Chapter 33

Allison had been keeping the girls busy. All of the desks were in the new space with several chairs, end tables and a sofa. "This will be the library and study room, Sir. We did pledge to 'improve our minds'."

"Kim, Cam, Jenny and Penny are in the dorm assembling another single-double bunk bed and the queen-sized. That gives us twenty three places to sleep." Lisa said. "Rani, Phoebe, Lauren and Yvette are moving the dressing tables and vanities into the old study hall to make a dressing room."

Mary, Selena and Athena came through the door, followed by Rhea and Circe. "With Amy's help, we think we can remove some doors and walls to make the whole space open with the bathroom and showers like an island in the middle." Selena volunteered.

"It was Sis' idea. Theo made the closets too solid to move so we wanted to make it easy to get around. But Kris designed the partitions between rooms to be adjustable in sections."

Mary elaborated, "When you look real close, the sections are like the flats on a stage that have to be changed every scene. A lot more solid and not on casters, but if we take out a few nails and pegs, the walls can be shifted."

"What do you plan to do with the extra movable walls?"

"If it is OK with you, we wanted to find a place to put all the extra computer and network equipment that has no home. We can divide off a part of the second floor, make a workshop for all of us and use the rest of the floor for a communications center independent of the house system." Rhea suggested.

"Excellent! We can duplicate the capabilities of the original with no potential compromise of our secrets. Amy can make inquiries of any outside resources we might find without revealing her true nature. Rocky can use the computational power and memory if he wants it. Maybe he can have his people load it with whatever they think he needs to be efficient here." Pete agreed, "I don't know what his limits are, if any, but he is welcome to access it anytime."

<Pete, Rocky here. I hate to interrupt, but can you get the group into the place you call the 'rec room'? I have news that concerns everybody.>

"Girls. Rocky wants to have a family conference in the rec room. I know what he and Amy have been working on and this could be very important."

The nineteen girls took seats as Pete brought them up-to-date. He described the pulsed X-rays from Area 51, the gamma radiation from Oak Ridge, Rocky's companion coming to take up station in orbit. "And we have some observational capacity from surviving satellites. One is a weather bird and the other is a 'top secret' military spy unit. It seems focused on whatever is left of NORAD at Cheyenne Mountain."

"Amy, could you vocalize Rocky's thoughts through the speakers. Use the voice of Dennis Haysbert, the Allstate spokesman, with a touch of FDR's accent. That seems appropriate. Use your regular voice."

"Thanks, Pete. That has a wonderful sine wave. I like this voice. But, to the news. My friend is in transit. She is looking forward to the adventure. Before we can go further, I need to explain some things. As you might guess, my inner core is constructed like a version of Amy. Our intelligence arose from an ability to slowly 'osmote' the crystalline structure to create what you might call nano-transistors, flash memory, single molecule circuits. Over time, we were able to specialize internal composition to emphasize and concentrate on certain abilities."

"I have the 'computational' power of a human brain, but any other physical capacity has been dedicated to the faster than light drive. I am a space ship, basically, with a brain, all enclosed in a gold and jade boulder. Given enough time, I can transform the FTL drive into an anti-gravity drive. I am not bulky enough to have both, and that would tax my power sources because the mass increase requires an exponential increase in power. You have to be bigger to have it, but once you're bigger you need more. It's a dead end."

"Do you think we can build either an FTL drive or an anti-gravity unit and attach it to you with a heavy duty shield generator, giving you both abilities? You can use the new computer network we are building, too. Amy is a perfect example of integrating the trillions of connections in an organic brain with the miracle circuitry of her artificial intelligence." Pete theorized. "Your brain, though crystalline based, is analogous to our carbon based brains. Giving you access to our computers might give you a great advantage in designing a system tailored to your needs."

"Right now, I'm configured for FTL and it would take days to change. I can upload the specifications for the anti-gravity technology to Amy. Perhaps together you can adapt it to work independent of my mass."

"Too bad it's not the other way around. Amy already has the faster-than-light tech. It was from Tau Ceti. We'll do what we have to."

"Now for the weird news. The pulsed X-rays from Groom Lake are a code known to us. It is a locator beacon sending an SOS. The language is that of a species you call the "Grays'. They are taller, heavier and more muscular than your current mythology imagines. In fact, they are built quite similar to you, but with an oval face, very narrow eyes, tiny noses and extremely thin lips. Hairless."

"It the transmission directional? Is there any way to tell if it has been going on very long?"

"It can't be directed very well. The world rotates. The signal travels at light speed and has not reached Epsilon Eridani yet, so it has been pulsing less than 101/2 years. Their home world is half way to the galactic center, 30,000 light years away."