by Bob Blanton
“Ah, I love a negotiation that ends in war,” the admiral said.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Not much of a negotiator,” Catie said.
“Nope,” Samantha agreed. “So now what?”
“We prepare for them to send ships through the wormhole,” Blake said. “Sensors, what’s the status of their fleet?”
“They’re still moving toward the wormhole. They haven’t increased speed. But they did just launch fighters toward our probe.”
“Take it dark and move it,” Blake ordered.
“Already doing it, sir.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“We’re reaching the fringe,” the navigator announced.
“Prepare for a microjump,” Catie ordered.
“Captain, won’t we be putting ourselves farther away? How will we get back to the engagement area if we keep doing microjumps around the system?” First Officer Suzuki asked.
“We’ll reverse the polarity of the wormhole,” Catie said. “That will have us jumping in but heading back toward the engagement area, not away from it.”
“I didn’t realize you could do that.”
“We have to, that’s how the Roebuck opens a wormhole for another ship to use; we reverse the polarity so we’re behind the wormhole . . .” Catie's eyes went wide. “That means . . . Get me Admiral Blake!” she ordered as she rushed to her office.
“What’s up, squirt?” Blake asked.
“Uncle Blake!”
“Hey, just trying to lighten the moment. What do you have?”
“I just realized something we can do to the Fazullans when they come through the wormhole.”
“What?”
“We need to test it, but I believe the Roebuck can create a zero-point strong enough to move the wormhole.”
“Okay, even so, how would that help us?”
“You know that any ship that goes through the wormhole picks up any velocity that the end of the wormhole has.”
“Right, otherwise you might be sucked back into it.”
“Yes. So if the Roebuck is at 0.05 C, then when we move the wormhole, the Fazullan ship would pick up that velocity.”
“That doesn’t sound like a good thing, it just gets them into the system faster.”
“Not if we set the polarity of the wormhole so it points out of the system.”
“Oh, . . . then the Fazullans would be flying out of the gravity well even farther. And they’re barely able to use their gravity drives at this distance.”
“I doubt their ships will have enough reaction mass to stop themselves, much less turn around and come back into the system,” Catie continued.
“How do we test your theory?”
“We’re preparing to jump. We’ll jump right back and see if we can power up a zero point with enough strength to move the wormhole.”
“Do it.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“It works,” Catie reported.
“Good, is there any reason the Sakira can’t do the same thing?”
“Her grav drives aren’t as powerful or as efficient as the Roebuck’s, but she probably can. I’ll send the parameters over and you can test it. I wouldn’t bother accelerating until you know it will work.”
“Admiral, we have the parameters. I’ve loaded them,” the navigation officer reported.
“Then execute.”
“The wormhole has transitioned to us,” the sensor operator reported.
“Okay, it works, so we should each maintain the velocity profile, timed so that when you have to jump, we’re just finishing our jump.”
“So what tells us to grab the wormhole?” Catie asked.
“They should send a probe through before they send a ship. If we see a probe, we grab the wormhole when the probe retreats; if it’s a ship, we grab it immediately. That should leave the fleet with the maximum of one starship to deal with.”
“Okay, if we head out-system for two million kilometers, then we can do a microjump back into the system. We can hold the wormhole for the two hours we’re heading out-system. If we alternate, then we can cut a cord through the edge of the system for the two-hour recharge before we head out again,” Catie explained.
“I think I have it. Send the plot map to my navigator and we’ll review it.”
“Yes sir.”
“While we’re doing that, why don’t you call your father and explain it to him. Then we’ll have a strategy meeting.”
“On it.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Waa!”
“Your turn,” Samantha said as she rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.
Marc got out of bed and picked Allie up. They left the room so Samantha could sleep. Marc checked to see if Allie was hungry or needed a change. It was a little of both. Since the diaper was like the shipsuits and did an exceptional job of taking care of moisture, he opted to feed her first. Hopefully, that would settle her down before she woke Samantha up again.
Marc grabbed a bottle from the preheater and started feeding Allie. ZMS had designed the preheater for Samantha. It UV-sterilized the bottle, and then on a timer, filled it with breast milk from the refrigerator, and heated it. That way Samantha wouldn’t have to deal with a fussy baby while waiting for the bottle to warm up. The timer setting was based on Allie’s feeding cycle with built-in margin; keeping it warm for an hour didn’t hurt the milk. The whole thing was really for Marc and their nanny since Samantha would just put the baby on a breast if she was too fussy. She breastfed whenever possible, only using the bottle when her schedule wouldn’t allow it, or she wanted to sleep, like now.
“Come on, Allie,” Marc cooed. “You know if you could just hold out for another hour, I would wake up naturally and come feed you.” Marc never needed much sleep, but having to wake up on a semi-random schedule based on Allie’s rate of digestion was not the same as waking at his usual time in the morning after working late.
“Come on, sweetie, we can come up with a deal. You sleep for at least three hours and Daddy will buy you whatever you want, a pony even.”
Marc switched Allie to the other arm so she would stay used to alternating sides and kept walking her around his office. He had his HUD up and was reviewing the data Catie and Blake had sent him last night while he cooed to Allie.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Welcome, Captains. Thanks to Captain McCormack, we have a potential new strategy we would like to review,” Blake said. “Captain, you have the floor.”
“While discussing our jump plan with my first officer, I realized that we had a control point with the wormhole that we were not exploiting. Most of you have only transitioned a wormhole using our jump ships and jump probes, so you might not even be aware of it. The fact is that when we open a wormhole, we have the option of reversing its polarity. Essentially that means that the wormhole will be pointing away from the star instead of toward the star. By reversing the polarity we can have what is transitioning through the wormhole actually head away from the sun at the same velocity of the ship anchoring the wormhole, plus its own velocity. This means that the Sakira or the Roebuck can be heading away from the sun at high velocity while maintaining the wormhole with reverse polarity, so a ship emerging from it would be heading away from the system at the same velocity.”
Catie paused while the captains absorbed that information.
“But if you’re out-system won’t you eventually get too far away to jump back?” Captain Clements asked.
“That is correct. So we would first do a microjump back to the system once we reach two million kilometers. We would be at 0.04 C, so it would take us four hours to reach that point. At that point in time, the other ship would be just heading out-system and be ready to take over.”
“But will the Fazullans come through the wormhole if it’s moving like that, and if they did, wouldn’t they just go back?”
“That’s two questions; so first, we would not grab the wormhole until they had sent a probe through and back, or a ship comes through.
Second, while we’re traveling away from the fringe, we will need to maintain a one G acceleration orthogonal to our direction so that they would not be able to re-enter the wormhole. That has the added benefit of scattering their ships even more.”
“How will you be able to be back at the fringe when you jump back if you’re carrying so much velocity, oh, never mind, you’ll just do another microjump and reorient your vector,” Captain Vislosky said.
“Correct.”
“Any more questions, . . . suggestions?” Blake asked.
“So let me say it in simple terms,” Captain Vislosky, the Sakira’s captain, said. “The Sakira or the Roebuck will always be positioned to grab the wormhole in such a way as to vector anything coming through it at 0.04C to 0.05C away from the Onisiwoen sun. If things work as planned, we should have at max one Fazullan starship to deal with in-system, while the rest will be struggling to kill off the velocity that’s sending them into deep space.”
“Correct.”
“What do you do when they quit sending ships through? Release the wormhole and start the process over?”
“Correct.”
“I like the plan.”
“Couldn’t we use the jump probe we have here to hold the wormhole in place?” Captain Vislosky asked. “It would be nice to be set up for anything that comes through it.”
“I don’t think so. The Fazullans are most likely to only send something through it when the wormhole moves,” Catie said. “And if you have something there waiting, they’ll detect it and the probe will return with a warning, or the ship will launch a probe to warn them.”
“Okay, just thinking.”
“I like your thoughts. Keep them coming, we may find something that we’ve missed or that enhances the plan,” Blake said.
“What about missiles?”
“I worry about that, too,” Blake said. “I assume we’ll follow the same procedure if a missile comes through.”
“I think so. The wormhole will be projected in front of our ship; that will mask our ship from any sensors the Fazullans have active. The biggest risk is when we have to release the wormhole. If ships are still coming through, they will be able to see us, but with a delta-V of 0.05C, it seems manageable,” Catie said.
◆ ◆ ◆
“We’re at the end, we need to jump back into the system,” Catie reported.
“We’re ready to jump,” Blake said. “See you on the flip side,” he added as he nodded to his pilot to grab the wormhole.
An hour later the sensor operator yelled, “A probe just transited the wormhole!”
“Admiral Blake, are you guys ready?” Catie asked.
“We are; let us know when the probe retreats.”
“Probe is retreating.”
“Now!” Catie said.
“The Sakira has the wormhole,” the Roebuck sensor operator reported. “Fazullan ships are transiting.”
Over the next four hours, six Fazullan starships transited the wormhole. After another hour the Roebuck had done its microjump back to the engagement area and was heading out-system. It was prepared to grab the wormhole if necessary, and then the Sakira released the wormhole as it started cutting the cord through the Onisiwoen system.
“What now?” Blake asked once everyone was back on the strategy conference.
“Should we call the Fazullan admiral and tell him we’ve taken care of his ships?” Samantha asked.
“No. Our spy probe shows them moving another fourteen ships to the wormhole. I think he’s hoping these will occupy us, and he plans to transition the rest of his ships when the wormhole moves again.”
“How long do we have before those ships are too far away to rescue?” Samantha asked.
“Why should we rescue them?” Catie asked.
“Not everyone on those ships is guilty,” Samantha said. “Besides they might have slaves on them as well.”
“Oh! Well, right now, they’re dumping all their reaction mass trying to slow down. It might take a couple of microjumps to reach them, but they’ll always be in range. We can power the wormhole from the jump ships here at the fringe, so we’ll be able to jump them back,” Catie said, feeling a little foolish for her insensitive comment.
“Okay, then let them panic for a while,” Blake said. “We need to be prepared to deal with the next attempt.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Eight hours later, the Roebuck had just jumped out when the wormhole wandered again. A probe was immediately detected transitioning the wormhole. When it left the system, the Roebuck grabbed the wormhole.
“A ship is preparing to transition!” First Officer Suzuki reported. She was watching the feed from the spy probe on the Fazullan side of the wormhole. “They’re accelerating hard to the wormhole.”
“Excellent,” Catie said.
It only took two hours before all fourteen ships had transited the wormhole. Catie had the Roebuck hold the wormhole for another hour before they released it and jumped back to the fringe.
“Should we call the admiral now?” Catie asked.
“I wonder if he is on one of those ships?” Samantha asked.
“I would expect so. He would want to be able to control the battle,” Blake said. “But I think we should give them a few hours to waste their reaction mass. Then we’ll see if they would like to talk.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Admiral Martaka, would you like to reopen negotiations?” Blake said over the communication channel to the Fazullans.
“You — arrogant fool. My people will realize that I was unsuccessful and adapt. We will defeat you.”
“More inefficiency in their language?” Catie asked ADI.
“Yes.”
“Hmm, maybe we should have Captain Lantaq talk to him,” Samantha suggested.
“Okay. Security, bring him up here,” Blake ordered.
It only took a few minutes to bring Captain Lantaq to the bridge. Blake ordered the channel to the Fazullans opened again.
“Admiral Martaka, we have someone we think you might wish to chat with. He can give you a better appraisal of the situation,” Blake said.
Admiral Martaka came back online. He took one look at Captain Lantaq and spit on the deck. “I should have known you would be involved. I should have had you cashiered out of the military years ago. Admiral Blake, I have no interest in whatever this man has to say!”
With that, he cut the channel.
“He doesn’t like you very much,” Blake said.
“He never liked the way I treated my women,” Captain Lantaq said.
“Your women?”
“You might say, wives.” Captain Lantaq smiled. “Perhaps if you would give me an open channel on a different frequency, I will be able to help,” he said.
Blake turned away from Captain Lantaq. “Any reason not to give it to him?”
“We can cut it off if he says something we don’t want him to,” Marc said.
“Very well, communications, put a two-second delay in the channel,” Blake said before he turned back to Captain Lantaq. “Which channel do you want?”
“This one,” Captain Lantaq said, reciting the frequency he wanted. “And it would be best if the message went to the entire Fazullan fleet.”
“Make it so,” Blake said, nodding at the communication officer.
“Channel is open.”
“Omega has risen,” Captain Lantaq said. He smiled and turned away from the display.
“What does that mean?”
“Just my last words,” Captain Lantaq said.
“Would you care to explain?”
“I think not. But I would be happy to provide you a short history of Fazulla while we wait for an answer. That is, if you would like it?”
“I’d be interested in hearing that,” Samantha said.
“Very well, we’ll convene in five minutes,” Blake said as he led Captain Lantaq to his cabin.
◆ ◆ ◆
“You have our attention,” Blake said once everyone was
on the comm channel.
“Thank you,” Captain Lantaq said. “As you know we are from another planet. The colony ship that founded Proxima Fazulla reached it over two hundred years ago. As the years passed we dropped the Proxima label and just called our new home system Fazulla.
“We have been told that some problem occurred with the colony ship which forced it to select Proxima Fazulla for our new home. No one knows if that is true, or if our ancestors just didn’t want to admit that they had chosen such an unsuitable star system. They were too far from any other system to attempt to relocate, so they settled there.
“It was a harsh planet, but we made it our home. The population started out at fifty thousand, and after fifty years, it had only climbed to one hundred fifty thousand. At that time, Fazullans tended to only have two children at the most, and after fifty years the population was plateauing, which is not necessarily a good thing for a new colony.
“Then we discovered the wormhole. Over the next four years, we learned two critical things. One: the wormhole did not lead to an acceptable alternative to Proxima Fazulla, and two: we were not alone. One of the expeditions through the wormhole detected radio traffic that indicated there was another race out among the stars.
“This created a great upheaval in our society. There was a lot of debate among our leaders about what to do with this information, as well as unrest in the general population. Eventually, it led to a military coup. The most militaristic members of our society took over. They appointed the first emperor. One of the first things he did was pass a law that said every Fazullan woman must bear five children.”
“That is absurd,” Catie said.
“I agree,” Captain Lantaq said. “There were protests, riots; eventually, the military quelled them. And because of the riots, the emperor stripped Fazullan women of most of their rights. They became little more than household slaves. They were given the responsibility of maintaining the household and educating the children. That at least allowed them to be educated.
“Then as with all things considered valuable, the rich and powerful decided they deserved more than the rest of the people. The laws were changed allowing a man to have more than one wife. I have five, the emperor has one hundred. I believe Admiral Martaka has twenty. Any more, and it would draw the attention of the emperor.