Alicia Jones 4: Enigma
Read Alicia Jones 4: Enigma Online
Authors: D. L. Harrison
Enigma
An Alicia Jones novel 04
Author: D. L. Harrison
Copyright
2016. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and
incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living
or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of
this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
permission.
I wasn’t much for the spotlight, which is why I was
seriously having second thoughts about this entrance. Kristi had
convinced me earlier it was a good idea, and now as I hung above the rafters
looking down at the Vegas crowd in blue, I knew I was stuck with it.
It was about a week after we got home from handling the
waves of bug ships… I really did wish I had a name for their race. Bug
was a misnomer that had been applied simply because they swarmed in small
ships, and wasn’t really very accurate. I had the platforms building, but
it would be a few months before we had enough to do anything anyway.
Regardless, while the governments that were part of the treaty
argued what to do about the bugs, I’d been contacted by the hosts of the
chief’s conference in Vegas. They’d invited me to give a talk and a show
of sorts using one of my inventions. After seeing the press reports of
what I’d done that evening in New York, it had become apparent to many the
gravity ball, which I still needed to come up with a better name for, was not
being used to its full potential.
The Chief’s conference was basically a gathering where
police and fire chiefs got to see what was up and coming in the world of law
enforcement, search and rescue, and the latest firefighting techniques.
Of course, it was also a chance for them to cut loose on a little mini-vacation.
The announcer down on the stage started to introduce me and
my product, and I gave Al the command to slowly lower me to the stage, while I
tried to smile and pretend this was a clever entrance and not the oldest Vegas
cliché ever. Granted, no wires, but still. Because of this, I
obviously couldn’t wear a dress, so I had on a pair of black woman’s slacks,
and a black fitted blazer that accentuated my figure, with a white strapless
shirt under it, and a nice pair of sandals.
I so needed to get revenge on my best friend.
But then, the crowd seemed to love it, and the large conference
center burst into noise and applause. I had to exert control over my body
to prevent a blush. Oh yeah, definitely needed to get revenge.
When I landed on the stage, ten gravity balls dropped from
the ceiling as well, and hung above the crowd. Half of them were blinking red,
and the other half blue. The atmosphere raised up another notch, and I
had to wait quite a while before the audience lost steam and sat down.
Al was already plugged into the audio and visual
accommodations on stage, so I got started with my presentation.
“Good afternoon, I’m Alicia Jones,” I had to stop there,
because they all cheered me again, if possible in an even louder cheer. I
smiled the best I could, going for graceful acceptance but I doubted I hit the
mark, all while I internally vowed Kristi would pay. I really didn’t do
well with my celebrity, mostly because I never knew what to do with it.
Wasn’t saving Earth old news by now?
In my opinion, the people out in the audience were real
heroes, putting their lives on the line on a daily basis. When things
finally settled down I was finally able to really start the presentation.
“Some of you may have seen what I did in New York, which was
only the smallest of things possible with the new gravity ball. I’d like
to show you some diverse examples of what can be done with it, although it will
be far from exhaustive. At the end of the show, I’ll also show you what’s
coming very soon.”
I stepped slightly to the side, and the lights dimmed as the
large screen started playing video. It was simulated video, none of this
stuff had actually been done yet to my knowledge.
“As we all know, accidents are rare with A.I. safeguards
even during manual driving, but they still happen due to hazardous road
conditions, or unforeseen random circumstances.”
The screen showed a fairly nasty accident on a highway with
a tractor trailer jackknife, the truck had flipped to its side as well and
wound up blocking the whole road. The cars behind it had several minor
fender benders when traffic on the road came to a standstill.
“I’m sure you’ve all seen something similar. In the
past you could expect it take hours to get the highway back to normal driving
conditions. You’d have to get the emergency vehicles out there, get help
for the truck driver, and clear the trailer off to the side of the road.
Set up detours, put out flares. With the gravity ball, it’s a whole new
game.”
We all watched as the simulated police car showed up, and
the gravity ball flew above the accident.
“Right now, it’s making sure there are pictures to review
later, of the original scene.”
Then it lowered, and the tractor trailer door opened on its
own.
“The policeman is talking to the truck driver now to
determine if there are any injuries. His voice is being relayed through the
gravity ball, and the police officer is also being presented with live video on
his overlay so he can visually verify the scene.”
It went on for a few moments longer, and then the ambulance
showed up a short time later, and once they determined what to do, the driver
was lifted out carefully and delivered to emergency workers.
“And as you’ll see, the longest part of this process is
dealing with the injured.”
I smiled when the whole room drew in a breath as the trailer
and rig were lifted up into the air, righted, and moved to the side of the
road. It wasn’t finished however, the gravity ball then lowered to the
road and cleared all the glass, rubber, and metal that was spread across the
highway, and moved that off to the side as well.
I finished the narration of the first example as the cars
started to drive away, “As you can see, that was quite a bit quicker, and
safer, than in the past.”
There were a few more videos after that. Hostage
situations where the gunmen literally just lost their weapons and then couldn’t
move. Car chases where the fleeing car rose above the ground and just
stopped. The audience all laughed when a kid stuck in a well was pulled
up.
For the firemen it showed people being rescued from windows,
one right after the other instead of waiting for ladders. Hoses sprayed
water into a third floor window, without a fireman or ladder involved.
For search and rescue, a helicopter retrieved people from
the water, without a harness or cable, which cut down on rescue time
tremendously. It then showed someone being lifted from a ravine after
their car had gone off the side, and several more similar examples of how life
had changed.
I said a little enthusiastically, “And here’s a peak at
what’s coming soon, the government has finally released the gravity technology
for more diverse uses, and its coming to you guys first.”
It was just a quick fun video of flying ambulances, police
cars, and all avoiding the snarled traffic below to get to where they needed to
be as quickly as possible. Of course, I wasn’t sure how involved I’d be
in the development of those. I didn’t own a patent for gravity devices,
just the rights to a few designs. I’d contacted some car companies, but
it’s more than possible they’ll create and use their own designs instead of
buying mine.
Kristi smiled at me when I walked off stage, “That was
awesome. They loved it.”
I tried not to smile, remembering my thirst for revenge, but
I failed.
“It did go pretty well, didn’t it?”
Kristi nodded in agreement, “I know you hate it, but we need
to advertise better.”
I shook my head, “It’s not the advertising that bothers me,
it’s you wanting me in the advertising I don’t like.”
Kristi shrugged, “You’re perfect to sell things
though. Sexy alien that saved the world. We can’t pay for better
advertising than that.”
I glared at her witheringly as we walked to the exit, which
I knew was a waste of time, my glares always bounced off my best friend without
impact.
Kristi asked innocently, “So what now, we going to do
anything while we’re here?”
I finally gave up my glare and smiled, “I suppose we could
see a show, or go dancing tonight.”
Things were pretty in the air right now. I hadn’t been
back up in space since we got back, and we’d decided to take a vacation.
We had a few months until the platforms were ready, and on top of that we still
didn’t know what the governments would decide to do in the end. Though
the Seltan wanted to go now, everyone else wanted to wait a while, at least
until we’d taken a peek at what we would face when we got there. The
stealth sensor net was being quickly deployed in that arm of the galaxy.
Quick in comparison to the Orion arm anyway.
Point was, I was between projects, wasn’t in charge of the
fleet anymore, and the scientists in my company had their own ambition and
drive, so I was hardly needed there either. I was sure something would
come up, eventually, but things right now were rather quiet.
Kristi asked curiously, “No gambling?
I smirked, for once happy about the attention I got, “Nope,
apparently my fame worked against me there. As a soul reader I’ve been
banned from gambling in all the casinos. Except the slot machines, which
isn’t appealing to me.”
Kristi giggled, “Well, it’s not like you need to strike it
rich in Vegas, but they do have a point.”
We didn’t get a room, but we did wind up staying the rest of
the day, and I had to go shopping in one of the casino’s boutiques for a dress
to wear that night, I wasn’t going dancing in a woman’s suit.
We had a great time, and wound up going to a comedy show,
followed by some late night dancing before heading back to the house in
Colorado. As far as my revenge, it would have to wait because nothing
came to mind. Kristi was just too confident and outgoing to embarrass
like me, and I wasn’t mean enough to figure something else out…
Over the next week we spent time at home, sometimes I was
alone when Kristi went out with Joe. Outside of a few phone calls, I
hadn’t spent any time with Nathan, which I wasn’t happy about. Although I
understood. We went to several places to do the tourist thing, and even
met up with Nadia, Senna, and Nora a couple of times for some nights out in New
York, and we made a visit to a tropical island that didn’t mind me flying in on
my own.
Most countries could be amazingly narrow minded about
skipping customs.
I
did
have fun, but the truth was that a large part
of me started to get bored out of my mind. Vacations were great, but they
got old surprisingly fast for me since I was a bit of a workaholic. I had
enough money where I could not do anything but have fun the rest of my life,
but the truth was that sounded torturous to me. I could only spend so
much time in a hot tub, or going out dancing, before the itch to get back to
something real prodded me to be productive.
Still, nothing specific pulled at me. I wanted to
work, do research, but so far I had no idea what would come next.
When my vacation did finally end, it was for a reason I
didn’t see coming.
Al spoke in my ear, “You have been served legal papers.
Along with Kristi and Caroline.”
I frowned, “Summarize.”
Al replied, “The new nanites for maintenance and
repair. Apparently someone believes you marketing them on your own
comprises a monopoly. I believe this is an attempt to force you to sell
the rights to fabricate and sell the nanites to other companies.”
“Yeah, that’s likely, the most likely culprit is the
fabricator companies. A big part of fabricator income comes from reprints
or repairs and maintenance on things. They’re probably worried we’ll be
taking a large piece of their income, if not putting many of them out of
business.”
Al said, “True, but it won’t be a monopoly until they go out
of business. Just an alternative to the current status quo.”
I almost laughed at his unsolicited legal opinion.
Something that had been happening more and more as time went on with the new
A.I. platform. Al was right of course, but sometimes lawsuits didn’t have
to be right to be effective. If nothing else, it would delay marketing
until the matter was settled.
Truthfully, I also wasn’t greedy enough to put a bunch of
people out of business, riches had never been my goal, nor what drove me to
create. Still, progress needed to go forward, change was a part of
life. Maybe I could sell the rights for others to be able to fabricate
the nanites as well?
Of course, it wasn’t just my decision, Caroline had a stake
in the decision as inventor and part owner, and she wasn’t rich yet at
all. I also wasn’t thrilled with the idea of being pressured to license
to someone else for production, not when we could do it ourselves. As far
as I was aware, they’d never even approached us to ask first. In the end,
my responsibility was to Caroline who I’d promised the best deal I could give
her, and to the end consumer.
Either way, most of those fabricator repair depots would go
out of business anyway, leaving only enough to cover the need for new item
builds.
Although it was true that I had my own fabricators, that was
only after my first invention of the FTL drive, and being rich enough.
Most people didn’t own a fabricator themselves, and the few that did had very
small ones, only capable of making things like clothing, and other small
household items. Even they had to pay a small reprint fee if something got
broken.
For most though, they had to go to fabrication companies for
repair or refabricating.
Generally, when something was bought, the cost to the
creator of the design was one time only fee, but added to that was a small
fabricating fee for using the technology in addition to the raw
materials. It was that small fee which was additional income for the
fabrication companies if a shirt had to be reprinted because of damage, or the
toaster oven needed to be repaired. With the new nanites, that secondary fee
would be a thing of the past.
Instead it would be another one-time flat fee to buy the
nanites themselves, albeit a much larger cost initially, it would pay for
itself in a very short time. Once the nanites were purchased, all the
designs a person owned were automatically uploaded to the nanites control and
power station, which would then send the nanites out to constantly maintain
those clothes, household devices, furniture, and the house itself. Or a
vehicle which would be a separate purchase.
All of which added up to the fact that it was time to call
my lawyer.
“Al, call Daniel Schmidt and forward the papers, see when
he’s available for a consultation. Also, let Caroline and Kristi know
what I’m doing, and notify them as well when you have an appointment time.”
Al replied through the implant in my ear, “Will do.”