To Forge a Queen

Prologue

The cadets filed into the class room. They quickly took their seats. The time for horse play and chatter was over. All of the cadets were first year cadets or freshmen of the Queen’s Own Royal Corps of Cadets. The academy that trained young people to become officers of the Home Guard, the Home Patrol, the Crown Maritime Rescue Service, and the Home Emergency Response Team for the Kingdom of Home. They would be officers of the militia, planetary police, the ocean rescue service, and the special extra planetary and system group that the crown used to help others off the planet of Home and in the conglomeration of star systems that was the Kingdom of Home. This class was one of several required classes for all first year cadets, and to fail this class was to be dismissed from the corps. Many of the cadets had over the course of their prior education; before being appointed to the academy; had sat through parts of this class. Every year of their elementary education, and their secondary schooling they had been exposed to parts of this required class, but not as a whole complete class on this one subject.

Most of the first year history classes at the academy dealt with the evacuation of Trena and the founding of Home. Throughout their career at the academy they would be exposed to the history of the evacuation. This course discussed how their corps of cadets came about. The lecturer would lecture on the evacuation of Trena that had brought about the creation of the Queens Own Royal Corps of Cadets.

Sitting near the front of the class was Princess Lisa. The princess would be the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Home. She was anxious to hear the story of her great, great, great grandmother who helped to establish the corps. Sitting with her were her cousins, T’harla Atomi, Delores Green, Valerie Morgan, and her Aunt Lamile Mitchum who was all of 19 standard years old and the oldest of them all. They could all trace their linage back to the very first young people to be a cadet in this academy. All of them had heard the stories of the evacuation and the early academy years, but these were second and third hand narratives from their parents who had gotten it from their grandparents. None of them had heard it from one person who had been there.

General Jones, today’s lecturer had been there. She was the oldest sentient being from that time two hundred years ago. The General who was commander of one the action teams of the Home Emergency Respond Team spent a lot of her time deployed with her Team helping to resolve some of the catastrophes affecting the citizens of the Home Star Nation. She only got to Home occasionally; but always for the Landing Day Celebrations.

It was that day, two hundred years ago, when the very first Queen had landed on the planet Home and became the first monarch of Home. This year would be the two hundred and sixth anniversary of that day when Home became a nation. She never missed the celebration.

All of the cadets waited for the general to arrive. The Princess along with her cousins and aunt had listened to the general tell various stories of the evacuation but only as she talked with her parents and grandparents. From what the older cadets had said, this lecture was something special and the General didn’t do it for every class, but when she did do it; it was only the freshmen class that received the privilege of hearing the General’s lecture about the founding of their academy and corps.

Room Atten-hut! a cadet called from the back of the room as the general entered the class. The cadets came to their feet while the general walked to the podium. It was hard to believe that the five eight, one hundred and forty pound thirty something appearing general officer was over two hundred years old. The cadets waited for the general to speak before they took their seats.

Be seated, the general’s soft voice was heard clearly in the class room.

As the general waited for the cadets to take their seats again, she observed the newest class of Home’s future leaders. There were many faces she knew and many she did not; but even then she knew most of their family members. They had either sat in her lecture, or like her aid the son or granddaughter of an officer or person who had served with her through the years. She saw the Princess, and the cadets sitting around her. She had known every one of their grandparents. She had been witness to their triumphs and failures; first as cadets, then as officers. One or two of their grandparents, like Lieutenant Anderson, her aide, who was sitting in the back of the class room, the great grandson of her sergeant had become her aides over the preceding two centuries.

Finally with the cadets in their seats again, the human looking sentient being known as a humbot, gathered herself together and began to speak.

Good day cadets, the general began, "I am General Alice Jones, Commander of Team One, of the Home Emergency Response Team. Over the next few weeks I will be lecturing about the evacuation that brought us all here to Home and the formation of your corps. As many of you know, I was part of the evacuation security team. As part of a future lecture, I will discuss how I came about, and the security issues concerning the evacuation.

Let’s start off with why the evacuation occurred then we’ll move in what direction seems appropriate. The general started her lecture in earnest.

###

It was the 418th year after landing. The general began, "And we were in trouble. We were not a sleepy little back water rinky dink independent star nation. Nor was Trena a quant tourist world. No we were at the crossroads of the galaxy. We were the one place in this part of the galaxy that many star nations, and their shippers used to get their wares and goods to other star nations such as the Republic of the Stars, and the Theocracy, and of course the Terrestrial Empire, and the Thonian Realm. At one point we transshipped over seventy percent of the goods going between the Empire and the Realm.

We were quite prosperous, the general continued, "Although we experienced the turmoil that a crossroads could be; for the most part we were a peaceful star nation. Preferring to trade with even our most cantankerous neighbors, like the Republic or the Theocracy, instead of going to war them. When our neighbors tried to invade us … well we made sure with our friends that their attack was beaten back. They never did learn that an unruly Trena as an occupied colony was not as good as a trading partner. Even at the end they hadn’t learned that lesson. But that wasn’t the cause of our trouble.

No our trouble wasn’t from our neighbors, the general continued, but a combination of natural and man made events caused us to take refuge on Home.

Suddenly the room became a three dimensional theatre. The holo plunged the class into a space battle. It was a contest between two ships. The cadets couldn’t determine who they belonged to. The general narrated what they were observing, Although this battle occurred a full two centuries before Trena was inhabited, no one was aware that it had happened. The thonian Battleship the Peace Keeper’s Challenge was involved in a running battle with a pirate, it was believed to be a pirate from what would become the Republic of the Stars, for several days. As you can see the Thonians won the day; but at great cost. They dumped their magazines. They dumped all of their weapons including a now outlawed planet buster bomb. The bomb had been made useless or so the Challenger’s weapons people thought.

The holo changed to the now very familiar imagery of how Trena had died. All of the young people had seen this imagery time and time again. This time General Jones narrated what they were seeing.

I had not been created yet, so I did not witness these events. The humbot said softly. Everyone had watched in awe as the comet invaded the asteroid belt. It didn’t have a jazzy name just a number. Trena-10. They had been knocking about the Trena Solar System for millions of years. The imagery showed two of them traveling together. The Astros guys believed there had been two of them. That is until the larger of the two was destroyed when it had collided with a small airless world about 2 Astronomical Units out from the Trena primary creating Trena’s second asteroid field. The imagery showed the creation of second asteroid field.

The smaller of the two comets had survived the destruction of the larger. The general’s soft voice filled the classroom, Even though a chunk of the larger comet had hit it, it survived. The holo showed the smaller comet being bounced above the asteroid field that the larger comet had created, and would ensure its survival for millions of years.

Our families watched in awe as the comet’s successful navigation of the Cheryl Asteroid Field ended in a spectacular collision with an asteroid of modest size. The general’s voice highlighted the collision of the comet with an asteroid of several hundred miles in diameter. It was halved by the collision. The bigger of the two rocks tumbled into another asteroid. It was like someone had set up a classic dominoes demonstration where one stared to fall and soon they all began tumbling into each other. One asteroid colliding with another and another until several large asteroids had had their orbits changed. What was left of the comet and one large asteroid were now traveling together away from Trena, and appeared to be headed out of the system.

The authorities on Trena had been aware for months that this was going to happen. The General continued, They had taken steps in the asteroid belt to make sure none of the mining interests that provided our late world with the metals both precious, and those needed to support our nation would be harmed. The Crown had studied several of the possible outcomes of the impact. There were a couple far out ones where the domino effect would happen. The crown authorities had taken what precautions they thought prudent for a cosmic incident. It was really a cosmic event; one that had never been recorded in any inhabited star system ever. It was widely believed that the one or two of the worse scenarios wouldn’t happen. The collision itself had been highly improbable; the odds of it happening were nearly incalculable.

The authorities felt the one or two serious events would be nearly impossible. The Queen’s advisors had thought of every conceivable thing that could happen; they hadn’t a glimmer of what would actually happen.

This is one of the scenarios that the crown thought scientists might happen, The holo displayed an asteroid destroying one of the smelters. The smelters were used to reduce the asteroids to their base components. The simulation showed a fiery explosion as the smelter was destroyed. Then it morphed back into a normal unharmed state. The general continued, Which as you know didn’t happened

With the cosmic drama seemingly over the people of Trena went about their everyday affairs, Alice Jones voice was heard over the holos showing the resumption of the mining of the asteroids, and the loading of the large interstellar capable cargo ships their holds being filled with thousands of cargo containers in orbit about Trena. Life went on. For many months we had no idea that a disaster was about to befall us that would impact our people and this region of the galaxy for all time. All because of the remains of the space battle and this piece of sky junk. Miraculously the pair managed to not collide with any other objects natural or manmade.

The class continued to watch as the comet and now a small asteroid, traveled through the Trena solar system. A trajectory appeared on the holo showing the forecasted path through the system. On the forecasted track it wouldn’t come close to any other object. Suddenly the trajectory ended in a brilliant flash of light.

That explosion caught the authorities by surprise, the General’s voice broke into the silent class room as the holo faithfully recreated the explosion. As everyone knew sound couldn’t travel in the vacuum of space, so the explosion had been eerily quiet. Remember this little bad boy?

A three dimensional engineering drawing of a thonian planet buster bomb was displayed in the class room. It wasn’t large just six feet long and a foot in diameter.

Although technically illegal, the general’s voice continued to fill the class room, so called planet buster bombs are owned by many star nations. This one was owned by the thonians.

The imagery changed to show a re-enactment of the comet colliding with the bomb.

Normally, General Jones’ voice still softly filled the class room as she narrated what was being shown, "Once a PB is made in operable, it can be dropped into star and still not detonate. In this case the self-destruct circuitry had failed. It had worked partially. The bomb was rendered harmless. It couldn’t detonate. Or so the Peace Keeper’s Challenge crew thought. But when several million tons of comet collided with the ancient bomb it was too much for its safeties to prevent its arming sequence from completing its program. It wasn’t a big bomb for such a device but it was big enough.

It was a gravity bomb, designed to alter the gravity of the planet it hit. It was designed to rip a planet out of its orbit and causing catastrophic damage. Having no planet to interact with, it vented its micro short lived black hole in such a way that its gravitational field caused the orbits of thousands of nearby asteroids of all sizes to be ripped from what had been stable orbits.

The presentation now showed the effects on the nearby asteroids, many as close as a thousand miles away. Only a small portion of the field was affected. It was enough though. The asteroids, whose orbits had been stable for millions years were no longer stable. Now thousands of once stable asteroids were in motion. A new trajectory was superimposed in the holo. It ended at Trena. Although not many, not even a tenth of the entire field would fall on the capital world, it would be enough to destroy the planet of Trena.

If Trena had been as much as four days further along in its orbit. The general began to wind up the lecture. "It would have been impacted a thousand years later, one day the other way and most of the fragments would have missed it. However, Fate or the Gods conspired against our small independent free world of Trena. When DefConnie put it together we found out or beloved Trena would come to a spectacular end in less than a standard year.

This is how the great diaspora from Trena to Home was caused. The general finished the meat of her lecture as the holo presentation ended and the classroom’s lights came back on.

General, one of the cadets raised his hand when the general paused, Why didn’t they try to clear the asteroids?

They did, the general replied, The Thonian’s feeling responsible for what happened tried to detonate a smaller planet buster in the hopes they could destroy or possibly change the course of the asteroids. The thinking being that if they could be slowed down they would miss Trena altogether. The bomb went off prematurely because one of AIs at the Mountain, Trena Defense Headquarters, had somehow gotten into its program and caused it to go off in the wrong place. The bomb, when it went off seemed to consolidate the asteroids into a tighter pattern and pushed them towards Trena. Before the bomb went off, many of the asteroids would have missed Trena. Even so the ones that the Crown knew were going to hit would cause catastrophic damage to the planet. After the bomb went off most if not all would now hit Trena.

General, Princess Lisa asked, Why didn’t our ancestors build a refuge in orbit? Why come here? We had the resources of the entire Trena solar system. We could have built habitats on McKay, in the asteroids. We could have built habitats in and about Trena’s off world territories. Why didn’t we?

There were seventy million souls on Trena perhaps another million or so AIs planet wide. It was thought at the time that there was no way we could build enough space habitats to hold that many people that quickly. Also we were a planet based society and culture. We go to space, work in space and some of our people lived in space; but loads more didn’t and we didn’t know if our people could all adapt to living in space.

Lieutenant Anderson cleared his throat a bit getting his general’s attention. General Jones nodded and said, "We don’t have much time left today, so I best get on to your assignment. By the end of this session you are required to turn in a paper on how the Queen’s Own Corps of Cadets and this academy came about and who the important players were and what events transpired to bring your corps about. Read chapter one of your texts.

I plan to lecture on one chapter of the text every time we meet."

The class bell rang and the ranking cadet spoke, Class Atten-hut!

The cadets came to attention, and General Jones ordered, Class dismissed.

The cadets filed out of the class room, leaving the general and her aide alone. As Alice packed up her things a startling black cat jumped up onto the desk. Alice petted the animal and asked, What have you been up to Bugs?

The cat purred a bit as his owner picked him up. The semi intelligent robotic cat looked and acted like a cat, only other cats knew he was a robot. They avoided him as they couldn’t figure him out.

Was I that young General, Lieutenant Anderson took his general’s briefcase for her.

Yes, Alice said, But you turned out. He chuckled as they left the class room.

Chapter 1: That’s Where You Went.

The cadets began to file into the class room for the next week’s class. While they waited for the general to arrive they talked among themselves.

What I don’t understand, Georgia Hawthorne commented, Is why Queen Jill was on Mars and not with Lord Wilson. That isn’t discussed much in the reading from last night.

When Great Grand Dad Mike left the empire, Princess Lisa replied, he had to do so in a hurry. Great Grandmother Lisa was wanted by the Company. Seems she was an escaped biowoman. So the company wanted her back. But Great Grandfather Mike was not going to let that happen. He had lost her once and he wasn’t about to lose the woman he loved disappear again, so he put his, ‘papers’ in, she put air quotes as she papers, "and left the Imperial Marines.

With Grandma Lisa in tow, he left Earth and the empire Trena. Leaving Grandma Jill with Grandma Joyce, Princess Lisa finished up. Sometimes when she talked about her grandparents there were just too many grandmas in the story. Especially when she added the greats! Keeping those straight could be a challenge! So leaving Queen Jill on Mars, with great, great, great, great, Grandma Joyce was the only viable option he had or so he thought. It was only when Queen Jill found out Grand Dad Mike and Grand Mom Lisa were on Trena did she leave for Trena.

But how did she find out they were on Trena, T’harla Langtree one of many great, great nephews of David and Mylea Langtree asked, Everything I have ever read about them had them trying to stay under the radar. So the company wouldn’t come for them?

The company was indeed hunting for them, General Jones had quietly entered the room and was listening to the cadets before making her presence known.

Room… Princess Lisa began but the general interrupted her, As you were cadets.

The cadets who were struggling to their feet stopped and sat back down.

Yes the company was indeed trying to capture Lady Wilson and her husband, the Marshal. The humbot general took a seat among the cadets, "They had been living on

Trena for several years when the emergency began."

General we all know that Queen Agatha reached down for Granddad Mike, Lamile Mitchum commented and then asked, But how did Grand Mom Jill find out they were on Trena?

Didn’t you read the assignment Cadet Mitchum, The human looking robot asked an eyebrow rose as if in accusation. To look at the 200 year old sentient computer, one would never think she was anything but a human!

Yes ma’am, the young cadet replied, I guess I just don’t get it. It seems strange that our great, great grandmother would at seventeen be doing things like that search she was doing.

If you had known Queen Jill you wouldn’t be asking that question. The general replied. She pondered if she should speak of her association with the first queen of Home. In the end she decided not yet. Instead she decided to begin the session by lecturing on how young Jill was informed of the evacuation and where her father was.

###

Jill Wilson had been studying in her room in her grandmother’s home, on Mars, when the computer beeped for attention. The teenager quickly turned from the homework she was struggling with to see why the computer was clambering for her attention. Although she could use the distraction, her homework was especially tedious tonight, she hoped it wasn’t one of her friends wanting to chat without their parents knowing they were goofing off. She really needed to get the report for her interstellar history class done. She should have done it a week ago! She had been procrastinating for the whole term! When she saw what the expert system was trying to get her attention about, all thoughts of homework vanished.

Years ago when one of her classes required her to research current events on something, (she had forgot what after all these years,) she realized she could set up a search for her father. True it was only public news media data bases, to her young mind she thought she might find him. Her initial data mining turned up the two Imperial Medal of Honor he had been awarded; his knighthood; and his non classified military service record. Stuff she already knew about. She left the program run. Over the four years her expert system had been running she had forgotten it was still running. Now the terminal in her room was reporting that the data mining had finally found something on her father.

Girl Friend sho0w me what you have found, Jill addressed the computer.

Sure thing, a teenage girl spoke from the terminal.

She wondered what the computer had found about her father. Her father had left the empire five years ago, just left with someone she knew about; but hadn’t met. For years she had thought that it had been something she had said or done. But later, she had received a letter from her father that explained why he had left the empire. It had answered some of the mystery of his abandonment of her. He had explained why he felt that he had to go away. Not where, but why. It had been barely enough to make her feel better or at least less guilty. Although she resented his treatment of her, she still loved him and longed to have him back in her life. Since her mother had died giving birth to her, she only had her grandmother and her father. Grandma was great; but she wasn’t dad. There was nothing in the letter that told her where he was. It was hand written! Finally after all these years, the computer was reporting that it had found something about her father!

When she told the computer to display what it had found, a royal crest floated in the air over the teenager’s desk as the computer presented it as a holographic display with music filling the room. As the image faded she realized that the crest was that of the Kingdom of Trena; a small independent star nation between the empire and the realm. The crest faded to show a young woman who appeared not much older than herself seated on the edge of a plain white desk with few accouterments. She stood up and seemed to walk towards her. The woman was dressed in a plain business suite. Once standing in the middle of the room she began speaking.

Good evening, The Queen began, I am sorry to interrupt your evening, but it cannot be helped. I too wanted to see the Royals smash the Manglers in the finals. She gave a smile that seemed sad. But my people I have a message that cannot wait much longer to share with you. I wish I could give you time to get use to what I am about to share with you, to feed the news to you in small edible bites, or to sugarcoat it, but I am forced to be blunt.

A terrible tragedy is about to befall our beloved home world. By the winter holidays Trena will have been destroyed by the remnants of a couple errant pieces of sky junk. The imagery now playing on your receivers shows how Trena will die. The sound continued but now the woman’s image was superimposed by a map of a solar system and a video that showed how the disaster started and what was expected to happen. A time line was superimposed on the images showing when things had to be done. The last scenes showed asteroids impacting on the planet.

This information was reported to me a while ago, the young woman said softly, "At first I couldn’t believe it and had to have it rechecked and confirmed. The comet that we all watched in awe invade the Cheryl Asteroid belt then after being assured that it was of no further danger to us, thinking, we were safe from any further disaster from the comet as it appeared to be on its way out of the Trena Solar System we turned to other more important things in our lives.

How I wish that were true. How I wish that was true. she repeated. "When I was informed of the disaster about to befall us I was stunned. Wanting to make sure that what I was being told was correct I had various authorities look at the data. The presentation that you are now seeing is the consensus of what they believe will happen to our lovely world. Yesterday I became convinced that the simulation I just shared with you will come to pass.

Many of you, just as I did, will not want to believe this. She continued, "Some of you will seek to deny that our home world; which has nurtured us from our birth, or has given us a haven from danger, is doomed. Many of you may choose not to be evacuated, believing we are exaggerating the scope of the disaster. Some of you may even take actions that are totally unacceptable to your family, friends, and to me, your sovereign. I have authorized and commanded that the data that I have presented to you this evening be made public. It is now available in the Royal Library and can be reviewed by the people of Trena at any time.

"To answer one of the questions surely to be asked; can the militia do something about this? They have tried and failed, making matters much worse. For that you can blame me as I asked our friend’s, the Thonians, to try to blow the asteroids out of the sky. Instead of clearing a path that Trena could glide through. It had the opposite effect of making the asteroids denser and now impossible to eradicate safely. My advisors have assured me that any type of clearing action now will make it much more disastrous.

We must evacuate our world, The Queen said softly, her voice filled with tense emotion. As much as I wish there was another way; there isn’t. Today I have had to make a decision on how to accomplish this. In consultation with my government, The imagery had gone back to the office setting and showed the Queen standing with several people and my trusted advisors; I have found an individual that is capable and willing to lead our evacuation effort.

His name is Lord Michael Wilson, the Queen said as the image dissolved to show a tall husky man in the navy blue uniform of an Imperial Marine being invested as a Knight Commander of the Terrestrial Empire. As images showed this same marine being awarded the Imperial Medal of Honor, The Thonian Service Cross and presented a brief resume. The Queen’s voice overlaid the imagery, He is a peer of the House of Lords of the Terrestrial Empire. His is not a hereditary title. His title was earned through dedicated hard service and sacrifice to the Terrestrial Empire. He emigrated to Trena, where he quickly became a valued instructor at the Trenaport Mounted Police Academy, and at the University of Trena, where he teaches emergency management, law enforcement tactics and moral leadership to our planet’s police officers. He is by far the most knowledgeable person on Trena, or off to help get every last mother’s child off Trena. He may not have been born on Trena, but he has my confidence in his loyalty to us and our need. My people, and visitors to the Free State, I present to you the Marshal of the Trena Royal Constabulary, Lord Michael Wilson, our Commander of the Trena Evacuation Force.

She heard her father’s name and saw the tall imposing figure of her middle aged father, the same man seen in the holos marched to where the Queen stood, taking his place beside her, He towered over the Queen at nearly six foot six. As soon as he was in place, a woman took a position beside him. The woman was a delta clone. One of the top of the line models from EBio. Jill knew who she was, the woman who her father had left the Empire with. The camera zoomed to show an older man in a black flowing robe standing before a large rock set on an ornate table set before the Queen’s party.

The old man turned to her father who, was dressed in a scarlet uniform jacket and black trousers. There were five stars surrounding a crown on his collar. The man in the flowing robe indicated the rock that she could see had several names inscribed on it. "Lord

Wilson, place your hand on the Rock, and raise your left hand." Her father did as requested.

Lord Michael Wilson, do you solemnly swear to protect and defend the people of Trena from all threats, against her and her people, whether they be foreign, domestic, natural or other?

I do, her father’s baritone softly filled the room as he took the oath with one palm on the Rock and the other held in the classic position of oath taking.

Upon your sacred honor, as you take this Oath of Duty and Fealty to the people of Trena, do you further swear that you hold no other commitments or reservations upon your time, including commissions in any foreign governmental or military organizations that would hinder you in serving the Kingdom of Trena and her people? I so swear! Mike Wilson’s voice boomed filling the room.

Your Majesty, the justice turned to the sovereign, and then the assembled government officials, Your lordships, Mr. President, then facing the camera the solemn man continued, People of Trena, I give you our new duly installed, Commander of the Trena Evacuation Force, Marshal Lord Michael Wilson.

Thank you, your Honor, He shook the official’s hand and bowed to the sovereign, Queen Agatha. then turned to the camera himself "People of Trena I will make this brief, as we don’t have a lot of time for things like this.

"Our Queen has selected me to manage this Herculean task of getting every last one of you off-world. I promise you all that this task will be my only objective. I make this promise to you; that those of you on Trena today I will see that you are safely gotten off-world before it is too late. It is not going to be easy. There’s going to be hard times. Some of you may not believe what is happening; others may believe that you have a better way to get things done.

That is quite normal. He spoke calmly almost softly, "What I ask of you today is to continue on with your everyday affairs. Our world needs you at your jobs. Your families still have to eat and your landlord still needs his rent, and creditors need you to pay your bills so they can feed their families. Simply because we’re going to evacuate Trena doesn’t mean it’s going to happen tomorrow. We all have to work together. Our farmers have to transport their goods to market, and our factories have to build what we will need to evacuate all of us. Without you we can’t make the evacuation happen!

But more importantly, it will take us all working together to get every last mother’s child off Trena. So before you ask what the crown can do to help you, ask what you can do to help the crown get us all off world. That’s all I have to say at this time, I’ll be in touch over the next few weeks.

The air in the bedroom sparkled as the holo faded Jill ran out of her bedroom and to the spa where her grandmother was relaxing as she normally did in the evening after their diner.

Grandma, The seventeen year old granddaughter of the retired admiral broke into spa. The teenager knew that when her grandmother was in the spa-bath at this time of night that it was her quiet time. It was the time of day when her grandmother Joyce could let her hair down and not be bothered. This was usually after dinner and she was generally alone, with only her thoughts for company, this quiet meditation time was a tradition her grandmother had begun when she had been appointed as the commander of PriFly, the Interstellar Rescue Service base that trained pilots for its Rescue and Hospital Patrol Ships. She had needed the quiet time to review the day and get her head straight. It was the only place in the house where there was no communicators, holosets, or computers. Only a small audio player in the corner that played music was the only electronics in the room. And it wasn’t even hooked to house network. It was a place of solitude that was suddenly broken by Jill. I’m sorry to disturb you; but Dad’s in the news!

What! The seventy year old woman shot up in the whirl pool bath, dripping water on the floor of the spa. She quickly climbed out and threw the robe around her that Jill handed her. Then she accompanied Jill to her bedroom where teenager replayed the whole video.

They looked good; the retired admiral thought. She hadn’t seen her step-son since he had left the empire. But that didn’t mean she didn’t keep tabs on him. The current ambassador to the Court of Trena was her old academy roommate. Amanda always forwarded what news she had of Mike and his family. She knew she had another grandchild. She even had pictures; but she didn’t share them with Jill, as she knew Jill would be all over her to go to her father. She also didn’t want to give him away to the people who were chasing him. It was one of the really few secrets she kept from her granddaughter.

Do you think he’s been on Trena all this time? Jill asked. Her father had just picked up one day and vanished. She had been terribly hurt; it was only her grandmother and time that eased; but not totally resolved her hurt feelings.

Joyce Wilson was quiet for a while; pretending to focus on the news report she was seeing. She didn’t want to hurt the girl’s feelings. They had developed a close bond and while Jill could be a handful, she trusted her grandmother. This could break that trust. She pondered how she could tell Jill what she knew and how much she should tell her.

It’s the news media Admiral, French, the house AI called from the speakers of the holoset interrupting her thoughts They are requesting that you make a statement about the situation on Trena.

No comment, Joyce said, Any news media representatives are to be told that there will not be a statement of any type. Have Louis set the perimeter security to: hard on. Then put on the beacon that we are not accepting visitors. The Wilson family is not accepting calls from anyone that is not on you’re A list. Unwelcome visitors will be dealt with as harshly as the law permits.

Yes Ma’am, The computer said. I am posting the notice now.

The retired admiral who had commanded landing craft wings in battle was scared to death to come clean about how long she had known her step son was on Trena.

French, The admiral called, thinking she had way to delay the inevitable. Please record the following!

Recording, The AI droned.

Message to Marshal Wilson. Her grandmother began, Care of General Delivery; The Kingdom of Trena.

"Congratulations, on your posting as Marshal of Trena. I thought you were trying to maintain a low profile? Did you forget?

"You and Lisa look great! Some company you keep! Your boss looks beautiful.

Leave it to you find a beautiful woman to be your Boss!"

Hi dad! It’s Jill! I miss you! I love you and really want to see you! Can I come and be with you. She wanted to say more but she wasn’t certain that her grandmother wouldn’t edited it out of the message. She would send one later that was more personal.

So do I son. Hurry home when you can! And bring your family! Jill threw the camera a kiss, and Joyce said, French; send it! Done, The voice said.

Grandma, let's go to dad’s, The teenager asked, then pleaded, Please!

Jill, the retired admiral looked at her granddaughter, This isn’t the time to visit him. I am not even sure we could get clearance into Trena Space right now. That has to be an exit only area. It’s not going to be a good place to be.

But where will he go! Jill asked, Maybe now I can be with him!

It was tempting to take the Traveling Lady, her yacht, to Trena and see her son. Jill was right it had been too long since Jill had been with her father. Jill was also right in another way though, she needed to be with her father. With every passing day her grandmother understood why young people were blessed with the adventure of raising children. Their younger minds, spirits, and bodies were better able to deal with the adventure of raising children. She had never raised children of her own. By the time she had finally married at age forty, she still had years of space duty she had to endure, and then Michael’s father died the second year of their marriage; never giving her the chance to raise their children. Michael was a young marine when she had first met the young man who would become her son. She had raised Jill. Joyce had raised the girl as though Jill was her own child. The retired admiral was the closest thing to a mother that Jill would ever have, as Jill’s mother had died in childbirth. Although rare, it still happened.

Knowing that he still had years of space duty, Michael had helped her buy the large estate on Mars that she retired to. Letting everyone think he had helped her buy it when in fact he had purchased the old property and then went on to update the property. By the time they moved in, only EmpQuar, the home of the emperor was more secure. When her son, she never thought of him as a step son, had non-dependent tours, where he couldn’t have his family with him, Jill stayed with her grandmother. For most of Jill’s toddler years her father had many no dependent tours with the Black Guard. Even when he later joined the

MPs he still had few dependent tours. As such Joyce had mostly raised her granddaughter.

A few years later when he had been injured he had been assigned to the Capital Marine Barracks as the Chief MP for the capital. With the new assignment he had been promoted to Chief Master Gunnery Sergeant. He had received the new position based on his second Imperial Medal of Honor and being bestowed a Knight Commander of the Empire. For a handful of years he had been home to help raise Jill. She hadn’t realized that she needed the help. Unfortunately that didn’t last.

No Jill, Grandma Wilson said sadly, as much as I would like to; now’s not the time.

The next morning Jill was gone. She had left a note that simply said, "Gone to dad’s

I’ll write!"

She never did write her father a more private note thinking the sooner she got there the better. Then she could have it out with him.

By the time Admiral Wilson found the note, the girl had been gone nearly eighteen hours, and had already cleared Earth space.

###

The end of class of bell rang and the cadets began to file out. When they were gone the princess who had been hanging back while the others filed out was noticed by the general.

Yes princess, the general asked.

General, Princess Lisa asked, I have been trying to find something about grandma Jill’s real mother, not grandma Lisa, can you give me any place to look?

Not much is known about the Queen‘s birth mother, the general replied, We know she was an only child. We think her parents were part of a free trader crew. Lord Wilson met her on the Bella station when his Hospital Patrol Ship was docked. He was part of the Special Forces unit assigned to the ship. For about a year the two ships were on the same schedule and they began their romance. The best we can tell Killeen’s parents were pacifists and strongly objected to their daughter’s romance and marriage to an imperial marine. They objected to the point of shunning her when they married. They never knew they had a granddaughter.

I see. the young princess commented softly, The other thing that has got me bugged is that when one of my friend’s father was posted MIA, she was very angry. She’s still not over that business. Yet there is little mention of how Queen Jill felt about her father abandoning her and discovering him on Trena.

Have you read her diaries? the General asked.

I didn‘t know she kept any diary, The future queen of Home commented, Would they be in the library?

Yes, the humbot said as she made a call to Librarian AI. Within seconds she had found the diary, See the Librarian. He has a copy for you. They are all hand written. And the queen’s handwriting was never the best. You might find the information you seek in them.

Thank you ma’am, Princess Lisa left the class room. During her free time that evening she went to the library and began to read her great grandmother’s diary.

Chapter 2: Journey to Trena

It was a week later and Princess Lisa was hurrying towards Marshal Langtree Hall where their history class was being held. She had been reading Queen Jill’s diary, trying to understand more about her great grandmother when time had gotten away from her and she was late to class. She was almost to the hall when a voice yelled, Raw Meat! Yes Sir, She came to attention.

I didn’t give you permission speak, the second year cadet yelled, Aren’t you supposed to be in class?

Yes sir! she answered wondering if she was getting more grief because of who she was.

Why, the second year cadet asked, aren’t you?

I was studying sir and time got away from me, The Princess answered.

Let me see your butcher bill, the cadet asked, You have to learn how to better use your time wisely.

The cadet knew what bill he was talking about; she uncovered and took her demerit book out of her hat. The Princess handed the book that held her demerit record to the senior cadet.

One demerit Cadet! the senior cadet said entering the demerit in her book, for being late!

Yes sir, the young woman responded. The Princess recovered her book and put her cover back on and saluted the cadet until he saluted. When he was gone Princess Lisa visibly slumped and hustled on to history class.

Glad you can join us cadet, the general called as the young girl entered the classroom. Take your seat.

She had been looking out the window as the class assembled and had seen the upper classman hand out the demerits and had decided to not add salt to the wound. She smiled a bit remembering when she had been first assigned to academy two centuries before. She always thought it a miracle there were so few resignations over the way the senior cadets tenderized the raw meat, as they called their hazing of the first year cadets.

Now that we are all here, the general began, "We’re going to talk briefly about Queen Jill’s journey to Trena.

Being a security officer in my early career it has always amazed me how easy it was for Jill to get to Trena, the general continued, But she did.

As the general began speaking the young Princess settled down to listen to the senior officer.

###

She had been surprised at how easy it had been to get a ticket to Trena. She had her military dependent’s ID and what appeared to be a letter from her father requesting that she join him on Trena where he was supposedly part of the permanent MP unit stationed with the Imperial Marine contingent at the Imperial Embassy on Trena. She had spent most of the night working on a set of forged documents that supported her trip to Trena. The Empire even paid her fare. As the daughter of a serving enlisted man, going to join her father, on his current assignment, were dependents were allowed, they paid for the fare. Although her ID showed her current status as the daughter of a marine enlisted man; the cloned human who was the shipping lines ticket clerk recognized the name. The girl’s documents were plainly forgeries. The clone thought for a second and allowed the girl to travel. As the girl went to the waiting area, the Beta biowoman quickly created new documents for the nervous girl.

Miss Wilson, the bioengineered woman came up to the girl as she waited to be called to board the shuttle to the liner, I need to see your papers again. I think I messed up on the bookings.

Jill nervously handed the ticket package back to the clone, afraid that she had been busted. She looked around nervously expecting to see her grandmother or the MPs to take her back to her grandmother’s home. But no, the clone handed her the ticket package back. Jill didn’t notice at the time that the clone had switched her papers out. It wasn’t until she was on the shuttle did Jill realize the ones she had been handed back looked more official than what she had started off with. In fact what she received from the clone were the official forms filled out with all the official seals and documentation to accompany them.

Unknown to Jill she had stumbled onto one of the station masters of the Biopeople’s Underground Railroad. Biopeople escaping their indentures sometimes needed help to get to safety. The railroad modeled after the underground railway of the 19th century or 3rd century before empire that helped to get the slaves of that era to freedom. The Imperial Bureau of Justice knew of the railroad and some of the station masters on the road, the bureau made no effort to shut it down. This was not the first time this station master was breaking rules, the Beta bioperson had done so for others less deserving souls than Sergeant Wilson’s daughter. She was not to allow norms, non-bioengineered humans, to use the railway. Although the girl wasn’t on the railway, the biowomen let the station masters down the line know Jill Wilson was on her way to Trena, to be with her father.

Like many of her brothers and sisters the beta biowoman would do anything they could to help this marine, including seeing that his daughter could join him. The girl’s family had sacrificed much for the biopeople. This girl’s grandfather had been killed trying to infiltrate an EBio world. As Jill’s shuttle launched to the liner, a fast mail boat was taking a piece of innocuous mail to the other stations on the Trena route of the railroad.

Once aboard the Star Mist, Jill found herself in a cabin that was considerably tinier than any room she had ever slept in. Although she would have preferred something larger, as a marine dependent she couldn’t ask for any special privileges. Jill caught the aroma of fresh cooking, feeling suddenly ravenous she went in search of the dining room and found the line for breakfast. While waiting in line for breakfast, she saw a man who she recalled as having been in her father’s MP unit at the Marine’s Capital Barracks on Earth, noticed her. He had obviously left the marines and was now one of the security officers on the liner.

I’ll have to greet him before we land, she thought to herself.

John Gordon recognized the young woman standing in line for breakfast. He was pretty sure he had seen her with his Sergeant at the capital barracks when she had visited her father. Sergeant Wilson’s, his sergeant, had displayed holos on the back of his desk in Sarge’s office at the Capital Marine’s MP headquarters. She was older, but John could see that this was the same girl. Sarge had helped him get his stuff together and now although he had left the Marine Corps, he was still in law enforcement, at least generally, and he felt he owed his old sergeant a favor or two. John had been on duty the night Chief Master Gunnery Sergeant Wilson had left the barracks with a prisoner, who it turned out that he owned. On arrival at Aeries Station, he decided to send a message to the girl’s family, to let them know that Jill had gotten that far safely.

At Aeries Station, a Captain from the Interstellar Rescue Service, who had dined with her grandmother quite often, saw Jill as she left the Star Mist heading for her next connection. The Captain, who was in route to his next duty station, where he would become the Commander of the Space and Air Group on board the attack carrier War Spear, offered to buy her dinner.

Jill felt fortunate that her grandmother’s friend would offer to treat her to a meal. She didn’t leave home with many imperials and was wondering if she would have a vending machine dinner of a nutrition bar and a cup of water, this would be much better. She eagerly accepted his kind offer. Over dinner as they spoke, Jill was surprised. Jill had thought it would be the typical conversation of a friend of her grandmother’s making nice to her. It was far from that.

Where you headed Miss Wilson? the man asked as he held her chair while she sat.

Trena, Jill said, Grand mom wants me to be educated at the Trenaport Boarding School.

What you do? Tick off the Iron Maiden so she’s sending you away? the captain used her grandmother’s nick name.

No! Grandma Wilson thought that getting off Mars for a while to go to a school outside the Empire might be good for me. Jill replied, "It was my choice to go to Trenaport

Boarding School."

I have heard of that school, The Captain said, It is very good. They have a lot of our service kids there, even a few others, including some Thonians. It’s a great melting pot. My wife spent some time there. It’s in Trenaport isn’t it? Will you be boarding at the school?

Yes, Jill replied.

Trena’s a beautiful place. The captain continued. She had little or no idea what Trena was really like. So she settled back and listened to the captain.

My wife grew up on Trena, The captain said, Her father was a member of the Marine contingent at our embassy there. I’ve been back with her a couple of times. It’s a beautiful world. If you get a chance you should go over to Princess Falls. It’s a water fall that is breath taking. It’s a horseshoe that drops into the ocean on the west coast of Main. The thing has got to be three or four miles across. Getting there about sunset makes the water sparkle as it catches the spray and causes rainbows all over the area.

It sounds beautiful, Jill remarked. Jill had learned a long time ago with all the military officers that frequented her grandmother’s table that they often saw sights and things that were not always the horror of war, or of human suffering.

It is, the captain said, stopping long enough to order their meal, But you’ll want to check out Trenaport Beach. There is one section that seems to stretch on forever, pristine sand that just goes on and on. The crown has prevented any housing or development on it so there is nothing on it. You can walk for miles without seeing another person. It’s just like it was when James McAllister found it four hundred years ago.

She listened to the officer talk about Trena. He suggested that she go to the north of Trenaport to see the ice caves. Surprisingly it was an enjoyable dinner with the captain.

Never once did he ask how she was doing in school. He treated her as an equal not the granddaughter of a senior officer.

As they finished diner he commented, I hope you enjoy your time on Trena! It was obvious the captain hadn’t heard about the Trena disaster.

Jill would remember this all her life. He escorted her to the ship that would take her on the next leg of her journey.

The Captain, in a letter to his wife that night wrote how he had stumbled across the admiral’s granddaughter, and how the young woman had carried herself. Commenting that for a young lady of her upbringing, her manners were better than half the young supposedly officer material candidates that were coming out of the academy.

###

The station master for the Underground Railroad on the Rio Lobo space station was an old prostitute known as Thunder. Through the imperial mail boat that made the trip from Earth Space to Rio Lobo in a third of the time Jill’s liner did, she had received word that the daughter of Sergeant Wilson was on her way to Trena via Rio Lobo. Trena was one of the final destinations on the railroad for biopeople fleeing EBio and the empire. When she later learned that the girl had ran away from her grandmother’s home on Mars, she was torn between helping the authorities to return the girl to Mars, or helping her on her way to Trena. Thunder was pondering what she was going to do when the beat cop for the neighborhood where her bar was located, came in for a cup of coffee. She tried to hide the photo of the girl from the cop; but she wasn’t fast enough.

What do you have there, Thunder? the cop asked as she poured him a cup of coffee. He picked up the photo of Jill. Pretty girl, is she one of yours?

Did you ever hear about a Sergeant Wilson in the station’s MP unit? Thunder asked knowing she wasn’t going to be able to get around this young cop’s questions, nor did she want to as he sometimes, though unwittingly, helped her get her passengers along the railway.

No, the cop replied.

He was before your time. He was a Marine MP, Thunder continued, who helped me out years ago when one the officers off an IRS hospital ship had raped me. He made sure that sorry piece human offal was sent to Dungeon.

The young cop nodded he knew of Dungeon. It was a prison world where the empire and other star nations sent the very worse of their criminal element they convicted.

Anyways that’s his daughter, The old prostitute continued. You haven’t seen her have you?

No. The young man asked, I haven’t, why?

Her ship is due today or tomorrow, Thunder answered. Could you keep an eye for her? I owe it to Sarge that she is looked after on her lay over. What do you want me to do? the young man asked.

Let me know if you see her. Thunder asked. She had decided that since the girl was going on to Trena one of the destinations on the railroad that she couldn’t risk blowing her cover and return the young woman to her grandmother. But there was no reason why she couldn’t put the fear of god into her old friend’s daughter however. She was going to look after the girl just not in the way the young cop thought.

###

The next ship of the journey was not as spacious as the first one. To Jill’s astonishment she found that they could fit a room in an even smaller space than the last one. It held just a bed, a wall light and two drop-down shelves which would have to be raised at night in order to sleep without banging into them if she got up in the night to go to the toilet down the passage. Lucky me she thought, that