Outcast

by Guerin Zand

  “Nothing really important. She just wanted to say goodbye. If you want, I’ll send you a copy of the decrypted recording.”

  “No, that’s ok. She meant that message for you. Is this dinner supposed to make us friends now?”

  “No, but I thought it might be a good start. Huiliang has asked to join me on my next little project. I thought it would make sense if we could all get along. We didn’t exactly meet on friendly terms. Actually, when your mother and I had our date, we weren’t exactly friends either. Still, when I think of your mother, I think about the dinner we had here. From her message, I think she felt the same way about our date.”

  Everyone else was quietly listening to the conversation between Mei and myself. Even though Roger, Katie, and Steve were around back then, they had all been confused about the relationship between Lihwa and me. Huiliang was curious as well about the relationship.

  “So what made that dinner, or this restaurant, so special between the two of you, Guerin?”

  “Nothing, Huiliang. I mean, other than we both really enjoyed that evening despite everything.”

  “What do you mean, despite everything.” Huiliang looked confused.

  “You have to understand what was happening back then. Your grandmother was a Chinese intelligence officer, and I was her mark. I actually knew that, but I agreed to go out with her regardless. How bad could having dinner with a beautiful woman be? Your grandmother was probably one of the most beautiful women I’d ever met. While we were at dinner she actually had her partners searching and bugging my hotel room. They were looking for any intel they could get on NFT and my work with the company. The whole time Katie was watching them.”

  “After dinner, we went back to the hotel and spent several hours in the hotel bar drinking and talking. At the end of the evening, she invited me up to her room for another drink. I declined. I told her that her men were already done searching my room, so there was no reason for her to distract me any longer. She, of course, denied it all. As she said in her message, if we hadn’t been so busy playing those games with each other, who knows what might have happened. That was really what we did for the rest of the time we knew each other. We played these little games and never bothered to really become friends, yet somehow we were friends.”

  “But my mother always talked about you like you were the best of friends. She told me that it was because of you that she became Premier. She told me that the reason she pushed China to work with the IOET was in part to repay you for your help over the years.”

  “That may be true to some extent, but her achievements were her own. It would be wrong to think that I had anything to do with what she accomplished. Even the last time I actually saw your mother, before I left Earth, we were still playing those stupid games with each other. I think at some point she realized that we were friends, it just wasn’t a friendship either one of us could acknowledge, not even to ourselves. I was hated by the Chinese government. If there was any hint that she was somehow connected to me, her career would have been over. I think the message she left for me was her finally acknowledging that friendship. I just wished we had been able to say it to each other, face to face.”

  “Well, gee Dad, that’s a nice depressing story.” Maria grabbed for a bottle of Soju and refilled her glass. I handed her my glass to refill as well.

  “But it’s not really, Maria. It’s the nostalgia aspect of the story that really makes it seem so sad. The truth is, we should have been mortal enemies. I protected her when we exposed all those Chinese agents. She passed messages from me to the Chinese government, hiding the fact those messages came from me. It was that strange friendship that saved us all from the destruction that could have been. I think, if anything, it’s a great story about the difference a simple friendship can make.”

  “You’re saying that my mother helped prevent the war between China and America? Why does nobody know about that? She never mentioned that even to me.”

  “Mei, most of the history about that time is nothing but lies. It had to be. They were lies we all agreed to. If the truth of what actually happened had been made public, it would have resulted in war. It’s one of the big reasons I had to leave Earth. The Chinese government saw my self-imposed exile as a small victory. A victory your mother helped sell to those in power. You see, it was at our last meeting that I told Lihwa I was leaving Earth. She agreed it was probably for the best. I handed her all the data we had compiled about what had actually happened and who was responsible. She used that knowledge to make a real difference. Until now, only your mother and I knew about that meeting, or what it was that I gave her.”

  “But hasn’t enough time passed that we can correct the history books? Shouldn’t we?”

  “Why, Huiliang? What difference would it make? People are comfortable with the history as it is currently written. Ignorance is truly bliss. Trust me, I should know.” I smiled and then took a drink. The rest of our group laughed.

  Mei and I talked more about Gamma. I told her that I planned on raising my daughter, but I didn’t have a problem with her being involved. We’d work out visits, like this one, and we’d all keep in touch. If Gamma wanted she could spend some time on Ganymede with her sister. We also discussed the current situation on Ganymede and what progress had been made. The Collective was fulfilling their part of the deal. The engineers from Ganymede were working with them on the new designs for the habitat domes.

  We left the restaurant and walked back to the park. I opened a remote portal from the park back to the Vengeance and we left Seoul behind. Onboard, Mei apologized for having to get back to Ganymede, but she had a lot of work to do since the negotiations. Roger talked the rest of us into going back to the ranch in Panguipulli, Chile. He and Katie had prepared the main house and guest quarters. They thought it would be nice if we all spent the night there. We could talk about business the next day. Senri would shuttle Mei back home and then meet us at the ranch.

  The ranch was as beautiful as ever. We’d left Seoul around midnight, local time, which meant it was slightly after noon on the ranch. Roger and Katie explained that they had maintained the ranch over the centuries. They couldn’t bring themselves to let it go or sell the land since it had meant so much to Maria and me. Other than some modern upgrades, the facilities remained the same. I never thought I’d come back to this home after losing Anna. I was glad we had.

  With the time change, we were all actually living in very different time zones, going to sleep at noon didn’t make a lot of sense to most of us. Roger and Katie had been in New York this morning, so our dinner was actually breakfast for them. Prima and Maria took Gamma inside the main house so she could take a nap. Then they prepared coffee and tea for everybody before joining us all out on the front porch. It was nice sitting on that porch again.

  “So, Guerin.” Roger looked serious. “We wanted to run something by you and Maria.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “What would you think if we built the Collective embassy here on the ranch after first contact?” We both shrugged to signal we had no problem with that. Roger pulled out a portable viewer and placed it on the table to share his plans with us.

  “We would keep the main and guest house here. We figured if you ever wanted to visit, it would be nice for you to be able to stay in your old home. We’d add security all around and update these old bunkhouses for the security teams. The main embassy would be located here.” Roger pointed to the location on the viewer and the embassy building appeared. “It would overlook the lake. We have purchased another 100 acres around the lake for security. We’ll add another road here as the main entrance to separate it from the road to the main house. That should give you more privacy if you come to visit. Along the new entrance, we wanted to add a large garden. We know Anna used to have her garden there, so we wanted to name it the ‘Anna Shida Memorial Gardens’ if that is alright with the two of you.”

  That caught both Maria and me by surprise. We had never considere
d doing anything like that. We had scattered Anna’s ashes out in that area before we had left Earth those many years ago. Maria started crying and I tried to hold back my own tears. We hugged each other. It was a few minutes before I could respond.

  “Thank you, Roger. We both appreciate you thinking of Anna. I’m sure she would have loved to see that. Thank you.”

  Diane smiled. “We added a new building to the physics campus at MIT in honor of Tim. I do most of my work back on Earth in the new ‘Tim Hill Memorial Hall’. We thought that we should do something in Anna’s memory as well.”

  “I’m glad, Diane. What made you think of building the embassy here on the ranch though? It’s not exactly a big metropolitan area.”

  “Well, since you’ve been gone, we’ve been using the ranch quite a bit, Guerin. Katie and I often come down here to get away from everything. Since it’s so isolated, it’s also been the perfect place for visits from our friends. The fact that it is still a relatively isolated location makes it the best place for the embassy. It avoids all the arguing among the larger nations as to who gets to host the facility. Chile is a relatively neutral location.”

  “Besides,” Milly added. “There’s a lot of history here. This was your home. We thought that even if people don’t know about your hand in all of that history, we do. We wanted to honor you by putting our embassy here.”

  “Well, that’s nice, Milly, but not as nice as a killer starship.”

  “Oh not that again, please! You’re like a little boy pestering his parents for a new puppy.”

  “Well, if I had one, I wouldn’t have to pester you, would I?”

  “I told you I’d look into it, ok?”

  “According to Bob, you get to make all the decisions regarding my requests now. You don’t need the Council’s approval, so what’s the problem?”

  “Is that true, Milly? Do all of our requests go through you now?”

  “Guerin’s requests. The Council decided they don’t want to deal with him anymore and he’s more or less my problem. In your case, Roger, you’ll still be dealing with the Collective since you’ll be representing them as their ambassador on Earth. Since Steve will be working with Guerin I guess his requests will go through me as well. He can always ask Jackie for help too. I’ll still have to answer to the Council for my decisions, so it’s not like Guerin is just going to get whatever he wants.”

  “Will you guys please explain to Milly just how lame those shuttles are. I’m just asking to make some small modifications to the basic shuttle design.”

  “Like adding a wood-fired pizza oven?”

  “I still don’t know why you’re so hung up on that. It’s going to be my home, so what if I want a few luxuries? I already showed you the basic designs, Milly. It’s not really that big of a deal.”

  “Can I see the designs?” Diane’s eyes lit up. She was involved in designing the latest Earth explorer. She was mainly responsible for the star drive, that’s what I liked to call it, but she was also the team lead on the overall design.

  Milly took control of Roger’s viewer display and pulled up my starship designs. Diane then took control and started to page through the drawings and my notes.

  “That looks cool, Guerin. Do I get one of those as well?”

  “See, I told Milly you’d want one too, Steve.” Milly just rolled her eyes. That was her standard response when I was right, and she was wrong. “I said she should build two. I figured you can work on the interior layout and customize yours to fit your needs.”

  “Blasters, Guerin?”

  “See! Even Diane thinks that’s a stupid idea, Guerin.” This time Milly emphasized her point by sticking her tongue out at me. I thought she said I was the one acting like a child?

  “I don’t think it’s a stupid idea, Milly. I was just wondering if I could see the blaster designs.”

  “Ha!” I stuck my tongue out at Milly just to show her she had nothing on this monkey. “Actually, I just called them blasters as sort of a generic term. She’s already put her foot down on that though, so I was just going to leave the tubes empty for now. I thought we’d add conduits though, for power and control circuits, for when I find something. Do you have any ideas, Diane?”

  “Not really. We haven’t designed any special weapons for our explorer. We figured we’d add some basic rail guns just in case though. They can’t be used when the ship is inside the pocket universe we generate.”

  “What about launching a missile that creates its own pocket universe? You could use a simple nuclear warhead, and the missile would exit the pocket universe inside the target.”

  “Oh dear God, Guerin. Are you serious?”

  “We’re just spitballing here, Milly.”

  “Actually, in theory it’s not a bad idea. The problem is, the size of the power plant required for such a missile would be way to large and expensive to be used this way.”

  “Thank God!”

  “That’s not to say it wouldn’t be possible in the future. I’ll make note of your suggestion.”

  “Ok, you’re both insane. Why do you two think you need weapons on your ships?”

  I just rolled my eyes at Roger as a signal that maybe he should handle that one.

  “It’s better to have a weapon system and not need it, then to need a weapons system and not have one, Milly.”

  “But, Roger? Your drive makes your ships invulnerable to attack.”

  “Yes, but only when we’re inside the pocket universe. That won’t be the case when we’re in orbit around a planet, docking with other ships, or surveying a solar system. That’s just to name a few cases. That’s why we’ve equipped the ships with the rail guns for now. But how effective would those guns be against a hostile ship from an advanced civilization?”

  “What advanced civilizations are you worried about? There are currently no threats like that out there.”

  “We disagree, Milly. How long until the Trogan’s quarantine is lifted?”

  “That’s at least several centuries from now.”

  “But Guerin has run into more than a few of their ships that have broken that quarantine, hasn’t he?”

  “Well, yes but...”

  “I know you don’t agree with Guerin’s pirate raids on those ships, but we think he’s been doing the right thing. He’s kept them busy, which has probably made them hesitate from sneaking any ships into the Earth’s system. What if they do? And what about after the quarantine is lifted? We have to be prepared. They’re not going to just sit back and watch humans spread out in this galaxy without trying to stop us. They’ve already tried.”

  “If they were to do that, the Collective would step in, Roger.”

  “After how many humans died? A million? A billion? Face it, the Collective’s track record of protecting planets is not that great. The twins homeworld was essentially wiped out before you imposed your quarantine, and even then, you ceded that area of space to the Trogans. The Collective may be invincible, but we aren’t. We’re going to have to be capable of defending ourselves.”

  “Ok, but that’s a decision that humanity has to make. We won’t stop you from arming your ships. That still doesn’t apply to Guerin’s little dream ship. He’ll have a portal drive, so he can easily escape any threat. The shuttles also have defensive weapons for protection. We’ll instruct him on their use. Besides, no enemy would be dumb enough to fire on a Collective vessel.”

  “But my ship won’t be a Collective vessel, Milly. I’m not a member of the Collective, and let’s be honest, the Collective won’t retaliate if I get blasted out of space.”

  “We’re still not giving you weapons on your new ship, Guerin.”

  “Oh, so I am getting my starship then. Thanks.”

  “ARGGGGGG!”

  “So, now that’s settled, I had a few other ideas we should probably talk about. Diane, could we fit one of these new star drives of yours into my design?”

  “Ok, I’ll bite. Why would you need one of those, Guerin? You h
ave Collective drives for subluminal and superluminal propulsion, not to mention the portal drive.”

  “Because, Milly. I swear, I don’t know why you supposedly intelligent beings need me to explain everything. Since my totally bitchin new ride won’t appear to be of any known Collective design, it might be nice to keep that a secret. It will retain the Collective powerplants and drive modules, but will enhance it with Diane’s star drive. We’d only use the portal drive outside the view of other races or in case of emergency. It’s going to be crewed by mostly humans, so it would be nice if it appears to be of human design.”

  “I hadn’t thought about that. As much as I hate to say it, that’s not a bad idea, Guerin.”

  I gave her one of my victory smiles. The truth was, these arrogant aliens think like aliens. They had no clue about the concerns we would face out there as humans since they had none of their own. It was usually the simplest ideas of ours, like including a wood-fired pizza oven, that just boggled their overly complicated minds.

  “It shouldn’t be that hard, Guerin. Let me take a closer look at your designs. We’d need to find a place to fit the drive module.”

  “What about the lower level of the nose cone extension, Diane? The design is flexible, but we could easily incorporate that new drive module into the extension in the final design, right?”

  “That would be the logical place if we wanted to leave the rest of the basic shuttle design unaltered. I’ll start looking into it.”

  “Great. I have some more questions for you while we have the time, Diane.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “What is the top speed of this drive?”

  “Theoretically, it’s unlimited. Maybe Warp 10?”

  All the humans laughed out loud. Jackie and the other aliens looked confused, except Senri. Milly just rolled her eyes and bit her tongue. She didn’t want to start that whole argument about Warp speed being bullshit when she was outnumbered like this.

  “Currently the limit on the explorer star drive is 1000 c, but if all goes well we should be able to increase that by 10x in the near future without any major changes. You have to realize, Guerin, our star drive technology is in its infancy. We’re like the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk. That should give you an idea of what the potential star drives might be capable of over the next few centuries.”