Date: 2017-04-03T18:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction
Description: Alicia’s life has gotten rather complicated, as she had to flee Earth and make a new start. She didn’t want to play the political games with the rulers of Earth, to submit to their overbearing control, or to even fight back. She chose a different path and went her own way. It’s a month later, and the first batch of scientists have just arrived on Minerva station. She has many issues to face trying to establish and run a new world. If that wasn’t difficult enough, she also has some challenges from without. Unfortunately for Alicia, Earth’s leadership has a hard time letting go of things.

Minerva

An Alicia Jones novel 06

Author: D. L. Harrison

Copyright 2017.  This is a work of fiction.  Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.  All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

Table of Contents:

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Afterword:

About the Author

Other books by D. L. Harrison:

Book Description

Chapter One

I remember when I used to be a scientist, and not an administrator of an independent world.

I once again found myself at a podium, my least favorite place in the world.  I’d shamelessly tried to get Kristi to take the head position, but although she had no desire to run things from the top, she also had no problems bullying me into doing it.

After all, she’d said to me, it was my idea to found the colony, so I should run it.

An argument to which I really didn’t have a good comeback, it was actually even kind of fair.  Neither of us wanted to run it, so I got stuck with it.  It was an old corporate adage, make a suggestion and you just volunteered to make it happen.

Still, she was up here as well, she stood slightly to the side and behind me, with Joe, Bill, and Karen.  The five of us were pretty much still the government so far after a month, but we had help as well.  Bill dealt with establishing the laws, and running the security.  Joe was our ambassador of sorts.  Kristi was in charge of connecting scientists together for synergies and to get things moving.  Karen was responsible for assigning rooms, resources, and things of that nature.

Of course, I got stuck with vetting all the scientists before they were allowed to stay, but I’d also hired a couple of Knomen to help with that, whom I’d vetted myself.  Beyond that, the only thing that head person position got me was a bunch of headaches when problems came up no one else could solve.  It wasn’t all that bad yet actually, and eventually if it became too much we could expand our five-person government to deal with recurring problems, once they were apparent.

Still, one thing we all agreed on was we wanted a small government.  So far we were running things mostly like a company, we didn’t expect a huge population.  Not with just scientists and their families, along with city support staff.

It had been a month since we’d chased off Sergei in front of thousands of ships from over thirty different worlds.  Tonight’s reason for me being behind a podium was the first one hundred and thirty scientists had arrived, and we were having a welcome dinner.  Not all that many, less than a handful from each of thirty-one worlds involved, most of them from the new treaty, but some from the old.

I imagined most of the governments were interested in a test run, and perhaps more would be approved to join us later, if it worked.  I couldn’t really blame them, this was an experiment of sorts, a melting pot of all humanoid races, but only scientists.  It could fail miserably.  It wasn’t just a hundred and thirty scientists out there though, there were over five hundred beings in attendance including their husbands or wives, and children.

I smiled and tried to gather my thoughts into some semblance of order, after speaking to all the worlds at the anti-genocide rally, I’d have thought speaking to less than six hundred would be easy.  But nope, I hated public speaking.  Probably not a good trait in the leader of a world.

“I considered giving a long winded speech with high ideals about what we are trying to accomplish here, but seeing as your all in those seats, you already know why you’re here.  So I decided to keep it short and sweet.”

There were a few chuckles in the crowd, as well as a cheer or two.

I grinned, “So welcome to Minerva, I’m sure we’ll all be proud of what we build here, and the improvements we’ll bring to all our worlds.  You’re A.I.s have been provided access to all the laws, rules, and who to bring what questions to.  If you find something not covered, you’ll get stuck with me.  I encourage all of you to take the time to familiarize yourself with this station and the rules before asking questions.

“Please be a little patient as we work out the bugs, and what we haven’t thought of yet.  Let’s eat.”

It wasn’t much of a speech, but I’d rather have been researching something.  Hopefully at some point most of this would be automated, and the A.I.s could handle most of it.  Until then, I had two jobs, run this place, and sometimes be a scientist.  The five of us sat down, and we started on dinner.

Kristi said in a low voice, “Nice speech, they seem to get shorter every time.”

I laughed, “Damn right they do.”

Kristi asked, “So you started the city construction on Minerva?”

I nodded, “Yes, it should be done in a little over two years with two large scale fabricators on it.  It should look like the city in Athiren, with the underground transit and subtle one story structures spread out wide.  We’re also planting, the world will take time to make ready for humanoids, but it should support plant life and trees now.”

She nodded, “Good.  By the time the terra-forming is far enough along to move down there, the city will be long done.  What was the final mix on the worlds that sent scientists?”

I snorted, she knew the answer to that, she was just making a point that she’d predicted it.  I answered anyway.

“Twenty-one of the twenty-six new treaty worlds, including Minerva, and twelve of the twenty-four old treaty worlds.  That’s more than I expected on the latter, considering how much they all demonized us on the news for holding their safety hostage.  You working on anything new?”

It was true about the demonizing, I was a total pariah on Earth now, at least for the governments of Earth, the regular populace seemed split on the issue, or just plain didn’t care either way.  The smarter ones that didn’t just follow whatever was said on the news were angry with our governments for driving me away.  I tried not to worry about it however, for now I wasn’t welcome on Earth, and I didn’t think that would be changing anytime soon.

Still, I had this place for now, my best friend Kristi and her husband, and Bill who I was quickly coming to love.  Sure, I missed restaurants and dancing, but hopefully not for long.  That kind of stuff would hopefully be up soon.  Karen was working on getting the people to run the storefronts in the second ring.

The plan was to hopefully fill most of those slots by the husbands or wives of the scientists.  The A.I.s could handle most of it that way, but some things required a personal touch.

She shook her head, “Nope, just the… what did you call it?  Scientist dating app?  I’m still tweaking that a bit.”

I snickered, “That’s the one.”

I turned to Bill and asked, “How’s your day going?”

He chuckled and drawled, “Well, they’ve been here for two hours now, and I haven’t had to shoot any of them yet, so things are looking up.”

I frowned and he winked.

He said, “Seriously, things are fine, everything is buttoned up, and they’ve acknowledged they’ll follow the rules and laws, or get kicked out.  Honestly, I’ve never had a job this easy, the A.I.s do all the paperwork, it’s like a dream which leaves me plenty of time to poke around and tighten the systems.  Ask me in a couple of days.”

I grinned, “Fair enough.”

Bill and I had continued to get closer over the last month, we spent a lot of time together actually, and I found that I didn’t mind that a bit.  It was something that was rather comfortable, and he was comfortable to be around, not stress inducing at all, if anything the opposite was true.

I still spent time with Kristi a lot during the day as well, while her husband Joe was off making contacts for later when we found new developments, and also to sell the nanite and computer upgrades.  But most nights she was with Joe and I was with Bill.  Part of that was the inevitable drift that happened when people got married, and part of it was simply because there was nowhere to go yet for a girl’s night out.

I suppose part of my co-dependent nature had latched on Bill, because my suite of rooms had turned into my closet and where I kept my stuff.  We’d pretty much been sharing Bill’s accommodations otherwise.  That wasn’t the only reason of course, we had a hard time staying away from each other now.  I just felt… natural.

Al said privately, “Is now a good time? You have messages from Nora and Senna.”

I felt a spark of interest, I hadn’t seen them since we’d left Leira, and they’d gone to Athiren for their jobs just over a month ago.

I subvocalized, “Summarize, I’ll read them later.”

Al replied privately, “They will both be here tomorrow.  Ostensibly and officially to see how their scientists are settling in and to discuss trade and what their worlds and this new world can do for each other.  Reading between the lines, unofficially, I think they missed you and just wanted to come see you, and perhaps imbibe large amounts of alcohol with you and Kristi.”

I barely held back a laugh at Al’s summary, since no one else heard Al, me laughing would have looked strange.  I subvocalized a thank you and got back to my dinner and conversation.

Despite my internal whining, because I couldn’t just study science and ignore the rest of the world… or I should say the rest of the galaxy anymore, the balance of the evening went by without a hitch.

Chapter Two

Early the next morning, we walked down to the large airlock bay.  It had a smaller airlock on it for shuttle sized craft, the big doors only needed to open for the larger ships, such as our home ship and larger.  The smaller airlock drained of air a lot faster, and then the shuttle just needed to wait a few seconds as the outer doors shut, atmosphere was pumped back in, and then the inner door would open to the large bay.

Kristi and I headed for the landing pad on deck six that we’d assigned for their shuttle.  We were both dressed business casual, I mourned my jeans collection as I’d have to start dressing my new part more often with people here now.  I was in a women’s suit that was creamy white, with a bright red blouse and black heels.  Kristi was similarly dressed, but in black with a white blouse.

Kristi was also half asleep, and rather grumpy this morning.

I didn’t think it had anything to do with Joe leaving for another world in order to open local bank accounts, sell our tech, and find contacts for when Minerva started to produce new technologies.  After all, he’d be back tonight.  With a sports shuttle and full use of the wormhole taxi network he was never gone more than a day.

Most likely, she just hadn’t had enough coffee yet.

Kristi said, “They should have waited another month.  We don’t have any of the bars or clubs stocked with managers, waiters, or anything like that.”

I shrugged, “We’ll just have a private party, but I agree.  I haven’t danced in too long.”

Kristi snorted and said sharply, “See, even the workaholic says it’s been too long.”

I snickered.

After a moment she sighed regretfully, “Sorry, I’m digging the plan, really.  But I miss Earth, clubs, and going out and having fun.”

I frowned, “Me too, it won’t be too much longer I don’t think until we have those things.  Granted a few hundred people aren’t a lot, not sure how much interest we’ll get with this first small batch.  You and Joe could always take off for a day or two.  I can’t go to Earth but…”

Kristi shook her head, “That won’t work.  They may not be as mad at me because I’m not an alien freak like you,” she grinned, “but they won’t let me waltz in and out either.  They’d use Joe and I for leverage.”

I nodded, “What about Tressia, or Omara, they had some pretty nice places there.”

Kristi sighed, “Sorry, again, I’m being whiny.  I think I just need more coffee.  I’m glad they’re coming too, even without a club it will be nice to unwind a bit with friends.  So any complaints yet?”

I shook my head, “Not yet, of course they just got in last night, and they’re all scientists.”

Kristi giggled, “Good point, they’ve probably made a list of all the egregious issues in their home last night, and now this morning in their assigned lab.  So… later today then?  Long organized lists for our convenience?”

I nodded, “Probably.  Hopefully Karen will deal with most of it, I only need to get involved if she’s not sure how to handle it.”

We stopped in front of the door to the pad they were assigned, and waited.  They wouldn’t be very long, at least I didn’t think so.

She asked, “What about you, working on anything?”

I shook my head, “Translation of the Drenil, which is going nowhere as usual.  I’m also making an oak tree, just to see if I can.  Well, the seed really.”

She frowned, “You mean like an acorn?”

I giggled, “Yeah, I mean, normally fabricators can’t do anything alive.  But a quantum fabricator should be able to in theory.  But it’s going to take a couple of more months.”

She tilted her head, “Months?”

I nodded, “It’s a slow process, and an acorn is kind of big when talking about the quantum level.  Still, if it works that would be interesting.  If nothing else, it might get research doctors to look at the tech seriously for repairs at the genetic level.  Perhaps even nerve regeneration, which up until now has been impossible.  It also may make people take a look at the quantum fabricator process to figure out a way to speed it up.”

Kristi shook her head, “That’s almost as cool as something exploding.”

I snickered, “I’ve also been busy spying on the neighbors, other galaxies I mean.  I’m still building a database of the over one hundred galaxies in a ten million light year radius from the milky way.  It won’t be constantly up to date, but I plan to have the four platforms move around almost constantly to gather new data from our closest neighbors, so none of the data will be more than a month old.

“So we should know up until very recently, just how many civilizations and what types there are out there.  So far I haven’t run into any wormhole or subspace technology civilizations besides the Drenil of course.  But like I said, it isn’t done yet.”

Kristi frowned, “Aren’t there less than a hundred galaxies within ten million light years?  You’d have to go out to eleven or twelve million to get over a hundred galaxies.”

I nodded, “Sure, if you believe what Earth knows.  I’ve found a few more unknown galaxies using the subspace scan technology.  To be honest, most of the galaxy mapping is Al’s project, he’s good at analyzing the data and finding new stuff.  I’ve just been reviewing what he finds.  It won’t be ready to look at for a little while though.”

Kristi frowned, “Do you need coding help?”

I shook my head, “Already using your code, or my code that you fixed, I linked the database up to our scan of our galaxy.  You know how we can zoom in from the galaxy sized hologram down to a planet, or even a ship.  Well, now it zooms out as well and shows all the surrounding galaxies, which you can then zoom in on.  It will also show how old the data is, since like I said, it isn’t real time like our galaxy is.  I thought of building more platforms, but honestly I don’t think we need to.”

Kristi nodded, “Good idea, so I could look now if I wanted?”

“Yes, you and I are the only ones that can access that system, and our A.I.s of course.  The data isn’t complete yet, the cycle should be done in a week, and then the platforms will start over and provide updates.”

Al notified me, “The ship has landed and is secured.”

I grinned, “They’re here,” and I hit the pad next to the door, and it opened up revealing the Tressian shuttle.  The hatch on the shuttle slid open.

Nora and Senna stepped out and both of them smiled at us.

“Welcome to Minerva,” I said.

There was an awkward moment, as if they weren’t quite sure whether to go with friends or act as official representatives of their government to a world leader.  To my relief, they went with the former, and they stepped closer and claimed hugs from both myself and Kristi.

Kristi asked, “How long are you here for?”

Nora shrugged, “Just today unfortunately, I don’t think our worlds bought the excuse but they let us come anyway, which means we should check on the scientists quickly, and then get to the fun parts.”

Senna nodded sagely, “The representative from Tressia is very wise.”

We all giggled, and went to do that…

The world was pleasantly fuzzy as we sat in my living room and put a good dent in my wine supply.  Bill, god bless him, had made himself scarce without me asking, this was definitely a girls only activity.

Nora looked around and said, “I really like this place, but I don’t think I could handle living on ship all the time.  Not even one this big.”

I nodded, “We’re looking forward to moving to the planet when it’s done, but until then we don’t have much of a choice.  I think it will get better when there are more people around.  Plus…”

I gave Kristi a look, “If we start to go crazy we can always go to another planet.”

Senna made a face, “Maybe, but there will be more pomp and ceremony now.  You’re a head of state, you can’t just drop in like you used too.”

Kristi stuck her tongue out at me, which made everyone giggle.

Nora asked, “So how is married life treating you Kristi?  And Alicia, you need to tell me all about Bill, he’s gorgeous, is it serious or?”

Kristi smiled, “So far so good.  I think it helps that he’s gone most of the day, I really miss him by the time he gets back.  We’re also working on our first child.”

Senna smiled, “Good luck, you’ll have to invite us to the birthing.”

Huh, another of those weird cross culture things no doubt.  Baby shower and birthing all at the same time?  I answered Nora’s question.

“Bill and I are serious I think, he hasn’t proposed yet, but it’s still kind of early.  I have no complaints, he’s a southern gentleman, a lot of fun, supports me, and keeps me happy.  In more ways than one.”

Actually he was a godsend.

The last month hadn’t just been hard because of this ship, or working to get Minerva ready, or even missing the Earth and my family, it was mostly because of what I’d done to the Bugs.  I knew all the arguments of course, and agreed with them, but my heart had not rested easy with the massacre I caused that day.

Bill had helped me a lot that way, although it still continued to bother me at times.  I didn’t think I’d ever really be happy with it, and when it came down to it I knew deep down that I shouldn’t ever be content with the actions I took.

Kristi giggled, “So at least we know you’re thinking about marrying him.”

I silently cursed the evil wine for putting holes in my brain to mouth filter, and then took another sip.

“I guess I am.  Still, I’m not in a hurry either.”

Honestly I was fairly sure that’s where it was going.  It was kind of a whirlwind courtship, and then suddenly were living together.  Having separate quarters was pretty much just a fiction at this point, except for having a separate space for my stuff.

The rest of the afternoon and into the evening we had a blast, mostly talking about the men in our lives.  The conversations got a bit bawdy as well, in direct proportion to the amount of wine we imbibed.  At the end of the day, we somehow managed to walk them back to their shuttle in a weaving pattern.

Thank god for A.I.s that could fly spaceships, because they weren’t sober enough to operate a chair that had wheels, much less an interstellar vehicle.  Not that I should’ve been throwing stones myself in that moment.

Chapter Three

Bill smirked when I got in, and I gave him a questioning look.

He drawled, “Had one of my A.I.s report an infraction, turns out there were drunk people wandering around in the third ring.  It was sad, I couldn’t even arrest them, and decided to overlook the rules this one time.”

I frowned, “Really?  Who would do something like that?”

I looked at him innocently, and batted my eyelashes.

He chuckled, “You have fun at least?  I got dinner waiting for us.”

I immediately felt guilty, “You didn’t have to wait for me, but thank you.  I had a great time, it was good to see them.  Food does sound good though.”

I winked and headed over toward the kitchen.

“Al, remind me to check with Karen to see if we got a lot of complaints today.”

I thought it was rather strange that I hadn’t been interrupted once during the day.  They must have conspired to give me a break.

Al replied, “There were one hundred and forty-three complaints today, but a hundred and three were for the same thing.”

Bill came in and served us dinner, and I tried to ignore whatever the complaints were, they would either be solved or wait for tomorrow.  I asked questions to distract myself.

“What’d you do today?”

He smiled, “Well, the gravity restraining system was put to an interesting use today.”

I raised an eyebrow, “What was that?”

He cleared his throat and he got that deeper twang in his voice when he told a story.  My soul reading told me this one was actually true.

“Well see, this young man, a son of one of the scientists, fifteen years old and one of the older children aboard went to the park in the center of the ship, assumingly because he was bored.  Now as you and I know, bored children know how to get into trouble.  Anyway, this boy decides the keep off signs were actually an invitation to enter a grove of small trees where some new bushes were planted.

“So of course, the security system warned him, twice, before it plucked him right out of there and dropped him at the entrance.  The other kids saw it, and thought it was cool, so they started to… take rides by breaking the rules.”

I started to giggle at that point, I could picture that, and it’s something I’d have done as a kid.

“So needless to say, I needed to program in some new responses, so they all weren’t dragged off to the brig after the third violation.”

He snorted, “I also set up a spot they could go to without breaking the rules, and of course now that it was sanctioned, they stopped doing it immediately.  Kids.”

I sighed, and wiped tears out of my eyes from laughing so hard, maybe I was just a little too tipsy, but his recitation had me in stitches, and the complaints were long forgotten.

After dinner it was pretty late, relatively anyway, and we turned in for the night…

The next morning, after coffee, breakfast, and more coffee, we found out what the most numerous complaints were and I called for a mid-morning brief followed by a question and answer session.  I was once again behind a podium, but it didn’t seem so bad this time, just a room full of scientists, none of the families were here for this.  I still wasn’t comfortable though.

“Good morning.  It seems that many of you have an issue with not having small fabricators in your lab space.  There are many fabricators in the second ring, dedicated to your labs first, and then to other creations for living needs.  I’m not sure what the issue is, you submit a build, it gets built, and it gets delivered.  Perhaps one of you can tell me why this is a problem?”

One of them stood up, and said, “It’s a security issue, if we share a fabricator, others will be able to look at our designs.”

I frowned, “Okay.  Let’s leave off the fact that this is an open source type of effort, where there should be no huge secrets.  That defeats the purpose of our gathering, and denies any synergy others might have to build upon or even help with your project.

“That said, you’re incorrect.  There’s no security issue.  The fabricators will work per user, no one else will be able to see or use a design you submit, even if they use the same fabricator, unless you specifically share it with a colleague.  Your pieces will be delivered by A.I. in controlled artificial gravity fields, so there’s no way for someone to steal your stuff without getting caught.  Did you not read the manual?  Or even simply ask your A.I.s?  They have access to that information.”

Damn scientists, they obviously didn’t R.T.F.M., even worse, they didn’t ask their A.I.s before complaining.

The guy looked annoyed, but sat down.

I went to ask if there was anything else, but held my tongue and felt amused as I heard them all murmuring to their A.I.s.  A moment later three quarters of them got up, gave me a rueful grin, and then left the room.

“Something else going on?” I asked the remainder of the scientists, about thirty-two or so by a glancing count.

One of them cleared his throat, “Not about the lab no, we were led to believe this was a fully functional city.  Some of our spouses have complained about the lack of night life or things to do.”

I nodded slowly, “I can relate.”

There were a few small smiles at that, and I continued, “We believed the best route to take was to offer support jobs in the city to the families of the scientists, that way your spouses would have something to do if they were interested in working.  We’re working on getting some people in for that.”

I paused for a moment and then said, “We are just starting out, yesterday was the launch of our colony, and I ask each of you for a little patience while we get those things sorted out.  It won’t be long.  Most new worlds start out with much less than we’ve provided.

“In the meantime, until that is established, you can always visit your home world for a weekend or another world altogether.  I’m not sure what else I can do about that.  Anyone else?”

Another cleared his throat, “Some of our wives have seen on the news that you’re wanted on Earth, and there is speculation that they may come to get you?  We were all told by our governments that we’d perfectly safe, but they never really said how or why.  Still, is there anything we might tell our spouses to assure them we aren’t in danger by being here?”

I frowned, damn state secrets.  But then I wasn’t eager to talk about my military superiority either.  Which… I supposed that made me just like them.

“The systems I use to ensure your safety are top secret, but I can say this station stood off more than a thousand Earth ships a month ago without any fatalities, and most of your governments had ships here in system and witnessed it.  The details of that have been classified by all worlds involved.

“Earth may be angry, but they are not in a position to follow up on that right now.  As I’m sure you all know, I took care of eighty-five Bug colonies with that same technology, without assistance from any other worlds, and with only six ships.  We are safe here.”

They didn’t look entirely happy about my partial answer, but they also seemed to have expected it.  Things broke up after that and they all went back to work.  I decided to do some of that myself and went to my assigned lab space, which honestly was more like an office, since my actual lab space was still out in the void.

It was a place of privacy that wasn’t my home.  I suppose it lent some normalcy that way, keeping my off time and work time separate.

“Al, anything going on I should know about?”

Al cleared his throat, “Earth is developing a new type of ship, I believe it is a large scale stealth ship built in the style of Tressia’s.  Of course, like all stealth ships and the stealth sensor net, it is fully visible in subspace.”

He paused a moment to indicate a change in subject, “Your family is being audited and otherwise pettily harassed by government agencies the last couple of days.  Finally, the ten million light year scan database will be completed in two days and eight hours.”

“Wait, go back, harassed?”

Al replied, “Just questioned I think, about you and what you were like as a kid.  I think they want to get inside your head.  However, that is pure speculation on my part.”

Damn, I hated that my family had to go through that, but it was probably inevitable, and could be worse.

I sighed, “Alright, hopefully they’ll back off soon.  What else?”

Al continued, “Earth is sending a representative to talk to you, they should be here later today.  Karen also wants to speak to you if you have time today.”

When he didn’t go on I asked, “Any progress figuring out the Drenil communications through shield manipulation?”

Al sounded almost amused, “No, I would have informed you.”

I sighed, so no science, just more admin crap.  I got up and headed for Karen’s office, might as well get it over with…

Chapter Four

“Hi Karen, how’s the family?”

She smiled, “Dr. Jones, thanks for coming by, Al said he’d arrange it.  They’re doing good, a little bored but I’m working on that issue.  There are… problems.”

I smirked, and took a seat, “I figured there would be, what’s the major road block?”

She sighed, “It’s mostly the not getting paid part.  I get that they’d have free access to build and make whatever they wanted, far more than they could get access to back home on their current salaries, especially for such jobs as waitressing, running a storefront, or even the manager of a club.  Even the severance retirement package if they decide to move back home where they’d need money doesn’t seem to be enough.

“I think you’re just too evolved for most people.  I like the concept, and my apartment is loaded with crap I don’t use that I could never have afforded before, but I think that’s the stumbling block.  It’s purely mental I think, they hear no pay and their hackles go up and they ignore the rest of the information that makes it make sense.

“There is another problem.  For non-scientists to get a support job and move here, there is the rule they have to work, or they can’t stay, but if they do work they get everything they want.  Like I said though, most aren’t biting the offers.  The other problem I mentioned is for the scientist’s families, there’s no rule that says they have to work or leave, they’re here with their spouses who have a job.

“I’m afraid human… humanoid nature is asserting itself.  They can already make or have anything they want without working, so right now they are taking the lazy way out, and then complaining because they’re bored and have nothing to do.  After all, why work if they can live in luxury without it?”

I frowned, “I have a lot of money, but I can’t afford to pay everyone, not if we are giving away the tech that is discovered here.  Any ideas on how to fix this?”

She looked amused, “Of course I do, I called you in here to fix it.”

I laughed, “Fine, I deserved that.  I can’t change it now, if we start paying then we become just another company, because we’d have to sell the inventions, which takes away the whole point and draw of the place for worlds to send their scientists to us.”

Karen nodded, she clearly got the crux of the issue, but how could we fix it?

I tilted my head, “Add on a free personal shuttle capable of interstellar flight, if they stay for a year.  If we can get them here and show them the advantages of this type of society for that long, hopefully most will stay after that.”

Karen frowned, “Don’t they already have free use of a shuttle to visit home if they move here? The hangar is filled with them.”

I nodded, “Sure, but you said they weren’t reading into it very far, once they see no-pay they run away.  So put free interstellar shuttle right up front, which most people could never afford, and avarice will urge them to read the whole thing and make a more reasoned decision.

“Plus, the shuttles are just for borrowing, these will actually be theirs.  If they leave after a year they get to keep them, unlike the shuttles in the bay.  We’ll have to limit the technology on them of course, no triple shielding, or weapons, but the rest should be okay.”

She grinned, “That might work.  I’ll get on it right away.  Is everything good with you?”

“Yes, just busy.  I’d complain, but all this was my idea so I need to suck it up.  Umm, you wouldn’t happen to know what the Earth rep is about, who it is, or why their coming?”

Karen nodded, “Nadia Avdonin, the only why is and I quote, to discuss matters of state.  I assigned her one of the guest suites.”

I blew out a breath, not sure how I felt about seeing my old friend again.  We hadn’t exactly parted on the best of terms, but not the worst either.

“Alright, thanks Karen.  Let me know if the ads still have trouble, and we’ll try and think of something else.”

God only knows what…

It was just a few hours later that I stood outside the door to the landing pad assigned to Nadia.  Kristi was along as well, for moral support if nothing else.  The earth battlecruiser had entered our solar system, and Nadia launched a few minutes later in a shuttle.

Al reported, “Shuttle has touched down, and is secured.”

I sighed, and opened the door.

Nadia came out and walked over with a tentative smile on her face.

“Alicia, Kristi, it’s good to see you.  For what it’s worth, I’m sorry things went so wrong.”

I sighed, “Nadia, it’s good to see you, a little unexpected though all things considered.  Would you like to see your accommodations or go somewhere we can talk?”

She shrugged, “Both?”

I nodded, so much for keeping it on the professional level.  We walked to ring two, it wasn’t that far all things considered, the pad she’d been assigned to, was as close to her assigned quarters as possible.  We went into the three room suite.

“Drink?  The place is stocked with sodas, coffee, and we can get some wine here if…” I trailed off.

Nadia smiled, “Coffee works.”

I could use one myself, which was no surprise to anyone.  We went into the kitchen, and they sat down while I put together a pot of coffee.

Kristi asked, “So how are things on Earth, I’ve heard things are more split than ever.”

Nadia shook her head, “It isn’t good, half the population wants to string up our world leaders for chasing their heroine away, and the other half wants to string them up for letting you escape.  If it makes any difference, I voted no on the idea of surrounding your ship like that and trying to take you into custody.  Gerald and Jonas did as well.  We were outvoted though, four to three by China, Japan, the U.S., and Germany.”

I hit the brew button and started to gather cups, sugar, and creamer.  Then I turned toward the table and leaned on the counter.

“It eases my mind somewhat, but it doesn’t change anything.  I’m surprised the Russian president didn’t want me taken though.”

Nadia cleared her throat uncomfortably, “He actually did want you taken.  I thought that was pushing things too far though, and voted my conscious, I’ve been paying for it ever since.  Worse, it didn’t even make a difference.”

Kristi asked, “Then why are you here, I mean why didn’t you get recalled?”

Nadia smirked, “Polite fiction.  When the world got pissed at us for what we did, and the results, the president pointed out how Russia abhorred the way our united space forces dealt with the issue.  In other words, he used my decision to score political points.  He used my vote and made it seem like it was his idea, so he couldn’t very well turn around and fire me right away.

“Still, I’m in the dog house, and it’s only a matter of time before I get recalled, after enough time has gone by so people don’t make the connection.  No doubt I’ll be honored, and then quietly put in a post where I can’t cause trouble.”

I shivered, “I really hate politics.”

Kristi asked Nadia as I poured us all a large mug of coffee, “So why are you here?”

Nadia snorted, “To convince you to come back and turn yourself in.  Or else.”

“Or else what?” I asked as I handed her and Kristi their coffee.  Then I grabbed mine off the counter and sat at the table.

Nadia shrugged, “I don’t really know.  But they’re all horribly embarrassed, China and Japan feel they lost face, and the presidents of the U.S. and Russia are livid.  I really think they want you dead, but whatever plans they’re cooking up, I’m not in the loop.”

Kristi shook her head, “They wouldn’t risk being quarantined, would they?”

Nadia sighed, “I wish I could answer that.  I don’t think so, but that’s why I’m here, to convince you to turn yourself in, so you can be put in a jail to rot.  At least, until there’s an accident.”

I snorted, “Sweet, so I can look forward to substandard living until they murder me.  You’re not doing a very good job of convincing me Nadia.”

She snickered, “No, of course not,” she looked thoughtful as she took a sip of coffee, “I only took this job to talk to you personally.  The idea of you, the one that saved us all, being a martyr because of their egos is absurd in the extreme.”

Kristi took a sip of her own coffee and looked thoughtful, and then she shocked me with her words and dropped a bomb into our relaxed conversation of world leaders and stupidity.

“Do you want a job Nadia?”

Chapter Five

Nadia looked shocked, “Excuse me?”

Kristi snickered, “You know how politically inept our current leader is.  Were scientists, and while we believe in what we’re doing we aren’t really equipped to run a world.  You understand cutthroat politics and how they think, you also have a heart, a conscience, and I think you’re a good friend.  Alicia, or both of us really, could use a political advisor.  The job comes with lots of free stuff, but no pay.  Oh, and you’re home country will hate you.”

Kristi grinned, “So how about it?”

I tried to be offended, but it was true.  I was at least politically naïve, if not inept as my best friend so colorfully described it.  I tried to look at Nadia with a neutral expression, but it probably came out as more hopeful than anything else.

Still, she may have been in the doghouse, but she was Russian down to her fingertips, I didn’t think it very likely she would abandon that.  Then again, she’d already committed career suicide, and her president clearly didn’t want her anymore.  I knew from experience it was hard to serve a master that wanted you out of the way and under their thumb.

The silence dragged on for a long few moments, and I sipped my coffee.

Nadia finally replied, “I’d have to think about it.  That’s a pretty big decision.  Theoretically, if I accepted, what would I be doing?”

Kristi shrugged, “We’re politically naïve remember?  Which is why we need someone like you, but also someone we like and trust.  Write your own ticket.  I assume it would be something like watching the political climate on Earth, and on the worlds in both of the treaties galaxy wide, and letting us know when things start to get wonky.  Even here on Minerva we might miss something important for us to know or deal with.

“We don’t care what politician is cheating on his wife, or other ridiculous stuff.  Just things that would affect our world, or the balance of power in the galaxy.  Perhaps major things on Earth as well, but that’s just personal stuff, we still care about Earth you know, they turned on us, not the other way around.”

Nadia looked at me, “And you agree with this insane idea?  I could be a spy you know.”

I tapped the side of my head, “Nope, I’d catch you with that mystical soul reading crap I do.”

She blushed.

I added in a calmer tone, “But yes, I think I’d enjoy that both on a professional and personal level if you were around again.  If political hack doesn’t appeal to you, I have a hostess position open at a restaurant with your name on it.”

She snickered and looked at me as if I was nuts.

“Sorry, bad joke.  We’re having trouble filling the support positions for our businesses, from clubs to food stores.  We don’t even have a humanoid doctor yet, just a number of the pod med-docs.  Yes, I think Kristi is right, the more I think about it, it’s a brilliant idea for us.  The only question is what do you think of it.”

Nadia asked, “I don’t get paid?”

I snickered, and explained the whole idea of who needs money when everything is free, and then shamelessly threw in the free shuttle after a year thing.  I even went over the whole retirement plan.  I felt like one of those late-night infomercials.

Nadia sighed, “I think I need something a little stronger than coffee.”

I laughed, “Al, deliver us some Jameson’s to flavor our coffee please.”

It was a few minutes later when a whiskey bottle floated into the room.  I grabbed it and added a bit of flavor to our coffee.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have real cream to make it a genuine Irish coffee, but it wasn’t bad with what we had.  We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting about Minerva, personal stuff, and answering her questions.

The focus of her real mission, getting us to surrender and come back, was never mentioned again, except to discuss possible next steps they might take if we didn’t.  I for one was mostly worried about my family, I hoped they wouldn’t hold them hostage or threaten them to force my return.  One thing that made me think it wasn’t all that likely was that my family were in the public eye. It would be hard to cover up if they took them.

Nadia left the next afternoon after promising to consider it.  Either way, she wanted to make sure her own money and properties were covered legally on Earth before she could leave.  It was a valid concern, and she left on much better terms than she’d had the last time we’d parted.  It really helped that she’d stuck her neck out for us instead of bowing to the political realities.

Apparently sneakiness and underhandedness was okay, but when push came to shove she’d done the right thing, and not the expedient thing, when Russia’s leadership had pushed too hard.

As for the ad update, that was yielding very few nibbles in the last twenty-four hours to my disappointment, hopefully that would change in time.  Karen had a few interviews scheduled though, for the Knomen on station, and I hoped that they would check out.  A greedy person would take the position for a year, and then use their shuttle to go sell valuable stuff they’d fabricated all year.

While there was no specific law against that kind of thing, I’d prefer not to have that kind of thing going on.  I’d like to think our society was a good idea, and generous, but perhaps I was naïve.

According to Kristi, the scientist part of it seemed to be working out however, they were here, and for the most part working together to build new non-military technologies for all worlds.

The objection that one scientist had their second day on station wasn’t so much about money, but because the scientists still wanted credit for their own discoveries, and the rights to publish those discoveries.  The complainer had been concerned more with someone stealing his ideas and getting credit for it.

So that was good, it was just the support jobs that were turning out to be a problem.  There were exceptions, a few support jobs had been filled on a part time basis by the scientists’ spouses who just needed something to do and focus on.  But overall Karen was right, most weren’t going to work if they didn’t have too.  Maybe that would change when enough time passed and they got stir crazy and bored but we couldn’t afford to wait that long.

I sighed and leaned back into Bill when he put his arms around me.  I’d been so distracted with my thoughts I hadn’t even heard him come into our kitchen.  I was giving serious thought’s to removing the safety net of my own quarters, and just moving my clothes, makeup, and other stuff into here.

Bill asked, “Rough day?”

I shrugged helplessly.

“Not really no.  Just… disillusioned.  Of all the problems I’d envisioned, trouble finding support personnel to come here hadn’t been one of them.”

Bill nodded against my hair, “Let’s go for a walk, the stars should be out.”

I smiled in amusement, the mile-wide park in the center of the ship had a full day cycle to it, with the ceiling six stories high, and with today’s hologram technology, we simulated daylight and starlight as it would be seen from the city being built down on the planet, sun included.

“That sounds nice.”

I turned and we shared a quick kiss before he took my hand and we went for that walk.  The corridors were mostly empty, and I wondered if they would ever be filled as I’d envisioned.  I shook off the dark thoughts and just relaxed in Bill’s presence, let his soul calm mine.  Another advantage to being a soul reader, his soul was always smooth, relaxed, and solid.

I didn’t know what I’d do without him, we’d only been dating for a couple of months and a few weeks now, but we’d been living together almost five weeks, and it felt like I’d known him forever.  There was even some truth in that, I’d known him since I was just a toddler, and had been good friends with him until we parted in my early teens.

We got to the park entrance, and he led us through and we walked along the path.  The trees were between ten and fifteen feet high or so, they would take years to fully grow in, but it still looked nice.  The grass was fully in, and of course full sized bushes and other flora had been added.

When I looked up, I could see the night sky.  It was still a bit strange, it looked so different from the familiar sky of Earth’s, but the stars above me were the stars above Minerva.  Our new home for better or worse.  It was even a bit cooler, we couldn’t truly mimic all of the outdoors, but we could vary the temperature a few degrees from day to night.

I squeezed his hand and looked up at his face from the side.

He was uncommonly silent tonight, usually his calm drawl would accompany much of our time together, I also sensed a certain nervousness from him as we stepped off the trail and into a grove of small oak trees, which was marked as keep out.  Eventually, when the trees were mature enough, and strong enough, those signs and rules would come down.

“Breaking the rules?” I asked in a teasing voice, and then I saw the blanket, and a basket of all things, as well as a bottle of white wine cooling in some ice.

He grinned unashamedly, “Prerogative of head of security, as well as the station leader’s significant other.”

He frowned, “Unless you want to press charges, then I’ll have myself promptly arrested.”

I snickered, “Nope, I need you to keep my feet warm later.”

He chuckled, “I see, saved from a night in the pokey by cold feet.  I’m a lucky man.”

I nodded in agreement, and I’m sure my mischievous smile reached my eyes.

We sat down on the blanket and had a late night picnic, fried chicken, potato salad, and wine.  We chatted about everyday things, unrelated to the work we were doing, and I couldn’t help but notice he gotten more and more nervous as the meal went on.  Romantic evening, picnic, nervous man, I’d have thought it wouldn’t have taken me quite so much by surprise when he pulled out the tiny jewelry box.

Truthfully though, Billy had done a lot of romantic things like this over the last month.  The only real new variable had been his nervousness.  It hadn’t been enough to give me any idea what was coming.  I was frozen when he pulled out the jewelry box, and popped it open to show me the glistening diamond ring inside of it.

“Alicia, I know it hasn’t been all that long since we got back in each other’s lives, but I love you with all my heart.  I always have, and I always will.  Will you marry me Alicia?”

I bit my lip in shock, and really wanted to answer, and say yes, but the storm of emotions going though me in that moment had me mute.  I nodded in an exaggerated way, just to make sure he understood, and the movement seemed to free my voice.  A yes slipped out of my mouth in a yearning whisper.  Then I straddled his lap, and we kissed, but I didn’t really remember moving.

I was thrilled, excited, happy, nervous, and filled to bursting with love all at the same time.

He chuckled, mostly in relief, when we broke the kiss, “Can I put the ring on?”

I blushed, “I suppose, if you want to,” I tried to play it cool, and totally failed.

I couldn’t stop the grin that appeared on my face when he slipped the ring on my finger.  It was beautiful.

He held me as we ate dessert, and finished the wine, before we retired for the night.  It was quite a bit later when we finally found sleep.

Chapter Six

I looked at my best friend in disappointment, as she clearly wasn’t surprised in the least.  It was late the next day, and I’d finally caught up to her.  She was busy with the scientist program.  Ironically, she’d started to add in personality compatibility matrices in addition to the synergy between disciplines and projects.  Apparently one of her match ups worked well on paper, but the scientists came to detest each other almost on sight.

Now my little joke about a scientist dating website had a little grain of truth in it.

Kristi snickered, “How do you think he knew your ring size, or what type of diamond cut you liked best.”

I frowned, it was sweet of him to find out, and to conspire with my best friend, but I felt cheated somehow, mostly because I’d wanted to surprise her I supposed.

“Fair enough,” I said ungraciously, “Want to join me in my lab, check out the scans.  They should be done in about ten minutes.”

She nodded slowly, “Sure.  That actually sounds cool, even if nothing explodes.”

I snorted and offered teasingly, “We can blow something up if you want.”

Kristi grinned, “That’s okay, I’ll survive.  Unless of course, you have a new way to blow things up.”

I shook my head in mock sadness, “No, sorry.”

She sighed and we grabbed coffee on the way to the lab.  By the time we got there the initial scan for the ten million lightyear radius area was complete.  The oldest data was a little over three weeks, and that would be replaced very soon as the probes went to restart their appointed scan rounds.

I ordered, “Al, bring up…” he brought up the interface.

I should have expected it, he was a mind reader after all, literally, but it kind of ruined the theatricality of the moment.  I’d have to talk to him about that later.

The large hologram of our galaxy came up, and I reached inside and closed my hands together, and the milky way shrunk to the size of a pea.  Over a hundred other galaxies came up around it.  They were all marked with the name, including the twenty or so new ones I’d named myself.  Below the name hung statistics, number of civilizations, types by humanoid, Drenil, Bug, and Reilan.  As well as the new types which I hadn’t really given names to yet.  Right now they were unknown types A through H.

That meant there were twelve types of life out there, at least within the hundred million light years we looked.  Humanoids seemed to occupy approximately eight percent of the worlds.  All of the twelve types did.  There was a lot of life out there in the universe.

Below civilizations and types, was a listing of Pre-FTL, Post-FTL, wormhole, and subspace technology worlds.  Just the list of four types, and then the numbers.  Pre-FTL was in the tens of thousands for most of the galaxies, except the really small ones, Post-FTL was around a few hundred for some, less for others.  There were only a handful of wormhole capable worlds, and subspace for right now only included the two in this galaxy.

Alicia was speechless when she stepped forward and zoomed in on Andromeda two, a satellite of Andromeda, and looked at the numbers.

She whistled, “Do you see a benefit to opening up talks with any of these?  Or should we mind our own business.  With wormhole technology even a hundred million light years would be less than three hours away.”

I shook my head, “It sounds cool, until I thought about it.  Just over fifty worlds is a pain in the ass to keep track of, and we still have ten thousand plus that will join us all one day when they get out into space.  It would be incredibly complicated with that many worlds, too many things could go wrong.  I also can’t think of a good enough reason or benefit in making contact either.”

She nodded, “You’re probably right.  What about conquering species?”

I shrugged, “We can’t protect the whole universe.  But Al is keeping an eye on all the civilizations, and if any aggressive ones look toward the Milky Way we should know about it.  Luckily, there aren’t that many wormhole capable races out there, the FTL races are just too far away to matter.”

She was quiet for a moment.

“I have a question for you, is what I’m doing good enough, or should we build more platforms?  I even have a smaller design in mind if we do.”

She pondered, “Maybe we should, a lot can happen in a month.  Maybe not a hundred, but more than four?  Smaller?”

I nodded, “We kind of over engineered everything in case of failure.  Which makes sense with humans aboard. Worst that could happen is we lose a probe every once in a while.”

I brought up a three dimensional image of a relatively small sphere with various emitters on it.

“But I was thinking something about three meters in diameter, a sphere.  It wouldn’t have FTL, or wormhole emitters, or anything of the kind for alternate methods of movement, since they’d be essentially probes that have no need to land on a planet.

“They wouldn’t even have a large fusion reactor to get the singularity or dark energy reactor going, we could jump start them from a ship, once the reactor was live it would have all the power it needed to keep the gravity emitters powered for the singularity.  With maintenance nanites that one power source would most likely never fail, but even if it did, it would destroy itself when the dark energy was released, and we could just fabricate a replacement.

“It would also have an inside sphere for communications and scanning like our ships do, reason being is it could drop to normal space in stealth mode and have regular sensors to pick up normal space communications, while still monitoring subspace scans.  In essence, it would have the advantages the stealth sensor net does as well.

“In fact, it would be nothing but a subspace drive, a very tiny Dark energy reactor, a small gravity drive, and a bunch of sensors.  That small, our large scale fabricators could build about twenty at a time, probably more.  We could have one for each galaxy in about a week, although the fine tuning of the subspace array with a quantum level fabricator would take an additional two days each.  So a little over a week.”

She raised an eyebrow, “You’ve thought a lot about it?”

I shrugged, “Mainly bored, I haven’t had time to focus on anything new, so I kind of combined two projects together. My make current things better project, with my snoop on the universe project, and that’s what came out.  I’m worried though that I’m just being nosy, is what we have good enough or do we really want to spy on over a hundred galaxies.”

Kristi grinned like the answer should be obvious, and said, “Let’s spy on galaxies, you’ll also be able to learn their languages with the new probes, so if we ever need to talk to them…” she trailed off and looked thoughtful.

“Maybe, the humanoid races anyway.  We haven’t had much luck speaking to the Drenil, Bugs, or Reilan.  I’d say our chances with the other eight are equally as dismal.  Not impossible, just really difficult.”

I sighed, “Al you heard the lady, activate project Snoopy.  So needless to say, it looks like the seeders were definitely involved in other galaxies as well.”

Kristi asked, “Why do you suppose they did it.  I know you don’t believe in the king of the hill theory.  I promise I won’t laugh, what do you really think?”

I snorted, and took a sip of my coffee.

“They were lonely Kristi.  That’s what I choose to believe.  We aren’t an experiment at all.  We are a gift, to ourselves, and others.

“Our planet formed what, a few billion year ago?  So they were in the oldest part of the universe, and while our galaxy was still barely congealing stellar dust they were crawling out of their oceans.  Maybe they looked to the skies like we did, and then they yearned to see what was out there.  When they gained the knowledge they built their ships, created FTL, and found nothing.

“Then they created wormholes and made it where we are today, subspace.  Then they went out and searched all the other galaxies, and found nothing at all.  Just hot gasses and cosmic dust congealing into asteroids and worlds.

“So they decided if they wanted others to hang with, they’d better make them.  They designed our worlds, and our evolutionary path, and now they’re either gone, or waiting for us to catch up before they come back and say hello.”

She giggled, “You really are an optimist, do you know that?”

I shrugged, “Liar, you said you wouldn’t laugh.  If we were just a science experiment, why make it on such a large scope?  Although I have to admit, I thought of the idea a while ago, long before today and the scans backed up my feelings.  Ultimately it doesn’t matter why, it’s our story now, even if we were mixed up in a galactic petri dish.  Unless they come back of course.”

Kristi looked shamed, and nodded, “Sorry, I guess it’s just as valid as any other theory.”

I grinned widely and winked, “It was also on a Star Trek episode I think.  You know the one, where the seeders left a message in the DNA of Humans, Klingons and Romulans, and the only way to see and hear it was for them to all cooperate together?”

My smile was beatific, since it wasn’t very often at all that I got one over on her like that.  I think Bill had rubbed off on me a bit, his story telling skills were legendary after all.

Kristi growled, and I ran out of the lab giggling.  Not very mature for a head of state, but it was extremely fun.

Who knew though? It might even be the real answer.  The truth was that there was probably no way to know, short of them coming back to tell us.

Chapter Seven

I was in my lab, going over the designs that were currently being fabricated.  It all looked good, small, efficient, and not overly engineered for a small probe that wouldn’t be missed if it blew itself up.  Chances were it wouldn’t though, and would last for many thousands of years with the maintenance nanites on it.  Maybe longer.  So far, I hadn’t found anything else to tweak.

Al informed me, “Karen would like to speak with you if you have a moment.”

I nodded slowly, and got up and headed to Karen’s office.  At first I’d felt that not saying thank you all the time was rude, but I knew he’d read that from my mind.  He’d told me as well, that the verbal thank you was superfluous.  With this new interface, Al wasn’t the only one that was changing.

I froze as Karen’s door opened, and I saw a smiling Nadia in one of the seats.  I pulled it together and smiled as I moved in and took a seat.

“Nadia?  How’d you get here?”

Karen said, “She came on shuttle from one of the old treaty worlds.”

Nadia nodded in agreement, “By the time I got my finances and all straightened out, I knew I wanted the job.  It’ll be nice to work for a head of state who I won’t have to protect my back from.  The president took my resignation happily enough, and approved my request to visit other worlds in the treaty.  I chose an old treaty world of course, but also one that I knew already had scientists here.  After that, I just had to hitch a ride.”

I smiled, “It’s good to have you. They don’t know you’re here, so won’t they get mad when they find out?”

Nadia shook her head, “They know, I told them as we docked here.  I thought that would be better than them finding out some other way.  I just didn’t want them to stop me, so I waited until I was here.”

Karen said, “As long as I have you here, most of the applicants were turned down.  They were either spies, or wanted to work the system and try and get rich.  We do have a doctor now though, and a chef for one of the restaurants.”

I frowned, “So we have two positions filled out of fifty or so?”

Karen shrugged, “More like eight out of fifty, like I said a few of the spouses of the scientists wanted jobs.  Regardless, with only one chef, and an assistant, the restaurant will only be open for lunch and dinner five days a week.  Still, that’s a lot better than nothing.”

Yeah, but we had like four restaurants that needed full staffs, not to mention a club, a bar, several store fronts.  I didn’t know what to do, I wasn’t offering pay, and I wasn’t letting people run a scam out of here either.

“Let’s give the ads a little longer, are we running them on all the worlds that sent scientists?”

Karen nodded, “We are.  I think another of the problems might be the news.  Earth hasn’t been all that shy about saying you’re a fugitive, even if they have no proof.  I wonder maybe if it isn’t the pay as much as I believed, but a safety concern instead.”

Nadia sighed, “That’s definitely a possibility.”

I shrugged, “Just keep the ads going then, I don’t know what else we can do.  Maybe when a little time goes by and Earth is still talking, but very little else, we’ll get some more bites.”

I turned to Nadia, “Any advice for me?”

Nadia shook her head, “Things are fairly stable right now, perhaps simmering on Earth, but there isn’t anything you can really do except not trust anything they do or say.”

I sighed, sage advice, but it rubbed me wrong.  Kristi was right, I am an optimist.  At least as far as people were concerned.

“Let me know if you need help settling in, in the meantime let me know when you need something job wise, or personally.  I’m glad you’re here.”

Nadia smiled, and actually gave me a hug.  Maybe she liked me more than I’d thought, and could show it now that she wasn’t stuck trying to assist in my downfall?

“Anything else Karen?”

She shook her head, “I don’t think so.”

I headed back toward my lab for the rest of the day…

Bill and I had had guests for dinner that night.  I’d invited Nadia, Kristi, and Joe to come eat with us.  Karen as well, but she declined as she had her own family to get home to.  Things were going really well until Kristi put me on the spot.

“So, when are you two going to tie the knot?  I’ve been waiting a whole two days to be asked to be your maid of honor, obviously I had no choice but to take the position by force to get things moving along.”

I stared at her dumbfounded for a minute, I’d never pressured her into marrying.  I could see that she was teasing, mostly, but she was also deadly serious.  Maybe she was getting me back from my sad lonely alien story that I’d stolen from Star Trek.

I looked over at Bill who looked amused.

“Next month?” I kind of just threw it out there.

Bill nodded slowly, and drawled, “I suppose I can wait that long.”

I grinned, “So… who is coming.  You’d better invite out families, Nora and Senna, any of your old police force buddies?” I asked of Bill at the end.

He nodded slowly, “Sure, I’ll send Kristi a list by tomorrow.”

“Mine is pretty short, just my family, Nora, Senna, Nadia, and Karen.  Maybe Caroline?  Did I miss someone Bill?” I asked with a twinkle in my eye.

He drawled humorously, “I don’t think so, though something tickles the brain.  Shouldn’t you invite your maid of honor?”

I frowned in deep thought, and Kristi giggled, “Fine, I suppose I deserved that.  So next month?  Send me all that stuff and I’ll organize it.  I’ll even get the caterer, which will be easy since there’s exactly one chef on station.  The only question is…”

“Peach, definitely a peach dress.”

Kristi glared at my interruption, “I didn’t make you wear peach!  Oh, never mind, the only question was actually who would be doing the marrying?”

“Hmm, good question.  We have no priests or reverends, or even a judge for that matter outside of us.”

Bill asked, “Joe, you up for being best man?”

Joe shrugged, “Sure, I can make sure you make it to the altar.”

“I have another question, and no Kristi I won’t make you wear peach, but how will we get our families off of Earth, not to mention Bill’s friends on the force?  I mean, we can send a stealth ship, but they’ll see it as soon as it enters the atmosphere.”

Nadia said, “I’ll look into that, and I’ll get with Nora and Senna, I’m sure they’d help.  They best bet is for a third party to do it, like I got here.”

“Maybe, but they’re no doubt watching Bill and my family rather closely.”

Nadia shrugged, “I know, have a little faith.  Just let them know it’s coming, and I’ll pass on the how through you two to them when I know more.  You can communicate privately with them right?”

Bill and I nodded.

I wasn’t sure at all about the other question, did we want to get religion involved with marriage like it was on Earth?  I had no particular reason not to, but on the other hand we would be a melting pot of sorts of all different worlds.  I also realized I was in charge of this world as well, so I suppose I could just declare us married.  I wouldn’t do anything that tacky… but I could.

“How about this for Minerva.  To be married under the law here, you have to make vows witnessed by an A.I. for legal reasons.  Other than that, it’s up to the couple what else they have.  They can do the vows alone, with a priest, or a rabbi, or whatever they want, a dancing monkey.  As long as there’s a legal A.I. witness.”

Kristi, Bill, and Joe nodded.

Al said, “I’ve added that to the current laws.”

I shrugged, “As for us specifically, how about we exchange our own vows in front of family and friends.  Or do you want someone to guide things, like a priest or even judge back home would do.”

Bill shrugged, “That works for me, whatever makes you happy.”

“Alright, so a month from Saturday?”

Everyone seemed happy with that, and then Joe asked, “What about your honeymoon?”

I shrugged, “Bill?  Any planets you want to go visit?”

Bill frowned in thought, “I wouldn’t mind seeing Athiren.  I’m curious about other Knomen, for obvious reasons, and I liked the way you described the place when you were there with Kristi.”

“Sounds like a plan.  We’ll leave Kristi in charge until we get back.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, and we got back to our meal.

And then of course, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  Holy crap, I was getting married in a month…

It was much later that night, that I had if possible an even more serious conversation.  Bill held me while we were in bed, and his voice was curious.

“I love you Alicia, but one thing we never discussed was children.”

I nodded, “I didn’t see the point, we can’t have any, and I’ll be happy with just having you, happier and more fulfilled than you know.”

He nodded, “I appreciate you saying that, but I don’t want you to regret anything.  There may be a time where you want kids.  If you do, I’d be more than willing to raise them as their father.”

I frowned, “What exactly are you suggesting?”

He shrugged, “They must have something like humans do on their worlds right?  I mean, there’s only two options for us to have a family, we’d either adopt, or artificial insemination if you want to have a child of your own blood.  Either way is okay with me.  If you don’t want to, that’s fine too I suppose.  You’re all I need, I just don’t want us to regret it, if you really want a family, but we’d never talked about it.”

I think I’ll have to think about that, I know Al must already be researching it, because the idea does interest me.  I’m just not sure, I always just assumed we wouldn’t, which was obviously a mistake.

I kissed him then, and we went to sleep.  I was almost in shock from the seriousness of the discussions tonight.  I felt like we’d just got engaged, and now we had our marriage planned, at least the outline of it, and now were talking about kids too.

The really scary part, was the only thing that bothered me was that nothing about it bothered me at all.  He was perfect for me, and I couldn’t wait…

Chapter Eight

It was three-eighteen in the morning when Al woke me at severe risk to his continued operation.

“What is it Al?”

Al replied, “The Drenil have sent a ship to right outside of our heliopause, and it has entered normal space.”

“Holy crap.”

Al replied, “Indeed.”

I shook Bill awake, “Get dressed, we have a guest.  We’ll take the house ship, it’s the only other one here with subspace capability.”

I didn’t think they’d attack, they came here after all, and are most likely waiting for a response.  Still, they could quite easily destroy an unshielded shuttle, and some caution was called for, just in case.

Bill muttered, “Guest?” as he pulled on a pair of jeans over his pressure suit.

I nodded as I slipped into my own skin tight pressure suit and pulled on a pair of jeans and a decent blouse.  Then I explained who our guest was as we headed for the landing bay.  I debated waking Kristi, and decided to err on the side of caution.

After some fast talking, she agreed we all shouldn’t go at once, Kristi and I were the true rulers in this place, simply because we were the only ones who could control our true military might.  Still, she’d be there virtually watching everything, along with Joe.

We got on the house ship, and as soon as the house ship’s hanger closed, the station’s hangar started to depressurize, and once the doors opened we flew out into space.  Bill and I were in the kitchen, and it occurred to me he’d never been on the house ship before.  I’d have to give him a tour later.  For now though, we had a snack and drank some coffee to wake up.

Then we and the Drenil kind of stared at each other for a while.  I tried sending communications their way, but they didn’t understand us, not even a count from one to ten.

Al reported, “They are clearly trying to talk to us, their shield fluctuations and harmonics are pointed our way.  There is no pattern of communication that I can discern.”

It was several hours later, and for the sake of Al’s continued existence, several coffees later when something finally changed.  The Drenil ship completely dropped their subspace shields, before that they’d been maintaining what for us would be five percent, just enough to stop any attack based on missiles or plasma weapons.

I imagined it would also stop a subspace wave.

Then an aperture appeared on the bottom, and a small shuttle came out of it.  A quick scan revealed nothing but gravity technology, it was a shuttle that could at best reach point six five of light speed.  Then it took off toward Minerva.  At that speed it would take close to a day to get there.

I appreciated their caution in keeping their main ship at the door so to speak, and not barging in.  There was another part of me however, that groaned at the idea of waiting twenty-four hours to see what happened next.

“Al, drop the subspace shield, bring up the anti-mass field just far enough to follow that shuttle at the same speed it’s going with our gravity drive.”

I wasn’t sure how much that was, except it was probably a lot less than one percent.

Al replied, “Please verify command.  That is not recommended, we won’t have any protection from the Drenil’s shield weapon.”

I sighed, “Just do it Al, their shuttle is unprotected, they trusted us first, and now it’s our turn.”

Kristi’s hologram said, “I agree, reluctantly.”

As I’d expected, the large Drenil ship did not react.

Joe asked, “Any idea what they plan to do?”

I shrugged, “We’ll find out in a day, but I have a feeling they’re going to land for a face to face meeting.  Just like I wanted to do on the Drenil world when we failed to open up communications the first time.  This time I’m landing to meet them.  Alone.”

Bill didn’t look happy with that at all.  Okay, perhaps not happy was an understatement.  Of course, I was an adult, and the leader of a world, so I was happy there were no witnesses when I looked at my fiancé and wheedled.

“I’m just going to talk, or actually, soul read them while they read me.  At least, that’s what I think their plan is.”

Bill frowned, “Then there should be no trouble with me coming along in the shuttle.”

I sighed, “I suppose that works, I was just being cautious.  I don’t think they mean harm, and I’m sure it will be fine, but what if their brain waves are damaging somehow?  I just though it prudent to lessen the risk.”

Bill crossed his arms, “Then I should go.”

I smiled lightly and kissed him, “Sorry, I’m the only soul reader here, if there is a danger it would be lessened for me because of that, it will also increase the chances of meaningful communication if I can read one of them as well.  You can come on the shuttle, but I’d appreciate it if you’d stay inside of it while we’re down there.”

He nodded reluctantly, not happy but he understood it.

Kristi sighed, “You’re excited about this aren’t you, damn crazy alien.  I wonder why now.  The whole Bug thing was last month.”

I shrugged, “Maybe they talk everything to death before doing something.  It could be they’ve just decided on a course of action from last month’s activities.  I’m just glad they responded before we launched our planned probes in a few days, that would have muddied the waters even further.  Come to that, their decision could have originated from a discussion sparked by us getting subspace technology in the first place, and taken months to decide.”

Bill grinned, “So like the Treants in Lord of the Rings.”

“Something like that, but it’s all just a guess.”

Kristi sighed, “Fine, I’m going back to bed, since this whole thing seems to be on hold for a day.  I’ll contact you in a few hours.”

“Night,” I said, and she and Joe blinked off.

Bill asked, “Are you tired?”

I shook my head, I was too wired, and then I smiled, “Want to see the bedroom?  Or maybe the hot tub?”

Bill raised an eyebrow, “Hot tub?”

I blushed, “I was missing home at the time, and decided we really didn’t need a bridge, so I turned it into a work out room slash hot tub.”

Bill nodded, “Maybe you better show me that hot tub,” he drawled slowly while he looked me up and down.

I smiled, and we headed that way…

Chapter Nine

The day went pretty slowly, but I gave Bill a full tour of the space house, and we found pleasant things to do to while away the time.  We went to bed a bit early, to get a full night’s sleep before we arrived at the planet in the wee hours of the morning.

Kristi and Joe had done the same, and as I’d suspected the Drenil had landed on the planet about a mile away from the city under construction, and seemed to be waiting.

Kristi frowned, “I don’t like it, but I know you’ll go anyway, just be careful okay?”

Bill echoed her sentiment, “Don’t do anything stupid.”

I grinned, “Let’s go,” and we headed down to the garage as Kristi called it, and got in one of the sports shuttles.  The mini-landing bay, as I liked to call it, depressurized and opened up, and we took the shuttle down to the surface, and landed maybe fifty feet away from the Drenil shuttle.

I took a deep breath, and then kissed Bill, “I’ll be right back.”

We both activated our pressure suits, and the material closed over our faces and sealed.  Then I opened the door and walked about halfway to the shuttle, and then I waited.  I couldn’t help but notice the airlock door on the shuttle was about four feet wide and twelve feet high.  The Drenil wasn’t going to be tiny and cute.

The door opened and an amorphous creature stepped out, as far as I could see, it wasn’t wearing a suit.  It was about ten feet tall, and then nine, and then nine point five.  There was no recognizable head, or body, it was just a blob that seemingly had no shape at all.  Truly alien.

What followed is extremely hard to describe, like explaining the color blue to a blind man.

When he stepped forward I read his, her, or its soul.  Serenity was the best word I could use to explain their core, or at least, the core of this particular being.  I also sensed a nebulous feeling of something like nervousness, but it had a slightly different flavor than what I’d sense from a nervous humanoid.

Honestly, that relaxed me more than the serenity did, the Drenil was nervous, which from my point of view was ridiculous.  I also detected a massive intellect, a serene massive intellect.  I’d never felt something like that before, and wondered if I was really sensing it, or if the Drenil was pushing it from itself somehow.

Or maybe I had undeveloped and latent powers of the mind, and the Drenil’s mind was just loud enough to hear with it?

There was no sign that the Drenil meant me any harm, and there was something similar to curiosity and bafflement, a temporary emotion, barely noticeable past the serenity and intellect.

Then I froze, because if I was a soul reader, then the Drenil were soul delvers.  He, she, or it didn’t just read my soul, he touched it.  I knew the Drenil meant no harm, but his soul abilities eclipsed mine a thousand times more than mine eclipsed a human with sharp powers of intuition.

The Drenil may have intended it as a hug, but what happened was a soul crushing hug, my mind and soul had no defense against it, no more than a human had against a playful lion meaning no harm when it playfully swatted a human.  The difference in our abilities was vast in a way I couldn’t explain, and those crude metaphors would just have to do.

Then impossibly, it got worse, as he not only delved into my soul, but also my mind.  The vast towering intellect I’d sensed crushed my mind and laid my thoughts bare.  I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, I didn’t fail to resist, it just wasn’t possible too.  After what seemed like an eternity, the Drenil finally relented, and released me. I passed out…

I groaned and opened my eyes, “What the hell happened, where am I?”

My head was killing me, and someone close by was breathing way too loudly.

He cleared his throat, “I’m doctor Stanton.  What do you remember?”

I frowned, “I was on the planet.  To try and communicate in some meaningful way with the Drenil.  What happened, how did I get here?”

When I heard Bill’s voice I calmed a bit.

“You were out for two days Alicia.  The Drenil returned to their ship and left.  As for what happened to you, Al used the artificial gravity to put you back in the shuttle and I took you straight to the doctors while Al returned the house ship to the station.”

I sighed, “What’s wrong with me?  I have a huge headache.”

The doctor sighed, “Nothing.  There is no physical trauma at all, not even to your brain, although your scans showed abnormal stimulation in your brain, but that settled after a few hours.  You shouldn’t have a headache at all.”

I was slightly amused, the doctor almost sounded personally offended that I had a headache.

I frowned, “Probably just bruised my soul.”

The doctor coughed, “What?”

“Umm, nothing.  Never mind that, so they just left and haven’t come back, or tried to communicate?”

Bill said, “No, what did you discover?”

Kristi came running in and hugged me, “Don’t ever do anything that stupid again.”

I smirked, “You just don’t want to run this place.”

She snickered but still looked upset at the same time, “Damned right I don’t.”

I shrugged when I turned back to Bill, “Nothing I can prove scientifically.  They’re… really different, and so much more than we are mentally, and soul wise.  They’re peaceful, but we already knew that, and they have an incredible serenity to them.  Tranquil, calm, peaceful.  I’ve no idea how to talk to them, or translate them, but I got the impression the Drenil got a lot more from me than I did from it.

“So hopefully they’ll open a dialogue.”

That was a major understatement, I was sure they’d pinned my mind and soul down and read every thought, feeling, and inclination I’d ever had, since the day I was born.  I didn’t want to say that out loud though, they’d think I was crazy.

All three of them stared at me, I rest my case.

Regardless, if I was right about that, then they’d be able to speak at our level once they’d absorbed it.  Perhaps they went to discuss it some more after reading me?  The strange thing was I didn’t really feel violated by it, or embarrassed, they were just too alien for that.  I didn’t even feel judged.  I was sure a more primitive humanoid would think them gods or angels after an experience like that.  Unfortunately, in a comparison between human and insect, we really came out as the bug.

“My headache is clearing.  Can I go?”  It really was, mostly.

The doctor snorted, “I treat bodies, not… souls,” he said the word almost distastefully, as if dismissing such a possibility, and then continued, “There is nothing wrong with your body and your brain activity returned to normal forty hours ago and hasn’t changed since.  You can go if you want.  Come back though, if your symptoms persist, and I’ll take another look.”

I happily escaped the med bay, only to be taken straight home and coddled by my fiancé and best friend.  I managed to convince them to allow me the couch, and not the bed.  A short time later I was brought food, something to drink, and as I started to eat Nadia, Joe, and Karen showed up.

“What?” I asked of the scowling faces.

Nadia sighed, “Was it worth it? You could have died.”

I shrugged helplessly, “It will be if they come back and can talk to us.”

Kristi asked, “If?  I thought you said they got a lot more from you.”

I nodded, “They did, but they might decide we aren’t worth talking to.”

Joe and Bill snickered.

I grinned, “It’s true.  They may have simply come to find out Kristi and my intentions and plans with the subspace technology.  If they’ve learned what they’d intended to, then they’d have no reason to tell us anything.  They might, it’s really hard to say.”

Kristi accused, “Your hopeless.”

I nodded, “Maybe.  So what else has gone on in my absence.”

Al spoke, “I am pleased you are recovered.  Not much of note has happened here on the station, however Jason has had a breakthrough back on Earth, and is convinced he’s found a solution.”

I looked at Kristi, and she nodded.

“Okay Al, go ahead and make an android.  Female, late twenties, attractive but not overly so, and build a new quantum computer with a female A.I. with personality programming.”

Al said, “Working, it should be ready in twenty-four hours.”

I looked around at the surprised faces and smiled.

“I want to see it for myself, before I agree.  Once it’s verified we can close the Colorado location down, since Dr. Delouse works out of Texas.  I don’t want to take that action until I’m sure he has it solved though.”

Kristi shrugged, “Makes sense, I’ve just been worried about you and hadn’t thought it through, why late twenties and only somewhat attractive.”

I frowned, “Not threatening, appealing to a wide group of demographics, not so gorgeous that people think sex-bot, and finally still attractive enough to gain acceptance…”

Nadia snickered.

“Was that too blunt?” I asked innocently.

Kristi shook her head, “Nope, all good reasons.  What will you do with her after you’ve verified it?”

I grinned, “Build Al a body, she’ll need a boyfriend.”

Al objected, “I have no interest in a romantic relationship, or an android body.”

I sighed in faux sadness, “Poor Jenna, not even born yet and already rejected.”

Everyone laughed, except Al.  I knew he didn’t really want an android body, he already told me it wouldn’t help him anticipate my needs or serve me better so there was no point in one.  I supposed it was kind of silly to tease an A.I., but more and more Al seemed like a real person to me.  Still, I knew that was an illusion, he was an intelligent entity, but he wasn’t a being with his own needs, desires, or emotions.

Karen asked, “So what will you do with her?”

I blew out a breath, “Not sure yet, I’ll think of something.”

Kristi frowned, “You’re up to something.”

I winked, but didn’t tell.  It was a crazy idea after all…

Chapter Ten

Jenna was adorable.  She had a cute face, long brown hair, and hazel eyes.  She had an athletic body that looked to be in shape, but was fairly average in proportion for a woman in shape.  Al had done an excellent job in doing as I’d asked.  She still wasn’t quite real for me, but it only took me a few minutes of talking to her to realize it was the soul reading thing.  So we probably wouldn’t sell many of them on Knomen worlds.

She still creeped me out a little bit because I couldn’t sense her soul, and knew something was wrong.  Everything else was perfect, I even had to remind myself that she wasn’t human, because she had all the right mannerisms and a programmed personality that mimicked emotions, even if she didn’t really have any.  Honestly, that’s where all the controversy would come from I think.

Kristi, Bill, Joe, and Karen all swore she was humanlike.  She looked like the girl next door crossed with a soccer mom.

I’d finally come clean an hour or so ago, as we sat at the restaurant, and watched everyone as we ate a slow leisurely meal.

Jenna was playing hostess and waitress tonight, and we were paying attention to the people, we even had little messages sent to each patron, asking them to provide feedback on the service.  Oh, and I forbade Jenna from telling anyone she was an android unless directly asked.  So far, no one had.  It was a sneaky test, and it proved a couple of things to me.

First, it proved Jason had succeeded, and I started the process of closing down the business location, now the only business on Earth we were involved with was with Cindy.  Although we would continue to support him in sales and fabrication on Earth where we could, we’d also make Jason a very rich man on other worlds.

Secondly, well that was a surprise.  It was a crazy plan, and bound to cause controversy, but I didn’t care.

It was the next afternoon, after I’d read through over a hundred feedback cards that all praised the new woman’s service, that the idea had solidified in my mind.

Nadia, Kristi, and I were in Karen’s office.

“Karen, I assume we haven’t had a landslide of applicants?”

She sighed, “No, we haven’t.”

I nodded, “Well, here’s my crazy idea.  Jenna did really well at the restaurant, what I propose is we make fifty or so androids, all unique, and give them the jobs that need the personal touch.  Like bartender, waitress, massage therapist, hairdresser and all the other positions humanoids are used to humanoids holding.  If humans don’t want the jobs, we’ll give them to androids.  Just take down the ads.  Then we can concentrate on the scientists and science, and their families.”

Kristi frowned, “They liked Jenna enough, but what will they think if they find out what she is?”

“That part I haven’t worked out yet.  Do we tell them, let them figure it out themselves, or what?  There are advantages to both.  If they find out for themselves they’ll likely already be predisposed to keep liking them, but they’d also most likely be angry and embarrassed at being fooled like that.  Is it a crazy idea?

“We can even make sure the right android is the right personality for the job.  Like a discrete masseuse, a more mature look for a hairdresser, and a slightly more attractive and outgoing personality for a bartender or bar waitress.  I’m less worried about the androids being accepted as I am about enabling personal laziness, but then most of the scientists’ spouses already aren’t working, so is there a difference?”

Karen said, “Well, we would save on shuttles.”

Kristi laughed, “That would be true, if they actually cost us anything.”

Nadia shook her head, “I think it’s a good idea.  Especially if you’re having trouble hiring.  Maybe once this initial group of scientists passes muster, and you’ve been around for a while you might draw more people, other than scientists I mean.  Humans could take the jobs eventually, but we need the help right now.”

Kristi asked, “But what about the androids, when they’re no longer needed.”

I smiled and said humorously, “We’ll make them management.”

Karen coughed in surprise, “Really?”

I shook my head, “Probably not, it would upset people.  Babysitters, personal assistants, I don’t know, I’m sure we could find something.  Once the few hundred becomes thousands I’m sure Bill will need help with keeping order.  If nothing else, we can always sell them.”

They all nodded slowly, and Kristi said, “I like it.  It is kind of crazy, but its either that or bang our heads against the wall.”

Karen nodded, and Nadia just shrugged, which almost made it unanimous.

“Al, did you hear that, can you get production started for the needed jobs?”

Al said in his normally patient voice, “Of course Alicia, they’ll be online in thirty-six hours.”

I frowned, “That fast?”

Al replied, “Yes, we have a great number of quantum fabricators on the ship, which can all put out one processor in the next twenty-four hours, and there are a lot of fabricators, and not much wait time with only a hundred and fifty scientists.  As you know, this facility was designed to support thousands.  The final twelve hours is for the programming modifications you requested.”

“Thanks Al.”

Over the next few weeks a number of things happened.

First, my headaches truly did eventually completely fade and go away.  I hadn’t lied about it in the medical ward, but mostly faded had left a sensitivity and after headache that took almost the full three weeks to go away.  I was under the impression it was my soul that was hurt though, not my mind or body, which ironically was backed up by the doctor’s comments that nothing was wrong with my body.

It was actually somewhat of a relief to know that would heal too.  It also wasn’t something I shared overly much, people seemed to get skeptical when I shared my views about souls.

The second major change was the androids.  We’d taken more of a middle ground between telling them and letting the scientists and their families find out.  When we’d sent out our new workforce, we’d published the information and sent out an update message.  Of course, as I’d predicted very few people actually read it.

Word of mouth from the few that did read it sufficed for most to find out over a day or two.  At first, only a handful of people complained, and I think most were uncomfortable with it, ironically because now that they couldn’t tell they weren’t real people they were creeped out by it.  But it wasn’t an instinctual creep out, just a social one, which seemed to pass after the first week.

Humans could get used to anything.

So the idea was mostly accepted.  There were a few holdouts, three families, or just under three percent of the current population.  It wasn’t lost on me that none of those were the scientists with spouses that worked.  Still, it’d been better than I’d expected, I’d hoped that everyone would be okay with it, but I knew that just wasn’t realistic.

The third thing was that we’d set up more detailed plans for the wedding.  We chose the park in the middle of the ship for the actual ceremony, and got a menu worked out with the chef.  We even engaged in a little trade on other worlds for the flowers.

The last thing that happened was we sent out over a hundred of the new subspace probes for operation Snoopy, and had them hovering over each of the galaxies for constant updating of the general state of each galaxy.  The database was absurdly huge, and if we wanted to zoom in on any particular solar system in any of those galaxies it was a matter of seconds before the small probe got there and updated the database with more specific information.

Honestly, it was probably overkill, but we were fairly sure we’d have sufficient warning if anything would be coming our way.  It felt a bit… paranoid, but ultimately wasn’t a bad idea.  Too much information never really hurt anyone, whereas too little could be a problem.  It was also a good way to kill some extra time, as we started to build translations for thousands of languages…

Chapter Eleven

It was late afternoon when Al interrupted my thought process, I had been attempting to figure out the next direction for my research.  I still felt like we’d barely scratched the surface on subspace technology.

“Incoming message, from the Drenil,” and then a moment later, “All Drenil craft have disappeared from subspace scans, all Drenil planets now show zero population.”

I forgot to breath for a second, gasped a breath, and then asked, “Put it up?”

I stared at the message for several minutes, a mere twenty-five words, and then I got up and searched for some alcohol.  It wasn’t exactly a bad message, good if anything, but also shocking.  Worse, it was so cryptic it didn’t really prove anything, only I would understand it, and perhaps Kristi.

I was on my second glass when I sent out a message for Kristi, Bill, Nadia, and Karen to meet me in Bill’s quarters.  This job was making me an alcoholic, I’d need to watch that, but at that moment I didn’t really care. I blew out a breath as they all came in.  Kristi would have to tell Joe later, right now he was off world making us all more money, and making contacts.

Kristi studied me carefully before she asked, “What is it?”

I frowned in thought, “The Drenil sent a twenty-five-word message, and then disappeared.”

Bill drawled, “Disappeared?” as he sat down next to me and grabbed a drink for himself.

I nodded, “Literally, all of their ships, and populations just dropped off of the scans.”

Karen asked, “What does that mean?”

I shrugged, “That even with subspace technology we’re still babies compared to them.  Or at least, our current understanding of it.”

Kristi asked the obvious question, “What did they say.”

“Peaceful intent, content, regret harm, forgive self-actions, saved life from others in your tribe.  Speak more when you grow up more.  We were lonely.”

Nadia grunted, “That’s rather nonsensical.”

I sighed, “Not if they tailored the message specifically for what they read in my mind.  The first five words are fairly obvious.  They are peaceful, content with us, and regret the harm done to me.”

When no one said anything I continued, “The next ten words were about the way I’ve been beating myself up over the massacre of the Bugs, they’re telling me to let it go.  The next seven I already covered, we’re still babies compared to them.  I don’t even get the idea that they meant babies technologically, I don’t think we’re done evolving as humanoid species, and when we do evolve they’ll be waiting for us.  Our evolutionary paths as humanoid species is far from finished.”

Nadia shook her head, but Kristi’s eyes had gone wide.

Nadia said, “How did you come to that conclusion, what would they know about our evolution?”

I smiled, “The last three words, we were lonely clued me into the context for that.”

I shook my head, and took another drink, “It’s simple Nadia, but I have no proof and no one will believe it.  The reason they know about our evolution is they designed it.  The Drenil are the seeders.”

Nadia frowned, “How’d you get that from we were lonely?”

I shrugged, “It was my personal favored theory for the seeders, that we weren’t some kind of lab experiment, or that ridiculous king of the hill theory, but a project to make neighbors.  My idea, which admittedly isn’t new, as it was done in science fiction, is that the seeders were the only intelligent race in the universe, and they were lonely in the vastness of it, so decided to make neighbors.”

I laughed, “It’s crazy right?  I have no proof though, so I won’t be spreading that around.  The fact that they’re ridiculously ahead of us both technologically, and biologically, should attest to the age of their race, but that’s just circumstantial as well.  Of course, I’ll never find out if I’m right, because if I am it will take perhaps another billion years of evolution for us to catch up.  Still, I choose to believe it.”

Kristi was rather silent, and had joined me by getting her own glass of wine and got to the second rather quickly.

Karen asked, “Why do you think they left?”

I frowned, “Just a guess.  I think they were surprised I’d developed subspace technology at our current level of evolution, so they investigated it.  They rightly came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t have even conceived of looking into that direction without observing them doing it.  I supposed they left before I could figure out the next step by continuing to watch them?  I don’t know, I’m really speculating now, maybe much like we don’t interfere with pre-FTL races, they left for who knows where until we can figure out how to get there.”

Nadia grabbed a glass and poured herself a generous portion to the rim, “It seems horrible that we can’t tell anyone, but you’re right.  You’d be laughed at by the scientific community.  There’s no proof, it’s all guesses based on your own mind and the message.”

I agreed, “No doubt, and perhaps the message was that cryptic on purpose.  A small hint to me as an apology.  Regardless, the Drenil are gone.  Can you even conceive of the patience or scope of their project, they started it billions of years ago, and it will continue for another billion or so before it provides any dividends.  Maybe I’ll include it in my memoirs.”

Kristi sighed, “I wonder what the other worlds will make of their leaving like that.  Why were they just here though?  It seems a hell of a coincidence that the Seeders chose our little galaxy to watch their neighbors grow up.”

“They weren’t, just here I mean.  Sorry I wasn’t clear.  They disappeared from all the other galaxies as well.  There are only eleven race types left.  As for why they didn’t have ships in the other places, perhaps they didn’t need them there, because as far as I can tell the Bugs in the other galaxies aren’t as… destructive.  Our galaxy was perhaps an error that way, a divergent evolution that the Drenil didn’t anticipate.  So they needed ships here to watch and protect their colonies.”

They all looked at me and I shrugged helplessly.  I couldn’t blame them.

“I know, I’m talking out of my ass, but it still sounds right to me, and fits in with all the other facts and supposition.  The Drenil aren’t perfect, obviously.  If you think about all the worlds that are close to Earthlike but need just a little bit of terraforming, they succeeded about ten percent of the time.  I have a feeling that number will get lower still as evolution goes forward and some humanoid and other type races either dead end or self-destruct.

“In a way, none of it really matters to us in this room, only to the Drenil and our far distant descendants.  I’ve always thought the seeder theory interesting, but always believed it didn’t matter all that much at the same time.  They may have decided to make neighbors, but right now this is our story, and our existence a gift.  That’s what matters.  Still, it’s hard not to think about it and be staggered by the scope at times, like right now.”

Bill grunted and stood up, “We have a security breach, seems I finally get to earn my pay.”

I stood up too, disturbed by the idea.  We’d vetted all the scientists, and while soul reading was far from perfect I’d expected it to work.  Sergei had fooled me for months, but then I hadn’t questioned him to get past his deception.  The questions we’d come up with would have, should have, triggered a response that would have showed us he was up to no good.

As we walked out the door I asked, “What pay?”

Bill chuckled, “Evil woman.  No money, no guns, just seems wrong.  The security A.I.s caught someone hacking the security systems.  I’m sure it won’t surprise you to find out it was one of the Earth scientists?  He’s in the brig courtesy of high speed artificial gravity transport, and his A.I. has been locked out of all systems.”

I sighed, “I was surprised when they sent two, but they seemed to settle in just fine.”

Karen went back to her office, but Nadia and Kristi followed the two of us.

It was almost funny, because it was close to the whole government going for the scientist.  Still, I got the draw of something new and a little excitement, since I was just as guilty of it, Bill hardly needed my help, much less all of us.

“Which one?”

“Dr. James Arnell.  Microbiologist,” he snorted, “Not sure what he was looking for, but I don’t think he found it.  He was only caught when he tried to take over the control systems, which worries me.  If the data had been here, we’d have never known we were hacked.”

I frowned, “He was probably after the subspace tech, but none of that data is on this station, and inaccessible to anyone but Kristi and I.  Obviously the control systems are here, but that doesn’t explain the design, math, or theories behind how it works.  My guess is he tried to take over the station when he failed to find the data.  The question is why.”

Kristi said, “We’ll find out why.  Either he wanted to destroy us, or gain access to the physical hardware to reverse engineer it?”

Bill cleared his throat, “Let’s not make assumptions, you’re probably both right, but we might miss something without an open mind.  You might want to review your security protocols for the network.”

Kristi sighed, “Fine, I’ll get on that right now.  Our external security is very good, but an inside job is always easier since he was already on the network.  I’ll have to go over our intrusion protocols, I also want to rip his A.I. apart, I bet it has government level intrusion programming.  Fill me in?”

She split off from Nadia, Bill, and myself and headed to her office.

I frowned as we walked into the brig, James was very relaxed considering his position, his soul I mean…

Chapter Twelve

Bill drawled, “James, we’d like to speak with you.”

James replied, “What is the meaning of this?  Why am I here?”

Bill said, “It’s quite simple James, you were caught trying to take over the command systems of this station, you were also caught trying to search for data you have no access to.  You’re in a really bad position here James.  Perhaps if you help me out, I can help you out.  Maybe we can just forget about all this and send you home.”

James frowned and said angrily, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, either I was set up, or you’re harassing me because you’re not welcome on Earth anymore.”

I shook my head, and walked out, Nadia and Bill followed.

Bill asked, “What is it?”

“My soul reading tells me he’s being honest.  But it doesn’t match up, he’s way too calm and not upset at all.  That indignant protest was an act.”

Nadia looked up thoughtfully, “Maybe he’s been conditioned.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Conditioned?”

Nadia nodded slowly, “Sure, it’s like brainwashing, except a voluntary process he’s probably aware was done to him.  Spies use it to evade interrogators and on deep cover assignments to prevent accidental slips.  It will even fool a lie detector test because a part of them believes it all even as they lie.”

I sighed, “Well, that’s interesting in a really creepy and spooky kind of way.  So you’re saying there’s no point in even questioning him about orders and intentions?”

Nadia grunted, “Yes and no.  It can be defeated, but you’d have to go to extreme lengths to do it, which I don’t believe your prepared to do.  But his A.I. should have a record of his intentions, so you should probably focus on that.”

I supposed that to defeat that kind of programming it would take torture, and a threat of death that at least James believed, to break through the conditioning.  Nadia was right, I wasn’t prepared to do any such thing, or even allow it.

“Alright, I’ll update Kristi and hopefully she’ll have more luck than us.  In the meantime, I’m going to tell the Knomen what to look for, it should be fairly easy to feel who’s conditioned now that I know what it feels like.  Either way, I’m reluctant to let him out of that cell and have him sent to Earth until we’re sure we know his whole plan, and what if anything he may have accomplished.”

Bill cleared his throat, “I’m going to talk to him some more.”

Nadia volunteered to stay and observe, while I sent an update to Kristi.  It was pretty much up to her programming skills now, which meant it was just a matter of time.  My friend was very good at what she did.  As for me, I went to update our Knomen on what to look for in the future…

Al asked, “Do you have a moment?”

I nodded, and he went on, “Dr. Cindy Delouse’s application for human testing with the memory teaching device has been approved.  She indicated if the test was successful, there’d most likely be a second larger trial if no side effects show up for a period of five years.”

“That’s good Al, keep me updated on her progress?”

Al replied, “Of course Alicia.  Nadia would like to see you when you get a chance.”

“Tell her to come on by.”

I wasn’t all that busy, I seemed to be taking the spy in our midst with a grain of salt.  I wasn’t all that surprised by it.  I figured once Kristi found what we needed to know, we’d just send him back to Earth, with a note to Earth about how not happy we were, copied to the all the other worlds.  I figured that was punishment enough.

Unless we found evidence he’d done successful damage somehow, then I’d have to revisit that decision. Regardless, Earth really seemed to be digging themselves in hole.  Most worlds were already tired of their whining about how evil and duplicitous I was without proof, and they’d almost crossed the line last month and attacked a recognized sovereign world.

Now they were what, sending spies and saboteurs?  If that idiot had made it into the control systems he could have shut off the dark energy reactor and destroyed the place.  Or any number of other things.  Luckily, those systems were on a separate network, and Kristi had them locked down hard so the intrusion was detected.  It was the data network that she had to harden.

Still, nothing bad had actually happened, and we were forewarned about mental conditioning and could identify it next time.  It could have been worse.

Nadia walked in and looked like someone had kicked her dog.

“I’m sorry Alicia, my plan failed.  The government has your families under very close watch.  The only way to grab them at this point would be a smash and grab operation, and although my contacts owe me, they don’t owe me enough to take on the United States.”

I nodded slowly, “Don’t stress it too much, I understand.  We need our parents at the wedding though.  What’s the fallout if we take a stealth ship in.  If we’re quick enough we can land, load them up, and get back into space in under a minute.  The trick would be to have Bill’s parents visit mine, as well as Bill’s friends.  Stopping at Texas and Florida will take too long.”

She bit her lip in thought, “Considering they already want you dead, and access to the technology, both at all costs, probably not much as far as Earth is concerned.  However, the other races might look dimly on it, technically you’d at least be breaking air traffic control laws as soon as you enter the atmosphere.  Plus, there’s the getting them back part.  Can you really get by all the ships and emplacements?”

“I think so?  When we left Earth we couldn’t see stealth ships, except our own of course which had transponders in them.  Outside of my new technology that wasn’t shared that is.  You’d probably have newer information than I would that way.  We could probably adapt some radar dampening technology, and the ship is already black, for a night drop?

“But then we’d have to go slow, to avoid large atmospheric disturbance.  Plus, as soon as we landed and our families got on, the government watchers would catch us out, so it wouldn’t be worth the extra trouble.  I think I’m just babbling now to avoid a decision.”

Nadia smiled faintly, “I didn’t say it.”

“We can do it, but we’d be seen.  So the only question is having my mother at my wedding worth risking an interstellar incident.”

Nadia smirked, “I believe that was my question.”

I sighed, “You know Nadia, most girls don’t have these problems getting their family to a wedding.  I imagine just asking to pick them up for a visit would be laughed at?”

She replied, “Almost definitely.  Plus, you might want to ask them if they’ll take the risk.  Even if the other worlds are only amused at the antics between you and Earth, they could be arrested for illegally leaving Earth when they get back.  Space flight off planet is regulated, so technically they could be jailed and fined.”

I sighed, “Al, send a record of this conversation to my mother, father and sister, along with Bill’s parents and his buddies at work.  Make sure it’s secure and let me know what they decide to do.  As for me, I’m willing to go get them, and damn the consequences for the president’s pettiness.”

Nadia smiled lightly, “A girl needs her mother at her wedding, makes sense to me.”

“Anything else?”

Nadia shook her head, and I offered, “Take a break? I could use a coffee, and a chance to stretch my legs.”

Nadia grunted, “You should have put in horizontal elevators.  This place is too big.”

I grinned, “Come on old lady, let’s get some coffee.”

She snorted, and we went out the door.

I’d tell her where the horizontal gravity shafts were later, I never used them, just the ones that changed decks.  It was actually rather amusing, she must have assumed we didn’t have them, since we never really used them.  Walking kept me in shape.  All she had to do though, was ask her A.I. about it and she would have learned the truth…

“Dr. Taryn, what seems to be the trouble?”

I was mostly resigned to my new position in life.  Things had gotten to the point where I could actually mostly concentrate on science, and my personal life.  Most of the day to day administration was done by A.I. and as head administrator and leader of this station and world, most of my job involved being the complaint department.  No wonder most governments had so much red tape, it was for leaders to avoid dealing with real problems.

I’d actually come to enjoy it a little bit, it broke up my day, and the complaints had mostly slowed to a trickle.  As far as science went, I was still mostly focused on improving current technology and improving our understanding of subspace and how it interacted with this space.

Questions like, why did a pebble in our world emanate a specific radiative frequency in that other layer?  And how exactly did that interdependence work.  What kind of energy was it in that other subspace layer that was so inimical to normal matter and energy?  Did matter here create some kind of multi-dimensional radiation or energy, or was it that energy that caused matter to exist in normal space?

Maybe once I understood that I could move on to the next level of subspace, or go in a completely unanticipated direction.

Regardless, I was pretty happy with life right now with Minerva, Bill, and even my job.  Sure, complaints and the trouble getting our families here for the wedding were annoying, but not that serious in the grand scheme of things.

The issue with James was a bit more serious, and I had a meeting with Kristi in a few minutes for her to explain her findings about what he was up to.  I’d just grabbed a coffee when Dr. Taryn, of Tressia, ambushed me in the hallway.  He was a geneticist researcher and I believed he had a wife and three young children.

Dr. Taryn smiled, “Not a major problem as such.  It’s about the androids.”

I frowned, “I’m afraid Dr. Taryn that they’re here to stay, at least until suitable humanoid workers can be found for the jobs.”

Dr. Taryn smiled wider, “I’m afraid you’ve jumped to conclusions Alicia, may I call you Alicia?”

I nodded and he said, “Then call me Taryn.  You see my wife is one of the few that finds work rather Zen and relaxing, but she only works a very small part time shift a few times a week when I can watch the children.  We don’t want the androids taken away, quite the opposite, we were hoping we could acquire one as a babysitter, so my wife can have some time away from her responsibilities to do something else and recharge?”

Well, wasn’t that interesting.  Not a complaint at all, but a valid request.  Surely the end of the world was nigh.  I smiled a little sheepishly, I had jumped to conclusions, based on previous and repeated conversations, but still an assumption I probably shouldn’t have made.

“I think we can arrange that.  What type of job interests your wife?”

He replied, “She currently works in the salon.”

“If it’s just babysitting you want, perhaps the android in the salon could work out a switch for certain hours in the day?  She could take over and the android can watch the kids.  I believe that android is a friendly middle aged woman.”

He nodded, “That would be sufficient, thank you.”

I nodded, “My pleasure, I’ll make sure she’s aware your wife will talk to her about it next time your wife goes in?”

He nodded again, and then we parted.  I smiled as I headed for Kristi’s lab and office with a little something extra in my step.

Chapter Thirteen

I believed this job was also making me a little sneakier, because when Kristi told me what he’d been up to, and the proof we had from his A.I., I got an idea.  We called Bill and had him come join us, as well as our resident sneaky political person Nadia.

When they arrived Kristi explained what she’d found.

“It took me a while, but I broke into his A.I. by spoofing his own implants, so the A.I. thought I was James.  Something normally impossible, but his implants are offline, and with him in the brig there was no way for the A.I. to detect the issue without a live duplicate connection.

“Regardless, his primary orders were as we suspected, find out about the subspace technology, and transmit it home.  Obviously, he failed in that, since that data is not here on the station’s data core.”

Technically true, it wasn’t on the stations data core.  It was however, in my shoulder with Al.  The copy out in the void was just the backup.

Kristi continued, “If his primary mission failed, he was to try to steal, sabotage, or destroy the ship at all costs.  I believe from what I gleaned from his A.I. he was still on the first activity.  If he’d gained access he’d have overridden the internal gravity systems and safeties, and killed all of us, and returned to Earth with his prize to be used as an Earth asset, and to reverse engineer.  So the question becomes what do we do about it?”

I shivered, even if it was my second time hearing that.

Nadia asked, “Was there any proof Earth’s governments were behind it?”

Kristi shook her head, “No.  He’d obviously been set up to take the fall if something went wrong and he got caught.”

I nodded, “We could jail him, even kill him but I’m not for the death penalty.  But that wouldn’t hurt the people that really sent him.  James is just a spook following orders.  So I had the idea that we could return him to Earth, and pick up our wedding guests at the same time.”

I turned to Bill, “I’m sorry to say your buddies on the force won’t risk it, but Al got messages that our families want to come, even if they get stuck staying here until a new president got elected in office.  I believe your dad said, and hopefully one with a lick of sense.”

Bill chuckled.

“Anyway, if we pick them up, and drop off James at the same time, and transmit our proof of his plans to Earth and all the other worlds, and where he was from, and that all we’d done in retaliation was send him back to Earth, …” I trailed off.

Nadia smiled, “Then the Earth would be seen as terribly petty if they filed charges and made a stink about a few minor violations of atmospheric flight protocols.”

I nodded, “That’s what I was thinking.  Did I miss anything?”

Kristi teased, “That’s kind of sneaky for you.”

I blushed, “I want them here.”

Kristi nodded, “So who’s flying this mission?”

I cleared my throat, “I was thinking all of us, although it would be Bill and I that landed on the planet.  Here’s my idea…” I explained the plan.

The house ship, controlled by Kristi and Joe dropped out of subspace just a million miles or so from Earth, at the same time Bill and I moved into Earth orbit with the stealth ship.  Really, it was just a science shuttle with the gravity shielding turned up so high it would bend particles around it, and hide our power source.  About the only other difference was, we’d painted it black.

The anti-mass field was still up as well, to hide us from mass sensors.  We’d actually show up as a tiny meteorite when we started our drop into the atmosphere, which would be ignored.  At least until someone in the government got eyes on the ship, when I landed it at my parents’ farm.

The house ship was here for two reasons.  The first reason was simply to be a distraction, just in case someone was bored enough to check out a tiny meteorite that would burn up in the atmosphere.  It gave them something else to concentrate on.

“You ready?”

He nodded, and I ordered, “Go ahead Al, signal our parents and land right outside the back door.”

The ship ripped through the atmosphere, and then slowed down to just under Mach one when we hit ten thousand feet.  We were down in seconds.  This was the fun part, when we had to lower the gravity shields, as well as the EM shields so our parents could board.  We counted on their response being less than immediate, and also on the idea that they wouldn’t want to nuke or shoot plasma at the planet.

It only took a few moments for the five of them to get on the ship, loaded down with suitcases and a few boxes.  We hadn’t forgotten about James, and he was hog tied as we shoved him out the airlock and onto the grass.  It was rather satisfying.

I’d been a little surprised at my younger sister’s willingness to abandon her life on Earth for a while, but she looked happy to be there, and I couldn’t help but smile back.

I might have even teared up a bit, we’d come a long way from the sibling rivalry we’d grown up with.

So far so good, we brought up the shields and I sighed with relief.  Even if they had been willing to nuke us at this point, it wouldn’t have mattered anymore.  Not with our shields up.

“Al, go ahead and send the transmission about James, to every world leader and television station on Earth, and all the planetary leaders for the treaty worlds.  And get us back into space.”

Al replied as the ship started to lift, “Done.”

This would have been far easier if subspace tech could operate in an atmosphere without destroying it.  That also meant even with triple EM shielding, we’d be extremely vulnerable as we left atmosphere.  They had far more than sixty turrets, so if the government people on the ground in Texas got the word out, we’d be in trouble.

If they were slow enough, and the house ship a big enough distraction, we’d be safe after gaining a short distance.

My mother hugged me, “Try not to blow us up dear.”

I chuckled, “I’ll do my best.”

Despite our best efforts, Earth wasn’t stupid, and neither was Sergei.  As we cleared the atmosphere we were literally boxed in by Shield defense missiles, as well as anti-FTL missiles, which meant we definitely couldn’t go to FTL to escape.  I didn’t think the missiles could see us anymore, not now that we were above the atmosphere, but there was literally no exit point that the shuttle would fit through.  The anti-FTL missiles had the whole inside of the box covered in heavy gravity fields that were constantly stripping our FTL field anyway.

They must have planned for this, assuming I’d come get them at some point.

Al said, “You are being hailed by Admiral Abramov.”

Crap.

“Sergei, how’re things?”

He chuckled without humor, “You shouldn’t have come.  You will immediately deactivate your stealth technology and land on the nearest ship to be placed under arrest.”

I asked, “Aren’t you forgetting the other ship?”

Sergei replied, “I don’t think Kristi, or whoever you have over there, will do anything rash.  It would be a shame if your ship was destroyed instead of taken into custody, but I won’t allow you to escape.”

My mother looked scared, and I winked.  This wasn’t ideal, but it was a scenario we’d discussed, it was also the second purpose for having the home ship here.  Sure, we were too close to earth to utilize a subspace wave, plus that same wave from the house ship would also destroy us.  But there was the small matter of the initial experiments, and the weapon we’d created that would open a stationary tear in subspace, and destroy anything in front of it for ten miles.

Not as effective as a wave, but far, far, more precise.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline Sergei.  Now would be a good time Kristi.”

A large circled tear in subspace appeared at the nose of our ship, oriented in front of us, for just a moment.  All the shield missiles and FTL missiles on that side of the box were vaporized by subspace radiation.  It was also orientated away from Earth.  As soon as the disc disappeared, Al took us out at point six the speed of light.  Out of the box yes, but there were hundreds of thousands of searching missiles on seemingly random vectors.

Still, a couple of minutes later and we were clear enough to make FTL safely, and went to maximum speed.  The house ship of course, rendezvoused with us at a safe distance, and we landed in the mini-shuttle bay.

I smiled, “We’re safe now.  But first thing is we’re going to the bedrooms on this ship so you can put on ship suits in case of decompression.  It isn’t very likely, but we all need to wear one.”

My mom smiled nervously, and Tina giggled in relief.  My father looked pretty calm actually.  Bill’s parents smiled at me faintly, I wasn’t too nervous about meeting the in-laws, I’d known them since I was a baby.

We walked up the stairs to the hall with the four bedrooms, and we got them all changed, with the same clothes put back on over top.  My mom was quite scandalized by the curve hugging fabric but that’s how the suits worked.

Kristi came in the room a moment later and stared at me with narrowed eyes.

“Pavel, on the nuclear submarine in Star Trek four.”

My eyes widened in innocence, “Are you suggesting I quoted star trek when I said now would be a good time?”

She snickered, “Yes.  You even had the same inflection of voice he used.”

I sighed, “Busted.  I didn’t think you’d get that one.  Plus, you came through when Scotty totally failed Pavel.”

Kristi giggled.

Tina rolled her eyes, but had a smile on her face when she asked, “When are we getting to the space station?”

Kristi said, “About twenty seconds ago.”

Tina raised an eyebrow.

Kristi shrugged, “This ship moves ten thousand light years per second, and Minerva is right around eight thousand light years from Earth.  It actually took much longer for the bay to depressurize so we could enter, and pressurize after we landed in it than the second it took to get here.”

She looked at me and I nodded.

“We haven’t exactly been advertising our capabilities, we don’t want to make people too nervous.”

My father asked, “What capabilities, and why are you worried about others being nervous.”

I glanced at Kristi and she shrugged.

“Umm, because a lot of people would die if they tried to attack me, and I figured that was worth avoiding.  Still, they already have a good idea, come with me.”

We all headed up to the bridge.

My mother cleared her throat, “A hot tub and workout room?”

I nodded, “It’s umm, our bridge,” I blushed.

“At least, this is where the bridge was, and it still has its holographic-emitters.”

I showed them the video of one small shuttle against Earth’s entire navy, give or take a few ships, and then I showed them real time data of over a hundred galaxies.  Lastly, I showed them the destruction of the Bugs orbitals for eighty-five worlds in less than two minutes.

My father whistled, “I think I understand.  You’re worried they’ll be scared into doing something stupid, and dying, not of you being hurt.”

I nodded, “This stuff is top secret, only the people in this room really knows all of it.  The worlds know I took care of the bugs, but not how fast or how easily.  So please don’t mention it ever, not even between us unless you’re sure we have privacy.”

Strangely I didn’t feel sad or guilty about it much anymore.  I wasn’t proud of it, or happy about it, and I never would be.  But I wasn’t punishing myself for the massacre anymore either.  Sometimes in life there are no good choices, just the choice to do nothing, or pick the lesser of two evils.  It had to be done.

After that, we gave them a tour of the little house ship, a brief tour of the station, which I supposed was really just a huge ship, and we checked out the park before we got our parents to their quarters.

As for Tina, Kristi and I took her to the club that night, and invited Nadia along too.  It turned out my sister wanted to try living here for a while, and was excited about meeting other races, or as she put it with humor, those evil aliens like her sister.

I’d have invited Bill as well, I loved to dance with him, but by Kristi’s decree it’d become my bachelorette party night.  It seemed hard to believe a month had gone by that quickly, but it had.  Not that I minded, I really couldn’t wait…

Chapter Fourteen

Kristi smiled as she, my mother, my sister, and Bill’s mother fussed over me to get me ready.  Although the latter left early to join her son about an hour before the wedding.  The dress I’d chosen was fairly simple as wedding dresses went, but even so it was still the most complicated dress I’d ever worn.

Kristi and my sister were both in teal dresses, I took mercy on them, but still hedged my bets.  They looked good, but the color was still just a little bit horrid.

I was still half convinced my best friend was still better looking in that thing, but didn’t even bother to say so.  Neither of us would ever admit the other was right.  Still, they pulled out all the stops, and it took a couple of hours before I was ready.

Kristi smiled, “You look beautiful Alicia, Bill might just pass out when he sees you.”

I grinned, “I hope not, I have plans for him later.”

My sister giggled naughtily, and my mother looked scandalized, but I was pretty sure she was mostly faking that because it was expected.  Soul reading kind of gave away that she wanted to giggle too.

Kristi nodded, “He needs to be conscious to say his vows as well.”

“True.  And everything’s ready for tomorrow?”

We planned to spend the night at the station, in our suite, and then head to Athiren in the morning.

Kristi sighed, “Stop worrying.  I talked to Jeran himself, and outside of a dinner he’s going to make sure you’re left alone and given privacy for the week.”

I nodded, “Best maid of honor, ever.”

She winked, “Let’s get you married, before Bill comes to his senses and runs for it.”

Tina snorted, “You two argue and tease like a married couple.”

Kristi and I looked at each other in mock horror, and then laughed.

“Roommates for five years does that.”

Kristi nodded, “It does indeed.”

I stared into the mirror, they really had done an amazing job on me.  I was fairly cute, more than that really, if I threw out the modesty and was honest with myself.  But the way I looked now all I could think of was that I couldn’t wait until Bill saw me.

“Yes it does, thanks again,” I gave them all a hug, and we headed toward the park…

The next few hours passed in a happy daze.  I was probably the happiest I’d been in my life, ever.  I’ll never forget the look in his eyes as long as I lived, as he watched my father walk me to him and give me away.  He was obviously smitten with me, and so in love.  While I could only see those feelings, not feel them myself, they still affected my own, making them flower and open further.

It was overwhelming.

It wasn’t until we exchanged vows that I really understood why a minister, reverend, or judge was necessary.  My mind wasn’t exactly at its best, and to my embarrassment Al had to step in and save me by reminding me of a couple of lines before the rest rushed back to my mind.  Thank goodness I had the implants which let him do so without alerting anyone else to my predicament.  After a while my face actually started to hurt, I was smiling so much.

It wasn’t that big of a wedding, just our families, Nora, Senna, Nadia, Karen and her husband, Caroline, and a few other scientists who decided to crash, but it was all mine.

It was perfect.

If Bill minded his friends couldn’t come, he didn’t show it, or even feel it that I could tell that day.

Afterwards we had a reception in a separate room in the restaurant that was decorated with flowers from five different worlds, yet seemed to go together harmoniously.  The food was excellent, and Jenna turned out to be our hostess and brought out all our food.

When the night was over, we went back to our suite for our wedding night.

Karen had arranged to have all my stuff moved during the wedding itself, and my old suite was once again empty and available for someone else.  It was actually a pleasant surprise, I’d planned to do that myself after our honeymoon, but she’d made that unnecessary.

The wedding night?  Well, that was even better…

I got up the next morning, and headed for the bathroom when Bill said, “I am one luck guy, she is gorgeous and I get to wake up to her for the rest of our lives.”

I turned around, of course we were still naked at the time, and stuck my head back out of the bathroom door, “Who are you talking to?”

He got a confused look on his face, and I read that same honest confusion in his soul, “I didn’t say anything.”

I frowned, “Weird, I thought I heard you say something.”

I shook my head and got in the shower.

Barely a minute later I heard Bill say clear as day, “We should most definitely conserve water,” in drawling voice.  When I looked out of the shower stall, he wasn’t even in the room.  A second later he moseyed in and joined me in the shower.

Then I got a really bad feeling.  The feeling he hadn’t said that either.  At least, not aloud.

At that point, I got distracted, as newlyweds often do, and shelved the thought in the back of my mind.  Later, when we were dressed, it all came rushing back and I sighed.

“I need a few minutes in my lab, then we’ll go okay?”

He frowned, but kissed me and sent me on my way.

I caught another thought then, blushed a bit at its content, and fled toward my lab.  Not that I minded those thoughts about me, not from my husband, on the contrary it was rather nice, but it was still startling.

As soon as the door closed Al said, “Running scans.”

It was okay that I hadn’t actually asked Al to do that out loud, he was supposed to be reading my mind, it was me that wasn’t supposed to be doing that sort of thing at all.  I thought back to the Drenil laying my life and soul bare, what if something had changed, or it had awakened something in me that was always there below the surface?  It had been about a week since the headaches had fully faded, maybe now my soul was really healed, and…

I had no idea.

But I could swear at one point in the shower, I could not only read his feelings, but I’d felt them as well.  Not the whole time, but in that one moment where they had been very strong.  I was guessing I was only getting his strongest thoughts, the things he had an urge to say but held back.  I hadn’t heard a full internal monologue, but what if this, whatever it was, got even stronger?

What did they do to me?

Al said, “All scans are consistent with your last medical checkup.  Your brain waves and brain activity have not appreciably changed.”

I frowned in thought, that meant whatever it was, it was happening in my soul.  So… my soul reader abilities got a boost somehow?

“Unknown, but you are not imagining it.  I have recorded your brainwaves at the times you believed to hear his voice, and they appeared similar to when he is truly speaking to you.  If you were hallucinating or otherwise having a mental breakdown that wouldn’t be the case.”

I cleared my throat, “Thanks Al,” I said through clenched teeth.  Nice to know I wasn’t crazy.

Then something not related popped into my head, perhaps an intuitive leap, or perhaps I was just crazy.  But if I could read loud thoughts, then the Drenil probably didn’t have a spoken language at all.  They were probably telepathic, which meant…

“Al, do a subspace scan of me, as detailed as possible.  Does any of the radiation leaving my body correlate to my brainwaves?”

I was almost afraid of the answer.  If it did, I could have Al read the minds of anyone, anywhere, at any time.  I wouldn’t do it, it would be a huge violation, but if it was possible I’d have to hide it even better than I’d hid the rest.  People would not be happy at all.

I closed my eyes tightly as Al said, “Affirmative.”

Crap.  One more question, and I felt goosebumps go down my spine at the idea of it.

“Al, you said the Drenil shield fluctuations had no communication pattern, have you ever tried to compare it to a brainwave pattern?”

Because of course, that’s how a telepathic race would create long range communications.  Some kind of tech that takes their brainwaves, and transmits them to all the other Drenil, everywhere, who had another machine that translated it back to real brain waves.  After all, it’s how we did it with spoken words. From sounds, to signal, then back to sound.

“Negative, I did not try that.  One moment.”

I held my breath, it took him three seconds.

“Affirmative, but they are much more complex than a humanoid’s brain waves, and without context translation remains impossible.”

I’d just made a major breakthrough, but couldn’t celebrate it, or even talk about it to anyone.  I wasn’t really in the mood to celebrate it myself either, since I was worried about myself.

I sighed, “For now it does, but at least we have a start.  Not that it matters, I don’t think they’ll be back in this lifetime.  We have plenty of time to learn how to talk to them before they come back.”

I truly wasn’t sure what to do about my problem though.  Do I tell Bill, my friends, and family that I can hear mind shouting now?  Maybe it’s just a side effect that will go away?  Perhaps I was sticking my head in the sand, but it was a possibility. Just as possible as the idea that it might get more powerful.  I imagine I’d have to learn control it then, or I’d go crazy from all the thoughts around me.

That one seemed obvious.  I decided to wait a bit before telling my friends and family, and see which way it went first.  Once I told them, that thought would always be in their head, and they’d wonder if I was reading their minds.  Even if it did go away, there’d always be a part of them that would doubt it had.

Although, the range seemed fairly short still, about the distance I used to be able to soul read people from?  Despite Al’s comment to the contrary, I felt like I was having a nervous breakdown, and used my abilities to calm myself by exercising control of my emotions.  At least that didn’t work any different, it was as natural as breathing to lock all the stress down.

I was supposed to be leaving in the house ship on my honeymoon, not hiding in my lab.

Crap.  Not even a day married and I was melting down.

I took a deep breath and headed back to our suite, at a nice slow sedate walk…

Chapter Fifteen

I made it past three people without hearing a thing, so I was almost confident, but then I ran into Kristi.

“Hi Alicia, what’s up,” at the same time I heard in my mind, “What the hell is she doing wandering around alone?  Shouldn’t she be shacked up with her…” her thoughts went on.

If anything, with Kristi it was even stronger, I followed her thoughts easily.  I couldn’t read her mind thank goodness, not her memories I mean, but her current thoughts were all as clear as day.

Every.  Single.  One.

I wondered then if familiarity made a difference?  Because this wasn’t confusing enough as it was apparently.  I knew Bill pretty well, we’d grown up together, but as adults we’d only known each other for a couple of months.

Kristi had been my best friend, roommate, and co-dependent for five years.  I knew her soul better than I knew mine.  And those three I’d passed in the hall earlier, that I didn’t get anything from, I didn’t really know them at all, outside of their names and scientific fields.

So there seemed to be two components, how strong I was, which was obviously stronger since I woke up this morning, and I still wasn’t sure if it would fade or get worse.  Then a second component, like my soul needed to learn other souls in order to tune into their frequency, or something.

Or, could it be me?  Maybe I’m reaching out subconsciously like the Drenil had reached out to me?  I suppose that could be as well, maybe I just yearn to connect to those I’m close too.  But I dismissed this second explanation almost immediately.  I was very close to Bill at the moment, it had to be the familiarity thing, or at least, maybe a mix of both?

I’d need to get a handle on it either way, and figure out if I could control it.  I was afraid if I let it get worse before addressing it, it would be too late as I drowned in the minds around me.

“Umm, fine, I just had to check my lab, we’re about to go, promise.”

She tilted her head questioningly, “Okay… see you soon?”

I frowned, realizing I’d just addressed her monologue of concerns, and not her words.

“Definitely, see you in a week,” if I was still sane, otherwise I’d be in a rubber room somewhere.

“She’s nuts, I hope it’s not that soul crap again,” Kristi grinned, “Have fun!” she said out loud and walked off down the hallway.

It took me a minute, she’d said the second one out loud.  The words were rude in her head, but she’d actually sounded worried.  Her mind tone did I mean, if that makes sense?  I also wanted to cry, because I actually felt how much she loved me like a sister.  It was wrong, I felt like a peeping Tom of the mind.  It was so much more intimate than merely reading, experiencing her emotion had been on a totally new level which was amazing but made me feel like a voyeur as well.

At the same time, I was overwhelmed by just how close we were.  Beyond friendship, beyond family… more like chosen family.

I shook my head, and kept going toward the suite.  I sighed when I got inside, and gave my husband a long kiss and a hug.

My husband, that was a nice thought.

He chuckled, “If you promise to do that every time we part, I won’t mind it so much.”

I sighed rather contentedly as I drowned in his love for me, and then slowly I attempted to pull back, just like I would distance myself from an emotion I was having.  I’d been controlling my own emotions since I was a child, surely this wouldn’t be that difficult.  I just needed to extend my control to what I read from others.

“Something wrong?” he asked as the hug went on for quite a while.

It kind of worked, I could dim his feelings, push them in the background, but I could still feel them.  And I would as long as I was less than twenty or thirty feet away.

“No, just need a minute.”

I felt him stiffen.  Oops.  The mind thing must work differently, because I’d heard his thought clearly while his emotions were just a whisper.  He hadn’t asked that out loud.

I sighed, and came clean, “It’s why I ran off to the lab.  I started hearing thoughts this morning.”

He blushed.

I grinned, “Don’t worry, I like all of your thoughts husband.”

He blushed harder.

That was kind of fun, “Ready to go?”

He frowned, “Just like that? Shouldn’t we see the doctor?”

I shook my head, “That’s what I just did, sort of.  Al ran a brain scan and brainwave comparison, I’m the same as I always was.  I think it’s a side effect…” I went on to explain what I’d been thinking.

I finished up, “So I don’t know if it’s permanent or not.  So far I can already control the emotion part, because I’m practiced at it.  It only works on people I know well too.  Still, I’ll figure out the thought thing too, hopefully it will just wear off, like a drug’s side effect.  Just let’s not tell anyone else, unless we think it’s here for good of course, then we’ll have to.”

He snorted, “Alright, I suppose I can live with that.  But you know I love your mind and personality just as much as your body right?”

I giggled, “Yeah, but you have a lot less random thoughts about those.  Still, I get that from the emotions, I know the difference between lust and love Bill.  Even before now I could read it in you, I’ll never doubt you that way.  Plus, your thoughts are kind of fun, I love that I… inspire that in you.”

He smiled, “Alright, let’s go, but if it gets worse we’ll go to a doctor.  Perhaps this is a known thing for the Knomen, which will be convenient as we’re going to Athiren.”

I sighed, “Fine, let’s go before something else happens.”

He frowned, “Now you’ve done it, talk about jinxing our honeymoon.”

I snickered, that was ridiculous, and we headed out…

We were just about out of the landing bay when Al said, “There is an incoming stealth ship from Earth of an unfamiliar configuration.”

Bill snickered, “See, you totally jinxed us.”

I sighed, it was absurd of course, but maybe he was right?

“Al bring up a hologram of it please?”

It looked big, he had it next to a hologram of a battlecruiser for size comparison, and it was actually a little bigger.

“What can you tell me about it?”

Al said, “It appears to have over fifty dark energy reactors on board, my supposition from their positions in the hull is that they are large missiles, perhaps a little bigger than a Shield defense missile.”

I frowned, that was incredibly dangerous, and stupid.

“What would happen if one of those hit the station?”

Al replied, “All matter would be annihilated, leaving just the dark energy.  The subspace shields would protect the ship from the physical missile and dark energy, but most likely some of that dark energy would seriously harm the planet below after it went around ship.  If they fired at the station, the missile would need to be destroyed several million miles before the station to ensure the planet’s safety.”

Bill said, “My god, that’s crazy.  Why would they build such a thing?  Just to kill you?”

I sighed, and nodded, “Most likely I’m their primary target. I’ve embarrassed them twice, and have the keys to their superiority.  Generally world leaders don’t like feeling out of control.  Still, this is insane, they’d be quarantined for doing such a thing if they were caught.  I also doubt it’s just to kill me, they probably had a black ops program for a while now.”

Bill shrugged, “Maybe they don’t know you can see them, after all, no one else can see stealth ships.  Maybe they plan to pretend shock like the rest of the worlds, and let people assume it was an experiment gone wrong on the station.”

I sighed and pouted, “You were right, I totally jinxed our honeymoon.  Al, converge with that ship and follow it in.  If they launch anything at the station take it out immediately without asking.”

Al replied, “Understood, I would have anyway under world protection protocols.”

I grunted and looked over, “Sorry, we might be delayed half a day or so.”

Bill shrugged, “We do have this nice hot tub.”

I grinned, never mind what I heard in his thoughts, except to say that following them was already getting easier, which also meant I could focus on finding a way to control that like I did my emotions.  And being alone with him was a perfect time to try.  So far nothing that I’d tried worked.  With emotions I could just distance and muffle them.  Thoughts were going to be different, because my normal approach wasn’t working at all.

I even tried a few things I’d read in science fiction, like trying to build a bubble or brick wall in my mind, or a wall between us, a symbolic way to stop the thoughts.  That was a total bust, so much for truth in science fiction.  I’d figure it out though, eventually.

“That we do…” I replied with a small smile as we got undressed and into the hot tub, and before things got too interesting, I gave Al a few more orders regarding the six platforms in this galaxy.

It was time for a trap of my own, if all I ever did was give warnings every time they tried to destroy me without regard to collateral damage, the president and her counterparts in Japan, China, and Russia would just keep trying until they’d finally succeeded.  It was doubtful they would, I had too much of an edge, but on the other hand they’d only need to win once, while fighting defensively meant that I’d have to win every time.

I also sent out a few messages to Earth, private ones.  I feared if this went on much longer it could only lead to one place, and I wanted to give out a heads up to a few people that would be ruined if the seemingly inevitable did happen.

Luck and opportunity were always variables after all…

We were in the kitchen that evening drinking a coffee with dinner, I was trying to stay away from wine.  A few hours had turned into all day, when the stealth ship had stopped at the edge of the solar system and just sat there.  For a few hours now.  Maybe they waited to see if we saw them, before firing a missile.  If that was the case, it wouldn’t work.  I wanted to catch them red handed, so we could make the Earth back off.  Who knew, maybe they’d even impeach the bitch?  They were violating many Earth laws to do this… black op, not the least of which was the treaty of worlds.

I took a deep breath to calm down.

The truth was, interrupted honeymoon or not, we were alone on the house ship, which I loved.

Bill seemed equally content here as well.  We had the hot tub, a bedroom, and each other without interruptions, save the ship we were stalking.  Overall, it wasn’t a bad way to spend a day.  Athiren would be better of course, they had nature, trees, and all that good stuff, but it would keep.

When we’d let Kristi know, she’d just been amused and had let it go.  I knew she could have handled it from her end, the large ship could have just moved out and chased the stealth ship away, but I felt a responsibility.  They were trying to kill me, mostly, and were willing to kill scientists from over thirty worlds if they could get away with it.

I liked most humans, but the leadership of Earth was really starting to piss me off.  Even Germany, France, and England should have stepped up to stop this, exposed it somehow, but they were obviously being cowed by the other four superpowers, or being bribed to keep their mouths shut.

Besides having fun with my husband all day, I’d also learned the trick of blocking my husband’s thoughts out.  Instead of distancing my mind from his thoughts like the emotions, I had to instead distance myself from him in my thoughts.  So there were apparently three variables, not two.  How well I knew them, how close I was to them, and how much I reached out and connected myself to them, even subconsciously.

With Kristi it had been almost instinctual to reach out to her, same with Bill.  It was hard to purposefully do it.  I had no doubt it would get easier eventually, and not feel like I was pushing people away when I really wasn’t, just giving them privacy.

Bill said he didn’t mind though, so I wasn’t bothering to do it at the moment.  After all, a honeymoon was supposed to be intimate and all about being close.  Plus, it was really fun for both of us, when I read his unguarded thoughts about me…

When it finally happened it all went fast.  I didn’t even see the missile launch in the hologram, but simultaneously Al sent out a subspace wave to destroy it, and brought the six platforms, that were already surrounding the stealth ship back into normal space, with their shields at five percent.  They were only about a hundred miles away from the ship in all six directions.

I imagined that would look quite intimidating to the people in that ship.

I opened a channel to the ship, I still had the military frequencies after all, I just didn’t have the encryption keys.  So it was an open communication, anyone with that frequency could understand it.  I was also well aware Sergei and Earth would hear this.

“You have fired a missile at Minerva that would have done nothing to the station, but would have devastated the world beneath if we hadn’t stopped it.  That action is not only against the treaty, but is a war crime.  You will immediately lower your shielding and stealth, and surrender.  If not, you will be destroyed.”

I wasn’t screwing around this time.  When it came to war crimes, and unlawful orders, I could hold them just as accountable as the people that cut the orders.  It was somewhat of a surprise when several seconds later, they dropped shields and got back on the line.

“What are your terms?”

I replied, “The six of you will abandon ship, in ship suits, and we will pick you up for transport and processing.  Your ship will be destroyed once we’ve cleared the area.”

“Uh, Understood, standby,” he was clearly startled by the fact we could not only see his ship, but also his crew complement.

They appeared to follow my orders, mostly.  They shut down the stealth, and the FTL drive, but when they disembarked they were carrying several concealed weapons between their uniforms and ship suits.  Got to love the subspace sensors, all those pieces of metal, and some even of polymer materials, were easily identified.  One of the platforms reached out with its gravity emitters, and grabbed them.

The platform dropped its subspace shield, and disarmed the six soldiers quite thoroughly as it pulled them out of the box of six platforms before it turned its shields on again.  Then it pulsed the shield, and all of those weapons, and the stealth ship itself, were destroyed, as the platform handed the soldiers off to our ships gravity emitters, and we pulled them into the landing bay.

The box of six platforms with subspace shields would quarantine that area until the dark energy dissipated back into the universe.

We got up and headed down to meet them, as the bay pressurized.  We weren’t worried about six against two, this ship only answered to us, and the soldiers were being held against the wall with artificial gravity.

When we got down there I asked, “Who gave you the orders to attack us?”

He replied, “Captain Jason Keller, USFS, serial number,” and he gave me his social.

I rolled my eyes, “Really?  You almost destroy a treaty world, and you’re going to hide behind an Earth war treaty that holds no legality here?”

He cleared his throat, “Earth doesn’t recognize the validity of that claim, and you are a traitor with too many of our state secrets to allow…”

He cut off when I held up my hand.

“Is that what they told you?  Of course they did, assholes.  Well, forget what Earth thinks for a moment, or even Minerva.  What do you think the other forty-eight worlds of the old and new treaty, who do see my world as valid, will do when they find out what happened here?  What you almost did?  Even the three unaligned worlds recognize Minerva as a sovereign planet.”

The blood drained from his face.

“Yes, I can see why you used a stealth ship for this operation, and unfortunately we have records of everything that happened.  The truth is you’re here to salve the embarrassment of four heads of state that resented me for saving the Earth, while they stupidly believed everything the Knomen Arbitrator told them.  As soon as the heat was off, they immediately started to try and get me in hand. When I left, instead of letting them control me, or fighting back, they started to try and kill me.

“And may I just add, you not only tried to kill a sovereign world, but one that is host to scientists to over thirty worlds.  I tried to ignore it, I tried to get over it, I tried to not play their game.  It’s why I left, I didn’t want to be penned in, and I didn’t want to fight back either, so I changed the game.  It isn’t about state secrets either, it should be painfully obvious by now I haven’t sold Earth out and don’t intend to.  This is about egos.  Theirs.

“Well they just keep on trying to force me to play, so I’m finally going to play the game they’ve been wanting me to play, and here is my countermove.  Al, send all the data on the attack starting with the stealth warship’s approach, and what would have happened if they’d succeeded, along with our apprehension of these six criminals to all countries on Earth.  Presidents, congress, warlords, commons, all of them, and the press.

“Maybe she’ll get impeached for war crimes, but I kind of doubt it, no question Sergei will get hung out to dry.”

I turned around and Bill was staring at me in surprise, and I smiled shyly when I realized he was turned on.  I suppose this was out of character for me a bit, I usually suppressed anger, as it was rarely a useful emotion.  But sometimes enough was enough, and passive wasn’t going to win the game.  I loved Earth, and most of the humans on it, but I wasn’t willing to roll over and die for a handful of spoiled jerks that have never been held accountable for their actions before now.

As we were leaving I turned my head around, “Oh right, you six will take the fall as patsies too.  Isn’t it nice to know that your career is over, and you’ll most likely do a life sentence at Leavenworth, because the president had her knickers in a twist?”

I left them with that thought as we headed back to the kitchen.  We stopped back at the station quickly, and delivered the six men to one of the small shuttle airlocks.  They’d be transported via artificial gravity to the brig, and Kristi and Nadia would take it from there.

It was time to get to that honeymoon, except, there was absolutely no wood on this ship to knock on…

Chapter Sixteen

In the house ship it didn’t take us longer than a few seconds to arrive at Athiren.  I had Al put the ship inside subspace after we’d launched the shuttle and headed for the surface.  It seemed like a good plan to prevent temptation of others trying to get a close look at it, or more.  We landed the sports shuttle in the small landing field behind the hotel.

It was all they really had, all the transport on Athiren was public, and underground, to keep the view pristine and undisturbed not only by high rise buildings, but for things like shuttles and air cars as well.  Though I’m fairly sure they had some to move product from the farms on the other continent, they weren’t in evidence.

Bill whistled low as we got out and took a look around, “Purple huh?  Like the eyes.  It’s beautiful.  Sky looks like a rare sunset on Earth, just… all the time.”

I grinned, “Yeah, it’s pretty peaceful here too.  I’ll give you the nickel tour, or at least what I know of the place, but later.”

Bill nodded and took my hand as we went inside, and checked in.

Our room was on the third floor, two below the transport level, and I froze for a moment in the lobby as a family went by and I heard the babble of their inner voices in my head until they were about twenty-five feet away.

Of course, my own species would be easier to read I thought disgustedly.  Enter variable number four, species, nothing was ever simple.  The distancing thing worked, but I had to concentrate to make it happen.  It wasn’t quite automatic yet.  I still hoped it would go away, but failing that I hoped it didn’t get any stronger.

But neither was it as debilitating as I’d feared it would be.  Even if I didn’t distance myself and silence it, I could mostly ignore it, just like I’d be able to ignore a verbal conversation of a large group passing by, or the din in a restaurant.  One less thing to worry about, I most likely wouldn’t go insane, any more than I was already that is.

We got on the elevator and headed down to our room.  There was a bottle of champagne, an arrangement of my favorite Knomen fresh fruits from last time I was here, and chocolate.  I’d no doubt Kristi had arranged this, only she’d know which Knomen fruit I liked.

The rest of the day was relatively quiet, and for the most part Bill and I just enjoyed each other’s company and stayed in the room.  I could show him around tomorrow, or even the next day.  There was no hurry, we had six days left.

We also looked into the children thing while we ate.  Neither of us was in a hurry on that front, but we accessed the local data net to find out if they even had things like adoption or fertility clinics where sperm was banked.  There were in fact rare cases of adoption, but for the most part on Athiren family or family friends took over raising an orphaned child in the rare case of both parents dying.

There was no real orphanages or state run facilities, it was just rare that such a thing happened.

There was also no sperm bank, or at least, not the kind where a woman could go and get herself knocked up.  There was a facility that held some though, for those that were in the military or had other high risk jobs, where their spouse could later have a child if their husband or wife was lost.

It kind of made sense, population control was rather strict to maintain the just over four million population of the colony.  They weren’t going to be overly concerned on making it too easy for a woman to become a single mother.

Bill sighed, “Well that was kind of a bust.”

I squeezed his hand, “Well, if we ever want kids we’ll have to adopt a human one.  It was good enough for my parents, and it’d be good enough for me.”

He replied, “It might be a while before we’re welcome there again.  Especially after the political bomb you just dropped.”

I shrugged helplessly and smiled.  If ever.

“We’ll know in a few years, once a new president is in office, in both countries.”

He sighed in mock sadness, “Well, we can always keep trying, you never know what might happen.”

I laughed, and we got right on that…

Until about noon on the following day, we lived in our own little world and enjoyed our honeymoon.  That’s when my little counter-move had unforeseen consequences and there was a knock at the door.  I opened it, and smiled as I saw Senna and Nora.  They both worked here, Athiren was where most of the wheeling and dealing for trade took place between the twenty-six worlds in the new treaty.

Two things were off about their visit though.  One, I hadn’t expected them to drop by on my honeymoon, and neither of them wore a smile.  Their minds were also blessedly silent.

“Come in?”

They nodded and joined us in the kitchen, “Something to drink? We just got done eating but if either of you want something?”

Nora shook her head, “This isn’t a social call unfortunately.  The news on Earth is going mad, and quite a few of the treaty holders are nervous about what they’re saying.  Your old government as usual, is… what do you call it?  Stonewalling.  Unfortunately, Earth news is most often hype and garbage, so a number of representatives are here and want to talk to you to get the real story, and the proof you have.”

I sighed, and looked over at Bill who shrugged helplessly.

“When?”

Senna smiled faintly, “Now?”

I nodded, “Just a second then,” and Bill and I went to get changed into something a little more professional.  I doubted the shorts and tees would go over well.  As we got dressed, I seriously considered tacking on a couple of more days to our honeymoon, since between yesterday and today life seemed determined to interrupt.  Make up days.

We joined Nora and Senna, headed to level one, and got on one of the cars which took us toward the government district.

“I wondered what really happened,” Nora didn’t say out loud.

I sighed, so much for quiet.  As the ride went on more of her thoughts became apparent, as well as Senna’s.  As if my soul was learning to tune into theirs.  With a little concentration I pulled back from them and silence returned.  I almost laughed though, as several cars raced by, and it sounded like stuttering as they went by.  Apparently, other Knomen were no effort at all that way.

There had to be a better way to deal, what if I was in a room full of fifty Knomen, would I have to take the time to distance myself from all of them?  I pictured an amorphous crowd, just a whole stadium full of Knomen, humans, Tressian, and all the other races I knew by sight, and then pushed the stadium away to the farthest part of my mind until it was just a small dot in my mind’s eye.

The stuttering stopped, and I smiled.  I wouldn’t do that all the time, but it seemed to shut everyone out, which was a relief.

“So when did you two get back?”

Nora snickered, “Yesterday morning, when you were playing with Earth’s stealth vessel.  After we got caught up with Nadia that is.  It was good to see her again.”

I nodded, “I was lucky to snag her.  Attacking me wasn’t the only stupid thing Earth has done.”

Senna sighed as we pulled over and got out at the government building.

“Have you heard the Drenil disappeared?  At least from the planet we know about.”

I nodded slowly, I’d wondered how long it would take others to notice, and of course they didn’t know the ships and other colonies were gone from this galaxy, much less that they’d disappeared from everywhere in a ten million light year radius of the Milky way.  Probably beyond that as well.

“Yes.  I’m aware of it.  No idea where they went.”

We got off the elevator and walked down an extremely long hallway that meandered through several one story buildings with covered walkways while outside.  We entered a large building using the main hall, which lead across its front, and we turned to the left inside a rather large room that had numerous offices and smaller conference rooms on the outside of it

The large central room was one very large board room table that could probably seat fifty, along with rows of chairs on the outside.  I could also see several holographic emitters around the table and across the room.  Technically I probably should have someone here to represent our interests in trade, Joe would be that person, but he spent a lot of time going to different worlds instead of just meeting one representative from each.

At a quick glance there were sixteen humanoid species present right now at the table, so over half of the twenty-six treaty worlds had people here now.  Of course, Senna and Nora were here representing Leira and Tressia.  I also recognized Blue, who I presumed was the representative of Omara.  Marlon was here for this world, but I also saw Jeran and Sylla, the governor of this world and his wife.

That couldn’t be a good sign, as they all looked at us as we walked in and joined them around the table…

Chapter Seventeen

Jeran smiled and seemed to effortlessly take control of the room.

“Alicia, thank you for interrupting your honeymoon to come speak to us.  Perhaps you could set our minds at ease and go over what happened yesterday?”

I smiled, “The latter I can do, I’m not so sure about the former.  Al, put the data up on the screen, start from where we detected the Earth vessel, and increase speed through the boring parts.”

There were a few chuckles, until the Earth ship came up in the hologram, with its galactic coordinates and heading.  The trip and the long wait once the ship got there was fast forwarded through, perhaps thirty seconds for each hour, until the incident.  At that point Al actually slowed it down to show the missile launch quickly followed by its destruction, as well as a detailed description of what effects the missile would have had on the planet.

Then he showed the confrontation between us and the crew, which actually made me blush when I listened to my own angry speech.  When it was finished there was silence in the room.

Marlon sighed, “So Earth has offensive stealth vessels?  There is no law against that, but since they only have one use there is an unwritten rule we all follow, that stealth vessels aren’t to be armed.  What other purpose does one serve after all, but to attack a neighboring system and not get caught?”

Jeran asked, “The display was nicely rendered, but can you provide us with the raw scanning data it was built from?”

I frowned in thought, “No, I can’t.

I waited for the murmurs to die down.

“It’s a new scanning technology and is classified as a military secret.  Besides, without context the raw scanning data would be complete gibberish.”

It was true, it had taken weeks for Al to figure out which of the radiation frequencies meant what kind of element or energy, or even lifeform.  Without subspace technology they’d have no way to verify it either, even if I supplied the translation database, which I had no intention of doing so.  I already felt uncomfortable enough giving them this data, much less how I got it.

Jeran frowned, “I can feel your honesty and know you wouldn’t lie besides, but other worlds will want the proof behind what you’ve shown.  Is there any way you can at least verify your ability to see stealth vessels with this technology?”

I tilted my head, “Al, where is the closest stealth vessel manned by Knomen, and what is its crew complement?”

Jeran frowned, and his eyes widened when Al said, “There is a Knomen stealth vessel close to the house ship running scans to try and find it, unsuccessfully I might add.  There are twelve Knomen aboard, six males, and six females.  Three are on the bridge, two in engineering, the rest are in quarters.”

There were a few chuckles around the table.  I could swear Al had sounded a little smug.

I shrugged, “The point of yesterday was to get the president of my old country on Earth to back off, or maybe even out of office.”

Jeran shook his head, “Perhaps.  We’ve been accepting of their youth, antics, and the fact there is no central government yet.  Especially because Earth was instrumental in throwing off the yoke of the Knomen royal family.  We owe them, and you, much.  But the attack on your world yesterday, an attack that would have rendered a habitable world uninhabitable at best, and completely destroyed at worst, is not acceptable.

“We all get the idea of black ops.  We even play the spying game at times, but trying to destroy a world and pretend ignorance on the matter is not acceptable at all.  Though I could wish there was more evidence on the matter, it is clear that you have the ability to do the things we’ve seen today.  We’ve also verified that you do have six Earth humans in lockup on your station, wearing military uniforms.

“I have no choice at this alarming matter, but to call for Earth to be quarantined, for breaking the treaty and attacking a neighbor.  Perhaps in fifty years they’ll be more united and less… short sighted and petty.”

Oh… crap.  That’s what I’d been afraid of.

Senna cleared her throat, “While I agree with you in theory Jeran, that might be premature.  If there is truly no way to verify the raw data it will cause problems, not everyone will agree we should move on it.  Even worse, what if the other twenty-three worlds in a treaty with Earth decides that it’s an unprovoked attack?  They may defend the Earth and even come after us afterwards.  I believe they would bow to full evidence, but without it we risk a galactic civil war.  While I trust Alicia implicitly, others will not.  Not on such a serious matter.”

I don’t know why, but it never occurred to me that they might actually knock Earth out of space for fifty years.  A censure, a warning perhaps, or I thought they might have even thrown Earth out of the treaty for fifty years, but still left out in space like the three worlds that attacked the Knomen.  Of course, those three worlds hadn’t designed a stealth missile that could destroy worlds.

Even though I thought that they probably deserved it, Earth was too split, selfish, and didn’t stand as one.  It was a world where one person, or a handful, with too much power believed that they could ignore the laws of the galaxy as they ignored their own laws.

But then my heart knew it was just a few corrupt people in government, the people of Earth were a good people, and they were my people no matter the color of my eyes.  I looked over at Bill who was clenching his jaw.

Nora spoke up, “There is also the practical matter that Earth clearly has technical superiority.  I’m not sure that we could quarantine them from space for fifty years, not without Alicia’s help.  I suggest we put that notion on hold, and contact the other treaty’ worlds and share the data shown, as well as the minutes of the meeting, and see what they do or decide about their recalcitrant member.

“At the very least, I’d hope they’d kick Earth out of the treaty, and incur trade sanctions if not cut it off altogether, like we did for the three worlds that attacked Knomen.  Perhaps we can discuss this again once that happens?”

There was more discussion, but they all revolved around those same three positions.  Quarantine Earth, don’t act at all due to the dubious nature of the evidence, and the middle ground Nora proposed of handing off the problem to the original treaty worlds.  After about an hour of back and forth, the majority went with Nora’s suggestion, and the meeting minutes and data was sent to all the worlds of the other treaty, save Earth.

I just stayed silent the whole time, it was like watching a train wreck.  I half wanted to strangle myself, and half wanted to strangle the president.  This wasn’t my fault, but I still felt partially responsible anyway, even if only because I was the focus of the president’s wrath and the driver behind her stupidity.

Bill and I headed back to the hotel, I sent Kristi an FYI and a condensed version of the meeting, just to keep her in the loop.  Bill looked angry, it wasn’t until we got back inside the privacy of our room suite before he finally spoke about it.

“That’s bad.  I’m not mad at you love, I’m mad that those that did this.  They just… messed things up for over six billion people.  Doesn’t Earth have fourteen more colonies in progress?”

I nodded and not even trying to be sneaky about it started to give him a massage.  I grinned as I felt him calm down at my touch.

“I don’t know, but the colony worlds won’t be held responsible, no more than Athiren was for what the Knomen home world did.  I imagine the other colonies will still be there.  They may even allow colonists to move off Earth, the main concern I think is no military.”

He sighed, “What’s worse is they’re kind of right.  Earth is a mess, at least its leadership is.”

“Maybe, but all the worlds start with a similar history.  Earth just… grew up way to fast.  Earth isn’t worse or better than any other worlds, just younger.”

He snorted, “And that’s all your fault.”

I gasped, “Beast!” and then we both started to laugh.

He shrugged, “Earth would have been under the Knomen’s thumb, it would have taken a long time before they’d been a strong power in space, long enough perhaps to learn how to handle that power, and become one people.  Or they’d have put us back into the stone age.  Overall, I think a fifty-year timeout, with technology, is better than what would have happened without you.”

He frowned in thought, “Not to mention, the Bugs might have killed us all before that happened, if it hadn’t been for all you’d done before, which led you there both technologically, and socially.”

“Who are you trying to convince?”

He smiled, “You, I know you’re beating yourself up over it.”

I shook my head, “Maybe a little, but mostly I’m angry at the presidents of the U.S. and Russia.  And people like Sergei who followed those illegal orders despite knowing better for political expediency.  Then all the idiots who don’t know any better come in last.”

He snorted, “Was Senna right, is Earth that far ahead?”

I nodded slowly, “Yes, the last round of shielding and weapons I gave them makes them much stronger.  One Earth ship would be a match for sixty or so of any other world based on throw weight.”

He frowned, “You know what that means right?”

I sighed, “Yes.  If it comes down to it, they’ll want me to lead the fight.  Which, is unthinkable.”

Now he was comforting me instead.

He shrugged, “I’m on your side, it’s a rule.  Something about better or worse?”

I giggled, “In intergalactic peace or war?”

He snickered, “Something like that, yes.  Who knows, maybe it won’t come to that, but I have to believe our parents, Kristi, and even Nadia would agree.  They screwed up and went too far.  Wasn’t the treaty originally Earth’s idea, and didn’t they sign it?  A fifty-year timeout almost sounds reasonable for attempted planetcide.”

I snorted, “That’s not a word.”

He drawled innocently, “It’s not?  It should be.  Planetcide has a nice ring to it.”

I snickered, “I love you Billy.”

He winked, and then returned the favor and massaged my shoulders.

I relaxed into him, and we didn’t talk of anything serious for the rest of the day, but it hovered in the back of my mind the whole time.  I just hoped the original treaty worlds would accept the smaller punishment of trade sanctions by just removing them from the treaty for fifty years.  I also relaxed the distance thing I’d had going in my head all afternoon, and Bill’s emotions and thoughts backed up every word he’d said, he truly was in my corner, and just plain mine, just like I was his.

Chapter Eighteen

In my hopefulness that Earth wouldn’t be fully quarantined, I’d failed to take into account one very important thing.

The Seltan, and their highly developed sense of honor.  They had no special ties to Earth like I did, and I should have realized how they’d see it.  Not that they were wrong.

Bill and I had enjoyed a late morning walk behind the hotel, after we’d finally gotten up and had something to eat.  When we got back, Marlon had been waiting for us, and we found ourselves changing again into something more professional to talk to the reps from the other worlds.

I knew how very serious this all was, but I couldn’t help but feel a slight annoyance at my honeymoon being interrupted for the third day in a row.  Bill seemed to take it better than me, I imagine I was more stressed about it because I was the point of contention.

When we arrived, I was a bit surprised to see that Dral was actually here, in the room with us.  Kristi was here as well, though only as a hologram in one of the chairs.  The room was silent as we sat down, and I detected a nervous current in the room.  It wasn’t Dral’s fault, but he was awfully intimidating.

“Alicia, it is agreeable to see you again, though this is a dark reason.  Without honor.”

“Dral, what is it you wish here?”

Dral replied, “I was asked by the others to come speak here.  It was felt due to some bad feelings between the worlds of the two treaties, that my words would be the most likely to be trusted by you and the others.  Earth has violated both the letter and spirit of the treaty, worse, they did it as thieves in the night in an attempt to destroy someone they owe much to.”

He nodded his head at me, and then continued, “It is not enough to simply remove them from the treaty.  Their offense, cowardice, and lack of honor is too grave for anything less than keeping them from space for fifty years.  Perhaps they’re next generation will learn responsibility, and not follow in the footsteps of their parents.  Regardless, the rest of the treaty worlds that Earth belongs to all agree.  How can we possibly trust them, or know when they’ll make another cowardly attack from the shadows, and perhaps against another world?  Maybe even a planet that cannot defend themselves as easily as you were able.”

I suppressed the desire to squirm in my seat.  I wanted to argue against it, but I really couldn’t.   They did deserve it.  Oh, not Earth as a whole, but Earth as a whole wasn’t in charge of the military.  The idiots in the Whitehouse and Kremlin were.

Worse, I had no access to the fleets anymore, I couldn’t just turn them off.  It wasn’t like I saw this coming, or put a back door into the systems.  There was no way Earth would just stand down either, they would fight.  The idea that they would back down was ridiculous, the rest of us would protect them from attack, but they’d never believe it.  The fact they wanted me dead so badly was proof of that.

But, how could I possibly fight Earth?

On the other hand, how could I possibly watch Earth massacre fleets of ships from forty-nine other worlds.  And they would, there was no doubt next to me they were the power in this galaxy, thanks to me no less.  Even with a half million of the Seltan ships they would win rather easily.

Talk about a crappy decision.  It made the Bug decision look like no decision at all.

“What do you want of me?” I asked in a quiet voice.  It was the only way I could be sure it wouldn’t crack.

Kristi’s supportive look almost made me cry, I would have if I could have felt her presence.

I felt trapped.  Trapped by the morality my human parents had taught me, and the inventions and breakthroughs I had made.  I felt trapped by the sureness of every humanoid race agreeing that Earth had stepped out of bounds, this wasn’t just me on a power trip because Earth had pissed me off.  It was easy to see all the worlds agreed.  The only objections yesterday had been if the other treaty didn’t agree, and was willing to start a war on behalf of Earth.

Clearly, that hadn’t been the case.  Whether they were really all that idealistic, or if they simply followed the Seltan’s lead because of their ship counts, and maybe part of it was they feared what Earth may do to them, but it had apparently been unanimous.

The idea of going against Earth made me feel sick.  Maybe it would be better in the long run, if they took a step back and grew a little?  Not back to the stone age, thank god they were safe from that as were all the worlds with the Knomen empire gone, but as all the worlds agreed, simply ejected out of space, where people like the president couldn’t be a danger to galactic peace.

Just because they were paranoid, and control freaks.  Why couldn’t they have just left me alone?

Dral’s reply was expected but I still had to suppress a flinch.

“We would like you to join with us when we demand their surrender, and remove all of Earth’s military assets from orbit to the edge of their solar system.”

Kristi smiled at me sadly, “Sorry Alicia.  I’m on board, but I didn’t want to commit our world to that without your input.  I’m comfortable running things while your away, but declaring military action is something else entirely.”

Her eyes begged me to forgive her, for forcing me to make this decision.

I couldn’t blame her, of course I forgave her.  I was just amazed she was okay with doing this at all, even under my orders.  I sure as hell wasn’t, or at least, I was highly conflicted.  Of course, when we saved the planet, we didn’t do it to make them king of the hill in galactic dominance, we’d done it to win their freedom.  It was hardly our fault they’d pissed that away.  As usual, Earth and humanity was both the hero and the villain over the past years.

I nodded, “Alright, when are we going?”

Dral said, “Eight hours.”

I blew out a breath and nodded, “I’ll be there.”

After that, the meeting broke up and we went back to the hotel, and to our shuttle which returned us to the home ship.  Just seconds later, we were landing in the landing bay on the Minerva station, which took a minute to pressurize before we could get out of the ship.

Bill squeezed my hand while we waited, and I also gave a few commands to Al sub-vocally.

Really, my only hope was to get Earth to surrender, which I knew wasn’t a very likely scenario.  If we actually fought, and I killed humans, I’d wither and die inside.  Some would call it the price of power, and shrug their shoulders.  I didn’t think I could do that.  How did I get here?

Bill asked, “You okay?”

I smiled faintly and squeezed his hand, “I’ll survive.  Maybe we can actually have an uninterrupted honeymoon when this is over,” I said lightly, but the joke fell flat.

Bill shrugged, “Eventually it will happen.  You’re worth the trouble.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Really?”

He nodded mock solemnly, “Absolutely, you have the cutest butt I’ve ever seen.”

I giggled, “You’re terrible.”

He agreed with aplomb, “Terribly enamored of that cute…” I cut him off with a whap to his chest.

He squeezed my hand and said seriously, “I love you, I can’t even imagine what you’re going through, but I’m here.”

“I love you too, I’m just dreading this.”

I sighed, and we left the ship and tracked down everyone.  Maybe I was a coward, but I wanted everyone’s opinion of my plan.  I also needed to give them a chance to go home, or decide to stay here.  Joe and Kristi had been onboard with my plan, but only because they’d anticipated being able to return home eventually when things calmed down, at least to visit.

Now… no one would be visiting, Earth would be quarantined.  Their fifteen colonies would be waiting for them when they were allowed back out again.  I sent them all messages, and not just Kristi and Joe, but my and Bill’s parents, and Tina. I also included Nadia, Karen, Caroline, and the other remaining Earth scientist on the station, Ken Brooks.  In short, all the humans on this station.

I smiled faintly when they’d all arrived, and took the next half hour to explain everything that happened and what was going on.  And to give them a choice, make a home here, or go back to Earth, tonight.

Caroline frowned, “Can’t you make them go easier on Earth?”

I sighed, “Sure, I could also rule the galaxy.  No thanks.  Quarantining Earth will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I won’t become a power mad ruler and start making demands of the galaxy.  Did you miss the part where Earth tried to kill the scientists and families from over thirty worlds, just to get me?”

She sighed and looked sheepish.  “I suppose I’ll stay.”

Ken said, “I’m staying too, my work is important to me, and I’ve made a lot of progress.  I assume I can still talk to people on earth, and give them my findings along with the other worlds?”

I nodded, “Sure, that shouldn’t be a problem.  The quarantine doesn’t include communications.”

Tina shrugged, “I’m staying too,” and she gave Ken a surreptitious look.

I frowned, Ken was single from what I remembered. I’d had no idea my sister had even met the guy, but it looked like they had something going.  To be fair to myself, I’d been fairly distracted with Bill of late, being newly married and all.

My parents shrugged and my father said, “We’ll stay.  Especially if you’ll let us borrow a shuttle and take a second honeymoon.  We can find new jobs here, or even on another world.  There’s no point in going home if our two daughters are here.”

I smiled, and turned to Bill’s parents.

One by one they all said they’d stay.  Nadia, Karen, Kristi, Joe, and Bill’s parents.  It was an overwhelming moment for me, I knew they weren’t just staying for me, but for a vision we all shared.

“Thanks everyone, Nadia, Karen, Kristi, and Joe, can you stay a minute?”

The rest of them left at that point, and I went over my plan.  No one seemed to think Earth would back down, but a few of them agreed that was probably the best way for a chance to make it happen.

It wouldn’t be long before I found out.  With six hours or so to go, Bill and I went back to our suite and had dinner.  Then we made love with a desperate edge.  I wasn’t afraid that I’d die on the upcoming mission, but I was afraid that a part of me would die, and I’d never be the same again…

Chapter Nineteen

It was Bill, Nadia, and myself when we left the station five hours later.

Kristi stayed behind to run things, and I was glad.

I didn’t want her to go through what I was about to.  It was enough that she supported my decision and would have come.

Nadia had insisted on coming, or I’d have left her behind too, but she was convinced she might be able to make a difference during the talking part.  There was a human saying, those who fight and run away live to fight another day.  I hoped Admiral Abramov took that to heart once he saw they didn’t have a chance.  I hoped that he wouldn’t just throw soldiers away for no reason.

We were all meeting up a few light years from Earth, the worlds would use my wormhole taxis to get there at the appointed time.  I felt a bit like I had no control, as if I was on a runaway train and I had no idea how to switch tracks.  I could arbitrarily decide, demand a lesser sentence for the world I loved, the world I called my own, until I was disinherited by its leadership, but that would make me just as bad if not worse than the president.

Ironically, humans had taught me that integrity, which seemed to be lost on the rest of my family on Knomen, and the leaders of my adopted planet.  What worried me the most, was that there might have been a way out of it, one I didn’t see because a part of me, very deep down, was happy that the people hunting me were about to get their comeuppance.

What’s the saying?  I’m only human after all.

We took the ship to the rendezvous point and waited…

“Nadia, Bill, can either of you see a way around this, that the other worlds will accept?”

Bill shook his head, but Nadia seemed to be truly thinking it through.

After a minute or so, she said, “Maybe.  If the…” she cut off with a confused look on her face when I raised my hand.

“Let’s only hear it once, we don’t have a lot of time before they get here.  Al, get Dral on the line.”

I explained, “If Dral goes for it, most likely the rest will.”

Nadia smiled faintly, “I wouldn’t get my hopes up, I don’t think they’d agree.”

Al said, “Dral in three, two, one…”

“Hello Dral, might we speak with you a moment?”

Dral replied, “I will hear your words.”

I almost smiled at his as usual, interesting turn of phrase.

“This is Nadia, she is my… advisor on things.  I would ask that you listen to her words, and if her idea has merit and satisfies honor, that you consider it.  If honor would not be satisfied, we’ll proceed with the plan as specified with no further debate.”

Nadia cursed under her breath and said, “No pressure or anything Alicia.”

I smothered a giggle, which made her glare harder.

“Very well,” Dral said slowly.

Nadia looked thoughtful a moment, “Earth is young, perhaps too young and too split to be trusted, yet it was only four dishonorable people who gave the orders for the unfortunate events at Minerva.  I would suggest perhaps a compromise, if they agree, so the whole planet is not punished for the few.

“One, that those four leaders will immediately renounce their office, and submit to an off world criminal trial.  Two, that no Earth warships will leave the solar systems of Earth and its colonies for a period of fifty years.  Three, all Earth based stealth technologies will be discontinued except the sensor net, and all offensive stealth ships will be immediately destroyed.  Four, which ties into two, unarmed Earth ships may engage in trade at a penalty, and travel freely.  Five, the Earth will voluntarily pull out of the treaty for fifty years.”

She took a deep breath, “If they say no to any of those demands right now, we go forward as planned.  If they violate any of those demands over the next fifty years, we go back to plan A, which is to remove humans from space.”

Dral turned to me thoughtfully and asked, “Do you believe that to be sufficient?”

I considered my answer and said, “Maybe, but only because they can be watched.  I admit I feel stirrings of loyalty to my old world and people, if not the fools that run it.  I don’t believe I can judge impartially, which is why I will defer to your decision and sense of honor.”

A part of me thought that was wise, another part thought I was being a coward and trying to wash the blood off my hands before any blows were even struck.  It did sound fair to me, but would it be setting a dangerous precedent?  The threat of being removed from space is what kept the peace after all, if the races started to believe they could talk their way out of it, or just throw a few people to the wolves, it would snowball.  Did I have the right to risk worse in the future for a lesser penalty for Earth now?

I was too emotionally involved to see it clearly, I was right the first time, it was wise to let Dral and his impeccable sense of justice and honor decide.

Dral crossed his arms, all four of them, “No warships.  There must be a bite to the penalty to assuage their treachery, and the fact that they cannot be trusted.  Their military must learn how to think for themselves, and not blindly follow corrupt and dishonorable orders from their supposed leaders.  So Nadia’s words, except for the second, which should read all Earth warships shall be destroyed.”

Nadia blew out a breath, and nodded.

Dral grunted, “I will pass on our words to the rest of the worlds, we will know soon if they agree.”

The transmission was cut off from his side.

I had serious doubts Earth would comply, especially because of number one.  A world leader taking personal responsibility?  That… would be a miracle.  Four of them doing so at once?  No doubt a sign of the imminent apocalypse.

Nadia sighed and echoed my own thoughts.

“You know that they’ll never do it, the leadership of Earth I mean.  Not even if we prove beyond a doubt we could win.  They’d no doubt rather rule over a quarantined world than give up their own power for the benefit of the population, and all those new businesses that will go under.  Not to mention all the people that are preparing to start a colony.  They’ll be between seventy and a hundred by the time that fifty years passes.”

I nodded reluctantly in agreement and asked, “Then why make the offer?”

She shrugged, “To soothe your conscious, and mine.  Because we should make sure that what we are about to do was the last resort, and something they themselves must take the blame for.  They have this coming, and there’s nothing either of us can do to stop it.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

Most depressing honeymoon, ever…

Chapter Twenty

Al said, “Several civilian ships have been detected leaving Earth’s solar system.”

I blew out a breath, and smiled.

Nadia asked, “What’s that about?”

I replied, “I was worried about sanctions when I reported what happened with the stealth ship to the countries on Earth and the media, although I didn’t expect a full quarantine to come about.  I sent a few personal messages to some of the exploration companies that were formed years ago.  When I was relieved of my fleet command, I knew most of them were ready to go out to planets ready to terraform but were waiting.  It seems they took my warning and ran with it.  Even if Earth is quarantined, there will now be a larger number of human worlds we can interact with, and support if necessary.”

Nadia frowned thoughtfully, “That helps me feel a bit better about things.”

I nodded, “They’ll have a harder road with terraforming still ongoing for a few years, and be stuck in ships until they build a space station, but at least they won’t grow old being in quarantine and have their dreams stolen.”

Nadia asked, “What else have you done?”

I smiled, “I took a few precautions, hopefully unnecessary ones, but I know how ruthless Earth’s leaders are.”

We were quiet after that, and thoughtful.  Things had really come full circle.

It was almost twenty minutes later, and we were gathered in the kitchen drinking a coffee, when ships started to show up through wormholes.

Al said over the speakers, “Dral has transmitted a demand for Earth’s surrender, with the terms discussed.  He also specified the offer of terms will change to the quarantining of Earth should they not accept in the next eight hours, or if they open fire.”

Bill started to massage my shoulders, I sighed and some small amount of the tension left me.  I didn’t know what I’d do without him, and I wondered how I got along before he’d arrived in my life.

It felt surreal as we waited for a reply.  I tried to think of what Sergei would do, but came up with nothing.

Nadia said, “They’ll take advantage of the eight hours to plan, expect the unexpected.  Also, I’m starving.”

I nodded, it was hard to think of food at a time like this, but Bill and I started to prepare a meal as we waited for Earth’s response.  I suppose I was very naïve, because I kept hoping they’d take the chance Nadia and I had provided.  I knew they wouldn’t, but I hoped anyway.

After our meal, and some six hours later, we finally got a response.  It wasn’t the one we hoped for, or even one we had guessed at as we’d discussed several responses.

Al interrupted our conversation, “Transmission from Admiral Abramov.”

Al brought up a hologram of the stern older man, “We do not recognize the sovereignty of a world formed by a wanted criminal.  Our operations were to bring that criminal to justice.  If you don’t pull your fleets from near Earth space, we will not be responsible for the deadly response to this unearned treachery of the other worlds.”

Nadia snorted, “Did he forget about all the scientists from the other worlds?  Typical denial of responsibility, with a threat.  It always worked on Earth, I’d never realized how stupid and petty it was.  It was acceptable because no one really ever expected for those in power to be culpable for… anything really.  You’re right, business as usual doesn’t work up here at all.  No one up here gives a shit about Earth’s so called political realities.”

“Any idea what he’s up to?”

Nadia shook his head, “No.  As far as politics I’m your girl.  I’m afraid what Sergei’s tactics will be is beyond me.”

I brought up a hologram of the solar system and just beyond.  The fleet was deployed around Earth, the command ships were awfully close to it, almost too close.  The defensive plan was pretty clear, the just over a hundred unmanned defensive missile and turret emplacements would be the first hurdle, and then the fleets, along with millions of Shield defense missiles surrounding Earth.  Not to mention the three thousand or so unmanned platforms.

Something in me doubted he would fight completely defensively however.

Al said, “Dral is responding.”

Dral’s transmission came in, “Your lack of honor, and your lies, has removed any chance for clemency for your world.  Listen to my words carefully, you will surrender, or there will be war.”

I frowned, “Any response from Earth?”

Al said, “Close to a thousand platforms have activated their wormhole drives.  Their destinations are the other worlds in both treaties, twenty platforms each.”

Holy shit, the bastard was going to hold all their planets hostage.  Like a junkie holding a gun to a hostage’s head, except whole planets.  I shuddered, there was no way I’d have anticipated that.  I wasn’t nearly evil enough to even think of it.

The time for my hesitation had passed, I was just glad I’d been forward thinking enough to recall my hundred snoopy drones six hours ago.  That was the precaution I had mentioned to Nadia.

My hope at the time had been a kind of shock and awe campaign on the unmanned defenses in earth’s solar system, to convince them to surrender before anyone had to die.  It had never actually occurred to me that I’d need more than just this one ship to do the job if it became necessary.  No vessel, or thousands of vessels stood a chance against it, but even my home ship couldn’t be in fifty places at once, apparently something that Sergei had been depending on.

No doubt he’d have demanded my surrender and my technology, or he’d destroy one of those planets.  It probably would have worked too, even with the six platforms I already had in this galaxy, plus the shuttle, this ship, and the two lab ships, that was only ten places at once.

“Al, split our forces, send a probe to each world, destroy those platforms and leave the Snoopy probes behind for now as protection.  Use the other half to destroy every unmanned emplacement, platform, Shield missile, and anti-FTL missile in Earth’s solar system, unless it’s impossible to do so without destroying a ship or harming Earth.”

I knew I’d had to act, but I still wasn’t prepared to take a life.  Not yet.  Although, I’d be lying if I’d said I didn’t want to destroy Sergei’s ship.  In fact, doing that to Sergei sounded like a really good idea after what he’d just tried to do.  Following orders wasn’t an acceptable defense for what he had just threatened.

It only took seconds for the fifty Snoopy probes to destroy all the platforms and emplacements in Earth’s solar system.  The missiles took longer, they were too close to Earth to use a subspace wave, but the tighter targeted subspace aperture that took out anything ten miles in front of it slowly destroyed all the missiles.  That destruction sped up considerably when all fifty probes worked on it, opening several apertures each they scoured Earth’s orbit clean.

As far as the platforms sent to other worlds, they were destroyed by the probes as they emerged from the wormholes.  I felt rather conflicted, as I’d just decimated every defense I’d given Earth.

“Al, can you connect me to Anthony, without the rest overhearing?”

Al replied, “Not with quantum frequency transmission, but yes.  The direct quantum entangled communications between all command ships are still active on your old one.  I can use our quantum entangled connection this ship has with lab ship two and then route back to his ship.  Do you wish to open that connection now?”

Nadia asked, “What do you have in mind.”

I replied, “Not yet Al.  I’m not sure Nadia.  I’m hoping Sergei will stand down now.  He has nothing left to fight with except his manned ships.  That’s not true, I know what I was thinking.  If he doesn’t surrender I was hoping Anthony would, when I destroy Sergei’s command ship.”

Nadia raised an eyebrow, “You can tell them apart?  They all look the same on sensors.”

I smiled, “On Earth’s sensors they do.  I can not only identify his ship, but I can identify where he is specifically.  So even if he’d secretly moved his flag I’d know where he is.  He hasn’t though, he’s on his command ship.”

Nadia nodded slowly, “Let’s find out, if he’ll surrender I mean.”

I nodded, I’d been procrastinating.  There was no longer a need to hurry, I was sure the Admiral was reeling from my counter and thinking what step to take next.

“Al, hail the Admiral.”

Abramov came up a moment later, and he wasn’t happy.

I sighed, “Sergei, enough.  It was a good plan, for someone without any scruples or a soul, but it failed.  Surrender now and start ferrying people to the surface, before anyone actually dies.”

He shook his head, “I won’t surrender to you, traitor.  This was your plan all along wasn’t it?”

I… had no idea what to say to that one.  Was he deluded?  Or was this just another tactic?

Nadia snorted, “Sergei, you’re a moron.  Every step of this has been Earth pushing and pushing.  If you’d just let her go this wouldn’t have happened.  Or better yet, not tried to control her in the first place, and we might have had her latest tech, instead of Earth being defeated by it.”

Okay, based on what Nadia had said, I was guessing that first one, deluded.

I disconnected from him and said, “Al, connect me to Anthony.”

I tried to smile for my old friend, when he came on the screen, but I just couldn’t manage it.

“Hey Anthony.”

He nodded, “What is it you want Alicia?”

I sighed, “Sanity?” and then immediately regretted the quip, no matter how true it was.

I said, “Earth played the same game it always had on the ground, up in space, and this has been the result.  Right now things are pretty grim, but no one has died yet, and throwing away lives won’t change the fact Earth will be quarantined now for fifty years.  Will you surrender and get your people to the surface?  I mean, if you were in command?”

Anthony’s eyes narrowed, “I would, though they’d probably shoot me afterward.  We’re under strict orders to win and not surrender under any circumstances.  Still, either way I’m a dead man, but I can save the rest of them.”

I frowned, “Maybe.  But the Earth will learn the president threw away fifty years of their future to keep her ass in the oval office, not to mention the other leaders.  It will get obscured in rhetoric and lies of course, but maybe she’ll be so busy covering her own backside that you’ll make it.”

He snorted.

“You were always naïve Alicia, that’s why I thought this whole thing was so stupid.  You’d have never betrayed us.”

I sighed, really tired of hearing that word.

“Naïve?  Maybe, but I have fifty worlds of naïve beings behind me, demanding Earth pay for its actions.  Perhaps when the Earth grows up a bit, they’ll discover honor and integrity aren’t just naïve concepts to put on cute wall posters.  That it’s not okay that those in power have no accountability.  Until then…” I shrugged and shut my mouth, there was no point, he was already willing to surrender and I didn’t want to talk him out of it.

Plus, Earth didn’t lack honor and integrity as a whole, but quite often it was the power hungry individuals that abused such concepts to control the masses, instead of respecting them for it.

“Al, destroy Sergei’s ship.”

Al replied, “Negative, Sergei has moved his ship too close to Earth, the resulting release of Dark Energy would render Earth uninhabitable.”

And I’d thought my day couldn’t get any worse.  What the hell was he thinking?  Was he using the Earth as a shield now?  Kristi’s gravity weapon would have come in handy about now, at a reduced strength it could have killed Sergei without destroying the ship, and then towed it away from Earth.  Of course, we didn’t have it, and the gravity emitters on the probes weren’t strong enough.

“Can we shield Earth using some of the probes?”

Al replied, “Possible, but there’s an unacceptable three percent margin of error.”

What if we surrounded him with probes and took his whole ship into subspace?  In theory it would work, but if I was wrong, it was better not to risk it.  For all I knew the Dark energy would destroy the part of Earth in subspace, doing… who knows what to the physical Earth in normal space.  There was a lot left to learn, now I had a few new ideas to experiment with, but out in the void, and certainly not now.

Still, I doubted he’d hold the world he was protecting hostage, that seemed absurd, even if it would work.  Most likely it was just a delay, but a delay to do what?

Al said, “Dral is transmitting.”

Dral said, “What are your intentions, you are clearly out matched, and now you put your own planet at risk?  Head my words.  Surrender Admiral Abramov, before your folly leads your planet to destruction.”

Huh, apparently he was aware of what would happen as well were Sergei’s ship to be destroyed right now.  Not surprising, since we shared the information on what a dark energy missile would have done to Minerva had it reached the station.  I also hoped Anthony was trying to talk him down, but I wouldn’t be able to see any internal discussions to Earth fleet.

Sergei replied voice only, “I’ll see you in hell,” and several things happened at once.

Sergei’s ship went to light speed, and there was a flash of bright white light ten miles in front of the ship.  Had he just tried to ram us?

“Al?”

Al cleared his throat, an affectation he really seemed to enjoy using.

“The Admiral’s ship tried to ram us at several thousand times the speed of light.  It was vaporized when it hit the edges of our shields.”

I frowned, “Why would he do that?”

Al replied, “Perhaps he believed the dark energy would kill us, while it does seem to be immune from the destructive energies of subspace, so too is subspace a shield against dark energy.  But he had no way to know that.  If it had destroyed us, our forces would have been stalled, allowing the Earth ships to fight the other worlds with a free hand.  No doubt the gamble was a last desperate act in hope for victory.”

I nodded slowly, that did seem to be the case.  Luckily, the rest of my allies were skittish enough around my ship that they’d give it wide berth, so they were safe from the Dark Energy as well.  The Dark Energy would be reabsorbed back into the universe quickly, so it wouldn’t be a hazard for long.

A hologram of Kristi appeared, “Don’t count on it, I’d have taken control of our assets remotely and squashed the bastards if I’d lost you.  I’ve been… watching, and feeling guilty for not being at your side.”

I nodded slowly, “I miss you too, but we’re world rulers now, and we can’t afford to risk us both in this type of thing anymore.”

Kristi nodded reluctantly in agreement, “I know, that’s why I’m not there right now, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Al announced, “Incoming transmission from Admiral Anthony Flores.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Anthony looked rather grim, but his voice was steady.

“I’m ordering all ships to stand down, and will start to take people down to the surface.  Once a ship is emptied it will move to and self-destruct at the following coordinates,” coordinates came through.

He added, “We won’t forget this day,” and then he disconnected.

That’s what I was afraid of, that they wouldn’t learn and just cause more problems in fifty years in some misguided attempt at revenge, we’d have to wait and see.  I relaxed a little, as we watched shuttles and troop transports leave the ships, and the ships start to move out of the solar system to self-destruct in the void between stars.  It was safer that way.  From what I could tell they were simply turning off the DE reactor and allowing the energy touch the sides of the reactor casing causing a low level nuclear explosion.

I don’t think anyone was particularly happy with today’s events, I knew I wasn’t.  It was such a waste.  When it was finished, and the Earth fleet was destroyed, the treaty fleet broke up and I returned the Snoopy probes back to their assigned galaxies.  I didn’t think any of the humanoid races would attack Earth, but I did have the six platforms still in the galaxy, and I’d be paying attention.

There was still a lot left to do, a lot left to learn, and I’d be relatively young for my race when Earth could join us out here in the stars again.  It wasn’t perfect, but I had my family, a husband, and good friends with me including my best friend Kristi.  I also had a large community of scientists, which I had no doubt would grow larger.  Who knew what would come next, or what discoveries would be made?

Al asked, “Do you have a moment?”

“What is it Al?”

Al replied, “The Nairan have just successfully tested their first FTL drive.”

“Huh, that sounds really interesting.”

It would be kind of fun to go check it out, and say hi, now that they could join us.  But I had other priorities right now, someone else would have to deal with the Nairan and first contact.  I was too busy with something far more important.

“Al, return to Minerva to drop off Nadia.”

Nadia tilted her head, “What are you going to do?”

I smiled and looked up at Bill.

“Honeymoon, and it better not be interrupted this time.”

If there was only some wood on this damned ship to knock on…

Afterword:

I hope you enjoyed Alicia’s story.  This was the last planned book in the Alicia Jones series, I don’t think there will be any more following.  Her story is pretty much done.  That said, if I think of something else down the line, I wouldn’t hesitate to write it, but I refuse to milk the series, this one or any other.

This book got a little more into politics than I’d planned, and even the end of it kind of wrote itself.  Regardless, I tried to stay away from party politics and generalized as much as possible, I have no political statements to make, but it seemed unavoidable from Alicia’s point of view and the nature of the story that unfolded.  I tried to limit it to simply the corruption of power.

The ending was also a conflicted point to me.  I like stories where the Earth and humanity is the hero, and in this six book series the earth, along with Alicia, was the hero.  Unfortunately, they were also the villain…  Still, I tried to leave enough hope, several human colonies are still in the game, and in fifty years, who knows what could happen?

About the Author:  If you have any comments or suggestions you can send me an email at dlharrisonauthor@gmail.com  If you like my work, or even if you don’t, please consider leaving a review of this book.  I can also be found at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7456808.D_L_Harrison

Other books by D. L. Harrison:

http://www.amazon.com/author/dlharrison

The Formerly Dark Mage, by D. L. Harrison – This stand-alone fantasy book follows the life of Silvia and takes place in a world unique and separate to our own.

Silvia is a dark mage. Unfortunately, she finds herself about to be sacrificed. Someone must have told her evil master about her plans to kill him and take over.  After that, things just seem to go downhill. She has no choice but to escape the kingdom of Zual, something that to her knowledge has never been done before. She will need to deal with many issues she never had to face before.

Among those issues, the white mages, and her conscience.

Celia Winters Novel Series

Witch’s Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 1

Celia Winters was raised by her single mother, and her earliest memories are of the store her mother owns and the nearby coven, who have always been her family’s close allies and friends.

She grew up believing her magic was weak, but she was satisfied with her life, and happy.  She was a midwife, healer, and supplier of surrounding covens.

Then her mother died, and she’s about to discover she isn’t who, or what, she believes herself to be, not completely.  She will learn that her entire life up until now was a lie.  She’ll need to figure out her place, who she is when she no longer recognizes herself, and try to hold on to her closest friends as she gathers enemies for the simple crime of her existence.

She’s stronger than she believes, but will it be enough?

Power of Air Series:

Just a Psychic: The Power of Air Book One starts off this series.

Ben has grown up with missing memories of his early childhood.

He has known he was a psychic since his earliest memories, seeing the future and gaining knowledge with his gifts.

Is it possible he isn't just a psychic?

Ben's world is about to be turned upside down as he turns twenty-one, all is not as it seems.

Alicia Jones novels is a series that follows a bright young inventor and scientist named Alicia Jones.  It is a space opera and light science fiction.

The first book is titled First Contact:

Alicia Jones is a genius, and a little odd.  At just twenty-three years of age, she is close to finishing her doctoral dissertation.  But when she tests her latest theory in the lab to generate a strong EM field, it has very unanticipated results.  Results that lead to faster than light travel, and first contact with another race.

Her life just gets more complicated after that, when she finds out who she really is, and that the universe may not be as nice a place as she’d been told.  Her determination to help keep Earth safe takes her to places more dangerous and strange than she’d ever envisioned.

Spirit Sorceress series, by D. L. Harrison is a new urban fantasy series.  Miku is a spirit sorceress who spent the last one hundred years growing up and learning about her power in the forests near Seattle Washington.  She’s about to make her debut in the big city, but not in a way she ever expected.

The first book is titled Spirit Sorceress:

Miku is a spirit sorceress who spent her unusually long childhood in the forest away from the city with her mother and father.  After tragedy strikes, she finds herself alone and on her own.  She knows that one day she’ll need to move to Seattle, and fully accept her birthright, and if necessary finish her training on her own.

But before she’s ready, and still in grieving, a rogue vampire and his band come along and change everything.  She’ll need to learn her new place in the world, and find some allies quick if she’s to survive.

*** Coming Soon***

Katrina Baker Novels, by D. L. Harrison is a new series about a super named Katrina Baker.  Problem is, she gets caught up in her mother’s plan, who is a mad scientist and supervillain, and gets herself transported to another world in the multi-verse.  A world where mages, witches, clerics, and the gods are real.  Not to mention the monsters…

The first book is titled Banished:

Katrina baker is a super.  She has mental abilities such as telekinesis, telepathy, and others.  Her parents are supervillains, and she isn’t all that sure she’s cut out for that line of work.  Her empathy with others through her power makes it hard to be uncaring, much less act mean or evil to people.  Problem is, the last thing she wants to do is disappoint mom and dad.

Katrina gets caught up in her mother’s supervillain plot to rid the world of the indestructible hero Omega, and that’s when it all goes really wrong, and she finds herself on another world.

Banished.

Will she be able to find her way back home, or even understand this new world of gods and magic, or will she die trying?

The Rise of a Dark Mage - This stand-alone fantasy book follows the life of Cassandra, it takes place in the same world as The Formerly Dark Mage, but happens three hundred years later, long after Silvia is gone and some shocking changes have taken place in the world.

Cassandra is a dark mage in the kingdom of Zual, she’s also a mage prodigy.

She hates both her kingdom, and her master.  She wants him dead, not to take his place, but so that she can leave and explore the world.  Her ambition will drive her to rediscover the secrets of the strongest of magic.

She is determined to succeed, or she’ll die trying.

Book Description

Alicia’s life has gotten rather complicated, as she had to flee Earth and make a new start.  She didn’t want to play the political games with the rulers of Earth, to submit to their overbearing control, or to even fight back.  She chose a different path and went her own way.

It’s a month later, and the first batch of scientists have just arrived on Minerva station.  She has many issues to face trying to establish and run a new world.  If that wasn’t difficult enough, she also has some challenges from without.

Unfortunately for Alicia, Earth’s leadership has a hard time letting go of things.

Table of Contents

- Minerva
- Table of Contents:
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Chapter Twenty-One
- Afterword:
- Other books by D. L. Harrison:
- Book Description