Delphi Exploration (Delphi in Space Book 7) Read online

  “Do you really want to not have any responsibilities?”

  “Probably not, but something different. Where what you do has an immediate impact, not this long chess match we’re in.”

  “That would be nice,” Marc said as he nuzzled Samantha’s neck.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Nattie, I think it’s time we got married,” Paul said. “You’re not Catie’s bodyguard anymore. You’ve got a nice, quiet job here on the space station running the environmental department. I think it’s time.”

  “Was that your proposal?” Natalia asked.

  “I proposed to you a year ago; I’m just telling you it’s time.”

  “I think you might be right,” Natalia said.

  “Does that mean yes?”

  “I already said yes, we just need to set a date.”

  “So!”

  “What about March 15th? Catie will be back so she can be my maid of honor.”

  “Are we having a big wedding?”

  “No! Just family and close friends. I can fly my mom and my sister out. Your parents already live in Delphi City.”

  “Do you think we can get ready in time?”

  “With ADI’s help, it’ll be a snap.”

  “Oh, boy! A wedding!” ADI chirped over their Comms.

  Chapter 4

  Propositions

  As soon as they got back to Delphi Station, Catie went to see Dr. McDowell. She’d been cooped up for four days on the return flight and was itching to talk over her ideas.

  “Dr. McDowell.”

  Dr. McDowell was working at his whiteboard on some equations; He didn’t even flinch; it was as if he hadn’t heard her. He was completely ignoring her presence.

  “How can such a young guy act like such a crotchety old man,” Catie thought. “Dr. McDowell!” Dr. McDowell was only twenty-nine-years old. Catie had read a paper by him on gravity waves. ADI had said that his theory was close to reality, but his colleagues had rejected the paper. Marc hadn’t had any trouble recruiting him to come and work for MacKenzie Discoveries.

  “Oh, hi, Catie.”

  “I wanted to talk about the jumpdrive.”

  “Sure, go ahead,” Dr. McDowell said without turning away from the equation he was working on.

  “With you!” Catie said.

  “Oh, okay. What do you need to know?”

  “I was wondering how you were doing on your efforts to increase the size of the wormhole so that it could accommodate a larger ship, or the Paraxeans’ asteroid?”

  “Still getting bigger, but those gravity drives take so long to make, I’m only up to two hundred meters. And it’s taking a lot of power. We need to make a bigger capacitor bank. Your engineers don’t like that.”

  “I can imagine,” Catie said. “I have an idea that might help. That is, if it works.”

  “What? . . . Oh, an idea.”

  “Yes, could we put each of the gravity drives on a separate ship, then have the ships arrange themselves around the object we want to transport?”

  “Then how would the gravity drives push against each other?”

  “Are they pushing against each other, or are they just manipulating the gravimetric waves in opposition?” Catie asked.

  “Same thing, . . . Oh! . . . No, it isn’t!” Dr. McDowell said. He quickly moved to a blank section of the whiteboard and started writing equations. “If I model the gravimetric waves like this. . . . Hmm, that might change things,” he said to himself. He furiously started writing new equations on the board.

  Catie left him. Once he started talking to himself and writing out equations like that, it was impossible to get his attention. “At least he looks like he’s working on my idea,” Catie thought. She’d check back in a few days.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Daddy,” Catie said as she walked into Marc’s office.

  “What’s up?”

  “I’ve got Dr. McDowell working on an idea that might make it easier to move the asteroid. I’ll check back in with him after he’s had time to work on it.”

  “Thanks for doing that. Governor Paratar keeps pestering me about coming up with a solution for the Paraxeans.”

  “You can’t blame him. It must feel horrible to have all your people in stasis and no idea when you can bring them out.”

  “I’m sure it is,” Marc said. “Is there something else? You didn’t walk over here just to tell me about Dr. McDowell, did you?”

  “No, Liz and I have an idea for a new company, and I wanted to see if you’d be okay with us starting it up.”

  “A new company? What about your robostep company?”

  “It’s just getting started, and it’s really small,” Catie said. “This one is a really big company.”

  “How big?”

  “Big. We want to make a cargo vessel that is specifically designed to carry lots of cargo in space. Something that would be lots more efficient than using an Oryx and would work well with the new jumpdrive.”

  “And what cargo are you thinking it would carry?”

  “We thought we’d take care of moving stuff to and from Gemini Station, especially the metal ores you want shipped back. Eventually, we can make shipments between Earth and our new planets. The colonies will need lots of cargo. We might even be able to start trading with Paraxea.”

  “And how would you build this ship?”

  “Pretty much the same way we’ve built all the others, but we would pay for the material ourselves.”

  “Designers and crew?”

  “We’d have to use the same designers and ADI; we’d pay for their time. And we’d hire the crew and some managers to run the company.”

  “You’re not going to run it yourself?”

  “Sure, but someone has to do all the paperwork. We want to outsource that.”

  “Don’t we all,” Marc said. “You'll need to get the approval of the Mackenzie board to use the technology. But since you and I own over half the shares, you can go ahead and get started.”

  “Thanks, Daddy.”

  “We’ll see if you thank me after you’ve had a few months of putting up with all the headaches that come with owning a big company.”

  “Don’t worry,” Catie said. “We’ll figure it out.”

  “I’m sure you will.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Artie,” Catie said as she caught him at the school lounge. The school provided a large lounge and library area for the students who were homeschooled. Artie had finally persuaded his parents, who were both teachers, to let him finish up his schooling in a self-directed program. He was now just a few credits away from graduation and had over thirty college credits as well.

  “Hey, Catie. Are you slumming?”

  “No, I came to talk to you.”

  “So, you are slumming.”

  Catie smacked Artie on the shoulder, then sat next to him on the sofa. He was using a flat board on his lap to project a keyboard onto so he could type.

  “Hey, before we talk about my business, I want to show you something,” Catie said.

  “Sure.”

  “I need to link with your Comm,” Catie said. She sent him a link request.

  “Link accepted,” Artie said.

  “Okay, watch.” Catie brought up a blank document and proceeded to type.

  “How are you doing that?”

  “I’m just typing,” Catie said, trying to hide her grin.

  “I can see that, but how? There’s no way you can type that fast in your HUD. What, . . . is this some kind of trick? Did you already have the document ready and just . . .”

  When Artie realized that Catie was typing what he was saying, he abandoned his argument.

  “So, how?” he asked.

  “I have some nanites around my tailbone, I’m using the nerves there to type,” Catie said. “Talk to Dr. Metra, and she can set you up.”

  “Whoa, that is so cool. My sister will be so jealous.”

  “It takes a couple of months to get good at it, s
o you should keep it a secret until you’ve practiced,” Catie said.

  “I’ll have to ask my parents for permission. I’m sure they’ll be cool about me getting them. And they think it’s funny when I keep things from Amelia. Is there any reason they can’t have it done, too?”

  “Not at all. It’s cheap. Tell Dr. Metra I’ll pay. I guess we’ll have to come up with a policy about it. I’ll bring it up at the next board meeting.”

  “Cool. So, why do you want to talk to me?”

  “I need some help setting up the manufacturing for my new robostep design.”

  “Robostep?”

  “Here, look,” Catie said as she threw the design documents up on Artie’s HUD. “It will move to wherever you tell it to. It uses your Comm as its brain. Then, once you step onto it, you can have it crank the height up to thirty centimeters. When you’re done, you tell it to go home.”

  “How are you making these now?”

  “I’m printing them.”

  “That’s crazy, that must cost thousands per unit.”

  “It does. But it’s a new design; I was trying to see if people would like it. But now I need to have it manufactured properly. You’ve been taking some manufacturing classes; can you help me?”

  “I can work on it. I’m working at the prototype lab under Ajda, so I have access to all the tools and software.”

  “So, you can do it?”

  “I might need to get a little help from one of the engineers; I’d have to pay him.”

  “Don’t worry; I’ll pay.”

  “What about me?”

  “How long will it take you to do it?”

  “Four months or so,” Artie answered. “I can only work on it part time.”

  “That’s okay; I’m not in a hurry. I’m not advertising or anything, so sales are low. I’ll pay you fifty percent of an engineering grade two salary while you’re working on it.”

  “Seventy percent,” Artie countered.

  “Sixty . . . whatever, seventy,” Catie agreed.

  “Deal. I’ll work hard and do a good job,” Artie said.

  “I know you will, that’s why I came to you. How’s your shipping company doing?”

  “Not as well as it would if you guys hadn’t opened that site to auction off the excess lift capacity.”

  “We had to; it wasn’t fair to keep it secret.”

  “I know. I’m doing okay. I build up a backlog of people who want to send stuff up. I stage all the stuff and send it up when I can. I grab slots that show up suddenly when someone misses their shipment deadline, and that really increases my profit margin. And of course, I’m shipping up the stuff that I sell.”

  “How do your parents feel about having a mercenary capitalist in the family?”

  “They’re getting used to it,” Artie said. “They kind of think of it like I’m taking a business class; that way they can ignore the fact that I’m making money.”

  Catie laughed, “Your parents are weird.”

  “You’re telling me. I have to live with them.”

  “See you.”

  “Bye.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Liz, I got the green light to form our new company,” Catie said when she got home that night. “Oh, and this is Julia, my new bodyguard. She’s been briefed, so we can talk about stuff like Sakira and ADI.”

  “That’s good. Hi, Julia,” Liz said.

  “Hello, Ma’am,” Julia said.

  “It’s Liz,” Liz said. “We’re pretty informal, at least when we can be. Relax and make yourself at home. When you’re in the condo, you can count on your two shadows out there to cover things. It’ll give you a chance to shake off all that tension.”

  “Liz used to be my bodyguard,” Catie said. “And she’s right. In fact, I’m in for the night, so you can hang around or go out and have some fun. Liz will cover me until 0700 tomorrow. We do a workout together in the morning. You can pick me up at the gym.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to stick around for a bit. Get used to you and your routines. I still need to get a feel for this job,” Julia said.

  “Sure, but you’re off-duty, so you can grab a beer or a glass of wine if you like.”

  “Thank you, I’m good.”

  “Suit yourself. Now, Liz, our new company,” Catie said.

  “Just like that, he said okay?”

  “Yes. He said I have to get the board’s approval, but that between us, we control a majority of the shares; actually, he controls over fifty percent, so that’s a given.”

  “Then we need to set up a corporation, pick a name, and design the ship,” Liz said. “Do you want to go fifty-fifty on it?”

  “Sure,” Catie said. “I think we need about four hundred million to build the first ship.”

  Liz gulped, “Four hundred million?”

  “Yes, I’m sure you have at least two hundred million in MacKenzies.”

  “Barely,” Liz said.

  “I’ll loan you the money against your shares,” Catie said. “One percent interest.”

  “That’s pretty generous.”

  “Hey, I owe you so much, what’s a few points against that? Besides, we’ll make it back in no time. Especially if we’re the ones shipping stuff to the colony planets.”

  “That would be sweet,” Liz said. “Just imagine all the cargo the Paraxeans are going to need hauled out to them.”

  “But how are they going to pay for it, and what will we haul back?”

  “Probably more platinum metals. But maybe there will be something really different on the planet that people here will want,” Liz said.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Liz, I was thinking about your money,” Catie said the next morning during their workout.

  “If you want to change your mind about loaning me the money, I’ll understand.”

  “No, it’s not that,” Catie said. “But you might be able to make the extra money you need before we need it.”

  “How?”

  “Talk to Fred,” Catie said. “He’s going to be playing the futures market on his platinum group scam. He has less money than you do. Daddy only said he could trade the metals on credit. He’s going to have to use his own money to play the commodities market.”

  “So?”

  “So, he’ll probably be fine if you play it too. Maybe you can form a partnership,” Catie said.

  “I’ll talk to him today,” Liz said. “Thanks, but why aren’t you talking to him?”

  “ADI does all my investments; she’ll probably be playing the market anyway.”

  “I will,” ADI said, “but I’ll make sure not to undermine Fred’s investments.”

  “Nice of you, ADI,” Liz said.

  “I like to be helpful,” ADI replied.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Dr. Zelbar,” Catie announced herself as she entered his lab on Delphi Station.

  “Oh, hello, Catie.”

  “I have an idea I thought you might want to work on.”

  “Well, spit it out,” Dr. Zelbar said.

  “He acts like a crotchety old man, but at least he is an old man. And he’s willing to talk,” Catie thought. “You know that one of the problems we have on our spaceships is having to decompress the cargo bay when we want to move cargo or spaceplanes in and out of them.”

  “Of course I do.”

  “I have an idea to get around that.”

  “Not some damn force field, I hope.”

  “No, I haven’t been able to imagine how a force field would work.”

  “That’s because they won’t.”

  “I’ll take your word for it. But my idea is to use polysteel, but flexible, like the polysteel you designed for our armor.”

  “How’s that going to help?”

  “If we arrange it like an iris, you know, like in a camera.”

  “I’m not five years old!”

  Catie ignored his little outburst. “Anyway, with lots of narrow strips leading to the center, and put micromagne
ts along the edge, then it would seal up.”

  “Probably.”

  “If a shuttle or cargo pod were shaped right, then the polysteel would spread apart, letting the ship pass, but still maintain a seal.”

  “You might maintain a seal, but I’m sure it would leak.”

  “We can afford leaks; we just want to avoid a full decompression,” Catie said. “Ten to twelve pounds or around one hundred thousand pascals isn’t that much pressure. I think the magnets can seal that.”

  “They might. So, you want me to work on that?”

  “Yes, but for me, not MacKenzies,” Catie said.

  “Oh, striking out on your own, are you?”

  “Just a little,” Catie said. “I’ll pay you.”

  “Bah, we already have more money than we know what to do with!”

  “Still, I’ll pay you.”

  “Talk to Nikola.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Ajda, how is the scout ship doing?” Catie asked as she entered Ajda Jamali’s office. She was the aerospace engineer who had led the design for the carriers before the war with the Paraxeans. She had also designed the probes that Catie and Dr. McDowell used for the jumpdrive testing. She was now designing the scout ship that they planned to use when they explored the new planets they had discovered.

  “We’ve just finished installing the gravity drives, again,” Ajda said.

  “I know, I’m sorry, but we needed them. But now that we’re past our material shortage issues, I promise not to raid your projects.”

  “Thanks. You know, it’s kind of lucky you stole them.”

  “Why?”

  “You know that mad scientist, Dr. McDowell, has been having us make bigger and bigger grav drives for his experiments.”

  “Yes. I know. He’s doing it for us.”

  “Sure, sure. But it’s insane to try to put that big a drive into a probe. We had this big screaming match about how crazy it was. So anyway, he went back and finished the work he was doing on drive efficiency, and he came back with a drive design that was twenty percent more efficient.”

  “That’s cool; I hadn’t heard about that yet.”

  “Yep, of course it means that I can’t yell at him when he asks for a bigger drive next time. But if he asks for a bigger one after that, I’m going to pitch another fit. Who knows, he might come back with another major design improvement.”