“There's a place for us.
Somewhere a place for us. Peace and quiet and open air, Wait for us somewhere.
“There's a time for us.
Someday a time for us.
Time together with time to spare.
Time to look, time to care.
Someday!
Somewhere.
We'll find a new way of living!
We'll find a way of forgiving!
Somewhere.
“There's a place for us.
A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and we're half way there.
Hold my hand and I'll take you there!
Somehow,
Someday,
Somewhere!”
Mitch completed the song, and the School Mistress said, “I told you the acoustics would be perfect here, Sergeant Mitchum.”
And they had been. Jill turned and saw cadets coming down the path. They had all heard Mitch signing. The sound carried over this part of the grounds where many of the cadets walked or lounged with our fear of being reprimanded by their officers, or the adults.
Mitch turned to walk back out of the amphitheater and saw the cadets standing in stunned silent witness. As Mitch walked the path she saw that more than one of the kids had a tear creeping down their faces. When she got to where Jill was standing with Rhonda and Alan, Alan spoke to her, “Sergeant Mitch, this is that somewhere, and that some place.”
Mitch didn’t say a word as she and Jill locked eyes, and Jill nodded. Mitch’s song had helped to bring the cadets together, realizing that they were at a place of safety, and a place where they all belonged. Jill decided to let the moment run. She could discuss the problem with the Dickenson kid l later. She didn’t want to ruin the moment for Mitch, or for her cadets.
###
Lady Hawthorne had not heard Mitch sing in person, but had heard about it. The entire academy was talking about it the next morning. She asked the School Mistress if she had recorded the event from the night before. She had and was playing it for Lady Hawthorne when the Queen had stopped by to discuss several issues with Lady Hawthorne.
The Queen was floored when she heard the music and saw the holograph.
“She could make her fortune as an entertainer!” Queen Agatha commented.
“It has never occurred to her,” The School Mistress had materialized in the office, “She sings for herself. We’ve talked about it.”
“I see,” The Queen replied. Then she asked sheepishly, “Could I get a recording of this?”
“It’s on the way to your palace mail box majesty.” The school mistress replied.
Days later the Queen was having dinner with her former regents and saw the recording that Alice Mercer had gotten somewhere of Mitch singing. The next morning when she asked around, she was told that Mitch’s song was being heard all over the Kingdom. The song, an ancient ballad from an ancient movie, became the song people associated with the evacuation. Mitch refused all the royalties she earned, saying it was something she did for herself.
###
“The song that Mitch sang that night came from an ancient movie called Romeo and Juliet,” General Jones said at the end of the class. “Mitch had a beautiful voice. She could have made her living on the stage anywhere in the universe.”
“Mom showed me some of the offers that great grand mom had,” Lamile Mitchum spoke, “The Movie Planet offered her a contract that would have made her very wealthy.
One of the multimedia companies wanted her also. She never took them.”
“Why?” Lamile asked. “It wasn’t clear.”
“Your grandmother felt that she owed two companions for her rescue,” The General replied, “They changed her life and gave us the opportunity witness the growth of a special young lady.
“I worked with Mitch on a couple of her assignments,” The general smiled, “She was something to watch. The three of them Jill, Lamile, and Mitch became the heart and soul of the academy.”
“What about the others from the long march. After they get to the academy there isn’t much about them,” Georgia Hawthorne asked.
“Rhonda would meet and marry a gamma clone and they would both become the commanders of the Royal Maritime Patrol. Alan would meet a girl and would leave the academy on Home and begin farming. Others would become part of the various Home military, police, fire, the Home Emergency Response Team, and the Maritime Patrol. Some would go on to the anonymity of quiet peaceful lives others would become politicians.” The bell rang and the General dismissed her class.
Chapter 22: Her Mother’s Interview
“Many of you have seen the interview that Lady Wilson gave to Don Least,” the General began her class, “What you may not be aware of is that the Marshal was very protective of his family. He himself dealt with the press as he had to. He neither avoided them, or sought them out. He knew that as a public official, he was fair game for the press, but only his public life. In his private life, he did everything he could to keep the press away. So when Lady Wilson agreed to the interview when her photos were published
Marshal Wilson was very upset.”
“I am going to read from the Queen’s diary,” The General said.
“I’ve been on Trena several months now,” The General began reading, “I don’t know why I was so concerned about Lisa. She has made me feel welcomed in her home and has been there when I needed her to be there.
“The affection between Dad and Lisa is awesome. I hope one day that I am so blessed. I know they have argued; but often I don’t hear them. I did hear them the other night…
###
Jill had witnessed the fight between her father and step mother over the interview Lisa was going to give that evening. Since she had been on Trena she had seen only two arguments between her father and step mother. She suspected there might have been more, but she had only witnessed two of them. The first when her step mother wanted to go to one of the departure points for the evacuation, and now this one. Her mother wanted to do an interview with the Trena Media, Mac, her father’s principle agent, and Pete Vornic, the evacuation command’s public information officer, had finally told her father what was going on.
“You’re not going to do it.” Wilson said entering the dining room where a coffee maker was always ready to get a cup of coffee from. Lisa followed him into the dining room.
“Michael, I have never gone against your wishes.” Lisa said, “I have never put you in a position where you had to say no.”
Her father grunted. Jill who was home for the weekend was studying at the dining room table instead of her room or in the study. It was true. While she had been with her father and step mother, she had seen that neither of them did something that the other felt strongly against. They usually found a way to work around the issue that was causing friction. They usually worked to a consensus and although neither one was really happy over their decisions, both could live with it.
“This time I am,” Lady Wilson said, “this is for you, for me and for us.”
“I thought we had an agreement that you and the girls would never be part of a media circus.” Wilson asked.
“This won’t be a media circus Michael.” Lisa replied, “If it goes the way I hope it will; Mr. Least may think he’d have been better off being at ground zero for one of the asteroids. Mac, Pete and I have had an hour briefing. If he gets too rough with me I have enough ammunition to gut him right before the entire kingdom.”
“I still don’t like it.” Wilson said. “Too much of our privacy has been infringed on with this job. You are pregnant and...”
“Don’t you go and be the big protective male on me Michael Aaron Wilson the third!” Lisa actually stomped her foot at her husband. “Pregnant I may be. Not as agile as I was without your twins in my belly; but the odd gods of the universe know I can still whomp your ass.”
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Wilson chuckled, and was about to say something, when Jill interrupted. Neither had seen her there, “I am sure that if she can’t several of us would help. I am sure Georgia, Mac, Francine, Kellogg, and the few others I can mention would help.”
Chuckling Lisa turned to her step daughter. She suspected that her step daughter was most likely correct but said, “Jill, stay out of this.”
“I still don’t like it.” Michael said, “I know the media wants to know who you are but I don’t want you in harm’s way and I don’t want you harmed. I know this could be good for the Evacuation but; I...”
“I don’t like it much either Mike,” Lisa said, “It took the girls to convince me to do this.”
“Oh really,” Mike said putting the coffee on the table by Jill as he reached for his wife. He took her in his arms and asked, “Do I need to speak to a couple of people?”
“No,” Lisa said, “The Queen, Lady Hawthorne, and your mother are right. If I tell my side of the story; then it might be listened to. They make a good point. The people are hungry to know what type of woman is married to their savior. How he is supported by his family. This is good for the Evacuation, and if handled right Mr. Least will get his just deserts.”
“I still don’t like it.” Michael said letting go of Lisa as he picked up his coffee mug. “I know you haven’t told me everything about your on the run years, but these guys may have found out about some of that stuff. The stuff you haven’t told me.”
“I suspect he does,” Lisa commented, “but he doesn’t know the file that Mac has on him. That Mac has shared with me.”
“I’ve seen that file,” Wilson remarked, “Unfortunately, we can’t touch him.” “But I can,” Lisa said with an impish smile.
“I don’t want you hurt, and I don’t want you to mess with Least too much. We need jerks like him to help us communicate with the people of Trena.” Her father commented.
Now, as Jill sat in the Academy’s indoor auditorium with several of the cadets preparing to watch the interview she remembered her Mother’s impish smile.
The auditorium went dark as the stage area was filled with a holograph of a man of moderate build with sandy brown hair. He turned to the camera.
“Good Evening.” he said, “I am Don Least and this is Day One.”
He let the credits and entry music come to a conclusion and continued, “Tonight we come from the Queen’s Private Garden. This is a small secluded garden that is used by the Royal Family to hold private gatherings or to obtain some measure of privacy from the palace retainers and staff. The Royal Family has graciously allowed us into this very private space to interview a very special lady. Her staff calls her calls her Mom Wilson. She is known as Healer to her protective detail. Her spouse calls her the Boss. She is known to be the anchor for the evacuation command. Simply put Lady Wilson, the lifemate of Lord Michael Aaron Wilson, Knight Commander of the Earth Empire, and Marshal of the
Trena Constabulary, is a Lady’s lady. Good Evening Lady Wilson.”
“Good evening Mr. Least.” Lisa said, “Your words flatter me.”
“All true though,” The interviewer said. The people of Trena saw a slight blush cross her step mother’s face. “Is it true that you are a bioengineered person?”
“Yes I am a delta clone, manufactured by EBio forty eight standard years ago on a small world on the frontier.” Lisa replied, “Named Holly.”
“The Delta clones are the top of the line models are they not,” Least asked.
“We are created for perfection. Each of my brothers and sisters, all two million or so of us have been designed to have the highest intelligence, perfect bodies, the AO model of which only two thousands of us exist were specially designed for special abilities. I was designed to be a healer. I have an aptitude to learn medicine and such.” “Are you a doctor of medicine?” the interviewer asked.
“No sir,” Lisa said, “In the Earth Empire the best I could be was a therapist, but not a professional. Imperial law prohibits clones, from being professionals, though our
contract holders often used us as professionals in hospitals and such.”
“Isn’t that how you met your husband Lady Wilson,” Least asked.
“Yes. His mother had been severely injured during a combat operation.” Lisa replied, “The Interstellar Rescue Service hired my contract, as they needed a better therapist than they had on station. I went to live with the Wilson’s I was only about twenty three standard years old then.”
“Legend surrounds that time.” Don Least said.
“Legend,” Lisa asked.
“Yes,” the interviewer returned, “It was said that was when you bonded with your husband, Lord Wilson that he was never the same after you left.”
“I wouldn’t call that legend, Mr. Least,” Lady Wilson replied with a sad look on her face, “It was a time of great happiness in our lives. Afterward it was a period of great sadness. To be honest after I was removed from the station and forced to work with a containment team, I wanted to be with Michael. I secretly hoped he would find me and rescue me.”
“Containment team? Isn’t that is one of EBio’s Security teams,” Doug Least said.
“That’s what the company calls them,” Lisa said, “But they are nothing more and nothing less than legal terrorists. They are charged with finding, capturing and bringing bioengineered people back to their owners, or to assassinate them. Often as gruesomely as possible!”
“You were part of one such team,” Doug asked thinking he had gotten the goods on the woman.
“For less than six months,” Lisa replied, “I escaped from them after I found out that one of the team members had killed my husband’s father. I had to leave the squad in a hurry!”
“Why is that,” the interviewer asked.
“Since the marines couldn’t touch the squad and render justice I did.” Her step mother replied, and Jill saw her mother look away from the interviewer. The lighting changed so that it put her in the shadows a bit and highlighted her lower face; making her look sinister.
“What did you do?” The interviewer asked.
“Mr. Least,” Lisa looked the man squarely in the eye, “I will not talk any more about that.”
“But Lady Wilson, we the people have the right to know...” Mr. Least started, but a commotion off camera cut him off as they went to a commercial.
When they came back Mr. Least had changed his questions. The lighting had changed so that it fully lighted her step mother without it making her look sinister. Jill suspected it had something to do with the sudden commercial.
“When you escaped from the containment team, EBio put a bounty on your head for your return. This forced you underground.” Mr. Least commented, “You were underground for what almost twenty standard years.” “Yes,” Lisa said.
“There are rumors, and rumors of rumors of that time. It is hard to separate fact from fiction.” Least commented, “Is it true that you were the only midwife to several hundred women on a Theocracy ship?”
“More or less,” Lisa said, “I had heard that this ship was heading for one of their colony worlds. The ship was a small passenger ship, and it needed a medic to meet the conventions. All of the women were joining their husbands, who had gone before them a few months before and were now ready for them. Unfortunately the master of the ship couldn’t find a physician to travel with them. I allowed myself to be purchased by the ship. I watched over the women and the ship’s crew on our three month voyage to Homage. I helped to birth 110 children. I lost only one woman, as she wouldn’t let me touch her, as she thought I was an unclean harlot of Satan. Ironically when we got to Homage, their elder’s wife helped me get away. She and the other women set the law down to their men, who distracted and delayed Captain Hozenbur so I could get away. I owe those women my life.”
“Sounds kind of mutual,” Doug had heard the story but thought it was rumor. “What was this I
heard about you being a governess? Isn’t that kind of out your line as a healer?”
“Not really,” Lisa smiled, it was one of the better times she had on the run, “I had heard that the King of Rico had a son that was driving the palace staff nuts. They were hunting someone who could teach this kid. He had run off several dozen governesses, tutors, his protective detail was making bets on who would kill him first, his father, or one of them. I needed a job, and I knew that I was only going to be around long enough for Hozenbur or the company catch up with me. I knew though, that I would be living in the palace being this kid’s tutor and governess that the palace protective detail would more or less keep the company away from me. Rico was also one of those worlds that the ruling families hated the company. It had something to do with a couple of so called rouge biopeople who assassinated a couple of them. They were actually containment people sent to teach Rico a lesson. They didn’t like the company, and they were suspicious of biopeople, but they weren’t above using us for certain things. They would also not turn us into the company if they knew we were on the run.
“So to continue on, the kid was a mess, he was about sixteen, and he thought he could just yell at people and they would do what he told them. He was disrespectful to everyone. His mother had died a few years earlier. He was an only child and he hadn’t learned how to get along with people. More so since he was not just the heir apparent; but the kingdom’s only heir.” Lisa continued on. “I moved into the palace, eventually into a room off his rooms. He thought that since I lived in the palace and lived almost in his room I was to be his concubine. He found out in a hurry that wasn’t going to happen. The first time he tried to bed me he found out what it was like to be tossed around like a rag doll. He tried to get me fired; but his father looked at me, then looked at his son and said, ‘Miss Lisa, don’t kill him, but if he steps out of line do what you have to! Oh here’s an extra hundred for the lesson you just taught him.’ needless to say Timothy wasn’t too happy! Then the protective detail started taking bets as to how many more such lessons I would teach. It turned out to be like the fairy tale of My Fair Lady. I stayed with him three years, teaching him not only how to be a gentleman; but how to earn the respect of those around him. I introduced him to Queen Jasmine. She is a classy lady! Their first child is named after me.”