Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

  Chapter 5: The Announcement

  Now as Mylea came from the uniform shop with a set of uniforms for Mike she was stopping by her home to check on her daughter and to take her over to the Wilson’s so she could baby sit their young daughter as they prepared to go to the palace and the announcement that would promote Mike to the Marshal of the Trena Constabulary. He would be in effect be the top police officer, firefighter, dog catcher, customs officer, and anything that provided law enforcement or emergency life safety for the entire kingdom. That would put him charge of the evacuation.

  She got out of the car as she saw her daughter open the front door of their place, “Mom where have you been? You weren’t home for breakfast or when I got home from school.”

  “Something came up at work and I didn’t get a chance to call you,” Mylea replied, “Sorry Lam.”

  “Something serious?” her daughter asked. She hadn’t called her mother, as her mother didn’t want Lamile to call her at work unless it was something serious. She knew nothing had happened to her mother, no one from the Mounties had come to tell her that her mother was in trouble or worse.

  “Yes,” Mylea entered the house and shut the door.

  Lamile Atomi, Mylea’s three and a third crimen or sixteen earth standard year old daughter, waited for her mother to elaborate on what her day had been like. She knew from other days if the day had been really bad or gruesome she wouldn’t share her day with her. Her mother didn’t think it proper to share all the things she saw as a police officer with her daughter. If her lifemate Garth had still be alive he would already know of her day because of her bond with him, but he had been dead nearly a crimen or three earth years.

  “I don’t have much time,” Her mother remarked, “I am here to take you to Mike’s and Lisa’s so you can watch Abby while they get ready for Mike’s promotion ceremony tonight.”

  “Uncle Mike’s being promoted,” Lamile asked, “You didn’t tell me he had made lieutenant.”

  “The Queen reached down and has promoted him to Marshal of the Trena Constabulary.”

  “Why,” Her daughter asked.

  “We have to evacuate Trena, and the Queen wants him to head up the effort.” Mylea replied.

  “Evacuate?” Lamile asked, “What evacuation?”

  “Do you remember that explosion everyone was talking about the other day?” Mylea asked. There had been a great explosion in the Little Asteroid belt, the systems second and smaller asteroid belt. It could be seen from Trena though it was easily one astronomical unit out from Trena.

  “Yes,” Lamile answered.

  “Well what caused it was a centuries old piece of ordinance abandoned by the Space Force.” Mylea continued, “It was a planet buster bomb. It went off, throwing a bunch of the asteroids out of their orbits about the star towards us. We think they’ll be here by the winter holidays.”

  Lamile was quiet as she considered the words her mother had just told her. Trena had been her home for nearly a crimen, ever since her father’s death and her mother had been discharged from the Companions, because of it. They hadn’t been home for longer than a partial crimen in many crimens. Then when they had been home they felt out of place. They had spent so much time on other worlds among other peoples that their home world of Thonia didn’t feel like home any more. So like many thonians they had immigrated to Trena. Over the crimen of her mother’s disability, Trena had become their home.

  “Mom, why do we have to evacuate,” Lamile asked.

  “Because there is no way to stop those asteroids from impacting Trena and destroying our world,” her mother answered.

  “Destroying our world,” Lamile asked in disbelief, “Can’t someone do something?”

  “That was what the explosion was all about the other day,” Mylea replied, “The militia tried to detonate another bomb and it went off prematurely causing more grief for us.”

  “Oh,” Lamile responded, “So Uncle Mike is going to be the one to evacuate us?” Her mother nodded, “Can he do that?”

  “If he can’t then we are in a world of hurt,” Mylea replied, “There is no one else on or off Trena that can get us to safety; all of us not just a few of us!”

  Lamile was quiet as she considered what her mother had told her. She had known Mike Wilson all of her life. He was an Imperial Marine from the Earth Empire. An MP who often was assigned the same duty posts as her parents were. While her parents patrolled the space stations the Thonian Space Force made port calls at or had been granted planet side leave privileges, her Uncle Mike did the same for the Empire’s armed forces. When he retired, he and his wife had emigrated to Trena. He became an instructor at the Royal Trenaport Mounted Patrol Academy. They had been here before she and her mother had arrived on Trena. She had been surprised when Jill, Uncle Mike’s daughter, wasn’t with them. He said that she had been left on Mars with her grandmother. It was because Ebio, the company who made the biopeople would kill them all if she was with them. She hadn’t asked why, mostly as it seemed that Uncle Mike and Aunt Lisa didn’t want to talk about it. To this day she hadn’t answered any of her friend’s letters afraid she would let the cat out of the bag to Jill. Eventually the letters had stopped coming. She felt guilty that she had turned her back on Jill. One day she planned to make it up to her friend.

  “You’ll be staying at the palace tonight,” Her mother brought her out of her thoughts.

  “Why?” Lamile asked.

  “Mike, Lisa, and Abby are moving into the Queen mother’s residence at the palace.” Her mother answered, “The Queen feels that with Mike’s Ebio problem, the palace is the safest place for his family. So while Mike is sworn in you’ll be babysitting Abby in the Queen Mother’s Residence.”

  “Is it okay that I told them you would do this?” Mylea asked realizing she had told her daughter what she was going to do, and didn’t tell her that the Wilson’s had asked for her to babysit their daughter.

  “Yeah,” Lamile replied. “Will you be around?”

  “No the Queen is using me to run errands and such for her,” Mylea replied, “I won’t even see the announcement or be able to witness Mike’s swearing in. I’ll either be at the EOC working as the Mounty liaison or possibly standing outside the Queen’s office in case she needs something before the announcement.”

  “Oh I wish we could see it together.” Lamile commented.

  “So do I,” Mylea replied, “Look I am going to take a quick shower, and change uniforms. Why don’t you get anything you want to take to Mike and Lisa’s while I get changed?”

  See nodded and went to her bed room to get some pajamas and got her data pad. She made sure the book she was reading was on it and then put them in small overnight bag. What her mother called an AWOL bag.

  A few minutes later bag in hand she got into her mother’s police car.

  As they traveled across Trenaport to her friend’s home in the western suburbs of the kingdom’s capital city Lamile was subdued. Although not normally a chatter box her daughter would on occasion jabber, this afternoon was not one of those times. Mylea suspected her daughter was digesting what she had been told. Lamile was indeed trying to digest what she had been told by her mother. The girl’s mind was roiling with what her mother had just told her. Trena was her home. Of all the worlds she had ever lived on Trena was the one she called home. She had lived longer on a couple of worlds, but she knew they were temporary, as her parents would soon be stationed to another world, many times for less than a crimen. As they passed the Princess Bay she saw one of the many replicas of pre Terran Empire sailing ships. Thonia, her people’s home world, never had a maritime heritage. She watched the replica sailing vessel putting out to sea remembering when she and her mother first arrived on Trena.

  When they had arrived on Trena she had been still reeling first from her father’s death, then her mother’s disability that had forced her mother to be discharged from the Thonian Space Force and their immigration to Trena. The first summer she had been on
Trena she had explored her new world with some kids from school. She had fallen in love with Trena immediately. She had spent part of last summer’s school break on one of the old fashioned sailing boats with several other kids. The first part of the Adventure of Learning’s voyage was to the Princess Falls. They arrived near sunset. The roar of the falls was over whelming from where they dropped anchor a half mile from the falls. As they dropped anchor, the boson’s whistle called them into the rigging to furl the Adventure of Learning’s sails. As she climbed to the top of the rigging she saw the falls above the mists that bellowed up from the base of the falls. As she climbed out on one the mast arms she realized the mast arm was taller the cliffs the water fell over. She and the rest of the riggers paused for a moment to watch the falls. The waterfall was a large horseshoe several miles across. Now in the late evening as the sun began to set, the setting sun lit the mists coming up from falls. Mini rainbows splashed over the falls taking their breaths away. She had seen many things on the various planets she had traveled to with her parents but nothing she had seen on those worlds had come close to what she had seen that evening. The thought of the simple beauty of the falls being destroyed was nearly a physical pain it hurt so much.

  Now as she rode with her mother across Trenaport to her Uncle Mike’s home she observed the city. Realizing that much of what she observed would be destroyed by the end of the year. She saw the Convention Center that was barely a year old. The eloquent beauty of the Glass Palace, as the center was called, looked like it had been carved out of block of glass with a torch. Its glass surfaces acting as a prism as it sometimes scattered rainbows over the city some days. As they skirted the space port on the shores of the Princess Bay Harbor it struck her how it was strange to see modern landing craft landing across from the docked replicas of sailing vessels from antiquity. As if to bring that strangeness to life she saw a group of landing craft come in low over the nearby space port. The landing craft, medium sized ground to orbit space craft, slowed to a hover and soon people were pouring out the back of the landing craft.

  “Mom do you see that,” She asked pointing to the space port.

  “Yes! General Qoum has the militia making a practice drop on the port.” Mylea answered her daughter. “About the time the announcement is made the militia will seal the space port.”

  “Oh,” Lamile responded.

  “We’re afraid that people will go to the space port and cause a riot as they try to force their way onto some landing craft.” Her mother replied, “I think I heard the general ordering all militia landing craft on the port be launched for orbit or moved off the port.”

  “Are they afraid of a panic,” Lamile asked.

  “Yes,” her mother responded as she turned onto the road that would take them to her Uncle Mike’s neighborhood. As they pulled on to the road Lamile noticed a militia truck carrying a large tank somewhere. She turned to watch it go under the bridge they had just passed under just in time to see it miss a car and jack knife. The large articulated vehicle had dumped the tank onto its side blocking the bridge and traffic in both directions.

  “Did you see that,” Lamile asked her mother. Her mother nodded.

  “Are you going to stop?” her daughter asked.

  Mylea looked at all the commotion caused by the wreck and considered going back to help but saw a patrol car coming down the road. Relieved she answered, “No, the Mounties are coming now.”

  Lamile saw the cop cars slowing to a stop in front of the tank.

  As she drove her daughter to her friend’s home Mylea reflected on her day.

  The trip to pick up Michael’s uniform was the only semi free time that Mylea had all day. She didn’t know how it happened; but the Queen started using her as an aid. Mylea could sense trouble coming by the looks that she was getting from the Queen’s staff. She was doing the things they normally would. Worse Mylea knew it wouldn’t last; as she had her own job as a cop. True a high ranking one; but still a cop not an aid to her sovereign. Her talents would be better used helping to protect the people she was sworn to serve, than being the personal aid to this young queen. But now wasn’t the time to debate the issue.

  Before going to the uniform shop, she had went to where General Qoum was working in the emergency operations center in the basement of the administrative building on the palace grounds where she picked up the generals tasking orders for his troops. He was living in the EOC instead of at the Mountain. The general’s deputy was now the Commander of the Mountain while he stayed at the palace to be available to the Queen or her staff.

  “Commander,” The general addressed her by her former grade. She had been a force commander in the Thonian Space Force, “It’s good to see you again.”

  “And you La’Kent,” Mylea said, “The Queen asked me to stop by and give you these. She wants your opinion back by tonight.”

  “A table of organization,” The general asked surprised seeing the hand written chart. He looked it over and was surprised. He had expected a very amateurish table of organization, and not something that was the quality of one of his senior staff officers. “You see this?”

  “She asked my input on it.” Mylea replied, the Queen had done it all herself, with little or no input from anyone.

  “What do you think,” the general asked.

  “If that young woman was not the Queen of Trena, she would be an outstanding choice as a flag lieutenant to an admiral. Or possibly be on fast track promotion lists.”

  “It’s a shame,” The general leaned back in his chair as he commented, “She had the potential to be the best monarch our world has ever had, but she’ll never get the chance. Nine months from now her reign, and our world will be done.”

  “General she wanted your tasking order,” Mylea had replied not wanting to go down the road the general was headed. The general gave her a paper copy. Nothing was being trusted to electronics. She had left then going back to the Queen’s suite. She came back to the present as she turned off the Bay Road onto Hall Road that would take them to the Wilson’s sub division. She saw two hover cycle cops sitting on their cycles. Mylea knew that normally there was no cycles assigned to this part of Trenaport. They were normally used on parking patrols or speed enforcement on the Crown Highways that crossed the capital city as well as some of the provincial routes where people didn’t use the province’s intelligent traffic system and speeded.

  As she pulled onto the street of her friend’s home Mylea noticed a nondescript car parked at the corner with two people in it. They were parked so they could respond quickly should there be trouble at Mike’s home. As she pulled into the Wilson drive way she noticed another car parked a little ways from Mike’s home. As she started to get out of the car one of Mike’s neighbors came out of her home when she saw Mylea.

  “Chief,” the neighbor woman came up to her car. Mylea had met her a few years back at one of Mike’s barbecues.

  “Hi Lois,” Mylea greeted the woman.

  “I was just about to get Michael,” the twenty something woman returned. “See that car down the way?”

  “Why,” Mylea asked.

  “It’s been sitting there a couple of hours, just like the one at the top of the street.” The woman answered, “They’ve just been sitting there. Just watching things. They’ve not gotten out of the cars since they’ve been here.”

  “Let me see who they are,” Mylea said and got out of her car. She thought she knew who they were but she wasn’t going to take any chances, “Lam go inside and tell Mike what’s going on! Lois, go back to your home.”

  Lamile got her bag from the back seat of her mother’s cruiser and went up to her uncle’s front door. She knocked on the door and was let in by her uncle. She stood only a couple shongths shorter than her adopted uncle.

  “Lam, where’s Mylea,” the tall earthling asked the thonian girl.

  “There’s a car parked down the way that Mrs. Kellar thought was suspicious,” Lamile responded and nodded to where her mother w
as walking down the street, “Mom’s checking it out.”

  Wilson closed the front door and went to the window. So he could watch his friend approach the car. He thought he should get his pistol out of the gun locker in the front closet and back her up. He refused to carry a fire arm in his house. Though all his weapons had biometric locks on them, he also kept them locked in gun lockers so Abby couldn’t get to them and play with them. Now as he watched his best friend walking to the car with two people in it, both thonians, he wanted to be out there with her. As she approached it, a woman in the car got out of the passenger seat of the car.

  “Hello Chief Atomi,” she greeted her. “I’m T’gron, my lifemate Jen’kath is in the car. To answer your question; we’re with VIP security. Mr. McGregor assigned us this morning. They are still building Lord Wilson’s protection unit.”

  She glanced into the car and saw a holograph of herself with her name and other information beside it. She turned back to the thonian and asked, “Can you show me some identification.”

  The woman took out a wallet. It held a simple pentagonal badge with a crown sitting on a field of blue. Around the pentagon were the words: Crown Protective Service. There was no number on the badge. To see if it was real Mylea would have to take it back to her car and have the expert system in it run the ID. She decided that if they weren’t for real they wouldn’t be that open about it. Especially when a phone call to McGregor would be all it would take to prove who they were. In addition Ebio never used thonians on their containment teams. Why no one knew. But there was little love lost between Ebio and thonians. Thonians abhorred slavery.

  “Have you told the Wilson’s?” Mylea asked.

  “No ma’am,” the protective agent answered, “we were told to keep an eye on them. We were told not to disturb them. The Queen wanted to be sure that no one disturbed them. We’ve been here since noon.”

  “The next time you take a post with Sarge you best let him know because he’s liable to take care of business.” Mylea said flatly, “He might have killed you!”

  That sobered the agent. She had heard that Sergeant Wilson had been an Imperial Black Guardsman. The guardsmen were reputed to be able to kill a person without working up a sweat.

  Seeing the look on the thonian’s face Mylea knew she had gotten through to the agent. She left the pair and went back to her cruiser. She got Mike’s uniform from the cruiser and took it up to her former sergeant’s home. As she did Lois, the neighbor woman came up to her as she shut the cruiser’s door and asked, “What’s going on Chief?”

  “They are part of Mike’s security team,” Mylea responded, “The Queen’s appointed him as the Marshal of Trena Constabulary. The Queen’s making the announcement tonight.”

  “Oh,” Lois remarked, she had known the Wilsons since they had built their home next to hers five years ago. She knew that her neighbor was something more than a simple Mounty. “Let me know if they need anything.”

  “I will,” Mylea replied. The neighbor woman would be shocked, when she saw the reason for her neighbor’s promotion.

  Mylea walked up to her friends’ front door which opened when she got there. Mike let her into the house. He had watched her confront the people in the car.

  “Who are they,” Mike asked. He had assumed since his old commander had not yelled for help that they were not a threat.

  “Crown protective service,” Mylea answered, “The crown is stepping up your security.”

  “Because of Ebio?” Mike asked. Although he and Lisa had left the empire and had emigrated to Trena to keep from being captured by Ebio, they felt more or less safe on Trena. Ebio rarely sent closers to Trena. The TMP treated them ruthlessly, often killing them instead of taking them prisoners.

  “Yes but also because of your new posting,” Mylea replied, “Her Majesty is concerned for your safety.”

  Wilson nodded. He had suspected that he would be picking up a detail. He hadn’t talked to Lisa about it as he wanted to make sure of his facts. Lisa would not be happy about getting a protective detail.

  Lisa came out of the kitchen holding a plate of food. She was going to let Abby eat in her bedroom, Normally Lisa wouldn’t let the girl eat in her bedroom, but this evening Lisa thought for once it wouldn’t hurt anything. “Hi guys!”

  “Hi,” Mylea replied, “I can’t stay long. I brought Mike’s uniform.”

  “Lam can you take this into Abby,” Lisa walked over to Lamile and handed her the plate of food and glass of juice she had prepared for her daughter.

  “Sure Aunt Lisa,” Lamile took the food, “Where is she?”

  “In her room,” her aunt replied. Lamile left the adults alone to take Abby her meal.

  Lisa took the uniform bag from Mylea’s hand and took it back to their room with the other’s following. Lisa hung it on the back of the bedroom door and unzipped the bag. With the bag off the shoulders, the shoulder boards were exposed. Lisa was astonished to see that there were five golden crowns arranged in a pentagon on a red field, the same color as his uniform jacket. Lisa looked from her husband, to her friend, and then said, “She’s not fooling around.”

  “I guess not,” Mike said.

  “I got to get back,” Mylea replied, “I’ll see you at the palace later.”

  “How are things,” Lisa asked.

  “Not too many know what’s going on,” Mylea responded, “I don’t know much about the Queen, but I can tell that keeping this close to the vest is wearing on her. Qoum is living in the EOC. The security in the center is tighter than normal. A few people have commented about being challenged by the guards protecting the entrance to the building. Mac never mounts much of a visible guard around the royal household. But he’s got one now!”

  “I guess that’s unavoidable,” Mike commented.

  “Just like the four people watching the house and street,” Lisa commented. Her husband and her friend looked at her. “Yes I know about it. I was in the back yard watching Abby play a couple of hours ago when she first saw them. I thought it strange that they were just sitting there until I saw a cop stop and talked to them for a bit. I figured they were okay or the cops would get them to move off or have arrested them! I also saw you go talk to them with your hand in your purse to pull out your weapon Mylea!”

  “They are from palace security,” Mylea replied, “Assigned to keep you guys safe.”

  “From Ebio?” Lisa asked.

  “No!” Mike answered, “It’s because of me and my new job. As a cabinet officer we will have a security detail.”

  “I see,” Lisa said not convinced. She could always tell when her husband was shading the truth or not telling the entire story. She suspected that the increased security wasn’t because of Michael’s new job; but because of their problems with Ebio. Sometimes she wished they didn’t have to be so concerned of Ebio trying to find her and kill her.

  Mylea could sense that Lisa suspected that Mike was not telling Lisa the truth. Mylea didn’t understand that. Once she lifemated with Garth, it had been physically impossible for either of them to lie to each other. Their empathic and telepathic bond made them one person.

  “Got to get back! I’ll see you at the palace.” She said to the couple.

  “See you later,” Mike said as his friend left.

  Mylea ducked into Abby’s room to say good bye to her daughter. She found her three and a third crimen old daughter sitting at a table coloring with Wilson’s crimen and a half daughter.

  “Lam, I’ll pick you up in the morning,” Mylea told Lamile. “I’ll take you to breakfast.”

  “Okay,” Lamile got up from the table and hugged her mother, the next thing Mylea knew Abby was hugging her also. As she did Mylea remembered when Mike’s other daughter, Jill was Abby age and it was both Jill and Lamile who were hugging her as she left Lamile with Mike or a sitter when she had to take duty. She knew why he had left Jill with his mother. She wondered at times how Jill was doing. She could tell at times that Mike missed his daughter
. Lamile had been greatly upset to find out that Jill wasn’t with the Wilsons and that she couldn’t write her lifelong friend. They had talked into the night about why. When her five crimen daughter realized that she could get her friend harmed she reluctantly agreed not to write Jill. She hugged both girls and left.

  Lisa came in a few minutes later, “We’re going to get ready to go. Is there anything you need?”

  “No,” Lamile replied, “I brought The Star Pony with me. I thought I would play it for her. By that time you should be ready to go.”

  “She really likes Star Pony.” Lisa commented, as she swept her hand around the child’s room that had been done in Star Pony. The Star Pony, a white Pegasus with a single horn like that of a unicorn was on the mural on the child’s ceiling. The child’s bed had star pony bedding with the Star Pony stuffed animal lying across the child’s pillows.