Chapter 15

“Commander, take us to Arkadia, Best Safe Speed” and we were gone!

I would have to look at the video so I could see how it looked to everyone watching. I didn’t feel us take off or anything. It felt like we didn’t even move but I wasn’t seeing Earth or stars on any of the screens at the moment.

“We’ll give you a few minutes notice before we arrive, and again as we arrive so you can say something like, “and we’re here”, with you looking at Arkadia in the view screen.”

“Ok cool. I definitely want to see our arrival at Arkadia. I didn’t see our departure from Earth so I’m glad it was recorded. Can you show it to me?”

“Sure can, just a sec.” It appeared on the main screen and looked good, and I was happy that I didn’t look too goofy. Hahaha. One minute Earth was on the screen and the next thing it was gone, replaced by text saying, “signal lost”.

“Ok DD, get ready for arrival at Arkadia ... We are arriving in 3, 2, 1 and we’re here.”

I turn and look at Arkadia. Man, it looks beautiful. I quickly look towards the camera and say “And here we are everyone! Welcome everyone to Arkadia! Isn’t she a gorgeous sight!” while returning my gaze and sweeping my arm towards the viewscreen.

“It is an honor to be the first visitor here in many Centa-Millenia. I promise to do my best for Arkadia, the Furst, and for the future Arkadians.

To the people back on Earth, check our website often over the next week or so as it will be updated frequently with photos of our trip. To other students on Spring Break, enjoy it wherever you are!”

I continue looking at Arkadia and ask Sam when we will leave the J&J for Guardian City.

Sam explains that normally visitors would arrive and clear Customs/Immigration at an orbiting Space Station, and then take a shuttle to either the Guardian City Spaceport or directly to their hotel, if the hotel offered transportation to/from the Space Station.

“You will need to authorize the design and building of a Space Station soon Sire.”

She continues to say that when we arrive with the original immigrants, that everyone could clear Customs/Immigration while traveling from Earth to Arkadia, and then be transported and accompanied by a Furst to the neighborhood where they will live. Their luggage could be transported directly to their housing unit.

We board my shuttle and make our way slowly to Guardian City. The sun is still low in the sky and the view is spectacular. We fly slowly over the city, seeing the Spaceport, City Center, and beach areas, and then Sam tells me they have a surprise for me and asks me to close my eyes.

When she tells me to open them again we are in front of the low hill range. I can see they have shaved one of the peaks so it has a large flat area and they built the dream house from my laptop on its top! The shuttle flies around it and the house and yard look complete with the pools and landscaping done, and I can see furnishings through the extra-large windows. There is even what looks like an area to park my shuttle ... and several others! Sam tells me this is from all the Furst. She had seen me looking at the design on my laptop more than a few times, and they decided they would build this for me as my home on Arkadia.

I couldn’t believe it and thanked Sam and everyone profusely. We landed at what I had thought looked like the shuttle parking area and walked to the house. My house!

Sam explains that the house has a new AI courtesy of Chef and that I need to register my voice, eye, and handprint with it so we can enter. She tells me I can do this by placing my hand on the pad affixed just to the left side of the door, look into the scanner that’s above the pad, and speak a sentence or 2.

I place my left hand on the pad, look into the scanner and say “Good morning I am DeDeus Sanderson, Guardian Prime of Arkadia and 1^st of the Furst. Open says me so we can enter and check out my beautiful home!”

“Recognition of voice, eye, and handprint for DeDeus Sanderson, Guardian Prime of Arkadia and 1^st of the Furst. Stored and saved for future use. Entry and control of home AI are now granted.

Welcome to your home Sire. I am your home AI and am at your service. When you require my services you need simply ask and I will respond. Should you wish others to have access to enter and leave your home without you being in their presence, please have them repeat the same procedures you just went through. All persons entering and leaving your home will be logged and saved for Security purposes.”

“Thank you, home AI. Do you mind if I call you “Casa”? It means home and I don’t want to say “Home, I’m home!” Hahaha. I’m sure I will need your help in learning everything you can do. In the meantime, we will take a look around the house as I want to see everything. Do Sam and my Security teams need to go through the procedures for entering my house?”

“You are most welcome Sire and thank you for naming me. Sam and your Security teams do not need to go through the procedures as they are Furst, energy beings, and can go pretty much anywhere. I can tell you that Chef designed a quick course in regards to my abilities for you that can be taken via sleep training.”

We wander through the house and I see it is fully furnished with the furnishings from my laptop, and it even has the music room, billiards room, and bbq area as I had them laid out. Fantastic!

There is an awesome view looking out over Guardian City, the beaches and ocean, as well as an impressive view from the other side of the house looking out over the wide expanse to the mountain range in the distance.

During our time on Arkadia, we try to split the time cavorting on the beaches and taking tours of everything the city has to offer. We tour the different neighborhoods pointing out for those that will view everything on the website, all the storefronts and how they could be used for businesses. We even take a ride on the elevated, above ground, public transit system we call the Guardian City Transit System, or simply the GCTS.

I make sure we take an extensive tour over the ranch and farm areas that lay on the other side of the mountain range, showing the numerous water sources and the easy access to and from the areas.

Travel from the other side of the mountain range to the warehouses for food storage will be about 20 – 30 minutes, and to the “city proper” about another 15 minutes. So max travel time approximately 45 minutes.

I could use the land between the hill range and mountain range for ranching and farming though that would severely limit future city expansion. I didn’t think the travel time to the city was overly long but we would see if anyone objected when the information was put on the website, or when we talked to farming and ranching associations back on Earth.

We do get something to worry about a little on our 4th day on Arkadia when Sam received a briefing from the Shield Commanders back in Earth’s solar system. They informed her that spies for China and Russia have reported to their Presidents that American politicians are putting together a proposed trade agreement for Arkadia that is closing in on 500 pages!

Apparently, a lot of it is about them wanting overall control of everything, their wanting “preferred” trading status over other countries, they want Arkadian weapons for their military only, and they also want access to “yet to be specified” Arkadian tech.

No way in hell that will ever happen! I tell Sam to get some Furst on the politicians making this proposal so we have undeniable proof of their reasons if it is ever needed.

Of course, the Chinese and Russian spies’ reports results in a call from Dmitri and Mr. Li, who we call back and assure them we have heard similar, and that I will never accept such an agreement.

I mention that maybe their Presidents could say that they are looking forward to trade discussions with Arkadia and that they will recognize Arkadia’s and my Sovereignty now before any discussions have even been planned.

Maybe their doing this publicly now would put pressure on the American politicians to do the same.

Both say they will pass my assurances about the American trade proposal as well as my thoughts about them recognizing our Sovereignty now publicly.

Sam lets me know that the live fishies are in their waters and seem to be doing well, and that the frozen sperm and eggs are being thawed and will be put in hatcheries, where the scientists will do their thing. Both groups will then be watched and studied by Furst scientists for some time to come.

I check in with Ryker and everything is going great. The 2 BCs in the system helped to get the Orbital Factory Replicator completed a lot faster by making parts for the androids to put together. Now with the 2 Orbital Factory Replicators, he was actually ahead of schedule. He said the Cruiseship would be ready to go with us when we went back to Earth. They also have the Communications/Surveillance Satellites completed and in their positions in each of the Guardian Solar Systems.

I thank Ryker and ask him to keep me updated and let me know if he needs anything.

I ask Sam to show me some of the Space Stations that there were designs for and she says I should enjoy my free time now as there wouldn’t be a lot when we got back to Earth, but if I really wanted to, we could go over designs for the Space Station now. I agree to wait until we were back on Earth and shout “Beach Time, who’s coming!” and soon had a carload ready to go.

It was awesome cruising the beachfront in the Camaro with 4 bikini-clad babes. Even if there was no else to see it at the moment! It would definitely be part of our nightly post to the website since we arrived.

The beach soon became full of Furst taking on forms of several different races, even a couple out of Earth’s fairy tales and mythical books.

Later we were back in the house and Sam sees me looking at a picture of 7 intertwined, golden rings in 3 rows on a blue, starry background, with the words in golden script “Guardian Council of Allied Planets” underneath them. There were 2 rings on the top row, 3 rings in the middle row, and 2 rings on the bottom row. Underneath the first row of words, were smaller words in the same golden script, “One People United & Equal before God”.

She asks if I have read anything about the Guardian Council and I tell her I read a little after seeing the picture the first time, and it might be worth looking into again in the future, but right now we have other priorities, and the Council is not one of them as it has not been around in more years than I could think of let alone count.

Also at the moment, I don’t want to be the leader of a bunch of races I know nothing about. I said I was most surprised to see the words “One People United & Equal before God” in the picture. It sounds like it would be a good motto for Arkadia but I’d like it to say “Living in Peace & Prosperity, One People United & Equal before God”.