Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation

by Dale C. Musser

  It felt strange watching the Rear Admiral walking out knowing that in just a few minutes, he would be light-years away in the Capitol at Megelleon.

  I wanted to go back to Kala’s and my suite and to the twins, but there were too many people who wanted to see me and welcome me back, and it was hours before I was finally able to break free. I also wanted to thank Padaran and Jenira for the outstanding job they did in rescuing Kala and me, but they disappeared shortly after the meal, and I didn’t see them again. There was one more thing I needed to do before I returned to my suite. I contacted the bridge and asked if Regata was still in the observation pod on the side of the ship. I was told he was, and I got directions to the location. It seemed surreal walking about my ship once more, and I feared that at any moment, I would wake up and find myself back on Desolation with Kala and the twins. It took me several minutes to find the observation pod Regata was in. I was glad that Kala was not around to remind me that I really needed to learn more about my ship. When I found him, he had darkened the tint of the pod glass, so he could look directly at the star without harming his eyes.

  “Regata, may I join you?” I asked.

  “Ah, Man-Who-Speaks-for- Thumumba, most certainly. I am very sorry not to have been at your welcoming home dinner, but I have discovered something most extraordinary. This star contains what I have been sent to search for. There is inside of it a living intelligence like Thumumba.”

  “There is?” I said in amazement. I had never thought of that possibility in my time on the planet.

  “Yes, I have been trying to communicate with it, but it is quite young and its thoughts are unorganized. It is only a few millennia old and barely self-aware. All the solar flares you see are a result of its efforts to gain control over its environment. It is like an infant trying to learn to walk.”

  “Have you informed Thumumba about this?” I asked.

  “Thumumba always knows what is going on in my mind. He is most excited about this discovery and has been using my mind to try to converse with the entity, but progress is slow, and it may take years before they can have any dialog on even the most primitive of levels. Nevertheless, Thumumba is most excited, for now he knows he is not alone.”

  “Will Thumumba come here to meet with this entity?” I asked.

  “Perhaps in several million years, when this young one is more in control; right now it would be futile as the being still has no real concept of itself, let alone others.”

  “Will you be going home to Alle Bamma now that you have found this entity?”

  “I am not sure. Thumumba has not spoken of this yet.” As we watched we could see a large coronal eruption shooting out into space; luckily it was not in the direction of Desolation. “There,” Regata said, “It’s kicking like a baby in its mother’s womb.”

  “Is that what you call solar flares? Kicks in the mother’s womb?”

  “It is about as close an analogy as I can think of.” Regata said with a smile.

  “So are all solar flares caused by entities inside stars, like Thumumba?” I asked.

  “No, not at all, but an entity like is in this star can cause solar flares while it is trying to learn and control the environment around it.” Regata answered.

  When I finally got back to our suite, I was surprised to find Kala on the floor with the twins. Lunnie was crawling around on all fours checking out everything while Reidecor sat next to Kala playing with his toes.

  “How does it feel to be home again?” I asked Kala.

  “Wonderful!" she exclaimed, "absolutely wonderful. Did you know that Piesew set up a nursery for the twins while we were gone? You need to see it. It has everything. Even a diaper changing robotic device, no more dealing with messy diapers for us,” she said happily.

  “Remind me to give him a raise.” I said.

  “And you should see the toys… all sorts of stuff.”

  “How come they aren’t playing with them now?” I asked.

  “Oh they are too busy exploring. Lunnie is checking out everything.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I see Reidecor is checking out his toes.”

  Kala laughed, “Yes it’s strange, it’s like this is the first time he’s ever really noticed them. He wiggles them and then grabs them and laughs.

  “Sometimes he worries me, Kala. I mean let’s face it, Lunnie seems to be more advanced than he is.”

  Kala frowned and looked at me. “Oh, Tibby, Reidecor is perfectly normal for a baby his age. Yes, Lunnie seems to be more advanced, but all that can change. Reidecor may fool you. Right now, he is normal and happy; what more could you ask?”

  While we were talking, Lunnie had crawled across the room and picked up a brightly-colored toy that had ever-changing light patterns going on inside. She picked it up and placed it in her mouth and then crawled back across the room looking ever so much like a dog carrying a bone. When she reached me, she sat up and took the toy out of her mouth and handed it up to me with a big grin. I noticed something still in her mouth and went to get it out with my finger when suddenly Lunnie chomped down, and I felt pain.

  “Ouch?” I said and looked in Lunnie’s mouth again. “Kala” I said excitedly… “Lunnie has a tooth.”

  Kala rolled over next to us and looked in Lunnie’s mouth. “Well, by the stars,” she said, “she does.” Kala rolled back to Reidecor and looked in his mouth. “Nothing here, but it looks like one is almost ready to appear.”

  “Tibby, I enjoy our babies, but I think I’m going to enjoy them a lot more here on the ship.” Kala said as she lay back and stared toward the ceiling. A grinning Reidecor promptly crawled on top of her and drooled on her face.

  That night for the first time in six months Kala and I slept on our bed in the NEW ORLEANS again; the twins were in their own room right next to ours where we could hear them if we were needed. The adventures and action of the day quickly took its toll, and we all slept soundly until the morning.

  The first thing I did when I woke up was to head to the pool where I swam laps. All my labors on Desolation had me in pretty good physical shape. I practiced my martial arts moves daily while there, and I was lean and trim, but the lack of regular swimming was showing. I was just finishing my twentieth lap when Kala walked into the pool room and began disrobing.

  “This isn’t fair,” she said as she got in the water, “you’re getting a head start on me warming up.”

  “Oh like that matters,” I joked and splashed her. “Who’s watching the twins?”

  “Jenira. She came by a few minutes ago and announced that she was now their official nanny/bodyguard and that if I had anything I wanted to do, to go do it. When I left she was sitting on the floor with them, and all three were laughing. I just wish she would speak.”

  “I know,” I said sadly, “she’s vowed she won’t speak again until the Brotherhood has been destroyed.”

  Kala started swimming laps and even though I had just finished twenty laps, I joined her. Soon her competitive nature kicked in, and before I knew it, she was starting to outpace me. I picked up my pace, and quickly we were side by side again. I saw her turn her head and look at me, and then I saw her grin, and she really started speeding up, and the race was on. I think I would have beaten her if I hadn’t swum the twenty laps earlier, but as it was, we both hit the wall at the same time once again.

  “No fair,” I said as I tried to catch my breath, “I’m all tired out from my earlier laps.”

  “Ha,” Kala said mockingly, “you always have an excuse. If you hadn’t limbered up earlier I would have left you behind in the steam created by my speed through the water.”

  I was about to challenge her to a rematch when my com link beeped. I swam to the side the pool and picked it up. “Tibby here,” I said.

  “Tibby, welcome back, Dr. Hughes here, it’s been a long time since we had a session, and considering the ordeal you’ve just gone through, I thought that now might be a good time for us to get together.”

  Dr. Hughes was
a psychiatrist from Earth and had been a member of the Mars colony that we had rescued. Shortly after his arrival on the NEW ORLEANS he pointed out that we didn’t have a ship's counselor or mental health professional aboard and convinced me of the need for one. Unfortunately for me, he saw me as his primary client and constantly wanted me to sit in his chair, so he could sort through my thoughts. “Could we make it another time?” I asked. “I’m scheduled to meet with the Admiralty this afternoon to discuss urgent matters regarding the war, and I really need to see to other matters here with the ship with my crew before I go.”

  “Well I guess we can, but after all the things you’ve been through in the past and with the latest events, I think you need to decompress and sort this stuff out. Keeping it all bottled in is only going to create more stress.” In my mind, this conversation was starting to sound like a segment from an old Earth TV show where when the adults talked, all the children heard was Wah, wah wah, wah wah wah.

  “Once things settle down and I’ve had a chance to catch up on events I’ll make contact with you. Will that be alright with you?” I asked.

  “Well I suppose so, but don’t stretch things out too long.” he replied.

  Once I severed communications with Dr. Hughes I said, “Kala, I really need to go meet with A’Lappe and Cantolla. You’re welcome to join me if you wish.

  “That’s alright, Tib, after spending the last six months with you daily on Desolation, I could use a little time without you.” she said through a grin. I stuck my tongue out at her as I headed for the shower.

  Twenty minutes later found me walking into the lab where Cantolla and A’Lappe, along with all their assistants, worked their scientific magic. “Tibby,” Cantolla said as I entered the room, “I’m glad you came down to see us this morning. A’Lappe and I have so much to show you.”

  “Where is he?” I asked as I looked about when I didn’t see him.

  “He is down in the hangar bay helping a crew load the components for a Cantolla gate on a patrol ship to be delivered to one of the starships in the Urbane System. It will take months for them to get there, but once they do and have it set up, we will instantly be able to move from here to there simply by walking through the gate. After that we can construct, or pass through the materials necessary for them to construct a larger gate sufficient for a starship to pass through. That will allow a squadron or fleet of ships to transport the distance in mere seconds instead of months.”

  “A’Lappe said something last night about an improvement in communications and that the DSC system will soon be obsolete. What’s that all about?”

  “A’Lappe got the idea to use smaller versions of the Cantolla gate inside a radio-like device. Essentially each gate has its own frequency paired gates. What A’Lappe has done is to figure out a way to make thousands of these gates on an microscopic scale mounted in a wheel inside the communication device. When the wheel is rotated into the correct position, it is powered up and opens the gate to the matching paired particles on the device you are trying to communicate with. Once the miniature gate is opened a small light beam with digital information is carried through to a receptor in the receiving machine giving you instant communication, over what otherwise would be the distances of light years.”

  “I see, I think. So in reality the distance the message actually travels is only a few millimeters even though the ships are light years apart.”

  “Correct!” Cantolla stated with a grin. “Isn’t it brilliant?”

  “Yes it is actually, how long will it take before we can get this device made and put on all the Federation ships?”

  “We haven’t figured that out yet, but with the Cantolla gates being installed on more ships, we can move quicker between sectors, and it could happen quite fast.” she said.

  “And by quite fast just what are we talking about? Months? Years?” I asked.

  “Oh years for sure, but not more than the time it takes to fly from here to the furthest point in the Federation in our fastest GW propelled ship.”

  “So you’re saying eight years or less?” I said.

  “Correct.” She beamed, just as A’Lappe entered the room.

  “Ah, Tibby, I’m glad you got down here so early this morning. I was afraid you would be held up by everyone else wanting to meet with you first.”

  “Actually, A’Lappe, you’ve provided me with a good excuse NOT to have to meet with some of them,” I replied, thinking of Dr. Hughes.

  “Well whatever the reason, I’m glad you made it. I see Cantolla has shown you the new communication device. What do you think of it?”

  “Well, if it works, I think it’s pretty great.” I said. “Do you have power consumption problems with this similar to the larger Cantolla gates?”

  “It does require more power than a standard communication device, but the gates are microscopically small, so the power required is much less. You could easily power one off a standard fusion power cell with very little energy drain,” A’Lappe responded.

  “What about these larger gates you are talking about powering with the solbidnite? What can you tell me about the solbidnite, and how much of it exists?"

  A’Lappe grinned and blinked his large eyes. “There is far more of it then there was of solbidyum, and it’s easier to collect. It is much finer than solbidyum and is basically just a fine dust, almost like a small nebula cloud actually. I think if the black hole had stayed together longer it would have produced solbidyum, but this one collapsed earlier and the process never completed. A particle of solbidnite is not as powerful as a grain of solbidyum, but it still is many times more powerful than a 10X fusion reactor. There is an ample supply of the stuff to fuel starships and Cantolla gates all over the Federation with solbidnite to spare.”

  “Excellent, but for right now I think it wise we keep that a secret. The last thing we need is for the Brotherhood to get news of this and get their hands on it to power their ships.

  “I have something else I would like you to work on for me, A’Lappe,” I said as I pulled a data chip out of my pocket. While I was on Desolation, I came up with an idea for a new design for a starship that would serve primarily as a carrier for fighters and patrol ships. It would be smaller and more compact than one of the Federation’s giant starship, but would carry more fire power and troopers with far less government officials and diplomats aboard and almost no civilians at all.” I handed him the data chip, “See what you can do with this design, will you? I want you also to figure out a way these ships can be built in modules, possibly in several different locations with the main hull and propulsion system built all in one location. Later those sections can be flown to the respective shipyards where the other modules have been constructed and they can be joined quickly. I think if we can do that we can build these ships in one-quarter of the time it usually takes.”

  A’Lappe took the chip and put it into a computer and began scanning the design. “Fascinating,” he said. “I like the functionality of it. Yes, I think it can be done in modules like you suggest. Let me work on it a few days, and I’ll see what I can do. You do want this ship to have cloaking and RMFF capabilities, I assume?”

  “Of course, A’Lappe, that goes without saying. I would also suggest you power it with your new solbidnite, only I think we should build the reactor to look like a 10X reactor, that way if anyone sees it they won’t realize it’s not a 10X reactor.”

  “You’re not afraid word will leak out from the crew about the new solbidnite reactor?”

  “If we make it top secret and only a few people in engineering, and the higher-ranking officers know of it and are sworn to secrecy, we might be able to prevent anyone from finding out long enough to win this damn war. It's unlikely they would be capable of capturing a major Cantolla gate if the gates are cloaked and their locations unknown, so they won’t know what powers them or how much power they require. Is it possible to shield a Cantolla gate with a RMFF?”

  “Smaller ones can be shielded by the ships
that house the generating hubs, but ones large enough for ships to pass through would need to have an RMFF shield for each hub. You could, of course, do that as two of the three nodes must have a 10X fusion reactor and the third a solbidnite reactor or solbidyum reactor. The solbidnite part of the gate is the only part that I personally would be concerned about," A’Lappe said. "We'll also need to check and see if the RMFF function interferes with the creation of the gates. It could impact how a gate works."

  “Cantolla, what do you think?” I asked.

  “I would hate to see the technology fall into the hands of the Brotherhood,” Cantolla said, “even though I agree with A’Lappe that it’s not likely they would be able to figure it out because of the sympathetic particles. Don’t forget it was because of information from your Earth’s science that we learned of them, and Ming is from Earth and is now with the Brotherhood. Maybe some of the others, possibly scientists, from Earth have joined up with them as well, and they would recognize how they work and figure it out.”

  Cantolla’s words startled me as I had not taken that thought into consideration. While many of the people we rescued from Mars and the Moon had come to work for me, many had chosen not to and sought work elsewhere. Some of them may well have been recruited by the Brotherhood for all we knew.

  “Thank you both for your time,” I said as I started to head for the door. “Keep up the good work. I have some things I must attend to before I go to see Admiral Regeny. Please excuse me.”

  Once I exited the room, I contacted Padaran on my wrist com. “Padaran, this is Tibby, do you have any information as to the whereabouts of the refugees we rescued from Mars and the Earth’s moon, who did not remain with us, and what they are doing?”

  “Ah, no, Tibby, I don’t believe we do. I’m sure if I check with those still here that some of them do. Do you need the information?" he asked.