Alexander entered the dical facility and quickly located Gabriella. "Is she awake?" he asked.
When Alexander had tried to visit Dr. Lund the day after the opening ceremony for the academy, he found out that she had taken ill and was rushed to the ergency center by her grandson.
The woman had been in the dical center for nearly a week, but he finally received word that Lund was well enough for visitors.
"She is," Gabriella stated. "But try to keep it brief. She needs rest."
Alexander nodded his avatar and headed into the patient wing, which still housed a few convalescing Asgardians. He soon reached the end of the hall where the private rooms were. These were mostly reserved for the worst-off people or those who needed to be held in isolation, either for the safety of the facility or their own.
The fact that Lund had wound up in one didn’t bode well for the older woman. He knocked on the door before stepping inside. Lund didn’t glance up at his entrance, busy with sothing on a tablet.
Even now, the woman was working on her mathematical formulas. A few holographic slates floated nearby from a small projector soone had brought her.
She eventually looked over and Alexander could see she looked even worse than she had back during the academy ceremony.
"Finally have so free ti to visit a dying old woman, eh?" she asked, her voice raspy and hoarse.
"If I had known, I would have co to see you sooner."
"Bah," Nova waved, the act seeming to tire her out. "I’m dying, I’m not senile. You had more pressing matters, but I’m glad you ca. Even if it is on my deathbed."
"Is there anything I can do for you? Perhaps we can put you in stasis to find a cure for your sickness?"
"No. This isn’t a sickness you or anyone can cure, it’s just my body finally breaking down. I’ve lived longer than I should have if I’m honest. I was just too stubborn to die while my work was unfinished and I was without soone who could take up my torch and complete it for . I was hoping that would be you," she said pointedly.
"? There has to be soone more qualified, I know hardly anything about theoretical physics."
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Nova snorted disdainfully, which brought on a coughing fit that alerted Gabriella. The woman hurried into the room, looking annoyed.
"I told you to take it easy," she admonished the woman.
"And I told you I’m not a child to be coddled," Lund managed to get out through racking coughs as Gabriella sat her upright and gave her gentle pats on the back until she finally stopped coughing.
"I’m going to keep you upright for now. That should reduce the chance of the cough coming back for a few minutes. Hurry up and finish your discussion because I need to give you so dication and then you need to rest."
Lund grunted slightly in acknowledgnt and waited until Gabriella left to continue. "That girl needs children, she mothers her patients too much. Now where was I?"
"About to tell why you want to continue your work."
"Right. You are correct, there are more qualified scientists out there, but all the ones I know now work for the STO or one of the corporations within the STO, so they can kick sand. Your new allies might have so talented people, but I couldn’t say for sure and I don’t have ti to look. That leaves you."
"That’s not quite the vote of confidence I had expected. Then again, I’m barely an engineer," he replied, trying to lighten the mood.
"Stop that!" the woman snapped, her voice coming out firm to admonish him. "You have accomplished feats of engineering out here that corporations back in the STO would drool in envy over. Take pride in what you’ve accomplished and stop being so self-deprecating."
"Noted," he replied, earning a slight smile from the woman in the bed.
Getting reprimanded by Nova was not what he had expected when coming here.
"When we first talked years ago, I wanted you to join so I could train you to beco my protégé. The STO taking my coworkers and all the work we had done soured to that option and I carried that grievance over even after coming out here. You didn’t deserve that, and I’m sorry."
Alexander was about to say that wasn’t necessary, but the woman cut him off. "Let speak."
He nodded and Lund continued.
"The work you helped with was what finally convinced that I was being a stubborn old fool. Do you know how many years I have been trying to get that gravitational sensor instrunt built? Twenty. Not a single company that I contracted was ever able to produce a working design to my specifications. Yet you managed it in less than a year. I do not doubt that you will figure out the physics behind my work in ti. You could even buy those ridiculous learning modules but those would be a waste. Instead, I made a series of my own. They are in my office along with all my work. Just promise when you succeed, that you’ll na it after so I can rub it in the face of the STO one last ti. I want to die knowing that I got the last laugh."
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Alexander hesitated, not quite expecting the woman’s final statent. "I- I can do that."
A smile crossed her face as she rested her head back on the pillow. "That’s all I wanted to hear. Good luck, Alexander. Please tell Gabriella that I would like to speak to my grandson."
Alexander left the room and conveyed the woman’s wishes to the exasperated Head of dical Services.
Before he left, he turned and asked a question he really didn’t want an answer to, but needed to know. "How long does she have?"
Gabriella looked pensive. "A week, maybe two. She has pneumonia. While we have dications to treat it, her advanced age ans she likely won’t recover."
"But there’s a chance she will?" Alexander asked, grasping for hope.
Gabriella shook her head. "I don’t think so. And even if she does this ti, it is likely to co back again. I’m surprised she has lasted this long if I’m honest."
Alexander knew Gabriella was right, but it was hard to think that the irascible woman wouldn’t be around soon.
***
As if to refute Gabriella’s claim, Lund held on for nearly three weeks before passing away in her sleep. Alexander found it incredibly sad that most people wouldn’t even realize that the universe lost one of its brightest minds.
There were only a few people invited to her funeral, all of which Lund had invited herself. Lucas was there, along with Lund’s grandson, who looked more angry than saddened by the woman’s passing. Archie had been invited, along with Krieger of all people. Then there was Gabriella and Damien, who likely only ca to support his girlfriend. The last two in attendance were Alexander and Yulia.
It was a small gathering, but it was what Nova had wanted.
Everyone said a few words, but it all felt so insufficient for soone of Lund’s gifts.
When it was over, he led Yulia back ho. The girl had cried at Mrs. Lund’s loss. He was a bit surprised that his daughter had ford such an attachnt to the woman during his absence.
Not long after laying Yulia to bed, he received a knock on the door. It was Archie.
"Sorry to bother you so late, Alex. May I co in?"
He gestured for his friend to enter.
"Did you co by to talk about Lund?"
"Yes and no," Matthews admitted as he took a seat on the couch.
Alexander sat across from him on the floor.
"Back when I was trying to convince her to sign on as faculty for the academy, she told she didn’t have long. She said she felt age catching up to her. I didn’t believe her at the ti. I guess she proved wrong," Archie chuckled bitterly. "Anyway. How would you feel about renaming the Academy after her?"
Alexander was taken aback by the question. As he thought about it, he realized that was a much better way to acknowledge the woman’s accomplishnts than a few words. "That sounds perfect. The Lund Academy?"
"I was thinking of calling it The Nova Lund Academy of Military Sciences, but I like your suggestion better. It’s short and concise."
Alexander chuckled lightly at that. "It seems I can co up with a good na once or twice. The Lund Academy it is. Once I figure out her math and develop the NLD, I expect the Lund Academy to be the leading institute of science and technology for the entirety of human space."
This ti Archie chuckled. "You sure don’t think small do you, Alex? And what’s an NLD?"
"The Nova Lund Drive, of course."
"Maybe workshop that na," Archie added with a wince.
The pair chatted a bit longer about the woman before Archie finally excused himself.
While Alexander would have preferred to take a few days and process the woman’s loss, he thought it best if he kept himself busy instead.
***
"This is the core of a Qcomm?" Krieger asked in surprise. "It doesn’t look like much."
It had been about a week since Lund’s passing and Alexander had tried to throw himself into her work and the learning modules she had left behind in a vain attempt to understand her work and keep his mind occupied. Lund’s learning modules weren’t exactly Physics 101, she hadn’t included the basics to understand her work, which left Alexander a bit lost. It seed the woman’s ability with the math behind her work was far more than her ability to teach it to others,
What Lund considered basic knowledge was stuff a theoretical physicist fresh out of school might know.
He wouldn’t have gotten so of the most important projects completed without her assistance and ntorship, so he would soldier on and figure it out eventually. To help with that, Alexander purchased physics modules and studied them at night while continuing his work on the FTL comm nodes.
He decided not to give the device any fancy na for now. They did what they did and a na that represented that was fine with him. Perhaps if he had been planning to sell the nodes instead of reserving them as a strategic asset, he would feel differently. If that ti ever ca, maybe he would have a marketing team or sothing to na it for him.
"It’s not quite the sa," he answered Krieger’s question, "but it works off the sa principles. I know it doesn’t look like much, but there is a whole lot of science and engineering that went into making it."
Krieger nodded as he examined the orb. "As long as it works, I don’t need to know how it works. So you plan to install this on the Vanguard?"
"Not right away," Alexander admitted. "Once Captain Ramirez’s ship Tempest is complete, then Vanguard will be going in for a full refit to reach BSE spec. That’s when I’ll install the node."
"Hard to say no to a fully retrofitted cruiser," Krieger admitted. "Will these nodes have any vulnerabilities we should be aware of?"
"Unlike the Qcomms, all data passing through the node will be encrypted at the source before it’s even transmitted. That will an new comm devices as well. I’m still working on those. The node will also be connected directly to the central core, aning breaking through any security will an fighting against the ship’s supercomputer. It’s still possible soone might crack through that, but it’s unlikely. If we lose a ship either due to combat operations or so unforeseen incident, the ship’s node can be cut from the cluster to prevent enemy forces from acquiring it. The cluster, before you ask, is the five other ships that the node can communicate with directly. There is no central node like with the Qcomm. This ensures we can excise compromised nodes without losing overall communication."
"I think I understand," Krieger replied. "What about contacting the Qcomm network?"
"All of those connections will be routed to Eden’s End’s node, and then filtered through the facility’s computers to ensure operational security, before being passed on to the Qcomm network. So yes, you will have full but filtered access to the STO’s network."
"Good." Krieger stated.
The man seed to be pondering other questions to ask before both of their radios beeped. Alexander would be glad to replace those with the new devices soon.
"Yes?" Krieger answered before Alexander could answer his own.
"A ship just arrived in the system. It’s transmitting an STO navy identification," the traffic control operator stated.
"What type of ship?" Krieger asked in confusion as he stood.
"It’s a goliath class transport," the operator responded.
Alexander could see the clear confusion on Krieger’s face. "I’m in a eting with Alex right now aboard Vanguard. I’ll be on the bridge shortly. Keep apprised if anything changes."
The operator confird the order and cut the connection.
"Do you want to stick around and see what this transport wants in Unokane?"
Alexander nodded his avatar and followed Krieger to the bridge.
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