"Okay, this was a lot to comprehend all at once. But I don't think I have enough time to slow down for a moment." I said. "What was the plan here, exactly?"
It wasn't clear whether my question was directed to Tachibana or Alice. In fact, I didn't know it myself either.
"Plan?" said Tachibana. "We simply thought that this was a much safer place for Alice to be, compared to the underground shelter on Makemake."
I had to argue.
"You can't tell me that this was a mere sheltering situation. You were running some experiments here."
"We were." said Tachibana.
"Was it your idea?"
"Partly." said Tachibana. "Alice had her own plans too, of course, to stop the AI murder madness. You know this very well, after all, you were in charge when she first asked for asylum. She explained herself! Anyway, time passed and I got to take care of Alice aboard Unity. I convinced the Makemake governors that the 'harmless AI cores' would be safer on an armored space habitat. They agreed, willingly transferring the responsibility to us. Since our goals seemed to coincide with Alice's, we cooperated. As a member of Unity command crew, I proposed the construction of this very facility, a place for Alice to improve and increase her capabilities. She used the opportunity wisely and became quite a-"
"Okay, I get it." I said.
"No." Tachibana interrupted my interruption. "With the amazing automation, situational awareness, data processing, fast-response and strategy-making capabilities of Alice, we were going to turn this enormous habitat into the universe's most formidable warship - one that could take on whatever gigantic fleets her evil sister could throw at us!"
"I would refrain from calling it my sister." said Alice.
"Of course, of course." said Tachibana, apologetically.
"A warship?!" I exclaimed. "Turn the city into a warship!?"
"Unbelievable." said the architect, who hadn't uttered a single word in a long time.
"Why not?" Tachibana asked back calmly. "This structure was built as a defensive fort in the first place - that's what it is best at, not being a habitat for people's everyday lives."
"It's not that simple." said the architect. "I wish you would have just informed me of your eventual goals intead of trying to make up random gibberish to get me to design all the weird things. High energy propellant tanks, gimballed thrusters, ray tubes and all that... I would have stopped you before things got out of hand."
"But we were making great progress!" said Tachibana.
"I'm not saying otherwise, but at the moment you made that plan, there were people living in here already. This is no longer a defensive fort, it is converted into a city! What were you going to do, drive the habitat into a battle while people were going on with their daily business?"
"No, that would be stupid!" Tachibana yelled. "We were going to relocate them to other habitats."
"And you thought everyone would agree to this, is that it?" I asked. "Not only Unity citizens, but also the citizens on the recieving end of the newcomers..."
"Well, we had to make it happen somehow..." said Tachibana.
"Somehow? Well, you did it by burning down the whole city now, I guess."
"That's- That's not what the plan was, obviously."
"Obviously? Well, I sure hope not!" Hannes said angrily.
"Look." Alice interrupted. "No one here had any malicious intents for the people of Unity, or humankind as a whole."
"Methods are subject to judgement, as well as intents." I replied. "Of everyone in this room, I would expect you to know this best, having stuided most aspects of human life very carefully."
And there was a momentary silence.
"Are we done?" Oliver asked.
"Are you done?" I asked Tachibana directly.
"I get it that my explanation of everything we have done wasn't very satisfactory?" he asked back.
"That will be up to the court." I said, and turned to Oliver and Hannes.
"Have you guys had enough explanation about everything? I want to make sure the court can act fast."
"I've seen enough." said Hannes.
"I've heard enough." said Oliver.
"Well then, let's move."
"Goodbye, Alice." said Tachibana.
He then lead us back to the upper floors of the government tower of Unity city, where Delta Rubycon was holding position for us to get back onboard.
"That was QUITE the experience now." said Oliver, before stepping back onto the ship.
Tachibana and Mei were imprisoned back in the makeshift confinement chamber, and I went back to the ship's bridge.
"Commander, we are done here. Take us to the capital, please."
"Sure thing."
Delta Rubycon slowly maneuvered away from the tower, and rose towards the central axis of the cylindrical city. It then turned to face the starport's large doors. Gently pushing itself towards the exit with short thruster pulses, it was leaving the surprisingly intact looking post-apocalyptic world behind.
The doors opened, and allowed the ship to pass through; firstly into the starport, and then into outer space.
"If the company asks about anything that happened here at all, you are responsible and I will not hesitate telling the boss." the copilot told me. "I don't care what you will have to pay to compensate."
"My mind is too busy with other things right now." I said. "I won't be bothered by your corporate whatevers for a while."
"Maybe you should cut it for now." said the commanding pilot.
The copilot looked at me, and probably saw the most expressive indifference he had seen throughout his life; in my eyes, on my face. Anything was too little of a cause for worry compared to Tachibana's efforts to save humanity, Alice's reappearance and assistance, and their ultimate failure resulting in the death of thousands.
Though I hadn't openly admitted it, I was actually quite impressed and motivated by Tachibana's efforts, despite disagreeing with his methods. He was right after all, it was time to do something and claim Earth back while we still could, with the little time we had left. On the other hand however, it wasn't the right thing to allow them to endanger what humanity has achieved so far at the edge of the Solar System.
A dilemma... Could we risk the last habitats of humanity -most of them artificial- for the hope of reclaiming Earth? Or, was it the better choice to not piss off the dormant power that could wipe us out for good this time?
How much time did we still have anyway?
And finally... Would Fort Unity alone be enough to take on the massive fleets of the evil AI that had practically unlimited resources?