Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

  Chapter 9: At the Thonian Embassy

  The Thonian Ambassador to Trena had been the ambassador so long that he hadn’t been home in years for longer than a week or two in the last decade. He had only been home to Thonia those times when The Ruler had requested his presence for consultations. He was a fixture in the Trenan Court’s Diplomatic CorpsRow, the single most senior diplomat on the planet. It was mid morning, and the dispatch bag from Thonia arrived. There were only two documents personally addressed to the Ambassador, both from the Ruler.

  The first one said simply, “K’rena, I guess you won’t be retiring to Trena as we had discussed last year when you were home. I was hoping that you would accept an assignment to the Court of Columbus. Your years of service and experience will serve the Rrealm well in our most important diplomatic post abroad. When the last Thonian citizen has left Trena your assignment to Trena will be complete. Transportation will be ready for your journey to the Court of Columbus.”

  The second one was just as simple, “You are authorized to provide any and all assistance to the people of Trena in their hour of need. You are empowered to use Thonian assets, personnel, or financial to assist our good friend the Queen of Trena in her hour of need. The 11th Space Force will be making a port call in the next few days; they are the Kingdom’s to use as needed. You are authorized to commandeer Thonian flag vessels and redirect their transits to worlds where the Trena refugees may be accepted. Let me know if anyone gives you any problems or you need additional resources. Trena has been a good friend and a valued trading partner; we need to assist her in her time of need.”

  Although it was expected, the ambassador had no idea The Ruler would give him that much power on Trena. Trena was the second most important diplomatic post in the Thonian Realm. Nearly 75 percent of the Realms import and exports to the rest of the galaxy flowed through Trena. Sometimes there were as many as sixty Thonian Flag carriers in orbit about the planet or docked at one of her space stations receiving or cross docking goods for the Realm. He received a report, as part of his daily brief, on the amount of goods waiting for transshipment home, and what they were. Part of the embassy’s job was to ensure that high priority goods were treated as such. Even before the edict, he had power to pull freight from some ships, and transfer goods to others so they wouldn’t perish, or they got home in time for which ever buyer needed them to turn it around for export. He wasn’t certain how to handle it.

  Now twoa weeks after the announcement; he called his staff together again to continue planning how they would help the people of Trena. Part of what they did was simply listing their assets on Trena. He needed to known what was owned by the realm and what was owned by private shippers. They wouldn’t touch those assets owned by private citizens. The Ruler would have his head if he did that. Even if they were Thonian Flagged vessels. EverythingBut anything that was owned by the Realm was fair game. They had worked late every night for the last two weeks pulling everything together. Now a two weeks after the announcement, The Ruler’s letter Wwas the last thing they needed to put the package they could offer the people of TrenaTrena together. When they were done, between the ships, the military, and the cargoes in orbital warehouses or being cross docked, they could offer the people of Trena nearly 100 million crowns worth of free assistance. Much of the cargo would have to be abandoned. There was not enough tonnage to move all of the goods out of TrenTrena a before her orbital warehouses and Trena herself the world came to an end.

  They also had the problem of repatriating their citizens. There were over three million Thonians on and about Trena. Some of his staff was very surprised at the high number of the Thonian nationals in the kingdom. The Ambassador who had spent his entire adult life on Trena explained.

  “We have a lot of people who retired to Trena. They haven’t been home in years, either because the ship they were on ran between Earth and Trena. Or the Space Force they joined never home ported on one of the Thonian Home Worlds. When they went home on leave they didn’t fit in any longer and knew that home wasn’t the place for them. So when they could draw their pension they left the service with the realm, or their shipping line they bought a home here and have lived comfortably ever since. Some of our people had their vessel home ported in Trena so they brought their family here, or they lifemated on Trena and raised their families here.

  “Also the Trena people have always made immigrating to Trena fairly easy. Many of our people have started small and large business. Some of the orbital warehouses are owned and operated by Thonians. Our people built them and have manned them. There are some ten ofr fifteen thousand expatriate thonians in the orbital industryies alone. Then add the Thonian Earth Trena Ship yard and you can account for another ten tor fifteen thousand souls. Trena has always been a tourist center for our people. It’s warm and not too terribly hot in the summer and the winters are not neatly asy harsh as ours. That appeals to our people. That is why a lot of our people vacation here. We are welcomed among the Trenanspeople here. A lot of the small businesses that our people own are tourist related. At any one time there may be five thousand vacationers, and another hundred or so honeymooners. Now throw in the traveling salesmen, business people TDA here by their firm and you easily have a million or so here.”

  “Some of these people can not be repatriated.” A staff member said, “They gave up their Thonian citizenship when they immigrated.”

  “Yes and no,” the ambassador replied, “Trena has always had an open mind about such things. To be an elected official, or a high governmental official you have always had to swear a loyalty oath to the people of Trena. But to vote in the elections, and to receive the benefits of citizenship you only have to swear to not work for a known enemy of the Trena Free State, and support her and her people. You have never been required to give up your native citizen ship. Even Theocracy Citizens are permitted to be a citizen on Trena. That has caused them some problems. But they as you know they handle such things ruthlessly. If you assist a foreign government in hostile intelligence services, give them anything they can’t find with out reading the news, help some one plan an invasion they shoot you. They interrupt the news and entertainment channels the minute the last appeal has been denied and execute you right then and there.

  “That’s one of the reasons our intelligence staff is so small and we have no illegals here. Even the Corps De Chameleon has only one agent on world. Trena handles our worlds just as ruthlessly too. Simply because we’re allies doesn’t mean they won’t treat allies ruthlessly too. They simply show up at the embassy or consulate and escort the entire embassy to the spaceport and put them on the first vessel headed to their home world. Then they confiscate every last asset of that nations goods on or off world in Trena space. No one wants to lose over a trillion mounits a year, which is what it would cost us if we were thrown off Trena. It is what wWe are going to lose that much when we abandon Trena. It could cause us an economic problem back home when we lose Trena as a transshipment port. We may have to have ships go directly to the imperial world that produces the item.”

  That sobered the entire staff. Unlike most embassies of any star nation, the embassies on Trena weren’t the hub of their nation’s intelligence gathering efforts on Trena. Trena looked the other way when there was industrial espionage. These operations were carefully conducted also as there was a fine line at times between industrial/commercial espionage and intelligence gathering that might threaten a nation’s security. When it came to anything that was remotely national; security the Ministry of Justice wais ruthless when they triedy the offender. Trena herself had only one truly security sensitive facility and that was the Mountain. They often invited foreign military officers into it alsoto see what it was all about. They were truly an open society that fiercely protected its freedom.

  “I’ll want to see the Queen or Marshal Wilson,” The ambassador replied, “Also get a press release out that any citizen wishing to be repatriated to Thonia should make co
ntact with the embassy, or a consulate. Every one of our flag vessels that departs Trena space for home should have as many repatriates aboard as possible.”

  With that he went onto bed where his life mate of ten crimens was patiently waiting for him. She had felt his concern all day. It had distracted her almost to the point of being unable to take care of the things she was doing. He was immensely sad about leaving this post. He They had enjoyed their his time on Trena. They both had been looking forward to retiring here. Now because of errant sky junk that dream was in ashes