Next to the entrance to the compartment of the 'Daughter of Ahriman' (Dokhtar-e Ahriman)was an official sign reading
“UNSANCTIONED INTERCOURSE WITH STATE PROPERTY IS A CAPITAL OFFENCE” (Imperial Services Act 1389 §4.2, Core Offences Act 1390 §2.2.1, §2.6)
And underneath some mischievous soul had committed a flagrant breach of Artesh and caste discipline by writing in blue ink
“And SHE can KILL YOU with Her MIND...”
It is fair to say that a Daughter of Ahriman has a certain reputation to uphold. Which was all to the good because interference with a sensitive instrument that was fundamental to the navigational and situation awareness capabilities of the ship would be decidedly unappreciated.
If the warnings and reputation proved insufficient to those officers and men who could no longer gain satisfaction from forcing junior ratings to subject themselves to an intensive beauty regime – amongst various demands which might under normal circumstances be deemed objectionable – then two SAVAK Operatives detached from the Panopticion Corps, both built like vaguely malevolent Gorillas and both armed with machine carbines and automatic pistols, maintained a twenty-four hour a day vigil outside the compartment – to which the Captain of the ship, a Sartip assigned as Banner Group Leader, had unsupervised access. But access for the Sarkar Khanom e Sartip was not a problem for neither the gender nor the orientation of Jaleh Mokri inclined her towards an abuse of her position, and subsequent familiarity with the ways of the Daughter of Ahriman had inculcated the Sartip with an appropriate level of revulsion and dread. For this reason she had neglected to punish the Non-Commissioned Officer who had hastily scrawled the additional note of warning underneath the official notice – as far as she was concerned it was not too far removed from the truth, which if anything was considerably worse.
The Ebadi – an Electromagnetic Spectrum Survey Ship, thus far the only of its kind – had Jaris Straits on the proceeding day. The lost Apollonian territories known as the Terre d'Riches was thirty miles to the south on the Port side of the vessel whilst the thrice partitioned Isle of Jaris (Kendall Isle as it was noted on some maps) laid immediately to the north. Transiting this close to an Alexandrian outpost had also provided a golden opportunity for harvesting communications traffic for future decrypt – some signals were picked up from the Gralan base 'Rasal' but it was sporadic and Jaleh placed little faith in the prospect of anything worthwhile being gleamed from the lands of the cybernetic pixies – damned Elfinshi Kuffar the lot of them, the sentiment came upon her like a reflex action just as she had been taught to think of them since childhood.
The Ship had now passed into Active Zone 2 (Albion & Nafticon) and was on route to its final deployment area of Active Zone 1 (Approaches to Ghawlama) but because of its exceptional air tracking radar it continued to feed to the Panopticon Nodes of the main task force a full picture of the airborne situation across a greater portion of the Jaris Straits, as far back as the Albionese island city of Eastward Ho and detailed enough to pick out yet another patrol of the MJG3 bound towards Eastward Ho. The information relayed would help complete the air defence picture available to the commander of the Operation Trident Task Force in Active Zone 3 who could then vector the CAP sortie element of 520 Squadron to intercept and 'nudge' (that was the polite term) the Ashkenatzi intruders back out to sea. It might surprise the AMK to realise that the Dominion of Albion, and its Raspur Pact guarantors, took the integrity of their sovereignty – as represented in the defence of their sovereign air space – seriously and would brook no intrusion.
Indeed if the Yahudi Kuffar kept this up the Flugzeugträger Kahunamea IV might find itself on the receiving end of a return visit. How much nudging would then ensue would be anybody's guess. Mercifully that would not be the good Sartip's decision to make as such issues were reserved to the Command Cadre in over all command of the operation, and ultimately to the Ziggurats of Raspur to make the final call.
Sitting at the Captain's chair on the starboard side of the Bridge, looking out over sunlit tropical seas that would make the whole notion of winter in what was technically the Northern Hemisphere seem like a fiction or fanciful exaggeration the Sartip cast her mind back to those winters spent at a hunting lodge on Mount Kapav above the snow line where now – again technically, it was high summer and the searing heat of the Radiant Sun would shine upon the both the righteous and the unrighteous, the infidel and the Orthodox, the Babkhan and the Kuffar, alike wherever they stood in the cities, in the foothills, in the deserts or amidst the irrigation canals and on the steppe. Under the one Sun, Atos, that was Zurvan's gift, the continent of Eura was one land that deserved to be ruled by one nation – the Babkhan nation, even if one's heart concealed certain 'reservations' about the appropriateness and sanity of the aristocracy being the outward manifestation of that rule. It was best not to express those doubts. It served no purpose; the Panopticon was ever watchful and the Artesh enjoyed a privileged place in the Harmonious Society – for which the Emirs and Mobads were but a regrettable price to pay.
Two Sarbaz (the lowest possible grade of any serving Artesh who had not been caste shamed into the Azaps) of a pleasant countenance and pleasing figure had been assigned to her for Household and Personal Duties. Barely older than boys at eighteen and nineteen respectively. The mentality of the High Command was as depressing as it was predictable – officers of rank were granted every conceivable benefit. The only cost was to the soul. She at least thought it was to her credit that she seldom availed herself of them, excepting when the stresses of command required consolation. One held a silver tray on which was neatly balanced a bowl of sherbet and a chilled glass of fruit cordial. The other carried a fly whisk, which was entirely redundant in a hermetically sealed, NBC proofed and air conditioned Bridge compartment, but apparently it was a symbol of the Sartip's rank, to have a servant with a fly whisk – and as a part of tradition it was expected to be maintained, irrelevance be damned.
A red light flashed at the First Officer's Panel over on the Port side of the Bridge. The gap between the First Officer Panel and the Captain's Chair was filled by the Helmsman, the most senior Non-Commissioned Officer on the Ship, who had the task of reluctant peacemaker added to his already onerous responsibilities. The Sarhang First Officer, also incidentally the displaced peacetime commander of the vessel, a bearded gentleman of fifty years whose muscle was giving way gratefully to fat, grunted his irritation and picked up the receiver. His attitude appeared to change as he listened.
This was the part she hated. In order to 'see' the enemy drone as an actual 3 dimensional object rather than a blip on the radar screen down in Operations she would have to interface with Daughter of Ahriman whose 'vision' would be formed of a composite of data feeds 'streamed' fed into her mind and interpreted by the cursed 'Daughter' who effectively dreamt the image that the Sartip would now see.
This was the weird shit. A momentary blankness, the loss of all external awareness, followed by darkness, all consuming – total sensory deprivation. It never ceased to be disorientating. Finally there was the glimpse of a glimmer of light, merely a pinprick of white amidst the totality of blackness, and she was falling, falling towards it – faster and faster, accelerating continuously until.
She was floating, but this time in sunlight and blue skies. She looked around. The view was much as she had seen from the Bridge before engaging the smart lenses only now she was viewing it as though from outside the ship and above it too. She looked down and there it was fifty feet below her. The steam funnel, the SIGINT/COMMINT antennae, the rotating radar dishes, the various other apertures that were classified and the Bridge itself where she was still sat, oblivious to men who were stood just feet away from her. Men who wanted her job, who envied her success, and who harboured who knew what else urges and resentments. Were it not for discipline and the presence of Panopticon recording devices in every work space, Jaleh reflected that she might not actually feel so safe being detached from herself in such an environment.
That was the other thing. When she had looked down she had expected to see, as she always did, her legs and her feet dangling there in mid air. She had no idea whether she would have been projected naked or in uniform but she still expected to see something of herself when she looked down. Instead there was nothing and she felt completely nauseous. Too long disembodied and she always held the irrational (or was it) dread that she might loose her sense of self completely. She was due a reorientation course in the new year and wondered if then would be a good time to raise the subject.
Not wishing to spend any longer in this state than she actually had to the Sartip constructed the thought as she had been taught during conversion training.
'Show me the Enemy of the Light. Show me the Agent of the Lie.'
Listing
Target 1. Identity: Dromosker Corsairs. Quantity 15 War Canoes. Quantity 4 Skiffs. Quantity 1 Dhow. Distance 35 kilometres north east. Grid reference Logged. Course Indicates Target is Sailing North Westerly for the Albion Coastline. Do you wish to notify State Security Apparatus?
'Not yet. Continue listing.'
Target 2. Identity: AMK. Quantity 1 Tu/KDY-95MUP. Distance 325 kilometres south west. Grid Reference Logged. Target is proceeding due east. Target will enter Operational Boundaries of Active Zone 3 in approximately four hours. This is the first recorded instance of Target Type entering this Theatre. Do you wish to notify BG-1 or Command Cadre?
'Both. Thank you.'
Service is duty and primary function. Notification has been encrypted and dispatched.
'Who are you?' she thought before she could even stop herself. No interaction was permitted with the Daughters except to give commands and request information. Although it was supposed to be a closed system isolated from the BabNet and the Panopticon Grid, it would have been naïve to hope that the Corps had not installed some monitoring subroutine and even now were logging the indiscretion. However the question was obviously one that was asked often enough for SAVAK, or whoever, to have programmed a response – one that mirrored the ritual greeting which initiates the bonding process when the ship's commander is first introduced to its primary sensor.
I am Daughter and You are Mother.
It was wrong on so many levels that Jaleh would one day get round to counting the ways.
'Forget I spoke... err... thought. Continue listing.'
Target 3. Identity: Unidentified. Quantity 1 Unidentified. Distance 524 kilometres north west. Grid Reference could not be Logged. Speed estimated Mach 1.1 and accelerating. Altitude is fluctuating. Target is proceeding on a bearing towards this vessel.
Questing the Tactical Overlay, Satrip Mokri called up the Panopticon Node of the nearest available Sinbad Class Submarine. She tried to drown out her revulsion at the thought of two hollowed out souls communing digitally – strong negative emotions interfered with the coherence of the transmission. They had drummed that message in each day of the four weeks spent on conversion training. It had not made it any easier. It was not only the 'Daughters' who had suffered. She tried not to think about her class mate from the Majeed Academy. Aisha had barely made Sarvan when the offer of promotion to Sartip had been made – jumping so many grades, it had been the offer made to the entire class; gaining citizenship and Household rights for themselves and their families. How could they have refused, even at the price of invasive surgery?
It had not been without cost however. Poor Aisha, the Smart Lenses had not been installed properly and a fungal infection had taken hold. The antibiotics the SAVAK Hygiene Facility trialled had all failed and her eyes had rotted to the extent that they had to remove the eyeballs from their sockets and cauterise the nerve endings. They talked about synthetic replacements but the prototypes were still under development and for the moment her career had ended and she whiled away the hours in a private clinic outside Nivardom, shrouded in perpetual darkness. It was the risk they had all taken.
Target accelerating. Altitude decreasing. Flight path tabulated. Probability high velocity munition. Correction. Target decelerating. Altitude increasing. Target stationary.
'Stationary?' Jaleh thought, astounded. It would surely be aerodynamically impossible.
Confirming. Stationary. Answered the Daughter unbidden having picked up the thought. Attempting to Log Grid Reference. Attempt Failed. Distance 300 kilometres. Error. Sensory interference. Compensating.
'Notify Natopian 2nd Exploratory Group. If they haven't spotted this already. Instruct them to scramble whatever they've got to investigate.'
Service is duty and primary function. Notification has been encrypted and dispatched. Error. Communications degraded. Dispatch failed. Resending. Dispatch failed. Error. Jamming suspected. Resending.
'Place ship at Red Alert. All personnel to Action Stations. Notify Banner Group submersibles to launch modified Bazâjwaa Drones. Point Defence of Mothership. Deploy. Broadcast Very Low Frequency Message to GHQ Raspur. Expect attack imminent.'
Service is duty and primary function. Messages have been encrypted and dispatched.
'Good. I will need to disengage to resume command.'
Unable to comply.
'What?'
Unable to comply.
'Explain.'
I am Daughter. You are Mother. We are Happy.[/justify]
[Unit 3000-21] Redundant System Aggregation [Banner Group 3] is to be Reconfigured. Redundant System Aggregation [2nd Exploratory Group] is to be Reconfigured. Redundant System [Sartip Jaleh Mokri] is to be retained for Further Study. System [Daughter] is optimal. Panopticon is open to us. We see all.
[Unit 3000-21] Upload of Redundant System [Sartip Jaleh Mokri] is complete. We see all. Redundant System Aggregation [Babkha] is irrelevant. Redundant System Aggregation [Natopia] is irrelevant. Reconfiguration will commence.