Wedding Day

The guys awoke the next morning at their usual times and did the chores. Now that Atlantis had a pretty decent population Joe and Kat had taken on boarding horses, riding lessons and, of course, trail rides. Their ranch business had taken off quicker than they had expected, but because of Atlantis’ climate and lack of dangerous wildlife, all boarding was in group or private pastures rather than in a barn. So they didn’t have much in the way of chores to do, but there was some.

After the chores were finished, they fixed themselves some bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast.

For most of the morning, they discussed the ranch businesses. Joe and Kat had gone back to help out with a couple of trail rides, and they had decided to try and draw people to the Atlantis ranch by demonstrating the camping kit, which was a smash hit and got them some media attention when Elisha did a story on them. However it had been decided that they would keep the camping kit at the new ranch for this year and next season they would have another kit for the Alberta ranch. Hopefully by then there would be enough interest and Jason could hire some more help.

The Alberta ranch had been doing OK though. Jason, with Jorge, Maria and Sofia’s help had the barn filled with boarders and they had been doing short trail rides and the odd day ride, but they only did a couple of multi-day rides, which Joe and Kat flew back for, bringing their horses and the camping kit on the Pegasus.

After lunch, everyone just hung around and talked for a bit, before calling for a lift to take them to Acropolis.

Bentiri and Adam were waiting at the amphitheatre when they arrived just before 14:00, and Joe was whisked away almost immediately, since he wasn’t part of the wedding party.

The 4 men were ready in plenty of time, thanks to the clothing synth always making clothes that fit perfectly, so they sat down, talked and had a drink, until an alarm went off at 14:45 telling them to head out onto the stage.

When they got on stage, the amphitheatre was packed to capacity and the entire media row along the back was also solid with camera crews to broadcast the event. Despite being at the hottest time of the day, the amphitheatre appeared to be open to the sky above, but it almost felt like there was air conditioning or something keeping the place at a normal room temperature.

That 15 minutes seemed like forever, however at about the 10 minute mark Senator Rigat made his appearance as he was doing the officiating.

He came up and shook Mark’s hand, “I am blessed to be a part of this momentous occasion. Thank you, my King! How have things been going? I do read the news and you have definitely been busy, you have adapted well to the pressures and responsibilities of leadership.”

“I’m glad to have you here to officiate. Thank you for coming,” Mark then looked at Angela, who was seated beside Rayven’s dad and a few of the other senate heads in the front row. Then speaking just loud enough for Angela to hear, “Everything has been going well, but your replacement has been quite a pain in the butt to deal with!”

Mark and Senator Rigat looked at Angela and chuckled, as Angela just crossed her arms, raised her eyebrow, smiled and shook her head.

A few minutes later, the music started and everyone in the amphitheatre stood up and turned toward the back, so Mark and his men stood with Senator Rigat at the altar also looking toward the back.

Annabelle rose up from one of the elevators at the back of the amphitheatre, with her maid of honour and bridesmaids around her. She looked absolutely stunning, as did all her girls. They were wearing blue dresses with silver and white contrasts and Annabelle was wearing a very elegant, yet conservative white wedding dress, with blue and silver contrasts.

Entering the amphitheatre from the back, as they did, Mark was wondering how they were going to manage all of the stairs from the top all the way down to the flat area in front of the stage.

His worry was all for naught as she and her bridesmaids seemed to float down the stairs to the flat area in front of the stage, and then just had to go up the few stairs to the stage, with T’Soona flying in front and spreading flower petals.

As she approached the altar, her maid of honour and bridesmaids mirrored the formation of Mark’s men, with the best man and maid of honour on the first step down and then the bridesmaids and groomsmen down the remaining stairs.

Senator Rigat began the ceremony, which didn’t last that long at all. It was more or less a slightly expanded version of Mark’s coronation vows mixed in with vows to love, honour, cherish and respect one another, through hardships, challenges and victories until the day of their death.

After the vows, Senator Rigat then asked Mark to present the crown, which Gyges handed to him on a pillow, from seemingly out of nowhere. It was an elegant crown of gold, silver and copper that looked identical to Mark’s, just sized for Annabelle.

Mark placed it on her head and had to recite another vow. Annabelle then presented Mark his trident, which he remembered to hold in his right hand.

As she finished her vow, Senator Rigat declared them united in the eyes of the Atlantean Federation and instructed them to seal it with a kiss.

They both had tears in their eyes as they kissed each other passionately. Senator Rigat then asked them to face the crowd and introduced them as the King and Queen of the Atlantean Federation, as everyone rose from their seats and cheered.

Senator Rigat then announced that the King and Queen would be making a trip down the golden path and to please give them space.

The wedding party exited the amphitheatre using the west exit, where they saw an actual white chariot with gold, silver and copper designs, hitched to a white centaur with a blue Atlantean blanket covering his body.

The centaur introduced himself as Troy, he was from Olympia, one of the planets Mark hadn’t been to yet.

Inside the chariot were boots, like snowboard bindings, to place their feet into as they got secured into the chariot by a harness of sorts. There was also a port on the floor that his trident could lock into. They were told to lean back into the harness with their knees bent and their feet in the bindings and keep one hand on the trident as it would keep them stable, since there were no reins.

Troy started walking down the golden path as Mark and Annabelle shook hands with the people closest to the chariot. They could also see there were floating displays all the way down the path, so everyone along the path had been able to watch the ceremony.

It took nearly half an hour to reach the end of the path, where some people met Troy and removed the blanket, which was covering his wings. Mark then clued in that he was from Olympia, which is likely where all those legends came from. Troy was a pegasus!

Troy spread his wings, told them to hold tight, took a few steps, jumped into the air and flew, with the chariot right behind him.

Obviously, there must have been AGCs on the chariot to allow it to fly, it was scary yet exhilarating. As they flew down the side of the golden path, circled the palace and went back down the other side of the path, then circled back again to land at the base of the palace.

They exited the chariot and both thanked Troy for the ride as Annabelle gave him a kiss on the cheek. They waved as he flew away.

They then went up the elevator to their bedroom to await the next part, which was the meal.

After a quick inspection, they donned their crowns and proceeded out to the meal pavilion, where everyone was awaiting their arrival.

Supper was like all other communal meals in the Federation, it was a buffet and you could pick what you wanted. The meal was delicious, of course, and unlike other Earth weddings there was no clinking glasses to prompt kissing or anything dumb like that.

Due to the amount of people in the city centre wanting to eat, there was a multitude of food vendors scattered all down the gold path and around the city centre. Many chose to just go through the pavilion, get their food and find a patch of grass or a bench in one of the nearby parks to sit and eat. It was like a huge picnic.

The only speech given was by Senator Marsbe stating how the Federation was much stronger and more cohesive than it has been in centuries. Then with the strong leadership shown by their King and new Queen, the Federation was in good hands for at least the next century. She then made a point to introduce each of the Federated planets there.

As each planet was introduced, the senators representing that planet all stood up and waved.

Mark and Annabelle then gave a short speech thanking everyone who made today possible for all they had done.

After the meal, everyone convened near the base of the palace for the dance, which was being done outside. The dance was open to everyone and speakers were setup all the way down the golden path, as well as anyone tuning into RA1138 anywhere in the Federation could listen in.

There was a lot of socializing and greeting in between dances. Many of the senators congratulated them as did some of the other world leaders that were in attendance. However many of the Earth leaders expressed concern that an event of this magnitude was being held outdoors, where the general public could approach them and security would be difficult. As if to push that point home, a little boy and girl came up and asked Mark and Annabelle to dance, both kids couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7 years old, but they were both obliged to dance with them.

After the dance Mark and Annabelle both gave their partners a kiss on the cheek and told them ‘Thank You’ and then the other Earth leaders, resumed their complaints about it being so public.

Mark just told them, “I may not be a perfect leader for everyone in the Federation, but we have a security force that does what it’s supposed to and I trust it implicitly and you don’t even know they’re there. Besides, a good leader should be readily accessible to their citizens, talking to the general masses and relating to them. Not relying on staged events, publicity departments and social media to do it for them.”

That quieted them down, as he and Annabelle went and found some refreshments from one of the many street vendors scattered down the golden path.

With their drinks in hand, they made their way through the crowd towards the palace, where they found Samira interviewing anybody that wanted to stop and talk and it was all being recorded and broadcast around the Federation.

Samira got her impromptu interview and the first question she asked was, “What was it like to fly in the chariot?” After explaining how scared they initially were, Troy kept the flight smooth and then it was just exhilarating.

Near the base of the palace, they were constantly being greeted by senators and other dignitaries.

Around midnight, there was still quite the party happening in the streets, but most of the senators were starting to head back to their rooms to rest after the long busy day.

As they returned to the palace residence for the night, Gyges met them in the common area, with a female and a smaller male of his species. Gyges introduced the female as Athena and the smaller male as Gaderius ... his son.

Everyone gasped in astonishment because Gyges was always so quiet and rarely spoke much, he had never mentioned he had a family.

Athena then took over the explanation, “I was actually one of Gyges instructors when he was going through security training. There’s not many of our kind and we kind of clicked, in fact we clicked a little too well and Gaderius here is the result of that. Gad has just recently graduated and is a full security officer now, so Gyges invited us to come for a visit. Plus now that we have a Queen, she needs to be protected and Gyges was hoping you would consider Gaderius here.”

Mark then understood what Gyges meeting was about the other day, “We’ll gladly add Gaderius for security or were you wanting to come onboard as well? As you have no doubt heard, I’m trying to make it so families get more together time. As far as I’m concerned, if you were an instructor, you’d be an excellent addition as well.”

Athena said, “We’re not married, so we’re not really a family.”

Mark said, “Married or not, if you both are involved with raising a child, you’re a family.”

With a big smile, Athena said, “Well then, I gladly accept the position.”

They each took a room on the main level, as everyone introduced themselves and then started heading to bed.

Mark woke up with the sun and extracted himself from between Rayven and Annabelle. Then went to his office to get his morning coffee and look through all the daily reports Cricket compiled for him.

The daily reports included a report from each planet showing all space traffic to and from, any primary law violations, and whether there were any local disasters happening on the planet. Unless there was an origin unknown ship or a disaster, it really was just information he didn’t bother looking too deep into. He concentrated on the more detailed reports, that were Federation wide, covering the monetary system, a report from each of the government departments, such as medical, security, transportation, construction, education, etc, and then various other news that Cricket deemed worthwhile.

Mark actually looked forward to reading his daily reports as it kept him abreast of every major thing in the Federation. When combined with his remarkable memory, it always impressed people when they asked a question about something and he could recall what the latest report said off the top of his head. If he couldn’t recall it immediately, Cricket was always there to help him out.

After perusing the reports, he went to the balcony to watch the city waking up.

Surprisingly with the huge party that went on last night and the wall-to-wall people that were in attendance along the gold path, he was amazed that there wasn’t more of a mess, but there was some.

He saw quite a few people raking up streamers and other junk that was just thrown on the ground rather than being recycled. So he went down to one of the parks near the palace and asked if he could help.

Without looking, one man said, “Yeah, thanks! Could you grab one of those bags and hold it open for me?”

Mark grabbed one of the bags as the guy scooped up the trash and then turned around to dump it, only then realizing who was holding the bag. Still holding the garbage he started apologizing.

Mark just smiled and said, “Are you going to dump your garbage or not?”

He dumped it and then continued apologizing, but Mark told him to relax and said, “We’ll get this park cleaned up faster, if you would stop apologizing.”

After that pile was cleaned up, he started raking together another pile. Mark saw an extra rake so he began raking a pile also, carrying on casual conversations with the other people cleaning the park.

Mark had no idea that Samira and Elisha were sitting on a bench in the park and drinking their coffee. They saw the interaction and laughed, plus they caught it all on video.

Some of the other senators were soon out walking around with their morning drinks watching the clean up.

Senator Marshall was standing near Samira and Elisha, when he spoke aloud to no one, “He definitely isn’t like any king I’ve ever seen!”

Samira recognized him and asked him to sit down with them for an impromptu interview.

Since Samira knew about Athos, Elisha just went along for the ride with Samira in the lead. Samira asked about how Athos came to join the Federation and why, then asked him about his interactions with the king.

Senator Marshall said, “Our space program had just developed faster than light travel and on our second flight we encountered the Empire. They were only in a small exploration ship, and seemed very nice and cordial and said they were also explorers and would welcome trade technology and commerce. So we led them back to Athos.

They met with our leaders and we even signed a trade and technology sharing agreement. There was a big media event and everything. They left and we were elated that we had found new friends. They returned about a month later with one of their big warships and demanded we surrender our planet. When we refused, they started orbital bombardments. We eventually fought them off, but lost close to 20 million people in that first attack. Fortunately, we did have some spacefaring warships and some missiles and we were able to inflict enough damage that they retreated.

After that first attack, all of the governments ramped up their space programs and built space-faring ships with weapons.

After a few months they returned with two ships and started orbital bombardments, from beyond the reach of our missiles, each country had at least one ship and we were again able to ward them off, but we lost close to 250 million people and sustained a lot of damage, because our attacks were uncoordinated. It was then every country decided that we needed to work together if we were to defend ourselves against a technologically superior enemy from another planet. Thus the Alliance was formed.

We merged all our technologies and ramped up our space defence programs to build Raptors as fast as we could. Then every few months the Empire would show up with one or two of those big warships and send a few missiles at the planet while our Raptors fought them in space, then retreat before they’ve sustained irreparable damage. This went on for about 150 years, we’d have a fight, they would go away, we would lick our wounds and repair our ships and then do it all over again in a few months. In all those years we had never managed to destroy one of their warships.

On their last attack they had 3 of those big warships and we only had 10 Raptors. We again managed to inflict enough damage that they retreated, but with those numbers, we didn’t think we’d be able to stave them off for much longer. So, in desperation, we tried to attack the Federation to get technology to fight the Empire. Our attack obviously was laughable by the Federation, with 10,000 to 6 odds in their favour.

Our ‘Hail Mary’, as the King called it, actually turned out better than we could have hoped, when the Federation captured our men and ships and escorted them back to Athos, just as the Empire showed up with 5 ships to attack us. The Federation gave them plenty of opportunity to sit down and talk peacefully, but when they opened fire, the Federation ships protected our ships with their shields. Just as one of the Federation ships was about to lose their shields, the King allowed them to return fire. They only fired a single shot, which obliterated one of their warships and sent the rest of them running.

Then while we were going through the process of joining the Federation, the Empire returned with 50 warships surrounding our planet. The King talked to them and tried to get them to turn around, literally telling them they had no chance at success.

Once the King had figured out which ship their leader was in, he said the leader’s ship would remain unharmed, so there was someone to go back and explain the loss of all their ships and men, and he gave them a countdown to turn around or it would be considered a declaration of war against the Federation. Some of the ships turned around, but more than half of them sped up to close the distance for the attack, and just as the countdown was about to expire, every ship fired every missile they had at the planet, there was thousands of them. He just shook his head, closed his eyes and suddenly every missile and every ship, except for the one their leader was in, exploded at the same time. It was like a global fireworks display.

It was at that point, as we were all sitting around the control room watching everything, that we realized the Empire had just been toying with us for all those years, they could’ve taken our planet anytime they wanted and we would’ve been helpless to stop them.

After that attack, our people begged the Federation to allow them to join immediately rather than go through the usual transition period ... and here we are!”

Samira, Elisha and a few people around them were all silent as they heard the whole story, in more detail than anyone had heard. Samira finally collected herself and said, “Thank you Senator! That’s an incredible story, welcome to the Federation.”

When the interview was done he looked over and saw Mark still raking up garbage and working alongside the other cleaners. “I honestly never thought I’d see a man that wields the power, influence and abilities of a god, doing mundane tasks such as picking up garbage alongside commoners ... without it being some sort of staged propaganda to bolster public opinion. Just knowing that he is looking after my people and my planet makes me proud to be part of the Federation.”

Dominic Mayans was nearby and heard the interview as well. Samira, of course, recognized him and asked him to sit down for an impromptu interview.

She asked him how he was liking living on Atlantis and then of his opinions of the king.

“Atlantis is incredible, it’s definitely the jewel of the Federation. As for our King, he’s definitely doing all the right things to get the Federation back on track after centuries of stagnation ... and he’s doing it at an unprecedented rate too!

We had a meeting recently with the Bank for International Settlements, so our currency could be exchanged on this planet, and it wasn’t until after we got back to the shuttle that he informed me that someone had taken a shot at us while we were walking back to the shuttle. I just about collapsed on hearing that, my heart was beating out of my chest. The king was as calm as could be ... he hadn’t even flinched!

When I asked why he took that moment to tell me, he just told me that making a public scene would’ve caused panic, and that I wasn’t in any danger with him around, but he wanted to make sure I understood how hostile this planet was. So until he implements world peace, I think I’ll stay where there’s Federation security.”

Elisha then asked, “Since you have been on Earth for a few months now ... do you think Earth will ever join the Federation?”

Dominic thought long and hard, “It’s tough to say. The first thing that needs to happen is all your governments need to stop all the military peacocking they’re doing and use the taxes they collect for something productive and beneficial for their own people, and actually enforce the laws they have written so they wouldn’t need to change things to cater to niche groups. I mean seriously, you’re either male or female, it depends on your biological reproductive system, and all the laws they’ve written to satisfy niches based on race, sexual preference, and even those made up religions ... they need to enforce the laws they’ve got and the people need to get tougher skin!

Unless a catastrophic event happens, similar to the Empire first attacking Athos, that slaps all of the governments in the face and shows them how petty and powerless their little militaries are against a true planetary threat ... you know, something that forces them all to work together, I seriously can’t see it ever happening ... it’s even more difficult now that Atlantis is here, as any major planetary threat would be taken care of by the Federation. So Earth is actually getting security by proxy.”

Dominic then chuckled, “The King wouldn’t ... but he could be the one to slap all the governments in the face ... without being a planetary threat. You saw what he did with all the Chinese submarines after they attacked us ... or what he did to the ships and missiles at Athos, he could easily just make every military weapon in the world disappear. That would give you the world peace that everyone says they want, but nobody seems to be doing anything about it.

Maybe then your governments would quit wasting taxpayer dollars on peacocking and actually use the money for something good and beneficial for the population. I bet they could cut your taxation by half, or even more, and still have surpluses. Imagine a world with no war and no debt! That’s pretty much life in the Federation for you. You shouldn’t have to work most of your life away. Yes, everyone needs to do their share for the benefit of society, but life is for living, not working!”

Elisha said, “Wow! Thank you for that honest insight, General Mayans.”

The next person they saw was Kaleb and they asked him if he’d sit down and talk.

Samira started, “General Marsbe, you and the King are pretty good friends, after all, you were in his wedding party, what are your thoughts about what he’s done so far?”

Kaleb laughed, “I have nothing but the utmost respect for him. He didn’t ask to have the weight of ruling billions of citizens and dealing with intergalactic problems, yet he’s just rolled with the punches and taken everything in stride. The guy is an anomaly. Just the way he works is intriguing. You might see him over there raking up garbage, but he’s probably watching over some distant planet just making sure everything is OK for the people living there.”

Elisha said, “How does he do it? Here he was just a guy looking to retire out in the country and live an easy going life, then he gets thrust into the role of being a King. You would think the amount of responsibility on him would be overwhelming.”

“Well, he is the first king since Atlas from Atlas’ bloodline and he is definitely the needle in the haystack as far as his capabilities. He’s accomplished more in the few months he’s been in power than all the kings in the past millenia. His mind is, in and of itself, a wonder, he literally oversees our universe. He’s almost like Atlas, reincarnated with the weight of the universe on his shoulders.

I think back to when we first realized Athos sent six ships to attack us, it was like 5:00 here and he calls me and tells me what is going to happen. This was days before we even confirmed their course and almost a month before they arrived. Guess what? It happened exactly as he said it would. The funny thing is, I didn’t even receive the notice about the ships until after he called me.

Even when you talk to him, most of the time, he knows what you’re going to say before you even say it. I’ve seen him when he gets to planning things, it’s like he sees things before they happen. He then comes up with a plan and what happens is usually whatever he came up with.

Look at him right now, he’s standing still with his eyes closed ... that’s him dealing with some crisis somewhere, it could be right here in the city or it could be in a galaxy far away.”

Once that park was cleaned up, Mark shook hands with the other people cleaning up and walked back towards the palace. Elisha called Mark over when he got closer.

They were all looking at him like something was up, so he said, “What?”

Elisha said, “We just saw you stop and concentrate for a few seconds. I’ve seen you do it before and I didn’t think anything of it, but people have said that’s when you are doing something somewhere. Can we ask what it was?”

“If you must know, a ship of unknown origin just popped into our solar system out near Canis Major and is just sitting there. There’s two people on board and it doesn’t appear to have any weapons. I’m pretty sure it is not from the Empire, just by the design, but I’m just waiting to see what they do. If they don’t do something after a while, I’ll try to talk to them.”

Senator Marshall was still nearby and just smiled, “See? He’s standing here picking up garbage and he can sense a problem on the other side of the universe!”

Kaleb was shocked, “When you said you were in touch with the universe I always thought you got reports or something from the scanners on the ships. You mean you can actually detect and communicate with a foreign ship in the middle of a far away galaxy without equipment?”

Cricket said, “I think they have a problem!“

Mark said he thought something was wrong and was going to contact the ship so he held up his hand.

“Cricket, open up communications with that ship?“

“Done!“

“Hello there, can you hear me?”

The two people in the ship looked at their radio, “Yes we hear you. Who is this?”

“My name is Mark Phoenix. Can I ask your names?”

“Our names are Cordero and Shanda.”

“Are you two OK? Your ship appears to be without power.”

“Our ship hit something in space and we ended up here, but we don’t know where here is!”

“I could tell you where you are from my perspective, but it wouldn’t mean anything to you. Do you think you can get your ship fixed?”

“We’re not sure! We are trying to restore systems, our life support is functioning on battery power, but that will only last a day or two at most. Are you close?”

“It depends on your definition of close, I could reach you in about a day if I leave now. Do you want assistance?”

“Please, we would appreciate some assistance, as we’re not sure if we can get our ship working again, but even if we do get it working, we wouldn’t know which direction to go to get back to Magellan and we don’t have food or water supplies to last more than a few days. We are lost!”