by T J Bryan
Abel knew if he did not interrupt Emmitt would continue on for hours.
"Can we use these in battle. Perhaps on our ships?"
Emmitt appeared annoyed at Abel's interruption. "Well the power requirements are very high and probably too high for our ships to support in combat. Fusion engines are also needed to propel the ship forward. These units would be best placed on an orbital station, like Holgata or Wu."
"Is there a cycle time or some limit on the duration of firing?"
"Apparently not. You can stream hyperons for hours as long as you have the energy and lead pellets. Probably not a good idea to be standing near by, but it will run as long as you push the trigger as it were."
"When can you test them? I mean actually shoot one or all three?"
Emmitt thought a moment. "Well we will need to move them to someplace safe and rather far away. Then we need some kind of remote panel box control for all these buttons and levers, and that might take a few days to build. Perhaps in a week."
Abel responded, "Can we do it quicker. Say in three days?"
Emmitt laughed. "No Abel. I said a week."
Abel and Emmitt continued talking for an hour about the neutron weapon and then spent a short time discussing the 'apparatus'. Progress continued on the build of the gadget but the need for remote testing and assembly had slowed down the entire project considerably. The object of building Nomi's apparatus was to then create what Nomi called the 'thing.' The thing in turn would be used to manufacture her gravity jar.
Abel had learned what he needed to know and set out to return to his office in the Naval Wing of the Collegium. Rather than immediately return to his office he took a detour through the annex to watch the never ending stream of citizens trying their hand at flying and manning SARs on the Combat Training Simulators. Abel glanced at the booking sheet and saw it was filled for the next three months. Enthusiasm for the OCN had not diminished in the past year.
Then Abel thought he might just take a peek at Nomi's lab which was located just off the Physics Department wing of the Collegium in a facility once used for developing home made fusion engines. With the accessibility of Polis engines the home brew effort had been put on hold.
Nomi's lab was quite large and the size of the place surprised Abel. Close to the entry way were Nomi's experiments which were now carried on every OCN ship as it ventured into the dark. The experiments were contained in a series of crates and took up very little space in the hold of a ship. As each ship departed it was fitted with the instruments and when returned the instruments were removed for analysis and a new set loaded into the hold. Exactly what the experiments were intended to do Abel did not know, but Professor Ollon was quite insistent that the OCN support Nomi's efforts.
Students at the Collegium competed for positions on Nomi's lab team but very few under grads or graduate students were accepted. Nomi was not involved in the process. She was uninterested in those she considered slow thinkers. Aelia choose the lab assistants based on their personalities and Professor Ollon reviewed their academic credentials. Working for Nomi was not easy.
Nomi and Aelia were not present as he entered the facility. In the middle of the room sat the large machinery taken from the Thean collection as well as the two fragments of Greayson GWP systems. Connected to both fragments were a series of wires and tubes matching the complexity of the fragments themselves. At the very rear of the large room stood two fusion engines now quiet and running 'cold.'
The entire lab had a odd smell and Abel searched his mind to recollect the cause. Then he realized it was the smell of burned electrocene circuits. Apparently Nomi's experiments on the Greayson technology was burning up a lot of circuits.
As Abel was preparing to leave Professor Ollon walked into the lab and greeted Abel.
"Ah, Admiral. So good to see you."
Abel nodded and the Professor continued. "Those Neutron devices the Theans provided us are truly amazing. To think that such an advancement in physics and mathematics could have been made more than a six thousand years ago and then lost. And lost well before the Great War and the descent of The Dark."
"Do we know what happened to them? The Epigoni that is?" asked Abel.
The Professor shook his head. "No one knows what happened. We know that well over six thousand years ago they inhabited the inward portion of our spiral arm of the galaxy. They had some kind of Republic that was wide spread among hundreds of systems and their technology was far more advanced than our own or for that matter the technology of the Greaysons. Human kind had some contact with them, but it was very limited due to the distance. By distance I mean of course tunnel time and that time in many cases was measured in years and not months. They also were very reluctant to part with any of their creations and often went out of their way to hide the capabilities of what they had developed."
"And then they just disappeared?" asked Abel.
"Well not in an instant, but they did disappear. Over the space of what the EG says was about fifty years they were gone. There was no sign of war or conflict. It was more like they packed their bags and moved away. Their cities seemed intact to the only human expedition that ventured to their systems at the time of their disappearance. I suspect that with time their creations turned to dust as all systems do and the Theans in their obsession with collecting ancient art and tech visited and found those fascinating devices."
Abel thought a moment. "Do you think we can replicate them? Those neutron guns?"
Professor Ollon laughed. "Yes. Give me a thousand years, an unlimited budget, and twenty Nomi's and we could make a few." Then Ollon laughed again. "I'm sorry Abel but we are just ants among Epigoni giants."
Abel changed the subject. "How are Nomi's investigations coming along?"
Ollon replied, "Well Nomi does not talk to me directly, however on occasion she writes an equation and wants me to review it. Which I do. I once found an error." Again Ollon laughed. "I've looked at and proofed perhaps two dozen of her equations and I found one error. Actually I was quite proud."
"And Nomi's reaction?"
Ollon smiled, "There was none. No reaction at all. She just accepted the correction as if I were brushing crumbs from off the coffee table. A few moments later she modified the equation and handed it to me without saying anything."
Ollon paused a moment and continued. "What I know of Nomi's project I learn by observing her work and that includes her equations." The professor pointed across the room to a wall of white boards all covered with mathematical statements. "It is clear to me that she continues to work on gravity and that includes her 'jar' project and her attempts to understand how Greayson developed GWP. There is another aspect of her work that I cannot fathom but I know she spends considerable time on it. That messenger that passed through Wu and went the wrong way into a portal seemed to have triggered something. And that's about all I know of that mysterious project. As for the 'jar' she thinks that is finished and has no interest in it. Emmitt or one of the physicists or engineers occasionally shows up to ask a question which Nomi tries to answer, but if they don't understand her curt response she becomes rather short tempered. I am afraid they no longer ask her questions but instead make guesses about her intent and that does make me rather nervous at times."
"And the GWP?"
"Ah, yes." replied Professor Ollon. "She is clearly making progress. She had been quite frustrated several weeks ago and that was obvious in her attitude. But with the unloading of that GWP fragment, and what she calls the 'Gravitic Assembler' from that big crate, she seems intensely focused and ..."
Here Abel could see Ollon seeking the right word to describe Nomi's mental state.
Ollon continued, "I guess happy is the word. The change in her attitude and her attitude to others is dramatically different. Not that she really interacts with the lab rats, but she is clearly no longer annoyed by their presence. I am sure she is making some very real progress, but I simply don't know what that progress is or how long her GWP project
will continue. For that matter I am unsure if her work will have any meaningful application to us here in the Commonwealth.
Abel took a long look about the laboratory, thanked Professor Ollon for his time, and set out for his office and the never ending pile of 'paper work'.
...
New Horizons - Destructor New Hildr - Year 3248 March 18 ET 06:00
New Hildr and Mist passed through the minefield leading to the distant Severan system. The flight would be a long one in the tunnel. Transit time would be eight days then from Severan to Wu another 90 days.
Farn carried with her a draft treaty with the Commonwealth that provided some protection for the New Horizons system in exchange for materials needed by the OCN. It had taken several days to sort through the capabilities of manufacturers in New Horizons, but eventually Farn discovered that the miners out among the asteroids had developed small, but very powerful nuclear explosives. Farn had checked the power of these explosives against what she knew of the nuclear explosives under development at the Collegium. She found that New Horizons manufactured explosives were very close to the yield of 'K' class missiles. Farn carried 10 of these explosives in her hold and was told by the Prolocutor that if required New Horizons could produce these in quantity if given a year. Farn asked what he meant by quantity and he replied perhaps a thousand or more annually. However the Prolocutor also indicated that they would begin production immediately on the explosives in order to further mine the entry and exit portals regardless of their plea to join in an alliance with the Commonwealth.
Before departure New Hildr and Mist unloaded its' remaining seeker mines to the two freighters remaining in the New Horizons system and instructed their crews in the care and maintenance of the mines. The New Horizons Armada was reborn now as two mine laying ships which patrolled the portals of the system. As they left they dropped a portal monitor and a mailbox and then set out for Severan.
New Horizons would be on its' own for some time before the OCN could dispatch another ship. How long Farn did not know, but she did know that that ship could never arrive too soon to satisfy New Horizons.
Chapter One Hundred Two
Eleos System - Entry Portal from Zhao - Greenland - Year 3248 May 24 ET 19:01
The SAR Olrun with Captain Nieve Vilulf entered the Eleos system first having launched probes hours before. Twenty minutes later Greenland with Captain Meg Asgeir and Commodore Helen Rebbah followed. The system of Eleos itself was something of a surprise and a dead brown star emitting very little heat dominated the system. There were no planets to speak of, but about four hundred million kilometres from the brown dwarf was an enormous belt of asteroids, dust, and gas. And somewhere hidden in all that cosmic debris lay the hidden Greayson ship yards of Eleos. Finding the yards was going to be a challenge.
Helen examined the scan carefully. She had a full map of most of the system. The high asteroid belt was the most logical place for a ship works to be located in this otherwise empty system. But a few small bits of interstellar debris circulated around the system on seemingly random orbits close to the dead sun. Helen wondered, where would I hide a ship yard in this system?
The asteroid belt was the obvious answers. The belt was not uniform in its' distribution as the grouping of rocks seemed to clump and gather in various orbital locations. Helen though that they would need to check out each clump individually to locate the ship yards. However the Greenland's pilot estimated that searching all of the belt might take over a year. Each cluster of rocks might well hide a shipyard and there were over a thousand of such clusters.
Scans for energy signatures produced no result. The ship yard had probably been shut down over 160 years ago and by this time even fusion engine set to idle would have gone cold. Helen decided that there was no other option but to search each cluster one by one.
Helen ordered the SAR Olrun with Captain Nieve Vilulf to proceed with the search in a counter clockwise direction while Greenland instituted a search in the opposite direction. That might well limit the search to something less than a year.
Sixteen days later and with no results, Helen thought to herself; if I were to hide a shipyard, even a small one, where might I place it? Clearly the first answer was in the asteroid belt. If Unity had come this way it may well have searched for months before finding the yards. On the other hand perhaps hiding the site in plane sight might be the answer.
Helen ordered a further scan of the few lower orbital bodies circling the dead brown star that was Eleos. The scan revealed nothing, but Helen did not give up. She took Greenland lower and into the region of the few rocks circulating the brown dead star. There were only six clusters of orbital debris that might hide even a small ship yard and after examining three Helen was about to give up. Then on the fourth scan they hit something.
Greenland had found an anomaly in the gravity signature of one cluster and Helen ordered that the transponder of Greenland be initiated. The response to the Greayson ship transponder was immediate. A faint, yet detectible response was herd. The Greayson shipyard at Eleos responded. They had found the shipyard.
Helen ordered the SAR Olrun to approach the station with extreme caution. Three days were required before approaching a boarding location and during that time both Olrun and Greenland continuously scanned the station and its' immediate vicinity. Nothing lit a red light in Helen's mind, but caution was needed here. Olrun began to creep inward toward what was an asteroid excavated in such a way as to serve as a ship yard. Upon close examination it was clear that the ship yard was only partially completed and several incomplete SAR hulls were evident within the hollow core of the asteroid. Also within the core were two ships apparently completed. One was the repair ship spotted earlier and the second was some kind of messenger ship or what Helen chose to call a 'rapid runner'. The station itself was dead cold, which in Helen's mind was a good sign. Her marines would face no opposition in boarding the long quiet ship yard of Eleos.
Helen had Olrun pull away from the station but still to provide cover in the event of untoward reaction to her arrival. 32 OCN marines under the command of Wain Peters and Jerry Renner suited up and prepared to board the long dead station. Moments later Greenland docked and the Marines stormed aboard only to find a vacuum, refuse, and the signs of a quickly abandoned orbital station. The station was cold.
Moment later Helen approached the transfer dock and entered the station. She was a Commodore after all, and Abel's admonition about Captain's not leaving the ship were clearly in her mind. However she was a Commodore.
The dock was a mess. Debris from discarded clothing, suitcases, food wrappers, and children's toys littered the dock. They had left in a hurry Helen realized. Helen and her OCN Marines proceeded directly to the hub and to the fusion engines that powered the station. The trip was short, but the signs of a hasty evacuation and the tragedy that had resulted was obvious. Several bodies were found in the passageway including two children who obviously had not left the station in time to catch one of the departing ships. Helen pressed on and upon entering the hub and examining the fusion engines she realized that the station had remained cold for too long. There was no way of restoring power other than bringing new fusion engines from Jamon to replace those that had died on the station due to lack of maintenance and age.
With the station secured, Helen ordered a thorough search of the facilities with emphasis on the auto fabricators which lined the exterior of the dock. She also had two of her marines and a maintenance engineer inspect the repair ship and the 'fast runner'' which were docked near the entry to the asteroid.
The repair ship 0345 was intact and her two comps, one for flight and the other for repair of damaged Greayson ships seemed to be whole. Helen realized that this was a major find and that a repair ship was desperately needed in the continuing fight against the Megra. Upon learning that 0345 was a functioning warship Helen assigned her second pilot from Greenland and a crew to restore the ship to flight. The ship was cold and it would take well ove
r a week to restore the ship to a condition in which a crew might live.
The fast runner, 014, was serviceable as well, but rather than assign a crew to fly her home Helen decided to open the largest cargo bay, bring 014 into the hold, and ferry her back to Jamon. The crew needed to fabricate a nesting cradle and the effort took some time to complete.
On the Eleos yard itself her crew found a great variety of ship building automata, but most were huge and so integrated with the yard's controls that removing them was useless. Perhaps, thought Helen, some future voyage might figure out how to bring these valued ship building components back to Jamon, but for now simply tinkering with them was dangerous.
Within one storage section Helen's crew found six anti-matter containment bottles. They were complete and their telltales indicated they were intact. Helen was pleased, but she ordered her crew to search fully for either more bottles or the means for fabricating anti-matter explosives. No such fabricators were found. To Helen's mind the old Greayson command had centralized the production of these bottles and sent them to Eleos only as needed. And with the destruction of the Greayson home world the manufacturing of the weapons had been lost.
But many of the fabricators needed for building ships were found as well as completed subassemblies. Entire pursers office modules, mess stations, bridge comps, and many other fabrication systems or sub assemblies were located and most were mobile. Helen knew that she would be returning to Jamon with a cornucopia of critical OCN support equipment. That is if they survived the return.
However the really big modules needed for the construction of entire ships such as SARs or even Greenland itself, which had originated here in Eleos, could not be moved. Even trying to detach some of these systems was ruled by her engineers as dangerous. The entire station was an integrated whole, and removing one of the major ship building systems was doomed to failure. The sub assembly fabricators were however stand alone units and could be easily transferred to Greenland.
