Changing Life

When the assembled people heard that a murmur broke out. They began looking around as did the guards. Someone in the rear of the assembled people saw the lake water swirl then a metal antenna broke the surface quickly followed by a dirty, weed and mud encrusted hull. Dirty muddy water roiled and flowed everywhere as Glorious rose from the depths. She completely obscured over two thirds of the lake when she was fully out of the hole she had rested in for over 500 years. The river actually flowed backwards for a few minutes as it filled the hole in which Glorious had rested for so long. Glorious was over one thousand feet long, five hundred wide and three hundred tall excluding antenna and sensor towers. That took a lot of water to fill the hole she had rested in.

Glorious slowly, majestically moved toward the beach and gently grounded. A door opened and a ramp extended. It was dark enough outside now that the people inside the shield could see flashes of fire coming from the barrels of weapons the Marines were firing toward them. The crowd panicked and attempted to find shelter from the hostile fire. Many ran toward Glorious, others dropped to the ground and yet others just stood stupidly in their fear. If not for the shield many would have been killed or injured. To their consternation and relief, however, there were other flashes of blue white light coming from a space between the Marines and Jacks people. The bullets never reached their targets. This seemed to infuriate the men in black suits directing the search of Jack's place and the interrogation of his employees.

Jack looked over the people staring in disbelief then raised his voice to say, "Follow Emily onto the ship quickly please. We need to board and move away before strike aircraft arrive and cause more problems. They cannot damage Glorious but I don't want to be responsible for collateral damage if I can help it. As soon as you board and we are safely away I promise we will tell you the entire story."

It took over an hour to get everyone on board and settled down enough for Jack, Susan and Emily, along with Glorious's help, to give them the briefing on Glorious and their new role in Jack's "company". All during that period more and more cars, military vehicles and troops arrived. The area around Jack's home and business was a madhouse.

To his intense pride none of the employees expressed a desire to leave Jack's employ or to throw themselves on the government's mercy. He knew Glorious said they would all stay but he just couldn't believe the tests and interviews were that accurate. There were some people slated for base operations that were unhappy with their roles but they all admitted they would rather work ashore for Jack than not work for him at all. In spite of the manner in which they found out about Jack's plans for them there was a rising sense of excitement in the crew as they discussed their future.

Throughout the rest of the night Glorious made three more stops to allow family members that had been spirited away by hired guards to board. During every stop she was faced with ineffective attempts by the woefully inadequate military to stop her. By dawn she had shot down a squadron of bombers and most of three squadrons of fighters that attacked her while she was picking up family members. Her stealth capability was perfect but, unfortunately, the mark I eyeball could still see her and vector in military aircraft. By the end of the night all immediate family members of the crew and base employees were safely aboard Glorious.

After picking up the last group of people Jack came onto the speakers and said, "OK everyone, we have all listed family members accounted for and aboard. Please take the next few hours to relax and settle into your new temporary quarters. If you are interested, we are about to leave Earth for the first time. I intend to take up geosynchronous orbit well outside the atmosphere and over Washington DC. You may watch the movement in any of the crew lounges if you wish. We will assign space for you to sleep in as rapidly as possible. I am afraid quarters will be somewhat cramped for a while because of the extra personnel aboard. Please bear with us and treat each other with kindness and respect.

"Those of you who are to be permanent crew will be assigned your berthing areas now. You and your family will be allowed to occupy that space if there is room enough. Base crew and other family members will be allowed to utilize common areas. Crew training will begin immediately. You have all been tested repeatedly to determine the best position for you to occupy as crew. If you are not happy with your assignment speak to the department head. Your department head will either solve your problem or involve the XO. My proposed manning chart is posted in every stateroom and crew lounge."

Glorious was continuously monitoring communications within the United States and other nations. She also monitored radio and television news broadcasts. There was great hysteria rampant throughout the world over the "alien invasion". All nations began a witch hunt for other aliens. They brought their military to full wartime alert. Glorious received constant communications from the U.S. and several other countries demanding surrender and the return of the "kidnapped" U. S. Citizens. Some nations also offered "asylum" if Glorious would land within their borders and, of course, share technology with them alone.

Jack ignored all communication attempts while he and his crew settled into their new positions. From time to time Glorious had to destroy incoming missiles but that was no problem and they were of no danger to her even if she had not destroyed them. For three weeks amid rising anger and hysteria on earth Jack ignored communications and trained his people. There were a few requests for different assignments from what he now considered his crew but eventually everyone settled in and began learning their new jobs. Probably the most upsetting part of the new jobs was the fact the people found themselves in a military organization whether they wanted to be or not. Most didn't care. Just the chance to break the bonds of Earth and possibly explore the cosmos made it all worthwhile to them.

All of the crew and base personnel had, at one time or another, been members of one of the United States armed forces so they were somewhat familiar with military discipline. In many cases their nominal rank was the same or slightly higher that it once was. They were all willing to put up with military discipline for a chance to travel to the stars, an opportunity none of them had ever seriously considered before. There was a feeling of excitement permeating the whole ship.

CHANGING LIFE

CHAPTER 5

By SwMoHermit

At the end of three weeks everyone had rudimentary knowledge of their new jobs. They were far from being experts but they could function considering all ship operations could be automated and taken care of by Glorious. The crew was needed for that spark of human ingenuity in an emergency and for damage control and combat purposes should one of those needs come about. Every member of the crew and every member of the base personnel was also cognizant of the regulations and rules under which they now worked. Jack scheduled a ship wide meeting to discuss future plans with and answer questions from the crew.

One of the first questions came from Sally, the woman who had worried about leaving her family when they boarded the ship. She asked, "What about our pay? What do we earn now and when are we paid? I need my pay to make ends meet. How will I pay my bills if I am in space?"

"Sally your pay will continue as it did before but I really don't know when you will be able to spend it. As long as you are onboard the ship all your needs will be met from ship resources."

Sally looked around and said, "That's fine. I'm not worried about that but I need to be sure my pay is still at least as much as I made before and I need some way to get to it. I am supporting my parents because their pension isn't enough for them to live on. I'm worried about them now because I didn't get to send them any money last week. I usually send them a third of my take home pay every payday and I didn't. I haven't even been able to talk to them to be sure they are ok." She began crying and there was a murmur from the assembled people.

Jack hadn't even thought about his people being able to pay bills and send money to others. He raised his voice and said, "Glorious is there anything we can do about this?"

"Yes Captain. I can interface with the cell towers from here as I did on Earth so people can talk to their friends and loved ones. I can even make it possible for them to Skype or Facetime if the receiving party has that capability. We can access the internet for funds transfers or communication also. In fact, some of the crew have been sending e-mails already."

"OK. Glorious please make sure everyone who wishes to do so is able to communicate with family and friends. Also be sure they can access their accounts and disburse funds to pay bills and transfer funds.

"Now, if there are no further questions I have something very important to discuss with all of you. As you know the Government wants us all. We are all on the wanted list for violation of Homeland Security Laws. They want to lock us up for reasons of national security. If we are arrested it could literally be years before we are free again if we ever are. I am sorry I got you into this mess but we are in it. I need to have your input before i make a decision about what comes next. I really hoped we could introduce new technology slowly and repair Glorious then make a stealthy departure from earth for an exploratory flight. Somehow something we did came to the attention of the authorities and that became impossible.

"I do not want to hold anyone here against their will. If any of you want to be put back on Earth you will be but I cannot guarantee your safety if we do so. There are many things we can attempt to do now but they all come with risks. Some of the rewards, to me, far exceed the risks. As Captain of this vessel I will not attempt to operate it as a democracy, however, I would like to get some input from you on future actions here. Any ideas or suggestions any of you may have should be passed up the chain of command to arrive on my desk before 0800 tomorrow morning.

"We need a base of operations. We need to be able to purchase or obtain repair parts, medicines, food and raw materials. We have choices available on how to do these necessary tasks. We can try to stealthily return to earth and set up a base somewhere. We can also try to find a country that will take us in, however, I am leery of trying that because I do not trust any nation to refrain from either attacking us to try and take over Glorious or to send in covert operatives to try and steal our technology. I would not even rule out kidnapping of crewmembers to try and force us to divulge and transfer technology.

If we do not find a safe place to build a base here on Earth, we can also take off for some of the nearer known outposts of the Empire to see if we can find a new home there. We have a chance of finding a completely new planet to move to if we leave Earth. If any of you have any other ideas about what we can do please let me know through the chain of command as I requested earlier.

Jack and Glorious shut down the public address system after his talk. Jack turned to Emily and Susan who were in his briefing room with him and said, "Well, I hope that went well. From the video feeds we had while I was talking it seems as if the crew is not too worried about our situation. I must admit I am in a quandary though. I would like to find a place here on Earth to build a base and try to improve life for our fellow man. Of course I would also like to make some voyages to other solar systems and, perhaps, colonize a few. I would love to do both but I am afraid the nations of the world would not leave us alone if we built an enclave on Earth."

Glorious said, "Captain you are correct, the nations of Earth would probably make every effort to obtain Imperial technology by any means they could use. I submit, however, that that technology is superior enough to Earth technology that their attempts would be unfruitful. I can and would make any settlement impenetrable to those who we do not want inside. I can and will defend any base you chose to build here on this or any other planet. Unless my belief is seriously in error I, or more correctly, you, posses the most advanced technology in this part of the galaxy at the very least.

"I suggest we find a place here on earth and build a settlement for our people. We can find and hire like minded people from the world over, educate them to Imperial standards and build a new civilization. Over the next several years we can improve the life of every citizen of this planet if we can get the governments to cooperate. Conversely, we can expand our boundaries and force cooperation. We can revive the Empire if you will and explode into the stars once again from this new home of the human race."

"Glorious, the dream is wonderful but I am afraid I am not sure of the morality, the ethics of it. What right do I have to move in on some country and build a home then slowly first take over the country then later, perhaps, the world?"

"Captain let me ask your question in a different way. What right do you have to ignore the inequities, the corruption, the inhumanity in this world and not do something about it since you have the wherewithal to do so? You now have the capability to improve the quality of life for every person on this globe if you choose to do so. You might ask, what right do you have to NOT do so?"

"Glorious it sounds like you are advocating armed conquest of the Earth. How can you justify that?"

"I suppose, in a way, I am Captain. I prefer to think of the suggestion I just made not as armed conquest but rather as cleaning up a world that has ignored basic human rights for eons. All nations purport to have laws that protect the common man. They also give lip service to human rights. They supposedly want life for their citizens to be pleasant and safe yet they allow corruption, inhumanity, murder, theft and crime to go unpunished. Many law enforcement agencies are corrupt, many leaders, bureaucrats, politicians, business people and other citizens are involved in criminal acts that are morally and ethically as well as legally wrong. In your world now many of the criminals have more rights and protections than do the honest people. You, as commander of this ship, have the technology to identify these criminals and get them off the streets. You have the ability to root out corrupt leaders in government and business and remove them from their positions of power. Just doing that alone would improve the standard of living for many of the world's people.

"If you do not want to enforce Imperial law you could just enforce those laws on the books of each of your political subdivisions—the cities, counties, states and nations of the world. I suggest, however, that you review laws and eliminate those which make no sense and do not directly improve life for the citizens of that political subdivision if you use existing Earth law."

Jack looked at his XO then said, "Wow Glorious. I'm not sure where that all came from and I definitely am not sure taking over is the answer here. I do think you are right though about finding a place here on Earth to settle if you are positive you can defend us. I don't think any of us really want to leave our home planet permanently but I could be wrong."

None of the crew came up with a suggestion that Jack thought had merit. A few of them said they wanted to take the ship and explore. Most crew members wanted to try and find a home on Earth to settle down in once more. Most of the suggestions in some way indicated the crew really wanted to be able to return to their homes and live peacefully once again but continue to work for Jack and crew his ship.

Jack and his command team continued to brainstorm the issue as the crew became more proficient in their new duties. Some of that proficiency came by actually working the ship as she flew through space. In the course of a little over a week they visited every planet of the solar system. They took pictures when they could and spent hours talking about the things they saw. They were all saddened to see ruins on Mars from a fallen civilization. Glorious said readings supported a finding that the ruins were from the first Empire. Many of the cities seen had the remains of domes over them.

Finally Glorious returned once again to Earth orbit. Jack and the XO discussed their situation with the Supply Officer once again. Emily said, "Jack, uh sorry, Captain, we really don't have much choice. We have to make some contact with friendly governments on Earth to obtain food and other supplies. We need medicines and a trained physician or two as well as supply items too numerous to mention individually. I know Glorious can supply some of our needs but not all of them. We have too many people on board for the hydroponics section to grow enough vegetables for us to eat. We have to obtain protein, meat and soon. If we cannot find some way to purchase needed items on Earth we will have to resort to harsher methods or die."

Jack sighed and leaned back in his chair. Before he could speak Glorious said, "Captain the Supply Officer is correct about many things but I feel she is in error somewhat also. My healing chambers can handle any illness known. They can even repair serious injuries if the injured party is placed within them before they die. With the food now on board we have the capability to make it to an Imperial planet before it is all used. I am sure we can find food there for the crew. Our warehouses were always packed with food and repair parts awaiting distribution to the fleet."

"Glorious let me ask a question or two here. Can your healing chambers handle child birth? Can they handle psychological counseling? Can they... Oh, hell, I could go on and on but I think you get the drift here. Your healing chambers, of which I believe there are ten are there not? Your healing chambers can handle bacterial, fungal and viral infections and severe to mild trauma but they are limited in some other cases are they not? We need a human medical staff for our crew to handle things the healing chambers cannot and to administer simple medications.

"Furthermore, you said you were under the lake for over 500 years. Are you certain if we make it to an outpost of the Empire that the warehouses are full and the items stored in them would be safe for us to eat and use? What if we cannot find a warehouse or if we find one and it does not contain usable items. We would starve.

"No, I am afraid we will have to find some way to build a base on Earth. I have been doing some research in my spare time and have decided we will build our base, our home on earth in spite of what the world thinks of us. I don't like the idea but I can see no other way. The governments fear us and lust after our technology. Religious fanatics rail against us. There is fear across the globe that we are aliens and hell bent on world domination. Well, I suppose they are half right. We appear to be leaning toward world domination. I am uncomfortable with that but in the end it all boils down to the question; what is best for the world and for our people?

"If we land and seize ground to build a base we are beginning a conquest of Earth. Oh, sure, we can land back at my lake and use my land for a while but we will eventually outgrow that small space. Then what will we do? Expand the shields and kick my neighbors off their land? Then we would be no better than others who we say we want to eliminate.