Space Born - A New Realm
Ernest Bywater
Space Born - A New Realm
All rights reserved and copyright © 2022
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. All rights are reserved by the author, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
Product names, brands, and other trademarks referred to within this book are the property of their respective trademark holders. Unless otherwise specified there is no association between the author and any trademark holder, nor are any expressed or implied. Nor does it express any endorsement by them, or of them. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark, service mark, or registered trademark.
Cover Art
The background image is NGC 1999 by NASA & STScI, and in the public domain - NASA MP Photo Guidelines, 12.05.08. The cropping, size adjustment, and text are by Ernest Bywater. All rights to the cover images are reserved by the copyright owners.
18 May 2022 version
Published by Ernest Bywater
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Note: Due to the author being an Australian and the characters having no declared nationality affected by a specific version of English this story is written in UK English to make life easier for me.
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The title styles in use are a chapter, a sub-chapter, and a section.
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Beginnings
Morgan Henry Kesselring and Lorna Wilson Austin are born onboard a ship in transit between planets in a way Morgan is the child of three planets and Lorna is a child of two planets; with the planets having very different cultures. The spaceship Bright Future of the Rainbow Kingdom is in transit from the Federation planet of Admiralty to the planet of Acadia in the Acadian realm when Morgan is born two weeks early and Lorna is born a week early on the sixteenth day of the journey. At the time of their births the space-liner is in unclaimed open space outside of the control of any realm, which is a very important aspect of their births. Under the laws of all three planets involved if they're born on-board ship in claimed space they're seen as being born within that realm, as per the interstellar laws and conventions. However, in the very rare case of a birth being in unclaimed space other laws apply to the births. The home port of the liner is on the planet Blue in the Rainbow Kingdom and their laws have both children as being born on Blue as Rainbow Kingdom citizens. So the ship's Captain issues both Morgan and Lorna with a birth certificate in their full names with their family name being the same as the mother's name and the father's name as a middle name, which is the custom of both of the Rainbow Kingdom and Acadia realms.
When they reach Acadia Morgan's mother, Maria Owen Kesselring, registers the birth of her son, Morgan Henry Kesselring, with the Acadia authorities as an Acadian citizen due to him being the child of an Acadian citizen as he was born in unclaimed space. Len Henry, Morgan's father, lodges documents at the Federation Embassy to be sent to his home planet of Admiralty to have his son registered as a citizen of the Federation of Human Worlds due to his father's citizenship, and lists him as Morgan Henry. Because no planet of birth is listed in the documents Morgan is entered into both of those systems as being born on the home planets of his parents. Thus the official records show the three planets of his birth as Blue, Acadia, and Admiralty. The authorities of all three of the planets send Morgan legal documents registering his birth.
Lara Davis Austin registers Lorna's birth in Acadia, so Lorna Wilson Austin has two planets of birth because her father, Ben Wilson, is an Acadian citizen as well as her mother. So Lorna's records have her being born on Blue in the Rainbow Kingdom and on Acadia. Thus she is sent two sets of legal birth registration documents.
Due to them being born within twenty minutes of each other, Morgan is first and slightly older, and the long-term friendship of their mothers the two children spend a lot of time together while growing up. They also go to the same schools and are in the same classes until their studies differ as part of their chosen course subjects at university.
Naturally, this constant close association has them becoming great friends at a young age, and the friendship is a factor in their studies as they grow older. When their parents have work contracts that do not let them take their children with them Lorna and Morgan usually stay with the family of the other couple, or whoever is looking after the other child at that time. Thus both children are very well known to, and familiar with, all of the members of both families and their friends.
While growing up Lorna and Morgan have periods when they are cared for by anywhere between one to four of their parents or their grandparents. During their first fifteen years of life they live on a number of different planets with the most time being on Acadia, Admiralty, and University - the main tertiary education and research planet of Acadia.
Lorna and Morgan always celebrate their birthdays together, and that makes the parties easier for their parents to organise as they just have the one party for all of the two children's mutual friends. It also means the disruption of routines and the overall costs are lower for the families.
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Education
The lives and education of Morgan and Lorna are as convoluted and as mixed up as the registration of their births, or maybe more so.
The education system they access is an integrated multi-level system where all the school age children and youths attend physical classrooms for some subjects and social interactions while the bulk of the knowledge is given to them by computer controlled devices to feed knowledge to their brains then educators teach them how to access and make use of the knowledge they receive via the computers. The amount of information they learn in this way increases with their proven capacity to integrate it with their prior knowledge. Also, the bulk of the teaching which is done in physically present classes are subjects that are not dependent on where the students are in their general studies, this allows students of varying knowledge levels to interact with their age group peers in those classes where they're together. This system allows students to add other subjects while still participating with their age peer group in the joint classes.
Everyone has access to the basic level systems, but there are newer and more expensive systems that are better at imparting knowledge than the basic systems. Also, parents can hire private tutors to assist their children to understand any of the subjects they're learning.
Maria, Len, Lara, and Ben are all highly intelligent and well paid people with access to the very latest in teaching aids who also have an interest in giving their children the best and most varied education they can arrange for them. This results in Lorna, Morgan, and their younger siblings having available the most advanced educational methods and equipment in existence that their parents can obtain for their use. Thus they learn more than many of their peers and at a faster rate. They're also exposed to the advanced aspects of the fields of study their parents and other caretakers are in. All of the adults involved in the upbringing and education of Lorna and Morgan pass on their own knowledge, skills, and approaches to life to the two youngsters. Thus, when they enter their mid-teens they're a lot more knowledgeable and skilled than any of their age group peers. This is due to the training from their many carers and the access to the advanced levels of the subjects they study over the years, especially their studies in the fields of work of their desired careers.
During the years they live on University both Lorna and Morgan learn a lot about basic physics through the research Maria does while they also learn a lot about the biological science work Lara does as well as the way Ben uses his mechanical, electrical, and electronic engineering knowledge to create working physical devices from the theoretical research of Maria and Lara. Len's computers and programming knowledge is also passed along to the two youngsters. Naturally, Lorna and Morgan do not learn the same amount of information of each subject due to the differences in their interests and natures. Thus Lorna has a higher focus on medical and biological matters than Morgan who is more focussed on physics and the construction of devices. These differences also flow into their advanced studies in the later stages of high school and their university studies.
In the four years Lorna and Morgan live with his paternal grandfather on Admiralty they learn a lot about military and naval operations plus the art of warfare from Admiral Ken Henry, retired, a guest lecturer at the Federation Military Academy on tactics and strategy. Ken also has a top teacher in unarmed combat train both of the youths to a high level of unarmed combat as well as how to use many other weapons; including beam, projectile, and thrown weapons.
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Lost in the depths of time are the reasons why the education systems on all of the human worlds use the same divisions of Grade School for the children five to eleven years of age followed by High School for the twelve to eighteen year old students then University for those nineteen years-old and up. The shortest University degree is three years, so the earliest the students can usually graduate with a degree is twenty-one years of age. Thus, the legal age for adulthood becomes set at twenty-one years of age.
However, the universities offer four and five year graduate courses on many subjects plus a range of post graduate studies. Students can also do multiple degrees either at the same time or after each other. If someone has done the required prerequisite courses they can also do university courses while in high school; they're just harder for the students to do the compulsory in class activities in person and sometimes they have to do them by one of the many subject remote access process options available.
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While each of the realms have very similar laws and requirements on education and the requirements of schools the whole system is operated as privately owned businesses, even in the realms where the schools are fully owned by government agencies. This means the parents can choose where their children go to school. However, the school closest to their home is where the students usually go, even those living with guardians. Even when they're ready to attend university many students attend the university nearest to their residence, and those who go to a university away from their family home live in approved residences with guardians that are close to the university they're going to.
The system works well as parents can easily arrange for extra courses, special courses, and advanced courses for their children by the computer system that provides sixty percent of basic education courses. Thus the more advanced students do their advanced work at home or with tutors.
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Education Costs
The parents are required to send their children to an approved school for all of their schooling, and they're also required to pay the schools. For some people this is a serious financial burden. However, this burden can be lightened in many ways. One is for parents on very low incomes to apply for government education funding assistance and the government pays up to seventy-five percent of the school costs direct to the school if the parents qualify for the assistance. Another way to get assistance is to apply for a scholarship from various businesses and schools. Most of the scholarships are for university studies, but some do include high school studies as well. The scholarship contracts are signed by the parents and the students as they require the students to work for the provider of the scholarship for a year of each year of funding assistance they get, but the time is proportional to the percentage of funding provided. For example: a scholarship providing only seventy-five percent of the funds to attend a four year university course has a three year work requirement while a full funding scholarship has a four year work requirement. There are also philanthropic organisations that provide No Return Scholarships for free.
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Apprenticeships and Traineeships
Two other educational oddities lost in the dark past relating to the school funding by a business are the employment contracts known as an apprenticeship and a traineeship. In both cases non-adults can be employed outside of the usual Child Labour Laws in situations where they are to do work for their employer while the employer also pays their education costs and can choose the courses of study the students do. Such contracts can be entered into from fifteen years of age with parental approval. Also lost in time is why the apprenticeships usually start at fifteen or sixteen years of age and focus on the more manual type of work careers while the traineeships tend to start at eighteen years of age to focus on research, or management, or administration work careers. In both cases they usually provide part-time work as well as attending school to obtain the various certifications or degrees, and the work time is set at fifty percent of a full-time worker while it fits in around their school schedules. There is one other unusual option in both of these schemes where a non-adult who already has a university degree can work part-time for a business as up to seventy-five percent of the time of a full-time worker where the contract is signed by the student, their parents, a child welfare officer, and an officer of the judicial system. Usually non-adults on such contracts are nineteen or twenty years of age.
Non-adults employed under such contracts also have some extra legal rights and responsibilities that are usually only given to adults. This is so they can go about their daily lives, especially those relating to their work.
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Special Celebration
The sixteenth birthday celebrations for Lorna and Morgan are special as they're both also celebrating having just completed a university degree and they already have their joint thesis for their Master's Degree done. They started the thesis work while completing their degrees and all of the work has been approved and signed off. However, the final approval has to wait until a week after their graduate degrees are issued today. The day after the thesis is presented they can officially patent their work and earn a good income from their thesis work as well.
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Purple Games
Six months after their sixteenth birthdays Lorna Austin and Morgan Kesselring are walking along the hall from the Customs Section of the Arrivals Hall toward the Luggage Retrieval Area beside the Purple City Spaceport exit when something out on the field catches Morgan's eye and he turns left for a better view.
The two youths are walking beside the Travel Slide everyone else is using as they prefer the exercise. Thus they're on the two metre wide bit of concrete between the slide's side barrier and the Lexan wall giving a view of the large spaceport and its facilities. All of the spaceports have large Lexan walls where they can as they're much cheaper to put in than the concrete walls, but they claim it's to allow people in the spaceports better views of the port activities and more natural light during the day.
In this case the better view is a critical component of the events and actions to happen. On seeing two large company size combat shuttles as they make fast combat landings on the field Morgan shouts as loud as he can, “Down. Security alert. Contact.” As he starts to shout his right hand is pushing Lorna to the ground while his left is slipping under his shirt for the special ancient weapon his grandfather gave him two years ago. All of the modern weapons use power cells and electronics so the detectors are set to look for the power cells and electrical components of modern weapons while this uses an ancient propellant and mechanical actions to send an explosive shell at the target. Thus it's not detected by sensors at the many security check points of a modern world.
Morgan is pulling open an emergency exit to go out on to the field at the same time as Lorna hits the floor and his hand comes out of his shirt. He also starts to hear the wail of the security alarms. Exiting the door he runs to his left toward the only cover he can see out here, some sort of vehicle used to move things on the port is parked there with no one in sight. In the several seconds this has taken the scene has changed a lot.
Numerous doors are open on both shuttles with armoured troops pouring out of them. The rear ramp is down on both to let out the large heavy mobile field artillery. The second shuttle is on the left of the first shuttle with a mobile artillery driving down the ramp while the artillery from the front shuttle is down and turned to be driving along the side of the shuttle as the troops are moving out in combat teams.
Due to the training from his grandfather Morgan knows the artillery are armoured and the weakest spot in the armour of these models is the back of the power cell on the rear of them. He has only six rounds in his weapon, but they're thirty millimetre armour piercing explosive rounds so they should do some real damage. To ensure he does the most damage he can he fires what he was taught is a 'double tap' - two rounds as fast as he can fire at the target then change target. It takes a few seconds for him to aim and fire at the power cell of the second shuttle's field artillery, then two rounds inside the rear of the front shuttle to damage it, and two rounds at the back of the power cell on the field artillery from the front shuttle. At the same time as Morgan fires his last two rounds a trooper fires at Morgan and hits him just after the last round leaves his weapon.
The shuttles and artillery are a fair distance away from where Morgan is, so it takes a few seconds for his projectiles to reach their targets. The energy beam from the trooper hits Morgan and destroys the light armour his clothes are made of, another gift from his grandfather, as the impact throws him toward the vehicle he'd been running to. The armour is destroyed, but it keeps Morgan alive, although badly wounded. Morgan is still in the air when his first two shells arrive and do their job of punching a hole in the power cell then setting it off in one huge explosion which sets off the shuttle's drive fuel. The shots at the other shuttle damages it with the important damage being the breaching of the fuel tank so when the explosion of the fuel cell on the other field artillery piece creates a huge fireball the fuel in this shuttle adds to the explosion.
An unintended outcome is a third shuttle is only metres above the first two shuttles as it comes into land when the twin explosions blow it out of the sky to crash beside the others, then it explodes too. The fourth and fifth shuttles are outside of the fireballs caused by the first three shuttles. However, they are both lightly damaged by the shock waves, and on seeing the loss of sixty percent of the attack force the officer now in charge calls a mission abort and the shuttles go to full power as they head for space. On hearing the abort at the main spaceport the forces on their way to attack and control other places around the planet also abort as they know without control of the main spaceport they won't be able to take control of the air long enough to complete their missions.
Morgan is just starting to fall behind the vehicle he wanted as cover when the explosions of the shuttles send a series of fireballs across the field of the spaceport. All of the attacking troopers around the shuttles are fried in the fireballs, as are some of the spaceport's security people who are close to the explosions. However, most of them are behind cover to fight the attackers and are protected from the worst of the fireballs.
The undamaged parts of the armour Morgan is wearing give him a lot of protection from the fireballs as well, and so does the vehicle when he falls into its shadow. However, for a very brief period of time Morgan's right arm, right chest, and the right side of his head are exposed to the first fireball and are seriously damaged as his right arm and chest is where the trooper's beam destroyed his armour. Morgan gives a short scream of pain then he passes out as he hits the ground.
Only seconds later the fireball expires from the lack of fuel so soldiers and medics of the spaceport security forces move out onto the field to check on the damage and survivors. Morgan is one of the first people found, given emergency treatment, and rushed to hospital.
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Inside the Arrivals Hall
When Morgan shouts his warning many people just stand and look around them. Luckily, enough people react to the shout by pushing everyone around them to the floor then they also get down on the floor.
By the time the shuttles explode everyone is lying on the floor so all but a few are protected when the pressure waves and fireballs pound the Lexan walls and shatter them. Due to all but a few people being on the Travel Slide and having the extra protection of its thicker side barrier they're not hurt by the flying debris. However, Lorna receives a few cuts when shards hit her where she isn't protected by the light body armour Ken Henry provided for her. Lorna is the only civilian inside the port buildings hurt in the explosions as all of the others injured are spaceport security staff or people on the field.
By the time the debris stops falling and Lorna can stand up security people are on the field and medics are already treating Morgan. Lorna walks over to the medics and gets treatment for her minor injuries, thus she also travels to the hospital with Morgan and is able to help them in processing him through their administration system paperwork and get him the proper medical help he needs. She also takes possession of his personal effects.
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Note: The planet Purple is the lead planet of the Rainbow Kingdom with Purple City being the capital city of the realm. The King lives on the edge of the city. The Purple City Spaceport is also the centre of operations for the Rainbow Fighter Force as it's the main protection against raiders for the planet.
The Rainbow Kingdom has fifteen planets in its ten solar systems where each of its planets and systems chose a colour as its name, which is where the name of the kingdom is derived from. The realm's economy is very focussed on biological sciences and shipping. The Kingdom deals with several nearby realms and dozens of other single solar system governments with their two major trading partners being its closest neighbours of the Federation and Acadia, who are also the kingdom's closest political allies.
Modern documents and authorities are electronic records, but are called papers in the same way as they have since ancient times.
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At The Hospital
Due to Lorna knowing Morgan's details for the administration staff and his 'smart wallet' allows her to take it from Morgan without its alarm being activated they know she's very closely connected to him. Thus she's allowed to stay with him as they go through the various medical checks they need to perform to evaluate his injuries. This is a small hospital close to the spaceport and its staff aren't used to such serious injuries, thus the doctors are still discussing the possible treatments for what they can identify of his injuries when several soldiers enter the treatment room and spread out around Morgan with sensors aimed at him.
The lead soldier wears no insignia Lorna recognises, but the rest have the universally recognised medical insignia as one of the several on their uniforms. The lead soldier says, “Right, Major, find out what the damage is. The security records show this man just saved thousands of lives by eliminating the initial attack force and causing the main force to abort. We owe him and need to see he's made well again.” The order isn't really needed because the medical team splits up as they enter the room and are all near Morgan while they scan him with the many sensors they carry before their leader can start giving orders.
Within a minute three of the medical team are examining the results of their scans while talking too low for Lorna to hear them. Then the man their leader called Major turns and says, “Sir, he was hit with a neural whip in the right shoulder and chest area as well as the burns from the fireball. I don't know why he wasn't killed by the neural charge, but the hit has caused a cascade of damage to most of his neural system which is still happening. None of the usual treatments will help him before the neural damage kills him in a few hours.”
The leader frown, looks around the room, points at Lorna, and says, “You stay, Miss. The rest of you civilians leave the room.” The hospital staff seem only too happy to leave the room and the soldiers. The leader addresses the Major, “Will the Conversion save him?” He gets a nod yes in reply. The man turns to Lorna, “You appear to be his closest relative here and I need approval to apply a very intrusive treatment that will save his life. Do you approve this action and allow us to treat him?”
Lorna turns to look at Morgan and notices the fingers of his left hand are moving in the signal for attention so she says, “I see you, Morgan.” All of the other in the room look at her with odd expressions while she focuses on Morgan's left hand as the fingers move in set patterns. The lead soldier notices her focus and turns his head to look at what she's staring at, thus he also sees the fingers moving in controlled movements. So he simply smiles when Lorna says, “Morgan gives his approval for whatever it is you plan to do as he knows he'll die without it.”
The man nods to Lorna as he gets out a communicator and enters a code to make a call. When the person called answers the man says, “Sir, I'm at the hospital with the man who saved the city. He's dying from a hit by a neural whip and the only way to save his life is to Convert him. Do I have your approval to apply the treatments to this young man?” He listens for a moment then he looks at the Major and nods while making a few hand signs before going back to his talk on the communicator.
With the nod and hand signs the medical team scrambles around the table and start to remove the remains of Morgan's clothes while the Major gets out his communicator and starts issuing orders to someone. While they remove Morgan's clothes a couple of them examine them closely and say something to the Major who then talks to their leader when he finishes talking on his communicator.
The lead soldier turns to Lorna and asks, “Why is he wearing light body armour?”
“When Morgan's grandfather got it for us he told us to always wear it as it will save our lives if we're attacked. Is it a problem?” Is her reply.
“No, we just wondered why he had it on. It did save his life as it absorbed a lot of the charge before the armour was destroyed. Now, do you know what Morgan destroyed them with as we know he had just passed through the sensor system without triggering it, and that is a big worry for us.”
“Yes, I do. It's an ancient projectile weapon with only six shots. It's a lot slower than a modern beam weapon, but it has no power for sensors to detect. It's good for only light armour at close range. I have one too.”
Lorna saying she has a weapon they can't detect has all of the soldiers in the room going to a high alert level, so she slowly opens the lower part of her blouse to show the weapon in it's holster strapped to her body. The lead soldier looks at her with his head tilted to the side, she nods to his non-verbal question, and he removes the weapon from the holster. The others all relax a lot once he has the weapon. Lorna tells him about it as he examines it, “It uses mechanical actions to set off a chemical reaction that sends a thirty millimetre light armour piercing explosive round of a chemical explosive at a much slower speed than a beam weapon, but still a fast speed, as your security records will show. There's no power cell and none of the electronics normally used in weapons. Also, none of the materials used are the same as those used in modern weapons. This is a very ancient design that hasn't been used by any military for centuries.”
“An interesting weapon. Who made it for you?”
“Morgan's grandfather, Admiral Ken Henry of the Federation Fleet, had them made for us. We also have some extra rounds in our luggage. I'd appreciate it if you can find Morgan's where he dropped it on the field and return it to us. Also, in case you're wondering, this weapon is not on any of the lists of proscribed devices for liners or any of the realms we usually travel in. Thus it's legal for us to own and carry them.”
The man smiles as he says, “I hope you don't mind if I keep this right now as my staff don't like any strangers having any sort of weapon in my presence.” He gets out his communicator to pass orders for someone to look for Morgan's weapon on the spaceport field near where he fell.
While they're talking the medical team is preparing Morgan for the treatments in ways Lorna doesn't understand, beyond recognising them taking blood samples and placing them in analysers. At one point the Major shows some results to the leader and they both smile.
Some more soldiers with medical insignia arrive and they pass many things to the team around Morgan. As their leader says to Lorna, “We owe your Morgan a lot and the King is going to have a serious fight with the Parliament for approving this treatment to Morgan as it's usually only provided to citizens of the Rainbow Kingdom.”
Lorna grins when she turns to look at him as she says, “No he won't. Yes, both Morgan and I travel on Acadian passports as our mothers are from Acadia and we're Acadian citizens. However, we're both also citizens of the Rainbow Kingdom with birth certificates from Blue due to being born on the space-liner Bright Future in unclaimed space. So I have dual citizenship while Morgan has triple citizenship as his father is from Admiralty in the Federation.” This results in her being asked for, and giving, their full names and identity details, which are quickly checked.
After confirming they're also Rainbow citizens the leader says, “That will save his Highness from having to notify Parliament about this. It does raise another question. How closely is your future linked to his?”
“I think you can say they're very close. We've been best friends all of our lives and we plan to declare to be 'life mates' when we can legally do so. How can you perform this treatment without his parental approval?”
“The records show you both have university degrees and are here on traineeship contracts, despite your young ages. However, the contracts allow for you to approve medical treatments for yourselves that don't alter your appearances, other than needed to repair injury damage to return you to your normal appearance. So this is legal. There is another aspect of all of this I think you should consider.” Lorna tilts her head as she looks at him. “The treatments will make some changes which can be a problem to a life mate unless the life mate also has them. Do you wish to be fully safe with your proposed life mate?”
“Yes, I would. Why would the treatments be a danger like that?”
“These treatments are being used as they replace the neural system with a more robust and responsive one. This is required due to the damage done and still happening within his body. So the new neural system won't be rejected we'll also make some changes to his general cellular structure. The results will be he can think and act faster and also be stronger and better able to handle a lot of physical and health issues. Morgan will need to spend some time with us undergoing training. I suspect it would be a very useful situation for us all if you have the same treatments and the same training as he does. Do you agree?”
Lorna thinks for a moment before she nods. One of the medical staff seems to be expecting this as Lorna is quickly handed a hospital robe to put on after removing her own clothes. Once changed she lies down on a gurney to be scanned and blood samples taken. A few minutes later she passes out.
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The medical team starts the treatments of both Morgan and Lorna in the hospital due to the urgency to treat Morgan and the need to have them both at the same stages of treatment. Once the medical team confirms the first nanobot injections are fully developed and their patients are stabilised they transfer them to their secure facility in the nearby mountains where they normally work.
When Lorna and Morgan are established in the Medical Unit of the Praetorian Guard Barracks the man leading them goes to personally see his Liege Lord, King Ian of the White Throne of the Rainbow Kingdom.
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Note: During their treatment by the Praetorian Guard Medical Unit Lorna and Morgan are informed of how the process will affect how they move due to the changes in their neural and muscular systems by the nanobots speeding up their physical reactions. Thus part of the training they'll receive is on how to move about without seeming to be rushing everywhere. While most people won't see anything beyond them being very precise in their movements, others who have also been enhanced will recognise how they move for what it means. Neither of them has an issue with the changes. Another very useful side effect of the treatment is these changes means when all of the treatments are finished they're immune to damage by any neural weapons and all poisons that affect the neural system.
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Palace Talks
As the leader of the medical team enters the King's private office the King looks up from his desk as he says, “While I fear having to face the Parliament about giving the Praetorian Protections to a non-citizen I'm glad we've saved the young man's life. One of their three transports was taken in orbit and the prisoners readily agreed to talk as they feel their clients had not been truthful about the defences at the spaceport. We've a large group of traitors to investigate further and then deal with. The big problem with hiring mercenaries is if they feel you cheated them they'll turn on you. Because of their ready assistance we're escorting them out of the realm and letting them go. Now tell me about our saviour, Brigadier.”
“The young man is Morgan Henry Kesselring and his future life mate is Lorna Austin.” He stops speaking as King Ian holds up a hand to halt him while he frowns as the other hand works the data-pad beside him.
All is quiet for a moment while King Ian reads the information being projected to just in front of his eyes. He smiles as he says, “I thought the names were familiar. They co-authored a thesis paper about an improved way to create nanobots to reduce their size. They've patented the process. They've also developed a variant which should result in nanobots to fix certain genetic problems. They're currently on contract to prove the work at a HAK Systems bio-research facility here on Purple. Well worth doing all we can to save them, despite the troubles it creates, Julius.”
Then Brigadier Julius Green, Commander of the Praetorian Guard, smiles as his king turns his attention back to him and waves for him to continue his report. Julius says, “Miss Austin gave us some good news, Sire, as you do not have to face the Parliament about this. They both have joint citizenship with the Rainbow Kingdom and Acadia as they were born on the Blue space-liner Bright Future in unclaimed space, thus making them your citizens as well. They travel on Acadian documents as their mothers are Acadian.”
“That is good news. See to it they're issued with Rainbow Kingdom diplomatic documentation as soon as you can. That will help them in their travels in the Kingdom, and elsewhere as well.”
While nodding to acknowledge the orders Julius says, “With your approval, Sire, I'd like to sign them both up as Trainee Junior Officers as of the moment they touched down. This will allow us to say the attack was defeated by our security forces. That has the advantage of confusing our enemies because they'll think we have more forces they don't know about and will delay further actions while they try to identify them. Thus we have more time to find them and remove them. It also gives us further justification for providing them with the Protection Treatments.”
“Approved. Now, what did this Morgan use to take them out with? There's no way he could've gone through the security screens with a beam weapon of enough power to defeat the shield armour of the mobile artillery, yet he destroyed them with ease.”
“That's an interesting issue, Sire. They both carry an ancient weapon that uses mechanical and chemical means to launch a physical projectile. I've checked, and neither the device nor its components are on any of the proscribed lists for any realm we have contact with. Thus it's a legal item for them to carry with them for their self-defence. I suggest we adjust our sensors to detect such weapons in future, but not to add them to the lists as that will only make their existence public. Right now the only people who know about them is a very small group I trust.”
“I don't like the idea of them staying legal, nor do I want knowledge of them made public. I trust your judgement on this, so handle it how you want to. Just see to it the palace and spaceport sensor nets are upgraded as soon as possible.” The Brigadier nods to acknowledge the orders.
They continue talking on matters concerning the cleaning up of the traitors and security issues raised by the incident before discussing the clean up and repair of the spaceport. The talks take another two hours.
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Note: Both the King and the Brigadier spend time examining the mechanically operated pistol that fires 30 mm rocket propelled shells.
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Treatment and Training
On the morning of the third day after the attack at the spaceport the two youths wake up and look about them. The medical staff put them in the same recovery room, so they soon see each other and exchange smiles as Lorna says, “If you just woke up at the same time as I did, that means the doctors have planned this. Thus we can expect them to appear soon.”
Morgan is nodding in response as the door opens and three doctors follow Julius into the room. Morgan smiles as he says, “Good morning. To what do we owe the honour of your presence Brigadier Green?”
Julius is surprised Morgan recognises him, but he doesn't show it as he says, “I have some papers I need you both to sign and then I want to convince you to agree to how we're handling the attack at the spaceport.” He goes on to explain the treatments, why they used them, what they'll mean to them, the training they'll need to safely use them, and the way he wants to deal with the spaceport attack.
Morgan replies, “That all makes sense, and I agree with how to deal with the attack as it simplifies things a lot. My only worry is if this means we're now members of the Praetorian Guard or not.”
A smiling Brigadier shakes his head no as he says, “We're signing you up as Junior Officers of the Purple Planet Militia whose service started on your arrival on the planet undertaking some training at the spaceport. I doubt anyone will look at the date and time of the appointments and just assume you were on duty at the spaceport at the time. I've arranged to have all of your luggage collected and brought here as well. That only leaves letting your local employers know you'll be late reporting in.”
“They only know we're coming and they don't have an expected day of arrival, so that shouldn't be an issue until my name is made public.” Morgan signs the papers while he replies to the Brigadier. Lorna decides to follow Morgan's lead on this, so she signs the papers after he does.
“I best get you a communicator as we want to release your name now we have the legal side sorted out.” He waves to one of the doctors who talks to a nurse, and a communicator is brought into the room for them.
The doctors have been busy conducting non-intrusive tests while the talking is happening, so they know how Lorna and Morgan are reacting to the nanobots in their systems. They continue with their checks while Morgan places a call to the HAK Systems bio-research facility.
Once he's speaking to the Director of the facility Morgan says, “Doctor Brown, I know you were expecting Lorna and I to be at the facility this week or next week, but other events dictate we'll be delayed in attending the facility for a few months.”
Doctor Brown says, “Your contract requires you to report directly to me here at the facility, Morgan. Not take a holiday first.”
“Doctor, the contract requires us to report to you at the facility as soon as we can on the completion of our other duties. That has always been the intent, and it still is. However, while involved in the other activities we've both been injured and are now under medical treatment due to that. When we're released from here we'll report to you as soon as we can get there from here.” They talk a bit more before the conversation is finished. Doctor Brown isn't happy with the delay, but he finally accepts it.
Morgan then uses the communicator to dictate a short message for the communications system to relay to their parents and others they wish to know they arrived on planet and are hurt but recovering. The recordings will go out on the next spaceships heading toward the relevant planets.
Julius waits until Morgan hands the communicator back before he says, “While you're here we'd also like you to work with our specialists to see if any of your processes can be applied to our nanobot treatments to make them any safer or faster. Should we contract direct with you for that service or your parent company?”
“I think it will help if you contact Doctor Brown to arrange a contract through the research facility. The extra work and revenue for the centre will alleviate a lot of his anger about our delay in reporting in. Especially if you mention you only became aware of our areas of expertise while we were under your care.” The Brigadier smiles and nods agreement before he leaves and the doctors start on the next stage of their treatment.
Over the next two weeks the medical staff show great pleasure in how well the young couple are responding to the various treatments to adjust their bodies via the nanobots.
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Three weeks after arriving at the barracks Lorna and Morgan are in a class on how to handle their improved body systems due to the enhanced neural networks within them. Three days later they have full control and are progressing on to learning how their improved systems assist in their combat training and skills, as well as learning new combat skills.
Two months after they arrive at the barracks Lorna and Morgan are allowed to leave after a personal interview with King Ian to receive his personal thanks on behalf of the people of the Rainbow Kingdom.
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While they're undergoing their treatment and training the news about them being involved in the defence of the spaceport and being injured there is made public. Thus their names are in the media reports of the event. The spaceport imagery shows how injured Morgan was in the attack, so everyone understands why he's so long undergoing medical treatment to repair the damage. It also explains why he's not present for the official public recognition and thanks by the King and Parliament.
In the wake of the media circus Lorna learns she's promoted to the rank of Senior Lieutenant in the Purple Planet Militia and Morgan is promoted to the rank of Captain in the Purple Planet Militia prior to them both being placed on Indefinite Reserved Status. Due to being on the Indefinite Reserved Status many people believe it's due to their injuries. However, that status allows them to stay on the Militia's rolls without having to attend for duty the way the regular militia members are.
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On leaving the barracks Lorna and Morgan report to the research facility and they start their contracted work there.
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Contract Work
When Lorna and Morgan finally meet with Doctor Brown he's clearly not happy about the delay in them reporting to him for the research work they'll be doing. The first day is spent in administrative work and getting settled into the accommodation and laboratory they'll be working in.
The next day the two youths walk into the lab they'll be working in with Doctor Black. While he shows them the current state of the work in the lab Doctor Black says, “Don't let old Brown get you down. He's not happy due to the cost of having some staff standing around without any real work while we waited for you to be available to lead them.”
Lorna grins as she says, “Well, let's get everyone busy. Show us what you've done and what you think is the problem with this promising line of research that's not going anywhere.”
For the next several days everyone is heavily involved in studying and evaluating the years of research to date and checking the failures. It's a lot of work, and often boring, but in the end it's productive.
In the team meeting after the review of the last set of tests Morgan says, “I think I can see why Jenkins thinks we can help with this project.” Turning to Black he adds, “The issue seems to be a problem of complex instructions and the size of the nanobots. Is that correct?” Black nods to show it is. Morgan turns to Lorna, “You understand the bio-science better than I do. Is there any reason we shouldn't reduce the scope and have a different set of nanobots for the different sub-variants involved?”
Lorna replies, “Yes, there is. None of the scanners can identify which of the sub-variants is involved in each case. That's why we need to deal with each group in the one treatment. If we treat for the wrong type of issue it will result in a change in the sub-variant.”
“What if we burn the building down first?”
After a moment of thought Lorna says, “That wild approach may be the way to give us a way of treating this. Let me think on this and check a few things out.”
Doctor Black says, “While I don't really care much for this lab, can I have time to move my notes and personal property before you start the fire?”
Both Lorna and Morgan laugh. Then Morgan says, “We don't intend to damage the lab. That's our own way of stating an unusual approach. It goes back to when I was about ten years of age and we were visiting my grandfather. One day he and a few others were discussing the problems with some needed and very extensive renovations to a building. Lorna here said, 'Why not just burn it down and start from a clean base?' which had them all stop and think about if the building was worth the cost. They couldn't destroy the building for historical reasons, but it did get them thinking about building what they want as a new building. The old building was repurposed for administrative offices after they built a new building.” The others laugh at both the account and how they took what had been said. Then they break for the day.
The next day the team is having another meeting when Lorna says, “I looked at all of the failures last night and I noticed the majority of them result in the conversion at the fault site to variant delta six. I wonder how hard it would be to create a nanobot to turn every variant to delta-six? Then we need only have another nanobot to correct from delta six to the proper code at the site.” The approach is discussed at length before the team splits up to perform tests.
Two weeks later they have a two treatment system for correcting the genetic problem by using nanobots that are half the size of what was being contemplated at the start of the project. One treatment converts the existing damaged gene site to the delta six variant, then another nanobot treatment provides a perfect correction of the site from the delta six variant. Thus an uncorrectable genetic problem that affects almost one in six of the realm's population is now able to be fixed with a very cheap and easy treatment process.
Even Doctor Brown is happy with the team for finding a solution to this old health problem.
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When Doctor Brown announces the success of the project there's a lot of rejoicing through the realm, then he's approached about a new project.
Despite being happy with being offered the new government contract he's not happy with it being dependant on Lorna and Morgan being part of the team working the project. However, the high value outweighs a lot of his displeasure at the terms of the contract.
For the next several weeks Doctor Black, Lorna, and Morgan work with the medical and research staff of the Praetorian Guard Medical Unit to create smaller nanobots to do the work they do at the PGMU. One outcome of their work is a range of nanobots for field deployment in treating common combat injuries that can also be used in field treatments at dangerous work sites and other serious injury situations. However, the improved special nanobots they create for the Guards trooper upgrades are classified and are not available for registration as patents, while the others are all able to have patents issued and are sold for general use.
The work results are such that all involved are very happy with the outcomes. The Guard is happy as the new nanobots reduce the treatment times while all of the military are happy to have better field treatments for their troops and HAK Systems have a number of emergency medical nanobots they can sell for general use in civilian and military areas.
Both Morgan and Lorna develop reputations as being the creators of innovative and useful nanobots in a range of medical applications.
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Lorna and Morgan are able to leave Purple and arrive home a week prior to their seventeenth birthday. Along with their luggage they have a lot of gifts they were given, others they bought for their family members, new diplomatic passports, and the weapons the Brigadier returned to them after he had them copied and he was able to develop detectors for them. Their parents, grandparents, and younger siblings enjoy the gifts the young couple have for them; especially the dress clothes that are seen as luxury items in Acadia while they're only up-market items on Purple, due to being a local material with a limited source of supply.
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Shield Research
Years earlier when Morgan is only twelve years of age he assists his father in troubleshooting the installation of a new defence shield system on a light combat ship for in-system security and customs work. The new shield is a HAK Systems design and this installation is important to the government's decision to buy a large number of the new systems. The government of Acadia is interested in the system as all of their smaller combat ships are in need of major upgrades and the new shield system is smaller, provides a stronger shield, uses less power to operate, and it requires less maintenance. Thus it's a lot cheaper to buy and operate.
However, this first operational deployment is not going well and the system isn't coming up to full strength. Morgan and Len are busy testing the field strength of the four shield generators of the new system that replaced the six generators of the old system. All of the generators are providing the correct fields and field strengths for the full extent of their projected fields, but the total field strength is below the expected level. While Len measures the field strength outside of the ship Morgan is monitoring the power and generation settings inside the ship. At one point Morgan notices the power supply is fluctuating a lot, but not by enough to cause a drop in the generation of the shield field. He tells his father this and they run a set of tests with battery systems in the power supply system to level out the power supply. Once this is done to all four of the shield generators the shield immediately comes up to its full power and capability. Since this resolves the problem the design of the shield generator is changed to incorporate a small battery with a power level management system, and all goes well from then on.
In their later discussions Morgan asks, “Dad, why would the power fluctuation cause the shields to not work properly?”
After some thought Len replies, “Morgan, I don't know why. The only thing I can think of is: the power fluctuation is causing a minor change in the shield frequency, but that should not cause a problem due to how small the frequency fluctuation would be.”
“Dad, would a frequency fluctuation on both shields cause them to not lock in and merge fields at their edges?”
“It shouldn't. However, this is the first time anyone has designed a shield generator to cover such a large area. It's possible the interface of the fields is a little more fragile than in the past shields. We'll have to do a bit of research into that.”
Morgan frowns in thought for a bit, then asks, “Does the shield have a frequency it operates at?” Len nods. “Is it the same for all shields?” Len nods again, then frowns and slowly shakes his head. “I gather you think it's the same for each shield but you're not sure.”
“Morgan, each model of shield generator creates a shield of the same frequency, but it's likely each model has a different frequency to the other models. Also, considering the problem we struck with this job I wonder if the power levels and type of power supply is introducing a variation in the shield frequency as well. We'll need to do some research on this to find out what the answers are.”
“You may want to include research into seeing if you can read a shield frequency from outside the ship so you can get an enemy ship's shield frequency and tune a beam to match it and penetrate the shield with less power. You should also look at creating a way to have all of the shields on a ship modulate their frequency together in a controlled way to stop the enemy from easily reading your shield frequency.”
“Good ideas, Morgan. I'll raise all of this with the Company Board.”
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The Easy Research
The HAK Systems Board approves a research project to look into the various issues raised in the talk between Len and Morgan. During the next four years the Shield Project Team determines every shield has its own frequency that is affected by its power supply system. While the frequency can vary due to the power system the variation is less than two thousandths of the frequency variation the interlock matching can handle. However, the frequency has to be stable for a few seconds while the interlocking of the fields is made.
The problem Len and Morgan encountered was the interlock was not being fully achieved due to the fluctuations on both sides. The use of the power level management actually provided a stronger shield and faster operation due to the easier and quicker interlocking. Thus all of the HAK Systems shields now incorporate batteries and power levelling systems.
Also, once they develop a coordinated shield modulation system it's part of all of HAK Systems shield models, along with a set of programs to modulate the shields with a large number of different patterns.
The Shield Project Team also finds a way to read the shield frequency of a shield that's in operation, then they work on a way to modulate a beam frequency to enhance the beam's shield penetration capability. However, once they prove the concept and the design with a prototype they need to scale up the design and test it on different sized combat vessels. That's when they run into the problem of a suitable test facility. While the HAK Systems research centres can handle a one tenth sized prototype the full sized unit requires a major combat spaceship to mount it on to test it and they don't have any they can use due to the legal problems with owning an armed combat ship. Only governments can legally own such ships and the government of Acadia is not interested in having one of their few large combat ships set aside for the many months or years such research will take. Nor is the Rainbow Kingdom prepared to make a large combat ship available for research. That leaves only the Federation of Human Worlds as the only other government HAK Systems can talk to about such work as HAK Systems have research centres in only those three realms because they're the only realms HAK Systems have close political relationships with.
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Thus HAK Systems approaches the Federation about conducting the research as a joint project with the Federation Fleet to be carried out on one of the Fleet bases within the Federation region of control. However, the project is not as easy to organise as they thought it would be. In the end no agreement is reached and HAK Systems decide to not work with the Federation Fleet on any future military projects due to the way this project is mishandled by the senior administrators and managers of the Fleet and the Federation bureaucracies in general.
Due to corruption within the Federation upper management the project ends up in the Federation courts before it even gets started.
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Note: The Federation of Human Worlds - called the Federation, is a collection of over two thousand planets in sixteen hundred contiguous solar systems, making it the largest realm in this region of space. Most of the planets have been settled for over a thousand years, but the Federation has only existed for five hundred years. For hundreds of years different groups had sought control of all the planets then one small group of planets created a mutual protection group which has since expanded to be the Federation as it is today. Due to the large size and mix of its members the Federation has a very large and mixed economy and population.
Due to the great number of different government and social systems in place on the planets that join the Federation there is a large variation in how the different bureaucracies and businesses operate in the Federation. Over the generations some families become great powers within the Federation businesses and government agencies.
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Patents
The research work on the shields results in several new systems which can be patented and earn credits for the inventors and HAK Systems. Of the nine possible patents only seven are applied for as one is declared to be classified due to having only military applications and it's better not to be documented outside of the company. Another is kept as a company secret because documenting it would enable others to quickly duplicate their work, while keeping the process in-house means they can limit who can build their new systems while allowing them to control the systems.
The seven commercial use patents are applied for in Acadia and the government grants the patents after following the due processes.
When the decision is made to seek construction of the full-sized systems outside of Acadia the Shield Project Team travels to the other realms to make their pitch for the work in that realm.
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Communications
Every planet has a very fast electronic communications system of both wired and numerous wireless transmission systems. Each developed planet has a series of communications satellites in orbit around it and most of the solar systems have communications satellites to enhance the communications within the system, especially when there are two or more inhabited planets within the system or there is an extensive space industry in operation within the system.
However, the only way to communicate between solar systems is to have a ship carry the messages between the planets. Thus, while really important news travels between the solar systems a lot of the minor items are rarely known about off of the planet. For example: a blight that affects a large part of the food production on a planet is big news within that system and the news is sent to the central government of that planet's realm, but it's not likely to even be mentioned anywhere else, unless it has an effect on a luxury trade good. This means only the most important news is sent between planets and realms.
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The Other Realms
When the Shield Project Team arrives at the HAK Systems Research Centre on the planet Purple in the Rainbow Kingdom the first thing they do is to provide the details of the commercial patents and their work to their local people and to apply for the seven commercial patents within the kingdom. This is required to ensure control of their designs in this realm. Once the patent applications are accepted and acknowledged they approach the Rainbow Kingdom government about being involved in the full-size projector project. The refusal to be involved is due to the issues of the resources needed for the research being a concern for the Defence of the Realm while the project has one of their major combat ships out of their normal service duties. The civilian patents are granted the same week as the official notice of the refusal is given to the Shield Project Team.
The next move of the Shield Project Team is to travel to the Federation and to apply for the seven commercial patents there. Once they get notice of the patents being accepted and being investigated they approach the Federation government about the project work. For two weeks the team is given the runaround by the government bureaucracy about who should be involved in the project as the request is coming from outside of the government agencies instead of from within the government.
When the Shield Project Team finally gets a useful response from with the Federation government they're contacted by a Federation Fleet Unit that wants HAK Systems to assign all of their patents just applied for to the Federation Fleet as part of the Project Partnership Agreement. The assignment of the patents is refused by the HAK Systems Shield Project Team Manager, then the real trouble starts.
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Federation Fun and Games
On the first working day of the fifth week the Shield Project Team is on the Federation planet of Admiralty the Team Manager is served with a Court Order concerning their failure to abide by the requirements of the Fleet Development Branch and suing them for millions of credits relating to the failure to meet those requirements. The Court Order requires the HAK Systems Shield Project Team to cease all current work on the project and to turn over all documentation to both the Court and the Federation Fleet Attorney General as part of the preparation for the court hearing in three weeks time. The Team Manager acknowledges receipt of the Court Order then he sends both parties copies of their correspondence with the several Federation agencies since they arrived, and nothing else.
The Shield Project Team also receives a report from the Patent Office of a challenge on their patents and thus the matter is on hold until that challenge is resolved.
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Len Henry takes copies of the documents from the Patent Office and the Court when he goes to talk with his father about the matters.