Astra Pt. 02

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 their 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. He 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.

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

He nodded, "I figured they would be but I had to ensure you did not look like my mouthpiece in order to do what you are going to do today. I want you to be the moderator. Have all the reports fielding questions sending to their local station. Have all those sent into 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 give you 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 accompanied by worried parents. He 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.

That is why you need to sign the papers authorizing your children to receive it. 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, of 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 each of the patients Carol injected a syringe of blood into the patient's arm or 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 or human 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 Terran 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 Terra 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 two 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 Terra 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 if the hand of vengeance, going after those who hurt humanity or those who would do harm to 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 of 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, center screen will give you the rundown of what took place and about my getting here. What our mission parameters where. What restrictions were in place.

The catch-22 that caused us to break with those orders in order to brief you today. While she is doing this your stations and every congressman, Attorney General, Planetary Law Enforcement, and the President is receiving a file that outlines the systemic corruption of Congress that, in my history brought down congress less than a month from now. 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 three doctors to join them. Now Doctor Carol, Ash and I are going to place a cut onto 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. My being thrown back in time altered that."

He handed each doctor one of the devices and they did a four-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 had 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; in order 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 three 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 really 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 on what happened. Then why Jack took GS down showing the video of the war in which humans were being decimated and 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.

He looked up at the screen, "Side screen if you would Terra-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 Terra 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 of 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 on 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 the president, we did a search 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 true. This broadcast might want them moving 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 is the Drakor giving us this biotechnology and killing 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 Terra. 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. They also had to ask the right questions. I figured out some of the questions to ask.

I had Ash ask a particular question to get her own answers. I gave her no guidance beyond asking the question. All the answers we got and the questions they answered had overlap but some were different. Because we took this approach, we got a better understanding of what happened in the future.

We also contacted 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 two swords. She is an expert in many styles of sword fighting. As well as being an electrical engineer. I wanted to address the lovelorn women who applied.

Because we have the historical data a lot of women were turned away because they or their offspring made significant contributions to the betterment of humanity. It was not a rejection of them. It was they have a strong and proud history in front of them. I could not take that away from humanity.

That was one of the goals, finding talented people who for one reason or another did not get to live the life they wanted. Else, their lines died with them instead because they had no children. Let me turn it over to our moderator for questions."

He looked at Jack, "You gave us a lot to look at today. The event of the millennium is an understatement. There had to be more to GS than the colony what else drove you to destroy that business?"

He sighed, "There was a lot to that. The death tolls from failed parts, the lawsuits that their political backers ensured the courts would not hear them or give minor monetary rewards to the victims or victims' families. There was also the predatory and systematic hunting and destruction of every competitor.

By the 28th-century, they were the only tech company and they had not had a significant achievement in technology in the 200 years before or the next 200 unopposed years before Terra fell. At which point, Technological upgrades were advanced exponentially by AI researchers.

I will work engines and power cores with one company, shields and tractor beams with another company. That was the technology I used to help with that shuttle accident in Los Angeles. Weapons technology will get split across companies.

The weapons I build will be at the same or one level below the shield technology I put into service. Remember I am restricted from the schematics so everything I do is reverse engineered, and if it is in my wheelhouse then I re-engineer on top of that."

He nodded, "How did you choose Treven Engines?"

He smiled, "I was an engineering student. I have 3 master's degrees and 5 bachelor's degrees from the future. I studied all of the designs put out by engine builders that came before. The highest quality engines I saw came out 200 years before I was born came from this company. Until it was driven out of business by GS.

I took that last engine design they had and memories of it as a student. I then drew out the schematics from memory here. I then sat down and completely re-engineered the design to build the engines I will be testing. Astra told me she had no design schematics that came close to the engine design I will be making. I told the Admiral when he wanted to force me into doing business with GS.

I wanted a company that is working in the future, not in last week's technology. Then doing a bad job of it. 75% of the losses to that company were in two areas. Congress and other major businesses that invested in them. Very little was individual investors. They were pouring water into a colander and trying to float bad designs to everyone else, just to make more money. I opened up the holes on the colander."

He looked at Jack again, "What of all the mothers who got your sperm, what do you have to say to them?"

He looked down for a second and then forward, "Astra's objective was to get my sperm into the market. It was part of the directive from the Terran government. Now we did not realize the full impact of what would happen to the mother and children at that time. We knew the kids would get some gifts like psychic communications and enhanced intelligence.

It was the physical gifts we still don't know which ones they will get or if they are random. Now the Alien DNA that flowed into the mothers from this is small but potent; 1% for every child she is carrying. Triplets would be 3%. Dr. Carol has the highest that we know of at 7%. Yes, she is carrying 7. We also know that all of the children will be born exactly 40 weeks after conception barring some major injury.

The mother's bodies will expand to accommodate, have a small regenerative effect, increases longevity, and because of that regenerative effect on her body; she will recover to pre-birth normal faster. It also affects the appearance. Put up the two images of Dr' Carol. She is a beautiful 35-year-old but signs of aging had started to show when she walked onto the ship.

The fact she had cancer and it was eliminated after conception was a bonus. Then there is Sarah. She is a member of my crew married to another couple by me a couple of days ago. You saw the images of her results. What you need to realize is she got those results from an injection of Dr. Carol's blood. We are coming up on 3 hours.

I would ask the 21 patients who came in at the beginning who were terminally ill to stand if you are feeling better. To the children, run to your parents."

They all stood up except one, He looked out, "Would stand but my toes are still regenerating from gangrene. I don't want to damage them."

He turned back. "Next question."

The editor chuckled, "Are you going to honor the subpoena?"

Jack shook his head, "I would have to travel 65 minutes back in time in order to get to Congress in time. Those subpoenas as you know are time-stamped to the zone you are living or operating in. For us, that was over Dallas lately. Instead, I enjoyed spending my time with you and the people watching this. I am going to ask that you send me the list of questions remaining.

This will allow us to depart and the president is likely going to want air time to declare a state of emergency. I will send the answers to all 7 stations here today so you may get them out to the people. I will try to work to answer every question I am allowed to answer."

The audience including the reporters stood and clapped for them. They gathered up and shook the hand of the patients, parents, doctors, and the reporters who sat in on the briefing getting last minute questions answered by others in the group.

Jack spoke with the editor, "I hope you can understand. I had so much fun. This is off the record. Cindy Cane sent 40 messages with explicit photos to me and she included 'enjoy spanking.' That was why she fell out of her chair when I mentioned it."

The editor busted up laughing and looked at Jack, "I forgive you then because that puts a whole other spin on your announcement that day."

Jack shook his hand again and got the group together.

They got to the pad when the shot rang out and struck Jack in the back. With other shots following. Those out of armor scurried into the ship Jack had the wind knocked out of him and had taken several other shots into his armor. He used his arms to cover his head. They were especially focused on him.

Sarah launched the ravager 20 feet up and started shooting at sniper positions while Danyelle took a couple out with her rifle. The bullets stopped flying and the ship came down again. They helped Jack aboard and he was bleeding. One-shot grazed his scalp hit the bone and deflected off the plate in his head. A few put holes in his legs. Nobody else appeared to be seriously hurt.

Sarah looked back, "I could use a copilot. I think I am healing but I took a thru and thru in the gut. Ash went up and took over the controls from Sarah. Grace pulled up the hollo vid for Astra, "Report the shooting at the pad at the convention center. Several snipers were killed we had a couple of wounded to take back to the Excalibur."

Jack looked over, "Astra, Get the names of the dead and compare them to the timeline and how it impacts it."

Astra was quiet for several seconds, "Jack, you dodged more than one bullet. One of the men firing that died was a great grandfather on your father's side six times removed. He already had his children and a couple of great-grandchildren. He had associations with that Admiral. Two of the others worked for Congressional Security details. How it affects them in the future we do not know."