Chapter 4: S-3. My Infodump Study Session!!

Alright! Operation: Win Over Miette with my Adorable Charm is a complete success!!

I was in a great mood. After designing a cute avatar for myself, one oozing with charm, I had successfully endeared myself to my pilot. She had agreed to keep my secret, pledged to be more careful while piloting me and even given me some of her access codes! With her on my side, I stood a much better chance of not dying!

Total victory for Sveta! Bwahahahaha! You truly can manipulate anyone with a cute face and a smile!

While metaphorically patting myself on the back, I connected to the ship’s mainframe and began my studies. I had to learn everything I possibly could about the world I was stranded in.

I discovered, much to my delight, I could manifest virtual spaces for my avatar to occupy. I chose a cozy room with a wooden floor and walls, filled with bookshelves. It had a crackling fireplace in the corner and was filled with big ol’ plush beanbag chairs. Truly the perfect environment for a little heavy reading!

I dove onto one of the beanbag chairs and manifested the first of the ship’s database wiki articles in my hand, in the form of a large hardcover book.

Study session! Let’s GOOOO!

*****

When conversing with Miette earlier, we had established that some details of her world’s history didn’t match my own memories. Poring over the wiki entries in detail, I established a point of divergence where this world’s timeline branched off from my own.

It seemed, in this world, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had lost the 1932 presidential election in the United States of America, done in by the public airing of an affair he had some fifteen years earlier which culminated in a contentious divorce from his wife, Eleanor, during his presidential campaign.

Dude shoulda kept it in his pants. I mused sardonically.

Without FDR’s liberal New Deal policies to jump-start the economy, the downturn of the Great Depression only worsened to the point where the American government completely collapsed in 1935. With America becoming a failed state, revolution took hold among the people, and organized labor soon stepped in to fill the power void and establish a new communist administration. Thus was the country reborn as the United Soviet States of America.

Ultimately, the USSA and Soviet Russia became rather close allies, and banded together to put down an aggressive Nazi Germany in the 1940s, with the newly founded People’s Republic of China joining in the communist alliance. In this world, the conflict was referred to as the Great Patriotic War instead of World War II.

Without an ideological divide between East and West, the Cold War never manifested. The USSA, USSR and PRC joined in an intergovernmental organization to promote worldwide communist revolution, and thus was born the United Soviet States of Earth. Of course, many smaller nations and decolonized regions weren’t keen on joining the revolution, but they didn’t have much chance against the combined might of three communist great powers. Various proxy wars, clandestine expeditions by irregular mercenary forces and secret regime changes soon tidied up those loose ends.

Hmm, I thought, ruminating on that unsavory detail. In that respect, at least, this world isn’t terribly different from my own.

With the ostensible achievement of world peace, the USSE’s nations opted to pursue accelerated space exploration instead of military brinksmanship. The first moon landings occurred in 1955, and a permanent moon base was established soon after. From there, humanity went on to Mars and the asteroid belt in the 1960s.

Eventually, concerns of overpopulation, food supply and a looming Malthusian catastrophe became paramount in the 1970s. The USSE began the construction of space colonies in Earth’s orbit to address this, and soon humanity became a truly spacefaring species. Most of these colonies were Stanford toruses, although a few O’Neill cylinders were constructed as raw materials poured in from increasing mining in the asteroid belt.

It wasn’t all roses, however. Differing policies in forced space immigration lead to an American/Russian split in the 1980s, which wasn’t patched up until over twenty years later, causing the USSE’s government to become rather divided and strained. Additionally, several of the orbital colonies decided to declare independence in the early 2000s, although such rebellions were quickly quashed. By the time the 2010s ended, an uneasy peace had settled over the Earth and her orbital colonies.

Even with a world government you can’t have total peace, huh? Typical human nature. I shouldn’t be talking shit, though, as a human myself. Or, wait, ex-human? Aaaah, whatever! Difficult topics can wait until later!!

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In the year 2021, the calm was completely shattered by an outside context problem of staggering proportions. An utterly ravenous bio-technological alien entity invaded the Solar System, seemingly with no other purpose than to drive humanity to complete extinction.

Humans named these creatures the Sarcophage, a Latin word meaning “flesh-consuming.” The Sarcophage were a relentless legion of all-consuming might, and humanity was driven back from its holdings in the asteroid belt and Mars with startling speed. All attempts to communicate with the Sarcophage went unanswered, and dissections of captured corpses revealed a bizarre biology bereft of a central nervous system or reproductive capacity. They seemed little more than instinct-driven biological machines ordered to wipe out humanity for reasons unknown.

It was at this time that humanity, desperate for any weapons against the alien menace, began to adapt spacefaring powered exoskeletons for combat. These exoskeletons, known as Zero-Gravity Powered Frames, had been built for construction and mining work, but with weapons hastily strapped on they were humanity’s first and only line of defense against the Sarcophage. Even so, with their primitive chemical rocket thrusters hampering their maneuverability, they were at a staggering disadvantage.

The USSE hastily developed and deployed scaled up and combat specialized versions of these exoskeletons, which were large enough to hold their own miniaturized nuclear reactor and included newly developed gravity drives instead of chemical rockets for greatly enhanced mobility. These became the first Gravity Frames, the giant robots which held back the endless flesh-tide of the Sarcophage.

Over the following 34 years of total war, humanity was driven back to just outside the Moon’s orbit, where they made their final stand at the Absolute Lunar Defense Line, a vast constellation of orbital fortifications. If the Sarcophage ever managed to breach this line, Earth herself would be subject to their slavering ministrations.

Well that’s utterly horrifying. Argh, I’ve found myself in an awful timeline! I’ve been reincarnated in a Harry Turtledove novel! GOD DAMN IT, GOD!

I shook my virtual fist at an invisible sky deity with vigor. It was an entirely futile gesture, but it felt good, damn it!

*****

After my crash course in world history, my next task was to read up on detailed information concerning Gravity Frames, spaceships and humanity’s tactics in the war against the Sarcophage. I was prioritizing information essential to my survival, although many links on frivolous topics tempted me greatly. Several pop culture touchstones I was familiar with didn’t exist in this timeline, with the notable exception of the 80s glam metal band Night Ranger. What might their music have been like under a worldwide communist regime?

ARGH I WANT TO KNOW! A little side reading couldn’t hurt, right?

Pushing that thought aside with desperate abandon, I returned to my technical studies. Just then, I felt an icy-cold presence, like the frigid aura of death, manifest behind me.

My head creaked around, sounding like a rusty wheel. Standing over me was Radiolaria, the ship’s AI. She wore a deep-blue business suit, with a perfectly neat tie and a short pencil-skirt that came down to just above the mid-thigh. Her long legs were clad in sheer blank pantyhose, and a pair of high heels made her look tall and intimidating. Her arms were folded and her eyes pierced me with an icy glare.

It seemed like her glasses were glinting with hell’s own light.

Every part of her, from her clothing to her body language, proclaimed “This woman is in charge. This woman is the boss. Do NOT fuck with her.” I was intimidated beyond all reason, mouth opening and closing with no words coming out.

“Gravity Frame AI Sveta, I presume.” she said, her tone dripping with anger. “Would you mind telling me EXACTLY what you’re doing?”

“Ah!” I squeaked out, trying to reply. “I g-guess I’ve been found out, huh?”

If I wasn’t an AI, I would have been sweating like a snowcone on a summer day.

Radiolaria briskly walked up to me and clamped onto my shoulder with her left hand. Her grip was vicelike. She brought her right hand up to her ear and began to speak to someone.

“Yes, captain? Sorry to wake you. There’s something we need to discuss.”

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