Alicia Jones 4: Enigma (2 page)

I was back at work, and felt rather uninspired while I
stared at my wall.  I missed the ship, and space, but realized I’d have
been just as bored out there.  I considered the idea of visiting another
alien world, I’d only been to the ground on two others, but honestly the idea
of another vacation sickened me.  Nothing new appealed to me, and I
started to play with ideas about how to apply my current inventions in new
ways.  So far though, I had nothing.

Kristi worked on something too, although she still wouldn’t
tell me what, and I didn’t want to bother her by using her as a
soundboard. 

Al said, “I have new data on the stealth sensor net, it
looks like we found one of the bug worlds.”

Thank god, the boredom was driving me nuts.

“Put up the data Al.”

A plethora of virtual screens popped up with various images
and data points. 

The first image showed a planet, with millions of what
looked like very large swarming insects.  They weren’t though, for one
when I zoomed in they had the wrong amount of legs, ten instead of six. 
Although the front two were more arm like, with clawed appendages instead of
hands.  The heads were bulbous but hard to make out even zoomed in. 
Regardless, I didn’t see anything approximating eyes at all, compound or
otherwise, although the mandibles were a disturbing point of familiarity.

Next to that screen was the planetary data.  It was
very hot, close to a hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit.  The gravity
was point two of earth normal, and the atmosphere was a lot thicker, a hundred
twenty-one point two atmospheres compared to earth’s sea level.  Then
there was the atmosphere itself, no oxygen at all.  It was comprised of
nitrogen, methane, and other trace elements inimical to humanoid life.

The landscape itself was barren and forbidding, and I
wondered what they ate.  Either it was underground, or they subsisted off
the atmosphere itself.  I supposed it was possible, it was quite thick.

The other screens showed the space around the planet
itself.  Large structures were present which the small ships docked
with.  I was reluctant to call it a hive, or colony, but honestly it was
the first thing that came to me when I saw it.  The large structures were packed
with ships, full of them, all three of the structures orbited the planet and
had just over a million ships each.

There were also smaller structures, where it appeared the
bugs were building more ships.  Other screens showed the bugs mining both
asteroids, and one of the gas giants in the system.  They were clearly
overbuilding.  I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, but it was hard
not to.  I imagined, once the bugs built a million or so ships too many,
they would swarm and look for a new home.

As to why, I refused to speculate.  Instinct, holy
mission, who knew?  Outside of the Bugs I mean.  We couldn’t know,
not until after we attacked them and saw how they reacted.  After the look
at the numbers, I knew I wanted a lot more platforms than originally planned
before we attacked.

To be fair, those numbers only accounted for platforms, when
we went after them the Seltan would be sending a whole lot of ships, with
bunches of missiles.  I supposed in my mind I wanted a solution where no
one else got hurt, which wasn’t really very realistic.

I wondered what the world leaders and treaty holders thought
of it, and could imagine the arguments.  I just hoped restraint would win,
we needed to be ready before we tried a probing attack, even a small one. 
At least they’d taken my advice and had sent over a thousand stealth sensor
ships to map the arm next to us as quickly as possible.

Scanning it in detail would take a long time, many years,
but we could see their ships from light years away, just like our ships, so
mapping out their colonies shouldn’t take more than a few months with that many
ships acting like a beacon.

The idea that we had to be ready for a mass counter attack
just in case had given me an idea.  Not for a new line of research, but
for leveraging one I’d already had, and all without violating Earth’s laws by
selling the technical knowledge to our allies.  I started on the design
immediately, I still had a couple of hours before we needed to go meet the
lawyer, which should be enough time to work out a prototype design.  I
found myself smiling for the first time today as I started the project, I
really was a workaholic.

Daniel Schmidt was a corporate lawyer, and a partner at his
own firm in Denver.  Caroline, Kristi, and myself were flying the short
distance in the sports shuttle after a quick lunch. 

Caroline looked a little worried, “What do you think will
happen?”

Kristi shook her head in disgust, “I’m not sure, it seems
like a desperate scare tactic to take us to court.  What they expect to
get out of us I don’t know.  Our product is unique, and better than
theirs, but it isn’t a monopoly, since they will still offer repair
services.  That said, let’s wait to see what Daniel says.”

That was pretty much my thoughts as well, we came down right
outside of Denver a few moments later, and then drove in from there.  It
just didn’t seem like a good idea to fly around in a major city, not until
flying cars were common and new laws were established.  Less than ten
minutes later we pulled up in front of one of the buildings and parked, the
shuttle hovered just a foot over the pavement.

When we got into the building, we had to sign in with
security before going up to the sixteenth floor where the law offices
were.  Security must have called ahead, because Daniel already waited for
us as we got off the elevator.  He shook our hands and welcomed us, and
then escorted us back to a large conference room.

Daniel asked, “Does anyone want a drink or anything before
we get started?”

“No thanks, we just came from lunch.”

Kristi and Caroline shook their heads no, and we all took a
seat.

“So what are we looking at?”

Daniel replied, “New inventions, especially ones that
completely change the business terrain like these new nanites can cause a
little upheaval.  Right now, the lawsuit is a tactic to get you at the
table, and to try and force you to share the new technology.”

Caroline interjected, “So they don’t have a case?”

Daniel waved his hand uncertainly, “Not yet no.  They’d
be kicked out of court.  However, in a couple of years, if this new
technology takes over the landscape as seems likely, they will have a
case.  Especially if they close down all their repair depots, then it
really will be a monopoly and they’ll come at you again.”

I frowned, “So what do you suggest.”

Daniel replied, “That’s up to you, but here are the
options.  We can just fight this, and make it go away.  When it comes
around again in the future, we can try to settle it out of court, but the risk
in waiting is you’ll lose the leverage to force settlement out of court, and
the judge may order a solution that isn’t weighed in your favor at all. 
It’s a gamble.

“Right now you have most of the power, so this second option
might be better in the long run.  You can sit down with them at the table,
and work something out now.  License the tech itself so they can form a
company competitive to yours, yet they’d still owe you royalties for each one
they make as well as a large yearly fee for the rights to make it.”

I frowned in thought, “What if we take the middle
road.  Offer it exclusively first, so we’re seen as a competitor when we
go to the table.  If we license it right off, they’ll have the advantage
of the customer base.  People think fabricators when a repair comes up, so
they’ll go to those places first even if we have an alternative.”

I was also thinking it would give us time to get contracts
with the car companies to offer the nanites as an extra.  I felt like I
was being greedy, but honestly I was just looking out for Caroline.  Not
that she wouldn’t become a multi-millionaire at the very least, no matter what
path we took.

Kristi shrugged, “It’s also a limited market.  Once the
initial rush is finished, new nanite packages will only be sold when new
buildings and houses are built, not to even mention space ships and cars. 
Waiting like Alicia said, seems like the smartest business decision.  The
only question is, for how long?”

Caroline interjected, “How about a couple of months?”

“I can agree with that.”

Kristi nodded.

Daniel replied, “Alright, I’ll respond to this and do my
best to make it go away for now.  If they’re smart they’ll cancel, but
just don’t miss the court date if they do go forward.”

We all smiled at that.  Not a chance.

“Kristi, you got a minute?” I asked through the intercom
between our offices.

A couple of days had passed, and I had my prototype ready to
launch from our battle cruiser lab ship, which still hung way out in the void
above the galaxy.  A view of it was on my wall screen.

Kristi walked in, “What is that?”

It was about the height and width of a shuttle, but twice as
long.  I’d needed the extra space.

I smiled up at her and said in my best cheesy announcer’s
voice, “That, is the first ever intergalactic wormhole taxi.”

She giggled, “What is an intergalactic wormhole taxi for?”

“Well, it occurred to me that when we attack the bugs, if we
need to run, they might follow us.  We needed a way to both have all the
other races get somewhere fast, and at the same time not give up our dark
matter reactor or wormhole technology to them.  I figure we should make
about fifty of them, which with our two ships, will take about fifty days at
two days a piece.”

She frowned, “So it’s to move military strength around
quickly?”

I nodded, and then shook my head, “That’s why I originally
thought of it yes, it’s fully automated by A.I., and to get it started I just
need to send out a message with the quantum frequency.  But it’s also more
than that, I can’t keep throwing my money at the galaxy’s problems.  Well
I can, but I shouldn’t have to, so it’s also a business.”

Kristi tilted her head, “A business?”

“Yup.  Military requests will take precedence, if, and
only if, it’s a treaty common defense measure, will it be free.  The ship
will wormhole to the requestor, and then open a wormhole to the requested
coordinates.”

Kristi finally didn’t echo me, “Oh, and if it’s not a common
defense issue, you’ll charge them?”

I nodded, “Exactly, and not just military.  Earth will
eventually have civilian vessels moving about, and they won’t have wormhole
drives.  Plus, all the other worlds will want that convenience when
trading and even just visiting to initiate trade.  That’s where the taxi
part comes in.”

She frowned, “And people will pay for that, instead of just moving
at FTL?”

“Of course.  People are always in a hurry, and most
ships out there can’t even go as fast as we can.  If they can cut days off
their journey for a few credits, or a little gold, then they’ll do it. 
For the same reason on Earth people deal with airports and planes, instead of
driving everywhere.  People will always pay more to go faster.”

Kristi bit her bottom lip, “You’re right, people will pay
money for it.  Fifty ships?”

“I figured that was a good start, we can always make more if
we need to.  Still, with wormholes it will only take a few minutes with
each customer, it won’t take long to simply open a wormhole and send them
through.  Originally I was thinking about stationary ones right outside of
occupied solar systems, but then we’d have to get their government’s approval
for a permanent installation and all that.  I figured this would just be
another ship.”

Kristi grinned, “Plus it’s more secure this way, less chance
someone could pirate the tech if it’s on the move.”

I nodded, “There are no weapons on it at all, but it has
triple shielding, and of course the more powerful ones with the dark energy
reactor.  That little ship could probably power the planet.  Either
way, it shouldn’t have trouble escaping an attacker, or in a worst case
scenario, blowing itself up by dropping the singularity.”

Kristi smiled and then teased, “I like it, but I’m still not
telling you what I’m working on.”

I pouted, but it had no effect at all.

“Al, go ahead and launch, calibrate, and test please. 
If it checks out start building out forty-nine more.”

Al replied from the room speakers, “Acknowledged.  A
General Denton is here to see you.”

Kristi and I exchanged looks, what was he doing here?

I told Al, “Have Karen escort him to my office please.”

Al replied again from the room speakers, “He’s on his way.”

Kristi asked, “Think he needs us to bail him out again?”

I had a really bad feeling, and shook my head in denial,
though I couldn’t say what I was denying.  When he entered my doorway a
few moments later and wore a grim face, I felt the urge to run, to escape. 
Maybe it wouldn’t be true if he never said it, if I didn’t hear it.  The
last thing I wanted to hear, was what he had come to say.  Sometimes soul
reading sucked, and this was one of those times.

General Denton said in a sober voice, “I’m sorry Alicia. 
It’s not our policy to notify girlfriends, just family.  But,” he took a
deep breath and his jaw stiffened, “I thought I owed it to you to come here
personally, as a friend.  We all owe you, and this news… I’m sorry. 
Nathan was killed in action…”

The general continued to speak, but I didn’t hear him, I
couldn’t
hear him.  I was actually deaf.  I’d turned off my own hearing, a
denial of the reality that I couldn’t possibly escape, and my eyes were getting
blurred with unshed tears as the pain gathered and rose up in my chest. 

It was so hard to breath, and I barely took notice when
Kristi took his arm, and walked him out of the room right before the dam of
pain in my chest burst into a heart wrenching sob, and my tears finally
fell.  I tried to smother it, tried to control it, as I’d controlled my
emotions a million times before, but this feeling wouldn’t yield to my
will.  It was too raw, and too powerful.

Kristi came back a few moments later and shut my door,
before she hugged me.  At first I wasn’t happy with that at all, but I
finally collapsed against her.  I felt like a child as I wept in my best
friend’s arms.  I’d never felt pain like that before, and until that
moment I hadn’t known just how much I’d loved Nathan, how much I’d expected him
to always be around, and that I’d always believed we’d wind up together once
his service was done…

The next week was a blur of misery, and of shock.  I
went back and forth between devastation, and an empty feeling that was even
more frightening than the pain, as if all the color in the world had been
washed out, and I simply existed in a bubble, completely disconnected from
everyone around me.  Kristi was being patient with me, but it was apparent
that I was spiraling and helpless to stop it.  I think a part of me made
me feel that way, as if I somehow deserved it and meted out my own punishment.

I missed him.

I’d only taken a single day off, for the funeral. 
Otherwise I was at work.  I just couldn’t stay home and stare at the
walls, or the mountains.  All it did was remind me that he couldn’t share
it with me anymore.  Plus, I needed to keep busy.  So I worked, it
was what I did.  There were some serious changes that week, but I barely
kept up with them.

Not that it mattered, the world kept moving on whether I liked
it, or not.

I knew the basics though.  Al had made sure of that.  Fourteen
of the twenty-seven races that were holdouts had joined the treaty eagerly
after the information was released, and everyone saw the Bug world for the
first time.  I had to admit, there was a certain… distaste, for the Bug
race.  They were truly alien, and incomprehensible.  Fortunately,
understanding wouldn’t be needed to stop them.

That left thirteen hold outs, or actually just ten. 
Three of the thirteen that still weren’t a part of the treaty were the three
races that had attacked the Knomen.  They all changed their tune and had
wanted to join as well, but per the treaty they couldn’t apply for fifty years
after their actions in attacking a neighbor.  Even if that neighbor had
been the Knomen.

So out of fifty-two known interstellar capable worlds,
including Earth and the Seltan, the treaty was now thirty-nine strong.  I hadn’t
counted that FTL race out toward the galactic rim either, they still hadn’t
responded to our probe except to examine it.  At least they hadn’t
destroyed it outright, which was a good sign.

The thirty-nine worlds however, hardly agreed about what
should be done.  Some thought we shouldn’t risk attacking at all, and should
focus on just building up better defenses for the next nine years.  They
argued that all together, they could put the Seltan only efforts to shame and
simply kill the waves.  They argued that besides that, hadn’t the anti-FTL
missiles destroyed them easily without loss of life?  Why push it?

The other worlds, mostly championed by the Seltan force
leader Dral, were of the opinion that was abject cowardice, and that they
needed to end the threat at all costs by rooting them out and destroying them
where they lived.

I wasn’t sure where I stood in that argument exactly, but
the idea of genocide didn’t appeal to me at all.  Either way, I felt kind
of useless.  Informed, but ultimately powerless to help chart a
course.  The council had sold me out, America had waved its wealth and bought
a colony world, and had shuffled me to the side for the ambition of the Russian
government as part of the price.

Sergei, who I had thought to be a friend, had apparently
just been handling me as a superior officer.  Our latest communications
had been almost hostile.  Apparently he was very good at controlling his
emotions, because soul reader or not, I hadn’t picked up on it at all when he
was my subordinate. 

The only person I had any pull with was Vice Admiral Anthony
Flores, who still seemed to value my opinion.  I hardly even knew Kara
Barnes.  I’d seen her on reports of course, but had never met her as the upper
admirals interfaced through the vice admirals.

Point was, I was out of the loop now, and I missed Nathan so
much that it was hard to care.  Even work, I kept busy, but I hadn’t been
searching for a new technology or theory.  I’d just been… marking
time.  I was twenty-four years old, and felt like my life was over. 
I’d have to admit to self-pity if asked, but I really didn’t care.  Perhaps
apathy should be added to the list as well.

Oh, and a dash of bitterness maybe?

Al interrupted my pity party of one, “Nadia is calling.”

I frowned, I wasn’t in the mood for a night out.

“Answer it,” I mumbled unconvincingly, and then said,
“Nadia, what can I do for you?”

Nadia replied, “I was sorry to hear about your loss, are you
okay?”

I really started to hate that question.  Of course I
wasn’t okay, yet people kept asking me that same stupid question.

“Hanging in there,” by a thread maybe, “What’s up?”

Nadia said, “Could you come by the offices?”

I groaned, on the inside, “Why?”

Nadia paused for a minute, and then said, “It’s top secret,
and involves a video I’d like you to see.  I know the council and you
didn’t part on the best terms but…”

“Nadia,” I interrupted, “When do you want me there?”

Nadia cleared her throat, “Tomorrow morning, at eight.”

Crap, she did know that was the crack of dawn in Colorado
didn’t she?  I needed to pull it together, and stop snapping at my
friends.  I didn’t overly care right now, but I knew I eventually would.

“Sounds good, should I bring Kristi?”

She replied evenly, “Yes, that’s probably a good idea.”

“See you then.”

She said goodbye and hung up.  I wondered what they
wanted now, and for me to be interested in something since Nathan died, was a
kind of progress.