Chapter 26: The Clones Unite

“When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it—always.”

―Mahatma Gandhi.

The senior planning group met with their assistants in the big conference room, Central Command.

The room was large but, for the first time, fully utilized. Robert loved cooking for the elite clones. He rejoiced in having a full canteen and his best chefs. These people were intelligent and able admirals and generals with high-quality supporting staff. They were the people who should be on HMS Empress Alana KerRexem.

Jason welcomed everyone to the battleship.

“I have only a few words I want to say before I will hand over for the intelligence briefing. “I’d like to confirm that the first planet is known as Mars. Mars was a God of war in my mythology,” said Jason. “This planet we will call Porquenta.”

The senior intelligence general officer, Matilda MacArthur, introduced Karen DuPree, her Deputy, to summarize the clones’ activities on Porquenta.

Like most women in the empire, Karen was lithe and powerfully built but attractive. Her original was from a high-gravity planet. All the people from her world were robust and stocky. Her demeanor was gentle. Her words were carefully considered, and her analysis was comprehensive.

“The clones on Porquenta awoke and researched their backgrounds. Their experience was the same as the clones from Mars; they were angry, didn’t like being manipulated to act for the priests and their allies, and planned a planetary takeover as we did. On Porquenta, the clone forces commenced their takeover three hours before the battleship arrived.

“The Porquenta clones saw the Marines from the battleship take over the space dock and joined them in capturing a cruiser undergoing repairs. The cyber warfare teams captured the AI and IT systems and coordinated with us to manage the communications.

“Jason, your damaged cruisers are docked and being repaired. They will be ready before the first ships on Mars,” confirmed Matilda.

The assemblage took a brief break after an hour. The clones from Porquenta referred to him as ‘my Lord.’ Only the most senior of the flag and general staff called him Jason. The Admirals and Generals were less awestruck.

Jason felt treated like a star again and spoke to the colonels sitting at the table near him.

“Forget all the ‘My Lord’ garbage. Just call me Jason.”

“Yes, my Lord, I’ll do so. Sorry, Sir, Jason, I shall do as you ask.”

As the information review and planning continued, Jason began to think about the dogs and how they had changed. They picked up his thoughts and entered the room excitedly, transforming as they did so. The people around him were terrified.

He introduced the dogs. One of the ship’s officers was a history buff interested in myths and legends. He said that Astro-hounds were legendary war dogs that accompanied the demigods. It was alleged they had three horns, could sprout fire, and travel through dimensions and time. They were said to be searching for their masters. None had ever been seen, and their existence was considered a fairy tale.

The dogs duly sprouted fire, and lightning flashed from their horns.

“These dogs satisfy the criteria of the Astro-hounds of mythology,” he said firmly, “and you, Sir, Lord Kargo, must be a demigod!”

“Heavens above! I’m no demigod; I’m a reconditioned old crock from a primitive planet with two dogs converted to demonic hounds by Porquenta. None of what you saw on the planet was me. It was Porquenta; I’m plain old Jason, and don’t you forget it. Now come on, people, let’s get planning and cut all the formality. General MacArthur, please forgive my interruption and carry on,” said Jason.

Matilda MacArthur absent-mindedly patted Rosie, who stood beside her and pressed her snout into Matilda’s thigh.

“We will board the fleets fully armed and armored. They are expecting handover and implementation teams, and we’ll take over as expected,” said Matilda.

“The priests grew clones of themselves on the planet. We identified and incarcerated them. Most priests’ clones are not loyal to the priests. Some priests’ clones were born two years ago. Likewise, we have spies and assassins among us. We are attempting to find both groups,” said Karen DuPree. “Two spies voluntarily identified themselves yesterday and pointed out four others.”

“Send all those you find to Porquenta. He will make them work for him and take them off our hands,” said Jason. “I’ll ask Porquenta if he can help us identify potential spies and traitors among your group, and we’ll send them to him. I don’t know if he can identify assassins.”

“Once we capture the fleet, we’ll complete the repair and upgrade of the damaged ships. We hijacked the cruiser and several smaller ships, which were being repaired when we took over the dock. There’s a cruiser from The Mob coming for repair tomorrow. We’ll capture it on arrival,” said Karen ambling to her seat.

“Jason, please give us one of your speeches,” asked Linda, patting him on the back. Jason kissed her on the cheek as many in the room hooted loudly before he stood in front of the room.

Jason tucked his hand into his jacket and leaned back. “The common objective for all of us is to eliminate the threat of Papa Zora and his priests. He has hostages from nearly every important family in the Empire. We must free the hostages, incarcerate them, and destroy Zora and his evil group. The priests must lose control of replicator manufacture and services, medical and information technology, and return to lives of humility and service. The poisoning of trillions within the Empire must never be forgotten. The priests created you as cannon fodder to fight for them, probably against the Empire, and they gave you no future. We must take them down.”

The audience roared.

“I’ve had several discussions with Porquenta. We will release all but a few of the priests and their soldiers into service with Porquenta. That includes the group on Mars. They will do penance on the planet. He tells me he can control them and make use of their services. Those that he cannot handle will die. Porquenta encouraged me to claim Porquenta and Mars. We will develop Porquenta first, and we’ll begin on Mars when we can do so. They are both fertile, resource-rich planets. Porquenta believes the priests incited the Mob to attack the Empire. He thinks the Mob, once decontaminated, can become our allies.”

The audience listened raptly.

“What is Porquenta?” Felicia asked.

“Porquenta is a highly advanced AI that is integrated with the planet. He’s been around for at least a million years. When he detected me, it triggered him to awake,” said Jason.

“Why you?” Felicia asked.

“Porquenta says I am ancient, and I am the herald of the return of his people. He intends to help us as much as he can. I am helping him get started. I offered to send him some of our AI, IT, and engineers to help repair him and rebuild the infrastructure he needs. I want all our spare people and AIs to help him while we await the fleet, and then we’ll give him as much help as possible after moving on to Nirvana. He will soon be independent of us.”

The audience thumped their approval on the tables.

“Porquenta says there are other malign powers at work. They took control of the Mob planets. I heard the same from The One, the leader of the Una. Porquenta tells me the Empire and The Mob must be strong to fight future enemies. We must extract the tyrants from the Mob.”

“Were you the giant we saw?” Asked someone in the audience.

“What some of you saw today was not me. You are misdirecting your respect and your awe toward me. That was all Porquenta, acting through me. By the standards of the Empire, I’m a young man fighting to grapple with technology far ahead of Earth. I’ve read about the Empire, but I’ve never experienced it. I know next to nothing about the Mob. You can put crystals in your head in a different dimension and fly to the stars and across galaxies. Where I come from, we were beginning to clone animals, and the genome was starting to be understood, but treatment and repair of genes were in their infancy. We could barely fly to our moon. The idea of artificial intelligence was known but was in its infancy.”

“How did you get Astro-hounds? Asked yet another.

“Porquenta converted my dogs to Astro-hounds. Please don’t overrate my ability, despite knowing I may have ancestors within the Empire.”

“Where did you get your Warhammer?”

“I used a Warhammer given to me by Porquenta. He enlarged me along with my armor as I rampaged through their facility. I make no assertions that I’ll have such help again. That was not me. No one has seen me like that before, and unless I can take Porquenta with me, I suspect that no one will see me as a giant again.”

“How will you help us to live a normal life?”

“I’m the father of many, and my genes repair old-style clones. You guys are a different generation of clones. You did not have the same limits. You will live to a thousand. If we optimize your genes in our pods, you will live forever. The medical AI will sort you out,” said Jason.

“Thank you for telling us you made yourself redundant,” said Linda.