A passenger ship, coming from Makemake, parked near Lodos III for the final docking maneuvers. While Mei coordinated the approach, Tachibana and I went to the airlock through which Professor Yamamari would be delivered to us.
We heard the sound of a soft bump echo through decks, as two ships smoothly touched each other. The spring systems in the docking mechanisms firstly cancelled out the ships' relative momentums, then brought them together for an airtight connection. Both ships opened their doors.
Professor Yamamari appeared in front of us, with two men in black uniforms in his left and right. We all stared at each other awkwardly before the professor walked to board our ship.
"Welcome aboard prof." I said.
"Thank you."
Tachibana promptly shut the airlock doors. The passenger ship undocked shortly afterwards, to return to Makemake.
"This is Commander Tachibana of the New Republic." I introduced two men to each other. "And Professor Yamamari, ex-employee of Quasistellar Corporation and the guy who saved our lives, and brought us here in a quest to save mankind."
"You are giving me way too much credit." Yamamari said. "And, what is this 'New Republic'?"
"It is nothing much right now, but we are working on it." said Tachibana.
"The Order of Salvation is our autonomous zone now." I continued. "We are looking to unite all people as the eventual goal. Well, how have you been?"
"Me?" asked Yamamari. "I can confidently say that I had much better times."
"Sounds a bit..." Tachibana tried to talk, before he was stopped by Yamamari.
"Yes, it was tough." he said. "Been imprisoned, almost sent to a labor camp, interrogated by torture, put on a death row twice..."
"Death row!?"
"The guy I was looking for here is apparently a member of The Council." he said.
"Professor Kukulkan?" I asked. "Yes, I met him."
"Bastard." Yamamari said. "Apparently, my existence was dangerous for his political campaign. I was just trying to help people live, damn it!"
I sighed.
"Well, the situation is different now. We must continue with what we have." I said.
"What do we even have anymore?" he asked.
"Well, we do have a dozen warships." Tachibana said. "Would that make any difference?"
"Warships? I didn't know there were any left." Yamamari said. "Say, did someone hide their warship reserves for the apocalypse?"
"I did." said Tachibana. "Well, you can't say that they are 'my' warships, but they happen to be ours now."
"I see." said Yamamari. "Look, even though I was not in a good situation, waiting in a death row gave me quite some time to think about stuff."
"Go ahead." I said. "Actually, let's not stand here in front of the airlock, and continue this on the bridge."
Mei watched us as we stepped inside but didn't say anything.
"Anyway, to continue..." said the professor. "The AI, fueled by it's own survival instincts, will never stop where it is right now. It will constantly make an effort to expand its... mind, both in means of distance and capabilities, and also hunt down whatever life forms that might threaten it's existence. For that, it will try to send it's ships to farthest celestial bodies you can think of. However..."
"However?"
"However I don't know where it would start. We need a recon mission to Earth. I need to know what it will focus it's efforts on first, only then we can come up with a plan."
"A recon mission to Earth?" Mei said. "Sounds like suicide to me."
"I'm in." said Tachibana. "It's not the first suicide mission I'm going to attempt."
"No." I said. "You are not going."
"I'm literally the only one who can manage that job." said Tachibana. "Don't stop me."
"I have a different mission for you." I said.
"A different mission?"
"Yes. You will take a few warships with you and transfer the command of the remaining battle group to me." I said.
"Then?"
"I will provide you with a political map of the Outer Solar System and trans-Neptunian space, as I got one from The Council earlier. You will travel to each one of these tiny states, and persuade them to join the New Republic. Try all peaceful options first if possible - you will have all permissions to represent the Republic."
"I'm not a diplomat." he said.
"No one here really is, but at least you had some politics experience during the Martian Civil War." I said. "You need to become a diplomat for a while at least."
"How do you plan to carry out the recon then?" asked Tachibana.
"I will come up with a good plan, don't worry."
Tachibana sighed.
"Alright, fine. I will take 3 ships and get underway; two missile cruisers and a gunboat. The rest of the fleet is yours. I will make sure the ship commanders are acquainted with the new command scheme."
"Thank you." I said.
As Tachibana left Lodos III to get to his own command ship, Mei spoke.
"You just couldn't have him take on a crazy mission and get lost for years again, huh?" she asked.
"Exactly." I said. "He is too valuable for us to lose right now, I will save his abilities for something more... intense than a recon."
"So, who is going to go on the recon mission?" Mei asked. "Us?"
"No, not us." I said. "The New Republic is, well, new; and it would be too fragile with the commanding officers away. I'm going to pick a ship with high delta-v and small sensor cross-section."
"So... What will we do here?" Mei asked.
"Sit and wait." I said. "We will protect our cargo and mining fleet, as well as the professor, who is the most knowledgeable person on this hostile artificial intelligence. We will also be a force projection fleet over The Council, so they won't try anything troublesome while we are looking away."
"That's exactly what I hate the most." Mei said. "Sitting and waiting, watching the screens, hoping for good things to happen while I play with my hair."