Traitor

Jason was aware that the rate of fertility in the Empire had plummeted in the last 3000 years. The population had declined at a slow rate largely because the average age at the same time had extended so dramatically. It however meant that a considerable number of women didn’t fall pregnant and the men had become frailer and less fertile. Jason cursed the priests for what they had done to the people.

Jason thought the priests had been very clever. Many doctors were priests and their research had been ‘unproductive’, but they did speculate about a number of possible causes, most of which significantly inconvenienced the Empire and reduced its effectiveness by largely eliminating men from the Armed Forces and in particular from the Navy due to speed of travel restrictions. The priest cadre were largely involved with medical and information technology. They were responsible also for replicator manufacture and medical pods. He was sure that they ensured the pods wouldn’t identify the poison. He would confirm this by asking the cyberwarfare people to look at the programming in the medical pods. to look at the programming in the medical pods.

It could be shown that women were fertile, but men produced very few, if any, healthy sperm and were frailer than they used to be. The priests had ensured that his trip back to the Empire was slow which helped them ambush the battleship as the ship had to exit from hyperspace to reorient itself. The trip to earth had taken two weeks, but the trip back would take close to three and a half months if they continued at the same slow speed.

The Marines had adjourned to attend lectures and further training, though they explained they were all going to join the round the clock search for at least a shift every day.

Jason spent time in the simulators and headed for his canteen to meet Janet and Phoebe for lunch. Jason’s canteen looked like an olden day stateroom with paneled walls, extensive art on the walls, including beautiful paintings, shiny objects that must have been fittings from ships in the past, beautiful, light fittings, including floor lamps and hanging lights from the roof. It looked more like a high-end restaurant than a canteen. It was sad that none of it was real and Robert could change the decorations at will.

Before he left Earth, Robert had collected recipes from every cuisine he could, and brought along two million tons of food that he put into stasis for himself and the farmers, including those involved with aquaculture.

That didn’t include the cattle, pigs, chickens, and sheep that were ready for resurrection from stasis at any time. There were literally thousands of tons of seed of every type. They even had trees in stasis. He had beer, soft drinks, coffee, tea, and a variety of condiments, herbs, and spices. He had brought multiple cooking utensils and his own stove, grills, and ovens. He had a microwave, slow cookers, sous vide cookers as well as any, and every dish cloth, knife, fork and spoon. He even had cooking chopsticks. In the hydroponic area of the ship, he had every type of vegetable, fruit, and nut that he liked growing and Earth food had become increasingly popular on the ship.

Jason heard Robert sit down at the table and greet his guests. He launched into his favorite topic.

“Replicator technology within the Empire has had an effect of simplifying foods into several standard popular tastes, much like the influence of the fast food industry on your planet Jason. They use any and every type of protein, carbohydrate and fat that’s cheap and nasty as a basis for forming replicator food. They then add flavorings that disguise the utterly disgusting origin of the food. I’m not surprised that the priests used the replicators to distribute their poison. You are just adding poison to poison.

“I forgot to tell you, Jason. I mentioned your theories to the marines. They were asking me to tell them the story in more detail about what you had told them about the priests. One of them told me that the computer people were keen to begin work on the medical pods when I have time to do so.

“Jason, I’m very pleased that you are inviting guests as it gives me more of a challenge than this branch of brain-dead Navy people. I’ve not had the opportunity to learn a new cuisine for a very long time. I’m enjoying exploring my recipe books and preparing food for guests. I feel that I’m back in my element when I was a young man exploring new foods. I just need a few hundred more people to fill up this canteen and then that will help me get a better idea of what people are going to like and our business is going to take off.

“Lauren has told me that she’s putting the computer business under management and is going full-time into the food distribution business. I want to arrange when we are settled to send regular cargo ships to Earth. We also need to have our own farms somewhere in the Empire. Thank you for this wonderful business opportunity Jason, you and your family will be great partners!” Robert said.

“You are welcome I’ll, also be happy to have you and your group as partners,” said Jason somewhat confused about the whole idea, but happy to let it develop if something was to develop into an intergalactic business.

For lunch Jason had asked Robert and Marie to make chili con carne and cornbread. A series of Mexican dips with corn chips would serve as a starter, and an apple crumble for desert with double thick cream.

Janet and Phoebe soon arrived and greeted him warmly. Robert told them how delighted he was that they had come back to his canteen.

They were friendly and flirty which he knew was the influence of them having talked to the others at the gym. They both kissed him in greeting a little more intimately than he expected.

“Jason, I’m happy that you are saving yourself for the senior officers,” said Janet with a smile on her face.

“I’m terribly sorry Janet I was so embarrassed in the sauna. I’m just not used to such free and easy sexuality and I’m not yet over my grief. I’m battling to accept that I’m a young man in the Empire, not an old man being put out to pasture, ready to live out his last days and die. I’ve not had any sexual function for years and its return is quite a shock! I profoundly embarrassed myself in front of the marines, though they were very kind to me.

Jason saw Robert looking towards them indicating in the Empire manner, with his thumb pointing sideways, the food was ready.

“Welcome to the food of Mexico. Robert indicates that he’s ready to serve and I hope that you don’t suffer too much eating this kind of food,” said Jason and waved his arms theatrically towards the kitchen. Robert began to send out the food with his kitchen staff acting as waiters. It looked delicious. The rest of people in the canteen were served by friendly AIs.

“There’s something in the food called a chili that Robert enjoys growing. There’s no equivalent in the Empire. It’s very popular in the canteen,” he informed them. Robert had taken some time to make himself familiar with the tastes of Mexican food and particularly liked the flavor of Mexican chilies. In the Empire food tended to be more on the bland side, but people on the ship craved flavor and appeared to have a passion for chili the hotter the better. Robert had discovered potato fries and had built an oven that made them perfectly and very quickly, transporting them through a high-speed conveyor in the kitchen. On this part of the ship they were wildly popular and Jason’s foods had supplanted many of the others in the hydroponic growing areas. The hydroponic farms occupied a large area in the ship. Those areas were more than enough to grow food for a population of three hundred thousand quickly and for a much bigger number with some preparation.

Robert and the farmers had brought enough soil aboard to grow his vegetables, along with earthworms and an entire ecosystem while trying to avoid pests and parasites. The farmers then loaded hundreds of thousands of tons of soil onto the ship. The bored hydroponics technicians took to the farming of Earth produce enthusiastically and paid passionate attention to the quality of fruit and vegetables. It relieved their tedium. They had brought along many beehives as well as many flowers to round out the ecosystem.

The table looked spectacular with many large bowls of food along with freshly baked corn chips, steaming loaves of cornbread, Mexican beer brewed on the ship and bottle of cabernet sauvignon with crystal glasses. In the center of the table stood a vase with beautiful flowers. Janet Malone looked around, looked at Jason, laughed and said, “Don’t try and pretend that you’re not an Admiral!”

“I’m not an Admiral or a general; at most, I might be a junior apprentice warlord,” laughed Jason as he enjoyed their consternation and pleasure in looking at the table and smelling the flowers. They commented on the exotic nature of the smells and tastes after he showed them how to scoop the dips with corn chips. The bread sat steaming while Jason poured the wine into their glasses and proposed a toast to victory. They slowly drank the beer and wine and commented on their enjoyment thereof.

Marie served the chili in bowls with guacamole, sour cream, and cheese. Jason showed them how to add the cream to the chili and how to eat the guacamole. He enjoyed sprinkling cheese into the mix as well. They tucked in with gusto eating multiple slices of bread as he cut them, smelling the bread, tasting it on its own, and dipping into the chili. They also tried the corn chips with the chili con carne. Conversation came to a grinding halt while they concentrated all their efforts on eating, enjoying the smells, and tastes that were so unfamiliar.

“I’m delighted to expose you to the food of a primitive world, but it’s where I come from. On the ship, I mainly eat replicator food as it so delicious and as I’m so bored with this food, but I thought that at least it may be of some small interest to you?” He could barely keep the smile off his face as he made those outrageous remarks. He was delighted to see that they looked at him as if he was completely insane. Robert had left the kitchen to stand unobserved behind Jason.

“Yes, it’s sad that they forced us to eat such food, but I brought a few samples on board to be able to show you how much food has advanced, and how little you are missing from such sad small worlds,” he said somberly. He had a gloomy hangdog expression on his face, looking as though he was about to burst into tears while struggling to keep a straight face. Robert stood behind Jason looking similarly sad.

His guests had scraped the bottom of their bowls and had large second helpings before declaring themselves replete. The desert of apple crumble was baked to perfection and the cream was to die for. Malone and Phoebe managed to demolish two more helpings and he could see that they had to resist licking the plate.

“Regrettably, this is close to the last of this food. I’ll miss it a little as it’s the food of the motherland, but all good things come to an end,” he said with the same sad expression. “Life is like that, missing one’s country of birth, missing one’s planet. Life sucks and then you die.” He managed to maintain his gloomy visage while he spoke.

Unfortunately, Jason’s sad saga ended when Robert spoke.

“Whatever you do, you need to know that Jason manufactures tales of extravagant proportions. Everyone here has heard his sorry stories. Don’t believe a word of it. Jason brought enough food to feed himself for twenty years. Once we had tasted food on earth we brought back enough for the whole ship and to go into production in the Empire.”

Jason saw smiles on the faces of the crew around him. He hoped that it was an indication they were warming to him.

Jason had also brought along a very large Italian coffee machine and prepared cappuccino for the women. He suggested that they might try at first with a little sugar. They both tried it and appeared to enjoy it. He did tell them that it was an acquired taste, but they noticed many people drinking coffee at tables around them. Jason had the hydroponic people growing a number of Arabica varieties. The farmers replicated the climate of the slopes of Jamaica and produced a fair Blue Mountain Coffee.

The farmers, before leaving earth, acquired the necessary literature for the cultivation of coffee and the microclimates that they thrived in. They also found amongst their number, willing growers who rapidly became coffee and tea fanatics.

They moved to the boardroom to discuss the intelligence gained since the interrogations. The time for relaxation had passed. Jason felt himself tense up as they walked towards the bridge.

“Connie, I’m reintroducing Jason, who in the absence of any other title has agreed to Junior Apprentice Warlord,” said Janet Malone with a slight edge to her voice. “Please provide full details of what you’ve found. Please start with the findings from the interrogations, and then we can ask questions and you can go into further detail.” Malone instructed.

Jason listened with interest.

“There are three major findings, all of which appear to be of significance. First the Guild of priests is desperate to get hold of Jason and to make him one of theirs, a hostage or to kill him. They regard him as a threat to them. They know we were fetching him from Earth. The group on the cruiser are aware of his importance, but not why he’s important. They refer to him as the ‘The critical primitive’.

“They speculate that he’s well known to the Empire and may have been part of a group seeded on a different world to do something secret. They also think he may well be from one of the major guilds, or even part of the ruling family and want to take no chance that he will join any of those groups.

“They don’t have any other background information, other than major resources have been allocated to acquire him. They will kill him as a last resort.

“Secondly there are sleeper assassins seeded in different strategic groups, including the Imperial palace. They know about them but they don’t know what the triggers are. We don’t know how they’re trained so that telepaths can’t spot them.

“Thirdly, and this issue has two parts, there’s a second trap. There are ships waiting for us and the priests grew twenty million clones on the planet near the cruisers. We don’t know if they’re related to the second trap. What we do know is the priest’s Guild, using and abusing the DNA databank have created an army of clones that will join the Mob and launch the third Empire - Mob war. They believe that the clones of the greatest military geniuses of the Empire will play a critical role in the planning of the destruction of the Empire, while facilitating Mob rule along with the Guild. It appears that the Guild believes that they will be the ones in charge,” she sat back and continued, “that’s the essential information in summary. Please ask questions and I’ll go into further detail. She waited expectantly, raising her brows quizzically.

“I’d like to know, Connie, about the force that’s going to face us in the second trap?” Jason asked.

“The force we’ll face will be dependent upon our time of arrival. They expect us in four weeks. At that time, and for the subsequent two weeks, there will be two cruisers and four frigates with multiple boarding pods waiting. We have sent them false information about our battleship. They believe that they partly disabled our battleship. The cruisers are also in place to protect the clone planet.

Major Constance Ross moved to the front of the room. We have almost repaired the destroyer and four frigates and we have a cruiser to even the odds. “In a direct confrontation, we expect moderate damage, needing significant repair. The mob cruisers do have fighters. We captured twenty on the current cruiser. If they have a full load of fighters and they deploy them there could be more significant damage, depending on the missile loads of their fighters. Theoretically we should be able to overcome them but would sustain damage that could take one month to repair at the low end of the scale and three months at the top end. The greatest disadvantage is that we wouldn’t be in any position to deal with the clones.

“Tell me about these clones. What are they and what is their importance?” Jason asked.

“Jason if I can explain: clones are forbidden within the Imperial domain and have been forbidden for eight or nine thousand years. Clones were designed to be a throw away army. They are built to live twenty or thirty years maximum, so that they wouldn’t influence our society or pose a long-term risk. They were always regarded as expendable. They posed a problem after the conflicts in which they were involved. Wars were often over quite quickly leaving many clones resentful of their limited prospects. They became bitterly angry after discovering that they only lived for short periods of time. In the Empire, they couldn’t be ethically exterminated after a war or a battle. There are many stories about disgruntled clones. It was not unknown for clones to attack sponsoring societies,” Connie said and looked quite uncomfortable. She went on to say,

“They were regarded as an abomination and not to be used as they were unpredictable.”

“What imposed the limit on their life and can we fix it?” asked Jason. He was looking for some leverage in the current situation.

“There’s a rumor or myth if the clones are impregnated by Imperial genes those genes will repair their genes and give them a normal lifespan. This is the story and I don’t know the truth of it. The Imperial genes were subject to considerable improvement over the years and the Imperial family may have access to the most superior augmentations. The rumor also is that the royal family have many more slots for crystals and who knows if that’s the truth. I don’t know why we can’t simply put them in our pods and optimize their genes,” said Connie.

“I’d like to formally add a little bit of background that might add to this discussion,” said Jason, “some of this information you’ve heard and may know about; but I want to go through it systematically, so that you know what I know. Connie, I’ll also send you the report that I’m going to mention and all the emails. It’ll give you the details upon which I have based my conclusions.

“I think it’s a good idea if we have a legal team on board that they begin to prepare formal charges against Papa Zora using the information that I’ve found as a start. I’m sure that we are going to need that information in an appropriate form sooner, rather than later. They can file them with the Empire at a time when we may need leverage or protection. I see that you are nodding, so we do have a legal team. Well, let’s get them going and busy, as soon as is possible.

“Let me begin at the beginning. My grandparents were sent to Earth by the Emperor and by my great grandfather who was a king at the time. It was during the last Mob war and we were supposedly an insurance policy in case the Empire lost. My grandparents believe that I’ve a significant task to perform for the family. Allegedly my great-grandfather is ill and wants me to assist him. The Empress sent this ship to fetch me and the Emperor has ordered food to be purchased for the Empire. I’m to return to the Empire to spend time with my great-uncle the Emperor who I assume will brief me and assist me in my task. I’ve to assume that joining my great-grandfather is dangerous, and for that reason I’m not going directly to see him. My presence is a threat to the Guild, which makes me think that they’re also involved with the problems of my great-grandfather. The Guild has a history of assassination and hostage taking, and if they take me hostage it would give them leverage against my great-grandfather.

“The Guild can use me as blackmail material. They know to whom I’m related.

“What remains initially unexplainable from my point of view is why send this particular ship? I know that the ship was under the control of Papa Zora for a very long time. As a battleship it’s allocated to the leader of one of the most important guilds within the society.

The ship is then commandeered by a sponsor who is unknown, for an entirely different purpose, to fly across the galaxy. This would have alerted the priest’s Guild to the purpose and allowed them to proceed with a series of machinations of their own. The reason for this is in your territory, Connie. We know from what you told us that some of the military were aware that trouble was going to follow this battleship. Did the Empress commandeer the battleship to force the Guild to expose themselves? Collecting me, would cause the Guild to play their hand.

“The Guild attempted to ensure that the ship was defenseless due to their sabotage. An equal and opposite force countered them putting Marines and pilots on board. On the negative side the Guild prevented a captain coming on board.

“I can speculate that my sponsor wanted me to have a trial by fire, but I’m not convinced that that’s the most likely explanation.

“I’ve told you briefly about the priest that I caught trying to poison my food replicator. That led me to search for information hidden in the computers. Let me flesh out the story a little as it helps to explain my thoughts and suppositions a lot more.

“Next to my stateroom is a small kitchen largely to provide snacks. Normally, an adjutant would be present in that area to assist a senior officer. It has a replicator for my use. I chose not to use it as I prefer fresh food particularly after being subjected to Robert’s propaganda daily.

“At three in the morning, I heard my dogs barking, growling, and attacking someone. They can be dangerous guard dogs. You saw their formidable teeth. The dogs captured a priest in priest’s robes and pulled him into my stateroom. He was squealing like a pig in a poke and had wet himself. He was carrying a case which one of the dogs brought to me. I opened it. It had hundreds of small bottles and injectors. After I insisted on him telling me what they were, he informed me that they were vials of poison that the priests use on the men of the Empire via the replicators. I couldn’t get any further detail as he killed himself with an unknown poison, concealed in a tooth.

“I assume that the poison in the vials is inserted at every service of every replicator throughout the Empire. The toxin targets those with the male genome. This is what is responsible for the decline of males. It’s so simple. It didn’t take advanced intelligence knowledge to work out the most probable scenario. They supply the replicators and service them and poison the men. They control the medical system, which refuses to diagnose the poison. The doctors are mostly from the priests Guild and the medical pods simply can’t diagnose the poison as the priests program them.

“I tested this myself by taking the poison to the medical center. I asked for a full analysis which the pod declined saying it was not necessary. I asked who could insist on a full analysis. The pod said if there was an Imperial override it would do the analysis. I then asked what was the necessary conditions for an Imperial override?

“The pod told me if I had the appropriate genes that I could apply the Imperial override. I said test me. The damn machine refused to test me, as the AI said there was an Imperial decree not to test me. That’s, a puzzling conundrum. It’s also garbage as the Pod recognized my genes when I came on board and told me so. It referred to me the first time it examined me as Lord Kargo. I’m stuck in the short term confirming my hypothesis, but I’m ninety-nine percent convinced of my conclusions.

“I can guess Papa Zora has been poisoning the males for thousands of years and trying to make the Empire vulnerable for his own reasons. He’s had a very long-term strategy and we also know that he’s about to implement the last part of that strategy very soon as it all is coming together for him. The clones must be part of that strategy.

“I wanted to find more information. I amended my programs to enter hidden nooks and crannies within the computer. I began to look at information on the system, then I bypassed security blocks and entered.

“I encountered a very interesting report that had been undertaken on behalf of the intelligence section reporting to the Empress, the Royal family and some of the most senior nobles. The spy had infiltrated Papa Zora’s inner circle. I found communications showing Guild counterintelligence captured the spy and kept him incarcerated on the ship. He was removed when the ship was commandeered to fetch me. His report remains in the system and I found his report very interesting.

“It was clear during the Second Mob War that the Mob had improved their forces substantially. At the same time the Empire still clearly had superiority but there would be a major cost in ships to defeat the Mob.

“You know the history probably better than I do, but this information is part of the substance of the report. The predecessor to Papa Zora, was an IT genius called Dan Jones as you no doubt know. He created a weapons coordination program that ensured defeat of the Mob fleet by automating fire control systems making ships work together to concentrate fire on shields and then the ship in the most efficient way.

“The Empire granted the priests the rights to many IT consultancies within the Empire as a reward. They already had the capacity to manage the medical care, but they were also granted the rights to build and service food replicators.

“I don’t doubt that Papa Zora was behind that idea. He wanted to close the circle, to make sure that he distributed his poison and the medical establishment wouldn’t find him out.

“Dan Jones appears to have been a wonderful man, the Empire implicitly trusted him for good reason, but as you know he died suddenly and unexpectedly. Papa Zora at the time was his deputy.

“The report details the rise of Papa Zora. His story, if even superficially investigated, would show that he has a lot of resentment against the Empire because of Imperial troopers killing members of his family for no reason. This tale does not stack up. The real issue was that his father was part of an attempted insurrection, and was arrested along with his mother, who was his henchman, leaving Papa Zora in foster care. He involved himself early with criminal gangs, prostitution and extortion before being mysteriously sponsored to enter the priesthood, where he had a stellar career until he became the assistant to Dan Jones. Papa Zora waited for an ideal opportunity to assassinate the Patriarch Jones. Dan Jones, while visiting a manufacturing facility, died, when an explosion occurred. Papa Zora took control of the Guild and then began his repressive regime.

“The report provides some clues to Zora’s Mob links. The Mob is controlled by other members of the insurrection who were initially associated with Papa Zora’s family. During the first war the enemy were technologically far behind the Empire, despite having what they thought were overwhelming numbers of ships.

“In the Second War their sophistication increased due to the involvement of traitors from the Empire. I had the opportunity to explore thousands if not tens of thousands of emails both to and from Papa Zora that tended to support the picture that I’ve presented. There’s no doubt in my mind that Papa Zora is a rabid five-star psychopath and megalomaniac. He’s an ambitious Empire builder. He’s successfully insisted that many sons of important families join the priesthood. This means that he’s effectively created a system of hostages to increase the impregnable nature of his organization. Luckily for us most of them are located on Nirvana the refuge of the priests.

“The risk to males of faster travel is a priests’ fiction. Let’s get as close to the second trap as quickly as we can and plan once we are there and can evaluate the situation what we can do. We repair the remaining ships as fast as we can. The sooner we get there the more time it buys us to find out about the planet of the clones and see what we can do to frustrate the will of Papa Zora.”

“For someone from a primitive planet you’ve discovered a lot more than has been found out over thousands of years. It’s quite extraordinary. I think the ship recognizes you as does the medical AI. Those medical AIs can be a pain in the neck. They are an arrogant group and a law unto themselves. It’s necessary to be very firm with them and don’t accept what they say,” Said Janet Malone.

“Janet, I was speaking to Lucia Pablo yesterday and she said that she would help me to get a crystal when we had some time. I want to ask Stan how long it’ll take to get there and see if that will provide an opportunity for me to acquire one of these mysterious crystals,” said Jason, sounding very determined.

“It usually takes about a day to get one. When you are in a dimensional room time can pass faster or slower than time passes for us. When I got my crystal, it felt like I was in there for half an hour and I came out fifteen hours later. It’s quite an experience. Lucia will tell you more about it,” said Janet.

“I’ll call Stan and ask how long it’ll take us to get to our trap and then I can see if I’ve enough time for a crystal,” said Jason as he configured his pad in holographic mode.

“Stan there’s going to be a trap for us at the next waypoint. They have set up an ambush for us. I’d like to get there before they expect us, and reconnoiter and plan. How long will it take to get to the clone planet at full speed? No more pussyfooting around!”

“Jason, if pushed I can get you there in just over eight days. There’s no convenient very short path to get there. The fast system is much better over very long distances. This is a short but very awkward distance, but it’ll save you 3 weeks,” said Stan. “I’ll take us to a point outside the solar system where they won’t expect us and it’ll be beyond their sensor range.

“Stan I’d like you to proceed at the fastest possible speed to the next waypoint,” said Jason relieved that the decision had been made.

“Ladies I’m going to get me a crystal and I’ll do my best to get out of there and back to your delightful presences in one piece.”