“Yes,” Mitch responded “It’s just that all of this stuff used to belong to a friend of mine who was killed a few weeks back. This is the last of Lottie’s things. She would be happy that people will be able to use her stuff.”
“Is this the lady who was killed by the closer?” Jill asked.
The girl nodded.
“I am sorry that happened,” Jill continued, “Dad is trying to find the rest of them and bring them to justice.”
The girl nodded as Jill helped her to remove a large suitcase from the trunk of the car. Jill’s heart went out to the girl. She wanted to do something for her but didn’t know what she could do or what would be appropriate.
As Mitch rode with Lanny, a friend of Gaylord’s and Lottie’s, out of the immense barn she realized the girl who had helped her was the girl who had given the people of Trena, Home. It surprised her that the girl would be helping to unload the cars of people bringing donations for the people of Galloway.
Lisa joined them after a while and worked with them taking the donations of the people of Trenaport for the victims of the disaster. Lisa her camera never far from hand took several photos. They heard more than once, that they hoped they got the men who did this horrible thing. Towards evening, a car came for Lisa. Jill learned that her step mother was to be part of a ceremony at the palace that the Queen was holding to inform the Bishop of Trenaport, the ambassador from the Theocracy, that he was persona non gratis.
Towards the end of the week Jill made a conference call to the Princess and her grandmother who was spending the day with her old academy roommate.
“Grand mom, General when would it be convenient to talk to you about something I want to do,” Jill asked when the Princess was on the phone.
“Now’s okay with me,” her grandmother replied.
“Me too!” The general asked. “What do you want to do?”
“We are getting donations of everything except baby clothing. I want to buy about a thousand crowns worth of baby clothing and make it available to the people of Galloway.”
Jill answered. “Can I do that?”
“We may have trouble finding it,” Princess Carroll replied, “But you find it and I’ll see that it gets paid for.”
“General,” Aggie had stopped by East Wind to talk with Lady Hawthorne, and had walked in on Jill, “Can you hear me.”
“Yes your majesty,” The princess said.
“I’ll match whatever Jill spends for the people of Galloway,” Agatha said. “So let me know what ends up being spent on this project.”
“Will do,” The princess said. This was the first time Jill had asked her to give her more money. She had been afraid of the battle she was going to have with the young woman. Afraid that they would end up arguing over something that was trivial and expensive! Instead she had asked to spend money in a direction she didn’t think she would. She would have no problem releasing the money for the girl’s project. “You okay with that Joyce?
“Absolutely,” the girl’s grandmother responded.
When it was all said and done they had more than enough baby clothing for every infant and small child in Galloway. Later they would have trouble finding clothing for other children.
###
“That damn break ended the Theocracy’s diplomatic mission to Trena,” The general began to wrap up her class for the day, “The Queen brought all the noble women, General Alphine, the queen’s mother, Chief Atomi, and nearly a hundred senior women from the government and diplomatic row to the throne room. I saw a holo later of the ambassador being escorted into the monarch’s presence. He was thoroughly searched. When he was done being frisked by two women of the Queen’s Own Guard he was escorted to the throne room by the women, he was walked through a gauntlet of more women, thonians, humans, and biowomen from all the services. As he approached each position where the women were standing their posts, they powered their weapon on and did an about face. In the throne room the Queen revoked his diplomatic visa to Trena and ordered him off world. He left in a garbage scow.”
“We still had some incidents.” the general concluded, “There were still one or two action teams on Trena; but after the Theocracy’s embassy was closed they were uncoordinated. We had some problems at the very end or near the end. Some incidents were fairly serious.”
“Grand mom doesn’t mention stuff like that in her diary. Though from other reading I have done there were riots in a couple of the outlying towns when food began to be tight.” Princess Lisa said, “But there wasn’t any mention of it in grand mom’s diary.”
“No there isn’t,” The general commented, “Though over the next few chapters you will see why.”
“How are you doing on your papers?” the general asked. “Everyone got a title or theme?”
Everyone nodded. She was more than curious as to what the cadets were working on. No one had run a title or a theme by her. The school mistress had not mentioned anything to her. She was a good friend from the very first days of the academy. If there was a problem, the school mistress would tell her. School Mistress was the heart and soul of the academy.
“Okay then I’ll see you next week,” Alice finished the class.
Chapter 16: Children
“Good morning,” School Mistress, the artificial intelligence, that had been around longer than there had been an academy materialized in front the Princess. She had fallen asleep in the day room, “I think you might want to get to your dorm before the morning watch finds you.”
“Thank you,” The princess picked up her pad and books and started for the stairs that led to her dorm room. The School Mistress presented herself as a middle aged woman, with old fashion half reading glasses, and dressed conservatively. In all her time at the two academies she never appeared to be in a uniform.
“How is your reading going Princess,” the AI appeared to walk with her to her room. The School Mistress was everywhere around the school as part of the school’s computer system. While the diaries were not a state secret or classified document not everyone knew they existed. The school mistress had read them herself after they had been released. Mostly out of vanity to see what the young queen had written about her. The diaries hadn’t even been released until her majesty had died a hundred or so years ago and then only the years before she married and had children. When the last of her grandchildren passed, the rest of her diaries would be released. The queen didn’t want anyone’s feelings hurt and had put only that restriction on them.
“There’s a lot of stuff there,” The Princess said, “I’ve been reading about all the children you guys found. It blows my mind that there were so many kids running loose!”
“I know,” the AI remarked, “It was something that all of us couldn’t believe. But you need to give it a rest for a while. You have to be up in an hour. So don’t dwell on it now. It will become clear in the next day or so.”
That morning in class, the general continued her history class.
###
Franklinton, what had been a small town of several thousand in the northern province of North Coast, was deserted. Not the first town to be completely evacuated or abandoned. As more and more people were evacuated from the planet, populations in the towns became smaller and smaller. When the population of a town became so small that the town couldn’t function as a town it was abandoned. Even with automated city services, expert systems controlling the water, sewage disposal, managing the infrastructure of the town, it became untenable for a town to remain a town. So when the town got down to a couple of families they were moved into another town to await their turn to be evacuated. Abandoned the towns might have been; they still had to be patrolled. Looting was becoming in a problem.
“I have never been in a ghost town before,” Quentin Faroze commented to his partner. They had just come into the town from the clear cut area. It had been several weeks since the clear cutting had started and a lot of the forest
land in the North Coast Province had been cut down. It was just as eerie driving from the surreal scene of the clear cut forest into the town that looked like someone had just turned out the lights and rolled up the sidewalks.
“It is eerie isn’t it,” L’engrithi his Thonian military police partner replied as her lifemate who was working with another rookie not too far away sent her the image of bombed out towns they had patrol for the Thonian military. “At least these towns are not blown to magth and back.”
Quentin was a rookie. He had graduated out of the last class of the Royal Trenaport Law Enforcement Academy. It was literally the last class; there would be no others. This was his rookie tour. He had been offered to become a member of the Home’s planetary police force and be evacuated early; but he had said he would rather stay to the end of the evacuation. He was a bachelor and his family had taken the opportunity to immigrate to a more developed world, so he made a decision to let some father with his children and wife, go in his place. He did want to go to Home; but he could wait. He also thought that a tour of duty with the legendary Thonian Companions MP battalion would be good for his career. He looked around the small town, and saw that all the windows were still intact, that the road was not pot holed or cratered.
L’engrithi was a twenty year veteran of the Thonian military police. She had been on worlds where wars had been fought. Where part of her job had been to prevent soldiers and others from looting towns and villages after the combatants had left the town to continue the war in some other burg. She had been on the sharp end of the stick trying to prevent civilians from being mauled by soldiers on leave, and civilians from taking advantage of those same soldiers. So far this assignment had been more like a base assignment with normal hours. In the crimen and a half she had been part of the companions it had been the easiest assignment she and her lifemate had ever done.
“I hear they’ve been shutting the down the AIs,” Quentin said, “What’s that?” he said pointing to a shadow.
“I don’t know,” The older woman replied. They were in a parking lot to a deserted store. She had seen what he was talking about. It looked like a face. Her life mate had seen it also through the aqaut letting her feel that he thought it could be a child.
“Channel ten this is patrol 90,” Quentin called on his communicator.
“Go ahead patrol 90,” the AI said.
“Mark us out of the vehicle at place called Jackie’s Supermarket in Franklinton.” Quentin responded.
“What do you have patrol 90?” the human back up called, it had been a boring shift and he was craving some conversation with someone new.
“We don’t know dispatch.” Quentin replied, “We’ll let you know.” “Channel 10 standing by.” The dispatcher returned.
The pair got out of the car and approached the supermarket. As they approached the front of the store, the doors opened and the lights came on.
“I guess this AI is not turned off.” The Thonian said.
“No some of this could be part of an automated security system.” Quentin said as he heard a rustling and turned towards it with his gun out. His partner went the other way as he approached the rustling. She wanted to come up on the other side of the noise. When he came upon the noise, he saw two rats mating in a pile of papers. Nothing disgusted the young officer more than rats. He instinctively fired. He killed both animals.
“This is patrol 90 we have shots fired!” L’engrithi yelled into her communicator hoping and praying that her young partner hadn’t been shot. Her lifemate’s concern for her safety was blasting through their bond. She finally sent to him “cool out I am okay now let me deal with this.” She rounded the corner back to where she had left her young partner and saw him putting his gun away and the remains of two rats.
“Dispatch this is Patrol 90.” She breathed a sigh of relief, “We’re okay. My partner just executed two rodents.” The Thonian looked at the young man and with the microphone still hot, “He’s got a lot of paper work to do and we’ll be having that conversation 90 out.”
“Roger Patrol 90,” the dispatcher said, “The LT says you both owe him a coffee for the heart attack you just gave him!”
“My partner’s buying!” The Thonian said. “What the magth is that?” The woman said shining her light toward a shadow she had half seen.
“Don’t shoot!” a very young voice said, “We’re coming out.”
To the Thonian’s amazement she saw ten children walk out of the shadows they ranged in age from nearly one to five crimens of age.
“Quentin get EMS here now.” The woman said as she walked to the children, and panned her light on them. They were dirty, with tattered clothing; but she didn’t see any obvious injuries.
“Where are your parents?” she asked.
“They left,” the oldest one said. “We woke up one day, and Mom and Dad were gone.”
“Are you all brothers and sisters?” L’engrithi asked.
“No,” one of the younger one said. “Denise and I were left behind before Arnold and Deanna found us.”
“Are there only decade of you?” L’engrithi asked
“Huh?” the oldest asked, “Oh us ten. No, there might be a couple of more hiding in town.”
“Patrol 90 to dispatch.” The Thonian said into her microphone “Go ahead patrol 90” the dispatcher called.
“I need a supervisor, and a couple of additional units. We have a town that may have to be searched house to house. We have a report of unaccompanied children in Franklinton.” L’engrithi replied. “Command will be at Jackie’s Supermarket.”
Knowing dispatch would start the ball rolling she turned back to the kids,” Let’s see who we have here.”
“Okay kids come over here I want to know who you are. My name is L’engrithi; we’re not going to hurt you.” She spoke to them.
As she finished with the children trying to suppress her anger at the parents who had left the children behind, Quinten came up to her.
“L’engrithi,” her young partner came over, “The alert bird at the Evac hospital is twenty minutes out. The clear cut team we passed a while back has a medic and they’ll be here before the IRS. Oh your husband will be here in about five six minutes, I think I heard the siren going on the radio.”
“That’ll be a help,” The thonian woman shook her head knowing she would have to find some way to cool her lifemate out before he got to them. She could tell he was cooling out a bit but not much.
###
“Mylea,” Lady Hawthorne was on the phone early the next morning, the brunet’s image hovering over Mylea’s desk. “Have you seen the yellows?”
The yellows were the specialized briefing sheets that were sent to the top level officers of the evacuation team. They were called yellow because they were hand carried by palace pages and were printed on specially treated paper. If the wrong person touched the paper the message disappeared. After exposure to normal room light, the paper turned yellow after 3 hours making the print fade out. It was designed to prevent unauthorized people from reading confidential reports. So far it worked. Mylea was surprised that they didn’t use the computer system. But with an AI suspected of treason; the evacuation command didn’t trust any of these reports to be transmitted electronically, even though Jonesy compiled them. They often held very sensitive information.
“Yes,” Mylea asked the younger woman, “what’s got your attention.”
“All the kids we’re finding.” Lady Hawthorne replied, “It looks like the cops have found another forty last night. That makes the count something on the order of what five hundred.”
“I knew we had a large homeless population.” Mylea said, “But I hadn’t realized how many children were part of it.”
“You know I don’t think it is solely homeless kids. Some of them may be runaways.” Lady Hawthorne said softly. “They can’t all be runaways, or homeless kids. I think some of these kids have been abandoned
by their parents! If the marshal doesn’t mind I’d like to send one of my girls to the holding center and talk with these kids. I want to find out what going on.”
“The marshal will approve,” Mylea said without hesitation. She wanted to get to the bottom of it too. “Deloris, how many of your boys and girls do you still have with you and how many have no assignments.”
“Maybe a hundred,” Lady Hawthorne replied, “why?”
“These kids are hiding for whatever reason from the adults. It could be something as simple as not wanting to leave their homes, or as complicated as child abuse. Whatever it is they hide from the police. Or most of them do. Do you think some of your guys can ferrite out some of these kids? You know with a population of nearly seventy-five million people we have to have two or three thousands of these kids running around.” Mylea returned. “I don’t want to have them on my conscience.”
“None of us do.” Lady Hawthorne replied. “Put me on the Marshal’s schedule some time day after tomorrow and I’ll have something to share with him by then about these kids.”
“That’ll work in the mean-time I’m going to issue a Chief’s number ordered.” Mylea said.
“Okay Chief, take care.” Lady Hawthorne said as she terminated the call.
“All right Betsy,” Mylea spoke to her AI assistant. “This is a general order to all evacuation personnel. All social service agencies, all personnel who are assigning families to be evacuated are to acknowledge the order.
“Item1: From this date and time all evacuation personnel are to ensure that families with children are fully accounted for. Families with missing children are to be held from embarking to the landing craft until their children are accounted for. It is stressed that families with missing children may be missing for a variety of causes including missing, runaway, or other causes that may not be criminal, or against the law. Some children may be emancipated minors who for whatever reason have escaped our census.