Dark Fate, Chapter 71 (Patreon)

Chapter 71 – Boeing

“So, when is your friend getting here?”

Kate Pearson sighed as she heard the impatience in her boss’s voice. She looked back out to the tarmac at Boeing’s test facility, where one of her old friends from college, that was now in the Atlanta Police Department, said to meet at. “Like I said, sir, she said that she would be here at 9:30 exactly. It is 9:25 now.”

Joseph King, the VP in charge of research for Boeing, was not impressed. “Yeah, well, I don’t see any cars yet, are they flying in? I just checked with the tower, and there are no planes on approach.”

Thankfully, Kate was saved from having to come up with a response when the air began to get heavy. No, not the air. It felt like something was pushing on her, making her heavier. Not to the point where it felt dangerous, but she was sure that, if she weighed herself right now, she’d be at least 25% heavier.

“What is going on? What’s causing this?”

King’s voice was concerned, but also excited. It was hard to remember, with him being the Vice President, that King actually worked his way up through the R&D department. He was a scientist forced to do business, not a businessman forced to ride herd on scientists. An unexplained phenomenon like this was just as exciting to him as it was to her.

“I don’t know, sir. But if I had to guess, I’d say it was related to whatever my friend wanted to show me.”

King just nodded. “Well, if this has something to do with the ‘magic’ that has been going around since the System popped up, then I’m definitely interested. The Defense Department has been screaming for some way to upgrade their equipment. Flying monsters apparently make the current generation of fighters look like jokes.”

Kate nodded. She’d heard the reports, like everyone in the industry. The few engagements between the Air Force and some large, flying birds called Rocs had not gone well for the Air Force. The birds were nimbler in the air than even the tightest-turning jet, and they were fast! Their feathers were apparently like iron, and missiles had a hard time locking up on them, despite their size, because they didn’t put off much heat, and radar was unreliable. Oh, and some of them could breathe lightning.

To say that the pilots, the ones who survived, were unhappy with the state of affairs was putting it mildly. And, for once, that dissatisfaction was shared by every step of the chain of command and procurement, all the way down into the R&D division of her company. Everyone was unsatisfied with how the planes had performed against ‘magical’ foes.

However, it had only been months since the world had changed, and research takes time. They were literally inventing new science as they worked, trying to understand the new rules of the world. Thankfully, the old rules weren’t gone, so 1+1 didn’t equal 3, but there was more to things, now, which meant all the old science was full of new and unsolved variables that they had to figure out.

It was a heady time to be a scientist, that much was certain. Actually, a few of the people who had worked on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo had given a talk for the R&D division, a couple years back. The way they described things back then, when they were literally writing new science and pushing boundaries every day? That was the same feeling that was in the air now.

Sure, there were problems. Monster attacks and all that. But it wasn’t like the Cold War didn’t overshadow everything during the space race. As a scientist, things like this were what she lived for!

At 9:29 exactly, the air shimmered, and then cleared, revealing a spaceship! An honest to god spaceship! Like out of the movies and everything! Not even fifty feet from her! Oh, wow, and it was armed, too? Look at those guns! Were they energy weapons of some sort?

Mr. King was just as excited as she was, and was already running through what they could gather from this ship. The fact that it looked like it had scrap welded onto it didn’t bother him at all. After all, that just meant that someone had been modifying the ship, which meant more possible technology to find.

“Oh, wow. I never even heard it, only felt it. Has to be some kind of reactionless drive. Gravity manipulation, maybe? That would explain the pressure we felt, if we were close to the edge of whatever field they used.”

Looking over at him, she said, “If they use gravity manipulation, they must have both artificial gravity and some kind of inertial dampening! Otherwise, the forces would probably kill any crew. This is some real Star Trek stuff, here!”

“And what about the camouflage? The ship didn’t appear on any of our systems, or I would have heard about it. We didn’t even see it with our own eyes! What kind of stealth systems does this thing have?”

A hatch opened, and Kate saw her college friend walk down the ramp, followed by a man dressed all in black, and four women. Behind them, there were, well, aliens! Actual aliens! They had to be!

“Oh, my!”

The aliens were short, three feet tall at most, and reptilian. Though their heads were almost doglike. Strange, definitely alien, but not an eldritch horror by any means. She wondered what they were called. And they all had matching collars and harnesses. Though the collars didn’t match the harnesses, and looked newer.

Her friend, Alexis, smiled as she came up to them. “Katie! How have you been? I was so worried when you said that you’d gotten a non-combat class. It is a dangerous world out there, you know!”

Kate tried not to groan at the old argument. “You know me, Lex. I can design a weapon, sure, but asking me to build one or fire one is just asking for trouble. I’d be more dangerous to me than the monsters would be!”

Alexis shook her head, and sighed. Turning to the man behind her, she said, “Obviously, by now, you see what I wanted to show you. This man is Zayn Greene, and he’s the one who obtained the ship.”

Kate nodded, and said, “Oh, yes! First, let me introduce my boss, Joseph King, Vice President of Research and Development.”

Mr. King offered his hand to Alexis, and the man. “Well, Mr. Greene, I’ve had a lot of people give me tech demos before, but never one as spectacular as this one!”

The man smiled. “Ah, Mr. King, I would have been very surprised if they had. Now, I’m not a technical expert, but I can provide top-down explanations of the different systems involved with this ship. I also have the ship’s engineers with me, though they’re more the ‘make it work’ type than the ‘design from scratch’ type. However, that should cut years off the timeline for reverse engineering.”

Her boss nodded. “Well, obviously having working examples of technology is going to make replicating it easier, since you don’t have to go through as much of the discovery process. Having technicians who know how things go together should help, too. If you don’t mind me asking, how did you come across this craft?”

“Well, it was originally a civilian freighter, however, as you can see, it has been up-armored and armed. The kovalds, which is what these aliens are, used the ship as a pirate vessel, preying on merchants and unarmed stations and the like. They also like to raid defenseless colony worlds, for slaves, food, and resources.”

Mr. King’s expression hardened. “I see. Then I take it that they were trying to do the same thing here?”

The man nodded. “Yes. However, they had the misfortune to come down in my back yard. Once the leader and his more violent flunkies were eliminated, the rest surrendered, and submitted to the collars they wear.”

“Hmm. That could be a problem, from a legal standpoint. There’s some clear rules about prison labor, you understand.”

“Well, I think we can work around that. They aren’t in prison, for one thing. We can call them consultants, with their direct pay and benefits coming from me, and the money on your end goes to a consultancy firm I’ll put together. This way, your hands are clean, and the pirates still give us what they know.”

“Ahem. Well, I doubt anyone will ask too closely about the consultants we use to help unlock this technology. But enough about that. What can you tell me about the ship itself, so I know which teams to bring in?”

The man nodded. “Well, materials-wise most of it is just magically-treated steel. Anyone with a blacksmithing, artificing, or similar class or profession should be able to tell you how to go about replicating that. Now, the ship itself is largely magitech. The electronics all function like you’d expect, but the power is provided by a magic-based reactor system.”

“Hmm. That could be problematic.”

“I have a friend with connections in the System Shop. While he’s bound by contract not to reveal some information, if you ask direct questions, he can provide resources and price lists that will tell you what you need. In this case, I think he’d probably recommend getting a few copies of certain tech guides. That would be more cost-effective than skill books, and you could use the same guide to teach multiple people.”

Mr. King looked flabbergasted. “They have textbooks for this magitech in the System Shop? For anyone to purchase?”

“Yes, though for most people, unless they have a class or profession that are giving them some skills in the area, it would be like going from high school Algebra straight into the mathematics of particle physics and calculating the energy release of compounds.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Well, the short answer is that I’ve been in an accident regarding time magic. And yes, there is time magic. No, you don’t want to fool around with it, any more than you want to play around with fluoride compounds.”

“That bad?”

“Worse. Anyone playing with time magic without the proper skills and controls in place should be considered as dangerous as someone who wants to use difluoride dioxygen to cook his steaks.” He shuddered.

“Of course,” he continued, “the whole field isn’t that bad. Much like how when you look at a list of explosive materials, there is a spectrum of how dangerous they are. The basic spells, like the ones that speed a person up or slow them down in combat, are safe enough, unless something goes out of control. Trying to alter time, however, is like playing hackey-sack with a container of FOOF. If you’re very, very lucky, you’ll survive the experience.”

Mr. King nodded. “So, your… accident managed to put you in place where you could intercept the pirates before they could do damage?”

“Yes, thankfully. Although, the damage they would have done, with their little ship, wasn’t really a problem. No, the problem is what would have happened when they went and told their friends.”

“Ah, and, thus, the reason you came to a defense contractor with the ship, instead of trying to sell it outright?”

“Exactly. Now, I’m sure you noticed the stealth systems. That’s actually just a two-layer illusion. The basic one is just an illusion that prevents someone from seeing the ship through technological means, even if they are as simple as a mirror. The second level, which is actually more power intensive, hides the ship from biological sensors, like the human eye.”

“Why would that be more expensive than the masking from technology?”

“Because of how the settings were done. The two stealth systems were kludged together by the kovalds, after market, and come from two different sources, neither of which was the same as the ship. And, before you ask, there is technology from at least eight species on this ship.”

“Oh, my.”

“Yeah, I thought you’d like that. Now, let’s talk price.”

“Ah.”

The man smiled. “Now, I’m a reasonable man, and I know you’re going to have to do a lot of R&D to get all this reverse-engineered. So, my price is simple. Two percent. Nothing up front, but two percent of any contracts resulting from the ship and its technologies. Two percent of any patents filed, and so on.”

“Two percent… for how long?”

“Perpetuity.”

“I’ll have to talk to legal and finances.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. We came to you because one of my friends was friends with one of your workers, so you get right of first refusal.”

“Well, Mr. Greene, let me make some calls real quick.”