Every Last Mother's Child Read online

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  At 2000 hours the Royal Crest and anthem of Trena took over all non-life safety audio and video channels. The Crown owned all the communication resources on Trena, when the Crown needed to talk to the people it did so. A championship ball game was interrupted, as was a very popular game show. Almost immediately calls started to come in to the operators of the various entertainment providers So much so that many people didn’t hear the announcement the first time. The crest faded to show the young queen standing before a plain white desk with few accouterments. She was dressed in a plain business suite.

  “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 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 remains of an errant piece 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 they were 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 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 Earth. 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, 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.”

  The tall imposing figure of the middle aged 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. The camera zoomed to show an older man in a black flowing robe standing before a large rock set on an ornate table before the Queen’s party.

  The old man turned to the middle aged man dressed in the uniform of the Trena Royal Mounted Patrol, “Lord Wilson, place your hand on the Rock, and raise your left hand.” He placed his hand on The Rock.

  “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 intelligent?”

  “I do,” Mike Wilson’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 governmental 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, Queen Agatha.” He shook the official’s hand and bowed to the sovereign, 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 sovereign 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 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 that our factories build what we will need to evacuate all of us.

  “But more importantly, it will take us all working together to get every last mother’s child off world. 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.”

  He turned and gave a slight bow to young Queen, then stepped back to allow her to once again fill the camera as she concluded, “I know that many of you will be disturbed by these words and the action I am taking. I ask though that you work with Lord Wilson, and help both he and I complete our sworn task of protecting and serving the people of Trena. Good evening.”

  With that, the event was over. When the cameras were off, she visibly slumped. Had not Wilson been thee to catch her she would have fallen to the floor. He gently sat her in a chair then turned to the assembled officials, “Is she needed for anything else tonight?”

  “No sir Mike,” the prime minister replied, “I’ll call her maid. Aggie, you did good!”

  She nodded numbly trying to hold back the tears. It had hit all at once, she would be the last monarch of Trena. She was abandoning the world that her great, great, great grandfather had founded four centuries before. She felt that she had betrayed the trust they had given her. When everyone was gone save the Wilsons; she let go. Her maid came in tried to soothe her. Seeing it wasn’t going to work. She turned to Wilson and asked, “My lord could you help me get her to her suite? I don’t want to call the EMS people it’ll surely leak that she...”

  He gently picked up his sovereign and employer. He carried her as if she was a mere babe. She woke vaguely understanding that she was being carried by someone. It was in that moment that they bonded. Wilson reminded her of her father as he gently carried her to her suite she thought for a fleeting instant it was her father carrying her. She whispered Dad. Wilson hushed her and said, “You’ll be okay Aggie. We’ll take care of you and our people.”

  Outside the Queen’s suite Wilson visibly slumped. He was having second thoughts about taking this job. Although the Queen’s duties were over for the night, his wasn’t. He wanted to stop in at the Emergency Operations Center to see how things were going. There really wasn’t much he could do. With the Queen’s Disaster Declaration, with his elevation to Marshal, it put him fully in charge of every crown resource needed affect the evacuation of the planet of Trena. Those resources also include the militia. Right now the militia was carrying the ball. He wouldn’t have to stay long, but he wanted to let the operations staff know he was thinking of them. He wanted to connect immediately with them so they started to get to know him. For the time being these folks would be his voice. So it was important that they start getting to know him.

  “Babe,” he turned to Lisa, “I’ll catch up with you in a while.”

  “I need to catch up with Abby and Lamile.” Lisa replied she saw the two agents standing a little ways from them giving them some privacy.

  “Can you show me where the EOC is Mac,” Michael turned to the sandy haired man.

  “This way Marshal,” McGregor said and escorted her husband away.

  “Lady Wilson,” the red head who had been nearby all evening came over to her, “Let me escort you to Miss Wilson.”

  Lisa nodded.

  The red head escorted her out of the Queen’s residence. It was a short walk through the palace grounds to a low slung building that was nestled in among the trees and shrubs of the palace. The walkways all were lit by low intensity lamps that lined the walk ways and lit the flowerbeds which were beginning to show spring growth. Lisa imagined they would be gorgeous when they bloomed in a few weeks. The building the red head escorted her to had not been occupied for many years. Not since the Queen was a little girl when her grandmother was still alive. Now it was lit up. As they approached the building she saw two people standing to either side of the buildings entry. As she they stepped on to the porch one of them opened the door for them.

  Inside the foyer stood a petite middle aged woman dressed in a light tan knee length dress. She was little older than Lisa. She was immaculately groomed.

  “My Lady,” The woman greeted her, “welcomed to this house.”

  “Thank you,” Lisa replied wondering where her baby was.

  “Let me take you to your little one,” Maggie offered. Lisa nodded and the servant led her through the spacious building that was bigger than the home they had built for them when they first came to Trena. She knew she hadn’t seen the entire building. She glimpsed through open doors a study, a largish family room. Lamile was there reading something. She didn’t disturb the teenager. The servant led her into back of the house. There were four bedrooms.

  She found Abby in a dorm like room at the end of the hall with two bunk beds at either end. She found her daughter in the lower bunk of one of the beds. She was lying on top of a pile of stuffed animals of every kind imaginable. Abby had a choke hold on a tan bear with a yellow face. Its bright red tongue sticking out of its mouth as if was being choked. Lisa suppressed a chuckle afraid she would wake her sleeping baby. She turned to leave and saw the young woman they had escorted Lamile and her daughter to the palace. Her suspicion of what was going on only increased when she saw the young woman’s side arm. That frosted her. Michael never wore his fire arm any longer than it took to place it in his gun locker. Even before their daughter was born Michael never left his guns out. They were always secured in the gun locker in their home.

  “Miss would you come with me,” Lisa spoke to the young woman.

  “Yes ma’am,” The young woman got to her feet and followed her out of ear shot of where the child slept.

  “Thank you for staying with my girls,” Lisa spoke softly to the young woman, “I’ll take it from here. So if there is some place else you need to be…”

  “Lady Wilson,” the redhead who had escorted Lisa to the palace spoke up, “Sally is assigned here and to Miss Wilson.”

  That confirmed her suspicion that Mike hadn’t told her everything that was happening. To confirm her suspicion she asked the redhead, “Are you assigned to me?”

  “Yes,” Georgia answered as it dawned on her that Lady Wilson hadn’t been told of who she and McBride were. “Lady Wilson, Sally and I have been assigned by the Crown Protective Service as yours, and Miss Wilson’s protective agents.”

  “Protective agents,” Lisa asked, “Why?”

  “Because of your husband’s position it was felt that you and your family needed a protective detail.” The protective agent replied.

  Lisa wasn’t convinced that the detail hadn’t been assigned because of hers and Michael’s Ebio problem. She didn’t mention her suspicion as she wanted to talk to her husband. She didn’t know whether to be furious with her husband or not.

  “When Michael’s done we’ll be going home,” Lisa said, “I assume you’ll be going with us?”

  “My Lady,” the Housekeeper spoke up, “The Queen had me get this house ready for your residence. This is to be your home!”

  Lisa was speechless. She didn’t know what to say. She had been suspicious when after the announcement she had been escorted to this house. It had already been aroused when her daughter had been brought from their home to the palace.

  “We also wanted to get your family to some place safe,” The red head said, “We didn’t think your home was safe enough for you. Her majesty wanted you safe. She felt that the palace is much safer than your home.”

  Lisa was still speechless. She understood the logic of it. The palace was not a fortress, but it was much safer than their home. She wondered how much her husband knew. She knew her husband, if he had known that this was going to happen he would have mentioned something to her. She looked at the two women not sure what to say or do. She wanted to say something about the two women wearing fire arms in her home but knew that would useless. As long as they were her body guards she knew they would ignore that request. As long as they were there to protect her and her family they would go armed everywhere they went with her and her family. She looked to the two women knowing they were waiting on her to say something.

  “There isn’t much any of us can do about this tonight,” Lisa finally c
ommented, “Let’s get out of this hallway, so we don’t wake Abby.”

  “I’ll resume my post,” McBride said turning to go back to the chair she had been sitting on.

  “You don’t have to do that miss,” Lisa replied.

  “I know, Lady Wilson,” the young woman remarked, “I just want to be here in case she wakes. It might frighten her to wake in a strange bedroom in a strange house.”

  She saw the wisdom of it, but thought she would stretch out in the empty bunk, besides at some time the young woman would be going off duty. But she also wanted to see what the reactions were to the announcement. She wouldn’t watch the coverage of the Queen’s announcement without Abby within earshot of the holoset. “When you go off duty come get me.”

  “Yes Lady Wilson,” Sally said as she sat down in the chair, though she had no idea when her relief would show. She didn’t have any idea who that would be.

  “This way Lady Wilson,” Maggie gestured down the hall. She led them to a largish room that Lisa had seen Lamile in earlier. When Lisa walked into the room Lamile didn’t look up from what she was doing. The teenager didn’t have the holo on or music; which was out of character for the girl. Whatever the girl was into it had her full attention. Lisa sat down next to Lamile startling her friend.

  “Did you hurt yourself when you hit the ceiling?” Lisa asked the teenager chuckling.

  “Naw,” Lamile chuckling herself replied, “I didn‘t realize I was in to my book so much.”

  “What are you reading?” Lisa asked. Lamile gave her pad with the cover of the book. It was a history of Trena. About the early days after James McAllister first landed on the planet. “You didn’t listen to the announcement?”

  “I didn’t want Abby to walk in on it if she needed something!” Lamile replied. She spoke, “computer, turn on holo, tune to world net,”

  Soon the holo was showing a news caster talking about the upcoming bombardment from the asteroids.