Natsuki had never been to a strategy meeting before. The conference room was filled with both Japanese and American military officers, government officials in suits, and creators in less formal attire. Atria sat on one side of her at the table, and Meliana on the other. Beside Meliana sat a middle aged man – the interaction between the two told Natsuki that it was Meliana’s creator.

    “Try to relax,” Meliana said. “You’re just here to tell them what you’ve discovered and answer questions about it. Leave everything else to us.”

    Atria gave her a kind smile. “If it helps, this is my first time at one of these meetings too.”

    “If they need clarification on something you say, they will ask,” Meliana added. “Just be as clear as you can.”

    “Are you ready to proceed?” one of the Japanese officers asked Meliana.

    Meliana stood. “We are, General Kimura. First, please permit me to introduce Ms. Atria Silverspear, who is our intelligence consultant and a former Lieutenant-Colonel in her story world, and Ms. Natsuki Toshiro, who has been assisting her. We had a breakthrough yesterday thanks to Ms. Toshiro in regards to how Balthazar is colliding the story worlds, and with the help of Ms. Toshiro and Ms. Silverspear, we have now developed a strategy with which to proceed.”

    At the end of the table, a man in a dark suit began to type into his laptop. Natsuki allowed herself an inner smile. Stenographer identified.

    “And what are the qualifications of Ms. Silverspear and Ms. Toshiro?” one of the Japanese government officials asked.

    “Ms. Silverspear was created by a former member of the JSDF, who based her story in part on his experience in the Ground Defence Force,” Meliana replied. “She has intelligence officer training, and speaks five languages, two of which are from this world. Ms. Toshiro comes from a comedy story, and was created to be a genius. She and the people assisting her are working under Ms. Silverspear.”

    “What kind of comedy?” the official pressed.

    “A high school romantic comedy,” Meliana said.

    A knot formed in Natsuki’s gut.

    “A harem comedy, you mean,” the official said. “Isn’t that the form those comedies often take? You want us to take the word of this...high school girl?”

    “The type of comedy is irrelevant,” Meliana declared. “Since leaving her story four years ago, Ms. Toshiro has visited over a hundred story worlds, giving her extensive knowledge of the multiverse. It was only because of her experience that a breakthrough was made. I would add that it was the knowledge of one of her friends that allowed my mech to finally be repaired, putting it back into action. Any chance we have of stopping Balthazar is because of Ms. Toshiro and her friends.”

    “I would like Ms. Toshiro’s background to be noted in the record,” the official said.

    “If there are no objections, I will turn the meeting over to Ms. Toshiro, who will explain what she has discovered,” Meliana said, sitting down.

    Natsuki took a deep breath and rose, steadying her shaking hand against the table. Then she laid out everything she had discovered about the information streams and how they worked, and how Balthazar was using them to collide the story worlds. To her relief, there were only a couple of clarifying questions.

    As she sat down, Meliana rose from her chair.

    “Our plan is simple,” Meliana began. “The first stage will be signal boosting all of the amateur fiction and art that is available to us. This will require the use of the official websites and social media of each story. The result of this will be to force information stream updates and overcome the backflow, pushing the story worlds back towards their original positions.”

    “And this will save us?” General Kimura asked.

    Meliana hesitated.

    “I’ll take this,” Atria said, rising from her chair. “No, it will not. We have no way of knowing how many story worlds Balthazar has set on his collision course or – outside of those of the characters he has recruited or joined our side – which ones they are. All it takes is one or two that we missed to cause the collision. And, we know for a fact that two members of Balthazar’s team come from stories that were created outside of Japan – from my research as we prepared this plan, implementing this with any stories created in foreign countries would require lengthy negotiations to secure something called ‘intellectual rights’ – and by the time those are completed, their worlds would have collided with ours. What this will do is create doubt in Balthazar’s mind, and make him question whether his plan can succeed. Ms. Toshiro spent a couple of days as Balthazar’s hostage, and she reported that he and his people are desperate for a reason to stop. This will start the process of giving him that reason.”

    “There’s going to be a lot of resistance to this,” Meliana’s creator said. “Most of those amateur stories aren’t very good. Some of them are pornographic, and pair up characters who would never get together in the official story. And now that we know the stories we are creating become real worlds...we’re going to be causing a lot of chaos in those worlds.”

    “It’s that or everybody dies,” Atria pointed out. “Look, I’m one of the people who will probably be affected by this. Right now, I have the ability to go home and pick up where I left off after this is over. If somebody has written a story about me that is set right after the last battle, the information stream will create a replacement of me, and I’ll never get to see my fiancé again.” She glanced at Meliana, who stared at her hands. “Others here already know that pain. But if giving up my future with the man I love saves him and everybody else, then I don’t have a choice. And neither do any of you. And we need to move fast on this – if it takes more than a couple of days to implement this stage, there won’t be time for what has to happen next.”

    “It will have to be done by emergency cabinet order,” General Kimura stated.

    “What about this plan of covert action to kill Balthazar that keeps being proposed to us?” an American officer asked. “Can we bring that back?”

    Atria shook her head. “As I said, we’ve already identified two story worlds that we can’t stop in time. The only person who can put everything back before the collision is Balthazar, so killing him is no longer on the table. Aside from which, he’s figured out how to hide the EM signatures of his people, so we have no way of finding their current base at this moment.”

    “So, we implement this plan and Balthazar comes to the table, is that it?” the government official asked.

    Atria shook her head. “Balthazar won’t know how we caused the information stream updates, only that we did. His first move will be to remove any organized opposition. He will only come to the table after his attack fails.”

    “So, you’re talking about defeating him in open battle,” General Kimura said. “Based on his capabilities, that seems...difficult.”

    “We would be buying time for a core group to evacuate and escape,” Meliana said. “Defeating Balthazar in open battle isn’t possible. Everybody who goes onto that battlefield will probably die.”

    Natsuki swallowed, her stomach churning. Beside her, Atria returned to her seat.

    “And what of the JSDF units?” Kimura asked.

    “We’ll want those to be evacuated and out of the way,” Atria said. “We now know that Balthazar is highly protective of his people. So long as he’s only up against our kind, he’s likely to let his recruits take the lead in a last effort to increase the backflow, which gives us extra time for the evacuation. If he’s up against thousands of trained soldiers...Balthazar will take the lead, and the battle will be over before it starts. It will just be repeat of the American assault, but on a much vaster scale.”

    “You are asking us to abandon a key military base because five people are going to attack it,” Kimura stated. “How can we accept this?”

    “Because one of those five people is the equivalent of a one-man army, and you have nothing that can stop him,” Atria replied. “If you don’t evacuate, not only will the men you leave behind die, but Balthazar will come into combat early enough that we don’t have time to evacuate everybody else.”

    “So why not evacuate everybody before he arrives?”

    “We might be able to evacuate the creators,” Atria said. “But, we now know that Balthazar is aware of our base being Camp Asaka, and we can assume that he has some type of surveillance going on. He might be watching for that, and spot it. He’ll spot everybody else leaving anyway, and there’s no way he won’t be suspicious, but so long as the core people of this unit remain, he’ll be focused on them instead of you. His people can also track the EM signatures of people from the story worlds, so any of our kind will have to start their evacuation after Balthazar has been distracted by the battle, and we do have refugees from the story worlds in the barracks and hospital.”

    Out of the corner of her eye, Natsuki saw a slight smile flash across Meliana’s face as she watched Atria speak. Was it...pride?

    “Operational security will also be tricky,” Atria continued. “Balthazar’s capabilities include mind reading of anybody created by an information stream. This means that whoever goes onto that battlefield can have no contact with the evacuation plan, and preferably no contact with the evacuation group. They can’t know where the evacuees are going, or by what route. And, there is no way to stay within Tokyo – the evacuation will have to be to another city out of the range of Balthazar’s equipment to avoid the new base from being detected.” Atria took a deep breath. “As soon as this plan is approved, we need to start organizing. If we start forcing the information stream updates the day after tomorrow, the battle will almost certainly start the day after that.”

    “Thank you, Ms. Silverspear and Ms. Toshiro,” Meliana said. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave now.”

    Atria blinked. “But we–”

    “The next part of this meeting doesn’t require your presence,” Meliana stated.

    Atria sighed and rose from her chair, Natsuki following suit. “If you insist,” Atria said. “Come on, let’s get a cup of coffee.”

    Atria took Natsuki to the commissary, where they both got cups of coffee, and then sat down together at a table.

    “What are our chances?” Natsuki asked, taking a sip.

    Atria frowned. “Pretty bad, I’m afraid. All Balthazar has to do to win right now is wait. The best we can do is spook him into attacking us, but if he figures out that we can’t stop all the story worlds, well...”

    Natsuki stared at her coffee. “He beat me. I thought I could outsmart him, and he used me instead.”

    Atria nodded. “I know. Don’t let it bother you too much. Experience counts for a lot in these things. Now, it’s his plan against mine, and I’ve got fourteen years of warfare to draw upon. So, there is a chance. And, most of the time, deception does work.”

    “I suppose,” Natsuki said. “I just wish we had better odds. Aquila said we need a miracle, and I’m not seeing one.”

    “Sometimes, we have to make our own miracles,” Atria stated. “I just wish I could track down Balthazar’s creator. That’s the last missing piece to this puzzle – if I find the person who created him, I’ll be able to fill in the gaps when it comes to his motivations and actions, and we’ll have the advantage we need for when he does talk to us.”

    They both turned at the sound of footsteps coming towards them. Meliana approached, a large envelope in her hand.

    “Sorry for taking so long,” she said. “I had some things I needed to discuss with them in private, and I had to sort out some paperwork.”

    Atria glanced at the envelope. “Are you finally going to give me the special dispensation I need to carry a sidearm? You’re going to need everybody you can get on that line when the battle starts, and I am fast enough to knock a low-velocity round out of the air.”

    “I don’t doubt that,” Meliana said. “But the answer is no.”

    Atria rolled her eyes. “Look, I know the explosive rounds my world uses are illegal in this one. So, give me some other gun! All I’d need is a couple of hours to zero it, and I’m good to go! You need me on that battlefield!”

    Meliana handed Atria the envelope. “I need you a lot more off of it.”

    Atria looked at the envelope in her hands and scowled. “What is this?”

    “That is a temporary commission into the JSDF ground forces at the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel,” Meliana replied. “Your orders are enclosed as well. I will be leading the battle, along with Leora and Hancock. You are to plan the evacuation and upon the start of the battle you are to carry it out with the personnel enclosed. After we’re...after we’re gone, you are to take full command of the mission and use the Wildcard to make contact with Balthazar and negotiate an end to the war. The Wildcard’s name and how to contact him are in there, but he’ll find you first. It’s how he operates, and he’s very good at it.”

    Atria blinked, and then tore open the envelope and skimmed its contents. Then she turned to Natsuki. “You and your friends are all on the list of evacuees.”

    Natsuki blinked. “Cap won’t like hearing that. He’ll want to help people get away.”

    “I have my own mission for him,” Meliana said. She turned to Atria. “So, how did I do?”

    Atria gave her a kind smile. “That sounded very military.”

    Meliana smiled back. “Thank you. You’re out of uniform, Lieutenant-Colonel Silverspear.”

    Atria rose and snapped to attention. “Yes ma’am. I will report to the depot and correct that immediately.”

    Meliana nodded. Atria strode out of the room.

    “How long before it all starts?” Natsuki asked.

    “The information stream updates will be pushed the day after tomorrow,” Meliana replied. “The JSDF units are going to start being redeployed out of the way tomorrow. It will tip part of our hand, but there’s no avoiding that. The battle and evacuation are expected the day after the updates.”

    “So...” Natsuki began.

    Meliana nodded. “If there’s anybody you want to spend time with or talk to, I’d suggest doing it as soon as possible.”

NEXT: “Mission”