By then he finished the inspection and proceeded onwards to his comrades. He was truly happy about the fact they will have some drinks and cigars after some quite time. He thought they could use some time to know better eachother, while also discussing some important matters regarding their organisation.
He proceeded towards the bar where everyone was standing and he opened up bottle of scotch, from which he filled up his whole glass and said:
"Gentlemen, my apologies. I see that you already poured yourself drinks and already had toast, but let us have another."
He then raised up his glass and continued:
"This vessel will soon receive new upgrades, my dear gentlemen. Better defensive systems and new engines, which should give it more reliability in harsh worlds in which we will need it to serve us. Alongside with this, Maltese will rebuild us another destroyer and for both, our allies from Rheinland provided us technology, including the weaponry and engine components. A toast, for our further success, and a toast for our brother, who returned to us after years of his absence."
- after which, he looked at Hussaini while everyone were hitting his glass, and then he shook hands and greeted with everyone.
Hussaini held his glass tightly as he listened to Nomak's short speech.
"...And a toast for our brother, who returned to us after years of his absence."
These words struck a chord. Why end the toast by mentioning him? Perhaps he just means well, but perhaps it means something else. His mind strained to understand and justify, he was wracked with paranoia. His left eye twitched, albeit unnoticeably. His face turned grim for a very brief moment. He raised his glass to meet Nomak's and those his colleagues', then, like the social chameleon he is, changed his expression to something more resembling equanimity.
"Thank you, my Lord." - He chimed in as Nomak was shaking hands with everyone. - "But enough about me. None of this would have been possible without the deals you negotiated. For that, you deserve all the attention tonight..."
He raised his glass high with a smile in Nomak's direction and then took a sip from it, now getting further into character, shedding any and all emotional responses from his face.
"However, I consider that a few more issues should be brought up first." - He continued, steering the conversation even further from himself. - "I believe we should double our efforts concerning the infiltration of the Order, and likewise - our participation in the new Maltese government. We've been deaf and blind for a long time, and it shows on our operation records. The meager informants we still have are only a tragic parody of the spy ring that was once The Slithering Tongue..."
He paused again and placed his glass on the bar stand before continuing.
"Much has changed, indeed, and not for the better. Our past might was lost. Though I can't possibly blame my brother Nomak, here. Much of the blame falls on me as well. I firmly believe that much of what has transpired wouldn't have transpired, had I been present. Destiny led me elsewhere. But I digress, and not in the right direction."
He looked at everyone individually, but his gaze lingered on Nomak longer than on the others.
"I see now but a fraction of the people that were gathered while I was away. But that fraction fills me with hope, for in them I see the determination and unyielding zeal that I saw in the Raiders of years past. And like those Raiders, of whom most were consigned to eternal oblivion in unflinching service, you too funnel the energy, effort, and vision towards the final goal." - He took a deep breath - "The Great Work. The sum of all our lesser works, that together create an idea with a life of its own, one that unlike us - can not be killed or destroyed.
"And through which our individual works and legacies - will live on for all eternity." - He grabbed the glass again and raised it high - "And we...will prevail. To The Commune, and the Great Work."
Dave took his full attention on Jared upon his arrival. He listened carefully on his word and he did like the rest, rising his glass and cheering. He listened then carefully to Hussaini's words and he continued after him.
"For our cause !"
He made a small break.
"It is good to see you again, Jared. It's been a long time and probably you know that I ... had a small absence. I had to conduct more studies on the Black Nova and later on with Razgriz."
He avoided to tell the truth about his 2 month coma, because it would be more difficult to explain and he didn't want for the others to become worried so his secret could've been revealed. It was not the time yet and not with so many people.
"I have to say that I reached interesting results about our new experimental compound. It can be produced, I have a definitive formula for it. I've tasked the new scientists you mentioned to continue the studies a bit. But I think I will oversee and continue the full work, my way. Let's say I am more efficient on my own."
Jack looked across at the door as it opened seeing Nomak walking through. As they made eye contact Jack gave him a subtle nod of the head. Then he slowly walked over to the bar and poured himself a glass of scotch then went back to his post by the window and waited to hear what Nomak had to say.
As Nomak finished his speech Jack raised his glass and took a sip from it, he winced slightly at the taste. He always disliked most kinds of alcohol.. He had too much of a sweet tooth for the likes of whiskey or scotch but social formalities meant he would have to endure this and drink the scotch else someone else might take offense where none was intended.
Jack waited for the others to finish their responses watching them all carefully as they did so and raising his glass to toast where necessary. He noticed some stress in Mr.Bassam though he didn't spot it in his face, no Jack spotted it by observing his body language and the way he spoke deflecting the attention away from himself. Pausing to think about it for a moment he concluded that like himself Mr.Bassam had a dislike of social formalities. " Ah... The man of the hour, Mr.Nomak. It really is good to see you in person again "
He paced over to the table with his glass in his hand held at chest level as he spoke. "I know I have not been a member of the commune as long as Mr.Bassam or Mr.Synk here but my commitment towards the great work is just as strong"
He smiles looking around the room." Now Gentlemen, shall we discuss the business at hand? I'm sure Jared is well aware of what plans I have for the commune and it was indeed him that suggested that Mr.Synk should travel with me on some of those missions." He paused for a moment looking at Dave as he did so " Perhaps you could enlighten us both now as to what our mission is to be, I'm quiet interested to find out what your intentions are."
Nomak is like wolf. A wolf that cannot survive with out his pack. But his pack was different, a band of brothers and sisters working together. That is why he was feeling a bit insecure now.
He carefully listened to what Hussaini and Synk have said, which awoke a lot of feelings in him. He felt proud and glad, for what both of them said, but he also felt bad because of Hussaini, refusing the compliments, nevertheless of what he saw in Omicron Mu. Even with that, he was still believing that Hussaini, even if being what he is, was still his Samarran brother.
After all, Hussaini was the one who accompanied him on Samarra, trough the merciless deserts and their endavours. That is where Hussaini gained his place in Nomak's eyes, and what is why he is like this after all. He only sees Hussaini as a brother from same mother, even if they weren't that. And now, he doesen't knows what to think about Hussaini and is questioning himself.
"We all contributed to this. Every single of us. I don't deserve any glory tonight, all of us do, my brother." - as he said that, he again directed his view towards Hussaini.
"I am not your lord Bassam. Do you remember the old days and what we went trough, together? We shared everything, everything that we had. It wasn't yours or mine, it was ours. We spilled our blood for our ideals and in order to save eachothers life, and we shall continue that."
- he then paused a bit, as he recalled some of the scenes from Samarra, like the battle for the Black Gold Fortress, the massacre that Akkadians did to them, and he continued:
"How ever you will see me, and whatever you will think of me, I will always call you brother. All of you, because of what we do, and for what. I am glad that you are back, because I couldn't stop wondering where you ended, and are you even alive..."
- he then raised his glass, and proposed another toast:
"For the brotherhood..."
- after everyone hit their glasses with Nomak's he tapped Synk's shoulder and continued speaking to him;
"It is good to see you back Dave. And I will have to agree with you, you are the only one currently who can do damn good job. You are the master of your expertise and therefore, I consider you more efficient on your own too. Ask for anything you need, and we shall bring to you. Jack here could accompany you as you would find his expertise very useful."
Then he took another sip of his drink, and continued to speak to everyone:
"The situation is this. As for the Proteus Tome, we're on it. I'm currently trying to get us someone inside the Order, while Hussaini will be representing us on Malta until we find fitting individual for that. As for you, Jack and Dave, you will together work on our research and development, for now, until we get more on it.
- he looked around the bar and towards the rest of the ship and continued:
"As soon as we get done with reconstruction of this ship, and another one which we will bring back to life, they will be able to support you anywhere where you will go.
It is simple, I would propose that we work as one, without me commanding. We work individually on what we are best at, and help out eachother as that. Therefore, I would like each of you to tell your thoughts about this, and if you agree, bring out your ideas for possible plans. Consider four of us some sort of high command, or brain of the organization, that will point out direction in which we go. When our base gets built, we will move all of our gear on it, which will give us more space and freedom to work."
Nomak then continued drinking, carefully awaiting for others opinons and thoughts to be said.
Dave gave a small grin of accomplishment to Jared, in sign that he is aware of what are the implications of his work into the Commune’s ideals.
“You will not be disappointed Jared. You will see, I finally found the true goal for me. *looked to the rest one by one* I can see honorable men here in this room, and I strongly believe in what we will accomplish. I will be sure of that at least. It’s what I ever wanted to see with Cerberus. Which reminds me, Jack..”
He went towards the central conference table and from his right chest pocket he took a small cubic device. He pressed the sides of it and he put it down. The device began to dismantle and detach several parts of it, a small sign of Cerberus could’ve been seen on a piece of the device. The parts began to slowly float around it and a holographic projection of a planet appeared.
“This gentlemen… is Planet Wichita, located in the Kansas systems as some of you might know. The first mission, mr.Light, would be to head towards this planet and do landfall in order to retrieve what was left from an old ground base of Cerberus. I have anticipated an event in which my base would’ve been destroyed. As you might be aware, the Hellfire Legion governs that system, more or less these days. They were the reason why my base was compromised in the past. Cerberus allied themselves with two more factions, the Corona Battlegroup and another one that I forgotten, we formed the “Kansas Alliance”. We had great plans and ideals over there but the Hellfire Legion at that time was more powerful at that time.”
He did a small gesture on his wrist, like pressing his skin but it wasn’t fully clear and his eyes glared artificially blue. He moved with his retina, the next set of holographic representations.
“Here you can see pinpointed, several of the possible locations of the Vault. Since I’ve lost most Cerberus protocols ever since I self-destructed the base, I kept several underground false-emitting signals on the planet to cover up the true location of the Vault. What contains there, are other projects I couldn’t finish on Cerberus, all Nomad related. Experimentations, a prototype AI even that I hope to find and many more information that would suit our needs. I also remember that I had extensive studies for the Kansas Hypergate. The information there would be crucial. More Cerberus technologies that could be integrated within the Commune would become more useful. I remember I even had Order strategies and flight-plans and full maps of their systems. They might be outdated though.”
The hologram showed the entirety of the planet and several locations were highlighted with a more clarified view of that selected zone’s surface. Various Cerberus structures were seen and also an image of the inside of the Vault.
“The Vault contains several thousand of petabytes of raw data even, all collected during the history of the group. From logs to entire notes, contacts and so on. There are also recovered Nomad samples that were kept in criogenic freezing to keep the samples intact, I didn’t had the means to simulate the conditions. Now we do here. What interests me is to find, if intact… the data about the Nomad Artifact that the legendary Edison Trent used in order to send the nomads to the Void. I had leads in where to find the gem. I went to Sprague also to search for the dig sites, then it was less populated and It was possible. We might be needed to head there too. But I also found something extraordinary…”
He switched the image to an old map of Sirius circa 300 A.S. And focused on some uncharted regions of space that were identically to the nowadays of the Omicrons.
“There was someone else who made contact with the Nomads the first time. So I believe. I’ve had leads and certain calculations to triangulate the position of an ancient Sirius craft called by me as “Achille’s Demise”. Why the name ? Well… based on several rumors I’ve heard during my continuous exploration of Sirius in my Cerberus years, some people took claims of an explorer/scientist that went far away into the “Forbidden Systems” as called back then, and never came back. Some claimed that he was taken by the Space Phantoms. I am presuming they were referred to the Nomads. His last log some people said was that he arrived into a system where space was like a Tunnel around him and felt like the end of the universe was there.. and something .. incredibly far away from it, towards the end, was seen. The rumors if are true, the ship can be found, it could hold invaluable data to finding more about the K’Vosh or the Nomads themselves.”
He made a pause. Looked at the men who were intrigued at what they saw.
“It might rewrite some history lessons to an extend if it’s true. Not many are aware of this, that’s why I nuked literally the Cerberus base up. I found something and I went alone in my searches, but never been able to find that ancient craft. It’s like looking for a sand grain into cosmic winds. But the data from the Vault could be useful.”
His eyes glowed blue as he deactivated the hologram. His iris was surrounded by a small blue neon-like light and around it, three smaller neon-like circles were located similar to the points of a triangle.
“Opinions gentlemen ?”
His eyes returned to normal before speaking to them and he was very attentive to their replies.
Hussaini listened to Nomak's voice intently, in complete silence, his pupils dilating to catch every bit of light as he observed the nuances of his facial expressions and mannerisms as he spoke. He strained to find any sign of deception on his part, but he couldn't. He didn't know whether to be relieved that Nomak forgave his lies, or furious that he was wrong about him all along. He settled for a forced indifference with a touch of relief. He'll figure how to feel about all this later, when he's alone. For now, he knew he could trust him again. And with that, he spoke, but not with his voice, rather directly to Nomak's mind.
["...I would follow you to hell and back, brother, you know that. We'll speak of this more, but privately..."]
He turned his attention to Synk, as he started his presentation. The hologram flickering, switching from image to image. He listened to Synk's every word, and all that was said left him with one feeling only. Ambition. Rekindled like never before. He waited for the Doctor to finish, before clearing his throat and speaking.
"I'll address the points of your presentation separately, Doctor, for greater coherence, if you don't mind." - He straightened his jacket and took a deep but silent breath before continuing. - "Wichita. I know the place. In the early stages of what was to become the Commune, and I think Nomak will recall this, we 'found' Wichita under the administration of the Vagrant Raiders, as they attempted to develop their fledgling breakaway state. I was in the process of negotiating a deal with them, that would allow us to develop a settlement on the planet, to explore our transhumanist goals with an actual willing population, and later perhaps - subvert the planet and their ill-crafted government for our own ends."
He paused and walked over to the opposite side of the conference table, facing everyone else on the other side.
"Needless to say, this plan didn't bear any fruit, as their inept administration fell quickly, the colonies abandoned, left in disarray. I'm not sure how it all transpired exactly, as I was already away at that point, but I suppose the global warming that enveloped the planet had something to do with it. Which brings us to the vaults. With the rising sea levels, your underground vaults are at this point, also underwater vaults for long periods, with the ebb and flow of the tides submerging most of the planetary landmasses at different intervals. This shouldn't be a problem, however, with your knowledge of their location and some good planning on our part. I support the initiative to reclaim their contents wholeheartedly. I applaud your decision to bring this to us, Doctor."
He nodded several times in approval, and then continued.
"On to the rest then. You are right to assume that humanity came in contact with what you call "The Nomads" long before the main event that is mistakenly referred to as 'first' contact. Nomak and I are living witnesses of that. Indeed, when our ancestors made planetfall on the Samarran sands some five hundred years ago, They took notice. Without Them, our people would have never survived the harsh conditions on the planet, we would have withered away. But that is a story for another time, what is important is that your assumption is probably right, as our ancestors' case was probably not a unique occurrence. I believe this ship you speak of is worth pursuing, but not as a priority target, we have more important matters to attend to."
He approached the nearest seat, pulled it out and sat down. He leaned towards the table, placed his elbows on it and tented his fingers.
"If any of you have further comments, I've said my piece. If not, the next course of discussion is my mission to Malta, if anyone has anything to add, that is."
Jack took a seat getting more comfortable he leaned back into the chair as he listened to everyone say their piece. To his disappointment Nomak continued to give praise to everyone for their dedication and hard work. It was the kind of praise Jack hated simply because it served no purpose other than to boost ego's, Jack was far more practical and logical to waste time on such things unless the game of politics required it but even then he would only indulge at a minute level. He raised his glass as Nomak called for another toast then waited to see what the others had to say.
As Dave stood up and started to speak Jack clenched his jaw slightly, annoyed as it started to sound like another "Praise" speech but the tension in his jaw eased and his expression changed to one of satisfaction as his "speech" quickly turned into a presentation. Jack sat up in his chair observing the hologram on the table closely listening closely to what Dave had to say, though he said nothing throughout the whole presentation it was very clear that Jack was indeed interested. Jack was about to voice his opinion when Bassim started to speak, Jack observed leaning back in his seat and waited patiently for his opportunity to speak.
As Bassim finished saying his piece and opened the floor up to anyone who had something they wished to add Jack stood up, picking up his glass of scotch, he paced around the table until he faced all three of them and smiled.
First he nodded at Dave "That is some very interesting information you have there and I'd wager that the data hidden in that underground vault is far more interesting." His expression changed to a guarded one as he spoke "I'm afraid all I can offer in terms of this mission is the information I've gathered about local forces operating in the area most of which we already know"
He paused for a moment looking at all three of them "While Mr.Bassim may be correct in stating that this is not a priority target and we have far larger projects to finish I feel I must impress a sense of urgency in this mission."
He placed his glass of scotch on the table and stood up straight as he began to brief them on what he knew of the Kansas system. "As you are already aware Auxesia has been present in the omicrons for some time now, however before they came here they were largely present in the inverses system and appeared to take trips through the Kansas system as part of their patrols.
We are all well aware of how this group operates and should they find out that Ceberus has an abandoned vault there they will surely go searching for the vault themselves so while this may not be a high priority goal for our group it is still imperative we retrieve the data before anyone learns of it's existence."His serious expression broke and he smiled " However we have a few advantages " He paused for a moment as he collected his thoughts " We all know about the DSE company operating in the area and how we negotiated a deal with them regarding their base allowing us to use it as a listening outpost as well as a station for some of our research to take place.
I've reviewed the Listening outpost's sonar data and there has been no Auxesia activity in the area for quiet some time now.. there never has been a better time to retrieve this data.... The risk is low and we'll have time on our side for once." Jack looked and smiled at all three of them then tilted his head to the side a little thoughtfully "Additionally we could use this opportunity to check in on our research team on board that station... and maybe improve the diplomatic ties our group has with DSE.... they do have a lot of talented scientists which I'm sure would greatly accelerate our work"
He then looked across at Nomak "Naturally we will defer to your good judgement should you wish to add anything you feel the need to address any points"
["...I would follow you to hell and back, brother, you know that. We'll speak of this more, but privately..."]
- These "words" gave Nomak feel of happiness and calmness. He didn't bother to think about it too much, as he planned to talk with Hussaini in private, in "four eyes".
He carefully listened what everyone was saying and he especially paid attention to Synk's gestures and his eyes, but he ignored. After they finished with their opinions and suggestions, he proceeded to talk.
"I agree with everyone here gentlemen, and thus I won't bother with too much speaking, as I see that mister Light is slightly annoyed by my praising to you all." - he laughed as he took another sip of his scotch and a smoke form his cigarette, and then he continued.
"Wichita, gentlemen. If we consider what current projects we have, and what we are looking for then, we are coming to conclusion that what is down there on that planet, it holds the key informations that would benefit us greatly in every possible way that we can imagine. Whatever it takes, I won't question it, but one thing is for sure, we need to make planetfall."
- he stopped, giving a look to Hussaini and then continued:
"Even if that was ages ago, it might slightly give us chance to get closer to the Proteus Tome, considering that Cerberus were partially the Order. Wouldn't you agree there, Hussaini?"