Astra Pt. 04

He punched it to full and aimed for the corridor. He heard, "Unidentified aircraft, you are now headed straight into military airspace." He laughed into the comms, "Unidentified voice, I am not headed into the airspace. I am flying the corridor between the 3 airspaces. In order to keep your air spaces from being considered one with all services traversing them you established a 20-meter border between all three of them, that is the path I am flying."

He heard, "Aircraft that is impossible to navigate. I am showing your craft is not even a shuttle. It is huge."

He headed into the corridor on his side, "In the corridor, for an air breather craft you would be correct. It would be extremely difficult to do at these speeds especially. This craft is designed for space."

He pointed the nose up, pitched into a hard right 90-degree turn with the retros firing and kept it in the corridor. He repeated that three more times navigating the last of the corridor when the voice returned, "Aircraft I am pulling your transponder information."

Jack smiled, "That is why it is on. I stayed outside of the military air space and responded to all aircraft who interdicted me. Which was no aircraft that interdicted me."

He heard the guy groan, "TAR-2 King Arthur. Is that Merlin at the controls?"

Jack smiled, "Affirmative."

He heard him sigh, "It is now on record that our air space boundaries have to be revisited because an aircraft actually navigated the corridor. A damned scout even."

Jack laughed, "Negative, you should be training your pilots to do that especially when the new Lancers start arriving at the Starbases. You have the Death Valley course out there and I leave it to your guys to play at the record with that. This course is a tougher corridor in precision flying. Gets your air breather pilots accustomed to using retros to turn the craft. It is better for preparing them when they transition into space flight.

Write it up and submit the suggestion. You got a lot of pilots who are not getting enough space-time. The retros on this scout are designed to push a destroyer and are the same ones used on the Lancers. Those ships can pull off those turns. Even in the atmosphere." He heard the guy laughing, "Taking us to school now Merlin?"

Jack sighed, "Trying to improve what you got to work with and the way you train your pilots. It is not like I can submit the idea to your commander. He would tell you it could not be done. Now you can tell them it has been done and by whom. Also, in what! A Stingray class scout!" He heard laughter from the three towers he left behind.

He altered course and knocked it up to full speed as he flew out over open water and then took it straight up and toward the Excalibur. "He heard, "TAR-2 you are well beyond port speed." He called back, "This is TAR-2. I am outside your AOR and landing on the Excalibur. Tower control needs to examine his procedures. Please speak with a senior flight controller if you have issues."

He heard Death Blossom, "Don't make me come over there and put a hurt on you, Merlin."

He laughed, "You got a new toy. It will do nothing to my scout. You know this. Take care Death Blossom."

He landed and Grace showed up with the numbers from Peters and he shook his head, "My office. Let us talk with the President."

He walked into his office as the call came in. He looked across, "I just got off the line with North American military command about you violating military air space?"

He sighed, "Send flight logs from the Scout to the President. I did not violate their air space. I demonstrated that the corridor they had between them could be navigated and suggested they use it to train new Lancer pilots."

He nodded, "Alright, I see your data here and you are technically correct. They just did not like it. The defense department is having issues with you keeping your scout."

Jack held up a finger and then typed away. He put it all in a file and sent it across. "Mr. President, when the military looks to try and claim every prototype not built by the government in the file listed there then they can talk with me about my scout."

He looked at the file, "This is 800 years of prototypes done by defense contractors, financed by the defense contractors. Some of these are classified."

Jack nodded, "From the future. Some were done for counterintelligence activities for private companies before the globalization took place. The courts ruled that the property was proprietary to the users and was only deemed a threat to planetary security if the weapons were more powerful than what the government could make.

Now you could argue the Excalibur is in that category but as Excalibur was a military concept vessel turned over to me by the government that created it. I could argue you could create them it will just take you another several hundred years to get there. Any attempt to take the Excalibur would end in disaster.

As the ship would destroy itself before being seized. You already know this. The formula for creating the armor on my scout. You know it. The weapons, the specs are in the patent office. They have no grounds. We both know it. While we are on the subject of crimes and abuse. Gregory has zero chance of getting my scout design."

He slid him the sheet he got back with his markups. "I told him flat-out that they would have to build it to my specifications if I release the design to them. As called out in the design. It is a 300% markup over your ravager. Over 650% of what I told you would be the appropriate cost. I listed the areas where he inflated the costs.

I will find another company that will do it right but this proposal of his is ludicrous. If your advisors are still saying he is the man for this task then I would recommend new advisors!"

The President had a seat as he looked over and talked to someone. Obviously, his Attorney General. He looked over, "My Attorney General seems to disagree with you."

Grace sent him some files and Jack forward them, "My attorney with listed case law going back over a thousand years just sent to you and your Attorney General concerning the facts of the matter. If he has case precedence, she would like to see his list before we take this to litigation."

The President looked at his Attorney General who walked out of the room. He shook his head, "The man is scared of what you will do with the power you have."

Jack nodded, "I have shown what I will do. Stop corruption and help your military get a leap into technology. What more does he want?"

Astra contacted him in his head, "His AG is one of the Xenophobes in the next conflict in 24 years."

He looked across, "Astra, Secure this connection. Then display the information to the president on what you just told me. Keep in mind we cannot and you cannot prosecute someone on the future activity but she is giving you the data on what we know he has done today. Also, where it leads."

The president looked through all the data and the death toll he shook his head, "I cannot stop this from happening, can I?"

Jack shrugged, "You can work to remove his political capital if you choose. That would likely reduce the impact. You could ask him about his ties to those groups but they are not illegal. Grace, order us 20 years' worth of supplies and another 300 chassis of those computers."

She looked at Jack, "What are you going to do?"

He looked at her, "Collect supplies and build what we need for a Tau Ceti departure."

The president looked up, "Wait a minute. I am not suggesting you leave for Tau Ceti."

Jack nodded, "I know. I have one job left to do for humanity as a whole. Keep the Drakor from attacking. When we return, we will look to bring those colonists with us who wish to live in a society free of the xenophobic culture that is coming. Until Terran humans are ready for that eventuality.

We would look to return by the time those who have yet to be born are becoming adults and before xenophobia would get too out of control. Look to offer them and their families a path to a new life. Away from the systemic corruption, we cannot keep from bumping heads with; namely your defense contractors.

We can see the path ahead; it is not smooth and will be tougher for everyone if we stay. Plan on departure in 30 days. It gives us enough time to get our supplies in check, contracts finished, and set up a law firm to oversee the trust of patents we have placed into the system."

Grace sighed and Jack walked out of the room as he shoved his chair back in the process, and left the channel open with the President. He went to his room while Astra had summoned the wives to the bridge for Grace. The news did not go over well with the wives. Grace was left at a loss as to what to say to the President and she finally told him, "I will try and get him to contact you back. Get him to calm down some first." Before disconnecting the call.

---

The next morning Jack woke early and pulled rations from one of the many spare bedrooms and went to his lab. He locked out entry, "Astra, seal lab from everyone. No calls are to be put through until I call out otherwise. You know I can only go a week without being in excruciating pain and I am asking for that week.

Let Grace know I hope it did not interfere with her wedding scheming as she never gave me a date I could not plan accordingly. Send a message to all wives and crew. Shutdown all attempts to communicate with me short of the bio-implant. If that gets to be too much, I will pull it out."

---

He spent 7 days formulating out what it would take to travel there, what they would need to build beforehand, devising a way of trying to build while en route to Tau Ceti. Then the new ship designs, the first of the psionic technology, and the next set of drive modifications to increase travel time even further.

Then a complete set of weapons upgrades, unlike any weapon systems he had worked with or put to a design. He had them all stored off-line and then had a list of what they needed now. By the 8th day, he was in serious pain.

He had everything in his mind in a more stable place. He took all of his work along the way and encrypted every file on every pad. With fabricators running everything needed immediately. He contacted Astra who he had tuned out for days, which frustrated her to no end. "Send the Doctor and Grace. Please have the others meet in medical."

He got up but was barely walking when Astra opened the door and he was swarmed by ladies before he passed out.

---

He woke up in medical not knowing exactly how much time had passed. Grace stared down at him, "You have a lot of very worried ladies. Astra said you refused to acknowledge her even."

He nodded, "I did not pull the chip. I just did not answer her."

She looked at Jack, "She said you put command protocols on everything you worked on. You also shut off all monitoring except for that chip and biomonitoring. The doctor said you only ate through a third of the supplies you took with you for a week. That came out to 1 meal a day!"

He nodded, "Ask Astra, each one contains a full day of supplements. You do not need 3 meals of them to stay healthy."

She shook her head, "That is why we had to carry you out of there."

He shook his head, "That was Astra's doing. Or more accurately her 'core's' doing. It performed all of the medical butchery on me."

She sighed, "It had been 2 weeks since you spoke with the President. He was shocked to hear what you did to us. I contacted him after we got you to medical. I told him we still do not know what all you did but all the fabricators were spitting out all kinds of parts. The doctor told him you would be kept under for at least a week. She wanted you back to full strength. Your balls are healthy.

I have 14 contracts for you to sign including one for your scout. When the President went back to Mr. Peters and read him the riot act on the overcharges to the projections, he called in all his ship designers and let them know that that kind of breakdown would be expected for each of them going forward if they wished to maintain their contracts.

He also released his AG after he got him to admit his issues were with you being a hybrid. Not that he had a legal basis in fact. He wants to talk with you."

Jack sighed and looked down at his tied down form. He looked at her, "You untying me?"

She shook her head, "Not yet."

He smiled, "You should know better."

He closed his eyes and focused as he made his body insubstantial until the straps fell through him. He sat up to a bunch of shocked faces. He looked at them, "Doing that with a blade was just a start. Doing it with your body is another step in a long journey."

He went to stand and had ladies trying to keep him steady. Grace cursed, "Fucking leave it to you to find a way out of medical we cannot stop."

He reached over and kissed her, "What happened to your scheming, I mean 'wedding planning' efforts."

She rolled her eyes, "It is on and in 2 days."

He nodded and they put him in a robe and took him to his office where a steak dinner was ready and a couple of bottles of his mead. "From the general and the President. The President covered the admirals bet with you."

Jack shook his head as he sat down and ate everything and finished the first mead. He went through the weapons contracts and shook his head, "No. I want them all revisited. I want the markups that would come to me to be cut in half for the military. That half applied as a discount to the military on the per-unit cost.

The initial sale is enough on weapons. These four here dealing with the extra patents are to be rejected. I told you they are not for distribution at this time."

She sighed, "I told him you would say that."

He contacted the Capitol Switchboard. The operator smiled, "Just a moment."

He saw the president and he appeared to be in a cabinet meeting. He looked over, "Jack, glad to see you are back on your feet."

He nodded, "I took some time working out long-range plans after our last discussion and what we would need to accomplish."

He nodded, "I am hoping you will put off Tau Ceti for a while yet."

Jack looked at the contracts, "I rejected 4 contracts here to arms manufacturers who wanted access to patents I have not allocated to any design. They are on components."

The president chuckled, "They stated they could use those to make the weapons more powerful. Especially for handheld weapons."

Jack nodded, "When the patent expires then they can pursue that line. Until then they will have to pursue other avenues to creating those 'upgraded' weapons. Particularly the handheld rifles and pistols. I told your people I would consider it when they're not used in human on human conflicts."

He nodded, "My Army General was hoping you would reconsider."

Jack smiled, "Next item, the scout. I see you got him down to a 100 million TC's as configured for those units."

He nodded, "Yes, he did point out fairly that he has some labor costs and insurance costs that you did not have to consider." Jack looked at the number, "Accept." He signed that one. He ran through the others, "I have submitted all of the weapons contracts back to Grace.

I want the per-unit costs on the government side, what they are paying me to be cut in half, with the rest applied to the military as a discount. The contract to upgrade the shields and sensors for the Starbases I see is going through finally. They will be able to tell you when I am in the system for a change."

He heard the cabinet members chuckle at that. He looked at a couple of others he just saw. "I will get these numbers back to you on the ship designs. I see my people ran the modeling data against the design and the destroyers up to battleships are still not high enough."

He saw the new admiral sitting there and she asked, "What is the issue with the numbers on the designs?"

Jack smiled, "They are now assuming that because they will have to build in space that they do not have to consider the atmosphere in the equation. That answer is wrong. Planets still have gravity wells, engines, especially in the past, have been known to fail. The hulls must be able to survive for at least a reasonable attempt to get repairs done and back into a safe orbit.

No escape pods, they are missing from the designs. If they wish to forgo that route but then those escape pods would have to be able to survive those pressures and have enough food, fuel, thrust, and atmosphere to reach Terra or another Starport or Starbase in the worst case from the outer rim at a minimum.

It really depends on how often you wish to replace your crews' Admiral. They just had a big turnover and training crews get expensive. The good news is they left the landing gear. It will be needed for landing on a moon or such in an emergency or for scientific study."

She nodded, "You do have a military background. I would also like to say you are one hell of a pilot. I saw the number from Death Valley and the corridor run you did in a scout!"

She shook her head, "The fighter pilots are liking the new fighters and they are starting at Terra-4 and Terra-5 and working around as they get delivered."

Jack nodded, "Sprits, my wife, has a good family and they will treat your pilots right with those fighters. The first 3 have one feature the others do not. They have tractor beams." She nodded. He looked back, "That is all of the contracts I have in front of me."

The president looked at Jack, "What about the consulting contract for the design reviews?"

Jack shook his head, "No. I will get you that data but I refuse to be paid for that work. If anything, use it to teach your government auditors the methods to check a line item by line item cost breakdown of what they are paying for."

The president asked, "What about your Tau Ceti plans?"

Jack smiled, "I have them and I will have the ladies gathering what is needed sooner rather than later. I have a few other matters to attend to they are not aware of yet. I still plan to go but I want to get a few items straightened out with keeping the 'empire' here running if you will.

Also, determine some additional crew who might be needed. I see we got approval for the space dock in the pile. I am going to attempt to be humorous. If I asked you. Nice trick. Can you do it again, twice over? What would the answer be?"

The President looked over, "You are wanting to put 3 of them in earth orbit?"

Jack smiled, "No I would like to put 6 in earth orbit but I figured 3 was a good start."

He grabbed one of his pads and unlocked one of his files and sent a mock-up of the design to the president. He passed it around to those in the room. He looked at it, "This is taking it to the next level. You are wanting to build them into mega Starbases."

He nodded, "Civilian Owned Mega Starbases with space docks. Yes, with one geared for the generation of these."

As he sent him three more mock-ups. "More ship designs."

He looked through it, "Your refinery and mining vessel, Terraforming colony vessels and colony transport vessels." He sent them another.

The president chuckled, "A hydroponics vessel complete with beehives and a distillery for your mead. Also, a place for your coffee."

The cabinet laughed at that. Jack smiled, "When are you planning on releasing the population numbers that show that Terra will not sustain our growth into the next century?"

He sighed, "On the agenda today. What are you recommending?"

Jack smiled and threw another image to the president. He looked at it, "Star charts?"

He nodded, "Five systems with planets that would need a minimum of effort to make them habitable for humanity. Scouted in the future. Two planets exist in Tau Ceti and they are not in that file. There are requirements for Tau Ceti and that is why they are not on the charts I gave you. Eventually, I plan on settling there. This is important for the whole cabinet to hear.