The next morning, Adam woke up with a big smile. He was happy but also realized he needed a bigger bed. When he tried to get up, she turned, smiled, and joined him.
“Didn’t know you had become an early riser? Last I remember I couldn’t get you out of bed before ten.” He winked, and she shrugged.
“The navy does that to you. Now, it’s a habit. Coffee? Still extra black?” She replied.
“Yeah, I fear the day I run out of it. I think I bought 500 kg, but it's getting popular among the others, so I think I will run out soon.”
“No, you won't. Have you heard of a Navy ship without coffee? Besides, you haven’t opened your gift yet.”
“My gift?”
“From Harold.” She winked, and Adam looked confused.
They dressed, and she made him coffee, scrambled eggs, and noodles. He laughed when he saw it. It was one of the few things she could cook back in the orphanage, and she had made it for him many times. They ate, and then he took her to the administration to watch the kid's work.
“You have added child labor to your crimes?” She asked in amusement as the kids came in; they stopped as they saw her. One of the girls whispered to Kywar, and he grinned.
“What?” Adam asked, and Kywar cheekily replied. “She asked if we had to leave so you could get married again.”
Both Adam and Evelyn laughed, and the kids took it as a sign they could enter. Adam gave them today's tasks and let the kids loose; several drones flew out from the base, some from satellites running scans of target areas in the asteroid fields. Adam explained that the kids love doing it, mostly because of the after-work play. Evelyn walked over and watched the kids scan and then looked at Adam.
“Has this planet been scanned for archeological signs?”
Adam shook his head.” No, I was told it was a dead planet, the whole system is dead.” He replied, and she leaned down to a Bylgyno girl. “Mind turning back to those rocks you just passed?”
She looked at her, nodded, and turned the drone back, having it hover over the group of stones. Adam looked at it, and his eyes went wide. Evelyn looked at him.
“Shitt, we need archaeologists; that’s a building…” The stones were stacked on top of each other in a straight line and a clear L shape. There was also a small I-shaped cluster next to it.
“Giralo? Can you do a deep scan of this area? I would like to know what type of stone is present and the stone's position in a 500-meter radius and a dept of 50 meters. Can you do that?” Adam asked, and the kids looked at them. The Bylgyon girl smiled and nodded, then accessed the scanning controller and started the scan. The boy next to her turned to ask.
“What are you looking for?”
“Old building, like over a thousand-year-old building,” Adam replied. Evelyn walked along the screens and checked for more.”
“How can you recognize them just by looking at rocks?” A wossir girl asked. She tilted her head. The green no shell turtle aliens were generally not so curious, but their kids still were. Or they had hung around Kywar too long.
“Rocks very rarely get stacked in a straight line by themselves; people tend to do that. So any rock formations that look like a rectangle, square, triangle, or any such shapes with straight walls is interesting to check out.” Evelyn said. At the mention of the wall, all the kids looked at the walls, and a lightbulb went off as they started to speak quickly about potential places.
Adam looked at Evelyn. “Now we need an archeologist. I have a feeling we will get a few more sites of interest.”
The grown-ups started to pour in, and Adam looked at Vorts and then asked him where they could contact archeologists. Vorts looked confused. He knew about historians but had a hard time understanding archeologists. Anything that was dead and buried was of no importance to them. He could ask for him, but she didn’t think the university had anybody in that field. Dead civilizations were failed civilizations, so why study them? Adam knew better to argue there and simply asked him to check around. Evelyn gave him a look as they left the room.
“They don’t have archeologists?” She seemed surprised.
“Yeah, orphanage either; Roks didn’t understand the concept. Prisons are considered cruel and torturous punishments. They would prefer death to prison. They do have something called a social administrator—I have no idea what it is—and an editor constructor whose job is to check and edit buildings after they are made, not to be confused with a contractor. There are some strange things here.” He explained, and she tried to wrap her head around it.
“No prison? All slaves are criminals?” She asked as she guided him toward her ship.
“No. No. Anybody can become a slave, but slavery is also a common punishment in the system. That’s why we have that group of workers in a separate building. We haven’t checked them out yet. I don’t want to put a violent criminal among my people. “
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
“I can understand that. You are building a prison, right? Make it a factory and have them work off their debt while being productive?” She asked.
“Of course, there is a farm and factory being built. That’s where I will place them. They probably won't even notice it’s a prison, " he said. I think their view of prison is very different from ours. It's probably more like a dungeon.”
“Yeah, if they stopped using dungeons and only used slavery, then they don’t know what a modern prison is. This is just weird. So much to get used to.” She took him to the cargo area; most of it was empty, but there were two large containers in the corner.
“That one is your Ares bonus package. It’s spare parts for the droids, a couple of crates of whiskey, the good stuff, and other snacks from home. Ares always adds one for customers who buy over five million Earth credits.” Evelyn smiled as she looked at the other. “At 10 million, they add this baby, custom packed container by somebody who knows what you appreciate, kind of a goody bag in container size. Harold put it together. It's their way of showing they appreciate you as a good customer and want to do more business with you.”
Adam looked at her and then at the screen on the container and saw the inventory list: coffee, lots of Coffee and beer, hiking clothes and business suits, a personal Butler droid with a training program—boxing and weightlifting edition—and five hundred regular books, among others. Evelyn grinned at him. “I think he knows you pretty well, don’t you?”
“Yes, he does because he added... Ice cream and the right brand. God knows I have to repay him for this.” Adam said as Evelyn gave the ship droids an order to deliver the two containers, which had to be delivered personally before they could be unloaded.
“Just insist on using him next time you buy from them. I can also use him and claim he is the sales rep for this system.”
“That sounds like a plan. Do you have anything planned now?” he said, walking over to her, and she chuckled.
“Oh no… calm your horse, Adam. You have to wait; I have to send somebody to inspect the moon you gave us and then try to trick you into borrowing some construction droids once they have decided what kind of base they want. So Give me a few hours.” She said teasingly. Then she started to walk away, trying not to look at him. Adam took a few moments to admire her; he didn't understand how somebody as beautiful as her could fall for him, he didn’t understand.
He headed back inside the base and went to find Skee. She had been talking about a project, and he found her in the Academic wing going over something with Vorts and a media guy. A male scisya that he knew from the media group.
“Hey, am I disturbing you? " he asked as he joined them. Skee smiled at him.
“Of course not. We are just going over my project and trying to optimize it.” She turned his attention to what looked like a skeleton of a warehouse, A large underwater structure with walls but no windows. Make the ocean water flow freely in and out so the algae and fish can explore the waste ocean around. He studied it.
“What am I looking at? Is this an old building?”
“No - no, this is a Aquadome. As you can see, there are living quarters for six scientists at the far end and an Aquatic hanger for a submarine. Jork turned one of the shuttles into one. This is a giant outdoor aquarium, " She explained as she zoomed in, and he could see fish swimming around. “The oceans will take a long time to seed, and this is how we can do it. This area is controlled. We can feed them and adjust the oxygen and nitrogen levels, heat, and current. It's basically an aquarium without walls, and it only works because there is no food outside. The longer the operation, the further away the aquatic life will spread and adjust to the new world. This is only one of the three we have built, but we plan to build many more. With your permission, of course.” She looked at him, and he smiled.
“Are you sure they will survive?”
“Yes, no earth organism yet; there are a few planets with a similar biosphere that have life; we start with them and adjust as they become more habitual to the general biosphere of the galaxy. So when it's normalized, these little beauties can adapt and be part of the system. Some as food.”
“Okay.” He replied.
“Okay, what?” she looked at him confused, and Adam chuckled.
“Okay, you can have Jork build more. I’m guessing you want hundreds of them at least.”
She smiled brightly. “Thank you, yes, I want more. We are also working on an aquatic seed machine. That was Professor Kurn Dull idea. “
Adam looked at the professor. “Seeding it with what?”
“A Sandorian Seaweed called Hasion blue, at first, will be able to survive in the current sea with its low oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon levels. It will also help speed up the oxygen production. It's often used on the planets that have to lower their carbon percentage. “ He explained.
“I love it. Start the project and keep me updated.” Adam said, and Krun smiled brightly. Then Adam checked his pad and decided to go back to the admin. The media guy followed him.
“Excuse me, may I have a word?” He asked. “I’m Arus Valontur, we haven’t had time to speak much.”
Adam looked at him. He was a nice-looking man in a relaxed black suit with a blue shirt. His golden eyes studied him intently.
“Nice to meet you. What can I help you with?” Adam replied as they walked.
“Actually, I have to apologize to you. We have sent our reports of what happened here; you have been noticed by many. There is talk about you being a certain religious person, and you might have to expect some visitors. People who think you are this person. I didn’t think much about it. I mean, I grew up with the stories about him, but I never believed it was real.”
Adam chuckled. “Neither do I. Look, half of those prophecies only apply because I am a foreigner to this side of the galaxy, and I have been raised with views that seem alien to this part. Any human coming here would react like I did about slavery. “
“Oh, I'm smart enough to understand that. I just feel I should warn you. If you want to, then I will try to spread those sentiments as well, maybe interview a few of the other humans here. It’s the least I can do. I have seen religious fantasizing up close before, and I don’t like it.” Arus replied, and Adam nodded.
“You have to get permission from the major before you interview her men, but I will put in a good word for you. I don’t think it will be a problem.”
“Thank you. I’m looking forward to it. I will leave you to your work now.” Then he left, and Adam went to the administration office.
The next few days went by in a blur, Jork worked on several projects, and Adam had to order him to stop and rest. He sent both him and Skee on a private date in the bar while he and Evelyn babysat Miker, exploring the cave of wonder as it was now called. The Earth military had decided on a base and started the construction, and Vorts had not found any archaeologists, so they reprogrammed two scientist droids to study the sites to determine if they were structured or natural. The kids had located fifty-three of them. All have been quarantined to avoid Jork accidentally building a factory on them.
Then, ten days after Roks had left flight control, Adam was informed that thirteen warships had entered the system.