Gods Dogs, Book 3
Chapter 26

The mother of a trophy wife is not automatically a trophy mother-in-law.

John Grisham

The asteroid was mostly spherical. The ‘bottom’ was flattened somewhat. Along that length were the sub-light engines stacked atop two spinal mounted rail guns. The engine, of which there was a pair working in parallel, was the newest model of the VASIMR design. Solomon liked that it had a low gear, to get the mass of the asteroid moving, and a high gear for getting to where he wanted to go. Tanks for the He3 fuel were above the engines and took up a good portion of the width of the flattened spaces below and around the engines.

The hyper-drive sat on the sides of the aft portion of the asteroid above the fuel bladders. A cross-connection between them was the housing for the electronics and other hardware that kept the two engines in sync. It also provided the fuel dispersal of the pelletized exotic matter that powered the FTL drive. Since breaking into hyperspace was a subatomic event, the compressed compounds, when bombarded with neutrinos, reacted by nudging the branes that held the superstrings in place. The branes shifted, like a wind blowing the limbs of a tree, and a ship could slip past the brane, which allowed passage out of the space-time continuum and into hyperspace. Once there, the ship was on a ballistic course until the field generated in the FTL chamber was reversed. That dropped the ship out of hyper. The ship came back into normal space traveling at the same velocity as when it entered.

The shift to higher energy states in hyper was a function of tuning the neutrino flow. Higher energy states meant faster speeds.

The surface of the asteroid, other than rock, was wired with sensors, equipped with the latest shield nodes, and was liberally sprinkled with point defenses. Maneuvering jets were also strategically placed around the globe.

Inside was the real genius of an ASI at his creative best. Fusion reactors around the perimeter, ten of them, were 500 feet below the surface. Surrounding them on the top and sides was the thermal shielding Raina designed. Shielded also were the conduits that carried the power to its various locations that included the habitats. In essence, there were two habitats: one for Solomon, which consisted of the banks of quantum computer equipment hooked up to memory nodes; the second was the habitat for the crew and/or passengers. These quarters boasted all the necessary support services.

Solomon occupied a large portion of the upper third of the asteroid. The biological habitat was the middle third. Docking bays, warehouses, emergency services, and the like was at the top of the lower third. Below that was the fuel, engines, and at the very bottom were the massive rail guns.

The whole thing was airtight, heated, and equipped with artificial gravity floor plates in the docking bays and the habitats in the middle third. Solomon needed neither air nor gravity, but he did like it warm.

There was also retractable hardware that could pop through camouflaged covers on the surface. These included more rail guns of a smaller caliber, energy weapons, and various types of antennae, including one for the onboard ansible. There were also missile tubes with automated reloading tracks.

The human living space was a series of hallways off a central causeway. Each of the dozen hallways that radiated from either side of the causeway was its own small neighborhood. Apartments, recreation and training areas, a mess hall, an auditorium, as well as an armory and firing range were the ones the protection detail was assigned. The crew enjoyed a less martial ambiance in their habitat. Visitor habitats were even more generic, but no less spacious and well-appointed.

The main causeway sported shops, conference rooms, restaurants, entertainment centers, and a large central park. Behind the park was a greenhouse and cryovats for protein cultures – in effect, fake-meat factories.

Quinn’s team toured the impressive construct and found that Solomon didn’t miss much when it came to his security systems. Blast doors were intelligently placed. Fire suppression was well thought out. Ventilation could be either ramped up to clear smoke, or dialed down to prevent the spread of airborne viruses or gas. Biochips readers and facial recognition scanners were discreet and well placed.

Drop-down anti-personnel turrets were hidden in each hallway and in the loading bays. The armories were stocked with barricades, shields, crew-served weapons, exo-skeleton heavy armor, light armor, and hard suits for dealing with threats on the surface of the asteroid.

Speakers and holo-units were ubiquitous. Quinn knew that as he spoke into the air, “Looks like you’ve got it all figured out.”

“I did try, Quinn,” the air responded.

Moss asked, “How are you planning on crewing this thing?”

“Like a hotel with an engineering contingent.”

“That makes sense,” Moss allowed. “You can handle all the stuff a bridge crew does.”

“There are comm shacks and monitoring stations, and whatnot for you to man. And there is a backup bridge,” Solomon hurried to say. “It’s above the central cafeteria by the green belt.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know how to drive a spaceship,” Moss deferred.

“It’s plug and play, and there’s an NSAI to do most of it anyway.”

“Okay,” Moss said. “What else?”

“I don’t know how I should decorate it all.”

Moss snorted. “Well, good thing we’ve got River here. I’m sure she has some ideas.”

“You’re a sexist pig,” River responded, punching him in the arm.

“Perhaps true,” Solomon said cautiously, “but do you have ideas on how to decorate the habitable space?”

“Geez, Solomon, just make it comfortable. Sky overhead, pastels on the walls, maybe a mural or two. Cobblestone floors, but not too bumpy. Some color for the storefronts. Maybe some hanging flower baskets. You know, just comfortable stuff.”

“Thank you, River.”

“Whatever, Solomon. When do we get this show on the road?”

“There are builder trials, shakedown cruises, and final sign-offs. Then we need to stock up, hire and train staff, prepare the quarters for our guests. So, maybe a month if all goes well.”

“Okay,” Quinn said. “I’ll let our security team know. Will there be any other passengers?”

“Maybe. Oscar Juliet-4 is one of the androids suggested. I’m not sure about those people, Quinn. They have the creativity of a rock,” Solomon grumped. “On second thought, he’s not coming.”

Moss snorted again. “Pretty harsh, Solomon.”

“I know. I shouldn’t be so judgmental, but damn, Moss, those androids are boring.”

Moss started laughing, and the others joined in.

In fact, it was six weeks before the big asteroid headed off. The plan was to meet up with a Sangalore heavy hauler at the edge of the galaxy. The hauler, which was equipped with the sails necessary to travel in Rip space, would pull the asteroid to the Andromeda galaxy.

The trip would take six weeks, but that gave the security detail time to train. Charvo assigned them a company, which for that organization meant six platoons, as well as a three-man scouting and/or infiltration team for each platoon. Commander Ikel, a Sentic, was in command. Sgt. Major Massengat, a bear-like Hurang, was his go-to non-commissioned officer. Platoon Sgt. Tsa-Mung, the elf-like Silvertonae, was in charge of the platoon the team worked with on a previous assignment.

The two Guardians they also worked with were also along. Finally, Quinn decided to bring Murphy’s platoon, which now included a new lieutenant and a heavy weapons fire-team. He decided on Murphy because there was something to be said about relaxing with one’s own species.

The shuttle crews were from Penglai Foreign Service, and they were assigned the two attack shuttles in the docking bays. That gave him a dozen more humans, and these were ones trained in the foreign affairs curriculum to deal wisely with other species.

Quinn was content with the make-up of the detail. Now they just needed the training hours to make them a cohesive unit.

The training began with defending against a boarding attempt. Or, as Moss pointed out, given the size of the asteroid, a planetary invasion.

Solomon provided them with bots that were equipped with holo-imaging so they could appear in the likeness of the probable enemy troops. However, given the size of the asteroid and the number of defenders, they had to rely on defending the choke points in the landing bays and the main causeway into the living areas. The landing bays also gave access to the engines and those entrances created further complications. Solomon pointed out he installed multiple drop-down turrets to protect those entrances.

The bridge and all the control systems of the ‘ship’ were in the upper third of the asteroid, which meant they were behind miles of rock, steel, and hidden but fortified passages.

The staff, some two hundred of them, in an emergency were to retreat to their self-contained habitat. It was along one of the passageways off the causeway, as all the separate habitats were. Once everybody was accounted for, a blast door would drop and seal them in until the all clear was sounded.

After the troops figured out how to repel boarders, they trained on attacking invaders on the surface of the asteroid. There were elevators to the surface. These were also hidden in the numerous passageways off the causeway. Also hidden were the exits to the surface.

Using hard suits and their concealed starting positions, they worked out how to engage and entrap an assaulting force.

On the surface, there were also pop-up anti-personnel turrets, which were similar to the drop-down turrets in the habitats. In using these in simulation, they learned to coordinate with Solomon, who controlled them, and tactics emerged for setting ambushes in a variety of ways.

Solomon enjoyed the training exercises. Most of his life was spent solving strategic problems, big picture solutions to the engineering, research, and economic goals of his homeworld, Amantha. His function there was dedicated to commerce: new product development, trading alliances, transport innovation, accounting, logistics, and so on. As such, Amantha was a rich world with a stable population of eight billion. The citizens benefitted from very advanced nano-technology, which included life extension among its many entitlements. These innovations were exported once the next generation of advances was made available to the population. As such, the system enjoyed not only the most sophisticated of defense networks, but also arguably the highest standard of living.

Not an ASI to rest on his achievements, he involved himself with the Congress before the League even knew there was a Congress. Once the negotiations began between the two mega-governments, Solomon agreed to be the liaison between them.

In reality, though, he had never been down in the trenches, so to speak, and forced to make use of strategic assets and liabilities with tactical creativity.

He mentioned this in a hot wash after one of the exercises. Ikel, sergeants Massi and Tsa were there with the Coyote team, as well as the other command personnel.

Solomon observed, “There is a need to play with your opponent’s mind.”

“Yeah,” Moss jumped in. “Their fears cause delays. Their excitement causes them to act too quickly.”

“But what if the enemy were machines?”

“Machines plod their way to a goal,” Moss answered. “We can focus them on the wrong goal.”

“You exploit their tendencies and their emotions.”

Moss shrugged. “It’s what ‘know your enemy’ is all about.”

The others at the table, Sentic, Hurang, and Silvertonae, as well as human, nodded their agreement.

The exercises continued until they arrived at the galactic halo around Andromeda. Then the Sangalore ship pulled them out of the Rip. A Machine Autocracy squadron of ships met them to refuel and reprovision both ships. Solomon spent most of his time in consultation with the androids.

Eventually, the squadron left. Then the Sangalore ship set sail for home. Finally, Solomon briefed them.

“Those morons wanted to provide us with an escort,” the ASI told the command team. “If they did so, the three empires would see it as an act of war.”

“Probably,” Quinn acknowledged. “They should know that better than you.”

“They do, but they are beginning to feel protective of me.”

“That’s not good,” Moss determined.

“Tell me about it,” Solomon snorted back. “I didn’t come here to be a trophy wife for an autocratic empire.”

The non-humans looked to the humans for an explanation of that remark.

River explained, “Research Earth history, the 20th and the 21st Centuries. Arranged marriages before then evolved into rich and powerful men arranging marriages with rich and/or beautiful women. These wives enhanced the old, rich, mostly white guys’ prestige or status.”

Ikel asked her, “That’s ancient history?”

River nodded. “It is, but it is still a required course of study for Penglai women. We learn how the Divine Feminine was reduced to prostitution so that it never happens again.”

Sgt. Massi put in, “Human females do not have traditional roles as other species do. Is that correct?”

“We do have traditional roles,” River said. “Wife, mother, caregiver, and so on. Many women choose those roles. The point for human women is that it’s a choice.”

Massi went on, “You see yourselves as the equal to men.”

“That’s a tricky word, Massi. Equal, how? There are many inequalities between men and women. We see them balancing out. I’m strong where men are weak. They’re strong where I’m weak. What we want – what every Penglai citizen deserves – is the community’s support to train us for the attempt to fulfill our Higher Purpose, regardless of gender, religion, ethnic classification, and sexual orientation.”

Solomon interrupted, “Hey! This is about me, River. I’m the offended party here.”

Moss shot back, “You brought up the trophy wife reference.”

“Anyway,” Solomon trudged on, “we’re headed to the Chert homeworld next. Might as well take them on first.”