I sat back in my chair. "I'll try to be brief. It started when an android named the Duke came through this galaxy and a number of others. That was three thousand years ago. Using the wormhole technology he possessed, he swept whole species of people away from their home planets. They were then pitted against one another in a massive battle called the War of Wars. The Humans, along with my species, were two out of probably hundreds of species that were taken. We managed to survive this War of Wars, while the Humans overthrew the Duke.
"The wormhole technology, as well as several others, were used to set up a single government to rule over the six galaxies that were known to have been involved. Every sentient species in each of those galaxies was then brought under this single government. Peace reigned for two thousand years before an overthrow was conducted by a dozen ultra-wealthy families. This happened about a dozen years ago.
"The wormhole technology, while usable by the species in the six galaxies, was tightly controlled and set into fixed portals that anyone could travel through. Since the overthrow of the single government, once called the AMP, or Alliance of Major Planets, one of the powerful families, run by a Human named Harden Salton, has figured out how to take control of a portal. He is now using it to come to this galaxy with a plan of taking full control.
"His intentions are to build a massive fleet of ships. Those ships will be sent back through to the six galaxies and used to take power from the other eleven ruling families. Once he consolidates all six galaxies under a single rule, he then plans to use the portal for conquest elsewhere, starting here. My people and the Talisans were brought into this galaxy as conscripts to fight in his wars. My associates and I have managed to liberate the Talisans, but my people are still under his rule. They occupy the planet Jorus at the moment, but I am certain he has plans for them to fight elsewhere.
"I spoke of the Moddle earlier. They have been conquered by the New Alliance. The Kergans are next on the list, followed by the Grumar and Grotus. The massive fleet building would begin after that. I managed to slow their plans by liberating the Talisans. The liberated Talisans are the reason we need the extra food."
I continued to give details for another twenty minutes as the Tamarins closely listened. When my tales of woe were complete, I crossed my arms and looked around at the staring faces.
The minister slowly stood and began to pace the floor on the other side of the large round conference table. "That is quite the tale, Mr. Beutcher. And how is it you have managed to stay just in front of this Harden Salton for so long? If he has such vast resources at his disposal, it would seem unlikely. Why doesn't he construct his fleet there?"
I nodded. "That's a good question, one for which I have an answer. The Saltons are vulnerable to the other families joining together for an overthrow. Harden cannot construct the fleet he needs without prying eyes... spies, finding out. As soon as he has any quantity of ships, he sends them through the portal where they cannot be seen or counted.
"As to how my associates and I have evaded capture, I think we've managed by using determination and good planning—and with a lot of luck. If we can successfully reestablish the Odenta colony, my next plan of action would be to try to free my people, the Gruntas."
The minister returned a skeptical look. "I thought you said your people didn't want to leave Jorus. How is it you would rescue them?"
I sighed. "Since landing there, they have determined that they will not leave Jorus again. On one hand they wish to destroy the Grotus, our sworn enemy, but on the other they want to rebuild our planet. The two goals are impossible to achieve in the short term without the backing of Harden Salton's New Alliance. If I could build a fleet of my own, I would take it to their aide, with the hope of securing their future on Jorus. But that won't happen so long as Harden Salton controls an intergalactic portal."
I looked at Garrett, who was grimacing. "What?"
Garrett replied, "Well, you pretty much spilled the beans to them. They are the one's holding the power in this relationship now. Any new deals with them are likely to be bad deals."
The minister scowled. "Mr. Garrett, we take our business dealings seriously. No deal is struck unless both parties can profit from it. There are poor deals, there are fantastic deals, but there aren't any bad deals in the Tamarin corporation. They are considered unethical, and any violators are dealt with in a swift and sure manner."
Garrett held up his hand. "My apologies. I didn't mean to offend. And my name is Mr. Rourke. Garrett Rourke."
I said as I looked around the room, "I believe the Tamarins to be an honest people. And I would hope that our deal here today will lead to an alliance of cooperation between our worlds. Capitalism, when conducted in an open and fair manner, was one of the tenets of our former government. Corruption of that tenet led to its downfall. If we are able to conduct free and fair business with the Tamarins, I believe it will benefit us both."
The minister nodded. "Well said, Mr. Beutcher. That is the manner in which we try to deal with everyone. That sense of fairness has allowed us to grow to the sixteen colonies we now encompass. And our citizens are quite content with our method of government."
Garrett clasped his hands together as he looked at me. "Well, if you're happy, I'm happy. If the shipments are ready, I say we get started on the transfer."
The meeting was adjourned. Jack brought the Garmon in under escort, picking me up from Gargos Station. We were soon joined by a long parade of grain haulers. Our food troubles would be a thing of the past, at least temporarily.
Jack said, "Thanks for keeping the comm open during those discussions. I don't know whether to be gleeful or scared over how well that went. Either they are in dire need of those metals or they don't think we can deliver, so they will be coming to collect under the terms of the contract."
Garrett replied, "Well, we need the food, so we at least get that out of them. And I'm glad to be back aboard here with the Jess parked in the bay. We were only sitting there for a day before we were spotted. They have to have better sensor tech than we do."
I said, "How did they catch you? The diplomat's ship was slower than ours."
Garrett frowned. "I think they have a gravity tech similar to our own. They grabbed me with a beam. I broke free once, using our beam, but they countered with three other ships and had me locked in place. I powered off and let them take me after that. I'm just thankful Joni didn't flip out on them to try to free me."
Joni popped into view. "I almost did that when they were interrogating you. They had several discussions about pumping you full of truth serums. They were afraid of how your body might react though. Had any of them pulled out a syringe or a face mask I would have taken action."
Garrett smiled as he reached out and pulled Joni close. "It's good to have a secret weapon on your side!"
Joni nodded. "You just keep that in mind and you'll do OK."
Jack grinned. "Looks like someone has been in boyfriend training for the last month."
Joni pointed at Jack as she looked up at Garrett. "He's a gentleman, and whatever discussions we had are private matters. And yes, the training went well."
I said, "Training aside, I share Jack's concern over this deal. The Tamarin either have ulterior motives, or they are naive. And I don't think it's the latter, so we all need to keep on our toes."
Nods went around the room.
As we traveled back toward Odenta, I walked down to the lab to check on Go. "How's it going down here?"
Go turned to face me while wearing his new arm. "Great! I felt my bone and skin grafts were in good enough condition to finally attach the arm. And check this out, I left the wireless interface intact."
Go pressed several locations with two fingers before grabbing and twisting the cyborg arm. It came off with a soft click. Holding the cyborg arm at the shoulder end, he then reached out with it and had the robot hand grab a cup sitting on a nearby table. The cup was brought around and slowly turned up for Go to take a drink. Odenta coffee ra
n down his shirt.
"Gah! That's the second time I've done that!"
The cup was returned to the table, and the arm reattached.
Go half frowned. "As you can see, I still have a few control issues to work out."
I nodded. "That was impressive. You'll have that mastered in no time."
Go looked down at his legs. "Unfortunately, I think I may end up doing the same thing to my right leg as well. It just feels weaker every day. My Talisan surgeon says he's no longer optimistic about it recovering."
I gestured to his new appendage. "If the arm works out, at least you have an option."
Go half smiled. "Yeah, but I can't afford to lose any more parts. This arm might be more powerful than my real one was, but my shoulder can only accommodate just so much."
I replied, "I thought you reinforced your bone structure in there."
Go nodded, "I did, but those real bones are attached to other bones. And unless you reinforce everything, the weakest link will always be a limiting factor."
I sat in a chair as I pointed at his shoulder. "So could you reinforce the rest of that, along with your spine, so the extra strength of that arm could be put to use if needed?"
Go sighed. "Probably, but I'm not interested in more operations. The recovery for beefing up the rest of my infrastructure would be long and painful."
"Any progress made on a lung?" I said.
Go slowly nodded. "Some. We have a mechanism for pulling oxygen from the air, and for storing it. We are having trouble with getting it into the bloodstream and then regulating the amount in the blood. If we can accomplish those, I should be able to wear it as an external device. It would connect to my body through ports in my side. Not the best solution because it would be external."
I gestured toward his side. "Any chance of making one that would fit in place of the old one?"
Go frowned. "We haven't gotten far enough to even consider that yet."
I stood and walked to a table where the sodium cloth was laid out. "Any progress on the material?"
Go shook his head. "I've been a bit sidetracked with the arm, but no, I still haven't figured out how to properly focus the gravity beams at such a tiny level. I will figure it out though. I just need to get this arm fully working first."
Chapter 4
* * *
The grain was delivered just as our food stocks were beginning to run out. My Talisan citizens had heavily curtailed their activities and food intake while we were gone—the result being an extension of our food estimates by an additional two weeks. The grain ships were a welcome sight.
The decontaminated ground space had grown to more than two thousand square kilometers. Much of that space was now covered with grow houses that were beginning to provide the first of our produce. Supplies would remain tight for several months, but with the advent of the grain trade the threat of starvation had been greatly reduced.
I stepped off the ramp from the Garmon and made my way to our government building. After a handful of discussions, 20 percent of our nearly fourteen-million-strong bot force would be reassigned to build ore harvesters. The time-clock for our palladium and platinum deliveries was ticking.
I returned to the Garmon to discuss the day's meetings with the others. "The decontamination is accelerating. The engineers now expect the cleared space to double in size about every ten days. The perimeter of our colony is covered with black swarms of bots working furiously to scrub every trace of radioactive material from the soil and waters. Since the event was recent, the majority of the contaminants are only in the top layers of soil. Once we near completion, decontamination of the oceans will be a whole new project."
Jack replied, "Setting up the mines won't affect our detox process?"
I shook my head. "We ran several calculations. It appears we are on track with our food production. Things will remain tight for several months, but we'll get there."
Garrett asked, "What about the defenses?"
I looked around at the others. "They have sixteen of those gravity guns up and operational. The Alliance ships at Doomlight were held off with four. I was told a new gun with an inhibitor shield will be coming online about every eight hours. They want one of those covering every hundred square kilometers if possible. If they can manage that, nothing will make it into high orbit around this planet."
Garrett swirled his hand as he gestured toward the full wall display. "Do we have a timeframe for when this continent is considered decontaminated? And what about the air? Certainly there must be contaminated dust blowing around."
Jack answered. "I asked about that earlier. The fermium has a half life of about a hundred days, so it will be a non-issue fairly soon. The bombs did have a small amount of plutonium 238. That's what the bots are cleaning up. Even though the blasts went off at high altitude, the plutonium is heavy enough that it doesn't stay up long. The engineers said they estimate as much as 90 percent has already hit ground. Cleaning the ocean floor will be the bigger problem."
I replied, "Even if we keep churning out bots at the current rate, it will take years to finish all the cleanup. But we'll soon have a decent ground defense with those gravity guns. Building a fleet will come after that."
Go walked onto the bridge. "I have big news! Anterra was able to replicate an ion amplifier. We still have some minor issues to resolve to make it producible, but I think we could have those resolved within a week."
Garrett asked, "You saying we could start building fully functional ion generators?"
Go nodded. "And cannons. And blasters."
I said, "How's the arm coming?"
Go lifted it over his head followed by swirling it around. "I'm at 98 percent movement as compared to my real arm. There are only two moves that I'm having trouble with. If I reach around to scratch my back like this... I can't quite reach it. And when I reach up across my chest there is a bit of binding that I need to work out. Some movements are even better than before, though. I can now hold my arm straight out for hours without it tiring. Don't know why I would ever want to, but I can."
"Any progress with the sodium skin?" I said.
Go replied with a half nod and half head shake. "Sort of. I can get the material to activate, but the effect is not stable. You get this kind of flowing wave that moves from one side to the other and back. I don't know yet if it's a uniformity issue with the material or what. Someone did this before, though, so we should be able to repeat it.
"I did come up with a new bot in the process. It's tiny, only a centimeter tall. I use them to create the nano-gravity generators that cover the inside of the material. My issue might just be with the manufacturing and installation of those generators and not with the focusing of their output."
Garrett held up his hand. "Wait. You are making tiny bots now?"
Go nodded. "Yeah, is there a problem with that? The full size ones can't do the intricate work I need done to manufacture the material. Anterra can still only control a set number, so what's the difference if they are a meter tall or a centimeter tall? There aren't any more of them than there were before."
Garrett grimaced. "Great. If those things get out of control now they'll be crawling into my ears and up my nose."
Go squinted one eye. "Why would they do that?"
Garrett shook his head as he half smiled. "I'm not saying they would, but if they did, well, it's just wrong."
Go shrugged. "OK, I'll program in a command that restricts them from going into any Human orifice."
Jack laughed. "You two crack me up sometimes. Always pushing each other around."
Garrett smiled. "Well, the cyborg started it by making tiny minions."
I held up my hand. "OK. Don't we all have work to do?"
I received three responses.
"Naw."
"No."
"Nope."
"Then figure out something productive to do."
Joni popped into view. "I just did a tour of the outer perimeter. Those bots are continuously diggi
ng and filtering soil. They are moving out several meters a minute. New ones are joining their ranks all the time. And it's interesting watching the construction of the grow houses. They use a fast-drying cement for the foundation. Walls go up two hours later and the roof is installed shortly after that. The whole building is done in about four hours. It's amazing to watch."
I replied, "What about the insides? The irrigation and the plants?"
Joni sat. "Those come in right after, from a whole new set of bots. It's all incredibly organized. I have no doubt they could build us anything we want."
Joni then looked at Garrett. "Did you ask yet?"
Garrett half frowned. "No, I was going to, but the conversation turned."
I looked at Garrett with a raised eyebrow. "Ask what?"
Garrett turned to face Jack. "Well, everyone is here so I might as well do it now. Jack, as the captain of the Garmon, Joni and I would like you to marry us."
Jack laughed. "Marry you? I don't want to marry you, I've already been married!"
Joni stepped forward. "OK, wise-ass, you know what he means. Will you conduct the ceremony?"
Jack nodded and smiled. "I would be honored. When would you like this to take place?"
Lieutenant Jefferson yelled out, "Sir! Sensors just picked up a large number of ships! They've stopped just short of coming into this system!"
The nav display was transferred to the big wall.
"Who are they?" I said.
Jefferson replied, "I show six hundred and fifty Tamarin warships, sir. A single ship is coming in. It's the Bushan, sir."
I nodded to Jack. "Take us out to meet her."
Garrett turned to Joni. "Kind of puts us on hold."
Joni half smiled. "Well, it's not like we're going anywhere, so no need to rush it. Knog, if you want me to go aboard the Bushan, just say so. Until then I'll be drifting around in here."
We lifted off in the Garmon. A hail came over the comm as soon as the Bushan was within range. I waited a full minute before responding.
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