by Andrew Beery
Chapter Ten – The USC Yorktown...
"Blessed Redeemer! Will you look at the size of that thing!" Ken said.
He and Cat were on the observation deck of Orbital One. Cat had asked for and received permission to appoint Ken as her First Officer. Of course, with Ken came his wife and executive chef. Given Becky Kirkland's reputation in the kitchen, Admiral Faragon was all too eager to approve her transfer as well.
"That 'thing' is a very beautiful she," Cat replied with equal parts awe and amazement. To think, this incredible lady was hers to command. The USC Yorktown was in a word - massive. She measured a full 1000 meters from stem to stern. She had the same teardrop within a teardrop shape of the Avenger but with two distinct differences.
First, her secondary skirt, as the engineers referred to the second teardrop, was essentially complete. In addition, the Yorktown sported two launch bays for fighters in addition to a standard shuttle bay.
The USC Bowman had been designed as a ship of exploration. Not so the Yorktown. She was built from the ground up as a ship of war. Where the Bowman had a single center mounted rail gun, the Yorktown had six. Three fired forward, and three fired to the rear.
In addition to thoroughly upgraded, reactive hull plating, the Yorktown was able to generate a displacement field, similar to that of the Bowman, which wrapped around the ship and diverted energy weapons. This shield was powered by twin fusion reactors, whose sole responsibility it was to pump the field density to unheard of levels. The 10,000 mega joule blast, that had holed the Bowman, would be easily handled by this new shielding. Small hyper field nubs dotted the surface. If Cat was correct, these would be hyper field dampeners, which could deprive an opponent of the ability to jump into hyper drive.
Finally, the new inertial dampeners, surrounding the hull, could be configured to either transfer momentum from a colliding mass to the entire ship or, and Cat liked this option, they could be set to completely reverse the colliding objects momentum. This neat trick would effectively throw a kinetic missile back at the attacker.
Cat looked around the observation deck. There were several other small groups taking in the massive ship. Undoubtedly some would be crew. Others were likely visitors from Orbital One's habitat rings. Cat knew from her status briefing with the construction manager that that the Yorktown was only a few days from being completed. For many on Orbital One this would be their last chance to see the pride of the USC up close.
Cat spotted the group she was interested in. The Admiral and his administrative officer, a Lieutenant Commander Sherry Melbourne, were making their way to her position. The Admiral had requested she delay an inspection of the Yorktown until he could be present. Truth be known, Cat knew the design of this ship was his baby and he was justifiably very proud.
She and Ken executed sharp salutes when the Admiral arrived.
"So Captain, what do you think of our gal?" The Admiral remarked as the four officers shook hands in a sign of cordial friendship.
"I think she's impressive... Are those nubs hyper-field dampeners?"
"Damn," the Admiral's exec swore.
The Admiral, for his part, chuckled. "I told you, Sherry... She doesn't miss a trick... Especially when it comes to hyper-field dynamics - a science she practically invented."
"The Benjamin has already been transferred to your account, Sir... But you and I both know I'll be getting it right back once we get to the bridge."
The Admiral chuckled with a wink towards Cat and said, "We'll see."
***
The Yorktown was everything Cat and Ken expected, once they entered through one of the aft airlocks. The corridors were just a tad wider than those on the Bowman. The main mess was huge. That made sense to Cat because, when her crew was on board, this ship would house nearly four hundred crew and fighter pilots.
To Cats delight the gym had weight rooms, handball courts, a variable gravity track and a small four lane, continuous flow swimming pool.
The medical bay was equally impressive with four surgical suites and an ER. Unlike the Bowman, which had a staff of two doctors and three nurses, the Yorktown was designed to act as a fully functional hospital in space. The Sickbay had a staff of twenty, of which six were doctors, six were physician assistants and the balance were nurses. The Yorktown also boasted a state-of-the-art diagnostic suite and a stocked pharmacy.
Engineering was one of the few areas of the ship where the crew had already reported, and were engaged in activities to prepare the ship for her maiden voyage. The Chief Engineer was a Brazilian woman named Commander Thais Figarero.
"Bom dia," Cat said with a smile as the four visitors and the Chief Engineer exchanged greetings.
"Aye você fala?"
"Não," Cat admitted. “I know enough Portuguese to say 'good morning' and thanks, but that about taps me out."
"Then we'll have to teach you some more," the engineer joked as she led the group around the various engineering decks. Thais pointed out some of the more unusual or innovative design features as they continued their tour of engineering.
Thanks to the Heshe, the computer on the Yorktown was the first to utilize a fully realized quantum computing core. The system was many orders of magnitude faster than anything previous built by the hand of man. As a result, the Yorktown could calculate most hyper-field jump coordinates in minutes if not seconds. Her ability to micro-jump continuously, at ranges up to 10 kilometers, meant she could effectively travel in excess of 0.6c within the solar system. The Yorktown was the first spaceship built by the USC without any reaction mass propulsion system.
The Yorktown sported six petawatt fusion generators. Two powered the shields, two powered the rail guns and antimatter particle beams, and two powered the hyper-field generators.
The hyper-field generators captivated Ken's attention. The minute he saw them he hurried over to the control console. The generators themselves were larger than Cat had anticipated... even for a ship of the size of the Yorktown.
"Is it me or do those generators seem a little too big for a ship this size?" Cat asked.
Ken answered before Thais could. "Actually, Captain.. I was surprised they were this small. To erect nested hyper fields, the inner field has to literally push the outer field out of the way. The only way High Field Dynamics can allow for that, is if the inner field is some multiple of the base frequency of the outer field. Since a displacement field and a jump field operate on vastly different frequencies, the only practical way to accomplish this is to multiple the field frequencies."
"Actually," Thais interjected, “we found a better way. Hyper-fields have a trans-dimensional component that allows them to interact in unusual ways. The two frequencies tend to drag on one another. We actually use the inner field to drag the outer field into the correct frequency range... The math is really beastly, but the new Heshe computer designs are more than up to the task."
"There are some interesting implications here." Cat mused. "I suspect I know what your surprise on the Bridge is going to be."
Admiral Faragon smiled, as his exec asked the obvious question, "So just what are you expecting to find on the bridge?"
Cat looked at Sherry with a bemused smile that matched that of the Admiral's. "My guess is that the tech folks have used this principle of entangled hyper-fields to create a long range hyper drive sensor."
"Damn," was Sherry's only comment.
***
First of the First padded across the grass of his exercise yard on all six legs. It was considered rude to walk on all six, but if the pack leader of the D'lralu could not be comfortable in his own home, then what was the point of life?
A snarl at the gate let him know that his current mate was irritated. She was in heat and wanted nothing more than to make pups, but he had weightier matters on his mind... There would be time enough for pups later.
A messenger beacon had arrived from a great great grandson, Three of Nine. It had arrived several days ago. The message indicated a rather severe infe
station of intelligent life forms. More worrisome was the fact that there had not been the expected follow up messages. Only death or equipment failure could explain the lack of additional messages.
The wind rustled his mane. He looked to where his mate stood twitching her long tail in irritation. Perhaps he would see to her need. This would be the second time in thirty five cycles that one of his pups failed to report home... If three of nine was dead, then a replacement would be needed. Yes, he would see to her needs, and then begin the planning for the eradication campaign which the masters would insist on.
***
The bridge of the Yorktown had become Cat's new home. She spent the bulk of her day going over system after system in an effort to become, if not an expert, at least fully acquainted with their capabilities and shortcomings. It was amazing to her that the Bowman, which had been state-of-the-art just six months before, was now based on seriously dated technology.
One of the two turbo lift doors to the bridge swished open, and her First Officer, Ken Kirkland, entered the round room. If there was anybody on board who was working as hard to come up to speed on all the new technology, it was the Bowman's former Chief Engineer. He often referred to himself as a geek with a passion for God. Never was that more evident than when seeing the child-like delight on his face when he discovered some new technology, and had a chance to play with it. He had just such a look on his face now.
"Hey Cat... You'll never believe what I just discovered in Engineering."
"You found the quantum shift matter transporter they're installing behind the main computer core."
His face lit up in excitement. "Seriously! I missed that... Wow!" He looked at the smirk on her face... "Oh... you're kidding aren't you?"
She stuck her tongue out at him and smiled. "So tell me Commander... What did you find?"
Now it was Ken's turn to smile. "They have a complete collection of Doctor Who episodes on holographic disk... Clear through the twenty-eighth doctor!"
"Doctor who?"
"That's what I said, Doctor Who..." seeing the confused look on her face, her First Officer sighed in exasperation... "You're telling me you have never watched reruns of 'Doctor Who'... The longest running holo program of all time... It actually started off as black and white TV in the mid-twentieth century?"
"And this helps us get ready for launch in a week, how?"
"It's all a matter of priorities, Captain. The holographic projectors have a control node in central engineering. That's how I discovered the movies library... More to the point however, if for whatever reason we lose the link to engineering, we lose a major control interface to the rest of the ship. I'm not a big fan of a single point of failure for any major system."
"True," Cat said, "but there numerous redundant systems on the bridge, should the projectors go down."
"Here's my point... Housing the holographic projectors in engineering, is a throwback to the days when you needed the main computer core to do the real-time processing for the holograms... With the new Heshe computers that is just simply not the case. Let's install a small backup quantum core here in the bridge, that can handle the displays in the event of a failure. The holograms are far more efficient, and that could translate into lives if we get into trouble."
Cat thought about it for a moment. "It makes sense... Cal are you listening?"
"Of course, Captain."
"Cal, can you help with the design... I'd actually like a core in place which can house a subset of you as a backup AI for the Yorktown."
"May I make another suggestion?"
"Absolutely"
"Why not simply clone me?"
"Wouldn't that require duplication of my encounter unit?"
"Affirmative"
Cat looked at Ken. For his part her First Officer simply raised a quizzical eyebrow. "I'll bite" she said, "How?"
"Your nanite systems are exceptionally versatile. With the proper source material and energy, they can replicate any of your systems... Biological or technological"
"Do you mean to say if I lose an arm, my nanites can simply grow me a new one?"
"Negative. They can, however, assemble a new one that is indistinguishable from your current one. They can also alter the permeability and/or hardness of your skin, muscles and skeletal structure."
Looking back at Ken she asked, "How again does this help me build an encounter unit?"
"You simply need to ask me to do it. If I need additional source materials, I will ask you to provide them."
***
Cat spent the next thirty minutes collecting small amounts of carbon, sand, trace metals and, at Cal's absolute insistence, a steak. Cal had her place all the items on a table in the engineering lab. Ken and Thais watched with barely contained fascination. At her AI's instruction, Cat placed her hand on the small pile (including the raw steak), where she got the shock of her life.
Her hand shimmered with a metallic silver sheen which enveloped the raw materials on the table. The nanites rapidly reconfigured the mass into a white sphere, that exactly resembled the orb Yarin Prime had held in front of Cat several years ago.
As she watched, the orb continued to change. Two metallic nubs appeared on each side of the sphere. Cal explained the continuing changes.
"I have instructed the captain's construction nanites to augment the original design of the encounter unit with interface nodes which will facilitate high-speed data transfers between the unit and the normal ships systems. This is preferable to the radio-wave interface currently being employed. As the internals within the unit are completed, I will clone my data modules, and then split the operation of my AI between the two units. This will substantially enhance my operational efficiency, while, at the same time, providing the Yorktown with a far more capable secondary AI."
Chapter Eleven – Probe...
The First of the First sat at his desk. He had arranged his schedule to free the entire afternoon for his favorite pastime... Planning the attack on a new species. He enjoyed the challenge. What were their capabilities? How would they respond to the threat of utter and unrelenting destruction? How hard and how fast would they run? The First's ability to anticipate and answer these questions, was a large part of why the masters had made him First of the packs... To fail them, would mean not only his downfall, but the downfall of the entire First sub clan.
The First of the First was frustrated. He was used to knowing more about the game his people hunted. The idea was to amass enough forces to ensure victory, while, at the same time, allowing the packs enough latitude that they could safely play with their food prior to killing it. This last was essential to the health of his people, as well as important for retaining their support for his leadership.
He slapped his two forward paws on the table. He needed more information. Damn Three of Nine for apparently dying before he could properly report his finding. The First made up his mind. A probe would be sent to this small yellow sun.
***
Admiral Faragon stood on the bridge of his new flag ship. The Yorktown was an extensively modified Bowman class vessel, despite the massive size differential. The Heshe data, provided by Cat's AI, allowed humanity to start building nanite factories. These fabrication facilities could now produce the components for a ship like this in weeks, rather than the years it would have previously taken.
The next round of ships would be something entirely new. There was talk of building the nanite fabricators directly into the ships, so that they could be reconfigured on the fly. The Admiral sighed. We live in interesting times, he thought.
Captain Cat Kimbridge was seated in her command chair. As far as the Admiral could tell she was multitasking. She had a constantly updating status report on a tablet in one hand. She was directing the various members of her bridge staff, as well as holding a conversation with Engineering. Her First Officer, Ken Kirkland, was double checking the reports from all the other stations on the ship, and routing the pertinent information to the tablet Cat held.
Finally, Cat sat back with a smile on her lips. She turned to look at the Admiral.
"Sir, I still wish you'd let them install a seat for you up there."
"Nonsense, captain. I'd only get in your way on the bridge 95% of the time. No, my office, next to your Ready Room, is where I'm most comfortable. I just couldn't miss the launch of this fine lady."
"Well, Sir, then I have good news. All system are confirmed go. We can disengage space dock on your command."
The Admiral smiled like a little kid at Christmas. "Consider the word given then, Captain"