Chapter 5: The Plans

Ken sat and listened to Amy, and then turned to the others.

"First, I think we need to catch this psychopath before he kills his next victim. We have to do it. Then, we should get the Washington back up into space. After that, we need to recruit a crew," turning back to Amy he added, "I just thought of something. Do you have to be at the asteroid belt for your spider bots to build? And if not, is there a way we can get the spider bots there, quickly?"

"Yes, we could use a shuttle and install a charger in it. That way the bots could recharge when they run low on energy. The shuttle can hold about one hundred of the larger spider bots. We'll boost it from Moon orbit. It will take the shuttle about a week to get to the belt.

"I would think that you all should get all the training you need, and decide what position of command you want. I have recommendations, but it's all up to you."

Ken looked at the group, and back at Amy, "What do you recommend, Amy?"

Amy crossed her long legs, and looked at the four friends almost as if she was reading their minds.

"Ken, I would recommend you for Captain. Jenny, I would recommend you for Science Officer, or Chief Medical Officer. Ted, for you I'd say Chief of Security or a Marine, since in my past you became a police officer." Turning to Tammy she continued and said, "Tammy, for you, I see only one position. Ken is going to need someone to help him. I'd say Executive Officer, is for you."

They all looked at Amy for a few minutes, not speaking, just thinking.

Ken cleared his throat, and took a drink.

"Command? Me? Are you kidding? You think that is wise? I am not very good command material. I don't know how to command."

"You're wrong, Ken. I see command material in you right now as you speak. Anyone else who'd had what has happened to you,, today would have freaked out. Especially after hearing what is supposed to happen to your sister. You have been calm and level headed, and you have asked the right questions.

"You will need to go through the full bio-enhancement, though, so that you have full command authority."

Ken looked worried at her last words.

"Bio-enhancement, what's that?"

"Yes. Full bio-enhancement was developed in 2390. Your body is rebuilt with special nanobots. These bots are left inside your system, permanently. They latch onto your bones, skin, muscles, and internal organs. You become five times as strong, and three times as fast. Your body will be able to withstand a one hundred foot fall with no damage, as long as you do not injure your brain. Your vision will be adjusted to allow you to see infrared and ultraviolet, and your normal vision will be corrected to 20/15. All excess body mass will be removed from your system, and you will be cleaned of all toxins, chemicals, gene defects and diseases. Theoretically, your life span will be increased by a factor of ten, to around a thousand years. In addition, locator and communication chips will be implanted inside your skull. This will allow you to instantly and silently communicate with anyone in the crew, including me. All of these adjustments will take about two weeks to complete."

She walked over to the wall viewer, and activated a schematic of the cavern.

"That is about how long it will take the spider bots to build a tunnel to the canyon wall. The reason it will take so long, is that the tunnel will have to be heavily reinforced, and it will be almost three miles long," she said as she pointed to the tunnel, she planned on building, in the hologram. "For the tunnel exit, I plan on sending the spider bots out at night. They will make a holographic image of where the exit door will be, so that when we break through, we will have an exact model of the landscape.

"Once we lift off, the spiders will make the exterior look exactly like it used to look. I will send the spiders out through a smaller tunnel during the night, to make the image.

"Inside the cavern, after we have left, the bots will fill in the tunnel..."

Ken raised his hand, stopping Amy in her tracks.

"Amy, stop. Don't fill in the tunnel. Let's use it to our advantage. Turn this cave into a launching facility for shuttles and fighters, using the access tunnel built for the exit. The spider bots can protect the entrance. Besides, the entrance will be perfectly disguised. Hard to enter what you cannot see."

Amy nodded and said, "The spider bots can build the Valkyrie class transport shuttles. In addition, they will build simulators, plus living, medical and training facilities. As soon as a load of personnel is ready for transport to the Washington, they can be sent up to the ship."

Ken interrupted her.

"Wouldn't it be better to send them here, I mean to the ship."

Amy sat back down.

"No. What if they don't work out as suitable crewmembers? At least here, we do not have them on the ship causing problems."

"Good point," Ken agreed.

"While down here," Amy continued, "we can have the people see what is going on, with images. We will have the spiders turning this cavern into a shipyard, to build the things we need: fighters, shuttles, and other ships.

"Once we crew the ship, the space docks, and start building other ships; we can have the bots turn this cavern in to a huge fighter base. We could base, say, five hundred fighters and twenty-five shuttles here. If we do this all over the planet, we could station thousands of fighters and shuttles for local defense. Also..."

Ken again raised his hand, stopping her.

"What about stationing some cruisers or destroyers at each base. That would give the Earth a larger navy. While doing that we can take the moons of Mars and Saturn and turn them into giant space docks with battleships, carriers and cruisers stationed there ... along with any ships built for our attack fleet."

Amy looked in surprise at Ken.

"Now you see why I want you as Captain. You know how to think about things like this. If we stationed one cruiser or two destroyers, it is only another two or three hundred additional crew per ship class instead of the fighters. I would use destroyers because we could get away with only fifty bases. With one hundred destroyers patrolling the system, we could set them up in ten divisions of ten each, and use them as hunter killers..." before she continued Ted interrupted her.

Ted had listened to all Amy and Ken were talking about and his mind stepped into one of his favorite games. If it was possible, he knew it would be a great asset.

"Amy, can you design weapons systems, as well as build them? I know you have these bots and stuff, but can you build them bigger, perhaps something like giant robots?"

Amy thought on Ted's requests and replied, "Yes, I can, if we have some plans to go by."

With a grin Ted continued, "Okay here's my idea for ground assault: giant robots controlled by pilots called mech warriors."

Confused, Amy looked at Ted. "Mech warriors? What are those?"

"Yes, Amy, it's one of my favorite computer games. In the game, you can control the mechs. Some weigh up to one hundred tons, and pack a hell of a lot of firepower."

"Ted, I don't think that would help."

"Hear me out, Amy. One thing I have noticed, watching the news, is that our troops are being killed while in normal tanks and armored personnel carriers. Now if they were in command of say, a Raven scout mech ... or, for a ground assault, something like an Atlas class mech of one hundred tons ... how do you think the T'Lari ground troops would feel? Look up the company called F-A-S-A. It made the original board game and Microshit ... errr ... Microsoft put out the computer version."

"Searching ... Yes, I have found the company F-A-S-A. I will relate the information I have, some of which is relevant information you all need. Microsoft bought out F-A-S-A but the rights for Battle Tech went to Wizkids, while Microsoft retained the rights to Mech Warrior. The Wizards of the Coast bought out Wizkids in 2008 and a line of products producing various games like Battle Tech and even the old Traveler game resurfaced in 2008. With slumping sales in games due to the new law passed in Congress that all computer games produced must be G rated, many companies folded or moved overseas. Their games were banned in the US, punishable up to five years in jail for possession of each program."

"In 2012, the law was amended, to censor fantasy games. After a two-year fight, Wizards of the Coast closed their doors. In 2015, Microsoft bought the company for overseas deployment of the games. At the same time, Microsoft took over Boeing, Sun Systems, Mattel, General Motors, Ford, and Dell. This made them the largest commercial corporation in the world."

"In 2018, the American government tried to dismantle the giant company but they fought back, in 2020, Microsoft notified their employees that they would all be laid off because of the government. A general uproar was caused by the more than sixteen million people who were put out of work. The cost to the US Government was billions in fees, and unemployment benefits.

"After one month, Microsoft quickly hired everyone back, and the company went on with its business. But the incident cost that current Democrat government their power base. Both parties lost heavily to grass roots groups set up by Microsoft. Sixty-nine senators and three hundred and ten congressional representatives were dismissed in the 2018 and 2020 elections.

"In 2027 Microsoft owned ninety major companies from oil, to cars, to computers and food stores. In 2030, they bought out Wal-mart, Sears, J.C. Penny's, and Bellsouth also several Aerospace companies were purchased. In 2032, they proved that private corporations should have been involved in the space race. In 2033, they launched their first ground to space shuttle from Boeing's airfield in Washington State. After the launch, they mass-produced what they called their 'Series 2' shuttles, producing over twenty-five hundred of them in ten years."

"Heavy industry was moved to the moon in 2043. Echo 1 through 4 space stations were built and placed into geosynchronous orbit. In 2070, over six million people lived on the stations and on the moon. In 2077, Earth's name was officially changed to Terra, and a world government was set up, after Australia finally joined. By the year 2100, over twenty-six million people lived on the moon, Mars, and the twenty-nine space stations around Terra and Mars. When December 31st 2250 rolled around, the population in the Sol system is twenty-seven billion on Terra, the moons, the habitats and the two hundred spaces stations. Eighty percent of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter was gone, destroyed by the processing plants on the moon and Mars."

"In 2312, an engineer developed a new engine. He called it a 'fold gate'. It allowed ships to jump from one system to another, which is when the colonization began. By 2450 Terra has colonies on two hundred planets. The smallest was just over 500,000 people. In 2255, the Terran Federation is signed into law. Every colony in the system is granted a seat in the government. These rights are eventually granted to each planet, no matter its size or population. As they are settled, they are allowed two representatives."

All four sit there in stunned silence, listening to Amy as she explained their future history.

Ted whistled and said, "Holy crap! The human race built an empire."

Jen looked at Ken then back at Amy.

"Let's just think about now. We cannot be gone for two weeks. Our car will be stolen or vandalized, and our parents will worry about us." Looking at the others, she continued, "Even though I think this would be a grand adventure and everything, we still have responsibilities. Even if I was to die in three months, and my brother today, not saying I would want that..."

"Jen, don't worry, I have a plan. Your car can be brought down here. It would take about fourteen hours to make a small tunnel to the surface, suitable for a vehicle. We can use the spiders to create minimum necessary reinforcement of the tunnel. Then you drive the car down here. As to your parents, if there are phone lines nearby, I can tap phone lines with no problems. You could call your parents and say you plan on doing something before coming home."

Ken interrupted Amy.

"That would be a good idea, but we should go out the way we came in. That way, if anyone saw us come in through the caves they would see us come out of them, also. Once out we call our parents. We tell them we are going camping in the Canyon, and that we will be out of touch for two or three weeks. The reason we give for being out of touch, is that cell phones do not always work at the bottom of the Canyon. Then we drive to wherever you bring the tunnel out, and drive down the ramp. We then go through whatever training you think we will need."

Ken stopped and looked at Amy, "Would that work, Amy?"

Amy listened to Ken intensely as he spoke, "Yes, that would work, and it would cover your disappearance."

Jen listened to her brother and Amy talk about what they planned on doing. She got up and walked to the door.

"I need to think on this," she said, and walked out into the hallway.

Ken started to get up when Tammy stopped him.

"Let me handle this, Ken, I will find out what's wrong,"

She walked out the door, and looked for Jen. She saw her sitting down, about thirty feet away; she walked over and sat next to her.

"Hey, Jen, what's wrong?"

Jen looked up at Tammy, the tears running down her face.

"Honey what's wrong? Tell me, I am your best friend! You know that," Tammy sat and pulled her best friend onto her lap and held her.

Jen sniffed, and wiped her eyes.

"I am sorry, Tammy, its just so overwhelming. You are all taking it in stride. Tam, I'm scared! She wants us to commit genocide. That's not something Americans do! That is what World War Two was supposed to stop. I know small wars are happening all around the world, but the human race goes on. She is talking about destroying an entire species. I just can't see us doing that, or being part of it. It's WRONG!"

Jen burst into tears, and buried her face into Tammy's shoulder.

Tammy held her as she cried her heart out.

"Jen, I know how you feel. But Amy has more information about them than we have. She has been fighting them for a long time. She lost her whole crew to them. She watched as human civilization was destroyed by them. I think she has a better perspective of them, but I do not think that is what is really bothering you. I think it is because you're supposed to die, in her timeline. I think that's what is bothering you."

Jen nodded her head.

"I am scared! What if we don't get that murderer and he gets me or you, or even my mom? I don't know what I would do if he got you or mom."

Tammy thought for a second and then replied to her best friend's worries, "I think we can handle him, Jen."

She reached up and brushed the tears off Tammy's face. She gave her a kiss on her lips, and continued.

"It will be four against one ... five if we stop him when he is trying to grab his next victim. He will pay for his crimes, Sweetie, this I promise you."

Amy materialized in the hallway, and looked down at the two young girls.

"I also promise you both that he will be stopped!"

Amy knelt by Jenny's side and put her holographic hand on Jenny's shoulder.

Jen looked up and saw Amy kneeling there beside her. Her brown hair cascaded down her left shoulder. Sniffling she wiped her nose.