The Darkness: The Conglomerate Trilogy (Volume 2)

by William S Frisbee Jr

  "Reminds me of the American civil war," Luke said.

  "The what?" Mark asked.

  Luke shrugged. "The Southern states were being pressured by the Northern states so they left the Union and seceded. The Northern states didn't care for that and invaded. It didn't end well for the South."

  Mark stared at Luke.

  "That was about slavery," Mark said and Luke shrugged again.

  "Depends on who you ask," Luke said. "The point is the South didn't want to be told what to do by the North so they left the Union and that sparked the civil war."

  "Either way," Mark said. "I need you to be careful and pay attention. Find out what you can and keep your ears open. I doubt the Jupiter Alliance will give up. They have representatives on Athena so it is an odd situation."

  Luke nodded.

  "We are setting up a Conglomerate communication hub on Athena so that will give you a way to route secure messages to Admiral Wise, head of New Alamo Intelligence. Otherwise you have a direct link to Admiral Day for liaison."

  Luke nodded.

  "You want me to be your spy?" Luke asked with a growl.

  "No, you idiot," Mark said. "I want you to be careful and if you hear anything let us know. I have a shuttle scheduled to take you to Athena. I also have storage for your warbots and duties for your droid officers here on New Alamo if that is okay."

  Luke nodded, "No shit details?"

  "No," Mark said. "I'm increasing security in key areas. They are my additional security elements for the moment."

  "Questions?" Mark asked.

  "No Admiral," Luke said standing up and shaking Mark's hand.

  Mark nodded and Luke headed for the door.

  "Ahem," Mark said and motioned toward Felix.

  Luke smiled.

  "Remember how you saddled me with 'apprentices'?" Luke asked. Luke saw Mark catch on as he stared at Luke in surprise.

  "I don't have room for him and I think he likes it here, so thank you for taking care of him for me. I appreciate it," Luke said with a smile.

  "No," Mark said. "I'm an Admiral and the Prime Minister. I don't have time to take care of some alien pet!"

  "Thank you," Luke said as he stepped out of the office. Felix padded over to Prime Minister Harrison and sniffed his hand.

  "Admiral Kishi, get your ass in here!" Mark said, as the door slid shut. "Dammit!"

  Luke walked down the corridor chuckling as Mark raged behind him.

  * * * * *

  Mark stared at Felix, and Felix stared back.

  Luke couldn't hear Mark swearing with the door closed but Mark knew Luke thought he was getting his revenge.

  Finally, Mark calmed down and stopped swearing. Felix seemed Mark's unconcerned as Mark stared at him.

  Taking a deep breath, Mark decided the best way to get back at Luke was to succeed.

  "Hungry?" Mark asked wondering what he would do with Felix.

  Felix sniffed Mark's hands and sat down to stare at Mark.

  "How smart are you?" Mark asked but Felix remained silent, looking at Mark.

  "Aide?" Mark said and his droid entered the room.

  "Yes, Prime Minister?" Aide said.

  "Can you find something for, uh, Felix? to eat?" Mark said.

  "What does it eat?" Aide asked looking it over.

  "Luke said anything," Mark replied staring at Felix. "And I want you to find someone who can identify this creature. Maybe get it a real home."

  Aide nodded and left.

  Holding out his hand Mark let Felix sniff it, which Felix did and then pushed at Mark's hand with his head. Mark scratched Felix's head.

  A low soft rumble came from Felix as he pushed harder against Mark's hand so Mark used both and the rumbling became louder. Mark was still petting Felix and smiling when Aide came back in with a bowl of soup.

  Maybe he would give it a chance. Sometimes the office got lonely with nobody else and Felix didn't seem very judgmental.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Covert Meeting

  "I'm glad you could meet with me Mrs Perro," Mark said shaking her hands. Felix looked up from his mat in the corner and put his head back down. Allison didn't seem to notice him there with all the other views in Mark's office.

  Allison Perro was a short stocky woman with black hair and fiery eyes. She seemed full of energy as she looked around. Like almost everyone else, she appeared to be in her twenties but Corey's intelligence reports had stated she was about one hundred and twenty, which meant she must have come from Earth. She looked to be of Hispanic descent.

  "Thank you," she said. "Please call me Alli. Save the formality for those who need it."

  Mark smiled. "Call me Mark."

  "I am impressed with what you have accomplished," Alli said, her eyes resting on Felix in the corner. "Very impressed and I look forward to learning more about the Conglomerate."

  Mark nodded.

  "I would be more than happy to answer any questions you have," Mark said.

  "But that isn't why you called me here?" Alli said and Mark couldn't hide his smile. Straight to the point.

  "No," Marks said, wondering how straightforward he could be.

  "We have been away from our home system for over forty-five years," Mark said offering her a chair and then sinking into his own. He steepled his fingers as he looked at her.

  "I get the impression a lot has changed," Mark continued. "When New Alamo left, our relationship with the Jupiter Alliance was. . . strained to say the least."

  Alli nodded.

  "Now we must once again deal with the Caliphate and Jupiter Alliance but we have more freedom to do so," Mark said staring at her. "We have a bottleneck we can control and we have a superior military force."

  "But that superiority is not likely to last forever if the aliens open trade relations," Alli said.

  "Yes," Mark said. "If the Jupiter Alliance can find something to trade with."

  "What if the Jupiter Alliance joins the Conglomerate?" Alli asked.

  Mark chuckled.

  "That is unlikely while the Caliphate exists," Mark said. "For a system to join the Conglomerate, it must be by a seventy percent majority, then the local Conglomerate Parliament has to approve. That seventy percent would include the Caliphate and I don't see them saying yes."

  "But New Alamo has joined the Conglomerate?" Alli asked.

  "That is open to debate," Mark said scowling. "We were in a Conglomerate system, and the Topa moved us here. In truth it, was at their request, but this is not an official Conglomerate system. I have lawyers looking into that. There are many sticky legal issues involving licenses, use of force and more. This is listed on Conglomerate charts as a 'dark' system which means Conglomerate law does not reach here but this colony is considered an independent nation of the Conglomerate and, well, I'll let the lawyers figure it out. Might have to get a Topa ruling as well. I would prefer to be Conglomerate, actually."

  Alli nodded.

  "Did you know the Jupiter Alliance force that arrived and is protecting the other side of the wormhole has six transports? Five with military police battalions and one with an assault regiment?"

  Mark noticed her face turned white. Obviously, she had not known.

  "No," she said and glanced at the view behind Mark. She had to be making the same assumptions about the military police battalions. "How do you know?"

  "I have a very competent Intelligence agency," Mark said. "Is everything okay between Athena and the Jupiter Alliance?"

  Alli stared at Mark and the silence stretched on. Mark allowed it. The ball was in her court and he would not make her more comfortable until he knew more.

  Alli shook her head.

  "No," she said. "Officially, everything is okay, but the Jupiter Alliance has changed and not for the better. On the surface, everything is optimism and cheer, but beneath the surface, bad things are happening."

  "What kind of bad things?" Mark asked.

  Alli took a deep breath.

  "The
Secretary General of the Jupiter Alliance has become the de facto leader," Alli said. "Secretary General James Abbot has held the post now for over thirty years. The people seem to support him in growing numbers, which makes little sense to the people of Athena."

  Mark scowled. He remembered James Abbot, he had been the senior secretary of the Security Council when New Alamo had left the solar system. Abbot had been an over bearing, offensive, know-it-all who was hard to get along with. He had made a very astute leader of the Jupiter Intelligence Service and the Jupiter Alliance Military Service but how had he gotten the post of Secretary General and held it so long? Elections were held every five years and the Secretary General changed with the turbulent political winds.

  "That is a long time," Mark said. He would have to check the statistics. What were the chances?

  Alli nodded, "I believe he has black mail material on everyone else and the Jupiter Alliance Intelligence Service is in his pocket."

  "A coup?" Mark asked.

  "I don't know," Alli said. "These days it seems the General Assembly just rubber stamps what he wants. The Alliance is having many problems but the Jupiter Socialist Party remains popular."

  "What kind of problems?"

  "Low birth rate for starters," Alli said. "The Caliphate is having over population problems. They don't call it that, but they talk about needing more farmers and asking people to be less wasteful of food and drinkable water. Lots of news about opening new farmlands or recovering contaminated areas. You have to read between the lines, but they have food riots and resource problems."

  "The fertility rate off Earth is around point two, if you are being optimistic," Alli said. "Meaning, ninety-nine point eight percent of women will not have a child in their lifetime. This is not enough to off-set the mortality rate, especially considering our war with the Caliphate. On Earth that rate is about six because of the environment and radiation. That doesn't count mutations that are put to death. They are breeding like flies and while they have a higher mortality rate, it isn't high enough. The Jupiter Alliance needs trained fighters, willing to risk their immortal lives, the Caliphate can't send them off to die quick enough. If things continue like they are, in about three hundred years there will not be anyone left to fight the Caliphate. The people of the Jupiter Alliance are not dying of old age, but every Caliphate long range missile attack, every ambush, every skirmish where people die, every terrorist attack, is an irreplaceable loss for the Jupiter Alliance."

  Mark scowled. This wasn't a surprise, but it was worse than he had thought.

  "What is Abbot doing about it?" Mark asked.

  "He is putting more pressure on the smaller colonies," Alli said. "He talks about how the main colonies on Europa and Ganymede have carried most of the weight in this war, producing ships and leaders. They demand that the colonies have more children and supply more fighters. There is even talk about forced pregnancies and female child requirements. All women must have so many children. There is already a financial bounty for having children but not enough that people are taking it. We don't know how he remains popular."

  Allison was scowling as she looked at the stars behind Mark.

  "How is New Alamo doing?" Alli asked.

  Mark shook his head. "Not as well as we should. I think our actual birth rate average is about one point three."

  Alli looked surprised. "That is impressive considering. If it wasn't for the Caliphate, then I think humanity would be destined for extinction," Alli said glumly. "And the Caliphate is not a shining path to the future of our race."

  "Why take over Athena?" Mark asked.

  He didn't miss Alli's shudder.

  "We are isolated from the other colonies," Alli said. "We are also a good halfway point to Earth, sometimes. The Caliphate has a sizable force on Mars now but that is more of an occupation force than anything else. They are just surviving there, not building or expanding their jihad. We also don't maintain close trade relations with the Jupiter Alliance, we produce most of our own products. Ceres is a veritable fortress, still controlled by the Xu'an Dynasty, with old Yang still the despot in charge. There is also Vesta, but any smaller outposts or colonies have been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. We are the only remaining nation on friendly terms with the Jupes."

  "So?" Mark asked.

  "The Jupe bureaucracy is demanding we contract several specific companies and replace all our communication and network equipment with theirs. Then there are all the social demands and requirements they are pressuring us to meet," Alli said. "Many people feel they are trying to strip our identities, to force us into a mold and crush our personality."

  "What are you not telling me?" Mark growled, his mind going in many directions. His anger was not directed at Alli or Athena though.

  "There are rumors," Alli said. "Of breeding camps, where dissident women are taken and forced to have children. The people of the Jupiter Alliance are unaware, or don't care."

  "What about artificial uterus's or clones or something?" Mark asked. He knew there were breeding camps if Alli suspected it.

  "That is a holy grail," Alli said. "But so far it is not economically feasible or viable. There are companies that try it and they get excessive funding, but I have not heard of anything better than a twenty percent success rate, and even then, there were problems with the children." Alli smiled sadly. "The research is ongoing, but a uterus is a very complicated thing and they cannot duplicate one yet. Children can be raised in orphanages or creches but they have to be born first."

  Mark rubbed his forehead with both hands.

  "When New Alamo abandoned the Jupiter Alliance, you caused a lot of problems," Alli said. "People questioned the Alliance and the policies. There was even talk of creating another alliance in the asteroid belt. The Jupiter Alliance was built on the United Nations model and some colonies are feeling more and more oppressed by it. After New Alamo left, there was almost a civil war in the Alliance. Now with the populations declining, things are worse but the people seem complacent and trusting of Abbot and his party."

  Pausing to look at her, Mark put his hands back together in a steeple and looked at the wall above her.

  Alli said. "The General Assembly is trying to consolidate power underneath the Secretary General 'for the common good' and the Jupiter Socialist party has a lot of support. They have supporters in every colony and city. James Abbot is also the head of the Jupiter Socialist Party."

  Mark grimaced.

  "Do you read history?" Alli asked.

  "Too much," Mark said. "I'm not liking what you are telling me."

  Alli nodded.

  "How will this play out?" Mark asked.

  "I don't know," Alli said. "New Alamo and the Conglomerate have changed everything. The Jupiter Alliance will play nice and do their best to steal technology, get what they can. They probably will not threaten New Alamo or Athena, not that they can just yet, but right now, they will be unsure and at a disadvantage. I know Abbot won't like that. His first priority will be wormhole technology since the Caliphate has it. Then he will want hundreds of thousands of droids to fight his battles."

  "That will cause a brand-new set of problems," Mark said.

  "I'll bet you wished that the wormhole had never been found," Alli said.

  Mark nodded. Yes. Life used to be a lot easier.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Athena

  Three days later Luke's shuttle approached Athena colony. The fighting had stopped two days ago. With Luke was Gray, Brita, Jeremy, Amanda and Musashi. Luke tried not to fidget but his dress uniform looked like a salad had exploded on his chest. Gray had taken care to make sure it was correct, but Gray wasn't Jeeves.

  Luke wanted to be in his battle dress, ready for battle, not looking like a peacock strutting around. A Major Michael VanBuren was also coming and would be part of Luke's staff. Michael was a New Alamo spook, and he would help debrief Luke besides working with the Jupiter Alliance and Athena Intelligence officers. Luke knew the short,
happy looking officer and was hoping he would act as a shield against the Athenian spooks. Luke's theory was that Michael could answer the majority of the Athenian's questions while Luke would deal with the more complex or unfamiliar ones. The Major was sitting, staring at nothing, most likely reviewing dossiers or reports on his internal display, which was fine with Luke.

  Amanda was full of energy and couldn't sit still because her father had returned to Athena. Jeremy was calm about it, and Brita was quick with her smiles. They were a stark contrast to Luke, Gray and Musashi. The butcher's bill had been high for Gray's battalion. So few of the sentient droids remained and Luke could only muster a single company. Over seventy percent casualties and Luke couldn't get the names and faces of the lost out of his mind. To most they had only been droids, but to Luke they had been people, each one unique and with their own personality.

  Athena was like New Alamo, with several cylinders dug into the egg-shaped asteroid made of iron-nickel and coated with foamcrete and carbon fiber nets. Heat vanes and solar panels covered the surface, interspersed with docking bays and sensor arrays. The massive internal cylinders were large enough and rotated, each providing sufficient gravity and atmosphere to the residents while protecting them from cosmic radiation by a heavy concentration of rock and nickel. Some of the cylinder habitats were several kilometers long and over a kilometer in diameter. The tunnels in between the rotating cylinders were riddled with catacombs, storage chambers and life support machinery with mass transit connections between the habitats. The surface of the colony held numerous automated factories, labs, landing pads for mining ships and assorted transports but precious few were still operational after the battle.

  Looking out the window as they approached Athena, there was plenty of damage visible. Countless crews were working to fix the damage or cut away sections that couldn't be repaired or decontaminated. Already a New Alamo mining ship was docking with the Athena, its cargo holds full of processed ore or water from the ice rings around Josaka Five, a Neptune sized gas giant. The ruin was staggering and Luke checked the casualty figures again, were they reporting everything?