Genesis

by Lawrence P White

  In essence, he had only a general idea about how crystal computing worked, and he had only the vaguest notion about production processes, but he did not reveal this lack of knowledge to them. Instead, he retained the presence of mind to demand a meeting with the Lor before answering further questions.

  Sneers greeted his response, and the guards returned him to his cell. Kannick went to a corner of the room and sat huddled with his arms about his legs, alone again and feeling the hopelessness every prisoner feels.

  Days passed. Constantly chilled to the bone, he lived in his parka. Harbok guards escorted him to the bathroom for showers when it was convenient for them. Otherwise, his life consisted of staring at four gray walls. Had it been Greg in the cell, military training on how to handle solitary confinement and sensory deprivation would have come into play, but Kannick had none of those skills, nor did any of the An’Atee for that matter. For the first time ever in his life, Kannick was truly alone. Combined with the loss of freedom and sensory deprivation, he began a downward spiral.

  Kannick’s zest for life evaporated. Depression, then a deep depression, set in. His thoughts lost their sharpness, and his appetite went away, though he ate whatever his jailers brought just for something to do. Still, he had no energy. He forced himself to exercise, knowing that he could not let himself succumb to the bleakness that colored his every thought, but as the days stretched into weeks, then months, he despaired.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Admiral Geoffrey Douglas left Ariall with a fleet of three prime ships surrounding his baseship, their mission to find the Oort home world or worlds. Each prime ship carried five fighters, and his baseship carried one hundred more. They headed in the general direction of Haldor, but they aimed light-years beyond, in the direction from which the Oort had attacked Haldor.

  They had no idea how far the Oort traveled on their voyages to Haldor. It could be a relatively few light-years, or it could be hundreds or even thousands of light-years.

  Douglas was not new to command, but he was new to commanding spaceships. He had spent nearly two years in training, the past year training under Grayson, and he had met and surpassed every expectation. After working extensively with Angie Tolland, he asked her to captain his baseship.

  It had been a difficult decision for her. Surprising everyone, she declined his request. She decided that Grayson needed her more than she needed a ship at the moment. When apprised of her decision, Grayson awarded her with one of his few smiles. She had become, in his mind, indispensable.

  Dr. William Smythe, the dying scientist from Australia who Arlynn had brought from Earth, approached Douglas with a request to accompany him on the voyage. Smythe, a big man with large, protruding eyes and prominent jowls, had regained his health and stamina.

  “Rumor has it you’ve been talking theoretical physics with the An’Atee,” Douglas said.

  “It’s true,” Smythe replied. “They’ve brought me a long way in my understanding of the universe. But what I really want is to experience this universe that I’ve spent a lifetime trying to understand. I deeply want to spend time out in it.”

  “Will you be any help to my mission?”

  “I only have the vaguest notion of what you are about, but I’d like to think I will have some value. Nessaka tells me that this voyage will be years of hard work, and that it will likely require pure research as well. I can do both. I’m told that teaching machines are available on ships of this size, so if I come up short, I’ll be happy to learn something new.”

  “I intend to use the teaching machines myself. Ordinarily, I would say that a dangerous voyage of this nature is not the place for theoretical physicists, but in our case, physicists are pointing the way. If you’re willing and able to assist, we’ll speak to Greg about it.”

  Greg was enthusiastic—in his mind, the more Earthmen there were interpreting the data, the less likely the An’Atee would be to lose their focus. That translated to improved chances of success.

  Gertie was more than enthusiastic about Smythe’s participation. She was in awe of the man. “I might be able to help a little,” she said, “but he’ll make a difference. Mark my words.”

  Greg had been emphatic in his insistence that Douglas’ fleet have all the latest weaponry and that his ships be commanded by individuals who would pull the trigger without hesitation. Discovery of the An’Atee by the Oort was a grave risk that this mission magnified. Sending ships into Oort space was exactly what the ultimatum from the Harbok had been intended to prevent. Captain Danny Lester, lately of Earth, captained the baseship, and men from Earth captained each of the prime ships as well.

  Douglas had expected An’Atee disgruntlement over this arrangement, but so far he had detected nothing of the kind.

  The mission plan was based on Nessaka’s previous project during which he discovered Haldor, the home world of the Harbok. Flights of three fighters would activate their StarDrives in accordance with a detailed schedule. During each jump in hyperspace, sensors and recorders would take readings. The main difference from Nessaka’s previous project was that the fighters, when they completed their schedule of jumps, would return to the baseship rather than to Ariall to dump their recordings into Nessaka’s computer. Staff scientists aboard the baseship would massage the data while the fighters went back out for another round of recordings.

  For the fighters, jump timing was critical. Jumps generally lasted for 15 minutes. During that time, all three fighters of each flight had to be under StarDrive, and their starting and ending positions had to be determined precisely. It did not matter where they started from or where they ended up so long as Nessaka’s scientists knew those two points precisely.

  The scientists’ jobs were hard only in that they were meticulously demanding. The images they were searching for in the recordings could not be seen with the naked eye. Computers had to scan every data point of recordings to find them. The scientists then constructed three-dimensional images of each fighter’s recordings and had to orient them until the images of all three fighters meshed.

  If images of any other ships showed in the recordings, those ships would not be from Douglas’ fleet. They had to be An’Atee, Harbok, or Oort. Ships that were outside standard An’Atee and Harbok travel lanes would likely be Oort.

  Douglas kept roughly half his fighters in reserve in case the Oort discovered him. With 3 fighters from each prime ship and 60 from the baseship, he fielded 23 flights of 3 each. It would be continuous, tedious duty for the crews, but as soon as each flight returned to its mother ship with data, a fresh crew would relieve them.

  Douglas had received a thorough briefing on the process, of course. As fleet commander, he knew he would do a better job if he knew the intimate details of the science, but he had not had time to undertake the deep learning necessary to qualify as a scientist. As the fleet got underway, he realized that he might never have the time, that the briefing might have to suffice. The baseship carried some 75,000 people, and each prime ship held some 5,000 more. As commander, his first responsibility was to ensure the success of the mission, a requirement his briefings satisfied. His second responsibility was to lead the ships’ crews. To do that well, the crews needed to know their leader, and he needed to know them.

  He was on the bridge during departure, but when the fleet reached deep space and every ship was positioned correctly, it was time to give his ships’ captains free rein to command their ships. Letting his crew put a face to the name of their commander was a better use of his time than needlessly bothering those captains.

  He was, of course, fully capable of flying and captaining each of his ships, but he quickly discovered that knowing the general layout of the ship was not enough to get around. He got lost and had to ask for directions. When he finally reached the computer lab, he found Nessaka and Yarbo cheerfully puttering away, completely unaware that the voyage had begun. He decided to let them remain ignorant for a while.

  Fortunately, Gertie, his wife of many ye
ars, was also in the lab. She had spent months aboard the ship helping Nessaka and Yarbo get ready, and she had learned her way around. She volunteered to be his guide. She invited Dr. Smythe to accompany them.

  Gertie started her tour in the starboard pontoons—three, ten-mile-long cylinders stacked one above the other and attached to the right side of the ship. Each cylinder was some 1,000 feet in diameter with multiple levels. Most of the space was used for growing things. Even knowing what to expect, Douglas and Smythe were still astounded. Vast fields of varying descriptions filled every inch of available space. Parks were scattered here and there, but crops were the focus in this area of the ship. Farmers used special lights to coax maximum growth from the genetically altered crops which could potentially produce more food than the ship needed. Some animals grazed in fields, but farmers force-grew most of the animals that were intended for food.

  Engineers had creatively designed the structure and lighting to make crewmembers feel like they were on the ground. The ceiling on each level looked like a cloudless sky stretching infinitely high. There was no sun, per se, but the light diffused everything just as if the sky above was lit by a sun.

  Farmers were everywhere, and they were busy. Some checked conditions of the crops, others operated different types of machines, others tested soils and plants. The list of tasks went on and on. They managed all the creatures necessary for a healthy biosphere as well: birds, bees, insects, even small animals that roamed at will. Though the environment was high-tech, farming was farming, right down to the mud and regular periods of rain. There were no thunderstorms, but there was a breeze, and for planned periods every day, the lights dimmed to produce a twilight effect.

  Douglas, along with Gertie and Smythe, spent days inside this fragile area of his command, meeting people, observing demonstrations of the equipment they used, inspecting the equivalents of An’Atee cattle, chickens, pigs, and all the rest, listening to comments and suggestions, and just letting people get to know their commanding officer. Douglas, an engineer at heart, found himself enjoying the conversations. These people were scientists and engineers who just happened to be focused on plants and animals rather than the ships, planes, and submarines he had focused on during his previous life. With a naturally inquisitive mind, he found himself stimulated with the discussions, as did Gertie.

  Smythe, on the other hand, had to force himself to pay attention. His mind kept straying, and it came as no surprise to anyone that all he really wanted to do was get back to the laboratories. He hung in there, though. He was determined to get to know as much about this ship and the An’Atee as he could.

  They met the maintenance staff as well. Tremendous amounts of time and energy went into keeping all this stuff working. They walked and crawled through every imaginable kind of machinery, from waste recyclers to rain-making equipment to air scrubbers and food processing plants. Recycling was, of course, a major and critical function on a ship that might spend years between ports. They visited the hangars for housing ships, they visited the many retractable gun blisters, and they visited the housing areas. The ship was considered by some to be a small city, but in actuality, it was made up of many small villages.

  Gertie next took them to the three cylinders stacked on the port side of the baseship. Things were much different there. Consisting of multiple decks, the port cylinders held the baseship’s manufacturing and engineering areas. Spare parts for the ship could not simply be stockpiled. Almost everything needed by the farmers, scientists, explorers, and the ship itself could be manufactured aboard the baseship.

  The port cylinders held additional hangars and gun blisters, of course. The ship was capable of giving a very meaningful account of itself should it ever come under attack.

  The center of the ship, a rectangular area some eight miles long and 800 feet high, was the domain of the scientists and explorers. Science labs of every imaginable type abounded, and scientists from every known calling filled them. Research could be and was conducted on an amazing array of subjects. Equipment for surveying and studying new worlds, from test tubes to blasters, was available. Survey vehicles, some capable of flight, others designed to travel over the ground, even submersible vehicles, were held in storage for the time being, but the crew kept them in tip-top condition.

  Throughout the ship, automated vehicles, some small and some quite large, could be called by anyone in need of rapid transportation to any part of the ship. The An’Atee preferred walking most of the time, but when they needed to move in a hurry, the capacity was there. Flight crews, gunners, engineering staff, and the bridge crew were given priority.

  The bridge occupied a tiny bump on the forward end of the center starboard cylinder, but it was tiny only in comparison to the rest of the ship. In actuality, the bridge was spacious and functional. During battle, specialists from every major department occupied positions on the bridge to provide the captain with instant access to information.

  Two pilots occupied the most forward seats. Tucked in tight behind them in a crescent-shaped row, four tactical officers controlled the StarDrive, shields, and gunners. These six individuals were the captain’s direct links to controlling the ship. Two elevated seats looked down on these six from directly behind them. One seat was for the captain/officer of the deck. The other, frequently unoccupied, was for the fleet commander—Douglas on this particular voyage. All eight of these individuals sat inside the forward screen as if they were perched right out in space.

  Aft of the forward screen in seats with workstations that actually attached to solid structure, engineers and department heads occupied an area of equal size.

  Weapons control was immediately aft of the bridge in a separate compartment. Gunnery officers supervised a large crew of gunners and had direct communications links to the bridge.

  The Chief of the Ship managed the ship’s engineering officers and crewmen from a position adjacent to the main drive, located precisely in the center of the ship. He, too, had a direct link to the bridge.

  Douglas and Captain Lester lived in staterooms immediately adjacent to the bridge. For both of them, that meant a very short walk to work. For Douglas, however, it meant a lengthy drive to the Tactical Operations Center, his principal duty station during fleet battles, and it usually meant a very long walk or a drive to attend the many meetings that he attended throughout the ship.

  The Captain was responsible for the ship. He might at any time be found anywhere within the ship, but his primary duty station was the bridge. Douglas was responsible for the mission. He spent most of his time with the scientists, though he and Gertie toured each of the prime ships as well.

  The flight crew practiced battle stations on a regular basis, all of it under simulated conditions. Douglas, too, practiced managing all his ships from the Tactical Operations Center.

  When the tour ended, Smythe gratefully returned to the science labs and buried himself there. Grayson did not see him for months, but Gertie did, and on a regular basis. Both of them underwent another session with the teaching machine, though Smythe was far ahead of her when it came to theory. She was no slouch, though. Professor Nessaka assigned her to working with the computer scientists who massaged the information brought back by the scouts. It entailed many long, grueling hours, but that was the way discoveries in science usually took place, and she was comfortable with the work.

  She was not pampered as the wife of the admiral. She was expected to put in as many hours as her cohorts. Having a new lease on life from the LifeVirus made each opportunity seem wonderful.

  The fleet reached its first jump point, made a series of jumps, and they were on station a month later. Douglas dispatched the scouts on their missions, then everyone sat back to wait. A month later, the first data came in. From that point onward, the science staff stayed busy.

  Douglas could not help them, so he chose to get better acquainted with the exploration staff. He did not expect to need them on this mission, but one never knew.

  Doctor
Foest Jamyl was in charge of this group. He had been born and bred on one of the colonies, which meant he was practical in everything he undertook. He had personally surveyed two new planets discovered by the An’Atee, both of them suitable for colonization should they ever be needed. A personable leader, he never let the men and women of his command jump into things without preparation. They studied new planets from orbit by mapping out continents, conducting overflights, sending down sensors to test air quality, and just generally had a good feel for what they were attempting to do before ever setting foot on the ground.

  Once on the ground, everyone worked in pairs or larger groups. The buddy system was very much in effect, up to and including the fact that two scout ships brought the explorers down, but one immediately went airborne again to serve as backup.

  Everyone went in suited-up, and they brought various animals in cages as a final test of air quality. Three months was the standard quarantine requirement, after which the suits could be discarded if deemed appropriate.

  Seas were always a major concern. They were difficult to study from afar, and even from research vehicles, only a tiny portion could be explored. What creatures and what threats lived within the sea was normally not known for many years, and there were almost always surprises.

  “How would you go about exploring a world with intelligent natives?” Grayson asked Jamyl.

  “We wouldn’t. That’s a prime directive,” Jamyl stated, “and I concur with that directive. If we discover an intelligent species, we limit ourselves to observation from orbit.”

  Douglas rubbed the stubble on his chin with his lips pursed. “You know the purpose of our mission. What if we find a world that’s been taken over by the Oort?”