“Not likely. It takes just the right conditions for survival, let alone gestation,” the doctor answered.
“Who's side are you on Doc?” Irons demanded, glaring at her. He turned back to the alien. “Give the Doc a chance. I'll put out word that we're looking for your kind.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” Irons asked. The alien eyed him as if this wasn't enough of an answer. “You really want a reason? Okay. Here's two,” he frowned. “The first, it's the right thing to do.”
Both the AI avatar and doctor nodded firmly at that. “And the second?” the Ssislli asked.
“Cause I don't want the Xeno's to win,” Irons snarled grimly. The others stared at him as he scowled. His hands went behind his back. He paced for a moment. “Their whole purpose was to destroy everything. To wipe us out. Give in, and they've won. I for one won’t allow it. No. Not only no, Hell NO!” he snarled. He smacked his left fist into his right hand.
The doctor watched him for a moment then turned her attention back to the midshipman. “He's right. Give in to despair and depression and you're dooming your race. We can help. Just give us time,” the doctor said, nodding.
The Ssislli looked at her for a moment, it's spines rose. His webbed leg fins moved, pushing it gently off the bottom of the tank. His crest rose and he took a breath.
“You will do this?” he asked.
“You're damn right I will,” the doctor said with a firm nod. Her hand stroked the tank wall. “Where there is life there is hope.” Colors raged all over the aliens body. It's chromatophore skin was going into overdrive it seemed. It was a vibrant display of emotion.
Water splashed out of the tank. A long squid tentacle came out then looped down to touch the doctor on the cheek. She didn't flinch. She knew the teeth on the suckers on the underside of that tentacle could shred her. She felt it brush her cheek leaving a watery mark.
“Thank you doctor. I will cooperate.” The tentacle withdrew back to the tank.
“You'll do more than that. We need you to tell us all you know about your race. Fill in the blanks that we don't have in our databases. How you were born and raised, stories of your race, anything you think relevant. Your home and colonies are gone, but with luck and hard work, they won't be for long,” the Admiral replied.
“Thank you sir,” the Ssislli said bobbing a nod. Irons nodded.
“This isn't the end son, just the dark before the dawn of a new day. Keep that in mind. Fix it there. We will get through this.” Irons looked around. “We will also see if we can find a surviving colony that you can go to. We'll set up a place for your people to live.”
“I am a trained spacer. I'd like to stay in space sir,” the alien responded.
Irons cocked his head. The doctor looked at him. He shrugged. “Well, for the time being you will. We're not sending a ship out any time soon. Destiny can't take you. It'll have to be Firefly, she's the only ship with the ability.” He waved to indicate the tank.
“And since I'm the center of defense for Pyrax, I won’t be leaving anytime soon,” Firefly responded.
“Good, because it's going to take me a year or so to get up to speed on this cloning project. Luckily we've got a map of your genome on file. That alone will make it a hell of a lot easier,” the doctor said smiling.
“You do?” the alien asked, eyes wide.
“I tried to tell you that. I've got both a male and female genome in Firefly's medical database. Also sample data in the college medical database. We'll have to look for corruption, but we should be able to whip something up soon,” she smiled.
“Thank you again doctor.”
“Thank me when we're done son. Now, let’s get started,” she hefted a bio sample pack she had put at her feet.
“And with that note, the squeamish Admiral is making a hasty retreat,” Irons said with a laugh.
The doctor looked over with a snort of derision as he proved he was good to his word. The Ssislli blinked then blew a raspberry and blatted a laugh.
Chapter 24
Harris tugged at the hem of his jacket and cleared his throat. The class was settling in. "All right now shall we begin? Class I'd like you to welcome Lieutenant Commander Harris Captain of Sun-Yat. He is here as a guest lecturer on tactics today," the teacher said clapping her hands. The students followed suit.
Harris smiled and then nodded. "Thank you for that warm welcome. Please bear with me, this is my first lecture. I guess it's new for all of us isn't it?" he chuckled. Several of the class laughed as well. He'd really hoped to put this off, but he'd been thrown into it right from the moment he'd crossed the lock threshold and into Anvil two hours ago. He'd luckily started on it before hand and had a rough outline to work off of.
"Now, I'm going to hit a few points of interest you should keep in mind when you are working on strategy. Ready?" He looked around. There was a shuffle as the students got their tablets and styluses ready. "Right, let’s begin. Now one of the major disconnects between tactical systems and reality is our sensors. Lidar, maser beams, they are all almost useless when both your ship and your opponent are under power."
He tapped his link and a holo of two ships appeared in front of him. "At the speeds you and your opponent are traveling, by the time the return pulse gets to you the target has already moved. Sometimes in unexpected ways." He grimaced. "Long range sensors are useless for detailed planning. The best you can do is project a probable course from a fixed bearing and speed." He looked up. "Can anyone tell me what sensors can be relied on?" He looked around. The students looked at one another, then a girl with a braid reluctantly raised her hand. "Lieutenant Naomi right?" She nodded. "Go ahead."
"Well sir, Neutrino's and tachyons. Also the impact of objects on the shields," she replied. He nodded.
"Good, glad someone's been skimming ahead," he smiled then looked at his notes. "Neutrinos and tachyons are both FTL, that means they can be detected at near real time. But they aren't very precise. It lets us know a target is within a light second of space and it has fusion and or antimatter power, but that's about it." He glanced at his notes again then set the tablet down.
"From personal experience, you have to learn to adapt to that. Sometimes tactics involve a lot of layers of planning and a healthy dose of luck," he looked around to them and then nodded to himself.
"Right then. I believe someone had a question about stealth and why it doesn't work at higher acceleration?" He looked at the teacher for confirmation.
She nodded. "Alessandra?" she asked. A young woman stood.
"Yes sir, ah, I was wondering why stealth systems do not work under power. What is the point of having a stealth coating and stealth systems if they don't work when you’re moving?" she asked. He smiled.
"Well Midshipman woman, it's a bit of a trade off. Stealth systems work when you are at rest or under low acceleration because you’re not flaring your drive or giving off high amounts of neutrinos."
"Didn't you say long range sensors are not very effective?" someone asked.
"Yes I did. Just a moment," Harris looked a little flustered. "You see, when a ship is under acceleration her shields are up. This gives off a force emission that distorts space. This can be detected by the impact of particles on the shield facing the direction of travel." He sent a signal and the holo beside him changed to a ship and then the flare of particles hitting the shields.
"Also, if you're under power, anything using the wedge or speeds above point one light will send your neutrino counts into detectable threshold levels," he smiled. "Then there is the fusion engine. If you are pointed in a direction that the enemy ship can see your wake then it's spectrographic sensors can detect the plasma thrust and pinpoint your course." He shrugged as the students nodded catching on.
"Now to answer the second part of your question, stealth is good for various applications. The first is in a trap scenario. Where you are lying in wait for an enemy to pass or to enter a preplanned position to pounce on them. This is great agains
t pirates and smugglers I am told." He smiled remembering the brief battle with the pirates then shrugged. "Another application is to get away from an attacker to regroup. By using a decoy and your stealth systems under the right conditions you may be able to fool your enemy into following it while you get away to regroup." Several students nodded at this.
"Now, let’s look at both scenarios here in past events. I've taken the liberty of flagging the recent events here. You will get to see them from Firefly's point of view. My point of view." He put his hand on his chest for dramatic effect. Some of the students looked politely interested, a few looked eager.
"Now, I planned it so the enemy would exit hyper and we would be behind and below them when they hit the minefield..."
“How are the elections going?” Irons asked Sprite as he sat in the wardroom. They were still on the survey mission, taking the long route to Fuente. Election fever had started about a week after the delegates had gotten back. It had been briefly overshadowed in the news by the revival of the castaways but now it was back as the main story across the system.
“Why Admiral are you actually showing an interest in politics?” Sprite asked amused. “Will wonders never cease?”
“Cute. Spit it out.”
“Um. Okay. You asked for it. Just remember that.”
“Oh boy.”
“Well...” she smiled maliciously. “Debates are still going on. A few of the colonies like the Horsehead have had early prelim elections. A couple have had to have run offs when their elections were too close to call.”
“Joy.”
“Some have gotten the idea to buy air time on Knox's channel and one of the competing local channels that has started to break into the market.”
“Knox has competition? Well, that will keep him honest and on his toes.”
“He's already expanded to four channels and has even started a soap novella channel. Using live actors no less. Selling commercials for the candidates is paying for it apparently.”
“Spare me the details,” Irons growled.
“Very well. To summarize, it's going about how you expected. The debates haven't started showing any mud flinging yet, but one can hope.”
“Funny. Really really funny Sprite.”
“I try.”
“You know, we could freeze him. Stick him back in cryostasis I mean,” a med tech said, giving Doctor Thornby a look.
“It is certainly a possibility, but one the patient has refused,” she said not looking up. She'd disregarded the notion herself even before she'd presented it to the midshipman. She grimaced, she'd thought it would be a simple clone job, but it was a bit more ticklish then she'd realized. She shook her head, checking her time. Of course, she'd only been working on it for two weeks now.
“But, I mean it wouldn't be forever, just until we found another of his species.”
“Which race?” doctor Standish asked, coming in.
“Both. Ah, either,” the med tech said helplessly.
“Both refuse the option,” Thornby said shaking her head. She frowned and ran her hand through her hair, tossing the tablet she'd been looking at onto the table in front of her. “How's it going Stitches?” she asked smiling to Standish.
“Not bad,” he shrugged. “I've got Firefly squared away, the staff is reasonably trained and we've made a major dent on the manning table for the rest of the fleet.”
“So?” Thornby asked.
“Well, I wanted another project,” he said. She raised an eyebrow at him. He spread his hands. “Something I can do on the side that isn't a right this minute job,” he said, shrugging helplessly. The med tech gave him a disbelieving look.
“Glutton for punishment eh?” Thornby asked sitting back with a laugh.
“Something like that.” Standish replied with a smile. “More like riding a hobby horse.”
“Think you can handle one of these projects in your copious free time?” she asked amused.
“Or I can pinch hit for you in your college classes if you're overloaded,” he grimaced. “When I'm in port of course,” he added picking her tablet up. “Pair bonding nucleotide... okay...” He shook his head.
“Yeah, a little much for a simple country doctor,” Thornby said smiling.
“Not without the right set of circumstances,” Standish retorted shaking his head.
“I'm sure if you hum a few bars I can pick enough of it up.”
“Which is what I was saying. We don't have the skills needed, the equipment...” the med tech said throwing up her hands.
“What we don't know, we'll learn. What we need, we'll make,” Standish replied.
“Exactly,” Thornby nodded. “I'll take the Ssislli, you work on the Malekian.”
“Oh joy.”
“What? Your project at least has a couple terabytes more of data. You should be ahead there.”
“Yeah. Wait, why do I have the Malekian? The Ssislli is on Firefly.” He waved to the station. “You've got the Malekian stashed here.” Thornby grinned at him.
“Not exactly. It's in the shipyard,” the med tech responded. “I tried to get it to stay here.”
“As a permanent fixture in sickbay?” Standish asked. “It'd be bored to tears inside an hour. No, better to keep it occupied and out of your hair,” he shook his head. Thornby nodded. She turned to the med techs.
“Jessie, I know you mean well...”
“But I'm being a downer and I need to open up. Just my way of keeping things on the level and grounded. Guess it isn't helping,” she grimaced. “Yeah Doc, I get it. I'll just go check on things,” she waved and walked out.
“I know she means well,” Thornby sighed.
“But she's right. The scope of this is...”
“The biggest anyone's ever attempted,” Thornby said smiling. “Martel is still hopping up and down over it.”
“That's one way to look at it.”
“Yeah, here's another. Think of the monographs we'll be writing. Not to mention our names in the history books.”
“Interesting carrot to go with this. But the stick is if we fail...” The thought of that momentous responsibility, of the future of an entire species, hell, two species was terrifying.
“So we won’t. We can always freeze them if we have to. It is a fall back,” she shrugged. “Let's just not let it come to that,” she continued, sitting back, eyes closed.
“Why do you want me to do the Malekian?” Standish asked after a moment.
“Because we can't do much with the Ssislli. He's still a larval. Adolescent, granted, but he's not a full adult yet. So no spermatophores. I checked.”
“Oh. That must have been an interesting examination,” Standish said with a snort. “So you took skin and samples for no reason?”
“No. I took them for testing. That way we've got some lead in time before he becomes an adult. He said he's about five years away from his final molt. That's Terran standard time.”
“And you need spermatophores..?”
“Silly. They are the best source of Ssislli stem cells that we can get,” Thornby answered. She shook her head. “We'll need them. Their DNA sequences are automatically randomized by nature after all. We can pair bond them and then induce fission to form a cloned fetus. Getting an artificial womb will be interesting. We'll have to figure out a method for inserting gender programming as well. Not something I'm looking forward to doing.”
“Ah.”
“I'm using the skin samples to iron out the procedures. Also I'm going to try to replicate the gestation pools they use. If I can get a clone going I can test the pool out.”
“Yeah, good luck with that. Lighting, heat, water temp, metal concentrations, salinity...” he frowned. “They are mammalian as well, so you'll have to replicate the mother's milk as well.”
“Yeah. So it's better to start slow,” she frowned. “Which explains the long lead in time. I've got four people on it now.” She shook her head.
“Which makes my job even more of a pain,”
Standish said with a grimace. “I'm not sure if I can figure out how to generate two distinct gender templates from a single neuter source Doc.”
“I guess you better figure something out then,” Thornby said sitting back.
“Right. Well, I've got some reading to do,” Standish said waving as he left.
"Anything more on the pirates?" Mayweather asked. He glanced at her. She'd come in to the wardroom while he'd been reading. She'd obviously patiently waited for his attention to return. She was getting good, five weeks in uniform and shaping up nicely he thought with a hidden inner smile.
Irons nodded. "We vacuumed their computers but there was a lot of crap hiding what we really wanted. It took time to sort it out. The surviving prisoners aren't very talkative either. They don't volunteer anything and only answer specific questions with a minimum answer and little or no detail if possible. Sprite is going to give us a detailed briefing at the next conference."
He watched as her eyebrow rose. "But, if you insist, I can give you the high and low points now," he shrugged. She nodded.
"The pirates are from the Horath empire."
She looked shocked. "An empire?" she laughed. "You're kidding! Sounds like something out of a bad holo-novella!" She shook her head.
"I know, but it's true. Apparently they held on to some of their tech, and from some of the things Sprite has uncovered, they just salvaged a dreadnought." Her eyes went wide at this.
"Shit, I am not going up against that!"
"Right, at least, not without a fleet at your back," he chuckled. "Fortunately, her hyper drive is shot so she's acting as the core of their home fleet. But they dug up a few other ships, probably the same way we did, then sent them out to go a Viking to grab more."
He shrugged as her face became thoughtful. "That snowballed into the planet raids," he finished.
"Right. I wonder if that group was the only one?" she asked rubbing her chin. He froze.
Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) Page 51
