The Solarian Celebration: Book 3 of the Alliance Conflict (38 page)

“Oh,” Amy said in recognition.  Then she realized something was amiss and said, “Wait, that doesn’t make sense.  Why are they there, wherever there is?”

The engineer said, “Amy, how much do you know about the clothes you are wearing?”

Amy replied, “A lot.”  She thought a moment and corrected, “A little.”  The engineer hadn’t responded, so she admitted, “Okay, I know that it feels amazingly comfortable.”

The engineer responded, “I did some investigation into the fabric when it was first introduced.  They called it an amazing leap in technology.”

Amy: “So?”

The engineer sighed.  Amy realized that he was trying to explain something important to her, but was failing.  She said, “Just tell me what you are trying to tell me.”

Engineer: “The technology required for making semi-intelligent micro-fibers than can expand and contract is amazing.  It is in some ways more complex than the hover cart we are trying to reverse engineer.  The technologies are also amazingly similar.”

Amy: “Okay, So what?”

Engineer: “The problem is that Jim Donovan has no experience in electronics, materials, fibers, or any of the other 10 STEM fields required to invent the fabric.  Yet he invented a new fabric and a new manufacturing method for making it all by himself.  The technology for making clothing leapt forward by a 100 or maybe even a 1,000 years.  Just like that.  It didn’t evolve on a logical progression like almost every other technology.”

Amy realized what the engineer was saying and replied, “Just like Victor’s inventions.  Huge leap forward.  Completely finished product.”

Engineer: “Yes.”

Amy said, “So, it sounds like we will have to double our efforts to reverse engineer the technology and hack into our own system.  Meanwhile, it can’t hurt to begin negotiations with Jim.”

…………………….

Chief Olova yawned and stretched his arms over his head.  It had been a long day and he was tired and ready to leave.  He logged out of his work station and grabbed his bag.  He put his communication pad in it and prepared to leave.

Leave!  Olova couldn’t wait.  He was going on a 2 month leave.  He had a room booked in a nice hotel on Advranki Prime for the first few days.  And, the room rate included a community sea moss bath.  He couldn’t wait to feel the oils and the warm sea moss coat and relax his body.  After that, he was going back home to visit his family.

He needed, no he deserved, some relaxation after all of the long hours that he had recently been working.  Being the chief of staff for Admiral Dolen was a demanding job, but lately it had been overwhelming.

He had had a rough couple of months.  It started with the mission to the Spindle Station.  He had led the away mission to the station and was eating lunch at a restaurant when the rest of the fleet was surrounded and captured.  Somehow, that made him feel worse.  He still believed that if he had been on the ship during the battle, he would have noticed the trap and advised Admiral Dolen to avoid it.

Wishful thinking, he knew.  However, Olova smiled when he thought of the toy he had purchased at one of the station’s gift shops.  He still had it.  The Hiriculans hadn’t bothered to confiscate it when they took him prisoner.  A week of captivity followed.  The finality of the situation had been unnerving.  His promising military career was over.

Then, they were suddenly rescued by Admiral Solear and the humans.  Talking with Solear after the debriefing had been very difficult.  He had essentially watched Admiral Dolen fire the person that had just saved them.  However, Solear had changed – even he could see it.

Solear was so certain that there was a traitor.  His speech convinced Admiral Dolen that there must be a leak at the Navy headquarters.  Dolen had taken the information personally.  He wanted the leak found and thus had ordered a full review of everything.

Olova had spent many, many hours on a full investigation of the Alliance Navy’s computer systems.  He had traced emails around the galaxy and back.  However, he found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.  There were no secret communications and no secret orders. 

Everything looked exactly as it should.  This frustrated Admiral Dolen even more than actually finding something.  Dolen became convinced that the leak must be a faulty computer system.  Admiral Dolen ordered that the entire Navy computer system be reviewed.

Chief Olova then had to organize an army of computer scientists to perform the search.  They spent hours looking for hidden subroutines.  That took more time than he could have imagined.  They reviewed every subroutine, but found nothing amiss.

Looking for something hidden that one knows to exist is one thing, but looking for something that one has no idea whether or not exists is quite another. 

Then, just like that, Senator Figur was murdered and a few weeks later the commission uncovered information that clearly showed he was the culprit of the leak.  Olova found it unbelievable – an actual Alliance senator had been sending information to the enemy.

However, Admiral Dolen was not easily convinced.  Chief Olova still remembered the Admiral’s words, “Chief, you are already half-way done reviewing the computer system, you may as well finish the task.”

Olova supposed the Admiral was correct.  There very well may have been two leaks.  However, reviewing the other half of the vast computer system proved to be just as tedious as the first half.  Finally though, they had given the computer a clean bill of health.  There were no hidden subroutines secretly leaking information to the Hiriculans.

Olova thought the task was done at that point, but no Admiral Dolen still wasn’t satisfied.  The admiral had stated, “Okay, it wasn’t a computer glitch or a deliberate hack.  However, Senator Figur obtained his information from someone or somewhere.  Find the leak!”

So then Olova had to lead yet another team and research every person in the fleet.  It would take months, perhaps years, to do a complete review of every being in the military.  There were simply too many beings.  So, instead of performing a complete review, they narrowed the search parameters and only focused on emails during the time in question. 

They found nothing of interest, so they instead searched for any communication either to or from Senator Figur.  Again, nothing.  Olova recalled that Admiral Dolen had not been pleased when he reported that they had absolutely no idea how Senator Figur received his information.

Chief Olova was almost out of the room when he stopped and said, “Oops, I almost forgot.”  The room was empty; he had spoken aloud for his own benefit. 

Olova walked back to his workstation and logged back into it.  He briefly reviewed the report about the humans’ activities aboard the
Sunflower
.  He typed a quick summary and hit send.

He logged back out and grabbed his bag.  He took the electro lift down 4 floors to the officer’s quarters.  The battleship
Guardian
was big enough that there were separate rooms for the bridge officers and the admiral’s staff officers.

He entered his room and started packing.  Technically, he had packed last night.  Now, he just changed from his military smart uniform to a civilian one.  He also threw a last few items into his bag.  Once packed, he took the electro lift back to the bridge.  He exited the bridge and started walking down the corridor to the shuttles. 

He smiled as he watched the birds fly beside him.  They swooped down and back up and appeared to flap their wings.  He thought for probably the thousandth time that the painting in the corridor was amazing.  The flying effect was stunning.

Olova let his mind wander back to the humans.  He had personally seen the humans in action aboard the Spindle Station.  They could certainly fight.  However, in every other aspect they seemed like children to him.  How could the humans learn to be a part of gentile society if they don’t at least try to integrate them directly into Navy? 

Clearly, no one had asked him for advice.  Nope, the humans had won yet another battle – an unbelievable victory given the circumstances – and instead of assignment on the
Guardian
, the humans were basically banished to an uninhabited system.

He thought about the Alliance Senators that had initially voted to bring the humans into the Alliance Navy.  Senator Frank declared that he was the humans’ biggest supporter, yet he had never once asked how they were doing or if they were adjusting to their new lives.  Senator Figur and the other two Advranki senators at least had an excuse.  They had voted against allowing humans in the Alliance Navy. 

The Altians were basically the same way.  They had voted several times to include the humans in the Alliance Navy even before the discovery that Netos were serving in the Hiriculan Navy.  Olova thought that he knew why too. 

Like everyone else, Olova had heard the speeches from Senator Korno and others about humanity.  There was one famous one where Korno said that it was the Alliance’s duty to enlighten the human race and have it stand as equal partners among the Alliance worlds.

However, he firmly believed that the Altians weren’t as altruistic as they appeared.  Further, those speeches were just that – speeches.  He firmly believed that the real reason was that Altians simply didn’t want to be bothered with defending themselves. 

Olova felt that he had a better perspective on the Altian’s true motives than most Advranki.  He had spent a rotation as a bridge officer on an Altian cruiser and had learned a lot about Altian social interaction.  He had, with a limited degree of success, learned to read Altians’ facial expressions.  .

When the news story about Neto experimentation and breeding broke, he was in a room with Solarians, Advranki, and Altians.  Both the Advranki and Solarians were stunned and sickened by the news.  The Altians, as far as he could tell, seemed to just shrug the information off like – eh, it was probably for the best. 

Yes, he said, rehashing an argument he had had with a fellow Altian officer - the Hiriculans had in many ways helped the Neto.  They cured hunger, prolonged their life span, and gave them access to rudimentary technology to make their lives easier.  The Neto may be missing a pair of limbs, but their lives had certainly benefitted from Hiricula’s influence.

He was pretty sure the Altians wouldn’t get overly upset if someone tried to genetically alter the humans to make them a little more docile. 

For some reason thinking the word alter made him think about his Alliance basic name.  His real name was Olkonaviolali Olkonaviolali.  It was rather uncommon name with the first and last being the same, but it was a popular practice at the satellite where he was raised. 

The Alliance basic combination for his name was Olkon or perhaps even Oval.  He had initially chosen the name Olkon.  However, when he was assigned to an Altian cruiser, he changed it to Olova to make it sound more like an Altian name.  He still hated the sound of it. 

“That’s it!” he declared.  “I am changing my name back to Olkon when I reach the surface.”

For some reason that made him laugh and brought him back to reality.  He exited the aviary corridor and headed across the main hangar bay to a waiting transport.  He entered the transport shuttle and motioned to the pilot that he was ready to leave.

He thought back to the daily report on the humans.  The Advranki didn’t care about the humans.  Neither did the Altians for that matter.  The only Senator, or being for that matter, that had shown any interest in the well-being of the humans was Senator Amanda Catmeows.

She was so nice and polite, almost to a fault.  Even though she was outspoken critic of the human project, she actually cared about them.  She often referred to them as her big brothers.  She was so sweet.  She used to call him almost every day and ask for an update.

“How are they?” she would smile and ask.  “Are they eating okay?” she would question. 

Chief Olova knew how busy she was.  To even take 5 minutes out of her day to personally call him showed how much she really cared.  She was so sweet to stay personally interested.  Finally though, it just became impractical to talk every day so he volunteered to write a quick update for her at the end of each day.

He would just give the highlights – how were doing socially, did any show signs of mental or physical distress, any fights or anti-social behavior, what are they doing, what is their ship’s status, are they going on any hazardous missions.  Just the basics.

Olova’s transport cleared the hangar bay and headed for the Advranki Prime.  In a few more hours he would be soaking away his troubles in a big sea moss bath.

Well, he thought, at least one Senator cared about the humans.

Clowy rode the electro lift 81 stories to her mother’s floor.  Her mother’s apartment was only 19 stories from the top.  Buildings on Altian-2 were generally smaller and shorter than Altian-1. 

She placed her hand on the call palm pad and the door opened immediately.  Her mother had clearly been expecting her.  Clowy initially thought that she would surprise her, but she couldn’t wait.  She had contacted her mother the moment the
Buzzkill
reached Alitan-2’s orbit.

Clowy entered and spent the next few hours telling her mother about her adventures.

Her mother was speechless, but only for a moment.  She responded at one point, “In the past two years you have been in three major battles, met actual Humans, got kidnapped, got freeze dried twice, and found the home world of the Solarians?”

Clowy smiled brightly and responded, “Yes.  It was an amazing adventure.”

Her mother responded, “Did you meet anyone?”

And there it was.  Clowy suddenly remembered why she didn’t come home that often.  She replied, “I met one Altian male, but I don’t think that he is a particularly enticing match.”

Her mother responded, “Let me understand this, you spent the last two years saving the galaxy and the whole time you only managed to meet one male.  And the one you did meet you didn’t like.”

Clowy: “I’ll just go to the bank, mom.  It doesn’t really matter.”

Mom: “You most certainly will not.  You are going to find a man and have a proper wedding.  I don’t want a grandchild from the bank.  I want your children to have a father.  At a minimum, they should at least know who their father is.”

Clowy: “I’m a banker.  So is my brother.  What’s the difference?”

Mom: “I want you to have a proper marriage.  My neighbor’s son just got married.  The one that I thought you would like.  Now, he is no longer available.  Beings are doing it everywhere.”

Clowy: “I still have six months, possibly even a year or two if I ask the government for an extension.  I have plenty of time.”

Clowy’s mother started crying inconsolably for about 30 seconds.  It ended just as quickly and she smiled sweetly. 

She replied, “You’re right.  You still have plenty of time to find a mate before you have to breed.”  However, her sarcastic tone didn’t match her spoken words.

Clowy sighed.  She knew her mother was right.  It was almost time for her to reproduce and she had no legitimate prospects for a husband.  Stupid government laws, she thought.

She knew better though.  She had learned the background of the government imposed reproduction laws in elementary school.  The law was simple really, every Altian female had to have at least two children.

The law was put in place because the Altian race almost wiped itself out.  Approximately 1,200 years ago the race faced a reproductive crisis.  Several generations of Altian women just didn’t bother with bearing children.

As a result, the race shrunk to historic lows and there weren’t enough females still young enough to reproduce to replace the missing numbers.  The government intervened and tried to make up the gap with cloning, but that was a temporary fix at best and was not sustainable. 

In the heat of the crisis, the government passed a series of birthing laws that essentially stated that every male and female Altian had to have children.  In the beginning, it was 2 children for every 1 person.  After a few hundred years, the number dropped to 3 children for every 2 adults.

Nowadays, the population had recovered and was safe again in both number of citizens and genetic diversity.  The number of children had dropped to 1 for 1, essentially meaning that every citizen had to replace themselves.

The key problem seemed to be the Altian’s 300-year life-span.  Altian women become able to reproduce sometime around their 20
th
birthday and remain able to procreate until approximately their 80
th
.  However, they generally don’t seem interested in having or raising children until they reach 120.

So, the government now closely tracks the age of its populace and assigns certain breeding dates to every female.  Males also get assigned dates, but their breeding windows are much larger.  This way there is balance across all age bands.  When one Altian dies another has already been born to replace him.

Further, the concepts of marriage, monogamy, and in many cases even sex for pleasure simply seem foreign to Altians. Many leading psychologists believe that these concepts were imported to Altian culture.  Specifically, these philosophies were introduced when the Altians made contact with the Advranki and/or the Solarians and don’t truly represent Altian culture or values.

However, there are many, many examples of Altians falling in love, marrying, having 3 – 5 children, and staying together for a lifetime.  These cases are the minority though.  Most Altians simply don’t want to be bothered with a long term relationship.

As a result, a fairly new concept called the micro marriage was introduced.  A male and female meet, like each other somewhat, and get married.  They then have two children as quickly as possible.  The happy(ish) couple then stays together for the next 18-20 years to raise the children. 

Once the children are grown and independent, the couple divorces, or stays legally married, but lead separate lives.  This particular parenting option has been ballyhooed by the leading psychologists and television personalities as the best way to raise children.  Their data suggests that young Altians are better adjusted socially if both parents actively contribute to their children’s development.  It is typically described as the ‘wave of the future’.

The most common form of reproduction though is still the bank.  When a female’s time has arrived, she goes to a highly controlled government sperm bank.  She chooses a breeding partner from a list of males that are also in their breeding windows. 

Selective breeding for certain characteristics is strictly prohibited.  However, the government can, upon request, perform a DNA analysis and suggest several potential males that are compatible.  In rare cases the sex of the baby has to be predetermined if a large number of natural births have skewed the number of males and females to an unacceptable level. 

The female is impregnated, carries the baby to term, and delivers it.  She then generally hands it to her mother or grandmother to raise and continues with her life.

In a few cases, a female’s job function requires her to delay or even forego having a child.  This female can request an exception to her breeding date.  A potential exception arises when a married couple has more than the required two children.  In essence, when one female has more than two children, another can have less.

Clowy’s status as an explorer and decorated war hero should allow her to file for either an extension or an exception.  The government would probably allow her to have an extension, but it was extremely unlikely that they would give her an exception - primarily because she was an explorer and a decorated war hero and her DNA needed to be passed on to the next generation.

Clowy stayed with her mother for the rest of the week.  Her first order of business was getting a treatment performed on her scalp and receiving a hair transplant.  That accomplished, she began looking for a job. 

She found one at an antiques boutique.  Oddly enough, very little had changed in Altian society over the last 2,000 years, so the antiques looked very similar to their modern day equivalents.  The model numbers were completely different though.

An apartment became available on the 81
st
floor and Clowy moved in down the hall from her mother.  The apartment was furnished, which has fortunate because she had almost no possessions of her own.  The apartment was furnished just like her mother’s and quite possibly like nearly every other apartment on that floor.

The next morning she rode the electro lift 73 stories down to the retail shops.  She spent the day working in the boutique. That afternoon, she rode the electro lift 73 stories back up to her apartment.  The next day she rode the electro lift down 73 stories and spent the day in the boutique.  That evening, she rode it 73 stories back up to her apartment. 

The next day she rode the electro lift down 73 stories and spent the day in the boutique.  That evening, she rode it 73 stories back up to her apartment.  The next day she rode the electro lift down 73 stories and spent the day in the boutique.  That evening, she rode it 73 stories back up to her apartment.  She repeated 62 more times.

After a brief argument with her mother over breakfast the next morning, Clowy called the boutique and took a personal day.  She rode the electro lift 65 stories down to the sperm bank and registered.  She asked the employee, “When will the results be ready?”

He replied, “About a week.  Maybe two if you want us to compare your DNA against Altian-1 and Altian-3.”

Clowy replied, “I can wait two weeks I suppose.”

Instead of riding the electro lift back up, she rode it down another 16 stories to the ground floor.  She walked out of the building and felt the sunshine.  She walked around in the perfectly manicured grass for a few minutes. 

It was warm outside, so she took off her slippers and walked on the grass barefoot.  She found a nice spot and lay down on the grass.  She read an interesting article or two on her communication pad.  She then took a long nap.

Toward mid-afternoon, Clowy reentered the building and took the electro lift back to her apartment.  Her mother was waiting for her.

Clowy smiled.

Her mother didn’t.  She said, “Loafing about on the grass all day is not productive or particularly ladylike.  You will have an extremely difficult time finding a proper mate loafing about like that”.  Her mother started crying.

Clowy responded, “Well, maybe I was waiting for my perfect mate to come out of the stupid building and lay on the grass next to me.”  She also started crying and stormed off to her apartment.

Ninety minutes later she received a knock on the door.  She opened the door and saw a male Altian that she didn’t recognize. 

The Altian said, “Hello, would you like to talk for a few minutes?”

Clowy responded, “What?”  Then she looked at him suspiciously and said, “Why?”

The Altian said, “Your mother asked me to stop by.”

Clowy: “Are you a psychologist?”

Altian: “I prefer the term life coach.”

Clowy: “So, now everyone thinks I am crazy?”

Life Coach: “No.  No one thinks that.  However, it does seem as if you are having difficulty adjusting back into normal life.  You had several amazing adventures in the Navy.  However, just as you adjusted to a routine in the Navy, you need to readjust to the routine of normal life.”

Clowy: “What if I can’t, or if I’m not ready to return to normal?”

Life Coach: “Ah, wanderlust.  It happens sometimes to freighter and naval personnel.  One is moving for so long, they feel like they need to keep going.  Well, you don’t have to keep going Clowy.  You just need to stop and relax.”

That evening, Clowy grabbed her communication pad and said, “Locate Loq le Rav na Nol po.”

…Lorano is unavailable.  He is currently climbing through the pyramid ruins on Altian-1…

She packed all of her belongings into her three suitcases and booked passage to Altian-1.  The following morning Clowy invited her mother over to breakfast.  Her mother saw the three suitcases and immediately ascertained that Clowy was leaving.

Her mother started crying.  Clowy did as well.  A minute later both stopped and Clowy said, “Sorry mom, I have to go.”

Mom: “Where?”

Clowy: “Somewhere, anywhere.”

Mom: “Well before you leave you should at least inform the boutique that you are quitting.”

Clowy grabbed her communication pad and left the room to make the difficult call.  She had made several pseudo-friends there and she was certain that at least one of them would probably start crying at the news.

Her mother raced back to her own apartment and grabbed a small tube.  There was actually a fairly large item inside, but it had been vacuum sealed and condensed for easy storage.  She raced back to Clowy’s apartment and hid it in the back of one of her suitcases.  She hoped that Clowy wouldn’t see it until after she left.

……………….

Lorano heard the sound of an approaching transport shuttle.  It was flying low at this point and was clearly going to land.  He was standing on uneven ground, so he moved to a secure location and sat down.  He doubted that the shock of the transport landing would upend him, but he decided that it would be better to be securely seated than tumbling down the side of a pyramid.

The transport landed in the middle of the clearing between the 3 pyramids.  Although the entire area was technically a ruin, it was something of a tourist spot.  As a result, the government maintained the landing area to modern standards.  The government had even created a small, automated information center / hotel next to the landing zone.

Lorano watched as a lone figure exited the transport carrying a suitcase.  The Altian returned to the shuttle and then exited carrying four more bags.  He believed the being was a female because she had long hair.