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

by Chris Hechtl

  Hannah whistled in appreciation. She understood now where her brother was going.

  “I think the new fusion plant we're working on will get us up a subband, but we still have the problem of the field strength to deal with. There is too much surface area, too much volume. I'm having all sorts of issues with it …” his image froze for a second.

  “Mister Castill, you are in danger of violating company policy and your nondisclosure agreement,” a stern male voice cut in to their conversation.

  “Who the heck was that?” Hannah asked, wrinkling her nose.

  “Company security,” Jamey answered after a moment. He scowled. He was seeing a warning scroll in red across his screen. E-mails were popping up in his inbox. “Okay, okay, I get the picture. Enough already!” he snarled, looking into the camera and then up to the ceiling.

  “Treading into areas you shouldn't, I guess,” she said softly after a moment, now sobered.

  “Yeah, looks that way,” he said exhaling noisily. He looked up to the air in disgust again.

  Hannah cleared her throat, now uncomfortable. “Well, I've got to be going,” Hannah said. She made a show of kissing in the air upward, “Love you, bro, stay safe.”

  “Love you too, squirt.”

  “Hey!” Hannah protested, eyes flashing dangerously. “I'm not that short! Well, not …” It was Hannah's turn to squirm.

  “Right, I bet there are, oh, tons of people shorter than you at your age. And I bet you can count them all on one hand … or one finger.”

  “You really are riding for a fall there, bro,” Hannah growled, eyes glinting dangerously. She leaned in to the camera, and he got a shot he didn't want or expect. His sister had indeed … ripened now that she was eleven. “Keep it up, and I'll sit on you and tickle you silly!” She said, brandishing her claws.

  He snorted, mock cringing. “Oh, a fate worse than death!” He said, hand to his brow. “Who will save me from the tiny feral female?”

  “Oh … that's it,” Hannah drawled. “You are so in for it.”

  “Keep it up squirt, and I'll stay away till you forget.”

  “Fat chance! You know I have an edict memory like you!” she retorted. He made a face. “And don't even go there with the joke about you forgot that. That's so bull,” she said.

  He chuckled. “Okay, you've got me there. But …” he held up a finger. “Just remember. I'm bigger than you. I can sit on you and tickle you,” he warned. He grinned. “I'm actually looking forward to it,” he said, relishing the thought of getting even.

  “Hah!” Hannah mocked, waving a breezy hand. “I'm not ticklish, remember? Dad's tried that; I've gotten him good! So, bring it, bro!” She said.

  “I will, squirt,” he teased smiling mischievously as she brandished a fist to the camera. “Love you,” he said sweetly. “Give a hug to dad for me,” he said.

  “I will. Love you too, bro. Stay in touch,” Hannah said, reaching for her tablet. He touched his and cut the connection just before she did. After a moment he sat back, savoring the memory of that encounter.

  Chapter 11

  Jamey was right, the Launch Ceremony went off as scheduled despite some last minute minor bugs. They were swept under the rug for the time being. Work crews went through the ship stem to stern, inside and out to make sure she was ship shape and gleaming for the event.

  The Lagroose family were there in the media spotlight of course. Jack convinced his wife that the entire family should attend for the historic occasion. Aurelia was noticeably pregnant with their second child. She smiled shyly to the cameras but ducked her head a lot. Zack was there; he held her hand insistently. Jack picked the boy up and showed him around. The boy tried to hide from the watching crowd, sparkling a chuckle from the audience.

  Miss Cole took center stage as master of ceremonies. The design and construction team were introduced briefly as well as Captain Locke and his officers. Mister Eggebraaten looked weary but glad his part was done. He made his escape as soon as he could.

  After they were finished, Jack stepped up for a short speech. “This is the next step in a grand dream mankind has had for thousands of years. Now we can finally turn that dream into reality.” He stepped aside as Aurelia came forward with Zack on her hip. She murmured to him to help her press the button. He nodded dutifully. Together the two of them pressed the button to launch a bottle of champagne. It tumbled end over end before it smashed into the side of the ship's bow, just where they'd planned. A bot swung into action immediately to clean up the debris field before it expanded further.

  Applause rang behind him as Jack turned, arms spread. One hand held a fluted glass of champagne. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you …”

  Behind him at the mouth of the slip a half a dozen ball shaped space drones staged to look like media drones dropped their cover and formed a protest wall at the bow of the ship as it moved out. Together they unfurled banners while other bots moved in. The crowd gasped in alarm as the drones splattered paint on the ship, covering the golden letters of her name. One of the drones careened about and into the side of the massive ship. Its tiny mass was destroyed by the impact, showering the area with debris. A few of the company drones caught the debris while others went on the attack to defend the ship.

  “One Earth, one civilization. Great. At least we know who did it,” Aurelia said, reading one of the tattered banners as it floated in front of the ship.

  Jack was livid that they got so close. He pulled his security chief aside for a hasty meeting. He chewed out Roman thoroughly. “Had they gotten in with a bomb, could you imagine what they could have done?” Jack demanded.

  Roman nodded curtly. From his closed expression, he was chagrined, most likely deeply embarrassed and pissed at how far his people dropped the ball as well.

  “We'll get to the bottom of it. They had the proper credentials.”

  “You should have had someone inspect each and every damn drone. Yes, I know; hind sight is twenty-twenty. Get to the bottom of this. Someone on our side helped, I'm pretty damn well sure of that. Find out and we'll peg their ass to a wall and suck them dry. I want answers,” he growled just as Miss Cole waved urgently to him. He nodded and left Roman fuming.

  Roman pulled in one of his aides and started giving orders. “I want someone to trace those telemetry feeds back to where they came from. Find the damn drones and take them apart. Get the serial numbers and back trace who owned them. Work with Athena and the security bots; I want that handled now. Chop chop,” he said. Jack heard that and nodded. Roman was back on his game, good. He turned in time to see Roman at work with another tech showing him a tablet and nodded before he left the alcove and returned to the party and his guests.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  One Earth was proud of the notoriety and publicity the protest had generated. To Jean it was a sign of not only public exposure, but in some circles respect. “There is nothing like it really, a true David and Goliath battle,” Jean said in various interviews Megan had arranged in a media blitz. His French accent was thick as he played to the reporters and watching audience. “Everyone knows corporations don't care about the little guy. That they have their own agenda. Up until now they have been afraid to show it. Now they have and we need your help. We have to stop them from wasting our precious resources.” He looked into the camera. “One Earth, one civilization. We need to be united, not let the greedy corporations go out to the stars as our representatives. For all mankind should mean something,” he said. That became a resonating line for a while. Megan worked it into commercials, blog spots, and any viral media methods she could think of.

  Since it was election time in America, his people orchestrated a recruiting and get out the vote drive. Jean made it clear they must get people into their organization and away from space but also insert people to space to regain control of mankind's heavens. “Our priority should be here, on the ground, rebuilding and repairing our beautiful Earth,” he said in a rally. That was followed by thunderous applause and che
ering.

  “We're making some headway,” Jean said smugly as he took his seat in the board room for their weekly meeting. He'd enjoyed some popular grass root support to run for office. He'd refused. He didn't qualify for American office anyway since he wasn't a citizen. That rather stupid and archaic law was still on the books, and the conservative allies he had in office refused to appeal it. Which meant he had to work on things from the outside without any proper legitimacy.

  Of course, that didn't mean he couldn't run for office in Canada or even the UN. Both were tempting, very tempting he thought. Especially the UN General Assembly. If he could find a way in and garnered enough support, he could be elected as the general speaker. Then he could make the changes needed.

  “We need people with the skills here to duplicate what they are doing up there. If people can do it here, than there is no need to be up there,” Gerald said.

  “Indeed,” Jean murmured, still glowing with their successes.

  “Lagroose and other companies have been out to repeal some of the genetic laws for some time. What if we agreed to that?” Frodo Bridges asked. He held up a hand as Megan gasped. “No wait, hear me out. They have people up there making organs right? Well, people have to go up there if they need medical treatment. That steals the money away from economies here and sends it and people up there. What if we went along with their plan? Then there would be less of a need to do so, right? You could go to a clinic and get treated for an ailment right here on the ground.”

  “Which would mean people working on the ground. Industry here. Taxable industry,” Gerald agreed with a nod. “But the law … to get it repealed by the UN would be tricky.”

  “Explore the option. Float the idea in polls and see what people say. Limit it to just organ replacement.”

  “Limbs too. If someone loses an arm or a leg …” Megan said, taking notes.

  “I'm not sure how that will fly,” Gerald warned. “It's pretty morbid.”

  “Have you seen the alternative? Right now it is either go to orbit, go to the black market, or get a replacement from a donor. For limbs it's from a cadaver,” Frodo said, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

  “Oh,” Gerald said. He blinked, thinking it over. Finally he saw the angle and nodded. “Yes, we could use that. It would hit some markets, but there is a desperate need for organs. Not everyone can afford to go to orbit despite the dropped cost. We'd be seen as heroes.”

  “We and Lagroose. I'm not certain about sharing the spotlight with them,” Jean admitted.

  “We can find ways to make it work for us. With the police killing the black market, it would be a big thing,” Frodo said.

  “All right, do the research and get back to me next week. Send me a precise as soon as you get it,” Jean ordered. The two men nodded. “Get the data into lovely Megan's hands so she can form the right questions to ask in her polls,” he said. All three people nodded.

  “That will give them a leg up, but we're on the attack. How do we keep the momentum?” Gerald asked, changing the subject.

  “They have a lot of scientists in orbit focused on going to the stars or other unworthy projects,” Jean said, voice slipping into a French brogue. “I believe they should turn their attention here, where it belongs, fixing the problems we are all facing.”

  “Jean, not even Lagroose could stop an earthquake, tsunami, or hurricane,” Megan reminded him.

  He waved a hand. “That's not the point. Oh, they might if they put their oh-so-brilliant minds to it, and if we gave them a free hand and a blank check … in other words cleared the way for them to do the job. Jack Lagroose built the skyhook on Mars and the Beanstalk here on Earth. He's tapped our sun for plasma to power his equipment … he's terraforming Venus, he's building a starship, he's done all that and probably a lot more we can barely imagine. But it's not about if he would or could, it's about showing him as a self-centered, selfish bastard looking after his own ideas and not helping out the rest of mankind.”

  “Painting him in a negative light,” Megan replied with a wary nod.

  “Exactly,” he said, eyes gleaming. “People see public works projects, the donations, the stuff on the ground and know it's going to a good cause,” he said.

  She bit her lip and refrained from mentioning all the graft and corruption in such efforts. Or the patented false media reports that were embedded in blogs and other media outlets to build up a whisper campaign of positive support.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  The dolphins witnessed the launch ceremony through the web. The pod leaders were unhappy about not being on board or included in the festivities. “Party looked fun!” Whistle'Tr'ck'ka't accused Kathy when he called her.

  Kaku thought it was unfair. He and the other dolphins had been given leave to go to the dolphin habitat to be with their families before the ship launched officially. Now he felt betrayed. “Not right. We should be there,” he said, rolling in distress. “Not right, not right! We crew!” he said, feeling bitterness. Other dolphins agreed with nods and clicks.

  “We people too!” Tw'tw'ch'ka chattered at Kathy, clearly incensed.

  “Look, hang on, I'll be right there,” Kathy said. She closed the link.

  “Something up?” Jamey asked as she turned to go. She shrugged. She looked fantastic in her red gown but obviously troubled.

  “The dolphins are up in arms over being slighted. They are right. We're just not ready to have them come out into the light.”

  “From the sound of it, those of you two-legs in the uplift program have taken this too long,” he said. “They have a right to be outraged. I know there has been grumbling in Kaku's pod. Captain Locke has sympathized, but his hands are tied.”

  “Mine too,” Kathy said. “I've got to go,” she said, making her escape. She was glad; she wasn't sure what her feelings for Jamey were. He did look splendid in his tux though.

  When she arrived at the dolphin habitat, she was greeted by the angry mob of pod leaders with the pods arrayed behind her. Apparently the subject was so important all the pods had stopped work or other projects to attend. She was tempted to call in Aurelia or Jack but knew it was futile; there was no way they could get away from the party discretely.

  They demanded to be acknowledged; that was the repeated theme of their complaint. She nodded. “Look, I hear you. Honest. But now is not the best time. We will find the right way to let the other two-legs know you are here and ready to be seen as people. But you have to understand such things are delicate. If they are improperly handled, it could turn ugly,” she warned.

  Kaku listened to her with half an ear, but he was caught up in the discontent. His own roiling emotions were for the first time overriding his intellect. He considered threatening to stop flying, but he really wanted to go. He swam about to work out the kinks and get his frustration out. He just didn't want his people to be forgotten or deliberately overlooked.

  Kathy listened to their litany of complaints and was troubled. She sent a text message to Aurelia but the other woman was distracted so she didn't respond.

  “Okay, we'll definitely get somewhere with that.”

  “Soon! Or we do it ourselves!” Kaku snarled as he came back over to her.

  She blinked in surprise. It was the first time she'd heard a dolphin that angry … and the first time she'd heard it directed at her. “Kaku, I'm sorry you have been slighted. Honest. But it isn't my decision.” She knew the dolphins loved the ship and the null gravity areas. They weren't so happy about the pools Kathy had insisted on including in the design. She had repeatedly explained that if they ever did make landfall, they had to know how to swim. Kaku had taken such things with ill grace but accepted it, as well as the mandatory exercise time.

  “Do it soon. Or we won't fly ship,” Kaku warned, turning his head to eye her.

  Kathy closed her eyes. “Don't. Don't threaten me or the boss Kaku. That isn't going to get you what you want. I'll bring it up to them. I'm not sure what they will say, but I will talk to them.”<
br />
  “Do. Or we don't,” he said. The other dolphins nodded grimly and floated away.

  “I'll do what I can. No promises,” Kathy said. “But you need to stand down and relax Kaku,” she warned. He flicked his flippers. “Seriously. Everyone needs to take a step back and breathe, cleanse the ill feelings. We're all working together, remember?”

  “Not all. What about that?” Kaku asked, pointing to the image behind Kathy. She turned to see a replay of the sabotage. She grimaced.

  Kathy tried to explain but found herself at a loss on how to start. Jamey came in behind her, distracted her. “So, what gives? What's the big emergency?” Jamey asked.

  Kaku eyed Jamey, then rolled. Jamey snorted. “Hey Kaku, you celebrating here too?”

  “Apparently not,” Kathy replied. She explained the situation, occasionally glancing at the dolphin as she did so. Jamey turned grave but nodded. “He was just asking about the sabotage when you showed up. I wasn't sure what to tell him,” she admitted.

  “It's a protest by ignorant people who are petty and having a fit because they can't get their own way. They want attention, plain and simple. They want us to do what they want us to do, and the boss doesn't like that. He won't be bullied or intimidated,” Jamey said, making a double point to the cetacean.

  Kaku frowned, turning the concepts over and over. “Think about it,” he admitted.

  “Good. As far as the rest goes,” Jamey waved a dismissive hand. “We'll figure it out. One step at a time. Like the lady here says, we need to handle it carefully or people like that,” he pointed to the screen and protest replay, “will get their way. They'll want you hunted down, sterilized, or worse. So we need to be careful. There are two-legged sharks just like finned ones out there,” he warned.

  “We know,” Kaku said quietly with a nod.