Chapter 9: The War College Fiasco

The estate was an impressive, imposing, and surprisingly large underground complex that filled a huge cavern, with a dim looking pseudo-sun in the centre. The cavern was so large Jason was sure the whole of Manhattan Island could fit in it with ease. They walked along the stone path that was lined with grey/brown foliage none of which Jason could recognize. The plants looked like a cactus with thick oddly shaped leaves and a conical stem that was about two feet tall. There were trees that looked misshapen and projected upward from a central point like a fan. They had large bulbous ovoid dark green fruit. The fruit was nearly six inches in length and looked like it had a thick skin with thorns.

The estate and the surroundings looked orderly, well laid out and maintained. They passed through a large door cut into a very thick and high wall that surrounded the estate. The buildings were tall and extended upwards to the roof of the cavern and were attractively colored in mixes of bright colors largely in the red, brown, and black spectrum with a few muted reds and dark greens. He could see many drones tending the plants in the gardens and keeping buildings and paths clean and well maintained. The buildings looked very much like large blocks placed one upon the other. Everything was in straight lines. In the distance he saw many tall structures extending to the roof of the cavern.

“This cavern is one of thirty-three that make up the city. The architecture that you see here is very characteristic of the city. The stone is abundant and we acquire large amounts of stone and building material from our tunneling activities. This city is very much newer than Sennar and it is built in a vast complex of caverns that are now interconnected. There are ample caverns for expansion. The city is close to the sea and is a base for a large fishing industry. Nobatia was built to move industrial activity to a more suitable location and to concentrate similar kinds of manufacture together. We are very much into the same sort of business as is Harry.

Jason was reminded of pictures he had seen of colors and buildings in Mexico and houses of mud. He was very attracted to the architecture and the blending of the colors. The buildings appeared to be very much of the earth and felt welcoming.

They entered a large atrium in the central building with a very different but amazing smell. There were many sculptures, some of insects others more abstract.

They passed through a portal and appeared in another atrium where there were beautiful holo-art 3-D pictures and tapestries in many colors as well as pictures on the walls that looked ancient. There was a large collection of holo-photos the length of one wall. Jason recognized Philippa and Ouma Chatzke in many of them.

They were met by an ancient looking bug who welcomed them and treated Philippa with great respect.

“Jason this is Mazzod our family butler and factotum who has been with our family for 1.15 million years. He started off in the kitchen working for his mother, who is still with us.”

“My lady the years pass by more quickly than one expects, it is closer to 1.33 million years.” Mazzod said.

“Your sisters await you in the great room with the library AI. Breakfast awaits you all. My mother has been enjoying learning to cook My Lord. We watched the holo-broadcast of your appearances many times. It is a great honor to meet you. Your famous Chef Robert has a regular show every week which we enjoy. Later My Lord I will show you my butler uniform, which I obtained for the dresser a month ago. I like the idea of a uniform very much,” said Mazzod enthusiastically as he lead them to the third door along a broad passageway that lead from the atrium. The door opened as they drew near.

The room was more brightly illuminated than the rest of the house and was dominated by a long table of some kind of black very thick wood. There was enough room for thirty seats or ten boat shaped seats for bugs around the table.

There was a huge window that overlooked extraordinary, extensive terraced roof gardens, showing a diversity of foliage and trees. He saw waterfalls and ponds and even a small river flowing through the grounds. When Jason looked more closely he saw the window was a forcefield rather than glass. He saw heavily armed insects in armor patrolling the roof gardens. The gardens were filled with insects of different kinds. He noticed some eating the plants while others seemed to be wandering around.

“Philippa’s sisters, Zanta and Kram rose to greet them. Jason was surprised to see them dressed in flowing gowns that looked stunning. They wore jewelry in their hair and both had pearl necklaces and golden bangles. Mazzod made the introductions. Jason could see the strong familial resemblance to Philippa and Ouma Chatzke.

Zanta moved forward and kissed Jason on the cheek, then giggled and moved back to make way for her sister to do the same, but she hugged him tightly.

“I like him Philippa, can I keep him please?” Kram asked and then both she and Philippa laughed. Both women were more formal with Jonathan, Felicia, Celia, Norbert, and Gamma. Sophie Stone and four of his bodyguards remained in the background.

“Please come and sit at the table, the food will be ready shortly. Your chef Robert, Jason, has been wonderful on holo-broadcast. Philippa has been sending us wonderful fresh foods and all the cooking equipment that one could want. The Empire supplies are coming through in large quantities. Mazzod’s mother who you will meet has been with the family for over two million years and still likes the kitchen, more so now she can do some cooking not just cutting up of insect parts and taking off shells. We do eat small amounts of vegetable matter but generally did not like it much. She and Mazzod have been spending most of the time they have to spare, which is a lot, busy in the kitchen experimenting.” Kram said smiling.

Mazzod returned wearing a morning coat, with a shirt and tie, clothing that Jason recalled seeing on television with a jolly looking woman in a white chef’s outfit with a white chef’s hat who Jason assumed was his mother carrying a very large tray with enough plates for all of them.

“May I introduce Merken to all of you, she is Mazzod’s mother and our chef.”

“My Lord it is a great honor having you here today,” Merken said as she dexterously passed the plates around, “we have watched your appearance on holo-broadcast several times. We are also pleased Miss Philippa has finally found a person of substance. Mazzod and I have been concerned about her for many years.”

Merken turned and she became distant and her voice changed. “You My Lord, I feel very strongly will save us all in this war to come. I can smell the foul stench of the cockroaches and the smell of the sea and creatures of the deep who should stay in their own galaxy. I can also sense other creatures behind them who hunger for what does not belong to them.” Merken said and her manner changed to her previous jovial one. “I shall not rant any longer. Enjoy the food, there is more to come. My little Mazzod has been so helpful to me in the kitchen. Excuse me please My Lord, we will speak again,” said Merken and left the room leaving Mazzod remaining at attention behind them near the wall.

“Jason you and your aunt share foretelling the future with Merken, though my mother tends to underrate her abilities. Merken is a seer of great renown. She foretold you coming here a year before you came. She contacted my mother and told her to treat you as family, as she said you would become family.

The food was delicious, the bacon was much like the bacon Marie had given him on the ship, very thick cut and honeyed. The eggs were cooked to perfection. There was some tomato relish which was magnificent. The toast was a bread of Empire origin and went well with the food. There was an interesting sausage that he did not recognize, but enjoyed.

“Now she is going on about preparing for an attack. She also told my mother to get her act together and get a move on.

“She has been amazing over the years. Now we are building up our defenses here. She looks at them and says not enough, not enough.” Kram said.

“I have increased the defenses here ten-fold and she says double it and double it again. She has also been saying guard the sea, they will come from there. I have put cannon facing the sea and missiles as well,” said Philippa shrugging. “What else can I do, she says it is not enough.”

“Do you have missiles that go underwater, we had them on Earth, called torpedoes?” Jason asked.

“Yes of course we do but they have to land and then we get them!” Kram said slamming her fist into her palm.

“No, you haven’t got them at all, if I was a sea varmint I would tunnel from the water to your city and enter with a flood of water. I would not get out of the water, as water is my environment. Assume they can tunnel as fast as you can. Now what is your counter?” Jason asked the people at the table.

“How do you stop them tunneling into the city? How do you hit them in the water? How do you detect tunnels and hit them in the tunnels? How do you stop water from flooding the city? If the city is flooded how do you fight them in the city?” Jason asked. “If you can deal with those problems you are on the way to solutions.”

“If I was a sea varmint I would saturate the air with attack craft that would hit the sea. I would hit the power from the air from ships and using fighters. I would start drilling in multiple locations with attack craft following the drills. Some holes would go deeper to penetrate deeper into the city. If I could get the shield down quickly I would hit the ground with heavy missiles to create a crater path to the city to flood it.

“To defend the city I would put sensors and visual feeds from the sea. I would have very big numbers of anti-air missiles for heavy attack craft. I would have anti-ship missiles to hit craft launching attack craft or firing on the ground. I would have an extensive antimissile capacity and would not rely on the shield. I would have power supplies hidden far from the sea to support the shield. I would have triple shield redundancy.

“I would fire torpedoes as soon as the sensors picked up anything. I would have underwater craft throughout the city. That is just off the top of my head.” Jason said as Merken re-entered the room.

“My Lord, I bless you, Philippa I told you the problem. My Lord Jason told you what to do. Now do it and more. This city is critical to the planet. The sea is too close.” Merken said fervently. “Even so they will get in.”

“How did you know what I said?” Jason asked.

“Jason,” said Zanta, “there was nothing clever in that. You broadcast your thoughts loudly when you got worked up. I could see the images you are seeing clearly as well. You share some of her premonition, but not when!” Zanta continued surprised. “Philippa that is amazing, she got him going and he can see it so clearly. This is seeing history being made. The whole planet is in danger.

Jason spent a few days touring the planet and visiting factories and talking to people with Philippa, her sisters and a team of Engineers from Jason’s ships.

Philippa introduced Jason to the team of administrators and AI’s they were taking back with them.

Jason got on famously with Philippa’s sisters as did Celia and Felicia who were participating in war games at the War College but returned in the evenings.

“Jason tomorrow morning we are scheduled to visit my mother and then attend the War College. The minimum entry requirement is a Masters equivalent from any university, but the college only accepts most elite of the elite talents. Success there virtually guarantees a stellar career. There is a wide diversity of courses that cover every branch of the military. To become a general officer a PhD is required from the War College or from an equivalent high-level war college. The standard is regarded as being the highest in the Collective, though other colleges compete against them and the margin between the top three hundred colleges is small. All of your people are doing courses there and soon Celia and Felicia will also attend when others rotate out. Celia and Felicia are doing all the remote components that can be undertaken. Norbert tells me that you have undertaken the courses to Masters level through the Empire and you have done all the basics of the War College of the Collective, so you could be eligible to go there in the future if you would so wish.

“We will leave very early in the morning, at five thirty, have breakfast with my mother and then we are due at the War College at seven in the morning. Celia and Felicia will be joining us.

“The administrators decided that they wanted to get going to the Empire. I contacted Harry and he tells me that he is happy to take them to get started looking at the duchy. He said that there are quite a few planets for them to look at so it will take some time to show them around, but he’ll meet us back in Laomedeia, to travel with us and the administrators to start planning what we do with the Jumo.

“It’s time for bed, my darling. Celia and Felicia are waiting for us with eager anticipation. We don’t want to keep you up for too long as I suspect that tomorrow will be a grueling day.” Philippa said before taking Jason’s hand and leading him to the bedroom. “I have had a lot of difficulty keeping my sisters out of our bedroom. The little expedition tomorrow will reduce the pressure they are putting on me.”

Philippa led Jason to a heavily guarded portal in a basement of the house. One of the guards punched the buttons and they found themselves in the atrium of Ouma Chatzke’s house. A butler who was unfamiliar to Jason, welcomed them to the home. They were warmly welcomed by Ouma Chatzke and were immediately served breakfast. She was in her human form and was a strikingly beautiful woman like her daughters. She was dressed in a simple but severe business suit.

“Jason I suggest a light breakfast, as they tend to overfeed you at the War College. The agenda for the day has a number of options which they will discuss with you. First you will be introduced to the President and then he will discuss what you do during the day. Today everyone at the War College is dressed as a human. They are getting their students ready to be able to operate comfortably and easily in either of the Empires if needed. Today I believe they are dressing Empire formal. If you would like to change I have a dresser in the adjacent room appropriately programmed.” Ouma Chatzke said smiling at Philippa.

“I have eaten enough in the last few days to feed an army. I will have one of the pastries and a cup of coffee then I’m ready to go. I will follow your advice and change to more formal dress.

“I am very suspicious of what you two are up to. Something is going on, but I will go along with it!” Jason said.

The War College Sennar

The office of the President was spacious, spartan but very elegant in an understated way. It looked very much like any office of a Chancellor at a first-class university on Earth. The colors were different and the decorations and smell were very much typical of the bugs.

The secretary who led them into the room behaved very much as women did in the Empire and was dressed very fashionably. The president looked very familiar, but Jason couldn’t place where he had met her before, and she had two distinguished looking men in attendance. She was very gracious thanking Jason for coming and kissing Ouma Chatzke on the cheek.

“Philippa, your mother is a scoundrel, this must be her sister or some other very close family member.” Jason said sternly. Everyone laughed loudly breaking the tension in the room.

“Jason please call me Pleb and these two good-looking gentlemen are both professors here. The one on my left is Gref and the other is Nekt.

“How have you found your trip so far?” She asked politely.

“This is the most unusual trip that I have ever had to Charassa. It is the first time that I have ever arrived here fully conscious!” Jason said as they laughed. “It is also the first time that I’ve seen anything on the planet. I am amazed by what the bugs have achieved and I am enormously impressed. I have very much enjoyed meeting the bugs all over the planet and finding that my infamy has spread everywhere. I was surprised how many people told me that they watched my interviews more than once.

“Your people have spent your time productively. The planet itself is extraordinary and it is a totally different type of planet and environment from anything that I could’ve ever imagined. The idea of living underground is a great one and I know that the Empire has also embraced the concept leaving most of the surface for the enjoyment of the population and for farming. The fact that your people could have evolved in so hostile an environment is in itself something that amazes me. I have enjoyed myself enormously and I would definitely love to attend University here in the not-too-distant future. I would certainly not wait a million years before visiting Charassa again!” Jason said passionately while they were all grinning at him.

“Jason we have a proposal for you. Philippa was asked to tell you the story of the frustrated admirals. You also know that Andrea took me to visit Patton who showed me through the Empire simulations that you have done. Patton also told me that you are well aware of the specifications and performance characteristics of all the ships from the collective, those that have been captured from the people of Dhoom and the cockroaches. He refused to allow me to see any of those simulations. That AI of yours knows that you are here and introduced me to the concept of a wager. He believes that you will do better than most if not all of a class of current candidates at this college. We have the biggest class of examinees ever who are attending from all over the collective.

“Patton made available for the examination, one of your simulations where you were an admiral, in a cockroach super-carrier attacking one of our planets. He said that it was a sweetener.

“He told me you have done our undergraduate curriculum and know how to use our simulators.

“We would like to ask you if you would do us the honor of participating together with these officers in the simulations set for today. You don’t need to hurry, they are catching up with you, and are doing your simulation as supplied by Patton. There are four remaining simulations that were set by us. There is a half an hour break between each simulation for refreshments and food.

“Patton said that you did every simulation under examination conditions and we accept his word. The simulations become progressively more difficult as the day goes on. We need to be able to separate out the best future strategists and tacticians. You can either do your simulations in the office next door if you choose to do them or join the candidates.

“I would suggest that you use the office next door or you will be mobbed by people wanting to ask you questions. We would very much appreciate you doing the simulations as it will give us an idea of the perspective we need to take with our candidates. It will also help us set the standards for those from the Empire. At this level people only need to do well in two simulations to pass. For admirals and generals the standard is higher.

“On the other hand if you prefer we would be delighted to show you around this college. If you do the examination a short tour would also be provided. The college is huge, extends over six campuses and a full visit would take many days if not a full week.” Pleb Chatzke said.