by Doug Farren
Each construction dock consisted of a single deep pit gouged into the surface of the moon. Cranes and derricks lined the upper levels. Vast, automated, underground factories churned out the modular components used to build the ships. A complex tunnel system connected these factories with the construction pits. Each pit was protected by a defense shield, a ring of powerful lasers and three sledgehammers.
In orbit above the main Olympus shipyard other ships were being built. These were far too large to be built on the surface of the moon. One of these was the carrier Yamato. Nearly sixty percent complete, she was a massive ship built to transport 72 Defender class sub-light fighters as well as 12 Hammerhead class fighters. The Hammerheads mounted more missiles, larger lasers, and were also capable of faster than light speeds. A second carrier, the Washington was also under construction and was just over thirty percent complete.
In addition to the massive shipyards and orbital construction platforms, Olympus base harbored a sophisticated military training academy. The future defenders of Earth came here to receive their final training in the operation and maintenance of the ships they would be manning. Fighter pilots trained in simulators that accurately simulated the ships they would be flying. Other simulators reproduced the bridge and other essential areas of the larger ships being introduced into the Earth fleet.
Activity went on at Olympus base 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Crews worked ten hour shifts five days a week. Because of the nature of the base, there were no vacations, holidays, or communications with those back on Earth. The workers were paid well and accepted the hardships of their labor without complaint. Each man and woman, no matter their nationality or religion, knew they were working to create the only means of defending Earth against an attack from space.
Although Olympus base had been built by the Earth Defense Ministry, all of its personnel came from countries making up or allied with the American Alliance. (The American Alliance had replaced NATO when that organization failed to bow to the wishes of the United States.) It was no coincidence that the head of the EDM was a British citizen.
When the countries of the Earth had formed the World Council they had elected the president of the most powerful nation on the planet to be the head of the new government. This made the President of the United States the defacto President of the planet. It was no coincidence that his appointment to head the defense of the entire Earth would be a citizen from a nation loyal to the United States.
The EDM, following the policies of the World President, had built and staffed the Olympus base using people only from those nations on good terms with the United States. Even though the Earth had a global government, that government, for the most part, was only concerned with affairs dealing with non-Humans. Nations that had been at odds with other nations before the creation of the World government were still at odds with each other. Chinese citizens were still under the microscope of their government and their freedom severely restricted. The Arab world still looked upon Israel and the United States as evil empires that should be wiped out.
Olympus base, in actuality, had become an American Alliance base and the ships that were being built there were AmAl ships. Granted, the warships were built in the best interest of Earth as a whole, but in the end AmAl controlled them.
If all went as planned, Earth’s first fleet of heavy warships would enter service in just over eight months. Until that day, the only visible indication that Earth was building a defense network would be the military bases and shipyards near Earth. These included the sprawling Tycho base, located on the moon, and an orbital fortress.
Tycho base was located in the Tycho crater basin on Earth’s moon. It was not only a gigantic military base, but also a massive shipyard turning out Defender and Hammerhead class fighters as well as Guardian class patrol ships. Many of the fighters remained at Tycho base and formed Earth’s primary close-in defense network.
A huge fortress orbiting the Earth directly opposite the moon was also under construction. This fortress, named the Armstrong station, would soon be the home of additional fighters providing a second defensive position to protect Earth.
The Earth Defense Ministry was not alone in its shipbuilding activities. Several countries had begun construction of their own warships. The Chinese had three operational light cruisers with four larger cruisers and several smaller vessels under construction at their own moon base. The United Arab Nations had completed two cruisers and were building six more in high Earth orbit. The Americans had launched three cruisers with eight under construction at the Newport News shipyard. The EU also had started construction on six cruisers. None of these ships were nearly as capable as those being built by the Olympus shipyard.
Tycho base and the Armstrong station were international military installations. The sledgehammer, however, was an American invention and all information concerning its capabilities, design, or operating principles was a closely guarded secret. As far as Earth intelligence could determine, none of the members of the Consortium possessed a weapon resembling the sledgehammer and Earth wanted to keep it that way. All sledgehammer installations, whether they be aboard ship or ground-based, were built at a secure AST facility, shipped in shielded containers, installed by AST personnel, and off-limits to everyone except the very few who were authorized.
In addition to the larger ships being built, many of Earth’s nations were building and staging short-range fighters. The influx of advanced technology had triggered an arms race as each nation struggled to keep their military supplied with the most advanced weaponry possible.
25
First Fleet
===============================================
===== February 2, 2062 (Terran calendar) =====
===============================================
“Admiral on the bridge. Attention on deck!” the marine at the door announced while simultaneously snapping to attention.
“As you were!” the admiral replied without any hesitation. “What is our status?” he asked as he approached the captain’s chair. His sharp gray eyes quickly scanned the entire bridge taking in all the relevant details.
Captain Reinhold remained seated in his command chair and replied, “All ships report ready. The fleet’s navigational computers have been linked. Scouts report no contacts along our planned trajectory. We can leave any time you wish sir.”
Admiral Christopher Fitzgerald III allowed his gaze to sweep the bridge once more. The tension could be seen as well as felt. This was a momentous occasion for humanity. He still had a hard time believing that the ship had been built by Human hands. As a child he had been an avid science fiction fan but he had never thought that one day he would find himself in command of a starship much less a fleet of warships. He knew that the crew was anxious to return to Earth. Most of them had been on Olympus for over a year.
Raising his voice so it would carry across the bridge he said, “You may proceed captain. Set your course for Earth.”
“Aye aye sir! Helm, bring the fleet to course two three seven mark eight one. Set your speed at 430c.”
The helm repeated the command and turned to his console. A moment later, the Yamato along with her fourteen support ships simultaneously engaged their stardrives and departed the Olympus shipyard. The navigational computers aboard all the ships of the fleet had been linked to the Yamato’s computer to allow the entire fleet to travel as a cohesive unit. All ships were being controlled by the Yamato’s helm.
The course the fleet had set was not directly toward Earth, which was their final destination, but toward an otherwise empty area of space. In order to keep the location of Olympus a secret for as long as possible, the fleet was taking a convoluted route away from the shipyard toward Earth. Instead of requiring just over a day to reach their final destination, this course would cause the trip to take nearly twice as long.
After observing the smooth departure, the admiral said, “Very good captain. Continue to follow the planned route unles
s other ships are detected. Please inform me when we are on final approach to Earth. I will be in my stateroom until then.”
“Aye sir,” the captain replied as the Admiral turned and left the bridge. Humanity’s first fleet of warships was on its way to Earth. The fleet consisted of the carrier Yamato, ten Enterprise class cruisers, and four Thor class battleships.
Two days later, the Admiral was once again on the Yamato’s bridge. He stood silently behind the captain’s chair watching the smooth operation of the well-trained bridge crew. A short time ago, the fleet had passed through the invisible, highly sensitive deep-space detection network. Earth was now aware of their impending arrival.
“Stardrive power demand is increasing due to gravitational interference,” the helm reported. This was a normal and expected report. The Kauffman stardrive utilized complex interlaced fields of force that interacted with space itself. These fields had to be precisely matched to the constantly changing structure of the local space-time continuum. If space was flat and smooth then the structure of the drive fields was less complex and thus less power-hungry. The closer the fleet approached the sun, the greater the warping of space by the sun’s gravitational field and thus more and more power had to be poured into the drive.
The captain called up the essential drive parameters on his console and watched as the power being fed to the stardrive quickly ramped up until it was nearing the maximum allowable. The display was actually not that of his ship, but of the most limiting ship in the fleet. “Max power limit reached,” the helm reported. “Decreasing speed to maintain acceptable power limits.”
The helm now had to perform a delicate balancing act. The closer to Earth they approached, the more warped space became requiring the ships to either draw more power or slow down. The helm had to balance the desired speed with the maximum allowable power the most limiting ship's drive could handle. The fleet slowed as it approached Earth. Eventually, the fleet penetrated so far into the sun’s gravitational well that a stable drive field could no longer be maintained. “Transition to normal space in fifteen seconds,” the helm announced.
At the appointed time, the entire fleet dropped out of faster than light drive as a single unit. “Transition to normal space complete—sublight engines online.”
“I have both the Tycho and the primary Earth navigational beacons,” the navigator announced. “Breakout occurred at 3.61 million kilometers from Earth. Calculating inter-system intrinsic course corrections to achieve proper trajectory for lunar orbital insertion.”
The sun and the Olympus shipyard had a velocity difference between them. Because the stardrive does not affect the normal space velocity of a ship, this difference appeared when the fleet dropped out of stardrive. The next few minutes were spent adjusting the fleet’s velocity and course so as to allow it to assume an orbit around the moon.
“Communications from Tycho base,” the communications officer announced.
The captain touched a button on his console and one of his screens came to life with the face of a female petty officer. “Tycho base, this is Captain Reinhold of the ES Yamato. First fleet is requesting permission to assume lunar orbit.”
“First fleet is granted permission to assume lunar orbit. Orbital coordinates are being transmitted via the navigational sub-carrier. Tycho base welcomes you.”
“Thank you Tycho base. Yamato out.”
A few hours later, Earth’s first heavily armed fleet of warships slipped into orbit around the moon. It was an event long awaited by Earth’s military. It was a complete surprise to the Consortium and to several of Earth’s nations.
* * * * *
The communications operator looked up from his console to verify that Commander Mernaga was within earshot and said, “Commander, urgent encrypted communications from freighter TR 291.”
The commander’s brow furled as he tried to recall any information he may have on the specified ship. Nothing came to mind. “Where is TR 291 currently located and who is its captain?”
The operator queried the warship's central database and replied, “TR-291 is in Earth orbit. Captain Fusthala tey In’Chney commanding.”
The information did nothing to jog his memory. The fact that the ship was in Earth orbit, however, did bump the importance up several notches. “Very well,” he replied. “Transfer to my console.” The commander entered a few commands into his console to retrieve and decrypt the message.
A moment later the screen showed the face of a Tholtaran captain. “Commander Mernaga, standing order AX11 directs all ships to report any unusual activity by Humans directly to you. A few moments ago, a fleet of Human warships assumed orbit around their moon. I have scanned the ships with all available nonactive sensors. The results of these scans are being transmitted on the data subchannel for your analysis. End of report.”
A Human fleet? Human warships? Mernaga called up the subchannel and fed it to the tactical computer for analysis. A moment later, the computer displayed a summary of the fleet’s composition. The commander’s jaw tightened as he scanned the results. So, the Humans do have a hidden shipyard. Our suspicions have been confirmed.
The commander sat in thought for several minutes. Coming to a decision, he fired off an encrypted message to the Tholtaran military command detailing the latest developments regarding the Humans and requesting several specialized ships be assigned to his command. He then started to formulate a new, more aggressive plan for locating the hidden shipyard.
* * * * *
“We demand access to these new warships!” the Chinese representative shouted. “As a member of the World Council we have this right.”
The UAN representative several seats down stood up and interrupted, “The United Arab Nations not only demands similar access, but we also demand to know where these ships were built and what countries are manning them. It is clear to us that although these ships were built under the guise of the Earth Defense Ministry, they are crewed and commanded by western nations. This is intolerable.”
“Honorable members of the United Nations,” the American ambassador calmly replied without bothering to stand. The ships making up first fleet have been built by the EDM at a secret shipyard located in another star system. These ships incorporate the latest technological advances in defense systems. To preserve the safety of the facility, the location of the shipyard has been known only to a very select few. The ships are crewed by a multinational crew loyal to Earth.”
“Multinational!” the UAN representative shouted a split second before the Chinese ambassador who had also started to rise. “To my knowledge, no UAN military are aboard those ships.”
“Nor Chinese!” the Chinese ambassador added.
“We do not deny the fact that not all nations have been included in the crew manifest. If I recall correctly, the UAN and several other nations have built and deployed ships of their own. Ships, I might add, that are crewed entirely by military personnel from the countries that have built them. Are you therefore proposing that all ships recognizing the authority of the EDM be crewed by an equal mix of military from all nations? Will the UAN or the Chinese governments allow the crews of the ships they have built to be replaced by multinational crews?”
The Chinese ambassador took a deep breath and said, “It would not be efficient to have a mixed crew unless all crew members were fluent in a common language. The goal is to provide a uniform representation of all nations in the makeup of our defense force. My country is objecting to the fact that these new ships were built in secret without our knowledge. I would like to formally request that we be allowed to examine the technical plans for the new ships so that any new technologies can be incorporated into our own ships. In this way, we can ensure that all the ships defending Earth are equipped with the best technology available.”
“The United Arab Nations seconds the proposal.”
“Come now Mr. Ambassador. Just because we have opened our borders to extraterrestrials does not mean we are also inclined to share
our military secrets with any country that might ask. If we were to do so would the United Arab Nations or China reciprocate and allow all other nations free and complete access to the technical plans of the ships that your respective nations have built?”
After a moment of silence, during which the ambassadors from the UAN and China sat and glared at the American ambassador, the American ambassador continued, “The ships of first fleet were built by an American firm using technology developed by American scientists and those of our allies. The ships themselves were indeed built using Ministry funds and are therefore under the command of the EDM, not the American military. But, this in no way implies that the ships are community property.”
“My government will not accept this,” the Chinese ambassador said with emphasis and finality.
“The UAN agrees with the honorable ambassador from China. I must confer with my government concerning this situation. I move for adjournment until tomorrow.”
A murmur of agreement swept the room. Two hours later, China and the UAN both announced that their ships would no longer be under the command of the Earth Defense Ministry. The EDM responded by ordering all Chinese and UAN citizens to leave EDM controlled facilities within 24 hours. Two days later, the UAN delivered an ultimatum to the United States: Share the technical plans for the ships making up first fleet or face a total embargo of all UAN supplied oil within sixty days.
Even at nearly $180.00 a barrel, oil was still a valued and necessary commodity to the American industrial machine. When the news of the impending embargo hit the streets the stock market tumbled causing the SEC to halt all trading to prevent a total meltdown. It seemed as if the unified Earth was becoming even more fragmented than before the creation of the World government.
