"In my area of space," answered Thorn, "we have a parliamentary democracy, a committee led democracy which was once a kingdom, and a small society who seem to think I lead them."
This raised smiles all around for the first time. Heads turned to me.
"The other mage society are a Matriarchy."
"Karn?" asked the mage. I nodded. "We know of them, but they were also a myth. They were counted as an enemy. Will they still consider us as foes?"
"No," said Thorn and I together.
"If you go in as friends and allies," I went on, "they should receive you the same way. In any case, my people will help you negotiate with them if need be."
"And your form of government?" asked Sandros.
"Him," interjected Amanda.
I went bright pink, fumbled around my PC's menu structure, and turned the blush suppressor function on in a hurry. This time I resolved to just leave the damn thing on. War never had me blushing, but all this diplomacy was just embarrassing.
Eyes darted to Amanda, and back to me.
"Our population is now small, and we left our society structures behind. We had many across an arm of the galaxy, numbering one hundred and twenty five billion people, of which only several million were part of my duchy. When the war was ended, a higher power shifted some fifteen thousand of us into an area of space opening into what seems to be a crossroad for the dominant species of this galaxy. My duchy is gone, and committees are looking at our alternatives now. I hope we have a functioning government very soon. For now, I lead our defense forces, and my previous administrators are doing the work of governing. We have a society which uses Artificial Intelligence, and so our stations and ships are highly automated. This includes communications, so when government models are proposed, elections will be swift."
"He'll be our king this time," said Aline.
I think my cringe was very visible, as smiles lit up on all five faces.
"Not if I can help it," I muttered. "Plenty of other options."
"Should you indeed declare a kingdom or something similar," said Sandros, "would you accept our society as a vassal? We were originally a kingdom, but although the kingdom itself was dispensed with millennia ago, our society is still organized along similar lines. Just at the top are things done differently. We could adjust to being within a kingdom again, as long as we had local autonomy."
"I don’t see any problem there. The old duchy functioned as a tax haven, but any questions along how things used to run can be asked, and will be answered. And as I said, you can join the committees. Quite apart from our own government, we're going to need a structure for interacting with each other, and that needs a committee on its own."
"Do you lead these committees?" asked the general.
"No. I've too much to do just keeping us all alive. But one of the AI's involved knows my mind."
The general nodded, presumably to herself, because none of the others seemed to notice it.
"We have no more options," said Sandros. "We've been visited by the Trixone more and more over the last century since they found us, forcing us to concentrate ourselves within defensible walls, or be eaten. But in the last week, they came as if they wished to eat all of us in one sitting. The mages were almost done, and what military we have were waiting for the gates to be breached after the shield fell. Even if you can defend us with your ships for a while, the seers tell us what you fought today is a mere drop in a bucket to what will come if we continue to hold out. We need to move."
"You should know," I said, "something I did changed everything about a week ago. Thorn kept his people from changing with it, and I suspect his magic went wider than he expected."
Thorn shot me a look of surprise.
"I don't know how much you know about the higher beings who treat this galaxy as their own playground, but I unknowingly managed to undo all their meddling over millennia. The galaxy is a much more dangerous place now, although ironically the worst threat is gone. You might want to take that into account when deciding if you come with us. Or not."
"It doesn’t matter what anyone has done," said the mage. "What matters is we survive into the future."
She looked me in the eyes. Behind hers was a level of exhaustion I'd felt a few times myself. She was obviously functioning on pure willpower at this point.
"We have no choice. We come with you if you will have us."
Sixty Seven
I found Angel sitting up straight, in the middle of my chair.
I stifled a laugh, gave her a pat on the head, and waited for the others to come through the rift behind me. On the planet below, the other teams were loading up into their dropships, and returning to Custer. I left the combat droids down there, ringing the city, just in case. They were joined by the city's military forces, who were fresh enough to take over defense duties. Most of them carried some form of flame thrower.
I found more than half of 617's fighters had landed on Jen's Chariot, and the rest had landed on BigMother. The remaining Excaliburs had either landed after them, or were acting now as a CAP. Lacey had also landed his Gunbus, and was now in the pilot's mess celebrating.
Once the last of those from the city meeting were through the rift, I closed it, and entered my ready room. Behind my desk, I opened a channel to Galactica. The XO put me through to my parent's quarters.
"Jon? What can we do for you? I assume this isn’t a social call."
My Dad, always the practical one. Mum was looking in, but she knew this was a military matter, just from the tone my dad used.
"Hi Dad. Mum. Dad, what's the status of the Explorer ships?"
"About to go into the shipyard. We were just packing for the move over to Haven."
"Change of plans I'm afraid. I want all three ships, with every small freighter and shuttle you can pack aboard, here as soon as you can get here. Go through the rift to Redoubt, it should be big enough for you, and then through the rift you'll find there to get here. Bring every freighter not being used at the moment with you. Jane will organize them, but you command them."
He was a fleet admiral. And this sort of thing had been his command all through the Darkness War.
"Why are we needed Admiral?"
"It's just us dad, no need for rank. We have a million people to resettle before the Trixone come back for another attempt to eat all of them."
"How much time do we have?"
"Uncertain. John Slice is out scouting now, so if he finds a fleet heading for us, we'll get enough warning to defend the system. The one they had here was no real problem, although they trashed one of Arthur's ships pretty badly before we arrived. We can handle anything around the same size. And if what comes is too big for us here, I'll deal with it then. For now, get here as fast as you can, and assess the fastest way of getting these people off."
"Where are they going to?"
"The planet we think can support five million. So people will likely either need to stay on board for a while, or we'll have to offload them at Haven until the planet is ready for them."
"We still have plenty of food on board. See you soon."
"Thanks dad."
The channel ended abruptly, and I could imagine my dad starting to bark commands. For a moment, it made me smile. But back to reality.
"Jane?"
"Jon?"
"Whisper in Melissa's ear she needs to get her Lightning ready to move. Tell Margaret to get a survey team on board, and get them moving to this planet we only think can support people. It needs a fast but accurate assessment, and a determination of the best place to put a city for a million people."
"Confirmed."
They'd be lucky to be even half way through before the first evacuees arrived, but maybe the planet would prove easy to survey, at least on a continent suitable for a colony.
I pulled up the navmap, and found it'd expanded, with no signs of any Trixone. I first checked team coms had been turned off, before calling Thorn.
"Yes Jon?"
"H
ow many of those mover ships can you build?"
"How many do we need?"
"Last time we did this, we used the Explorers and the escort carriers as collection centers for refugees, but they then passed them on to a gigantic station. This time we can only carry what we have accommodation for. We can pack them into cargo decks long enough to move them to Haven, but it's going to be uncomfortable. I’d rather we had more capacity. What can you do?"
He sighed.
"I was thinking three of a modified design for their essential buildings. I could do two more for people. They'd be ready in about thirty six hours. And then copying buildings is going to take me several more days."
"It's going to take that long anyway. How big are your ships?"
"Really big. One ship took an entire kingdom back in the day, but admittedly, none were anywhere near a million people."
"We'll manage. Ours will be loaded up by the time yours are ready, so we can keep loading while ours go home. At that time we'll know how short we are shipping wise, and decide where people go then."
"I'll get them started. The ships will all be on the ground, with no way off. But I can move them into space, and you can have one of your smaller ships tow them through the rift. We'll need another one to the new planet, but you can do that when you go back." He paused. "You'll have a visitor in a moment. Anything else?"
"No, that was it."
He nodded, and the channel closed.
"Jane?"
"Jon?"
"Bring all the destroyers and corvettes here as well. Those which can land can be used for moving people, and we'll need five of them to tow Thorn's new ships back."
"Confirmed."
There was movement on the nav map, as two new white dots arrived through the rift.
At the same time, a woman appeared near the door. It was the mage from the meeting. I waved her to a chair.
"Sit, but I have something else to attend to first."
She nodded, and walked over.
I opened a channel to Dauntless and Relentless. Jane took it further, and popped Greer and O'Neil up as hollos. The mage was so surprised she almost missed the chair as she sat. She regained her composure quickly though.
"Gentlemen, welcome to Solidario. Good timing. What news?"
Greer deferred to O'Neil, who was senior.
"Upgrades complete. Both ships have the same shield strength as BigMother now, and our battleship gun's full broadside should now match your titan turret for hitting potential. We brought young Lacey a present too."
"Jane, can you link him in?"
"Voice only."
"Do that."
"Boss?"
"O'Neil is here, and has something for you."
"More beer?"
The mage started laughing, and I allowed myself a chuckle.
"No," said O'Neil. "New fighters. I've the first dozen off the production line in my cargo bay."
"They any good?"
"We hit one with a battleship gun at close range this morning, and the shields only went down thirty percent. And were back up five seconds later. It can take a beating, as long as it doesn’t take more than three big hits inside five seconds."
"If a pilot can't miss three battleship pulses that close together, I'll beach em if they survive it. In any case, that’s what simulators are for. I'll get the pilots practicing as soon as…"
"The beer gets turned off?" I interjected.
"Aye sir. Actually it is off. Just enough to celebrate, not enough to stop us launching at a moment's notice."
"Good. Jane will be landing your new fighters shortly. Have the worst of the ships docked here ready to launch when they get here, and Jane will fly them back to Redoubt. For now. I think Thorn's people will want them, but Jen's ship won't have room until we can get both our carriers back."
"On it boss. Lacey out."
I turned back to O'Neil.
"Are we getting more?"
"Should be. Bob planned on getting Jane to fly the next lot through as they get certified ready to deliver. We'll have four squadrons by tomorrow. Where do you want us?"
"Go after Apricot, and send George back here. You'll be in command. I suggest you put a dreadnaught with each of the Gunbus, and have Miriam stick with Slice. No unnecessary risks. If a full fleet is coming from any direction, you retreat back here. And if you have to tow the AMS ships back, that's exactly what you do."
"Aye sir. The fighters are away. We'll head out. O'Neil out."
His hollo vanished. Greer remained for a moment, gave me a solemn nod and a salute, and he vanished as well.
"Interesting command you have admiral," said the mage, grinning.
Sixty Eight
"It's so like Sandros to not introduce anyone else."
I smiled, not quite sure where that was going. She looked much the same age as Thorn did, but I assumed she was actually in her forties.
"Mage Celestine. I've come to organize preliminary work on our new home."
"It'll be about ten hours before our survey party can be there, given it's two jumps away for them." I paused, thinking. "Unless I go back and speed them up with a rift. But I wasn’t planning to. It will be several days at least before…"
"Let me stop you there Admiral. We have a party of mages gathering at our main gates now. If we go to the new planet in the next hour, we can begin on several important tasks. After we select a site for a temporary city, about half the mages will build a wall capable of keeping out any predator, and then start moving any predators outside it. The other half will lay out a rough city grid, lay down sewage and water pipes, and start building easy to magic temporary buildings. We can have somewhere to live for up to half the population built in two days."
"Two days?"
"Four walls under a roof, a partition for a hygiene area with the basics, and a set of beds, doesn’t take a lot of effort. Once we have the first ones done, we'll start copying by ever bigger groups. By the time the rest of the population arrive, we'll have expanded it, or built a second city for them. Once our main buildings arrive, we can start building the real city. That will take a few months in all likelihood, but at least we'll be safe while we build it. Your survey people can help us find both places to build."
"How much space will your party need?"
"Not much. Just people, personals, and food for several weeks. We can magic our own bedding and stuff."
"Jane?"
"Jon?"
"Send down Gunbus to the main gates again. Bring the party of mages back here, and we'll join them then."
"Confirmed."
"How are your people off for food? My ships will have enough to get them moved, although taste might be an issue, but our food is high tech, and without the tech, won't be much use to you."
"We have huge stocks of the basics, and once we get our production buildings rebuilt, we should be fine. Although into the longer term, lack of crops is going to give us problems until we can start cultivation again. We had to stop when the Trixone started appearing last week, so we're abandoning our not yet harvested crops for this year. Can you help?"
"Food production we have plenty of. Either we'll need to adapt some of our production stations to your food requirements, or we supply you with some of the tech, and you copy it. Tech needs power though, so we might have to supply you with generators as well, at least initially." More thinking. "Jane?"
"You want freighters for food moving?"
"Yes. Everything with minimal life support which can't move people. Get them here with the cargo droids necessary to move food." I looked at the mage. "Do you silo grain in a way where we can just pick up and move the whole silo?"
"Mostly. But we can have the rest moved into portable units fairly easily. Put a couple of mages on copying the silos, and a couple more on moving grain to them."
"Jane, send an avatar to co-ordinate with the mages on food and essential supplies moving. I imagine they'll want their trains and the track for it as well. Find out what
else can be taken easily, and get it done. May as well unload direct to the planet as soon as I get a rift set up to there. From memory it has a nice dry desert, which might make a good parking lot."
"Confirmed."
Celestine concentrated for a few moments, and looked back up at me.
"Mages are now allocated to food moving. I've added a tech team to those coming, and an administration team. Can we drop the tech team off where your production facilities are, and the admin people where your committees are?"
"We can. Actually, it probably makes things easier doing that."
"Speaking of food, may I trouble you for some? It's been a long day. And honestly, I hadn't expected to still be alive."
"Would you like a tour of the kitchen facilities?"
"Sure."
"Jeeves!"
He came in only a few moments later.
"Yes my lord?"
"Our guest would like to see how the kitchen facilities work. Would you be so kind as to explain whatever she needs to know? And provide whatever she'd like to eat in the bridge mess."
"Delighted, my lord. This way Mage Celestine."
He waved her out. She looked a little surprised, but didn’t say anything, just following the butler droid.
I rose, and followed her. Out on the bridge I found the whole team. Angel was still playing captain, and seemed to be enjoying the attention. Grace was with them, so Custer must have docked.
"What are you lot doing here?" I asked generally.
"Where else would we be?" asked Alison.
"In the marine mess celebrating like the pilots were doing?"
"What is there to celebrate?" asked BA.
"Seriously?"
"You weren’t there Jon," said Amanda. "It was a slaughter. They had no armour, no weapons of any kind except their stinger, and they had no way of harming us inside our combat suits. It was worse than pest control writ large. Nothing at all to celebrate about."
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