Resolution (8 page)

"Tami, prepare for departure. Design for Xanadu system. Once entry vector is set, contact Xanadu ATC for entry permission and clearance," John ordered.

"We need clearance?" Tami asked.

"It's a whole new ball game, Tami. From now on, we always need to ask for permission," John ordered.

"Understood Sir. Exit vector and course laid in, and we're ready to depart. Transit confirmed to Xanadu transit point. Contacting Xanadu ATC for clearance."

"Okay, let’s go back," John replied. "Take us out Tami."

"Aye, departing Prometheus for transit point. Xanadu ETA, thirty-nine minutes. Mark!" Tami replied.

"Wait a sec, we're going straight to Xanadu? Is the Promethean transit point connecting to the human one?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah, I thought that was pretty neat myself," Tami said. "According to the local unit, the human point will need to be upgraded to become a permanent part of the network."

"That's another thing we're going to have to work out with Mark; technical assistance without the transfer of technology," John added. "We have a lot of work ahead of us if we're going to make this work."

"Well, someone once said that nothing worth doing was easy," said Chloe cheerfully.

John snorted his agreement. "I've got some stuff to work on in the office. Chloe, you have the con. Once we get back to Xanadu, get us a birth near Mark if you can. We might as well see if there is anything we can do to help with the rebuilding."

"Okay, I'll let you know when we're about to dock. Have fun!" Chloe said grinning at him.

"Sure, just wait until it’s your turn young lady!" John shot back as he got on the lift.

"Sir we'll be arriving in the middle of the night, oh-one-hundred-hours local," Tami said.

"Understood, in that case once we arrive let's just lock it down and try to get some rest. It's been an eventful day." The doors to the lift closed, ending the conversation.

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T
he file that Malthis mentioned was a detailed listing of artifacts and facilities that the Guardians now had control of. It also contained a briefing on the abilities and original purpose for each facility. There were literally hundreds of thousands of facilities spread all over the galaxy if one counted all the transit points.

There was a small annotation on each facility that said whether the Grays had control of it of the facility, knew of it but couldn't locate the facility to take control of it, or had no idea about it. The Grays had not taken over as many facilities as John would have thought. Of the facilities in or near their space, the Grays knew about most of them, but simply couldn't get to them thanks to the temporal off-set they were stored in.

John ordered the temporary relocation of an automated repair/building facility to Bethel's Anvil. He planned on using the facility to build the base for that location. Since they were not yet ready to begin building there, he ordered it to return to it's out of phase state until activated.

He left the rest of the facilities alone for the time being, but made sure that he could access the file if he needed it. He did order the transit points to deny the Grays travel outside of their space. Any ships they had that were not in their area of space were to be returned there as soon as they used a transit point.

The Grays most likely had hyperdrive technology, but at least the transit points would be closed to them. Perhaps he could ask the Kingdom to share that hyperdrive inhibitor they developed and space a few of them around the Grays planet. But that would isolate any colonies they have. Maybe just allow them transit points for their worlds, but prohibit the use of hyperdrives?

He would have to work out a way to isolate them until they were no longer a danger to others. But then again, did they even have the right to do that? It could be considered a form of species repression. There had to be an ethical choice here that would also protect other species from them that didn't include the use of several armadas’ of warships. However, that might be the only option available once everything else was considered.

"Sir, we are docking at the Royal Command Bunker. His majesty's aide has made an appointment for you tomorrow to see the King," Tami said over the comm.

"Thank you Tami. Shut down and secure the ship, then get some rest. I have a feeling we're all going to need it," John replied.

"Will do, have a good evening Sir," the pilot replied.

John let the connection drop and returned to his thoughts on how to contain or restrict the Grays so they did not hurt anyone else. A few minutes later, Chloe got off the lift and sat in his lap, making sure to interrupt him.

"What are you doing?" John asked.

"Interrupting you," she said smiling.

"May I ask why?"

"Sure, you need to rest as well. The modifications we went through need us to rest in order to finish setting up. What we have been operating on was mostly a hot-patch. You need to take a nap," she explained.

"Oh, I didn't know that. So what happens if The Center tries to send us an update?" John asked.

"We have the choice to accept or not. I doubt it would be a good to accept it unless we let them know what was done to us. They can no longer override our controllers and force the update," Chloe explained. "We don't have an 'index code' anymore. The Prometheans removed them. The only override still remaining is your command override and all that does is put the soldier to sleep."

"So, the Kingdom can't even track us anymore?" John asked.

"Nope, there might be a time when we have to act against the Kingdom. If that happens, we certainly won't want them to track us," Chloe explained. "Come on, let's go to bed. Tomorrow is soon enough to sort all of this out."

"Why do I get the impression sleep isn't actually what you have in mind?" John asked coyly.

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W
hile in the latter days of the war, it was clear that the Kingdom was losing, slowly, that hadn't always been the case. In the first few weeks of the war, Tammerain forces crossing the border had been beaten back, in some cases deeply into their own space. A Fleet leader made the mistake of trying to hide from the Kingdom forces by hiding his fleet on the surface of an inhabited planet. The resulting orbital bombardment left the planet in dire ecological straights, but did manage to destroy the enemy fleet.

The probe that John had launched on their first visit to Selnia, while she was still under hostile control had made it into the system, but there was no ship close enough to launch an attack on the system. While the targeting data was available to the Kingdom forces, the distance involved was too great for reliable accuracy.

For a time, the military leaders of the Empire had begun to wonder if the Goddess had advised them correctly. At the onset of the war, they had been losing ground on most fronts. However, after the attack that destroyed the grounded fleet, the Goddess used that as a rallying cry for her people and was able to mobilize a more driven fighting force. Once those troops began to arrive on the front 'lines', the Kingdom forces began to fall back. In some cases, the retreat was rapid as an over-whelming force countered their forces.

The Tammerain did not hesitate to take the war down to the planets and did not seem to be overly concerned about civilian casualties. The 'Empress' had convinced her people that this had always been a war of genocide, and no human should be allowed to remain alive to profane the Goddess' domain.

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"I
t's good to have you guys back!" Mark said as he gave Chloe a hug, and shook John's hand. "Have you seen Mary yet?"

"No, but we did get to talk to her briefly. She's really busy but said she would see us as soon as she could get away from the medical center. There has to have been a lot of wounded," Chloe said sadly.

Mark nodded. "I've been told that the Tammerain have retreated on all fronts. Is that you're doing?"

"We had a hand in it. A Sentient AI named Selnia is the one most responsible for it. She has assumed the persona of the Tammerain Goddess until the damage the Grays have done to them can be reversed," John explained. "She's got a long road ahead of her, but I think she'll be able to do it. At least this time, we have the chance for a lasting peace between the two realms."

"Yeah, that would be a hell of a lot better than getting hunted to extinction by a race of mislead religious zealots," Mark replied. "What's going to happen with the Grays?"

"I don't know yet. I have issued orders for the transit points to deny travel outside of their space, unless it's to return to their space. It's a problem that will need a lot more consideration before a solid decision can be made. I just hope the Tammerain won't hold a grudge once they know the truth," John said as he took a seat next to Chloe.

"Mark, we had four people that opted to not accept the upgrade to Guardian. I've given them permission to return to your barracks. Carl and Alice are visiting the wounded; approaching the long serving Marines they can find to proposition them. I should have asked, but I really didn't think you would mind," John explained.

"You're right, I don't mind at all. Most of those were going to get transferred to your command anyway. In fact, if you would like to make a new commercial for our people to do some recruiting, I would allow that too. Like I said, I'll help any way I can. However, right now we have a large mess to get cleaned up and a lot of destroyed cities and devastated planets to begin rebuilding. A long hard road is ahead of us," Mark said.

"The Guardians have a few facilities that might be able to help, but there is a risk of technology transfer. Mark, there is some of this stuff I don't think anyone should know about. If we decide to use those facilities, we'll have to keep the people that will be running them. The same can be said of the medical technology, although most of that isn't as bad as I feared it would be. In fact, with a few alterations, we might just reach an agreement about opening up medical centers, provided we can get the people for it.

"Do you have an estimate on your losses yet?" John asked.

"Nothing solid. The numbers range from as little as a couple hundred thousand to over a ten billion. I know we have a lot of wounded. Right now, that's our main focus. We built a huge medical facility here, but it's nearing maximum capacity. We're trying to get supplies and personnel out to the planets that need them the most. Now that the Tammerain are pulling back, I've ordered the fleets to render all aide. The supply ships and every freighter I could commandeer are in continuous operation."

"Well, now that the Tammerain have retreated, some of the people can be taken back to their planets can't they?" Chloe asked.

"Some of them, but in a lot of cases, their homes were destroyed, or the domes were ruptured on the hostile planets. It's just going to take a lot of work to recover from this war," Mark replied.

"Were any planets destroyed?" John asked.

"No, not completely. They didn't use a lot of nuclear weapons this time. But the particle beams and mass drivers did plenty of damage. The city of Sanctuary on Haven is gone. They hit it with a mass driver volley from high orbit. The crater was over a mile deep before it filled with water from the storms. That was one of the planets that were close to being destroyed. The shops here have already begun building the processors to bring the planet back. Once we get them in place we should be able to put new colonists back there in about a hundred years." Mark sighed sadly. "Our people are going to have difficulty forgiving the Tammerain for this. I'm already under pressure by both houses to retaliate as soon as we are able. I'm afraid the diplomatic situation is pretty bleak right now."

"Well, I think we can help with a part of that. I'll have the transit points in the realm return to normal space, and instruct them to allow kingdom ships access to the network. That should seriously cut down on the shipping time if nothing else. The transit point you built can interface with the network, but in order to function optimally it'll need to be upgraded. So for now, I'll have one of the remote nodes transit here for you to use.

"As soon as we can reach an agreement about the tech involved, we can get some people into the repair/construction units so they can get trained and get busy rebuilding people’s homes and critical services," John said.

Mark shrugged. "No agreement needed. Take whomever you need. Helping you to help us is a no-brainer. Just because we won't be getting the people back doesn't mean that much if you think about it, people are free to do what they will. Even if they're working for you they'll still be helping us."

"Okay," John said and turned to Chloe. "I'll upload a list of needs for the facilities involved. We'll have to put out a few announcements, but we should be able to find the volunteers we need here." He turned back to Mark. "One moment, Mark. I need to speak to your ATC people about where to place that transit point."

"Go ahead, while you're saving our asses, I'll order breakfast," Mark replied.

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O
ne year later

New Curran City

Centauri Prime

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"H
ighness, the transportation report you asked for is now available. Also, the Guardian Flyer is on final approach to the palace grid. Prime Guardian Aster and his party will arrive in twenty minutes, you asked to be informed," Mr. Ford replied. Hanna Torrence, Mark's longtime aide had retired shortly after the Tammerain departed. Although she had been a young woman, the death of her family in the attack on Centauri Prime had been more than she could take.

"Thanks Harry. When John and the others arrive, please show them right in. I'll let the Princess know that Mary and Chloe are here," Mark replied to the voice. He had been in his office working, and Gloria was in her own office working hard to optimize the survivors’ relief effort. Even after a year, they still had to have Royal oversight in order to get supplies to the most needed areas. Gloria had jumped into the effort and took over the not so token task of making sure people got food and survival supplies until the rebuilding effort could get to them.