Astra Pt. 03

Vincent smiled, "Show me what you got!"

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

He looked at Jack, "What alloy?"

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

Vincent 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."

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

Vincent 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."

Jack 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 aboard.

She can run you through the models we have and discuss the particulars of the alloy. 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."

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

Jack 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's father. Vincent 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."

Sprits smiled, "We will be alright."

Jack looked at Astra, "Put him through."

President Grendal 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 as it is easier to get into Moscow than LA."

President Grendal 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."

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

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

Jack 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."

Jack 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."

Jack shook his head, "Merlin to Crazy Eights. Are you recording this by chance?"

Crazy Eights 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 30 degrees, and grabbed the fighter. He came to a stop, "Surrender Yankee?"

The fighter pilot sounded indignant, "I am going to light you up!" Jack sighed, "Crazy Eights, your new pilot has earned herself a call sign."

Crazy Eights laughed out, "What call sign, Merlin."

Jack called back, "Death Blossom." He started rotating around with the fighter on the end of the tractor beam.

Jack heard her screaming, "Crazy Eights, 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."

Jack started reversing the spin but released the fighter back into space end over end before 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 Tera-5 with another new flyer."

Jack smiled, "Crazy Eights, did you give the President your feedback?"

Crazy Eights 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 2 new flyers by later and I will show them what they are up against."

Crazy Eights laughed, "Just might get our wing commander to make that recommendation to those 2. I think she is out cold. Wait, I see movement. Not the good kind. She will be cleaning up that cockpit."

They entered the atmosphere 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."

Jack 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.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."

Jack called out, "Tower, bad idea, as this is an armed shuttle. Pad 3 would be preferred."

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

Jack 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."

Jack responded, "You did not give me a new vector, glide path, holding pattern, or even direction. I kept the same direction and flew past you, Capitol Tower. Please put a senior control on who can 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 Capitol Compound to avoid Moscow tower."

He heard, "Merlin this is Capitol Tower senior control Tom Pink. Please land at Pad 3, you know the drill. Sorry for the delay." He flew in sideways and landed on pad 3 with just a hint of a bounce. He handed his swords to Grace. She laughed.

Jack opened the door and the guard went to speak and Jack cut him off, "No sidearms. We know the drill lieutenant."

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

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

He nodded, "Then excellent flying."

Jack 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 listen to people when they come through? On several occasions, we get questioned about it repeatedly."

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

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

He chuckled, "They will be right with you."

Jack 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 the side pouches on his belt. "You check with the President on those if you like."

The other guard came up, "You need to hand those over."

Jack 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."

Jack 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."

Jack smiled, "They were carried by my fiancé in her bag. Now, what would you think they are?"

He looked at Grace and handed them back to her, "Sorry ma'am."

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

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

Jack 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 that was in the front and center. Jack looked at Grace, "This does not look like a meeting."

Grace nodded, "The President 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.

President Grendal 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. What we hope he 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 I was putting patents on technology from the future. I will try and explain it 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. For these first 3 items, I did not charge anything on those devices.

I got the patents to restrict the technology. Make it available but temper it. Giving a 5 billion TC grant. An incentive for a non-business to oversee 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 conscience and I have a gatekeeper. Astra, would you seize control of all the displays in here please so these people can see you. You will note her appearance has changed as I upgraded her frame to this new alloy."

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, who buried this engine. This was the finest drive of that era in my previous timeline. In my expert opinion. 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 propulsion systems to travel to 2.5 times what it is today. Now the drive I submitted, please place that 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 in 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 my swords is the phrase "The Even Hands of Justice' in the Drakor language. I am a very rare 2-bladed wielder in Drakor society.

I will tell you the difference between 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 uses 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 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. All of it for the masses is biotechnology. They wish to close the circle with the hybrids and that action will prevent war with them. It is their approach to diplomacy.

I have kind of gone off on a tangent here but the fact is, I introduced a new technological path. A new way of doing something. I have not stopped the innovation and ideas of the other paths. Instead, I leave it up to the engineers of the future to choose. That is the lesson from the Drakor. You could choose to embrace the people that they selected, and who they made different.

Those who have given you all these gifts. Or you do not to your peril. I know this has failed twice before. Show the headline, Astra. They were killed and they sent a 'Hail Mary.' This was me without the DNA. They were killed, they sent a 'Hail Mary' again but this time with the DNA and orders to spread it around. I don't want there to be a 3rd failure. I did not want 4 centuries where no significant innovation in defense technology comes about because of GS's failures as a company.

I also have talked with the other hybrids and we have no desire to rule the people or even to seek public office. The only exception might be a justice type like me who happens to be a lawyer. They might seek the bench to see justice done from within and without the use of a sword most of the time. I want to also take a moment to discuss what happened yesterday. Mr. Takii did everything wrong when testing. He got careless and reckless.

He took off his EVA suit, he tied down the dead man switch, and he failed to look at the hard video evidence that the modeling tools you used were wrong. We wanted to get you these new engines. But that meant getting you better heat syncs and power relays. A new ID to keep you from getting sprayed against a wall, and the one that people often forget. How do you turn this bus? New retro thrusters. Finally, how do you plan your course when you can only see 20 meters in front of your face.

New sensors. I would put forth the request that those sensors get installed into the Starbases as soon as possible. You will see if a fast mover is coming. Or a hundred of them that might require you to take action. Let me go back to this newfound wealth which was another question thrown at me. What do I need all of this money for? It will go to jobs in orbit. I want to build several space-based drydocks. Retrofitting an engine took no time at all in space, everyone saw this on the holovid.

Then there are the airframes. To get new designs to be effective the first thing you do is have your destroyer and larger ships built in orbit. You won't be able to get the new airframes required off the ground unless you tweak the airborne engines higher. At which point you burn up your atmosphere while getting that large ship into orbit. The air drives are limited because of that safety concern. I am also interested in the colonization of other systems. Tau Ceti is my first goal.

I want to get together with those who are looking to go. I will buy or build the engines and FTL drives. The ID and the upgraded sensors for those ships. I would work to see that they arrive safely. I would model their ship designs to be sure they can handle the stress. A journey of years has no room for the failure we saw occur yesterday on a journey of seconds. Then, in the distant future, look to repeat that same model to another star system. Once we know we are 'safe' from history.

I told this to the President the first time I met him in person. I want to build more mining rigs like the Excalibur. This patent of the rig, with everything in it and set up for others to take to other star systems to ensure the survival of the mission. To see that if a problem does occur a vessel is there that can fix it. Not abandon them. Mr. President this is what you get for ambushing me and asking me to say a few words. It became a thousand plus quickly. Thank you, Everyone."