Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

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  Lamile’s group was dropped off at the back door to central police station, as she followed her cadets out of the bus Frazier the police department AI’s voice could be heard, “Lady Atomi arriving with Ssquad 4 of the Queens Own Royal Corps of Cadets!”

  James had told the AI he wanted honors rendered to Lady Atomi. He had found out that she had never been honored since her coronation ceremony elevating her to a Trena noble woman. She was a knighted lady of the Trena nobility; although she was young; she was still a noble woman, and James wanted to also let Lamile know that it had been some feat she had pulled off bringing all those children in. He wished he could bring out the honor guard but that would be inappropriate. He met her in the central police station’s main conference room. As she walked into the briefing room, where ten or so Mounties were discussing their assignments, a voice by the door called softly, “Welcome Lady Atomi!”

  When the room saw who was with their chief they began to clap. All had heard of what she had done and some had been there when her kids marched to safety onto the landing craft. Lamile nodded trying not to show her embarrassment, she turned to the chief, “Where do you want us Sir Patrick.”

  “We have this area here we want searched.” James said, “Kellogg, would you brief Lady Atomi.”

  “Yes sir,” Kellogg said and winked at the young woman. He knew what the chief was doing and why, he saw how uncomfortable Lamile was and said, “Major, we want your kids to canvas this area here. We want you to go door to door, and ensure that each house is abandoned. When you check a house and find it empty, you will insert this card in the lock and it will secure the house. The door won’t open until someone puts the command key in.”

  “What about doors where the security system doesn’t work, or there isn’t any?” Lamile asked.

  “Mark it with red X.” he pointed to case spray paint on the table, “One of the cops covering you will note it and secure the door. When the door is secured, post this sign on the door.”

  The sign said, “DO NOT ENTER BY ORDER OF THE CROWN!”

  “Post it so the sign is over the jam. The sign then acts like crime scene seal.” Lord James said, “Just so you all know. To cut down on looting, the Crown and the Evacuation Command have issued an order that should one of these doors be reopened, or should someone be found in a secured building, they can be shot on sight. Now there are a lot salvage companies who are salvaging whole neighborhoods; , but when they are done they have to secure the building. All of their people have to wear green helmets stenciled with the word Salvage on it. Salvage companies and their personnel are to announce where they are working and have to hold a crown warrant with an ID for each of their people. The cops have deadly force authorizations when they catch people looting a house without proper ID and warrants.”

  Lamile nodded, and said, “I think we can do this. I do want a police officer nearby in case we stumble across something.”

  “Major,” a man in the back of the room spoke up, “I am Sergeant Mave. I will be your Mounty liaison. I’ll have one or two of my guys nearby at all times with you. If trouble finds you, get your people to safety and lets us take care of business. Just so we understand each other Major Atomi, I will not be the one to tell Chief Atomi how her daughter came to grief.”

  “Lady Atomi,” Another officer said, “that goes for all of us. We already lost the boss’ wife we ain’t going to lose the chief’s daughter.”

  “Amen, right on, triple that from me,” Various officers said.

  “Well,” Lamile said when the cops settled down. “Trust me I don’t want you to have that conversation with my motherm e either. After she chews on you a bit, she’ll start to work on my anatomy. That is if there is any left.”

  That brought the room to laughter.

  Kellogg let it go for a while, “Lamile, I am heading up the search for Lady Wilson. There will be search teams all around you. I don’t expect that you will come to grief;, but there will be some help nearby. We will be checking homes that we know may have someone in them. If you see one of our teams just back away and let them do their job.”

  “What happens if we find some on in athe house were checking,” Lamile asked.

  “Get their name,” Lord James answered, “and give them this.”

  This was a letter that explained about the consequences of missing their evacuation date. Mostly that the crown and evacuation command would not be responsible for what happened to them. Considering the Command was picking people up and taking them to their embarkation point there should be no missed evacuations.

  “Anything else?” Lamile asked.

  “No.” Kellogg answered.

  “By your leave chief,” Lamile asked of Lord James. He nodded, and hoped that he wasn’t making a mistake. Mylea had been very unhappy when Lamile had gone on her journey. Even though it had been wildly successful. Mylea was technically his boss now, not he, hers. She could give him a rough time if something happened to her daughter. The truth be known, he would kill anyone who brought harm to his two children, though they were grown and had children of their own. Once they were gone, he turned to Kellogg, “Kellogg if anything happens to those kids.”

  “Lord James,” Kellogg replied, “I have made reservations for both of us to Dungeon.” Dungeon was a prison world ran by the Galactic Council. Only the very worse criminals were sent to Dungeon, “That will be the safest place for us to be should anything happen to Lady Atomi. I know the line will be headed up by Chief Atomi, then the Marshal, then the Queen, then Francine, and that’s after you chew on me or I chew on you!”

  “Okay Kellogg,” James returned, “You ready to brief me? Or do you want to go out with the field teams?”

  “Between your best guys and my best guys,” Kellogg commented, “I don’t need to be with them. I’d just be in their way. Let’s do the brief; or would you like to make arrangements with the palace to brief the Wilson family and the Queen.”

  “We really don’t have much,” Jamieson mussed, “We really don’t have much to share with them. We have set up a briefing schedule. No news; is no news and there is no reason to brief them out of schedule.”

  “Let me brief you on what we have cooking and you can decide to take it to Marshal Wilson, and Queen Aggie.” Kellogg said.