Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

the company would take over my shares and use it for even more evil. So I set up a trust fund for you. I turned my stocks and holdings over to that trust fund in your name. It has been managed by your grandmother, and a good friend of mine, General Alphine. They have more financial savvy than I could ever hope to have. This was done so that you would be taken care of since I couldn’t be there. Now isn’t the time to tell you what you own, only that if you chose, you never have to work a day in your life. That you can’t spend your money fast enough to go broke in your lifetime. Because of this your personal safety is very important. You have never been the subject of a kidnap plot that I know of. We have tried to make you an uninviting target by making sure you never knew you had the best security money could buy and not letting the press know you were the heir to such a big fortune. My inheritance has sat for so long, the press and holo-news have forgotten about it. Using Dad’s name not Mom’s made it easier not to be associated with the Hazelton fortune. For your safety you must continue to act as if it doesn’t exist and not worry about the investing part of it. There is a staff of experts that your Grandmother and the General oversee to make sure you don’t have to.”

  “Oh before we go on and before you interrupt me,” He held up his hand to silence her, “Jill, I did want you with me. Have ever since I left; but I felt that it was just too dangerous for you to be with us.”

  “Was that this Lisa person’s idea.” Jill interrupted.

  “Absolutely not,” her father chuckled remembering his wife’s reaction, “She reamed me out in a way that even my Beast DI would have taken notes on. No, Lisa would have shared the risk for you to be with us. It was my decision and it was done to keep you safe. There were many reasons for my decision; one of them is because of who you are. I left you at Mom’s because if I had come to grief, I didn’t want you harmed. At Mom’s they couldn’t use you to get to me and Lisa.”

  “Is that why Aunt Mylea was so concerned about closers” Jill asked

  This caused the Marshal to look at his daughter not sure what to say next. He hadn’t wanted to talk about the darker side of Ebio. “So she let the cat out of the bag? Maybe she was right to tell you. I certainly am no judge of what a teen-age girl can handle. I may have given up the right five years ago.

  “But yes,” he said “the closers want Lisa very badly, and because I married her; they want me toous bad. Lisa was at one time worked in one of the company officer’s home and became privy to some stuff they don’t want to see the light of day. Lisa had been on the run for nearly twenty years. They are afraid she has shared what she knows with me. Even though as the major stock holder of Ebio it is something that I am entitled to know! Because of that Ebio security wants both of us!”

  “Dad what are you talking about?” Jill asked. “What do you mean entitled to the information?”

  Mike suddenly realized that Jill didn’t understand. He took a deep breath. He had an unbelievable tale to tell. A tale he sometimes found it hard to believe. “Jill, my mother, your grandmother was the great, great, granddaughter of Thomas Hazelton. The founder of Earth Biological Engineering now called Ebio.

 

  “Mom had died when I was quite young. I think I was eight or nine. I went to live with my aunt Margo. It was always rocky. I wanted to be with Dad but Margo forced him to give up his parental rights. When I turned eighteen I was given a lead or silver deal. I had gotten in trouble and all my aunt’s money couldn’t get me out of it. So the judge told me I was to either enlist in the service or I was going to spend the next five years in prison. I joined the IRS as the marines didn‘t have what I wanted. I wanted to be a para jumper. About the time I married Kileen Aunt Margo died. Leaving me the majority stock holder of EBio. I tried to divest myself of the stocks. Tried to sell them off. But I couldn’t as they had be sold to the descendants of the original founders. We are the only ones. I thought about leaving the service, but I really didn’t want to and the money didn’t mean anything to me. I did use it when I could do some good. But for the most part I ignored it. I was the richest sergeant in the marines.

  “I know it’s weird,” her father continued, “By that time I was in the Black Guard. And the only way to get out of the guard at time was death or severe injury. So eventually I did get injured, and left the guard. I became an MP. When I found Lisa in my brig and left Earth space after turning all my holdings over to you, taking Lisa with me.”

  SheJill sat in stunned silence as she digested what her father had just told her. It was unbelievable. She didn’t know what to make of it. The way her father told the story she knew it had to be true. Her head was swimming. She knew who the Hazelton’s were. It was something she had learned in history class. They had created the bios and Ebio. Were they truly heirs to that immense fortune? She couldn’t fathom what that meant.

  “Dad,” She finally asked, “are you for real?”

  “Very much so!” her father answered. “It is something that may take a while to get use to! I know it did for me!”

  “And this company, that I own is trying to capture you and this Lisa,” Jill asked, “Why?”

  “It’s a very long story,” her father answered. “The short story is that Lisa, and now I know things that the company doesn’t want the Imperial Bureau of Justice to know.”

  “So you’ve been here all this time?” Jill asked, “And I couldn’t be with you?”

  “Jill you had to stay on Mars with Mom,” her father said softly, “As much as I wanted you with me it just wasn’t safe for you. Lisa…”

  “Is it this Lisa who convinced you leave me behind?” Jill cut him off.

  “No,” her father said sharply, “That was my decision. And mine alone. Lisa gave me all types of grief for not having you with us! It almost caused us to separate. No it wasn’t Lisa. It was me. It was mostly because we didn’t know where we would end up. You don’t know how many times once we got settled on Trena that I almost sent for you. I knew the moment I did I would put all of us in danger.”

  “Am I really in that much danger,” Jill asked. Her head was swimming with everything her father told her. The only thing she seemed to focus on was that a company she owned wanted to capture or kill her family.

  “We are not certain,” her father replied, “but we are not going take any chances. So for the moment we’ll treat the situation as if you are in danger.”

  “And it was you,” Jill asked suddenly, “not this Lisa person who left me on Mars with grandmom?”

  “Yes,” Her father replied remembering one of the arguments he had with Lisa over not bringing the girl with them. “If one of us didn’t remain in the empire, EBio would have declared us dead and take our fortune and do immense harm. almost took you with us. Just so there would peace! Trust me when I say that Lisa didn’t want to break us up. I was not willing to put you in that much danger. That was why I left you with Mom. I knew you would be safe there!” Lisa gave me grief until she finally understood why you had to remain on Mars.”

  “Dad why did…” she started to ask why she had to stay on Marsstayed in the service, when her father cut her off, “I know you have many questions but they’ll have to wait until things settle down.”

  “A planet’s going to be destroyed; you have to evacuate the entire population! Just when are things going to settle down?” she asked.

  “Well yes, settle down may not be quite the right words,” her father chuckled, “Let’s just say when things are less hectic! For the time being; leave questions about our heritage for later!”

  “Okay, I guess,” Jill agreed; but she didn’t really agree; but knew the answers she wanted were just not going to be given to her at this time.

  “But that brings us to now,” Michael said, “You will be getting a protective detail. I am sorry; but it is a fact of life from now on. It’s not totally because of your wealth! It is because of my job. I have been getting death threats. Not everyone thinks I am a good guy!” he chuckled, “They will go everywhere yo
u go most of the time. One of them will be either in the back of your class room when you go back to school, or out in the hall. If you have a date they will drive you, and see to your safety.”

  Jill didn’t know what to say. It was all too much for her to understand and take in at one time.

  “Now as for your punishment,” He watched her expression “Jill I don’t really want to do this; but you have to learn what you did was not the brightest thing you could have done, and if it hadn’t been for imperial security, and some people on the railroad you might never have gotten here. So unfortunately I have to take notice of what you did.”

  “You’re going to send me back to grandmom aren’t you?” she asked.

  “I should. I almost did,” her father answered, “but it would be just as dangerous and truthfully the Queen and I can’t afford the political fallout. Also Lisa and now that I think of it, Mylea, both had some err strong opinions of that also. Let’s just say I want some peace and quiet in the house that Lisa wouldn’t let me have if I sent you back.”

  Jill felt suddenly relieved. She even smiled realizing her longtime dream of reuniting with her father was a reality.

  “You may not want to smile after I tell you what’s going to happen,” Her father said softly, “you are restricted to the residence at the palace. There will be a tutor to continue your studies. I know a young lady needs to get her exercise and fresh air, so you’ll not be restricted to the residence all the time. The palace has some fine walking paths through the gardens and a universal class gym.”

  “Palace,” Jill asked, “Like the palace on Earth or in the fairy tales?”

  “Yes,” Michael replied, “And yes you will meet my boss, who insisted that we take up residence in the palace. Don’t you get any ideas! That just happens to be the safest place on the planet, and the Queen wanted to make sure that we were safe. Speaking of us, it’s time to meet the rest of us.”

  “Lisa?” Jill asked, “Grandmom told me about her.”

  Wilson nodded before speaking again, “Computer would you have Lisa and Abby come in please?”

  The AI heard him and announced, when the door opened, “Lady Wilson, and daughter sir,”

  “Daddy!” the four year started to run to her father as the door opened, then seeing Jill, she stopped cold before asking, “Who are you?”

  “I am your big sister Jill.” Jill realizing that this was the small child she had seen in the biography that she had read on the ship, Jill asked as she bent down to the child to greet her sister for the first time, “Are you Abby?”

  The tow headed child nodded shyly and hugged her mother’s leg.

  Jill stood up to meet her step mother for the first time. Jill saw a delta bioperson before her and like all the deltas she had ever seen it was personified in Lisa and then some. Her step mother stood about 5 foot 11. She had a perfect body. She was stunned to see that pictures she had seen of her father and this woman, when they were twenty years younger, that Lisa didn’t appear to have aged at all. The woman standing before her didn’t appear to be the nearly fifty years old she knew her step mom to be approaching. To say Lisa was beautiful was an understatement.

  “Jill,” her father said softly, “this is Lisa, the lady I am married to.”

  “I see,” Jill didn’t know what to say as she observed Lisa.

  “Hello,” Lisa greeted her step daughter for the first time, “I guess you’ll be with us for a while.”

  “I guess so too,” Jill answered. They awkwardly stared at each other both not knowing what to say or do until her father cleared his throat.

  “Well let’s get your things,” Lisa looked down to her daughter and picked her up. Jill noticed that the child looked sleepy. Jill picked up her small bag.

  When they left the office her father turned to a young maintenance trooper whose office they had borrowed, and thanked him.

  As they walked through the hangar to where the cars were parked, Jill couldn’t help but feel self-conscience with the ten body guards surrounding them. Some of the men in the detail were nothing less than eye candy.

  Although she had been told by Aunt Mylea and her father that she would be staying at the palace she didn't know what to expect. She expected a palace out of the fairy tales of her childhood, or possibly like some of the old castles she had toured with her classmates on field trips to Earth. She expected walls several stories high, with battlements across the walls, and turrets every so often. What she didn’t expect was a low wall not much taller than two people standing on top of each other. The wall was made of brick, and on top of it were some sort of art work. She couldn’t see what it was. She couldn’t see the palace grounds from street level, as the wall hid the grounds quite well. She noticed that most of the buildings near the palace were no higher than one story. In fact as she looked out of the limo’s windows she noticed that most of the buildings in Trenaport were not more than a couple of stories tall.

  The limo pulled into an open gate which was flanked by a quartet of guards who were in the same type of uniform she had seen her grandmother, and father in when they were working in the field and not in the office. They pulled into the open gate which was closed after them. They were in a long corridor that went on for a couple of hundred feet with a gate at the other end. Jill didn’t understand what she was seeing; but she did notice the guards on top of the wall tracking the limo with their guns. That sent a shiver down her spine. She realized then that things were tenser than her father had let on and the situation on the space station demonstrated.

  Once out of the corridor, they entered onto the palace grounds proper and Jill was confused for a moment. She thought there would be a huge imposing building that was made out of marble and other heavy stones to impress visitors to the kingdom. Instead she saw a collection of buildings near the center of the grounds with several other buildings spread out among the grounds. All of the buildings were low to the ground. With the exception of the central buildings which were two stories tall and spread out a bit more than the others. The limo stopped before the right of a large building. Someone opened the door and they got out. They filed into a side door of the building under the cover of an overhang that would prevent prying eyes from seeing how many got out of the cars.

  “This must be Miss Jill,” a middle aged woman with coal black waist length hair greeted the party as they walked into the house. Most of the protective detail didn’t enter the building and had peeled off to be other places. Two took up positions on either side of the door, the red head who escorted them at the hanger stood a few feet behind her step mother. An older man seemed to stay a few steps behind her father. Jill saw movement out of the corner of her eye and saw the older woman from the landing craft move into a position behind her.

  “Maggie,” Lisa turned to the woman who had spoken, “Yes, this is my step daughter Jill.”

  “Welcome to Serenity, Miss Jill,” The woman greeted Jill with a slight bow.

  “Thank you,” Jill replied.

  A lieutenant came up to her father and spoke into his ear. He nodded and turned to her, “Got to go Jill, I’ll catch up with you.” He hugged Lisa and left. The older man who was shadowing her father left with him.

  “Let me show you to your room,” Lisa offered.

  Lisa led them through the spacious house that was bigger than the house Jill had lived in on Mars. It had a formal and informal dining room, a formal sitting room and a smaller casual room that the family could lounge in. There was a small study with book shelves lining the walls and two desks at opposite sides of the room. There were four bedrooms. A very large master bedroom suite with a private bath, with a small nursery sandwiched between the master bed room and a smaller third bedroom. The fourth at the end of the hall was more of a dorm room than a bed room with two bunk beds at either end. Jill thought that was to be her room that she would share it with her half-sister, but Lisa led her to a fifth bedroom that seemed almost as big as the master suite. It didn’t
have a private bath but it had a small sitting area with a sofa and desk. It was bigger than any bedroom than she had ever slept in.

  “Miss Jill is there anything I can get you?” Maggie who had helped her step mother on the tour asked.

  “No I’m fine,” Jill answered.

  “By your leave Lady Wilson?” the woman asked.

  Lisa nodded. After the woman left Jill asked, “How do you want me to address you?”

  Lisa replied, “Abby calls me Mom, your father calls me Lisa. Either one is okay.”

  Jill looked at the delta clone. Considering how her father’s wife had answered her. She reflected what some of her friend had called their step parents some had called them mom others by their first name. It didn’t seem right for her to call her step mother Lisa. Yet she wasn’t her mother either. But she was her father’s wife so she thought it was more appropriate that she call Lisa mom and asked, “How does mom sound?”

  “That works for me!” Lisa said. She turned to the older woman who had been hovering around them since they had entered the home, “Jenny”

  “Yes Lady Wilson,” the older woman came forward.

  “I was hoping that my husband would do this,” Lisa said, “But duty calls. Jill this is Jenny. She is your protective officer. Any time you have to leave the grounds she’ll be with you. I don’t like it much but it is a fact of life.”

  “Jill,” the woman said, “Jill my job is to keep you safe; but not to run your life. Hopefully over time you’ll hardly notice that I am there. We really want to be in the background. There but not there.

  “I see.” Jill said not certain how to respond to her.

  “In time you will not even know I am here.” Jenny commented.

  Jill still didn’t know what to say. She knew that her grandmother always had an escort everywhere she went, and that most of her servants on Mars were retired IRS people. Now that she thought about it she remembered that her grandmother’s escorts were always armed.

  “Jenny,” Lisa spoke into the silence. “We will not be going out this evening. Jill is restricted to the palace grounds unless I or her father is with her. In the morning I think one of us will show her the grounds.”

  “If you wish,” Jenny said, “I can do that.”

  “We’ll talk about it,” Lisa said.

  “Then if you don’t mind I’ll be hanging out in the bull pen,” the woman said.

  “No problem,” Lisa said.

  When they were alone Lisa shut the door to the bedroom, stealing herself, for what she had to say next. She didn’t want to do this but it was her job to help Jill get settled not her husband’s. She knew he would help; but running the house hold and taking care of the children had always been her part of the deal. Simply because they were living in the palace and had servants didn’t mean her duties as mother, wife, and housekeeper were over.

  “I know your father grounded you,” Lisa began to speak, “You did something that scared the devil out of him. He was far more worried than he let on. He was also far angrier with you than he let on also.”

  “Aunt Mylea said he was furious.” Jill said not wanting to challenge her step mother but trying to acknowledge that she had not done the brightest smartest thing she had ever done.

  “He was that,” Lisa confirmed, “He did ground you but he left it open ended. Depending on you it can end sooner as well be longer. “

  “I understand,” Jill said.

  “I don’t want to be an ogre, or a wicked step mother.” Lisa continued, “It is not my style to be a bitch. So I want us to negotiate a couple of rules for your grounding and a couple for as long as you live with us. Is that all right with you?”

  “I don’t know,” Jill held up her hand, “Until I hear them that is!”

  “Fair enough,” Lisa said, “Although you are restricted to the grounds, you are really restricted to this building except for when me, or your father, take you out of here. Once or twice a day we’ll either take a walk, or go swimming in the palace pool. Every so often we might go the gym. But we’re going to be flexible. There may come a time when I need you to run an errand or watch over Abby for me. When you are not exercising there will be a couple of tutors to continue your education. Some of them were the Queen’s. Some of them are special hires from the Old Trena Boarding School. We found the best for you and so I hope that they are and you will enjoy the special opportunity that you are being given. Once your father is convinced you have learned your lesson you’ll be going back to school.”

  Lisa waited to see if the girl was going to challenge her; but she didn’t. This stood her in good measure with Lisa.

  “Is there anything you want?” Lisa asked, “I have thundered at you a bit and laid some laws down, do you have anything to say?”

  “Mom,” the girl said, “All I want is to be with dad. You are a part of Dad so I don’t want to piss you off. I know Dad wants to ship me back to grandmom so I am not going to do anything to make that happen.”

  Both of them studied each other for moment then Lisa said, “Jill we have to make this a place a refuge for your father. This job is going to kill him with the stress and the pressure. The two of us have got to get along!”

  “Mom,” Jill said, “I read about what is happening and what Dad’s job is. I don’t understand it all but from what I read it’s immense. If I can help him by not being a problem then I’ll do my best not to be that problem.”

  All thoughts of her becoming an aid to her father were fading away. She realized it wouldn’t be possible. She made herself a vow to help her step mother to create the environment that she wanted for her home and her husband.

  “Good enough,” Lisa replied, “Dinner won’t be until about 1900. Until then your time is your own. So you might get unpacked and wander a bit about the house.”

  So Jill unpacked the one bag she had brought. It wasn’t much. When she had left Mars she had thrown some clothing in her school back pack not wanting to alert her grandmother that she wasn’t going to school. She had a change of clothes and a couple of changes of under garments. A T shirt she had stolen from her father years ago that said imperial marines on it and had seen better days that she used as night shirt. It took a grand total of about ten minutes to empty her bag. Once that was done she poked around her bed room for a bit.

  She walked to the window that looked out over the grounds of the palace. Because the building wasn’t extremely tall and her room was so close to the ground she couldn’t see much. A privacy fence bordered a good size garden with all type of flowers that seemed to go clear around this portion of the house. She was tempted to go the garden, but remembered she was grounded. As she observed the garden she saw the woman who introduced herself as Maggie cutting various blooms and such. She wondered what she was going to do with them. She saw that the window had a padded place big enough to sit on and sat down. That was where she spent the rest of the afternoon.

  As she sat in the window’s box seat she considered all that had happened to her over the last few days. The travel from Mars, and the incident with Thunder on Rio Lobo; but mostly she considered what her father had told her about her other grandmother.

  Heir to the Hazelton fortune, her father had said. She of course knew who the Hazelton’s were. She just didn’t know that they were connected to her family. Hazelton was the name of the family that owned Earth Biological Engineering, mostly known as Ebio. They had made their fortune by rediscovering the method to create clones or biopeople as they called themselves. It had been lost for centuries when Earth had gone through a dark period. When religious zealots had taken over the Earth for a century or so a lot of technology had been lost. Especially in the biological sciences which had been prescribed by the religious rulers of Earth. Shortly after star flight had been discovered, Tomas Hazelton had also found the research on bioengineering and a few years later had developed the first clone. Years later he had been able to patent the whole process.

  But it wasn’t until
Earth was colonizing other worlds and there weren’t enough bodies willing to go to these worlds, that Hazelton made his fortune. So Hazelton seeing an opportunity; developed a mass production of his process and soon thousands of clones were being produced. Although slavery was illegal in the fledgling empire, it had been determined that the owning of bioengineered beings was not slavery; as the bioengineered human beings were lab creations, and could be patented. This was how Hazelton made his first several millions. That had been five centuries ago. Now the fortune was worth literally trillions of imperials.

  So she was the heir to all of that. She was surprised that she hadn’t heard of it. That no one had mentioned to her that she was the heir to such a large fortune. Or for that matter when her father had been in the news like he was when he was made Knight Commander of the Earth Empire, the news media didn’t mention he was the heir to the Ebio fortune. She then knew that her grandmother Wilson had been part of the conspiracy to keep this from her and now she suspected that her search for information about her father had been filtered so as not to tell her about their connection with Ebio.

  As she sat in the in the window box watching the sun set, she realized that she had assumed that it was her grandmother’s retirement that took care of them on Mars. It couldn’t have been now that she thought about it. Now as a retired two star admiral, her grandmother’s pension was nothing to sneeze at; but it was in no way sufficient to even pay for the upkeep on their large estate on Mars. Her grandmother had tossed it off as she had saved well when she was in the service and a couple of people had given her gifts for what she had done for them or their nation when she helped them. Her yacht had been the gift of a prince when her grandmother had flown the ship back to his world when his crew had become sick and the prince didn’t know how to fly it himself.

  She thought back to her time on Mars and realized she had never wanted for anything. But she had never had extravagant things either. When she really wanted something she would have to negotiate with her grandmother and would have to earn it. Sometimes it meant extra chores around the house, or babysitting some kids of the students and instructors from PriFli, where her grandmother had been the commander. She had always had the things she needed, maybe not all the things she wanted but certainly the things she needed.

  As she sat in the window box going over what her father had said to her she kept coming back to one thing, that someone from the company she owned wanted her father and step mother dead. She wondered did that mean she was paying someone to kill her parents. Why did they want them dead? Did they want her dead also?

  “Jill,” A voice broke in on her thoughts. She turned and saw someone she had not seen in years. Lamile Atomi. When their parents had been stationed on Station thirty, and later when her father had helped to stand up the Companions they had been nearly inseparable.

  “Lamile,” She got up and ran over to where the six foot two Thonian stood. She hugged the slightly younger and taller alien girl. The only real difference between the two girls was that Lamiae’s hair was gray and she was taller with a huskier frame and the fact that she had four breasts instead of two. Even then in some outfits there was no real visual difference between the two species. Lamile had on a long sleeved blouse with a high neck line and an ankle length skirt that made her appear more like an earth girl than a Thonian. The clothing she had on covered almost every part of her. The skirt went almost to the floor, and the blouse was buttoned most of the way up exposing only her throat; but not her cleavage. Jill remembered other thonian girls who dressed the same way. Lamile was dressed modestly and chastely, as was the custom for unmarried thonian girls. This was the first time Jill had seen her friend since she had matured. “You look good!”

  “So do you!” Lamile said. “You mad at me because I haven’t written?”

  “Then shouldn’t you be mad at me for the same reason?” Jill asked. “Tell me what’s happened to you. How did you get here?”

  “We came here are after my father’s death.” Lamile said, “Mom was lucky to be alive after that guy shot him. But even so the space force wouldn’t let her remain in uniform. So we came here.”

  “Uncle Garth’s dead?” Jill asked. She remembered the quiet bear of a man who was her friend’s father. She remembered the times that Garth had tried to teach her Thonian. Of the times he gave her piggy back rides around the house. He was so gentle! That was the thing she remembered the most about him. He had been the deputy commander of the Companions. He and Aunt Mylea had been the first command team of the unit. She had been 9 at the time when they had stood up that unit. “I am so sorry. I’ll miss him. Your mother seems okay.”

  “She shouldn’t even be alive, Jill.” Lamile said sitting down, “Often the death of a lifemate kills them both. The doctors think that because of the instance of dad’s death that it severed the Aqaut cleanly, and mom was not actively sharing Dad’s thoughts at the time she was not hit with the death shock. They don’t really know!”

  “How is she really doing,” Jill asked. “I was surprised to see her this morning. Now doubly so!”

  “She’s doing okay,” Lamile said, “I don’t get to see her much as she is spending so much time with the evacuation command. She seems to like it though.”

  “Hey you girls coming to dinner,” her step mother poked her head into the room.

  “Oh! I was supposed to get you,” Lamile said sheepishly.

  “Let’s go!” Jill said.

  The two followed Lisa to the dining room where the rest of the family and Mylea were waiting for them. They ate a quiet dinner.