Herald of the Stars: Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Eight

Michael Wardell, Dividente Serital, Sagash, Moritz222, and Elliot THIRY TCHEN, thank you for donating to Herald of the Stars! This project would not be possible without your help and I am most grateful for your support.

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“No, I don’t need to talk about my mental health right this moment. My day out with Alpia was all the balm I need. Thank you for checking though, love,” I say.

“That’s what I’m here for,” says Brigid. “What else troubles you?”

“I just found out about the Barghest expansion, a project that began two years ago, then grew far beyond the initial expected scope. I had absolutely no idea about it, assuming that the person I’ve entrusted with my biology research, Magos JK-404, and the person who rubber stamps her budgets, Brigid Issengrund, have mine and the Stellar Fleet’s best interests at heart. That hasn’t changed. What I want to know is why both of you thought this project was necessary, and how previous commands I gave may have led to this without my knowledge, yet somehow my permission.”

“Oh!” says Brigid. “No wonder you were feeling ticked off and wanted to meet in person! From your question, it sounds like you’ve figured out most of the pieces already. I’ll let JK-404 answer this.”

“Appologies, Aldrich. I thought you knew what I was doing as you have all the codes to my lab. I’m so used to other Magi spying on me that I assumed you would do the same and therefore didn’t bother sending you any reports.”

I sigh, “I can believe that. Next time keep me in the loop. I only checked up on you once where we discussed the risk of creating Servitors using Hyper Intelligence modified cyber-brains. We hypothesised it was a possible method of recreating Stone Men, or sapient androids as they would have called them during the Dark Age of Technology. Neither of us wanted to take the risk, suspecting that the Ruinous Powers would do whatever they could to sabotage the project.”

“Indeed!” says JK-404. “That left me with a dilemma. I needed data on the formation of enhanced neural tissue. The Mechanicus has access to a lot of intelligence boosting genemods, though none as advanced and comprehensive as the one you provided. I even have a few mods of my own. I didn’t want to use any pre-existing data though as one can never be certain how it was collected unless you do it yourself. To better understand the science behind Hyper Intelligence I wanted to observe the closest approximation I could find. That turned out to be Astartes transformation.”

“Ah, I think I can see where this is going. So, seeking the data you needed to complete a project I assigned you, you went to Brigid.”

“She did,” says Brigid. “You’ve mentioned to me during our chats at night that you need Hyper Intelligence to rebuild one of your archeotech implants and that, until you have that sorted, you can’t sustain your implants output at maximum performance for as long as you’d like. You also mentioned that fixing the implant would lead to superior material storage. None of that really matters to me though. You got hurt helping Quaani and you’ve been miserable ever since. I just want you to get better. I asked JK-404 how many resources she needed and we both saw a chance to help you and reduce the burden of the Fleet’s promises to the Barghests at the same time.”

I smile and my shoulders drop as I relax.

JK-404 says, “Brigid gave me all the support I could use and the results were spectacular. I now have the knowledge, and more importantly the data to back it up, to add Hyper Intelligence mods to a batch of vat-born. It is an exceedingly complex procedure and I estimate three to five years to complete it. Another five to ten years should be enough to spot any flaws to the process and understand the consequences of the mod. After that, I’ll need to practice adding it retroactively to prisoners, then volunteers, and finally to you. An optimistic completion of this project is 25 years. Before helping out with the Barghests, I didn’t even have a schedule. Now I know enough to understand the hurdles and the order to tackle them in.”

“What if I help you on a daily basis? Will that speed things up?”

“That is uncertain. You told me you want to understand the process before using it on yourself. Reading can only take one so far. You will have to help me at some point if you truly wish to understand the technology you’ve blessed me with. You will reach your goal to understand Hyper Intelligence faster if you help me. The speed at which we unravel the technology likely won’t increase much as it involves a lot of waiting.”

“Thank you, JK-404. I will help every step of the way, though I will often have to attend via Servitor.”

“That’s fine. So long as you are present and willing to learn, we’ll get along just fine.”

“I can do that.”

“Does that clear up all your worries, Husband?” says Brigid.

“Yes. That and more. Having a timetable, loose though it may be, provides me a measure of peace I cannot convey with words alone.”

“Oh? Well, in that case you will have to serenade me with music and poetry,” says Brigid. “That should do the trick.”

I laugh, “I am sure I can come up with something.”

“I don’t need a serenade,” says JK-404, her voice laced with humour, “but I do have a question.”

“Go ahead,” I say.

“Why did you give away that navigation data to Calligos for so cheap?”

“We clearly think along the same lines, even if we forget to send reports to each other,” I say. “I also wanted to reduce my commitments to the Barghests. I owe them  40.7 SRC for various STCs they sold me. I also owe them an additional SRC for their first two year stint of service. 

“Resource wise, the Barghest’s service has not been worth it in the slightest, especially as I pay for all their expenses as well. That’s before I factor in the research JK-404 undertook on my behalf to compensate Chapter Master Lir for their horrendous losses neutralising Dying Light, and the encounter with the Daemon, Gibbering Moon. 

“While compensation for losses wasn’t part of the initial contract, the political clout the research gives me, especially with your success, JK-404, is too great to even put a number on. About on par with giving you access to the Hyper Intelligence mod, I might add.”

JK-404 tuts and crosses her arms, but does not dispute my evaluation.

I continue, “Politically, having the Barghests in my corner when Inquisitor Lyre is dead set against me, has been well worth their price. The Inquisition coughed up all of the Space Marine wargear STCs that I was missing and the Barghests handed the STCs over for almost for free. The Barghests’ support for my takeover of Footfall would not be as viable as it is without them either.”

“Sure, I get that,” says JK-404.  “It’s the same reasoning Brigid and I came up with for paying off the Barghests as quick as possible, but what does all of that have to do with a cheap map?”

I say, “By selling a fraction of the map data to Calligos, data that was free for me, I can offset my costs, using Winterscale shipyards to manufacture the Barghest’s requested vessels, that’s two light cruiser strike groups, by half.

“By making pathfinding a race and inviting other Rogue Traders, I can create a buy-in of 20 SRC for each participant and repeatedly sell the same map. This will remove all costs for the STCs I purchased from the Barghests, and their ongoing hiring costs for decades, all while making connections and introducing the Rogue Traders who will be sponsoring Footfall to SRC and everything that the Stellar Fleet offers.”

Surprise and enlightenment flash across JK-404’s face.

I continue, “Now all I need to do is to inform High Factotum Eire Lobhidain to send consultants and pick up Calligos’ letter of credit from Footfall, then send everything to one of his shipyards. That will allow me to meet all my promises to the Barghests at minimal cost to myself. Not only that, I can do so without impacting the expansion of SR-651, or being forced to accept lower prices for my STCs at the Lathe Worlds to get them to manufacture ships for the Barghests for me.”

JK-404 chuckles, “To summarise, you are exploiting Rogue Trader pride to make an epic amount of money using xenos data you don’t have the capacity to exploit, while making yourself look generous towards Calligos and patriotic towards Footfall, your new demesne. You’re also using other people’s resources to scout any danger towards Footfall and crush all resistance.”

I give JK-404 a thumbs up, “You’ve got it.”

Brigid pats my arm, “Well done. You’re getting better at this political chicanery. Now if you could only get your blabber mouth under control I might even call you good at it.”

JK-404 laughs, “It’s fine. I’m not going anywhere and I won’t give your game away. This is just entertainment for me. I didn’t know the navigation data was free or that you owed the Barghests so much. No doubt Inquisitor Horthstein and Trader Winterscale have worked out enough of your scheme to feel they’ve got one over you and not look any deeper. They’ve no way of discovering what you paid for that astronomical data though, so they’ll never realise just how much you're bamboozling everyone and neither will anyone else.”

“Odhran might,” I say. “He was present for my negotiations with the Aeldari. He won’t care enough to speak on the matter though, especially as it gets his chapter the void ships they’ve ordered.”

JK-404 shrugs, “As fun as this is, I have research to do and you, Aldrich, have a lot to catch up on. Will you join me now or later?”

“I’ll spend a few more minutes with Brigid first, then meet you at your labs.”

“Excellent. I’ll put together a reading list for you while I wait.”

“Thank you, JK-404. See you in a bit.”

“Ah, matters of the heart. So imprecise. ‘A bit’ will have to do,” says JK-404, already heading towards the door.

Brigid grabs my waistcoat and pulls me back towards the table. She sits on the edge then pulls me down for a kiss.

“So,” says Brigid, breaking our kiss. “What did you have in mind?”

I wrap my arms around Brigid and she reciprocates, pressing her face against my chest. 

“I just wanted to spend a few extra minutes with you before I go about my day.”

“How sweet.” My clothes bunch up and the seams creak as Brigid grips the cloth with both fists. “You really are OK? You’re not annoyed with me are you?”

“Not in the slightest,” I say. “I admit I was upset at first, especially as I found out about the Barghest’s experiments from them once they’d completed them, not from you, JK-404, or Raphael, which is what should have happened. However, Alpia pointed out that I was being dumb in painful detail and looking at everything the wrong way. I also hold some responsibility for not chasing up on what JK-404 was doing too. Once Alpia got through to me, I knew all I had to do was talk to you and everything would be cleared up. My faith in you was rewarded.”

“As it should be. A husband should not doubt his wife, especially one as dedicated as I.”

“Now that I look back on it, I can see I was using my depression as an excuse, fearful of discovering how successful JK-404 was with my vital research and thus procrastinating about it.” 

“I much prefer it when you are willing to admit your flaws, even if it does take you a while to work them out.”

“It is only when one is aware of what is wrong that they can take steps to address their flaws.”

Brigid snots, “You are mansplaining again.”

I draw Brigid into another lengthy kiss, “Thank you for all that you do for me.”

Brigid hums and embraces me with both her arms and mechadendrites, much like a spider. The fate of male spiders flashes through my mind.

My stray thought ended up more prophetic than I thought, though who eats who is debatable.