Unknown Research Facility

Dr. Norman was alone in the primary cloning bay. It was a good thing that he was alone for he was beside himself. Two terminals were destroyed thanks to a well-placed chair. He was pacing back and forth in front of a clone of John.

Purely from a physical standpoint, it looked like a perfect clone. Presuming of course John never suffered any of the wounds that left the body well scarred. Clearly, something was wrong with it though to elicit such a strong reaction in Dr. Norman.

“One thousand three hundred and sixteen failures,” Dr. Norman was all but foaming at the mouth, “Then this happens.”

The data slate in his hand was tossed across the room. It struck a corner of a desk, broke, and fell onto the floor unceremoniously. The door behind opened and Lisa walked in.

“Father, is there anything I can help you with?”

Dr. Norman turned to see her but barely acknowledged her presence. He walked to the terminal and keyed in a command. Then he turned to face his pride and joy.

The clone began dissolving into the most basic molecular components humans are made up of. The process took barely two minutes. Lisa seemed to relish seeing that occur to this clone, though she wished she could do so much more pain to the real John.

“It seems our friends tampered with his genetic structure to trigger his psychic capabilities,” Dr. Norman spat the words out.

Lisa walked over to a terminal and skimmed the results, “So they created a look-alike with laughably short lifespans. Not much use to us.”

“Yes, a very amateurish method. It changes what he really is. The perfect genetic clones we’ve created here all lack psychic potential. As you are well aware the offspring between the clones, and you have all been blanks as well. And now we are out of original material to create a clone.”

“Then we are left in the original position. We need to capture him.”

“Tut tut, easier said than done my dear,” Dr. Norman walked over and patted her head lightly, “I appreciate the enthusiasm but as you’ve well known from your experience, he is far more dangerous than he appears. Though with his recent commission that may present new opportunities.”

“Do we know where he is being assigned yet?”

Dr. Norman shook his head, “No, not yet. We will soon. When we do I want you to begin planning and practicing a situation to acquire our specimen.”

“With pleasure father,” Lisa said with an orgasmic delight in her voice.

“Now, how are negotiations with the pirates in the Horizon Expanse. We need a secure facility in the Pegasus system.”

“Slowly father. Their leader seems to think I should bed his son. The son disgusts me as much as our most valuable prey does.”

“Well, we can’t have that, can we? Sweeten the pot with some prototype weapons. Make sure we have control of them though. In case we need to make a point with them down the road.”

Lisa nodded and then left the room. Dr. Norman sat down in a chair and rubbed his temples. He sighed as he accepted the current defeat with great reluctance. He slowly logged into the terminal near where he sat down and activated the VI.

“Please examine the previous one hundred sixteen tests comparing the presumed genetic disposition of children produced between the male test subject and Lisa along with the subject and his current wife, Alice Robertson-Lief.”

The screen displayed the three genetic sequences and then began extrapolating the most likely combinations within children that could be produced. The hyper-computer was able to finish the calculation in record time. It played a chime when it was finished and began speaking to the exhausted and angry man.

“Children produced between Alice and John show a higher predisposition of psychic activity than with Lisa. The current estimate is nearly eighty-two-point three percent likelihood of psychic potential of at least a Level 3A. Twenty-point eight percent change of Level 5 or above.”

“Explain how this is. Alice is not psychic, Lisa is.”

“There appears to be no less than twenty-five strains of pure homo-superiors recorded to date. John and Alice are the only known two of their variants. It is presumed that it is the purest of the variants, given the markers we can extrapolate a higher than likely chance that strong psychic potential will be produced in any offspring.”

“Explain how they are purer.”

There was a pause, followed by the screens changing to display new information. Dr. Norman leaned in and stared at it in disbelief. This VI, thanks to a more open-ended inquiry from the doctor had extrapolated far more data than before.

“Lisa estimated lifespan, presuming illness or injury does not cause her to succumb, is between one hundred eighty and ninety years. We don’t have enough genetic material to do an accurate test on the test subject Alice. John’s lifespan is hard to pin down, but current estimates exceed two hundred and fifty years. It stands to reason that Alice could live ten to twenty years beyond him.”

There was absolutely no question in his mind that John was the key to the new man. This most recent revelation did nothing to dissuade him from that. But that his daughter, the byproduct of his greatest research accomplishment, wasn’t also part of the key was hard to accept.

“Tell me, what are the estimates for psychic offspring between Lisa and John.”

The VI paused for but a moment, “Sixty-five percent chance of Level 2C activity.”

“And what of the supposed chances of alpha plus abilities between both pairings?”

“Twelve-point two percent with Alice. Three-point eight percent with Lisa.”

“Please transmit all output data to my personal server. I’ll review it in due time.”

Dr. Norman signed off the terminal and began walking out of the laboratory. When he was in the doorway he looked back into the room and began to think. Perhaps they should change their mission to capture her. That would absolutely draw him to them. He would keep these recent revelations to himself before doing much more testing.

John was a lethal adversary under normal conditions. Capturing his wife might do more harm than good. While it would absolutely draw him to them, it may make it far more difficult to capture him without suffering grievous harm and damage in the first place. Much more studying, research, and above all else, planning needed to be done.

Friday. 10:13 Armstrong Retail Area—Jewelry floor

John was grinning like an idiot as he walked out of the store. Alice was meeting up with him after stopping in another store. She had purchased new earrings and a more unassuming wedding band to wear while on duty.

She noticed her husband’s grin and knew that he had purchased something ridiculous. It didn’t take longer than a quick glance at his left wrist to determine what specifically he had purchased. Another watch. John’s fascination and near, no this was a full-on, manic obsession with acquiring every watch he saw bewildered her.

“Ok, so let’s hear it, my love. How did you justify this one being added to your collection?” Alice said with a grin and slight sigh.

“It’s made out of a ceramite.”

“You have other watches made from that.”

“The skeletonized dial is made from platinum.”

Alice shook her head, “You also have watches with that combination.”

“It has three tourbillons.”

Alice laughed, “That too.”

“But it has three tourbillons, honey,” John immediately switched to a perfect Swiss accent, “Tourbillons, my dearest mademoiselle is so fun to say. Tourbillon.”

Laughter was the only response she could muster for the lovable idiot in front of her, “John, I really do love you even when your being as dumb as Andern.”

She gave him a hug and then held his hand, “So where too now?”

“I want to swing by FedEx to drop ship this junk to my deep storage. Then back to the hotel room to drop off the rest of the swag we’ve got. Then lunch?”

Alice and John then headed to wherever it was the FedEx location was at the station. Neither one seemed to be in that big of a hurry to get there. That was of course until John began to extoll the virtues and abilities, in excruciating length, to Alice.

She laughed when she thought ‘yeah, I married this’ to herself. John continued with the long-winded talk about this new watch. When there was a break in the conversation, or rather that occurred when John stopped talking long enough to take a long breath which gave her the opportunity to speak up and ask an innocent question.

“Ok, so I’ve just accepted that you’re going to spend an inordinate amount of money on watches. I’ve accepted that. But can you explain why you continue to wear mechanical watches? They aren’t as accurate as this smartwatch. I love the watch you bought me, but I’m always afraid I’m going to be robbed by some lowlife when I’m wearing it.”

John looked almost offended, “They are engineering masterpieces. This watch is accurate to within a single second every day. Long-term tests have it within five seconds over a week. Thirteen seconds to a month.”

“Yes, but you have to wind it every day, and it’s still not as accurate as one of these. Not to mention cost way more money.”

“But, but they are the pinnacle of engineering. Some of them can calculate the phase of the moon, or moons depending on the world, and everything. They are amazing. Plus, this one has three tourbillons, look at it. It’s hypnotic.”

John shoved his left arm in front of Alice’s face. She laughed when she looked at the doohickeys spin about in their cage under the watch’s clear crystal. This was just one of many weird quirks that she was going to have to put up with. Plus, it wasn’t like he was even coming close to bankrupting the two.

11:10 Hilton Regency Room 845

John was sitting on the veranda of the penthouse overlooking a green space and a section of the retail space of the station. Displayed on the transparent screen of the terminal was Andern. Alice began laughing when he began whining about work.

“Guys, it is fucking awful here. I mean yeah, the ship is really nice and comfortable. But oh my god. I spent six hours sitting at the same station running diagnostics one after another. And guess what. It’s two full weeks of this! Two weeks of running diagnostics.”

John paused it and started to laugh, “Honey, I think he is going to be broken by the time he gets to the station.”

Alice was laughing, “Did you honestly expect him to be any better?”

“I mean, no, but I was hoping,” John fumbled through his answer as Alice laughed.

John continued the playback, Kristin then walked into frame, “Hi guys. It’s not as bad as he thinks. But it has been a couple of busy days. Getting back into the swing of things with an eighteen-hour day has been weird as hell.”

Andern smirked, “Tell me about it. Have I mentioned how nice this ship is though? Look at our room. It’s fucking huge,” he panned the camera around the luxurious stateroom, “And we’re just junior officers.”

John paused the video and laughed, “God he’s so damned oblivious.”

“Those aren’t normal quarters for junior officers, are they?” Alice said with a sigh.

“No, no they are not. That ship likely has a skeleton crew and since they are engaged, they dropped them in one of the senior officer’s rooms. Now that doesn’t mean that the room isn’t nice. It very clearly is.”

John played it back and Kristin once again corrected him, “It’s because we’re engaged and the ‘captain’ of the ship,” she used air quotes, “isn’t here currently. We got a senior officer’s room. Not complaining about that. Chow is also surprisingly good.”

Andern looked incredibly excited, “Like really good. Better than the cafeteria during the academy. Brian sent an email. Their shakedown cruise wasn’t going that well, so they are putting in some hours to wrap things up.”

“We just wanted to say hi. Don’t enjoy that luxury cruise of yours too much.”

Alice laughed, “Not going to lie, we lucked out so hard.”

“First Fleet has all the nicest and shiniest new ships. Shipyards do the shakedown for us,” John said leaning back in his chair.

“Maybe getting an assignment in First Fleet wasn’t the end of the world,” Alice was smirking.

“For now, it sure doesn’t seem to be that bad.”

Saturday. 22:50 Voidliner Check-In – Delta

Alice was giggling as they waited in line to get checked in. To John, it was moderately annoying that they were even in a line given how much he had spent on the upgraded ticket. There was also no shortage of mumbling about checking their bags.

John was also in a somewhat bitter mood about all the changes to their trip over the last two days. Their flight had been pushed back eighteen hours, then ahead twenty-four, then back twelve. It was bouncing around until they settled on around twelve hours earlier than planned.

“Hey, sorry to bother you but I notice you have Naval travel bags. How did you snag first-class tickets?” a young man next to John said.

“Evening, we got our orders to head to Manchester. Upgraded our tickets so we can spend the time in a little more comfort.”

“Sweet, did you get a military discount?”

John nodded.

“Dare I ask how much it was?”

John looked up at nothing in particular for a moment, “Uh, like twelve and a half I think.”

“Thousand?” the man exclaimed.

“Yeah each. Was pretty spendy.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what rank are y’all?”

“My wife’s an O1, I’m an O2.”

“Fucking hell. How the hell can you afford that on your salaries? I’m an O4 and I would have to live cheaply for months afterward.”

John grinned, “I married a rich chick.”

Alice punched John in the kidney, “That’s not even funny you asshole.”

“Gotcha, enjoy the trip,” the man said laughing as Alice walked up to the ticket counter.

Ten minutes later their big bags were checked, and they were through the security area. John checked his ticket and noticed that they had an hour to kill. He pointed at the lounge and the couple walked in and found an open seat.

An attendant came over and took their drink order. John was hemming and hawing over what to order. Alice ordered a black coffee immediately. After much deliberation, John settled on a large cappuccino. The attendance could hear Alice laughing as she walked away to get their drinks prepared.

“I thought you said you hated coffee?”

“I do. That shit is terrible. The smell of it is just icky,” John was shaking his head, “But it’s just about noon Manchester time. So, I’m going to get myself accustomed to Manchester time.”

“Ooh, that is brilliant. I didn’t even think of doing that.”

“See, I’m useful.”

Alice laughed, “When you’re not being a chauvinistic asshole.”

John grunted, “Hey, that joke was funny.”

Alice shook her head. John shrugged in response and leaned back and looked at the lounge. Most of the seats were full. He momentarily began wondering where everyone was going until their attendant came back with their drinks.

“Would either of you be wanting to order any food?”

John looked at Alice and she just shrugged, “Do you happen to know when they’ll be serving the first meal onboard DAL M23X1 with service to St. Mary’s station above Manchester?”

Their attendant pulled a tablet out from a pocket and began scanning it, “Six hours after departure. Then every eight hours after that point.”

John looked at Alice, “Want to split a sandwich?”

“We’ll take a chicken and bacon wrap, please. With a side salad for me.”

“Potato salad here.”

Their attendant took the order and pressed a couple of buttons on her tablet. She then excused herself and took orders for other patrons. John continued to look around the lounge.

“I wonder how many of these people are setting off on a new journey in their lives?”

Alice smiled, “I doubt we’d be the only ones.”

“We’ve had a pretty damn good run of things so far, haven’t we?”

“I could have done without a few life and death scenarios, but beyond such minor quibbles, yes. Yes, we have.”

John laughed, “Minor quibbles.”

“You know if you just stayed safe more often my blood pressure and heart would feel more comfortable about everything.”

“I will once again affirm that I will endeavor to be safer for you.”

“Thank you. So, what do you think is going to happen with our initial assignments?”

John’s smile turned to a grimace when he took a drink, “Ugh, I hate this stuff. Well, I suspect you're going to be hitting the books hard over the next two to three years. You should have your Ph.D. by the time you are closing in on promotion to first lieutenant.”

“What about yourself?”

“In a perfect world, two asshats will be dead and buried, never again be able to hassle us. I’d like to have my own ship in three years but that may be a bit too quick,” John paused and raised a finger to his wife, “And no, I won’t be looking to take an escort. Frigate or bigger only. Because I am trying to be safer for you.”

Alice giggled, “Even when you are trying to be sincere you can be an ass.”

“You’re the one that agreed to marry me knowing that,” John shot back.

“I haven’t regretted it one bit,” Alice squeezed John’s hand.

John smiled back at her, “Nor have I. Want to have a friendly wager?”

“It’s about your bag, isn’t it?”

John nodded.

“Let’s add my bag to it. It will be in the first third of the ones that come out.”

John grinned, “I’ll be even more specific. It’ll be in the first fifteen bags that come out.”

“Ok, now your bag. I have faith it’ll be around the halfway point. Yeah. We’ll wait no more than fifteen minutes for your bag.”

“Second to last.”

“Pessimistic, are we?”

“Being a realist doesn’t make me a pessimist. I can’t be let down when my expectations come true.”

Alice sighed, “What’s the wager?”

“Dinner at the swankiest place on the station.”

“You have a bet,” Alice grinned.

The couple’s laughter was interrupted by their attendant bringing out their food. Soon they’d be boarding a ship to take them to their new home for the foreseeable future. They had achieved amazing things in the past four years. Things they rightly should be proud of.

They were graduated at a concerning time. Threats of another interstellar war were being broadcast by a hostile nation. Would it escalate? Almost assuredly, these things never just end with one or two actions.

But the future hadn’t been written yet. Only time would tell how John, Alice, and their friends would grow and react to their newfound stations in life. They were all, maybe Andern less enthusiastically, looking forward to forging their futures. Whether there would be a war or not, it was an exciting time to be alive.

A Terran Space Story will continue in a new anthology: the Lieutenant Saga.