by Paul Phipps
Now go with God and have a good time on your visit to this wondrous city in space.” And with that she handed the young lady a large basket that was covered in brightly colored papers and cellophane.
With a smile of gratitude Harum followed Peter back to where the Golden column of light played games with the dust in the air. Holding his hand they entered and with an audible swoosh they were pulled off of the ground and into the Dawn Seeker. Ansel and the Marines followed close behind and shortly thereafter the Dawn Seeker having informed Surabaya control of their departure was on her way back into orbit.
Harum found herself in the Wardroom greeting Tanya and Command Chief Cavendish. Peter and Ansel were behind her and Ansel had a listening look on his face. With a nod to himself he spoke to Harum.
“Harum, is it a custom to give treats like this for occasions like this one.” He asked her pointing to the basket on the table.
She thought for a moment and said, “I’m not sure, being an orphan and not having a family I’m not sure of this custom. Among the children though at the orphanage it is considered very good manners to share treats with your friends.”
“I understand.” Ansel told her, “I have to inform you though that these ‘treats’ are all contaminated. So we will have to substitute our own treats for you and Peter and Tanya.”
“Contaminated?” Harum asked, “In what way are they contaminated and how do you know that?”
Ansel frowned at that and then said, “Harum, things are not quite what you think they are. Will you take my word for it that they are contaminated?”
“I’m not sure; I really don’t know you at all. Any of you really, I know Peter and Tanya through the Internet and Skype chats. Maybe if you tell me the truth then I can help you as you have helped me.”
“Helped you?” Sarah asked curiously.
“Oh yes, I overheard the Sisters last night saying that I would be moved forward with the next group. That’s what happened with Bambang you know. And I don’t think that this would be a good thing for me.”
Ansel sighed loudly at that, and then with a slightly resigned look he said. “Harum, perhaps you are right that you need to hear the truth from us, all of us.” And with that Ansel spread his arms to indicate everyone in the room.
Harum looked at Ansel and then the others, she closed her eyes and thought and thought. Everyone kept quiet and watched her finally she gave a resigned shrug of her delicate shoulders. “It’s not like I can run away and hide here. I am totally at your mercy.” With a slight grin she turned to Tanya and asked. “These ARE the same people who rescued you and Peter, right?”
“Yes they are, and I Love them and trust them completely.” Tanya told her with feeling.
“Thank you for saying that Tanya. And we love you both too.” Sarah told her.
Ansel in turn had already made up his mind. He pulled his TSN designed Multitool out of its recessed pocket. With a quick thought it assumed the shape of a very sharp knife. The basket of treats was unwrapped and a small gooey concoction was removed after being picked at random.
“They gave me one of these things last night after I was told I could come here. I told the Reverend mother thank you and that I would eat it later on because I was already full from the evening meal. I didn’t though, I’ve never like these things, they are very, very sweet and I have stomach problems after eating them.” Harum told Ansel.
With a nod to her, Ansel had his Shipsuit extrude a pair of thin flexible gloves. The knife was used to cut the treat open and in the center was a neatly cut in half Q-Mot that moved spasmodically as it died. Harum’s eye’s bugged out of her face and she turned slightly green as she appeared to become nauseous.
Peter was both fascinated and repulsed as he looked at the Q-Mot. With a quick swallow and a deep breath he asked. “Is that one of those Quarn things you warned us all about?”
“Yes Peter it is, you eat one of these or even just put it in your mouth and you are a dead human. The Quarn will parasitize your body and then… Well you’ll do whatever their plan is to take this planet and consume it.”
Harum sat down and looked like she was going to throw up. Sarah’s quick reactions had a Barf Bag in Harum’s hands in a jiffy.
“Dawn, are any of these things not contaminated?” Ansel asked.
“No Commander, all thirty of the remaining confections are contaminated with a Q-Mot.”
“I see… Dawn please inform Captain Thomas that we are Enroute to the Elizabeth Rich. I want these Q-Mots in the Laboratory and protected as soon as possible.” Ansel ordered.
“Aye Aye, Sir! Lt. Floyd has been given our new destination. Captain Thomas is at the Comfort and her Mail Box has acknowledged receipt of the Message. Do you wish anyone else to be notified?” Dawn asked.
No, I’ll take care of that myself. Thank you for the prompt action Dawn. Please proceed at flank speed to the Elizabeth Rich.”
“You’re welcome Sir.”
Ansel turned away from the table and just watched Harum as she recovered from her bout with nausea, Peter, Tanya and to a lesser extent Sarah were talking quietly to the young girl. ‘I wonder how old she is? Does she have any rights under Indonesian law to choose her course in life or was it like the other Islamic dominated countries?’ He wondered to himself. ‘We have some time before we get to the Elizabeth Rich. Let’s just see how this goes.’
* * *
Several days later on The Reverend Mother of the Three Sisters of Mother Teresa entered her office after morning services. On her desk was an Envelope of the purest cream colored parchment. Inside was a two page letter and a small HDVD disk. She read the letter intently and afterwards watched the HDVD message from Harum.
With a combination sigh and shrug of disappointment, she settled herself as if she was praying.
::Mother, may I converse with you?::
::Of course you may, my daughter. How is your portion of the plan coming along?::
:: Locally, it is going very well. All of the sisters here are now a part of the whole of us. The Mayor and the local Commanding Officer of the Air Force are now ours too.::
::Good, good. And will you be able to continue your shipments to me? The hunger grows more intense daily.::
::I am working with the new ones to gather more of the human children for you. However I now know that their reduced numbers are starting to be noticed by outsiders.::
::Oh, who has noticed?:: Came a thought that was like blued steel in its hardness.
::I believe that the Terran Space Navy has noticed. Harum has sent a message back to me. It is a very general message and is happy in its content.::
::And…:: Came back the query.
::And I don’t believe she is one of us. She tells a tale of the Treat Basket having been contaminated and that Sister Mary Alphonse should check her baking supplies as there were maggots in the treats.::
::Maggots! My children are not MAGGOTS!:: Came the angry thought.
:: No we are not Mother. However this means that no one in the Terran Space Navy was able to join the whole of us.::
::Do you think they suspect we are here on this planet?::
::I don’t know… That Commander that came here to get Harum was very suave, yet proper toward me and the others. There was quite a bit of reserve though. And the bodyguards they had were very professional and projected an air of menace.:: She paused and reviewed the whole encounter again in her now perfected memory. ::I don’t know Mother, but it is possible.::
::Very well,:: Came back the thought, ::I will contact the rest of my children and see if they know anything.::
::And the Master? What of him?::
::Him?:: Came a mental snort, ::He is being difficult with his claims of being trapped behind the Barrier surrounding the Iranian Unified Republic. I told him that all he needed to do was to shed his current body/shell. The energy release of his current body would let him do a shift through the barrier of a few feet. All he needed to do then was to find a new Bo
dy and then he could return to me as I require him to do.::
::I didn’t know we could do that.::
::Most of my children can’t, but he is old and strong enough to do so. Actually he is too strong and that is why I want him to come home. I need to know why he is so strong now when he wasn’t before.::
::If there is anything we can do to aid you Mother…::
::I’ll be sure to let you know if your aid is required Daughter. Now go and find me more of the Human Children, I hunger!::
::Thank you for communicating with me, Mother. I will go now and work to advance the plan. This world will soon be all ours.”::
::This world is already ours Daughter, the humans just don’t know it yet.:: Came back the thought with a definite burst of humor.
Admiral’s Staff meeting – Tuesday, March 2, 2027
“Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, I have read your reports for the week and everything seems to be going well for the TSN. On the political front I have good news. For those of you who haven’t been following the news, I can now report that the Nation of Israel has passed a resolution for the establishment of a Working Relationship with the Terran Space Navy.
They are the first to do so and I believe that they will soon be joined by others. Our status officially as a Non-Governmental Organization brings both benefits and some baggage with it. However it appears to be the way that the political types down there on Earth are going to view us. And as long as no one attempts to impose their political will on the TSN, we will go along with that.
As far as Israel goes as soon as the President and Prime minister agree to the resolution I expect that things will get busy for us there. So because of that I want you,” The Admiral then gave Ansel a pointed look, “ to search your personnel data base and come up with some names of TSN members who can act as our representatives with Israel.”
“Certainly Admiral, I get right on it after this meeting.”
“Excellent then, and as long as you are speaking already, please give us your report.”
“Yes sir, Last week found us dropping our weekly total number of new recruits, to around eight and a half thousand full recruits. The four year program on the other hand found us enlisting one hundred and thirty thousand recruits. I believe that most of those will go for a full enlistment after their trial enlistment finishes.”
“Do you know why enlistments are down, Commander.” The admiral asked.
“Yes Sir, I believe I do. As expected, almost 85% of all our recruits are from the United States. Because of the large numbers we have already enlisted the Welfare rolls are decreasing rapidly. This is in addition to the able bodied that were already in the Work Force. Now because of the reduction of available labor, businesses across the country find themselves on the other side of the labor pendulum and have to offer better wages and benefits to retain their current employees and to hire additional ones to allow expansion of business.
We are now entering the zone where we need to be pickier with our recruiting so as to keep the economy growing versus falling into a depression. The good news is that with the United States rebounding out of their post-Civil War Depression is going to also rebound across the globe. Not so much with the U.S. buying goods from them as it will be the U.S. producing high quality goods once again in competition to low cost/low quality goods produced in other nations for sale to the U.S. as it was pre Civil War. If this rebound is managed properly, it will improve all nations quality of life.”
“Thank You for that synopsis, anything else?”
“Yes Sir, continuing on then, using Captain Johansson’s guidance as to what vessels should receive crews’ finds that we sent the majority of last weeks’ graduates to the Susannah and to the Victory. Ark # 3 also received a draft of five hundred as well as the other two Arks. That trend will continue in that the various vessels currently concentrating their efforts around Earth will receive the majority of recruits.
Our plans are to continue this until we have a good core group of trained members and then spread them out through the rest of the fleet.”
“And how are our efforts going with the U.S. Navy? Is the Epiphany sending along many recruits yet?”
“We are getting a small trickle from her. All of them officers this last week. She reports that there are currently three thousand members of the regular crew on board and of them approximately 10% are very interested in joining the TSN once their current contracts with the Navy are completed.
Next on my list is the upcoming training cruise to England using the Huntress, it promises to be a trip that will live long in the memories of all living Englishmen.” Ansel said with a wicked chuckle.
“Oh? And why is that?”
Let’s just say that some people just don’t understand the Terran Space Navy and how we do things. In this case we have received a request to do a low pass over England and then on to the Britannia Naval Academy.
We in turn told them that was easily done and then asked what altitude they would like us to do the fly by at. Well they in turn asked us to do it at about fifteen hundred feet so that everyone could get a good look. Soooo, in the near future the Huntress will do a low fly by over England.”
At that point there was a chorus of laughs and chuckles around the room.
“After this meeting I am making another appearance at FOX/CNN in New York. I intend on asking if they would like to have a camera crew fly along with us. I also plan on asking them if they could give a heads up to the people at the BBC and SKYNews. That in itself will be fun too.
In any case after doing the fly by, we are going to the Britannia Naval Academy where we will be greeted by the usual politicians and King William. As I understand it from Captain Llewellyn, that is a BIG deal in England.”
Admiral Webster had a large grin on his face when he turned to Captain Johansson. “You’re up Captain Johansson.”
“Good Morning Admiral, Our Oil and Garbage recycling platforms are doing fine and no longer are requiring direct supervision from me. Each one has a small TSN crew and a locally hired group of professionals to operate them now. Our cash flow is extremely good and we are keeping up with the enormous sums that Captain Thomas is managing to spend.” He added with smile toward her. She in turn acknowledged the dig with a shoveling motion.
“Johnny Reb and the crew have been working on the training ranges on Mars and the various live fire ranges we have set up there and in the Asteroid belt. We are currently working out a small unit tactics manual for our Starfighters and Starfighter Mk II’s. In addition to those tactics we are currently designing a Close Space Fighter.
These won’t have the long-range capabilities of the Original Starfighter’s but in turn they should be much more nimbler and have weaponry specifically designed to take out opposing fighter type vessels and munitions like guided missiles and ballistic munitions. We are also working on a means of disrupting a Plasma Torpedo’s energy envelope so that they will not impact on our vessels.
And last on my list is the SSTO project. Colonel Zorn and his contractors appear to have learned their lesson about who we will accept and who we won’t. They submitted another thirty people for training on the tools that are to be used in building that SSTO. In turn they will be assisting in that construction effort. So because of that I have a tentative date of April 5th for the delivery of the vehicle to Colonel Zorn at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
After that… Well it depends on Colonel Zorn’s pilots getting up to speed and being comfortable enough with the vehicle to do their rescue of the President-for-life.
Now I’d like to introduce you to Commander Hiroshi Kurita. Commander Kurita is overseeing the Musashi design and construction project. Commander…” Gunnar said waving him to stand up and move forward.
There were nods and acknowledgements from the others at the staff meeting. Commander Kurita felt nervous but with an effort of will set it aside and began his initial briefing.
“Good Morning Admiral Webster,
Ladies and Gentlemen. We are currently in the first stage of design for the Musashi. A major part of the design of a warship is in deciding what she is to actually be doing and then figuring out how to flesh out the capabilities that will accomplish the proposed missions for that ship.
Therefore we working on her core responsibilities, once those are done then the process of fleshing out the design be come’s a relatively simple matter. The hardest part of course is turning all of these designs and thoughts into a working reality. Thanks to the amazing A.I.’s who are our designers and fabricators that too will be relatively easy compared to what it would take an shipyard and a ship building firm back on Earth.
Our current core responsibilities for the Musashi are the obvious ones. Flagship, Defensive core of a fleet, Heaviest and deadliest aggressor of the fleet if called on for that job. Some of the minor responsibilities yet more utilized are that of the Social Core of a fleet, because many if not most of our families will be on board our vessels most of the time. It would only be in time of war that they would be removed to safer locales. These things are what we are working on now.
