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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The Price of Defending My Planet
New Yugoslavia, 2209 a.d. 

Every few months, some amazing new product, often an incredible alloy or other material, was being announced by the scientists who were working on the alien ship. A few of these things were starting to work their way into military equipment and even civilian products. There was even a sort of carpeting that they thought might last for thousands of years!

On the one hand, this was all good news. On the other, it kept everyone in Human Space focused on the importance of meeting the Mitchegai threat.

My wonderful Kasia had just presented me with our third son, my farm and my city were prospering, and the Powers that Be had just turned down my fourth request to establish some decent space defenses for New Yugoslavia.

This last item had me ticked.

"Agnieshka!"

"Coming, boss!"

I now had a dozen of the prototype social drones acting as servants in my apartment. The decorated military drones were still there, but they were mostly decoration now, standing like displays of medieval armor. They could always function as guards if such were ever needed. Mostly, Kasia felt that the soft, human-looking social drones would be better to have around the children, and I never could deny Kasia anything.

Each of the social drones looked like a different woman, and the one that walked in was new.

"So. A new look?" I asked.

"Yes, and I think that they have the sense of taste on this one just about perfect. Also, the sense of touch isn't bad at all. Some of the other girls have tried it out for sex, and they say it's fantastic!" she said.

"Enjoy. But I called you in here to talk about our problems with planetary defenses. You know that my plans were just rejected again."

"Yes, sir. It's not that they disagree with you, boss, it's just that every factory and system on New Kashubia has been working nonstop for four years producing what we need to defend ourselves against the Mitchegai. They can't afford the heavy expenditures required to defend a single planet, not when all of the rest of the planets would want identical defenses for themselves."

"That's just my thought," I said. "They can't afford it. But I can. Kasia and I are some of the richest people in Human Space. I have decided to use our own resources to defend this planet properly."

"But it isn't just a matter of money, boss. It's a problem of industrial capacity."

"Right. So what we need is industrial capacity. Now then. We have a huge secret room, kilometers long, where The Diamond was found, sitting there empty. We have many thousands of tanks and military drones who can provide the engineering and labor force. I read that New Kashubia has a surplus of mining machinery, and is still exporting raw metals to anybody who wants to buy them. What we need are the machines that can build the machines that can build the machines that can make what we need. I wonder, can we buy basic machinery from Earth? Over the last few hundreds of years, they have to have built a lot of slightly obsolete but still serviceable machinery. I want you and the rest of our metal people to get involved in figuring out just what we need, and how we can get it."

"I'll get our people right on it, boss," Agnieshka said. "Things have been getting a little dull around here anyway. Have you talked to Kasia about this?"

"Not yet. She's next on the list."

Kasia was not enthusiastic.

"Mickolai, this is crazy! You are talking about expenditures of a size that whole planets can barely afford. Things that are out of sight for mere individual citizens!"

"All we are going to have to pay for is some used machinery and some raw metal. We already have the engineering force and the labor force, sitting idle. We already have a place to put it all," I said. "We can do it."

"I really doubt if it will be that cheap. Remember Cheop's Law. 'Everything costs more and takes longer.' And on top of that, why should we have to be the ones who pay for it? It is the whole planet that needs defending! The whole planet should pay for it!"

"And maybe it will, love. Once we get it built, and people realize what we have done for them, they will vote to reimburse us."

"Get serious!" She said, "What they will do is to say 'Thank you, sir!' They will throw a few more parades, and pin a few dozen more medals on your chest, but pay money? I doubt it!"

"Okay, what if what they were told was that what we had would protect the military, but not the civilians? But, for just a few trillion zlotys more, they could come under the umbrella, too."

"Now, that has possibilities."

"Right," I said. "And if we get New Yugoslavia to go along with this, why can't we sell the other planets on the program? We can sell inexpensive 'starter kits,' all the machinery and plans that are needed to build a decent defense system of their own. There could be a very hefty profit in it for you."

"Hmmm. Perhaps. But you've just stacked three maybes in a row, and it is getting increasingly improbable."

"That could be. But what good is all of our money going to do for us if the Mitchegai attack us, and we lose? Our wealth would be useless. Our estates would be gone. Our children would be dead."

"The boys would be dead?"

"The Mitchegai have no immune system. They need absolutely sterile planets. Before they can settle on a new world, they must eradicate all existing life on it. That would include you and me and the boys."

"Damn you, Mickolai, when you put it that way, you don't leave me any choice. Spend everything we've got, if you have to, but get it done."

I had the feeling that I would be sleeping alone, that night. It doesn't pay to win an argument with your wife, but sometimes it has to be done.

 

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