Our Heroes

Memorandum
ref. CCS0-1-2732-47
Diplomatic Encrypt level 2 - self & authorised support AIs only
Subject: Consular Reaction Support Requirement
Earth time as packet headers (relativistic adjustments apply).
Source Language: English.

from: A. MacRoberts, Admin-3, OEDR, Brussels. Validated by ERITHACUS-2.

to: C. Schmidt, Head of CCS, EU CCSO, Port Lowell.

Colette -

Okay, you'll be pleased to hear that we've finally managed to swing the budget for that no-portfolio consular services team your people insist that they need. We've approved the team memberships - two organics and a full citizen AI. Yes, just three for now, but when the new year appropriations come through, we'll see what more we can swing. Hopefully, this lot will establish the principle, and the case for expansion will make itself.

The two organics are already in transit, and the AI will transmit when the office is ready to go. Budget includes a humanoid shell for it, although hopefully it'll be happy on your static boxes most of the time. (It tells me that material things are a distraction, unquote.) Specification is attached, along with Personnel dockets for all three - review at your convenience.

Best,

Adrian.

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Memorandum
ref. CCS0-1-2732-48
Diplomatic Encrypt level 2/Personal - self & authorised/private support AIs only
Subject: Consular Reaction Support Requirement
Mars time as packet headers (relativistic adjustments apply).
Source Language: English.


from: C. Schmidt, Head of CCS, EU CCSO, Port Lowell. No local support validation.


to: A. MacRoberts, Admin-3, OEDR, Brussels.

Adrian -

Please tell me that this is a joke.

We ask you for a qualified support team so we can actually do the job that you've sent us an AU to do, we tell you precisely what our requirements will be - and you send us this?

Please recall that I made it clear that our specifications were not a negotiating position. We have a clear analysis of what this task requires, and our last three or four unfortunate experiences should have illustrated the point perfectly well. If you want reliable EU practical and memetic representation on this planet, you have to be prepared to pay what it costs to pull our people to safety when things go messy. It's not just about finding lost luggage for idiot Eloi tourists, despite what some of the accountant systems in Appropriations may think. But I also seem to have neglected to say that we are not, repeat not, organising some kind of witness protection programme here. It's strange; why didn't I see that anyone might think that?

Of these three, Chen is at least appropriately qualified, and his academic background is impressive, I'll grant you. But he's junior in service and inexperienced. The other two are just trouble magnets. I'm always happy when the UK RN pull another of their showpiece raids out in the Belt - even if it does make certain of the Chinese citizenry on the ground round here slightly less kindly inclined towards our people - and I'm happy to hear that EUEICC's tame medics agree with the British evaluation of Florence's, quote, relative stability, unquote - but that doesn't oblige us to hire her. Can't she work the memetics circuit back down there on Earth or something? And if MedServ are so happy about her state, how come they're insisting on continuing monitoring by their local people?

(Actually, I didn't even realise before that MedServ had local people round here. Foolish of me. I might have guessed some of those bright-eyed medics we keep lending to under-resourced Japanese factories or ad hoc Chinese 'former squads were actually working two jobs.)

As for "Vajra" - I'm entirely stunned. I'm sure that it's a terribly nice entity, and yes, the file says that our best consultants insist that its claims that certain areas of its memory have been completely deleted are entirely valid, and yes, we are currently on passably good terms with the current Thai government, who so far as we know have negligible presence on Mars anyway - but do I really have to reiterate the phrase Presumed Former TSA Military Asset? If EUEICC are really telling us all they know here (not all it knows, all that they know), I'll drink Martian coffee for a month. Though I'll probably be happier not knowing more.

You've presented me with a fait accompli here. I can't turn those two ships around, and the penalty clauses on those contracts would doubtless chew another slab out of my budget anyway, let alone the lousy memetics if I did what I probably ought to do here. Fine. We'll see how they do. But I want these comments on file.

Regards to Mielle and the kids,

Colette.

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Memorandum
ref. CCS0-1-2732-49
Diplomatic Encrypt level 2/Personal - self & authorised/private support AIs only

Subject: Consular Reaction Support Requirement 
Earth time as packet headers (relativistic adjustments apply).
Source Language: English.


from: A. MacRoberts, Admin-3, OEDR, Brussels.


to: C. Schmidt, Head of CCS, EU CCSO, Port Lowell.

Colette -

It's not as bad as all that, really. Believe me, we wouldn't supply you with a team who were being actively hunted by anybody. Florence was built to the order of a Triad boss who was comprehensively shut down by that raid - I'll attach the RN reports and the stuff we got from the Chinese, and you're welcome to validate through your own local assets, but in summary, they've got a body with a DNA match and no trace of ghosting, and anyone who was close enough to him to worry about and who's still standing is more inclined to thank us than to look for revenge. And if you want security for your team, Personnel say that it would take months to get anyone else up to her standard, even if we could find a volunteer willing to take an Andraste. (The ex-mil pool has been a bit thin lately; too much aggressive private sector recruiting.) Florence, on the other hand, has evinced little interest in visiting the inner system, and is deep-conditioned for Martian planetary ops; we'd have an Ethics inquiry on our hands if we tried to deny her the chance. When you've got a square peg, you look for a square hole.

And Analysis say that Vajra appears to have its former employers fully convinced that its self-editing was effective - we don't know the full story ourselves, of course - or perhaps just that, if it could and wanted to talk, we'd have everything it knew by now anyway. There is no evidence of Directorate interest in that direction. Vajra is just intent on pursuing its ... particular and personal concerns, and seems to think that Mars would be a good venue. Though I guess that putting a bit of space between it and Directorate interest for a few years may have struck it as a good idea.

And you've got Chen, who's bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and a ridiculously good fit for the job. With fogies like me sitting around in the upper offices, we've got to give smart laddies like him the chance to show what they can do. So we'll give him Florence and Vajra; either they'll introduce him to a dose of reality, or you'll get the sort of team out of this that you've been dreaming of. But if they do let you down somehow anyway, you'll have a good junior diplomat on hand there.

Mielle sends best wishes,

Best,

Adrian.