Alicia Jones 4: Enigma

by D. L. Harrison

  Enigma

  An Alicia Jones novel 04

  Author: D. L. Harrison

  Copyright 2016. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

  Contents:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Afterword:

  About the Author

  Other books by D. L. Harrison:

  Book Description

  Chapter 1

  I wasn’t much for the spotlight, which is why I was seriously having second thoughts about this entrance. Kristi had convinced me earlier it was a good idea, and now as I hung above the rafters looking down at the Vegas crowd in blue, I knew I was stuck with it.

  It was about a week after we got home from handling the waves of bug ships… I really did wish I had a name for their race. Bug was a misnomer that had been applied simply because they swarmed in small ships, and wasn’t really very accurate. I had the platforms building, but it would be a few months before we had enough to do anything anyway.

  Regardless, while the governments that were part of the treaty argued what to do about the bugs, I’d been contacted by the hosts of the chief’s conference in Vegas. They’d invited me to give a talk and a show of sorts using one of my inventions. After seeing the press reports of what I’d done that evening in New York, it had become apparent to many the gravity ball, which I still needed to come up with a better name for, was not being used to its full potential.

  The Chief’s conference was basically a gathering where police and fire chiefs got to see what was up and coming in the world of law enforcement, search and rescue, and the latest firefighting techniques. Of course, it was also a chance for them to cut loose on a little mini-vacation.

  The announcer down on the stage started to introduce me and my product, and I gave Al the command to slowly lower me to the stage, while I tried to smile and pretend this was a clever entrance and not the oldest Vegas cliché ever. Granted, no wires, but still. Because of this, I obviously couldn’t wear a dress, so I had on a pair of black woman’s slacks, and a black fitted blazer that accentuated my figure, with a white strapless shirt under it, and a nice pair of sandals.

  I so needed to get revenge on my best friend.

  But then, the crowd seemed to love it, and the large conference center burst into noise and applause. I had to exert control over my body to prevent a blush. Oh yeah, definitely needed to get revenge.

  When I landed on the stage, ten gravity balls dropped from the ceiling as well, and hung above the crowd. Half of them were blinking red, and the other half blue. The atmosphere raised up another notch, and I had to wait quite a while before the audience lost steam and sat down.

  Al was already plugged into the audio and visual accommodations on stage, so I got started with my presentation.

  “Good afternoon, I’m Alicia Jones,” I had to stop there, because they all cheered me again, if possible in an even louder cheer. I smiled the best I could, going for graceful acceptance but I doubted I hit the mark, all while I internally vowed Kristi would pay. I really didn’t do well with my celebrity, mostly because I never knew what to do with it. Wasn’t saving Earth old news by now?

  In my opinion, the people out in the audience were real heroes, putting their lives on the line on a daily basis. When things finally settled down I was finally able to really start the presentation.

  “Some of you may have seen what I did in New York, which was only the smallest of things possible with the new gravity ball. I’d like to show you some diverse examples of what can be done with it, although it will be far from exhaustive. At the end of the show, I’ll also show you what’s coming very soon.”

  I stepped slightly to the side, and the lights dimmed as the large screen started playing video. It was simulated video, none of this stuff had actually been done yet to my knowledge.

  “As we all know, accidents are rare with A.I. safeguards even during manual driving, but they still happen due to hazardous road conditions, or unforeseen random circumstances.”

  The screen showed a fairly nasty accident on a highway with a tractor trailer jackknife, the truck had flipped to its side as well and wound up blocking the whole road. The cars behind it had several minor fender benders when traffic on the road came to a standstill.

  “I’m sure you’ve all seen something similar. In the past you could expect it take hours to get the highway back to normal driving conditions. You’d have to get the emergency vehicles out there, get help for the truck driver, and clear the trailer off to the side of the road. Set up detours, put out flares. With the gravity ball, it’s a whole new game.”

  We all watched as the simulated police car showed up, and the gravity ball flew above the accident.

  “Right now, it’s making sure there are pictures to review later, of the original scene.”

  Then it lowered, and the tractor trailer door opened on its own.

  “The policeman is talking to the truck driver now to determine if there are any injuries. His voice is being relayed through the gravity ball, and the police officer is also being presented with live video on his overlay so he can visually verify the scene.”

  It went on for a few moments longer, and then the ambulance showed up a short time later, and once they determined what to do, the driver was lifted out carefully and delivered to emergency workers.

  “And as you’ll see, the longest part of this process is dealing with the injured.”

  I smiled when the whole room drew in a breath as the trailer and rig were lifted up into the air, righted, and moved to the side of the road. It wasn’t finished however, the gravity ball then lowered to the road and cleared all the glass, rubber, and metal that was spread across the highway, and moved that off to the side as well.

  I finished the narration of the first example as the cars started to drive away, “As you can see, that was quite a bit quicker, and safer, than in the past.”

  There were a few more videos after that. Hostage situations where the gunmen literally just lost their weapons and then couldn’t move. Car chases where the fleeing car rose above the ground and just stopped. The audience all laughed when a kid stuck in a well was pulled up.

  For the firemen it showed people being rescued from windows, one right after the other instead of waiting for ladders. Hoses sprayed water into a third floor window, without a fireman or ladder involved.

  For search and rescue, a helicopter retrieved people from the water, without a harness or cable, which cut down on rescue time tremendously. It then showed someone being lifted from a ravine after their car had gone off the side, and several more similar examples of how life had changed.

  I said a little enthusiastically, “And here’s a peak at what’s coming soon, the government has finally released the gravity technology for more diverse uses, and its coming to you guys first.”

  It was just a quick fun video of flying ambulances, police cars, and all avoiding the snarled traffic below t
o get to where they needed to be as quickly as possible. Of course, I wasn’t sure how involved I’d be in the development of those. I didn’t own a patent for gravity devices, just the rights to a few designs. I’d contacted some car companies, but it’s more than possible they’ll create and use their own designs instead of buying mine.

  Chapter 2

  Kristi smiled at me when I walked off stage, “That was awesome. They loved it.”

  I tried not to smile, remembering my thirst for revenge, but I failed.

  “It did go pretty well, didn’t it?”

  Kristi nodded in agreement, “I know you hate it, but we need to advertise better.”

  I shook my head, “It’s not the advertising that bothers me, it’s you wanting me in the advertising I don’t like.”

  Kristi shrugged, “You’re perfect to sell things though. Sexy alien that saved the world. We can’t pay for better advertising than that.”

  I glared at her witheringly as we walked to the exit, which I knew was a waste of time, my glares always bounced off my best friend without impact.

  Kristi asked innocently, “So what now, we going to do anything while we’re here?”

  I finally gave up my glare and smiled, “I suppose we could see a show, or go dancing tonight.”

  Things were pretty in the air right now. I hadn’t been back up in space since we got back, and we’d decided to take a vacation. We had a few months until the platforms were ready, and on top of that we still didn’t know what the governments would decide to do in the end. Though the Seltan wanted to go now, everyone else wanted to wait a while, at least until we’d taken a peek at what we would face when we got there. The stealth sensor net was being quickly deployed in that arm of the galaxy. Quick in comparison to the Orion arm anyway.

  Point was, I was between projects, wasn’t in charge of the fleet anymore, and the scientists in my company had their own ambition and drive, so I was hardly needed there either. I was sure something would come up, eventually, but things right now were rather quiet.

  Kristi asked curiously, “No gambling?

  I smirked, for once happy about the attention I got, “Nope, apparently my fame worked against me there. As a soul reader I’ve been banned from gambling in all the casinos. Except the slot machines, which isn’t appealing to me.”

  Kristi giggled, “Well, it’s not like you need to strike it rich in Vegas, but they do have a point.”

  We didn’t get a room, but we did wind up staying the rest of the day, and I had to go shopping in one of the casino’s boutiques for a dress to wear that night, I wasn’t going dancing in a woman’s suit.

  We had a great time, and wound up going to a comedy show, followed by some late night dancing before heading back to the house in Colorado. As far as my revenge, it would have to wait because nothing came to mind. Kristi was just too confident and outgoing to embarrass like me, and I wasn’t mean enough to figure something else out…

  Over the next week we spent time at home, sometimes I was alone when Kristi went out with Joe. Outside of a few phone calls, I hadn’t spent any time with Nathan, which I wasn’t happy about. Although I understood. We went to several places to do the tourist thing, and even met up with Nadia, Senna, and Nora a couple of times for some nights out in New York, and we made a visit to a tropical island that didn’t mind me flying in on my own.

  Most countries could be amazingly narrow minded about skipping customs.

  I did have fun, but the truth was that a large part of me started to get bored out of my mind. Vacations were great, but they got old surprisingly fast for me since I was a bit of a workaholic. I had enough money where I could not do anything but have fun the rest of my life, but the truth was that sounded torturous to me. I could only spend so much time in a hot tub, or going out dancing, before the itch to get back to something real prodded me to be productive.

  Still, nothing specific pulled at me. I wanted to work, do research, but so far I had no idea what would come next.

  When my vacation did finally end, it was for a reason I didn’t see coming.

  Al spoke in my ear, “You have been served legal papers. Along with Kristi and Caroline.”

  I frowned, “Summarize.”

  Al replied, “The new nanites for maintenance and repair. Apparently someone believes you marketing them on your own comprises a monopoly. I believe this is an attempt to force you to sell the rights to fabricate and sell the nanites to other companies.”

  “Yeah, that’s likely, the most likely culprit is the fabricator companies. A big part of fabricator income comes from reprints or repairs and maintenance on things. They’re probably worried we’ll be taking a large piece of their income, if not putting many of them out of business.”

  Al said, “True, but it won’t be a monopoly until they go out of business. Just an alternative to the current status quo.”

  I almost laughed at his unsolicited legal opinion. Something that had been happening more and more as time went on with the new A.I. platform. Al was right of course, but sometimes lawsuits didn’t have to be right to be effective. If nothing else, it would delay marketing until the matter was settled.

  Truthfully, I also wasn’t greedy enough to put a bunch of people out of business, riches had never been my goal, nor what drove me to create. Still, progress needed to go forward, change was a part of life. Maybe I could sell the rights for others to be able to fabricate the nanites as well?

  Of course, it wasn’t just my decision, Caroline had a stake in the decision as inventor and part owner, and she wasn’t rich yet at all. I also wasn’t thrilled with the idea of being pressured to license to someone else for production, not when we could do it ourselves. As far as I was aware, they’d never even approached us to ask first. In the end, my responsibility was to Caroline who I’d promised the best deal I could give her, and to the end consumer.

  Either way, most of those fabricator repair depots would go out of business anyway, leaving only enough to cover the need for new item builds.

  Although it was true that I had my own fabricators, that was only after my first invention of the FTL drive, and being rich enough. Most people didn’t own a fabricator themselves, and the few that did had very small ones, only capable of making things like clothing, and other small household items. Even they had to pay a small reprint fee if something got broken.

  For most though, they had to go to fabrication companies for repair or refabricating.

  Generally, when something was bought, the cost to the creator of the design was one time only fee, but added to that was a small fabricating fee for using the technology in addition to the raw materials. It was that small fee which was additional income for the fabrication companies if a shirt had to be reprinted because of damage, or the toaster oven needed to be repaired. With the new nanites, that secondary fee would be a thing of the past.

  Instead it would be another one-time flat fee to buy the nanites themselves, albeit a much larger cost initially, it would pay for itself in a very short time. Once the nanites were purchased, all the designs a person owned were automatically uploaded to the nanites control and power station, which would then send the nanites out to constantly maintain those clothes, household devices, furniture, and the house itself. Or a vehicle which would be a separate purchase.

  All of which added up to the fact that it was time to call my lawyer.

  “Al, call Daniel Schmidt and forward the papers, see when he’s available for a consultation. Also, let Caroline and Kristi know what I’m doing, and notify them as well when you have an appointment time.”

  Al replied through the implant in my ear, “Will do.”

  Chapter 3

  I was back at work, and felt rather uninspired while I stared at my wall. I missed the ship, and space, but realized I’d have been just as bored out there. I considered the idea of visiting another alien world, I’d only been to the ground on two others, but honestly the idea of another vacation sickened me. Nothing new appeale
d to me, and I started to play with ideas about how to apply my current inventions in new ways. So far though, I had nothing.

  Kristi worked on something too, although she still wouldn’t tell me what, and I didn’t want to bother her by using her as a soundboard.

  Al said, “I have new data on the stealth sensor net, it looks like we found one of the bug worlds.”

  Thank god, the boredom was driving me nuts.

  “Put up the data Al.”

  A plethora of virtual screens popped up with various images and data points.

  The first image showed a planet, with millions of what looked like very large swarming insects. They weren’t though, for one when I zoomed in they had the wrong amount of legs, ten instead of six. Although the front two were more arm like, with clawed appendages instead of hands. The heads were bulbous but hard to make out even zoomed in. Regardless, I didn’t see anything approximating eyes at all, compound or otherwise, although the mandibles were a disturbing point of familiarity.

  Next to that screen was the planetary data. It was very hot, close to a hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit. The gravity was point two of earth normal, and the atmosphere was a lot thicker, a hundred twenty-one point two atmospheres compared to earth’s sea level. Then there was the atmosphere itself, no oxygen at all. It was comprised of nitrogen, methane, and other trace elements inimical to humanoid life.

  The landscape itself was barren and forbidding, and I wondered what they ate. Either it was underground, or they subsisted off the atmosphere itself. I supposed it was possible, it was quite thick.

  The other screens showed the space around the planet itself. Large structures were present which the small ships docked with. I was reluctant to call it a hive, or colony, but honestly it was the first thing that came to me when I saw it. The large structures were packed with ships, full of them, all three of the structures orbited the planet and had just over a million ships each.

  There were also smaller structures, where it appeared the bugs were building more ships. Other screens showed the bugs mining both asteroids, and one of the gas giants in the system. They were clearly overbuilding. I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, but it was hard not to. I imagined, once the bugs built a million or so ships too many, they would swarm and look for a new home.