Chapter 20: Aegremonth Citadel on Gromelikine

“Welcome back Emperor,” said Jones, “and to all of you. Many of your guests have already arrived, some of whom have been here for half a day already. Your daughter and her husband disembarked several hours ago. Your grandchildren will come with Queen Lynas. We are ready to fit your guests with armor to ride those Gromelix who are willing, with you later. The Royal family from the Coven are here including the old Emperor. The Ordreg king and his wife are at the pool. Emperor Cassius, your great-grandfather Harry and the Empress are swimming as is Emperor Felix. The Schlogg are sending a General who has been on Earth and spent time with your family. Brecht Chatzke has joined us along with your Empress Philippa and the Crown Prince Benjamin. They are walking through the entry portal from the hanger. Queen Lynas Parayekt has arrived along with your grandchildren. Queen Elizaveta Epilex is moving through the passageway towards the pool.

“Rover, Lily and Rosie your dogs are swimming together with the grandchildren as is Aylot. Aylot found a mud patch in the crater and was in a happy but deplorable state when he arrived. We ensured he was clean before allowing him in the pool. Queen Mergal Ravengus will be here in approximately half an hour. Princess, Prof. Pardela Ravengus will be arriving with her. We also have Prince Fallis Ravengus and Col. Morgum Parengus who will be joining us. Regrettably, your son can’t join us due to work commitments, and his two sons remain at University on Charassa. I understand the sisters of Empress Philippa will be here within the hour. Marduk and Jacques arrived five minutes before you, and they are resting in their rooms. This is like the old days Emperor, the Castle is humming with activity,” said Jones. “Dinner will be in two hours, would you like a snack Emperor?” Jones asked.

“I am going to get settled in and then I will spend an hour at the pool before dinner. Perhaps we could have some drinks at the pool?” Jason asked before he passed through the portal.

He then returned to his room. The room was much larger than when he had seen it previously, and the bed was enormous. He smiled and shook his head. Jason made his way to the refresher and then dressed for the pool. Jason walked through the portal to the pool. He found himself in an immaculately maintained garden. In front of him was an archway covered with foliage. He heard the sounds of shrieking children and the chirping of birds.

The flowers and plants looked very Earth-like. Jason looked back. There were rolling grassy lawns and manicured gardens extending half a mile before reaching a large wall. He looked around at the valley on the top of the mountain. There were small peaks all around him. The gardens had rivers winding through terraced areas. In the distance, he saw a patchwork of farms.

Thousands of trees laden with fruit were alongside vineyards on a gentle slope leading upwards to one of the peaks.

Beneath the archway leading to the pool was a gate that opened as he approached. The pool was at least a double sized Olympic pool. It led into a series of smaller wading pools for the younger children. Chuck and Chloe were sliding down a transparent tubular water slide along with several young Gromelix a little larger than they were.

Corvus and a female Gromelix lay on large flat chairs. He waved. Two small hatchlings were playing on the paved area near them. Several other Gromelix were lying on chairs interspaced with his other guests. As Jason began to walk to join his guests, he heard Chuck shout from the pool, “Grandpa!” He was soon surrounded by young Gromelix and by Chuck and Chloe who hugged him tightly.

“Grandpa, we miss you terribly, we used to see you every day,” said Chloe.

“Yes, we do grandpa,” said Chuck, “but now mom says we will be able to see a lot more of you. I like that Jones guy he showed me some cool stuff before we went swimming. Grandpa these are my friends the young Gromelix. I’ll introduce you to them later. Bird, the Nerd, is also here somewhere. Next to me is Harry and Anita. I told you about them when I spoke with you a while back. There is Bird the Nerd; he fell asleep on the chair. Mom says she thinks you have ended the war,” said Chuck holding onto Jason’s hand. He didn’t wait for an answer or any response.

“Grandpa we will see you later, we are going back to the waterslide. They are better than good and very fast. You need to try grandpa!” Jason smiled and waved them towards the slides. Chuck, Chloe, Harry, Anita, and the Gromelix ran at full speed racing each other towards the waterslides. Two Ordreg girls joined them. They moved instantly from the bottom of the slide to the top and dived into the enclosed slide. Portals for waterslides was a great idea. He waved warmly to Corvus and was introduced to his wife and then leaned over to give his mother-in-law, Brecht Chatzke a kiss on her cheek before he embraced Philippa and kissed her passionately. “I love you, Philippa, I have missed you so much! “said Jason.

He then saw Pardela grinning in front of him with her arms open. He hugged her and kissed her. “My beloved professor, it is a long time since I’ve seen you and I have missed you. I can feel you’re pregnant!” Said Jason. Jason picked up his son, Benjamin and cuddled him. I love you very much; I have missed you terribly.” Jason felt a telepathic tendril reach for his mind from his son. “Hello daddy. I can’t speak properly yet. I am happy to see you.” Jason hugged him before turning to Philippa who was grinning like a Cheshire cat. “It’s unbelievable; he is only a few months old, and he is already able to speak telepathically.”

“Yes, my darling he began communicating telepathically a week ago,” said Philippa, “his motor development is near the top end of normal for a baby, but his mental development is moving forward in leaps and bounds. My mother is bursting with pride! He is a joy and a delight and has an even temperament, much like his mother when she isn’t pregnant. He changes form when he sees my mother. He and Chuck had a long conversation this morning, and then he talked to Chloe for some time. They were very good to him. My sisters Kram and Zanta both adore him and spend as much time as they can with him. They should be here soon. The gates between Porquenta and Charassa help us meet frequently,” said Philippa.

“Pardela how is the pregnancy going?” Jason asked.

“I am doing very well, and I am so excited about having a child. My mother is thrilled. It will be her first grandchild,” said Pardela as she put her hands on her hips and glared at Jason — she then kissed him passionately.

“Jason, you have caused us lots of trouble at the University. We had completed the integration of the Azayal educational material when you supplied us with new stuff from the Uzliumbax. Worse than that we now have a whole lot more from the Zaos, the Ordreg and all the knowledge of the Grork. The anthropology department does not know which way to turn as they can explore so many new civilizations. There are so many new planets to visit and so much new stuff that you have uncovered,” said Pardela. “Our people are excited and keen to explore new things to do and see. Many of us were coopted to examine the underground storage on the thrall planets of the Dhoom, and now we have underground silos of ancient relics and so much more.

“Our academics were thinking of how they would go about the task. Then, I had an interesting conversation with Jones. He informed me that he is like Sheila and is in constant communication with a vast AI built into the mountain. He told me she has at his, and your disposal an intellect that is ten thousand times more powerful than Porquenta and many times more powerful than Nuswa. Then he introduced me to Birgit. She informed me that if we give her all the information from the different species, she will logically integrate it all for the learning machines. She said it would be an honor and privilege to do the task and that she was interested in it as she thinks she will learn about us all. She told me the Grork were as ancient as the Uzliumbax and they had a comprehensive educational system. She has been exploring what they knew. She told me we need to look at the Grork stuff. The values implicit within it, are malign and begin from the earliest times at school. She will decontaminate it all before she disseminates it. She believes the Grork were taught the basic sciences by someone else or they stole it. She says they advanced little over millions of years. There were minuscule differences between versions. We chatted for a bit about the Grork.

“She said it would take some time and effort to get the job done, but if she worked with Nuswa and Porquenta they should complete the bulk of it by tomorrow morning!”

“Early in our history, we worried AIs would take our work from us. They had an adverse effect early on until we were able to optimize people and train them for many more jobs. Once our educational tools evolved, we had so much more to do and so much more time to do it without having to bother with all the hackwork for which we are poorly adapted. Planetary administrative AIs can be scrupulously fair and make decisions based on evidence as to what was in the interest of society and our environment. Without the AIs doing this work I would have had to suffer through interminable committee meetings deciding what we would take from where and how to go about it. I am happy to avoid years of negotiation. We can get down to the business of teaching and learning the structured content.

“What I have done is, to connect her to those at the different universities working on the curricula and the implementation of new programs. They are delighted to have her involved and relieved for the same reasons I am. Porquenta is representing the Safion planetary AIs, with Nuswa looking over his shoulder We will be able to implement our new curricula throughout the allies next week. What a joy! The purists can go through each education system and suggest what else we can add. If we are stuck, we can do the same,” said Pardela then asked “Please tell us what else has been happening?”

“I will tell everyone together what has been happening over dinner. I will start talking before we begin to eat and then I will speak between courses and answer questions. I also have my AI working on a summary of the recent events which will go through everything more comprehensively than I will be able to do at dinner. I think you will be most surprised at what happened earlier today.” Jason replied.

***

Jason walked into the Skylight dining room dressed in Uzliumbax formal dress and discovered he was one of the last to arrive. He had found time to chat with all of his guests briefly in the afternoon but deferred their questions until dinner. He asked Jones to postpone serving food until he had the opportunity to speak for half an hour and then he would talk again for half an hour between courses.

Jones had decorated the dining room spectacularly with crystal glasses, crystal chandeliers with a rainbow of crystals, and carved crystal statues along golden walls. Huge windows extended up to the transparent ceiling. An image of Jason’s Uzliumbax battleship was parked directly above. Waiters took orders for drinks which floated through the wall and straight to the table.

Chuck, Chloe their friends from Earth some Ordreg and the Gromelix youngsters were all at one table. One of the waiters was demonstrating the use of the eating wand on a pumpkin. Each one of them had a glass with their face carved onto the surface. The face moved to the front no matter which way the children turned it. They were having a great time playing with the wands. A few minutes later they were fully engrossed in a game in the middle of the table. Each of them had a controller in front of them. The table had a variety of hideous creatures which viciously fought with each other. The critters jumped over table decorations and between glasses. The children were shrieking and laughing, but no noise intruded on the room.

Jason saw several people had not yet arrived. Jones approached him before speaking. “Emperor please have a drink. I have been brewing the beer the Emperor used to enjoy most. I have it on tap. Can I tempt you to a glass of Citadel Aegremonth brew?”