Starcorp 1: Escape from Sol
The Commission

Joshua Sloan had no idea why he had been summoned to the Bank of Sol Starcorp (BX01) or by whom. The President of KGL01’s shipping division, his boss, sent him a directive to report there without an explanation. He was instructed to give notice of his arrival to the office of BX01’s CEO, which he did the instant he set his travel bag down inside his hotel room. What made this directive even stranger for him was the paid travel and housing that was provided. Taking advantage of these arrangements meant leaving his ship behind. He had no idea why anyone at BX01 would want him without his spaceship.

The Bernard S. Redmond was a cargo spaceship. Its only function was to push and pull large container vessels around in space. Its normal crew compliment consisted of six people. However, the Redmond was just as capable of transporting sixty people in the same degree of comfort as six. Over the past eight years, this vessel had been under Joshua’s sole command. If the ship was moving, he was the captain directing its course. This was the first time that he had been separated from his command since it was given to him.

Joshua was not perturbed by this separation from his spaceship. His experiences in the Captain’s chair went back more than fifty years. He was, by this time, ninety-eight years old and had served as captain of three spaceships. The number of spaceships he served on in any capacity was twelve. Change was not an uncommon event for him, but in the past, it always came behind a request from him. He had made no such request since receiving his present command. In fact, Captain Joshua Sloan was very much pleased with his command of a small, insignificant cargo hauler. He enjoyed the absence of pressure and politics that came with this most common of all spacefaring jobs.

Immediately after graduating from an earthbound High School, Joshua was recruited into a starcorp. He was hired into the position of stockroom attendant. While working in this capacity, he started his tertiary education. By the age of twenty-eight, he had acquired a degree in aerospace engineering. Promptly after graduation, he turned his attention towards his true passion. He attended a spacefaring academy and acquired a second mate’s certificate. While working off and on as a second mate, he continued his spacefaring education. At the age of thirty-four, he acquired a master’s license in spacefaring. He captained his first spaceship at the age of forty-one.

Joshua had no interest in commanding a starship. These were sedentary crafts. They rarely moved once they reached their desired location. He turned down all offers to become a junior officer aboard one and went to work commanding spaceships that primarily moved people and domestic cargo. This initially intrigued him, but it was not the work that he wanted. Joshua wanted to captain an exploratory spaceship. He wanted to travel to the far reaches of the solar system and discover new things and new places.

Space exploration flights were multi-year journeys far away from any supply or rescue. This made them all the more exciting to Joshua. His ultimate ambition was to be the first captain to travel outside of the solar system to a neighboring star. This would be a journey that would take more than a decade, round trip. This length of time away from food and resources that starcorps and their starships provided was an extreme risk. The inherent dangers in long duration space travel limited this practice to spaceships with small crews. Starships with their large populations required supporting starships to generate the food they needed. And all starships required factory starships to maintain them.

Captain positions for exploratory spaceships were few in number and highly coveted. A competent and respected spaceship captain, Joshua patiently waited for his dues to pay off. After forty years of waiting, he gave up. The politics and pandering that came with managing passengers had taken its toll on him. He tired of being a “majordomo,” his word. What made his fatigue even worse, younger captains who were far better connected than he began receiving the coveted exploration commands that he applied for. When he finally reached the end of his patience, Captain Joshua Sloan put in a transfer request for a cargo spaceship. His request was granted. He had been comfortably ensconced on the cargo spaceship, the Bernard S. Redmond, ever since.

Starcorp BX01E21270705 was a cluster of four starships parked in high earth orbit. Each starship was primarily a massive habitat ring. The core of each ship was where the power plants, engines, docking bays, command capsules and space capsules were located. The largest starship and the youngest was the Berenberg. The three other starships in the cluster were the Warburg, the Giannini, and the Rothschild. The smallest starship, the Rothschild, was capable of comfortably residing 5.7 thousand people. The Berenberg had a maximum occupancy of 23 thousand.

Despite its starcorp designation, which identified it as an independent state, BX01 was owned in part by all the starcorps. Buying shares in it was a prerequisite to participating in the myriad of financial services it provided. On top of being the savings and lending institution for the starcorps of Sol, BX01 generated the currency they were dependent upon to grow and prosper. It provided the central marketplace for the exchange of commerce between starcorps. It sold and maintained commercial insurance to their members. Within their starships, BX01 leased the office spaces, storage facilities and showrooms the starcorp community needed to conduct business with each other. BX01 was the hub of the starcorp system in Sol space.

Joshua was instructed to report to the office of the CEO of BX01 at 1000 UTC of the following morning. This gave him little more than six hours to rest and to prepare himself for his appointment. He got up after four hours of sleep and showered. Standing six-feet-three-inches tall, Joshua was an impressive stature of a man. He had a handsome face with chiseled features. Physically, he looked to be in his mid-forties. He maintained a short crop of light brown hair on his head with streaks of gray along the sides. Sideburns connected his hair to a thin and neatly trimmed mustache and beard. This affectation came into existence shortly after he took command of the Redmond. He fancied himself a bit of a rebel after taking command of a cargo ship and abandoned the clean-shaven look that nearly all aspiring spaceship captains maintained. He adorned himself in his captain’s uniform and set off for his meeting at 0945 UTC.

At 1000 UTC to the minute, Joshua arrived outside the large glass doors of the executive offices of BX01E21270705. The twin sliding doors opened automatically when he came to within four feet of them. He walked through the doorway without hesitation. The reception room on the other side of the doors was large and oval. Brightly lit and richly carpeted, the colors tan, white, light gray, and light blue dominated the room’s color spectrum. A large reception desk was fixed just opposite the door on the far side of the room. Two, attractive, women were seated on the other side. A floor to ceiling partition was situated behind them. It concealed another room that was accessible by walking around the ends of the partition. To the left and right of the reception room, twenty lounge chairs were situated evenly about four coffee tables, two to a side. Six well attired individuals were seated in various locations within this waiting area. Five of them were ensconced behind their display goggles. They occasionally maneuvered their hands in front of their goggles to turn a page or to expand or contract an image. The fifth individual, a man, sat straight and alert. He took note Joshua’s arrival.

After walking through the doorway, Joshua continued to the reception desk and stopped. He saw no reason to be nervous about being there. He expected all to be explained to him shortly, and he thought this explanation was likely to be something not to his liking. His demeanor displayed neither disdain nor excitement with being there. He gave the waiting receptionist a bland expression as he prepared to make his address.

“Hello, how may I help you?” The receptionist questioned with a smile.

An instant before Joshua could respond, the man, who had been watching in the waiting area, spoke as he walked towards Joshua.

“I’ll take this, Carol,” the gentleman spoke just as he stopped two feet off to Joshua’s right.

Joshua turned his attention to the slim, medium height man who was standing before him with an erect posture and blank expression. His attire was professional and elegant in appearance. In his left hand, he held a tablet. He looked to be a person of some authority, but Joshua suspected he was an underling to a still larger authority. Carol deferred to him with a nod and a smile before turning her attention down toward her desk.

“Thank you for being on time, Captain Sloan,” the gentleman continued a second later. “I am Mitchell Sanders, the office manager here. If you will follow me, I will take you to your meeting.”

Joshua saw no reason to respond verbally to this greeting. He thought it too hurried and rigid to be anything more than just a formality to be dispensed with. He gave the office manager a nod of approval and waited for his reaction. Mitchell provided this an instant later; he turned and walked around the reception desk and through the entryway to the office area behind. Joshua kept pace with him, one step behind and to the right.

Mitchell led Joshua into an office area that accommodated six secretaries and six desks. A pair of ceiling-to-floor doors were on the far side of the room. Kent Ackerman, CEO, was stenciled on them. Once they were inside the office area, Mitchell turned to the right and led Joshua down a hallway. Along the way, they came across two office doors on the left. One was for the Senior Executive Vice President of Human Resources, and the second was for the Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mitchell passed them both without so much as a look in their directions. At the far end of the hall, they came to a pair of double doors. The stencil on them read, “Auditorium.” Mitchell came to a stop in front of them, turned back to face Joshua and extended the tablet towards him.

“Before you go in, Captain Sloan,” said Mitchell in a polite and professional tone. “I will need you to sign this.”

Joshua took the tablet right away and began perusing the document displayed on it. Moments into it, he blurted out the question that was on the tip of his tongue.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a confidentiality agreement,” Mitchell answered quickly and without expression. “In essence, it says that you understand that you’re not to publicize or disclose anything you might hear or discuss in this meeting under penalty of total forfeiture of all shares you possess in any member starcorp of BX01.”

Joshua studied the document again for another few seconds. At the end of this time, he abutted the tablet to his com-link bracelet and held it there until he heard a beep. He then held the bracelet up and spoke to it with a one-word command, “signature.” He then affixed his signature with a touch of his thumb to the bottom corner of the tablet.

A second later, Joshua verified with a look that his electronic signature was added to the document. Satisfied with the result, he extended the tablet back to its owner.

Mitchell took a couple of seconds to verify the signature before opening one of the doors and ushering Joshua into the room.

“They’re waiting for you down the hall,” Mitchell reported politely before closing the door between them.

Joshua turned away from the door and made his way down a short corridor. When he reached the far end of the corridor, he could see that he was at the rostrum end of a lecture hall. The stage he came out upon was un-elevated and approximately fifteen yards across. A single rectangular table with a chair was situated in the middle of this stage. On the wall behind the stage was a large, white screen. The seating area in front of the stage ascended one foot with each row back. A total of eight rows filled the seating area of the hall. Each row accommodated fifteen chairs. Two staircases separated them into three segments. A single writing counter extended across each row in each segment. Nearly one-third of the chairs were occupied by someone that was looking at him.

Joshua wandered toward the center of the stage with unsure movements. He came to a stop just in front of the table before turning full forward to the assembly. At this moment, he was more confused than he had ever been. He had no idea who these people were or what they wanted with him. The instant he turned toward them, he began scanning the room in search of any familiar faces. He had just started his search when the person seated front and center of auditorium spoke.

“Have a seat, Captain Sloan.”

Joshua’s confusion with all that was happening here caused him to hesitate for just an instant. He then turned about, walked around the table, and sat in the chair. Once he was comfortably seated, he returned to scanning the faces in the room again. His mind was trying to make sense of this gathering before him. A couple of seconds into his deliberation, the person seated front and center began to speak again.

“I’m sure you’re confused about all of this, Captain Sloan, so let me explain one thing, right away, before we get started: You are looking at the Congress of the BX01 Starcorp League. And I am Eric Gourmand, Chairperson of the League.”

At different times before this, Joshua had been confused, surprised, suspicious, and even a little impressed by different aspects of this event. However, for the first time since he received his travel orders, Joshua Sloan was awed. At this moment, he knew by the influential weight of the personages assembled here, that whatever this was about, it was big. The BX01 Starcorp League was made up of representatives from every member starcorp in the solar system. Its sole purpose was to author, vote upon, and enact laws and agreements that affected all member starcorps in the Solar System. After taking a pause to digest what he had just heard, Joshua reacted with a one-word response.

“Okay.”

“Do you have any idea why you are here, Captain Sloan?” Chairperson Gourmand questioned with an inquisitive expression.

“No, I have no idea what this is about,” Joshua answered with a hint of defensiveness in his voice.

“Not even a guess?” Gourmand questioned back with the same expression as before.

Joshua took a moment to think about this inquiry. His suspicion was that this was about something that he did or participated in at some point in his past. However, despite this deliberation, he could think of nothing that warranted a reaction of this weight.

“No, I don’t,” Joshua answered after a thoughtful shake of his head.

Chairperson Gourmand paused in his inquiry to give Joshua a quick analysis. The other representatives sat in quiet contemplation. After a few seconds, Gourmand re-engaged his discourse with Joshua.

“In your academy years, you wrote a paper entitled “The Next Full Scale War.” Do you recall that?”

“Yes, that was when I was studying for my Engineering Degree,” Joshua stated with more than a hint of surprise. “Is that what this is about?”

“That paper has come to our attention,” Gourmand answered flatly.

“Do you still believe what you wrote in that paper?” The representative seated in the eighth row, second from the left softly questioned.

Joshua had no trouble hearing the question. The auditorium was one large microphone and sound system. The computer that controlled the system captured and amplified all spoken words. It could also be directed to ignore the speech of any person or persons within the room. This was initiated via a control panel application that was automatically uploaded into the com-links of all present. The computer would also switch on a small lamp in front of the speaker to give a visual cue of his or her location. Joshua noted this illumination about the representative who just spoke and looked toward him to respond to the query.

“It seems like the logical progression for military conflicts in space,” Joshua answered in an unsure voice.

“You described a weapon’s platform in your paper that seems pretty remarkable,” the representative seated in the third row, tenth from the left spoke up suddenly. “Do you think this weapon will really work the way you described?”

Joshua was taken aback by this sudden question.

“Well, yes,” Joshua began after a pause to consider. “If the power plant, drive system, and weapons systems can be engineered to the scale and yield that I outlined then…”

“Can they be engineered to those levels today?” The representative seated in the second row thirteenth from the left abruptly questioned, effectively cutting Joshua off in mid-statement.

“I think we can definitely come close,” Joshua responded with a puzzled expression.

“How close?” The representative seated in the sixth row, third from the left challenged.

Joshua was totally baffled by the series of rapid-fire questions. He hesitated to give the entire room a look of bewilderment. After taking a few seconds to breathe deeply and to ponder the question, he commenced to give the answer that he feared to speak, but that he suspected they needed to hear.

“I believe it’s possible to engineer a weapon’s system as good as or better than what I described in that paper.”

Immediately after speaking these words, the room full of representatives switched off their microphones and turned their attentions toward each other. Joshua could hear the murmur of numerous whispered exchanges. But he could not discern the gist of any specific conversation. After several moments of these private dialogues, the representative seated in the third row, sixth from the left reconnected with the microphone system and addressed Joshua.

“And you believe this weapon will perform to the extent that you described?”

All the representatives went quiet and waited for the answer to this question. Joshua paused for a second to note that he had all their attentions and then gave the answer that he knew they needed to hear.

“Yes, I do.”

In the several seconds that followed this answer, the representatives studied Joshua. This was prompted by the tenor of his answer. All of them were looking for evidence of confidence or lack thereof. At the end of this silence, Gourmand put his earlier question to Joshua again.

“Can you guess now what this is all about?”

Joshua did have a guess now, and after a brief hesitation to consider if he should express his thought, he began to do just that.

“My paper was about a possible future war in space. My guess is that you’re contemplating just such an event.”

Chairperson Gourmand studied Joshua as he spoke these words. For the next few seconds after, he formulated his response.

“For more than seventy years starcorps have managed a fractured and hostile Earth through the aid we provide and through our business dealings with them.” Gourmand laid his forearms on the counter in front of him and leaned forward as he continued his dissertation. “And this has worked to keep the peace between the states of Earth, for the most part. But in recent years, it has been working too well.”

The other representatives sat quietly as Gourmand explained the events that brought about this meeting.

“The Earthers, in general, have always hated us. They live in a belief that we’ve stolen something from them and that we could have done more for them after the Third World War. This hatred has never been a problem for us simply because up until now they have always needed us.”

“Don’t they still need us?” Joshua questioned with a puzzled expression.

“No, they don’t,” Gourmand countered with a slight shake of his head. “The Earthers can manage on their own. All they really need to do at this point is just pull together. For the past twenty years, we’ve just been making life easier for them. Their only obstacle to self-reliance has been an absence of unity. Our most recent analysis of the political winds on Earth suggests that there is a growing movement for greater cooperation between the states.”

“And that’s not a good thing?” Joshua spoke with a puzzled expression.

“A growing call for Earth autonomy from starcorps is fueling this political movement,” Gourmand explained with a stern look. “It’s bleeding across all borders like an infection.”

“I don’t understand,” Joshua questioned with a bewildered expression.

Joshua knew that starcorps had no love for the Earthers. For most Spacers, Earth was seen as a drain on their resources and a hindrance to their growth. A sense of obligation was the driving force behind their continuing expenditure of aid. He knew that nearly all Spacers were looking forward to the day they could stop carrying Earth on their books. For Joshua, he did not see how an autonomous Earth was a problem.

“Beneath this newfound solidarity is a growing call for starcorps to be reined in under Earth’s dominion,” Gourmand explained with a stare.

“They want to reestablish starcorps back under the control of Earth’s Governments?” Joshua whispered with a questioning look.

“This isn’t anything new,” Gourmand explained calmly. “There have been Earthers that have been grumbling for the past century that everything we have belong to them. And in a general sense, they’re right. But legally speaking they have no claim of ownership. All of that disappeared in the War when the Governments of old Earth died out and stock markets crumbled out of existence.”

“We became an independent entity when that happened,” the Representative seated to the right of front and center declared vehemently. “Earthers own nothing of us.”

“We have been trying to live up to our obligations to Earth,” Gourmand defended. “And I suppose we could have done better at that,” he confessed with a hint of regret in his tone. “But we never abandoned our duty to Earth. And to be honest here, it never mattered how much aid we give them, there will always be a large segment of Earth’s inhabitants that will resent us for not doing more. And that segment is coalescing into a powerful political movement as we speak.”

“I haven’t heard anything about this,” Joshua reported with a shake of his head.

Earth was a puzzle board of independent state governments. Most of these governments were republics or quasi-republics with no small thanks to the influence of starcorps. All the Earth-state governments have spent the last century working to maintain their independence from their neighbors. However, despite this zeal for independence, they could not help but come to appreciate the value of cooperation. This appreciation grew stronger over time. For the lay person, the commercial interaction between these states seemed to be nothing more than a trickle. For the BX01 Starcorp League, who was keeping a close watch on the changes on Earth, they signaled a potentially seismic shift in their relationship with Earth.

“The lines of communication between the states are beginning to stretch around the globe,” Gourmand reported soberly. “What makes this even more extraordinary is that it is not being instigated by us. The Alberta Alliance has been making overtures to dozens of States—powerful states around the globe—attempting to form an alliance—states they have no trade relations with. And all of this is being done in opposition to the Thames Trade and Investment Summit, which would have included us.”

“These backroom dealings sponsored by the Alberta Alliance have been undermining our efforts to officially create trading partners between the Earth-states and us.” The Representative seated to the right of Gourmand added glumly.

Surprised by the report, Joshua began a response with a questioning expression.

“Why would they do that?”

“Because Prime Minster Edward Eckhart does not want us recognized as independent States,” the representative seated in the fifth row, twelve from the left answered off the tip of his tongue.

Joshua was slightly confused by this answer. Gourmand noted this and promptly clarified it for him.

“It’s in the language of the accord that we drafted.”

“They’ll take our aid, but they won’t sign any investment treaties with us,” the representative seated in the fourth row, eleventh from the left quickly added.

“Why can’t we just pull our support for the Alberta Alliance?” Joshua questioned with a slightly perplexed expression.

“Because this goes a lot further than just the Alberta Alliance,” Gourmand explained in a lecturing tone. “If we start withholding aid to large segments of Earth’s populace, we’ll do more harm than good. The Earthers will grow to hate us even more than they do now.”

“And you think Eckhart is going to come after us militarily?” Joshua questioned in a knowing tone.

“Our best analysts are saying that he will do just that if he can pool enough States behind him,” Gourmand responded calmly.

“Can he do that?” Joshua questioned the room.

“We think it’s possible, but not in the short term,” the representative to the right of Gourmand reported blandly.

“But we still want to be able to defend ourselves,” the representative seated in the sixth row, four from the left announced. “If he forms a block of twenty or more states, they will be able to out produce us in war-crafts by fifty to one. And that’s a conservative estimate.”

“And they have the numbers to man those war-crafts,” the representative seated in the third row, sixth from the left added an instant behind.

“So, you’re planning on taking the fight to the Earth?” Joshua asked tentatively.

“No, we’re not doing that,” Gourmand quickly corrected. “An attack on the Earth would turn the entire planet against us. We would be defining ourselves, in their minds, as the enemy.”

Joshua could see that they had given a lot of thought to this. But he could not help thinking that the representatives were making a good public relations decision and a bad tactical one. He was reluctant to point this out to this impressive and powerful assembly before him. However, after considering that all their thinking was based on a fanciful weapons system that only existed within his head, he could not stop himself.

“Representatives, I feel I should tell you that, in my estimation, our only chance for victory against numbers like that can only come through a massive preemptive first strike against Earth’s military bases and spaceports.”

Joshua scanned the faces of the Representatives as he waited for a response to his assertion. They all appeared unfazed by what he had just said. The absence of any challenges to his estimation had him confused during the three seconds of silence that followed it. When a response did come, it was the last thing he expected.

“We came to that conclusion as well,” Gourmand confessed.

To his surprise, Joshua noted that the entire room full of Representatives appeared to be quietly in agreement. Not one of them so much as fidgeted in reaction to this declaration. Joshua devoted a couple of seconds to this observation and then focused his attention back to Gourmand.

“That’s why we’re not planning for a war with the Earthers,” Gourmand explained casually. “We prefer another solution. We’re looking at your weapons platform as—an insurance policy.”

Joshua was at first reluctant to inquire about this other solution. He did not think it was his place to ask about their machinations. But this limitation galled him when he came to the realization that he still did not know what they wanted of him. The only thing he did know was that they were interested in the weapons platform he described in a paper he wrote more than sixty years earlier. He immediately dismissed the idea that they wanted him to build it. He knew this because the weapon he wrote about was little more than an overall description. They had to know that it would take a large team of engineers to create it. Because of this reasoning, he concluded that he had every right to know how he would fit into their plans and exactly what they wanted of him. So, he put the question to them with a stern edge to his tone.

“Representatives, without knowing what your plans are or how I factor into them, I have no way of knowing how I can help you.”

Gourmand gave Joshua a studied look for several seconds before turning his attention to the Representatives behind him.

“Are there any objections?” Gourmand questioned, as he looked over his left shoulder and then his right.

After a short silent pause, Gourmand turned his attention back to Joshua. He gave him another brief study before speaking again.

“Are you familiar with the Bridge Competition, Captain Sloan?”

Joshua gave the question a few seconds of thought before giving an answer.

“It’s an awards program to encourage the development of a star-drive,” Joshua responded with a look of suspicion.

No sooner had this answer been given did Gourmand begin his explanation to Joshua regarding his presence there.

“Thirteen years ago, a Doctor Herbert Andersen submitted an equation he claimed was proof that it is possible to manipulate time while moving through space. His theory was tested fifteen years ago, on a miniature scale and—it worked. We now know the science for building a star-drive. What has been holding up its development is the power requirements and the mechanics for accelerating a spaceship to a minimum of thirty-seven percent of the speed of light.”

“Why thirty-seven percent?” Joshua questioned with a shrug.

“Thirty-seven percent is the minimum velocity that our power production capabilities can manage,” Gourmand answered with a confused expression.

Joshua was even more confused and said as much in his next question.

“What does that mean?”

“Apparently, if we’re moving at the speed of light then we could create this tear in time/space with a single flashlight battery,” Gourmand commenced to explain with an expression of nonchalance. “The amount of energy needed to create this rupture increases exponentially as we back away from light speed. The mass of the ship coupled with the speed that it’s traveling determines the amount of energy needed. At thirty-six percent of light speed, we lack the technical know how to build a reactor powerful enough to create a time/space tear large enough for a marble to fit through.”

After a pause to digest this information, Joshua acknowledged his understanding with a nod and a soft, “okay.” Seconds after noting this, Gourmand continued with his explanation regarding Joshua’s presence there.

“The scientists say that once we’re through this rupture, time becomes pliable. Apparently, space can be expanded or contracted in ‘null space…,’ their words. Once we’re through the rupture, the energy needed to manipulate time is minuscule. The minimum speed for all starships is thirty-seven percent of the speed of light. Reaching this speed within a reasonable time frame has been our biggest obstacle to a workable star-drive.”

“Has been?” Joshua questioned with a blank stare.

“A couple of years ago, that would have meant burning the thrusters of a spaceship, continuously, at full power for more than a week,” Gourmand promptly explained.

“At full power, the thrusters would burn out in less than three hours,” Joshua spoke out with a quick shake of his head. “At a quarter power, they wouldn’t last much more than thirty hours. The only propulsion system that has ever been capable of continuous operation for that amount of time was an ion engine, and it couldn’t reach half these speeds in a decade. The only practical propulsion system is the high G-repulsor engines that we’re using now. And with these, you’re talking about running them for as long as we dare, rest and prep them, and then repeat for as many times as it takes to get to these speeds. That’s one to three months, assuming there’s no catastrophic breakdown along the way.”

“Precisely…” Gourmand agreed with a slight nod of his head. “Three months ago, we produced the first repulsor engine that’s twice as powerful as anything we have now and is capable of twenty hours of continuous operation at full power. This engine can accelerate a starship to these speeds in less than fifteen hours at maximum thrust. We began mass producing them a month ago. Retrofitting all starcorp starships and spaceships with them along with additional Zero-G Generators, to offset the increased stresses; and improved power plants, to support these upgrades is set to begin in another month. To keep the temporal field generators a secret from Earth, we will install them at the last moment. When this is finished, our plan is to leave the Sol System.”

Gourmand paused to allow Joshua to absorb this information. But this was unnecessary. Joshua had no trouble comprehending what was said. Halfway through this explanation, he knew where Gourmand was going. It was simply the scope of this solution that had him mesmerized. After a considerable pause, Gourmand began to tell Joshua what would be expected of him.

“What we want from you is a military option.”

Joshua hesitated to react, but when he did, it came with an expression of bewilderment.

“I don’t understand.”

The representative seated to the right of Gourmand quickly responded.

“When the Earthers figure out what we’re doing, they will most likely step up their plans for us. Up until now we haven’t had a need for a standing military. Should the Earthers act against us we will need something in place to hold them at bay.”

A second behind this statement, the representative seated to the left of Gourmand continued where the previous representative left off.

“Captain Sloan, we’re prepared to provide you with a budget and the resources you need to build this war machine that you outlined in your paper.”

“We estimate that it will take us six years at the most to put all of this into place,” Gourmand began a second behind. “We believe we can keep all of this a secret from the Earthers for roughly half that time. And we think it will take them another one-to-two years to amass a space force large enough to be of any real threat to us. What we’re offering you, Captain Sloan, is a commission. We want you to build your war machine. And if necessary, we want you to place it and yourself in harm’s way.”

Joshua reflexed inwardly while considering this offer. Before he could produce his answer, Gourmand spoke again.

“Before you answer, I need you to understand what we are asking. You and your war machine will be the rear guard. Your job will be to hold a line for as long as we need you to, or for as long as you can. You and your war machine will be a secondary concern.”

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