Chapter 88 The anchor is scrap, but a beautiful garden decoration

They thundered out of the high-rise, drove through the streets and stopped in front of an old movie theater complex. They parked in a parking lot and Luke got out. 

"Man, man, this thing's still standing."

Several guards and an employee approached him, purring.

"Hey you! You're not on the list!" 

Bill got out and the clerk stopped. 

" Darling! You didn't tell me you were taking me to the fashion palace! " 

The clerk came closer. 

" We didn't know they were coming, otherwise we would have ..."

Bill looked at him with a smile.

" Oh, I couldn't say no when Luke invited me and I thought he was going to take me to a cheap shed. Oh, ..." 

He walked towards the building and took Luke by the hand. The others followed him. 

The inside of the movie theater had been completely remodeled and looked more like a bizarre palace. Luke saw so much snobbery and disturbing fashion. 

The crowd didn't notice. 

"Jörg darling! Oh come here, what a beautiful dress you're wearing."

A tall atheltic in an evening dress looked at him in great surprise and came rushing over.

"You here? Nobody said anything! Everyone says you don't come to events like this anymore!"

Bill beamed. 

"Oh I couldn't, Luke here invited me. I tell you, the celebrities are so awful." Jörg nodded.

"I know, you make sure that everyone registers well and that no black sheep mingle with the people. "

" It doesn't matter that you're there, just that you're here. We have, new plays, couples from before the outbreak reenacted and a few plays from contenders." 

Bill nodded. 

"But why, does it say you're offering such junk, Jörg..."

The looked at another man.

"He bought several warehouses empty and was in on it. Even 3d textile printers and hardware, but no... Oh, too complicated..." 

"Jörg get your treasure."

Jörg dashed off. 

Bill looked after Luke.

" You wanted that thing, didn't you? "

" Yep. It makes it easier for me to get fashion magazines and catalogs and stuff. "

Jörg came in with another man, who beamed when he saw Bill.

" Oh Roland, always good to see you, have you had your beard trimmed?" 

Roland smiled. 

" Yes. It was boring. So Jörg didn't say why I should be here, start right away."

" So I want the 3D printer. I'm telling you. I have ideas and with a thing like this I can finally leave the eternal waiting of the companies behind me. "

Roland looked at him.

"And Luke here."

Roland looked at him.

" Oh, the one that got ripped apart by the media. How did you get them to stop?"

" I snagged the number one drama lawyer."

"Ohh." 

Bill cleared his throat. 

"So Luke wants to buy your shit." 

Ned stood next to Luke and held his stomach.

"Luke's hungry," Luke reached into his pocket and pulled out a package of beef jerky and handed it to him. Ned opened the packet, smelled it and munched away happily. 

Jörg looked at her in horror.

"How can you feed her something like that?" 

Luke fished a cigarette out of his pocket.

"She's hungry and I wanted to feed her later." He looked at Ned, who was looking at him.

"What they had at the barbecue." 

"Oh, Persian." 

Jörg still looked at him in horror. 

Luke looked at him.

"Huh?"

"No smoking here," came from Jörg.

Luke continued to look at him and put the cigarette away. 

Ronald held a tablet out to him.

"20k and this stuff is yours."

Luke put his hand on it and it bobbed positively. 

" And where do you want it? " 

"To this address here," he wrote down the address. 

He spent the rest of the evening going to the fashion auction, bidding on some clothes for Nad, even found a few things he could tease the monarch with. 

Bill told him he could go as he was staying for the after-party. So he got into the SUV with Ned, stopping at various fast food stands on the way. 

What he had bought arrived at his house two days later and took up a large part of his garden. Painters had started painting his house, and the day before, Leo's parents' landscaping company had mowed the lawn and trimmed the hedges. 

It looked almost decent. Ned was working on the moon again. Luke looked at the crates, opened them and found scrap from a species that claimed to have created humanity as slaves and human spare parts, only now they were floating as heads in jars but still had fanatical followers. 

He found the box with the marker, it was indeed one, and what it left behind matched the Galactic Empire documents. He sighed, the pillar was broken, so it was useless. He put it back up and left it as a garden decoration. He rummaged in other boxes and found a block, 1 x 2 meters and 45 centimeters high, stroked it with his hand.

"Hhmmm!" 

He picked it up, carried it into the house in front of one of the holodisplays, reached for the remote control and activated it. He pulled out a cell phone and dialed his grandfather's number.

Panting, he picked up.

"Oh, bother you, I can call later."

" No, no, what is it? "

Luke examined the block, found an indentation, clicked on it, a flap opened and an old power core popped out. 

"Well, this thing is actually a marker, but it's defective. "

He heard silence.

"But, I've found alternatives if it works. What can fix it over time and maybe help you with the group against the others."

"Okay. And what do you need?"

"Just the Ai for a minute, with me."

" Okay... can you fix that and what was that other stuff?"

Luke slipped into the garage and grabbed an energy core from one of the cars, then went into the living room. 

"Oh, just alien junk, so junk because it's broken. If it was whole you could use it."

"Hmm... okay Ai's on her way." 

The Ai materialized on the screen and looked down at itself, slightly irritated.

Luke replaced the core and pocketed it again.

"Sorry about..."

Luke looked at her.

"And what's got you so distracted?"

"Uh ... " 

Luke activated the console, it built up geometric shapes and symbols above him.

"And what exactly is that?" 

" A console, there aren't many of them. "

He thought about it, clicked on symbols, they flickered and switched to English. 

"Amazing, at first I thought artellery exocore should work, but it's more energy efficient than I thought. He clicked through the systems, went into the network and turned off the most important things that were displayed offline anyway. 

"Yeah, but what am I doing here.... And... why don't you want the house and Saskia back?"

He lit a cigarette. 

"Simple, the house was forced on me by my grandfather, Saskia too, if she wants something, let her come. "

"But after..."

Luke took a drag on the fag.

"Well, maybe it would be different if the evening hadn't gone so badly. Then maybe I would have stayed home and all she would have thought about was sex and the table." 

He put his hand on it. 

"Technology is way ahead of her."

"Sure, Adminlogin is offline, but it can manage the process more efficiently and you don't need a megacomputer anymore."

Ai looked at him doubtfully.

"But first, the anchor." 

He clicked through the menus, found the command and pressed it, a window popped up displaying an activation key.

" AH. Shit" He reached for the communication cube, typed something in and held it to his ear.

"You still haven't activated the anchor?" came from her.

"I need an activation key."

He heard an annoyed groan and couldn't help but grin.

" Enter 887766998877325, that's the reactivation code for abandoned planets. "

He typed in the number, it beeped positive, with the message the current command empire is being notified.

"Ah, I see you're active, good. Come by in the next few days then. I need a massage," she hung up. 

He pocketed the cube, took a drag on his cigarette. Put his cell phone on it.

The Ai hit the table.

"Hm, you were right. This really is faster than what we have at the moment ..."

He grinned.

"See, you should be able to get on the net then, right?"

She nodded. 

"Good."

He reached for his cell phone and called his grandfather. 

"Anchor is running and I have the operator table, the AI is already on it, it can manage the group better and it should be very, very difficult for others to get into the system."

"Hm, and that really works?" 

"Yup. If you send some people to pick up the table and the alien stuff, you can put it in the lounge. "

"Okay, I'll send someone over."

Luke hung up. 

Fifteen minutes later, the truck came and picked up the junk and the table. He got into the jeep and went shopping. He spent the next two days sprucing up the house and updating the security software.

Then he flew to the core system, where he was really supposed to give the empress a massage. She looked at him skeptically when he gave her the clothes. Which was a stupid idea, after three days he finally managed to get away, but had to reach into the really dirty bag of tricks. So he unpacked the marital foam mode until the empress sent him away bright yellow. Luke was already approaching Earth when something crashed into his spaceship. 

He clicked through the sensors and cameras and saw that it was part of a rocket capsule that astronauts could fit into. He cursed, stood up, walked to the spot where it had hit and cursed even more. The ship was now just scrap metal because they couldn't get any spare parts and judging by the damage, the propulsion system for long-distance flights was shot. 

"Ah, what a mess!" 

He wanted to turn around when he heard a scratching sound, looked at the capsule and went closer. There was a small viewing window, as he got closer, a bloody, disfigured grimace pressed against it, drooling blood, eyes charred.

"Fuck you, I'm not letting you out."

The creature only raged more. Luke sighed, went into the cockpit and switched on the radio.

" Tach Mond, I need a quarantine team when I land."

" Eh why?" 

"I found a Martian capsule and its contents. "

" If outside, no landing allowed ".

" It's not outside, nor inside. I can throw it in the sun."

" Do that, then investigate."

Luke groaned. 

So he jetted towards the sun, blocked off part of the ship, got out in his suit lifted the pod out of his ship and stepped towards the sun. Waited until it really disappeared into it, climbed into the ship and raced to the moon. Where, after scans, he was cleaned up again. Ned called him into his office.

" You sent him into the sun?"

" Yup. Anything I should know about, from contaminated Mars?"

" Just that the idiots down there are still sending people there."

Luke rolled his eyes. 

He was allowed down, teleported into his house. They had finished the renovation and the garden looked tidy again. He took a beer from the fridge and sat on the couch, sipping it, his cell phone buzzing. He saw his mother's picture on it. He reached for it and picked it up.

" Estate "

"Luke, we have a problem." 

He sipped the can again.

" There was a fire on the corporate campus, due to power overload. "

" It wasn't me."

" Luke... It's serious... Several houses have burned down."

" Go on?"

" Liz and Sarge's house got hit, here, because of all the holoprojectors."

"Not Grandpa's?"

" No, he has more fuses in the house because of my mom and the others. They shut off the power there more than once. "

" All right, tell Liz she can stay with me until her shack is fixed." 

" But Dad said."

" Yeah, but it's not the same mom. Just tell her she can stay with me."

He hung up. Sipped his beer again. 

An hour later his doorbell rang, he got up and went outside to the gate.

Liz, Sarge and Tyreen stood there exhausted. 

He opened the gate.

Liz looked at him worriedly.

"Luke..."

" You can stay with me, I have too many rooms anyway. Come in."

They followed him in silence.

"How did you get here?"

"By company car, it all burnt down..." came from the sergeant.

"Hm hm," he stopped in the garage where the jeep and the other cars were parked.

"Pick one, if you can fix it, you can use it as you please." 

He tapped on the hood of the jeep.

"In the meantime, you can drive it to work."

" And how are you getting there?"

He lit a cigarette.

" Oh, I teleport around the neighborhood. I got myself a stabilizer bracelet from the core system."

They looked at him questioningly.

"Think of it as an upgrade, how many times you can use what. So, I still have clothes from the auction, find a room."

He went in with them. He pointed to a door.

"That room is occupied, Ned sleeps in it. There are other rooms available."

"And which one is yours?"

Luke looked at Liz. 

"Oh, I'm sleeping on the couch."

"But why not in bed?"

He took a drag on his cigarette, remembered the massage and got goose bumps.

"Well, I had one a few days ago. Find a room first, I'll put you in the house system in the meantime."

They set off uncertainly, Luke sat down on the sofa, grabbed the house pad and entered the three of them into the system. It took them about half an hour to get back. 

"Is it really ... okay?" came from Liz. 

Luke stubbed out the butt on the ashtray.

"Sure. Look, the house is big enough and since I'm away for the Trade Alliance anyway. It can't hurt to have extra protection here anyway. "

"Protection?"

Luke grinned.

" Sure. I hear there are gangs roaming the area. I've shot a few, but well, they still come around now and again."

"I see. And with what?"

He grinned, stood up and went down to the basement to the armory, grabbing the pistol.

"I was able to restore this one." 

Sarge looked at him, stunned. Liz stared at the weapons.

" What? Bettina said they're all scrap anyway and I only know the guns from my service anyway."

Liz stepped closer to the weapons, as did the sarge, who grabbed an assault rifle and examined it.

"This isn't junk Luke, it's even functional..."

"Well, at least the pistol was gone"

He hung it up again.

"And where did you get the ammunition? It hasn't been produced for decades..."

" Well, the guy was apparently a weapons freak" He pointed to a corner of the room.

"There's a workbench where you can fill cartridge cases and there's also gunpowder and the bullet, well." 

He went to a shelf, took out a box and put it on the table; it was full to the brim with bullets. All neatly sorted by caliber.

Sarge looked through the shelves.

"You don't get anything like this anymore, not even the hermits have the quality. They buy their stuff on the black market or from cheap gun manufacturers."

Luke shrugged his shoulders and put the box back.

"Well, if you get bored, you can screw around here. "

Tyreen sounded bored.

"What about you?"

She blinked.

"Cars and guns aren't my thing... "

"Well, then what is your thing? What did you do before everything burned down?"

Tyreen looked at him and then at her parents. 

"Uh... So... about the security thing, I can forget about that..."

"I'd still be interested."

" Actually wanted to be a diplomat, with aliens... but the corporation only lets non-offenders into the program."

" Ha. That's a good one. " 

She looked at him in dismay. 

Luke patted her head.

" The corporation can only decide so far when it goes for the moon. "

"But they're the only ones who can go to the moon."

Luke nodded.

Looked at Sarge.

"Well, no. " He looked at Tyrenn.

"So, how far are you?"

"Uh... Well, with the degrees all."

Liz hugged her.

"She was top of her year, but they took her off the list because of the incident."

"Hm hm hm..."

His crystal buzzed, he took it. It slipped from his hand and stopped in mid-air. 

The empress appeared in her robe.

" Are you back already? " 

" Eh yeah, got something to do here?"

She crossed all four arms.

" To do, really? Who are the three of your species?"

Luke looked at the three of them, a little irritated.

"Family, since you're here. No need to answer, might as well ask Ned."

Her color changed abruptly.

"Stell, by the way, the anchor will mess up the power supply on your planet a bit."

"Oh, so that's why the fires."

She grinned.

"You'll need a settlement generator to stop that, otherwise there'll be more fires."

"Good, let's get to my question."

"What, none of my species are going extinct because you're a primitive planet?"

"Naa, you better tell me. Where do I find the guidelines for interspecies contact again."

She tapped one of her arms.

"On the authority page, where else? But I also have a question." She picked up a pair of shoes.

"I want whoever did this dead. Do you understand, dead! She lifted one foot and pointed at the blisters. She hung up.

Luke shook his head and pocketed the crystal.

"Uh, Luke..." 

He looked at Liz.

"Huh?"

"What was that?"

"Ah, the galactic empress. Her species is warlike/religious and the other species are afraid of them. "

"I see, so why are you talking to her so freely?"

He scratched his head. 

"Well, they're in the government chair more because of reproduction. Many high people have harems. She does too, she usually runs riot there and I was thrown in at some point."

 "I see..."

Luke nodded. 

"But in experimenting, I found a loophole and can roam free. "

"But then why is she talking to you so freely?" 

"Liz, she's too intelligent and finds out quickly when you're talking shit or just trying to do something. The court war with them is cruel. So Normal definitely has more advantages for me. "

"And do they all speak our language?" asked Tyreen.

"No. She was bored. I had to put implants in my throat and ear to really be able to talk to and understand other species. The corporation only got to know fractions. " 

"Eh Luke, it doesn't show on your face ..." 

Luke grinned. He took on his original form and the three of them backed away. He turned his head to the side and pointed to a scar.

" It was put in for the ear and the throat, well, you can't see anything anyway because it's so scarred.

" Your eyes. They look like crystals." 

"Well, they are, so are my teeth." He grinned and they looked like crystals. 

He changed into his going-out look. 

" So settle in for now, I'm going to buy food. "

He went to the jeep and drove to the nearest supermarket and did a bulk buy, stopped at a clothing store where he also shopped and drove back. He put the bags down. It was quiet, so he put the food in the fridge, left the bags of clothes and the daily necessities, went out to the pool, it was quiet here too. Looked out to sea and thought, saw a shark's fin.

A smile flitted across my face.

"Time to feed Berta with the gang members."