Chapter 2: Nobatia

“Brecht, thank you for your help. You are a wonderful mother-in-law!” Jason said grinning as he kissed her on the cheek. “The lunch was excellent as well.”

Jason looked at his mother in law affectionately. She led the Collective a civilization made up of Insects. She was a praying mantis but like many she could change form. She was in her humanoid form at lunch. She looked to be in her thirties despite being well over a million years old.

Philippa talked animatedly with her mother. The two women looked remarkably alike. Both were strikingly beautiful women with superior intellects. Philippa was a Queen in the Collective. She was trained as an accountant and was a superb administrator. She managed Jason’s family assets as well as her own.

“I enjoy seeing you and catching up with Philippa. I am happy to help the Uzliumbax. They gave us a leg up when we were developing, now I can reciprocate,” said Brecht Chatzke.

“We will help speed up the process of getting the Uzliumbax out of stasis. Porquenta and Mars have forty-million pods, twenty-million each but they are not yet fitted out for stasis awakening. Porquenta is starting the process of refitting them to the new Uzliumbax/Collective standard,” said Brecht. “You need a high level AI and integrated medical pods to deal with complications of waking people who have been in stasis for a million years.

“We can handle two billion every five days in the Collective and not strain our hospitals if we distribute the people to all our planets. It may seem like a lot but we have populations in the trillions.

“Jason, we need to find out why the process is so slow on the Uzliumbax planets. They are taking two months for a five day process and six day rehabilitation. Two months is ridiculously slow! Let Porquenta concentrate on housing the people from Emdar Grept. We have ample facilities and expertise to do the awakening and rehabilitation. It is more brutal to take a longer time than to do it the quick way.

“In this last war we expected mass casualties. You moved so quickly we barely had to use five percent of our medical capacity on Charassa except during the first attack on us and for two months afterward. We can distribute the medical load to many of our other planets which have excellent facilities. We have the most advanced facilities of all the allies and with our growing knowledge we are moving ahead quickly. This gives us an excellent opportunity to give back to a people who gave us so much and a big leg up in pod technology in the first place,” said Brecht Chatzke.

“How was your trip?” Kram, Philippa’s sister asked as Jason cuddled his son Ben who was two months old.

“The planet Emdar Grept looks much like Earth in size and climate. The population used to be thirty-billion before the planet killer hit it. It is a newer but distant planet which still has many of its natural resources. The AIs managed to stop the effect of the planet killer, but the planet crust was fractured in many areas and large active volcanoes formed. We saw the volcanic activity dramatically decrease while we were there and several smaller cracks closed. The planet rehabilitated four billion of the population from stasis, but seventeen percent of the population will not make it as some vaults were severely damaged,” said Jason. “There is significant smoke and toxic gas in the atmosphere and I am happy we are moving the population in its entirety. I am happy to let the planet settle down before we move people back there,” Jason added.

“What of the attackers?” Zanta, Philippa’s second sister asked.

“It was an intense battle. We won thanks to the work the AIs did to move the Uzliumbax ahead. The new ships they built and the advanced weapons they created made a critical difference. The AIs captured one hundred capital ships in reasonable shape and five hundred more severely damaged with most of their compliment of people including three hundred thousand men.

“The Destroyer women in the attacking fleet were very interested to discover our common ancestry. Zafa has legendary status amongst them and when she told them, they believed her. When they heard Zafa’s Destroyers are pregnant or getting pregnant soon, they became enthusiastic captives and were ready to change sides as soon as possible. They have little to no loyalty to their present masters.

“The Destroyers must be feeling the pain of so many ship losses. Their frigates are the size of our early battleships! They need enormous resources to build and crew fleets with such large ships. We captured most of the crew and marines as well. Our interrogators say most of the men are not going to be easily swayed as they are fanatics. The women are so different they are almost from a different tribe or species. The women and men are evolving very differently. The women are sensible and logical,” replied Jason.

“As most women are,” said Zafa. “I am also pleased to hear, Jason, I am a legend in my own time!”

“How many more women have you acquired Jason?” Kram asked.

“Twenty-eight million confirmed and still counting,” said Jason.

“So, you have a lot more mothers in law to deal with in the future!” Brecht laughed and snorted. “You were lucky the clones don’t have parents, with this new lot you are going to have a circus as they have mothers, fathers and families!”

Philippa and her sisters giggled. Zafa sat and grinned.

“The AIs tell me most of the ships can be repaired,” said Jason. “Brecht, I will give a hundred of them to you, so your people can get a good look at them and study the weapons, shields and hulls. The educational systems are in the AI grinders and will emerge on our educational octagons and soon you will have the Destroyer training simulations. The Destroyer AIs are also very cooperative, so we know about the recent plans they have made. Let us all meet in a week or two to discuss the Destroyers.”

“I will organize the meeting in the new facilities on Porquenta,” said Brecht.

“Mother, we are heading for home tomorrow, but we will come back to meet the Teokraeus when they are rehabilitated. Ooryphyon is staying over here on the estate as she wants to be around to help her people as much as she can, said Philippa.

***

“I can’t believe how much has happened since I left Earth,” said Jason. “Every day I feel as if I am pushing a bigger rock up a steeper hill!”

“That is a strange image, Jason! You have had big changes but I think you have done very well. How long has it been since you left Earth?” Philippa asked.

“I traveled for two and a half months before I encountered the priest trying to poison me. A week later the pirates attacked the ship. Two days later we found out about the Clones. Three weeks later we had captured Mars and Porquenta and had our fleet being fitted out to attack Papa Zora. Two weeks later Nirvana was ours and I spent a week in hospital after I was shot by Papa Zora. Three weeks later we had freed the Jumo Empire from the Mob. I was back on Porquenta relaxing and planning for a week before I went to the Empire. I was poisoned by the head guard when he tried to kill the Emperor, my Uncle Cassius. I was two weeks on Charassa. Eight weeks later I started University and six months later the Dhoom and the Coven attacked Charassa. So let us say all of that was close to a year.

“Two weeks later we started the second semester at Empire AI and Computer systems. That ended more or less six weeks later. We trained for a month before we rescued Razza’s parents and we spent a week with them in the palace. We had a break for a few weeks and we went to the Azayal for eight months but only two months passed here as time is different. My part in the war against the Ghouls and the Grork was three weeks. We had a few weeks holiday then rescued the Teokraeus and fought the Destroyers. I think it is about a year and a quarter at most.