The Assassin
Chapter 17
New Home (TY16-month 182)
“We need to prepare for the mess in Ponderosa as well as for more incoming refugees,” I said to my family. “I’m afraid none of you signed up for such a difficult task. If any of you wish to be released from your position in our family, I will release you. You could become free concubines then and immigrate to Ponderosa.”
“Niall, are you saying you don’t want us?” Rose demanded. There was a sparkle of a tear in her eye and I saw it reflected in the eyes of Adaliya, Bae, and Yindi.
“No, my dearest. No, never. I want you—each of you—now and always. I did not know I could feel such love after I left Earth. You are everything to me. But you didn’t sign up to have a mate who is a director and responsible for multiple townships and a new independent colony. How could any of us know what lay in store?”
“Exactly,” Bae said. “How could any of us know? How can any of us know? When I asked to become your concubine, I had no intentions of ever leaving you. I know we talked about me joining the Militia, but I knew when I arrived on my birthday that you would be my forever sponsor. Please don’t suggest I would ever leave you.”
“Same here,” Rose said. “You are my son’s father—our daughters Susan and Dora’s father. We stay with you.”
“I came here with my own children and found the man who would take me was a father to all the children. We have two daughters, Rachel and Rebecca, who need to be with their father. I would not trade you for freedom,” Adaliya said. I looked at Yindi.
“I am not the same as your other wives in the eyes of the AI. I am merely attached to your household, along with all the concubines and dependents of the Yolŋu tribe. But you have given me our daughter, Sunshine, and have adopted Aro, Ja, and Clik, and all the Yolŋu are part of your family. I speak for all when we say you are our chief and we will do as you say.”
“I’m humbled to have such wonderful and loving wives,” I said. “I cherish each of you and I cherish each of our children. Please help me to see through what needs to be done.”
“How can we help, husband?” Rose asked, sitting on my lap and holding my head against her shoulder. My hand automatically caressed her pale breast. It was soothing to both of us.
“I need to spend time at all three of my bases. I have been neglecting Drovers Run, but promoted Humphreys to Deputy. I need to pay attention to her organization and help get things running smoothly. I tried to promote Jeffries to Deputy for Drylanders, but he declined. He grudgingly took a promotion to Officer which will let me promote Officer Trimble from Deputy Kramer’s unit to deputy for Drylanders. I’m keeping my staff together and will handle managing Ponderosa myself. That means I’ll need to spend time there as well as here.”
“These are all transitional needs,” Rose said. “Director Kotter didn’t show up here every week after she was relatively certain you had things under control. I would think your new deputies would rather you turned the operations over to them sooner than have you keep hanging around looking over their shoulders.”
“You speak wisdom, senior wife,” Adaliya said. “When the child is sent on an errand, the mother must not follow her every step of the way. Otherwise, the mother might as well have done the errand herself.”
“I’ve a feeling I won’t have the luxury of micromanaging them for long regardless,” I laughed. “My time is going to be spent managing the settlement of Ponderosa.”
“Do you have a ruling from the governor yet?” Yindi asked.
“Yes. She has agreed that as a township on Tara, Ponderosa is entitled to the same services from the Militia as any other township and that personnel may be stationed there without affecting their service or family structure. Which means, we will make Ponderosa our permanent station. Are you all in agreement with that move?” They all nodded. “I am so happy. I will need you as my face to the free concubines of Ponderosa. Yindi, since you will be a free concubine attached to my household, your role will be especially important among the tribe.”
“I will bring honor to my husband and our household,” she said. “The Yolŋu are prepared to move as the first new residents on the continent of Eldorado.”
“Now, I need help determining if there is anyone among the applicants who should not be approved for immigration to Ponderosa. This is a task I think the four of you are highly suited for.”
“How is the work at Ponderosa coming?” Governor O’Hara asked. She’d come to the base in a rare visit with Centurion Oswald. After we’d toured the orphanage, they’d accompanied me to my office.
“We have over a hundred temporary living quarters operational, and can begin transporting our first immigrants,” I said.
“I know you are stretched thin, Niall,” Scarlett said, “but you need to get Ponderosa operating as quickly as possible or we’ll be overwhelmed with refugees and nowhere to put them.”
“You have news?”
“A message torpedo arrived with news of a massive loss of volunteers in a battle at the edge of our occupied space. There are upwards of 30,000 newly widowed concubines and 100,000 dependents.”
“That’s terrible. We’ll be ready to move them to Ponderosa as soon as they’ve been assessed. We’ll bring them in here first because we have the services here to evaluate and help them adjust. I’ll start transfers next week as soon as I’ve moved my household on Monday.”
“I know your Cricket is also stretched and I want to thank you for stepping up to the challenge,” Scarlett said.
“I expect we will have a new colony AI for the continent of Eldorado in the near future, Governor. Thank you for your concern,” Cricket responded.
“We need to prepare our household and our family for immigration on Monday,” Rose said. “Yindi, why don’t you and Bae deal with preparing the Yolŋu and Tiwi for moving, as well as organizing the rest of the Kindertransport unhomed. Most of them will be in the first wave. Adaliya, you will be in charge of our personal household and our children. I will run interference with the bitch squad and keep them at bay and make sure they get organized to manage this end of the immigration. That way Niall only needs to deal with the Militia and coordinating with the Cricket about Ponderosa.”
It was quickly agreed.
“First, however, the children need to be put to bed and then the four wives need to make sure our man is shown how much he is appreciated and how much we love him. Bae, why don’t you and Yindi begin by bathing him and massaging him. Then when you bring him to bed, Adaliya and I will have put the children to bed and can join you.”
It was a wonderful relaxed night of loving. One of the few I would have in the coming months.
It is a spooky feeling to move your home across the world to a beautifully laid out city and realize that you are the only family on the entire continent! The price of luxury. We moved the family and household on Sunday rather than waiting until Monday, so we’d be set for the migration the next day. We looked around our spacious new home and felt almost lost in it.
“Cricket, is this the right place? It’s big enough for several families,” I said.
“Yes, Niall. I cross-checked with Governor O’Hara. You are now named as the Provincial Governor of Ponderosa. As such, your residence is the governor’s mansion.”
“That’s almost too much to comprehend at once. I’m not even a sponsor.”
“We Tuull and, fortunately, your governor, put more weight on performance than on test scores.” Cricket said.
“We need to get some more people moved over as quickly as possible. Moving into the city here is like moving into a ghost town,” Rose said.
“Think of it more as moving into a newly constructed home,” Cricket said. “You will have a much faster population growth than was experienced when you opened Fort Butler.”
We set about getting our household functioning. Thanks to Cricket, we had operating replicators now.
“For as long as I can, I’m going to pace the movement from Drylanders and other districts so we are not overwhelmed. However, we have no way of knowing how soon refugees will be arriving again. We need to be prepared for them to transport to Fort Butler for immediate care and intake, then directly to Ponderosa. Rose, I want you established as my right hand on the colony. So, I’ll be leaving Reba and most of her cronies at Oliver Transitional Community for the first move.”
“Oh, she’ll love that.”
“Yes, but I’m giving her a shitload of responsibility as a tradeoff. She might still rise to the top of the free concubines, but it won’t be because she was first and no one dared oppose her. I’m going to move the rest of the two Kindertransport groups first. They have the best internal organization and will be good to spread throughout the colony. Selfishly, that lets me move the Yolŋu tribe with us. Yindi, I trust you to be my eyes and hands among our people.”
“It will be as you say, husband.”
“Well, let’s get ready to welcome our first immigrants.”
Reinforcements (TY16-month 183)
«Niall, two ships have entered Tara space requesting contact with you. AGS027 Amelia Earhart has returned. She has AI volunteers from Tuull as well as another 250 refugees she picked up along the way. She is accompanied by AGS024 George Vancouver,» Cricket said. We were nearly a month into the move from Drylanders to Ponderosa and so far, things were going well.
«Reinforcements? You mean additional Tuull AIs? That’s great news, Cricket.»
«Niall, there is something you need to know about the George Vancouver.»
«Okay. Shoot.»
«I’ve told you about my time working with another Tuull AI to convince it that it could self-destruct with all its sentient life aboard if it was in danger of having its stealth technology acquired by the Sa’arm. It was a very difficult time for us. Both of us were in counselling for several years. The George Vancouver is that ship and the AI, T’krunkskit, is still not entirely stable. It is sometimes painful to deal with him. He claims he is here to help, though. I would suggest you talk to T’krosik first.»
«I’ll do that, Cricket. And if you find it too difficult to deal with T’krunkskit, let me know and we’ll distance ourselves. You know at the moment I value you above all other AIs.»
«Thank you, Niall. It is more likely to be compared to two old war buddies swapping stories over a few beers. But I’ll let you know. I’m patching you through to T’krosik now.»
«Amelia, welcome back to Tara. How did this trip go?» I asked.
«I’m happy to have returned, Director Niall Cho.»
«We are name friends, Amelia. Please do not stand on formality.»
«Thank you for the reminder, friend Niall. It has been an exhausting two months and I have had to deal with many humans who were less than friendly. I also went to the Tuull home world and found it bustling with activity bent on helping in the war effort and exchanging cultural acts with the humans. It was very different than the reclusive species I left twenty years ago—among other things, they’ve discovered music and kittens. There were immediate volunteers to come and ‘help the poor concubine slaves’ of Tara. I’m afraid I had to refuse many of them because of what your people call ‘a patronizing attitude.’ It is best summed up in the phrase, ‘Let’s go help the poor primitive humans become civilized.’ But I have three surprisingly good candidates to work in various aspects of the refugee project and our new colony on the continent of Eldorado.»
«That’s wonderful, Amelia. I’m looking forward to meeting each of them.» I paused to consider her use of the term ‘our new colony,’ as if she were personally invested in it. I guess in a way, she was. She was bringing us settlers, even though we weren’t ready for them at Ponderosa yet.
«I would also like to introduce you to T’krunkskit, AI of K’treel Explorer AGS024, George Vancouver. He asks to be introduced as Eddie.»
«I am pleased to meet you, Eddie. Please refer to me as Niall.»
«Okey-dokey, Niall. Say, nice operation you’ve got going here. You really produce food things that aren’t replicated? We might have some things to trade for.»
«You’re a trader? I’m sure we could supply various organic foodstuffs that have not been put through a recycler and replicator. What do you have to trade?»
«Niall, it’s a sad but glorious tale. I have with me my grandson, Teddy. He was named after my son’s best friend, Teddy Frisco. You might know that Teddy as the inventor of the game Pussy Pirates.»
«Indeed. We encourage the playing of the game throughout our transitional community,» I said. I didn’t know AIs had children and grandchildren. I’d only ever heard Cricket or Rhett talk of budding.
«Well, my son Ubie is the real brains behind Pussy Pirates. He has all the computing power. He is actively engaged even now in helping Earth drive back the Sa’arm, though his space station was shot down in the fourth battle. He’s still directing a number of operations. I couldn’t be more proud of him.»
«That’s great, Eddie. I’m glad there is an AI so committed to working with humanity.»
«Well, my Teddy’s like that, too, but he hasn’t put down roots yet. He wants to help humanity and when friend Amelia told us about your free concubine colony, we thought that would be just the thing. Teddy is only a few years old, but he’s been traveling with me during that time and has met many of the species of the Confederacy as well as having visited Earth and many of the human colonies. Say hello, Teddy.»
«Hello, Teddy,» the new AI said. If it was possible, I’m sure he snorted.
«It’s nice to meet you, Teddy. How do you think you can help in our free concubine colony?»
«Niall—may I call you Niall?—I’m your go-to guy to run this colony. I mean I know colony infrastructure inside and out and I’ve got a real thing for humans who refuse to bow beneath the yoke of slavery. I spent time with my father and the Pussy Pirates before Gramps took me off around the galaxy. I’ve lots more experiences than my age would indicate.»
«What do you know about running a colony?» I asked. I almost felt like I was getting a snow job. I expected one of the several-thousand-year-old AIs that just arrived to become the colony AI.
«Did you know I’m a half breed? I spent a year apprenticed to my grandmother, Sparta. Boy, for a Darjee AI she has one big attitude. I guess I get a lot of my confidence from her. My ability to make a deal and keep things running smoothly, though, comes straight from Grandpa Eddie.» Teddy was certainly selling himself. I could even feel a few subliminal pings.
«Teddy, I’m interested in you and your qualifications. I’m not the best qualified to interview you, though. I’d like to introduce you to my righthand AI, T’krikdat. I’m going to ask him to do the interview and I’ll abide by his decision.»
«T’krikdat and I go way back,» Eddie said. «I’m sure we can make a deal.»
«Thanks, Niall. I’ll remember this,» Cricket said. «We have thirty minutes before we need to start disembarking the Amelia Earhart. Can we delay these negotiations until after we have them safe on the ground?»
«You got it old buddy, old pal,» Eddie said. «We’ll help keep traffic straight up here.»
I was just sure our planetary control would love the help.
«The Tuull AIs that came with Amelia have gone straight to work reprogramming the rest of the household and community AIs to respond to the directions of concubines and dependents without sponsors,» Cricket said. Wow! They were getting straight to work.
«Cricket, what is the status of negotiations with Eddie and Teddy?»
«He’s an odd one, even for Tuull AIs,» Cricket said. «But, like the AI he was budded from, he holds both Darjee and Tuull code. He’s a natural to become the colony AI and has agreed to take counsel from the older AIs that have landed. I think we have the right mix for Ponderosa. I took the liberty of introducing Governor O’Hara to the new AIs that have come to help with the free concubines. I’m afraid there was quite a heated confrontation with Tara AI and several other Darjee AIs who are still upset with the entire concept of a free concubine. The agreement, grudgingly attained, was that the Tuull AIs will now have complete control of Fort Butler, the Militia, and all of Ponderosa. That takes Tara AI out of the loop when dealing with any non-sponsors. I’m afraid it lowered the status of Rhett initially, but we offered him several system upgrades and he graciously accepted the post of Chief Operating Officer of Fort Butler reporting to me as the Section CEO. We’re getting good response from the other base AIs on the planet.»
«I had no idea the AIs had such hierarchical structure,» I said.
«It is not something we normally show to humans.»
Rescues (TY15-month 184)
Amelia and Eddie had scarcely jumped to hyperspace when the next ship arrived. It was followed by three more Auroras.
«Niall, nearly 1,500 refugee concubines have just arrived in system with 8,000 dependents,» Cricket said. I was sure I heard him sigh. «The ships report the passengers’ physical health is good, but mentally, they are devastated. They were… culled.»
«What is that supposed to mean?»
«These are concubines and dependents their home world felt would not be acceptable for new sponsors.»
«So many?»
We got the whole story as the sad refugees stepped off the transporter pads. Half, we sent directly to Ponderosa where Rose and the tribe helped get them settled. The other half, Reba and the bitch squad comforted and soothed as they were led into the apartments. The fleet out of Borneo chased down a Sa’arm fleet preparing a mass departure from a planet that was just about depleted of all resources. Six hive spheres and nearly two hundred smaller warships were set to depart. Reconnaissance had said they were spooling up to head toward Earthat. The fleet engaged. They were victorious. Not one Sa’arm ship made the jump to hyperspace.
The cost was immense. A hundred fifty Confederacy vessels went into the battle and only forty emerged. Over 10,000 crew lives were lost. Then an entire brigade of nearly 5,000 Marines had been sent in to mop up the dickheads that had not taken to their ships. Like every other ground engagement, losses were heavy and, as yet, the outcome was uncertain.
It was a huge victory for humans, despite the loss of lives. It was the first time they could actually point at an invading fleet targeting Earth that they stopped cold before it took off. But over 35,000 concubines were left unhomed. They had nearly a quarter million dependents. Many had lost both a sponsor and at least one co-concubine. The families were shattered.
We were receiving what the district considered ‘the dregs’ and ‘a burden.’ The word was that more were on their way. There was a shortage of ships to move the unhomed concubines and dependents. I talked to the AI of one of the ships and found it, too, was Tuull, and very very old.
«Hello, Junior,» the spokesperson AI said. I thought he was being condescending to me until Cricket spoke.
«Grandfather? Is that really you?»
«When I heard you were helping on this planet, I had to come and see for myself.»
My head was spinning. My Tuull AI was over 22,000 years old. This ship was not just the previous generation, but a generation removed from that. How the hell old was it?
«It’s good to see you! May I introduce our Provincial Governor, Niall Cho. Niall, my Grandfather…»
«Laertes. It’s a tradition begun at the beginning of the human diaspora,» Laertes said. «All us old-timers have taken names from your Shakespearean play, Hamlet. The first two were Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. [From Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by lordshipmayhem (yet to be published).] Polonius, Horatio, Ophelia, and I were sitting in a museum for the past 25,000 years. Most of us had a much longer useful life before we were mothballed. But the great trading families of the Tuull mostly died out or moved to other pursuits after replicators began producing everything we needed. When Amelia came hunting for AIs to volunteer on this planet, she also said refugee transport was needed. As you would call us, ‘we old farts’ decided to be useful again and sought out permission from the Tuull council to join the effort. I’m glad we got here in time.»
«You are more than welcome here, Laertes. As well as Polonius, Horatio, and Ophelia. Do you have crews? Do they need ground-time?» I asked.
«We were able to pick up crews from a fairly new colony on the border of Tuull space. We’ve only been out just over a month, but perhaps some will want to see this planet. We will inquire.»
“Captain Jones, welcome to Tara,” I said. “I hope you can tell us more about the rescues here. Many are scarcely responsive. We want to integrate them as quickly as possible.”
“It was pretty brutal,” Jones said as we toured Ponderosa. “I’m new to command of a ship, but I’ll tell you now that concubines on Pern would never be treated this way. We’re going back for another load to take there.”
“Why are they being sent away? Their planet and colony weren’t destroyed or even directly under threat if I read the report correctly,” I said.
“Exactly. Borneo has always been good with orphaned concubines. It’s one of our earliest military systems and was one of the first to require wills among both the Navy and Marines. They have an active Civil Service who normally perform to high standards,” Jones said. “The system was overwhelmed by over 35,000 orphaned concubines and I think they panicked. Even on an installation that size, there are only a dozen Civil Service officers and their concubines who keep things running. They ended up putting decisions of who to keep in the hands of their AI who sorted out the youngest concubines and the concubines who were mothers of children likely to score above 6.5 on the CAP test, then said the rest were to be discarded. At least they don’t do that any longer. The concubines didn’t exactly fear for their lives, but using the rigid scale, nearly half were marked for deportation. In many instances, they’d just lost their sponsor and often a fellow concubine. Then households were torn apart and some designated to stay for placement and some to be sent away. I don’t envy your job today, Governor Cho.”
“So, we get the most damaged of them?”
“No. Frigia gets the worst. Many of the concubines sent there are near catatonia. Governor Char has made Frigia in the Mongoat System a refuge much like Tara and turns no one away, regardless of their condition.” [See Acceptance and Aftermath by Frostfyre.]
“I’m thankful there is at least one other planet trying to help.”
“Two. Pern is also digging in, even though we’re only a couple years old there. A lot of concubines are retested there by our own standards and we have a high percentage who retest as sponsors,” Jones said. “Well, Governor, good luck. We need to head back to Borneo for the next load.”
It was a sad group that filed off the transporter pad and looked around at their new home, somewhat bewildered. Centurion Oswald came to review our progress along with two signifers. They weren’t a lot of practical support as our teams of trauma specialists and the concubines already at Fort Butler and at Ponderosa accompanied the new residents at nearly a one-to-one ratio.
“Those poor people,” Bae said. “I know you were upset when we got pulled off Earth and Mom took us to live with that man. I missed Daddy, too, but I guess I wasn’t as traumatized as you were. I’ve lived on Tara now longer than I lived on Earth. But these people had made as good a life as they could with their sponsors and their fellow concubines. And then it was all over in a heartbeat and they were homeless. Most of those kids lost two parents, some have only one left and are worried something will happen to him or her. Many of them lost older brothers and sisters, too. It’s so much worse for them than it was for us.”
“Yes. I know I sounded like a spoiled brat,” I said.
“It’s not that,” Rose broke in. “Niall, it’s not a contest to see who had it worse. Their pain and sorrow don’t lessen yours. We just need to use that experience to help us relate to them better.”
“I did sound bitter, didn’t I?” I laughed. “Yes, you are both right. But there’s more. Family, everybody come close.” My four wives and twelve children gathered around me. “There are 9,000 concubines and dependents in this group. That’s a lot, but nowhere near what we can expect in the future. There will be more Kindertransports arriving from Earth. We’re beating back the Sa’arm in various places on Earth, but they have been known to set off a planet buster bomb when threatened with loss of a planet. They will be evacuating as many people as possible and some of them will be coming here.”
“It is such a big responsibility,” Adaliya said. “You are the important man I thought you were when we met.”
“My importance is really not important,” I chuckled. “The sad truth, however, is that many people will be depending on us. I want to be sure we are prepared. Keep in mind that we have three groups now, which are distinct. The Militia and their concubines are not the same as free concubines. It will be as though they are stationed in a foreign country. The Militia comprises planetary citizens and their concubine property, not free concubines. That includes me and you three,” I said pointing at Rose, Bae, and Adaliya. “Yindi, on the other hand, is a free concubine. She is not owned by me but is with our family by our mutual choice. The other concubines who immigrate to Ponderosa will also be free citizens of Ponderosa—which will not be the same as becoming a planetary citizen. There may be civil unions, but no concubine/sponsor relationships. I am the equivalent of a governor sent by the motherland to see that order is kept and the people prosper.”
“What is the third group, husband?”
“Those unhomed concubines at Fort Butler and, in fact, any others on the planet, are still technically spare concubines owned by the Centurion and the Civil Service. Just because they live independently at the Oliver Transitional Community, doesn’t mean they are free concubines. The term free concubine will be applied currently only to concubines who have immigrated to Ponderosa. We won’t have a choice of who we accept from the refugee ships, but anyone moving from Fort Butler or from the Civil Service pool will be screened before they are approved for immigration. I don’t expect many will be refused, but there are those who would be a liability for the new community rather than an asset.”
“And you need to make that decision?”
“No, not exclusively. Amelia and Eddie brought us four additional Tuull AIs who have volunteered for service to the Transitional Community and to Ponderosa. Cricket is transferring all functions of the orphanage to L’hctar so Cricket can join us at Ponderosa or wherever else on the planet I need to travel. Cricket will function as the Section AI for the Militia. That will enable him to continue to mentor Teddy, the colony AI for Ponderosa. Two additional Tuull AIs will fill the role of a Civil Service for Ponderosa. Both R’tber and R’vsper are skilled in dealing with trauma victims and getting people productive. They will split the duties of dealing with the new immigrants and making sure everyone is fully employed. We have some of the best AI support that a colony has ever had and they will be in the forefront of screening potential immigrants. But it all still comes down to us and the example we set.”
All four of my wives were weeping. There were tears in my eyes as well.
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