She blushed.
Jessica snorted.
I shrugged helplessly, not quite sure myself why her deadly intelligence was such a turn on to me.
“That’s kind of amazing. What if the enemy hits one of those stored missiles while it’s still in the hull?”
She nodded, “It’s a small risk, the missiles will be like a turned off reactor until they’re ejected from the ship, so there’d be no secondary explosions if the enemy broke through the shield and hit one still in the hull. I suppose if an enemy beam or missile hits our missile right as it’s leaving the ship, that explosion would harm the ship. One way to get around that danger is to eject the missiles opposite the enemy, and then have them fly around our ship then toward the enemy. By the time they could be hit with enemy ordinance, the missiles will be shielded themselves and far enough away that we wouldn’t be harmed from backlash.
“Of course, that’s only a danger if our ships shields have gone down, in which case we’d be in deep shit and taking damage already. With the shields up, it gives the missile plenty of time to power up, raise shields, and will be outside of our shield before it can be hit, which all in my opinion weighs positive in the risk verse reward quotient.”
I nodded, “I had no idea, but I didn’t expect this. I’m more than impressed.”
She grinned, and she held out her pad.
I sent my magic into it, and I absorbed all the tech and how to build it. Of course, all that was already on the computers, I wouldn’t have to use my power to upgrade the station’s offenses and defenses, but the point was I could now build it from scratch, and I’ll add it to my powered suit.
“I’ll get all those upgrades on our station and daughter probe ships. Obviously, any ships we sell won’t have that technology in it, shields or weapons. I’ll also start offloading the nine hundred fusion plants we have as I build new ships that we’re selling, eventually we’ll be powered by the nanites only. Anything else going on?”
She nodded, “Not related to defense or the station. We’re close to unpaired quantum communication, but it’s still finicky. Other stuff is just life improvement and convenience type things, I’ll let you know when any of it needs to be added to our offered products online.”
I nodded. That sounded fine, it’d probably take her hours a day to keep me fully updated on what she had going on. It made more sense to just worry about communicating the stuff that solidifies into viable products, and god knows I wouldn’t understand the pure research at that level of science, so there was no point discussing those past what she dropped out of excitement in our everyday conversation.
She added, “I think we should wait another year and ten months for the life extension, and other biological upgrades we may want to try. Two years should give us some surety there won’t be problems, given the Vax’s track record with medicine.”
“But…” I asked.
She smirked, “Two months seems long enough for the AR implant testing, there’s been no negative side effects, and they have no radiation at all being quantumly paired so there’s no unknown risk in longer exposure. I know you’ve been dying to try them, and I’m pretty curious myself. Phone, internet, television, entertainment, meetings, VR simulations, all in our heads and on virtual overlays. Not to mention notes, contacts, organization, and all that.”
I said excitedly, “Jess, I’ll be right back, we’re going to medical.”
They both snickered.
Regardless, the Augmented Reality implants were cool, and could replace about every personal electronics device out there, but in the end, it was just another tech toy even if it did replace my cellphone, television, and personal computer, putting it all in my head and literally at the tip of my thoughts. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, or that I wasn’t totally geeking out. Got to love those Vax.
I also supposed waiting another twenty-two months wouldn’t make much difference in the genetic life extension therapy. We were both young and healthy, and in the end, it wouldn’t make it less effective.
It also wasn’t lost on me after Diana’s presentation, that powered nanite suits were possible now, instead of using my magic. But… they were incredibly dangerous, even just one nanite overloading could be deadly in a thin layer of nanites over soft flesh. Otherwise I’d have built one to keep Diana safe, but for now I stuck with my own, which was self-powered through my Technomancer magic.
Chapter Nine
“Morning.”
The coffee cup in my hand steamed, and I took a small sip.
Jessica smirked, “Morning, boss. The computer flagged some traffic last night when we were asleep, which was a bit odd, you should take a look first. I don’t want to bias you.”
I grunted, and then took another sip of life-giving coffee as I sat down and brought up the logs.
The computers flagged any ships leaving and coming into the system, or that’s how I set it up. Obviously, that didn’t happen a whole lot yet, the Vax had only visited once and so far they hadn’t been back. No doubt waiting for our phone call to order more stuff. There were some human merchant ships out there, I’d sold a few, but not all that many yet, and none of the rich people that bought an interstellar yacht had left the solar system yet.
I reviewed the logs, and ten scout ships… the original crash-landed kind that I’d first reversed engineered with my magic from the grays, had come in system early last night. They’d set course for Earth, so I hadn’t been notified of it as they weren’t judged a danger to the station in the least.
The fleet around Earth responded and moved to intercept, but then suddenly stopped and returned to their station keeping around the planet. The logs traced them all going down to Earth, loading up with people and supplies, then taking off and heading back out. The sensors didn’t have enough data to tell how much they’d loaded up, but ten scout ships could hold a lot of people and supplies, a whole lot.
At that time, the ten ships were still in system, heading back out to where they could build a wormhole at sixty gravities. What set off the most alarm bells in my mind, was where they’d picked up people and supplies. The U.S., England, and Germany.
Son of a bitch, I was an idiot, a big dumb idiot. The U.S. wasn’t blackmailing the other two countries to not recognize me, they were bribing them. This wasn’t good.
I ran a search of all the logs for some specific information, and they came back negative. Damnit all to hell.
“I’m getting Cassie in here, but I already have a good idea what happened, what is happening. At the same time, I have no idea what to do about it.”
Jessica sighed, “Me either, based on your face I’m guessing my alarming conclusions are the same as yours?”
I laughed, “Possibly. Let’s wait though, I don’t want to beat a horse twice.”
Cassie showed up looking fantastic as usual, and at my direction took an independent look. It only took her a few minutes to catch up, and she didn’t look all that happy either.
Cassie blew out a breath, “They’re picking up command crews for a fleet. They must’ve been building one in another solar system for the last three and a half months, since they tried to take you out and you took them out of space. But how, none of the ships you sold or gave to the other countries to defend Earth have that capability.”
I smirked, and looked at Jessica, who just shrugged at me. Rather than drag out the suspense, I took over.
“The tattle-tale ship. I just checked the logs, and the scout ship they launched and sent to the Grays right after battle, but before confronting us, never came back. I can only assume they heard what happened, and they have a top-secret entangled communication device on board which they used to get secret orders. I feel foolish for not noticing they never came back, but in all the excitement it fell through the cracks. So… that one scout was the only ship the U.S. still had three and a half months ago.
“Let’s assume worse case, that they were told to build a fleet. Let’s also assume that fleet is two weeks away from being done, whi
ch would give the command crews some time to familiarize themselves with systems before their armed fleet comes back to Earth space. In two weeks, it will also not so incidentally, be right after I turn over the eight colony ships.
“They probably timed it that way on purpose, because they know I could repurpose all that mass into thirty-six large battleships in less than an hour, it’s already built after all. Or almost built. Back to the point.
“So, first week they make five scouts with the one scout, second week twenty-five for a total of thirty, then one hundred fifty for the third week with a total of one eighty. The fourth week they could build nine hundred more, or a total of one thousand and eighty. Then, over the last three months, they could build out every one of those scout ships into a large mile long battleship.”
They both looked shocked.
I shrugged, “That’s worst case. Of course, in truth, it’s probably a lot less than that. I don’t think they could have fit twenty thousand people for command crews on just ten scout ships. Still, even if they only took two thousand people, command crews for a hundred large battleships which is only a tenth of the worst-case scenario, they’d still out-mass us twenty-five to one. But… only three to one, if they attack us before I turn over and release the colony ships. So let’s assume they aren’t stupid, and we have at least two weeks to work on a solution.
“I’m not sure if I’m more worried that they’ll be coming for us again, or about the fact that three countries now have interstellar ships capable of conflict. No doubt, after killing me, those three countries will take over selling ships, and eventually all countries will have an armed interstellar presence. Not to mention, they’ll be able to fire on Earth, and other country’s ships.”
Cassie sighed, “I don’t see any flaws in your theory, but chances are they won’t be simple battle ships. The U.S. did have all those templates, just no ships left to apply them too. I think Diana created several classes of ship, at least in theory. They could use those fighters, have carriers, and a mixture of different kinds.”
I nodded, “I was more concerned with the mass. That will be more telling than anything else in a battle. Surprise matters, but we’ll have hours to scan the fleet that shows up, and house to come up with counters if anything puts our plan in doubt. Of course, my four times a mile-long ship mass should only have sixty-four reactors, but we have nine hundred. That will make a huge difference as well, stronger shields, and able to fire more point defense and missiles. Not to mention Diana’s upgrades. Still, it won’t help that much, the station isn’t nine times as capable, because mass determines processing power, how many locks at once and all that.
“Regardless, we need to come up with a defense plan, or prepare to run so we can play the build game and come back. Ideas?”
Cassie said, “We should detach the civilian part of the station, just like we would in an alien attack.”
I nodded, “Of course, it’d be contemptible to hide behind civilian lives. It also wouldn’t work I don’t think. There’s only three resorts, and a few bars and clubs, so it should be easy enough to just lose the top level, make it a probe ship of sorts where we’d still control it. The automated farms can stay with us. If they’re going to attack us, we should also clear the docking ports.
“Perhaps most significantly, we have all of Diana’s upgrades. That will make a big difference. I’ve also built several million missiles the last three months, which can be converted to the new ones easily enough. In fact, that’s mostly done already.
“Lastly, the thirty-six probe ships, I should be able to make those nanite power houses, and in the next two weeks grow them to large battle ship size. They’d easily grow six times faster, two weeks instead of three months. Added to the station’s mass, assuming they do have a hundred ships and not more, that’d be five to two on mass, instead of twenty-five to one. Which while not great, is a hell of a lot better.”
Jessica asked, “Can you do that with the station?”
I shook my head, “Too dangerous. Though we could double the size in two weeks, with nine hundred reactors. The problem is the other ships would see us doubling the size of the station, and the U.S. might abort and keep building. I’m afraid we need to look weaker, or they’ll double their ante too, and depend on the new defense and weapons Diana has given us.”
Cassie said, “Won’t they see the small probes becoming the mass equivalent of mile long warships?”
I shook my head, “The reason I have probes at all is to see the blind spots of the inner system, because we can’t see those approaches from L1, or from Earth. The Earth fleet is stationed around the planet, and don’t have probes out. Right now, all of those ships are positioned where they can’t be seen, to monitor the approaches and spaces we can’t see. They are all in the inner system though, before Jupiter, so as soon as the US, Germany, and England fleet shows up we can call them in. At that point, they won’t have a choice and will be committed to their course.
“I’ll also be turning off the probe ships higher energy production at that point, and initiating the safer spread out nanite power cores, so the whole probe ship won’t blow up if their shields are breached.”
Cassie sighed, “And sending out more probes to build, so we can come closer to parity?”
I nodded, “They’ll see me spin out the new ships, which will get them wondering what’s going on. If any of the ships in Earth orbit investigates, they’ll see our current probe ships growing.”
Cassie nodded, “I came to the same conclusion, I was just hoping you’d see a way around it.”
Jessica said, “Okay, one thing we haven’t covered, what if they don’t attack. What if they just move in with their fleet, and open up trade, and start selling their ships which won’t be locked down at all. The other countries would stop buying from you at that point. I mean, you have those new missiles with no range, but chances are they won’t declare their intentions as soon as they get in system, or even set course directly toward the station to keep you guessing.
“Which will take that advantage off the board.”
Cassie sighed, “She’s right, we can’t fire first.”
“The cloaking and taking over their ships won’t work either, we have to assume they’ve figured that part out. Still, I could design tiny probes and put them out there, say the size of a softball, and see if I can get any close enough, but us going out there like last time would be suicide.”
Cassie said, “Agreed. All they’d have to do was tune the sensors a little differently, and they’d see us. If they’re smart, all their sensors will be tuned slightly differently, so that we can’t adjust, going after one ship that way would be seen by the rest.”
“Back to Jessica’s point. If they move in peaceably, and just open up a competitive ship building platform or space station, I’d be more than happy with that. So what if they don’t buy our warships anymore. We sell a lot of non-war products, and we can handle a little competition. Even if they won a selling war there, we are highly diversified, including tourism. We’re also self-sufficient enough and have enough money to stay in the black for the next several thousand years, I’m not worried about competition at all. At worst, our city would grow at a slower rate. Still, something tells me that’s wishful thinking.”
Jessica asked, “Why? I mean, I kind of agree, but why do you think so?”
I said, “They’d have acknowledged us as a country if they wanted peace with me and to give up on their vendetta. They wouldn’t have sent an assassin two weeks ago. Acknowledging us would prevent me from attacking them neatly, and it’d give them the high ground. No, they’re still calling us terrorists on the news, and trying to get other countries to repudiate their acknowledgment. No, they’ll attack, the only question is how, when, and how they’ll spin it and justify it to the rest of the world. Without acknowledging us, no U.N. membership, no sanctions if they cross a line. Even if there was an outcry by other countries, the U.S. would have all the leverage.
Cassie said, “The people would be pissed, our products are very popular on Amazon, and I’d imagine they will continue to be until the power, communications, and travel upgrades are more mainstream. Still, that wouldn’t really change anything.”
I nodded. I also got started on my plan, the build thirty-six ships quickly plan. Hopefully, our guesses were right, and that would cut down the odds to below double digits, five to two was a hell of a lot better than twenty-five to one.
“Okay, let’s assume we win, that Diana’s upgrades and my overpowered space station will overcome those odds. Let’s decide now what happens then, because right after the battle I’m going to be very pissed off, feeling self-righteous, and once again in command of the only ordinance that can target Earth. Say, Washington, DC. Oh, we also need to take one of their ships, even if we have to beat it down first. I want to know where their build system is, if we win this battle we can’t afford to have another one in four more months, and we’ll have to assume they’ll leave behind a ship or two. That means at least one of their ships, we send no disintegration missiles against it.”
I had those smaller probe missile ships that I could send my magic through, to appropriate a ship no matter its internal security or permissions, but the trick would be getting that missile close enough to take over their systems and get into their data, specifically their navigation data. Having a copy of their plan would help too, when I shared it with the world, and embarrassed them with their perfidy.
I had all the leverage there, on my ships that I sold to defend their solar systems, the armed ones would be stuck there. They were essentially un-hackable and locked down to defend their own solar system and not be copied, and not attack allies or planets. Sure, at some point they’d figure out how to build their own nanite, and replicate that out with whatever programming they wanted, but that would take a long while. For now, they were stuck with copying what they had. It was my own damned fault for completely forgetting the tattle-tale scout ship they’d sent out, and that I hadn’t found and destroyed three and a half months ago.
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