“I see,” Maggie said, “Why?”
“After so much news of death, I think it’s appropriate to announce the beginning of new life.” Lisa replied. “What do we have in the wine cellar?”
“I have just the thing,” Maggie said. Jill and Lamile had come in on the end of their conversation.
“Mom,” Jill asked, “Did I just hear that right?”
“Yes,” Lisa turned to her step daughter, “Though your father is not to know I am carrying his twins. I want to tell him in private about the twins.”
“Sure thing,” Jill hugged her stepped mother. “But how are you pregnant? I thought you were sterile?”
“I am obviously not,” her mother replied, “It’s one of the reasons EBio wants me back.”
“Oh,” Jill puzzled, wondering what other secrets her step mother had.
“Girls, come with me,” Maggie commanded breaking into Jill’s thoughts. She led the two girls through a door in the back of the kitchen down a set of stairs to a small cramped pantry and wine cellar. “I was going to save this until our last night here. It was bottled the day before the Queen made her announcement. I purchased several cases of it.” Maggie brought out four bottles off the rack. She handed two bottles to Jill and two to Lamile then carrying two of the dusty bottles herself they went back up to the kitchen. There she dusted off the bottles and opened them and set them on the side board in the dining room. The vintage was not lost on Lisa when she looked at what her maid had chosen.
Eventually the five of them the Queen, General Alphine, Mylea, Lord Mercer and Michael arrived at the Wilson residence an hour later, and found Lisa waiting for them in the dining room.
“Daddy,” Abby ran to her father. Michael scooped his daughter up into his arms.
“What are you doing still up?” Mike asked his youngest.
“Mommy said it was okay,” Abby said and Jill nodded.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Mike wondering what was going on, Mike put his daughter down and walked down to their room to get out of his uniform.
“Mom; are you okay?” Lamile asked seeing her mother with a cast on her arm.
“Yes it’s a simple break.” Mylea said patting the sling that held her arm. “It’s been set and the fast heal drugs are taking care of business. I’ll be okay in a day or so.”
“Mylea do you want me to do therapy with me?” Lisa asked. She was a registered rehabilitation therapist and worked all over Trena, or had before the disaster.
“We’ll see.” Mylea said, “I have an appointment with Doc Klond tomorrow and I’ll see what she says.”
“Well let’s get seated.” Lisa asked.
When Michael came back to the dining room Lisa had seated everyone. As he entered Lisa nodded to Maggie who went to the side board where several wine glasses had been filled with the wine she had chosen. Maggie placed a glass before each place and quietly withdrew to a space behind Lisa. Ready to assist her mistress in anything she needed. Wilson looked at the wine glasses cocked an eye at Lisa and wondered what was going on. It had been a hideous day, and he wasn’t up to any of craziness. Lisa didn’t let him wonder long.
“Normally I wouldn’t be this dramatic for such a simple thing as announcing my pregnancy.” Lisa said softly, “but with today’s horrible events I think a little drama is appropriate. Normally a wife should tell her mate she is carrying his child in private so he can share his feelings with her without an audience to witness his reactions,” She locked eyes with Mike and nodded, “Sorry Michael. However as all of you, are part of my family, it is appropriate that I share this wonderful news of a new life with you. More so on this day that has taken and harmed so many souls.
“I offer this toast,” Lisa raised her glass, “to life, both new and old and to a future that brings peace to all of them.”
Wilson walked around the table and took his lady in his arms and kissed her passionately. Every woman at the table seeing the expression on Lisa’s face wondered how they could be next. After a few seconds, Maggie cleared her throat, “Lady Wilson may I serve dinner.”
“Yes,” Lisa said quickly, afraid to say anything more, wanting to do nothing more than to take her husband to bed.
“Dad,” Jill said, “Mom. I hope I am as blessed as you are when I marry.”
Jill got up from her seat next to Lisa, and went to where her father normally sat. Her father seeing the silly grin on his daughters face said, “I hope you are truly that blessed.”
In the few weeks she had been on Trena, she had not seen her father much. He made a point of sharing at least one meal with the family a day. Sometimes it was breakfast, sometimes it was diner. He rarely missed a single day without connecting with his family. Although she missed her grandmother, she had found Lisa okay to be around. She had thought Lisa would be a green eyed monster or worse. But she hadn’t, Lisa had given Jill her space; but had let her know what was expected of her, and was there when Jill needed someone to talk to. They had started to bond. She was wishing that she had met Lisa years before. She locked eyes with Lisa and slowly nodded. There wasn’t a doubt in either’s mind where she stood with the other.
“Well enough of this sentimental slop!” Lord Mercer said seeing it was time to move on, “It’s time to fuel the furnaces.”
“Lisa,” Afterwards when dinner was over and the others had left, the Queen lingered long enough to speak to Lisa alone, “If you need anything you let me know.” ”I will your highness.” Lisa said.
“Lisa,” The young monarch looked into the older woman’s eyes with a stern expression, “if you don’t start calling me Aggie I am going to send you to the dungeon. “
”Okay Aggie,” Lisa said, it was hard for Lisa to break her lifelong habit of knowing her station. Most of her life she had been a servant to people of Aggie's class. It was foreign to her nature to call even this young woman who was becoming more like a daughter, rather than her husband’s employer by her given name. Even when she considered that with Michael’s nobility she was closer to the queen’s peer than a servant. Sensing Aggie needed something, but not what, Lisa spoke softly, “come on lets walk you back to your place.”
The two women left the Queen Mum’s residence and walked to the
Queen’s residence. Jill never learned what they discussed. Lisa never discussed it with her, and her majesty was not a diarist.
###
“Jill didn’t know what Grandmother Lisa and the Queen discussed.” The princess told her class mates. “People have speculated for two centuries but neither grandmother, or Queen Agatha ever discussed it. I researched it a bit over the weekend.”
“They never did,” the general commented. “This was one of the many incidents that the evacuation command was dealing with. There was a lot of prep work being done. Not many people had been evacuated by this time. People were starting to get rowdy. But the Theocracy was causing grief also. Using people like Lord Ramer to spread dissension. Duke Wallace, while not spreading dissension was questioning everything. More and more of the nobles were trying to get off world on their own some leaving family and businesses behind. One of the families dealing with abandonment was Lady Hawthorns. A day didn’t go by that there wasn’t some landing craft that left the planet with someone being smuggled off world. The militia couldn’t shoot them down or force them to land, as the pilots knew that they could fly the gauntlet as the militia didn’t want to shoot down a ship loaded with kids. It was believed that someone took a couple of shots at one or two of the landing craft.
We later found out it was the theocracy agents; who were trying to cause a lot of grief.”
After class the princess was in the dorm, reading the entry of her grandmother’s diary of the night Queen Jill’s mother announced her pregnancy.
“I was floored when mom told me and Maggie she was pregnant,” Jill had written. “I haven’t had a chance to ask mom how this could be. During the time when clones were being u
sed by the out worlds of the empire, Empress Regina had declared that no clone, or bioengineered human sold by EBio could reproduced except by cloning. They were forbidden to procreate as natural human beings. They had to be sterile like mules in ancient times.
“So I am very curious how Mom could be pregnant. She is a delta clone, so she should be sterile.” Jill continued, “Then she said this is why the company wanted her back so bad. The more I learn about my step mother the more questions I have.
“The look on Mom’s face,” The princess could almost see a smile in the writing of her ancestor, “when dad took her in his arms and kissed her was mind blowing. I have never seen a look like that on anyone’s face. Contentment and lust came to my mind when I saw mom’s expression and where her hands had strayed to!”
“I am hoping that mom and I get a chance to talk about how she could be pregnant.”
Jill had ended the entry. “It is a mystery that I have to have answered.” She closed the diary up and got ready for bed.
Chapter 8: Worlds
“I didn’t know it at the time,” The princess was reading aloud in their dorm room from the first queen’s diary. Her audience was not only her cousins and aunt, but a couple of other first year cadets from the history class and to her surprise the barracks cadet sergeant. He had been about to break it up until he heard the princess reading from the diaries. He had heard about the first year cadet’s research and wished he was in her class. “But on a planet not too far away, things were happening that would affect me for the rest of my life.
“Though prohibited by their constitution and charter with the Galactic Council, from exploring other star systems or colonizing them, Dad had authorized an expeditionary voyage to a nearby world that the Galactic Council’s Star Exploratory Force said was an earth like planet that the people of Trena could colonize. I was surprised when the council didn’t stand in our way to try to colonize another world. The chain of events that this voyage caused I find hard to believe. The Roustabout’s voyage changed everything.”
As the princess read from diary the cadets reviewed what General Jones had told them earlier in the day.
###
The Roustabout was not an exploration ship. It was an Electronic Intelligence Coordination platform. The elint platform was designed to be a coordination and control platform for the Surveyor Flights, the real work horses of the surveillance and electronic intelligence gathers of the early warning system for the kingdom. It also acted if needed as a control platform for squadrons of fighter space craft, directing the kingdom’s response to an attack. When Roustabout flew it usually flew with a constellation of four Surveyor craft, and if things got hairy it would have twenty space air superiority fighter space craft sometimes known as SASsies join the constellation. This time when Roustabout flew it was with the four Surveyors Craft and one LC-6 medium lift landing craft called a Moon Lifter to land exploration parties on the new world. As they approached the world, Roustabout launched the surveyor craft. Although the Surveyors were not designed for mapping or exploration, these long endurance ships were easily put into service as exploration vessels. Their basic sensor suite could be used to map the planet and see what else was going on it.
“This sure beats a long patrol,” the lead sensor operator called as Surveyor 008 left the Roustabout. A typical patrol for a Surveyor was ninety days; but not this time. The flight from Trena had been a couple of weeks, the survey would take a week or so, they would be back in Trena within six weeks. They had been chosen for this mission as they were one of the best crews in the Surveyor Wing. They had been the crew that had spoofed the Imperial Attack Carrier Battle Bourne. They had infiltrated the screening fleet of cruisers, and destroyers to uncloak in front of the battle carrier. They had poured salt into the wound by the mission commander softly saying over the open com, “The Emperor regrets to inform your families that you died at the hands of a single unarmed recon vessel of the Trena Militia.”
That only caused the Battle Bourne’s Fleet to be more diligent the next time. The war games lasted three days, and the crew of Surveyor 8 was able to infiltrate the imperial fleet several times. Not always in time to prevent their own demise, but always soon enough for the Trena Militia to mount a defense. The Trena constitution prohibited them from having heavy war ships. They didn’t need them. Trena’s Militia whole defense strategy was based on delaying an invader until their allies could come to their aid. It worked most of the time.
“Yeah,” The crew chief said as he checked the ships systems. “A couple of quick turns around the planet with full sensor sweeps and back to the Roustabout then home. Hell this is the shortest survey mission we’ve been on.”
“Okay folks,” The Mission Commander broke into the circuit. “As a reminder, the Star Exploratory Forces flew the system a hundred or so years ago. They only flew the outer system. They did an electromagnetic sweep. Hoping to find the origins of some signals they had been hearing in the solar systems vicinity. They were involved in a SETI hunt. They had been receiving signals from this portion of the galaxy. When nothing electronic was coming from this system they moved on.
“Surveyor double ought three is going to survey the moons. Surveyor Double Ought five will be dropping marine survey probes.” He continued. “Surveyor ought ten will be watching our back. So pilot, take us to the top of the world and let’s begin our mapping mission!”
“Aye, to the top of the world sir,” the pilot replied and activated the preprogrammed flight plan.
So they went to the top of the world and began their survey. They were going to peel the world top to bottom as if was a piece of fruit. Their first slice would take it over the west coast of a rather large continent. Like Trena it had an ice cap that came down a couple thousand miles from the pole. It was an arctic desert, with only a few large roaming animals inhabiting it. In the upper latitudes there was no indication of civilization. As they continued making their slice, going south away from the ice cap; the terrain went from artic desert to a richly forested land. Although their slice was only a couple of thousand miles wide they, could tell that the forest went beyond their scan. Soon they came upon a mountain range.
The sensor operators were narrating their observations. Sometimes the mission coordinator would occasionally let the crew hear their narratives.
“We're coming up on a mountain range now. Most likely this continent’s continental divide, it runs south west to north east. Looks like it might be seven, eight thousand miles long. What is that Jack!” the senior operator nudged the operator beside him. He had been half watching his station mate’s display. At first he thought it was a large inland sea. Then he saw several large animals roaming the plain below them out ahead of the brown moving mass. They were four footed and had large horns. As the sensor operator zoomed in they saw that the animal was covered in a shaggy fur.
“Damn, those are big!” The other sensor operator remarked. “Trena has nothing like these; on Earth they were called bison. We nearly made them extinct!”
“On Thonia,” the copilot called “Largils are that big and they are as gentle as a new born child.”
“It’s moving toward that dark mass!” Jack called, “Damnation, it’s a herd of them. It’s like a sea! Hey what the hell is that?” He tightened the zoom controls on the camera to its tightest viewing scale. “Hey it’s a man. Man there’s twenty or thirty of them! They’re stalking one of those shaggies! Damn one of them has climbed up on the shaggy and is riding it.”
“Look at that!” The co-pilot yelled, “They’re swarming it. They brought it down and they did it with only their bare hands! Can you believe it?”
“Okay folks settle down,” the commander broke in. “Let’s go to full stealth. Pilot, get us down close; but I don’t want us seen by those abos.”
“Roustabout, Roustabout, this is Surveyor Double Ought eight.” The commander called, “Condition Bust. I say again, Condition Bust
! We are feeding you live video and surveillance, we are in full stealth mode, I want Surveyor five down here also I want another set of eyes say a thousand miles west of us on the south east slopes of this mountain range. I want to make damn certain that this isn’t a case of a downed space crew. I want them to start doing a debris scan.”
“Roger eight," Roustabout replied. “We are seeing your scans now.”
“Pilot,” the coordinator called seeing another group of men dragging a sled towards the woods, “I am tagging a group on the ground. They’re moving some where towards the woods. I want you to keep us over them. I want you track them to where they’re going.”
“Roger!” the pilot called. The pilots saw the group that the commander had put an icon on the screen over. The commander now standing in the doorway to the flight deck watched as his pilot team worked without saying a word to each other. The Thonians were unnerving to watch. They could make the surveyor craft do things its designers would consider impossible, without saying a word between them. They flew the ship into a near hover as they followed the tribe back to the woods.
The woods were so dense that the natives couldn’t be seen visually from the sky. The crew of the surveyor switched to infrared and radar sensors that allowed them to see through the dense forest. The Crew Chief was able to direct an almost never used surveillance microphone onto the natives and recorded their language. A thonian back on Roustabout began the process of translating what they were saying with the help of the AI. “It’s not any known language,” the linguist said, “It’s not Terrish, Thonian, or even
Vaylin.”
It took days for the hunting party to a get to its settlement. Usually the Surveyor flights could stay on station for weeks at a time, but Captain Vaughn, the Roustabout captain, decided that the surveyor flights would only stay on site for a few hours at a time. No more than eight hours at a time. When the surveyor flights came off station they continued the mapping mission. As they continued their mapping they found more civilizations. They found no evidence of high technology, no radio, holovision, no machines greater than human powered or wind powered. There were sail powered sea craft. They found nothing more elaborate or technically complex than a man of war from Earth’s 5th century pre empire. Their hope of finding the remains of a star ship that had crashed that would allow them to colonize this world came to a dramatic end when they found a fleet of the sailing vessels in a battle off the east coast of one of the continents. Finally Captain Vaughn recalled the surveyors and made preparations to leave the planet.