by Aaron Pery
"You mean coins, like in the old country?" Elwood asked.
"Exactly. I'd already checked on the Gogian monetary system and found it to be quite adequate, with gold and bronze coins that they carry personally in wallets, and accounts in the royal bank that we'll take over, with the ownership in the hands of the new government. And that, Paula, should be your job as well with a staff to run it so you'll have to download banking information from the computer and then hire the people to operate it."
"I have no idea what you're talking about right now but I intend to learn. And thank you for your trust in me."
"My pleasure, Paula. Actually, I have two more subjects we need to talk about. The first is that when Dave's workforce gets to town I'll need them to search for Gogian coins everywhere, even strip them off the dead people, and gather all in a secure place. Okay, Dave?"
"Makes sense to start working on the national treasury right off."
"Good. Now a highly sensitive subject. The compound has a crèche for newborns, where they're taken care of mostly by kids of various ages who have no skills nor inclination for the job. To my mind, since these babies are our true national treasure, they must be taken care of in an appropriate, loving manner. My thought is that as soon as we take over they should be adopted by willing women to become their children and be their nursing mothers since all of them are still lactating."
"Oh, my God." Jenny cried out. "That's a brilliant idea, Nikki, since it'll create lifelong bonds between them."
"And speed up the pairing process as well." Sue added.
"That's for sure. Any more brilliant ideas, Nikki? By the way, I like what Marty calls you much better than just Nick."
"Thanks. No, not right now but I'll think of something during lunch, I'm sure."
"No doubt you will. Anyway, everyone, I think that since Marty will serve our military commander, Nikki should be assigned as a prime minister in charge of civilian matters. How do you vote?"
When everyone voted in the affirmative, she hit the gavel. "Then it's official, Mr. Prime Minister. Now let's go eat."
Chapter 14
Marty was so furious with the supposed doctors when the women assembled in the cafeteria immediately after breakfast, that she nearly blew up. What upset her most was that a team of ten Gogians had set up their equipment on dining tables against the wall while all the women waited in lines as they began removing embryos. It was their disregard for everyone's privacy that had her steaming, and it took an iron will to stay calmly in line until her turn came up.
The aborting itself was even more upsetting, since a Gogian team member passed along the line and injected the women with what she knew was a local anesthetic near their vaginal openings. When Marty reached the table she was instructed to turn around to enable the man to insert an ungloved and unwashed hand deep into her body, where he literally scraped her embryos off the wall of the uterus. Her anger was so great that she nearly missed it when he put the four tiny lumps of flesh in a Petri dish, marked her serial number on it, and placed it in a small, portable freezer.
When she exited the hall Marty was met by Nick, who saw the angry expression on her face and hugged her before she rushed to their apartment and douched herself for a long time before they left for the farm's headquarters. "I hope you didn't say anything to the vet because we're much too close to achieving our goals."
"I'm not stupid, you know, but I had to restrain myself from kicking and smashing his balls for sticking his filthy arm in my vagina without a glove. Anyway, let's forget about it because our retribution for what they had done to these people is about to begin."
"And not a moment too soon. What's your plan before you lead your advance team to Heraklion?"
"I intend to spend the morning at the computer in the office and do more research, then have lunch once the cafeteria reverts back to a dining hall. What about you?"
"Work with Paula and the group she had assembled, who are young and extremely capable looking, in setting up our governing systems."
"Does anyone suspect what it's all about, being such bright kids and all?"
"I'm sure they do but no one questioned me, probably because they'd been warned by Paula not to. Anyway, things are proceeding at a rapid pace so by the time we take Heraklion we'll be able to make good strides toward independence."
"I'm impressed with your accomplishments, Nikki."
"And I with yours. And after lunch?"
"I'll go to the farmhouse where Sue wants to take me on a tour of the new pens, and once the squad she put together assembles I'll get acquainted with them and weed out any who I think isn't suitable before I tell them what it's all about."
"Then run a training session on the weapons you'd appropriated in the past few days from the king's armory and left with Sue?"
"Yes. Great weapons, too. It seems the Gogian nobility were avid hunters before their civil war so, despite advanced technological knowhow they had still manufactured great automatic hunting rifles, using chemical bullets rather than energy bolts like the soldiers' weapons."
"Which you loved, I'm sure."
"Of course, and I also picked up some pistols. Not only that, but I found that once he'd been converted the king had ordered a few sets of saddle-like carriers for rifles and ammunition to strap on right behind his neck, so I got some. Took me a few trips to get all the stuff over but I enjoyed doing it."
"What are you going to do with all the weapons once this is over?"
"Civilized people have need for a police force, you know, so later on I'll select some of the squad members and turn them into cops."
"Good idea, especially after we uncovered the three idiots who were willing to serve as informers for the Gogians. But what are we going to do with them afterward?"
"Try them in a civil court, which is going to be your job to set up."
"I'm not looking forward to it but I guess it'll have to be done. By the way, I'd printed a list with the surnames of all the oldies and their past occupations for you. You'll be surprised to find that quite a few of them had served in the military, navy mostly. And the most interesting fact, I found, is that Sue's name was Susan Margaret Hanover, which means that she actually is of true royal blood."
"I'm not surprised. Any other interesting facts about that group?"
"No, only that they reflect a cross-section of London's population of the time. Heck, we even have a couple of thieves, a Frenchman, a Jew, a Spaniard, and a colonist from Boston. The interesting thing about it is Jenny's opinion that they'll all probably re-adopt their old surnames."
"I'd like to do the same thing myself."
"So would I."
Before leaving the office Marty met with Jenny, Elwood, Arvin, and Nick. "I'm about to go to Sue and Dave's house, where we'll make the preparations for the last phase of our uprising, a point from where there will be no way to return to our current way of life."
"You suddenly sounded a bit negative, Marty. Why?"
"I'm afraid you confuse realism with fatalism, Arvin, which had never been my style. What I was trying to make clear was that if we fail to accomplish what we're after it'll will spell doom for us all because the Gogians will kill every one of us without the slightest hesitation if we don't do it to them first."
"Wouldn't they be wipe out their food supply system if they do that, and even more importantly, their source for embryos?"
"Not really because they have an overabundance of embryos a warehouses full of food supplies, and enough near-mature kids in the compound to replace us over time. So, like I asked before, are you prepared to suffer the consequences of failure?"
"Yes, Marty." Jenny responded emphatically. "And I appreciate the honesty with which you treat us because I read enough historical data from our old homeland in the past couple of days to know that with as much preparations one can make, a SNAFU is always possible."
"What does that mean?" Elwood asked.
Marty grinned. "You're a quick learner, Jenny. The expre
ssion she used had been used by my military often, I'm afraid. It's a code for 'Situation Normal--All Fucked Up'. Which means things ain't going on as planned."
"I see what you mean, and am sorry I jumped all over you."
"That the way a team is supposed to work so I appreciate your candidness. Now, I wanted us to get together to give you the final instructions before we start."
"Go ahead."
"You'll need to announce to everyone at breakfast tomorrow that there's a problem with the cooking equipment so their lunch will be served for only thirty minutes at noon sharp."
"They'll grumble about that."
"Let them. I'll contact you by then on the communication device that I gave you, to let you know if we'd won or lost the fight. Once you have the information you'll tell everyone everything that we did and why, and let them all stew on it for a while."
"And what then?"
"Go into details, like the fact that they'll never get into estrus again and that they'll start living as a free people from here on. Also tell them about the adoption program and have Paula take names of volunteers. I or Sue should be back by then with all the kids from the compound, who we'll have to settle all over for a while as comfortably as possible."
"Sounds complicated but it won't be because we have plenty of room for everyone since I'm sure many of our people will pair up. It's going to be a crazy for a while, but we're all going to love it. So, General, go forth and smite our enemies."
Marty stood up. "Aye, aye, Ma'am. I'll do my best."
Nick accompanied Marty out of the building and hugged her with great emotion before they parted. "You'll be careful, won't you?"
"Of course I will, Nikki." Marty said and walked away without looking back.
She enjoyed her gallop to the farmhouse, which she tried to do daily ever since they had arrived when she could find the time. Sue was waiting on the porch and handed her a glass of cold lemonade. "I thought that you'll appreciate it after your run on such a hot day."
"I sure do, and it was murderously hot on the way over."
"No wonder that it is since it's mid-August here. It really makes me feel civilized to know the time of day and date ever since Nikki gave me one of the watches that you'd brought back two days ago."
"Same here. I never realized how important that is until I got it."
They smoked in silence while sipping the cold drink until Sue spoke. "How did it go for you this morning, Marty?"
"So degraded by the process that I almost beat the shit out of that so-called doctor, but I contained myself while gritting my teeth since it would've caused a disaster."
"Good for you, because then we would've been leaderless and doomed to fail."
"Oh, I don't know about that because you could've taken over. You are a blue-blood after all, and people would've followed you."
"That was a dumb thing to say, Marty. I'll most likely revert to calling myself Hanover once this crap is over but no one other that our little cabal will know that it has to do with my blood-line. And that is how I want it to remain. Is that understood, General?"
"You bet your big royal ass I do, Ma'am. Okay, how are we set for action here?"
"I want you to observe the mares and tell me what you think about what we'd done. By then Dave will be done mixing the milk with the poison and have it ready for pickup, which you'll have to give him a hand loading since he'd sent all of our staff home early. The squad members, for which I found twenty suitable people, should be arriving in a couple of hours and we'll meet in my parlor over a decent dinner."
"Good, so let's go."
Marty was pleased to note as they approached the milking pens that this time her mind was not filled with any mares' cries of anguish. The reason for it became clear when they arrived and she saw that they were empty.
"Gosh, Sue, I'm glad of it. But where are they?"
"In several corrals depending on their physical condition, where they're free to walk around as best they can. We'll be moving them to different corrals as they recover and their udders dry out. And then, as per your idea, we'll let them leave here."
"I'm happy to hear that. And if you're worried about their survival, don't be because horses are extremely sturdy creatures and with their sentient minds these have a good chance of it. How about milking, which I understand from my history lessons, was quite an acceptable custom in some cultures on Earth to use horses for milk."
"I know that, and as long as it's not overdone it won't harm them. In fact, we had selected ten mares who are willing to serve in this capacity, who will be milked once a day only. It's great, you know, now that we're aware of their ability to understand and respond to our questions, to make them an offer and receive a nod or derisive snort in response."
"I'd imagine so. So we'll still have enough milk for any who likes it and for cheese making?"
"Yes, and humanely extracted with the mares' consent. Would you like to see the corrals?"
"Very much."
The sight of the much improved mares' condition pleased Marty as it proved her assertion of their great physical sturdiness and ability to recuperate quickly as she saw that most were able to move easily despite their still swollen udders. Once they left the horses Sue took her on a visit to the other animal enclosure, where she was surprised to note how large they were.
"We had to have that many animals because we fed so many Gogians, so now it'll be a relief to cut their population down." Sue answered her unasked question.
"I'm wondering, though, who fed them in the past before your arrival?"
"I understand that before the farm was given to our care the had Gogians built these quarters to house the original centaurs thinking they were the salvation for regenerating their race. Everything, including this farm, was the job of the low Gogian caste until they started dying, which was why we were needed to take it over. Anyway, we better go and help Dave move the milk from the warehouse where he'd been mixing the poison into it, and then from there to the loading dock."
"Sure, let's go do it."
David was wearing a tight face mask connected to a breather when they saw him coming out of the warehouse rolling a large metal can over to a horse-pulled cart. "Ah, here you are, just in time to help me finish the job." He said as he took off the mask.
"Why didn't you wait for us to help you carry all the cans onto the wagon?"
"Because I was afraid you'd get some of the still floating powder into your noses and be harmed, which was why I was wearing a mask while doing it in the storage room. It's pretty potent stuff, you know."
"Of course, which should do the job it's intended for and kill all the rats we have on the island."
Marty was not surprised to see the young gelding turning his head toward them with a curious look in his eyes. She walked over, stroked him gently on the forehead, and spoke in his ear. "I know you can understand everything that we say and are wondering what's it about so I'll tell you that there are soon going to be many changes here that will have a direct bearing on your life. So please be a patient and we'll tell everyone what's happening in the next few days. Okay?"
The horse looked at her in surprise, then nodded his head vigorously to show that he understood.
Sue and David gave her an appreciating look. "Thanks for telling him, Marty, because they've all been oppressed for far too long."
"I felt I have the responsibility to do it, Sue."
"Thanks anyway, for being such a compassionate person."
They had just finished off-loading the milk cans onto the creamery dock when the small hover-truck arrived. It's driver, a surly looking man who said nothing to them, climbed out of the truck and waited in the shade of a tree while they loaded it, then left the moment they finished.
"Ugly son of a bitch." Marty mumbled as he drove away in a cloud of dust that his jets created.
"They all are, aren't they?" David said. "And they treat us like animals, fit only to serve them."
"For the last time,
Dave, regardless of how things turn out."
"That's for sure."
Chapter 15
When they arrived at the house after unhitching the horse, Marty saw a group of men waiting on the veranda, all of whom looked quite puzzled. One of them came over and told Sue that dinner was ready and that they should all come in.
"Yes, Herb, you all get seated while we go wash up."
No one spoke while they ate a simple dinner of cold cuts, bread, and fruit. The moment they finished, Sue stood up. "Thank you for coming tonight. I'm sure you must be wondering what it's all about, so I'll get to the reason right away and tell you that your Executive Board had decided unanimously last week that time and circumstances are ripe for us to finally break the yoke of slavery off of all our necks."
"Not that I object to it in the least, Sue, but what made you decide that the time has come, and what are the special circumstances?" One of the men asked.
"You'll understand in a minute. As you all know, we'd decided many years ago to keep our pasts secret from one another and only tell it to very special friends. Which you had all told Dave and me yours because you apparently consider us to be friends. And so, we'd discovered very quickly upon their arrival on the farm, are Marty and Nick."
"You mean foul mouthed Marty and her scholarly boyfriend?"
"Yes, Ben, very much so. And the reason for the board's decision stems from these two young people's very unique pasts before arriving here."
"How can they have a past when they're wild-caught yearlings?"
"That was the official line given us by the Gogians, who didn't know the truth about them. The fact is, and I can't go into the details of how it was possible, that Marty and Nick had been husband and wife who had recently died in a land called America."