Free Alicia Jones 3: New Frontier by D. L. Harrison

managed for humanity.  Without the power of
the human body, the nanites would run out of power in that time, but it was
plenty long enough for them to dig into and sample everything they came across.
    Al said, “You have a priority call coming in.”
    Priority call?  “Answer it, Hello?  This is
Admiral Jones.”
    I was surprised by the voice of Vice President William
Tanner.  Although from the country where I was born, he wasn’t my favorite
member of the board, and he wasn’t around very much.  I could also tell by
his voice he was very angry.
    “You have a damned leak.”
    My mind immediately jumped to my latest round of inventions,
thanks to the power jump of dark energy.  But I dismissed it after a
moment as ridiculous.  Kristi would never betray me, and Al was incapable
of it.  No one else even knew yet.
    After a few seconds I answered, “Could you explain that sir,
what was leaked?”
    The VP said loudly, “The damned planet, what else would I be
talking about?”
    Huh, I was at a loss, “So, what happened exactly, and what
do you want me to do about it?”
    He growled, seriously.  Growled at me.  I rolled
my eyes, but only because it was an audio only call.
    “Someone leaked we found a planet we could colonize to the
press.  It all snowballed from there, all the governments in the USFS are
being pressured by companies and individuals to allow them to go to the
colony.  All the board members are being pestered by calls to make sure
that their country is the first to be able to reach out to the stars. 
It’s a damned nightmare!”
    Oh.  I was still waiting for him to tell me what he
wanted me to do about it.  I was in charge of space, by their authority,
rules, and laws.  What the hell did the problem have to do with me?
    “So, what did you want me to do exactly?  Sir.”
    I frowned at the silence, wondering if he was having a heart
attack or something.  Finally, he spoke.
    “Find the leak, throw them in the brig, or out a damned
airlock.  I don’t care which.  We planned originally to have a
lottery of sorts, with seven entries, to decide who gets to go first.  I
don’t think that’s going to be possible now.”
    To be fair, I had no idea what political pressure he was
under, but whatever was happening, he needed to get a grip.
    “Alright, I’ll do my best to track it down.  The
problem is, I don’t think this information was classified at all.  It came
in as part of the scan data report, and I sent my admiral to handle it along
with twenty other ships.”
    It was probably my fault, since I didn’t tell Sergei it
should be treated as sensitive.  Who knew the world would go crazy over
it?  Then again, it probably would have happened anyway, it wasn’t like
the information could have been hidden for long.  But then, if who was
going was announced with the information of the find, it probably would have
cut most of it off before it built up so much momentum.
    Yes, I was completely waffling back and forth in my mind,
and arguing both sides.
    He sounded a bit less mad, and tired, when he replied, “You
do that, let us know what you find out.”
    He disconnected the call.
    “Al, contact the other ship AIs, find out who made personal
calls right after I sent those orders out, and up to a half hour later please.”
    Al replied, “On it.”
    I grinned.  Not only was Al understanding imprecise
speech, he was using it.  Granted, on it wasn’t a very obscure way to say
acknowledged, but it was progress.  I pondered the dilemma, there were a
lot of large Island chains out there.  Maybe… we should just share the
first colony world.
    I closed my eyes and sighed.  Right, and then we could
have a bonfire and sing songs together.
    I spent a little time going through the news reports to see
for myself.  If anything the vice president was understating things a
bit.  There were a lot of commercial and private groups that actually had
vessels built and ready to go, sitting on the