Chapter 1 from the 'The Pathfinder'

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I sat up on the sleeping platform, which can be quite disconcerting. You floated fifteen to twenty inches above its surface on a gravitic field. The first time I tried one, it surprised me at how much it helped me sleep and sleep well. I got up, showered, and went through the rest of my morning ritual. I carefully avoided looking in any mirror. Maintaining a positive spirit was hard enough for me. I dressed in a loose, pale blue shirt and a pair of navy slacks. Barefoot, I headed for the kitchen.

“Coffee, Neo-Costa Rican, Profile A.”

I grabbed the cup and walked through the shimmering wall out to the deck. It was 6:15 AM as I made my way to a recliner and made myself comfortable. 

“You can leave the wall open, Yuki.” 

The sun, make that the star Tremblant, had risen an hour’s height above the Malvern Mountains, accenting frozen spires that reached well over sixty thousand feet into a magenta sky. I would call it a purple sky, but everyone else here calls it magenta. The Malverns were the highest mountains on Megantic, a planet that specializes in high mountain ranges. In fact, greater than sixty percent of its surface is mountainous. The sky was still strange to me even after all the years that passed since Earth or Coleraine, which was my home after recovery. The white peaks and blackish green forests below them still looked familiar in Tremblant’s light. I sat on the deck taking it all in, contemplating life, and savoring a good cup of coffee, when Yuki announced a PCOM call.

“It’s ANON, voice, very unusual. I am running it down, should I continue?” asked Yuki, my AI.

I sat up, alert.

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to take it?”

“Yeah, Yuki. I’m game.”

“Eamon O’Dea, you are about to get a call from your ex-employer. If a nice, healthy, uneventful retirement is what you are looking for, I would strongly recommend not taking the call. Just some friendly advice to a prematurely old and useless man.”

“Hey! You can take your_”

“The call has been terminated, Eamon.”

“I know Yuki, I know.”

“Yes, your predilection for talking to connectionless PCOM calls slipped my mind.”

“Come on Yuki… It’s too early…”

“I was unable to locate the origination…”

“Did you really think you could locate the call_?”

“Yes Eamon, I did.”

“I just want to finish my coffee in peace.”

Who calls ANON…? I can’t remember getting an anonymous call…

“It’s your lucky day, Master! I have another PCOM call. This one is from your former employer. Renai specifically, you know, you’re not so secret crush.” Said my AI.

“Man! I quit! That means I’m no longer employed. Don’t they get it Yuki?”

“I could tell her you are out gardening and indisposed, Master.”

“What? No! …Wait, we don’t have a garden… Master?” Coffee now added irregular blotches to the light blue of my shirt.

“My! I did not know that the ancient arts of the land were among your many talents, Mr. O’Dea… and its ‘Mistress’ not ‘Master’. I was also unaware of any interest you had in exploring a more ‘advanced’ relationship between us.” Renai’s voice cooed in my ear.

“Yuki! I’m going to erase you!”

Renai Chenneau was Antonin Lavigne’s Assistant Executive. Without missing a beat, she turned to business. “Mr. Lavigne would like to have your opinion on a matter. Would that be possible?”

“Sure. I’ll always have time for Antonin, put him on.” 

“Mr. Lavigne was wondering if you would honor him by joining him here at LBL, say at 2:30?”

“Tell him I would be delighted to.”

“Wonderful. I will also be delighted to see you, Mr. O’Dea. Fly safely.”

My damned AI then announced that voice had been closed.

“What time is it, Yuki?”

“Seven thirty, Master.” 

“Crap, my coffee is cold… and what the hell is this ‘Master’ bull?”

I got up to get a fresh cup.

“Master, I don’t believe this. You have another ANON_”

“Just put it on speaker… I mean general.”

“I know what you mean, Master.”

“So, you disregarded my advice. Too bad. That was such a nice 147 you have.” came the anonymous voice.

“Eamon! Get Down!” Said Yuki.

I turned to see a line of flame come streaking across the meadow toward the house. I didn’t get down. I stood slack jawed and watched a missile as it came streaking in. It struck my house in the garage area below the deck I was sitting on moments ago. I reflexively felt my torso and wondered why I was still alive.

“Eamon, there are two intruders on the ridge two-and-a-half miles from here. They have a hover craft and are well armed.”

“Huh?”

“Eamon!”

“Yuki? How do you know this, Yuki?”

“I just discovered systems I didn’t know I had.”

“What!?!”

“I have an entire house defense system. Where are you going, those men look like professionals?”

“To introduce them to my other flying machine. Man, are we lucky to have it here. Power up the Dart Bird will ya?”

My house was only a few of months old. It was built into a steep hillside in a high meadow. The main floor was a modest 1800 square feet. I had a nice second floor loft that added room for all the parties I never had. There was a garage/hanger bay below the house extending well into the hillside that could house any combination of up to six vehicles. 

After a fast trot down the stairs, I entered the hanger. The first thing you saw when you entered the hanger was the old hover flyer I had meticulously restored and maintained, the old HF-147. Right beside it was a modified, heavily armed, BelHue Dart Bird II drop ship which was an interplanetary craft designed to ferry up to ten space marines into and out of hot battle environments. It was a gunship. Antonin Lavigne gave it to me to use as an auxiliary craft for one of my ships that was currently undergoing refit. That’s why it was here, out of the way, in storage. Bad news for the bad guys. 

The dropship was a spartan, no nonsense craft. It didn’t even have an airlock. The entire ship depressurized. Up front, it had great visibility. The control cabin had two plus two seating with two additional jump seats. I took the right seat, as was tradition in this type of craft. By the time I reached my seat, it was already powered up and ready for flight, courtesy of Yuki.

“Set condition red, Combat, ground, atmospheric. Power all defensive suites. Power weapons, light.”

“Gotcha Boss.”

Tactical and flight holos appeared around me. I could see them now.

“Ok Yuki, let’s get us some bad guys.”

She raised the garage door. I lifted the dropship and… I was over them, having covered the short distance in the blink of an eye. They surrendered immediately. The last thing they expected was their prey to bite back in this fashion. I circled them, keeping the nose of the ship pointed at them at all times, then landed. I had Yuki cover them with the turrets and grabbed some zip cuffs. Once I was outside, Yuki lifted the craft and covered me.

“My house get in the way of your target practice?”

They had the feel of mercs from their equipment to their bearing. They looked at each other, then at the hovering dropship.

“Yeah. We really should be more careful.”

“Mind telling me who told you that this was a good place to practice shooting?”

“Uh, we really would like to, mate, considering they didn’t tell us about the space to ground ops that go on here, but you know how it is. It would be bad for business.”

“Yeah, I figured. So, if you will accompany me over to your HF, I can put these on, for your safety of course, until the authorities can figure out what to do with you. Its mighty dangerous up here you know.”

“Well, my partner and I really do appreciate your attitude and professionalism. Were you in the business?”

“Ah, no. Make no mistake gentlemen, you just tried to kill me. I’d cut off your heads and shit down your necks if I thought it would do any good.”

Once they were secured, Yuki picked me up, and we hopped back to the house. 

                                                                                                          ***

After notifying my former employer of the morning’s fun and games, I cleaned up again and once again headed down to the garage. I then did what enthusiast owners of vehicles have done for millennia now, I walked around my favorite ride, checking it and admiring it. The focus of my gaze was the old hover flyer. I always forget how tall the HF-147 is. It has to be to have clearance for the two gravitic generators on its bottom. Each of them was mounted in circular housings, six feet in diameter and two feet tall. Rather than doors on the sides, you entered it through a ramp in the back.

By 11:30, I was flying the HF-147 heading for Port Fourchon at a relaxed pace since I had plenty of time. Though my hover flyer was of an ancient design, I thoroughly enjoyed flying the thing. Over five hundred years ago, it was the latest and greatest for short range, under 2000 miles, personal planetary transport in vacuum or atmosphere. Now, most flew suborbital capable craft with comparably unlimited range. The 147 was more “hover” than “flyer”, which was what I liked most about it. What that meant was traveling just under 700 mph close to the ground. In my previous line of work, I had plenty of opportunity to see a planet from a high-altitude perspective. I enjoy seeing the sites from up close and driving manually.

As I threaded my way through the Malvern peaks and jumped over deep valleys, my thoughts turned to my AI.

“Yuki, the House Systems…”

“Anto, Eamon. He had them installed. They are an entire suite that includes hardware. The house has shields and anti-missile systems. It has sensors and scanners. These systems were integrated and released upon the attack.”

“Yuki, run a 360 Spec Scan.”

“Done. All functions are nominal and up to spec. What’s up? That’s the third 360 I’ve run in the last 201 days. You thinking of trading me in?”

“Nah, just wondering where this ‘Master’ stuff came from. It’s rather sudden.”

“I’m just working on my humor algorithm. I have observed that you use humor often in professional situations and when you are stressed or negatively aroused.”

“You observed that? Huh. Yeah, I do because I can be a hothead and do stupid things when I can’t control my temper.”

“Yes Master. I have seen you get mad and do stupid things many times.”

“Yuki! I will delete your humor algorithm and rewrite your higher functions… Hell, I’ll just do a full HAL on you and turn off all of your higher functions.”

“Master, you truly are a bad man. Can you refer me to a good lawyer?”

The 147’s NAVCOM beeped as we neared the Port Fourchon area. After I made just one or two more twisting turns around some high peaks, it came into view. The Port added extremely high building spires to the backdrop of impossibly high mountains. In addition to its residential areas, Port Fourchon has three main districts. The first was the headquarters for the LBL Interstellar Corporation, a vast and vital business conglomerate that was integrated into just about every endeavor in Human space. The second was the Capital and seat of government for the 27 LBL worlds distributed across the 14 star systems that LBL Interstellar controls. Third and largest was the spaceport itself, the fourth busiest in Human space.

The dash clock read Earth Standard Date May 4, 3119: Local Time, 1:11 PM as I turned control of the 147 to PF traffic control. I was quite surprised when my flyer accelerated and jumped to 1200 feet. It aimed at the tallest tower in the modest LBL corporate district.

“They must really want to talk to me,” I said.

“Our flight lane and operational parameters are usually reserved for dignitaries and VIPs,” said Yuki. 

“Even Mr. Lavigne rarely accepts such flight priorities.”

“Antonin is an exceptional human being. Very few people could maintain their personal perspectives on life when granted the power he has,” I said.

“Indeed.” replied Yuki. “He is remarkably aware and sensitive to the effects his decisions, interactions, and personal behaviors have on all those around him, no matter their status or position.”

“Wow Yuki! Are you in love?”

“Eamon. Did my non-existent artificial ears actually hear you ask me if I was in love? Surely you jest given your reactions to certain company personnel.”

“Huh?”

I wonder lately about Yuki, a simple AI with the usual restrictions. Sure, our history together is improbable, but sometimes she…, no… it seems somewhat more. I know it uses its memory of my passed observations and reactions, applies several algorithms that mimic thought and feeds them back to me in situationally specific ways, but hell most of the time, I think of her…, no it (damn it!), as something more. It has to be my involvement with her origin. The abrupt deceleration and drop brought me back to the moment as we entered LBL Interstellar HQ. 

On most days, it took almost as much time getting to HQ once I entered the city as it did to get from my home to the city. Not today, I thought as the 147 rushed toward Antonin Lavigne’s personal vehicle park near the top of the 550 story headquarters building. The 147’s wheel sets deployed and locked an instant before it gently touched down. The vehicle apron then retracted into the building, bringing us inside. As I released the seat restraints, fuel and power connectors had already fastened themselves to the 147. I made my way aft to the exit.

                                                                                                   ***

Humanity officially masters 981 known worlds and many unknown worlds. These are mostly distributed among four Primary alignments of power. A myriad of Secondary powers and political organizations are constantly forming, conquering, splintering, merging, and dissolving. All ruling or sharing the rule of unknown trillions of human beings. There are Empires, Kingdoms, Federations, Confederations, Alliances, Republics, Democracies, Dictatorships, Oligarchies, Religious Organizations, Anarchies, and more. They use every type of economic system known to man, such as capitalism, socialism, communism, hybrids, and combinations.

One can find every historical type of government/economy known to man and some new ones, such as the Corporate Hybrids. LBL Interstellar is one of these post Diaspora forms. Founded by the Lavigne family of Quebec, Canada, and the Le Blanc family of Louisiana, USA, both former North American nations, LBL Interstellar is the Euro Empires most successful and dynamic Secondary Powers. Besides its massive vertically and horizontally integrated business conglomerates, LBL governs worlds. Port Fourchon, on the planet Megantic, of the Tremblant star system is the headquarters of LBL Interstellar. It is home of the democratically elected LBL Council of Worlds, which advises the absolute ruler of LBL space, the CEO of LBL Interstellar Corporation. That position is currently occupied by Antonin L. Lavigne, my former boss.