“Crap. Ok, so it’s a difficult but not impossible target.”
“Difficult? That is an understatement. The odds of us successfully raiding that station are, oh, what is the point of me trying to discuss things in math terms with you? Joe, you are statistically more likely to be struck by lightning while being run over by a bus driven by a shark.”
“You’d better recheck your math on that one, Skippy,” I said confidently. “Sharks can’t drive.”
“Oh for-”
“Skippy, there has to be a way for us to do it.”
“Fine. That is a judgment call. You are the military man, Joe. I do not know if our Merry Band of Pirates could successfully raid this facility.”
“What defenses does this station have?”
“I just provided all the data I have to you, Joe, which is not much. In fact, the only data I do have is from a Thuranin intelligence report stating that the Jeraptha know about the facility, and therefore security should be increased. The report did not include the current security level, or proposed upgrades.”
“That’s no good, Skippy. I thought that now that we have our very own relay station, we have access to all the Thuranin data we want.”
“You thought wrongly, Oh Foolish One. We only have access to whatever data passes through that relay station. Duh. Information about this particular asteroid station is confined to the Advanced Research Directorate. That agency is notoriously jealous of the Thuranin military’s own research and development group, so the ARD keeps its data confined to a small group.”
The idea of attacking a Thuranin asteroid base without solid intel about its defense capabilities was a nonstarter. “Again, that’s no good. How can we get more data about that station?”
“I assume you mean, get more data without going there and launching an assault first. One way would be to use our relay station. I could send a highly encrypted message to ARD headquarters, pretending to be an ARD unit that needs the data. Then we would have to wait for that message to be carried by several ships through multiple relay stations all the way to the Thuranin home planet. They would then need to send the message all the way back to us. However, I must warn you, it is most likely such a request would be viewed very suspiciously by ARD. They might decide to trace the request back to where it originated, which would involve a heavily-armed ARD vessel visiting our relay station.”
“We very much do not want that to happen. Crap. We’ll need to think about this.”
“You will need to think about it, Joe. Because I did, and I’m out of ideas.”
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Without having information about the asteroid base itself, we couldn’t plan an assault. We could at least attempt to tackle the problem of how we get to the place in order to launch an assault, so I called together Chotek, Chang, Smythe, Simms, Desai, Adams and Friedlander. I wanted Chotek there not because I thought he could help, but because I wanted him to see, again, how difficult it is to develop solutions on the fly. In this case, literally on the fly, as the Flying Dutchman was proceeding back to the relay station at maximum speed.
“Skippy,” I said to the shiny beer can on the table, “let me know whether I understand the problem.”
“Enough.” He had a soft blue glow when he said that. I had brought him out of his man cave and into the conference room because I get tired of speaking with a disembodied voice sometimes. And because it is good for us to be reminded of what the super powerful being who runs our stolen starship looks like. Or, what he looks like to us, since Skippy frequently reminded me that most of him wasn’t in this spacetime. Whatever that meant.
“Huh?”
“If you understand the problem enough. Because there is no way that you could ever fully understand the problem, Joe.”
“That’s fair, I guess. This asteroid is so close to the star-”
“The neutron star.” Skippy interrupted me with a slow orange glow.
Now I was annoyed. “What’s the difference? It’s a star. Anyway, it-”
“There is a very major difference, Joe,” Skippy said, and I could see Friedlander nodding in agreement. “I shall attempt to explain it to you.”
“Oof,” I groaned. This was going to be painful for both of us. “Go ahead.”
“One thing before we get started,” Skippy insisted.
“What’s that?”
“Dr. Friedlander owes me a joke.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“I kid you not, Joe. Whenever I participate in the meetings of the science team, Friedlander always starts the meeting with a joke. Calling that group of monkeys a science team is itself a joke, but I mean a joke with a punchline.”
“Sure,” Friedlander said with a grin. “How many software engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?”
“Uh,” I said, trying to guess.
“None,” Friedlander said with a wink. “That’s a hardware problem.”
“Ok,” I laughed, “that is a good tradition.”
“Agreed,” Skippy said with a chuckle. “Now, to make this short, it is important that you understand the difference between a normal main sequence star and a neutron star. A neutron star is the collapsed core of a star, a star that was much larger than Earth’s Sun. When such a star goes supernova, gravity causes the core to collapse to the point where the remnants of the star are compressed almost to the point of becoming a black hole. And yes, shut up over there, Friedlander, I know that I am hugely dumbing this down for Joe’s benefit. The point, Joe, is that this particular neutron star is old and cold. Although this core remnant is almost twice the mass of Earth’s Sun, it is tiny. The asteroid orbits very close to the surface of the star. Close enough that the Thuranin must be using powerful artificial gravity within the asteroid, to compensate for the tidal forces. If this was a hot, main sequence star, an asteroid that close would melt and burn to a crisp. Do you understand?”
“I think so, yes,” I said. “And thanks for explaining that to us. It means we do not need to worry about the Dutchman overheating as we approach the asteroid?”
“Ugh. That is not the lesson I wanted you to learn, Joe, but you are at least partly correct. Most of the star’s remaining radiation is in the form of X-rays instead of visible light. Those X-rays disrupt the effectiveness of stealth fields as a ship approaches the star, making it impossible eve for us to sneak up on the asteroid undetected. The Thuranin Advanced Research Directorate chose this location carefully and wisely. The intense gravity also acts as a lens, bending light around the star. Even if we were on the other side of the star, the asteroid station could see us.”
Friedlander couldn’t stop from interjecting. “The asteroid is also orbiting close enough to the star’s surface that time dilation is measurable, and must be compensated for-”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Egghead rocket scientist,” Skippy said scornfully. “You and I can address that later, Friedlander. Until then, kindly shut up.”
“Great,” I said, “you two please do that, later. We’re here to consider how to approach the asteroid for an assault. After the assault, we won’t be able to jump away, right?”
“Correct, Joe. I can flatten spacetime so that our pirate ship will be able to jump away while we are closer to the star than a typical ship could. But we still will need to travel a considerable distance through normal space before we reach jump altitude. During that time, we will be vulnerable to pursuing vessels. Although we do not have data on this particular station, I expect it to be protected by at least one destroyer-size ARD warship. Jumping away is not the main problem, Joe.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said glumly. This was sounding more and more impossible. “We need to get inside the station first, and defeat their defenses-”
“No, you dumdum,” Skippy glowed a soft purple. “Damn, you do not listen when I talk, do you? Not only can we not jump away, we can’t jump in anywhere near that asteroid. We have to jump in far away, and travel through normal space to reach the asteroid
. While our stealth field degrades. We will not have any advantage of surprise.”
“Oh,” I said, surprised. “I did hear when you said that, but I figured you could do some magical flattening spacetime thing, so we could jump in closer than most ships could.”
“No, you dimwit, I can’t do that.”
“Mr. Skippy,” Chang interrupted. “We watched you make a hole in a star. After that, you were able to flatten spacetime so we could jump away very close to a star. I realize that was not a neutron star, but-”
“But nothing,” Skippy said scornfully. “That was totally different. I can flatten spacetime close to where I am, on the near end of a wormhole. That helps us jump out. I can’t flatten spacetime at the far end of a wormhole, because we aren’t there yet, duh. So that little trick does not help us jump in to an intense gravity well. The gravitational field of a neutron star would distort the far end of our jump wormhole so that it would collapse on itself. Even if we managed to stabilize it somehow and go through, the stresses at the event horizon on the far end would tear the ship apart as soon as we emerged.”
I slumped back in my chair. “Damn. So we can’t take the Dutchman in?”
Before Skippy could answer, Chotek spoke. “We will not risk the ship in this operation. Risking the ship risks our ability to perform our primary mission. While I sympathize with the force on Paradise, their security is not our primary objective. Whatever plan your team develops, Colonel Bishop, it cannot involve placing this ship at risk.”
Crap. I exchanged a look with Chang. He was thinking the same thing I was; maybe there was a level of risk Chotek would accept, if we could convince him the risk was manageable and worth the result. That would come later; we needed a workable plan before we try selling it to Chotek. “Dropships, then. We take a team there in dropships.”
Friedlander was shaking his head even before Skippy spoke. “No go on that either, Joe,” Skippy said. “It would be far too dangerous to the team in the dropships. The dropships do not have artificial gravity. As they approached the asteroid, tidal forces would tear the crew apart inside the hulls. The ARD uses specialized ships to service this station. Even if we were able to take the Flying Dutchman in, our ability to maneuver as we approached the star would be substantially restricted. Tidal forces on the forward hull and the aft engineering section could cause the ship’s spine to separate.”
“Crap, Skippy,” I protested. “This is no good at all.”
“As I said, Joe, the location of this asteroid base provides very effective security, without the Thuranin having to do anything. Ships can’t use their full stealth ability on approach, and they can’t engage in typically violent combat maneuvers. The Thuranin can sit safely in their asteroid, and lob railgun darts and missiles at enemy ships that aren’t able to dodge out of the way.”
This was sounding like a truly impossible mission. Maybe I needed to go back to the beginning and think of a new way to rescue our forces on Paradise.
“We can’t take the ship in,” Chang nodded toward Chotek, “and we can’t send an assault team in dropships. This asteroid station is not self-reliant? It requires resupply regularly?”
“Ships do visit the station to bring supplies and rotate personnel,” Skippy reported. “Why?”
“Because,” Chang looked at me, “if we could capture one of those supply ships, we could use that to gain access to the station.”
“Whoa!” Skippy exclaimed. “Hold your horses there, King Kong. Don’t get too excited. That would be a great idea, except that the Advanced Research Directorate doesn’t use little civilian cargo ships. The typical ships they use to transfer material and personnel are the equivalent of a light cruiser, and some are bigger than that. The ARD is well aware that the items those ships transport are valuable. Even the Thuranin researchers themselves are valuable, if captured. ARD does not take any risks that some ambitious Kristang will want to get their hands on advanced Thuranin research. To further dissuade you from the idiotic idea of capturing an ARD ship, you would need to do it in a way that leaves the ship undamaged. No way would the asteroid base allow a battle-damaged ship to dock. Also, from the data I do have about these type of high-security ARD facilities, their procedure is probably to have an approaching ship be met at the outer edge of the star system and escorted in by the guard ship. The supply ship would need to rendezvous with the local guard ship, and the security procedure may include the incoming ship being boarded for inspection.”
“Damn,” Chang frowned. “Scratch that idea.”
“Colonel, that is a good idea,” I assured my executive officer, “if we had a way to make it work.” Chang’s suggestion had given me the beginning of an idea. “Skippy, why is that research station there?”
There was a pause before Skippy answered. “I do not know how to answer that very vague question, Joe. It is there because the Thuranin put it there.”
“Let me be more precise. Why did the Thuranin put it there, specifically? What is special about that location? You told us that being near a neutron star provides additional security, but they could have accomplished the same level of security by doing that research at a big military base.”
“Ok, all right, that is not an entirely stupid question, Joe. First, they wouldn’t want to conduct high-energy research near a military base, because there is significant danger of things going ‘boom’ in a big way. So they needed a different way to provide security. More importantly, proximity to a neutron star allows research into the effects of intense gravimetric fields and as Dr. Friedlander observed, the effect of time dilation.”
I asked my question more specifically. “Does being close to a neutron star make it easier to figure out how an Elder power tap works?”
“No, it does not. Well, maybe, hmmm, no. No it does not. The Thuranin at one time thought being near a neutron star would provide insight into quantum bubbles, but they were mistaken. Because neutron stars rotate so rapidly, their immense mass actually drags spacetime around with them. But that doesn’t provide any useful insight to bubble energy.”
“So this asteroid station is not there for the purpose of researching power taps?”
“No. The Thuranin do have a few facilities dedicated to power taps, or quantum bubble or zero point energy or whatever you want to call it. The sad truth is, the reason some power taps are at the neutron star facility is because the Thuranin are desperate. They have tried everything to figure out how Elder power taps works, and all their years of intense research had yielded no results. No, wait. There was one result, a long time ago. Some idiot Thuranin screwed with a power tap, and the result was a seven megaton explosion that wiped out a major military base and left a crater that is visible from space.” Skippy chuckled. “My laugh was not at the loss of Thuranin lives, it was because the power tap didn’t cause that explosion; the power tap simply happened to be there. That now deceased Thuranin researcher actually managed to tap into a quantum energy flow for the briefest of moments and if he had lived, he would be astonished. Sadly, that researcher and all the data were consumed in the massive explosion. The Thuranin still think they somehow managed to get a power tap activated, but couldn’t control it. And that idiotic misconception has caused Thuranin research to go down the wrong track ever since.”
“My heart bleeds for them, Skippy.”
“Somehow I suspect you are lying about that, Joe.”
“Ya think?”
“They don’t get a whole lot of sympathy from me either,” Skippy said with disgust.
“Yup. So, research into power taps can happen a lot of places.”
“Yes. Although the ARD only very rarely exchanges research data and materials with the military R&D group.”
“Too bad for them. Skippy, those supply ships bring supplies to the station. Do they also bring things away from the station?” As I said that, Major Smythe sucked in a breath as he understood my idea.
“Duh. Of course they do, Joe.”
“Great. Then we d
on’t have to go into a Thuranin station to get our hands on a power tap,” I said with big grin on my face. “We’ll have one delivered to us.”
“Shit,” Skippy grumbled. “Is this one of your ideas? Because if it is, then damn it, this one totally snuck up on me. Joe, I can assure you the Advanced Research Directorate will not deliver a power tap to you. Not even if you have a coupon.”
“We don’t need a coupon. We have a Skippy.”
“Explain this to me again, Joe,” Skippy said while I was back in my office. “I’m not clear exactly what you want.”
“It’s easy, Skippy. We need an ARD supply ship to pick up a fixable Elder power tap from a research facility that has one, and deliver it to a facility that will be easy for us to attack.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that, yeah. Is there a problem?”
“Oh, so, so many problems, Joe. First, the Advanced Research Directorate does not have a web portal where you can click on the items you want and add them to your shopping cart. I would need to fake a message from ARD headquarters, and transmit that message to an ARD ship.”
“Uh huh. So? We have our own data relay station now, Skippy.” I knew that he was super absent-minded at times, but-
“Oh, you think you are so freakin’ smart, don’t you? Well, smart guy, the problem is that we do not have access to flight schedules for ARD ships.”
“What? You told us that a relay station has access to all the information we needed!” I protested.
“All the information we need, in order to determine what the Thuranin know about the destruction of their surveyor ship, and whether they will be sending another ship to Earth, yes. Joe, relay stations are run by the Thuranin military, so they contain military information. The ARD will not trust their data passing through a military relay, so they do not use relay stations for sensitive data. ARD ships only use relay stations to pass highly encrypted messages that do not contain sensitive data.”
Paradise (Expeditionary Force Book 3) Page 45
