I sent a message to Di that I was going into space and invited her to join me, but go no response. I also told her that I made an extra clone here on the moon, and that I would be announcing the cloning facility soon, in case she wanted to have one made. Again, no response.
With no idea what else to do, I checked to make sure that everything I had ordered was in my cargo hold, had Prometheus transfer two of the special World System Cores to my ship, then took off. I was finding it a bit hard to focus due to the Soul Detachment Syndrome I was experiencing due to my soul still not being fully reconnected to the area of my brain I had removed for the procedure. I was still able to make it into orbit, though.
Once up there I had my ship calculate the journey. If I went there direct it would take around seven months to reach Mars if I put the ship in a Hohmann Transfer orbit. As I could accelerate the ship via warp drive I would have to travel through significantly less of the planet’s orbit. Depending on how much excess fuel I was willing to put into the trip, I could cut that down to one week. At a speed warp of one hundred, that would put a seven day trip down to just under a two hour trip.
I didn’t want to waste all of my fuel, though. Mars had plenty of water to split for hydrogen, with the water level in the martian regolith being five to fourteen percent by mass, and had massive polar ice caps if that wasn’t enough, but there was no point in burning fuel when I would just need to sit around when I got there. It would probably take a few days for me to fully recover from the procedure, too.
Then I realized something. I might as well spend those few days on Mars, waiting for the settlement to be built. It would probably take a week before I could build an Arch and return anyway. I might as well set up the equipment before I took a few days off. I turned down the fuel usage slightly so that it would take eight hours to get there, then engaged the engine. With the ship set to automatically go into orbit upon arrival, I went back to my bunk and went to sleep.
Earth, Di’s Perspective:
Greg sent me a message, asking if I wanted to go to space with him, but I ignored it. I would probably visit Shackleton soon, but that was no different than visiting Venice or Vegas at this point. They were all tourist towns. I didn’t really want to go to an uninhabited location and explore the surface of some barren world. He had talked about how he wanted to set up colonies all across the solar system, so he was probably heading for Mars. If he was just going to Shackleton for a day trip he wouldn’t have called it “going to space”.
He then informed me that he had made a second clone on the moon. This time I wasn’t nearly as upset, but it was strange that he thought he would have needed more than one. He even offered to make me one. I was considering it, but I still wasn’t sure. When he got back we could talk again.
I was in the city for the day, visiting Jacob and a few others. The kitchen had only a few people visiting it, as the food situation in the city had stabilized and most people had jobs again, most of them earning enough zerka to more than cover their expenses. With the introduction of the System, some businesses, like power plants, had become obsolete, and only the people who maintained the lines were still needed. The ability to grow food without farms had lead to most of the farmers from the country side giving up farming and moving to the city. And many lower end stores had installed Warehouses and Trade Terminals, and only needed managers to oversee everything. And, of course, factories had mostly been replaced with automated equipment that made everything in a much safer manner. At first I thought that would result in a shortage of jobs, but instead most people found a job that they liked doing and tried to do their best at it. The number of people in service industry jobs greatly increased, and a large number of men and some women joined militias. With the cost of living being so low in most of the world, even a job that paid below what would have been minimum wage a year ago paid more than enough.
After saying goodbye, I walked towards the center of town, where the shopping district was. Maybe I’d buy some new clothes? Everything I had bought recently was from the System and, while it was highly functional, it lacked style. In front of one of the shops, however, I saw a short person that looked like a bipedal dog carrying the bags of some woman. “Is that a Grilk?” I asked out loud in surprise.
“Yep.” said an elderly man beside me. “There’s a few aliens in town. The only Grilk I know of, though, live with them Daughters of Hecate.”
“Daughters of Hecate?” Wasn’t that Brenda’s old coven?
“Yep, they’re a coven of witches that took over some gated community and bought an outpost core to make the HOA an official district level government. They only accept men that are subservient, though, so there aren’t a lot of human men jumping at the chance to live there, even if I do hear that they are rather, uh, how do I put it, lascivious?”
I nodded. “Would you happen to know if that gated community was known as Shady Palms?”
“Sounds right, but I never looked into it. I don’t really feel like letting a woman boss me around. It was bad enough when I was younger and married.”
I nodded again. “Thanks for the information.” I said.
“No problem,” the man answered, then lit another cigarette. I guess with the nanites keeping you healthy you don’t really think about the possibility of lung cancer.
I walked the two miles or so to my old home. When I got there two men at the gate house came out, holding rifles. Interestingly, they were well muscled and their uniform appeared to consist to a pair of speedos, sandles, and a utility belt. “Halt.” said the slightly older man, though he couldn’t be more than forty. “This is a private community. Identify yourself.”
“My name is Diane. I’m here to speak with Brenda.”
The man returned to the guard shack and seemed to have a conversation with someone over the radio. A minute later and woman that couldn’t be over thirty walked up. “So, you’re here to speak with Brenda?” I nodded. “Lady Brenda isn’t available right now. I suggest you leave.”
I could feel something happening in my head, and asked my AI assistant about it.
The shocked woman lost her concentration on the spell at once, and it went away. She obviously still needed practice. The two men stepped forward and pointed their weapons at me so I equipped my under-armor. Judging by the fact that they carried hunting rifles the suit would most likely stop the round, assuming they didn’t aim for my head. I would probably be bruised, though.
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“Woah, woah, why is everyone pulling guns?” Another woman asked as she ran forward.
“Mistress Janet,” said one of the men. “This woman detected Mistress Cyan’s spell and pulled a gun on her.” Mistress must be some sort of rank.
Janet walked towards me. “You look familiar. Can I ask why you came here?”
“I just wanted to talk to an old friend.”
Janet looked at the men. “She says she wished to meet Lady Brenda.” the older one responded.
Janet looked at me closer. “Diane?” she asked.
“Yes. Have we met?”
“Oh, I was at the last one of Brenda’s parties that you went to. Right before the plague? The ASBF meeting?”
“Oh, right. I forgot about that.” Now that I thought about it, I did remember seeing her there, but I only spoke with her for a few minutes. She was part of the group with Brenda and Beverly.
“Wow, you’re looking good. Some sort of amazing beauty routine, or did you have Brenda use her Youth spell on you?”
“System skill, actually, called ‘anti-aging’. It helps when you’re fifty five.”
“Ah, well, we try not to use the System too much around here. It interferes with your spiritual development. But sometimes it’s useful.” She looked at the two men. “Lower your weapons. I’ll take her to Brenda.”
The men slowly lowered their weapons and I switched my gear back to my normal dress. Janet nodded and motioned for me to follow. She walked me down the streets where multiple men were outside doing chores, including hanging up laundry to dry. Most of them were dressed similarly to the two guards. What few women I saw were meditating, sunbathing, or waving their hands or a stick in the air. Some sort of magical training, I supposed. Though if they’d just use the System they could have already gotten results.
Eventually I was lead to Brenda’s house, where Janet rang the doorbell. A Snow Alf man answered the door. “Can I help you?” he asked in a heavy accent. Obviously he had been practicing English, as it didn’t seem like he was using a translation skill.
“Yes, tell your Mistress that Lady Diane is visiting and wishes to speak with her.” He nodded and bowed, closing the door behind him.
A minute later, Brenda answered the door wearing black boots, black leather pants, a black shirt, and a black cape, carrying a wooden staff. Did I interrupt her personal time with her Alf boy toy? “Diane?” she asked, then stepped outside to hug me. “It’s so good to see your again.”
“You too.” I said. “I wasn’t sure you survived the plague.”
Brenda shrugged. “Thankfully one of the members of the coven figured out a healing spell to boost our immune system. Seventy percent of us survived, so we decided to set up a religious community. When I suggested the community here, it just sort of fit. Most of the houses were empty, either because the owner died or because it was abandoned, so as women joined us we assigned them houses. After the men cleared them out, of course. Can’t have corpses, or worse, zombies, in the house when you invite someone to move in.”
“Honestly, I was expecting to see you trying to free animals, not doing...whatever you were just doing with that Alf.”
“Oh, he’s one of my more fun men.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Besides, there aren’t that many animals in captivity anymore, so those of us that were left kind of just dissolved the group. Then I set up here, and I couldn’t be happier. You could join us, if you wanted. Might be kind of poetic, with you being named after a goddess.”
“Good to hear that you’re happy, but I have a place to stay, and a job I love. I’m on the town counsel of Anarchist Redoubt as the head of the Department of Education.”
“I’ve heard about that place. A few of the men have even visited it before they joined us.” Then she seemed to realize something. “Wait, does this meant that the Greg you brought to the party is the Greg Summers I’ve been hearing about on the news?”
I nodded. “Yeah, we’re living together in Sanctuary. Or, at least we were.”
“Something you want to talk about?”
I thought for a few seconds and nodded. I needed to talk to someone, and Brenda might actually be able to give me a new perspective on things. She opened the door to let me in.
“Would you like anything to drink, mistress?” asked the Alf man.
“Yes.” I said in Alfin. “Can you get me some herbal tea with one spoon of sugar?”
He bowed. “Right away, my lady.” he responded in his native tongue and went to the kitchen.
Brenda looked at me a bit surprise. “Oh, translation skill.” I said, pointing to my head. “I’ve been in talks with so many people from Fort Solinan that I decided to have it teach me Alfin.
Greg’s Perspective:
Upon arriving in orbit I pretty much did what I did on Luna, only with more automated assistance. I had Vera tell the ship’s computer put us in a low polar orbit and run detailed scans of the surface. If it found any mineral deposits that were significant, based on their rarity, usefulness, value, and size, it would put a marker on the map. This included water deposits. It would probably take a day or so before I got a complete map of the planet, but until then I could rest. Or, I could stir up more publicity. Yeah, I can do both.
I sent a simple text message to the assistant of the woman that interviewed me via quantum entanglement with AR. I informed her that I was currently in orbit of Mars and that I would be willing to give them the first interview once the colony was established. I just wanted Olympus City to be hyped on the news station. I had an idea about contacting the International Olympic Committee and seeing if Olympus could host the Olympics, and wanted them to think well of the colony. Sure, I also considered doing that for Shackleton, but ‘The Olympics at Olympus’ has a much better ring to it, and I’m planning on having Olympus support at least a million people, and they would consider a larger city more favorably than a small one.
After sending the text, I went to sleep. When I woke up I had several messages from the assistant about how her boss had approved the deal, and asking when I would be available for an interview. I told her to give me three days. I should be recovered by then, and already have most of the work done, just needing to wait for the settlement to develop. At that point, I could broadcast from the surface of Mars in front of Olympus Mons. She seemed to love the idea, and I left Vera to handle the details.
I was feeling a bit better than when I went to sleep, so I decided to go over the scans so far. Several deposits of minerals had been detected, from massive deposits of things like Iron, Aluminum, and Titanium, to smaller deposits of things like gold, Uranium, and rare earths. Of course, about 40% of the rare earth metals deposit was Thorium, so I might not even need to mine the Uranium. Though it didn’t hurt to start a mine there anyway.
There was also something strange on the map. Apparently, the ship had detected a bit of refined metal in the Marineris Trench. It had also detected most of the probes that humans had sent to Mars over the years, so maybe we could turn those into theme parks or tourist settlements. There was no sign of the System having a presence on Mars, though, so I had Vera make me a reminder to check out the anomaly later.
As the scan wasn’t complete yet, I ate something and went back to sleep. The ship didn’t have a bathroom but one of the interesting features of the System space suits was that it could teleport waste out of you so that you never had to use a normal toilet, and this ship would do that automatically for everyone onboard. If I ever decided to add hydroponics just to grow some fresh food I’d have the nanite forge break it down into nutrients for the plants.
Two days later I was completely over my condition and the scans of the planet had been completed. I entered the atmosphere near Olympus Mons and found a nice lava tube near the base of it. It was quite large at the base, so I had to fly around a bit before I found a good spot to start the colony. Once I located a good location, I one-way teleported a standard World System Core into it and ordered it to build until it was large enough to support at least one million people. I then flew to the locations of all of the major deposits in the area and two of the probes, sending down teleporter orbs to their location.
Within a few hours the first mine had an automated miner on it, followed two hours later by one on another deposit. I had given Olympus just over two months to finish its development, putting its official opening date around the twentieth of August, whereas I had told Shackleton and the other lunar colonies to reach full industrialization as fast as possible. This would let it expand its base in the beginning, which would speed up its production in the future.
The teleportation orbs were also looking for deep caves here, but building a safe location wasn’t as much of a priority as it was on Earth or the moon, as it will be two months before there are more than a handful of people here.
With Olympus handling things I now had time to investigate the anomaly before the interview tomorrow. I refueled, Olympus having already gathered a large amount of water, and flew towards the location. I landed just beside where it was detected. “Any new information now that we can scan it more closely?” I asked the ship’s AI.
“Radiometric dating puts the structure at 3.928 million years.” It answered in a mechanical voice. “Power detected.”
That would mean that not only does it predate the System’s arrival on Earth, but it predated the System itself. “What kind of power source?” I asked. “The only thing that I know of that might last that long is radio decay and hyperspace generators. Maybe nuclear or solar.”
“Unknown. No known energy source detected, but there is a distinct supply and usage of energy within the object.”
“Very strange. Any record of something similar in the System records?”
“Negative. No records match to within seventy percent accuracy.” I would have to go over the close matches later. If this predates the System and they don’t have any record of it, then maybe Humanity could make an archaeological discovery that no other System world or race had.
I teleported out a teleportation orb so that we could return here later with a team, then equipped my space suit. Once outside I started approaching the metal, which I could see from where I landed the ship. It was a several square meter area of a beautiful dark blue metal.
I woke up cold, with Tim looking over me. I coughed several times before equipping some clothes. I had forgotten to have Shack...uh, what was I thinking? Something about a copy of me waking up naked? Whatever, I’ll think of it later.
“Greg.” Tim said, waving his hand in front of my face. “You there, buddy? We detected your soul reconnecting to your body here, but for some reason...” Boring. I looked around the office. He had lots of books. Colorful books. Hey, that’s a pretty woman in the picture on his desk. I wonder if she’s taken. Oh, yeah, I’m seeing Di, so I’m already taken. Duh. “Greg, I need you to focus, ok? Your soul isn’t meshing with your body for some reason.”
“Isn’t meshing? Like a net?” I started laughing for some reason and couldn’t stop. The joke was hilarious, after all.