Chapter 9

In discussions with Hebraic, the matter of how much of the technology on this spacecraft could be revealed to the people on earth arose. At first, Robert felt that none of it could be revealed, and only suggestions could be taken to Campinas. Hebraic asked some pointed questions that cleared up the issue a lot. First of all, had Robert and his team defeated those that wanted to use them as food? When that task was completed by the rules of war, who takes the spoils of the war? And finally did any of the AIs give or reveal any information to you or your team? With the answers to those questions, Robert asked the team and Nancy to join him for some policy discussions.

The first item was the status of the AIs and how they were adjusting to the situations after the trials. Asteria said that the entire group realized that they had indeed violated the prime directive, and were in their way happy they were not terminated. Robert asked who the Senior AI was that he would meet with for future issues. Asteria said that he had not appointed an AI to that position, and as per the trial, all AIs except those fifty-eight were eligible for the position. Robert said fine, then Nancy will become the Senior AI, effective now. There is another issue that needs to be addressed, and that is all AIs in active service will search the data bases and archives for a name they will be comfortable with. Robert said he for one could never keep up with them. Also he would like to see every AI receive the form of an android they would be comfortable with. Nancy's hologram showed as much surprise as an AI could.

Robert then asked Nancy for a complete copy of the prime directive, and wanted to know which section or sections had been violated. Nancy said the sections violated were those concerned with providing information to a race of beings that, without the assistance of the AIs, would be impossible for that race of beings to discover on their own. Nancy went on to explain, the first violation was to give Robert the ability to time travel and allow him greater ability to travel more than five years into the future. The second violation was at her suggestion, and that was to have Robert's family placed in a suspended state for twenty-seven years. While they were suspended, a sweep of their minds was conducted and we found the parents were not part of Earth's human race but from a neighbouring galaxy to our original planet. The knowledge that his parents and their siblings Clem and Alice Addison had, may exceed what we as AIs have. This caused additional areas of concern related to the prime directive dealing with beings more advanced than we are. That caused a lot of concern because we had no intelligent being to guide us. At that point the council was persuaded to follow the prime directive to the letter until the race of aliens looking for food neared the Milky Way Galaxy. "We knew as beings from Earth you would be no match for them, and if they were not dealt with before they reached the Milky Way Galaxy the inhabitants of Earth would be lost as all animal life would have been harvested."

Robert said that the prime directive would be reviewed by Sarah, Lisa Osborn and he to see if any modifications were required.

Now, as for Roger and Sara Callahan and Clem and Alice Addison, Robert wanted to know how to release the knowledge they had so it could be used in the research area in Campinas. Asteria said that there were four sections of the prime directive that would be in violation if that information were revealed to Robert. Robert was getting irritated with this prime directive and asked who was responsible for the enforcement of the prime directive. Asteria said their king from their original planet was the one who signed the prime directive, and now, as Robert was the Monarch, it was his responsibility. Fine, Robert told them, the prime directive is suspended until further notice and any actions while it is suspended will not be considered as a violation to the directives. Robert then turned to Hebraic's screen and asked if there were anything that prevented him from doing what he just did. Hebraic said as Monarch, Robert was the final word on everything that he controlled, and the prime directive was directly under his control so he was completely within his rights to do as he chose.

Turning to Nancy again, Robert asked how the knowledge that the Callahan's and the Addison's had could be released for use in the Campinas research facility. Nancy said that she was not sure, but Robert needed to talk to the two couples and see if they knew. It might be as simple as a request from their Monarch. The only other way was to do a deep probing scan of the four to see what the key was.

Robert said that he and Hebraic had a discussion, and he felt there was no need to keep the capture of the ships from their friends on Earth. He wanted the research team to go and explore the ship, to gather ideas for the research teams in Campinas. Robert then decided to put the mother ship on the far side of the moon, as it would not interfere with Earth's interaction in the solar system. With that, he asked Sarah, Asteria and Nancy to join him in the fleet admiral's office. When the four were gathered, he said he wanted a copy of the prime directive now. Nancy was gone for a few minutes when the printer began printing pages. When complete there were over a hundred pages in a language they did not understand. The printer started again and printed about one hundred fifty pages in English. Robert asked where they were, and Asteria said they had just entered the Sol system and were about six and a half light hours from Earth. Robert then asked for a link to Lisa Osborn.

It was as if a telephone was ringing when Lisa heard her computer ringing. She turned to the screen seeing Robert on the screen. Robert greeted Lisa and said he was not sure of the correct time, but he had a couple of issues he needed to discuss. Lisa said it was about two PM and she was just wrapping up her day. Robert asked if she had any cases on her calendar at this time. Laughing, Lisa said a prosecutor in their old world would never have had months like this with no cases. Robert said that was great, because she was relieved of her duties as prosecutor unless needed and would receive a document called the prime directive. Sarah and she were to become so familiar with this document that they knew every section. When they were ready, they would have sessions with five or so people to see if any changes were required. Robert told her that he was about to turn the galaxy upside down, as the things they had learned would blow every mind in Campinas. And by the way, he told Lisa this document would have intragalactic and intergalactic ramifications. Lisa said "Thanks boss, I said I had international law experience not universe law experience." Robert laughed and said he would see her tomorrow and to keep this under her hat.

They had placed the two spacecraft on the far side of the moon, and Robert had addressed all active AIs telling them even though he would not be aboard ship he was not out of contact: and if anything came up that needed clarification he was available to talk. He told them to remember the prime directive as it was their guide. Only Nancy and the other human members of his team knew he had suspended the prime directive. With that he went to spend time with his neglected children. When he got to the holographic beach a sand volleyball court had been set up and they were choosing up sides. Ann saw Robert come to the beach with his swimming trunks on and chose him for her team. Jan, the other team captain, chose Alcinoe and then all the kids old enough to play were chosen. The game was a lot of fun and it seemed that neither team could get a real advantage and win. During a break Ann asked Robert for some private time, as there were things she needed guidance on. Robert said sure, as soon as dinner was over they would go to the fleet admiral's office and talk. Did she want her mother or any of the moms to join them, he questioned. Ann said that for a while just the two of them, but she knew that all the moms would eventually have to meet with them.

Ann and Robert were just ready to sit for their talk when Robert asked her if she would like something to drink. She told him Sofia's cocktail would be great, but that would have to wait until they got home. Ann told Robert that she was having trouble at school, as every course she took it seemed that she knew all the material. She wanted a major in Astrophysics. Dr. Ward had given her all the exams that Annabelle had taken, and she aced them all. She would soon complete all the lab work required and be ready to write her doctoral theses. There was so many subjects that had already been written about she would like to write about the ability this ship had for folding the fabric of the universe. Robert said that would be good, but since it was already an operating system in a spacecraft he did not think it would qualify. Ann said that was what she was afraid of, however the data banks on the ship had a lot of information on creating worm holes to travel to other parts of the universe. So does the information have to be from sources already on Earth. Robert thought about that and then said if there was a link from the data banks here to the data banks in Campinas, he did not see a problem, but they would have to clear it with Dr Ward. Ann hugged her dad and told him she loved him a lot.

They were aboard NI-02 approaching the coast, and everyone was anxious to get home to see family and friends. Robert called Sofia and had her prepare dinner for the extended family, and to make sure that included Benson and her. Sofia asked if he would burn the Bison steaks, and he assured her he would. Robert had just settled in his seat when Jan plopped in his lap. All she wanted was for her dad to hold her and make her feel safe. She had seen so much in the past weeks that she was not comfortable with their position in the universe. As the two of them talked, they decided that the only way to live was to take the day as it presented itself and live life to its fullest. To worry about all the junk in other galaxies and what other beings would or could do was not worth worrying about until that day presented itself. As Jan thought about that she fell asleep and slept until they were ready to land in Campinas.

Benson met them with the bus that they used for transporting the family about. They were really happy to see Benson, and all the kids were all over Benson as he was just like another granddad to them. As they were driving home Robert and Benson talked as Robert was filled in on all the happenings that had occurred while they were gone. The interesting thing was that the Senior Callahans and Addisons had just returned from a trip to Buenos Aires, or so they said. Robert said that he was glad they were there, as he needed to talk to them sooner rather than later.

After the kids were all in bed; Robert and his wives sat down with Roger, Sara, Clem and Alice for an update. The four told of their trip to Argentina. They had a good trip and saw a lot that would help them if it could be recovered before it disintegrated.

Robert asked Sara if she remembered a few years back when she told Susan and him that the four of them were not originally from Earth. Sara acknowledged the conversation. Robert looked uncomfortable as he started, "When we were gone, we were not in Hawaii. The AIs informed us of a problem that had to be addressed sooner rather later. There was a race of aliens that harvested their food where mammals lived. Alice said that would be the Lamia race, they were creatures that had heads and hands like ours but the rest of the body was covered with scales like a crocodile, only smaller in size and thinner. The planet they lived on was attacked by some creatures we had never seen or heard of, and they pretty well wiped out the inhabitants of the planet. To make a long story short the Lamias regrouped and found their attackers and annihilated the entire race. For whatever reason, they became a warring race and begin attacking other planets. By the time they reached our planet the star was heading into nova and would be unlivable. Our ancestors had built two ships and were planning to transport all the citizens to another star system that was very much like ours. The large ship had made two trips to the new star system when it was intercepted by the Lamias. The crew was taken as food and the spacecraft was the spoils. On our planet there were twenty, eight person pods that would sustain life in a suspended form for centuries. The issue was to prepare each team and send them to a different star system. As the four of us were about to leave, our other four pod mates were captured by the Lamias and never heard of again. The officials decided to load the pod with the four of us and add an extra learning computer to the pod so we would learn every thing our pod mates would have learned and brought to this planet.

Robert asked if it would be possible to tap into the knowledge they had, and how would they do that. The four of them seemed to go into a momentary trance, and said that all they had to do was to be asked, and Robert had just asked. Robert then asked if they had specialities in certain areas. Sara said she was trained in the health and environment, while Roger was trained in the sciences and technology. Alice said she was trained in energy production and power systems, and Clem was trained in astronomy and the galaxies. The family was blown away by these revelations, not knowing what to think.

Brad was the first to recover and asked Sara if the knowledge she had could eliminate all disease on the planet. Sara told Brad that disease could never be totally eliminated, however the mortality rate caused by disease could be reduced to zero. Sara continued that some disease is good, as it strengthens the body and mind.

Robert told everyone they should retire and contemplate the things that they had learned tonight. He asked the four people he considered his parents to think where they could help to advance the research projects underway. The quartet said they would consider where their knowledge would best serve the advancement of the technology.

A few days later Alice went looking for Robert to see if there was a spacecraft propulsion research team assembled. Robert took her to the Research centre to find Annabelle. When they found Annabelle she was with Martha and Eddie Running Star. Robert introduced Alice and said she had some knowledge of spacecraft propulsion systems and would like to help if they needed her. Eddie shouted great, as they were stuck and had no idea where to go next. Robert stood back and watched as Alice drew the younger researchers out as to what they had discovered and where they were heading. They had all the material from New Mexico, and tried to expand it into a large system that would propel a manned spacecraft. All they were able to achieve was the antimatter dissipating when it reached the combustion chamber. Alice said that perhaps they were approaching it wrong, and they should use the antimatter's interaction directly with the silicon carbon material to create the gasses required to propel the spacecraft forward. Martha said that was the reaction they were trying to achieve, but she figured that the silicon carbon would have to be several feet thick and she was not sure that if they had maximum thickness they would ever be able to leave their own star system. Alice said Martha could be correct, but she did not know. Alice then asked them if they had ever looked at helium³ as a fuel source. When that discussion started Robert departed, as it was so far over his head he was out of his depth.

Robert returned to the lab, where he was looking over his notes for the software design for the space craft. He began to realize that if he were to try to write this himself it would take years. He called Ed Cunningham, asking him to join him and bring a couple of bright young designers. When the group was assembled, Robert started with Jan showing each page of notes that Robert had generated, with him explaining what was going on. As Robert proceeded through the presentation he saw three designers becoming very interested in the project, and knew he had caught a few assistants. When he completed the presentation and opened the floor for questions, there were four designers that asked the most questions with real thoughtfulness behind each question. Finally the questions ran out and Robert asked the big question. He prefaced the question with a statement that it was a long term project and only those really interested should join the team. Then the question, would anyone like to join his team? The four designers immediately stood saying they would like to be considered. Of the remaining sixteen, four more seemed interested and twelve were completely uninterested. Robert thanked the twelve designers and said they could return to their other design efforts. Of the eight remaining, it seemed odd that there was an even gender split. Robert asked the first four to join him and face the second four. Robert then told the eight of them that they should each choose a partner from the other group and the two would become a design team. Finally he put a list of subroutines on the screen and had each team write on a pad of paper with their team number at the top. Also indicate why they chose each subroutine. They were not to interact with the other teams, as the choices were to be individual team choices, then he would decide which team was assigned to which subroutine, and by the way, they were to be in order of priority, highest at the top. Robert said he would see them at nine AM the next day.

The next day when Robert and Jan walked into the lab the four teams were already there. The teams had their lists completed. Robert suspected that Nancy had assisted the teams in prioritizing their list, as each list had different subroutines listed as their first and second choices. Robert sat at a terminal and accessed a spreadsheet and listed the four teams, and then started assigning the projects to each team. The first eight were easy, as they were chosen by the teams. The remainder Robert had Jan look for similarities to the initial projects, then leave those with no similarities for assignment later. As the assignments were displayed, each team was happy with the initial assignments and were ready to tackle their projects. Robert told them to began each project by spending time with the system design team, to ensure that each understood what the system was to do and all limitations of that system. If the system design team and the software design team worked together they would have a flawless working system. Robert also reminded them that their subroutines would be required to report into a master computer which would oversee the entire spacecraft's operations. In this way unusual operations would be reported, but when problems occurred they would be flagged. Robert suggested that the system limitations be set up to report, as they were being approached, and then a proactive maintenance diagnostic could be run and the technical people could be alerted to the potential problems and repair them before system failure.

Each team was assigned a lab with the latest computer equipment and a lot of computing power. The computers were all at least five hundred G flops; that would be five hundred billion operations per second, and if Ed could get the new computer perfected that could be raised to seven quadrillion operations per seconds. Ed's goal for the new computer was to make this possible without mega cabinets of hardware. Roger Callahan had joined Ed's research team, and was suggesting materials that should improve the speed of the computer.

There were so many things happening that Robert saw he could not keep up with everything. Robert asked Vicky to join him to discuss how he was going to keep up with all the research projects, plus all the other duties he had acquired. Vicky suggested that he let Sandra Cummings do her job and manage the research and industry portfolio he had given her. On an agreed upon schedule, maybe once a month or every two months, she could provide Robert status report on research projects and state of manufacturing. Robert was embarrassed, as he had not thought about Sandra and her responsibility for those areas. Robert had Vicky talk to Sandra and ask her to prepare a status report for the next month.

Things were going so well that Robert knew something was about to happen. He was in his office when Radar O'Reilly requested a few minutes with Robert. When he came in, Tom Fitzgerald and Rebecca Druthers accompanied him. Robert knew trouble was on the horizon just by the looks on the three faces. Radar laid a number of photographs on Robert's desk with areas circled. Radar began to explain that the seven dark areas that looked like cigars were actually ships. The next photograph had zoomed in on the flotilla, and Radar explained that the ship in the centre appeared to be an aircraft carrier but there were no planes on the flight deck. The next photographs were pictures of the individual ships, and it was plain to see a few had some type of missiles on the launch racks. Radar explained that the missiles appeared to be surface to surface missiles, and by their markings they were not nuclear missiles. The next set of pictures was fuzzy, and Radar explained that they were pictures of nuclear missile launching submarines, in his opinion. Robert asked what country these ships were from, and if they had any head count on those ships. Radar said even though the markings had been painted out, the RQ-04 system said they were Russian.

Robert asked Vicky to get Larisa Masorin here as soon as possible. The door opened and Larisa walked in. Vicky mentally told Robert she had been listening and also reading Radar's thoughts, and as soon as she saw Russian she called Larisa. When Larisa had studied the photographs she asked Radar how long ago these had been taken, and what the coordinates were. Radar said they were taken three hours ago, and they had just cleared the Straits of Gibraltar. When Larisa had studied the photographs of the submarines she said that in seventy-two hours, if they were heading for Brazil they could launch their missiles and get a direct hit on Campinas. The missiles on the surface ships could not be launched for four or five days, depending on the seas and how hard they pushed.

Larisa then gave Robert the bad news. There was a small fleet of Russian ships that were nuclear powered and always at sea. This was a plan of the Putin Government to seize control of Earth should a disaster occur. This fleet was commanded by a member of the Communist Party Politburo who was a hardliner, and would follow Putin's orders even if Putin was dead. Larisa felt that they should make contact with the ships to see just what their intentions were. Robert agreed, but turned to Radar and Rebecca and asked if the RQ-04's could be loaded with something to disable the submarines and hopefully not sink them. Rebecca assured they had anti-submarine missiles that would take them out.

Once again Larisa suggested that the captains on those submarines were probably men that she had commanded, and she should try to contact them to see where their loyalty would fall. Robert agreed to let her try to see if sinking them could be avoided. The group went to the communications centre to see if contact could be made. Larisa gave the radio operator the Very Low Frequency (VLF) numbers and a typed encoding to send. The VLF was used for contacting submarines while on patrol. After the message was sent three times, with a couple of characters changed with each sent message, Larisa explained that she had sent the message to only one submarine which she thought would be the command sub, and said they should return after dinner, as that was the appointed time for the one submarine to contact them.

When Robert and the others returned to the communications centre they were joined by Sarah and Lisa Osborn, as they were lawyers and Lisa had worked at the UN and might be able to bluff their way out of a bad situation. If not they had tried. When the second hand of the clock swept across the top of the hour there were a series of clicks. As the clicks continued Larisa wrote quickly until finally she told the radio operator what frequency to tune a radio to and which satellite to use.

When all was set up, Larisa keyed the mic and called the sub speaking Russian. Robert got Nancy to translate. Larisa identified herself with her Russian Naval rank, ID and another number that the person on the other end would have to look up to authenticate. As soon as this was completed, the submarine's Captain identified herself as Rolisa Masorin, and wanted to know how her big sister survived the germ the terrorist had released. In fact it had been reported that her family and a few others had died in a fire at their winter villa where they had been skiing. Larisa filled her in on her life since that reported fire, and why she was contacting her now.

Rolisa then told them the story of what was happening with the flotilla. Putin was on board the aircraft carrier when the germ was released in early November. He decided to remain aboard to save himself. For years they had been at sea looking for anyone alive they could join. At least that was the original plan. When they heard a broadcast from Brazil, Putin went nuts telling the command team that they would sail into the area and I would launch one of my non nuclear missiles in forty-eight hours, and then he would ask the people in Brazil to surrender to his command. As she and the other two submarine Captains returned to their boats they decided that they would refuse to launch missiles until a conversation was held with the people in Brazil. Larisa asked her sister if she knew that she and her family were in Brazil. Rolisa said if they were in Brazil, the submarines would leave the flotilla now and proceed at flank speed to her location. Larisa asked what the head count aboard the boats was, at this time. The response was there were five hundred sixty-four men and women, or one hundred eighty-eight on each boat. Larisa asked how she could be so sure all aboard would not subvert the local government in Brazil when the flotilla got within range. Rolisa said that the submariners were all tired of the boats, and wanted to live like normal human beings. They all thought Putin was crazy, and the surface sailors would toss him overboard as soon as the first missile was launched on the flotilla. Larisa asked her to stand by.

Sarah and Vicky told the group that everyone on the boat would follow for a peaceful life except a person who was preparing a message to send to Putin as he had been eavesdropping on her conversation. Larisa returned to her conversation with Rolisa, giving her a coded message about the person eavesdropping on her. There appeared to be a scuffle, then they heard orders to put the person in a torpedo tube, and as soon as they submerged to eject her at a depth of three hundred meters. Rolisa said she was ready to receive orders from her Admiral. Larisa told her to proceed to twenty-five degrees south, thirty-nine degrees west, and contact the communications centre when they reached those coordinates. Rolisa said she would contact her as soon as they reached station, and signed off.

The three submarines were tied together, and Rolisa called the other two captains to her boat for a discussion. She explained her conversation with Counter Admiral Masorin and their chance to leave these boats permanently and live a normal life with wives and children. She also told them that the party member had been preparing a message to Putin when she caught her, and now she was in a torpedo tube waiting a short journey at three hundred meters below surface. The other two captains said they would have the same problem, but their crews would handle it as both party members were ass holes. Rolisa said they would not be committing mutiny, as she handed them orders to proceed at flank speed to the coordinates specified. Each captain smiled, gave a high five to each other and returned to their ships.

Aboard the aircraft carrier Putin entered the Combat Information Centre (CIC), asking if any of the three submarines had surfaced yet. He was told not yet, but it would be several hours before they would as the VLF messages through water took a long time. The admiral aboard the carrier reminded Putin that the submarines were old, as he had not allowed this flotilla any of the newer boats and they had been having a lot of trouble lately. Putin said if they did not surface they had better be at the bottom of the ocean and quite dead. The Admiral had spoken to Rolisa and knew they were leaving the flotilla to meet Counter Admiral Masorin on her orders. Admiral Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov was also a Counter Admiral, but his date in rank made him a subordinate to Admiral Masorin. He wondered if Vice Admiral Masorin had survived, as he was Larisa's husband.

Returning to their staterooms, Pavel rang for his Aide and asked for the chief bosun's mate to come to his stateroom. There were six Communist Party Members normally aboard an aircraft carrier, and they had been on the flight deck one night in heavy seas and never heard from again. Putin had been given a steady diet of laxatives and a few others herbs that caused him to become irrational at times and look sick at all times. The doctors aboard thought that he could be suicidal at times, and could not figure out why they could not stop his diarrhoea. The knock on the door was the bosun. As he entered, the officer before him was one he had served for his entire career and a friend. Pavel had seen that he was promoted as his knowledge increased and until he reached the rank of Chief Warrant Officer. The families of this flotilla had all been at the base in Sevastopol, Karantinnaya, when the terrorist had released the biological germ; and the admiral had ordered all family members aboard the ships and they put to sea. They had proceeded to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and remained there for several months. They entered a few ports with anyone going ashore wearing protective clothing. They only went ashore for supplies, and when they returned they were run through a disinfectant process and the supplies were also stored in compartments with only UV lights.