SODIUM:2 Apocalypse
Page 17
There was no scheduled sunrise or sunset to confuse our body clocks. We were deep underground where the Sun no longer mattered. Our crew of four became very tight very fast. I was selected as our pilot. My focus would be on flying the craft.
I was told that by the end of our training I should be able to fly the ship at Mach five down a railroad track and then roll over and under that track as it crossed a bridge over a small highway. At the time I wondered how it would be possible to make the 90 degree turns necessary for that maneuver. I was assured that I would soon learn how.
Bigg was our Defensive Specialist. The ship would be equipped with a number of new defenses and Bigg would become skilled at using them. His primary job would be to keep us alive.
Whip was our Offensive Specialist. She would be directing our four enhanced coil guns and our compliment of 38 missiles... four of which were nuclear tipped. Whip's job would be to do maximum damage to any and all targets identified.
Pop was our last specialist. He had been selected as our Engineer. He would keep all the ships systems ready and active. A good engineer had always been worth their weight in gold.
The training routine soon became second nature. Each of the squads of four were schooled on the ship, strategies, tactics and the utter importance of teamwork. One weak or lazy crewman could easily mean death for all.
After a long day in the classroom we settled into the lounge for our one hour R&R. Pop was grinning from ear to ear which was usual for him on his two days a week that he was allowed a single beer.
The evening hour was for unwinding but usually ended up with discussions about the days lessons. This day was special as we eagerly awaited the launch of the first manned Defender flight in the morning.
The Defender ships were to be marveled at. The magnetic drive system from the alien fighter had been adapted for anti-gravity and inertial dampening purposes. But, David Brenner and the other scientists had not yet figured out how the aliens had actually made their ships move.
They could hover. They could turn instantly without affecting those inside but the actual propulsion itself had remained a mystery.
So, David and his team had come up with a new system. The Black Hole Drive, the BHD consisted of five high powered magnetic rings that functioned as neutron colliders. Work done 70 years before on the Large Hadron Collider had led to the ability to create temporary microscopic black holes. The five rings were used to cycle neutrons up to speeds where the collision that occurred created a black hole that lasted fractions of a nanosecond.
In the Defender ships the discovery had been used to repeatedly form five temporary black holes just in front of the ship. The result being a powerful pull being exerted that would move the ship forward. The acceleration achieved was significantly faster than the current electric turbine technology. In the void of space it was theorized that it would work even better.
The strange thing about the black holes that were created was that the alien gravity wave was not immune to it. This meant that our ship, with its active skin, could be propelled forward by it regardless of the enemy gravity weapon.
The shell of the Defender was covered in a thin layer of Sodium Oxide. When a sufficient magnetic field was applied the skin of the craft took on the anti-grav qualities that were needed for it to fly.
A benefit of the active skin was that those inside the ship were nearly immune to inertial forces. We would each be seated in a comfortable chair where we would watch and control everything from holo-displays. Other than the holographic panels of controls that illuminated the interior of the craft, the remainder of the ship appeared jet black from the inside when the skin was activated.
It would be strange sitting in a chair that looked as though it was floating in the air. It would also be strange to have the other crewmen seemingly floating next to you.
On the defensive panel Bigg would be able to control a gravity field similar to what the alien fighter had. A gravity wave could be projected outward from the ship into a point. David's team had again been unable to fully understand the physics behind the gravity wave and because of that we were only able to project it outward from the ship for a few meters.
On the alien fighter this had been used for their shield as well as for the deadly concussion weapon that had devastated Central Florida during the S.A. If positioned properly the gravity wave would act as a shield. Bigg's job would be to make sure it was always in the right place at the right time.
An interesting thing would happen when the skin of the ship was active. From the outside it would appear to vanish. No light or any radio wave of any sort would be reflected. Anything with a normal particle spin to it would be absorbed by the skin, passed around to the other side and then emitted.
A bullet fired at the ship would seem to pass through it and continue on from the other side as if nothing had been there. It was a fascinating anomaly that our scientists could still not fully understand.
There were limits to the amount of matter that could be absorbed and re-emitted. With a large enough mass the ship could be brought to a halt and with an even larger mass the active skin could be overwhelmed.
We were told, as an example, that if we flew directly into a large enough asteroid that the ship would enter the asteroid and then slow to a halt where the skin would be overwhelmed and then go inactive. The result being that we would be trapped inside solid rock.
On the weapons front Whip was excited about the prospect of firing a live coil gun. For her to have four of them would only make it four times more exciting. Our conversation then wandered onto the topic of the nuclear tipped missiles. They would pack quite a punch if they could be delivered to their target. Currently the alien's gravity wave technology could easily keep the missiles at bay. Command hoped to find other uses for them.
Pop would be schooled in keeping every system operational while I would have the simple duties of starting, stopping and turning. If I could get us where we were going and back safely my duties as pilot would be fulfilled. Each of us also received training in the duties of the others. You could not have too much redundancy while at war and in space.
With a crew of four it would give us each six hours of sleep while rotating shifts if we were on duty. When the hour bell sounded we all made our way to our sleeping quarters. We would have our daily sonic shower and then slide on top of our anti-grav mattress beds.
The bedding was definitely a perk of being in the USAC. You would float on top of it giving you the most restful sleep you had ever had. That was especially true for a heavy guy like myself.
Even in our excited states the prospect of the first flying Defender class ship the following morning, was not enough to keep us awake after our third day in the classroom. The needed sleep was an uneven match as we each powered up our anti-grav beds. With the ultra-dark and ultra-quiet of our personal chambers sleep came quickly.
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