It still took a few days. Every system on the ship now had two power sources, I wasn’t sure if that would ever change. Having fusion backup local to every system just made sense. Just in case the ship did take damage, and wasn’t destroyed, and an important powerline was cut. Doubtful, but possible. Plus, if I didn’t leave it there Kristi would make fun of me.
“Al, go ahead and bring the converters online.”
Al replied, “Converters are active, and are running at eighty-six point four percent efficiency.”
That… was actually really good. All it meant was compared to what we figured on paper, it was fourteen percent less power that it could draw.
“Al, switch all systems from fusion to the dark energy reactor. And then run diagnostics and put the systems through their paces.”
“Power switched, the tests will take fifteen minutes.”
I nodded and looked over at Kristi. I could tell she was deep in VR, probably trying to get the weapons to work.
“Any luck?”
Kristi shook her head slightly, “Not yet, I have some ideas but they’re too impractical.”
I nodded and started going over the data as it came in. The anti-mass and EM fields were about twice as strong due to the higher energy availability. That meant they could make it across the old Knomen empire space in a day, instead of two. Across the galaxy in just four days. That was insane. I also saw that it would be hard on the equipment, the converter was capable of more power, but those systems would fail if any more was applied. Unfortunately, the plasma cannons were already operation at their limits.
It also meant the ship could take about twenty missiles before the EM field failed, at least twenty of the ones currently in use.
I looked down at the percentage of power being used verse how much was possible. It was sitting at point zero zero five percent. My eyes widened, this much from a micro singularity? I couldn’t imagine the power surplus if we made it even bigger.
Well, that’s not true, I could calculate it, but it would be a number so large as to be meaningless to a human perspective. The power of stars.
“Impractical?” I finally asked.
Kristi frowned, “Well the only thing that concentrates or attracts dark energy is a black hole. Even a collapsed dwarf star, or something with close to the gravity of a black hole isn’t good enough to affect vacuum energy. So… a dark energy weapon would have to create a singularity, and have powerful enough emitters to push it out at another ship. Considering most battles happen at thousands of miles, to millions of miles, it’s flat out impossible.”
I nodded, “Well, running the ship twice as tough and fast, we still have ninety-nine point nine nine five percent power available. Can we redesign the plasma turrets to be… I don’t know, a whole bunch more powerful?”
I frowned at my next thought, “We could probably make dark matter torpedoes, but let’s not. Sounds like overkill.”
She shook her head, “They’d be too big, it would take a fairly large fusion reactor to create a singularity.”
I nodded, “Unless we armed them as they went in the tubes. The ship could connect and provide power to form the singularity, then the missile would be self-sufficient if it used that power until it came time to explode.”
She snorted, “Okay, I’ll buy that, but it’s still a bad idea. I can design plasma weapons that make the current ones look like pop guns against artillery.”
I frowned, “Also, I’m thinking the attack shuttles, Shield missiles, and missile boats need to stay the same. The former lands on planets, the latter are recalled to the ship, and for some reason having sixty-one dark matter reactors on a ship makes me very nervous.”
She nodded and grinned, “Me too. So we have a lot of power to burn, I’ll design those plasma cannons, you start working on a wormhole drive.”
“I almost forgot about that, I’ll see what I can do, we definitely have the power, and if not we can double the size of the singularity.”
She tilted her head, “Is there a practical reason? From what you said we move pretty damned fast already.”
It only took me a moment to think of it, “Sure, if the Seltan attack Leira again, getting there in five minutes is a whole lot better than a day.”
Kristi looked a little sobered at that comment, “And I call you the naïve one?”
I grinned, “Does it feel like to you, that we just put an eight-cylinder engine on a tricycle? I keep trying to think of something to add to eat up that energy. Maybe you can not only update the strength of the plasma cannons, but add a bunch more to the hull.”
She pointed in mock anger, “Bad alien, wormholes, now.”
I sighed, “Yes mom.”
I read something in the morning reports that woke me up even better than coffee. Two thousand light years away rimward, and we ran into another species in space, but only stellar, not interstellar. All indications were they didn’t detect the stealth ship dropping off a probe. This made me think of Marlon, surely they were a species we should find out all we could soon.
Of course, if they didn’t take my suggestion, we’d have to depend on the probe we dropped off and what we could glean off of television and radio signals. Considering how skewed aliens would see Earth based on our television, I was sure the Intel wouldn’t be very good. Not much was known about them yet, but they were on par with what Earth’s technology was just last year, before I’d stumbled onto anti-mass and FTL.
We weren’t even sure what they looked like yet, all I knew was there were several artificial satellites in orbit, as well as a couple of larger space stations. The planet itself was larger than Earth, a little closer to their sun, and had a slightly weaker electro-magnetic field. It had a slightly longer day, twenty-five point three hours long, and the gravity was at point nine two of Earth normal.
I was sure future reports would have a focus on that world compared to others, and looked forward to it. Again, a part of me itched to take my ship there and take a look myself, but I had plenty of work to do as admiral of fleet, and a scientist with my own project, and watching over the company.
We also now had over a two thousand light year buffer that was covered by sensors, so assuming any craft coming from that direction travelled as fast as we did, we’d get at least a couple of hours’ notice.
It took me a couple of days to design a wormhole generator, and according to my calculations it would take forty percent of the dark energy reactor’s potential energy generation to open one. To put that in perspective, that much energy from the reactor, would be enough to power eight thousand ships of our current configuration.
We really did have energy to burn, and outside of the wormhole generator we would be barely scratching the surface. I considered the idea of layered EM shielding, increasing the size of the ship by many factors to make use of that power, and by placing many plasma cannons.
However, it occurred to me it might send the wrong message to the rest of the galaxy. It would be a juggernaut, and something built for war. Perhaps if the galaxy went to hell, we could build a few of them, but for now I’d have to be happy to at least have one system on board ship that used the higher energy now available to us.
I had other concerns as well, I had no worries about the current board, or me, trying to take over the galaxy, but human nature also had me reluctant to design such a ship. I wasn’t naïve enough to think no one else would, once the patents were in and the designs were in the hands of the governments. But I was also sure the tech would eventually leak out to other worlds and restore the balance.
I believed most wanted a peaceful state in the galaxy of trade and defense, but power corrupts. Sometimes those thoughts made me wonder if even the dark energy reactor, and wormhole drive was too much.
I snorted, maybe it won’t be in the budget for them to buy any?
The ironic thing was I’d be only able to patent the energy converters and wormhole generator if it worked. There was no new tech in creating a dark energy r
eactor, it was a rather simple, if intense, artificial gravity device. I considered the idea of classifying the dark energy reactor, even with the dark energy converter and wormhole patent, no one else would be able to make use of it because of not meeting the energy requirements.
Wormhole generation was something purely on paper. I had a design, but didn’t know if it would even work. And if it did work, there was the matter of aiming the other end. I thought about creating a second test ship to keep experiments separate, but in the end decided to just to use the same one. Hopefully Kristi’s newer and bigger plasma cannons wouldn’t blow up my experiment, and I wouldn’t blow up hers.
I also spent time with Al to get a test regimen. We’d need a lot of test probes, and to experiment how to determine size, direction, and distance. It would be a tedious time consuming activity, but one easily monitored by an A.I. Once I monitored the first one or two openings, assuming it worked, Al could take it from there and get the thing calibrated.
Chapter 8
The next few days I went back and forth in my mind as the wormhole drive, or generator, was built. Moral science, what did it mean? Some purists would say I should just publish everything and the consequences be damned. Others would say the knowledge was too dangerous and should be suppressed. I believed there was a balance in the middle somewhere. Cautious, hopeful, but not without giving weight to the possible outcomes.
I decided in the end to highly classify the power source as much as was possible, but I would be submitting patents for the power converter, and wormhole drive. Even with patents, it would take others time to figure out how it actually worked, and then they’d be without a power source capable of making use of either. It wouldn’t hold forever, or even all that long, but all I could do was hope that was long enough for cooler heads to prevail to avoid the negative outcomes.
Al said, “You have a call from Nadia Avdonin.”
“Answer it please,” after a moment I said, “Good afternoon ma’am.”
Nadia sighed in disgust, “Call me Nadia, and that’s an order.”
I smiled, “Of course… ma’am,” I said teasingly, “Nadia it is.”
She snorted, “Are you and Kristi free tonight?”
“I believe so, what do you need?”
Nadia replied, “Need? Nothing. Nora and Senna want to get out of the complex and see what life really is like on Earth. I was wondering if you two wanted to join us on a girl’s night out. I was thinking dinner, then something fun like a pool hall, followed by a late show on Broadway maybe?”
Huh. Sounded like fun to me.
“Sounds good, should I bring security, or you have that covered?”
Nadia made a considering sound, “I have it covered, but I wouldn’t mind if you provided the transportation.”
I grinned, “Sure, I can do that. I think the sports shuttle is big enough for the five of us, I assume our escorts are following?”
I knew the sports shuttle was secure enough, New York could be nuked and the little shuttle wouldn’t even get scratched.
Nadia grunted, “Good, be here around five?”
I agreed and hung up. And then I called Kristi to fill her in. It was going to be tough to dress and fit in at both a pool hall, and a Broadway show. I supposed Nadia wanted to show them diversity…
We left work early to stop at the house, get out of our skin suits, and take a shower. I wound up wearing a black skirt and a red blouse, with red three inch heeled shoes. I did my normal light touch of makeup, hair, and some matching jewelry. Of course, I was wearing the protective bustier underneath. Not one person had tried to kill me yet, at least not anyone from Earth, but it seemed prudent. I’d probably be a little overdressed for a pool hall, but better that than trying to wear jeans to a nice restaurant, or a Broadway show. At least, that was the theory.
I thought I looked pretty good, although it wasn’t very hard to achieve when I could control my body and looks. The hard part was not overdoing it in that area.
Kristi looked great in a dark green summer dress, and a pair of black high heels. When we got back into the shuttle and headed east toward New York I realized we’d only be a couple of minutes late. I was proud of Earth, the world I grew up in. Yet… I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday. I was hoping there wouldn’t be any problems, but the fact was this girl’s night out was two humans, and three aliens all of different races. I had purple eyes and spots, Nora was blue, and Senna was extremely tall and thin. We would stand out pretty well.
Well, we’d have security to keep an eye on us, and I had my gravity ball just in case, Kristi most likely had hers too. The truth was though, I’d been welcomed most places I went outside of a few stares, surprisingly so, hopefully this night would go the same.
It was a small production once we got there. Security arranged us in cavalcade of sorts with two black SUVs in front and back of us. They were probably bulletproof, but next to the shuttle they might have well been tissue paper. At best, they were calling attention to us, at worst, they were putting themselves in danger for no reason.
The good thing was Nora and Senna were thrilled to see me and Kristi. They both had huge smiles that reached their eyes and I gave them both a light hug on impulse, then found myself in one with Nadia. I hoped they’d enjoy a night on the town in New York.
Nadia wore a similar sundress to Kristi’s, but black instead of green, with a pair of red two inch heels. Nora and Senna had similar attire to me, skirts and blouses, but done in their own culture and home world. It was similar, but really stood out for the slight differences, styles that had never graced our planet before, yet, were somehow still familiar.
“Where are we eating?” I asked.
Nadia winked, “Planet Hollywood.”
Huh, I hadn’t been expecting that, but it would work. I’d eaten there once a long time ago. We all piled into the sports shuttle. Nora, Senna, and Nadia fit into the back, barely. It was a good thing they were all slim and petite in nature. We made our way out of the complex and into the streets of Manhattan. The streets were packed this time of day, but no huge traffic snarls.
When we got out I told Al to circle around if he couldn’t find a spot, there was no way I was letting a valet in a shuttle that could go FTL. Not that he’d have been able to operate it.
It was hard not to notice the people staring, but outside a few catty looks that told me I looked good tonight, most of the faces were friendly. An extremely large and intimidating man in leather, he had the look of a biker, opened the door for us, and shocked me with his words.
“Thank you Alicia Jones, for all you did for us.”
I paused for a second and smiled at him before walking in, not quite sure how to say your welcome for saving the planet. I never did learn how to take a compliment gracefully, and that one is always seems to big.
I almost choked with laughter at what I heard from two random men outside as the door closed.
“God, she’s a hot one. Did you see those purple eyes, and that body.”
“Don’t I know it? I wouldn’t say no to one of her friends either. That blue one has a really nice…” the rest of the words cut off as the door closed. Even with my stronger than human hearing it was too loud in here to hear what he liked about Nora.
Nora blushed, which was interesting, her cheeks turned a purplish color. What I didn’t expect to see or sense was the intrigued look in her eyes. For some reason it never occurred to me Nora would be interested in human men. Which was stupid of course, since I’m an alien interested in one particular human man myself. Sometimes I forget that little fact, despite what I see in the mirror, I grew up native after all.
Nadia cleared her throat and the host looked up.
“Five, for Avdonin.”
He smiled and grabbed five menus, “This way please,” and led us to our table…
Dinner was excellent, and fun. Especially when we got a couple of drinks in us, and I finally relaxed and killed my inner hermit. Senna actually
won the most reserved award out of the five of us, which was a change for me, but she was definitely having fun. I got the impression she didn’t get out of the palace very much back on Leira.
After, letting Al drive, we went to a pool hall with a full bar. There was more staring and comments, but it was kept to a minimum, and I was pretty sure our security was the reason for that. They weren’t loud and crude about it either. Mostly, it was just that my sense of hearing picking up things most people wouldn’t. Some of it was very flattering actually.
The first game, Kristi and Nadia played a game of nine ball, while I explained the rules to Senna and Nora. They didn’t look all that excited about it at first, but before we left they were quite addicted to the game. It almost came to the point where we just skipped the show, but we decided to stick to the plan.
I’d have rather gone dancing.
However, it wasn’t meant to be. On the way to the Broadway show we got stuck in traffic, just sitting still. Manhattan was one of the places I wasn’t allowed to fly, so I couldn’t just go over the traffic, at least not legally. Accidents weren’t that common an occurrence anymore, so I didn’t think that was the problem. Not since A.I.s could drive, and although the cars weren’t like my shuttle, they did run off of small fusion reactors instead of gasoline, and were extremely reliable.
We all exchanged looks.
I asked curiously, “Al, what’s going on up ahead.”
Al took a moment to respond, I assumed he was checking the net for information, “There is some kind of hostage situation on the roof of the nearby building, a man holding a woman at the edge. The man is threatening to kill himself and take his wife with him. There has also been an accident because of the gathered crowd before the police arrived, and some people are stuck in their car, emergency vehicles are in route.”
Alicia Jones 3: New Frontier Page 4
