by Chris Hechtl
“I'm not making any promises,” the other man said dubiously.
~~*^*~~
Roman studied the civilian captain, soon to be admiral, as Captain Lewis made his way through security with his entourage in tow. When he'd had his staff look into the best naval heads, they had all been pointed in the direction of Lewis. Many compared him to Nelson or Halsey. The woman behind him had to be Jan Kepler, the second runner-up he noted. Good. They could get along he thought. The fact that Walt had called Jan in himself told him good things about the man.
They had an entourage of a dozen excited people with them. Some were middle age like Jan Kepler, but some others were quite young. But his interest was on the two of them; they were the leaders. The captains were in civilian uniforms, but he accepted that. Many of the other personnel were too, but a few were in either cosplay or coveralls. The navy would be built around them he knew. They would make or break everything he thought, hoping he was backing the right players.
He had ship captains checking in with him. Some were ready to serve in any capacity; others were practically demanding he convert their ship into a warship. He wasn't certain how viable that plan was, but at the moment he'd take anything.
“General,” Captain Falcon said as he escorted the group into the conference room.
Roman shook hands as Walter made introductions. When they were finished, the general squared his shoulders and tucked his hands behind his back as he took the podium to address the group.
“I asked you, well, Captain Lewis,” he said as Captain Lewis stiffened, “here to build the navy. This is on my dime, my initiative while the politicians hem and haw and scratch their head and … well other parts of their anatomy,” he said.
That earned a brief titter.
“How true,” Jan murmured.
Roman glanced at her and then to the group. They instantly quieted.
“You are not going to be loved for a while. It is an unenviable position I am putting you in. But I think we all realize the severity of the situation; otherwise, you wouldn't be here. So,” he said pulling out his right hand and raising it. “Raise your right hand and repeat after me as we take the oath of office,” he said solemnly.
Once the oath of office was complete, Roman had Captain Lewis step forward. “As head of the military of the Terran Confederation, I am giving you the emergency provisional rank of admiral. This is dependent on final approval of the senate and administration of course,” Roman said as he pinned a star to the newly minted admiral's collar.
“Obviously, I've never gone to a military academy,” Walter said bemused as he glanced at the gold star. Captain Kepler stared at him and the general as the audience broke out into polite applause.
“At this point, beggars can't be choosers. And the rank is provisional pending senate approval of course,” Roman replied with a grimace.
“That'll take what, a century?” Jan asked.
“Hopefully not,” the general said, turning to her. “What do we do with you?”
“I'd like her on as a flag officer, sir. She's second to me in game strategy. I'm going to need that grit. She's also a ship's captain,” Walter said.
Roman nodded slowly. His staff had thrown together a quick brief of each person coming in. He pursed his lips as he read the report on Captain Kelper. “Secondary rank, does the rank of rear admiral suit you?” he asked.
Jan blinked, stunned, then nodded. She knew it was a test, but one she was willing to accept. She felt her cheeks heat a little as she nodded again. “Yes, sir,” she said formally for the record.
“Then raise your right hand and repeat after me …”
Chapter 15
Captain Cooley shook his head in not quite despair but close enough to it. If he'd thought Magellan bringing a warning would be the clarion call needed to wake up Sol, he was sadly mistaken. Jack Lagroose's cynicism echoed in his mind as he listened to the initial consternation, and then watched as the denial set in over the situation. “Well, that's there, not here!” was a common argument.
He watched the Senate committee kick into what they considered high gear as they debated the threat. One thing, if they didn't get anywhere he was going to try to find a way to get his family and others onto his ship and get Magellan as far away as possible.
If they let him he thought.
“And if they follow the hyperbridge network here?” General Taylor asked, breaking into the captain's ruminations.
“You did this on purpose! To justify your vaunted military, damn it!” Senator Calhoun practically howled.
“If I wanted a job, I'd go back to being a company cop. I was good at that. Or retire, I could do that too,” General Taylor growled. “I've been pushing the military because once burned forever shy. Especially after Skynet,” he growled.
“And there you go again, trotting that dead A.I. out,” Senator Calhoun snarled in contempt.
“So, we should do nothing? Stick our head in the ground and pray they don't come?” Roman shook his head. “I don't know about you, but I like being prepared. We owe it to the people you represent and the ones I'm sworn to protect to do something now, while we have time. Before it is too late.”
“Be prepared? And if they don't come and we've spent untold trillions on these hysterics?”
“Better to be prepared than not. We can always find uses for the ships. Rescue ships come to mind. Just mothballing them in case of a future threat for instance. But better to have them, than not,” General Taylor said.
“That's not acceptable, General. You and I both know this is jumping at shadows at best! We can't take the word of one ship and her crew who got spooked by something they allegedly saw!” Captain Calhoun said.
“I suggest you talk to them again and go over the records they brought back then, Senator. My experts have certified the raw sensory data as authentic. The crew's observations as well as those from Jack Lagroose have also been logged. Some appear to be quite good but lack enough foundation at this time to be conclusive.”
Captain Cooley groaned softly to himself. He knew he was going to get dragged back there again. He'd had a devil of a time dealing with the crap they'd thrown at him the last time he'd sat through one of their marathon grilling sessions. He wasn't certain if he could keep his temper again or not. Probably not.
“Jack Lagroose, that old man can't be trusted!” the senator insisted.
“Since when?” Senator Camp demanded. “I know the man's record as do a lot of people. He's been a pillar of the community for centuries, Senator, long before you were born. He also was one of the architects of the defense of all civilization during the A.I. War,” he said in a caustic tone of voice.
“Let's not get bogged down in …,” Senator Dewalt interrupted.
“If Jack Lagroose is such a pillar, why isn't he here?” Senator Calhoun said in a strident voice over the chairman.
“He's currently the governor of a colony! He couldn't abandon that colony in the face of possible alien invasion to come back here to listen to you pitch a …,” Senator Camp's diatribe was cut off by a sharp gavel rap from Senator Dewalt's hammer.
“That is quite enough the both of you. I think we need a ten-minute recess to let tempers cool,” the senator said as he rose from his chair. “Ten people,” he said, tapping his gavel again.
Captain Cooley groaned again. That was just delaying the inevitable again he thought miserably.
~~*^*~~
Rumors began of a hoax being perpetuated by different people. The media caught on to the trending thought but didn't comment on it initially. When it began to be picked up by some of the indie outlets, the major media outlets were forced to confront it.
The talking heads began to pick apart the theory. A few latched on, some arguing that it made sense.
“They are getting desperate. Grasping at straws and boogie men!” Senator Calhoun insisted as she sat through an interview.
“They being who, ma'am?”
“Why, the milit
ary of course! They've been trying to find a way to justify their existence for some time! Now they've caused a panic and people are listening to them.”
“So, you are a skeptic of the recordings? And the sworn testimony of the crew?”
“Of course I am!” the senator said.
“Do you have any evidence that they were falsified?”
“There is no way, no way in heaven or Earth that aliens exist!”
“And again, Senator, you have proof of this?”
“We haven't seen them before, have we? They never came here! We had programs like SETI, Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, going for well on a century with little luck and no proof. It was all debunked as natural radio chatter.” Tamera was quite proud of her staff for dredging it up. “If they exist, where have they been all this time?”
“Senator, you realize this ship was seen over fifteen thousand light years away?” the reporter pressed.
“Alleged ship. You can do a lot with computers these days,” the senator replied with a sniff.
“The A.I. union has certified the sensor data as legitimate. You have no proof it isn't yet still insist it is falsified.”
“You cannot convince me it is legitimate.”
“Okay, setting that aside for the moment. Let's say it is and we get further evidence in the future. Will you recant?”
“Of course. Everyone can make a mistake,” the senator stated. “But I'm not wrong.”
“But if you are, what do you take as the alleged ship's intentions?”
“There is no way it could be that big,” the senator said firmly. “If, and I stress this,” she held up her right index finger, “if it is a legitimate ship, then it must be a misunderstanding,” she insisted. “But I still firmly believe it is a hoax being perpetuated on the public by the major corporations, one of which is Lagroose Industries and Jack Lagroose, in collusion with the Space Marines in order to return to power and build a navy—a wasteful endeavor,” she said, ramming her point home.
“We now turn to Doctor Loreli, foremost expert in hyper-physics and starships at Mars University. Doctor, thank you for being with us,” the anchorwoman said, nodding to the scientist's headshot. The human woman nodded back politely. “Doctor, the senator brought up several points we'd like to address. First, the size.”
“Has been certified as has the recordings. I've personally gone over the raw data. I was a skeptic. They've converted me into a believer,” the doctor said firmly.
“All right, setting aside the hoax theory for a moment …”
“Hypothesis. A theory has facts and evidence. The hoax idea is false,” Doctor Loreli pointed out.
Senator Calhoun objected instantly. “It can't be real!”
“Of course you were there, you saw the ship first hand, ma'am?” Doctor Loreli asked politely.
“No but …”
“So, on the basis of your complete and utter ignorance, you are discounting eyewitness and recorded testimony that counters your views, all because you don't like them? Rather conceited world view you've got there—naive and dangerous.”
The senator flushed.
“I can't comment on the behavior of the ship. I'm restricting my comments to the design and what it was capable of. It is consistent with what we know about starships in general. I am actually a bit disappointed; I really didn't see anything new here.”
“New, Doctor?” the anchor asked.
“Yes, new. New as in a new design, a new form of transport, power, or speed. One would think they'd be better at ship building than us, correct? Especially if they have been at it longer?”
“See? Someone didn't have the imagination to pull that off!” the senator interjected.
“Unproven supposition. We don't know enough about the why so all we can do is speculate,” the doctor replied.
“It isn't supposition it is …”
“And with that we've got to take a break, folks,” the anchor said with a smile as she looked directly into the camera while her guests went at it on the screen behind her.
~~*^*~~
“We are so screwed,” Rick Krawley muttered darkly as he sat in Yorrick's office. He had to admit Yorrick's break with his sister had changed the young man. He'd matured, become something of a proper Lagroose heir. Someone he could actually trust and think of as a friend despite their adversarial positions.
That was hard to admit, especially after Yorrick and Wendy had stuck the knife first in their father's back, then in Doctor Glass's back, then to several others in the company. But in a crisis like they were in, they had to let the past remain in the past if they wanted to have a future. He'd taken over from Paul, the former union boss. Paul Baker had been a good man, a good chimp leader everyone had respected. At least he'd landed on his feet, Rick mused. First as a mayor of one of the Neo habitats, then as their Congressional representative in the Solarian House.
“I know the feeling. I'm running around trying to think of what we can do if they just show up right now,” Yorrick admitted. “There is one warship in the star system, and it's a joke,” Yorrick said with a shake of his head.
“Excuse me?” Rick asked, suddenly intently staring at Yorrick with keen interest.
Yorrick caught the look and rolled his eyes. “What, you forgot that one? That ship we started building a year ago on and off—the Enterprise. It's supposed to be a working replica when we're done, full scale, of a fictional warship from ancient media during the early stages of starflight.”
Rick blinked, lips puckering as he considered the outlandish concept. “Wait, that publicly-funded one? The space museum that was started before the war? The one that had been tied up in court for so long? That one?”
The space museum project had been created before the A.I. war as a crowd-funded project by fans across the solar system. A dozen ships and platforms had been designated to be built in orbit of Earth. It had been designated as some sort of tourist attraction.
The money had been paid into the accounts, the designs initiated, but then the project had been frozen by the outbreak of the A.I. war. During the rebuilding, some people had tried to touch the funds for their own purposes. Embezzlement charges had been leveled. Some surviving investors had wanted their money back. The entire project had been in court for over a decade before a settlement had been reached.
“Yes. They spent absurd amounts of money to get it together before the A.I. war. Even some of our engineers were involved. They figured out how to shoehorn the tech to get it to fit. Obviously, the hyperdrive doesn't work. The weapons are just toys; the government wouldn't allow it to be armed,” Yorrick mused. “We finally started it a year ago. We're halfway through construction despite a lot of issues we've had to handle that has set us back. The latest stage just cleared inspection.”
“I think I remember seeing it on the news,” Rick mused, searching his memory. “Okay, can we make it into a proper warship?”
“I doubt it,” Yorrick said with a shake of his head. “Just the structure alone, with the neck connecting the saucer section alone … my engineers said it wouldn't hold together under serious acceleration.”
“Damn,” Rick muttered. He wrinkled his nose and then scratched at his head. “Wait, if I recall, wasn't there another one?”
“Another ship like that?” Yorrick demanded. “Well, there was supposed to be various Enterprise models, plus a small ship that might have worked out. The engineering on that one made a little more sense …”
“No, I'm thinking from another series. Um …,” Rick did a quick search. He had a lot of false leads on the search result page to sort through. “I wish we had an A.I. to make this simpler,” He grumbled as he sifted through the search response. He got a better lead when he hit on the idea of searching for fictional ships made real. “I got something—the Falcon?” he asked, wrinkling his nose as he shared the files.
“Yeah …,” Yorrick drawled as he read the file. “Not one of ours. Another crowd-funding project. It was supp
osed to be a freighter turned super fighter … I think they tried to make the fighters in that fictional universe … yeah,” he did his own search and found the files as well as the news articles about the spectacular crash. “Yeah. It died. The ship was turned into a museum piece nearly a century ago.”
“It'd be cheaper to build a new ship from scratch over tearing that thing apart to get it updated and space worthy,” Rick said with a shake of his head.
“Exactly.”
Rick grimaced and then made a puttering sound. He'd seen a couple other attempts at building fictional ships in the net news archives. Some had made more sense than others, but none had been as popular as the Enterprise. None had gotten beyond the wistful let's build it without a penny movement though. “Okay, so that's out. What else can we do?”
“Not a lot. We don't have blueprints for weapons, not space weapons. I think the company might have some on file in the archives but …,” Yorrick shook his head. “Dead ends I believe. I know energy weapons were explored, and of course KEW …”
“We're going to need the whole kit and caboodle. Pity we don't have an R&D department to look into this.”
“Yeah,” Yorrick said quietly. “I think we can pull some engineers and architects in to brainstorm though. Post it, get our people talking about it,” he said. “See what they can come up with. But we can't lose productivity,” he warned.
“Yeah. Gotta keep the bills paid to keep the lights and life support on,” Rick agreed.
“Right,” Yorrick said with a tight nod.
~~*^*~~
Castill returned to Sol while the debate still raged. The crew questioned what was going on. That renewed debate in the public. It also sparked some concern over friends and family who had left for a colony in that area. Some people were not happy about being thwarted by not being able to go to the sector. Suddenly dozens of potential worlds were off limits.