Fitsr Journey Chapter 22

Chapter: 22

STAHL'S OFFICE

Having expended most of her armory and other supplies, due to her size and alien origin, the Devastator was directed to the drydocks at Arsenal IV her home port for repairs and resupply. The damage experienced was minor, so it was decided to use the opportunity to upgrade some of the systems and do high-level maintenance on her Union tech engines. Unfortunately, no one was qualified to service her original alien equipment. The engines would remain on ship in the hopes that in her travels qualified personnel would be found to repair and upgrade their systems. The massive space-barracks towed the Devastator into her assigned slot for the duration of repairs and logistics. Captain Stahl sat in his office mulling over some nuisance files, yes even ship captains gets "busy" duty. As he signed off on personnel re-assignments, promotes, and disciplinary action, he wondered what he was to do for the five to six months of his command's inactivity. A skeleton crew would remain on board, but most of the ship's personnel received extended shore leave. Even he was now officially on vacation and had received orders to vacate the lady during her extensive overhaul. However, he had no living family, and even his most distant relatives were long dead. In the three thousand years of his enhanced life, he never married or formed a family of his own. His real home was the fleet, the military, and most of all, the Devastator. He was one of the two hundred Immortals selected by the Guardian to guide humanity on its way to become a Galactic civilization. So instead of taking a vacation, he sat in his rarely used office at the Arsenal IV Headquarters of the First Fleet and went over some reports and paperwork. Everything necessary was, of course, sent to him right away to his real work office aboard the Devi. True to his pre astro origin he still called it paperwork and preferred actual printouts he could hold in his hands. The tasks given to him by the Guardians appeared complete, and ever so often he considered retirement. Terra was no longer a helpless civilization but had risen to a dominating position of power in the galaxy and beyond. Quite capable of defending itself and was an integral part of a powerful alliance. The Guardian had told him he would know the day his task was complete, but as of this date, he had not experienced that distinct feeling, besides where would he go? He was still immortal and biologically not a day older than the day he had first met the Guardian. Besides, he counted too many projects he had set that were incomplete, one of those back burner projects was to locate and find out much more about the Guardian. As in Who, Where, and Why the Guardian care so much for this particular galactic. While at that task also determine where this machine, the Devastator, actually originated and who build such a magnificent ship. One which stirred fear and awe from both enemies and friends of the Union. He throughout the centuries pondered these questions which he considered to be of great importance to this galaxy. He found himself no closer to their solution now than he did the day he took possession of the gifts. As time past his efforts to answer them steadily declined. For always in the far corner of his mind was the feeling that when and only then would the Guardian make that information available. Earth became United Earth, spread over the Sol system and space beyond. Due to semantic Earth became Terra, formally accepted the mandates of and became a founding member of the United Stars. In the name of the Union, the Devastator with him as her captain, then Admiral, fought many wars and faced many daunting problems. Terra and its' solar system became a center of prosperity and power. With that, it was one of the busiest and most technologically advanced solar systems in this or any galaxy. Terra quietly lost most of its original power, and the questions surrounding the Guardian faded further and further from the collective minds. After the Peace Hawks' debacle, his long odyssey and the war against the YAll and the last significant clash with the Galactic Council, who was just a puppet organization of the Kermac, the question was all but completely forgotten. Of the two hundred Immortals, there weren't all that many remaining alive. He smirked to himself as he reached for his mug of coffee, muttering to himself, under his breath,  "It is kinda stupid to call them Immortals. Most of them didn't last for more than a thousand years. Granted violent acts killed a few, but still, the term seemed irreverent. He opened a drawer and retrieved a pack of cigarettes and an old Zippo lighter that was like him over three thousand years old.   He meticulously refilled the antique with lighter fluid, the stuff still produced in small quantities at one of the few small companies still operating on Earth and lit a Camel. His cigarettes came out of a matter molecule printer and were an exact copy of this ancient brand. Being immune to disease and sickness, he experienced no ill effects. Not that he was smoking much anymore. But in quiet times like this when he was all alone, he did smoke for enjoyment. He opened a multimedia report folder labeled Guardian of Earth research. He routinely received a report from a small group of scholars and researchers,  which he called the Guardian detectives. He read the file to see if they had any more insights as who it was that built and tasked that artificial entity that called itself Guardian of Earth. That substance never revealed its true motives. Not that there was much left of the actual machine. Although it had made him immoral, Stahl acting singularity had destroyed the Guardian with a nuclear device, Thus ending that machines evil reign and ill-advised habit of cloning and thus reanimating long dead leaders of human past. Few if any lived up to their original glory and some like the clones of Genghis Khan, Hitler and Stalin were as bad as their originals. All three brought the near extinction the planet and its expanding power. He never trusted that machine completely. Someone or something put great efforts in building this thing of almost god-like powers and had it watch over all of humankind's development, only to take open and active control over humans destiny after the opening of the gateway to the star. Humankind and the remaining immortals seemed to have forgotten about the Guardian as Terra become a quiet thinly populated planet. The team of investigators and scholars had reopened the cave and found some the remnants of the Guardians machine center, it was of course destroyed and melted, but from what was left and from the things the Guardian had done it was clear, it was technology far beyond anything known. The message of the old lead investigator was the same as the messages of him and the researchers before No definite theories. They did send the recovered pieces to a leading Xeno Tech Institute of the Blue. He put the report back into the pile, and his eyes fell on a unique souvenir on his desk, it was a perfectly normal looking gray round river rock sitting on a pile of print outs. However, it was a genuine piece of Narth Prime, one of the most astonishing worlds he had ever visited. Stahl was the only human, as far as he knew who, to set foot on Narth Prime. No one officially knew he had been on Narth Prime or that he had talked to the entity Narth Supreme. The Narth were by far the most advanced civilization, that very definition, however, no longer fit their state of development. Even the Narth Supreme had no answer or knew about the Guardian or its purpose. But Stahl only understood a fraction of what Narth Supreme told him, and he may well have explained it. Either Stalh completely did not understand, or the Narth Supreme choose not to answer it. He took the rock and sighed. When he first set foot on Narth Prime, it was as if landing on a planet-sized eight ball. It was merely a completely featureless plane of a smooth glass-like material. The Nart Supreme changed the environment into a depiction of an Alpine scenery complete with mountains, valleys, and a crystal clear mountain stream in the blink of an eye, making him feel more at home. The entity assured him that it was not a projection or a simulation and encouraged him to take one of the rocks along as a souvenir. Whenever he had time as now, he enjoyed following up on the Academy and read the files of new applicants. It was a pet project of his scanning more or less randomly over a few of these every so often. He could not clearly define in words what he was looking for, but every so often one or two applications somehow was different than all the others. Well, one criterion of his was that all the ones he picked were oddballs of one type or the other. He then kept an eye on these applicants and followed their careers made adjustments or created situations and hidden tests to evaluate them further. Nine out of then was just that, an oddball and not much else, but there was always one that emerged as a gold nugget in a washing pan, an exceptional officer and they became legends on their merit. He had found Harris that way, who was now the current captain of the Devastator. Without a doubt, the best captain ever to operate that position on his ship. Or that Purple Throat Shiss, Captain Zezz a finer tactician and outstanding officer did not exist in his opinion. These personal ideas and passions about exceptional individuals, he thought held the potential for becoming great Ship Commanders, was now a significant project and his staff took extra care in handling it. His method of selecting them was more intuitive and not scientific or developed from countless years of Academy experience. He selected them more or less randomly and by a gut feeling only. His staff, more or less, knew his criteria and pre-selected a few hundred files from the millions of applicants each new academy year. Stahl already had Eric Olafson's record marked and placed on a small stack of those he had so far selected this year. He was finishing a report on an autistic savant from Africa, planet Terra when his GalNet unit flashed. Only a few individuals knew his personal contact code. It came over the civilian GalNet connection and was not fleet related. He noticed the logo of Schwartz industries. Rex Schwartz was like him, an immortal and as a person, Rex never openly worked for the Union and sometimes used his Corporation in both mysterious and questionable ways. Richard was certain he too had a task given by the Guardian working for the benefit of the Human species. While he did not agree with most of the things Rex did, after all those millennia, they knew each other well. Richard didn't like anyone or anything with unlimited power. He felt that the Immortals must adhere to even higher standards than normal humans, and be accountable and responsible for all they did. Rex never felt hindered by ethical or moral reasons to do something. Richard pressed the response key since Rex would not call unless he had a good solid reason to do so. "You sure cleaned house, Old friend. The whole galaxy is abuzz with your latest space battle antics." "Your security service and corporate snoops knew about it long before it happened. They code-named it, Red Flood, correct?" "I do have a few sources here and there, and it clearly shows you do as well, knowing the Code name of a level 3 classified document of my organization." "I like to keep tabs on you, old friend.  After all these years, we know each other. I still do not fully trust you.  Schwartz Industries is so intertwined with the Union  that it would be possible for you to decide to become Emperor and change the Union into the Schwartz empire." "You know I have no political ambitions, and like you, I am doing what I can to keep the wolfs away.  For you know, as well as I, that not all problems get resolved with Translocator cannons." "I am aware of that, Old friend, of course, this has not stopped you from creating a battle fleet second only to the Union Navy and arming your ships with weapons illegal for civilian entities." "Schwartz industries manufacture and develop much of the weapons and ships your fleet uses, and those units are just test and experimental samples of our development division. Perfectly legal by the way. " "This is a private call Rex, and it is on highest encryption on a Network you own and control so don't treat me as stupid. You and I know the truth." Richard leaned forward. "Now, I am sure you had a reason for calling." "Yes, I do. I adopted a Sojonit Sister. She is barely seventeen years old but is very intelligent, and she wants to join the Union Academy and become a science officer." "A Sojonit, you say, what is going on, something I need to know?" "Richard, I am still married to Linda, and nothing will change that. I don't care what you are thinking now.  This girl has an IQ greater than four hundred, and that should make even you pause, you old Battle Axe." Richard did whistle softly, "There are maybe twenty or thirty individuals in the entire galaxy with an IQ like that, including you, Mothermachine and the Saresii High Academics." "And excluding the Narth, but who knows if you can classify them as individuals." Stahl leaned back and opened his old fashioned refrigerator and get himself a bottle of beer, "I would invite you, but Holo avatars simply can't enjoy a good beer." "You old fart, you offer me a beer almost every time we meet, and you know I do not drink alcoholic beverages., one of these days, pow right in the kisser." "Just trying to convince an old friend about an enjoyable pleasure he's missing." The Admiral opened the bottle and said. "I can understand why you call. She is still a Sojonit right?" "Yes, she wears what they call the veil of abstinence, and she is not a fully trained Sojonit, our mutual friend on Sin 4 has raised her. It is all she knows, and frankly, I think it is the best disguise she could have, being my daughter can be too dangerous, and this way, she remains anonymous." "Yes, I remember what happened to your lovely Clara, but I won't open old wounds. With an IQ like that the Academy will accept her with open arms.  I will make sure she can keep wearing a wig and mask even through the Academy. I won't guarantee her safety in terms of assignments after that, and I expect our future officers to face dangers and if necessary lay down their lives, but I guarantee you her integrity and anonymity." "That's all I ask for, Richard." "I will contact Webb right after this call. It appears that I have a spot open in her third year. There is a group of applicants I put together that requires a Science Cadet as the one I previously selected was recalled to its home planet to take over as its leader." "I trust you in that completely." "So how about Project Fish?" "We just finished the hull. The first ship with nano compacted Neutronium wave hull and frame. It took us eighty years to get the manufacturing process right, and it is the most time and work intensive material we ever conceived.  Perhaps even better than the armor the Celtest used to make your monster ship." "When do you think she's ready?" "I would say four years." "I genuinely look forward to seeing that fish swim." "Mothermachine said she now has the concepts she will use for its computronic, and it's the first time SII working with Mothermachine on building a ship's brain you know." The two old friends discussed several more topics, including the Dai Than and the fantastic development of over two thousand tribes becoming Union members.