by R. A. Ender
Instant transport technology existed and was commonly used within Defense Force, but laws governing the use of such transportation technology for personal and commercial use, as well as on planet, were strict. When the technology was first introduced, it caused a near economic collapse. In what seemed like an instant, all the need for transportation infrastructure ended. The economic dislocation that began to occur was tremendous. After only a few months, planetary governments began to ban the use of instant transport technology on planets. Several even moved to ban it within their nearspace.
Fearing the disorder and chaos that could result from planet by planet regulation, the Confederacy convened a summit of all member worlds to create a common regulation of the technology. The regulations would be adhered to by all signatories, but each planet would retain the sovereign right to impose their own penalties for violations.
The Old An’texit Agreement that was written limited instant transport technology severely. It was banned from use on planets except in the case of planet-wide emergencies. It was banned from use for habitable planet to orbit transportation. It was permitted for use for non-habitable planet to orbit transportation and space to space transportation.
Since that time, Defense Force has been the second biggest user of instant transport technology, especially ship to ship transfers of personnel, as it is much safer than using transport ships. By far the biggest user of the technology is the mining industry. The largest interstellar ships in the Confederacy are Ore Transports. These massive ships have enormous instant transport cargo holds, where they transport materials, hold it in mid-transit during their journey, and unload at the end of the journey by completing the instant transport process. This technology allowed the transport of over one hundred times more material than was possible when material needed to be physically loaded into cargo holds.
The success the mining industry has had led to a nearly universal adoption of instant transport cargo holds. Though it always runs the risk of completely losing all your cargo if you have a complete power failure, the number of such incidents has been incredibly low. Still, all cargo needs to be unloaded from the instant transport cargo holds onto an orbital structure, before being transported to a habitable planet surface.
The regulation has largely worked, with only a few violators. For the most part, everyone understands the tremendous impact instant transportation would have on a planetary economy, and no one wants to take the risk of such a massive economic dislocation.
As it was, planet to orbit travel was fairly quick and easy. Using Anti-Graviton lift jets, a ship can achieve orbit and dock with one of the orbiting space docks in less than thirty minutes. In less than thirty minutes, Robin was standing back on the Command Deck of the Caesar Augustus, using the comm system to raise Admiral Hilbornus during one of his meetings.
It took only a moment for Richard’s voice to come through the open comm line. “Yes, Commander?”
“We have a response and can leave at your leisure,” Robin answered back without any details, as none were needed.
Richard paused a moment before answering.
“Ok, good. Ready the crew for immediate departure. Send a transport down to pick me up, I’m sending you my location now. See you soon.” And the comm line clicked off.
Robin motioned over her shoulder to Sara to dispatch the transport, before returning to her station. After only a pause, she began issuing orders from her station to get the ship ready to leave F’lwok.
One of her orders brought a young officer to her station. He saluted and waited to be acknowledged.
Turning to face him, Robin handed him her boxed golden glass globe.
“Can you make sure that this is placed in my cabin and put it in a safe place where it won’t be broken when we jump to hyperspace.” She ordered.
The young man took the box, saluted again, and left. Hopefully, this training missing isn’t too difficult, she thought to herself, smiling.
CHAPTER 11
The Caesar Augustus hung in deep space. Still and absolutely quiet in the dark vacuum. It was only visible from the lights of the ship, both exterior and interior. Too far from the nearest star for illumination.
This far from a star had its beautiful upside. The star field, visible all around the ship, was spectacular. An infinite number of dots of light filled the sky. Some twinkled from the space dust and gasses between the ship and that distant star, but most were a solid steady diamond against a vast black canvas.
As often was the case while the ship rested in deep space, training was able to move outside the hull. Flight training could be performed with real fighters instead of just computer simulated ones. It was no different for the pilots, still sitting in their virtual cockpits contained in the vast interior hangar bay, but it was a different experience to know that you now controlled an actual flying object and not a computer projection.
Also, exterior repair, maintenance, and servicing duties could be trained and performed. And a true rarity, exterior combat training, had been posted and all the available slots filled by eager officer trainees. If time permitted, they might even have a chance to practice manned exterior boarding and capture of one of the shuttles or cargo ships, always a highlight for most of the soldiers. It also gave the pilots some practice retrieving wayward soldiers floating away from the ship!
Despite the importance of the meeting that they were awaiting, training never stopped. The Caesar Augustus had been sitting in the rendezvous location for a few days and had yet to detect any incoming ship. The Apollo sensor network so far had been silent as well.
Richard knew that would be a short-lived silence. It had taken all of his CAC invested authority to convince the Admiral in charge of the sensor network in this area not to go on high alert the instant it detected a ship crossing the border, but instead to relay the information to his command deck first. If it was any ship other than Admiral De Bazan’s flagship, he would signal back to raise the alarms. However, convincing someone to yield their authority to another officer of equal rank was always a challenge. Unlike the Commanding Admirals, his say-so alone was not enough to generate a salute.
As Richard sat in his command chair, he reviewed his station again to assess the battle readiness of the ship. Mato had, of course, gotten the ship one hundred percent within moments of exiting hyperspace, given that he had at least a week in transit to get ahead of schedule. But, it was always worth reviewing since a shield generator or weapon system could go down at any moment, and it was important to know which side of the ship not to put in front of a torpedo barrage.
He was about to change the screen when an alert notification came in from the Apollo sensor network command. Quickly reading the alert, he sent a reply that yes, it was the ship he was expecting.
Turning in his chair to face Sara, Richard gave a quiet order. “Sara, our guest is entering the area. Please kill all sensor displays except for yours and mine.” With an efficient nod, she entered a code, and all the sensor displays on board went dead.
Keying a button on his chair, Richard opened a general comm for the whole ship. The cithara toned, and Richard spoke, “All Attention! All Attention!” Pausing for a moment, he repeated the call for attention.
“Our ship is meeting with a guest of the Commanding Admirals Council from the Imperial Alliance of Empires. Until further notice, information will be restricted. Please refer any questions to your commanding officer. Furthermore, this ship is now considered to be on a secret mission. Therefore, anything you learn as of this moment cannot be discussed outside of the ship until you are given leave to do so by the Commanding Admirals Council.”
Pausing for a moment, Richard let the information be digested.
“Lastly, the ship is now at battle level two. Command deck out.”
Punching a button on his station, Richard terminated the general comm. Turning to view his sensor display, he could for the first time see the ship tracking from information relayed from Apollo.
Richard remained fixated on the light sensor blip traveling closer and closer to his ship's position. Moments before it would exit from hyperspace, Richard adjusted the main display to be centered on the exit coordinates and raised his eyes to watch the display.
At first, the display showed nothing but a black canvas filled with dots of light. Then, in an instant, a flash of light filled the display, and when it dimmed, a ship exited hyperspace. A ship emerging from hyperspace appears to emerge from an invisible window. The front of the ship begins to exit and as the ship passes through the invisible window, an outside observer can see only the part of the ship that has emerged. When the ship fully emerges from hyperspace, another flash of light signals that the hole into normal space has been sealed, and the ship moves forward on its jets.
In the case of De Bazan’s Flagship, the huge IAE Dreadnaught-class intimidates anyone watching it emerge. The shape of the ship is similar to the early 20th century battleships of Old Earth. That is if the two battleships were taken as they are visible while in the water, welded together so that one faced up, and the other upside down.
The top and bottom of the battleship hulls were flat and ran back and curving up toward the rear of the ship. Sitting on top of each hull were two massive gun turrets, each containing two incredibly powerful slicing laser beams. The turrets combined could cover the entire space above, beside and below the ship and they were very fast considering their size. These impressive weapons were designed to intimidate, and when emerging from hyperspace they were always pointed straight forward, fully powered and glowing a deep red.
The forward section between the two battleship hulls contained the hangar bay, and the sides that curved back and out had multiple torpedo launchers of IAE design. This brute of a ship ended with twelve mass driver jets each connected to its own reactor. Though fast in a straight line, the large ship was limited in maneuverability and made up for it with overwhelming weapon power. If the Dreadnaught had the opportunity to focus its laser beams on another ship for more than a few seconds, the ship would likely be destroyed.
The Confederacy had never gotten a full technical design of the Dreadnaught class, and they had not come into service during the last hot war. The F’lwok line was the first opportunity any Defense Force ship had had to see these monsters up close. But the IAE was wise. They held the ships in reserve and never allowed them to engage in any battle action, thereby preserving their secrets.
Confederate intelligence sources had obtained footage of Dreadnaughts in action and their potential was terrifying. Many suspected that they were capable of bombarding a planet surface from orbit. On the side of each Dreadnaught, at the very end, were unidentified vents. They had never been seen in use but engineers suspected they were to redirect the left and right most engine thrust toward the front of the ship to offer orbital stability while the nose of the ship was aimed at a planetary surface.
The ship haunted many military planners since they simply did not know how many Dreadnaughts the IAE had, or what their true capability was. Many a ship captain had awoken from a nightmare of having a Dreadnaught exit hyperspace straight in front of their ship, and fire all eight laser beams right at them.
Richard had long ago overcome that fear, as Bazan had exited in front of his ship with his weapons glowing red many times. He did not guarantee he would react the same way if it was not Bazan’s flagship.
The flagship was named simply De Bazan, as the Imperials language was not easily translated, especially when it came to their names for things. Many of the planet names were simply Confederate designations, with a slight resemblance to the actual first few syllables in the Blessals native tongue. The ships tended to be named after the commanding officer. Fortunately, the Blessals used extremely short common names for themselves, so it was easier. Their actual full names were impractically long.
Meeting with Bazan was such a practiced event that no communication had to occur between the two ships. At first, this was necessary, as the Governor had yet to build up a comfortable client base to operate so far outside conventional state policy. Today, the Governor had no such worries. He flew his transport shuttle out of the forward facing hangar bay alone, and his ship maintained complete communication silence.
As soon as Richard saw the shuttle exit, he stood from his command chair and walked to the back of the command deck to climb down the exit ladder tube. Fortunately, there was no fight for space in the ladder, as no one was climbing down from above through the entrance ladder tube.
Sliding down the ladder tube with experienced ease, Richard turned to catch the next transport lift to other parts of the ship. He usually walked and climbed everywhere, but he was pressed for time and the hangar bay was a fair distance down and to the rear of the ship. Using his ID to signal a lift, his command priority meant that he only waited moments for a lift to arrive, and whisk him off to the hangar bay.
When the lift doors opened, he walked into the cavernous hangar bay. At least ten decks high and running the full width of the ship, the bay was impressive. Both ends of the bay were open to space, sealed with an aerodynamic shield, known as an aerodam, for they blocked the passage of any physical objects, including air. Used primarily for storage and containment, aerodams were still equipped on all ships in case of planetary landing, debris or physical weapon exchanges. Physical weapons were a rarity, even Bolos cannon torpedoes were actually energy weapons. Advanced races never used physical weapons because of their inaccuracy and limited power. However, you never knew when one might encounter a more primitive race that could inflict some casualties.
Along one side of the bay stood shelves full of Squalus R-Class fighters. On board the Caesar Augustus, these were all unmanned fighters, controlled remotely by the pilots who were located on the other side of the bay in the command bay. Many ships in the Defense Force were still equipped with piloted Squalus S-Class, but they were slowly being phased out. Richard still had a full wing of piloted Squalus’ for training, and a special Squalus A Class Fighter, which could enter and exit planetary atmospheres for himself personally.
Not being sure which side Bazan’s shuttle would appear on, Richard stood back against the wall so he could watch both sides of the bay. It did not take long before the shuttle appeared to his right, swung slowly around and flew into the aerodam shield. With an unseen, computer controlled change to the emitters, the aerodam shield adjusted and let the shuttle enter without a problem.
Instantly, the bay was filled with the roar of mass driver jets, which ended abruptly, as the grav-lift jets energized. These silent jets spread a bright blue light around the deck as the shuttle slowly settled to the ground. As the blue jet light faded, the side door opened, and Bazan jumped down from the shuttle.
Richard was already walking toward him, and Bazan, having already seen him when he flew in, was walking in his direction.
The Blessal was another species which fell roughly into the mammal category. Much thinner and ganglier than humans, a Blessal fully extended could reach up to fifteen pes of height. Usually, though, their triple jointed legs were folded up under them, and they bounce walked along at about 7 or 8 pes, depending on the individual. With a face similar to a deer or an antelope, the Blessal had two forward facing eyes, slightly on the side of its head, and a nose and mouth that jutted forward narrowly. No exterior ears, they only had small shaped openings in their head for hearing.
Their feet, from the Academy species biology courses, were supposed to be a type of hoof, but Richard had never seen a Blessal without boots, so he actually did not know for s
ure. Their hands were not hooved, containing three long fingers, and a small stump like protrusion, which could be manipulated in a limited fashion.
Like the F’lwok, their hair did not grow very long, and it covered most of their body. The head and neck were usually shaved by Blessals in the military, though he had had experiences with civilian and bureaucratic Blessal citizens and knew that styling of the head and neck varied much more among the general public.
Bazan maintained the military look for himself and was dressed in his full honorary uniform, as he always was. Richard had also ensured he dressed formally every day for the past week, not to be outdone by his friend.
As they approached, Bazan began bouncing his forehead and eyes up and down, the Blessal version of smiling. Richard matched it with a smile and an extended hand of greeting.
Bazan spoke first. “Good morning, my friend. It is good to see you again,” he said as he extended his hand to grasp Richard’s arm. The Blessal did not have a formal method of greeting beyond their “smile,” so Richard grasp strongly while turning to walk with Bazan to the lift.
“It is good to see you as well. How is your family?”
Bazan’s eyes bounced with happiness at the question. “Oh, my children are fine, of course. What is more interesting are the grandchildren. Did you realize I have a granddaughter enrolling in the science academy this year? And my grandson is working on joining the military academy, despite the urgings of his mother and grandfather!”