Still, despite the risk Diana and I living longer sounded really good to me.
Point being, before I went off on a tangent, I was just wanting to inject the augmented reality implant which was pure micro-tech, I’d let others pioneer the life extension stuff, before I or someone I loved used it. That was kind of screwed up, I know, but it was true. I never said I was perfect. Besides, better for someone terminally ill to try it first anyway, where even a bad reaction wouldn’t change their destiny all that much, there was nowhere to go but up for someone with a terminal condition.
I wasn’t completely heartless, and I knew if I was terminally ill, I’d jump at the chance, any chance, at a cure.
I was a mage and would already live a lot longer than most humans, I could wait until it was proven safe.
Diana looked hot as hell, so damned sexy, both angry and concerned for me at the same time, but I didn’t dare say that out loud.
“You can’t be sure of that,” she accused, “The tech might not be purposefully harmful, but for all we know it will make your immune system go haywire. I trust your opinion implicitly when it comes to technology, but when joining technology to the biological you can’t use your magic to know everything about it.”
Shit, she was right. Damn it.
“If something goes wrong, I can just use my magic to purge it?”
She shook her head. My goodness, the stubborn look on her face and in her eyes was so damned sexy.
“Fine, you win. I’ll wait until it’s proven safe. Are you going to send it all on then?”
She nodded, “We don’t have test facilities, or a pool for study volunteers. We might as well let the countries do it. I imagine the implants will be tested and evaluated in a relatively short amount of time, but the others will be more long term. At least two years, although the FDA will take at least ten, other countries won’t. Two years isn’t so long to wait to be safe, before we take the risk ourselves. I’m a little fascinated myself at life extension, and vision correction.”
“I don’t know, I kind of like the glasses, Doctor Young,” I really poured on the innuendo. No doubt I’d have faced sexual harassment charges, if she wasn’t my lover.
She smirked, “Behave.”
“What fun is that?” I stepped closer.
She grinned, and then gave me a kiss.
I wasn’t sure if that was because she’d won the argument, or because of the way I looked at her, but I suspected it was both. Funny thing was, I didn’t really mind losing the argument all that much, I’d have to geek out once it was declared safe.
She said, “I’ll get these all separated out, packaged, and sent to the U.N. for them to divvy out. I will hold back a few things, is that selfish?”
“Like what?”
She said, “A few AG implants, a few life extensions, vision correction, and maybe one or two others. Once it’s proven safe, we won’t have to wait for the next Vax to show up looking for a wormhole drive.”
I nodded, “Nothing wrong with a little selfishness, it all belongs to us, and we’re being generous sharing it with the world where it can improve and save people’s lives. There’s no reason to feel guilty keeping even less than I already told them I was going to keep.”
She smiled teasingly although there was relief in her eyes, “Okay, you win that argument.”
I snorted at the bone she tossed me, and then stole another kiss before I left her to her work. We still had half the day left.
It was all kinds of cool, and a hell of a trade for our first meeting with an alien merchant.
Chapter Five
In the end, the forming of a new nation was rather simple and took three steps. Declare independence with permanent citizens established, be recognized officially by other countries, and finally be recognized by the U.N. Still, I had a feeling I was the first one to do so by social media, at least partially.
On that evening, we had close to two hundred citizens, that mostly made up the four of us, and our security force and scientists which Cassie had managed to convince to accept dual citizenship. Cassie had also formed our starting laws, which were mostly common sense and decency. Cassie had also dispatched official notice on paper, a letter of intent and declaration to the United States that we were officially our own country, along with a whole list of blistering reasons. It went there, because the government we were forming were all citizens from there for the most part, especially the leadership.
She also sent an official request for recognition of our nation to the other one hundred ninety-six countries on Earth, along with a proposed trade agreement that also went to the United States. Lastly, which wasn’t necessary to form a nation but prudent given the circumstances, she sent a proposed treaty of mutual defense to all the nations that had armed warships flying under their flag in space. It seemed prudent to let them know where we stood, if for no other reason, that we’d protect ourselves and the planet below. Our space station nation was on the tip of the spear to protect Earth, and always would be, it might also calm ruffled feathers, for those that didn’t know our intentions.
In short, she did a hell of a lot of work since we’d made the decision to make it happen, so I really couldn’t complain when she sat me behind my desk, set up a camera, and gave me a speech to read that would be uploaded to various social media platforms and be sent to the press around the world. I even kind of got the importance of it, world awareness would put pressure on leaders to accept us or not publicly, instead of just trying to sweep it under the rug so to speak.
“Good evening, I’m President Scott Akin, of the nation Astraeus, formally space station Astraeus. We have officially declared our independence from our country of origin, but our intentions have not changed. We took this course because we had no choice, but we are firm in our beliefs and principles. We will defend the Earth alongside the other nations with ships risking their lives in space to defend not just themselves, but the whole planet.
“Our short-term goals are to open up official trade channels, and to offer the advanced technology we’ve been blessed with to improve lives on Earth, from healthcare to conveniences, as well as reduce pollution on Earth. We wish to form trade agreements with countries, and establish security and rules for spaceports, so the citizens of the world may visit and enjoy the amenities of our station and even tour our solar system.
“We…” I continued to read through the speech, and there were a lot of points on it including justification for past actions as well as patting ourselves on the back for saving the world from the Sonex. Lastly, we diplomatically declared that we’d protect ourselves from any who threatened our new sovereignty, but that we hoped for peace and acceptance moving forward in this new world of infinite possibilities.
Cassie said, “Not bad, let’s do it again, this time…” she broke down in giggles when I glared at her, and held up her hands, “You’re too easy.”
I snorted, “Be nice, it’s been a long day.”
She smirked.
“What now?”
She said, “We run the station, do what we’ve always done, and wait. We need to give the countries time to acknowledge us. The last step is petitioning the U.N. to acknowledge us.”
I nodded, “Alright. Dinner?”
She grinned, “I’d love some, you offering?”
I laughed, and then made the sign of the cross with my index fingers.
She snorted.
Yeah, crosses, holy water, not effective against vampires in the least.
“Will I have to do this again?”
She shrugged, “It depends on the world’s reaction, both socially and in the halls of power. Not a lot, I’d say.”
I nodded, skeptical of that answer, and we left to join Diana and Jayna for dinner.
Two months passed and a lot got done. The colony ships of course, were two thirds done, and continued to build. In the end those eight ships would be equal to my station’s mass, each, so they were getting rather large. They looked like huge lon
g spokes attached the station. Fortunately, they were much thinner than the station, so they were all on one side and away from most of the traffic to and from the station.
Our food production was in full swing, and the first vegetables and wheat were finished, and we also had vined fruit growing on one of the levels. We still had to import a lot of things, meats, clothing, linen, wood, and the like, but felt our high-tech exports would more than balance that equation, even after other countries and businesses offered competition in those arenas, which wouldn’t be for a long time. Eventually I hoped we’d cut that list even further, I knew Diana was working on a domed habitat.
The long-term plan was to use a habitat on the moon, or perhaps on Mars, to raise cattle owned by us, as well as trees for wood, fibers, textiles, linens, and all that. The end goal was full self-sufficiency for our nation, but there was a give and take to trade, and we’d only stop importing if it ever came to be that Earth cut off our exports.
The U.N. had divvied out the implants and medical technologies, and those test studies were looking promising. So far, there’d been no deaths, not even as much as a headache or sick stomach from using the technology, and lives had already been saved from the latter medical technology.
Over the two months we’d been officially recognized by over half the countries on the planet. The biggest hold outs, at least in the first world, were the United States, Germany, and England. The former called us thieves and criminals, and they ran counter-campaigns in the media calling us dangerous and untrustworthy, we weren’t sure why Germany and England were backing them. Still, we hadn’t petitioned the U.N. for a vote yet, we needed their acceptance or there was no point, not when two of the three were on the security council and could veto.
On the good side, a lot of first world countries had acknowledged us, and were already in the process of building space ports or airport auxiliaries with customs stations for our exports, as well as to facilitate tourism in both directions. Not all of them were active yet, but there were a few, and we worked with shipping companies for the products we had.
We had three open resorts on the station, as well as restaurants and shops, not to mention tours of the solar system. In short, the station was open for business. I knew Jayna was a lot happier, with the places open, even a few night clubs which broke up the monotony of running a station.
All of that filled in a very small part of the station, we were just getting started.
Probably the biggest thing was Diana’s breakthrough in low power generation she’d told me about. It wasn’t free energy, but it was clean, safe, and seemed almost magical. It could be sized down to the micro level to power electronics, or it could be large enough to power a building or aircraft.
As a result, we were selling alien high tech laptops, cell phones, health beds, and such on earth, all with built in independent power sources. There was a lot going on there that I was only peripherally aware of. We also offered small power sources to use with current technologies on Earth, and I was fairly sure Cassie’s staff were in talks with several companies to include a power source in their technologies during construction. Such as cars, planes, and others.
Needless to say, the pissed off people were getting louder. Especially in the power industries, such as batteries, gas, electrical, oil, and a lot of others. Astraeus was far from universally loved, and us transforming Earth to better and cleaner technologies was going to cause a lot of waves, probably for years to come. Job loss was something we had as a priority, we were even willing to lose a little money to help there, but it was what it was, and it would no doubt get a lot worse before things got better again.
New technologies were always disruptive, and power, communications, medical, and transportation were four of the biggest industries on the planet. All of them multi-billion dollar industries, and they would be the largest impacted.
Still, in the end people would be healthier, and the world would be less polluted, which would make it all worth it, I hoped. Sure, my main motivations were keeping us all safe, protected, and in a decent lifestyle, but I also firmly believed in a win-win situation. Despite the unrest on Earth, I was proud of what we were doing and believed it would all turn out for the better in the end.
It was also something that would take years if not decades to fully saturate and transform those industries, which would also temper the bad side effects of disrupting economies.
The new colonies were a different story, and they could start out with the newer technologies without a large impact to Earth’s current and embedded industries. Outside of water, sewage, and perhaps roads if they didn’t go with the flying car idea, there’d be little to no infrastructure needed. Not with electric, data, communications, and other infrastructure which would all be replaced with wireless connections and localized power.
As for me specifically over that time, things were going well. Cassie had made me make a couple of more videos, but for the most part I was just doing my own thing. Designing electronics, designing power sources for various electronics and even just small boxes with an outlet, to power old stuff.
When the alien AG tech was approved, all my cell phone, tablet, and computer designs would interface with it for streaming, web access, phone calls. Not Bluetooth, they’d be able to leave all their stuff at home if they wanted, and access it all virtually.
I’d also designed closed communications systems using entangled communications. They’d be perfect for fully securing internal networks, or on the outside used for submarine communications instead of the old ELF systems. It’d work anywhere in the universe. Far too many things to list.
On the space ship side, I’d designed cruise ships, shuttles, yachts, and the like. There were a lot of rich people out there that loved the idea, and I’d sold quite a few personal space ships to private owners. They had two power sources, because I stuck by the idea running nuclear fusion in Earth’s atmosphere was just a bad idea. But, they had enough superconductors and Diana’s new low and safe power generation technology to get it safely to the ground, and back up into space. When in space, the fusion reactor allowed itself to be powered up, and the ships became powerhouses that could zip about the solar system at sixty gravities, just like a warship.
Then there was the commercial side of things, merchant vessels for both companies and countries. Apparently, there were a lot of insane people on the planet, because they wanted to risk their lives to go forth and sell stuff, to aliens. Granted, thanks to the Vax’s database on racial taboos and customs, that danger would be minimized. I wished them luck, even if they would end up being my most serious competition for the world markets on advanced technology.
I was already so rich I could never spend it all anyway.
On the personal side, Diana and I had a few bumps, but in the end we were even closer. It’d been over three months since we’d gotten together, which felt far too short for the feelings and desires she engendered in me. I really started to seriously think about the long term in our relationship, but neither of us had broached that subject yet.
In short, life was pretty damned good for me, both professionally and personally. We’d made a lot of progress as a nation despite all the road bumps. We just didn’t give up, and we kept pounding at it. Eventually, the world would be a better place. It was a dangerous universe, but I started to believe I’d found my permanent place in it for my lifetime. Nothing was perfect, but I took joy in my work and my relationship, and life was good.
The only thing I really missed, was the sun, and a cool breeze. Maybe it was time to consider taking a vacation.
Of course, that’s when the other shoe dropped, and my past returned with a vengeance, to haunt me.
Chapter Six
I’d had an idea for a new product. A cleaning robot that could form what it needed when it needed it using its own body mass, and it was powered by the small output power source Diana had invented. No one would want a robot maid with a fusion plant at its center. The trouble was
A.I., there was a lot of safety features, even a maid robot the size of a person had billions of nanite processors, each one more powerful than most modern computers fashioned by man.
It was the software that was the problem. The nanites prevented self-awareness on a macro level, so the intelligence of the ships and all that didn’t decide to act on the world around it without orders. Of course, there was some interaction, like targeting sensors, or intrusion detection on the station, or many other things, but they were strictly defined things, and the weapons wouldn’t fire without specific instruction.
Cleaning by definition was messy and required insight and judgement with the ability for some level of self-initiative.
The parameters were a lot wider, between recognizing an enemy ship, or if something was truly a mess. Like a randomly sized and defined spill on the floor for instance. In short, a cleaning maid needed judgement, what to throw out, what to clean up, and what to pick up and put away. I was trying to build something that actually worked, not something that randomly ran around the floor in chaotic patterns that missed vacuuming half the mess. Those weren’t cleaning robots, they were toys.
The real problem was in deciding how much of their potential awareness to unleash. There were moral implications to it, if I accidentally went too far, I’d be responsible for releasing a sentient lifeform, good or bad. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if I should try. Maybe clearly defined and ordered cleaning tasks were best, and us humans could just pick up after the odd and unexpected spills.
Regardless, I was pretty focused on it when I half heard Jessica over at the control table. She was in charge of docking and security for the main shift, and responsible for all three.
Jessica yelled angrily, “…teams to the docks immediately. Hostile is to be considered armed and dangerous, deadly force is authorized.”
Astraeus Station Page 5