“Why are we here and not in the breakfast room?” Mike asked without looking up from his printout. It was the morning brief that was delivered to him every morning. It was given to his aide who made sure it was sitting next to the uniform that his steward laid out for him every morning.
“Oh Mom thought it might be a good idea to eat here this morning,” Jill spoke up as she poured a cup of coffee for her father trying to keep a straight face.
“Oh?” Michael said absently taking the coffee and sitting down. Still immersed in his daily brief, Wilson didn’t notice Liz, his enter the dining room and sat down next to her boss. Often they worked in the study until they left for his palace office. Lisa had insisted that she join them for breakfast when they worked in the residence.
“Hello,” She saw the strange woman sitting at the end of the table and introduced herself to the woman, “I am Liz Tannerman!”
“I am Rear Admiral Joyce Wilson of the Interstellar Rescue Service,” Joyce introduced herself to Liz.
At that Wilson dropped his coffee cup splashing coffee all over his uniform, as he turned to his mother, “Mom?”
“Hi Mike,” Joyce smiled enjoying her step son’s reaction.
“Welcome to Trena,” Wilson said, as Liz quietly left the table to get her boss a clean uniform shirt from his steward. “I didn’t know that you were coming to Trena.”
“I got bored on Mars and thought I would come out here.” Joyce said, “Thought you could use another light space craft skipper.”
“I sure can,” Michael said, “but it would be a waste to use you in that regard.” “Why a waste,” Joyce asked, sipping her coffee.
“You would find it boring to be just an LC jockey,” Mike said.
“Then what can a retired Admiral do for you,” Joyce asked.
“How would you like to be Jill’s representative on Home?” Mike asked. “We need to have someone on Home to look after our interests, and to begin building our place there.” “Getting rid of me already huh?” Joyce said with a smile.
“No,” Lisa said, “God I wanted to come to you for years Joyce. I just didn’t want to put you in danger. But we do need someone to go to Home. Someone who can be our representative there! Someone to answer any questions the people arriving on Home might have and to supervise the building of our home. No, we’re not getting rid of you.” “When do I leave?” Joyce asked.
“Oh in a month or so,” Mike said. “I need to get a few people to go with you. This saves us from having to hire some lawyer to do the job.” “You’ll do that?” Lisa asked.
“Look I am either a pilot, or CSAG.” Joyce said, “I was getting bored on Mars with no teenager to run after, and truthfully I wasn’t designed to be a retired grandmother with more leisure time than I know what to do with!”
“Okay!” Michael said. Looking at his seventy year old step mother he couldn’t imagine her retiring to a rocking chair yet either.
A few minutes later Admiral Wilson saw the woman who had asked her who she was, brought her son a shirt. Joyce shook her head. She had never understood how he did it. It wasn’t that he was having sex with all the women around him, on the contrary he didn’t. It just seemed his aura attracted very beautiful women who were very good at their jobs. She had seen it when he was in the marines. Some things never changed.
“Marshal,” the young woman said looking up from her pad, “I can rearrange your morning meeting with Boeing Space Works, but the Queen’s briefing has been reschedule twice in the last 24 hours. If it’s going to happen it has got to happen this morning. And in about twenty minutes!”
“Okay,” Mike said, “Mom, Lisa I will see you at dinner. Mom if you don’t want to be our site supervisor it’ll be okay, we’ll make it happen.” He drank his coffee leaving it on the buffet by the door as he walked out the door.
“Hey get some breakfast somewhere huh?” Lisa called after her rapidly departing husband. As he waved in acknowledgment Liz locked eyes with her and said, “I’ll see that he gets something Lady Wilson.”
Joyce seeing the look in her daughter in law’s face remarked, “That one will take care of him.”
“Liz?” Lisa asked, “Yes she might sit on him long enough to get a donut down him! I just worry about him. This job is going to kill him if he doesn’t slow down. He needs to take a couple of days off. Period!”
“Lisa,” Jill said, “Why not a weekend at Lady Hawthorne’s. She invited all of us, and Dad does like her place. Even with all the people running about it!”
“Uh Lady Wilson,” Maggie commented, “We could move everyone off to the summer palace.”
“But he’s still got to deal with all of his day to day duties.” Lisa remarked.
“That’s true my lady,” Georgia commented, “But the atmosphere at the summer palace is more relaxed. If you remember we bring only the personal staff, and the principle advisors. Not all of them. They can be ferried out if needed.” “How do we make the suggestion,” Lisa asked.
“Let me speak with the Queen’s maid,” Maggie started, “We’ve always been able to...”
Joyce chuckled interrupting Maggie, “Just what I always suspected of my aids. I was just an instrument for their needs.”
“Admiral,” Francine looked the admiral in the eye with a dead serious tone in her voice, “I am afraid now we’ll have to kill you. We were supposed to take that secret to our graves. Right girls?”
“We’ll I don’t know,” Maggie said thoughtfully, “It’s a fairly severe offense being busted; but do you think she would let us get away with it?” Maggie nodded towards Lisa.
“Not likely,” Georgia remarked, “Besides she’s now part of the official family and I might have to err uh take professional interest if you try to close her file.”
“There is that.” Francine nodded, “Oh well I guess we have to swear her to secrecy and let her join the greatest conspiracy of all.” “That being?” a bemused Joyce asked.
“The care and raising of the royal family naturally,” Francine commented.
“So now that you are going to let us all live may I see my newest granddaughter?” Joyce asked.
“This way mom,” Lisa said chuckling leading her mother in law out of the dining room.
###
It was late at night and the Princess should have been in bed. Instead she was sitting in the day room so as not to disturb her room mates as she read some more of her great grandmother’s diary. They hadn’t complained but the Princess felt that she shouldn’t stay up late when the others were trying to sleep. So she left the dorm room and went to the day room. She had found out that late at night the CQ watch, the cadets on duty as guards and such in the dorm, would not bother any cadets as long as they were quiet and not disturbing any one. She poured herself a cup of tea from the dispenser that was always there, and sat down with the diary.
“Grand mom looks good,” the princess read while idly stirring her tea, “When I first saw her in the kitchen I didn’t know what to think. I was happy to see her and frightened also. I knew she had to be mad at me. She had answered none of my letters, so I was certain that she was mad me. Yet when I saw her she frosted over for a minute or so; then seemed to get over it.
“I talked with her over what Dad and General Alphine has been telling me.” The princess took a sip of the tea. “She told me all of it and when I asked if she knew Dad was here all along, she simply said yes.
“I was mad at her for most of the day after she told me.” The Princess chuckled, thinking she would be mad if her mother or grandmother would hide her dad’s location from her, “But the next day when grand mom had a chance to talk to me she explained why she had done what she did. I still didn’t like it but; after Mom’s near assassination I am beginning to understand why things were done. I still don’t like it; but I understand.”
“Raw meat!” the charge quarters on his rounds had found her. “You are out of bounds.”
“Yes sir!” the Princess snapped to her feet.
“Why?” the cadet asked.
“I was studying sir,” the first year cadet answered.
“Cadet Wilson,” the CQ said; it was the same senior classman who busted her a few weeks before for being late to class, “You are going to have to find a better way to manage your time. If you don’t you won’t make it. What are you studying?” “I am reading Queen Jill’s diaries,” the princess said.
“I’ve heard of your project,” the CQ said, “Sit back down Princess.”
The Princess sat down, surprised that the cadet didn’t ask for her butcher bill as the CQ sat down also, “the Queen is a hero of mine. What she did impressed the hell out of me.”
“She is impressive.” The Princess replied. On impulse she began reading aloud the next passage aloud.
“I had not realized how close grand mom and Lisa had been years before. They didn’t waste any time in filling each other in on what they had been up to.” The princess read, “They are very close! It was as if the years that had passed since they had last seen each other had not happened at all.”
She read to the small hours of the morning until the CQ was changed then went onto bed.
Chapter 15: Damn Break
“We were starting to have problems with the Theocracy,” the general began the class, “we knew the theocracy had managed to infiltrate one of teams to cause problems. To this day we do not know how the rest of Father Pierce’s team arrived on Trena. Father Pierce came through customs with a diplomatic pass port, aid by a traitor to the crown. The Theocracy believed that because of how our people lived we were getting our just deserts.
“The action teams sometimes known as Penitence Priests were used by the Theocracy to punish its governmental officials and its own citizens and were used to convince unfriendly governments to see things their way.” The general continued, “We were certain at the time that the traitorous AI that I was hunting was not in league with the Theocracy they don’t like technology.
“The way we used technology, the way we allowed anyone to live on Trena, the way we define families, with multiple spouses. Then our acceptance of the biopeople, and of course AIs and humbots like me made us, in the eyes of the pious religious people and rulers of the Theocracy the most evil and vile people in the universe. Because of that they felt that the disaster was our punishment from God.” The general said with a bit of venom in her voice. “There had been the bombing at the convention center, and minor incidents at a couple of the embarkation sites. A couple times a week one of the landing craft was shot at or there was some problem at the Evac Command’s special sites. We thought they were unrelated until the very end. Then we recovered a body that had the entire story of what the Theocracy was doing but that’s getting ahead of the story.”
###
Jill was getting ready for school when the holo set came to life. She had programmed its expert system to come to life if there was any breaking news. She had just come from the shower and was brushing her hair when it came on. She watched in horror as she saw the damage that a dam break had caused.
“Oh my,” Jill said. The town of Galloway was destroyed. It looked like someone had dropped a big bundle of tooth picks in the bend of the river. But what really got her attention was when she saw the barge being moved across the city of Trenaport. It was an immense barge with several cranes on it. They had tied it to a couple of landing tugs. The tugs moved the barge over the city of Trenaport lying the barge gently down in the river by the remains of Galloway. She watched as the holo showed the arrival of the Red Cross to the scene of the disaster. It was terrible. She wondered if there was anything she could do. She put her robe on and went to find her mother.
“I see it Mylea,” Jill heard her mother talking to her aunt on the com, “Is there anything we can do.”
“No Lisa,” she heard her adopted aunt say, “The Red Cross has everything well in hand. They have shelters up and running or will have soon.”
“We’ll be under foot.” Her step mother replied. She desperately wanted to help. She didn’t want to stay locked up behind the palace walls when there were people hurting. “Our security detail won’t let us do what we have to do.”
“Lisa there isn’t anything you can do at the site.” Mylea was saying, “And your detail and you will be in the way at the evacuation hospital or shelters. They don’t need a VIP visit. But maybe you and Lady Hawthorne can come up with the things those people will need. The TRC will provide food clothing and medical needs. But these people lost everything. We will need to make sure they have what they need to start life over on Home, or anyplace they are going to end up.”
“I think we can make that happen,” Lisa said. Her friend knew how she felt and had just the right solution.
“Is it alright if Lamile goes to Lady Hawthorne’s with you?” Mylea asked.
“I don’t see why not.” Lisa replied. Her step mother looked directly at Jill then needling her step daughter a bit “She can help keep Jill out of trouble.”
“And Jill can keep Lam out of trouble too!” Mylea said looking at her own daughter who stuck her tongue out at her. “She’ll be over in a bit.”
After Lamile arrived they piled in the car and went to East Wind, the estate of Lady Hawthorne. Stretched out on both sides of the drive were containers, and portable offices. She didn’t know how Lady Hawthorne did it but she seemed to be able to reach out and touch someone to get what she wanted. As they approached the manner house a young woman not quite thirty flagged them down. The noble woman was a little shorter than Jill and appeared to be a little over weight. Seeing that Jill remembered that the noble woman had had a baby right before the evacuation was announced.
“Hi Lisa,” the noble woman dressed in casual clothes asked, “Ready to go to work?”
“I guess so,” Lisa answered. “What are we doing?”
“We have these lists of things,” Delores said, “that the crown and others say that the people in Galloway will need, since their town was destroyed. The crown list isn’t too bad. But you can see that a couple of lobbyists are dumping stuff on us. We need to sort it out. Also I need to get a relief supply center set up so we can distribute the stuff to them.
So there’s plenty of work to keep you busy.”
“That’s what I want to do.” Lisa said, “I want to be useful. Not just stuck in palace and watching things.”
“I know Lisa,” Lady Hawthorne said. She and Chief Atomi had discussed how Lisa was getting cabin fever. Lisa had been active in her neighborhood before being moved to the palace. She wasn’t the neighborhood busy body, but several of the stay at home parents would bring their kids over to her place so they could play with Abby while they shot the breeze with Lisa. Also Lisa would sometimes at the request of various doctors go to people’s homes or hospital rooms to assist in their physical therapy. Since going to the palace in an effort to keep her safe she had become isolated, especially after the incident at the space port. When she did get out it was with a full protective detail. Mylea had seen it immediately and Delores had seen it a bit later. “Come this way.”
The rest of the day was a blur for Jill. After her step mother went with Lady Hawthorne, one of the older woman came up to her and Lamile, and asked, “You two, doing anything?”
“No why?” Jill asked.
“Come this way,” the older woman said leading them to one of the immense barns on the estate. It had at one time been an indoor horse paddock. It wasn’t being used now as Lady Hawthorne had gotten rid of her missing husband’s horses when he had abandoned the family a few days after the evacuation notice.
“In a little while,” the woman said, “we are going to open the west gates. We’re going to let people bring stuff in for the people of Galloway. When they come in we need to unload their stuff as fast as possible. We’ll pull them in, park them and try to get their vehicle unloaded an
d out of here as quickly as we can.” “So what do you want us to do?” Lamile asked.
“Just help where you are needed. We have a lot of people and we may get in each other’s way. So try to stay out of people’s way, but don’t be shy about getting in and helping.”
“Your Grace,” Someone called, and Lamile realized it was the duchess of Costal Lowlands who was telling them what she needed done. The noble woman turned to see an older man who was standing by the main doors of the barn. “Here they come!”
From that point on the two girls were busy. The long lines of cars started coming in. The people brought all manner of things. From baby cribs, to clothing, even toys. Some were in truck loads. Jill couldn’t believe it. In some of the worse junkiest looking cars the people handed her large denomination crowns, but in some of the swankiest looking cars the people gave her the worse junk, or some of the smallest donations she got of the day. One car that looked to be on its last legs and had stalled in the barn and had to have a couple of the men to push it out of the way while they worked on it, each of the ten kids who piled out of it gave her a ten crown note, and the father who was in faded dungarees had to have help pulling a jar that stood waist high out of the back. The jar was loaded with coins of all denominations. When Jill tried to refuse the donation, thinking that his family needed it more than they did, the man in his late thirties simply said, “Those people need it more than we do. We’ll get by.”
The next car was that of a well-dressed woman, with rings on every finger, gave her a ten crown note, and the clothing that was taken out of the back of her car, was going to have to go into the rag bin. That wasn’t the only one that Jill remembered. They looked up and saw a freight hauler come in to the barn. It was from a local furniture dealer. The owner was on one of the next lifts to Home, and the crown was severely restricting how much of his inventory he could take. He said that it made more sense to let the people of Galloway have it instead of looters.
About lunchtime, a bioman with a girl about her age came into the barn. As they unloaded the car Jill recognized the girl with him. It was the same girl who had been at the restaurant where the biowoman had been killed. Jill walked over the car to help unload it. It was mostly woman’s things. As she helped she noticed that the girl had tears in her eyes. “Are you okay?” Jill asked the girl.