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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/KamchatkasRevenge on 2024-10-29 00:00:42+00:00.

The behemoth that was the Crimson Tear crossed the void of stars in silence. Space was silent after all, and the massive engines emitted no noise outside of her hull. Deep in the black, off the edge of the map in the depths of wild space it could be a very lonely place. While many parts of Wild Space bustled with life and activity, just as many places were truly a galactic no man's land. Too far out of the way, or lacking in resources, phenomena of scientific interest or even rocks with the vague potential to be habitable to make a place a good base for pirates.

Today however, she did not cross the void alone.

Her usual consort, the Audacious, was out on patrol, and the frigate Gutripper was flying wing for the much larger vessel. Normal enough. Less normal was the vessel that almost massed as much as the Crimson Tear herself. The heavily armored bulk of the second Dauntless class vessel, the Inevitable. The people of Earth had sent out a fact finding mission. The information that had come back from the wider galaxy was too strange, so wild that it beggared belief.

Or so the representatives of the Earth said.

In Jerry Bridger's opinion on the other hand, it was simply the governments of mankind getting a look at the galaxy outside them, the blinders finally falling away, and realizing just how small they were in the grand scheme of things.

The entire Human population could cram into a single large spire on Centris. If it was limited to Humans only instead of including any alien family those Humans might have picked up, it wouldn't even be the most populous spire on Centris.

The numbers were shocking, and rational Human minds struggled to comprehend them. There was a reason that one of the Human teams who did analysis of such things in Diana's intelligence section had adopted the Cheshire Cat as their mascot.

Because we're all mad here.

So the Inevitable, allegedly arranged to be more 'loyal' to Earth, somehow, had been sent, and with them had come the leader of the mission, Observer Wu. A former Hong Kong police inspector who had been selected as, pretty much literally now, the most objective individual that could be found on Earth. He would be the one to be Earth's eyes and ears, to confirm what the Dauntless and the Undaunted had already sent back.

Jerry had done an interview with Observer Wu previously. Purely surface level, an introduction. This meeting was a bit less cordial.

"So... You've promoted yourself to Admiral from commander. An impressive rise to power."

Jerry raises an eyebrow. An interesting place to start.

"I didn't promote myself to any grade. Admiral Cistern promoted me to captain on taking command of this ship, a rank warranted by commanding a vessel of this size with thousands of crew and civilians aboard. The Undaunted admiralty board then promoted me to admiral based on my actions in service to the Undaunted, and Humanity."

Wu nods, taking notes for a moment.

"Do you hold these things are one and the same?"

"I do."

"Why does Admiral Cistern and your Undaunted get to determine what's best for Earth?"

Jerry considers for a second.

"Did you allow your children to vote on supper when you were raising them? Or your grandchildren as I believe you are a grandfather."

"I am, and no, I did not."

"It's just the same. Every single man and woman who departed on the Dauntless had mutually exclusive sets of orders from the various powers that be on Earth. I myself had no fewer than fifteen contradicting orders from various portions of the United States government, and messages, offers and further similar 'orders' from no less than ten world powers, and a further twenty attempts to subvert me from the previous twenty five. I was offered immense wealth and power to serve these various small minded entities on Earth and in following Grand Admiral Cistern I rejected all of them."

"And earned yourself great wealth and power in the wider galaxy instead, I see."

Jerry keeps his face as impassive as Observer Wu's, the police interrogator was coming out, but Jerry wasn't exactly a stranger to interrogations.

"If my marrying well is somehow upsetting from an Earth perspective, Observer, I'm afraid I can't do anything about it. I married a wealthy woman, and as you know, once you have wealth it is very easy to acquire more wealth with the right opportunity."

"An opportunity you earned off of data from Earth."

There it was. That's where he'd been driving to.

Jerry folds his hands, shifting himself to a slightly more comfortable position in his office chair.

"Most genetic sequences I fairly acquired, complete with contracts ensuring I have the right to use them in the wider galaxy, weren't subject to any form of exclusivity or copyright to start with. Those few that did, I paid for, again, with a signed contract. If they wish to renege on those contracts my wife's corporation will happily see them in court. As a galactic business entity, and to have any hope of enforcement against an entity that holds no citizens of any nation on Earth, that will of course require them making the appropriate applications in galactic court. Probably on Centris. I'm sure our lawyers will look forward to receiving the subpoena."

Wu simply takes a note, clearly he'd responded more or less as the other man had expected.

"Still Bridger, you have to admit that one man holding exclusive rights..."

Jerry holds his hand up to stop Wu.

"Begging the Observer's pardon, but no one in the wider galaxy holds any form of copyright or hold over baseline Earth genetic material. We have copyrights on unique strains we've created, like the Hyper Malinois that the Undaunted are using as military working dogs and police K9s, but anyone who wants to, and can acquire the appropriate data, can clone themselves a Belgian Malinois."

"...I see." He writes a sharp, aggressive note on his table. "I apologize Admiral Bridger, it seems one of my legal counsels got ahead of themselves or perhaps got confused."

"Galactic law can be like that. Our fairly small conglomerate maintains law offices on retainer in a thousand individual star systems and a hundred odd broad stellar nations such as the Apuk Star Empire, or the Mekken Reach. Thankfully everyone has to do that so the cost to establish a relationship with a good firm upfront is quite small, and the annual retainer is very manageable."

"..."

Observer Wu takes another few notes and mutters to himself. Jerry didn't catch all of it, but was fairly certain he heard the word 'absurd' at least once.

"I suppose we'll set that issue aside for now then. Returning to the subject of your defection from Earth to the Undaunted..."

"The Undaunted are a pan-national, pan-galactic Human and Earth focused organization first and foremost, so I will disagree with the description of what I, or any other member of the Dauntless's crew, have done as 'defecting'. We followed orders. We remain ready to follow legitimate orders from the Earth on behalf of the Human race."

"...And of course any single nation acting only on its behalf's orders would not be legitimate."

"Of course. Admiral Cistern formed the Undaunted because we needed actual political power to complete the only true mission objectives we had when we left Earth. Make first contact, easily done. Confirm the nature of the galaxy outside of 'Cruel Space', again, simple enough, and if the galaxy has potential for Human advancement, to prepare the way for all mankind to leave Cruel Space. That one’s a bit more difficult. However, we are continuing those missions to this day."

"So the conquest of say, the world of Vucsa 5 advances Humanity somehow?"

"A habitable, stable world ripe for Human colonization certainly seems like it advances our mission. As does terraforming the world we received from Cannid Solutions. We've done all sorts of things, a lot of it in the name of making friends, and as I'm sure you know from your days in Hong Kong, having friends in a rough neighborhood is the difference between life and death."

"What personally have you done to advance your mission? If you are indeed so loyal to it."

Jerry smiles, he'd gotten the Observer on to his pace. He was winning this part of the match at the very least, especially after making Wu concede one of his initial points.

"I've secured several critical alliances for the Undaunted and Humanity, as well as negotiated a massive mining concern, an entire star system, joining the Undaunted. I believe you know Admiral Cisten's plan for a series of relay stations at the border of Cruel Space to receive outbound parties and ease their transition to galactic space... and more importantly keep colonists safe from any predators that might want to take a bite out of them."

Jerry reaches out and holds up the plate that had his mostly eaten lunch on it.

"That mining concern can provide enough materials to make a new machine Earth, never mind some space stations. More important in my mind however is with the help of my family's business, I have proliferated Human goods throughout large swathes of the galaxy. Earth meat is now associated with 'quality', if not 'luxury' and Humans have become all the more real for a galaxy that didn't actually believe in us for a long time there. Probably still don't in many places. Thanks to my wife Sylindra's work, Humanity can be associated with something more than just a hologram, or story. It can be as real as a...

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