Chapter 6: The Battleship

“I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here.”

― Arthur C. Clarke

Jason looked at Stan as Lauren introduced him. He was tall, at least 193 cm (six feet four), with a ruddy complexion. Stan’s hair was an odd brown-green mixture and was smoothed down as if he had used a hair cream. His face was ordinary; he wouldn’t be noticed in a crowd. His suit was ill-fitting, with an odd pattern. He shook Jason’s hand awkwardly, varying his pressure and persisting for so long that Jason withdrew his hand.

“I’m honored to meet you, Lord Kargo. I’m sorry to hear about your wife and your recent catastrophes. I’m horrified to hear your police incarcerated you, then thugs beat you up! You still bear the marks of that vicious beating.”

Stan peered closely at Jason, then frowned.

“I hope you can walk to the nearby park. I’ve parked the shuttle, cloaked, in the park. I’ve brought an AG belt ... uh, an antigravity belt ... it will make walking easy for you. If necessary, we will tow you behind us,” said Stan in a raspy voice.

“Stan, can we talk about your proposal before we do anything?”

“Lord Kargo, first, I propose we take you to our ship. Lauren explained to me that you could barely walk twenty paces. The antigravity belt will lift you off the ground. We will tow you to the shuttle. It will not strain you. On the ship, I will take you to our hospital. We are sixty-five thousand years ahead of Earth. The doctors assure me they can improve your quality of life and hasten your recovery,” said Stan.

“I am an old man. I don’t see myself being able to help anyone. I can barely help myself,” said Jason. “My son, daughter, and their families could help you more than I could. I may die before we reach the Empire.”

“I understand how you feel. In your place, I would express similar views. The Empress insisted I show you the ship. She added that she wanted the Empire to compensate your family when you came with us. She insisted you enjoy the benefits of what we can do for you while we are here, regardless of your ultimate decision.”

Stan paused. “Emperor Cassius asked us to take a load of foodstuffs from Earth. The Empress instructed me to tell you she encourages you to go back with us, but you are not under any obligation to do so. In the Empire, you are an archduke. Your family is wealthy, and your great-grandfather runs the family planets, estates, and companies. The Empress believes he is in a desperate situation, but the constitution constrains her ability to intervene. It must be you, a family member, who acts. Let us discuss this further once you have seen the ship and had treatment.”

“Grandpa, please come with us. I’ll pull you along,” said Chuck.

“Yes, Grandpa, I also want you to come. Maybe they can help you live to a hundred. You must also think about helping your poor old grandpa. He must need help badly if they sent a ship to get you. Then you can return and take us to ride horses on the estate. I am sure the ship doctors will give me a great pump, and I won’t have to go to the hospital so often.”

Jason looked at the children and nodded.

Stan asked Jason to stand and helped fit the gravity belt. He unrolled a pair of cables with handles from the belt and gave one handle to Chuck and the other to Chloe.

“I hope this will help; I can hardly walk more than a few paces before I am winded,” said Jason as he adjusted the belt. Jason felt feather-light, “Stan, please lead the way. Dan, can you pull me if the children struggle?”

Chuck and Chloe pulled Jason and followed Stan to the park next door.

“It’s simple, Grandpa. Once we get going, it’s easy-peasy,” said Chuck, beaming. “I am so pleased you are coming with us, Grandpa. I also hope they can help you at the hospital.”

“Where is the shuttle?” Chloe asked.

A ramp and a circular doorway appeared out of nowhere. It looked like a portal, fuzzy and smokey around the edges.

Pretty impressive cloaking! I can’t see the shuttle. I wonder how they do it.

Stan led them up the ramp, Dan pushing Jason.

The luxurious shuttle seated twenty people. The shuttle was elegant, with padded walls in a soft dark blue fluffy material and wide body-hugging chairs in light blue leather. While they waited to take off, Jason looked unsuccessfully for a seatbelt as he switched off his antigravity belt—a giant hologram formed in front of the seats. After ten minutes, they were beyond the moon. There was no sensation of movement nor any sound. The image on the hologram briefly blurred, then firmed once more.

Fifteen minutes later, Jupiter’s edge nudged into the far left of the hologram. They headed towards a blunt, enormous, wedge-shaped object suspended in space behind the planet.

“Awesome!” Chuck shouted excitedly as he hopped from one foot to another, looking intently at the hologram. “Wow, Grandpa, look at that! It looks much bigger than a skyscraper! It’s ginormously huge!” As they drew closer, it looked even more enormous. It could fit fifty block-sized buildings within it. It was as big as a building built on the site of an entire city block, ten kilometers tall. No, it was much bigger! As they got closer, it looked even more enormous. It was narrower in the front than the rear. The rear was an easy sixteen city blocks wide but could be thirty city blocks wide.

A few moments later, they swept through an iris and stopped in a massive hangar facing five hundred-meter-high double doors. The dim, gloomy hangar had thousands of stacked boxes with multicolored lights that pulsed in the gloom. The secondary hangar gates in front of them ponderously opened, permitting the shuttle to move forward. Stan finally stopped the shuttle in a cavernous bay. The shuttle settled on the deck. Four passenger liners could fit through the iris simultaneously, and at least two through the double gates.

Stan joined the family and led them out of the shuttle. The iris closed in the distance. The gates closed behind them, producing a loud ‘thunk’ and vibrations through the floor. The bay was substantially more extensive than the space shuttle hangars in Florida. It smelled of grease, metal, and chemicals.

Chuck pointed, “Look at those things, Grandpa. They look excellent for fighting bugs. I hope they can give us one for home. Dad, could we park it on the lawn?”

“Stan, what are those?” Chloe asked.

“This ship is a battleship. The ship carries Marines who assault planets. Those small ships are shuttles, tanks, and gunships. The biggest ones are gunships,” Stan explained. “We deploy the gunships to transport troops and tanks to the surface. We also carry fighters.”

There were thousands of shuttles, tanks, and gunships, with indentations displaying weapons or stick-like projections. There were fifty levels of shelves. When Jason looked back at the shuttle, it was ten times larger than a bus. It could carry at least a hundred and fifty people. The family looked open-mouthed around the bay.

“This is the smallest of our ten similar hangars on this side of the ship,” Stan added. “We have the same on the other side and a colossal hangar in the belly of the ship.”

Lauren leaned down, smiling, “Chuck, if we have time, you and Dad could borrow a tape measure and measure one of the smaller shuttles. See if you can find one that hides like the one in the park; you might find it useful. If it’s compact enough, we can ask if we can get another one for Chloe. I’m sure you guys would find a shuttle useful; it might save us a few minutes if the traffic is all backed up.”

Chuck grinned broadly as if all his Christmases and birthdays had come together. Chloe beamed.

Jason looked around at the size and scope of everything. There was not a person to be seen. He could barely imagine a giant hangar if this was small.

“Grandpa, this is outstanding. I can’t believe it,” Chloe said and turned to Lauren. “Mum, I’d like a shuttle for home. I’d let you use it for shopping.”

Chloe was wide-eyed, hopping as did Chuck from one foot to the other, then skipping ahead, looking up at the shuttles near the top of the racks.

“My Lord Kargo, engineering could make two small crafts for the children that could fit in the back garden. We can construct a much more substantial hangar beneath the garden.” Stan helpfully suggested to an open-mouthed Lauren, Dan, and the children. “For shopping, I propose you look at a bigger one, like the shuttle we used today. Then your friends could accompany you. You could travel to the Empire. We could convert it to a different configuration more suited for longer distances. We could change the interior to add two or three bedrooms, and I would also recommend a bigger kitchen. The galley is too cramped.”

Jason smiled.

A multi-seat driverless open vehicle floated towards them.

“I will take you to the medical center and hospital.”

Stan seated them effortlessly, lifting Jason onto his seat, and transported the family at high speed along kilometers of corridors to the hospital.

“No one was driving, Grandpa. Did you see that? It went so fast,” exclaimed Chuck. “If they can’t fix you, and you are still an old crock, you could get around in one of those belt thingies and use one of these transport goodies. It goes faster than your car.”

“It’s a great idea, Chuck; the belt is useful, but I would hate to give up driving.”

The driverless vehicle lifted off the ground silently floated out of the hospital and sped out of view.

The medical center was vast. There were matte-white cigar-like containers on platforms extending far into the distance and comfortable seats sprinkled in clusters near each container.

Stan introduced the family to the doctor, a gorgeous woman in her mid-thirties.

Stan excused himself, saying he had other matters requiring his attention, but would return when Jason completed his treatment.

The doctor took over and ushered the family towards one of the cigar-like receptacles.

“I would like to welcome you to the ship and its facilities. We will give your family the advanced treatment the Empire can deliver. I am sure you all will benefit.”

The doctor turned to Jason, “Stan tells me that you’ve been ill, Jason, and recently beaten up. Someone did a brutal job on you. Your bruises are vivid and impressive. If you want to enter the medical pod, it will evaluate and treat your injuries. We can make a difference to your health and quality of life.”

“Doctor, are there any side effects we should worry about?” Lauren asked. “My father is eighty and is an old man. It is not my intention to make him worse.”

“We will go through the diagnostic process, and then we can then discuss any concerns you may have and answer questions. In simple and routine cases, you will probably be in the pod for three to five minutes. Yet, it can be longer for more complex illnesses, severe injuries, and long-established physical problems. You will feel no pain or discomfort, but the pod will talk to you,” said the doctor. “The pod has a sentient AI connected to an AI that manages this hospital and consults on the more complex cases. We have twenty hospitals on the ship. This ship is a battleship. We can treat fifty-thousand serious casualties per day. Cruisers, Battleships, and Carriers provide sophisticated medical facilities.”

“Please start with my father. I want to wait to hear what you find and propose doing,” said Lauren. “We are not familiar with what the Empire can do.”

The doctor adjusted the antigravity belt and took Jason’s hand as he floated up to enter the pod. He was light-headed as he bent to climb into the pod. Even his hair hurt.

“Please lie down and prepare for treatment,” said the pod AI.

I will do everything you say, prissy, missy, and oh so bossy!

Jason lay back as the pod closed.

It’s cozy and comfortable!

“Welcome to the advanced medical facilities of the Empire. These superior facilities can diagnose and treat nearly all known medical problems,” said a disembodied voice arrogantly, talking like a mother to a recalcitrant child.

“I am engaging my diagnostic module.” There was a loud ping and a count-down from twenty to zero. “I have completed my evaluation. You have many severe and life-threatening medical conditions and injuries. I estimate you will spend seven hours in the medical treatment module. I informed the doctor and your family. May I proceed with treatment?”

“Yes, please go ahead,” said Jason.

There were several clicks. The pod smelled of mint and turpentine.

“Your treatment will commence in twenty seconds. I received ratification for my proposed treatment from the hospital AI. You will fall asleep. While asleep, we will teach you Empire Standard and provide you with an overview of the history of the Empire.”

“Seven and a half hours later, Jason woke.

“I have completed your treatment; you are on the way to full recovery; please exit the pod expeditiously. You are honored to be a recipient of the superior medical technology of the Empire.”

A gong resounded.

“We thank Emperor Cassius, our Emperor, and his Empress Alana, who made this treatment possible and gave us this responsibility.”

The gong intoned twice more.

“We did base-level gene optimization on your body and rectified forty-seven incipient conditions.”

There were two loud gongs.

“Welcome to the Empire, Archduke Kargo. Identification complete.”

“You may make any complaints or suggestions about my service to the doctor. Please provide a rating of the service within 24 hours. Exit the pod expeditiously; we must make ourselves available to the next person.”

A series of gongs repeated themselves with a sense of urgency.

What a cow!

The top split open. Jason sat up and climbed out carefully and cautiously. From his elevated position, he saw thousands of pods extending into the distance but could not see the end of the facility. The hospital was empty except for his family. Lauren looked tense and anxious. Chloe was grinning, as were Chuck and Dan.

Lauren asked, “How was it?”

“I climbed in; it was comfortable. The pod arrogantly said it could diagnose and treat nearly all medical problems, then diagnosing, then treating; I fell asleep, and when I woke, it told me that it had fixed all kinds of problems. It told me unceremoniously to get out, as it needed to be available to eligible personnel. Great job, I hope, but the worst bedside manner I’ve ever encountered, even worse than the cardiologist at the hospital.”

The doctor approached from a nearby doorway, cheerfully whistling.

“Jason, we did extensive work on you. We removed early myeloma, cured your subclinical soon-to-manifest type II diabetes, fixed your neck, repaired your facial bones and skull, and switched off your pollen allergy. You will no longer face chronic sinusitis and arthritis.”

“Why didn’t our doctors pick up the myeloma?” Jason asked.

“As we improved medical diagnosis, we learned how to pick up disorders earlier and earlier,” said the doctor. “We straightened your crooked and broken arm and repaired the cartilage in your knees. We repaired your three-thoracic spinal compression fractures, sixteen vertebral disks, ribs, and face. We replaced your eye lenses, resolving your short-sightedness and cataracts. Your hearing is back to normal. We straightened and whitened your teeth. We gave you seven new teeth to replace the prostheses in your mouth. Your hair will return and be its normal color. In three months, you will look and feel as you did in your twenties.”

“Thank you, doctor; you impressed me. You did a lot,” said Jason, smiling.

“That is not all; I was taking a breath! We removed ten kilograms of fat and repaired your heart. We reconditioned your organs and muscles and removed the extraneous matter from your brain and throughout your body. Furthermore, we removed your gene-based risk factors for disease.”

“It will take four months before you look twenty. You won’t recognize yourself. We’ll check your progress weekly while you are onboard. We did extensive work on your heart, but we’ll grow you another if the result is unsatisfactory. It takes a week to grow, but you will require extensive rehabilitation. We removed your damaged tissue and gave you new cardiac tissue.”

“Why does a new heart require so much rehabilitation?” Lauren asked.

“We grow the heart from a cardiac cell that we regress to a stem cell. The new heart, when it forms, has never taken a load. You must adapt to the organ, and the organ must adapt to its work. Rehabilitation is not for the faint-hearted.”

The doctor smiled. “I will grow a new one for you and store it.”

“Do I need rehabilitation?” Jason asked.

“If you want the best result, you must exercise daily. We reconditioned your heart and your muscles, but you must exercise them. You walk every day for an hour a week, then start at the gym. I will create a program for you. If you push yourself, you will return to your previous best level of function in six months.”

“How long do people live in the Empire?” Lauren asked.

“In the Empire, you can live forever, barring accident or misadventure. The oldest people in the Empire are sixty-three thousand years old. If anyone deteriorates, we put them back in the pods. You go for a yearly checkup.”

Lauren raised her eyebrows. Chuck and Chloe stood wide-eyed. Dan smiled.

“I will put Jason into a rehabilitation pod for half an hour. I suggest that now you are rested and you can see that Jason is alive and improved, you permit us to arrange your pod therapy. There’s no reason not to. Your first medical session is a big job, so it’ll take fifteen to twenty minutes,” she said, leading each to a different pod.

She put them inside before returning to chat with Jason while in the pod. “The family was desperately worried about you and wanted to wait to see what we did for you. While waiting, they went on a tour, had a meal, and rested.”

“When do we see Stan?”

“You will see Stan in an hour and a half.”

“Doctor, what is the myeloma that was fixed?”

“It’s a blood cancer in the earliest stages of evolution. The pod corrected your immune system’s strategic deficit. You will identify all known cancers in the future and destroy them before they can establish themselves and start to grow. As you aged, your immune system efficiency declined.”

“Do you use nanobots?”

“Yes, we gave you an artificial immune system that compliments what you have.”

“How does the pod do so much?” Asked Jason.

“We build our medical machines to make use of transporter technology. It revolutionized everything we do and have done. We do surgery without opening you up.”

“How hard was it to do what you did for me?” Jason asked.

“Jason, the AI performs the intricate work required rapidly and effectively. The hardest part is removing substances that impair your brain function. Intracellular work can be harder than gene, cellular, or extracellular work. The work in your brain was inside cells. Our technology is sixty-five thousand years ahead of yours. Your planet will discover much of what we did for you in the following few thousand years. The work on DNA will take a bit longer. DNA work depends on our advances in medical technology, but our AI advances were equally important.”

“I have no more questions, doctor.”

“Your rehabilitation sequence is commencing,” said the medical AI.

Jason felt tingling throughout his body.

“I understand you will be joining us, and you are the person we came to fetch. We know your family well in the Empire. Your great-grandfather was one of Emperor Cassius’s kings. He has a special relationship with us AIs. I am looking at your genes in more detail. You have top-level royal genes. The Emperor is your great uncle,” said the doctor.

The doctor continued chatting with Jason, but he tuned out and fell asleep.

Jason left the pod half an hour later. Soon after he left the pod, his family joined him.

I feel like I have run a marathon. This medicine is incredible. I wonder what they could do for Chloe?

The doctor loaded them onto another floating transport. It stopped adjacent to the bridge.

They met with Stan in an opulent boardroom. The interior decorator created an impressive space, with beautiful abstract art on the walls and comfortable chairs resembling the furniture and art found in many of the wealthiest companies Jason and Lauren had worked with. Two people dressed as waiters pushed a trolley with food and drink to the table, then unloaded the trolley onto the table and silently left the room. Jason saw that Chloe was bursting to talk but didn’t want to do so in front of the waitstaff. She waited until they left.

“Grandpa,” said Chloe, “that stuffy pod AI woman told me that she fixed my diabetes! She said she put some slow-acting insulin into me while my pancreas recovered. She said I wouldn’t need insulin injections after a week, but she said she must check me every week for the next few weeks. Not only that, but she also said that she had optimized my genes, prevented me from getting many sicknesses, switched off my nasty immune reaction to my insulin cells, and gave me a nanobot immune system. She then gave me new insulin cells, which she grew inside me. They will start working tonight, and I should be fine in a week.”