The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict Read online

  I hope you and Crista are well. We decided to build a full-sized mock-up of an Alliance cruiser and a fighter for an up-coming comic-con. Guests will be able to walk through and we will invite the top few teams to have a contest. They will be able to perform a real-life simulation. It will be the star of the show.

  However, something is wrong with the metallurgy for the walls and for the hull. I had some metallurgists review it and they stated it was pure nonsense. Can you look at it for me?

  Sincerely, Amy Weisman, CEO Victory Games

  Victor read it and thought, how could the humans mess up something as simple as metalworking? He knew that they had discovered how to purify precious metals. They also knew how to refine iron ore and combine it with other elements like carbon and manganese to make a variety of grades of steel.

  Victor decided to start with the humans’ periodic table of elements. He figured that maybe that hadn’t discovered a few of the important ones yet. He sat down at the work station in their quarters. He disconnected it from the ship’s computer and disabled its ability to communicate with other devices. He then activated an electronic shielding device. He did not want Ambassador Bline to find this research.

  Victor loaded the human periodic table on one screen and the Alliance on another. He reviewed the first 88 elements carefully. He skipped the Lanthanide series and stopped right before the Actinide series. He said to no one in particular, “Well that’s the problem, the humans can’t spell.”

  The Alliance abbreviation for iron was Ir, but for humans it was Fe. They had also labeled copper Cu instead of Cp. He listed off of few others; sodium (Na), potassium (K), tin (Sn), silver (Ag), and mercury (Hg). For some reason the element gold bothered him the most. He wondered how they managed to get Au instead of Go. He repeated it out loud, “Come on guys, Gold should be the letters g – o.”

  Victor had the computer translate the metallurgic recipe for the hulls and interior walls using the human periodic symbols. He created a simulation to determine whether the humans could now build the walls with the information provided.

  The simulation came back negative. Victor reviewed the results and found the culprit. The humans hadn’t yet discovered how to make a stable form of polonium. He made a quick scan of the downloaded version of the websphere and found the directions. Essentially, one simply had to bombard polonium with alpha particles to form diatomic molecules and capture them in bismuth. He translated the directions to the correct symbols and attached it to his reply.

  Victor input the polonium into the simulation and reran it. He thought it odd that one of the key materials necessary for the hyperspace drive and ion cannon was also in the hull, but he supposed it made it some sense. The simulation came back negative and Victor groaned in frustration.

  He reviewed the simulation results again and found that he was missing a metal treatment. He reviewed the Earth’s current metallurgical capabilities. Earth could hot roll, cold roll, and layer steel. They could heat treat and temper steel. Ah, there it was. They had the understanding and ability to heat steel and infuse it to a certain depth with carbon. If they could case harden steel, then they should be able to perform the required new treatment.

  He found and translated the method for creating the hull plating. First, they had to press 4 types of metal together to create a plate; then thru-harden it. Afterward, they had to heat the plate to near melting, and then dunk it in a bath of polonium dioxide followed by hydrogen halides. Finally, the chemical reaction is completed by spraying the plate with tetrahalides and infusing antimony for color.

  He reran the simulation and this time it was successful. He had spent almost the entire journey from Conron to Solaria working on this. He knew that Crista would be mad at him for spending the time working on something for Amy instead of playing with her in the garden. Oh well, he thought, Amy’s message had sounded important.

  He attached the treatment instructions to the return message, but didn’t bother to delete the original polonium attachment. He scheduled the message to be uploaded and sent exactly six hours after they landed in Solaria. He thought that should be enough time to for Bline to depart the ship.

  They exited hyperspace in the Solaria system and were able to micro-jump close to the planet. They made the short 1 hour trip down through the atmosphere and landed at the spaceport in Solaria City. They finished the trip by making polite conversation about Solaria and fun tourist activities. Victor suggested that Bline visit the downtown plaza and see the monument to Old Solaria. Crista left the control room and buried their collection of human videos in the space garden.

  Ambassador Bline thanked Victor and Crista profusely for their help and left the ship. He was scanned and quickly cleared by the customs officials. The Ambassador updated his com pad with the current time and date. He noted that they were early; they had made excellent time on the journey. He looked back and waved farewell to Victor and Crista, who were just starting the customs clearance process.

  Bline hired a ground car and driver to take him to the Hiriculan embassy building. There were very few Hiriculans on Solaria outside of the spaceport and he didn’t want to create a scene by taking the hovertram and walking through the central station.

  The embassy building was short and squat and indistinct from others around it. It had a reasonable amount of green space around it, appropriately sized for its function. It was located about two blocks from the Solarian government building and about a block from the Advranki and Altian embassies.

  Since Solaria was part of the Alliance, the Advranki and Altian embassies weren’t technically embassies anymore, but old naming conventions were difficult to forget. These two embassies now housed local representatives from each Advranki and Altian planet that assisted with interstellar trade and any other issue between individuals on different planets.

  Ambassador Bline entered the building and greeted everyone inside. There were only 10 employees in the embassy and 9 of them were Solarians. The lone Hiriculan stationed there was Longab’ne, the ambassador to Solaria. Each Alliance planet had a Hiriculan Ambassador, but all reported directly to Alliance Ambassador Bline.

  Bline spoke in Alliance basic and said, “Hello Ambassador Lone, how have you been?”

  Lone replied, “Quite well, thank you. And you, esteemed Ambassador?”

  Bline intimated that he had been well. Lone led him back to his private office and had a staff member carry his luggage to a room on the upper floor. Bline entered and performed the standard greeting to the other Hiriculan in the office. Lone introduced him as Punsno’we, the lead contractor for the construction project.

  Ambassador Bline switched to Alliance basic and started to review the situation with the other two Hiriculans. He suddenly looked over at Ponwe and said, “Do you know how to speak Alliance basic.”

  Ponwe said, “Yes. The high council is still requiring it to be taught to all professionals. The ability to speak to any other being in the galaxy is too great to ignore due to racial pride.”

  Bline noticed that his com pad was nearly out of power. He found an adapter and plugged it into a power outlet. He noticed that the light on the outlet turned red. His com pad was not compatible with Solaria electronics. If the planet’s government decided to activate the system-wide electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bomb in the next few minutes, his com pad would not be protected.

  Bline’s options were limited. He could turn it off, buy a new compatible one, or risk it. Bline decided he was willing to take that risk. He sincerely doubted that the Solarians would EMP the system during the next two days.

  Bline continued, “The bid for the new building is competitive, yes?”

  Ponwe said, “Yes. I believe we are the low bidder. Also, since unemployment is so low here, our offer to bring in off-planet workers has resonated well with the Solarians. I honestly think we will win the bid.” They completed their plans for the soiree later that evening.

  ……………………….

  The customs
officials thoroughly searched the ship and both Crista and Victor. Victor was happy that he wasn’t trying to smuggle flashdrive cubes of human videos this trip. He didn’t think he would have gotten them past security. After what seemed like an eternity, customs eventually released the ship. Victor had thought that since the ship was nearly empty and contained no cargo that the process would go quickly. For some reason though, this lack of anything aboard had made the customs officials suspicious which had led to the increased scrutiny.

  The last time they were on the planet, Victor had received an emergency message and they had left quickly. As a result, they still had two apartments. They had a decision to make. They could live in Crista’s apartment, Victor’s place, or sell them both and purchase a new one.

  They took the tram to visit Crista’s apartment, then Victor’s. Fortunately, they were both relatively near the spaceport; there were only two tram stops separating them. Each time they boarded the tram, Victor noticed a person or two staring at them. The stares had never bothered him on his trips home in the past, but this time the constant stares made him feel uneasy. He thought perhaps the stares would upset Crista.

  Eventually, they decided to sell Crista’s place and live in Victor’s. They returned on the tram to the mini-freighter. This time though, there was a group of people staring at them. It appeared that they couldn’t take their eyes off of the pair. Eventually, Crista noticed and yelled at them, “What are you staring at?”

  One of the on-lookers answered, “Sorry, we were just staring at your paint jobs.”

  Another said, “They look really good, unbelievably good in fact.”

  A third said, “Yeah, much better than the spray downs you get at human town.”

  Victor had heard of human town and quickly realized what they were saying to him. He responded, “Yes. We are headed to human town for dinner this evening. We decided to paint ourselves versus getting the flash spray job. The trick is to paint around noon, let it air dry, then rub it in to your pores, and finally repaint a second time.”

  The crowd nodded in approval. He was certain several of them would try it. He had no idea if it would work. Hopefully he had invented a new way to paint oneself.

  The first said, “You guys look almost as good as the bleachers.”

  Victor assumed that word bleacher was slang for people like he and Crista who had actually had their skin bleached white. He couldn’t imagine any reason to do it other than an assignment on Earth. He answered, “Yes. That was our goal.”

  They reached the Vista, grabbed the majority of their belongings, and decided to return to the apartment via ground car. After unpacking, Crista said, “I looked up human town on the Websphere. It looks quaint. Let’s go there for dinner tonight.”

  Later that afternoon they boarded the tram due south. They received multiple stares during the first few stops, but after a while their destination became obvious to the others and they were left alone. Toward the end of the trip they were even joined by others who were already white. They were again complimented on their paint job and Victor was again forced to recite his recipe for painting success.

  Human town was a small, but lively entertainment and dining district on the far, far south side of Solaria City. The restaurants served an approximation of Earth dishes. They were named after famous restaurants from human movies and television shows.

  The catch or shtick to the place was before one could enter the district, one had to paint their exposed skin a human color. Most people chose white because it was easier to wash off afterward, but there was a significant minority that chose black, brown, or yellow. For those daring souls who wanted the full effect, they also sold T-shirts with slogans on them and blue jeans.

  They decided to dine in a restaurant that they had actually dined in while on Earth. They ordered the exact same thing from menu as they had earlier. They laughed throughout the meal as they compared and contrasted this meal to the actual thing.

  Afterward, they walked hand in hand to the drive-in theatre. Technically, it was a walk-in theatre. They rented an air mattress, sat on a hillside, and watched a human movie on a large screen. Victor spent almost as much time watching Crista as he did the movie.

  To his credit though, he had already seen the movie, but didn’t mention that to her. He saw that Crista was smiling and at ease. He hadn’t seen her this peaceful in well, ever. He thought the only thing that had come close was the Advranki sea-moss bath.

  As they were walking back to the tram Crista said, “Let’s sell our apartment in the city and move down here. We could open up our own restaurant or perhaps a shooting range.”

  ……………………….

  Bline, Lone, and Ponwe arrived at the reception. They met various Solarian government officials and other important people who appeared to be here solely for the sake of being here. The other two contractors had presented earlier in the week, so this night was solely theirs. After a round of drinks and socializing, it was time to start the sales pitch.

  Ponwe led everyone to a large monitor and started his presentation. He clicked through a series of slides showing architectural drawings and artist’s renderings of the new building. He also showed pictures of the green area around the building. Instead of just a grassy area, he had incorporated a waterfall that included a child’s waterpark, walking paths, and a small wooded area.

  Generally, each green area around each building was kept separate from other buildings. However, Powne’s innovative design actually tied the green area from this building together with the green area surrounding the headquarters / control room for the EMP bomb. Government workers from the new building could interact with workers from the EMP building that would now be literally next door.

  His plan was the most aggressive of the three proposals. They would have to tear down four surrounding buildings to obtain the required space. However, the new building was significantly larger than the combined buildings being removed. Those people displaced by the teardown could be easily accommodated in the new building.

  The proposed building was 108 stories tall. It would be the 9th tallest building in the city and the 10th tallest in on the planet. Ponwe stressed the height several times. He said that the height was important because it showed stature, but by keeping just shorter than others gave it just a bit of humility and allowed it be grandiose without becoming gaudy.

  Powne completed his presentation and asked for questions. Bline and Lone joined him on the small stage.

  One official asked, “How are you going find the labor to build it? We simply don’t have the manpower for a three-year project.”

  Bline answered the question. He said, “You are lucky that your economy is doing so well. As most of know, there is a slight recession on Hiricula at the moment. Our employment rate is stuck at 94%.” The Solarian officials didn’t know that since Bline had just made up* the statistic.

  *Roughly 67% of all statistics are made up.

  Lone continued just as they had rehearsed. He said, “The plan is to import experienced workers from Hiricula for each phase of the project. This has two clear benefits. First, it alleviates unemployment on Hiricula and second it allows us to complete the project faster because we have a dedicated work force.”

  Ponwe continued, “It is a win – win for everyone.”

  Another official asked, “How many people will you need?”

  Ponwe answered, “First, we would bring in a design team of about 40 Hiriculans to work with you to complete the design. They would leave and be replaced by a demolition crew of 70 – 80 people to prepare the site, and they would be followed by a construction crew of about 200 to build the building.”

  The same official asked, “Where are you going to house them and how are you going to feed them?”

  Lone responded, “We would rent a series of apartments for them, probably near the spaceport. They would ride the tram to work like everyone else.”

  Lone had intentionally mentioned near the space
port, because space was limited there and rents were significantly higher. Plus, he knew that one of the officials owned an apartment building in that area. It never hurt to tell people exactly what they want they hear.

  Bline continued, “There may be a misconception about eating. Hiriculans can eat the same diet as Solarians with a few minor exceptions. The workers would eat at local restaurants most evenings I suppose.” This was another win for local restaurants.

  Another official asked, “Where are you going to get the raw materials? As you know, the environmentalists have managed to pass a law prohibiting mining and smelting steel on the planet. Further, the main mine in the Solaria system is primarily dedicated to Alliance projects. It will take months, maybe even years, to schedule enough steel to complete the project.”

  Bline answered, “Not a problem.”

  He motioned to Ponwe to bring up an image on the monitor. Ponwe tapped a few keystrokes and brought up an image of an incredibly large steel plate that was welded at a 45 degree angle to another incredibly large steel plate.

  Bline continued, “In an effort to employ people, the Hiriculan government began a project in the Hepitila system to mine and process enough steel to build several large buildings on Hiricula.”

  The crowd oohed at the large steel plate. Bline wasn’t sure what reaction he had been hoping for, so he assumed that was as good as any. He continued, “I contacted our government about this project. I am happy to announce that our leaders have agreed to delay a project on Hiricula and divert enough steel from this plate to complete your building.”

  Lone continued, “There would also be a Hiriculan mobile processing center about the size of a freighter placed in orbit to take the raw steel plate and convert into the required finished pieces.”

  This announcement was greeted with a round of applause. Bline knew that they had addressed every one of the Solarian government’s concerns: manpower – covered, raw materials – covered, finished material – covered, engineering and design – covered, price – covered, bump to local economy - covered.