by Ben Winston
I was confused. “I just ordered eight kegs of beer from a brewery on Earth for the returning Marines…”
Sarah nodded. “The price for which has already been paid by the Alliance here on the Base. For all intents, your personal account has been frozen. As have those of your entire family. Instead of payment refusal, the credit requests are redirected to another account and paid from there. Basically, the Alliance is picking up the tab for you and your family in gratitude for your contributions. Doctor Sparks is under much the same arrangement while based here.”
“Wow, I had no idea. Thank you Sarah,” I said.
“I know you didn’t bring me here just to ask me how the biocyte project was going, so what do you need?” Christy asked.
“This is your baby, Ced, you tell her,” I grinned pointing at the displayed hologram.
Ced nodded. “It may be my ‘baby’ Eric, but it was your suggestion. Anyway, we are designing a new generation of armor for our fighting forces. The most pronounced and complex system will be the close combat version.” Ced had Sarah replace the hologram with the appropriate hologram. Ced then began describing the system, but when he got to the part that would concern Christy, he smiled. “Now, one of the most important functions in the new armor system, and this will be for all models not just this version, is the emergency medical response functions. It’s based completely on your biocyte technology.”
Ced paused there in order to let Christy catch up because it was clear that she was working this through her mind. She slowly began to nod. “I think it can be done, Ced. But we’re going to have to rework a few things and expand a few others.” She was silent for a few more moments and nodded firmly. “Yeah, we can do it. It’ll take some time, but it can be done. It’s just too bad we can replicate the ‘cytes!”
Ced nodded. “Yes it is, unfortunately, there is no way around that natural law. The crystals just won’t form. In case you’re wondering, I did actually try it. Everything but that would form, but the replicator said there were too many variables to reproduce the crystal. When I asked how many variables would be needed. It reported that infinitive numbers could not be displayed.” He shrugged. “I quit trying at that point.”
“Well, I think that before we start on this, we should talk to Vance; we have so many high priority projects on the burner right now he might get upset if we try to throw another log on the fire,” I said.
“Normally, Vance wouldn’t bat an eye at something like this, but considering the circumstances, I think you might be right,” Ced agreed. “Sarah, could you schedule an appointment with the Lord Admiral for the three of us?”
“His schedule is full this day, Doctor. Would tomorrow morning be soon enough?” Sarah asked.
“I should think so, this is important, but it’s not an emergency by any stretch,” I replied, and Ced agreed.
“Will that time be acceptable for you as well, Doctor Cowan?” Sarah asked a surprised looking Christy. “Uh, yeah, that should be fine, but why do I need to be there?”
“Because you will be responsible for the development of one third of this project,” Ced replied. “You might think that your part of this project is just a small function of the armor. My dear, that is far from the case I assure you. The biocytes will be a strong foundation upon which all the medical and emergency functions of the armor will be built. You’ll be just as responsible for this as both Eric and I are.”
Office of the Base Commander
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth’s moon
Sol System
When we arrived in Vance’s office the next morning, I knew something wasn’t right. Vance looked like he had aged years, and it was obvious he hadn’t slept at all.
“What’s wrong?” I asked forgetting all protocol in worry for him.
He smiled sadly. “I appreciate it, Eric. The assault on the hive isn’t going well. You don’t need to worry about it. Sarah said you three had come up with something new that might save lives. I’m always willing to hear those kinds of ideas.” He managed to sidestep the explanation, but I told myself to corner him on it later.
“I had an idea to help out the Marines,” I began to which Vance nodded and interrupted me.
“I heard about that. It was a damn good idea that more than the Marines are using. AI Honor used the drones to help locate the hive. It turns out that the entrances are screened from sensors as well as visuals, but the idea was sound. They did remarkably well in mapping the internal structure of the hive though. The only problem with that is that someone has to remain in line of sight. It turns out that there is some kind of… something on the walls of the hive that blocks subspace comms. Even though they didn’t do what you had originally intended for them, it has been a very useful and remarkable tool for the commanders to see, in real time, exactly what the troops are seeing.”
“Damn, I was afraid of that,” Ced replied. “I’ll work on fixing it, those drones are just too handy. But what Eric was trying to tell you Sir, is we have designed a new armor system that will save lives. Not just for the Marines either, although they are our primary concern.”
That got Vance’s attention. “You believe you’ve come up with something that will save Marines? Right now, I could really use news like that. Please continue.”
“Well, like I said Sir, I discovered that the Veranorians had designed the current armor hundreds of years ago, and there hadn’t been any work done to improve it. Since I’d had firsthand knowledge of the armor, I had already made a few mental notes on subtle improvements. But when Captain He’rsree and Sergeant Tul-sa came to see me last night, I guess it all just kinda reached a head. I called in Ced to help with the drones, and it sort spiraled from there. Ced did all the actual hardware design work on this so he should get the credit. However, all three of us will have a hand in designing and building the major components.”
I saw Vance flinch when I mentioned the Captain so I knew something had happened to her, but I waited to ask him about it. I nodded for Ced to pick up the explanation. Ced had Sarah dim the room lights and he increased the hologram to almost life sized. He also had her display all three variants of the armor; Combat, Fighter and Crew. Like he did with the explanation for Christy, he waited until last to introduce it and nodded to a scared looking Christy for her ideas.
“It will take a little bit of work Sir, but I am certain we can redesign a biocyte version for this use. It would require a slight modification to the current design along with software alterations. These biocytes will not have the same capabilities as the ‘cytes in the medical bays. That simply couldn’t be done in this application. However, having ‘cytes that can perform initial treatments and deal with heavy trauma could be priceless. Even if the wounded occupant would need to be placed in stasis, having the ‘cytes already in place would help greatly. As I said, we can do this. It’ll just take time and effort.”
“How much time are we talking about? When can you produce a prototype?” Vance asked. He was very excited about this project, but was trying to control it.
“Not for at least month as far as getting the shells built. I’d call in a couple of the Shallan armorers to make sure I don’t overlook something. Each suit would have a crystal computer system, but those can be grown while we’re working on the shells. Doctor Christy will need to make her design modifications before we can get the biocytes cooking and finally, on top of all of that, Eric and his crew will have to write a completely new operating system as well as the specialized modules for the armor system’s functions.
“So… at a first glance, I’d guess at three months before we could stuff a human in it for testing, and six months before a production plan,” Ced finished. Looking to us for agreement.
“This will be on top of all the priority stuff we’re already doing Sir. Which is actually why we came to you before just doing it. It would take time away from the priorities you’ve already given us,” I explained.
He nodded and tiredly r
an his fingers through his hair. “Another excellent idea that we are in dire need of, but we simply don’t have the resources to pull off.”
“Well, with respect Sir I actually can hand this off to other programmers since the armor would not need AI programming. But I’d still like to look it over since it was my idea, and I have a vested interest in getting it done,” I said. Once again I saw his eyes tighten just a little bit as if remembering something painful.
“I actually am finalizing the project I was working on, so this is perfect timing for me and my team,” Christy said. “We need something new to sink our teeth into. This is a very good application we can get behind quickly.”
“I might be able to delegate parts of this out to some of my people, and the Shallans themselves might be interested in taking it over, but I think they will still need me to work them through the new shell composite; it’s a bit different. But, it really won’t take that much of my time,” Ced replied. “I am all fired up about it because it’s a new and exciting idea. You’re right though, we need to manage this one carefully.”
“I’ll tell you what. You have my permission to do this. However, try to limit the impact on other projects as much as possible,” Vance replied. “There are a few thousand new people on their way here from the core worlds and we are getting hundreds of new people every week from Earth. Which reminds me Eric, Coryn has asked me to speak to you on behalf of the education unit here on the base. It seems there is a rather large number of potential software engineers taking shape in our school system and she was wondering if you could spare a few hours to lecture to them about AI programming. There seems to be a lot of interest in the biocytes as well. Coryn asked me to discover if Doctor Christy Cowan could speak as well.”
“I’ll do everything I can to make the time Sir. Do I contact Coryn?” I asked.
“That would be fine. I think she has a crush on you anyway,” Vance said smiling sadly.
“I’ll make time for this. Education is just as important as research,” Christy added.
Both Ced and Christy thanked Vance for his time and left his office. I kissed Christy softly as she left, but remained to speak to Vance.
“Was there something else, Eric?” Vance asked me.
“Vance, you look like hell, you’ve aged twenty years over night. I know damn good and well you haven’t slept and I’m certain Coryn is beside herself with worry. You need an outlet. Keeping secrets like this can and will kill you,” I said. “I know you really don’t want to talk to me about it and normally I would respect that. I get the feeling this is actually more personal than it is professional, even though I know I have the clearance. It’s my duty as your friend to help you bear the heavy emotional burdens. That is what friends are for. So, start talking.”
Vance stood and got us both something to drink from the replicator. “It’s a bit too early for anything stronger than your coffee, but I’m afraid you’ll wish it wasn’t,” he said. “We’ve taken losses.”
“Some losses were expected, but I take it they have been worse than projected. I can also tell that something happened to either Captain He’rsree or Sergeant Tul-sa,” I said, hoping to prompt him to start talking. The ploy worked and he told me that He’rsree had serious injuries but was at the aide station. He didn’t have the exact figures and names, but there had been other losses as well. Even Colonel Cren’lith had been injured.
“It’s still pretty early down there. The fighting seems to have lessened but we don’t know if it’s because the Queen has run out of soldiers or because the sun is coming up and the Aracs have a hard time seeing in bright sunlight. The actual assault on the hive hasn’t even started yet because night fell over the area before we located the entrances. We also greatly underestimated the maturity of the hive. From what we have been able to put together, this hive was much more mature than even the conservatives guessed. We have yet to discover an explanation for this since there simply hasn’t been enough time since the pod came down.
“If the other hive is as far along as this one is, we may have to make a ground assault on it as well. Orbital bombardment simply can’t penetrate deep enough to kill the entire hive. Initial investigations into the Canadian hive are telling us it goes hundreds of feet down. If the Saharan hive is that mature, nothing we can use on it from orbit will do the job.”
“Will we be able to make another assault after the one in Canada?” I asked.
Vance shook his head. “When I said we’ve suffered casualties, I meant we’ve taken serious casualties. We’re close to the point where I’m going to abort the mission. If it weren’t for the fact that Yellowknife and a few other population centers are in striking distance of the hive, I probably would. I’ve already spoken to High Command. They are dispatching the entire Tenth Heavy Infantry Division to us. We just have to figure out a way to keep the hives from expanding until they get here.”
“Sir, I mean no disrespect to our troops, you know that, but how did an unarmed hive managed to do this much damage to our people?” I asked.
“They weren’t unarmed. But that really didn’t matter all that much. The fighting was so close that most of our weapons were useless. The Aracs were on our people before most of them could even fire a shot,” Vance replied. “How did they get weapons?” He added in frustration.
“It sounds like it wasn’t the weapons that hurt us the worst. The Aracs fought mostly hand to hand?” I asked.
He nodded. “They are a lot stronger than our people are, even augmented by the armor. That’s why I seemed so excited when you proposed a new design.”
“I don’t know how much more of a strength boost the new stuff will give. What we really need is a method of beating these fuckers in close quarters,” I said. “We know they don’t like extreme heat and they need an atmosphere close to ours to breath. We can’t use pesticides because that would poison the atmosphere for us as well.”
Vance narrowed his eyes at me. “I think you’ve been hanging around Ced too much. You’re turning into a weapons designer. What are you thinking?”
“Well, I think it might work for the hives but nowhere else. Why can’t we flood the tunnel complex with an explosive gas then ignite it. We’d need to seal all the entrances we could find, but still supply oxygen for the fire.” I shook my head. “It’s just an idea. The main problem with that one is that if we don’t know where all the tunnels are, we could end up doing far more damage than planned. Then again, we could always just use flame throwers when clearing the tunnels, if we could find a fuel that would burn hot enough and fast enough,” I said still thinking out loud.
“Elerium Nitroxide is used as a fuel in de-orbiting thrusters salvage companies use. It’s easy to handle as long as it’s not mixed, extremely volatile when mixed and burns very hot and very cleanly. It leaves a nitrogen heavy water as a byproduct,” Vance suggested. “I wouldn’t want to be caught in a blast from it, even in armor.”
“That might be the ticket, then. We just need to create better heat shielding in the armor,” I said. “I don’t see that as a major issue, but again it needs the new armor when we need it now.” I sighed. “I’m sorry for thinking out loud and babbling on about weapons when you were telling me about our losses. It’s just one of the ways I deal with worry, I try to occupy my mind with something so I don’t dwell on a worst case scenario.”
“I wish I could do that, but it’s my job to worry and plan for those worst case scenarios. I know when I get the news from the attack, it’s going to be bad. There are a lot of families I will have to notify, and that is something I’ve never been able to accept easily,” Vance replied.
“I don’t think anyone accepts that duty easily,” I said. “I know it’s one of the many things about being in the military I don’t envy you.”
Marine Embarkation Bay
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth’s Moon
Sol System
Vance’s idea for a flamethrower was passed along to the
remaining ground troops and several portable devices were constructed to assist in the cleaning out of the hive. Teams were assembled and sent into the hive led by flamethrower crews. They worked pretty well except they tended to drive most of the remaining Aracs deeper and deeper underground.
Several final confrontations resulted in which flame again played a large part. However, the Aracs had placed several booby traps and mines in an attempt to kill the Marines chasing them and create a hole in the lines the Aracs could slip past. It didn’t work. The drones would detect the small devices and warn the team approaching, which quickly deactivated it or detonated it safely.
A literal mountain of new information about the hive was obtained during that assault. The tunnels of the hive were coated in a substance excreted by the scout type of Arac. The stuff was classified as a resin although it was almost as strong as plas-crete and served the same function in the tunnels of the hive. Any wiring or electrical cabling was done while the resin was being applied. If a change was needed afterward, a new coating of resin as applied over the new cable run. Whether by design or simply as a byproduct of its creation, the resin had an innate subspace scattering effect. It didn’t just block subspace signals, it absorbed them. Later it was learned that the resin also acted as a conductor of the signals, so all the Marines needed to do was simply to connect a subspace receiver to the resin and the signal was crystal clear - provided the resin was attached throughout the hive complex.
The seeding pod had several small devices in it for the Aracs to use in quickly setting up and establishing a base. One of these devices hyper-accelerated the Arac growth cycle. The hive had several queens; three were found to be still quite young and were aging at a slower more ‘normal’ rate. That is, a rate closer to what the biologists believed to be normal.
