The Icarian legacy: Brave Souls

by Kocho

  She turned to the Russian scientist that was standing next to her. He was talking with the general and explaining some of the things that they managed to uncover so far.

  She had to admit that the discovery of the antimatter missiles and torpedoes really made the military happy. Those weapons were by a large magnitude more powerful than any weapons of that size that mankind had. And the power output they had of fifty megatons gave a much needed indication about the power of the ships shields and defenses. That was still based on a speculation but it gave hope to almost everyone that was involved in the project. They all knew that with the current technology mankind could produce a more powerful weapon. That meant that if a fifty megaton explosion was capable of damaging the alien ships mankind had a chance. They all knew that both the US and Russia and quite possibly several other countries in the world had in their inventor nuclear bombs that had power of fifty megatons. And both countries had made experiments with a hundred megatons hydrogen bombs. She shuddered at the thought of the damage that those weapons could inflict if they were ever used. And from the looks of it they would have to use them. They all hoped that they might manage to use the primary ships weapons, the massive graviton guns. There was no hope of using the other energy weapons. Both the lasers and the plasma guns required too much power.

  She knew that there was still hope for the lasers. The military already experimented with lasers as weapons systems. And although they were weak compared with this several lasers were installed on the Deadalus.

  They were one way of using the excess heat that was going to be released by the VASIMR engines. And she liked the other option even more. They were hoping to use part of that power and energy for the shields. The tests were starting in several day s and everyone hoped for a positive outcome.

  “So Ladislav you are saying that we might be able to use the shield technology.”

  At those words both the general and all military personal present in the room turned toward her and the old scientist.

  She held her gaze as they studied her. The Russian looked at her and smiled. He knew that she was going to bring that on this meeting. They both discussed it the previous day, and they both knew that it was to important not to be mentioned. If they could manage to have even minimal shielding it would be an immense advantage. The other subject was about the possible defense from the energy weapons that the aliens used as their primary weapon. The current armor that every soldier in Earth’s militaries used was useless against the plasma and laser weapons of the aliens. Luckily that was one part of the aliens technology that they could stop.

  The military technicians explained that armors that could resist those weapons already existed, and some were even talking about the possibility of creating a powered armor in the next couple of years.

  Admiral Simonson looked at the female scientist.

  “Did you say that we might be able to use the shield technology?”

  The Russian scientist turned toward the admiral again and with a smile on his face answered.

  “Yes general.”

  Beside the US admiral several other generals and admirals from England, France, Germany, Israel, Russia and China were also present. There were also other officers from other countries.

  It was obvious that those two words got their undivided attention.

  She noticed that several of them even smiled.

  Dr. Ivanov continued.

  “As I already mentioned before during the search we discovered that most of the shield emitters were not damaged. They were simply down because they had no power. Of course we can’t hope to power them with the same power that they had from the reactors of the alien ship. The level of that technology is way ahead of us for now. But there is a possibility that with the current nuclear reactors that we are using on our military ships we might be able to power them for a short time or even longer periods although we can’t hope that they will be able to sustain more than couple of hits from their weapons.

  Several tests are planned in couple of days. If they are successful we plan to install several emitters on the Deadalus. That will enable for a greater chance for a success of the mission. And it will also be the first real test for them as shields for our ships. If we can use them as shields for that ship we might be able to use them for other vessels as well.”

  When he finished he sat down. The excitement of everyone in the room was obvious. Several discussions broke out between the generals and the officers. Everyone was talking except Simonson. As she looked at him she noticed that he was thinking. Before everyone arrived both she and the other scientists had a chance to study their files.

  Simonson was one of the few that had a firsthand experience with the aliens. He was part of the naval group that was attacked and savaged by them. He commanded the USS Missouri and its escorts. He was young for his rank. With just forty three years he was one of the youngest admirals in the US Navy.

  A graduate from Annapolis (United States Naval Academy; USNA) first in his class he started his career on the destroyer USS Mahan. His first command was the destroyer Farragut. He got his rank as admiral two years ago and got the command of the newly formed battle group lead by the reactivated USS Missouri. And the performance of the ships under his command in the battle proved that every positive evaluation that he got and the rapid promotions were well deserved.

  From the report that the fleet admiral Johnson submitted the timely arrival of the ships under Simonson’s command and their excellent performance marked the turning point in the confrontation. And after seeing the damage on the cruiser she had to agree. The biggest damage was from the shells that the two battleships fired. It was obvious that that type of guns should be used by every ship that humanity planned to use against the aliens. And it seemed that the military knew it as well. All of the ships from the Iowa- class were being reactivated, and every navy in the world began reactivating the retired battleships.

  The young admiral raised his head and looked at the engineers and the scientists.

  “Dr. Ivanov you said that we might be able to use the shield technology.”

  “Yes.”

  “And what are the chances about replicating or reverse engineering it? Can it be done with the technology and materials that we have available?”

  The Russian looked at the admiral. It was obvious that he is pleased by his question.

  “I believe that you should ask Mr. Koenig about that.”

  At those words one of the engineers rose from his seat and cleared his throat.

  “You asked a good question admiral. The answer is yes. We can reverse engineer them. They are something that we can understand although none of the emitters that we will be able to produce will have the same power as these emitters. We don’t have the same materials from which they are made, and none of the ones we can use have the same power transmission and output as them. Our shields will be weaker but I believe that they will be useful. I hope that in future we’ll discover those materials or maybe technology that will enable us to create more powerful emitters from the materials that we have at our disposal. Now if we manage to use more powerful generators or reactors we will have more powerful shields. Ultimately the main thing they need is power. The more power we put in them the stronger they will be. And besides we have a good supply of emitters from this ship. They had a good reserve.”

  The admiral smiled.

  “Thank you Mr. Koenig. I hope that the tests prove successful. Having shields when the time comes will be extremely useful.”

  The next hour after that passed in several discussions about the other technologies that might be reversed. And when the officers departed the scientists returned to their jobs. They all knew that on their research and the things that they might discover, that those discoveries might decide about the future of their world.

  And that was the greatest motivation of all.

  21 December 2017 Pentagon. 19:00 hours

  Simonson poured scotch in six glasses, o
ne for itch of the men that were gathered this evening in this office. He handed them their glasses and then finally he took his own and sat down on one of the chairs. As he looked at the others he smiled. He was the youngest man in the room. And not just that, but he was also junior in rank compared to everyone else.

  As he watched them he crossed eyes with Admiral Johnson.

  Johnson nodded and turned toward the man who gathered them here.

  General Taylor was reading the report about the progress of the research of the alien ship in Norfolk. The same report was in the hands of the British admiral Sir William Levin.

  Levin was his new commander in chief. With the decision to form the EDF (Earth Defense Force) which incorporated every army force of every country in the world and that included the ground forces, the navy and the air force new commanders were chosen. The top positions went to General Jack S. Taylor the CJCS of the US army forces and Sir William Levin. Taylor was responsible for the massive army formations that incorporated the soldiers from every army in the world, or better said he was the commander in chief of EFA (Earth Federation Army).

  The former commander of the British Royal Navy Sir William Levin became the new Fleet Admiral who commanded the EFN (Earth Federation Navy) which incorporated the navy fleets. It was planned to form two branches of the EFN one for the sea fleet, the EFSN (Earth Federation Sea Navy), and one new for the planned space fleet EFSF (Earth Federation Space Fleet).

  The other two men were General Carl M. Peters the new commander of EMC (Earth Marine Corps) and one civilian Charles Bentley the chief administrator of NASA. He smiled at the thought. Although Bentley wasn’t wearing a uniform his held the rank of General in the United States Air Force.

  When the treaty for forming a federation was signed everyone feared that the integrating of the militaries will be the most difficult task. As it turned out, that opinion proved groundless. The first thing that both Taylor and Levin did was to copy the NATO statute. The former military organization became the backbone for the newly formed EDF.

  The years of mutual cooperation, exercises and joined missions made the transition and the integration much easier. There was still much work to be done but the first real steps were already taken. It was the same thing for the Federation and its government. The United Nations Organizations practically became the first government of the newly formed Earth Federation. The presidency went to the men who first proposed the unification.

  Unary Samba became the first president of the Earth Federation. The political situation and unification was a lot more difficult than the military and from the way it looked it seemed that it will take couple of years for the Federation to really start to function. But no one had any doubts that that day will come. The only fear was that they might fail to stop the invasion. That was the only thing that they could not let happen. And in the next years everything else would come second when compared to that and to the needs of the military and especially the fleet.

  Simonson never looked at the report that the others were reading. He had no need because it was a report he wrote.

  After couple of minutes Taylor raised his head and looked at the others.

  “I think that now we can start the meeting. It was an excellent report Eliot.”

  Simonson smiled.

  “Thank you general. It was a pleasure to write it.”

  The comment made everyone chuckle.

  “Well that is first, an admiral that likes his homework. I never thought that I’d see the day.”

  The comment came from Levin. His British accent made the joke even funnier.

  “Well they are younger so who knows.”

  “Yes.”

  The laughing relaxed the atmosphere and the tension. Taylor looked at them and smiled. It was good to start the talk like this. They all needed a little relaxation.

  “Charles i trust that the technology that will come from Norfolk made everyone happy down there.”

  The NASA administrator smiled.

  “I think that they were more than happy, first the RCS thrusters and then the shields. It will sure make things a lot easier.

  “Do you have an estimate about the time when the ship will be finished?”

  “I believe that it will be finished by the end of January. The mission should be launched in March. The team of scientists is already chosen. And I believe that you have the team of marines that will go on the mission as well.”

  “Yes we do. There is one change in that regard. The mission will have several more members. The Macedonians requested before giving us access to the ship on their territory for their members to be included.

  Several scientists and linguists from those territories will come and one of them will be Fillip Stefanovski from Macedonia.

  He will go as a representative of the Federal Government, but he is still a member of their military so we can assume his role in this. The request came from the president. And from what I know of the man I think that he made a good choice.”

  “Isn’t that the soldier that…”

  Taylor looked at Peters. The marine general smiled as he noticed both Admiral Johnson and Simonson nodding with their heads.

  “Yes he is the soldier that delivered us the data and killed the alien soldiers. He won’t hold his rank instead he will be an addition to the science team. “

  “How can he be an addition to the science team?”

  “He can because he has degrees in mathematics and physics, and because he speaks several languages, especially old languages. And if the aliens are any indication we might need one more linguist in the team.”

  Levin turned to Charles. The British admiral was silent till that moment.

  “Mr. Bentley is the Deadalus going to be able to make the additional trip to the coordinates that we have.”

  “Yes it will be. With the reactors it should be able to operate without any problems. The trip will be slower and it will extend the mission but we already planned for that. The food and water supplies will be doubled. And with the thrusters from the alien ship we don’t need to bring additional fuel. We were extremely lucky in that regard. Everyone knows how important it is to find out why they chose those coordinates. We hoped to find out more with our telescopes but they showed nothing but empty space. And when I say empty I mean totally empty. There is nothing there.”

  After this no one said anything for the next couple of minutes. They all drank their drinks and were just looking at each other. Johnson was the first to break the silence.

  “Are there any plans for how will we use this information.”

  “What do you mean Jack?”

  The admiral inhaled and looked at his superior officer.

  “We all know that if want to have any chance of repelling the invasion and destroying their fleet our best chance will be to catch them there when they, as our science fiction movies and writers say, exit from hyperspace. We know that the best weapon we have against them is our nuclear arsenal. And that it will take several really strong nuclear devices, possibly even hundreds to destroy that fleet. We all know what will happen if we have to fight them here on Earth. That many nuclear bombs… the fallout will be disastrous. We will sign our own death warrant.”

  “There are already plans for ships. And we know that we have conventional weapons that can damage them.”

  Johnson smiled at the last comment.

  “I’m sorry general. Yes I know that the rail guns and the main guns from the battleships managed to cause significant damage on the ships we faced here. But those ships were small and the largest one was heavily damaged before we engaged it. And our losses were enormous. It took a lot of shots to break through its hull. And it didn’t have any shields. If it had…”

  He left the last sentence hang in the air for couple of seconds.

  “No Jack. We all know that our best, no our only chance of stopping them is at that point in space. If they come here it’s all over. Even if we win that battle our losses will be so h
igh… Yes we should make contingency plans in case they make it to Earth, but we have to try to stop them there. That is the place where we should draw the line.”

  “He is right sirs. We should try to make our stand there.”

  Taylor looked at both admirals. He knew that they were right. And that they spoke from experience. They both were the only people in the room who faced the aliens. And they had firsthand experience about their abilities. And he read the report from the science teams that were researching the wrecks. He read the paragraph that warned and mentioned the power of the shields that the cruiser had, and of its weapons. The power of that ship was breathtaking. And that was only one ship that was being stripped from everything. And the fleet will have more ships like it, maybe even some more powerful from it.

  “I know that you are right Eliot. Plans are already in motion to create an opportunity that will make it possible to make that stand. And who knows maybe the expedition will uncover something we can use. There is hope that we might be able to use those ships.”

  “Well we will know in couple of months.”

  After this they went in to discussion about the possibility of using some more technologies from the alien ship. The meeting carried on for several more hours.

  And while they discussed, high above them large teams of technicians worked on the ship. With the reactors in place the construction was nearing the finish. The engine was slowly being put in place. And in the distance lonely ships were waiting the final return of their creators…

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  23 March 2018 11:00 hours