Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

  Chapter 1: Staff Meeting

  “Room! Atten-hut,” A voice at the back of the room yelled as Wilson entered the room. He was still getting used to that. He looked around the room and saw the NCO who was General Langtree’s driver and nodded.

  “As you were,” Wilson said taking his seat at the head of the table. There were only a few military officers present, “Sergeant, thank you for honoring me but in the future for this meeting we’ll dispense with calling the room to attention for me.”

  The Queen who had gotten to the meeting before him nodded and remarked, “We’re mostly equals here, so let’s keep the pomp and ceremony to the throne room.”

  “Marshal,” Mylea said “We’re ready to start the briefing.”

  “Go ahead,” Wilson said, twice a week the team came together to discuss what they had accomplished and where they were in the process of the evacuation.

  “Janet why don’t you go ahead first,” Mylea replied.

  “Thank you Mylea,” Fire Chief Janet Able began, “Marshal I have finally managed to get the fire and EMS system realigned. As you know we had a lot of capacity in the big cities and less in the outlying areas. I’ve transferred people and equipment as needed all over the planet. I had to fire a couple of chiefs.”

  “Oh,” Mercer said wondering what problems Janet had caused for him.

  “Yeah one chief had just conned his city council in to buying an aerial rescue and suppression rig. A rig generally purchased for work in the cities with high rise buildings. When I reassigned it to the city of Macon, he about had a fit. Circleville doesn’t have a building over fifty feet. Macon has five or six buildings with ten stories. They had an old beaten up aerial rig and I just told Jonesy to make sure they had what they needed.”

  “Janet,” Wilson spoke up. “Isn’t that going too far? After all we plan to abandon this place in a year or so why rearrange equipment?”

  “Macon has a large industrial center that we have to keep. So we need to have fire and rescue equipment and such just in case they get a bad fire. That’s what I am doing. Trying to put enough response equipment where we might need them in a hurry”

  “That makes sense,” Mike remarked.

  “I wanted to remind all of you,” Janet continued, “that forest fire season is amongst us now. So far we’ve had some minor grass fires nothing that can’t be handle with jumpers, or wild land attack teams. What I need is some indication of how you want us to respond. What I mean is how you want us to treat these fires.”

  “Mike,” Mylea spoke up, “What Janet is getting at; is that we’re evacuating this planet and at some point we are going to get a fire that we can’t fight either because we don’t have man power, or it’s threatening a town we’ve evaced or no longer has anything we need in it.”

  “I see,” Mike said.

  “But we do have a problem,” Jonesy spoke up, “although most of our air assets can fly through smoke and other environmental hazards, we will want to suppress some of these fires. We will need to keep highways and waterways open. My current plan since we don’t have enough ground to orbit assets to move our people, is to move them by ground transport embarkation sites. In order to move our people I have to keep my ground facilities open. Also I may be wrong with this; but I think Ag will want some fires contained clear to the end. We’ll be harvesting food clear up almost to the very end.”

  “She’s right Marshal,” A man at the other end of the table, “I’ll need to protect our grain and food crops until the very end. Otherwise I may not be able to feed our people as they travel to new worlds.”

  “I see,” Wilson said, “It’s going to be might unpopular to be assigned as the last people off world. Is there any way we can use the robots to do this?”

  “We have quite a few automated FireBots.” Janet answered, “They usually are the first in on some of our wild land firefighting. But we don’t have enough. Most of the time they patrol a given high risk area and go to work at the first sign of a fire. But we have a lot of human supervision so that farmers and property owners don’t have problems with them. Even with AI supervisors we’ve had problems, so we’ve pulled them and have two human supervisors to a company. We have about two hundred for the entire planet. But they are not used for front line residential firefighting. Civilians just don’t trust them. I know that sounds like a human being prejudice against things robotic, but frightened people want to see human beings when they are trapped, they want to know that their rescuer is not going to get them killed as they get out of the house.”

  “Okay so let’s approach it this way. Let’s put an additional company of firefighting robots on strip alert with a couple companies of fire fighters.” Wilson suggested, then looked to Janet and said, “You make it happen. General Langtree, Jonesy make sure she has the ground and air resources to get her people to where she needs them.”

  “Anything else Chief,” Mylea asked.

  “You have my man power reports, and other than the forest fire season, and pissing off some fake chiefs, well everything is as good as I can expect. Though boss, it wouldn’t hurt for you to get into some of the fire houses I don’t mean every day; but once in a while.”

  “Point taken Janet,” Mike said, “I was planning to get into the outland in the next few weeks. Her majesty and I have discussed this; but we don’t want it to be a big crown visit with the security nonsense. Generals that goes for your troops and yours too Lord James.” Lord James was the commander of the Mounted Police.

  “Next” the Marshal said.

  “Bob,” Mylea said, “you have some good news.”

  “Between the ship yards, both in orbit and on the ground we can have you nearly 1000 landing craft.” Bob Dupree of Boeing Spaceworks spoke, “We’re mixing production so that you will have about 200 LC 10s, 300 LC 6s and about 300 LC 8s.”

  “That is good news. Once we start the heavy spacelift we’ll need the elsies,” Wilson commented, thinking, “Now if we can get the starlift we can get our people out of here.”

  “Oh chief, you get me the plans for your FireBots,” Mr. Dupree interrupted Wilson’s thoughts, “and I’ll get my luxury outfitters to work on it. I have one line at the plant that was designed to build special fittings and such for luxury landing craft. That line is idle if we can convert it over to FireBots it’ll be useful.”

  “How much is this going to cost the crown,” a voice far down the table asked.

  “Jonesy?” Wilson asked.

  “Well I’m not certain,” Jonesy's eyes looked away from the group for a minute as if she was thinking. “Between the donations from orbital mining, the unions not making noises about over time and such it could cost may be well almost nothing.”

  “Bob we can’t let you do that,” Michael said, “you guys are going to take a beating”

  “Marshal,” The man said, “It’s only money, and as long as we don’t have to buy much to keep things moving we’ll make out. The heavy lift vehicles will be sold as used some time in the next five years. We’re also reconfiguring our business so that we are now Trena Industries. We’ll be okay.”

  “Lady Hawthorne?” Mylea asked she wasn’t going to push the money issue it would work out.

  “Well my boys and girls have managed to complete the census. We know how many people are on Trena. The demographics show, who they are, what they do, as well as where our people are living. The AIs really made this work easy. The raw number is about 75 million souls give or take. The AIs figure that by the time we’re finished getting everyone off world that number might be 80 million. You know how emergencies influence the birth rate. I’ve captured a couple of hundred containers, and we are in the process of packing up the museums. I’ve got feelers out for the animals in the zoos. I am afraid that we’ll have to abandon most of them. There is nothing really that exotic in the Trena Zoos and what with the heavy duty control of exporting animals of any type out of their native environment well...”She let it trail off. A few people visibly
shuddered; they had all heard the stories of off world animals being imported into worlds without native predators. “Let’s see that’s all my report. I sent some of my boys and girls over a moving and shipping company learning how to pack containers properly. We had some err issues loading them at the museums. So now they know how to do it right.”

  “Good deal,” Wilson said.

  “General Langtree,” Mylea turned to the tall beefy human.

  “Well Marshal,” Langtree “I haven’t been as productive as Lady Hawthorne” there were some chuckles, all knew how productive the lady could be, “but be that as it may, I have surveyed or my staff has surveyed all ground based flight maintenance operations. We will need to move some stuff around. But I am loath to do it before we have to. What I am thinking is that I’ll build LZ near towns to be evacuated. Support it with one of the chief’s fires companies, a forward area maintenance team and a Forward Area Control Team with them. If General Qoum can support me with a militia company, and admiral Klond support me with a couple of EMT APCs we can forward support the evacuation at the sites.” The officers began writing on their PDAs.

  “In the meantime orbital flight maintenance teams are up to snuff. At some point we’ll have to abandon ground base maintenance ops, and have to go purely with orbital teams.

  “Although the Queen’s bird has been one of my charges for years, I have just given it a thorough examination. It shouldn’t give you any problems your majesty. I am assigning permanently one bird to you marshal as well as General Qoum. Lady Hawthorne owns a light courier. Lady I want to see that bird in my Trenaport Facility sometime soon. I want to give it a once over and make sure it’s good to go. From here on if it gets a cross wise fart I get to learn of it. All of its operating cost will be borne by the EVAC.

  “Ground stuff,” Langtree went on, “I’ve taken the liberty of moving some ground transport around. Marshal you now have a permanent vehicle assigned to you. Or will soon, as soon as my guys get done working on it. It’s being rebuilt into a command vehicle. It’s an armored jeep used by the FAC to coordinate air assaults. I am adding a better com suite. You’ll be able talk to all your commands from the vehicle. I am doing the same for all principle commanders.

  “Next item,” Langtree went on, “Each Fiefdom has its own highway and road maintenance group, and each fiefdom’s has ten or twenty small counties they all have part of the highway maintenance operation. I have met with their directors or ministers and have developed a strategy to respond quickly to any problems. I just need to know who or what town you are going to do first.”

  “Anything else,” Mylea asked, Langtree had submitted his report prior to the meeting.

  “Nothing else save when do we start?”

  “Soon,” Mike said, he was anxious to get stated.

  “Admiral Klond?” Mylea asked.

  “We’re supporting the operation I have a new hospital patrol ship cycling in next week the Bon Ton. We’ve lost another ten souls at the field hospital from the nursing homes. We’ve recovered another twenty from expectant to recoverable.” Michelle replied, “Like the chief, I have moved some of the kingdoms assets around we’re better prepared to respond to most things. I’ve spotted some IRS medics in towns where ambulance and EMS service is sparse. We’re ready to go.”

  “Lord Mercer,” Mylea asked.

  “Well so far the political fallout has been light. The Contra Party is of course solidly against the evacuation. They are launching a very negative press campaign. There are some banking and other financial people who are doing their best to make things interesting. They have decided to foreclose on every mortgage they can. There’s not much I can do at this time, but some people are losing their homes, and farms. But in the next few weeks the joke will be on them as there will be no one who wants to buy a farm they won’t be able to do anything with next year. I am working with the House of Lords to issue a general amnesty of mortgages and loans. I know it will hurt some of the banks, but I’ve been told that many people are not paying their loans now so they can have a nest egg when they leave Trena.”

  “Larry,” the Queen spoke up, “Each family group who is leaving Trena to a settled planet will be given a one thousand crown grant from the treasury. I figure I’ll be broke by the time we’re done with this, so spending the money is no big thing. So if the treasury doesn’t have enough money in it we’ll move funds from my personal accounts. It’s more important that my people have what they need than me being able to buy a new bling bling.”

  Larry nodded and went on, “I still think it is important that we let the bankers know that they are not going to gouge and make a profit on the backs of our people.”

  Although a member of the conservative Loyalist or sometimes known as the Royalist party. He was a strong advocate for the common every day citizen of Trena. He had a particular antipathy for greedy and dishonest business people.

  “We are going to have some problems with the town councils and mayors. The Lords are pretty much resigned to what’s happening but some of the town councils and such have power highs that are going to have to be burst one way or the other. We will be walking into some tricky stuff in the districts. But for the most part politically we don’t have much of a problem.”

  “Foreign Minister Kenworth,” Mylea continued sensing Mercer was done.

  “The Realm and the Empire are both giving us their undivided support. The Theocracy is saying that it’s our just deserts, the People’s Republic is just waiting for us to clear out enough to come a calling and take what left. I’ve gotten gestures of support from some of the smaller star nations but nothing in the class of the Realm or the Empire. The Star Exploratory Forces of the Galactic Council has given us a lead on a world we might be able send our people to. Although article ten of our charter declares that Trena will not colonize worlds or solar systems outside of the Trena Solar System it is being ignored. The Galactic Council’s Security Council has requested that all member nations assist our people and allow them to immigrate to their nations. With each planet’s and star nation’s emigration laws and regulations relaxed if possible. Our people will be refugees. There isn’t much we can do about that but they will have a safe place to be.”

  “Which brings us to the next item, General Qoum” Mylea said. “You have a briefing on the exploration flight.”

  “Well not much to say,” Qoum replied, “They should be on site in the next day or so. They have instructions to verify the conditions reported by Star Exploratory Forces. Although they reported that it was friendly to life and that there is no sentient life. If there is a population the planet’s a bust and we have to go elsewhere. It’s about twenty light years distance. It’s in a stable star system. Thankfully there’s no asteroid belt!” That brought some chuckles “It has several planets and moons, all which can be mined for resources. It’s a little farther in towards the People’s Republic than I would like; but farther away from the Theocracy. It’s a little colder than Trena, but the day is longer. And the year is also longer. When surveyed one hundred years ago there was no sentient life seen; but it was a quick fly by with an only EM sweep. There were no EM emissions and they didn’t do anything more than run through the system and map the planets orbits. They didn’t leave any automated survey equipment or make full planetary explorations. It is situated in such a place that we could become a transshipment place like we are now, and be able to conduct business like we have in the past.”

  “Assuming that this planet is suitable, what’s our next step?” The Queen asked.

  “Well we need to start recruiting pioneer parties, and start the emigration to other worlds.” Michael replied.

  “We have some of that in the works,” midway down the table, an elderly man spoke up for the first time, Wilson couldn’t recall his name.

  “And what is that Mr. Hassingforth,” Mylea asked. “What sort of plans?”

  “I have sent requests out to all the recruiters in the rea
lm, the empire, and any star nation not hostile to the Kingdom. I have invited them to come to Trena and set up shop. My plan is to get as many of our people who don’t want to be pioneers, jobs on other worlds. Our people have a great many useful skills and occupations. Hell sir half our people emigrated to Trena from many of these same worlds. I am also hunting the colonial databases to see how many colonial opportunities there are. Our first,” he put his hand in the air making quotes as he said, “employment fair” and continued with his hands on the table, “is in about a week.”

  Wilson’s first instinct was to ask why he hadn’t heard of it sooner, but held his tongue, he had been so busy trying to get the logistics of the evacuation started that he hadn’t met all of the staff yet. Mylea had handled a lot of the recruiting leaving him free to consider other issues. Instead he asked, “What do you need from the crown sir?”

  “Sir the Prime Minister’s office infused my ministry with enough cash to do the job. What I am going to need is to have a guaranty that when one of our souls has a contract for employment off world they have no trouble getting off world.” the man answered.

  “Mylea, would you make sure that happens. I want Lord Jamieson and the Mounties to make sure that when people have off world contracts they can get through the security operation and into the port and get off world.” Wilson turned to the two of them. “Mr. Mercer I want you to help with that also.”

  “Aye sir,” Mercer said, “I’ll also see about getting the colonial shares for anyone who has a colonial contract.”

  “I see I forgot Lord Jamieson,” Mylea said, “Your lordship.”

  “Nothing much to report sir. Things are relatively quiet.” Jamieson reported, “The closers have gone to ground we can’t find them. There have been no clones killed in the last week. Murder rate is down. We had a few people try to run the security gauntlet at the port; but none of them have been successful. Crime rate went down for a while. Now it’s going up again. But we thought it would Sir Mike. The Companions have been on planet long enough now they have relieved our guys. Everyone is now well rested. One side note sir, that’s kind of funny. The informers have been going to the Companions with their tips. They think that the Companions will pay for almost anything. But Mylea’s old cohorts are not that naive. They check everything and pay only for good stuff. One of the informants tried to sell information about last year’s jewel heist!”

  Mylea had heard about that and heard the other part of the story also. The Thonian detective had simply showed up at the man’s bar in full uniform, and said loud enough so everyone could hear, “Thanks for the tip we got our man and here’s your reward,” laying a hundred crown note on the bar. They found the informant the next day in the hospital with several broken bones. That stopped the bogus information for a couple of days.

  “Okay that concludes this meeting.” Mylea said a few minutes later after Wilson made his report.

  Mylea and Wilson were going over the meeting notes making plans as to what to make top priority and how to get the things they need done. When Liz came in and handed Wilson a note. Wilson nodded showed the note to Mylea and left.