Astra Pt. 02

---

Jack made it to his workbench for the first time in days and pulled out the scanner. He drew out the blueprints from it and he looked at the list of materials and one element was missing; even from his time frame. He pulled up the elemental chart and figured out how to manufacture the element.

He started up the particle accelerator and set it to create the missing element and started up the harvester to start gathering it. He then scanned the data on the harvester and the particle reactor. He went through the history of medical firms and those that dealt with the particle reactor on Earth. He found the names of the people he wanted to talk with and called the first one.

A man who looked tired started cursing in French, he assumed because he did not speak the language and he finally was awake enough to see who had called him. "You? I am sorry but it is almost 2 hours before I get up to go to work."

Jack nodded, "On the collider."

Jack threw up a current image of his running for Mr. Bernard who looked shocked, "You have one in your ship?"

Jack nodded, "I have the schematics for a harvester unit that can be attached to the collider. There is only one place on Tera where this can be used unless I gave out the plans for the particle accelerator I have. I know how much trouble that would cause. Yet you are not a production facility for manufacturing new elements. There is one business attempting to do that but I do not like the looks of it. This is what I propose.

I get the plans for the harvester filed and you get one built on the main collider. You prove you can do that, then we issue you a grant to expand your facility; to create 3 or these compacted ones. 1 for medical, 1 for military, and 1 for everything else. I will have given you the formula for an element you need to start building on the big one right away. Once you have the harvester ready to prove capability.

Now priority on those 3 colliders will be determined by the Planetary President's Secretary of Defense, Surgeon General, and a Presidential advisor on Scientific Research for Commercial Application to be named by the President. Can we come to a tentative agreement on this? We can work out the finer details later."

Doctor Bernard looked at him, "The only other choice would be to start a business but as you hold all of the cards on this, I see it would be in our own best interest and that of the world to use this as a framework for that agreement yes. Thank you for calling me at such an ungodly hour. How did you build it?"

Jack smiled, "I did not build it. I will be having a press conference at 0900 local in Dallas, you should watch it and expect a call at your office during it to discuss what we talked about to the world potentially. Otherwise, the press will contact you separately."

He nodded, "Understood, I have advisors, researchers, and so many others to contact before then. Thank you."

Jack ended the call and brought up the contact information for the head of Trikora Manufacturing. He entered the information, trying the work connection as they were located just outside of Hong Kong. The President and CEO Jen Bo. Or to his western friends JB. The call connected and he had a beautiful Chinese woman. He told her in Mandarin, "Would you please inform your boss Jen Bo that Jack Travus wishes a word with him if he has time."

She looked at him, "He is in a board of directors meeting all day."

Jack nodded, "That is good as this is an issue your board would have to decide. It is about blueprints and soon-to-be patents on a medical device I wanted to know if his company would like to build the device."

She held up a finger, "Just one moment."

Two minutes later and he had the board. Jack spoke in Mandarin, "Greeting to you. Thank you for agreeing to speak with me with no appointment."

JB responded, "I did not know you spoke mandarin."

Jack nodded, "Spent some time in my youth in Japan and learned both languages."

JB nodded, "What can we do for you?"

Jack smiled, "What can I do for you. At 0900 local time in Dallas, I will be holding a press conference where I will be demonstrating a device for dermal regeneration and a synthetic skin replacement. The patent paperwork will soon follow. I am looking for a company to build it for the masses."

He nodded, "That would be an unprecedented piece of technology that we would be most interested in submitting a proposal to build."

Jack smiled, "I am not looking to sell it. Any money you would pay me on a per-unit price, which is normally 10%, of manufacturing the device would be put into a fund. The fund is to give, at cost, these units to the poorer community health clinics around the world. Your normal 150% over manufacturing would only be 75%. You would do this as the units require a synthetic element, that I will also patent at the same time. The only one who can make it at the moment is me.

The patent will go to the support contractor for the collider that can build it once they have the harvester in place. There are more patents. They will also be building 3 other smaller colliders to work on manufacturing this and other elements into quantiles available for research and manufacturing. Again, another set of patents. Those colliders will be overseen by the Planetary President's advisors at that time.

I have a press conference at 0900 in Dallas to go over this device if you wish to watch the demonstration. I would like to announce that I am in talks with you to work on the production of the device when we have enough of this element available. Pritorium is the name of the element by the way. Do we have a tentative agreement?"

JB held up a finger and Jack was put on hold. 2 minutes later JB was back, "As I pointed out to some of our reluctant board members if we did not pursue this arrangement you would simply offer the same deal to our competitors. We have a tentative agreement based upon the results of your demonstration."

Jack nodded, "Then we have a deal we can work with. After the successful demonstration, I will let the press know I have a tentative deal with you to manufacture these devices. There will be several biomedical revelations and breakthroughs at this press conference that may have you reprioritizing the things you will be manufacturing and researching. Across the medical industry."

JB nodded, "Thank you for the opportunity."

Jack bowed his head toward him and he ended the call. Jack kicked the fabricators online after collecting enough of the element to create three of the devices. He created them with different colored chassis. A red, blue, and dark purple. He has all three of them assembled and together in just under 4 hours. He tested each one on himself.

He went to his room to shower and was met by Carol while he showered. "I still owed you a second blow job. You have been working all night."

She sucked him in and went to town. Her muscle memory seemed to be working as she got him into her throat again. It was 15 minutes before he unloaded as she had started playing with his balls.

He was so caught up in it he did not warn her and she was covered in cum and laughing. He pointed, to the bedroom, "The ladies will clean you up." He finished a jock clean and then got dressed. He headed to the armory on deck 3 and suited up in the grey urban assault armor. He added a laser pistol, two holsters for his psi swords, and two slots in his belt for his metal swords and scabbards.

He finished getting equipped as Aiko and Danyelle came in and worked to get armored up and armed. Aiko had her katana sheathed across her back for a left-hand draw and a pair of Wakizashi one on either hip for a cross-hand draw. She carried no gun. Danyelle had dual pistols and a scoped laser rifle slung over her back. Both ladies wore helmets and tinted glasses to hide their eyes.

He skipped the helmet but wore the glasses because they looked cool. He grabbed his bag and met Carol, Grace, and Ash. Ash wore a jacket over a barely-there shirt that exposed her back. She had the jacket for the big reveal. They got into the shuttle just as Sarah finished getting everything started.

The bay doors opened and they flew down toward Dallas. Jack left the banter to Sarah with the towers as she headed into Dallas and landed on the roof pad of their convention center. They still had over half an hour as they headed inside and into the briefing area.

Jack saw Holly's editor from Tera Global News as he approached Jack, "My bosses were up in arms about not getting that exclusive."

Jack nodded, "I figured they would be but I had to ensure you did not look like my mouthpiece to do what you are going to do today. I want you to be the moderator. Have all the reports fielding questions sent to their local station. Please have all those sent to this tablet which is connected to my ship.

Astra will put the questions in and the number of requests that each question gets. Then that puts them in order so the questions that they want to be answered the most get answered first. We will work to try and answer all of those questions after we get through the demonstrations we are going to do."

He saw a group of 21 patients being wheeled into the room and onto the stage. 3 of them were accompanied by worried parents. Jack went and talked to the parents. "In my heart and from the testing we have done, this will cure your children. The fact of the matter is the cure is not Terran in origin, it is alien. That is why you need to sign the papers authorizing your children to receive this treatment. We will go over this in the interview.

We want to inject all 21 patients before we start the meeting and let the press talk with them afterward. I would also like each of you to participate in a short demonstration of a medical device. One that can fix cuts and apply synthetic skin over a wound. For what your children will be getting, from this cure, there is no known downside. Other than fame."

The parents signed the forms and asked where they wanted them. Once everyone was in position and 0900 arrived. He had a microphone taken around to the 21 patients and 3 doctors and the hospitals that were contacted. As they finished with each of the patients, Carol injected a syringe of blood into the patient's arm or IV tubes if they had them.

Jack looked across, "The 21 patients here have been given a terminal diagnosis as you have heard. They have agreed, or their parents on their behalf, to get a cure that is not of Terran origin. It is from alien DNA. When I arrived at Jupiter, I underwent a series of surgical procedures that I did not ask for, it was the will of the Tera government, what was left of it. Part of that procedure was replacing the hand I lost to a GS plasma flow relay. I worked as a Chief Engineer for the Tera military.

One lady up here, this happened from the Drakor themselves. They have technology beyond our comprehension. She was injured in space, rescued, and given a choice with her hand over 2 weapons. The weapons were keyed to their personality type. He pointed at Ash who removed her jacket so they could see her back. He called out, "Sword Ash."

She had her sword at the ready. "By looking at it you would think it is a laser sword. It is not. It is a psionic weapon. I had the same thing done to me at the direction of the Tera Government."

He set his swords on a table across the room and walked over to a pad. "This is a generic pad that I have the latest subpoena from Congress threatening my arrest if I do not appear today."

He set it down. He held his hands out to his sides and the swords flew into his hands and he cut through the pad and passed through the table and floor of the stage; only damaging the pad. "Astra, center screen. Please show the pad to the people." It had a giant X carved out of it. He had the ladies walk down to the front and handed the 4 pieces of the pad to the press.

"A psionic sword can pass through, leaving the person or object unharmed and hitting only what the wielder wishes to strike. Now as you see my swords are dark purple. Red and blue swords are normal. My swords merged and I ended up with 2 dark purple blades." He put them away. "The Blue is the protection of the innocence if you will.

Red is the hand of vengeance, going after those who hurt humanity or those who would harm humanity as a whole as they might be human, it has always been that case in the past. The purple blades I carry are the 'Even Hands of Justice.' You will note I have been all about justice for the people. Right now, Astra is sending you all of the footage and images from the colony disaster as recorded 50 years from now.

It includes the video journals outlining all of the charges I made against GS. I was not there. I had not been born yet. Astra, the center screen will give you the rundown of what took place and about my getting here. She will explain what our mission parameters were. Also, what orders and restrictions were in place. The catch-22 that caused us to break with those orders to brief you today.

While she is doing this your stations and every congressperson, Attorney General, Planetary Law Enforcement, and the President is receiving a file that outlines the systemic corruption of Congress. In my history, this brought down congress less than a month from now without my involvement. I have just altered that history by accelerating it to today. Before Astra begins, I asked 3 of the parents to aid us in a demonstration and I would like the 3 doctors to join them.

Now Doctor Carol, Ash, and I are going to place a cut on the hand of each parent. The doctors from the hospitals are going to mend this cut. With one of these. A dermal regenerator. I color-coded them to correspond with the psi sword blade colors. We do not have a blue blade holder at the moment. Typically, only one is active at any time initially. My being thrown back in time altered that."

He handed each doctor one of the devices and they did a 4-inch cut down each parent's hand with separate scalpels. Dr. Carol wiped away the blood so the cameras could see the cuts. The doctors leaned over the patients and started mending the cut.

"Stop for a second and hand the devices to the parents. This is to show that they can be used in a home setting as well for minor cuts."

He walked over to Ash and moved her hair to one side as they finished. He took the original and used it to apply the artificial skin over the section on Ash's back for the doctors to look at.

"This also has the ability to distribute artificial skin to cover burns, which is what is it detecting because of the coloration. When she has finished her transition, her human skin will reappear. That will be before the end of the day."

He pulled off the synthetic skin and walked it down to the press. "This is 28th-century technology that requires an element that we do not have in our solar system. I have the formula for the element and have created it with a particle collider in my research lab; to harvest it. The harvester I have the blueprints for as well as the particle collider I am using. I am in discussions with the people who manage the particle collider here on Earth.

To install a harvester on their system and build 3 of the smaller ones that will produce a wide array of elements in the years to come. These will be overseen by the Presidential Advisors, which I must talk with him about as I just did this a few hours ago. Sorry, Mr. President."

The press laughed. "Now the device, I am in negotiations with Trikora Manufacturing to build those devices. I would like the 3 doctors here to take the one they were using back to their hospital's emergency rooms. A thank you for your hospital's participation in today's activity. Now over to our ship's beautiful Android and the keeper of the archives. The lovely Astra."

He let Astra talk while he walked around and talked with the patients. Helping those with prosthetic limbs to get them off if they wore them in. They already felt the growth happening. The children he enjoyed talking with as he asked the doctors to turn off their medical pumps, oxygen, and the like for each of their 7 patients.

Astra finished her pontification of what happened. Then explained why Jack took action to bring GS down. She showed the video of the decapitation but stopped it before the head came off. The wielder had the blue blade. She also listed her explicit directives and the issues there including his fabricated profile as directed by their future government.

Jack looked up at the screen, "Side screen if you would Tera-1 dock 7 images of the Excalibur. I would like to introduce you to a second alien. Holly, inform Meltora to reveal the front half of the ship." They watched as the space-based alien revealed the front half that included the TMC-Excalibur on the side. That stood for Tera Military Concept ships. Essentially a military prototype.

Meltora then covered the ship and put the local designation back onto the hull. "Meltora is a mindreading space-based entity with psionic communication. Its skin is 5 times harder than any titanium alloy that you know or I know about. I bring this up because the psionic abilities we discussed include psionic communication. It allows us to communicate wordlessly with another psionic.

We can talk to Meltora. Meltora can hear the conversations of all those aboard the ship, all of those who are organic. Not Astra. Meltora is a single-celled organism that is millennia old and a historian of species it has come into contact with and is working as a guide. Now, let us throw up our 6 other aliens at work in our solar system."

She displayed the images. "When I visited President Grendal, we searched for listening devices using the advanced sensors in the Excalibur. We found 1. I know from history they are just monitoring our progress of things and there are no plans for an imminent attack. Some of them will make themselves known in about 5 years and others in 20 years if the timeline holds. This broadcast might want them to move up the timeline but I would ask that they do not.

History plays out nicely for all of us through my era. I have not investigated their relations beyond that point. Now I know one question is why the Drakor gave us this biotechnology and killed us centuries later. The answer is because in the previous timelines we never got the technology from Ash. Ash was killed within weeks of my arrival. The one who came before her had a blue blade. He killed himself instead of returning to Tera. Probably fearing research and dissection.

Ash was not given answers as to why this was done to her. She learned a lot of information from me. Some she learned by asking the intelligent DNA the right questions. The fact is a blade wielder has to embrace their nature, the sword, procreate and let those genetics enter into society. I figured out some of the questions to ask. I had Ash ask a particular question to get her answers. I gave her no guidance beyond asking the question.

All the answers we got and the questions they answered had information that overlapped. Yet, some things were different. Because we took this approach, we got a better understanding of what happened in the future. We also contacted a representative of the Drakor directly to get these answers through this process. Their telepathic abilities are immeasurably more advanced in range and capability than what we have. We learned there is a place that the hybrids must go.

Only hybrids can attend this meeting. Because hybrids did not and non-hybrids eventually landed there. That was grounds in their eyes that our species was not worth saving and should be exterminated. It all focused on choice. Coming to terms with our nature. Then taking on the tasks to become the weapons. Like learning how to sword fight for Ash. Aiko who is in the back here will be our lead instructor for this. I know sword fighting but I must adapt to fighting with 2 swords.