Chapter 5

Swiss Alps one week later

The men at the table were subdued. Their total lack of "real world" knowledge reverberated in their darkened moods. The latest failure was almost too much for the men who would rule the world. They were rethinking their future when their local contact/mentor showed up.

The tall Arab looked around the table and snorted, "Will you listen to me the next time? This is two watchers you have let escape. My people had to kill a third one in this place called Cleveland. Where are the other two?"

"We don't know," replied Reial. "The one in China is missing, and we never did know where the other one was. We did find out there is some sort of communication center in the Mediterranean."

Soran added, "Our contact in Cuba couldn't pinpoint the location, but it must be a large operation. They were able to break into NATO com lines and Cuban SDF HQ. There is nothing Lattus has that will operate on anything that primitive."

"Who are we facing?" whined Mathew. "There are only seven of us."

Baucus rubbed his balding head in worry. "Should we break down our operations and hide?"

"We cannot continue now!" Theo added just below a scream. "We have to shut down."

OBL shook his head in disgust. "You're safe here and now. Never let yourselves make assumptions or panic without study. You act like the Americans. Let me see now. How did that go? Oh yes, 'When confused and when in doubt, run in circles and scream and shout!' You need to stop and think."

Lukas looked at the tall man and frowned. "What do you suggest?"

"Stay the course. Keep building up our forces, be ready, and don't make any more stupid mistakes like letting those barbaric Cubans have Lattus technology. I have no idea what you were thinking about when you gave them a portal device. It was like handing a two year old a loaded pistol."

Theo replied, "We thought it would give the Cubans a little more confidence during the mission."

"Mission? You call that exercise in stupidity a mission? Allah protect us!"

"Now just a minute, here," demanded Mathew. "I still think it was a good idea!"

OBL looked at Mathew like he had just farted in a crowded elevator. "Really? Manuel used the device AND LET THE WATCHER KNOW he had lost technology, right?"

"Yes, I guess he did."

"Where now are Manuel and the Cuban boat?"

"We have no idea."

"Where is the Watcher?"

"In Cuba, we think." Mathew sunk lower in his chair as he answered each question.

"Now, here is the real question. Where is the portal device?"

None of the dirty half dozen made any attempt to answer.

"I see. OK I may be slow, but please tell me again why sharing technology with idiots just above the evolutional level of a monkey is a good idea.'

Lattus Queen's chamber late at night

Bill rolled to an unresponsive Lisa's side and kissed her ear. "New wear off our marriage already, Baby? You're not even in the same room with me. Now spill it. What's the problem?"

"I'm so worried what those escapees can do with the blackness. We were lucky the first time, only this island was lost to Earth One. Not even the Goddess can tell us what could happen if they're irresponsible with it. That's why those bases were shut down and their locations scrubbed from our records so even the royal family didn't know where they were. The blackness technology is too dangerous to use."

"I know what you mean. Mankind is not mature enough for many of our own technologies. Science is maturing much faster than man. Science can be dangerous for the entire planet. I shudder to think what could happen if someone like OBL was able to get hold of black energy weapons."

The next morning

An obviously tired bunch of people gathered around the breakfast table. Bill and Jeff had introduced the good old American business practice of a working breakfast to Lattus, and Queen Lisa fully endorsed the concept. When Ada stumbled to her seat, Bill started the meeting.

"My guess is that no one feels comfortable enough with the concept of loose Lattus tech to get a good night's sleep. I am going to let the queen make you even less comfortable by telling you a little more history of the world we know."

Lisa rose and cleared her throat. "Every one thinks they know the story of man and how we got here. On the one hand there are simpletons who believe the world was made in seven 24 hour periods. On the other hand are the so called scholars who believe that the world started with the big bang, and that a series of chance happenings evolved into what we currently call life.

"You still have people who believe the Earth is flat and the sun and stars revolve around it. There are so many dogmas and so little truth. There is over half of the mass of the universe unaccounted for. There is even less known about what we call the darkness and others call dark energy or dark matter. The truth is as far away as the Bore Atom was to the real nature of an atom.

"There was a great effort to hide the true reason for our current situation. It is now time to share with you the true story of why the Earth and her sisters were destroyed."

SOMEWHERE in SPACE

At the same time that the leadership of Lattus was reviewing the destructive power of old weapons and the unsuccessful attempt to prevent the later holocaust of an uncontrolled civil war, the government of the original descendents of mankind also met on the same topic.

The United Galaxy flag shimmered on the wall as if blowing in the wind. The flag was black with a single blue and white planet in the upper left-hand corner. The rest of the flag was a swirl of 87 stars. Each star represented one of the 87 inhabited planets of the UG. The blue marble represented the first planet of the system, Earth.

Earth was no longer a part of the UG. Thousands of years ago, the first three planets of the UG fell into a civil war that destroyed one planet, stripped the atmosphere off another, and pieces of the first plunged the third into an ice age that eliminated all vestiges of civilization. As the worlds died, an armada of spacecraft left the solar system in search of new and peaceful worlds in which war would no longer be practiced.

The largest of the vessels contained a massive database that contained the whole knowledge of the three planets, and the artificial intelligence (AI) to control the entire armada as their human cargo was placed in status for the long interstellar voyage.

The sub-light-speed ships were powered by the same dark energy source that had destroyed the fifth planet from the system sun, but under the proper control of the AI would provide energy for the fleet for thousands of years. Huge cone like magnetic fields would catch stray particles from space and provide material for the reactive engines of the ships. The speed of the armada was limited, however, by the top maintainable speed of the slowest of the ships.

Maintenance was performed by small self-propelled robots that worked on the ships and themselves. A failsafe procedure provided a list of engineers and technicians that would be revised if something came up the AI could not handle.

The system worked so well that in the years of transport to a new home, not one of the humans was awaken or any of the thousands of genetic samples of plants or foodstuff damaged.

In addition to that, the AI had improved itself and it's programming by a factor of 100. What greeted the humans when they woke from their long sleep was a new and to some an unwelcome intelligence. The new AI, while still dedicated to its human cargo, was literally alive, and in charge of all weapons the fleet had brought with it. Never would human kind be allowed to use weapons of mass destruction on itself again.

Vast sums of knowledge had been added to the database as the AI mapped the route of the armada, and performed experiments in the fabric and folds of space. Vast holes were found that would allow future voyages to be made in a fraction of the time of the initial technologies.

Of the thirty billion souls that made up the human race at the beginning of the civil war, less than a quarter of a million were saved by the armada. The known sum of humanity crawled to this new world and started over. They were determined to do it right this time.

Their determination proved to be enough. In the 3000 years since their landing on the new planet, by focusing their resources on growth and industry, they had expanded to more than the 87 worlds of the UG. Hunger and need had been eliminated.

The vast resources of the UG were distributed by a series of equations that balanced need against contribution to human kind. While it was not necessary to work to live, life was much better for those who chose to work. Because of the social safety net and the lack of actual money in the economy, personal economic crimes such as robbery and theft were rare.

War did not exist, and what army there was existed to protect expansion teams from wild life on planets being explored. If intelligence was found, negations ensued. If the world did not wish to be a trading partner to the UG, it was isolated and left alone.

Several worlds were being terra-formed to accommodate a growing population. All was well, but there was still something missing. Humanity was homesick for its home. Earth was the idea that unified humanity. It was also the reminder of what happens when humanity turns upon itself. Today's UG ruling council meeting addressed only one subject, reclaiming Earth for the UG.

"How can we introduce our technologies to the same people who almost destroyed us all so long ago? I maintain the inhabitants of Earth are still barbarians. Watch this." Stewart Lane stepped from the podium as the room darkened and the UG flag was replaced by the view of an early twentieth century battlefront in France.

"This is not the beginning of my concern, but it is as good a place to start as any. As technology has advanced, the human maturity and responsibility has not. They are attacking the environment in which they live. Multitudes of species have become extinct. Their reckless waist of natural resources is wrecking the natural climatic shifts that exist. Hydrocarbon fuel usage continues to destroy the very air they breathe.

"That's not all. Watch as during a one week period, over one million lives are lost in a wasted attempt to gain a few acres of land."

The scene showed thousands of men climbing out of a trench and running through wire and land mines to only be cut down by a withering crossfire from countless machine guns.

"It gets worse as time progresses."

The screen jumped ahead to show vast mounds of bodies being buried by people in rags ravaged with malnutrition and sickness. Then the inside of buildings showed doctors in white lab coats performing cruel acts on helpless men, women and children.

Another shot showed a group of people of all ages led into a large room. After a moment, a gas filled the room and men, women and children fell to the ground withering in a painful death. The same room showed men in uniforms going through the bodies with dental equipment removing the gold from teeth.

"Over six million men, women and children were massacred in a tribute to hate and stupidity. As that event becomes more distant, there are some who deny it even occurred. These barbarians don't even seem to have the capacity to learn. It even gets worse as the technologies progress. Watch this!"