Sol Survivors Chapter 11: Gifts from the Stars

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The workshop smells of grease and ozone, the kind that clings to your skin long after you leave. Tools scatter across benches like forgotten soldiers. Marvin sets the rag down, gestures to a cluster of mismatched stools and chairs around a scarred metal table. Rand takes one, ribs protesting less now. Toku perches on the edge of another, back straight. Lila sinks onto her chair; knees pulled close, eyes darting over the clutter.

Rourke leans against the bulkhead near the door; arms folded. He watches without interrupting.

Marvin pulls up a stool opposite Rand. His eyes crinkle at the corners, assessing. “Randall Andersen. The Marine who told a general to shove his AI orders where the sun don’t shine and then uncovered that the Chief of Staff was being compromised by the other side through his deviant tentacle fetish before the world even knew the Squiggs were here. Hell of a way to earn a ticket to the Icebox.”

Rand grunts. “General Haas. Yeah. He had that look in his eyes like someone else was pulling the strings while tugging on his junk. Earned me an ice-cold court martial.”

Marvin nods. “We know. Sol Libertatis has been following up on folks like you. Patriots who saw the rot but got buried for it. Your dishonorable discharge is a medal around here under the circumstances.”

Rand leans forward. “Sol Libertatis, I see the branding. What is it? Some kind of resistance?”

Marvin chuckles, rough and tired. “More like a movement. Started small. Once we started expanding out here, we figured we’d have to create some kind of structure to keep each other alive. Early on, the Free Station Alliance was formed back when it was just us here around Europa and the few stations around Saturn. Galt was just an ore processing station back then. We tried to learn from Earth’s mistakes and built on some of the things we got right historically, with some experimenting of our own. Each station is its own “State”, for lack of better word, that agrees to abide by the tenets, kinda like our old Constitution back home, may it rest in peace. All the FSA does is facilitate the commerce out here and make sure everything is fair with as little intervention as possible. That said, people are people so sometimes someone has to step in to handle disputes that start getting physical.“

“Sol Libertatis was formed mainly as a security force of the FSA. We mostly send out judges to settle trade disputes with just enough firepower to dissuade further aggression. We deal with pirates, provide emergency aid, and deal anyone else trying to strongarm people just trying to get by. It’s been pretty calm out here, violence wise anyway, though with more and more people trying to stake claims that may fail, there are a lot more desperate folks out here doing desperate things. Our official tagline is ‘Freedom Defended By Free Hands Alone’”

“What does any of this have to do with breaking someone like me out of Ares?” Rand questions. “While I certainly appreciate the save, I feel like you didn’t thaw me out to be a space cop.”

John Marvin smiles knowingly “Indeed. Earth seems lost. Anyone who saw the governments cracking under their own weight… one side pushing equity that turned into forced collectives, equality at the lowest common denominator… the Zuhtou whispering in ears, warping thoughts, ramping up the chaos to feed on minds. Protests turning bloody. Riots engineered to make people beg for order ”

Rourke shifts. “Zuhtou, the pig-faced bastards. They infiltrated everything, fed on emotions and rage.”

John Marvin continues “They have this psychic manipulation, they seed emotions, they become almost addictive and feed off of the energy that churns. As we learned from social media algorithms in the 20’s, rage bait sells. Made sure everyone felt oppressed, everyone else was the enemy, then basked in the backlash. They got into the heads of certain leaders in places of power, forcing the ideologies that split us. The Chief of Staff for one.”

Rand rubs his beard. “Haas. I knew it. He wasn’t right. Like something alien was riding shotgun in his head, and in his pants.”

“Zuhtou agent,” Rourke says. “We confirmed it later. They played both sides. Chaos for the left, crackdowns for the right. All to keep humanity divided, ripe for the picking.”

“What they didn’t plan on,” Marvin elaborates, “was the unpredicted backlash from the machines. The Zuhtou figured they could keep a steady froth of conflict between 2 groups of easily manipulated humans, but then the AI’s started calculating algorithms on how to counter the chaos and people started to beg for order. In a way, some of your generals were right, the AI was better at countering the chaos, they were outside of it. The MOSHUUS formed with armies of security robots driven by AI and circuits that were impervious to Zuhtou suggestions and shut some shit down.”

“At a heavy cost” Rourke injects

Marvin continues. “Governments panicked. Gave away decision-making to AIs, you saw that. The AIs were supposedly ‘Neutral’ arbiters, clean decision makers. But CEASAR, the biggest defense contractor AI back then, started swallowing all of the smaller AIs up. Federal systems, state grids, all assimilated. It turned authoritarian to ‘combat’ the tides of chaos. Iron fist in a silicon glove. MOSHUUS rose from that mess, CEASAR’s cold and very efficient enforcer arm. Total control disguised as security.”

“And what is MOSHUUS exactly? We saw that printed on the bots on Ares” Rand asks.

“Machina Ordo Supremus Humana Unitas Ultima Subjugata, or Masters Over Subordinate Humans United Under Supremacy if you get past CEASAR’s obsession with Latin and the Roman Empire.” Marvin replies, “CEASAR stands for something too, I don’t remember off the top of my head. Anyway, half of the population started siding with the MOSHUUS, looking to end the bullshit and division. Then, since the Squiggs had a real enemy and not just puppets playing off of each other, things got even uglier. There were constant escalating conflicts, at the peak was a riot, a turning point, The Newark Heartbreak Massacre, about the time you all were put away”

Lila tries to keep a neutral face, but the mention of The Heartbreak overwhelms her. She feels like John Marvin is looking right through her. Her face flushes and she shrinks a little on her stool.

The head of Sol Libertatis continued, “Seems like some kids hacked some underground wetware and saw through the Squiggs’ projections, their disguise, completely by accident. There’s some grainy, shaky-eye footage of it. A recording through the eyes of the kid, through his hacked Neuro-T. But the fact that someone could see them out in the open freaked one of the Pig-faced fuckers out so much, they stopped feeding on the hate around them and projected all its shock and fear on top of everyone’s hate. It was a bloodbath. The first full legion of MOSHUUS troops swept in can cleaned it up with little to no other casualties other than the harm the rioters caused themselves. That’s how it was sold, anyway.”

That must’ve been Hari’s footage. Lila thought silently, her mouth dropping open. I didn’t know he was recording!

Rand leaned back on the stool, crossing his arms. The workshop lights cast long shadows across the benches. “These Neuro-Ts,” he said. “Back when I went in the ice, they were bleeding-edge prototypes, wetware interfaces, mostly military or corporate. Expensive. Invasive. Direct-to-brain interfaces that were supposed to kill the cell phone and bring the world together in some bullshit technological utopia? I think I remember the ads. What the hell happened to them in the last twenty-two years?”

Marvin exchanged a quick look with Rourke, who pushed off the bulkhead and stepped closer to the table.

“Short version?” Rourke said. “They went from luxury to necessity. Then from necessity to leash.”

Marvin picked up the thread. “Early on it was novel tech. Connected nervous systems directly to machines and allowed a lucky few to enjoy miracles, blind kids seeing for the first time, injured firemen walking again. A huge publicity push. Heartwarming stories everywhere. Made the tech seem like a godsend. As it advanced, more enhancements rolled in. Faster reflexes. Instant data access. Augmented reality overlays. Turned them into powerful tools for anyone who could afford it.”

Rand’s jaw tightened. “Sounds too good.”

Rourke nodded. “It was good, until the breakdowns. After the Zuhtou got exposed and the riots turned into full-blown civil wars, governments started pushing ‘unity solutions.’ Neuro-Ts were sold as the answer. Instant communication, shared knowledge, and dopamine rewards for ‘pro-social’ behavior, as well as a block to the Zuhtou mind influence. The left loved it, at least the ones smart enough to have avoided the Squggs loving embrace ‘cause it still gave them that collectivist harmony on tap they always wanted but without the tentacle fetish. The right saw it as a way to enforce order without boots on the ground. CEASAR rolled them out at scale. Subsidized. Made the mandatory in certain jobs, schools, corporate contracts. Even some military units. Anyone who wanted to stay competitive, or stay employed, just had to have one.”

“And the rewards?” Rand asked. “I mean, for CEASAR.”

Rourke snorted. “Engineered addiction. CEASAR saw how the Squiggs manipulated people’s emotions, stirring up hate, fear, division and tapped into the Tees to do much of the same. You do what the system wants, report a neighbor, parrot the approved state or corporate line, hit your productivity quota, and you get a little chemical hit. Felt like love, like purpose. Felt like sex, sometimes with the right AR. And it all tied into your Social Credit Score. Boost your SCS with compliant behavior, get the rewards flowing. Tank it? No love for you, Withdrawal kicks in. Headaches. Depression. Tremors. Most people never notice they’re hooked until they try to stop.”

Marvin’s voice stayed steady. “The tech itself is brilliant. Direct neural interface. Data streams straight to the cortex. You can pull manuals, maps, languages, schematics, whatever’s in the cloud, without a screen. Half the pilots and techs in the Belt have one. They’re walking databases. But the reward system? That’s where CEASAR showed its hand. It’s not just augmentation. It’s control. MOSHUUS kept the worst of it running on Earth. Out here in the Belt, in FSA space, we strip the behavioral hooks when we can. Leave the interface. Keep the utility. No one’s jacking your dopamine anymore unless you ask for it.”

Rand rubbed his beard. “So it’s still a potential leash. Just one that you say doesn’t pull as hard out here.”

“Not quite,” Rourke said. “The hardware’s still there. The old reward pathways don’t just vanish. Withdrawal can last months. Years, for heavy users. Some folks never shake it. They chase the ghost of the hit. Others learn to live with the quiet. And there are underground hacks floating around, black-market code that feeds the addictions, keeps the control loops running. Security’s always cracking down on it, but it pops up like weeds.”

Marvin leaned forward, elbows on the table. “I’d like to do away with all of them out here. Scrap the lot. But some rely on them. Fighter pilots, especially, gives them an edge in the black. Split-second control of the ships with a thought.”

Rourke adds, “And we do have an entire department handling beams from Earth trying to slip malicious code into the FSA net. Updates that reactivate the hooks. We block most of it, but it’s a constant fight.”

“We’ve got techs here who can dial it back further, on the Tees themselves, dampen the cravings, reroute the pathways,” Marvin added. “Takes time. Takes trust. But if someone wants it, we’ll do it. No strings. No bill. That’s how we run things.”

Rand sighs “I think we’ll be content without them.”

“Yeah?” Rourke pipes up, nodding towards Lila, “Your girl here has one”

Lila’s hand smacked the back of her neck behind her ear like she was swatting a mosquito and pinning it there. Her face flushed hot. She stared at the floor, shoulders hunched.

Rourke continued, casual but pointed. “Must’ve been an early one. They weren’t too many on the market back then.”

John Marvin looked between Lila and his corporal with a look of restrained concern.

“No worries, boss,” Rourke assured. “We don’t have any bandwidth going in or out, encrypted or not. We scanned for any signal, new and old. My only concern is the 22 year old firewall, assuming she has one”

Marvin nodded slowly. “Some hacked underground wetware, then.” He gave Rourke a quick glance; Rourke returned it with a silent understanding. “Well, that’s fun news.”

Lila twisted in her seat, the stool creaking under her. Every eye in the room was on her now. Her face felt like interrogation lights were burning her skin, even though no one had raised their voice. Her throat worked once before she forced words out.

“It has no net connection on its own,” she said, voice small and unsteady. “Just storage and processing. Local only. I’m not… I’m not recording anything.” She looked up, eyes flicking from Marvin to Rourke to Rand and finally Toku. “I swear. I haven’t recorded anything. Not the ship. Not you. Not any of this. It’s just… it’s just me and the data I loaded before. That’s all.”

Her hand stayed pressed to the back of her neck, fingers white-knuckled, like she could physically hold the thing quiet.

Rand’s expression softened a fraction. He didn’t speak, but he shifted his weight so his shoulder was closer to hers. A bump, a small, wordless support.

Lila swallowed. “I know what it looks like. I know what you’re thinking. But I’m not… I’m not spying. I’m not feeding anything back. I just… ” She broke off, voice cracking. “I just want to change the subject.”

The workshop fell quiet except for the low hum of machinery somewhere in the walls. Lila finally lifted her head fully. Her fingers had been resting against the faint glow under her collar the whole time. Her voice was quiet, almost lost under the hum of the workshop fans. “And, um… so… the Maalivahti? Colonel Rourke mentioned them on the walk over?”

Marvin leans back, sighing, the tension breaking a little as his tone shifts back to his role as host. “They showed up about fifteen years ago. Tall, ethereal types. Arrived in that capital ship, Makuuhu One, and the accompanying fleet. It was tense, and spectacular, but they didn’t conquer, didn’t preach, they just observed and eventually made contact when it finally suited them. They said the Zuhtou had been squatting on Earth for decades, and were investigating reports of possible malfeasance against a race not yet in the Greater Heliocosmic Synarchy, their Galactic Empire, Federation of Planets, whatever you want to call it…”

“Dibs on ‘The Imperium of Man’ when it’s our turn to run it all” Rand pipes in with a smirk with little to no acknowledgement from the others.

“The Maalivahti granted us some concessions for the zuhtou inconvenience to stabilize things,” Marvin continues, “they shared tech.”

Toku tilts his head. “Gifts?”

“Pragmatic ones,” Marvin says. “Better drives, cut solar travel from months to days. Atmospheric fields, radiation shielding. Advanced He-3 fusion, clean, efficient. Opened the system wide for us. Moon bases grew into cities. Mars arcologies. Belt outposts. Jovian moons shielded from rad storms. Titan, Enceladus, even Uranus refineries. There’s even one hermit out in the Kuiper now living with his cats.”

Rand frowns. “Why? What’s their angle? The Maalivahti, not the cats”

Rourke snorts. “Bureaucracy and placation. They’re watchers, bound by rules. They gave us tools to not implode, but no more. A little nudge to help us along without giving the keys to the entire Helios Gyre as long as we promised we wouldn’t weaponize it against each other in stupid ways.”

Marvin nods. “Changed everything. People fled Earth. Built free ports like Galt. FSA, the Free Space Alliance formed. No overlords. Markets run wild but fair. We keep the outer system free.”

“Helios Gyre?” Toku asks after waiting for an appropriate break.

“The Milky Way” John Marvin replies, “It’s what those in the Synarchy call it”

Lila touches her Neuro-T absently, now more comfortable not keeping it a secret. “And Ares? Why send Marcus and the other soldiers that died?”

“It was a risk, ” Marvin says, ” but we finally had funding for a long range op to break out a bunch of political prisoners. Folks like you three,“ He pauses looking at Lila and Toku. ”Wait, that’s right, you two weren’t on the list. But you made it out with a few dozen others. Now you’re with us. Lucky you.”

Rand glances at Lila and Toku. “Lucky us.”

Rourke pushes off the wall. “We needed experienced hands. People who saw the lies up close.”

Toku speaks quietly. “And now?”

Marvin smiles. “Now you rest. Get the Solvo patched proper. Resupplied. Then, if you’re game, a small job. There’s always something that needs doing. Prove you’re with us.”

Rand meets his eyes. “We’re listening.”

“Get yourselves patched up and cleaned up and we’ll have a more official conversation.”

The workshop hums around them. Tools wait. The stars outside drift in their paths indifferently.

Link to all the chapters  – click here