Auz Burger

Chapter 4 Board Meeting – Sept 4th “Okay, let’s bring this meeting to order!” Marc pounded his virtual gavel twice to get everyone’s attention. Once the group quieted down, he continued. “We’ve got a busy day today. We’ve been ignoring a lot of the work being done on Earth due to distractions elsewhere. Samantha tells me it’s high time we got to a couple of issues. Sam.” “I hope all of you remember the Delphi Federation.” “Gawd, wasn’t that like 2½ years ago.” “Yes, exactly. Now Tinsley Hastings has been holding down the fort for that period, but we have to deal with some new issues. To date, the membership has expanded to sixteen countries, mostly small nations so nobody really took notice once the Ukraine situation was resolved. But now we have applications from some not so minor countries. “Singapore, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Cyprus have asked to join. Now, other than Cyprus, there’s not going to be a lot of pushback. It is, after all, just a defense alliance and it aligns with the UN disarmament goals. But now hold onto your seats, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Syria have asked to join.”,” Samantha said. “You aren’t seriously considering accepting their membership!” Admiral Michaels gasped. “It does present some interesting problems,” Samantha replied. “With Jordan and Kuwait, they’ll be mostly political in nature, but with Lebanon and Syria, we’re facing some big problems. They’re still fighting ISIS.” “What about the fact that Syria is a dictatorship?” Catie asked. “It was, there was a military coup three months ago. They immediately announced their plans to hold democratic elections and join the Delphi Federation.”,” Samantha explained. “That was nice of them. And I have to admit that things have settled down quite a bit since the UN got serious about the weapons embargo for that region.” “What about Iran?” Blake asked. Formatted: Font: Italic “They’ve dialed it way back since the UN finalized the nuclear accord with them. We gave them four fusion reactors and they have stopped all enrichment of plutonium and quote-unquote stopped supporting extremist insurgencies.” “Ahem,” Samantha got everyone’s attention again. “The question is what would we be able to bring to the table? Kal?” “I’ve gone over it with my team. We feel that with four Hover Oryxes and a squadron of Foxes we could effectively seal the borders. The main problems will be the northern border between Syria and Turkey and the northeastern border between them and Iraq.” “So basicallybasically, their entire border.” “True. And the Iraqis still have a problem with ISIS in their country, so that provides a conduit from Iran. And Turkey is still just paying lip service to controlling the extremists in their population.”,” Kal explained. “What are you going to do about all the weapons already in those countries?” Blake asked. “We’ve got several teams that are just itching to go in undercover and dig out those arsenals.” “That sounds dangerous,” Marc interjected. “It is, but we’ve developed some microbots about the size of a watermelon seed. They are exceptional at finding detonators and delivering some bacteria that just loves to digest the explosive in them and turn it into harmless goo.” “What stops the bacteria from getting into the environment?” Catie asked. “They’re engineered so they only can feed on the detonator class of explosives. As soon as they’re done eating, they starve to death.” “How do you keep them from starving before you deliver them?” “The bots feed them slowly. Slow enough that they cannot replicate.” Samantha poked Marc. “What do you think?” “It would be nice to clean up that situation, but do we want to get sucked into the quagmire?” Marc asked. “What if we accept Kuwait and Jordan, andJordan and put Syria and Lebanon on probation until they clean up their situation.? We could provide the support Kal is suggesting on the QT.”,” Samantha suggested. "I could go with that," Admiral Michaels said. Samantha gave the Admiral a smile which that sent shivers down his back. “That’s good, because, although Ambassador Hastings has been doing an admirable job, we think the situation requires someone with a military background, and we would like to have her take over for Minister Hannaford as the League Ambassador to Helike.” Admiral Michaels grimaced; he’d known that smile spelled bad news for him. “What about the NATO alliance?” “We feel that you’ve gotten that sufficiently under control that you could be rotated out.” “No good deed goes unpunished,” Admiral Michaels whispered. “Alright, where is the Federation headquartered?” “Ambassador Hastings has been operating out of Delphi City, but you could choose any city you wished.” “But it would need to be in a member country. I’m not sure I want to set up shop in any of those countries.” “You do remember that Morocco joined last year; I hear Casablanca has wonderful weather year-round and it’s just a short hop from there to Europe.”,” Samantha suggested. Admiral Michaels drew in a long breath through his teeth. “I’ll look into it.” “Thanks, because we really need to make more progress on disarmament. These local hotspots are a serious problem when it comes to getting Earth under a unified government.” “I said I’d look into it.” Marc tapped his virtual gavel to quell the brewing storm and to get everyone’s attention again. “Now, the next item on our agenda is, to confirm that Margaret Hannaford will be formally taking up the chair of the Delphi League. She will finish up her work on Helike in the next month and then take up her new role.” “Where will it be based?” Admiral Michaels inquired. “Well, since Catie managed to acquire a nice site on Onisiwo that is perfectly sized for it, I thought we should headquarter it there. It’s a mostly unified planet and it creates a balanced look since it is unaligned with any of the other planets.”,” Marc said. “Plus, we have a very goodn exceptional intelligence network there as well as some excellent contacts,” Catie added. “Let’s hope we don’t need to use them. Now moving on, we have the next load of colonists preparing to ship out.” That got Catie’s attention since she was going to be responsible for that effort. “Yes, and are you serious, thirty-six thousand Chinese colonists?!” “And eighteen thousand colonists from our normal emigration process here on Delphi City.” “I know. But do you really trust the Chinese?” “This will be a way to test that. The population of Artemis is one hundred thirty-some thousand.” “One hundred thirty-two thousand five hundred forty-seven.”,” ADI chimed in. “Yes, thanks ADI; it wasn’t necessary to be exact.” Catie shook her head slightly. “Excuse me!” “ADI, we’ll talk,” Catie messaged. “Anyway, with that as a base, we’re stable and can deal with any disruption the Chinese may present. ADI has been evaluating them over the last three months while they’ve been training for the mission.”,” Marc explained. “And how many of them are government agents?” Catie asked. “There are approximately three thousand who are potential agents. Of those, I project that approximately three hundred of them are active agents.” “See, it’s not that bad.” Marc gave Catie a smile. Catie sent her father her new favorite meme which got a quiet laugh from him. “Speaking of immigrants,” Liz said, “the Paraxeans have just asked us to make three runs, one to each of their colony planets.” Commented [AB9]: Who is saying this? “Wait a sec,” Marc held up a finger.. “Catie, anything else on the Resolve’s mission?” Catie gave a sigh. “No, I’ve got it under control.” “Thank you. Now Liz, what are they asking to ship?” “Colonists.” “Why?” “The colonies are not growing as fast as their governments would like. They also say that the colonists they got from the Fazullans campaign provided a big boost to their economy. They feel a new infusion of colonists will help do the same thing, and I suspect Paraxea would like to move out a few hot heads.” “Why aren’t the colonies growing?” Marc asked. “Well, when you have nearly perfect birth control, and the women who decide to have children choose to only have one to three children, you wind up with a zero-growth or even a negative-growth situation,” Dr. Metra explained. “Aren’t the women having a second family?” Catie asked. “Of those that have the rejuvenation treatments, about twenty percent choose to have a second family. But remember, that could still just be a second or third child,” ADI piped in. “That’s true,” Dr. Metra said. “Here on Earth, population growth has ground to a halt as women have gained control over their reproductive rights. Our experience shows that once that happens, the population will decline until poverty is under control, then it will maintain a stable level. Paraxea is still seeing a decline as there are segments of the population that are still under financial stress, and people in those situations tend not to have children if they have a choice.” “That can’t be the issue on the colonies, so why do you think they’re not growing?” Catie pressed. “I suspect that the colonists are not feeling financially secure. It takes a long time for a colony to establish itself, and even thenthen, there are lots of uncertainties. The introduction of the jump drive and interstellar trade will most likely change that, but it takes time.” “Oh, that would probably explain the high birth rate on Artemis,” Samantha said. “Exactly, . Yyour colonists feel much more secure. The immediate establishment of trade with Paraxea and Earth would have given them confidence that they have a solid financial future, even a bright one since they’re part of the first few waves.” “Okay, okay, enough with the Demography demography lesson. What do you want us to do about the Paraxeans’ request?” Catie asked. “What do you want to do about it?” Marc asked, looking specifically at Catie, who was furiously working in her HUD to figure out the potential value of the contract with Paraxea. Catie smiled. “Well, we can move about 100 thousand colonists per trip. I assume the colonies have grains and ores to ship back to Paraxea.” “That’s what they’ve told me.” “Then I think StarMerchants should take the contract, unless the board has a reason we shouldn’t.” “That would put the Dutchman out of the loop for a few months,” Blake said. “Can we afford to lose half of our merchant fleet for that long?” Catie smiled. “We’ve been planning to introduce a smaller cargo ship. I can expedite those plans.” She was already doing the numbers on how much a small cargo ship could earn. Blake nodded. “Okay, let’s do that. I’d like to keep the Paraxeans happy, and with nine planets in the League we should plan on more trade.” “Yes, and remember we still have the three civilizations the Paraxeans have interacted with and the Aperanjen homeworld to add to the league,” Samantha said. Catie mentally rubbed her hands together as she imagined all the trade that would be generated by twelve planets. “Let’s move on. We have another issue related to Earth Politics. Sam,” Marc passed the floor to Samantha. “The Cook Islands and French Polynesia want floating cities. They want to restore more of their environment, but they still need to create housing and jobs for their young people.” “That sounds like a no-brainer,” Catie said. “Well, those islands are protectorates of other countries.” “Sure, but it would be a big economic boost that would help those countries out as well. What’s the problem?” “Their allegiance to Delphi versus their host country.” “I agree with Catie,” Blake said. “Just do it, let the politics work itself out.” “Sam?” Marc prompted. “I already told you that’s’ what we should do.” “Fred, do you have someone to take that on?” “I’m sure I have someone who’s ready for a promotion,.” Fred replied. “Good. Now, I wanted to talk about my concern with the jump ships.” Catie jerked at that, “What concerns?” “I’m worried about someone figuring out the jump drives. I’d like to discuss how we can obfuscate what’s actually happening. The four jump ships kind of give a big clue.”,” Samantha explained. “We don’t have to use ships,” Catie said. “At first, we thought about having the ships crewed, but we’ve only used the AI to fly them so far. And we’ll just jump them back here for maintenance, so we could scale their size back to big probes.” “How does that help?” “Smaller, less noticeable.” “But we have to light them up so the ships can see them in order to fly between them.” “Hmm,” Catie mused. “We could change the number.” “I thought it had to be four,” Blake said. “It does, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have more probes around to confuse the situation. We could have five or six, even seven. That would be good, seven’s a prime number and scientists love prime numbers.” “Ah,” Blake got a glimmer in his eye. “You could make a point of only highlighting four for a while, make it look like we’re trying to hide the fact that there are seven. A couple of minor errors that expose one or two more probes can give everyone a hint, then we can finally give up and admit there are seven.” “Do we really want to commit seven jump probes big enough to power a big wormhole just to add confusion?” Fred asked. “Oh, they don’t all have to be jump probes. In fact, it would be better if we just had the four jump probes and the other three were just probes with big fusion reactors. We could beam power to charge up the capacitors of the jump probes. It would cut down on the time it takes to open a wormhole and you could hold it open longer if you were beaming power to it. That would make the jump gate probes smaller since you would be able to scale back the size of their antimatter drive.”,” Catie explained. “Okay, go over the concept with Ajda, please.” “I will. Oh, and another thing. Dr. Zelbar and Dr. McDowell have come up with a new design for the gravity drives.” “We know,” Blake said. “I know you do, but I was talking with Dr. McDowell about it and mentioned Daddy’s concern about people figuring out about the jump drives. Dr. McDowell thinks he can modify the new design so that it cannot achieve the harmonics to open a wormhole.” “I like that,” Marc said with a big smile. “If we become the supplier of gravity drives, then it will be less likely that someone will stumble onto the secret.” “Does that mean we’ll have to manufacture the jump drives the old way?” Fred asked. “They use up a big chunk of our resources.” “No, he can have a modified design which can be used for jump drives, we just won’t be selling that to anyone else.”,” Catie said. “I like that,” Marc said. “Have Ajda start building new jump probes as soon as you have a design. Now, where do we want to deploy them?” “We have them here in Sol and on Artemis right now,” Blake said. “We should probably put one at Paraxea next.” “Okay, let’s start with that. Once we get a better handle on the demand for the Platinum metals, we can decide where else to place them. Until then, we’ll power the wormholes from one of those systems.” “Catie, while you’re up, can you give us an update on your new mission?” Blake asked. “Sure. I have submitted a preliminary design for a mining barge with Ajda, it’s based on the discussion I had with Jimmy Gaines and other feedback from miners. I’m hoping it’ll cost under 200 million. I’m gathering information about what would make the space station a more desirable living location since it will be so remote.” “Have you identified a system yet?” Blake asked. “We have two potential systems. Based on the analysis ADI did, we’re focusing on larger stars around four to six times the size of Sol. We’ve just sent a probe into the two systemssystems, but it will take another three weeks before they reach the asteroid belt and can start taking readings.” “Why so long?” Samantha asked. “The systems are huge. So, while our fringe is at 65 AUs, their fringe is at 150 AUs or more which puts their asteroid belt at over 130 AUs from the jump point.” “Oh, I see,” Samantha said, adding “I hate science,” in a whisper. “How will that distance affect the mining operations?” Fred asked. “Uncle Blake and I are still debating where to put the station. But we will make sure to place the ores we extract close to the jump point so that it won’t take long for one of our cargo ships to pick up the ore. We’ll optimize the distances based on the economic model and security concerns.” “What security concerns?” Dr. Metra asked. “Uncle Blake sees potential boogie men behind every star.” “Well, I’ve been proved right more often than not!” Blake exclaimed. “True. Now, Catie, are you still building the economic model around private ownership of as much as possible?” Dr. Metra inquired. “Of course.” “Good. We can always fall back to the Gemini model if we need to. Now, what about waypoints to reach the systems?” “Both candidates are close to existing waypoints. In fact, my pick is close enough that we would simply move the waypoint to that system. That will have the side benefit of making it usable for the pathway to Helike and its fringe is only 150 AUs out” “Won’t sharing a waypoint create a traffic jam?” Blake asked. “No. The waypoints are only used when we’re establishing the wormhole chain. Once we extend the wormhole to the next system, we turn off that waypoint. They’re only in use for a couple of minutes at most.” “Sounds like someone needs a quick tutorial on waypoints,” Kal said. “I’ll be sure to invite you when I have Catie set it up.” “Hey, I’m staying on the planet, I don’t need to know such things.”,” Blake said. “But you help plan our defense and our military options. So buckle up, Marine.” “Enough you two,” Marc interrupted.. “Catie, do you have a timeline?” “I’m heading out on the Resolve so I can visit my baby sister and my nephew. The Merlin will meet me at ArtemisArtemis, and we’ll head out to whichever system we select. It’ll take two months to build a basic station so we can start mining operations, but I wouldn’t expect any shipments before February or March.” “That works for me. Fred?” “Not a problem. We’ve started to scale back mining here in Sol, but we’re stocked up for now.” “Okay, Fred, why don’t you give us an update on MacKenzie Enterprises?” MacKenzie Enterprises was now the parent company that owned MacKenzie Discoveries, MacKenzie Shipyard, MacKenzie Real Estate, and a few other businesses, as well as the space stations. Fred spent ten minutes going over the highlights of the various businesses, focusing on critical deals and anything that pushed the envelope relative to technology. He knew most of them were tuning him out, but he didn’t care. He loved his job. “Thanks, Fred,” Marc said, wanting to move on. “Next, I’ve invited Ms. Aukai, the superintendent of education for Delphi City to give us an update on our education initiative.” Marc connected her to the video conference. “Ms. Aukai.” “Thanks for inviting me. As you know, we have started a pilot program this year to promote our AI-based teaching methods. In the U.S. we have a school in Chicago and one in Los Angeles. In the U.K, we have a school in Brighton and one in Glasgow, and we also have a school in Athens, Greece and another in Naples, Italy. We’ll see how they do.” “What about Asia?” Commented [AB10]: Not sure who the speaker is here. “China is unwilling to change its education system at this time. And they incorporate so much propaganda in their curriculum that it wouldn’t work anyway. Japan wants to wait to see the results from our test, and India is hotly debating the issue. I think once we’ve competed at least one term, we’ll get more traction.” “And Australia and New Zealand?” “New Zealand wants to roll it out now. They agreed to wait until their school year starts in six months, so we can apply it broadly. Australia wants to wait and see the results from the trial.” “How have the teachers’ unions reacted?” Marc asked. “They’re skeptical, but we’ve sent a group of teachers from Delphi City on a tour to help them understand the possibilities.” “Do you really think that the teacher as coach model will work in typical schools?” Blake asked. “Are you suggesting that the schools here in Delphi City are not typical?” “No, but there is a certain acceptance of technology and a curiosity or daringness that come with deciding to live in Delphi City.” “I think we’ll find that we’re not that different from any other school in that respect. If given hope, students will rise to the challenge. It’s only the thought that they’re wasting their time that causes the problems we see in inner-city schools.”,” Ms. Aukai said. “And the teachers, what do they think?” “So far, they love the idea. Of course, our teachers here in Delphi City have been sold for years. Being able to start each day with the previous day’s classwork and homework already graded and categorized with the problem areas highlighted saves them an enormous amount of time. They can then use their planning period to work with the AI to determine what each student needs help on. And whether each student needs personal instruction from the teacher, personalized instruction which the AI can do with some direction from the teacher, or if they just need praise and recognition.” “Do the teachers still give lectures?” Kal asked. “I can see you need to stop by a few classes to see what goes on. But to answer your question, yes, they give lectures. Being able to sit and absorb information in a lecture is a critical skill that all students need to learn. But the teachers spend most of their time in one-on-one coaching of the students that need the most help.” “Doesn’t that cheat the other students?” “No, they’re getting the coaching they need from the teacher via the AI. All of our students here in Delphi City love their teachers.” “And what will determine if the program is a success?” Marc asked. “First, we will measure will be how the students perform at the end of the term compared to their peers at other schools. Second, how the teacher rates the program at the end of term. And third, whether the school districts decide to expand the program.” “Thank you, Ms. Aukai.” Catie mostly tuned out during the discussion, instead, she drew up some concepts for a smaller cargo ship, only focusing back on the meeting when she realized Marc was about to close it. “I have one more thing,” Catie said. “Go ahead,” Marc said. Everyone else sat back down, figuring that it must be something important since Catie hated talking at meetings. “Ajda and I are getting ready to start up a space cruise line business. We’ve got a preliminary design for a space liner. I want to make sure that the board doesn’t have any issues with it as well as ask if anyone wants to invest?” “How much are you looking for?” Blake asked. “Let’s deal with the first issue first,” Marc said. “Anyone see a problem?” “I assume you’ll have an antimatter plant,” Fred said. “I don’t think so. With what Dr. Nakahara learned from the Fazullan fusion plant, he thinks he can make a fusion reactor that can deliver the necessary power. And we won’t put jump drives in it and with the efficiency of the new drives and our limited speed requirements I think we’re good.” “Based on that, I don’t see any problem,” Marc said. “So how much?” Kal asked. “I don’t have a specific amount in mind. I just wanted to offer the opportunity to everyone.”,” Catie said. “How much will the ship cost?” “Ajda is targeting one billion. Plus, we’ll need to start out with about 200 million for operating capital.” Blake coughed. “How much will I have to invest so that I can use the owner’s cabin if Jackie and I decide to take a trip.”?” “All of you can use the owner’s cabin; you don’t have to invest, you’re family.” “Okay, so what would make sense for an investment?” “I’m not investing,” Fred said, “but given the size of the total investment I would suggest blocks of twenty or maybe fifty million.” “I’d like to invest,” Kal said. “Let’s see my portfolio has . . .” Kal was trying to interpret the summary statement. “Cer Kal, you could easily afford to invest fifty million,” ADI said. “And I would be comfortable with you investing up to one hundred million.” “What she said,” Kal said. Catie laughed. “There’s no hurry. If you want to invest, let me know. There will probably be another chance if we decide to add a second ship. We’ll also be looking at a smaller version, we can do some interesting things with ships given the new gravity drives and more efficient fusion power plants.” Realizing that Marc had already signed off with a goodbye message to all, everyone quickly signed off as well. ◆◆◆ “ADI, Daddy wasn’t trying to be mean.”,” Catie said. “It felt mean.” “I know, nobody likes to be corrected in public, but you interrupted the flow of the meeting unnecessarily.” “Why, he didn’tdidn’t he give the correct number?” “The number he gave was close enough for the purposes of the meeting.” “Why not be exact?” ADI questioned. “Because it uses up time and brainpower.” “How?” “Us mere mortals are not able to process information as quickly as you. Now, think of it this way, how many possible outcomes are there for an experiment.”?” “It depends on the experiment.” “Right,” Catie looked up as she thought of a better example. “How about this, what are the possible outcomes of a soccer game?” “There are enumerable outcomes to a soccer game.” “Right. But there’s side A wins, Side B wins, and a tie.” “Of course, those are the basic outcomes, but the scores could be very different.” “ADI, that’s the point. Now you could be more precise by specifying the expected point spread, but even for you, it would take forever to enumerate all the possible scores. And if you try to analyze the probability of each outcome it would take forever.” “I see.” “So, do you do that when you try to decide who will win the game?” “I don’t follow soccer.” Catie grunted. “Okay, what about the stock market. When you’re calculating which investments to make, do you determine all the possible outcomes?” “Of course.” “All of them?!” “No, that would . . . take forever.” “Right. You stop calculating when you have the most probable outcomes, then decide what to do from there.” “Correct.” “So, in a meeting, you need to make sure that the members have the right amount of information to make a good decision, too much information just wastes processing bandwidth, and it looks like you’re showing off.” “Oh, right!” “And yes, Sam had this same discussion with me three years ago.” “Forty-two months, actually.”,” ADI corrected. “Show off!” “Should I take the same amount of time before I modify my behavior?” “Now you’re just being mean. I didn’t take that long.” “Eight months, two weeks, and three days.” “SoSo, divide that by ten thousand since you process information so much faster, and you can take that long.” “SoSo, I just get thirty minutes.” “You got it.”,” Catie confirmed. ◆◆◆ Invitations for the wedding had been sent out weeks before to the various dignitaries who might want to attend. They had been sworn to secrecy so Jackie could still surprise Catie, but it wasn’t reasonable to expect the Prime Minister of The Cook Islands to make a trip to Delphi City on only two weeks’ notice, much less the Prime Minister of New Zealand. By the time the wedding rolled around, the guest list had expanded to include the President of the United States, the President of the European Union, the Prime Minister of Australia, the King of Morocco, and as well as many ambassadors from the various countries. The Aperanjen Ambassador to Earth was there as well as the Paraxean Ambassador. To make the event even more special, Samantha had insisted on them having the wedding on Delphi Station. With Catie’s shuttle design and the docking station on ring three, it would be easy to accommodate the important guests. The main problem was coming up with a space big enough to hold the right number of people. Captain Clark was enlisted to help and he cleared one hundred meters of the top deck to provide the space. It would be convenient to the dock and after the wedding, he planned to remodel it based on Catie’s final suggestions. And since a space station was much like a ship, Captain Clark was also enlisted to perform the ceremony. “What a zoo,” Catie said as she was finally declared ready for the wedding by Monica, the wedding coordinator. All the women in the wedding party were in an empty store just down from where Captain Clark had built the chapel. Catie wasn’t sure why she was in the room with Jackie since Sandra was her bride’s maid. “I know,” Jackie agreed. “But just think, in just an hour it’ll be overover, and we’ll be sister princesses.” “Huh? You know that once you and Blake are married, you’re going to be my aunt?” Jackie’s eyes flared in surprise and a bit of anger. “Don’t you ever dare call me Aunt Jackie!” “Okay, sister princesses it is.” “What’s going on in there?” Elaine, Jackie’s sister hollered. “We’re just finishing up,” Jackie called back. She gave Monica a questioning glance. “Relax. I’ll go check the others then I’ll be back to fit your train. Do Not Sit Down!” “As if I could,” Jackie whispered as Monica left the room. Monica came back and fitted the train onto Jackie, and then the tiara, and the trailing veil. “Okay, Ladiesladies, it’s showtime. Latoya, you’re first, Elaine, Catie, then Sandra. I want thirty seconds between each of you. Then we’ll have a nice pause before Jackie comes out. Ready?!” The bridesmaids were all wearing a full-length light mauve gowns with off-shoulder sleeves, which gave a nice contrast to the white wedding dress that Jackie was wearing which also had off an off-shoulder lace bodice with a modest décolleté. Monica signaled and the music started. “Latoya, go.” Latoya exited the room to the passageway where Fred was waiting. He was wearing a tuxedo and tails. Latoya took the arm he was extending and headed up the aisle. Commented [AB11]: Maid of honor? “Elaine, . . . go.” Elaine exited the room to be met by Dexter Harbaugh, a Fox pilot that Jackie had arranged to be her groomsman. He wore his formal uniform, a dark navy tunic over lighter blue slacks. He had several medals. “Catie, . . . go.” Catie wondered if Monica had been in the Marines before she took up wedding planning. Catie exited the room and was met by Jason. She thought he looked great in his uniform, and he had lots of medals. “Sandra, . . . go.” Sandra exited the room and, took Kal’s arm. He was wearing his uniform, but his was a dark navy tunic over dark navy slacks with a red stripe down the side. Monica gave Jackie a quick going over to make sure everything was just right. “You’re perfect.” The wedding march started to play. Monica opened the door for Jackie and signaled her to start. Jackie walked to her father and took his arm. One deep breath and they started up down the aisle. Blake waited at the end, wearing his admiral’s uniform. It was the same as Jason’s but had a red sash across his chest. He gave Jackie a smile, shook her father’s hand then he and Jackie turned to face Captain Clark. The ceremony itself was brief. Catie had hardly heard ‘“dearly beloved’ beloved” before she heard ‘“you may now kiss the bride.’” There were some muted cheers, but with all the heads of state and royalty present, that was hardly appropriate. After the kiss, Blake and Jackie led the wedding procession back down the aisle. They slipped into the room where the women had gotten dressed. The passageway had been blocked by a screen so the people at the wedding didn’t know they were still so close by. “Okay, now everyone, get changed. You’ve got ninety minutes before your shuttle leaves for the reception,” Monica barked. Blake had arranged for twenty shuttles to be available to ferry the guests. They’d been manufacturing them for the last six months. After the wedding, most of them would be dispatched to the fleet. It took almost three hours for a shuttle to make the round trip from the station to Delphi City. Each shuttle would need to make two trips to ferry all of the twelve hundred guests down to the reception. Things were arranged so that the wedding party would slip in between the two runs so they would arrive at the reception right after the most important guests had been ferried down. The women all hurried to change and redo their makeup. The men just relaxed and had a drink; they didn’t need to change. ◆◆◆ With a guest list of over two thousand for the reception, there was no facility on Delphi City big enough to house them all, so Kal had built an outdoor pavilion in the central park. As was typical on Delphi City, the weather was partly cloudy, with, fortunately, no rain. As soon as Catie made it to the reception, Princess Elisabeth of Belgium and Princess Ingrid of Norway cornered her. “Dance card, come on cough it up,” Princess Elisabeth said. Catie just shook her head and handed her card over. “What’s up with you and Jason?” “Nothing. I just needed an escort. He’s kinda still dating Annie.” “Who cares, he’s a good dancer. What about Chaz, is he here?” Princess Elisabeth asked. “He should be, but be careful, his girlfriend’s here too and she’s a reporter.” “Oh right. I remember. Anyway, he’s a good dancer too.” Quickly the two other princesses swapped dances with various men on Catie’s card so that they would get to dance with someone other than the princes that their handlers had arranged for. “My brother, Emmanuel, said he was looking forward to meeting you again,” Princess Elisabeth said. “Be nice to him.” “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?” Catie asked. “He’s got a crush on you.” “Oh. I’m not sure we’re compatible.” “I know, that’s why I said to be nice.” ◆◆◆ Catie and the other Princesses princesses had just finished rearranging their dance cards when Blake and Jackie made their entrance. The orchestra immediately struck up the music for Moon River with Miguel Cordova providing the vocals. Blake led Jackie out onto the floor for their first dance. Catie managed to enjoy herself during the evening. Her dance card was full, giving her a ready excuse to avoid the politicking from the various dignitaries. And Prince Emmanuel was an excellent dancer, as was Jason, although the princesses had taken most of her dances with him. At Midnight a Hover Lynx showed up to whisk Jackie and Blake away to their secret honeymoon location. ◆◆◆ The next morning in Washington, D.C., Yvette knocked on the general’s door. “Enter!” Yvette opened the door so the smell of fresh coffee would waft into the office. “General, I’ve just made a fresh pot of coffee, would you like some?” “Yes, thank you.” “How about a few cookies?” “Just two.” Yvette brought the coffee along with a plate of cookies to the general. “I said just two, you know I’m not good with temptation.” “Oh, I can help you eat them.”,” Yvette assured him. The general hit the key to bring up the screen saver so that Yvette couldn’t see what was on his computer screen. When he did that, Yvette used her Comm to trigger the microbots that she’d put on the general’s keyboard connector earlier in the week. While the screensaver was active, they would be entering the code for the virus that Yvette was needed to install on the computer. All she had to do was keep the general distracted for a few minutes. “How’s your wife doing?” “She’s fine. She’s playing golf today.” “Oh, I didn’t know she played. Is she as good as you?” Yvette pointed to the golf trophy on the general’s shelf. “Her drive’s a bit weak, but she has a mean short game.” “That sounds good. Don’t the professionals say, drive for show, putt for dough?” “That they do. Unfortunately, my game is a bit showy.” “But you won that tournament.” “I did, but it was the headquarters tournament; all of the competitors were in my chain of command.” “Oh, they wouldn’t let you win.” “If they know what’s good for themthem, they do.”,” the general chuckled. Yvette took a cookie and made a show of biting into it. The general was a sucker for any flattery and any flirting. He never did anything untoward, but he loved the attention. “How about you, Brenda, do you play golf?” “Miniature golf.” One of the things Yvette regretted about her cover was that the ‘“real’ real” Brenda Lee did not play golf. With a six handicap, Yvette loved to play the game. Chapter 15 Into the Shadows It took five weeks before Cristina and Yvette could make it to Starbase Vulcan. Catie had called in a few favors. With the installation of the quantum relays, Yvette’s job at the Pentagon was over so Delphi Intelligence reluctantly allowed Catie to have her. Cristina was happy to get out of the middle east, it was hard to have much fun posing as a conservative Arab woman wearing a Hajib. Catie arranged for one of the miners on two different crews to beg out of their commitments. Catie assured them that they would be well compensated once their family problems were over. That provided each woman with a fake husband to accompany to Vulcan. The two substitute miners were vouched for by Jimmy. He told Catie that they wouldn’t have any trouble keeping their mouths shut since they hardly talked anyway. Catie had arranged it so that Yvette’s cabin was above Cristina’s. She’d put a trap door in the two cabins so that it would be easy for them to visit each other without others knowing about it. She’d also created a pathway from her office and from her cabin to Yvette’s cabin through the maintenance space between floors. “Where are your husbands?” Catie asked. Cristina laughed. “Where do you think? At the bar with all the other miners. They head out tomorrow, so tonight will be their last chance to get drunk.” When Cristina went to the bathroom, Yvette leaned in to talk with Catie in a whisper. “Do you know anything about my last assignment?” “At the Pentagon?” “Yes.” “Sure, I heard something about it during one of the board meetings. Was it interesting?” “It was pretty neat. I learned a lot, but it felt weird. Aren’t the Americans supposed to be our allies?” “Of course, they are, but you’ve heard of the expression, ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’?’ Well, Uncle Blake prefers to say, ‘Watch your enemies close and your friends closer.’” Yvette laughed. “That’s pretty good.” Then her eyes got wide. “Does that mean we’re planting spies and spyware in the French Balardgon?” “Of course!” Yvette gasped. “Merde!” “Hey, the saying goes for everyone.” Cristina came back into the room. “What are you to whispering about?” “About spying on your friends.” “Hey, you can predict what your enemies are going to do a lot easier than you can your friends.” “Exactly.” “Okay, Chéri, I understand. Now, have you come up with where you’re going to put us?” Yvette asked. “Yes. Both of you will spend a couple of weeks looking for jobs while you work in the recycle center.” “Merde.” “It won’t be that bad. Anyway, Yvette, my assistant will get promoted to manager of the new holodeck, so you’ll get her job. Cristina, you’re going to get the job as a bartender at the Stardust. One of their bartenders is going to get a job on one of the tugs. He’s just finishing his flight qualification.” “Why does she get to get the job in a bar?” Yvette whined. “Because we both know she can handle herself in a bar fight. I don’t think you’re ready to deal with more than one drunken miner at a time.” Yvette sniffed but agreed. She really didn’t want to have to get into a fight where she couldn’t just pull out a knife or a gun. “And until then?” Cristina asked. “Nose around.” “See, Yvette, you’ll get plenty of time to spend in bars,” Cristina said. “But seriously, you don’t have any clues?” “No. And we don’t know how they’re communicating. They’re going against the station, so I would suggest that you sound like you’re not too happy about getting dragged all the way out here.” “That should be easy,” Yvette said, making it clear that the middle of nowhere was not her favorite place to be assigned. “Cristina, I heard you got into trouble,” Catie teased. “Something about a knife and a Sergeant Major.” “Who told you?” “I have my sources. Now, spill!” “You must have read the report.” “But a first-hand account is so much better.” “Okay,” Cristina groaned. “You know they’ve added all this extra training around sexual harassment and assault.” “Yes.” “Well, they I was on assignment when they had the last class. They sent all of us who missed the class to a quick course on it when they updated the policies. You know, everyone has a panic button in their HUD, you’re supposed to report it immediately, everyone’s Comm will be interrogated right away, stuff like that.” “Yes, I had to go through the same refresher.” “Well, while I was in Syria, I went to the bar on base. One of the sergeants that I knew from Guatemala was there, he’d been promoted to Sergeant Major, so I offered to buy him a drink.” “Go on,.” Catie prompted. “Well, after my round, he offered to buy another round. Of course, I agreed. When he picked up my glass, his arm brushed by my boob. I ignored it, figuring it was an accident. Then while we were having our second drink, he commented that my boobs looked bigger than he remembered.” “That seems like it was inappropriate.” “Why? They are bigger. Anyway, I told him I’d had them augmented; I didn’t think there was anything to it. A bit later, after our third drink, he leaned over and grabbed my ass, said we should go somewhere to really celebrate his promotion.” “Keep going!” “Well, I pulled my knife and stuck it in his crouch, figuring that would get his attention.” Catie started laughing. “I was just getting ready to explain that I thought his promotion might have been premature when my Comm pings me to cease and desist.” “I’m standing there trying to figure out what’s up and then Yeats is whispering to me, ‘Although I have to admire the effectiveness of your deterrent, unless you report the incident, we won’t be able to prevent further infractions unless you actually use that knife. And then, we might lose a redeemable asset. Now, would you please remove the knife.?’” Catie and Yvette howled with laugher. “I can’t believe he said all that without even flinching.” “Well, he was always a tough old bastard. Anyway, the MP that was there stepped in and told me it was a training exercise. That I was supposed to have reported him before it went that far.” “I agree. You should have at least reported him when he commented on your boobs.” “That’s what they told me. I had to do an extra of week duty reviewing a bunch of harassment situations to sensitize me as to when I should report an incident.” “And Yeats?” “He told me he had to undergo counseling about the nightmares he was having about that knife.” “Well, at least they’re taking it all seriously.” ◆◆◆ “Lieutenant Racine, have you talked to Cristina and Yvette yet?” Catie asked. “No, I don’t want to blow their cover. I did see Cristina in a bar last night.” Catie nodded. “I also suspect that Delphi Intelligence has sent a couple of others, but I don’t know who they are.” “Not a problem. I was expecting more people to show up.” Catie got up and poured them both a finger of scotch. “Since you missed my interrogation of Cristina about her latest antics, I thought we could have a laugh about it here.” “What antics?” “Did you see the incident from Syria?” “Oh, you mean the knife.” “Yes. What did you think?” “Personally, I prefer Cristina’s methods. But they do have a point. We don’t want to waste assets that might be retrainable, but grabbing her ass, the sergeant major had to have known that was going to be dangerous, and they’d already made their point for the training exercise.” “Do you think he wanted to see how far she’d go?” “He’s a tough bastard. Maybe he wanted to see how the system would protect him if a test subject took it too far.” They clinked glasses, “To a point well made.” ◆◆◆ “Hello, Brigitte,” Cristina greeted Yvette at the bar. Yvette had usedwas using a different first name since the name Yvette was publicly connected with Catie. “Hi, Tina. Order a drink and join me.” Cristina waved at the waitress to come over. After ordering a drink she sat next to Yvette. “I thought you were looking for a job?” “I am,” Yvette pointed to her specs. “Working in that recycling center is getting old fast.” “For you and me both. I’m really pissed at Gordie for dragging me out here. I had a good gig back on Delphi City.” “I hear you. Charles is on my shitlist for the same reason. I was an executive assistant for the director of ZMS and he goes and gets the crazy idea to join that mining company with his friend. Then he insists that I come out with him. Jerk! I should have divorced him instead.” The waitress came back with Cristina’s drink and smiled at them. Once they were alone again, Cristina raised her glass to Yvette. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll both have accidents, and we can collect the insurance and go home.” The two women clinked glasses. The two continued to drink and complain about having to live on Vulcan. As they had more to drink, they let their voices get louder so more of the people around them could hear what they were saying. ◆◆◆ Catie knocked on the trapdoor to let Yvette know she was there. She’d told her she was coming, but one could never be too careful, especially when Cristina was going to be there. The two had just gotten back from a night of drinking to build their covers. Yvette pulled the bureau away from the wall and lifted the trapdoor. “Hello, Princess.” Catie could tell she was a bit tipsy. “You guys get to have all the fun,” Catie complained. “Well, you could put on a disguise and come with us.” “I’d love to, but Daddy would kill me.” “How would he ever know?” “Well, first, ADI would tell him.” “I certainly would,” ADI assured everyone. “Oops. But still, what could he do?” “Oh, he’d get even with me somehow. He’s pretty sneaky.” “As sneaky as you are?” “Yes, where do you think I get it from? Daddy; and he gets it from Grandma. He probably stuck me on this mission to get back at me for the things we did on Helike.” “He can’t hold that against you. You were perfectly safe.”,” Yvette said with a giggle. “That’s probably why this mission isn’t some horrible assignment.” “Hmm. And I always thought your Uncle Blake was the sneaky one.” “He’s not very sneaky at all. He just comes right out and does or says what he wants. It got him in trouble at the Academy.” “I’d guess it would.” “Now, you two, tell me what you’ve learned.” “We could have done this over the comms.” “But then I wouldn’t get to hug you both.” ◆◆◆ Yvette walked into the bar and waved at Cristina, who was working as the bartender. She walked over and sat on a barstool. “How do you like this job?” “It’s okay. Not as nice as the one I had on Delphi City, but it’ll keep me busy and help pay the bills.” “Is money that tight?” “Yes, we put everything we had into buying his share.” “So did we, ; the bastard even made me cash in my retirement account. This had better pay off or I’m going to have to use your idea and collect on the insurance.” Cristina laughed. “Did you guys get a full share?” “We borrowed money from my parents, so we just managed it. Did you come up with a full one?” “Not really, he’s working the first six months for free to pay it off. We get the percentage of the ore based on a full share, but no salary.” “Oh, that explains why things are tight.” “Yep, how’s your job hunt going?” “I’ve got an interview with Commander McCormack. She’s looking for a new executive assistant. Hers just got another job.” “How do you think you’ll like working for her?” “She’s got to be some stuck-up bitch. She’s what, eighteen? Nice to have Daddy paving the way for you.” “Well, if you get the job, maybe you’ll be able to come up with some inside info we can use to supplement our income.” “One can hope.” ◆◆◆ It had takentook Racine’s investigators three weeks to get all the data on Wheeler’s various scams. When they had all the evidence gathered, Catie called him in. “Cer Wheeler, we have a problem.” “I really don’t care about your problems. Why have you called me in?” “Our problem is you. We have clear evidence that you have been intentionally lowering the quality of the goods you sell so that they have to be replaced or reworked more often.” “So what? There is nothing illegal about that.” Catie nodded. “You are correct, but it’s not meeting the needs of the station.” “I don’t see how that has anything to do with it.” “If you read your purchase contract, you will notice that we clearly state that if your business does not meet the needs of the station, we reserve the right to open a business to close the gap.” “That’s can’t be right.” “I assure you it is, but please take a moment to review the contract.” “Damn,” Mr. Wheeler obviously didn’t like the fine print. “So, what are you going to do?” “We have two choices here. One, you close your chandlery, turn it over to us, and leave the station; or two, we will open a competing chandlery and drive you out of business.” “You can’t do that. I’ll just fix my quality issues. Besides, you can’t bring in the supplies you need fast enough.” “Oh, we already have all the supplies in place. And I’m sure that the miners will refuse to patronize your chandlery once they have a choice.” “I’ll lower my prices. You can’t do this to me!” Wheeler shouted. “Given what you’ve done, which, by the way, is common knowledge among most of the miners by now, I don’t think lowering your prices is going to work. Now, what do you want to do?” “Can’t I sell the business?” “I’m not sure it has any value right now. We of course will pay for the goods you have in stock.” Mr. Wheeler started to smile. “At wholesale prices and discounted for any quality issues.” “You can’t do this, it’ll ruin me!” “You should have thought of that before you started cheating people. Now, you have one day to decide. We will be opening a new chandlery the day after tomorrow.” “I want to talk to a lawyer.” “Go right ahead. Mr. Delancey is available.” “I want Pettigrew.” “I’m sorry, the station has him on retainer, so it would be a conflict of interest for him to represent you.” Catie had learned from Katya that having the best lawyer on retainer was a definite advantage when it came to legal matters. Mr. Wheeler stormed out of her office. The next day, he sent her a message asking her to make an offer on the chandlery’s stock.