Second Chances (132 page)

“Can you transport us? A few diplomats? And ensure their safety?” Evan asked, eyes gleaming in excitement.

“Go where no man has gone before? See new worlds, Professor?” Brian asked in amusement.

“Why not?” Evan asked, still staring at the alien. “We're waiting on an answer,” he prompted as Mre drifted about, blinking and waving its tendrils. Colors shifted through it.

We cannot transport humans to other worlds. It is against our core programming. If you went on your own...but the planet is dangerous. You're species cannot survive there,”
Mre stated.

“Gravity? Atmosphere?” Evan asked. “We need to get Conklin and Evall in on this,” he said.

“The atmosphere is toxic to your biology and will not support it,”
Mre stated.

“Okay, we can make a suit for that. Long term survival is an issue,” Mitch mused. “We'll need a list. Lander, probes, satellites, communications, rovers...” he shook his head as he tried to envision the scouting mission's logistics.

“Honey, no,” Sandra said softly. He looked at her. “Call this an intervention,” she said firmly, still holding his shoulders. “And don't pout. It's
not
our problem.”

“But if we can help, we should,” Mitch said stubbornly.

“I hate to admit it, but Colonel Dunn was right. We've got enough here to deal with.” She looked at him. “I seem to recall you making the same argument.”

He scowled up at her, then looked at a few of the other representatives. A few like Evan and Hinkley were eager, but others were not so eager. A few seemed stubbornly against any sort of adventure. He tried to fight what she'd said, but then forced himself to face it. They did have a lot to do, and his big mouth had just gotten them involved in even more, possibly putting them in over their head.

But if they were going to keep moving forward...they had to do something. Just sitting back was...wasteful. Boring. Stagnating. He didn't want that for Tucker or his grandchildren. Or anyone. Survival wasn't enough, not in his eyes.

“But if we can help...perhaps we can help without direct intervention?” Mitch said doggedly. He looked at the Meme. “If we had more information, perhaps history, and such we could come up with ways for your people to deal with the situation?”

“We do not know how to transmit to you information beyond the crude verbal you use,”
a small Meme stated.

“If we had a way for you to...I don't know, interface energy to energy to our computers?” Professor Hinkley asked.

“Theoretically possible, though limiting. We are not programmed for such things however. It can be an experiment,”
the small Meme stated.

Mitch nodded. “Good. We can try it,” Mitch said.

“If verbal is all we've got to go with, that can work too. It will just take time,” John said. “We've got that and plenty of imagination,” he said, looking at Mitch. Mitch nodded.

“This one will bring it up to the Conclave elders,”
Mre stated. It rose, drifting upward. After a moment the smaller bobbing Memes followed.

“Interesting,” Mitch said as the jellyfish left. He watched it go, then turned to his wife. “A Conclave. Definitely a hierarchy. I guess that confirms the idea of a caste system?” He turned to look at Evan who was staring off, deep in thought. Then he turned to his wife.

Sandra raised an eyebrow and puckered her lips in amusement. “Still taking them apart honey?”

“The more we know, the better we understand and can deal with them,” Mitch said. She nodded.

------*------

They spent hours talking about the changed situation. A few like Evan and Professor Hinkley were excited by the turn of events. Others like Adam and Tsakhia were isolationist, they could hardly care less.

“To go to new worlds, see...what could we learn? Imagine it? What could we learn if we explored the aliens’ biology? A cure for a disease? New medicines? And alien worlds themselves! Their flora, fauna, geology...we just have this one world to go on for evidence that they terraformed it. Did they do the same for the other worlds I wonder?”

“Just talking to the aliens is a life time thing professor,” Jack reminded him. “I'm not sure how the hell we can do that.”

“The Memes seem able to do so,” Roy said.

“The Memes are different. They are robots.”

“Could they translate for us? Act as an interface?” Roy pondered.

“I want to know what the local star system is like. Are there others? Where are we in relation to Earth?”

“I'm still stuck on the possible contact with another species on another world,” Roy murmured. Evan nodded enthusiastically.

“They said humans can't go to some worlds. That ends that,” Kirafiki stated evenly.

“Okay, table that for a moment,” Mitch said, putting a hand out between the African and Evan before Evan could object. “Let's turn it into something else. A discussion on Earth's chances and how if we spin this right maybe we can help them survive,” he said.

“I wonder what they are doing to protect this world or any of the worlds,” Kirafiki stated.

“Obviously not enough,” Rabbi Weiss stated. “Which indicates to me that we need to step up and have more of a hand in our future...if we intend for our people to have one,” he said. Yuri grunted. Evan and Roy both nodded.

“We don't want to upset the applecart,” Adam said. “I mean, any more than some of us already have,” he said, looking at Mitch with a deadpan expression.

“So...they can't transport us to other worlds?” Jack asked.

“No,” Evan said.

“He said that before,” Roy said.

“Oh, missed that,” Jack said, trying to not sound too exasperated with the two scientists.

“It's not that they can't, or I'm not sure,” Roy said. He frowned thoughtfully. “I know it's a programming fault. It could be a distance issue as well. Definitely a programming block.”

“It may be us. Once transported they can't move us. Remember that one meeting with the Conclave? When they said when people found out on Earth and took steps to find the asteroid and do something about it that it caused an anomaly?” Mitch asked.

“Ah,” Roy nodded. “Once you are dropped you stay. Gotcha.” He made a face.

“Can you bring more humans here?” Yung li asked.

“Affirmative,” Jack joked in a mechanical voice. That got a snort and chuckle from the group.

“John brought that up,” Yuri said, pointing to John who raised his hand and wiggled his fingers. “They cannot transport many though. Not everyone.”

“But a few?” Yung Li asked. “We could use the help.”

“Will they do so? We could use the help. We can work on a way to get to the other worlds on our own, but only with help. For now though, the best we can do is offer them advice.”

“Perhaps that is for the best. Direct intervention could be counterproductive,” Evan said.

“Well, since we won't know more until they return, we can work on other things,” Yuri said.

“Like getting everyone up to the same tech level as we have here,” Mitch said with a nod. Yuri nodded. “Fine. I was thinking about manufacturing priorities. I think we should table another Hercules and focus on the delayed jet engines and the Rutan aerospace shuttles given our most recent encounter and our most recent crisis...”

The End

Wow, this was a book that had a long time coming! Honestly, when I first started writing “Bootstrap” back in 2005-2006 I thought of it as a one off for most of the book. It wasn't until near the end when I started editing the book that I started toying with sequel or prequel ideas. Nothing really jelled though, so I put the thought aside and focused on the Federation and other books.

Then I started picking up fans and beta insiders who poked me to do a sequel. Since I wanted to spread out the Federation books closer to my original plan, this book worked its way into the queue but without much of a plot. I had been writing stories like “Bootstrap” before and after I published it, that's why “Survival of the Fittest” went out. I went through it, corrected a few things, then finished the story,...which lead to this.

I decided to take a piecemeal approach, you know, sneak up on the project. I had some ideas but no real plot for a while, so I decided to hit some back story and let the plot of the “actual sequel” come out as I worked.

Well, I got a pile of ideas I wanted to explore, but the plot itself took it's time coming to fruition. I decided to work on the cover art a bit to give me more inspiration, plus I dived into books and DVDs to get more ideas, LOL, just like “Bootstrap Colony 1.” That was written as a series of scene ideas that eventually flowed into a (semi) coherent story. At least this time, I got my sleep. With “Bootstrap 1” I was up writing ideas by flashlight every night or running to the nearest pad of paper to jot down ideas the moment they came to me. :)

I've come a long way since I've written that book. A loooong way. I've learned a lot and probably forgotten a ton. Hopefully, I'll keep improving as I go, but I don't plan on giving up my quirky sense of humor despite the critics. Thanks for sticking with me.

As usual, you can see my ramblings and bits of future works/images, tie-in stuff...all that and more on my blog. You can also post questions there or in the Federation Facebook group. (If it's Federation related, I believe.)

Now I'm going to putter around with the cover art for this book some more, then get back into “To Touch the Stars.”

Note: the following is from my notes from the previous book so ages are from that time period. Also, some new cast members (born or introduced) may have been left out.

Original cast:

Mitch Chambers: leader, also known as boss, the male, man, etc. engineer, psychic, generous, pack rat, hermit. He likes to plan and is a bit of a MacGyver. Among other things he has paramedic training.

Janet: domestic manager of the base, first adult rescued with Anne The mother hen to group. She grew up on a farm, so she knows all sorts of useful methods of making stuff from scratch. She is okay with animals too. She gave birth to a boy.

Brian: (alternate spelling Bryan) security second in command, 14-year-old, badly beaten and mistreated at Amazon Village. Distrusts women and actively hostile to women in authority. He was the first person rescued by Mitch. Security co-head, slow growing relationship with Lisa and a few of the other ladies. Gradual transition to engineering.

Anne: domestic co-manager with Janet. She is a former hotel manager who now manages the kitchen, laundry and domestic chores. Gave birth to twins, a girl Mirrim and boy Allen. Allen was named after her late husband.

Vance Paul Martin: 17, can-do teenager. He became a reserve security squad leader before taking up architecture and engineering. Engaged to Cassie O'Connell.

Pete: 12-year-old communications chatter bug (at the start of BSC2).

Doctor Sandra O'Connell: 33-year-old MD doctor. Redhead with temper to match. She has a freckled face with dimples. She has a classic red headed Irish temper. Sandra O'Connell, Doctor O'Connell, or Doc OCK. Full figured woman, prefers jeans and a flannel shirt when out in the field and medical coat when on duty. Nice hands, but firm disposition with iron sense of stubborn duty when honor is at stake.

Cassie: Doc's 15-year-old daughter, med student with Dora. Red hair like her mom, shares some of her temperament, but also still has some female control issues lingering from puberty.

Tucker: Son of Mitch and Sandra. Born looking identical to Mitch in mid-spring.

Angie: 16, friend of Cassie, student pilot also called angel.

Jolie: 14, brunette bff of Cassie, IPod player, full name Jolene, reporter, communications manager.

Sara: teen from Amazon Village junior leader.

Ivan: young 20-year-old male Ukraine farm manager.

Ester: 21, female, Australian, carries in Tanya.

Esteban family:

Ricardo: patriarch, killed by raptors

Rozerita: worked in a tannery, takes over all leather work for base, assists in slaughtering as well.

Miguel: 7-year-old

Ruby: 6-year-old

Fernando: 4-year-old, shy

Mateo: 3, killed by a scorpion late in the book. Poison causes unconsciousness. It enters mouth and lays eggs. One egg causes embolism when enters blood stream.

Ricardo Jr: infant mother gives birth to prematurely.

Chica: daughter, given up for adoption. Sent to Tina and Chief Roberts