by Arlin Fehr
WAYWARD GUARDIAN
Book 1 of the Guardian Saga
by: Arlin Fehr
Copyright © 2014 J. Arlin G. Fehr
ISBN13 : 978-1496073075
ISBN10: 149607307X
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.
Wayward Guardian is a work of fiction. Names, characters,, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Ravania Entertainment and the Ravania Entertainment logo are Copyright © 2012 Aaron Micheal Smith.
Dedication
To my Mother and Father,
Thank you for all you've done for me. Just think, it was all worthwhile, you've got a book dedicated to you.
Characters
Howard Fredrick: Captain
Mark Jona: First Mate
Keith Loheim: Chief Engineer
Ira Geer: Nurse
Ayla Geer: Ira's daughter
Samuel Jennings: Ship's Advocate
EXO: Ships AI Guardian Core
James Bennet: Colonial Power Grid Overseer
Danny Hough: Chief of Security
Sarah Lough: Hydroponics Technician
Table of Contents
Characters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Chapter 1
Axion Data Systems, Board Room 3
'Captain Fredrick, Mr. Loheim, glad you could make it.'
Two men walked into an already full board room. At one end of a long table, a man in a pinstriped suit stood with his back to a projector display. The display showed a upper case blue 'A' in a the centre of a circle of black. It was the Axion Data System Logo.
The two men took seats around the table. The man in the suit continued with his presentation.
'So as all of you here are no doubt aware, Axion Data Systems has decided to fund a new colonization project for the International Space Agency. Axion takes this responsibility very seriously, and only the finest equipment has been secured for this ship. We have hand picked the crew from a pool of rigorously tested candidates. As per your mission contracts each of you will be the department heads for this mission.'
'Most of you already know Captain Howard Fredrick. Captain Fredrick will be commanding this mission. He has years of experience behind him, having commanded many missions both in the private sector and for government organizations. This will be Captain Fredrick's first colony mission, but we at Axion are excited to have a man of his experience on our team.'
The presenter smiled a well practised smile and continued his presentation. He clicked a pointer in his hand, the image being displayed by the projector changed. It showed a camera feed of a large space dock that contained an almost complete colony ship. It's new hull plating gleamed in the sunlight.
It had two distinct sections separated by long scaffold beams running from one section to the other. The beams connected from the bottom corners, and the top centre of the ship.
'This is the Azure Dream. She will be your home for the next few months. She is our pride and joy. The newest and most advanced ship of the Axion fleet. Packed stem to stern with the finest colonial infrastructure our not inconsiderable resources can buy.
'As many of you know, this same basic design has been used, with only minor adjustments, over the past ten years of human kinds colonization,' the presenter said, 'As you can see here on the display, the core of the ship is mostly complete. The large space between the two sections will be filled up by the modular bays that will house all the colonists and colonial infrastructure.'
The presenter moved to a new camera feed, this one focusing on the front of the ship. The front section of the ship was wide at the back, and tapered forward and downwards, forming a kind of curving nose section.
'This section is the command and control section of the ship. This is where the bridge and Guardian control room will be located. There are also some cargo holds dedicated to ship supplies, as well as the crew quarters, which are separate from the colonist's housing bays,' the presenter said.
Along the hull of the front section, there were sensors and communication arrays being attached by the work crews.
'As you can see, there's still some last minute work to be done. A lot of the external equipment still needs to be attached.'
The presenter switched the camera, now it displayed the back section of the ship.
'The aft section of the ship houses the engineering bay and the ships engines. When I say engines, I do mean both the sub light engines and the jump drives.'
A hand went up.
'Yes Mr. Lohiem?'
'How do we get from engineering to the bow section when there's no modules to walk through?'
'When the space between the aft and bow sections is empty like this, there's a pair of retractable corridors that can be used to connect the two sections of the ship. Granted, it'd be a bit of a walk, but it'll get the job done. Of course, in an emergency, you could always get in a space suit and walk along this bit here,' the presenter pointed at a large metal strut that stretched from the bow to the aft section along the top of the ship, 'which the designers call the spine. This is where the power, oxygen, and waste systems run through to feed the colony modules once they're all in.'
'But all that aside, the cherry on top of this multi-billion dollar sundae is XO-33. The newest christened core of our XO line of Guardian cores. The XO series has been used extensively in ship based capacities, everything from deep space transports, to survey ships, with a few patrol cruisers thrown in for good measure. All without a hitch.'
Kieth raised his hand again.
'Yes Mr. Loheim?'
'Has an XO core ever been used on a colony ship before?' asked Keith, the chief engineer.
'First time for everything. The cores have undergone extensive virtual testing simulating journeys of much greater length and every kind of problem we could think of. As we expected, all the tests came up well within expected parameters.
'And in the event of a core shut down, there's still enough manual systems on board that the ship could be flown by the crew without assistance from the core,' The presenter almost beamed with pride, and then continued 'but the jump calculations would take forever. Ideally you'd just send a message on the long range array, and we'll come to pick you up.'
Keith nodded.
The presenter took a sip of water from a glass on the table and then switched the picture on the screen. It showed a blue green world with unfamiliar land masses, orbiting a star much like the sun.
'This is Vodea. It's a word we've borrowed from the Xozon language. It means distant, or forlorn. Considering that it's the farthest the human race has ever ventured from home, it seems appropriate.'
Another hand went up. This one from the first officer, Mark Jona.
'Mr. Jona, you have a question?'
'Yes, what sort of data do we have on this world?'
'Initial surveys by scouts on contract from Light-Lines Incorporated are very promising. A twenty seven hour rotational period. An orbital period of four hundr
ed and eighty two local days. Temperature variance during the seasons is a a touch more extreme in the temperate and arctic regions, as the planet has a more axial tilt than earth.
'Spectral analysis shows a breathable atmosphere. Gravity is about 1.1 times that of the earth. Atmospheric pressure is a bit higher. All in all, a golden find. It also has two small moons in orbit around it.'
Mark interrupted, 'Was there a ground based survey?'
'Yes, a ground based survey was carried out by EverSky Surveys. They found a few excellent locations to set up the colony, and didn't find anything outside of expected parameters. A more thorough analysis of the survey can be found in your briefing packet.'
Howard raised a hand.
'Yes Captain Fredrick?'
'What kind of infrastructure are we bringing with us?' Howard asked, while flipping to the appropriate section in his info package.
'Glad you asked Captain, I was going to get to that next.
'As I mentioned earlier, the space between the aft and bow sections is going to be filled by modular colonial bays. Each of the bays are self contained reentry vehicles. When the Azure Dream hits orbit, the bays will be sealed, and dropped to the planet. Once on the ground they'll act as the starting infrastructure for the colony. The bays will be converted into greenhouses, residential blocks, and other facilities.
'The other part of the colonial puzzle is the sustainable power grid. The largest bay on the ship serves a twofold purpose. It houses the solar power arrays that will be put in orbit around Vodea, and the bay itself will serve as a core for the first space station for the colony.'
The presenter moved to the next slide. An animated clip showed the lowest and largest bay detaching from the ship and moving into orbit. As the clip went on, it showed a solar power array being built in orbit.
'Once in orbit, the bay will be detached from the ship first, along with a small crew equipped for zero-g construction. They'll set up the solar power array in orbit, and then the colony will set up a receiver station. The power will then be transmitted from orbit to the ground station via a laser and converted to usable power.'
'Excuse me,' Keith interrupted, 'but what happens if we can't set up the array?'
'In the event that the solar array cannot be set up, the ship can land and the on board generators can power the colony for up to year on their own. After that time, the generators will need to receive additional fuel, but of course, by then we should have sent additional supplies to the colony,' Keith raised his hand, 'but before you ask, if something goes really really wrong, Axion will dispatch an emergency courier to the colony if you don't check in within two weeks after your scheduled departure time.'
'Two weeks is quite some time to wait on an alien world,' Captain Fredrick commented,
'It is indeed, but unfortunately, it could be even longer, as the nearest ships would still need time to get supplies and get there, as well as receive orders from Axion in the first place. Worst case, it could be up to two months before anyone checks in.'
The presenter raised his hands to stave off any additional questions, 'I know what your thinking, that's a long time to be on your own, and I'm not going to deny that, but you literally have every thing you need to survive, even without power, for those two months. In the event that you lose that ability, well I don't think a scout ship is going to do much to save you. A disaster of that magnitude would probably mean the ship had been rendered completely inoperable. Regrettably, there's not really any recovery from that. Space flight has always been a risky business after all.'
Captain Fredrick said, 'That's true enough I suppose. We'll just have to make sure it doesn't get to that point.'
'Thank you Captain. That about concludes the introduction, unless we have any other questions, we can get into the specifics.'
Mark Jona was flipping through his information folder, 'I have a question. I know Guardian Cores require an Advocate. Who is our Advocate?'
The presenter looked down at his notes, 'Ahh, I guess I didn't mention that yet,' He reached down to the display built into the table and hit a few keys. The big screen behind him displayed the personnel file for the Advocate.
'This is Samuel Jennings,' the picture of Samuel showed off the otherness of his skin, the odd colour of his eyes, and the perfect nature of his hair, 'as most of you know, due to the highly advanced nature of the A.I. Guardian cores, normal human interactions have proven to be too slow and cumbersome when attempting to let them learn. As such, human kind created the Advocates, cybernetically enhanced humans capable of keeping up with the Guardian's while they learn how to interact with humans.'
'He looks odd,' said Keith.
'The cybernetic enhancements that Samuel underwent gives him many other capabilities beyond interacting with the Guardian. His skin isn't actually skin, but is a flexible yet very strong alloy. It'll allow him to survive in conditions far harsher than say you or I could, which will be useful in the event of ship wide system failures as it'll allow him to still access the core. His eye's are completely artificial and have much greater visual acuity than us.' the presenter said.
'And his hair?' Keith asked.
'That's just cosmetic. His brain has had various hardwired implants added to it, with ports being embedded in his skull. The hair is more like a toupee, which is meant to cover the ports. Normally the Advocate can just talk to the Guardian over a wireless system, but if that system should ever fail, he'd need a hardwired option to interface with the Guardian. Those particular data ports take care of that. But we've found people find them distasteful so it's easier to hide them with the hair.
'Now, if there are no further questions, it's about time we separate. Each of you will be meeting with your departments and have more detailed briefings about your tasks on the ship. The Azure Dawn is set to depart in three months. Plenty of work to do before then gentlemen, I suggest we get cracking.'
The crew got up and started to file out of the room.
Azure dream – Earth Orbit
'Captain Fredrick, you have a green light for your exit vector.'
Three months had passed since the initial briefing at Axion Data Works. Captain Howard found himself standing on the command deck of the Azure Dream. Howard looked over his command crew before they set off on their journey. Though the crew had been picked by Axion Data Works, the sponsor of the mission, he had come to know all of them during the preparation.
He had gotten to know everyone, except for two. One wasn't so bad, but the other one set him on edge.
The two in question were the Guardian and the Advocate, supplied by their corporate sponsors at Axion Data Works.
The Advocate, Samuel Jennings, was standing on the bridge with his arms folded and a broad smile on his face. He was excited for this trip, and it clearly showed. It wasn't his first time into space, but it was his first time into deep space. It was always a special experience to be accepted for a colonization mission. Howard noticed that he could see some of the signs of his implants under his mop of hair. His skin also had an odd sheen in the light of the bridge.
Earth was still new to the game of owning new worlds. As of yet, they had only met with one alien species, the Xozon, a species as generally new to the game as they were. They so far only had communication with each other, as they we're too far apart to meet face to face, separated by the vast gulf of space.
The story of their meeting was largely coincidence. Man had invented a system that allowed faster than light communication, and as soon as they turned the system on they started picking up signals from the aliens who had been broadcasting on their own system for decades. The aliens had somehow managed to invent a similar system to the ones invented by the humans, but had yet to invent a meaningful space program. As a result of this curious chain of events, they hadn't understood the importance of their amazing communication technology, at least not until some human scientists had broadcast back to them.
So the two races traded knowledge. The humans gave
their knowledge of spaceflight, and the aliens gave the humans advanced computer technology.
With their new found friendship, the two agreed to colonize in a direction that would allow them to meet face to face one day.
With the computer technology gained by this meeting, mankind had made vast leaps and bounds in the field of artificial intelligence. New firms and companies were opened making their wealth on the back of this technology.
One such company was Axion Data Works, the inventor of the first Guardian System Administrator A.I. Entity, though since then many new competitors had popped up. Axion was the source of Captain Fredrick's unease for they were the cause of the other crew member he didn't know, XO-33, the Guardian entity of the Azure Dream.
Every Guardian came with an Advocate, in this case, Samuel Jennings. Samuel, through the use of his extensive cybernetic implants, was tasked with teaching their Guardian core. He would teach it not just how to do it's job, but how to interact with humans. Though Samuel wasn't exactly human anymore, he was human enough to be able to teach the Guardian core how to relate to the crew.
Of the 32 other XO model Guardians, there had been no problems. Each of the ships with one on board preformed far better than expected. As such, Axion Data Works had practically cornered the market on ship based Guardian systems. Captain Fredrick never really liked the concept of the Guardians. He had been commanding ships before they were mainstream and missed the old days, back when more responsibility rode on the crew and the captain. He did have to concede that the Guardians had made space flight safer. He still didn't trust the things, but he had one last mission in him, and this was going to be it, Guardian or not.
He had tried to sign on with another colonial mission, one without a Guardian, but the Axion Data Works public relation's department had flattered him endlessly and convinced him to join with them instead. Though not entirely willing at the time, the crew had grown on him as he had trained with them, and there was just something about this mission that excited him. Being the captain of a ship destined to set up the colony furthest from earth would be a great way to end his career.