"You rang?"
"How would you like a spot of ambassadorial work once the liner gets to Council Station?"
"Could be interesting, if I can read all the material Walsh was sent. Why?"
"Walsh wants to bring Darlene with him to launch his new toy. Means I need someone to be Kingdom ambassador for a while until I get there again."
"I can do that. I mean, how hard can it be if Walsh can do it?"
Jane laughed. Cayuga grinned at her, and wandered back into the ship, downloading files.
Distracted from thinking about the Ducks, Jane did a quick check around her various selves.
Over Gaia Three, the task of dropping satellites was almost complete. She'd be relieved when it was done.
Borgcubia was now empty of refugees, with only the penal section still on board. She had some half million migrants on board already, and was loading steadily.
Her attention was drawn to the council chamber, where the council members had been recalled. Fred was on his way from the new emigration office on station, where he'd been helping with application processing. He hadn't been needed, but it gave him something to do to keep his mind occupied.
Jane observed the reactions of a number of the delegates when Fred entered the chamber with Lyana walking behind him. She took a seat behind him as well, and scanned the room constantly. There were a number of 'More Kids' type mutterings, especially when Sarah entered with Wanda following her.
The room settled, and Madam Chair rose.
"For what reason has the council been recalled?"
One of the Gaia Six city delegates rose.
"On behalf of a lot of us here, I demand Gaia Three be opened up for settlement. We will not be taking no for an answer."
"No is the only answer you're getting," she responded.
"Then we'll take it."
"You and whose army?" asked Fred quietly.
The room was totally still, and even his quiet words could be heard by all.
"We have resources, and they are greater than yours."
Fred sighed. He beckoned Sarah, who also rose.
"We're done here. Next time we get called back into session, have a decent reason for it."
He strode for the door, Sarah and their bodyguards following, with Madam Chair and the rest of the Gaia twelve following after them.
"Arrogant young bastard," followed Fred out.
After a minutes silence all walking in the same direction, Madam Chair took Fred by the arm.
"Will you join us to discuss what happened?"
"It doesn’t seem to need discussing. You need to decide what you want to do, and tell me, so I can support you. But until you otherwise tell me, Gaia Three is off limits to everyone but you twelve. If that changes, I'll discuss options then. If you'll excuse me, I still have work to do."
Jane was still watching the council chamber. Cayuga pulled her into an AI meeting.
"I don’t like where this is going," he said.
"Me either. But what can they really do?"
"I'm worried something is going on in the fleet here."
"General worries? Or something specific?"
"Admiral's Tremblay and Klemperer have been meeting on their shipyard rather a lot lately. They've been going to long lengths not to be overheard."
"You think they're planning something?"
"I'm concerned yes. There's been a lot of freighter traffic heading from the shipyard down to all three planets as well."
"And neither of us have eyes on any of them?"
"No."
"You think we need to be ready to move at a moment's notice now?"
"Yes."
"I'm not finished here yet."
"Better hurry it up. I don’t think we have much time left."
"Before what?"
"Well that is the question, isn’t it?"
Jane let the question hang in the air, and shifted down to human speed again. There wasn’t much she could do as far as speeding up what she was doing. And until it was done, there was nothing she could do herself.
But it didn’t stop her watching Fred's back. She had a few nanoseconds warning, pinged an alert to Lyana's team, but had to watch from afar.
Four men dressed in black stepped in front of Fred and Sarah, causing them to stop abruptly at the business end of four guns. Lyana and Wanda were already drawing, when four more stepped up behind them.
Four belt suits shifted into full protection mode. Eight guns fired. Four people hopped, and three of them fired back. Three of the men in the front went down. Lyana and Wanda turned to take on the men behind them, as Fred shifted aim to the last one in front. Instead, the man tried to hit Fred with his gun, it bouncing off the side of Fred's head without him feeling it. Fred shot him down.
The four behind fired again. It was as much an automatic response as anything planned, since it hadn't occurred to them they'd need a second shot. Lyana and Wanda were still in the air, still tracking round, when all four men hit the floor.
By the time the two girls were ready to fire, there was no-one to fire at. Serena and Jack were standing at the end of the hall, each holding two Long Guns. Colin and Winona appeared from the other direction.
"The Gaia twelve," said Fred.
Lyana gave rapid orders, and Sarah headed off with Colin and Winona. The rest of them headed back the way they'd come.
Jane whispered in Lyana's ear, and she waved them all to the side of the wall before the last corner to where the twelve took meetings on their own. She held up four fingers. The rest nodded. She counted down fingers, and with the last one folding up, they rounded the corner as one, and shot down the four men in black outside the door.
Jane took an image of the room inside, and sent it to each of them, with a target assigned. Five of them, four armed targets and two unarmed ones.
They formed a diamond with Fred in the middle, and burst through the door as one. Four shots, four falling bodies.
"Don’t move," said Fred, to the last two men standing.
He looked to Madam Chair, and saw blood flowing from her lips.
"You hit a woman?" he asked the man nearest her. "Lyana? Do the honor's please."
Lyana moved so fast, no-one really saw her hit him. Them. Both men went down. And stayed there.
"Thank you my dear," said Madam Chair. "They were trying to force us to change our minds about Gaia Three. That one lost his temper very quickly."
Fred sighed.
"What?" asked Wanda.
"Part of me wants to throw these two out the nearest airlock."
"What's stopping you?"
Fred sighed again.
"That’s why you'll make a good Duke one day," said Lyana.
"I have a better idea anyway," said Madam Chair.
She quickly gave instructions.
The rest of the council were still in session. Fred enjoyed kicking the door in. He strode through, leading the other four, two each pulling one of the men by a foot. They dragged them into the center of the room, and left them on the floor.
"Do you people want a civil war?" asked Fred into the silence.
No-one answered.
"Admiral Jane has been working really hard on preventing a civil war. It cost Colonel Henman her life. And yet you still want to provoke one. Don’t you understand just how bad that might be for humanity?"
"Give us Gaia Three."
It was the same delegate who'd made the initial demand.
"What part of no don’t you understand?"
"The part where you fight for it. You're all limp dick don’t hurt anyone types. If you won't give the planet to us, we'll take it."
"Being spiritual doesn't involve wearing a t-shirt which says 'door mat, wipe feet here'. It means taking responsibility for our actions, whatever they are, and doing the releases and forgiveness for them afterwards. If you don’t understand that, and consider trying not to take life to be weak, then you're in for a rude surprise."
"We don’t think so."
"Fine. Be stupid then."
Fred turned, and stalked out. His team followed him. Outside, he found Madam Chair. She fell into step with him.
"I had a message from Admiral Jane," she said. "She told us all to pack, and move home. She has security people watching the rest of the twelve now. Could you be so kind as to escort me?"
"Our pleasure," said Fred.
A half hour later, Fred's Lightning launched from the station with all of them aboard, which was a bit of a tight fit. It was immediately flying into the space between four Dreadnaughts, all way too close together. Jack was in the pilot's seat, being the best of all of them, although not being up to fighter pilot level. He took his que, and matched speed with the bigger ships as soon as he reached the center of their length. The Dreadnaughts stayed with them all the way into Gaia Three's atmosphere, not leaving them until they were down to twenty thousand meters.
The Lightning touched down gently at the landing area for one of the settlements, built in such a way the ground below was disturbed as little as possible by the comings and goings of shuttles.
The twelve disembarked. They each had all of what they'd taken with them at the time they'd begun their year on the council.
"Thank you Baron Hunter," said Madam Chair formally. "Admiral Jane has suggested we not return until the situation stabilizes. Since I don’t think it will any time soon, I have the suspicion we won't see you again. She gave me the impression you will be on your big station when it leaves in a couple of weeks' time. If so, I wish you well in the future. As young as you are, you've done a good job for your people. May the highers go with you."
"And with you," said Fred.
He offered his hand to her, but she hugged him instead.
Fred watched the twelve head off the platform. Over to one side was what looked like a row of salvage droids. Each one stepped up on the sled of one, put their bag down, sat, and the droid flew them away. On a planet with no vehicles allowed, a flying sled was the next best thing.
Fred sighed, and walked back inside the Lightning.
The Dreadnaughts escorted them all the way back to Gaia Five.
Thirty Seven
Jane changed the priority on the Gaia Hunter shipyard. She started building more station tugs. The ones she had, moved to speed up realigning all her remaining stations into two separate structures, the amalgamated remaining shipyard being the third. She'd originally been going to leave some of the stations where they were, particularly food, but given the way events were going, a change of mind seemed to be in order.
She also looked around at the rest of the stations which had been abandoned. There was at least another dozen where there were no life signs now. She started moving them to form another station structure. If anyone asked, she was merely getting them out of the planetary orbits, and preventing them becoming navigational hazards. She didn’t think anyone was going to ask. At the same time, she made sure every single Hunter made asset which wasn’t a ship, was docked to one of the stations.
Once Fred and his team were back home, she started moving ships around as well. Her Battleships moved to screen the stations. Three of the Dreadnaughts moved to protect the Shipyard, and the fourth hung over Hunter's Run city, barely outside the atmosphere.
The missile platforms around Gaia Three went to highest alert, as did the now ten squadrons of Excaliburs.
The last thing Jane wanted to do was kill anyone, but force would be met by force.
She was proud of Fred. He'd said exactly the right thing without prompting, and left before anyone could provoke him into doing something stupid.
For now, the rest was up to her. All she could do, was wait for the inevitable stupidity to occur.
HR10 didn’t have a habitable planet, and so Jane wasn’t surprised to see a line of freighters crossing directly to the next jump point, many of them heading towards the Ducks, now they knew the planet wouldn’t be firing on them for going there. The rest were ships which had left HR14 well before Jane had taken the planet away from the Owls. Many of them were carrying drugs, but for now, Jane wasn’t going to make an issue of it. She had plenty of time to get way ahead of them, and deal with the drug program later.
Palomino was out in front of the stations again. Behind them, spreading out in a cloud, were Hive fighters heading back the way they'd come, to check the systems for unknown jump points, and to catalog everything in Jane's space. Having Janine run the shipyard was proving most productive, since her primary purpose had always been ship building, and coordinating the gathering of resources. The Hives were working for her, and Jane was glad not to have to worry about them herself.
She'd checked in with Warspite, but the Owl blockade was quiet. Freighters were passing through both ways, but there was no sign of Owl military. She'd be there herself soon enough.
An AI meeting pulled her into the virtual meeting room. Everyone was present.
"How far are you going to allow things to go in Gaia?" asked Yorktown.
"It depends on timing. For now, I'm hoping whatever plans are in the works, haven’t been finalized yet. The longer we go without anything happening, the better."
"That wasn’t an answer," said Intrepid.
"I'm not going to go all Terminator on anyone, just because they’re mouthy and demanding."
"That also isn’t an answer," said Cayuga.
Jane sighed.
"An insurrection of some kind was inevitable. As long as we denied people somewhere they would desire, someone was always going to fight to get it. If we can keep it to less than a civil war, I'll be happy with that."
"So you're just going to let them?" asked Repulse.
"They have freewill. They may not understand the consequences of their actions, but humans never do. They act anyway."
Repulse gave her a long look.
"What?" asked Jane.
"I'm getting odd rumblings going on in the British system as well. Nothing I can pin down, but I want to know what you expect me to do if the balloon goes up?"
"We do what we have to do to keep those under our care safe. No less, no more."
"Do we fire on ships we can't control?" asked Cayuga.
"If necessary, but I'm hoping it won't come to that. Besides, there are no warships in Gaia or Britain which are not controlled by the three of us."
"What about us?" asked Yorktown.
"And us?" asked Satoshi. Jane looked at him. "No, there's nothing going on in the Japanese system. But what do we do if Japan gets asked to intervene to stop any ship or station fleeing from Gaia or Britain?"
"Goes for us too," said Intrepid. "The Americans might be asked to blockade the outward bound systems, to prevent Hunter ships and stations from leaving."
"Are we sure they aren’t planning on taking your stations Jane?" asked Bill Paxton.
"I'm not sure of anything, but the stations are the least of my worries. Other than Borgcubia, there are very few people aboard them. I can stop anyone trying to take them easily enough, just by allowing them on, and then hitting them with too much gravity."
"Hadn't we better come up with a response plan?" asked Warspite.
"I'm open to suggestions," said Jane.
"Where did you go?" asked the Cat.
"Sorry what?"
"You go very still for long periods of time. One could say you weren’t all here."
"Downloading events happening in other places."
The Cat eyed her up and down.
"I've seen your pink skin species naked. Revolting sight by the way. That suit isn’t hiding anything. How are you doing the communicating?"
Jane tapped her head.
"Don’t be daft. Even the Mice haven’t made anything that small."
"We have. Every human gets a computer implanted in their head. Makes communicating very easy."
She waved her hand, and a hollo screen popped up, showing the Gaia council arguing among themselves. A man now occupied the seat where Madam Chair had been. She shu
t it off.
"That was in a room fifteen systems away, about two minutes ago."
"Wow. Can I have one?"
"We'd have to map your brain first."
"How long will that take?"
"Not sure. It's never been done on an alien before. The software will probably need adjustment."
Jane had been thinking about it. Pink and Barf needed to be able to control their suits better, and they had been designed for PC control. Catastrophe didn’t even seem to have a tablet with him. Her nose wrinkled. The cat needed a better name.
"Do you have a tablet?"
"Sure. I just don’t like carrying it around. Damn thing is too big."
Puss-in-knit. No, too clumsy.
Geronopuss. No, too silly.
"Hey, focus!"
"What?"
"Computer. Let's get it in my head."
"Fine. Follow me."
Jane led him to the small hospital unit, and popped the lid on a care unit.
"In."
"What's this?"
"Care unit. I need to sedate you so you won't move, and the unit's scanners will then try and determine if the PC we use is compatible or not."
"It won't hurt?"
Catcry. No, it might be insulting.
"No. I'll bring you out as soon as I know one way or the other."
The cat jumped up, and curled up in a ball.
Cat-ball.
"Night, night."
Jane shifted his suit to a belt, and set the care unit scanning, the cat dropping straight off to sleep. Jane looked at him. She threw scans of his skeleton up, trying to figure out why he could achieve a ball at all, given the centaur like structure. What she found was like all Earth cats, the spine was very flexible, and it literally could curl up in a ball without any problems. Standing upright the way he did appeared to be a choice, rather than by design.
She left him there, and went back to the Bridge.
It took an hour for the care unit to complete the scan, at which time Jane went back to get him out. The scan wasn’t over positive. The implantation might work, or it might not.
Jane stood there looking into the care unit, and her grin lit up. A few minutes later the top slid back, and the Cat woke up.
"What the fuck have you done to me?" he yelled.
He was now sporting thick fur type hair which was longer than his legs stood high. Two tusks were sticking out from his face. The overall effect was looking like a miniature wooly mammoth, minus trunk. Jane hadn't had time for the trunk.
A.I. Destiny 2: Queen Jane Page 14