by Laer Carroll
"This is an insult. We will protest to your zone Guardian."
"Your protest will be easy to make. S/he is at present in this stellar system. You may call her on the Guardian emergency frequency."
"I don't believe you but you may be assured that we shall do so."
At that the thirty-mile-long Zone Agent spaceship emerged from hyperspace only a dozen miles from the largest Frog ship, one near the center of the Frog's spherical formation. It housed a large part of the mothers and children of the Frog expedition.
"There is no need to complain," said the disguised figure of Anna Prince in the shared view screen of Jane and the Frog. "You have not been insulted, only been told reasonable conditions for joining the latest addition to the Human Interstellar Confederacy."
"You threaten our children?! That is not an act worthy of the great and noble Confederation!"
"On the contrary. I recognize the legitimacy of your aim to peacefully immigrate to this system. I will escort your most vulnerable units to your destination. They are under my protection."
Jane broke in.
"The Space Defense Force will likewise provide additional protection on your journey to your destination."
The Frog spokesperson blustered and argued for a time but finally agreed to be "escorted" to Mercury.
A few hours later the Frog armada began the first of a number of hyperspace jumps toward Mercury. The vessels arriving at the first rendezvous were widely scattered, perhaps deliberately, but later clustered together better.
It took four days of almost a hundred hyperjumps for all to arrive near the planet Mercury.
<>
For the next several months the Frogs settled in to their new home. Basking in their nearness to the Sun and the abundant energy this provided they constructed settlements under the surface of the planet. Mercury was a literal Hell to humans but, Susuki assured Jane, Heaven to the Frogs. They only had access to energy provided by antimatter power planets and solar energy, not the unbending of space. The sun's energy was life-giving.
The Zone Guardian departed after a couple of weeks. As Frog spaceships were converted to under-surface habitats similar numbers of Earth ships departed for Earth, most to be mothballed.
Jane stayed nearby in her spacecraft monitoring the work of the Frogs. She had numerous conversations with their top officials, then those lower down, mostly engineers and technicians directly involved with converting spacecraft to habitats, then burying them under the surface of Mercury.
After the first week she dispensed with her mechanical spacesuit, relying on Robot's force field spacesuit. This impressed the Frogs, convincing them that she indeed was a Confederation Guardian, someone who wielded enormous power. They tried to hide it, universally adopting a truculent air in most conversations, but did not succeed.
Members of the Earth military were equally impressed, though they covered it with comments on the fact that she sometimes wore only a sports bra, exercise shorts, and running shoes beneath the faintly visible force field skin covering her body. Jane was amused to hear that a series of porn movies had been made starring a poorly disguised version of her.
She was approached by clothing manufacturers and sellers who urged her to use their products. For this they would pay fabulous sums. She agreed but on the condition that the money would go to veterans' charities.
That she was a Galactic was no longer a secret. Much discussion followed. It eventually trailed off as more juicy news intruded on the public consciousness.
Another topic that was much discussed was the rapidity of Earth's victory over the Frogs. Some people actually lamented that speed, saying they expected a war that would "show the Galaxy" how tough Earth was. They were nearly universally shamed for wanting to cause enormous misery. The best way to win a war, they said quoting the Sun Tzu's Art of War, was not to fight one.
Seven months after the SDF encounter with the Frogs all of Jane's duties were finally assumed by United Nation's personnel and she came home to Earth.
<>
Thanksgiving that year marked several changes in Jane's life.
One matter that did not change was that its celebration in Jane's case took place at her parent's home. As in the last several years Natalie came over and helped Malena fix the meal.
Along with Natalie came her husband Robert and her step-daughter Naomi, newly a PhD and for several months employed. Not present physically were their two sons, Grant a First Lieutenant in the Space Force and "Squirt" in his third year in college. They had, however, earlier in the day, had a video chat with their parents and a quick "Hi How Are You Aunt Jane?"
Video chats were the order of the day. Phil'd had several in the earlier part of the day because his ex-wife and their kids were all on the East Coast, three time zones earlier than California. Jane's parents had chats with their three children. The one with their youngest son was very brief as he promised to come up from San Diego the next day with his wife and newborn daughter.
Jane had the most video chats. Most of them were from people she had worked with, such as Nicole and Riku early in her career. One each was from the Cat Elizabeth and the Lizard Jorel. Several Galactic humans also called, such as Susuki and Waymon.
In the late afternoon when finally everyone could sit down at the table and eat Naomi said, "Aunt, are you going to miss all those friends you met at work?"
Jane had a month ago resigned her position in the Space Force and Tuesday of this week had had a short last day in Colorado Springs.
"No. For one thing, I'm still the System Guardian. I'll be patrolling the system, either directly or via spy drones. Or reviewing reports of voyages by various spacecraft."
"Who will be paying you?"
Kate put in as Jane had just taken a bite of her food.
"United Nations. They made it an official UN department."
"That's not all she'll be doing," said Phil. "Tell them, honey."
She swallowed a mouthful of turkey and dressing, then took a sip of her iced tea.
"It struck me that we haven't seen a diplomatic mission from the Human Interstellar Confederation offering us the chance to sign up as a Provisional Member. Usually by this time in a system's development they'd already have been here and giving us the carrot of the medical advances behind remaining ever young. So I'm going to be working in biomedical research alongside my duties as the Guardian."
"Who'll be paying for that?" said the ever-practical Naomi.
"John Hopkins mostly, though I intend to form a consortium to explore the longevity advances that all advanced races seem to make."
"Think you'll be traveling out of the system any time soon?"
"No. I'll have plenty to do here for a good long while."
"INCLUDING," said Kate. "Getting ready for her wedding."
Jane and Phil had set a day in June as the date for their wedding. She had wanted a simple one and sooner but Phil had reminded her how much her mother and aunt and, seemingly, every woman she knew, wanted an elaborate one and intended to have a hand in it.
She repressed a groan at how big the event was obviously going to be. Phil, however, knew what she thought and squeezed her nearest hand under the table. She flashed him a smile and squeezed back.
Thinking about traveling beyond the Solar System, she noticed, no longer made her yearn to do so, as she had ever since she looked up one night at the stars and decided to go out among them.
She'd been there, done that. Moreover in a way the stars had come to her. The Earth system had Cats, Lizards, Frogs, and advanced humans. It had huge intelligent floating creatures in the atmospheres of the two Jovian planets.
And it had those strange people she'd not yet met: the Shapechangers. She was intensely curious about them.
Yes, she thought, looking around the table. Warmth rose in her. She had everything she wanted here. No need to leave Earth to find them.
Oh, she would tread the star roads once again. But for now she was happy to be home.
<
br /> Table of Contents
Start
Chapter 1 - Discovery
Chapter 2 - Voyage 1
Chapter 3 - The Moon, L4, and L5
Chapter 4 - Cat City
Chapter 5 - Sentinel
Chapter 6 - Earth
Chapter 7 - Mars
Chapter 8 - Voyage by the Cats
Chapter 9 - Cat Business
Chapter 10 - FTL
Chapter 11 - Long Jumps
Chapter 12 - Lizards
Chapter 13 - Jupiter
Chapter 14 - Threats
Chapter 15 - Beyond Saturn
Chapter 16 - Encounter