Ringship Discretion

by Sean League

  She pulled out a piece of cheesecake. "Look Attie. Look what Ben found in the food supplies." She put the plate up to his face and his eyes got big.

  He backed up and let her close the fridge. "Oh, maybe I can stay up a little longer!"

  Amelia grabbed two spoons and handed one to him. "Attie, I think we are almost done, but with the BB ship and the Oorters jamming the hell out of everything, I don't see how we are going to get this information out."

  Attie closed his eyes as he savored the cheesecake. "Mmmm...we'll figure a way. They have to stop jamming us eventually. We may just have to wait."

  The next morning Amelia came over the intercom. "Attie, the BB ship. It's slowing down."

  A few seconds later, everyone was on the bridge. Attie ran up and looked at her panel. "What? Really?"

  She pointed to the radar reflection on the screen. "Yes, they are still jamming us and pinging us with their radar, but they are decelerating and changing course. Guess our Oorter friends scared them off."

  Attie sat in his chair. "How many Oorter ships now?"

  Amelia looked. "There are three that are almost up to his speed, but are now behind us, and another four that are trying to catch up."

  Attie smiled. "Guess the BB captain didn't feel like taking on seven capital ships."

  Amelia changed screens. "Yeah, I guess not, but Attie, look at this."

  A huge mass of ships appeared on the screen. "They are just about to Jupiter. From their trajectory, it looks like they are going to slingshot and head right for Uranus."

  Attie changed the resolution of the display and zoomed in. "There's over a 100 ships here. That has to be most of the Big Sis fleet!". Amelia had rigged a 'Time to Oberon' clock on the bridge a few days earlier. The captain looked up at it. "We still have 76 days...All this waiting to see who catches us first is driving me nuts. Amelia, can you put together a simulation based on what we saw from the other Big Sis ships as to when that fleet should reach Uranus?"

  She looked over at him. "Sure Attie."

  CHAPTER 8: Two Months To Oberon

  Flying towards a small green star.

  Heading out into the black, out so far.

  We know not to expect foe or friend.

  To start a new beginning, or to end.

  Attie walked up to the bridge, looked up at the clock and said to himself, "62 days...". It was early morning by the ship's usual schedule and everyone was still sleeping. He sat in the pilot's chair and sipped at his hot chocolate. The lights were off except the displays. Uranus shown as a blue green dot against an infinite see of stars and he thought to himself, "It is getting brighter."

  He sat and watched the sky for a long while and then he heard a whisper from behind.

  "Attie. What are you are doing? I woke up and you were gone." She walked up behind him and kissed the top of his blonde head. He reached back with his hand and she quietly moved around next to him. She lifted her deep blue nighty from her ankles and sat on his lap. Her sweater started to slip and she quickly wrapped it tightly around her. Attie hugged her. "Cold? Want me to turn the temperature up?"

  She snuggled up to him. "No, it feels so cozy to just sit and get warm with you. Like a cold winter morning back on Earth."

  Attie put the mug in front of her face. "Want some hot chocolate? Well, at least it used to be hot." He smiled and she took a sip from from the mug. Her face was deep in the large mug when a quick pulsing sensor alarm went off. She put the mug down and they both leaned forward. She pushed her right hand out of her sweater and silenced the alarm. "We're being scanned again. Probably just the Oorters." She scooted forward in his lap and leaned over the panel to get more information. Attie looked down at her shape through the nighty as her sweater climbed up her back. He grabbed her hips and pulled her back. At first she responded, but then she resisted. "Attie. It's the Big Sis ships. That's who's scanning us!"

  Attie's thoughts changed and he leaned forward to look over her shoulder. "What? They're way too far away."

  She pointed "No, not the fleet. The two ships that were following the BB ship. They're following us now."

  Attie's concern started to fade. "Wait, if the BB ship could barely catch us, can they get near enough to hurt us?"

  Amelia took a minute to put in the numbers to one of her many models. "No, they shouldn't be able to get to us before we reach Uranus. Hmmm.. Actually, they may be scanning the Oorter ships. They are behind us and much closer to them, but our systems registered it as a scan on us. I wouldn't think they could get too much useful data on us from that distance. Hell, what is there to know. We're a ring ship with some cargo. It's not like we pose a threat....not directly anyway."

  Attie said "I wonder if those Oorter ships will engage them."

  Amelia sat upright. "Well, their speeds and range are pretty close, so they could."

  Attie tightened his grip on her waist and pulled her back. "Where were we?".

  She turned her head and started to kiss him as his hands ran down the sides of her thighs and slowly pulled up her nighty.

  "Good morning Captain!" came from Ben as he walked in from the galley. Amelia stood straight up and pushed her clothes down. Then, leaning casually. "Morning Ben! We were just checking some scans..scans of us that is."

  Attie crossed his legs and leaned forward, while pretending to push buttons. "Ah, yeah, we were picking up, I mean the, a sensor alarm went off. See right here. But it was just Big Sis scanning the Oorters behind us."

  As Ben got close, he stopped and looked at both of them. His eyes went from one to the other until he said "Um, oh, yeah, I have something to do in engine room, which is fully repaired by the way. And as he walked away "Along with the grav control panel Amelia's leaning on. Toodles!"

  Amelia slowly took her hand off the panel, not really sure if she should believe him. She looked at Attie and sucked her lips in. "Oops". They both started to giggle. Amelia tilted her head in the direction of their quarters. Attie nodded eagerly and they went back to bed.

  CHAPTER 9: Deceleration

  To risk the love of my family,

  For the love of humanity.

  To throw bottles into the sea,

  That the information may set them free.

  Attie awoke to Amelia poking his nose. "Hey sleepy head. Guess what today is."

  As he tried to focus on her face. "Um..Tuesday? Sunday?..."

  She kissed him. "No, that's not what I mean. It's deceleration day."

  He sat up. "So we are half way?!"

  She sat up with him. "Well, close, 49 days to go. Come on, let's go make breakfast. Hey! We can use the table today! Have a real sit down meal!"

  As they walked into the galley, everyone was sitting down. Ben said "So THIS is the galley table! Didn't know we still had one of these!." Amelia cocked her head and said. "Ha ha".

  AJ looked at the captain. "So does this mean you have finished with the grav plate?"

  The captain grabbed a dish and silverware, and sat down. "Yep. We finished it last night. We now have a schematic and a complete 'how to manual' on how to put it together. The only thing we don't know is how to link the plates together or where to put them on the hull."

  Amelia interrupted. "We think some of them go on the front of the ship and some on the back to manipulate the fabric of space-time around the ship...but we just don't know exactly how it works."

  Attie looked at her and then the crew. "We are hoping that we can find the rest of the information when we get to Oberon. Then we can release it to the net."

  Helen pulled out a pan at looked at the captain. "How are we going to do that with all the jamming? Even if they stop jamming us, the inner solar system is flooded with so much jamming that our signal would never get through."

  Attie looked at Amelia. "Hmmm..that is a good question."

  Amelia looked back at him. "We will have to think of something. A thought I had is that we don't want to broadcast directly from our ship. I think we would become target number one for
everyone including the Oorters if we did that."

  Attie nodded. "Hell, we pretty much are target number one now! But I agree. We need to find a way to get this out without it being traceable to us."

  Ben cleared his throat. "Can we have breakfast now?"

  The captain turned his head to look at Ben, chuckled and turned around to Helen. "Yeah, what's for breakfast?!"

  Helen gave him the evil eye. "I am half tempted to say "Whatever you cook", but since we do have our galley table back and we are all here, I'll go ahead.... I believe we have some vacuum sealed eggs, so how about omelets?"

  Everyone agreed excitedly. Doc got up to help his wife and steer himself clear of the 'dog house'.

  As Amelia shoved the last piece of bacon in her mouth she said. "Well, it almost time to turn the ship around and begin our deceleration burn. She looked down at her watch. "About 36 minutes now."

  AJ curiously asked "Why do you wear one of those? Don't you have internal time on your TC implant?"

  Amelia's mouth opened, but she didn't say anything while she thought.

  Attie answered. "She really doesn't like using the new tech. The simple old things like watches make her feel more comfortable."

  Amelia got up from the table. "Yeah, a watch is just going to tell the time. It isn't going to run some subroutine to steal your info or give away your position. I hate having that crap in my head, but these days you have to."

  AJ responded. "But it makes life so much easier."

  Amelia said as she turned and walked away towards the bridge. "Easier doesn't mean better."

  AJ had a contemplative look on his face when the captain looked over and just smiled at him. The captain then got up and followed Amelia out.

  About 20 minutes later, Amelia came over the intercom. "Everyone strap themselves in and make sure everything is secure. We are going to have a few minutes of weightlessness as we come about."

  Attie strapped himself in to the co-pilots seat, looked over at her and said "I'm ready."

  She looked at him and smiled.

  He said with just his lips "I love you."

  She reached over with her right hand and he with his left. Their hands met and held tight. She looked back at the panel and hit the intercom once more with her left. "Everyone ready?" Then she initialized the grav plate shutdown. The 30 second warning alarm went off. She leaned back and turned her head back toward Attie expecting he would be looking at her. But he was leaning forward against his straps.

  He strained and pointed with his right hand. "Look, the BB ship has stopped jamming us and it's turned off its radar.

  They let go of each other's hands and both looked at the sensor panel. Amelia said "I can't even see it anymore."

  Attie looked at her again. "They probably don't want to keep giving away their position and maybe they are thinking everyone will forget about them if they go quiet."

  Amelia thought for a second. "Well, everyone pretty much has already forgotten about them, the Big Sis ships have turned for us. They must know what we have now. Either that or they are just guessing we are the valuable prize."

  Attie responded. "Yeah, that makes sense..." He felt the sudden tickle in his stomach from weightlessness.

  Amelia returned her attention to the flight controls. "Here we go. I am bringing her about."

  Attie felt the slight pressure against the edge of the seat as the stars rotated across the cockpit window. The sensation made him put his hands back on his chair.

  Amelia pushed more buttons and the 30 second alarm activated again.

  Amelia looked back at the sensor panel. "Hey. I'm picking up gamma rays in the direction of the Big Sis ships."

  Attie pushed off the seat and floated forward against his straps to get a closer look. "I guess those Oorter ships caught up to them. Although, it really doesn't make much difference to us I guess. They couldn't catch us anyway..." Then a gush of air came out his mouth as the return of the G-force load put him firmly back in his seat.

  Amelia announced. "OK, that's it. We are in the deceleration phase. Next stop, Oberon." She glanced at Attie and raised her eyebrows while taking a deep breath." He nodded back. "Yeah."

  Just then, Ben appeared, with AJ right behind him. "Hey Captain. I thought of a way to get the schematics back."

  Attie and Amelia both turned to look at him with intense interest on their face.

  Ben hesitated for a second and said "You know we have the 100 warp probes on board that we got off that BB ship."

  Amelia and Attie both said "Yeah?"

  Ben started to say "We could.." and Amelia finished his sentence "Upload the data to them and launch them."

  Attie nodded in agreement, but said, "But who is going to receive it and put it on the net?"

  AJ raised his hand. "What do these warp probes do?"

  Amelia started to answer him, but Ben talked right over her. "Remember Rex, who got us that laser satellite repeater gig about a year back?"

  The captain's eyes looked up as he thought. "Yeah, the ones we deployed on those Trojan asteroids."

  Ben continued. "Well, he and the guys he works with, do nothing but hacker crap. I'm sure they would be more than happy to upload this. I don't know where his buddies are, but he still lives with his parents near Peary Crater on the Moon."

  Amelia spoke up. "What? Do we just fly the thing into his dome or something?"

  The captain said "No. The probe can send him a short message once it reaches the moon telling him its location and he can retrieve it. Assuming any of them actually make it."

  AJ's mouth was open and he kept partially raising his hand. The captain finally looked at him and said "Warp probes are what the military uses for almost instant communications. You load them with a message and program in a destination. When they arrive, it will send a coded message as to its location, to whatever ship you are trying to communicate with. The big problem with them, is like any warp ship, the warp drive is totally unstable and most of them don't make it. They usually send 20 or 30 of them to make sure one makes it. That's expensive and why no one else really uses them. Its much cheaper just to wait an hour or two to get the message by radio."

  Amelia turned back to the control panel. "Let me see if I can estimate how many we will lose on a 2 and a half light hour trip."

  AJ asked "Why don't we use laser communication?"

  Amelia responded. "We are too far out of range for our laser system. No one would be able to pickup the signal, unless they were specifically looking for one from us."

  AJ said "Oh."

  The captain looked back at Ben. "Do we still have the communication code and frequency from last time we dealt with him?"

  Amelia said "Yes. It should be in the archives from the data backup. I uploaded all the old files that I had backed up from our last ship."

  The captain smacked his hands together. "Sounds like a plan to me! Let's make it happen."

  Amelia asked. "Do we want to launch it now? Before we have all the information about how to install them?"

  Attie thought on it for a short while. "I'm thinking we should. We have no idea what kind of situation we are going to be in as we get to Oberon. Maybe someone back there can figure out the rest, if we just give them the plans. I would think someone on the Internet could."

  Two hours later, Helen walked into the galley and saw the table covered with electronics again. "We didn't even get to use the table for one whole day!".

  Ben, AJ and the captain looked up at her. The captain smiled and put up his hands. "We only need it for a few hours. Promise."

  She came and leaned over the table. "What are those?"

  AJ eagerly said "Warp probes! We are going to use them to send a message back."

  The captain looked back at his tablet. "OK, that's another one done. Hand me the next one."

  Amelia walked in and said "Well, it looks like they should have a 5% chance of making it that far. So you need to at least send 20 of them."

  Attie said "No
, we are sending all of them."

  Amelia nodded. "Well, yeah, I didn't mean you shouldn't send more. Just, that's the minimum." She gave him a short smile.

  That evening Helen walked into the galley again. "It's time for dinner and you guys still have this crap on the table."

  The captain looked up at her, waited for his eyes to focus, from looking closely at tiny parts for hours. "I'm just finishing up the last one." He looked at Ben and AJ while whispering, "Go ahead and put this stuff by the airlock...I'll finish this one up."

  They began clearing everything off and putting the few probes that were still on the table back in their cases. Helen smiled, turned to the food locker and said "Well, let's see. How about some ham like meat and stuffing?" She looked back at them. They all nodded in agreement.

  After dinner the captain asked "OK. Let's see if we can't get these probes launched. Ben and I will suit up and release them. Amelia, you pilot. Helen, assist her and monitor the comms." He looked at Doc and AJ. "I guess that leaves dishes for you two." At that everyone scattered to their assigned tasks, leaving Doc and AJ.

  Ben and the captain stood in the airlock waiting for it to finish depressurizing.

  Amelia said over the comm "Everything looks good. Just don't 'fall' out of the airlock or we will have to stop the ship's deceleration to come get your ass!"

  With that, both Ben and the captain attached their suits to two ring points. "Of course not! We're not newbies here!" Then they looked at each other with mutual grins.

  When the pressure hit zero, Ben opened the outer hatch. The captain grabbed one of the probes and handed it to Ben. "OK, we are ready to start releasing them. Ben, since we don't have a launcher, just break the tabs on the side and throw them out." Ben broke the tabs and threw the probe out the door. The probe rapidly moved out of view towards Uranus as the Discretion continued to decelerate.

  Attie asked "Amelia, did it go?"

  She responded. "I believe so. It was on the sensors few seconds and then it was gone."

  Attie said "Good. We will release the rest." The captain handed them to Ben one at a time and he threw them out until all 100 were gone."