Two Worlds – Chapter 197

Benjamin Gold

Location: Savannah City, New Savannah, United Commonwealth of Colonies

Ben moved quickly around the apartment, but “apartment” was a bit of an understatement. Ben was in the penthouse of the large Gold Technologies building located at the center of the defense complex. The space was reserved specifically for major shareholders to use when visiting the planet, and as a Gold, Ben had a right to it. He could have lived in the officer’s barracks with all the other soldiers and spacers assigned to the planet, but it was probably best that he didn’t.

His winds of fortune in the fleet had shifted, and there was nothing he could do about it. He knew he’d done the right thing when he strong armed RADM Nelson into evacuating New Lancashire. He’d seen what the Star Kingdom’s forces were capable of, and he wasn’t going to let tens of thousands of men get slaughtered for no reason. He’d thought out the legal consequences on the spot when he made his decision, but he didn’t consider how he would be looked at by the rank and file.

Someone had to be the scapegoat for the defeat, and Ben had offered himself up on a silver platter. By some miracle, he’d been allowed to keep Argo for the time being, but he knew Stillwater had orders to get rid of him when the opportunity presented itself. It sucked, it was wrong, Ben was pissed, but he’d come to accept it. If anything, the sting was going to be even worse when he couldn’t see Jacobi anymore.

Ben hurriedly placed two candles on the table and a pair of wine glasses. The candles were old-school wax, not the modern polyfibers most people used. The glasses were real glass too. The penthouse was stocked with luxury items to ensure the guests retained their lavish lifestyle.

<A lifestyle I might be returning to sometime soon,> Ben thought, as he took a lighter and flicked it with his thumb. The polyfiber candles could light themselves, but there was primal satisfaction in creating fire with your own hands that he couldn’t pass up. After a few clicks the yellow flame ignited and he held it for a few seconds over each wick.

It caught, and the smell of lavender began to permeate the air around the table. Everything was set for the date. The chef was in the kitchen preparing the meal, Ben was taking care of the wine, and the server would come out with their courses when Ben gave the signal. This was something he never would have been able to engineer as lowly LCDR Gold, but as Benjamin Gold, it was expected.

He didn’t want to think about what was going to happen to his naval career. He expected someone with four or five golden stripes to torpedo it. He’d written a few emails to now ADM Helms in First Fleet for advice or guidance, but hadn’t received anything back. Ben didn’t think he would be hearing anything. The ADM was smart enough to see a sinking ship and not attach himself to it. He was still a new ADM, and he wasn’t going to ruffle any feathers in his new position.

All of that left Ben totally fucked, and at the mercy of people who wanted to sweep him under the rug and forget he existed. He wasn’t going to let that happen. He’d resign his commission and take up his place in Gold Technologies before letting someone completely sideline him. The fact that he was willing to throw away everything he’d worked so hard to achieve said a lot about how important he thought the near future was, and how much he thought he could contribute. He still had a lot to offer. He’d been thoroughly involved with the Star Kingdom’s phony peace process back on New Lancashire. He would have called Churchill an almost-friend if his people weren’t backstabbing traitors, but that didn’t negate everything he’d learned from the man during their many conversations and negotiations.  Ben had also seen the enemy in action, which was the entire reason he was on New Savannah.

He pushed all of that to the back of his mind as he checked his watch. He had five minutes before Jacobi was expected to arrive, and she was always on time. A quarter of her life spent making time hacks for the infantry tended to do that to a person, so it was a bit of a surprise when the bell chimed early. Ben had spent several years under those same time management requirements, so he was all set to go already. He checked himself in the mirror to make sure he looked good, he gave the table a once over, gave the waiter a thumbs up to bring the wine out in a minute, and went to answer the door.

“Hello, J…” Ben stopped dead in his tracks, and his mind actually froze in surprise. “Dad?”

In the doorway to the penthouse stood Thomas Gold, President and CEO of Gold Technologies, owner of worlds, and one of the richest and most powerful men in the galaxy.

“You’re actually surprised to see me?” the elder Gold’s lips rose in a smile, and it wasn’t because he was seeing his son for the first time in nearly six months. It was because he’d caught Ben by surprise.

Ben’s mind recalibrated on the spot to the tests his father liked to give his children. “I should have expected you’d show up,” Ben answered after a second and stepped aside to let him in. Technically his dad owned the place.

“Some of the most ground breaking technological innovations in the Commonwealth is happening a kilometer from this penthouse, and I’ve pulled a lot of strings to make sure Gold Technologies is a part of it.” Thomas was followed by a small entourage of people. Half a dozen of them were security in black smartcloth suits.

Ben noticed Curtis among them, and nodded to the retired SEAL. Curtis returned the gesture before continuing toward the bedroom with some mysterious cases. Ben didn’t even get to complain as they quickly moved all of his stuff out of the master and into one of the smaller guest rooms. Thomas always got the biggest room in the place, that was how he operated, and it even involved throwing out his own flesh and blood.

“Please, go right ahead.” Ben grumbled as he sat back down at the table. Jacobi hadn’t even shown up yet and the date was officially ruined.

<Jacobi!> As covertly as possible, Ben pulled out his PAD and went to send an abort message to her, but her punctuality got the best of him.

The door chimed again, and six hands went to weapons concealed on the security guards’ persons. “Stand down.” Ben waved to them all as he went to answer the door. “I had plans.”

“I bought a bottle of that shitty…” Jacobi stopped her joke mid telling when she saw the fire-team-sized element in the room watching her closely.

“Sorry,” Ben was sure his eyes and face conveyed the apology much better than words ever could. “My dad dropped by unannounced.”

“Dad?” Jacobi looked around Ben to see Thomas manipulating a set of holos that had spontaneously sprung up around him. “Oh my god…”

Befitting his position, Thomas Gold was a bit of a rock star like any truly successful business mogul before him. Ben didn’t judge Jacobi when her eyes went as big as saucers and he could see the fan girl in her start to come out, but he couldn’t hide the irritation on his face.

“Who is it?” Thomas asked as he swept his arm and the screens disappeared.

“This is my friend Lieutenant Jacobi Wentworth.” Ben didn’t know if they were boyfriend and girlfriend. They hadn’t set any labels to what they had, and the fact they were sleeping together regularly didn’t matter. “Jacobi, my dad, Thomas Gold.”

“Sir…I…sir…it’s an honor,” Jacobi stumbled over her words as she went to shake his hand. The security people shadowed her the whole way, and looked ready to take her down at a moment’s notice. “I’m a huge fan of your company’s work in nanotech. I’ve even have a few of my own theories about their usage in neural capacities.”

“I know.” Thomas Gold smiled back at her and shook her hand. “My son forwarded some of your proposals to some of our programmers and they’re intrigued.”

Now it was Jacobi’s turn to look surprised. Ben just shrugged when she looked back at him. That was one of the reasons he’d gone the extra mile on their date tonight. He wanted to tell her the good news.

“I…” Ben didn’t get a change to finish, because she crossed the room and planted her lips firmly against his. “Um…you’re welcome.” He didn’t know what else to say when she pulled away.

“You shouldn’t have. I didn’t have anything formally prepared yet.” Despite that, she was smiling.

“I know it’s your passion, and the developers here are willing to work with you when we’re not training, so at least you guys can build a foundation before whatever happens happens.” Ben kept it intentionally vague due to their company.

“I’m well aware of the SRRTs and your mission parameters, more so than you until the rest of your team arrives to begin your training.”

Ben scowled at his father before slamming the door closed. “That’s not something we should be talking about here.”

“Why not?” Thomas waved a hand and the server that was supposed to be serving Ben and Jacobi sprang into action to set another place at the table. “Every counterintelligence gadget imaginable is installed in this penthouse, and I was one of the people who helped pitch the idea for the SRRTs.”

Ben knew his father had reach and influence with the people that ran the Fleet, but he didn’t know that extended to strategic decision making.

“It’s logical.” Thomas sat down in one of the chairs and accepted a glass of wine. “We can’t afford the big toys until we are able to establish meaningful trade with the Hegemony, and Windsor is making that impossible with their targeted raids and harassment. If the Star Kingdom keeps this up it could be years before Hegemony markets open up to the Commonwealth.”

“Death by a thousand cuts,” Ben acknowledged as he took the seat across from Thomas, and Jacobi settled in between them as a buffer.

“Exactly.” Thomas nodded in appreciation of the wine. “But like all good businessmen, I found a loophole.” The salads arrived, and Thomas poured a healthy amount of dressing onto the greens. “The audit for the Commonwealth might never be completed, but the individual audits for corporations within the Commonwealth are coming along nicely. Mackintosh Shipping was the first to complete their part. Ezekiel is playing the brave trailblazer for his fans, but Gold was number two. As such, our standing and worth in the Hegemony has been assessed, and Bob has deemed corporations as worthy interim trading partners.

“That’s genius,” Jacobi stared transfixed at Thomas.

“Humans have been getting creative with their accounting since the practice was invented. We’re just bringing that to a bigger stage,” Thomas shrugged. “Compared to the Commonwealth as a whole, corporations have much smaller potential in the eyes of the Hegemony, but through us, the Commonwealth can start to act. Defense contracts are being awarded and deals struck so that the corporations have the funds to start rolling out these new products.”

“But there are laws regarding Commonwealth-level contracts, their amounts, and their uses,” Ben played devil’s advocate. Mostly, because he wanted to find a flaw in his father’s plan, and he knew weapons contracts could be pretty stingy, especially with uncertified tech.

“True,” Thomas finished his salad and waved for the main course to come out even though Ben and Jacobi were still working on theirs. “The Representatives are working on making adjustments, but the Progressives are pushing back because of their beliefs on corporate interference, so I doubt we’ll see that until the situation gets really dire. What we have been able to do is get the legal amount of funding and start moving forward.” Thomas cut into a perfectly cooked portion of New Savannah steak and sighed. “With the funding we did get we had a choice to make. We could either get one of those monster gluon generators for a battleship-sized vessel, or a number of smaller ones. We chose to go with quantity because you can’t mount a successful offense or defense from a single platform.”

“So you’re arming a bunch of gunboats to do exactly what the Windsors are doing to us.” Ben pieced it all together.

“Right again,” Thomas made sure to slather his steak in a local sauce before taking another bite. “We’ll have twenty gunboats, with twenty SRRT teams, using next-gen tech while cruising around behind enemy lines, disrupting commerce, raiding lightly-defended infrastructure, and causing general mayhem. Hopefully, that’s enough to get the Kingdom to pull back some of their forward deployed firepower to focus on defending what they’ve already stolen. If you guys can buy some time, then the bean counters might actually be able to finish this audit and open meaningful trade.”

“It might work,” Ben conceded, but he knew only time would tell. The Star Kingdom didn’t operate the same way as the Commonwealth, so who knew if this would really divert their attention like Thomas was hoping.

“Which brings us back to you,” Thomas turned his attention fully to Jacobi and smiled. Ben didn’t like the way she smiled back. “Now that we’re open to some of the military and commercial products, we’re going to start to develop our own brands. Hegemony patents are owned on things like the BioSeed, but if we tweak it enough we’ll fall outside those patents, and the products themselves might be more readily usable by humans. After all, who is going to make a better product; humans or aliens?”

“That could be your slogan.” Ben knew he sounded pouty, and tried to hide it with a sip of wine.

“Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll run it by legal and PR,” Thomas turned it around, which only pissed Ben off more. “We’ll be looking at your neural nanotech suggestions in trying to create our own bio-interface. We’ve been toying with the idea for a while, but it wasn’t cost effective. Now that we know there are numerous of secondary revenue streams to go with it, we’re exploring it more vigorously.” Thomas’ attention was back on Jacobi.

“It’s a workable premise, but I’ll have to see the data to know where we’re starting from.” Jacobi was practically salivating.

“I’ll make sure you have clearance to the labs right away,” Thomas replied, brought up a holo, tapped the air a few times, and it was done.

Ben’s smile was strained when Jacobi’s beaming face turned to him. He’d made her life’s dream come true, so why did he feel like his dad was stealing all of his thunder. In the romantic date Ben had meticulously planned, he was now feeling like the third wheel.

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