Virago One: A Hard Science Fiction Technothriller (Ace of Space Book 2)

by John Triptych

  “Isn’t the same thing gonna happen when the Orion ships decide to start using their drives as well instead of the chemical thrusters?” Anderson asked.

  “Yes,” Thomas said. “But as you well know, neither we nor the Chinese have engaged our respective Orion drives except for testing purposes, but these have been conducted well past the Earth and Moon Lagrange points, and there were advanced warnings when either of us did. Any use of Orion or this new fusion drive will have political repercussions, and that’s why the president is leaning towards a publicly accessed launch instead of a secret one.”

  “Any idea as to when this launch is going to happen? We’ve been holed up here for almost two months now,” Mechum said.

  “We should have an update in the next few days, Lieutenant,” Thomas said. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know any more at this point.”

  “If the Chinese give us any trouble, then we need to have full armament load on that ship in order to defend ourselves,” Ruthven said.

  “You’ll have that, Colonel,” Thomas said. “General Tobias has already insisted on it. However, the arming codes of the casaba howitzers will not be issued to you until you are past cislunar space.”

  “Understood,” Ruthven said. The ship already had a formidable array of weapons that included the powerful gauss cannons mounted along the front of the hull. Casaba howitzers had not yet been tested, and they would have the potential to be the most devastating armaments ever deployed if they worked. Essentially a nuclear missile with a shaped charge, casaba howitzers would detonate before even reaching their target, firing a stream of thermonuclear particles at it. The resulting devastation would be equal to a powerful, close range laser strike, and CIWS weapons would have no chance of destroying it before it would impact the hull. They were nicknamed nuclear lances, for very good reason.

  “So we’ll have the full load of one hundred of these missiles on the ship when we lift off?” Lawson asked.

  “You will, Major,” Thomas said. “Part of this spaceflight mission will involve the testing of the casaba howitzers, which will probably occur near the Asteroid Belt in order to minimize any risks.”

  “This would be awesome if it wasn’t for the freeze-dried food we’ll be eating during the whole trip,” Mechum said.

  “Better take a whole pie or two from the officer’s mess before you suit up, Mechum,” Anderson said, winking at him.

  “We’ll be eating well for a day or two before the fresh stuff runs out,” Mechum said. “Then it’s gonna be TV dinner time till we get back.”

  Lawson turned his head and stared at him. “We’ve all served in the Orion fleet before. It won’t be any different, so don’t complain.”

  “Yes, sir,” Mechum said. He knew Lawson was the most dedicated, and outranked him too.

  “Don’t worry, Mechum. You’ll be treated to a lot of steak dinners when you get back, so a little suffering beforehand is good for the soul,” Ruthven said.

  The others grinned and chuckled again. For their commander to make two jokes in a single meeting was unheard of.

  Lawson wanted to get back on subject. He raised his hand once more. “The Chinese have still only got two Orion ships, right?”

  Thomas nodded. “That’s correct, Major. Our latest intel is that they were planning on assembling another Orion battlecruiser by the end of the year, but they may have encountered a budget problem.”

  “If they are ever dumb enough to start something up in space,” Mechum said, grinning. “They are going to have a whole world of hurt coming to them.”

  “Let’s have no more of that kind of talk,” Ruthven said. “This is going to be a test flight, nothing more.”

  Lawson’s eyes flicked towards his commanding officer for a brief second. They were both doing their utmost to keep up the facade, but it was hard to suppress their desire for revenge. Playing it straight was taxing, but at least it didn’t arouse any suspicions.

  “The flight path will be to avoid all the Lagrange points anyway,” Thomas said. “So unless the Chinese deploy their battlecruisers for intercept, then there would be no reason for immediate danger.”

  “What are the chances of that?” Mechum said.

  “According to our intel, extremely unlikely, Lieutenant,” Thomas said. “In a worst case scenario, the Chinese would deploy to defend their orbital station at L-5 and that’s it. The more likely scenario is that they just raise diplomatic pressure and join in with the protests along with the other UN members.”

  “What about the Russians?” Lawson asked.

  “The Russian Aerospace Forces currently deploys only two NERVA type missile rockets, very similar to our now outdated patrol ships,” Thomas said. “Since their rockets use standard hydrogen gas as propellant, they are much slower than even the ACE Corp civilian driveships, which use atomic hydrogen. Our mission planners highly doubt you’ll be having any trouble from them.”

  Lawson crossed his arms. “They’ve got an Orion too, don’t they?”

  “Yes, they do. We believe they have built a massive Orion ship in their hangar at their newly built base in Mezhgorye, situated near the Urals,” Thomas said. “Due to the state of the Russian economy, they have not had the resources to build a chemical lift drive big enough to haul their ship into orbit, in order not to defy the nuclear test ban treaty in the planet’s atmosphere. Intel reports says the Russians will only launch their Orion using its drive in the event of war.”

  “Wouldn’t the Virago’s own drive be in violation of the nuclear test ban treaty once we get underway?” Ruthven asked.

  Thomas hesitated before answering. “That part is somewhat tricky, sir. The majority of the joint planning committee doesn't regard the fusion drive as a nuclear weapon, and so therefore it isn’t covered by the ban. We are however, expecting major political fallout once the launch has been initiated, even though the president strongly feels we need this test flight as a means to ensure that our military capabilities remain strong against any potential aggression.”

  “Alright, we’ll leave the politics to the politicians then,” Ruthven said.

  “The mission planners believe that as long as we avoid any EMP damage to nearby satellites, the political situation can be contained,” Thomas said. “That is why we are still revising the flight plans until the last minute in order to bypass any potential run-ins with satellites, space stations, and civilian traffic in cislunar space. It’s getting crowded up there, and we need to account for everything.”

  “We’ll leave that up to your planning staff, Captain,” Ruthven said. “Anything else?”

  “This pretty much wraps up my briefing, sir,” Thomas said. “Are there any other questions?”

  Mechum has a big grin on his face. He hated meetings. “How many more of these briefings are we attending?”

  “There should be one more briefing for the final launch trajectory in the next few days,” Thomas said. “We’ll let you know, of course.”

  Just as everyone started to get up from their chairs, Ruthven held his hand up. Everyone stood still and looked at him. “One request, Captain Thomas. I’d like to have my crew take a look at CAIN.”

  Thomas was somewhat surprised by the request, but he figured it was a minor accommodation, and easily doable. “Very well, Colonel, if you would all just follow me.”

  The hardened AI core was located at the other side of the base, and it took the group thirty minutes of brisk walking to get there. Thomas led the way as he punched in the passcode and placed his thumb on the biometric sensor near the door. Once the entryway was opened, he ushered the group inside.

  Ruthven couldn’t help but notice that they were now moving inside a gigantic Faraday cage, as this inner complex was heavily shielded to block incoming electromagnetic fields. Passing along a corridor, the group could see from the glass walls that there were multiple rows of servers situated along the sides of the hallway, sealed off in various temperature controlled rooms.

  Thomas pointed a
t the large numbers of controller modules. “This is essentially the heart of CAIN. Even though the entire system is an optical network, we chose to harden it anyway. Especially since we have yet to know the full effects of the fusion drive when it finally launches.”

  “What does CAIN stand for again?” Lawson asked.

  “Combat Artificial Intelligence Network,” Thomas said as he stopped in front of a glass door at the end of the corridor. “The irony to the biblical Cain was apparent when ACE Corp R&D named this suite.”

  The others in the group started muttering amongst themselves, making funny comments and jokes.

  Ruthven stood beside Thomas and pointed at the door. “What’s in there?”

  “Just the control room, sir,” Thomas said. “We don’t really need to go in there.”

  “Well, you’ve already shown us most of the area, Captain,” Ruthven said. “Why not just show us the last bit too?”

  Thomas hesitated. Even though Ruthven was the flight commander, he and his crew weren’t authorized to be in here. Nevertheless he didn’t want to make waves, so he figured it would be okay. He once again placed his thumbprint on the biometric sensor, and the double glass doors parted. “After you, Colonel.”

  Ruthven stepped inside. The room had several consoles, with a number of ACE Corp technicians sitting down and monitoring the system. A few of them noticed the group, but no one said anything and continued on with their work.

  Lawson knew it was his turn. He walked up to Thomas and started asking him a number of technical questions that he had been rehearsing over the past few days, while the rest of the group started milling about. Ruthven slowly made his way until he stood beside a communications console. Taking a small, button-sized device from underneath the collar of his uniform, he casually slid his hand down until it was hidden behind the desk. Just as Thomas turned away and pointed at one of the monitor screens, Ruthven crouched down, searching quickly for the open interface jack that he knew was there. Within three seconds, he found it, right by the side of the boxlike server. Attaching the device into the port, he noticed a faint red light emanated from it for a brief second, indicating that it had successfully installed the software to function as a remote access point.

  When he stood back up, he had noticed Thomas looking at him. “Are you okay, Colonel?” the captain asked.

  Ruthven smirked and gave him a wink. “Yeah, just had a minor leg cramp. I must have been sitting in that meeting for too long.”

  Almost three hundred kilometers away to the southwest, Vlad Utkin was busy coding on his workstation. The late afternoon sun hung like a bright yellow disk over the horizon, reflecting the undulating waters of the backyard swimming pool onto the beige colored walls of the living room. He had been tempted to go for a refreshing dip in the pool, but Kate would have been on his case once more, so Vlad just grimaced while scanning through the lines of assembly code to spot for any programming bugs in the software he was working on.

  A loud beep interrupted his concentration as a new menu popped up on the 3D monitor. Vlad couldn’t believe his eyes. He threw his arms up, both in exhilaration and as a way to boost his energy. “Nichego sebe! We got it!”

  Herbert Eng Wu was in the upstairs bedroom. The door was open, and when he heard Vlad’s shouting he came downstairs. “What is it?”

  “Our man inside has given me access to military base AI,” Vlad said triumphantly.

  Kate Sturgis was hovering nearby. No one had noticed her until she walked into the living room. “Good, you all know what needs to be done. Get things started. I’ll call up Ganz to go get the work car.”

  Vlad gleefully typed a stream of commands using his virtual keyboard. Within a matter of minutes, the human resource database for the Argus complex had been updated. Four Ace Corp employees- that had previously not existed anywhere else- were now being backdated into the list of all eligible personnel that were allowed into the top secret facility. All they had to do now was to get inside.

  Chapter 13

  Tyler Dvorak stopped the car by the sidewalk. Beverly Hills was a posh, secluded community where the rich and famous once resided. Ever since the entertainment industry moved to Florida, the sprawling, rebuilt mansions in the neighborhood had been occupied by skilled professional types and their families. “Are you sure this is the place?” he asked, looking at the rearview mirror.

  Stilicho Jones nodded as he sat in the backseat of the car. “Yup, this is the address that Maia said where the video that pinpointed the redhead would be at.”

  Darian Arante opened the car door and got out of the front seat. “This better not be a wild goose chase, Jones. I’m already in trouble enough as it is.”

  Stilicho got out through the rear passenger door. “Maia says it’s a ninety percent probability that she was here, based on the video cams she analyzed.”

  “You’re not going in with us, Jones,” Darian said. “You’re not a Federal agent.”

  Stilicho rolled his eyes. “I’m sick of staying in the car. Don’t worry, I’ll be quiet. Anyway we all could use Maia’s abilities to check the place out.”

  Tyler got out from the driver’s side. “He’s right.”

  Darian frowned. “Okay, but stay behind us and don’t be doing anything without my say so, understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Stilicho said.

  Tyler stretched his arms. They had taken a quick flight from Las Vegas and he barely had time to rest. “Can you run this by me again, Stilicho? How exactly did your AI figure all this out?”

  “Since you gave me a copy of the video taken by that club in Vegas, I had Maia run a scan on every single saved video across the entire country that was taken in the last two weeks,” Stilicho said. “Based on biometrics like facial recognition and movement, she found a match in a video taken by a landscaping company across the street, and it showed the same redhead walking out of this house and getting into a car.”

  Tyler gave him a quizzical look. “A landscaping company? Their videos are private, aren’t they?”

  Stilicho smirked and looked up at the sky. “That was my mistake. I gave Maia a command to look at everything, and I forgot to tell her not to hack into private video databases.”

  Darian glared at him. “Jones, I ought to arrest you right now for invasion of privacy.”

  Stilicho shrugged. “Hey, it wasn’t my fault. Maia just took the initiative is all. At least she got us some results. If we did this your way we’d still be manually looking at videos over the next few months, at least.”

  Darian felt like pulling out the handcuffs from her belt. She was already in trouble for allowing him to regain a copy of the AI suite, and now this. “If you’re wrong, then this is it for you. I’m hauling you back to the nearest FBI office and they can deal with you.”

  “I trust Maia,” Stilicho said confidently. “She’s never been wrong.”

  Tyler activated his smartglasses to access the law enforcement database. “Says here the house belongs to a Dr. Serge Cuo, a plastic surgeon specialist.”

  “Better call him first,” Darian said. “We don’t want to barge in there since we don’t have a search warrant.”

  “I just tried it,” Tyler said. “Voicemail.”

  Darian sighed. “Maybe he’s at work.”

  Tyler walked over to the sidewalk and started talking to someone. He walked back to the car less than a minute later. “I spoke with his secretary. She said he hasn’t come into his clinic for the past two weeks and thinks he went on vacation or something. She said he left a voice message in reception to cancel all his appointments since then.”

  Stilicho looked past the iron grille gate in front of the house. “I can see a car still parked in there. Maybe he’s inside and not answering?”

  Darian walked up to the doorbell beside the gate and pushed the button. There was no reply on the intercom panel. She activated the bell again and was met by more silence. Shaking her head, Darian turned to look at the others. “I don’t want to
go in there without a search warrant. Let’s head to the NASA field office in Pasadena and see if we can get a written order for it. I know the field supervisor there.”

  The moment she said those words, there was an audible click and the gate swung open.

  Darian turned around, a look of surprise on her face. “What in the—”

  Stilicho stood at the edge of the driveway and gestured at the two to proceed. He had Maia unlock the house after she hacked into its AI system. “Looks like we can go in now, ladies and gents.”

  Tyler led the way, followed by Darian as Stilicho walked a few steps behind them. When they got to the front door, it suddenly unlocked itself and opened inwards. Darian stepped inside, right after Tyler, but not before giving a look of suspicion to Stilicho, who was just standing there beaming at her.

  After just walking a few steps into the living room, Tyler breathed in sharply. “Do you smell that?”

  It was the stench of rotten meat combined with a couple of drops of inexpensive cologne. Darian immediately knew what it meant. She pointed to a corridor down the hallway. “It’s coming from there.”

  Tyler drew his pistol and advanced slowly down the wide passageway. The house was built hacienda style, with white stucco walls and red tiled floors. Walking past a glass divider, he passed by a swimming pool with leaves floating on its cyan chlorinated surface. The door at the end of the tunnel was slightly ajar and the stench had intensified. Tyler had glanced through the opening and saw something on the floor. With his free hand, he pushed the door open before checking inside.

  The room evidently served as a private operating theater. A surgical bed occupied the center of the place, along with operating lights that were mounted on the ceiling above it. A movable health monitoring machine stood at the far wall, beside shelves full of medicinal drugs and supplies. Unlike the rest of the house, the flooring in the room was of white linoleum. Near the opposite end of the place was a putrefying body lying on the floor, still dressed in surgical garb. A number of drawers had been opened, and a wheeled table had a tray of recently used medical equipment, with drops of dried blood still clinging on their stainless steel edges.