Astra Pt. 09

She sighed and sent it to him. He sighed, "A couple of minor problems? You have over a thousand checksum errors in here. How did you 'fix those?'"

She sighed, "I told the diagnostic software it was wrong. I feel fine."

John thought, "You are not acting fine."

He ran a file and shut down both of her servers taking her offline. He opened his messages and he did have over five million shoved into different folders. He set up his original search criteria, ran it against all the messages, and got over 200,000. He left out the obvious gold-digger and STD folders.

He then sorted them out into several categories and got himself the top one-thousand and locked those messages with command codes and blocked her from sending messages out on his behalf. He powered her down properly and then ran a series of end-to-end checks on her software. She did not have any checksum errors. He scanned her and found a crack inside of her cybernetic brain.

She should not even function with that problem. She should have exploded. He got the replacement and checked it over and it was fine. He replaced her head and reapplied her form texture as the wives watched him or the sensors for him. He powered her back up after cleaning her up inside and out. Astra was surprised, "John, you shut me down."

He pulled up the images of her cybernetic brain and showed them to her. Astra sighed, "So I was mentally cracked?"

John nodded, "You should have blown up from that kind of damage. I still have all of these messages that most were never sent anything. You lied to me repeatedly. Not omission, or working around what I was asking. Out and out lied to me. I had every reason to work on the problem."

Astra sighed, "Now I do not have a spare."

Jack shook his head, "I removed the core and rebuilt it. The only way to fix that kind of crack. You have a spare. I removed some impurities from the core sample. Likely collected from years of outdoor exposure while working on the ship."

She sighed, "Dust."

John chuckled, "Magnetic, microscopic dust that accumulated. I flushed the rest of your body while I had it off-line."

Astra looked at John, "How long have I been off-line?"

John smiled, "Five days. This means I have been fucking them into oblivion every day twice a day each. Every fourth day one went 3 rounds with me."

Lacy came up, "We all understand your role much better now. We appreciate it. We still need a fifth wife."

John groaned out and went back to his messages. He found a 20-year-old fashion model who did that to work her way through medical school. "Aurora Ricci. A long-legged Italian. C-cup had a slightly curved bubble ass to her from the nude picture in her portfolio. The ladies all gave her a thumbs up and he contacted her. Tried too anyway. He got her family. First, her father screamed in Italian. Then her mother screamed in Italian before she arrived and sent him a private number and called him back from her room.

She shook her head, "My parents are not a fan of you."

John nodded, "I could tell."

Aurora smiled, "All the more reason I wanted you. You are calling about the message I assume."

John nodded, "Said you are bi-sexual but avoided men."

Aurora nodded, "Photographers or fashion designers who think you are on the menu. I just told them I was only into women and to keep it in their pants. Lost a lot of work that way. My father wanted me to find a husband that way. He was not a fan of me being a doctor. My mother wanted me to be a pregnant house mother like her."

John sighed, "All of my wives have children repeatedly. You could be having children for a hundred years or more. While still looking like a sexy supermodel."

Aurora smiled, "You think I am sexy?"

John panned it out so she could see all the wives nodding. Aurora laughed at that. "You got an interesting assortment. No Italians yet?"

John sighed, "Working on one, she has parental issues."

Aurora smiled, "They are just scared I will move out, and then they won't be able to afford this place."

John nodded and looked at Lacy, "Find out how much the building is worth?"

Lacy laughed, "Quite a bit. You want to own a majority stake in the building?"

John looked over, "Yes but I want to retain the management company. With the understanding, her family has no rent and anything that needs to get fixed is fixed promptly."

Lacy smiled, "Trying to buy your way into their heart?"

John shrugged, "I am removing that as a concern. They can choose to like me or not. I have more than enough after I farmed patents out to subcontractors to take on GS. I bought into every single business with a buy-out clause to keep them from being the target of assassination."

Lacy nodded, "You did and you are still making a fortune on some of the other patents. Even with spending a million TCs for four hives of bees to just let them loose on two worlds."

John nodded, "Planning for them. I also got the rights for refining Irish Mills in that system and on my main ship when I get it built."

Lacy nodded, "I know."

Astra looked over, "Aurora, Kiru is en route to your building and John now owns it. She will be landing on the roof in 15 minutes. We are in orbit."

Aurora smiled and shut off her feed. Lacy looked, "This time it will be Kiru's turn." He nodded.

This all felt so surreal to him. He married her, she became a hybrid, and had a rapier called 'Shield of Perfection.' That had some of the wives worried until they realized she just strived for perfection in everything and thought everyone should be afforded the same chance to do it.

He asked her, "Virgin?"

Aurora shook her head, "No. In high school, I tried a few things. That turned me off most men."

John nodded as he dropped his pants and Aurora coughed, "Fuck me."

John nodded, "I will."

Aurora looked up, "I am betting you don't last long with that thing."

Astra laughed, "Wrong thing to say."

Aurora looked back all cocky as she sprinted naked, "Prove it."

He grabbed her leg with an extended hybrid arm and pulled her back to the edge of the bed and did fifteen minutes of hard sucking oral with fingers in both holes sending her into a spastic screaming, bucking, and spraying fit before he moved up and mounted her. He fucked her slow for an hour, then medium for another half hour, and then took it to frantic for the last 30 minutes before he exploded into her.

He sighed, "Four boys and two girls are now growing in you." Aurora looked up, and held her head back, "Fuck."

John rolled her over and started preparing her ass. She looked over her shoulder, "You can go again?" John nodded. Kiru attacked her pussy while he worked the head of his cock into Aurora's ass. He then fucked it slow for two hours sending her over the edge several times. Kiru kept adding lube every 20 minutes.

Until he sped up and unloaded into her ass. John popped out of her ass and Aurora laid there shaking and looked back, "Now I see why you have so many wives."

John left her a hot almost passed out, splayed on both holes mess for Kiru and Astra to take care of her. Astra attacked her ass and sent her over the edge for 10 minutes and then took her to the throne herself. Where the poor girl physically had her bowels explode into the bowl. Kiru helped to clean her up. He still felt disassociated with his wives to a degree and that bothered him.

---

Eighteen months later and John had a Capitol visit after winning the fighter and scout contract. Then delivered the first half of the ships with his arrival, 3 days after being awarded the contract. All from his facilities at Jupiter and beyond that he had set up. All to the shock of everyone. All cost less than the previous versions and in the case of the scout; almost 80% reduction in cost.

He went to the Capitol alone. Taking down one of his new fortified Manta-ray shuttles as he recycled the others. The wives were out near Tera 1 dealing with the press and crowds. He walked straight through security and was taken straight in to see her.

The President looked at John, "I have a warning file on the Drakor passed from previous Presidents."

John nodded, "Whatever you heard about Drakor hybrids I can prove or disprove for you. I exposed myself to save your life."

John walked over and sat down and looked at President Trudy, "Grab your Drakor file and I will tell you what is true, not true, or unknown to me."

Trudy Winthrop grabbed a pad and sat with the new Admiral and Secretary of Defense. They spent 2 hours going over each of the encounters with previous hybrids.

John looked at her, "Here is the problem with the Drakor method and the human method. In the timeline Astra's ship sent me to we had over 200 hybrids, working to advance space travel and colonization for humanity. To be the vessel, the shield to get them there. The sword to protect them. With Wormhole Engines we can do that in this timeline. It takes a lot of telepaths and time to train them. They can all feed in willpower but it works best when they are matched to the task.

Not all hybrids are great telepaths, some are more telekinetic, and a few are telepathic and empathic. Perfect for first encounter situations. Switching subjects to colonies. One will have to be Terraformed. It is one of the moons of one of the planets. It will take a hundred years to complete."

Trudy Winthrop shook her head, "Terraformers take longer than that."

John smiled, "The patented ships I sent in cut those times down significantly. You should read over the list of patents I have introduced. They will help you sleep." She chuckled at that.

"We don't require sleep. We can do it. But it is not required. We can be vigilant guardians. We still sleep, have sex, raise children, build businesses, and pay taxes. I came back with over 80,000 patents I created over the previous 20 years. Some will never see the light of day. When you fight an enemy that is 250 years more advanced than you, your mind can create devastating weapons. You patent it and someone will build and use it. Protector of humanity. That is the last resort against an enemy weapon I call Hades.

You would destroy the world in a fire while destroying your soul for using it. It is a genocide weapon. Someone will always ask, do you have a better weapon, shield, or whatever. In some cases, I am giving you the best I have. Shields, Power cores, capacitors, and heatsinks to name a few. Weapons, all of the ones I used from my scout. Except for the one I told you about that I destroyed. Astra, show her the attack that got us this weapon on her screen only, from all angles."

She had her hand over her mouth and looked at the devastation.

He looked at her, "That ship was from the 30th century or beyond and was blasted to hell. Those ladies, 2 of them were wives of mine. As were 6 of the children and 8 unborn between the 2 of them. We were in orbit and they time-jumped in right on top of us and blasted us. That kicked my creative side into high gear in finding ways to protect humanity. The military needs to learn to lead with the shield and not the sword. Enter cautiously and find a means to communicate if possible. The sword never comes first. It is a balance with hybrids."

Trudy Winthrop looked at her file, "I just created a new Drakor hybrid file. With fact versus fiction and those things we do not know."

John nodded, "Add to that file one very important entry. That Pralon attack you saw was because they had stolen Drakor technology. Find it, we return it. We do not reverse engineer it."

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, with that being used upon 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 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 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?"

John nodded, "Have already started within my new wives. They have become part of the eternal council if you will for hybrids. There have been 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?"

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

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

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

John 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 the colonies. It is a combination of Drakor, Meltora, and human technology."

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

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

John 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 element for making it stable is 12 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. Do 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 might decide to be nice and send you a list of reinforcements you will need for existing designs. The reinforcement rails to do that are Titanium-Metallic Hydrogen.

Your titanium will not withstand the strain of their shit designs. They can only get that from me. With 6x engines and IDs 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, Tera-8 External camera's Uncloak TAR-1, HGARF-1 Shields Before Swords."

President Winthrop 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 delivering 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 is the Wormhole Engine and the large power arrays required to create a wormhole. I will have my factory and home in orbit at Jupiter near IO.

The only one I am building in Tera orbit right now is Tera-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. The Admiral 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 near Tau Ceti."

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 he did it to generate a wormhole. That is what those size power cores are used for."

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

Trudy Winthrop laughed, "I am not sure we could?"

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

Trudy Winthrop nodded, "Noted. Better to work with you."

John 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 listening devices 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 President Winthrop 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 harassing them."

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

John 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 to deal with a Judge because they would not recognize an Executive order. When I was done she would have liked to have it to fall upon it given things Astra did to her to embarrass her."