The Virex Binary - Summons
Posted on Tue Feb 24th, 2026 @ 8:54pm by Commodore S'thenosis Gorgox & Commander Rosa Coy
611 words; about a 3 minute read
Mission:
Character Development
Location: USS Sunfire / Virex Binary System
Commodore S’thenosis Gorgox preferred physical texts when the subject warranted contemplation. The volume resting open in her quarters was not ancient, but it was printed in bound form, its pages textured rather than projected. The work concerned systemic collapse in multi-planetary coalitions, specifically the moment at which institutional preservation begins to override collective survival. She had annotated the margins with restrained precision, her script narrow and exacting, marking not emotional passages but structural inflection points.
Outside her viewport, stars held their ordered silence. The Sunfire maintained a steady patrol arc through known space, its hum a constant presence beneath the quiet of her quarters.
The subspace chime sounded once. She closed the book with measured care before granting access.
Admiral Teryn Valis materialized in the center of the screen, his image stabilized within the faint shimmer of the projection. His posture carried the familiar weight of accumulated command, though fatigue had begun to etch itself along the edges of his composure.
“Commodore,” he began without preamble, “I require an arbitrator.”
S’thenosis inclined her head slightly. “There are several admirals qualified to make such a request. I assume you have eliminated the alternatives.”
“I have,” Valis replied. “This requires someone who understands that peace is an architecture.”
She regarded him steadily. “You are describing structural coercion.”
“I am describing survival,” he said.
The faintest pause passed between them.
“The Virex Binary System has petitioned for Federation arbitration,” the Admiral continued. “Threxia and Virellon have sustained open conflict for eleven standard cycles. Environmental degradation on one world. Defensive overextension on the other. Intelligence suggests neither can continue without systemic failure.”
“And yet they persist,” S’thenosis observed.
“They do.”
She folded her hands loosely upon the desk in front of her. “What is the official cause?”
“Border disputes. Trade embargoes. Security violations. Each side maintains the other initiated escalation.”
“And unofficially?”
Valis allowed a brief silence before answering. “Political utility.”
The Commodore’s gaze did not shift.
“How much do you know of the Virex Binary System?” the Admiral asked.
“I have reviewed atmospheric models from Threxia,” she replied evenly. “Industrial acceleration without ecological recalibration. I have reviewed Virellon’s defense expenditures. A biosphere rich in adaptive biology, technologically modest but socially cohesive. They orbit a shared star and pretend distance negates interdependence.”
Valis permitted himself the faintest nod. “Their economies are entangled. Their cultures historically intertwined. Public rhetoric suggests irreconcilable divergence.”
“Public rhetoric often does,” S’thenosis said.
“You are aware that either side may resent external intervention.”
“Resentment is acceptable,” she replied. “Collapse is not.”
The Admiral’s projection flickered slightly as subspace latency adjusted.
“I need someone who will not mistake negotiation for appeasement,” he said. “Someone who understands that exposure can be more stabilizing than sanction.”
“I will require full data access,” she answered. “Trade records, classified procurement logs, environmental projections, political polling matrices.”
“You will have it.”
She considered the request not in terms of difficulty, but in terms of structure. “If peace is to hold,” she said at last, “it must render war impractical. I will not broker symbolic concessions.”
“That is precisely why I am asking you,” Valis replied.
The transmission concluded without ceremonial closing. The projection dissolved, leaving her quarters once again in quiet equilibrium.
S’thenosis reopened the book on systemic collapse and regarded the final paragraph she had marked earlier that evening. Institutions, it had argued, rarely reverse destructive momentum voluntarily. They require conditions in which continuation becomes inefficient.
She closed the volume.
Hours later, the Pingyang departed from the Sunfire’s docking hold, its trajectory set toward the Virex Binary System, Commander Rosa Coy at the helm.
TBC
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