by CJ Williams
Luke gave in. “Okay. I guess we don’t really know what we’re going to need out there. What else?”
George continued. “I initially thought a fleet of one thousand single-man fighters should be provided for self-defense. But Lou has prevailed on me to revise that estimate.”
“A thousand seems a bit excessive, I have to agree. What are you thinking, Lou?”
“You don’t want this ship to engage in close-in combat. At least that was my impression. That many fighters are just a waste. It won’t hurt to have a reasonable contingent. Like you said, you don’t know what you’ll face or what the conditions will be. Maybe three hundred at most? That should cover a lot of possibilities.”
“Sounds good to me,” Luke agreed. “But what about self-defense? True, it’s not my plan to mix it up one-on-one; but we should have some hefty countermeasures just in case.”
Morrow glanced at Riley. “Tell him what you were thinking.”
“Sir, one idea is to fit the flagship with anti-aircraft guns. Show us that option, George.”
The hologram above the table sprouted small blisters along the fuselage. Each contained a tiny, needle-like barb pointing out in various directions.
“Those look kind of small,” Luke observed. “Are those guns or stingers?”
“Ah,” Riley said. “I guess I should point out the scale. The ship as you see it is about fifty-five hundred feet in length. The diameter is fifteen hundred feet. George, show a warship next to it.”
A hologram of a standard Ambrosia-class warship appeared. It was tiny compared to the flagship.
“I see what you mean,” Luke commented. “Are the guns AI controlled?”
“For the most part. Each emplacement includes a gun crew for manual targeting as a backup. You never know.”
“I like it. What about offense?” Luke asked.
Riley spun the hologram so the nose was facing Luke. “You can see the apertures for the canons where the fuselage narrows at the front. There are twenty-four of them and are the same size as the warships and fire the same rounds. Same rate of fire; two per second.”
Luke shook his head. “That’s fine for just a single target on the nose but when we come into a system we could be facing a lot of enemy ships. I need to fire at multiple targets simultaneously.”
“I apologize, Commander,” George said. “I had not thought of that.”
Riley shrugged almost imperceptibly. Luke suspected that the engineer had already identified the weakness but hesitated to argue with the Moonbase AI. “If I may,” Riley said.
“Go ahead.” Luke nodded.
“I suggest offensive guided missiles. Using our drone technology, you can launch them when appropriate, like when you’re entering a hostile star system. We can include improved sensor packages and a slightly upgraded AI. Rather than focusing on stealth, their mission would be target acquisition. Seek and destroy kind of thing.”
“What about the warhead?” Luke asked. “Nukes?”
“I’d use something programmable. We recently improved our shield capability. You haven’t been briefed on that.”
“How’d you do that?”
“Essentially, it was a matter of …” Riley paused as though searching for the right words in layman’s terms.
“Never mind,” Luke said. “I’m a history major. Just go on with what you were saying.”
“Right. In short, we could include an enhanced force field generator in the missile design that would give you the option to turn them into armor-piercing projectiles. It might be useful if you wanted to disable, rather than annihilate a particular Bakkui warship. In that way, a single drone could attack multiple targets.”
“Nice,” Luke said. “Go with that. I assume you have a launch option?”
“We’ll build launch systems into the hull that would fire the missiles along an axis parallel to the ship. Initial targeting would be via ship-based sensors. After the missiles acquire the target they will transition to onboard terminal guidance.”
“Perfect. When will you start construction?”
Morrow shook his head. “We’ve got a lot of design left to do, Luke. This isn’t something we can throw together in an afternoon.”
“I understand. But the drone reports are starting to worry me. The Bakkui are going to be here a lot sooner that we ever thought.”
“When is that, Commander?” Riley asked.
“Two years; if we’re lucky. Could be sooner. I thought we’d have at least another three years, but it’s not looking that way.”
“We’re doing our best, boss,” Morrow said. “It helped getting those two extra replicators. Ambrose said there’s a fifth one in the works.”
“There is,” Luke confirmed. “In fact, there are five more in the works, plus the one George said you need to build this guy.” He nodded at the hologram. “By the way, I get to name this ship. You’ve named all the rest after famous warriors and explorers.”
“Of course,” Morrow agreed. “Whatcha gonna call it? Dreadnought? Vengeance? Something like that?”
“Lulubelle,” Luke replied with a smile.
Morrow and Riley exchanged skeptical glances. “You’re kidding, right?” Morrow said.
“Nope. When I was growing up, my dad always named the family vehicle Lulubelle. Never knew why. But all of us loved our car. The name kind of made it part of the family. This ship is going to be carrying a lot of people, families included. I want it to have a family name.”
“I kind of wondered about the family aspect,” Riley said. “You’re taking families into battle?”
“Earthside military does the same thing today,” Luke explained. “When we got stationed overseas, we always took our families. We knew that if the balloon went up our families were at risk. But living ain’t living unless the people you love are with you. And it’s not like this big guy is just going away for the weekend.”
“What do you mean?”
“This is a five-year mission, Riley. Our goal is to find new life and new civilization, and blow it to smithereens.”
Riley smiled at the misquoted line. “I didn’t realize you were a Trekkie, Commander.”
“Since before you were born, son.”
“Speaking of families,” Morrow said, “isn’t there another colony launch tomorrow? Shouldn’t you be there?”
“I told Amanda I wasn’t going to do those anymore.”
“I know that, boss. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be there. The whole world is looking at you. You need to keep that in mind. Think people won’t notice if you don’t show? If you don’t think it’s important, why should they?”
Luke glared at Morrow for a long minute. Morrow didn’t flinch.
“Damn it, Lou,” Luke finally said. He turned and stalked out. “George, tell Amanda I’ll be at the Gateway in the morning.”
Day 446—Population 100,614
Luke stared at the fourth colony ship from his chair on the dais and leaned toward Amanda. “Are those things getting bigger?” he asked.
“Not that I know of,” she said.
“Seems like it.”
Amanda shrugged her shoulders. “What me to check?”
“No, just wondering.”
“I’m a bit worried because I feel like there’s a drop off in interest across the board. I’m glad you decided to come. It makes a big difference to the VIPs.”
“Morrow guilted me into it. I still hate these things. I’m not all that much of a people person.”
“Give yourself a little credit. You do fine.”
“I suck at it.”
“Not really. Did you think about what we talked about?”
Luke searched his mind. What had they talked about? He had no idea what Amanda was referring to. “Yeah, I did.”
“And?”
Crap! Should he say he agreed or disagreed? He made a mental note to kill Morrow the next time he saw him. Every time he was around Amanda she pestered him for one thing or another. It
was hard to always put her off. “It’s an interesting concept. I can say that much for sure.”
“So we can move forward with it?”
“I guess if you’re absolutely sure you’re comfortable with it,” Luke said cautiously, hoping his words wouldn’t come back to haunt him. Sometimes, dealing with Amanda was like working with a land mine.
“Wonderful! I promise you won’t regret it; you’ll see.”
“I hope not.”
“And I’ll make sure they stay out of your hair. You don’t have to worry about that at all.”
That didn’t sound good. What had he just agreed to? Morrow would pay if there was trouble.
# # #
Luke walked into the engineering room looking for Morrow.
“Hi, Commander,” Riley said. He was standing in front of the latest hologram design, spinning it this way and that. “How was the colony launch? I should go watch one of those.”
“You haven’t seen one? I have to go to all of them!” Luke groused. “Where’s Lou?”
“I think he’s at Far Side, Commander. Want me to call him?”
“No, I’ll go find him myself.” He turned to leave but Riley spoke before he could reach the door.
“While you’re here, Commander, want to see what you think?”
Luke stopped and turned back to Riley. He was like a kid with a new finger-painting. It wasn’t really fair to ignore kids when they wanted to show off.
“Sure, Riley.”
The engineer took Luke through the latest design. The guided missiles had been added along the fuselage. The interior design was about done. There were a lot more mechanical rooms than Luke would have expected.
“It’s a big ship, sir,” Riley explained.
Luke asked about lifeboats. Riley looked surprised.
“We didn’t include lifeboats, Commander. It didn’t occur to me.”
“Got to have lifeboats or something like that. I hope it doesn’t happen, but if we take a big hit, everyone needs a way to get out and get down to a planet. In fact, the life pods, or whatever you come up with, should each have a gravity drive and a preprogrammed destination. They could all be different; not just toward Earth. They ought to have the option to head for an out-of-system destination. After all, a survivor may not want to stay in the same system if the Bakkui are so strong that they take us out.”
Riley digested the idea. “We could keep a database so if we get the word you go down, we would have a starting point to send our search and rescue.”
“Good thought,” Luke agreed.
Without anyone to rein him in, Riley’s design review went on for over two hours. It wasn’t all wasted time. Luke asked why the ship was constructed like a wedding cake with dozens of floors instead of like a train that was long and narrow.
“It’s the gravity drive, Commander. Our ships accelerate at tens of thousands of gees. For interstellar travel it’s hundreds of thousands of gees.”
Luke nodded. “I’ve always wondered why we don’t get squished flat. Sam told me it was a gravity bubble.”
“That’s a fair analogy,” Riley said. “The area inside the ship is isolated from the force of the main drive by gravity plates in the deck, walls, and ceiling. They are modulated by the AI to maintain a one-gee environment.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Let me try another example,” Riley said. “You used to fly fighters, right?”
“Yeah. The F-35.”
“Did you ever fly in a T-38?”
Luke thought back. As an evaluator, he had flown a few chase missions at Red Flag. “A couple of times.”
“Did you go supersonic?”
“We did, as a matter of fact. We were chasing some F-18s.”
“Okay,” Riley said. “While you were supersonic could you talk to the other pilot?”
“Of course.”
“That’s what I mean,” Riley said. “Although the aircraft was flying supersonic, it didn’t change what was happening inside the cockpit. You were in a sound bubble. All the laws for propagation of sound applied inside that bubble. Think of astronauts orbiting the Earth. They can talk to each other, but their capsule is moving much faster than sound.”
“I still don’t get it,” Luke admitted. “You mean the floor has a one gee gravity?”
“Not exactly. Let’s say the main drive is accelerating you at one hundred gees. That means the drive under your floor is driving you at one hundred gees.”
“Right. I would be flattened.”
“That’s true,” Riley said. “But if there was a barrier between you and that main drive, and on the other side of the barrier was a smaller gravity drive that was pushing you away at ninety-nine gees, the total force on your body would be one gee.”
“Okay, I get that.”
“So because of that, Lulubelle, as are all of our colony ships, is constructed in levels. The decking on each floor pushes just that floor away from the main drive at a force that is the total acceleration minus one. In the case of deceleration, the gravity plates in the ceiling do the reverse. Overall, the drive management is just much easier to control with a wedding cake configuration. At those accelerations there’s no room for error.”
It still didn’t make sense to Luke. He assumed that Riley was oversimplifying; not that Luke would understand if they talked about it for days. After all, he was a history major.
When Morrow arrived, he scolded Riley for bending the commander’s ear. By that time Luke was so confused he didn’t bother to bring up his complaint about Amanda.
After his escape from engineering, Luke headed toward Starbucks. It was a nice memory of Annie. In the two weeks following their first time sitting under that gorgeous dome, they’d returned often. It lasted until her sudden departure.
With a mocha in hand, Luke headed toward one of the tables. It seemed unusually crowded today. A pair of elderly ladies approached. Luke had never known there to be many elderly people among the recruits. He looked around and noticed there was quite a crowd of seniors sitting at the tables.
“Excuse me, young man. Aren’t you that commander fellow?”
It was strange to be accosted so at Moonbase. Luke couldn’t recall that it had ever happened. “Yes ma’am. Can I help you?”
The woman handed her cell phone to her partner. “Here, Viola. Take my picture.”
Viola took the handset and promptly snapped several pics. “Smile, young man,” Viola chided. “She won’t eat you.” Both women laughed. “Now me. Take one of me, Renee.”
The women switched phones and Luke found himself again suffering through several unwanted photos.
“Are those cell phones?” he asked.
Viola held up one of the phones and pouted. “Reception here is horrible. Look at that. Not a single bar. I thought you would have better service. I’ve heard so many things about this place. Now I wonder how many of them are true.”
“We don’t have cell service,” Luke said. “Didn’t you get that information during your recruitment?”
Viola looked at him as though he had lost his mind. “No service?”
Renee snatched the phone out of Viola’s grasp. “Did you tell him about the service?” Renee asked.
“I did. He said they don’t have service. How do they talk to each other?”
“No service?”
“That’s what I said.”
Luke wondered if he was in the Twilight Zone. These women had no conceivable business being on the moon. “Ladies, excuse me, but—”
“I’ve noticed you have a lot of foreigners here too.” Viola cut him off, looking at a group of younger people seated in the adjoining restaurant. “Is that legal? Did you have to get visas for all of them? Why didn’t you hire local people? I always say that Americans should hire Americans.” She looked suspiciously at Luke. “Don’t you think so?”
An out-of-breath Amanda suddenly appeared at Luke’s elbow. “There you are, ladies. Now, now. We shouldn’t be bothering the c
ommander. Remember we talked about that?”
Viola pooh-poohed her concern. Or was it Renee? Luke wasn’t sure anymore. They seemed like a set of twin, evil senior citizens. “He’s such a nice-looking young man, Mandy. I just had to have his picture to put on my Instagram.”
“Come on,” Amanda insisted, pulling them away. “Let’s get back to the tour.” She looked over her shoulder as she tried to steer them away. Sorry, she mouthed.
“Amanda!” Luke barked at her. “What the hell is going on?”
Amanda left the women with an orange-vested assistant and came back toward Luke. “It’s our first tour group. It’s what we talked about at the launch.”
“Tour group? That’s what I approved? Are you freaking insane?”
“Luke, watch your language!” Amanda glanced around to be sure no one heard Luke’s outburst. “We talked about this! You said I could go ahead. It’s only once a week and I think it will help our image. This is a good thing for recruitment.”
Luke wanted to rage at her. Tour groups! It verged on being the last straw. He glared at Amanda for a moment and then whispered savagely, “I think you need to improve your orientation briefing at the very least. And for Chrissake, keep them away from me in the future.”
Luke turned away before he lost complete control of his temper. The mocha went into the trash and he stalked away from the plaza, back toward his apartment. All of a sudden, he was looking forward to moving onboard Lulubelle.
Day 453—Population 102,742
Luke and Roth sat in Sadie’s cockpit to watch the startup sequence of the orbital replicator. They were in a geostationary orbit above Far Side. Floating in space before them, a nine-thousand-foot long rectangular framework supported a closely grouped series of replicator heads mounted in an open circle almost two thousand feet across. The round module attached to the framework with giant wheels on massive tracks. Once the process started, the module would roll along the structure, leaving the completed starship anchored within.
A medium-sized rock, borrowed from the asteroid belt, was fastened to a roller on the outside of the framework, and a wide, flexible pipe connected it to the replicator module to provide a constant source of raw material.
