THE BUILDING OF BILLY CONNORS' EXTRAVAGANZA
By: Will Fry
April, 1987

[Ed. Note: Many spelling and grammar errors have been 
copied dutifully from the original manuscript, both to show 
the author's progress as a writer and because he sometimes 
misspelled words on purpose. Also, Fry has emphasized that 
any differences between facts in this story and facts in 
the Connors Family Timeline (CFT) are the result of 
mistakes in the development of this story. The CFT should 
be the guide for facts and dates about the Connors family. 
--Rick J. Anderson, ed.]


Everyone, even in the 29th Century dreamed of being a 
millionaire, and the rich people dreamed of being like 
Billy Connors [William Connors II]. He was a multi-
trillionaire, brother to the famous General and football 
star, Kodiak Connors. His sister, Violet, was also a 
General and a famous one too. He owned every single acre of 
Alaska, on Earth [Terra], except for a 10-acre Space Marine 
base. But all he had to live in was a shabby 6-story, 15-
bedroom, 8-bath mansion. It was better than just about 
everyone else, but he wanted, had time for, and had money 
for something more. So, this is the tale of how Billy and 
his friends designed, built, defended, repaired, and 
rebuilt Billy's extravagant mansion.

It was August 2837, 199th year of the Galactic Federation, 
when Billy Connors and his wife Karen started designing 
their dreamhouse. Karen wanted comfort, space, economy, and 
a good kitchen, while Billy wanted extravagance, size, 
massiveness, self-sufficience, and a good defense. They 
tried a compromise and spent 8 1/2 long weeks at the 
holograph drafting computer. Their work stretched on and on 
until finally Billy gathered his four children (Billy Jr., 
Chris C., Susie C., and Angey C.), Kodiak Connors, Violet 
Connors, Jeff Connors (his adopted brother), Captain Jim 
Thatcher Sr., Capt. Jim Thatcher Jr., General Sharzack 
(leader of the Federation Space Marines), and the Three 
Unseperable Cherokees (Chris Froghead, Angey F., and Susie 
F. *) all into his large living room and showed them the 3-
D plans on the holograph projector. There was a silence 
throughout the room until Kodiak laughed and said, "Billy, 
I know you are rich and everything, but how are you going 
to do that. It says there, '1,000 stories above ground, 
2,000 below'! How are you going to do that?"

[* The "Froghead" name has since been changed to 
"Falconchaser." See CFT.]

Billy answered calmly, "We'll just dig down about 20,000 
feet, lay the foundation and then start building. It should 
only take a year or so, working at full speed."

"But it'll cost a jillion dollars!" Violet burst out.

"No," said Billy, "we've already calculated the cost and it 
will only cost about 18 billion dollars." Then he smiled. 
"Oh, I know it's a lot, but it will have everything that we 
want in it. It will have homes for you guys, homes for us, 
homes for servants and maids, and will also be a motel on 
the side. It will have gymnasiums, pools, farms, factories, 
warehouses, even an artificial lake. It will also have a 
space at ground level to go over this old house. It will 
virtually be a city and can support 400,000 people 
independently for a hundred years!"

The others just sat back, overwhelmed with all of this 
information. 400,000 people! 3,000 stories! 18 billion 
dollars!

Kodiak then said, "Well, bro', you're the financial expert 
and engineer, not me. If you think you can do it, then I'll 
help all I can. I'll be pretty busy for a few weeks though. 
I gotta help Colonel Corsky repair these damaged ships from 
that skirmishes with the space pirates a few weeks ago."

Then Chris Froghead said, "Well, I'm a General and I got 
lots of things to do, but I'm sure I could help out a 
little when a strong arm is needed."

Everyone then pledged that they would help a little here 
and there. They all left after some refreshments of Martain 
Water and Jaiman bread, and went their seperate ways.

Billy then got on the visi-phone and called Connors 
Construction Company and started ordering some cranes, 
drills, drumptrucks, and a lot of other equipment. Karen 
was on a different line, talking to Connors Mining 
Megolamania and ordering tons of supplies, including 
concrete, zurolyte, steel, titanium, plastic, fiberglass, 
glass, Skazian crystal, and many other items.

The very next day, there were all kinds of construction, 
digging, and building equipment and supplies waiting out at 
the guard fence of Billy's house. He walked out and said, 
"Okay, get a tractor beam and put this house and fence 
somewhere else for now, while you dig. And remember, no 
explosives!"

One of the cranes lifted up on its anti-grav motors and 
pointed its "stinger" at the house. A light-blue light 
enveloped the property, and the whole house, lawn and guard 
wall was picked up in the tractor beam. The crane swung 
them around and set them down about 400 yards away. Then 
the digging machines floated up to the exact center of the 
digging site, and shot a knife-beam down about 100 feet. 
There were other diggers doing the same around the 
perimeter of the digging area.

One week later, they were 10,000 feet down, halfway to the 
bottom. At this time, Kodiak made his first appearance at 
the site. He was in an X-class star-fighter and flanked by 
two more on each side. As he came down out of orbit, his 
radar picked up some commotion down below. He dove down and 
the others followed him. Kodiak soon realized that somebody 
was attacking the site.

As he came closer, he could see about thirty fighters of H-
class flying around the site, bombing and strafing. They 
were being defended against by less than forty of Billy's 
hired troops. Ten of them broke off in Kodiak's direction 
and he then saw that they were the jet-black, unmarked 
star-fighters of the Shivan Empire.

Kodiak switched his computer into battle mode and armed all 
lazers. Then, at a certain instant, he whipped his fighter 
straight up and then straight down in a spiral. The lead 
Shivan had tried to follow him up, but when Kodiak had gone 
down, he slid up again and spun onto the Shivan's tail. 
Four lazer blasts into its rocket tubes was enough for that 
one. It exploded into a million bits. The pilot had ejected 
at the last moment and Kodiak swept around him and killed 
him with more lazer blasts.

While this was going on, two more Shivans had gone down to 
the guns of Kodiak's flight and one more was spinning down 
out of control. More Shivans then started to come up to 
meet this unexpected threat. Kodiak blasted two of them but 
then he saw something that chilled his blood. One of the 
upcoming fighters had a large green star painted on the 
tail and one on each wing. This was a symbol for the leader 
of a Shivan squadron, but it also meant that the pilot was 
Colgatian! The Colgatians were the most feared fighter 
pilots in the Milky Way. They came from Colgatia, a Venus-
like planet in the Krueger 60B Solar System, 12.9 light 
years from Earth I. They were allies of the Shivan Empire 
and their strong young men were trained from birth to be 
the deadliest fighter pilots in the Galaxy. The only reason 
they had sided with the Shivans was because they didn't 
have resources to build their own fighters.

But Kodiak wasn't thinking about all this just now, he was 
thinking about the fighter in front of him. He fired a few 
shots and then dodged out of the way of a barage of knife-
beams; knife-beams were only carried on the H-class 
fighters and could slice an enemy into peices. Three of 
Kodiak's flight came over to help, and one of them was 
chopped in two by the Colgatian, who was still on Kodiak's 
tail. Kodiak was now flying twenty feet above the ground, 
going 1,200 miles per hour through the Mountains of Alaska. 
He was weaving in and out among the cliffs. boulders, and 
Mountains.

Then the Colgatian shot a knife-beam above Kodiak. It cut 
off some rocks and Kodiak only missed the avalanche by 
inches, but the Colgatian was buried under tons of solid 
rock. Seconds later, the H-class fighter exploded.

Kodiak then flew back to the battleground and helped to 
scare away the rest of the fighters. As they flew toward 
space, forty more X-class fighters descended from orbit and 
devoured the Shivans.

The four remaining fighters from Kodiak's flight flew back 
to the building site and landed. There were twenty-four 
dead men on the gound; Billy's mercenaries. Several of the 
diggers had caught the knife-beam and were laying there on 
the ground, split open like broken watermelons. Some of the 
workers and troops had gotten knocked into the hole, and 
small red splotches of blood could be seen, even from 
10,000 feet above them.

Kodiak was making an assessment of damages on his computer 
when Billy's private air-car arrived, escorted by two more.

Kodiak stopped his work and climbed out of his fighter. He 
walked over and told Billy everything that he had seen and 
the foremen of the construction and digging teams reported 
the worst. "About 50 tons of rocks were chopped off the 
edge of the hole by that knife-beam," Jack Holster, foreman 
of the digging team, said morosely. "And we can't haul them 
up very easily. It will take about two weeks to fill in the 
holes and get the debris cleared away."

Billy sighed.

Ace Casey, the cheif foreman of Connors Construction 
Company, then said, "And we lost five diggers, two air-
haulers, and a lot of equipment."

Billy sighed again.

Kodiak added, "And we lost about forty men altogether." 
Billy was about to sigh again but Kodiak interjected a new 
thought, "Hey, Billy!" he cried. "I've got an idea. You can 
get these people working at max speed and at the same time 
you could recall about one third of your private fleet from 
Alaska's border and station them here."

"Bro; that's great!" exclaimed Billy.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so," admitted Kodiak.

**********

Four weeks later, all work had returned to normal, and one 
third of Billy's private fleet was there. Some of the space 
ships were flying overhead and some were parked on the 
ground near their temporary headquarters building.

Billy's private fleet included three passenger ships, 
fifteen troop carriers, thirty battleships, 120 attack 
shuttles, and 300 star-fighters, all of them BC-class, 
designed and constructed by Billy and his companies. One 
third of that force was here exclusively to guard this 
building project and they were on the job.

Almost all of the people in that first meeting had been 
there by now and had added their comments and suggestions 
to the work. The bottom twenty stories were already almost 
complete, and the frame work for the next 100 or so stories 
was already in place.

The bottom 150 stories were planned to be storage space; 
the next 200 stories would be a factory; then 200 more 
stories up would be farms and gardens; then there would by 
a 75-story space for the lake and sky; next was a 375-story 
space for Food storage, water storage, and air storage; the 
next 1,000 stories, all the way to ground level, were 
stores, malls, restaurants, apartments, hotels, offices, 
and everything else needed in a town; then, at ground 
level, there would be a large open space for the old house 
to sit, like in a museum; the next 200 stories would be 
homes for Billy, his family, and a lot of friends; then, 
for 600 stories, there would be storage, recreation, 
librarys, offices, etc.; and the top 200 stories would be 
hangars for Billy's private fleet, his friends' spaceships, 
and anybody else that wanted to pay to park there.

If everything went according to schedule, ground level 
would be reached in 10 weeks.

**********

It was eight weeks later, and the construction company was 
only 75 stories below ground level. Then, their radios 
blared, "Alright everybody! There is a bomb inside that 
construction underground. In twenty minutes, it will blow 
your work into shambles, unless you cooperate with me. 
Gather up 50 million dollars and deliver it to me. If you 
agree, I will give you more detailed instructions. Think 
about it."

Billy Connors called General Sharzack and asked him to 
bring 100 of his best demolitions experts. Billy got his 50 
best and they started searching the building.

A few minutes later, a troop transport skimmed up to Billy 
and 100 men got out with General Sharzack. Billy said, 
"Alright men, get in there and start searching for any kind 
of bomb."

Then the radio blared out again, "C'mon people, you only 
have 15 minutes left."

"Okay," Billy replied, "I'm ready to cooperate. I have 50 
million dollars at home, but I want to know where to take 
it before I go get it."

The radio voice started slowly, "First, go to the peak of 
Mt. Joey and you will find instructions as to your next 
place to go. Make sure that all of the bills are $1,000 
bills and are unmarked. That's 50,000 one-thousand dollar 
bills in two locked briefcases. Come alone, and no funny 
business. And if you are armed, you will also be dead."

Then Billy said, stalling, "What if I don't want to risk my 
life? Can I send someone else in my place?"

"Yes, anybody except Kodiak Connors, John Sharzack, or a 
female. We don't want to hurt the women. Do you understand 
all of the instructions?"

"Of course. See You later," Billy said. Then he flicked the 
switch that turned off the radio and said, "Okay, Chris 
Froghead will take the money. He can use any of his bionic 
powers but don't do anything that will cause them to set 
this bomb off."

Chris Froghead came forward smiling, "Sure, Billy, I'll 
take it. I was going to volunteer anyway. Thanks for the 
job." Way back in 2829, Chris Froghead, one eighth Cherokee 
indian, had been in a shuttle with his cousins Angey and 
Susie when it had crashed at the Yavin spaceport. They had 
been the only three survivors, but they would not live 
long. Several of their vital body parts had been damaged or 
destroyed. They were taken to Capitoal City Hospital, 
Capital City, Yavin. In the emergency room, it was 
determined that they would die within hours. Then, at the 
last minute, Captain Jim Thatcher, a well-known robotics 
expert and physician, showed up. He made some special 
robotic substitute parts that were superior to the other 
human parts. Chris had had his left arm and right leg 
replaced. They were thought-controlled and more coordinated 
than the original human parts. Plus, they were computers 
that could store information and solve problems at 
extremely high speeds.

So, Chris flew in the air car to Billy's mansion and picked 
up the locked briefcases. He flew to the peak of Mt. Joey 
and landed. He climbed out and saw five rough looking 
characters there with lazer machine guns. The first four 
covered him while the fifth handed him a cassette. "Those 
are the instructions," he said and backed off.

Chris climbed back in and took off. He stuck the cassette 
into a player and it said, "Go to Fairbanks, Alaska, and go 
to the newspaper rack in front of Connors' Plumbing. There 
a man will walk up to you holding anohter cassette. Trade 
with him and leave. Don't talk to anyone on your way there. 
Don't try to attack him because he will be covered by a 
gunner. Thank you."

Chris was already at Fairbanks, by that time, and he parked 
across the street from Connors Plumbing. He hopped out and 
walked over and bought a newspaper. He looked around and 
saw a man walking toward him holding a cassette. He glanced 
behind him and saw a gunner on top of Connors' Beauty 
Parlor. He traded the cassettes and took off.

He pushed the cassette in and it said, "Okay, you're on 
your last leg. Go to Fairbanks Spaceport and you will meet 
me in the baggage pickup area. Just hand me the briefcases, 
hand me the cassette, and I will tell you the location of 
the bomb. Then leave. Don't talk to anyone on your way 
here, and don't try to pull anything. I will be completely 
covered. Good Luck."

Chris landed in the parking garage and walked toward the 
baggage pick-up area.

When he got there, he saw a man in a dark trenchcoat 
walking toward him. He looked around and percieved about 
twenty bodyguards and they were in strategic-but-
unsuspicious places. He walked up to the man and handed him 
the cassette and the two briefcases. When the man handed 
him the map of the bombs placement and he had put it in his 
pocket, he grabbed the man and jumped onto the baggage 
conveyor belt, hiding behind some suitcases. Then the 
bodyguards come running, but the conveyor belt had pulled 
Chris and the man into the baggage exchange department, and 
they were fighting. Just as the man was aiming another 
punch, the controller stopped the belt, and they both fell 
down. The man's body guards were now climbing into the 
baggage department through the small baggage opening, and 
Chris grabbed the man's gun. He switched it to "freeze," 
jumped behind a computer, and started blasting. Several of 
the bodyguards had been frozen by the time the gun ran out 
of power.

Then Chris jumped out, and with his bionic power, gave one 
of his attackers a left fist in the jaw that broke it and 
sent the man flying. Chris spun around and with his right 
leg, broke another man's ribcage and set blood and the man 
soaring. Chris grabbed his gun and froze a few more before 
it got shot and destroyed by the attackers.

Four of them ran at him and he jumped out at them. The 
frist one got knocked cold by ... right arm and the second 
got his face smashed in by a left. Chris kicked the third 
one back with his left leg and cruched the skull of the 
fourth with his right.

Chris grabbed the third one and smashed his face.

The six that remained all rushed at him. One grabbed his 
right arm while his left blasted another. Five left. Chris 
spun around and as he kicked another attacker with his 
right leg, he threw the man on his right arm against a 
computer. Sparks flew as the man was electroctuted by the 
broken terminal. Three left.

One jumped on his shoulders, so he jumped backwards and 
would have hit the wall if it weren't for the man, who was 
left gasping and bleeding on the floor. Chris smashed 
another face with his left hand and broke another skull 
with his right leg.

He staggered over to a lazer gun and picked it up. then he 
switched it from "kill" to "unfreeze" and pointed it at one 
of the frozen attackers. When he pulled the trigger, an 
orange light zapped the man and his blue color left him. He 
slumped to the floor.

Chris reached over and picked him up by his collar and 
slammed him against the wall with his right hand. His left 
hand was poised behind his head, ready to smash another 
face. "Talk!" he yelled. "Who are you and who is your 
leader?"

The man saw Chris's left arm's artificial muscles tighten 
and he burst out, "I'm Harry Smith. Please don't hurt me! 
My leader is that man that you gave the money to and his 
name is 'Mad Dog'."

Chris loosened his grip and inquired, "What is his real 
name?"

The man replied, "I don't know his real name, just that he 
was a renegage Shivan General a few years ago and ran off 
with a lot of Shivan ships and money. There is a lot more 
of his gang back at our base. Please let me go. I won't do 
anything. He was going to kill me if I tried to get away."

"We'll see," said Chris and he walked over to 'Mad Dog' and 
picked him up. He slapped his face a few times and yelled, 
"C'mon, man, wake up and talk!"

The man blinked his eyes and said, "Huh? Who are you?"

Chris picked up the brief cases and said, "I'm the one who 
brought you these. And now tell me what you're real name 
is, 'Mad Dog'!"

The man shuddered and said, "My real name is John Smith and 
if you don't believe that, too bad."

Chris punched 'Mad Dog' in the stomach with his right arm 
and said, "Yeah, It'll be too bad for you."

'Mad Dog' grunted and replied, "Okay, I'll tell you. My 
real name is Sake Seller. I was a Shivan General, but I 
didn't like the way they ran things, so I decided to be a 
terrorist. Those H-class fighters attacking that building 
were mine. I will accept any punishment that you will give 
me. Oh, and by the way there isn't a bomb in that building 
and that map I gave you is a fake."

At that time about thirty spaceport guards ran in and asked 
what was going on, so Chris told them everything and then 
said, "You can take all of these men except this one," he 
pointed at Seller. "I want him."

He tied Seller up and carried him to his air car. Then he 
flew back to Billy's house and threw Seller on the ground. 
He climbed out and said, "Hey, guys, it's over. This is the 
leader. He'll tell you where his base is and we'll go clean 
it out.

Later that day when he told them that his base was in the 
mountains and how to get there, Jeff Connors, Kodiak 
Connors, Violet Connors, and a squadron of fighters from 
Billy's fleet went over and cleaned them out

Three months later, in April, 2838, 200th year of the 
Galactic Federation, 760 floors had been completed and were 
being furnished. The frame work had been set up for the 
next 100 floors and the old mansion had been moved into its 
place.

Sake Seller had told Jeff Connors a lot about the plans of 
some of the Shivans' fortresses and they became good 
friends. Kodiak and Sharzack lead an expedition of 215 
Space Marines into one of these fortresses, called Gazort, 
and take it over, all based on the plans given to them by 
Seller.

Jeff, Billy, Violet, Chris, Angey, Susie, Kodiak, Sharzack, 
Capt. Jim, and his son had all moved into their spaces in 
the new house, along with a lot of maids and servants. Many 
people from other surrounding towns and cities came over to 
live and work in the underground cities. Billy hired 5,000 
more guards to man the gun emplacements on the sides of his 
house.

Then, at a time of perfect peace, a time of peaceful 
building, of parties and celebrations, disaster struck. The 
Shivan Empire recoiled from its defeat by Kodiak and 
Sharzack at Gazort by attacking Billy's house-city. Five 
battleships, fifty attack shuttles, and 150 H-class 
fighters descended on the building site.

All of Billy's defense ships rose up to defend against this 
threat; and Kodiak, Jeff, Chris Froghead, and Capt. Jim 
Thatcher Jr. flew up in their X-class fighters. The knife-
beams from the Shivan fighters started slicing giant chunks 
off the upper 200 stories of Billy's house. These chunks 
then fell about 6,000 feet straight down until they 
crunched into equipment, spaceships, aircars, or people 
down on the ground. There would have been more 
destructions, but some of the cranes caught some chunks and 
set them down softly.

The attack lasted for about two and a half hours, with Jeff 
Connors surprisingly doing the best on the defenders side. 
Usually, Kodiak, Violet, and Chris were all better than 
Jeff, but this time he was really hot. He had shot down 
twelve Shivans already and was successfully moving in on 
aother, when 500 X-class fighters from the Space Navy 
descended from Earth-orbit and massacred the Shivans that 
remained. They had been called in by Kodiak, who was the 
Chief Commander of the Space Navy.

After all this commotion had died down, extra building 
machines and supplies were called in from all of Billy's 
companies, another third of Billy's private fleet was 
called in to protect the project, and the building schedule 
was speeded up. In three more months, in July, the whole 
project was finished. It was everything that Billy had 
planned it to be. Three thousand stories high, housing over 
400,000 people, and everything else.

On July 4th, 2838, 1,062 years after the founding of the 
United States, and exactly 200 years after the founding of 
the Galactic Federation, there was a great celebration. The 
people of the Galaxy were celebrating the Galactic 
Bicentennial and everyone in Alaska was celebrating the 
completion of the ten and a half month, 46 billion dollar, 
413 life project that had been finished the day before. The 
biggest single building project ever attempted on the face 
of any planet was finally complete and was christened: 
'Billy's Extravaganza.'