The other building station had built a war vessel as a matter of standard warrior doctrine in cases of new migration, where for a period of time war vessels patrol the surrounding volume of space around the new world colonized. Thus there were two void vessels ready, and two more were being built. These new vessels were having many of their parts being built on the surface and transported to the building station in orbit.
The assembly of these under-construction void vessels was about to begin, starting with the substructure of the vessel. These two vessels were to be migration vessels that had been anticipated would be required to transport beings to this new world. The scheduled completion time of these two new vessels was another 500 cycles.
With that all the official briefings to the council was concluded, now it was open for discussion about the future course of action. While seer Taste of Light was presiding, it was seer Taste of Triumph who was in control of the course of the discussion and very much the being in-charge.
Harmony could very well see that his beings had entered a new age of war, where warriors would gain primacy in every field of activity of their beings. It was to be expected, and something his mentor seer Taste of Light had prophesized so many thousands of cycles ago, when Harmony had discovered the spawns of Ka in the Kalshuk system.
Triumph enquired from the elder of the builders what would be consequence and delay of changing the construction of the two under-construction void vessels from migration vessels to war vessels. Since the actual assembly of even the substructure had not begun, nothing would have to be taken apart. A vast majority of the components could be used, although a war vessel required more of certain components and less of others compared to a void vessels.
So some would have to be manufactured and others discarded. There were a few parts that were specialized and manufactured only for war vessels. The builders could start the assembly without any delays, but the assembly might get held up intermittently due to shortage of some or the other part that they had to wait to be manufactured.
The builders however assured the council, that they will plan and schedule the assembly in such a way as to minimize the delay waiting for parts. The builders were confident that overall it would not add more than 50 cycles to the timeline of construction.
The seer taste of Triumph impressed Harmony once again with his genius of warrior planning and timing. It was incredible that he had calculated all this in his mind as the council was debating. The seers’ council of the home world 12 would formally invoke their right to assistance and ask home world 11 to match the force put them.
Harmony’s home world will put up three war vessels and one migration vessel. This was all their young world had, and they would throw everything into the campaign. Home world 11 being a much more mature world, already had such assets available to them. The distance between Home world 11 and the heart of the Kalshuk system would be the limiting factor in the campaign in terms of how early they could start the campaign. Here again Triumph displayed his planning talent.
Home world 12 will request that the migration vessel from Home World 11 travelling towards Kalshuk system become part of the fleet assistance being requested. Since Home World 11 would have had to match the one migration vessel from world 12, the speed of the migration vessel would have become a limiting factor.
Taking over the migration vessel from world 11 already on its way means that it would no longer be a limiting factor. So three war vessels can leave from Home world 11 immediately, and would reach Kalshuk system in 2,200 cycles. The migration vessel from Home world 11 would have reached a lot earlier, but would now be given orders to start slowing down immediately, so that it also reached Kalshuk in 2,200 cycles.
The migration vessel from their home world 12 takes just of two thousand cycles to reach Kalshuk system. It is ready and can start in about 200 cycles from here and reach Kalshuk system at the same time 2,200 cycles later. Warships from here in world 12 take under 1,600 cycles to reach the Kalshuk system.
One war vessel is ready, while the builders assure that the other two would be assembled within 500 cycles. So three war vessels would be ready and start their journey in under 600 cycles. These three war vessels would also reach Kalshuk system together with the other vessel after 2,200 cycles.
Thus a fleet of 8 void vessels would arrive simultaneously in the Kalshuk system consisting of 6 war vessels and 2 migration vessels. They will meet up just outside the Kalshuk system and wait for the Ka-ma-khya event, which would also arrive at around the same time.
This was a fairly significant force that their beings had assembled in a long time on any world. The genius of Triumph’s planning was that it was synchronized so perfectly that it hardly added any time to their campaign. The warriors were left to do detailed battle planning, while the builders and curious caste would toil nonstop to deliver on time.
The die was cast, the spawns of Ka would now feel the wrath of their beings.
Chapter 6
Variable Geometry
Earth
November 2064
Jorge was having trouble keeping to the ‘right’ side of the road. In this country driving on the ‘right’ side of the road meant driving on the left side of the road in a right hand drive car. How crazy is that? He looked at Ramesh sitting next to him and asked. “Why don’t you drive? You should be better at driving out here.”
“Hey! Just because my parents came from here doesn’t mean I know how to drive out here. It was your idea to drive down, I was fine taking the bus. Mischa went by the bus.” Ramesh protested.
“Yeah, but the bus is not the same experience as driving through this.” Jorge pointed outside as they started climbing the spectacularly beautiful hills and lush green forests of the Western Ghats. “Anyway I wanted to try out driving these new baby cats. You get to drive vehicles in this country that you don’t get anywhere else in the world.”
Jorge was looking forward to the next few days. It was going to be a mini reunion of sorts for the team which had fought and survived side by side on Titan.
As they rounded a hill, their destination came into view. The magnificent building was nestled above a cliff overlooking a pristine green forest with a small falls at some distance. The building itself was a renovated 16th century fort that had been fought over and occupied by the Portuguese, Marathas, Moghuls and the British over its long history. Now the building's function called for it to be guarded like a fort once more.
Their car was stopped at the grand looking and huge main gate of the fort, next to a guard check post. From the insignia Jorge knew these soldiers were from the Indian Army, but he was sure that there were observers from every major nation watching them enter from somewhere remotely.
The two of them were id checked, their retina and fingerprints checked and verified. They had to leave their car in the parking lot outside the fort, their baggage would be scanned thoroughly and sent to their rooms. They had to enter the fort on foot, after going through one more round of scanning. These guys were taking their security seriously.
Jorge could understand why. This place was the repository of almost all alien technological knowledge that humans had won through hard fought battle and paid with blood.
Almost immediately after the defeat of the Shaitans on Titan, humans back on earth had gone back to their old ways. They had bickered about salvage rights and which country had rights over which alien artefacts. At the heart of the struggle between the nations was the commercial windfall and strategic advantages that can accrue from new discoveries and technologies.
The saving grace to the whole issue was that it took nearly two years to get the first pieces of Shaitan artefact from Titan back to Earth. In a rare display of leadership from an otherwise moribund organization, the UN had brought together the major players in space, helped a lot by the fact that most of these countries are also members of the UN Security Council.
A proposal to create a new international and multilateral organization w
as floated. This organization would be responsible for the unified defense of Earth. Although such an organization was still a work in progress, with the charter and details still being worked out, the first thing this group had been able to agree on was this facility.
It was decided that all artefacts would be brought to a single secure location under joint ownership. The place would have observers from all nations 24x7. Then the bickering moved to which country would get how much research rights.
The solution turned out to be as simple as it was ingenious. The research would be carried out under the new UN body being created, and the patent rights would be owned by this body. Any new technology that this body created, would be freely licensed to any country that pays for it. No country can be denied the use of the technology, as long as they pay.
The money thus generated would be used to fund the United Space Command – the space navy of the Earth. It was already burning a hole into the pockets of all the nations. The research money would soften the blow. The research profits was not expected to be enough to fund everything, nations would still have to contribute money.
This place was holding alien artefacts and potential profit measured in trillions of dollars. Which country should host the alien artefact treasures was another contentious matter. The West would not let it be hosted on Chinese or Russian soil, while the Chinese were equally adamant that it could not be hosted in a Western Nation. In the end India turned out to be the compromise solution.
The West were comfortable with the site being in India. The Chinese and the Indians were hardly friends. They had fought a war a hundred years ago, and till this day carried bitter boundary disputes from that war. Their armies stood eyeball to eyeball all along the Himalayas and Tibet till this day. However the Chinese preferred it being in India than in any unstable third world nation.
Once everyone had agreed on the country, the curator and director of research of the facility was an obvious choice. The materials science and engineering genius who had handled most of the alien artefacts in the first place, and whose home country this was – Mr. Gupta. He now stood in front of the massive front door. His single remaining arm stretched out wide open, and his face grinning ear to ear.
Mr. Gupta was the only person from the battle of Titan who had been maimed. Most who were injured had died out there. Titan had been a harsh place. Beautiful, surreal, but harsh. Jorge and Ramesh hugged Mr. Gupta as only men who had fought and lost friends side by side can. All three of them were civilians, but their bond was no less than those of brother soldiers of a platoon.
“Welcome to my humble home gentlemen.” Mr. Gupta said.
“Hey Gupta, cut the ‘humble’ crap. This is a palace!” Jorge said teasingly.
“Well… technically this is a fort, but yes there is a palace inside. I will show you around in the next few days. First let me show you to your rooms. You guys freshen up. We have the old gang waiting at the auditorium. Unfortunately the reunion will have to wait till dinner though. The bureaucrats and the military brass are also here. We will have the briefings first. It starts in half an hour.” Mr. Gupta said.
As they walked up to their rooms, Mr. Gupta filled them on his research as well as happenings in his personal life. Jorge and Ramesh did the same. A valet came to fetch Jorge and Ramesh after exactly 20 minutes, and led them to a modern auditorium. Almost the whole leadership team from Titan was present.
The three people who were missing from the group were Leanna, Lt. Ma and Sasha Kaminski. Those three were too junior to be invited to this conference. The group was secretly thankful that Leanna and Lt. Ma were not together in the same place. It would have tensed up the entire atmosphere, especially with Alex around.
The group had been standing in a balcony looking down a cliff with thick tropical jungle below and a waterfalls to the right. The view was spectacular. The group barely got time to greet each other when all of them were ushered in to begin the conference. Mr. Gupta got up to the stage as the host and welcomed everybody. Then he handed over the stage to special UN envoy Mariko Tanaka.
“Thank you Mr. Gupta. I would once again like to welcome all the distinguished members of government, military, and scientific communities represented from all of our member nations.” In truth only 18 countries were represented, but these were the 18 who really mattered.
“I would especially like to extend a warm welcome to our heroes from Titan. It is rare to find heroes outside of fiction books, who literally saved the world! All the alien artefacts stored in the vaults of this fort are thanks to this team.
Though it may sound strange, but I am also happy to announce that very soon my job is going to become redundant. I have received news in the last hour that the final draft of the United Space Command charter under the auspices of the United Nations has finally been agreed upon by all the concerned nations. By tomorrow you should have the announcement, and a formal new arm of the UN will be created after nearly 90 years – the USC.” Mariko announced to thunderous applause.
Once the applause died down Mariko continued. “This conference was meant as a precursor to the USC formation, but now that the charter is finalized, the conference takes even more importance as the conference which will shape the finer details of the USC.
Over the next few days, we will have various committees and sub-committees from various disciplines of military, government and science meet separately to firm up various aspects of this fledgling organization. Today however, we open up with a general presentation from some of our brightest minds in military and science to give us a context. So without further ado, I call on the first speaker. Distinguished physicists and a hero from Titan, Dr. Jorge Sterner.”
There was a brief applause as Jorge got on stage. “Thank you ladies and gentlemen. I am presenting this report on behalf of a team of the most distinguished physicists from around the world, some far more accomplished and distinguished than myself. The reason I am presenting this report to this distinguished gathering is because I was the first physicist to study the Shaitan variable geometry fusion reactor, as also the fact that I am the one presently back on Earth.”
Jorge recollected his time back on Earth. It has been nearly two years since he has been back, but it felt just like yesterday. He recollected the 4 months they spent in quarantine. Both Mischa and he had felt guilty when their two children had come to visit. They had been shocked at how much they had grown in those two years they had been away, especially their younger daughter whom he now had to force to see as a young woman rather than his little girl. Both of them were now in college. Mischa felt guilty for not being there for them especially their younger daughter as she entered college. Mischa had cried and cried that night.
Jorge’s thoughts jumped back to those 10 months after the battle of Titan, when they struggled and started prying open the secrets of first Shaitan language and then their technologies. His personal struggle to begin to understand the physics of the fusion reactor. Then his thoughts jumped back at the last two years as he and his team struggled to understand new concepts in quantum physics and nano engineering.
“As you are all aware, the Shaitan fusion reactor is one piece of equipment that cannot be transported back to Earth by us, and hence has to be studied in-situ. As I speak, there are 20 of the world’s top physics and engineering minds who are studying the reactor on Titan, and are in constant touch with hundreds of academicians and scientists studying and experimenting with the knowledge we have learnt till now.
There is good news and there is bad news on fusion reactor front. The details of our report is available to you all in the docket that all of you must have received in your emails. I will just summarize here. The good news is that after nearly three years of studying the Shaitan variable geometry fusion reactor, we believe we understand the principles on which it works.
You all must be wondering why I keep referring to the reactor as ‘Variable Geometry’ reactor. It is because fundamentally that is the difference betwee
n the fusion reactors that humans have attempted to construct with mixed success till now and the Shaitan fusion reactor technology.
As you all know that our sun and every star for that matter is essentially a fusion reactor. It is a very stable reactor, at least till the star has enough hydrogen fuel, due to just one thing – its enormous gravity. The star has a very simple geometry, the simplest possible in space – a sphere. It is just a spherical ball of gas crushed at its core at unimaginable pressure due to its enormous gravity.
This unimaginable pressure generates incredible heat, which is nothing but the speed at which the molecules are moving in a gas or plasma. The heat and the pressure causes hydrogen atoms to crash into each other fast enough for them to fuse and form helium, releasing energy in the process. This explosive energy released by fusion in the core of a star is held in check by the enormous gravitational pressure trying to crush the star.
We humans have tried to mimic this same process in our fusion reactors till now. Unfortunately we don’t have the enormous gravity of a star to hold the explosive force of fusion reaction in check. So we have used magnetic bottles, essentially very strong magnetic fields surrounding a heated hydrogen plasma which prevents the fusion energy from exploding or fizzling out of its containment.
We have met with limited success so far. You have to remember that we are heating up the hydrogen to a temperature of 100 million degree centigrade. It is not easy to hold something that hot stably for long periods of time, without the containment magnetic bottle breaking up. At such temperatures even a tiny rupture in the magnetic confinement will stop the fusion reaction.
As a result we have not been able to have a reliable, long running and sustainable fusion reaction in any of our reactors despite 100 years of research on the subject. The best we have achieved is fusion reactors that can be restarted quickly when the magnetic bottle ruptures, and the reactions themselves last a few hours. That is hardly a reliable reactor.
Wrath of the Shaitans Page 7