Men and women moved with purpose on the rocky ground of John City. The sounds of construction were everywhere, half assembled units slowly being made whole. The city smelt nice. It smelt of luck and ambition. John stayed in a temporary housing complex. It was made of plastic but it would do for the two weeks it would take to fully set up the residential complex. Sher Khan was not with him today. He was too twitchy, unused to such sights and sounds. John preferred to keep him in his room. Once the botanical gardens were set up John promised to let him have the run of his life. But for now the little tiger would have to bear it.

John helped with the construction work, carrying metal beams, transporting materials, hauling equipment and so on. The city was soon all set. The seeds in the agricultural unit were already starting to sprout. In a few weeks they wouldn’t have to eat those rations any more. John shifted his house to the command center. It was far easier to do things. There were mountains of digital documents to approve or disapprove, but his assistant Luten made things manageable, arranging them by priority.

Spiz arrived, but John hardly recognized him. He looked like a different man without his clown getup. He looked much too serious. He was shorter and lankier than John had remembered. John immediately made him head of security and got him to start training people. The Empress had sent him people with a wide range of specializations. The security force shouldn’t need that much training.

After weeks, everything was set up. John let Sher Khan have the run of the botanical garden. They even caught small prey and Sher Khan hunted successfully for the first time in his life. John taught Sher Khan not to eat the kill immediately but to bring it back to his master. It was good to teach your pet discipline. As long as he knew who his master was things would be okay. Lin and the kennel master had taught Sher Khan well. He was obedient to a fault.

After John had finished inspecting the city he left to the mines. There were a few precious metals on this planet. John had chosen a location for the city quite close to where a majority of these metals were located. Exporting these metals would barely balance the cost of running his city. He went there by air speeder. The mining operations were automated. There were only three people supervising each mine. John talked to them to find out how their progress was going. Everything was on target which made John happy.

He then visited the power stations, and the communications towers. At one of the towers a group of fur clad people were standing before it and gazing intently. One of them was climbing it. John had brought the expert on the indigenous people with him, just in case something like this happened. He might not be as clever as those people from the Imperial Academy, but he had good foresight.

These natives were big. They all had broad shoulders and looked extremely strong. If he could get a martial arts trainer to teach them they’d make formidable soldiers. “What are they doing?” he asked the expert by his side.

“I can’t hear them from here.”

“Do you know them?

“I only worked with the natives on the other side of the planet.”

“Do they all speak the same language?”

“I don’t know.”

“Let’s land then and find out.”

John landed the air speeder on the ground, startling some of the locals. They immediately ran towards him and started speaking gibberish.

“They’re asking who we are and why we are building great metal structures near their hunting grounds.”

“Tell them we are people of the stars and that these towers help us talk to each other.”

“They ask how can a tower help people talk? Do you all not have tongues?”

“It helps us talk through vast distances,” John got a little irritated. “Ask them if they would like to see my city.”

“The chief agrees to be taken to our city,” the interpreter said. “He will bring his son and his greatest warrior with him.”

“That’s good,” said John and gestured for them to board his speeder. The chief was coming in person. These natives showed a level of trust that was far greater than he had expected. He’d been expecting hostility, or suspicion at best.

They exclaimed when the speeder took off into the sky. They were not as surprised and awestruck as he thought they’d be.

“Why don’t they seem that surprised with all our modern technology? Have people tried to settle here before?”

“The people here sing of a time when they traveled through the stars. They even built a small city where their spaceship crashed. I visited the site. The ship seemed to be an antique from the Great Empire of five thousand years ago. I wrote all this down in the file I gave you.” John had only glanced through the file. It was five thousand pages long.

“Do they have any relics of advanced technology?”

“A few toys, hover shoes and such. A 3D display with some cartoons for children. Things like that.”

“The power source is still functioning?”

“The Great Empire built things to last.”

“A pity it could no do the same for itself.” The Great Empire had fragmented into three. Their glory days were long past.

John’s speeder landed in the city. John served them lunch. They did not seem to like the rice, but ate the meat and bread like starving animals. He then gave them a tour of everything. The chief seemed very interested in the agricultural units when John explained what they did. The chief’s son was so astonished by the garage that he just stood there with his mouth open. The huge machines impressed even John. This was the kind of reaction John wanted from them. The chief warrior’s face remained impassive throughout. He kept looking everywhere with his full attention, as though trying to find the city’s weaknesses. John wasn’t worried. His city was impregnable. They wouldn’t know how they died if they tried anything. One sentry droid could probably take down a whole tribe.

If he built up friendly relations with the natives it could only be a good thing. He explained to them things like viruses and disease and that he had technology that could eliminate all this and also expand their lifespan. The chief was very interested but also a little suspicious.

“He wants to know why we’re so friendly,” translated the expert.

“Tell him being nice benefits everyone. I want to know more about this planet, and to have friends that I can depend upon when out in the wilderness. I can give them much in return, things that they have only dreamed about. I will even allow them to join my city if they want to. If they want to learn more about us I can open schools. If they are hungry I have enough to feed them.”

“The chief says you’re a nice guy. You can depend on him and the tribe Pegoa.”

“Tell him to convey my offer to the other tribes as well.” The more eyes and ears he had on his planet the better.

“He assures you that he will do it. He also asks if all the leaders of the star people are so young.”

“Tell him it is very rare.”

“He asks us if we have warriors. There is a problem the tribes are facing.” The chief’s face had changed from friendly to pleading. It seemed like he’d been planning to say this for some time but had hesitated until now. Everything up till now had been an act. He had been waiting for this moment since they’d first met.

“What problem?” John would be able to blast any threat on this planet with a single hail to his frigate.

“Big green star people have built a city five thousand miles east of here. They are capturing people of the tribes to be their slaves.”

“Orcs!” John contacted his Spiz and told him about the orcs. “How come we didn’t find a trace of them. If they built a whole city we should have seen it from orbit. Even if we missed it, our droids should have captured some sign of it.”

“They might be led by a warlock,” said Spiz. “He can mask all signs of their presence.”

Why would the orcs want a base on this planet? Were the warlocks gunning for Aroth as well. All long distance traffic to Aroth had to pass through the Fi system. Hyperspace tunnelers didn’t last very long and had to be changed in real space. Fi was the perfect distance from Aroth for a tunneler change. He could make good money by manufacturing and selling tunnelers near the hyperspace beacon. Unfortunately he lacked the resources and know-how to do so. The orcs probably had the idea of preying on any ship that came out near the beacon. Or it might be the prelude to war. Was it piracy or strategy?

John had a hundred martial artists in his security force. They were only enough to protect the city. He decided to deploy scouting droids and comb through the area the tribal chief had marked. He had to get rid of these orcs, no matter the cost.

“Tell the chief that I will send my forces against the orcs but I might need allies.”

“He says that all the tribes will fight with you.”

They had no other choice. The orcs would wipe them out eventually if they didn’t do anything, and they knew it in their bones.

John sent a message to the Empress telling her about the Orc invasion. He requested more soldiers and a battleship just in case things did not go his way. He doubted they’d come any time soon.

His scouting droids could find nothing, but John found a zone where the security droids could not pass. The orcs had camouflaged an entire city and set up invisible boundaries. He was dealing with a powerful warlock. John decided to personally go and scout out the enemy. He was itching for some action anyway.