Rusty was where I expected to find him, in his lab. I was surprised to find he had company other than Silky and I wasn’t too pleased about it. Livid, Blue Point and Long Arm were there and had their box full of Escargot with them. The Squids looked a little uncomfortable when I came in. I was about to let out a roar of displeasure but noticed the Squids’ ship-suits bottom half was the hard dome of material that prevented them from using their tentacles as a means of locomotion. I held my tongue.
“Hello, Rusty. What’s up?”
“Good morning, Jase,” he answered, “we were just discussing the Plague’s development of their FLT drive and Livid was telling me about some of their early research and attempts to get it to work. According to Livid, FTL was being worked on back before the rebels broke away. The rebellion shut down all research as impractical, and the Squids didn’t revive it as a project until they had some of the Terran scientists to work with. In fact, most of their research went stagnant for so long that many of the records were lost and they had to start pretty much from the bottom.
“Livid thinks that the version of FTL the rebels are using is inefficient and very dangerous. He also believes it has some inherent weaknesses that may be exploitable.”
“That’s interesting, Rusty. That’s why I’m down here to see you this morning. How is it these three are here instead of in their cells?”
“That was Winston’s idea. With the interrogations done and no more Squids to question they were just demonstrating the properties of matter, you know, having weight and taking up space. He thought it better to keep them occupied so he modified the domes of their immobilization suits to allow them to extend their two long tentacles so they could do useful work. They can also move them selves around a bit using them to scoot their suits along the deck, but they tire quickly so they can’t go far or fast if they have a mind to wander.”
“Good. What I wanted to ask you is if any thought has been given to tracing ships in FTL or detect them somehow?”
“Yes, actually we touched on the topic a few centas before you came in. Blue Point, will you tell Jase what you told me earlier about tracing and detection of vessels in FTL?”
“We discovered that while we can’t trace or detect our ships in FTL, we can do both with the rebel Squid form. It seems their FTL generator uses a different dimension than ours, a dimension that is much leakier. There are several different harmonics created by their engines that leak through and can be easily detected. The lower frequencies are more useful for when their drives are close by or moving slowly while, the higher frequencies work better over distance or for determining speed.
“I believe if we monitor a selection of frequencies from low to high, we can interpolate speed and distance quite accurately. Would that be helpful to you, Jase?”
“Yes, it would be, and it might even at least partially redeem you in my eyes. I might even consider giving you your fully equipped ship-suit back.”
There was a clamour from the other two, I held up my hand, “I said I might give Blue Point’s ship-suit back. If you two also have something useful to contribute, then your reward would be the same, useful and contribute are the two key words here.”
Livid spoke up and said, “Long Arm and I will do whatever we can to be worthy of your trust and respect again Jase. If you give us more access to the ship’s net, I’m sure we can find lots of ways to help you out.”
“Ok, but your access will be monitored by one of our new AIs.”
Livid said, “That is only fair, Jase, thank you for this opportunity.”
Four cycles later the three Squids with Rusty’s oversight delivered on their promise of a tracker and detection system and they went the extra mile, Livid and Long Arm developed a means of nullifying the rebel’s FTL field from a range of several thousand kilometres. It was very directional, but it would do the job, especially if more then one projector was aimed at the same vessel.
I called Sarah and her flotilla back so their ships could be outfitted with the additional sensors which should make her hunt more fruitful.
36
CHEETAH, WITH SARAH WHITE-STRIPE commanding, left five cycles later with her flotilla to resume her search for the trio that got away. Her ships had all been updated with the new FTL sensors and FTL dampers installed on all her Swift Fang and larger vessels. Several couriers had come in and left again from both Ginger’s and Blue’s expeditions. They had nothing to report other than they had visited several systems that had no planets in the Goldilocks zone even around the G and F class stars. I sent one hundred each of the FTL detectors and dampers back on the last couriers since they could be installed while underway.
Tuxedo and I met with Ishmael and discussed what we might want to do once the last of the Plague currently threatening Terra was eliminated. Ishmael cautioned us that the war was far from over and in fact, was really just beginning. I had an inkling of where he was going with this, but I wanted him to spell it out for us, so I just waited.
He didn’t disappoint. He said, “We must accept that the swarms we have destroyed and the two trios and the single globe ship still out there aren’t the old Plague ships. All back down this galactic arm there are likely to be hundreds and probably thousands of swarms still working their areas stamping out life wherever they find it and breaking up perfectly good systems for fuel thus ensuring there is little likelihood of any survivors thriving and developing new, great civilizations.
“In addition to this galaxy, we need to consider this whole mess started in what you call the Lesser Magellanic Cloud where my home star used to shine. Even with FTL, it is going to take thousands of kilocycles to retrace the route and search all of just this arm. If the Plague has managed to travel across the open space between galactic arms, we would need to do the same search in each arm. The odds of us missing a swarm are already astronomical, and it only gets worse if we expand the search to the entire galaxy and back to the Magellanic Clouds. The Plague has had plenty of time to make the relatively small jump between the Lesser and Greater Clouds by now.
“Given how impractical this endeavour would be we need to develop a better means of detection, keep our forces highly trained and on alert and we should consider finding our selves at least one system that no one else has claimed and begin rebuilding our species on a planet where we are really supposed to be.
“And finally, we need to do this all while convincing our friends this the right thing to do. I don’t think everyone is going to be happy to change our lives so drastically and start living under open skies again. There is a certain amount of security living in an enclosed environment, even one as fragile as a ship in space.”
Tuxedo just stared at him for several moments then responded, “Well, aren’t you the cheerful one though. I was happy when I first sat down—now I’m thinking of blowing my brains out.”
Ishmael reached out and patted him on the shoulder and said, “That wasn’t my intent, but I did want you two to start thinking about how we are going to sell this to the people who look to us for leadership. My cousin the Emperor and I have been discussing this with our mates for years, and at first, even Jacky who is one of the most open-minded and forward thinkers I know had the shudders every time she thought about it for the first kilocycle after we first brought it up.
“The number of us in the entire fleet who have stood on a planet is very, very small. The number expressed as a percentage has so many noughts in front of it, it looks silly even to write it down.
“Tuxedo and the crews manning the immigration lifts have the most experience on a planetary surface, most of them wouldn’t step off the shuttle ramps. Make no mistake, I have trouble with the concept myself, so I can imagine how others will probably feel.
“Tuxedo took me to the beautiful preserve in Mother of Glory’s bow, and I was fine during the day when I knew there was a solid deck above. But when night fell and the covers rolled back, and the stars and moon were visible, I came close to a panic attack. It probably
took me a good deca of just lying on the grass before I could look up again and not feel like I was going to fall off the ship.
“The next time you have to go down to Terra’s surface, please let me know, I want to go with you and see if the fear is as great when I can see more of the ground and know I’m not standing in a construct with artificial gravity.”
Tuxedo looked over at Ishmael and said, “It is courageous of you to admit that fear. I would most certainly like to accompany you on that expedition. I was nervous my first time as well, but my mate was down there, all I could think of was to get to her and bring her back aboard to safety. Since then, I’ve been down to the surface many times and no longer see it as threatening, but I still remember that first time.
“I think that is why I like that park so much, it helps keep me retain the lessons I learned the first time I was on Terra. Speaking of Terra, Jase, I would dearly love to see your cabin in the daylight and under less trying circumstances. What we could see on our screens was amazing, but I bet it is really spectacular during the day.”
“Elaine and I have been talking about going down for a visit when we get a chance. She never got to say a proper farewell to her mother and friends. I know she misses them and would like to see them again.”
Ishmael asked, “Any ideas on how you would like to set up our new planet if we ever find one?”
I replied, “I would like to find one where all of our species could live and work together. While at a species level I think we are most comfortable with our own, when I see the youngsters in the creches getting along so well, I don’t want to have that higher sense of cooperation and respect just disappear. I see it in the bunk rooms on the carriers and in the watering holes where the pilots and warriors go when off duty. I think if you were to ask them what they want to do when the war is over they would answer ‘settle down amongst my friends, mate and have children’ and they would be looking at the mixture of individuals around them and thinking, ‘every one of these people would make a good neighbour’”.
Tuxedo just chuckled and nodded. Ishmael said, “That is the feeling I get when I visit our fighters as well. I think most of them have forgotten about species and think more along the lines of keeping their friends alive. This is most obvious to me when I visit recovering wounded in the hospital ships when they come back to Saturn Station. That is the first place I go when a fleet comes in.”
“Yes, I’ve seen you there every time, my friend,” rumbled Tuxedo. “Anyone up for an ale?”
We jumped to our feet and headed for Benji’s Place. We weren’t going to solve this problem right away, but we had made a good start just by identifying it.
Sitting in Benji’s Place sipping our third round, our conversation got around to what was happening out at the shipyards, Shipyard Two in particular. Shipyard Two is under the management of the Weasels and is used to convert Plague ships to be more usable by Terrans, Weasels and Mmrrreeowwn and most of the captured globe ships were docked there awaiting conversion. We had used a couple of them as Q-ships and even gave them the class name of Leviathan. The tactic had worked well the couple of times we had used it, but the development of our current iteration of AIs had made other tactics more effective, the two big ships were in orbit near Saturn Station.
Ishmael asked, “I was wondering what you were planning to use Leviathan and Behemoth for in the future?”
“I was planning on equipping one of the globe ships as a colony ship to search out a new system for colonization.”
“Some of my people heard about your desire to find a nice quiet little planet somewhere and settle there after the war is over. One of my engineers looked over the last one we captured and found it is a bit different from the rest. It has a much smaller core, and the decks are spaced more widely apart with around two and a half kilometres spacing between them. It also has larger engineering spaces for propulsion and fewer large egress ports that are spaced equidistantly around the surface with one terminating at the very opposite end from the fusion torch nozzles.
“He is proposing enlarging the egress ports and the passageways below them and enclosing the passageways from the outer skin to the core allowing us to put atmosphere on alternating decks using the unpressurized decks for environmental systems and hangars for our ships.”
“Interesting idea,” I said. “How large is he proposing to make the passageways and ports? They are already ten kilometres in diameter on the two Leviathan-Class ships.”
“He is thinking twenty to twenty-five Kilometres diameter, and each would be double skinned like the outermost shell. The skins would be two-hundred metres apart, allowing airlocks large enough for shuttles to land at each pressurized deck. The airlocks on the unpressurized decks would be larger and would include an interlock defeat allowing even our largest carriers to hangar there along with most of our Swift Fangs.”
“My mental math tells me that one ship would have more space for people and more storage for supplies than all of our Arks combined,” Tuxedo remarked. “Would it be wise to put all of our people on one ship?”
“I don’t think my engineer is thinking about taking all of our people, only those who want to live in a mixed species environment and only those who volunteer.
“There have been many public forums since the war started and one recurrent theme amongst my people is the like of being a part of a structure that allows equality and opportunity that they have not had since the Purge. Even my cousin sees the benefits our people have now and believe me, it has not escaped the notice of the Warms and Colds. They also have expressed interest in a more integrated environment. They are most intrigued by Terra and its climate which has environments suitable for them as well as us. They have suggested we try to find a planet with similar environmental conditions. If we can find one, they are even willing to take nanite treatments that would allow them to breathe the same ratio of atmospheric gasses as we do.”
I was stunned by what I just heard. “Are you saying they wear ship-suits because they can’t breathe our air?”
“Yes, I thought you knew, our air is slightly toxic to them. In the case of the Warms, it is a little too high in oxygen, it kicks their metabolism up, so they overheat. They can survive for a couple of decas, but it takes them cycles to recover from the experience.
“The colds are fine with the oxygen level, it is the nitrogen that bothers them, unfortunately, to them, it is fatal if exposed for more than a deca.”
None of this is covered in any document in our library, I checked when I first met them and spent many decas researching both their physiology and psychology and nary a word about their atmospheric requirements. I said so, “Ishmael, I apologize for being ignorant of this. I never saw anything about this when I researched them in our library.”
He chuckled, “I’m not surprised. I suspect that information was left out like so much other during the recovery period after the Purge and I suspect there wasn’t a priority for anyone on the Confederation or any other council to make sure our records were all up to date and accurate. It is a sad commentary on the state we have devolved to over time.
“When I read my histories I’m amazed at how much has been lost. I just sent you both copies of our oldest surviving and most complete history of our time on the Ark ships. I have also sent a newer history of what has transpired both on our Ark and mothership since the motherships were built. When you are done reading them, I’d be happy to address any questions you have.”
Tuxedo had been silently listening and wore a sceptical look on his face that Ishmael was quick to recognize, “Even now my large friend you are being kept in the dark about our pasts. I don’t think it is intentional on the part of your leadership aboard Mother of Glory, but I suspect your Ark council knows much they aren’t saying. In effect, the Mmrrreeowwn are two nations, Ark and mothership.”
“Can we go back to the globe ship question for a moment?” I asked. “Why did you ask specifically about Leviathan and Behemoth?”
“Bullshit, Ishmael, I don’t think you are capable of having ‘just a thought’. You are one of the deepest thinkers I’ve ever known, you don’t waste either thought or words. All this talk is your way of telling me you are already working the project, and it is time to get our input.
“Let’s have another round and drink to BS that isn’t,” I said with a laugh.
Ishmael grinned at me and winked. When I glanced at Tuxedo, he was smiling.
“How long have you known about this, you gargoyle?” I asked.
He laughed and said, “Ever since Elaine came to me about it after your fight. She thought it was a good idea and was pissed that you didn’t include her in the decision. I told her to take charge and make it happen, that way the decision was hers and she wouldn’t have anything to complain about. Neither would you.”
I just shook my head and took a long sip of from my fresh glass of ale—then I laughed until it hurt and brought tears to my eyes.
Sarah White-Stripe came back the next cycle. She left her flotilla at Saturn Station and came directly to Mother of Glory in Cheetah, docking at Thermopylae’s collar on the central spine. I beckoned her in the hatch and to a seat when she poked her head in. “It isn’t good news, is it?” I asked.
“No, Ser, it is not. The trio I’ve been chasing is a lot closer to Terra than we thought and we only found them because as we were backtracking along our search path, one of our sensor operators noticed a system that had an amazing collection of asteroids around its star. We approached and found the trio busily mining the remains of several planets and moons, they have a fleet of close to a million ships, and they are building more as fast as they can.
Conflict! Page 36