Chapter 17

"Can't that thing take care of more than one patient at a time?" Karen asked me, after the explanation.

"That thing is Charlie and let's ask him."

Charlie assured me that he could handle about a hundred patients at once while doing other repair and replication work at the same time. He was proud to say that he was battle ready and that nothing currently on the planet or in orbit could damage him. I kept that last especially in mind then asked him if he would move over and take care of Blatfo.

"I can, but there is no need to move. I'll transport him inside and deal with him. Did you want me to provide food for Blatfo also?" he asked.

"Why not? Let him choose what he wants along those lines. Please be sure not to remove his necklace."

"Necklace? Oh, you mean the restraint device. I can do better than that. I'll make a small modification that requires him to obey your every command," Charlie said, and then I noticed one of those shimmering events around Blatfo, just before he disappeared.

"If Charlie can take care of so many at once why don't we get a line started so he can give everyone a check up?" Jane asked.

"Sounds like a good idea to me, go ahead," I said.

"I guess we should get Carl to gather the dogs for prisoner control when we get to them," Jane said.

"There is no need for that. I've already remotely examined everyone here and no one actually needs prompt attention. If it is acceptable I will just transport them inside as I did Blatfo. It will probably be wise to warn them about what will happen when their turn comes up," Charlie said.

"That will be excellent. I'll start telling them now," Jane said.

"Please let them know that I will ask if they are ready before actually moving them," Charlie said.

"You only need to do that for anyone who is not currently restrained. If they are chained up just take them when you want to. Can you give them that obedience modification like you're going to do for Blatfo?" I asked.

"Of course. Should I do that for all of them?" Charlie asked.

"Not all, just those that are chained up," I said.

I guess he decided that he'd just take care of the prisoners first while he waited for Jane to spread the word to the others. I barely noticed the shimmering around the trees before all the chains were empty. I was happy to let Jane take care of the other details, but soon women and children were disappearing too.

Ok, I'll admit I was feeling pretty smug about the semi-bluff I'd pulled off. As far as I was concerned we now had everything we could possibly need. With Charlie on our side we had it made.

There was no need I could see for standing around and watching Charlie work. He didn't need our help for anything but warning others that they'd soon be paged for a checkup. There were already plenty of volunteers for that so I went back in my bus and made a pot of coffee.

A lot had gone on today but I didn't really need the break. Then again, why not; after all, with a little help from my friends I'd accomplished plenty. There was still more to do though. I was pretty sure now, with the help of a good lawyer, there'd be some taking of names and kicking of Asses for a while to come.

It was possible that there'd be a lot of bureaucratic disaster real soon now. Some of the more general regulations of the species that was running the show let me know that they'd been committing more than high crimes and misdemeanors for quite a while. Another interesting tidbit was their criminal justice system's use of some of their technology. In short, if you were accused of a crime, the option of lying your way out of it wasn't available.

Privacy was one of the foundations of their legal system, up to a point, but if the legal authorities had strong probable cause all your questioning would be under an AI induced truth compulsion. When they wanted the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth they could get it, whether you wanted to tell or not.

These methods weren't used unless their was other strong evidence of wrong doing, but it would be child's play for me to spill beans that would be oh so bitter to one or two of the administrators of this project, and I was pretty sure that full and honest testimony from only one or two would start tipping dominoes and the revelations and reverberations would do the Energizer Bunny trick by keeping going and going... I'll admit that I was looking forward to it.

When all was said and done we'd already gained more than I could have ever hoped for in Charlie. He could replace everything that anyone on the planet had been illegally forced to leave behind. There was nothing he could do about the innocents who'd been killed in the process but he could fix practically anything that had been done to anyone who had managed to live up until now. It eased my mind and then today's interaction with him came back to me and gave me a big hint.

"Charlie?" I asked, via the telephone implant I'd discovered this morning.

"Yes, Billy Joe?" he asked back.

"What kind of range does your patient teleportation cover?"

"It isn't only for teleporting patients, it will teleport anything that is within its limits. For instance, I can bring anything within the planets atmosphere to me, however I can't reach out and bring the satellite or the ship here," he said.

"Damn, do you mean you could get hold of any person on the planet's surface?"

"I can reach anything on the planet. If it is too large for one trip I can take portions and put them back together once they are here. That won't work for living things but there are no living things here that large, so it is a moot point," he said.

"Can you examine them from here?"

"Of course, in fact I already have. I was going to contact you soon anyway since there are several who need prompt medical care. I can sedate them as soon as I make contact and then retrieve them. Would you like me to do so?" Charlie asked.

"Yes. I'd also like for you to retrieve anyone who seems to be in danger from others, or from anything."

"At least ninety-eight percent of the females and their children on this planet are in danger, either from the males that control them or from others who intend to steal them," Charlie said.

"Good God, I should have known. How many does that come to?"

"Nearly four thousand adult females and approximately five thousand children," he said.

"Jesus, we won't be able to even provide food and shelter," I said.

"Yes you can. It will not happen at once, but I can easily produce the food almost immediately and large tents to shelter them by tomorrow night. I can even produce blankets, pillows, and ground cloths for all of them to sleep on tonight. The weather will be acceptable for one or two nights in the open," he said.

"That's good. I realized you could provide those things but didn't think you could do it so rapidly. I'll let everyone here know what's about to happen and you can start bringing them when you are ready," I said.