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

by Chris Hechtl

  “And we just … waded in?”

  “We were going to get some of the splash anyway. And yeah, Jack isn't happy. But we got in there and now we share guilt by association. But we can … let's say, redirect their efforts. The entire Neo division has been sold off to us in exchange for our cooperation in their troubles, plus some of the shares Jack had acquired. You'll be seeing more of that in a week or so when we transfer it here. Which means another couple of habitats to be added on,” Aurelia sighed. “Which means more construction. Great.”

  Hannah frowned thoughtfully then shrugged. It would probably mean she'd see an uptick in injuries at the clinic.

  “Why did it have to be baboons?” Aurelia asked herself. “I mean, they are vicious things!” She said, then shivered. Her left hand drifted to her abdomen.

  “What about Mars? Can they go to Mars?” Hannah asked, clearing her throat when Doctor Lagroose didn't respond immediately.

  Aurelia nodded as she returned to the conversation. “I've heard back from the people on the scene, the selkies are conditioned pretty thoroughly. This generation is going to be a problem to free mentally. But their children, pups I suppose, will be born free. We'll evaluate them and then any who wish to live on their own can set up colonies on Mars or wherever they wish,” she said.

  “I see,” Hannah murmured thoughtfully.

  “The same for the other Neos. I know a couple families on Mars. Earth still has a lot of bigots to work through,” Aurelia said darkly. Hannah nodded. Despite the Neos and Miss Cole's efforts to paint the Neos in a positive light, there was still a backlash by conservative close minded individuals. They both knew about a couple of ugly incidents involving Neo hating human mobs and Neos who had naively encountered them. Fortunately no one on either side had been killed, though it had been close a few times. The Neos groundside knew better than to travel without an escort. No one wanted to tangle with a primate hand to hand, but a bullet was one hell of an equalizer, so it paid to be cautious. In time, hopefully, they would be accepted in all areas of the world.

  “Now, think you can lend me a hand?”

  “A hand?”

  “Since your gorilla patient has canceled, I think you can do an ultrasound.”

  “On?” Hannah asked, washing her hands.

  Doctor Lagroose smiled slightly. “Me.”

  “You?” Hannah asked in disbelief. “Sure …” she said slowly, unsure about what was going on.

  “Just a checkup, Hannah. Ultrasound, the basics,” Aurelia explained. Hannah nodded.

  They used the clinic's facilities, Aurelia wasn't up for the ride back to the main station. “Riding a shuttle is … tricky. I hate going into and out of Gee,” she said.

  Hannah nodded in understanding. Morning sickness was tricky enough in space, throw in additional complications and it just got worse … and dangerous for mother and child. Besides, with the ultrasound and computer files everything was interconnected in the company network. The gynecologist attending to Doctor Lagroose could easily pull up the files, she thought.

  Aurelia gave her access to the files, and she pulled them up. As she familiarized herself with the case to compare the fetus's development, she realized her boss had artificially inseminated herself with a genetically engineered baby. It was the only explanation. The formulas in the file … and there was no attending gynecologist. Not at the current stage, and there should have been. Doctor Lagroose had done it all on her own to prevent others from seeing what she had done. The notes … she checked to be sure and frowned. Her fingers hovered over the tablet in surprise. Some of the notes were clearly about brain alterations; something Aurelia had promised not to do in humans.

  She was shocked but covered for it as Aurelia finished cleaning the gel off her hands. She was not sure what would happen to her if she ever admitted her knowledge. Either Aurelia was testing her or she wanted someone else to know … she wasn't sure about her motivations. She dutifully entered in her observations, test results, then uploaded them to the net.

  “Thanks,” Aurelia murmured, taking the tablet back. “Everything okay?”

  “Yes. She's developing faster than expected.”

  “I suppose so. That would explain a few things,” Aurelia replied with a whimsical grin. “We ladies do things according to our own schedules and all that,” she said. “Don't tell Jack. He's not allowed to know the gender. I want it to be a surprise,” She said. Hannah nodded dutifully.

  “I've got to get back to work. We've got to plan the new habitats and I've got a lot of paperwork to go over. Gentek's notes are atrocious,” she said, shaking her head. “They did a lot of trial and error crap right in the bodies of the Neos, not in artificial uteruses or flash cloning parts,” she said.

  “That's awful,” Hannah murmured.

  “So,” she said, straightening. “The moral of the story here is everyone can get their hands slapped. We all have to be on guard, not just from this, but from doing it ourselves,” Aurelia said. “And we need to be reminded. We need the Jimeny Crickets to speak up when we cross a line.”

  “What about that janitor?”

  “Janitor?” Aurelia asked.

  “The guy who got fired when I first joined? He didn't like it and said so and got canned.”

  Aurelia blinked then blushed. “Oh him. Um …”

  Hannah cocked her head expectantly. Finally Aurelia shrugged, hands spread. “What can I say?” She shook her head. “He didn't know what we were doing, but saw it from a … call it a um, unique perspective. And his thoughts were squeed by his perceptions.”

  “It still doesn't excuse his treatment or viewpoint,” Hannah said softly.

  Aurelia studied her and then nodded slowly. “I know. We're not perfect. We make mistakes. And, like I said, we do cross a line. We're … going to make it right.” Again her hands spread in supplication.

  “Okay,” Hannah said softly.

  “I'll send you the medical notes when I find them,” Aurelia said with a grimace. “You'll need to review them since you're going to get a lot more patients,” she warned. “Maybe bone up on some of the vet stuff,” she said wrinkling her nose.

  “I'll go over them,” Hannah nodded dutifully.

  “Well, you won't see many of the primates; they have their own clinic. What do you think about building a Neo hospital here? A full one, not the individual clinics we currently have?” Aurelia asked.

  “We can certainly explore that. Specialty clinics make certain we don't overlook something and can be hands-on as much as possible. But if the populations are going to expand, we can't remain country doctors forever I suppose,” Hannah said, leaning against the door jam.

  “Don't I know it,” Aurelia sighed. “I'll see you later,” she said as she left. Hannah nodded as she left.

  She picked up a couple other patients; the bonobo nurse she had on staff helped with most of them. They kept her busy, kept her mind off what she'd seen for brief periods of time. But during the interval between patients, she did her best to focus on reading up on the next patient but the errant thoughts of the fetus inadvertently crept in, distracting her. She left the medical clinic later that day when her shift ended deeply troubled.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  Jack came into their suite and nodded to Zack as he tossed his tablet onto the coffee table. “Wow, home early, honey?” Aurelia asked as she came over with a welcoming smile and kiss. He hugged her.

  “For a welcome like that most definitely,” he said. She giggled.

  “Ugh, do you have to do that here?” Zack grumbled, rolling his eyes. He looked to his little brother. Yorrick giggled like his mother. Zack pointed his finger into his mouth.

  “Who teaches him stuff like that?” Jack asked.

  “Gee, one has to wonder,” Aurelia sighed. “Go get cleaned up boys,” she ordered, waving a hand. Zack nodded and pulled his toddler playmate off to the bathroom.

  “Come on, that's code words for get out of sight so we can talk in private, little bro
,” he stage whispered to Yorrick. Yorrick frowned and looked over his shoulder to his parents. Jack shrugged.

  When the kids were gone Aurelia sighed as if she was a deflating balloon.

  “Rough day I take it?” Jack asked, taking his cue to go behind his wife and give her a neck and shoulder rub.

  “No more than usual. Did Athena brief you about the mice?” she asked as she bowed her head to his ministrations. He had the touch she had to admit she felt all her tension and worry ooze right out of her like water as his devastating hands worked their magic.

  “Um … no,” he drawled slowly. “That must have been lost in the shuffle.

  “Gentek.” She made the name sound like a curse word. To her and a lot of hard working genetic engineers, it was he imagined. “We're still picking up the pieces. Apparently they got a little too creative. Someone a little too brilliant for their britches, and definitely with too much or too little funding created a pair of neo mice.”

  “Mice?”

  “Mice,” she replied with a sigh of frustration. She stepped away from him and turned to smile her thanks. “They wanted to see how small a brain they could engineer and how smart it could be so they really pushed the envelope.”

  “Didn't they learn anything from the parrots and birds?” Jack demanded.

  “Apparently not or not enough,” she replied, brushing imagined wrinkles out of her blouse. “They combined the project with nano neural networks in a litter of mice. One of the mice was sacrificed to be dissected to see if they were functioning as designed. Apparently the other two didn't like that.”

  “Um … I'm not going to like this story, am I? And I take it, it didn't end well?”

  “Why do you say that?” She asked, shaking her hair out.

  “Because you sent the boys away?” He asked.

  “Oh that,” she turned to where the boys had gone. “No, they really needed to wash up. They've been getting dirty somehow,” she said. She pursed her lips in annoyance. “We're on a space station, the environment is controlled, and yet still they find a way to get dirty,” she grumbled.

  Jack chuckled. “With boys it's a talent, dear,” he said. She snorted slightly. He wrapped his arms around her from behind to hug her. She squirmed a bit, then settled down. He'd figure it out, she thought. She was putting on weight and now that she was past the first trimester beginning to show.

  “So, your story?”

  “Oh um,” she paused as he kissed the nape of her neck. “Stop that!” She scolded, twisting to look him in the eye. He grinned mischievously at her as his hands wandered. She caught them and held them. “Honestly Jack …” He chuckled and relented.

  “Just trying to relax you,” he said innocently.

  “Oh, that's not what you’re after. And you …” she sighed in exasperation as the boys came in, cutting off that retort. He grinned at her; she could see the smirk out of the corner of her eye. She managed to cut it off with a sharp elbow in his ribs.

  He oofed obediently, and the smile slipped a bit. “As I was saying before I was so rudely distracted,” she said, giving him a glower over her shoulder.

  “Rudely, huh?” He teased, squeezing her briefly until she gasped.

  “Jack! Careful!” She scolded. He let go hastily. She sighed as the kids looked at her. She waved them off. “Now, as I was saying, one was smarter than the other. Brilliant really, at least from what records we've seen. The … mouse destroyed or altered a lot of his own records. They called him Brain.”

  Aurelia briefed Jack who nodded grimly when she finished.

  “This is why we don't tinker with some animals.” She nodded, but she was clearly amused by the incident. Two mice that had thought they could have taken over the world? It was so absurd to the point of hilarious. “You keep grinning, but imagine if they had killed someone? Or gotten into the wiring of a station and killed thousands? Or fully uploaded themselves into the net? If Athena and Puck hadn't stopped them, what do you think the public would say about Neos after that?” Jack asked, eying her.

  Her grin congealed as her eyes narrowed. He cocked his head, waiting expectantly as she gamed the thought out. Finally she grimaced. “You're right,” she admitted with a grudging nod.

  “So, when were you going to tell me you were pregnant?” he asked, changing the subject. His hands caressed her tummy once more.

  “Nothing gets past you does it? I thought you'd notice eventually,” Aurelia teased wickedly.

  “Was I even awake during conception?” He asked. Her eyes twinkled. He snorted. “How is it going?” He asked, cocking his head in genuine inquiry. “Dare I ask?”

  “Well, the new morning sickness drugs work well for everything but transit,” she said, shaking her head. “If it keeps up, I'm going to hit the transient quarters on the Neo station and stay there overnight.”

  “What about the kids?” he asked, looking at her.

  She scowled. “Damn it,” she sighed when she looked at the boys.

  “You could take a vacation, honey,” he told her softly. She shook her head angrily no. “You know …”

  “No. Not now. Not when we're integrating the selkies, baboons,” she waved an angry hand. “I can't,” she said. “Not now.”

  “Telecommute?” he suggested. She frowned. “Right now you are reading reports and passing on orders right? You don't have to be on hand for that,” he told her. “It'd give you more time here and with me and the kids,” he said.

  Slowly she nodded. “If you can spare the time. I can't do it all the time; some things I have to be on hand with.”

  “At least until the morning sickness stops,” he urged. “You are thin enough as it is,” he warned. She sighed.

  “I … all the old wives tails are coming back,” she said, hand to her chest.

  “Sensitive breasts?” He asked. “Swollen feet?”

  “That and heart burn. I swear this kid is going to come out with a full head of hair,” she joked, rubbing her chest. He chuckled as he took her in his arms and kissed her forehead. When she made an oof sound he looked down at her. She pointed silently with a finger to her tummy. He frowned. She pulled her blouse up to let him see the foot or other body part kicking her mother.

  “Quite the little soccer player we have here. Is he the reason I got pushed out of bed last night?” He teased.

  “No, but close. The little snot tap danced on my bladder. Speaking of which,” Aurelia said, shrugging off his arms as she got to her feet. She waddled to the bathroom, adjusting her blouse as her husband chuckled. She dimpled and grabbed a pillow to toss at him in passing. His chuckles turned to a guffaw as she retreated before he could return fire.

  Chapter 24

  May 2164

  Isley Irons delved into the unclassified information about the Icarus design; she studied it every waking moment of her free time like a lot of the obsessed people dreaming of bigger and better things. She thought her eyes would bleed, but she started to understand the ship on a very deep almost unconscious level. When she overheard a group of engineers in the galley debated bugs in the EPS conduit system, she fired up her old tablet and got to work researching the problem.

  When she saw a pattern, she pulled out her textbook files on fluid dynamics and engineering, along with superconductors, magnetic field interactions, and thermodynamics. It took a bit of work, but she figured out a small refinement to the EPS conduit design. She ran it past her parents who gave it a go on the mainframe at their complex during some downtime. She spent an anxious week waiting for the results. When her mom emailed the good news, she danced a jig, then sat down and thought hard. She could sit on it, patent it, do something like that. But she wanted to be on a starship, so she needed to kiss a little ass, she thought. She sent that off in an email to the design board without a word to the tug crews.

  The tug crews were clannish; she was still seen as an outsider even though she'd spent time within their ranks. Word came back that Icarus had a design freeze, which elicited a lot of
groaning and grumbling in the yard. When Isley was contacted by Levare Saint Joy about her proposed design changes and requested an interview, she was shocked.

  She was even more shocked when she found out that the reason for the freeze was her email. Her design had intrigued the ship's architects and engineers enough to freeze the build and run a series of simulations. They had compared it to the ship's current EPS network and had found a 4 percent increase in efficiency, and a 2 percent increase in operational life time. Some would say that was marginal at best, but even small incremental changes added up to real savings over time. She had to remind herself that the company was really a company; they were in it for the bottom line even though they had yet to explain how they were going to make a profit on the starships.

  By the end of the interview, she had been given a gold star in her record and a job offer. She'd taken it, then risen through the ranks quickly, being moved out of the tugs and into the main yard as it began to expand. She was bemused when she found herself drafted to work in the yard on building the ship, either as scab labor or as a consultant. She quickly built up a reputation as a fixit; a person who could see a problem in a few moments and untangle it or create a work around.

  She gushed to Amelia when her younger cousin called to let her know her own good news. Isley was in her underwear, Amelia had called her in her morning, waking her up. She went on about how she'd got her foot in the door with the starships until she wound down. Amelia blinked patiently but couldn't get a word in edgewise so she settled down to wait patiently. Then Isley remembered her manners. “Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just tired and excited and …” she shook her head.