by M. D. Cooper
STELLAR DATE: 3227366 / 02.17.4124 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: GSS Intrepid, Within 0.5 AU of Sol REGION: InnerSol, Sol Space Federation
Rescuing the remains of Blue Wing took several hours. The tugs had trouble maintaining their v relative to the Intrepid but eventually, with some tricky maneuvers, they managed to bring all of Blue Wing aboard.
As it turned out eleven pilots survived, and though that meant nineteen had died, it cheered everyone nonetheless. The Intrepid had ceased burn during the operation but now that all were once again aboard, the mighty drives resumed their fission reaction and the ship recommenced its acceleration toward the sun.
TSF monitoring had detected the conflict on their scans and Captain Andrews saw that a full report was filed. The tugs had also picked up the remains of several of their attackers, and once the Intrepid had completed its slingshot maneuver around the sun a TSF intercept patrol craft would meet them just past Venus’s orbit to collect what physical evidence they could. That was still roughly fifteen days away, depending on whether the Reddings determined it would be beneficial to boost acceleration beyond 0.25g.
Andrews checked the current status of the engines and saw that they were creating the equivalent of just over ten trillion newtons of force to achieve their velocity. That was slightly better than expected, even with the twenty-five thousand kilometer wide ES ramscoop deployed. Calculation showed that their final velocity at Mercury’s historical orbit past the apex of their slingshot would be closing in on 1,000 kilometers per second, or around 3.6 million kilometers per hour. Current projections were all in line to complete this stage of their journey and exit the solar system only forty hours after that point. The TSF interceptor would have to leave the Intrepid in time to decelerate around Saturn, or they would take them over a year to return to Callisto.
He could have looked up their status on the Link, but he owed it to the survivors of Blue Wing as well as Major Richards to visit them in person. That and he had news for the major she would appreciate hearing.
Upon entering the infirmary, he noticed that he was one of many visitors. The staff had sound barriers in place to keep the noise down, but even so he could still hear a dull murmur. He made his way amongst the wounded, saying a word here, or giving a nod there. Each member of the squadron was being awarded a TSF Medal of Valor for their bravery. They had earned it.
Tanis Richards had her own little crowd. Commanders Evans and Ouri as well as that strange woman, Trist, were all at her side. The officers snapped off salutes when they saw him approach, and Trist gave a friendly smile. He wasn’t entirely certain about that one, but Tanis had vouched for her, so she had received special dispensation to be a part of the colony mission.
Tanis herself looked much better. Her face was no longer twisted in a rictus of pain, and an easy smile rested on her lips.
“You appear to be in much better condition.” The captain placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m glad to see that the doctors are getting you patched up.”
“Nothing I can’t handle sir, just a bit of swelling in pretty much every one of my lobes as well as some implant overheating.”
“No permanent damage?” he asked.
Tanis chuckled. “None other than what was already there. Angela took more of a beating than I did and we’re having some bleed between our thoughts, but the docs said it will straighten out.”
Captain Andrews nodded and smiled. “While it is mostly a formality and of little bearing now, I wanted to be the first to inform you that the TSF has officially recognized your actions over the last few months. You’ve been awarded the Star Cross of Bravery and have also been promoted to lieutenant colonel.”
Tanis schooled the surprise from her expression. “I guess they decided it was OK to promote me now since they don’t have to increase my pay. It is nice to have it back, though.” She mouthed the words “Lieutenant Colonel” and smiled.
“Credit won’t do you a ton of good where we’re going anyway,” Trist said.
“Your new rank holds here,” Captain Andrews said. “With it you’re the third highest ranking military officer on this vessel and when we arrive at our destination you’ll be given duties and responsibilities according that position.”
“Third highest?” Joe asked. “Who other than Sanderson is above her?”
“We’ve got some crusty colonel in the deep freeze,” Ouri said. “A real treat, let me tell you.”
“Rank or no rank, the Reddings, Terrance and I know who we owe our safety and very lives to. Not to lay it on too thick, Lieutenant Colonel, but we are all in your debt…again.”
“Thank you, sir.” Tanis smiled. She really didn’t know what else to say.
“You’re welcome.” The captain returned the smile. “You’ve done your job well, and we’ll soon be traveling too fast for any type of attack. We’re safe, and finally on our way. You can rest now knowing your work is done.”
Tanis laid her head back and closed her eyes. It felt done. Analysis had shown that the fighter attack was a last attempt by Strang to take them out before they left the system. He was now being held without ability to electronically communicate and all STR operations were on lockdown, the entire company frozen.
Nothing could interrupt the Intrepid’s flight now, it would be smooth sailing from here on out.
Eventually everyone left her side except for Joe.
“I’m due to enter stasis in a few hours,” he said.
“I saw that on the schedule.”
“I’m getting tired of almost losing you, you know.” Joe sounded like he was choking.
“I know how you feel.” Tanis grinned.
“Always with the jokes. I suppose I’ll see you in a hundred and twenty-five years.”
“Forty.” Tanis smiled up at Joe.
“What?”
“I pulled rank and got you on a duty rotation with me in forty years.” Her eyes twinkled, and she thought his might be misting up.
“Those last three years, don’t they?”
“Just you me and…a pair of GSS ensigns. We’ll order pizza and watch lots of movies.”
Joe looked exasperated. “Why do you always do that, make light of things?”
Tanis scowled at him. “I can’t be miss emotional freedom overnight you know.”
“You’re right I’m so—”
Tanis interrupted him, “Commander Evans, could you please stop overanalyzing everything and just kiss me?”
It was loving and passionate.
It was worth the wait.
EPILOUGE
STELLAR DATE: 3227377 / 02.28.4124 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Trans-Neptunian Space - SDM Belt G9
REGION: Scattered Worlds, Sol Space Federation
Tanis closed down the holo viewer where she had been enjoying one final look at the footage of several more STR officers being arraigned in a Sol Space Federation court. She finished securing her quarters, ensuring that nothing would be disturbed should the ship have to alter course or thrust during the journey.
A final scan satisfied her that everything seemed to be in place and she stepped out into the corridor. After closing the hatch she placed a personal seal on it to ensure her things wouldn’t be disturbed. Not that anyone would be around to snoop or cause problems, but old habits died hard.
The ship was effectively deserted. A few people were still about: Priscilla was at her post, and the captain and the Reddings would be staying out of stasis with a small crew for a few months more. After which a rotation of four duty officers took effect; each taking a few years out of stasis to monitor the ship and ensure all was well. Tanis was scheduled for two such rotations, the first in forty years when the ship neared LHS 1565.
&nbs
p; She had enjoyed one final dinner at the captain’s table and bade her farewells to those still awake. It was a sad thing, but Captain Andrews reminded them all that he had done it several times and survived intact. They would all meet again on the far side of their journey and share in the reward that their efforts had won them.
After a short walk she arrived at her designated stasis chamber. The officers who were going to be awoken periodically were not in the regular crew chambers below, but in smaller ones, closer to the officer’s quarters and the bridge. Tanis saw the pod holding Joseph and ran her fingers across its surface, a light smile on her lips. When they awoke they would no longer be TSF and would be free to see where their relationship led them.
She shucked her clothes and placed them in a locker before slipping into a suit that would stabilize the stasis field around her. She said her farewells to Angela, who had already slowed her processes in preparation for shutdown. Her AI would completely power off before the stasis took to ensure that no key cycles were interrupted by the field.
With no more tasks to perform, or things that needed doing, Tanis stepped into the pod and reclined on the cushion. The lid closed over her and she knew no more.
Awareness came back rapidly, like a jolt of light driven into every corner of her mind. Tanis had been in stasis many times before, but had never been awoken in such an abrupt manner. Perhaps it was because of the time lapse in this case. Forty years was a significantly longer period than she had ever been under until now.
The pod lid was already opening and she eased out, marveling how she felt exactly as she had the moment she stepped in. She even felt the sense of fullness from the meal at the captain’s table.
Her Link was initializing and Angela was beginning her boot-up processes, so it took Tanis a moment to notice the alerts scrolling across the holo panels in the chamber. Some sort of shipwide systems malfunction was being reported, something about the drives being offline.
“Well that’s not a good sign.” Tanis queried her Link. It was still authing on all of the secure nets she needed, but the general shipnet was available and she checked its alerts.
What she found there shocked Tanis so badly that she stumbled backward and banged into the edge of her stasis pod. Though Angela was not yet fully initialized, Tanis sensed a feeling of alarm from her AI as well.
The shipnet reported no other crew out of stasis, and those that were supposed to be on duty were missing with no trace of their lifesigns on board. As the information flowed into her still-initializing systems, Tanis realized that this wasn’t the worst of it. Shipnet also reported that the engines were offline, all of the fuel was gone, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, they were falling into a star.
Tanis sighed. “Oh give me a break…”
Don’t miss the sequel to Outystem:
A PATH IN THE DARKNESS
Coming December 2012
For more about your favorite characters and the world of Outsystem, visit http://theintrepidsaga.com for character bios, short stories and information about the Aeon 14 series.
If you’ve enjoyed reading Outsystem, a review on Amazon.com or goodreads.com would be greatly appreciated.
M. D. Cooper
APENDIXES
TERMS & TECHNOLOGY
This is not a complete glossary. For a more complete glossary, timeline and encyclopedic entries, visit www.aeon14.com
AI (SAI, NSAI) – Is a term for Artificial Intelligence. AI are often also referred to as non-organic intelligence. They are broken up into two sub-groups: Sentient AI and Non-Sentient AI.
c – Represented as a lower case c in italics, this symbol stands for the speed of light and means constant. The speed of light in a vacuum is constant at 670,616,629 miles per hour. Ships rate their speed as a decimal value of c with c being 1. Thus a ship traveling at half the speed of light will be said to be traveling at 0.50 c.
Callisto – This moon is the 2nd largest orbiting Jupiter and is the third largest moon in the Sol system (following Ganymede and Triton). Its circumference is over 15,000 kilometers, compared to Luna’s (Earth’s moon) circumference of just under 11,000 kilometers, although before both moons were terraformed it was only half as dense as Luna.
In 3122 construction of the Callisto Orbital Habitat began around Callisto, a project which turned Callisto into the home of 3 trillion humans over the following millennia. By the year 3718 the mass of the orbital habitat greatly outweighed the mass of Callisto itself and the moon was anchored to the Cho. Because of this the Cho is now often referred to as a semi-orbital habitat.
As the rings of the Cho were constructed they eventually reached a point where nearly all view of space was blocked from the surface of Callisto due to the rings not all wrapping around the moon’s equator. Ultimately the surface of the moon was reduced from a terraformed world to little more than waste processing systems for the orbital habitat and is no longer considered a habitable world and no humans live there.
CFT Shields – Carbon Fiber nanoTube shields are created from carbon nanotubes. These tubes are intensely strong and can also be enhanced to absorb laser energy fire and disperse it.
ChoSec – The Callisto Orbital Habitat has a security force that is larger than the TSF in size due to the need to police over three trillion humans. It is quasi-military and provides both internal as well as external security to the Cho.
CO – This is an abbreviation meaning commanding officer. It is common in all branches of the military.
cryostasis (cryogenics) – See ‘stasis’.
D2 (Deuterium) – D2 (2H) is an isotope of hydrogen where the nucleus of the atom is made up of one proton and one neutron as opposed to a single proton in regular hydrogen (protium). Deuterium is naturally occurring and is found in the oceans of planets with water and is also created by fusion in stars and brown dwarf sub stars. D2 is a stable isotope that does not decay.
Fireteam – Is the smallest combat grouping of soldiers. In the TSF Marines (like the USMC) it contains four soldiers; the team leader (often doubles as the grenadier), the rifleman (acts as a scout for the team), automatic rifleman (carries a larger, fully automatic weapon), the assistant automatic rifleman (carries additional ammo).
Fission – Fission is a nuclear reaction where an atom is split apart. Fission reactions are simple to achieve with heavier, unstable elements such as Uranium or Plutonium. In closed systems with extreme heat and pressure it is possible to split atoms of much more stable elements, such as Helium. Fission of heavier elements typically produces less power and far more waste matter and radiation than Fusion.
Fusion – Fusion is a nuclear reaction where atoms of one type (Hydrogen for example) are fused into atoms of another type (Helium in the case of Hydrogen fusion). Fusion was first discovered and tested in the H-Bombs (Hydrogen bombs) of the twentieth century. Fusion reactors are also used as the most common source of ship power from roughly the twenty fourth century on.
g (gee, gees, g-force) – Represented as a lower case g in italics, this symbol stands for gravity. On earth, at sea-level, the human body experiences 1g. A human sitting in a wheeled dragster race-car will achieve 4.2gs of horizontal g-force. Arial fighter jets will impose g-forces of 7-12gs on their pilots. Humans will often lose consciousness around 10gs. Unmodified humans will suffer serious injury or death at over 50gs. Starships will often impose burns as high as 20gs and provide special couches or beds for their passengers during such maneuvers. Modified starfighter pilots can withstand g-forces as high as 70gs.
Graviton – These are small massless particles that are emitted from objects with large mass, or by special generators capable of creating them without large masses. There are also negatively charged gravitons which push instead of pull. These are used in shielding systems in the form of Gravitational Waves. The GSS Intrepid uses a new system of channeled gravitons to create the artificial gravity in the crew areas of the ship.
electrostatic shields/fields – Not to be confused with a fara
day cage, electrostatic shield’s technical name is static electric stasis field. By running a conductive grid of electrons through the air and holding it in place with a stasis field the shield can be tuned to hold back oxygen, but allow solid objects to pass through, or to block solid objects. Fields are used in objects such as ramscoops and energy conduits.
EMF – Electro Magnetic Fields are given off by any device using electricity that is not heavily shielded. Using sensitive equipment it is possible to tell what type of equipment is being used, and where it is by its EMF signature. In warfare it is one of the primary ways to locate an enemy’s position.
EMP – Electro Magnetic Pulses are waves of electromagnetic energy that can disable or destroy electronic equipment. Because so many people have electronic components in their bodies, or share their minds with AI, they are susceptible to extreme damage from an EMP. Ensuring that human/machine interfaces are hardened against EMPs is of paramount importance.
FGT – The Future Generation Terraformers is a program started in 2352 with the purpose of terraforming worlds in advance of colony ships being sent to the worlds. Because terraforming of a world could take hundreds of years the FGT ships arrive and begin the process.
Once the world(s) being terraformed reached stage 3, a message was sent back to the Sol system with an ‘open’ date for the world(s) being terraformed. The GSS then handles the colony assignment.
A decade after the Destiny Ascendant left the Sol system in 3728 the FGT program was discontinued by the SolGov, making it the last FGT ship to leave. Because the FGT ships are all self-sustaining none of them came home after the program was discontinued—most of the ship’s crews had spent generations in space and had no reason to return to Sol.