by Ken Pence
Steve continued as if he had never paused, “The core could overheat with too much energy applied but we can now project energy through the field. We have to sync fields but we’ve also been able to fire weapons besides the laser through the shield. We used the field within fields like Fran suggested for her hydroponics. You need to see this thing. We need to retrofit your ship. With your permission, we can do that in a bit less than a week though I am going to farm it out. Do you mind if I snag Steve for a week?”
Andrew laughed. “Fine, Joel. Tod? Brad? Steve? Mind if we tag along for a tour?”
Brad nodded toward Lieutenant Atassi. “Let’s all do that. I think we can spare seven or eight minutes for a tour and lunch.”
“A tour and lunch. How do we have...? Won’t we have to pull off the surface a bit?”
Brad nodded.
“Desiree, what did you do in all that time?” Susan asked from the periphery of the group.
“Ah. The crucial question...I helped Tod on the other projects and oh...we got married,” she said and held up a gorgeous ring.
Tod held up his left hand and displayed a wide gold band on his hand too.
Susan and Fran both grabbed Desiree...then hugged, kissed, and cried. They then turned around and mentioned something about men being insensitive beasts. It was more stunned than insensitive so soon the guys started congratulating Tod and Desiree. They started heading for a tour of the Odin.
The Odin
They approached the ship in a group, talking and cavorting like a romp of otters. They all fell silent as they approached the large cargo lock to the ship. General Kyger approached the two large soldiers who snapped to presentation arms when he approached.
“At ease,” he said as the doors slide up and open. “Tod, up here just behind me – please. I want to know before I do anything foolish.”
The group proceeded through the enormous airlock corridor. As the second set of doors slid out of the way, General Kyger stepped aboard the Odin to the sound of a shrill pipe that dropped in pitch as he stepped over the threshold. Kyger snapped to attention, faced the console where an World Government flag was displayed waving and said,” Permission to come aboard.”
“Welcome aboard, General Kyger – or should I call you Admiral as an alternate designation in my records. Captain Xu is astern but will be here shortly,” said the pleasant and somewhat familiar voice. “Rear Admiral?”
“First. What should I call you?” Brad asked the computer.
“Call me Dee, General. It has become my nickname since my voice was tailored after Doctor Bardeen or Desiree. Dee for short sir,” said the computer.
“Thank you, Dee. That is a great name,” Kyger said. “Rear Admiral?”
“Yes sir. As a new general in the Earth Regulatory Force, the military hierarchy is based on naval tradition. Hence, you are listed as an O7 – rear Admiral lower half currently until you command multiple ships of this class. This is the Earth Regulatory Force Odin – or ERF Odin.”
Captain Xu and his XO appeared to welcome them aboard. Captain Xu was very tall with salt and pepper hair and hazel eyes. He was ramrod stiff and saluted Kyger and when Brad returned the salute, he broke into a big smile and came forward to welcome them aboard.
“Welcome aboard, General. You’re going to like the ship. I’m not sure why you came in the large cargo port instead of the main entrance but you will get a better idea of the size of this ship. This is my XO, Commander Shuler,” Captain Xu said and Shuler came forward to shake the general’s hand.
“Welcome aboard, sir. Who are you bringing us new for today?” Shuler said and moved to welcome all the personnel trooping aboard.
He would have been a good politician, Tod thought. General Kyger and Captain Xu went ahead as Tod, Desiree and Steve introduced the rest to the short and stocky XO. When he shook people’s hands, his hand felt like granite. Tod knew from watching him workout that this man may be short but he was stout. He’d also sparred with the man and he would give Brad a run for his money in a fight. He talked like a politician but fought like a warrior.
The cargo hold was enormous. They got some idea for the vastness of the ship just from looking across the vast space and seeing how small people looked on the far side.
“How do you get around in a lifetime here?” Fran asked. “Certainly you don’t walk.”
“We’ll have to walk today until you’re issued one of these,” he said while pointing to the rectangular box that passed first glance as a large buckle.
“I know what that is...” Susan said. “I almost died on Tau Ceti when mine malfunctioned.”
“M’am. Oh. You’re that...pardon me Doctor Siriluk. What should I call you?”
“Call me Susan in private. Doctor Siriluk, Lieutenant Commander, or Mrs. Williams in groups,” she said.
“Sorry. That’s the first thing anyone gets in training is your story before we ever turn one of these on. They’re a lot more robust now. We have corridors throughout the ships and we can tell our MemDex where we want to go and – woosh – we are there and protected while in route. The MemDexs route us around cargo or other personnel in transit. We’ll have to use a cargo pad this time. Other than a direct route – it’s much too far to walk.”
“General Kyger may know all the dimensions of your ship, but I like to know stats,” Andrew said.
“Length 320 meters with a beam of 100 meters...crew support for 160 with two large cargo holds and plenty of firepower. Weight – and this will surprise you – 25 kilotons,” Shuler said.
“Environmental? Getting rid of waste? ...Plasma arc waste disposal and we use the syn gas and produce heat, oxygen and water. Nice hydroponic sections to show you Doctor Bergdal.”
“Please drop the doctor Commander. Fran is just fine.”
“Okay doctors...if you will just stand inside that yellow square – good. Everyone take a deep breath. You WILL get used to this...”
Commander Shuler spoke into his MemDex and the disk shot across the room and the newcomers flexed knees and Susan and Steve let out like erk-k sounds as the platform holding then shot across the cargo bay, through and opening, up a floor into a room filled with machinery. The newcomers’ knees were wobbly and they were breathing fast. Tod, Desiree and Joel all chuckled. Commander Shuler showed no emotion.
“Crikes,” Susan said. “You get used to that?”
Tod spoke up. “We all could hardly walk after our first tries. Humans adapt pretty fast to damn near everything. You’ll appreciate it soon enough.”
Joel started talking. “This here, this is my baby...one of two machine shops. We can use the laser fabricator that makes 3D parts by moving a laser to melt consecutive layers of powdered metals or polymers. We can build anything where we can get an electronic drawing of it. We have a small IC chip production facility next door. We have special welding machines for stir welding, molecular bonding using a fine disruptor field to old arc welding. We have a chemical lab and three biological labs on this level of the ship as well as two electronics labs, a communications lab, three generic labs, two astronomical labs, main and secondary galley, observation decks, main and secondary sickbays, two armories, bridge and secondary control. Floor below is power generation and main weapons and floors below that and above us are cargo bays.”
“Thank you, Mister Fredrickson – you are ruining my reputation as a tour guide but you get the gist. Please feel free to ask any questions,” Shuler said.
Ling, who hadn’t said a word this whole time, finally spoke up. “How long have you been aboard this ship without shore leave?” She seemed much more interested in the officer than the ship but he beamed when he answered.
“Does it show that bad,” he said.
“Not at all, Commander. Call me Ling,” she said and steadily walked over to him. “I’m afraid I’m a little shaky. You don’t mind do you?” she said and took the Commander’s arm.
Susan smiled at Andrew and took his arm. Andrew chuckled and hugged Susan’s arm
tightly to his side. They then proceeded on the tour and ended at the bridge.
Fran noticed that Brad was already wearing one of the field generator-transport devices. She pointed at his belt and gave him a discreet, thumbs-up. He smiled.
“Shall we move to the observation deck for lunch?” the captain asked.
“Do you really have outside viewing ports there?” Susan asked.
“No,” Captain Xu responded. “We have cameras built in near the hull that give us our views or we have the computer simulation of the outside in three dimensions. It is quite impressive and it is in advance of the sensor system your team originally developed. Besides...we need to talk about this trip.”
They all were transported to the observation lounge with their individual systems or the pallet system for cargo with Commander Shuler. Lunch was exquisite with lobster bisque and a light mixed salad.
“All of this was produced on the ship. The lobster and salads...we are doing pretty good now,” Xu said. “Do we have our route yet?”
“We think so. Captain UmBllatt will give us his advice on any route we plan. Right now, it looks like we will try to go to Bellatrix and back with various stops along the way. If we break down we will, at least, have two ships now. We have to realize that whether we are 5 light years away or 500 – either one would have been a death sentence,” Andrew continued. “What are the capabilities? Tod mentioned he had new ways to up time acceleration in a gravity well.”
“Better let Tod explain. Tod,” Xu said.
Tod looked around. “We’ve had some real revelations these last two years. We can now comfortably accelerate up to sixty times normal on a planet or moon. We can achieve around 1,400 times light speed, theoretically. We’ve had spurts to 420 lights, in our first ship – which we are updating. We now have a new way around communication. It has worked at short distances. We don’t know how far it will work but it is only affected by the delta – the difference in time rates. We use quantum entanglement. Change the message on one side and matched pairs on the other end change. It takes the person on the more normal end longer to react of course but as near as we can tell, the message is transmitted instantaneously.” Tod paused and anticipated the question about what was considered a short distance. “We have tested from here to our outpost on Mars. Needless to say, this is very recent so it isn’t incorporated into our sensor drones. Also – since they weren’t actively protected – we didn’t want this capability falling into other hands until we have the measure of its capabilities.”
“How big are these devices?” Susan asked.
“Surprisingly small...they’re about the size of a microwave,” chimed in Joel, unabashedly. He started to say more but a hard look from Captain Xu shut him up.
Commander Shuler suddenly cocked his head to the side as he listened to a message through his MemDex ear-tab. “Captain, General,” he looked around assessing whether the assemblage should be privy to his communication. He decided the others had earned the right since it involved them too. “We’ve tracked down one information leak at the Enclosure. Seems when the communication from the Hermes was transmitted to the Enclosure – a male research assistant was, friends, with a communications officer. The trail leads to bank accounts, scrupulously hidden that lead to Phillips.”
“Phillips again. Hidden? How solid?” Brad asked obviously angry.
“Too many cutouts to show in court but there have been recurring payments. We are looking for similar patterns for all concerned but so far, we’ve drawn a blank. Do you want us to arrest him General?” Shuler asked.
General Kyger looked at Andrew and said, “No. Let’s use him while looking for the others. Better to know the leak and exploit it than to close it down. Have the Hermes send us messages screened through the lunar base first since the Odin can’t communicate with them in real time since they aren’t communications paired. What’s the status of our interloper sneaking to trade on Earth?” the General asked Shuler.
Shuler tilted his head slightly as Shuler’s MemDex retrieved the information from the context of the conversation; noted ranks of those involved and made the correlations. “Sir. There is a 32% probability that the ship will head to western India. There has been one known incursion there before where they traded for spices. It could make it there in eight to ten hours normal. Your orders?” Shuler asked the General since it was not really within Captain’s Xu’s purview to be the one to respond.
“Place a ten to one field around us but not the alien ship and their section of the base. I don’t want them to suspect anything. Andrew. I believe you earned a briefing by Captain UmBllatt. Try to get that finished before we have to intercede with this interloper. Captain Xu. I want you to stop that ship before it enters atmosphere. Don’t let it enter atmosphere. Cripple it if you can. Destroy it if you have to. We have samples of several more language training cylinders. Commander Shuler. Get with Doctors Bardeen and Tanaka here – Desiree and Ling – and absorb as many languages as you can between yourself and crew, as you deem appropriate. Ling. Get Shuler up to speed on his Ullumff and Tros. Any questions?”
They all shook heads in unison but Kyger had them repeat back his commands to make sure they had received the message clearly.
“Captain Xu, thank you for the tour and meal. I will fast learn schematics and operations manuals shortly but I haven’t gotten very far in normal time study yet,” Brad stated.
“Don’t bother, General. I just dispatched a message for a crewman to bring you the latest we have. Everything gets out of date very fast around here but we made a recording last week in your time. Everything you have is about a normal-time year out of date.”
A Master Chief Petty Officer came rushing up with a small box. He saluted and presented the box.
Captain Xu returned his salute with a grin and handed the box to General Kyger. “This should get you up to speed fast. Treat it nice as it’s hot off the presses.” Xu said and then turned to the ramrod stiff officer. “Master Chief. Haven’t seen you move that fast in a month of Sundays. Thank you. That will be all.”
The Master Chief disappeared as fast as he arrived.
Captain Xu leaned forward conspiratorially. “I imagine the fact that I’m having lunch with the General – the Rear Admiral as it were – isn’t lost on my people – which is why a Seaman didn’t show up with that I’ll bet.”
Brad chuckled. “Thank you Captain. You set an excellent table. We will see you again about 1800 hours normal then.”
“Fine sir,” Captain Xu shook hands once more all around and Commander Shuler was to escort the party to the main personnel gateway. He obviously favored Doctor Tanaka – Ling and the attraction was mutual.
Andrew and Susan noticed the attraction and grinned at each other.
Shuler had them all stand on a transport platform and the movement to the port was still unsettling.
Shuler and the assemblage made their farewells and you could see that Ling – lingered a bit.
How cute, Susan thought, as they left the Odin. There was a slight tingle showing there was a differentiated time passage here in operation. Tod and the rest went with them.
“You take that training after the General finishes because you’ll need it for your own ship upgrades. I’m afraid our old ship is going to look pretty small compared to the Odin. When are you supposed to meet Captain UmBllatt?” Tod said to Andrew.
Andrew listened to his MemDex and said,” About ten hours from now.
“In that case,” Tod said. “Let’s go over to our old ship, look at what we’ve changed and what we’re planning.”
“Fine,” Andrew said. “I hate you calling it our old ship and I refuse to call it Starship One like that documentary.”
Susan leaned next to them. “Why don’t we christen it the Odin Junior? Junior for short...”
Tod and Andrew both laughed. “Sounds like a plan then...on to the Junior. Susan. Would you see what bureaucracy we’d have to go through to actually get that done?”
***
Captain UmBllatt showed up at the appointed time the next normal day with his navigator and a selection of charts. Everyone was watching via computer controlled cameras though only Andrew and Brad were in the room. This was to be an extension of the earlier drinking session interview with the trader captain. The view and sound was like a movie because the computer used a slight latency to edit and project a view of whoever was speaking from the best angles. It was like having a film produced for a presentation except it was done on the fly from the many cameras and microphones. The computer picked the best angles, close ups, and sound and with a latency of a second or two – presented that view to the assembled. The computer would zoom to where they were pointing and translate a Trade name or notes into English. The viewers could pose questions through the eartabs of Andrew and Brad but there was not a gaggle of people in the room to distract.
“I must ask you a few questions before I start?” UmBllatt said. “Where do you want to go? How far from this planet will you go this trip? Will you have weapons? How many trade goods? What type? You have decided more after our last talk?”
“We are still interested in anything within 300 of your lightyears away from our planet. Please point out places you would recommend and avoid. We also need to know why. Would you do that for us?” Andrew asked.
“Okay,” UmBllatt said as the navigator touched the chart with a finger and drew an approximate circle. “The best place to start in this whole area is still this system,” UmBllatt said pointing to a solar system the charts computer translated to as Bellatrix. “This sun is about seven times the size of your sun. It is a blue-white giant and has seven large planets. The fifth planet supports intelligent life and many trading bases viewable from orbit. It has good navigation beacons though not as good as yours. You have a good chance to find anything you want there.”
“How do we start? How...” Brad said but was cut off by UmBllatt.
