Chapter 10: Collective War College on Senna - Graduation Day

Jason and Philippa returned early the next morning to have breakfast with Ouma Chatzke.

“Jason I do agree with your hypothesis. I suspect yesterday went some way towards its validation. I would not bother researching it while you are at University, the validation will occur nevertheless,” Ouma Chatzke said.

“You know mother, sometimes you are really obscure, and I don’t understand what you are talking about!” Philippa said.

“Jason, I assume you do understand me?” Ouma Chatzke asked smiling.

“Philippa, I am a black hole for attracting trouble. That is the hypothesis I discussed with your mother. Yesterday went some way to validating a putative theory. That was what your mother was referring to.

“I have eaten as much as I can, we need to get to the University, as I am going to have another grueling day,” Jason said gritting his teeth. “Pleb knows how to party and I am still recovering,” Jason said.

“Poor boy! No staying power,” Ouma Chatzke said with a laugh.

The day was as bad as both Porquenta and Patton had predicted. Jason was shattered. Philippa returned him for dinner at her mother’s together with her aunt. Jason slept for nearly two hours before dinner. He began stirring a few minutes before Philippa came into the room to wake him. She led him into the dining room, where her mother and aunt were sitting.

“Jason, I did the simulations during the examination. They are easily the hardest simulations that I have ever done. We have sent all the simulations to Porquenta and Patton for checking. They can check themselves if there are some they have not seen or if the set they stole is complete. They will confirm the results and integrity checks by tomorrow morning.

“Those two are amazing. They refused to hack the main university, but my sister gave them access via her AI. Two hundred more Professors were arrested. They are still working and they say it is not all over. They believe that they can only find the tip of the iceberg. I think that will help us get a start, as one suspect will lead to another. Porquenta was granted access into intelligence and this led to further arrests. He is not prepared to provide us with any algorithms or the programs he uses, until we eliminate as many as we possibly can,” Pleb said.

“While you were playing games, my darling this place has been busy. Very senior people have been identified and interrogated. Not a single error was made by Porquenta so far,” Philippa said.

“This has been an exhausting day. A lot more will undoubtedly occur in the next few days. One of the professors blew himself and his captors to oblivion. Following the interrogations, we are tracking down thousands of cockroaches throughout the Collective. As we find more of them, they lead us to others. Let’s eat, drink, and relax. There’s a lot to do, but we would request you to attend the ceremony tomorrow. It will give you an opportunity to meet some of the people who were doing the simulations, and see them awarded appropriate qualifications. It will be an easy day for you. The ceremony will take a few hours, and it is a good opportunity to establish some contact with younger people who may be useful to you later. Philippa I think you should go with Jason. I don’t believe you have ever seen a graduation at the War College,” Ouma Chatzke said, “but I don’t want to steal my sister’s thunder, tomorrow!”

She sat back and grinned, but refused to say another word.

The Graduation Hall, Collective War College, Sennar

The graduation hall was the biggest hall that Jason had ever seen. He thought that it held at least fifteen thousand people. He was seated in the front row, with Philippa and many of the professors. A dozen very smartly dressed younger officers who looked very pleased with themselves were happily talking to each other. Jason looked to the back and could see huge holograms, which allowed those at the back see and hear what was going on. The walls were ornately but subtly decorated in many colors and textures, but there were areas where he could see vivid very attractive patterns. The roof looked like a night sky with shooting stars and slowly moving galaxies. The chairs were comfortable. Philippa showed Jason the controls to change his weight on the chair.

Pleb was introduced by the master of ceremonies.

“It is my pleasure, as president of this venerable institution, to present you with your graduation certificates. You will receive them if you are successful on your slate and it is entered formally in your record. I usually present an inspirational speech to encourage you all on your way, but today is different. The first part of today is an explanation, and a warning; then we’ll move on to award the prizes to those who have performed the best, and who have earned the honors in this very difficult process.

“Now for the warning that I want to deliver: We are at war! All of you must see an urgent need to be your best. One part of the war was fought in this college the day before yesterday.

“We did not explain why all of you have done this examination twice. That information was not released.

“We discovered that our educational process was infiltrated by the cockroaches and cockroach AIs, who have subverted our teaching. We have arrested tens of thousands of cockroaches throughout the Collective, and we expect the numbers that we will arrest will be frighteningly large.

Yesterday’s examination was not interfered with, and was not created by the infiltrators. I can even inform all of you that it was created by a third party who we will not identify, but who is highly qualified and beyond reproach. It was also independently validated. Every single response to the simulation and every single activity of the AI running the simulations were scrutinized. That was not an easy process when you consider that four hundred and seventy-thousand of you throughout the Collective undertook the simulation.

“We had complaints about a previous examination. That examination was also independently validated last night. I can confirm that it was set by a third-party and has been validated by that same third party.

“We also had complaints that there was some distortion because the individual upon whom simulations were based and marked had not undertaken the simulations as an examination under examination conditions.

“That individual faced both sets of examinations with all of you, in the last two days, and it was he who informed me that our system had been infiltrated on the first day. The question that I’m sure that you are all asking is; how did he do? I won’t answer that question yet.

“Thirty-four percent of you passed the examination, yesterday. That is the lowest score ever recorded in all our history. The original groups that did the simulations at your stage enjoyed a sixty-eight percent success rate. Our external examiner noted that those who had failed, had not adapted to new information, and many had accepted the information that they had been taught as gospel, even though much of it was incorrect.

“He considered that they were a danger to themselves, and to the armies or fleets that they might lead; as they did not have the flexibly to accept and adapt to new situations and technologies. He said it was a fault of our system, and was impressed ‘such a high percentage’ had passed the new simulations. He said those who had passed, deserved to pass, as they can adapt to new information and are not influenced by false information that they may have been taught.

“His recommendation - which I accept fully - is that every single admiral and general, and every single officer who has been educated at every single War College, is going to be required to entirely re-educate themselves and be re-examined. This will commence as of today. We are heading for war, and we can afford to do no less! We have been infiltrated, and we have to take extreme measures to repair the damage that has been done.

“There were nine exceptional individuals who scored significantly higher than anyone else, by an impressive margin. The winner - and it is very unusual for us to have a single winner - scored much higher than the other eight outstanding candidates. We have never, in the entire history of this institution, had an individual perform better than all of those throughout the Collective who were sitting the examination at the same time. Not only that, but perform very much better.

“I did not expect this result, and I’m sure that the person in question didn’t either. I realize, now, how complacent we have become! We can be beaten by somebody who will surprise you all. I would like to call to the front, the young Archduke: Jason Kargo. I have known him for all of two days,” said Pleb Chatzke who beckoned to Jason.

Philippa pushed Jason to stand and helped him walk up the stairs to the podium, where she stood with Jason helping him to keep upright. There was pandemonium in the hall, as the results of the top nine appeared on the holograms.

“Jason Kargo was born on a primitive planet, without education in warfare at the level we provide. He had experience in special forces, as most of you will recall from his holo-vision interviews, images of him fighting in jungles without augmented armor, minimal medical care, and no temperature controlled environmental help. He fought without an AI and had minimal communication.

“As he flew back to the Empire, he graduated to a Masters level in the Imperial War College. He has had exposure to our simulations and education. He has not had the opportunities that all of you have had, though he has had more experience than many, but it was all concentrated into a period of a little over three months.

“This is the first examination where those who have had many years of experience prior to undertaking this examination, did very much more poorly than those with fewer years of experience. This was due to the effects of bad teaching, compounded over time according to the external moderator. Our leadership has hundreds of thousands of years of experience as individuals. Some even a million years. It is for that reason that until each and every individual can prove themselves, no position is secure. I am authorized to say that, so you had better believe it.

“If someone who is a complete outsider, with much less education than all of you have received, can roundly beat all of you; how much risk is the Collective facing from our very much more sophisticated enemies? I say we are fortunate to have him on our side!

“I have reviewed the details of his education, the simulations of the battles he has fought and well over two hundred of the simulations he has undertaken.

“I hereby award The Archduke Jason Kargo a Doctorate from this college! He is also awarded the title of Admiral. He is the first admiral from outside the Collective! May we see many more in the future!

“I would like to congratulate you on your outstanding effort, Admiral Jason Kargo!”

There was a deafening roar of applause and acclaim. Jason felt overwhelmed. Philippa helped Jason to walk off the stage and down the stairs. He did not remember anything of the rest of the ceremony.

Philippa dragged him to the large adjacent hall for refreshments, together with Pleb, as the bugs began to file out after the ceremony. Jason was mobbed by many who wanted to congratulate him and get a holo-picture with him. Ouma Chatzke joined them and congratulated him.

“I’m very pleased that you have met several important family members,” said Philippa. “Unfortunately, all things must come to an end, and soon we will make our way back to the Empire. Your grandchildren will be with you very soon. They have been touring with Cassius and Alana and have asked about you every day.

I am really looking forward to our visit to the Jumo. We are taking with us several cargo ships, and nearly thirty-thousand bugs. They are joining the few million who are busy helping the Jumo. We are also taking a few million new generation AIs for Cassius, and a similar number for the Jumo.

“Arrests in the Empire number in the millions. There are not terribly many cockroaches that we can find in the Jumo Empire. I suspect that they thought they had the Jumo well under control; but my biggest fear is that they have concentrated themselves in a location that we have not, as yet, found. Most of the effort went into the core Empire planets. The methods of finding the cockroaches are improving, but have a long way to go. I’m really tired. Let’s head home,” Philippa said sounding exhausted.

Cockroach Coven: Old Palace of the Emperor, Conference room 1:

Meeting of the senior cockroach leadership: political and military.

Chairman: Larnor Bakt-Yekt Grand Overseer of the Coven of Cockroaches

The chairman turned to Yesteg Krimpt, the Senior General of Intelligence, and handler of the late Norwald Yang; now second in command of cockroach intelligence.

“Krimpt, can you please explain the situation you have delineated in your report.”

“Grand Overseer, we face serious problems in every area of our operations, but we are close to achieving many of our aims in others.

“The fleet of the Dhoom exceeds our own numbers, and the current generation of weapons we are seeing is now more advanced than our own. We know the locations of their core planets, but we cannot penetrate the defenses of the close in planets with any degree of certainty. A war with them has limited chances of success. If we fight them, it will be a war of attrition; where we may be severely weakened, and be an easy target for the Collective. We will continue to probe within the Dhoom Galaxy and collect intelligence.

“They have sophisticated capabilities to fight on land, as well as in the seas. Their underwater cities are heavily fortified. We captured underwater and land craft, and noted the technology has improved startlingly in the last one hundred years, and recently has jumped ahead of us. They must have another source of new technology.

“The Ghoul Queen expresses disappointment in us. We have not delivered, in her view, and she will not give us the next generation of technology we need so badly. She has stated that every time we make them an offer, they pay a heavier price than the paltry goods we deliver. Unfortunately, Sir that has been true.

“Of even more concern, is the alliance formed between the Insect scum and the Empires. Emperors Cassius and Felix are rapidly industrializing and mobilizing. All of them are attempting to find and remove our people. They are futilely trying to destroy the work of thousands of years. They cannot find our newer agents. Our ability to act from within the Empires and the Collective will begin to decrease only if they find a way to detect our latest batches of sophisticated infiltrators. We are getting better and better at infiltrating them but now they are actively pursuing us which means our intelligence gathering ability in every area is slowed and constrained as is our ability to acquire superior technology. This period will end and they will become complacent again.

We will never be the weaklings of three galaxies,” Krimpt noted, “our society is too powerful, and our workers too intelligent,” Krimpt continued optimistically.

“We have had a breakthrough and have found an entry point into the Cassius Empire that the families of the Royals use. They do as we do, but they send the Royal children to the Empire. We wondered where the grubs were going. Now we know they are leaving for the Empire. We do not know why, but suspect it is to create a bridgehead for them when they seek to take power. At last they have made a major error, and have made themselves vulnerable to us. Our agents will capture these renegades and traitors, and we will discover how they are created. They will be ideal hostages to gain leverage over the Royal family, so that we can finally use the Royal family and the Royal Genetics Laboratories to our advantage.

“This good news is balanced by the loss of our assets in the palace, and on the Kargo estate. Both Generals are lost to us. For this we can blame the younger Kargo. He is more formidable than we expected. Our attack on the Emperor failed due to updated and upgraded equipment in the Empire. We could not move a large enough force into close proximity, as we could not keep a larger force cloaked and invisible to detection. Our losses were minor.

“We are not sure how our assets in the palace were detected; but the younger Kargo fell ill to a poison, and was treated in the Collective. He was taken there by Cassius, who had apparently already upgraded his ships.

“They are clearly obscuring their activities. Cassius, the fool, was interviewed seemingly about fashion. We do not believe for one moment that he meant what he talked about. The Collective is on the surface obsessed with mammalian activities. We consider that they are using these concepts to increase their hidden mobilization from us. We believe this alliance has been forged to attack us. The Jumo no doubt participate as they see an opportunity to have revenge upon us.

“We have perused the interviews of the younger Kargo and the Emperor and are of the opinion ‘fashion’ means to fashion a way to help those who lead the insurrection against us. Cooking reflects the plot. Ingredients are the parts of the plot. We noted a significant increase in industrial activity around machines for devices they call dressers. We know they are used to fit armor to marines on the ships and suspect this is a way of hiding an effort to provide armor for the population on the whim of the Collective.

“We further believe the cooking hides the creation of new generations of poisons and may also refer to explosives. It is implausible to assume the entire Collective has gone insane over bizarre mammalian food and food production and dressing like mammals. We know the insects are clever but they have not led us astray with the apparent tomfoolery we have observed.

“We have lethal forces in the capitol and will await an opportunity to assassinate the Emperor, or Kargo, or both. Young Kargo will start soon at the University and he will be ripe for the plucking. I believe he is involved in a secondary plot at the University. It is likely to be related to the explosives or armoring the population. He was a very old man when we first heard of him. The insects made him look younger so he can disguise himself to undertake clandestine work. We know the nature of Kargo businesses, and he and his uncle are as thick as thieves,” Krimpt said smiling. “All is not lost, as we are on to them. They do not suspect for an instant how much we know.”

“Lastly, we are creating an opportunity to enter the Empire in force. We are moving our clandestine troops to Beeliar. When our new generation of Supersized Dreadnoughts is ready, we will strike. We will be ready within months. Trials have begun on the first ship and it is proving itself to be even better than anything we expected. The firepower exceeds any fifty battleships, with carrier escorts. They can carry close to a hundred thousand fighters to a battle if so configured,” Krimpt said. “I am optimistic we will do well, despite our recent apparent small setbacks. We have planned for this time and we will enjoy the fruits of our efforts.”

Back in the Empire

“Alana, what about you guys? Do you want to visit the Jumo and meet and greet their glitterati?” Philippa asked as she and Jason left the palace. “Talk to Cassius and let us know.”

Cassius called five minutes after they had left the palace.

“Jason, my boy! I will organize a fleet and some cargo ships to come along with us. Maybe we can meet and greet, and not let you get too far ahead of us. A bit of trade always generates goodwill.”

“I will call Felix, first,” Jason replied, “to warn him, and ensure he will available and can accommodate us all. You should come with us in my battleship, with your fleet following as they are slower. I am sure it will be okay with Felix as long as I give him a bit of warning. We need to leave there in seven days to get back for the start of university. The Jumo will be awake in twenty minutes, and then I will call before they hit the gym. I will get back to you in half an hour.”