The Krakow Klub Read Online Free

of material
and convert it into gold. Why go to the trouble of mining the gold
ore?”
    “The short answer is power, sir. You are correct that I could transform other matter into gold at
the atomic level. However, that process is tedious, and it uses a
very large amount of power. Finally, and most importantly, it would
take much longer to produce the amount of gold that you
requested.”
    John thanked her and indicated that she
should continue the tour. After several more minutes of viewing workstations , laboratories, and storage
facilities, John asked that they move on to the remote shuttle
craft. He expressed particular interest in the numbers and types of
crafts along with their purposes and alternate capabilities.
    Maxxine continued to use a massive array of sensors
embedded throughout the walls and video screens to analyze
John’s body language. She used that data,
along with information from her database, to determine that there
was a high probability that John was considering converting
defensive weaponry systems for offensive purposes.
    Knowing the warlike tendencies
of humans, Maxx had programmed Maxxine with functions to analyze
any decision or action that might be considered aggressive or
offensive in nature. He trusted John and his intentions, but
he could foresee situations in which any human, even John, could
abuse his powers. And John Scott now possessed powers almost beyond
human imagination.
    Maxxine could not refuse an
order from John, except in the few cases where it might violate
Mylean law. But she did have the latitude to ask John to confirm
his intentions and point out possible unintended consequences of
any proposed action.But that small level of constraint would be
insufficient if John decided to use his powers aggressively against
his fellow humans.
    John, completely unaware of Maxxine’s
scrutiny, was, indeed, immersed in thoughts of how to redirect
defensive weapons for other potential purposes. The Mylean’s
primary means of defense were photon weapons. There were two basic
versions. The smaller version, a photon gun, could configure the
size of its projectile to fit the target. The larger version, called a torpedo, could also fire giant
projectiles that could be configurable to any size, even one large enough to destroy any earthly military target .
    These highly advanced weapons, currently installed in all remote spacecraft, and even the space station itself, were for self-protection or mining use. Originally,
these photon bullets had been designed to pulverize small asteroids
so that ore could be harvested easily by the remote mining craft.
Photon torpedoes were much like photon bullets, but much larger and
far more powerful.
    One thing that John did not like about these
weapons was their lethal nature. Any human at, or even just near, a
target would be killed . Another issue of
concern was that the instant a remote detected incoming hostile
fire, it would respond immediately by destroying the weapon.
Obviously, the person, or persons, operating the weapon would be
killed instantly.
    Even more troubling was the scenario in which a remote craft might be attacked by multiple
weapons simultaneously. The craft would instantly enter a
“ self-defense ” mode and destroy every hostile
weapon being directed against it, even if that
weapon were not firing at the moment.
All weapons would be destroyed, along with the humans operating
them.
    Maxxine continued with a description of the
photon weapons. “John, as you know, the photon is the basic unit of
light. Your scientists still cannot measure the mass of a photon
even though there have been significant advances in physics and
quantum mechanics on your planet. The wavelengths used for Mylean
photon bullets and torpedoes are in the red-to- infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. When
fired, they produce a massive and instantaneous burst of energy
that destroys the target.
    “That burst of energy, an explosion, usually
takes place inside