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I woke up to the thought that I can’t keep doing this.
I couldn’t keep fighting demons like that solo.
It wasn’t that I was getting old. It was simply that I wouldn’t stand a prayer against a basileus or one of the uniques that could dominate even them. I could maybe handle terostes,even nephraim, but against any of the great nobles I was toast. I had no evidence that there were any more demons on Earth, but I didn’t have any evidence that there weren’t, either. You think there weren’t any more demons on Earth after my most recent victory up north? Great – now prove it. I couldn’t prove it either. Even if there weren’t any now, that didn’t mean there couldn’t be more arriving in the future. The stons might have been stupid and unfocused, but they were at least a credible threat to keep any demons that might be on Earth under some type of control. Removing them had removed that threat and that control.
Asking which came first, stons or demons, was not a productive line of questioning. Whichever had brought the other, clearly the demons now had some sort of access to Earth. I wasn’t certain I understood Instance Portals; they were beyond what I could do thus far. I’d have Asto or one of the others explain more when I got back. Maybe I could handle an Instance Portal; it was just nobody had explained how yet. When billions to trillions of operant mindlords are building up the science of the mind over tens of thousands of years, don’t expect to master it all in a few months, no matter how fast your mind works now. All those other Guardians have minds that work just as fast.
Speaking of which, progress on my real goal – insulating people from the coming government failure – was thus far going nowhere. Yeah, I was making a lot of money selling dogs in the Empire – even if the land for my dog farm suddenly became worthless, I was still in the black. But I couldn’t reach the real goal by myself. I needed other people from the Empire helping me for that. One person may be enough for an underground resistance, but it’s not enough to make it a viable replacement for the multi-trillion dollar economy the government was going to kill. I needed lots more people and lots more traffic for that.
Before I went back to the Empire, though, I had to catch up with the backlog of pickups. It had been four days while we were preparing to fight the demons, a fourth night to actually do it, and it was now after noon of the fifth day since the last time I had picked up any dogs from my suppliers. If you’ve got a farm, you’ve got to work it – doesn’t matter whether that farm is crops in the soil or a supply chain. I had just had a gap in pickup of three weeks; I couldn’t leave pickups another five to seven days until I was caught up and had prepared my suppliers. That catching up took me three days, by which I was time I was two days past my planned stay, and had to get back before Asto came looking for me. I let Ray and my suppliers know that I was planning to be back in six days, and shaped course back for the Empire with almost exactly six thousand dogs.
I dropped back into the Home Instance, and the first thing I got was Asto’s sense of relief. It was almost funny in a way, and I suppose from his point of view it was a little scary: I find out my new husband’s family secret – that they were really Seventh Order, not Fifth – and promptly go over-schedule. Think about the obvious conclusion to be drawn from that. Sorry about being late. There were some demons, and after I spent four days on preparing and fighting them, I had to catch up the business before I could leave. I was worried you’d come looking for me and we’d cross paths.
Anana told me I had to wait a full day,he replied, but then she and Parnit would come with me in case it was stons or anotherbasileus. Imperial Home Instance Time ran about one quarter the speed of Earth. Neither one of us mentioned Iaren’s splinter.
Sorry to cause you worry. I got feedback to the effect it couldn’t be helped.
I messaged the dog farm to get ready for a massive shipment; Iaren met me when I landed. When I had explained what happened, he apologized for not building more into the splinter. I told him there had been no reason to expect the splinter would need more. I still want to send a splinter,he said, but I’ll have to wait now. Even if I am the only other member of the family on Sharanna, people will get interested if I see you off every time. Maybe you can leave from Indra and take someone else.
I pitched in offloading the dogs and checked on the progress of the purebred gestators while Lady played with Taleg’s boxer Fina and a couple other dogs. It took hours because six thousand dogs occupy a fair number of stasis boxes. It was a warm spring day, and the dogs that we let out for visitors to buy were having a grand old time, but the rest of us got dirty and sweaty. Taleg’s assistant was making sales, Taleg and the two helpers were moving dogs with me. Volunteers were spending time with the dogs; that’s why they were volunteers, to do things they wanted to do that benefitted both of us. The volunteers were there because they wanted to spend time with the dogs; I got dogs that were more human socialized and potential buyers that saw more interaction between human and dog out of the deal. More than three hundred dogs had new owners before the others were all from the cruiser to the kennels and stasis rooms. Once I’d checked on the status of the breeding chambers, I could have gone to Indra, but then Asto’s work day was starting. I chose instead to spend time at the farm, having fun, meeting customers, and making sales. Lady was in dog heaven; she wore herself out playing with the other dogs. Every so often she’d come make sure I was still around, otherwise she was running with Fina. The boxer was faster than she was; but Lady was still almost a puppy, so she had more energy.
Meanwhile I chewed on the problem of demons on Earth. I knew the Empire wouldn’t do anything official, but there had to be a way. Asto was busy, but I got feedback from him that there was. Along about forty zero, I collected Lady and said goodbye to Jaleen, who was on shift now, and took the cruiser to Indra. The plan was to leave for Earth from Indra the next morning. With five thousand seven hundred dogs still in stock, it was possible there would still be some left when I got back with a fresh shipment. If that became a consistent occurrence, I’d hire more people.
I didn’t notice any great difference with the new habitats since the last time I’d been to Indra. Traffic control put me into the same small cruiser berth Anara’s Explorer Cruiser had landed in on my first trip to Indra, right next to the retired Response in Will. Asto was just stopping work for the day; I got home to greet More slightly before he did. Etonas called to tell me thank you again for Dancer, his chow mix, and then I had to break off the conversation because Asto got home and some things just require all your attention. Greeting your husband after being away for two weeks is one of them. After a couple minutes, we gave way to Lady and More’s impassioned attempts for attention, but for that couple of minutes, we belonged to each other, and nobody else. We talked while cleaning up for dinner.
I know you’re trying to figure out how to interest other people in Earth,he told me, There won’t be an official response, but have you considered asking for private assistance? Just because the Empire won’t do something official doesn’t mean it won’t allow individuals to take action. M’Dorna’s Hypothesis applies; all forbiddance and official requirements contribute to the overall load on the Empire, while there is only so much benefit possible from government services. Anyone sane wants to keep the balance as positive as possible.
I hadn’t really thought about it before, but the Empire did allow private armed forces. To be precise, it didn’t try to outlaw them, and all the major families kept at least some troops of their own. I didn’t know how big Scimtar’s forces were, but I was pretty certain they were numerically superior to every army on Earth put together, and there were families with even larger private forces. The question is, why should any private forces help Earth, or me?
Copyright 2014 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.
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