by Ben Winston
However, the Council also formed a semi-private corporation of their own, the Terra Corporation, that held several patents on discoveries and devices developed before the foundation of Terra and to which the original developers were no longer alive. In some cases, like Doctor Lowe's medical nanotechnology, she insisted the patent be held for the public by Terra Corp. Since her discoveries and the tech developed based on her work was classified as a military secret under Imperial law, that worked out for the best.
The sleep teaching methods used in the cryo-chambers was made available to the Empire and was patented by the original group of programmers and technicians that developed it. They had been assigned to European pods and had come forward with the rest of the survivors. The AI technology would be remaining as the property of the Terra Corporation, since the programmers had not been assigned to pods. All in all, there was enough technology, in addition to the income from building ships for the Empire, to support the entire Nation of Terra without taxing the people. A fact that everyone was very happy about.
One of the things that surprised Ben the most was how well the survivors accepted the titles imposed by the Empire. There was some good-natured teasing, but no one really complained about having a King and all that the position entailed. The offices of the former Councilors were still diplomatically elected every six years, however, the population base of each of those offices had to be revisited in order for everyone to be represented equally.
When they first emerged from cryo, the population had been roughly two-point-two million. When the Duke was arrested and governorship of the planet fell to the survivors, the population grew to five-point-nine million over night. Once stability had been restored and immigration was allowed, people began to arrive by the ship load.
After a year of freedom from the now late Duke of Cassius, the population of Terra stood at sixty-nine million, six hundred thousand and was still climbing, albeit in a more controlled manner. Ben had also ordered three super-carrier class ships to be built, but they were not for combat. They were rescue ships. They had defensive weapons systems in order to protect themselves and lots of landing craft. They were huge flying hospital ships with a crew of over a thousand, capable of rescuing thousands of civilians at a time or performing a range of other catastrophe related operations. He made sure that the facilities were built for multi-species operations and not just human.
The Empire had agreed to absorb half the cost of those ships and in turn ordered ten more. They had a lower priority than the warships, but one dock had been set aside exclusively for the construction of these special ships. Last week, Ben had attended the launching and commissioning ceremony for the first of the 'Mercy Class' disaster relief ships. For the time being, the ship was in a parking orbit around Terra as a good number of her crew and personnel were still in training.
When the shipyards had arrived from the Empire, they had been in a sorry state of disrepair, and only two of the huge facilities could actually still perform their primary function. Currently, all seven of the repair facilities were operational, with two of them undergoing working upgrades. That is to say, they were being expanded and upgraded while they continued their work servicing damaged ships. Three others were busy building new ships, and the last one, the smallest of the group, had been set aside exclusively for computer and control systems installation and upgrades. At the last report, all of them were running at full capacity, even the two being expanded and upgraded.
There were new types of ships being built as well. Terran designers got permission to look at the designs for existing Imperial ships and shook their heads. They set them aside and proceeded to produce a new breed of warship that should take the Lizards completely by surprise.
The new ships were smaller, faster, more maneuverable and carried much more fire-power than any existing Imperial warships of the same class. New armor and shield designs meant that they would be harder to detect, and much better defended once they were. Smaller ships meant smaller crews, which in turn meant fewer casualties when a ship was destroyed. New personal armor and escape systems meant those crews would have a higher survival rate as well.
Ben and the Terrans were building a completely new Navy for the Empire, and they were not holding anything back.
For his part, Emperor Hjoolous, took a considerable amount of heat over his proclamations about Terra and the humans. So much so, that he asked the Rangers to secretly investigate several of the Senator's corporate holdings. The Senate had been completely against the 'unprecedented', 'unilateral', and completely unfounded proclamations concerning humans. There had been no proof brought to the Senate supporting the claim that 'Terra' had been the human home world. The Senate refused to accept the proclamation based on the fact that, as the planet was that close to the Capitol, there is simply no possible way the Empire had not known about the humans before or during the last war. Since the rest of the orders and proclamations made by Hjoolous where predicated on that issue, it automatically invalidated, at least in their eyes, the rest of the proclamations. They even went so far as to accuse both Hjoolous and Yolinar of High Treason based on the sharing of classified military information and technology with these independent and potentially hostile humans.
Since Hjoolous was the Emperor, he could not be guilty of treason or even legally accused of it. However, Yolinar was another matter entirely, and the Senate had him arrested less than a month after they had returned to the Capitol. Yolinar was back in his office before the end of the day as Hjoolous heard of the move by the Senators and vacated the charges by saying Yolinar had only acted on Imperial orders.
The Senate was not happy, and continued to fight the decrees made by the Emperor, even going so far as to ignoring direct Imperial orders. That was when Hjoolous had the Rangers begin their investigations. Something was not right. Senators were greedy, underhanded, and selfish, but they were not recklessly stupid. There had to be a very good reason for them to risk everything they had by ignoring the Emperor.
The Ranger Inquisitors, sent in by Commissioner Holdst himself, found some very troubling and disturbing things. Senator's Jarless and Kranly, both of Hyperion, were found to have an entirely human work force in five of their factories; human slaves imported from the Lizards. Two of those factories assembled components used in the missiles carried by Imperial fighters. Although no proof was uncovered that classified technology had been given to the Lizards, the suspicion was there.
Although those two were the first uncovered by the Rangers, they were not the last, nor were they in the minority. It seems the Lizards had under the table deals with over half the seated Senators. On three planets, considered frontier worlds by the Empire, human trafficking was discovered. Humans from all over the Empire would be kidnapped and sold to the Lizards.
For the first time in over four thousand years, an Emperor ordered the Imperial Guards into the Senate. By Imperial order, the Senate was recessed pending a full investigation by Imperial Rangers into the business dealings of the officials. Hjoolous also had twenty-nine members of his own house arrested after discovering they had been involved in selling Imperial citizens into slavery. They had been continuing a business started by his own father, the former Emperor.
Hjoolous ordered his father's name stricken from the annuls of Imperial history and issued a formal and official apology, through Ben, to all humans in the Empire. The Hyclarion people, and the peoples of the Empire were peaceful; capital punishment was accepted for certain crimes. When Hjoolous ordered that all guilty parties would be publicly executed for the crimes against the Empire, the people supported him. It would seem that the Senate had been repressing a great many people, and Hjoolous was seen as a reformer for the betterment of the people.
New elections were set up to replace the senate. A new law forbade any elected public servant from participating in private commerce beyond what was required for the duties of their office. A new era in the Empire had begun. National leaders, such as King Bedouin
of Terra, as well as the ten other national leaders, were given non-voting advisory positions in the Senate as well as seats in the Senate itself.
The Emperor would retain the final word on laws and make proclamations. The Senate would get the power to challenge after the fact and the national leaders would give the final ruling as to legality and or fairness. It was the foundation for a system of checks and balances to prevent corruption and protect the people.
Ben was reading through a report on ship production when his messaging system alerted him with a priority call.
His assistant came up on the screen without him touching anything, which meant it was very urgent. "I'm very sorry to interrupt you Highness, but General Greenwold is online for you, she said it is very urgent."
Ben nodded. "It's okay, put her through please."
Gail's head took shape in his holographic display. "What's up Gail?" Ben asked.
"We're tracking a small Lizard assault fleet approaching the system. Most likely, this is just a probe mission, but either way, they're going to know we've been working on the defenses very soon. They're in range of our outer defenses, but I haven't ordered them to engage yet," Gail replied.
"We can't let them get a look at the inner system, General. Bring us to alert status and light up the defense systems. Activate the incursion protocols. Yeah, they're gonna know we've been working on defenses, but that can't be helped. Have you notified Admiral Yolinar yet?" Ben asked.
Gail shook her head. "I called you first, I'll call him as soon as we get off the comm."
Ben nodded. "Do your best, Gail. Thanks for the call. Let me know if you need anything I can do for you."
"Nope, I just needed the orders from you. I'll give Yolinar a call to let him know what's going on. I've already activated our defenses and initiated the incursion protocols. I hate shutting down the yards like this, but once we get the shielding in place, maybe we won't have to again," Gail replied. She shook her head. "I'll keep you in the loop, Sir."
Ben winked at her and broke the connection. He touched the intercom. "Ms. Hawkins, please put civil defense on a readiness alert. Close the schools, but don't shut down the transit systems yet."
"At once, Highness, what about the spaceports?" the woman asked.
"As per the protocol, ground all departures except for emergencies. Hold all inter-system traffic at their destinations. Incursion Protocol is now in effect," Ben explained.
"Understood Highness. Do you want me to ready your personal transport?" She asked.
"No, not yet. If this goes to hell, I'll be needed here anyway," Ben replied. "However, make sure Jorga and Deirdre are safe, okay?"
"Her Highness is in the Palace, but Minister Bedouin is at Southport. Do you want me to recall her?"
"No, tell her the situation and let her make the call. If she chooses to come back, give her priority routing," Ben said.
"Yes Sir, is that all?" she asked.
"Could you ask Jorga if she would like to have lunch with me?" Ben asked.
"I can do that: I'll let you know what Minister Bedouin decides too," Ms. Hawkins replied.
"Thank you," Ben said and broke the connection. Sighing, he tried to get back into the report, but couldn't focus. "Mother, can you give me a hologram of what's going on with the incursion Gail reported?"
"Certainly, Ben," the ever-present AI replied. "I was actually waiting for you to ask."
"I was trying to be nonchalant about it; I don't want to seem too worried over this," Ben replied.
"Who would know?" the AI replied as she darkened the room and projected the hologram. Icons for the system defense platforms appeared with a colored circle indicating status. Far out to one side, in the direction of Lizard space, were dim icons for the incoming fleet, still in hyperspace. "The display is greatly exaggerated of course. Half of the inner system hyperspace missile launchers have fired two salvos so far and are reloading for another. Our guardian fleets are on alert, but holding position. General Greenwold suspects this might be a decoy to pull our attention and defenses away from the main attack coming on another vector."
"Prudent of her. I can't say she's wrong, this is more her area of expertise than mine. I certainly won't argue with her about it," Ben replied.
"Admiral Yolinar's aides think she is being too cautious. Although the Admiral silenced them, they are criticizing her actions here," Mother replied.
"Yolinar knows what she's doing and approves, just more reason for me to agree and support her," Ben replied. "It's probably more of that political mess that Hjoolous had to deal with."
"It would seem the issue was wide spread. However, it strikes me as odd that such would be prevalent in the upper ranks of the military," Mother replied.
"Actually, it almost looks to me like they were getting set up for a coup of their own. If they had supporters on Yolinar's staff, it makes me wonder what else the slavers have tendrils in," Ben replied.
"It would be difficult to say, given the amount of information currently available. However, it would appear that Hjoolous has already ruined what plans they had, if any," Mother replied.
Ben could only agree. Further conversation was interrupted by Ms. Hawkins calling to let him know that Deirdre had been planning on coming home that evening anyway, and that Jorga would be here in a few moments for lunch.
Ben smiled and ordered lunch while still watching the display. When Jorga arrived, he filled her in on what was going on and how Gail was dealing with it.
Jorga nodded. "You know, even though the display is exaggerated, those Lizard ships sure seem to be taking their time getting here. Not very smart for a sneak attack or probe mission."
Ben nodded. "Which may be why Gail is being cautious. Really, watching it like this is like watching a play without being able to hear the dialog. We don't know what Gail is thinking or what else may be happening in the command center."
They ate lunch and talked, enjoying the few quiet moments together before returning to their duties. Just as Ben was clearing off the dishes, Mother interrupted them.
"Ben, the remaining Lizard ships have increased speed and are now headed directly for us. Tracking predicts hyperspace exit just outside the main asteroid belt." She paused. "General Greenwold is ordering an interdiction in the vicinity of the Oort Cloud."
Ben narrowed his eyes. "Something has to have changed for them. How many ships did they start out with, how many are left, and have we detected any other hostile ships in the sector?"
"When originally detected; the incursion force had between thirty and forty-five ships based on mass readings. That number has been reduced by a third. As yet we have not detected any other hostile ships in the sector. The possibility exists that they now believe the missile systems used on them are the only long range defenses we have as yet installed and are moving in to test shorter ranged weapons," Mother replied.
Ben shook his head. "No, I really don't think they're that reckless. I agree with Gail; there is more here we're not seeing yet."
"It would appear that Admiral Yolinar is also convinced. He is sending an assault fleet to us for temporary defense. On General Greenwold's suggestion, he has ordered them to jump to Hyclarion to bolster planetary defense until the 'other shoe' drops, as she put it." Mother paused. "I do not believe the General thinks we are the primary target in this action."
Ben nodded. "She could be right, Hyclarion is close enough for something like that. Mother, has the Emperor and the Admiral been notified that the Emperor's 'vacation home' has been completed?"
"I do not believe so; do you wish such a message to be sent?" Mother asked.
"Yes, but only to the Admiral. Send it as a private, personal message from me," Ben replied.
Chapter Four
Terran Marine Base Alpha
Command and Control
17 Jun. 10267 CE (AD)
Terra, Sol System
In the command center of the main Marine base, Gail was monitoring the situation and held an open
connection with Admiral Yolinar who was in his own command center on Hyclarion.
"General, my intelligence staff disagrees with you on this. General Conti has already called for your immediate replacement," Yolinar said calmly.
Gail snorted. "I'm not wrong, Admiral. I wish to hell I was, but I'm not. We'll see the other forces any minute."
Yolinar nodded. "I agree. Conti was the nephew of former Senator Shalous. I had not realized it, since they all seemed very good at their jobs, but he filled his entire command with beings loyal to the Senator. I am having his entire staff held for questioning." He paused. "Which handicaps our intelligence services here."
"If I may ask, Sir, what did his department actually do?" Gail asked. "I don't remember seeing any reports or alert notifications from him."
"Conti was on my staff as my intelligence adviser. His staff was responsible for gathering all the information so Conti could keep us apprised of the situation as a whole. I believe you would call it the 'big picture'. Until recently, I've had no reason to mistrust his information," Yolinar said. "If he is part of the traitor faction, that would certainly explain how they got away with everything they have been getting away with."
"Do you have someone to cover their duties until you find replacements?" Gail asked.
"Yes, I am borrowing a group of analysts from the Rangers temporarily. They will not be as efficient, but we will still get the information we need," Yolinar replied.
"General! I think we found the main attack forces!" one of Gail's operators called.
"Show me!" Gail ordered and pointed to the tank. "Make sure Hyclarion Command gets this data directly."
The operator did not only transfer the data, but came down to the tank herself as well. "Sirs, as you know the hyperspace sensors have a blind spot from the F'orindante Mass. We are still getting sensors in place to remove that blind spot, but for now, it's still there. However, the mass from the fleet using that shadow is so large that we can detect it, if only barely."