His office had a completely different feel from the quiet peace of his home. Instead of warm woods and muted fabrics, the office is all hull metal with a small desk in one corner and a large conference table in the centre. Along one of the long walls was a large screen similar to those in my situation room but in this case, they were showing views of factory floors lined with substantial 3D printers where various spacecraft are being produced. When I asked about this, Ishmael explained, “My family owns and operates over a dozen factories on our Ark and mothership that employ over two million workers. We specialize in spacecraft such as the shuttles that you and most of the other Arks and motherships use. We also build smaller shuttles like the ones used to deliver your simulators. While we like the larger shuttles for combat purposes, we find them expensive to use for goods deliveries. The smaller shuttles work well for moving goods around and are basically a large cargo box with engines strapped on the outside. They also don’t require specialized maintenance, so we don’t need the Squids to keep our ships moving.
“With the war footing the fleet is moving to, many of my factories will be used for the first time in kilocycles, and my workers are excited to be productive again. We are used to the cyclical nature of the fleet’s needs, but my people like to be busy. Many see at you as a rescuer from boredom and idleness.
“Here is one of the carrier designs I mentioned,” he said as he pointed to the screen. We saw a ship manoeuvre around showing all sides and quarter views of the exterior.
The ship resembled a large cylinder with flattened sides that tapered to a vertical wedge-shaped prow at the front. The flat sides extended for two-thirds the length of the vessel before transitioning to a full cylinder as they approached the last sixth of the ship where the main propulsion section was located.
There were large nacelles on either side of the ship’s bow in the centre of the taper, and they appeared to contain engines. They could rotate so the thrust could be directed up, down, forward, aft and any direction in between. As the stern came into view, we could see the massive engines of the main drives were articulated so their thrust could be directed 30 degrees in any direction from dead astern. Combined with the engines at the bow, this ship should be able to manoeuvre in very tight quarters and in unpredictable ways.
The tour continued with a fly through starting with the hangars which occupy almost all of the flattened sides of the hull. When the hangar doors opened, we saw that each hangar door parted horizontally in the middle and opened out like shutters top and bottom, giving full access to each bay. Inside the hangar we were entering we could see two levels, the lower level had an entire flight of fighters while the upper level had spaces for spares, bunkers for ordinance and quarters for both the deck and flight crews. The hangars were stacked three high, and there must have been thirty on this side of the ship alone. Sol gasped as he realized the size of this thing.
As we passed through many other compartments, Ishmael described the functions and features of the enormous ship. When the tour was over, I asked if one had ever been built. He replied, “No, it was decided that transporting close to eighteen thousand fighters and bombers on one ship wasn’t practical at the time so this design was dropped in favour of the next one I’ll show you.
“I wanted you to see this one to give you an idea of what our production capabilities are. I have two idle factories that could produce ships of this size. The next design is similar but scaled down. It is only one and a quarter kilometres long compared to over two kilometres like the first design. It can carry close to twenty-nine hundred ships.”
The next image we saw was a similar design but with only ten hangars on a side placed two deep and five long. Instead of being cylindrical the hull is more like an oval in cross section and reminded me of some of the big missile carrying submarines built by the US and Russia during the cold war. On this design, the hangar doors retract in one piece up or down on the exterior of the hull. The bow had similar, but with smaller nacelles on each side and the stern fusion drive nozzles were similarly articulated.
“Each of my factories can produce three of these at a time and will require one hundred cycles for the first three, and we can complete three more every ten cycles after that for as long as you need. If we could get some of your larger countries to produce some of the subassemblies we could probably double that in two hundred cycles. This would give me time to convert some of my other factories to produce larger versions in the future. There is a stretched version that is basically this ship with twenty more hangars and bigger engines.”
“Do you have any other designs to show us?” I asked.
“Yes, of course. I will let you scroll through,” he passed the control over to me. Sol was sitting next to me, and I handed it to him. He did a rapid pass through the rest of the catalogue then went back to the beginning and made a slower pass. There are many good designs, but Sol finally went back to the second ship design and slowly proceeded through it again, stopping and asking questions. In the end, he looked at me and said, “I would start with the stretch model of this ship,” as he pointed to the screen.
I asked him why and he responded, “I like the idea taking ten of them on raids splitting the force to that we can release fighter and bombers at each end of a swarm and then having them jump back to us where we are parked out of range of the swarm but within the short jump range. That lets me put two waves of over fourteen thousand ships each on the enemy from both ends. I would pace the attack so the first wave would withdraw as I’m launching the next wave. Depending on the Plague’s reaction, I might be able to resupply and rearm each wave and hit the swarm several times before we must withdraw.
“In an action like this, I would like to shoot my magazines dry before I have to beat feet. Once I start, I want to do maximum damage each time we go out and get them so jacked up they call in their reinforcements and expose their strength. I want to time each raid so that each time we go back, the Plague factories haven’t had time to rebuild all we have destroyed. The doomsday nature of their programming makes it necessary to destroy their factory ships last, so we don’t wind up with millions of small swarms to fight instead of a few big ones.
“I also expect the enemy to adapt to our tactics and the more carriers I have, the more I can change it up.”
I looked at Ishmael and said, “I would like to review this later when I’ve had time to sleep and think on it some more.”
He smiled and nodded, “Let us rejoin the ladies and have some dessert. Jacky is an excellent cook, and she is really proud of her baking. I have vodka and Scotch to wash it down.”
When we got back to the living area, I was surprised to find the ladies were playing cards when we came in. They were happily chatting away and almost seemed miffed we showed up and interrupted them. Ishmael mollified them by saying, “I’ll dish up the dessert and pass out the drinks while you finish up your game.”
He had a big grin on his face as he suggested we help him in the kitchen. He deftly scooped the dessert into shallow bowls and scooped ice cream next to what looked like a berry cobbler while we poured drinks for everyone. Each of us grabbed a bowl and a drink and took them to the ladies then retreated to the kitchen to grab ours. The ladies finished their game as we returned and came to sit with us and we ate our desserts together lightly chatting.
The following afternoon I got a comm from Sol. He reviewed what he saw last night with his staff and has firmed up his requirements. “I want ten each of ship type number two in the stretch model. We ran the numbers, and that is the minimum plus fifty per cent required to start the campaign.
“Dimitri and Sergei are going to see if we can get the Russians and their neighbours to start producing fighters and bombers so we can have plenty of machines to fill the carriers when the Weasels start deliveries. Dimitri is also going to try and get us more pilots from Terra, he has other sources, and he wants to tap them now so they can’t back out later.”
“Good,” I said, “I’ll
comm Ishmael right now and get the ball rolling.”
“On another note, Rachel really had fun last night. She was telling me that Jacky did all the cooking for the meal. Apparently, they don’t have staff or maids or cooks, she does it all herself. It seems even royalty in line for the crown must do their own clean-up. What a concept. Too bad Terrans have such a position that many feel they are too good to pick up after themselves.”
“I hear you,” I replied, “I think that is why the Mmrrreeowwn are so rigorous in testing immigrants, they don’t want anyone who thinks they are too good for real work.
“I’ll let you know what Ishmael says. I’ll also ask him to give you the info directly instead of using me as a conduit.”
I commed Ishmael and told him we would like to order ten of type two stretched carriers which we have designated the Mammoth-Class. He chuckled and said, “One hundred it is Jase. Trust me, you will need more than a hundred times that many given that you are going to have to backtrack the Plague for kilocycles and visit thousands of systems before you can be sure you got them all. Even then, you will need to keep patrols going for kilocycles more in case you missed some, but it is a good start.”
10
THE FOLLOWING MORNING I GOT a comm from Livid, “Young Jase, I have status on Rusty’s research and thought to bring you up to speed. It took several tries, but he was able to bypass the hidden core destruction coding, and he has the AI talking to one of his air-gapped computers. He dumped the AI’s coding and all memory available to it before activating it.
“It is a very good thing we reassembled the Faraday cage before we continued, as it was we nearly lost control when it tried to take over his implant. I was standing just inside when he activated it and was able to pull him out and close the door before too much damage was done. It brushed my implant but I got behind the door, so I wasn’t affected.
“Rusty spent a day in the medbay where they removed his implant and repaired the damage with the nanites normally used to install the interface in the brain. His new implant has taken well, and except for being extremely frightened, he is well. One of the med-techs gave me a monitor and I have been observing him around the clock, all seems well. The med-tech that worked on him assisted your mate when she was removing the probes from the warrior you and Tuxedo rescued at Proxima, and her experience was invaluable for treating Rusty. The tech, Vanilla is her name I believe, asked me not to mention this to you until she released Rusty from her care, and she didn’t tell your mate either, being afraid it would distract you from your own tasks.”
“Where is he now, and when can I see him?”
“I believe he is on his way to see you now, Jase. Please don’t be too hard on him, he tries so hard to anticipate your needs and gather the tools for you to defeat the Plague. The youngster has a terrible desire to please you. He sees this incident as a failure on his part.
“On another note, young Jase, we are aware you are looking for carrier ships for your new fighter and bomber forces and your desire to begin striking the Plague while they are still far away from Terra. The Weasels have some good designs, and your choices are good ones. We have also reviewed your ideas for Talons modified to carry a number of your fighters and wanted you to know we can easily modify them for that purpose. Your proposed Leopard-Class ships would be able to carry and fully support a flight of your small ships by adding a hangar module just ahead of the propulsion module. The additional mass would require an update to the propulsion systems, but since the new systems require less space that is not an issue. The rest of the ship would remain the same, allowing you to carry the current complement of Elsies and Swift Fangs. The ship we are proposing would be well suited for long-range scouting and reconnaissance in force as you have proposed.”
“That is an interesting bit of news, Livid. When would you be able to build the first ship?”
“We have already built the programs required for the new hangar module and should be able to deliver the first six ships in twenty cycles. We only request you send two of the ships forward on the mission to retrieve the scouts sent ahead and then continue their search for more allies in this fight. The standard complement of squids would accompany all vessels, we have volunteers lining up to serve in that capacity. Your words to the Elders when you first returned have spread among my people, we are excited with the prospect of being able to redeem ourselves. Many of my people are calling you the Master of the War of Redemption. I have shortened it to Warlord.”
I sat there thinking to myself about what I’d heard when I heard a soft knocking at my door. I looked up to see Vanilla standing there and motioned her in and pointed to a seat. I finished my conversation with Livid, “Twenty cycles sound like good timing. Please make it happen and thanks for the heads-up on the first issue we discussed.”
I turned to Vanilla, and I could see she was upset. I smiled at her, “I know about Rusty’s accident, I also know why I wasn’t informed straight away. While I don’t like it, I appreciate the reasons why you delayed telling me about it. With everything I have going on, I certainly didn’t need the added stress. Thanks for shielding me from that, I’m fortunate to have people around me who care enough to try to help.”
Her eyes were moist when she looked at me, and she said, “I wanted to tell you, but I know how distracted you can get when someone you care about is in trouble. Thank you for being so understanding. Rusty is in the outer office, I asked him to wait there while I apologized to you.”
Rusty shuffled into view, at first, I thought his injury may have physical manifestations, but when he saw Vanilla smiling, he straightened up and walked with more confidence. He sat in a chair next to her and said, “It is going to take me a few cycles to sort through the dumps I got from the hidden cores, and I should have something useful for your planning then.
“I’ve heard about your new space force, and I have some ideas on how to minimize friendly fire incidents. I’ve read some of the Terran histories of various wars and would like to do what I can to help out. I’ll be getting some tests started when I get back to my lab, they will take a while to run. Can you meet me for lunch and bring me up to speed with what is happening?”
“Rusty, I’d like nothing better. I haven’t seen or heard from you in cycles. Lunch it is, dining room or Benji’s Place?”
“Oh, Benji’s Place! I feel comfortable there, and they have such neat views on the screens.”
I’d been planning on sending our two Talons, Destiny and Thermopylae on a forward mission following the course our scout ships were sent on, but it made more sense to delay for twenty or thirty cycles to get the two Leopard-Class carriers. Many of the species discovered on the Ark fleet’s journey to Terra were less than hospitable, so a pair of well armed and armoured ships designed and provisioned for reconnaissance in force made a lot of sense. Besides, the Swift Fangs sent forward have been gone for less a kilocycle—at .15 C they wouldn’t have gotten far. Finding them shouldn’t be an issue either since they are to drop a relay buoy every half light-kilocycle and we know their course.
I called Chocolate and Ginger, the two ship commanders I planned on dispatching on the mission and informed them of the new ships and the delay was welcome. Both were trying to get as much family time as possible before they headed out again.
Lunch with Rusty showed me how much he was really affected by his experience with the Plague AI. I got more of the story from Serena as I went back to my office. Rusty’s young cat, Silky, told her how bad the experience was and Rusty was trying to keep the emotional cost from everyone because he felt frightened by the sheer power of the AI and because he was embarrassed.
Serena told me, “Silky says he is not entirely healed yet, and she is beginning to suspect he may never fully recover. His cognitive functions are all as good as they ever were and all of his tests conclude the physical damage was slight and he is fully recovered but his soul is scarred, he doesn’t have the confidence in himself he once had. Rusty has a warriors heart
but not the armour of a warrior on his soul, that has cut him deeply. He thinks he is not strong enough to fulfil the dreams he has of helping defeat the Plague.
“You are going to have to help him, Jase. You have been through something as bad, and you recovered but not until you built a network of friends around you that helped you put yourself back together. Silky will help us by watching for signs of depression and anxiety.”
Serena seldom vocalizes when we are alone or when she doesn’t want others to know she is as intelligent as she is. I use her silence around others as a barometer of her feelings of trust. Around some, she freely speaks aloud, but with a few others, she only says what she must to remain polite but never speaks of anything that points to her mental ability. Her sister, Shadow, is the same way.
I told her, “I picked up on that at lunch. I’m going to make it a point to check in with him every cycle and spend time with him until he feels like opening up. Tuxedo is going to do the same. He and Tux like each other and Silky adores Ginger so I think between all of us we can help speed his recovery and who knows, he may heal up stronger than before.”
Three cycles later, I found myself heading for a meeting with the Elders concerning the two Mmrrreeowwn and the Terran they arrested a few cycles ago for obstruction of a high priority project. When I got to Elder Three’s office, he greeted me warmly and motioned me towards a seat. Once I parked myself, he said, “We have replaced the Terran and one of the Mmrrreeowwn from that obstructionist business over hangar space. The second Mmrrreeowwn will assume leadership of the space allocation group. He was unfortunate and got caught up in his leader’s scheming. Now he knows what is expected of him and will perform his duties properly. The other two have been sent to our Ark and will be employed in a fashion that will ensure they don’t have the opportunity to err in this manner again.
Conflict! Page 10
