Alien Alliance (56 page)

“But my main point is this awful political
and alliance system. If we join together, we have four planets. At
that, we hopefully become too tough to tackle. Especially looking
at our huge population on Terra.

"I wonder would it be possible to get the
communications systems out of some of those crashed planes so we
can maybe adapt them and have a communication systems on all five
planets?"

“Probably not,” said Kaz. “Those smaller
ships will probably only have ship to ship, not ship to
planet.”

Sarah looked at Alan, "Can you start to
delegate here? We need people working on all these problems. We
also need some explorers, some scientists studying what this planet
has and what we can do with it and what we can trade for what we
want. The Priskya need a large income to run this Defence Shield
and we need to help with this. They tell me some of the personnel
to run it are very expensive."

Alan smiled, "I'm way ahead of you there.
Several of us business types have been discussing what we can sell
to trade. On Earth, we'll make a fortune on the fencing system, the
sonic cleaners can be used in all sorts of factories, especially
electronics and computing, and Mayling reckons the flowers and
shrubs will sell for fortunes. But we need to discuss all this with
the Priskya. They own it all now. And we don’t understand the
currency and banking system here. We don’t know how to sell and
does anyone know the Priskya’s bank account number for deposits,"
he said plaintively to a gale of laughter.

There was a general buzz of conversation for
several minutes. The suggestions flowed and so did the
enthusiasm.

Sally had been writing furiously. She stood
up.

“I’ve made up a list of the services we
need. We have all those buildings. Would the Priskya consider free
rent for a period for people to get self supporting? I’m thinking
of refugees also here. How about free rent for a year? That would
allow refugees to come here without impoverishing us or ripping off
the Priskya. Considering that many refugees already come from war
zones, we should be able to find a heck of a lot that will come.
I’m sorry to stress this point but the news media is actually
understating the problem now. Millions have died in the last few
years and it’s getting worse. And the faster we increase the
population here, the faster the risk to Torroxell decreases. Az
tells me if we empty out the planes, these ships could take 10,000.
And 15,000 if we cram them in. That’s a refugee camp emptied.

And I agree we need a police force. How
about the police, for now, handle policing, conservation and treaty
issues? But the huge thing we need is to get people to come here.
Maybe for a 10 year period? They need to be able to take some
profit away too. If they earned it honestly. Leave empty handed if
they don’t contribute.” She sat down.

Anne stood up balancing herself carefully.
“I have an idea. Don’t howl me down but I think we should have a
universal language on Torroxell and it should be Universal. Later
on, we can make learning it a priority for us.” There was a lot of
loud discussion.

Hold it,” said Alan. I think she’s right. I
also have been thinking. We need Allies. We have them! We have four
planets of Humans. We need them and they need us! Lack of any
Allies is what got the Priskya into this mess in the first place!
We have no universal language. The Niseyen do and if we learn it
then it helps communication for all. Every person coming to
Torroxell can speak any language or languages they like but the
official and universal language should be Universal. It will solve
so many problems in one go.”

Bea stood up, “And someone needs to look
after the animals here. The ones in all the other cities too. The
animals that weren’t gassed. They’re stuck in paddocks and some
must have run out of food and water.” There were a few red faces
and guilty looks.

Ilse and Julia stood up together and offered
to help. Mahmoud and Donny were also recruited to attend to this
now as they could drive the ground cars. Bea and Bella wanted to
help too. They all raced off.

Anne slowly dragged herself up again, “Has
anyone tried to contact the other survivors, the Kepis and the
others we know of? Someone needs to tell them the war is over and
WE WON!” she yelled to cheers from everyone else. “I’d also like to
try searching for the Hoekfyds and Clets. I think some of them
could have survived.”

A whistle went up from one of the Priskya’s,
they quietened to listen.

“You have been making some basic assumptions
that are wrong. There is much to explain. Where to begin.” She
paused. “ You invited us here to this meeting to determine the
future direction of Torroxell. You also invited the Cats and the
Okme. No People have ever asked for our input before. Within two
days of your arrival here, one of your leaders was introducing
herself to us. Your People, particularly your children, helped
transport us to classes and talked to us. Few others did this. None
ever did transporting without first asking for money. First your
children, and then the adults, removed the things you call flukes,
which cause so much pain and illness for our species. It is so hard
and sometimes impossible for us to remove these. One of your
children rigged up a large bell for us so we could ring for
attention or help. There was a flag to signal if others wanted to
talk to us but never a way for us to communicate to others when we
wanted to. No one ever thought of that before. When we ring,
someone answers and helps us, usually your children.

We watched as your children protected and
played with our precious balloons. There used to be countless
millions of them. They have been slaughtered despite our protests
as have many others of the species on Torroxell. The creatures you
call Cats, watched as you, Sarah, freed hundreds of baby balloons
despite thinking you may have been at risk from the adults. Your
people do not drive through the balloons as others do. You get out
and move them out of the way. Your children thought to make rails
for the babies to hold onto in the wind. No one ever thought of
that before. Your vet repaired a huge gash in one of the big adults
the second day she was here. It lives. No People have ever done
that. The Cats tell us you treated them in your medical facilities
and made no distinctions between them and your own people. This
attitude is not unknown but it is rare.

Three groups, separately, established
communication with the Cats. No People have ever done this
before.

We invited many of you to meet us and almost
all of you turned up. You are curious and so are we. You have made
friends with every People you could as we have wished to do. You
saved our lives when you thought you were all going to die. You
thought you would die but you could at least save us. By doing so
many of you saved yourselves but you did not know that at first.
You seem to value all life as we do. You puzzle us greatly. We do
not understand you. So much goodness, so much potential, yet so
much aggression and so good at warfare.

We have been talking a lot with your
children and have found out a great deal, including some of your
international law. We asked about Treaties. We have been told they
have not always been honoured at the time but many have been
revisited. You seem to be basically honest. The problem appears to
the motivation of those who draw up the treaties.

We were tricked and lost our trust and
innocence but have decided we want to trust you. You are protective
of us. You are excellent fighters. We want to organise a Treaty
with you to give you most of the land and what is on it so long as
certain conditions are met. Are you interested?”

There was a chorus of startled and
enthusiastic yeses.

“You would get the cities and surrounding
land and share the rivers and lakes. The Cats want the mountains,
foothills and some other lands and will negotiate separately with
you. You would have access to the sea with our consent. The
children suggest a quota system. In return you will protect us and
the other creatures of Torroxell. The Defence Shield should have
arrived by now. We paid for it. If it does arrive, you will
maintain, monitor, upgrade, and run this system.”

“Oh my God,” said Sarah. “That makes five
planets we can live on. So long as the Niseyen agree of course. Az
and Kaz, that’s your job. Convince them.

There was a break as Sarah talked to the
Priskya and ensured she understood what they meant. While this was
going on, someone was organizing food. Sarah summed up for
everyone.

“The land and everything on it would be able
to be used by us apart from what the Cats want. A planet, we can
live on with only a condition of protection and free access for the
Priskya to all facilities and services as of right! The Priskya
stress medical facilities, education and free access for them and
the Cats to all services and facilities. They also want the free
accommodation for Amphibians, Trogs, Avians and tree dwellers, who
want to come here to study, to remain. They explained that it is
almost an exclusion policy to charge these groups exorbitant
accommodation fees on other educational planets. And often there is
no suitable accommodation for them. Effectively, that excludes most
of them. Only the very richest of them can afford the study. This
is very important. Treaty laws change a lot. Again this is
apparently deliberate. If we allow free accommodation, these people
can come here, learn the laws, keep up with the changes, and get
ripped off less often. I gather we will be getting a lot of wannabe
lawyers and accountants. The Priskya know who to contact in the way
of tutors and lecturers. They are mourning the loss of so many in
the attack. Apparently some of these tutors were very highly paid
but others did it as a type of gap year. A year of free services.
These were tutors of varying experience. Ironically, one here, in
this city, was a Keulfyd. This was her second year here. Some were
professors. Philanthropy is not dead. Oh and as an aside, all the
cities on this planet were named by the developers or occupants. We
have free reign to rename them all!” There was more laughter as she
sat down and went back to the Priskya. The Ridianit, as the
developers, had named all the cities. So far, not one city name had
been pronounceable.

There was a lot of murmuring and munching as
people tried to absorb all these changes, along with lunch. Some of
the other kids that had gone out to help with the animals straggled
back reporting that none of them knew what to do with the ones that
ate imported food. The kids had decided to let them go. They might
be able to find their own food. The Cats might like them… The
others were let loose to fend for themselves. There was the problem
of all the dead animals in the paddocks near the city. But most of
them had been further out with the vegetation paddocks being the
closest to the city.

Sarah got up again. “Sorry everyone, more to
absorb. The Priskya say that Interplanetary Law is mostly our old
maxim, ‘Possession is 9/10
^th
of the Law’ and ‘To the
Victors go the Goodies’. They say I misunderstood. They weren’t
lending or giving us anything. Interplanetary Law says we are
entitled to a share of this planet. Whew! I think I’ve got it right
this time.”

She took a deep breath. “Once war commenced,
under Interplanetary Law, the planet didn’t even belong to the
Priskya any more. It belonged to whoever won. If more than one Race
won, it then became proportional. This is because we all worked
together rather than one of us employing or contracting the others.
That part is very significant legally. If we take this literally,
Mathew estimated that the Priskya, at their greatest effort, had a
network spread out surrounding the planet, watching and relaying
information. Their contribution was in the billions. There were
only two Niseyen. But their contribution was vital. We would not
have succeeded without them.

As I understand it, five Races helped win
this war; Human, Priskya, Cats, Niseyen and Okme. The planet should
be divided up proportionally to those who contributed to success
whether they died or survived. The ones who participated. When you
look at it that way, it was a joint effort. The Okme gave us the
major weapons, we invented the minor ones, the Priskya and Cats
were the Spys, the Cats, Humans and Niseyen fought, the Niseyen
were the Pilots. The Humans were the planners and organizers. This
was truly a joint effort. We would not have succeeded without the
combination. Therefore we need to include the Okme in the Treaty.
We do not need to include the other survivors in the other cities
as they did not participate. That includes the Kepi as they also
did not help.

Officially, the Priskya were by far the
greatest number. Like Mathew said, billions of them formed almost a
chain around the planet supplying information. The Cats were the
next numerous, then Humans, Okme and Niseyen. But we would not have
succeeded without all of us. I vote we throw it open. The Priskya
agree, in fact they suggested this. Forget the numbers. To survive,
we need as many here as possible, as soon as possible.”

Mathew stood up. “While everyone is here, we
have something else to consider, What do we do with the Niseyen
that fought against us in this war? There are eleven Niseyen pilots
and two medical personnel. The pilots would normally all be accused
of murder and executed for the enormity of what they did. They are
currently slaves but that does not sit well with most of us Humans.
I would ask you to consider that but also consider we now have
seven ships. We urgently need all of these but have no pilots for
six. Az and Kaz tell us they can fly these enormous ships but not
legally and it will take both of them to fly one. We have enough
pilots if we use these slaves as we had already decided to do. It
is not unusual to have highly trained people who are slaves. That
was what Paswalda wanted us to become. I will hand over to Kaz to
explain.”