Chapter 23: After the Battle

The enemy in the battle had been much more effective and dangerous than had been expected. Their shields technology and weapons were very much more powerful than had been predicted. Jason was shaken by the events. This was the first time for a long time that he had felt threatened and at risk.

Jason felt that he was back on a treadmill that was going faster and faster. There was a great sense of relief that the battle had been won. It could have so easily been a loss. Each of the allies played their own critical roles. The enemies were becoming more formidable, and every time one enemy was overcome a new set of enemies appeared. He briefly hankered back at times to his previous life on Earth, boring and frustrating as it was. He felt that he had come such a long way, but he was confused and uncertain about some of the questions about himself.

Jason was delighted with the friends he had made across many galaxies. He was pleased with his own development, and his emerging understanding of this world that he lived in. What he was grappling with was the sense of who he was, beyond the Jason who had come from Earth and had been optimized by crystals and the bugs. He still struggled with ‘ascension.’ It seemed a very puzzling and confusing process and rather than his view of death and going to heaven or hell, it seemed so much more complicated. Yet now, it was becoming understandable as travel to different universes. He felt at times that he lost himself and was overcome by this infinitely more powerful being that had abilities that were way beyond his already considerable abilities. He desperately wanted to understand.

Jason was unsettled by the knowledge that even though this was a decisive battle it was not the end. He wanted on the one hand to participate in finishing the war and on the other hand he just wanted to visit Earth and then go back to university. He needed to go and meet with Ouma Chatzke along with all the other leaders. In some ways he was not of the leaders, yet in some other ways he was the leader of the leaders. He felt completely inadequate in that task, yet he knew that when it came to the crunch, he attracted the right allies and the best solutions to be applied to the critical problems that they faced.

He thought also about the ending to the battles. The battle ended when he exerted his power to terrify his enemies. He did not know what his real powers were, nor how to explore them. What if he encountered a being of similar powers to his own that wanted to attack him? He could think of a number of times when he had enormous powers. The first time was when he was on Porquenta and he attacked the enemy base virtually single-handed. His battles with a number of the entities were beyond the capacities as he knew them, of both the bugs and the tyrannosaurs.

In some ways, Jason knew that he was fulfilling a purpose, but was it his ultimate purpose? He knew that the Empires, the Orcs, the Warriors of the Apocalypse, the Collective, and the Tyrannosaurs would go ahead and pursue the war ahead. Jason was not entirely sure of what his future role would be in the short term.

Jason met with the leaders at the central administration building. There was a very large ground floor conference room with very high doors leading to the outside. The building architecture was very much like that of ancient Rome. Many of the buildings in Charassa were beautiful. They could easily fit in many cities on Earth. The conference room had ancient tapestries on the walls, and many statues of various bugs. Some of the tapestries showed scenes of wars, but at least a half showed scenes of work both underground and aboveground. The building like most of the buildings in Charassa was underground. They were a long way away from the flooded areas. The dominating central table was of a dark wood and looked very ancient. Around the table were many of the boat like seats, with newer looking regular seats for humans, and very big stools for the tyrannosaurs. The table was raised on a platform to place it at the right height for the tyrannosaurs. All the others sat on the platform.

Ouma Chatzke was at the head of the table in her praying mantis form along with her advisers. He could see that she was wearing the universal translators that they produced. Jason saw Cassius sitting near her on one side with his advisers, her Majesty Queen Lynas Parayekt with her advisers, then Marduk with his sidekick, then Jacques and Freya, Felix and his advisors, Basil and two of Marduk’s advisors who appeared to be holding Marduk upright. He smiled wanly at Jason who looked back at Marduk incredulously. Philippa moved over to sit next to Jason as did Linda, Sheila, and Andrea. The dogs and Aylot lay down behind Jason. Montgomery and Winston smiled at Jason as they sat down. Ouma Chatzke stood to speak.

“It is with many thanks to my allies and friends that we open this preliminary meeting. I fear that if we had been attacked unexpectedly, that matters would have been entirely different. My special thanks to Jason who provided us with forewarning and with allies with unexpected firepower. My friends your fleets have saved our planet. We unexpectedly have also faced new and surprising technology. Each of you have made a unique contribution to winning this battle. These enemies are formidable and I think would have inflicted massive damage upon us. The Coven and People of Dhoom would have either invaded or destroyed our planet without your help. As it is we now have two very much weakened enemies and we ourselves have not sustained proportionate losses. In this battle we have seen which of the technologies have been successful, but a full analysis will take some time. Even so there is undoubtedly going to be a race for weapons and technology superiority. This war is not over. United, we have inflicted major damage on a pair of aggressive, avaricious, and deceptive enemies, and the backers behind them. Many forces came together to create this victory.

“Marduk I am surprised to see you out of hospital. I believe that you have defied your doctors to be here today. I am grateful for your help. We are pleased you have given us the opportunity to be of some small assistance to you. I’m very grateful for your missiles that prevented the destruction of our planet and the fact that you continued to guide the missiles even when critically injured to be replaced at the end by the indomitable Jason and Porquenta’s “daughter” Sheila, with help from Philippa. Porquenta certainly helped Jason’s fleet to deal a crushing blow to the cockroaches and assisted us greatly. Thank you to the Dogs and Boars, Jacques, we thank you and Freya for your role and in particular your intervention in protecting Jason while he was otherwise incommunicado, and to you as well, Felix. Lynas, you too have done us a great service, both in intervening against the fleet and with your defense on the ground. Cassius your fleet was greatly valued. Your underwater developments were impressive and your assistance on the ground greatly valued. Montgomery you continue to surprise us with the technology of your ships. We value the Una. Basil, we all thank you for your role in the development of the EMP weapon and your specifications for a gravitational weapon as well as your help with the dogs and coordination of them while Jason was unable to help.

“All of you have lost people, but together we have all lost less than had we attempted to fight them on our own. Marduk before I respectfully banish you back to the hospital, do you wish to say any words to this gathering?”

“Friends and allies, this has been a great battle. All of your forces fought valiantly, which allowed us to fight the enemy without watching our own backs for betrayal. I have come today to offer my support and that of my people to finish this war. I fear there are other storm clouds gathering on the horizon. These current enemies that we face are daunting and cunning. They have been dealt a crushing blow, but this war is not over. We should not be complacent.

“The effort that has been occurring on Porquenta has borne significant fruit and we will contribute significantly more resources to that area. For the first time in a long time we feel a sense of purpose and a taste of meaning. For too long have we faced treachery and uncertainty. I believe that I can participate in these discussions from now on from the hospital when I’m able, but for now my time has run out and I need to return for the remainder of my treatment. I thank you all for being honorable people and to my Lord Jason who has invited us to participate in this righteous task,” he said with his voice progressively becoming weaker as he was assisted by his colleagues to the portal.

The Aftermath

Jason decided to spend the week on Charassa as planned, before flying to Porquenta, then to Earth, and finally to the Jumo Empire.

Jason looked at the reports as they emerged on the holograms. The capital, Sennar, was surprisingly lightly damaged, despite the ferocity of the attacks upon it. The water had not reached a sufficient level to damage the invaded neighborhood. He saw machinery removing damaged shuttles, gunships, and tanks. Thousands of AIs and drones were busily at work. There were nearly twenty seven thousand civilian casualties in the city.

The closest city to Sennar, Lepassa, was very much more severely damaged and had close to a hundred thousand civilian casualties. There was extensive flooding and the power and shields were largely destroyed. There were still fires burning and a million bugs were evacuated due to toxic gasses.

Ouma Chatzke was apparently still deeply asleep, while Queen Lynas was awake and evaluating the situation, as was Jason. Jason sent her a message saying he had watched her fleet destroy the slug/jellyfish ships with impunity and he looked forward to seeing her after they’d had time to assess their losses and rest. Cassius was also asleep as was Jacques and Freya.

Jason received a message to go to the surface to talk to the doctor about Marduk.

Jason took the shuttle to the surface along with Sheila and Gamma. They met with an unfamiliar doctor in the hospital. Security was very tight, and Jason was accompanied by fifty guards and went to the surface using a gunship with fighter escort. They were met by an honor guard of fighters from the surface, and his own fighters returned to the ship.

Jason was recognized everywhere. He was a galactic celebrity and a hero of the Collective. The hospital was busier than he had ever seen it. The doctor appeared very much as an American professor with a bow tie and wingtips.

“Marduk has given you power of attorney. This was in our system long before the battle. He is currently in stasis, but stable awaiting several decisions to be made. He did not regain consciousness and is not in any position to advise us further. As you know he is a fully biological AI. His brain function is a highly advanced biological artificial intelligence, but his body is entirely biological. Physically he was critically injured. His body was powerful with some redundancies but very much less than what we advise, but he was struck by bulkheads as the ship was rammed. He was also crushed into a small space. It is little short of a miracle that he survived. The fact that he survived is only because of his willpower!” said the doctor gravely.

“His colleagues have provided us with a full backup of his memories. We could independently recover the full contents of his brain and did so up till he lost consciousness. He is the first fully biological artificial intelligence that we have ever encountered. We can confirm that he has known you in the distant past, many millions of years ago when he was created by your people. My Lord the pictures are amazing, you looked then, much as you do now. We ourselves were partly aware that you were an ancient, much older than us, but not that you were an Emperor. We knew you descended but not who you were. You were an inspired leader in his view, and a great Emperor. Marduk has a profoundly deep-seated loyalty to you and believes in you implicitly.

“He has indicated in his communication that he is delegating decisions to you and that that you previously decided who he was and you can decide again how he will be. I understand that you previously granted him and his people sentience and independence. We saw and confirmed those facts. He and his people chose to continue to serve you, and we observed them offering their allegiance. We can understand his view and choice of you to decide on his behalf as we have combed through his memories to assist you and provide guidance,” said the doctor earnestly.

“We can restore him to his previous form. This will require a rebuild as his current body is beyond repair. This is much like what we did previously with you the first time you came here. In his case we would need to replace his entire body. Alternately we can go beyond that and give him a biological brain, and also as we have done with you, an artificial intelligence and give him the same capacity for changing forms as we gave you, and more. In other words we can rebuild him from scratch as we did with you the second time.

“We have been investigating the people of Queen Lynas, the Tyrannosaurs. The queen wanted to be able to change form. We investigated further, and found we could do it easily. We can now create a quadruple capacity where he could have his original form, a form like a human, a form like a dinosaur and a form like a bug. We can distribute his vulnerabilities as we have with you into protected areas of the body, and create all the redundancies that you have. It will take a week, essentially the same time and he will have extensive rehabilitation. We have arranged for others to help him through the process as you were assisted. After that he can decide whether he upgrades his people to be able to change form. Without total rebuilds we could not give them the same brains, much as we could not do it with you first time round. He will be the first to try this capacity; that is the biggest risk that you and he take. Even so we believe that the risk is low. The lowest risk is to simply return him to his former capacity with a full body rebuild. We cannot entirely reduplicate his current AI function but we can ensure that he has the same capacities and the same personality,” said the doctor in a very serious tone of voice. “He may be better than he was before, as he has nine crystal slots. He only has one slot filled and we are sure we can give him much more crystal power than his current crystal provides.”

“What do you suggest doctor?” Jason asked.

“Do the full thing for him with all the capacities of transformation. I’m sure he will appreciate it. He is a strong man who I am sure will manage to cope with the rehabilitation. If it all works I am sure that you are going to have a long queue of people from the Collective and from the Empire will going to want the full conversion and versatility of being a scary Tyrannosaurus. After this war I suspect that people are going to need every bit of distraction and entertainment that can be made available,” the doctor said emphatically. “You too could consider it, My Lord!”

“I’m too tired now to think of it for myself, but if it can be done I will be an enthusiastic volunteer. I cannot see a downside to having that option available. It means that we are much less different from our allies, and gets everyone to feel much more comfortable with each other. Doctor there is no doubt that you do amazing work here. Without everything that has originated from Charassa, the battle would have been a disaster rather than the success that has been. Please look after my friend and I will be back,” said Jason gravely.

He received a message that Ouma Chatzke wanted to talk to him. He was told that the portals had been reactivated. A hospital guard led him and his guards to the appropriate portal, the guard dialed her home and Jason appeared in her anteroom with his guards to see Gamma and Sheila ahead of him. The anteroom was lined with alert guards, who lead Jason’s guards to another room.

They were welcomed into her house and were taken to the room where he had first met her and seated at the same table. She entered the room with several of her advisers and greeted them warmly.

“On behalf of the entire Collective, I thank you for what you have done. I can only say how happy we are to have met you as you have brought along so many powerful allies who have saved our planet, and the future of our species. Even prior to today you have made a major impact on us in this galaxy. You are so young, yet you are at the same time so old,” she said with some puzzlement in her voice.

“Sheila, we owe a deep debt to Porquenta and to you. You helped save us from the planet destroyer. Porquenta’s weapons were vital to our victory. Our enemies know our weapons, ships, and shields too well. They would have overcome us. It is clear we were far too complacent and spies have learned our secrets.”

“Ouma Chatzke you do not need to thank me at all,” Jason said. “I am grateful for everything that you have done for me and for the Empire. It is a mutual admiration. We do not need to thank old friends. It is our duty to look after each other and give to each other. In adversity, we will help each other; in good times we will laugh and celebrate with each other. Each of us has contributed to the best of our capacity. You sowed the seeds of this victory by helping us. As you sow so shall you reap, is one of the sayings of my people. I did not set out to bring you allies. I have made friends and I have brought my friends to meet you and they chose to help you. Porquenta and Sheila also made a major contribution, we all owe them a lot. Let us not make more of this than it is. We all played our parts. The Orcs, and then the Warriors of the Apocalypse, saved my life, followed by Felix. It took all of us to achieve a victory. Without the Tyrannosaurs the fleet of the slugs/jellyfish would have been able to run rampant. They were critical to the ground war as well. Cassius’ underwater weapons did well. This was a combined effort by our allies. Your weapons worked well on Nobatia, the city defended itself well. Your admirals and generals fought with courage and determination.