Chapter 3: Houston

“We are throwing this party in honor of Jason, who is the first person within the family who has been recalled to the Empire. I understand he will be the vanguard for other family members to return to the Empire. Without further ado, I’ll ask Jason to talk to you and answer any questions that you may subsequently ask. Jason, I suggest you do an introduction for say twenty minutes and then we’ll have our starter, talk for another fifteen to twenty minutes and we’ll have our entrée and then perhaps you can take questions. Deserts will be placed on the buffet tables afterwards. Jason, we are all sorry to hear about Sarah and the circumstances of her death, please accept the condolences of the entire family,” said Great Uncle Cletus.

Jason looked around the room. All the people who had been born in the Empire were still alive including his uncle Cletus who had introduced him. All the generation that had followed had died including his own parents. The room was in the corporate headquarters of the family food business and could hold at least a hundred and fifty people. It was used as an executive dining room during the day, and frequently for events in the evenings. He fondly recalled eating many an outstanding meal in this room over the years.

“Dear family, I’m delighted to be in your company again, though I’m embarrassed to be the one asked to return to the Empire. I’m not terribly keen to go, particularly after the death of Sarah and because of my age and multiple medical problems. Most of us younger ones and I use that term lightly, have felt abandoned by the Empire and I’m especially angry because my parents have needlessly died as have so many of the generation above me and even those of my generation. Two days ago, our family was taken to see the battleship that’s taking me back to the Empire. They fixed all my health problems, and I’m allegedly in the process of becoming a young man again. You don’t die in the Empire of old-age, they tell me. For that reason, I’ve undertaken to ensure that every single one of you benefits from Empire medicine before I leave ... and my departure is far from a done deal ... to find what the hell has happened and why we were abandoned.”

He received prolonged applause and some whistles and cheers, particularly from the younger people.

“The story that I’ve been told is that my great-grandfather is very ill and I’m needed to assist him and to take over the Duchy as is necessary. The ship belongs to the Empress who sent it for me on behalf of my great-grandfather. To me it’s a strange story and I’m not sure that I believe it. Why, with such great medicine, is he sick? And if that’s not the reason, then what is? The reason I may go is that I’ve nothing to lose. With current technology and paranoid levels of security in society it’s hard to live to a thousand and explain it to others.

“If I remained here maybe I’d have lasted another five to ten years, and those with a poor quality of life. I was a slowly deteriorating old crock. Part of why I’m thinking of going is to create a pathway for those of you who want to return, and to find out if it’s going to be better for you in the Empire. The other part of why I’m considering going, is that I don’t know what the hell I’d have done in the next few years while waiting to die. Now I’m getting younger and I don’t know how I can fit in. I lost twenty-five pounds the first day and ten pounds since then. I am looking ten years younger than the twenty years I lost the first day.

“The last reason is that there’s a detective who is chasing me as a murderer or at least a supposed accessory, assistant, or helper, in the death of my wife. He has charged me for a crime for his own obscure reasons. I’m out on bail and have to report to a police station once a week. I will look like a different person if I get to trial.

“I would love to hear about the look on the slime ball’s face, when Lauren tells him I’ve gone back to the Empire.

“What happened, for those who have not heard, I arrived home four weeks ago, to find Sarah hanging outside the balcony of our bedroom. I had a heart attack shortly after I managed to get her down and called emergency services, and Lauren.

“Stan, who is an AI and the pilot of the ship presented himself at the door to speak to me after I was arrested and beaten up in jail. He gave Lauren the spiel about my great grandfather asking for me and arranged to meet me after I came out of hospital, and took us to the battleship. They sorted all of us out physically, including fixing Chloe’s diabetes and tuned up everyone’s genes so that we can live forever. I’ll return to the physiological state of a twenty-year-old over a few weeks, and then physically change over two months to look the age. On the ship, it’ll go faster if I visit the medical machine and rehabilitation pod often.

“I really didn’t feel like going anywhere, but I’m feeling younger and more energetic already. There’s some feel of the scale of the problems I’ll face and I’ve never backed down from a challenge. I’m intrigued by what my great grandfather faces, but there’s anger there, as well. We were sent here and just left, a thousand odd years ago. There was no communication, and no timeline for a return. We are all supposed to be of royalty, yet here we wait. My parents and many of the second and third and even some of the fourth and fifth generation died needlessly. I’ll not ramble on about that issue any further, but will move on to tell you more.

“The battleship is massive, and it would have cost a fortune to send it. There’s a lot of pressure to go. I risk nothing much. I’ve lived a long happy life, and if it all goes to hell, so what? If it doesn’t, I’ll open a path for you all to return if you wish, but first we have a visit to the ship for all who wish to do so in the family.

“As I said before I’ve arranged for all of you to be transported to the battleship this evening. There they will sort out all physical problems and get everyone’s genes optimized. I want you all to see that monster of a ship. For all of you I guarantee it’ll be a treat. Immortality is also not a gift to be sneezed at.

“For those of you who have to return tomorrow, there will be a shuttle bringing you back before dawn, but everyone else will be able to have an extensive tour of the battleship, and come back tomorrow evening. Overnight, you will learn the Empire Standard language, and you can ask for any educational input while you are on the ship. The learning systems are amazing. That’s about as much as I can say, for now. Let’s eat drink and be merry, for from tomorrow, you live forever!”

Jason sat down and began to eat his prawn starter.

“Dad, that was a pretty confronting introduction, let me ask Uncle Cletus what he thinks of your words in a minute or two. Both boys are flying in, they don’t want to miss the battleship for anything. I think the benefits that they can get from a health point of view are immeasurable,” said Craig and then turned to Cletus. “Uncle Cletus what you think of what dad has just said?”

“I remember the day we left the Empire. The Mob War had been going for some time and things were not looking good. We were winning but at a very high cost. The Emperor is my great-grandfather with several greats and is your great uncle with even more greats. I remember him saying that the Empire was under threat, and he wanted to send some very good quality people away to another galaxy, in case things went badly. He suggested that we get involved with food production and information technology, which is how our family has had made its money. He said it was a relatively primitive society which made it easy for us, with our skills, to make a life for ourselves. He forgot, as did they all, that each generation needs to be optimized from a health perspective. It’s sad that most of the recent generations after me, have died. At least your grandparents are alive and will be here in time to go to the ship for a checkup. Jason there was no malice involved.

“I think, at that time, Cassius was at least sixty-thousand years old. A couple of thousand years is nothing to many of the people in the Empire. He said that at some stage the Empire would either use our companies or recall us to the Empire, but he had his concerns beyond The Mob, and he was concerned about the diminishing numbers of males in the population, particularly in the less affluent groups of the population.

“Jason, I’d encourage you to go and not be bitter about the Empire. My memories of the Empire are wonderful, though I’ve been happy and fulfilled here. I’m sure they wished us only the best, and the time we have been away would be seen by them as but a moment.

“I had certainly hoped to be recalled within a hundred years, but as time has gone by, I must say that I’ve enjoyed my life here with the one reservation and that was the fact that all generations after us, have not had their health and genes optimized. That will now be rectified and they’re making a massive purchase of food from us and even taking live animals which they’re putting into stasis. We are going to make an absolute fortune, as is your good daughter, out of this deal. They are talking about sending cargo ships which will allow us to send even more food if our produce goes down well in the Empire.

“Here are your Grandparents, Jason!”

“Hi, Grandpa and Granny,” said Jason fondly greeting his grandparents who looked to be in their forties at most and were fit and healthy. “I’m sure you guys will be rejuvenated tonight and will look even younger, soon,” said Jason.

“We were so sorry to hear about Sarah, and wish your parents could have been here,” said Bert Kargo clutching the hand of his wife Agnes. “Your mother’s parents are a few minutes behind us. Here they come through the door now. Hi, Mort and Jane! Jason is over here.”Agnes hugged Jason before Jane hugged and kissed him and Mort shook his hand.

“Momentous times, my boy, so sorry about Sarah,” Mort said as he shook Jason’s hand firmly.

Bert went on to say, “I’ve met quite a lot of the farming people as well as their chefs and we are sure that they like our food. They love the spicy spectrum in particular, but they seem to like the food in general. We have given them a one week intensive chef program as well as agricultural programs for those who are intending to grow crops versus those who are into animal husbandry. They have taken it very seriously and have converted our materials into Empire learning systems. As an interesting example of how they operate: they bought every recipe book you can get as an e-book and have put it in their systems. They’ve had an AI translate it and rebuild the book. They said it’s a bit slow ... it takes about a tenth of a second for each book and all the illustrations ... but they converted them into 3-D holograms.

“We have also connected them into our computer systems as we have with many of our clients so that they can order ahead of time and we can assemble product as efficiently as possible.

“I was well aware that we could spend a very long time on Earth, but the subsequent generations have been very much angrier about the Empire regardless of what we told them. Jason that’s not to say that I wouldn’t like to visit the Empire. I very much would like to go back and see my grandfather, but I’m not in a frantic hurry to do so. I suspect that once everyone is aware that they going to live for a long time they’re going to lose their sense of urgency about the Empire, and once they have gone through the medical systems they will be grateful for Empire technology. I’m sure there was no evil intent, they’re just so used to the medical technology that they wouldn’t have considered the death of your parents,” said Mort

“We have said more than enough, most people have finished eating and it’s time for you to talk a little more,” said Agnes.

“Ladies and gentlemen of my family, I’d suggest that you ask questions, but I intend to be here for a bit less than a week and I suspect that many of your questions will be answered when you visit the ship. I’ll be staying with Craig and Jeanette and my grandsons Sean and Harry for most of that time. Much of the rest of the time will be with my grandparents. I don’t have anything further to say formally, do we have any questions?”

“How big is the ship?” Josh a nineteen-year-old cousin asked.

“My grandson, Chuck, tells me that it goes into battle with three hundred thousand people on board, which includes a hundred thousand Marines, some of whom defend the ship and others may invade a planet or a space station or board another ship. You will have the opportunity to ask those questions when you are on board. You will see it’s absolutely huge, and it looks like it’s many miles long.”

“How do they do the medical treatment and gene optimization?” Jenny a sixteen-year-old cousin asked.

“The short answer and the long answer are the same. I don’t know and I didn’t ask. The medical facility stretches further than the eye can see. There are many large white cigar shaped pods which accommodate the patients, and these pods deliver medical treatments and the gene optimizations as well as rehabilitation. None of us thought to ask how they work. Whatever it is, and however it’s done, most treatments are done in a very short period of time. The machine had a lot of work to do on me, and it took six to seven hours; but for everyone else it was less than thirty minutes, and it cured Chloe of her diabetes within that time. The machine as I previously mentioned removed twenty-five pounds of fat from me. It’s the fastest weight loss program I’ve ever been on. There’s no pain or discomfort and for much of the time that I was in treatment, I was asleep. I’ve had some aches and pains since then, but in general I feel better every day. I’m looking at least twenty years younger, I’m sure. The AI that delivers the treatment has a very bad bedside manner and she thinks that she’s the bee’s knees.

“She talks in a very hoity-toity voice and extols the value of Empire medicine. Chloe gave her a piece of her mind.

“We’ll be leaving for the ship in two hours, so make sure that everyone that wants to go along is here. If they can’t get here tonight it’s not a disaster, I’m sure that we can arrange further trips over this next two weeks while they are still here.

“The shuttle technology is astounding. I was looking for my seatbelt so that I could buckle myself in, and then a hologram appeared and we were already way past the moon. There’s no sensation of movement whatsoever and that’s extraordinary. There was also no sound.

“Chuck also tells me that he spoke to the ship, who I understand is a very high end AI, and the guy that pilots the ship and our shuttle, is also an AI. The tour is mind boggling and I’m sure that you will be impressed. However I see that our entrée has now arrived. I think I’ve said about as much as I can. If you’ve any further questions please ask them of me as we are traveling to the battleship or are on the battleship and I’ll answer as best as I can. They will teach you the language and you can ask any questions you wish from the guides who are usually AIs. I absorbed a small fraction of the extensive tour of the ship and I can’t say I know a lot about the Empire. If you want to know about the Empire make sure that you ask the learning machine to provide the history for you, or ask Cletus or one of the other oldies such as my grandpa and grandma Bert and Agnes, or Mort and Jane. They have at least experienced it, and know a lot more about the Empire than I’ll know for some time.

Jason thoroughly enjoyed the younger members of the group’s reactions to seeing the ship, flying through the iris and landing in the same hanger as he had done previously. They all went to the medical area first where they all entered the pods including the oldies and Jason.

“Lord Kargo, how may I be of assistance to you today?”

“I’ve lost a significant amount of weight in the last few days in addition to the weight that I lost when I was in the pod last time. I’m sagging everywhere and the skin folds are trapping sweat. Houston is hot and sticky. I want to know if I simply wait it out will everything will tighten up, or can you do something about it to improve the situation more quickly?”Jason asked. “Can you also check how my heart is getting on, and perhaps arrange some more rehabilitation. My muscles are aching after some of the exercise I’m doing and I still feel tired.”