Chapter 4

During the first week after arriving back at Earthat, a place I had resigned myself I would never return to, I was bounced from one difficult interview to another. Every meeting consisted of me being grilled on the details of what had happened on Quay, and whose fault I thought it was. They all seemed desperate to make sure none of the blame for that disaster sullied their reputations. My steadfastly blaming the military did not win me any favors. I did not feel like any of them really wanted to make a decision regarding myself or the concubines under my care, or wanted to acknowledge the underlying cause of what went wrong, as long as it did not affect them. It was infuriating and frustrating and I was getting ready to knock some heads together out of pure frustration. Even in my pod, surrounded by my beloved concubines and children, I could not shake my anger and frustration. The fact that I could not even relax when I was with them made me even angrier. For several nights in a row, I had too much pent up anger to consider making love to them.

About the only thing I had accomplished in the entire week was to get the rescue ship fully outfitted with pods to help alleviate the overcrowding somewhat. Sadly, I was unable to authorize shore leave for the survivors, since they were just concubines, although I was able to visit them so they knew they had not been forgotten. Xifeng and Meili played duets for them, flute and syrinx intertwining in ethereal melodies, just like they had on Quay, to help with morale.

I was not sure whether to be infuriated or relieved, but absolutely no one made any move to reassign the survivors. After seeing and hearing how unassigned concubines were normally treated, I expected to have to keep the Civil Service whoremaster away with a club, but not one person made any motion toward reassigning them. I got the feeling that Central Command felt that accepting the survivors would be tantamount to accepting blame for what happened. It was looking like I would get to keep them after all, but we had no place to go yet. I did not fancy the idea of being stuck on a transport for years while these idiots haggled over our fate. That very uncertainty enraged me. Someone, somewhere had to care enough to do something with us. That was what I thought anyway, but the last week had proven me wrong.

My anger was rapidly approaching blind fury, while my expectations were getting pretty fucking low, when the AI contacted me with a request to meet with the Earthat Civil Service officer. Stalking to his office, the level of my anger must have been pretty clear, since everyone got the hell out of my way.

Not bothering to be polite, I just stormed into his office after his secretary said I could go in. "Thank you for taking the time to see me," the man said, rising and shaking my hand, while ignoring my entrance and attitude. "I am Dux Hansen. Please sit down and make yourself comfortable."

"Out of curiosity, what rank is Dux? I've never heard of it," I asked, my curiosity temporarily replacing my anger.

"I'd be a little surprised if you had, since I'm the only one so far. Dux is a Civil Service rank equivalent to brigadier general or rear admiral. The Civil Service was an afterthought when the military realized it needed a branch to clean up the messes it was unwilling or unable to deal with. Pretty much everything we learn is word-of-mouth from others in the branch or on-the-job experiences, usually bad. I am currently the highest-ranking Civil Service officer, and while there is a theoretical rank higher than mine, it will probably be years before it is filled, if ever. I've been here in Central Command for just over a year fighting to get some recognition for our branch. We also used to have almost no authority other than what we could bully officers of other branches into doing for us, but that is slowly changing. Overall, it has been a frustrating but worthwhile battle.

"You are probably wondering why I asked you here," he continued.

Waspishly I replied, "You either want to grill me like all the other fucking officers who've interrogated me to make sure they were able to dodge any incidental blame for what happened to my world or," my eyes narrowed, "you are going to try and get Decurion Ahern off the hook for being a useless lump of crap."

Looking a little shocked at my attitude, language and accusation, he said, "Former Decurion Ahern was executed this morning for his crimes. He was convicted of twenty-one counts of murder through gross negligence and dereliction of duty. I happily signed off on his sentence. He was an embarrassment to the Civil Service and I deeply apologize for his inaction during the crisis on Quay."

While I really did not like Ahern, it was a little jarring to find out he had been executed. It was also disconcerting to get an apparently sincere apology from a high-ranking officer for anything that had happened on Quay. Despite my intentions, I was starting to like Hansen.

"The actual reason I asked you to meet with me today was to ask if you would be willing to speak at a symposium later this week. We are putting together a day of command-level disaster preparedness lectures and I was hoping you would be one of the speakers, relating your experiences on Quay, what went wrong and what helped you survive, to the attendees."

"I really don't think you want me to speak at the conference, Sir," I said angrily. "It was the military's fucking idiocy that caused every single sponsor on Quay except for Ahern to die, and the rest of us 'unimportant baggage' to barely survive by our own wits!"

Dux Hansen looked shocked, "What are you talking about? I've heard some rumors, but they were mostly contradictory. Even the AI's are being pretty closed-mouthed about how it happened."

I could only shake my head in disbelief. Angrily, I explained, "Quay was in a period of intense meteor activity, so intense in fact, that most of our satellites were knocked out, leaving us mostly blind. The former Governor kept requesting satellites with shields. The military decided we were very low priority, since we were far from the front lines, and denied his requests repeatedly. If even one of the repeatedly requested satellites had been delivered, hell, if even the replicator pattern had been delivered, all of them would have lived. I really doubt I will be able to remain civil while surrounded by those who could have helped us, but didn't."

"Oh shit," Hansen said incredulously, shaking his head at the sheer stupidity of it. "Now it all makes sense. There is currently a vast scramble going on to bury the Quay incident and that was the last piece of information I needed for it to make sense."

"Now you understand why having me as a speaker is a bad idea."

"On the contrary, Governor, that's why I want you there," Dux Hansen replied earnestly, looking me straight in the eye. "I want them to see that anger, and know that their lack of planning and foresight is the cause of it. I want them to know the consequences of their actions, and how every decision should be carefully thought out to consider its ramifications. Don't be afraid to show your anger, don't even be afraid to lash out, although try not to alienate them, just get them thinking. You are officially a planetary governor, so there is nothing they can do to you in retribution. Considering what you already went through, nothing they could try would even begin to compare. Besides, there are more than a few of us who are so in awe of you, that we would do pretty much anything to protect you."

I had a suspicion that awe of me was not his only motivation. I strongly suspected that he was also pretty pissed at the powers-that-be himself and wanted to shake them up, but that was not my problem. However, if he really wanted to put me in a spot where I could look the people in the eye who had caused so much death and misery, I would be stupid to pass it up, especially after he had given me his blessing to speak my mind.

"It's not me that needs protecting anymore. The ones who need protection now are the 'orphaned' concubines who survived hell with me. They're the ones who are going to be split up willy-nilly and parceled out among sponsors or tossed into brothels. What are you planning to do to protect them?" I demanded, still furious.

"Their fate has already been decided," he replied. Holding up a hand to forestall my angry outburst, he continued, "Assuming you are willing, they will be sent en masse to a new colony world, called Frigia. There they will be taken under the wing of the governor, who will help them recover from the traumas they suffered on Quay until they are chosen. The governor will be allowed to cherry-pick the sponsors who will be able to present themselves to the concubines, although the actual selection process will be between the sponsor and the selectee of course."

"Who is the governor of Frigia?" I asked suspiciously. I still felt a strong sense of responsibility for them and did not just want to hand them over to an unknown stranger.

He grinned suddenly. "What? Didn't I tell you? You are, congratulations," he replied to my jaw-dropping surprise.

I just stared blankly at him for a few seconds, taking it in. The idea of a Civil Service officer who actually cared and was willing to do their job was still a foreign idea to me. I suddenly wondered just how powerful he really was. He basically had just given me a planet and offered to give me all the survivors of Quay to live there under my care. Somehow, I did not think they handed out planets like party favors. I decided to push a little bit, to see what conditions were going to be attached to the offer and how much I could demand.

"So you are just giving me a planet?" I asked skeptically and, seeing him nod, I continued, "What are the conditions being placed on this appointment? Generally, anything that sounds too good to be true, is."

"There are no special conditions. Just try to run the planet as best you can and do what you can for the war effort. Planetary Governors are outside the jurisdiction of Central Command, so there would be no one you answer to except possibly a council of your peers, although that is something the Darjee mentioned in passing and has never happened. Even if a military base is established on your world, the base commander has no say in how you run the planet. Conversely, you have no say about what happens on the base, although when off-base, military personnel must obey your laws."

I was still mentally reeling. Dux Hansen seemed absolutely serious about giving me a planet! Taking a deep breath, I said, "Ok, assuming I say yes, after what happened on Quay I will want some security measures put into place. The idea of watching another planet and its inhabitants die does not appeal to me."

He started looking a little wary, but motioned me to continue. "First, I want those damn military-grade satellites and a shielded sensor grid! Second, I want the system thoroughly scanned several times and the trajectories of every single last rock calculated to make sure none of the big ones are going to cross paths with my colony. Third, I want a ship assigned there that could be used for defense and evacuations if necessary. Fourth, I want a staffed, Earth-style medical center to supplement the medtubes, including a large obstetrics staff and a neonatal section. I don't ever again want to have to watch an untrained medic giving a screaming concubine a C-section with a sharpened piece of metal."

Hansen gasped in horror at that, while I just nodded grimly. I still occasionally jolted awake, feeling the concubine's hand squeezing mine until it went limp as she died. Those nights, my pillow was soaked with tears. "Lastly, I want all of our electronics shielded, so we never have to do without them again."

Surprisingly, he seemed relieved by my demands, as if he had been expecting far worse. Seeing that, I wracked my brain to come up with others, since he had caved in so easily. Suddenly an idea hit me, as I thought about the satellites.

"I also want a factory-size replicator so I have some industrial base and can be self-sufficient. We will also need someone specializing in urban design and development to help set up a successful colony. I also want at least a few teachers and psychologists to help the children adjust and learn. In fact, I would really like a few specialized teachers who can set up a vocational training school for older teen concubines and sponsors to train specialized techs who might be in demand off-world." Thinking of all the concubines, I added one last thing, "I also want a skilled, motivated Civil Service officer who views concubines as people, not commodities, to assist in taking care of them. I'm telling you right now, if you send me someone like Ahern, I'm going to send what's left of him back as a replicator pattern!"

"Frankly," he replied, resolutely ignoring my rather rude threat, "I had been expecting worse conditions, and I'll actually be able to grant most of them except the ship right away. Finding a military vessel that we can plant in orbit around a colony doing nothing will be tricky, but somehow I'll make it happen. The Confederacy and Central Command owe you and the others for the mistakes made on Quay, and I'm determined to make things right. If it means anything, when the Darjee found out what happened to a world they had pronounced safe for colonization, several died on the spot in horrified grief."