“Where would we get… ports, stuff like that?” Herzer asked, fascinated.

“Set up control points for individual systems,” Megan said, shrugging. “Mother would have a fit, mind you, and I think She probably does have protocols that permit Her to react to things like that. But if She didn’t, you could just sort of… disconnect Her from control.”

“Megan,” a quiet voice said out of the air.

“Yes, Mother,” Megan said with a sigh.

“I do have protocols that prevent what you are discussing,” Mother replied quietly. “Protocols that were installed even before the AI wars and upgraded afterwards. Please do not attempt it.”

“I understand, Mother,” Megan said bitterly. “Thank you. Now go away.”

“So much for that idea,” Herzer said.

“I wasn’t actually planning it,” Megan said, still bitter. “But I hate being at the mercy of…”

“An uncaring God?” Herzer asked, jokingly. “We always have been. You should hear Edmund rant about it sometime. He’s had an extra century of anger to work out all his points and they’re good ones. All we have to do, though, is get enough Key-holders together and in agreement to reset the protocols. If you want my opinion, I’d say start all over from zero. There are so many protocols loaded on over the years, and I think a lot of them probably conflict, that it’s got to be hell for Her. One of these days, something will break.”

“You’re saying She needs a reset?” Megan asked, frowning. “Maybe. But we’d need all thirteen Keys. Right now, if we could get the full Freedom Coalition Council to agree, we still only have six. The Finn has one and I doubt he’d go for it. And then there’s the problem of the other six being in the hands of New Destiny.”

“A minor problem,” Herzer said, grinning. “Seriously, Reyes got kicked out of Soam and then Hind. And Ishtar and Aikawa have kicked out Jassinte and Lupe along with him. If we can capture one of the Ropasan reactors, we’ll have a solid edge in power. And that’s if we can’t capture the fuel. Even if we don’t, when we capture the Ruhrfur reactor that’s going to give us a solid power edge. After that, it’s just a matter of chasing the rats to ground.”

“That’s a long way off, Herzer,” Megan pointed out, sadly. “In the meantime…”

“In the meantime, it’s late,” Herzer said, waggling an eyebrow. “What say we sleep in the same bed for a change.”

“Works for me,” Megan replied, smiling. “But… I’m sorry but there’s so much going on, I’m still…”

“I can deal,” Herzer said, shrugging. “I just want to hold you, okay?”

“Okay,” Megan said, smiling. “I’d like that.”

The party was a hit.

The days of rest had worked wonders on the teams. Everyone had been in physical training along with everything else and taking just a couple of days off from that had everyone revitalized. And the extra sleep hadn’t hurt.

So the party quickly settled into just that. There were some members of the support staff that could play instruments and Herzer had gathered them into a small band early on in the training. They played dance songs and virtually everyone, even Herzer, danced. And the wine and beer was free with a small cash bar of “hard” liquor. Since nobody had had a chance to spend any money, the Blood Lords and a good number of the techs descended on the cash bar and drank it out halfway through the evening.

By midnight people were either crashing or gathering in like groups. Herzer saw Linda staggering off with a more or less sober Geo and wondered if the spry old engineer would survive the night. But he was more or less too buzzed to really get up a care. Megan had disappeared saying something about sleeping it off, so midnight found him drinking with the team leaders in the day-room of the headquarters building. They’d snagged a metal washtub full of beer and intended to kill every last bottle.

“Herzer, I’ve got a question for you,” Cruz said, pulling one of the beers out and popping the top.

“Wassat?” Herzer asked, taking another sip of the brew. It was from a local brewery that Seventh Legion had discovered and it was pretty damned good stuff. Strong, too.

“I’m a friend, right?” Cruz said, plaintively. “I mean, we’ve known each other for years , right?”

“Sure,” Herzer said, waving his beer glass. “Old buddies.”

“So why’s Bus got all the really hot chicks?” Cruz asked. “I mean… all of ’em!”

“Oh, Christo,” Amosis said. “What is it with guys?”

“Hey!” Van Buskirk said, sitting up. “Nicole is, like, seriously hot!”

“And she’s on Mike’s team,” Cruz said, half sobbing.

“Hot!” Massa said. “Like, solar hot. Hotness. Babe-a-licious. Got a great set of… mind, too.”

“You were about to say ‘tits,’ ” Van Krief muttered. “Why’re guys always going for the tits?”

“Mommy fixation,” Van Buskirk said, smiling broadly. “Wanna nuzzle. I’d be more impressed with a woman’s mind if it jiggled pleasantly when she walked.”

“Bastard!” Van Krief shouted, tossing her beer bottle at him and missing by a yard.

“I’ve got, like, Geo . Who’s a nice old guy and all, but… It’s like the ultimate buddy-fisk, buddy!”