by Taki Drake
It pretty much boiled down to Mages could do whatever they wanted. They had the right to administer all forms of justice, including minor and mortal punishments. No government, either planetary or interplanetary, was allowed to gainsay a Mage. The thought of unlimited power, without checks and balances, felt just wrong to Ruth. However, further exploration into some of the political structures that existed in the Galactic Alliance gave her some insight. The GA appeared to operate on the theory that power made right. And Mages were the most powerful thing around. It didn’t seem to matter that it had been over five millennia since the last Mage had lived. The strictures on governments and guild, built to give them a guideline for working with Mages could all be summarized by the phrase “give in.”
The whole legal system reminded Ruth a bit of the card game of War. Whoever won owned everything, and that is how Ruth now held title to all of the worlds, spaceships, funds, and possessions that the Insectoids had previously possessed. That possession would be verified by a guild that appeared to be equivalent to a group of professional certified public accountants back on Earth. Reading about the accounting guild, she had started to laugh uncontrollably just as Cal walked in the room. Helpless to stop her laughing, Ruth had just pointed at the screen. When Pawlik had followed Cal into the chamber a few minutes later, he found a confusing scene of hysterical laughter and repeated chants of ‘bean counter, bean counter’ from mother and son. Cal’s attempts to explain the reference soon had Pawlik also roaring with laughter and adding his world phrase of ‘fart whistler’ to the chorus.
It was a direly needed break in the stress and strain of the preceding months. That bit of levity and the release of the tension that had kept them wound tighter and tighter, had given her back a little of the resilience that she would need today.
Ruth smiled to herself as she stood waiting by the doorway into a large room. She had dressed carefully for this event, choosing to come to judgment day clad in unrelieved black. While she was unsure of the colors, her mood and the seriousness of what she was about to do fit the color that she wore and the absence of light better than anything else. She straightened her back and took a deep breath, before striding confidently into the room. It was show time.
Ruth strode into the chamber as if she owned the entire universe. Glancing around with a commanding tilt of her head, she took in the packed room and expectant faces. Sgt. Gray, standing in the front of the room close to the table set up for Ruth there, half shouted, “All stand for the Lady Mage.”
Fighting an entirely inappropriate urge to giggle at the humor of the situation of telling people to all stand when they were already standing, Ruth calmly seated herself. Projecting her voice so that everyone in the room could hear, she said, “Today officially opens the first Mage judgment day that has been held in the recorded universe for over five millennia. Although I have the right to rule by whim, I choose to rule by law. The code of law that we will be developing stems from my culture, background, and ethics. Those that I appoint to handle hearings under that guideline will adhere to the spirit and the letter of my decisions. However, the last resort will always be me.”
Nodding to Sgt. Gray, Ruth began her rule. Raising her hands in front of her, she stared down and concentrated. A softly swirling mass of brilliant white built in her cupped hands. Once the level of the magical force started to spill over the edges, she tossed it over the two bound prisoners waiting for judgment. The men cringed as the light touch them and then seemed to calm. Looking them in the face, one by one, Ruth stared at them with eyes that swirled with a soft echo of her magic. “You will tell the truth, and all of the truth.” The absolute certainty in her voice hammered the seriousness of the proceedings into the brains of everyone in the room, like a muffled air hammer punching nails through wood.
The trial was over. The two men had admitted to the enslavement of unwilling women and a variety of other crimes while under a magical compulsion to tell the truth. There was no question of their guilt, but that was not the goal that Ruth had planned for the trial. She wanted desperately to set up something that didn’t rely on her personal interaction for every situation. Trying to establish a codified system of law seemed to be the best way of being able to delegate a sector of what she saw as her responsibilities effectively.
Cal brought a glass of water up to his mother. Ruth looked at him and smiled slightly, asking, “I am pretty sure that is not what anyone expected.”
His eyes danced in agreement, but Cal responded verbally in a serious tone, “I am pretty sure you’re right. Most legal systems do not carry out the sentence in the middle of the courtroom immediately after the trial is over. However, it lends a whole new meaning to the term ‘courtroom drama’ when the guilty are turned into burning torches in the middle of the floor.”
“Well, since under truth spell they described not only what they had done to the women but gave us the whole conspiracy on the attack and their goals for taking over the ship, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion.”
“Well, Mom, I thought it was pretty interesting that when the two men were talking about how they were going to take over the ship and make us all slaves again, the entire room shivered. Then when you asked if anyone would speak for the accused there were no volunteers.”
“It seemed to me that it was justice to force them to live through the torments that they imposed on the women that they had overpowered before they died. And at least after that was done everybody seems to be very well behaved.”
“Reminds me of some of the punishments you set up for my brother and me when we were growing up. Impossible to forget!”
Ruth was about to respond to Cal when they were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Looking up, Ruth saw a group of three people standing in front of her. They were a trio of mixed races and ages and genders, but typical of their motley collection of former slaves. One of them, a bipedal female with a shock of brilliant red hair, started the conversation. “Lady Mage, you look much different than you did before. Forgive us for asking, but what happened to change you like this?”
“Transformation, I am informed, is part of becoming a Mage. On my world, we have an insect called butterfly that goes through the same sort of transformation. It enters the process looking like some form of an extended worm with legs and emerges as a winged creature. I believe that something like that has happened to me.”
“But you’re still the same person? I knew Ruth and trusted her. Are you the same person still?”
“Same person where it matters, in my heart and in my soul. Just different in outward appearance and in the body’s ability to handle the magic that I now have.”
The trio appeared to be satisfied and began to walk away. Ruth called after them, saying, “Let everyone know that there will be a meeting in the hold where this all started in six hours.”
The woman waved in acknowledgment and continued to walk away. As she got to the other side of the room, she was surrounded by a small crowd, all obviously interested in what she had learned.
Ruth said, “Cal, how about if you let Pawlik know that I’d like to meet with the two of you and anyone that either of you thinks should be in a command meeting. We can meet in the captain’s ready room in a half hour.”
Chapter 9 – Command and Control
Ruth sat at the head of the table with Cal to her left and Pawlik to her right. Ten other people were distributed around the table. Pawlik’s two men were there, sitting together. Eight others from the former slaves filled out the remaining seats. Mary was seated astraddle a bench, lending her nonverbal support.
Ruth placed her hands on the table in front of her, palms down and glanced over at Pawlik. “Could you please give me a general status? At this point, I’m not sure what I need to know or what I don’t so guide me through this.”
Pawlik started to speak, “We currently have 116 mobile and functional personnel. All of the general systems on the ship appear to be in good working order, a
nd the controls have been validated by people in our command group. We’re very lucky that the ship contains the standard interfaces for the overall interstellar alliance.”
Ruth leaned forward slightly and asked, “Tell me a little bit more about the Alliance. I saw some information within the computer system, but frankly, it was a little more confusing and complex than I was willing to tackle right then.”
“The Alliance is a member organization. In order to belong to it, a race must be sentient and have space faring capability. The difficulty comes in dealing with the interaction between races or worlds. The general rule is one of power and might. Basically, if you win it in battle, it belongs to you.”
Ruth frowned in contemplation, “What happens to the races that do not have space travel?”
“There is some protection for non-spacefaring races but since there is no specific enpowered Alliance law enforcement, those rules are frequently broken. Just look at what happened to your people. The Insectoids broke the rules, but there was no one to protest. They would have continued to get away with harvesting people from your world and some of the others that they visited until a strong Alliance member decided to object or until your people were all gone. Even if something had happened to the Insectoids, the fact that your world had been classified as prey would have allowed other opportunists to continue to abuse your Earth.”
“How can this be prevented?” Cal asked, “And how can we continue to protect our planet?”
Pawlik started to respond, but one of the others sitting at the table chimed in. “There are only a limited number of options. The best one is for Earth to be protected by Ruth and develop its own member capability as soon as possible. Technically, Ruth owns Earth at this time, and she can do what she wishes with it.”
Cal’s expression betrayed that he couldn’t decide whether he was horrified or amused. “Oh dear Lord, this would cause massive difficulties with every government on Earth. They would never agree with this!”
Looking somewhat pensive, Ruth stated in a soft but iron-filled voice, “I really don’t care. If that is what we have to do to keep them safe for now, that is what we’ll do.”
One of the other attendees, a large semi-clad man with extensive tattoos on his face and arms raised a hand. At Ruth’s nod, he said, “Geroff, here. I know that you’re concerned about your own planet, but many of us are equally worried about ours. How are we going to get home?”
Pawlik interjected a comment, “I propose that we start with visiting my home world so that we can get enough people to operate the starship without so many problems. Otherwise, when we start dropping people off on their home planets we will further reduce the scant staff we have for running the spaceship.”
Geroff responded heatedly, “Why should we start with your planet? That seems like favoritism to me!”
The room exploded into a cacophony of excited voices as people talked at and over each other. Ruth watched as they argued, but did not participate. After about 10 minutes, she slapped her hands on the tabletop. The room instantly went still as the presence of the Mage was remembered.
In the quiet, Ruth dropped her verbal bombshell. “Would it not be better to get a census that covers all of the ships before deciding who is being dropped off and in what order?”
There was a moment of stunned quiet in the room. The woman who had taken over the de facto head engineering position gulped and asked, “What other ships?”
“When I killed the Insectoids that included every being with Insectoid DNA as far as my broken mind could touch.”
Geroff asked in a stunned voice, “How many were killed?”
“Over 24 billion.”
Shocked silence followed Ruth’s statement, leaving the room ringing with the non-sound of people’s thoughts.
Shaking off his astonishment, Pawlik began to assign people tasks aimed at determining what organization was needed on a broader scale. One of Cal’s assistants, a man named Deran from a high gravity world, was loudly complaining, “We don’t even know where the ships are, what kind they are, any of that sort of information. How are we supposed to figure out what we have to do?”
Once again, Ruth raised her voice and stunned the room. “There are 16,422 separate ships. All you had to do was ask.”
Comments started to fly around the room and a mixture of voices and conversations collided without organization.
“Those ships are probably on trajectories that could collide with other ships!”
“What about the people that are starving on the ships?”
An explosion of a stellar map in three dimensions covered the entire table and once again quieted the room. Patterns of color and clusters of different icons appeared within a few seconds. Ruth pointed to the map, “All of the ship locations are mapped onto this display. They are color-coded with three main classifications. The ones that I have locked down in space so they do not move in relationship to the surrounding planetary bodies are colored in blue. Yellow-coded ships are in stable orbit and do not require immediate attention or modification. The ones in red are in trouble.
“The trouble ones are situations where there were slaves or captives on the ships. Those require individualized attention, I believe. The good news is that there only 47 problems. The bad news is that there are 47 issues.”
There was one common emotion evident in the room. Amazement. It was beyond comprehension that a single person would know all of the ship’s status and locations. Only Pawlik looked calm. His family traditions had taught him just what possible strengths and capabilities a Mage might have. Everyone else was learning in real time.
Once again conversation became lively among the people in the room. The daunting nature of the task and the emotional battering that the former slaves had endured over the last few months had taken its toll on their energy and their ability to problem solve. When it seemed like the comments were becoming repetitive, Ruth stood up. Conversation ceased immediately.
“I know that the task is daunting, but I am confident that it is something that we can handle. We are going to deal with the urgent problems, then we will head to Pawlik’s home world. Once we get there, I expect to establish our headquarters, build up additional staff, and start to return people to their home worlds. We will also need to evaluate which ships and worlds that I wish to keep.”
It was apparent to everyone in the room that the time for debate and questions was over. The Mage had spoken, and the plan was in play. Geroff once again demonstrated a distinct lack of survival instinct by interjecting a comment. “Don’t you have to do something about registering ownership for the ships and other properties? How can we move forward with your plan without that?”
Ruth smiled slightly at him, and replied, “I have already filed the interstellar notice of acquisition by combat required by Alliance law. In that notice, I also stated that I had completed my Mage transformation and in the process that I had destroyed the Insectoids. The paperwork was appropriately filed with the Auditor Guild.”
Cal, just as surprised as the others in the room about the filing, seized on one topic. “I am not familiar with the makeup or purpose of the Auditor Guild. Could someone please fill me in?”
As multiple people tried to simultaneously explain the ubiquitous guild to Cal, Pawlik leaned toward Ruth and murmured softly, “Well played!”
“So the general description of the Auditor Guild is that they do the interstellar accounting, adjudicate ownership, and deal with punishments and fines on a planetary level. Is that right?” summarized Cal. Nods of agreement sprinkled the room.
Ruth stated firmly, “I believe that the Auditor Guild representative will meet up with us when we get to Pawlik’s world, Arkken. In the meantime, people, let’s get to our tasks.”
The room quickly emptied leaving the slowly evolving stellar map still floating in all of its colorful glory above the table.
Chapter 10 – Private Quarters
The door to the hallway slid closed with
a gentle whoosh of air. Exhaustion settled like a heavy blanket over Ruth’s shoulders, and she dropped to the couch. Pawlik glanced at her in concern and moved to the side of the room to get her a glass of water. He handed her the drink and settled gingerly on the couch beside her. Smiling at him, Ruth said, “I have no way of thanking you for all that you have done. Without you, I would be dead or crazy. You have provided for every need that I have had and more.”
Pawlik responded, “It has been my privilege and my pleasure. We will have many years to be together since Mage and Anchor live extended lifetimes.”
“I have many questions about the whole bond, but it looks like those will have to wait for later time or later discovery. All I know is that we have managed to survive another day.”
Smiling, Pawlik reached over and picked up Ruth’s hand. Raising it to his mouth, he placed a gentle kiss on her palm. Her breath caught in her throat and tears came to her eyes.
“I have missed you wrapped around me at night. Even in the shroud, I could feel you. The contact comforted me and has left a cold, empty vacuum in its absence.”
“It is a loss for me also. I miss your heartbeat and the murmur of your mind.”
Staring deeply into his eyes, Ruth stood and paused a moment to look down at him. Taking a deep breath, she reached out her hand and grabbed his. He simply looked at her. With a smile that mingles grief, farewell, and hope, she pulled him gently to his feet and into the bedroom. The door quietly whispered shut, and the privacy light comes on.
Troyer and Techla crashed carried through the hallway door into the private quarters cheerfully arguing about some game that the children were learning to play. Troyer carries a covered tray and Techla held a sleeping a full pitcher of some liquid. They had decided that grandma needed breakfast and had appointed themselves as the delivery service.
