There was a benefit to having a team of bodyguards follow you around after all. I’d stopped wearing a gun, and the team behind me had reminded me I didn’t really need one anymore. If push came to shove, I could take whatever shots came at me, or with a little warning, could make them miss me completely, or send them back where they came from.
It was a good feeling. Guns had never really made me feel safe, and given I’d once been dead even while carrying multiple guns, safe was something good to feel. The recent suit advances were, of course, a lot to do with that.
But another part of it was my acceptance of being the Imperator. The Commander in Chief shouldn’t ever need to carry a gun. That’s what troops were for. Nor should the CIC ever go into a situation where he needed to carry a gun. Well, the last part wasn’t going to happen, given who I was, and how old I was. Or rather how young. You can make the alpha team recruit into the Commander, but the ‘we go in the shit end’ mantra is a lot harder to get rid of.
Fine, so I’m not exactly defenseless, but the reality was I didn’t need to provide the defense myself anymore. Like it or not. I didn’t really want a team of bodyguards, but the Imperium wasn’t going to let me not have them. And they were useful.
The loud babble of noise died as we stepped into a purposely empty area of the huge room.
The Chancellor rose, and introduced me to the packed chamber. He waved me to a low rostrum with a podium set up on it, and moved that way himself. I stepped up behind the podium, facing the chamber, with Aline one step behind and to my left, the Chancellor the same on my right, and the team in a semicircle behind us.
The faces I could see were serious, and none looked too happy to see us. All the same, they appeared to be ready to listen to what I had to say.
“Greetings from the Imperium,” I started with. “The wars which have been fought along this end of the spine for so long, are over. The Nazi sector has been isolated to a total of twelve systems, with ten further systems now independent and free. The Nazis will never bother your space again, unless you grow a new batch yourselves.”
This brought frowns from many, and was probably not something I should have said. I’ve never claimed to be a diplomat.
“Your war with Earth has also ended, but you remain cut off from the lower spine. Although communications can still go both ways, ships cannot. This leaves you with several options.”
I looked at the Chancellor, and he nodded. I think he knew what was coming.
“Firstly, you can make peace with Earth, and the border can be reopened. The Imperium will be happy to act as a mediator for this process. Although you will know better than I how Earth will react.”
The Chancellor, and quite a few others nodded, but exactly what they were nodding to wasn’t clear to me.
“Secondly, you can join the Imperium with the same benefits as other sectors now enjoy. You would gain the ability to trade with the rest of the spine through our trade network, while retaining isolated space. You would also gain the ability to trade with the Imperium as a whole, and the core galaxy through us. We would ask the same of you as we have of the other sectors, namely the secondment of pilots and military units up to brigade size, to fight in our war against the Trixone. We also offer an updated map of this region including all known jump points, allowing your populations to spread out more, and reduce the overcrowding of your cities.”
There were a number of quite enthusiastic faces now, although others looked stormy. One of those spoke.
“What chance is there your war would come to our planets?”
“Practically none. I’d say it could never happen, especially since we’re talking about some thirty thousand light years distance between here and the nearest Trixone planet, but one can never predict tech advances for an enemy. It is, however, highly unlikely. The Imperium has Trixone on our doorstep now, but we don’t need your troops to defend ourselves. We need them to go out into the galaxy to save other people, and be able to take the war to the Trixone, rather than letting them dictate strategy. Our own defenses are quite adequate to the task, and we would provide them for members who become threatened at any time in the future.”
“How many planets do you offer us?” asked someone else.
“Ten more systems, but the habitability of the planets varies, as it has for all the other sectors. I understand you’ve already discovered two of the jump points yourselves, if not the planets themselves yet. We can speed up the process of locating the planets, surveying them, and moving people to them once construction is far enough advanced.”
There was a lot less hostility in the chamber now.
“Did you have other options to present to us?” asked another voice.
“Yes. Thirdly, you can opt for what other sectors have done, and allow us to claim one of the systems for the Imperium, with us establishing a trading base there. This will allow you to keep your space isolated, but enable trade with the Imperium, and through us, with the rest of the spine. We do however charge more for non-members of the Imperium to access the trade network.”
I could see credit symbols in the eyes of some of them now.
“Lastly, we can depart and leave you to your isolation. In time you will discover the other planets, but that will be your limit. Like your Nazi cousins, you will eventually be forgotten by the rest of the galaxy. It’s not what the Imperium would want, but we will leave permanently if asked to.”
There were more frowns again now.
“I see no reason for you to rush the decisions you face. The Imperium will send diplomats and trade representatives should you allow us to, and yours can visit Imperium stations as many of the other sectors have already done. I myself will be traveling to Earth next, before getting back to the war. There is no hurry. We would ask to be allowed to recruit from your ex-military people in the meantime, as our needs are great, and retraining time is required before anyone can be put into a combat unit. But again, this is up to you. I will leave communication details with your Chancellor, and let you get to your discussions without the Imperium present.”
I looked around the chamber, but couldn’t get any feel for which way they were going to jump.
“Thank you for your time. The Imperium awaits your decisions, in the hope we have a long future trading together at the very least.”
The Chancellor nodded to me, held out his hand, and we shook. I quietly asked him if he wished to come back to our ship with us, bringing whoever he wanted, and he quickly agreed. I motioned to the team to depart through the still open rift, and Aline and I followed them, leaving the rift still open.
Some ten minutes later, a group of twenty stepped through onto the bridge, and Jane escorted them to the rift to Imperious. David met them on Haven, and was to give them a tour of the still relatively empty station, before taking them to Terminus.
I closed the rift, and we all took our seats again, waiting for Jane to return.
With her in her seat once more, BigMother jumped again.
Thirty Eight
Earth.
It had been a bit over eighteen months since Aline and I were last here, not counting the rearguard action when we’d dismantled the torus and moved it up spine. But so much had changed.
BigMother was parked well above Earth as it sat in the plane of the system, high enough up that no-one would be looking for us there, but not so high as our sensors couldn’t see the planet itself.
The time line shift hadn't been kind to the old homeworld. Before, six hurricanes of category ten ferocity had permanently ravaged the planet. As the world had gone to hell, the impossibility of hurricanes beyond category five, had been redefined as they continued to get worse, up to and including when humans no longer lived there.
Now, there were only two. The Earth was a bare rock, with an atmosphere so full of particulate matter moving so fast, nothing of the surface could even be seen anymore. Probes were destroyed in the upper atmosphere, and no-one had bothered sending one down in over four hu
ndred years.
Needless to say, I sent down a specially constructed comnavsat, designed with shields and the latest in ship hull armour from the Lufaflufs. It survived going down, and showed us a world wiped clean of everything humans had ever done. Mountains were now hills. Valleys were now filled in deserts. Monuments carved in rock were not even there anymore. I mean the rocks were not there, let alone the monuments. There was still water, but it was closer to mud than water.
The atmosphere was poisonous, but even if it wasn’t, you couldn’t breathe it. Even if you could get down there, and stand where the wind didn’t pick you up and blow you to hell and back, the air would still have cut through your suit or helmet in minutes, and then through you as well. It was like the air had turned into sandpaper.
The comnavsat lasted less than ten minutes, but it was enough to be blown around the world before it was cut to ribbons, and the pieces rendered unto dust.
Very sobering. According to Jane, it all happened in less than a hundred years, and the worst of it within ten years. They didn’t have the time to build the Earth Torus, the ring station which had occupied an entire orbit of the planet in such a way it didn’t throw a shadow anywhere. Instead, just two hundred stations occupied the same orbit, home to around two billion people. There were other stations dedicated to food production in different orbits, but the remains of humanity who never left their home system was just two hundred stations worth.
Haven station had a maximum population of around three million people, but could be redesigned for a maximum of five million if you removed all the upper luxury areas, and replaced them with basic living. These stations were all twice the size, and packing an average of ten million people onto each one.
Ninety eight billion humans lived somewhere else, up and down the spine. In some ways, Earth was irrelevant now. A remnant reminder of what happens when rampant greed and stupidity ignores all the warnings and allows a planet to die. And then watched while everyone who could, left. Of course, in the last years as Earth’s biosphere failed, the survivors didn’t get any further than into orbit.
By the time of the exodus, twenty billion people lived on the Earth. Less than five billion of them fled the system. The remaining fifteen billion mostly died, with only two making it into orbit. They were limited to a growth rate with two billion as a maximum, and over the centuries, kept sending their overflow out to the colonies. With fewer colony planets found, most of these were also exporting people within a century of founding. And so humans spread out faster and to less planets than before. And jammed together, they got on with each other just as badly as they had before they let their planet die, and we’d seen the results now.
There was no United Nations, or united anything. The Earth sector was barely a functioning government. The Earth system wasn’t even a proper government. Instead, there were station based states, with a single representative to the system body, which itself had a single representative to the sector body. With no Corporate sector at all, the remaining Earth sector after the Germans had conquered in both directions, was from Wolf 359 and Vatican, to Israel, and only six of the systems into what had been Corporate space. Just nine planets in twelve systems.
Wolf 359 and Barnard’s Star were both heavily mined, with the habitability zones around both stars having hundreds more food and water stations. Both had ice in the Oort clouds, which was mined, processed, and shipped back to Earth orbit.
The sector itself was functioning at a level where collapse was now inevitable. When Earth had ruled for a length of twenty seven spine systems, and nearly everything connected to them, the sector was rich and prosperous. Now, it could barely feed its population, and was so concentrated on the military to keep its enemies out, and the police to keep its people in line, there was little left for much more than existing.
They had the people and the resources to remain strong, but instead of feeding themselves, they were so paranoid about losing what they had left, it was consuming them.
And it was only a matter of time before someone took them. Their main military might was aimed at the Germans, still, but what they had in Wolf 359 was spread across three jump points, and was vulnerable should all three be assaulted at the same time. And given what we could see on the other side of those jump points, all three sectors beyond Earth down the spine had been slowly building towards it before the Imperium arrived.
This time, I wasn’t visiting anyone.
Jane had obtained all the media contacts we needed to ensure a message would be broadcast widely. And so this time I was recording a vid, not delivering it in person. Jane had managed to get an avatar on board the small station used for sector meetings, and found enough troops to be pretty sure anyone going there uninvited would be shot on sight. And while this probably wouldn’t be a problem, I wasn’t going to risk it. I mean, the risk wasn’t so much of us getting hurt, as someone pissing me off enough I did something stupid. Like blowing the station up. So, a recorded broadcast.
I shifted to dress uniform, as befitted an Imperator, and knew no-one was going to be overly impressed. But it didn’t matter. An appeal to the ruling committee was not likely to achieve anything. I needed the masses telling them what they wanted. I had no illusions we’d make any traction here in the short term.
I sat at my desk, and Jane replaced the background with images of Haven station, the planet below it, and BigMother. I’d thought about what to say, and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, before nodding for Jane to start the vid.
“Citizens of Earth, and the Earth Sector. I’m Imperator Hunter, representing an Imperium of members, who’ve come together for trade and mutual defense. Recently, many of the sectors along the spine have joined the Imperium as full members, and I invite the Earth sector as well.”
“The war with the German sector is over. As is their war with the Nazi sector. The Imperium was asked to help free ten systems from Nazi control, resulting in those system gaining their independence again. The Nazi sector itself is now isolated from the rest of the galaxy, and will never again attack anyone. The German sector is also isolated, but considering joining the Imperium. Regardless, they will never be attacking you again.”
“On your other side, the French, Italian, and Spanish sectors are massing fleets on your borders. None of these sectors have expressed any interest in joining the Imperium, so for now, should they go to war with you, it will not be an Imperium matter unless they are silly enough to attack us in a system we now own adjacent to Spanish space. But if you join the Imperium as a full member, we can offer you peace. Should you wish it, we can isolate Earth space as we’ve done with some of the other now member sectors, which will ensure no ship can ever attack you again.”
“Membership will solve a lot of your problems. You have billions of people living on space stations, because you lack the planets for them. And while we cannot repair the damage to Earth itself, we can offer you the locations of an additional ten planets, capable between them of supporting some thirty billion people. We can have you building cities on them in a matter of weeks, and moving people to them within months.”
As I’d mentioned planets, Jane started showing images of the empty planets behind me. Vistas of completely untouched land, sea, and mountains, enough to make any station locked people drool.
“We offer you trade with the entire human spine, without the need to risk ships in other sector’s space. We’ve already removed most piracy from the spine, making local trading in each area safer. Our trading network moves cargo vast distances in an instant, and ships are only needed for distribution in local space. Traders retain a living, but would with Imperium membership be able to trade with the galaxy itself, without leaving home.”
“And speaking of home, we have the ability to move stations to other systems. Both within Earth sector space, and into some Imperium systems if the people on the stations wished to become Imperium citizens, or citizens of an Imperium member. My own people are small in number, and we ha
ve an Earth type planet mostly unutilized. We need citizens to populate it, and would encourage emigration to our home planet for those with needed skills, and the right attitudes.”
“In return for membership, as you may have heard through media reports as other sectors joined us, we ask for pilots to join the Imperium military, and military units up to brigade size to be seconded for use in protecting other worlds from an enemy threatening a large amount of the core of the galaxy. We also need support staff in a lot of areas, and are willing to offer accommodation incentives for those willing to emigrate to the Imperium.”
“Membership is only one option. We offer trade without membership, and only need to place a trading station somewhere in your space to link you to the rest of the Imperium, and our allies. With trade comes the ability for us to offer large numbers of people the chance to emigrate, and even more to work in the Imperium and return home here every night. Trading will allow us to recruit your ex-military who wish to join our fight against an aggressor species, and offer alternate career paths for young people currently seeing very few options in life.”
“We will however depart from your space and never return, if this is your will. This message is going to all of the sector media, and is addressed to everyone. We understand your government, and suggest you inform your representatives of your preferences. Our diplomats are ready to show yours how the Imperium works. Our military are ready to demonstrate ours. Our traders are waiting to show your traders the galaxy. Contact details are included with this vid. We will deal with anyone who wishes to contact us, regardless of it being the sector government, individual station or planet governments, or groups or individuals who would like to emigrate or join the Imperium military.”
“Obviously, at the least, we will need the ability for our ships to move through your space in order to help as many as possible. We can move a lot of people very quickly, but to do so requires governmental permissions. We will be disappointed if you as a sector do not join the Imperium, but should you decide that, we hope you will at least remain friendly with us. We can help you in ways you cannot currently consider. Our tech can help a lot of people with disabilities, for example. One of our best pilots is blind, after all.”
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