Last Ship to Darius

Chapter Fourteen

Duo looked at the map, wondering for the hundredth time why he had volunteered to come this far out on the rim.  The map in his hands was a Gate System map, a printout of the that which was on the screen hisdesk.  He was seated on the couch on the other side of the room from the computer.  Next to him, Nusan snuggled comfortably against his side, looking at the map. This particular version was not much different from that school children learned from on Darius.  His version however, also featured the callouts indicating the dispersement of fleet battle assets.  In the lower right corner was the Bene group, the Hindu-Budhist consortium that had settled at Bene Tuilax, and then promptly closed their gate, opting to become fully independent. At the time of the their forced separation from humanity, they had several Star Cruisers, a handful of Destroyers, and more than a dozen Frigates, if memory served.  They had literally struck it rich out in the Bene group, with plenty of resources.  Thus Duo Fromersly was pretty sure they had doubled if not tripled the size of their fleet since "the cutoff" some two centuries ago.

Similarly, New Jerusalem, had applied a blockage at their gate, literally separating themselves from the Arab threat by the unheard of methodology of tagging any non-Jew exiting the gate.  When their visas expired, they simply rounded the overstayed immigrants and shipped them back out the gate to their source gate on the next ship.  They had set up a rather large station outside the Terran gate, and its population soon had overflowed with "re-patrioted" immigrants to New Jerusalem, forcing the Terran government to make arrangements for re-settlement of non-Jews returning from the system.  The result of course, had not made anyone very happy except for those in New Jerusalem, who for the first time in centuries, had eliminated the Israeli deaths at the hands of Arabs.  A simple solution, and pretty easily enforced.

In any case, Duo remembered that after the original outcry quieted down, immigration officials of the source worlds realized the only answer was to make sure those exiting with a destination to New Jerusalem had to place return fare in escrow at their departure gates chief financial operation as well as proof of ability to return to their demarkation point.  Without the proper documentation, no one went through with the New Jerusalem coding.  And, as he smilied to himself, the effect of the system's immigration policies, New Jerusalem did not incur any financial burden other than the cost of rounding up the overstayed immigrants and shiping them out to a gate transport.  Since the transports carried thousands, and the immigration rate had slowed considerably, trade was not impacted in the least. As expected, New Jerusalem became a trade goods system, but not much in the way of a immigration port.  And New Jerusalem liked it that way, thank you very much.

Darius of course, having been interdicted by many generations earlier -- the Queen at the time wishing to reduce the immigration impact upon her society, had applied a similar technique.  Immigration officials at  the Twilight Hub had been told, pointedly, that only Darius System credits were useable on the far end of the path, and there was simply no exchange permitted.  Gate credits of course still applied so if Darius wished to import or export critical items they could.  However, in the last two centuries, only diplomatic communication at the very highest and non public levels had coursed through gate communication channels.  Only occasionally did a fleet vessel traverse the gate as part of the routine and scheduled patrols.

In one of Duo's earlier awakenings, some 135 years ago, he had requested update of the Star Destroyers in system, and the Queen had spent some of her vast accumulated gate credits to make the necessary financial arrangements.  That was the current queens great grandmother.  She and Duo had got along well.  In fact, if Duo hadn't practiced birth control, he might have been the current Queen's father.  But he had made sure he wasn't seeding a generation he might have to wake up to.  Good practice, all in all.

As he explained all this to Nusan, she pursed her lips in thought.

"So no help from the Bene group.  Arturus group is too far out -- both in terms of time and costs. That leaves New Jerusalem, probably the most costly of any help we might request, and Terra."

"Right," he replied.  "The Terrans will charge us of course, but we have more than enough gate credits.  Our regular exports of minerals and such to that tapped out system have produced an excellent trade imbalance.  Now we can collect.  On the other hand, their help is a bit out of date when compared to Bene or Vegan technology.  In fact, Vegan is the best, that's another reason the costs are high.  The Hub and major trade points on this map feed dozens of lesser systems and they are happy to trade.  But none but these..." and he gestured with a hand wave at the map, "...are the only ones with really capable combat systems.  The others are all patrol class and there is a wide range of capability from poor to average.  Or so it was 135 years ago.  We'll have to meet with the next ship inbound, assuming we haven't hit the panic button yet."

"Tell me about that," she requested.

"Well, if the Queen -- essentially if I consul it, will simply change the code on our gate -- making the codes at our end obsolete and unusable.  Typically, for the case of such an emergency, the code reverts back to the old one some years down the road.    In case of alien incursion, the codes are set to only 50 years or so, and the far end can see the date they will revert.  The far side can check to see if the code has reverted -- they can't read the code but there is a flag that says the code has reverted.  If it has reverted, then they can wait to see what shows up, typically guarding the gate with the worst case in mind.

Or the code can be set to not revert automatically, a new code has to be used to reopen the gate and then allow control to reset the codes.  Its important to reset the codes, because inter-hub operation relies on the original codes being in place, and no one know enough about the gate system to change that.  So in essence, the Queen closes the gate for some secret length of time, entering a secret code to unlock it.  More likely, she would ask a soldier to create a random code, store it somewhere safe, we have ways of doing this without the Queen knowing  the details, and then the chain is broken, typically by someone along the line taking a suicide pill. "

"That's awful!" exclaimed Nusan.

"Yep.  But it works.  Our systems for this purpose go to sleep, and then after the appropriate time has gone by, the system wakes up and screams for servicing.  The unlock code is given to the new Queen, who has a hypnotic block until she is handed the code, and suddenly she knows what its for."

Duo did not tell Nusan that the system was enforced by genetically encoding instructions in the form of the hypnotic block, so even if the bad guys want to attempt to grill the Queen, the best they would get out of her is that someday someone will hand her a code and she will know what to do with it.  The 'what' is simply not visible unless they did a gene scan and somehow decrypted the instructions imprinted there.  The coding was so buried, it was like a species level instinct or a race memory.

"In any case, we aren't there yet.  The next ship is due in a few months, so if we can hold on that long before the Greenies decide to get really nasty, then we'll talk over any changes in the strategic system along the gate system, and then we can make some decisions of our own.  Until then, I am leaving the dormant ships alone.  And when the time comes for the scheduled visit to occur, I am only going to deploy one of the buried frigates."

"Buried?"

"Yeah.  In the off chance that a civilization might not have space faring capability, we bury a few space going combat vehicles.  There are matching crew in hypersleep in caches as well, separated from the ships.  This way, the opportunity to lose the ability to get out of the gravity well is reduced to almost nil.  As long as there is someone who knows how to wake them up, we are okay. Unless the planet's life is killed off, there are always a few with the info stored in their heads.  In fact, you might be one of those people yourself."

"Me, no way."

"Yep.  I can't tell you why I think so, but don't be surprised if you suddenly have a little fit when you hear about the arrival of a fleet ship..."

Duo watched her carefully to see if even the oblique reference to that event would trigger the racial memory, but Nusan seemed unaffected.  It didn't mean much, he was pretty sure the coding passed on from her Grandfather and her father would probably take adrenalin or other hormonal responses to create the proper conditions.

'In any case, " he continued, "...some people will suddenly have the urge to tell the authorities about this strange waking dream about buried soldiers.  The soldiers caches will be uncovered, and the auto systems will be triggered and they'll wake up.  Actually being ex-fleet sleepers, they'll go to the ship caches and wake the ships up.  And off they go to meet the new arrival.  It's all timed to work out well, the first inklings of the wake up start being activated weeks before the ship is due to arrive.  I expect the Queen will make the announcement soon, and that will hasten the wakeup.  There is, of course, a worst case scenario.  The incoming ship, noticing there is noone waiting for them at the gate, and no message there telling them what is going on, will go into alert mode.  They will search the system carefully, and if necessary, trigger the wake ups from orbit.  In that case, within 72 hours, the expectation is that all of the dormant fleet sections in system will be operational.  "

"Why aren't the crew simply sleeping on the ships?"

"There is a minimal chance of discovery of the support systems for the sleepers.  We don't want to put them anywhere near the ships.  And there are always a few non-sleepers around like myself.  They can trigger events themselves.  If the Queen gets panicked, her blocks go down, and she suddenly knows about all this and can either terminate herself to keep the secret or act on it.  She has only to order me to find her guys, and I'll suddenly have all the facts available.  As of right now, I have only the knowledge of what exists, how capable those resources are, and how we could use them.  If I believe we are capable of doing any good, then I tell the Queen and she tells me to go find them.  It's as simple as that."

"Wow, pretty arcane."

"Not really, Nusan.  It sounds a little over-dramatic, I suppose, but if you think it through, it does make sense.  Torture buries the information while a need for revenge will wake it up in some.  The cascade of knowledge proceeds from very low level people right up to the royalty and suddenly we go active."

"Is that why you were suddenly General Duo instead of Captain Frosty at the Arcadian ruins?"

"Yep.  I went from retired Captain to Planetary General.  All in about three seconds.  And that is also what happened to Stacy-Op.  She went from petulant teenager to lusty, mean and nasty Queen-to-be.  And that is why our current Queen has no choice but to recognize her as her heir.  It is in their genes, and the genes are a talkin'."

"Amazing.  Nice things that science does, huh?"  She snuggled against him tighter.

"Yep.  You and I are probably evidence that you have some royal blood somewhere."

"Yeah, that's true.  Pretty far removed, though.  But why do you say that?"

"Well, you went from lazy professor to lusty, mean and nasty royal."

"I did?"

"Uh, huh.  You suddenly wanted to procreate, take charge, and get tough with the bad guys.  Again, the Queen had no choice but to recognize that you and Stacy-Op were in battle mode.  The rest of her frickin' court were still asleep.  Some will start waking up pretty soon, though.  The Queen can't hold back the tension for much longer.  She has done a remarkable job of keeping the lid on it, but I don't think that it is to our good to keep that up."

"But don't we need to wait until the ship comes?"

"Sorta.  We need to wait until the last seconds before the wakeup cycle has to begin.  I'll know it, since I am almost surely a trigger.  I'll know immediately to go to the Queen and start the ball rolling by saying just the right key phrase.  I'll know the phrase cuz my 'timer' has gone off.  It will be pretty automatic from then on."

"And you don't want to do it early..."

"No, Nusan, I can't do it early.  I simply don't have the right words to say yet.  I'm not worried, it will come.  And I suspect, that Stacy-Op has a timer going as well.  Hell if her libido is any indication, she is already on a short fuse to her destiny."

"And what do you think that is?"

"You haven't figured it out yet?"

"No, honey, I only have two PHDs, not genetically coded brillaince like yours to brag about, " she replied dryly.

"Sorry, but I thought it was obvious.  Who would you rather have making decisions about survival of this planet, a 50 year old disaster we call our Queen or a 18 year old firebrand with genetically enhanced brilliance superior to even my modest military acumin?"

"Stacy?  My Stacy"

"See there you go.  'My Stacy' you said.  Think about it.  You have become the future Queen's protector, Nusan, and you've suckered in the best protector for hers and your person, the top martial artist on the planet, me.  Get it now?"

"Oh shit!"
 

"Yeah, exactly.  Stacy went from being just another annoying student to 'My Stacy'.  You went from a mild mannered academic to Queen's counselor.  And I went from old retiree protecting a forgotten, way removed heir to Planetary General.  It's all working according to plan.  I am totally not worried.  Besides, I wrote the plan for this planet, remember.  I can't think of a better author, personally."

"Oh you!" she exclaimed and hit him with a pillow from the couch they were snuggling.  He carefully put the map on the floor away from them and they proceeded to do a little tussling.  It was good now, he only hoped that conditions allowed things to stay that way, rather than proceed along the lines of the emergency shutdown of all things military including the gate.  That would not be nice times.

Belson looked Stacy in the eyes.  She was on a natural high, that was for sure.  The fire there was literally smoking.  Fortunately it wasn't amorous flames he saw, but something else.

His fiance turned back to the Queen and said something that quieted the audience room, the twelve occupants of nearly all Royal blood except himself and two other soldiers stopping mid-sentence.

"Your majesty is quite wrong about that," Stacy had said.  Not just a major foo-pah, but in the old days a capital offense that would have meant knives and blood.

"You really think so?" asked the Queen mildly, the steel missing from her voice somehow.

"Yes, I do" replied Stacy as the people in the room swiveled head from Queen to 12th heir and back.

"In fact, you majesty, I take exception to that opinion.  I think its high time we get serious about this affair. And I think it may just be time for your majesty to step down.  Appoint your heir and then get the hell out of the way comes to mind, but I think that is far too disrespectful.  I would only counsel that you consider what must be done, and make that decsision quickly."

"And I concur, " added the Lord General, Duo Formsley stepping forward to stand with Stacy.  "Now is the time for Royal Imperative" he said, adding the key phrase that had suddenly been triggered by Stacy-Ops demand.  The timers were going off as several others in the Royal entourage stood to walk to Stacy's side, including the current heir.

The Queen looked at them, the realization of her own genetic-hypnotic blocks clearly showing on her face.

"It is time then?" she asked.

"Yes, milady.  It is time" replied Duo kindly.  "Time for us to go about the business planned for us so many years ago."

"And what am I to do?" the Queen asked quietly.

Stacy practically ran to her.  "Why help me of course.  We'll call you the Queen mother, and you'll help me with everything I have no idea how to deal with.  As your Aunt had done for you years ago.  Please, milady, help us."

"Yes, I see.  Duo, you bastard.  Did you know this was coming?"

"Partially Mame. I suspected it.  I voiced it to Nusan only last night, and I really had no idea when the time would actually come, but yes, I suspected."

"Well at least you didn't have time to hide it from me for very long.."

"That was not the intent, milady.  I know how the system works, and the intention is to prepare.  I suspected because the time was coming and I believe that was only because of close observation of Stacy-Op which triggered my own understanding. I think all of use will be finding flashes of 'insight' in the next few days.  I can only apologize -- I am the author of this particular tale."

"That I suspected from day one, my dear Lord General.  You exceed at making trouble for us.  Alright.  I will announce the new heir, and then abdicate -- when -- at the end of the month or at the end of the week," she asked turning to Stacy who was holding her hand at her side.

"End of the week, Auntie.  I suspect there will suddenly be plenty to do.  And we need a very quick marriage too" and she turned to Belson, "can you forgive me for rushing you?"

"Not at all.  I will remind you daily of your choices and revel in them.  Of course not, my love."

"Okay then, " interrupted the Queen before the two young people went into some sort of romance play before their eyes.

"Duo, any other advice at this point?"

"Yes, milady.  I suggest you ask me to find you someone to help you go out to the gate."  Duo watched as the impact of his words had the desired effect.  The Queen blinked as did Stacy-Op.  Both blurted out together, "Lord General, I need transporation to the gate, immediately."

Duo smiled, waiting for the few seconds necessary and then swimming in the wealth of new knowledge that suddenly appeared in his head.  He shook it slightly, and noticed that Belson and Major Doer were reacting similarly.  Good.

"I think I can arrange that.  Major Doer, will you and Brevet Major Belson go find us a frigate?"

"Yes General" they replied in unison, and then smiled at each other in surprise.

"And then I think, milady, that you should get that announcement out right away, so that others who need to be helping us will get the proper motivation, if you know what I mean."

The monarch nodded, and she and Stacy-Op turned as one and left through the door into the Queen's study, Nusan hurrying to join them.

And Duo knew things were not going to be the same again.  It had started.  Truly started.  And about friggin' time, too!

Stacy helped the Queen to her seat, suddenly concerned over the older woman's sudden weakness.

"No, don't fret over me, Stacy.  It's just a shock, that's all. Your young mind easily deals with all these new thoughts and knowlege.  And emotions.  I am only mind weary at the moment.  In fact..."

"You have a headache" echoed Stacy and Nusan together, and all three laughed at their common afliction.  Anne stuck her head in and asked, "Okay if I join the club?"  They all laughed at that too, waving her in.  The new Royal council was complete, and the four woman chatted amiably for a few minutes to reduce the strain.  Finally, Stacy stood and walked over to the Queen's desk, standing next to the royal seat, her hand on the high back.

"May I" she asked kindly.

"Oh for heaven's sake, get on with it, my dear," replied the Queen.

"Thank you, milady.  Okay," she said, huffing her breath out to expel some of the tension.

"Here's what I propose.  Duo is about to dig up a frigate somewhere downplanet, am I right?"

Nusan nodded, and the heir continued.  "And we are going to be awash with a new space navy, complete with admirals and captains and all that.  So, we'll need to figure out some quarters.  And we need to draft the announcement.  I think there are some keywords that have to go into that announcement, yes?"

The Queen nodded, obviously already knowing what the words were and what they were meant for.

"Okay, then I'll leave you to write that message, milady. Nusan, what's going to be happening next?"

Nusan waited the appropriate seconds as she too was revealed some new strategic insight, and then thought for a few moments further.  "We need to prepare for a bunch of new positions in the government.  We'll need an intelligence czar, a royal security team, a completely revamped palace guard, and I'll be betting the Lord General will be bringing us a new organizational chart for the military.  So we are going to need some cabinet posts -- interfaces from the Monarchy to the military.  Tell you what, I'm going to sit at that computer and start writing some stuff down. Anne, I think you should be focusing on the public relations and political side.  And if I may, Stacy?"

"Go for it."

"I think I should be your Chief of Staff, Anne your Prime Minister, and Major Doer you military aide.  Belson of course will be Prince consort, and the Lord General will retain his position.  Milady," she turned to the Queen now comfortably seated and whose color was returning rapidly.

"...You should be the official speaker for the heir, with Anne advising us on where your skills are needed.  The People's Advocate, I believe is a good title, do you agree, Stacy-Op?"

Stacy looked at Anne, who nodded and then the Queen who also gave her acquiesence in the royal manner they were all accustomed to.

"Fine, it's settled."  Stacy turned to bell button on the Queen's desk, and the chamberlain appeared instantly.  "Would you please invite the Lord General to attend the Queen at his convenience, Chamberlain?"

"Of course, milady.  I believe it will be but a moment." and then he promptly disappeared.

Shortly, the door reopened and Duo marched in, Belson at his side.

"Milady," he said, his head nodding in that familiar gesture of respect for royalty.

"General, the Queen wishes to make some announcements, and there are some governmental matters that must be taken up. "

"Lord General.  Preface to a public announcement this evening, I am appointing Lady Stacy-Op-Rhees-Davies as my heir.  I will surrendor my crown at the end of this week, and assume the responsibilities of People's Advocate and counselor to the Queen."

"Yes, your majesty.  Lady Stacy-Op?"

"Yes General.  My first requirement will be for the naming of my chief counselors.  I appoint Lady Nusan Secundus as my Chief of Staff, Lady Anne as my Minister of Public Affairs, and as such my Prime Minister.  And you Lord General, are to be my Minister of Defense.  I will undoubtedly have several other appointments to make today, but I want to ensure their authority immediately."

"Yes milady.  Brevet Major Belson will be my aide for a short while.  He will join Major Doer to brief the frigate crew sometime time tomorrow, and I expect he will also undergo some more FI training -- Space Marines, I would think..." and at Belson's nod, "...yes I thought as much."

Duo made appropriate notes on his PADD and motioned for Stacy to push the bell button again.  The chamberlain appeared once again, and Duo requested the Legat to attend.

In a short while, they were all busy forming the new government for Darius.

Belson and Stacy had a brief conversation, exchanged a brief kiss and then he left to join Major Doer on the flitter out to the frigate cache site.

"Milady, there are several things I'd like to discuss with you -- mostly to do with intelligence gathering."

"Alright, I think that's appropriate.  Anne, why don't you and her majesty remain here and make use of the desk while Nusan finishes up her computer work.  I'll go with the General to his office."

Anne held up her hand.  "I think, Lord General, that we need to make some security changes, yes?"

"On the mark, Lady Anne.  Yes."  Duo spoke a few quiet words into his PADD, and shortly a knock at the door preceded several security people, including the Palace Guard's commander.

"Evening, Colonel.  The Queen has something to tell you."

"Colonel, preface to a later announcement, in a few minutes if I can ever get the time to finish the damned speech", she said wrly, and then continued. "...I am appointing Lady Stacy Op as the heir and she will be assuming royal duties immediately.  We believe it might be necessary to make certain security changes or additions, do you concur?"

The Colonel looked from her, to Stacy Op and then to the General.

"Yeah, bloodless coup, Colonel.  Operational Imperative, Royal Decree.  Copy?"

"Yes General.  I understand.  Yes" he said again as he absorbed the new information appearing in his head. Damned the manipulation, but it was necessary.

"Yes Sir.  I will make the arrangements.  For now, I'd like to send a few people on ahead.  Your destination?"

"My office, Colonel.  And from there, probably a flitter out to what will be apparent shortly, I believe it will be called Site One.

"Yes General, I'll uhh, check with...."

"Major Doer will be on the tactical net, and he will be able to tell you who can give you information locally."

"Yes Sir.  If you'll excuse me, I'll just send those fellows off now.  I'll be back shortly to let you know that we are ready" and he retreated through the internal passageway door.

"Okay, milady" Duo turned to his former ward. "There are some rules.  You always let the Colonel do his thing first, and you follow his orders for your safety.  It is more than an obligation, it is mandatory.  All that has gone on in the past is ended.  Are we clear?"

Nusan looked up, waiting to lend her force of will if necessary, but clearly Stacy had gotten the message.

"With new authority comes new responsibilities and a shit pot full of inconveniences.  I understand, Uncle Duo.  I promise to be a good girl.  Belson will kick my ass if I get out of line, don't worry."

The General smiled at that and then turned to Nusan.  "You make sure she doesn't go around naked, Madame Chief of Staff.  The Darius Royals have a bad habit of that, you know"

The all laughed and the Queen waved them out as the Security Colonel returned with the high sign.

The flitter rocked in the buffetting wind, it's destination looming ahead as they rocketed over the top of a high ridge, running in terrain following mode.  Then they pitched over, banked and then swept into a small clearing, near a cleft in the mountain peek.

They disembarked, a small squad of Marines deploying out from the flitter's hatch, and Belson followed him out onto the somewhat flat rocky surface.  Once here, it was apparent that there had been some construction work done.  But from above, the landing sight was masked by some superbly angled trees.  A landing nook was the only way that Doer could describe it.

"Major, you want to mark the spot for the demolition crew?"

Belson nodded, and barked a few choice words to the Sergeant who grinned and motioned his men forward in a quick march to the edge of the clearing and the face of the mountain.  Pretty soon they were slowly climbing up, using well placed "natural" foot holds and cracks. Clearly someone had done a really good job of creating a path for anyone with a modicum of climbing skills.

In about 15 minutes, Belson and the team were back, the Sergeant unpacking a remote controller for the detonators.

"Ready then?" asked Belson and Doer nodded.

"Fire away, Top."

"Aye, Aye, Sir."  He did a quick head count, looked up out of the clearing to make sure there weren't any press helicopters sneaking around, and then shouted, "Fire in the hole!".  As he depressed the plunger on the remote unit, there was a huge rumble, and a small dust cloud obscured the face of the mountain. A little rubble moved downward, but clearly the charge hadn't been large enough to cause an avalanche of rock and dirt.  As the dust settled, a well cut doorway appeared up the face, and they all picked their way up the face again, Doer following the Sergeant, and Belson bringing up the rear.

Entering, the door, the Sergeant switched on a wide beam, high power lamp, and a long passageway became visible ahead.  They trudged along in the echoing silence for a bit, no one speaking.  Soon they came to a door, and Belson handed the Sergeant a slip of paper with some numerals on it.  The Sergeant punched in the code and pressed the open button, lit in a soft green light.

The light switched to amber, then red, and Doer realized it was an airlock.  The Sergeant rustled in his backpack, and then handed him a small airtank and facemask, as one of the other men outfitted the others.  Then he and Doer pulled on the heavy door, swinging it back.  Inside they could see a simliar door, obviously they had entered a large double doored lock.  They closed the entry door, the Sergeant pressurized the interior and then swung open the far door.  They entered a large cavernous space.  The Sergeant fumbled to his left for a moment, and then there was a loud "chunk" as a power contactor engaged somewhere above them.

The cavern filled with light from huge lights hanging from the ceiling.  Before them, in an area which appeared to be the entire underside of the mountain, was a 600,000 ton Space Frigate, numbered D4-102.  In large letters on her brow was the name, "Delilah".

The ship was, to say the least, enormous.  Doer was struck with the thought that this ship was definitely the largest thing he had ever seen.  It stretched for half nearly a mile under the mountain. At the far side, a wide arch that was clearly a door by which the ship could exit its underground berth.  Now all they needed was a crew.

Off to the left was a small table with a workstation.  Doer walked over, Belson trailing him.  The conferred for a short time and finally were able to get past the first security screen on the machine.  They now had the location of step 2, the cache of sleepers who would be revived and serve as the crew of the Frigate.  Several high ranking space navy officers too, if Doer's guess was correct.

"All right, men, let's leave it the way it was.  We'll be back later."

The tore themselves away from staring at the huge ship and left several Marines to guard the entrance.  It seemed a stupid thing to do, leaving a guard -- no one that Doer knew on Darious could figure out how to get into the thing, let alone pilot it.

Duo received a brief burst from Doer, "Step One complete" and acknowleged the message.  Now they would go looking for the sleepers.  And then things would begin to move quickly.  He watched as the Queen announced the changes in government, and smiled as the new Royal leader took her place, flanked by the Queen, the new Chief of Staff and Prime Minister.

"People of Darius.  I am proud to serve the Queen at this important time.  As you know, there have been some battles, our armed forces loyally doing their best, in a tradition that is long and honorable.  It has been centuries since our military has had such periolous duty.

Some time ago, I spoke to you as I hurried off to brief the Queen on one such battle.  For security reasons, I withheld some vital information to you, our people.  I apologize, but at the time, our survival was at stake and I had no clear direction from her majesty.  I now have the clearance to speak to you frankly.

As you heir, I will be aiding the Queen immediately in resolving a serious threat to our planet.  For years, we have existed out here at the edge of our corner of space, ignoring the rest of the universe, content to trade in our small way with those in our region of space.  Darious has become a trade center, but only a very local center when compared to the rest of humanity spread out along our particular trade route.  And we could have continued like that as long as we needed or wanted to.

But something has happened to put all that at risk.  Something we have all thought impossible, and after centuries of waiting, an event has occurred that puts Darius at the front line of human exploration once again.

On that day that I spoke to you fresh from witnessing a battle, I left out one very important fact.  The identity of our foe.  Not a nation or even one of the small trading worlds in our region of space.  But an off planet attacker, to be sure."

The screen shrunk to fit a small square with Stacy in the upper left quadrant, the rest of the screen showing the grainy feed from Duo's camera as the Greenie taking of Arcadian Hill was repeated for all the planet to see.  Obviously it had been taken from a copy off of Stacy's PADD.

"This is our foe.  We believe it is the first time humanity has encountered a living alien species.  Of course, we suspected the existence of others in our universe, however, the Arcadian ruins lulled us into believing they had vanished long ago.  And perhaps these visitors to our planet are the progency of the Arcadians.  However, our advisors counsel otherwise.  They seem to be just as interested in the Arcadian artifacts as we are.  And of course, the Gate System we believe was created by an alien race other than the Arcadians.  So if our judgements are correct, and I see no reason to believe otherwise, this living race of aliens is the third alien race discovered by humanities exploration."

"Unfortunately, the aliens appear to be hostile.  As you can see, they took some of our people, and I, thanks to the bravery and heroism of our Lord General Formsley, was saved from seeing that sphere ship from the inside."

The picture now enlarged back out to full size with Stacy's face and shoulders taking up the whole screen.

"I apologize for not being more forthcoming with you.  However, as you can imagine, we've been rather busy since this invasion.  We have lost some good people, not just those taken on the hill, but through an attack on another site where we had been storing a number of Arcadian artifacts.  Rather then allow us to investigate these artifacts any further, the aliens chose to eliminate that possibility by eliminating the artifacts. Fortunately, our Lord General had perceived this threat and remarkably, less than a handful of people were lost at that site.  Indeed, so far, our casualties had remained low.

It was not until later on that day, that a brave crew approached the Sphere ship.  Unfortunately, that ship was lost along with all its crew. This resulted in the largest casualties to date.  Since that day, we have not lost a single man or woman to the invader.  However, this is due to the relative inaction of our visitors.  They seem content to continue to study the Arcadian artifacts in their possession.

I should tell you that we are not without resources.  Our ancestors prepared well, and the technology that helped us span the stars and galaxies has not been lost.  We are quite capable of repelling the invaders, should they continue to be hostile.  For now, there is a lull in action and we are using that time to build our strength and tap those resources.  I can't much more about that right now, for obvious reasons.  Some of you out there are probably very concerned.  Let me say this.  There is a Royal Imperative designed to counter this kind of activity, and I am asking all of you who feel the call to help to contact your local authorities immediately.  You will be invited to help us directly.  Aid from without is also in the cards, and I believe we should be able to talk to you about that in several weeks. In the meantime, I'd ask you to remain strong and calm.  Thank you for support, and we will be talking with you again shortly.  Remember that we are but the point of a very long and capable supply chain.  We will see reinforcement very soon.

The Queen has asked me to assume control of all those things necessary to prepare us for the upcoming weeks, and beginning next week, I will officially accept the crown of Darius, your eighteenth queen.  All I ask is for your support and patience.  We will all do well in the months to come I am confident that you'll show great courage by remaining strong and calm.

Thank you."

I hate it when you're right?"

"I was right?"  Duo leaned back in his chair, the display tilting with as Stacy Op, Darius' new Monarch.

"You know you are, don't try to act dense with me."

"Really, you r majesty, I don't have a clue..."

"The northern situation?"

"Oh that," he relented.  "Okay, so we have the Greenies making what looks like a permanent base along the northern edge of the iceap.  It is the least threatening location and is nearly the furthest from interference.  It is also not well covered by our sats, I am sure that didn't escape their attention."

"Yes but it proves more than that.  Didn't you say that if they had other ships in system that they'd not bother to make a base here -- that they'd simply pick up all they Arcadian toys and 'dee-dee the hall outta here' I think is the direct quote?"

"Yes, well.  If I may your majesty..." and Stacy waved a hand at him irritably for being so formal.  "Let's talk about strategy for a sec.  One of our recently awakened Ship's Captains tells me he knows of three other ships in system.  If we launch a southern polar shot, he can spin off and out of our plane and into one of the cache spots planes - a huge asterioid that just so happens to be hollow.  He'll drop off a side glance com sat on his way out.  If he can pull it off, he can come racing in from a direction opposite the gate.  We'll use the comsat to tell him if the Greenies notice him, and if they do early enough and make some kind of move, our Captain will change his vector and accelerate the curve to lead our visitors well away from our real point of interest.  Then one of the other Captains will try a similiar stunt, moving at a good atmospheric clip until he is masked from wherever thr Greenie ship might be at the time, and then make the run out to the gate.  He can drop off the drone, go into quiet mode and wait for orders.  We can only hope the Greenie doesn't notice him hanging there."

"And if our visitor does notice a ship hovering out of an orbital plane?" asked the new Queen.

"Well then he shoots another probe through making the situation clear, and then he sends the shutdown sequence on a tight, low power coherent.  None of us can figure out how the Greenie could intercept it unless he has a ship hiding in line with the gate in our space.  I think a ladar pulse in that direction might be an appropriate bit of insurance -- maybe before we send the real signal.  It doesn't cover the chance that our visitors have stealthy technology immune to LADAR, but we think we'd have seen somrthing of that before now."

"So we're talking several gambles here, yes?"

"Yep.  But your majesty did say you wanted to push the envelope -- this is not as far as I can push, but it is a good begnning.  The best case is that we'll have two very capable ships up and running in system, a third ready to launch, a possible couple of really big ships ready to gate in at our call, and the League well aware od our situation and our excellent handlong of our security as well as theirs.  Worst case is that thr Greenies either give chase and start shooting our first Captain, or detect the second -- we really do need to come up with some ship names -- before he can get his gate duties done.  And since most of our other strategies involve sitting on our hands, I am hesitant to even consider those."

"You need a decision now, or can I noodle on this awhile."

"Not long, your majesty.  We are quickly running out of time.  I'd say a few hours at the most."

Stacy stared at her former mentor for a few seconds.  "This is not at all what you and I intended our lives to look like, is it Uncle Frosty?"

"Nope.  But, if you excuse my age from entering the conversation, in some ways it is not expected.  I have lived long enough to expect surprises.  It's when things go smoothly that I get itchy.  Like right now, in fact.  There is something missing here."

Stacy nodded and her eyes went down to the pages on her desk and she focused there.

"With your leave?"

Stacy gave a friendly handwave, perhaps a little rude, but her attention was on the decision she wanted to make quickly and all understood as they left her in peace.

Nusan too was in deep thought.  She had listened in on the meeting from a listening post pointed out to her by the chamberlain.  When Duo made the statement about something missing, it triggered a memory of her own fears right after the appearance of the Greenie ship. To be precise, she had felt an increasing tension as the Greenies proceeded to remove the artifacts from the hilltop site they had landed on.  And now that they had moved their operations to the ice cap, a brief scouting mission had catalogued what was left, which was virtually nothing.

There had been signs of some digging -- perhaps the Greenies had been looking to see if any of the artifcacts had deeper roots.  But the digging had been shallow so she and everyone else had assumed that they had not found anything worth pursuing.  And the scouting mission had not found anything indicating other artifacts had been found underground.

In fact, the Greenies had taken all the artifacts and the small power source that no one on Darius knew how to operate.  Spy photos of the Greenie investigators indicated they too did not know how to operate the equipment.  This was good news of a sort, since the equipment could easily have been capable of dangerous actions, and if the Greenies could simply walk up and use them -- well, she trembled on the thought of the way things could have gone.

But now she was focusing on that tension she had felt.  Obviously her unconcious mind had been working on a puzzle.  She had felt this particular type of tension before when close to leaping over a mental hurdle.What could it be?

She walked over to her new office in the Queen's enterior only to find the older Queen "Auntie" pouring over some old reports.

"Excuse me your majesty, I didn't mean to..."

"Shush.  Come look at these."

Auntie had pulled out some overhead recon shots of the Arcadian Hill ridge lines.  They appeared to have been taken from a fairly oblique angle, and Nusan suspected it was a low level photo mission dodging along the tops of hills in stealth mode, hoping to avoid being blasted out of the sky by the very capable Greenie ship.

"I was just thinking about those hills myself," Nusan said.

"Hmmm, huh" agreed the former Monarch.  "Duo had it right, but I just can't my finger on it."

A knock at the door caused them to turn and the chamberlain, looking a little harried at serving two monarchs at once, announced, "The Lord General begs entry, ladies"

"Show him in, Chamberlain.  In fact, if her majesty approves, let's just give him the run of the place, ehh?"

"Yes your majesty." replied the chamberlain as Duo came around him and into the room, briskly walking over to where they were studying the map.

"Ahh, the very thing. I assume you two also agree that we are missing something?"

At the nods of the two lady's heads, he grinned and looked over the recon photos.  He frowned then, turning the pages 90 degrees so that his viewpoint was a vertical line up and down the ridges instead of looking at them at right angles.

"Well I'll be damned."

"What?"

"I think I will need some new photos but..." he stopped talking, his brow still furrowed.  He pulled out his comm pad and relayed a message to someone in his organization.  He pulled the cord to summon the chamberlain and instructed him to allow Admiral Custen into the room when he appeared.  The summons didn't take long to be completed, and soon the man in question was looking over the photos too.

"My god, why didn't any of you see if before?" the man asked incredously.

"See what?" asked Nusan.  The Queen and Duo were equally puzzled, but most likely did not voice their query out of some embarassment.

These two ridges look very much like an impeller plane -- a ship's heatsink behind an Ion engine drive.  The technology is pretty common and I would be willing to bet that there is a ship under these two ridges -- a really big ship.  When we bury ships we have to make sure we build up some cross members to keep the ground above from shifting and moving such that the outline is revealed of what lies below.  Whomever left this ship wasn't trying to hide it necessarily or hadn't had our experience to go on."

"Yeah" Auntie spoke, "and neither had we.  So your question before was a little rude, Admiral." she continued.

"Sorry your majesty, I mispoke."

The former monarch nodded, somewhat mollified.

"But that would mean someone hid  a ship under hills covered with artifacts --  that doesn't make sense" remarked Nusan.

Duo looked at her with surprise.  "Nusan, think it through.  Either the hills were there before and someone carefully dug under them and somehow wedged a ship in there, or..."

"Or the ship was there first and the hills and the artifacts came later!"
 

"There you go!"

"Oh my god!"

"Exactly" said the former monarch rejoining the conversation having already lept ahead, waiting for the other two to catch up.

"If there is a ship there, then it is an Arcadian ship."

Belson and the teams had been working for about a week on a tunnel that led through the base of the large mountain that stood between their hide site and the Arcadian Hills.  The idea was to make it possible to move men and equipment near the former artifact site without the overhead left by the Greenie ship, a small recon satellite.

They had received their orders two days ago and the team leader, an old salt wearing major's leafs had decided to forge ahead with little planning -- he simply used a tactical display to tell him where the site lines from the Greenie overhead allowed them to operate without detection.  He had then found a small overhang in that shadow and that had become their entrance.  In a few hours his men had used excavating tools using coherents to cut a ledge.  A single ship had proceeded to cross the area at a 45 degree, clearly not intending to head directly toward the hillside on the far side of the mountain.  As soon as it crossed into the shadow, the ship had accelerated down, dropped the larger equipment they needed and then hurried along making up time lost.  The result was an apparent uninterupted flight across the ridge line at a non threatening angle.

From there, the team provided security tothe digging team which now had led them to a position calculated to be only a few meters from penetrating the edge of the mountain facing the ridgeline called Aradian Hills.  Now they were expanding the area under the mountain to provide a staging area.

All the while the major digging had been going on, the Major and Belson, breveted General now, consulted with the Lord General on the possibilities.  The Major had suggested a covert cover operation, using large areas of the sneaky material they had used before.  In this case, the material would be stretched across the canyon between their exit point they would make on the mountain, and an entry point below the top of the Arcadian Hills ridgeline.  Underneath, they could conduct all the operations they wanted without being detected.

The problem was, the plans had already gone awry. The had encountered harder rock and the Royal Engineers were puzzled.  It didn't fit the geographical pattern.  Even their veteran (sleeper) Top Sergeant was scratching his head.  Something was definitely stinky about the whole situation.  And the General wasn't being helpful.

"You can't blast and you have to keep the seismic impact low enough that any ground triggers left by the Greenies don't set off an alarm."

Right.  They were waiting for analysis of the rock or shale they had run into.  Shale was a bad description since the rock was harder than hell, but it was flaky like shale, when you could get lucky and chunk off a piece.  You couldn't do it with a pick axe like normal shale, it took a major ground chipper, its tractor like base and heavy hydraulic powered arm jamming into the wall of the stuff they had reached.

So it was a big surprise when the General and one of his re-awakened Space Fleet Admirals showed up at their "dig".

"General Belson, this is Admiral Kyne.  The Admiral thinks he has recognized your shale."

The taller man sauntered into the hold and returned rather quickly, a big grin on his face.

"Its formafact, General."

"Alright!  Sergeant, we're bringing in some beam cutters.  You'll have to go slow cuz eventually you are going to have to stop and stop rather quickly.  You'll set the cutters to a few inches at a time, that's right Admiral?" and then he continued at the man's nod, "...until you hit a smooth surface.  Once you hit that, then its time to start inching sideways in parallel fashion.  You'll know when to stop."

It was all pretty mysterious, but Belson was starting to get one of those F.I. feelings about the whole deal.  This meant something, and shortly his fused brain would figure it out and probably wake him at Oh-Dark in the morning.  In the meantime it would be best not to fret over it.  He gave the Lord General his best, "ours is only to sit and wait" look and the General laughed.

"Come along Belson, we'll explain the painful details to you so you don't blow a fuse."  The Admiral also thought Belson's discomfort was humorous, but Belson and the Sergeant did not.

"Okay, so here's the situation.  The shale material is an artificial substance that is meant to look like hard rock, and also has a semi-natural shielding effect.  We used it to surround buried objects, so that seismic or electromagnetic searches might have a more difficult time in finding them.  The chances are, you've run into a weapons cache or a hanger.  Or it could be the edge of the ship itself.  Since we doubt Arcadian's used our particular shale, which is called "formafact", we believe its a weapons cache.  Chances are, however, that the reason there is a cache here is that those who buried it knew about what lie under the hills over there.  Or they decided to help hide what is buried over there.  Or perhaps what is buried over there extends over here, and they covered it over cuz they found it while trying to bury a weapons cache.  Either way, you're team is about to find either the side of an Arcadian ship, a Plastasteel wall of a hanger or weapons cache, or maybe a Plastasteel wall added around an Arcadian ship to keep it hidden.  Your Sergeant will recognize the wall and his instructions will suddenly become clear. He'll skirt the wall until he finds an entrance and the Admiral will give him some codes to try.

"Will we be able to open it that easily?" asked Belson.

"We think so," answered the Admiral.  "They hypno-planted such things.  I already have a few rattling around in my head, and when we find the door, there may be something there to trigger others.  I'm pretty confident.  This is so very typical fleet that it all makes sense.  If it's an Arcadian ship, however, it stands to reason that our people may have attempted to power it up, but failed and gave up.  Otherwise it would have been taken outsystem and tested.  Since I have no memory of it, and no triggers popped when I learned of it, I assume the Darian's of old simply hid the evidence.  "

"So it won't be any use to us at all?"

"On the contrary. We might find some better stealth technology or some on board weaponry, or even a power source.  We have a couple of refreshed physicists that got a F.I. update about ten years ago, courtesy of fleet, so there should be some 200 years of new knowlege in physics that might enable us to figure things out better then the Darians that covered the thing in formafact.  If its Arcadian.  If it's one of our ships, well that's fine cuz it may come to the point we need a few extra.  But both the Lord General and I don't believe in coincidences.  A Darian hide with a Fleet ship right next to Arcadian ruins?  While its not a big stretch, it is a little too coincidental for my tastes."

The Lord General nodded and Belson pondered the information.  Then it struck him.  "Well, if it's a ship, aren't we going to have to dig elsewhere to get over to the hillside?"

The Lord General looked at him at amazement.  Obviously Belson didn't really understand the scale of things.  He pulled out his pad and brought up a drawing that one his people hastily drew for him so he could explain it all to the new Queen.

"Imagine this is the ground surface here...the green blobs are where the ridges we call Arcadian hills are today.  This orange stuff is ground.  The lighter areas along the top of this cross section of ground are depressions.  This creates the geological layout that we see from this photo..." he switched to a recon photo, and then back to the drawing.  "Underneath, is some 100 meters of ground.  The dark grey blobs below the ground are the edges of protruding shapes of an object lieing underground."

Belson nodded and replied, "I got that from the original briefing before we started to dig."

"Yeah, but its the scale of things that might be confusing you.  If we are right and this is an Arcadian ship, then it might be VERY large.  The mountain we are digging into right here, might not be 100% natural..."

"Yeah, a cache or hanger, sure."

"No, remember I said it might be the edge of the ship. If it is the ship, then it is HUGE.  And we don't need to go all the way over to the Arcadian Hills, we don't have to risk waking up the Greenies with a seismic alarm, and we don't have to worry about their spy-sat seeing us messing around on Arcadian Hill.  And in fact, it means it was a good thing we treated this hill's operation as a covert op and hid our activities from that same spy-sat, because this mountain top, in all likelihood, is also one of these green blobs -- a false hill built on top of the very large ship."

"Oh shit!" replied Belson.  "Sorry for being so stupid."  Then after a pause.  "If it's that large, though, we aren't going to be able to move it -- assuming we figure out how -- without alerting anyone with a seismograph anywhere on the planet."

The Admiral chuckled.  "Son, if it is that big and we can learn to power it up, we don't give a shit if the Greenies know we have it.  That drive technology for a ship as big as this will be enough alone to match or better the Greenie technology.  And I happen to agree with the Lord General's assessment -- there might be some really cool, way much better stealth technology here that will make the Greenies pull their hair out -- if they have hair."

"No hair, scales.  Anyway, we'll know soon.  I brought a beer to celebrate, so follow me."

Belson grinned at that, and made a promise to himself to hold out one for the Sarge, after all he was doing all the real heavy lifting on this mission.  But as usual the General was way ahead of him as he spoke, tossing the words over his shoulder, "And we'll give your guys a break when/if they come to a wall, I brought plenty along to help them celebrate as well!"

Stacy-Op looked at the more professional drawing that one of the General's computer aided design people had come up with.  It was one of those 3D wireframes with shading in some places, showing a mountain ridge, followed by an animation that peeled away the layers and resulted in the top side of a space cruiser sticking out of the ground.

She too was excited.  Another Arcadian artifact -- a giant one like the prediction called for, was perhaps the biggest thing that had happened in her's or her predecessor's lifetime.  In fact, the former monarch was sitting next to her along with Nusan, all three of them studying the pictures.

"Incredible," said the older monarch.

"Yep!" said Nusan proudly.  She was sure they had all uncovered the archeological mystery of the last two centuries, and had begged the Queen to consider a data squirt to that effect as soon as they knew for sure.  That would also mean moving up the schedule for the outsystem destroyer journey to the gate, but no one was unhappy about that.  It might be a little more risky, but having a good excuse like this also might mean the folks on the other side of the gate might decide Darius was much more valuable than the meager bits of trade that had been applied in effort over the last 200 years.   And that meant trade, higher "stock" in relative Darian dollars to other trade-port dollars.  In other words, it would make Darius suddenly a rich world, despite being way out here on the  gate routes.  The trading elements might even decide that it was worth protecting, and suddenly they might be visited by some rather big ships happily arriving to lend assistance, rather than Darius begging for help.

The fact that the ships would be arriving on their own could be reason for an arrival tax, and of course, docking privileges, etc.  Even more likely, they might offer to "help out" in the archeological investigation, another income producing event.  Instead of Darius paying for help and military relief, the hands might be switched, with Darius the one having the coin dropped into it.  Nice.

And of course, the military potential of an Arcadian starship in their hands was practically in-measurable.  Given enough time, it could be an incredible boon.  Given their limited time, however, it might not do them any good unless their military scientists were able to figure things out pretty quickly.  Even if they didn't get the ship running -- assuming it was a ship -- they were bound to find some interesting things -- especially, Nusan had counseled, since the Arcadian technology appeared to be many centuries older than their own races, and yet were fantastically more advanced.

If the find turned out to be a weapons cache it wouldn't be all that useful.  Nice to have, but not campaign level important.  A 200 year old ship buried by the colonists of Darius would be great, however.  So far, they sleepers had popped to three buried ships, a fourth would be a significant up tick in their space fleet's mass.  And as Uncle Duo had said, "more mass the better" in space.

The only real problem they faced at present was the Greenie's superior stealth and higher power weapons technology.  They also had an issue that was of questionable risk -- how did the Greenies get here?  Did they rocket in at a propulsion based rate, or did they fold space like the gates?  If the latter, was there another gate like technology system nearby and could they somehow trace the Greenies back to that technology?

This last idea had them scrambling to get a Destroyer into space ASAP.  If they could hide out and then if the Greenies left, perhaps they could follow it to their gate system.  Opening a new system of interstellar travel was even bigger than finding an Arcadian starshp, and would benefit all of man kind.  The opportunity to find a friendly living race of non-humans out there was a dream come true.  Finding non-friendlies like the Greenies was a major find as well, but one that tended to have a significant downside -- they might decide to kill you and all your kind off.  They had met only one other  non human race, and it tended to be neutral and not a trader.  So in that particular case, the contacts between the two were not encouraged so as to prevent any activity that might start a war.  Some entrepenurial types had made an attempt to sneak out to that other race's domain, but the powers to be had falsified the location and they simply warped into a system crowded with Fleet Defense Forces, and were captured and executed after a swift trial.  This tended to limit the number of attempts thereafter.

With Darius being the dubious recipient of a contact with a non-friendly non human race, the system was in danger of being "left for dead".  But with an Arcadian starship relic, suddenly that meant a total flip-flop in logic.  Thus the hurry to get out to the Gate and make the data squirt.  They had to go to the gate, of course, so their transmission had the least possible opportunity to be intercepted.  Not that anyone had any evidence that the Greenies could understand a word spoken on Darius, the paranoid military mind focused on survival said they were to take no chances.

One of the F.I. brevets had come up with an idea of sending a high speed probe out to the gate to make a very brief and warning message.  They were still considering that.  An unmanned probe would be unable to carefully scan for anyone lurking around who might listen in to their transmission at the Gate's communication transponder.  The other idea was to send a probe through, but Duo had vehemently vetoed that idea -- all they needed to do was have a Greenie see them not only use the gate, but listen to them sending the codes to open it.  Not good.  Using the comm transponder was deemed far more safe.

The only other choice was a smaller, modern built for purpose spacecraft with detection equipment and a small crew.  That was another idea they were toying with while they carefully prepared the first buried Destroyer to slip out of its nest, sneak south and then take to space.  And that too was a problem, cuz they needed to create some sort of diversion that would mask the ship's leaving the atmosphere.  They weren't at all too sure the spy-sat over the Arcadian Hills couldn't also look laterally and discover something just inside the horizon.  So the launch window was being carefully considered, adding days to when they would decide they could launch as well as, perhaps, the days before the next launch window after their decision.