Chapter 10: Second Trap

Jason was aware that the rate of fertility in the Empire had plummeted in the last 3000 years. The population had declined at a slow rate largely because the average age at the same time had extended so dramatically. It however meant that a considerable number of women didn’t fall pregnant and the men had become frailer and less fertile. Jason cursed the priests for what they had done to the people.

Jason thought the priests had been very clever. Many doctors were priests and their research had been ‘unproductive’, but they did speculate about a number of possible causes, most of which significantly inconvenienced the Empire and reduced its effectiveness by largely eliminating men from the Armed Forces and in particular from the Navy due to speed of travel restrictions. The priest cadre were largely involved with medical and information technology. They were responsible also for replicator manufacture and medical pods. He was sure that they ensured the pods wouldn’t identify the poison. He would confirm this by asking the cyberwarfare people to look at the programming in the medical pods. to look at the programming in the medical pods.

It could be shown that women were fertile, but men produced very few, if any, healthy sperm and were frailer than they used to be. The priests had ensured that his trip back to the Empire was slow which helped them ambush the battleship as the ship had to exit from hyperspace to reorient itself. The trip to earth had taken two weeks, but the trip back would take close to three and a half months if they continued at the same slow speed.

The Marines had adjourned to attend lectures and further training, though they explained they were all going to join the round the clock search for at least a shift every day.

Jason spent time in the simulators and headed for his canteen to meet Janet and Phoebe for lunch. Jason’s canteen looked like an olden day stateroom with paneled walls, extensive art on the walls, including beautiful paintings, shiny objects that must have been fittings from ships in the past, beautiful, light fittings, including floor lamps and hanging lights from the roof. It looked more like a high-end restaurant than a canteen. It was sad that none of it was real and Robert could change the decorations at will.

Before he left Earth, Robert had collected recipes from every cuisine he could, and brought along two million tons of food that he put into stasis for himself and the farmers, including those involved with aquaculture.

That didn’t include the cattle, pigs, chickens, and sheep that were ready for resurrection from stasis at any time. There were literally thousands of tons of seed of every type. They even had trees in stasis. He had beer, soft drinks, coffee, tea, and a variety of condiments, herbs, and spices. He had brought multiple cooking utensils and his own stove, grills, and ovens. He had a microwave, slow cookers, sous vide cookers as well as any, and every dish cloth, knife, fork and spoon. He even had cooking chopsticks. In the hydroponic area of the ship, he had every type of vegetable, fruit, and nut that he liked growing and Earth food had become increasingly popular on the ship.

Jason heard Robert sit down at the table and greet his guests. He launched into his favorite topic.

“Replicator technology within the Empire has had an effect of simplifying foods into several standard popular tastes, much like the influence of the fast food industry on your planet Jason. They use any and every type of protein, carbohydrate and fat that’s cheap and nasty as a basis for forming replicator food. They then add flavorings that disguise the utterly disgusting origin of the food. I’m not surprised that the priests used the replicators to distribute their poison. You are just adding poison to poison.

“I forgot to tell you, Jason. I mentioned your theories to the marines. They were asking me to tell them the story in more detail about what you had told them about the priests. One of them told me that the computer people were keen to begin work on the medical pods when I have time to do so.

“Jason, I’m very pleased that you are inviting guests as it gives me more of a challenge than this branch of brain-dead Navy people. I’ve not had the opportunity to learn a new cuisine for a very long time. I’m enjoying exploring my recipe books and preparing food for guests. I feel that I’m back in my element when I was a young man exploring new foods. I just need a few hundred more people to fill up this canteen and then that will help me get a better idea of what people are going to like and our business is going to take off.

“Lauren has told me that she’s putting the computer business under management and is going full-time into the food distribution business. I want to arrange when we are settled to send regular cargo ships to Earth. We also need to have our own farms somewhere in the Empire. Thank you for this wonderful business opportunity Jason, you and your family will be great partners!” Robert said.

“You are welcome I’ll, also be happy to have you and your group as partners,” said Jason somewhat confused about the whole idea, but happy to let it develop if something was to develop into an intergalactic business.

For lunch Jason had asked Robert and Marie to make chili con carne and cornbread. A series of Mexican dips with corn chips would serve as a starter, and an apple crumble for desert with double thick cream.

Janet and Phoebe soon arrived and greeted him warmly. Robert told them how delighted he was that they had come back to his canteen.

They were friendly and flirty which he knew was the influence of them having talked to the others at the gym. They both kissed him in greeting a little more intimately than he expected.

“Jason, I’m happy that you are saving yourself for the senior officers,” said Janet with a smile on her face.

“I’m terribly sorry Janet I was so embarrassed in the sauna. I’m just not used to such free and easy sexuality and I’m not yet over my grief. I’m battling to accept that I’m a young man in the Empire, not an old man being put out to pasture, ready to live out his last days and die. I’ve not had any sexual function for years and its return is quite a shock! I profoundly embarrassed myself in front of the marines, though they were very kind to me.

Jason saw Robert looking towards them indicating in the Empire manner, with his thumb pointing sideways, the food was ready.

“Welcome to the food of Mexico. Robert indicates that he’s ready to serve and I hope that you don’t suffer too much eating this kind of food,” said Jason and waved his arms theatrically towards the kitchen. Robert began to send out the food with his kitchen staff acting as waiters. It looked delicious. The rest of people in the canteen were served by friendly AIs.

“There’s something in the food called a chili that Robert enjoys growing. There’s no equivalent in the Empire. It’s very popular in the canteen,” he informed them. Robert had taken some time to make himself familiar with the tastes of Mexican food and particularly liked the flavor of Mexican chilies. In the Empire food tended to be more on the bland side, but people on the ship craved flavor and appeared to have a passion for chili the hotter the better. Robert had discovered potato fries and had built an oven that made them perfectly and very quickly, transporting them through a high-speed conveyor in the kitchen. On this part of the ship they were wildly popular and Jason’s foods had supplanted many of the others in the hydroponic growing areas. The hydroponic farms occupied a large area in the ship. Those areas were more than enough to grow food for a population of three hundred thousand quickly and for a much bigger number with some preparation.

Robert and the farmers had brought enough soil aboard to grow his vegetables, along with earthworms and an entire ecosystem while trying to avoid pests and parasites. The farmers then loaded hundreds of thousands of tons of soil onto the ship. The bored hydroponics technicians took to the farming of Earth produce enthusiastically and paid passionate attention to the quality of fruit and vegetables. It relieved their tedium. They had brought along many beehives as well as many flowers to round out the ecosystem.

The table looked spectacular with many large bowls of food along with freshly baked corn chips, steaming loaves of cornbread, Mexican beer brewed on the ship and bottle of cabernet sauvignon with crystal glasses. In the center of the table stood a vase with beautiful flowers. Janet Malone looked around, looked at Jason, laughed and said, “Don’t try and pretend that you’re not an Admiral!”

“I’m not an Admiral or a general; at most, I might be a junior apprentice warlord,” laughed Jason as he enjoyed their consternation and pleasure in looking at the table and smelling the flowers. They commented on the exotic nature of the smells and tastes after he showed them how to scoop the dips with corn chips. The bread sat steaming while Jason poured the wine into their glasses and proposed a toast to victory. They slowly drank the beer and wine and commented on their enjoyment thereof.

Marie served the chili in bowls with guacamole, sour cream, and cheese. Jason showed them how to add the cream to the chili and how to eat the guacamole. He enjoyed sprinkling cheese into the mix as well. They tucked in with gusto eating multiple slices of bread as he cut them, smelling the bread, tasting it on its own, and dipping into the chili. They also tried the corn chips with the chili con carne. Conversation came to a grinding halt while they concentrated all their efforts on eating, enjoying the smells, and tastes that were so unfamiliar.

“I’m delighted to expose you to the food of a primitive world, but it’s where I come from. On the ship, I mainly eat replicator food as it so delicious and as I’m so bored with this food, but I thought that at least it may be of some small interest to you?” He could barely keep the smile off his face as he made those outrageous remarks. He was delighted to see that they looked at him as if he was completely insane. Robert had left the kitchen to stand unobserved behind Jason.

“Yes, it’s sad that they forced us to eat such food, but I brought a few samples on board to be able to show you how much food has advanced, and how little you are missing from such sad small worlds,” he said somberly. He had a gloomy hangdog expression on his face, looking as though he was about to burst into tears while struggling to keep a straight face. Robert stood behind Jason looking similarly sad.

His guests had scraped the bottom of their bowls and had large second helpings before declaring themselves replete. The desert of apple crumble was baked to perfection and the cream was to die for. Malone and Phoebe managed to demolish two more helpings and he could see that they had to resist licking the plate.

“Regrettably, this is close to the last of this food. I’ll miss it a little as it’s the food of the motherland, but all good things come to an end,” he said with the same sad expression. “Life is like that, missing one’s country of birth, missing one’s planet. Life sucks and then you die.” He managed to maintain his gloomy visage while he spoke.

Unfortunately, Jason’s sad saga ended when Robert spoke.

“Whatever you do, you need to know that Jason manufactures tales of extravagant proportions. Everyone here has heard his sorry stories. Don’t believe a word of it. Jason brought enough food to feed himself for twenty years. Once we had tasted food on earth we brought back enough for the whole ship and to go into production in the Empire.”

Jason saw smiles on the faces of the crew around him. He hoped that it was an indication they were warming to him.

Jason had also brought along a very large Italian coffee machine and prepared cappuccino for the women. He suggested that they might try at first with a little sugar. They both tried it and appeared to enjoy it. He did tell them that it was an acquired taste, but they noticed many people drinking coffee at tables around them. Jason had the hydroponic people growing a number of Arabica varieties. The farmers replicated the climate of the slopes of Jamaica and produced a fair Blue Mountain Coffee.

The farmers, before leaving earth, acquired the necessary literature for the cultivation of coffee and the microclimates that they thrived in. They also found amongst their number, willing growers who rapidly became coffee and tea fanatics.

They moved to the boardroom to discuss the intelligence gained since the interrogations. The time for relaxation had passed. Jason felt himself tense up as they walked towards the bridge.

“Connie, I’m reintroducing Jason, who in the absence of any other title has agreed to Junior Apprentice Warlord,” said Janet Malone with a slight edge to her voice. “Please provide full details of what you’ve found. Please start with the findings from the interrogations, and then we can ask questions and you can go into further detail.” Malone instructed.

Jason listened with interest.

“There are three major findings, all of which appear to be of significance. First the Guild of priests is desperate to get hold of Jason and to make him one of theirs, a hostage or to kill him. They regard him as a threat to them. They know we were fetching him from Earth. The group on the cruiser are aware of his importance, but not why he’s important. They refer to him as the ‘The critical primitive’.

“They speculate that he’s well known to the Empire and may have been part of a group seeded on a different world to do something secret. They also think he may well be from one of the major guilds, or even part of the ruling family and want to take no chance that he will join any of those groups.

“They don’t have any other background information, other than major resources have been allocated to acquire him. They will kill him as a last resort.

“Secondly there are sleeper assassins seeded in different strategic groups, including the Imperial palace. They know about them but they don’t know what the triggers are. We don’t know how they’re trained so that telepaths can’t spot them.

“Thirdly, and this issue has two parts, there’s a second trap. There are ships waiting for us and the priests grew twenty million clones on the planet near the cruisers. We don’t know if they’re related to the second trap. What we do know is the priest’s Guild, using and abusing the DNA databank have created an army of clones that will join the Mob and launch the third Empire - Mob war. They believe that the clones of the greatest military geniuses of the Empire will play a critical role in the planning of the destruction of the Empire, while facilitating Mob rule along with the Guild. It appears that the Guild believes that they will be the ones in charge,” she sat back and continued, “that’s the essential information in summary. Please ask questions and I’ll go into further detail. She waited expectantly, raising her brows quizzically.

“I’d like to know, Connie, about the force that’s going to face us in the second trap?” Jason asked.