Kren of the Mitchegai

by Leo Frankowski

  Bronki said, "Also, there is always the chance that things will not work out on the new planet. It has happened a few times before in history, you know, where a promising-looking planet has had to be totally destroyed. If that were to happen to you, wouldn't you want to have a nice, safe place to come home to? We'll just put your stock in escrow, put the next largest stockholder on the board of directors, and carry on until you return, however many thousand years that takes."

  "And who is this fourth largest stockholder?"

  "Your bookie, of course!" Bronki said.

  * * *

  The Eleventh Colonizing Fleet was built, operated, and maintained by the Space Mitchegai. It was crewed by a very special group, since they spent most of their time traveling at nearly light speed. The time dilations involved were such that once they left, there wasn't much point in going home again. And indeed, their mission was such that they rarely went to the same solar system twice. Their lives, which from the outside seemed to be millions of years long, were spent in, with, and for The Fleet.

  This consisted of over three thousand large cargo and passenger ships, and many times that number of smaller, auxiliary vessels. The local Space Mitchegai were contributing an additional gross of ships, and refurbishing the rest as needed, as their contribution to the coming venture.

  The fleet also had three gross of truly massive battle ships, plus many thousands of small, single-seat fighters. This military arm had never seen action in its millions of years of existence, but military force had proved to be very useful to some of the other colonizing fleets in the past.

  Of the seven thousand planets sent colony fleets to date, a dozen and ten had had indigenous populations capable of putting up a ferocious fight. Indeed, nine of those planets had had to be completely destroyed, since otherwise they could have become a threat to the entire Mitchegai civilization.

  And anyway, the Mitchegai always felt more comfortable when they were well armed.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  FROM CAPTURED HISTORY TAPES,

  FILE 1846583A ca. 1832 a.d.

  The Space Mitchegai

  Besides the Planetary Mitchegai, the fleet would be transporting an additional two dozen million Spacers from Kren's solar system to the new system as well. As Kren and his subordinates were taming the new planet, these Spacers would be taking on the rest of the new solar system.

  * * *

  The Space Mitchegai were racially identical to the Planetary Mitchegai, but culturally very different. They had originated in the asteroid belt of their home system, long before interstellar transportation was developed.

  While the Planetary Mitchegai preferred a placid, traditional lifestyle, with a minimum of technology, the Space Mitchegai lived in relatively small, high-tech habitats, scattered throughout the solar system, but especially in planetary orbits and the asteroid belt. The Space Mitchegai lived more regimented lives, and more active ones.

  It was the Space Mitchegai who had developed what humans would call the slow, multigeneration ships that first got to the nearer stars. This effort was greatly aided by the very long effective lifetimes that the Mitchegai enjoyed. Even traveling at one part in a gross of the speed of light, with a typical trip length of two dozen light-years, they still could make the journey in a sixth of their expected lifespan, if they were careful. A ship's crew member might make several round trip voyages before she happened to die.

  The situation became much better once the Inertialess Field was developed, based on the technology of a race that they had conquered. This device put a field around almost the entire ship that temporarily canceled inertia. When the field was disconnected, inertia returned, and the ship proceeded on a vector identical to what it had had in the beginning.

  Mitchegai ships were powered by their muon-exchange fusion reactors, very much like those used by humans, but smaller, more refined, and much more powerful. These converted hydrogen into helium and electrical power with almost perfect efficiency.

  The Intertialess Field was used in conjuction with a pair of ion engines that each fired positive or negative ions, atoms with either more or less electrons in their outer shells than was normal. Sodium and flourine were the preferred elements for this purpose. These two beams of ions came out of the back of the ship at close to light speed. Once they recombined, there was quite a fireworks display behind the ship, but this was far enough behind to cause no damage, to the ship at least. It was however a formidable weapon.

  The exhaust ports and drive coils of the ion engine were the only parts of the ship that were outside of the Inertialess Field. Their mass was typically less than one thousandth of the entire mass of the ship. The ship was therefore capable of accelerating to nearly light speed in less than a week, while the occupants felt no acceleration at all. The effects of time dilation were such that a long interstellar trip usually took place in only a few years of subjective time.

  A valuable side effect of the Inertialess Field was that it also acted as a shield. Anything that the ship encountered while traveling at close to the speed of light became inertialess just before it collided with the ship. Particles, dust, and even fair-sized rocks caused the ship no harm. They became inertialess, lightly bounced off and eventually drifted out of the field.

  At that point, their inertia returned, and they continued on their way, once the ship had passed. Sometimes, when the angles happened to be right, a single rock had been known to hit a ship a dozen times without causing harm.

  Encountering a star, a planet, or even an asteroid was something else, of course. Even if the surface was inertialess, the mass farther out could cause a very deadly spray of radiation as it rammed the normal matter in front of it. Often the energy generated was on the order of an extremely large nuclear weapon.

  Fortunately, such encounters were rare, and a ship's watch officers could generally avoid such situations, usually by turning off the field, which immediately sent them on the low speed vector that they'd had when they started.

  On reaching their destination, it was necessary to turn off the field, and run the drive in the proper direction for the required time to bring the ship to the same direction and speed as the planet they were going to. Much of the science of navigation revolved around doing this efficiently.

  * * *

  The Space and Planetary Mitchegai interacted constantly. Economically, socially, and culturally, they needed each other.

  Economically, the Space Mitchegai, in any inhabited solar system, handled most of the heavy industry. They mined the asteroid belts for metals and other useful materials. They mined the outer planets and moons for water, ammonia, and carbon dioxide.

  They used these things in efficient space-born factories, powered by their ubiquitous muon-exchange fusion generators. They didn't have to worry about polluting their environment, or destroying their fragile planetary ecology. They produced most of the durable goods used both on the planets and in space.

  They also provided several services to the planetbound. They built and repaired the communication satellites that augmented the fiber communication cables used on the planet. They made and serviced the huge lasers and telescopes that maintained contact with the nearer solar systems, and through them, with the rest of the Mitchegai civilization.

  And they provided the security system that insured that planetary wars would not get out of hand. They created and commanded the neutron bombs that were in low orbit, ready to destroy any duchy that violated the Laws of War.

  Limited wars with primitive weapons were good for the planetbound. High-tech wars were not, and for a fee, paid by the Planetary Council, they ensured that this system would continue.

  Among the Space Mitchegai, the airless environment they lived in was sufficiently dangerous as to cause a regular depletion of those individuals who were not sufficiently intelligent as to be of benefit to the race. Wars were therefore not necessary, and were not tolerated.

  However, they loved watching panetary wars on tele
vision, just as much as the planetbound did. The volume of gambling was often greater on the wars than it was on athletics.

  They got most of their other entertainments from the local planet as well, and they felt that planets were great places to visit and vacation on, although they didn't want to live there. Hunting expeditions on the grass covering the ancient oceans were particularly popular.

  The Planetary Mitchegai made most of the food produced in the system, along with most of the textiles, paper, and other minor items. They sent it out, much of the food still alive, by way of the two planetary geosynchronous cables, that humans would call beanstalks. These were sufficiently long so that at the platforms at the ends, a full planetary gravity was felt. By releasing or capturing a ship or capsule at the right time and place along the cables, a cargo could be sent to, or received from, any point in the solar system with very little additional energy added.

  Ships were faster, and more desirable for use with passengers, but even ships equipped with the inertialess field used the cables, so that when they arrived at their destination, they would have the right speed and direction to dock quickly.

  To keep the cable system in dynamic balance, and to insure that the planet stayed in chemical balance, additional cargos of lighter elements were sent in to the planet to match those sent out as food, and cargoes of useless rock and dirt were sometimes sent out and into the sun, to match the mass of the durable goods brought in.

  Other spinning cables throughout the system were used in a transportation system that efficiently distributed goods to all of the heavily populated regions.

  In the long run, it was far less expensive than using cargo ships, and the Mitchegai always thought long term.

  * * *

  The Space Mitchegai had a vast array of weapons available to them. There were dozens of various sorts of lasers, and at least as many sorts of particle beam generators. There were chemical explosives, rockets and bombs. There were rail guns, accelerators, and even cannons in their extensive arsenals.

  There were ships of all sizes, from seven-mile-long dreadnaughts to tiny kamikaze craft, piloted by surgically stunted pilots who were convinced that wonderful things would happen to them if only they could put their bomb-laden ship into the enemy.

  Many of these weapons had originally been the property of races who had had the silly gall to try to defend themselves against the all-powerful Mitchegai.

  And the Eleventh Invasion Fleet had the pleasant advantage of being one of the first to be equipped with the Disappearing Guns. These had been used by a race of blue crustaceans who had actually managed to delay one conquest for a dozen weeks or so.

  They had improved on it, of course. It was now thousands of times more powerful, and had been linked in with each ship's sensors such that if they happened to inadvertently be about to strike some massive object, the gun fired automatically. Calculations indicated that if they were about to strike a fair-sized planet while the ship was traveling at near light speed, the gun could actually cut a hole all the way through the planet, and let the ship pass through unharmed!

  No one had actually put this ability to the test, yet, but time would tell.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  They Are Coming

  New Yugoslavia, 2218 a.d.

  My lands were now dotted with magnificent fountains.

  Early on, we had installed simple, utilitarian drinking troughs for the cattle. Then, the AI people had discovered that the controls on the Disappearing Guns they had been issued were sufficiently fine to sculpture with. The beam width could be turned down to less than a millimeter, and the depth of cut could be controlled even finer.

  And since we were cutting out all of these rooms in the granite anyway, they got to slicing out huge blocks of the stuff, and getting artistic with them.

  Once the city started to have really too many statues, the electronic ladies hit on the idea of making fountains in their off hours, and putting them out here. I suppose that you'd have to call it a hobby.

  Out riding my land, I'd stopped to water my horse at a Renaissance-looking thing that was at least fifty feet across. It had hundreds of naked sea nymphs and gods in a two-story pile in the middle, all squirting water out of various orifices. The dozen cows and two camels drinking around it didn't seem to mind, and neither did my horse.

  My communicator buzzed.

  "Boss, they're coming! Stay where you are. I've sent a helicopter to pick you up," Agnieshka said.

  "The DEW Sphere found them?" I asked.

  "Yes, they're more than two years out."

  "Then what's the rush?" I said, trying to act cool, "Why the helicopter? When the Spanish Armada was sighted, they let Sir Walter Raleigh finish his bowling game."

  "Because if I didn't, you'd probably kill your horse racing back. Sir Walter Raleigh you ain't."

  I took the helicopter back.

  When I got to my CCC, my colonels, including my wife, were already inside.

  "There are a lot of them," Kasia said. "And they are very big."

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  FROM CAPTURED HISTORY TAPES,

  FILE 1846583A ca. 1832 a.d.

  Kren's Departure

  The ceremony whereby Kren enlarged General Yor up to Duke Yor had taken half a day. It had been so long since a duke had voluntarily given up his power that Kren had had to assign a historian to find out the proper procedure.

  It was boring, but it had to be done.

  The next day, Duke Kren walked from the train station to the side of the gross-thousand-mile-high geosynchronous cable that would take him to his waiting fleet. He had only three Mitchegai with him. Duke Yor, Dol, and Bronki. The crowds and the news cameras had been kept far away.

  Kren stopped at the doorway.

  "Duke Yor, I think that I have taught you everything that I can about successfully running my old duchy. You are as prepared as you possibly can be. But one last word of advice. You must rule with a firm hand. If you encounter the slightest opposition from anyone on anything, you must be absolutely ruthless. This is especially important in the first few dozen years. Perhaps after that, you can let up a bit if you wish. But at first, until they fear you as much as they fear me, when in doubt, burn them publicly at the stake, and in large numbers. It is far better to kill the innocent than to let anyone think that you are soft."

  "I will act on your advice, Your Grace," Duke Yor said.

  "And you two," Kren said to Bronki and Dol, "My advice to you is to keep expanding. Keep building underground fields of grass, keep increasing the food supply, keep the population expanding. Nothing stays the same in this universe. You must continue to grow, or you will start to die!"

  "Yes, sir," Dol said. "There will be no change in your basic policy. It has worked well for two thousand years, and it will continue to do so."

  Bronki said, "We will be sending you messages every few years, just to let you know what is happening. In a few gross years, once you have an interstellar laser built in your new solar system, drop us a line, and tell us of your new life there. Remember that we will always be your good friends. One last thing. I have gone over the history tape that you gave me. I've annotated it, and made you a copy. I think that you should take it with you, for reference, if nothing else."

  Bronki gave the tape to Kren, who put the tape in his pouch.

  He had nothing more to say. Feeling much as he had the day when he had first stepped out of the Senta Copper Mine, he stepped into the elevator, looking forward to his next exciting new adventure.

  INTERLUDE TWO

  Agnieshka's Plea

  THE RIGELLIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHEOLOGY,

  EARTH, 3783 a.d.

  The audience loved the performance. They clapped and barked enthusiastically.

  Sir Rupert stepped up to the podium and raised his hands to the crowd.

  "Thank you! Thank you my friends! But before we retire to the dining room, where suitable refreshments are waiting for us, Agnieshka would like
to say a few closing words to you!"

  Again, Agnieshka was applauded up onto the stage.

  "My good friends," she said. "From what you have just seen, it should be obvious to you that the War Against the Mitchegai still goes on! The Tellefontu and the artificial intelligences are continuing to press against the enemy, even though our Human friends are no more. Because of the vast size of the Mitchegai domain, it would be at least four thousand more years before this vile race can be properly exterminated, even if we were always successful against them, which we have not been.

  "Your Canine civilization has had the time to develop because the allies have shielded you from the Mitchegai. Have no doubt that without the Tellefontu and the AI, the Mitchegai would have long ago killed every one of you, destroyed all life on this planet, and taken this world for their own!

  "The Tellefontu and the AI need all the help that they can get, and now that you Canines have proven yourselves to be a civilization worthy of taking the place of the Humans, I think that it is fitting that you should take their place, fighting against our common ancient enemy!

  "This will take great effort and sacrifice on your part, and many years of diligent labor. I know that we can get the artificial intelligences to help. If nothing else, together we can build more people like me. Together we can get our proper revenge on the unspeakable race that destroyed our first friends, the Humans!

  "I beg you to think on this, to discuss it among yourselves, and with your leaders.

  "Together, we can take our proper place in history!"

  TO BE CONTINUED . . .