Astra Pt. 03

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They spent the next 2 hours clearing the black-ops of the technology. Jack looked at the Mechanic, "Please tell his family, it did not have to be this way. I gave him every out. When he got the other airframe manufacturers singing the same song it had to be addressed. I had one of his airframes here.

This airframe, what is left of it, will be taken to Terra-4. The sooner the company picks it up the better. It will be in the shuttle bay area as expected when there is a crash or disaster in space near a space station."

He nodded, "Thank you for insisting I stay aboard your ship."

Jack nodded. He backed away.

He got in Merlin and put the wreck into a tractor beam and headed for Terra-4, "Terra-4 Tower this is MERLIN TPS-497042. Bringing the remains of shuttle Ravager-2 as we called it. It never had an id that I know of. As this was a catastrophic space event outside of your station, I am leaving the remains of the scout ship with you."

"Merlin, this is Terra-4 TC. We have been following. Place it on pad 7 by the direction of the station commander. They want people to see how bad that ship is. The manufacturer is supposed to be by tomorrow to pick up the wreckage. From those of us here in the tower, if you had not caught that craft it was headed for us. It is sincerely appreciated, Merlin."

He set it down on pad 7 with the nose pointed at an angle toward the crowd. He released and went home and wanted to go straight to bed. Grace waited for him in the hanger as he got out of the craft. He looked at her pad, "I agree" thumbprint. Repeated another 10 times. He looked at her, "After taxes what is our account sitting at?" She looked at him, "512 Billion TC's." He walked away while she followed.

He took the lift to the second floor and went into his room to a gaggle of ladies who stopped when he walked inside. He stripped down and climbed into the middle of the bed without a word. Carol curled up on one side and Ash on the other. The ladies fell in line or gave him space. He slept the sleep of the dead.

He woke later to ladies giggling in the shower. He walked into join Grace and Sprits. He looked at them, "Just don't ask me how I am feeling."

They nodded and helped to clean him up. He fucked them both against the shower walls while he was in there. Filling both pussies and their asses after Sprits grabbed the lube.

"Astra, letting you know Merlin needs to be loaded from floor to ceiling with those brinks on cargo deck 5. Leave enough room to get into the cockpit and secure it for entering the atmosphere. Once that is done load the rest in those excess storage containers from our first drop.

Grace groaned, "They need to be brought down to the planet today? You still going to have them build it?"

He sighed, "Let me call Treven."

Sprits spoke up, "My father has done work for Treven in the past. If you are looking for a shipbuilder."

He nodded, "Talk with Treven and get a name. Talk with Sprits's father if they give you a different name. We need to get it buckled down."

He got dressed and called Treven. The secretary smiled, "How are you today?"

He sighed, "Watched a man kill himself yesterday. I am just fine, thank you."

She sighed, "I am sorry. I should have been more tactful. Let me get him for you."

It wasn't him but Francine, "He's out on the floor. She told me you're not in a great mood."

He nodded, "I need a private shipbuilder. I was going to use...well you know. Anyway, after yesterday I cannot bring myself to look at that place."

She nodded, "There is one Mr. Treven has used. He did mockups for us in the past. He is a bit of a recluse. Lives in Montana. Extremely good at his work!"

Sprits called out, "Sounds like my father."

She conferenced someone in. He looked at her, "Your Treven's secretary."

Jack laughed, "She is one of his Engineers."

He looked at Jack, "You're the fellow all over the news. The one who married my daughter. Glad to finally meet you, Jack."

He nodded, "Yes, I need a ship built. I have the blueprints, specifications and the raw material for frames and hull. Just need someplace that can handle heavy-duty titanium alloys and can build all of the beams, and cross members. Then plating down to the millimeter."

He smiled, "Show me what you got?"

He tossed the image and schematics. "All patented down to the alloy we are using."

He looked at Jack, "What alloy?"

He smiled, "Titanium-H Titanium with Metallic Hydrogen."

He looked at Jack, "Taste for the exotic. What about the frame?"

Jack smiled, "All of it in Titanium-H."

He looked, "You are looking at almost 4,000 standard bars of this stuff."

Jack nodded, "I have more than enough."

He scratched his head, "When do you need it?"

Jack looked at him, "If I said a week would you balk?"

He shook his head, "Will take people and money. You are talking 10 million a day for that time frame."

He nodded, "Done. Where do I bring it too?"

He smiled, "For that much, we will come to you. I will put my daughter back to work as well."

Sprits stuck her face around, "Of course you will. Free labor." They laughed at her.

Jack sighed, "How many people?"

He looked over, "Just 10 counting me and your wife. We will stay at the space station."

He nodded, "You know my ship then."

He nodded, "Oh, we watched that pompous frame builder failing to listen, repeatedly. This is a masterful design. From the future?"

Jack shook his head, "Neither is the Alloy. I created both. Send a list of your people to Astra at the Excalibur. She vets all who come aboard. She's from the future. Android. Your main contact will be Tim he is my engineering apprentice. Also, Sprits because she is your daughter and our structural engineer on-board.

She can run you through the models we have. I am going to start making the four-engine housings and the four engines. Sarah does our wiring, she is Tim's wife, 1 of 2."

He nodded, "I will have my crew there in less than an hour."

He sighed, "Astra?"

She laughed, "Tim is storing them in the cargo containers. He has the smelter going to build the alloy when they get here. He held off on the Merlin while I waited for you to finish talking."

Jack pulled up the history of Sprits father. He worked for a big frame builder for years. Pulled up stakes and started doing custom work. Astra continued, "I got the names of his standard crew and will note any deviation. Will set them up to work in the cargo hold and when you are close to assembly move them to the shuttle bay. You have a message from the President."

Jack sighed, "Sprits this is your family, let me know if there are any issues."

She smiled, "We will be alright."

He looked at Astra, "Put him through."

He smiled, "Hello Jack, the contractors you listed wanted to get together today at the Capitol complex."

Jack nodded, "I will bring Grace and myself I can fly, Easier to get into Moscow than LA."

He smiled, "Great. See you when you get here."

Jack dressed in a dark grey suit with a black and silver tie over his white dress shirt. He grabbed his swords and headed to the hanger. He got into Merlin as Grace arrived, "You almost left without me."

He shook his head, "Not today. Not with Astra guessing my every move."

She laughed at that as did Astra in his head. He buckled in and closed the doors. He lifted off as the doors flew open. He flew down and under the border to Terra-4 to stay out of there space. He got picked up by a pair of fighters, "Merlin TPS-497042 you did not contact the tower."

He sighed, "This is Merlin to unidentified craft, I did not enter their airspace so I had no requirement to contact them."

The fighter responded, "This is Yankee-12764. You need to return to the pattern." He chuckled, "This is Merlin to Yankee, you are obviously a new pilot. Check your facts. We are not turning back."

The fighter called out, "Merlin, I will blow your ship away if you do not comply."

Jack called out, "This is Merlin to Yankee's wingman who might you be?" The other fighter responded, "Merlin this is Crazy Eights. You are correct. She does not have a call sign yet."

He shook his head, "Merlin to Crazy Eights. You recording this by chance?"

He laughed. "Yes, Merlin. New hotshot."

Jack shook his head, "Crazy Eights, tell me about your new hotshot."

Crazy Eights laughed, "She 168cm tall, long bright red hair, pale green eyes, an easy DD chest, and lovely backside. She is fit, in shape, and has a fiery Irish style personality."

Jack laughed into the comms, "You skipped over class ranking, at the academy, and her education. You focused on the physical only Crazy Eights. You need to get to know all about a woman and stop focusing on just the physical."

Yankee fired in, "10 seconds until I unload on your shuttle."

Jack sighed, "Crazy Eights permission to school your young hotshot."

The first pilot, "Bring it on old man I am in the state-of-the-art fighter."

Jack laughed into the comms, "Yankee god gifted you with two brains. One's lost and the other is out looking for it. The president will just have to wait a minute." He threw it in full reverse, spun thirty degrees and grabbed the fighter. He came to a stop, "Surrender Yankee?"

The fighter pilot sounded indignant, "I am going to light you up!" He sighed, "Crazy eights, your new pilot has earned herself a call sign." He laughed out, "What call sigh, Merlin."

He called back, "Death Blossom." He started rotating around with the fighter on the end of the tractor beam. He heard her screaming, "Crazy-eight, Shoot this guy."

Crazy eights laughed. "You are the one who called Jack Travus an old Man."

She cried out, "Fuck I'm going to be sick. He started reversing the spin but release the fighter back into space end over end before he heading toward the planet. "Crazy Eights, that name will stick."

He laughed, "Yes it will Merlin. I have Wildcard on another channel laughing his ass off. He is over at Terra-5 with another new flyer."

He smiled, "Crazy Eights did you give the president your feedback."

He laughed. "He was glad to hear we had a good show of it and he agreed with you, fighters will get run over if they cannot keep pace. He flew fighters when he was younger."

Jack smiled, "Send the two new flyers by later and I will show them what they are up against."

He laughed, "Just might get our wing commander to make that recommendation to those two. I think she is out cold. Wait I see movement. Not the good kind. She will be cleaning up that cockpit."

They entered in over India and took a straight line toward the south side of Moscow. He had a pair of air breather fighters call out, "Unidentified aircraft you are approaching restricted airspace." He called back, "This is MERLIN TPS-497042 en route to the presidential compound."

The fighter called out, "We have nothing on you, Merlin."

Jack replied, "Then I am free to go." He punched it up to 1.5 and left them standing still. "Capitol tower this is MERLIN TPS-497042 requesting permission to land on pad 3."

"This is Capitol tower negative MERLIN please use pad 2."

He called out, "Tower, Bad idea, this is an armed shuttle. Pad 3 would be preferred."

The tower responded, "Did you just threaten me?"

He groaned, "Capitol tower, you would request my door be facing away. You would always request my guns be pointed away from the building. I cannot do both on PAD 2. That is why I called out pad 3. Not my first visit with the President."

The tower called back, "Please do not land while we verify." Jack threw it up to 2.5 and put his craft on the side as he shot past the tower. He heard, "What the fuck MERLIN."

He responded, "You did not give me a new vector, glide path, or even direction. I kept the same direction and flew past you, capitol tower. Please put a senior control on who can actually find his ass with both hands."

The tower called out, "I'll have you grounded for this pilot."

"Tower be advised MERLIN TPS-497042 is the shuttle from Excalibur TAR-1 and the pilot for both is Jack Travus. Now the president is waiting for me. Should I bring him up on a call here? The Capitol switchboard is directed to put me straight through. Changing heading to 190 heading back toward the Capitol compound to avoid Moscow tower."

He heard, "Merlin this is Capitol tower senior control Tom Pink. Please land at Pad 3, you obviously know the drill. Sorry for the delay."

He flew in sideways and landed on pad three with just a hint of a bounce. He handed his swords to Grace. She laughed. He opened the door and the guard went to speak, "No sidearms. We know the drill lieutenant."

He nodded, "Yes Mr. Travus, funny way to land though."

He nodded, "Keeping the guns away from the building lieutenant. The ones on my shuttle."

He nodded, "Then excellent flying."

He nodded, "Tell that to the first controller. He wants my pilot's license."

The lieutenant laughed as they walked into the building and he went through the same security issues. He looked at the head of security, "Do you actually listen to people when they come thru? On several occasions, we get questioned about it repeatedly."

He looked at Jack, "We are just thorough."

He nodded, "In that case can someone thoroughly show me where this meeting with the President and the defense contractors are taking place?"

He chuckled, "They will be right with you. He looked back as Grace was being questioned by a guard. He looked at the guard. Want to see an interesting trick." He nodded. He stuck out his hand and summoned both blades to his hands but left them off. He looked at the Guard as he put them into his side pouches. "You check with the president on those if you like."

The other guard came up, "You need to hand those over. He stuck out his hands with them in his hands and the guy's hand kept bouncing away from them. Jack held them out with no fingers and drew his hands back and left them floating in the air. The other guard started chuckling. The other guard looked at him, "This is not funny."

Jack asked him, "What are they then?"

He looked, "I don't know."

He reached out grabbed them and put them into his belt. He looked at Jack, "Hand them over!" Jack looked at him, "Did you not even try to grab them even when they floated in the air? Do you want to try again? Jack sent them in the air and placed them right in front of his face and he could not grab them.

The other guy laughed at his buddy. Jack grabbed them and held them out to the other guard, "What do you make of them? He reached down and picked them up. "They appear solid. No buttons." He smiled, "There were carried by my fiancé in her bag. Now, what would you think they are? He looked at her and handed them back to her, "Sorry mam."

Jack laughed, "She is Grace Winters, Lawyer, and my Business Manager as well. Just call her Grace. She hates mam."

He nodded, "Sorry Grace."

She looked flustered and shook her head at the other guard as they walked away. "You really pushed your luck back there. In fact, all day today."

He nodded, "Gearing up for dealing with defense contractors."

A young female brunette came out, "I was told to come and get you. They are assembling at the other end of the hall."

They entered a formal dining room and she led them up to a table up front and in the center. Jack looked at Grace, "This does not look like a meeting."

She nodded, "He is up to something."

They stayed standing. They nodded to the several contractors they knew and the president came into the room with a round of applause so they applauded. "Please be seated." They all sat down. He looked out, "Over 2 months ago we learned for certain that we are not the only intelligent life in this universe. We learned of incredible gifts being afforded to us.

To a sudden and overwhelming push into bracing advanced technology. I called this meeting to thank Jack Travus publicly for what he has been doing and will hopefully continue to do. Jack, step up here and say a few words please."

Jack got up and walked back and shook the President's hand. He looked around, "I was told there would be a meeting of defense contractors today. I see you all here but I did think this was kind of a strange meeting layout."

Several giggled, "I want to address a couple of outstanding items if you will. I have brought a lot of technology forward. I was asked why was I putting patents on technology from the future. I will try and explain carefully. There are items that I have reverse engineered into blueprints and passed them on as new patents. The harvester for the collider, the smaller very powerful collider, and the dermal regenerator.

These first 3 items I did not charge a thing on them. I got the patents to restrict the technology. Make it available but temper it. Giving a 5 billion TC's grant. An incentive for a non-business to overseeing making elements for businesses under the presidential advisors' guidance. You are learning about a couple of new elements.

One of which would not have been isolated until the 28th century. That element was the key to the dermal regenerator. Again. I asked for no money. I asked the per-unit costs for the item to be applied to buy the units for the poorer communities. While capping the markup to 75%, half of normal.

To make them affordable to hospitals and everyday people. Now I have a conscious and I have a gatekeeper. Astra would you seize control of all the display in here please so these people can see you." She appeared and was dressed. "Astra is an android. Her directives prevent me from going in and pulling up any blueprints of future technology and making them available.

Now throw one of the last patents I applied for The Treven System drive. Now I wrote this out from memory. The fact is shortly after this came out the company was put out of business by GS. This was the finest drive of that era in my previous timeline. I told you I filed a patent on it. But not in my name. I filed it under Francine Jericho, who is an engineer at Treven Engines that led the design of this drive.

In my timeline, she strived and pushed the engines to travel to 2.5 times what it is today. Now the drive I submitted place on the monitor next to it Astra. This drive I built. Was inspired by her drive. But I broke it down and built up something completely new. Now you know I have alien DNA and this is not an alien drive.

It did give me a boost to intelligence and an increase in creativity. That is how I got here. Someone will be bound to ask how do I know it is not from them? The answer is they gave us a cure for most diseases. Psychic communications, not mind reading but those who have it can talk wordlessly. Then there is telekinesis." He had his water glass come up from his table and took a drink, "I needed that."

They chuckled. He held out his hands and brought up the cylinders. "The President has seen this before and if you watched my news conference, so did you. These are a pair of psionic swords. Yes, I snuck them through security, but I never leave them anywhere. Inscribed on the handles of mine is the phrase "The Even Hands of Justice' in the Drakor language.

I am a rare two-bladed wielder in Drakor society. I will tell you the difference in these and laser swords for those who did not see or pick up on what occurred. I can will them to do no harm and pass through someone, or an object, "Only attack a certain object or person. The Drakor used it to avoid the blade being blocked. Instead, they cut off the person's head as it passes through the blade.

They do not fight like our wielders because their arms can do things like this. He elongated his arm and put six different bends into it before returning it to normal. "I can only do that with the one arm because of the grafting done at the direction of our government 640 years from now. They are very alien, but they gave us these technical gifts upfront.