Delphi Forge (Delphi in Space Book 13) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 Another Year?

  Chapter 2 Homecoming – Delphi Station

  Chapter 3 Working On Delphi Station

  Chapter 4 Homecoming – Delphi City

  Chapter 5 Board Meeting – Sept 4th

  Chapter 6 A Royal Wedding

  Chapter 7 Resolve to Rest

  Chapter 8 Fun on Artemis

  Chapter 9 More Fun on Artemis

  Chapter 10 Onward

  Chapter 11 Mission Start

  Chapter 12 Back to work

  Chapter 13 Moving Forward

  Chapter 14 It’s Dangerous Out Here

  Chapter 15 Down to Business

  Chapter 16 Dark Shadows

  Chapter 17 Headaches

  Chapter 18 Into the Shadows

  Chapter 19 Starlight

  Chapter 20 Board Meeting – Oct 14th

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  Delphi Forge

  Delphi in Space

  Book Thirteen

  Bob Blanton

  Chapter 1

  Another Year?

  “Daddy!” Catie pleaded. Catie was aboard the DSS Merlin, which was finally making its way back to Earth after an unplanned side trip to Helike.

  Everyone else had suddenly become quiet in the board meeting when Marc had switched to the subject of Catie heading up the mission to establish a new mining outpost. ADI and Fred had determined that they would run out of platinum metals if they maintained their commitment to bring all the colonies and new members of the Delphi League up to the same technical level as Earth and Paraxea.

  “What?” Marc asked, still smiling at her.

  “It’s not fair. I was stuck in Onisiwo for nine months and here in Helike for the last seven weeks; that’s almost a year since I’ve been home.”

  “I know. But you’ll need a few months to plan this out; that should give you enough time to catch up with everyone. And you know it has to be a board member.”

  “What about Liz,” Catie suggested, throwing her best friend under the bus.

  “Hey, I’m up to my elbows managing StarMerchants. Besides, you’re the one who’s so good at politics,” Liz said, returning the favor.

  “You’re just trying to force me through another year of training.” Catie was referring to her father’s attempts to add to her single year at the academy with jobs that would round out her education.

  “That’s true, but it doesn’t alter the fact that you have all the required experience and skills for the job.”

  “I’ll work on a plan,” Catie acquiesced, “but I’m coming to Artemis to see my baby sister first.”

  “You should be able to do your planning anywhere. I’m sure Allie will be happy to see you. Everyone, I think it’s time to close the meeting,” Marc said, giving Catie a big smile.

  Everyone left the video conference right away; nobody wanted to risk Catie turning on them or deciding to rope them into her planning, at least not until she’d gotten over being mad.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Princess, is there a change of plans?” Tegan McAvoy, the Captain of the Merlin, asked as she met Catie in the passageway between their two cabins.

  “No, Tegan, we’re still going back to Earth,” Catie replied.

  “But you seem to be upset.”

  “I just got stuck with another long-term job; it’s frustrating.”

  “Oh, it’s the short-term jobs that always frustrate me. When they’re long-term, you can at least sink your teeth into them.”

  “Thanks, Tegan,” Catie said as she headed down to the gym to work off her frustrations, wondering if Tegan was right.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  While Catie was running on the treadmill, she thought back to what Captain McAvoy had said. Was her frustration really about getting stuck with another long-term job, or was it something else?

  The more she thought about the job, the more excited she became about it; so, what was her problem? After fifteen kilometers, she finally decided her problem was that her father had jumped at the chance to give her the assignment without discussing it with her. And thinking of that, she guessed that her father would have thought of discussing it as being equivalent to having an argument about it. Her father knew she would resist the assignment because she hadn’t been the one to see the need or the opportunity. And she wouldn’t have seen the same opportunity her father saw. She saw the technical challenge, the design opportunities, while her father saw it as a chance to add seasoning to her experience, adding a little management and politics in with the stuff she preferred to focus on. She guessed it was the perennial challenge between teenagers and their parents; just how much seasoning was enough before you could be trusted to make life decisions on your own.

  “ADI.”

  “Yes, Cer Catie?”

  “Can we send a probe to all the waypoints to examine their systems for platinum metals?”

  “We have a store of system probes that we could use. They cannot jump, but since you’re going to explore systems with waypoints in them, they won’t need to,” ADI replied. The waypoints were jump probes that they used to open a wormhole in a system that they then could cascade into another wormhole until they had a single wormhole that spanned multiple waypoints between the systems they wanted to travel between. It was how they could go from Artemis to Earth in a single jump instead of six.

  “How many can I get?”

  “There are seven probes.”

  “Okay, let’s start sending them to the waypoints. Pick different types of systems, so we get a sampling of various star types; that way, we can see if there is a pattern.”

  “Yes, Cer Catie.”

  “And put in a production order to replace the probes.”

  “Yes, Cer Catie.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  After her workout, Catie invited Captain McAvoy to join her in her cabin for lunch.

  “Princess, thank you for inviting me. What did you want to talk about?”

  “Tegan, call me Catie!”

  “Sorry, Catie, things have been a bit hectic lately and with all the diplomatic events on Helike, I’ve gotten into the habit.”

  “I understand. Anyway, I wanted to talk about my new assignment.”

  “And what is this new assignment?”

  “We’ve determined that with the rate of growth we plan for Artemis and the new colony planets we want to start, as well as supporting the Paraxean and Aperanjen colonies, that we will run short of the platinum metals we need,” Catie explained.

  “I thought Artemis was rich in them.”

  “It is, but it’s not enough, and Daddy wants to keep most of it as a strategic reserve. So, that means we have to find another source.”

  “I see. So how are you going to go about it?”

  “I’ve already launched probes into the waypoint systems. They’ll gather data on the content of those asteroid belts. We’ll use that data to determine if we already have a system that meets our needs and if not, the data should give us clues to finding a new system.”

  “Sounds like you have it under control; what do you need from me?”

  “It’s likely that the system we find will not have a habitable planet to colonize. That means we would have to put a space station in it and work from there.”

  “Similar to Gemini Station?”

  “Yes. But in this case, you won’t be just three to five days from Earth. You’d be two to three weeks away under civilian acceleration profiles, possibly longer. And it would require a jump. So, it would be a long and expensive trip.”

  Captain McAvoy smiled. “I see, so similar to a naval deployment?”

  “That’s the perfect analogy. So, what are the things we will need to deal with to keep all the people happy?”

  “You have your space carriers as examples. You have thousands of people on them, and they’re designed for long deployments.”

  “Yes, but they’re under military discipline, and we haven’t sent them on that many long deployments. The Fazullan situation was the longest, and we exchanged crews using military accelerations on Oryxes. I don’t think we’ll want to do that in this case if we can avoid it.”

  “It’s still a good example to build on. Those carriers are all crewed and stationed at the fringe, so it’s a long time between shore leaves.”

  “Oh, right. I knew that.”

  “Good.” Captain McAvoy wanted to make sure Catie knew the sacrifices the people in the Delphi Forces were making every day. “Okay, so if we look at the impact of long naval deployments on sailors, then we can see if there are changes you could make to your space station to make it better.”

  “Right.”

  “Okay, the first problem is claustrophobia. The space is limited; this is especially true on submarines. On the surface fleet, they can at least go topside and get some fresh air and see the horizon.”

  “Right, but there’s no topside on a space station or a space carrier.”

  “True, and your passageways are narrow. You’ve made the staterooms spacious, but when you’re walking around, it feels tight.”

  “What about the parks?” Both Delphi Station and Gemini Station had multistory parks in every quarter section of a ring.

  “That’s true, but you’re still spending a lot of time in narrow passageways. And if you want to go for a walk or run for exercise, you have to go to the lower level. A bit like going to the gym here on the Merlin,” Capt
ain McAvoy explained.

  “Hmm, okay, I’ll look into that. What else?”

  “I assume you’ll have bars and restaurants.”

  “Yes. I guess a better example would be a cruise ship.”

  “True, but on a cruise ship, you’re making a port of call every few days. Here, you’re talking about months.”

  “Okay, so what else do sailors miss when they’re aboard ship?”

  “When a ship docks at a liberty port, the first thing the sailors do is head to the bars. You’ve got that covered. And . . .”

  “Hookers,” Catie filled in for Captain McAvoy.

  “Of course. It’s a long time between ports.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with that. I suspect some of the staff on Gemini Station moonlight as sex workers. We don’t have an official policy of allowing them there. I guess we should look into that. Okay, what else?”

  “More varied entertainment. Even on a cruise ship, it gets redundant after a while.”

  “Right. And we already have sports activities on the stations.”

  “That’s important,” the captain replied. “You need as many ways as you can come up with for the people to blow off steam. Excessive exercise, like sports, helps. Drinking helps, but can do more harm than good.”

  “Okay. If you think of anything else, message me. I’ll be interviewing some of the miners on Gemini Station to get more feedback. And I’ll take another look at the design of Delphi Station to see if we missed an opportunity to make it more like a city.”

  “Good idea,” Captain McAvoy said as she signaled the steward to take away her plate and bring her another cup of coffee.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  The next morning, Samantha joined Marc for breakfast.

  “Marc, do you really think having Catie do another long mission is the right thing?”

  “Yes, I do. She has to learn how to plan out long missions and stick to them. This should be perfect, lots of design work, a few interesting economic problems, and a chance to manage people in a looser relationship.”

  “But it keeps her away from her friends. She’s still only a teenager,” Samantha pointed out.

  “I’m sure she’ll manage to get a few friends included in the mission. And she always has Morgan.”

  “What about boys?”

  “If the rumors I hear about this prince are to be believed, she seems to have figured a way to resolve that issue.”

  Samantha slapped Marc on the arm. “Don’t you go believing in rumors.” Samantha knew exactly what had happened with Prince Charming since Morgan kept her fully apprised of what happened in Catie's life, but she didn’t necessarily want Marc to know everything, even if Catie was his daughter.

  “I wouldn’t have to listen to rumors if you’d let me set the surveillance parameters with ADI that I prefer, or at least let me require Morgan to report details to me.”

  “Catie needs some privacy from you. It’s bad enough that you virtually manage her entire life.”

  “I’m just making sure that she has the right opportunities.”

  “Because?” Samantha prompted.

  “Because she’s one of the wealthiest and most powerful women on Earth, in the Galaxy, for that matter. One day, she’s going to realize it, and I think it’s important that she have the right background to survive that realization.”

  “She could always give all the money away.”

  “She could, but we both know she won’t. She’ll want to keep pushing Earth forward, and to do that, you have to have the money and power, otherwise, people who care more about money and power will take over, and things might spiral out of control.”

  “And they won’t with you McCormacks at the helm?”

  “At least we’ll try to avoid it.”

  Samantha just shook her head and went back to eating her breakfast.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  On Wednesday, the Merlin jumped to Sol and started its deceleration to Earth. After the jump, Catie ramped up her communication with her friends, focusing on email and messaging for now since they were still eight light-hours away. That was a long transmission delay, but it was better than a delay of up to thirty-two hours between messages, and it would decrease rapidly as they approached Earth. Catie had committed to minimizing her personal use of the quantum relays because they had limited bandwidth available, and the fact that other members of Delphi Forces were only able to use them for personal reasons on an extremely limited basis. As they approached Earth, the delay shortened, but until they were almost in orbit, it would still be too long to have a real conversation. She figured she’d wait on those until she was on Delphi Station.

  Chapter 2

  Homecoming – Delphi Station

  As soon as the Merlin docked at Delphi Station, Catie said goodbye to Captain McAvoy. They agreed to meet in two weeks at Deogenes in Delphi City. Then, she said goodbye to Morgan, who was heading to Colorado for an extended vacation with her girlfriend, Tracey. She also bid farewell to Cristina, who was heading to Delphi City right away. After her goodbyes, Catie went to her cabin on Delphi Station and took a long bubble bath.

  Once she finished soaking in the tub, she dressed and made her way to the triplets’ cabin.

  “Princesa!” the three girls squealed together. They were excited to see her, even though they’d known she was coming since she’d called them the day before.

  “Hello, girls. Wow, you look taller.” Catie waved to Celia, their guardian, who was in the kitchen preparing lunch.

  “Yes, we’ve grown two centimeters; Beni grew three centimeters,” Lílian, the most vocal of the three girls, said.

  “I can tell. So, how’s school?”

  “Ugh, we don’t want to talk about school! We want to talk about the prince!”

  “What prince?”

  “Prince Charming. Morgan told us all about him,” Lílian said.

  Catie sent a quick “I’ll get you” message to Morgan.

  “Have fun,” Morgan messaged back.

  “So, you already know about him.”

  “No, we don’t. Now spill!” Lílian demanded.

  “What, where did you get that saying from?”

  “Morgan.”

  “Ooh, that Morgan, she’s in trouble.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ll explain later. Anyway, the prince was Prince Nikitas, and we met him when we rescued his spaceship from being destroyed by asteroid fragments.”

  “Ooh, that’s nice. Did he kiss you?”

  “Not then; he was doing his job. We didn’t get to know each other personally until later, and you should never kiss someone you don’t know,” Catie explained.

  After Catie had suffered through thirty minutes of grilling about the prince, Celia came out of the kitchen and told the girls to go get washed up for lunch.

  “Sorry about that,” Celia said.

  “Not as sorry as Morgan’s going to be. It wasn’t your fault. Besides, it was fun.”

  “I’m glad. They’ve been so excited since they knew you were coming back. It’s been a long time.”

  “How are they doing?”

  “Much better. The doctors say they’ve erased most of the memories and dulled the others. They don’t have nightmares anymore.” The three girls had been used as prostitutes by a criminal ring for two months before Celia, a prostitute herself at the time, had found out and brought it to the attention of the authorities.

  “Are they still sleeping in the same bed?”

  “Yes, but I expect them to ask for bunk beds any day now. Instead of arguing about who gets to sleep in the middle, they’re arguing about who has to sleep in the middle.”

  “Are they going to want separate rooms?”

  “Not yet. Maybe when they’re fifteen, but even then, it won’t hurt them to share a bedroom; it’s pretty common,” Celia shrugged.

  “Good. Here they come.”

  “Princesa, Celia is going to take us to Delphi City, and we’re going to ride horses!” Lílian squealed.

  “Oh, you are? Have you ever ridden a horse before?”

  “No, we’re going to take lessons.”

  Catie gave Celia a questioning look.

  “I have vacation time now. So, I thought it would be good to go down to the city; they need to get used to crowds and open spaces again. They’ve been reading some stories about horses, so I think it will be a nice treat.”

  “Who’s going to give the lessons?”