Galactic Storm: An Alicia Jones Novel 05

  Galactic Storm

  An Alicia Jones novel 05

  Author: D. L. Harrison

  Copyright 2017. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

  Table of Contents:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Afterword:

  About the Author

  Other books by D. L. Harrison:

  Book Description

  Chapter 1

  I looked in the mirror indecisively. Green eyes, platinum blonde hair, and unblemished skin looked back at me, and I hated it. I had on white high heeled sandals, and a light blue sundress with white, brown, and red flowered designs. I still felt a pinch of guilt at the idea of my date with Bill, it had only been a couple of months since Nathan’s death.

  Bill was an old friend, the first man I’d kissed just over ten years ago now, and in about fifteen minutes I needed to be at Mia’s Tex-Mex in Dallas.

  If it had been anyone else besides Bill I wouldn’t have gone, I couldn’t have gone, but when I’d seen him at my parent’s house, we’d had an instant connection based on the warm old memories of all the trouble we used to get in together. Well, that and physical attraction. My indecision at my appearance however, had nothing at all to do with the guilt.

  The anti-alien rhetoric had gotten stronger, so far it was still just a small percentage of the population but they grew bolder and more acidic by the day in the media, which happily gave them airtime to collect more ratings. So there I was, staring at my human face, the one that I grew up with but looked so odd and unfamiliar now.

  I hadn’t wanted to chance a scene tonight, and considered the idea of going like this, but it just felt wrong now, it made me a liar. In the past I hadn’t known who and what I was, but now I did.

  I concentrated for a moment, and my green eyes changed to purple, and my clear complexion developed small spots on the side of my face and neck. It was who I was, and I wouldn’t apologize or hide. Good enough, I walked out of the bathroom, and down the hall. Kristi and Joe sat on the couch, they were staying in tonight, things were getting more serious between them.

  I could see it when I looked at them. I was honestly surprised they hadn’t run off to Vegas to get married yet.

  “Well, how do I look?” I asked in a cheery tone I didn’t feel.

  Joe gave me a thumbs up from the arm he had around Kristi’s shoulders, and said, “Great,” but his eyes hadn’t even left the television.

  Men!

  I snickered instead of getting angry about it.

  Kristi looked up at me critically for a moment.

  “Are you that nervous? You look fabulous of course, go knock his socks off.”

  I frowned and stuck out my tongue, “It’s a first date, socks and other articles of clothing will be staying on.”

  She rolled her eyes, “That was a bad joke, even for you.”

  I raised an eyebrow, “It’s also the truth,” but maybe I was reminding myself of that? Bill and I had history, this was far from a normal first date where I hardly knew the guy. I’d grown up with him and I might be tempted if things went really well.

  I added, “As for being nervous, it’s a mix of things. Media, Billy… Bill, and guilt about…” I trailed off knowing she’d get it.

  She nodded understandingly, “I get it, it’s too early, but you’re afraid you’ll miss your chance to reconnect if you put him off. Go, eat a fajita for me, and keep it casual for now. If he’s the right one, he’ll wait.”

  “How do you know what I’m getting?” I asked curiously.

  She snorted in disbelief, “You always get the fajitas when you get Mexican. Except for that burrito place.”

  Right. I supposed I did.

  I went out through the garage, and jumped into the sports shuttle. I couldn’t exactly ask him to come pick me up, so I was meeting him at the restaurant courtesy of sub-orbital velocities.

  “Let’s go Al,” I said softly as I closed the door.

  “On our way,” he replied in a voice that sounded almost human.

  Ever since Al had been upgraded to the new A.I. matrix he acted more and more to my needs before I even asked, and tracked things for me that I didn’t even know about because he thought I was interested. Since he designed, built, and transferred himself to a quantum computer his changes had sped up even more, the most notable thing though had been his voice.

  I supposed he had enough cycles to waste now on adding subtleties to his speech.

  He took us out of the garage, and then shot straight up into orbit. It took about ten seconds, but only because we had to stay under Mach one while under ten thousand feet.

  Then he moved us over Texas, and brought us down just as fast. In less than a minute we were in the parking lot and I was five minutes early. I could probably fly it myself in a pinch, but he did a lot of things to make it seem that simple.

  It really wasn’t though.

  There were a lot of adjustments to fields and such in a fast sub-orbital flight, he also took care of air traffic control in both cities so no one would panic. I wondered if Bill was here.

  Al said diffidently, “Bill is here, I detect his vehicle nearby, and his phone’s GPS puts him inside the restaurant.”

  I narrowed my eyes, if I didn’t know better I’d say Al was starting to read my mind. Sometimes his anticipation of my needs was borderline creepy. Still, I didn’t think he’d be taking over the world anytime soon like on some bad Sci-Fi movie.

  I opened up the door on the small shuttle, got out, and headed inside.

  It didn’t take me long to find Bill, he was seated already and I met his eyes from across the room, he’d obviously been watching for me. The cornerstone of his soul was steady, solid, loyal, and so different from the wild young boy I remembered. Although enough mischief remained in his core that he seemed familiar, and I suspected he was still fun loving and didn’t take himself too seriously when not on the job. People were complicated though, and that was just a guideline.

  I also caught his excitement and nervousness at our date, and his attraction to me around the edges. In the parts of the soul that changed in different situations. Some would call it cheating, but it was good to know he felt similarly to how I did.

  I walked over, and couldn’t help but smile as he obviously approved of my dress, not crudely so, I could just read it in his soul. He wasn’t at all bothered by me being an alien either, I’d have seen it.

  I slid into the seat across from him with a relaxed smile.

  He was dressed casually and looked pretty damned good himself. Strong jaw, wide shoulders, a friendly smile, and warm brown eyes. He may have been a responsible man and police officer now, but I could still see a bit of mischief in his eyes, just like I had in his soul.

  “Hey Bill, I’m early,” I smiled brightly.

  I truly couldn’t help it, he was comfortable already, like pulling on an old comfortable shirt, so different yet the same.

  He smiled at me knowingly, “You never were one for bein
g late, not even when we were planning mischief. You look amazing tonight Alicia.”

  “Thanks, you clean up rather well yourself. So I’ve been dying to know, a cop?”

  He chuckled, “It’s a long story…”

  He trailed off as our waiter came and took our order. I did wind up getting the fajitas, and Bill ordered enchiladas. When the waitress left he took off where he left off.

  “I managed to grow a little responsible by the time college came around, but not quite responsible enough. I was a little late registering for my courses in my second year, and a lot of the electives were full. So I had a choice between AJ101 or something even worse to fill out my credit requirements to stay on track to graduate. Turned out by the end of the semester, I liked that course even better than my original major, so I switched majors my third year.”

  He looked around conspiratorially to make sure no one was listening, and said in a deep voice, “Plus, they give out guns.”

  I chuckled for a good few seconds and then asked skeptically, “Now, why do I believe that second part, and not the first at all?”

  He laughed, “Because you’re as smart as you are beautiful, and can see a snow job from a mile away. The truth is it just appealed to me, I chose it when the high school threw one of those cheesy career day things and haven’t regretted it since.”

  He added in a wistful voice, “It’s really good to see you. So what do you get up to, besides saving the world I mean?”

  “I run a research company with my best friend from college. I get to play with technology, and I help other inventors that I think will make it.”

  He nodded and looked interested, “You must do amazing things. I know about the gravity ball thing, the department has a few and familiarized all of us with them. Terrible name though.”

  I smirked in agreement, “I agree, but I haven’t come up with a better one yet. At least it’s descriptive.”

  He asked curiously with a tinge of hope, “So, You’re single right?”

  I shrugged and smiled mysteriously, “Ask me again later, it depends on how well tonight goes.”

  They brought out the food and we chatted lightly about the past while we ate. The night went well, almost too well. Talking to him was as easy as breathing, we didn’t even resort to work talk very much. Probably because I couldn’t really share my research, and he didn’t want to talk about arresting people, but that wasn’t a problem. We had enough to talk about and catch up on without that.

  Hours passed as we talked, which probably annoyed the waiters, but we didn’t care.

  When our dinner date was finished, he walked me out to the shuttle, and kissed me lightly on the cheek. It was sweet, and I was torn between being disappointed and thankful that he hadn’t given me a full on kiss. I reminded myself I wanted to take it slow, but my body wasn’t paying much attention to my mind, and had other ideas.

  He asked tentatively, “Would you like to get together next Friday night?”

  I smiled and then bit my bottom lip to help stop the glowing grin that wanted out, there was no need to appear overly eager.

  “Sure, what did you have in mind?”

  He replied, “I’d like to cook dinner for you. I’m still at the same house, bought it from the parents when they moved to Arizona.”

  I returned his kiss, on his cheek despite my desire to do otherwise, and whispered, “Sounds nice, I’ll see you then.”

  I smiled and said goodnight, and then got into my shuttle and headed back to Colorado...

  Chapter 2

  It was still Saturday night, and I wouldn’t see him for six days. I supposed I could live with that, it would give me time to process our date and get it all straight in my head. I planned to go over a few work things before I turned in for the night, when Al interrupted me.

  Al said, “Dr. Cindy Delouse sent you a counter offer earlier tonight.”

  I closed my eyes and thought about that for a moment. I’d offered Dr. Delouse a place in the company using the same salary plus a higher percentage ownership of the IP than a normal grant would give. Cindy worked on a new technology that would literally implant memories directly into the mind. Although dubious about it at first, the advantages to training, schooling, and keeping up with the technologies in a professional’s field of study, or career, would be enormous.

  “Al, does she have concerns about the deal? What differences are there?”

  I was being a bit lazy, I should’ve brought up the suggested contract on my overlay, but Al would find all the differences quickly and easily.

  Al replied, “No, the IP rights and percentages are unchanged, as is the salary. The only difference is that she wants to stay in Texas. Not only because of family, but apparently she needs access to animal testing. She feels it makes more sense to continue on in the current facility, when this building does not have the permits or facilities for that.”

  I nodded slowly as I thought it through. It would probably be cheaper to continue renting the space for her than it would be to upgrade our facilities. Unless I expected to hire more people that required animal testing, it didn’t make sense to do it.

  “Can you run the numbers, and verify her staying in Texas is more cost effective, if so approve the changes and notify both her and myself.”

  Al replied, “Done, the acceptance has been sent off.”

  I frowned in thought, even his new computer wasn’t that fast, “You already had the research done didn’t you?”

  Al said, “Yes, I anticipated a ninety-eight point four percent chance you would ask for it.”

  “I see, thank you Al.”

  I shook my head in disbelief as he replied rather warmly, “Your welcome Alicia. I should also tell you that Jason Matthews has accepted, and plans to start on Monday morning. Karen is aware of his arrival, and will get him set up.”

  “Anything else?” I asked bemused. He was acting more and more like a true assistant, I hadn’t asked him to inform Karen, or do any of that. Of course, it was implied since I made Jason an offer, but the old Al wouldn’t have figured that out.

  He cleared his throat, “The Knomen colony worlds and the Omarans have sent you an invitation to visit their planets and join a rally of sorts to speak out against the upcoming genocide against the Bug race. They want you at the Knomen colony first for a couple of days, and then you’d move on to Omara with a Knomen delegation. Several others would meet you there, including delegations from Tressia, Leira, and the other eleven worlds that are protesting these actions and urging for quarantine instead.”

  He cleared his throat? I wondered if he was taking human affectation too far.

  “That’s something to consider, I’ve been meaning to visit more worlds, I can also get behind the idea. Do we know when that is going to happen? The attacks on the Bug worlds I mean.”

  Al replied, “No data on that, our military seems ready for a big move but they’re waiting for something, perhaps for the Seltan, their fleet is quite a bit more numerous. The Knomen and Omaran’ invitation is for this week. Monday through Thursday.”

  I snorted, “It’s Saturday… Sunday now I suppose,” it was right after one in the morning.

  After a bit of thought I said to myself, “Well, at least I won’t have to cancel my date…”

  I also believed if I did go it would annoy a certain council, and the politicians behind my fall from favor in those halls. I’d like to say I wasn’t that petty, but that prospect did make it more attractive to me. Plus, I really had been meaning to visit other worlds for a while now, but circumstances kept conspiring to keep me here on Earth.

  A lot of our tech was top secret, and stuff like the gravity ball was old hat to most worlds so there was no marketing those things on the trip. However, I was sure we would do well with the repair and maintenance nanites, and the new quantum computers. Those weren’t restricted or military technologies, why restrict our sales to just Earth on those? I was sure Caroline and Shelly wouldn’t mind the extra income.
>
  There also might be a market for Carmine’s terraforming as well, although truthfully most of the new worlds, fifteen that Earth new about, were already claimed. Thing was, I had thousands in my personal database from the scans Al ran in subspace. Right now the probes were just visiting the most likely places, G type stars, when there were less optimal systems that could still support human life with a little help.

  I’d hold off on that for now though, I wasn’t sure if handing out worlds for cash was a good plan. Plus, I was still determined to keep a lid on that technology, the only other person that even knew about the subspace technology was Kristi, and my A.I. knew of course. I supposed Kristi’s A.I. did as well. I didn’t want to have to explain how I’d found all those worlds.

  The weird thing about keeping a secret was it sometimes made a person a bit paranoid. The government worried me. It wasn’t just the genocide, it was all the steps they’d taken to disarm me and cut me out of things. I could understand it on some level, I was no longer an admiral, I was also an alien even if I was also a citizen. Still, it annoyed me, I’d done nothing to earn their skepticism. Well, minus holding back the new tech, but they’d cut me off first.

  That thought made me feel a bit childish, but it was also true. The potential for harm with subspace technology was terrifying, I wouldn’t hand it to a government I couldn’t trust.

  “Al?”

  “Yes Alicia?”

  I sighed, “Do you think you still need a full backup system? If so I want you to build a secondary mini-mainframe for the lab ship, and transfer your backup there out in the void. I don’t want any data on subspace technology on the planet, not even in here in our own labs. Once your backup is moved, scrub the local systems.”

  Al replied, “The quantum processor seems very stable. However, I’ll do what you said, it seems prudent to have a full backup. Should I also arrange the same for Kristi’s A.I.?”

  “Yes Al, do it,” and let’s all hope I’m just paranoid. I’d made other plans as well, in case Earth’s leaders had truly turned on me, instead of merely de-clawing my ships and cutting me out of the loop, but I decided to hold off for now on the rest.