Part 5

Chapter 14

SATURDAY May 10

We were halfway through breakfast when Greg and Sharon came dragging into the dining room, a happy and energetic Britney following close behind. I elbowed Jenna who got Renee's attention and pointed at them. Chuckling to myself, I meandered into the kitchen and got several bottles of EB, and reaching over their shoulders, set two on the table in front of Greg and two more in front of Sharon. Both smiled their thanks as I returned to my seat, drinking one myself. When we left the table, my trio of ladies (Jenna, Vonna, and Renee) and I cornered Renee's parents in the same room we used to talk to Justin's parents last night. They were excited to help us, also deciding to move onto the estate with us. I told Renee to make arrangements for a bunch of the girls to take the freighter and androids to load everything from both houses and bring out here as soon as both sets of grandparents each chose a suite they wanted to use. Meanwhile, I took Greg and Sharon on a tour of the lab and the hangar, finding Bree and Katie already hard at it. After the tour, the Marshalls wanted to do a thorough tour and inventory of the base hospital, so I went back to see how Bree and Katie were doing. Before I left I told Greg to make a list of everything he wanted and needed to bring the medical facilities up to the same standard as the most modern hospital, and to work with Renee to get it delivered.

Greg looked at me goggle-eyed, then asked if I knew how much that would cost. When I shrugged, answering in the negative, he estimated four or five billion dollars, suggesting instead that he bring some of his older, used equipment from his offices. I shrugged and told him to do what he felt was best, but I felt newer equipment would be preferable if it was better than what he had, and to plan on several hundred or even a thousand or more inhabitants here. I also suggested getting at least a couple of androids programmed to install and maintain the equipment, then suggested merely selling his older equipment, or letting Marco sell it for him.

On the way back to the lab, I just had to stop for a few minutes and appreciate the choreography I saw. The freighter had landed and one group of girls was moving the four loaded cargo sleds off, directing them to where they were to be unloaded. As soon as the shuttle was empty, four other empty cargo sleds were loaded back onboard and the shuttle left. I was impressed. It only took five minutes from touchdown to liftoff. Then I noticed that each of the four loaded sleds had three of the improved androids and three girls unloading it. Bree had definitely been busy.

Hurrying back to the lab, I found the girls and James busy, as well as another android. I laughed when I saw that both of them had coveralls on with their name embroidered across the back. Carl was our newest lab rat. Bree explained that James had agreed to name him after her dad and then showed me that she taught him to build and then load the matrices for the android AIs and had all 24 finished and reinstalled into the newest group. They would be ready to go tomorrow. Bree had also reviewed the programming for all of the construction and agricultural androids and found them all to be free of spy programming. I guess the people doing the spying only wanted spies that might have access to computers that would have financial records of the wealthy, as well as being privy to their private conversations.

Bree gave me a list of who was trying to use the first eight spy robots. Not surprisingly, one was a wealthy family in Albuquerque. I recognized the Bailey name as one of the top movers and shakers in town. The Wilson's were a prominent Chicago family, the Richardson's from New York, the Mc Brides from Tampa, and the Johnstone's from San Francisco. I didn't recognize the name Bagley from Little Rock, or Morgan and Tucker from Las Vegas, although the latter two apparently each owned a hotel and a casino. The information we got included lists of bank accounts and all of their other financial records, passwords, retina and fingerprint scans, security layouts, and security forces for all of their properties, including the casinos, factories, and lists of girls they had as concubines and slaves. I asked Bree to make sure Renee got a copy of everything about the finances and the concubines and slaves.

Noticing that the AI for Inquisitive was missing, I entered the ship to find Katie testing the new system. She grinned, telling me that all of the systems were on line and working properly. I called Stan and asked if he wanted to go for a test flight. As excited as he was, I wasn't surprised that it took him less than five minutes to get to the lab. Half an hour later, we left the atmosphere and I started cranking it up. We were at the maximum speed of the impulse engines before we even got a fraction of the way to the moon. I fired the warp engines and gradually increased our speed. Katie and Stan were excited when we hit warp seventeen at 50% power. Stan let out a whoop when we passed 22, a new unofficial record. I was just concentrating; making sure everything was working properly. The ride and handling were as smooth as the Lear would have been with the old setup at a much slower speed. Warp 25 came and went as did warp thirty. I finally pinned it at warp 37.617, fifteen minutes after we hit warp speed, and well beyond Pluto's orbit.

"Shit, Mike, another hour, and I think we'd be in the Centauri System," Stan joked. He exaggerated a bit. It would take fifteen or sixteen days at top speed, something that was on my list of things to do.

We headed back, and Stan's mind was obviously working on something. He reminded me a lot of Marco the way he did it. "Mike, you said that the cloaking and shields are level six?" he asked. I nodded, still watching the performance indicators. "Any chance we could swing by wherever the Kashmir captives are being held and see if they're still there and who's there?" he asked nervously. I thought about it for a minute before agreeing. It would, at the very least, be a good test of the ship's cloaking. I programmed in the coordinates and let the ship take us there. I hung above the base for ten minutes, ready to jackrabbit at the first sign of a ship approaching.

The AI picked up signals of 90 of the captives. Stan had tears in his eyes when he read the list, both for those that weren't on the list as well as those that were and were still prisoner here. I saw his finger delay at the name of Vivian Wallace CDR before continuing down the list. Slowly I let us settle nearer the surface of the moon, still ready to bolt at the first sign that we were noticed. I stopped 100 feet above the terraforming shield, a non-defensive shield designed to keep the atmosphere inside and still allow the ships to pass through. I was surprised that the colony wasn't cloaked or shielded, but guessed that they figured they were toast anyway if they were discovered. We did a thorough scan of the compound, a 'town' of about forty buildings. I noticed six cloaked and heavily armed ships on the ground scattered randomly throughout the compound. Life forms were moving randomly on the ground. Nobody was in any hurry so we obviously hadn't been spotted. Getting bolder, I dropped lower and penetrated their terraforming shield, holding my breath and doubling my vigilance. I finally stopped 200 feet above the settlement. After thoroughly mapping, scanning, and recording everything, we left. A mile above the moon, I waited ten minutes to see if our exit triggered any alarms. Satisfied that nobody had noticed our arrival or departure, we headed back to Earth and home.

Katie was excited and talkative, but Stan was quiet on the trip back. Katie literally bounced out of the ship, unwilling to wait any longer than necessary before telling Bree about the trip. "Good friend?" I asked Stan, startling him out of his reverie.

"Huh?"

"I take it you know the Commander?" I asked.

"Yeah," he sighed, "she was a frequent visitor to our bedroom."

"Isn't that against regulations?" I queried. He explained that as long as they posted a notice of their mutual interest on the base commander's private officer assignment board, and didn't serve on the same ship, it was permitted.

"I'm sorry," I said, wishing there was something I could do.

Stan stopped and turned to me. "Mike, if I can come up with a plan that should work would you consider a rescue?"

"Stan, if I could have come up with a rescue plan a week ago, I would have done it then. The problems are that we have no weapons, no troops, an unarmed ship, and I have no military experience. If you can overcome that, we'll discuss it, but we still have a problem of where and how to keep them. They'd just go from being prisoners there to being prisoners here or somewhere else. As much as I'd like to rescue them, I have no desire to end up being busted by the UN for having Kashmir, or to have them find out about anything else I'm doing here." Stan hugged me.

"Thanks. I'll see what I can dream up" he said emotionally.

Stan headed back to the estate and I went looking for James. James had managed to recalibrate his communication channels so he could communicate with the repair and maintenance bots. A few taps on the holographic keyboard of the computer and there was a 3-D image hanging in mid-air. James walked me through the diagram, a multi-level maze of buildings and tunnels. The buildings I knew about, a few of the tunnels I knew about. Ninety percent of it I didn't know about. For an hour, James walked me, figuratively, through climate-controlled underground testing and production facilities, an underground bunker designed big enough to keep 5,000 people alive for three years, underground hangars, medical facilities, living quarters, command center, and weapons storage, complete with large quantities of early technological era weapons systems. There were also an additional 500 repair robots at the second airbase, the old Holloman Air Base. Only 200 of the robots were ever working at any one time, 100 at each base since there was so little work to do.

There was also an underground tunnel between the two air bases big enough to transport those weapons systems back and forth between the bases on grav sleds three times bigger than the 4X sleds for my freighter. James then reviewed the different weapons stored here. There were 250 primitive binary tanks (projectile and primitive cold fusion energy weapons), 500 heavily armored personnel carriers with light binary weapons systems, and 250 mobile missile launchers, complete with ten missiles each. Since this was an old air base, I guess it should have come as no surprise to me to discover that there was a series of underground hangars full of 432 antique aircraft and taxiways leading to the surface. There were five full wings of 72 fighters of the last model to use fossil fuel for propulsion, and a wing of 72 of the only cold-fusion fighters ever built--an expensive experiment and failed program. The idea was good, the technology years ahead of its time, the fighter's abilities beyond imagination, and therein was half of the problem.

Politicians and the public were skeptical that it could deliver what they were told about. Four of the original fighters suffered very visible and very public (although the physical damage was minor) failures in their first year, due entirely to the fact that the pilots were still learning the capabilities of the aircraft a year later.

The government accepted the initial shipment they had consigned for, and parked them in an underground hangar where they never saw the light of day again. I remember vaguely that there was a fossil fuel automobile developed after the second 'official' world war and before the space years began that had a similar problem--the Edison, or something like that. It was a great vehicle, but the public response was poor because it was too far ahead of its time. The last items I was shown were somewhat of a surprise--100 antique fossil fuel automobiles and 100 antique fossil fuel pick-up trucks of a variety of makes. Those would be worth some serious bucks to collectors and museums since they were in original and pristine condition. Most of the ones available now had been repaired with modern carbon fiber technology to look like they had back then.

"James, are any of the weapons functional?" I queried.

"According to the maintenance robots, all of the weapons are in perfect condition," he replied.

"Do you think they'd be difficult to learn to drive?" I asked.

"Actually, I already reviewed all of the training programming for each of the weapons systems and I'm sure I could maneuver and fire them now," James answered.

"James, I'm impressed that you took the initiative to learn about each of the systems."

"Actually, I simply calculated the probability you would wish to see each of the vehicles in operation and have one of each available to tinker with in your lab," James responded straight faced. I took a second to figure out if James had just made a joke, then realized he was simply telling me the facts. Was I that easy to figure out? Yeah, I guess I was.

"Doesn't one of the underground taxiways come up inside of hangar seventeen, nearest the start of the runway?" I asked.

"Yes, the south half of hangar seventeen has a slide-back floor that reveals the sloped taxiway," he answered.

"Is there room inside the hangar to put one of each of the weapons?"

"No, but hangar nineteen would allow you enough room to be able to move around and disassemble each one," James suggested.

"Good idea. Make sure the power supply and the shielding and cloaking for that hangar is functioning, then bring up two of each."

"Okay. I'll get right on it," James answered as he turned to go.

"James," I called out before he got to the door. When he turned, I asked, "is there any part of the underground system that could be used to keep 100 people prisoner without using prison cells?"

"There's the emergency bunker. It was meant to keep 5000 people alive and completely cut off from the world for three years in case of a nuclear attack," he answered.

"That might work" I said, basically thinking out loud. "Thank you James."

Katie came over while I was thinking about all of the information I'd just received. "Can we talk?" she asked seriously in the way only a woman can. We sat on my thinking couch nervously facing each other. "I love working with you," she began.

"Katie, just tell me what the problem is," I asked.

Wringing her hands and watching them as she did she said quietly "working here with you these few days has me so excited that I want to go back to school. I can't afford it and wondered if you'd loan me the money. I can repay you after I graduate."

Taking an extra half second before replying--making sure my annoyance didn't show--I answered. "Katie, I told everyone the first day that I would pay everyone's expenses if they wanted to go back to school."

"Yeah, but there were only nine of us then. Now there are almost forty and more keep arriving every day. We don't expect you to feed and shelter us and then spend all of the money it would cost to send us to school, too," she protested.

I reached for Katie's hands, taking them in my own. "Katie, if there were a thousand women here I could pay all of the expenses and pay for them all to go to school each month and still not spend what I earn every month in royalties from just one of my patents. I just told Renee's dad to spend $P five billion on medical equipment and supplies and didn't bat an eye. I won't loan you the money for school, but I'll give it to you. All I ask is that you do your best in school and don't let any work here interfere with your grades."

Katie moved over, and straddling me, sat on my lap, hugging me quietly for several minutes. I hugged her back, but was a bit nervous when my erection began pressing against her sex. She didn't say anything so I spent the time silently willing it to go away--to no avail. I almost breathed a sigh of relief when she finally broke the hug and sat up. Before I could take the breath, though, Katie's lips were sealed to mine tighter than the seal on a shuttle door. Her tongue pushed into my mouth, exploring and inviting me to return the favor. I felt her pulling my shirt up and she broke the kiss long enough to pull it over my head. "Katie" I said, stopping her, "You don't have to do this to thank me." She actually laughed at me.

"Silly, I've been a fan of yours for years. I'd have done you anytime, anywhere. I don't need an excuse, just this," she grinned, fingering a green heart-shaped necklace.

She was definitely enthusiastic--and loud. I felt sorry for Bree having to listen to Katie scream out orgasm after orgasm until I joined her, flooding her insides with cum. Katie held on to me, refusing to let me roll off of her. "Please stay. I love the feel of your weight on top of me. It lets me know you're real and not a fantasy this time."

"Oh, and how many times have we done this before?" I teased.

"Hundreds," she admitted, blushing.

"You know where to find me next time you want your fantasy fulfilled," I told her, rolling to her side as my shriveled cock popped out. Katie giggled and moved, taking me into her mouth and slurping our juices from my cock.

"Got to leave you clean for the next girl," she giggled.

We snuggled for a few minutes, silently enjoying the closeness. "I have a question," I said.

"Ooooohhhhh?" she answered sexily.

"How much do you know about shuttle hot fusion drives?" Katie's laugh was beautiful.

"Is this your idea of pillow talk?" she teased.

"No," I replied in a more serious tone, "it's my mind working overtime trying to find ways to protect everyone here. I have a nagging feeling that sooner or later, someone will take exception to what we're doing and try to stop me." That sobered her up quickly. We talked for a while about shuttles. The new engines being built by Nippon Shuttle Works for their new Shadow III shuttle were far superior to anything else. They bought the rights to the designs and plans for the engines that had been built for the UN Navy and then rejected. They modified them for a smaller application in shuttles. Most shuttles were capable of a level one shield. The military used level two shields, which were ten times more powerful than level one. The Shadow III shields were 1.6, still technically a level one, but they were actually six times more powerful than a level one shield.

Unfortunately, for decades, the Nippon shuttles had the reputation as being the worst shuttle built. They were unreliable and broke down frequently. They were commonly known as the 'poor man's shuttle'. This was their attempt to build an upscale model, hoping to regain the reputation their company had enjoyed for over 100 years of making the absolute best shuttle available. Unfortunately, not many people were willing to gamble the kind of money being asked for the new shuttle. With only a few months of production under their belts, people were waiting for the reviews before jumping in. Regrettably, so few were sold that it would be hard to get any real reviews. For now, Lockheed remained king of the hill. We discussed the power supply and Katie assured me it would be fairly simple to swap out the Lockheed supply with a Nippon one in an hour or so.

After that conversation, I called the closest Nippon supplier--in Seattle. My request was unusual enough that he forwarded my call to a Mr. Sugiyama at their main offices in Kyoto. He was impressed that I used Japanese, and that my Japanese was passable, even though my accent and pronunciation obviously let him know English was my primary language. I asked to buy and have delivered ASAP 100 sets of the power supplies, anti-grav plates, and cloaking hardware, and another 500 sets within 24 hours. He was curious what I wanted them for and I told him that I had recently found a cache of pristine antique fossil fuel vehicles and wanted to convert some of them. I could practically hear him salivating at the thought of a pristine fossil fuel vehicle.

"I take it you are a connoisseur of antique vehicles?" I asked. He broke excitedly into English, all pretense aside now as he prattled on and on about his passion. I leaned over to my computer and pulled up a list of the vehicles. "Any chance you'd be interested in a 2137 Nippon 557X?" I asked. I had to hold the phone away from my ear he got so excited.

"Name your price," he practically shouted.

"My price is simply the truth. Between you, me, and the wall, are your new shuttles any good?" I could hear the difference in his voice as he shifted gears from businessman to a man unwilling to dishonor his family name by lying.

He promised that they were the best shuttle available on the market at any price, and as soon as people figured it out, there would be long waiting lists as people tried to get them. He added that everything they manufactured now had been re-designed to be the best on the market.

I told him to add 200 of the two-passenger Shadow III and twenty-five of the ten-passenger Shadow III shuttles to my bill, and I'd have his automobile on a cargo grav sled when they delivered the second order of power supplies. Along with the coordinates for the rooftop I wanted used, I sent a copy of my logo for them to put on the bottom of each shuttle and next to each door.

There were several seconds of silence before he said, "Dr. Miller, I can't express--in any language--just how much your order means to us. I promise you will never regret your decision."

Katie looked surprised when I finished the call. I explained that we would be using the two person shuttles and the power supplies as parts of weapons systems--as soon as I figured out what I wanted to do. I also called Boeing again, and ordered a second medium freighter with twice the compliment of extra cargo sleds as the last one. I asked Katie to do a power supply and engine upgrade to both freighters as soon as she could so we could cloak them thoroughly. Then I got word to James to bring out the 2137 Nippon 557X and the 2136 Nippon Brute pickup truck and have them covered and transported to the rooftop we used as a cargo transfer point.

Katie started getting everything ready to do upgrades on both freighters and on the personal shuttles, starting with mine. By the time I left, they were well on the way to having two new AI matrices built for the two freighters and more for the ten passenger shuttles. I took the new base AI and installed it in tandem with the old one, then started downloading everything into the new one. I also started the neural nutrient flow.

I made several calls to places in town and was soon headed that way with several of the ten passenger shuttles, empty except for me. I returned just before dinner was to be served, laughing as the girls watched a curious parade of 24 female androids carrying large items into two of the front bedrooms of the estate. The second trip was smaller packages and then the androids closed the doors. It was easy to tell that a lot of work was going on behind the closed doors and the women were very curious about what was going on in there. I grinned and told them they'd find out after dinner. Katie pulled me aside and told me that while she and Carl were doing the first upgrade on one of the shuttles, Carl had commented how easy it would be to modify the force field around the fusion chamber and increase the power to it slightly. That would allow us to bombard a Tritium atom with a Tritium nucleus to make Hydrogen-5. The energy released by that reaction would be greater than simply using regular hydrogen atoms like all of the other hot fusion reactors did. There would also be a small amount of additional energy released during the Beta-decay. I was stunned. It was brilliant, and would increase the output of our power sources by an additional fifty percent.

Dinner was pleasant, and I was excited--both by my news and by Carl's discovery. I also noticed several more girls that I didn't recognize. Renee started the ball rolling, introducing everyone, and then announcing that she was definitely pregnant with a boy. She and my wives beamed at the news and the other women spent several minutes congratulating her.

When dinner was just about over, I stood to make my announcements. I told them that I heard today that they were afraid that they were a financial burden to me. I explained, as I had to Katie, that even if there were a thousand women here I could pay all of the expenses and pay for them all to go to school each month and still not spend what I earn every month in royalties from just one my patents. I also told them what I'd told Renee's dad about buying the equipment for the hospital. He verified it, and Renee verified that I was telling the truth about finances. I finished by telling them that I expected every one of them that was even remotely interested in returning to school to let Renee know, and that if at least half of them weren't students next semester, I'd be disappointed.