Chasing the Jewelled Throne

  Chapter 11; Base Two

  The day after the coup, Base Two was also a bee hive of activity. People continued to pour in. There had been a contingent of Royal Guardians on the site since it was completed. They were busy assigning barrack units to every one. Whole families were being sworn in to Guardian Units as non-combatants or combatants depending on their physical conditioning and age.

  The Junior Guard began working immediately as messengers and aides of all sorts. The older children were organized as leaders of squads to keep the children busy and safe. This did wonders for their morale.

  The cleverest thing that her father had done was to put Base Two on Arth. In a remote jungle area, left as a wildlife preserve, they built an underground fortress. The men who had built it were told that they had been beamed half a galaxy away while in Hypno-rest.

  They had been under only a few clicks, but they were told that it was the next day when they awoke. This was to pay off later when the Admiralty, using this incorrect information was to spend two years before they could even find the place.

  Only four hours after the Red Alert, Lea arrived at Base Two. She was very gratified to see how well the place was shaping up already. Her first stop was the Tech Lab. People were busy working as if they had not been uprooted and gone into hiding only hours before. The office person was moving from desk to desk assigning housing as to need and availability. With all the people they had moved this morning, the base was only half full, so these first arrivals got the good housing.

  She then went to Guard Headquarters. She found her father deep at work and her little cousin, Prince Baraz, asleep on a couch in his office. “Well, he has had a tough day for a ten year old and that father of his was no help, I’m sure,” she thought to herself.

  “Father, how did we do?”

  “Wonderfully, I’d say. At last count, ninety eight percent of the people we had targeted to evacuate were successful in doing so. No children were lost and all have been returned to their parents unharmed. Guard losses were only a couple of hundred suicide volunteers. Some of these may have escaped and may filter back into the ranks soon, not a bad finish to an awful day’s beginning.

  “I am very proud of you. Your people are here and already working. We must solve the problems with shipping. The current systems used for beaming are so unsatisfactory. If only there was a way to circumvent the mass to energy ratio. We could jump through time and space at the same time. The lack of reassembly needed would negate the need for terminal tubes. We could go wherever we wanted. I know that your team is working on this. Please hurry.”

  Seeing how exhausted her father was and wanting to desperately to cheer his up, she flashed a false face of optimism and kissed his saying, “Well, it pays to hire the very best. I want you to know that the Ships that we stole from the Navy with the Masking Device are moving in and out of Naval Security Zones without a hitch.”

  “Good, good, we must make contact with Base Three. The Royal Family is there and I want to a check of conditions. I also want them to know that Baraz is with me and quite safe. Please ride out on the next shuttle. You can call Marx as soon as you are free of the security zone.

  “Okay…”

  “Please go home and lie to your mother that I am sleeping on a cot in the office.

  “Daddy..?”

  “You need to get some sleep now. The shuttle takes off at first light. I will have someone by to get you.”

  “This will allow our people to get the Super Scrambler permanent comm.-link established. It should be totally functionally by tomorrow,” Lea said, trying desperately to keep up a good front for her dad.

  “Yes, that is our theory, too. G’Bye, Dear.”

  “See you in the morning, Dad.”

  As soon as Lea had left, Z felt no longer that he had to keep up his false optimism. He dropped his head back into his hands wracking his brain. The situation here was desperate, and he could share his concerns with no one. They had old barges and shuttles to fight against sleek battle cruisers and the latest of war making machinery.

  The Imperial Guardians had deteriorated more than the Navy under the last two regimes. Now, it was a joke, filled with these displaced civilian bureaucrats and government workers. Their desire was there, but it will take months or even years to make an army out of them. He knew they just didn’t have that kind of time. Most of the trained soldiers were the men and women that had given their lives to make the escape possible and now we would just have to make do somehow with these brave souls that are left to us.

  “Buck up, old fellow,” he chided himself. Get your back straight. There are a lot of people who think that you can beat these demons, and you’ll just have to find some way to do just that.”

  Baraz watched the play of emotions on the face of the man that he loved through the glass in the office door. He went to him.

  “I know that you can lead us safety, Poppy. I just know you’ll find their weakness and use it to destroy them.” He put his arm around his grand father’s shoulders, and they stayed that way for a moment.

  “With brave soldiers such as yourself, we cannot fall, Baraz, Now, let’s get some training programs together. We have an army to build,” Baraz was gladdened by his grandfather’s response to the confidence of his grand son.