Astra Pt. 09

The Admiral looked, "We need to."

John sent him the images of the Pralon attack, "Instead of them. Instead of ships. This world, in a world war and that being used on every major city. We are not ready for that technology. We have a lot of growing up as a species to get to the point to handle that properly. Else, we may well destroy ourselves or the Drakor will do it for us for stealing it from them."

He backed down, "They kicked our ass you want us to stand aside?"

John sighed, "I want you to learn. They gave humanity gifts in biotechnology to increase the intelligence of our population and for us to make our own choices. But they set rules up. Hybrids never made it to the rendezvous twice and other humans did. Destroyed humanity. I have already taken care of that aspect.

Now they are letting us know our society needs to be tolerant of the hybrids in the population. The hybrids must be true to their nature. That is why it is first in every colony charter.

All three colony charters were approved. The legal briefs outlined the fact that every colony would have its own government. One of those is Mixtios which only has hybrid law. It will defer humans in the Home Guard to the jurisdiction in which the crime was committed if it meets the justice provision on Mixtios.

The top hybrids screw up and the Drakor will kill them directly. They normally ride over all other hybrids directly. We are different because we have our own justice hybrids; unheard of in their experience. They expect us to keep the balance and deal with any that become rogues. Hybrid law. If they are or have committed an irredeemable act, then they are killed.

I have killed 4 in the other timeline. If I had not the Drakor, Justice Incarnate would have killed me."

He sent the accord meeting back to both and words of the Drakor at that meeting. She looked across, "You will be making more?"

He nodded, "Have already started within my new wives. They have become part of the eternal council if you will for hybrids. There are others since I started this. We are killable, and accidents can happen. But age does not catch up with us. We keep having marriages, wives, and families over the years. Not all of them become hybrids. In my past timeline it was 1 in 4 who asked and 1 in 12 it was permitted.

That was 15 hybrids being my children out of 180; they are required to make that choice at 18. One-shot, yes or no. Never to be asked or granted after that. Those that are not suited are denied. If we are going to do this to protect our colonies, we must have Wormhole Engines and no hybrid will deal with politics.

Military or civilian. That is why we must stay true to our nature and avoid compromising our values. Have I shown myself to be anything other than what I have told you?"

She shook her head, "You have been very forthcoming with painful subjects. You keep on working through those past issues."

He nodded, "Do you object to my approach to things?"

She sighed, "I wish we did not have an alien driving this decision."

He smiled, "I am driving this decision to ensure we stay a course to keep out of this one alien species wrath. The one that led with gifts. I can even set up long-range communication between here and colonies. It is a combination of Drakor, Meltora, and human technology."

She nodded, "In that context, I do not object. Admiral?"

The Admiral looked over, "You are going to continue this with our fleet?"

He sighed, "The patents continue to go out. I have or will set up more companies to compete against GS when the other contracts come up. They can buy from these companies but I will eventually come after their other contracts to build the airframes I have shown you.

I am the only one who can. They are made with Solid Metallic Hydrogen and titanium in an alloy. The elements for making it stable is 12.25 light-years away and my scout can get to it. The metallic hydrogen I know how to mine. There will be enough in circulation to make it more affordable.

I took it from 800 Million TC's a bar to 800 Thousand TC's a bar and I was just getting started to take it even lower. With your fighters and scouts, I did not charge for the Metallic Hydrogen. I built it at titanium costs. You want to see something painful.

Watch GS's first attempts at using the new engines with the new ID boxes and their airframes folding. I will be nice and send you a list of reinforcements you will need for existing designs. The rails to do that are Titanium-Metallic Hydrogen. Your titanium will not withstand the strain.

With 6x engines and ID's those frames will fail.

I cannot reinforce them to handle those loads at all. They would have to be all-new Air Frames. I did reinforcements for 5x speeds but I have given you 6x system drives. I bought the rights to build a station at Titan, and IO. A new station will be built at Jupiter as well. I will be living aboard my mobile research facility. Astra, Terra-8 External camera's Uncloak TAR-1, HGARF-1 Shields Before Swords."

She watched the screen and saw the image come into focus of a Katana II class battleship. She stared at it, "You built one."

John smiled, "More than one. The others are guarding my other Dry Docks. They are officially proto-types. They guard over my production facilities until the contract comes up to start to deliver battleships; that is the next one in 8 years.

By then I will have enough ships to replace your entire fleet ready. The others are not Katana II but Katana class ships. The difference being the Wormhole Engine and large power arrays required to create a wormhole. I will have my factory and home in orbit at Jupiter. The only one I am building in Terra orbit right now is Terra-8 which will be my commercial port in earth orbit.

I might do another if GS is still around and bidding on them. I want them buried."

The Admiral looked at John, "Why do you hate this company so much?"

John sent it all to him mentally including 400 years without innovation. He sighed, "One big vendor will screw us in the end."

John smiled, "It did twice before. Astra, send him a count of every lawsuit filed against GS in the last 300 years."

Astra responded, "Averages out to 48.543 a day. More recently. 90% deal with power cores."

John stood up, "Show them the one catastrophic failure of a power core that occurred and what it took to destroy one of my cores. Show them Merlin's destruction."

Astra sighed and they watched the video as Astra spoke, "One of his wives was flying it. The meteor was traveling at 9x speed and just folded the ship. He is running 3x 500-terawatt power cores multiplexers on his scout. Not for weapons. It did boost their power but to generate a wormhole. That is what those size power cores are used for."

He looked over, "Do I need an escort out or am I being detained?'

She laughed, "I am not sure we could?"

He ran his arm through the table and out for her. "Only me, No other hybrid I have known can do that. But I can."

She nodded, "Noted. Better to work with you."

He nodded. "I am trying to be your best ally. When we are in orbit, I will have Astra put a net over the Capitol.

Right now, you probably have guards catching people left and right trying to bring new ones in. Astra feature. They explode after going through a security checkpoint so you find those who do. Get blood samples on everyone who does because some of those are alien."

She nodded, "Adding a note on that to my Security Service as I just got a bulletin from them about people catching fire at the security checkpoint. Finding a bunch of failed devices."

John walked to the door and the President called out to him, "Thank you for taking the extraordinary effort to show me you came to save my life. Can you truly make your sword out of anything?"

He shrugged, metal, mineral, and I have not tried wood. Remember they are shields first and they tell your people who can just make one anyway so no sense in hassling them."

She chuckled, "You are telling me they are a business card first."

He nodded, "Exactly what I am saying. One of the tenants is to embrace the sword. Become a master at it. But they are more than attack they are also defense. That is why we do not voluntarily surrender it or leave it behind. I left it once with my wife in order to deal with a Judge because they would not recognize an Executive order."

---

John was attacked days later by stealth battleships and scouts. Coming back from a contractor meeting aboard his scout with Lacy. They attacked shortly after take-off. His communications being jammed. He had 4 scouts trailing him and firing. He took them out near the south pole to be met by 6 stealth battleships. He cut hard and headed toward but in front of Terra-7.

---

John kicked it up to 6x speed as he saw some of his weapons being fired; he had not designated a weapons contractor other than himself yet. He wanted to see if they stole his engines and Id systems as well. They all accelerated to keep pace. Shortly thereafter they all became visible and his rear-projection cameras picked up the explosive decompressions and 10 ships going dark.

John called out, "Terra-7 this is TSM-158475 wishing to declare an emergency for 10 ships headed in your direction from the south pole area. They appear to have all suffered from structural damage. 6 battleships and 4 ravager scouts with stealth technology. They were all firing on me. I got a case of patent infringement going here. For every engine, Inertial dampeners and weapons aboard each of those crafts. Request the assistance of the Terran Military."

He heard back, "How did you damage 10 craft?"

John laughed, "I did not. They stuck technology into an airframe incapable of supporting it as is. They just fucked 10 ships trying to follow and shoot me. They took out 80% of my first shield so I switched to a secondary. They have too much damage to make an atmospheric landing. 4 of them are free-falling toward you and I will work to slow their fall but a few more ships with tractor beams would be helpful."

He looked back as he knew Astra was in orbit near Terra-8 on his cloaked battleship, "Astra shut down self-destruct, and encrypt weapons controls. Also, lock shuttle bay doors." He arrested the fall when 3 terra battleships and 5 scouts showed. "Lacy get me an investigative team that has been looking to get the goods on GS for a while. I want all of the technology on those ships checked against my patents."

Astra called out, "Medland Investigations. They have had the best luck against them."

He nodded, "Get me two good law firms because I am suing the hell out of GS. He contacted the Battleship nearest him, "TMB-482 I hereby declare salvage rights on the vessels with no surviving crew. I want the names of all crew members and who they work for.

They have stolen my patents and assumed their airframes could handle the stress. No great surprise that these 10 ships airframes failed."

TMB-482 responded, "That would be a matter for the courts."

He smiled, "Medland Investigations is en route. Those ships are seized for investigation."

He called out, "You cannot make that call."

John laughed, "I have my lawyer next to me and they attempted to murder her as well. The emergency call went into a civilian station. Not a military one. I know it is operated by GS as are the 6 military ones. Terra-8 will be operational in a few months. I will contact the Capitol and get the World Court involved if you cannot comply with the law.

As it was initiated by a civilian station the matter falls into civilian jurisdiction. They are seized. Would you like my lawyer to start quoting case law?"

* Astra, bring in my research facility and decloak it here. Then keep the ships out of the atmosphere.*

John contacted up the Capitol, He saw the operator, She looked at him, "Routing number?"

He sighed, "I do not have one. John Travus is my name. I need to speak with the President as she has 10 ships that are about to be shoved into the atmosphere by her military craft in violation of civilian law as all 10 have had a structural failure."

She sighed, "One moment."

She came on, "What happened?"

He sighed, "I got 10 ships with fake mockups of my patented engines, ID's, and weapons that attempted to attack me. I have a battleship commander who feels civilian law does not matter. The call for assistance was sent through the only civilian space station up here. My Kitana research base, 'Swords before Shields' has just decloaked and is working tractor beams to keep them from pushing them into the atmosphere."

She looked over, "The Admiral has gotten in touch with all of those ship Captains and explained this is a civilian case of patent infringement and they are not authorized to destroy those craft as they are evidence. Who is doing the investigation?"

He smiled, "Medland, I just picked up two high powered law firms as we will find out where these ships were built and seize the production equipment as well. If not the entire facility."

She laughed and shook her head, "They could not have bought the items from a vendor?"

He shook his head, "They are still tooling up for the engines and power cores with no orders from GS. ID systems are 2 weeks out. I just came back from a contractor meeting. Weapons I have not settled on a vendor yet to build them. Who else besides your military would have access to stealth craft with no transponders, no registrations..."

Astra interrupted, "Names are coming in. All GS employees including two Vice Presidents!"

The President looked over, "The GBI is on its way as well. You got industrial espionage charges as well if you got corporate officers captured. What did you hit them with?"

John laughed, "Nothing. I let them take down my first shield to 20%. Switched to secondary and sped up. They tried and failed to keep up. No shots fired from me. This was ALL from structural failures Exactly what I told you would happen if they stuck that equipment in their existing airframes."

He sent her his footage of the carnage as he circled them, He heard, "This is Medland investigation TIS-231, "Who is in charge here?"

John called out, "This is John Travus I contacted you. Well, my lawyer did. They were running with new engines that the patents were released a couple of months ago shortly before the fighters and scouts arrived that I delivered. As well as some weapon patents that are even newer and weapon vendors have not been chosen yet. They butchered the installs but got it right enough to cause catastrophic failure on all 10 craft that fired upon me.

The GBI is also on the way as we know we have two Corporate VP's of GS on these ships attempting to kill me. I was in mid-transit with 2 bodies aboard. That is 2 counts of attempted murder. My lawyer is filling out her statement as she was one of them. We cannot stay here forever."

He heard a chuckle, "I got the battleship commander on the line with me on a sub-channel. We have a shuttle going to each ship to get statements."

John forwarded them all of the communication logs from him, "You have a copy of all communication with Terra-7 and the Battleship Captain who was ready to let them burn up in the atmosphere until I contacted the Capitol.

I just had a conversation with the Admiral about the need for new airframes for those engines. Those frames cannot tolerate the strain. That conversation was at the Capitol a few days ago."

Lacy looked over, "Sent you both our statements. Sending them along with the footage from the internal camera. To the Capitol, The GBI, Medland, and Seven news agencies because they pissed me off!"

The guy from Medland laughed, "Wild one there."

John smiled, "Also my wife and business manager. You got what you need from us?"

He heard, "For the moment. You sent us more data than most."

He smiled, "Will be back soon."

They got aboard the Shields before Swords and headed back to IO. They watched the vid. John sat down with Lacy and got all the legal stuff done that was outstanding and found out they were doing a full-court press on GS systems. The new President of the company could not even get to work now because of the press hounding him and hovering over his home. That was when he saw the GBI knock down the door.

He watched it for another 30 minutes until they brought the man's body out. Self-inflicted was being reported. Their stock tanked by 95% right off the bat with his death, "Is there enough stock to buy and do a hostile takeover and do my accounts support it?" She nodded, "It's Possible. Doing it."

She got it when it fell another 2 % points.

She nodded, "Got it 52% It started going back up after you did that. He looked over, "File we are taking it private." She smiled and nodded, "Get our lawyers all over his estate and the holding of the other corporate officers. Search for hidden holdings Astra." She sighed out, "Fine...get to fucking."

---

John enacted subclauses in his contracts to remove the exclusivity from most of his patents. He did a press conference and informed those out of work about opportunities he had. The ability of small businesses to get a right to manufacture and improve upon the technology he laid the foundation for. 30 small business specializing in different companies came into being.

He bought into all of them after clearing them through Astra. No more than 3 working any one piece of technology. He worked with colleges about innovation but also to pick up courses and degrees in agriculture if they wanted to be a part of a colony expedition. That twisted the schools into a fit as they had to add new courses of study. He got hybrids up to 140 within a year, by that point. 40 on the planet with half of those agents 'known' Including a few young judges.

Congress passed the measure on a two-thirds majority for hybrid law. The first time through. John thought, 'I am getting way too lucky here.'

John had gotten his battleship to Tau Ceti and back again in one day. The next day he pushed his luck and tried to take Goliath, his first dreadnought through the gate. They arrive but lost a third of the right side of the ship, half the pylons and 40 crew dead. The loss of 60 of his fighters. It took a week to get the base to open to release his battleship and scout The Survivor out.

As well as one of the caterpillar systems that would have to work at repairing the systems. He returned to Terra on his battleship to a shocked crowd. He showed them the level of damage from his configuration test and emphasized it would take more telepaths.

He had worried families speaking with their loved ones in the far-off system through the satellite system but none contacted John. He had requested they all be put through to him, yet none came. John went back to his recruiting efforts.

2 years out and the next base called David, for obvious reasons, was taken to the Tau Ceti system. Those who wanted to return home for a visit could swap positions as the repaired dreadnought came out of the dry dock when they arrived.

He had 280 Hybrids on deck the following day when he called for a full expansion of the drive and everyone was ordered into the center section of the ship. As expected, he pushed his luck but not as bad, he lost a tenth of the ship down the left-hand side, 20 fighters, and all four pylons on that side. He took it back to Jupiter for retrofit. He brought the Colossus in dry dock as well,

He added another two power cores per pylon to the Goliath. He redesigned the engine room on the Colossus and added another half-deck and double the number of power cores to the system and increased them to 750 Terawatts each. He added another 60 Hybrids from the reviews and 50 would be on the next trip. He waited for both ships to be finished.

---

Lacy and Kiru were both screaming at him, "Are you fucking crazy? You are going to get yourself killed."