If in an emergency, the spacecraft would neurologically link with the SZC, the spacecraft zonal vice commander, and the lead HBCI to thwart off any possible dangers automatically, and with sixteen multi-capacity turrets per each of sixteen turret control centers placed equitably around the spacecraft and tucked away safely within the shielding, a single AI could pack quite a punch to any hostile object, while protecting spacecraft, crew, mission, and infrastructure against any compromising entity. Typically, there were two-hundred-fifty-six gunners among the twelve-hundred-member crew contingency, if ever needed that would helm each turret from deep within the spacecraft, using the omni-vision of the spacecraft, superior speed and thinking, courtesy of Virtual Universe tie-in, and the ability for intimate manual override.
Other essential personnel for each command support spacecraft would be a total of ninety-six defensive spacecraft pilots, or eight for each of twelve docking bays, a total of forty-eight explorer spacecraft pilots, or four for each of twelve docking bays, a total of forty-eight all-purpose spacecraft pilots, or four for each of twelve docking bays, and an assigned spacecraft engineer, chief, and mechanic for each specialized spacecraft, wherein each command spacecraft had one-hundred-ninety-two total support spacecraft. The entire spacecraft support section comprised a total of five-hundred-seventy-six personnel, with thirty-six personnel and their families living equitably-distributed throughout each of the twelve sectors. The rest of the crews would be internal, from medical personnel to science and technology professionals, forward planning design engineers, chefs, cooks, and service staff of every sort, all of which entailed the remaining one-hundred-ninety-two employed crewmembers, which would be equally dispersed among each sector. The support personnel would be divided throughout the twelve sectors equitably. To help with fairness, family members, extended or nuclear, and other support personnel were among the science and technology professionals who worked in the labs, as well as within and below the forest, jungle, beach, garden, and the lake zones of the spacecraft.
Ultimately, each sector would have twelve of its personnel dually-coded and marked as “Special Operations Personnel.” As of yet, no one, but Eliza, Yesha, and James knew why. Every crewmember was trained on the sixteen-by-sixteen turret systems, with dry runs, Virtual Universe realistic live fire scenarios, to the degree that the closest sixteen crewmembers to a turret control terminal would take the controls and protect the spacecraft should an urgent situation arise.
Everything one could imagine of a spacecraft its size and with its capabilities was there in the most functional, visually pleasing, and secured way. Each job center had biopods that could heal anyone from any potential damage and would also work as an escape pod. Every position with actual spacecraft-related duties had a magnificent panoramic view and control of each responsibility entrusted to them. In travel or stationary mode, a holographic view of every angle of the Cosmos sector they happened to be in surrounded the command crew and the turret control terminals as they summoned them neurologically, with details to include elements, minerals, gases, and anything of everything they saw available to them using their neural link to the command spacecraft AI interface and the spacecraft’s sensory systems.
In the level below the living areas and behind the command center were the research laboratories, fusion, quantum, and gravity centers, bio-labs, and innovation stations of a wide variety and arranged in an intuitive manner. The floor in between each level was rather thick and was designed for safety, security, accessibility for maintenance crews, yet every room in the spacecraft could double as a bio shelter and had access to each of the other levels, through jump gate or jump watch, and manual means. In the areas below the jungles, forests, gardens, and lake were of course the root structures, the tunnels of various creatures, the columns and support structures, as well as the biosystems that provided the right kinds of bacteria, viruses, micro-organisms, and nutrients necessary for every creature and crewmember in enough abundance and in revolutionary cycles to provide sustenance for trillions of years or more. It was interesting how so many of those who this team worked with and were so brilliant happened to have been raised in Scandinavian countries. Norway, Sweden, and Finland were among the happiest people on Earth, and it translated to greater productivity in spades. They had become members of Pathway and were fully read-in. The Scandinavians were inherently very inspiring to everyone else, with herculean levels of enthusiasm toward innovation and work itself, resulting in collective-success.
The third main level down consisted of a system of twelve docking bays. Each bay included all-purpose, exploration, and defensive spacecraft, with a system of maintenance, production, and upgrade facilities that could produce pretty much anything or a part of anything designed in the Virtual Universe or using the advanced real-world computer terminal, that could fit through the large bay doors, in some cases, if things were too large for the spacecraft, it could use sensor technology to direct any manufacturing in a nearby bio-environment with all of the trimmings and fixings, as needed. Maintenance consisted of a system of redundancy and of highly-skilled personnel trained and optimized for their specialties in the Virtual Universe, practicing manual repairs while spending time working on upgrades and improvements as they innovated them. The people working on the command spacecraft were always vetted and were of the highest caliber. The men were clean cut and shaven, and both men and women were all very well groomed, as well as enthusiastic and respectful toward each other and they worked as a very cohesive team.
Travel throughout and between each command spacecraft would be redundant, with a system of elevators, stairs, and pathways that were intuitively designed for exercise and efficiency within them. There were jump gates for movement throughout the spacecraft, a jump gate terminal for spacecraft-to-spacecraft and other major hubs to travel out and back as coordinated. Fully read-in members had been issued quantum entanglement and disentanglement watches paired with their neural identifications, the living quarters, and their work centers, so they could in effect travel anywhere within the coordinated and humanity-colonized Universe and back as they wished.
Once each aspect of the first command spacecraft, to include the outer shell that would house everything, was designed in the Virtual Universe, Vesha set into motion the commands to have the nano clouds build it. Two weeks later, each of the thirteen command spacecraft were fifty-percent complete, with exoskeletons, neurons, sinews, tissue, and all, seemingly exposed. They were each within a protective environment within deep space and the installation of the final aesthetic of the impenetrable shielding and its sixteen turret array systems of sixteen turrets each were still in progress. Each turret was highly sophisticated and available should ever the need arise, and since there were sixteen locations spread equitably throughout the external shell of the spacecraft, areas that looked as if they were merely shielding would dilate open to expose sixteen large areas of sixteen peace-incentivizing-turrets apiece.
During construction, James Cooper visited often. On this occasion, each spacecraft was about eighty-percent complete. James happened to be standing inside the Construction Command Center with Vesha Celeste and had inquired about certain features that looked quite spectacular on the nearest command spacecraft. With the shielding nearly complete, a couple of the sixteen-turret arrays were still exposed.
“What are those, Vesha? Are they a sort of gun array? I’ve looked through the database, but most of what I’m seeing here is safely stored in the compartmentalized area of your mind. Please, humor me?”
“Oh, of course, James. “There are among each the turret compartments you see there quite an awesome capacity for command spacecraft protection. The sixteen turrets in each compartment are:
“One GPA multiplied by four, or four guided projectile arrays, or four GPAs, which consist of two thirty-millimeter Bushmaster armor piercing cannons, one AGM-176 Griffin Block III C short-to-long range missile delivery system, and one GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb III (SDB) advanced deliver
y system to target hostile spacecraft and hostile locations.
“One FLA multiplied by four, or four fusion/laser arrays, or FLAs, that can deliver a fusion-controlled laser package to any target, and it can dilate for breadth of damage and adjust its scope for precision. Don’t worry, James. There will be exhaustive efforts used to do the least damage to a potential enemy in order to gain control of the hostile spacecraft, but if needs are, these four turrets could be used to destroy or cripple the target rather quickly.
“One SGA multiplied by two, or two stun gun arrays, or SGAs. Each crewmember will carry on their hip a weapon that is similar in function to each of these,” Vesha showed James her gun. “They are designed to temporarily stun a hostile crew member to allow for healing and diplomacy by a Sky-Model HBCI. Those two turrets over there are pretty much the same, but extremely powerful by several orders of magnitude, and would be used to stun a hostile spacecraft and its occupants to allow any spacecraft in the IMC inventory, to buy time for a Sky-Model HBCI to find a way to bridge peaceful communication or jump back to the last identified safe location.
“One STA multiplied by two, or two stasis turret arrays, or STAs. This is an example of what I will carry on my other hip. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t use it, other than to put any hostile crew member, group, or hostile spacecraft and its occupants into a suspended time loop, and to afford a Sky-Model HBCI even more time to heal a threatening mind or individual, so we can get back to the mission at hand. Likewise, those two turrets out there would allow more time for a Sky-Model HBCI to heal threatening minds and create neural links for communication, diplomacy, and shared well-being, and is several orders of magnitude more powerful than the stasis gun I am holding and have no intentions of using.
“One LGA multiplied by two, which are, strangely enough, two laughter gun arrays, or LGAs. Those two LGAs you see, were designed as the first step of defense to reduce hostilities in a less hostile yet reasonable manner by increasing humor, no matter the creature, in such a way as to enable a Sky-Model HBCI to heal and create neural links for communication, diplomacy, and shared well-being. Our own spacecraft has a system designed to do that as a first measure against hostilities, so we can return to the mission at hand. The worst that can come of an LGA is, well, laughter.
“One APC multiplied by two, as a last resort or countermeasure, there are two antimatter particle cannons, or APCs out there. If we were to use one on a target of any size, once the target is hit, all hostilities would become gone for good in an awesome explosion that would not affect anyone in the IMC at all. Our matter has been accounted for, down to our DNA and neural identifications, and stored within command spacecraft databases for safekeeping. Don’t worry, James. APCs would be the least-likely used turrets. Basically, they would work very much like a laser gun, but if caught in a pickle, those two bad-boys would send a strong and steady stream of antimatter particles, based on target composition, and completely destroy or annihilate the target. Concerns would be gone.
“Every aspect, as beautiful as it can be, will also be fully functional and full of purpose when complete. The shielding and defenses will go up soon, atom-by-atom, molecule-by-molecule, and each aspect of each spacecraft will serve an interwoven and complexed purpose. In the end, Eliza, through you and me, have made it clear that the entirety of the IMC ought to be awe-inspiring in every possible way, and while there will always be plenty of room for upgrades and improvements, each command spacecraft is beautiful, are they not?”
“I’ve been to the other side of the solar system and back, but this, wow, this is impressive, Vesha!”
James visited several times again throughout the end of the construction process.
Once construction, “Or, the birth of each spacecraft,” was complete, as Vesha would say it, she was gracious to all who had contributed so much time and effort to the huge project. Furthermore, Vesha took time out of her schedule, met with everyone involved, and offered them each a sabbatical of five years, yet she also let them know that early on in 2029, the grand voyage would begin, and as such, it would be a very big year. So, therefore, it would be important to take that time off well and in advance, especially if they were planning on being crew members aboard the IMC. There would be thirteen initial command spacecraft, with a crew requirement of twelve-hundred personnel, and their families, each.
Vesha then addressed before a rather large audience of workers, the fact that, “While one could fly something the shape of a block out and into deep space, aerodynamics is paramount and necessary for planetary travel or travel through nebulae, or through any other kind of matter or particle, for that matter.” She also pointed out how pride in aesthetics were necessary for morale and diplomacy throughout the Universe. “This is a beautiful system, yet always keep in mind that there will be plenty of features to consider in order to make the spacecraft aesthetically pleasing as well as utilitarian, if anything for neurological wellness, or above all else for morale, diplomacy, and survivability. We want to update as needed, but not for the sake of change alone. Thank you!”
When everything was finalized, all thirteen command spacecraft were arranged in travel form, with the IMC Command Spacecraft at the front and center, a ring of four command spacecraft, Zones 09 through 12, behind it, and a ring of eight command spacecraft, Zones 01 through 08, behind and in the back. Each spacecraft was utterly spectacular, beautiful, and gigantic. A Pathway open house was scheduled, arranged, and held, with the first iterations complete and tours through each room, corridor, and facility provided. The way the various drives adorned each spacecraft complemented both its capabilities and the magnificent awe they inspired. Each spacecraft was as if it were an impenetrable and seamless marvel, aerodynamic in its curvaceous design, and once the open house was over, they enclosed them in an additional bio-shelter and turned on the invisibility shielding. Like that they disappeared. Tracked by Pathway’s sophisticated systems, they would sleep and remain undetectable to anyone not fully read-in until the missions were ready.
Vesha would still work with her crews to improve them ever-so-quietly until then, while engaging in missions throughout the solar system, on Earth, and within each of the potential zones.
Chapter 40: Joanne Gallant, Section 4
Database Moon Archive, Celestial-Sol Date: 2022 March 24. Erin Carter, Yesha Alevtina’s Vice Commander, summarizes some of the concerns and experiences of Joanne Gallant, and the further development of the Correctional Matrix. These memories are from many Pathway Leaders, recorded within the Virtual Universe, interfaced within Pathway Melrose Campus. Input by: Erin Carter, VP, 2018-2022, and President of Pathway, 2022-2029.
It had been almost three years since Joanne Gallant’s first journey with Eliza through the Virtual Universe, it was now 2022. She thought about her tour in 2020, and the main source of what drove her to write music in the first place still weighed upon her from time to time. Her brother’s murder and who it could have been still was needed for closure, and quite possibly vindication, and not out of spite, but out of a sense of justice, out of a desire to see the killer perhaps learn from their crimes the untold potential they snuffed out and would never bring back. The only hope for them now would be to serve the world and humanity for the rest of their lives.
Her need for closure seemed to grow and she noticed how her nanos were working full time whenever she was weighed down by everything surrounding it. Her skin seemed to glow a lot more as the days went by and her left-side neural art would go bonkers with a kaleidoscope of thoughts and art surrounding everything about the unsolved case. She had designed outer-wear a couple of years ago that when programmed with her smart suit hid the artwork altogether, especially when on tour. Now here she was, and she had decided to put her music career on hold for a little while, perhaps a year or two, or maybe even longer.
She had gone over all of the information she had in her files recently to see if her optimized mind could put two and two together. While she could speculate, the Sheriff in
her hometown had come up empty-handed despite all, he was good at what he did, and the case had gone cold all-too-soon. She had hoped that with the abundance of clarity she had on everything else from writing her music to going on her tours, finishing her doctoral research, working on the Correctional Matrix, the Sky Taylor project and the many other assignments and cases where she worked alone or with Erin Carter or even within the entire group mind within the Virtual Universe that she would hopefully and by even a small little chance find enough clues to piece together what truly happened. Unfortunately, it kept boiling down to the fact that the Sheriff had done extremely well in his investigations and searches and that this had been for all intents and purposes the perfect crime. As cold and calculated as it seemed, there was more to it than was conscionable, yet no one seemed guilty of it within her hometown.
She had hoped that perhaps through the minds of the many individuals who had been read-in to Pathway and had thus spent time within the Virtual Universe that she would find more clues, but alas, there were no associations aside from her own with anyone she knew inside her hometown, and thus, apart from her files, there were no additional clues. As it was, she already knew that no one from her conservative hometown in upstate New York had become members of Pathway, and she hadn’t returned there since she graduated from high school, so she didn’t have a whole lot to go off of, besides what she already had. Luckily, Erin Carter was quite a bit into sleuthing as well and together they mulled over everything, but even still to no avail.
Thus far, they had come up empty-handed when it came to the identity of her brother’s killers. They had the Sheriff’s file with all of the details that the department in her hometown had acquired. Essentially what that left Joanne and Erin with was a number of suspicions going off the same information the Sheriff had. The file that Joanne had received from the Sheriff’s small little investigative department after the case went cold included the pictures and reported analysis for each aspect of the case, an eyewitness account typed by the sheriff’s department from an interview with a young individual in the area who happened to see what was going on while she was on her way home from school, several interview reports of possible suspects, including the high school quarterback, each of his teammates, the football coach, each of their families, and their alibis.
Further than Before- Pathway to the Stars Page 72