by Tori Harris
"Ingenuity and crew, it is my distinct honor to welcome you to Yucca Mountain. We’ll see you all on deck shortly. Captain Prescott, please proceed to Berth Nine when ready. Patterson out." With no further fanfare, the admiral’s image disappeared from the screen, replaced once again by a view of the mountain ahead.
Prescott was more than a little surprised that TFC had apparently thrown together an arrival ceremony under the circumstances. "Well, I don’t think any of us were expecting that," he said after pausing to collect his thoughts. "Looks like they have literally rolled out the red carpet for us, folks, so there are obviously lots of important people watching everything we do. With any luck, the AI will make us look good for the crowd, but stay sharp and be ready in case anything else unexpected happens."
"Captain," Lieutenant Dubashi said, "while the admiral was on-screen, I detected a gravitic field being generated on the mountainside directly ahead. Now it looks like there is some movement up there as well."
There was no need to zoom the image for a better view as a huge, square section of the mountain in front of the ship sank several meters below the surrounding surface.
"Whoa," Ensign Fisher exclaimed in spite of himself.
"I’m guessing that’s where we’re headed, Fisher," Prescott replied. "Engage AI for autolanding and stand by for manual override, if necessary."
"Aye, Captain," Blake replied, deploying the backup manual Helm controls at his console and struggling to stay on task in spite of the majestic scene playing out on the bridge view screen. "AI has the conn. Helm now answering autolanding cues from Yucca Mountain Shipyard."
"Thank you, Ensign. Acknowledged, AI has the conn."
On Yucca Mountain, the sunken area now began separating along its centerline, revealing that each side was a massive, two-hundred-meter-wide by four-hundred-meter-tall door. A mere thirty seconds later, each door had completely disappeared to either side of the opening. What remained was a gaping cavern entrance tall enough to accommodate the Empire State Building and with an area of nearly forty acres.
"Lieutenant Dubashi, can you tell us how much clearance we will have in that entryway?" Commander Reynolds asked.
"Yes, ma’am." Dubashi paused, checking the Sensor console, "The opening is four hundred meters square. Assuming the AI takes us up the center, we will have over one hundred fifty meters of clearance on each side, and one hundred eighty meters above and below."
As if on cue, the Helm console emitted a warning chime.
"Here we go, people. Stay sharp!" Prescott warned.
Before moving forward, the ship’s altitude was increased to match the vertical center of the entrance cavern. The AI made no attempt at a graceful approach, opting instead for slow, more traditional movements in one plane at a time. Although this deliberate, controlled movement was more than fine with her crew, the effect reminded Prescott of sitting on a roller coaster that was slowly clunking its way up the big hill before the sudden drop. Sure, it was nice and slow for now, the problem was worrying about what would happen next.
"Helm, feel free to call out our progress on the way in. I think it might make us all feel a little more comfortable," Prescott suggested.
"Aye, sir. So far so good. We are centered vertically on the entrance. Now moving forward again. Gravitic fields adjusted to twenty percent mass," Ensign Fisher replied.
The increase in gravitic field strength meant that Ingenuity’s thrusters were now only required to provide enough lift to counteract twenty percent of her one-hundred-eighty-thousand-ton mass. Once she reached her mooring, the field strength would be increased to reduce this percentage to near zero for a so-called "zero mass" touchdown. Once neutral buoyancy was achieved, the ship would remain suspended at the current altitude where it could then be lowered slowly onto either its own landing gear or dry-dock supports.
"Our berth is number nine. It should be just to the left of the entrance tunnel after we reach the shipyard itself," Lieutenant Lau announced from the Navigation console, feeling as if he needed to contribute something useful during the landing cycle.
"The approach plate includes a facility schematic," Commander Reynolds said. "There are a total of twenty berths; each is five hundred meters wide and at least eight hundred meters long. The largest ones look like they are well over a kilometer in length."
"I see. So I guess it’s safe to assume they didn’t build this facility just for a couple of Ingenuity-class starships then," Prescott remarked.
"Probably not, sir. I’d say this facility is designed for the production of capital ships."
With that, the ship proceeded into the entrance cavern. Less than a minute later, as soon as her stern was clear of the massive doors to the facility, the AI paused in the center of the cavern.
"Have we stopped moving, Ensign?" Prescott asked.
"Yes, sir, they stopped us just inside the doors. I’m guessing they plan to close them before they allow us to proceed."
"I was thinking the same thing. I’m sure they would like to keep those things closed as much as possible. It wouldn’t be much of a secret underground shipyard with half the mountain open for everyone to see, now would it?"
As predicted, the entrance cavern doors began closing behind the ship. The doors were remarkable feats of Pelaran-enhanced engineering in their own right. Previously, the largest doors ever constructed on Earth had been the Vehicle Assembly Building doors built by NASA for the Apollo program in 1966. The VAB doors had been one hundred thirty-nine meters high and thirty meters wide, took over forty-five minutes to open, and were reinforced only enough to withstand hurricane-force winds. By contrast, the Yucca Mountain Shipyard’s doors were nearly twenty times as large, all but invisible from the outside when closed, and designed to withstand all but the heaviest orbital bombardments, including a nuclear strike. They were so massive, in fact, that moving them at all would be next to impossible without the use of gravitic fields. Once their mass was largely nullified, however, simple electric motors performed the task with little difficulty.
On Ingenuity’s bridge, the view screen grew progressively darker as the doors closed behind them.
"Would you like external lighting or low light optics, Captain?" Lieutenant Dubashi offered.
"Thank you, Dubashi, but let’s hold off for just a bit. I’m guessing we won’t need either one," Prescott replied, playing a hunch.
Outside, the two massive doors once again made contact in the center of the cavern before the entire assembly moved forward until flush with the face of the mountain. On the bridge view screen, the already dim lighting ahead faded to complete darkness for a few seconds before the cavern immediately surrounding the ship was flooded with artificial light.
"Every single thing I’ve seen since we arrived makes me feel very small and insignificant," Reynolds remarked. "I keep fighting the urge to say ‘wow.’"
"I know what you mean, but I think you might want to save that sentiment for what’s at the end of this tunnel," Prescott said.
Outside the ship, the entrance cavern itself wasn’t particularly remarkable other than for its sheer size. The plasma-jet tunneling devices now used for constructing underground facilities resulted in a smooth, shiny texture on the walls reminiscent of polished marble. Only the lights in the immediate vicinity of the ship were illuminated. The darkness immediately ahead and behind the ship contributed to a feeling of isolation and enhanced the impression of the facility’s colossal scale. Other than lighting panels, the only equipment visible within the lit section of the two-kilometer-long tunnel was a network of rails supporting huge overhead gantry cranes.
"Sir, while we have been stationary, the AI has adjusted the gravitic fields to ten percent mass," Ensign Fisher reported.
Before Fisher could finish his sentence, the ship once again eased forward, continuing its slow, deliberate journey into the heart of Yucca Mountain. After a few minutes, a large series of windows came into view, most likely housing some sort of control room. At the
moment, the windows were lined with excited spectators, several of whom couldn’t resist waving as the ship passed by.
"Do you think it’s odd that we can’t see the end of this tunnel yet? If the approach diagram is correct, we should be entering the shipyard facility proper anytime," Reynolds asked.
The entrance cavern itself was perfectly straight, although it did have a downward slope. In spite of this, there was still no visible lighting beyond a point immediately ahead of the ship that presumably marked the transition to the shipyard facility itself. On the view screen, it looked as if the well-lit tunnel ended in a gaping maw of utter darkness.
"Unless I’m reading this wrong, I think the admiral may be putting on a little bit of a show for us," Prescott said, manually selecting the ship-wide intercom on his touchscreen. "All hands, this is the captain. We are about to enter the main cavern of the Yucca Mountain Shipyard. If you can safely take a look at a view screen as we enter, I don’t think you will be disappointed."
With that, Ingenuity slowly departed the last well-lit section of the entrance cavern, slipping silently into the darkness beyond. Behind the ship, all remaining lights were extinguished.
"Sir, we have stopped in the ‘roundhouse’ area just inside the entrance cavern. Gravitic fields have reached zero mass. They have also increased our altitude to within fifty meters of the ceiling. We are now holding position," Ensign Fisher reported.
The bridge view screen was designed to provide a panoramic, one-hundred-and-eighty-degree view of the space around the ship, including the view above and even immediately below the bow. Perhaps due to Admiral Patterson’s flair for the dramatic, the AI had positioned the ship within the cavernous open area at the center of the shipyard. The area was called the "roundhouse" with good reason. It provided ample room for a ship of more than a kilometer in length to turn in place, positioning itself to enter one of the largest berths or to exit the facility. It also provided an unobstructed view from one end of the ten-kilometer-long facility to the other.
In the distance, five kilometers to either side of the ship, lights appeared over what were presumably the two farthest berths from the entrance cavern. After a brief pause, the next two sets of lights were illuminated. It was impossible to see much detail at this distance, but it was clear that all eight berths contained Ingenuity-class frigates.
On the bridge, all five crewmembers turned to look at their captain, clearly taken aback by what they were seeing. Prescott simply nodded at the screen. "Keep watching and keep working, people, we’re not on the ground yet," he said quietly.
A few seconds later, the next six berths were illuminated, revealing sleek, predatory hulls at least three times Ingenuity’s size. Although their weapon types were unclear at this distance, there was no mistaking the fact that these too were ships of war, and of a far more powerful class if size was any indication.
After a final dramatic pause, the remaining six berths were illuminated. This included Berth Nine, which happened to be the only empty mooring in the shipyard at the moment. Four of the remaining five docks contained a third type of ship that Prescott immediately classified in his mind as heavy cruisers. Their nearly one-kilometer length bristled with massive beam emitters, which appeared to make up the bulk of their armament. Perhaps the most impressive features, however, were the enormous, fully articulated railgun turrets mounted fore and aft on both their dorsal and ventral surfaces. Each of these guns from hull mount to the tips of their barrels were nearly half of Ingenuity’s length.
Finally, inside one of the two largest berths immediately to the right of the entrance cavern was a ship whose function was not quite as obvious at first glance. The vessel was clearly moored at this location out of necessity, her immense size rendering her unlikely to negotiate the turns required for most of the other berths. The ship’s hull was longer than the heavy cruisers, but decidedly more rectangular in appearance, perhaps in an effort to maximize internal volume. The vessel also had fewer obvious weapon mounts, but still sported an impressive array of what appeared to be point-defense railguns and beam emitters. This final observation led Prescott to notice that the entire aft end of the ship housed a massive hangar bay. The configuration was similar to that of Ingenuity’s aft spaces, but this ship’s flight deck was large enough to land at least two, perhaps three ships her size inside. In addition to the hangar bay, the top of the ship featured eight massive elevators along with ramp areas designed for spacecraft launch and recovery operations. In one of the open areas forward of the elevators, ninety-six Hunter Remotely Piloted Spacecraft sat with their wings folded for storage. Based on the layout, it looked as if the rear flight deck could remain pressurized or could be opened to space during flight operations.
"Is that thing a carrier?" Lieutenant Lau asked rhetorically.
"What was your first clue?" Dubashi responded, unable to resist a flippant reply to such an inane question from her longtime friend in spite of their being on the bridge.
"Don’t make me separate you two," Prescott chided. "I think the show is over for now. Let’s get our heads back in the game."
"Gravitic fields holding at zero mass, Captain," Fisher reported as Ingenuity began slowly turning in place to port in the direction of her berth. "Looks like we’re going to continue the landing sequence now. Still just one plane of motion at a time."
"Yeah, I actually appreciate the careful approach, even if it does take a while," Prescott replied.
With the turn concluded, the ship reduced its altitude back to the vertical center of the cavern before proceeding forward until perfectly centered on Berth Nine.
"Turning back to starboard now, sir. We are aligned for entry. Running prelanding checks now," Fisher continued, dutifully reporting the ship’s progress through the landing sequence.
Two hundred meters down the quay, Admirals Patterson, White, and the other assembled dignitaries watched as Ingenuity thrusted slowly forward and prepared for her first surface landing. Once the ship reached the predefined point inside her berth for landing, the AI paused momentarily, allowing her Human handlers time to manually run through their final landing checklists.
"Sir, I’ve still got six red indicators on the landing struts," Fisher reported with slightly more volume and urgency than his previous updates. "I’m sure that’s what will happen next, but pausing here with our gear still in the wells makes me a little nervous."
"Steady, Fisher. I’m sure it’s fine, just be ready in case …"
With that, the ship began slowly descending towards the movable concrete platform, now less than twenty meters away from the lowest point on the ventral hull.
Outside, the group of officers gathered for Ingenuity’s arrival ceremony watched in shock as the frigate descended until it dropped completely below their field of view inside its berth.
Ensign Fisher reacted instantaneously, selecting the emergency manual override option displayed prominently near the top center of the Helm console. Just as he had practiced countless times in the simulator, his left hand went directly for the throttle and his right to the control joystick. Instinctively, he advanced the throttle control, which acted to increase lift and arrest the ship’s descent when configured for hovering flight. It took less than a second for him to realize that his control inputs were having no effect as Ingenuity continued her steady descent. "Helm emergency override, all stop!" he yelled without further hesitation.
"Helm emergency override acknowledged," announced the AI’s maddeningly calm female voice. "All stop confirmed. Gravitic fields configured for zero mass, neutral buoyancy. The ship is rigged for dry-dock, structurally supported landing. Altitude above dry-dock landing supports, seven meters."
"Captain, there are no structural supports installed for this landing," Fisher growled, his massive adrenaline rush transforming fear and surprise to anger and frustration at the near-catastrophic hull landing.
"I can see that," Prescott replied calmly, nodding toward the left section of the bridge
view screen. A large window currently displayed the entire ventral surface of the ship, now perilously close to the concrete below.
"AI, Prescott. The landing support indication is erroneous. Increase altitude twenty-five meters and deploy landing gear struts."
Before responding, Ingenuity’s AI conducted what it considered to be a lengthy conversation with Yucca Mountain’s core control system. Overcoming some initial reluctance on the part of the local system to admit even the possibility of such a grave oversight, the ship’s AI was granted a comprehensive landing readiness review check of Berth Nine. The primary sensors located beneath the movable concrete platform still stubbornly insisted that hull supports had been installed for the ship’s landing. After interrogating a variety of secondary sensors, however, the Yucca Mountain system confirmed Ingenuity’s assertion that there were no hull supports installed inside her berth. With a tinge of what might have passed for ironic sarcasm, the system recommended that the frigate lower its landing gear before resuming its landing sequence.
The entire confirmation process took place so quickly that the ship’s AI was able to respond to Captain Prescott’s commands in real-time. "AI acknowledged. Erroneous landing support indication confirmed and isolated. Increasing altitude two five meters and deploying landing gear struts."
Outside, the crowd stared in stunned silence as Ingenuity once again rose slowly above the landing platform and lowered her landing gear. Admiral Patterson furrowed his brow and directed a withering glance at the facility commander. Clearly, a screw-up of epic proportions had just occurred right before their eyes.
"Oh my God, that almost sucked," Dubashi muttered under her breath in the thick Indian accent that tended to surface when she was under stress.
Ensign Fisher, now even more suspicious than usual of the AI’s competence, continued to closely monitor every system involved with the landing sequence. "Landing struts deployed. Altitude now two seven meters," he reported calmly. Ingenuity’s altitude was always reported as the distance from the lowest section of the ship’s hull to the surface. Once the landing struts were down, this distance immediately decreased by five meters. "Showing six green landing strut indications. The gear is down and locked. We are rigged for surface landing."
