And What of Earth?

by Stuart Collings

  Her eyes drifted back to Jimmy. He was pulling something out. The Emperor was looking skyward, what Myka had done when he was trying to make a decision the first night. She looked back at Jimmy. Crap!

  Everything seemed to be in slow motion. She took three steps to her right and dove, twisting her body so her torso would be between the Emperor and the crowd. “NO-O-O-O-O-O!” she yelled.

  She felt the impact, dead center in her chest, then heard the bang. As she fell back to the ground at the end of her leap, she kept saying “I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m dead.” She hit the artificial turf, and gasped for breath. There was complete and total silence in the stadium. No one moved. No one made a sound.

  Jennifer sucked air into her lungs. The pain subsided. Opening her eyes, she looked up to see the Emperor looking down at her. “I’m not dead,” she said confused. She kipped up to her feet, looked the Emperor in the eye and declared “I’m not dead!” What was that traditional right that Poke taught her? What was it called?

  “Father! I demand the right of capture!” Without waiting, she masked and turned. As she strode over to the west sideline, she slapped her hip. “Weapon!” she said, and it appeared encompassing her lower arm. She pointed it at a stunned Jimmy Rogers. “Put the rifle down, Jimmy!” she shouted at him.

  The muzzle of his rifle started drifting downward. She was a few feet from the sideline — still a good 80 feet from where he sat, transfixed by her appearance and her approach. “You should be dead,” he said, completely taken aback.

  She was near the base of the seats. “Put the rifle down now, Jimmy. I broke your arm before. I swear I’ll kill you if I have to. Put it down!” The weapon wanted to fire. Projectiles. No! she told it. That seat there. Short burst, just to show him what you can do.

  A wooden seat back disintegrated into splinters as several dozen projectiles flying at hypersonic velocity shredded it in a half a second, then embedded themselves deep into the packed soil that the stands were anchored in. She pointed the weapon in Jimmy’s direction again. “Your head will be like that seat back before you even realize that I’ve fired, Jimmy. Put it down. Now!” The rifle clattered as it bounced down three rows of seats. An MP hurried over and picked it up. Jennifer was now just a few feet away.

  “You should be dead,” he said in a whisper. “It hit you in the breastbone.”

  “I know. It hurt.” She pushed the muzzle of her weapon into his midsection and leaned over him. “You idiot! You moron!” she hissed. “What were you thinking? You’ve got a brain — I saw you actually use it when I taught you math! You’ve ruined everything! I’ve been working so hard to keep us all alive and you frickin’ try to assassinate the Emperor! Why? Why would you do something so completely stupid as to try and kill the Emperor?”

  “I didn’t want you to go,” he whispered.

  “You didn’t want me to go?!” she echoed, incredulous.

  “Candy said that they were kidnapping you. I had to try and stop them.”

  This time, she didn’t whisper. “Candy said? Candy said?! Are you crazy?! You must be if you believed her! I’m not being kidnapped! I volunteered to go. I don’t want to go, but I volunteered. I can’t believe you fell for her lies. Crap!” Her voice dropped back down to a whisper. “Dammit, Jimmy. You’ve just ruined everything. What did you think they would do? Get back on their ships and go home crying? No! They’d kill everyone on the field, they’d kill everyone watching from Emerald and Thorn, including my dad, then they’d lift off and destroy Jewel and the rest of the whole fricking world! You nimrod!”

  “Jenny, please don’t talk to me that way.”

  She looked down at him and sighed. “Oh crap, Jimmy. They’re going to kill us all for sure, now.” She hesitated then said, “Play along with me. Maybe I’ll be able to save us. Maybe even keep you alive.” She grabbed his left ear, twisted it and pulled him to his feet.

  “Oww! Jenny! That hurts!” She said nothing. She used her grip on his ear to get him down from the stands and onto the football field. “Ow, ow! Jenny! Let go! It hurts!”

  “Silence!” she screamed at him. She walked him over to where the Emperor stood. Everyone else was silent. Frozen in place. “Kneel!” she yelled at him. When he didn’t obey immediately, she kicked him in the back of his left knee, which caused his leg to buckle. “I said kneel!” She looked at the Emperor. What was the other right she had to insist on? Think Jenn!

  “Father, I have completed the capture. I insist on the right of disposition.”

  “You have that right, Daughter.”

  She looked to her right and saw an MP standing nearby. “Lieutenant!” she called.

  He hurried over, and stood behind Jimmy to her right. “Yes Ma’am!”

  She put the muzzle of her weapon into the base of Jimmy’s skull and let go of him. She beckoned the MP to bring his own ear close. “Take this idiot and hide him somewhere. Let General Comiston do whatever he chooses to do later,” she whispered. “Ignore whatever I tell you to do aloud. Understood?”

  He brought his head back up. “Yes Ma’am!”

  “Lieutenant, take this miscreant away, and prepare him for execution.”

  “Yes Ma’am. Right away.” Two other MPs hurried over and bundled Jimmy away. Jimmy screamed as they dragged him across the field toward the stairs. “Jenny! Jenny! Wait! Jenny!”

  She ordered the weapon to hide, then turned back to face the Emperor. “Father, on behalf of my species, I want to apologize —.” She stopped. His eyes were wide in surprise. They seemed to be focused on the middle of her chest. “Father? What are you staring at?” She looked down and saw an expanding circle of red. “Oh crap! I’m bleeding!”

  She then felt a tingling of her skin, just like her incident with Wally just over a week previous. She looked at her left arm, and saw that it too was turning red.

  The Emperor’s face registered both shock and dismay. “This cannot be,” he whispered. “This is much too soon.”

  In ones and twos, the other Wakira on the field started dropping to their knees and placing their faces into the artificial turf.

  “Father, what is happening? Why is the symbiote changing color again?” She looked down again; her entire torso was red, and most of her legs as well.

  “The symbiote —” he hesitated, as if being unable to complete the thought. “The symbiote has just appointed you Mother.”

  “She’s what? She can’t do that. I’m not ready yet. I haven’t even learned what the different ship types are, let alone how many we have in the fleets.” Jennifer paused. This is the opportunity that Dad told me to expect. But what can I do? The Mother’s responsibility is protect and nurture. The Emperor has everything else, including interstellar relations. He can still destroy the Earth if he wants, and I won’t be able to stop him. Unless —.

  “Father, at this very instant, am I the Mother of the Wakira?”

  His face was drawn, as if his heart was broken. “Yes,” he said quietly, now staring into her mask.

  Oh God!, she thought. Please help me to do this right. If I mess up, we’ll all die! She started speaking in the dominant voice. “Father, given my extensive knowledge and experience with the Terran species —.” She hesitated again. Once I say the words, I can’t undo them. “After my years of experience with this species, I am compelled to agree with the findings of the survey.” There. Did I interpret the division of powers right?

  His expression changed from one of dismay to surprise.

  She switched to the command voice — the one only the Mother can speak. The one that requires obedience. “However, I have chosen to not exterminate this species. This planet will not be destroyed. This species will not be harmed. In order to protect my children and the Empire, I impose a quarantine on this star system. No unauthorized vessels may enter or leave this system. The Terrans will be permitted — encouraged — to travel to the natural satellite, to the other planets, even to the cometary cloud at the edge of the system. But no farther. Will yo
u obey Father?”

  “You know that I must.”

  She switched back to dominant. “We both know that this species will not be able to attempt an interstellar voyage for at least 200 years. This will give them time to mature — to become more like the Wakira. Honorable. Obedient. Generous.” She almost choked on the last word. Once again, she spoke in command. “In order to ensure that they will never be a true threat to the Empire in the future, we will engage the Terrans. We will mentor them. We will gently and carefully manipulate their development so that they will end up being friends and allies, not a threat. You are to establish a liaison office, an embassy, here. It is to be staffed by Wakira who are in service. I leave it up to you, Father, how to accomplish the objective that I have just set out.” She switched to the common voice. “Did I do that right?” she asked him. “Or did I overstep my responsibilities?”

  He didn’t answer right away. His eyes were looking upward. When they returned to looking into her mask, he said, “I can see no flaw in your commands. Even where it might be outside your authority, you managed to phrase it so that it is. Once again, my son has proven that he was right about this situation. And about you.”

  “This is the only way to protect my children and the Empire. Destroying Terra would have meant civil war and the destruction of the Empire. Yet, I am mindful of the dangers my species may pose to my children in the future.” There was a pause, then she added, “I am sorry that I had to speak in the command voice to you Father. I find the concept abhorrent. I still cannot believe that the symbiote would appoint me already. I promise you that I will do my best, Father. For you, the Empire and for my children. I will not be an adversary. I will be your servant.”

  His face and his voice were grave. “I thank you, Daughter. These will be perilous times for the Empire, as you learn all that you will need to know. Perilous times.”

  “Must we leave now, Father?”

  He raised his left hand and did the affirmative gesture. “The vice-chancellor of the Andante Federation insisted on a meeting with me. As a provocation, he also insisted that it take place late in the afternoon of the first day of Reflection. We have to leave within moments for me to get there in time. And, now that you are our Mother, you must be on Homeworld as soon as is possible.”

  “I will say my farewells” she had to use the English term “quickly. I have a suggestion and a request to make Father. The suggestion is that the first Wakira to staff the new embassy be males that served on the survey mission. They have experience in dealing with Terrans, and are familiar with many who live here in this settlement. My request involves those who are supposed to be on leave for Reflection. I ask, Father, that you give the orders necessary that would get them to their destinations on time, or as soon thereafter as possible. Please.”

  “Both are very reasonable, Daughter. I will make arrangements to have the Embassy established in the building behind us, and staffed with males who interact well with you Terrans. And it is my duty to our god to ensure that those entitled to experience Reflection get to do so.” With that, he turned and walked back onto the ship.

  In a loud voice, she said in their language, “Stand my children. Report to your superiors. You will be given new orders shortly. Those who were to go on leave for Reflection will do so. You may be a day or two late, unfortunately. But you will get to your destination as quickly as is possible.” As they followed her instructions, she unmasked, turned, and walked across to where the governor and general were standing.

  “Should I call my wife, Miss Hodges?”

  Jennifer was awash with conflicting emotions — relief, ecstasy, and despair. “You should always tell your wife that you love her, Governor. Geez, men!” she giggled. She then turned to the General. “I should be dead Frank. I don’t know what the heck happened, but I should be dead. I felt an impact in my chest, but I’m unhurt. It’s as if when the bullet hit the symbiote, she sent it elsewhere. I guess I felt the pressure wave hit me but the bullet and its inertia never touched me.” Jennifer tried to slow her heart rate back down to normal. “I’m giddy, yet I’m feeling waves of sadness at the thought of having to leave.”

  “Does this mean we’re safe?” Comiston asked her.

  She nodded while still struggling to take control of her emotions. “Turns out one of my hold cards was a red queen. And in this weird game, a red queen trumps them all.”

  “A red queen trumps them all? Does this mean that you are the new Mother of the Empire?”

  She fought to not giggle uncontrollably. “Yep. God help the Empire. Fortunately for us, it happened then. In order to be able to seize authority from the Emperor, I had to do the unthinkable. I had to declare us to be a threat to the Empire.”

  “Jenn?! Was that wise?”

  “Being named a threat meant that I could determine what was required for the safety of Empire. I had to do something; I couldn’t just leave everything as they were before they arrived. So, there’s going to be a quarantine. We won’t be allowed to leave the solar system. We can visit any planet we want to. We just can’t leave. Not until we’re mature. Golden rule type of mature. Since we won’t be in a position to build a ramscoop ship for a couple hundred years, I’m hoping that that will buy our species enough time. Once whoever is the Mother at that time decides that we Terrans are now safe, the quarantine will be rescinded. Which brings me to favors that I have to ask of you, Governor.

  “The Wakira will be establishing an embassy here in Jewel. The Emperor has decided to take the word ‘here’ literally. The embassy will be in the high school behind the east stands. So, I need you to get the President to make the area bounded by the barrier territory of the Wakira. People living in the houses behind the barrier will be allowed to continue to do so. They will be allowed to transfer ownership to family members, if no cash is exchanged. If they want to sell the house, they must sell it to the Empire. I’ll make sure that we pay top prices. Now, school starts in 3 weeks. We’ll need portables here in time for the start of school, and a new high school built as soon as possible.”

  “The President has already said that however much money is needed to be spent because of their visit, we’ll get. They’ll get their new school. We’ll rush construction.”

  “The construction jobs will be most welcome here in Jewel, Governor. There’s been almost no employment here for over 3 years.”

  Comistion interjected. “I’ve got trailers sitting about 50 miles away. They would work as class portables. How many classrooms are there — were there — in the school?”

  Jennifer felt the ecstasy evaporating. “Ummmm, 22 classes, 2 offices, a teachers’ lounge, a library and a gym with locker rooms. Kinda small for a school.”

  “We’ll be able to manage that. We can get them set up next to where the temporary hospital will be established. I’ve been told that that was where the old Hojo was located. They should be in place in a week.”

  “And furnished and supplied a week after that, Miss Hodges,” the governor added.

  “I thank you, Governor.” She turned back to the General. “I’m going to miss our chats, Frank. I’ve grown up so much in the last few weeks, just from our discussions. You’ve helped me to better understand how to analyze situations, and develop courses of action. I had thought that I could already do that perfectly, but you showed me that I had been deceiving myself all this time. For that, and the lunches,” she smiled brightly, “and for your concern and your patience, I thank you. I WAS a head-in-the-clouds kid when we first met. I’m a little better grounded now.” As they hugged, she whispered in his ear “Pray for me.” As they pulled back, she added, “and take better care of that diabetes.”

  “How did you know?”

  “Your breath. You haven’t been monitoring your sugar levels. It’ll kill you if you keep that up.” Her face screwed up, the joy and relief now gone, with just the despair of knowing that she was about to leave her home. “Take care of Bethy and Barb for me? Assuming you’ll be staying her
e.”

  “I am. And I will.” He looked over her shoulder. “You’d better hurry. They look like they’re almost ready to go.”

  She turned around and saw that he was right. “Crap! Goodbye Frank. Governor.” She scanned the field and saw the Stones and ran over to them. “I gotta go!” she told them hurriedly. “I’m going to miss you two so much!” They took turns hugging her. “David, I kinda sorta expropriated the school. It’s now the new Imperial Embassy. Frank Comiston said he’d have trailers installed at the Hojo in a week, and the Governor has promised all the equipment in time for the new school year. And a new high school will be built, I guess, for next year.”

  David hugged her again. “Don’t worry. We can do a year in portables if it means getting a new building. We weren’t going to be able to keep making repairs to the old building for much longer.” He looked her in the eyes. “Believe in yourself, Jenny. Even when it seems like everything is going to be too much for you, believe in yourself. You’ve only just scratched the surface of your potential.” He kissed her on the forehead.

  “Take care of my dad for me, please? He says that he’s much better than before, but he may have just been saying that.”

  “Don’t worry, Jenny,” Amelia said, “we’ll keep our eye on him. And invite him over to dinner frequently.”

  “The army is going to be putting money into my bank account here. Dad has my debit card. If he forgets the PIN number, I changed it to the year I was born. 1997.” She looked back at the ship; most of the aliens had already boarded. “Crap! I gotta go. There’s bound to be some sort of communications link between the Embassy and the palace. Call me. I beg you to call me. It won’t matter what time it is there, day or night, call. I’ll need to see human faces and hear human voices. And get my dad to call me too. I’ll make sure that those on duty will know you by sight. I love you two. Pray for me.”