CHILDERS_Absurd Proposals

by Richard F. Weyand

  But she had had an aha! moment sixteen years ago, deadheading back from an assignment on Calumet. What if (4πe)³ was not the only hyperspace? The first power, 4πe, worked in the mathematics as well, as did (4πe)2 and (4πe)4. Any power of 4πe, for that matter.

  A very black project had been started in a Class 1 secure basement of the Intelligence Building, to determine if these hyperspaces existed and, if so, could they be used. They had hid it as a card game, and had referred to it, if at all, as a card game ever since.

  "So you've known about this for years, and didn't tell me. Of course," Jan said.

  "Of course."

  It was an old game. They often knew things for which the other did not have either the clearance or the need to know. They could still watch out for each other, though, and instigate the process for a proper disclosure if they saw the need, and they did. That may have been what happened here.

  Jan pored over her list one more time, sighed, and closed the overnight bag.

  "It was simpler when I didn't own so much stuff," she said.

  "Just throw all the shipsuits into the duffel with the toiletry kit before leaving the planet forever?"

  "For leaving Earth, yeah. I actually didn't own anything they didn't give me. Not even clothes unless you count rags. But then came OCS and all the uniforms, and it's just kept multiplying."

  She picked up the case and carried it out through the en suite sitting room to the upstairs hallway and set it next to the door. George, the major domo, would have packed it for her if she'd let him, but she needed to be able to find everything in her bag on the trip anyway. He'd see to it that it got to the car in the morning.

  She went back into the sitting room and they both sat in their favorite chairs.

  "The Outer Colony navies transitioning at the envelope boundary bothers me a lot. That negates a core advantage we've had for twenty years," Jan said.

  "Yes, but you updated the Fleet Book of Maneuvers in the last couple years, didn't you? To include maneuvers against an enemy that has the same capability?"

  "We did. And after Durand's recent briefing, I sent out a secure memorandum to all command personnel to review those chapters, with the strong suggestion that savvy commanders would make sure their commands were currently practiced in those maneuvers."

  "Well, that should be enough," Bill said.

  "I hope so. We'll see."

  A Quick Trip

  Jan looked out the shuttle window at the ship they were approaching. It was much farther out than a normal orbit, and off the shipping lanes, to keep it away from prying eyes. It bore little resemblance to a standard warship.

  Gone were the crew cylinders that hinged out from the ship. In orbit, a standard warship would rotate axially, with the crew cylinders swung out perpendicular to the axis to give apparent gravity. The cylinders folded in parallel to the axis of the ship when underway so that the acceleration of the ship would provide the apparent gravity. And the bow of a standard ship was where the shuttle bays were, nothing more than a rack to which the shuttles latched. The rack was located on-axis to the ship so it could be rotated the other way with respect to the ship to make it stationary for docking.

  This ship was another kind of beast altogether.

  It was a long cylinder, perhaps a bit thinner in the center. Like most other ships, there was no cladding or sheathing to hide all the plumbing and modules making it up. In that sense, it had the same unfinished look as ships she was used to.

  There were no crew cylinders, though. Or rather, none that folded out. There was one large crew cylinder aft, with a large hole through the middle through which the main drive engine passed. Forward there was a complex machine that looked like another engine assembly, except shorter and fatter. Arrayed around that were the guns, four large beam weapons that looked battleship-grade, on pylons to clear their field of fire. Between the guns, and aft of them, were the four large fin-like radiators used to radiate excess heat to space.

  The normal supply containers were latched around the ship's waist in two belts behind the radiators, aft of the center point of the ship. In between the supply containers and the radiators, she could see the rack for docking shuttles. The shuttle rack was stationary, because the whole ship was spinning like a propeller, rather than axially.

  That must be how they get apparent gravity in the crew quarters, Jan thought. With the whole ship twirling like a baton, there would be apparent gravity in the crew cylinder toward the rear of the ship. When underway, it would be in the same direction, so no need to rotate the crew cylinders out. Nice.

  "What do you think of the CSS Shiva?" Durand asked, breaking into her reverie.

  "Well, it's different," Jan said.

  "Up front, that's the hyperspace generator. They separated it from the drive system for a couple reasons. One is because they kept changing it, but the other is they can generate the hyperspace bubble either in front of the ship or behind."

  "Of course. Then there's no need to flip ship for smooth hyperspace transitions, or to push back into the bubble for a rougher combat transition."

  "And the crew space is all aft, around the engine, so they don't have to rotate the crew cylinders out. I'm told it made the ship stronger, so it could take more transition stress and more g's in the drive system," Durand said.

  "OK, that makes sense, too. How fast is it?"

  "2.6 gravities."

  "And those are battleship-grade beam weapons?" Jan asked.

  "Yes, the newest variation. Ship-killers to twelve light seconds."

  Up from ten, Jan thought. That's handy.

  Something was bothering her, though. She couldn't quite put her finger on it. What was it? Ah.

  "Not a lot of supply containers," Jam said.

  "If you don't have to feed the crew and the engines for a month between planets, you can get away without a lot of the supplies we carry now."

  "OK, I can see that. What's the crew complement?"

  "Six hundred officers and enlisted," Durand said.

  "Wait. You're telling me we have a ship that's faster than a destroyer, packs more firepower than our current battleships, and has a crew complement smaller than a light cruiser?"

  "That pretty much sums it up. That's why they called it the Shiva."

  "And it's hyperspace-n capable?" Jan asked.

  "Yes."

  "How many do we have, and when can I have them?"

  "One. But more are coming soon," Durand said.

  The bridge looked more like a hospital ward than a current generation bridge. While consoles and swivel chairs occupied the side walls, flotation beds were arrayed across the center of the room.

  "We've maintained the consoles in case the VR system breaks down, but we've finally integrated VR into bridge operations," Durand said.

  "I've always wondered why we hadn't," Jan said.

  "Hidebound older officers. But I expect resistance to go away when they realize normal cruise is 2.6 g. You need to have support equipment for that, even younger people."

  "But race car drivers and aerobatic pilots and the original astronauts in pre-hyper times were subjected to much higher g-loads than that."

  "Yes, for short periods of time. Not for an entire transit," Durand said.

  "How do you change crews under those g-loads?"

  "You can shut off the engines or taper them back for that, but it probably won't be necessary.

  "Why not?" Jan asked.

  "Because the whole transit won't take one shift."

  Jan had been looking at one of the flotation beds, but she jerked her head around to stare at Durand.

  "Truly?"

  "Yes. As you're about to find out."

  "You have a beautiful ship, Captain," Jan said.

  "Thank you, Ma'am," Captain Sven Yang said.

  Jan didn't know Captain Yang. She didn't know most of the young officers coming up the ranks these days, and, she supposed, given the size of the Navy, she never really had.

&nbs
p; "Would you care to be on the bridge for the crossing, Ma'am? Actually, it doesn't make much difference, because you can VR into the bridge circuits from a guest cabin, but it's up to you," Wang said.

  "I think I'll stay out of your way and link in from my cabin, though thank you for the offer," Jan said.

  "And I will as well, Captain. We'll get out of your way and let you get on with it," Durand said.

  There was a female nurse lieutenant waiting in her cabin to assist her with the flotation bed. There was no other bed in the cabin.

  Jan was given, and took, a gravitation pill. Not one for weightlessness, but for high-g. Anyone, like Jan, who had been deployed on destroyers, with their 2g accelerations during combat maneuvers, was familiar with the pills.

  The flotation bed was equipped with a water tube for hydration as well as a wastewater tube for evacuation. Best not to have to do more than that under high-g, but the gravitation pills addressed that as well. She made a mental to note to ask for the antagonist pill at their destination.

  That explains why I was told to show up in a shipsuit, Jan thought. Easier to make the plumbing connection. The zipper layout on the standard uniform is probably going to have to change.

  Jan let herself be assisted getting into the bed and making the wastewater connection. Having two children had more than cured her of any body modesty around medical people. They made sure she was strapped in, the hydration tube was working, and she had a good signal to the VR implants on the back of her neck as she lay in the bed. She logged in without difficulty, to a shipboard account in her name.

  The nurse then left to get into her own flotation bed.

  Jan was in a full-immersive VR bridge simulation. With a shock she realized this was the actual bridge. The bridge that, absent a failure in the VR system, the ship's captain and crew would actually use. The room called the bridge, and the gathering of duty officers there, was more of a sop to tradition. Although she supposed if there were a failure of the VR, having everybody where the redundant consoles were would be helpful in getting things straightened away. But you could actually staff the duty stations with spacers in their cabins.

  No wonder they didn't worry about crew changes under high-g. You could just have everybody stay where they were, and have the oncoming shift log in from their cabins. You still had an emergency crew located near the consoles if there was a VR failure.

  Jan flipped through the available displays. One was the bridge display, with avatars of the bridge crew, who she knew to be inert in their flotation beds, sitting normally at their traditional consoles.

  One was the exterior view from the ship in full-sphere display. Once you got used to full-immersive VR, the brain made a few billion extra connections and you could see the whole sphere at once. Right now was not a good time, however, with the ship rotating about its center every thirty seconds or so. Urp. Better let that one wait.

  One was the tactical display, which she was used to from past duty. This one, though, was more modern, more complete, and included complete ship annotations, as well as maneuvering cones showing the possible future locations of all ships in the display based on their current velocity and their maximum ability to thrust off their current track.

  One was the navigational display, and she noted her access was barred. So they're going to take me to wherever, but they won't let me know where that is. Fair enough, Jan thought. What I don't know, I can't tell, and I'm a target, after all.

  Jan switched back to the main bridge display and listened in as they prepared to get under way. She vaguely felt the rotation of the ship slow down and stop, and the engines get her under way. In full-immersive VR, her sensations were primarily from the VR system, although a bit of the acceleration leaked through to her. She dialed back the VR, and, as she felt the 2.6g acceleration, thought better of it and dialed the VR back up to full immersion.

  Jan switched to the full-sphere exterior view and gasped. She had seen planets fall behind in the display before, but not like this, and not at this acceleration. Jablonka rapidly dwindled behind her.

  She had configured a speed display into her view, and watched their velocity build astoundingly. She had also configured a real-time gravitational gradient display, and watched the gravitational gradient fall as they sped out of the ecliptic toward the system boundary.

  The gravitational gradient was still high for a traditional hyperspace-3 transition when Jan felt a slight, momentary tingle in her nerves and the outside display went blank. It was just a bit over two hours since they had gotten under way, not the nearly two days she was used to. Under the speed display was now the indicator "HYPERSPACE 1."

  Jan switched to the bridge display, but left the speed and gravitational gradient displays up. The gradient display had jumped on entry into hyperspace, and was now trending rapidly down again.

  Five minutes after the first, another tingle, and the hyperspace display changed to "HYPERSPACE 2." In five more minutes, "HYPERSPACE 3." In five more minutes, "HYPERSPACE 4." And then, astonishingly, "HYPERSPACE-5."

  After about fifteen minutes in hyperspace-5, the engines were shut down. and the ship began its flip. Jan dialed the VR back. She was weightless. She dialed the VR back up and watched as the ship completed its flip, and the engines re-engaged.

  The entire process repeated itself in reverse, with down-transitions from one hyperspace to another, about five minutes apart, finally emerging again into normal space. They had spent about an hour in hyperspace.

  Jan switched to the exterior view again. The ship cut the engines and flipped to begin accelerating toward the planet ahead. The sun was the wrong color. They were not in Jablonka, that was sure.

  Halfway to the planet, a little over an hour later, they flipped ship for deceleration, arriving in orbit an hour after that.

  The entire trip, orbit to orbit, had taken just five hours.

  Once in orbit, the ship began its rotation about its center point, and apparent gravity returned. The signal was given to secure from maneuvering. Jan logged out of the VR system. It was a few minutes later the nurse showed up to assist her if needed. She also had the antagonist for the gravitation pill with her, but warned Jan not to take it until she had both time and access to a necessary.

  Jan met Durand and Yang on the bridge.

  "That was a truly amazing experience," Jan said.

  "I knew you'd like it," Durand said.

  "Like it? I'm gonna have to get one of these for myself. The view alone is worth it."

  "I'm glad you enjoyed it, Ma'am," Yang said.

  "I'm not sure enjoyed is the right term, Captain. I spent over twenty years in the Navy getting around the old-fashioned way before I got chained to a desk. This is great. I know the location is sensitive, but can I ask how far we traveled?"

  Yang looked at Durand, who nodded.

  "A bit under seventy light years, Ma'am," Yang said.

  "Thirty days spacing, doing it the old way," Jan said.

  "Yes, Ma'am."

  "Amazing."

  Two Big Surprises

  Of all the various planets the human race had colonized, none had been quite as hospitable to Man as Earth itself. The gravity is a little more, or a little less. The sunlight is off in color, one way or the other. The mixture of oxygen in the air varies a bit, one way or the other. There are enough planets, though, that, during the period when the Commonwealth planets were colonized, there was no need to settle for second-best. Some of the Outer Colony planets were a bit more off the mark, but all of the Commonwealth planets were at least close to Earth.

  Jan and Durand got out of the shuttle alongside a modern office building within a large complex. There had been no word as to where they were, nothing spoken as to what planet it was.

  Jan had been to half the Commonwealth planets earlier in her career, but she had grown up on Earth. In the slums, yes, but on Earth. And this planet was very much like Earth. More than any other planet she had been on. The sun was right, the air was right,
the gravity was right. Everything was right, so much so it grabbed at her. Without any further context, if you had simply brought her here and said, "Where are you," she would have said, "Earth."

  She gave a sharp look at Durand, and he raised an eyebrow, but she said nothing.

  Jan had done a lot of studying of the Commonwealth and its history, for the Citizenship Exam. She had done that study on Earth, from materials not readily available in the Commonwealth. Her mind, always sifting data in the background, jumped to an intuitive conclusion. It was ridiculous. It was unbelievable. But in a cascade of realization, of cross-references and linkages, she knew it was right.

  Yes, of all the various planets the human race had colonized, none had been quite as hospitable to Man as Earth itself, save one.

  Doma. From the Slavic, simply Home. A perfect pseudo-Earth.

  For, in the Earth histories, there had been thirty-three worlds that had rebelled against the Earth to form the Commonwealth of Free Planets, not thirty-two. And in its spite, during the height of the War of Independence – what on Earth had been called the Insurrection – Earth had laid waste to the one perfect planet humanity had ever found. Doma had been destroyed. So said the Earth histories.

  In the Commonwealth, Doma had become a myth. References to it were dropped from the histories. The one great failure of the early CSF, it had been erased from the Commonwealth's past and its memories. It's coordinates were lost. It became common knowledge it hadn't really existed at all. It was no more than a scary story to tell children, to show them Earth could not be trusted.