by J W Murison
They conducted the experiment on the ship that was a derelict filled with oxygen first. There were still doubts as to whether it would work, but Lewis was quite optimistic. Probes were set around the ship while Babes and Ico pulled away to a safe distance. Lewis detonated the bomb, data fired up on to their screens, but nothing spectacular happened. As they got closer, it seemed as though nothing had happened at all. They could still see the ship quite clearly. Its outline seemed to have changed a bit, but it wasn’t until they were close that they could discern what had actually occurred.
The ship simply no longer existed. What they had seen from space was simply the colours of the ship. The ship itself was completely flat. The realisation turned to excitement.
Charlie and Eddie were on the bridge to watch the show. Neither of them were very impressed.
Eddie cocked his head slightly, ‘Never seen something go from 3D to 2D before.’
‘Puddled.’ Snorted Charlie.
‘No boom though.’
‘No even a spark,’ Charlie agreed.
The tiny amount of element had produced quite spectacular results from the point of view of the scientists on board. Extensive calculations were done. Readings before and after were compared. An area of half a mile around and below the ship had been altered by the pulse, before its effectiveness had dissipated. The pulse had also travelled a few thousand miles out into space before fading completely. It gave them excellent data on absorption. Computer models were designed to see how effective it would be on a planet with Earth’s atmosphere and gravity.
After days of exhaustive study, they were ready to move onto the next target. This time there was a spectacular explosion that left them all breathless. It was the first time anyone from Earth had witnessed the instantaneous meltdown of a live engine. It demonstrated to the scientists, and more significantly the engineers, just how many safety protocols there were on all engines with star drive capability, and the amount of energy they actually released when all of those protocols were suddenly removed. The crater produced was over two miles in diameter a mile deep. Tremors were recorded running right down through the core of the planet. The crater was covered in a spider web of cracks. There was nothing left of the ship, not so much as a single piece of scrap.
A few days later Matt McGuire stood at a large whiteboard and cast his eyes over the assembled officers.
He took a deep breath, ‘I can see a few non-technical bods here, so I’ll try to keep this simple.’ He received a few smiles of gratitude.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, we have potentially opened up a whole shit can of worms. It has fallen to me to try and explain what caused the massive explosion the other day. I am going to try. Who doesn’t know what happens to an egg when you shove it into a microwave oven?’ He paused but there were no takers. ‘It explodes. The contents cook, heat, expansion, boom, stinky micro. Put that egg in a cylindrical container, but leave one end open. When the egg explodes, all that energy is forced in one direction. The cylinder is propelled in the opposite direction to the opening. Is everyone with me so far?’ There were nods. ‘Excellent. Now the force coming out of the end of the cylinder I am going to refer to as thrust.’
A few of the scientists who knew where this was leading stuck their hands in the air, but Matt slapped them down. ‘No, no questions, no interruptions. I know what you lot are going to say, but keep that for technical meetings and discussions.’ Matt apologised to the rest of the staff, ‘Sorry for that, they know where I am going with this, and there are lots of physics and fancy names involved; but this is not one of those discussions.’
Steven interrupted, ‘It’s okay Matt, you are doing the right thing, please continue.’
Matt nodded in Steven’s direction. ‘Thanks.’ He ducked down and pulled a large cylinder from under the table. ‘This cylinder represents a single core.’ He pulled off the top, and laid it down so everyone could see the different layers, like the rings on a tree. ‘It is a very good representation of an actual core, only this one is made of plastic. Each one of these layers represent a different element, all of which exist within our solar system but not all on Earth. Not all are metal, some are nearer liquid form, like the white and yoke of an egg.
‘Each core powers one engine. How many engines you have depends on the mass of the ship you are driving. The size of the core depends on the size of the engine and vice versa. Now, inside each engine lies one of these cores, and like the egg, this core is bombarded with something similar to microwaves. Like the egg, these materials react to these different forms of waves and give off energy. This energy is contained by very powerful containment shields that can be manipulated to release this energy in the form of thrust. All with me so far?’
There were nods. ‘Okay, now there are literally hundreds of safety protocols, devices, failsafes, all geared towards keeping this energy contained. What we saw was what happens when all those safety measures fail at once, and that energy is released. We could describe that as catastrophic failure.
‘I want you to bear in mind a couple of things too. That ship was not flying. It was basically sitting idle, producing very little thrust. Try and imagine how much bigger that explosion would have been if there had been a catastrophic failure while it was travelling at top speed. Or more to the point, if the ship was flying within the atmosphere of a planet.
‘Now you might wonder where I am going with this. The fact is we just broke almost every law in the galaxy. The containment shields, the safety protocols that govern the use of these engines, we just broke every damn one of them. These protocols are in place to prevent this kind of catastrophic failure. If you hit an enemy’s engine in battle, these protocols shut down the core to prevent this kind of failure. Why? Because a single ship in the middle of a battle group suffering a catastrophic failure can wipe out the whole damn battle fleet. If this occurs within the atmosphere of a planet you are looking at an extinction level event. It is that serious.
‘So serious in fact, that weapons that can cause this type of failure are completely banned by every race in the galaxy, even those outwith the federation. Our only saving grace is that these regulations are all aimed at energy weapons. No one ever envisioned a weapon like the one Lewis has produced here; a mechanical and chemical weapon that can produce the same kind of destruction. This weapon turns the engine, the emergency systems, the part of the engine that creates a containment field, to dust, it even turns the core to dust.’
‘So how can it explode if it no longer exists?’ Colonel Howe was frowning as he tried to follow Matt.
‘I already mentioned that.’ Matt rubbed his chin ‘Okay, the engine is producing energy, not like electricity, more like the energy produced when you set off a bomb. You understand that?’
‘Of course. It is a chemical reaction.’
‘This is similar Colonel. Imagine a bomb at the moment it goes off, it is converted from a solid to energy.’
‘Yes okay.’
‘You can’t demolecularize energy. If you set off a ton of explosives inside a box that’s strong enough to hold it, nothing happens right? Remove that box at the second the ton of explosives goes off and it is released. Same principle here. The safety measures that stop the reaction are gone, the containment field is gone, everything that is holding back that energy is gone.’
‘Right! So, the energy that is being produced at the moment you set off the bomb is released.’
‘That’s it exactly.’
‘So we can’t use it then.’
‘It would be inadvisable. On a spaceship in combat anyway. Current weapons aren’t capable of piercing the containment field around a core. They could build them of course; they all have the technology, but it is against so many different treaties it just isn’t worth the hassle.
‘In a nutshell, that’s pretty much what happened down on the surface. On the first ship there was nothing to blow up, just oxygen, but there was nothing burning, nothing for it to feed, no flash nor bang, other t
han the initial explosion, which was quickly overtaken by the energy wave of the material as it detonated. It turned everything to dust in hundredths of a second. With no blast, there was no crater. The battleship simply collapsed into its own footprint. I believe the popular term is puddled.’
There were a few laughs and Matt smiled at the recollection. ‘The second ship, as I described, blew a huge crater on the surface of the Black Planet in a most spectacular fashion. That was due to the loss of containment surrounding the core. The energy that was being produced by the engine at the moment of the explosion was released instantaneously with catastrophic results for the battleship and the surrounding area. The surface of the crater is cracked, the cracks going down quite some distance. The blast was picked up by surface seismic equipment on the other side of the planet. Another interesting factor is that the blast did not increase the power or density of the MDP. The damage caused to the area surrounding the ship, to the best of our estimations, was the same as the first ship. It is only an estimation however, as there is now a bloody great hole where the ship used to be.’
They all laughed, and Steven stood up. Matt sat down and Steven took his place.
‘All of this information has already been relayed to Earth. Despite the obvious intergalactic fallout if we get caught, they want us to proceed with experimentation. We not only have to test these devices; we also have our first mission. It has nothing to do with our ambassadorial role either. If the tests are successful, we have to slip across the great barrier and destroy the asteroid fields that pose a threat to Earth from our intergalactic enemies. We are to prevent more asteroids being hurled at us. In the meantime, back home, a delivery system is being designed to fire one of these devices through the rear shields at an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Apart from ourselves, only ships stationed on this side of the great barrier will be armed with these devices. Needless to say it is of the utmost secrecy.
‘So far the devices we have used have been no larger than the size of a pea. These ones were the size of a pinhead. The ones we will be deploying are more likely to be about the size of a football. At zero eight hundred tomorrow, we will be heading for the great barrier. No further tests will be carried out in our solar system. We will be carrying out all further testing in enemy territory. Once we hit it, we will be in stealth mode, and will remain that way until the task is finished. We cannot risk letting off one of these devices within range of another vessel. The MDDs leave no residue, but an exploding starship does. It may be non-lethal, but it is a footprint we cannot afford to leave. If we do this right we can be in and out, and destroy a lot of asteroids, without anyone being aware we were even there. It may take them years to realise what has even happened. Hopefully it will become a big mystery. They will obviously know who is ultimately responsible, but they will never be able to prove it. If we start leaving bodies behind, that situation will change. As you have heard, weapons with the ability to destroy the containment fields around a ship’s core are not tolerated, and it will affect our bid to join the federation.’
‘Why can’t we do these tests in the Kuiper belt?’ Howe asked.
‘Because they are terrified of the power of these devices Colonel; it is as simple as that. They simply don’t want any more exploded here, in our solar system. Not unless it is on an asteroid that has been propelled towards Earth. Extreme measures are being introduced to do with these devices as well.’
‘Such as?’
‘They aren’t allowed near the Earth or the moon. They will be built on Mars and distributed from there.’
‘Sounds like a smart idea for a change.’
‘I suppose it is,’ Steven had to agree.
Chapter 13
Steven rubbed the back of his neck. His eyes felt gritty as well. For months they had been slipping around asteroids of all sizes. They had completed the tests in the first week. Since then they had been planting bombs. Komoru had done it first, until her supply of material was exhausted. Steven had patrolled the outermost edges for any kind of traffic. Now they had swapped roles.
‘Last drop of point coming up Captain.’
‘Thank you Hailey. Let’s look for a nice flat spot.’
She smiled, ‘Yes sir.’
The asteroid was huge, far too big to be thrown at Earth. None of the crew cared though; they just wanted to be out of this dangerous place. They had learned more in the past month about asteroid fields than any of them had ever wanted to know. Steven personally thought the whole exercise was one of futility; recklessly endangering both of their ships and crews. Despite the fact that they were about to render thousands of miles’ worth of asteroids completely useless for the purpose of throwing them at Earth; there were still tens of thousands of miles of asteroids in this single belt alone, that would remain completely untouched. It was nothing for these space-going worlds to tow an asteroid a few thousand miles more; they did it all the time at home. Still, Steven felt he didn’t want to push too hard against those in power. With a sigh he realised that their days of pleasing themselves was over.
‘What is the matter my heart? You seemed tired.’
‘More weary than tired.’
‘Ico reports that a vessel has just passed through the area.’
‘Typical, we see nothing for a month, and the day we are finished a ship passes by.’
‘It will still take us a few days to navigate out of this asteroid field my heart.’
‘I know, it will be long gone by then.’
‘Would you like to do some equations?’
Steven smiled, ‘No, my mind is too tired to play.’
Hailey took his attention for a moment, ‘There’s a nice flat spot Captain.’
‘Fine, deploy the bomb. Let Ico know and then let’s get the hell out of here.’
A few minutes later the bomb was deployed and the next shift arrived. Gratefully Steven returned to his quarters. He lay down on the couch and closed his eyes.
‘Would you like to see out?’
‘Oh hell no! I’m sick of the sight of all these rocks. It’s giving me a headache. Give me an update on the crew. How is Lewis doing?’
‘He is fine my heart. He confessed to Charlie a few days ago that he felt really bad about building the most destructive bomb ever devised by man.’
‘What did Charlie say?’
‘He told Lewis he wasn’t very impressed by it. No flash, no bang, no lumps or rock flying through the air. From a professional point of view Charlie declared it the single most unimpressive bomb he had ever came across.’
Steven laughed, ‘How did Lewis take that?’
‘In the same way you did my heart, he simply laughed.’
‘What about Charlie?’
‘He is a blank wall. I cannot read his emotions, or anything in his mind. His body gives no clue to his emotional state either. The Doctor is still worried about him. He teases her mercilessly. I think there are times when he is very apprehensive, but mostly at nights when he is trying to sleep. It is very hard to tell.’
‘What about his companions?’
‘They are still loving the adventure and work hard in their duties.’
‘Colonel Howe and his men?’
‘All are very happy with their work and duties.’
‘Tapper and his men?’
‘They too are very happy, especially Cookie. He and Mya have declared their love for each other. I am very confused over their mating ritual. Both are ready to mate, and have been for a while, yet they resist each other.’
‘Just let them sort it out themselves Babes. Any problems with our Earth Defence Force members?’
‘Nothing my heart. All crew members are experiencing high levels of stress just now, but considering our mission that isn’t unexpected. There is only one person I am worried about.’
‘Oh! Who?’
‘Hailey, she is experiencing bouts of loneliness. She has no love in her life. She also admitted to the Doctor that she was unable to get he
rself laid while on leave.’
‘That’s a bit too personal Babes.’
‘I am sorry my heart, but I thought you would wish to know.’
‘Still, it’s hard to believe she can’t get laid with all of these soldiers on board.’
‘They are hardly her intellectual equals my heart, and I believe there is another thing that may be preventing her from getting to know any men better, a psychological problem.’
‘Oh yeah?’
‘Something you said to her when we first began our journey together.’
Steven half sat up, ‘What would that be?’
She sent the images to his mind of the moment, and Steven flopped back down covering his hands with his face. ‘I did say that, didn’t I…’
It was the day he had fallen out with her and the Professor, stating that if she didn’t learn the basics she would be more use as a sexual diversion for the soldiers on board.
‘I can’t believe she is still hung up on that, I did apologise.’
‘She accepted your apology my heart, but it has stuck with her.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me before?’
‘It is only now becoming a serious problem.’
‘Didn’t she just receive her doctorate from MIT?’
‘Yes my heart, about the same time you received yours. Komoru sent a card but you didn’t.’
‘She sent it from both of us.’
‘I know, but she noticed that you didn’t sign it yourself.’
‘Oh shit!’ Steven’s mind raced, ‘Could you ask her to report to my quarters fifteen minutes before we begin our shift tomorrow?’
‘Yes my heart.’
It was the first-time Hailey had been in Steven’s quarters. She was surprised by the summons, and more than a little anxious. Steven had the couch turned towards the world that was sliding past outside.
‘I hear you like coffee Hailey.’
She smiled shyly, ‘Yes I do.’
