Chapter 10

Back to Earth

“So how was the last part of your trip?” Dad asked.

“It was pretty busy. We had to say goodbye to everybody. The Teokraeus are all in a very bad way, but the doctors say they can fix them; every single one. The doctors learned a lot while working on Ooryphyon and they said they can do it much more easily with this next batch,” I said. “Twenty of the soldiers were taken out of stasis. They need rebuilds as their bodies were poisoned. All the guards frozen in ice blocks are being worked on to see if they can be saved. Their bodies are in terrible shape. The AIs are being repaired. They were hit by something that disabled them.”

I looked over at mom, she was looking drawn and unhappy. “What’s going on mom?” I asked.

She looked at dad. He nodded his head. I know she usually tries not to tell us bad things, but now we are dealing with serious threats.

“Our guards are being knocked out randomly and one of them has disappeared. Despite all of our intense security and enormous care, these people are able to meddle with us. I think they are trying to break our morale!” She said.

Chuck and I looked at each other and neither of us agreed with her.

“No mom, both Chuck and I believe they are trying to take over some of your guards to transfer their consciousness. Every guard that comes in here needs to have their consciousness identified.” I said.

“Has anyone found any more about what the plan is they have for Earth?” Chuck asked.

“They give me an intelligence update every morning. Chloe, right from the beginning every single guard has had their consciousness checked when they come on duty. We have the latest Uzliumbax and also the latest Collective equipment. They go through two checks.

Every day something bad happens.

“We have discovered nothing new. I can’t wait to get into our new building. We no longer sleep in the house, we live four levels down. We have three levels of guards above us. You saw the outer wall. We go nowhere without several AI guards and also either a bug, one of the Azayal or one of Grandpa’s Marines. We should be as snug and safe as a bug in a rug, but they are letting us know we are vulnerable. We detected several more of them traveling here, but they disappeared at the airport, before we could catch them. Several more booked sea passages. We couldn’t even find them on the ship.

“Annie you and Bernie look so different in human form,” said mum. “How are you adapting to the mammalian form?”

“I like being a similar size to Chuck, but I was surprised the food tastes a bit different. I like to be able to talk through our hands. Our powers are the same. We need to practice flying a bit more in this form to see if we can sort it out.

“My lady, thank you for inviting us to live with you. Where are our parents, I haven’t seen them for awhile?” Annie asked.

“They are out on the town with Harry and Anita’s parents. They all decided to go to a restaurant to welcome Harry and Anita back and welcome the Gromelix and their children. They went to Sydney and are spending the night there. They will be back midmorning. Harry and Anita were not that keen as they were tired,” said mom.

“Anything happened at work, dad?” Chuck asked.

“You remember Detective Gourley and his associate Detective Clark. Finally, internal affairs retired him. He had too many complaints against him to continue. The police fudged over everything.

“Your mother was not happy, and she has asked the Empire people we have helping us to restructure the police and investigate. That was only yesterday,” said dad. “I am mainly doing legal stuff for your mother. We have moved over to Empire law. I have done a lot of courses in their law over the last two years. We have several specialists from the Empire helping us. We are also adopting some Collective law and approaches as is Cassius and Felix.

“If there are good grounds for suspicion of criminal activity, they do a Collective brain dump. If they are guilty the AI works with the judge to pronounce sentence. From capture to handing down the sentence is one day. The judges are using a Collective Legal AI to administer the system and prepare water tight judgements.

“The criminals go to Porquenta for processing. He either sorts them out and keeps them there or sends them back. If they are the next level of badness, they go to a penal planet. The worst ones are put in stasis.

“Your grandfather is incinerating the worst of his enemies. It has made all of us rethink capital punishment as brain dumps do not lie.

Cassius and Felix have both had criminals rescued from penal planets and stasis criminal stolen and are looking to the Uzliumbax for a solution.

We don’t have the time to investigate Uzliumbax law at present. We are under too much pressure while we are dealing with this current threat.

The Empire has moved to a Collective approach in Criminal matters. We can find out what the criminal has done and who the know. It saves time and resources. The biggest area of contention is the concept of privacy.

“By the time any of you guys have to decide on careers we will have a system that includes the Destroyers and the Ants and perhaps some other alien your grandfather will add to his already ‘Gigantic Empire’,” said Dad.

“What were those big boxes you had carried in to your games room?” Mum asked.

“Those are new Uzliumbax simulators and learning machines,” I told her, “and I brought back with me a crate of super Uzliumbax Marine Guards and a new set of surveillance and sensor stuff. They are sorting it out with the Colonel dealing with security. She is really nice!”

“Your Grandmother Chatzke wants us all safe. She sent top people here. The bugs are a lovely group of beings,” said mum. “I could never have imagined polite and personable bugs being my guards in my house. We have interesting and stimulating conversations almost every day. They are well educated and aware of what is going on throughout the empires.

“How are you going fixing up Earth and catching up?” Chuck asked.

“Every young person spends fifteen years in the armed forces. It is a wonderful melting pot according to Cassius. They are mostly going off planet for two years at least. A whole lot going to a college which is under construction under the Sahara desert. All the allies want to train some of our people. Normally, this would have led to huge shortages of people power, but we have shifted people from all the allies into our workplaces to help get the businesses up to scratch and catapult them ahead. Some jobs will move to AIs.

“In countries that are far behind or with our aborigines and those not working, we are inserting AIs into their homes to help them. One will go into each home to work with them. Then all of them are going to the Empire. They have cities that specialize in helping first peoples or those who have not done well to get up to speed.” Mum explained.

“What if they don’t want it?” Chuck asked.

“No one is forced to do anything. Yet our refusal rate is miniscule. We start by giving people good health and block them from addiction.

Most people want the opportunities and a better life. We keep communities together and they support each other through the process. With AI social workers you can spend the necessary time to help people. They all are exposed to the new latest delivery of education. Schools have special versions for remote communities. It is a time for socialization for children and for the adults to spend time with each other talking about the new world. Unless they refuse they will go off world once they are prepared for the new experiences. We have so many anthropologists studying the cultures in remote parts of the world you wouldn’t believe it. They will continue to work with the communities when they transfer to the empires.

“Health and education make a big difference fast. Lots of species from both Empires and the Collective love the remote jungles or outback or even frozen areas of the world. Our remote communities have grown into thriving dynamic areas in no time at all. Sustainability is also much less of an issue,” said mum.

“How long will they be in the Empire?” I asked.

“Those that are in the right age group do their military service. The others go for two years. They are brought up to standard and are exposed to life in the new world. They can continue their education or work experience.

“Not all of them will go at the same time. We want their communities to thrive, but we also want to upskill them as we do for everyone.

“I discovered there is a demand for opportunities to live in the outback and learn the skills these communities developed.

“They need to understand and manage businesses that can deal with big numbers.

“The anthropologists tell me the indiginous people will do very well.”

“When are we getting clean power mum?” Chuck asked.

“Most of the city power plants are in place and cars are being modified to use a gas mixture that is environmentally safe.

“We need to convert the car, truck and bus companies to shuttle building. Most transport in the cities will be underground and building on the surface will become rare except for museums and government buildings. Even then most of the buildings will be below the ground.

“We are restructuring and upskilling all the building companies.

“The demand for business and entrepreneurial education is way beyond expectations.

“Entertainment groups are changing the format of TV and Movies for sale to the other galaxies. Children’s programs and movies are doing fantastically well. The movie and TV people are enjoying skyrocketing demand.

The new education and easily available consultants and capital helps speed everything up. Lots of businesses set up discussion groups so they can talk about what they learn. Most businesses are sending many staff to be educated in the Empires and gain exposure in businesses.

“Every city worldwide has a hospital with thousands of pods. We had long waiting times at the start. The Collective, Porquenta and the Empires sent Hospital ships and we are shipping the sickest ones for treatment to these ships.

“The big incentive to go off Earth is the immediate access to gene optimization,” Mum explained.

“This must cost Grandpa a fortune!” Chuck remarked.

“Yes, it does, but Ouma, Cassius, Felix and many of the others do a lot for very little. Philippa says the cost of all the restructure of Earth is a week of income for Grandpa but is spread over years. She says they have big banks who will lend money to companies for them to get all the new equipment and she says we will be making plenty of money in twenty to fifty years. She is beginning to look at Grandpa’s Uzliumbax holdings and find what they are worth. I suspect it will dwarf everything.

“The allies believe they owe Grandpa five thousand times more than they are giving. He has given them priceless education and new technology and reduced the cost of the wars to very little and casualties have been very low. Ouma Chatzke says she owes her Collective’s survival to Grandpa.

“I forgot to say, the Orcs have built the biggest war college I have ever seen, in the middle of the Sahara Desert. It will take half a million a year students for military training. They don’t have a desert like that on any of their planets. It has a hundred thousand of them and four hundred thousand of ours who started a few days ago. The base is mostly under the ground. They found a huge cavern that used to be an aquifer and built the accommodation and the college in days. You will be amazed to see what advanced people can do. It is not fancy, but they start training of people as engineers and get them to build underground and learn to make structures. It is a core component of their training. They showed me what it will be like in five years when they have completed the development. I never realized they were made to be both warriors and builders. They are part of Grandpa’s Empire. We also have two Orc Guards. They look fierce, but they are lovely people.