Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 54: The Romavs

"I don't know about this. From what I understand your father does not even remotely like me." Jace pointed out as he was rolled into the dinning room of the Romav apartment. On his lap was a datapad so he could work.

"That may be, but your commanding officer already gave permission for us to keep you until you can walk around on your own." Mrs. Romav answered before chuckling, "besides Elena volunteered to 'take care' of you."

Elena frowned, "do not make it sound dirty. I just had nothing better to do and I figured Jace might enjoy it more if I took care of him."

"Yeah sure you are, just keep the fun stuff on the light side." She told them as she walked to another room.

"Haa… I am sorry Jace." Elena apologized as she pushed him up next to a chair facing a digital screen. She picked up a remote and clicked a button turning it on. "Well we have a few hours before dinner. So we can watch some news and see what else is going on in the empire."

The news appeared on the screen as a segment about the economic impact of the war with the Crystoph Federation was causing tea that was a main staple that the federation produced. The next segment began as a robotic newscaster appeared with his ball shaped head.

"Next we are going to talk about the recent attack by the Victorium. Which saw very little in the way of civilian casualties. But did see many battles near human settlements. We even have several hours of video footage. This footage is from the Rena System." Footage began playing of a Victorium's landing.

"Here we can see the Victorium landed on Rena Prime, the central planet of the system and the one under complete control of Archduke Beltrum's Militia. Yet his forces were completely decimated within a few hours. The military came in a few hours after the occupation began. Not only did they manage to completely retake the planet they took all the Victorium with them when they left. Once again showcasing the military's superiority over nobles' militias." The video switched off after showing the military escorting Victorium prisoners onto a ship.

The next video showed a video of Waterswan where it appears they began establishing a mine. "Next we have footage of the recently conquered Waterswan system. This system used to be part of the Kitinol Offensive but was recently determined to be inhabitable. Actually it is the first of the systems along the offensive that has been taken from the Kitinol. The miners watched as the Victorium ships were blown out of the sky and crashed into the sea."

The video ended and the robotic newscaster appeared again along with a number of statistics. "Once again we are seeing evidence of the irrelevance of nobility in our society since the military is so much more effective. Which brings us to our main portion of this segment. We will be talking with an expert of Vexical's Noble History and a Public Representative of the military."

Elena suddenly switched the channel, "I thought that was going to be interesting, let's see what else is on."

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"Well I do not mind." The Station Governor sighed as he sat at the head of the table glancing at Jace who just shrugged. "But I was rather surprised to learn that you are only seventeen years old."

The water Elena was drinking spewed out of her nose in surprise, "what you are only seventeen years old? But does that mean I…" She trailed off as she became pale faced.

"The law pertains to a person's biological age, not their chronological age. So you do not have to worry." Jace chuckled, "As soon as a nanohuman obtains abilities their age is forcefully increased. For instance, at ability two a person's biology is increased to age sixteen by the nanobots. Then at ability three a person's biology is increased to age twenty-one by the nanobots. It is necessary in order for a person's body to withstand the growth." Jace explained.

"Abilities? Wait, so the empire considers you twenty-one years old?" Elena asked.

"Yes they do, but his chronological age is still listed just in case." The station governor answered, "as for abilities they are unique to nanohumans. But it is rare for the biological age to be higher than the chronological age to be higher due to rapid growth. How did you pull that off?"

"I had Admiral Dakota as my private teacher so I learned to strain my body as much as possible to grow all my stats. I have learned how it feels to pull, strain, and injure parts of my body. Actually most of my academy squad grew up in the same way." Jace answered watching their expressions to see both the station governor and his wife flinch and snap to look at him in surprise.

"We knew you had met, but I did not know he was your mentor." Mrs. Romav was surprised as she started dishing out some of the chicken she had made onto her plate.

"Yeah originally he was just in charge of the academy but my squad's original warrant officer was arrested so he had to step in to replace him for a while and he took a liking to my squad." Jace signaled Elena to help him with getting some salad. "By the way, this meal looks lovely Mrs. Romav."

"Thank you Jace and you can call me Astelle." Astelle told him with a chuckle that did not fit her ferocious appearance.

"And you can call me Joshua, no need to address me as Station Governor or Mister Romav." Joshua pointed out as well, feeling no need to stand on ceremony with the young man who has obviously proven his worth.

"I will," Jace slightly bowed his head.

"Hey about the abilities you were talking about earlier. How do they work?" Elena asked as she began putting some chicken on his plate.

"Well, nanohuman's have natural talents awakened when they first start up their system. But after a while as their five stats: Strength, Speed, Agility, Health, and Intelligence increase they can gain new abilities. Not much is known about it publicly but it is believed the greater your stats the more interaction with nanobots is possible. Thus at certain stages during growth there are points where stats stop increasing until you overcome some barrier and once your overall stats are at a certain number you gain a new ability." Jace explained.

"Really? So what stage are you at?" Elena asked.

"I recently passed the fourth stage, which means my overall stats are above 375. Actually my strength is my lowest stat." Jace used his one good hand to begin forking food into his mouth.

"Is that good?"

"It is incredible. Of all the nanohumans only ten percent manage to make it to the fourth stage and eighty percent of those are above the age of thirty. For him to manage it at such a young age means that he likely has already caught the attention of someone high ranking in the military, but considering he personally knows Admiral Dakota he is probably protected." The station governor began explaining.

"Have you thought about what you are going to do after you leave the military?" Astelle asked as she set aside her used plate now that she had finished eating.

"I am sorry to disappoint you but I am not going to leave the military." Jace told her with a shrug.

"What? But you could make so much more money in the civilian market with your abilities." Now she began pouting.

"I could but I am already making a ton of money inside the military without having to deal with annoyances I can't kill." Jace gave her a smile back that was menacing in its own handsome charm.

"Well that is a terrifying prospect." The station governor cut in as he finished his own food. "But I suspect the progressive party within the military must love having you. They are all about action and less about submitting to the noble formation society has in place."

"Eh," He shrugged, "politics is none of my business."

"Ah," The station governor suddenly flinched, "that reminds me a bunch of other nobles are coming to the station from all different factions. Seems they want a piece of the action as well. I think Mendez already set up orders to keep them out of the base."

"Rumor in the intelligence community is that Oculus Station has the most intact Victorium ship. So they probably want some of the technology that will be gleaned from it. Even a representative of the Archduke might come. With an engineering prodigy like yourself they will probably try to pressure you into giving them stuff as well." Astelle cut in, "I did not want to tell you while you were injured but since Joshua brought up the nobles I thought I might as well tell you."

"Ha…" Jace tapped a finger on the table and thought for a moment. "I will just ignore them. No need to get wrapped in something when I can just use the military as a defensive shield."