After Damie, Dr. Lund turned back toward Alexander. “That ma have much of a sense of humor, does he?”

  “I don’t believe so, no. So you were an activist at oime?” he asked, curious about the respected stist's history.

  She sighed. “More like I was a stupid girl following aupider man around. I hate to admit how na?ve I was in my youth, but it took me a long time to realize the man I loved was just a liar. By then I was already pregnant with our son. Even then I still thought I could ge him. At one of the rallies he was so proud of, he got into a fight with w enfort. During that altercation, he injured an officer. The minor scratch was all the reason they hey arrested the father of my son and that’s the st I heard of him. A month ter my parents decided to move off world. The little hope I had left that he would ge or return was gone. I saw no reason to stay, so I left with them.”

  “…Sorry you had to gh that,” Alexander replied. He really wasn’t sure what to say after a story like that.

  Lund shrugged. “That was nearly seventy years ago. It’s a history. Now, what have you been up to since we st spoke? I vaguely recall you telling me about some sort of gravity interrupter you had built?”

  Alexander didn’t mind the ge of subject. “I doubt I would call it a gravity interrupter. All it really did was interrupt the field produced by artificial gravity by introdug aromagic field in a fined area. It took some time to figure out a frequency that worked and didn’t have unintended side effects since I didn’t and still don’t know how the gravity ptes fun.”

  “Fasating. Did you do the math behind the iion, I would love to go over it.”

  Alexander shook his avatar’s head. “I sort of just threw stuff together to see what worked and what didn’t. I’m not sure if Jasper told you, but I lost most of my memories.”

  “He might have mentioned your predit but if he did, I don’t recall any specifics. You have amnesia?”

  “Something like that. Advanced forms of math seemed to be among the things I lost. I’m w on building that knowledge up again, but most of what I do is still guesswork based on what little I know.”

  “And how’s that w out for you?” she asked knowingly.

  “Not great,” he admitted. “I’ve moved onto propulsion engineering. My practical knowledge has takeo the point where I have a design that is more effit than an Omni engine of the same css, but not as powerful. I’m obviously missing something or my manufacturiup isn’t up to the task. Probably a bit of both if I’m ho.”

  “Hmm,” Nova said, “Most of my current work is oheoretical side of propulsion. I might be able to help you with some of the trickier mathematics but trying to pete with panies like Omni doesn’t seem like a practical goal.”

  “Why not?” Alexander asked in genuine curiosity.

  “Those bastards don’t py fair. Unless you have state-of-the-art orbital manufacturing and powerful AI superputers, you’re not likely to surpass them anytime soon. If you think you have a design more effit than theirs, it's only because they already figured that out and decided not to release it publically yet.”

  “How would you know?”

  “Because I worked for Omni early in my career. This was back when they were just getting started. I worked there for a few years until a man by the name of Benning stole my ideas and cimed them for himself. I would like to say it was because the man was a talentless hack, but he was and still is one of the most talented AI researchers around.”

  “Why would he o steal your ideas then?” If the man was as skilled as Lund was saying, it made little seo him.

  “Because he was also a selfish, self-tered, egotistical, asshole. He saw me as a threat to his rise withihen-young pany. Benning spired to make me look like a fool in front of our peers. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Alexander, but I’m ly loved by the academiunity, despite my aplishments. And holy, I couldn’t care less. I care more about my work than I do about public appearance. With no way to prove what the man had done, I was fired from Omni. I bounced around from propulsion manufacturer to propulsion manufacturer for some time. But every time I started making any headway in those panies, Omni would swoop in and buy them up. I k was that petty little bastard Benning pulling the strings. So I left the public sector a into teag for some time until the Coalition war broke out. By then Omni had ered forty pert of the market. The war led to some legistive ges that allowed Omni to balloon into the monopolistister that it is today. A fat little parasite living off of its past successes.”

  He winced internally at the woman’s scathing words. He didn’t like Omher, but she seemed to hold a personal grudge against the pany. “I get that Omni doesn’t py fair, but someone must have e along with a better design at some point.”

  “You remember when I said Benning stole my ideas?”

  Alexander nodded.

  “Omni are still deploying them to this day. They could have easily implemented all of them decades ag the war, but they chose not to. The moment a petitor es along that they ’t buy out or elimihey simply release an ehat out-petes them. That new pany goes out of business and Oms what they want, no petition.”

  “Surely the STO must know they are doing this, why don’t they put a stop to it?”

  She ughed bitterly. “And who would they turn to? The STO ’t ask Sinorus. Even if the former Coalition manufacturer fave them for what happened during the war, they don’t have nearly the same track record for quality as Omni. Other than Omni and Sinorus, there are no other panies with the manufacturing capabilities o fulfill an STO tract. The STO are stu a situation of their own making. Which is delightfully ironic when you think about it. That is what you are trying to upset, Alexander. Are you prepared for that?”

  “Obviously not,” he replied. “That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try though.”

  “I appreciate the fact that you don’t back down from a challenge, Alexander. It’s why I wanted you to work for me. You may not be able to dislodge them from the top by peting against them, but you will annoy them. So that’s something. If you really want to knock them from their pedestal, help me with my theoretical work. The only way you’ll ever take Omni down is by doing something they ’t even dream of.”

  “While ing out with a new form of propulsion would be amazing, how close are you to ing up with something?” He likely khe answer already but he o hear it from her.

  The smaller woman shrugged. “If I khat, I would have already had a partial solution by now. I don’t, and most of my research has hit dead ends. That doesn’t mean my work ointless. I was only one part of a rger team w on dozens of possible ways to improve space travel. And now the STO has most of that knowledge locked away. A plete and utter waste of stific potential, all because they are afraid.”

  “Afraid?”

  She looked around before shrugging again. “If I were in STO space, just saying this would likely get me locked up and tossed in a very dark hole somewhere. The reasoO stopped expanding was because they ran into an unknown ship.”

  “The Shi, right?”

  She shook her head. “No. The battle site they found was between this unknown ship and the remains of a Shi fleet numbering twelve vessels. I don’t know how much you know about the Shi, one of their quirks as a species is that they don’t disturb old battle sites. The going theory is that sites of battle are sacred to the alien kitties somehow. That didn’t stop the STO from pilfering the site and taking the remains of this unknown ship for themselves though. That single vessel may have lost in the end, but just the thought that a single ship owerful enough to take on aire Shi fleet scared the STO. Back then, the Shi and STO ships were pretty evenly matched so they knew a run-in with another ship like this unknown one would be devastating. That’s when they froze the border expansion.”

  “…Um, this seems like cssified information. How do you know all this stuff?”

  “I would love to say I was a master spy and broke into a highly secured facility to uhis information. The truth is far simpler and far more embarrassing. I was attending a soiree where a high-level Navy person was trying to woo me into joining the STO as a researcher on some sort of project. The man was rather drunk a slip a lot more than he probably intended.”

  “What sort of project?”

  “They were vague on the specifics. From what I gathered, they wao try to reverse-engineer something. That’s when I got him to spill the beans on the ship. I think he was trying to impress me for more than just the research role.”

  Alexaared at the older woman.

  “What?” she demanded, “I was a very lovely woman in my youth.”

  “You still are,” Alexaated.

  Dr. Lund smiled. “Good answer. Now you know my history. But I didn’t e out here to bore you with the past. Show me to somepce I do my research, and I’ll be out of your hair unless you need something from me.”

  “I certainly do that, but there are a few issues. The first is, how are you going to get food? Most of the people who live here help out with the farms or small gardens, or in other ways to trade for food and other supplies.”

  “Will you not provide that for my assistance?”

  As much as Alexander would like to simply say yes, he shook his head. “No. Not without a firm itment on your part. I want a week of your time every month, with the option to have two weeks back-to-ba adjoining months if needed.” He knew Dr. Lund was only out here to get away from the STO. That didn’t mean he couldn’t be from that arra as well.

  “Jasper warned me you might ask for more of my time if I came out here.” She sighed. “Fine. While I would have preferred to be left aloo do my work, I don’t have any issue with that deal. I assume this covers my housing for me and my grandson as well?”

  “While this deal will cover the both of you, if he’s not attending csses, he's going to o pit. Eden’s End has zero tolerance for deadbeats.”

  “If you have a pce of learning it’s probably best to send him there. I’ll have a talk with him a him know what is expected.”

  “Then we have a deal,” Alexander held out his hand and the woman shook it without reservation.

  “I know you are still hell-bent on peting with Omni but don’t expect miracles with my help. At best, I put you on an even pying field until they finally exhaust the improvements they made through my discoveries.”

  “An even pying field is all I ask for, I hahe rest.”

  She smirked, “We’ll see about that. The first thing you o do is upgrade your manufacturing capabilities. This stuff,” she gestured around the workshop, “isn’t going to cut it. Give me a few days and I’ll give you the tolerance specifications you’ll o shoot for and how to make it happen.”