Chapter 60

Waking up at his usual time, Mark threw on his robe, exited the room, grabbed a cup of coffee at the bar and went out to the walkway to take the stairs down one level to the bridge where he and Cricket went over his daily reports.

The only item during his daily reports that caught his interest wasn’t actually part of his daily report. He had received a message from Captain Derek Jones stating that he had recruited enough people for his mission, and another message from Kaleb confirming it.

Mark smiled as he made the call, and microns later Derek answered, “My King, it’s nice to hear from you!”

Mark just nodded as they sat and stared for a few microns, wondering how long Derek could keep a straight face. It was a video conference stare-down until Derek eventually cracked and had a big smile on his face.

Mark laughed. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep that smile hidden much longer!”

“I’m sorry, sir! General Marsbe just notified me I had met the recruitment requirements.”

“Yes, no thanks, in part, of us recently finding Rift 13 halfway to Norn space!”

Derek smiled. “I will admit that definitely helped! It had been a difficult recruitment process, but I was almost there until you located Rift 13, then the floodgates opened and the message General Marsbe just sent me, showed I had 276 recruits and counting!”

“As soon as I saw that discovery, I predicted that would happen. Everyone that has signed up for your mission knows there will be a time in which they could return home to see family. It’s no longer a one-way mission, at least until you reach Rift 13, but until then you have 9 rifts to explore.”

“I count it as 10 rifts. Rifts 1, 2 and 5 are all in Federation space, so we have 10 rifts until 13, but even then, I’ve always believed you would find more, and that this would never be a one-way mission.”

“The Norn mentioned they use the rift near their planet to go to Earth, so that means Rift 4 is near the Norn home world, which we will soon have communications and a hyperspace gate at. I will try not to fail you, but no promises. I’m not sure if you know this, but ... space is really big! You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is ... to quote one of my favourite books of all time, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

“I heard that Earth book was one of your favourites. I have read it, and I understand the reference, but that book is not the easiest to read!”

“No, it is not! Anyway, since it looks like your mission is green lit, your ship is currently in use at Virgohn, so your crew can start making their way to it any time. I’ve just been calling it CityShip, since that is the ship classification, so you can come up with the official name for it. We’ll finish using it in a secton or two, so until then your crew can make themselves at home and get used to the ship and even help with what we’re doing here. From Virgohn, Rift 2 should be reachable within a couple days of FTL.”

“So I’m getting that new ship everyone is talking about?”

That statement piqued Mark’s curiosity. “What are they saying about it?”

“Only that it’s the coolest ship they’ve ever been on, and that the quarters are way better than any ship they’ve ever been on.”

“Well, I designed the ship to be a complete city in space, thus its classification of CityShip. It’s got much of the same basic structure and size of the Sentinel, but we have remodelled the upper portion for indefinite, comfortable living in space for a couple hundred thousand people. I think it’s got most of the amenities you’ll need ... communities, parks, shops, schools, sports, medical, etc. Then I did away with the Defender docking and installed an actual bridge and a rather nice senior officer’s quarters. The trickiest part was what to put in the library as you won’t always have network access, so we will reference the library for laws and information for people new to the Federation.”

“You don’t mind me coming out to look at it? I’m sure you’ve thought of pretty much everything, but I’d like to look at what it’s got.”

“It’s your ship. I just took it out for a field test! You and your crew can come anytime over the next few sectons. The space station will soon be up and operational, then it’s going to become the base of operations and the ship will be completely yours. When all your crew have arrived, let me know and we’ll come out and have a little launch celebration before you get underway!”

“Thank you so much. See you soon, sir!”

They ended the call at that, as Cricket then presented her report for Garedon. The daily reports were actually an automated process, since the entire Federation ran on the same communications network. Cricket just compiled all the reports for each planet or country, Garedon’s report was different though as it had been extrapolated from known data sources, such as the number of outreach centres distributed, and how many were under construction and how many were up and running, and the number of people treated, both at the operational outreach centres and on the CityShip.

Over the course of a single day, they had distributed 72% of the outreach construx and 67% of those were already under construction, with some of them already operational. The shuttles had been running around the clock, so when coupled with the 2092 outreach centres that were already operational, they had already made good inroads into treating people, but there were still millions of infected that needed treatment.

It wouldn’t take long to finish distributing all the outreach centre construx and then they were to create teams to go tackle the cities with outreach hubs and outreach centres in the various communities. If all went well, all the outreach centres should be operational tomorrow sometime and at least an outreach hub in each city. If all went as expected, they should have Garedon returned to pretty much normal within the secton. Then they could start tackling the homeless situation.

At the very end of the Garedon reports was a list of other countries that had officially requested Federation help to fight the virus ... that list had jumped to 8 overnight.

Cricket then informed Mark that breakfast was ready, so he went back upstairs to eat with the rest of the gang.

Upon his arrival, everyone had just started dishing up their plates, so Mark joined in, and soon everyone was eating around the officer’s bistro area.

Mark summarized his conversation with Derek and that his mission would leave soon. They then went over the plan for Garedon, which was pretty much on autopilot now, so his plan was now going to go meet with the leaders of 8 other countries that had so far requested the Federation’s help. All of those countries now had drones currently being dropped to scan each country en masse.

With things completely under control by all the security and medical personnel that had arrived to help, and since it looked like it would mostly be Liyana, Gyges, Mark and Maren travelling around doing ambassadorial missions to the other countries, Annabelle asked Mark if he’d mind if they returned to Earth?

Sure, the CityShip had pretty much all the same amenities, such as lake, water slides, golf, movies, food, desks, computers and places to relax as back at the ranch, they really didn’t mind living on the ship, but the biggest reasons to return home were because they couldn’t ride the horses and visit Annabelle’s parents or any of their other friends. Sure, it might be different if there were many people staying on the ship, but in its current, mostly vacant condition, they would rather be back at the ranch.

Mark agreed, saying that he thought there would be more to do as well, but everyone was too efficient. Suggesting that he was likely going to return to the ranch soon, too. The central structure of the space station would leave the factory bay today and then it wouldn’t take but a few more days until the space station was operational.

Derek and his crew would move in, and the base of operations was going to transfer to the space station once it was operational. He was planning to return to Earth then.

Maren then asked if she had the plan right, “We’re all boarding the shuttle, then I’m dropping you guys off at the first meeting, then coming back to pick the rest up and take them back to Earth and then returning to resume shuttling you guys around?”

Liyana laughed, “It sounds weird when you casually say, take them back to Earth and then get back in time to pick us up from the meeting. You are travelling halfway across our universe, something that until just recently would’ve taken more than a sectar of travel. Now you’re trying to do it in the time span of a simple meeting.”

Mark just smiled. “We’ve come a long way, baby!”

Everyone else just laughed as they started cleaning up and were going to change before meeting at the shuttle in roughly 30 centons. Rather than making Maren come back to the CityShip and round everyone up, they were all just going to accompany them to the meeting, and then Maren could take them back to Earth from there.

Annabelle, Rayven and Mark made their way back to the bedroom. Mark started stripping off and picking out his new clothes at the clothing synth. As Mark finished collecting his clothes from the clothing synth, he carried them over and placed them on the end of the bed and didn’t see Annabelle as she tackled him to the bed.

As Annabelle impaled herself on Mark’s cock and fucked him furiously, Rayven joined in by sliding her cock into Annabelle’s ass. Getting fucked by two cocks, either both in her pussy or one in her pussy and one in her ass, always made Annabelle cum within a centon or two. Her orgasm triggering Mark and Rayven’s orgasms as they began flooding her orifices with their hot cum.

After a quick shower, and everyone got dressed, they all met up with Maren at the shuttle and headed toward the surface.

Mark sat in the co-pilot’s seat and called President Doria just to confirm he was still good to meet and to notify him they were on the way. Mark then also had Cricket send a message off to Chancellor Hayda in Cupertina asking if it was OK to meet with her and her people after they finished their meeting in Tiberia?

Before proceeding to the coordinates provided for the meeting, they took a quick aerial tour of Tiberia. The country wasn’t that big, and the landscape reminded Mark of Peru on Earth, except this was just barely north of the equator, but it was similar in that it had a very tall, very steep mountain range that ran along the ocean front. Everything on the ocean side seemed to be mostly desert and plains, with most of the vegetation higher in the foothills. The mountains, covered in heavy vegetation, and then the area west of the mountains was rainforest, farmland, lakes, and rivers.

As they surveyed the country, Cricket reminded them that there was 8,124 incorporated towns and cities in the country, but since it appeared as though most of the population lived in a few very large cities along the ocean, most of those cities and towns must be small mountain and farming communities inland.

After a quick trip around the country, they proceeded to the coordinates provided for the meeting.

Sure enough, as they reached the area, there was a cordoned off area near what was likely a government building of some sort.

President Doria and his entourage of politicians, advisers and security were there to greet them as they landed. Annabelle came out for the introductions, but then returned to the shuttle.

“Is the Queen not staying here for the meeting?”

“No, she and the others are actually going back to Earth. My pilot will return here to pick us up.”

“Wow, I can’t believe how quiet your ship is or obviously how fast it is! They’re travelling across the universe and you speak as though they’re just running out to a convenience store!” Then after a moment of thought, he continued, “Please come, we shall meet in the great hall,” and they started ushering everyone into the building as Maren closed the shuttle ramp and lifted off.

The great hall was more or less a lavish meeting room that could seat around 100 people comfortably. With the President’s entourage and the others that were there already, the room was near capacity.

They guided Mark and Liyana to a couple of chairs along one of the long tables.

The President stood up and started off the meeting, “Fellow Tiberians, we have with us today Mark Phoenix, the King and Ambassador Liyana of the Atlantean Federation, they are here at my request to discuss how they can help us battle this virus, like they are doing for Garedon.”

There was some applause until he spoke again. “My King, what is required for you to help us like you are doing for Garedon?”

Mark stood up to speak. “We can’t give you what Garedon is getting, simply because Garedon is joining the Federation. They recently held an election, and the people voted for a party whose electoral platform was to join the Federation if they won, which they did by an overwhelming majority.

With the support of the citizenship, we began the transition process for Garedon to join the Federation, which includes allowing them to access some of our technology ... primarily medibays.

Now, because the citizens of Tiberia have NOT voted to join the Federation, we cannot build resources on your land to help you battle the virus. What we can do, though, is use our scanning technology to assist you with easily identifying infected individuals, which you can then treat. We can also shuttle the sickest people up to our facility in orbit for treatment.”

Mark then sat down to reflect his speech was over and signal the others to speak.

The President then asked, “What does it involve joining the Federation?”

Mark stood up to talk. “Joining the Federation requires a majority vote from the citizens of this country, the elected leadership cannot make that decision. We have a presentation that explains the benefits of joining the Federation. Once you know that, you can present it to your people and they can vote. If they vote yes, we can give you exactly what Garedon is getting.”

As they thought about what he had just said, one of the other people stood up to talk, “I think we should see their presentation, we should use their scanning technology to identify infected people and relieve the pressure on the testing centres and use their facilities in space to treat the most serious cases. In the meantime, I would like to see all the benefits the Federation can offer us. It may be a good thing for Tiberia, but it will provide insight into what Garedon will soon be.”

After a round of applause and nodding heads of agreement, Mark gestured for Liyana to give her presentation as she setup the holocube and began.

After the presentation, they adjourned for a bathroom break and give people a chance to think about the presentation and think of questions they had for the Federation.

During the break the President was talking to Mark and Liyana, as Mark received a message from Maren saying she was back and waiting outside.

The President just laughed. “Your pilot is already back from traveling to another planet! The problems of a little country like ours must seem quite insignificant to you?”

Mark said, “Not at all! The Federation is a benevolent society, our purpose is to make sure that everyone living under our banner has access to all the necessities of life ... shelter, food, clothing, water, communications, education, medical, security, etc. Your country in the overall scheme is quite small, but from what I saw when I toured your country before coming here, there is much the Federation can do for your people. One advantage to your size, versus a large country like Garedon, is that you can adapt and change faster.”

Once the assembly resumed, the President asked if anyone had questions.

Two people raised their hands, and the President pointed to the first guy, “I’m not sure what everyone else thinks, but I think we should take advantage of how they can currently help us, with their identification technology and then transporting our sickest up to their ship for treatment. How many can your ship treat at a time?”

Mark stood, “Currently the CityShip can treat about two thousand people at a time, but in the next few days the Virgohn Space Station will become operational and it will have several thousand more medibays. I cannot guarantee how long the CityShip will remain in orbit once the Space Station gets up and running though, as it is preparing to depart on its original deep space exploration mission.”

The same man then asked a second question. “So time is of the essence? To get the fastest treatment possible, we should move quickly!”

“Yes, and no! We can enable our scanning technology within a day, but we will prioritize medibays for Federation citizens before others, which means Garedon gets taken care of first. Now with that being said, Garedon is having outreach centres built all over the country, so there will be fewer and fewer people using the medibays in space since they can be treated locally.”

The President pointed to the other guy that had his hand up, “I’m of the same opinion as Javier, we should take advantage of any help the Federation can provide us, but where shall we have people go for travelling to your ship for treatment?”