Reaper's Crossroad

by Timothy Ellis

"No. You're right. Only if you get the High Command and the Keerah system governor to give cease fire orders, will anyone pay attention to them. And you won't get both."

  "Want a bet?"

  I grinned at him, and so did Jane. He laughed.

  "No bet. But you do know it's impossible?"

  "Aiming for miracles, so impossible should be easy."

  "I want to see the vid when you get back, but no, we're not going with you. I understand the Ralnor are talking non-aggression pact?"

  "Apparently."

  "I'll welcome that. There are a few backdoors into Trixone space I can use through theirs, and you being at peace with them will make getting there a lot easier."

  "When do you intend to go?"

  "Not in a hurry. I've been drilling the crews pretty hard on the new ships, and we could use some more downtime together before we head out again. When are you?"

  "Thinking about tomorrow."

  "Think again," said David, from the doorway.

  Arthur laughed again, rose, and left. David took his place. He was far too damned full of himself for me to like what was obviously coming.

  "Your presence, and that of your senior officers, is required tomorrow."

  "Required?"

  "Yes. The alliance is being formally signed tomorrow morning. Jane will be a signatory for her people. You need to be there for the formation of the alliance space force. Dress uniforms please."

  "Please tell me we're not going to be called the Rebel Alliance."

  Jane almost fell out of her chair, she laughed so hard. David almost lost it as well.

  "Or the Federation, Confederation, Dominion, Co-dominion, or any other overused label."

  David got a grip.

  "No, nothing like that. And the new space force is not going to be the Starfleet, High Guard, or any other such nonsense."

  "Good. What else is happening?"

  "After the signing, the first official meeting will put in place such things as the combined space navy and complete the mundane issues of forming such a diverse alliance. Probably boring for you, but your attendance is mandatory. Unless you plan on stepping down as Admiral of the Fleet?"

  I sighed.

  "As much as I want to, no. I'll see things out until we at least have a stable situation out there."

  "Good." He rose. "Your invitations will tell you when and where. See you in the morning."

  "You're not staying for dinner?"

  "With all those naked young people out there? Hell no. My wife would kill me."

  He left laughing.

  I turned back to Jane.

  "Why do I have a bad feeling about all of this?"

  She laughed all the way out, leaving me alone.

  The alliance was coming together, and without me.

  What could possibly go wrong?

  Fifty Seven

  Dinner was a split affair.

  The young and the naked, and their indeterminately aged partners, and a few hangers on, ate out on the beach. The rest of us ate in the main dining room, which had enough seating at table for fifty.

  My mother and Jeeves had gone all out. Real silverware, crystal, and antique blue and white china graced the table. It took me a moment to remember I’d seen it all before, a long time ago on Galactica. The family had taken all of this with them when they left Earth, and the silverware in particular dated back to the nineteenth century.

  I was almost afraid to touch any of it.

  "Don’t worry about the china and crystal," said my mum, as if reading my mind. "They may look original, but long ago they were replaced by unbreakable replicas. We had two full sets of originals. One set went to Gaia with Jon's grandmother. The other we have in safe storage. Having said that, what we're about to eat off is still over two hundred years old."

  No-one dropped anything, so the claim to being unbreakable wasn’t tested.

  Those who hadn't sampled the local seafood did so, but a few of us stuck with old favorites. Jeeves seemed to know what I’d want without asking me. The talk was general, the food was great, the wines and spirits hit the spot, and as a first dinner party in the families new home, I thought it was a success.

  After coffee, brandy, brandy in coffee, or port, Annabelle issued a minimal 'togs on' order to Amanda, and everyone headed outside to join the swimmers. It was still a glorious afternoon out there, although late evening station time for us.

  Annabelle stayed behind, and we talked about our impending visit to Keerah from the marine angle. I was hoping they wouldn’t be needed again, but we went over a few scenarios just in case.

  With the need to be on the station bright and early the next morning, I collected Angel from the group nap session she was curled up in, and went back to Haven to sleep. I figured I needed to stabilize my body clock for the next day. I didn't see Aline when I left, assumed she was out in the water, and would be told by Jane where I was.

  Instead, I found myself alone when I woke in the morning. Angel was already up, as I could hear eating noises coming from the kitchen. I told her I was going for training, and would be back soon. She gave me the 'fine, don’t bother me while I'm eating' look, and I shifted into running fatigues, and took a travel car to the courses. There was no-one there.

  I did a solid run, shot the flowers off some Trixone while on the run through one of the courses, and cooled down on the long firing range. Still no-one else. Back in my suite, I showered, and shifted into full dress uniform. I told Angel I’d be in a meeting for a lot of the day, and as I went out, Jeeves arrived to take her back to the beach and the other cats.

  The travel car took me to the rift to Terminus. My PC direction arrow showed me the way to a new area of the station, now dedicated to the alliance. The closer I came, the more people were heading in the same direction.

  I found what looked like a small stadium being used for what was obviously going to be a major event. The center was dominated by a large round table, which appeared to be made in rings. It made sense designing the table like this. As membership increased, all it needed was a new ring to be added, which would push the chairs back, and allow more chairs to be placed, without changing the spacing noticeably.

  The outer ring had chairs placed equidistant around it, with water placed for each. There also appeared to be old style pens, and things I didn’t recognize.

  There were ten chairs, all currently empty. Security guards kept everyone away from the table, but they looked like droids to me. It was the way they moved which gave them away. No-one else seemed to notice.

  My PC arrow directed me over to a seat in the first row of the observer seating. It was raised up enough to be slightly looking down on the table. I’d no sooner sat down, when Jen came up and sat next to me. Within minutes, the entire area behind us was filled with uniforms. And it was then I noticed all of them behind Jen and to my right were from other military forces, and all behind me and to my left were in mine. The higher the rank, the lower we sat, but it looked like most of my officers were present, and key other ranks like BA and the rest of team one were up near the back.

  Out of rank order was Aline, who sat down next to me. And my parents were behind us. Otherwise it was strictly by rank order. I don’t know who decided this, but it wasn’t what I’d have chosen.

  Arthur and his people were all seated further around the stadium, and were obviously here to observe. Hobbes and Roo also had front row seats, and behind them were some of the other species we'd taken in as refugees. I was surprised to see a Bhockah just behind Hobbes. And three Ralnor a few rows back, one of them being the general, and another apparently female, although I'm not sure why I thought that, except the body language looked different.

  Behind Janice were Janet, Janine, D-Jane, and JW. I also recognized Hubaisha, from Thorn's station, and behind them were a lot of faces I didn’t know, but suspected were other station AI's, and most of our ship AI's.

  In other blocks, were people I recognized from Haven and Redoubt sitting behind o
ur council members, with Amy Allen, John Slice, Bob Derr, Melissa Gordon, and Jessie Ball among them. There was a small group behind Thorn's wife Tasha, a large group in the clothing of the democratic area of Thorn's space, and next to them were just as many people with orange skins. The white skinned Karn sisterhood group was all female, and the black skinned Kelewan group all male. Between them were the Solidarians, and a big group of Lufaflufs.

  When movement had ceased, and very few empty seats remained, David Tollin led out the eight other leaders, and they stood behind a chair until all were ready to sit, and sat at the same time. Behind each was their own people.

  There was one empty chair, opposite David. I had the almost irresistible urge to leave, but fought it. The head of the soon to be created alliance space navy would of course have a seat at the table.

  Jane was there for the AI's, Shanto for the democracy, Tranallo for the orange people, Ainsline for the white magicians, Parsengnon for the black magicians, Sandros for the Solidarians, Peeinnk for the Lufaflufs, and David for my people. Between them, all colours and even fur were represented, and all ages from a very young looking Jane through to a very old looking Ainsline.

  The ninth seat was taken by Thorn. He looked as bothered as I felt, and I had no doubt he was here for the signing, and thereafter, someone else would take his seat. Actually, with a little thought, probably all of them would be replaced by either diplomats, or appointed representatives. They all had their own societies to run after all.

  David rose, and the room went silent. I had no doubt this was going out live, and millions of people across a lot of planets had now stopped what they were doing, and were now watching.

  "Welcome," he said, "to this historic occasion, as nine societies join together in an alliance for mutual protection and trade."

  The crowd went wild.

  Fifty Eight

  David waited for the crowd to quiet.

  Instead of making a speech, he sat, and a woman entered carrying a stack of paper, and a pad. Although I hadn't seen her very often, I recognized Terminus herself, the station AI.

  She placed the pad in front of David, followed it with a paper document, and moved around the table placing documents in front of each leader. When she was finished, she returned to the main door, but didn’t leave.

  "We ask all of you to witness the signing of this alliance," said David. "This will be done electronically with a thumb press on this pad, and manually on each document, where an appropriate seal will be added along with a personal signature."

  With that, he flourished the pad, swiped to a page, and made a showing of applying his thumb to it. He placed the pad on the next ring in, and the ring moved the pad to the person on his left, who repeated the swipe and thumb press. This continued until all had done the same. Back with David, the pad was placed in front of him on the third ring in.

  Each leader now reached for the document in front of them, signed in the appropriate place, and affixed a seal using those things I hadn't recognized. The documents were placed on the second ring, and they too did a circuit of the table, each one being identically signed and sealed.

  When they finally ended up in a stack in front of David, he placed them beside the pad, and rose once again.

  "Welcome to the alliance."

  The crowd went wild again. He waited a short time, and raised a hand for silence. It took a bit longer to get it.

  "The first order of business for the alliance is the formation of the alliance military. The core of this force belongs to Admiral of the Fleet Hunter. And when I say belongs, I mean he personally owns the ships and stations, and employs the personnel crewing them, marines and infantry units. To form the alliance military, he has agreed to loan his ships and people, for as long as they are needed for our current defense needs."

  "His example sets the nature of the alliance military, where units belonging to different societies will be loaned, and integrated into the combined force. All of our individual societies will maintain our own militia units for local defense, with the alliance military being there for the defense of all our space."

  "For those who don't know of Admiral Hunter, while young, he has served with distinction through three wars over the last two years. He is not the commander of his fleet because he owns the ships. He is a five star admiral because those who serve him promoted him above themselves during war time. As the senior officer of any of the military forces being combined, we now appoint him commander of the alliance military forces. Admiral, come forward please, and stand behind your place at this table."

  Aline squeezed my arm and let go, allowing me to stand. I walked over to the empty chair, and came to attention.

  "Admiral of the Fleet Hunter, do you accept command of the alliance military, and take on the responsibility for keeping our combined space safe?"

  "I do."

  I noticed Terminus heading towards me carrying a tray with small boxes on it. I made an effort to ignore her.

  "Admiral, as part of alliance negotiations, it was decided to adopt your Hunter insignia as a standard, with one exception. Flag officer insignia will only go up to four stars. The commanding officer will wear the Starburst."

  Terminus placed the tray on the empty table in front of me, and removed one of the two starbursts from one of the boxes. She held it up for me, showing me both sides so I could scan it, held it up so the cams recording the event could get a good close up image, and returned it to the box.

  I updated my uniform insignia, and shifted my uniform to include it. My five stars turned into one much larger star, centered on my shoulders. The crowd applauded, the loudest coming from my officer's area of the stadium.

  I kept my shock in. The starburst had been made from gold, being a six pointed star, with a platinum clasp coming from the inside of each part of the star, to mount a ruby in the middle. I didn't need my PC to know the rubies were genuine, and very large as rubies go. The actual insignia were almost priceless, and had to have been made by a master jeweler. I assumed Jane had found the rubies, until I realized Thorn could have summoned the largest ones he could find in any of the asteroid rings or planets he knew about. I flicked eyes to him, but he was looking at David.

  David went on as soon as he could.

  "Admiral, bear with us a moment longer." I nodded, and stayed at attention. "Over the last few weeks, all of us have been drawn into war with the Keerah, Ralnor, and Trixone. With the stabilization of those wars away from our space, we've decided to award a campaign medal to all who've fought to keep us safe, and for the next of kin of those who died. Admiral Hunter is hereby presented with this medal as a symbol for all who will shortly have theirs presented by their local commanders."

  Terminus held up the new medal, I scanned it, and added the ribbon in the next appropriate position. There was a shorter clap this time. David continued.

  "While military medals for the alliance are still on the list of things to be done, there was agreement for one other medal. The Alliance Meritorious Service medal will be awarded to those individuals who perform above and beyond the call of duty. First and foremost among the recipients is Admiral Hunter, who will again receive his on behalf of all those being awarded this medal."

  Terminus and I did the medal dance again. This one went ahead of the campaign medal. As the clapping sounded, David sat, and Prime Minister Shanto rose.

  "There is one additional aspect for those being awarded the Meritorious Service medal. In many cases, each of the nine societies wanted to award their own medals to those who fought meritoriously on their behalf. Nine medals though makes little sense, and so we decided to award a clasp for the Alliance medal, each one incorporating the seal of each society. On the medals, the clasps will be worn down the ribbon. On the ribbon bar, a square clasp is designed to allow all nine to fit across the ribbon, for those awarded all nine."

  Terminus removed the nine clasps for my ribbon, already mounted on a separate ribbon, and held it aloft, while I scanned it. The s
ingle line of nine square seals came next, and these I added to the ribbon on my chest. I shifted the uniform for what I hoped was the last time. Shanto sat, and the crowd applauded once again. David rose.

  Terminus replaced everything in the boxes, and placed them on the table in front of the empty chair. She returned to her place by the door.

  "There is one last task before we have the last seat at the table occupied. As part of the discussions for forming this alliance, a lot of debate was put into a formal name for it. We needed to choose a name which encapsulated who we were, and what the alliance stood for, while rejecting commonplace names used in entertainment media."

  He paused, flicked his eyes at me, and looked around the room.

  "We chose the word Imperium."

  Much to my surprise the room was silent, almost with an expectant air.

  "An Imperium needs a Commander, and the Commander has a specific title."

  Fuck no!

  "Admiral Hunter."

  Don't you do it!

  "As Commander of the Imperium military forces, you are henceforth given the rank and will be addressed as, Imperator."

  Shit!

  "With total agreement of all members, and in recognition of the leadership which first saved each of our people, and then led to the formation of this alliance, so the Imperium is named for the Imperator."

  He grinned at me, and I looked daggers at him, but he ignored me. I knew what he was doing, and it was too damn late for me to avoid it.

  "Henceforth, the alliance will be known as The Hunter Imperium."

  The crowd went absolutely berserk, while I stood there like a stunned mullet.

  There are some days when you just shouldn't get out of bed.

  They'd made me their bloody king after all.

  Fifty Nine

  BigMother rifted into the Keerah system three days later.

  The alliance meeting had lasted most of the day, breaking only for lunch. As soon as I sat down, I'd put a brave face on, and my medical monitor on primary for anxiety control. When it was finally done for the day, Amy had me doing interviews for all the various news services.