Thomas Aquinas, Explorer of the galaxy (Thomas Aquinas series)

by Rico, J. Luis

  An operation this size requires careful planning and timing only capable by a series of entangled communicator joined by artificial intelligence. Kill vehicles are launched and begin their climb to attack velocities. They enter the transfer points based upon their chosen targets distance. The furthest targeted vehicles first. It takes less than three minutes for them all to finish.

  The Xenious and Boxxer systems are quiet. All of the warships have left the system and are in side space on their way to war.

  In side space, 466 ramjet kill vehicles spin lazily and count down the precise milliseconds for their reentry into the normal universe.

  6305 Large class kill vehicles spin at the same leisurely 30 rpm. Their internal tangled communicator clocks count down the moments for their reentry.

  Seventeen engineering ships with AI crews maintain the watch quietly in side space. They await their moment of opportunity to drop into normal space and unleash hell with a solar massive black hole.

  466 ramjet kill vehicles enter normal space. They reorient and the onboard AI routines verify the integrity of the kill vehicles and correct orientation on target. All 466 report back over entangled communicators which update battle boards in the command and control ship CS galaxy. Admiral Smith and Cardinal Haas await anxiously.

  The time in normal space is short for the Bussard ramjet kill vehicles. The kill vehicles make slight adjustments to verify center of mass impact with their targets.

  Each of the kinetic kill vehicles makes impact. Two kill vehicles per ramjet.

  The energies involved are tremendous. Ramjet spacecraft are transformed into plasma and an expanding cloud of micro-meteorites instantaneously.

  A series of 233 unmanned spy craft enter the same volume of space as the ramjet targets. Within minutes, they have confirmed the complete destruction of the Alien ramjet threat. Admiral Smith and Cardinal Hass rapidly update the Pope. There is some thought that the Pope will order cancellation of the strikes on the Alien systems at this point. He does not. “Continue as ordered, God bless you and the crews.” The Pope hangs up.

  The planet and moon buster kinetic kill vehicles enter normal space. They reorient themselves and make minor corrections. Their time to collision is on average only thirty minutes. Onboard sensors detect the presence of alien craft and detect the response of alien defenses. In a futile attempt to save themselves the alien’s fire missiles and lasers from ground and space based platforms. In a final epic show of defiance, a large, manned Alien ship places itself in the line of one of the kill vehicles and is destroyed in a glorious burst of kinetic energy. Several smaller class ships ram themselves into the kill vehicles as well. The physics of a kilometer-long, solid, metal mass moving at 100,000 meters per second are harsh and brutal.

  Nothing on heaven or on earth can stop the advance of the solid metal death from the skies.

  The first kill vehicles make contact with a large moon of a gas giant on the nearest Alien system. They penetrate into the crust of the moon and explode with the force of five hundred million megatons of TNT each. The resulting explosions create a hole in the mantle of the moon seventeen kilometers deep and over a hundred kilometers wide. The fire ball from the explosions set the atmosphere on fire. The impact slows the spin of the moon on its axis and creates earthquakes that destroy all the structures on or under the surface. The atmosphere fire rages for hundreds of hours and consumes everything flammable on the moon. It is apocalyptic.

  The next series of impact vehicles strike planets in seventeen different alien systems. The planets fare no better than the moons. Three, four, and sometimes more impact vehicles enter the inner systems of the aliens. Again, the aliens struggle against the impossible odds. Manned and unmanned vehicles smash themselves futilely into the unstoppable masses.

  Defenseless aliens glare at the sky from their underwater world at the onrushing metal and fire death. Alarms are sounded and defenses engaged. All futilely.

  On planet after planet after planet, kilometer long kill vehicles rain from the inner systems into the atmospheres and then plunge into the water covered planet’s surface. Again and again, the impacts create twenty kilometers deep impact craters. The ejecta from the impacts rain throughout the planet clouding out the atmosphere and delivering fiery death.

  Aliens scramble into shelters in futile attempts to save themselves and their families. They're young. Alien craft attempt to leave the inner system in high gravity acceleration maneuvers. Many make it off the surface of the many moons and planets into open space and watch their homes be consumed and destroyed by a rain of metal death from the sky. It is horrible to watch. Many of the Aliens in space attempt to flee the inner system towards the relative safety of the Gas Giants in the outer system. High gravity boosts are visible in the dozens and then hundreds as craft flee the metal fire death.

  Six thousand three hundred five kinetic kill vehicles in total are used on the seventeen alien systems. Four hundred and ten populated planets and moons are attacked. In most instances, the population of the body is killed outright by the energies of the impact and their immediate effect. On a few, a very few, survivors huddle and pray to their alien gods watching ejecta rain from the sky and their atmosphere burn. Alien outposts in their asteroid belts or in manned ships stand in awe of the suddenness and ruthlessness of the attacks. They in some case flee towards the outer systems and perceived safety, or they race toward their inner systems in a vain attempt to rescue their populations.

  Ejecta from impacts in the planets of the inner system and the gas giant moons in the outer systems spews into space creating beautiful but terrible arcs of color and fire. It is a slow-motion disaster repeated again and again on hundreds of manned bodies.

  The engineering ships enter normal space finally and begin their terrible tasks.

  Creating a black hole is a straight forward task. Magnetic energy and mass are required in heavy measure, enough to reach the Schwarzschild radius. The large generators and magnetic force fields on the engineering ships fire to life and begin assembling the overlapping magnetic fields in space.

  A heavy deuterium ball is ejected from each of the ships on each of the alien systems. It is quickly captured by the magnetic fields, and they begin their pre-programmed actions. Each of the magnetic fields binds the deuterium ever tighter into an even decreasing size space. The material compresses. The magnetic fields are strengthened and the compression continues until the material eventually collapses into a micro sized black hole. Now the Hawking radiation fields activate and seize the small black hole and prevent it from decaying away into radioactive nothingness.

  More mass in the form of deuterium and lithium are fed into the event horizon of the micro black hole feeding its appetite for destruction. This is repeated on seventeen other ships in seventeen alien systems. The small black hole becomes stable and above the decay limits quickly enough. The robot engineering ships increase their acceleration towards their target. The mechanized AI crews can withstand high acceleration gravities. Their black holes held in front of them in overlapping Hawking radiation fields. They spin rapidly and accelerate even more than their entry velocity of 100,000 meters per second.

  On all fifteen engineering ships, their target is the largest Gas Giant planet in the system they are attacking. On two engineering ships, the target is the systems sun. All are within an hour of impact. Maneuvering with a captured black hole is difficult. Tremendous energies are needed to contain it and keep it from destroying the ship maneuvering it.

  In this case, the black hole is only controlled long enough to ensure it is stable and on course. All seventeen engineering ships lower their Hawking radiation fields once they verify they are on speed and on target. Almost instantly they are consumed by their own newly created black hole in a flash of Hawking Radiation. The black holes grow fractionally ingesting the new mass of the kilometers long engineering ships.

  The black holes spin through the void of space and make impact with the Gas Giants or s
uns they are targeted at. They begin to ingest the matter in steady ever growing streams. Their forward momentum is not slowed at all. At a speed of over 100,000 meters per second, the black holes penetrate their way deep into the Gas Giants past the outer gas atmosphere, which they consume in ever growing streams, deep into the planet where the crushing pressures liquefy the atmosphere into heavy liquids and exotic solids with fluid like properties. The black holes grow by leaps and bounds at this excessive diet of matter. The spin and shape of the Gas Giants are slowed and their spherical shape begins to collapse under the loss of mass and the newly created gravity wells.

  Spy crafts enter the alien systems to record the damage and destruction.

  The large Gas Giants in each system begin to collapse in upon themselves in slow motion. The black holes continue their mindless path into and now through the Gas Giants. All of the captured moons and planetoids of the Gas Giant fall under the crushing gravity into the now inescapable crushing embrace. The black holes continue out and through their victim, continuing to pull huge streams of matter from their Gas Giant victim behind them that trail behind as they head further into the outer system. The hard radiation created by the destruction of one-third of the Gas Giants and suns mass escapes in wave after deadly wave and spreads throughout the system at the speed of light.

  Within hours all alien persons who somehow survived the horror of the disaster in the inner systems are struck dead by the waves of radiation overwhelming the shielding in their space craft and their shelters. Electronics catch fire. Space craft even melt under the intense radiation pressures. Within a few hours, every living thing in the inner systems is killed. Planets on the plane on the other side of the solar system are spared the hard wave of radiation for a few hours until it catches up with them in their distant orbits.

  Rapidly moving black holes in seventeen systems distort the gravity wells and begin to pull moons and planets out of their orbits. Gravity planetary equilibriums that have stood for billions of years are distorted and destroyed. Many of the bodies are dragged from their orbits and lost to interstellar space. Many of the bodies are consumed by the new gravity well and crushed inside the black holes inescapable pressure or they are flung into their systems sun and consumed.

  It matters little to the inhabitants of these bodies, those few who survived the kinetic bombardment are now killed by uncontrolled Hawking radiation bursts from the Gas Giant’s destruction or the cold of space as their planets and moons are drug from their orbits and stranded, or crushed in the black holes themselves.

  It takes hours in most systems, around twelve, to complete the extermination of over 99% of the alien race. The final fraction of one percent will perish in the coming days as their moons plunge into Gas Giants, or they collide with each other after being pulled from their eons long orbits. Or they will perish from the accumulation of hard radiation energy. Or they will kill themselves after seeing the loss of everything they know.

  The Pope receives word of the victory. He cries himself to sleep every night of his life, from that day forward.

  Humanity’s first space battle is won. The cost paid in alien lives is astronomical.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Expansion and control

  After the brief and terrible war of 2566, humanity continues to expand into the void. The sphere of human influence is now very difficult to accurately calculate. There are 22,308 Catholic colonies on as many systems by the year 2605. The Mormons claim to have 230 but they are famously secretive, and assumedly have many more. Sunni Muslims have 140 colony systems, Shia Muslims another 125 colonies. Seven large secular corporations manage a further 30 colony systems as well.

  The furthest Catholic system is 3,455 light years distant from Sol system, well into our nearest spiral arm neighbor. All Catholic systems are well connected by a series of entangled communicators that provide mail, video, and the ability to make voice and video calls to any destination. Video calls are prohibitively expensive for most families, but voice calls and email are very inexpensive to use and are common.

  It is common to have pen pals and close friends on the far side of different spiral arms of our galaxy separated by over 6,000 light years distance. It is a glorious age of knowledge and expansion. Men are routinely living into their 130s and older with normal longevity treatments. With first class treatment, it may be possible to extend human life indefinitely. Many men near age 200 in this enlightened age.

  Radio and optic telescopes all over the known galaxy continue to find habitable systems and systems with life on a regular basis. The systems with primitive known life now number in the tens of thousands. Seven new intelligent species have been discovered. None capable of independent space travel. Within a few generations, these new colony worlds’ settlers and scientists contact the aliens and begin the process of assimilation into our culture. Tommaso Aquinas and Azire the Lecatian make first contact with three of the new species. They become something akin to Galactic stars. Famously making first contact and praying under alien suns.

  2605 Shafter System, Planet Lightfoot

  Contacting an intelligent species for the first time is not a quick or easy task. Over the years, and trial and error over the few times it has occurred a framework of the steps needed has been developed.

  First, learn the language. If the civilization is broadcasting using a medium that may be captured and analyzed, do so. Let AI learn the language(s). If the civilization is not capable of broadcast, then place disguised AI devices in key locations to capture and record and learn. Making physical contact with someone that views humans and Lecatians as monsters in their outward appearance is tough enough, especially so if you don’t speak their language.

  Wait and watch. Let patterns emerge in the conduct of the new civilization. A period of months or years is typical. You want to find scientists or religious leaders that are capable of assimilating the rapid changes that first contact with an advanced alien species entails.

  Math is the language of the universe. An intelligent species will universally be capable of math. They may use a different base numbering system, all so far have. The base 6 Lecatians, the base 8 Ducards, and the base 16 Lightfeet are excellent examples. A series of prime numbers in any base numbering system is (so far anyway) universally understood as the result of intelligence.

  Tommaso and Azire have been inseparable since their meeting sixty years prior. Tommaso now is an old man. Eighty-six years of age. His beard and hair are solid gray with some white streaks. His skin is wrinkled and beginning to show signs of wear. Brown patches of skin and long pink scars cross his arms and torso, the result of a serious disagreement with the emissary of the Ducards system. His step is significantly slower, and his back is a little more bent than when he was in his prime. He carries a large cane to favor a limp he has from the arthritis in his hip.

  Like his famous father, Brother Lewis, Tommaso has chosen to eschew modern medicine and procedures that could cure him of this affliction and others. His thick bifocal glasses magnify his eyes by 20 percent when you look at his face, making him appear comical. He is an old and hardworn man. When he smiles though, which he is often wont to do, the years melt off his frame. And he is that gentle giant basketball player again.

  Azire still appears young and vibrant. His new exoskeleton has just hardened after his most recent molt. The Lecatian explorer molts his hard exoskeleton shell in strips off his body as soon as a new one grows underneath. During the molt process, a Lecatian wraps their extremities with long thin rolls of a type of leather skins that are passed down from generation to generation as heirlooms. Azire still has a wrap on each of his legs. The thin leather strips are covered in long hand script. They contain the complete translation of the King James Bible into the Lecatian language. Each individual strip contains a chapter. Azire possesses 1,189 such strips each with a chapter from either the New or Old Testaments.

  Azire’s mouth is full of vibrant brown teeth, each meticulously filed down to
reduce the normally sharp pointed ends. Azire, ever conscious of his place as the lone Lecatian in the company of Tommaso, and the humans around him, keeps them filed down to avoid scaring the them. His mouthless face is still a horror to humans that are unfamiliar with his species, but his mouth is much less so, when his teeth are filed down.

  Azire now as always carries an entangled communicator with a built in AI around his neck on a plain, handwoven rope. This device is capable of translating his squeaks, grunts, and clicks into spoken English language and vice versa.

  Azire is still young by any measure of his species. When he was discovered and met Tommaso, he was aged 56 Sol years. Now in his 120s, he is still considered a young man. Lecatians typically live to over 1,000 Sol years. Their low metabolism and continuously replenished body from their molting keep their internal and external organs and parts forever new and young. A Lecatian only faces the rigors of aging after their 160th molt when their genetic programming stops the process immediately. Their last years are horrible when the molting process stops. Lecatians typically wander into the desert and die of exposure versus linger in pain for their last years.