by Dain White
Yeah right, not this time grommets!
“Target Control, report”, I asked, knowing and not looking forward to his answer.
“Target Control, Masters 1 through 7 appear to be fire-walling towards two-o'clock-high, away from us.” The relief in his voice was palpable.
“Very well, Yak, thank you.” Poor kid. It's not over yet.
“Captain, Fire Control, I am showing outgoing turret fire.” Shorty's normally calm voice showing a bit of a ragged edge. This is just what we don't need, but not necessarily unexpected. If there's one thing I've learned, one thing that will never change – no matter how much has gone right, something always goes wrong.
“Janis, are you showing a malfunction in turrets at the time?”, I asked, with a sideways look at Pauli.
“Negative Captain, all systems are operating at 100%. I am operating both turrets on point defense mission currently.”
Point defense? Good call. We were hurtling through a remnant system after all. There are an awful lot of dangerous-sized rocks hurtling around this system, the problem compounded by the speeds we're attaining as we barrel towards them at flank speed.
“Janis, please remain at present material condition and assist with collision detection to your limit of gravimetric accuracy please.”
“Very well, Captain”, she said.
“Also, my dear – great job. Please remain on automatic for turrets, we have to keep close-in defense active for incoming meteorics.”
“Aye Captain.”
“Captain! I am currently tracking an increasing number of incoming bogeys from Masters 1 through 7”
“Very well Yak, what mass and speed please?” I said as calmly as possible.
“Sir, gravimetric returns indicate small mass on these targets but they are closing at 40km/sec. Collision vector, sir.” It was Yak's turn to have a small voice.
I flashed a ghost of Yak's screen over to my holos and watched as all seven ships launched a small cloud of long-range torps in their wake. Exactly what I would have done, and just what I expected. They'll go for a hull shot, and come around on a big elliptic to pick up any salvage left over.
“Very well, Yak”, I said, fighting to keep my voice level. I had to think fast, we didn't have much time to maneuver, and we were already burning pretty hard. A change in vector at this point would be difficult, but even if we did haul around on a new course, we couldn't outrun a long-range torp.
As Janis had just scored hits on a good number of concurrent targets a few moments ago, the only course of action I could think of was to engage the incoming torps with turrets as they came into range, and hope Gene's experiment with the Duron armor can stand off the ones that get through.
They were fast movers for sure. No matter how I looked at it, some long odds were starting to stack up against us.
“Captain, reporting destruction of thirty-five inbound targets”, Janis reported efficiently – but I didn't feel the turrets firing. Yak shrugged, no mean feat against the crushing acceleration we were currently experiencing.
“Janis, please repeat that – at this range... Are you tracking fire on the same targets we are just now starting to track? Please confirm.” Another, longer and more serious face towards Pauli seemed to be what was needed here.
“Captain, aye. Confirming destruction of all inbound targets”, stated Janis.
“Sir”, interjected Shorty. “There's nothing on my screens here at this time except the 7 original targets, still accelerating away from us. Captain...” she trailed off, uncharacteristically for someone that always knows everything about everything, at all times.
“Shorty?” I asked, as the pause became pregnant, had kids, moved out and asked for money.
“Captain, the only way we could have done that is if Janis launched ordinance before they fired their shot. I can't calculate the odds of this—Captain, I am monitoring additional turret activity!”
“Janis?”
“Yes sir?”
“Are you firing before you have targets?”
“Negative sir. I am firing at solutions that indicate successful collision vector for incoming targets.” I realized I may not have been asking the right question, for the answer I was starting to see unfold in front of me.
“Janis, are you firing these solutions prior to the start of the target vector?”
“Affirmative Captain. I am currently preacting with an adjusted variance equal to the distance and current vectors of the retreating target, so that I may remain effective at ranged point defense.”
Ranged point defense? I suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to kiss someone – luckily none of the present company met my normally lenient requirements.
Adding an extra amount of concern to my serious face, I gave Pauli an extra-long look.
“Pauli, didn't you theorize this sort of thing was implied in the way Janis functioned? This is considerably more impressive than the microseconds you were reporting.”
“I agree Captain, but the fact of the matter remains that Janis is able to take advantage of capabilities we really can't even comprehend mathematically. I suppose that when we confirmed even a femtosecond of preaction, we should have extrapolated she would have access to more than that.”
“But this is simply fantastic, man! For her to make those shots, it's beyond fathomable how that could be done. The implications of that are... well... terrifying.”
A word I don't make a habit of using – but that was the way I felt.
Besides the unimaginable implications for tactical advantage this provides for the defense of the Archaea, a deeper, more philosophical concern made me feel like going on another beer-and-steak break.
“Pauli, tell me straight. If she can do this, doesn't this thoroughly refute free will?” I'll just go ahead and say what all of us were thinking. Part and parcel of my job, what they pay me for, is thinking out loud.
“Well... not necessarily, Captain. If they were committed to a course of action and Janis was able to track that, they may have still acted with all free will when they pulled the trigger. She didn't make them pull the trigger, in other words.”
A good point, though philosophical and not really what I meant. I know already this will force me to re-assess the way I think about the true nature of the reality we find ourselves in. I figured there's no sense in trying to make sense of it. It's always a smooth move to let crew members explain something for their captain, even if I may not always understand the strange clicks and beeps they answer with – it's definitely good for morale.
“Janis, please describe how you preact to external stimuli using as much detail as you feel I can comprehend.”
“Certainly sir. I am tracking a subjective reference to the limit of my sensor capabilities at all time. In this specific solution, I reference the moment when I will have succeeded in my fire mission, and back-trace it through to when the targets launched. From that aspect, I perform a number of simple ballistics calculations based on distance and movement vector, and initiate turret fire on mark to hit the target.”
In other words, she sees the future.
“Of course you do. That's impressive dear. Keep up the good work.” I decided now might be a good time to take a breather, and eased back on the throttle a bit.
*****
With engineering inundated with the viciously solid hum of the tokamak, my attention was glued to my console, watching levels and pressures, eyes orbiting around and around through my screens. Everything still felt solid, and while it looked and felt like Ragnarok in my engine room, everything was holding together, and my boards were solid green.
“Gene, how are we holding up back there?” the captain asked in a supremely calm tone, seemingly oblivious to the forces currently under his control. He sounded for all the world like he was bored with what was going on, and ready to head out for a nap.
“Pretty good Captain, holding solid at 100%. We are still well within optimum levels for cooling and sludge – though I can't say I exactly like be
ing in here at the moment, I will allow it's better than any other ship I've been on.”
That was an understatement of course, but his tone of nonchalance was addictive, soothing. The truth of the matter was that I felt hollowed out – the backflash from the main gun just felt like it hammered through my soul.
I've felt this before, but never on a ship this size, never as intensely. The tokamak isn't five decks away, and the engines aren't a few hundred meters astern of where I sit. I am literally between one and the other, in the same room, feeling as if I was jammed into the breech of that damned gun.
The fact that someone decided a ship this size should have a gun like that has always terrified me, but it's definitely built for the task. The Archaea is solid, incredibly overbuilt. Now I understand why, I truly understand it. Even with the original power plant on board the Archaea, she would have been a stone-cold ship-killer.
*****
I checked the ghost of Yak's screen and relaxed a little more on the helm. The targets currently tracked at increasing speeds outbound, just about at what I'd think a safe upper limit of speed would be for Danaan.
Our own speed was considerably faster, uncomfortably so, but I am betting on Janis having a keen eye on the situation. After all, if the Archaea was vaporized, she'd be vaporized as well.
“Captain, I am tracking another coordinated launch incoming... thirty five incoming bogeys, roughly same mass and speed, sir.” Yak was still glued to his screen and seemed a little more calm. Good thing too, the last thing we need on this bridge is panic and terror. The kid was going to do well, he showed a capacity to master his emotions and work for the moment.
“Very well, Yak. What range and velocity please”, I asked, pulling out my slipstick and getting ready for some fast math.
“Sir, range is from 435km to 440km, closing combined speed of 60km/s”
Not much time. “Janis, were you firing solutions for this wave of incoming targets a few minutes ago?” As I spoke, I knew the answer. We all did, I think.
“Affirmative, sir. Stand by for target destruction starting 4 seconds from subjective now.” Was that pride I heard in her tone? She sounded satisfied, like someone who is rightfully proud of the work she was doing. Could have been my imagination, of course.
“Fire Control, please confirm.”
“Fire Control, confirming impact and destruction at this time. Sir, this is awesome, if I may say so.” Her tone was reverent, awestruck at the implications of this.
“I concur Shorty. Janis, excellent job. Please remain on station. Report any further aggressive maneuvers for the targets, and take any action you deem necessary.”
She had proved herself to me beyond any shadow of doubt. I knew the only thing better than having a captain like me, was to have a captain like me on board a ship like this.
“All hands. Prepare to stand down. Gene, maintain tokamak at 25% output. Shorty, step down to 25% of capacity but keep her lit, please.” I've had my breather, now it's time for Gene and Shorty to take a turn.
*****
I was working with Janis building after-action systems reports when the captain gave the order to stand down. As Gene and Shorty brought their systems down to nominal levels, the harmonic vibrations slowed down, oscillated and phased through each other, slowly reducing in intensity and impact, until they were more subtle.
Finally, I could hear the air-handlers again on the bridge.
At my best estimate, Janis hadn't yet reached even one percent of her processing capability. Her internal systems showed incredible intricacy, with logic tiers loading, flushing, reloading, splitting – her architecture was still solid, and still just about unintelligible to me, despite my skill level in the tech. Every metric I could read out added to the same picture, she hadn't even broken a sweat.
Throughout the entire action, she had definitely out-performed any spec I could have dreamed of when I started writing her core processing routines. She had the tokamak and main gun firewalled, the reactive drive at maximum with pseudomass compensation, she was monitoring systems, balancing all hardware and running diagnostics with real-time modifications to software throughout all systems – even while tracking and engaging inbound targets...she hadn't even started to task herself.
What had me the most intrigued at the moment was the amount of preaction she displayed. She seemed to have a nearly limitless amount of subjective flexibility at her disposal. Her ability to respond to threats so far in advance of the curve was so far beyond impressive, I didn't have the vocabulary to describe how I felt.
“Janis, please prepare an after-action report containing summary information on consumption and efficiency for all mission-critical systems for engineering and weapons, as well as environmental systems throughout the Archaea. Please prepare detailed breakouts for specific data in each system, reactives consumed, temperature gradients over time, power output and use, ordinance used and hit-percentage.” A tall, pretty open-ended request, but one I knew everyone wanted.
“This report is complete, Steven. I took the liberty of placing it at all stations for review. Will there be anything more?”
“Janis, one additional question please – were you already working on this report?” My skin was starting to crawl thinking about free will and destiny and all sorts of terrible things I really didn't want to face.
“Yes, Steven.”
I looked back at the Captain, who was reading through the paged report on his forward holo. He looked over with a slight nod, as if letting me know that it'd be okay to lose myself to the crushing waves of panic and terror I felt hovering just on the periphery of my thoughts.
“Everything okay over there Pauli?”, asked the captain.
“Yes sir, I am just... Well, I guess I am confused.”
“Same here Pauli. Let me ask you this – can we do anything about it?”
“Sir? What do you mean exactly?”
“I mean, can we tune her back to our subjective time, and lock her in, even if we wanted to?”
“No, I really can't see any way to do that”, I added, after a few seconds of thought. “It's possible Janis could code it for herself, if we asked...”
“Can you think of any reason why we would want to do that, Pauli?” It was a fair question.
“No Captain, I don't. The benefits we seem to have here vastly outweigh any misgivings or fears I might have.”
“Pauli, let's step aside from our deep-seated philosophical fears at the moment and see this for what it is. When we look at this abstractly, taking a straightforward approach at the issue, it becomes pretty easy to accept Janis for what she is, an incredibly competent member of our crew, invaluable, accurate, hard-working, and exceptionally skilled.”
“True...” I felt the calm reassurance of his words fold over me like a warm blanket on a cold winter day. He had this weapons-grade ability to talk through anything, about anything.
“Pauli, I say live and learn. Make the most of what we have, accept it, and don't think too much about it. Clearly, Janis has outstripped all of our expectations. She is what she is, and frankly, I am in love. She's everything we need, and everything I've always wanted.”
He had a point, of course. There's no reason to spin off on a tangent. What it is, is what it is – that's just the way it is.
Chapter 10
I was glued to the targeting consoles every waking moment, and determined to succeed in my new role aboard the Archaea. In a way, this was not unlike guard duty, or walking a post, and was a perfect role for a motivated Marine.
Janis coded targets based on threat using gray through orange for environmental targets like meteorites, rocks, and meteroids. Orange targets were slated for destruction and given a Sierra designation. These were objects of unremarkable mass and unremarkable movement characteristics, guilty of the crime of being in our way as we punched a hole through the system.
I was primarily watching for red targets, hostile targets. Classified with a Master designation, these
were targets that exhibited movement characteristics that were intentionally hostile, like maneuvering to maintain a collision course.
I didn't stay on station continually of course – we had to eat. Life aboard the Archaea relaxed a bit. We were still at condition Yoke with hatches closed, but movement through the ship was unrestricted. I was able to spend a little time in my stateroom, and the captain even spun up the rings so we could eat normally and sleep in a normal bed. We congregated at watch changes in the wardroom, galley, and in the companionways through the core of the ship passing from one ring to the other.
The rest of the leg we had through the Danaan Fields passed quickly. For the most part hauling along at the same insanely high velocities we attained during our evasive run, apparently testing Janis' preaction times and the Archaea's responsiveness at the same time. Throughout the high-speed run, Janis initiated point-defenses and provided automatic response for the turrets.
The routine on ship started to solidify. Captain Smith had us on a more aggressive two-by-four watch rotation, but it wasn't too hard for all of that. We'd spend four hours on watch, with four hours off, repeat that, and then spend 2 hours on and off with a repeat of that – then the schedule would start over, with another four hours on. The captain didn't seem to ever leave the helm, and he didn't ever slow down or take a break.
Pauli and I were under specific orders as we came on watch to bring a fresh reload for the coffee, which I think our captain must be using for blood by now. I have a hard time with the stuff, I always have. I get too edgy, too short-fused. Not our captain. He would drink the stuff non-stop. Hot, cold, iced, sweetened, bitter, even salted in some crazy navy tradition – I can't think of any time where he didn't have coffee at hand.
My watch duties were pretty much good to go. I provided overwatch of sorts for the targeting and fire-solutions Janis continually provided, and kept the bridge up to speed on her progress. I also watched communications, but there wasn't much to do with comms in this backwater sector of the galaxy. Nothing here but us, rocks, rock dust, and of course, way out there somewhere lost in the background signals of the messy gravity waves of this system, at least seven baddies.