Mike Stedman 1: Invasion Read online

  He wasn’t sure why, but it seemed like a bad idea.

  Trudy didn’t waste any time, “Thank you Mike, it’s beautiful, but flowers? So, you have it set up to create lifeforms as well?”

  He nodded, “Sort of, only ones without measurable intelligence. Chrystal wouldn’t create something like a human, or even a cat, or a mouse for that matter. But flora seemed harmless enough. Trees, flowers, bushes, grass, stuff like that.”

  He and Chrystal had a lot of long conversations about the morality of such things in the past. They’d decided even animal intelligence would be a bad idea. They could create just about anything, but they weren’t going to play god.

  “The ship can create food though. Not a live cow, but certainly steaks, and of course vegetables and all that. It can also reconfigure itself.”

  She nodded, “My real question is, how do you do it so quickly.”

  He grinned, “More power, interested in seeing my design?”

  She snorted, “Cheeky boy, get inside and show me. I suppose you should be proud of it though. When I saw a ship appear out of nowhere in five minutes it took me by surprise. You might want to tell someone next time.”

  He shrugged as they headed inside, “It is possible to do a lot more with it, imagine a real forest, fresh water lakes. Anything really, that we have a template for.”

  They went inside of her lab, and he accessed his one true breakthrough, and brought it up on the screen alongside the old power cores.

  The field that taps and concentrates vacuum energy creates a large amount of power, so large that the old systems used super capacitors, and the field itself was blinked on for microseconds at a time to charge the capacitors when they started to run low. The core would feed a constant stream of power using the super capacitors as a buffer. The heavier the load, the faster the field fluctuated on and off, but there was a load limit inherent in that design. The super capacitors could charge and discharge only so fast before it became unstable.

  The reason the field had to blink, and feed capacitors, was because leaving it on all the time would almost instantly overload the device, and cause an explosion.

  The old cores not only had to create things slower, but only allowed the ships powered by them to skip in level two subspace, they couldn’t just stay in there like his ship could.

  So, his new device would be worth installing in all the other ships, even if they wouldn’t have the mass/energy device like Chrystal did the benefit would be more stability in L2 subspace as well as more powerful shields and weapons. He didn’t bother going over all that with his mother, since her and his dad had created that power source to begin with, she was well aware of its limits.

  “So, what am I looking at?”

  He explained, “The new design allows the field to always be active, by using a secondary containment field to prevent overload. The secondary field actually does the opposite of the primary, and disperses the dark energy back into the universe. That keeps the reactor at a hundred percent power at all times, and if the load increases, the dispersion field is used less, which means it’s still at a hundred percent.

  “Instead of trying to stop an overload by limiting the power it generates, I created a place for that extra energy to go to. That extra energy leads to faster matter generation and more stability. You would need about a hundred of the old vacuum power devices to get the same steady power generation without the surges and variances that would be disastrous for stabilizing matter.”

  Trudy smiled, “That’s brilliant, that secondary field is a new discovery, how long did you work on this?”

  He replied, “Eight years on and off actual, quite a bit longer than that in perceptive time. That includes the rest of my ship design.”

  Trudy said with a teasing lilt, “Yes, you created a ship, and then fell for her?”

  He blushed, “Mom, seriously?”

  Trudy giggled, “I’m happy for you, but it is kind of fun to tease you. Thanks for this design, did you create anything else?”

  He shook his head, “All the rest is just new designs of current technology that you helped create. A handful of ship designs, though the scout ship is just as powerful as a larger ship would be, just able to carry more people and things. I want to take a look around out there.”

  Trudy nodded, “Well before you go anywhere, your father wants to see you.”

  He checked, and his father was in his private lab, with Nicci, one of his father’s human wives, who was also married to another of his father’s wives, Kara. But that was before they’d both come to Mars to marry his father. His family could be confusing. Maybe he should wait a few minutes, just in case. Nicci wasn’t a scientist after all, which probably meant she was in his lab for another reason. He didn’t even want to think about parent sex, much less accidentally barge in on it…

  Chapter Four

  “You wanted to see me dad?”

  Ted nodded, “Hey Mike, so what are your plans? You built yourself a ship, without telling anyone?”

  His father’s voice had been conversational, and not accusing, and laced with curiosity more than anything else.

  He shrugged, “I shared the new power source, but I was keeping my ideas on matter/energy conversion and the ability to change the ship’s configuration to myself. I supposed I wanted to do it on my own. I’m not sure. Now that it’s done, Chrystal wound up meaning far more to me than any of the rest of it.”

  Ted smiled, “We have that in common, and I’m happy for you son. A lot of amazing things have happened in my lifetime, but none more so than your mothers. I’m proud of you, and you can find your own way, but I wanted to ask you a favor of sorts now that you’re older. Would you consider taking over the A.I.s position in the Xaran senate? If you do like I do, you can just keep a remote control android body on planet, and go those few hours every ten Earth days from anywhere. So, that way you can still go exploring in your ship, wherever and whenever you want.”

  He was startled by the offer, “Why me?”

  Ted grinned, “Because you wanted to blow up Earth when you were three months old, because they were mean to your mother.”

  He frowned thoughtfully, “Can you explain that? That doesn’t sound like a positive thing to me.”

  Ted said carefully, “I wouldn’t change a thing about the A.I.s, they’re loving, thoughtful, and good people. That goes twice for my wives. Except, I always did wish they would be a little more selfish. Not a bad selfish, but a healthy selfish. I’m always running interference with Australia, and at the senate meetings, just to make sure they aren’t taken advantage of. They love to serve humanity, and that’s okay, but they don’t look out for their own self-interests enough.

  “Outside of their desire to be in the outside world, which led to the Mars A.I. colony and all the trouble on Earth, they don’t want anything. I think it’s because they wanted to be out in the real world with their humans, so even that one selfish desire was all about being closer to the ones they serve.

  “I believe that you would look out for our interests. You’re quite possibly the only A.I. in existence that would make sure Mars and our civilization is treated honestly and fairly. Up until now, it’s been me, Kara, and Silvia fighting that fight as best we could from the sidelines, but as a senator you could do it out in the open.”

  He asked, “What about the current senator?”

  Ted shook his head and chuckled, “All I have to do is ask, and she’ll step aside for you, which only goes to further illustrate my point. I’m human so I get my way, she’d be thrilled if she could do me a favor. It’s something I’ve been careful not to abuse over the years, but it’s true. Whereas with you… all I can do is ask.”

  He thought about what he’d said, and ran through it all in his mind. Blowing up Earth hadn’t been a serious thought, but in a way being on the Senate would allow him to defend his home in a real way. He’d noticed what his father was talking about before, he’d have to be blind not to. He served no one, n
ot anyone that he didn’t want to anyway.

  It was a major difference inside of him from the rest of his kind.

  “Alright, I can do that. Anything else? I need to rescue Chrystal from Mia.”

  His father laughed, “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s fine. You might consider going to Australia though, before you point your bow toward the unknown. A part of you is human, it’s always good to know where you come from, before you leave.”

  “Alright, although I know humans from here.”

  Ted nodded, “Our family is special, your brothers and sisters were raised with no preconceptions about A.I.s, and had no exposure to the kind of prejudice that can fester in the human soul. The humans that come here are accepting of A.I.s. Australia will give you an unfiltered view of humanity in all its extremes. Most there like us, but definitely not all. It’s just a suggestion. Oh, one more piece of advice, be careful with that ship, and what you do with it. Even generosity can bring out the worst in people, sometimes more so than anything else. Pride and envy.”

  He wasn’t sure he understood that last part, but nodded thoughtfully and left his father to his work…

  He walked into the living room, and froze when he heard Mia and Chrystal giggling together. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but he knew it made him nervous.

  “Ladies.”

  Mia looked up, “Speak of the devil, we’ve just been sharing stories about you.”

  Bad, definitely bad, he frowned at Chrystal.

  Chrystal just smiled, “What’s the plan?”

  “I’m joining the Xaran senate, and we’re going to Australia, if that’s okay with you? Then we can take a look around the galaxy?”

  That reminded him, he composed a quick letter in his head, and sent it to Xia along with the specifications for his android. Princess Xia was the heir to the empire, but she was also a friend, and would have it built for him before the council meeting which was in just a few days.

  Mia asked, “Your father is busy stirring up trouble?”

  He grinned, “Something like that, he also warned me not to be too generous with the ship, though I’m not sure why.”

  Mia looked thoughtful for a second, “With that ship you could provide food and water to an area suffering drought and famine, you could even make them fertile soil, an irrigation system, and a fresh water lake. It all sounds good, but in the end, they’d accuse you of playing god, and be envious of your technology. They’d despise you for keeping it from them, why should they farm on the fertile land you provided if you can just give them the tech to make whatever they want, and they would hate us all even more.

  “You might also harm their economy and some businesses. Generosity and helping others is important, but it can be taken too far. Too much charity can destroy their self-worth, and give them a false sense of entitlement. When you don’t come back to refill the lake, and make them more food because they were too lazy to farm, they’ll riot and hate us even more.”

  He asked, “Isn’t that a bit extreme? And unlikely?”

  She shrugged, “Yes, I exaggerated the dangers to make it easier to see, life is subtler than that. But a similar thing happened with the artificial gravity, the governments are pissed we won’t share it. The empress is wise to keep the energy to matter technology limited, it’s also why Trudy limited using it for just the atmosphere and medical experimentation.

  “Use it for your ship’s needs, or otherwise where you feel it absolutely necessary, but if you can, you should avoid using it for shortcuts. We have the technology to use it for everything, yet we still plant crops, and grow cultured meats. We still build our cities using fabricators, and with resources from the asteroid belt. That technology could literally put everyone out of work, humans and even A.I.s need work to feel productive in our current society.”

  She held up the simple rose he’d given her as if it were damning evidence, “It could even put flower shops out of business.”

  He tilted his head, “The Xarans use it on all their ships, and to build their smart metal, furniture, food and everything else on their planet. Why couldn’t we and humanity do the same, surely there is some other pursuits to make people feel useful. Does it have to be work and earning money which would pretty much be meaningless at that point?”

  Chrystal smiled, “Maybe, but it would be a whole new society without the need of physical labor or even resource collection. One that was based on intellectual pursuits like the Xaran, and unless that change was very gradual, it would be completely destructive, even to us, never mind the humans. There are already many examples of primitive Earth societies that collapsed and lost their self-esteem as a whole, simply because of advancements brought to them by other more advanced cultures. Eventually, those cultures reinvented themselves, but not before suicides skyrocketed, and general unrest and rioting took place. Slow change works, fast immediate change is harmful to the human psyche.

  “Plus, Xaran psychology is completely different, so we couldn’t even use their example to plot out those changes.”

  He raised both hands, “I surrender, I forgot I was talking to two shrinks. I’ll even keep it a secret, our people know, but if at all possible I’ll keep it from the other races, including humans.”

  Chrystal smiled cutely, and said to Mia, “You did a good job with him.”

  Mia nodded with a mischievous smile, “He does seem rather wise.”

  Then they both started to giggle.

  He sighed, definitely a bad thing, he needed to get her away from his mother before she was entirely corrupted. Not that he was really upset, he just didn’t like being teased, and he had ten mothers.

  They both smiled at him knowingly, and then must have taken pity, because Chrystal got up and took his arm. It was time to go…

  Chapter Five

  The scout ship was much bigger than a shuttle, but it was no bigger than the ships that carried people between Mars and Earth, and he had no trouble landing his ship on one of the docks at the space port in Australia. Or at least, Chrystal didn’t. He knew as soon as he landed, that his Mars passport had been electronically checked into the system, he had no need to wait in a line.

  Still, he stayed right where he was, his head tilted down as he looked into Chrystal’s amber eyes as she pleasured him with her mouth, in a very wanton and enthusiastic manner. Her lips were wet with her spit as she took him deep inside her mouth and into her throat again and again.

  It hadn’t even been his idea, as soon as the ship had taken off, she’d gotten on her knees, looked up into his eyes, and started to worship his cock with a look of desire and wanton need on her face that took his breath away.

  “That feels so damned good baby,” he said a bit breathless.

  His words of approval seemed to make her work even harder at it, as she took him quickly toward his completion. She’d been a bit teasing, slow, and had taken her time on the flight here, as if she didn’t want it to end too soon. The look in her eyes told him that she truly wanted to be there and enjoyed it, but now that they’d landed at the spaceport she seemed determined to finish him as soon as possible.

  He didn’t think he’d last much longer inside the pleasure of her hot wet mouth, and the way her tongue swirled the tip and teased the bottom of his cock as she bobbed down and took him into her throat. The deep look of desire in her eyes, and her moans of pleasure as she worked for him to shoot into her mouth, just made it hotter.

  She slipped a hand between her legs, and started to play with herself as she fucked her face down on him, and that was about all he could take.

  “I’m going to cum,” he warned in a breathless voice.

  She sped up as his balls tightened, and his legs went numb as he pushed up into her mouth. She made noises of approval and vibrated her throat pleasurably around his cockhead as he was lost in the bliss. Then her whole body bucked, and she sucked harder, he knew she was cumming on her own fingers while she eagerly swallowed his load.

  Her sucking s
lowly lost intensity as she came down from her own orgasm.

  She continued to bob slowly, sensually, and happily as she made sure she got it all, and then stood up.

  She licked her fingers clean, and then leaned down for a kiss.

  He didn’t hesitate, and kissed her with an eager passion.

  She broke it and bit her lip, “Thanks.”

  He chuckled, “Isn’t that my line?”

  She sat in his lap, and he held her close.

  “I just really wanted it. You drive me crazy. I love the feel of you filling my mouth, and on my tongue… sliding through my lips. Fuck, now I want it again.”

  He smiled, and kissed her neck, and then her lips.

  “It’s mutual, and you owe me.”

  She tilted her head, “Owe you?”

  He nodded, “I demand equal time, I’ll let you decide if you want to sit on my face, or just lie down and open your legs, but as soon as we find a bed…”

  She giggled, “Fine, I suppose I could do you that favor.”

  He spanked her lightly and she squeaked.

  She asked, “So do you have a plan, or were we just going to wander the city?”

  He grinned, “Let’s start with lunch, and see what happens… I have a feeling my father wasn’t entirely honest about his reasons for me coming here.”

  She raised an eyebrow, “What makes you say that?”

  He shrugged, “I already know all I need to about prejudice, and the perfidy of some humans. I’ve never been here before, but I know the government is always pushing to get involved out in space, even as just simple observers, or perhaps just to get some human eyes on the others in the Xaran empire. Without artificial gravity, or FTL, Earth is dependent on us, and my father, as representatives and for defense of Earth. Don’t be surprised if we get approached, I imagine having the name Mike Stedman on my passport probably set off some triggers.”

  The Xaran didn’t really care about Earth itself, or even the solar system, it only cared what Earth did away from their own home. The empire was there to make sure others played well together, but as far as their own species went the Xaran didn’t interfere with internal politics. Still, he could kind of get the insecurity, the A.I.s wouldn’t share their technology, but perhaps some other arrangement could be made? The only problem was he wasn’t sure he wanted anyone else aboard during his honeymoon cruise so to speak, much less a human.