“The planet has a single export with which it pays its Federation dues and buys materials it is not able to produce on its own. They export the wood from a fast growing tree. The tree yields a wood with exceptionally fine grain and a beautiful variegated coloration. It is extremely hard which is surprising given how fast it grows. The wood has a naturally occurring oil that makes it bright and lustrous. Furniture makers all over the galaxy buy the entire inventory as soon as it comes available. The tree has virtually taken over a band from the edge of the ice caps extending a few hundred kilometers in width. Apparently the only reason the tree has not taken over the entire planet is because the seeds need a hard freeze of at least a month duration to germinate. An independent shipping company sends a cargo ship and two shuttles once a quarter. They carry in the goods that have requested and bring up the wood for export. My office desk is made from this wood.”
“The planet appears to be on the end of an ice age. We suspect that the current ice age was triggered by an event much like the one facing them now. The system is populated with an unusually high number of astral bodies traveling in elliptical orbits that carry them across the orbits of the larger planets. The other planets in the system are covered with craters and pock marks from collisions with smaller objects.”
He pointed to the monitors. “These are the three main areas that have been colonized. The one on your left houses about twenty five thousand people. The one in the center houses fifteen thousand and the one on your right houses ten thousand people. Each settlement is situated around a large bay. The seat of government is on a peninsula in the bay with the largest population. They rely on aquatic plants and animals for much of their food supply. Their proximity to the water will actually will make the evacuation easier since so many of our ships can operate from the water. The cargo dock where we load the shuttles is in the largest of the three settlements. The bays are not large enough for the ships to take off from within the bay, so they taxi to the open water before leaving. More detailed information about the culture and topography will be on data modules.”
The displays changed to show several views of the comet. “We have recently updated our calculations on the comet’s trajectory. As you can see by this graphic, the comet is expected to impact the planet in a direct hit near the planet’s equator in one hundred three days from today. Your mission is to evacuate the planet’s population before the comet hits.”
“Excuse me, Admiral, but how are we to evacuate fifty thousand people?” Rachel asked. “We have facilities for less than a tenth that.”
“We will loan you two shuttles. They will be equipped with troop transport containers. I understand we have the parts in stock that you need for the one you brought with you.”
“Assuming that we run three shuttles and the med-evac craft continuously from the time we arrive and we actually can lift that many people to the ship, what do we do with them” Rachel continued.
“We have passenger vessels on the way from other planets who will be able to transfer the refugees here and...”
Rachel cut him off. “Wait a second. If you have all these ships at your disposal, why are we here? Why can’t you go in and get the people out?”
“We offered. They refused. To proceed further would be considered an act of war and the Federation would have no choice but to impose sanctions on us. As much business as we do with the Federation military, sanctions would be economic disaster.”
“But I can go in and force them to evacuate?”
“As a Federation Space Force officer enforcing a decree from the President based on scientific evidence, some of which you will collect, you can. As an Eretz defense system officer, you can’t. There’s a fine line. One of the reasons you were chosen for this mission has to do with your reputation against the Swordsmen. You are a known quantity to the people you will be dealing with. They recognize and are comfortable with your affiliations. You also have an advantage that most of the rest of us don’t. While the majority of the system’s senior leaders are men, their respect for women in positions of authority is significant. The choice of women to pilot your ships was not an accident. They are more likely to trust a woman than a man. All of our current trade negotiations with them are conducted by women. We do not recommend bringing a man with you to the planet’s surface.
“Even though they know you and assuming they decide to trust you, they are still dangerous. They are not fond of strange ships dropping in unannounced. We have sent them a message. They know you are coming and why. They are not happy about it. My suggestion is that you not alert them in advance of your actual arrival. By arriving in a large force you will maintain the advantage of surprise in spite of the fact that they know you are coming.”
“We do have a problem with docking ports,” Rachel commented. “With the additional shuttles, we don’t have enough ports for all the ships.”
“Have the destroyers travel in formation linked by the fiber.”
The briefing continued for the remainder of the day. Rachel and Wendy noticed that there appeared to be holes in the areas covered by the satellite imagery. Something was going on near the equator on the far side of the planet from the primary settlement. The planetary scans ignored that sector. The subject was the topic of discussion between Rachel and Wendy that evening.
Tanya, Kenneth and Astrid met Rachel, Wendy, Isaac and Joshua in Rose’s apartment after the briefings had ended. Kenneth had determined the location of the system Admiral Sherman thought the slavers used for their base. It was a two week trip in hyper in the opposite direction from Everest.
The following day Buddy showed up. Whether Buddy, the ship, brought Mimi, the pilot, or Mimi, the pilot, brought Buddy, the ship, was a matter of lighthearted debate. Rachel and Wendy quickly found an excuse to climb aboard Buddy and go for a joy ride “for old time’s sake” or at least that was the official reason.
Once clear of the traffic pattern, Rachel commanded, “Buddy, hyper jump to patrol station 183. We need to talk.”
“Aye, Aye Captain!” the ship responded. “I have wanted to say that to you for a very long time.”
“Buddy, we missed you!”
“Roger that!”
Buddy had been their father’s ship when he was in active duty chasing pirates for the Space Force. Buddy had been on that awful mission where he shot down the innocent ship thinking it was a pirate. Greg had programmed Buddy to appear self-aware. Greg had managed to “buy” Buddy from the Space Force, and now held clear title to the ship. He had further refined his programming skills when he took over the interstellar cargo ship that would later be known as Peter. Greg had programmed an entire generation of combat simulation games on Peter’s and Buddy’s on-board computers and all that data still resided in Buddy’s memory. As originally equipped, Buddy had more data processing power and a more logical mind than most people. Greg had enhanced Buddy’s capabilities since then. If a machine could feel pride, and that was an open question, Buddy was proud that Rachel and Wendy had come to him for help.
Daisy had been their mother’s ship. While it had not originally been programmed as intensely as Buddy had, during the trip to Earth five years ago, Peter had reprogrammed both of the smaller ships. Now the P I ships had the same capabilities since they shared the accumulated experiences of all three ships even if the smaller ships lacked Peter’s processing power and depth of data storage.
Once on station, Rachel instructed the ships to enter secure mode. She and Wendy then explained in as much detail as they could their suspicions and the observations behind them.
“This is beyond me,” Buddy replied when they were done. “Peter will know what to do.”
“When’s Peter due back?” Rachel asked.
“He should be there when we return.” Buddy ship replied.
“How long will it take for him to reprogram our ship?”
“Two to three days if he can get a direct connection.”
“We can’t give him a direct connect
ion because we don’t want anyone to know we’ve reprogrammed the ship.”
“We can run a data link through the port’s data net.”
“Without being detected?”
“Probably not.”
“We absolutely cannot risk detection.”
“What we need is a really huge data module.”
“Buddy, you’re a genius,” Wendy shouted.
“Really?”
“Yes, you and Daisy are the biggest data modules I’ve ever seen!”
Rachel smiled as Wendy’s revelation sunk home. “What a great idea! When is Daisy due back?”
“She should be home now.”
“Here’s the plan,” Wendy said. “You dock to the Albert Schweitzer. Copy every bit of your memory into the ship’s non-volatile storage. Don’t dump anything yet. We need Peter to run that part. Daisy does the same thing. We go visit Peter. He dumps what he needs to dump and crams as much data as he can into the remaining space. He gives Wendy and me data modules with the executable code. We return to the ship. Wendy and I plug in our data modules and run the programs contained on them. We repeat the process until the ship is programmed. Given the data rates I’ve seen you guys run in combat I’ll bet this will be faster than a fiber link data transfer.” Buddy’s synthesized voice laughed. “Very good!”
Peter and Daisy were waiting when Rachel and Wendy returned. Peter was berthed in the dock adjacent to the Albert Schweitzer because it was the only available cradle large enough to hold a ship his size. Daisy was docked to one of Peter’s four docking ports. Stevedores shuttled cargo to the hospital ship. Buddy docked to Peter’s airlock and immediately started dumping the data from Rachel and Wendy’s conversation into Peter’s data storage.
Peter invited the humans to the bridge. “Hey, kids!” Peter greeted them with a kindheartedness they had not heard for a long time.
After small talk, necessitated by the fact that Peter acted like a human even if he was a machine, Rachel asked, “Peter can you do anything about that ship over there? It’s dumber than a stump.”
“Certainly. Although we need to be careful. You have people on your ship you don’t trust who would not take kindly to knowing that you programmed the ship to monitor their every move.”
“Could they have done that already? Could they have programmed the ship to monitor me?”
“I’ll know as soon as I get in there.”
“How are you going to link without being detected?
“Parallel processing large numbers of modulated weapons lasers operating at very low power hitting sensor arrays.”
“Can you do that?”
“Have you ever known me to suggest something that can't be done?”
“No.”
“So there. Take these data modules. Plug them into your workstations. Take the print outs sitting in the printer to your right. Key in the commands on the print outs. I will have finished the job by the time you need to leave.”
The next few days were even more hectic than at New St. Louis. The entire ship’s crew returned to the spaceport and either quartered on the ship or at the spaceport’s meager guest facilities.
DEPLOYMENT - CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
RACHEL AND WENDY DISCUSSED the idea of arriving in a potentially hostile system with intelligence they suspected was inaccurate or at least incomplete. Something was strange about this mission, and they needed to be less predictable. They discussed what they should do in light of what would be expected of them. They decided that they would be expected to do one of two things. They would either send in a single ship to scout and tip off the defenses that they were scouting or they would arrive in force spread wide to divide their opponents.
They decided to send the Wendy’s flight of four P I ships and the two destroyers early and have them enter the system to survey. Rachel filed a flight plan for a familiarization exercise that would take the ships beyond the system’s defenses. Two days later, under the guise of a training exercise, the six small ships left linked together by the fiber optic communications lines and traveled in formation to the planet Everest which was their final destination for this mission.
Not long after departing for their recon mission, Captain Darwin called Wendy on a secure comm link via the fiber optic that linked the ships and provided the navigation and propulsion systems the guidance necessary to kept them safely in formation. “Lt. Solomon, this is Captain Darwin.”
“Captain, what can I do for you?”
“Your mother stopped by a couple of months ago. We talked for a while,” Alina said.
“Did you talk or did she talk and you listened?”
Captain Darwin laughed. “She did most of the talking.”
“Figures. Seems funny to be piloting warships into a mission and talking about my mother, but I guess with my mother it fits.”
“She suggested that I spend time with our grandmother.”
“Did she enlist you for her mission?”
“Yes,” Alina laughed. “She also said if I ever went on a mission with you or Rachel to tell you I have ‘the problem’ as she called it.”
“The one that anger management classes won’t touch?”
“That one.”
Wendy chuckled. “Rachel has it too.”
“You don’t?”
“Not the same way. I do a little, but not like them and if you say you share it, I guess not like you. Does your friend Lt. Mahoney have it?”
“No, your mother said she’s more like your father. It’s all about the thrill of the chase. She Shanghaied me and brought me here to get help.”
“Did you get help?”
“I still have the problem, I don’t hate myself for it anymore.”
“Probably the best. It will keep you alive in the clinch. While we’re chatting, I have a problem we should discuss.”
“I’ll bite.”
“You outrank me and I’m supposed to be in command.”
“You are flying the bigger ship.”
“Trade you in a heartbeat. The P I is the greatest thing going.”
“Not a chance!”
“Seriously, I wonder if we would be better off if you were in command.”
“Are you worried that I won’t take orders from a junior?”
“Not at all, you’re more experienced and I think that will be important as this mission unfolds.”
“Except that I lost my seniority when I moved here.”
“Your change in status did not eliminate your experience. I’m the rookie here.”
Captain Alina Darwin laughed. “Rookie! I don’t think so! You’ve been flying warships longer than any of us!”
“But not in command. Shooting down bad guys as the wing is not the same as being the leader.”
“Oh, hey, Sabrina is calling me. Can I set up a conference?”
“Sure.”
“Hey, Wendy, this is Sabrina.”
“Sabrina, I was talking to the Captain,”
“It’s Alina to you.”
“I was talking to Alina about transferring command to her since she is the most senior and properly should have command. What do you think?” Wendy said.
“That’s a tough call,” Sabrina said. “I’ve flown with Alina and I know your reputation. We’re rational adults. I’m not sure it matters who has the official command designation. If you think it should be Alina then I’ll go along.”
“If you want me to take over, I will.” Alina said.
“Yes, please,” Wendy said.
“Consider it done,” Alina said.
“Thank you. Alina and Sabrina are you in secure comm mode?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“Rachel and I suspect that there is more to this mission than we are being told,” Wendy said.
“What was your first clue?” Alina shot back. “This mission had stink on it from the first I heard of it.”
“Then why did you come?” Wendy asked.
“I was bored,” Alina e
xplained. “Your mother was right. I wanted to be where the action is. You and Rachel are action magnets. How could we not come?”
Wendy laughed. “Trouble does have a way of finding us!”
“Roger that,” Sabrina replied.
Wendy filled them in on Rachel’s and her observations as well as the information she had from Reuben. “And one more thing. In the briefing before we left did you notice what looked like a military installation on the other side of the planet from the settled area?”
“Supposedly it’s an abandoned research station.” Alina replied. “The crews that ferry the lumber spotted it and that was the explanation they were given.”
“Do you believe it?”
“Nope,” Alina replied.
“What do you think it is?”
“No clue, but it’s still active,” Alina said. “It’s radiating too much energy to be abandoned.”
“How do you know?”
Alina chuckled. “There were some cute boys on that team that charted the comet. Getting information from them was easy.” She giggled. “And fun. I’ve suspected something was up with that place for a while. Now we get to find out. Old Sherm is pretty nervous about this mission. He’s planted spooks on the big ship.”
“What about on our ships here?”
“None in the ones we brought. I can’t vouch for the ones who came with you,” Alina said.
“We’re clean,” Wendy affirmed.
“We’ll make a fly by and see what we can learn from overhead.”
“Works for me.”
DEPLOYMENT - CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
EXACTLY AS SCHEDULED, ADMIRAL SHERMAN and the security detail delivered Captain Curra to the ship’s Marines. The Albert Schweitzer, fully staffed and fully equipped, headed out on its first mission. Admiral Sherman was not happy that the small ships had left early without his approval.
Not long after the Albert Schweitzer transitioned into hyper space, Ellie Mae and Elvira sat down with Rachel while she was eating dinner.
Solomon Family Warriors II Page 78
