Minerva: An Alicia Jones Novel 06 Read online

  Minerva

  An Alicia Jones novel 06

  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 One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Afterword:

  About the Author

  Other books by D. L. Harrison:

  Book Description

  Chapter One

  I remember when I used to be a scientist, and not an administrator of an independent world.

  I once again found myself at a podium, my least favorite place in the world. I’d shamelessly tried to get Kristi to take the head position, but although she had no desire to run things from the top, she also had no problems bullying me into doing it.

  After all, she’d said to me, it was my idea to found the colony, so I should run it.

  An argument to which I really didn’t have a good comeback, it was actually even kind of fair. Neither of us wanted to run it, so I got stuck with it. It was an old corporate adage, make a suggestion and you just volunteered to make it happen.

  Still, she was up here as well, she stood slightly to the side and behind me, with Joe, Bill, and Karen. The five of us were pretty much still the government so far after a month, but we had help as well. Bill dealt with establishing the laws, and running the security. Joe was our ambassador of sorts. Kristi was in charge of connecting scientists together for synergies and to get things moving. Karen was responsible for assigning rooms, resources, and things of that nature.

  Of course, I got stuck with vetting all the scientists before they were allowed to stay, but I’d also hired a couple of Knomen to help with that, whom I’d vetted myself. Beyond that, the only thing that head person position got me was a bunch of headaches when problems came up no one else could solve. It wasn’t all that bad yet actually, and eventually if it became too much we could expand our five-person government to deal with recurring problems, once they were apparent.

  Still, one thing we all agreed on was we wanted a small government. So far we were running things mostly like a company, we didn’t expect a huge population. Not with just scientists and their families, along with city support staff.

  It had been a month since we’d chased off Sergei in front of thousands of ships from over thirty different worlds. Tonight’s reason for me being behind a podium was the first one hundred and thirty scientists had arrived, and we were having a welcome dinner. Not all that many, less than a handful from each of thirty-one worlds involved, most of them from the new treaty, but some from the old.

  I imagined most of the governments were interested in a test run, and perhaps more would be approved to join us later, if it worked. I couldn’t really blame them, this was an experiment of sorts, a melting pot of all humanoid races, but only scientists. It could fail miserably. It wasn’t just a hundred and thirty scientists out there though, there were over five hundred beings in attendance including their husbands or wives, and children.

  I smiled and tried to gather my thoughts into some semblance of order, after speaking to all the worlds at the anti-genocide rally, I’d have thought speaking to less than six hundred would be easy. But nope, I hated public speaking. Probably not a good trait in the leader of a world.

  “I considered giving a long winded speech with high ideals about what we are trying to accomplish here, but seeing as your all in those seats, you already know why you’re here. So I decided to keep it short and sweet.”

  There were a few chuckles in the crowd, as well as a cheer or two.

  I grinned, “So welcome to Minerva, I’m sure we’ll all be proud of what we build here, and the improvements we’ll bring to all our worlds. You’re A.I.s have been provided access to all the laws, rules, and who to bring what questions to. If you find something not covered, you’ll get stuck with me. I encourage all of you to take the time to familiarize yourself with this station and the rules before asking questions.

  “Please be a little patient as we work out the bugs, and what we haven’t thought of yet. Let’s eat.”

  It wasn’t much of a speech, but I’d rather have been researching something. Hopefully at some point most of this would be automated, and the A.I.s could handle most of it. Until then, I had two jobs, run this place, and sometimes be a scientist. The five of us sat down, and we started on dinner.

  Kristi said in a low voice, “Nice speech, they seem to get shorter every time.”

  I laughed, “Damn right they do.”

  Kristi asked, “So you started the city construction on Minerva?”

  I nodded, “Yes, it should be done in a little over two years with two large scale fabricators on it. It should look like the city in Athiren, with the underground transit and subtle one story structures spread out wide. We’re also planting, the world will take time to make ready for humanoids, but it should support plant life and trees now.”

  She nodded, “Good. By the time the terra-forming is far enough along to move down there, the city will be long done. What was the final mix on the worlds that sent scientists?”

  I snorted, she knew the answer to that, she was just making a point that she’d predicted it. I answered anyway.

  “Twenty-one of the twenty-six new treaty worlds, including Minerva, and twelve of the twenty-four old treaty worlds. That’s more than I expected on the latter, considering how much they all demonized us on the news for holding their safety hostage. You working on anything new?”

  It was true about the demonizing, I was a total pariah on Earth now, at least for the governments of Earth, the regular populace seemed split on the issue, or just plain didn’t care either way. The smarter ones that didn’t just follow whatever was said on the news were angry with our governments for driving me away. I tried not to worry about it however, for now I wasn’t welcome on Earth, and I didn’t think that would be changing anytime soon.

  Still, I had this place for now, my best friend Kristi and her husband, and Bill who I was quickly coming to love. Sure, I missed restaurants and dancing, but hopefully not for long. That kind of stuff would hopefully be up soon. Karen was working on getting the people to run the storefronts in the second ring.

  The plan was to hopefully fill most of those slots by the husbands or wives of the scientists. The A.I.s could handle most of it that way, but some things required a personal touch.

  She shook her head, “Nope, just the… what did you call it? Scientist dating app? I’m still tweaking that a bit.”

  I snickered, “That’s the one.”

  I turned to Bill and asked, “How’s your day going?”

  He chuckled and drawled, “Well, they’ve been here for two hours now, and I haven’t had to shoot any of them yet, so things are looking up.”

  I frowned and he winked.

  He said, “Seriously, things are fine, everything
is buttoned up, and they’ve acknowledged they’ll follow the rules and laws, or get kicked out. Honestly, I’ve never had a job this easy, the A.I.s do all the paperwork, it’s like a dream which leaves me plenty of time to poke around and tighten the systems. Ask me in a couple of days.”

  I grinned, “Fair enough.”

  Bill and I had continued to get closer over the last month, we spent a lot of time together actually, and I found that I didn’t mind that a bit. It was something that was rather comfortable, and he was comfortable to be around, not stress inducing at all, if anything the opposite was true.

  I still spent time with Kristi a lot during the day as well, while her husband Joe was off making contacts for later when we found new developments, and also to sell the nanite and computer upgrades. But most nights she was with Joe and I was with Bill. Part of that was the inevitable drift that happened when people got married, and part of it was simply because there was nowhere to go yet for a girl’s night out.

  I suppose part of my co-dependent nature had latched on Bill, because my suite of rooms had turned into my closet and where I kept my stuff. We’d pretty much been sharing Bill’s accommodations otherwise. That wasn’t the only reason of course, we had a hard time staying away from each other now. I just felt… natural.

  Al said privately, “Is now a good time? You have messages from Nora and Senna.”

  I felt a spark of interest, I hadn’t seen them since we’d left Leira, and they’d gone to Athiren for their jobs just over a month ago.

  I subvocalized, “Summarize, I’ll read them later.”

  Al replied privately, “They will both be here tomorrow. Ostensibly and officially to see how their scientists are settling in and to discuss trade and what their worlds and this new world can do for each other. Reading between the lines, unofficially, I think they missed you and just wanted to come see you, and perhaps imbibe large amounts of alcohol with you and Kristi.”

  I barely held back a laugh at Al’s summary, since no one else heard Al, me laughing would have looked strange. I subvocalized a thank you and got back to my dinner and conversation.

  Despite my internal whining, because I couldn’t just study science and ignore the rest of the world… or I should say the rest of the galaxy anymore, the balance of the evening went by without a hitch.

  Chapter Two

  Early the next morning, we walked down to the large airlock bay. It had a smaller airlock on it for shuttle sized craft, the big doors only needed to open for the larger ships, such as our home ship and larger. The smaller airlock drained of air a lot faster, and then the shuttle just needed to wait a few seconds as the outer doors shut, atmosphere was pumped back in, and then the inner door would open to the large bay.

  Kristi and I headed for the landing pad on deck six that we’d assigned for their shuttle. We were both dressed business casual, I mourned my jeans collection as I’d have to start dressing my new part more often with people here now. I was in a women’s suit that was creamy white, with a bright red blouse and black heels. Kristi was similarly dressed, but in black with a white blouse.

  Kristi was also half asleep, and rather grumpy this morning.

  I didn’t think it had anything to do with Joe leaving for another world in order to open local bank accounts, sell our tech, and find contacts for when Minerva started to produce new technologies. After all, he’d be back tonight. With a sports shuttle and full use of the wormhole taxi network he was never gone more than a day.

  Most likely, she just hadn’t had enough coffee yet.

  Kristi said, “They should have waited another month. We don’t have any of the bars or clubs stocked with managers, waiters, or anything like that.”

  I shrugged, “We’ll just have a private party, but I agree. I haven’t danced in too long.”

  Kristi snorted and said sharply, “See, even the workaholic says it’s been too long.”

  I snickered.

  After a moment she sighed regretfully, “Sorry, I’m digging the plan, really. But I miss Earth, clubs, and going out and having fun.”

  I frowned, “Me too, it won’t be too much longer I don’t think until we have those things. Granted a few hundred people aren’t a lot, not sure how much interest we’ll get with this first small batch. You and Joe could always take off for a day or two. I can’t go to Earth but…”

  Kristi shook her head, “That won’t work. They may not be as mad at me because I’m not an alien freak like you,” she grinned, “but they won’t let me waltz in and out either. They’d use Joe and I for leverage.”

  I nodded, “What about Tressia, or Omara, they had some pretty nice places there.”

  Kristi sighed, “Sorry, again, I’m being whiny. I think I just need more coffee. I’m glad they’re coming too, even without a club it will be nice to unwind a bit with friends. So any complaints yet?”

  I shook my head, “Not yet, of course they just got in last night, and they’re all scientists.”

  Kristi giggled, “Good point, they’ve probably made a list of all the egregious issues in their home last night, and now this morning in their assigned lab. So… later today then? Long organized lists for our convenience?”

  I nodded, “Probably. Hopefully Karen will deal with most of it, I only need to get involved if she’s not sure how to handle it.”

  We stopped in front of the door to the pad they were assigned, and waited. They wouldn’t be very long, at least I didn’t think so.

  She asked, “What about you, working on anything?”

  I shook my head, “Translation of the Drenil, which is going nowhere as usual. I’m also making an oak tree, just to see if I can. Well, the seed really.”

  She frowned, “You mean like an acorn?”

  I giggled, “Yeah, I mean, normally fabricators can’t do anything alive. But a quantum fabricator should be able to in theory. But it’s going to take a couple of more months.”

  She tilted her head, “Months?”

  I nodded, “It’s a slow process, and an acorn is kind of big when talking about the quantum level. Still, if it works that would be interesting. If nothing else, it might get research doctors to look at the tech seriously for repairs at the genetic level. Perhaps even nerve regeneration, which up until now has been impossible. It also may make people take a look at the quantum fabricator process to figure out a way to speed it up.”

  Kristi shook her head, “That’s almost as cool as something exploding.”

  I snickered, “I’ve also been busy spying on the neighbors, other galaxies I mean. I’m still building a database of the over one hundred galaxies in a ten million light year radius from the milky way. It won’t be constantly up to date, but I plan to have the four platforms move around almost constantly to gather new data from our closest neighbors, so none of the data will be more than a month old.

  “So we should know up until very recently, just how many civilizations and what types there are out there. So far I haven’t run into any wormhole or subspace technology civilizations besides the Drenil of course. But like I said, it isn’t done yet.”

  Kristi frowned, “Aren’t there less than a hundred galaxies within ten million light years? You’d have to go out to eleven or twelve million to get over a hundred galaxies.”

  I nodded, “Sure, if you believe what Earth knows. I’ve found a few more unknown galaxies using the subspace scan technology. To be honest, most of the galaxy mapping is Al’s project, he’s good at analyzing the data and finding new stuff. I’ve just been reviewing what he finds. It won’t be ready to look at for a little while though.”

  Kristi frowned, “Do you need coding help?”

  I shook my head, “Already using your code, or my code that you fixed, I linked the database up to our scan of our galaxy. You know how we can zoom in from the galaxy sized hologram down to a planet, or even a ship. Well, now it zooms out as well and shows all the surrounding galaxies, which you can then zoom in on. It will also show how old the data is, since li
ke I said, it isn’t real time like our galaxy is. I thought of building more platforms, but honestly I don’t think we need to.”

  Kristi nodded, “Good idea, so I could look now if I wanted?”

  “Yes, you and I are the only ones that can access that system, and our A.I.s of course. The data isn’t complete yet, the cycle should be done in a week, and then the platforms will start over and provide updates.”

  Al notified me, “The ship has landed and is secured.”

  I grinned, “They’re here,” and I hit the pad next to the door, and it opened up revealing the Tressian shuttle. The hatch on the shuttle slid open.

  Nora and Senna stepped out and both of them smiled at us.

  “Welcome to Minerva,” I said.

  There was an awkward moment, as if they weren’t quite sure whether to go with friends or act as official representatives of their government to a world leader. To my relief, they went with the former, and they stepped closer and claimed hugs from both myself and Kristi.

  Kristi asked, “How long are you here for?”

  Nora shrugged, “Just today unfortunately, I don’t think our worlds bought the excuse but they let us come anyway, which means we should check on the scientists quickly, and then get to the fun parts.”

  Senna nodded sagely, “The representative from Tressia is very wise.”

  We all giggled, and went to do that…

  The world was pleasantly fuzzy as we sat in my living room and put a good dent in my wine supply. Bill, god bless him, had made himself scarce without me asking, this was definitely a girls only activity.

  Nora looked around and said, “I really like this place, but I don’t think I could handle living on ship all the time. Not even one this big.”

  I nodded, “We’re looking forward to moving to the planet when it’s done, but until then we don’t have much of a choice. I think it will get better when there are more people around. Plus…”

  I gave Kristi a look, “If we start to go crazy we can always go to another planet.”

  Senna made a face, “Maybe, but there will be more pomp and ceremony now. You’re a head of state, you can’t just drop in like you used too.”