Chapter 19: Discovery and Exploration

Once everyone was seated at 2:00 PM GST, Simon, Blaze and SheGuard strode onto the podium. The members of the ISS had been cleared of any health issues and had been instructed to seat themselves off to the left side of the podium. Alexi, and the other members of the ISS crew were staring in awe at all of their surroundings, especially Simon and the two ladies with him, since they all got the impression that those three were ‘in charge’ here.

It did not escape anyone’s attention that the ladies were all visually stunning as well. Alexi thought, but wasn’t sure, that he recognized a few of the other faces around the room. A lot of his crew were certain that they recognized a few of the guests. The members of three governments of Earth; The United States, Canada and The United Kingdom, were seated in a section to Simon’s right, so they were able to see the ISS crew, as well as everyone else in the hall. There were a few new faces all around.

Eddie Sanders had brought his personal secretary and two others, as well as the usual two personnel that always accompanied him.

Simon had asked SheGuard to make an appearance here in Android form so that he would formally introduce her to everyone as well. She and Blaze were to either side of Simon and made for an interesting trio. SheGuard had dressed herself in the usual AI outfit, but her AI trademark, her hair, was stunning. It was basically jet black and long with multiple colors that reflected the light. It almost seemed to be alive. She was almost the same height as Blaze and collectively the three of them silenced the crowd by their very appearance.

SBM Security had positioned themselves discretely around the room so as not to be too obvious, but had been instructed to keep an eye on the members of the ISS since they had not as yet been formally cleared.

Simon began his address to the assembled crew and guests. “Ladies and gentlemen, friends and guests. For those of you who are new here, I am Simon Gordon, Captain of the Blazing Star, this lady to my left is Blaze and this lady to my right is SheGuard. For those of you who are not familiar with Blaze, she is the AI that controls my flagship Blazing Star. Similarly, SheGuard is the AI that controls this entire base, Star Base Moon.”

He continued, “A certain emergency has made it necessary to change the format of this meeting somewhat. We will address a new and immediate situation and once that is complete, we will begin the planned portion of this meeting. As most of you are aware, an emergency onboard the International Space Station orbiting Earth occurred several hours ago. Serious chemical and atmospheric leaks from some meteorite or space debris punctures all but doomed the crew of that station. I am happy to report that all members of its crew have been successfully rescued by Blazing Star and are here with us at this moment in the section to my left. I am certain that Alexi, over there, the commander of the ISS, is more than a little surprised and possibly concerned at his present situation.”

As Simon noted the slight nod from Alexi, he addressed him directly. “Alexi, you and all members of the ISS have nothing to fear from us. It is time you learned of who we are and what we represent. We have rescued you not only because we could, but because we are, like you, all from Earth and we are a compassionate people. As you may be aware, we are no longer on the planet Earth. In fact we are deep under the surface of the moon in a base we call ‘Star Base Moon’.”

He continued, “When we heard of your misfortune, we were travelling between the earth and the moon, so we were able to respond to your emergency in a timely fashion. That was indeed most fortunate for you, but has become a very big problem for us. Up until this point, only a few people of Earth knew of our existence and they are mostly here now! You must surely have recognized some of the people across the room from you. If not, let me introduce them to you.”

Simon introduced the President of the United States and his group, then the Prime Minister of Canada and his group, and then finally the Prime Minister of The United Kingdom and his people, each rising and nodding to the ISS crew and the attendees as they were introduced.

Simon spoke, “This rescue, although timely, means that we all will now have to decide what to do with you, the crew of the ISS. Since you now know a great deal about us, we have a limited number of options. We are going to allow you to help us decide what happens from this moment forward. The questions foremost in our minds are: can we simply put you back on a repaired ISS and re-deploy the ISS back in it’s previous orbit, should we decide that the ISS mysteriously ‘disappears’ with all crew or should we actually come clean with the world and announce what really happened? In helping us to make a decision on this important matter, you all must realize that the earth may not be ready for this! Depending on what we do, there may be vast ripples all around the world. Word about something strange going on has already spread around the world and a number of governments have been most insistent on receiving answers to their questions.”

He continued, “Now, we have talked over a number of scenarios and I feel we have a pretty good understanding of the problems associated with each, but I would like to hear from members of the ISS before deciding on the actions to be taken.”

Simon looked directly at Alexi when he said “Alexi, the technology on this base and onboard Blazing Star is so far above anything on Earth that we really have no fear of any one or group on Earth causing us any harm. The problem is that they may cause themselves or others harm in attempting to acquire some of our technology! Worse still, they may cause you harm in trying to discover some of our knowledge. That is our greatest fear. The people here are all well aware of the sacrifices they must make daily to ensure their knowledge does not fall into the wrong hands. We have taken considerable precautions, but somehow, I feel, it can never be enough. Their lives and others around them are in constant danger. It is commendable that they understand the dangers, the risks and have still maintained the secrecy until now. If you feel that a solution involves returning you to Earth, be aware that your lives will never be the same. Governments will find out and some may not be as understanding of our need for secrecy as those represented here today! Everyone in this room except, the crew of the ISS, have pledged their lives to Star Force Galactic. That is what we call ourselves and we are just beginning our history.”

For the moment Simon ignored the presence of the single alien sitting in the middle of the front row, a certain Daandrusian Commodore.

Alexi stood shakily, looked around the room at the members of SFG, then the members of his crew and asked a simple question. “Do we really have the option of choosing our fate or are you just playing with us?”

Simon replied, “You need to decide what you would like to happen and we will decide if it is feasible and to what extent we can do it. Understand, that we all wish no harm to come to you or us as a result of any decision.”

Alexi said, “I cannot speak for the rest of my crew, but I believe I understand what you are saying. Any government would love to have all this technology exclusively for themselves, some would likely do anything. There would be wars. The Earth would be the loser. I have not even seen much of this technology of which you speak, but I am very interested in it personally. I am a Cosmonaut and yet, now it seems, that everything we have risked our lives for in space was unnecessary. You were already here and so far ahead of us. I am almost ashamed to have wasted so much time doing unnecessary research. If there is any possible way that I or we could become a part of this ‘Star Force Galactic’, as you call it, I would welcome the opportunity! As for my government, I cannot speak.”

The rest of the crew all listened intently to Alexi`s speech and all, to a man or woman, nodded their agreement.

[Blaze, do you sense any deception from any of the ISS team?]

(No Captain. You should be aware that they all scored very highly on the Daandrusian compatibility index.)

Simon continued. “You must be aware that it may mean that you might never set foot on the Earth again or we may have need of your skills on the Earth. If you have families there, we are prepared to include them in our decision. Although we have very few families here in this base at present, we do understand and respect the concept.”

“If you agree to join us, we will have to handle the various governments and families on an individual basis. It may involve some time and effort. That would have to be factored into our future plans. If you do not wish to join us, you will not be harmed in any way and we would find a way to return you to your country as soon as possible. Let us see what the consensus is. If there is anyone on the ISS crew that does NOT wish to join us, please raise a hand.” said Simon.

When no one on the ISS crew made any attempt to raise a hand, it was, therefore, decided by unanimous decision that they all wished to join Star Force Galactic. The only question remaining was how all the various loose ends could be tidied up with as little difficulty as possible. Simon assumed quite correctly that some of them had families and would wish to have them with them as well. He would have to discuss all their concerns individually as soon as time permitted.

“Okay, it seems we have some additional personnel.” said Simon. “Now let’s continue with our meeting and include the new members in it. They may be a bit confused for a while, but I am sure they will all get a handle on things very shortly!”

“Next on the agenda is an update on the construction projects going on around here. I have asked SheGuard to give us a brief report on the status of all projects.” said Simon. “SheGuard, please!”

SheGuard stepped forward on the podium and addressed the people gathered there. “Status report on all projects follows: Maintenance and repair report that there are no active requirements. All ships in base are fully repaired. All base functions are fully completed, including weapons and shields. Weapons are untested, however, all diagnostics indicate 100% readiness. There are four ships in the construction bays at 98% completion. Two Destroyers will be ready to launch in two days. Two Battle Cruisers will be ready to launch in five days. Several new small ship prototypes, Corvettes and Harvesters, have been started and are just completing their design phases. Simon has asked for a space capable repair droid and we are working on preliminary designs for that. One very large ship, a Battle Carrier, is still in design and feasability study stage!

At the completion of that report, Simon stepped back to the front of the podium again and spoke. “I am very impressed with the efforts of everyone here to bring all these projects to the current state. I know a lot of effort has gone into many of the enhancements and upgrades that we will see when they are launched. I thank all of you. A number of problems still remain, however. The principal one is simply crew requirements. Although AI’s could control most of the functionality of these ships, it would be too much of a strain on their resources. We still need more people, so we must step up the recruitment programs a notch or two. Possibly, our new members here, could provide insight and assistance in that endeavor. Certainly, we will have to investigate the opportunities of communications with at least three additional foreign governments.”

Simon continued. “Before those new ships launch, I will be announcing the crew for each ship. I will want to talk to a large number of people to put all the people into the right places. The AI’s have not yet been installed in those ships and that will be the final step before launch. We have created several base AI’s but these will be the first ship AI’s. When these four ships are fully operational, we will begin to explore outside our system. We will retain several ships in this system in case of an unprovoked attack here, but we will start to seek out allies in other systems. A new chapter in our history is about to begin and we will all be a part of it.”

“Now, the exciting part! For those of you who have heard the rumors and announcements about a visit from the Daandrusians, I can confirm that, yes, they have visited us here and we are becoming allies. We are still on our own for the most part, however, They have loaned us a Destroyer class ship and crew until we can formalize the alliance. The Captain of that ship, Commodore Irena Sloughty, is here with us today as well and I would like to introduce her to you! Commodore, please come forward.” said Simon.

Commodore Irena Sloughty, who had been seated in the front of the main audience seating, surrounded by the majority of Blazing Star’s officers, arose and walked to the podium. Her appearance caused a hush all around the hall. She was certainly a very dignified and self assured person and it showed in the way she carried herself. Added to that was the unmistakable Daandrusian female beauty that left most males in the audience feeling somewhat flushed.

Simon spoke again, “Commodore Sloughty is here to assist us wherever and whenever possible. Her ship, the Daandrusian Destroyer Tallus, currently will help defend the Sol system in case of any aggression towards us. I am assured that she is eminently qualified in that regard. Please give her all possible co-operation. Thank you Commodore.”

Commodore Sloughty returned to her seat and sat down as Simon once again addressed the gathered assembly. “We have come a long way in the last year or so. We started with one badly damaged ship and no crew, and now are within days of having five ships in the fleet. We have two bases and are considering a third location. Our personnel and crew ranks are increasing daily and will continue to increase. We shall probably now consider adding Japanese, Australians and Russians to the ranks and possibly any others we can safely extract. I believe that we now need to expand our bases to include more families and we will need residences to accommodate them, so some restructuring will likely happen around the bases over the next few months. Once our first four new ships are battle ready, we will start exploring the stars out there. This is the beginning of a new age for the Sol system, the age of Stellar Exploration.”

Simon, in turn introduced the heads of all the departments and asked them to give a status update to everyone gathered here. It was noted that the apparent wealth of Star Force Galactic had screamed past the billions mark and was zeroing in on the trillions. It was helpful that they did not have to pay most government taxes. They, however, compensated for that by assisting in reducing government expenses and stimulating the local economies.

Not too surprisingly, significant savings were being made in the health care systems and health insurance systems as a large number of citizens of Canada, the USA and The United Kingdom were leaving their providing system in favor of jobs with Star Force Galactic and excellent health. Utilizing the experience and knowledge of the elderly was a huge win win situation for all as well. Fortunately, some of these people were very familiar with managing bureaucracies and large businesses so became valued members. Their loyalties were almost guaranteed, as SFG gave them their health back accompanied by a long potential future life. It was working out quite well, so Simon could concentrate on the more military aspects of Star Force Galactic.

Simon was realizing that running an enterprise of the magnitude of Star Force Galactic was simply too big for just one man, even if it was the one man with Blazing Star by his side. Delegation was the critical component of making it all work properly. He had to have the right people in the right places to do the job. He had been fortunate to find very good people so far and hoped his good luck would continue. Good people could also recommend, locate and train other good people, so this ‘referral’ concept was also employed to get those additional personnel as necessary. Even people who did not have the expertise at a particular job were ready and willing to be trainable, especially with the help of the Daandrusian teaching technology. Simon still had some concerns over its use so restricted the training procedures to Medical and limited the amount of training procedures implanted into the human brain. Blaze had suggested that there was some historical records of potential damage if the training protocols were not followed closely and Simon did not wish to have to deal with that!