Chapter 1

Orelia

“It has been a busy and disturbing time for me,” said Jason. “In a little over four months I have traveled to another galaxy from Earth. I left all I knew behind me, except my dogs. I have fought pirates and then acquired a military force of forty-million women, a few men, and a substantial battle fleet; and we have conquered three planets.

“A week ago, a homicidal arch-priest nearly killed me. I should not be alive after being shot through the heart and the spine. Yet, here I am, and my fleet is going to fight The Mob in the defense of the Empire. Yet, at the same time, I’m still in a rehabilitation pod! I’m in no fit state to do anything! I’m thankful to be alive, but I’m very frustrated to be so restricted.”

“I think for many of us it has been an interesting period,” General Morgan James said, “and a remarkable and strange story when I think about it. Three weeks ago, Admiral Peter Kane, his son and his wife were hostages of a psychopathic patriarch who was the instigator of a war. I was in the midst of fitting out a fleet that was to be stolen and used by those same priests. Who would’ve thought that any of us would’ve had our lives changed and disrupted to such a degree. On the other hand, both Peter Kane and I have been bored to tears for centuries.”

“I must say you have provided a lot of entertainment for us, Jason. You turned our lives upside down and now we are busy heading to wage war with The Mob,” remarked Admiral Peter Kane.

The medical pod lay open as Jason lay in it while the shuttle ferried them to the battleship accompanied by the general, the admiral and Jason’s medical retinue.

“There is very little that I know about The Mob. I know they have attacked the Empire twice previously and were repulsed. I would very much like to know more about them,” said Jason as he lay back, and relaxed, in his medical pod. He was still too weak to do anything for himself. Next to the pod stood his three physiotherapists that were assigned to him from the hospital, as well as two of the doctors from the battleship who were accompanying him in the medical shuttle. Peter Kane and Morgan James sat next to the pod.

“It going to be a very difficult and frustrating month for me before I get back to normal. I’m so used to being an integral part of everything that is going on, and now I think I’m going to be very bored.”

“Jason, you asked about The Mob. I’ll tell you what we know,” said Kane. “The behavior of the enemy during the two wars in which we participated was very strange. The enemy suddenly attacked the Empire on both occasions using large fleets. They never once attempted to invade any planets. They started their attacks by bombarding planets or by ambushing ships, largely cargo convoys. In the latter stages of the war in both cases they were characterized by large fleet engagements. They did not surrender, or allow any ship to be captured. As a result of that, we never found where they came from. Their strategic objectives remain obscure to the Empire.

“We did capture a few ships and officers. We were able to establish that there were an original group of people on a few planets who took in refugees from the Empire. Over time, somehow that relationship went sour and the refugees gained control. We never found out anything else. We had the greatest difficulty in tracking the source of the refugees within the Empire. In a huge empire that spans a large quadrant of the galaxy you are bound to find unhappy and dissident groups.

“There are many and frequent conflicts between different houses jockeying for power with the Emperor as a referee with a stick. The refugees could have arisen from any number of conflicts and arguments over tens of thousands of years.

“Let me come back to your situation. It is true that you are stuck, but we will all spent plenty of time with you and discuss our plans. You make a very valuable contribution and, in one way or another, you have become the leader of this motley group. When I say motley group I say it with pride. You have collected a group of some of the most outstanding and amazing people that I have ever encountered, and that includes the funny little fellow who resides in a pocket within you of trans-dimensional space.”

Jason started to laugh.

“Peter, Winston has just appeared in my mind and he is sitting in his study furiously smoking his pipe and blowing smoke rings. He looks quite agitated. He tells me that he is not a funny little fellow. He says that if you were stuck in a trans-dimensional space you might also be funny little fellow. He says one day he will be able to live freely and independently, and he will make sure that when he does, he will be taller and bigger than you.”

Both Peter and Morgan laughed. Jason felt the pod being moved out of the shuttle and onto a transport sled. He watched the ceiling go by as he was rapidly transported to medical. He felt his muscles being stimulated by the pod as it continued working on him, which in turn made him increasingly drowsy, so he dropped off to sleep.

Command Central

Admiral Peter Kane stood in command central next to the bridge. He looked around the comfortable room. It was half full with close to sixty people planning in groups. “Is this not a strange ship? We have Stan the AI pilot whose an ex-Cargo boat pilot. We have no captain, and no defined leader.

“Morgan, I have never been in a situation with no defined command structure that works so well. Jason is the closest to being in command, but he does not think he is. Decisions are made apparently by committee but practically it works well. What army or ship has ever worked like this?” Peter said and laughed. “Let’s pick up some pastries and a drink and sit at the command table.”

He then sat next to his good friend of many years, General Morgan James. At the same table sat the top team. He turned to Admiral Andrea Phillips and Admiral Felicia McDonald.

“I’m pleased that you suggested, as did Linda, Phoebe and Janet, here; that I go through the simulations of the situations that you faced before we met up with you. Morgan and I, had both heard bits and pieces of what had happened, but we never faced the same situations until we were confronted with them in the simulations.

“We performed poorly in the first simulation of the pirate attack. Even though we knew about communication drones we didn’t use them. We tried five times each, but each time the Pirates got us. We were able to beat the single cruiser very easily, but in the engagements with the two cruisers and the subsequent reinforcement by the other two cruisers, we did not do so well. We would have never got to the clones in time.

“We are impressed with Jason. This is an intelligent young man with off the wall strategic and tactical insights. He’s a formidable telepath, and is a competent martial arts practitioner with impressive powers from what we have heard onboard the ship.”

“Jason saved Peter’s family from being hostages, and I’m sure you, Peter, will be eternally grateful to Jason and his fleet for that fact,” said Morgan James. “My life has certainly taken a turn for the better.”

“Over the years, I have become bored and stale,” said Kane. Every day was the same. This last month was the worst, yet interesting and challenging, month of my life. Papa Zora blackmailed me into stealing then leading his fleet to fetch the clones; as he held my wife and son hostage. In many ways, I thought it was lucky that it was me instead of someone else because I diverted The Mob and the priests from their common purpose. Papa Zora and the Mob wanted to attack the core planets of the Empire, but I diverted The Mob to attack seven possible industrial planets hoping to spread their forces thinly.

“I persuaded Papa Zora to use his fleet to betray The Mob and attack their core planets as I knew the locations of those planets.

“The Empire can move now to exact its revenge upon The Mob. The situation as it evolved was moving into becoming a personal disaster for me. Now I’m sorry to say all of us are having to deal with the consequences of my actions.

“I’m delighted that my wife and son are now safe but I’m sorry to drag you guys into this war. I have to thank all of you for helping me salvage my reputation. At least I’m pleased to say my wife is supportive of my proposed involvement with everyone here, which she regards as reparations for an act into which I was forced. I still remain acutely embarrassed by what I did,” said Peter Kane stiffly.

“Don’t be a complete idiot, Peter,” said Admiral Andrea Phillips. “I think that you were in an impossible situation and you converted a possible disaster for the Empire into a manageable war. You guys may not have done as well as Jason did in the simulations, but I think you did an amazing job on the evil Zora. I’m not sure that I would’ve held it together and I’m far from convinced that I would’ve done half as good a job as you did.

“Two weeks ago I had a short life ahead and I would be a pariah in the Empire. All of us clones were in the same situation. We knew that we did not want to serve the priests and that we could gain control of the fleet, but what then? We had no future.

“All of us here were born to be leaders of navies and armies, now we have a future. We will do what we were made to do and Jason made it so that we will all enter the Empire as heroes and if not in the Empire we can all live as happy families on Porquenta or Mars.

“I can’t wait to see what he is going to do in this campaign. He is going to be so frustrated to be trapped in a medical pod. He is not himself if he cannot run or cycle or go to the gym. We are going to need to make a special effort to keep him involved,” said Linda. “While I’m talking about exercise, I got engineering to make me a bicycle like Jason’s. I have been riding secretly for a week taking the dogs for some exercise. It is great fun. It only took a day to get my balance right. I want to go for a ride on the first planet with suitable surfaces. You will never guess what I saw! Robert our chef has been riding secretly as well. Ship told me. He brought several different cycles from Earth. I will put up the hologram. Here he is on one called a mountain bike. Look, here he is in the hanger and he’s jumping over boxes with this ramp. He does it nearly every night, she tells me, after he finishes in the kitchen. I asked the Engineers to make me one, too. It looks like great fun. But back to our friend and lover Jason.”

“He is a complicated man, due to his screwy ideas from Earth. We laugh at how he regards himself as an old man, when everyone can live forever in the Empire unless they are killed in war or have an accident. Most of the people on the ship are much older than he is other than us the clones,” said Admiral Felicia McDonald.

“He is still an enigma. He comes from a primitive planet and appears to be an ancient and is recognized as such by ancients. I wonder what the hell that is about? I want to find out what it is all about,” said Linda.

“Jason is full of conflicts. He detests what he did in wartime, but he puts everything that he can into fighting for what he believes, even though he is conflicted between the needs of the Empire and the needs of his house. He desperately wants to help his great grandfather but he sees himself as honor bound to fight for the Empire. He sees himself as without sufficient skills; but his growing skills surprise us.

“I don’t know, Peter and Morgan ... did you see his attack on the bunker on Porquenta?” asked Linda. “You didn’t! This is a story second to none! He goes to visit Porquenta, which is this AI that’s integrated into the planet. He got a call to visit the AI. Porquenta recognized him, somehow. So he goes to this mountain and through an entrance where gravity squashes his people to the ground. He meets the avatar of Porquenta and gets some special training after climbing a mountain path. Of course, this training takes no time in our time, and he comes out with a Warhammer. It takes two of us to lift the handle. Anyhow, he has it propped casually on his shoulder. Off to this nearly impregnable bunker he goes. Explosives had done nothing to the doors.

“‘Stand back,’ he tells them. Then he hits the doors with that huge hammer, and shatters them. Not only that, he grows into a huge version of himself. Not only that, his armor grows with him and still functions. He calls them to follow him and jumps in. He goes on a rampage with his lightning and fire spewing Warhammer. The troops are fine with it. They follow along and clean up as he casually returns here, goes to the refresher and comes to chat to us about what is going on. He is totally pissed off that the bunkers have not surrendered.

Rights there in front of us he grows, then he gets on the priest communication frequency somehow and talks in a spooky voice. Come on, Andrea, you do it so well,” said Linda encouragingly.

Andrea puffed herself up.

“Plutarch, I know you by your foul smell. You refuse to obey me! You will suffer the fires of eternity. You will surrender or you and your minions will be fodder for my war machines of Cirrus.

“Then lava bursts out of the ground beneath the bunkers and burns the Plutarch. Jason got all the priests to surrender after he sent them the horrific images. Even the ship’s saboteurs surrendered,” said Andrea.

“‘It wasn’t me’, he says, ‘it was all Porquenta.’ He believes that bullshit, but none of us do. It’s that ancient side of him coming out. For an intelligent guy he can lack insight. I think it’s more that he’s in denial. He cannot accept what he is becoming, but sees the gap between what he is now and what his instincts tell him is his true ancient self.

“Peter, I also agree with Linda,” said Andrea. “You don’t need to consume yourself with guilt over a situation where no one holds you responsible. I agree with her that very few people would have created the very clever situation that you were able to forge in trying circumstances,” said Andrea.

Peter Kane turned to his very good friend of many thousands of years and patted him on the arm while smiling at the group then looking at Morgan directly. “Morgan, I thank you for being such a very good friend and covering my back during these very trying times.

“I must say I enjoyed time that we spent together running Nirvana and mentoring that fine young man who’s going to take over from us. I know a couple of very fine administrators who I think will be ideal for that position in the long-term,” said Morgan James.

“We have both run many bases and facilities over the years, but I must say that I have enjoyed the process of running a planet. I think you did, too. I feel more fulfilled than I have for some time mentoring this exceptional group of young people. I do not ever want to go back to what I was doing before,” Peter Kane stated emphatically.

Canteen

At lunch in the canteen, Andrea sat at her table with Felicia McDonald. They were considering the options for the defense of Orelia. She saw Peter Kane looking around the room and smiling while looking at his old friend Morgan James. Felicia saw which way she was looking and smiled.

“I like the two of them very much. They are both distinguished old men, with impressive careers and backgrounds. I find both of them very yummy. They are handsome sophisticated and intelligent, but both of them are absolutely dedicated to their wives and families. Both are so self-effacing and self-deprecating, but are also helpful and easy-going. They are so well-connected that they are making this whole job very much easier for all of us,” said Felicia

“I’m delighted that they are so well-connected. They know both the planetary administrator of Orelia, Fleet Admiral Delia McPherson and the general in command of the Marines on the planet and on the moon. I think we are not that far away from a final deal. Let’s get back to the grindstone.”

Command Central

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said Peter Kane, “I have some news to tell you all from Central Command on Cassiopeia about our proposed target destination.

“The Mob appeared to attack all seven planets at the commencement of hostilities, but we have discovered that they have not pursued the attacks on two of the planets. Those planets were central to the other planets. This allows them to field two very substantial reserve fleets to support other planetary attacks as needed. I had hoped that they would overextend themselves attacking seven planets at once, but it was not to be. It will make the defense of the planets much harder.

“The attack on Orelia is going ahead. From what Admiral McPherson knows, the attacking forces are substantially bigger than I or she expected. She thanks us however for the advanced warning.

“I know her well and she is a very clever commander who thinks out-of-the-box. Many of her war strategies and tactical battle techniques are taught at the War College.

“Admiral McPherson was warned of the impending attack by Central Command, after we communicated with the Emperor and had two weeks to prepare. She left thousands of heavy anti-ship missiles, and tens of thousands of antimissile missiles in geosynchronous orbit around the planet. Jason, that is similar to your mine strategy. She also has established defensive missile and cannon platforms surrounding the planet. The moon is bristling with missile and cannon.

“McPherson said they were alerted to The Mob fleet twenty minutes before their arrival. The Mob did as expected. They jumped in, launched missiles, and jumped out. They left behind planetary attack platforms that were intended to damage and knock out the defensive systems. Dropping them off took time, and they paid a heavy price. The Mob fleet left to attack the moon, which resulted in them leaving ten severely damaged ships behind. Missiles struck them sooner than they had expected. Missiles then struck the four very large attack platforms, severely damaging them before they had the opportunity to return fire. The heavy cannon from the moon fired, and the moon launched very large anti-ship missiles. They hit their targets within seconds of each other.

“The enemy fleet jumped to the other side of the moon. They expected it to be undefended as it never faces the planet. Their scouts saw nothing on the surface as the defenses are hidden. McPherson’s team had been busy on the other side of the moon over many years. They installed hidden missile silos and cannon emplacements very carefully on the far side of the moon. They even had a small base, deeply buried. They placed missiles around the moon in orbit. These missiles damaged the attacking fleet. The remaining fleet is still twice the size of the planetary fleet as you can see on this hologram, but has sustained significant damage. The battle AI informs me the enemy sustained thirty percent damage. Many are so severely damaged that they are barely operational.

“They retreated but are still in the solar system. I suspect they are waiting for reinforcements. Orelia is the furthest out from the reserve fleet, so I expect that it will still take six to eight hours for Mob reinforcements to arrive. McPherson is sending out further sensor and communications probes. This is her on the holo-com.”

“Hi, everyone, we will meet and introduce ourselves later as events are progressing quickly and I have things to do and places to be. I will link you to our battle computer to update your holograms with our sensor and readiness information. I will send you the positions of our missiles along with an updating hologram of our fleet position. The battle computer has the current estimates of their fleet damage ship by ship, and that is on the way to you now.”