Chapter 71

The Reverend Doctor Samuel Bennet pounded the pulpit before him; his graying hair in disarray as he expounded on the failing of Humans to heed his warnings. His foot momentarily slipped off the small platform that would allow his followers to see him better. "God's children have gone into Jehovah's domain and consorted with the sinful. Even now they are changing the very brain structure of every Human being in their grasp."

His voice rose and fell with the emotions he wanted to express and many avidly looked upon him as a natural leader. Sweat poured from his brow and his voice got even stronger in denouncing the harlot from the stars.

The TV cameras panned back and in the background a choir of children dressed in pure white gowns prepared to sing praise. In the foreground though, the good pastor showed his weakened state as his voice implored the faithful to reject Satan in all his guises. The children began to sing and the camera shifted to them in all their innocence.

Reverend Bennet drank a cold glass of water as a troop of attendants combed his hair, wiped his face, and helped him change into a fresh jacket. As the music was about to end he handed the glass to an attendant but it fell noisily to the floor. His face contorted in rage but he slipped onto the stage with a face showing how is emotions had been uplifted by the heavenly music.

His voice continued in a conciliatory manner. His words were different but his ideas remained the same. How could any God-fearing Human put his trust in an alien female? Their technology was far beyond man's and thus able to fabricate any evidence they chose to make. These other aliens, their enemy, could not be as ferocious or as strong as they were said to be. If they were, and came here, God would smite them to protect his chosen.

He talked of the few Humans that had come back young and strong but without their very soul to fortify them. It was much better for children destined for God's loving hand to meet him at the chosen time and not centuries in the future. Old men and women were flocking to the Jezebel of Satan to throw their last few moments on Earth away for an eternity of damnation.

In his closing remarks he explained in his tired voice how it was necessary for all to fight beside him and God in rejecting any and all influence from the ungodly. He took a seat to show his fatigue at struggling for the souls of those who believed in his ministry. Celestial music played softly and seemed to make his words more reasonable. The volume of music increased as the cameras panned back and stopped.

The reverend got up from his seat finished the last of his ministry to the local audience and directed some to the places to drop their donations. After the sermon he went backstage and found the four attendants, "You failed both me and God. Be off, your services are no longer needed."

The attendants bowed their heads fearfully and walked backwards as if from royalty and then left.

Duc talked aloud and his voice travelled to the planet below. "I have to get what?"

"I am sorry Mr. Tran but those are the rules; everybody from space needs to get an export permit. The processing time is minimal."

"We are trying to defend this system and your planet. At the same time we need to purchase surplus food that Europe is allowing to rot. We have almost a hundred thousand recruits to be picked up and they would like some Earth food till they get used to ours. Not only is the price skyrocketing but you are throwing all this red tape in our path. We should allow you and the rest of the bureaucrats to fight the Samutz and see how many forms they want to fill out for you."

The system AI compared all of her current problems with specific Humans and saw that there was a type of none too subtle conspiracy going on to subvert the war with the Samutz. The only reason that could be deduced would be to get Tandra technology in return for their cooperation.

Medium sized corporations were trying their best to deal for any and all Tandra technology. They were not above using the sick, the old, and the feeble, to push for what they wanted. The disadvantaged were put forward as a method of gaining knowledge or tying up the resources of the defenders. Government agencies started putting up more and more barriers to what was needed. Food was not really a problem, but it was used to bridge the time between their Earth past and their Tandra future.

All produce now had to be trucked to certain locations for pickup and they even demanded that all recruits only be picked up at specific times and locations. The troops themselves were of a lower caliber to start with and many more were sick or mentally unbalanced. She was at a loss to reason out why Humans would do such a thing. All her agents tried to find the source of the conspiracy but as yet only met with people that were simply told what to do and when to do it.

In a few days close to a 100,000 new recruits would be picked up and trained by the recruits previously educated. In three weeks an allotment of one million recruits was to be made and again three weeks after that. There were not enough ships to absorb all of these troops. Many other things had to be done to support all the efforts made to get the defenders into space to do some good.

Two days ago a large contingent of scientists, engineers and Canadian troops, had descended onto Henry's house again and striped any and all things that they thought might give them a clue to finding more information about a higher technology. The chair and base were taken along with the floor beneath it. The force could have been easily stopped but the house would be easily replaced as could all articles within. Earth knew of a base on the planet but as yet had no idea where exactly it was.

None of the articles taken were of a low enough technology for the Humans to discern anything. Any high technology would not be understood for a great deal of time. In any case all the power and information actually came from the base and not integral to the chair itself.

Troops did fan out and searched for kilometres around. The area around the old mine adit was searched but it had been meticulously reconstructed to resemble the form from before man came to this area.

With this overt hostility she looked into more of the Human's actions. Human agents now working for Mom were sent to many locations and it became apparent that the various governments were reducing the amount of cooperation they were giving. Henry's comrades in arms had still not been released from confinement no matter want was said before. Captain Meech's relatives were harassed into agreeing to do anything in their power to ferret out information about Tandra technology. Likewise; relatives, friends, and even neighbours of the Shingle family were co-opted.

The new soldiers could not be easily helped because they were still within the jurisdiction of Earth laws. If their relatives were rescued somehow, then more people would suffer similar incarcerations. This was done in an attempt to find a chink in Henry's armour, even if he was not here yet.

News commentators now went back to the way they used to be and started gradually denouncing all Tandra and the Earth people that signed up to help. They gave the excuse that the Tandra were not helping the people on Earth that needed medical help. This argument gradually widened to old people needing better means of travel and to the withholding of other articles that would ease the burden of all Humans on Earth. This meant vehicles, buildings, devices, and perhaps even a way for computers to take over all labour.

Mom contemplated giving them all they wanted and see how their civilization would last. A peek into some well hidden files showed the largest corporations ruled the governments and they wanted the technology, but not the actual articles to be given out. There was no profit in that happening, especially when the Tandra articles could and did stand up for millions of years.

Some Humans that had accepted the Tandra but did not look enhanced were flown secretly to Earth. They were to find out what they could about the present conditions and report back. Mom vehemently attacked the commentators and told the Earth people how the newspapers, television and even the radio, were being controlled by business interest with the only intent being to extort technology.

Since they could not silence her they went for the big lie and figured many people would believe at least some of it and refuse to heed the Tandra.

Mom was accused of taking all the Humans and brainwashing them to follow her and disregard their roots. Brains were being extracted and placed in weapons and the rest eaten. This was done by word of mouth by people that had supposedly seen the process. Evil experiments were conducted to find the best Human machine that would serve the Tandra purpose.

After a few Humans came back to refute the claims, the TV stations found that this was a losing cause to their position so no more Earth broadcasting was done. No newspapers picked up on the rebuttal because they too were controlled by big business.

When it came time to pick up the 98,000 new recruits it was found that many were harassed. The authorities were trying to dissuade them from taking this major step in their lives. These recruits had made up their minds long ago and the current policies instituted by the Earth did not have enough time to sink in. Mom knew that given a few weeks of a steady diet of only one side of an important event, the people would take that side. She knew how delusional Humans really were. Any leader could lead them to do whatever he wanted. If he worked it with enough media there would be no opposition to even the most obscene demands. All this only had to be promoted by religion, patriotism, or the dictates of a particular social structure.

Kitten was getting very tired. Her classes at the academy grew in number and in students. She was not completely necessary but it did quiet the Humans to see the Tandra walking amongst them. Her graduating class had worked with old designs and the hull of their class project was gradually taking shape. In the base itself, machines were made that made more machines that made small crystals. In a special room with many projectors, a computer started to take shape and grew into many dimensions and three universes.

Captain Meech and his exec Toosm had gotten their allotment of troops. 24,000 new people walked the ship and tried to learn what they were capable of learning. Space at a tutor was at a premium and Meech didn't think there would be enough infrastructure to support his future allotment of one million more recruits. The ship could hold that many but there was no way it could utilize all those people. There would have to be a lot of sharing of data till everyone came up to the same level. His recommendation that most of the recruits go into stasis till they could be trained was shot down by the all the AIs. He pointed out that there would be fewer troops but they would be better trained. Tutors relied on the computers for information and there was just not enough computing power to go around and still run a civilization.

Charlie and Paul had a small amount of growing pains too but there were enough computers in the small ships to handle all the new students. A decision had been reached and all the presently trained people had chosen either the carrier or the battleship. There was no purpose in now giving a specialized type of training to people that would go to the other ship. There was so much to learn that the point had not been reached yet for specialized training and would not for years in reality.

Mom worked in the Earth base with more than her usual effort. She had seen the performance ratios of the lunar AI Marcus and was determined to not fall behind the masculine AI in any appreciable way. There was still something about the masculine AI that she did not understand and was worried about it.

On the moon the old guard found Marcus even better at forecasting problems and then finding solutions before they actually occurred. He had a sense of humour that reminded Kitten of Henry. This reminded her constantly of his absence. Even Duc, Lam, and Doris made the same assumption and felt completely at ease with the new entity.

Doris and Kitten had their duties and each other to keep them occupied. The rescued people that were now 9 year olds did their best to make sure there was no rest for anybody. Marcus took special care of his charges even if Mom had not insured it in her programming. He had full access to everything on the moon except the weapons which were usually a prerogative of the Earth entity anyway.

With the academy's busy schedule there was little time for any of them to mix with the other recruits even if some were only 14 or so. The group that were picked up from the mental institutions all over the planet below responded perfectly to the treatment administered. This was a cause of heart break for Doris. She, like all Humans, had listened to the pleas from the Earth to take in the children that could not be helped otherwise.

"Why can't we get more of the children? They are languishing away in places where the doctors have no idea of what they are doing and just hoping for the best. Their parents have abandoned them and they have nobody to turn to."

Marcus said, "I have made an assessment of the situation Doris and we can take more children like the leaders on Earth want us to do. This will just open the doors to all children and then young adults, then adults. They will not let it end. If we took them they would say we are doing experiments on them. If we don't take them then we are heartless. If we just repaired the brain or bodies of the children, we do not have enough computer time to raise them. If they were repaired and sent home then there would be new problems found and we would be accused of causing them. They would not be accepted back into Human society."

"You said, 'Computer time'?"

"Yes Doris, there is a lot of time dedicated to each person here on the moon. All the processes have to be followed and controlled. Meals have to be made and even the dirty utensils converted to basic elements and then made into new implements. The very air you breathe has to be regulated. The computer here is just too small even if I am capable of handling more."

"Just make more computers or enlarge the one we have. Surely if you can take care of a million recruits that will be coming eventually you can take care of a few children."

"I will not be able to take care of the large influx. Many of the systems will be on automatic with no variation. Food will all be of very limited choices because it is faster. The tutors and medical will get preference while many other things will just have to wait till there is time and resources. The computer where I reside can indeed be enlarged but there is a serious shortage of control crystals. I cannot use the modules that Kitten is now using to make ships."

"I heard that there are worlds that are taken care of by computers and AIs. Why can't we?"

"Those worlds are highly developed. Civilized worlds do not have the number of living beings on them that Earth does. For each settlement there is a large computer like the one here and there are many small computers that take care of individual families, like the ones in a ship. A larger computer takes care of a section of the planet while others take care of the smaller subsections. Each computer gets more complicated as their duties warrant them to be. The moon was never intended to support a large number of people or coordinate large operations, so it is small and has the capabilities of only handling a community like a town or small city. The people do not rely on the main computers because computer time is allotted to each person as a form of payment. Otherwise some would monopolize the situation and have many things made for their own personal use. Others would have to do without till their turn came, if it ever did."

"This is so unfair. We need to get some of those crystals and make a much larger computer."

"Doris, the leaders of Earth are trying to get us the way you are now and just want us to accede to their demands. They will not be satisfied with anything less than our complete knowledge and control. Can you think of what will happen if they ever got that information without the stability our education gives them?"

"I see your point, Marcus. I just don't like sitting by when something is brought in front of my face."

Captain Shingle looked at his bridge crew and smiled at the thought of how efficient they were. Though he had no way of comparing a similar crew of Humans before the Tandra came on the scene, he knew that they would fall far behind. The Tandra sat in chairs and linked very directly to the computer itself. Nobody could make a direct connection but these people did better than he could think possible. Old records showed that even at the height of the Tandra Empire, the Tandra were quite slow when compared to crews that had many years of training behind them.

Things were shaping up quite nicely. The Humans had taken to the training like the proverbial duck to water and were able to absorb it almost as easily as a Tandra. While not as proficient, they were able to perform well within expectations. Though none yet were up to the level needed to perform on the bridge there were many other positions where they could show their mettle. Ship handling was one of them and they were able to get the ships to outperform the ones crewed by Tandra. The Tandra took it on themselves to push their boundaries when they saw how the Humans were doing the same thing.

Commander Santo used the time to exercise to its maximum. He pushed his body as far as he could to increase his speed and coordination. There were not many periods that he could steal time from to do this and he knew how necessary it was. Tandra officers had stopped by on occasion when they caught a whiff of his scent and there were usually urgent orders to Hans to increase the air flow to keep them from succumbing to the effect. The reports in from the fighters proved that all the intransigent Tandra had made dramatic turnarounds and made very good crew members, if not mates, by now. The Human women were still having a difficult time establishing a lasting rapport with the Tandra because their scent did not seem to have the same effect as the males.

Thinking of his adoptive father, Carl, he wondered how he was doing on Epsilon Eridani. The plan was being followed, at least when the ships were sent back. He was happy that his mother was taking the loss of her husband's company so well and in the usual Tandra way. Was Carl doing the same? It had been almost five and a half months since they left and the separation would be very hard, especially if he had to be away from Charlie the same way.

In a military base in Siberia an executive jet landed and taxied over to a line of other such craft. A man dressed in an expensive suit and his male secretary stepped out of the plane. They were met by military police who politely escorted them to administration. The MP's French was perfect and the two were led to a small room at the end of a larger complex.

An attendant said, "Bonjour Monsieur Gereux. Will you and your assistant come this way please? There is a bit of a formality and we thought it necessary to do this before the meeting."

"But of course. Lead the way sergeant."

The secretary put down his computer and then both removed their clothing and placed it into lockers. They showered like common plebeians while guards dressed in clean-room garb looked on.

M. Gereux asked, "What about our computer? There is a large amount of data on the drive that is both confidential and needed for the meeting."

The tall Russian soldier said, "The machine is safe. Your hard drive will be dumped into a computer downstairs for your personal use. Nothing except your bodies are allowed past this point. Just walk through the sealed door to your left. Water will start falling, you will have to walk through the flow or small devices may follow you."

They pushed their way through the heavy curtain of water and then through a door that closed behind them as soon as they went through. Standing under a special hot air dryer each were given sterile combs and made themselves presentable before donning similar clothing to the guards they left.

They were met by another guard just outside the next door and were ushered into an elevator that had no buttons at all. They descended alone and the elevator doors opened after a long interval to reveal a long hall. Men with various machines waited. Each of the waiting personnel examined the hair, ears, and neck of both men before passing them on to the next till they were allowed to go into a large, comfortable and well equipped meeting room. A large oak table in the centre had two dozen men around it and just two empty places.

John Mallard, the president and CEO of Fosta Pharmaceuticals chaired the meeting. "Hello, gentlemen. I am sorry to have you all put through the indignity of meeting this way. The aliens equipment is just too good to have our talks anywhere but in the strictest privacy. We represent heavy industry, energy, transportation, mining, chemicals, food, and of course pharmaceuticals. The challenge of getting information from the Tandra directly, or looking at what they have already done, is getting us nowhere. If they were to release their products to the general population most if not all of our businesses would flounder and take down the rest of our economy."

The meeting went on for the rest of the day and each tried to think of ways to gain information for the group. This was very difficult, for cooperation was not the usual way things were run with these men. They discussed ways of using the men from Buchanan's old unit as leverage. The way they had been found made the men even more cautious about dealing with the Humans and the Tandra.

Admiral Soduk looked at the representation of the sector on the large hologram. Many of the systems had already been captured while a few here and there remained stubbornly able to repel all attempts to take them. This area was claimed by King Sook but every Samutz alive knew it depended on who was able to take the systems that counted most. Well almost, it depended more on who was able to hold the systems after they were taken that really counted. Many small kingdoms had been carved out if they fought hard and then pledged allegiance to a more powerful sovereign.

After checking with the Tandra master of the ship, the Samutz sat in his seat and listened to the verbal discourse about the status of each of the systems. But his mind kept going to the systems that would now start to fall to the Samutz advance. All were defended by automatic weapons that still managed to function after all these years. A few systems had lower than expected response to the occasional foray into their regions and it was assumed that they would not be able to fight off a determined attacker.

Soduk considered the ships under his command. The heavy cruiser he was now in had almost the fighting power of a battleship. Two destroyers were presently escorting him and he could pick up some troop transports and an old carrier that could provide pickets. The new shielding and detection gear should make all the difference. Large missiles and powerful mines could still defeat a shield but it took a determined effort. Now the defences were just targeted and destroyed. Some did get through though, but ships had been destroyed recently by being too hasty.

The next local day he would call the sector governor. He, of course, would have to ok the allocation of troops and ships, but there was a good chance he would get all he wanted if he was willing to share the spoils. One system was fairly close and once the minefield was compromised he would take what he could and leave a small force behind as more of the protected systems were taken. The new method of detecting and destroying mines meant that there would be a lot of competition for these systems soon. If he was slow in acting he would get none of the spoils.

In any case there was no way he was going to make a name for himself if he did not take chances. Fighting from a ship like this was not the right way. A Samutz was supposed to face his opponent and fight for their lives with the victor getting to eat the vanquished. The thoughts of using weapons to cow a planet into submission so it could be systematically looted warred within him. The capitulating inhabitants would be sent off in ships as techs as the detestable Tandra around him had been. Others would be sent off to meet their destiny on a Samutz hunting preserve.

Presently the techs were altering the shields of the last vessel so that it too could join in the conquests.

The governor looked at the map and to the remainder of Soduk's proposal. It looked good in many ways. The new technology was only good for a while till all the systems were taken. After that he would still be stuck with only eleven systems if he did not act now. There were more than enough Samutz to crew the ships but the supply of techs was as low as it usually was. Too many still died when a crew became bored. Even the threat of death for this act meant little. There had been little in the way of raids recently, mainly because King Sook's daughter was by now married to their main antagonist. The Samutz would now gain a much larger empire when the present king died. It was in everybody's interest now to keep the empire in the best shape possible.

"Soduk, you can have the crews you need. Kronik and Dofer are doing nothing at the moment and have some battleships. Four cruisers like yours and two heavy destroyers are available. There are four systems almost in a line. You can take one at a time and garrison the systems with a small complement. There are six or seven troop transports to harvest the systems. You will then proceed to the next system. For this help I get one system for my own use exclusively. The other three systems I will get twenty percent of each. You, Dofer, and Kronik will share the rest with your crews."

The arguments went on for a few hours and almost came to blows. The security detail that had their weapons on Soduk kept this from happening. When the deal was finally hammered out, Soduk knew he had gotten what he originally wanted. He left happy but scowled anyway to let all know that he was cheated.

Captain Charlie Shingle woke up abruptly to the claxon signalling general quarters. His training allowed him to throw off his foggy mind and question Hans. "What is going on?"

"There are some large ships approaching the system. As yet they are twenty hours away."

"Composition?"

"Their signatures appear to be two battleships and six cruisers. They are too far away to be sure."

"Any communications?"

"None yet. Captain Meech is now asking if we know anything more."

Charlie looked at the data that came in from the battleship and compared it to his own and saw no discernable differences. A look at the flight paths showed that the ships in the system were all following the plan worked out.

"Give him our data and link with Pasha."

After reaching the bridge and taking command he saw how things were shaping up. The Nautilus was leaving for Earth from the far side of the system leaving specific ships to thinly cover that area. The Terra's Pride was rushing to meet the approaching ships with the much more deadly fighters to do the majority of the work.

The waiting was very hard but the fact that all the ships had to be sent out heavily armed gave most something useful to do. As time went on it was shown that there were two battleships, two heavy cruisers, and four destroyers. One of the latter was hidden behind the bulk of one of the large battleships.

Earth had been warned of the approaching ships and everything seemed to stop. Preparations had been made long since and the populous took to their shelters. Television now had Mom talking about what she could glean from the incoming data. Some of the more strident commentators took up the fact of the approaching ships were coming to attack the Tandra and their works. Some of the viewers split into two camps one hid and discounted the man hoping that the Tandra would continue with their protection of the planet. The other group watched the show fervently knowing in their heart how bad all aliens were. God, this time, would have to come and protect them.

The hours passed and talk was if the units protecting Earth could take the newcomers if a battle happened. The minefield was the only thing that could decide the matter but it was known that the minefield had been cleared by the only other attacking ship quite easily. Discussion from commentators that were suddenly neutral about the Tandra gave their own ideas. Study groups had long since been assembled to assess the Tandra and their technology. These same groups now gave their more precise conclusions based on what Mom had told the Earth.