Paul looked grief stricken, asking, “You mean to tell me that I’m supposed to organize a fighting force using ships a thousand years old?” Lucy spoke again in a very calming voice, “It’s not as bad as it sounds Paul. First of all there is not a ship on this planet that does not have, at the very least, an antimatter drive. All of them have a warp drive, except for the landers and personnel carriers, which don’t use them anyway. The slowest galactic traveling ship here will still do 100 L.S. The weapons and targeting systems will still be far more advanced than the majority of other civilizations. Also, approximately ¼ of the battle capable ships have already been refitted with the more advanced whitematter reactors, targeting systems and force fields. The billions of weapons on this planet stored in the warehouses are enough to totally annihilate several worlds and almost any known military power in most galaxies.” Zimuel couldn’t believe Paul was concerned about having enough firepower but added, “Paul, the things Illinasos was developing are going to give you the edge you need when you do face a more technologically advance resistance. I have no doubt that you still don’t comprehend how far advanced we are compared to other worlds.” Paul walked back over to his hovercraft and before he stepped onto it he cautioned Zimuel, saying. “Never allow yourself to become over confident or complacent. Hey Lucy, what’s an R4?” She answered, “Rescue, Repair, Retrieval and Resupply Ship. It is, until the Verron Man of War is finished, the largest ship in the fleet. Designed to do what its name entails. If a ship is damaged in combat or for any other reason, the R4 can retrieve it, repair it in its maintenance and repair bay, restock the stores and weapons and offer medical treatment even for severe trauma, including burns and radiation exposure. It also has the ability to contain nuclear, chemical and biological hazards. There are three of them here; all refitted with upgraded reactors, drives and weapons systems.” Paul looked around, “Do we have time to see one before we head to our next destination.” Lucy informed Paul through his neuro link, “Go straight ahead about three miles and there will be one on your right and left. I doubt even you can miss them.” Paul knew he would never hear the end of the mockery for his not finding the trail this morning. He laughed and thought, “A computer with attitude.” Lucy screamed in his implant, “I AM NOT A COMPUTER!” Paul smiled as he headed towards the R4s.
He had no problem finding two spaceships that measured right at 4000 feet in length, 2500 feet wide and 800 feet in height. He felt as if he were in a narrow canyon. It was an unusual design, with gigantic thrusters on the four corners. The bottom was slightly curved and there were four mammoth hanger doors on each side. These two ships were sitting on super-heavy duty landing skids. The ship looked awkward sitting on the ground. He wondered how the skids could support so much weight. Paul asked, “Ok, Lucy, what’s so special about these ships?” As he watched, one of the ships began to rise, obviously using only it antigravity reactors, and hovered about 2000 feet above the ground. Paul could see the incredibly strong covering rise with it. He wondered if the ships along the edge were now uncovered. While hovering, the bottom of the ship began to open. The entire midsection was a set of gigantic doors. After they were completely open Lucy spoke, “The ship recovery bay is 3000 feet long and 2500 feet wide, with a ceiling height of 500 feet. There is 500 feet forward and 500 feet aft to house the crew, machine shops, hospital, 12 whitematter reactors, spare parts warehouses and an additional 300 foot high 2500 foot wide by 3000 feet long above the maintenance and repair bay for additional shops and storage, weapons stores and the ships own armaments, along with additional housing for rescued crew members. Now if you and Zimuel will walk to the middle of the ship I’ll demonstrate how the rescue system operates.”
Neither had any idea what Lucy was up to but did as asked. When they stopped where told, they began to rise toward the center of the open bay. It looked like a cavernous black void above and a long way to fall while looking down, suddenly, as they rose, the lights came on and it was bright enough to perform surgery. They reached the hanger floor level and Lucy began to inform them, as the doors below began to close, “Stranded or damaged ships are moved into the repair bay using a tractor-beam. There is more than one and a ship can be positioned virtually anywhere in the bay. Depending on the size of the ships being repaired or resupplied, we can get one very large ship or as many as a dozen smaller ships in the bay at once.” When the floor was solidly under their feet and the tractor-beam released them, she continued, “Everything needed to fix a ship is onboard. Destroyed or damaged parts can be fabricated in the machine shops and there are decontamination drones to handle that inevitability. The bay is designed to contain even a nuclear or antimatter explosion without damaging the ship. If you would like to see more of the ship, walk toward the center of the hanger toward the forward cabins. There is an elevator that will carry you to all the floors, except the top 300 feet, without a security clearance. The top floor is the missile storage facility and also contains the R4s weapons systems.” Paul looked at his watch and decided that he would have to do a tour of the ship another day. He needed to go see the mines and refineries almost 5000 miles to the west. He asked, “What’s the best way to get out of here?” He was given directions through his neuro and started walking toward a blue door to the aft section of the ship. He opened the door to what looked like nothing more than a large closet. A light came on overhead and the floor underneath disappeared. The personnel sized tractor-beam gently lower Zimuel and Paul to the ground right next to their transports. Paul took one last look around and knew he was going to be spending a lot of time in this place. As he rode back to the executive ship, he let Lucy know that he wanted to begin data downloads on every ship in the fleet. He needed to know what he had available and exactly what he could expect them to do. After all, it would be his responsibility to train the pilots who would be flying them.
Chapter 9
The mines and refineries were located about 5000 miles away, almost in the center of the continent. The Robert’s Range ran from one end of the continent to the other. It was a wide range, full of long valleys and high plains scattered between the 30 to 80 thousand foot mountains. Paul decided to follow the range from his location to the mines which were in the low mountains he decided to call foothills. At 2000 to 6000 feet, they looked more like foothills sitting in the shadows of the behemoths above them. He fell in love with his new ship. The pilot seat was like sitting in a $7,000 Ricaro P1300 GT racing seat. The view through the oversized front windscreen was panoramic. He followed the plains, valleys and rivers as low as he could in order to get a feel for what lay beneath him, only climbing to higher elevations when the mountains required it. He saw the herd, or another one, of unicorns as he passed over. There was a lot more wildlife than he had imagined. The mountains and valley were teeming with so many varieties of critters he knew that there would be a need for a lot of zoologists and biologists and probably dozens of other kinds of “ologists” to sort out just what lived here. Paul caught a brief glimpse of the biggest animal he had seen so far as it roamed through the dense forest below. He couldn’t help but wonder what the thing was, he wasn’t looking forward to running into one any time soon. He was so totally enthralled with the scenery below that he almost forgot to change his heading to the south. Lucy reminded him with, “Paul, you don’t want to miss the way twice in one day do you?” Paul thought of Proverbs and what the writer would write if he lived today, “It is better live in total isolation than to have a neuro implant and a smart mouth AI.” He smiled to himself, then heard, “I don’t have a smart mouth.” He couldn’t help but grin at his circumstances, no one back home would ever believe what he had become.
As Paul headed south, he had to climb to over 50,000 feet rather quickly to clear the high peaks of the mountains between the high plains and foothills on the other side. He could tell Zimuel was not thrilled with the steep climb and rapid decent on the other side, but Paul could not identify any pass to fly through or lower mountain to go over. He felt
certain that the more he flew on his new world the better he would be at choosing the best route. The area where the mining and refinery operations were located looked more like West Virginia or the Appalachian Mountains. He identified the structure of the foundry pretty easily since it was the largest manmade object in the area. As he got closer, he soon realized that there was an actual above ground mill town beside the steel mill and quickly had to change his perspective. The large structure was the steel mill and about 10 miles away was a refinery. The town looked as if it could handle 60-70,000 people. It was the closest thing to a small town back on Earth than any he had seen, except there were very few single family homes, but no shortage of 5 to 6 story housing units. There were schools and businesses like a normal town. He landed the ship in front of the steel mill, which appeared to be about the size of the Volkswagen Plant across from his mother’s house in Chattanooga. He wouldn’t even try to guess the square footage, but it was big. One thing obviously missing, were the big smokestacks he remembered from when he was a kid and Chattanooga was still a foundry town.
Lucy informed Paul and Zimuel, “The foundry is powered by whitematter reactors and produces none the pollution you would expect from a steel mill. Though it is not operational at this time, you would not be able to tell the difference by the air around you. This plant, when running at full capacity and three twelve hour shifts has a capacity of 800 mmt, million metric tons annually.” Paul shrugged at his ignorance, and asked, “Is that good or bad? I really know nothing about the steel industry except that China makes the most and the U.S. has shut down a bunch of their foundries in order to clean up the air and put thousands out of work.” Lucy paused a moment and then replied, “I have just checked your computer system on Earth. It seems that total annual production on Earth is under 1,800 (mmt). The largest single producer of crude steel manufactures approximately 120 (mmt) per year, but at several plant locations, not one.” Paul shook his head in disbelief, saying, “You mean to tell me that this one facility can produce in one year almost half of all the steel produced on Earth? How does it do it?” Lucy replied, “First let me tell you that the entire process from ore to fine steel is all done back to back in this one location. What you see above ground is only about 1/3 of the facility. Like everything else on Verron, for security reasons, most of it is underground. Now, if you need to know the complete process in every detail, it will take some time, so that I’ll do later, however, it is possible because we can heat the ores and then the steel faster. With our reactors providing the heat we can easily hit 10,000 degrees very quickly. The ores on Verron and the steel we manufacture does in fact require closer to the 10,000 F temperature to be processed. We also can cool the iron and steel much faster. Since the plant is fully automated and most of the labor is done by droids that can handle the high temperatures inside the foundry, we can do everything faster than even the automated systems in other worlds. You must remember Xhondar has been producing steel with incredible strength for thousands of years. What Illinasos discovered is an ore and a combination of additives, all native to Verron, that when combined, form a steel that’s harder, lighter, more corrosion resistant, and capable of being used in unlimited ways when variations in process and chemicals are used. The process is unique in one more very significant way.” “And” Paul replied. Lucy continued, “A byproduct of the refining process is that we generate the material used in the reactors to enrich into whitematter. What would be considered a waste byproduct of the steel manufacturing process is used to make the most powerful and efficient source of energy in the universe. And Paul, Verron is composed of 50% and one of her moons is 100% trununcian, the raw material mined just north of here. You will eventually need to build a second mill, but for now this will meet your needs sufficiently.”
“So what do you call this steel?” Lucy answered, “Number 1648 Enhanced Steel” is the name assigned to it by the team of scientist that developed it.” Zimuel interjected, “Every major steel manufactured, that I’ve seen, has either the name of the planet it came from or the name of the individual who formed it, like Xhondarian steel or Klelta Steel, like the sword and dagger Gljarne gave Paul, so why not Verron Steel, everyone will one day know that we produce something truly unique, so why not name it after the planet it comes from?” Paul reluctantly admitted that it did sound better than Number 1648 Enhanced Steel and then asked, “So what is so special about this Verron Steel?” Lucy decided to describe some of the steels qualities and let Paul view the video footage of some of the tests later, she began, “Verron Steel is lighter, stronger …” “I know, you’ve already said that. Why is it better than everything else?” Paul interrupted. “Well for one, it can be formed in the typical gray steel like others, or into any color, like the gold of the executive ship, in fact it can be formed perfectly clear, like the windshield of the executive ship your flying. You could even make the entire ship clear if desired.” Paul had visions of Linda Carter. “Furthermore, it is much lighter than steel or even aluminum. A piece of 1/16 inch thick Verron Steel will weight approximately the same as a piece of plastic the same thickness. Where the material really excels is in strength and durability. That same piece of Verron Steel could withstand a direct hit from a plasma cannon, laser rifle, photon torpedo or nuclear strike. After milled and treated, it is capable of withstanding temperatures far in excess of its manufacturing melting point. Even the heat of a thermal grenade will not damage it. It can be used for architectural purposes or military. With proper flexibility additives, it has successfully been extruded as fine as thread and woven into protective clothing. We have not even tapped into the full potential. Every new ship made on Verron is made from it, the latest model of body armor, the weapons you saw in the armory, most of the structures on Verron are made with a combination of Verron Steel and a special concrete that is almost as strong. I guess now we should call it Verron Crete. It is manufactured using the same ore used to manufacture the steel.”
Paul looked out through the clear walls that gave him a view of a section of the mill; he sat silent for a moment and finally stated, “We need to get this place up and going as soon as possible. Let’s take a look at the mines.” They left the manufacturing facility and decided it was much too far to walk, so Paul and Zimuel climbed back in the gold colored ship and flew at a slow hover for the 50 miles to where the ore was mined. It seemed to be mined pretty much the same way as on Earth; large areas blasted loose, huge dump-trucks loaded with the ore and then the ore separated from the things mixed with it and converted to large pellets that were sent to the foundry for processing. Lucy informed Paul that since so much of this area was solid trununcian the separation process was considerably easier. Other than the occasional gold vein or diamonds, there was very little here that needed filtered out of the trununcian.” Paul snidely commented, “It must be a real hassle cleaning out all that annoying gold and diamonds.” Zimuel looked at him not quite sure if it was a joke or not. Paul continued, “So I gather that the refinery to the west of town is for refining the gold.” Lucy confirmed this and also, that a part of the facility was used to process the diamonds as well. As Paul looked out at the monstrous machinery used in the mining operation and the fact that only one of them had tires and one had tracks, he asked, “Lucy, does every piece of equipment on Verron use antigravity and hover around like a transport?” “All but a few,” she confirmed. Paul continued, “Other than the one transport at Mountain City, a few vehicles at the research facility and this heavy machinery, I have not seen anything but spaceships. I know you had to use machines, transports and other equipment to build all the facilities on Verron, so where are they?”
Lucy informed Paul, “Rather than have transports and equipment scattered all over Verron, it was decided to have a central vehicle distribution center where vehicles where kept and maintained, then signed out as needed for a specific need. There were no privately owned vehicles on the planet, but one could be obtained at no charge for whatever purpose arose.” Zim
uel looked at Paul and asked, “Where exactly is this transportation center?” He wasn’t surprised by the answer, “It is north of the Crystal River, exactly 1.3 miles from Mountain City. There is access from Mountain City to the underground facility by way of a transportation tube that can be boarded on the same level as the food stores and the Maximum Security Elevator.” Paul asked, “How large is this place, Lucy?” In a very matter of fact tone, she replied, “Large enough to hold all vehicles and equipment required to meet the construction and transportation needs of 300,000 people.” As Paul turned the executive ship back towards Mountain City he responded with, “I’d like to see for myself if you don’t mind.”
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