The Krakow Klub Read online

  Maxx designed the structure so that only a small portion of interior space would be adapted to support living beings. The remainder and much larger portion of the craft was used to support a multitude of facilities. Such facilities included storage space for spacecraft, laboratories, production lines, warehouses, and facilities for the maintenance and repair of the many robotic workers.

  Upon arriving, they were whisked through the port designated for humans, and their craft landed at a docking station quite similar to the one that John had encountered on the interstellar transporter. However, there was no other craft anywhere to be seen. After a few moments of thought, John realized that no other craft was needed, at least at this time. This space island, his space station, would normally have only one resident and that resident would only be there occasionally.

  “Mister T, let’s head to the control room. I can check out the living quarters later.”

  “Aye, aye, sir,” he replied with a quick salute, and then directed their small transport craft straight towards the opposite wall at a dizzying speed. Just seconds before a horrific impact, a door in the wall flashed opened and they slipped through without slowing down into a tube-like passageway. John, normally imperturbable, suddenly realized that he had been clutching his armrests so tightly that his knuckles had become white. He breathed a sigh of relief that they were still alive and then made a promise to himself to have Maxxine check and recheck the door’s control mechanisms before and after each use. No point in tempting fate.

  They flew through the passageway at breakneck speed and again headed directly toward what seemed to be a solid wall at the end of the passage. As they traveled through the passageway, soft lights of ever-changing colors bathed the craft as they passed through them. As John had thought on his trip to Mylea, it was like riding through a rainbow.

  Soon they arrived at their destination, and the little craft halted at the entrance of the control room.

  John stepped out of the craft and entered. The entire room and all its contents were a dazzling white. The room was rather small and contained only a sleek, slightly curved desk about twelve feet in length with a single chair positioned in front of it. There were no visible controls or meters, no sounds, no microphone—just a shining white desk and chair with a large screen mounted on the wall facing the desk.

  John walked over to the chair and sat down. It immediately adjusted itself to his weight and height, allowing him to sit comfortably. The screen adjusted itself to the proper eye level for him and almost instantly began to glow with soft pulsating colors. A seductive female voice began to speak. “Welcome, Mr. Scott. I have been awaiting your arrival with great anticipation. I am Maxxine, and I am pleased to be your humble servant.”

  John leaned forward and replied, “The pleasure is all mine, Maxxine. Please refer to me as John, not Mr. Scott. I’m anxious to review the resources available to me, including your programs and applications. Let’s begin with an inventory and analysis of the principal resources. Please make it concise. We’ll go into details later.”

  He was still rather dumbfounded by the sexy voice and had a very sneaky suspicion that dear old Maxx had done it deliberately just to annoy him or as some joke. He muttered to himself, “Maxx, you devious creature. You can’t rattle me! I like that voice and just wish that I’d thought of it myself. It reminds me of old Marilyn Monroe movies.”

  Maxxine purred, “Yes, sir. Just watch the screen. I have prepared a virtual tour of our facilities here on the main ship. Afterward, we can review our external resources.”

  The giant curved screen displayed the arrival port. The image was three-dimensional and made John feel that he could almost step directly into the picture. The clarity of the images was amazing—a definite improvement over the screens he had last seen when visiting Maxx.

  Maxxine’s voice was now quite authoritative and businesslike. “As you can see, this is the arrival port for biological beings. This entrance can accommodate up to four of your transport craft at one time. Transit tubes are behind the wall and lead out to all locations on the ship capable of supporting biological beings.

  “I’m sure that Mister T has already explained that only a few areas of the ship have been designed to support the physical requirements of humans. The remaining areas are climate and atmospherically controlled based on the type of work being done there. If you should ever need additional space for biologicals, these areas can be upgraded to support them quite easily.

  “Next, you’ll see the living quarters. There are a total of twenty-five suites for humans, each with two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a lounge area allowing you to have up to one hundred guests at a time. Maxx has also included facilities for a few small canines, one named Mitch, to be specific. She will be most pleased with the careful planning that Maxx did to ensure her comfort. Apparently Maxx was quite taken with the little beast when she recently visited him.

  “In the central section of the living quarters, you will find a dining area along with complete catering facilities. Maxx suggested that this area be multifunctional, so I’ve designed it so that it can also serve as a meeting room or a lecture room. For presentations, there is a drop-down video screen mounted on the ceiling. You will find a small control button beside the entrance that will cause the screen to drop down at the front of the room. There is also a remote control available as well.

  “As for food, there is a service area just behind the dining area where we have complete supplies and materials to handle you and your guests. Food will be prepared and delivered by specially designed robots. These robots, the new ‘Mister T’ class, will be produced by a manufacturing line that I am currently completing. It is an extremely complex manufacturing process, and I am relying heavily on Maxx since he has all the details from his original production of Mister T.”

  Maxxine paused for a moment, as if considering a problem. “I think that I should clarify the ‘Mister T class of robots’ for you. Please inform him that he shouldn’t worry. He will still be the only perfect creation. My new robots will perform human functions, but they will not have the actual appearance of a specific human. They will be generically humanoid.

  “Please forgive my brief digression about the robots. Now, back to my report: Maxx did a thorough study of your dietary likes and dislikes, so, I think you will be quite pleased with our capability to provide gourmet meals and fine liberties.”

  John smiled with good humor. “Maxxine, the word is libations, not liberties.’”

  She continued without a pause. Obviously, her humor module could use a little improvement, John thought, and then he listened as Maxxine said, “Next, you will see a large corridor with transparent walls that runs throughout the working areas of the ship. You can use this hell to monitor the laboratories and manufacturing facilities.”

  John interrupted, “Maxxine, The word is hall, not hell.”

  “Oh, I am sorry. Please forgive me for such a silly linguistics mistake.”

  The scene moved fairly rapidly along the extremely long hallway then crossed over to the other side and continued, crossing back and forth many times.

  Next, she pointed out several laboratories and workstations. “As I mentioned previously, temperature and atmosphere are dependent upon the type of work being performed. As you know, robots can function efficiently in extreme environmental conditions unlike you humans. If you need to enter an area yourself, there is a program that, when activated, will adjust the environment to meet human requirements. If the need ever arises, just let me know and I can make the modifications for you.”

  She briefly indicated several other laboratories and workshops as well as storage and maintenance areas.

  “The next area should be of particular interest to you. As you can see, this is the metallurgy laboratory. I have equipped it with the most up-to-date scientific and analytic equipment.

  “It is here that I am producing your requested one thousand bars of gold, each weighing one kilogram. I discovered an out
lying asteroid that was rich in gold ore and mined it. The ore is already approximately 50% in purity as a result of our mining process. Next, we refine the material using a dry process to extract the gold at the molecular level. The entire process finally results in a one-kilogram gold bar, which I understand is the preferred form of bullion for trading in Asia. As you requested, the bars bear identification markings identical to gold bars commonly used on Earth. You requested one thousand bars, and they will be available to you in six days, well ahead of your requested deadline.”

  John asked Maxxine to pause the screen for a few minutes while he gazed in awe at the massive wealth displayed before his eyes. The bars were stacked neatly on a strong trolley at the back of the laboratory and seemed to sparkle and glow with a life of their own. Maxxine zoomed in for a close-up view.

  “Sir, these bars are identical in composition, size, and shape to any that you might obtain on Earth. It would be impossible for any scientist or analyst to detect that they did not originate on your planet. However, yours are 100% pure gold, rather than the 99.9% minimum purity of most one-kilogram gold bars on Earth.”

  “Maxxine, I am curious—it was my understanding that you could simply take most any form of material and convert it into gold. Why go to the trouble of mining the gold ore?”

  “The short answer is power, sir. You are correct that I could transform other matter into gold at the atomic level. However, that process is tedious, and it uses a very large amount of power. Finally, and most importantly, it would take much longer to produce the amount of gold that you requested.”

  John thanked her and indicated that she should continue the tour. After several more minutes of viewing workstations, laboratories, and storage facilities, John asked that they move on to the remote shuttle craft. He expressed particular interest in the numbers and types of crafts along with their purposes and alternate capabilities.

  Maxxine continued to use a massive array of sensors embedded throughout the walls and video screens to analyze John’s body language. She used that data, along with information from her database, to determine that there was a high probability that John was considering converting defensive weaponry systems for offensive purposes.

  Knowing the warlike tendencies of humans, Maxx had programmed Maxxine with functions to analyze any decision or action that might be considered aggressive or offensive in nature. He trusted John and his intentions, but he could foresee situations in which any human, even John, could abuse his powers. And John Scott now possessed powers almost beyond human imagination.

  Maxxine could not refuse an order from John, except in the few cases where it might violate Mylean law. But she did have the latitude to ask John to confirm his intentions and point out possible unintended consequences of any proposed action.But that small level of constraint would be insufficient if John decided to use his powers aggressively against his fellow humans.

  John, completely unaware of Maxxine’s scrutiny, was, indeed, immersed in thoughts of how to redirect defensive weapons for other potential purposes. The Mylean’s primary means of defense were photon weapons. There were two basic versions. The smaller version, a photon gun, could configure the size of its projectile to fit the target. The larger version, called a torpedo, could also fire giant projectiles that could be configurable to any size, even one large enough to destroy any earthly military target.

  These highly advanced weapons, currently installed in all remote spacecraft, and even the space station itself, were for self-protection or mining use. Originally, these photon bullets had been designed to pulverize small asteroids so that ore could be harvested easily by the remote mining craft. Photon torpedoes were much like photon bullets, but much larger and far more powerful.

  One thing that John did not like about these weapons was their lethal nature. Any human at, or even just near, a target would be killed. Another issue of concern was that the instant a remote detected incoming hostile fire, it would respond immediately by destroying the weapon. Obviously, the person, or persons, operating the weapon would be killed instantly.

  Even more troubling was the scenario in which a remote craft might be attacked by multiple weapons simultaneously. The craft would instantly enter a “self-defense” mode and destroy every hostile weapon being directed against it, even if that weapon were not firing at the moment. All weapons would be destroyed, along with the humans operating them.

  Maxxine continued with a description of the photon weapons. “John, as you know, the photon is the basic unit of light. Your scientists still cannot measure the mass of a photon even though there have been significant advances in physics and quantum mechanics on your planet. The wavelengths used for Mylean photon bullets and torpedoes are in the red-to-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. When fired, they produce a massive and instantaneous burst of energy that destroys the target.

  “That burst of energy, an explosion, usually takes place inside the intended target resulting in utter destruction. The Myleans used these devices to destroy asteroids. So, you can see that using them against human targets would result in instant death to anyone in the immediate vicinity of the target.

  “Nuclear cannons were only installed on some of the mining craft and only used for very large mining operations. You could compare the power of a nuclear cannon to a tactical nuclear weapon used on Earth, and the largest cannons are comparable to a thermonuclear weapon. The delivery system allowed the explosives to be delivered deep inside a large asteroid. When triggered, the asteroid would be completely pulverized. These cannons could also destroy a small planet, even one the size of Earth.”

  Next, John brought up the subject of gravity shields. These shields were of particular interest as they could be used to isolate any object or living being, even from far out in space.

  Originally, gravity shields had been developed for the purpose of managing distant objects, and they were particularly useful for gathering materials in mining operations. John saw how they could easily be used to protect living beings from external forces or danger. On the other side of the coin, the shield could also be used to immobilize an individual instantly. Altogether, John’s fleet of remotes could each launch up to a thousand small shields in a matter of seconds, with each shield being directed at a specific item or individual.

  John mused to himself, “Perfect. My craft will be invulnerable to outside forces. And with the gravity shields, I can also use them for non-lethal offensive purposes if the need arises.”

  Maxxine took note and then began to describe the mining craft. “All the large mining craft utilize this one port. As you can probably imagine, special considerations had to be made to support the heavy equipment and mined materials. Special braces were used in this area to prevent any damage to the space station. At present, there are at least three hundred of these large mining crafts operating at any given time. The other half of the mining craft are at the space station for repair and maintenance, which is an ongoing project for these hard-working craft. When one of these crafts return to the ship, another is sent out to replace it. Therefore, mining operations are performed on a constant basis without interruption.

  John asked, “Maxxine, I’m going to buy a small island for my home base on Earth. I want to enlarge that island so that I can build a small golf course. Can the large mining craft be used for such a project?”

  “Oh, yes,” Maxxine replied, “A large mining craft can easily accomplish what you desire with a dredge attachment. I have already built several such attachments as we do sometimes mine beneath liquids in space. Just give me the specifications and I can increase the size of your island very quickly. I am sure that you will want it done without notice, so I will do it at night. Probably in a single night since I have at least six large miners that can be ready to go at any time.”

  “Great. I’ll want that done just as soon as possible. I expect to add about sixty acres, so you can make your plans based on that. I will want it done as soon as I complete the purcha
se of my island.”

  Maxxine replied, “Yes sir!” She then continued the facilities tour.

  “The next port that you will see is used for smaller mining craft. Each of this type craft has materials sampling and analysis functions. When a craft is sent out to explore the far reaches of space, and it encounters a potential mining site, it can take samples, analyze them, and relay the findings directly to me. If the site proves to be workable, the mining can begin immediately. Or if need be, I can send out larger mining ships at once. As you can see, our mining operations are most efficient and keep me supplied with raw materials at all times.”

  The third entry port was now displayed. “This port services the multifunctional craft that are capable of performing a wide variety of tasks. These remote craft are rather small as compared to the others since their primary function is to monitor and gather information. Also, like all the other craft, they are equipped with gravitational and photon weapons. I have assigned several of these ships to critical locations in outer space to detect and eliminate any danger that might threaten your space station.

  “All of our craft are operated by onboard computer systems, enabling them to operate remotely for extended periods of time. Also, I am in constant communication with all remote craft, and I can control any and all of their functions from right here. If the need arose, I could even destroy a craft instantaneously, leaving only a few traces of cosmic dust.

  “Last but not least, Maxx has provided me with the latest design and technology updates for all of your remote craft. These will be installed and tested during regularly scheduled maintenance procedures so you will have minimal downtime. In fact, for simple computer updates, I will perform those remotely so that there is no reason to wait for a return here for software maintenance.