61. Kings Table
1400 Words
I sit at the conference table across from Alkawn. Then I scratch my head.
"He vowed at rank 1 baby."
"I thought you were going back into retirement?" Victor tilts his head.
"I changed my mind."
Alden drops about 20 classified folders on the table. All their heads turn sideways.
"What in the world are you doing?" Victor looks from the folders to me.
I sit on top of the table with the folders. "Welcome to the kings table." They chuckle. "These are classified at rank 1. But instead of going through each separately, I'm going to start at the beginning, so you can see how it progressed. Then the folders will be in here for you to summon and research on your own. Is it ok to do it that way? I don't want to read these reports."
"That's fine baby."
"When I found out about the warships, I found out we had space for 500 more. That was the original mission you did with them. I was figuring out whether to make more. I then found a planet that had ore on it. I need that ore to make warships. I sent brains down and began the ore mining and processing. This is the reason I gave everyone. This is the truth. There are no lies in that statement. It is not classified. If anyone asks about it, that is the answer you will give. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Great. Now the brains are on my mining planet and they have begun mining. However, by some luck of the gods, nearly every ore I need to make warships is on that planet." Alkawn chuckles. "Extra brains were sent down. They began to dig out areas, because storms on the planet's building areas need to be underground. They made an area to make more brains. Mining is hard, brains do get destroyed. They need to be able to make more on the planet. They were ordered to dig out the area for the warships. They will be built on the planet as well. And then I started thinking."
Alden laughs. "And she is a thinker."
"I don't want to drive your asses all over the place all the time." They laugh then stare at each other. "I'm making more ships. They are mine, but you will be assigned 1 for use when you need to go to your planets. This leaves my ship to me, not driving you around. With me so far?"
"They got it, keep going, baby."
"Great, all of these folders are now different underground areas that are building different things. Weapons areas, materials areas, plant areas, warship area, cargo ship area, brain area, processing areas, king's ship area, shuttle area."
Victor and Tobias yell, "WHAT'S ON THE CARGO SHIP?" "WHAT'S ON THE KINGS SHIPS?"
I put my hand up. "As I said before, you can summon the folder and check it over. If you think anything needs to change, you need to submit it to Alden. The brains are still mining and processing. They are not starting the ships for more than 2 months. So you have time to check over everything and submit change requests or if you see something we missed, please bring it up. As of now, bring up a kings ship and cargo ship on the table please. You can get a quick glance at them."
"Lock them here." Alden stands up. "I was working on the cargo ships earlier, and we decided not to have humans on them. We're also not going to put a lot of defense on them. Basic shields and lasers. Maybe 1 thousand brains and a brain maker for labor. Loading and unloading. These will land on planets fairly easily for loading and unloading. They are basic trade ships. Then we were talking again. Kehlani said, we can send ships to run defense on it if it's hauling something valuable. We are now making war carriers. I have just started work on designing them. Now you are caught up. Feel free to summon the folders if you want more information about any 1 thing."
They jump up and run out. I hear 3 office doors shut. "We bringing Tobias back?"
"Yep. Summon Tobias."
"Yes sir."
He comes in and sits back down. Alden shuts the door. "We have a bit of an issue with your planet."
"What's wrong?"
"Go ahead woman. Tell him." Alden drops the folder in front of Tobias.
"Well, you see, when we got there I was told the planet has a bunch of gold. It's on a continent without people. It's not going to hurt the planet or people for me to mine the gold out. So, that's what I'm doing. I also gave the order before they submitted to you. The problem is, it's your planet, and I'm mining the gold. Alden thinks this is stepping on toes, and we needed to tell you."
"So, it's my gold?"
"I gave the order first. I still think it's mine."
"You're both taking it from the people."
"They're not getting it." I shake my head at him.
"Yea, they're not getting it. They wouldn't even understand what it is." Tobias opens the folder. "That's a lot of gold."
"Yep. Now you see why I jumped on mining it. I was going to sneak it. I didn't know they would submit and nobody is on that continent. They would never know."
"That was a good plan. I can see why you wouldn't leave it sitting there."
"Now we're in the issue of, does a people's submission to you take away my right to mine the planet. I don't think it does. You are ruling in my name anyway. They are my brains. And on and on and on. I'm going to be ruling lots of planets. I need money to help them all."
He nods.
Alden sits down, "This is going to pave the way for future talks. You're right baby, the brains are yours. He can't mine that gold without you. But you can't be on that planet working without him knowing. It's his planet."
"I can enter any planet he rules."
"You can, yes. But that doesn't mean you can have brains siphoning the planet dry behind his back."
"What do you suggest? I mean, the only way we're getting that gold off the planet is with my brains. And I sent the order before he had the planet."
"It's too close, woman. He accepted their submission... 7 minutes after you gave the order. If it had been 2 years, and he knew you were there, then fine. But 7 minutes is close."
"What do you suggest?"
"It's his planet woman. If he wants you off, you have to leave. 7 minutes is too close."
I cross my arms. "That's a lot of gold."
"It is. Give me 5% and you keep the rest."
"Deal."
"We're not letting you negotiate anymore. You should have said 1 or 2%... We'll work on it, baby."
"5% is fine. It's a lot of gold. He's going to need gold too. I agree at 5. It's his planet, he should get some."
Alden looks at Tobias. "Never let her negotiate for anything."
Tobias laughs. "Alright. I don't know where I'm going to put it though."
"You can keep it in the ship vault. The brains will keep track of how much is yours. Then you can move it to other places you want. The brains don't mess that s**t up." Alden motions at the brain, "Note that Tobias gets 5% of all gold mined and processed from his planet."
"Yes sir."
"They said it'll take years to get it out. I think it was 6 years. The king's ships will be done by then. You'll have 1 assigned to you, you'll have a vault on that too. We can always give you a vault in the castle. You probably have 1 on earth too. You have options."
"Yea, I'll be fine for now. And like he said, brains don't f**k that s**t up."
"No they don't. Ok, have fun checking out the fun stuff we're building."
"Yea, I'm definitely doing that." He shuts the door behind him.
Alden gives me a deep kiss, "Let's work on the war carriers tomorrow. I need to see how deep inside you I can get, very soon."
"Of course sir."
- Writer
