A.I. Destiny 2: Queen Jane

by Timothy Ellis

  In the HR13 system, some of Warspite's blockade force from the Owl space jump point, met the stations and joined up with the fleet. Warspite was still at the blockade point with a reduced force, still interdicting freighters going either way if they carried any kind of sector contraband.

  Borgcubia and her escort stopped in the British system just long enough to pick up another fifty thousand people wanting to emigrate to the Kingdom. Jane was surprised by how many there were. In fact, they'd been steadily collecting people the whole way. Although there was substantial building work going on internally, there was still plenty of good accommodation for everyone.

  Concorde's Ride entered orbit of Hunter Prime without fanfare, and Palomino joined Concorde in docking at the best of the remaining stations. Jane let go of her Palomino avatar, so any humans around wouldn't see two of her in different places. She was actually relieved to meld the duality of herself back into a single mind. At times, she'd found operating two primary avatars a bit taxing, even for her. They set up a living and conference area on the station, and planned how to operate and run a Kingdom while they waited for all the others to arrive.

  Snark oversaw the moving of his shipment to a Hunter Cruiser Drone Freighter Jane made available for him. His now fully repaired ship moved onto its cargo deck as well, and he was given an interface with the ship computer. He was going as far as the Council Station, where one of his trading contacts was going to take over the shipment to their homeworld. The Cruiser was going the whole distance. What Jane hadn't told him was a Tranquil avatar was on the Bridge of the ship, and it was equipped to make and deploy comnavsats. These were a new version of them, designed with a belt suit, to make it almost impossible to find. Once the delivery was complete, Tranquil was going to keep taking cargo runs along the most used routes, dropping comnavsats as she went.

  With Snark gone, Jane found herself laughing a good deal less. He was an objectionable puss at the best of times, but he was funny.

  Justine's Pride docked at the temporary Prime Orbital for a few hours so Fred could talk to Jane. She congratulated him and the team on their actions during the coup. Fred seemed a bit withdrawn, but considering what he'd been through recently, Jane wasn’t surprised. Before he left, she gave him a long hug. He left looking happier, but somewhat worried about dealing with aliens.

  Lyana and her team were still training in all the possible roles they could be needed in, but they all stopped and listened to Fred discussing the sector council with Walsh and Darlene, while real time coms was down below a second apart.

  "No," said Lyana to Fred one time, when she caught him fingering his chin absently, in the exact same way Walsh stroked his beard.

  The team had been amused, but Fred hadn’t really noticed. He was soaking up everything the pair of ex-ambassadors had to tell him.

  Before Borgcubia jumped into Kingdom space, Satoshi and the other Japanese Corvettes docked with the station. The crews took the opportunity to visit with their families. They'd completed their part of the purple plant eradication work in G037, and moved to the HR14 jump point in G036 to wait for their families to show up.

  There was another short stop at the planet in HR14, where all the insurrection people were dropped at the now active space port. They were not at all happy to find prefab accommodation waiting for them, with a limited amount of modern conveniences. Most of them were downright traumatized when they found so many alien species visiting them shortly after they settled in. Price had troops on hand in case anything started, and the new residents of HR14 finally became aware of what the consequences of their previous actions truly were.

  A Lightning Jane had left behind in HRA2, docked at the temporary Prime Orbital, carrying the leader of the Mice. He formally asked to join the Kingdom. Jane accepted, and hastily recalled some builder droids from the surface to convert some accommodation for the Mice delegation. The Fly leader arrived the next day, and Jane started converting a lot of accommodation, just in case.

  Over the next week, new ambassadors started arriving at the Sector Council Station. The Fly's had the shortest distance to travel so arrived first, followed by the Mice, Ducks, and Bald Eagles. The Owl ambassador offered an apology to the Mice ambassador for the generations of hunting, and offered the news such hunting was now a punishable offence no Owl would want to risk. The Mouse accepted the apology with good grace, but gave a few other ambassadors in the chamber a nasty look, as if to ask them where their apology was.

  The Mouse was carrying a pad rather than a tablet, and was clearly using a much more sophisticated computer system. It caused a big stir among the ambassadors, and the Mice delegation were soon swamped with enquiries about updating computer hardware.

  The last to arrive was Fred.

  He presented his credentials, presented Lyana as the head of his Baronial Guard, and was asked to clarify his relationship with Queen Jane. He responded she was a cousin by adoption. He was asked to confirm his place in the Kingdom hierarchy. He told them he was second in line after his infant cousin. He was asked if he was very young to be an ambassador. He agreed. Ganshura welcomed him, and thanked Cayuga for his service.

  Fred then dropped a bombshell on the council, inviting them all to the inauguration of the Kingdom of Hunter's Run, and the formal acceptance of Jane as Queen.

  Ganshura called a quick recess, and Fred and Lyana spent a half hour talking with him at his embassy. The council was reconvened and Fred expanded his invitation to ambassadors, close aides, and a small security contingent for each. While he couldn’t offer them species specific accommodation while traveling, he could offer them speedy transportation, using Midnight Orchid. For those who accepted the invitation immediately, he would send species comfort requirements to Hunter Prime, where accommodation would be custom made for them, to be ready when they arrived.

  The chamber voted on accepting the invitation, with a majority yes vote. The next motion was to suspend the council for the duration of travel and time at the inauguration, and this too passed with a majority. This still left enough sessions for Fred to settle into his role as ambassador, before they needed to leave.

  Sixty

  Borgcubia settled into orbit of Hunter Prime, taking up the center of the line of stations in the same orbit. The station, looking like two giant cubes pushed together, dwarfed everything around it. The observation deck of the Prime Orbital was full of people, and ambassador beings, all observing the arrival.

  Fred had arrived the day before, Justine's Pride escorting Midnight Orchid. Very few of the sector ambassadors had declined the invitation. They were all happy to find accommodation on the Orbital, which met their individual comfort requirements.

  Fred and his team, were standing with Pink and Barf. Walsh and Darlene were standing with the other AMS pilots. The AI's were all in a group as well.

  Jane was standing with Ganshura and the other top ten ranking ambassadors. None of them could take their eyes off the Kingdom fleet which was doing flybys around the area. In particular, it was obvious none of them had seen a ship as large as Yorktown before, and they almost couldn’t cope with her not being the largest ship. From both her and Intrepid, short range heavy fighter squadrons were doing flybys as well, interspersed with squadrons of Excaliburs. As Jane looked around, she saw amazement and awe on many of the ambassador's faces.

  Within Hunter's Run city, Jane's voice rang out.

  "Everyone proceed to your designated safe zone and buckle up. This is not a drill."

  "About time too," said Grandma Vi, as several family members helped her along, and made sure her safety belt was tight around her.

  She nodded to Sarah and her parents, seated there with little Michael.

  The hollo screen came on.

  "Oh…"

  The sentiment was repeated in many languages.

  Borgcubia split into two same sized stations, one of them moving away from the other. It moved into an orbit further out, and rapidly began to fall behind. When it was almo
st out of sight, it moved back into the same orbit. On HUD's, its name changed to Prime Military.

  One side of Borgcubia now came away, as if a giant can opener had simply cut the top off. From the inside, Hunter's Run City rose up out of the protective embrace of the station, and began to move into orbit of the planet further down.

  There was a very satisfactory silence on the observation deck where Jane was supervising the operation. A smile was fixed on her face now, as she took in the reactions of all those she could see. She waved a hollo screen up to one side of the crowd, and at the same time, the same hollo popped up for everyone observing the event, wherever they were.

  Hunter's Run city was being flanked by a set of cam drones now, and the hollo followed as the entire city now entered the atmosphere. Its shields flared with the heat of re-entry, setting off shocked and awed reactions, not the least by those in the city and watching their own progress down towards the planet below.

  As the city slowed after completing atmospheric entry, Jane waved again, and another hollo popped up, this time showing a huge hole in the ground. Off to one side appeared to be a set of ants, and Jane zoomed the image in until the ants resolved into powered suits of armour and huge bulldozers, next to which were standard combats suits looking small, and next to those, several people in Hunter uniform. The hollo zoomed in further until one of the people appeared to be a normal size, standing by the foot of a giant suit, and waving at the cam, grinning madly. Jane was having fun.

  The hollo zoomed out again, and now the two hollos started to come together, as the city came to a stop directly over the now recognizably gigantic hole. The city hung there, while it made a series of very subtle alignments, and then began to slowly drop downwards.

  Jane became aware that everyone in the entire area around her had stopped breathing, all eyes glued to the hollos. Her smile became a grin. The city continued to drop slowly, until with a gentle kiss, it settled into the hole, and immediately looked as if it had been built there. Bulldozers all around the edge began pushing earth into the very slight hole left there all around.

  Applause broke out everywhere beings were watching it from, in every way the beings did this.

  Within the city, Jane's voice told them all they could now go home. There was a lot of unbuckling noise and the sound of tens of thousands of people happily heading back to the homes they'd been unable to access while the city had been on the move.

  In particular, the Hunter family went home. No-one was more happy to be there than Grandma Vi.

  The hollos vanished, and movement from Borgcubia caught everyone's eyes again.

  Out of the hole left in the side of Borgcubia, now appeared the skyline of another city. This one was, if that was possible, bigger than Hunter's Run city, and it emerged like; well there is no way of comparing it. A hole in the side of a station, became a city of space-scrapers, which stopped rising when the underside reached the top of the hull of the station. Hollo's popped up to show massive support beams being placed by huge builder droids, to hold the new city where it now was.

  Faces now all wore stunned expressions. But the show wasn’t over.

  The exact opposite face of the giant station now came off as well, and another city started rising. Along the other four sides, two sections, each about a quarter the size, also came away, and more city began appearing there as well.

  At the same time, station hubs disengaged from most of the stations in orbit, and began converging on Borgcubia. They were a mixture of two and four airlock hubs. The fours had been originally built thinking permanent structures of stations would be needed in the Gaia system, but they hadn't been needed after all, because of the exodus to other systems. The two lock hubs had been built during the war to join stations together in long lines so they could all jump together. None of them were needed any more, and as stations were left behind, the two and four lock hubs had been moved to other stations to bring here.

  As they converged on Borgcubia, a pattern formed. The twos joined to an airlock around the central band of the station, jutting out into space. The fours began joining to the outside lock of these, and to the four next to it, until a complete band of hubs ringed the square station completely.

  Hollo's popped up showing builder droids moving into the new square ring, beginning the task of fitting the entire new structure out with travel systems designed to safely move both people and cargo into the station, joining to the existing systems which joined the new external cities, making it possible now for someone to walk off a ship docked to the external docks, and be taken all the way to a specific suite in one of the city towers. Another hollo was showing exactly this concept, as it would look when complete.

  By the time beings had absorbed the huge scope of what was going on over there, the cube had now become a gigantic city in space. And that was only the external surfaces. Within the giant structure, more builder droids were now reconfiguring the insides for cargo handling and storage.

  Jane now popped up the local navmap, and zoomed in on the nearby stations. Hunter Prime suddenly changed to Hunter Family Orbital. Borgcubia became Kingdom Station.

  Jane's voice rang out everywhere.

  "Welcome to Hunter Prime, our new home. Wherever you are, food, drink, and entertainment are close by. Your station, ship, or city computer, PC, pad, or tablet, will direct you to the nearest place. Let's celebrate our safe arrival, and the beginning of our new lives."

  Jane looked around, saw everyone looking at her, and pointed towards where the nearest entertainment area was with one hand, while making shooing motions with the other. Grins and smiles lit up on most faces, and people and beings started walking the way she indicated. The last to move off was Ganshura, who wore a strange expression on his face, as if he'd been speculating about something, but not quite understood what he was seeing.

  Jane joined the group of AI's, and they mingled while most others ate. She'd made sure Fred had brought back more than enough food and drink for the alien guests, pre-ordered by Walsh weeks before, so everyone had plenty.

  Jane didn’t miss Ganshura's glances at her as the festivities went on.

  Sixty One

  By the time the entertainment was over, the first city on Kingdom Station was ready for guests. Jane, Fred and his team, Walsh and the AMS pilots, the AI's, ambassadors, and official guests, were all shuttled across, entering the city through its own shuttle dock. Travel cars took them to the top of the tallest space-scraper, where they entered the city's main ballroom.

  There were all sorts of exclamations of surprise, when beings looked up, and saw the stars overhead, with a view of the planet off to one side.

  Jane threw the plan of the city up on a floor covering hollo, and allowed everyone to view it as a three dee representation, where they could pull out the internal views by using hand movements. Fred started it off, grinning madly, and quickly showed Barf and Pink how to do it. They showed their ambassadors, and it quickly spread. Ganshura threw another glance at Jane.

  "Why is this familiar?" asked Janine.

  "It’s a bigger version of Hunter's Haven," said Jane. "But it's repeated in parts on all sides of the cube."

  "So there's an admin scraper, as well as security and military ones?"

  "No military. That’s all over on the other half. Security yes. Dotted all over in fact. As are medical facilities. But only this city here is ready for occupation. The rest will come online as we need them to. I expect it to take a while."

  Janine nodded, and then her nod took in Ganshura coming towards her. He indicated a spot on the city plan.

  "Is this what I think it is?" he asked.

  "What do you think it is?" asked Janine, a smile on her face.

  "It looks like a sector council chamber, only significantly bigger than the one we have now."

  "It is," said Jane. "I took the liberty of borrowing the design, in case I needed something like this, sometime."

  Ganshura looked at her steadily. His top two arms
moved, and the hands clasped. The bottom two did the same thing.

  "May we use it?"

  "Certainly. But not today. Tomorrow is clear as far as any events are concerned, so if the council wishes to meet, you may do so. The following day will be the Kingdom inauguration ceremony. Details will be sent to everyone with where they go for it. The actual room for the first part isn’t all that large, so most will be coming here, and watching a hollo of the event."

  "Your technology is impressive. Is there somewhere we can talk privately?"

  "My office okay?"

  "Lead on."

  Jane led him towards the travel cars, but stopped before the doors, and turned back to the crowd.

  "If I might have your attention please," her voice broadcast. "In a moment, butler droids will seek you out, setup to converse with you in your own language, and escort you to the accommodation prepared for you. If you have any requirements at all, the droid is at your service. I hope we've been able to provide you with comfortable accommodation. Tomorrow has no set adjenda, although I understand there may be a council meeting called. You will receive your invitations to the inauguration the following day in due course. Please enjoy the hospitality of the Kingdom."

  Jane turned, and led Ganshura into the waiting travel car. It dropped to the base of the space-scraper, and Jane led him across to her office. She shivered as she entered it, memories of past times she'd been in an exact same office on Hunter's Haven. Only there, it hadn't been her office, and this one was.

  "What was that?" asked Ganshura.

  "Sorry, just ghosts of the past resurfacing. This city is a recreation of a past one, and it still has a lot of memories for me, even though it's now long gone. This used to be the office of my best friend. I spent a lot of time here. I regret the furniture is not going to suit you. I'll need to do something about that. The original design still needs some tweaking for non-humans."