Obsidian Ressurection

by T J Bryan

  Helen deeply wanted to find missile fabricators, but like the anti-matter bottles, the station seemed to have been supplied with the weapons from some central manufacturing facility. There were no 'K' fabricators on the station. However she did find over 800 fully assembled 'K's and the components to assemble another 200. For this she was grateful. As for sand casters she located almost 1,100 units fully completed but devoid of the spent plutonium pellets that made their impact so devastating. Again there were no fabricators on the station that would allow the OCN to produce its' own.

  Then Helen's OCN Marines discovered what would later prove to be the most valuable treasure of all; droid fabricators for maintenance and assembly work. There were eleven different types, but Helen knew what she had found and since they were not integrated into the system, she ordered that they be taken immediately into the hold of Greenland.

  Helen had a complete inventory completed of the station, including those items and fabricators that she must leave behind, and then after three weeks departed for the return to Jamon.

  Unfortunately the return home, at only eight weeks, was through the Cranmore system and both Greenland and Olrun had to pass through Dong Son and Pope Leo in order to get home. The prospect of passing through Dong Son did not offer Helen any confidence that their treasures might actually reach Jamon and home.

  ...

  Jamon System - Habitat - Admiral's Office - Year 3248 May 24 ET 20:02

  Abel had stayed up late at the office. The paperwork had simply become overwhelming despite Bennet Nolo's efforts. There were simply too many lines to fill and signatures to apply. However he did pause at one promotion. Norba Norbanus was up for promotion to captain, and as Abel leaned back into his chair he thought of the interview he had had with her months ago. Abel read the summary report of her qualifications and was startled to see that she had both an astrogation certificate and a pilots qualification. She was one of only three in the entire OCN with both qualifications.

  Bennett entered the room and frowned at Abel's inaction. Abel simply signed the promotion with some worry about Norba's obsession with killing pirates, but he needed to move on with the remainder of the paper work. The fabricators guild was complaining about the overtime needed for the construction of the 'apparatus', there was some kind of electrical malfunction on the Navy Dock, there had been an altercation fuelled by alcohol at the Navy Club, the list went on and on. Every item needed attention, but Abel felt overwhelmed by the minutiae of running a navy. Abel realized it was not just minutiae but that given the size and complexity of the OCN he needed an additional layer of bureaucracy. He had avoided this for so long that now the backlog of reasoned paperwork was beginning to strangle his creation. He needed to make changes and soon.

  Moments later his vid-com chimed. It was Emmitt Wong. Abel thumbed open the line and he saw Emmitt clearly distraught.

  Before Abel could open the conversation Emmitt began. "Abel we have had an accident. Well not an accident, I should have foreseen this coming. But Quark while transporting four of those apparatus sub assemblies got hit by a gravity wave. Nothing that would have been noticed, but one of the sub assemblies began to fire up and practically melted the deck of Quark,"

  Abel wiped his forehead. "Quark, how is she?"

  "Quark is fine. But they had to eject the offending sub assembly. And at the last report it was still ejecting dimensional fluid. From what I have learned this might just go on forever.

  "And the others, the sub assemblies?"

  "They seem ok, but Abel if a small gravity wave from very distant colliding black holes, which are not uncommon, can set one of these things off, then what happens when we have almost 128 aligned but not ready. Abel, this scares the shit out of me. We don't know what we are working with here and Nomi seems not to care.

  Abel thought a moment. "Emmitt we have no options here. We must proceed."

  Emmitt gave Abel a dirty face and then replied, "Yes, of course you are right. But Abel I fear that this weapon might well be the end of the Megra and ourselves as well."

  Abel decided he needed a long walk even though it was almost midnight and in the full darkness of moon time.

  Abel left his office passed through the always busy annex and its' CTS. All six stations were active and Abel continued on the square in front of the Collegium. Crossing the square he noticed that the lights were on in the Collegium wing that contained Nomi's lab. He also saw occasional flashes of light and thought he might just step in and see what Nomi and the lab rats were up to.

  Aelia and Nomi were not present, but an entire crew of lab workers was standing around fascinated by some experiment. Abel walked quietly to the center of the lab. No one turned to say hello although they could hardly have missed his approach. All attention was on the experiment. As Abel found a space in the crowded lab in which to see what was going on he found himself standing next to Professor Ollon whom he had not noticed earlier.

  "And what do we have here Professor?" asked Abel.

  Ollon momentarily took his eyes off the experiment to see who was talking and then immediately returned his attention to experiment.

  "Abel, just look at that." Ollon pointed and at first Abel was unsure of what he saw, but after a moment he realized that the two Greayson GWP fragments found by the Theans was simply suspended above the test bench by a meter. Nomi had earlier attached additional wires, tubes and circuits as well as drew a cable from the what Nomi had called the Gravitic Assembler. Occasionally the suspended contraption would spit our sparks and the smell of ozone filled the lab.

  "All right," said the Professor. "Power it down. We are done for the night."

  One lab tech walked to the fusion engine and began to reduce the power feed. Another threw several switches on the Gravitic Assembler. The sparks ceased as did the venting of ozone, but the unit remained suspended in space.

  "Why didn't if land on that platform when you cut the power?" asked Abel.

  Professor Ollon replied, "I have no idea. But as you can see once the assembly is activated it will remain suspended for hours if not days. Eventually is will slowly land on that cradle."

  Abel stepped a bit closer.

  "I would advise not touching that Abel. It's going to be quite hot." said the Professor.

  "And Nomi? What's her reaction?"

  "Well, after we connected the components according to Nomi's instructions and powered the thing up she simply stared at it for a while. You know Nomi. Eventually the gizmo lifted up. That was yesterday. Nomi called for it to be powered down but when we cut the power it stayed suspended for about an hour. Then we began the test again and again it rose up suspended. After about twenty minutes Nomi and Aelia left the lab and I have not seen them since. Before leaving Aelia said we should continue the test for 38 hours before shutting it down." Ollon looked at the wall clock. "And we just passed the 38 hour mark."

  Abel stared at the suspended device. "Do you think Nomi understands how they do it? The GWP?"

  "I am not sure," replied the Professor. "However she is close and given what her equations have revealed to me I can pretty much say that I am not far behind. It was those two fragments and the Gravitic Assembler that kind of jelled the whole concept. Now my understanding is nowhere near Nomi's, but it is all a matter of following the logic now and if I don't fully understand now, give me a year and a dozen graduate students and I am confident we will know how GWP is accomplished."

  Abel was excited by the Professor's comments, but it was very late and his day had been long; too long. Abel thanked the Professor and then individually thanked each lab rat for their work. Abel knew if he did not thank them, then probably no one would, and without good lab assistants the whole enterprise might fail.

  Chapter One Hundred Three

  Dong Son - Greenland - Year 3248 July 10 ET 03:14

  Greenland, Olrun and the Greayson repair ship entered the Dong Son system virtually together. They immediately pinged the portal monitors and mailbox. Helen was
taking no chances as she threaded her way through the remaining mines which had been laid by Captain Marx with Sigrún more than nine months before. Most of the mines had been detonated and the remains of several dumbbell ships attested to their effectiveness. Greenland and Olrun dropped a few more of the new more sophisticated seeker mines to replace those that had given their full measure.

  The portal monitor's left by Sigrún were reviewed by Helen and she found them disturbing. In the space of the most recent four months no less than 80 dumbbell ships had entered Dong Son space and proceeded on to Gatecliff and Pope Leo. The sheer volume of ships was astonishing, but the scan revealed that the connector hubs between the two spheres of the ships had changed. The connectors were much thicker and Helen assumed that the Megra had learned their lesson from previous battles. The connector was their weak point and they had set about to correct this vulnerability. While she could not determine if the Megra had fitted their new design with additional tubes and missiles she had no doubt that they had or soon would. The Megra was learning and adapting and this did not bode well for the OCN.

  Both ships held back in the recesses of the Dong Son system hoping to avoid detection until they could determine the right moment for passage to Gatecliff and on to Pope Leo. After three days on no activity in the Hitti portals Helen ordered that they proceed at best speed to the Gatecliff entry. The transition across the Dong Son system to the Gatecliff portal was two days, and during that time both Greenland, Olrun, and the repair ship were exposed should the dumbbells enter the system from Hitti space.

  Three hours before their entry to Gatecliff another fleet of Megra entered the system. Helen counted twenty ships, all modified as she had observed were the other ships passing through Dong Son. The Megra immediately scanned the tiny OCN fleet. Helen responded by running a full 'M' scan which would provide much more detail than the passive portal monitors. The OCN ships were proceeding at their best speed and they were close enough to the entry portal to avoid immediate conflict, but it was clear to Helen that the Megra had seen them and would follow. Greenland was about 6% faster than the dumbbells, or at least the older version of the Megra ships. The SAR Olrun was a good 10% faster and if all held good they would outrun the Megra across the Gatecliff system and enter the portal to Pope Leo well in advance of the dumbbells. But the repair ship was sluggish due to its' mass and could easily be overtaken by the Megra in a long haul flight. The Greenland astrogator assured Helen that all three ships would enter the portal well before the Megra were within firing range.

  Helen's full scan did reveal several new facts. The dumbbells had the same number of dirty Hitti engines as the OCN had observed before, however the mass of the ships had increased by 22%. The increase in mass Helen attributed to the strengthened connectors and perhaps thicker plating on the spheres. The improved store of weapons and mines seen in the Forth Battle of Wu might well add mass as well. The same engine compliment and greater mass meant slower acceleration and speeds from reaction engines. Whatever speed advantage Olrun and Greenland had was probably increased. By how much Helen could only guess, but she knew that the repair ship would remain too slow to outrun the Megra, and a fleet traveled only as fast as its' slowest ship.

  Helen dreaded what she might find at the old Megra base at Pope Leo. If only a small portion of the almost eighty Megra ships had remained in Pope Leo their chances of surviving and returning to Jamon were slim. No, she thought, they were impossible.

  Both Greenland, Olrun, and the repair ship spent their six days in the tunnel developing strategies and tactics that might allow them to survive the passage through Pope Leo. But Helen knew that this was all speculation. Whatever was stationed at Pope Leo they could not guess, but in Helen's mind it was grim. However before entering the tunnel to Pope Leo, both Greenland and Olrun laid a thick patch of seeker mines at the Gatecliff entry portal.

  The passage across Gatecliff took two days and scans revealed that the Megra fleet they had encountered in Dong Son had not followed. Helen had no doubt in her mind that they would follow once they had dealt with the seeker mines. Helen though that the mines might well delay the Megra for two to three days. A few well placed anti-matter torpedoes on or about the portal would easily deal with the mines. However the new seekers presented a challenge as they simply moved in to locations where other mines had been destroyed. Still only a few days reprieve was possible from the placement of the mines.

  Tunnel time from Gatecliff to Pope Leo was ten days and passage across Pope Leo to the Cranmore entry was almost three days as well.

  As they prepared to enter Pope Leo, Captain Meg Asgeir ordered that the two tubes on Greenland be loaded with casters. Olrun did the same for her four tubes. The repair ship had no tubes but relied on a few under powered plasma cannons useful only for defending against pirates.

  Helen's plan was simple because simple was the only option the had. They would enter Pope Leo, lay mines as they entered, and head immediately at best speed to the Cranmore portal which lay three days away. If there were dumbbells at the old staging point encountered by Sigrún they would be intercepted well short of the Cranmore portal. 'C'est la guerre,' thought Helen from some old book she had read. This is life and this is war.

  But as they entered Pope Leo and immediately scanned they system they found no Megra ships or stations. Only the debris and remains of Sigrún's desperate attack from months before. The Megra had obviously abandoned Pope Leo as a base of operations and moved elsewhere. Perhaps the loss of the old Pope Leo orbital station had made the system less valuable to the Megra. But where had they moved, wondered Helen? If they had moved to Cranmore which was the hub of the regional knot lines they were still going to face an overwhelming hostile force on the way home. However there were two portals leaving Pope Leo and one led directly to Cranmore and home. The second led to Maya and then to Cranmore. If the Megra had set up a new base at Maya they might have a chance at making it through Cranmore, but as Helen knew too much hanged in the balance on the word 'might'.

  Helen studied her portal map carefully. If the Megra had chosen to establish a base at Cranmore they would control eight knot lines covering all of the Cranmore system. But if they set up at Maya they were only eight days from Cranmore, one day from Himmer and on to Polis, and 55 days to New Horizons. While they might like Cranmore for its' overall control of a mostly dead region, they might prefer the safer and perhaps more strategic location at Maya which gave them access to three established human settlements and another route to Severan.

  However Helen thought who could fathom an alien mind? It was best for her small fleet to deal with whatever presented itself and gods willing press on. Eight days later they entered Cranmore and to their relief found the system empty. They pinged the portal monitor left by previous OCN flights and found that no dumbbells had entered the system in months. The mailbox contained no new information but did note the passage of Farn's squad back in August of last year. Helen knew that the only location possible for the enormous Megra fleet was Maya and on to Polis and New Horizons.

  The flight to Girots took another 10 days. Helen spilt her forces ordering Olrun to Wu to report their intelligence and to be available should the Megra stage another attack. Olrun now carried two fully operational anti-matter torpedoes recovered from Eleos. The remaining four torpedoes she retained knowing that Abel would put them to good use. The two ships parted at Nelots.

  Eight days later Greenland entered Jamon space and was greeted by the Monitor Esjan. Helen immediately posted her dispatches to Abel. After another day in flight she approached the Navy Dock and anchored there. Helen realized they had been lucky, very lucky and that next time they were certain to face their enemy with even less luck. They had arrived on August 24 ET Year 3248 at almost twelve noon.

  Helen and her crew were greeted by a rather large crowd at the dock. The size of the group surprised her, but then she realized that the families and friends of the 32 OCN Marines on board would certainly have rais
ed the number wanting to greet the ship as she came home.

  Helen looked about the deck and spotted Abel standing in the distance. The Chairman was not there and no microphone or vid crew were present. Helen was relieved. There would be no speeches today. The comings and goings of the OCN were now a regular occurrence and apart from happy reunions no one seemed to notice. Helen was just fine with that.

  Helen gripped her inter-tab in her left hand and approached Abel. They shook hands as old friends would do rather than salute.

  "Welcome home Helen."

  "Abel, it's good to be home and I sincerely hope you allow me to stay home this time."

  Abel laughed, "It's lunch time and I have a table at the Navy Club. How about lunch?"

  As Helen and Abel headed toward the complex of hatches and airlocks that led from the Navy Dock to the Habitat and on to the Navy Club, dozens of dock workers began unloading the contents of Greenland's hull. Captain Meg Asgeir, who never left the Greenland, had manoeuvred her slider chair and was supervising the unloading of the precious cargo. Poly Mason, an OCN Marine sergeant , remained behind to assist Meg. The anti-matter torpedoes would remain onboard until Abel determined their fate.

  Abel and Helen entered the busy and noisy Navy Club and the maître d'hôtel immediately recognized Abel and directed them to the quiet table at the back of the club favored by Abel. As they approached Emmitt Wong and Farn Mayer rose with smiles upon their faces.

  "Helen. So good to see you. And alive as well," said Emmitt. "I read your dispatches and I am most anxious to examine the goodies you have brought home to us."

  Farn simply nodded having returned to Jamon from New Horizons a month ago. Abel had ordered her to remain in the Habitat for a month while New Hildr was dispatched back to duty in Wu to relieve Silvi on New Kara. Silvi who was already in system but still six hours from docking.