The way the anti-mass particle weapon worked was destabilizing the field by raising the anti-mass particles on one part of it which would destabilize the field, raising the power in that case wouldn’t do anything to fix it on the old ships, but if one of the forty fields suddenly spiked from an attack, the computer could temporarily raise power in the other thirty-nine, evening out the field.
Because the field was much denser, it would also mean a significant speed increase, and I was pretty sure it would hit negative mass at less than one percent power instead of nine or ten percent. I ran some calculations, and realized in a shuttle like that, it would only take about forty minutes to get to Tressia at eighty percent power. I went ahead and generated a full sized ship as well, and the numbers looked even better, though it would take hundreds, if not thousands of poles to cover the thing.
I gave it some thought, and I had Al submit the build for the shuttle. I didn’t even need a large commercial fabricator since the shuttle was only van sized. In fact, the fabricator in my shuttle bay could handle it, so for now it was still a secret. The top of the shuttle had the main compartment, restroom, and a small storage space for food and other emergency supplies. The bottom of the shuttle would be stuffed with missiles, a small fabricator to make more, and an anti-mass particle weapon. The ironic thing was I’d have to keep it in my shuttle bay if I ever left our solar system… at least for now.
I contacted the General and set up a meeting for later, and then made some breakfast.
It was early afternoon, and I was in the General’s office, which seemed to be a step up in trust.
General Denton asked, “So what have you done now?”
I smiled, and explained my new design, and the added stability and toughness.
The General nodded, “So, what’s the problem, I can tell by your tone you think there’s one.”
I nodded slowly, “Sir, if you build these ships, and send them out, that gives the Knomen more powerful ships. Admittedly, they may already have this design, perhaps it’s arrogant to think I discovered something completely new when they’ve had the tech for millennia… but all I saw out there were round ships, with one field. Even if they do have them, that means they’re holding them back. I think if they find out they no longer have an edge, they might panic.”
He cleared his throat, “So what do you suggest?”
I frowned, “I don’t like it, but I think we should build these and hide them. Keep them for defensive purposes. I’d advise building three of the carriers, with six huge hangars with their own fabricators. Four hangers for the attack shuttles, and two for the Shield system. Maybe create, build, and hide a new battle cruiser design as well, but just leave them in storage until we need them. I don’t know, but I know we don’t have to send them our design if the ships never leave our solar system. Or at least, not until we decide to tell them tough crap, you can’t have it, we’re free.”
He shook his head, “I understand, and it makes sense. But it means if we support an action and come to the defense of another system with ten percent of our ships… we won’t be sending our best tech with our soldiers.”
I sighed, “That’s why I don’t like it. I came to that same conclusion. I’m glad I don’t have to decide. That said, you could make the attack shuttles, leave them in the landing bays, and tell the captains to use in case of emergency. But they should understand if they do use them, they’re probably volunteering the Earth for war. Then again, I could be overreacting and paranoid.”
He laughed, “Join the club, it isn’t easy to prepare for a possible war for freedom while appearing to be helpless enough that they won’t start one early. We’re putting out six ships every three days right now, we have more fabricators going up as well. Next time don’t come to me with headaches, only solutions. Understood?”
I snorted and smiled wryly, “Yes sir.”
The next couple of weeks went pretty quietly, I had my attack shuttle stashed in my ship which was finished with its own rebuild. Once more just in time to become obsolete, but of course I couldn’t go anywhere on a ship with the new design either. I was hesitant to go anywhere in search of new tech… or just to go see, until Earth had decided to join the Empire. Technically what I’d done on Tressia was illegal, I’d used my standing as a Knomen to buy and give technology to a race not in the Empire.
Simply put, I didn’t want to press my luck in case it got things started too soon.
I hadn’t seen Nathan since we went out to play pool, because he was out on a mission, but he did manage to call me almost every night, and we were both looking forward to our next date. I wasn’t sure about having a man that was away so much, but on the other hand he was a good one and I didn’t want him to get away.
The world had calmed down when people realized it wasn’t ending. Of course, if they knew the real truth behind the Knomen Empire it might have been a different story. Still, things were calming down, and the world leaders were at a summit hosted in Europe. It might be a cliché, but it felt like the whole world was holding its breath for the outcome to see if we’d join the Empire.
When things finally broke, it did so on a number of things at the same time. Some good, some very bad.
Al said in his usual dry tone, “Alicia, you have a call from Professor Daniels.”
I told him to answer it as I shuffled over to the coffee, and said, “Good morning sir.”
Professor Daniels had a smile in his voice, “Good morning, your doctoral thesis has been preliminarily accepted and I have your schedule for the examination, or as I like to call it the dissertation defense. I’ll port that over to you, I just wanted to call and say good luck.”
“Thank you professor,” I said softly, disbelief shading my tone.
He chuckled, “Your welcome Miss Jones, have a good day,” and hung up.
I was a little in shock, I’d been working on my dissertation or thesis a long time. Originally it was just about the EM field, or perhaps it could rightly be called a shield at the densities I’d established more recently, but I’d had to update it at the last minute with the discovery of anti-mass particle fields. I brought up the data he sent me, and it looked like I’d be going to Vegas in about a month to defend my dissertation to a roomful of my soon to be peers, hopefully.
Kristi walked into the kitchen and looked at me like someone kicked their dog.
“News, now!” she said with a tinge of worry in her voice.
I raised an eyebrow, Kristi was never in a bad mood. Serious on occasion, but never disturbed. I had Al turn on the news, I brought it up on the wall instead of my visor. They were talking about the summit, no, the summit was over, they were talking about the fact we were now card carrying members of an interstellar Empire. It went on to say we’d be a probationary member for thirty years, whatever that meant. I felt… relief actually.
But then it rolled over into the next story. A human interest piece, and I had to put my coffee down before I spilled it when I started shaking. I could have suppressed the reaction, if only I’d been able to concentrate at all.
I’d been outted, so not good. Even worse, they had two pictures of me somehow, how I looked now, and how I looked with spots and purple eyes. The second picture was taken on Tressia, I could tell from the background, luckily there were no Tressian people in it. That meant it couldn’t have been anyone except the special forces team, or someone in the government that had access to our mission files to Tressia.
Kristi looked worried, “Are you okay?”
I shook my head, “Was it the government, or did one of our special forces team leak it?”
I pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down. I tried to take a sip of coffee, but the cup was shaking. I closed my eyes and stilled my mind with some effort, and then finally took a sip of the life giving elixir that is coffee.
Kristi shrugged uncomfortably, “I don’t know. I don’t think any of them would have without orders, not even the lieutenant.”
I shook my
head, “Me either, those guys wouldn’t have given me up, I don’t think the general would have either. Must have been some idiot in high office that was briefed.”
Kristi deflated, “Probably, I’m sure they think it would calm down people, make them think that aliens are people too. It might even work a little, except for all the nutcases who might come after you now. I think you should get out of here, I’m surprised the reporters aren’t here yet.”
The door knocked giving Kristi’s statement the illusion of prescience, and my eyes widened.
Kristi snorted and ordered her A.I. to connect to the door peep camera, and then drew in a sharp breath.
“It’s not the reporters, it’s Carl… alien Carl, and two other people are with him.”
I walked over and opened the door.
“Come in,” I said shortly and moved to the side, the last thing I needed was my neighbors seeing him show up.
But then, that probably didn’t matter anymore did it?
Carl smiled pleasantly, “I have some people here I thought you might like to meet. This is Elira and Jorl, your grandparents.”
I turned and looked at them both. They looked just a couple of years older than me, and it wasn’t computing until I saw their eyes. I saw the age in their eyes and understood. I knew I aged slow compared to most, at twenty-three I still looked about twenty, but Knomen didn’t age slow enough to explain how young my grandparents looked. But then the obvious hit me, with control over my body like I had, specifically my facial structure, that meant I could always look young… at least until I died.
Except for the eyes. Elira and Jorl looked about forty in the eyes… which meat they were at least as twice as old.
I just stared though, not sure what to say, I might have been going into shock. Too much had happened this morning. My dissertation, Earth joining the Knomen Empire, I was outted to the media, and now my grandparents were here. My… family. They didn’t look like the monsters I’d imagined, they had smiles on their faces, and looked… welcoming and hopeful.
Elira said tentatively, “It’s a miracle to see you. Our daughter was pregnant when they left for Earth on that scouting mission. I never imagined when they were reported dead by their implants in such a violent way that you had survived.”
I said in shock, “I was thrown from the car before it exploded.”
Jorl winced at my bluntness, “When facilitator Carl called us about the news, we came as soon as we could. I know you have a life here, but you have family back home, an Aunt and Uncle, and a ship full of cousins.”
I giggled, and they looked at me strangely. What? Ship full must be their version of boat load. It struck me as funny.
“Sorry, cultural thing. I appreciate that, and I think I would like to visit sometime in the future, but my life is here.”
Carl cleared his throat and said delicately, “Do you think that’s wise considering the recent news? You’ll be in danger.”
My mind made all the connections. This wasn’t coincidence, and it wasn’t the government who’d leaked my picture and identity as I’d assumed. For some reason Carl wanted me off Earth and back home, and he’d leaked the info and brought my grandparents here to get the job done. I turned and glared into his eyes.
“You manipulative piece of shit,” I’m ashamed to say my vocabulary got even worse after that, I recapped my thoughts aloud interspersed with creative cursing, name calling, and then demanded, “Get out of my home!”
Kristi had her hand over her mouth, and my grandparents couldn’t have looked more shocked if I’d pulled out a gun and shot Carl. Oh, right, being a bad neighbor was about as bad as murder in the Knomen Empire. It wasn’t often that I lost it, but the jerk had just put my life at risk, he was lucky I didn’t deck him.
Carl made a disapproving noise, “Be polite, I’d hate to have to fine you for showing such disrespect to a facilitator.”
“Then please do as I asked. You are not welcome in my home.”
Carl nodded and looked completely unconcerned with my uncovering his manipulations. As if it simply didn’t matter. He clearly believed I would wind up leaving anyway. While it was true I wouldn’t stay here out of spite, I wouldn’t be manipulated into leaving either, I still had no intention of going to the Knomen home world. I could weather a media storm, hell, after the school sold the rights to make and sell my invention I could buy an island fortress if I needed to.
Actually, that might not be a bad idea.
Carl left and I slammed the door and took a deep breath.
I turned and smiled, “Well, that was… not fun. Jorl, Elira, meet my best friend and roommate, Kristi. Kristi… my grandparents.”
They were very polite when greeting each other and looked at me warily wondering if I was done with my tantrum. Perhaps I’d gone a bit far, but I thought Carl’s slimy scheme had called for it.
I forced my smile to remain on my face and tried to switch from angry crazy person to gracious hostess, “Anyone else hungry? I’m starving,” and I led them all into the kitchen and started to cook breakfast without waiting for a reply.
It turned out Jorl and Elira were somewhat important in Knomen society and I learned a few things. Facilitators were not only ambassadors, and around to help other societies join the empire. They were also judges of a sort, and in many ways spoke with the Emperor’s voice. It made me regret cursing him out, I should have just tossed him out on his ear, but politely.
Jorl and Elira were not facilitators, they were more… agents that looked into other civilizations that were on the verge of FTL, and in some cases even sooner to evaluate how violent a society a planet had. It seemed Knomen tradition was that children followed in the parents’ footsteps, kind of born into their jobs. If I left and went with them, I would no doubt be educated and trained to integrate into other societies as an agent.
Agents were well respected and paid well in Knomen society, but weren’t nearly as important as the facilitators who were their bosses. They also had no say in rules or laws. The Knomen were very class conscious as well, it was an empire in every sense of the word. Of course, it was a very modern empire, there were no starving peasants, even the lowest Knomen rank in society had all they could ever want and more, and still had a higher standing than even the highest of another race.
The classes were about social and governmental power, not riches. The Earth was approaching the same kind of state, ever since fabricators were invented, there really weren’t shortages of things. If you wanted to own something, you simply bought the design, and went to a store and had it fabricated. There were still store fronts, people liked to touch and see things in person before they bought, but things didn’t run out.
I knew they could see the distaste in my eyes, and I actually felt a little guilty about that. My grandparents were actually good beings, or at least that’s how they felt to me. They were just stuck in a system that had long since gone rotten. What’s that saying? I didn’t make the world the way it is; I just have to live in it…
The only thing that really bothered me was the way they treated Kristi. They weren’t rude or mean at all, on the contrary, they were exquisitely polite. But then most people that own dogs don’t kick them either. I didn’t even know where to start that argument, or try to explain how wrong it was, they were steeped in their tradition and beliefs.
I liked my grandparents, and I promised I’d visit them sometime on Knomen. I even exchanged quantum connections so we could call each other, but that was my limit. Thanks to their visit, and open honest dialog, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate living on Knomen. I grew up living on Earth, and my freedom to choose my own life was too precious to me to ever give up.
Earth was my home, and humans were my friends, neighbors, and family. Even if some of them tried to kill me over the next few days, which wasn’t a certainty, it wouldn’t change that fact. Either way, by the time my grandparents left at the end of the day I was more sure than ever about my decision to stay.
Chapter 11
The end of the day also brought crowds of people, reporters, and lots of cameras outside my apartment.
“Huh, I’d had the idea of moving to a private island in my head earlier as a joke, perhaps I should reconsider.”
Kristi snickered, “They’ll go away soon.”
I nodded, “Still, I have my dissertation defense next month, and then I’ll be done with school. I’ll need a place to stay since this place is post graduate only. I don’t want to live on an island but… any suggestions?”
Kristi shrugged, “I’m not too far behind you. I don’t have any solid plans, I’d planned to just go home and look for a job, get an apartment once that happened. But… since you suggested us working together, we haven’t really defined that yet. I don’t want to work in isolation on an island either.”
I nodded, “I’d planned on a small company to start with, just doing research. We can hire a few people to run it while we and perhaps a few other hires work on space tech. I was hoping actually you’d help me plan it. Although where just isn’t that important, we could build a research ship and have it in orbit, and still shuttle down to Earth every day. Not that we’re doing that, I was thinking a small building in an office park.”
I rethought that a moment later, “Still, we should have a lab in orbit for the more dangerous experiments, I’d rather not blow up anything important, like Earth. But not as a permanent office.”
She snorted, “Destroying Earth would be something to avoid. Do you care where?”
I shrugged. Maybe it was sad but outside of Kristi I didn’t have all that many friends, most were just acquaintances.
“Let’s do some research, figure out the best place to open our business. Then I can look for a gated community or something remote enough to keep the reporters away.”
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