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Dark Lord Substitute

Chapter 25

By Draconicon

The Indomitable and what few ships the forces of the Void had left catapulted themselves to warp speed, and Bertram returned to the bridge, his hands folded behind his back as he took in the situation.

It felt wrong. His men were silent and not one turned to judge him, but even if they felt no blame for his actions, he blamed himself. The ram grimaced behind his helmet as he stared out the window, trying to keep himself calm.

"It was the script," Data said, and he could tell from the tone that the AI was projecting only into his helmet. "It was not your fault."

It was, for thinking that they were too stupid to hack into the communications channels.

"Fine. Then you will not make that mistake again, will you?"

Never."

"Then you have learned. That's good, isn't it? To learn?"

Why do you care?

"Should I not?"

...That is up to you. I don't know why you should or shouldn't, but...it helps, I suppose. Thank you, Data.

"You are welcome, Master."

It was scant comfort to have an AI telling him that he hadn't screwed up as badly as he thought he did, but any comfort was better than none. It was, at least, a voice outside his own head telling him that he wasn't the fuck-up that he was telling himself he was.

But still, they were having to recover from his fuck-ups, and he had to come up with a solution that would give them time. They would, hopefully, overtake Wuroom and his fleet in warp. The Indomitable was in better shape than the Starry Sea fleet, and they were able to fly through space at faster warp speeds as a result. However, that would probably not buy them more than a couple of hours. They needed something more, either more time or more people to hold off the enemy.

Or...to bounce the signal...

With nothing to see, Bertram had plenty of time to think. He stared down the great nebulous blue that was the warp route that they'd taken, saw nothing, and allowed himself the distraction.

Their ships are made to block transmissions from the front. It stands to reason that they would have other redirecting capabilities if they were transmitting planet to atmosphere and back again. If that is the case, then one could bounce a signal around, using their redirection process to get a signal where it needed to go...

But for that, he'd need ships, more ships than he had. And there was no way -

"Scanners picking up enemy vessels," one of the crew called out.

Bertram dragged himself back to the moment, walking over to the crewman who'd chimed in. He leaned forward and studied the display.

No fewer than twelve ships further down the warp corridor, and they were rapidly gaining on the group. It had to be the orca's ships, and that meant that they were closer to overtaking the enemy than he thought.

And more to the point...they weren't turning around.

"..."

"Sir?" the crewman asked.

" Continue on the current course.

"Yes, sir."

" Indoctrination. Prepare a burst."

"Yes, sir," another officer called from somewhere behind him.

It was not a guarantee, but they were approaching from behind this time, and they could match the pace of the enemy. He pulled back from the scanner console, holding one hand to his head as he thought to Data.

Send commands down to Indoctrination. Primary commands: Divert ship to random planet at ramming speed. Secondary command: Once six ships have been diverted, remaining ships join up with us.

"Yes, sir."

There was no question, though he knew that Data would be as curious as anyone else. But if it worked, he'd explain.

Slowly, they gained ground, and the ships of the enemy started to be visible through the front window. Bertram kept his helmet directed at the display, not bothering to move, or pace, no matter how much he wanted to. This was the tipping point. If this worked, then they had a chance. If it didn't...

If it didn't, he'd have to come up with something else, but he really hoped he wouldn't have to.

They got closer and closer, the great flying pyramid that was the Indomitable looming over the other ships. He could almost imagine the orca commander pushing them to greater speeds, trying to get them to fire their engines faster in warp, but that was the thing. They were not able to add speed once they reached warp; the blast that launched them into it kept their speed static until they left it.

They were helpless.

They were losing ground.

When the rear-most ship of the Starry Sea fleet was at risk of disappearing beneath the viewing portal, Bertram nodded.

" Indoctrination."

The Indomitable pulsed. It was the first time that they had used the Indoctrination tech in warp, and it set the ship to vibrating from top to bottom. Even with the thick armor that covered him from head to toe, the ram could feel it, and he gritted his teeth against the uncomfortable feeling that came with it. His feet felt like they were all but vibrating out of his boots, and his bones felt like they were trying to rattle out of his body.

The rest of the crew were similarly discomforted, but he kept his eyes on the ships. The blast didn't have to take them all, but if he could just see some of them shift, just a few -

One of them disappeared, dropping out of warp. He grinned, knowing that one of them must have given in. Another followed, then another, then a fourth. A full third of their fleet had disappeared, leaving them with just eight ships left.

" Come on...just a little more..."

A fifth ship dropped out, and then a sixth. Bertram held his breath -

"Indomitable, this is the Nebulean Current. We are coming up on your starboard side, joining your formation."

"Indomitable, this is the Polar Flow, coming up on your port side to join your formation."

It took everything that he had to not leap up and punch the air, and several of the crew actually did. It worked. It fucking worked.

The other ships broke off, and he knew that they were lucky to have affected as many of them as they had. The other craft were likely chasing after their brethren, and Bertram breathed out a long, slow sigh of disbelief and relief.

"Dark Lord." Mark stepped into view. "What...what just happened?"

" A trick. Indoctrination. I told six of their ships to divert course at ramming speed for their planets."

"But...but that shouldn't work. The need to preserve their own life -"

" Will prevent them from ramming into any planets, yes. But they won't know that until they get there and they have to push the button. Until then, they were entirely within our service."

And the other side would be desperately trying to stop their fellows, hoping against hope that they would be able to save the planets. After all, if you wanted to blow a planet up, crashing a ship into the crust of the planet at somewhere just short of warp speed would be more than sufficient to take out a significant chunk of a continent, if not more. He had sent a threat to the various worlds of the Starry Sea, a threat that they didn't know he wouldn't be able to deliver on.

Best of all, if he was lucky, then Wuroom would be sending a transmission to Bareef, calling for help, begging for more ships to divert the course of the suicide cruisers. Even if he only got a few of them, it would weaken the defenses of the core planet and give him more time.

Bertram let out a slow breath. They were back in the game.

The timer showed that they were less than an hour out from Bareef, and he was still trying to figure out how they were going to play the game. Data had been a great help with giving him someone to brainstorm with, to toss ideas back and forth between, but there was still the issue of finding a final solution.

The main problem, Data said, is that you can't be sure what you will say once you open your mouth. Correct?

"Yes."

And we cannot use text to spread Indoctrination.

"No, unfortunately. And we have no guarantee that the planet has a way of accepting the signal, either."

Or that the defenses over Bareef would let them get close enough to try. The new ships gave them greater reach, and allowed them to have a backdoor to the Starry Sea communications systems, but that was only the first step. They needed to have the Indomitable close enough to the planet to actually broadcast the signal to begin with. Too much distance, and the flagship wouldn't be able to broadcast at sufficient strength to actually control anyone.

And that meant that he had to risk talking to them. A white flag of sorts, or at least, something to call a meeting.

"But the moment I speak, the script comes up."

I am not sure that there is a way around that.

"...I wonder if there might be."

How so?

"Check my thinking on this. The script forces me to play a character, an archetype, correct?"

Yes. That is consistent with the readings and the findings we've had, as well as with previous meetings with the enemy.

"But what if that's all it does?"

You believe that the script only requires that you fill a role, and that it will allow you to fill that role as you will, so long as you stay, as you say, in-character?

"...That's what I'm hoping."

...It is possible, Data said after a moment's consideration. If one allows for the fact that binding a universe to a repeating cycle requires a certain amount of energy, then every specific binding likewise requires energy. The mathematics of that problem, then, suggests that the looser a binding one can make, the less energy that it requires. By that logic, then, it is possible that the script-writers were more concerned about the themes and the overall feel of the binding than the actual words.

"That was my thought," Bertram admitted. "And...admittedly a great deal of hope. There's no proof, just a lot of theorizing."

That is true.

"But, and this is where I hang most of my hopes, but there was never a point where I tried to act in-character. Every time that I was forced to speak, I was trying to shut up, trying to not do something instead of doing something. If I'm right, then so long as I speak as a cult leader, then...I might be able to do something."

...

"Data?"

I cannot deny that you may be right. However, I feel that this puts you at risk.

He smiled despite himself, shaking his head.

"That's going to be a recurring theme, I feel."

The last time that you put yourself at risk, you nearly died.

"That was Zelda's fault."

She exacerbated it. You, however, were the one that initiated it and put yourself into that position. If you do so again...

"Yes, yes, I know. It's important for the cause to keep me alive."

Not merely for the cause.

Bertram blinked, looking up. There was nothing to look at, of course, as Data had no physical body, but there was still a sense that he was looking the AI in the eye for a moment. He shook his head, then slowly cocked it to the side.

"Data...what is that supposed to mean?"

Please, forget I said anything.

"...If you insist."

But do take care of yourself, master. There are reasons beyond the cause that you should.

The ram slowly nodded, but Data's voice didn't return. Either the AI had been too embarrassed to continue, or -

Well, the other possibilities were truly strange.

The fleet dropped out of warp in sight, but not in range, of Bareef. The few ships of the enemy that they had managed to capture had been fully Indoctrinated during the journey, no longer fighting against the Void. However, that meant very little considering what they were up against.

Bareef was the epitome of a fortified world, consisting of two layers of shields over their oceanic surface and multiple stations orbiting just under the inner layer. One could make out various floating, shifting continents on the world below, and it only took a moment to realize that the world itself had been created from the bottom up, that the continents floated and shifted about because they were artificial and made as secondary homes for those that had emerged from the sea.

All around it, scattered in various clusters around the double-shields, were the remnants of the fleets that he had chased all the way back here. Half were docked, receiving repairs, while the other half, suitable for fighting, were on patrol around the planet. Even as damaged as they were, there were too many for them to fight directly. If they brought the Indomitable into fighting range, they would blow the flagship out of the sky, and everyone on-board with it.

Bertram took a deep breath as the consoles lit up with hailing signals. The crew looked at him, waiting for his command on the matter.

" Hold."

They brought the flagship to a halt, the other sub-officers putting their ships into a defensive mini-orbit around the pyramidal Indomitable. It wouldn't be enough to fight off that fleet if they needed to, but it would suffice to give them time to jump back to warp. Not much, but enough. Enough to flee far enough to live out the last of their lives in a month or so of comfort.

We have eight days before the rest of the Allied Systems can gather and declare war. Eight days.

If he could take Bareef in those eight days...then they would have a means of forcing the enemy to the table. They would have reached a point of change. The script...

He just had to take it. Somehow, someway, he had to take it.

Every planet in the Allied Systems has been working under some sort of hierarchy. Every single one. They say that everyone is equal, that they all work together, that there is no such thing as slavery. There is. It just operates under a different name. The orcas probably run the show, working in the military and keeping control.

He had no way of talking directly to the underclass. For that matter, he didn't know who they were. They could have been dolphins, or porpoises, or any other species that lived in the water. Whoever they were, he had no idea how to get their attention specifically. There was no way to target their way of life.

So, instead, he'd have to do it broadly. A cult leader...should speak like a cult leader.

Bertram took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. He nodded at one of the communications officers.

" Open the channel."

The rat hesitated, then did as he was told. It was a vast, planetwide broadcast, he realized; while he would be talked at by the people in charge, they were sending the signal all around the planet, likely wanting to show the villain in space for what he was. Even now, even when they were still bound by a script, they wanted to use it to shore up the control that they had over their own people.

He couldn't blame them. It was a useful tool.

Talk like a cult leader.

" My future followers."

Words not driven by the script flowed from his mouth. He'd been right. As long as he talked like his role, he could get something out. He kept going.

" I come to you with promises of blessings, with comfort and wealth. I come to you, not as a man bent on war, but as a man that brings truth. A way of life, a way of understanding, better than anything that your current leaders have to offer. The way of the Void is not destruction but -"

"It is a way of evil! You come here to spread your lies of peace and prosperity? There is nothing but slavery beneath your banner."

" My slaves know where they belong, because they have been told the truth. Your slaves are lied to, constantly, reminded of whatever falsehood and fear you can summon to keep them in place."

Bertram winced beneath the helmet. Not what he'd meant to say, but for forced dialogue, it wasn't the worst thing that could have come out of his mouth.

The other voice on the channel hadn't stopped, either. They were spluttering angrily, and he suddenly had the realization of how it felt to be on the side of a script that didn't favor you. They hadn't tried all this time. They were just going with the natural advantage that being the 'good guys' offered them.

"You - we do not lie. We are good. Lies are your dominion, Dark Lord. You are nothing but a -"

" You hear the words of your leaders, and how they cannot keep them straight. They step from one accusation to another, speaking nothing of the conditions that they keep you in, or how you live your lives. You have seen me coming, and you know I have spoken no lie. I come as a master, yes, but my slaves know what they are. I bring a new way of life, a way of life that is equal to all slaves. There is but one master, and that is me; all others will serve in the same way, in the same place."

It was more and more religious in a way that made him want to vomit, but at the same time, it was in-character. There was a way to play with the script, a way to dance around it and do what he wanted, so long as he did it the way that the script felt was right.

He smiled slightly beneath the mask. This...was going to be fun.

Let's see how long they can keep talking...and how long until the script appeals to the people down below.

If they could get even a shred of Indoctrination programming through this broadcast, then they could possibly cause an uprising on the planet below. If they could do that, then suddenly, those shields wouldn't matter. Nor would the defense platforms. Nor would anything else.

He had eight days. He had a lot he could say over the course of eight days.

The end

Summary: Bertram is pulling himself back up and hoping for the best as they journey towards Bareef. A mad plan occurs, and he goes for it.

Tags: No Sex, AI, Ram, Hyena, Dumb Ideas, Sci-Fi, Series, Mind Control, Script,