by Bob Blanton
“But there’s more, isn’t there?”
“There’s always more,” Catie said. “I wanted someone on the Sakira to be aware of everything. You’ve already figured out the stasis chambers. Oh, and I guess you should know about the antimatter reactor. We’ve let everyone believe that it’s just a big fusion reactor. Mr. Kermag is the engineer who keeps it running.”
“An antimatter reactor?!”
“ADI will explain it to you. The gravity drives take a lot more power than people realize. A fusion reactor would have a hard time keeping up with the power demand while moving something as massive as the Sakira, much less something as big as our space carriers. And you’d really need to carry a lot of fuel to feed the reactors.”
“Oh, ADI, we’re going to need to spend a lot of time together,” Lieutenant Payne said.
“Quality, intimate time. I’m so looking forward to it,” ADI purred.
Catie and Lieutenant Payne both broke into laughter.
“Good one, ADI,” Catie said.
Chapter 2
Cabinet Meeting – March 1st
“Catie, are things good on your end?” Marc asked.
“I’m good; hi, everybody,” Catie said. She was attending the meeting via video link from the Sakira.
“I call this meeting to order,” Marc said. “I’d like to start by introducing our new CFO, Jonas Pfeifer. You’ve all read his résumé. Jonas, you should recognize everyone here from your briefing earlier.”
“I do,” Jonas said, “and I want to tell all of you what a pleasure it is to join you.”
“We also have a new prime minister,” Marc said. “She emigrated to Delphi City during our first year. She came in with the first group of Syrian refugees. She has been a key leader in the community from the first day she arrived. Please join me in welcoming Prime Minister Fatiha Nazeri.”
At that announcement, Masina, Marc’s admin, escorted Prime Minister Nazeri into the cabinet chamber. She was greeted by applause from everyone in the room. She gave a nod to them all and then took the seat next to Marc.
“The Prime Minister will help us to tease apart the government functions from those of MacKenzie Discoveries. And as part of her efforts, she has already informed me that I make too many decisions without proper consultation,” Marc said. He gave a small laugh to let everyone know that he wasn’t offended. “I’ve told her that I will endeavor to mend my ways.”
“Now to business, Herr Hausmann, you wanted to talk about the economy.”
“Thank you, and welcome Prime Minister Nazeri,” Herr Hausmann said, giving the prime minister a slight bow. “I’ve finished calculating the GNP for Delphi. I was quite shocked by the numbers. Delphi’s GNP over the last twelve months was over 700 billion dollars. I am using GNP instead of GDP because the military and government expenditures are so intertwined with the expenditures from MacKenzie Discoveries. I am still not clear on which assets belong to whom.”
“How can it be that high?” Blake asked. “I’ve seen our cash flow numbers.”
“Ah, but you have been ignoring the volume of trade you do via material exchange. Those asteroids are assets; you’ve been mining them and producing products which you still own, the space station being a significant one. When you factor the value of the material you’ve extracted and still control, as well as the value of the products you’ve made and kept, the numbers are very believable.”
“Ah, I never thought of that,” Blake said.
“And that’s why you needed to hire Herr Pfeifer,” Herr Hausmann said. “He would never have ignored those transactions.”
Jonas nodded vigorously to acknowledge the point.
“I’m glad you’ve been able to give us a better perspective on our economic situation. I can appreciate your problem separating the assets,” Marc said. “Currently, most assets belong to MacKenzie Discoveries. We do plan to transfer certain ones to the Delphi government, but did not want to do that until we had a working government to administer them. I’m sure that you and the prime minister will be able to come up with recommendations as to which assets to transfer as well as the proper timing for the transfer.”
“I’m sure we’ll be most happy to do that,” Herr Hausmann said. “And that brings up another issue.”
Marc nodded for him to continue.
“Currently, over seventy percent of your GNP is generated by MacKenzie Discoveries. That is not generally a very healthy position for a country.”
“Hmm,” Marc mused. “I look forward to suggestions on how to bring more diversity to the economy. Anything else?”
“I think the rest of my report can wait until I’ve had a chance to brief the prime minister.”
“Very well. Next, Samantha.”
“Thank you, and I’d also like to extend my welcome to Prime Minister Nazeri,” Samantha said, giving a nod of recognition to the prime minister. “Now to business; the U.S. Ambassador has informed me that their FBI has determined that Russia conducted several hacking operations in order to interfere with their 2020 election. Most of the attempts were thwarted, but the usual social media campaigns were impossible to stop completely. They also tried to hack the computer systems of both national parties. He indicated that you had reached some sort of agreement with Senator Novak before the election.”
“Yes, I did. Let me explain, and this is probably one of those decisions that the prime minister feels I should consult on. From the founding of MacKenzie Discoveries and our development of manufacturing on Manuae and eventually here on Delphi City, the Russians, along with several other countries, have been continually trying to hack into our computer network. We created a very sophisticated firewall to prevent such hacking, and, as a consequence, we actually have the ability to reach into the systems and networks that initiated the hacking attempts, basically to hack them back.”
“That’s very interesting,” Admiral Michaels said. “I am not aware of any similar capability.” Admiral Michaels was the former head of U.S. Naval Intelligence.
“We’re confident that there is not anything like it yet. We developed this firewall using the technology we harvested from the Paraxean starship,” Marc said. “We have also developed some very sophisticated viruses that we can inject into those systems. Many of them are the same viruses that everyone uses, but some are much more capable. The bottom line is we can reach out and destroy the computers within any of the networks that tried to hack us. In fact, we can actually reach out beyond just the local networks where the hackers were working.”
“What about data access?” Admiral Michaels asked. The spook in him was very curious.
“We do have some ability to access data,” Marc said. “What Senator Novak, now President Novak, and I discussed, was that if Russia did try to hack their election, Delphi might conduct such an attack on the Russian systems as a punitive measure and allow the U.S. to take credit for it.”
“Do we really want to antagonize the Russians again?” Samantha asked.
“What is the status of the SALT III talks?” Marc asked.
“The Russians and Chinese are still bickering, and the U.S. isn’t really helping that much,” Samantha said.
“So the talks are essentially stalled.”
“Yes.”
“If you did this and it was discovered that Delphi was responsible, that could cause serious harm to the nation,” Prime Minister Nazeri said.
“If we do this, there will be no doubt in many minds that it was Delphi,” Admiral Michaels said.
“Probably, but what can they do, it’s hard to bitch about being punished for breaking the law,” Fred said. “It would be nice to send a no-hacking message to the world. The economic damage caused by all the stolen secrets is immeasurable. Having a secure internet is critical to bring the world into the next age.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Thirty minutes later, Marc stopped the discussion. “I think we’ve had enough debate. I’ll take your input under advisement.”
“You
’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you,” Samantha said.
“Not firmly,” Marc defended himself.
“If you’ve made up your mind, why waste our time?” Prime Minister Nazeri asked. “This is what I meant about not taking advice.”
“I am seeking your advice. I may not necessarily follow it, but I will listen to it. If I didn’t want it, I wouldn’t ask,” Marc said.
“That’s right,” Samantha said. “And he does occasionally change his mind.”
“Moving on,” Marc said. “Catie, please give everyone an update on our new station.”
“We’ve finished the hub and the ring. If things continue to go well, they should be able to spin it up next week,” Catie said. “It will take a few weeks after that before everyone can move in, but things are still on schedule.”
“Good, and how is the asteroid they’re mining holding up?” Marc asked.
“It has about six weeks of mining left in it before it’s played out. We’ve found a couple of smaller ones that we’ll move over next to the station. They should give them another four or five weeks of mining, then we’ll need to move the station.”
“Do they know where they want to move it to?” Fred asked.
“Yes, the probes have found several more asteroids that are good candidates for mining. There are several in this quadrant that are close enough that we can move the station next to them without losing any time with the mining operation.”
“Why move the station?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“Commute time for the miners,” Catie said. “It’s more efficient to move the station than to send them on long trips to whichever asteroid we happen to be mining. And it’s also easier to move the station than it is to keep moving the asteroids over to the station. The station is designed to be moved.”
“That has always been our plan,” Marc said. “Any other issues?”
“I’ve had them restart work on the scout ship,” Catie said.
“I noticed,” Marc said. “Do you have a timeline for it to be finished?”
“Two weeks if somebody doesn’t steal my gravity drives, . . . again.”
Marc ignored Catie’s dig. “Next item. Fred.”
“Production is on target,” Fred said. “The jetliner is looking good; we’re on track to submit it for certification by the end of summer.”
“Excellent.”
“Catie did most of it, but I’m happy to take the credit,” Fred said. “Also, I have a proposal about the platinum group metals.”
“Go on.”
“The market for them is still very hot. Even though we haven’t been buying any for the last month, others have been, and they’re still being hoarded. That creates an opportunity.”
“What kind of opportunity?” Jonas asked.
“I am still in contact with the agents I was using to buy the metals before we started getting shipments from Catie. We could turn around and slowly sell our surplus. It would make us a bundle of money, a few hundred million at least, and it will eventually cool the market down,” Fred said.
“Do it,” Marc said, “and you keep the profits. Pay MacKenzies back for the metals you sell at the price that they settle to after two months.”
“Ahem,” Prime Minister Nazeri coughed.
“That was a private decision for MacKenzie Discoveries,” Marc said.
“It still highlights my point.”
“Acknowledged. Fred, go ahead.”
“You’ve got it,” Fred said, gleefully rubbing his hands together. He loved trading, and now he was going to be able to get rich doing it.
Herr Pfeifer swallowed hard as he realized that Marc had just given Fred a few hundred million dollars off of MacKenzie Discoveries’ bottom line. Samantha reached over and patted his hand.
“Blake, what’s the status of the armed forces?” Marc asked.
“We’re recovering from the recall. The U.S. has agreed to release five hundred of the pilots that served in the alliance if we pay for their education cost, about one million per pilot,” Blake said. “If we do that, they’ll return to the alliance and be directly under our control, no U.S. military liaison.”
Marc looked at Admiral Michaels and then the Prime Minister. “Thoughts?”
“Do you really want them?” Prime Minister Nazeri asked.
“Yes, it seems like an obvious decision to me, but I’ll defer to Admiral Michaels, and I assume the two of you will be able to reach a consensus,” Marc said.
“I would like some time to discuss it,” Prime Minister Nazeri said. “It does seem obvious, but I’d like to understand the background better.”
“I’ll leave the decision to the two of you, let me know what you decide,” Marc said. “Blake, how is the academy shaping up?”
“We’ve identified two candidates for the commandant,” Blake said. “Do you want to interview them?”
“No.”
“Then Admiral Michaels and I will let you know when we’ve made our decision. We are planning to accept cadets this summer. In fact, we have already been recruiting. We’ll be accepting candidates for all four classes, and fitting them into the structure. We’ll conduct separate summer boot camps for each class to familiarize the new cadets with their roles and acclimate them to military life. We’ll use cadets who have military experience or are coming from a military academy to act as the cadets’ leadership team.”
“Are you going to have enough to cover those roles?” Marc asked.
“Yes, we’re getting a large influx from the military colleges like VMI and the Citadel. Those cadets don’t have military obligations, so it is easier for them to switch. We have a few academies actually releasing cadets to attend. And we are accepting exchange students from other academies. They’ll go to Delphi Academy, then return to their nation’s military services to fulfill their obligation. That will get us close; we’ll fill in using NCOs and our existing officers to make the experience real.”
“Good. Admiral Michaels, what do you have?” Marc prompted.
“We are continuing with the modification of the cargo ships to carriers,” Admiral Michaels said. “As I’ve said, the first should be ready this month. We’ve taken delivery of the frigates. We need to crew them and get them to sea. I’ll brief the prime minister later this week on the full status of our military plans.”
“Thank you,” the prime minister said.
“Anything else?”
“Nothing noteworthy.”
“Kal?”
“We have started running all current members of our forces through the new training program. It’s an accelerated program for the experienced people; new people will go through a full ten-week training course,” Kal said.
“How accelerated?” Liz asked.
“Everyone will have two weeks of classroom work to start that will take four hours per day, and they can fit that around their existing schedule. Then they’ll do two weeks of full-time, on-the-ground training in Guatemala. That will be followed by six weeks of part-time training here in Delphi City or on Delphi Station. We’ll also be able to work around their schedules for that.”
“Guatemala?” the prime minister asked.
“We have a training facility in Guatemala that we share with their new special forces division. We help train their people and provide some special equipment, and in exchange, we get free use of the facility,” Kal explained.
The prime minister nodded her head in acknowledgment of the explanation.
“Thank you,” Marc said. “That concludes the meeting. Liz, Blake, Catie, and Nikola, please stay behind.”
“That’s it?” Prime Minister Nazeri asked.
“You can see why he needs you,” Samantha said.
The prime minister shook her head and followed Samantha out of the Cabinet Chamber.
◆ ◆ ◆
“What is the status of our jumpdrive?” Marc asked once everyone except members of the MacKenzie board had left the room.
“Dr. McDowel
l is still running tests,” Catie said. “He’s characterizing how to increase the size of the wormhole. Obviously, we all want to come up with a way to take the Paraxeans’ asteroid through in one piece.”
“That would be convenient,” Blake jested.
“Will he succeed?” Marc asked.
“He’s making progress,” Catie said. “I have an idea that might help. I’ll talk to him about it when I get there.”
“Why not talk to him via your Comm?” Marc asked.
Nikola unsuccessfully tried to stifle a laugh; it came out as a snort.
“He’s not very good with communication of any type,” Catie said. “Face to face works better.”
“Why don’t you tell Nikola and then she can talk to him?” Blake asked.
“Dr. McDowell is more receptive to ideas from Catie,” Nikola said. “She’ll be here soon, and he has plenty of work to do in the meantime. I suggest we wait.”
“Alright,” Marc acquiesced. “I want all of you to start planning a survey mission for the two planets,” Marc said. “Keep me in the loop, but don’t wait on me.”
“We can do that,” Blake said with a big smile.
Marc just shook his head.
Chapter 3
Changes
“Here’s to old times when life was simpler,” Blake said as he clinked beer bottles with Kal. They were in Aces Up, a bar on Delphi’s airport that catered to the pilots flying the Oryxes up to Delphi Station.
“Which old times are you referring to, the time when I was an ex-Marine without any legs, and you were an ex-fighter pilot with a scarred-up face? Or maybe when we were dating those two spies?” Kal asked. Kal had wound up dating Sasha, a Russian spy who was trying to gather intel on Delphi City and MacKenzie Discoveries while Blake had wound up dating the Chinese spy, who was trying to do the same thing.
“The spies were cool,” Blake said. “Those were simpler times and a lot of fun. Even after you got your legs, and I got my face fixed, it was simpler.”