Every Last Mother's Child Read online

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  The knock came near dawn. It was a fast furious battering on the front door. It could have awakened the dead. He rolled out of the bed grabbing his pants and his gun. He carefully shut the bedroom door behind, him hopefully giving her a little more time, should it be the company trying to take her back. Ebio wanted her back in the worse way, it didn’t matter he was a shareholder of the company. It didn’t matter that as a major shareholder of the company that he technically owned her. She was the culmination of generations of genetic engineering. He hadn’t technically stolen her, as he had found her years after she had escaped from them. Years after he had first purchased her contract to assist his stepmother’s recovery from a devastating injury. He didn’t know the full story; but five years ago Lisa had shown up in his brig, now a navy corpsman. Shortly after that he had already but his paper in retire from Earth’s Imperial Marine Corps. Once approved, he took Lisa from his brig and emigrated to Trena. Although independently wealthy, he refused to take all his money from Ebio, a company who sold biologically engineered and enhanced human beings. Although technically not slaves, they were in all but in name. When he arrived at Trena, he had found work as a police officer in the Royal Trena Mounted Patrol trying to stay under the radar so Ebio wouldn’t find them.

  “Come on Mike open up!” The voice on the other side of the door yelled.

  “Hold on,” Wilson snarled back trying to get into his pants wondering why Mylea was banging on his front door at this time of night. Finally in his pants, he opened the front door and was more than happy he did. Standing with his nearly lifelong friend was the Queen. He wasn’t worried about Mylea. Mylea was an old friend from his days in the Marines who had seen him in all stages of dress. Like all thonian lifemated women, she wasn’t interested in other men once she had lifemated. The Queen though, was another matter. He would be embarrassed to stand before his queen in only his under wear.

  “About time Sarge,” The tall huskily built thonian woman called seeing her old friend in only his pants. It was then seeing Wilson’s well-built chest that she knew her period of morning was almost over, she hadn’t felt like that since she had first seen Garth her deceased lifemate crimens ago.

  Wilson chuckled and turned to the sovereign, going to one knee. He didn’t know if that was the protocol for this sovereign, but as a member of the nobility of the Terran Empire he was required to go to one knee, and bow his head, just in case, as tradition said, the sovereign wanted to remove it.

  “Arise, Sir Mike,” The Queen responded. “May I come in?”

  Wilson rose and gestured to the living room. He wondered why she was asking to enter his home. He also wondered where the queen’s protective detail was.

  Mylea shut the door as Lisa came from the back bedroom. She saw Mylea and asked, “Mylea? What are you doing here at this time of night?”

  The bio engineered woman looked as if she had stepped out of a high fashion magazine. Not a hair out of place. But that was the mystique of the delta clones. They were engineered to have the most perfect bodies, and the highest intelligence. Even sleep rumbled she hardly had a hair out of place. She slumped to the wall shaking her head, “What’s going on?”

  “Let’s go to the kitchen,” Mylea said. In the kitchen Mylea gave her friend the reason for the Queen’s visit.

  “Sir Mike,” The Queen walked over to his entertainment center. She took a chip from her pocket and inserted it. “When you have viewed this I’ll be in the kitchen talking with two extraordinary friends of yours.”

  She walked into the kitchen and approached the older women, one in the uniform of her planet’s police force, the other in her nightgown. “I am most sorry to haven waken you this way Lady Wilson. I normally wouldn’t intrude on your peace this way.”

  “I know your majesty,” The clone replied, “Mylea told me what’s going on.”

  “Will he take it?” The Queen asked. “He’s been through so much.”

  “Your majesty,” the clone said softly, “Neither I nor my husband will walk willingly away from our home world. This has become our home world as it is the only world where the two of us have been able to be together. Your people...our people have reached out and made us welcomed. We owe our friends and neighbors something in return.”

  “Lady Wilson,” The Queen remarked, “Anytime you two want to cut and run you just do it. I won’t have you be some trophy on some company containment officer’s wall.”

  “Your majesty,” The Thonian officer looked the sovereign dead in the eyes, “Any harm that comes to them you’ll have me to answer to.”

  Without a doubt the twenty five year old queen knew where she stood with the Thonian. She wondered how it felt to be so loved. The Queen took the coffee Lisa handed her. As she sipped it she realized that it was just the way she liked it. To Mylea she handed a cup of juice. Lisa made another cup of coffee and walked into her living room where her man was watching the end of his adopted world. He took the coffee from her and absently drank it. It took just over an hour for the briefing to be concluded. He walked into the kitchen where the three women were sitting quietly chatting. The Queen was holding his normally shy youngest on her lap.

  “You’ve got me,” Michael replied, “What’s the plan?”

  “Tonight I make the announcement,” The Queen replied, “By that time you will have been inducted into the militia as Commander in Chief all Forces Trena.”

  “Oh that’s going to sit well with a couple of folks.” Michael replied. “Especially with General McMann!”

  “He’s resigned. General Qoum was the next one in line to become the Militia commander. He is the one who recommended you!” The Queen said, “We’re going to build a staff around you. You will answer to me and only me. When you speak; you speak as if I am speaking. You will have the power to federalize any resource you need save the ships of other nations. Your task sir Mike is to get my people to safety. As General Qoum stated I want every last mother’s child off this world!”

  Standing in his kitchen bare chested and in pair of ragged work pants Lord Michael Wilson, late command sergeant major of the Imperial Earth Marine Corps, now of the Royal Trenan Mounted Police snapped to attention and said, “I accept your commission my queen.”

  “Thank you Sir Mike,” The Queen said softly gently getting to her feet, “If you don’t mind I’ll put my young friend to bed and let you and Lisa have a few minutes peace.” She carried the five year old to her room and quietly left the house with Mylea.

  As they pulled away, the Queen said to Mylea, “If he was twenty years younger and unmarried!”

  “I hear you your majesty,” The Thonian replied.

  “Please call me Aggie, Mylea,” The young queen said, “Who does Mike need to get this task done.”

  “I don’t know,” Mylea said honestly, “He’ll need the very best.”

  “We got a lot of work to do,” The Queen said, “before this evening’s announcement.”

  “What’s this we shit human,” Mylea said, “I’m just a poor dumb cop.”

  “Who commanded the Companions, who could have commanded the Militia MP directorate if she had asked.” The young queen replied as she looked out the rear window, “You don’t think those guys in the car behind us would let me go with just any dumb cop now do you!”

  Mylea; who had seen the car pull up behind them as they left the Wilson home, chuckled. This was the first time she had been with the Queen and she was beginning to like the young monarch’s style.