Changing of the Guard (A Galaxy Unknown - Book 11)

by Thomas DePrima

  Day-to-day governorship of Regions Two and Three was now in the hands of civilian administrators who had arrived with the G.A. Senate. Since all civilian employees were required to live in homes built on the government housing campus rather than on the military reservation, Jenetta's home on Quesann had remained vacant during her absence.

  As the limousine lifted off with its escort and trailing security vehicles, Jenetta whimsically wished she could drive herself. She knew she'd never have an opportunity to pilot a ship again, at least not while she remained in the position of Admiral of the Fleet. Some people appreciated being chauffeured everywhere, but she longed for the days when she could occasionally jump into her private fighter on Quesann and zip through winding canyons on land or wave-hop across the oceans at maximum atmospheric speed. Her position allowed her to simply order that she be given control of the vehicle, but it wouldn't be seemly and would probably wound the egos of the people chosen to chauffeur her.

  When the small convoy of vehicles approached the location of her home, no building was visible at that location. It appeared merely to be a small park with lovely gardens. When someone in the lead vehicle gave the proper identification, the protective bubble dissolved and the house and real grounds became visible. The security vehicles then broke off and returned to other duties as Jenetta's limo landed on the pad near the front entrance of the house. The protective bubble immediately reappeared to hide the house from the eyes of anyone outside the perimeter of the grounds.

  The bubble wasn't merely a disguise. It was also a force field that would cause any vehicle or object attempting to penetrate the grounds to lose all power and crash as it tried to cross the perimeter or to explode before it could penetrate the barrier if it was a weapon. Oh-gee vehicles that strayed from the designated driving paths had to fly high enough to avoid the invisible protective domes covering homes on the military base and the government housing areas. And anyone flying high enough to avoid the domes would immediately find themselves being chased by security vehicles or aircraft.

  As the limo set down on the pad outside the house, a security officer hurried from the house to lend any assistance required. Normally, security personnel remained hidden from family view, but there were times when they emerged to offer help with carrying luggage or whatever bundles the residents carried.

  Upon entering the house, Jenetta headed first to the nursery on the third floor. She found Ruby and Jake playing on the carpeted floor with Kaycee and Kyle. The children, now six months of age, were naturally as helpless as any Terran child at that age. The young Jumakas, having just celebrated their first birthday, had almost reached their full adult size, but they were as gentle with the children as they had been when they were still kittens. And they loved playing with the twins. Kyle was presently atop Jake, who was lying on his back so Jake couldn't move, but Ruby ran over to greet Jenetta, Cayla, and Tanya. Celona, the Nordakian maid who had come with them to help with the children, stood as Jenetta entered the room.

  "Celona, I've told you that you don't have to jump up when I enter the room."

  "My parents taught me I must always show the proper respect, Your Grace, no matter how close we become. I'd feel very uncomfortable not standing."

  "I understand," Jen said with a sad look. Turning towards the young Jumaka, Jenetta smiled and said, "Hi, Ruby. Are you and Kaycee having fun?"

  "Hello, Jenetta," the young Jumaka said, the words issuing from her collar translator. "Yes. I love playing with Kaycee, but I wish she could talk with me."

  "I know, dear. It may be another year before she can have conversations with you, but it will come. Just be patient."

  "I will. Momma has explained it to me. You know, I can't imagine how you all got along before you made our collars. I'd go crazy if I couldn't talk with Terrans."

  "It would have been wonderful if I could have spoken with Tayna and Cayla from the start of our time together, but we managed to communicate and show our love for each other in other ways."

  "Jenetta told the people at the meeting today that she wants us to be treated as equals with Terrans and all other intelligent races in the G.A.," Cayla said.

  "Aren't we already treated as equals?" Kaycee asked.

  "In this house and on Obotymot, always. But outside the grounds here, you might find people who will react to you as if they'd just encountered a deadly beast. You've been fortunate not to have been exposed to the treatment we knew at your age, and Jenetta says it will continue to get better for Jumakas now."

  "It won't happen overnight," Jenetta said. "It may take a little time, but it will slowly get better until all Jumakas are accepted as sentient beings with all the rights and privileges Terrans enjoy." Walking to where Kaycee was sitting, she picked up her daughter, checked her diaper, then hugged her gently. She then smiled widely as she held the child at face level just slightly away from her body. "How's my beautiful little girl today? Are you having fun playing with Ruby?"

  Kaycee stared back at Jenetta and smiled, obviously not understanding a word but fully understanding the expression of love, caring, and gentleness directed towards her from her mother.

  Jenetta then moved over to where Kyle was lying atop Jake. "And how are you today, Jake?" she asked.

  "Hi, Jenetta," the young male Jumaka said, looking up from the floor. "I'm fine. Welcome home."

  "Thank you. How are you and Kyle getting along today?"

  "Good. He's getting strong. When he pulls on my belly fur now, I can really feel it."

  "Just be patient with him. He doesn't understand yet that it hurts a little."

  "Oh, it doesn't hurt. At least not yet. Perhaps in another year it will."

  Jenetta smiled. "Hopefully by then we'll be able to make him understand that he shouldn't pull it at all."

  "I don't mind."

  "Good."

  Just then the door opened and Jenetta's mother entered the room.

  "Ah, you're home at last, dear. We've been holding dinner. Come on, everyone. Dinner is ready."

  Celona picked up Kyle, checked his diaper, and began walking with the other adults towards the door while Ruby and Jake raced out of the room at breakneck speed. They needed to stretch their legs after hours of lounging in the nursery while they played with and watched over Kaycee and Kyle.

  Jenetta had accepted the promotion of Admiral of the Fleet solely because of the children. She could perform her duties with the military and still be home most evenings to be with her kids, just like other working moms with more normal jobs. During the day, her mother, her maid Celona who had requested she be allowed to accompany them, and the two young Jumakas would watch over and protect her progeny. If that wasn't enough, there was always a squadron of Marines on duty in and around the house to protect the occupants of the home and the staff.

  ~

  "When were you going to tell us, dear?" Annette Carver said as they began to enjoy their meal.

  "Tell you what, Momma?" Jenetta replied.

  "About Jimmy's promotion to Captain, that his new command was a brand-new destroyer, and about the ship being assigned to the Second Fleet at Quesann."

  "You already knew. I heard from Jimmy today and he said he was sending the news to everyone in the family."

  "Why didn't you tell us his promotion was pending?"

  "I didn't know. I was pretty involved with managing the immigrant situation at home and dealing with a mission for King Tpalsh, so I fell behind on reading the Admiralty Board minutes. I'm still trying to catch up."

  "What was it you did for the king, dear? You never told us."

  "My mission was to give the President of Dakistee a formula developed on Nordakia that would cure the planetary sterility problem plaguing the Dakistians, while at the same time cementing a new bond of friendship between Dakistee and Nordakia."

  "And did you complete the missions?"

  "I believe so. Only time will tell if it lasts. The President of Dakistee maintains a lot of personal hostility toward
s the people of Nordakia, even though the ones who wronged her people died twenty centuries ago. I'm afraid I might have angered her myself because I had to resort to a sort of blackmail to accomplish my mission. But it was the only way to help her people and ours."

  "Blackmail?"

  "Sort of. I told her we had the cure for her planet's problem but that she would have to mend fences with Nordakia if she wanted to receive it. I told her she must first appear before planet-wide media and declare her friendship with the Nordakian people and announce that they were forever welcome on Dakistee. Only then would the ambassador from Nordakia turn over the cure."

  "And she agreed to that?"

  "Yes, she agreed. Reluctantly. And she made a face like I had forced her to drink a gallon of lemon concentrate at one sitting."

  "Do you think she'll stand by her word?"

  "She's a politician. Who can know what politicians will do or how long they'll stand by their solemn promises? Most will turn on a dime when it's in their personal interests to ignore everything they've promised. But at least she declared in front of the national media that Nordakia has provided the cure to the sterility problem and that it didn't cost them a single G.A. credit. The people will remember, even if the politicians conveniently forget."

  "Wonderful. I'm sure that when she thinks it over, she'll be glad you forced her to do the right thing. By the way, when can we expect Jimmy to arrive here at Quesann?"

  "If everything is found to be satisfactory when he completes the initial space trials with the new ship, he'll be directed to proceed to Quesann. The voyage to Region Two will provide them with a good shakedown cruise where the crew will have an opportunity to get comfortable with other crewmembers while not having a bunch of shipyard inspectors constantly looking over their shoulders and watching their every movement during duty hours. Jimmy should arrive here in less than six months if everything goes well."

  "That would be wonderful. It's been such a long time since he's been able to come home for a visit."

  ~ ~ ~

  Aliana Shanara grimaced and kicked off her heels as she entered her apartment after a hard day at the office. As she walked over to her favorite chair in the living room and plopped into its soft comfort, she ordered a tumbler of scotch on the rocks from her automated butler.

  Aliana wanted to return to her Mikel Arneu appearance, or even a male with another identity, but she remained stuck in the body of a woman because the Upper Council refused to allow her to change back into a male. Their latest comment was that she was so much more pleasant as a woman. Besides that, the full transformation back to a male could sideline her for as much as a year. Since Aliana had first been appointed to head the Lower Council, she had been known throughout the organization as a cast-iron bitch who never gave an inch or smiled even once during the workday. It was rumored she derived pleasure from sneering and cursing out her subordinates. One thing that could not be argued was that the company had become significantly more profitable since she'd been appointed to the position. The Upper Council certainly didn't want that to change. Aliana knew that if she simply let the profits slide in a disguised effort to be replaced, the Upper Council would most likely dispose of her rather than fire her. So she was stuck as she was unless the Upper Council suddenly had a change of heart. And since Aliana knew that the Upper Council members had no hearts, she would only be able to get away if the entire Upper Council ceased to exist. That thought was never very far from her mind, but she knew the entire Upper Council would have to die at the same time, and a means of accomplishing that had so far eluded Aliana.

  While she waited for her scotch, she turned on the evening news. It was a good thing she hadn't yet received the tumbler of scotch when the top story of the day was reported or it would have been decorating the whole-wall media screen after the tumbler smashed against it. The story announced that Admiral Jenetta Carver had been promoted to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet and had just conducted her first Admiralty Board meeting. Shanara scowled because she knew Carver was almost definitely beyond her reach now— at least for a number of years. The Admiral of the Fleet was always surrounded by a plethora of security people whenever he or she was out in public, an occasion that was in itself very rare. But neither Aliana nor Jenetta would die a natural death for thousands of years, so Aliana would just bide her time until another opportunity presented itself.

  The news station was actually reporting events that had occurred days earlier because the Admiralty Board was now ensconced on the new base at Quesann. When the Board had been on Earth, the news reached the planet Centrasia, where the Raider headquarters was located, in just one day. Naturally, the Raider Corporation never used their real identity on legal documents. On Centrasia they were known as Weltez Commercial Industries, or WCI. It was the perfect cover for the criminal organization. On Centrasia, the government never looked closely at conglomerates that paid their taxes promptly while also paying healthy bribes to the government people tasked with regulating corporate entities.

  Aliana scowled at the success Carver had enjoyed since their first encounter. Every time she had attempted to commit Carver and her sisters to a life of slavery in a Raider pleasure resort, have them killed outright, or even kill them personally, she had failed.

  Aliana's attention was brought sharply back to the media report when Jenetta walked to face the newsies in the visitor gallery. Two large animals that appeared to be Terran Jaguars with black fur, accompanied her. Jenetta then presented an appeal to the public that her pets be declared sentient. Aliana started to laugh, believing it was some kind of prank, but she returned to seriousness as the cats began speaking to the newsies. Her disbelief that the two Jaguars were actually producing the speech she heard slowly turned to belief as the interview process continued.

  Aliana had first learned of the two animals owned by Carver when an assassin hired by the Raiders had tried to terminate Jenetta's life on the base she had 'liberated' from the Raider organization. At the time, she had attributed their action simply to pets protecting their owner. But this made far more sense. If the cats Jenetta referred to as Jumakas were sentient and actually understood Amer, they would be invaluable as bodyguards. She could use a couple of bodyguards who would protect her with their lives and couldn't be bribed to look the other way, disappear at a critical moment, or commit the act themselves. Carver had indicated during the appeal for a sentiency proclamation that her two females had just given birth to a total of eight cubs. That indicated there might be many other Jumakas outside Taurentlus-Thur. And if there were, cubs must be available. Aliana was now determined to get a mated pair before they were declared sentient. Her final thought before downing the scotch in one gulp was to wonder how long it would take a pair of Jumakas to rip out the throats of every Upper Council member as they gathered for a session.

  ~ ~ ~

  The Space Command shipyards had terminated production of CPS-14s when the upgraded model became the primary vessel in the class. The CPS-15s were similar enough that ninety-two percent of the completed hull sections and components constructed for the 14s could be used for the more powerful ship without any modification. While CPS-15s would continue to be built, their production schedules were suspended as work crews immediately began constructing CPS-16s. Once again, the new design was similar enough to the previous ship in the class that most of the completed CPS-15 hull sections and components could be used for the extended CPS-16 without modification. In computer model simulations, the redesigned ship worked to perfection. Since the bow and stern sections of the two ship designs were identical, as were the sub-light engines, the first CPS-16s could be ready to begin space trials in less than three months. Production of the CPS-15s would recommence in a limited fashion when the priority order for ninety-eight CPS-16s was filled to satisfaction.

  At the same time that work on the CPS-16s began at the Lorense-Three shipyard, work on the new habitat containers that would house and deploy the bombs began at the Mars shipyard. T
he bombs dropped by the Scout-Destroyers had been so successful that the design would not change, but the quantities produced would increase tremendously for at least a year. Since their missions were expected to last a considerable time, the CPS-16s would bring most of their ordnance with them. That was why all CPS-16s had to be able to handle up to thirty-two habitat containers.

  Planners envisioned that the commanding officer of a Scout-Destroyer, likely a Space Command officer with the rank of commander, would coordinate the search activities of a squadron of twenty-four CPS-16s operating in pairs as they sought to root out and destroy Denubbewa motherships and warships. Jenetta had had no moral issues with the search and destroy missions against the cyborgs ever since the Denubbewa had, without provocation, destroyed the Yenisei and Salado, killing most crewmembers outright and mutilating the bodies of survivors in some sort of medical experiment. It was therefore a proven fact that the Denubbewa would maim and kill Space Command and Space Marine personnel at any opportunity. The invaders should have vacated G.A. space long ago. Their destruction now would be owed to their own failure to accept that they were violating a claimed and occupied area of space where they were not welcome and where the occupants were fully capable of defending their space.

  The newly recognized threat posed by a deadly enemy gave shipbuilding efforts the highest priority. Work schedules on new battleships and even destroyers where the hull had been laid would be delayed until the CPS-16 design was in full production. The CPS-16 docks would receive whatever they needed as soon as it was available. The shipbuilding crews, unaware of the reason for the revised scheduling and urgency, joked that Carver, with so many firsts in so many areas, probably wanted to set a new record for the most ships ever produced by Space Command during her first year as Admiral of the Fleet. But they all knew, to a person, that Admiral Carver didn't pursue such foolish recognitions and responded to the work demands as if war was about to break out any day. Most had been working at the yards when war did break out with the Milori and then the THUG pact, so they knew that such heightened shipbuilding activity only preceded a situation where the safety and security of the G.A. was at stake.