Astra Pt. 02

James Senior, the President and grandfather 6 times removed looked at Jack. He saw Francine on his arm, "Don't tell me you're taking her away?"

Jack could see her future husband, James, getting a little bit jealous. Jack smiled, "Only if you fail to see the talented lady she is."

James Senior nodded, "We know she has the talent it's just finding a position for her."

Jack smiled and looked around. "Astra clear this office of listening devices."

They heard pops and snaps from around the room. Astra laughed, "I don't know who wasn't trying to listen in. They had 18 devices and 2 pen cameras ready for recycling."

Jack smiled, "Thanks, Astra. Gentleman, we were talking about this lady's future. I know she is a talent that helped to keep your business going even when GS was pressing down hardest on this company's neck in the years to come, from my timeline."

He unhooked her arm and walked over toward a window. "Earlier today I was shot, some of the bullets they used were toxic. My body handled that. One of the shooters was my great grandfather 6 times removed on my father's side. He had an association with the Admiral I brought down, Admiral Archer."

The owner looked at Jack, "Your own family, unknowingly tried to kill you?"

Jack nodded, "I did not shoot I was shot multiple times but that was why I had on body armor. You take out a lot of big and powerful people and they tend to strike back. I stopped in to get a tour with this lovely lady and your son."

The owner looked at Jack, "Why those 2?"

Jack smiled, "My 5th-generation grandparents on my mother's side."

Francine looked shocked, "You're my grandson?!"

Jack nodded, "I studied a lot of your work for this company. I took the last engine designs you worked upon and completely re-engineered them. No schematic in Astra's database matches it. I figured you and your future husband would be a good choice to talk with after today.

James seems to have a hard time realizing being a pain in the ass to a lady is the wrong way to win her heart. It took him longer in the previous timeline. You were and I hope you keep it, scheduled to marry in 1-2 years. I got to keep some surprises. I don't do this lightly because of the timeline discussion I had. If you want the date James, then ask Astra to preserve the timeline."

Francine nodded, "Thank you for letting me know. I think those 2 are still in shock."

Jack looked at James, "I saw the look of jealousy in your eyes when I walked in here with Francine on my arm. Don't even try and deny it."

James looked at Francine, "I suppose we should get to know each other better over dinner."

Francine laughed, "Not the way I saw this day going."

Jack smiled, "Just helping with the ole boys club. I would have her start out looking at quality assurance issues with failed parts and see if there is a trend with any of your manufacturers or suppliers. For your existing engines. You will want to get a good grip on your suppliers when the new engine designs land on your desk. With a price of course."

Senior looked at Jack, "That was why you did what you did to GS?"

Jack smiled, "It was a contributing factor. Everything I said was true. They held humanity back and stifled creative minds. Buying new technology rights, then they never saw the light of day. What they would have done with my power cores. It went against their business model of blow the components and sell replacement parts."

James nodded, "It was best for humanity, to take them out of the equation."

Jack smiled, "Which is why you are only getting engine and power cores designs from me. I will do the heat sink and relays with another or make them non-exclusive to a few including you. Shields and tractor beams with another. You get the idea. I don't want one player. I want to see innovation and creativity. If I don't the next completely different design could be in a competitor's hands.

That is why you want Francine to look over those designs when they hit your desk. Francine deserves a seat at the table with the big boys. You are a hell of a businessman. You both are. She is a hard-core Engineer. You need that sooner rather than later. You need more of that to go with the hard business decisions."

James Senior nodded, "Getting schooled by my grandson generations removed. I got to say that was a surprise."

Jack nodded, "It needs to remain that way with those in this room. I have many enemies. They might try and kill one of you just to test time paradoxes; prevent me from being born or not. That is also why I do not fire at random; I avoid the fights unless cornered. Then I have to take my chances."

They all nodded and James sighed, "That was why you killed all the bugs."

Jack shook his head, "Astra sweep the entire facility for bugs and then their homes as well. Shall we go? She will give me numbers when she is finished, or better yet send you a message with concerns, types, locations, and a list of ways to avoid it in the future. Did you want to get a local news crew? Let them know the President of the company is doing a walk-through of the facilities with some important people. He was inviting one and only one news crew for the exclusive."

Francine walked up and kissed Jack's cheek. He looked at them, "We can wait for her outside. I want to change parking spots."

Senior laughed, "She stuck her head in and said someone parked in a VP's spot."

Jack nodded, "My spot wasn't open."

James Senior laughed, "We don't have a designated spot for non-employees."

Jack smiled, "Wait here I will move my shuttle." He got in and fired up the systems. He closed the doors and took it straight up and then spun it a few times and pointed the shuttle nose down. He hit the tractor beam and reversed the engines. He picked up the President's shuttle and moved it into the VP's spot and then landed in the President's slot. He got out, "Much better."

Senior looked at Jack, "That is the tractor beam you were talking about."

Jack nodded, "Figured you would want to see it in person. Besides I got a better parking spot."

James laughed at Jack and then the father, James Senior, followed suit. Francine showed up and they started walking when the local news crew showed up.

The reporter was shocked, "It's him. He's alright! The news has been saying you got shot and potentially killed."

Jack nodded, "I bet they would say that. Being a hybrid, I am fairly resilient."

She nodded, "Can we talk while we walk? I mean can I get an interview with you as we go?"

Jack smiled, "Sure, fire away. Not with a gun."

James Senior started showing where they were retooling for the power cores they got the designs for.

The reporter asked, "What brings you here, to Treven Engines today?"

Jack smiled, "I gave them exclusive rights to build the power cores. I wanted to see how the ramp-up was going. With the military contract, I want to see those in the battleships sooner rather than later. With the hostile takeover of GS going on. I will be leaving orbit in the next 48 hours as the last of our supplies come aboard. Then I will be out of touch for a month, maybe longer doing engine testing."

She smiled, "The two ladies are your wives?"

Jack smiled, "Sprits and Ash are 2 of my wives. Sprits was the first to agree to marry me and was the first to follow through. Ash was the second to marry me. She was on the stage earlier as she finished her transition into a hybrid. Then, Aiko, and I married later. We did our vows in Japanese. I speak that and mandarin.

The Beijing dialect of course because of the business connections. Like the medical device that will be built by Trikora Manufacturing in China. I spoke with Jen Bo and his board of directors about the device. As soon as I get with my business manager and get all the paperwork together. Then signed with them."

James Senior pointed out where they were ramping up for the military ships coming in. The reporter asked, "You mentioned being a Chief Engineer aboard a military vessel when you got grabbed. What kind of vessel and what was the name?"

Jack looked at her, "It was a destroyer class vessel like the ones being used to open routes through the outer belt. The name, well that is classified. The reason being is someone might try and kill me in this timeline when I am vulnerable. All personal information about my name and background are classified."

She looked at Jack, "Who wants to kill you?"

Jack chuckled, "Members of Congress, GS employees and investors, and of course Admiral Archer that is on the loose. I am putting up a reward of 100 million TCs to the person or persons that provide the tips to local law enforcement that brings the Admiral to justice. Captured dead or alive. But by law enforcement. I don't want any big game hunters trying their hand at shooting him. I would prefer alive but he might fight to the end. Right now, he is being a coward hiding in a hole.

That is one thing that is backward with the military. This is just an opinion. The highest-ranking member of the branch should be out there as the hard charger leading the troops. Not behind a desk to play politician. That is how you get personnel promoted one pay grade higher than they can handle. Admiral Nathan Archer is a classic example of that. He should have retired years ago as soon as he realized he was not looking after the men and women but his bank account and his life after the military."

She was shocked Jack was saying so much on this trip, "You have been very tight-lipped on your actives and today you blew it open? Why now?"

Jack laughed, "Why not? No, the answer is we found so many things about what changes were going to happen for the mothers and how that will impact humanity. I have a heart rate of 30. It sometimes goes up to 32. The reason is I have 2 hearts as a hybrid and they beat in sync.

The children of these mothers who used my sperm will be in a doctor's office in 2 months and the doctor tells her the baby is in trouble because the heart rate is half of normal. They see two hearts and the doctor tries getting the mother to abort the child due to a birth defect. The mothers deserved to know. When we found out the potential impacts, I visited President Grendal. He brought in Dr. Carol Druthers in Xenobiology. She looked over our findings.

When the two of us hit it off she agreed to become one of my wives. We seriously hit it off because she is carrying 7 children. But those children also saved her life because they destroyed her breast cancer. We showed what her blood did today to 21 terminally ill patients over 3 hours. It would have been a panic. Now it is a shock but they know what to expect."

They finished the tour and Jack looked at the reporter, "Be sure to get that on the air as soon as you can. You got an exclusive interview of my walkthrough of the production facilities here."

She nodded, "Thank you very much. Your right we should get going."

They got into the hover news van and took off like there were on their way to a fire.

Jack shook hands with everyone and Francine kissed his cheek again, then whispered in his ear, "Thank you, now I know the reason you are so wonderful was because of me."

He kissed her cheek, "You inspired me to become an Engineer. Part of what I do is because of you directly. You have a brilliant mind on top of a gorgeous body."

Francine smiled brightly as she walked away. They boarded the craft and he did a sensor sweep of the craft inside and out. He looked at the other two. "Any shuttles from now on that we use we will do a sensor sweep on them before going anywhere. For the ravager and smaller shuttles, then call Astra and she can sweep for explosives." They nodded.

They got the ship off the ground when he got a missile alert and activated the shields quickly. It blasted the shields but only took it down 25%. He checked to see that nobody on the ground was hurt. He went hunting following the trail of the missile to a parking garage. A hover van had sped away.

Jack smiled, " I got the stick. Time to do some flying."

Jack went after the hover van and flew inside the garage and sped after them. He waited for them to crash through the ticket booth and he angled the ship over the guardhouse and then rammed the van in the back corner with the shields and sent it tumbling. Ash jumped out with her sword while Jack watched from above.

One of the men appeared out of a side window. Ash got him. Two others tried to rush out the back and he rammed them again. That sent the vehicle another 5 meters down the street. The police arrived and Ash explained who was at the controls, what these men did, and turned the one over. Jack backed up another 30 meters from the van to let the cops open the doors.

A cop nearly lost his head and got knocked to the ground as the next missile launched. Jack took it straight to full speed in a climb away from the van, "Astra contact Ash. Let her know I am just going for a swim and will be right back."

Astra laughed, "Done."

The missile did not gain. He took it out over open water spun around and blasted it with a full energy spread and blew it to pieces. He went back to the scene where the 3 men were located and he landed on the top of the parking garage where a police officer yelled in Japanese, "I don't care who you are! You cannot just have an armed shuttlecraft, fly it through a parking garage, and rear-end a hover van."

Jack looked at the man, "I am Jack Travus I have a Presidential order authorizing my research vessels, this is one I test equipment upon, to be armed. As to flying through the parking garage, I did not shoot up the place. Hit a single vehicle or object and I only fired my weapons at the missile that about ripped your head off. Name one law I broke?"

He looked at Jack, "You caused a traffic accident."

Jack laughed, "You did not keep men off the road with missile launchers. I know how to settle this."

He pulled out his holovid and hit the connection for the Capitol.

The operator smiled, "One moment."

Then the cop was face-to-face with President Grendal. "Mr. President. I have had 2 assassination attempts today. This last one was with a rocket launcher against my shuttle." He proceeded to recount all of the events and why the cop was mad.

President Grendal shook his head, "Sounds like you have had as bad a day as me. Officer, he is free to go. Prosecute the terrorists. Pass that along to your local magistrates from me. These kinds of attacks need to stop. Jack, I need to speak with you in private."

Jack looked at him, "Are my wives alright?"

He nodded, "They are."

He went back into the shuttle with the ladies, "Ash take the stick, Mr. President you have my attention."

He nodded, "You and your team did a great job of explaining what was going on and confirming that we are not alone in the universe. There were some distraught couples but not many. Your stunt with those terminally ill patients was a brilliant move. The switchboards have been on fire wanting to know when it will be available for mass production."

Jack shook his head, "You have 18 formerly terminally ill adult patients who have that in their system. If each one did another 21 and continued it. It will be spread far and wide. All you have to do is get a litter of blood from each patient and distribute them around the globe.

Your Surgeon General should be able to take on the rest of this. It does not have to all come from Doctor Druthers. We used hers because she had the highest percentage in a non-hybrid. You should be able to cover the globe in a couple of months if you directed it."

He looked at Jack, "This is a permanent change to these people?'

Jack nodded, "Yes. The Alien DNA affixes to the bone marrow, we are still confirming that. Astra, can you connect with Dr. Druthers?"

She smiled, "Connected."

President Grendal looked at Jack, "How did you do that to a secure call?"

Jack smiled "A 30th-century android did it and security of this era is a joke to her. How we got through on the board meeting call. She could and would have if I refused to cooperate, seized control of all the satellites, and broadcasted my refusal to help mankind. That was her initial secondary protocol until I agreed to help."

President Grendal nodded, "Good to know. Dr. Druthers can you explain how these cells live on in the new host perpetually?"

Carol smiled, "I ran the first part of the bone marrow test and the cells do fundamentally alter your bone marrow. All cells produced by the recipients have these new markers. All of the people that were injected today have that gift to pass on to others. You could get away with a shot of 5 ml instead of the full syringes we used. To get more people quicker. Pass that onto Phil, Mr. President."

President Grendal nodded, "You snatched my best Xenobiologist and give her the best cure to hit humanity. They were less worried about aliens. Happy to see this cure come out of it. We have a few missing congresspeople. The bounty on the Admiral has been lighting up the phone lines."

Jack asked, "You have seized and frozen all of their assets, right? For those on the run?"

He sighed, "Working through the courts. The Bureau is following the money trail where they are liquidating assets. Three that were missing this morning were caught trying to escape in a private shuttle out to the lunar colon by way of Mars.

That was a giveaway. My approval rates are up a couple of points so my people are cautiously optimistic. When are you leaving?"

Jack smiled, "As soon as I am back on board of the Excalibur. I will be within communication range for a few days. We are making a stop at Jupiter before heading to the outer rim corridor. I am not advertising which corridor for obvious reasons."

President Grendal nodded, "Understandable."

Jack sighed, "I will have her put an alert on my account to pass any contact from you straight through. I have almost 800,000 messages to go through."

Carol laughed, "Try 8,000,000 after your interview."

Jack groaned. "Astra, filter all death threats and forward them to the Global Bureau of Investigation. Keep it as a running filter."

Astra laughed, "I have a lot of running filters I will add them to the list."

President Grendal shook his head. "The announcement went better than I expected and you were right it would have been a panic in 2 months. Thank you again."

The President ended the call. They arrived at the ship just as it was leaving the docks. They waited for it to straighten out before docking in the shuttle bay. They were met by all the wives as Grace spoke, "Sarah is piloting the ship. We came to apologize about earlier."

Jack nodded, "We only got shot at by 2 missiles while we were gone. Did you see my latest interview?"

Holly nodded, "Tera Global News wants to know when they will get their next interview?"

Jack smiled, "I got two deals in the works and almost a thousand patents to put in before we leave."

Grace looked at Jack, "I'll set up the account for the reward money and we will sneak you somehow onto a station to file all of those patents."

Jack smiled, "Or I contact Tera-3 patent office and find out if they are ready for a riot or would they like to work like most businesses in this day and age."

Grace looked at Jack and sighed, "Let me see if I can call in a favor from them. Let's go to your office."

Jack nodded, "Good place to bring all the rings so I can put them on the ladies. I assume you all got the same wedding band with the engagement rings?"

Grace smiled, "Yes and those extra rings will be kept safe until the marriages. You got 3 to put both rings on already."

He nodded, "Start with those 3 and the others with you last Grace. I have a few things to talk to you about after the other's head out."

Grace smiled, "That sounded ominous."