Frontiers 05 Rise of the Corinari

by Ryk Brown

  “You mean all the crated stuff in the hangar bays?” Nathan asked.

  “Da, and there is even more in the cargo holds,” Vladimir added. “Most of it is not urgent, but if we are to have full crew soon, much of it will become important very soon.”

  “Possibly, but don’t let it slow down repairs,” Nathan reminded him.

  “It will not,” Vladimir assured him. “Many of the repairs must be done in certain order, so there is only so much we can do at once. That is why I have the other crews installing stuff; better than having them sit around doing nothing.”

  “What about the hull repairs?” Nathan asked. “Maybe they could help with that.”

  “Mister Tonken and the Corinairan technicians are handling the repairs to the hull, and I get the impression that they do not wish to be disturbed any more than necessary,” Vladimir explained between bites. “Once the hull repairs are completed and the inner hull has been pressure tested, we will open the forward compartments and begin repairs to the damaged interior sections.”

  “Did they give any indications as to how long it will take them?” Nathan asked.

  “He would not commit to anything firm, but he indicated it could take several weeks. It depends on how much material they can get ready-made from the Corinairans, and how much they must process and fabricate themselves.”

  “They can do that?”

  “Yes,” Vladimir assured him, “they have the facilities already in place here. The Karuzari installed the heavy equipment long ago, when they first created this base. But the fabrication process is slow, as the ores must be mined and processed first.”

  “What about the Yamaro’s fabricators?” Nathan wondered. “Can we use them to create hull plates?”

  “Nyet, they are not designed to make such large components. They are limited to things no bigger than, say, this table.”

  “I thought they were supposed to be such wonderful devices.”

  “Oh, they are; they are most incredible. The speed and precision is amazing. They are far beyond anything we have on Earth.”

  “Then why aren’t we using them?”

  “As I said, they are not designed to make such large pieces,” Vladimir reiterated. “Besides, hull plates are very simple in their construction, and Mister Tonken seems confident that enough ready to use plating can be located.” Vladimir quickly drank his tea and poured a second cup. “Anyway, the Yamaro’s replicators are already busy.”

  “Doing what?” Nathan asked.

  “Making more fabricators. What else?”

  “When did that happen?”

  “They started the moment they finished making our new emitters.”

  “Who made that decision?” Nathan wondered.

  “Some scientist from Corinair,” Vladimir told him. “He insisted they create at least two more before they did anything else. One to dedicate to making more fabricators, and another one for them to study.”

  “To study?”

  “Yes, they plan to reverse engineer the fabricator and scale it up. They hope to use them to build ships.”

  “I don’t think the Ta’Akar will give us that much time, Vlad.”

  “I don’t think it matters,” Vladimir laughed. “These Corinairans, they are like starving children. They have all this scientific knowledge they have been dying to utilize over the last thirty years. Now that they can, they want to build everything they can think of. It is actually quite entertaining to listen to them.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet,” Nathan sighed.

  “You sound disappointed.”

  “I was hoping we might use the fabricators to burn off a few million rounds for the rail guns.”

  “You do realize we are in port, yes?” Vladimir asked. “And inside an asteroid?”

  “Yeah, I just hate being unarmed, even in port.”

  “Just ask the Corinairans to produce some slugs,” Vladimir insisted.

  “Slugs?”

  “Da. Our rail guns have many different types of ammunition: explosive, radioactive tipped, fragmentation, even multilevel fragmentation; you know, the kind that breaks apart again and again,” Vladimir elaborated. “But even simple metal slugs, when propelled to great velocities, carry great amounts of kinetic energy. They would be very destructive.”

  “They’d suck for point-defense,” Nathan observed.

  “This is true, but they would still be better than nothing at all,” Vladimir insisted, “and they would be easy to mass produce. They are simple metal cylinders about the size of your fist, and solid, with no moving parts. Even a single factory should be able to fill all of our ammunition bunkers in a few weeks.”

  Nathan thought about the idea, and it did sound good. If Vladimir was right, they would have a few million rounds, enough to feed all their rail guns throughout a prolonged firefight. “I wouldn’t mind that one bit,” he admitted. “I’ll put in a request to the Prime Minister.”

  “You do that,” Vladimir insisted as he finished his food. “I must go.”

  “What about the briefing?” Nathan asked, checking his watch. “It starts in fifteen minutes.”

  “I have to meet with Mister Tonken. Besides, I already told you everything. Just call me if you have questions,” he insisted as he rose and left the mess hall.

  * * *

  “Attention on deck,” the guard at the hatch to the briefing room announced. Everyone in attendance stood as Nathan entered the room. “As you were,” he insisted as he made his way to his seat at the head of the table. Despite the fact that the guard was only following standard procedures, Nathan still found it difficult to get used the formalities of command rank, especially at times like this. As he took his seat, it dawned on him that only half of the people in the briefing room, including himself, were members of the fleet. The others—Tug, Jalea, and Abby—stood out of courtesy, rather than by requirement.

  “Doctor Chen,” Nathan greeted, “nice to have you with us.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” the doctor replied as she took her seat. “Hopefully my patient load will remain light enough in the future that I can always be present.”

  “Yes, hopefully,” Nathan agreed. “Let’s start with you; how are things in Medical?”

  “The Corinairan medical staff has been extremely helpful, sir. Their understanding of the human body is far more advanced than ours,” Doctor Chen explained. “At least five of my patients are ready to return to light duty because of the Corinairan treatment methods. They would’ve been out for at least another month had they been treated here using our technology.”

  “That’s good news, Doctor,” Nathan said. “We’ll have them assigned to monitoring and consulting with the Corinairan work teams. What about the rest of your patients?”

  “I only have a few still on medical leave recovering in their quarters. There are another ten more serious cases that are being cared for in the hospital in Aitkenna.”

  “Will they survive?”

  “It’s too soon to say,” she admitted, “but I can assure you that, without the Corinairans, they would already have died.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” Nathan said. A wave of relief washed over him. At the very least, his decision to come to the aid of Corinair may have saved the lives of a dozen or more of his crew. That alone felt worth the risk.

  “Captain,” Jalea interjected, “the Corinairans have long been known for the quality of their medical care. The technological restrictions that the Ta’Akar have imposed on them over the decades has only enhanced their expertise.”

  “How so?” Nathan asked.

  “I believe it forced them to find ways to be more effective with the technology at hand,” Jalea said.

  “There’s one other thing,” Doctor Chen added. “The Corinairans tend to look at the human body as a whole instead of a collection of related systems.”

  “Are you gaining any useful information from the Corinairan doctors?” Nathan wondered.

  “Their biggest advantage over us is th
eir diagnostic abilities. They have much more accurate testing and diagnostic methods, most of which are far less invasive as well. This not only speeds up the diagnostic process, it also makes it more accurate.”

  “Are they willing to share this technology with us?” Nathan wondered.

  “So far, yes. They have promised to deliver various devices and training in the near future. But much of that may have to wait until the more immediate needs of the ship have been addressed.”

  “I’ll see if I can keep it from being pushed too far down the list, Doctor,” Nathan promised.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy had to meet with the teams performing the work on the hull, so he could not be here. He reported to me this morning that the hull repairs could take several weeks.”

  “Captain,” Jalea interrupted, “I spoke with Mister Tonken this morning, and he is confident that he can procure the necessary materials. Therefore the hull repairs should take approximately ten days.”

  “That’s good news, Jalea,” Nathan said. “Once the hull is repaired, damage repair teams will be concentrating on the forward compartments that have been inaccessible for the last few weeks. As you all know, with a full crew scheduled to come aboard in the coming weeks, the additional crew accommodations will be needed.”

  “If your forward compartments are not ready in time, we have plenty of room within Karuzara station,” Tug offered.

  “I’ll keep that in mind. Meanwhile, our repair teams will be concentrating on repairing recent battle damage, as well as installing additional systems that were scheduled for installation upon our return to the Orbital Assembly Platform.”

  “Captain, might I suggest that we make installation of the remaining rail guns a priority?” Jessica suggested. “We are still unable to create a complete defense perimeter, even with all currently installed rail guns in full working order.”

  “I’ll pass your concerns on to the Cheng,” Nathan assured her. “My biggest concerns right now are the doors covering the backup heat exchangers. They took damage and will not open at the moment. If the primary exchangers failed, we’d be pretty screwed,” he insisted. “How is security coming along?” Nathan asked, turning his attention to Jessica.

  “While we’re in port, we’re maintaining two secure points of access to the ship: the port boarding airlock for foot traffic, and the number two hangar bay airlock for shuttles. As an extra precaution, we keep the port boarding airlock hatches closed, and only allow access in groups of four. I’ve got four armed Corinari in the boarding foyer and a quick response team of eight stationed halfway between the foyer and the hangar bay. I’ve also got two teams stationed in the hangar bay, and an inspection team in the number two airlock inspecting shuttles before they’re allowed into the main hangar bay.”

  “Are four men enough?” Nathan asked, remembering that the last boarding attempt had brought twelve heavily armed men aboard in a medevac shuttle.

  “If there’s a firefight in the transfer airlock, the bridge has standing orders to open the outer doors and space everyone inside if it goes bad,” Jessica explained.

  “Seems a bit harsh,” Nathan commented. “How do the Corinari feel about that?”

  “It was their idea, Captain,” Jessica insisted. “Those guys are just as hard-core as our marines.”

  “I guess so,” Nathan agreed. “Anything else?”

  “Just that everyone aboard is required to wear either bio-linked comm-sets, or guest badges that have tracking chips in them. Oh, and we’ve also got several pairs of guards roaming the ship at all times.”

  “Is there a chance we’re going a bit overboard here?” Nathan wondered.

  “Well, sir, considering all that’s happened, and that this ship is currently the best hope that the Corinairans have to survive, I’d say no. If anything, it’s not enough. Don’t forget, their world is still in a barely controlled state of chaos. There are still plenty of loyalist whack-jobs down there dreaming up ways to steal the ship and deliver it to Caius the Great. They can dream all they want, but they’re not getting aboard this ship. Not again.”

  “Apparently not,” Nathan agreed. “Doctor Sorenson,” Nathan continued, turning to Abby, “how are things going with the Corinairan scientists?”

  “All data regarding the jump drive has been translated into Angla, which as you know is very similar to English. Most of their scientists are old enough to have learned Angla in their youth. Eventually, they will translate the database from Angla to Corinairan.”

  “So they are understanding your research?”

  “Indeed, sir,” Abby exclaimed. “I expect that in a few months they will understand it better than we do. In fact, they are already talking about creating miniaturized versions and installing them into small shuttles. They plan on using them as some sort of early warning system.”

  “Is that possible?” Nathan asked.

  “We would not be able to do it ourselves, at least not with our current technology. But with the help of the Yamaro’s fabricators, it just might be possible. The biggest obstacle is that they would have to run the conduits for the emitters. According to the Corinairan engineers, retrofitting an existing ship in such fashion would be a time-consuming task.”

  “What if the ship already had the emitter network and power sources installed?” Tug asked.

  “You know of such a ship?” Abby inquired.

  “My interceptor is capable of FTL travel, as well as two types of shielding. Its emitter network is quite similar to the Aurora’s in design. And the Corinairans just installed two new fusion reactors.”

  “Where would we put the field generators?” Abby asked.

  “We could remove the existing field generators for both the FTL fields and shields. That should provide ample space.”

  “It might work,” Abby admitted as she contemplated the idea. “The range would be reduced, however, as there would be limited room to install energy storage banks.”

  “How much would the range be reduced?” Nathan asked. He, too, was intrigued by the idea.

  “It depends on the efficiency of the Corinairan energy storage systems and the amount of space available for them on Tug’s ship,” she explained, “but if I had to guess, I would say possibly one light year.”

  “Captain,” Jessica chimed in, “a small jump ship would be a huge asset.”

  “How so?” Nathan asked.

  “Well, for starters the Corinari are correct; a network of small jump-enabled ships would make a great early warning system. You could place them a light month out and have them watch for inbound FTL traffic. If they detected something headed toward Corinair, they could jump back and alert command. That would give everyone at least a week to prepare.”

  “It would also be a great reconnaissance platform,” Tug added.

  “That’s the other thing I was thinking,” Jessica agreed.

  “Or a weapons delivery platform,” Tug added, getting a little excited at all the possibilities.

  “I think you two are forgetting about the political ramifications,” Nathan reminded them. They both looked at him, perplexed. “Giving the first jump drive to the Karuzari,” he pointed out.

  “I had not considered that,” Tug admitted.

  “You really think they’d make a stink?” Jessica asked.

  “They might,” Nathan stated.

  “Captain,” Abby interrupted, “it would take the Corinairans considerably longer to test their miniaturized version on one of their shuttles. And if the first one failed, it would likely destroy both the test shuttle and the prototype. They would have to start again from scratch. Tug’s interceptor would offer such a significant shortcut that they would be fools to let politics stand in their way.”

  “Fools and politics,” Nathan laughed, “two words that go hand in hand.”

  “We would gladly share ownership of the jump interceptor if that is what it takes, Captain,” Tug offered.

  “Thanks
, Tug,” Nathan said. “I agree the idea is worth pursuing, but let’s not hand over your interceptor unless we have to.” Tug nodded his agreement as Nathan turned to Abby. “Doctor Sorenson, speak with the Corinairan scientists and offer them the use of Tug’s interceptor as a test craft. I wouldn’t mind having another jump ship available to us,” Nathan added, “even if it is short range.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll contact them immediately,” Abby promised.

  “Captain, I’ll be heading to Corinair in about an hour,” Jessica informed him. “Commander Taylor has asked me to participate in the final interviews for the short list of volunteers. Apparently she needs my ‘suspicious eye’ to check them over before she makes her final selection. I’ll be bringing the most qualified and experienced volunteers back with me. Commander Taylor wants to get them trained as soon as possible so that they can help train the rest of the crew as they come in.”

  “Very well,” Nathan agreed. “Who will be in charge of the ship’s security in your absence?” he asked.

  “Sergeant Weatherly, sir.”

  “You're leaving a marine in charge of security on a fleet ship?” Nathan smiled at the thought.

  “No, I’m leaving a kickass marine in charge of security on a fleet ship,” Jessica responded, smiling right back at him.

  Nathan nodded his agreement. Sergeant Weatherly had proven himself as much if not more so than most, and he trusted the quiet, soft-spoken man without hesitation. It was a logical choice. “Agreed. Still, it will be another fleet first for the Aurora. Dismissed, everyone.”

  * * *

  “You know, if they do manage to put a jump drive into Tug’s interceptor, it would make a great recon platform,” Jessica said to Nathan as they descended the ramp from the command deck down to the main deck.

  “Yes, it would,” Nathan agreed, “but I was thinking more offensively. It would be much easier for him to jump inside a target’s shields and deliver a few nukes before jumping out.”

  “That it would,” Jessica agreed, “and with his aerodynamics, he could jump into the atmosphere of a planet bypassing all their orbital defenses, launch his ordnance, and jump away, all before they even brought their surface defenses online.”