“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”
Telzor smiled at me. Then he turned around. “Brothers and sisters, the Mad Lord Johpunnt has committed the ultimate crime! It is forbidden for our leader to willingly leave this life before his time, before the next leader has been born. That means that the Mad Lord’s rules are now considered evil and wrong. And that means that we must surrender to the Warrior Queen.” Telzor turned back to me, dropped his weapon on the ground, and knelt down, head bowed.
Those who were holding weapons dropped them. Then they all did what Telzor had, crazy rabbits, too. Even the ones who were wounded. Wanted to tell them to stand up, but knew that was the wrong move. Didn’t want to rule these people. Just wanted to save them, from themselves and from the situation their leaders had allowed them to end up in.
My music changed to “Kings and Queens” by Aerosmith. Time to remember that I had a job, and a reputation, to maintain here.
“My first ruling—stop bombing anyone, ever, anywhere, immediately. If bombs are set to go off, someone had better make damn sure they abort those rockets. Now.”
Several sheep and rabbits ran off. Some of my rabbits went after them, so they could report what was being done.
“My second ruling—you will cease all the ‘guarding.’ I want all the weapons you have brought here.”
“We can assist with that, My Queen,” Abigail said with a grin.
Thought about it. “Huh. Mahin’s already doing that with Chuckie, isn’t she?”
“And Mossy.” Abigail shrugged. “There’s so much dirt on this planet . . .”
“Yeah, Mahin’s having an earth-bending field day, got it. Well then, all A-Cs, please collect all the available weapons in the cavern. If it’s a ridiculous task, though, just let me know, don’t waste the effort. Other than Mister White, whose counsel I want to have right at hand.”
“Of course, My Queen,” White said with a twinkle. He looked around. “I suggest we tend to the wounded and bury the dead.”
“Yeah, that’s important. Only not nearly as important as getting these people evacuated to a solar system that’s not drifting in the Deep Black. Telzor, what’s the spaceship situation? We saw that you’re building some.”
“Our rockets are not made for travel,” Telzor replied. “And our spaceship is not ready. The Mad Lord was more interested in the rockets.”
“I’ll bet. Does anyone have a population estimate for this planet and the other one?”
“It’s called Helix Noblora,” Jerry said in my ear. “And while we might be able to stuff everyone from Helix Rime into the Distant Voyager, it would be tight, and we don’t have a good count for how many are underground there. It goes without saying that we don’t have enough room for those on Helix Noblora, with or without Helix Rime’s residents.”
“So, find another way,” Tim said.
“Um, are we on a group call?”
“Has your team stopped fighting?” Jeff asked, sounding mildly annoyed.
“Geez, yes. It’s not like we wanted to. Who’s in charge over on Helix Noblora?”
“No one,” Reader said with a sigh. “Everyone. There’s a council. It’s gigantic—anyone who wants to be on it can be, meaning most of them feel that they’re council members. And there are a lot of residents on this planet. They get nothing done, as you’d imagine. However, at least they aren’t spending all their time trying to destroy everyone else.”
My rabbits connected mentally with me and shared that all the rockets had been turned off and that the sheep and rabbits they’d followed were telling everyone that they now reported to the Warrior Queen. They suggested I send off some emissaries to do this topside and to assist with continuing to do so in the caverns.
Heaved a sigh. “Look, can we get off the phone and meet up in person? Because it’s going to take me a little bit for my crazy to come up with something genius and, until then, I have a lot of newly loyal subjects to patch up, bury, bawl out, and reassure.”
“So,” Jeff said, “routine.”
CHAPTER 105
SINCE MY RABBITS HAD requested it, and it made sense, had Telzor handle sending out the good word of my newly appointed reign to the rest of the world. He assigned people to do this, but he stayed with me. Was fine with that.
We had a lot of dead and injured, and this world, shockingly, wasn’t well equipped in the patching up department. So Reader flew a shuttle over with reinforcements. But he went back to Helix Noblora because we already had two shuttles here and could handle the extra bodies, and without him, they had no shuttle there.
Would have liked to have gone to Helix Noblora with him, but it was clear that I needed to stick around, because the people on Helix Rime were very used to having someone telling them what to do.
Lorraine and Claudia were here to help Tito with the doctoring, Gower was here to help me and White get the natives into a less bloodthirsty mindset, and Christopher was here to help with the weapons pickup, since Abigail and the Barones had come back with the news that the caverns ran all through the world.
Abigail had also come back with information. “I couldn’t tell you this earlier, because I was so angry I had to use all my focus not to go berserk. But once the rabbit shock troops were killed and Johpunnt died, the rage subsided.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Isn’t it? So I investigated when you sent me off. The food from that replicator is only given to those in the capital city and to those who the Mad Lord feels have earned the privilege. The rest of the planet is fed by the farms.”
“Lilith said the replicator was evil.”
“I think it is. I think it’s broken, or tainted. This world is tainted, in that sense, but nothing like as much as right here.”
“While you’re at everything else we need to dismantle that replicator, then.”
Abigail grinned. “On it, boss.”
Would have loved it if Jeff had come to Helix Rime, but with us taking most of the A-Cs over here, he had to stay there. Instead, the Kristie-Bot had managed to finagle a seat on the interplanetary shuttle. She was sitting with me and Ginger on the dais while everyone else went about the tasks I’d set them to.
“Code Name: Warrior Queen sounds like a great title,” she said.
“Kristie, so help me God . . .”
She laughed. “I just wanted you to chill out a little.”
“Wish I could. We have an entire solar system to save and I don’t know how.”
My music had been off since I’d asked for the rest and repair break. But it came on now, “Astronaut” by Simple Plan. It was about floating away alone. Like this system. Needed to figure out what to do, and fast.
“Why don’t we just ask Gustav’s father for help and have him send enough ships to evacuate?” she suggested. “I mean, we made it out of the galaxy safely, why not them?”