Aurora, Wayward Pt. 04

He proved to them that he would stand against any enemy and stay true to his beliefs. His Home Guard beliefs. Even if the attack came from the Drakor themselves. Now Rocan has the other tasks he must complete. He has 300 years to work on getting that accomplished.

This master plan to use this system to trap this enemy was the work of Aurora. The original and not me. Along with her arrayed network of processing cores. This ancient evil enemy will not stand a chance of leaving this system when the attack comes. They would then be destroyed in the supernova.

Those actions combined with his successes in getting the Pena people to accept hybrids and the Home Guard are a key to getting our race to a graduated level of civilization to work with the larger galactic community. Yet if he fails. If our people are destroyed. That plan can still be executed without our races' efforts.

They lost nothing by us traveling back, they have gained an advantage against an ancient enemy, and we have gained a chance to save billions of Penan lives. We have everything to gain by following this plan.

He was bargaining to remain to be able to help you or to be returned to his previous point in time. He did not realize that at the time but that was what he was doing. They would have taken action. With you being none the wiser except to see 3 unidentified ships with a single probe.

Knowing there was alien life out there. Probably more than one form and they had visited your system. Your governments would have hidden that information away from the population to avoid a panic. Weapons development would likely have increased along with ship designs and such.

The Caldar would have loved it as they would work to pit you against each other. Until you destroyed this system yourselves. Governor, given those facts. Did he act in accordance with hybrid code in making that deal with 2 alien races?"

She was caught off guard by the directness of Aurora on this matter. Aurora continued, "Remember the clock was ticking in this discussion. Would you have made that deal without discussing it with the other governors as they would have been unreachable?"

The governor finally sighed and then smiled as she knew just what to say, "He acted within that code. In his place, I would have likely taken that deal given what was at stake for our people. I find no fault in his or Aurora's actions in getting them here. If anything, I would have to applaud Aurora's ingenuity in working the problem to save us from being collateral damage."

She figured out it was safer to work to accept these changes and watch what the hybrids did for the people. Rather than to play at being the paranoid leader of this society in opposition to changes she could not hope to hold back. Not with the threat of the destruction of the Penan people hanging in the balance.

A reporter looked over and asked Rocan, "Does your AI do a lot of this behavior?"

He laughed, "You mean acting like a Penan on a mission? By the way, in case you missed it her name is Aurora and she is a Sentinel. The leader of her own race."

She stepped back after that answer. He smiled at her, "She has her own free will. She is a living being and she is dedicated to the survival of our people. She signed onto our charters for the new worlds in addition to the Home Guard Treaty.

She is listed as one of the founders of these six colonies. Now there will always be a population control on Sentinels to never exceed 1% of our population and that is a maximum number. Not a required number. They will aid in filling holes in our schools, hospitals or Home Guard roles if needed.

Hybrids, the percentage is much lower. The humans had 2,000 hybrids for a population of 550 Billion people in my time. You can do the math on that one. We need to try and vet people and get to around 300 hybrids in the next 20 years if not sooner. It will take time to build the piece we leave behind.

The piece we will take forward, and the ships to use, the scout wormhole drives to return to Samara. To take new survey teams, miners and Sentinel construction units. To build another centipede from scratch in that system. They can then start building housing and then farming bots to have places for our first colonists to thrive when they arrive in 3 years from launch. That launch date is not set but I suspect it is at least 5 years out.

The rest of our crews will be Sentinels and Penans who wish to join the Home Guard. All of who would receive advanced training. We do not have currency in the Home Guard so we would work to trade some services with the colonies in order to feed and pay crews.

Other resources we can manage. These are agreements that have to be worked out with individual colonies."

Aurora looked over, "I may release patents for lease under contracts to generate funds for the crews. I can release information from different points in time and bring them up in steps from what is within the database."

Another reporter looked at her, "You would expect to be paid for patents that were created by others and not something you created yourself?"

Aurora looked at the woman, "If it is required to pay the crews then I would be justified in taking that action. It would be new technology you do not have in hand. If someone found a piece of alien technology and figured out how it worked. Would they patent it or give it away for free because they do not know which alien to pay for that piece of technology? What form of currency would they take or demand?"

Rocan looked over, "While we are talking about technology. We pulled the satellite monitoring system from the Samar system that the humans had installed. At least most of it. We will deploy those at 3,000 km above and below the midline of our ship's normal traffic lanes. An area where few if any of your current ships can travel.

They have been coated in a material to make them nearly invisible to sensors. As such they are a shipping hazard but they will monitor for anyone jumping into our system, entering from the asteroid fields, or using stealth technology. They were the latest versions built just for our system to pick up 'newer' stealth capabilities.

We will have the ability to detect and interdict those ships if they should come into the system. Currently, your militaries are geared at fighting one another; colony vs colony. As such the Home Guard will take this task until your militaries are more advanced and willing and able to address these threats instead of each other."

Aurora looked up, "The Home Guard has a motto, 'We are the Shields until the Swords are needed.' Hybrids have to master the swords and will not surrender them going into any government building or the like.

The reason being is they could select a stone wall, this toxic metal, or any number of materials and just make a temporary replacement for them once they were past security. It is pointless. If anything, their swords identify them as being hybrids and living by a code.

Failure to do so would mean their execution. I wanted to add if the Justices, in this case, fail in this task the Drakor will do it and execute the Justices who failed in this task. Those swords are part of their uniforms. He has not settled on a rank structure within the Home Guard but is leaning toward your standard military ranks instead of Terran Home Guard military ranks. They have fewer as most of their crews have MA's over 200; at the low end.

Their swords are like your military's uniforms. They let you know who they are. They do not draw their weapons unless they are being attacked, destroying a landmine someone set for them to step upon, or asked to put on a demonstration. The landmine was likely a gift from the Caldar.

Our ships all sweep for explosives before landing. Have point defense weapons we can enable to guard the craft if no security is brought down with it. Sentinel marines normally if it is a shuttle or larger craft and has room for them. We did not bring any on this trip to be less confrontational.

The point defense weapons highlight the outer area of there targeting range with a blue circle. The second inner circle in red, that is the kill zone. In the first line, you will end up with second to third-degree burns when they fire upon you with low yield lasers.

Home Guard ships have been attacked enough on the ground in Terran history that they became standard equipment on all their craft. They remain shielded while on the ground. The Terran military followed suit shortly thereafter. They had fewer acts of sabotage after that."

She looked over, "Show outer marked on the shuttle." A large blue circle appeared around the shuttle and a few in the crowds were inside that line. "Show inner marker." There were two inside that line. She looked at them, "I am not turning the lasers on at this point; but you can watch them deploy."

As the turrets popped out and took aim at the two inside the red area from below and above the ship from 6 positions. They backed up further from the shuttle. The turrets retracted automatically. She looked at the reporters, "I wanted to mention that feature why we were here. Targeting activated but the lasers remained offline, in my direction. When left unattended they are active."

One of the reporters looked at her, "Is that not a bit paranoid?"

She looked at the statue, "That woman orchestrated several attempts at planting explosives on Jack Travus's ship as did the Caldar. We are attempting to avoid the mistakes of the past."

Aurora stepped back as the next reporter asked, "Who runs your ship? You or these AI units?"

He looked at her, "Her name is Aurora. Her race is known as the Sentinals. Get your questions straight or do not ask them. Most Sentinels have names assigned to them now with name tags on their uniforms. Along with their rank structures. She is the leader of the Sentinels and she follows my directions so long as they are just in her mind.

For example. A point of difference came up in a battle in Samar. A group attacked us by surprise. We were on Sentinel battleships. This ship did not exist yet beyond a plan on a computer.

I told them we did not take surrender from those who attack from surprise or stealth. My military training. Her core moral code is Terran based and she saw no justice in destroying the ships and not accepting their surrender.

We had a human Hybrid aboard who was of a like mind, Victoria in fact as she was our liaison with the Terran Hybrids. She was also the daughter of the head of the human Terran Eternal Hybrid Council of that time. I looked at Aurora and told her to follow her code.

I looked at Victoria and told her to follow her gut and alert her father to the presence of these people. If he wished to rescue them by taking there surrender. We claimed the salvage rights and have the alien weapons, sensors, jammers for communication, and a few other items to evaluated in our lab for inclusion into future designs.

Yes, this Victoria is the same woman who warned us they were losing this war and would likely attack. She was returned to the Terrain hybrids of this timeline to live out her days if you will. She was near death when she arrived. We saved her life and Aurora learned a lot more about the state of the galaxy as a whole.

It helped our case with the Drakor. If my version of justice and her version of justice conflict then it depends on who is manning the controls. Right now, that would be her Sentinels. Eventually, it will be a mixed crew.

Tactical would likely have a Penan on board and I would have to evaluate her justice versus mine and potentially adapt to her way of thinking. That has not happened, yet. Given the tech we recovered, it might be something worth considering on a case by case basis.

That and working reparations for the attack from all involved for the return of their people. Instead of slavery or imprisonment. If we had lost Penan lives in the attack? I would have taken tactical command myself and destroyed the ships. As it was the only lives lost were Sentinel lives and she had their individualities backed up to a server.

This allowed her to rebuild them and upload those personalities into new and upgraded bodies. I directed her to have that capability and she did it for the 98% of Sentinels we lost that allowed for our escape. The Sentinel battleships we had and the crew of the Centipede.

Out Sentinel pilots for our fighters and our mining craft... Most of whom died in protecting our escape. That makes them heroes in my book. I believe heroes deserve the right to continue to serve. Don't you?"

The crowds chuckled at his comment and the reporter backed down some. Another looked over, "It sounds like you love all of these Sentinels." As he chose his words carefully. "Instead of the Penans when you say that?"

He walked toward the man who said that. He glared at him, "Aurora display my redacted war record from Gredan on the wall with the awards and my file photo after the attack that labeled me 'A hero!'"

There were gasps from the crowd and the list of awards was extensive, even for a 20-year veteran. The man looked at him as Rocan continued, "I spent 20 years in defense of my colony against attacks that were likely the cause of the Caldar's intervention into our society. I am 40 years old.

She is helping me to learn all of the science and technology behind the ship we have in orbit. The Terran command tactics, electrical engineering, astronavigation which has major changes from what I had been taught, and yet when that battle occurred in the Samar system.

I used unorthodox tactics to launch our mining rigs, which were heavily shielded but had little in the way of weapons. I told them the ships were asteroids and to chew through them. They complied. The enemy surrendered. We destroyer a superior equipped military force of two battleships and two destroyers guarding a terraformer that would destroy one of our new worlds.

We lost two Sentinel battleships and damaged 4 in the attack. I ordered all lost Sentinels to be rebuilt. One of those Sentinels is my communications officer who is in charge of my ship in orbit while I am down here. We have yet to start recruiting Penans. Aurora will set up separate boxes for people to apply for different positions.

Also, It will include what is required to be submitted to us. Do not be surprised ladies if she asks you about your sexual preferences. She is always looking for additional mates for me to take into my bed and bring more children into the world. She also wants them to be able to get along with the other mates we might have.

I might look to add a rule in regards to an open polygamy marriage being available to male hybrids. They can have their core wives but still, go off and help our other women with achieving their rule of 6 if you will. Something to consider.

In fact, I would ask that the Penna's as a whole allow men to get married into an open relationship as all the wives in his group would have to agree. That though is up to the Governors and will likely be talked about for years. For now, I will leave it alone. As there are bigger social issues to deal with like slavery during war or any slavery at all.

That I will be asking to be abolished. It is a big red flag issue. If the governors in office currently do not address it, I will raise it again and again with each new governor. Being the first of the hybrids, the first 6, 2 of each blade color become eternal.

We can be killed in accidents and such but our bodies do not age as fast; if at all once we are beyond the first stage of graduation. Which we are. I have 4 positions to fill in that regard and they have to have the right temperament. Aurora will be screening candidates for me to look through to fill those roles.

High MA scores, proficiency with the sword, and talents suited to ship and colony work. From doctors, botanists, xenobiologists to fighter pilots and tactical officers. Pretty much any skill useful to the structure and maintenance of the ships we have and the ones we are building. One last question."

A reporter who was new and worked for a tabloid jumped forward, "You are going to make all of these eternal hybrids mates? All women and no other men?"

He looked at the man, "There are no marriages for men. There are 10 women to every 1 man. There are 6 positions on the council and I am already here. That means, 1 man to every 5 women is the closest I can get to representing the people of our system on the council. Later it might change as it depends on the most talented people with the right temperament to fill any hole.

It could be a male or female. Working your Hybrid skills, the sword, and your brain are all a part of eventually having the option of being on the council if an opening occurs. Male hybrids will come, but they will not be on the council initially, except for myself. A non-council hybrid can live for over 200-250 years if they have this poison out of there system. Those who take the blood samples can live to around 150 years theoretically; AGAIN, without the poison in their system."

Freia looked over, "Could the Pena Surgeon General come forward?"

She opened the case Aurora held and pulled out two liters of blood, "3-5 ml of blood to a patient. The sickest adult patients with one bag. The sickest children with the other. Three hours after they have received this blood, the adults should donate one liter of blood. Only adults. Half of which should go to each of the other colonies.

If this is repeated half your hospitals could be cleared of patients for those who volunteer to take this blood. Our human ancestors have done this for over 4,700 years. Sperm samples will come with the medical ships and they will arrive in each system at the same time.

One per system and then we will work to add more to the larger population centers. They will be mobile to move from one town to another. We will work to send blood on occasion but anyone who receives it will receive a 40% in blood Drakor DNA. Their physical changes will only be around 15% roughly. They cannot generate a hybrid but they could become one later if selected. That involves a more physical approach to the matter. I will leave it at that."

He nodded and the Surgeon General asked Freia, "You did this yourself first?"

She nodded, "All of the survey team did after they saw what it did for the lady who had no ovaries. She went first. The others watched this miracle occur and we all went in turn. I was second and it fixed the tubal ligation issues and many other abnormalities I already discussed."

He sighed out, "Thank you because our comms would be jammed if we did not start to make this available. Especially to the terminally ill."

She smiled, "We know. We will be in orbit for a couple of days while Aurora sorts through crew candidates and mate candidates. She will likely get a list from here and each of the colonies. Gresan would be last on that list because we are both from that colony. He is 40 but I am 19 years old. I have known him since I was a little girl. I volunteered to join his crew and as I was unknowingly infertile because of that issue, I was expendable and willing. I now carry 5 boys and 1 girl in me. I have loved him for a long time."

The man chuckled, "Good thing given how long you should live."

She smiled, "True."

He walked back through the crowd as Rocan and the ladies went to the shuttle. A little girl came running out of the crowd and Rocan stopped. He kneeled as the girl came running up and she looked scared.

Aurora alerted, * She has a bomb on her. Jamming communications. *

He let her approach and held her arms, "Hold very still. Did you know you have a bomb on you?"

She cried, "My father said it is our duty to destroy any hybrids that come here. It is part of an order he belongs too. It should have gone off by now."