Chapter 3

The bond between Miko and Penny had been formed over many years of hardships and adversity. It was a personal one and not anything an outsider could understand.

Damascus was their first stop. What was unusual was that everything they did or would have to do was for someone else. It was not Omi, nor the Dark Lord, but Mustapha. This was something they did not understand, but, it was not their place to understand just to obey. Mustapha too, just seemed to obey some sort of an order. It was not something he believed in or promulgated, he just did it.

The Syrians were an old and proud people but in the real world, never very successful at war since the time of the Crusades. The recent wars against Israel proved things had not changed much, now Moslem fought Moslem and succeeded in all but destroying Aleppo, the one bright spot remaining in Syria.

Money brought, or more actually bought peace of a sort. Damascus was to be held from the rebels as a stronghold. It was assumed that it would eventually be besieged and calls for help to Cairo would have to be made.

Egypt would make a request then to Russia, delays in a response would worry the Syrians and then the Chinese offer for peacekeepers readily accepted. It would be costly but the stakes were huge and timing was everything if the plan was to work.

The 'carrot' would then be offered after showing the 'big stick'. One million peacekeepers would be put in place, more if necessary. Russia would increase aid to Egypt, America's response would be more money to Israel and soon each of them would fear to take any overt actions in Syria or Palestine. This would be the time for the 'carrot' and there would be no one to oppose such a humanitarian effort. Especially those who had resisted any compromise for so long.

To Li Wu, such a decision was far easier to make when the end of all civilization was at hand. A few million sacrificed to one side then another in exchange for the prospect of a civilization surviving was a simple decision to be made. He doubted any human though would think so.

Several things had come about to make it a simple choice. Earth just did not have the capability for massive suspended animation projects. Even on his own world there had been failures of systems after various periods of time. Dust and freeze dried corpses were all that had remained. If humans, at least the species were to survive some alternative means would be required for such long journeys. Then there were the alternatives. Somehow 10 billion sentient beings as food or slaves did not seem a proper solution.

He had already agreed to provide both 'greens' and 'greys' each 10 million humans, then more after emergency procedures were acted upon. Replication, cloning and DNA Marker technology would all be used as a temporary solution, adapted later to human limitations and all of those used to reduce the overall risks of a failure. His people would harvest the minerals, gases and precious liquids of the dying planet before the end came. All in all, it seemed an equitable solution. He doubted that he or anyone now involved would still be around on Earth. but things had to start sometime, he postulated.

Even the years left might not be enough time to reach maximum capacity for relocation. Estimates though were always greater than was needed so he felt even at 1/3 capacity everything done would be well worth the effort.