Chapter 5

The next three days were a whirlwind of activity for Shina and her family. Mev had assured Shina that Shina and everyone else in her household could bring whatever they wanted when they left the planet. Shina did not quite understand how this could be possible but her powers were already established enough that she could easily sense Mev was speaking the truth when he told her this. So Shina simply concentrated upon buying whatever she could think of in the way of supplies for their departure.

Shina contacted her usual vendors for food and other household supplies, placed large orders, and soon truckloads of various goods began to arrive. It wasn't long before the storerooms inside the house were filled to capacity, despite their large size. Mev quickly solved the space dilemma for her by creating several additional storage spaces using the pocket universe method he had used before. These included two which were set up as refrigeration and freezer rooms which allowed Shina to lay in a large amount of fresh foods.

Mev and the other High Lords were not idle during this time, they had their own preparations to make. Much of the actual work fell upon Medron, though it was all carried out by means of spellcraft. Mev and Zira constructed several spellcraft based devices which would be needful when it came time to leave. The High Lords were intending to use a combination of the conventional technology from the Republic along with spellcraft based technology in which Zira and Medron had considerable expertise.

In the afternoon of the third day two large passenger carriers arrived at the house and the passengers began to disembark from the vehicles. Since there was no room for so many additional people inside the house a number of tents were set up behind it, and there the passengers would stay. Noticing this arrival Mev approached Shina to ask what was happening. Despite becoming a High Lord Shina had not yet mastered the skill of telepathic communication, especially since her experience with Basak a few days before had made her cautious about experimentation. So Mev found it necessary to speak with her aloud.

"Who are these people who have just arrived? Mev asked.

I have a boarding school for girls who were orphaned in our last great war. These are the ones who remain; they have no other place to go or anyone else to care for them. I can't leave them behind," Shina answered.

"How many are in this group?" Mev asked.

"There are one hundred and fourteen girls between the ages of sixteen and nineteen, as well as six teachers. I wish to bring them all with us. I did not ask before but will there be room for them?"

"Space will not be a problem even with such an addition. The provision you have made for their stay is sufficient for the moment," Mev answered.

"That's good. When will we be ready to leave?" Shina asked.

"Preparations are nearly complete and we shall make our departure late this evening, after midnight. If you have any final preparations or acquisitions to make you should do so now," Mev answered.

"I will make sure everyone and everything is ready by that time, Mev."

"Excellent, I will inform you when the time comes to make the transition," Mev told her.

Shina decided to take her two daughters on a final shopping trip as there was still much money that had not been spent and it would be of no use after they left the planet. With less than a week in which to work it was not possible for Shina to liquidate more than a small fraction of her family's assets, which were quite extensive. In truth the purpose of the trip was as much to pass the time as to fill any remaining needs.

Shina and her daughters spent the entire afternoon in the shipping areas of the city and they sent three large trucks filled with their purchases back to the house. They returned home in time to supervise the unloading from the hired trucks, with much being stowed away within the pocket universes Mev had created for that purpose. Two more last minute deliveries also arrived and were unloaded as night fell; when the unloading was finished the gates of the estate were locked.

Shortly after midnight Mev found Shina and informed her that they would be transferring to their new location in a half hour and everyone who wished to see the change could gather in the field to the rear of the house. Even with all the campers and the different piles of supplies scattered about there was a clear area large enough for everyone to gather. With all the lights from the city only a few stars could be seen.

At last the moment came and the first thing the gathered crowd saw was all the lights inside and outside the house flick off, and then come back on a moment later. This was caused by the electric supply for the estate being transferred from the external city supply to an alternate source within the estate created by the High Lords. Then suddenly the entire sky changed completely and almost everyone in the crowd gaped in astonishment.

The entire estate had been teleported away down to a depth of 20 meters and the missing soil replaced with soil taken from various other areas on the planet. This left the entire area which had been taken up by the estate as an empty field and this is what the other inhabitants of the city found upon awaking in the morning. All of Shina's family estate simply vanished, replaced by an empty plot of land. No one was ever able to determine what had happened to the buildings which had been there or any of the people from it; they were simply never seen again.

The estate was transported onto one of the sides of a metal cube two kilometers across on each side; this metal cube formed the framework of the High Lords' new space ship. Powerful spellcraft based shields surrounded the entire cube, keeping air in and the vacuum and radiation of space out. The cube had been constructed by teleporting metal from other planets in the solar system and layering it onto the structure. Then spellcraft based devices had been installed to provide basic services such as heat, air purification, artificial gravity, and propulsion.

Immediately after the estate was transported to the ship the sky above changed in a major way immediately, and this caught the attention and imagination of almost everyone immediately. The planet from which they had just come filled a third of the sky and everyone was awestruck by the beauty of it. Except for those who had come from the Antares this was their first experience seeing an inhabitable planet from space.

The side of the cube upon which the estate had been placed was set up to provide an environment just like on a planetary surface. During a portion of the day the image of a warm sun would move across the sky just as if they were on a planet, but with the light and heat adjusted to only be those rays which were not harmful to human health. At other portions of the day the view of space from outside the shields would be shown which would simulate a night sky. At all times any harmful or excessively intense radiation from outside the shields would always be blocked providing a healthy environment for those who lived on and in the cube.

The available area of that side of the cube was much larger than the area of the estate so extra soil had been transported from other uninhabited areas of the planet to fill in the remaining area. This would allow growing plants and animals that had been brought along with the estate in the additional area. Each side of the cube provided four square kilometers of space in which they could build, of which only two currently had any use being made of them. The spellcraft based artificial gravity generators allowed each side of the cube to have an independent field, so each side would seem to be "down" to anyone upon it without any interference from the other sides.

A portion of the interior of the cube was taken up by the machinery needed to provide basic services but that was only a small part of the available room. Most of the space inside the cube was empty, many kilometers of passages and empty rooms were available for whatever the High Lords wanted to use them for in the future. Most of what they needed in the way of facilities they would build as they went along.

On the opposite side of the cube from the side where the estate had been placed a tower rose up to just below the spherical surface of the shields, this was the control tower from which it was intended to control and navigate the ship. On this side of the cube it was intended to build a small, modern city around the base of the control tower, using a mix of spellcraft and Republic based technology. Here the environment would be the artificial one of the most modern city though most of that had yet to be built. Currently on this side were only those few devices the High Lords had brought with them from the Antares or constructed themselves.

Mev gave Shina a few minutes to take in the sight of the planet above and then he touched her lightly on the arm to get her attention. "Shina, the time for our departure approaches," he said.

"What?" Shina asked with her eyes still to the sky and the planet above.

"We must go to the control center now. We must make preparation to leave this planet," Mev explained.

"Oh, OK. What do I need to do?" Shina asked, taking her eyes off the planet which filled the sky.

"I will transport us to the control center. Please allow me to do the work, you are not ready for such a task yet," Mev answered.

"You can proceed then," Shina said.

Mev reached out and grasped Shina with his power and transported them both to the other side of the cube and onto the top of the control tower. There the other three High Lords, Medron, and Anna awaited them, and the small amount of Republic devices they possessed had been set up on portable tables. The camp chairs they had used down on the planet completed the scanty furnishings of the control room of the high cube space ship.

Of course since the ship was controlled and powered using spellcraft technology the High Lords could easily control every part of it from anywhere within it. But the control tower provided a space where they could meet as well as set up any equipment they desired to use, especially that which was based upon the technology of the Interstellar Republic.

"Everything is ready for us to depart this planet," Mev said aloud to the assembled group.

"With this ship we could easily return to the Republic and end the war. The Morro could not stand against us now," Anna said.

"While that idea does have some appeal, to proceed with that would lead to zentas hue. We must instead first proceed to meet with the Antares," Mev replied. "We must move forward and look to the future, not the past."

"The Antares is the name of the ship that brought you here?" Shina asked.

"Yes. Now that our own vessel has been completed sufficient to allow us to live aboard and travel it is necessary to meet with them one last time," Mev answered.

"You have foreseen this?" Shina asked, already knowing somewhat about the precognitive powers of the High Lords.

"Yes," Mev answered without elaborating.

"Then I suppose we should proceed," Shina said. She was feeling a little anxious about leaving her planet for the first time, yet she also remembered Basak and knew the necessity of it.

Mev reached out with his mind and passed instructions to the controller of the ship and the normal space drive was activated. This was one of four possible ways the ship could move through space and the slowest and most trustworthy. The means was available to travel to the current location of the Antares in an instant but Mev did not wish to travel so fast. At the rate of speed he had selected the travel time to reach the Antares would be a little more than five days.

On the opposite side of the cube almost everyone was outside looking at the planet above and now they noticed the large disk in the sky was starting to slowly grow smaller. This of course was due to the cube now moving away from the planet toward where the Antares would be in five days.

There was a large amount of space inside the interior of the cube and only a portion of that area had been filled with decks and compartments but even that was far more space than the current inhabitants would be able to use for quite some time.

A few hours after the ship began to move away from the planet a simulated sunrise occurred on the side of the cube where Shina's house had been placed. Of course there was no actual sunrise since the real sun was on a different side of the cube and wasn't visible from that side. Instead, the underside of the shield displayed an artificial sun image providing an artificial daylight with light and warmth similar to the sun visible on the planet. However, none of the damaging portions of normal sunlight were present in the artificial sunlight and any such rays from the exterior of the shields were completely blocked.

The environment control for this side of the cube was even programmed to simulate the weather existing in the location from which Shina's family house had been taken. At intervals the shield above the surface would take on the appearance of a cloudy sky and fresh water would be teleported and materialized above the surface in such a way that rain would be simulated. This would provide a natural support for the plan and animal life which had been brought along with the house.