"Approved. Allow discretion for unit commanders. What's with the uncoloured epaulettes?"
"I wasn’t sure which to use. Admin doesn’t seem to fit anywhere, although Price used infantry green."
"Suggestion?"
"Yellow?"
"If you want to use yellow, I'll let you take the heat for it." He grinned. "Put out a general memo, so everyone knows what it means." He nodded.
"I have one request."
"Shoot."
"Gloria Petersen is happy to remain my aide, but she's only a Colonel. I'd like to present her star to her. She's earned it. And I’d hate to have to break in a new aide if she decided she wanted combat again."
"Is she likely to?"
"She's in the training courses with most of your troops at the moment. Whatever your team started, every marine on this station, and many of the ordinary infantry who haven’t picked up a gun in years, are all down there with them."
"I heard Arthur's people are down there."
"Ah. I should have guessed."
"I've no problem giving her a star. David Tollin assures me I can afford to pay people still, so the pay rise going with the promotion won't be an issue. Speaking of, you'll need to co-ordinate with him closely for a while."
"Already started. Or rather, picked up where we left off."
I looked at Dick, who was waiting patiently to say something.
"What can I do for you?"
He opened his mouth.
"No," I said quickly.
Jane and Walter grinned, but Dick frowned.
"What did you think I was going to say?" he asked.
"You want to retire again."
"Of course I do, but I wasn’t going to ask that, given what happened this morning."
I wondered why the civvies then. But then, it might have been Jane winding me up. This version of her was a semi-independent clone, but not like Janet and Janice, who were completely independent. This one was still basically Jane. And Jane did like to wind me up at times, when she could get away with it.
"So?"
"I assume you want me to continue as chief of security?"
"Yes please. For all the stations across the six systems we know about. At some point, each system will get its own station, but for now, it's Haven, Redoubt, and the Mining station. Having the rifts joining them now will make getting around much easier, without needing ships. What do you need?"
"Permission to hire more people. Some of the security people from stations which went through to Gaia didn’t go with them, so they currently don’t have jobs. We have plenty of security droids, and belt suits to make them look human, but I could use more people." He paused. "Not so much for the people we have now, but if we become the mecca for refugees for this area of space, we could find ourselves outnumbered on our own stations very rapidly. I'd rather train more people now, and have them ready when we need them, and available to train other species into the role as well."
Accepting refugees was easy. Assimilating them was a minefield. It was just as well I had people who could see ahead, while I was floundering around in the present.
"Authorized. Do what you need. You report to Walter now, but liaise with David. Jane will get you extra belt suits if you need them."
Jane nodded.
"What do we do with refugees if they decide to stay?"
"We need to discuss that with Arthur. They may not stay. Or they might. If they do, what do you suggest?"
"We have more space now than we know what to do with. After several million people living here before, the place is now eerily quiet in comparison. I’d allocate a space scraper to them for now, one of the general population types. The big problem will be facilities and food, since as aliens, I doubt ours will be suitable without modification."
"Noted," said Janice, through room coms. "Jane was going to find out what their requirements were, and as long as they don’t need to get off their ship in a hurry, we should be able to adapt quarters for them before they do."
"Will they fit into station life at all?" asked Walter.
"We'll find out soon enough I guess. Anything else?"
"No sir."
The three of them rose, Walter saluted, which I returned, and they left.
"Next!" I called out.
Sixteen
It was hours later before I was able to get away.
The twins never did send in a rescue team, but I suspect Jane had probably had to stop them. Most of what people wanted to talk to me about could have been handled by David, and I did indeed push a lot of them in his direction. As I did this, Ravi had redirected quite a few more, as I found out later.
Before the final evacuation of the station, it had been home to millions of people. Partly being a low tax duchy had attracted many to live in space, since the duchy didn’t have a habitable planet. Parts of Haven had been dedicated to certain uses, and a lot of very rich people had purchased all the really best accommodation. Most of this had all reverted back to me.
There were also large areas of the station's retail sections empty, and quite a few of the requests were about moving into better premises, or better accommodation, or both. Most of this I passed on to David, through Ravi, after having made a few top level decisions.
Before heading home, I checked if the teams were still on the courses, but whatever had been going on there, seemed now to be complete. I took a travel car, which opened into the lobby of my suite. There was no ceiling here, so as soon as you came out of the car, you were standing under the cosmos. It could be turned opaque, and I did so for sleeping, but this was the view so many rich people had wanted for themselves. Had been willing to pay me to get.
Jeeves was waiting for me.
"Dinner is almost ready my lord. Most of your guests have arrived."
Guests? No-one had told me about guests. In fact, the one thing which hadn't happened, was discussion of how the evening would proceed. We needed to hear Arthur's story, and he ours, but I’d assumed a modest team level arrangement. Guests sounded bigger.
"And you're not attired properly either, my lord," he went on.
"Attired?"
"Dress uniform is the dress of the evening."
"Why?"
"Not for me to know my lord. I humbly carry out your instructions, and remind you of them when you appear to have forgotten them."
Forgotten them? I never gave them. Jane. I shook my head, and shifted to full dress uniform. If everyone inside was dressed in civvies, I was going to kill her. Jeeves opened the door for me, and I did indeed find everyone in dress uniform, although I still had no idea why.
My living room appeared to be almost full of people. Which was saying something, considering it was the size of a ballroom. On screens around the walls, I could see crowds of people in other places on all three stations, apparently all dressed up in their best finery. The main ballroom was one of them, and the others were in the main park areas.
And suddenly I understood being stuck in my office for so long.
I stood there looking around for a few moments, gauging who was here. And suddenly wondering if anyone was manning any of my ships at all. Jane appeared in front of me.
"There has been no activity at all in the next system, and since we'll have more than enough time to get everyone back to their ships as soon as something happens, we arranged for everyone to join the party."
"Nice of you to tell me there was a party."
"No-one told you?"
She was batting her eyebrows at me.
"Very funny. What's the occasion?"
"Everyone wants to know the current situation. Everyone wants to hear about Arthur and his people, and the refugees. And a good many people besides Arthur and his people want to hear what really happened to end the Darkness War. So dinner is on you, and then we'll do some presentations."
Dinner was always on me. Not that I minded. Playing the Duke as I had for the last eighteen months, had dinner host as one of its roles. Not that I was parti
cularly socially minded. But I could pay for these things without thinking about it, so I did.
I spotted my parents over in one of the lounge chair areas, and my mother waved at me, and pointed next to her at an empty chair. I made my way over, exchanging greetings with people. I sank into the chair, and Angel promptly jumped onto my lap and sat there purring. I stroked her idly.
"Jon dear," started mother, "we need a short family gathering after this all ends."
"Fine with me. As long as I don’t need to organize it."
"They keeping you busy son?" asked my father.
"One thing or another it seems. I'll be glad when a lot of it moves off my shoulders."
"Why would it do that?" asked mother.
"The duchy no longer exists," said David, who was on the other side of dad, with his wife and kids on the other side of him. "Jon thinks that lets him off the hook."
There was plenty of laughter at this, but I kept a straight face.
"I'll address it," I said.
"How are you and Aline doing dear?" asked mum, obviously making an attempt to change the subject.
"Good, as far as I know. Why?"
"Just wondering if you had any news on that front."
"I'm sure if there was, Jane would have told you."
"Told them what?" asked Jane, now standing behind me.
"You tell me."
"Nothing to tell."
"See?"
I was looking at mother now, and she was grinning back. For nowhere near the first time, I felt like I had no control over how the conversation was going. Nor any real idea what it was about.
I cast around hoping to see Aline, but although I spotted Alison and so knew where the team was, I couldn’t tell if Aline was with them or not. Being the shortest member of the team, finding her in a crowd was impossible. Alison on the other hand, being so tall, made her easy to spot.
Jeeves suddenly appeared and announced dinner was being served, so conversation stopped around me as we all watched a long line of butler droids rapidly assemble a buffet. He was back with a plate and glass of ginger ale for me, and several others followed him with plates already prepared for my parents and David's family. Angel moved to the back of the chair to allow me to eat, and an occasional swipe of a paw resulted in her snagging a tasty morsel every now and then.
People came and went, but for me it was a family meal. My fault, but the first since we'd all made that decision to not exist anymore.
As eating began to wind down, I noticed Janice and a few cargo droids assembling a small stage, with a podium on it. I sighed.
Obviously it was almost speech time.
Seventeen
"For those who don't know me," generated a lot of laughter, but I ignored it.
"My name is Jon Hunter. My rank is Admiral of the Fleet, in the space force now mainly owned by me. I guess that makes me senior officer for those with military ranks, boss for those in administration and support positions for the three stations, and landlord for everyone else."
I could see some confused looks.
"The duchy of Hunter's Run no longer exists, and I am no longer a duke. I'll let whoever is doing the history lesson to come explain it, but my only status at the moment other than being an Admiral, is being owner of these stations we live on."
I paused.
"Below us is what looks like a paradise planet, but the survey team have not yet reported back. However, it is hoped the planet will support us, and some of you can move down there, and start your own communities. There are three other habitable planets in the ring of systems around this one, one of which will also support anyone who wants to move there. The other two are less viable, but still available for anyone who wants to try. Details will be made available once proper surveys are complete."
"There are not a lot of us left, but far more than I expected. The number is around fifteen thousand, and all I can say to you is," I paused and turned up both my volume and tone, "are you crazy?"
People laughed, as I hoped they would.
"The safe option was to go through to Gaia. None of you took it. Some of you deliberately came back from there. Whatever your reasons were, I hope things work out as you would hope."
I paused again, thinking what to say next.
"Word has probably passed around we are not safe here. And no, we are not yet sure where here is. We shouldn't exist, but we do, and I'm reasonably sure a higher being was involved with placing us here, and such things have purpose. We have apparent ownership of six systems, but the seventh is disputed by three species, each of whom dominate a large portion of the galaxy. Militarily, we are behind their level of weapons tech, but we have speed on our side, much larger ships, and enough firepower to defend this little pocket of space."
"My role now is that of defense. Your role now is to choose how you want to be governed. Being your landlord is not a system of government, and I no longer carry any civilian rank. I get a vote like all of you do, but as a society, we need to adopt a government which suits the majority. I'm not going to tell you what that is, and in fact I won't be involved in it other than to vote when the time comes. Administrator Tollin will be in charge, and the station AI's will facilitate the process."
"We have refugees among us, and decisions need to be made as to how we help them. Anyone who wishes to step up should simply say that to the station AI, and you will receive guidance on how to proceed from there. We don’t yet know if they will want to stay, but their protectors might have some idea. On that note, since you all want to see him, and find out his story, I'll pass the podium over to Arthur."
I stepped back, and down off the rostrum. Arthur was standing between Jane and Janice, and not looking too happy. I smiled at him, nodded towards the podium, and he reluctantly moved to it.
"My name is Arthur."
The crowd went wild, with clapping, whistling, and yells. The other locations seeing this did likewise. He waited for them to subside.
"Forget everything you think you know about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It's total bollocks!"
Now the room was silent, as were everywhere else.
"I'm not human, and neither are my people. We evolved on a planet on the other side of the galaxy, so long ago the planet no longer exists. We look human, but it is in fact the other way around. You look like us. It seems certain suns, with planets in just the right position, tend to evolve species along much the same evolutionary road. We've encountered many human like species in our time, but it seems as the universe grows older, the lifespan of humanoid species grows shorter."
"We have been to Earth, we have been involved in major events there, but I was never King of the Britons, or anyone else. Your story tellers have always been skillful at making half-truths and suppositions into history. We did make an attempt at one time to remove such histories, but apparently this just made things worse."
There was a titter of laughter now.
"Our first visit to Earth occurred during the period where what you call modern man fought it out with Cro-Magnon man, and the last of the Neanderthals. I won't tell you who we fought with." Another titter of laughter. "It was nearly twenty thousand years before we were there again, after which we put in an appearance at least once a millennial, trying to stay out of history's way, while trying to prevent certain things from happening. History suggests we failed all round. Our last visit was during what is referred to as the dark ages."
He looked around the room, before going on.
"We were sad to find out the eventual fate of the Earth herself, but pleased humans survived. Our method of travelling to Earth we thought was through magic. Today I found out our old friend Merlin was in fact a higher being pretending to be like us. It seems you to have been subject to the whims of highers, but we are happy, and somewhat bewildered, to find humans here, at one of the major crossroads of the galaxy. We also didn’t know the planet below us, and the other systems here existed. Or should I say, we knew systems were he
re, but never found a way of getting to them before."
"As some of you know, your Admiral Hunter intervened to save us and a ship full of refugees this morning. In doing so, he has our thanks, and that of the refugees. They needed food and water, and it was freely given. We will help them to decide where it is they wish to go from here. You must decide if they ask to stay with you, if you will accept them. Humans have a history of not accepting those who look different, and these refugees do not look like us. I give you fair warning on that. But these people are in need, and they will work hard to both fit in with your society, and help you adjust to the rest of the galaxy. Many of them have skills you lack. Please consider well. Because others will be coming. We will go back into plant space when it is safe to do so, and the word will spread there is a sanctuary at last. But only if you allow it."
"For my crew, we appreciate a respite in safety, among people we understand. We felt a great shift in the galaxy a week ago, as perhaps only long lived species may feel, but had nothing in the way of explanation. At least until we met your Admiral Hunter this morning. I and my people look forward to hearing what has brought all of you, to our neck of the galactic woods. We thank you for our welcome, and am sorry we cannot confirm your wild tales about us. But it seems as far as tales go, yours may be the more interesting one. Thank you."
He stepped back, turned, and stepped off the rostrum itself. There was a general round of applause, but not so boisterous as the initial one. He stopped next to me.
"One day you can tell me the real story, instead of that crock of shit," I said quietly.
"What makes you think that?"
"Your accent and word usage. At oldest, it's mid twentieth century. But more likely to have been picked up about a hundred years ago. How long did you say it's been since you saw Thirteen, um, Merlin?"
"Fifty years."
"So you could have been here for the last big war, with the British forces helping to defend the American sector. Followed by a fifty year jump into the future, and across space to where you've been since. Come to think of it, you could have visited Earth and the sectors dozens of times, and it could only have been a dozen years for you."
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