To Touch the Stars (Founding of the Federation Book 2)

by Chris Hechtl

  “We're getting a lot of flack. A lot,” Barbie warned him, opening the meeting up with a broadside salvo. She silently used her remote to take control of his vid screen to show graphs of the trends as well as a scrolling bar of comments.

  Trey sat next to her. He looked briefly at the screen then shook his head. “I know, and I don't care,” Trey told her, fighting to keep his tone professional. He had gotten a lot of flack and didn't like people breathing down his neck. “We're going as fast as we can. Running into teething issues was expected. And you of all people know that they'll find something to bitch about no matter how fast we go.”

  “True,” Barbie agreed with a shrug as she smoothed out her plaid skirt. She crossed her legs. She looked at Jack. “But we still need to tell them something.”

  “People, it's not that simple.” Jack sighed. “What do you want to do?”

  “I think repeating the same line isn't getting us anywhere. We've got our own talking heads going on the air on friendly stations but we're running into a lot of resistance. They think we are making excuses,” Barbie warned.

  “So, the investors are nervous, governments are poking us, the public is snitty, and the media isn't sure if it is for or against us. What else is new?” Trey demanded. He turned to Jack. “That sounds like a normal day for us,” he said.

  Jack snorted. “True,” he agreed, then turned a look to Barbie. He was tired so he propped his head up with his right fist. “Now what?”

  “You don't like to do interviews, I get that. But if you did a couple you'd be an instant hit with all the media outlets, and it would dominate the discussion. It would, however, make a few of the cynics believe rightly that we're trotting out the big guns because we have something to hide,” Barbie warned.

  “We don't. Well, we do, but not a lot. What about the dolphins? Has there been any question about them?” Trey asked.

  “Not yet. We've been lucky and kept them under wraps for now,” Barbie said. “Per standing orders to do so,” she said, looking expectantly at Jack. “We're going to have to come out about them soon,” she said.

  “But not yet?” Trey asked.

  “I'm not sure about the timing. Are you suggesting changing the subject? Or upping the ante? Dumping the dolphin story into what, the Friday trash news cycle? It could blow up in our face,” Jack mused.

  “It is a risk.”

  “Run the numbers. We are going to have to come out about them, but my knee jerk reaction is the timing is off. I think we should stay the course,” Trey said, looking at Jack. “If anything maybe get some people who have worked on ships before to talk. Or we can release some more data about the ship.”

  “Roman will have a fit about that,” Jack said, rubbing his mouth as he closed his eyes and straightened up. Finally he clasped his hands together and looked down at the tablet on his blotter in front of him. “I don't think we're going to gain a consensus now. We need to balance too much information with not enough. That part I agree with. I'll make myself available for one or two interviews …” he held up a restraining hand and looked up and into Barbie's blue eyes. “Video ones. Short ones,” he warned. She sighed theatrically but nodded her understanding and agreement. “You know I hate talking to the public, and I don't like getting caught out. That last interview with Farhad sucked.”

  “True,” Trey said with a wince and glance towards Barbie. She pursed her lips in annoyance. Farhad had been a bit of a disaster, but she'd expected a slugging match. She just hadn't expected Jack to react to so defensively and for Farhad to come out swinging as he had.

  “Can we do a tour of the ship? Maybe a virtual tour?” Trey suggested?”

  “No, we've done that. People are wondering about the bridge layout by the way,” Barbie said.

  “We're not explaining now. Dump some stock footage of the crews training. Maybe a couple distance shots of the ship under construction.”

  “Oh, can we set up a live feed?” Barbie asked, eyes lighting. She looked at her tablet she had been holding in her lap. “I just got the idea from one of my people in a text.”

  “A live … video feed?” Trey asked, tasting the idea. He wasn't sure if he liked it.

  “I'm not sure if Roman would like it or not. It is a security breech. It would allow a potential terrorist real time intelligence to the building slip. It would also be a major headache if an accident happened on camera. If it was a fatality …” Jack shook his head.

  Barbie's face fell. She grimaced. “True.”

  “We can consider it though. Perhaps a daily update? A series of images? Didn't they do that with a ship? No, shuttle. Or tried to. I think I remember it from a history file I looked into. Something Star,” Trey said.

  “Ancient history,” Jack said with a grimace. “And I know what you are talking about. The Venture Star. Also known as the X-33. And yes, it was a mess and scandal. They did have a good PR campaign though. You may want to look into it and take some notes,” he said, looking at Barbie.

  She nodded as she looked down to her tablet and made a note.

  “Check with my personal assistant bot or Athena for holes in my schedule next week so you can do the interview. Video, audio, or text. I know, I know,” he held up a restraining hand. “You don't like text since it can be faked. Got it. But a Q and A session might help or one on camera, I don't know.”

  “A viewer question forum? We could look into that for the ship's crew too. If the builders could do it …”

  “They are tired and overworked as it is. Asking them to get involved is asking for trouble. Charlie is in serious need of a vacation,” Trey said, shaking his head.

  “So …”

  “He won't go. This is his baby; he's dreamed of building a starship his entire life. He made it clear he's not going anywhere until she's out of the slip and on her builders trials.”

  “Builders trials. Great,” Jack said, rubbing his temple. “You would remind me of those,” he grumbled.

  “Um … refresh my memory …” Barbie wrinkled her pert nose in confusion.

  “After a ship is constructed it goes through a series of steps. Fitting out, taking on stores, tests to make sure everything functions, and then she's commissioned. She then goes out to a safe zone and does working up trials. They are also called builder’s trials since the first time a ship leaves a yard a mixed crew of engineers and yard dogs are on board. They check the ship's functions, fix anything they can, and look for flaws. They run the ship and crew ragged.”

  “And that is different from a what, you said a working-up trial?”

  “That is when a ship leaves dock or a slip after a lengthy time and needs to get the bugs out of her crew to settle down. The same for equipment. It's also called a shakedown cruise.”

  “This is all getting confusing,” Barbie sighed.

  “Welcome to ships 101. Maybe we should arrange an intro course for you,” Trey teased. She wrinkled her nose at him. “Or you can look it up.”

  “I'll look it up, thanks,” she said, brandishing her tablet. He nodded.

  “Did you get the memo about the terraforming worlds? Specifically Venus?” Barbie asked cautiously.

  “You mean the one about the scams?” Jack asked.

  “I wouldn't call it scams. Real estate though is at a premium due to speculation,” Barbie responded slowly. She looked down at her tablet and pulled up her notes on the subject. “There is public concern over the three megacorps involved getting the planet.”

  “You don't think we shouldn't be compensated for our efforts? We've invested billions into terraforming each planet!” Trey said in disgust.

  Barbie frowned, eying him. “It's not me; it's the public backed by the people involved with the real estate. I'm not sure how it started. I know someone is selling real estate, and it's a scam. Unfortunately, it's getting all tangled up in knots. My staff picked up a couple blog posts about the UN General Assembly taking a look at the problem. The One Earth crowd is pushing for the UN to assert jurisdict
ion in the name of the human race and …” She looked down at her tablet again. “Quote: ‘to make the process of terraforming and colonizing our neighboring worlds fair and open to all and not controlled by greedy corporations only out for profit.’” She looked up to Jack.

  “When it never rains, it pours, I suppose,” Trey said from the sideline. Jack nodded.

  “We're one of the three. Us, Mars Tek, and Green Men Terraforming,” Jack said. He ignored the Venus coalition. They'd been a crowd-funded pie-in-the-sky group that hadn't contributed a dime to the terraforming process.

  “What were we planning to get out of the process again?”

  “Another world for humanity. I sold it to the board that way with the assurance that we'd divvy up the real estate. But since someone else is laying claim …” Jack shook his head.

  “Can they even do that? I mean, they aren't there on the planet.”

  “If they tie it up in court, they can slow or stop us. Investors will get jittery and pull out. We may end up pulling out; we're getting overextended with the starship program,” Jack said, exhaling noisily.

  “Crap,” Trey said. “And I can't dump my stock in any of the companies since that's insider trading.”

  “Pretty much,” Barbie said, giving him another look.

  Jack waved an airy hand. “We'll figure out something. I'll talk to … um, what's her name. Sorry, brain fart. Anyway, we'll sort it out. Don't worry about it now. One thing at a time.”

  “The problem is they are adding up. A drip here and there is starting to turn into a cloud of rain,” Barbie reminded him. She crossed her hands on top of her tablet.

  “Clouds pass. The sun will come out eventually,” Jack said tartly.

  “We've been selling this to the public and our people from day one. I … they had to wait until now to pull this shit?” Trey demanded.

  Jack eyed him. “I'm taking it as a blessing. We're halfway through the terraforming process on Venus. If they piss us off enough to pull the plug, they can pick up the pieces or watch it slip helplessly into ruin and back to what it was.”

  “We spent what, billions moving a planet? Terraforming it? For nothing?” Trey asked. “Dude, that's got to hurt,” he said, looking at his boss.

  “No, we learned a lot about the process,” Jack said slowly. “Yeah, it'll hurt, but we won't be alone. The other two companies will be pissed too. But like I said, we've learned a lot.” He frowned thoughtfully and then nodded, eyes gleaming. “Which we'll apply to other worlds. Worlds they don't have the jurisdiction on,” he said, eyes flashing as his tone hardened. “They aren't touching Mars, are they?” He glanced at Barbie. She shook her head. He nodded in return. “Yeah, thought so. Mars declared independence from Earth over seventy years ago. They can't touch them; they have the rule of law on their side. Like I said, we'll deal with it. Later.”

  “Okay, well, I can look into stuff we're planning to release. I … think we can do a few things. What about a recommended college course list for people interested in crewing a starship?” Trey asked. “Think that will inspire a few people?”

  “It might … as long as you are serious about it. But my understanding is the first crew has been selected, right?” Barbie asked slowly. He nodded. “Then we would be building up a false front. Unless we made it clear it was for future ships …” She frowned thoughtfully as she tapped her fingers.

  Jack saw a note on his tablet and frowned. He tapped it and his frown deepened into a scowl as he read about the latest freeze. The reasoning was enough to make him want to bang his head. He sighed, making his guests glance at him. “Great.”

  “What?”

  “Another damn freeze,” he said simply, sitting back in his chair in disgust as Trey groaned.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  The first real world simulator was constructed of the bridge and some engineering areas at Captain Locke's insistence. “Look, virtual reality is nice, but people, know you are in it no matter how immersive it is. If you are on the bridge, you can function differently; you take it more seriously.”

  Charlie backed the Captain's campaign. Since it was an additional expense, it was bucked up to the board. Jack considered only briefly before he signed off on the project; he knew the importance of having proper training. And besides, they could use the simulator to train follow-up crews as well.

  The simulator was built from spare components before the main bridge was even laid down. Charlie took a volunteer group of eager ship engineers and crew to work on the simulators in his off time to speed their construction. There were a few issues, a few miscommunication mishaps, and some logistical tangles, but they got it sorted out and the bridge simulator was finished a week after they started the project. They learned a lot from the experience and did their best to pass along any changes to the ship's construction crews.

  Captain Locke had also insisted on regular interaction with the dolphin crew. He'd insisted they have a place on the bridge, even if it was in a null gravity pod. To get to it the dolphins who were going on shift swam up a tube through the floor. They then took over one of the two helm stations within the cylinder. The system wasn't perfect, but it did in the Captain's eyes go a long ways to making his crew a solid unit. The regular enforced interaction also kept the dolphins from being isolated.

  Two pods had been formed from the volunteer dolphin pilots. One was the primary led by Kaku and the best with a backup crew led by Click'ck'a. The female dolphin made it clear she would accept no male partners. Her pod had an equal number of males in it but all were smaller and cowed by her stature. Since she was the second best pilot but didn't get along with Kaku, she had been shifted to the backup crew. The backup crew would either fill in any voids in the primary or would get to fly on Icarus. Click'ck'a had been a bit put out over the bias, but a fly-off proved that Kaku's team was the better team. Kaku had learned a lot over the past five years; he'd built a solid team and encouraged his people, not shown them up or tried to micromanage. He also got along well with the two-leg officers who were to be his crewmates. He and Captain Locke got along quite well and socialized on a regular basis. That stinging loss had put the nail in the coffin of the two of them ever coming together as mates Kaku realized.

  Click'ck'a for her part had continued to simmer with resentment until the dolphin pod found out there were humans that were in the same situation. Kathy explained to them about how humans in space flight kept a primary and backup crew. Sometimes several backup crews were in various states of training and would get their chance to fly on other ships. The dolphin had been introduced to the human backup crew, and they'd hit it off.

  Kaku drilled his people on the simulators daily. They were in constant contact with the coding team to make improvements to the software and interface. A year into the refinement and training process some of the dolphins had picked up enough coding skills from watching the coders, osmosis, and some side classes to do some of their own coding.

  Regular progress reports of the ship's construction were made to the media through the company's public affairs department. The public was divided on the idea, but the tide was firmly for the project. As the ship took on shape and form, it began to charge the public with excitement. There was even an undercurrent of frustration from some people who insisted the UN should be involved or even seize the ship since going to the stars should be an endeavor for all mankind, not just a megacorp. The fringe media had their own conspiracy theories floating around. They led with an assertion that the real world simulator had been built to fake the entire project.

  When the Captain heard that, he was a bit put out. He was even more put out when the public affairs department decided he should do a tour to promote the ship and the company. It was kicked off in the space colonies with at first virtual talks through the media and company website. Then they began booking time for personal appearances. He put up with it for two weeks, but when they started booking him for groundside appearances, he put his foot down.

  “Enoug
h is enough. I have a ship under construction and a crew in training to oversee. I don't care if you want more support. Find another monkey to do your side show. I'm done.”

  His intransigence kicked off a series of threats from public affairs and even a review from the psychology department. Charlie contacted Jack quietly. Jack mulled the situation over and spoke with a few people. Roman came and put his two cents worth in by pointing out that the bridge officers going groundside to make public appearances was asking for trouble, both with protestors which would generate negative publicity, but also exposing the crew to potential fanatics. The thought of losing a crew member wasn't appealing to Jack, so he intervened with a call to Barbie Cole, director of public affairs. Barbie was a bright woman, blond and quiet beautiful. She knew the power of her beauty and charm and used it well. But behind that smile and simmering act was a first-class devious mind. She wasn't happy, but he made it clear there were limits. They compromised with the Captain and some of the crew giving interviews through video chats when they had time scheduled to do so.

  Construction stalled at several points as Sven's work crews ran into teething issues. That threw the pipeline into chaos whenever construction was halted. It did allow some projects to catch up, but twice they found the design team had redesigned a component and manufacturing hadn't gotten the update. The subassembly crews had drawn the parts from storage only to find it didn't fit or function as planned …. or had discovered it when the block had been mated with other blocks. That had started in-depth reviews to find out if any other pieces of equipment had gotten through.

  As construction boss of the first starship in human civilization's existence, Sven Eggebraaten dealt with it all with a professional and positive attitude. He knew such things like slippage and work stoppages happened with the construction of a ship of a new class. The trick was to minimize them or plan for them. Sometimes they were a blessing; they let badly behind projects catch up. It also allowed his people to stockpile components for the next run when they restarted construction … as long as they didn't get too carried away with it. Charlie has to be on hand constantly, even suiting up to go out into bay to oversee construction.