To Kren’s mind, he had the money, and he was going to see to it that absolutely nothing got in the way of his smooth takeover of his personal planet.
“Madness,” everyone else said.
Privately, Kren allowed that they might be right. It was probably wasted money. The cost of all of these precautionary expenditures was large but finite, and he could afford it. But the cost of failure was infinite! His life. And that, he could not afford!
What else could he spent his money on, anyway? Should he leave it in the bank on a planet four gross light-years away?
In addition to all of this, Kren was obligated to provide food for his own people, for the Space Mitchegai who would be accompanying him, and for the operators and fighters of the entire Eleventh Colonizing Fleet. They had to be fed for the duration of the trip, and for the next two dozen years thereafter, until the grass was growing and the juvenals were prospering. He also had to feed the fleet personnel, during their return trip.
Most of these children could be provided cryogenically frozen, to be thawed in microwave ovens before eating. This provided food that was barely acceptable to an adult Mitchegai. But fully a quarter of it was expected to be delivered live, for the culinary enjoyment of the upper ranks.
The ships were equipped with compartments that kept a child dormant at a few degrees above freezing, while surrounding her with monochromatic growing lights virtually identical to those Kren had developed to grow grass underground.
Since the Mitchegai skin could convert light to food almost as well as the grass could, these compartments could keep a juvenal dormant but alive for many years, ready to eat.
Kren had been very proud of those monochromatic lights that he had developed for his tunnels, and here, the Space Mitchegai had had the technology all along!
Kren just turned the problem of supplying enough children to feed the expedition over to Dol, and told her that the Superior Food Corporation would do it at its own expense.
Dol said, “Yes, sir.”
Those he was leaving behind would have to be organized to survive without him. He did not want his lands to be overrun by other dukes, or his investments to go sour in his absence. There wasn’t a really rational reason why he should care, but somehow he felt a certain attachment to what he had spent a long lifetime building.
General Yor had proved to be unfailingly competent and loyal for thousands of years. He had chosen her as his successor.
* * *
Kren awoke once more and stretched. He didn’t feel totally miserable, and that would have to suffice. There wasn’t much time left, and there was much yet to do.
He pulled off the recording helmet, relieved and refreshed himself. He dressed, removed the tape from the recorder, and put it in his pouch.
He went to the combination lock at the door, remembered the twelve number combination, and dialed it in. This was important, because ancient tradition required that if a duke forgot the combination, he would be left in the chamber, to die there. There was no way to open the door from the outside without causing the entire complex to self-destruct, violently.
This system protected him while he was in his stupor, but also there was always the possibility that something could go wrong in the resurrection process, and no one wanted to be ruled by an incompetent duke. Better a civil war than to have only half of your old master on the throne.
Kren opened the door to find Dol and Bronki waiting for him.
“It’s good to see you well,” Dol said.
“Yes, we were beginning to worry about you, my friend,” Bronki added.
“Every time, it seems to take longer and hurt more,” Kren said.
“You could always give up on this stupid traditional way of doing things, take an anesthetic, and wake up feeling good, the way sensible people do,” Dol said.
“A leader who did that wouldn’t be a leader for long,” Kren said. He handed the personal history tape to Bronki. “I am still a bit worried about telling the truth about all that has happened. I know that your background as a historian makes you want what really happened to come out eventually, but it is still a very dangerous thing to do.”
“Kren, despite everything, besides being individuals, we are also members of a great civilization. Without our history, we are nothing,” Bronki said.
“Just be sure that this stays secret until long after I’m dead.”
“Until long after all three of us are dead, if it contains everything that I think it does! I’ve already made arrangements with the Bonding Authority to keep it until one thousand years after the last of us has been registered as certainly and sincerely deceased. Then they will send it to the College of History at Dren.”
“I suppose that the Bonding Authority can be trusted, if anybody can,” Kren said. “I don’t suppose that either of you has changed your minds? You are both intent on staying here on this planet when I leave?”
“Yes, sir,” Dol said. “We’re both really city girls, you know. We wouldn’t fit in well on the wild frontiers. And anyway, you have set things up such that this entire solar system will starve if the Superior Food Corporation isn’t managed properly. What’s the point of conquering a new planet while leaving the old one to destroy itself? And who can say? Maybe you will need something from here once you are out there. It might take eight gross years to get there, but that’s better than nothing.”
Bronki said, “Also, there is always the chance that things will not work out on the new planet. It has happened a few times before in history, you know, where a promising-looking planet has had to be totally destroyed. If that were to happen to you, wouldn’t you want to have a nice, safe place to come home to? We’ll just put your stock in escrow, put the next largest stockholder on the board of directors, and carry on until you return, however many thousand years that takes.”
“And who is this fourth largest stockholder?”
“Your bookie, of course!” Bronki said.
* * *
The Eleventh Colonizing Fleet was built, operated, and maintained by the Space Mitchegai. It was crewed by a very special group, since they spent most of their time traveling at nearly light speed. The time dilations involved were such that once they left, there wasn’t much point in going home again. And indeed, their mission was such that they rarely went to the same solar system twice. Their lives, which from the outside seemed to be millions of years long, were spent in, with, and for The Fleet.
This consisted of over three thousand large cargo and passenger ships, and many times that number of smaller, auxiliary vessels. The local Space Mitchegai were contributing an additional gross of ships, and refurbishing the rest as needed, as their contribution to the coming venture.
The fleet also had three gross of truly massive battle ships, plus many thousands of small, single-seat fighters. This military arm had never seen action in its millions of years of existence, but military force had proved to be very useful to some of the other colonizing fleets in the past.
Of the seven thousand planets sent colony fleets to date, a dozen and ten had had indigenous populations capable of putting up a ferocious fight. Indeed, nine of those planets had had to be completely destroyed, since otherwise they could have become a threat to the entire Mitchegai civilization.
And anyway, the Mitchegai always felt more comfortable when they were well armed.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
FROM CAPTURED HISTORY TAPES,
FILE 1846583A ca. 1832 a.d.
The Space Mitchegai
Besides the Planetary Mitchegai, the fleet would be transporting an additional two dozen million Spacers from Kren’s solar system to the new system as well. As Kren and his subordinates were taming the new planet, these Spacers would be taking on the rest of the new solar system.
* * *
The Space Mitchegai were racially identical to the Planetary Mitchegai, but culturally very different. They had originated in the asteroid belt of their home system, long before interstellar transportation was developed.
While the Planetary Mitchegai preferred a placid, traditional lifestyle, with a minimum of technology, the Space Mitchegai lived in relatively small, high-tech habitats, scattered throughout the solar system, but especially in planetary orbits and the asteroid belt. The Space Mitchegai lived more regimented lives, and more active ones.
It was the Space Mitchegai who had developed what humans would call the slow, multigeneration ships that first got to the nearer stars. This effort was greatly aided by the very long effective lifetimes that the Mitchegai enjoyed. Even traveling at one part in a gross of the speed of light, with a typical trip length of two dozen light-years, they still could make the journey in a sixth of their expected lifespan, if they were careful. A ship’s crew member might make several round trip voyages before she happened to die.