Wealth, Power, and Danger
New Yugoslavia, 2217 a.d.
Two more of the small, spherical Mitchegai ships were found in Human Space.
Both had been single-pilot exploration ships exactly like the first that Abdul had come across.
Both had had opened fire on us, ignoring our attempts at communication. All they seemed to understand was raw violence.
Both had been destroyed, one with a bank of X-ray lasers, and the other with a Disappearing Gun.
While the second ship was simply gone, the first was yielding more data about our enemy. It had contained many more books than the original one had, and with these our intelligent computers were starting to decipher the enemy's language, habits and thought patterns.
Everything that we could learn about them said that they were absolutely evil. They had no concept of God. They had no concept of Family. They had no concept of Justice. They were rapacious carnivores that simply didn't care about anything or anyone but themselves.
And they really did eat their own children, to the exclusion of everything else.
One other disquieting thing was that both of these new ships had been coming from the same direction as the original one, and that both of them were on a beeline for New Yugoslavia.
With our metal ladies running the factories, our industrial strength on New Yugoslavia grew at a remarkable rate. We now had a sufficient number of picket ships built to adequately guard New Yugoslavia, and we were selling eight ships a week to the government in New Kashubia. Those mistaken individuals were still doggedly trying to defend the entirety of Human Space, and not the planets where humans actually lived.
Fortunately, well over half of the planets were disregarding the Union of Human Planets, following the lead of New Yugoslavia, and setting up their own defenses.
In another year, we would have enough sensors built to fill in the gaps between our ships, and we already had orders to sell all that we could make after that. In five years, so would a lot of other planets.
All of our picket ships and sensors were now equipped with Disappearing Guns. I'm not sure that this made much sense from a military standpoint, but our silicon ladies felt more comfortable, being armed.
We had expanded into civilian products as well, including household appliances that used the Tellefontu ambient temperature power generators, and vehicles that could use the Loway transportation network. The demand for these cars and trucks was very high, with good profits and a considerable waiting list. Kasia became richer than ever, but she didn't seem to care about that as much anymore. Maybe, she was finally growing up.
The social drone factory was going at full capacity, and within a few months every artificial intelligence on the planet would have a drone of her own. They would each be able to go out and pass for human if they wanted to.
Soon, we would be selling social drones at cost to the ladies in the rest of the army. They could afford it, since they were getting paid, now. Often, their human observers chipped in on the cost. There was much to be said for having your beautiful friend with you in the real world. Among other things, she could do the housework.
There was talk of a social drone that looked like a Tellefontu, for use by the AI who were in the crabs' fighting machines, but nothing had come of it yet. Their AIs were all entitled to a free humanoid social drone, but many of them had not taken advantage of this. Time would tell.
The Parliament of New Yugoslavia had passed laws making both AIs and the Tellefontu human in the eyes of the law. Both groups here now had full and equal rights with human beings. New Kashubia had already done the same thing, a little ahead of us.
It was expected that this equalization would eventually be expanded across all of Human Space, but again, time was needed.
My ranch was now finally at full production, with dozens of agricultural products not only feeding the people who lived in my valley, but being shipped across most of Human Space. The "Derdowski" brand name was being recognized everywhere as meaning that this was a first-quality product.
My industrial factories, all deep below ground, were now bringing in far more money than my land, but still, the ranch was my first love, and I was taking steps to protect it. Everything that could be moved down to three kilometers below the surface had been so moved. This included the grain elevators, the chicken, turkey, pig, and egg factories, and the feed lots. All of the processing plants were down there now, too, as were the lobster ponds.
Provisions had been made below to remove the dairy cows, the beef cattle, and all of the other animals living on the surface, once the Mitchegai got within a few months of us. We were stockpiling food to feed them.
We also had stockpiled grass seed and soil microorganisms, so we could restart the fields if the enemy destroyed them, and had grown scions from every tree in the valley under artificial light far below ground.
Many of the other farmers on New Yugoslavia were doing similar things. The new Disappearing Guns made floor space down there very cheap.
It was so cheap that a fair percentage of the population was moving down as well, living permanently in apartments that had been intended as emergency shelters. They were really very nice, and they cost much less than anything on the surface. I began to wonder if we would become a race of troglodytes!
My wife Kasia was making her plans as well. Most of her assets had been transferred to New Kashubia, since everything we were able to learn about the Mitchegai said that they only wanted planets like Earth, or New Yugoslavia. They wouldn't touch a metal ball like New Kashubia, circling its deadly Neutron Star!
She was planning to send the boys there as well, as soon as we made contact with the enemy, to live with her parents until the emergency was over.
This was fine with me. Once the danger was real, there was no point in keeping any noncombatants here, and I liked her family better than I liked mine, anyway.
But Kasia herself would spend the war fighting at my side in our CCC, she said, to make sure that I kept out of trouble.
I loved her.
Kasia and I had long ago resolved that one day a week we would have dinner alone, without the boys around. I mean, we loved them, but we loved each other, too, and sometimes five boys, aged three to thirteen, sort of got in the way.
Sometimes this meant going out to a nice restaurant, but often we just sat and ate out on one of the balconies, looking out on our land.
The boys were happy to be able to order pizza once more, and the drones were delighted to join them.
Kasia had been silent through the champagne, the appetizer, and the salad. When our T-bone steaks and lobsters arrived, I knew that she was ready to talk.
"They'll be coming soon," Kasia said. "I can feel it."
"Yes, I've been having those premonitions, too."
"They'll destroy everything that we've done here, won't they."
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" I said firmly. "And I am the military commander of this planet! We have done everything that I or anybody else can think of to make sure that our defenses are as strong as they can possibly be. If they attack us, they will die, every last damned one of them!"
"But they are older than we are, more experienced, and perhaps wiser."
"They are a bunch of damned cannibals who eat their own children! I don't know what kind of military forces they can throw against us, but we definitely have the moral high ground! God willing, we will be victorious!" I almost shouted.
"God willing," Kasia said, quietly.