The simulation froze as the lieutenant came over the loudspeakers. “Here is the situation report. You are the captain of a corvette attack vessel and have received word that a colony is under attack by a Teifen carrier. The planet is being bombarded, and fighters are picking off settlements. Your small ship is far outclassed in this battle; however, you know there are several destroyers en route that will provide you with fire support in twelve minutes. Your objective is to distract the carrier from their ground assault while you wait for backup.
“Your ship is equipped with one main Aether cannon, six PDCs, and two gauss cannons, and you have light armor—rated for fighter engagements only. You will not have support staff for this engagement, so the simulation will carry out all their duties.
“This is a test of your power management and tactical thinking. Points will be awarded for how quickly you are able to disengage the carrier from the planet, and how much damage you take in comparison to how much the carrier takes. Points are awarded for each fighter shot down, but you will lose points for each section of your ship that is damaged, so be careful in close battle. The destruction of your ship is an automatic fail. You may begin now.”
The simulation started back up, and Sara found herself in the beginnings of a panic attack. We need to get the attention of a ship twenty times our size and hold it for twelve minutes while avoiding getting crushed. She took a calming breath and looked at the situation map like a tactician.
The ship was just now coming over the horizon of the planet, at just under one and a half light-seconds’ distance. The Aether, being everywhere and in everything at once, could provide instantaneous data. The problem was that their enemies had the same ability.
They knew she was there.
According to the display, the carrier was launching gauss rounds into the surface of the planet. She had to assume the carrier was opting not to engage them until they crossed the horizon.
“Cora, let’s head for the shattered moon. We can get closer without exposing ourselves completely,” Sara said into her headset.
The engines kicked in, and she felt the floor move slightly. They were accelerating at incredible speeds, but it was nothing more than a slight crawl on the stellar scale.
“Comms, are we getting any chatter in the open?”
A female voice came from the comms station. “No, Ma’am. Nothing on an open frequency. I am picking up encrypted chatter between the carrier and the fighters. I am guessing they are aware of us and are recalling the fighters, Ma’am.”
Sara bit her lip, trying to decide if they would have points taken off for recklessness. She decided that getting the carrier to disengage quickly was worth the risk.
“Cora, engage warp and jump us to the moon. We need to get these bastards focused on us.”
For the most part, space battle needed to happen up close, due to the limited speed of weapons. It was common practice for ships to warp across the battlefield to close in fast, fire weapons, and then warp back out. It only took a controller five to ten seconds to engage a warp field, so most battles happened in the seconds it took to power up the drive. While in combat, the captain used their Aether to power shields and deflect fire.
The star field squeezed in for a split second, only to expand just as quickly, but Sara found the view blocked by a huge chunk of the moon as they slid into the asteroid field created by its shattered body. They would have a clear line of sight to the carrier on the other side of the asteroid.
She could see on the display that the Teifen carrier was turning about and loading its fighters as they came in. She knew they would be jumping into range of traditional weapons as soon as the last fighter was on board, and estimated that they had thirty seconds before that happened.
Pressing a few buttons, Sara turned the PDCs to auto-fire, targeting anything large enough to damage the hull. She had an idea.
“Cora, would you be able to power the Aether cannon, then warp before firing?” she asked. She knew she could do it, but she also knew she had more experience as a controller than Cora did.
“Uh, yeah. Yes, I can do that,” Cora said, her voice sounding a little distracted.
“Good. Helm, begin to drift us to the edge of this asteroid, as if we are going to come out of cover and fire on the carrier from here. Then I want you to stop abruptly before we actually make it to the edge.”
The simulation produced a voice that came from the helm console. “Yes, ma’am.”
The ship began to drift, picking up speed as it went.
“Cora, begin powering the Aether cannon, but hold the shot.”
She watched the carrier closely. It had one main Aether cannon, as did most ships, positioned on a turret on the top of the ship, giving it the widest angle of fire. She was hoping the enemy would take the easy shot with their Aether cannon when they peeked over the edge.
Aether cannons, like the sensors, traveled instantaneously across space, making them the only long-range weapon available to either side. Its power diminished with distance, but under a million miles, the cannon was enough to drain the shields on most small ships.
They came to the edge of the asteroid, and the ship jerked to a stop. Sara sighed with relief when the carrier responded to her own ship’s cannon powering up and apparently coming out of cover. The enemy’s cannon fired, and the edge of the asteroid exploded in a flash of plasma and chunks of rock that flew off in all directions.
The PDCs began to fire, filling the area with thousands of metal slugs that pulped any rock that came close to the hull. Sara knew they only had a few seconds before the carrier was able to jump or fire its cannon again. She tried to throw up a shield in front of the ship to block anything the PDCs missed, and her heart nearly skipped a beat when nothing happened.
She needed to think of something and fast. The carrier began to turn their way, and the last of the fighters was almost in the bay.
“Cora, I need you to do something a little unorthodox, and it’s going to test your abilities,” she said, leaning in and looking at the area directly around the ship. She spotted what she needed.
“Okay, what is it?”
“You’re going to need to expand the warp field to include this chunk of rock, then warp us directly at the carrier. Before we get there, shrink the warp bubble so the rock is no longer inside it, then bring us to a full stop. Once we’re out of warp, let the Aether cannon fly, and hit them with everything you have left.”
There was a beat before Cora said, “Aye, Ma’am.”
The ship leapt forward at a considerably slower pace than a warp jump would normally be. The large rock was still there, spinning lazily. Sara could feel the moment the warp bubble shrank. The ship shuddered and groaned, and Cora let out a whimpering cry as her mind battled with the powers at work. The ship came to a sudden stop, halfway between the moon and the carrier; the planet loomed large in the view screen. As soon as the ship came to a stop, the Aether cannon let loose with a shuddering whoosh. The carrier’s shields flared white, then red as the Aether blast was absorbed.
The Teifen were not very talented at shielding, but they were good enough. Normally on a ship as large as the carrier, they would have multiple stations where Teifen mages could pour Aether into the shield matrix. This made for plenty of power, but they could not modulate the shielding in any way. Because mages would waste any power they dumped into a shield that was not hit, they tended to take shifts and add power as needed. Sara was hoping to catch them off guard and overpower the shields in one all-out assault. They would not expect for such a small ship to try and take them on in an open fight.
It worked. The shields on the carrier winked out as the last of the extra power Cora was able to scrape from her well was spent. The carrier was unshielded, but not damaged.
At least, it was not damaged for the fraction of a second it took a rock the size of two city buses to smash into it at ninety percent the speed of light.
The rock punched a hole through the whole ship,
entering the bow as a solid piece and exiting the stern as a hot jet of plasma. Seconds later, the carrier was blown apart, as the reactor containment failed, igniting a micro sun deep in the carrier’s hull for a split second.
“Yes,” Sara shouted, pumping a fist at the image of the carrier vanishing in a white-hot blast.
She was breathing heavily, and it took a second to realize that the simulation had frozen. The speaker came on, and she heard the lieutenant.
“Well, that was…” He paused to think of the proper word. “Unorthodox.”
“Thank you, Sir. We Sonderses are known to think outside the box on occasion,” she said, straight-faced.
“Yes, well. Your test is complete. Please return the equipment. You are dismissed.”
The speaker crackled as he shut off the mic.
Sara turned to find Cora sitting on the edge of the controller’s chair, breathing heavily and wiping sweat from her face. She shakily stood and grabbed onto the edge of the open cylinder for support. Sara quickly got one of her arms around her and took some of her weight.
“Hey, are you okay? I didn't think you would be that tired from the fight.”
Cora nodded, her hair damp with sweat. “I’m fine, it was just some tricky maneuvering you were calling for. I had to brute force some of it, so I was spending Aether like it was our parents’ money.”
Sara laughed at the reference. Their father had some particular ideas about how they managed themselves through college. “Well, it was a good show. The way you manipulated the warp bubble was perfect. I was afraid the stress of letting the rock go like that was going to break it apart.”
“It actually did break apart, but it was moving so fast, it didn't have time to spread out,” Cora explained, taking more and more of her own weight with every step.
“Well, I have a pretty good feeling about our test results, so I say we go celebrate after we’re released from class. I’m sure the Marines will want a drink or two after their showing,” Sara said, grinning.
Cora laughed. “I’m down if you are. Wait, what about the cat-thing sleeping in our apartment?” she asked, her forgotten anger flaring back to life.
Sara slapped her forehead.
Chapter 9
Colonel Grimms walked beside Sargent Major Baxter, a large man with dark brown skin and stark white hair that marked him as a mage. They were following Chief Engineer Sabine, who was giving them their introductory tour of the Raven. Grimms’ hands were clasped behind his straight back, while he took in the ship still under construction. The commander had been in the Navy for thirty years, and had risen to his position, not so much through a stellar record over time served, but from a willingness to do whatever it took.
Today was no exception.
“And here you can see into the engine room. We’re just now getting the holding tank installed,” Chief Engineer Sabine said, waving his olive brown hand at the large glass and metal canister that was just now being lowered by a crane in the center of the room. There were half finished pipes leading to the area the tank would occupy, and cables snaked the ground around a circular clearing.
Grimms thought Sabine might be from Greece, or somewhere close to that. When the Aether receptors were activated in humanity a side effect was that everyone started understanding one another, regardless of what language they spoke. It was odd, but damn convenient. The problem was that accents became a kind of flourish of the mind, and not so much an indicator of origin. Commander Grimms didn't realize how much of a person’s persona was tied up in their accent until it became meaningless. A person born in New Jersey might sound like they were from England, if that was how they thought they sounded in their mind. Most people still had accents similar to where they originated, but one could never assume much anymore
“What is the tank for?” Marine Sergeant Major Baxter asked. “I’ve been on the Elif ships and toured the engine rooms, but they don't have tanks like that,” the large man mused.
Chief Sabine’s eyebrows rose in appreciation of the man. “Good eye, Sergeant Major. No, the Elif don't have a holding tank on their ships. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to pry what the blazes it’s for from any of their engineers. They keep pointing me to the manuals, but those are next to worthless. They read as if someone wrote them after someone else built the ships. The best I can surmise is that it’s a new controller platform.”
“ ‘Controller platform’? As in the mage twin controller? Why would they need a tank? Don't all the controllers work from the bridge? Are they trying to get around the need for twin sets to pilot starships?” the sergeant asked.
“No, the twins are still needed because of how much Aether they can channel compared to a normal mage; something about their genetics lets more Aether flow through them when plugged into amplifiers. Plus, when plugged into the system, there is a lot of nonverbal communication between the captain and the controller that only twins can achieve.”
“But there are ships without twin sets piloting them. Most of the troop transports are powered by mages, with a non-mage pilot controlling them,” Baxter said, raising an eyebrow.
Chief Sabine nodded. “A ship can be piloted, and even travel at warp, without a twin set, but at a much reduced capacity. The warp needs to be computer-controlled and then powered by a mage, but the ship would have to rely on physical spellforms for shielding, therefore unable to modulate as the battle would demand. The ships become slow to react and thus are less effective in battle. A twin set is able to bypass all these problems and react at the speed of thought.”
Grimms put a hand on Baxter’s shoulder. “Trust me, Sergeant, I’ve asked all these questions to the higher-ups. We need to have twins piloting and controlling warships if we want to stand more than a fleeting chance of winning. Please, Chief, continue with the tour.”
Sabine cleared his throat and looked back to the tank suspended in the air. “They tell me this ship is the first of its kind in the fleet, and that some modifications are needed to make her work properly. Like I said, though, the manual is useless, and the Elif are keeping quiet for now. It seems a little fishy to me. But what do I know, I’m only the chief engineer on this boat.”
“Come to think of it, this ship is quite a bit different than the Elif carrier I toured. Did someone else design these ships? Why don't we use the same ships as the Elif?” Commander Grimms asked Chief Sabine.
“Well, this ship is something new, so it’s got all sorts of new doodads in the guts, but its base schematics are just as old as the other ships in the fleet. I guess they wanted to wait on this controller design for the right pilots or something. The Elif said they built us ships that were smaller and faster because we have so few people to man them, but the more time I spend on this ship, the more I suspect they didn't design them at all. It’s small things, like the height of the handles on the cabinets, or the length of the beds. Plus, the ship I trained on had the traditional controller setup, but the dimensions were the same as on this ship, like it was supposed to have this fancy controller tank from the get go, but then something fell through. It’s damned odd, sir.”
Grimms knew very well what the tank was for, and he was not yet sure how he felt about the design. He had been told in his briefing with the Admiral that it was far more efficient than the traditional ship, and Grimms didn't doubt that the design would do exactly what the Elif engineers said it would. No, what worried the commander was that if the setup was so much better, then why didn't the Elif use it themselves? The chief’s new information—that the ships were all supposed to have the tanks—was interesting. The Elif were hiding things from humanity; on that, he wholeheartedly agreed with Chief Sabine.
The chief suddenly shouted out to a woman standing on a skid stacked with couplings, where she was overseeing the tanks installation. “Jeffries, get those cables out of the way before they get sliced!” He was pointing at a bundle of cable close to where the tank would land. Jeffries jumped off the skid as the tank flew in, and started yan
king the cables back out of the way. It didn't look like they were in immediate danger to Grimms, but he was a commander, not an engineer.
“Sorry, Commander. They probably would have been fine, but better safe than sorry. This whole tank installation has got me on edge,” Chief Sabine admitted, slightly chagrined at his outburst.
“Perfectly fine, Chief. It’s your crew, you run them as you see fit. I would rather see a safe and efficient ship with a crew that knew the score, than a ship with sloppy enlisted that didn't give a damn,” Grimms said, watching the woman as she worked to clear the area to her boss’s liking. “You were saying that the design elements of this ship are a little off. What do you mean by that?”
The chief turned and indicated that Grimms and Baxter should continue out the door and complete the tour. “Well, sir, it’s nothing I would call damning evidence, but you know how those pointy-eared bastards—no offense intended—are taller on average than humans? Well, that would lead me to believe that the ships would be set up and built with that in mind. If you go on an Elif ship, it’s just like you would think it would be: the door pads are an inch or two higher than we would put them; the beds are just a few inches longer than our own. The ceilings are, again, just slightly higher than our own. If it was just one ship, I would say it was a design choice, but it’s all their ships. All of them except the ships they are giving the humans.”
Grimms rubbed his chin thoughtfully as they stepped out into the hall, the white lights reflecting off the matte white walls. The panels were open, with people working on wiring or other components in small clusters.
Waiting to pass a group of mixed human and Elif workers so as not to be overheard, Grimms thought over the implications of what the Chief was saying.
“Are you telling me that these ships were designed specifically for humans? I guess that would make sense, in a way; they did come to us and ask for help. It stands to reason they knew about us years in advance of first contact,” he said, eyeing the chief, trying to see where he was going in the conversation.
War Mage Chronicles- Part One Page 5