Astra Pt. 01

He searched for the Capitol e-mail and pulled up the attached document.

"The death threats are from angry lovers of the women who want to join me. Some are with GS or in the middle of the GS scandal and they want to do me harm. I have effected change though."

Linda got serious, "Why did you save my husband and me? It is just the two of us."

Jack looked at her, "I had a strong feeling that you both would have walked into that prison alone but came out in a box or urn. It might be years from now. But it would have been throwing your lives away. I could not do that when I had the ability and knowledge to help. I cannot help everyone. Check my messages."

Linda laughed and hugged Jack, "Thank you, from both of us."

Jack nodded, "I will never pursue you. You are married. I hope you and your husband do not decide to pursue us. That would get rather awkward. Picking up a second wife for the 2 of you. Someone you might enjoy together is something to consider as we will be away from Tera a lot."

Linda blushed, "He has asked about that but we just got out of debt because of your help."

Jack shook his head, "You find one that would be good for the crew let me know. Don't put your hearts on hold. Start your family. We are."

Linda smiled, "You have money."

Jack nodded, "You live in a life where you do not need it. You want something and you got it. When and if you leave us, you will not leave empty-handed. I cleared the debt of everyone there as you saw. I saw an opportunity for the 2 of you to start over."

Linda nodded, "I will talk with him again when we get back. He had someone in mind. From our home town. She was married and widowed."

Jack finished getting his shirt on, "Contact her. See how she is doing. Tell her where you are working. See what she says."

Linda sighed and smiled as she seemed slightly embarrassed, "She is my older sister."

Jack nodded, "Nothing is stopping him from marrying 2 sisters. If it was his sister, they would have issues because the child conceived in incest chance of birth defects. What you do with your sister is your business as you cannot get each other pregnant. Not all polygamy marriages have the wives entertaining each other either. I have 5 wives lined up with the possibility of more. They all like to play with the ladies. I might need 5 more if I can only get 5 to take care of my needs every other day; just to keep me in check."

Linda chuckled and rubbed his shoulder as she slid into the co-pilot seat. Jack sat there quietly reading through a few of the offers, He intended to let her talk with her sister. Jack sighed, "Astra, can you categorize all these messages. Background all of the ladies offer to join us as outstanding candidates and filter the other into good and then not happening. Also, show a link if a jealous ex or current lover is listing a death threat message. Send replies to the not happening ladies.

Let them know I had close to 2 million messages and they did not make the first round of cuts to be considered. Sincerely apologies. Any replies to those messages filter into the rejected folded and link to the death threat folder if one is included. Do the same for business opportunities and forward those to Grace to look over. As well as all messages dealing will any legal actions. After you have vetted them of course. Another folder for requests for military contracts.

All messages asking for a request for an interview are forwarded to Holly to review. All job applicants vet them against ship positions and give me two folders, one for acceptable and one for the automated 'We regret to inform you' pile. Keeping the marriage requirement in place unless they are a likely wife candidate. Do not forget to filter out any xenophobes or those who are anti-AI."

Astra laughed, "Your messages have been filtered. That was quite a few filters."

Jack looked at the list that was left, still several hundred, and clicked on one at random. It was one of the victim's families from the colony. "Astra put all the victims of the colonies into a subfolder with the lawyer messages. Those may lead to lawsuits."

He looked at the folder list and saw an additional one. "I see you added a 'Hot Damn' folder for the wives' search."

Linda looked over, "Would it be too much trouble to talk with my sister for a moment."

Jack got up and moved behind Linda, "This is my sister Sarah Rivers."

Jack looked at her and smiled, "Hello Sarah. Did you have any questions for me? What kind of work do you do?"

She looked nervous, "I work over at Yetto's Space Frames. I moved here with my husband before he died 3 years ago. He was a test pilot who died on the job. They gave me a job running the cables and wiring inside of their airframes. I am nervous about this sex addiction thing."

Jack chuckled, "I have never raped anyone. When you sign an NDA I can tell you more about how I deal with it. All my crew who are not wives live on a separate deck. Your company makes the military scout."

Sarah nodded, "Also the fighter but they are at another facility. You always seemed nice enough in those interviews. You impressed that reporter."

Jack nodded, "Yes, also her camerawoman. They had gotten together before then. If you want to work for me, I will contact your employer and order one of his Ravager scouts to be delivered. Can you pilot the craft?"

She looked over, "Never in battle but ferrying ships to locations I have done. I have a class 2 license. What are you going to do with it?"

Jack laughed, "Get it into the landing bay and strip it down. Install new engines new power cores and other technology. Then file all the patents after we blow away the crowds with what it can do. Fun things. You will even see how the designs come out and parts are built for those."

Sarah looked at her sister, "When the order comes in, I will tell them I will ferry it out, sister. Who will perform the ceremony?"

Jack looked at her, "I can as a ship's Captain. Goes back to maritime tradition. I will be doing that for the first two wives of my wedding in a couple of days."

Sarah nodded and they ended her call. He went back to the 'hot damn' folder. She even listed them in order. He opened the first message.

No nude photo but she was a pretty and somewhat petite Japanese woman named Aiko Ishiro. She was an Electrical Engineer, just finished college at the age of 24. But she was a 10th dan Iaido and a 7th dan in Kendo. She spent her mandatory 2 years of training teaching hand-to-hand combat. She held several martial arts black belts as well. The woman could handle herself. She listed herself as bisexual, "Astra, tell me about this one. Internally."

Astra responded in his ear, "She has one girl out of wedlock and that girl is a lesbian thus ending her line. No significant impact would be felt by her loss. She ended up teaching martial arts because of the job market looking for experienced workers only."

Jack hit the button to contact her. Her image shows up and her mouth was wide open. "Oh my god. You're him. You read my message?"

Jack nodded, "Any lovers or family I need to concern myself with?"

She shook her head, "No."

Jack smiled, "I liked your essay and I am glad you did not send me a full-frontal nude picture or worse. I prefer to see that in person when the time is right. I have 5 ladies so far who have agreed. If we get along with them and you could be number 6. Your education and martial skills are both impressive and useful. I am not concerned with your lack of experience. I could use a chief of security and your electrical engineering will work well for my research, which will give you job experience and a lot of it.

Training others and helping to set up exercise programs for them would be great as well. Especially with the children coming. I would suspect you would love to spend your 'work hours' in my research lab or on the ship we will be retrofitting. I am looking at getting a Ravager from a production facility not far from you. Would you like to join the person who will be ferrying it to my ship?"

Aiko had a big beaming smile, "I would love to do that."

Jack looked over, "Let me get the arrangements put in place. I will put you in contact with the pilot. She is coming up to get married to one of my other crew as his second wife."

She nodded, "I will wait to be contacted."

Jack looked over, "Not for long. Get your affairs in order."

Aiko nodded and blinked out.

He contacted Yetto's Space Frames, "Hello there, I need to speak with someone in acquisitions. I am looking to buy a fully armed Ravager scout ship. I have heard it is engineered to travel 10 times as fast as any other scout."

She looked at Jack, "Yes that is what the brochure says. I have seen you on the news broadcasts. They won't sell one that is armed to a civilian."

He forwarded the executive order over to her. She read it, "You are using this as your research vessel?"

Jack smiled, "I am using your Air Frames to add my technology to them to get new components tested. So, the ship will have my research on board. It is my testbed. I do all my work in space."

She nodded, "One second."

He was put through to another man a moment later. He smiled, "What you are asking for would cost 153 million TCs. You would be testing your power cores in it?"

Jack smiled, "System engines, FTL drives, weapon systems, heat sinks, and a whole host of other items. I figured having a family on board my ship would not be a great thing to test it on my home first."

The President of the company looked at Jack, "There are no FTL drives on a scout ship. They are too big."

Jack nodded, "What I am building will fit. Then it can be enlarged and reinforced for other spacecraft. I am sending my account number. I accept the price for the ship provided you guarantee that it lives up to its advertisement. Engineered to be 10 times as fast. I will be testing that statement. I would like one delivered tomorrow by Sarah Rivers.

She is an employee of yours who has a sister working on my ship. I have a guest and bride candidate that will come there and catch a ride to my ship at these coordinates. I look forward to testing the claims of your brochure. Can this be done?"

He looked at everything but seemed concerned. In fact, that was a marketing ploy not built into reality. He knew Admiral Stiller would be looking for him and this would provide a means for the Admiral to find him, "Yes, but it will not have a registration or name yet."

Jack nodded, "It will. I can handle that once you send me and my business manager, Grace Winters the bill of sale with the information. Care of the Excalibur."

He nodded, "I am losing an employee then as well?"

Jack nodded, "Great technical advisor who can walk me through all of the systems of your platform. She is looking to get married to one of my crew members, not to me."

He nodded, "Thank you for your business."

He cut it off. The bill-of-sale came in. Jack felt in a playful mood and contact the registration office on Tera-3.

The lady looked at Jack, "Hello again. There is still a crowd waiting for your return."

Jack groaned, "I am calling to get a vessel registered. Now I know you're going to tell me that should be done in person. What kind of headache would that cause right now?"

She laughed, "You got the information, what is the name of this one, Arthur?"

Jack laughed, "No it is Nautilus It is a scout class ship. I figured naming one differently from my theme would help with some anonymity. For a short time anyway. It will likely not last. Sending my account number and a copy of the bill of sale." She looked at him, "This says it is fully armed!"

He forwarded her the executive order, "This is no different than the heavily armed research and construction facilities on Tera. This one is in space. Wait until the next time the Excalibur comes in with its guns."

She sighed, "It should have its classification changed."

Jack chuckled, "It is not a warship and you have no classification that covers armed research vessel. If you want to create one then, Tera Armed Research Vessel or TAR if we keep the same numbers. Shoot a message off to your boss on that one."

She smiled, "Just a moment."

It took almost 30 minutes for her to get back to him, "They liked your idea. Excalibur TAR-1 and your scout will be Nautilus TAR-2. They think others might follow in the future. Sending the revised paperwork on Excalibur and the new paperwork on the scout. They did not charge for the Excalibur change as you gave them the idea."

Jack laughed and they ended the call. He contacted both ladies and sent the ship's name to them and the seller. Jack chuckled while waiting and then got a message from the Federation Senate. He opened it and it was a congressional subpoena to appear tomorrow at the Planetary Senate offices of the Congressional Compound in Geneva Switzerland. They even gave a landing pad number and time of 0900Z. They wanted to talk with him about the Colony and Garadine Systems.

He checked the time because 0900Z was relative to the time the recipient got it and their time zone, so this was 10 AM in Switzerland. Whole 'new world order thing.' The message sent a confirmation of it being opened back automatically and time adjusted it for the recipient to where they were located. Congress ran 24-hours with committees and meetings.

He sighed and typed Astra a message because Linda was present, "This might be a colony debrief and they will ask about getting into contact with alien species. What do we do about the Drakor and Meltora?"

Astra replied through his cranial implant, "Talk with Meltora the discussion should be its choice. They may ask for you to submit to a medical examination. We had not considered this probability. You cannot tell them of the timeline, but you would have to tell them of your status."

Jack sighed and typed, "What of the mechanical implants in me going through security?"

She groaned, "Searching the archives and working to find a doctor to do the examination."

Jack sighed and typed out, "Don't. Talk with Danyelle, and find a xenobiologist that is respected in their field. I want to talk with them after you vet the candidate."

He hit the screen for contacting the President and hit the number, "Operator, you do have a connection code?"

He sent her the previous one.

He looked at her, "I spoke to him using that code earlier and needed a moment of his time for a pressing matter. I just received a Congressional Subpoena."

She looked at Jack, "One moment."

It took 10 minutes before President Grendal arrived, "Jack, I had not heard they sent out a subpoena but I am not surprised."

Jack sighed, "I am but I should not be. There are a couple of questions they are likely to ask that they won't like the answers to. Is there any way I could see you tonight to go over why this is extremely important?"

He looked at Jack, "Could you be more specific?"

Jack looked over, "Linda wait outside a moment. Can you secure this call and clear the room?"

He sat upright and cleared the room and secured the call, "We are alone and secure."

Jack smiled, "Nobody has asked if I had contact with any intelligent alien species. I would need an expert in xenobiology at this meeting."

President Grendal nodded, obviously upset, "Others needed?"

Jack smiled, "Just two of my ladies. One is my business manager and lawyer the other has more information on the same subject."

President Grendal nodded, "Dr. Carrol Druthers is my expert in Xenobiology and is also an MD." Jack muted his connection. He asked as he held out his holo viewer, "Astra any issues with Dr. Carrol Druthers?"

Astra responded, "Good choice."

She said in his head, "You going to tell them about the future?"

Jack sighed, "What does your programming say we should do when this occurs? Your secondary protocol would have seen to it in that announcement. Yet you told me I could not do it and now we have conflicts."

She nodded, "This created a Catch-22 situation. Priority was your semen. That dealt with getting your modified DNA into the population. That will show up on examination as will the devices we implanted. The second was the timeline issue. Based on the priority, that conflicts with item 2. It is incompatible with my programming. Item 2 is no longer a valid command restriction. You could tell them as it is a Catch-22, understand."

Jack looked back at President Grendal, "When would you like to see us?"

He sighed, "Let's do this at midnight. I will clear you for landing here." The President transmitted the information to Jack, "I will see and talk with you then."

The ladies returned a few minutes later and Jack opened the ship. He looked at Grace, "We got problems. I need to marry Ash and Sprits when we get back."

She looked at him, "What happened?"

Jack looked at her, "Congressional subpoena. I got a meeting with the President and a Xenobiologist. Ash will be going with us and you are my lawyer."

Grace growled, "What happened while I was gone?"

He displayed the meeting that occurred with Valery and let them watch, "Watch the whole thing."

It got to her turning him down and the ladies laughed. "I did everything I could to dissuade her. Once she saw it and I told her where it was going, she had second thoughts. Linda got back shortly after that and bride candidate 6 will be arriving tomorrow. Don't piss her off. She is taller than Sprits, but not by much at 159 cm. She can kick the shit out of you."

He showed her the message. Grace went wide-eyed, "She is a fucking killing machine. What is her role?"

Jack pointed at her education, "A security chief and she also has brains to help me in my work as an Electrical Engineer. She will be a trainer to us all, help to oversee fitness programs for everyone on board in addition to the testing and retrofitting of new technology."