With this segment of Chapter Seven of Repairing the Legacy, we continue the serialization of Repairing the Legacy. This is a rough draft work in progress and may not reflect the final form. Time period: set after the ending of The Martiniere Legacy main trilogy. I’m breaking longer chapters into sections for readability. This is the second part of Chapter Seven. There will be three parts to this chapter.

New to the series? Chapter order:

Return of the Prodigal Son (2 parts)

Conversations and a Dinner (2 parts)

Dancing into Change (2 parts)

Sisterly Compromises (3 parts)

Conspiracies at the Rodeo (3 parts)

Passing the Baton (4 parts)

RESEARCH COMPLICATIONS

March, 2063

RUBY

No matter what time of year, there always seemed to be a drastic climate contrast between the Double R and Swait Farms in Arkansas. Not that Ruby was paying much attention to the surroundings. Swait Secure used SUVs with blackout windows to whisk them quickly from the jet to the main offices adjoining the Swait labs.

“Sorry about the rush from the airstrip,” Jeff apologized when Ruby, Gabe, and Mike entered his office, after they handed over the Guardian samples to Jeff’s lab manager Sara, one of his cousins. “Things are getting rough again. Safety issues, especially for people arriving on airplanes. Drones that are evading our measures. They don’t show up during takeoff or landing, just when people are exposed out there.”

“Again?” Gabe raised his brows. “Need Justine to provide backup?”

“Both she and Temira Cho are coming in this afternoon,” Jeff said. “It’s possible that your problems are affected by larger issues.”

“So, sabotage might explain what happened with the Guardians?” Ruby asked.

Jeff nodded. “Yep. And there’s more going on. Gabe, you eliminated the Martiniere Group indentured program. But we’re seeing new problematic indentured contracts from other sources, and that’s where our issues may lie. Pushback against Pat Markey’s executive orders phasing out indentured workers. That may be tied to the Guardian hack.”

“Which makes it personal,” Gabe sighed. “Does Brandon know?”

There are times when it is a real pain in the ass to be related to the President of the United States, Ruby thought. Pat was Brandon’s sister-in-law, and the Martiniere Group as well as Gabe and Ruby had contributed heavily to her campaign. With Pat up for re-election next year, a lot of political jockeying was taking place.

“Yep,” Jeff said. “That’s why Justine is meeting here with Temira this afternoon. Safest location.”

Ruby raised her brows. Justine had mentioned she would be at Swait Farms today, but not why or with whom. Cho had been their other competitor for the AgSuperhero award. She had been cut, but managed to win funding at the next level down, the AgSuperstar, and was still doing well with the AgInnovator.

The AgInnovator. The ag funding game show that brought her and Gabe back together. Fixing problems with the AgI was another reform Gabe started during his short stint as the Martiniere—doable thanks to Philip’s partial investment in AgI. Brandon took it further, buying out Georgy Batineau, owner of the AgI. It was now a competitive grant program with no social media voting, harkening back to a vision that Saul Martiniere had tried and failed to create during his years as the Martiniere. Brandon and Kris’s past experience with the show enabled them to identify the dead weight and budget padding, and Kris now managed the grant program.

“I’ll be glad to see Temira,” she said.

“Maybe you will,” Jeff said, a gloomy note in his voice. “Things are pretty intense. That’s why Justine is getting involved.”

At least this shouldn’t be Heaven’s Reach.

Those people seemed to keep slipping away from a final resolution.

She’d scream if this situation was tied to Heaven’s Reach. It would be enough for her to agree to Gabe leading an attack on wherever the hell it was that they were based. She’d happily join Gabe in doing that, and damn any consequences. At this point, it was an issue of keeping Brandon’s daughter Lily as well as Mike safe in the long run.

#

Aw, fuck. It is a Heaven’s Reach issue.

Gabe’s former informant within Heaven’s Reach, Doug Gates, arrived with Justine and Temira. Ruby cringed inside when she saw him—no mistaking who he was, and damn it, Gates’s presence meant that Heaven’s Reach was a fucking factor. At least Doug looked better than he had when she first encountered his case in the Indentured Recovery Project—Gabe had paid for Doug to get high-end cyborg replacements for the arms and legs that Heaven’s Reach had amputated, along with physical therapy to optimize the cyborging.

Ruby bit her lip as Justine, Temira, and Doug entered Jeff’s office. Justine raised her brows, and eased by Ruby.

“It’s not Heaven’s Reach,” she whispered to Ruby. “Doug’s my indentured issues expert. Gabie recommended him. Doug knows a lot about that world thanks to his Heaven’s Reach connections.”

“Good,” Ruby murmured back. She turned to Temira—hollow-cheeked and thinner than she had been the last time they met. Hope this doesn’t mean she has health problems. “How’s the family doing?”

“I’ve had to send them into hiding,” Temira said grimly. “But it’s not perfect, and they keep having to move. They keep getting harassed—I talked to Jeff and he suggested I meet with Justine.”

“What the hell?” Temira wasn’t involved in anything that intense—was she?

“It’s because of my opposition to indentured labor pools,” Temira said. “Getting death threats. Kids and Alan being followed when they go off the farm. Sabotage. Drone attacks. Killbots. And more. It’s linked to the Real Truthers and animal rights—specifically, We Love Animals and Nature.”

Ruby winced. Philip had been the major undercover financer of WLAN, using the organization to harass agtech competitors. It wasn’t until after his death that Gabe and Justine got their hands on those financial records within the Group databases. And Philip was not the only big WLAN contributor—just the largest and most powerful. Tracking those non-Family ties was much more difficult.

Damn it, are we ever going to get away from Philip’s toxic legacy?

“Of course,” Ruby sighed. “It would be WLAN. Are you losing animals to the sabotage?”

“Five of my best sows in one incident,” Temira said grimly. She shook her head, blinking back tears. “I wanted to—the deaths were inhumane. Horrific.” She gulped. “That was when I turned to Jeff, looking for help.”

Temira’s farm focused on closed cycle boutique pork production, selling ethically raised farm-to-table meat. She raised her own feed as well as growing vegetables for a small farm-to-fork cooperative that catered to high-end restaurants. Her operation annually earned the highest compliance certifications from agricultural animal welfare oversight organizations.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Temira. If there’s any way that we can help—” Gabe said.

“If we can plug that jamming hole in the Guardians so that they will work consistently, that will make a huge difference,” Justine said. “Effective Guardians coupled with a protective force means that Temira’s family could come back to the farm safely.” She scowled. “With WLAN playing such a big role in the harassment, it’s clearly tied to former allies of Daddy-damn-dearest.”

“Heaven’s Reach?” Ruby asked tensely. Yes, Justine had said they weren’t involved, but all the same….

“No,” Doug Gates said firmly. “Not them, nor the Electric Born.” He snapped up a screen. “Take a look. I’ve been following the money flow. Terence Braun. Head of Zingter Enterprises, WLAN supporter and proponent of indentured labor pools. He’s taken over Philip’s role both financially and strategically, not just in the Real Truthers but in WLAN. Major drone developer. We need to get our hands on some of his drones and compare specs to confirm his participation in these attacks—that opens up legal and civil remedies. Access to his company’s drones is highly restricted, and any entity tied to the Martiniere Group is interdicted. That’s been the challenge. Sure, we can do extralegal stuff within the shelter of the Group, but—we really need the ability to pursue legal remedies.”

Gabe raised his brows. “Tine. Terence Braun. Is that—?”

“Walter’s grandson,” Justine snapped. “Another reason for the Group to be a target.” She exhaled. “For the rest of you, Philip tried to force me to marry Terence Braun’s grandfather, Walter, when I was seventeen. I married Donald to escape that fate, with Gabriel’s help. So yes, there’s some bad blood between our families.”

“But why me?” Temira asked.

“Unfortunately, you’re a Martiniere ally,” Gabe said. “And you’re prominently anti-indentured labor. So if we can get our hands on some drones, lure them out—that might open up those legal and civil channels Doug’s talking about. Not that I have major confidence in their long-term effectiveness. It’s been years since civil and legal sanctions have worked. But I’m biased. For damned good reasons.”

“Understandable,” Gates said. “And those systems are going to take a lifetime to change.”

Ruby bit her lip. They didn’t have a lifetime to change things, not anymore.

Another fucking thing that Philip Martiniere stole from us.

In the long run, fixing things—if possible—was going to be a job for Mike. Lily. The Swait kids.

“Eventually we’ll be able to catch those drones,” Kevin Swait said. “I’m confident of that. This worm in Mike’s scanner—it’s not the source of the problem in the Guardians, but it also doesn’t help the situation.” He scowled. “I’ve been trying to trace it, and it just—disappears.” He threw up his hands. “As if it’s not there. I can’t replicate it consistently, and it slips through every lure or trap I set up for it. It will interfere with biobots that share the Guardian programming formats, but not all—and it’s specific to the Guardians. Not the RubyBot, not the Swaitbot.”

“Then we’ll get him a new scanner,” Ruby said. “And I’ll talk to him about cybersecurity. Mike’s good, but he’s still a kid. Stuff happens.”

#

Ruby was one of the lures for their first drone capture attempt, against Gabe’s protests. She and Jeff wandered around the airstrip, apparently discussing the fields next to it while carrying Kevin’s new fob-based devices that would electronically knock down and capture the drones. Jeff had one version; Ruby the other.

“If we can get the Guardians to work on this field, I’d plant Swaitrice and run the Swaitbots on it,” Jeff said as they stood at the end of the runway, gesturing toward the hayfield. “The field profile works beautifully for that combination—”

Ruby’s fob buzzed. “They’re coming,” she murmured.

“No sign on mine yet,” Jeff muttered. “Kev, you got that?” he said into his comm.

“Monitoring,” Gabe snapped. “No signs on any screens.”

“I’ve got something,” Justine said. “Coming from the southeast.”

Ruby whirled to face that direction. She raised her fob. It twitched and vibrated hard enough to make it difficult to hold with one hand. She waited. Waited. Waited. Finally, the approaching drones appeared—difficult to see because they were so small. It was only because of pattern recognition gained from the years spent working with the RubyBot and its relatives that she spotted them.

Her grip tightened even more on the juddering fob.

Not yet. Not yet.

“Fire now,” it finally droned.

Ruby pressed the button. The approaching drone swarm shuddered to a halt.

Then small explosions popped off, little sparks that flared bright and fell to the ground. When it stopped, Ruby and Jeff hurried to where the remnants had fallen.

Nothing but ash and cinders. They carefully used long-handled scoops and tongs to gather up what pieces they could.

“Damn it, programmed self-destruction,” Jeff growled.

“Well, at least it gets rid of the darn things,” Ruby said.

“Not good enough for protective purposes, though,” Jeff said. “And we still don’t know how they run interference with the Guardians. Or what infected the scanners at the Double R. No drones working there.”

“True,” Ruby conceded.

Two separate problems.

*************************

Like what you’ve read so far? Check out the other stories in The Martiniere Legacy—all links here, both Amazon and other sources.

Justine Fixes Everything: Reflections on Mortality is now available at Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo!

What’s it about?

EVEN THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE....

Over the years, Justine Martiniere has become the fixer for the Martinieres. Have a problem? Go to Justine to get it remedied.

But it wasn't always that way.

First, Justine needed to escape the abuses of her father, Philip. She didn't expect to fall in love with the man she married, Donald Atwood. But she did–and then she faced the choice between remaining married to Donald, or stopping her sociopathic, megalomaniac father.

Justine Fixes Everything is in part the unusual love story of Justine and Donald–and in part the saga of her rise to power, viewed in retrospect as she tells the history to Philip's clone Mike, as he recovers from surgery. It's about what she sacrificed to become powerful—and, at the same time, how that past comes to haunt the challenges she faces toward the end of her life.

Want more? How about an alternative Martiniere world where Ruby and Gabe meet in a different manner and meet more challenges?

ANOTHER MARTINIERE LEGACY STORY ON KINDLE VELLA—A DIFFERENT LIFE—WHAT IF?

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09LH72GQG

One of the turning points of the Martiniere Legacy series is the death of Gabriel Martiniere's family in a plane crash when Gabe was twelve. That put Gabe's biological father, Philip, into the leadership of the Martiniere Group and the Martiniere Family, and expedited Philip's megalomaniac ambitions. But what if that crash hadn't happened? What would Gabe's relationship with Ruby, the love of his life, look like?

Billionaire nerd with a conscience, unlucky at love, striving to overcome the shadows of his past while trying to find agritech means to fight climate change.

Former rodeo queen, just trying to get her degree in agricultural robotics and make her mark on the world while trying to find agritech means to fight climate change, also unlucky at love and struggling with a shadowy past.

Can Ruby and Gabe successfully negotiate the complexities of the Martiniere Group and launch Ruby’s world-changing biobots without interference from competitors, while maintaining a relationship?

UPDATES ON A DIFFERENT LIFE HAPPEN EVERY WEDNESDAY, THROUGH DECEMBER, THEN MONDAY-WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY STARTING JANUARY 3, 2022. WORK IS COMPLETED, AND EPISODES CONTINUE UNTIL THE CONCLUSION ON FEBRUARY 16, 2022.