by Danny Dunn
When you say someone is worth 5 trillion units, it is hard to envision what that looks like in real stuff. Zaria would see something like the windmills or the houses or the transportation system I was proposing, and Zari would always ask if we could afford each thing. Well, it is even more difficult to envision in terms of seeing it as something physical.
One trillion units equal 41.666 million pounds of gold. What you see in this room is 20 isles, with about 1 million pounds per side totaling 41 million pounds of gold. There are 3 more rooms, just like this one. Then there are the rooms of silver, platinum, titanium, neodymium, and diamonds, and many other items we will need. I tried buying more of the other precious metals, but their cost per billion units was so low that I couldn’t possibly buy enough of it, so I kept having to go back to gold and diamonds.
We knew that if the world markets collapsed, his fortune would be worth zero. So, I sold it all off as fast as we could without drawing attention.
So, when we first saw this, you said that this would be dangerous in the hands of anyone else, and that tells me that you think this came from us scavenging, right? James says yes, kind of in a questioning sort of way. Zaria tells him that after that last meeting with the Senate, Zari told her to begin selling off his stock.
Zari was worth 5 trillion units at the time. She says to him that she opened up 30 stock trading companies and 20 import/export companies and 30 different bank accounts. Over that year, we sold off almost every share of Zari's fortune. It was funny because his company was doing so well that often I would sell off millions in stocks one day, and when I came back in the morning, his worth had a higher balance than the morning before. It had literally grown enough overnight to offset the millions I sold off the previous day.
It took me almost 2 years selling off millions of units worth of stock per day to sell it all.
We would tell the companies selling us the materials it was for overseas customers of our import/export companies, and we would pick up the materials at their location. We brought the goods to our own warehouses, where we would box it up into boxes and label them with an alias program I had developed. Gold was labeled as bolts, Silver was labeled washers, and so on. We would then use our own bots to load the materials onto one of our own two cargo ships. From there, our cargo ships would bring it to the Zari I port, and the Zari-bots would put it all into the Zari I Warehouse labels as nuts bolts, screws, and washers. We had a lot of hardware. Hehehe. From there, it made its way here. Zaria smiles, and you thought we spend all our money.
James "OMG, this is all yours, not what your Zarians have scavenged. And you got it here without anyone knowing a thing; not the government; not the press; not the stockbrokers, not the robbers and thieves, and especially not our crooked board.
Zaria smiles and tells James, "The reason this room has all the various materials is that this was Zari's and is now mine. So, now I am financing building the world on what we find. Feel better now?
James laughs and says. "I am so stunned, every time I think I have a grasp on how smart and how great your heart is, I learn how much I am underestimating both.
Zaria "The Zarians only that know about this area are the ones that moved them here. You, James, are the only bio being to every know what is here. I felt you should know about it going forward."
James asks if the other rooms are filled, as well. Zaria smiles and tells him yes that they are all full, 3 with gold, some with silver, platinum, neodymium, diamonds, and other precious materials.
Rooms one through nine are filled with my stuff, and the others are filled with what we have found.
Zaria points to a computer screen at the end of the first aisle. She walks into the aisle and pulls a brick off the shelf. The numbers on the computer screen change and the number at the bottom reads 41,005,123 pounds and 1,000,000,120,282 units.
The numbers are staggering. James tells Zaria. So, when the President was telling the world Zari was broke, you must have been laughing pretty hard. Zaria giggles, yes, they were clueless in every way possible.
Zaria and I spent his money to build Zari I. I decided after the board issue to use what we find to fund everything else.
James asks why she needs diamonds?
Well, the initial purchases were for the defense system. They were key to building that system. Crystals work but not as well as diamonds in the higher power levels we needed. But then as time was running out, I bought some larger ones just to convert the cash to something. Crazy, isn’t it.
Maybe your next question is why I need this much of everything. James smiles back at her.
"I am buying peace James, With what we find we can Promote Peace and Equality for all and not have to worry about someone else finding it and using it to fund things like weapons against me. Or maybe they use it to buy an army to fight us.
You are one busy Queen."
I am pretty sure you are the only bio Being in the history of the universe to see this much gold in one place. It is a fantastic sight, isn't it? What we have found so far will fund us for the next 1,000 years, at least.
So, remember that old ship I pointed out in the bay. James nods yes and smiles because he knows what is in it now. My Zarians found a vault that had over 200,000 bricks of gold totaling 2 million pounds. It seems that a King and his ancestors had been hoarding gold for over a thousand years while his people were starving and were basically slaves. That shipment is so large that it is still out on a vessel while we build it another room, shh, lol. So, when you were asking if it was ok if everyone with the deal I offered the Zari I people...Well, piece of cake as they say.
One more room while we are here.
They walk into the coin room. 4 interns are working in the room. As a joke, they are pretending to be sleeping with their pocket stuffed with coins. One acts like they have been discovered and tells her not to worry about the minimum wage and adds that they worked it out. Everyone is rolling over.
There are shelves with thousands of small boxes. Zaria grabs a box and brings it down off the shelf and opens it. It is a box of Zari's. She pulls one out and hands it to James. He looks at it, smiles, and his eyes water up. Zari smiles and tells him she has one at home for him.
They walk over to the area where they are making the coins, and Zaria asks how it's going. The intern tells her it is great, and she is so honored to meet her and her fiancé. James smiles and shakes her hand. The intern tells her that what she has done for everyone is so beautiful. Wow, he is cute, she adds. Back, slave Zaria barks at her. Off with her head, where is my ray-gun? Everyone is cracking up. Zaria asks when they are rotating to the Z5s. The coin makers reply in 2 weeks, my Queen. Zaria smiles and says, ok. But if you make more eyes at my-man, you will spend a millennium in the cave and smiles. No crashing ok. Yes, my Queen. They all giggle and are so happy they are getting such sweet moments with their Queen and James.
Zaria asks James if he is ready for the next leg of the tour.
James lights up and says affirmative, my Queen. They take a chopper to the other end of the island. They land and are surrounded by flying things everywhere. Before we get out, I need to tell you that all of this stemmed from our conversation some time back, and it was that conversation that caused me to think to do this.
They get out of the chopper and walk out to a hill that has been flattened on the top As they climb the mountain, they can hear the loud noises of the aircraft flying at very high speeds.
As they reach the top, there are hundreds of Zarian sitting in an amphitheater facing the ocean that is about 500 feet up on a cliff so they can view the activity close up. Over the ocean immediately in front of them, the Zarians are flying old-style aircraft, there are two colors of planes, half of the planes are white, and half are blue. They are having dog fights and have installed visible lasers onto each plane. Each plane also has several sensors that indicate when the other side has scored a hit.
There are ten planes, at 5 per side. When there is a kill or a pilot pull
s off a good maneuver, the Zarians cheer and clap.
Zaria tells James they love it. Zaria giggles. They were expressing how much they enjoy flying the big planes, so I thought they would enjoy this. I had no idea it would be so popular. Zaria gestures for James to follow her. We can do this on another day. Today is their big tournament. As it turns out, Zarians like to fly.
Zaria takes James to another area that is a bowl-like shape. The bowl is about 500 yards across and about 200 yards deep. The top 50 feet around the entire bowl are cleared, and there are bleacher system seats all the way around. There are around 5,000 bots in the seats. There are 5 hoops spread ours evenly around the top edge of the bowl. The hoops are 10 feet in diameter suspended 10 feet above the rim of the bowl.
Zaria tells James a game is about to begin. They love this, she says. There many variations they play. In this variation, there are 25 teams of 5 Zarian drone pilots per team. Each team has 10 large drones and 90 small drones. The 10 large drones are the ball carriers and have three prongs extending upward to cradle one of the 3 balls. The 90 drones per team are fighters. Every drone has a laser that can stun the drones of their competitor’s drones by hitting one of several sensors on the drones. When a drone is stunned it goes dead and falls for 3 seconds and then is back in the game. It takes 1 hit to knock out a fighter but 10 hits to know down a ball carrier. As you will see those three seconds put it out of the action, which changes very quickly. Every drone has only 10 stuns to fire, so they need to be very strategic with their stuns. What makes is very cool is that they can form alliances during the game, and there can be a maximum of 3 teams per alliance. A large drone is going to fly over the top and will drop 3 lightweight balls. If an alliance puts a ball through a hoop, they get a percentage of the score. If an alliance of 3 teams scores, they each get 1/3 of a point. When a fighter has fired its 10 shots, it is out of the game and heads back to the home team’s coral.
All of the drones line up just like the players would for a tip-off of a basketball game or football game kickoff, but there are 2,500 drones.
A large drone flies over the bowl and drops the 3 balls near the center of the bowl. The moment the balls are released, 2,500 drones go into action.
James starts laughing, OMG he says, this is incredible. Sure enough, three teams have a ball, and 22 teams do not. The ball carriers move forward with the ball, but wherever there is a ball, there is a mass of activity surrounding it. Much like a game of rugby. You might not see the guy with the ball, but it sure isn’t hard to tell where it is. Drones are constantly falling toward the ground. They tumble for 3 seconds, fire back up, and join the action.
Within just a couple of minutes, about 200 drones are out of the game. Zaria explains that there are now 5 alliances, and of them is getting close to a hoop. Since there are only three balls and 25 teams when a team gets close to scoring other teams pull their fighters and a couple of ball carriers to the effort to try to stop the team from scoring. After about 10 minutes, over half of the fighters are out of the game. The ball that was close to a hoop has been stolen about 5 times and one of the alliance's scores. The second there is a score all the drones head to the other 2 balls. As the drones are eliminated, it gets easier to follow. James is cheering and moaning when a ball is stolen, as are the Zarians watching. James and Zaria have caught the attention of the crowd and put their hands to their chest in a sign of respect. The last 15 minutes are easy to follow and very exciting. The game is over when the balls have either made it through hoops or fall to the ground.
The game ends with 2 scores and one ball falling to the ground. Zaria looked at James and said that it was fun. I have one more thing to show you.
They take a walk over the hill on the opposite side of the mountain, and there are dozens of Zarians flying hang gliders. Zaria says she hasn't tried it yet but is going to.
"I have," says James, "can we do it now?"
Zaria "James, James, James, I am the Queen, we get to do anything. Let's go."
They walk over to a small platform that has a gondola leading another 4,000 feet up to the top of the mountain, they hop on, and it takes them up. At the top, they hop off and walk over to a station where eight interns are working the station to gear you up for flying.
Intern 1 "Hello, my Queen, are you flying today. "
The Zarians are all very excited to get to meet the queen in such a private setting. It is a big deal for all of them.
Zaria "Yes, I am, very nice to meet you." Zaria shakes all their hands. "This is my fiancé, James, and we will both be flying."
Intern 2 "Sir, may I ask your experience level, or how many hours you have flown?"
"I have flown about 300 hours, I think," replies James.
Intern 2, "Great. Let us assist you in getting suited up and into a glider." Two of the interns assist James while the other 2 assist the Queen.
Before they take off, an intern tells them that if for any reason they need emergency help to press the big red button and a drone will come and to hook onto the big ring above them and take them to safety. James and the Queen acknowledge his message.
James and the Queen are standing on a steep cliff that is about 100 feet wide about 4,500 above sea level. James is the first to jump off and does a yelling laugh as he catches with air. Zaria steps off about ten seconds after him. Zaria is immediately thrilled. The acceleration with no sound except for the wind is intense. Zaria smiles while she enjoys fantastic views. James is now a mile over the ocean. James signals to Zaria, who has caught up to him to look down. There is a pod of whales swimming along the surface. Zaria sees them and is so excited.
Zaria realizes she is a million miles away from who and what she was before she met James. James uses the wind to start climbing upward, and Zaria follows. James climbs for about 30 minutes. The air is getting thinner and cooler as he climbs, and the winds are getting stronger. Finally, they are high enough to where they can see the entire island.
Zaria sees the entire island and can only think of how happy she is and no longer has the aching feeling of guilt that has been in the background, maybe all her existence. Zaria realizes she is doing a great job and decides it is time for her team to take over for a while.
While Zaria is in the air, she is thinking of her 50 cities very differently. She decides that she wants to take a different approach to the next group of cities and is seeing things she would never see from the ground. She realizes that she doesn't have to build her towns based on the past. Zaria begins mapping out and planning her new metropolis and sends it to her design group.
James looks at Zaria flying and can't believe he is so in love. He realizes every day how amazing Zaria is and wishes he was able to tell Zari what an incredible being he created.
They fly for 3 hours, and neither wants to stop. They are both realizing how free they are while they are flying. After 4 hours, they finally agree to land.
Zaria "wow, that is pure fun. We need to do this at home. Maybe 4 times a day. Sex and flying these things that is all I need,"
James smiles, "So you kind of liked it a little bit?" I forgot that you could probably stay up there for several days.
Zaria " Now that is fun, fun, fun" thank you, James. You have brought meaning to my life, James. Thank you so much. Ok, I have one more surprise for today. It is something you also caused to happen. They hop into the chopper, and Zaria gives James another flying lesson. This time she just tells him what she wants the helicopter to do, and he figures it out. They are flying at about 1,000 feet above the tallest mountains, and she is guiding him as they go. Ok, I will take it from here.
They are flying just to the side of a long mountain top ridge. There are clearings every 300 feet with concrete pads. Interns are building dish style antennas onto the pads. After about 20 of the pads, they fly over ten completed dishes. They slow down more and arrive at a larger clearing with a landing pad and a small parking lot where there are several Transports parked.
James makes his first la
nding. Zaria is very excited for him and gives him a big kiss on the cheek. They get out and look around at the breathtaking views. They are standing on the highest point of the island and are at over 6,500 feet up, which is twice the elevation of Zari I highest point. The walks over to a small building and enter.
There is a small control room with six interns working in the office. Zaria introduces them to James as her fiancé, and the interns go crazy. Down girls, down, down, they are all hugging him and shaking his hand. Zaria tells them the first one to grab is butt gets beheaded. We have spare heads, so it might be worth it one says. James laughs, and Zaria asks James for her ray-gun, and James starts going through his pockets. So, ladies, why don't you show James what you are working on.
Intern 1 explains that they are transmitting and monitoring messages around the universe. They have just upgraded the transmitter to 300,000 watts, added two very high-powered radio telescopes, which will cover up to 50 light-years and possibly farther depending on the gas makeup of the area. They said that they are now transmitting every week and have identified 25 probable targets and just received another message from Zaria 2. James smiles at Zaria.
Zaria asks how the expansion is looking. Intern 2 says that they have just brought two more dishes online. We will have all 30 up within the next month. We increased the labor x 10 like you asked my Queen. Zaria looks at James and smiles back. Very nice girls. You can call the rack group and tell them to take you off their schedule. The interns all do a whew and wipe the sweat from their brow. That was close one says. Although I always wanted to be a little taller. Ok, girls say bye to James. They all smile and tell him how happy they are a couple.
James laughs, you are one busy Queen, indeed. All because of you, James, I was slacking on this project, but you are right, what was I thinking. This place is the Peace and Equality center of the universe from now on.
They get on the chopper and head back to the control room. James falls asleep on the way.