To Forge a Queen

  “When Great Grand Dad Mike left the empire,” Princess Lisa replied, “he had to do so in a hurry. Great Grandmother Lisa was wanted by the Company. Seems she was an escaped biowoman. So the company wanted her back. But Great Grandfather Mike was not going to let that happen. He had lost her once and he wasn’t about to lose the woman he loved disappear again, so he put his, ‘papers’ in,” she put air quotes as she papers, “and left the Imperial Marines.

  “With Grandma Lisa in tow, he left Earth and the empire Trena. Leaving Grandma Jill with Grandma Joyce,” Princess Lisa finished up. Sometimes when she talked about her grandparents there were just too many grandmas in the story. Especially when she added the greats! Keeping those straight could be a challenge! “So leaving Queen Jill on Mars, with great, great, great, great, Grandma Joyce was the only viable option he had or so he thought. It was only when Queen Jill found out Grand Dad Mike and Grand Mom Lisa were on Trena did she leave for Trena.”

  “But how did she find out they were on Trena,” T’harla Langtree one of many great, great nephews of David and Mylea Langtree asked, “Everything I have ever read about them had them trying to stay under the radar. So the company wouldn’t come for them?”

  “The company was indeed hunting for them,” General Jones had quietly entered the room and was listening to the cadets before making her presence known.

  “Room…” Princess Lisa began but the general interrupted her, “As you were cadets.”

  The cadets who were struggling to their feet stopped and sat back down.

  “Yes the company was indeed trying to capture Lady Wilson and her husband, the Marshal.” The humbot general took a seat among the cadets, “They had been living on

  Trena for several years when the emergency began.”

  “General we all know that Queen Agatha reached down for Granddad Mike,” Lamile Mitchum commented and then asked, “But how did Grand Mom Jill find out they were on Trena?”

  “Didn’t you read the assignment Cadet Mitchum,” The human looking robot asked an eyebrow rose as if in accusation. To look at the 200 year old sentient computer, one would never think she was anything but a human!

  “Yes ma’am,” the young cadet replied, “I guess I just don’t get it. It seems strange that our great, great grandmother would at seventeen be doing things like that search she was doing.”

  “If you had known Queen Jill you wouldn’t be asking that question.” The general replied. She pondered if she should speak of her association with the first queen of Home. In the end she decided not yet. Instead she decided to begin the session by lecturing on how young Jill was informed of the evacuation and where her father was.

  ###

  Jill Wilson had been studying in her room in her grandmother’s home, on Mars, when the computer beeped for attention. The teenager quickly turned from the homework she was struggling with to see why the computer was clambering for her attention. Although she could use the distraction, her homework was especially tedious tonight, she hoped it wasn’t one of her friends wanting to chat without their parents knowing they were goofing off. She really needed to get the report for her interstellar history class done. She should have done it a week ago! She had been procrastinating for the whole term! When she saw what the expert system was trying to get her attention about, all thoughts of homework vanished.

  Years ago when one of her classes required her to research current events on something, (she had forgot what after all these years,) she realized she could set up a search for her father. True it was only public news media data bases, to her young mind she thought she might find him. Her initial data mining turned up the two Imperial Medal of Honor he had been awarded; his knighthood; and his non classified military service record. Stuff she already knew about. She left the program run. Over the four years her expert system had been running she had forgotten it was still running. Now the terminal in her room was reporting that the data mining had finally found something on her father.

  “Girl Friend sho0w me what you have found,” Jill addressed the computer.

  “Sure thing,” a teenage girl spoke from the terminal.

  She wondered what the computer had found about her father. Her father had left the empire five years ago, just left with someone she knew about; but hadn’t met. For years she had thought that it had been something she had said or done. But later, she had received a letter from her father that explained why he had left the empire. It had answered some of the mystery of his abandonment of her. He had explained why he felt that he had to go away. Not where, but why. It had been barely enough to make her feel better or at least less guilty. Although she resented his treatment of her, she still loved him and longed to have him back in her life. Since her mother had died giving birth to her, she only had her grandmother and her father. Grandma was great; but she wasn’t dad. There was nothing in the letter that told her where he was. It was hand written! Finally after all these years, the computer was reporting that it had found something about her father!

  When she told the computer to display what it had found, a royal crest floated in the air over the teenager’s desk as the computer presented it as a holographic display with music filling the room. As the image faded she realized that the crest was that of the Kingdom of Trena; a small independent star nation between the empire and the realm. The crest faded to show a young woman who appeared not much older than herself seated on the edge of a plain white desk with few accouterments. She stood up and seemed to walk towards her. The woman was dressed in a plain business suite. Once standing in the middle of the room she began speaking.

  “Good evening,” The Queen began, “I am sorry to interrupt your evening, but it cannot be helped. I too wanted to see the Royals smash the Manglers in the finals.” She gave a smile that seemed sad. “But my people I have a message that cannot wait much longer to share with you. I wish I could give you time to get use to what I am about to share with you, to feed the news to you in small edible bites, or to sugarcoat it, but I am forced to be blunt. ”

  “A terrible tragedy is about to befall our beloved home world. By the winter holidays Trena will have been destroyed by the remnants of a couple errant pieces of sky junk. The imagery now playing on your receivers shows how Trena will die.” The sound continued but now the woman’s image was superimposed by a map of a solar system and a video that showed how the disaster started and what was expected to happen. A time line was superimposed on the images showing when things had to be done. The last scenes showed asteroids impacting on the planet.

  “This information was reported to me a while ago,” the young woman said softly, “At first I couldn’t believe it and had to have it rechecked and confirmed. The comet that we all watched in awe invade the Cheryl Asteroid belt then after being assured that it was of no further danger to us, thinking, we were safe from any further disaster from the comet as it appeared to be on its way out of the Trena Solar System we turned to other more important things in our lives.

  “How I wish that were true. How I wish that was true.” she repeated. “When I was informed of the disaster about to befall us I was stunned. Wanting to make sure that what I was being told was correct I had various authorities look at the data. The presentation that you are now seeing is the consensus of what they believe will happen to our lovely world. Yesterday I became convinced that the simulation I just shared with you will come to pass.

  “Many of you, just as I did, will not want to believe this.” She continued, “Some of you will seek to deny that our home world; which has nurtured us from our birth, or has given us a haven from danger, is doomed. Many of you may choose not to be evacuated, believing we are exaggerating the scope of the disaster. Some of you may even take actions that are totally unacceptable to your family, friends, and to me, your sovereign. I have authorized and commanded that the data that I have presented to you this evening be made public. It is now available in the Royal Library and can be reviewed by the people of
Trena at any time.

  “To answer one of the questions surely to be asked; can the militia do something about this? They have tried and failed, making matters much worse. For that you can blame me as I asked our friend’s, the Thonians, to try to blow the asteroids out of the sky. Instead of clearing a path that Trena could glide through. It had the opposite effect of making the asteroids denser and now impossible to eradicate safely. My advisors have assured me that any type of clearing action now will make it much more disastrous.

  “We must evacuate our world,” The Queen said softly, her voice filled with tense emotion. “As much as I wish there was another way; there isn’t. Today I have had to make a decision on how to accomplish this. In consultation with my government,” The imagery had gone back to the office setting and showed the Queen standing with several people “and my trusted advisors; I have found an individual that is capable and willing to lead our evacuation effort.”

  “His name is Lord Michael Wilson,” the Queen said as the image dissolved to show a tall husky man in the navy blue uniform of an Imperial Marine being invested as a Knight Commander of the Terrestrial Empire. As images showed this same marine being awarded the Imperial Medal of Honor, The Thonian Service Cross and presented a brief resume. The Queen’s voice overlaid the imagery, “He is a peer of the House of Lords of the Terrestrial Empire. His is not a hereditary title. His title was earned through dedicated hard service and sacrifice to the Terrestrial Empire. He emigrated to Trena, where he quickly became a valued instructor at the Trenaport Mounted Police Academy, and at the University of Trena, where he teaches emergency management, law enforcement tactics and moral leadership to our planet’s police officers. He is by far the most knowledgeable person on Trena, or off to help get every last mother’s child off Trena. He may not have been born on Trena, but he has my confidence in his loyalty to us and our need. My people, and visitors to the Free State, I present to you the Marshal of the Trena Royal Constabulary, Lord Michael Wilson, our Commander of the Trena Evacuation Force.”

  She heard her father’s name and saw the tall imposing figure of her middle aged father, the same man seen in the holos marched to where the Queen stood, taking his place beside her, He towered over the Queen at nearly six foot six. As soon as he was in place, a woman took a position beside him. The woman was a delta clone. One of the top of the line models from EBio. Jill knew who she was, the woman who her father had left the Empire with. The camera zoomed to show an older man in a black flowing robe standing before a large rock set on an ornate table set before the Queen’s party.

  The old man turned to her father who, was dressed in a scarlet uniform jacket and black trousers. There were five stars surrounding a crown on his collar. The man in the flowing robe indicated the rock that she could see had several names inscribed on it. “Lord

  Wilson, place your hand on the Rock, and raise your left hand.” Her father did as requested.

  “Lord Michael Wilson, do you solemnly swear to protect and defend the people of Trena from all threats, against her and her people, whether they be foreign, domestic, natural or other?”

  “I do,” her father’s baritone softly filled the room as he took the oath with one palm on the “Rock” and the other held in the classic position of oath taking.

  “Upon your sacred honor, as you take this Oath of Duty and Fealty to the people of Trena, do you further swear that you hold no other commitments or reservations upon your time, including commissions in any foreign governmental or military organizations that would hinder you in serving the Kingdom of Trena and her people?” “I so swear!” Mike Wilson’s voice boomed filling the room.

  “Your Majesty,” the justice turned to the sovereign, and then the assembled government officials, “Your lordships, Mr. President,” then facing the camera the solemn man continued, “People of Trena, I give you our new duly installed, Commander of the Trena Evacuation Force, Marshal Lord Michael Wilson.”

  “Thank you, your Honor,” He shook the official’s hand and bowed to the sovereign, “Queen Agatha.” then turned to the camera himself “People of Trena I will make this brief, as we don’t have a lot of time for things like this.

  “Our Queen has selected me to manage this Herculean task of getting every last one of you off-world. I promise you all that this task will be my only objective. I make this promise to you; that those of you on Trena today I will see that you are safely gotten off-world before it is too late. It is not going to be easy. There’s going to be hard times. Some of you may not believe what is happening; others may believe that you have a better way to get things done.

  “That is quite normal.” He spoke calmly almost softly, “What I ask of you today is to continue on with your everyday affairs. Our world needs you at your jobs. Your families still have to eat and your landlord still needs his rent, and creditors need you to pay your bills so they can feed their families. Simply because we’re going to evacuate Trena doesn’t mean it’s going to happen tomorrow. We all have to work together. Our farmers have to transport their goods to market, and our factories have to build what we will need to evacuate all of us. Without you we can’t make the evacuation happen!

  “But more importantly, it will take us all working together to get every last mother’s child off Trena. So before you ask what the crown can do to help you, ask what you can do to help the crown get us all off world. That’s all I have to say at this time, I’ll be in touch over the next few weeks.”

  The air in the bedroom sparkled as the holo faded Jill ran out of her bedroom and to the spa where her grandmother was relaxing as she normally did in the evening after their diner.

  “Grandma,” The seventeen year old granddaughter of the retired admiral broke into spa. The teenager knew that when her grandmother was in the spa-bath at this time of night that it was her quiet time. It was the time of day when her grandmother Joyce could let her hair down and not be bothered. This was usually after dinner and she was generally alone, with only her thoughts for company, this quiet meditation time was a tradition her grandmother had begun when she had been appointed as the commander of PriFly, the Interstellar Rescue Service base that trained pilots for its Rescue and Hospital Patrol Ships. She had needed the quiet time to review the day and get her head straight. It was the only place in the house where there was no communicators, holosets, or computers. Only a small audio player in the corner that played music was the only electronics in the room. And it wasn’t even hooked to house network. It was a place of solitude that was suddenly broken by Jill. “I’m sorry to disturb you; but Dad’s in the news!”

  “What!” The seventy year old woman shot up in the whirl pool bath, dripping water on the floor of the spa. She quickly climbed out and threw the robe around her that Jill handed her. Then she accompanied Jill to her bedroom where teenager replayed the whole video.

  They looked good; the retired admiral thought. She hadn’t seen her step-son since he had left the empire. But that didn’t mean she didn’t keep tabs on him. The current ambassador to the Court of Trena was her old academy roommate. Amanda always forwarded what news she had of Mike and his family. She knew she had another grandchild. She even had pictures; but she didn’t share them with Jill, as she knew Jill would be all over her to go to her father. She also didn’t want to give him away to the people who were chasing him. It was one of the really few secrets she kept from her granddaughter.

  “Do you think he’s been on Trena all this time?” Jill asked. Her father had just picked up one day and vanished. She had been terribly hurt; it was only her grandmother and time that eased; but not totally resolved her hurt feelings.

  Joyce Wilson was quiet for a while; pretending to focus on the news report she was seeing. She didn’t want to hurt the girl’s feelings. They had developed a close bond and while Jill could be a handful, she trusted her grandmother. This could break that trust. She pondered how she could tell Jill what she knew and how much she should tell her.
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  “It’s the news media Admiral,” French, the house AI called from the speakers of the holoset interrupting her thoughts “They are requesting that you make a statement about the situation on Trena.”

  “No comment,” Joyce said, “Any news media representatives are to be told that there will not be a statement of any type. Have Louis set the perimeter security to: hard on. Then put on the beacon that we are not accepting visitors. The Wilson family is not accepting calls from anyone that is not on you’re A list. Unwelcome visitors will be dealt with as harshly as the law permits.”

  “Yes Ma’am,” The computer said. “I am posting the notice now.”

  The retired admiral who had commanded landing craft wings in battle was scared to death to come clean about how long she had known her step son was on Trena.

  “French,” The admiral called, thinking she had way to delay the inevitable. “Please record the following!”

  “Recording,” The AI droned.

  “Message to Marshal Wilson.” Her grandmother began, “Care of General Delivery; The Kingdom of Trena.”

  “Congratulations, on your posting as Marshal of Trena. I thought you were trying to maintain a low profile? Did you forget?

  “You and Lisa look great! Some company you keep! Your boss looks beautiful.

  Leave it to you find a beautiful woman to be your Boss!”

  “Hi dad! It’s Jill! I miss you! I love you and really want to see you! Can I come and be with you.” She wanted to say more but she wasn’t certain that her grandmother wouldn’t edited it out of the message. She would send one later that was more personal.

  “So do I son. Hurry home when you can! And bring your family!” Jill threw the camera a kiss, and Joyce said, “French; send it!” “Done,” The voice said.

  “Grandma, let's go to dad’s,” The teenager asked, then pleaded, “Please!”

  “Jill,” the retired admiral looked at her granddaughter, “This isn’t the time to visit him. I am not even sure we could get clearance into Trena Space right now. That has to be an exit only area. It’s not going to be a good place to be.”