“Could she have gotten off during the confusion?” Another reporter asked his ears still ringing as he repeated the question.
“No,” Pete said, “Traffic Control grounded everything. Everything that was light on skids was ground held. Everything that was in route to orbit was returned to point of departure.” The public information officer answered, “There were some protests but every one complied. Every landing craft and ground to orbit shuttle was searched. With no results or we wouldn’t be here now. Everything in route from orbit to ground was returned to their points of departure. Everyone was checked and once again everyone was cleared. We’re certain that she didn’t get off world.”
“What can the people do to help?” Another reporter asked feeling a killer head ache coming on. “There aren’t many of us left; but can we help somehow?”
“We’re are fewer and fewer,” Pete said, “But those of us who are still here can keep their eyes open for strange things. Things that don’t fit into the neighborhood. Granted there are a lot of comings and goings in the neighborhoods. But people know what’s going on. If you see something that doesn’t fit in, call the Mounties!
“Thank you ladies and gentlemen,” Pete said, “Please except my apologies for setting off the grenade. But that was the only way to help you understand a stun grenade.”
Pete left the podium. He saw Jill shaking her head and Pete wondered if she had gotten a piece of grenade. “Are you okay Jill?”
“Yes,” Jill said, she smiled, “One of these days Mr. Vornic the press is going to give you grief.”
“You mean they haven’t already,” Pete asked.
“I guess they have,” Jill said, she had always liked Pete. He was one of the few guys running around the palace and her father’s command that didn’t put her on a pedestal and treat her with kid gloves. She kind of liked him.
“Mr. Vornic,” she wouldn’t call him by his first name as he wanted her to do, “did you know the Corps is helping with the search for my mom?”
“No!” Pete said. “Damn that would have been good to share. The corps doesn’t get nearly the press it should.”
“Jill, do you think that Lady Hawthorne would let a team follow your guys around,” Pete asked.
“I’ll ask,” Jill said not knowing if it was such a good idea. Though she saw the wisdom of letting the press into the academy to publicize what Lady Hawthorne was doing, a lot of her kids were still a little nervous about the authorities. They had taken to being cadets and running a good bit of the academy; but they were a little shy about letting the world know what they were doing.
“Let me know Jill,” The young man said, as he left.
“I will,” Jill replied and went in search of her father. She found him in the study watching a hologram alone. Chief James had left. As her father replayed the recording again, she watched in silence.
Hozenbur’s floated over the study’s floor. She was of moderate height, with dark brown hair streaked with grey. Jill thought she might be her grandmother’s age. Jill even thought, Hozenbur looked more like a grandmother than the murderous assassin she knew the woman to be.
“This is a message for Marshal Wilson,” Hozenbur’s image said, “but I guess we are not alone, and so to the assembled cops, investigators, etc. Hello.” She waved, “To show you I have your halfwit wife Mr. Wilson here is a recording of it.
“Okay halfwit!” Hozenbur’s voice could be heard as the holograph turned to show Lisa, “Smile for the camera. Now speak for your husband and the news media.”
“Like what?” Lisa snapped, then looked to the camera and said, “Michael come and get me away from this psychopath! Tell Abby I’m okay and let Jill know I’ll be back in time for the coronation day dance at the school! And Mylea if you let anything happen to my old man me and you will have that conversation! It may not be softly spoken!” The image changed to show Hozenbur as she began to speak again.
“I am Martha Hozenbur,” the closer spoke into the camera, “I am on my last containment and I am returning the clone Lisa CD 1984 AOS to the company. I will be making arrangements to get off world with the halfwit in my own sweet time. When I can do it safely. If you try to find me and rescue the halfwit, I will kill it. I don’t want anything. There is nothing I am willing to receive in return for its life. I only want to get the clone off world. I’ll be in touch!”
The holograph went dark.
Her father shut the player down. He turned and saw Jill. He didn’t say a word as he left the study. They left the recording in the player. The next morning Sally, Abby’s protective agent saw that Abby was watching the first part of the recording. Sally quickly turned the recorder off.
“Was that lady talking about Mommy?” the toddler asked.
“I am not sure,” Sally lied to the little girl. Hoping to distract the child Sally McBride said, “Let’s start your lessons.”
The distraction worked. Soon they were so immersed in Abby’s schoolwork that the agent was certain Abby had forgotten about the recording Sally made sure that she had the recording when they left study.
###
Lamile’s group was dropped off at the back door to central police station, as she followed her cadets out of the bus Frazier the police department AI’s voice could be heard,
“Lady Atomi arriving with Squad 4 of the Queens Own Royal Corps of Cadets!”
James had told the AI he wanted honors rendered to Lady Atomi. He had found out that she had never been honored since her coronation ceremony elevating her to a Trena noble woman. She was a knighted lady of the Trena nobility; although she was young; she was still a noble woman, and James wanted to also let Lamile know that it had been some feat she had pulled off bringing all those children in. He wished he could bring out the honor guard but that would be inappropriate. He met her in the central police station’s main conference room. As she walked into the briefing room, where ten or so Mounties were discussing their assignments, a voice by the door called softly, “Welcome Lady
Atomi!”
When the room saw who was with their chief they began to clap. All had heard of what she had done and some had been there when her kids marched to safety onto the landing craft. Lamile nodded trying not to show her embarrassment, she turned to the chief, “Where do you want us Sir Patrick.”
“We have this area here we want searched.” James said, “Kellogg, would you brief Lady Atomi.”
“Yes sir,” Kellogg said and winked at the young woman. He knew what the chief was doing and why, he saw how uncomfortable Lamile was and said, “Major, we want your kids to canvas this area here. We want you to go door to door, and ensure that each house is abandoned. When you check a house and find it empty, you will insert this card in the lock and it will secure the house. The door won’t open until someone puts the command key in.”
“What about doors where the security system doesn’t work, or there isn’t any?” Lamile asked.
“Mark it with red X.” he pointed to case spray paint on the table, “One of the cops covering you will note it and secure the door. When the door is secured, post this sign on the door.”
The sign said, “DO NOT ENTER BY ORDER OF THE CROWN!”
“Post it so the sign is over the jam. The sign then acts like crime scene seal.” Lord James said, “Just so you all know. To cut down on looting, the Crown and the Evacuation Command have issued an order that should one of these doors be reopened, or should someone be found in a secured building, they can be shot on sight. Now there are a lot salvage companies who are salvaging whole neighborhoods; but when they are done they have to secure the building. All of their people have to wear green helmets stenciled with the word Salvage on it. Salvage companies and their personnel are to announce where they are working and have to hold a crown warrant with an ID for each of their people. The cops have deadly force authorizations when they catch people looting a house without proper ID and warrants.”
Lamile nodded, and said, “I think we can do this. I do want a police officer nearby in case we stumble across something.”
“Major,” a man in the back of the room spoke up, “I am Sergeant Mave. I will be your Mounty liaison. I’ll have one or two of my guys nearby at all times with you. If trouble finds you, get your people to safety and lets us take care of business. Just so we understand each other Major Atomi, I will not be the one to tell Chief Atomi how her daughter came to grief.”
“Lady Atomi,” Another officer said, “that goes for all of us. We already lost the boss’ wife we ain’t going to lose the chief’s daughter.”
“Amen, right on, triple that from me,” Various officers said.
“Well,” Lamile said when the cops settled down. “Trust me I don’t want you to have that conversation with my mother either. After she chews on you a bit, she’ll start to work on my anatomy. That is if there is any left.” That brought the room to laughter.
Kellogg let it go for a while, “Lamile, I am heading up the search for Lady Wilson. There will be search teams all around you. I don’t expect that you will come to grief; but there will be some help nearby. We will be checking homes that we know may have someone in them. If you see one of our teams just back away and let them do their job.” “What happens if we find some on in a house were checking,” Lamile asked.
“Get their name,” Lord James answered, “and give them this.”
This was a letter that explained about the consequences of missing their evacuation date. Mostly that the crown and evacuation command would not be responsible for what happened to them. Considering the Command was picking people up and taking to their embarkation point there should be no missed evacuations.
“Anything else?” Lamile asked.
“No.” Kellogg answered.
“By your leave chief,” Lamile asked of Lord James. He nodded, and hoped that he wasn’t making a mistake. Mylea had been very unhappy when Lamile had gone on her journey. Even though it had been wildly successful. Mylea was technically his boss now, not he, hers. She could give him a rough time if something happened to her daughter. The truth be known, he would kill anyone who brought harm to his two children, though they were grown and had children of their own. Once they were gone, he turned to Kellogg, “Kellogg if anything happens to those kids.”
“Lord James,” Kellogg replied, “I have made reservations for both of us to Dungeon.” Dungeon was a prison world ran by the Galactic Council. Only the very worse criminals were sent to Dungeon, “That will be the safest place for us to be should anything happen to Lady Atomi. I know the line will be headed up by Chief Atomi, then the Marshal, then the Queen, then Francine, and that’s after you chew on me or I chew on you!”
“Okay Kellogg,” James returned, “You ready to brief me? Or do you want to go out with the field teams?”
“Between your best guys and my best guys,” Kellogg commented, “I don’t need to be with them. I’d just be in their way. Let’s do the brief; or would you like to make arrangements with the palace to brief the Wilson family and the Queen.”
“We really don’t have much,” Jamieson mussed, “We really don’t have much to share with them. We have set up a briefing schedule. No news; is no news and there is no reason to brief them out of schedule.”
“Let me brief you on what we have cooking and you can decide to take it to Marshal Wilson, and Queen Aggie.” Kellogg said.
###
“I saw the holo from that witch that had Mom in it.” Jill had written, “I couldn’t really tell if Mom was okay or not. I was shocked to see her in a grey smock. It almost looked like a poncho and couldn’t have been very modest with the open sides.
“When I asked Dad about it, he said that Hozenbur was trying break Mom’s spirit.” Jill’s words from two hundred years ago swam up from the page.
“As bad as me and Dad are taking this, Maggie and Georgia are both taking this hard.” Jill continued, “Georgia has asked to work on the hunt for Mom and has been refused. She won’t look me or Dad in the eyes. Sally says she feels that she messed up. After seeing Pete’s demo of the stun grenade and my memory of it from years before, when I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I don’t know how Georgia could have done anything else.
“Maggie has a stiff upper lip; but she’s not fooling me. I walked into the kitchen for a snack and caught her crying.” Her grandmother’s words showed a side of her that was seldom seen in public. “I wish there was something that I could do for her. I hadn’t realized that our housekeeper was so close to mom.
“But Maggie and Georgia aren’t the only ones. I wandered by mom’s private study and saw the flowers, and cards sitting in front of a picture of her. I had to quickly leave as it was too much of a memorial. They thought she was gone. Later I heard Maggie had taken a big trash can into Mom’s study and trashed everything that was a memorial she saw there. I also had heard that she had read everyone’s beads. Joan had told me that Maggie had told the staff she was not going to have her lady come back to a dysfunctional household and that she would be coming back to us!
“I hope she is right,” the diary passage concluded, “So I guess I got my marching orders too.”
Chapter 26: On the HPS Valiant.
“The Hospital Patrol Ships were the IRS first line responders to the Empire’s serious medical emergencies and rescue incidents. Whether run of the mill rescues or serious illnesses on imperial worlds these ships were the first ones to be called on. The Valiant was one of these ships,” The General continued her lecture series, “We were lucky to get her. Normally her patrol district was the other side of the empire. She had just come out of a yard period and so was nearby Trena when she was in route to her patrol district when she was ordered to Trena. While in the Trena system the Valiant treated over one thousand people including the Admiral.
“When Admiral Joyce Wilson was first injured on Trena,” The General lectured, “she had been taken aboard Hospital Patrol Ship Valiant. The men and women of the Interstellar Rescue Service were not going to take any chances with one of their admirals, even if she had been retired for a couple of years. Ironically, the Valiant was Admiral Wilson’s first command tour as a Landing Craft Squadron Commander. It was where she had met her husband almost thirty years before being brought aboard this time. She was their admiral, even though she had never shipped aboard the Valiant, when she got her eagle, or when she got her stars. She was part of the ships legend. Now the legend had come back to her roots. Most of the crew had never shipped with the admiral before, but several of the pilots had been one of her students over the years, either in primary flight where she had retired from or in the advance flight school. She was known as the Iron Maiden for her toughness on the flight deck when training young pilots. More so to the commanders who would command the pilots on a hospital ship or on an attack carrier! She had caused many a pilot to think about changing their career path. Many of the squadron commanders had come back to Mars and had made a point to leave her some remembrance from their first cruise as a squadron commander. Through the years when one of the nuggets she had given their primary flight training to, had made squadron commander, they sent her their nugget wings. She had been well respected in the fleet, and even though thought to be a royal pain in the ass, she had been loved by the fleet. She had never been a star man’s admiral, but it was well known throughout the fleet that the pilots she had trained, were some of the best in the business. Delivering their charges either into Hot LZs or getting them out of there with little or no problems.
“The crew of the Valiant took very good care of their admiral…” The general spoke softly and displayed the images of the patrol ship and Admiral Wilson.
###
In her hospital room where they had yet to awaken her from the deep sleep they induced, so that her injuries could heal a bit faster and so she wouldn’t fight the drugs, a Marine Black Guardsmen stood guard at the door. The
Admiral was almost as well loved by the marines as the IRS. Not only was she their most famous marine’s step mother, she was also one of the few IRS, or Imperial Navy Pilots, who knew the sharp end of the stick and how the marines used it. She had been at one time prior to her husband’s death, a member of the Black Guard. Only a hand full of pilots ever qualified for the Black Guard. Being a flag officer, the Valiant had opened one of its VIP suites for her. In the reception area to the suite, pilots who had been trained by her had left get well cards. A few of them had left a bloody glove where they had taken their dress uniform saber, drew it across their palm and with blood flowing had taken their white uniform glove to stop the bleeding, swearing a blood oath to get the person who had done this to their admiral.
Joyce knew nothing of this. She had been in a medically induced coma for most of the week while the treatment the hospital staff had commenced took. They knew from her records that the fast healing tanks used by other sick or injured people didn’t work for her. So the chief surgeon of the ship, a man on his first chief surgeon tour, kept her under while the drugs and the nanobots repaired the damage. Finally with most of the damage repaired with only a small laceration left that the nanobots were healing, the surgeon decided to wake her up.
“Chris,” the surgeon turned to the nurse who was the admiral’s primary care giver, “It will be an hour or so before she wakes up, but I don’t want her left alone. If you need to leave for any reason you get someone up here pronto.”
“Yes Doctor,” the nurse who had been aboard the Valiant when Joyce was injured the first time years before, was in the emergency room when they had brought her in this time. She had always felt a bit guilty for not being good enough then. She was now very good at her job. “I or one of my girls will be here until she is awake.”
“Okay Chris,” the surgeon said, “I’ll have the captain call Admiral Wilson’s family.”