Conflict!

by Dale Moorhouse

  Most of what we heard after that is just reassurances and repetition. I looked at my friends and asked, “What do you make of that?”

  Rusty stammered before he answered, “First I want to apologize to Silky. She told me she was hearing voices for cycles now, but I couldn’t see how it might be possible. I didn’t consider one or more of the hidden cores might also have comms built in. I’m sorry sweetheart.” He nuzzled Silky before continuing, “We can’t take them to Mother of Glory or anything else that has jump capability. It is possible they could find a way to communicate with and usurp the functions of the ship’s AIs. We need to find a way to dissect one of the hidden cores and disable their self-destruct logic so we can research them in depth.”

  Tuxedo and Ginger both concurred, and when I looked at Elaine, she added, “Let’s set up a shuttle to use as a lab. They contain no FTL tech, and they have room to allow us to construct a Faraday cage on the main deck. In fact, I would recommend a cage within a cage just to make sure nothing leaks through.

  I thought for a moment, “Let’s do that. Once the shuttle has been outfitted, we will move it to Terra’s moon to an area that has already been mined. It will be on the dark side, and for half a day or more, Sol’s radiation will make hash out of any signal that may leak. When is the next ship to Terra leaving? I want to send a message to Bebe, Amos and Tiger Lily.”

  Rusty checked his laptop and said, “There is one leaving in a half deca.”

  “Good,” I replied, “I’ll record the message as well as some instructions. I’ll send them pictures of the lab, so they have an idea what to build and make arrangements to have the shuttle transported here using Thermopylae.”

  I got an answer back the next morning acknowledging the instructions and telling me Amos’s shuttle will be at Saturn Station by morning two cycles from now fully equipped and ready for use.

  Two cycles later, almost to the tick Thermopylae braked to a halt a thousand klicks from the station. We watched on monitors as Amos detached his shuttle from the big Talon-Class cruiser and slowly manoeuvred it to the docking area where we had several crates waiting. We have superheterodyne jammers going in the docking bay rendering our radio based comms useless, so we used laser comms to talk to the shuttle which now had a name. Because it is used for all kinds of one-off projects Amos was calling her Lab Rat and for this mission, she has been coated with a colour that matched the dust on the moon.

  “Nice touch with the coat of colour, I said as he slowly brought her to the dock.”

  “Bebe thought since she was going to be sitting on the moon for a while having a bit of physical camouflage might be a good idea especially since the reactive camo would normally show her as a dark shadow. One of my young techs came up with an idea on how to spoof the visible parts of the ship by feeding in a false signal to the camo processor. He can get pretty fancy too. Until a deca before we left he had her done up in orange and black stripes—she looked like a big ugly tiger,” Amos told me with a chuckle.

  “Even better,” I said.

  Once the lowered ramp slid into its receptacle and the retaining arms had snugged Lab Rat to the station’s docking port my team walked aboard to check out the accommodations for our cargo. The double cage took up the back two-thirds of the cargo bay, and Amos had two of the latest generation Elsies on the deck to either side of the bay leaving a nice clean aisle-way directly to the doors in the cage.

  As we were checking out the cage, Bebe showed up with Ben and George Townsend, my good friends from Whitehorse, and two of the best Elsie pilots on Mother of Glory. They were also cousins of my mate Elaine and my best friend Johnny Townsend. She said, “Things were getting kind of ho-hum on MoG so I decided to come for a short visit and see for myself what you have stirred up for us. The minute I saw what you were asking for I knew there might be trouble, so I brought Ewan McFarrel and First Century with me too. We have enough supplies and fuel to stay out for at least three hundred cycles, just in case.”

  “I don’t plan on being out that long, but it’s good to know we can if we have to,” I responded. “Thanks for thinking that far ahead.”

  “Someone has to protect you and Elaine from yourselves,” She rejoined.

  “I see you didn’t forget your wit either.”

  She chuckled at that.

  As soon as Thermopylae left, we begin loading all of Rusty’s stuff on board. The crates containing drones or drone parts were loaded into the Faraday cage, and the doors closed and sealed. All FTL capable ships had been moved out of the area, and we would be keeping the drones in their metal coffins until we are on the moon. I knew we were being overly cautious, but I’d rather err on the side of caution and remain alive than be over-confident and dead.

  It would be a three cycle trip to the moon without FTL, but that couldn’t be helped. There was no way I wanted the Plague to get any more info from us than what they already had, especially since they made it an objective to get word back to their controllers.

  We were getting ready to back out of the dock when three short figures showed up at the ramp towing a pressurized capsule behind them. I commed everyone, “Well, folks, it looks like everyone's favourite Squids have arrived, and they even brought the Escargot.”

  They came up the ramp and the leader, Livid, requested permission to come aboard. I decided to yank its chain since we’ve been on the station for over two cycles and this is the first we have heard from it. “Do I know you?” I ask.

  The figure responded, “You know me, young Jase, it is I, Livid.”

  “No, I’m Livid because you didn’t show up sooner. I thought we were friends,” I replied to it, trying to suppress a chuckle.

  Knowing this would rapidly devolve to an Abbott and Costello routine, Livid decided to apologize, and I responded with, “You are truly a buzzkill aren’t you? A real Mary Sunshine.”

  From what I could read of its changing colour patterns through the transparent half of its ship-suit, it was embarrassed, contrite and confused all at once. It finally said, “I have been researching these drones using my own resources, and I believe I can help you and protect us all from a great evil. Please, let me help. It is the least I can do for the great wrong my species has done.”

  I decided to back off for now and beckoned Livid and its companions up the ramp. As soon as they were board, Lab Rat started to back away from the station. Meanwhile, I walked Livid, Blue Point and Long Arm over to the Faraday cage and showed them what was inside. Livid’s companions commented on the Faraday cage, and Livid complimented it saying, “Such an elegant solution, inexpensive to build, hard to damage and requires no power to work. This is why the confederation needs Terrans, I doubt any of the rest of us would have thought of this given the same problem to solve.

  “Where are we going, young Jase?”

  I told it, and Livid’s colours momentarily showed excitement and approval before it said, “Another good choice, close and easy to defend and resupply while keeping the contents from transmitting a message in any sort of reliable manner.”

  I told it, “We have decided to reassemble the lab once we are situated on the moon. By the time the drones can examine their surroundings, they will have no clue where they are. I’m certain they know they are being moved and three cycles in any direction could be anywhere from the heart of the local star to well outside the orbit of the systems farthest objects. With no additional sensory input, they should be kept guessing for longer than we expect them to remain functional.

  “Before we get too far in the journey, it might be well for you to review Rusty’s findings and conclusions. Now is better than later, and it will give you time to collate and correlate the data with your own.”

  “Thank you, young Jase. I get your meaning and appreciate the thought. I will confer with him right away,” it replied, then headed towards Rusty with its companions trailing along behind him.

  Three cycles passed quickly. Rusty spent his days with Livid and his team reviewing and discu
ssing everything they have learned so far. The rest of us caught up on events. Ben and George had remained on Mother of Glory while we were in the Centauri system, and they had millions of questions. They spent their mornings exercising with Centurion McFarrel and his Century while Tuxedo and Ginger spent time with each other and we didn’t see them between bed-time and the mid-cycle meal. Elaine and I similarly spent our time but got together with the group for lunch and spent our afternoons talking about various strategies. Missy had Righteous Claws piggy-backed on Lab Rat and was spending as much time with Amos and Shadow as she could.

  The cats have taken it upon themselves to lie around close to the Faraday cage and listen for more conversations between the drones. We took them not hearing anything for three cycles as a good sign our precautions were working, but it never hurt to be careful. Serena, Edgar, and Silky were on guard and were periodically joined by Shadow who spelt them one-at-a-time to go eat and use the litter box. There were always three cats arrayed around the cage, listening.

  When we got to the moon’s dark side, we found the mining crew had dug us a deep, wide hole large enough for the shuttle to set down in and be out of sight from the surface even with Claws parked on top. Once down in the pit and levelled up several of the warriors donned their armour and went outside with Tuxedo to arrange some camouflage drapes between the edge of the pit and the top of the shuttle leaving just the top surface of the shuttle exposed.

  Righteous Claws is FTL capable, and we didn’t want her anywhere near the shuttle when the lab went live. Missy and her crew moved her to a crater hundreds of klicks away and flew back in an Elsie they took with her. While they were doing that, Ben and George took more teams out to set up sensors all around the pit at a half klick and full klick radius. They were careful to stagger the sensors, so there was maximum overlap and no blind spots. When they got back, they reported that even from just a few hundred metres altitude, the installation is nearly invisible. After almost a full cycle setting up, we felt confident we were ready to set up the lab and get the research underway.

  Building the lab took a cycle. With Bebe’s warriors, there are more than enough hands aboard to complete the job, and many just watched until they got caught by Centurion McFarrel who promptly put them to work cleaning the Elsies and the cargo bay. The warriors didn’t stop watching, but they were working hard enough that Ewan ignored their pauses and smiled and nodded to Bebe who grinned and nodded back. The warriors' keen interest was something neither of them wanted to discourage nor did they want over-eager hands getting in the way, so keeping them busy in the bay was a win-win for everyone.

  8

  WHEN I LEFT LAB RAT to return to Mother of Glory, Rusty had things well in hand, and he and the Squids were making progress with the drones. With Ewan McFarrel and his Century to keep an eye on things, I felt confident in their safety. Now that he knew what to look for Rusty set up sensors all around the lab and recorded the conversations the drones had amongst themselves. He and the few who knew about them worked hard to keep the drones ignorant that they were being listened on.

  Sol and his pilots had been quiet for most of the trip, mainly observing and asking a few insightful questions. On the flight to MoG Sol said, “Intellectually I understand the danger to Terra, but it wasn’t until I heard the recordings the cats made that I began to appreciate how close we are to extinction and how little time we actually have to turn things around.

  “I’ll be making some calls to old friends and associates in Israel and may have to fly down to meet with them. I’m not sure I want to talk about what I’ve seen and heard over comms. I believe I can bring many pilots and other flight crew on board, but I will have to reveal much of what I have seen in the last year. Will this be a problem?”

  “No, Sol, it won’t. I’m close to broadcasting everything we have learned to all of Terra’s population, not just the leaders. The people need to know, deserve to know what is in store for them, and what their leaders are doing to defend them. The bad news is I think it will lead to violence in many areas of the planet, particularly in those nations who are caught up in petty squabbles when they should be proactively crafting solutions. Even the Russians are veering off-course, and they have more information about the Plague than most.

  “All I can do is keep on trying and hope the message gets through.”

  Ginger asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, Jase, what will you broadcast?”

  “Everything we know and a time table of when we think things are going to happen. Ten years, even the possible twenty years, is not a lot of time when you consider the size of the task we need to accomplish; the more we scare them early on, the more likely they will begin to respond in time to help. If not, I’m questioning the wisdom of spending our time trying to save people who don’t act like they want to be saved. Sometimes just walking away is the only sane thing to do.”

  The rest of the flight was quiet after that, sometimes I can be a real buzzkill.

  When we got to Mother of Glory, I headed straight to Hangar Bay Two with Tuxedo, Ginger and Sol while Elaine and Edgar headed for the main medbay. As we entered the hatch, we were greeted by Mordechai, who was grinning ear-to-ear. “Welcome back. How was your trip, did you learn anything that can help us in our coming fights?”

  Sol answered, “The trip was interesting and terrifying to a degree. I’ll fill you in on the particulars later. How are things shaping up here? I didn’t see any of our new ships buzzing around on our approach. Are the pilots having a down-cycle?”

  “No, they are out with our new fighters and fighter-bombers shaking them down and testing their new short-jump capability. I heard from the flight leaders just before I came down to greet you, they are on their way back now.”

  “Our new fighters?” Sol asked.

  “Yes, when we got the first ones David commented that it would be nice to have FTL even if it could only be used for short jumps like closing to the gun range of a primary ship without having to fight our way through screens of fighters or the Swift Fang clones.

  “Well, Ishmael was listening, and the Weasel engineers devised a module that they can slip between the power section and the main structure of the fighters. Since the fighter-bombers are built from the same primary platform, they can be kitted out with the same modules, and it only adds two metres length to each ship. An added bonus is the wings are moved back about a metre to keep the balance correct.

  “The chief complaint pilots have with the current version of either ship is the wing obscures too much of the view down and aft. The changes took care of that issue, and the pilots claim the ships handle a little better into the bargain.

  “Ishmael’s people delivered active ordinance early this morning including everything from explosive rounds for the guns and cannons to four different kinds of missiles for the fighters and huge ship killers for the bombers. We just finished loading everything in the magazines to get it off the deck so you may want to inspect them and make sure things are in their correct place.”

  “Thanks, Mo, I’ll do that when the flights get back. On another note, I’m going to be sending out a call to our people on the ground asking for more pilots and flight crews. I’ll be asking my pilots and crews to do the same. I’ll need the instructors to vet each pilot and then run the selectees through the simulators.”

  Mo responded, “I started that moving the minute the new ships arrived. Oh, Ishmael asked me to ask you to comm him and let him know what your crews think of the new ships and the war-shot he sent over. He also wants to schedule downtime for the current fleet to upgrade them with the new FTL modules.”

  “I’ll set that up as soon as I have a chance to debrief the aircrews,” Sol responded.

  Sol’s words were still ringing in the air when a series of tones play three times throughout the hangar, and we heard a broadcast announcing we will be recovering the fighters and bombers in one centa. Everyone not in armour or ship-suits immediately scurried for an air-tight compartment
or donned a ship-suit as a precaution against the air retention field failing when the hangar doors opened. Fifty ticks later the hangar was open to space, and we saw the incoming flights lined up for recovery.

  Each of our new hangars is equipped with enough tractor beams we can launch or retrieve a dozen fighters and bombers at a time in each hangar. The AIs controlling the shields and tractor beams coordinate selectively deactivating the shields for the moments needed to pull a ship into the hangar. The small hole made is quickly plugged by a ship whose shield melds with Mother of Glory’s shields so it would take a very lucky gunner to slip a missile through when there is a momentary gap. It could be done, but it would be a challenging shot.

  We watched the small ships as they were bought in and were pleased with the speed with which the aircrews and deck crews handled the task. This boded well for when we brought the new Leopard-Class carriers online. The flight crews were lined up on the deck, and I asked each squadron leader to have his or her people prepare after-action reports, paying particular attention to the flight qualities of their ships, then stand down for the rest of the cycle. When the flights were dismissed, I asked the squadron leaders to stay behind for a few centas.

  “I want all of you and your people including standbys assembled here at 0350 tomorrow. Be prepared to discuss operational readiness, tactics and deployment requirements for small raids, reconnaissance in force and battle majour. I want to start striking the Plague long before they get to Terra and I want them to become so agitated they recall all of their swarms to repel us. The sooner we get started pissing them off, the sooner we can start thinning them out. Dismissed.”

  The first thing the next morning I got a comm from Sol, he and Mordechai had reached out to their Terran contacts who have done the same within their peer groups and have several volunteers lined up. Sol also put the call out to the WTC and had nearly a thousand volunteers from both the naval arm and the warriors.