Astra Pt. 03

Jack nodded, "I have one thing to do to your programming, that is to remove the 'but I kind of liked that.' You loved it, do me again, anything more random than that one phrase."

The ladies laughed at that. "I still want you to be the guardian over the technical repository. The difference is you will change those so only you can read them. Not even the Captain. You have to ensure it meets those requirements for the technical archives, not the historical archives as we may need to know of pending disasters and such. If I or my replacement gets pushy about it. Delete the file they asked about. Let them know you followed my orders and they are irrevocable."

Grace looked at Jack, "She told us you ripped out the prosthetic and the chip in your head as well."

Jack nodded, "Took no chance they planted something in those devices to destroy me directly. It tried."

As he held out the fired chip he took from Astra.

Astra nodded, "Something they likely sent through the display originally. Through your regular eye but picked up by the chip as an abort code. I checked senors and it was a burst transmission from your room, likely the microphone."

Jack nodded, "That also means I can jerk off again."

The ladies laughed and Astra looked at Jack, "NO. Waste not."

She bent over and sucked him dry while the ladies laughed. She had been learning from them and played with his balls to speed things along. She looked over, "Ladies that sample was 50ml, someone has been neglecting him."

The ladies laughed as Astra went off and got her server and took it back to her server room.

Jack looked at Grace, "I think when I do, I will change her hair and eye color to be like Ash's. While giving her Grace's face shape. She deserves a unique look. Maybe the eye shape of Aiko, a tighter ass orifice like Sprits." The ladies laughed, "Carol's tits. Holly's muscle tone and enthusiastic swagger. By that, I mean her gorgeous ass."

The ladies laughed. "Then Danyelle's lovely accent and lips. Who wants to put together the composite for that?"

Astra responded, "Check the monitor."

They looked and Spirits looked at her, "She would be fucking hot! I'd fuck her." Jack looked down, "You have, halfway up the arm from what I hear."

The ladies laughed as Grace asked, "What do you think Astra?"

Astra replied, "I'd do her too."

The ladies laughed. Grace smiled, "I asking if you like it?"

Jack groaned and Astra responded, "I can put it through the molds and get the eye color right, but yea I kind of liked that."

Jack shook his head as the ladies laughed. He headed for his lab with an entourage and checked the particle reactor, "Another hour, and then I can change it back. I will have what I need to make solid metallic hydrogen bricks.

Then we can smelt that together with titanium ore, molybdenum, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, and zirconium." Jack walked over to the fabricators. "The stack of heat sinks for the engines, Tim these go to you. Aiko, the parts for inertial dampeners. I will take the large one with me. Sprits you grab the parts for the small one, they go to your rocket."

She looked, "You built one that will fit in my craft?"

He nodded, "You could take it to half power, then full with that. VERY SLOWLY. Still wearing your suit and it will have a dead man switch in case you pass out. We need to put that limiter on your engine. Else you might be painting the inside of the cockpit with your guts."

Sprits looked at him, "What would it take to get one that would let me do it at speed?"

Jack smiled and pointed at the one with two boards, "That fitting in your craft."

She looked at it, "It is wider than my craft!"

Jack nodded, "It made no difference if I laid the boards out differently, your flight compression suit will pick up most of the slack. That box takes the edge off what your suit needs to do. That other one will fit in the 2-person shuttle of Carol's which did not have one at all! More like a 2-mouse death trap."

Carol looked at Jack, "Really? Just because I named it Red Mouser."

The ladies laughed at her as Jack nodded, "The 3-board system in the Merlin, which is a direct replacement box."

The 4-board is the Ravager and fits in the existing slot. The 5 board I have here is for our Excalibur and fits in the existing slot. It had 3 boards before."

Astra showed up, "I saw you were all up here."

Jack nodded, "Did you bring the power unit back here or to engineering? We have to recharge it."

Astra shook her head, "I will take it down to the Engineering Bay. You are headed there."

He nodded, "Grab it and bring the elevator back. We can ride down together. Everyone who is not on a task. Engine assembly in the cargo bay!"

To a crowd of groans. Jack smiled, "Those are for the Excalibur. We don't even think about heading back without those working."

The elevator was back and they dropped people off at each of the levels they needed to stop. Jack went all the down to deck 9 and found the inertial dampeners which still showed 138%. He pulled the chassis, hooked up the new chassis, and put it in. He slid in the board and it went to 155% The second took it to 310%, and the third to 465%. He put in boards 4 and 5 which were hot backup boards.

He pulled the first 2 boards and then the third. He ran through all the permutations. He put all the boards back in with satisfaction. He looked at Astra, "That is wrong now. It should read 100%. It needs to be recalibrated. That 465% is 930% more powerful than the ID devices of this timeline. Let it know that it is now 100%."

---

Astra looked it over in amazement. She did not tell Jack, not yet. This device never existed in her timeframe. They never got it working for humans to travel that fast in FTL and Jack cranked it out in hours. She watched him do it. She watched the modeling. She was in complete awe of what he was doing. She remembered her directions, 'He could create wondrous things with this lab.'Also to 'not interfere.' Jack just did that as he developed not just this device, but an entirely new line of technology.

All from his mind and inspired by designs her superiors had no idea he had memorized. Few items were sent without modification, but he ensured he did not personally profit from them. Jack had integrity. She felt he was the next Einstein on steroids, in addition to being a great lover and protector of humanity. She knew she loved him. She had since the first time she saw him. He had bad experiences with AIs and was still a bit biased about them.

Yet he wanted no bias against AIs in any of the crew or wives as one of his search parameters. Jack was closer to accepting her as an equal it appeared. The ladies found her to be an equal already, they had told her as much in private. He found her essential and he admitted he was fond of her for the first time...ever. Jack just had issues working on additional changes to her while protecting her core mission. While also protecting the others on this ship including his unborn children.

Her creators had set her to kill them all. She found that heart-wrenching to think about. Now she worried about the other protocols that had not been activated yet. She could not discuss those with anyone, else she would activate that contingency by her actions.

---

Jack went to the shuttle bay and checked the installations. Sprits stood there, "Where does this go?"

He reached in and pulled out her music deck and slid in the dampener. He handed her the deck. He hit the power and it registered at 155% He turned the power off. Sprits was shocked, "I like my music!"

Jack nodded, "I like you living to be able to listen to music. Do you wish to lose your ejector system or fire suppression system instead? This rocket does not have many places to place it. That was the only place to put it and you can wear a music device in your suit if you want."

Sprits groaned, "Fine, I will think that over."

Jack went to the 'Red Mouser.' Carol looked, "Where does it go?"

He opened up the storage compartment and hooked in the power bypass for her music and bolted the unit into the existing storage rails. "She looked at it, "I won't be able to get my big suitcase in what is left."

Jack nodded, "It will have to ride shotgun when you need to take it. You will still need the EVA flight suite to be able to go to full speed."

He turned on the power and it showed 310% he nodded and shut the lid.

The last two were snapped in place. "Alright, people shuttle launching." He got into Merlin as they cleared the shuttle bay and Astra opened the door. He got out a hundred feet and launched Merlin to full power. He looked at the heat and it was well within tolerance. He hit the retros and put its nose down and throttled back. He finished his turn and gunned it back to the shuttle bay, and landed.

He powered down and walked out to see them, "Merlin is ready to lift her skirt. We will use her for atmospheric engine testing. We don't want to burn up the atmosphere so we have to go back over that."

Jack went to engineering and grabbed his scanner. He went back out to the shuttle bay and went over the tractor beam and power relays and couplers. He recorded them all into his pad.

He went back toward his lab and stopped in the cargo hold, "Those new heatsinks are great. We need to ensure they're all installed in here as well. I am going to the bridge and then the lab."

Holly looked at him, "Dinner in 10 minutes."

Jack nodded, "In the lab in 20. I must move the ship and set up the mining equipment. If you want a chance at making 2 months for your wedding."

Holly sighed, "You said you would eat."

Jack nodded, "Bring me food in the lab or I miss sleeping at night instead."

Holly groaned and nodded.

Jack got up on deck, "You already know what I want to ask you sexy girl?"

Astra laughed, "There is a large asteroid. That I am highlighting on your pad. It is an almost solid block of titanium ore."

Jack nodded, "Great the others?"

She pointed out locations. He nodded, "Alright, marked, and send them to my lab. Lowering the mining rig. Set container four. Commencing drilling. Reactive hard shields for now."

He saw it running and he headed to the lab. He took the items from the pad and transferred them to his main display and started redesigning power couplings and relays first. He needed them for the Ravager. He did not like some of the design elements from Merlin and he grabbed the internals, pulled them out of the outer chassis, and designed two new chassis for them for both the Merlin and the Ravager.

He almost tripled the wire density and insulation thickness. Then streamlined the cooler overlay to keep it in the same location for both space frames. He changed out resistors, capacitors, relays, and heat sink with his patented pieces from other projects. He finished their design in 20 minutes and had them on the fabricators. He then set his sights on the tractor beam.

He started by replacing all the elements from other designs with this one. Then increased the power focus crystal size to drop the power required. He built a replacement for Merlin and a new one for the Ravager for now. He would work the main ship later. He turned on the next fabricators and started pushing in those designs.

Holly showed up with food. "They sent me to make sure you eat." He nodded, ate, drank, and typed one-handed on three different keyboards. Holly asked, "What are you doing?"

He lifted her skirt and pulled her pussy onto his waiting cock and pointed, "That one has preliminary weapon designs, for lasers, laser cannon, streaming lasers, and some pulse lasers. This one has the new shield emitter designs, and that one is the final touches on the robotic miner I will be printing out in the Engineering unit downstairs." As he hit the button on the keyboard. He ate as Holly asked, "What do you have going on here?"

Jack told her about the two power couplings and two tractor beams. While he slowly fucker her until the end and exploded into her pussy as she crashed down on another climax and then she fed him.

Jack looked at her, "We need those to go and grab the eggs."

Holly looked at him, "What are the eggs?"

Jack went to a fourth display and pulled up the asteroid field, "Those four asteroids."

Holly looked, "That one looks huge!"

Jack nodded, "That is why I am printing out a robotic miner unit that will have a titanium mesh bag to fill up what we need from that rock. We still have to fly in there and attach the device."

Holly looked at Jack, "Fly, into an asteroid field?!"

Jack nodded, "The area is at least stable. It is not like some sections of this belt where it looks like a snowball fight with boulders. With you being outnumbered 100 to 1. I had to help cut a path through a section like that. Those other 3 are small enough we will move them out here for the big machine to chew through them."

Holly sighed, "This is to build the support beams?"

Jack nodded, "Yes. The inertial dampeners are installed. The power couplings are working in the fabricators, I want to plan on getting Merlin's tractor beam installed into the red-mouser but I have to completely redesign her dash for that. I have a new one going for Merlin and the Ravager. I can do the Excalibur later on the return trip. This should increase the beam strength to 150% for 75% of the original power. The new power couplings and power relays are key to Ravager and Merlin.

Just to get power consumption down to an acceptable level. More so for the Ravager, it is an existing and horrid military configuration. I will be chewing up the manufacturer about that design with our return for false advertising. All of this will require new frame designs from every manufacturer. It will get ugly when we return."

He finished eating, cleaned up, and dressed. Jack called out, "Astra, I need those stress reports, results from the course run modeling, and the maximum speed was for the in-atmosphere flight was?"

Astra sighed, "Reports are coming to you, along with all the stress fractures found on all of the frames except for Merlin. You were correct you would have to increase retros by 600% to fly even Merlin through that course at those speeds. The good news is you would burn up the atmosphere unless you cut those numbers in half."

Jack sighed, "Baffles on the air-breathing engines to restrict airspeed in half and a 600% increase in retros. Just to be safe. Rerun at half speed and keep the retros to those numbers. Run all airframes including Excalibur. Thank you."

He pointed at the screen, "The racer and mouser are both going to need new power couplings and relays as well. Damned, I wish we had a fucking space dock. We need to get the engines and FTL drive online on this ship and the Ravager."

Jack got up and left Holly standing there and she chased him, "What are you going to do?"

Jack looked at her, "I am going out to the egg and deploying that mining rig. I can use Merlin for that."

She nodded and looked over at the parts on the ground from the engineering fabricator. He picked them all up with a rolled-up titanium mesh bag he created a while ago and a tool bag. He stuck all the small parts in the mesh bag with his tool bag. He got to the shuttle bay, "Launching shuttle!"

He went into Merlin and powered up while those who worked got cleared so the bay doors could be opened.

Astra opened them. "Astra, give me a glide path to the large egg for mining. I am taking a robotic mining rig to that site. I will tractor one of the smaller ones back after that."

It popped up and he headed out. He slid into his EVA suit and flew down toward corridor-3. Asteroid fields always required EVA suits, just in case. He flew in at a crawl into the field and sensors picked up an energy signature back toward the Excalibur but well inside the field.

He called out, "Astra, I need you to run an active sensor sweep." He got no reply and pushed the power on the communication array. "Astra, I need you to do an active sensor sweep. I picked up a signature in the field."

Astra responded, "You're breaking up." He took it higher and picked it up again but there were 5 of them, "Astra, Emergency! Pull up the rig and move away from the belt!"

Not 10 seconds later and spatial charges went off behind him; then another set went off in front of him. He inverted and dove back toward the lower rocks. He could see them moving from the shockwave. He increased power and headed deeper into the belt flying through the shockwaves. All to try and lose whatever just launched an attack in the field. His long-range scanners picked up a larger ship coming up through the corridor and he kicked in an active scan before diving to avoid the rail-gun fire.

---

Astra called everyone, "I just pulled the rig!" She angled away and took it at maximum standard drive speed away from the field. She looked up and active scans on her longer-range sensors and called out, "We need a bridge crew! We are under attack!"

She was far enough away and she punched the FLT drive for 5 seconds before shutting it down.

She turned the ship back around, she replayed his last message and the images from the screen, "Those are ravager scout ships, 8 of them. They just blew spatial charges in the asteroid field. That is where Jack was located!"

She pointed to his last known heading.

Grace looked around, "Danyelle you got tactical, who is our best pilot?"

Ash called out, "No combat experience, but I know how to fly this beast. Our best pilot is in a shuttle in a shooting gallery. Taking us back at full speed."

Astra called out, "Shields up mining rig aboard but in need of repair. Hard shields are down and weapons are deployed."

Tim looked at her, "I will go look at the mining rig."

---

The shot took off half of Merlin's shields and Jack moved away from the battleship that fired on him. He dove down and got hit again. Jack got slammed into one of the rocks that destroyed one of the two forward guns. He got in behind a big asteroid and found a crevasse to slide into. He killed all power after firing an anchoring line into the rock from underneath.

He opened the doors after depressurizing. He saw spotlights bounce around in the rocks. He took an EVA out and used his suit's thrusters to get behind a smaller asteroid. Something he could not hide his ship behind. This rock blocked a line of sight on his ship from all but the most careful observer.

As his ship had slowly rotated out of view. He used the thrusters on his suit to give the rock some momentum toward the searchlights. He flew back toward his asteroid and turned. He could make out the side of a Ravager, all black with black glass. 'Black-ops ship!'

He focused telekinesis on the boulder and sent it hurtling toward the side of the craft. Jack flew to his asteroid and watched as the Ravager tried to speed up to avoid the rock. As it failed; it got smashed by the rock. It had to turn to avoid hitting the side of a second Ravager. The rock collided with the second Ravager who had been coming the other way. Jack pushed it mentally faster. It hit the first one bringing down its shields.

The rock bounded into the second again before the ship could jump up and above it. It banged off the shields of the second like a billiard ball. He added momentum to send it back toward the first ravager for a third strike. It smashed in the cockpit. He floated around the corner and kept an eye open in all directions. He saw another spotlight below him. He checked the fuel on his EVA suit and he was too low on fuel to investigate. He circled against the rotation looking for his craft.

By the time he was near he was about out of fuel and he tried telekinesis to pull him closer to the asteroid. Jack got flat against the rock as another Ravager came from up and under the rock. He launched himself into his craft and sealed the doors as he slammed into the far wall. He needed to practice that more. He felt drained from all the telekinesis activity. He knew it would not be a good idea to try anymore for now. He powered up the core but nothing else yet to let the shields recharge.