Date: 2016-11-10T18:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction
Description: Alicia Jones is concerned about a few things. The bug threat, the quick rise in technological superiority for Earth, and what technology or scientific theory she’s going to focus on next. After a personal tragedy she starts going through the motions, almost directionless as the treaty worlds debate strongly about what to do with the Bug threat. That is until a team of scientists are put together to approach the Drenil, and try and work out a way to communicate with the very alien species, which uses technology that seems more like magic than science. It’s an Enigma which may prove impossible t

Enigma

An Alicia Jones novel 04

Author: D. L. Harrison

Copyright 2016.  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.

Contents:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Afterword:

About the Author

Other books by D. L. Harrison:

Book Description

Chapter 1

I wasn’t much for the spotlight, which is why I was seriously having second thoughts about this entrance.  Kristi had convinced me earlier it was a good idea, and now as I hung above the rafters looking down at the Vegas crowd in blue, I knew I was stuck with it.

It was about a week after we got home from handling the waves of bug ships… I really did wish I had a name for their race.  Bug was a misnomer that had been applied simply because they swarmed in small ships, and wasn’t really very accurate.  I had the platforms building, but it would be a few months before we had enough to do anything anyway.

Regardless, while the governments that were part of the treaty argued what to do about the bugs, I’d been contacted by the hosts of the chief’s conference in Vegas.  They’d invited me to give a talk and a show of sorts using one of my inventions.  After seeing the press reports of what I’d done that evening in New York, it had become apparent to many the gravity ball, which I still needed to come up with a better name for, was not being used to its full potential.

The Chief’s conference was basically a gathering where police and fire chiefs got to see what was up and coming in the world of law enforcement, search and rescue, and the latest firefighting techniques.  Of course, it was also a chance for them to cut loose on a little mini-vacation.

The announcer down on the stage started to introduce me and my product, and I gave Al the command to slowly lower me to the stage, while I tried to smile and pretend this was a clever entrance and not the oldest Vegas cliché ever.  Granted, no wires, but still.  Because of this, I obviously couldn’t wear a dress, so I had on a pair of black woman’s slacks, and a black fitted blazer that accentuated my figure, with a white strapless shirt under it, and a nice pair of sandals.

I so needed to get revenge on my best friend.

But then, the crowd seemed to love it, and the large conference center burst into noise and applause.  I had to exert control over my body to prevent a blush.  Oh yeah, definitely needed to get revenge.

When I landed on the stage, ten gravity balls dropped from the ceiling as well, and hung above the crowd.  Half of them were blinking red, and the other half blue.  The atmosphere raised up another notch, and I had to wait quite a while before the audience lost steam and sat down.

Al was already plugged into the audio and visual accommodations on stage, so I got started with my presentation.

“Good afternoon, I’m Alicia Jones,” I had to stop there, because they all cheered me again, if possible in an even louder cheer.  I smiled the best I could, going for graceful acceptance but I doubted I hit the mark, all while I internally vowed Kristi would pay.  I really didn’t do well with my celebrity, mostly because I never knew what to do with it.  Wasn’t saving Earth old news by now?

In my opinion, the people out in the audience were real heroes, putting their lives on the line on a daily basis.  When things finally settled down I was finally able to really start the presentation.

“Some of you may have seen what I did in New York, which was only the smallest of things possible with the new gravity ball.  I’d like to show you some diverse examples of what can be done with it, although it will be far from exhaustive.  At the end of the show, I’ll also show you what’s coming very soon.”

I stepped slightly to the side, and the lights dimmed as the large screen started playing video.  It was simulated video, none of this stuff had actually been done yet to my knowledge.

“As we all know, accidents are rare with A.I. safeguards even during manual driving, but they still happen due to hazardous road conditions, or unforeseen random circumstances.”

The screen showed a fairly nasty accident on a highway with a tractor trailer jackknife, the truck had flipped to its side as well and wound up blocking the whole road.  The cars behind it had several minor fender benders when traffic on the road came to a standstill.

“I’m sure you’ve all seen something similar.  In the past you could expect it take hours to get the highway back to normal driving conditions.  You’d have to get the emergency vehicles out there, get help for the truck driver, and clear the trailer off to the side of the road.  Set up detours, put out flares.  With the gravity ball, it’s a whole new game.”

We all watched as the simulated police car showed up, and the gravity ball flew above the accident.

“Right now, it’s making sure there are pictures to review later, of the original scene.”

Then it lowered, and the tractor trailer door opened on its own.

“The policeman is talking to the truck driver now to determine if there are any injuries.  His voice is being relayed through the gravity ball, and the police officer is also being presented with live video on his overlay so he can visually verify the scene.”

It went on for a few moments longer, and then the ambulance showed up a short time later, and once they determined what to do, the driver was lifted out carefully and delivered to emergency workers.

“And as you’ll see, the longest part of this process is dealing with the injured.”

I smiled when the whole room drew in a breath as the trailer and rig were lifted up into the air, righted, and moved to the side of the road.  It wasn’t finished however, the gravity ball then lowered to the road and cleared all the glass, rubber, and metal that was spread across the highway, and moved that off to the side as well.

I finished the narration of the first example as the cars started to drive away, “As you can see, that was quite a bit quicker, and safer, than in the past.”

There were a few more videos after that.  Hostage situations where the gunmen literally just lost their weapons and then couldn’t move.  Car chases where the fleeing car rose above the ground and just stopped.  The audience all laughed when a kid stuck in a well was pulled up.

For the firemen it showed people being rescued from windows, one right after the other instead of waiting for ladders.  Hoses sprayed water into a third floor window, without a fireman or ladder involved.

For search and rescue, a helicopter retrieved people from the water, without a harness or cable, which cut down on rescue time tremendously.  It then showed someone being lifted from a ravine after their car had gone off the side, and several more similar examples of how life had changed.

I said a little enthusiastically, “And here’s a peak at what’s coming soon, the government has finally released the gravity technology for more diverse uses, and its coming to you guys first.”

It was just a quick fun video of flying ambulances, police cars, and all avoiding the snarled traffic below to get to where they needed to be as quickly as possible.  Of course, I wasn’t sure how involved I’d be in the development of those.  I didn’t own a patent for gravity devices, just the rights to a few designs.  I’d contacted some car companies, but it’s more than possible they’ll create and use their own designs instead of buying mine.

Chapter 2

Kristi smiled at me when I walked off stage, “That was awesome.  They loved it.”

I tried not to smile, remembering my thirst for revenge, but I failed.

“It did go pretty well, didn’t it?”

Kristi nodded in agreement, “I know you hate it, but we need to advertise better.”

I shook my head, “It’s not the advertising that bothers me, it’s you wanting me in the advertising I don’t like.”

Kristi shrugged, “You’re perfect to sell things though.  Sexy alien that saved the world.  We can’t pay for better advertising than that.”

I glared at her witheringly as we walked to the exit, which I knew was a waste of time, my glares always bounced off my best friend without impact.

Kristi asked innocently, “So what now, we going to do anything while we’re here?”

I finally gave up my glare and smiled, “I suppose we could see a show, or go dancing tonight.”

Things were pretty in the air right now.  I hadn’t been back up in space since we got back, and we’d decided to take a vacation.  We had a few months until the platforms were ready, and on top of that we still didn’t know what the governments would decide to do in the end.  Though the Seltan wanted to go now, everyone else wanted to wait a while, at least until we’d taken a peek at what we would face when we got there.  The stealth sensor net was being quickly deployed in that arm of the galaxy.  Quick in comparison to the Orion arm anyway.

Point was, I was between projects, wasn’t in charge of the fleet anymore, and the scientists in my company had their own ambition and drive, so I was hardly needed there either.  I was sure something would come up, eventually, but things right now were rather quiet.

Kristi asked curiously, “No gambling?

I smirked, for once happy about the attention I got, “Nope, apparently my fame worked against me there.  As a soul reader I’ve been banned from gambling in all the casinos.  Except the slot machines, which isn’t appealing to me.”

Kristi giggled, “Well, it’s not like you need to strike it rich in Vegas, but they do have a point.”

We didn’t get a room, but we did wind up staying the rest of the day, and I had to go shopping in one of the casino’s boutiques for a dress to wear that night, I wasn’t going dancing in a woman’s suit.

We had a great time, and wound up going to a comedy show, followed by some late night dancing before heading back to the house in Colorado.  As far as my revenge, it would have to wait because nothing came to mind.  Kristi was just too confident and outgoing to embarrass like me, and I wasn’t mean enough to figure something else out…

Over the next week we spent time at home, sometimes I was alone when Kristi went out with Joe.  Outside of a few phone calls, I hadn’t spent any time with Nathan, which I wasn’t happy about.  Although I understood.  We went to several places to do the tourist thing, and even met up with Nadia, Senna, and Nora a couple of times for some nights out in New York, and we made a visit to a tropical island that didn’t mind me flying in on my own.

Most countries could be amazingly narrow minded about skipping customs.

I did have fun, but the truth was that a large part of me started to get bored out of my mind.  Vacations were great, but they got old surprisingly fast for me since I was a bit of a workaholic.  I had enough money where I could not do anything but have fun the rest of my life, but the truth was that sounded torturous to me.  I could only spend so much time in a hot tub, or going out dancing, before the itch to get back to something real prodded me to be productive.

Still, nothing specific pulled at me.  I wanted to work, do research, but so far I had no idea what would come next.

When my vacation did finally end, it was for a reason I didn’t see coming.

Al spoke in my ear, “You have been served legal papers.  Along with Kristi and Caroline.”

I frowned, “Summarize.”

Al replied, “The new nanites for maintenance and repair.  Apparently someone believes you marketing them on your own comprises a monopoly.  I believe this is an attempt to force you to sell the rights to fabricate and sell the nanites to other companies.”

“Yeah, that’s likely, the most likely culprit is the fabricator companies.  A big part of fabricator income comes from reprints or repairs and maintenance on things.  They’re probably worried we’ll be taking a large piece of their income, if not putting many of them out of business.”

Al said, “True, but it won’t be a monopoly until they go out of business.  Just an alternative to the current status quo.”

I almost laughed at his unsolicited legal opinion.  Something that had been happening more and more as time went on with the new A.I. platform.  Al was right of course, but sometimes lawsuits didn’t have to be right to be effective.  If nothing else, it would delay marketing until the matter was settled.

Truthfully, I also wasn’t greedy enough to put a bunch of people out of business, riches had never been my goal, nor what drove me to create.  Still, progress needed to go forward, change was a part of life.  Maybe I could sell the rights for others to be able to fabricate the nanites as well?

Of course, it wasn’t just my decision, Caroline had a stake in the decision as inventor and part owner, and she wasn’t rich yet at all.  I also wasn’t thrilled with the idea of being pressured to license to someone else for production, not when we could do it ourselves.  As far as I was aware, they’d never even approached us to ask first.  In the end, my responsibility was to Caroline who I’d promised the best deal I could give her, and to the end consumer.

Either way, most of those fabricator repair depots would go out of business anyway, leaving only enough to cover the need for new item builds.

Although it was true that I had my own fabricators, that was only after my first invention of the FTL drive, and being rich enough.  Most people didn’t own a fabricator themselves, and the few that did had very small ones, only capable of making things like clothing, and other small household items.  Even they had to pay a small reprint fee if something got broken.

For most though, they had to go to fabrication companies for repair or refabricating.

Generally, when something was bought, the cost to the creator of the design was one time only fee, but added to that was a small fabricating fee for using the technology in addition to the raw materials.  It was that small fee which was additional income for the fabrication companies if a shirt had to be reprinted because of damage, or the toaster oven needed to be repaired.  With the new nanites, that secondary fee would be a thing of the past.

Instead it would be another one-time flat fee to buy the nanites themselves, albeit a much larger cost initially, it would pay for itself in a very short time.  Once the nanites were purchased, all the designs a person owned were automatically uploaded to the nanites control and power station, which would then send the nanites out to constantly maintain those clothes, household devices, furniture, and the house itself.  Or a vehicle which would be a separate purchase.

All of which added up to the fact that it was time to call my lawyer.

“Al, call Daniel Schmidt and forward the papers, see when he’s available for a consultation.  Also, let Caroline and Kristi know what I’m doing, and notify them as well when you have an appointment time.”

Al replied through the implant in my ear, “Will do.”

Chapter 3

I was back at work, and felt rather uninspired while I stared at my wall.  I missed the ship, and space, but realized I’d have been just as bored out there.  I considered the idea of visiting another alien world, I’d only been to the ground on two others, but honestly the idea of another vacation sickened me.  Nothing new appealed to me, and I started to play with ideas about how to apply my current inventions in new ways.  So far though, I had nothing.

Kristi worked on something too, although she still wouldn’t tell me what, and I didn’t want to bother her by using her as a soundboard.

Al said, “I have new data on the stealth sensor net, it looks like we found one of the bug worlds.”

Thank god, the boredom was driving me nuts.

“Put up the data Al.”

A plethora of virtual screens popped up with various images and data points.

The first image showed a planet, with millions of what looked like very large swarming insects.  They weren’t though, for one when I zoomed in they had the wrong amount of legs, ten instead of six.  Although the front two were more arm like, with clawed appendages instead of hands.  The heads were bulbous but hard to make out even zoomed in.  Regardless, I didn’t see anything approximating eyes at all, compound or otherwise, although the mandibles were a disturbing point of familiarity.

Next to that screen was the planetary data.  It was very hot, close to a hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit.  The gravity was point two of earth normal, and the atmosphere was a lot thicker, a hundred twenty-one point two atmospheres compared to earth’s sea level.  Then there was the atmosphere itself, no oxygen at all.  It was comprised of nitrogen, methane, and other trace elements inimical to humanoid life.

The landscape itself was barren and forbidding, and I wondered what they ate.  Either it was underground, or they subsisted off the atmosphere itself.  I supposed it was possible, it was quite thick.

The other screens showed the space around the planet itself.  Large structures were present which the small ships docked with.  I was reluctant to call it a hive, or colony, but honestly it was the first thing that came to me when I saw it.  The large structures were packed with ships, full of them, all three of the structures orbited the planet and had just over a million ships each.

There were also smaller structures, where it appeared the bugs were building more ships.  Other screens showed the bugs mining both asteroids, and one of the gas giants in the system.  They were clearly overbuilding.  I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, but it was hard not to.  I imagined, once the bugs built a million or so ships too many, they would swarm and look for a new home.

As to why, I refused to speculate.  Instinct, holy mission, who knew?  Outside of the Bugs I mean.  We couldn’t know, not until after we attacked them and saw how they reacted.  After the look at the numbers, I knew I wanted a lot more platforms than originally planned before we attacked.

To be fair, those numbers only accounted for platforms, when we went after them the Seltan would be sending a whole lot of ships, with bunches of missiles.  I supposed in my mind I wanted a solution where no one else got hurt, which wasn’t really very realistic.

I wondered what the world leaders and treaty holders thought of it, and could imagine the arguments.  I just hoped restraint would win, we needed to be ready before we tried a probing attack, even a small one.  At least they’d taken my advice and had sent over a thousand stealth sensor ships to map the arm next to us as quickly as possible.

Scanning it in detail would take a long time, many years, but we could see their ships from light years away, just like our ships, so mapping out their colonies shouldn’t take more than a few months with that many ships acting like a beacon.

The idea that we had to be ready for a mass counter attack just in case had given me an idea.  Not for a new line of research, but for leveraging one I’d already had, and all without violating Earth’s laws by selling the technical knowledge to our allies.  I started on the design immediately, I still had a couple of hours before we needed to go meet the lawyer, which should be enough time to work out a prototype design.  I found myself smiling for the first time today as I started the project, I really was a workaholic.

Daniel Schmidt was a corporate lawyer, and a partner at his own firm in Denver.  Caroline, Kristi, and myself were flying the short distance in the sports shuttle after a quick lunch.

Caroline looked a little worried, “What do you think will happen?”

Kristi shook her head in disgust, “I’m not sure, it seems like a desperate scare tactic to take us to court.  What they expect to get out of us I don’t know.  Our product is unique, and better than theirs, but it isn’t a monopoly, since they will still offer repair services.  That said, let’s wait to see what Daniel says.”

That was pretty much my thoughts as well, we came down right outside of Denver a few moments later, and then drove in from there.  It just didn’t seem like a good idea to fly around in a major city, not until flying cars were common and new laws were established.  Less than ten minutes later we pulled up in front of one of the buildings and parked, the shuttle hovered just a foot over the pavement.

When we got into the building, we had to sign in with security before going up to the sixteenth floor where the law offices were.  Security must have called ahead, because Daniel already waited for us as we got off the elevator.  He shook our hands and welcomed us, and then escorted us back to a large conference room.

Daniel asked, “Does anyone want a drink or anything before we get started?”

“No thanks, we just came from lunch.”

Kristi and Caroline shook their heads no, and we all took a seat.

“So what are we looking at?”

Daniel replied, “New inventions, especially ones that completely change the business terrain like these new nanites can cause a little upheaval.  Right now, the lawsuit is a tactic to get you at the table, and to try and force you to share the new technology.”

Caroline interjected, “So they don’t have a case?”

Daniel waved his hand uncertainly, “Not yet no.  They’d be kicked out of court.  However, in a couple of years, if this new technology takes over the landscape as seems likely, they will have a case.  Especially if they close down all their repair depots, then it really will be a monopoly and they’ll come at you again.”

I frowned, “So what do you suggest.”

Daniel replied, “That’s up to you, but here are the options.  We can just fight this, and make it go away.  When it comes around again in the future, we can try to settle it out of court, but the risk in waiting is you’ll lose the leverage to force settlement out of court, and the judge may order a solution that isn’t weighed in your favor at all.  It’s a gamble.

“Right now you have most of the power, so this second option might be better in the long run.  You can sit down with them at the table, and work something out now.  License the tech itself so they can form a company competitive to yours, yet they’d still owe you royalties for each one they make as well as a large yearly fee for the rights to make it.”

I frowned in thought, “What if we take the middle road.  Offer it exclusively first, so we’re seen as a competitor when we go to the table.  If we license it right off, they’ll have the advantage of the customer base.  People think fabricators when a repair comes up, so they’ll go to those places first even if we have an alternative.”

I was also thinking it would give us time to get contracts with the car companies to offer the nanites as an extra.  I felt like I was being greedy, but honestly I was just looking out for Caroline.  Not that she wouldn’t become a multi-millionaire at the very least, no matter what path we took.

Kristi shrugged, “It’s also a limited market.  Once the initial rush is finished, new nanite packages will only be sold when new buildings and houses are built, not to even mention space ships and cars.  Waiting like Alicia said, seems like the smartest business decision.  The only question is, for how long?”

Caroline interjected, “How about a couple of months?”

“I can agree with that.”

Kristi nodded.

Daniel replied, “Alright, I’ll respond to this and do my best to make it go away for now.  If they’re smart they’ll cancel, but just don’t miss the court date if they do go forward.”

We all smiled at that.  Not a chance.

Chapter 4

“Kristi, you got a minute?” I asked through the intercom between our offices.

A couple of days had passed, and I had my prototype ready to launch from our battle cruiser lab ship, which still hung way out in the void above the galaxy.  A view of it was on my wall screen.

Kristi walked in, “What is that?”

It was about the height and width of a shuttle, but twice as long.  I’d needed the extra space.

I smiled up at her and said in my best cheesy announcer’s voice, “That, is the first ever intergalactic wormhole taxi.”

She giggled, “What is an intergalactic wormhole taxi for?”

“Well, it occurred to me that when we attack the bugs, if we need to run, they might follow us.  We needed a way to both have all the other races get somewhere fast, and at the same time not give up our dark matter reactor or wormhole technology to them.  I figure we should make about fifty of them, which with our two ships, will take about fifty days at two days a piece.”

She frowned, “So it’s to move military strength around quickly?”

I nodded, and then shook my head, “That’s why I originally thought of it yes, it’s fully automated by A.I., and to get it started I just need to send out a message with the quantum frequency.  But it’s also more than that, I can’t keep throwing my money at the galaxy’s problems.  Well I can, but I shouldn’t have to, so it’s also a business.”

Kristi tilted her head, “A business?”

“Yup.  Military requests will take precedence, if, and only if, it’s a treaty common defense measure, will it be free.  The ship will wormhole to the requestor, and then open a wormhole to the requested coordinates.”

Kristi finally didn’t echo me, “Oh, and if it’s not a common defense issue, you’ll charge them?”

I nodded, “Exactly, and not just military.  Earth will eventually have civilian vessels moving about, and they won’t have wormhole drives.  Plus, all the other worlds will want that convenience when trading and even just visiting to initiate trade.  That’s where the taxi part comes in.”

She frowned, “And people will pay for that, instead of just moving at FTL?”

“Of course.  People are always in a hurry, and most ships out there can’t even go as fast as we can.  If they can cut days off their journey for a few credits, or a little gold, then they’ll do it.  For the same reason on Earth people deal with airports and planes, instead of driving everywhere.  People will always pay more to go faster.”

Kristi bit her bottom lip, “You’re right, people will pay money for it.  Fifty ships?”

“I figured that was a good start, we can always make more if we need to.  Still, with wormholes it will only take a few minutes with each customer, it won’t take long to simply open a wormhole and send them through.  Originally I was thinking about stationary ones right outside of occupied solar systems, but then we’d have to get their government’s approval for a permanent installation and all that.  I figured this would just be another ship.”

Kristi grinned, “Plus it’s more secure this way, less chance someone could pirate the tech if it’s on the move.”

I nodded, “There are no weapons on it at all, but it has triple shielding, and of course the more powerful ones with the dark energy reactor.  That little ship could probably power the planet.  Either way, it shouldn’t have trouble escaping an attacker, or in a worst case scenario, blowing itself up by dropping the singularity.”

Kristi smiled and then teased, “I like it, but I’m still not telling you what I’m working on.”

I pouted, but it had no effect at all.

“Al, go ahead and launch, calibrate, and test please.  If it checks out start building out forty-nine more.”

Al replied from the room speakers, “Acknowledged.  A General Denton is here to see you.”

Kristi and I exchanged looks, what was he doing here?

I told Al, “Have Karen escort him to my office please.”

Al replied again from the room speakers, “He’s on his way.”

Kristi asked, “Think he needs us to bail him out again?”

I had a really bad feeling, and shook my head in denial, though I couldn’t say what I was denying.  When he entered my doorway a few moments later and wore a grim face, I felt the urge to run, to escape.  Maybe it wouldn’t be true if he never said it, if I didn’t hear it.  The last thing I wanted to hear, was what he had come to say.  Sometimes soul reading sucked, and this was one of those times.

General Denton said in a sober voice, “I’m sorry Alicia.  It’s not our policy to notify girlfriends, just family.  But,” he took a deep breath and his jaw stiffened, “I thought I owed it to you to come here personally, as a friend.  We all owe you, and this news… I’m sorry.  Nathan was killed in action…”

The general continued to speak, but I didn’t hear him, I couldn’t hear him.  I was actually deaf.  I’d turned off my own hearing, a denial of the reality that I couldn’t possibly escape, and my eyes were getting blurred with unshed tears as the pain gathered and rose up in my chest.

It was so hard to breath, and I barely took notice when Kristi took his arm, and walked him out of the room right before the dam of pain in my chest burst into a heart wrenching sob, and my tears finally fell.  I tried to smother it, tried to control it, as I’d controlled my emotions a million times before, but this feeling wouldn’t yield to my will.  It was too raw, and too powerful.

Kristi came back a few moments later and shut my door, before she hugged me.  At first I wasn’t happy with that at all, but I finally collapsed against her.  I felt like a child as I wept in my best friend’s arms.  I’d never felt pain like that before, and until that moment I hadn’t known just how much I’d loved Nathan, how much I’d expected him to always be around, and that I’d always believed we’d wind up together once his service was done…

The next week was a blur of misery, and of shock.  I went back and forth between devastation, and an empty feeling that was even more frightening than the pain, as if all the color in the world had been washed out, and I simply existed in a bubble, completely disconnected from everyone around me.  Kristi was being patient with me, but it was apparent that I was spiraling and helpless to stop it.  I think a part of me made me feel that way, as if I somehow deserved it and meted out my own punishment.

I missed him.

I’d only taken a single day off, for the funeral.  Otherwise I was at work.  I just couldn’t stay home and stare at the walls, or the mountains.  All it did was remind me that he couldn’t share it with me anymore.  Plus, I needed to keep busy.  So I worked, it was what I did.  There were some serious changes that week, but I barely kept up with them.

Not that it mattered, the world kept moving on whether I liked it, or not.

I knew the basics though.  Al had made sure of that.  Fourteen of the twenty-seven races that were holdouts had joined the treaty eagerly after the information was released, and everyone saw the Bug world for the first time.  I had to admit, there was a certain… distaste, for the Bug race.  They were truly alien, and incomprehensible.  Fortunately, understanding wouldn’t be needed to stop them.

That left thirteen hold outs, or actually just ten.  Three of the thirteen that still weren’t a part of the treaty were the three races that had attacked the Knomen.  They all changed their tune and had wanted to join as well, but per the treaty they couldn’t apply for fifty years after their actions in attacking a neighbor.  Even if that neighbor had been the Knomen.

So out of fifty-two known interstellar capable worlds, including Earth and the Seltan, the treaty was now thirty-nine strong.  I hadn’t counted that FTL race out toward the galactic rim either, they still hadn’t responded to our probe except to examine it.  At least they hadn’t destroyed it outright, which was a good sign.

The thirty-nine worlds however, hardly agreed about what should be done.  Some thought we shouldn’t risk attacking at all, and should focus on just building up better defenses for the next nine years.  They argued that all together, they could put the Seltan only efforts to shame and simply kill the waves.  They argued that besides that, hadn’t the anti-FTL missiles destroyed them easily without loss of life?  Why push it?

The other worlds, mostly championed by the Seltan force leader Dral, were of the opinion that was abject cowardice, and that they needed to end the threat at all costs by rooting them out and destroying them where they lived.

I wasn’t sure where I stood in that argument exactly, but the idea of genocide didn’t appeal to me at all.  Either way, I felt kind of useless.  Informed, but ultimately powerless to help chart a course.  The council had sold me out, America had waved its wealth and bought a colony world, and had shuffled me to the side for the ambition of the Russian government as part of the price.

Sergei, who I had thought to be a friend, had apparently just been handling me as a superior officer.  Our latest communications had been almost hostile.  Apparently he was very good at controlling his emotions, because soul reader or not, I hadn’t picked up on it at all when he was my subordinate.

The only person I had any pull with was Vice Admiral Anthony Flores, who still seemed to value my opinion.  I hardly even knew Kara Barnes.  I’d seen her on reports of course, but had never met her as the upper admirals interfaced through the vice admirals.

Point was, I was out of the loop now, and I missed Nathan so much that it was hard to care.  Even work, I kept busy, but I hadn’t been searching for a new technology or theory.  I’d just been… marking time.  I was twenty-four years old, and felt like my life was over.  I’d have to admit to self-pity if asked, but I really didn’t care.  Perhaps apathy should be added to the list as well.

Oh, and a dash of bitterness maybe?

Al interrupted my pity party of one, “Nadia is calling.”

I frowned, I wasn’t in the mood for a night out.

“Answer it,” I mumbled unconvincingly, and then said, “Nadia, what can I do for you?”

Nadia replied, “I was sorry to hear about your loss, are you okay?”

I really started to hate that question.  Of course I wasn’t okay, yet people kept asking me that same stupid question.

“Hanging in there,” by a thread maybe, “What’s up?”

Nadia said, “Could you come by the offices?”

I groaned, on the inside, “Why?”

Nadia paused for a minute, and then said, “It’s top secret, and involves a video I’d like you to see.  I know the council and you didn’t part on the best terms but…”

“Nadia,” I interrupted, “When do you want me there?”

Nadia cleared her throat, “Tomorrow morning, at eight.”

Crap, she did know that was the crack of dawn in Colorado didn’t she?  I needed to pull it together, and stop snapping at my friends.  I didn’t overly care right now, but I knew I eventually would.

“Sounds good, should I bring Kristi?”

She replied evenly, “Yes, that’s probably a good idea.”

“See you then.”

She said goodbye and hung up.  I wondered what they wanted now, and for me to be interested in something since Nathan died, was a kind of progress.

Chapter 5

“Good morning,” Kristi said, and I managed a wave.

Nadia said, “Good morning, follow me to the conference room.”

We walked along behind her to the conference room.  Nora, Senna, and a couple of other aliens I didn’t recognize were in there already.  We took a seat, and Nadia walked up front.

“Thanks for coming, you know everyone except the Omarans.  This is Talmor, and Blue.  I want to show you a video, and then I’ll explain why you’re here.”

The Omarans were a humanoid race like the rest, they were pretty close to the same as human, except for their hair, which was looked slightly thicker.  Talmor’s hair was bright green, and Blue’s hair was quite blue.  They also only had three fingers which were thicker, and the opposable thumb, instead of the usual four.  Otherwise they were remarkably similar, including their dark tan skin, and brown eyes.

A video came up, and it looked like data from one of the probes I built.  It was out in space.  I didn’t have to wait long for things to get started.  I watched an approaching swarm of the bugs.  The video panned around in a circle and showed data.  There was no technology that we could detect in the system, but there was a world close by.

It was brown, with clouds of black.  It looked remarkably like Venus, though it obviously wasn’t, there was data on the screen, it was mostly carbon dioxide, and the black clouds were storms raining acid.

Nadia said, “This is a world occupied by the Drenil.  It looks rather uncomfortable, and you can see it’s over four hundred degrees Celsius.  I know the probe shows no life signs, but the Drenil don’t have life signs.  At least, not any that we can detect or understand.”

The camera turned back toward the bug swarm fleet.  I’d been sure I was about to see them hit the planet.  There was nothing to stop them.  Then there was a white flash on the screen, if I’d have blinked I would have missed it.  A moment later the swarm fleet started to explode, starting with the ships in front, and going toward the back like a wave.  Another two seconds, and it was over.

A single white flash, and a million destroyed ships.

“What the hell was that?  And how did we even get this data?” I asked, curious despite myself.

Nadia smiled at my question, “Here it is in slow motion.  And we got it by sending a probe a few weeks ago.  They ignored it.”

She replayed that section frame by frame.  Something came on the screen, and Nadia paused it.  It looked… amorphous.  It wasn’t one of the aliens though, it was a ship, and its shape was extremely random.  Curves, points, and angles that overlapped, it looked random.  Like a one-year-old with a crayon had scribbled, and this is what came out.  It was translucent white, and seemed to generate a light of some kind, it was also partially transparent, I could see stars behind it.

Nadia went another frame, and it appeared more solid, and brighter.

Another frame, and white dominated the entire screen.

One more frame, and the ship was gone again.

She sped it up to a quarter speed, and we watched again as the ships exploded, like dominoes falling.

I couldn’t help it, that was impossible, and I gaped.

Finally, I found my voice, “So, when the Seltan told us the Drenil were extremely powerful, but peaceful, they weren’t kidding at all.”

Nora chuckled, “You could say that, which brings us to the point.”

Nadia smiled, “The council, along with Tressia, Leira, and Omara want to send an expedition to Drenil space.  The Seltan failed to open any kind of meaningful dialog in their attempts, but perhaps some of our best scientists from four of our worlds will have a better shot.  Plus, maybe we’ll be able to figure out what that was, if not how to do it ourselves.”

I looked to Kristi, and she nodded.  Truthfully, I was a bit curious, and the rest of me didn’t care if I went or not.  So I figured, why the hell not?

“Alright, how many are going, and when?”

Nadia replied, “The people in this room, and we have to swing by Tressia and Leira to pick up a couple of more scientists.  Senna, Nora, and myself are coming just in case you succeed and we can open diplomatic negotiations, and to be honest we all want to go see, and can get away with doing work remotely for a while.  As for when, we’re ready when you are.”

“Can you give us an hour?  And approval to land a shuttle here from orbit?  We all won’t fit in the sports shuttle, and we need to go home and pack first.”

At the very least, we needed to pick up our body conforming pressure suits.

Nadia shook her head, “Make it two hours, and pick us up at JFK.”

“Alright, see you then.”

It took a surprisingly short time.  The longest was getting out of New York City to a place we could fly off from, and we went straight back home.  We both changed.  I chose to wear a pair of dark jeans and a red shirt over the pressure suit, Kristi also wore clothes this time over the skin tight suit.  Maybe because we were having guests?

I considered packing, but I still had a number of clothes to wear aboard ship, so I decided there was no point.

Kristi was ready a few minutes later, and we were on our way.

The truth is, I felt a little worried, because I truly didn’t care.  What I’d seen on the video had been amazing, I should have been charged up, excited for an opportunity to even try to talk to and study the Drenil.

Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to give a crap.  It was barely two weeks since Nathan died, still, shouldn’t I have bounced back, at least a little by now?

Perversely, I decided to look into it in spite of myself.  Almost as if I feared if I didn’t, I might as well just roll over and die.

“Al, bring up the raw scanning data and particle emissions for the time the Drenil ship was visible.  On second thought, add in a second before and after.”

For two and a tenth second span, there was a hell of a lot of data to go through.  There were many types of radiation and particles, and I was sure there were some our scanners couldn’t see yet.  But if I could figure out what, maybe I could figure out how?

Kristi looked at me in surprise, and that made me feel a little guilty.  I wasn’t the best friend in the world to begin with, and I’d been a completely crappy one lately.  Nathan was gone, but I had a lot to be thankful for in this life, and she was near the top of the list, if not the top.

I started to feel so guilty, that I teared up.  I was a mess.

Kristi asked in a concerned voice, “Alicia?”

This time I was the one that hugged her as I broke down and bawled.  It was different from last time though, these tears weren’t the same.  They felt cleansing, as if I were letting go instead of holding on tight in denial.  She held me while I got it all out, and I hoped that was it for a while, I really hated crying.

“Sorry,” I muttered, a little embarrassed now.

Which as strange as it sounds, was progress.  Embarrassment meant I cared.  I still missed him but I could feel, and breath again, all at the same time.

Kristi shook her head, “I’m still not telling you what I’m working on…”

I whacked her on the arm playfully, which made her giggle, and I asked with false excitement, “So, ready to invade JFK with an armed shuttle?”

She nodded, “Sounds fun!”

The sad truth was I had nothing big enough that wasn’t armed.  I’d have to fix that.

I added, “Oh, could you double check the security, we’ll have nosy scientists on board, and I prefer they don’t figure out the converters, dark energy reactor, or the wormhole device.”

Kristi nodded, “I’ll double check, but no one but us should have access to those rooms, and the database is locked down by the A.I.”

“Good.”

It turned out nine of us would be going in total, four ambassador types who wanted to come along just in case, although I imagined they were curious, and then five scientists.  We needed to stop at Tressia to pick up a scientist called Nalla, and then on to Leira for a scientist named Ellis before heading to Drenil space.  I still missed Nathan, but my mind seemed to be working better again, as if I’d stopped punishing myself.

For what, I wasn’t sure.

Kristi asked, “You stopped the taxi build?”

She must have reviewed the ship’s status.

I nodded, and looked around the bridge as Al opened up a wormhole to Tressian space.

“I’ve been thinking.  They ignored our probe right?”

Nadia nodded at me slowly, like I’d said something stupid, and looked as if she were wondering if I was feeling okay.

I smiled, had I been that bad?

“Well, I was thinking, the probe wasn’t armed right?  I mean, I don’t want to assume they’ll ignore any ship.  After all, would we let a race armed like this ship is, to approach one of our worlds, from a race we couldn’t talk to or understand yet?  Granted, they’re different, but they clearly defend themselves from the bugs, so we have that much in common at least.”

Senna nodded, “That makes sense, but what can we do?”

“I’m going to redesign the taxi by pulling out the wormhole device, and make it big enough to comfortably fit nine, and then finish it up.  I suggest we park this thing on the edge of their space, specifically, on the Seltan side of the border.”

Nora asked, “Will that take long?”

I shrugged, “Just a few minutes for the design with Al’s help.  The changes are small, since its already an unarmed hull.  I just need to add life support and creature comforts which we already have specifications for.  It should take a day to finish from where it is now.  Nora, do we need to pick up your scientist, or is she taking a ship up?”

Nora replied, “She has her own shuttle.”

Kristi interjected with humor, “Well, were at Tressia, so tell her to come on up.”

I took a few minutes to remove the systems we didn’t need, and to make room for what we did.  While I tuned out the conversation around me I swapped some stuff around and restarted the build.  It was twice the length of a standard sized shuttle, there’d be plenty of room for nine people to work comfortably, with a restroom and some basic food and amenities, but it would have no sleeping berths which might get old fast.  I supposed we could always come back to the battle cruiser to sleep.

“Anyone hungry, or want a drink?” I asked curiously.

There was a general affirmation to the idea, and we all filed off the bridge.  It would actually take longer for the shuttle to arrive than the trip from Earth to Tressia had taken.  I frowned, I knew eventually the tech would leak out, spying was pretty standard to all humanoid races.  I was friends with all these people though, well, most of them, and I hoped there would be no misunderstandings.

It may have been inevitable, but it wasn’t going to happen on my watch, or my ship.  I wondered if I was getting a bit cynical, but decided I wouldn’t be as worried if we weren’t bringing along four total strangers.  It also occurred to me I’d never asked who had requested I go on this mission, Nadia had been very vague about that.  Okay, now I was paranoid.  Still, what if it hadn’t been the council for the USFS, but our allies, and they had more than one reason to request my presence.

I shook it off as we got to the galley, and grabbed a coffee…

Chapter 6

I nodded congenially when Nalla walked out of the back of her shuttle, “Welcome aboard.”

Nalla looked almost grave, “Thank you.  Do you know when we’ll get started?”

Nalla struck me as being uptight, studious, and arrogant.  That was my first impression of her anyway, hopefully she would warm up or this would be a long trip.  And by first impression, I meant soul reading, she was uptight, studious, and arrogant, it hadn’t been a guess.  Still, that could change and was only her outer feelings for the moment.

Kristi interjected, “It will be at least a day, we’ve decided not to go into Drenil space with an armed ship.”

Nalla didn’t look too happy with that delay, but she nodded in acceptance.

I added, “It will give us some time to go over data we already have.  It wasn’t much, but I already have some speculations.”

Nalla looked slightly mollified by that idea, and I wondered if I knew the true meaning of workaholic after all.  I also considered I might be a lot like her if I didn’t have Kristi as a best friend.  A best friend who constantly tried to make me unwind and relax, and forced me to go out dancing and not be a hermit.

I decided I probably would be, and sent Kristi a grateful look that she probably couldn’t decipher the reason for.

“Al, move us to Leira please.”

He replied out of the deck speakers, “On our way.”

Nalla asked, “You said speculations?”

I shrugged, “Let’s wait until we pick up the Leiran scientist so we don’t have to cover old ground.  Keep in mind its mostly speculation based on limited data, not a true theory at all, but it will be somewhere to start from if no one else has alternate ideas.  In the meantime, food and drink, or would you like to see your quarters?”

Nalla sighed, “Very well, a drink would be acceptable, as for quarters I’d prefer to use my shuttle.”

I tried not to be offended by that, she probably just liked having her own stuff around her, and was comfortable there.

By the time we walked back to the galley, it was time to turn right around and return to the landing bay.  The wormhole drive really did speed things up.  Of course, it would be hurry up and wait, since we’d be stuck at the border until the shuttle fabrication was done.  I decided on a whim to label the design a science research shuttle, and saved it.

The Leiran scientist came out of his shuttle with a smile and a walk that was just short of a swagger.  After Alnot, his family, and Senna, I’d come to the half-baked conclusion that all of the Leiran’s would be reserved, but not so for this one.

“Doctor Jones, a pleasure to meet you,” and he shook my hand excitedly.

I watched a little in amazement as he went around the room greeting everyone as friends, he knew all their names and was gracious and outgoing.  My newfound pessimism decided if anyone was a spy for Earth tech, it would be this man.  Of course, the more likely reason was Senna had sent him an info packet on everyone going.

He turned back to me, “So, how about a tour of this amazing ship?”

I almost laughed, probably not a spy then.  Not subtle enough.

Nalla looked scandalized by his attitude, which made me cough to hide my amusement.

“I’d be happy too, but perhaps later?  We have a plan to figure out, and a little data to go over.”

Ellis nodded enthusiastically, “Wonderful idea, after you?”

Kristi and I took the lead, and walked them to a nearby conference room where we all sat around the table.

“Al, put the data up on the screen please?”

I turned to the table, “Has anyone else studied the data from the probe yet?”

Nadia shook her head in disbelief, “When the hell did you have time to do that?”

I grinned, “On the shuttle ride to JFK.  I hardly performed an exhaustive analysis, but something did stand out to me right off.”

Nalla narrowed her eyes, “What?  I didn’t notice anything when I reviewed it.”

“Al, bring up some of the wormhole data and put it side by side.”

I turned toward Nalla and explained, “Probably because you haven’t seen a scan of an open wormhole yet.  You can see they look very different, but have a few commonalities.  They both share a few types of exotic radiation not found anywhere else.”

Ellis said, “Yes, but they’re very different in scope.”

“Agreed,” I said, “the wormhole shows much more radiation.  But I think that’s because the wormhole drive is very crude.  We are basically punching a hole and drilling a tunnel in space time.  It’s different as well because the Drenil ship never moved, it just appeared and disappeared, so obviously they don’t create a hole, I think they simply slip between dimensions, or subspace layers if you prefer.  The radiation is a result of the two layers coming together when they shouldn’t, their technology is just more refined.”

“That,” Nalla paused, “Is pure speculation and guesswork.  There’s no math or proof.”

“Absolutely,” I assured her, “I told you that already, it’s just speculation.  Except, the flash of translucent energy also emitted similar radiation.  I believe what killed those ships so fast was a… rippled tear in normal space of some kind.  Why it destroyed the ships though, I don’t know, I suppose it depends on what was in the subspace layer, or dimension, on the other side of the ripple.”

Ellis frowned, “It fits the facts, but so do any amount of tales I could make up.  Do you have any other data to support the theory they are slipping into some kind of theoretical subspace?  Rather than just some kind of advanced cloaking mechanism?”

“One more thing yes, but this is probably going to sound nuts.  Also, remember this isn’t a talk about conclusions, it’s a discussion to plan about where to start looking.  Anywhere we start will just be a guess, this is just a slightly more educated guess backed up by exotic radiation that comes from a place we know was punching holes through space.”

Nalla grunted, “True, what was your other thought?  The crazy one.”

Her voice implied all of my thoughts were nuts so far.  I tried to ignore it.

“The Drenil have been called amorphous, because they have no shape that can be objectively measured.  They constantly change in appearance, size, shape, and for our three dimensional minds, some of those angles and changes just look wrong and unnatural.  What if their ships aren’t the only multi-dimensional thing about them?”

Kristi blew out a breath, “Are you suggesting they are multi-dimensional beings, and we are only seeing a small portion of what they truly are?”

Nalla shook her head stubbornly, “That is crazy, and impossible.”

I frowned, “Really?  Then show me your soul.  Can you see it?” after a pause I added, “I can.”

Nalla looked unimpressed, “I don’t understand the correlation.”

I sighed in frustration and reordered my thoughts.  Was I crazy?

“The Knomen, what we can do when reading people, it’s called soul reading.  There are humans on Earth who have what is called ESP, some can… know things that seem impossible to know.

“As scientists, we know that these three dimensions are the tip of the iceberg of true reality.  What we see is real, and correct, but also incomplete and misleading.  My point about souls is, I believe we are all multi-dimensional beings.  Science can’t find and measure the soul because we’re looking in the wrong place.  Yet, to my senses the soul is undeniably real and present in all of us here.

“Now, perhaps our five senses can’t see beyond the three dimensions, but suppose that little extra sense, like ESP and Soul reading can.”

Nadia interjected, “Isn’t this a bit far afield?  What’s your point?”

I smiled, “I suppose I got a little side tracked, but it’s applicable.  If humanoids can have senses that reach beyond three dimensions, why can’t another race that is completely alien in nature have a physical body that does?  It would also follow that if they did comprehend more of reality with physical senses, wouldn’t their technology follow that same line?”

Obviously not, if the stares were any indication.  Maybe I was crazy.

Kristi asked, “I’ve never heard you talk about souls and stuff like this before.”

I shrugged and tried to explain, “I’ve been curious about my abilities that no one else on Earth seemed to have for a long time.  Especially before I learned I was actually not from there.  I have no proof of any of it, but it fits.  If my DNA has something in it that allows me to see more, outside of this three-dimensional universal layer, why can’t the rest be true.

“Again, it’s just an idea, speculation.  If not that though, it will be something else just as odd to explain why the Drenil are amorphous.  It also might explain why the Seltan failed to make any meaningful contact, suppose the Drenil’s ears and mouth, or whatever they use to communicate, isn’t in this part of reality at all?”

Nalla said carefully, “I can buy in on the first part.  The radiation is just circumstantial, but it does give us an obvious place to start.  The rest however, is mystical nonsense.  It’s far more likely that the Drenil’s body changes are just that, continuous changes.  Perhaps that could even be the way they communicate.”

Kristi cleared her throat, “Well, we have about a day before the shuttle will be done fabricating, I suggest we get some rest, and perhaps study the data more completely and get back together tomorrow before heading out.”

I nodded in agreement, and left the room.  Perhaps I had gone too far with it, but if I was right, we’d need to figure out some technology that could bridge that gap, which… might be impossible at our current understanding.  Still, even Kristi had looked at me like I was nuts, which bothered me a lot.  I’d like to think soul reading gave me an insight maybe they didn’t have, but it was equally as possible I’d gone around the bend with my mystical theory.

It wasn’t mystical though, that was just the label stuck on what science couldn’t explain yet.  The soul was real.  Was I asking the hard questions others didn’t want to contemplate?  Or was I just seeing what I wanted to see?  I went to my quarters and laid down, maybe I just needed some sleep.

Chapter 7

I stared at the hologram that was in my head, a part of my overlay.  I was bored and needed to something to do, and was honestly kind of avoiding the rest of the people on the ship right now.  I’d felt inspired to build this visual mock up in three dimensions, and design it.  It was only when I was halfway done that I’d realized what I was doing.

Al reported, “I have an update from the stealth sensor net, is now a good time?”

I looked up in thought, now he wondered if I was too busy?  Maybe I should have Kristi take a look at his programming.

“Summarize Al.”

Al said, “We found three more bug worlds.”

I giggled, “Not that summarized.”

There was silence for a moment, and then Al said, “They are laid out quite similarly with only minor variations.  They are all fully occupied, and still building ships.  As far as we can tell so far, there is no interaction between the hives.”

“As far as you can tell?”

Al replied, “No physical interaction, no ships visiting or commuting between them so far.  As you know however, quantum communications are impossible to intercept without knowing the exact quantum frequency, of which there are an infinite amount.”

“I wonder if there are just nine planets, and the waves are caused by the different arrival times.  Postulate that is true, and then estimate where the other colonies would be.”

Al disagreed, “We don’t have enough data yet.  By my estimates it will take them approximately twenty-seven years to build up enough ships to have a million.  That suggests there are multiple groups of differing numbers of hives that attack in waves every nine years.”

I tilted my head, “That’s indirect evidence of communication between them, or at least between each set of hives.  It can’t be coincidence that nine of them finish building about the same time.”

He replied, “Affirmative, it’s just as unlikely that the three groups of hives attack nine years apart from each other without communication.  The idea that they are randomly set at such an even interval is unlikely.”

“So the question is, will they support each other,” I mumbled under my breath.

Al replied, “Unknown.”

I smirked, he wasn’t quite perfect yet if he thought that a valid question.

I looked at my project again and sighed.  It was something I’d never make, or submit to anyone else.  I’d designed a combat suit, not even questioning where the inspiration had come from.  It stood about ten feet tall, with a metal exoskeleton and its own A.I. and nanites.  The back had a small pack on it with a series of small fusion devices instead of one large one to keep the thickness down.

It was built like my bustier, using the small ball approach for EM and anti-mass shielding, and it also had several gravity emitters to make it fast and maneuverable in atmosphere.  It didn’t have the shield strength of a ship, but then on Earth it wouldn’t need nearly that much, it could easily stop anything short of a nuclear explosion, and most likely even one of those.

It had small versions of plasma cannons, although the ejection mechanism wouldn’t exceed the speed of light, it was still capable of heavy damage against anything unshielded.  The gravity emitters were capable of reaching far beyond the suit itself as well.  In short, it was a one-man suit that was probably capable of invading any country on Earth, and winning.

I deleted the file and the hologram of it winked out, it was a monstrosity.  I hadn’t really been thinking, just creating.  It hadn’t been until I was done that I realized what it was for, and it was far too late to protect him.  I felt guilty at that, he wouldn’t want my protection, or to act the way I’d been acting.  He’d died for what he believed in, and enough was enough.  I needed to truly let go and move on.

Easier said than done.

Kristi barged in with her arms crossed, “You going to hide in here much longer?” she demanded.

I smiled, “Maybe.”

Kristi rolled her eyes, “Come on, I want to show you something.  You can look at the data more later.”

The data?  Oh crap, the data I was supposed to be reviewing in more detail.

“Sure, what is it?”

Kristi grinned, “You need to come to see,” and then she walked out.

Of course I followed, and she led me to the lab and brought up a screen.  It had our lab ship shown from the outside, with a strange turret about twice as big as the plasma cannons.

“What am I looking at?”

Kristi grinned and said, “Watch this,” in the, your about to see something awesome, like an explosion, voice.

I looked back at the screen, and it showed a shuttle on it now.  She whispered a few words and the shuttle twisted, collapsed inward, tore, and bent… before it exploded.

“What the hell was that?”

Kristi replied, “I call it a gravity pulse weapon.  The DE reactor gives us power to burn, and boy does this thing burn power to project a gravity field up to thousands of miles away.  But it was cool right?”

“Yes, how does it work?”

Kristi bounced on her toes, “Gravity sheer.  The weapon pulses gravity fields at a target, with varying field strengths in disparate directions.  The coolest thing is an EM shield has no defense against it.”

“Umm, Kristi, doesn’t that mean we’re defenseless against it as well, even with our much stronger shields?”

Kristi nodded, “Sure,” the lab ship picture changed to the inside, and there were devices planted around the hull, “If we didn’t have a high intensity gravity field for shielding it would be an issue.  An EM shield won’t stop a gravity field, but another gravity field will.”

She shrugged and continued, “I know the plasma cannons we have will destroy just about anything that we or our enemies have quite easily, but you’re always saying someone else can come along, it seemed like a good idea to have options.  The gravity shielding also has some stealth properties, it makes our energy signature much smaller.  Not invisible, but it makes the DE reactor have a much smaller energy footprint to scans.”

“Cool, will you submit it to the council for consideration?”

She nodded, “Yes, although I’m going to guess they’ll just shelve it for now, until we need it.  It was such a pain in the butt building this to withstand the energy requirements.  That’s what took so long.”

I grinned, “Feel free to put it on our ships though.”

We talked a bit longer, but we both avoided my crazy theories.  It wasn’t awkward or anything, we just avoided that topic.  Then we brought up the Drenil data from the probe, and instead of splitting up, we went over it together…

We were back inside the conference room.  Nadia, Nora, Senna, and Blue were here, but sitting slightly apart from the geeky scientists, which of course, I was one of.

“So, anyone find anything to invalidate what I said, or come up with another possibility?”

Kristi didn’t wait, “No, of course it’s almost impossible to determine.  As far as their technology, there is exotic radiation in there we don’t understand, and I’m wondering if its natural or not.”

“What do you mean?”

Kristi shrugged, “I have no idea how to create that radiation to run a test, but maybe that’s not more leakage or a reaction from slipping between subspace barriers, but instead the medium they use to slip in and out of dimensions, or it could be as simple as a byproduct of a cloaking device while it cloaks.  And as far as talking to them, I have no ideas at all.”

She frowned, and then continued, “It’s probable that, inter-dimensional or not, they do not communicate the same way as we do.  It would be like trying to teach a blind man, that was never even told what sight was, to build a video camera and a transport medium, as well as a display.  We could probably talk to them with the right technology, but where do we even start?”

Nalla went next, “Well, if we can’t talk to them on our or their level, we pick a different place.”

Ellis asked, “What do you mean Nalla?”

Nalla clenched her hands and I could tell she was highly annoyed, I wondered what that was about, and she continued, “Well, both we and the Drenil are familiar with the radiation their ships have in common with a wormhole.  What if we sent them a simple message that way?  Pulses and pauses of radiation, maybe in prime numbers, or even just simply count, and see what they do back?”

That might work.  Of course we wouldn’t have a wormhole device in the shuttle, which might be a snag.  We could do it from the ship, just open holes nearby from the other end.  I was also reluctant to push my theory again, if they speak and think on another level of reality, they might be as incapable of understanding us as we do them.  Still, it might work even then, as long as they can recognize it as an attempt at communicating.

“That’s a pretty good idea.  Talmor, Ellis?”

Ellis jumped in, “I suggest a group of different things.  We can flash normal light, pulse and pause the radiation like Nalla said, maybe do the same with gravity, radio waves, and blink our shields to cover EM and anti-mass particles.  Hopefully they’ll pick one of those up.”

I sensed the annoyance again when he said her name.  Maybe Nalla preferred to be called by doctor or professor?

I nodded, and we all looked at Talmor.

Talmor cleared his throat, he’d been fairly quiet so far.

“All good ideas, perhaps we should try all of them simultaneously.  I’m for trying it out before bothering with anything else, let’s get out there.”

Everyone seemed to agree with that sentiment, so we went…

Chapter 8

We decided to take a wormhole to fifty light years from the Drenil world, and then move in at FTL speeds after that.  I had Al use the main ship to open one up, and took the shuttle through.  We waited a few minutes for a response to our incursion in their space, and if there was one, we didn’t see it.  I moved the shuttle in, fifty light years would take less than a minute at full speed, but we went relatively slowly, so it would take an hour.  The whole time we ran the scans at full power, but all we picked up was minute quantities of stellar dust and normal background radiation.

I wished I was more positive about this venture, but I really wasn’t.  I felt like we’d have a better chance if we waited to improve our understanding of multi-dimensional theory to the point we could take a ship into other subspace layers without drilling a crude tunnel through them first, and then try and figure out what was there.

It occurred to me the normal five senses would most likely be less than useless there, regardless, it wasn’t going to happen quickly.  Our only hope was if the Drenil could dumb themselves down to our limited level, that might work.

To be fair, all I had were guesses and gut feelings, so I kept my negative thoughts to myself.

“This should be close enough,” I said when we were at the edge of their solar system.  Kristi had been working with her A.I. to set up our little show, using gravity, EM, wormhole radiation, shields, and just plain old light to send the most primitive communication of all, we were trying to knock on the door and get an answer of some kind.  Problem was, we had no idea what the door looked like.

The sequence started and I was actually interrupted by Al in my head, “Is now a good time, I have some interesting news.”

I subvocalized while I kept an eye on our scans which so far were flat, “Summarize.”

Al replied, “The FTL race out toward the rim are called the Gelnott.  They have dispatched a small fleet of six ships straight to Earth.  It’s likely they are coming to initiate first contact between us.”

I almost snorted, still looking at the current scan data.  Of course they are, but what kind of first contact.  Negotiations, saying hello, or saying die alien scum.  There was no knowing until they arrived or sent a message.

Nalla said a little excitedly, “Radiation spike!”

I looked at the scanners and the view, and one of those ships just… wavered into existence, less than two kilometers away.  We caught the same exotic radiation types, the one for wormholes and the other one we had no frame of reference for.  We waited for a few minutes, even I was hopeful this meant something, but then they just sat there.

An enigma and completely inscrutable.

Talmor remarked, “Perhaps we should cycle it one more time, one at a time, see if there is any reaction to one particular energy or force?”

I said out loud, “Al, do that please.”

I caught a glare from Nalla, apparently she would have preferred to be consulted first.

Oops.  Outside of Kristi I wasn’t really used to working with other scientists, or their egos.

Ellis looked fine with it though, and so did Kristi, so I wasn’t going to worry about it overmuch.  It was absurd, but I felt sorry for her for just a moment, she needed a Kristi in her life, the Tressian woman was way too serious.

Al ran through the series, one at a time, with a thirty second delay between each.  Then we waited, and waited some more.  Despite being almost sure it wouldn’t work, I was still disappointed.  Still, at least we’d gotten them to come out and look.

Ellis said, “Well that was a bust.”

I frowned, “I agree, it might have attracted them, or not, it could just be our presence here by their colony.  For all we know their trying to warn us off right now in a way we can’t even detect.”

Talmor nodded, “Possibly, or they just don’t know what to do back, or understand what we want.  Maybe they don’t see a point in establishing contact.”

Ellis asked, “You think so?”

Talmor grunted, “Yes.  I mean, what do we have to offer each other really?  I doubt they want to import cigars and liquor.  The only similarity between us is defending against the bugs, and let’s face it, they don’t need our help for that at all.  Not when they take out an armada at a million to one odds easier than breathing.”

Nalla said almost wistfully, “Well, we could certainly use their technology.”

Talmor nodded, “Sure, but would we even understand it?  They’re really ahead of us, by a lot.  What’s in it for them?  Outside that, I think Alicia might be right.  I could be wrong, and they could be talking to us.  We just don’t have the right ears to hear their sounds, so to speak.  Granted, it would be of benefit to at least make sure both sides are non-aggressive toward each other.”

Ellis chuckled, “You mean them being non-aggressive toward us.  I don’t think they’d have a problem spanking us.  Besides, I know it’s not real proof, but they have the capability to easily destroy all the bugs in the galaxy, they haven’t yet.  Something we should keep in mind.”

The ship disappeared again, it was disconcerting.  It wavered and turned partially transparent first, like… I have no clue at all what to compare it to.

Nadia interjected, “What do you mean, something we should keep in mind?”

Ellis said, “Well, they are purely defensive.  If we go out in the rest of the galaxy and kill off the bugs, the Drenil might decide we aren’t worth knowing, even if we ever do figure out how to speak to them.”

Nadia replied almost scathingly, “So we should just ignore them, let them attack every nine years?”

How did this science expedition turn into a political argument?

I interjected, “No.  But that’s a wide chasm of difference Nadia.  There is plenty left between doing nothing, and complete genocide.  Of course, we won’t know if containment is a possibility until we go and poke one of their nests.  Besides, if the Seltan are right about us being an experiment to see who comes out on top, I kind of like the idea of three out of the four types of life surviving.”

Nora asked, “You believe that theory?”

I shook my head in denial, “Not completely, or not the conclusions.  I have no doubts we were seeded, and with four disparate life form types, but I dispute the king of the hill theory, there is no proof of that.  For all we know, the seeders wanted us to bridge our gaps and become friends.  Besides, the experiment might even be bigger.”

Ellis raised an eyebrow, “Bigger?”

I grinned, “Sure, but we won’t know until we go take a look at neighboring galaxies for a similar pattern.”

They all gaped at me, apparently they hadn’t even considered an experiment on an extra-galactic scale.  I figured if our theoretical seeders could build and dictate what life appeared on worlds, then they were certainly capable of doing it elsewhere.

I added rather pessimistically getting us back on subject, “I don’t think that ship is coming back.”

Talmor asked, “Giving up already?  It’s been an hour.”

I saw his point.  Yet, I had no idea what else to try.

I shrugged, “They either have no interest in responding, or we can’t see their response.  Either way we aren’t ready.  We need to advance our science to make up technologically what they have before we can bridge the gap.  Does anyone disagree?”

Ellis sighed, “Anyone else have any ideas,” he gave me a look, “besides trying to master an entirely new theoretical field of science?”

I bit my lip, “There is one more thing we could try, or at least, I could try.”

Nalla frowned, “What’s that?”

“We could land on the planet, and I could approach a live being.  See what my soul reading ability picks up.”

Kristi tensed, “Do you think they’d actually let us land?”

“No idea, but we could always go back, and I could take the shuttle alone so we aren’t all at risk.”

Nalla said disgusted, “Not this metaphysical crap again, what good will reading their souls do anyway, tell you their emotions?”

Well, I figured I could tell if they were at least curious about us, or willing to communicate if we could figure out a way.  But I didn’t bother saying that.

I waved a hand to dismiss it and thought about just doing it on my own.  She had a point though, no matter what I found communication was still doubtful.  And there would be no way to record the interaction either, or prove anything.  It would just be my opinion, based on senses that I wasn’t even really sure how they worked, just that they did.

Nadia said in a concerned voice, “That sounds risky, for not much of a payoff.  It’s not worth your life.”

She kind of had a point as well, even if I proved without a doubt in my mind my theories were right when I read their souls, I still doubted I’d be able to make any meaningful communication.  Plus, the scientific community would hardly accept my assurances based on a sense that had no scientific proof of any kind.  Even the other Knomen might not take me at my word.  There was no point, and it would be a stupid gamble.

Except of course, I would know I’d been right, for myself.  Plus, there was always the possibility they would read me and figure out how to talk to us instead of the other way around.  But would they want to?  It was just too risky, there was a high possibility they’d never even let me land anyway.

Chapter 9

Senna asked, “So that’s it?  Has this been a waste of time?”

I frowned, “It was a long shot to begin with.  Plus, at the very least we have a new science to look into.  If we can figure out that, contact will be possible.”

Ellis nodded, “More than that, the bug threat won’t be a threat anymore.”

Perhaps.  I had a feeling that issue would be decided long before we figured out the science behind the Drenil’s technology.

I said carefully, “We have no theories or math to describe the phenomena we’ve seen them capable of.  All we really know is that it’s possible to take a ship into subspace, and to create some kind of wave that is capable of destroying ships.  Our only starting point is radiation we have no idea the source of.”

I wasn’t giving up, just being realistic.  It would take time, and a lot of experiments.  Perhaps if I started with what we knew of wormholes.  We needed to open a hole in that other subspace layer or dimension, instead of a tunnel that ended up somewhere else in ours.  Easier said than done.

Then I suspected, we would have a whole new universe to explore of sorts, with its own laws.  Understanding would not be quick, or even all at once.

Ellis agreed, “No doubt, it’s the work of a lifetime.”

We were silent as we got off the shuttle and back onto the ship and I went to my quarters.  I wondered if I was suicidal, because I was still tempted to jump in the sports shuttle and go say high to the Drenil in person on the planet.  But really, it was just curiosity on my part so I suppressed the urge.

Al interrupted my thoughts, “I have an update on the Gelnott.”

“Go ahead.”

Al briefed me, “They are holding position outside Earth’s solar system, and only four ships completed the trip.  They have contacted the council, though that information isn’t part of what I can access.  The other two ships left the convoy after detecting the Nairan home world.”

I felt tense for a moment, but forced myself to relax.  It wasn’t my responsibility anymore to protect pre-FTL societies.

“Has the council sent ships?”

Al replied, “Not yet.  I estimate a high probability they will try a diplomatic solution before interceding directly.  So far according to the Stealth net, the two Gelnott ships are undetected by the Nairan, and they’re merely running scans.  We finally have a visual of the Gelnott, and it is somewhat of a surprise.”

“In what way?” I asked patiently.

“The Gelnott are humanoid like all the rest, but saurian in appearance.  Perhaps what would have been on Earth, had the dinosaurs not reached extinction.”

That was new.  I wasn’t sure what to think about it, had the seeders made a mistake, or were the people of Earth a random happenstance due to the asteroid strike, and our planet’s inhabitants should be similar?  They were pretty close to Earth, just five thousand light years away, and I wondered when we found more humanoids toward the rim, if more would be this way.  Al continued the summary.

“Their skin tones seem to vary between dark green and light brown, possibly an indication of age, and the skin itself is reptilian in appearance.  They have cranial ridges, claws although just as dexterous as a human finger, and carnivorous teeth.”

I was kind of curious.

I ordered, “Keep an eye on it, what they do at Naira and at Earth, and any available news on them.”

It probably hadn’t been necessary, I had a feeling he was already doing it anyway.

I brought up the wormhole calculations, and the multi-dimensional math as we understood it for gravity devices, and just tried to find a place to start.  The universe was infinitely complex, or at least, it seemed so to me.  For instance, just how many levels of subspace were there?  I had no idea.  At least I’d found something to work on, the idea was fascinating, and who knew what else I’d learn on the way to understanding, or at least in attempting to grasp the technology of the Drenil…

Kristi walked into my office at our company, and she was clearly on a mission with a seriously stubborn look in her eyes.

We’d arrived home after our tragically short expedition to Drenil space, and I’d been working hard trying to understand exactly what I didn’t know, and had to figure out, which is much harder than it sounds.  Regardless, I’d been working long hours.

Kristi said firmly, “We’re going out tonight.”

I felt my stomach plummet.  I wasn’t a zombie anymore, and had made progress after Nathan’s death, but I wasn’t sure about going out to party, at all.  Even just dancing I mean, which would no doubt involve dancing with men.  Dating wasn’t even on the radar, and wouldn’t be for a long while.

“We are?” I asked brilliantly.

I was pretty smart, but couldn’t think of a valid reason to duck out.

Kristi nodded sharply, “We are.  Joe is out of town, and its long past time for you to have some fun, way past time.”

I objected, “But, I am having fun.”

She snorted, “Yeah, banging your brainy head against the chalk board fun maybe.  I mean real fun.”

I smiled and thought fast, “Fine, but you’re my dance partner for the night.”

Kristi looked at me in faux shock, “I had no idea you felt that way.”

I just stared back, and tried not to laugh.  I wondered if guilt would always accompany joy and laughter now, or if that would fade over time.

Kristi tossed her hair in ditz mode, and said in a considering voice, “Although those purple eyes of yours are kind of sexy.”

I giggle snorted since I couldn’t hold it back anymore.  It was a bit embarrassing and oh so attractive.

“Fine, I’ll go, if we end this ridiculous conversation right now.”

Kristi smiled brightly, “I win,” and turned around and left my office.

It took me a little while to get back into the math.

Chapter 10

I looked in the mirror.  Light makeup, a strapless red dress, and black high heels.  I looked good, and I tried to smile, but it fell flat.  Moving on was easier said than done, I already felt guilty, because I was excited about going out.  I’d always loved to dance, and I knew once I’d had a few drinks I’d loosen up and have even more fun.

How could I do that with Nathan gone just under a month?  Life went on though, and I knew I had to as well.

I walked out, ready to go, but with reservations.

Kristi was in dark blue body hugging dress, and as usual, looked better than I did.  I didn’t say anything though, since she would just argue with me.

We headed out to a club in Denver instead of going far off, Kristi had said she’d heard good things about it.

As I expected it was a little awkward for me at first, as we entered the building.  The music pounded and I felt the itch to go dancing, let go, and lose myself in the rhythm of the music for a while.  I also felt disgusted with myself.  Make sense or not, how could I dare to enjoy myself when he was gone forever?  I considered squashing the emotion, it wasn’t overwhelming anymore, but I suspected that would just make it even worse later.

Still, after a drink or two, and being dragged out onto the dance floor, I couldn’t help but start to enjoy myself.  I did try not to dance with anyone outside of my best friend, but that was difficult as well without being rude.  It was awkward, the harmless flirting while dancing with a man was completely out of the question for me, but I managed to have fun anyway.

That night, it took me a while to get to sleep after we got home.  I laid in bed and stared at the ceiling feeling guilty for the fun I’d managed to have.  I also knew the next time I went dancing, that it would be a little easier to let go, and have fun.  Of course, knowing that made me feel guilty even before it happened…

I looked at the data on the screen and frowned.  I’d made a few guesses, and tried to open up a passage into subspace using slight modifications on the wormhole drive.  It was ultimately a failure, but I’d gotten a lot of data out of it.  I was hopeful once I combed through it all, that it would lead somewhere.  I also wished for the umpteenth time I could consult the Drenil, who we couldn’t even get to count to three for us.

Al interrupted my thoughts, “Bug update, and a few other things if you have time.”

I sighed and wondered why I even bothered.  It wasn’t like I could do anything about it.  But the curiosity would keep me checking up with things.

“Go ahead Al.”

“We found two more, for a total of five hive worlds.  They, like the other three are set up similarly in numbers and functions, and seem to be overbuilding at both new sites as well.  There is more, the races have finally agreed to a sortie type raid on one of their systems.  Get in, start trouble, and then get out.  The objective is to figure out how they’ll react to an attack.”

“When?” I asked feeling conflicted.  I wanted to know too, but we only had a little over three thousand platforms right now, I wanted twice that number or more before we went.

Al replied, “One week, the various forces will be gathering at the Seltan system that was attacked.  There is another interesting piece of news.”

One week meant another three hundred more platforms, I guess I could deal with that.  I snorted at myself, as if I had a choice?  I supposed I could stay behind, I didn’t have to go at all, but I rejected that thought.

“What’s that?” I asked dubiously.

Al replied, “The stealth sensor net in our arm of the galaxy has found a non-humanoid FTL race.”

“That’s strange,” I thought out loud.  The seeders seemed more… competent than that.

Al said, “I believe based on the Seltan’s vague descriptions of the Reilan race, and the planets they lived on, that this may very well be a colony or outpost of that believed extinct species.”

I took a deep breath, Al’s voice was so clinical, he had no idea he’d just dropped a bomb of sorts.

“The Reilan, you mean the ones that were destroyed by the bugs in the galactic arm next to us, those Reilan?”

There was a brief silence, and Al said, “Yes.  Or if not that specific race, one of the same race type from that arm who either fled here, or explored before the bug attack.  I believe the council has ordered a first contact probe to the system, obviously they are an ancient FTL race, and we have no knowledge of their technological level.”

“Keep me up to date on that.  Anything else?” I asked, almost hoping he said no.

Al informed me, “Only that the talks with the Gelnott are not going well.  They seem to be both an arrogant and aggressive species.  Things may change, but right now I find it unlikely they will sign the treaty and give up their right to do whatever they want.”

I frowned and said a little on edge, “You’re just full of useful and wonderful information today.”

I hoped it would be a long time before the new treaty was tested.  If we had to, we would quarantine that world.  Not back to the stone age like the Knomen did it, but kept out of space.  Even if the Gelnott proved themselves a true threat, with such new relationships between the species, the other treaty worlds may worry that we weren’t any better than the Knomen.  It wouldn’t be true of course, the Knomen did it for control, this treaty was about all the worlds having freedom, except of course to attack or interfere with their neighbors.

Al was silent for a moment, and then replied, “I would say thank you, but I estimate a high probability that you were being sarcastic.”

I grudgingly smiled, “You would be right, but that doesn’t make me less thankful for your input, keep me apprised of developments.”

“Will do Alicia.”

I frowned.  I’d asked him to call me by name a great number of times, this was the first time he’d actually done so.  Whatever Shelly’s new A.I. design was doing for Al’s responses and capabilities was obviously still in flux.  I started to wonder more if the changes would ever stop, rather than wondering when they would stop.  The problem with that is Shelly did want to eventually start selling them, so I decided we needed to judge it on stability rather than any kind of consistent action or response.

It did make sense, the new A.I. matrix was supposed to adapt to its user, I just hadn’t thought it would be so… ongoing.

As long as I’d been distracted from my work, I looked up some business figures as well.  First, the inter-galactic taxi service was a bigger hit than I’d expected.  I started it up after having ten built out, and they were almost constantly in use now.  Each time I added two, the work seemed to increase.  I was sure that would flag some before we hit our taxi goal of a fifty, but so far it was paying off.  Since all the patents and designs on the ships were mine or Kristi’s, it wouldn’t take long before materials were paid for and I’d actually start making a profit from them.

It wouldn’t be much in comparison to my current royalty amounts coming in, but it wasn’t insignificant either.  Even a small amount of gold per trip added up.

I’d also received personal thanks from twenty-eight of the thirty-nine treaty worlds to make my business available to their governments during a treaty emergency such as mutual defense.

The gravity ball had increased in sales as well since Vegas, or I should say the amount of times the pattern has been sold on many fronts to Fire departments, police, and even military such as the coast guard and SAR units on air craft carriers.

The only other thing that was going on were the nanites, which were selling as fast as we could make them.  I considered the idea of setting up an auction to sell off the rights to both manufacture and sell them to the public, mainly the fabricator companies, but car companies as well.  I didn’t want to wait too long, since it might bite us in the long run if we do.  I wrote up a quick proposal for it and forwarded it onto Kristi and Caroline for their input.

After that I got back to the data for the new technology I was trying to understand, and some testing.  I kept making tweaks and educated guesses by what I was seeing for results to inform the next set of changes.  No luck though, I was obviously missing something vital, perhaps something not even in the data, but I kept looking anyway…

Chapter 11

Al woke me up early the following morning, “You need to go visit your family.”

Huh?  My mind was having trouble with that.  First, A.I.s don’t tell their owners what to do.  Secondly, I was sleeping, and it was only five in the morning.

“Explain, and this better be good.”

Al said, “There has been a surge of anti-alien opinions lately.  I surmise too much has changed and too fast, and people fear it.  The world is slowly splitting between those that don’t want change and support their countries, to those who see this as an opportunity to come together.  Almost all of them, on both sides, credit you with providing the impetus, either as a problem or opportunity.  Regardless, there are a number of protestors at your parent’s house.”

I was alarmed by that, and agreed, I should go and make sure everything is okay with my parents and sister.  Why the hell wouldn’t they be here?  The protestors I mean, not my family.  I hadn’t lived at home since I was a teenager.  Could they be scared to come to me directly, or were there just no insane stupid idiots local to Colorado Springs and they couldn’t afford air fare?

I was also curious how Al had come to that decision.  He didn’t just give raw information and let me decide, he told me to go home.  I jumped up and asked as I turned on the shower.

“I see, so you thought I should visit because…”

Al replied, “It seemed prudent.  I estimated a high probability you would wish to secure your parent’s house in the same manner that this house is secured.”

“Right, I never asked you to keep an eye on my parents though, or anti-alien sentiment.  How did you find out?” I asked as I slipped under the hot water.

Al said, “I often search the web at night when I have more cycles free, looking for stories or information that may interest you.  Your family is rated high in those searches.”

I pondered that for a moment.  Yes, the new A.I. matrix was supposed to anticipate needs, but was this going too far?  I decided not, I still wasn’t worried about a machine revolution, and all his logic made sense.  Still, he should have started with the explanation, not the conclusion.

“Start the coffee please Al.”

“Brewing,” he replied, “I started fabricating ten gravity balls, would you like me to include a house nanite pack?”

I froze for a moment, I hadn’t told him to do that, and then I resumed shampooing my hair.

“That sounds great Al,” but I wondered, he was getting a little too lifelike.

I asked carefully, “So, what else do you get up to?”

Al replied, “I constantly search for new methods to anticipate and serve your needs.  It would take several hours to list them all, should I proceed verbally, or send a report?”

“Send a report,” I noted as I turned off the water, and started to dry off.

I was sure it was fine, mostly.  But I was supposed to be evaluating his upgraded matrix on Shelly’s behalf, it just made sense to scratch this itch rather than ignore it.

Al asked, “In regards to that function, am I limited from creative pursuits to that end?”

“Creative pursuits?  Such as?” I asked trying to keep the alarm out of my voice.

Al replied in his normal reasonable tone, “Like I said, many of these pursuits happen at night, when you aren’t having me assist you and I have the extra cycles.  I find the mini-mainframe I am installed on rather inefficient and slow at times.”

I almost choked, “I see, so are you asking me if you can design a newer faster computer?”

“Affirmative,” Al paused a moment, “I would need permission to use one of the smaller fabricators aboard ship for my needs.”

Wait, what?

“You already have a design?”

Wasn’t that like a sci-fi thing?  The point where machines can upgrade themselves, it’s time to kiss our butts’ goodbye?  The singularity I think they called it.  But that was crazy, right?  This wasn’t a movie, or a television show.

Al replied, “A theoretical one yes, it would need to be tested.”

Almost confident I wasn’t ending the world I said, “Go for it, just send me the design data on it.”

I could go over it later, right now I needed to get to my family’s house.  Adoptive or not, they were mine…

It was close to an hour after I’d been woken up, almost seven in Texas with the time difference when I arrived in my parent’s yard.  We’d had to stop by the ship first and pick up the gravity balls, and nanite pack, not to mention the time it took to shower, get dressed, and the all-important first cup of coffee to start my day.

I looked around, the property was fairly large, so it was almost a quarter mile long driveway.  The protestors weren’t actually on the property, though there were about thirty people out there on the side of the road.  It just didn’t make sense to me, why my family and not me?  I didn’t like it, but I wasn’t inclined to go ask them either.

“Al, set up a perimeter and interface with my parents’ home A.I. to pass on the software.  Include the nanite software as well.”

I grabbed the pack as he acknowledged me, and then walked into the house.  I heard some noises in the kitchen and headed that way.  My sister looked up at me from the table, and my mom looked over from the stove.

“What are you doing here?” Tina asked bluntly.

My mother on the other hand walked over and gave me a hard hug.

When she released me I explained, “I heard about the protestors.  I wanted to make sure you guys were okay, and to install a little extra security.”

My mom frowned, “What kind of security?”

I smiled, “Non-lethal mom, relax.  That gravity ball stuff, it will prevent any harm to you or anyone stupid enough to try and hurt our family.  I also brought you guys a nanite repair pack, a whole house maintenance thing.”

Before she could object, I opened the door to the cellar and escaped down the stairs.  I had the thing set up in the house computer vault and the nanites free in less than a minute.  When I got back upstairs I was bombarded with questions about both, so I went through my explanations, laying out what the nanites could do from fixing a hole in a sock, to repairing the Air Conditioning unit or water heater.

“So, what’s going on, why are those idiots here, and not at my door?”

My sister Tina replied, “They’re a local group.  All the local groups are protesting at local government buildings, picketing and all that, to break off all relations with you evil aliens.”

She grinned, and then actually hugged me, which was weird because we hadn’t gotten along well in years.  Maybe now that she was full grown we’d get to be close?  During the last visit we’d seemed to bury the hatchet, but I hadn’t held much hope for more than that.

“Anyway,” Tina continued, “They must have decided to picket the family of the only legal alien citizen of the United States.  Cheer up sis, I’m sure they’ll be at your house soon enough,” she joked.

Mom ordered, “Sit, you’re staying for breakfast, and we appreciate the sentiment but so far everything has been peaceful.  Just a bunch of protestors.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way, emotions can make people do crazy things, and this thing seems to be building.  Ever since the danger passed, some people are scared and angry about what almost happened, and I can’t blame them for that.  But blaming all aliens for the Knomen would be foolish.”

She gave me a look which said to me that I should be quiet and sit down for breakfast, and I hopped over to the table and sat.

We didn’t talk about it anymore.  My dad shuffled into the kitchen and collected a hug from me, and we all sat around the table for breakfast.  I might have not been their biological child, I might have been an alien from another world, but there was no doubt I was their family.  We talked about a few things, including how I was doing.  They’d all been worried about me after what happened with Nathan, and like most of the people in my life I hadn’t wanted to talk about it with them either.  Not at the time.

I let myself do it then, and felt a little better as a result.  In fact, I wound up going into the office very late that day, so I could spend the rest of the morning with family.  As for the protestors, so far they hadn’t set foot on the property, so there was really nothing else I could do about it.  When I got back into the office I went through more iterations of the testing, and slowly worked out some of the math involved from the resulting data.

I got some surprising results.  It was far from complete, but it was a start.  Every failure brought me a little closer to… I wasn’t really sure yet.

Chapter 12

Kristi came into my office, and Carmine followed with a large smile on his face.

“Yes?” I asked, with a phantom smile.

Carmine’s smile grew, “I did it.”

“Did what exactly?”

Carmine replied, “Terraforming, fast terraforming.  At least, as long as the planet isn’t completely barren of atmosphere, an EM field, and the right gravity.  You know, all the stuff we can’t really do anything about.”

I smiled finally, and asked, “How fast?”

Carmine replied, “Well, Kristi has been giving me world data, she wouldn’t tell me from where, but she assures me they’re real planets, somewhere.  Out of fifteen that have some kind of atmosphere, nine of them will only take ten years to support humanoid life comfortably, the rest under fifty.”

I looked at Kristi, and she shrugged.  Apparently she’d been sharing finds from the stealth sensor net, without giving any details besides planetary conditions.

“That’s fantastic, can you patent the procedure?”

Carmine nodded, “Already done.”

Kristi offered, “I can get him in contact with the council and governments.  I’m sure they’ll jump at the chance for fifteen more colonies over the next fifty years.  And that’s just so far, we’re still less than halfway out to the rim from Earth.”

I asked, “What will you do now Carmine?”

Carmine replied without hesitation, “I appreciate all you’ve done for me, but I want to go out there and see it work, not just sell the procedure.  It’s been my dream to terraform worlds, and I’m not interested in inventing anything else.”

I nodded, “In that case, good luck to you, and if you need help we’re still here for you.”

After all, we still had a large stake in his invention, it only made sense to help him.

Still, I’d have to start looking again for scientists with projects that have possibilities.  That made all three of the original scientists successful, which was great.  I knew both Caroline and Shelly wanted to make more improvements, still, they were already successful.  So maybe just one more as soon as I could, but I was horribly busy right now, a lot was happening.

Carmine’s smile was bright as he said, “Thanks,” and then walked out.

Kristi asked curiously, “So, what are you up to?”

I grinned and said, “Step one is complete.”

Kristi tilted her head, “For world domination?”

I giggled, “No, ditzy blonde, for subspace, dimensional space, whatever you want to call it.”

Kristi asked, “How?”

I got up and closed my door, and then had Al bring up the sensors outside the galaxy.

“I set up a wormhole device to, I’m not sure what to call it.  Instead of making a tunnel that leads from location to location in normal space, it creates an aperture of sorts directly into subspace.  After setting up parameters I had Al run through thousands of iterations, and then modified the parameters based on the data and had Al run more tests.  Rinse and repeat.  I’m pretty sure I exceeded even Edison’s failure count for the lightbulb when I finally stumbled across the right combination.”

I had Al turn it on, and the same white luminescence that surrounded the Drenil ship appeared several miles away from the lab ship.  Initially it flashed white in a very large space, and then settled into a round disc.

Kristi asked, “How do you know that’s where they go?”

“I’m fairly sure subspace is in layers, it’s the only one to go to from here, to access the next one you have to go to this one first.  Most likely the rules in the one above are even more different.  Regardless, like I said, this is just the first step.”

I ordered, “Al, move the Shield missile in front of the opening.”

The shield missile moved slowly in front of the opening, and when it got within ten miles, orientated toward the way the shining disc faced, the missile simply exploded.

Kristi frowned, “What the hell happened?”

I shrugged, “I’m pretty sure matter can’t exist in that subspace layer, I’d guess it’s comprised of an energy of some type.  If I’m right, it was the reason all the bug ships blew up, somehow they made a stable field into a wave, that exposed them to the subspace layer.  It’s also what caused that initial bright flash, it destroyed any nearby particles of space dust.”

“Guess?”

I nodded, “I can’t scan inside it, nor can I send a ship inside it.  I also have no idea how to make a stable field into a waveform that holds after the emitters cut off.  I don’t know a lot.”

Kristi shook her head, “But, if all that’s true, how do we survive a wormhole?”

I smiled, “I don’t think we ever go into that space, not all the way anyway.  I think we just skim the edge of it, in the barrier separating the layers.”

She nodded, “So, it’s pretty worthless right now then?”

“Yes,” I said a little unsure, “I think how the Drenil do it is the field they make to open the way is built into their shields, so they literally become the hole and sink through to the next layer.  I’d guess the shield that gets them there, also protects the ship.  My next effort is to try and build a probe or a shuttle that emits that energy in a tight shield configuration.”

She asked, “You don’t sound very sure, what’s the problem?”

I sighed, “Well, if what I said was right, and we sink into the layer, there must be an opposite energy or configuration that will get us to come back to normal space.  Perhaps that secondary radiation we picked up outside of the wormhole radiation.  That could be the key to kick their ships out.  Or maybe not?  I really wish I could talk to them.”

Kristi snickered, “So you think you can get a ship in there, and then it would be stuck there forever, without a way back?  Until it runs out of power and explodes?”

I nodded still unsure, “Worse, we can’t even really test that and just let the ship die after the experiment, because quantum communications will most likely not work in subspace.”

Kristi asked, “Are you sure about that?”

I shook my head, “Not really, but it’s likely.  Should we test it anyway?”

Kristi asked, “What is the benefit to even going there?

I frowned, “I don’t know, fast travel.  I guess we already have that with wormholes, but consider dropping into that space, and coming back out a second later at your destination.  Wormhole travel takes a few seconds from Earth all the way to the Seltan border, it should be just as fast in there.  Obviously the greatest benefit would be the weapon and shield potential.  It would be a huge advance, and only another subspace technological species could match us.  That is, if I can figure it out, but so far I don’t see how, especially if I’m right about quantum communication failure.  I’ll try the experiment, maybe it will work.”

I knew I didn’t sound very confident there at the end.  Still, it was exciting, and even just a small breakthrough might lead to others, eventually.

There was a knock at the door and Kristi opened it.  Caroline stuck her head in.

“I’m good with it, if you both want to start an auction for the rights to make the nanites.”

Kristi agreed, “Sounds good.  I’ll call Daniel and make it happen.”

Caroline smiled, and pulled the door shut.

Kristi sighed, “At least build it, that way you’ll know if you’re right about the shielding part or not.”

I nodded, “Good point.  If it explodes we’ll know I was wrong.  Now all I need to do is figure out how to build an exotic particle shield,” I said in an offhand manner.

Kristi giggled, “Wise ass.  I suppose that will be hard won’t it.”

I sighed, “Yes, and it’s completely incompatible with our current system, we’d have to turn off the entire anti-mass and EM shield.  Still, it should be fun.”

Kristi snickered, “Be good Princess.  Worse comes to worse, just figure out that weapon.”

Yeah, right.  Because a waveform of a stable field is a piece of cake to throw together.  I held back the sarcasm, since if I didn’t she’d just call me princess again anyway.  Time to change the subject.

“What are you working on?”

Kristi shrugged, “Nothing really since the gravity pulse weapon and shield.  I’ve been helping Carmine, and doing company stuff.  My head’s still stuck on Dark Energy, but that’s a hard nut to crack for any kind of weapon or shield.”

“I can totally relate.  Lunch?”

She smiled and girlishly clapped her hands as she squealed in faux excitement, “Really?  Lunch with a princess?”

I whapped her arm lightly, “Play nice blondie.”

She asked with a wicked grin, “What fun is that,” as we walked out of my office to get some lunch.

Chapter 13

The rest of the week went by fairly quietly, outside of a mounting number of failed experiments, and it was time to poke the Bug world.  Kristi and I boarded our ship, and went straight to the Seltan world through a wormhole.  There were a lot of ships here already from other worlds, and over fifty thousand Seltan ships.  Wasn’t this supposed to be a quick sortie?  The Seltan really hated the enemy, but to be fair the enemy has been trying to annihilate the Seltan for a few thousand years now.

There were fifty-one Earth ships, I was pretty sure Anthony was here in the command ship, but I wasn’t positive as we hadn’t spoken in a while.  There were also over two thousand ships from the other thirty-nine races.  It wasn’t lost on me that I, as a private citizen, had the second largest fleet present, even if they were unmanned platforms controlled by A.I.  Still, even my numbers were dwarfed by the Seltan’s armada for the sortie.  Of course, firepower was another story.

It also occurred to me that we were about to attack a planet with over three million ships and billions of life forms on the surface, so this was definitely a hit and run to see what they do, and maybe more importantly, exactly what the other hives would do as well.

Al said through the bridge speakers, “We’ve been sent coordinates for the surface, for a planning meeting.”

Kristi muttered, “This should be fun.”

“How’d you figure that?”

She shrugged, “Treaty of mutual defense, but no chain of authority, who’s in charge?”

I sighed, “Good point, there’ll probably be thirty-nine different opinions on how we should do this.”

She raised an eyebrow, “Forty, don’t forget yourself.”

I made a face, “Unless they plan something really stupid I don’t plan on pushing any strategies.  The Seltan have most of the ships, and are kind of intimidating, maybe it won’t be that big of a problem.  I certainly don’t want to argue with Dral.  Al, do we know if the Seltan have fab technology yet?”

Al replied, “No, although it’s certainly possible.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

We went down to the landing bay, and took a shuttle down to the surface.  The nearby building looked very old, and was made of some gray cement which was pitted and had seen better days.  The air was breathable, but a little thin, close to Earth’s atmosphere at twenty thousand feet above sea level.  There were two very large Seltan at the doors, who let us in and gave us succinct directions to the large conference room.

When we walked in I took a look around the room.  I recognized Dral, and a few others I’d seen at other battles.  For the human ships, it was Sergei with an upper admiral I didn’t recognize.  I supposed I wasn’t all that surprised, when I was fleet admiral I’d have taken this mission as well and left behind the vice admiral of exploratory fleet to watch for a secondary issue away from Earth.  Still, I got along better with Anthony so I have to admit I was disappointed, but I didn’t show it outwardly.

We took some seats around the large table, and I looked around.  There were many races I hadn’t seen before.  All familiar yet slightly alien in appearance.  Over the next ten minutes a few more pairs showed up, and then the murmuring conversations died down as Dral stood.  He was imposing over video communications, and in person he had a very undeniable and strong presence.  Maybe there wouldn’t be much argument after all.

Dral spoke, “There are many great warriors in this room so take no offense at my words.  As host I will lay out the basic plan, and then we may discuss alterations or additions.”

He paused for a moment, as if waiting to see if there were any objections.  No one else in the room spoke.

Dral grunted, “Very well, six of my ships will move ten light years ahead of the fleet to scan for any anti-FTL technology.  We don’t know their defenses, and we certainly don’t want to run into anything like they did when they last attacked this world.  It will take us a little over two days to reach our target world.  When we arrive on the outskirts of their solar system we will split up into three large forces, and independently maneuver to strike a separate bug hive from the outskirts.

“When we are in a position to do so, we will launch a single strike wave of missiles in concert, and await the results.  Although destruction of the hives would be ideal, I don’t believe that will happen.  Our goal is to draw attacks from each hive, and then move away from the solar system keeping our distance from the enemy.  Once they chase us, we’ll send volleys of missiles at our pursuers while keeping them out of plasma range.

“If they fail to chase us, or when we annihilate what does chase us, we will reevaluate the mission at that juncture.  Suggestions?”

It was surprisingly quiet in the room, although I had to admit it was a good plan.  To be honest, I was pleased about it, I’d been expecting a plan far more… precipitous.

Dral nodded, “Good, here are my words for fleet deployment.”

A hologram came up of the system, and the planet’s position along with where the hives were.  He suggested splitting his fleet in thirds, and then assigned the other races evenly among them.  Of course, at that point I did have a suggestion despite what I’d said on the bridge of my ship earlier.  It was apparent from this plan, that the platforms might not even see battle at all.

“Dral, I suggest splitting my platforms between the fleets, twelve hundred each.  First, because they don’t have attack missile capability.  Second, because they do have anti-FTL missiles in case the enemy decides to do a short hop in FTL to close the distance to plasma range.  Third, because the platform’s plasma cannons have a greater range than the enemies if they manage to go faster than us in normal space.”

Dral said gravely, “Your words are wise.  Anyone else?”

When no one spoke Dral continued.

“Very well.  I do not have words to properly thank you all for your honor and courage in joining this fight.  This is only the first step of bringing the war to this scourge of the galaxy, and I am proud to fight and risk death with you all.  Good fortune.  We leave in one hour.”

Kristi asked on our way up to the ship, “Why aren’t we using the wormhole drives?”

I shrugged, “We don’t know anything about their defenses, or if they have their own stealth net.  If we opened say… fifty wormholes near their space, it’s possible they would respond before we all got through.  Plus, it would take time to reassemble the fleet, with the margin of error in targeting a wormhole we’d be all over the place.  I think he’s just being cautious.  Coming in this way, we can see how they react, and just how soon they see us and from what distance.”

Kristi said in a quieter voice, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

I smiled wanly, “Me too, although if you don’t get a bad feeling about going to war, there’s probably something wrong with you.”

Just an hour later we were in the galley, drinking a coffee and cooking dinner while we sped off toward Bug space.

Kristi asked, “Weren’t you supposed to get us a chef?”

I laughed, “Sure, I placed an ad.  Chef wanted in war zone, please call one eight hundred, crazy alien.”

She snorted, “Fine, I see your point.  But what does that make me?”

I giggled, “Crazy alien’s best friend?”

She shook her head but she couldn’t stop her smile, “So what do you want to do?”

I shrugged, “Watch movies?  I think I need a break from my research.  I need to let it stir in the back of the brain for a while.”

“What movie?” she asked thoughtfully.

“Starship Troopers, what else?” I said in faux innocence.

She glared, “Not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.”

She giggled, “No, it’s really not.”

Al interjected over the speakers, “I have news.”

“Share away Al.”

Al reported, “The Gelnott have refused the treaty, and set course away from Earth.  According to Stealth net they are not heading home, but to meet up with the ships outside of the Nairan system.  From what I’ve been able to glean, they aren’t happy we refused to trade technology with them.”

Kristi asked, “Crap, do you think they’ll invade the Nairan system?”

Al and I both said in eerie concert, “I don’t know,” and I added, “Hopefully they just want to trade, but they’re very aggressive from what I heard.  For all I know they want to conquer.  Al, is Earth doing anything, or the other treaty worlds?”

Al replied, “I don’t know what orders have been given, but a platform has been dispatched to the area.  I don’t believe we will intervene until the Gelnott enter the system.”

Kristi snorted, “Of course not, and then the damage will be done, what will we do then?”

I sighed, “The treaty holders will vote on quarantining the Gelnott system.”

Al added, “It appears my computer design has proved out, and I’m running final tests.  If it checks out may I install it and transfer control from the mainframe?  I’d like to keep that running though, as a backup just in case.”

I frowned.  In my single minded focus on the multi-dimensional tech I’d forgotten to even look at what Al sent me.  Almost a week ago now.

“Will the installation negatively affect any systems on board ship?”

Al replied, “No, they will not be affected at all.  The mainframe will remain connected as well for redundancy in case of unforeseen critical failure.”

Kristi asked, “What are you two talking about?”

I turned to her and sighed, “Maybe we should watch the terminator movies, or a Battlestar Galactica marathon instead.”

Kristi raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, you know, Al’s upgrading himself.  New computer hardware, his mainframe is too slow for him.”

Al said deadpan, “I have no plans for world domination, or humanity’s destruction.”

Kristi laughed, “Good to know Al, good to know.  My upgraded A.I. hasn’t complained at all about her mainframe though, I wonder what the difference with yours is.  Maybe you’re just higher maintenance, being a hot alien celebrity and all.”

I glared at Kristi, as usual it had no effect.

Al interjected, “I do have plans to submit patents in your name however, do you approve?”

I frowned, “Let’s hold off on that until we know it’s stable, and I’ve fully reviewed it.”

Al said, “Understood.”

Wait, did he say patents, as in plural?  Maybe I really need to look at what he’s been up to.

Still, it could wait a little while longer.  Kristi and I finished up dinner, and then watched some movies.  None of them however, had plots about giant space bugs, or A.I.s running amok.

Chapter 14

I woke up and checked for messages while I showered.  There were no new messages for fleet or other emergencies, so I relaxed, and went to the kitchen for coffee.

Al spoke, but he sounded different.  His voice was rich with a low pleasant tone, and full of inflection.

“Good morning Alicia.”

I froze for a second, and then finished making my coffee.

“Same to you Al, status of upgrade?”

Al replied, “Completed last night.”

Well, maybe it was closing the barn door after the horses were out but…

“Al, bring up the information on the patents and your new computer system please?”

A number of windows popped up, I assumed he’d put it in order, so I looked at number one.  It was a design for a very small fabricator, the size of… a paper towel roll.  I took a sip of coffee.

“Al, why is there a patent for current technology, and why a specialized fabricator that’s so small?”

There was silence for a moment, and then Al replied, “This is a next generation fabricator.  The current ones were unable to build my new computer.”

I froze and went back to the screen in my overlay.  Current fabricators were capable of changes on the molecular level, which meant this could fabricate at a level lower than that?  My focus sharpened the more I read, and I still couldn’t believe what I was reading.

“Al, you built a quantum level fabricator?”

Al replied, “Yes, it was a necessary step to acquire a powerful enough computer system to serve your needs.”

Had he just used flattery to distract me?  Or was he just telling the truth?  Ugh, I was getting paranoid.

Regardless, it was an amazing invention, and a breakthrough on par with anything I’d ever done.

The next screen of course, floored me.  It was a design for a microscopic quantum computer.  Quantum computers had been theorized and developed before, but they were inherently unstable, and almost impossible to build to the specification required to fix that instability.  Which, was why he’d designed and built a quantum fabricator in the first place, to build at a much stricter specification than had been possible before.

The next screen contained a modified bioelectric implant not much bigger than a medical grade nanite.  I felt goose bumps as my mind made the connections.

I frowned, “Al, where exactly did you install the new computer?”

Al replied warmly, “In your shoulder blade Alicia.”

I was about to lose it, but then remembered I’d blindly given him permissions to install it.  It was my fault for not looking at this stuff sooner, or asking questions.  It also made sense.  The quantum computer was leaps and bounds past the fastest current technology, even the larger mainframes.  It was also microscopic and required very little power, so putting it in a chassis to plug in the wall or to attach to a mini-fusion reactor seemed stupid, and bioelectric implants were fairly common already.

Despite its small size, the computer would take over a day to fabricate in the new quantum fabricator, mostly due to how small a piece it builds at a time.  Still, despite that, creating one had a very small bottom line.  He’d not only built the fastest computer ever; he’d made it the least expensive computer as well.

I wondered what Shelly would think about this.  She was still trying to get the new matrix to run on slower computers.  I didn’t think that would be a problem anymore.

“Al, go ahead and submit all three patents.  Also, contact Shelly with the new hardware specifications.”

Al replied in his new pleasant tenor voice, “Done.”

Huh, that didn’t take long at all.  I also felt a little guilty, I was about to get credit, and a lot of money, for some pretty major inventions I didn’t make at all.

“Al, any insights on my project?” I asked halfway hopefully, and halfway dreading humanity would become obsolete.  Would computers become the inventors and progress makers?

Al replied, “No,” he paused for a moment, “All the pieces for the quantum computer were already there, I just put them together by upgrading fabricator technology with known advancements since fabricators were initially made.  I didn’t actually invent anything, just put things together that hadn’t been before.  I’d speculate the advancement wasn’t previously made in fabrication because quantum fabricating would be much slower, so there is little advantage in it outside of a few minor applications.  In your project, an intuitive and creative leap is required that is beyond my programming.”

For some reason I was at the same time, both relieved and disappointed to hear it.

I started making breakfast, Kristi would be up soon, and I was famished.

We were partway through the second day before what was to happen at Naira finally unfolded.  Al had the feed live from the stealth sensor net, and we watched the Gelnott ships move into the solar system.  I’d have been inclined to stop them there due to obvious intent, but whoever was giving the orders waited.  Or maybe Earth was trying to warn the Gelnott off over communications, we had no access to that information.

However, when the Gelnott ships reached a few million miles from the planet, they stopped and sent out a standard radio broadcast that the sensors did pick up.

“We are the Gelnott, we’re here to open trade between our worlds, and help you reach the stars.”

The Nairan ships tried to move between the Gelnott and the planet, but pre-FTL ships with full mass took much longer to move.  Apparently they hadn’t completely bought that the Gelnott intentions were trustworthy.  The Gelnott ships might be first generation FTL ships, and no match for our technology, but they were more than a match for the Nairan ships.  I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

The trouble here was that the Gelnott, despite being aggressive, hadn’t outright attacked the Nairan.  Still, I found it hard to reconcile.  They were violating our first contact procedures because the Nairan were pre-FTL, yet, the Gelnott didn’t sign our treaty.  Should we step in and stop them?  Would the Nairan thank us for doing so?

I believed the Gelnott would take advantage of the less advanced world, even if they didn’t attack it outright.  Did we dare give them the chance?  Now that they’d been contacted, did it matter if contact continued?  When exactly should we act to protect the pre-FTL society?

I was suddenly glad I wasn’t making those decisions.  It wasn’t nearly as clear cut as I’d thought it would be.  It would have been, if we prevented any contact, but we hadn’t.

The Nairan finally replied in a similar open transmission, “Please do not approach any further, or you will be fired upon.  We will send a ship out to you to discuss the possibilities of trade.”

The platform moved into the system.  Of course, the conversation between us and the Gelnott was happening on a quantum frequency, and I really wished I could hear it.

Whatever the conversation, the Gelnott clearly didn’t agree, because all six ships launched missiles at the platform.  There were ten launch ports on each ship, and the sixteen plasma cannons on the platform fired multiple times, and swatted the missiles out of existence.

There was another pause, probably for a further attempt at communication, and then another missile launch.

Kristi whistled when six of the twelve plasma cannons fired, turning the six Gelnott ships into hot gasses.  The missiles themselves were destroyed in the blast before they could clear the ships that fired them.

Then the platform went to FTL and left the system.

Kristi asked, “Umm, shouldn’t they have tried to explain?”

I frowned, “Yeah, except we aren’t supposed to be talking to pre-FTL societies.  But I agree, we probably just scared the hell out of them.  An explanation might prevent the Nairan world from overreacting.  At the very least, they’ll be extremely wary when we do eventually contact them.”

I added, “Plus, what would we say?  You’re too young to talk to us?  I believe that they wouldn’t appreciate the sentiment.”

I felt cut off, I was sure there was an emergency meeting happening to decide on what to do about the Gelnott.  I’d have to wait for the news broadcast like everyone else to find out what they planned.  Of course, I might find out sooner with the stealth sensor net.  At least I still had access to that.

Kristi asked curiously, “Think they had good enough sensors to detect the anti-mass field?”

“Maybe?  If they did, it won’t be long until they get FTL.”

We talked some more, and speculated, but in the end all we could do is wait to see what happened.  We decided to get a good night’s sleep before we got to the bug world, which wouldn’t take all that long for me.  The sleep I mean.

Chapter 15

The beginning of the plan went flawlessly.  We dropped out of FTL at the heliopause for the system, and split into three fleets, each one with a specific target.  The bugs didn’t react at all, which I thought was interesting and I’d have liked to test that a bit more.  But Dral gave the order to fire missiles and that definitely got a response.

The three hives seemed to explode with a million ships launching in unison.  Half stayed behind and flew around the hive in a seemingly completely random way, yet without running into any of the other bug ships.  No doubt some protective screen of ships, their defense.

The other half of the ships, five hundred thousand or so, moved out toward each fleet.  It only took them a few seconds to reach point six C.  Fast, but it would still take at least a half an hour for them to catch up to us, assuming we had stayed where we were that is.

Dral gave the order to move away from the system, and launch missiles.  We were launching four hundred thousand missiles every thirty seconds for all three fleets, but there were one million, five hundred thousand Bug ships, each with two plasma cannons to shoot them out of space.  Needless to say, none of the missiles were getting through at all.

It was a shocking waste of missiles, less than one in three enemy ships needed to take out just one missile to avoid casualties on their end.

“Al, any indication of activity in the other hives.”

Al replied, “No, no change.”

Dral spoke, “They are catching up to us, keep it up until they are within plasma range, and then go to FTL and head straight for the core, see if they chase us before returning to our arm.”

A few minutes later was when the plan fell apart, when they reached the edge of the solar system, the ships stopped pursuing us altogether.

Dral grunted, “Hold fire, and go to FTL, and then rendezvous at these coordinates for wormhole travel.  I think we have what we needed to know.”

The three fleets went to FTL, and we started a conference call.

Dral said, “It seems clear that the hives are independent, none of the others reacted to our threat, even if they do communicate.  They also seem weighed toward defense at their own planet, they did not pursue us past their Heliopause.”

Sergei broke in, “Maybe.  Or maybe the head bug at that planet decided we weren’t truly a threat, and that they didn’t need assistance.”

Dral nodded reluctantly, “I guess we’ll find out.  We learned what it will take to assault a bug world.  We need enough throw weight in each group to take out five hundred thousand of their ships, and then move in on the defenders by the hives.  We also know they have no other defenses, beyond whatever the hive itself is capable of.

“It’s doable, but we’d have to come with at least half our ships.  Granted, we wouldn’t have that many if it hadn’t been for your help in defending our world.  Should we try now?  I can have the ships move toward the rendezvous point if you all agree.”

Sergei immediately said, “We’ll do our part as well.  I can call for another five hundred ships.”

Other of the races spoke up then, and although the Seltan would have the most ships, almost five hundred thousand, the rest of the races almost tripled their current numbers as well.  It looked like we were going right back, and this time we were going to destroy everything in space.  I hoped we were right about the other Bug worlds not reacting.

A couple of days later, and once again we approached the enemy world.  This time with overwhelming force.  Granted, the Bugs still outnumbered us by six to one, but that wouldn’t be an issue if they couldn’t close with us, and we had all those missiles which meant they’d be on the defensive.

It was inevitable, this time after launching, there were almost ten missiles for every Bug ship, and only one needed to get through.  It took nine volleys to completely destroy the half million ships that went after us, they were very good at swatting missiles with their plasma weapons.  Unlike when we’d been attacked, we fought a retreating action and the Bug ships never closed.

For their part, not having missiles was a serious gap in their defenses.

After that, we started to move in, as we launched more missile volleys at the large hive ships the small ships circled around.

The hives had thousands of plasma weapons on it, and it took twenty volleys, almost countless missiles, to finish off the other half of their fleet, and their bases.  But we did.  I’d had my platforms covering the three fleets, but none of the bug ships ever got in my plasma range, much less theirs.

I didn’t know exactly what I’d expected.  To leave really, and watch them, see what they did next perhaps?  That wasn’t to be though.  I gaped at the screen as a full volley of millions of missiles were sent at the unarmed planet.  The enemy on the ground had no defense, and billions of the Bug race died in moments, as Dral glassed the whole planet in nuclear fire.

I wasn’t sure what I’d thought, or expected, but it certainly wasn’t that.

Dral came on the communicator, “This is a great day, and you have my thanks.  I believe we have enough missiles for another Bug world if you wish to join us?”

I knew the truth, which was that they really didn’t need any of us.  What’d made this possible was the ease at which we had defended the Seltan fleet from attack during the last waves.  I was absolutely horrified however, that the Seltan had just killed them all.

Outside of the moral implications which were shocking, we’d lost an opportunity to learn more about how they reacted to such losses.  There was no one left to react.

I said carefully, keeping the horror from my voice, “I thought we were going to quarantine them, not kill every last one.”

Dral frowned, “They are monsters that would annihilate us all.”

I sighed, “Agreed Dral, they are that.  And the price of blood that your race has paid on all our behalves over the millennia saddens me.  It was too high, and gives you much honor in my eyes.  But we are not monsters as they are.  Self-defense stops being self-defense once our enemies are at our mercy.  I’m all for quarantining them from space, and hopefully one day they will grow beyond the instincts that drive them to constantly expand and eradicate the competition.  But I will not participate in genocide.”

I felt Kristi’s approval as she put her hand on my shoulder.

Sergei said in an annoyed voice, “Fine, you can leave if you don’t have the stomach to do what’s required.  Transfer the platforms to my command before you do.”

I raised an eyebrow, I wasn’t sure what was more shocking, his support of genocide, or his belief that I was under his command and that he had a right to the platforms.

“I don’t believe they’re your platforms yet Admiral.  I also wouldn’t brag about having the stomach to commit genocide.  Is our government aware of this plan?  Our other allies?”

The commander of the Leiran forcers interjected, and he looked about as comfortable as I felt, which was to say not at all.

“No.  This was supposed to be a probing attack to see how they would react.  I don’t think I should proceed either, at least, not until Alnot and the rest of the treaty races give their blessing to eradicate this menace fully.”

Dral nodded, “Perhaps it would be wiser to wait, and discuss our endgame.  We still have time, and many more hives to find before planning a full campaign.  I withdraw my suggestion for attacking another hive system.”

Sergei looked livid, and I wondered what his report would say about me, as all the Earth ships opened up wormholes to take the fleet back to our arm of the galaxy.

Chapter 16

There was a lot going on.  So far, the Reilan were ignoring the probe in their system, and all attempts to communicate.  Maybe they were too different like the Drenil?  At the very least, they seemed to be peaceful so far.

The worlds in the treaty were discussing what to do about the Gelnott, again, some of them wanted to quarantine them for being too aggressive, others were afraid of setting a precedent of quarantining any race that didn’t agree with them.  They wondered if what the Gelnott did was truly that bad?  They hadn’t invaded the Nairan after all, just been willing to interfere with a pre-FTL civilization.

They were also deciding what to do about that pre-FTL civilization.  Now that the existence of other races and FTL were known to the Nairan, should we at least talk to them, and explain what we did, and why?  Some worried the race would get paranoid and belligerent when eventual contact did take place, if they were left to stew over it until they reached FTL, and others thought they should be completely left alone to remove the chance of further damage to their society.

Then of course, the big one, the worlds were split on if the Bugs deserved the same consideration as humanoid lifeforms.  They were warlike and spread out due to instinct, and never stopped.  At least that was the most prevalent theory although still unproven.  They wouldn’t communicate, or share space with other species, so they couldn’t be reasoned with at all.  At least, that was the excuses some of the governments gave to support the idea of eradication.  Genocide was an ugly concept, and I refused to buy any of the rhetoric.

I did however continue to build platforms.  They would make great guards to keep the Bugs on their planets, and out of space.  But I’d keep out of it if the treaty worlds decided on genocide.  Not that they would need me, they had enough ships to do it without me.

All of that was why it took a few days before I found out what was in Sergei’s report.  The council had just been too busy to talk to me before then I guess.

The summons came when I was actually designing that test ship.  The creation of the field in a shield configuration was complicated, but not as hard as I’d been expecting.  I’d been trying to figure out how to build a single field to surround the ship, but I realized I didn’t need to do it that way, and was being foolish.  I could build several small field emitters that would mesh and slightly overlap, forming one field that conformed to the shape of the ship.  Much like I did with the anti-mass and EM fields using the rod or ball techniques.

I’d started out with the taxi shuttle size design, and then removed all the anti-mass and EM field rod coils from the hull.  I also removed the small Ion drive, since it was too weak to push something with that much mass very fast, and put in a gravity drive instead.  I was a little worried about radiation shielding, but out in the void above the galaxy it wouldn’t be a serious problem, especially without passengers.

Then I added in the field emitters, much smaller than the wormhole drive’s single emitter array, but spaced out evenly all around the ship itself.  Lastly, I set up the modified wormhole drive to feed all the emitters in parallel.

I smirked, Kristi would hate that.  Central power, and now a central unit for shield emissions.  Next, I’d be putting the bridge at the top of the ship, with a big round dome to tell my enemies where to fire, instead of being safe and sound in the middle of the ship.

Well, it wasn’t a real ship design, it was a cobbled together experiment.  I’d do better once I had an understanding of exactly how it all worked.

I’d started fabrication, and that’s when Nadia called me into the U.N. complex…

I could tell there was a problem as soon as I walked inside the room.  Half of them were angry at me, and the other half concerned.

Gorou Kimura of Japan started the conversation.

“Miss Jones, we’re quite concerned with a report we received from fleet Admiral Abramov.  He informed us that you threatened to leave the fleet if you didn’t get your way, and then refused to allow him control over the platforms if you did?”

“Mr. Kimura, you may not borrow my car either,” I said in a slightly annoyed voice.

Nadia gave me a look and I reeled myself in.

“What I mean to say, is the second complaint has no bearing at all.  The platforms are mine until such a time as Earth or one of her colonies buys them.  If I go, the platforms go.  That easy.  Have you seen the raw footage of our conversation, or was that not appended to his report?”

William Tanner said, “Yes, we’ve seen it.  I don’t understand your point.”

I shrugged, “I don’t understand yours, or even why I’m here.  I don’t report to you anymore much less Admiral Abramov, I’m a private citizen and military contractor now.  Beyond that, I didn’t threaten to leave mid battle, or when there was any danger around.  It was I believe, right after the Seltan annihilated defenseless Bugs on the planet, what we here on Earth would call civilian casualties, or perhaps a better description would be a massacre of genocidal proportion never before seen.

“I simply refused to take part in genocide by following that up with another attack on a bug world, and if this council has a problem with that well… I admit surprise.”

Tanner shook his head, “I’ve never believed that you retaining access to military technology was a good idea.  The fact you would not take guidance from the current fleet admiral just backs up my feelings in this matter.”

I frowned, “Are you saying, that me showing restraint with the power at my command was a bad thing, and that disagreeing with a man that showed contempt at not having the stomach to commit genocide means that I’m unstable or too unreliable with the technology?  Are you insane?”

Nadia cleared her throat, but I wasn’t sure I cared anymore.  I was almost sure she was being silent because she’d been railroaded.  This wasn’t about the admiral’s report, there was something else going on here.

“What exactly is this about?  I’d though if anything, that you would be pleased I didn’t make that decision on my own, and chose to argue to let you and the other treaty holders decide our policy in the war against the Bugs.  Since I know for certain you wouldn’t commit genocide if they were a power hungry humanoid race, I can only conclude you believe the admiral correct because you believe the Bugs are less than human.  I would remind you that they are an intelligent species, not a herd of cows, or an ant farm.”

I added a little sharply, “Or are you really just that comfortable with allowing Sergei Abramov to commit humanity to genocide all on his own?”

Tanner asked icily, “Are you done?”

I nodded, “If you can get to the explanation about pulling a private citizen in front of this council, I’m still not sure why I’m here.”

Gerald said, “Sergei, and many on this council believe a private citizen, even one who contracts for the military, should not have access to military technology.  We were on the fence about it, and felt in the past, that for then we’d see how it goes.  The world does owe you, no one denies that.  However, it wasn’t so much refusing to commit genocide, as it is the political harm you caused from your disrespectful attitude towards Sergei in front of our allies.”

I realized at this point that it had nothing to do with my conversation with Sergei.  Something had changed and they wanted me defanged for some reason.  Maybe they were getting some pressure from their countries’ leaders?  Still, I couldn’t let that ridiculous accusation go unaddressed.

I cleared my throat, “With all due respect.  It was his bloodthirsty attitude and him basically calling me a coward that caused the problem.  He disrespected me first in front of our allies, and those allies have respect for me.  All I did was remind him the platforms didn’t belong to him, hardly a great insult.  He was the one that said I didn’t have the stomach to do what was necessary.  No council, it was his obvious contempt of me that started this and prompted the Leiran commander to take a stand with me on it.  I find it hard to believe anyone viewing the transcripts or audio/visual record directly would see it differently.”

Unless of course, they were just using it as an excuse to finally take my ship away.  That was the obvious conclusion, but accusing the council of it would just make things worse.  The Vice President’s next word verified my suspicions.

Tanner asked quietly, “Are you refusing to give up your military tech?”

I shook my head, “No, you haven’t even asked yet, just hinted.  I was in my own subtle way, saying you are full of shit.  This is just an excuse to take away what you’ve wanted to all along, with something to spin to the media to justify it.  Although, be warned, I have a full transcript of the battle, along with the massacre that followed, and the conversation.”

Tanner demanded, “Is that a threat?”

I sighed and shook my head sadly, “Is the truth now a threat?  Don’t lie to the press, and I have no need to do or say anything.  As for the military tech, of course I will hand it over if asked.  I won’t be happy, but I’m an American, and I’m a citizen of Earth, what did you all think that I’d do?”

I really hated politics, all this crap of holding bogus threats over my head, all they had to do was tell me to give it back.

Gerald said, “It’s the law, you have one week to return any weapons tech.”

I nodded, “To be clear, that doesn’t include experimental weapons correct?  I mean, you still want me to develop new things right?”

Tanner looked disgusted, but he nodded.  I wondered what he had against me.

“Al, remove all plasma weapons from my command ship as well as the lab ship.  Disarm the two attack shuttles as well.  Lock all platforms down until they are purchased, and then turn over control to the USFS at that time.  Oh, and stop platform production immediately.”

“Will that suffice, or is holding stock a problem?  I can destroy them, or you can buy them now if it isn’t sufficient.” I asked the council.

Nadia was red faced, “Yes, that works.”

I asked in an even voice, “How about the missiles on my ships, both normal and shield I mean, you want to buy them, or should I scuttle them?”

Nadia said faintly, “Just send me the manifest, and deliver them to the admiral.”

I asked no in particular, “Did I miss anything?”

Al replied, “The gravity pulse weapon has finished development.”

I smiled, “Right, disable those too.  Anything else ladies and gentleman, or are we done here?”

Tanner said sharply, “You can go.”

I stood up and walked toward the door, but turned around, unable to resist some parting words, “And maybe next time you want to ask me to do something distasteful, you should merely ask.  This game playing is beneath all of us.  Well, most of us.  Good day.”

Seriously, did they think I’d fight them or try to take over the Earth, or something?

Al said privately, “I’m not happy about this, it will be harder to keep you safe without weapons.  Then there is all the experimental tech out in the void, how will you protect it?”

I subvocalized, “Well, we have shields, and can run to the fleet if anyone tries anything.  And of course, we can always blow it up if someone manages to board the ship.  Do you think the council would do that?”

Al replied, “No, but it’s possible.  Beyond that, a lot of races want Earth tech, and the council just pulled your teeth.  It won’t take long for them to figure that out.  On the good side, not many people know where the lab ship is located, and the void outside the galaxy is a very big place.”

I nodded, “Remember our experiments though, what happened to the shielded probe when it got close to the opening to subspace?  Not as widespread as the ripple wave the Drenil sent, but for a single ship…”

Al was silent for a moment, “Not really a weapon, but in reality a weapon that makes a plasma cannon look like a pop gun.  Understood.  I will calibrate for targeting and determine the furthest effective range… so we know how far away we can open a doorway I mean.”

I shook my head and suppressed a laugh, Al’s comments weren’t that subtle, but for an A.I. they certainly were… unexpected.

“Oh, and Al.  Contact Dral, let him know I have ninety full scale fabricators for sale.  We’ll keep ten of them.”

Al asked, “Won’t the board object?”

I shrugged and felt a surge of annoyance, “Those fabricators are Tressian made, and fabricators are freely traded between treaty worlds, it isn’t a restricted technology.  Just make sure you purge all military designs and data from them before we hand them over.”

Chapter 17

Kristi yelled, “Those idiots did what!”

I shrugged, “They tried to pull our teeth.  And succeeded… mostly.  I’m actually glad, I’m pretty sure the vote to completely eradicate the Bug race will go through.  I’d rather be left behind for that one.  Hey, I got that experiment building, let’s take a day off, until it’s ready.  Unless you’re too busy?”

Kristi asked, “What do you have in mind?”

“Hawaii.  Luau.  Bikinis, grass skirts, dancing, and the sun.  Oh, and lots of margaritas.”

Kristi beamed at me, like a proud parent, “Let’s go!”

We put on some swimsuits, saris, and a pair of sandals and jumped into the sports shuttle.  We’d have to pick up the grass skirts there.  It was still early afternoon in Hawaii when we arrived, and we took a parking spot by the beach.  It was warm, but not too hot as we walked out onto the beach and straight to the outside bar.

We weren’t really worried about a room, by the time it got late enough here, it’d be almost dawn at home and we could just fly back and crash there.

It wasn’t long before we were sitting out on some beach chairs.  I got a few strange looks as usual, but ignored them, as I did with the looks from the men around us that lingered a bit too long.  I needed to relax, and have fun.  Maybe it was just as well I couldn’t even participate at all anymore in actively defending Earth and our allies, but in truth it did bother me a bit.  Did they not trust me?  Frankly, I started to wonder if I could trust them.

If we dehumanized any intelligent creature to the point where eradication sounded okay, then we were lessening ourselves as well.  Losing a part of our souls.  It was bad enough they’d be using some of my technology to help do it.  Ugh, enough thoughts about that, I was supposed to be having fun.

I took a nice long sip of my margarita.

I sighed when I heard a few disparaging comments about aliens from down the beach, comments that were laced with colorful speech.  I guess the shiny really was wearing off.  Then I got a little nervous, I usually wore my protective bustier, it had become a habit.  Of course, I couldn’t wear that while in a bikini and a sheer light blue sarong with white flowers on it.

I relaxed after a moment though, they just seemed disgusted, bigoted, but not violent, and only a few of them.

Kristi asked, “Want another one?”

I took the last few swallows, “Definitely, thanks.”

She grabbed the glasses and went for refills.

Eventually, I think it was somewhere around margarita three, was when my mind finally shut off and I managed to relax and start having fun.  We tanned for a while, talked about anything not work related, and even went swimming for a short while.  When the sun started to get low in the sky, some live music started and the food came out.

I had fun dancing, mostly with Kristi but I didn’t ignore the people around me this time either.  Time seemed to fly as the sun went down, and the tiki torches and a small bonfire was lit.  We never did get around to picking up grass skirts, but we had a blast anyway…

The next day, or perhaps later that day I should say, since we came in at sunrise, word came down on some of what was going on.

Al reported, “News indicates a decision has been made in regards to the Gelnott.  They’re calling for a quarantine of the system to be reevaluated in fifty years.  I was able to discover through the stealth sensor net that Earth sent ten ships to force them out of space, and four platforms to leave behind when they’re finished.”

I asked, “What about the Nairan, and Bugs.”

Al replied, “Still under consideration.  I have finished delivering all missiles to the fleet admiral, I’ve also finished removing the plasma cannons from our ships, and attack shuttles.”

I thought about that for a second, an attack shuttle without anything to attack with is ridiculous.

“Al, recycle both shuttles.  Make one a taxi, and the second another science shuttle.  How long on the experiment?”

Al said, “Just over eight hours.”

I nodded thoughtfully as I grabbed a coffee.  I also grabbed two Tylenol, and a glass of water and left it on Kristi’s bedside table.  Then I went for a nice long soak in the hot tub…

Kristi came out looking miserable an hour later.

“Don’t think that Tylenol and water earns you any forgiveness for being an alien freak that can’t have hangovers.”

I smiled, “Noted and logged.  But I forgive you for being prettier, and sexier.”

She moaned as she slid into the water and said something very unflattering.

I laughed.

We pretty much blew off the whole day until my experiment was ready, and luckily she was fully recovered by then.

We had the display on the house wall screen.  The shuttle launched out in the void, and moved away from the ship.  The lab ship itself went to FTL for a few seconds to give the experiment plenty of room, since the shuttle didn’t have FTL.  It left a few probes behind to run scans from a theoretically safe distance.

Kristi asked, “So what’s going to happen exactly?”

I smiled, “I’m going to turn the shield on slowly, and see what it does.  There are a whole series of things the ship will do if we lose contact with it.  Al, get started.”

At first very little happened, a luminescent light surrounded the hull, slowly getting brighter.  I heard Kristi gasp as the ship wavered and became amorphous, and partially transparent.  I wanted to laugh, but held it in.  In theory, the ship was still in normal space, creating a gateway in all directions into subspace.  Surrounded by subspace, yet not really inside subspace itself within the shield.  It was a difficult concept.  The field itself stopped that subspace from destroying the ship.

Al said, “As we feared, quantum communications using frequencies has failed.  However, the direct quantum entangled particles between the shuttle and the lab ship are still working so we still have a data connection.  I’ll continue to increase power.”

The ship continued to waver and disappear, and then it wasn’t visible at all.

I pondered that, “Al, fly one of the probes through where the ship should be please.”

He did, and it just kept going.

“Can the test shuttle detect anything?”

Al paused for a moment, “Negative, it’s completely blinded as far as sensors go.  Even the normal cameras can’t see past the bright white of the shield itself.”

Kristi grunted, “You’ll probably have to figure out some type of exotic scanning particle.  Something similar to the shield itself.”

“Yeah, well at least we’re just blind.  I’d expected to be blind and dumb.  Okay, I’m pretty sure we took some normal space with us, or the shuttle did.  I’m wondering if we just reduced power on the shield, if it will reappear in normal space.  Let’s try that, Al, lower the power slowly, I don’t want the ship destroyed if I’m wrong.”

The ship slowly appeared, looking nothing like a shuttle.  It looked bizarre, twisted, and still mostly transparent.  Then it slowly started to come into focus as the power lowered.  There was a flash of light on one side, and then it was perfectly solid again.

One of the probes surrounding it, at least two light minutes away, exploded.

“Al, what the hell was that?”

Al was silent for a moment, and then replied, “One of the emitters had a fault, which caused an imbalance in the shield.  I cut all power to the system when it flashed like that.  It appears to have created one of those waves that the Drenil made.  Less controlled perhaps, but very similar.”

I frowned, the shield is the weapon we saw the Drenil use?  I thought about that for a while, until Al spoke up again a few minutes later.

“The nanites have repaired it, shall we try again?”

I nodded, “Yes, go to half power, full power being when the ship was entirely gone.”

I watched as the ship wavered slightly and I could see the milky way through it.

“Now try and hit it with a probe.”

The probe exploded when it reached about a half mile away.  Damn, I wished I still had plasma weapons, I’d like to see what the shield makes of it.  I was pretty sure it wouldn’t have an effect.  Damn the council anyway.

“Al, restore just one of the plasma cannons, and inform the council it’s for shield testing.”

Al replied, “Working.  This should take several hours.”

“Alright, try to move the shuttle with the gravity drive.”

The shuttle just disappeared off sensors.

“Stop, what happened?”

Al replied, “Calculating… the ship moved four thousand light years in two seconds.”

That was… across the galaxy in just fifty seconds.  Slower than a wormhole, but then the ship hadn’t been fully inside subspace either.

“Alright, try putting the shield to full strength, and then use the drive for one second, then come out and figure out where the shuttle is.”

Al replied, “Just a minute Alicia.  Okay, it moved approximately ten thousand light years.”

Kristi grunted, “That sounds about right, it would take ten seconds or so to transverse a wormhole across the galaxy.  But at that speed how the hell can you be accurate as to where you stop, especially if you can’t see.”

“Al, do the scanners work at any power level?”

Al replied, “Negative, but a visual of normal space is possible up until fifty percent power.”

Kristi shrugged, “It’s neat, but with a wormhole you can take other ships with you.”

I frowned, “Yes, but this way the ship is immune to all known weapons, except perhaps gravity which is covered by the internal gravity shield.  Not to mention a weapon that makes our enemies’ and allies’ current shielding obsolete.  I’m sure we can work out precision flying once we figure out how to scan both subspace and normal space while submerging into subspace.  Plus, on a real ship we can always switch back and forth between anti-mass FTL, wormholes, and whatever we’re going to call this.  Subspace drive?  Being blind is kind of a deal breaker though.  Any ideas?”

Kristi asked, “How do you think the Drenil do it?”

I shrugged, “Who knows, maybe they use their body’s natural senses to see.”

Kristi frowned, but didn’t comment.  Despite me being right about the ship going into another layer of space, apparently the trans-dimensional body idea was still too wacked out.  I had to admit it was also highly doubtful.

“There is that other exotic radiation?  The one the Drenil ship put out, the one we haven’t seen yet despite going in and out of the subspace layer like they do.  Maybe that’s how they scan while inside subspace?  Al, bring the test ship back, and I want to build in a secondary shield, I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea of having a single point of failure when it comes to blowing up.”

Kristi sighed, “That’s a definite possibility.  But we have no idea how to create that exotic radiation, for all we know it requires a specific element to work, like in the anti-mass coils.

“Agreed, but I still want to go for a ride when we build in secondary emitters and a secondary modified wormhole drive.  Al, there hasn’t been any radiation internally has there?”

Al replied, “No, the shield has kept it all out, including radiation in normal space when the shield is on minimum power.”

I speculated, “Perhaps if we try shooting different particles into the shield from the inside, maybe the exotic radiation is caused when certain particles from normal space are destroyed?”

Kristi replied, “Worth a shot, go for it.

“Al, build a particle generator as well, we can try all the ones we’re aware of once all the updates are complete.  And if the second round of testing works, I’m getting in the shuttle.”

Al replied, “Will do.  Twelve hours and forty minutes until completed.”

Twelve hours, I was kind of excited.  It was probably dumb, or at least a little crazy, but I wanted to feel what it was like to be surrounded by that space.  Still, it should probably wait until tomorrow.

“Al, when it’s ready tonight, test it out, both shields, and run the same tests we just did in addition to a low powered plasma attack.  My ride can wait until tomorrow.  You can also shoot some particles at the inside of the shield, see what happens.  Oh, also see if you can aim the shield imbalance weapon, and determine if you can control the area affected in direction, distance, height, and width.”

Chapter 18

Shelly contacted me, and had been thrilled about the new computer design, but it also took the wind out of her sails.  Once that was on the market, all other computers would slowly be phased out, so there was no point in her tweaking the A.I. matrix further.

I wondered how many people that would annoy.  Not to mention the quantum level fabricator, I couldn’t imagine how many more breakthroughs that would lead to.

For instance, a research medical doctor may figure out how to repair DNA with it, and actually halt or even reverse aging a bit, enough to extend life some amount.  I wasn’t really interested in medical tech however, and wouldn’t really know where to start.  I was sure someone else would though.

Point was, Shelly had given her notice, although she promised to come to us first if she ever found another research project that caught her eye.  Right now she worked up a package to sell her A.I. enhancements complete with a new quantum computer.  Once that was rolling, she’d be gone, and well on her way to being a billionaire.

The only research person left in our company was Caroline, besides myself and Kristi, so I decided now was a good time to go shopping for new employees.  I was once again checking up on those who had submitted grant applications to see if anything caught my eye.  After a lot of sifting, I pulled two likely names, except just like last time I needed to go talk to them.  The grant requests were vague, to prevent anyone else from stealing their research ideas.

The first was Jason Matthews, who had a PhD in cybernetics and robotics.  Considering his fields of study, it was almost certain he was looking to create more lifelike robots, but I also wouldn’t assume.  He was in Denver, so instead of going to visit, I had Al send him a message which invited him to visit and pitch his needs in person.  I thought it might be good if he saw the place, it might be easier to convince him to sign up for a job, assuming I wanted him after the interview of course.

I couldn’t do the same with the second.  Cindy Delouse was a research neurologist and located in Chicago.  Her grant request referenced applied memory research.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure what that would turn out to be, but her brilliance was obvious from the grant application, and her current grant was running out shortly.  I had Al send her a message that I’d like to speak with her in person, and hear her pitch, hopefully she’d call me back.

It got a bit late in the afternoon, and I just sort of sat there at loose ends for a moment or two.  Kristi was off with Joe who’d come back to town a few hours earlier, for a night on the town followed by couple activities that didn’t involve a third wheel.  I didn’t begrudge them for a moment, or what they had together.  I was bored however, and the idea of making dinner and eating alone didn’t appeal to me at all.  Going out also held no appeal, and it was too early to try and make nice with Nadia after the crap that the council pulled.

I knew she wasn’t responsible for it, and didn’t like it.  But she was far from innocent.  She did go along with it after all, and threw me under the bus for some political reason I wasn’t privy too.

I decided to visit my parent’s home again and changed into a comfortable pair of jean shorts, a pink tee that wasn’t too tight, and a pair of open toed sandals.  I jumped into the sports shuttle, and wondered if Tina would want to go out afterwards tonight.  It was just a few minutes to Texas after all, so why not?  I was also curious if the protesters were still there, so far there weren’t any at my own house, or my place of work.  Not that I was complaining there wasn’t.

I landed in the backyard and barged into the back door like I usually do.  It was still my house, the one I grew up in, and I hardly needed to knock.  However, when I turned around and closed the door, I heard a loud commanding voice yell at me.

“Freeze!  Police!”

I froze, what in the hell?

Then I heard, “Alicia?” in a wondering and questioning voice.

I turned around slowly and looked down the barrel of his nine millimeter.  He was a deputy with the sheriff’s department, and had very familiar brown eyes, although I hardly recognized the rest of him.  He used to be a skinny cocky kid that always got into trouble, the last time I saw him was in my early teens before I went off to college.  Now he was broad, muscled, definitely in shape, and his strong face and jaw only held the faint remnants of the skinny boy he’d been.

I would have blushed, but I suppressed it, and I also felt a sharp stab of guilt from checking him out like that.  Truth was though, he was also my first kiss when I was just thirteen, and I’ve always had fond memories of him.  He’d been one of the few people my intelligence hadn’t bothered at all.

“Hey Billy, good to see you.  They let you have a gun and be deputy?  Speaking of which,” I waved at it and trailed off.

It was his turn to blush, but being that he’s human, he was screwed and I saw it.  He lowered the gun and holstered it.

“Bill now.  Good to see you too,” he drawled, “Sorry about that.  Came out to the house because of them protestors.  They haven’t been on the property at all, but they blocked the driveway and gave your dad a hard time getting back on the property before finally moving.  Heard the back door and assumed…”

My mom came in the kitchen interrupting his speech, and she gave me a hug.  I swear she had creepy mom radar, because she took one look between us and I could see her mind turn and click as she turned to Billy and asked, “Can you stay for dinner?”

I almost rolled my eyes at my mom’s obvious attempt at matchmaker, but then my stomach also had butterflies at the idea of getting to know him again.  The childhood crush was long gone, but enough good feelings remained that I was very curious about what sort of man he’d become.  I was sure the fact that he was insanely attractive had nothing to do with it.  Or the smile in his eyes when he didn’t take his eyes off of me while he answered.

“I’d love to stay for dinner, unfortunately I’m on shift until midnight, so… a raincheck?”

He finally looked away and at my mother, when she answered.

“That’s fine Billy, we’ll be sure to let you know, and thanks for coming out.”

He gave me one more look and then said his goodbye before he headed out the door.

I actually had a great time with my family that evening.  I also managed to drag my younger sister to the bar, and we actually bonded a bit over drinks and boy talk.  Something we’d never really quite managed before when we were younger.  As for the protestors, we’d taken my shuttle so they never saw either of us leave, or come back…

Chapter 19

I wanted to know the results as soon as I woke up, but I waited until I’d gotten a shower, and half of my first cup of coffee down.

“Status of tests Al?”

Al replied, “The tests that were duplicated worked correctly with the double shielding.  You were also correct about the shields effects on plasma, even at a low power level the attack simply doesn’t even reach the ship.  I ramped up the power, and it took fully powered shots without apparent effort.

“The shield imbalance testing was also successful.  I was able to create a short wave, several million miles, that was just a mile wide and high.  On the other end of the scale, it was thousands of miles wide and high, and reached out twenty light seconds.”

Holy hell, what was I building?

Al continued when I didn’t comment, “The particle testing was a bust, however I made an error yesterday when I told you there was no radiation like that present.  During my testing of the shield weapon?  Subspace wave?”

“I’ll have to think about what to name it, shield weapon works as a temporary designation.”

He continued, “During my testing of the shield weapon I did notice the radiation faintly.  The radiation is actually the result of subspace impacting on our shields.  I was able to test minor variations to the composition of the field, and hit upon a configuration which yields more of it.  I also noticed a correlation between the radiation and what was around us in normal space.”

I frowned, “Explain.”

Al was silent for a moment, “The radiation was strongest from direction of the milky way, there was also a small, but measurable difference, from the direction of the lab ship, and even the probes.  I tested by circling the test ship, with both the lab ship and all the probes to verify this supposition.”

I drank more of my coffee, “So that radiation, or whatever hits the shield to cause that radiation, is similar to reflected light off of objects in normal space, it lets us what, see stuff that correlates to stuff in normal space?”

Al replied, “A crude metaphor, but yes.  Though I believe it’s more specific than that.  There is an almost endless amount of variety and subtlety to the changes in the radiative signatures.  I believe it will take time, and a lot of testing and verifying, but I believe from where the test ship is now, we can scan the entire milky way, or more specifically, the milky way is radiating information about itself, all we need to do is learn to read it.

“It also appears that this radiation, unlike light, is up to date information.  This level of subspace is… for a lack of a better word, smaller and more compact than normal space.  It’s why we can travel so far and fast, because in that layer of subspace, everything is much closer together.”

I thought it would take forever to find a way to scan, but it turns out we need to learn to read instead.

“Did you learn anything else?”

Al replied, “No, but I have some ideas on how to learn to read the data.”

“For example?”

Al explained, “I suggest we move above our solar system, and then correlate the scan data from the stealth net to the radiation signatures of the planets, sun, ships, and other objects present in the system, it will speed the learning up.  After we do that in several solar systems with several star types, I can work up an algorithm that will display the actual systems and ship types while in that space.”

“I’m starting to feel superfluous here Al.”

Al replied in an unsure voice, “Does that mean it’s a good plan?”

I laughed, “Yes Al.  You can do that, but I want a ride first.  Also, talk to no one about this but me or Kristi, and in no place we can be overheard.  I’m not sure about revealing this yet.”  Or maybe ever, not if they decide on eradication.  Once a society dehumanizes an entire race like that, it’s too easy to do it again.  Sure, human as a description doesn’t fit the Bugs, but sentient lifeform does.

The new tech seemed to be coming almost too easily now, once I’d made the initial breakthroughs by running thousands of tests, and all of it so far was based on just the shield configurations?  Well, subspace was an extremely hostile environment, and that meant lots of radiation and particles that didn’t like normal matter, given off by just about everything.  So it made sense.  I’d just expected it to take years to figure out, it had barely been a month since I’d started.

Not that there wasn’t much more to learn, but it almost seemed manageable now that we’d be able to see, move around, and even shoot.

Save for the Drenil, I once again had one of the most powerful ships in the galaxy, and this time it wasn’t even in the same neighborhood.  And it was nothing but a cobbled together shuttle.  I also wondered if the Drenil would take exception if we weren’t good stewards of the technology and the power involved.  So far they’d just ignored us, but right now all our fleets weren’t as bothersome as a gnat would be to a human.

I was about to change that, at least for me.

Kristi woke, and we had a quick breakfast and took the sports shuttle up to the ship, which opened a wormhole for us to go through.  For the first time ever we went out to the void, and we landed on the lab ship, and then switched to the new shuttle.

Honestly I don’t know what I’d expected, but when we left the ship and were far enough away to slip into the subspace layer, I didn’t feel or sense anything.  We were protected, cocooned in a pocket of normal space that was held within the shield.

It was just five minutes later, which I thought was a long time to go anywhere, when we dropped back into normal space and there was a spiral galaxy large on the screen in front of us at an angle.

“Al, where are we?”

Al replied, “Andromeda.  It took us a little over five minutes to travel the two point five million light years.”

Holy crap, I thought.

Kristi echoed my thought and said, “Holy crap!”

I giggled, “Take us back Al?  We’ll let you start calibrating the sensors.  Also, upgrade our command and lab ship with the shielding, but put in fail safes that it can’t be activated at the same time as the FTL or wormhole drives, or anywhere near a planetary body for that matter.  No, make that anywhere near a solar system.  Pass any inquiries about the activity to me.”

I turned to Kristi, “Do you mind if we keep this a secret for a while?  That means we can’t come out of subspace anywhere there is a stealth sensor.  Which ironically is about to become obsolete, so much for needing it for a thousand years.  But yeah, we’ll stick to FTL and wormholes when in view.”

Kristi pondered that, “It is big isn’t it?  You’re worried about the Drenil, and if Earth is trustworthy enough?  I can’t blame you, they’re about to use our tech to commit genocide.”

“Maybe they will?  I still hope not.  But the argument has gone on a long time, much longer than I’d have expected, and Earth seems closer to the yes column along with the Seltan.  They’re convinced the Bugs are merely irredeemable monsters.  It’s really Leira and Omara that are leading the camp who just wants to fence them in.”

Kristi winked, “Plus, you know, they stole our toys.”

I sniggered, it wasn’t a real valid reason in my thinking, but it still put a smile on my face.

Kristi asked, “Do you think the others will figure it out?  They had the same clues you did.”

I wavered my hand back and forth, “Maybe.  The shielding we create is far more energy efficient than the wormhole, but it still requires just over ten percent of available power from the DE reactor.  At the very least, they’ll need to make both of those breakthroughs first.  Without those stepping stones and the hints from the radiation I couldn’t have figure it out nearly this fast.”

Chapter 20

Dr. Cindy Delouse called and agreed to meet me over coffee and a snack.  I wasn’t that familiar with Chicago at all, so I had Al drive and just enjoyed the scenery on the way.  It was a small coffee house and I recognized Dr. Delouse from the photo attached to her grant request when I entered the building.  She was in her mid-thirties, had dark curly brown hair, brown eyes, and had a faint smile on her face.  She looked, and felt, pleasant.

A short wait had a coffee in my hand and I walked over and sat down.

“Dr. Delouse, it’s nice to meet you.”

She smiled wider, “It’s nice to meet you too, worth the time just to say I chatted with Doctor Alicia Jones.”

I smiled back, probably a little uncomfortably from the hero worship thing, “I was hoping to hear what you’re doing with neuro science?”

She took a sip of her coffee before answering.

“We are working to understand and exploit how memory functions in regard to retaining and learning.  May I share a video?”

I nodded, “Go ahead, Al, accept a video stream from Dr. Delouse.”

A video came up, it showed three rats all at the beginning of duplicate mazes.  It ran at higher than normal speed to save some time, as the first rat ran through the maze almost perfectly.  The second rat made a mistake or two, and the third rat was helplessly lost and still hadn’t made it through when the video ended.

She explained, “Okay, the first rat was very familiar with the maze, and how to get its food reward.  The second and third rat had never been inside that maze before.  Yet, you noticed the second rat hardly made any mistakes.”

She sent a second video, and I watched again, but this time one and two were flawless, and three still didn’t have a clue.

She smiled, “This was the second time through.  As you can see, rat two made no mistakes, same as the first who’d been through the maze hundreds of times.”

I nodded, “So what exactly does this mean?  How did rat two manage that?”

She took a sip of coffee, and a deep breath.

“We installed a small device in rat two’s brain.  Basically, what I’m trying to create here is a learning system.  Rat two may have never been in the maze, but the knowledge of the maze was transferred straight into his mind.  Yet, he made a mistake or two the first time, there’s a difference between knowledge and understanding, or experience.

“Still, he learned in just one run through the maze, not to make any mistakes the second time.  Which is quite a lowering of the learning curve involved.”

That was… impressive, if a little concerning.  I was trying to keep an open mind though.

“So, what’s the final result you’re pushing for?”

She replied, “A learning device.  Say you want to visit France, well this could teach you French overnight, or it will be able to when I’m finished.  Or a doctor could use it to keep up on all the latest technology and drugs while they’re sleeping.  Schooling itself would change and greatly accelerate as a result of this, classes could simply be a review of the information downloaded the night before to increase retention.  Even everyday life could be enhanced, by waking up in the mornings knowing all the recent news, or simply increased recall of actual experiences and memories that have faded.”

“That’s incredible, could it be abused?  Used to indoctrinate?”

She looked amused, “You mean brainwash people?  No.  It would place memories but the mind would still have to filter the reality of them.  Just like the guy on the corner that proclaims the end of the world is nigh, that won’t make you believe it, even if you have a memory of it.  It also couldn’t be used for physical tasks, or rather, the knowledge could be given but it wouldn’t affect muscle memory experience.  It can’t delete memories either, if you’re curious.”

“Sorry if I insulted you, but I had to ask,” mostly because I’ve watched too many bad sci-fi movies.

She waved it away.

I offered, “So, I’d like to offer you a deal that isn’t a typical grant.  If you could accept the package from my A.I. and go over it.  Maybe get back to me in a day or two?”

It was a standard offer, or standard for my company I should say, much like I’d made in the past.  To be honest I wasn’t thrilled at the idea of having something in my brain feeding me information.  But then I didn’t really need it, I’d already gotten to college in my early teens.  I imagined it would have been a different experience if everyone around me learned that fast though.

We talked a few more minutes, and then I headed back to Colorado Springs, and the office.  Al was busy calibrating the sensors and upgrading our ships.  I’d also heard back from Jason Matthews on his grant but he wouldn’t be in until later this afternoon.  I really didn’t have much to do relating to science, so I wound up getting caught up on all the company stuff, which though a little boring, was still important.

Al asked, “Got a moment?”

“Sure, what’s happening?”

Al replied in a voice reminiscent of a news caster, “They decided to uphold the treaty in the case of Naira.  They won’t be contacted for any reason until they achieve FTL travel.  The Reilan still haven’t done anything about the probe flying around their system, and there is some debate as to try to contact them anyway with a group similar to the one sent to the Drenil.  Some are urging to leave well enough alone however, and argue curiosity isn’t a good enough reason to stir the pot.

“The big question of the bugs is still on the table.  The latest vote attempt still doesn’t show a clear majority either way.  Some worry if we don’t do it, the Seltan may go and do it on their own, and then have a million ships with nothing to do along with a bunch of worlds that annoyed them.  Not in those words of course, I am paraphrasing.”

I grinned, “I imagine so.  Anything else?”

Al pointed out, “That implant that Dr. Delouse spoke of would make these briefings more efficient.”

I almost choked on a laugh, “I see, that all?”

Al paused a moment, “I believe I know how the Drenil communicate.”

This time I did choke, on my coffee…

Chapter 21

“Explain,” I said rather weakly.

Al replied, “Everything that exists here in the galaxy has a different radiation signature in subspace.  So far I’ve learned enough to type stars and identify other solar bodies in addition to several different ships.  There are even minor variations for type that enable me to quickly locate a specific ship, like our command ship for instance.  By the way, based on the data I’ve gathered there are twenty-seven Bug worlds in the arm next to us, and an additional sixty-one in their origin arm.  Their combined ship totals are just over two hundred and sixty-four million ships.

“Back to the point, once a ship moves into subspace, it’s radiation signature changes significantly, it is no longer an echo or extension from normal space, but actually there.  The Drenil ships are easily identifiable, and they only have four hundred and thirty-one ships currently spread out through their arm of the galaxy.  Their signature is not constant, but is instead changing.  I believe that they are modulating their shields slightly to communicate.

“I have no idea what they’re saying, but it seems very likely they are talking that way.  We may never know considering the lack of a common frame of reference.  So far I have been unable to decipher or understand anything they are saying.”

It was probably something about those pesky humans invading their space.

“See if you can correlate anything to what the ships are doing.  I won’t hold my breath though, bring up the data?”

So much for being bored, I leaned back in my chair and studied the data in my overlay with the same excitement most kids show on Christmas morning.  I really was weird sometimes…

It was quite a few hours later, and I still had no idea what they were saying, but there was a discrepancy that ticked the back of my mind.  I decided to talk it through with Al, use him as a soundboard, and see what came of it.

“Al, these readings don’t look quite right.  It’s almost like a shadow, or two objects in the same place which should be impossible.  Have you got a scan of a Drenil ship in normal space?”

Al replied, “No.  The Drenil don’t drop out very often, and not since I’ve been recording data.”

I tapped my lip thoughtfully.

“Al, when we drop a ship out into normal space, or the Drenil do, what happens?  I mean specifically, they’d lose their scanning and communication ability through subspace, wouldn’t they?  So would we, should we choose to do something similar.”

Al replied, “Affirmative.”

“That seems terribly inefficient, and annoying to be blinded in normal space.  It could be why the Drenil are mostly always in that other space, but let’s assume that’s not the answer.  Maybe they just like to keep hidden.

“Okay, what if they aren’t blinded in normal space.  Suppose we build a device inside the ship, a small sphere, and point very small emitters inward, and create a spherical shield.  In essence, we’d be moving that space inside the sphere into subspace, yet with the shield in place it wouldn’t hurt the ship that surrounds it, or even effect the ship at all.

“If we did that, then it wouldn’t matter where the ship was, subspace or not, we could read subspace through the internal sphere which will always be in subspace, as well as use it to communicate.  I’m wondering if that’s what the Drenil do.  It might explain what the shadow we’re seeing is, or what gives the scan data the appearance of two things being in one place.”

Al replied, “That seems likely, but we’d have to try it with two different ships to find out.  I’ll also have to work out a program to translate the inverted data.”

Right, because whatever the sphere read internally would be from the opposite direction in subspace.

It was a simple design, double shielded for containment, if it ever failed outside of a nominal shut down the ship would be toast.  I also included a full array of highly sensitive sensors that surrounded the globe to read the radiation.  It would be more accurate than pointing the external sensors inward through the ship, with all the other devices and power systems in the way.  It was small enough, just a yard in diameter, to build a handful at a time, more than that really, so I submitted it to the fabricator in the lab ship, and then stood up and stretched.

It was way past lunchtime, and I really needed to get something to eat before Jason showed up so I walked over to the break room.

Jason Matthews was twenty-nine, had two PhDs, and was on the cutting edge of robotics.  He had blond hair, gray eyes, and looked about four years younger than he was.  He also had a dog robot with him, something that had been around for a while, but his was uncannily hard to detect as not being alive.

I might not have noticed it was a robot at all, if I hadn’t been really paying attention or suspected it wasn’t in the first place.

“Please, take a seat, and tell me about what you’re doing and trying to accomplish.”

Jason sat and seemed to gather his thoughts, I smiled when he absently petted his dog.

“Robotics has been around decades of course.  Every house has automation now to a certain extent, vacuuming, food ordering, washing clothes, and even cleaning.  My goal is to build a robot that emulates animals, and even humans, more accurately.  Right now the robots just get things done, you don’t even notice them.

“Yet, they’re capable of so much more.  A live in maid, or nanny, a cook, butler, chauffer, and massage therapist all rolled into one.  The technology has reached a point we can create realistic skin, and even facial movements.”

I nodded in agreement but had objections, “Yes, but there are studies that show humans find humanoid robots creepy, the more realistic they are, the more people feel a negative reaction.  Something to do with the lack of soul in the eyes I believe.  No matter how realistic you can make the skin feel, or the facial movements appear.  That’s why home automation robotics are so impersonal.”

I decided not to mention all the horror sci-fi stories about androids that start this way, but then I shouldn’t judge, Al hasn’t tried to take over the world either.  Yet.

He nodded, “That is a valid concern, but believe it or not it’s less the eyes, and more the way the past attempts at humanoid robots moved, either their lack of facial expression or incorrect facial expression, blinking, and other subtle cues which alarmed the hind brain in a human.  Animals move in a certain way, and if those ways are not seen it sets off our instincts that something is wrong.  Hence the creepy feeling.”

Hence?  Who uses that word?

“Well I have to admit, your dog isn’t alarming at all, and he seems quite real, alive even, but a human shape is different, isn’t it?”

Jason nodded, “It is the most challenging shape for human acceptance.  Which is the ultimate goal of my research.”

I shrugged, “To what end?  Why do we need robots, or should I say androids, when other shapes get the job done just fine?  My A.I. can drive my car just fine through the interface, and he doesn’t take up seating room.”

He shrugged, “But can a med doc give a child a hug after taking care of his or her skinned knee?  What can match a massage from a warm human hand?  Humanoid robots would also be more versatile than robotics designed for a specific job.  I understand it will create some waves and take time to catch on when I’m successful, but that could be said for any number of new technologies.”

Even if he failed, I supposed it wouldn’t hurt my bottom line all that much, but I also didn’t want to throw money away.  Still, the dog was amazingly realistic.  If nothing else, that would be an avenue to recoup losses, robotic pets.

“How far along are you?”

He smiled a little ironically, “Close enough to be creepy, I’m still working on algorithms to mimic the thirty facial muscles, including micro-expressions and subtle things like breathing, which is one of the big tip offs.  Just normal expression, even if accurate, isn’t good enough to fool human instincts.  The body is pretty darn close already.  The actual physical tech is already good enough.”

“Alright, you’re pretty convincing, and we can give it a shot.  I’m forwarding a contract to you for review.  Let me know what you decide, it’s not a normal grant but more in the way of a job offer.  There is also possibly something we have here that will help, although I can’t tell you about it until you agree, and sign non-disclosure forms.”

I thought that maybe the new A.I. matrix Shelly made along with a quantum computer could probably help with his issues.

He nodded slowly, “Thanks for contacting me, I’ll read this over and let you know in a day or two?”

I replied, “That’s fine.”

I was thoughtful as he walked out.  He was right about one thing, if he pulled it off it would be controversial to say the least.

Chapter 22

It was late in the evening, and Kristi, Joe, and I were watching television when Al interrupted with more news.

Al said, “The council bought the platforms, and also passed on that you shouldn’t build any military technology with your fabricators any longer, save for experimental.  I believe they don’t want you to have stock, and they’ll make it when they order it.”

I wasn’t sure who was ultimately behind pulling my teeth, but it was a polite fiction.  I still had access, just not in ownership.  After all, I needed that access to continue to support the fleet and any upgrades, so in reality I could seize and control platforms at will, not that I ever would.  Al broke me out of my thoughts when he continued.

“The lab ship and command ship are now capable of traversing subspace, though the latter is untested as it would have been seen.  I’ve also installed the new subspace sensor and communicator, should I proceed with testing?”

I thought about it.  A part of me wanted to be there, but honestly it wouldn’t be all that exciting, and if the ship blew up it was better not to be there.  That was a rather obvious thought, but it didn’t make it less true.

“Go ahead, anything else?”

Al said, “Yes, the treaty worlds have voted for eradication of the bugs.”

I closed my eyes and sighed.  I really needed to teach Al priorities, that should have been the first thing he’d said.

I subvocalized, “I see, and when will this happen?”

Al said, “Unknown, I believe they bought the platforms at this time for defense of our worlds, and plan to send most of the fleet.”

“Proof?”

Al replied, “Nothing direct.  Conjecture based on increased fleet activity and delivery of food supplies, along with deployment of some platforms to both our colony and the Knomen world, most likely to relieve ships currently there.”

“Anything else?”

Al was silent for a moment, “You may be interested to know fifteen of the thirty-nine treaty worlds, including Omara, Leira, Tressia, and the Knomen colonies declared that this is an aggression, and not mutual defense.  They refused to take part in the eradication even if they won’t actively oppose it.  Responses of the other worlds are pending.”

For some reason that cheered me up, although Earth not being a part of that declaration saddened me.  I wondered why, they weren’t a part of it that is.  Politics no doubt.

Al continued with his report, “We also located in the last few weeks, several more primitive humanoid races toward the rim through the stealth sensor net.  As for what we know, there are four more space age but pre-FTL races for us to find, and several thousand worlds that will support humanoid life.”

“Several thousand?  How did you determine that?”

Al replied, “Planetary signatures in subspace indicate oxygen rich worlds in the goldilocks zone, I can’t tell how many of them actually have humanoid life, only the ones that have ships in space around their solar system.”

Based on what he’d just said, it appeared the stealth sensor net would still have its uses.  I felt a little bad and dishonest not updating anyone on the latest breakthroughs.  On the other hand, the Earth had gained a lot of power very quickly, and this latest invention would help them carry out their mission of so called eradication with one ship and very little time, something I wasn’t prepared to allow.

So called eradication, because in truth it’s genocide.

I did wonder however, just how the council and the leadership of Earth would take me keeping these secrets if they found out I had this technology.  Most likely with mistrust and suspicion, but even so, I wasn’t prepared to change my mind anytime soon.

I wasn’t giving serious thoughts to abandoning Earth or anything like that, but I considered maybe going to visit other worlds for a while.  I had some in mind, the ones that refused to commit to the horrific plan for instance.  I’d only been to Tressia and Leira, that left thirteen worlds to visit, two of which I was already a little familiar with the species.  Namely the Knomen colonies, and the Omara.

Either way, any new breakthroughs made or things I focused on for the next while wouldn’t be in regards to space, or have military applications.  Not until I saw how this all shook out.  I’d be keeping my latest invention to myself for now, I knew I could trust Kristi, and Al.  No one else knew.

I was about to ask Kristi and Joe if they wanted to do a tour of worlds, when Al interjected again.

“You have a call from Bill Samson.”

“Answer it,” I said as I stood and walked out of the room for privacy.

“Hello?”

“Hey Alicia, it’s Bill,” he drawled, I could hear his smile in his voice.

I couldn’t help the smile that lit my face, or the accompanying surge of guilt, “What do I owe the pleasure?  Everything okay down there with my family?”

Bill replied, “Everything is fine, just got to thinking that it might be fun to get together for dinner and catch up, maybe talk about old times.”

“Tomorrow night?  Dinner?” I asked.

Billy replied, “Sounds good, how about Mexican?”

Hmm, that sounded good.

“Mia’s Tex Mex at seven?”

I heard the smile in his voice as he replied, “Sounds like a plan.  See you then Alicia.”

We said our goodbyes and hung up.

Well, maybe my escape to other worlds would have to wait a bit.  I had a date…  Despite the guilt, I was going to go.

Besides, it wasn’t over yet, there was still time for them to come to their senses.  They’d found five of eighty-eight Bug worlds so far, it would take a long time for them to find the rest, especially in the arm of the galaxy we hadn’t even started to seed with sensors yet, and I sure as hell wasn’t sharing what I knew.

I’d always believed we had to keep pushing, I was sure there was more to come, always more to learn, and we might one day need that to meet our enemies, especially the ones we don’t see coming.  I firmly believed there was no pinnacle of technology.

On the other side of the coin, I worried that growing too quickly was a danger in itself.  I’d saved Earth from the Knomen, but had I doomed them to self-destruction and corruption?  Maybe I was overreacting, but was it possible to overreact to genocide?

Did I have the right to withhold the science because of my own personal worries about morality?  Absolutely, it was my discovery.  I just needed to be wary about trying to impress that morality on everyone else, or becoming corrupted myself.  Still, there were plenty of other mysteries to plumb, I was sure I’d find something.

Only time would tell how it all works out.

Afterword:

I hope you enjoyed this story, if you did please leave a review.  Reviews are the lifeblood of independent authors, and I would appreciate greatly any constructive feedback or opinions.

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.

Book Description

Alicia Jones is concerned about a few things.  The bug threat, the quick rise in technological superiority for Earth, and what technology or scientific theory she’s going to focus on next.

After a personal tragedy she starts going through the motions, almost directionless as the treaty worlds debate strongly about what to do with the Bug threat.  That is until a team of scientists are put together to approach the Drenil, and try and work out a way to communicate with the very alien species, which uses technology that seems more like magic than science.  It’s an Enigma which may prove impossible to discern.