“Still am, as far as I’m concerned,” smirked Diet suggestively.
“Down, boy,” said Noreen, as she elbowed Diet in the ribs. “Let Hal finish. I want to know what’s going on here.”
I had interface units compatible with Ghost’s systems built and shipped to BioCom, where they installed the fully programmed brain-case to form a complete master computing unit, capable of acting as a direct replacement for Ghost’s master computer. I also had BioCom makeup a series of customized peripheral coprocessors and install them into equally customized systems interfaces, which will allow me to control all ship functions directly, eliminating the need for the normal 12-man, or woman, as the case may be, human crew.
“What about maintenance issues, Hal? “ asked Diet. “How will you be able to facilitate necessary repairs without requiring human assistance?”
Microbots. I had a TBG affiliate on Nocar named Advanced Microbotics Systems fabricate over 10,000 microbots to my exact specifications, ranging from 0.125 inches to 3 inches in diameter, all directly controllable via wireless laser communications. here are six significantly larger macrobots in the hold, to take care of the heavy work that might be required replacing entire subsystems as needed. I’ve had hundreds of miniaturized video pickups and laser comm units installed all over the inside and outside of the ship, so I’ll be able to monitor virtually every inch of both the interior and exterior, to guide the bots as needed.
“Who’s paying for all this, Hal?” Noreen asked in concern. “We’re not charging the Confederate government for any of this, are we?”
No, Noreen, nor is TBG footing the bill. I’ve transferred all of the funds necessary directly out of Diet’s personal accounts to all of the applicable TBG subsidiaries involved, so TBG won’t be suffering any accounting discrepancies from it, nor any tax heartburn. It’s all on the up and up, believe me.
“You’ve been pretty coy about all this, so what is the plan now?” asked Diet. “It better be good, because you know I am not at all happy about wearing this uniform and exposing my identity for public scrutiny.”
It’ll be worth it, Diet, trust me. You know that construction project that’s been excavating under that hill right behind the house outside of Waston?
“God, yes, that’s been a headache for months — and something else you wouldn’t discuss,” said Noreen in mock exasperation. “You’ve been very secretive about a lot of shit recently, so fess up. What’s going on?”
That project should be complete by the time we get back to Waston. I had the same construction crew who built Diet’s personal bathroom dig out an underground bunker for storing Ghost securely away from prying eyes.
Noreen threw Diet a frigid glance at the reminder of his building a separate bathroom for himself, just to get out of using the men’s hygiene products that she’d tried to impose on him... still a touchy subject, where she was concerned.
The bunker has a real-time connection to my Waston self, so I can stay updated and be ready for immediate liftoff at a moment's notice, right from your back yard. I do need to update before we head out, though.
“Head out to where, doing what?” asked Diet.
My brother on Minnos has been analyzing all of that Raknii wreckage left behind from their raid there five and a half years ago. He recently completed recreating a workable star-chart from the damaged remains of multiple wrecked Raknii ships the Alliance Fleet collected. It was a long, painstaking process, but it helped a great deal when I finally discovered the secrets to the Raknii/English translator. I’ll be forwarding copies of it to Admiral Kalis shortly, but until then, I have a much more personal use for it.
“You’ve been able to recreate a complete star-chart of Raknii space in its entirety?” asked Noreen excitedly. “I can see how that will be of tremendous value to Admiral Kalis in prosecuting the war against the aliens, but how does that relate to us?”
I now know how to find Raku. We now have the capability to go to the supreme-master’s palace in the Raknii imperial capital and Hal-nap my mobile self, to rescue me from the aliens. We’re going to go steal me back!
Just keeping up with Hal’s continually shifting use of personal pronouns was taxing. ut running a snatch and grab operation in the Raknii imperial palace? After Hal explained his plan, it sounded like it ought to be a piece of cake, especially in comparison to following those strange personal pronouns.
* * * *
Chapter-26
Status quo, you know, that is Latin for ''the mess we're in.” -- Ronald Reagan
February-April, 3869
The Raknii Empire was in chaos. Word of the devastating double-defeat of the Empire’s new fleet and the loss of so incredibly many lives and ships was spreading like wildfire. Panic was spreading along with it, as the Raknii populace came to realize they now had no defense against the unstoppable human demons. The inconceivable had happened. The unimaginable had happened. The impossible had happened. Virtually all of Region-6 appeared lost to them… probably fallen to these implacable ultimate predators.
What was the Empire to do now? What could the Empire to do now?
These unrelenting humans came on, like an unstoppable force of nature. Gone were those glorious days of not so long ago, when massive Raknii fleets roamed space at will, taking whatever they found worthwhile to take, killing for the pure glorious pleasure of it and destroying that which the Raknii had no use for. The new supreme-master and the modern secularists were at odds over which course the Empire should take in the future. All agreed that things could not continue down the road the race was currently on, without catastrophic consequences. All agreed that the race must go back to what had worked before. The only question was, how far back should they go?
The new supreme-master claimed that only by a return to the old ways, and that only by learning and abiding by a new moral code which he defined and explained in his Book of Revelations, could extinction of the race be avoided. The supreme-master said they must give up their aggressive ways to learn to live in peaceful coexistence with their alien neighbors — learning to trade, instead of just taking what they needed, or wanted... learning to live in harmony with nature and all of Dol’s creatures again... including aliens.
The modern secularists, however, debunked the supreme-master’s cry for a return to the old ways, calling his new policies madness and the human threat overblown. They claimed that Xior’s terrible suffering from that horrible disease had loosened his hold on reality. They claimed that ridiculous prophecy of doom had driven Xior mad towards the end, and had prompted him to appoint a successor just as delusional as he had been. They called Drix’ desire for peace, and the initiation of trading and bartering with prey unnatural, and they called for his overthrow. They called for a renewal of supreme effort to manufacture more and better weapons in numbers that would swamp even the humans’ incredible technology.
Many groups called for a lot of conflicting things, but civil war was about all that any of them actually got for all their rhetoric. Passions overrode much of their hypnotic conditioning that had kept Raknii society from destroying itself millennia ago. Modern secularists battled in the streets against the new Warriors of Dol sect. Royalists backing the supreme-master battled secularists, who were backing anyone still advocating Raknii dominance in the universe. On some worlds, one side outnumbered the other pretty badly, so the butchery was rather one-sided. On others they were about equally divided, so the butchery was spread out more evenly. Many called it many things, but butchery in all its various forms was the optimal word to describe what was happening on half the worlds in the Empire.
The empire was awash in blood, as millions died for their beliefs. Millions of others died just because they happened to get in the way. It was religion vs. secularism, modern ways vs. ancient ways, up vs. down, and right vs. left. It was old vs. young, male vs. female, in vs. out, and everybody vs. everybody else. It was insanity, and the fighting was almost continuous.
One would have thought
that they’d have at least broken for lunch. If they had, someone might have noticed that foodstuffs were disappearing from the markets, as it was just too dangerous to buy or sell much of anything in that environment, including food. When the survivors finally noticed themselves getting hungry and there was no readily apparent method to alleviate that hunger, they began rioting over the lack of food. Some found themselves fighting right alongside those they were fighting against, just the day before.
Wholesalers of meat were overwhelmed by throngs of hungry people, running down herd beasts and killing with fang and claw, as the Raknii had once done for millennia, long before civilization made it a commercial industry. Many herd-beasts were slaughtered and eaten raw where they fell. Many others escaped into the wild where they would flee hungry Rak hunters for sub-cycles afterwards. Raknii killed each other over a carcass. Raknaa killed each other, just because they could. Many modern secularists found themselves being forced to revert to the ancient ways in spite of themselves, as it was the only method of obtaining food after the trappings of civilization broke down.
Transportation systems broke down, as millions tried to flee the mindless violence. Interplanetary flights and shipments slowed to a trickle and in some extreme cases, ceased altogether. Even warships joined into the insanity, firing on civilian targets of opposing factions, until other warships defending those factions fired back. The same could be said of Raknaa assault units of opposing factions, fighting each other over control of territory. It was an orgy of death, killing and starvation.
Many hid within their homes to escape the madness, only to be dragged from their homes and killed by roving bands searching house-to-house for food. Things became so bad that starving Raknii were actually seen eating plants, even though they really didn’t have the chewing teeth for it… the surest sign of desperation in a true carnivore.
Region-1 suffered least, or most, depending on your point of view. Only about one-fourth of the 212 worlds of Region-1 suffered a secular modernist rebellion. Drix had no patience, nor showed any mercy to secularism within the Imperial Region. If secularists wanted to hold on to their savage natures that badly, so be it. Savagery would be the inheritance of their convictions and the parting gift of a supreme-master they rejected. Imperial assault troops were combat-dropped onto the rebel worlds to restore order, and anywhere resistance was experienced, new imperial heavy cruisers bombarded it into quick submission with 11-gigawatt plasma bolts falling from the sky. Within a mere three sub-cycles, rebellion within Region-1 was all but obliterated, along with a few dozen million Raknii citizens. Drix literally put the Fear of Dol into the Raknii populace the hard way.
* * * *
The Alliance Planet Minnos
April, 3869
After dispatching Admiral Thorn on her mission of ferrying Region-Master Raan around Region-6, to accept the formal submission and surrender of those 63 planets individually, Fleet Admiral Roger Kalis took the GulfMaster II executive spaceliner, that Thorn had brought forward to Troxia for him, back to Kitty Litter to drop off Planet-Master Mraz and Vice Admiral Bonhoeffer. From there, Kalis traveled back to Minnos, in order to update Bozo on the latest learned at Troxia, and to submit a few inquiries of his own to his sentient, computerized friend.
Kalis found himself wishing that there was a sentient Bozo on Kitty Litter, as having such a resource that far forward would be invaluable. But then if he had it, he’d also want one at Klista and Slithin as well. The length of his supply lines was getting incredibly long and logistics was becoming a nightmare. The Sextus 1st Fleet, the Confederate 2nd and 4th Fleets and the Alliance 3rd, 8th and 11th Fleets were all still out there on the end of that tenuously long supply line. Fueling stations set up all along the long supply route also had to be constantly resupplied, and crews rotated as well.
Recently, Bozo had given him an entirely new set of problems, along with all new star-charts he’d reconstructed out of a multitude of Raknii ships wrecked at Minnos. Bozo’s new charts delineated most of the 63 planets, reported by Region-Master Raan, as part of Region-6 — an area which showed up as a large life-void area on the star-charts captured on one of the Raknii planets taken earlier, which had been used for targeting the allies attacks on Slithin, Vlisnal, Klognin, Blenthna, Yegraia and Umviil... all reportedly part of the Raknii Region-4. Bozo’s new charts proved that the charts they had used for targeting those attacks had been doctored and deliberately planted for his troops to find… a deliberate attempt to mislead his fleets away from the Raknii worlds of Region-6 and towards Region-4, for whatever political reasons the Raknii might have had for doing so.
The problem Kalis faced now was that Bozo’s new charts also showed over 70 inhabited Raknii planets within what he’d thought was as a second large life-void, designated on Bozo’s new chart as Raknii Region-5. Kalis’ long supply line to his fleets in Region-4 ran right through the center of all these Raknii worlds in Region-5.
All this time, our fleets and transports have traveled safely through the heart of two Raknii regions without being attacked. Why? How much longer can I trust my delicate, undefended supply lines to Raknii hesitancy to attack them?
Just as Kalis was debating this question, a message arrived from Stillman at Slithin, informing Kalis that a Region-Master Tzal had arrived at Slithin with orders from Supreme-Master Drix to surrender all 83 worlds of Region-4 to Stillman... just as Raan had surrendered all of the worlds of Region-6 to him. This changed everything. A peaceful surrender of Region-4 meant he no longer had to maintain all of those combat fleets out there, while his supply lines hung out in the wind.
Kalis took advantage of having Bozo close at hand to help him draft and issue orders to all of his fleets (except for Stillman’s in Region-4), to pull back and attack designated targets along his supply lines within Raknii Region-5. Kalis also issued orders recalling the Confederate 1st Fleet under Admiral Gregory Schettano from Ginia, where he’d sent them for R&R while giving those weary ships a yard period at Norf Fleet Shipyard. He also sent an outline of his surrender agreements with Raan off to Stillman, to act as a guide for his surrender demands with Region-Master Tzal.
All-in-all, Kalis now felt much better about the overall progress of the war, but in the midst of all this activity, he completely forgot about the interrogatory forwarded to him from Admiral Melendez in Waston, about the identity of that mysterious “High-Human,” advising Supreme-Master Drix at the imperial capital on their home world of Raku… which also was clearly delineated on Bozo’s new star-charts.
* * * *
May-July, 3869
Word and videos of the horror that transpired in Region-1 was distributed and the harsh lessons were not lost on the secularists within the other regions. Wherever imperial troops dropped, the secularists went underground and order was quickly restored. Many continued to starve, as the collapsed systems that drove civilization couldn’t be restored quickly, but they were being restored... if only slowly. The secularists began to seriously reconsider their position, as they now questioned their ability to overthrow their mad supreme-master.
Drix was obviously a true alpha who didn’t hesitate to gut the losers of dominance combat — those who had dared to challenge his authority, as a dire warning to others thinking to attempt similar foolishness. Wise others took those hard lessons to heart and submitted to the will of Dol, or at least to the will of his terribly fearsome servant, without further challenge. Unwise and foolish others took those hard lessons to their graves.
News of the horrific crackdown on dissidents in Region-1 made its way to every corner of the Empire. The average Raknii citizen was aghast that outright rebellion against the supreme-master had actually occurred. Never had such a thing happened since the Dolrak had first introduced the hypnotics that had tamed the savage nature of the Rak males, providing a means by which dominance was established, without the need for individual dominance combat. It was the Dol-sent miracle that allowed their culture to cooperate and reach for the st
ars. Most understood instinctively that Supreme-Master Drix could not allow such heresy to flourish, as it threatened the stability of the empire, striking directly at the underpinnings of their entire civilization.
Few were really surprised at the crackdown, just at the swiftness and shocking severity of it. Strange rumors were beginning to circulate that on planets already surrendered to the humans, the humans appeared considerably more merciful than their own supreme-master, when it came to dealing with enemies. It presented the Raknii with a confusing parallax-view of their new supreme-master. A supreme-master who surprisingly ordered planets invaded by humans to submit without resistance and who touted a new and peaceful way of life for the Raknii people, as taught in his Book of Revelations. That this strange Prophet of Peace could personally order this kind of horrific brutality inflicted upon his own people was perplexing. He presented a great paradox... a stark contrast in harshness and gentleness never seen before.
A new message from the supreme-master was disseminated, wherein he explained that Dol was wroth with the stubborn secular modernists, and had decreed it better that those whose passions drove them into open rebellion against Dol’s established order be sacrificed, rather than allow the innocent and temperate among them to also suffer their god’s wrath against insurrection. In it, Drix emphasized the dual nature of their god... loving and gentle towards his children, yet fearsome and merciless towards his enemies — enemies who would willfully lead his children astray, onto paths of perdition.
Flexibility or rigidity, happiness or vexation, obedience or defiance, prosperity or desolation, creation or destruction, war or peace, life or death — Dol held both extremes in his mighty hands and asked his children their preference. The choice was totally theirs, Drix declared and he pleaded that they choose wisely and quickly, for Dol’s implacable aliens... created specifically to be their teachers, were coming and would remove all choice, if they delayed too long.
Wrath of an Angry God: A Military Space Opera (The Sentience Trilogy Book 3) Page 30
