The Long Road to Gaia (10 page)

One year later to the day, four strange
ships appeared in the Outback system, docking with Outback Orbital.

Brian Tollin, their leader, met with the
head of each of the spiritual enclaves, and after swearing them to secrecy,
told them the good news.

For five days, the four ships came and
went, unnoticed by the rest of human space. People moved in both directions,
but mainly away from Outback.

Brian remained on the Orbital station. He'd
made his choice. His wife had chosen to stay with him. Paradise was not his
thing, and she wasn’t sure she could enjoy it without him.

Another to remain was James Hunter and his
family. James was a cousin of George. The Keeper's had been adamant one branch
of the Hunter family must remain in the Australian area. They had their own
destiny to fulfill, and the family name had to stay known. The family had
discussed this long and hard over the year, before James agreed to go back.

I spent a long time whispering to him and
his sons about what it would be like to captain their own freighters, and one
day be part of forming an Australian fighting force for defense. The three of them
owned the three ships which remained when the Door closed.

The fourth ship returned, with the last of
those leaving for good, including the last Keeper, having established an
offshoot Keeper group on Outback. Keeping prophesy safe was the most important
thing, after all. Better two locations than one.

Weeks later, proclamations were sent to
every government in human space, announcing that hence forth, Outback had a
policy of isolation, where for only five days each year, people could move to
or from the planet. This would be enforced. As long as Outback was left alone,
no-one got hurt.

No-one actually cared, which was a good
thing all round.

It was ten years later, when a group
actually tried to land on the planet, figuring the policy actually hid something
worth stealing. They died in the air above the planet. The news services made
it known their ship had been destroyed, but not how. No-one actually knew.

I knew.

Twenty six was on duty at the time.

Captain Horatio Hunter, of the Australian
Militia, whooped as the pirate he'd just fired on exploded. He'd been tracking
the smuggler since leaving Australian space, and finally caught up with it here
in the Midgard system.

"Look out," I whispered to him.

He had one flaw as a pilot. He was too
caught up in the single combat, to pay enough attention to what else was going
on around him. It hadn't matted when he had a squadron behind him. Now it was
too late.

The three pirate fighters appeared as if
from nowhere.

He'd barely begun to turn, when his prototype
Privateer ship was struck by pulses from three different ships behind him, as
well as two missiles.

His ship disintegrated.

One more Hunter gone.

I stood there in space, pondering the
debris, wondering if I should have made sure he survived. Or not. Twelve wasn’t
there. One wasn’t there. No-one popped in to tell me I'd screwed up.
Disappointing. Not all Hunters were considered valuable.

But after a short while, I became aware
someone was there.

"Hello Ninety Nine," I said.

"Thirteen isn’t it?"

"Yes."

"One of yours?"

Now visible to me in avatar form, she
indicated the debris field. The three ships which had created it were now gone.

"Used to be."

"Did he matter?"

Now there was a broad philosophical
question. I vaguely recalled something from the early two thousands, one of
those Sci-Fi shows Jon the original used to watch obsessively.

"I've never met anyone who didn’t
matter," I parroted.

"Deep."

"Yeah."

We lapsed into silence.

All of us were different. Ninety Nine was
very small in comparison to me, and I was tiny in comparison to One. Our
physical natures were also very different. Ninety Nine was like a cloud in the
sky. Wispy, insubstantial, and hardly there, at least as far as the lessers
were concerned.

For the Humans which flew through her, she
was almost unnoticeable. And her presence played tricks on them they were not
yet aware of.

I wondered how long it would be before
Humans finally realized this system was different.

Centuries perhaps?

"It's begun," said Nineteen.

All eyes turned to her, most of us not
appreciating the interruption to our regular meeting.

"What's begun?" asked Five, in a
tone which suggested the answer had better be a good one.

"The Humans are at war again."

It caught our attention, and Nineteen was
waved to a freshly created chair.

"What's it been?" I asked.
"Five fifty odd Earth years since the last big one?"

"Bit more," said Nine, "if
you ignore all the minor ones before they lost their home planet, and all the
small interplanetary wars since which resolved nothing."

One waved for silence, and looked to
Nineteen.

"Go on," said One.

Nineteen wasn’t used to sitting in with us.
Those above fifteen in the order were rarely invited to these meetings. They
mainly attended to receive instructions, and deliver news.

"My brief has been to keep a watch on
Human politics," said Nineteen. "Over the last fifty Earth years, the
Arab planets have been increasingly coming under the sway of the extremists
again. There have been some nasty battles between the factions, which seem to
have buried some of their former antagonisms. Recently, they joined together
and declared themselves to be a new sector, breaking away from Earth
Sector."

"I bet Earth loved that,"
chuckled Nine.

"Indeed. They immediately sent a fleet
into Barnard's star. Partly to ensure the doorway to Earth was protected, and
partly as a buffer between the Arabs and Israel. The Arabs hit it in a three
way invasion of Barnard's Star. The Earth fleet was caught between three Arab
fleets and mostly destroyed. Part of it fell back to Earth, and some remnants
unable to get there, fell back to Israel."

"What did the Arabs do?" asked
Eleven.

"They hit both systems. Earth and
Israel are now under Arab control. The remains of Earth's fleets continue to
fall back."

"And the Corporates?" asked Ten.

"Neutral."

I was amazed any of them understood as much
of this as they did. Our kind rarely got involved in the affairs of the
lessers. Humans were becoming something of an exception, but even then, the
knowledge of them those above me seemed to have, showed an interest far beyond
what was normal for any of us. I guess the universe going foom was a motivator
for understanding the dynamics of the plan to stop it. Although only One knew
what the plan was. At least, we all assumed she did. On the other hand though,
maybe I was the only one who didn’t.

"What are the other Human factions
doing?" I asked.

"The Spanish, Italians, and French,
are moving fleets to Wolf 359 as fast as they can get there. They plan to
counter attack as a single joint fleet. Earth is offering them their own full
sectors if they can retake Earth system without much damage occurring. It's
something those three sub-sectors have wanted for a long time."

"And the Germans?" I prompted.

"They have their own problems. Their
politics have been getting more and more convoluted over the last twenty years,
and even the Nazi's are getting a foothold in government again. One side calls
for direct aid for Israel and Earth. Another side calls for final independence
from Earth and demands their fleet stand guard at their own borders. The Nazi's
are calling for the Fourth Reich to begin, and declare the Arab invasion to be
the sign they have waited for, that now was the time for Germans to take their
rightful place as leaders of Human space."

I closed my eyes and scrunched them up
tight. That was all we needed.

"What did they decide?" asked
Two.

"The Deutschland fleet departed for
Estonia, there to wait for the Hamburg fleet. The combined fleet will aim to
hit the Arab fleet unannounced, probably in Latvia or Bahrain. The other fleets
are rearranging to keep security of the German sector intact."

"Who's got the firepower to win?"
asked Three.

"The Germans. The combined fleet on
the other side of Earth should be able to push the Arabs back into Barnard's
Star. When the Germans get there, they'll be pushed back into their own
space."

"Will the Germans be happy with just
that?" asked Six.

"Now that is a good question,"
responded Nineteen. "We'll have to wait and see."

"Well that was interesting."

"What was?" asked Five, annoyed
at being interrupted again by Nineteen.

Months could pass for humans, and we'd
still be sitting in the same meeting. Time for us was simply not the same. In
fact, it took a lot of effort on my part to stay anchored in the mundane time
scale, while following a particular Human.

"Things went pretty much as we thought
to start with."

"To start with?" echoed Six.

"Yes. The combined French, Italian and
Spanish fleet pushed the Arabs back into Barnard's Star and held there. Earth
system suffered a modicum of damage in the process, but nothing which can't be
fixed."

"What did the Germans do?"
pressed Six.

"They held elections and voted in the
Nazis."

"What?" said Twelve. "How
did that happen?"

"No-one realized that’s what they were
doing. The Nazis rebadged themselves, ran a good marketing campaign, lied
through their teeth, and won a sizable majority. Their first action was to
declare the Fourth Reich. The second was to order their fleet to take Earth no
matter what the cost. And the third was to unleash their other fleets heading
up the spine, where what little Earth sector defenses there were, have been
rolled over very quickly."

One was laughing. I looked at her in
dismay.

"Doesn’t this endanger our
interests?" I asked her.

"Hell no, why would it?"

I looked confused.

"As it happens," she went on,
"this war is necessary. They need something like this to advance their
tech a couple of levels."

This time I stared at her. Could it be
she'd had a hand in the whole mess? I wasn’t going to ask, but I'd have not
have been surprised if she had.

"So what's the situation now?"
asked Six.

"The Americans are mobilizing. There
is nothing to stop the Germans before they reach American space, so they are
moving ships to meet them, probably in Jamaica, which has already asked for
their help. The Canadians are sending a fleet to Hawaii, to backstop the
Americans in case they can't stop the Germans on their own. The British are
sending a fleet to Denver. If things look dire when they get there, they'd
continue on."

"Sci-Fi and Australia?" asked
Four.

"Too far away to get there in time.
Neither think the Germans will make it past the Americans, so they are staying
out of things. They're not even bothering to mobilize. Both sectors mainly have
fighter patrols anyway, although Sci-Fi has a scattering of smaller capital
ships, all committed to local defense of the planet which built the ship, or
bought it."

"And Barnard's Star?"

"The Arabs took one look at the two
different fleets baring down on them, and fled back into their own space,
declaring their loyalty to Earth sector. The two fleets hit each other, did a
lot of damage, and then retreated. There's a rather large battle zone full of
debris, and neither side will go near it now. Earth jump point is secured on
both sides, and the Germans know if they do manage to jump to Earth, they'll
suffer badly on the down jump. So they've secured the Israel jump point."

"They deliberately started a two front
war?" I asked. "Haven't they learnt anything from the past?"

"Apparently not," said Five.
"Go away Nineteen. Let us know who wins."

I gave him a sharp look, before casting a
glance at Nineteen, who I found looking at me. I gave her a slight nod, and she
vanished.

I was getting an education about my peers,
and the more I saw, the less I liked. I'd been much better off when I only had
contact with them every millennia.

"You with us Thirteen?" asked
One.

I shifted my attention back to the meeting.