“Sergeant,” Delores said, “You are dismissed!”
“Lady...Deloris thank you. I wouldn’t have seen the boys for another six months.” Millie said. She hugged Lady Hawthorne.
“Thank Princess Carroll. She made this all happen.” Deloris said.
She nodded and walked to where Jill was standing, “Colonel Wilson, I mean Queen Jill, I will do you proud.”
“Sergeant Millie,” Jill said, “I’ll remember what you told me when I became the commander of the corps. I hope I never let you down. I’ll see you on Home after your leave.”
“Jill you will never disappoint me. You may disappoint yourself but never me.” the older woman replied, “By your leave?” Jill nodded.
”Thank you General,” Millie said when she went and stood beside the general.
The future empress of the Terran Empire nodded saying, “Serve them well Millie. They are our future.”
“As you command,” She saluted and stood with the boys as Jill and Lady Hawthorne finished thanking the assembled staff of Company A for all they had done. As they finished the first of the landing craft landed. Jill turned to Lady Hawthorne and said, “Let’s get back to work.”
Deloris nodded as she saw Marshal Wilson step out of a jeep that had pulled up to where they were standing. He had driven across the capital to be here. She had no idea that he would be here.
He came up to her and asked, “Deloris, what can I do to help?”
Delores was dumbfounded. She hadn’t expected that the Marshal would be on the grounds. She knew he had a lot stuff that needed his attention today. “Anything you can. We have to get all these kids and their stuff on to the landing craft. If you would go to dorm three and bring those kids down that would help.”
“Aye-aye,” Mike said nodded toward the dorm and was followed by Mac and Lamile who would soon become the cadet commander of the school. She would finish high school on board the school ship and later when the academy was completed enough for the kids to be on the ground she would be enrolled in the first cadet class of the Senior Academy of the Queens Own Royal Corps of Cadet Academy.
They found the kids milling around the halls excited about what was to come next. The senior cadet in the dorm, yelled for them to settle down. In seconds the kids settled down. He lined them up in the halls waiting for the word to be given. The Marshal turned to Lamile, “It is your show, what do you need done.”
“They need to go to the dining hall where they will be final processed. Mitch here can get them there.” She pointed to Mitch, “What we need to do is go to the top floor and sweep down. Some of these kids are not convinced we are taking them to safety. Other may try to play games with us. So we go into every room, and open every closet. The beds have been rolled back and the frames taken apart. When we get done we seal the room. It will take a laser blast to open the door from the outside.”
Mike was glad for the easy work. It wasn’t difficult. They would climb to the top floor of a dorm and sweep through the rooms. Several adults and cadets helped. There was a name plate on each door, when they closed and sealed the door they would pull the name plate. When they left a floor they would hand the name plates to a cadet or NCO or adult on the landing to the floor. There they were checked against a master list, and when all the rooms had been checked off the list they would close the doors on either end of the hall to the rooms and seal them. They would then as a group go on to the next floor.
In this fashion they swept through the academy grounds ensuring that all of the buildings had been evacuated. It took a few hours but every child was accounted for. Even a preschooler who thought it would be cool to play hide and seek with the adults. When Jill caught up to her she didn’t scold the child, or anything; just picked her up and carried her to the dining hall where she turned the kid over to the cadet who had been told to watch over her. “Cadet Johnson. You almost cost us a life. You were told to make sure all your kids got to the dining hall. Five demerits and you’ll walk an hour’s punishment tour with riffle in the gym.” She swept a withering look at the cadet NCO who was the girl’s dorm officer and said, “Sarge your squad will do the punishment tours also, as will I!”
A few hours later as the last landing craft loaded with cadets lifted from the pad Jill marched up to Lady Hawthorne came to attention, and said, “Major Hawthorne, the grounds of the academy has been evacuated! With your permission I would like to stand down and turn things over to Major Atomi.”
“You are relieved Colonel Wilson,” Lady Hawthorne turned to the few adults that were left waiting to go up to the ship then back to Jill. “Jill I want to thank you for the effort you have been giving us. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Delores,” Jill said, “I will cherish and try to follow the example that you and Sergeant Millie have shown me. I will be around.”
The noble woman nodded and turned to Marshal Wilson, “Sir, I would like to report that all the children you have entrusted me with have been evacuated.”
“Thank you Deloris, You may close this facility,” Wilson accepted the noble woman’s report, “I’ll see you at the parliament in a little while.”
“Ladies, and Gentlemen, I will see you on the ship. We are closed!” Deloris turned to her staff, and dismissed them. When they were gone Deloris walked quietly to the main gates where Millie was waiting for her. She had never felt as lonely as she did as she walked the drive to the entrance. The grounds were empty of children and cadets, as well the adults that looked after them. It was hard to believe that less than twenty four hours before the grounds had been chocked full of people. She took one last look at the academy. She marveled at the changes that she had witnessed in the last few months. The academy had gone from a near trash pit to a clean and nearly serene campus. She had gone to school here when it was a boarding school. It now looked like the school she had attended. She turned and finally walked through the gates.
With Millie’s help she closed and locked the gates for the final time. As they closed the gates the news media quietly recorded the event. It was nearly the last crown facility to be closed and the news media was recording it for posterity. The two women piled into lady Hawthorne’s sedan that was almost too crowded for them. It was filled with Lady Hawthorne’s five kids and Millie’s two boys. Deloris’ oldest climbed into the lap of
Millie’s oldest and Millie drove them to the parliament. Where Lady Hawthorne had one more official act to perform, as did all the remaining nobles of Trena. Though her nobility was tied to her missing husband, she had been asked to take his seat in the parliament.
###
“So the evacuation of the academy went without a hitch,” General Jones started to wrap up her class for the day. “There was a lot of behind the scenes work to get these kids ready. It not only included making sure the ship was kid safe, but making sure that School Mistress had a computer to transfer herself into and then had to be in two places at once while the school was evacuated. The school ship had been special built by Jonesy.
“Several people had voiced very vocal opposition of the cadets being given that ship,” The general continued. “But most of the people left on Trena, who knew about the academy and how the cadets came to it, were just as adamant that it was proper. It was settled when the Marshal, and his Family as well as Queen Agatha said they would travel to Home on it. There had been a large liner that was going to take them to Home now it would be used for others.
“Of the nearly two thousand young people who first sought refuge at the academy, fourteen hundred were left, the others had either been reunited with parents, or family, or had been adopted by others. The remaining fourteen hundred children were evacuated to the school ship.” She concluded by saying, “The School Ship house our academy for nearly three months until our new academy had been built. The School Ship has been towed to the Nameless Moon where she waits to be dismantled with several other ships.”
The bell
rang and the general said, “Your papers are due in two weeks. They are a full seventy five percent of your final grade for this course.”
Chapter 37: The Last Session of the Trena Parliament
“The last session of parliament was very somber,” the General started the next class. “I was not there as I and my sergeant were at Fletcher helping General Langtree get the base shut down.
“The thing that has amazed scholars and others was that the parliament behaved so well during the final days.” The General continued, “Even the incident with Duke Horton had not been much of an incident. We hadn’t known at the time; but Lord Mercer had worked behind the scenes to get the real trouble makers off world without appearing to. Making sure that those who had gone to Home were dumped in areas where their energies would not harm the people of Home. This would be found out on his death bed. Although he violated several of the evacuation rules by doing this, Queen Jill pardon him for his actions. He had the best interests of the kingdom at heart.
“So now it is late afternoon and the parliament was assembling for the last time. They had to wait until the last citizen of Trena were evacuated and that was the academy before they could abdicate.”
###
It was the last session of parliament. The immense chamber was nearly empty. Jill now dressed in a simple business suit with Lamile, who was now in her full dress uniform sat together on the floor of the House of Lords. She was the invited quest of Lamile. It would be the first and the last session that Lamile would attend as Lady Atomi. Lamile was there for the one final act that the parliament had to do. This act had to be done in the presence of interstellar witnesses. It had been researched and there was no precedence for dissolving parliament, and abandoning a planet’s government. Usually when a government left a planet it was after they had been removed during a rebellion. No one had given up power willingly in the way that the Parliament of Trena was going to dissolve itself.
As Jill waited for events to begin she looked around the ornate room with its lofty arches, and statuary. The old stone work with stained glass windows piercing the walls made the building feel almost like some of the ancient cathedrals she had toured on Earth instead of a house of the people. As she thought that, she felt it appropriate that the house of the people had near church like appearance as the protection of the citizens of Trena or any people should be a near religious endeavor.
The gallery was nearly empty. The family members of the members of parliament were aboard the liner that would take them to Home. The gallery was populated by only a few of the remaining news media people. The members of parliament were in a somber mood. No one was in the raucous mood that the assembly could be. No one was in their robes, or in their usual finery. The Queen waited outside the hall with Jill’s father. They would wait there until the speaker lead the members of parliament to where they stood.
“Is there any business before Parliament,” The speaker of the House of Lords spoke breaking into Jill’s quiet observation of the chamber.
“Your lord ship,” Larry Mercer the oldest serving noble of the House of Lords, who rarely took his seat, drew himself up to his five foot eight height, “I have business before our august body.”
“Lord Mercer is recognized.” The speaker called.
“With our people now fully evacuated, save those of us in this chamber, our purpose to support, defend and govern the people of Trena no longer exists. Therefore I move that the government be dissolved along with parliament. With parliament dissolved that we leave the world of Trena.”
“Is there a second?” the speaker asked.
“I second the motion,” Lamile spoke. It had been determined that Lamile as the newest and youngest noble woman of the Kingdom of Trena be the one to second the motion.
“Is there any debate?” The speaker asked.
He waited a few minutes and said, “Hearing none, I call the question. All in favor of dissolving the government of the Kingdom of Trena say aye!”
The one hundred remaining souls who made up the last session of parliament voted to dissolve the government. There was not even the solitary traditional, no vote to be heard in the chamber.
“In accordance with your vote I now declare that the government is dissolved and parliament disbanded.” He banged the gavel one time and stepped down from the Speakers desk and inserted the printed copy of the motion into the old fashioned notebook book that was the ceremonial record of the parliament. He signed his name and closed the book and walked to the great ceremonial doors of the chambers. He stood at the doors and watched as the members filed past him. He shook each and every one of their hands. Lamile, being the most junior noble present was the last to leave. Together with her help, the speaker closed the great ornate ceremonial doors of parliament. A little over four centuries after they had been opened for the first time, the doors were sealed for the last time. Once the doors were sealed they assembled near a curtained alcove. There the Speaker revealed a marble obelisk. Carved were the names of the last sitting members of the parliament and their home regions. Below the names read the inscription,
“On this day, four hundred and eighteen years after the founding of the Kingdom of Trena, The Parliament dissolved and abdicated its responsibilities for the governance of the Kingdom of Trena. This was a peaceful act, there was no rebellion, no discourse with our citizens or with our monarch, Queen Agatha the First. A cosmic disaster befell our kingdom, one that destroyed our world. We wish that the discoverer of this obelisk; peace!
If you wish to know of our people we are here.”
Engraved on the obelisk was a star chart showing the location of Home in relation to Trena and the distance to their world of refuge.
“We will not be forgotten as long as one of our descendants are alive to carry on our traditions!”
The assembled members of parliament passed the obelisk, each touching the massive stone, leaving their DNA to be discovered maybe in centuries to come.
They left the main part of Parliament and found the Queen and her party waiting for them. The Speaker handed the book to the Queen, an identical to one that was buried in the obelisk. He went to one knee and said softly, “My Queen, It is my sad and sacred duty to humbly inform you that we, the government of the Kingdom of Trena have abdicated and return the ruling of this planet to you.”
“Arise,” Agatha said softly. “The crown thanks you for your service, and that of all of the members of parliament. There is a landing craft waiting to take you to your families.
Thank you.”
“Your majesty,” the Speaker spoke softly, “The people of Trena owe you a great debt of gratitude. For without your efforts and that of your marshal many of us would not now be safe. By your leave, my Queen?”
“Granted,” the young queen nodded standing by herself as the remaining members of parliament filed past her saying their farewells. Until now she had no idea how many of these people felt about her. Some she knew would have fought against anything she did. Others wouldn’t, and still others would do what their party told them to do. But all of them were near tears as they bid her farewell and left the parliament building. As per her station, the last Lady to be so named, Lamile was the last one to present herself before Queen Agatha. With tears flowing down the young woman’s cheeks as she bowed before her monarch and then hugged her fiercely. The Queen turned to Jill who was with Lamile and handed Jill the book that had just been given her.
“Queen Jill.” The Queen said turning to Jill, “This is the book of the last session of parliament. I give it you as a sacred trust so that the universe knows that the parliament abdicated gracefully their responsibilities.”
“It is a great honor to receive this book from your hands.” Jill said solemnly holding back some tears herself, “When the Home parliament assembles for the first time I will ask that this book be forever displayed in the lobby of parliament to show that the people of Home have their roots as Trenan cit
izens. That Trena is the foundation for the future of our home!”
“It is all I can ask,” Agatha said trying not to cry as the few remaining news people and the Galactic Counsel recorded the event. She was determined not to breakdown and cry until all her duties were over. The palace surgeon had given her a pill to help her get through the day; but she didn’t think it was working.
###
“The parliament,” The General began to wrap up the class for the day, “the beautiful ornate building that housed the House of Lords and the House of Commons, the legislative body of Trena, lasted until a rock the size of a house bursts through its roof and destroyed the building eighteen hours after the parliament abdicated.”
The General was playing a holograph of the parliament’s destruction. The room darken as a hologram lit up to display a rock the size of a house as it came screaming in past the elegant convention center, glowing cherry as it seemed to zero in on the building. The last image was that of the beautiful stained glass windows showing the early days of the Kingdom of Trena being shattered as the rock destroyed parliament.
“We do not know at this time if the obelisk with the record of the last session of the Trena Parliament has survived or not” The general finished her class for the day.
“It is still waiting to be found,” The general remarked, “No one has ever mounted an expedition to find it. The Queen and the Duke have never authorized such an expedition and currently laws in place on Home and in the Duchy of the Trena Off World Habitats prohibiting anyone from even trying to determine if it survived.”
Chapter 38: Abdication
“The Marshal had said that he would make sure that every last mother’s child who wanted to leave Trena could.” General Jones was teaching her next to last class for this session. Today she would begin to wrap everything up. “Try as we might we couldn’t get everyone evacuated. Some people just couldn’t leave Trena or wouldn’t. So while the last session of parliament was in session, General Langtree was at Fletcher getting the last bit of work done.