Galactic Storm: An Alicia Jones Novel 05 Read online

  The five course meal was excellent, and although Kristi and I drew a few stares, overall we weren’t put in the spotlight. We were just two more people in a group that didn’t like where the treaty worlds were headed…

  Omara had been a part of the Knomen empire for less than five hundred years, and they were closer to the core, about halfway between Knomen and Leira. The planet was very different from Athiren. It was light blue, and green, closer to Earth’s gravity and size, although only about a third of it was covered by ocean.

  There were also close to twenty-five billion people, and there were many mega-cities that sprawled over hundreds of miles. Though their atmosphere was clean, and they did have forested areas, so much of it was taken up with concrete and high rise buildings that made the tallest building on Earth look small. The cities were easily visible from orbit.

  “Al, how do they stay fed?” I asked as he took Kristi and I down in the shuttle.

  “Like the Knomen they have underground hydroponics, in their case it makes up for the farms. As far as protein, they subsist on kelp farms from the oceans and cultured meat rather than live animals. They also have two colony worlds which make up for the occasional shortage or bad crop yield.”

  The city had cars flying at many different levels, as well as parking levels to land in every twenty or so levels in the extremely large buildings. It was a marvel of modern technology, and the architecture of the city was even beautiful in its own way. I wouldn’t want to live there though. I liked the Knomen way better, maybe it was in my genes? There was a reason I lived and worked by the Colorado mountains after all, instead of the middle of a city.

  I imagined though, that we were looking at Earth’s future, even with fifteen colonies coming over the next fifty years, the population would still continue to rise on our home planet. I couldn’t imagine humans accepting strict reproductive constraints, and human lifespans were just getting longer.

  I knew the Knomen home world went through something similar, it was just their colony that seemed to manage their population growth so well. Probably by learning the lesson the hard way first.

  Kristi said in her faux ditzy voice, “Wow, we’re going to sell a lot of nanites here.”

  I laughed, “You think? I’ve been looking things over and every building is like a square mile mini-city with its own shops, restaurants, schools, day care, and other amenities for recreation. A lot of people even work in the same building they live in. Can you imagine?”

  Kristi shook her head in horrified denial, “Not really no, that sounds convenient, but also like hell. I like our mountain view, and our small office in Colorado Springs. Not to mention going out in space occasionally. These buildings even have their own medical pods, so a person could live their whole life here without ever leaving the building they were born in. Not that I’m saying they don’t get out at all, but it’s possible.”

  Al pulled into one of the buildings near the top floor, and set the shuttle down in a parking spot. I was glad I took this smaller shuttle, it fit the spots for the air cars perfectly.

  I shook my head and shrugged helplessly, I felt the same way she did, but said in defense of the idea, “Well at least they have parks on the rooves with real trees, bushes, and stuff.”

  Kristi looked at me like I was nuts, and then we got out of the shuttle, there didn’t seem to be anyone to greet us this time.

  “Al, do you know where we’re going?”

  Al replied, “I do have an itinerary. I believe the hotel is on the six hundredth and eighty third floor. Just seven floors down from where we are now. The elevators are to your right.”

  “Thanks Al.”

  Kristi giggled as we walked to the elevators, “Stay off the thirty eighth floor. It’s a relaxation center.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  Kristi shook her head, “Your thinking of the wrong kind of relaxation, this is a very permissive culture.”

  I blushed, “You mean prostitutes?”

  Kristi snickered at me, “Not exactly, more like massages with happy endings, and where casual hookups are not only condoned but expected. Think free love from the sixties, but without the drugs or Woodstock.”

  I nodded slowly, I was hardly a prude, but that was way too much for me, I wasn’t into one night stands or casual sex with strangers, at all. As it was however, I’d considered over the last couple of days changing the three date rule to two dates, I was really looking forward to seeing Bill on Friday and it had been quite a while for me. Plus, Bill was… Bill. Someone I’d grown up with a knew well. Surely it shouldn’t count.

  “Right, we’ll avoid that floor, what else is there to do?” I asked as we got on the elevator and went down seven floors to the hotel floor.

  The Omarans themselves looked very human except for their hair color, although I did see a few blondes, reds, browns, and blacks in the mix, most had hair with wilder colors. Purple, blue, and green seemed the most numerous. I started to get the idea that it wasn’t natural at all, but a cultural thing, dyed. I’d just made the assumption it wasn’t during the Drenil mission, because the first green and blue haired Omarans I’d met had been a scientist and government representative.

  Normally those types on Earth didn’t go for wild or frivolous hair colors, but of course they weren’t from Earth and I shouldn’t have judged them from standards I was used to. It had been a foolish assumption on my part. Of course, the one other notable difference was that they only had three fingers and a thumb, instead of four.

  The rooms we were given were almost palatial, yet I missed the plants. I’d have to get more for the house when we got back to Earth. It was very nice though, another fairly large suite of rooms, and this one even had windows, which just looked out over another huge building.

  We grabbed lunch first thing, the closest Earth dishes I could compare it to was eastern food. Some kind of starch similar to rice, along with vegetables, strong spices, and meat that absorbed the flavors. I suppose it worked, as cultured meat didn’t have much flavor of its own.

  As far as business went, the man we saw didn’t seem very excited about the quantum computer with a more advanced A.I. matrix, apparently there wasn’t much of a demand for it here. But before we walked out we had orders for close to ten thousand of the nanite packs, and that was just for this two thousand story mega building that he helped maintain. He assured us when word got out we’d sell billions of them on this planet.

  Caroline was about to be ridiculously rich, and Kristi and I would be even more so. I decided to open up a local bank account, and Kristi followed suite. More of my paranoia no doubt, I just didn’t want all my wealth tied up in one place.

  After that we weren’t sure what to do, so we just went back to the room and relaxed for a while. We both felt completely shopped out from yesterday, and we’d already spent half a day in a spa on Athiren. We both wound up working of all things, through our overlays and quantum connections to Earth.

  Al asked, “Do you have a moment?”

  “Go ahead Al.”

  Al briefed me, “The Bug worlds we’re watching are doing something different.”

  I froze for a moment as a feeling of dread went down my spine, “What are they doing?”

  Al continued, “They are building something new, as to what I have no idea yet. It’s some type of new ship.”

  I frowned, “Why now?”

  Al replied, “I can only speculate that the attack on the first planet was observed, and it took this long for the hive worlds to come up with a new plan.”

  I shook my head, “They’ve never done that before.”

  Al disagreed, “Perhaps not when expanding, they may not care for those they cast off, or who leave to find a new world. But losing a colony is entirely different. Surely they’ve advanced before, or they wouldn’t be where they are now?”

  I couldn’t argue with that logic, if they weren’t capable of adapting they’d still be wandering around on the surface of their
home world unable to make a camp fire, “Any response from the treaty worlds?” I asked.

  Al replied, “Not yet, the changes aren’t known, I just picked them up off the raw data. Other A.I.s are probably in the process of disseminating the information now, and then Earth will have to make the decision to release it, so it may be a while before we see a result.”

  I guessed that made sense, “Anything else?”

  “No.”

  We had dinner that night with the Knomen governor and his wife again, as well as Marlon. Blue was there as well, the government representative from Omara plus a few others I hadn’t met. I was sure I’d meet the Omaran leader Gemma tomorrow, but she wasn’t there tonight. Blue told me that she was rather colorful, and had bright red hair.

  He also let me know that Senna and Nora would be there, I looked forward to seeing them again as well. Kristi and I decided to turn in early after that, it would be a long day tomorrow, apparently the meeting, rally, or protest, I still wasn’t sure what to call it, would be held in the rooftop park…

  Chapter 5

  I was surrounded by trees, and it was hard to believe this was a roof. The square mile of park even had small rolling hills, grass, trees, benches, and everything else I’d expect to see in a park.

  After breakfast we’d come straight up, it was supposed to be an all-day event. There’d be speeches by various people of influence all day long, followed by the fifteen world leaders. I was on a little after noon and wondered if I was crazy. I hated being the focus of people, and I was about to make a speech to the known galaxy? What was wrong with me? The only good thing was that I wasn’t some kind of singled out special guest speaker, just one in a long line of them.

  Kristi patted my back and teased, “Maybe you need to visit the relaxation level.”

  I snorted at the idea, and then shook my head, “Tell me I’m not crazy.”

  Kristi shook her head with faux sadness, “Sorry, I can’t lie to you.”

  I giggled, “You suck as a friend,” but I didn’t really mean it.

  Kristi asked, “Better?”

  I took a deep breath and sighed, “Not really, I’ll be fine though, I sort of know what I’m going to say. Then maybe I’ll be infamous instead of famous.”

  Kristi snickered, “I wouldn’t count on it. You may annoy a few people in power though, and the idiots that blindly follow them. You know they have lover’s suites down there, with pools, hot tubs, swings, vibrating beds, and all that? I might come back here for my honeymoon.”

  I smiled despite myself, she was still trying to distract me. Then again, it didn’t sound like a horrible idea for a honeymoon.

  “When are you tying the knot?”

  Kristi shrugged, “I don’t know, soon I think.”

  I frowned, “What’s the hold up? He seems really solid about it this time.”

  Kristi sighed, “I’ve been putting it off. He’s tried to get me to go to Vegas a few times since we got engaged. What do you mean, solid?”

  I shrugged a little uncomfortably, “Are you sure you want me to put my two cents in?”

  Kristi nodded.

  I explained, “When you guys used to go from passion to broken up every other week there was a wishy washy part of him, I could sense it, he didn’t want to commit. Not just to you, to anything really. But over the last year that’s really changed, he’s not that way anymore. He’s solid. You’ve been together for over a year now right? What was the previous record, two weeks?”

  She smiled thoughtfully, “Ten days I think. That’s a good point. I guess I was just worried he’d flake on me if I gave in and married him, you know?” she abruptly changed the subject, “You know we’ll stay for a while, but eventually when we get a kid on the way, we’ll move out.”

  “Yeah, change sucks. I’ve been dreading that actually. We’ve lived together for what, five years now as college roommates and then the house? I’ll live though, you need to start a family, and I can be the crazy alien aunt that spoils him or her with trips to Saturn so his or her parents can have some adult time.”

  She giggled, “I hope so, we’ll always be close friends and a phone call away. You keep me grounded you know. I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m a little flighty.”

  I shook my head, “You flighty? Never,” somehow I kept a straight face, “Nope, you keep me from being a hermit. So old married lady or not you still need to drag me out. Or I’ll turn into an old cat lady.”

  She laughed, and then asked, “How about Saturday?”

  I blanked as she’d switched tracks again but this time I didn’t catch to where, “Saturday?”

  She nodded as if getting married in two days was sane, “Married, on Saturday.”

  Wow, that was fast. “Okay, shouldn’t you talk to Joe about this first?” I asked doubtfully.

  She shook her head, and said in complete confidence, “He’ll be all over it, trust me. I’ve been a pain in the ass about the timing because of our past, but I trust him. I already did really, but your input helped push me over.”

  “Just tell me when and where.”

  She nodded, “We’ll probably disappear for a week, and come back home wiped out. I’m thinking cruise lines. Probably Vegas, I’m submitting our dresses for fabrication, I’ll tell Joe when we get home tonight.”

  I smiled, she seemed really excited about it. Lord help me if he ever did leave her, Kristi would kill me.

  Kristi did a good job of keeping me distracted me all morning. I’d had the opportunity to say hello to the people I knew, but they were all too busy to just hang around and talk. I knew the video and audio for this was being transmitted out on quantum frequency, and all the worlds and media had been notified. I was a little nervous when I was called up, but thanks to Kristi distracting me I wasn’t a complete wreck.

  When they announced me, I walked up on the stage and looked out at everyone, and my speech completely fled my mind. Damnit. I was even doing the best I could to suppress my nerves, which is how I was even standing up there, I didn’t know how normal humans dealt with it.

  “Hi. I’m Alicia Jones, and I guess you could say I’m up here because I’m concerned. The Bug race is a menace that needs to be stopped. I don’t think anyone here would disagree with that assessment. The question seems to be the tactic to get it done. Do we stop them at the Seltan world, and just let them continue to throw their overpopulated ships at us as they try to expand? Or, we could go to their worlds, knock them out of space, and quarantine them, as we’ve successfully done with the Knomen home world, and our new friends the Gelnott.

  “Lastly, we can annihilate them, and erase them from the galaxy. Commit the unforgivable sin of genocide.”

  I paused for a moment, and then continued in a doubtful voice, “But I don’t really think that’s the question at all that’s before us. The question is who are we? What type of people shall we be? The treaty is new, the Knomen empire still echoes within us all, and we remember it well. Yet, if we take option three, will we be any better than what we left behind? Or will we be worse?”

  I spoke with a stronger voice, “This is a defining moment in our new treaty. The new way we will treat our enemies and those that attempt to abuse us and even destroy us. The Bugs are not like us, they are not humanoids, they are different. But does that truly make them less than us? Or does thinking they are beneath us make us lesser?

  “They are a sentient species, our extremely odd neighbor from next door, and our treaty calls for quarantining those that attack their neighbors, it doesn’t call for annihilation. I would ask all of you to step back, and see without the prejudice, fear, and anger that drives such evils as genocide, and make a decision we can all be proud of.

  “I urge the worlds that are part of the treaty to choose one of the first two options, I care not which one, because the third, which is genocide against a sentient race, will surely harm us all and wilt our souls. Thank you.”

  I walked off the stage to the loud cheers of the cro
wd, and felt a little ill from nerves, but I was also proud of myself. It wasn’t a very long speech, but hopefully that would make it resonate a little better.

  “Well?” I asked softly as they called the next person up there.

  Kristi shrugged, “At least you didn’t throw up,” she giggled, “It was good. Short and to the point.”

  I nodded, “I was going to bring up history, most of the Earth’s most horrible crimes stemmed from men that thought other ethnicities were less than human. This is no different. But I changed my mind, no one likes being compared to a mass murderer like Hitler or Stalin, it’s not a good way to persuade anyone.”

  Kristi nodded, “Yup, and I can see the opponents now, talking about how you accused them of being worse than the Knomen.”

  I groaned and covered my face, “I did not say that.”

  Kristi snickered, “No, you didn’t. You just said they would be if they went ahead with it. Which is true, but it’s also something they’ll twist around in the media.”

  “I thought you said I did a good job?”

  Kristi nodded in agreement, “You did do a good job, you were honest and passionate, and maybe tonight we can sleep with a clearer conscious. It might even make a difference.”

  I looked around, “You ready to get out of here? I don’t see much of a reason to stay for the rest of it. Or do you want to stay?”

  Kristi smiled, “We should go, that way I have a few extra hours to plan my wedding.”

  I giggled, “Fine, let’s go. Just promise me my dress isn’t peach.”

  I gave her a suspicious look when she didn’t answer…

  Chapter 6

  Colorado was a couple of hours behind where we’d been on Omara. So we’d left in early afternoon, and arrived at the office just after lunchtime.

  “Good morning Dr. Jones, Dr. Wilder, how was your trip.”

  I didn’t even bother correcting her, I couldn’t get the woman to call us Alicia and Kristi no matter how hard I tried.