by Don Koch
"Captain, would you have someone send a package back to headquarters describing our actions to date along with the recordings. Let them know that there is a cease-fire underway as long as the Rotagillan ships are headed home. If they make any unauthorized stops at planets on the way back, they may be fired upon. Also tell them that we are requesting some of those new cloaked ships out here quickly as backup and relief. We need to go pay the Alaok people a visit and open relations. Please commend your crew for its outstanding operational support. Oh, I almost forgot, do you have a chaplain on board?"
"Yes we do, our chaplain, Peter Mark is aboard, but why do you ask?"
"Would you tell him that there is a couple on board who would appreciate his services."
"My pleasure, Admiral, my pleasure."
Chapter 11: A Precaution
On Station One, In Orbit at Vast –
March 15 – C Day 563
Hank was holding his usual quarterly meeting with his Station AI's, Station Commanders and Civil leaders. This was a mechanism similar to that used to command the entire fleet.
"You have all seen the report from two weeks ago on what we have learned concerning the telepathic capabilities review we have been conducting and the identification of a huge number of previously undetected persons with that talent. Getting those folks up to speed and trained is a high priority. We will need to develop an inventory of special talents found through node testing and mapping. Events this week suggest that there may be even more and that it may be possible to trigger talent in persons currently considered non-telepathic. Research to date suggests that there may be a latent talent in almost everyone. This is worth exploring. More on that as it develops."
"At the beginning of the month, we established a task force with several subunits to explore some ideas that were posed by Sam and others. Their work has borne fruit faster that we had any right to expect."
"One of the issue was why are we not using mind-to-mind communications more often. Some experience from married couples and on a broader scale the Glarin, suggested that it was possible. You know that we have added a recent training regimen instructing telepaths how to go mind-to-mind with their spouse and with family. I am happy to say that application of talent is now in widespread use. A few days ago, the restructuring of shields was activated and we are now seeing a substantial amount of mind-to-mind contacts with other than family members. Right now it is something new and is a novelty so usage will remain high for a bit. Our young people are taking to it like a duck to water. The current high usage will likely settle down shortly. Also note that our population of telepaths is rising dramatically. Two weeks ago we had 30,000 telepaths on board, 5,700 of those were telepaths for some time. So 24,300 of those were new. All of these were unrecognized latent telepaths. As of today we have 150,000 latent telepaths who have been activated and are undergoing training. This is a huge increase and it is only a drop in the bucket. We are roughly tripling our number of telepaths every two weeks. By mid June, we expect to have 41 million telepaths on board. That number was never anticipated when we started out less than two years ago."
"This will necessitate some changes but not as many as we were worried about. We are actively exploring how to bring this to the rest of our population and we are very close. This change is also happening on all of our stations and at Tau Ceti."
"Another huge change is available to us thanks to the work of Ben Pine. He envisioned that, thanks to the mind-to-mind capability, we would no longer need to be in the same location to form a T-Raptor unit. He and others have experimented with this and found his hypothesis to be accurate. Tests so far show that participants can actually be several light years apart and it will work. It is as stable as if they were in direct contact. Needless to say this represents a big leap in response time to a crisis. We do not expect to be forming T-Raptor groups that far apart but we know now it is possible."
"On another subject, it recently occurred to me that there is a tool we have tended to ignore but its utility has been proven on numerous occasions, so today I want to formalize it's use. As you know, we recovered more than 600 Glarin vessels in our first encounter with Gar Fleet One. The Glarin ships each contain about 932,000 stasis units capable of adjustment to each species we have encountered. It is my intent to assign a stasis vessel utilizing Glarin stasis units sufficient to house slightly under a million persons. These vessels will be built on a standard large commercial ship hull. When not in use, they will be housed in the large commercial bays. When those ships are in use, they will be housed in the core of the Station, not on board. This is for the security of the Station. The operation area of the ship will be isolated from the stasis area for the same reason. Prisoners from a conflict will automatically be sent to an active stasis unit and sorted out after a conflict is resolved. I intend to assign one of these ships to each Station. We have 25 of them ready now and those have already been sent to our exploration divisions at the rate of one each until each Station is provisioned. Later, a second ship will follow until all Stations have two. New Type 2B Stations currently under construction will include one stasis ship and be provided with a second when available. The rest will follow pretty quickly. These can also be used to transport colonists or aid in an evacuation. These changes have been driven by operational needs on several occasions, so we are making this available as part of standard equipment."
"Glarin leaders have approved this use of their equipment. Their ships, minus most of the stasis units, will be converted to commercial ships for use in Space, Inc. They will retain sufficient stasis units for crew emergency. As you all recall these ships are 10 miles in length so they will be our supertankers or super-freighters in a sense. Glarin will still own the ships and this will give them a nice bargaining chip for shares in Space, Inc. I expect that top speed on this class commercial ship will be in the 100,000xSL to 120,000xSL range so they will be capable of getting things where they need to be fairly promptly. A trip from Earth to Yannar for them would take about a month. Propulsion and other items will be redesigned and most of the existing flaws will be removed at the shipyards at Tau Ceti. Crew quarters will be somewhat plush for a commercial vessel but long tours on a working ship in space do deserve some amenities."
"The developments at the Yannar Hegemony and at Saba have very much smoothed out. We have been running upgrade programs and those should be pretty much done in another three months. Since our last meeting, we have added eleven Type 2B Stations to our inventory, Stations 501 through 511. All are serving their first assignments in the Yannar Hegemony."
"As of now we have five new divisions. Initially they will be manned at five Stations, one type 1B and four type 2A Stations. Five type 2B stations will be added on a rotation basis. The number of type 2B Stations has been increased to five per Division. Finally, you will shortly be seeing the arrival of two new classes of ships to be added to a Stations inventory. More on that as deliveries occur. That pretty much sums up what we have to report for now. Does anyone have anything to report?"
"Hank, this is Carlos Montoya and AI Sequoia reporting for Division 10 and on behalf of Anatoly Gasparov and AI Hokulani for Division 17. We have a situation here and I think we now have sufficient information to warrant your attention. We have had 5 civilizations in this region under surveillance since early October and have a pretty decent picture of what is going on. We have a space conflict underway with some planet busters in the equation."
"Carlos I admit I am intrigued, please go on."
"Thanks Hank. We have not intervened in any of this except to a limited extent at the initial attack and again two days ago and it will be a long time before anyone figures out that a third party was active but I will get to that. The first populated planet we came across is Eagle. The species living on Eagle is clearly Glarin. They are very much like the Glarin we know and are a peaceful lot until recently. They are presently allied with a human populated world some 21 light years distant called Malone. They engage in regu
lar commerce and both utilize a democratic republic form of government. These civilizations are lightly populated at about 1.2 billion on Malone and 1.4 billion on Eagle. I would characterize them as advanced information age with FTL space flight capability to about 3,000xSL. Land mass on both planets is about 50% greater than Earth. They have a high level of technology but are still considerably behind ours. Their combined area of interest covers 7 systems in an area roughly 23 by 27 by 8 light years. Shortly after we began surveillance, a third race, the Rotans from Rotagilla attacked an independent colony world called Pulse that is aligned with Malone and Eagle. Substantial damage was done. The colony world asked Malone and Eagle for military assistance and they arrived in time to prevent a real massacre. That was the first time we intervened. The population on Pulse was vulnerable and it would have been a massacre if any of the Rotans had been able to land so we prevented that in a way they will never figure out. We created equipment failures, sabotage that is untraceable, communications failures, things that look like natural happenings for them. Happily, the cavalry arrived in time to chase them off. The attack was unprovoked and without warning. That was disturbing. The equipment used by the Rotagillans was created by another planet called Alaok and they did so under duress. However, it now appears that the Rotagillans were aided or provoked by a race of humans on Sitler located about 63 light years from Malone and about 49 light years from Rotagilla."
"Now this is where things get interesting. While the ships used by the Rotagillans is somewhat superior to those of Malone, Malone took out the Rotagillans with one ship, a cruiser manned by a very special crew. The normal crew is exemplary but they have a special unit on Malone that is mostly one family. They have enhancements, some of which we did not have until now and I am sending you the specs on those separately because we can use them ourselves. This family is as altruistic a group as I have seen. Their sole motivation appears to be protection of the republic. They have been granted special status and do not flaunt it or abuse it. Most of the citizens think they are a legend because many of their deeds are so spectacular that some of the results can't help but creep into public knowledge as a kind of urban legend. Interestingly, their activities are usually understated. The family is commanded by Generals John and Mae Raven who lead the group called Rangers. They have 8 children, all of whom are special operatives. They have a support group of about 50 who are the experts in everything you can imagine. In addition to the 10 Ravens, they have about another 20 enhanced operatives some of whom are married into the family. I suspect they may all be latent telepaths but can't get close enough to test without tipping our hand. To see them, they look so normal it is hard to believe. Three of them singlehandedly, each took out an eight mile long Rotagillan dreadnaught. Janet Raven took hers and managed to do that without destroying the ship, so that was a major intelligence coup. There were 594 Rotans on that ship alone and all three were done in such a manner that word never got back to their home base. One of the vessels had a planet buster on it and Sequoia suspects that the technology might have come from Sitler but that is not certain. It is pretty crude and does not look like Sitler technology. That kind of weapon in the hands of a group like the Rotans is very worrisome"
"The Rangers have been assigned a cruiser as their special operations platform, the Malone Republic Cruiser Destiny. The Destiny has first generation cloaking capability and a number of their ships are now being so equipped. Their cloaking technology is far behind ours and we are able to see them quite clearly. Two days ago, that vessel ended the conflict with Rotagilla by destroying the planet buster operations on a satellite of the system's fourth planet and disabling 190 warships in system. That was our second intervention. We removed all of the personnel from the disabled ships and placed them in stasis units. From there we transferred them to a parade ground at one of their major military bases. They will have no idea how they got there. That stasis ship you sent us could not have been better timed. I have also sent you a vid of that entire operation. They had the capability to destroy those 190 ships but chose instead to totally disable them. They did not have the resources to take those captured crews on board so they advised the Rotagillan command to do so before they ran out of air. Since then, all Rotagillan warships have been recalled and all are returning home. Ten cloaked Malone ships arrived in the Rotagillan system yesterday and are supervising the dismantling of the Rotagillan war machine. Except for the three dreadnaughts and the planet buster base, the loss of life during this conflict was remarkably low. I like the way these Malone people and their Ravens think."
"Carlos, I agree and I commend you for your actions there. What more can you tell us about this group from Sitler, they sound like a problem."
"It appears that Malone does not know they are out there and the Rotagillans are not being forthright with the information. One more thing about the Rotagillans, the population on their planet is about 90,000. It is essentially a space pirate operation. It is amazing to me that they would try to start an interstellar war with such a small population base. It does not make sense."
"Sitler has a large fleet sitting about 48 light years from Malone and it appears they are waiting to see what the outcome of the Malone/Rotagillan exercise will be, but we do not know that for certain. An attack could cause serious problems for Malone. It also appears that the Sitler system is low on resources, while the region for Malone and Eagle is exceptionally rich. We believe that Sitler wants those resources and will take them if it can. They may try to take the Rotagilla/Alaok systems first."
"Well it looks like, here we go again. Carlos, I want Station protection for Malone, Eagle, Pulse, Rotagilla and Alaok poste haste. I think Anatoly Gasporov's Division can handle that nicely. Nevertheless, I am sending Division 2 with four Stations, Division 6 with 5 Stations and Division 9 with 5 Stations out to you as back up. Since they are currently on Standby at Earth you can expect them in about 30 hours. I will send as many stasis ships as we can get ready and you will have first call on any that we can get ready, until every Station in your region has one. I think they will be needed, I will arrive near Malone in just under 3 days. Carlos, you know the tools you have to work with. We will need intel on that Sitler fleet, so that will be your first focus. I am also going to make contact with the Ravens. They need to know what they are up against and that help is there. If anyone else has any pressing issues let me know now. Looks like things just got busy again. Oh, one more thing, Achilles Garbounoff and Juliana. Would you please send the specs on your remote control project to Carlos. We may want that capability very soon. Shoot, send it to all Stations and get some ships ready for that kind of work."
# 3 hours later on Station 1 en route to Malone #
"Yes I do but it never hurts to repeat recognition of the source of a good idea. I don't want anybody thinking that their innovative ideas are mundane. I want to encourage innovation. You can see the innovation that has occurred in just the past few weeks. When people know that their ideas are valued and appreciated, they tend to go the extra mile. Motivation is a wondrous tool."
"Flattery will get you everywhere."
Chapter 12: Attack
Harris Borough, Planet Malone –
March 19 – C Day 567
Lorena Wells was not happy. In fact, unhappy did not begin to describe how she was feeling. Irate might be a starting point to describe her state of mind. Lorena’s latest book, “NOSI (Non-Organic Sentient Intelligence), Just Around the Corner” was the source of her temperament and she was still seething. The book had become a best seller almost overnight. Earlier in the day, she had visited a colleague and long time friend, Lyle Anders, at his home in the rural town of Harris, about 380 miles from her apartment in Malone City. While there, she had signed a copy of the book for him. During their chat a
bout the book, he pointed out several comments in the book that he felt appeared different from remarks she had previously made about NOSI and wondered what had changed her viewpoint. As Lorena read the questioned comments she became very angry because the text was not the text she had submitted to her agent and to her publisher. The text was a distortion of her views, and was not the text to which she had agreed. She could not believe that the book was so different from her views. The style was just like hers but it was not her writing. The tone of the changes suggested that the building and use of a NOSI was a foregone conclusion and that the sooner it was an accomplished fact, the better off society would be. The cautions she had provided in the book concerning the careful structuring of an ethics base for such a construct was gone. It was her belief that the building of a NOSI without a conscience or ethical base was a dangerous and hazardous effort. The first priority must be to resolve how to build into the NOSI a belief structure that would not be in conflict with the humans with which it would interact. Her book noted that the absence of that belief structure could well lead to the demise or enslavement of the human population. This part of the discussion and its warnings had been removed from the book. The more she read, the more incensed she became with what had been done to her book. She was due to appear on a popular weekend talk show in two weeks and the differences would be too noticeable to avoid conflict.