Chapter 2: The Hospital

Jason’s group, by this time, were all haggard and exhausted. The Emperor asked if they should look at the nearest hotel or go back to the ship. The nearby hospital staff were highly amused, and arranged for them to have accommodation in the wing of family suites within the hospital. There were many suites of luxury accommodation attached to the hospital. Many patients did not have rapid transport alternatives to distant solar systems and a considerable number of patients needed to stay in the hospital for periods of time for study of unusual and esoteric conditions. More of the hospital was devoted to the study of unique and unexplained problems than for treatment.

The hospital was built with redundant capacity in case of war or disaster. Doctors from throughout the collective received advanced training at the hospital. The hospital was also the major teaching hospital for the university and trained both AIs and doctors. The hospital was closely attached to the Engineering and Information Technology University Departments and was a force in the evolution of technology and treatment in the collective.

The Emperor did not require terribly much sleep. He never had. He survived well on five hours and could manage on three. He had woken early and had found a way to switch on the holo-projector in his room. He had seen a considerable amount of the news and most of it was entirely preoccupied with Jason.

After he had watched for ten minutes and flipped programs, he had made the decision to accept the full treatment. He became enthusiastic about the idea of being able to turn into an insect when he saw the history of Jason on the planet and him turning into a praying mantis. It literally took five minutes to arrange, ten minutes to undertake both the detoxification and the gene change and he was back in his room able to understand the newscasts. He particularly enjoyed some of the segments of Jason during his television appearance. They had all been translated for the holo-projection. Not surprisingly as he was a member of Jason’s family he also turned into the default praying mantis. He now spoke the unpronounceable language of the Collective. They rationalized his crystals and then gave him one integrated new generation crystal that was many orders of magnitude more powerful than his original set. He thought that it was strange that in such a short period of time Jason had not only saved his life but may well have saved his Empire. There was no other family member that he - in such a short period of time - had felt so close to other than perhaps Jason’s great-grandfather, who had been a lifelong friend and one of his kings.

That was a bad business. He did not know how he could be so unaware of what was going on, but now he felt clear headed. He knew he had been drugged for a long time; lightly in the beginning, but much more heavily when people visited.

At breakfast the next day the Emperor was very cheerful and happy. He had attended for medical treatment very early that morning and was detoxified.

As most insects produced really nasty toxins, he was delighted to have something that he could use himself. As soon as he had gone back to his room he had checked that he could spray poison from some distance into the refresher. He had excitedly changed himself back and forth at least ten times. He also felt like a young boy full of energy and drive and decided to use the full opportunities that were presented to him. He felt better than he had felt for tens of thousands of years. Everything that was happening was fascinating. He felt he had a new lease on life. He was truly delighted that he had acquired a new family member but hoped that there would not be a disaster and they would find Jason irretrievable. He excitedly called Alana and told her about Jason. He told her about his rejuvenation and the new ability to turn into a bug.

He told his bodyguard that they needed to be rejuvenated as well. The two who had observed the story of Jason were fully convinced as was the Emperor and they had already played a major role in convincing the others.

At breakfast the Emperor was delighted to discover that he was to meet with Ouma Chatzke and some of her close advisers later in the day. Linda and Andrea were to accompany him. The rest of the military team were going to tour military facilities and have preliminary formal talks with the senior military and intelligence.

Linda and Andrea were expected to join the military teams as was the Emperor for half the day before the visit to the Prime Minister. Cassius’ was to receive a high-level intelligence briefing and an overview of weapons and specifications of the fleet of the Collective.

Ouma Chatzke and the Emperor related to each other like old friends, almost immediately. She and her advisers remained as bugs, but were delighted when the Emperor and the others disrobed and changed into their bug forms. The appropriate bug chairs were brought in. The Emperor thoroughly enjoyed his insect form and his pleasure in this was conspicuous and contagious. His acceptance of them was clear, and they took to him immediately.

Cassius, like Ouma Chatzke, could charm a bird from a tree. He rapidly endeared himself to Ouma and her advisers. They could see that he was a highly intelligent, sophisticated, well-built and disciplined individual who had been well educated.

Ouma Chatzke was informed Cassius had been slowly poisoned and intoxicated by the cockroaches. Fortunately, they were in the early stages of their plan, and Cassius had not had irreparable damage done. They also found tiny traces of the poison that damaged fertility.

It was the first opportunity of the physicians to investigate a person in whom poisoning had occurred for quite some time, previously. Several of the vials of the poison Jason had supplied, had also been brought to the planet and studied extensively. The doctors had told Ouma Chatzke that they had completely reversed the Emperor’s problem and could easily do so for the entire male population of the Empire relatively quickly and economically. They had been working on the issues since the vials had been given to them by Jason and delivered to Charassa.

Within a very short period of time Ouma Chatzke and the Emperor were firm friends and allies.

Ouma Chatzke persuaded Cassius to go on holo-broadcast. The Emperor was an old hand at dealing with the media. He had seen Jason on the bug media and was happy to do his bit.

Cassius

Cassius rose early the next morning and began his usual routine. He found the hospital’s gym, and he and his guards worked out and sparred together before their scheduled second visit to the military to see what they had heard about the day before.

The military base was massive. It was entirely underground as most structures were on Charassa. The group was shown a demonstration of special forces in action demonstrating a subset of their weapons. They showed that they could infiltrate facilities by changing their sizes. Their weapons appeared to have the same capacity to be able to be changed in size to fit the user.

They also saw holograms of demonstrations of a variety of weapons including huge insect like tanks that could fly, as well as move like insects along the ground over very rough and uneven terrain. They looked at ships and their insides, the weapons and sensor systems. It was a very brief and broad overview of military capacity.

This was followed by an intelligence briefing, beginning with the intergalactic war and its consequences. They saw multiple different battles between the cockroaches and the other bugs, in space, on the ground and beneath the ground.

As the coup de grace, they saw a very recent raid on the planets where the mixed human cockroaches were hatched. They also showed the recovery of Nazruden, Warrior of the Apocalypse, and his wife and son.

They were in a very bad way and were still in treatment. It appeared that they were so damaged that they were going to be built again from scratch, much as was being done with Jason. The doctors had a further challenge which pleased them: to learn about the physiology of other ancients, different in many ways from Jason.

The raiding force had disguised their incursion by triggering massive explosions generated by faulty power plants of the same kind on the two planets. They had removed whole computer systems and were in the process of analyzing these. The encryption and built-in booby-traps in the computer and AI systems made it complex even for their technology, and a very slow and extraordinarily difficult process. They had captured nearly three thousand of the young humanoid cockroaches in various stages of development as well as their teachers at three different schools.

The Emperor was taken to the television station, along with Robert and Marie. He wanted at least someone he knew reasonably well to come with him, to offer some support. Robert had been worrying about Jason, and was only too delighted to be able to go to the planet and be distracted. Many of the crew and Marines were having recreational leave on the planet, and were touring some of the natural wonders. A larger contingent had accepted the offer of training with the bugs and learning to fight as a bug. They were very keen to see the weapons used and to be exposed to some greatly advanced technology and methods of fighting. Many of the ship’s crew elected to have training in a similar way on the bug ships. The bug Collective was highly organized and able to cope with massive volumes of bugs. They very quickly and easily organized the humans.

At the television station (holo-broadcast station) the Emperor was introduced to the public. The entire audience was humanoid and dressed in a variety of very extreme clothing and make up. Hats had become in vogue, and many men and women wore hats. The Emperor was his charming self. He was not exposed to the same kind of interrogation and rudeness that he would usually receive in the Empire, and he told the host how gratified he was with the progress of the interview.

The audience was delighted. Jason had taught them to clap and they clapped excitedly. They also cheered exactly as they had learned. The host began with asking the Emperor about the history of the Empire. As he spoke the host asked if he could project some of the images from the Emperor’s mind. The Emperor readily agreed. They saw very various holograms of the evolution of the Empire, from the earliest stage and its progress through time.

They then went through the Emperor’s early life with his family. The audience was greatly excited to see Jason’s grandfather when he was younger. The host noted how much Jason’s grandfather looked like him. The Emperor was asked his impressions of Charassa. He first told how delighted he was with his ability to become a bug. He said he was particularly pleased that he was a praying mantis. He said that on his world praying mantis’s had religious significance in earlier times.

He said humans had not evolved to have any toxins. He said there were several politicians that he believed he would like to grab between his forelimbs and poison them. He said he very much liked to have spikes which could inject poison and he really liked having the ability to spray poison both forwards and backwards from his abdomen.

He said that he had an interest in languages and had been up early in the morning after he had been changed and watched the holo-broadcast and found the language very sophisticated and interesting. He liked the structure of the language, and the fact that it was such an economical and efficient way of communicating. He also said that he liked the parallel olfactory signals, though he had not had enough experience yet in that area. He was hoping to learn more about that side of his sensory input.

“While it is a pleasure coming to your magnificent planet, it is sad because of Jason’s alarming physical state,” Cassius said carefully. He and Ouma Chatzke had agreed that they would not yet talk about the cockroaches in their galaxy. There were probable spies and they didn’t want to give them useful information.

“I faced an assassination attempt which was intercepted by Jason who saved my life; but, as the circumstances are still under investigation, so I will say no more at present.

“I had spoken to Jason many times, but all this happened on our first face to face meeting. As his great uncle, I decided to accompany him to be a support. Jason was so much like his great-grandfather that we became instant friends,” Cassius added.

The Emperor declined to allow the holo-clip of his encounter with the assassin to be shown.

The host turned the conversation to lighter matters, and asked the Emperor if fashion was also part of the Empire.

“Fashion has been a great interest of mine over the years. I have met most of the great designers over the centuries, and have been to countless shows.”

It turned out that the Emperor was an expert in fashion, and had a much greater interest in it than Jason. They proceeded through the history of fashion in the Empire. It was an extraordinary show of clothing changing through the ages. The Empire currently had men dressing quite flamboyantly, with colorful clothing and a variety of interesting shoes and hats. Women were wearing more severe clothing. All of this was demonstrated with pictures that were quite outstandingly vivid in the Emperor’s memory. He had attended major fashion shows at least twice a year for tens of thousands of years. He had an extraordinary memory, and recalled what he saw in amazing detail. He showed some of his visits to designers and replayed his discussions about concepts of design and fashion.

At the first break the host told the Emperor that the entire collective had almost come to a halt. It had only happened before with Jason, but replicators had been converted to manufacture dressers throughout the collective, and already the fashions of the Empire through the ages were being worn. He said that the numbers watching were almost the same as during the time that Jason had been interviewed.

The interviewer asked the Emperor what he liked eating. This had become a hot topic throughout the collective, with so many bugs spending time as humans and now searching for appropriate foods. They had been provided with limited replicator recipes from Montgomery who had obtained them before he transported Jason the previous time. The Emperor spoke of his friend Robert who was sitting next to him and his great enjoyment of teriyaki chicken and rice that he had tried the previous night which was made by Robert and Marie. He said that he did like a variety of foods, but preferred them cooked as opposed to eating replicator food.

For the host this appeared to be an entirely foreign concept. The idea of cooked food had never been part of anything that anyone had heard of to date. The chef, with the Emperor’s encouragement, was asked to be interviewed. The already high viewer rating went ballistic.

Robert, the chef, of course had an extraordinary memory for food and for recipes. He also had an amazing sense of smell and taste. Not only were his visual and auditory holo-displayed memories broadcast, but also the smells. The taste component was incomplete, as the bug technology relating to taste did not have the multitude of taste components of humans. The taste spectrum was different in humans and bugs. The smell spectrum of the bugs was huge and superseded that of humans. With taste, it was a little on the other side. Taste also differed enormously between different bug types depending on whether they predominantly ate insects, wood, decaying matter including fecal matter or other food products.

The technicians were very excited by this, as they now had a new challenge. The chef spoke fluently and easily and showed many pictures of food production including direct heat from barbecues to boiling steaming, grilling, roasting and broiling. He was asked to demonstrate the preparation of his teriyaki chicken. He showed the chickens being grown on the ship, he showed them soybeans and how they made soy sauce, showed them how rice was grown and went through the whole process of cooking the meal. It turned out that it was the most downloaded holo-broadcast ever.

That broadcast also had greater ramifications for the galaxy than anyone would have imagined. The host and the audience were clearly excited.

“Emperor, this is an extraordinary event today. The smells and colors and ideas are beyond imagining,” said the host.

Marie had to explain in considerable detail what all the kitchen equipment was, how it was used, and how it was made. She provided all the considerable detail from her experience with clear pictures of what a cooktop was, an oven, the Empire’s equivalent of a microwave, a frying pan, saucepans, spoons and spatulas and every conceivable type of equipment that they had seen. Marie and Robert alternated presenting, and were almost exhausted with still an hour left of the day. Cassius returned to be interviewed.

The audience was given an opportunity to ask questions. They first wanted to know if they could have the Emperor and chef back the next day. They then asked the Emperor if he would show them how the table was set and how humans ate at the table. He said that in the Empire they used for most replicator food a spoon that had some fork blades in the front and was sharpened on one side. He said however when meals were cooked and prepared they used the multipurpose spoon in the left-hand and used a knife in the other. He said cutting with a knife was best done with a dominant hand.

Cassius was then asked why food was cooked. He explained that his ancestors had initially eaten more vegetable matter but if animals were killed the meat of the muscles was often too tough to be chewed successfully by their teeth. He showed the differences between teeth of carnivores, herbivores and humans. He said that discovery of cooking of meat, had led to their ability to eat many more parts of the meat animal, and probably increased the success of humans in the evolutionary sense.

He showed them the dining room of the palace, and how the table was set by the palace staff. It was a magnificent room, capable of seating more than a hundred people. He showed the table settings and how it looked in the evening light. He showed the different plates and cutlery for different courses. He showed them the magnificent almost instant dishwashers in the kitchen as well as replicators to give guests custom cutlery with the imperial crest as gifts to remember events at the palace. He showed a close-up of the plates with beautiful edging in precious metals and even jewels and the central imperial crest. He showed them flowers in vases, the decorations on the table and the magnificent chandeliers hanging from the roof. The audience saw the superbly made subtly colorful walls in laminated metals that shone and glittered.

The next guest asked to see what the palace looked like. The host stopped the questions at that stage and said that that was too long a question, but he would do everything that he possibly could, to have the Emperor and the chef and his assistant back the next day. The last permitted question was to the Emperor, to ask how Jason was progressing and what his prognosis would be.

“Jason is in a critical state, so severe that I understand it is even a challenge to some of your technology. I have a great faith and confidence in the skills of your doctors and nurses. We can but wait for them to do their best. We can get Jason back, but we want Jason as good if not better than he was before.

“I have come to admire your people, your culture and your attitudes more than I can say. The effort that has been put into helping us will never be forgotten. I never believed that in my lifetime I would have the pleasure of being a bug and socializing with other bugs. All joking aside, coming here has been a mixed experience because of the reason behind us coming here. Yet at the same time, it has been an eye-opening warm and welcoming place. You can be proud of your achievements and the extraordinary Collective that has been built by all of you in this galaxy. We will be glad to call you friends and will help you whenever we can without reservation, and to the greatest extent of our capacity.”

The applause was very loud. It continued for a very long time until the host had to quieten everyone down.

He said, “Ladies and gentlemen I am now going to try to ask our very important and very entertaining guests to return, tomorrow. My last thought for today is that I wonder if we cooked some of our food whether it would appeal to us in our bug state?” He did not know how prophetic his words would turn out to be.

The Emperor and the chefs agreed to return the next day, the chefs in the morning and Cassius in the afternoon.

Back on the ship people shared their day. The admirals and generals had elected to expose themselves to the educational systems in more detail and then tested themselves in a simulator that made it seem as if one was in the situation that was being faced. It felt as if the entire battle occurred over hours, days or even weeks, but the actual real-time was minutes. In part of an afternoon they had had the opportunity of being generals and admirals in some of the simpler but important battles that were the foundation of bug strategy.

They said that the simulation began with the collection of information exactly as it was currently done, through planning and then the engagement in battle in space, or attacking a planet, on the surface of the planet or beneath the planet. Between each simulation, they were provided with education and theory which would be useful in the simulation. They felt as if they had had the equivalent of a half a year of experience at an extraordinary level in a day. Apparently, all the soldiers and marines had similar experiences and all wanted to return the next day.

“Andrea, what did you think of the experience?” Cassius asked.

“Emperor, the technology is great and the simulations detailed and well constructed. Some of us are not sure that we agree with the strategy and tactical approaches they have been adopting over the last few centuries. We think some of the older stuff was better. Yet we ask ourselves who are we to judge? We need much more experience to evaluate the systems, and we need more exposure to form a proper opinion. Later we will send some of it to Porquenta and to our own AIs to evaluate. I would also value Jason’s opinion. He is a strategic and tactical genius of the first order.

Those who had gone touring felt that they had missed out. Tours were abandoned for the next day.

After the evening meal, everyone was so tired that they decided to go to bed early. They were to join their bug colleagues early in the morning for their workouts as bugs and then were to participate in the remainder of the day, except for Cassius and his guards.

Everyone was enjoying what they had seen of the bug martial arts and were beginning to learn how to make use of their unique bug related defensive or offensive toxins. Everyone had greatly enjoyed relating to their bug colleagues and participating in games with them. Yet they were not able to compete on even terms as they had a way to go, but they were fiercely competitive lot and were determined to catch up as soon as was possible. The economic use of time in learning and in simulations was envied.