*
While Az and Li had been flying the night before, most of the Terrans were soon asleep. Stella couldn’t sleep. She didn’t even try. She had fought. She had killed. She had seen war. She had seen more dead bodies. Plural. She had also gone to help in the hospital, as she was one of the few that was not injured. And she had picked up a lot of medical knowledge from Kelly. She had also helped Kelly on occasion. She was aghast at Simone’s injuries and more so to hear that Simone had not been considered sick enough to go to the Healing Machines. The implications of that frightened her. The death toll frightened her. Then a few hours later she overheard a remark that Kaz was late from one of the medical flights. When he casually turned up an hour or so after that, Stella was overcome by emotions.
First she yelled at him for being overdue, then before the bewildered Kaz had time to work out what he’d done wrong, she flew at him and kissed him passionately. Hearing the yelling, Kelly came over but by the time she reached them Stella was crying and Kaz was innocently holding her.
“I think it’s all too much for her,” he said. “I’ll take her to the girls.”
“OK,” said Kelly preoccupied with her patients and hoping they would all survive the night. She fervently missed Li’s mother, Bella Chieng who, she thought, would have had a more intuitive grasp on how to care for the Cats. Kelly was floundering. Unfortunately, when she had asked the Okme ex slaves, released from the Keulfyd ships, they didn’t know either. Having their own doctors, the Keulfyd had only wanted the Okme as Machine operators and Maintenance staff so these Okme could only help to nurse as they didn’t know doctoring nor diagnosis either. Kelly sent them off to sleep. Most seemed beyond exhaustion. They were skinny, even for Okme, had been working literally around the clock and she thought they looked defeated and crushed. Okme did not take well to slavery she surmised.
Kelly was treating the symptoms and hoping she was right. She had none of the equipment she was used to. Bert was no better off and he had finally gone to bed, so tired he had been swaying on his feet. She was the only doctor. She had grabbed several startled Cats that were uninjured and checked their basic heart rate, blood pressure and normal mucosal colour to check for shock, temperature and respiration rate. At least then she knew what was normal. Everyone was looking to her and she didn’t have a clue what else to do.
Kaz and Stella went over to the dormitory area and Kaz headed for her room. But Stella had other ideas.
“I can’t bear to be alone,” she said, “I’m having awful nightmares too,” and headed to Kaz’s room where she assumed he was sleeping alone. To her relief there was only one bed/bag. He was. She got into his bed after kicking her shoes off. Kaz did likewise and put his arm around her. She snuggled in and then thought, “Now what?” Li had told her that Petislay girls made the moves not the boys. Stella knew what she wanted but was embarrassed and didn’t know how to start. She snuggled into Kaz but he remained a perfect gentleman. This was not what she wanted! But Stella was strung out and exhausted. While she was still wondering how to ‘start something’ she fell asleep.
It was early morning when Stella awoke abruptly from a nightmare. Her thrashing about had woken Kaz. Stella cuddled back in to him apologizing. Kaz gently kissed her forehead. Stella lifted her face up and Kaz got the point and kissed her properly.
“Kaz,” she said, “I’m sick of war. I want to go to Petislay with you, Az and Li.”
“Oh,” he said startled. “No problem. You can go as a refugee. They’ll give you a refugee allowance until you can get a job or a study allowance.”
“Dimwit!” she thought.
“That’s not what I was thinking. Kaz, if I said I want to Choose you that would be OK?”
“Heck yes!”
“Then I Choose you.” There, she thought. Done. Your move.
“I Accept,” said Kaz ritually then grabbed her and kissed her with a lot more enthusiasm. But then he just snuggled in.
Damn! Now what? Stella thought that her mother would not accept this as a marriage unless things went ‘all the way,’ and she could honestly tell her that. Stella thought again over what Li had said. Like everyone else in the know, Stella thought Li and Az were at it every night. Exactly what they were at, Stella was less sure of and surprisingly, Li wasn’t telling. But Stella was determined to find out. Exactly how would she get this point across to Kaz?
“What do you want to do?”
“What?” said Stella blushing, her mind not in tune with his.
“Do you want to study or work or what?”
“I want children.” Stella said before she thought it through.
Kaz finally remembered what Az had told him about who is supposed to make the first moves. “Ah,” he said hesitantly, “That requires a bit of work on our part. Takes more than kissing.”
“Then get on with it cos I don’t know what to do,” she said, again speaking before she thought. She turned bright red as Kaz laughed. She punched him.
“Oof,” he gasped, still laughing. He decided not to tell her he didn’t know either.
Stella started smiling. But she was very embarrassed.
“That didn’t come out right.” she said slowly.
“No kidding,” Kaz spluttered and got punched again. “But you still meant it,” he said more seriously.
“Yes. I want children. Lots of them.”
“If it’s any help, me too. But, don’t take this wrong, but what’s the hurry?”
Head down, Stella explained, too embarrassed to look at him.
“Oh. So you have Chosen me and you want to start a family. Now. Did I get that right?”
“Yes.”
“OK. I’ll go slow,” he said neglecting to explain he’d need to because he’d have to figure things out on the way. And he did.
Onward and Upward
The next three days were ghastly. By the night of the Day of the Battle, all survivors had been flown to one of four islands and were well guarded by the Priskya. The task had been exhausting. There were so few fit people to do the job. That still left a great many dead bodies; on the ships, in the cities and even outside the cities where some had apparently wandered off to die.
The Priskya had informed Mathew, in absolute disgust, of the conditions on the prison islands and the shocking conduct of the prisoners. The sick were being pretty much left to look after themselves. They were dying in large numbers but a lot of them were dying also due to neglect. The medical supplies had been delivered to them but many were not being used. Some of the sick had not received their ‘cures’. A few medical staff were still working but many were sick. The main problem was that few of the able bodied were helping.
A very appalled senior Priskya had ordered them to attend to their sick and assured them if they had taken the cures, they would be safe as the sick would no longer be infectious. But that was another problem. She reported back to Sarah, “There was no orderly distribution of the various cures. The able bodied generally snatched at least one dose each. Many of the sick did not get any at all. I was ignored!” She was indignant and angry.
In total, just over 520 had reached the various islands alive. There were injured from the battle among them. Over the next few days, as they died, their bodies were unceremoniously dumped into the sea by the prisoners for the Priskya to deal with. Mindful of future potential allegations, Mathew organized for the Priskya to transport people over to take photos of the neglect and the dumped bodies. The cameras here were varied, but Tue found one that was like a combination of a digital and a Polaroid. You could choose which photos you wanted, then print them out from the camera. It was Mahmoud who figured out how to use these cameras. The Priskya and Human helpers, each day, dragged the bodies out to sea. There were going to be few survivors at this rate.
Once the bodies had all been disposed of from the cities, a rest day and talk fest was organized. The awful cleanup had taken three days due to the shortage of fit personnel. So many were dead or injured. Finally, th
e Cats had joined in. They dragged the bodies out to and into the planes. They hated the job but saw the condition of the Terrans and decided they would have to help and it didn’t matter if they were seen now. On the third day, Kaz, Az and some helpers having finally completed the city Tasha, turned up at one of the other three cities to find the bodies all piled up waiting to be loaded. It was the same with the next two cities. The other three cities were completed within that day and the appalling task was over. The children could now return.
The Healer Machines had been going flat out, both in this city and in some others due to the extra 78 Okme that had been on the starships. One good result of this was that people and Cats came out of the Healers, not needing a hospital. This was the military application. The injured tie up a lot of personnel and equipment. The military switch being applied meant they came out of the machine able to basically look after themselves. In a convalescent state of walking wounded so to speak. Just as well, or the Terrans would have been able to do very little except nurse the injured; there were so many. The Cats were unable to nurse themselves so this combination seriously overtaxed the few medical personnel at first. But everyone helped.
The Priskya had never known the concept of medical care until the Ridianit arrived and set up medical facilities. But there was a difference here. The Ridianit would not consider putting Cats or Priskya in a medical facility. The Terrans automatically treated them and on a priority basis. Those that could wait, waited, regardless of Race.
The talk fest started on the fourth day after the battle. By this time, there were no critical patients left and the Healers were now working on the lesser injuries and re treatment. Those seriously injured where permanent injury would have resulted, were put back into the Healers and the Healers ran a full course. These included Anne, Simone, Tue and many of the Cats. Helkmid assured them all that they would heal fully. Better than new in fact. He warned them it would take a lot of time. Months in Simone’s case. Most of the patients and all of the convalescents made it to the talks. The children had by now returned and went too.
Mathew got up and demanded silence. He got it. “We have so many problems to solve yesterday. Security is, I believe, number one. The Priskya are now incredibly vulnerable to another attack. They have told me that we can move as many Humans as we can into the empty cities whenever we like. It will have to be as soon as possible. Az, these ships will take 10,000 you said. I assume that means 15,000 if we strip them down and take the planes out? We could move one shipload at a time in and put 1000 into each city to care for the city and the surrounding farms. That’s urgent or the buildings will quickly start to deteriorate. We can work this out on the voyage as to who we bring.”
That started an argument as to what type of people should come. Some favoured military, others settlers, but Sarah objected to that,
“Now hold on. If you bring settlers in they will want to be permanent. We need people who will see this as an adventure and they will have to be self supporting but with free accommodation, free goop, free power and free water that shouldn’t be hard. They also must be prepared to fight for this planet.”
That started another debate. Sarah listened as they argued and complained. No-one was listening to anyone else but it was mostly good natured. A thought flashed into her mind and she gasped with the implications. She got to her feet thinking furiously as she did. Patiently, thinking it through, she waited at the front of the room until Mathew paused in his oration.
She quickly stepped up beside him and said, "Hold it! Everybody's forgotten to take a few things into account. Does anyone know how much fuel these ships take, where’s the fuel gauge, how much is in them, how far will that will take us and what it is? How do we make it? How much have we got?
She looked around at a room full of shocked, embarrassed and startled faces She grinned. "I thought not." She realized she now had the floor. She looked at Mathew and laughed.
"And you Mathew have also forgotten something as important; communication! Since the Keulfyd like most races, have their own separate interplanetary and inter ship communication system, the ships can only talk to each other or their home planets, not Earth, Torroxell or Petislay. That'll cause enormous logistical problems. But how's this for solving all our problems at one go?" She paused, thinking furiously.
"First, Az and Kaz, you need to fill one ship with fuel, if possible, and fly it to Petislay. You are the only ones we can trust to send. The Niseyen need to know they have another planet. It would be nice to organise a treaty with them. Looking to the future, maybe a merger? On Torroxell at least.
The prisoners are a security risk and still pose a danger. They need to be dealt with. Maybe by your people? Then there’s fuel. Your people can hopefully fill the tank. We need as much as we can bargain for. At least enough carried back to fuel all the ships up from here to Petislay or Earth and back. Better still the skills, equipment, ingredients etc to make our own fuel if that is possible. If your people are as eager as you say to get rid of this Keulfyd faction then they will probably fall over themselves to help. And the trip there should give you some idea about the range of these ships". She smiled mischievously. "It would be handy to know how far they go on a tank".
Az replied, “We don’t known that and we have so far been unable to find the equivalent of a fuel gauge. We are used to flying small planes and the set-up in these huge ships is different. But we are convinced that between the two of us we can navigate and pilot one to Petislay.”
Sarah nodded, "At the same time, Mathew, you need to take another ship home, with the same goal. And get people to bring food, seeds, plants, food animals etc. I don’t know if our animals could eat the grassy stuff here. Maybe bring concentrates or grass seed. What I wouldn't give for a steak or even a boiled egg! While you travel, we can be thinking up what we need and adding to your shopping list. My main point here is that with a ship here, at Earth and on Petislay, we have a fast communication system between all three."
"Az and Kaz, your planet is closer and you can probably come back first with fuel and the first load, hopefully, of some military types to be a deterrent to another attack and some who know how to run the security system. If it arrives and if your people like the idea. So many ifs. We need technical experts. People will can run the infrastructure. Terra can supply the labourers. Then we take some of the remaining ships and start to ferry your people and their supplies back. By that time, Mathew should be coming back with the first load of Terran volunteers and supplies.
I agree with you Az that your people and the Priskya should be our first priority. Your people need to know who the planet attackers are. This knowledge will be dangerous until it is shared. And there is the danger of the Keulfyd trying to silence us all. I’m very mindful of Helkmid’s allegations. If he is right and your people find out, who knows what could happen?
But the risk to the Priskya, to Torroxell right now, is awful. Someone could attack them again while they are vulnerable. The Defence Shield may help if it gets here and gets operational quick enough. I hope they weren’t one of the ships that was warned off. The Priskya tell me they paid for that Defence Shield.”
“But my main point is this awful political and alliance system. If we join together, we have four planets. At that, we hopefully become too tough to tackle. Especially looking at our huge population on Terra.
"I wonder would it be possible to get the communications systems out of some of those crashed planes so we can maybe adapt them and have a communication systems on all five planets?"
“Probably not,” said Kaz. “Those smaller ships will probably only have ship to ship, not ship to planet.”
Sarah looked at Alan, "Can you start to delegate here? We need people working on all these problems. We also need some explorers, some scientists studying what this planet has and what we can do with it and what we can trade for what we want. The Priskya need a large income to run this Defence Shield and we need to help with this. They tell me some of th
e personnel to run it are very expensive."
Alan smiled, "I'm way ahead of you there. Several of us business types have been discussing what we can sell to trade. On Earth, we'll make a fortune on the fencing system, the sonic cleaners can be used in all sorts of factories, especially electronics and computing, and Mayling reckons the flowers and shrubs will sell for fortunes. But we need to discuss all this with the Priskya. They own it all now. And we don’t understand the currency and banking system here. We don’t know how to sell and does anyone know the Priskya’s bank account number for deposits," he said plaintively to a gale of laughter.
There was a general buzz of conversation for several minutes. The suggestions flowed and so did the enthusiasm.
Sally had been writing furiously. She stood up.
“I’ve made up a list of the services we need. We have all those buildings. Would the Priskya consider free rent for a period for people to get self supporting? I’m thinking of refugees also here. How about free rent for a year? That would allow refugees to come here without impoverishing us or ripping off the Priskya. Considering that many refugees already come from war zones, we should be able to find a heck of a lot that will come. I’m sorry to stress this point but the news media is actually understating the problem now. Millions have died in the last few years and it’s getting worse. And the faster we increase the population here, the faster the risk to Torroxell decreases. Az tells me if we empty out the planes, these ships could take 10,000. And 15,000 if we cram them in. That’s a refugee camp emptied.
And I agree we need a police force. How about the police, for now, handle policing, conservation and treaty issues? But the huge thing we need is to get people to come here. Maybe for a 10 year period? They need to be able to take some profit away too. If they earned it honestly. Leave empty handed if they don’t contribute.” She sat down.
Anne stood up balancing herself carefully. “I have an idea. Don’t howl me down but I think we should have a universal language on Torroxell and it should be Universal. Later on, we can make learning it a priority for us.” There was a lot of loud discussion.
Hold it,” said Alan. I think she’s right. I also have been thinking. We need Allies. We have them! We have four planets of Humans. We need them and they need us! Lack of any Allies is what got the Priskya into this mess in the first place! We have no universal language. The Niseyen do and if we learn it then it helps communication for all. Every person coming to Torroxell can speak any language or languages they like but the official and universal language should be Universal. It will solve so many problems in one go.”
Bea stood up, “And someone needs to look after the animals here. The ones in all the other cities too. The animals that weren’t gassed. They’re stuck in paddocks and some must have run out of food and water.” There were a few red faces and guilty looks.
Ilse and Julia stood up together and offered to help. Mahmoud and Donny were also recruited to attend to this now as they could drive the ground cars. Bea and Bella wanted to help too. They all raced off.
Anne slowly dragged herself up again, “Has anyone tried to contact the other survivors, the Kepis and the others we know of? Someone needs to tell them the war is over and WE WON!” she yelled to cheers from everyone else. “I’d also like to try searching for the Hoekfyds and Clets. I think some of them could have survived.”
A whistle went up from one of the Priskya’s, they quietened to listen.
“You have been making some basic assumptions that are wrong. There is much to explain. Where to begin.” She paused. “ You invited us here to this meeting to determine the future direction of Torroxell. You also invited the Cats and the Okme. No People have ever asked for our input before. Within two days of your arrival here, one of your leaders was introducing herself to us. Your People, particularly your children, helped transport us to classes and talked to us. Few others did this. None ever did transporting without first asking for money. First your children, and then the adults, removed the things you call flukes, which cause so much pain and illness for our species. It is so hard and sometimes impossible for us to remove these. One of your children rigged up a large bell for us so we could ring for attention or help. There was a flag to signal if others wanted to talk to us but never a way for us to communicate to others when we wanted to. No one ever thought of that before. When we ring, someone answers and helps us, usually your children.
We watched as your children protected and played with our precious balloons. There used to be countless millions of them. They have been slaughtered despite our protests as have many others of the species on Torroxell. The creatures you call Cats, watched as you, Sarah, freed hundreds of baby balloons despite thinking you may have been at risk from the adults. Your people do not drive through the balloons as others do. You get out and move them out of the way. Your children thought to make rails for the babies to hold onto in the wind. No one ever thought of that before. Your vet repaired a huge gash in one of the big adults the second day she was here. It lives. No People have ever done that. The Cats tell us you treated them in your medical facilities and made no distinctions between them and your own people. This attitude is not unknown but it is rare.
Three groups, separately, established communication with the Cats. No People have ever done this before.
We invited many of you to meet us and almost all of you turned up. You are curious and so are we. You have made friends with every People you could as we have wished to do. You saved our lives when you thought you were all going to die. You thought you would die but you could at least save us. By doing so many of you saved yourselves but you did not know that at first. You seem to value all life as we do. You puzzle us greatly. We do not understand you. So much goodness, so much potential, yet so much aggression and so good at warfare.
We have been talking a lot with your children and have found out a great deal, including some of your international law. We asked about Treaties. We have been told they have not always been honoured at the time but many have been revisited. You seem to be basically honest. The problem appears to the motivation of those who draw up the treaties.
We were tricked and lost our trust and innocence but have decided we want to trust you. You are protective of us. You are excellent fighters. We want to organise a Treaty with you to give you most of the land and what is on it so long as certain conditions are met. Are you interested?”
There was a chorus of startled and enthusiastic yeses.
“You would get the cities and surrounding land and share the rivers and lakes. The Cats want the mountains, foothills and some other lands and will negotiate separately with you. You would have access to the sea with our consent. The children suggest a quota system. In return you will protect us and the other creatures of Torroxell. The Defence Shield should have arrived by now. We paid for it. If it does arrive, you will maintain, monitor, upgrade, and run this system.”
“Oh my God,” said Sarah. “That makes five planets we can live on. So long as the Niseyen agree of course. Az and Kaz, that’s your job. Convince them.
There was a break as Sarah talked to the Priskya and ensured she understood what they meant. While this was going on, someone was organizing food. Sarah summed up for everyone.
“The land and everything on it would be able to be used by us apart from what the Cats want. A planet, we can live on with only a condition of protection and free access for the Priskya to all facilities and services as of right! The Priskya stress medical facilities, education and free access for them and the Cats to all services and facilities. They also want the free accommodation for Amphibians, Trogs, Avians and tree dwellers, who want to come here to study, to remain. They explained that it is almost an exclusion policy to charge these groups exorbitant accommodation fees on other educational planets. And often there is no suitable accommodation for them. Effectively, that excludes most of them. Only the very richest of them can afford the study. This is very important. Treaty laws change a lot. Again this is
apparently deliberate. If we allow free accommodation, these people can come here, learn the laws, keep up with the changes, and get ripped off less often. I gather we will be getting a lot of wannabe lawyers and accountants. The Priskya know who to contact in the way of tutors and lecturers. They are mourning the loss of so many in the attack. Apparently some of these tutors were very highly paid but others did it as a type of gap year. A year of free services. These were tutors of varying experience. Ironically, one here, in this city, was a Keulfyd. This was her second year here. Some were professors. Philanthropy is not dead. Oh and as an aside, all the cities on this planet were named by the developers or occupants. We have free reign to rename them all!” There was more laughter as she sat down and went back to the Priskya. The Ridianit, as the developers, had named all the cities. So far, not one city name had been pronounceable.
There was a lot of murmuring and munching as people tried to absorb all these changes, along with lunch. Some of the other kids that had gone out to help with the animals straggled back reporting that none of them knew what to do with the ones that ate imported food. The kids had decided to let them go. They might be able to find their own food. The Cats might like them… The others were let loose to fend for themselves. There was the problem of all the dead animals in the paddocks near the city. But most of them had been further out with the vegetation paddocks being the closest to the city.
Sarah got up again. “Sorry everyone, more to absorb. The Priskya say that Interplanetary Law is mostly our old maxim, ‘Possession is 9/10th of the Law’ and ‘To the Victors go the Goodies’. They say I misunderstood. They weren’t lending or giving us anything. Interplanetary Law says we are entitled to a share of this planet. Whew! I think I’ve got it right this time.”
She took a deep breath. “Once war commenced, under Interplanetary Law, the planet didn’t even belong to the Priskya any more. It belonged to whoever won. If more than one Race won, it then became proportional. This is because we all worked together rather than one of us employing or contracting the others. That part is very significant legally. If we take this literally, Mathew estimated that the Priskya, at their greatest effort, had a network spread out surrounding the planet, watching and relaying information. Their contribution was in the billions. There were only two Niseyen. But their contribution was vital. We would not have succeeded without them.
As I understand it, five Races helped win this war; Human, Priskya, Cats, Niseyen and Okme. The planet should be divided up proportionally to those who contributed to success whether they died or survived. The ones who participated. When you look at it that way, it was a joint effort. The Okme gave us the major weapons, we invented the minor ones, the Priskya and Cats were the Spys, the Cats, Humans and Niseyen fought, the Niseyen were the Pilots. The Humans were the planners and organizers. This was truly a joint effort. We would not have succeeded without the combination. Therefore we need to include the Okme in the Treaty. We do not need to include the other survivors in the other cities as they did not participate. That includes the Kepi as they also did not help.
Officially, the Priskya were by far the greatest number. Like Mathew said, billions of them formed almost a chain around the planet supplying information. The Cats were the next numerous, then Humans, Okme and Niseyen. But we would not have succeeded without all of us. I vote we throw it open. The Priskya agree, in fact they suggested this. Forget the numbers. To survive, we need as many here as possible, as soon as possible.”
Mathew stood up. “While everyone is here, we have something else to consider, What do we do with the Niseyen that fought against us in this war? There are eleven Niseyen pilots and two medical personnel. The pilots would normally all be accused of murder and executed for the enormity of what they did. They are currently slaves but that does not sit well with most of us Humans. I would ask you to consider that but also consider we now have seven ships. We urgently need all of these but have no pilots for six. Az and Kaz tell us they can fly these enormous ships but not legally and it will take both of them to fly one. We have enough pilots if we use these slaves as we had already decided to do. It is not unusual to have highly trained people who are slaves. That was what Paswalda wanted us to become. I will hand over to Kaz to explain.”
“You must be careful how you treat them and guard them well. Mathew explained you have no knowledge of the complicated legal relationship either. My suggestion is that we use them to fly the ships. Then, as soon as we have enough Niseyen pilots, we fly them on to one of the Niseyen planets, give them a set of clothes and dump them. My reason for this is that they may be a security risk, they could contact the Keulfyd. They could be genuinely sorry for what they have done but we must not forget the horrific thing these pilots did do. We cannot trust them.
I have much less worries about the two medical personnel. I don’t see their contribution as being so bad. They didn’t kill anyone. They would have had the same choice Az and I did as I have spoken to them all and all were engaged in the same war we were. Interesting isn’t it? The Keulfyd picked up an awful lot of their mercenaries, pilots and support personnel from that little skirmish. Az and I are now extremely suspicious that the Keulfyd somehow tipped the balance in that war claiming as their fee, personnel and slaves for this job and who knows what else.” He sat down.
Sarah got up. “OK, who votes we use them until they are replaced then dump them? All in favour?” She looked around, “Against? Carried. Unanimous. Kaz, you tell them. That hopefully will ensure their temporary loyalty. Oh, and they are not allowed to return here, to Torroxell, as settlers, ever.” She sat down.
Alan got up. “We need to sort out what to do with the survivors. Numbers and location unknown.”
Az stood up. “There is a fee generally paid to take survivors to the nearest safe planet. When I mentioned this to Sarah she didn’t like the idea. So, since we will have a lot of spare room in the return journeys, I suggest we take them to whichever Niseyen world we are going to next and hand them all over to their respective embassies or compatriots. No fee. But they will have to wait. They also could be a security risk. We are way outnumbered. I suggest they leave on the ships that come here from Niseyen worlds and will be returning empty but well crewed. The Kepi I gather we trust?” He looked around to see nods, “OK, we’ll arrange for them to be able to contact their ship and demand it returns. Or perhaps we return them for free via a returning ship? Their planet is sort of on the way to one of ours. Another possibility is that I will see if any of them can fly and if so we could fix a ship for them. I have also asked the Cats to help with some Zeobani I found, and to search for others.
The prisoners are a problem. The best solution here I would suggest is to hand them over to the Niseyen military. Not your problem any more.”
“What will they do with them?’ asked Sarah?
“Do you really want to know?” asked Kaz softly.
Sarah shuddered. “But it would solve the problem and would relieve the problem of feeding them and the Priskya guarding them. They remain the highest security risk and they still far outnumber us even though many have died.”
The decisions made, they couldn’t immediately act on them. Small inconvenience of all the Torroxell communication satellites blown up. But Sarah had been talking to Az and to the Okme who knew a lot about communication systems.
“The Keulfyd spaceship communication system can be used, but only ship to ship within the Fleet. This was so any little discrete military operations, legal or otherwise, could remain secret. Bit of a problem if someone in another Keulfyd spaceship or planet heard something she/he shouldn’t have. Apparently the Communication Officer was the only one, apart from the Captain, who was authorized, or able, to send messages anywhere except ship to ship and between these specific ships only. The system is locking us out. To convert this, we would first have to sort out how the system worked. Luckily, the Niseyen can. But not the ones here. This took very good geeks. Probably very expensive ones?” She looked a
t Kaz who nodded.
Sarah declared the meeting over for now but again, everyone was to think of anything else that should be a priority or problem or solution. Little Bea jumped up waving her arms.
“I have an idea. Could we ask the Cats to look after the animals until there are enough of us to do it?” She walked over and touched one of them. She smiled, “She says they will but can we hurry up and get People here to take over. The animals are afraid of them so it will be difficult.” There was some laughter as people pictured that. But it would solve that problem.
“Hey the Cats can solve another problem, please. We now have still this extremely good, safe, planet wide communication system. Can the Cats please locate and monitor where the survivors are and let us know which need help. There must be some who can live off the land as we do. Maybe allocate someone to co-ordinate this?” Mahmoud sat down to a round of applause. He stood up again and bowed.
“Good idea, said Sarah. “You are now the Survivors Co-ordinator.”
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