“Also, no cities, or local manufacturing. Part of the lure will be it’s an untouched resort world. We’ll build resorts, but we’ll import everything to prevent any kind of pollution. We’ll even come up with pure waste management, so that doesn’t pollute the ground.”
Jayna grinned, “What she said.”
I replied, “You don’t have to convince me, since I was already looking for a reason to do it. Of course, we’ll want to reserve a government beach, and this mountain, as our own. Otherwise it would be a pain for us to vacation here again without the pomp.”
Cassie nodded, “There’s certainly enough mountains and tropical beaches on this world. I’ll submit a claim tonight through my AR interface.”
Jayna said, “And I’ll get with our resort contacts, so they can start brainstorming and be ready with something by the time I get back. We’ll probably need to build small resort towns, for the people that work here.”
Diana shook her head, “No, they’ll live in Astraeus, in the city, and commute to work every day. The station is our country, and it keeps us near Earth. We should leave this place as untouched as possible. Just resort hotels near the beaches and ski chalets in the mountains. Just like we’ve been using artificial gravity to get to the top of the mountains, we could do something similar for the tourists. We won’t even have ugly ski lifts.”
Jayna replied, “Okay, I can see that. What if they want to live on the planet, technically this world will be an extension of our country.”
I said, “Tough.”
Melody giggled.
I shrugged, “They applied to live in our country and on our space station. We could keep the pollution down to almost nothing with modern technology, but them living in the space station was part of that deal. If they want to live on a planet they can leave and go to a colony, or back to Earth. There’s a lot of advantages to it, the station is safer than a planet, and mobile if needed.”
Jayna replied, “Sure, out of opportunity. We got good people that couldn’t find jobs and were perhaps a little desperate. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t rather live under the stars and feel the sun on their skin every day.”
Jessica said, “That’s true, most of the security force on the station are ex-military that found it hard to find jobs. Most of our citizens were out of work people looking to start a new life, and of course the station has no taxes.”
Carmine nodded in agreement, “That’s why I applied.”
I frowned, “Are you suggesting we abandon Earth and we all move here?”
Jayna shook her head, “No, you’re more secure on the station, and you need to be at Earth to act as a foil to other countries that might get delusions of grandeur. But our citizens will want the option. I just don’t think we should close our minds to it. Both the planet and the station will continue to grow. We could keep our colony part far from the resorts to maintain the illusion of an untouched world. With the newest tech, we could also keep the planet pristine and unsullied.”
Cassie said, “A planet makes things a lot more complicated. I’m inclined to agree with Scott. Maybe once the station reaches full population, fifty million instead of two, we can reassess? There’d also be an appeal to a world filled with nothing but resorts and otherwise untouched and unsullied. We could get tourists from all the colonies, not just Earth, or our own people taking vacation.
“We can’t make a viable colony by moving a few people at a time anyway. We’d need to build an infrastructure, and have a great number of people move in.”
Diana nodded, “That’s what I was thinking. I think you’re outvoted this time, Jayna. I agree with Cassie and Scott.”
Jayna sighed, “Fine, but it will come up.”
I nodded, “Maybe we will in the future when we’re close to full occupancy of the station, if there’s enough interest by all our citizens, but for now if they want the open sky they can go somewhere else, pay taxes, and find new jobs. We’re not forcing anyone to stay on the station. Making it a resort world is enough, for now. Our citizens can always come here for free, on their days off, or just for dinner at one of the resorts.”
Jayna replied, “That will help.”
“Do you hate the station that much? I thought you were happy there.”
Jayna sighed, and shook her head, “That’s not it at all. I’d rather have a sky over my head, yes. But I’m also very happy with my life and family. It’s just, if I had the choice to, I’d do the opposite, live here and commute to the station for work.”
I nodded, “Well, we can always be hypocrites and cheat. I imagine we’ll build a small ski chalet on this mountain, and maybe a beach house on our beach. For when we take our vacations on our government land, which will be restricted for all but us. They’ll have private jump chambers as well, located in our area of the station to get here. You could always spend several nights a week in one of those places, if you wanted.”
Jayna shook her head, “I want to live in a community, not under the stars in total privacy, but I appreciate the thought, and that will be a nice option for some nights after work. Or even just a walk during the day to feel the sun on my face for a few minutes. That really is enough for me, don’t stress it.”
Well, life wasn’t perfect. She’d survive, as would the rest of us. Being related to the leader of a country, for life, limited some of her choices. She couldn’t risk living anywhere else, or she’d be targeted for kidnapping to put pressure on me.
I changed the subject.
“I think we’ve about exhausted the idea for now, we’ll set up the resorts and plug it as a pristine world with perfect skiing, boating and parasailing, anything else is on hold.
“Let’s finish dinner and get in the hot tub, my legs are screaming at me.”
Cassie smirked, “Really? I feel great.”
Melody piped up, “Me too!”
Damned vampires… and children with endless energy.
We had a blast for the rest of our vacation, spent two more days skiing, then a few days down at the beach. The resort idea, and other work would wait until we were ready to get back to it. We all had a great time, the new world was amazing, an untouched paradise.
Thanks to a certain A.I. and vampire, my wife and I were able to get some private time as well. I felt quite rejuvenated and ready to get back to it at the end of the week.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The command center was peaceful as I grabbed a coffee and started to wake up for the day. Apparently, Cassie had just been waiting for my brain to be engaged.
Cassie said, “We have an issue with the States, Russia, and China. They’re all throwing a stink in the press, about you not selling any of your new ships to the eight, and their colonies.”
“Is it a problem? Perceptually.”
Cassie nodded, “It’s a backhanded attack. On one side they’re saying you have every right to run your military as you see fit, and not coordinate with them anymore. They’re ceding that, but they’re arguing the lack of sales is out of pure spite, since any ships you sell them would be ineffective against human worlds or any human built ships. They’re accusing you of putting their colony’s in danger from an attack by another empire, because of a misunderstanding.”
I frowned, “What do you think, am I being petty about it?”
Cassie shrugged, “Maybe a little, but their ships aren’t exactly weak, and they still have your space stations that can crank out an endless amount of mini-platforms into their systems. They just want the upgrades, stronger shields, weapons, as well as the new subspace energy beam weapon. Not to mention the new scout-destroyer and second generation jump drives. The only thing we held back from the other countries was the singularity weapon.”
“And stealth configurations and the second-generation energy to matter device with molecular bonding, but I take your point. Did Russia figure out the nanite power systems yet?”
Jessica nodded, “Yes, they’re cranking out ships now without a fusion reactor, and they h
ave the same energy signature as our ships. I imagine our other three competitors in ship building will as well, as soon as they manage to steal it.”
I snickered.
“Should I cave? I kind of don’t want to, but I feel petty about it too.”
Cassie nodded, “But charge them through the nose, maybe charge double what you charged the other countries. Built in restitution for their manipulations.”
I nodded, “Fine, do that. Anything else going on?”
Jessica said, “I’ve been reviewing the other five new empires on our new borders. Six with the Bavoi. They’re all far behind us according to the Vrok’s database, a match for the Grays and the Vrok’s old technology, but no threat to us. They’re also no worse than the other empires that were already around us. Clearly, they’ve stopped developing, and their societies aren’t fighting to advance. Stagnation similar to the Grays that way, they’re lost in their own decadence.
“We don’t have anything on the empires around them yet, though Darrell’s been busy while we were on vacation. He has stealth probes out to forty million light years now and growing. Eventually, we’ll be able to gauge them as threats.”
I replied, “I noticed that this morning.”
Cassie said, “I made the offer, we’ll see if they bite.”
“The eight? Good. The new stealth network was a good idea though I’m uncomfortable with it. We can’t gauge threats to us without it, and if we’d had it in the past the Vrok wouldn’t have come so close to beating us if we’d had over ten years to match their technology.”
Cassie said, “But?”
I smirked, “But it’s also a temptation. It was a lot easier to just worry about our borders when we couldn’t see everything going on around us. Space is a violent place, and guarding our outer galaxy borders, and our internal ones, made it easier to ignore the fights between the civilizations inside the fifty galaxies.
“Not to mention the bugs, the Stolthrim. They’re expanding again, did you notice? Not toward us, or the Atans, but in a different direction toward a non-bordering empire to ours, and the fighting is fierce.”
Jessica replied, “Yeah, I’m surprised you’re not already stomping them.”
I nodded, “They’re horrible. They commit genocide and terraform at the same time. It’s kind of a no-brainer, you wouldn’t mind if I interceded there, would you, Cass?”
Cassie shook her head, “No, they’re a special case, and deserve to be quarantined. It’s bad enough they have as many galaxies scoured of life as they do now.”
I said, “Point being, other battles between races aren’t so clear cut. It’s a temptation to resist, when there is no obviously wrong party, and it’s just two predators that are simply at war. Two sides, where either side isn’t all that great. It’s tempting to step in and put a stop to it.
“It goes back to the we can’t save everyone argument. Defending our own interests and those we decide are worthy of a mutual defense treaty has to be enough. But… there’s a lot of death going on out there, and we could make a difference. But where would we stop, in an infinite universe?”
Cassie nodded, “Don’t look at the data then, just what Darrell flags for attention. Just us, our allies, and keep the bugs contained. Anything more than that and you’re in danger of building an empire of our own. Humans can be noble, and you are, but humans can also be as bad or worse than anything else we’ve seen out there when power goes to their heads. Power causes corruption, if we want to stay on the side of good, we must resist exercising that power over others, let them make their own mistakes, and fight their own battles. In short, we can’t be trusted to make moral decisions for other wars that aren’t our business, and we shouldn’t be suppressing anyone’s right to choice unless they attack ours.”
“Except for the bugs.”
Cassie replied, “Yes. There’s an exception to every rule, and the bugs definitely qualify.”
That’s what I’d thought. They had three more expansion fleets of fifty billion in three galaxies. I assigned a scout destroyer to each one dynamically, then attacked. They quantum jumped to outside the star systems their fleets were in, then using subspace scanners they quantum jumped directly to the ship and opened fire with subspace beams that went through their shields like they weren’t even there.
It was more of a slaughter than last time, with no travel time, and in less than half a minute, I’d killed a hundred and fifty billion ships, and god only knows how many billions of Stolthrim. A second after that the ships returned to the void in our galaxy, leaving a confused defending empire to wonder what the hell had just happened.
Bet they were pissing their pants, wondering if they were next. I knew I would be, in their position.
It was honestly a little terrifying how strong our technology had gotten, and I hadn’t used our most devastating weapon. Still, I was sure there was someone out there stronger than us, since there always was. We’d continue to move forward, but it was clear whoever that was they weren’t within fifty million light years of us. Odds were that they weren’t within a hundred either, which would be the full extent of our stealth network.
I’d never felt safer, or more disturbed.
I sighed, “They managed to destroy several thousand worlds in those galaxies, before Darrell had his stealth network built out that far. It won’t happen again though, we’ll keep an eye on them and destroy any expansion fleets before they can leave their territory, next time. Which should be at least another twelve to thirteen years from now if they continue breeding and building at the same rate.”
I got started on my workday then. The Interstellar Union space station was built, or at least my part of it was, but as the delegates arrived and started to move in I got a few requests. I’d mostly covered all the bases, and I’d made things variable enough to avoid most of that kind of stuff, but there were always exceptions, especially given over seven thousand races being involved.
Some races needed heat lamps, not just light, and some needed much bigger rooms, but less suites. A lot of small things like that, about twenty of them which took me a minute or so each to take care of. Nothing major, except for the difference in culture and physical requirements for health reasons.
The normal day to day operations slowly got back to normal over the next week. The war was over, so I could return to concentrating on custom ship building, other inventions for commercial sales, and of course spending time with my family at night without interruption.
Life really was good.
My wife and daughter worked on new sciences, and improving the current ones, along with Diana’s staff of scientists. It might be a while for another breakthrough, without a race to steal them from anyway, but their most amazing inventions and passions weren’t weapons and defensive in nature.
That part was just to secure our lives and future, it was the rest of it that made life worth living.
Our claim for the world went through, and we already had several resort companies scrambling for a spot on the new world, including the seven resorts on station.
The next week, the Interstellar Union became a reality, and humanity celebrated it as all those claimed areas became ours in truth. We had the space to expand for the next hundred millennia, perhaps more. It would take time grow the merchant part of the station, but I was sure that would come in time, as worlds came to trade there with several others at once.
I wasn’t sure what would come next, I just hoped we were done with the violence and wars for now. My daughter was about to be a teen, and I had a son on the way. We had strong technology, and after thirteen years we’d gained full independence and respect from the other world powers.
Life was good, and the future looked promising.
Afterword:
I hope you enjoyed this story, if you did please leave a review. Reviews are the lifeblood of independent authors, and I would greatly appreciate any constructive feedback or opinions.
This was the second book in the sec
ond arc of the Technomancer series which will have another three novels in total. Four through six. The final book in the series will be out next month, and that will be it for Scott’s story in this universe.
About the Author: If you have any comments or suggestions you can send me an email at [email protected] If you like my work, or even if you don’t, please consider leaving a review of this book. I can also be found at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7456808.D_L_Harrison
Other books by D. L. Harrison:
http://www.amazon.com/author/dlharrison
The Formerly Dark Mage, by D. L. Harrison – This stand-alone fantasy book follows the life of Silvia and takes place in a world unique and separate to our own.
Silvia is a dark mage. Unfortunately, she finds herself about to be sacrificed. Someone must have told her evil master about her plans to kill him and take over. After that, things just seem to go downhill. She has no choice but to escape the kingdom of Zual, something that to her knowledge has never been done before. She will need to deal with many issues she never had to face before.
Among those issues, the white mages, and her conscience.
The Rise of a Dark Mage - This stand-alone fantasy book follows the life of Cassandra, it takes place in the same world as The Formerly Dark Mage, but happens three hundred years later, long after Silvia is gone and some shocking changes have taken place in the world.
Cassandra is a dark mage in the kingdom of Zual, she’s also a mage prodigy.
She hates both her kingdom, and her master. She wants him dead, not to take his place, but so she can leave and explore the world. Her ambition will drive her to rediscover the secrets of the strongest of magic.
She is determined to succeed, or she’ll die trying.
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