Chapter 26

Plotting (TY53-month 630)

“Sunnybrook AI,” Commander Inslee snapped.

“Yes, Commander.”

“I want an absolute privacy and security screen. Scan my office for any listening devices and disable them.” We waited an unusual length of time for any process by an AI, but eventually it came back.

“Your room is secure, Commander.”

“Tune out unless I say your name.”

“Out.”

He turned to look at me and motioned me to a chair. “Governor Cho, something’s wrong here.” I noted that contrary to Tara AI, the commander used my new title. “I’ve never heard of an instance in which the AI took over as governor. And I can’t begin to figure out why Perry agreed so quickly. This just isn’t right.”

“I agree, Commander. Governor O’Hara speculated that Tara AI may have somehow been corrupted. It is far beyond attempting to enforce obscure contract terms. There are logic flaws in its reasoning. Tara AI has been opposed to the Militia and the freemen from the beginning. What worries me most right now, is we’ve lost twenty thousand sponsors who have an average of three-point-eight concubines each with as many as forty dependents. What is Tara AI doing to them?” I asked.

“My Marines are exhausted but I will find troops that will go out to rescue orphaned concubines and dependents. For now, we have a lot of empty space here at Sunnybrook and our AI is military and not subject to Tara AI.”

“We needn’t worry about freemen on Eldorado. The continent is completely controlled by Tuull AIs who are not fond of the planetary AI,” I suggested. “If you run out of room here at Sunnybrook, we can take as many concubines and dependents as necessary. In fact, we could use a lot more concubines since we lost so many in the battle. The ratio of dependents to concubines has increased dramatically.”

“I’ve tried to remain neutral on all things planetary since the beginning. But you’ve shown yourself and your people as resilient and motivated. And well-trained. The reason we lost so many Marines is because they were still shell-shocked from their last deployment, many just recovering from injuries, and none having functioned under my command. We lost 15,000 Tara sponsors because none of them believed in the possibility of an invasion enough to have really trained for it. And most believed your continent wasn’t their responsibility and didn’t want to defend it. It was a damned clusterfuck from the moment we hit the ground. I know you lost a lot of people, Cho. We lost twenty thousand and have seventy thousand vulnerable concubines on the planet. You lost?”

“A quarter of a million between the Sa’arm and the Navy carpet bombing,” I whispered. A quarter million souls on my conscience. But what would the tally have been if we were not prepared and deployed nearly a million against the Sa’arm?

“Shit! I don’t know what you can do, but I’ll start messages up the chain of command. We can’t let Tara AI have control of the planet. No AI should be bossing around the humans on a planet. What can you do while confined to quarters?”

“I’m not sure. But Commander?”

“Yes.”

“My quarters are in Ponderosa, not here at Sunnybrook.”

Inslee grinned at me.

“Sunnybrook AI, transport Mr. Cho to his quarters in Ponderosa according to Tara AI’s orders. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Good luck, Governor.” I stepped onto the transporter pad and into the chaos of my home in Ponderosa—the governor’s mansion.

“Niall, thank God!” Rose shouted. She and Bae descended on me at a dead run. “We’ve heard the most awful things. I’m so sorry. How did you get free to come home?”

“I’m under house arrest and this happens to be my house. We’ll figure out a way to handle the AI,” I said. “Where’s Cricket?”

“With you as always, Niall,” the Militia AI said.

“I could have used you in Sunnybrook. I trust you will defend me at my trial,” I said, a little peeved.

“I was there, but there was nothing I could do to combat Tara AI. I negotiated with Sunnybrook AI to get you returned to here. I did not want to expose the fact that I can circumvent Darjee privacy and security protocols.”

“You can? Well, I guess I’m glad to hear that. It might come in useful in the near future. I just need to rest first,” I said. My exhaustion was bleeding through. How long had I been awake?

“I am sorry for your losses, Niall,” Cricket said.

“250,000! It was bad enough to lose people to the dickheads, but 50,000 to the carpet bombs.”

“I meant for your personal losses.”

“What?”

“Oh, Niall, don’t you know?” Bae pled. “Jannali and Ja marched out with the volunteers and were both killed. Adaliya is still out with the volunteer firefighters. We haven’t heard from Yindi. She left to coordinate the Yolngu and Lakota as soon as we heard the ship was in our space.”

“Oh, God. Sweet Jannali and Ja? Damn them. Damn the Sa’arm and damn the Confederacy!” I collapsed in the arms of my concubines and wept.

“Let us get you cleaned up. I know you want to comfort everyone, but you need to be comforted, too. And so do we,” Rose said.

Under Rose and Bae’s gentle persuasion, I let my exhaustion claim me. I was no longer sure how long we had been on alert and in action. In the course of a week or two, we’d had a quarter million deaths. 270,000 including the Marines and sponsors. 20,000 teen cadets—thirteen-year-olds on the verge of becoming adults. I was sick. Right now, the total ratio of concubines to sponsors on the planet was 40-to-1. Worse, on Eldorado we had a ratio of nearly 20-to-1 dependents to freemen. And the Tara AI didn’t want any concubine to be free.

If we could keep Tara AI at bay long enough, we could probably get the 70,000 orphaned concubines to Ponderosa and settle them here. We’d done it with refugees from other planets. It was a shame that we needed to treat our own planet the same as one with strangers. These people should be able to stay in their homes and run the family farm or the business their sponsors had created. I would mobilize the Militia to open the homes and move the families to safety.

Of course, Tara AI had voided the Militia contract, so I didn’t even know where our comrades were. Technically I no longer had concubines at all and everyone on Eldorado was considered in rebellion.

My sleep was restless and when I finally awoke, unable to sleep any longer, I went to the citadel.

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to leave the mansion and go to the citadel, but I encountered no obstacles. Apparently, the Tuull AIs responsible for Eldorado considered the continent my house where I was under arrest. I settled into my seat in the citadel looking out toward the devastated band five hundred kilometers wide from lake to lake and gathered my thoughts.

“Director Kramer,” I said as I sat in the Citadel. I wasn’t sure how much of our Militia infrastructure still existed.

“Kramer here, Chief.” His voice was clear enough I looked to see if he was in the same room.

“I’m glad to hear your voice. Did you make it back to Cold Comfort?” I asked.

“Affirmative. As we withdrew from the bombing range, I ordered all shuttles home. As soon as they were on the ground, we poured all our remaining comrades through the transporters. I’m informed that everyone who survived got home safely.”

“And how many survived?” I sighed. “Or rather, how many did we lose?”

“We lost 40,000 comrades. 65,000 made it home.”

“We need to make sure the concubines and dependents are taken care of.”

“We’re not letting any Militia pod go unchecked,” Kramer said.

“I meant any of the others, though I’m glad we’re taking care of our own. Understand, they are to have refuge on our bases for as long as needed,” I said. “But we need to take care of the concubines of the 15,000 dead sponsors.”

“Oh, God! The way Tara AI is acting, it might have cut off food, water, and heat.”

“My thinking, exactly. Commander Inslee is trying to muster enough able-bodied Marines to check house-to-house, but we are in a better position. His Marines are all at Sunnybrook. We still have Militia bases in every township and can send rescue out from all of them,” I said.

“In case you missed the memo, Tara AI voided the Militia contract,” he said.

“I didn’t. I was named Governor before Tara AI announced its plan to take over. As a result, I have prior claim to the position and am proceeding as if it was a done deal. I will not let a fucking Darjee AI take over my planet!” I paused to calm myself. Anger wouldn’t do right now. I needed cold calculation.

“Governor, the Tara Militia is at your command.”

“Thank you, Chief Kramer.”

“Chief?”

“Consider yourself promoted. Make sure we have the best leadership for each section and get them out to rescue the orphaned. I am ordering all Militia to use any non-lethal force necessary to carry out your mission to protect and defend our people,” I said.

“It will be a pleasure to serve under you, Governor.”

“Thank you. Carry on.”

“Teddy, patch me through to Reba and Rhea,” I said. I needed to get our freemen mobilized to care for the dependents in Ponderosa.

“I can connect you to Reba,” Teddy said. “I am sorry to say Rhea is still in a med tube and may be out of commission for several days.”

“She was injured?”

“Most of the lower half of her body was destroyed. It happened as she was disembarking from a shuttle and was hit by one of the Sa’arm’s buzz blades breaking through the forest. She was scooped up immediately and placed in a med tube by her son. Regrowing so much of her body is a lengthy process and she has been moved in and out of med tubes to accommodate other life-threatening injuries. I’m afraid a lot of the aid we gave during the battle was partial healing to stop the deterioration and we’ve been getting the injured back into tubes as quickly as possible,” Teddy said.

“Fuck! Sorry, Teddy. Let me speak to Reba and I’ll go from there.”

“Pronto.”

“We’re assholes and elbows here, Cho. What do you want?”

“I want to know what we can do to help? I assume you mean you’re trying to take care of orphans,” I said.

“It’s fucking awful, Cho. Dependents were gathered in the schools and assembly halls, so we were reasonably sure we had everyone accounted for, but the ranch association is reporting hundreds of dependents in the outer ring who have no adults left in their pods at all. I’m trying to cover for Rhea, but we’ve got thousands of dependents gathered into Ponderosa and are still trying to sort out who has a relative left alive. I thought we were going to be safe here. God damnit!”

“I hear you, Reba. You lost some of your family, too, didn’t you?”

“Yes. Cho, our son was out there. He was trying to get people out of the kill zone when they carpet bombed. There’s nothing left,” she sobbed. Tears flooded my eyes as well. James had been the result of Reba’s and my first coupling. I wondered how many other of my children or grandchildren had been on the front lines. “I’m sorry, Cho. I’m keeping it pulled together most of the time so I can help the orphans. It’s just so hard right now.”

“Reba, I’m sending out an ask for more volunteers in childcare. We’ll be suspending all businesses except essential animal and crop care. I’ll get you help,” I said.

“Thank you. We’ll get through this. We got through the loss of our sponsors and being transported halfway across the galaxy to live here. We’ll get through the attack on our homes. We all have our helmets and rifles within reach.”

I tried to raise the various mayors, but only got through to Drylanders and Twelve Oaks. I was informed the mayors of Oasis, Lleifior, and Green Acres had been killed in action and no one had been appointed to take their places. Drovers Run and Cold Comfort declined the call.

“Mayor Tribble, thank you for accepting my call,” I said.

“I’d like to know what you are up to. We are getting significantly mixed messages here in Twelve Oaks. Some say you are dead, some that you are arrested, and some that you are governor. We’ve heard the Militia was disbanded and still we have them running all over the countryside opening the homes of deceased sponsors,” he said.

“There is certainly some confusion at the moment,” I said reassuringly. “The Swarm attack knocked out some of our most trusted infrastructure. I wanted to let you know that we are working on restoring this to full capacity. That includes repairs to Tara AI, which are underway. So far, we are managing to keep all basic services operating. In some areas, only essential services are working. We will meet as a council again very soon.”

“Well, that is good to hear. Please don’t misunderstand my concern. We are grateful for your help against the Sa’arm and for your care in keeping our deceased sponsors’ property secure.”

“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We’ll be in touch soon.”

I disconnected the call and sighed. That went as well as could be expected. Twelve Oaks was the second oldest settlement on the planet and had once been antagonistic toward the Militia. Battling fires in his township had softened his view of us considerably.

Insanity (TY53-month 630)

«We have been probing Tara AI and believe it is not sane, » Cricket said at last as I finished my calls.