Astra Pt. 03

Jack nodded, "Let them formulate responses." He pulled over another folder and sent it off. "All of the modeling data and recommendations for airframe reinforcement of existing ships. You can forward the information to the specific designers. Grace how did that Ravager respond in the atmosphere?"

She smiled, "They took it to 2.5 as you said. It does not have new retros on it so it turned like a brink and she backed it down to 1.5. They want to take Merlin out and run that course with her."

Jack nodded, "Approved but coordinate with the course manager for a good time. Then let Sprits take her rocket and Carol her Red Mouser if they wish to try it out as well. Get stopwatches and cameras on it as well."

She smiled, "I will tell our pilots, have Holly call her former editor about the 'secret air-breathing engine testing' being done over the course after I make the arrangements and get Astra to give me a layer of Skin to talk with other people..."

The president asked, "Which course?"

Jack smiled broadly, "The Death Valley course."

He chuckled, "That is designed for small fighters."

Jack nodded, "We used it in our simulation designs to run even the Excalibur through there. The Excalibur now has air-breathing engines on it. She was built in space. We still have to retrofit in landing gear on it. It was like driving a bus through that course but we got the retro designs to make the ship do that.

I will be reviewing deals for a few days. Cannot sign them until my hand returns."

The President laughed, "Good point as well. I will get on these items here and thanks for keeping me in the loop."

The call ended and Jack went to the lab, "Astra, could Linda bring me some food to the lab. Everyone complains about my meals but scatter to go shopping and such just as soon as we are near Terra."

Astra laughed, "Message passed."

---

Jack spent the next 4 days working the fabrication of Astra's new body and going over contracts with Grace. Jack did not sleep as he worked to finish the finer details of her body. When he was satisfied, he turned her over to Astra to put into the alcove to work downloading of her system into the new body and overlay her new molded features. At the end of the day, she commented, "It is done, and confirmed. You just need to send me out the airlock."

He called down, "Astra do a walking visual inspection of the outer hull and get some camera images from about a thousand feet out."

She laughed, "Seriously?"

He smiled, "You're a big girl. You can terminate on your own. Bring your hot new bot-bod up here when you are done and we can test the orifices out."

She sighed. "See you in a second." 2 minutes later and she showed up in her new body. She looked at it, "You did an outstanding job on me."

He smiled, "Let the quality assurance begin. He bent her over, having left his pants off after Holly's visit. He slid straight into her extremely tight cunt hole now and slowly sank in. Astra was on sensory overload; she spoke gibberish as he fucked her faster and faster.

Until he unloaded with a groan. He extracted himself and rubbed her tits until Astra was herself again. She looked at him "Making calibration adjustment. I like to remember getting fucked by you."

He sat down and she sucked him back to full and slid her ass orifice down until she hit bottom. She used her new legs and her ass clenching grip.

She rode the shit out of his cock as she did not let up until he fired off. She turned and sucked him through another amazing orgasm. She looked at him "You added some cock sucking images into my sex program?"

He nodded, "What Aiko can do. I told her she could give lessons. You are now her first student. I gave you freer reign over giving your opinion on sex. Also, other things."

She stood, "112ml, the ladies have not been here much."

He shrugged, "Holly was here earlier with food and a frantic fuck that she liked. I have been occupied with the weapon system and your body. Why don't you process that and then go and see them? She nodded to turn and Grace walked in, "Oh my god, Astra, that body he did for you is gorgeous."

Astra smiled, "Just took it for a test drive. I had to adjust my sensors so I did not sound like you when he is popping off in your ass. He was doing that to my new pussy. He took Sprits tight ass and set them for both lower holes. I got 28 samples to prepare. You ladies have been slacking."

Grace laughed, "I will remind them again but I think it is a silent protest for abandoning the bed again."

He nodded, "I worked to get Astra corrected first. She had earned a new body. I told her to go and visit the ladies so they can play. She has an overly sensitive clit and she cannot adjust that herself."

Astra looked at him, "This is payback for what they did to you and your cock."

He smiled, "No that would have been turning off your pleasure receptors. Not turning them on."

Grace laughed as Astra swayed out of the room, "She has some swing to her ass now."

He nodded, "She is carrying a little more cushion, she should be allowed to flaunt it the right way."

Grace laughed, "I got all of the contracts that Ms. Helgan was a real piece of work. Took 10 reviews to get what she wanted and another 4 for us to correct what she wanted to pay for it, along with your added litigation provisions."

Astra called out, "Our pilots are on the news." He pulled up his vid and watched them go in turn down the course through the valley.

This was a prelude to a race starting soon and the audience was stunned into silence. Merlin, Little Red Mouser, and then the rocket barreled through the course. The rocket setting a new course record but all three craft beat the previous record. Jack smiled, "Good for them. My new ship is listed out in that stack somewhere?"

She nodded, "Yes."

Astra called in, "You have two incoming calls one from Treven Engines and one from the President."

Jack smiled, "Conference us together. He slid under the desk. He looked at the President and the three top dogs at Treven Engines stood there. He smiled, "I bet you're calling about the course records."

He heard laughter from everyone. Mr. Treven spoke, "I have got a call here from the race sponsor who wants to know when they can reschedule.

He said none of the racers wanted to follow those 3 until they have the new engines. I told him I am waiting for you to sign the contracts."

Jack smiled, "Sorry about destroying the race for them but they were the ones who insisted it occurred before there race. Their own fault. I have a stack of 10 contracts to sign in front of me. Ms. Helgan has held that up over the tractor beams. She wanted them but wanted them for free. Told her it does not work that way."

They laughed. The President smiled, "Impressive flying on top of impressive engines. My airframe designers seem to think that one faulty Air Frame is not enough to change their designs. Even with the modeling data."

Jack looked at Treven, "How soon can you have one of each of those airframes ready with the new inertial dampeners on-line and ensure the test pilot is wearing an EVA suit?

Have them do one run between the earth and the moon. The one our craft did anyway. Then we will scan the frames and look at the hulls. Particularly when they see what is going on. I guarantee one of those frames will have a catastrophic failure."

He looked at Jack, "Getting the battleship engines installed will take a couple of weeks!"

He shook his head, "Put them on a transport, get your guys in EVA suits and I will bring in ships with tractor beams to get them seated. The problem is your people have an invalid model for Air Frame testing. I gave them the data and it was 3 airframes, not ONE."

Treven looked across, "Worse than that, they do not believe they need new inertial dampeners either."

He looked over getting angry, "Get one of those presidents to fly the ship themselves solo and they will be electing a replacement for him or her. Tell them we will be pacing them so dogging it on the start like they are going for a ride on Sunday will not happen. The cameras will show the people how incompetent they are. Send that message back and Mr. Treven, who's the loudest objector?"

He looked at Jack, "Your buddies over with Yetto's Space Frames."

Jack fumed, "I want them to bring an unmodified rig to my ship. We can have the engines pulled in 10 minutes and install in 15 into their rig. We will spacewalk out and install those engines right into the ravager into his airframe. They can check it out at 1x Then, they can take it from a stop to 5x in front of cameras.

We will see if we are selling them a bill of goods. I want the president of the company flying it. We can have it ready. Mr. President. You could force this under your contracts. An allegation against their airframes and for them to back up their claim of being able to go 10 times faster."

The president sighed, "I am not sure that I can have them there."

Jack smiled. "Astra, connect in Terra Global News and get 'you know who' in on this call as well." The President chuckled. Mr. Taki showed up on the call and saw who was with him. "What is this about?"

The Terra News Editor popped in and saw his audience.

"Gentleman, for the RECORD! The Ravager Airframe is inferior as designed. Its claim of 10x faster is completely bogus. I would like the President of the company to go out into his yard and pull an Airframe and fly it up here. We will pull the engines from the Reinforced Ravager black-ops craft we confiscated and install just the engines.

You can take them out at 1x speed and see that everything is fine. We will put a camera in your cockpit no crew. I would recommend you wear an EVA suit. STRONGLY recommend. A pair of Terra Global News cameras will be aboard the Excalibur and the Merlin. Both are equipped with a tractor beam capable of catching a runaway collapsed trashcan.

We will use your inertial dampeners and your airframe. We will see if your product is as bad as I say it is. I just made it a fact of record on your product in front of the press. If I am wrong, you are looking at one heck of a defamation suit.

If I am right. We will be attending your funeral. You going to back down or are you going to put your ass in the seat and stand behind your product? This interview will go out immediately if you back down!"

The President looked at him, "I am directing if you do this that you wear an EVA pressurized flight suit. I have seen the images for all three airframes that had to be reinforced."

Jack called out, "For the record, Mr. Taki is the President of Yetto's Space Frames."

Jack switched to Japanese, "It is a matter of honor. Do you have any left?!"

Mr. Taki stood, "I am bringing my own engineer to ensure you do nothing to mess with these engines."

He nodded, "I will be out in the black-op floating. I will take it out at 5x speed and back. We will work to uninstall it in a couple of minutes upon return and use tractor beams to help your engineer conduct the engine install while another will install your engines in the Black-ops. You live and your air-frame survives this test I will give you those engines free and clear. Your Engineer does not go on this suicide run with you."

He nodded, "Terms accepted."

Jack looked over, "5 minutes we are over Japan now." Jack dropped Mr. Taki from the call. Jack looked at the editor, "Two crews with three cameras."

He laughed, "I got that many watching you right now. They will be over and I will leave one man in our shuttle. I know how tight you are on space."

Jack nodded. "Gentlemen, I got a Ravager to go fly." He shut off the vid and got dressed and stormed down to the hanger bay, "Astra, I expect two cameramen to be here in a few seconds. Get them to the hanger bay. Ash report to the Merlin."

He went out and pointed to the two cameramen, "EVA suites. You are going to need them."

They nodded, "Ash, once you get Merlin up to speed with the Ravager flying Spin 90 degrees so the cameraman can watch the hull ripping open! You, good sir, are going for a ride with me."

He hopped in, "The second seat, keep your hands off the controls."

He nodded. Astra opened the Shuttle bay doors. "Ensure there are no ships docked for when I get back. We have to be able to move. No telling what this idiot will do. You have a second camera?"

He nodded, "A portable we can attach it to the back of a seat and angle it how we want. We can watch it as the feed from our shuttle will be sent to you so you can see inside in real-time." They went out. Jack turned on sensors. "We are cleared, "Hang onto your lunch and watch my actions.

He took the throttle and threw it all the way back and they shot away from the ship. "We have 30 seconds of flight time. I am not even going to slow down when we hit 5 minutes." He looked over, "What are you going to do?"

Jack smiled, "You'll see."

5 minutes in and he hit the retroes took it into an end-over and inverted. Then headed back as he slowly rolled it back to normal, "Is zero-gravity you stay in motion. I changed the angle and inverted back to normal. The engines are staying at 5x speeds the whole way."

He nodded. Jack looked at him "Take a look at the four metal beams. That is titanium-H a new metal-alloy they are 10 times stronger than the titanium alloy on Terran battleships. After we damaged the first airframe, we reinforced this one. On both sides. This is the point of contention. Now, how much motion have you felt?"

He shook his head, "None from what I would expect to go at these speeds. He hit full reverse and then brought it to a stop. He pointed to the box, "That is an FTL drive we used during our testing and that box there is the new inertial dampener. The President of the company, Mr. Taki, does not believe he needs the ID box and he believes his airframe does not need reinforcement. Those are the 2 items being challenged today. Understand?"

He nodded. Jack pointed. "Time to go for a walk."

They stepped out after the cabin depressurized and over to an engineer, "Let us pull your engine off first. Then we will fill in the other two, "Ash, get ready to tractor out the engines on the Black-op." She pulled into position.

They went over and unhooked the engines from the frame, "We had the engine manufacture build these frames for your airframe by your standard. We have it on camera there were no shakes, squeaks or things going bump in the night."

He nodded. He pulled them back and they went over and undid the other engines. "Cameraman. This would be a good time to add that one to the cockpit of the stock Ravager."

He nodded and came back a second later, "It is installed. He said you might know something about engines but nothing about airframes."

Jack shook his head, "We will see."

They buttoned up the Black-op and he drove it into the hanger. "Merlin. Wait before release that tractor beam. We want his mechanic aboard my ship. This is the President of the companies feud with me. We don't want the mechanic being killed."

They watched him float into the shuttled bay and they walked in and pressurized the bay. "Leave suits on. Leave helmets here." He set it next to Black-op Ravager. "Astra keep a safe distance from the Ravager and not directly behind, Tell Ash to flank on the other side. Astra, take the camera news feed and show us inside. Ravager-2 this is Excalibur. How do those engines feel?" He nodded, "They appear fine."

He sighed, "When you're ready to bring it to a stop and turn back the way we came. 15 minutes out and 15 back. That was the first test time for your airframe. We staggered that one to half power and full because we realized the ID system would have to be replaced. Your decision on how you wish to proceed."

Jack looked at the mechanic, "What is he doing there?"

He looked at Jack, "He is locking down the dead man switch. He took his helmet off." Jack shook his head, "We're looking at a snuff film in the making. He is about to kill himself."

Jack started pushing forward up next to him when the idiot threw it all the way back. Jack yelled, "Damn it! Full speed, be ready with the tractor beam!"

They looked at the camera as it flew off the back of the seat and smashed against the back wall inside of the craft. Then they watched hull panels popping off. More along the right side causing the ship to change course. "Enough of this. Tractor Beam Astra hack into that system and shut down the power core. The craft turned off and he stopped not far from where they started. "Merlin swing around to the front get pictures of the damage.

"See if by any miracle the man survived. Give us her camera feed." The cameraman next to him contacted their truck as Jack circled them to the side and they could see the craft was a good 2 meters shorter than before with no front plating at all. Half of the plating along the right was gone and frame bent like a boomerang.

All from a 1-minute run. They saw the images from inside the craft and Ash contacted everyone, "We are returned before the cameraman chokes on his own vomit. Open cargo bay doors."

Jack looked at the mechanic, "We will return the black-op to you to take your boss home to be buried. We have to pull the FTL drive, and the support beams. Put in your standard ID system and pull the tractor beam we installed. That will take 1-2 hours at most. Astra, we need you to be in uniform. Have Carol join you. We got a body to pull from a destroyed craft."

Jack pulled up the comms and contacted Treven Engines and the President. "Astra conference us together." They both came on and Jack looked at the President, "Any other airframe maker who thinks there modeling software is anywhere near correct after that should be submitted for a psych evaluation. He deliberately bypassed the dead man switch in the craft. If I had not gotten Astra to shut down the power core, that craft would have spun into Terra-4.

I hope when we have the meeting with the contractors that this is fresh on their minds. I do not joke about safety. I also do not take attacks on my honor. The Ravager Airframe needs to be reinforced and have the new inertial dampeners.

For those watching at home that might be unaware, the ID reduces the sudden changes in gravitational pull from the acceleration.

When Excalibur was running at 2x speed we ran those dampeners at a 138% of capacity. It now runs at 465% of capacity and has two redundant board in case of a failure. The rocket only takes into account a 155% but the pilot wears a g-force compression suite. It has restrictors to keep it from going straight to full speed because of this. The two-seater you saw running out in the field was running with 310% but it was only flying at 2.5 space speed in atmosphere.

From my history, you hit 3x speed in the atmosphere and you can set it on fire. That is why those engines are geared that way and built not to exceed it. The Ravager I took out had 4 boards 465% with one spare. You can see the difference an extra 365% makes at those speeds. That is compared to the Excalibur. Compared to the ravagers ID that was installed. That was over 900% of what is installed on any Terran ship currently! Any questions for me Mr. President?"

He looked over, "No questions. Just a statement. To our defense contractors and makers of private conveyances. These 5x drives will be required to have a corresponding ID device to keep what happened today from happening again. All airframe manufacturers will be getting updated modeling data for these engines so your airframes can be tested. Thank you, Mr. Travus."

Jack looked at Mr. Treven, "I wish to say your company has won the right and responsibility for these 5x drives to be installed safely. Thank you, Mr. Treven the paperwork is on the way."

He nodded and dropped from the call. "Let us go down and get the Black-op Ravager cleared."