22nd Century Samurai

By E Jason Williams

22nd Century Samurai is a book following the Cyber Trilogy concentrating on the children of the main character in the Cyber trilogy.

The book is written in three parts with each part dedicated to the accomplishments and chosen direction each takes in their lives. Each child was directed by their parents to follow what they lov

• Language: English
• Publisher: Authors' Tranquility Press
• Release date: Oct 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781957546131

E Jason Williams

Cyber series is written under a pen name, the author spent over thirty of his professional years directly involved with IT and every possible division or department involved in information technology. Cyber Kill is based upon my imagination and foresight into the needs of responsible IT everywhere.

Book preview

PART I

Chapter 1 – 22nd Century Samurai

Timothy Frantz and Kuri Chankwan-Frantz raised three children all born out of their love for each other. They passed onto their children this very strong love towards the people who touched their own hearts, even if it was in different means outside of marriage. We open with the oldest of three children, Liani, who possessed all the beauty and grace of her mother and the thirst for knowledge of her father. Raised in the Samurai tradition of her ancestry, she also learned her martial arts directly from her mother from ancient samurai training methods, passed down for centuries from parent to child. Being one of the Yolakawa samurai, one held in the highest esteem of the people of Japan, her training was considered superior to all other samurai. It also meant that great responsibility came with being Yolakawa samurai, especially to the people of Japan in the event it was required of her. Although the katana sword was no longer a standard accessory to the samurai, Liani’s great grandfather trained both her mother and herself in the use of such a weapon, and the precise means to make it a formidable weapon when used properly.

Liani at the age of 14, having the academic abilities of her father, entered Stanford University in an effort to pursue her own goals in the world of science and engineering. Her decision was made with the aid of her father to create the first warp engine for space exploration, and after a great deal of research into the subject, she thought she had a viable means to achieve it. She needed a school with the facilities to accommodate the theory with the aid of engineering students, to create a working prototype. She completed her academic studies of a Doctor’s Degree, as well as bachelor’s degree in engineering in 4 years. Liani’s thirst for knowledge became evident when she was only three years of age, and she never lost the desire to exceed in academics during her entire education process. Although Liani had surpassed her professor’s expectations in her academic achievements, Liani had the utmost appreciation towards his aid in bringing her theory into prototype. She did experience a setback in her original design concept, and it took nearly six months, and multiple design alterations to find a solution to the problem to have at last a working prototype. When all was done and completed with the prototype engine, it was determined she had created two viable sources to the future of her planet, and the population of the entire world. The fusion energy system separated from the purpose of the warp engine for propulsion was an energy source of endless uses around the globe. Aided by Stanford University and with Liani being the largest recipient of the funds generated from the marketing of hydrogen fusion energy, she had more than enough funds to continue into the primary focus of intergalactic space travel.

Energy was in high demand the world over, and the hydrogen fusion was the best and cleanest method to generate energy for millions of people around the entire planet. One of the first countries to take advantage of this newfound source of unlimited energy was Japan. Liani felt it should satisfy her samurai duties to the people of Japan for a good while. Kuri, her mother was in firm agreement with the conclusion Liani had come to making in reference to her samurai ancestry. It took Liani two and a half years away from her family, dedicated to her prototype development to finally return to Seattle, and what she considered to be home.

Liani had her bouts of home sickness and when they prevented her from accomplishing anything, she went home for one week. She still had privileges not available to most students with her father being on the board of directors of Global Security Corporation, the world foremost authority and leader in information security. With a single vidphone call to her father, Liani could have a corporate jet take her from Stanford University to Seattle to spend some time with the family.

Although she had learned quite well how to prepare meals within her little campus apartment, it was not nearly the same as being a part of a family meal, which she merely helped in the process of creating. During her last two and a half years at the university, she only made four one-week trips to Seattle, and now the time had arrived to conclude her work at Stanford and return to Seattle.

Her first project, once in Seattle would be to locate a facility to have her prototype recreated and start the refining process to downsize the prototype to better accommodate the available space it would need within a space craft capable of light speed travel. It would not be the quickest process, since she would also need a number of highly qualified engineers to design and build such a space craft, since those still used around the globe were only capable of travel within the planets of this galaxy. None could withstand the pressure of light speed travel.

Since Liani was only fourteen years of age when she started at the university, she had never taken the time to get a driver’s license, especially since she made certain everything in the university was within walking distance from her apartment. She would need to obtain an operator’s license in order to drive to and from her selected facility to further pursue the reality of intergalactic space travel. Her father would be the most likely aid in finding such a facility and would not be upset with taking her around until she got her own vehicle and license.

Liani’s setback in the prototype largely dealt with the single issue of her original concept to recirculate everything back into the fusion chamber to ensure everything was fully used and nothing harmful escaped. Largely the materials available for the prototype construction were incapable of containing so much pressure, it caused stress cracking and leakage of potential radiation, harmful to all life forms. A venting system had to be incorporated, but it also required a means to eliminate any harmful radiation from being released. This was accomplished with the addition of a scrubbing system that incorporated near the exhaust, made the gas vented entirely harmless and void of radiation with the radioactive material recirculated to the power source.

The prototype was far too large to go into a spacecraft of the current standards used, and considering the concept of intergalactic space exploration, the duration for people in space would be extensively longer than ever before. It meant far more people would need to be onboard to keep everything running optimally, and therefore it would need to be considerably larger than any known spacecraft. Still the prototype would need to be downsized to nearly half its current dimensions.

Liani’s first two weeks was spent entirely catching up with family. This included a five-day trip to Japan as arranged by her father to see her great grandparents, who were not doing as well as when she had last visited them. Her great grandfather was having problems with the simplest of movements since age does cause pain and arthritis to prevent much of what a younger person can perform. It took almost all his mental focus to do his daily routine, and he was getting ready to hand over the reins of his legacy as martial arts master to none other than her youngest brother Mitchell. Her younger brother was barely 14 years of age and still in school, not having the appetite for knowledge Liani had. He was by no means stupid, he just got no thrills from the education process, and therefore did only what he needed to accomplish in order to concentrate on his true passion in the martial arts. He would become the youngest martial arts master of the Yolakawa samurai in the history of the entire samurai ancestry.

Her great grandmother was still a little more active, but her memory was failing her, a sign of age as much as the issues that come along with it. Her great grandmother did at least remember everyone’s name, but only a few of the details pertaining to the last visits made by the entire family. Both her great grandparents were near or over a century old. Time has individual effects on people, much like people’s own individuality in the shape of their lives. Some is a result of heredity, but which is applicable is not a true science, only a mere guess by those considered experts in those fields.

The week in Tokyo was spent with her family, and great grandparents just getting caught up with what had changed since the family had last visited as an entire family. Her father did make things a little easier by taking the entire family out for dinner each evening they spent in Tokyo. Liani’s parents and grandparents from her mother’s side had become quite well to do, but Liani refrained from asking for their assistance in the financial department as her goal was to make her own mark in the world as the scientist and engineer, she was educated to be. Although Liani had a residual income from her hydrogen fusion program through Stanford, as the university also took a percentage, she was careful not to be too extravagant in using her funds, until she had a spacecraft ready to reach other galaxies not yet known. She learned this from her parents as they were more than willing to take care of day-to-day necessities; but excessive spending was never in the picture when she was at home. Her parents still lived in fairly modest homes, although they owned three homes, none were considered mansions or large estate properties.

During Liani’s week in Tokyo with her family and great grandparents, her daily meditation routine, developed from martial arts training of the Yolakawa samurai and taught to her by her mother, was performed with her great grandfather as both a witness and martial arts master. Her great grandfather repeatedly stated he could find absolutely not a single flaw and how much it reminded him of her mother, when she first showed him her modifications from what he had taught Kuri as a youth. Dinners with everyone were twice at the closest Hiro’s restaurant, which was owned by her grandfather. The time in Tokyo was largely a much-needed rest and recuperation trip, since so much of Liani’s time had been spent getting her master’s degree in scientific research, along with the bachelor’s degree in engineering. All her spare time went into designing the prototype for her continuing project of developing a spacecraft capable of intergalactic travel.

Upon the first day after returning to Seattle, Liani asked her father for assistance in finding a location she could use for finishing the downsized prototype warp engine, and room needed for a very large spacecraft far beyond what was currently in use. Liani further explained the spaceship would be home to at least 200 people for a longer time in space ever previously done. It would require storage space for spare parts for the spacecraft, as well as some means to keep everyone fed in the time, they would be searching what else space had to offer. If space was truly infinite, there had to be some other life elsewhere other than the humans on earth. Otherwise, it would seem to be a waste of so much space. Her father did not immediately know of any location the size Liani was explaining, unless her spacecraft was assembled outside the building. In either respect the downtown area of Seattle was out of the realm of possibilities. Liani was not expecting her father to come up with the location immediately; but to assemble both a warp engine and a spacecraft it would need to be quite massive. Liani said to her father, she would consider what she was told about assembling the spacecraft outside the building; but in the initial stages of producing parts of the spaceship it could not be done outside without some protection from the elements. Liani was already well aware of needing materials, that were far superior to the metals used in the structure of those that had been assembled previously. She told her father she would need to work on the computer to come up with the means to accomplish assembly outside of the building. She had designed the ship, but always considered the outer shell as a single unit, knowing it would need to be constructed with panels and shaped to match the framework that would support the weight of the outer hull. Liani had never really considered making the hull in pieces to be assembled elsewhere. She could not hire additional engineers until she had a location to start the construction process. She needed additional engineers to help in the designing of such a large craft. It also aided her to have people, who could provide input into materials best suited for the planned purpose of such a spaceship. Before Liani asked her father to take her to the other family home in Seattle, she asked if he could assist her in obtaining her own driver’s license and afterwards a suitable transport. Tim, her father, said most information could be found on the information gateway concerning the testing process that did not require driving. That part had to be completed satisfactorily prior to the driving portion. He believed that auto drive could not be employed during the driving portion of the test. The State still wanted to have competent drivers on the road, in the event of an auto drive malfunction, which was always a possibility although rather rare. She had her father take her to what she considered home while in Seattle. The house was where her father grew up and determined as long as his family lived it should remain in the family. Liani took advantage of using the home that had long been paid for to lower her monthly expenses. This was deemed necessary by Liani to get the facility and people on board, to immediately start working her intended dream project. She was certain the people and building were not going to come without some hardships in the process.

Her income from Stanford using her hydrogen fusion design continued to attract more countries and businesses the world over. Included in her negotiations with Stanford, she agreed to provide the engineering schematics and a list of all the materials required to reproduce a working hydrogen fusion power source. It was Stanford’s desire to offer students with a minimum of two years of their education completed, an opportunity to put their education to use. Stanford would, for a substantial fee, assemble the power source, insure it functioned 100% properly anywhere in the world, and the fee would cover all expenses pertaining to going and returning to Stanford. Additionally, the fee would cover the entire cost of those students involved in the construction, assembly and testing of the power source. The university would retain very little of the overall fee. It was a win-win scenario for the students and University from Stanford’s perspective. The students would get to finish an education without cost and the Stanford engineering program would receive world-wide recognition, that Stanford believed would bring in more students.

In order to insure Liani did not give away anything to the University, she had asked her father’s aid in negotiating the best outcome for herself and the University. He agreed and also brought along the government negotiator from Global Security Corporation, who was extremely good and patient when negotiations were in progress.

When all was said and done, the GSC negotiator with her father and herself present, she received sixty percent of all proceeds received from her successful hydrogen fusion power source. The other forty percent was used for Stanford to control the marketing, and once again Stanford employed students from their marketing program to assist students with the cost of education. In the end Stanford would profit approximately eight to ten percent to go largely to campus improvements.

Liani’s original prototype design called for titanium as the outer shell to keep the power source contained. The engineer professor explained to her synthetic titanium was more durable and much less costly. It was also a product of Stanford University engineering and science jointly some thirty years prior to Liani’s project. The university at that time, sold the rights for a substantial fee, which built several of the buildings used by engineering and science departments. It also allowed a far larger production from multiple companies. Although considered a synthetic material, it did contain a small percentage of titanium to ensure the properties would remain durable for its intended uses. She still needed to contact the World Space Consortium to determine what to use for shielding to leave and enter a planet’s atmosphere, in particular that of earth. Liani believed there were better materials far more flexible and durable than the archaic mean used by the consortium.

The one thing Stanford did not improve in Liani’s life was a social life. She had only two dates in her time at the university, and both were in the final year she was on campus. Being younger than most of the other students was the largest drawback, although her eighteenth birthday did provide at least one of her two dates. The men were nice, but not exactly love interests for Liani. The first date was with a first-year engineering student who seemed far more interested in learning about Liani’s prototype than Liani herself. Considering her own academic process, she could not entirely find fault in her date, she was just looking forward to something different than her project. She did envy her mother in respect to her loving relationship with her father, and the goal to reach the same plane in love appeared at times, just a bit too lofty. Her second date was also a sexual exploit that did not impress Liani in the slightest. Everything about it was clumsy and awkward, and lacked greatly in the pleasures her mother had vividly described. It also reminded her of the first and most important aspect to a relationship was the love between two people being equal in all areas of life, as well as within the relationship. Liani could not fathom finding any one person equal to what her father had shown Liani’s mother. She wondered frequently if such a person existed for her and how she would ever meet him. The only good thing about her college sexual experience was, she did not have to use her martial arts like at her high school graduation ceremony in Tokyo. That one was not one in which she was a willing participant; but had to show three boys, she was not such an easy target for unwanted affections. So, she would just continue to see what came into her life, even though she was losing patience with the whole love idea.

When she returned to the house, she now considered home, she went directly to her computer, brought up her design schematics to determine how to go about sectional assembly. It took Liani the next week to determine the best possible way to go about assembling the spacecraft in sections. During the week she was away from the computer only long enough to make meals and sleep all of four hours each night. With a plan in place at the conclusion of the week, her next task was to contact the World Space Consortium for suggested materials used for shielding the hull from the effects of breaking through the planet’s atmosphere. Liani was quite certain light speed would not be a wise method to employ breaking through the atmosphere. Light speed was intended to be used outside of atmospheric conditions.

Once she received the information from the World Space Consortium, she went into researching materials used in engineering that were more suitable to her application. During this same time, she got all the information needed to look though for her first driving test, which could be done on the information gateway instead of being driven to a testing location. During the week of research into shielding materials she received a vidphone call from her father. He had asked those more knowledgeable in properties at Global, if they could help find her a location. Tim was informed of three potential locations with space for assembling her project. None of the properties were in Seattle proper and would require a longer commute than he had for his board meetings. It would mean Liani would need transportation, when the decision was taken; but the next morning they could go look at the sites deemed good by GSC’s property expert. As far as locations for Global were concerned, some were quite large to accommodate the number of analysts needed for the location. They had experience in acquiring fairly large properties just not for this specific application. Liani said the next day would be fine in response to his findings and made a further effort to study her information for the non-driving test to complete as soon as possible.

The following morning Liani and her father departed her home around 9 AM to see some or all the locations of her possible building for her spacecraft project, quite in its infancy. All she accomplished in Stanford was completing a prototype power source, which was much too large to go into a Spacecraft, and still have room for 200 people to live for an extended period of time. Before any improvements could be made a spacecraft needed to have a successful launch, and journey into space beyond earth’s galaxy. Liani was a long way from that point, and it would likely be a few years before it could become a reality. The spacecraft would depend upon how quickly a suitable facility could be found and getting qualified engineers and mechanically skills people. Money might always be an issue until she had a product to offer, and the people interested would be a very limited number once she had a successful galactic spacecraft return with its research. She was still in debate over the ship having offensive abilities, having no idea if hostilities were to be encountered. Considering the centuries, the people of earth were aggressive in their approach to strangers, she could not rule out similar behavior should other life actually be encountered. She really thought the first research team to leave earth’s galaxy would be in search of primarily planets that could be inhabited by people on this planet. Seeking similar atmospheric conditions, suitable to grow crops, possibly sustain livestock would be her first priority. She was uncertain whether the spacecraft would have suitable scanners to pinpoint another lifeform, and heat scanning might find any form of life.

Liani spent the remainder of her evening getting prepared for the IG driving test required prior to a driving test which required a vehicle. Once she felt satisfied after returning the next day from looking at properties for her project, she would complete her information gateway initial drivers test, still called the written test for some reason. After making herself some dinner, she decided to get a little more sleep than the four hours she had had for more than a week.

Liani woke around seven a.m. to get started on her daily meditation routine as taught years ago. Unlike performing her routine in the presence of her great grandfather she performed the same way her mother always did, without a stitch of clothing. This made the movements to her meditation unrestricted in any means. Liani found her mother to be absolutely amazing in the fact she still looked like she did when Liani was a mere child. Kuri, her mother said the only secret she could consider behind it was her meditation routine, in which Liani’s was a mirror image of. When she was still living at home prior to going to Stanford they often did the mediation in unison. It really was a rather demanding routine; but the harmony of body and mind was at its peak when it was completed.

After completing her meditation, Liani made a simple breakfast and got ready for the arrival of her father to look at possible buildings and sites for her project. Liani only had to wait twenty-five minutes for the arrival of her father. First thing Liani noticed about her father was he was starting to gray a little bit in the outer edges of his hair. It was the first sign that either her father or mother were aging from Liani’s viewpoint.

She was kind of shocked by the fact that her mother and father were susceptible to the inevitable aging process, but in retrospect she knew it to happen with everyone. She said nothing to her father concerning this issue, as Liani was certain her mother would make her father not only aware but have a remedy for him. Her father and she had conversation in the transport while reaching the first destination, which took fifty-five minutes from leaving her home.

The building was certainly large enough to start sectional construction of the hull and framework of the spacecraft but would likely need to have some additional height added to it to fully accommodate the use of a crane, to move the sections to the outside area for assembly. The outside area was entirely open ground outside of overgrown vegetation, not considered landscape material. Liani figured it would need to be cleared and an enclosure of some type erected to keep the spacecraft in assembly from being exposed to too much weather conditions until at which time it could have the shielding to cover the entire outer hull. The shielding was necessary due to the amount of heat friction developed in breaking through the planet’s atmosphere and onward to space itself. It was believed this would be encountered on any planet they found, providing they found any in the initial research mission. The spacecraft would need a large number of propulsion jets to lift it into the air, and also help in directing the spacecraft for changing or altering direction. They could also be used for slowing and landing safely on a surface that could accommodate it. The spacecraft would also need to house three or four considerably smaller vessels for research on an acceptable planet, once found. It may also be considered to house three to four transports, as ground transportation on a planet where the spacecraft could land. All these were additional expenses to be incurred before the first research team could be launched.

The property viewed first was abandoned for some time, and the building needed repairs. Liani was not going to commit her project to any location until seeing all three locations. She also asked her father if he or a property expert from GSC could help negotiate the best deal she could obtain. Liani recorded all the needed repairs and improvements on her intellipad, to keep track of which property was going to be most ideal for her project to begin.

The second location was even farther from her home, but from first impressions was far more suitable to her purpose. The property had not been emptied for a long stretch of time, had a building in much better condition and did not require being raised to accommodate her spacecraft during the sectional assembly. All three sites would need some type of enclosure erected to house the spacecraft throughout the assembly. The third location was in such poor condition it would require a complete demolition of the existing building which was starting to collapse. Unless this was too be performed by the person offering prior to her building on an empty property. It would be far beyond the costs she was willing to spend for starting up her project. She still needed to hire qualified personnel to get the project started after obtaining the materials necessary. The viewing of the buildings and locations had turned into nearly an eight-hour workday for both her and her father, and they still needed to return to their respective homes. Conversation between Liani and her father was totally concentrated on the three properties viewed and after comparing notes, both thought the second property was most suitable. It was now a matter of what price could be negotiated by the experts at Global Security Corporation. This could be accomplished only by Liani’s father, since Liani was never a part of GSC. Her field of expertise had very little opportunity to be put to use at GSC, outside of them deciding to purchase her power source. She was considering using it within her own building once obtained, although it would need to be much smaller since she was not providing power to a large major city, or entire country. She had already addressed this issue as far as schematics were concerned on her computer. She would ask her father, what was needed to use an AI computer system to keep the power source running optimally and most efficiently. First, she had a number of other more major hurdles to overcome.

Her father decided to stop for them to have dinner once returning to the Seattle area. He decided since it was on the way to Liani’s home to go into Hiro’s authentic Japanese restaurant. It had been quite some time since Liani had food at her grandfather’s Seattle location being away at Stanford. She did get to go a couple of times with her whole family when she had her weeklong break away from her project and school. Having completed her degrees by eighteen, and the hydrogen fusion power source prototype before reaching age of twenty, she had made strides forward in her planned profession.

Dinner with her father was perfect, the restaurant had not altered anything in the way the main attraction meals were prepared, although there were a number of new menu items Liani did not recall previously. Once home, Liani went straight to the computer to enter the state approved driver’s testing procedure. She completed her initial test within forty minutes and got instant results, which the state only gave two grades of pass or fail. With her passing grade on record, now she would need to plan with her father to take the second part of the test. Liani still did not know if it would be with a transport of her own or borrow one of her parents for the test. Either way until she completed the test satisfactorily and had a license issued, she would need to be taken as a passenger for the test. She would need to set a convenient time for both her and her father, and the state testing location closest to her home. In all likelihood it would mean finding her father’s availability and try to schedule the testing during those times. It would not be spontaneous and just go get the test done. She would also need to go shopping for food items she had depleted since returning home but had not taken the time to do inventory. That would need to be done soon, like the next day for her intellipad list, and place her order on the information gateway to be ready to pick up when her father could take her. Just another reason she needed to get her driver’s license and a transport of her own, to quit being so dependent upon her father’s availability. There still remained the slightest possibility her father would be asked to return to Global Security Corporation in the event of some new crisis.

Liani waited until the next morning concerning the driver’s test and transport acquisition to discuss with her father. He said as far as he knew any day the next three weeks would be acceptable to him. After that he would have a board meeting and the specific day and time were not set as of yet. Liani also asked, if he could take her to the grocery to restock her getting bare shelves. Which her father said he could do anytime that day if she was not exaggerating. She made her father aware that exaggeration was not one of her strong points from Stanford, but she did encounter some real tall tale tellers while she was there. She found some involved with her prototype project, who after double checking their work, Liani had to ask to have them removed from the project, because their talk was all they could really do. If they remained, because her request was denied, she might still be at Stanford completing her prototype.

Liani was able to get a driver’s test time at two p.m. and immediately let her father know via vidphone. Her father had already let her know, it was still the same location as when he took his test, and he lived in the very same house Liani was now in. He said he would be at her house at one thirty p.m. and it was only 15 minutes or less to get to the testing facility. Liani had many driving lessons from both her parents prior to leaving for Stanford, but had not driven much while at the university. She would need to acclimate herself once again to the transport, especially since auto drive was not a viable option. Her father once arriving asked her when the last time was,