by Andrew Beery
"Besides" Cat echoed, "new mathematical models will open up many more roads to explore."
***
The AI known as Cal sifted through his massive Heshe knowledge base and selected those technologies, manufacturing techniques and sciences, the Heshe had accumulated over the last several millennia, that were within the current capability of humanity to grasp and make effective use of. He then ran a probability profile on the technology in question and the likelihood that humanities current level of cultural development could safely handle the technology. A handful of questionable items were removed from the list. The result, some four million petabytes of data was compressed and imbedded into Earth's fledgling Internet. All this took place in a little over three seconds... Seemingly forever but then the encounter unit that currently housed his AI was not an especially robust system with only 10 to the 14th qubits of processing power.
Chapter Five – One Small Step...
It took an additional three weeks, but by the end of that time Ken and Cat had fully described the High Fold Dynamics model that the Heshe taught them. Cal was of course right, the new model greatly reduced the complexity of the hyper-fold equations. They were now able to calculate in a couple of hours’ time the hyper-fold parameter equations for a 10 light year 'hyper drive' jump within a .01 AU discrepancy... At least on paper.
Massive VASIMR drives slowly pushed the USC Bowman out of Earth orbit. The inertial dampers and gravity plating completely hid any sense of acceleration. For a first test of the Interstellar drive the decision was made to stay within the Sol system. A jump to Jupiter was ultimately chosen. This would place the Bowman near the largest 'off Earth' USC base on the moon Ganymede.
Cat sat at her station on the bridge. Lt. Jim Cortez was at communications. Lt. Kelley Shelby, a petite blonde woman with a southern accent, was at navigation. Standing just to the left and behind the captain was the newly arrived First Officer, an African American named Commander Jason Ruck, and at weapons control was Lt. Commander Andrew Martinescu.
Cat found herself periodically glancing in the general direction of the captain and more to the point the First Officer. Jason was a striking man with an imposing build that caught the attention of his share of the ladies.
Jason for his part caught the furtive glances from the various female members of the bridge crew but he kept his expression neutral. That said, the young redheaded woman at the science station intrigued him in more ways that he could count. The fact that she was both beautiful and brilliant hardly detracted from her fascinating history.
Captain Ramchandani turned in his seat to face communications. "Jim, open a ship-wide channel"
"Aye, Captain. Channel open"
"Attention crew of the Bowman. This is Captain Ramchandani. For a number of years we have all been working towards a common goal..." swiveling his chair to look briefly at Cat, "Some of us, friends and coworkers and fathers... have died along the journey. We carry them with us as we take this next step to the stars.
Soon we will be engaging the star drive. I wish I could tell you what to expect... But the reality is, I can't. At this point we just have to trust the technology. I can tell you this... Our ability to reach the stars will be critical. Our very species may well depend on it. Do your jobs. Stay focused. Ramchandani out."
The captain looked forward and addressed the bridge. "Make sure all system recorders are online. Let's also make sure both Lunar One and Orbital One have a direct line of sight before we engage the hyper drive"
Cat's team had already worked up the 'line of sight' numbers and knew that their jump window was just opening. "Sir, L1 and O1 are go for line of sight for another 16 minutes."
"Helm do you have a jump solution for near Jupiter orbit?"
"Aye, Sir."
Captain Ramchandani actuated his internal comlink. “Engineering, what's our status? Are we good for a short hop?"
Lt. Commander Ken Kirkland visually polled his staff and received all thumbs up before answering the captain. "Sir, all boards are green. We are a go for hyper drive."
"Very good Commander. Make ready. Set course for just outside Jovian orbit. Give me a verbal countdown and engage when ready."
"Aye, captain" Commander Ruck said. "Helm, make ready. Set course and engage on my mark... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Engage!"
Cat watched both her instruments and the forward view screens simultaneously. There was a brief flicker on the view screen accompanied by a neck jarring lurch that caused most of the bridge personnel to fly out of their seats. Cat's nanite enhanced muscles automatically compensated and she was the only one to remain seated.
Several consoles erupted in a shower of sparks and the bridge filled with the smell of ozone and burnt plastic.
"What the..." the Captain yelled as he struggled back into his chair.
"Our inertial dampeners went offline the moment we jumped. It took them several seconds to reset. The acceleration we felt was from Jupiter's gravity well." Cat announced as she manually keyed the fire suppression systems.
"Why did they go offline?"
"The inertial compensators work because hyper field generators make a reference connection to space. As we move, the generators tweak our perception of local space in such a way so as to remove inertia. When we jumped that reference connection was lost and had to be reestablished."
"Does that mean I can expect to be launched out of my chair every time we jump?"
"No Sir. Now that we know this happens we can program the inertial dampeners to anticipate the change and cut the transition period down to a couple of milliseconds. We might feel the briefest of tugs but nothing like what we just went through..." Cat suddenly noticed the First Officer who had been standing with a single hand on the Captain's chair had been thrown across the back of the bridge and was crumpled on the floor.
"Commander? Are you alright?" she said as she quickly moved to his position on the deck. Blood was seeping from a gash on his forehead and his right leg was bent at an odd angle.
"Medical emergency on the bridge!" Ramchandani yelled into his open comlink.
"Riley here Sir... We've been hammered down here with the rough ride. Mostly broken bones. What's your situation?"
"Dr. Riley, this is Commander Kimbridge. Commander Ruck was thrown across the bridge. He has a laceration on his head as well as a subdural hematoma near the occipital lobe. He also has a broken right leg."
"I have a team on the way. What's his level of consciousness?"
"He's not responding to voice but he is responding to a trapezium squeeze."
"OK, there's a good chance we are dealing with a concussion of some type. Try to avoid moving him until the trauma unit can do a neurological assessment."
"Roger medical, Bridge out" Ramchandani said. "Commander Kimbridge, until the Commander is certified by medical to return to duty you are acting First Officer. Please coordinate with engineering and medical. I want a damage and injury assessment in my ready room in 15 minutes."
"Aye Captain" she replied while reluctantly turning the care of Commander Ruck over to the medical team that had just arrived.
***
The damage to the Bowman was minimal. There had been minor injuries to 37 crewman... The most severe by far was Commander Ruck. A passive MRI indicated a fractured skull. Medical had him in an induced coma to reduce brain swelling while he healed.
The programming for the inertial compensators was adjusted, and the captain had ordered a top down review of all systems to ensure another, similar incident was not waiting to happen the next time they got ready to use the hyper drive. Weapons systems were also tweaked as a result of the review.
The Bowman was primarily a ship of exploration but, given the massive amount of armament and shielding on the recovered D'lralu vessel, the powers-that-be had decided that Earth's first starships should have defensive systems built in.
In addition to reactive hull plating, the Bowman was able to generate a displacement field around itself that, in
theory at least, should shunt energy weapons around the vessel. The inertial dampeners could be configured to transfer momentum from a colliding mass to the entire ship. This meant the impact energy required to 'hole' the ship would need to be enough to crush the entire ship at once.
The Bowman was also outfitted with a single center mounted rail gun and four chemical reaction torpedo launchers. The torpedoes included low-yield nuclear payloads and small quantum fold generators. Unfortunately the hyper drive engines in the torpedoes were of limited use because the firing solutions still took too long to calculate for the torpedoes to be effectively used in a light speed engagement. Likely the next generation of missiles would have this capability removed until it could be perfected.
Cat oversaw the code changes that would ensure these systems would remain online and ready to operate despite the changes to the hyper-field environment during a jump event. The hardest of these were the inertial and displacement components of the active shields. The quantum fold necessary for the hyper drive simply was not compatible with these systems. The only solution was temporary shutdown of the shields prior to jumping.
After much discussion with the engineering team, as well as with the captain, the decision was made to develop a transition protocol governed by the Bowman's AI. If the shields were up during a hyper drive jump they would be collapsed for 32 milliseconds prior to the jump event. This minimized the ship's exposure during an attack.
Finally all the changes were ready and the ship was prepared for a second jump back to a position just outside of Earth orbit.
Captain Ramchandani opened a ship-wide channel. "Attention. This is the captain. We are about to engage the hyper drive for a second time. We believe the rough ride is behind us, but I want everybody and everything locked down before the jump. You have five minutes to get squared away. That is all. Captain out."
They waited for the promised five minutes and then the captain signaled Cat.
"Very good Commander. Make ready. Set course for just outside Earth orbit. Give me a verbal countdown and engage when ready."
"Aye, captain" Cat said. "Lt. Cortez, open a ship-wide channel. Helm, make ready. Set course and engage on my mark... All hands, prepare for hyper drive jump. Jump in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Engage!"
This time there was just the slightest twinge of movement and the forward view screen was suddenly filled with the marbled greens and blues of Earth. When it was clear that the jump had occurred without incident the bridge crew broke out in applause. Cat opened the ship-wide com channel and reported to the crew that the jump was complete.
Captain Ramchandani immediately had Orbital One send a high speed shuttle to meet the Bowman on its way into Earth orbit. It was essential to get Commander Ruck offloaded to the superior medical facilities of Orbital One.
Before the shuttle had even left the hanger with the injured commander on board, the Bowman was being hailed by USC Central Command. It seemed the deep space monitoring stations, deployed after the discovery of the D'lralu ship some 50 years ago, were reporting another alien incursion.
***
"Debu I need eyes out there as soon as possible" Admiral Faragon said from across the conference table in Captain Ramchandani's ready room. "Whoever this is, they are way past Pluto's orbit and coming in fast. Frankly it's a miracle we spotted them at all. They are accelerating at a steady 1.6 gravities, and are already traveling far faster than anything we've got."
"Do we know who they are?"
"We know who they are not. The Heshe have excellent control of their hyper drive technologies... They would never have jumped that far out and then accelerated in with conventional reaction drives. The best guess is we are dealing with a new race or the D'lralu... And obviously even if we did know who they were... we don't know what their goals are. The only time we ever met the D'lralu they fired on one of our ships."
"Understood Admiral. We can jump to where we calculate they will be, but keep in mind... our maximum sustained acceleration tops out at just past 1.2G. They can out run us. Commander Kimbridge has been working on a micro jump protocol that would allow us to stay ahead of them but it carries with it its own set of risks... Our active shielding is virtually useless during jumps. Dozens of micro jumps a minute will only exasperate the problem."
The Admiral leaned forward placing his folded hands on the table. "Debu, if it comes to it I need you to hightail it out of dodge. You're there to discover their intentions. If they talk, then I need you to try to communicate but if they take a potshot at you... That's information I need to know that as well."
"I understand Sir. How long do I have before you need the Bowman underway?"
"Frankly I need you gone already."
Captain Ramchandani checked his tablet. "My replacement First Officer is coming in from Mars. He won't be here for another 36 hours."
"My guidance is to make do with the personnel you already have. Earth may need those 36 hours later."
***
Cat was just coming out of the Bowman's gym when her comlink flagged a message from the captain. "Sir, Kimbridge here"
"Cat, I've just come out of a meeting with the Admiral. We are not going to be able to wait for Jason's replacement. Effective immediately you are my new First Officer."
Unsure of what to say Cat responded with a polite "Thank you, Sir!"
"We have an unknown incursion by an alien craft just outside of Pluto’s orbit. We’ve been ordered to investigate.
I want you to run the crew through a couple of weapons drills, and then join me and Commander Kirkland in my Ready room in sixty minutes."
"Aye, Sir"
“And Cat…”
“Yes, Sir?”
“Make sure the teams are ready for anything… I’ve got a bad feeling.”
Chapter Six – Ganymede Station...
Weapons, repair crews and navigation had all performed well during the drills, but, as Cat was well aware, when a person knew a drill was taking place they did not have to deal with the stress associated with ‘life and death’ situations. With the captain’s permission she arranged a special simulation.
The ship would jump to Ganymede Station and take on more armaments. Cat’s plan was to introduce an unexpected attack seconds after the next jump. If the crew performed as well as during the previous drills she would be satisfied they were as prepared as they could be.
“Lt. Shelby, Standby to jump.”
"Aye, Ma'am" the petite southerner answered.
"On my mark... 5, 4,3,2,1... Engage!"
The crew experienced the same brief flutter they had experienced on the second jump. Cat signaled Lt. Commander Kirkland in engineering and at the same time triggered a prewritten routine in the Bowman's AI.
Immediately, the ship shuddered as the inertial dampers cycled on and off in quick succession. At the same time the red alert klaxons kicked in and a handful on nonessential systems, like deck lighting and the occasional gravity plate, went offline.
Captain Ramchandani winked at Cat and signaled for Lt. Cortez to open a ship-wide channel. "All hands... Battle stations... Repeat... All hands, battle stations."
The Bowman's AI quickly rotated the ship while at the same time reducing the effectiveness of the inertial dampers by fifty percent. Cat had to grip the console in front of her station to keep her seat.
Amazingly it was over in forty-eight seconds. That was how long it took for all stations to report ready. More impressively, the shields and weapons systems reported ready in under fifteen seconds... A full eight seconds faster than their previous best.
The captain came back on the comms. "Crew of the Bowman. Stand down. Well done. This was an unannounced drill and I'm pleased to announce that by-in-large you did very well. Department heads please submit an assessment of your individual areas by 0800 tomorrow to the First Officer. Again, well done. Ramchandani out."
Turning to his newly promoted First Officer "That goes for you too Cat. A crew is only as good as its leaders and if this
is any indication, then the Admiral was right to encourage me to promote from within."
"Thank you, Sir" Cat responded. "I'll get a team together to assist the armory at Ganymede station. I'd also like to borrow our Chief Engineer for a few hours if that is permissible?"
"Certainly... Care to share with your captain what you and Ken will be up to?"
Cat grinned mischievously... "Nothing good... I assure you Captain!"
***
Cat picked up Ken on the way to the Bowman's shuttle bay.
"Care to let me in on what we are up to?"
"We're going to make a big bomb bigger"
"OK... I'll bite... How much bigger?"
"Think supernova"