I had accepted Professor Kukulkan's offer. It's been two hours.
I was sitting in a room guarded by four guards, with a table in front of me and Mei just across it. We've been sitting here for two hours, with no movement or conversation. For two hours, I've been wondering how this was any better than being imprisoned. For two hours, we've been waiting for our first orders.
Two hours came to an end, and things started moving. The guards walked to open the door. Council members came in one by one, and took positions around the table.
"Here is your first assignment." one of them said. Another one continued.
"Our defensive equipment is... sub par, unsurprisingly. Our security ships are passenger liners and our sensors are civilian grade. Our weapons aren't half as good as their Federation or Alliance Navy counterparts. Our security organizations are... improvised."
"All military equipment we know of has been destroyed during the war against machines."
"What do you want me to do?" I asked.
"We need you to design salvage missions any possible surviving military grade equipment and come up with a defense plan for Makemake should the machines come close to finding us."
"The latter has higher priority."
"We will provide you with all necessary data on our current material."
After this short briefing, all council members left the room. Mei watched the door close and then looked at me.
"I don't like their aura." she said.
"Don't tell me." I said. "I get nervous every time I make eye contact with one of them."
"Well, commander..." she said. "Just like old days, huh? Command ships, defend the homeland."
"Not even close." I said. "These guys have nearly no military experience or organization. I will try my best, but I won't have any expectations."
"We have to try our best, not for The Council, but humanity." she said.
"Sure, that will keep me going." I said. "Oh, by the way..."
"What?"
"Do you know what happened to our professor friend?" I asked.
"No idea, why?" Mei asked back.
"I was just curious..."
Taking back Professor Yamamari from the hands of The Council was a secondary issue for now. We first had to come up with a good defense plan to buy us enough time to work more on the 'saving humanity' part.
"I can't believe this..." I said, looking at the documents at my hand. "They are really using Intersol shuttles as interceptor craft!"
"Me neither.... Every one of those security ships have the sensor range of an earthworm. How do they expect to detect anything before they get hit in the face with nuclear torpedoes?"
"Ground based radars are no good either... They would quickly give away where our base of operations is."
We sighed. Mei collapsed on the table.
"I'm done. There is no way we are defending a whole world with passenger ships and civilian crews." she said.
"We have to." I said. "If we don't, no one will. No one can."
"Yes, but what are we going to do?" she asked. "You can't break the laws of physics just because you really want to!"
"You are right about that... Maybe we can still do a few trick without breaking physics though."
"Like what?" she asked.
"Listen, I have an idea. We might not have a lot of military engineers, but we probably have some engineers among public who work in aerospace industry."
"What do you plan to do with them?"
"We will get The Council to recruit them to design early warning satellites according to our requirements."
"Hmm..."
"Then we will send a couple of ships to deploy these satellites around the sector, far enough from Makemake but close enough to continuously communicate. A constellation of satellites will keep watch of everything."
"The enemy will come after those satellites with no doubt." Mei said.
"Yes, but at least we will know before they come to Makemake."
"Okay, it sounds good so far." she said. "But what do we do when we see the threat approaching?"
"We will switch to narrow-band passive observation mode to track the enemy silently and shut down everything else, hiding all the traces of civilization on or around Makemake. This should keep us hidden."
"In case it does not?"
"Well, we better have an escape plan. While we shut down everything, we will gather people at hangars and ships will be ready for liftoff. If we are found, we need to run fast towards separate directions, to meet later at a rendezvous point."
"Sounds great, Kagan, and I don't want to discourage you, but... All this requires a lot of resources."
"We better start sending mining ships around then. The resources on Makemake won't keep humans alive for a very long time, let alone allow us to improve upon what we have."
"This will make us vulnerable to attacks for some time." Mei argued.
"Not necessarily. We can disassemble spaceships to create satellites for the first few sensor constellations."
"I don't have a better plan, so I don't have the right to complain, but this defense plan doesn't make me feel safe." Mei said.
"I don't feel safe either, but this is our best shot." I said.
"The Order will have to make a lot of R&D investments. Let's hope The Council shares our view."
Mei and I spent the rest of the time working on the details of our defense plan; how and where the satellites will be deployed, how a central command center will be established, which ships will be modified, and in what way... They have all been decided. In the end, a good defense system turned out to be a costly enterprise.
I was once again standing before The Council, briefing them on our progress.
"...and this concludes the plan."
"Very well, brother Kagan." they said. "This sensor grid idea... surely is interesting. However, you did not say a word about the salvage operations we asked for."
"Sir, with respect, there is nothing left to salvage. Machines own everything we left behind. Even if we had recoverable stuff there, there is no way we could pick them up and come back alive."
Council members looked at each other and discussed some things, whispering among themselves. Professor Kukulkan, the mysterious man in the middle, was silent as always.
It took a long time, and I was tired of standing on my feet in The Council room.
They finally spoke to me.
"Very well, brother Kagan. The Council will consider your proposal. If it is acceptable, we will provide you with necessary resources."
"Please return to your room for the time being, and await orders."
"The Council is righteous."
I bowed to The Council and left.