After Damien left, Dr. Lund turned back toward Alexander. “That man doesn’t have much of a sense of humor, does he?”
“I don’t believe so, no. So you were an activist at one time?” he asked, curious about the respected scientist's history.
She sighed. “More like I was a stupid girl following an even stupider man around. I hate to admit how naïve I was in my youth, but it took me a long time to realize the man I loved was just a liar. By then I was already pregnant with our son. Even then I still thought I could change him. At one of the rallies he was so proud of, he got into a fight with law enforcement. During that altercation, he injured an officer. The minor scratch was all the reason they needed. They arrested the father of my son and that’s the last I heard of him. A month later my parents decided to move off world. The little hope I had left that he would change or return was gone. I saw no reason to stay, so I left with them.”
“…Sorry you had to go through that,” Alexander replied. He really wasn’t sure what to say after a story like that.
Lund shrugged. “That was nearly seventy years ago. It’s ancient history. Now, what have you been up to since we last spoke? I vaguely recall you telling me about some sort of gravity interrupter you had built?”
Alexander didn’t mind the change of subject. “I doubt I would call it a gravity interrupter. All it really did was interrupt the field produced by artificial gravity by introducing an electromagnetic field in a confined area. It took some time to figure out a frequency that worked and didn’t have unintended side effects since I didn’t and still don’t know how the gravity plates function.”
“Fascinating. Did you do the math behind the interaction, I would love to go over it.”
Alexander shook his avatar’s head. “I sort of just threw stuff together to see what worked and what didn’t. I’m not sure if Jasper told you, but I lost most of my memories.”
“He might have mentioned your predicament but if he did, I don’t recall any specifics. You have amnesia?”
“Something like that. Advanced forms of math seemed to be among the things I lost. I’m working on building that knowledge up again, but most of what I do is still guesswork based on what little I know.”
“And how’s that working out for you?” she asked knowingly.
“Not great,” he admitted. “I’ve moved onto propulsion engineering. My practical knowledge has taken me to the point where I have a design that is more efficient than an Omni engine of the same class, but not as powerful. I’m obviously missing something or my manufacturing setup isn’t up to the task. Probably a bit of both if I’m honest.”
“Hmm,” Nova said, “Most of my current work is on the theoretical side of propulsion. I might be able to help you with some of the trickier mathematics but trying to compete with companies like Omni doesn’t seem like a practical goal.”
“Why not?” Alexander asked in genuine curiosity.
“Those bastards don’t play fair. Unless you have state-of-the-art orbital manufacturing and powerful AI supercomputers, you’re not likely to surpass them anytime soon. If you think you have a design more efficient than theirs, it's only because they already figured that out and decided not to release it publically yet.”
“How would you know?”
“Because I worked for Omni early in my career. This was back when they were just getting started. I worked there for a few years until a man by the name of Benning stole my ideas and claimed them for himself. I would like to say it was because the man was a talentless hack, but he was and still is one of the most talented AI researchers around.”
“Why would he need to steal your ideas then?” If the man was as skilled as Lund was saying, it made little sense to him.
“Because he was also a selfish, self-centered, egotistical, asshole. He saw me as a threat to his rise within the then-young company. Benning conspired to make me look like a fool in front of our peers. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Alexander, but I’m not exactly loved by the academic community, despite my accomplishments. And honestly, I couldn’t care less. I care more about my work than I do about public appearance. With no way to prove what the man had done, I was fired from Omni. I bounced around from propulsion manufacturer to propulsion manufacturer for some time. But every time I started making any headway in those companies, Omni would swoop in and buy them up. I knew it was that petty little bastard Benning pulling the strings. So I left the public sector and went into teaching for some time until the Coalition war broke out. By then Omni had cornered forty percent of the market. The war led to some legislative changes that allowed Omni to balloon into the monopolistic monster that it is today. A fat little parasite living off of its past successes.”
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He winced internally at the woman’s scathing words. He didn’t like Omni either, but she seemed to hold a personal grudge against the company. “I get that Omni doesn’t play fair, but someone must have come along with a better design at some point.”
“You remember when I said Benning stole my ideas?”
Alexander nodded.
“Omni are still deploying them to this day. They could have easily implemented all of them decades ago during the war, but they chose not to. The moment a competitor comes along that they can’t buy out or eliminate, they simply release an engine that out-competes them. That new company goes out of business and Omni gets what they want, no competition.”
“Surely the STO must know they are doing this, why don’t they put a stop to it?”
She laughed bitterly. “And who would they turn to? The STO can’t ask Sinorus. Even if the former Coalition manufacturer forgave them for what happened during the war, they don't have nearly the same track record for quality as Omni. Other than Omni and Sinorus, there are no other companies with the manufacturing capabilities needed to fulfill an STO contract. The STO are stuck in a situation of their own making. Which is delightfully ironic when you think about it. That is what you are trying to upset, Alexander. Are you prepared for that?”
“Obviously not,” he replied. “That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try though.”
“I appreciate the fact that you don’t back down from a challenge, Alexander. It’s why I wanted you to work for me. You may not be able to dislodge them from the top by competing against them, but you will annoy them. So that’s something. If you really want to knock them from their pedestal, help me with my theoretical work. The only way you’ll ever take Omni down is by doing something they can’t even dream of.”
“While coming out with a new form of propulsion would be amazing, how close are you to coming up with something?” He likely knew the answer already but he needed to hear it from her.
The smaller woman shrugged. “If I knew that, I would have already had a partial solution by now. I don’t, and most of my research has hit dead ends. That doesn’t mean my work was pointless. I was only one part of a larger team working on dozens of possible ways to improve space travel. And now the STO has most of that knowledge locked away. A complete and utter waste of scientific potential, all because they are afraid.”
“Afraid?”
She looked around before shrugging again. “If I were in STO space, just saying this would likely get me locked up and tossed in a very dark hole somewhere. The reason the STO stopped expanding was because they ran into an unknown ship.”
“The Shican, right?”
She shook her head. “No. The battle site they found was between this unknown ship and the remains of a Shican fleet numbering twelve vessels. I don’t know how much you know about the Shican, one of their quirks as a species is that they don’t disturb old battle sites. The going theory is that sites of battle are sacred to the alien kitties somehow. That didn’t stop the STO from pilfering the site and taking the remains of this unknown ship for themselves though. That single vessel may have lost in the end, but just the thought that a single ship was powerful enough to take on an entire Shican fleet scared the STO. Back then, the Shican and STO ships were pretty evenly matched so they knew a run-in with another ship like this unknown one would be devastating. That’s when they froze the border expansion.”
“…Um, this seems like classified information. How do you know all this stuff?”
“I would love to say I was a master spy and broke into a highly secured facility to uncover this information. The truth is far simpler and far more embarrassing. I was attending a soiree where a high-level Navy person was trying to woo me into joining the STO as a researcher on some sort of project. The man was rather drunk and let slip a lot more than he probably intended.”
“What sort of project?”
“They were vague on the specifics. From what I gathered, they wanted to try to reverse-engineer something. That’s when I got him to spill the beans on the ship. I think he was trying to impress me for more than just the research role.”
Alexander stared at the older woman.
“What?” she demanded, “I was a very lovely woman in my youth.”
“You still are,” Alexander stated.
Dr. Lund smiled. “Good answer. Now you know my history. But I didn’t come out here to bore you with the past. Show me to someplace I can do my research, and I’ll be out of your hair unless you need something from me.”
“I can certainly do that, but there are a few issues. The first is, how are you going to get food? Most of the people who live here help out with the farms or small gardens, or in other ways to trade for food and other supplies.”
“Will you not provide that for my assistance?”
As much as Alexander would like to simply say yes, he shook his head. “No. Not without a firm commitment on your part. I want a week of your time every month, with the option to have two weeks back-to-back on adjoining months if needed.” He knew Dr. Lund was only out here to get away from the STO. That didn’t mean he couldn’t benefit from that arrangement as well.
“Jasper warned me you might ask for more of my time if I came out here.” She sighed. “Fine. While I would have preferred to be left alone to do my work, I don’t have any issue with that deal. I assume this covers my housing for me and my grandson as well?”
“While this deal will cover the both of you, if he’s not attending classes, he's going to need to pitch in. Eden’s End has zero tolerance for deadbeats.”
“If you have a place of learning it’s probably best to send him there. I’ll have a talk with him and let him know what is expected.”
“Then we have a deal,” Alexander held out his hand and the woman shook it without reservation.
“I know you are still hell-bent on competing with Omni but don’t expect miracles with my help. At best, I can put you on an even playing field until they finally exhaust the improvements they made through my discoveries.”
“An even playing field is all I ask for, I can handle the rest.”
She smirked, “We’ll see about that. The first thing you need to do is upgrade your manufacturing capabilities. This stuff,” she gestured around the workshop, “isn’t going to cut it. Give me a few days and I’ll give you the tolerance specifications you’ll need to shoot for and how to make it happen.”