by Don Koch
Hank held up an index finger to signal for Hardrock to wait one. Hardrock said "are you ok, you look like you have seen a ghost."
"Dang, Hardrock do not start the car. I just received a message and it sure as the devil complicates things."
"A message, how?"
"Barana, can anyone see this car?"
"Ok, Hardrock hold onto your hat and don't be too overwhelmed by what you see next, Barana, transport us and the car to the ready warship flight deck with lights full up."
On arrival Hank opened his door and said to Hardrock, "Come on Hardrock, snap out of the daze, its real, let me show you a few things."
"Good Lord, what are those things? What is going on? Where the starch are we anyway? Uh, OK, I'll shut up and let you fill me in."
Hank grinned and said, "Smart man. Those are Antoran Warships. There are 144 of them in this bay and 20,000 on board. Each ship is 300' in diameter and 900' long."
"Are we being invaded?"
"Not by these. These ships are here for the protection of Earth and a few other places."
"OK, the $64 question is where are we, how did we get here and why am I here?"
"Good questions all. You are on Antoran Starship/Station One that is currently in orbit about 1,000 miles over Juneau, Alaska. We were teleported here at my request. We are here to see your wife."
"Say what?"
"You knew she was on duty today. She was flying a patrol just off the coast of Virginia when a terrorist with a missile blew her bird out of the air. The missile was overkill and blew the plane into a kazillion pieces. Fortunately, I had her plane under watch and Barana extracted her before any injury could occur and did not have any options to consider other than immediate extraction. We know where the terrorist who fired the weapon is located and have him under surveillance. When we have what we need on this turkey, the Feds will nail him through an anonymous tip. We want to know how big that iceberg is before we break it up. We did not have a lot of choice about the extraction but it is a major complication."
"We are on the way to see her now. She is with some friends that you know. They are briefing her as we take the slow route. Lets move over to the express walkway while we are talking. This bay is ten miles long. At the end of the bay we will transfer to a four-person carrier for the next 145 miles and then the carrier will take us down to the base of the Habitat area."
"Oh, don't worry about your car, sometime tonight when all your neighbors are asleep, Barana will transport it down and put it in your driveway. When we get to the Habitat area, we will use the teleport system to take us to your wife. You were on my list to attempt to recruit but this attempt on your wife was totally unexpected. Our meeting this evening was a deliberate act on my part. Sorry for being devious but I really am glad to see you. I was trying to figure how to introduce this idea to you. You blew me out of the water with the news of your marriage. I sent a message to Barana to watch over Sharon, thank God." Hank then filled Hardrock in on the Glarin and what was going on and what they felt would be a good role for him. He explained the attitude about keeping families together. With that they arrived at the base of the habitat and they transported to Sharon's location.
Hardrock and Sharon went out on the balcony for a few minutes of semi-privacy. Inside the Great Room, Hank, Alex and Mary Stone, Josh and Rosie Adams, and Bill and Joann Wall were discussing the event. Josh said, "Hank, that attempt at recruiting was one of the most fortuitous events it has been my pleasure to observe. How do these things keep happening to you."
"I do not know Josh, but I heartily hope and pray that they continue to do so. I would very much like to have these two as wing commanders. They are both hot pilots, are good commanders and mentally sharp. They both are quick to learn. I hope we can entice them aboard. You should have seen Hardrock's face when he saw the Warship Bay. I think he was hooked then and there. How is Sharon adjusting to the close call?"
Josh said, "Really well, a little shook because that thing came out of nowhere. Barana had little time to react. She was going to do a forced ejection but the missile was too close and so big it would likely have killed her anyway. What prompted you to post that alert anyway, I'm curious."
"I have known these two since shortly after Kajaki. When Hardrock told me he had finally tied the knot and on the same day as Sam and I, I had a queasy feeling so I acted on it and asked Barana to watch over her. That was truly serendipity." About that time, Hardrock and Sharon walked into the Great Room from the balcony.
Sharon immediately went to Hank and gave him a big hug saying, "Thank you for saving my life. That was one very strange experience. I thought I was a goner. But this is amazing. I never dreamed I would see anything like this. Josh has explained what is going on and the both of us want to be part of it. Is that possible."
The others looked at each other with surprised looks on their faces and then almost in unison started laughing. When that subsided, Joann explained the outburst. Then Hank stood and addressed the two of them, "I can only say, welcome aboard, sincerely, I am happy you are both here. We have some work to do transitioning Hardrock to the station, but these quarters we are in will be yours. For now, until we get this straight, Barana will transport you back and forth between here and your house. Hardrock, you are going to have a difficult bit of acting to do for a while. The training will start right away. When you have seven days that you can be away we can get you started on your enhancement package. Sgt. Major, do you mind doing the briefing. Hardrock, you don't have to report back to base until Monday morning so we should be able to give you a pretty complete picture by then. I want you two to learn those warships backwards and forwards. My goal is to have you each commanding a Wing by the end of November. This Station has two wings. A Wing is 10,000 warships and each has a minimum crew of 24."
"We need to recruit more wing commanders and group commanders, there are 4 groups in a wing, so if you know of a decent candidate, let us know and that means any nationality. We have a candidate on board who is likely to be your CO if he agrees to the job, and I think he will. I'll let you know as soon as he agrees. Initially your crews will be all Antoran. They do not man the guns and that will be explained. Your pilot, navigator, engineer, medic and non-combatant positions will likely be Antoran. The commander, exec, targeting, gunnery positions will not be. The latter are the positions we need to fill and soon. I want two Wings operational by the end of next year. We do have a few suitable persons on station for ship commander and some for Bay commanders. We are recruiting now and at some point it will go more public."
Hardrock said, "Man, you command this whole station, that is something."
Hank smiled and said, "Technically that is not quite correct. You see, there are 19 more stations that are slightly smaller than this one and 80 more that are a slightly smaller yet version and I command the lot."
Chapter 10: Shaping up
Station 1 in Earth Orbit –
October 10 – C Day 41
The recruiting efforts were continuing but it was apparent that they somehow had to expand. They had identified quite a number of military veterans who were entranced by the idea of working and living in space. Many of these were happy to have purpose again. The habitat surroundings coupled with no expenses and the enhancements particularly those related to health and longevity helped immensely.
Joe and June Carson were positively glowing. Hank had offered them command level enhancements and they decided to accept. They were making use of the learning machines and the command enhancements would start the next day. He did not know it yet but he was being primed as a station commander, probably for Station 2 or Station 3. In the meantime he was helping Josh get the chain of command established.
They had four other planets on which to seek further manpower support. It did not appear to be overly promising. The advisors had developed plans assisted by Joann's understanding of each society. The
planets and their populations and stage of development were:
Planet
Population
Development
Saark
770,000,000
Late Iron Age
Frote
3,000,000,000
Early Information Age
Gella
3,600,000,000
Early Information Age
Nintam
2,000,000,000
Mid Information Age
Blint
4,000,000,000
Early Information Age
It had been decided that Saark was still several centuries away from outside contact. At the current state of their development, contact would be detrimental to their survival as a distinct society.
Frote, on the other hand was probably the best candidate for next contact. They had a single world government that operated under a constitutional monarchy. Its resemblance to Great Britain and its governing approach was notable. The drawback for recruiting purposes however was that they had no military structure. The closest point of comparison was their police agency. The planet was just starting its efforts at manned exploration of the planets in its system.
Gella had four geopolitical divisions that occasionally engaged in conflicts. Each had a standing military. Service was generally by conscription. They had a technology level very similar to that of Earth. Their computer technology was almost exactly on par with Earth but had no yet attempted to enter space. There were some preliminary programs underway that would have them launching satellites in the next two or three years.
Nintam was the most advanced technologically of the five planets but appeared to be stagnating. It was a dictatorship with a very Orwellian structure. The governing class consisted of less than 10,000 persons. There was very little likelihood that recruiting could be successful there. There were clear indications that a revolution was brewing. If that were to happen, then it was possible that the potential might change but not in time to assist in defense against the Glarin.
Blint was the most likely to produce viable recruits. The planet did not have as many geopolitical subdivisions as Earth but the similarities suggested that they would be likely candidates for an effort following Frote.
Further refinements to the scans of the second group of Glarin indicated that there were seven ships in the group. This was determined by sending out two Type 2 stations, Stations #142 and #162, as close as one light day from the group. This also resulted in more refined data. An interesting side note was that during the initial scans from a distance of about one light year out, the stations found seven objects trailing the seven Glarin vessels. These objects are each about one quarter mile in length and appear to be unmanned and traveling at the same speed as the Glarin vessels. They are also pretty clearly of Glarin origin. Beyond that a battle group was being prepared as planned to go out and meet them. Stations #142 and #162 would be moving to within 10 miles of the group and its trailing objects in a few hours to conduct high detail scans of each ship to provide additional intel before attempting contact. The advantages, it was felt, far outweighed any perceived disadvantages.
Chapter 11: Antoran Starship/Stations Part 2
Outer Hull.
The outer hull area runs from RM 26 to RM 30. This outer four miles of the station houses the water supply, power generators and computer cores for the station Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is maintained in a weightless or zero G condition. It is not directly accessible by the inhabitants of the station but is constantly monitored by the resident AI such as Barana. All of the "empty" space not allocated to power generation, computer cells and storage or water is filled with poured shielding that resemble rock but is very dense. The water tanks are centered at RM 27 and extend to within three miles of either end of the station. The tanks are multilayered and baffled. Water is constantly aerated and circulated. The water tanks, like many other features in the station, have a capacity in excess of any conceivable need.
Outer Hull Features
Type 1A
Type 1B
Type 2
Water Capacity (Gallons)
6.35 Quadrillion
4.85 Quadrillion
2.10 Quadrillion
Water Supply (@ USA Usage)
31.1 years
35.7 years
48.9 years
Energy Projectors
49,762
39,206
19,855
This does not include water in the open lakes and recreational facilities found in the habitat areas. Any individual tank can be isolated and bypassed if that ever becomes necessary. The water is maintained in liquid form at a temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Adjacent to the water tanks is a system of small access tunnels in the event the water tanks require service. An army of automated machines provides any service, maintenance or repair required for the tanks. The tunnels are too small for humans and so the machines were built to perform any maintenance or repair task. Nothing of substance has been required since construction of the prototype station and the system is constantly monitored and tested. To put this amount of water into perspective, the United States with a 2014 population of 319.8 million persons used 408 billion gallons of water per day for all uses including public, domestic, farming, industrial, livestock, mining and power. The Outer Hull chart above indicates the supply available if the stations were to use water at the same rate without considering recovery or recycling of the water.
Each station has power generation tubes and has a fuel supply for these tubes sufficient to operate all tubes for 500 years. Each of the tubes contains multiple singularities traveling within the tubes in opposite directions. The passage of these singularities generates immense power output and is used to power all functions of the station as well as weapons and flight capability. The quantity of tubes on each station provide at least a triple redundancy for generating its power needs including those for offensive and defensive capability as well as flight. During superlight speed, the weapons systems can be used. The power can be used to generate a disruption or destructive beam. The disruption beam will cause the vessels with certain types of power storage capacitors at which it is aimed to drop out of Faster Than Light (FTL) drive.
Each station is operated by it's sentient Artificial Intelligence (AI). The memory and "brain" of the AI is the computer cores located in the outer hull area. No AI needs more than a small fraction of its core availability. The cores are so large that no expansion appears to be warranted for the foreseeable future. No AI is currently using more that 5% of a single core capacity except Barana who provides backup for all other stations. Even this requires the use of only the use of about 40% of a single core since redundancies are removed. There is also a memory storage backup facility at Tau Ceti for the same purpose.
The outer hull also has energy projector cannons placed about a mile apart that cover the entire surface of the station except at the flight deck portals. Projectors are also in place to guard the core area and flight deck portals. These are placed at half-mile intervals at RM 5 on each the end of the station.
Raw Material Storage
The raw material storage area for a station is the same for every type of station and is the same size. Access to this part of the station is strictly limited. Placement and retrieval of materials is automated.
Since the Stations were built for the potential of long duration voyages, the storage of sufficient materials to operate the vessel for long periods of time was a need. Availability of a variety of different supplies could not be assumed. In addition, surplus fuel for the power plant needs had to be stored and available. The storage capacity exceeds expected needs. The station has an expected inventory designed by the AI to meet all conceivable eventualities. Every known mineral and element is safely stored here to some extent.
The storage sectors are fully automated, so locating necessary materials is rapid. When the inventory on a particular material drops to 75%, a warning is posted. At
50%, a mining ship will be dispatched to search for, mine, refine and replenish the supply of that material. Supply needs for all ships are shared so that resupply efforts are not duplicative.
Excess storage space is also utilized for additional storage of foodstuffs. The station expects to routinely perform humanitarian services and the ability to provide and distribute food is an important element of that service.
Farms and Food Processing
Each station is fully self-sustaining. Each produces food sufficient to maintain its own population and to provide for humanitarian aid when needed. The farms are fully automated. Since contamination of the food source is a critical concern so generally access is restricted. Several decks adjacent to main transportation corridors do have viewing areas designed to prevent direct contact with the active farm but allow viewers to observe farm operations. Each station has at least one deck set aside and isolated as community gardens for those wishing to partake in that activity.
The farming sectors on the Type 1 stations each have more acres in food production than the United States. In the case of the Type 1 stations it is 300% greater. The US acreage includes growing food for cattle and livestock and that will not be necessary on the stations. Further, farming on station is in a tightly controlled environment that is not subject to weather or seasonal impediments. The result is a food production capability that is easily more than double that of the United States for comparable populations. Station farms also grow crops requiring a tropical or subtropical climate thus providing a greater variety than can be grown in the United States. Several decks are utilized for the raising of poultry under humane conditions for eggs and meat. No other meat sources are indigenous to the station but the diet is sufficiently varied that no issues are anticipated.
