13 Degrees of Separation

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Good luck,” Thornby said softly.

  “Think they'll be okay?” Doctor Martel's soft voice asked from her right side.

  “I hope so,” Thornby said, not taking her eyes off the sea of robes. She picked out the one with the bag moving to the head of the line of bodies. A hand reached up to wave, and then he was gone into the ship.

  “They've got a long road ahead of them. Maybe they'll do some good. They certainly have the right attitude in helping to better themselves and the next generation,” Martel said.

  “Maybe. Only time will tell.”

  “Time and breeding,” Martel said, smiling. Thornby snorted.

  “Come on, I've got to look into the crap Standish and Jethro were up to, catch up on gigabytes of paperwork I've been ignoring, and look into this hospital complex Major Forth wants for the Agnosta base.”

  “Oy, you don't ask for much do you lady?” Martel demanded.

  “Well, now that you mention it, there is all those Ynari toys we've got... and a few aliens in need of a miracle,” Thornby said wickedly as the hatch to the ship closed and red lights strobed. She turned, moving to the viewing corridor.

  “Great,” Martel drawled as they walked slowly, eyes out the long windows. “Come on, I think you owe me dinner. We can go over the manuals to that Ynari thing. See if anyone translated it yet.”

  “I doubt it. Hey wait, who owes who dinner lady?” Thornby asked, mock affronted. She turned away from the view as umbilical's detached themselves from the hull of the ship and withdrew. Robots buzzed around as the boarding ramps were retracted. The Valdez tugs were out there, one on the bow gently nudging the big freighter away from the station.

  “We'll go Dutch then. But next time it's your treat,” Martel said, grinning and wrapping her arm around her bosses shoulder. “It feels good getting it right.”

  “Something like that,” Doctor Thornby replied with a smile.

  The end.

  Leonardo

  The following starts nearly 20 years prior to New Dawn but extends up to Jethro 2.

  A middle aged man named Leonardo Vinatelli or Leo to his wife and friends was famous on Antigua. He'd built up a reputation as an extraordinary man, capable of making many things, and remaking many pieces of technology long thought lost.

  Leo wasn't much to look at, tall, with unkempt hair and rather worn clothes, but he had a look to him, a look of deep thought. Papers were stuffed in his pockets. Some who first met the man thought him quite mad, since he constantly muttered about this or that or would turn and keenly examine some trinket or piece of ancient Federation technology.

  If they got to know him better they would nod in understanding. For the young man was a genius. He had been responsible for some of the miraculous achievements in restoring the fusion reactors to two of the planetary defense guns. He had also found a way to tie their power grids into local networks without overloading those networks.

  He had also been deeply involved in restoring the island city of Eternia, though he knew it was a long term project. He had however had trouble with the various prima-donas involved in the project, and after a deep row and a close call by a man in a skeleton mask he had quit the project and returned to the mainland to return to his research. There he had met his lovely future wife a few years later, and the rest as they said, was history.

  He owned several hundred patents before he turned thirty. Most people saw the lack of fabricators and modern industrial tech as a handicap, one that debilitated them. He saw it in a different way, as a challenge to overcome.

  It was something he tried to pass on to everyone he met, to think outside the box. He'd drilled it into them. If you couldn't make it with a replicator, make something almost as good. Then keep refining your work until you got it right! After all, industry had existed before Replicators right? It was a chicken and egg sort of thing, to use a replicator you had to make the tools to make the devices right?

  He had started small, he had started one of the first engineering think tanks on Antigua, and donated heavily to local libraries and schools. He had encouraged science and industrial teachings.

  His mother kept trying to marry him off to one lass or another but he was too distracted and somewhat repulsive for any courtiers. He frequently forgot to eat or bathe, and sometimes he stank of grease and sweat. When his father passed away it had been a bit of a shock to some. Leo had taken it in stride, burying himself in his work. That hurt his mother greatly.

  His efforts brought him to the attention of a lovely lass passing through the system. She at first hadn't even noticed him in the bar. It was only when she'd leaned over and noted the life support system he had been doodling on a bar napkin that she'd been intrigued. She'd quizzed him about it and had been further amazed when he'd admitted he'd done the sketch from listening to some of the spacer patrons and their stories of working on their ships. Her bright eyes and lively smile and driven all thoughts of duct work and recycling plants out of his head however.

  He fell in love with the temptress, this young beautiful vibrant woman. Her smile, her laughter was like wine to him. He'd fallen willingly into her spell and created windup toys and other things to amuse and delight her. His paintings and sculptures of her made her passionate for his kisses.

  Over their brief spring time courtship she isolated him from his disapproving family and then lured him to Horath much to their dismay. He had thought they had been bitter for the fame and fortune he was now denying him and felt the move was justified. He thought he was striking out on his own, no longer held down by them. His blushing bride had after all been the best thing in his life, someone who adored him.

  They took the small liner the Carib Queen to Triang, and from there the Lieandra to Briev. He hadn't understood why his normally blushing bride had been shy and rather distrustful of the Veraxin Captain. She had remained inured in their quarters for much of the trip. It was a long one, after leaving Briev they had went through an empty system to Kathy's World, and finally Protodon where Lieandra left them in order to return to Antigua. He'd been tempted to return, but she had enticed him down to Protodon.

  It had taken several weeks of waiting, but finally another ship had come. They had hopped Jericho's ship to Garth, and then finally his wife had sweet talked another Captain of a Horathian small freighter ship the Prinz Zir to take them to Horath. The journey had been quite expensive but it had been equally fascinating for him, he'd spent his time divided between drawing and delving into the computers and her delightful distractions.

  His lovely bride inevitably became pregnant in Garth, and he did his best to attend to her needs as she went through a serious bout of morning sickness. He'd fretted over her until she'd banished him from their cabin in order to get some peace. He'd been upset about that but a passing crewman had come by and intrigued him with a story of a broken heat exchanger.

  They traveled to her homeworld of Horath where he was given virtually unlimited resources to reinvent the technology of the Federation. He had been stunned at seeing the jewel of a world enshrouded by orbital habitats, fortresses, and ships. Great ships, but many long dormant, and some badly damaged. His wife leaned against him, holding his hand and resting her head on his shoulder. “It's your job to bring them back to life my love,” she murmured.

  “I'll certainly try,” he replied softly.

  <|> <|> <|>

  He was quite brilliant after all, educated in many things far beyond any current standard of education most people in the quadrant had. He had learned to read and program at a very young age, and he'd done his best to invent or in most cases reinvent many pieces of technology.

  He was an artist, able to pick apart the design of a mechanism in hours and sketch it from memory. His eye was keen, his memory photographic. When he grew older he discovered CAD programs and used them to better his designs. The software also allowed him to better describe what he wanted to those who helped in his endeavors.

  He took great joy in the process
of research, experimentation, testing, as well as the learning involved, and applying what he had learned to the next project. He documented every step in the manufacturing carefully, making certain each step could be made by machinery other than a replicator. He told his wife over and over that it was an exponential thing, almost as good as sex. She had smiled at that qualifier. “Almost,” she had teased and then kissed him hungrily.

  “Definitely,” he had replied, holding her close and stroking her swelling abdomen gently.

  Part of his gift was the ability to replicate the lost tech without using replicators. The work was tedious and time consuming, but he was stubborn, patient, and thorough. He even worked out the manufacturing process steps for others to copy as well.

  His interests varied wildly. Any challenge that caught his interest would become his next topic of intense mind. When a neighbor's beloved pet bulldog champs had been hit by a car, he'd found a way to make the animal live on through crude but effective cybernetic implants. He tried to pass on that ideal, to think of it not as a hindrance but as a challenge when you tried to recreate the old Federation's tech. To never give up, to keep moving forward, refining their understanding and designs until they got it right. With some of his assistants the ideal took, in others, not so much.

  For some reason his wife's patrons pushed for ship and weapons technology. He could understand the first, everyone wanted a return to the easy energy of fusion and antimatter. The weapons technology bothered him slightly, but figuring out how to recreate a Gauss rifle from a single nonfunctional example had been quite an engineering challenge. Just creating the infrared circuit that detected a round in each coil and triggered it's event had been a challenge. He was particularly proud of the discharge circuitry. By adding a diode circuit he had allowed the coils to discharge their loads as heat. The recovery system had prevented the system from exploding, always a good thing. By altering that to a discharge recovery system he'd recovered half the energy while only loosing thirty percent to heat.

  The lessons learned in developing the capacitors, infrared trip circuit, recovery system, lower resistant wiring for the coils, coolant method, and batteries, not to mention the relatively simple electromagnetic coil for the barrel had been applied to a number of peaceful projects. The exo suits alone would revolutionize the construction and medical industries! Having the ability for a man to lift ten times his own body weight... or the handicapped to walk again... the elderly to get about on their own... Those noble ideals had justified the project in his eyes.

  Largely due to his efforts, and only marginal guidance from his backers and patrons, his inventions and can do attitude made major changes to the Horathian society. Just his comments on overhauling the educational standards on science and engineering, establishing a better foundation had made enormous strides in things. He'd noted it when he had seen his son's schooling change the following year.

  Horath had been a step above Antigua in civilization, having running water, electrical power, and other utilities in every home. But now the pace quickened, much like he had read about in the history books detailing the nineteenth and twentieth century Terra.

  “It's so fascinating, seeing the technology change the lives,” Leo said as he stroked his wife. She murmured softly. He smiled, rubbing her shoulders gently. “I do wish to explore medical technology though. It isn't my field but...”

  “Each of us have our strengths and weaknesses my love,” she murmured softly, patting his hand as she looked over her shoulder to him. “Let someone else with the interest in such things excel there. After all, you can't be everywhere,” she teased.

  He chuckled. Then the chuckle turned into a softer more throaty one as her hands pulled his off her shoulders and then down to some very interesting places to explore on her body. His thoughts of a career change abruptly ended by her shrewd distraction.

  <|> <|> <|>

  Carefully insulated for years, he had a family with the young woman he had fallen in love with and watched as she birthed him two children, both boys. Over the years he worked and watched them as they grew into strong lads. Proper education and nutrition he noted, that and adequate medical attention. His lovely wife doted on them and him when they had so much as a sniffle.

  As their eldest son got older, things began to change. His wife assured him it was normal, after all, teenagers began to want to stretch their wings and push their boundaries. Still, it troubled him a bit.

  One night he picked up on a rant by his eldest son about aliens and became troubled until his wife distracted him. He had had many non human friends as a child on Antigua and thought Horath was the same. He frowned pensively, for the first time in thirteen years he was now concerned about the environment they were raising their children up in.

  Later that evening he tried to talk to his lovely wife about the subject but she silenced him with a kiss and a sleepy, “not now dear, I'm tired.” He frowned as she settled and wrapped her arms around him. When they were younger they would stay up until dawn talking about things. He rolled over, feeling her arms around him. He tried to let his discontent go.

  <|> <|> <|>

  He was troubled by the celebration of the 'Supreme secretary' turned emperor a week later. The family watched the coronation speech together. Emperor Ramichov took the throne wearing a robe of purple trimmed in tiger fur. He was in his fifties, but quite fit. He had a red uniform on, covered in gold braid and medals. The entire scripted event seemed very martial, with the emperor carrying a naked sword and sheathing it only briefly to bow to take his crown. He declared himself the First Emperor of Man.

  It bothered Leo, such a blatant seizure of power. The people of Antigua would never have allowed it. The people of his adopted homeland however didn't seem to mind, the streets were filled with celebrations. Fireworks were going off in the air. There were some ugly incidents of violence as well. His wife stroked his hand and told him it would be fine, after all, the emperor wouldn't live forever and they still had the senate to watch out for the people's interests.

  “But they voted him in!” he waved his impotent hands to the television. “They voted him in, and then gave him emergency powers. They just declared him emperor! What emergency? I don't remember an emergency being declared!”

  “Daddy, don't be stupid,” his youngest said. His wife rounded on the child with a glare. He visibly gulped, wide eyed. “I'm um, sorry for sounding disrespectful. I'll um...” his brother came to his rescue and dragged him out of his seat to the kitchen.

  “Come on loud mouth, you can help with the dirty dishes,” he said.

  Leo frowned after them, scowling blackly. He looked at his wife who sat down next to him and took the remote. She casually pointed it and clicked it off. “Now, we don't need to get all worked up over something that doesn't concern us honey,” she murmured. She set the remote down and then her lithe hands began to caress him. One of her hands drifted to unbutton her blouse.

  “After all, we have more important things to do. And since the kids are busy,” she murmured wickedly, climbing onto his lap to capture his face. She kissed him hungrily when he opened his mouth to protest. A second kiss soon followed and his protests and thoughts were quickly drowned out as events took on a life of their own.

  <|> <|> <|>

  A few days later he witnessed a bonobo chimp dragged into the street and stoned by a mob and the police. The chimp screeched, not hitting back but baring her teeth in fear. She tried to brush off the arms of her tormenters but more took their place. She kept her hands to herself, using her arms to try to protect her head and torso.

  “Here now! Enough of that!” Leo called, waving a hand. Angered by the mob Leo tried to intervene, and was beaten as the crowd turned on him. His intervention allowed the chimp to escape momentarily, the crowd bayed as half gave chase. He thought he'd be killed as well by the jeering crowd until secret police officers intervened.

  Sullen feet were around him, shuffling but no longer kicking and punching h
im. He moved the hands shielding his head to look up cautiously, not sure what was going on. He was dragged to his feet and then escorted to his office where he nursed his wounds, both mental and physical.

  He entered the network, curious if the event had hit the news. What he found appalled him, he discovered carefully erected firewalls covering certain information. “Blinders. Blinders all the time and I never saw them for what they were,” he muttered darkly, cursing himself for being so blind, so fecking intent on his next great project.

  Drawing on his coding skills he hacked the firewalls with ease and stumbled onto the dark truth. Horath was no Renaissance center, it was a haven of bigotry and hatred. His friends and neighbors... all of them. He scanned the text of various speeches, wondering where he had been when they were given. Most likely busy, buried in his office in one project or another. He did like to read the paper, but he now remembered that ten years ago their household had converted to an electronic format. So much easier to blind him if they could just filter it out. He realized they had censored him thoroughly. He scanned a speech detailing how they were cleansing the worlds around them of all alien and Neos. At first Aliens, but lately their bigotry had shifted to Neo's when aliens were no longer available. He closed his eyes, remembering that poor chimp. The planet was a cesspool he realized.

  He frowned, now wondering about the technology he had gotten. He looked into the various devices he had created, and was shaken to see that they had been applied to a vast fleet of warships. Many of those ships were now out bringing in material. According to the article the material had been scavenged or 'appropriated' from other star systems. He scanned the comments. One mentioned booty, and complained that the people on the planet didn't get a share of the prize money involved. Another mentioned a television show. He frowned and looked it up.

  The show was part reality show, part documentary. It went on about how the Horathian's had 'a duty' to liberate other worlds of the evil aliens. It was heavily laced with images of Aliens and Neo's fighting the 'gallant Horathian liberators' and their 'just' executions.