“It is true that Lady Hawthorne is and has conducted an inventory of the Kingdom’s precious art and museum exhibits.” Pete’s voice had a hard edge to it as he continued, “but not for sale. And definitely not for sale to fund the evacuation. As we evacuate Trena we plan to evacuate our libraries, and museums to Home. But not all of it. Some of the art, some of our museum exhibits will be taken to a special exhibit space on McKay to be shared with the people who will remain in the Trena system after Trena is destroyed. Queen Agatha is adamant that we may be losing our world, but our culture and heritage will not be lost or destroyed.
“We plan to ship a little bit of it out with each lift. “ Pete said, “Currently there is no place to display it on Home. Some of this art must be kept in climate controlled environments. So it will remain in storage until we have such a facility to display it. It is our intention as towns and villages are created and populated to put a lot of the art in traveling exhibits. But that is a few years in the future.”
“What about the Marshal,” the same reporter asked, “Will he be given an estate on
Home?”
“No sir,” Pete answered the reporter’s question, “Marshal Wilson, won’t be given anything on Home.”
He paused for a moment reviewing what he and Marshal Wilson had discussed. “His daughter owns this world. She is graciously letting large areas of Home to be populated by our people. What sections of Home not populated by our people will still be owned by Miss Wilson and her family.”
“Does she truly own it,” another reporter asked. Everyone was having trouble believing Jill owned the planet of Home.
“Yes,” Pete said, “His daughter is the heir to the Estate of Margo Hazelton Wilson, who was the granddaughter of the original EBio founder Dr. Leonard Hazelton. When Lord Wilson left Earth with Lady Wilson he assigned his shares in the EBio to his daughter in a trust to be managed by his step mother Admiral Wilson and Princess Carroll of Earth. To make a long story short, Jill Wilson owns the world as part of her estate.”
“What do the Wilson’s get out of it? Will they be our new monarchy?” another reporter asked.
“They don’t get much out of it,” Pete remarked, “It is the Marshal’s intention to retire to the estate they are going to build on Home, and let the people of Home run their affairs without his or his daughter’s intercession.”
“What’s the Queen’s position on this? And the House of Lords,” a reporter asked.
“The Queen has not discussed this with me or anyone from the parliament,” Pete said not telling the full truth. The Queen had discussed it with him. It wasn’t his place to discuss their conversation with the press.
“Thank you sir,” one of Pete’s assistants called from the back of the room after Pete had signaled that it was time to wind it up. He didn’t want to go any further on this issue. It was filled with land mines and not small ones. As Pete left the podium the first notices were being received by those selected to go first. As he began to leave the press center he spied Jill and one of her productive detail.
“You shouldn’t be here! Your mother and father will have both of our scalps,” Pete scolded the teenager.
“Come on let’s get out of here,” Jenny suggested.
Jenny led her out of the press area. As they left her, a black cat came right over to them and began rubbing their ankles trying to get their attention. Jill picked up the cat and began to pet it. “Are you lost?”
”There you are Bugs!” A militia sergeant came up to them. Jill had seen the sergeant around the grounds the last couple of days standing various posts. She had seen the sergeant spill a glass of water on Lord Mercer. The sergeant, a young woman of about 5’ 8”; with shoulder length blond hair, weighed a little under 140 pounds. Jill wished she had the nearly perfect figure the sergeant had. “I hope he wasn’t a nuisance?”
“No,” Jill said handing the sergeant the cat, “I wondered how he got on the grounds.
It is the first time I have seen him.”
“He’s supposed to be in mine and Georgia’s room. He always gets out somehow!” Alice was not about to tell the young woman that Bugs was part of her security unit. He could go places she couldn’t go searching for bugs and what have you.
“Well he’s not a bother, if you need someone to look after him let me know I don’t think mom or dad would mind if I looked after him.” Jill said.
“That’s okay Miss Jill,” the sergeant said, she didn’t have the heart to tell the marshal’s daughter, that the cat though purring its heart out in Alice’s arms, signaling that there were no bugs in the area, was a semi intelligent robot that Alice had built a couple weeks back. “The lieutenant had a fit when I brought him along on the assignment. It took a direct order from the XO to let me keep him. He’ll read my beads if he knew that Bugs was making a pest of himself with the Royals.”
“Well if Bugs, needs a home for a while let me know!” Jill said and left the press area.
###
Valerie Mitchum was standing outside the music store in the South Mall with several other people when she heard the announcement of the first people to be evacuated to Home. As she heard the announcement, she wondered how she could be evacuated to Home. It had to be better than living on the streets of Trenaport. A few days before Lottie’s death, after helping a family pack up their apartment, they told her she could stay in their abandoned apartment. She moved in with her meager processions. It gave her a place where she could wait to be evacuated. The apartment was fully furnished as the family could only take their clothing and a few personal things. She had been surprised when she had found the apartment’s pantry stocked. For first time since leaving the ‘Adventure of Learning’, the tall ship she had lived on for the last few years, she felt was going to be oaky. Between what Gaylord had given her and what the Crown’s Victims Compensation Fund had given her she had enough money to cover her needs. She just had to find a way to get off Trena.
She didn’t know how to make that happen.
She saw the shop keeper of the music store and knew it was time to move on. The shop keeper wouldn’t allow the kids in the store. She didn’t think he was being a hard case for not letting kids in the store. She had seen the two kids wrestling over a violin that got them all banned from the store. The violin somehow ended up on the floor in two pieces. So kids were banned except when accompanied by an adult. The shop keeper’s assistant when his boss was out of the store would allow her in and to look around. He even let her occasionally, when he knew his boss was going to be out of the store, play one of the guitars. Not today though, the shop keeper was the only one in the store. She was thinking of buying the one guitar that she mostly played.
She left the area of the music store and found a place where she could sit and observe the comings and goings of the people using the mall. She bought a drink at one of the kiosks. She was sipping her drink wondering how she could get to Home when she saw the two police officers who had rendered justice on Lottie’s behalf. They saw her and came over to her. The mall was part of their patrol.
“How are you Miss Mitchum,” L’eam, and F’rena asked in unison. Mitch smiled a bit, this was not the first lifemated Thonians she knew. Often lifemates would speak in unison and with the same vocal qualities.
“I am fine,” the seventeen year old answered.
“We haven’t seen you since Lottie’s closed.” The female thonian said, “We were worried about you”
“Why,” Mitch asked. Often the cops just wanted to bust her or wished she would disappear.
“That was a bad thing,” the male thonian replied “We wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“It was a bad thing,” Mitch admitted. In truth she had never seen anything like that in her young life. She had seen many things in the five years she had been on the Adventure. She seen a rigger fall to his death when he lost his footing when they were pulling the top most sail in during a storm. She had never
seen anyone kill someone before.
“How are you coping with it,” the male Thonian asked sitting down beside her.
“I don’t know,” Mitchum replied. She really didn’t know how she felt about it.
“Lottie was a good friend. She kind of looked after me.”
“We had been told that,” the other one said, “That’s why we wanted to talk with you. They held a memorial for her. We missed you.”
“I was out back with a couple of mourners.” Mitch replied, “I saw you leaving when
I came back in.”
“Patrol 29 what is your status?” The communicator called.
“In service at South Mall,” F’rena called into the device.
“Respond to a disturbance in the residential section of the mall.” The device called.
“On the way,” F’rena, the female thonian called as her lifemate stood and they started to go to the residential section.
With nothing better to do and wondering what the commotion was on her apartment’s floor, she followed the Companions.
“Give me back my notice!” someone was yelling as they came up on the group.
“It is not your notice,” another voice yelled. The crowd noise was getting loud. Mitch saw twenty or so people surrounding the two who were arguing. They were a young man who was wearing a tool belt and an older over weight guy. She thought knew him as the guy who ran one of the cafes on the ground floor of the mall. As they got closer the older man pushed the younger man, who fell to the floor. He jumped back up and was about to swing on the fat man, when the male thonian simply picked the young man up by his collar and turned him around. His partner moved in on the fat man and cut him out of the crowd. Soon both men were separated.
“What’s going on,” L’eam asked the young man.
“I got my notice and printed it off and was showing a couple of the guys when Jonathon took it and said it was his! Said I got it out of his printer. I sometimes use his printer to print out my stuff. When he saw what it was he went crazy and wouldn’t let me have it back. I tried to print out another; but he wouldn’t let me,” The youngster said in a rush.
“Can I see it,” the thonian asked.
“He still has it,” the young man said.
“F’rena can you scan the notice please.” The thonian asked his lifemate. He had heard the overweight man’s side of it as his lifemate interviewed him. F’rena scanned the hard copy of the notice. A holograph of the young man filed the air over the scanner.
Turning to Jonathon the thonians said in unison, “Sir if you wish to continue to challenge this we will take you down to the station house where you will be interrogated by agents of the Crown and should you be mistaken about this document, you will be arrested. The Marshal and the evacuation command are taking a dim view of identity theft.”
They let it sink in and then asked, “What is your desire citizen.”
“That’s all right.” The Jonathon answered, “I guess I was mistaken.” “Do you wish to press charges,” the male companion asked the young man.
“No.” the young man said, “everyone is getting desperate. Just so he doesn’t do it again.”
“If you cause any more trouble,” both thonians spoke again to the man named
Jonathon, “we will arrest you.”
“I understand,” the man responded.
“Come on folks, it is all over.” The thonians trying to wind things down spoke to the crowd, “Move on now.”
Taking the hint Mitch left for the apartment she was squatting in. When the thonians tried to find her, she wasn’t anywhere to be found.
###
“So the exodus from Trena to Home began,” General Jones said from the front of the class. “This first lift of twenty thousand souls was a milestone. Until this point, only people whose government was allowing them to return. Who had jobs or family to take them in, on other planets had been able to get off world. Now common everyday people were being evacuated in mass.”
“What always impressed me was that no one tried to force their way onto the landing craft,” T’harla remarked.
“Security at the embarkation points were very strong.” The general replied. “Each of the embarkation points were secured by the militia. Often backed up by an armored personnel carrier. In the early days you couldn’t get near an embarkation point unless you had your evacuation order. Later you were picked up at your home and taken to a shelter where you met up with the landing craft that would take you to your transport. That alone kept problems at the embarkation to a minimum.”
“Chief Atomi, and Marshal Wilson,” The general continued, “both extremely experience law enforcement professionals, were surprised that there was very little social unrest. We did have a couple of riots. Towards the end there were a couple of riots when a rumor was circulated that the Queen had left and was living on McKay. They stormed the palace or tried to; but they couldn’t get past the perimeter fence and its force field. That and the Queen inviting several of the ring leaders into the palace to meet with her to prove she was still on Trena. That stopped the worse riot we had.”
“All right,” General Jones said seeing that the class period was at an end. “Read the next chapter. I’ll see you in a week.”
The end of class tones chimed and the general called softly, “Class dismissed!” The general stood up to leave, as she did the senior cadet called, “Attention!” The class stood while the general left.
Chapter 11: Unwanted Excitement
The Princess was granted weekend leave to attend the christening of His Majesty’s Ship the Lady Wilson. HMS 02C was a hospital ship. The original HMS 02B had been retired just last year at the end of its service life. Now the third such ship to bare her great grandmother Lisa name was being christen on Sunday. She had been asked by her father King David to christen the ship. The christening went off without a hitch. At least until they all got back to North View Palace, when her parents got into an argument.
“She’s not going to do it and that’s final!” her mother yelled at her father.
“Carolyn is old enough to get her landing craft license,” Her father had yelled back. “Every one of us has gotten our pilot’s license before we graduated middle school. It’s time for her to get her ticket.”
“She’s too young,” Her mother yelled back.
Princess Lisa left the family room where her parents had been arguing and went to her room where she opened Queen Jill’s diary.
“I know mom and dad had their disagreements,” Jill had written, “They never argued where people could hear them. But this evening I heard them arguing about something Lisa was dead set on doing.”
As Princess Lisa read the diary entry she wished her parents were like Queen Jill’s. ###
A few nights after the press conference Jill witnessed, Jill over heard her father and step-mother arguing.
“Lisa you are not going to do that!” her father was yelling.
“Mike I am you wife!” Lisa yelled, “You don’t own me! You may own the company that built me; but you certainly don’t own me! I am going to the port to take those photos!”
“Lisa it’s too damn dangerous! We haven’t even gotten a sniff of Hozenbur and we know she’ll have to try something at this lift. The terrorizing of biopeople on this lift is just too great!”
“You mean that with all the cops, MPs, Marines, and Militiamen you can’t keep one crazy old woman from disrupting the lift?” Lisa asked.
“It’s not just one crazy old woman and you know it!” her father snapped, “That crazy old woman has the equivalent of a Black Guard alpha team.”
“Yes, she has one of the best closer teams the company has ever fielded. But she is smart.” Lisa said, “She won’t try anything with me or with the first lift if she can’t get away with it. You know I am right about her. I am going and that is all there is to it!”
“It’s too damn dan
gerous.” Her father repeated. Then his tone softened a bit, “I couldn’t stop you with a platoon of marines could I.”
“Not even with one of the Princess’ alpha teams.” Lisa admitted. “Okay,” her father relented, “But you go with a detail.” “Okay,” Lisa agreed.
Lisa had come out of the master bedroom and saw Jill sheepishly trying to blend into the wall. “You heard that?” “Yes,” Jill answered.
“Let’s go into your room for a bit,” Lisa asked. It was time to tell her about Hozenbur.
In her room, Jill asked, “How dangerous is it for you to be at the embarkation area?”
“Less dangerous than your father is making out.” Lisa replied a little anger still in her voice, “I’ll be around people who will be the first people to get off world. They won’t be interested in hurting me.”
“Why does this Hozenbur want you?” Jill asked.
“I am an escaped bioperson from the company.” Lisa answered, “To make matters worse it was from Captain Hozenbur’s team. Which made her look incompetent. She has tried to capture me for over 20 years.”
Lisa was carefully choosing her words. She still wasn’t ready to talk about all of her past with Jill. There were some dark episodes she hadn’t even shared with her husband. Yet Jill had the right to know more about her than she knew now. “I was born on a planet called Holly. I was to be a production clone. I was in a very small group of clones they had developed with specially abilities. My IQ was above average for even the Deltas. Instead of developing my skills they decided they were going to breed me like some prized cow” Lisa said with some venom. “Fortunately that never came to be.”
“I didn’t know that until much later.” Lisa continued. “Someone misread my production plan. Instead of staying on Holly, to be kept barefoot and pregnant, I was sent on to a finishing center. So from the time I was thirteen until I turned eighteen, I was finished. I had a knack for medicine, specifically therapy. Once finished my contract was sold to a medical personnel firm on station 54. That was where I met your father.” She smiled remembering the six months she had spent with her father helping Joyce Wilson recover from combat injuries. Up until recently they were the best times of her life.