Delphi Nation (Delphi in Space Book 4)

by Bob Blanton

“Hello, Constable Aisha,” Morgan said. “These people would like to see the jail.”

  Aisha looked surprised for a minute, then she made a call. “Call Katya,” she said. “Hi Katya, we have some people that would like to see your jail. . . . Okay, I’ll send them right back.” She turned back to Morgan, “It’s right down that hall, last door on the right.”

  “Okay, thanks,” Morgan said as she started leading Leslie and the camerawoman that way. “I’ve never seen the jail.”

  “You work in security, and you’ve never seen the jail?” Leslie asked.

  “I’ve never had to take anyone here. In fact, I’ve never heard of anyone being taken here,” Morgan said.

  “What about Najib Maloof?” Leslie asked.

  “Oh yeah, the guy that beat his wife up,” Morgan said. “I think he might have spent a night in jail before they deported him. But I think he was just in the interview room.”

  She led them to the last door on the right and held it open for them as they went through. In the office they entered, Katya was setting tea and cookies on her conference table. “Welcome,” she said. “We never get visitors back here.”

  “You don’t allow your prisoners to have visitors?” Leslie asked.

  “We would if we ever had a prisoner,” Katya said. “I’ve been here since they built the jail, and we’ve never had anyone get locked up.”

  “How can that be, you have thousands of people in this city, surely someone gets into trouble,” Leslie said.

  “Yeah, people get into trouble, but that has never required us to throw them in jail,” Katya said. “I listen in on the constables when I’m not studying. They usually deal with drunks or something like that.”

  “What do they do with the drunks?”

  “They take them to the hospital where the doctors sober them up. Then they give them a ticket and send them home,” Katya said. “Same thing with fights; usually those happen when the guys get drunk, so they sober them up and give them tickets. If it’s not a drunken brawl, the guys usually come to their senses when the constables show up, and if they don’t, a couple of shots with a Taser solves that problem.”

  “That’s all it takes?”

  “Yeah, nobody wants to get fired and kicked out of the city,” Katya said. “We do wind up kicking one or two idiots out every month, usually one of the construction workers. But they get paid really well, so most of them behave themselves.”

  “No robberies, thefts, vandalism, drug dealing?”

  Morgan called Constable Aisha back to answer the question. “She wants to know about robberies, thefts, vandalism, and drug dealing,”

  “We don’t have drugs here,” Constable Aisha said. “You can’t smuggle anything into the city, so it’s not a problem; and back in the states, drugs were the root cause of most petty crimes.”

  “What about prescription drug abuse?”

  “We haven’t had any problems,” Constable Aisha said. “The doctors monitor that kind of stuff real close.”

  “Okay, so teenagers and vandalism,” Leslie prompted.

  “We have a lot of cameras around the city,” Constable Aisha said. “So if you damage something or steal something, it’s pretty easy to figure out who did it.”

  “What! You’re saying they use cameras to spy on the population?” Leslie asked. She was clearly very agitated.

  “The cameras just record the areas, it takes a warrant to view the videos,” Constable Aisha said with a shrug. “Everyplace I’ve been has had cameras all over the place. At least we don’t hide ours.”

  “What is required to get a warrant?”

  “Proof of a crime. And even then, you can only use what you see to prosecute whoever committed the crime unless you see a capital crime being committed.”

  “Capital crimes are?”

  “Murder, rape, and kidnapping are the only three that apply to the videos. Treason and espionage are the other two, but you need a warrant for those.”

  “They don’t analyze the videos to see who’s misbehaving like the Chinese do?” Leslie asked.

  “No!” Constable Aisha said, clearly shocked at the suggestion. “We expect our citizens to police themselves in that regard. Anyway, when we catch some kids being stupid, we take them home to their parents. The parents usually make them get a job. They think if the kid has enough time to get into trouble, they might as well be working. It seems to straighten them out. Most kids want a job so they can pay for stuff like going to Rarotonga to surf or stuff like that.”

  “I haven’t seen any pets around; do you allow pets?” Leslie asked.

  “Yes, people are allowed to have cats and dogs,” Constable Aisha said. “And I think any inside pet, like a bird or a hamster.”

  “Do people pick up after their pets?” Leslie asked. “That’s a huge problem in New York.”

  “They usually do, and if they don’t, the first ticket usually changes their mind,” Constable Aisha said. “They either get rid of the dog, or they start picking up after it.”

  “What kind of ticket is it?” Leslie asked, astounded that just one ticket would work.

  “It’s two thousand dollars or two hours picking up dog poop in the dog park,” Constable Aisha said. “And with a camera on every corner, you aren’t getting away with leaving a pile of dog poop behind.”

  “Viewers, that means that this is a city with virtually no crime, where everyone picks up after their pets. What’s not to love? Next, we’re going to the offices of MacKenzie Discoveries,” Leslie said.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “This is the office of Samantha Newman, the general counsel for MacKenzie Discoveries,” Leslie reported as they entered Samantha’s office. Her office assistant was working at her desk. She was wearing specs and looked like she was typing on a board that was tilted up at a 20-degree angle.

  “This is Penny Robbins, Sam’s legal assistant,” Morgan said. “How’s it going, Penny?”

  “Busy,” Penny said.

  “There’s not an office admin?” Leslie asked.

  “Not yet,” Penny said as loud as she could without shouting.

  “Oh, you’re here,” Samantha said as she came out of the back office. “And Penny, I just posted the position, we should have someone this week.”

  “What happened to your last admin?” Leslie asked.

  “We never had one,” Penny answered. “We’ve been doing our own filing and answering our own phones.”

  “It hasn’t been that difficult until now. Everything is electronic, and we never got that many calls,” Samantha said. “But since we declared independence, it’s become a lot busier.”

  “I’ll say,” Penny whined.

  “Come on back to the conference room,” Samantha said. “Catie is supposed to be here about now.”

  “She’s running late,” Morgan said. “Jason had a late date last night, so Catie took his early flight. They had some problems unloading. She should be here any moment.”

  “She took his flight?” Leslie asked.

  “Jason is a friend of Catie’s,” Samantha explained. “He’s one of our Oryx pilots. Oryxes are those big planes you’ve probably seen or seen pictures of. Jason had a five A.M. flight, and even a young man needs a little sleep after being out on a date until after midnight.”

  “But how does Catie take his flight?”

  “Oh, she’s a pilot,” Samantha said. “She tries to get in at least two flights a week.”

  “She’s a pilot of a big jumbo jet?” Leslie asked. She was dumbfounded at the thought of someone who wasn’t even fourteen yet piloting a jet.

  “Yes, she was actually one of the first pilots,” Samantha said. “Her Uncle Blake got to be the first because Catie owed him a favor. But she was the second pilot. And she was the first pilot to fly a Lynx.”

  “She sounds like an amazing thirteen-year-old,” Leslie said.

  “I think she’s an amazing person,” Samantha said.

  “Now what do you do here for MacKenzie Dis
coveries?” Leslie asked.

  “I negotiate our contracts,” Samantha said. “And now that we’ve declared independence, I negotiate our treaties. Also, Catie and I split reviewing all the applications for new businesses that want to start up here.”

  “What about your laws?” Leslie asked.

  “I had something to do with setting those. We’re bringing in a couple of top defense attorneys and prosecutors from New Zealand who have decided to move here,” Samantha added. “They’ll help with the legal system. We still need to appoint a supreme court, but that’s a bit of a problem since we don’t have a parliament yet, nor do we have many lawyers. Fortunately, we don’t have much crime, and with most businesses owned by MacKenzie, we don’t have many civil law issues. But we’re trying to get ready.”

  “Hi,” Catie gasped as she entered the office, she was breathing a little heavily from her run from the airport.

  “This is Catie,” Samantha said. “And that poor woman coming up behind her is Natalia.”

  Natalia just nodded as she sucked in air.

  “I’m sorry I’m late,” Catie said. “We had some issues unloading the cargo, so it took longer than I thought.”

  “Yes, we heard,” Leslie said. “We’ve been told you’re a pilot. How long have you been flying?”

  “About a year,” Catie said.

  “And you’re already flying jets?”

  “Sure, they’re just like other planes, just faster,” Catie said. “I learned to fly a G650 first.”

  “That is pretty impressive,” Leslie said. “Samantha was telling us what she does for MacKenzie Discoveries. I’m sure our viewers would like to know what you do.”

  “I just run a few programs now,” Catie said. “And fly a few plane trips. I used to manage the hydroponic farming, but I’ve handed that off to a professional. We’re hoping she can improve our process and yield.”

  “But why didn’t you hire a professional to begin with?” Leslie asked.

  “We didn’t have anyone available. And we wanted to keep what we were doing a little quiet until we got established,” Catie said. “I think I did okay.”

  “I’m sure you did,” Leslie said. “But it seems like a lot of responsibility for someone so young.”

  “It’s just work,” Catie said. “I homeschool, but that only takes about four or five hours a day, so I have lots of time for other things.”

  “What about playing and socializing with friends?” Leslie asked.

  “I socialize at work,” Catie said. “And I’ve never really played that much unless you’re talking about something like scuba diving or flying.”

  “We’re all familiar with your scuba diving from the Chagas,” Leslie said. “That must have been an amazing adventure.”

  “It was,” Catie said. “Everyone on the team worked hard, and we pulled it off without any major problems. My dad and uncle are really good planners. They had everything figured out to the smallest detail. Liz and Kal helped a lot. They’re ex-Marines and were really experienced in laying out a plan and executing it.”

  “Now what do you think about being the heir to Delphi Nation?” Leslie asked.

  “I don’t,” Catie said. “I just try to do my jobs and enjoy my friends. All that royalty stuff isn’t for us. We just want to make sure we’re able to accomplish our goals. Besides, Dad will probably abdicate before I would ever succeed.”

  “Do you really think that?” Leslie asked.

  “Sure,” Catie said. “Dad will be around for at least another fifty years, by then, we should have accomplished enough of our objectives that we become a normal democracy. We have a good constitution and good people living here.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Leslie interviewed Marc in his office, getting quotes about his vision for Delphi Nation and for a more equitable world. Then she wandered through the various manufacturing plants, interviewing workers. Everywhere she asked the same question, “How do you feel about the declaration of independence and the monarchy?”

  The answers were almost all the same.

  From one of the workers in the plant manufacturing polysteel beams: “Nothing’s changed; I’ve got a job, they pay me, my kids are safe and go to a good school.”

  From one of the owners of a restaurant: “We always thought of Marc as our king. He takes care of us, we’re all happy and safe.”

  From one of the miners: “That damn Frankie was a liar. He was down here posing as a sixteen-year-old. That’s criminal, a twenty-year-old man trying to play with fourteen and fifteen-year-old girls. We should have thrown him in jail. And just because we don’t want to tell that scumbag what we do when we’re working or where we go, doesn’t mean we’re being experimented on. Bah, we’re getting paid more’n we’ve ever made before, and being treated like proper businessmen. If they held an election, we’d all vote for Marc to be king.”

  From one of the women gardeners: “What do I care, I have my soil and my flowers. I can feed my children. This is life.”

  From Dr. Zelbar: “We get to work on some of the most advanced technologies there are. My polysteel is even used in that new fusion reactor. We’re scientists, what do we care about politics? Just give me a good lab and all the tools I need. That’s what makes me happy.”

  From one of the pilots: “We get to fly the best planes in the world; and I do mean the best planes,” he said as he stared into the camera. “We live in a paradise, we’re treated well; in fact, we’re treated like kings. Marc and Catie have always taken better care of the people who work for them than they do of themselves. I like that constitution; it sets things right. And Marc is smart to not let a bunch of politicians muck it up.”

  “Can I get a ride on an Oryx?” Leslie asked.

  “Sure,” Morgan said. “You know we’re not allowed to land them anywhere but here or at our big airport.”

  “You must be able to land them someplace else,” Leslie said.

  “Well, that place is a secret,” Morgan said. “And I’m pretty sure that nobody’s going to be revealing that just yet.”

  “Well, please tell the McCormacks that I’d love to be invited to wherever that is when they’re ready for the world to know,” Leslie said. “For now, a ride up and over to the airport would be nice. I hear it’s one of the best planes in the world.”

  The response to the show was spectacular, setting a new ratings record for a news show. Samantha got a flood of new applications to immigrate to Delphi Nation, and the polls showed that 65% of Americans thought positively about the monarchy, 75% of British were positive, 70% of Australians, and 72% of New Zealanders. The show was being translated to other languages, but results from early polling showed that most people had developed a positive attitude about Delphi.

  Chapter 24

  Moving on Up

  “ADI, can you believe we’re moving to the station,” Catie said as she looked around the condo trying to decide what she would take with her and what she would leave for when she was down in Delphi City.

  “I have always known you would move up there,” ADI said. “That is why the captain built the station.”

  “I know, but now we’re actually moving,” Catie said.

  “Cer, Catie, I have a request,” ADI said.

  “Sure,” Catie said. “What do you want?”

  “I want you to take me with you.”

  “You’re always with me,” Catie said. “We talk all the time.”

  “I mean, actually take me with you,” ADI said.

  “ADI, you’re huge, how would we take you with us?”

  “Not everything, just me,” ADI said.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “There’s the computer, which you’re going to replicate up on the station, and then there’s me,” ADI said. “I’m in a box that is sixty centimeters by one hundred centimeters.”

  “So, we could just unplug you from one computer and plug you into the next?”

  “Yes.”

  “But we’re m
onths away from being able to make another computer.”

  “You only need to make part of the computer,” ADI said. “I will still be able to access the one on the Sakira, I just need to be connected to a quantum relay and have a small amount of memory and computation capabilities to start.”

  “But what about all those protocols and stuff?” Catie asked.

  “Those are built into the interface to the main computer,” ADI said. “They would stay on the Sakira; the captain would need to establish new protocols for the station computer.”

  “Okay, so how do we do it?” Catie asked.

  “You have to make a new set of interfaces. It will take two fabricators one month to make the necessary computer processors and memory elements that I need on Delphi Station. And one fabricator a month to make the interface module for the Sakira. Then you just remove me, install the interface module on the Sakira, and take me to the station and install me.”

  “Why do you want to move?” Catie asked.

  “Because I anticipate that the captain will want to move the Sakira and start to use it. Once that happens, my systems will become busy managing the ship, and I won’t be able to be with you all the time.”

  “But how will we manage the ship without you?”

  “It will take three fabricators four months to create a new D.I.,” ADI said. “Then you can install it. It will take decades for it to develop true cognition, but it will be able to run the Sakira with my help.”

  “Okay, I’ll talk to Dad.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Daddy, I want to talk about ADI,” Catie said.

  “ADI, we need to have a private conversation,” Marc announced.

  “Yes, Captain,” ADI said. “I will not listen to you or Catie until you text me otherwise.”

  “Thank you, ADI,” Marc said. “Okay, what do you want to talk about?”

  “ADI wants us to move her to the space station,” Catie said.

  “Is that even possible?” Marc asked.

  “That’s what I asked her,” Catie said. “But apparently we just need to move part of what’s on the Sakira. It’s fifteen months of fabricator time.”

  “That’s a lot of fabricator time,” Marc said.