Chapter 15: Finalé

When he woke at 04:00, he found Philippa had already left. Jason took the dogs for a run and then went to the gym. Everyone joined him except for Gamma who was managing the drilling group.

Lucia had organized a martial arts tournament in his absence and she was in the gym with the group she was training, but enthusiastically greeted Jason welcomed him back and helped Felix and the bugs orient themselves and to learn to use the machines while Jason did weights.

While the bugs and the Jumo Group did their work out Jason chatted to Lucia and reassured her that he was recovered.

“I would like to do a bit of work with my crystals and perhaps spar a bit to see how I am functioning. They had to rebuild my body just about completely and I am not sure how it is working. I spent nearly a week in hospital and I am sure that that had a negative effect on my muscles,” he said, “but on the machines, I was quite impressed with my strength.” Jason said.

“We have a fleet wide tournament that begins tomorrow and I have the elite group with me for some last-minute training and sparring. They need a little practice and it will give them an opportunity to build up their confidence. The bugs can watch and observe our martial arts and then tomorrow I would like to spend some time with them after the tournament assessing them and preparing specialized routines for them,” said Lucia.

The bugs watched with interest as Jason did his forms along with the marines. His body felt pretty much as it usually did. Lucia matched the Marines up in pairs. They fought each other in sequence with Jason and his partner going last. His marine was a very strong looking woman with muscles on her muscles. Jason recalled her from past encounters. Lucia repeated the rules largely for the benefit of the bugs. They bowed to each other and then Lucia told them to begin.

The sparring felt very strange to Jason. He felt himself moving fluidly but his opponent seem to be very slow and he could easily see exactly what she was going to do and evade with plenty of time to spare. His opponent became enormously frustrated trying but failing to get anywhere near Jason. Jason could demonstrate superb form and elegance in taking her down without hurting her and placing killer blows with fists and feet which he withheld close to critical body points. Lucia took him aside and out of hearing of the others.

“Jason I have never in my entire life seen a demonstration at that level. If you could perform at that level in a tournament there is no doubt that you could be the champion of the Empire. I don’t want to risk any of them prior to the tournament with two and three and four on one. Let me get them to fight each other a few more times. I think that anyone that fights you will be demoralized and I don’t want that to happen either. I want them to have full confidence prior to the tournament. We will then clear the gym and you can have my undivided attention while you show me what you can do with the crystals.”

Jason waited for a further fifteen minutes before the marines completed the sparring. She told Jason that engineering had built several new variants of armor that they were interested to see if Jason could penetrate. Jason was equally interested particularly as he did not know what additional effects would be produced from his crystals.

Jason and to his surprise Philippa offered to help Lucia carry out the new armor. He saw that Lucia was struggling to carry one large rectangular piece of armor. He was easily able to carry one in each arm as was Philippa to the surprise of Lucia.

“Jason, I can see that you are considerably stronger. Are you also faster? Sorry silly question as I saw you were much faster while you were sparring. I also saw you jump much higher and right over Rebecca’s head. Let us go ahead and see what you can do with the armor. This is a thick example of the new armor for the troops as well as for the ship. It was produced with the assistance of Porquenta and is supposed to be ten times stronger, or more, than the previous variant.”

Jason began to test his abilities and evaluate their power. After trying lightning, every type of fire and flame that he could think of he decided to try for some penetrating flames. He decided on a very narrow beam directed at the top left-hand corner of the plate. He penetrated through in an instant. He then decided on continuing the hole across the top of the plate to cut off about a centimeter from the top. It took about a second. He then tried micro percussive blows. He was easily able to dent the armor near the top. He neatly produced a series of percussive blows across the top to form decorative series of sharp deep dents to form a frame around the edge of the plate about a half an inch from the edge. He then applied a very slight gravitational warp to create a bowl with a folded edge with percussive dents in it. It looked quite elegant except for the corners. He cut around the corners and rearranged his percussive dents so that he produced a perfectly formed bowl with small dents creating a decoration a half an inch from the edge. He telekinetically brought the bowl slowly towards him and handed it to Lucia.

“A gift for your table.”

“Jason, that was absolutely astounding. I have never seen anything like that. I am going to invite the engineers to my cabin. We had a wager on you and there is no doubt that I will make some money out of this. They did not believe that you would manage to do anything to this armor. They have not been able to make holes in it nor have they been able to dent it. I also must say that I like the bowl very much. I will also take the other piece that you cut off and keep it in the bowl. Thank you also for not destroying all the pieces. I will let the others practice on them. This is a great moneymaking opportunity.” Lucia grinned evilly.

Philippa stepped forward and very politely asked.

“Please may I have a go, Lucia,” she said in a little girl voice, “please, please Lucia?” She grinned broadly.

“Of course, you may,” Lucia said doubtfully with a strong note of skepticism in her voice.

Jason saw Jonathan and Gamma grinning broadly while Norbert looked on seriously then winked at Jason.

Philippa began to twirl and sing “Ring a ring of roses, a pocket full of posies...”

The largest piece of armor began to thin and twist and bend and creak and twist and turn with her. As she completed her effort she said, “Ta Da!” and ran forward to pick up a delicate looking, armor colored rose, with thin elegant petals. Jason was delighted that Lucia looked utterly gob smacked. She stood looking at the rose with her eyes wide and her mouth open. Philippa was obviously enjoying this, and then dramatically pointed at a smaller piece of armor which lifted into the air, formed into a stem and a leaf, and attached it to the rose. Lucia’s eyes opened so wide they looked ready to fall out of her head and Jason was convinced she drooled. Lucia looked at the rose and the stem in Philippa’s hands. It would have been too heavy for Lucia to lift and she held it as if it weighed nothing. The rose itself looked gorgeous.

Philippa grinned even wider that she observed Lucia’s reaction and suddenly the rose turned red and the stem and leaf green.

“Thank you for that reminder Jason,” she said, “I could not recall the colors.” They walked to the sauna while Lucia fetched an anti-grav, lifter to take the armor and flower to her room.

After the refresher, Jason took Felix, his guards, and the bugs to see the medical center. It looked like a madhouse. There was frenetic activity with multiple machines open with bugs busy everywhere. Some of the others had explained to them about using coveralls for work and they were all dressed in a similar orange coverall. He decided not to disturb the work while he and his guests made their way to the canteen to have breakfast.

He ate exceedingly well, at least twice his previous consumption, very much pleasing the kitchen staff who took his appetite as a vote of confidence. They made a big fuss of Felix. Marie made, for the first time, a new bacon slice cured in honey and sliced half an inch thick. Philippa tucked in eating voraciously. Robert, Marie, and the kitchen staff anxiously awaited his opinion after his first mouthful. Jason chewed the bacon slowly. He considered his opinion carefully.

“I am uncertain about my opinion and I need to check the consistency and I would like another piece of bacon from the opposite end to be sure of my opinion.” Jason said as Felix grinned and Felix did not stop eating even for an instant. Marie brought him a second piece.

By this time, Robert, Marie, the chefs were beside themselves with anticipation. Jason slowly cut a piece, added an egg and tomato to his fork. He chewed slowly and after due consideration proclaimed.

“This is a triumph. It is one of the best pieces of bacon I have ever had. Compliments to the chef and to all those involved in the preparation thereof.”

They all looked mightily relieved and cheered dancing arm and arm in a circle. Philippa shook her head looking at him.

They were then served a pancake with mixed berries and maple syrup. Both ate it with relish. He ended his meal with an espresso.

He took Philippa into the kitchen to have a chat with the chefs and the staff and to tell them how much he had enjoyed the breakfast. They were all beaming at the praise and said that they wanted to do something special after the recent near death experience that he had and were going to serve the same to some of his other friends who had arrived to eat.

Jason and his guests went back to the conference room to find them preparing to watch the finale. Instructions had been given to the battle computers and all troops were in place.

Linda marched up to them with a broad grin on her face. “You have to see how they set up last night.”

They watched the holograms showing the drills being assembled and beginning their work the previous evening. On the ground an AI dressed in a formal black suit with brown dreadlocks, a perfect Ermenegildo Zegna suit replica, with a red tie, bright green socks, and patent leather shoes carefully picked a small cube out of his backpack and put it on the ground. Out of the cube poured or perhaps slowly exploded a machine that metamorphosed into a very large mechanical boring beetle. It was clear that the device had come out of trans-dimensional space, but that poorly explained how it expanded. It was a very substantial machine. It assembled itself in thirty-seconds.

Fifteen heavily armed bugs entered the borer which then moved itself into position, and dived into the ground with its front legs tearing at the soil. The speed of boring was amazing. Everything dug out by the beetle disappeared and Jason learned that it went into a trans-dimensional space. Anything useful was extracted by processors in that dimension. They watched the progress of the four beetles and saw remarkable progress. Jason realized that the bugs preferred to underestimate their skills and abilities. That certainly gave him pause for thought. Gamma spoke to them from the planet.

“I would like to update you on the current progress. The tunnel boring went more quickly than we expected. Our estimate was that we could be adjacent to the tunnels by seven to eight am but got to the target at zero two hundred. The ancient one went to sleep in a different location and is not back to his work area.

“We need to wait for him to return to his daytime area before we launch our attack. Attacking him while he is in his sleep area lowers the probability of success to an unacceptable level. We want to achieve as close to one hundred percent chance of apprehension as we possibly can. The other being, the one that you call an Orc is not doing so well.

“We may well save his life by capturing him. I doubt that will make him grateful, but stranger things have happened. I will let you know when the ancient one is moving back to his daytime area.

“On the surface, we have created an illusion at each tunnel entry point. Any spy or casual observer has only seen cargo transports pass and there will be nothing unusual to arouse suspicion. I am sure there are spies about. Your forces have created diversions elsewhere in the city to move traffic away from the tunneling areas. I would suggest at zero eight thirty that you make sure you are in control central to watch the action.

They chatted and drank coffee, to which Jason introduced everyone. The coffee and pastries were replenished a few minutes before eight twenty.

The suspense was palpable. They could see the ancient walking towards the area where he had been observed to spend most of his time the previous day. Jason could see the tunnels; one a little way ahead of where he was and the other on the other side of the area that he had been seated.

A further two tunnels were close to the second area where the signal was weaker and the forlorn figure was lying on a bed. Today the person looked significantly weaker his light dimmer, hardly moving. People could be seen clustered around the weakened person. He assumed that they were medical attendants.

Philippa informed them the teams of fifteen included six AIs per borer and as soon as the ancient was well past the tunnel it would take them ten seconds to be in and blocking the tunnel on both sides and to be running up the corridor. There would be negligible sound as they moved into the tunnel and could surprise those present and capture the ancient without a fight.

Jason called Rover and his other dogs and explained what was happening. He had reallocated dogs to Linda for the basements and arranged for thousands of dogs to be in reserve to go into the tunnels if necessary. Several people were waiting for the ancient at the table and as soon as he sat down the borers entered the tunnels and it was all over in sixty anti-climactic, but tense seconds. They had some kinds of restraints that they used on the ancient and the others present and captured him before he had an opportunity to resist. The second ancient proved to be so seriously injured that he could not move. He was declining rapidly He put up no resistance to the bugs; he was in and out of consciousness. He was returned and placed in a secure bug operated part of the medical facility.

“Now what happens?” Felix asked.

“From what I have been told by intelligence it is going to take a few hours to interrogate the whole group and then they will inform us of the information they recover.” Matilda MacArthur answered. I would suggest that everyone does whatever they wish and we meet back here when the bug intelligence group have completed their intelligence assessment.”

“Felix I would really be very interested to hear a little of your background and what on earth has been going on with your people?” Jason asked.

They were soon joined by Jason’s closest group as well as the bugs. The entire group listened with interest.

“We were at a similar slightly advanced level beyond what I have heard of your planet Earth, Jason. We were approached by a group of people who were refugees from the Empire and took them in. They were a fine group of people and my impression was that they had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The noble with whom they had been associated involved himself in an attempted insurrection against the Empire when he was entirely unprepared and unable to deal with the consequences. This left his subjects in a very vulnerable position and they chose to leave rather than face the anger of the Empire.

“In many ways I thought that they were a naive group of people, but they were in possession of a superior level of technology. They catapulted us and our development ahead at a surprising rate. Within a few years we had very advanced medical care and were able to fly to the stars. This gave our population the ability to expand. We found them a delightful group of people and worked with them extremely well. Without them I would’ve died a long time ago, and I owe them entirely for my life and my longevity. I will not abandon them. We worked extremely well together and enjoyed each other’s company. I have had the opportunity to know many of them very well. They were infiltrated by a small group of people who dominated them and change them into the group that you know as The Mob. Once we have cut off the insidious influence of Nimrod and his associates I do believe that we can get back to normal and reconcile with our refugees. We have a lot to thank them for and they were a wonderful group of people until adversely influenced by pernicious and nasty people or entities or beings or whatever they may be.

“My family ruled and were influential for thousands of years. We were highly respected and I became King after my father died shortly after he decided to accept the refugees, but unfortunately he died at the age of a hundred and forty. My people have been peace-loving and productive for all the time that I have known them. The refugees were a wonderful group of people who were confused and trusting of their Lord who betrayed them.

“Nimrod was behind the insurrection and I will be very interested to find out what they know from the interrogation. I loathe the man who displaced me and perverted my people. We landed up fighting two wars; three and a half and a thousand years ago, that had no meaning and had no value. I was helpless and a captive when all of this happened. Jason I am truly grateful for you for everything that you’ve done for us and my people. I believe that we have the best of the deal that we have made with you. You have a small share of an empire most of which was not created by us and my people.

“I was a king of a planet that did not have a population that exceeded the capacity of the planet to manage it. I now find myself to be an emperor of multiple species and many planets and I’m out of my sphere of comfort. There is no way that I have the ability or the capacity to manage all of this. I know that I have some fine people to help me, but I rely on you Jason to help me.”

“Felix, that is like the blind leading the blind. I have run nothing of major import in my life. I am of no use running an empire. On Earth I never even ran my house. I was the nominal leader of my small business, but I found an excellent general manager who ran it till my formidable daughter took over. On this little jaunt I am along for the ride. My people tell me what to do and I do it. Felix I am a figurehead. Morgan James and Peter Kane will run Porquenta and Mars as I do not know what I am doing. I am the last person who should be helping you. I am Lord Kargo the puppet on a string. I dance to the tune of others.”

Felix looked at Jason and laughed. “Jason you don’t know who you are. Even an idiot can see it. You are the last to know.” Said Felix laughing and looking at Andrea and Linda who were shaking their heads. Philippa looked liked a cat who had swallowed a canary. She grinned widely.

“Here are the intelligence people,” said Linda.

Karen DuPree entered the room and stood in the front to speak.

“The interrogation information is a surprise. Interrogation was however somewhat of a misnomer. The bugs simply extracted everything from Nimrod Khong’s brain in the same way as they had done with Jason. Philippa has received the information from her people and will report to the group.

Philippa explained: “Nimrod was part of a long-term strategy by the cockroaches. The cockroaches had never developed the methodologies for transformation of themselves that we bugs have. They had intended to invade this galaxy again but this time they infiltrated people into this and other most promising galaxies. They had utilized DNA of their own along with some humans that they captured, and after a long period of experimentation created human beings that had been grown in vats who were largely of cockroach origin but humanoid in appearance.

“They were brought up in a highly privileged environment and taught the necessary skills by their captives to infiltrate the emerging dominant humanoid species in the galaxy that they found themselves. The plan was to take over and dominate the humans leaving the field clear for the cockroaches to take over later.

“They did return to their own galaxy periodically and were treated as heroes. They were taught that they were vanguards for their own species and believed that they were sacrificing themselves for their species. They are full of hatred and despise the people of this galaxy.

“Nimrod’s companion also turned out to be surprise. He was not an orc. Nazruden had been one of the warriors of the Apocalypse who has been captured by the cockroaches and taken back for use in the “Breeding Program”. He has been horribly tortured to reveal the hidden planets of his people. Despite centuries of incarceration and torture he never revealed any information. They extracted the information from his mind without him knowing. Eventually they said that they would allow him to be ransomed back and he could be returned for a price to his people. The cockroaches entered negotiations secretly with his family as the warriors would have never permitted him to be ransomed.

“The cockroaches set a trap. When the payment and return of Nazruden was to happen they then captured his wife and eldest son. His family remained prisoners of the cockroaches on the breeding planet. His wife, his sons, and his DNA were used to create some of the humanoid appearance of the cockroaches. Nimrod Khong received much of his DNA. He was forced to accompany Nimrod and assist him and if he did not his wife and son would be tortured.

“Over the years he became embittered and tortured with guilt. He and Nimrod had established a working relationship but he did as little as he possibly could to further the aims of the cockroaches. He did not actively and visibly resist, but he passively subverted as much as he could. He became a shell of his former self burdened by self-recrimination. Every day for him was a torture and a never-ending nightmare of concern for his family and distaste for the cockroaches and their machinations.

“He and Nimrod had been returning along the tunnel back from the base at the time that it was attacked. He was directly in front of Nimrod and took a life threatening concussive blast. Nimrod picked him up and took him down the elevator after collecting the entire medical staff of the palace.

“He certainly had no will to live and he was relieved that he was dying, but regretted that he had never managed to save his wife and son,” said Philippa sadly, as she showed the scenes portrayed clearly on holograms.

They saw Nimrod as he was growing up as a little boy. They saw pictures of him playing with cockroach friends. Most of his social activity was together with cockroaches. They saw bits of his educational process with the cockroach lecturers and professors. They saw him during his time at university with a group of people who all looked like Nimrod along with their cockroach friends talking away in the cockroach language. They must have been able to learn to create the appropriate sounds. They saw Nimrod on many occasions meet with Nazruden. Surprisingly Nimrod was devoted to Nazruden. He treated him after he was injured with the greatest care and concern.

“The implications of what we have heard are enormous but very disturbing,” said Jonathan. “There are probably many of these cockroaches that have infiltrated the Empire. The value of these captures is incalculable. Long-range plans of this nature were never part of the cockroaches’ methodology and strategy as we have known them. There is a distinct possibility that there is another party that is somehow involved here. We know that the involvement of the cockroaches with the Jumo and the refugees on Yimza is only a three and a half thousand years old.

“We have to assume that they have been elsewhere. It appears from what Jason has heard and we very carefully analyzed all those communications; that they came along with the refugees. We need to track in more detail the background to what has happened with the priests. It has the feel of a plot within a plot hiding something else,” said Jonathan earnestly.

“We do recognize the technique of creating an assassin who will wait for an appropriate opportunity before activation. We do have the ability to do what Porquenta has wanted to do and that is to recognize the brain patterns prior to the assassination event and we can even establish the risk prior to triggering. We need to isolate those individuals and interrogate them both on Porquenta and on Nirvana.

“With your permission Jason, I would like to ask Ouma Chatzke, to send us sufficient intelligence operatives to undertake this task. I will also ask for sufficient additional intelligence operatives to at least get started in the Empire after we arrive there,” said Jonathan. Jason vaguely waved his acknowledgment for them to go ahead. He thought he was on a roller coaster and going faster and faster and as if he was upside down doing a loop.

“There is another matter that I want to bring to your attention. We now know from Nimrod Khong where many of the cockroach planets involved in these activities are hidden. The cockroaches sequestrate knowledge and information very carefully for security reasons. The whole society is organized on a need-to-know basis.

“Even the most senior of the cockroaches has limited information and can compromise a relatively small part of the entire Navy or army or manufacturing facility. It means that if someone is killed or captured that their risk is constrained.

“Nimrod was intending to wait until everything settled down and then he intended to move to a very powerful destroyer that he has hidden in a mountain, close to one of the most deeply buried military bases on this planet. Because of his need to return periodically to our galaxy it was necessary for him to know how to get to some of the critical breeding planets. Over a very long period of time he has clearly built up the trust of the senior cockroaches. At the same time the cockroaches must have had the belief that their strategy was so successful that their risk was low and he was permitted to know more than he should.

“There is not a sufficient level of technology in this galaxy to undertake the kind of interrogation that we have performed, and they would not for one moment think that we would move to this galaxy. We would not have come here if it had not been for Jason coming to see us.

“All this critical information is of profound import and will be communicated with Ouma Chatzke face-to-face. It is necessary to communicate all the rest of this extraordinary story to her in some detail. My senior intelligence person will return tomorrow to report in detail. No doubt she will present the information in considerable detail to the intelligence community and possibly more widely. The implications of what has happened here are profound. If the cockroaches have been busy since the last war, it is likely, if not probable, that there is a lot more that is going on that is beyond our current knowledge. Jason, I would have to say that you got stung at a very convenient time. A few hundred thousand years earlier would have been better but we will take what we get,” said Philippa and laughed loudly.

Jason had enjoyed the morning and the company of the bugs and Felix. Time had flashed by and it was time for lunch. He and Philippa walked to the canteen arm in arm as the others followed behind laughing and joking. Jason was constantly hungry and was not yet used to eating the amount he needed to eat daily. His friends the chefs joined him, the emperor Felix, Cephas, and Perdita, and the bugs for a chat. Robert proudly told the group about the food production and the horticulture and animal farming groups.

They were currently experimenting with Mexican recipes and had grown many varieties of chilies and beans. They wanted him to sample and if he approved he and his guests were to eat a chili con carne that they had made with a new habanero chili. Robert proudly told them that the farmers had managed to produce their first avocados and he had been keeping them to eat with Jason and his guests.

They all enjoyed chili con carne with guacamole, sour cream, and cornbread for lunch. The chefs and ship personnel had tried avocados from stasis but the chefs were particularly proud of the first small avocados produced from their own trees.

He looked out and saw several of the crew sitting at the table, with the addition of his old friends Janet Malone, Colonel of Marines and Phoebe Harris, Colonel of the ship fighter group. They had been very concerned about him and had waited for him to arrive at lunch before joining him and Philippa. He hadn’t seen them for a while and was delighted to spend some time in their company. Philippa said that she was more relaxed than she had been for some time thanks to Jason. She hoped that she would be the first mother of a human and bug encounter and noted that her people had confirmed she was pregnant.

Jason was teased by the whole table. Janet said that it was not bad enough that he had impregnated the whole battleship including her, then many clones but now he had become desperate and now he was resorting to the bugs. Philippa smiled at this and appeared to find it very amusing.