Travels of the Orphan (The Space Orphan Book 3)

by Laer Carroll

  Jorel said, "They partner with organic beings, merging with them and going to sleep, only waking for short times every several years or decades. In exchange their hosts gain extraordinary control over their bodies, changing them radically when they wish. These shapechangers never get sick, never grow old, become hyper-competent. Most hide in the ordinary population and live out life after life as ordinary people with only a few obviously extraordinary abilities. If they even show any unusual traits.

  "They can have big effects on human history. Those effects could as easily be produced by Galactics as by Changers."

  Amazing, Jane thought. She knew so little of Galactic life despite all the time she'd spent with the Encyclopedia.

  "What military help could they give us?'

  Jorel answered, going from pique to the opposite, enthusiasm. IF Jane was properly interpreting the facial and bodily expressions of an alien race.

  "As much as the superheroes of your comics, of which I'm a great fan. Oh, not the impossible ones, such as the one whose name I took for my local name. But the ones who can change to look like someone else, have extraordinary speed and endurance and toughness, have extraordinary senses or mental powers. Some could make biological factories inside them, breathing out vapor that could kill or incapacitate whole armies."

  Elizabeth said, "In other words, they'd be great guerilla fighters, spies, and so on. Where they'd be of more military effectiveness is when they used advanced weaponry. They might meld with machines to become super soldiers. Fighter pilots who would be a dozen, even a hundred times, more effective than ordinary humans."

  Jane said, "But I can't imagine how we'd go about recruiting these people. 'Superheroes wanted, please apply at your local recruiter.'"

  Jorel had sobered. "Correct. These people have had dozens of years of life, or hundreds, or thousands. They're super healthy emotionally and mentally, and quite rightly just want long happy lives with happy families and friends."

  "They can't be all that numerous, either, and stay undiscovered. How many do you think there are?"

  "A few hundred. A few thousand. Sorry I can't give you better news."

  "Don't be. This doesn't change my plans. It just means I'll be alert for these superbeings and see what I can do to recruit them. Maybe ensure they get promoted to positions where they'll be more useful.

  "Meanwhile, I'll continue my work, just happier that I won't have to protect Cats and Lizards. That's a big load off my back."

  The aliens, seemingly having told her what they wanted her to know, turned to entertaining her and themselves by telling stories about their experiences among the stars. Jane relaxed and enjoyed herself.

  Back in her room a couple of hours later as she got ready for bed she wondered that two such long-lived beings would bother with someone who was not yet thirty years old. And who acted as if they were her age, or even younger, teenagers, full of life.

  Maybe that was the secret of eternal youth, that one remained emotionally youthful as well as physically youthful. Would she be able to do that as the centuries came and went?

  Chapter 13 - Jupiter

  Jane spent almost a week in Venus City, exploring it.

  She was amazed at how much the Lizards had accomplished in just a year. It had giant mostly automated farms where authentic fresh veggies were grown, those being valued more than ones transmuted from air. It had several suburbs, most mostly empty and ready for many thousands of "Monkeys" and Cats and Lizards to move in. There was a lake and a surrounding light airy forest. Main Street had hundreds of businesses, small ones as well as large ones.

  It had helped that Lizards subsidized earth businesses to come to Venus City, including small Mom and Pop businesses. Jane questioned some of the Lizards she met and they explained it to her: the little businesses would grow not just as businesses but as families had children.

  The Lizard government of Venus City was open to humans and Cats as well as Lizards. It too would grow as the years and decades and (Lizards being ever young) millennia. The Ever Young of the galaxy thought LONG term.

  Life was good for people in Venus City. They had complete and very advanced health care, free education through the college level (though college ed at this point meant returning to Earth).

  It hurt Jane to think of some marauding aliens killing all these people. Her determination to fight those aliens grew even more.

  The time came for her to leave. She said Goodbyes and took a ball-shaped taxi back to her spaceship and engaged the FTL drive.

  <>

  Back on Earth in Colorado Springs Jane turned in a report to the Scout main contractor, Boeing with Lockheed Martin as a subcontractor supplying the FTL engine. It contained 173 items. Some were major problems. For those she often supplied suggested fixes, some of which Boeing and Lockheed Martin took. Some were mere ease-of-use items. Most were in between.

  Scout 3 was no longer needed as a test vehicle. Rather than let it be scrapped or becoming a museum item Jane proposed an alternative. This was to give it to the US Air Force Academy and contract to keep it repaired and to update it periodically with the latest modifications to the Scout line of vehicles.

  The Academy would use it in several ways, mostly training and rewards to the cadets. Cadets were given lots of these, the carrots to the sticks of insults and extra duty that hardened them to military life.

  This ongoing gift to the Academy would have the indirect benefit of good will for Boeing from the many graduates who'd go on to greater things after retiring. This included becoming members of Congress.

  Another indirect benefit would be that Academy graduates would have had hands-on experience with a Boeing product. As they progressed up the ranks they would be much more likely to push for buying more products from Boeing.

  Boeing, with Jane acting as a go-between with the Academy, took Jane's suggestion.

  The Academy was grateful to have yet another aerospace craft to add to the three they already had, and what a craft. It was able to travel anywhere in the Solar System at FTL speeds.

  It became a fixture in the Academy's advanced class on faster-than-light travel. At Jane's request the Scout's cargo area was converted to passenger space, adding a dozen more seats to the original six. This let Jane or any of the three professors with aerospace and FTL certifications take students on short training missions.

  Jane's main job at Space Force headquarters was basically "any damned thing the golden goose wanted." One of those was design of weapons for space warfare (which most everyone who knew about them thought was pure indulgence).

  Another one was teaching a course on space warfare at the Academy.

  <>

  The first class found Jane sitting cross-legged atop a desk on a six-foot-high dais at the front of a one-hundred-seat auditorium classroom. This put her head at the level of the middle row of seats which were arranged stadium-seating style.

  She wore the grey-and-brown mottled camouflage work uniform of the Air Force and Space Force. On her collars were Colonel's oak leaves. Most of the cadets were in their fourth year with a smattering of third years and one lone fast-track second-year student. They wore dark-blue pants and light-blue shirts. It being Spring in Colorado Springs they all work dark-blue overcoats with scarves against the snow outside.

  When everyone was seated and comfortable and ready with their slate/computer phones she spoke. A microphone on her lapel let her words be easily heard.

  "To make sure you're in the right class, I'm Jane Kuznetsov and this class is Space Warfare."

  She waited for several seconds. No one seemed ready to leave.

  "To almost everyone in the Solar System space warfare is a silly subject. It's a staple of entertainment products, most of them portraying wildly unlikely scenarios. It's also unnecessary. After all, we're part of the Human Interstellar Confederation and they'll protect us if the (hugely unlikely) predator aliens come at us."

  She paused to let that sink in.

  "I'm con
sidered a nut by many people, including those in the military, for thinking there is a real threat. My reasoning is that we've been broadcasting our existence for well over a century.

  "However our existence is known much further than a light century. A hundred-and-something years ago our existence was discovered by a robotic explorer of the Human Interstellar Confederation. It carried news of our existence back to the Confederation. From there the news spread to other civilizations

  "As proof of that, the Cats and Lizards who came here a few years ago heard about us almost a thousand light-years away in real space. I have this directly from their mouths."

  She paused again to let them remember who she was: the first person to contact Cats and Lizards when they arrived via the subspace transportation network surrounding Saturn.

  "It's unimportant that you believe as I do. What is important that you take this course as seriously as you do any other. And I expect you will. Every one of you got this far because you are tough and serious people."

  She dismounted lithely from her seated position and walked to one side of the desk, faced the backdrop to the dais, and clicked a remote. On the huge flatscreen TV there appeared an agenda. The first item read WE ARE ALL EQUAL HERE.

  She turned back to the 80 cadets in the slanted array of seats.

  "Some ground rules for behavior in this class. My role is leader of this class but to some extent I'm as much a student of this subject as you are. The Galactic Encyclopedia has only scant information about space warfare. Besides, I'm very sure that what it tells us is 100% accurate but not PERFECTLY sure. We need to take everything it says with a grain of salt.

  "As this subject is new to the humans in this stellar system we in this class will be writing the book on space warfare. The verities of war in the Galactic milieu are the same as when Sun Tzu compiled them long ago, but the specifics are new to us.

  "Consequently I want each of you to feel free most of the time to ask me questions--or possibly disagree with me. If I feel any of you are taking up too much of my time I'll tell you. Respectfully, not angrily. But I WILL tell you. So until I say Sorry Shut the Fuck Up say away."

  She paced to the other side of the desk to give them time to digest what she said. There she clicked the remote again. The "We are all equal here" agenda item blinked a few times.

  "You fourth-years may have noticed we have a few cadets in the previous years here. I personally OK'd each of you entry to this course, all 80 of you. Every one of you is highly qualified, so I want each of you to listen to every one else seriously and respectfully.

  "Speaking of respect, by now even the second years know or should know that the constant harassment of underclass cadets is not malicious. It's intended to toughen you up or weed you out if you can't toughen up.

  "Oh, a few of the fourth-year harassers ARE sadistic assholes. The Academy and the Space Force tries fairly successfully to weed them out but can't do that perfectly. But on the whole the harassment is done for a good reason.

  "In this course that harassment is suspended. Totally. Anyone who slips up will get ONE chance to make their behavior right. I will not give you TWO chances."

  She paced back to the other side of the desk. There she clicked the remote again. On the screen the second agenda item blink a few times. It read STUDY GROUPS.

  "I have assigned each of you to a study group of five cadets. You are to work on all assignments as a group. I hope each of you will spend an equal amount of time participating. This includes the under-fourth students. I want none of you to shrink from full participation.

  She clicked the remote and several subitems appeared under "Study Groups." She addressed the first of them.

  "After each group gets sorted out I want you to select a topic to write about. The paper will be due in four weeks. Each four-week period another paper will be due. It can be as few as six pages of the standard report size and no more than twenty-four.

  "There will be reading assignments but I expect most of your study group time to be spent in discussion. There will be no tests. Except that you savvy cadets know that your papers are the tests."

  She paced again to the other side of the desk.

  "Now, here is the PROVISIONAL lesson outline. It may be changed as we go along...."

  <>

  A year went by. A second space war class took the Brief Manual of Space War (Provisional) created during the first class and made considerable improvements.

  The topic of space warfare was much derided at first. It soon became passé. It also slowly became an accepted fact that MAYBE Earth space would be attacked and that the topic should be treated seriously.

  It helped that both the Cat and the Lizard leaders made public the limited nature of their support of Earth forces if an attack ever came. Few people wanted to discount the possibility of an attack when such awesome authorities considered it possible if unlikely.

  Jane stayed in Colorado Springs dreaming up space-war weapons. The first were several kinds of missiles, all of which could accelerate at more than a thousand gravities and reach appreciable fractions of the speed of light. Directed energy weapons such as lasers and rasers were next. After that was a hybrid of a missile with a raser head so powerful that when it fired it destroyed itself and the missile in which it was housed.

  Spacecraft like the Scout series would be part of the Earth Protective Force. They would come in piloted, remotely piloted, and autonomous craft. They might carry loads of the several kinds of missiles. Tiny drones for reconnaissance would also be part of the Earth arsenal.

  Jane asked the Lizard leader Jorel about the instant ID technology the Lizards employed at Venus. He apologized but said that tech would have to be gotten from the Human Interstellar Confederation. She thanked him and began to puzzle out how she might duplicate it.

  She continued to dance salsa and the Argentine tango at the several venues in Colorado Springs. In the two years she was there she traveled to Boulder in October to attend the long-running Boulder Tango Festival. She took a day off so she could stay there for three days.

  It was a two-hour-plus drive so she went there in Scout, overkill for a craft able to travel faster than light. She took along Phil and a dozen tango friends, letting Phil pilot. By now he owned a private jet and had a license to fly it, though he always did so under the oversight of a very experienced former military pilot who was as much friend as employee.

  <>

  She also took Scout to LA on holidays. The second Thanksgiving of the two years she also took Natalie's oldest stepson, Grant. It was the first time she'd spoken to him since he'd begun his stint as an Air Force Academy cadet. To talk to him during that time would have made it hard for him, having an "aunt" who was famous and a part-time Academy teacher.

  The morning of that Thursday she was lounging on the steps up into Scout, a fifty-foot long wingless dart resting in the Academy airport. This was a few miles south and east of the Academy and home to Scout, three other Academy craft, and a number of private aircraft, including several police helicopters and three large cargo aircraft used in fire fighting.

  She was chatting with a Colorado Springs policeman who was one of the pilots of the police copters. He was a former Marine so they had some military gossip to chat about. He also knew her as The Terminator and had kidded her more than once about her several weeks as an observer in a Venezuela loan program.

  "Hey, Carter, looks like my nephew is here. And he's bringing friends."

  The man was standing a few feet away at the bottom of the ladder. He turned to look.

  Speeding from the main terminal building came a floating craft like a big golf cart. It had a built-in robot driver and several seats. Three of those bore young Academy cadets in civilian clothing.

  The gangling redhead who leaped out the moment the cart slowed to a stop nearby came up to hug Jane as she stood up to step off the ladder.

  "Hey, Grant. How're they hanging?"

  "Jesus Christ, Jane. Don't be coar
se."

  "Hey, I used to be sort of a Marine. It's obligatory for Marines to curse. Shake hands with Carter. He's a cop and one of the pilots of those copters over there."

  The policeman towered over Grant, a six-footer. His skin was very black and he was wiry and very strong. His grin was white in his face.

  They two men shook hands.

  "Pleased to meet you, Grant. They running you ragged at the Academy?"

  "You'd better believe it, Sir."

  He turned as his two companions approached, carrying or pulling luggage. He introduced them to Jane and Carter. The policeman shook hands with them and departed after wishing them a good holiday.

  Wilson was an Asian of some sort, likely Thai. Emily was a compact redhead with freckles. She said, "Call me Em or Emma. An honor to meet you, Ma'am."

  "Call me Jane or I won't answer you. That goes for you too, Will. Got all your luggage?"

  "And Grant's too, Ma-- Jane."

  "Good. Put it all on that lift there. Scout here will store it securely."

  THERE was a nearby flat plate that hung from the bottom of the spacecraft on slender arms. The three cadets put their several pieces o f luggage on it and the plate rose smoothly up into the belly of the craft. When it was out of sight two flaps on each side of the hole in the cargo bay swung up and silently mated with the body of the spacecraft. No seam could be seen afterward.

  Jane was already ascending the shallow ladder, holding one of the two rails on each side. Inside she had "Emma" follow her then to have the young woman sit in the pilot's seat. She disposed Grant and "Will" in the navigator's and the cargo master's seats directly behind the pilot's and copilot's seats.

  Before she sat she motioned everyone to put on the military vears clipped to the sides of the passengers' seat. She sat in her seat and put on hers. Emily followed her example and adjusted it to a better fit.