“Sean is standing off half a million kilometers away, he’s here to support us.” Mark explained to Seltet. She looked at him blankly, not having a clue who Sean was. Turning to Sally, he said, “I’m going to visit him.” and blinked out.
“Are all humans like him?” Seltet asked.
“Not in my experience. Most of them are grown up, at least, the ones I met. There could be a lot like him, with lots of potential if they were emergent and out in the galaxy, but out of place in the primitive society they live in on Earth. Mark is quite childlike in many ways. He’s getting better, he’s stopped whining now. By the makers,” she said with a grin, “I don’t know how we all put up with him when he first left Earth. When I look back, I’m surprised no one quietly let him out of an airlock!”
“So what attracted you to him?” Seltet asked.
“There is something in him that’s different. I saw that he shouldn’t be wasting away as an insignificant nerd in a quiet area of a backwoods pre-emergent planet. When I was finished on Earth, I was going to bring him with me, but Alan spotted him first and snatched him away from me.” She sighed. “Why does life have to be so bloody difficult.” She looked at Seltet, “Oh shit. I didn’t mean that Seltet. It’s nothing like you’ve gone through.”
Seltet smiled sadly. “Sally, you lost your way of life, your family, your friends, your world. You have lost far more than I have and although you insisted you were all grown up at the time, you were only a child. Let’s not look back. There is so much ahead of us.”
Chapter Twenty Three
The Plan
Mark returned from visiting Sean, which had taken longer than he would have liked. He’d told his AI to get the Swift blinked to just ten kilometers from Sean’s ship and then taken his shuttle across. The ability to blink himself outside of his ship was one of the People’s secrets, so he couldn’t tell anyone, not even Sally, that he could. This was really inconvenient, it meant that if he said he was going somewhere, he had to use normal methods of transport to get there.
As soon as his shuttle settled into Dock One, he blinked into his and Sally’s quarters. He could hear water splashing in the bathroom and went in to investigate. Sally was in the shower, as he walked in she stepped out.
“I’m glad you’re back, you can pass me a towel. As soon as I’m dried and dressed I’m going to eat, then go to bed. You must be tired. When did you last sleep?”
“About sixty hours ago, I’ve been taking sleep suppressors.
“It’s time you got some real sleep. You can eat with me then we can sleep together for a change. Perhaps we can get in sync with each other and live our lives together.”
Mark smiled as he passed her a towel. “Where would you like to eat?”
“Let’s go to the dining room, there might be someone else in there.”
“Where’s Seltet?” he asked.
“She went to the bar with Touren and Bekkreshan. They’re old friends and I think they see her as a new project. I hope so, it will get them off my case.”
“I didn’t know they were on your case. Why would they be?”
Without answering him, Sally asked, “What shall we eat?”
“You choose, It will be healthier than pizza and chips, which is what I was thinking of having.”
“We ought to go back to Earth, so you can get lots of samples of food and drink. I liked some of it and Simon liked your Earth beer. And we might get some different coffee samples too.”
“Simon keeps going on about that, but I don’t want to go back. Earth will seem weird and backward to me now.”
“You’ll have to get involved with your own race when they become emergent, if they haven’t all killed themselves off in a war, or by heating Earth up so much they can’t survive.”
“I hadn’t thought about that, but that’s not today’s problem. We’ve got to sort Mike out first.”
I can’t see that being difficult. She’ll talk to her father, you’ll get a lot of People’s ships to turn up, it will all be wrapped up in a day. What shall we do next?”
“You’re right. Let’s go to one of these resort habitats I’ve heard about when this is over. Got any ideas where?”
“We can talk about it over dinner. I’ll be dressed in a couple of minutes.”
◆◆◆
The following morning, Sally and Mark met Orange in the meeting room.
Orange began the meeting: “My recommendation is that we go into a low orbit around Tefran, that’s where the official residence of the First of the First is located and it’s also the center of their Empires administration. If your ship is low enough it will cast a big shadow over the Palace and city and should intimidate them. They will see that you don’t need weapons to destroy their palace, you could just land and crush them. Have you had any more thoughts about getting a bigger ship Mark?”
“Yes, as soon as we’ve finished I want everyone here, so I can make an announcement about that. I will have a bigger ship by the time we make our visit.”
“You’ve only got two days.” Orange said.
“I should be able to arrange it by then.” Mark answered with a smile.
“Right. We need to make Mike wear something appropriate for the heir apparent, the rest of us will all have standard army uniforms with body armor. We need to show we mean business, so we’ll all be armed except you, Sally. You’ll be wearing your general’s insignia and being unarmed will be a sign of your status as commander in chief. Mark, you’ll be in a plain uniform and body armor and carrying a Mark Eight pulse rifle, unless you have a People’s weapon you prefer to carry.”
“A pulse rifle will be fine.” Mark said.
“We’ll all have field armor attenuators so if they are wearing field based armor, a couple of shots from a Mark Eight pulse rifle or a KE weapon will collapse it.”
“You’ve given a lot of thought about the detail of this.” Sally said.
“I started to learn about the importance of establishing power before negotiations start from the Tolen. The Herassan honor guard will lead the procession into the palace…”
“Suppose they don’t want to.” Mark said.
“It is not my intention to ask them.” Orange said. “Providing you approve Sally; this is the way it’s going to be. This won’t be a consultation with the Herassans, these are our terms for the meeting.”
“I didn’t know you were so feisty.” Mark said.
“The Herassan honor guard will lead. You and Sally will lead our contingent, Mike will follow you, Simon and Touren will be next, then Seltet and Bekkreshan, then Ranesh and me. Kar Fen will follow at the rear, carrying a heavy caliber KE weapon and with two large blades conspicuously strapped to him. I’ve seen Krendor soldiers with a back strap arrangement with two blades crossed. He needs to look as intimidating as possible. He takes up enough room for two and he looks the most menacing of all of us. Any trouble is most likely to start at the back. Kar Fen, Ranesh and I will be the rear guard. If we have to fight our way out, we will form a spearhead to clear a path for a retreat. Seltet, Bekkreshan, Touren and Simon will form a protective shell around Mike. With your close combat skills Sally, you won’t need a weapon, but if you do want one you can take the pulse rifle Mark will be carrying. Mark, you can defend yourself with your phase shift armor and any People’s weapons you may be carrying. If the shit really hits the fan you can step in and extend your armor to protect Mike, who will be the target of any attempt from the Herassans to snatch her. Any questions?”
“Suppose an attack comes from the side?” Mark asked.
“Good question Mark.” Orange replied. “If that happen, the retreat plan will still work.
“Why wouldn’t we make a stand and fight them off?” Mark asked.
“Because we would be massively outnumbered. The sensible plan is to retreat to our lander to minimize casualties.”
“Do they have field based armor like ours?” Mark asked.
“Yes, but it is weak compared to ours. What they do hav
e is heavy mechanized armor. If they bring them in, we’ll struggle with just light handheld weapons.”
“What’s heavy mechanized armor?” Mark asked.
“Think of it as being like a huge robot soldier carrying heavy weapons and able to move fast.” Sally said. “They have soldiers inside who have direct neural interfaces into the control mechanisms, so they don’t breach the People’s AI controlled fighting machine rule. They only use simple voice communications between each other and their commander, so they can’t be hacked, and they are hardened against EMP attacks. They will be a problem if we encounter them in the palace.”
“Why don’t we, I mean you, use them in the army?”
“Because they are easy to take down with shoulder launched weapons when you’re in the open, and being so big, you can’t use them in enclosed spaces. The Palace has huge doorways and corridors and the rooms have high ceilings, so they’ll fit fine in there, and we won’t be carrying light artillery.”
Orange continued, “I will tell them that we will deploy a cloud of surveillance drones to cover the route we’ll be taking and the surrounding area.”
Sally turned to Mark. “Can you provide us with the super-secret fully cloaked drones the People use as well please?. I’d like to have some surveillance where they don’t know we can see.”
“Super-secret fully cloaked drones?” Mark said. “I don’t know, I’ll see.”
“Kate,” he said to his AI, “Are there such things?”
“Yes Mark. I’ll arrange the production of a cloud of them for you.”
“Apparently I can.” Mark answered Sally. “I had never heard of them. How did you know about them?”
Sally smiled. “You’re not the only one with secrets about the People.” she said.
“It’s not a secret now.” Mark said.
“How did she know about them?” he asked his AI.
“You’ll have to ask her that.”
“I just did, she didn’t answer me.”.
“Try asking her in private.”
“If you’re finished now,” Mark said to Orange, “I want everyone here. There’s something I want to announce.”
“I’m done.” he replied. “When do you want to meet to review my plan?” he asked Sally.
“Two hours should do it, we’re on a tight deadline. Over to you Mark.”
Mark told his AI to contact everyone on board the Swift and invite them to the meeting room straight away. During the next five minutes they all turned up except Simon. Mike was looking sulky and sat by herself at the far end of the meeting room table.
Just as everyone was starting to get restless at Simons absence he blinked in. “Sorry I’m late but there was this kitten stuck in a tree and I couldn’t just leave it there…”
“Shut up and sit down!” Sally snapped at him.
“A kitten?” Mark said to his AI.
“It’s close enough to what he said, but as he was making it up it didn’t seem to be the right time to do an exact translation and explain his race’s relationship with an indigenous life form. He was in the bar finishing his drink.”
“Thanks all for coming.” Mark said, staring at Simon, who grinned at him.
“If I knew it was optional I wouldn’t have come.” Mike said.
Ignoring her comment, Mark continued, “Most of you know that I have been thinking of upgrading to a standard sized people’s ship.”
“How big is a standard sized ship compared to this?” Kar Fen asked.
“As you know, all the People’s ships are like thick discs, getting thicker toward the middle. The Swift, this ship, is just under 27 kilometers across and just over three and a half kilometers thick, or high, at the center. A standard sized People’s ship is just under one hundred kilometers across and the height at the center is just under 13 kilometers.”
“Quite a lot bigger.” Kar Fen said, “How high is the standard sized ship at the edge?”
“Just over one and a half kilometers.”
“I can’t see you filling that up any time soon. When are you going to get it?” he asked.
“If I could ask you all to stand for a moment?” Mark asked.
Everyone around the table stood, some with puzzled looks on their faces.
“Did you feel that?” Mark asked.
“Feel what? Touren asked.
“You have just undergone a ship to ship transfer to the new Swift. It has been right next to the old Swift for fourteen hours, which was far more time than the main AI needed to configure all the spaces we have modified to be exact replicas on here, the new ship. All your personal possessions were transferred at the same time that you were. As you go around the ship or into your quarters, you should notice no differences at all.”
“How do we know we have moved then? You could just be making this up and we haven’t moved at all.” Mike said.
“You can take my word for it or you can continue to think we are on the old Swift. I don’t care what you choose to think, but it would have been rude to make the change and not tell any of you. You could, of course, ask your AI’s to verify it, but I’ll leave it up to you.”
“Great news!” Simon said. “Let’s go to the bar to celebrate!”
“You mean back to the bar.” Mark said.
“Yeah!” Simon answered, enthusiastically.
“Before you go,” Sally said, “We have a day and a half before Mike meets with her father. You all need to be sharp for that, so blood filters on maximum. And don’t forget all the equipment you want has to be synthesized before we leave. Mark, Mike, my quarters now.” She stood and blinked out.”
Mark stood and looked down the table at Mike. She avoided his eyes and slowly stood, then blinked out, Mark followed her.
Chapter Twenty Four
A Quiet Drink
Mark blinked into his and Sally’s quarters moments after Mike. Sally was standing by the synthesizer and took out two drinks. She passed one to Mike and one to Mark, then took out a coffee for herself.
She smiled at Mike. “Take a seat.” she said, gesturing to the chairs by the coffee table. “Mike, I know this is difficult for you. You have rarely shown any desire for responsibility since I’ve known you, though when I have occasionally needed a senior officer to do a tough job, I’ve always relied on you. You did a great job while you were acting as a Lieutenant Colonel on Gnn’Ath. You are now facing up to the fact that you may have to take on the burden of being the First of the First and becoming the leader of one of the largest Empires in the galaxy. I gave you a bollocking because you undermined my authority earlier. If it makes you feel any better, I would have done the same to your father, or the head of any other civilization if they had done the same. You should know that, so stop sulking like a spoilt child and drink your tea.”
Mike sat forward in her seat sipping her herbal tea with her eyes down, not speaking.
“Why don’t you have a chat with Mark?” Sally said. “I’ll leave you two together.”
Mike stood up and said, “No. Mark, follow me.” And blinked out.
“Why me?” Mark said. “You weren’t impressed when I tried to get you and Seltet together.”
“You said that Mike was the best friend you’ve ever had, apart from me. For some reason she’s fond of you too, which is weird because she doesn’t like mammals much. It’s probably because you are both emotionally retarded. Off you go, or she’ll think you aren’t coming.” Sally said dismissively.
Mark told his AI to follow Mike and found himself in the swimming pool area that she had created. She sat on the beach facing the water, which lapped gently against the sand a couple of meters from her feet. Her knees were drawn up to her chin, her arms clasped round them. Her mug lay on its side next to her with a damp patch round it where the tea had spilt on the sand.
Mark sat next to her, then shuffled over so that he was almost touching her. Mike said nothing, so they sat in silence, with Mark sipping at his tea.
After a while Mark sai
d. “I’ve finished my tea. Would you like a drink?”
“My AI’s ordered one. The bar bot will give it to you.” she replied without looking up.
Mark got up and walked to the bar to collect her drink. He didn’t want one himself after the tea he’d just drunk, but ordered one because he thought it would look weird if he came back with just a drink for her. The bar bot gave Mark a cone shaped glass of the pale milky fluid like the one Mike had before when they were by the pool, and a cola for himself. He took them back to the beach and handed Mike her drink, then sat close to her again.
After they’d sat in silence again for a while, Mark said, “How is your drink?”
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