by Don Koch
King Hans arrived wearing an abbreviated crown. He had been saying hello to the troops as he came through the encampment. All were amazed that a king would act in such a manner. The General was concerned but Franz said to him, "Do not worry General, my father has the same capabilities you witnessed three days ago. They can not hurt him."
The General said, "These events are much for an old mind to take in. But I shall adjust and learn. This is a tremendous development. I had no idea that the end result would be so, so delightful. I am afraid that I have been very depressed for the past few days and my men must be feeling this. It is time to go and meet my new King and repair the morale of my troops. Thank you Franz, I hope we can chat more and soon."
"That is a promise General, see you soon."
Franz enjoyed watching the transformation of the General's demeanor and felt that the General would be a staunch ally and supporter of his father. He had been thinking how he might light a bit of a fire under the citizens to encourage them to think of better ways to do things. He thought that one method that might work would be to encourage innovation and invention. Maybe an annual fair with prizes to do that. He would have to see what Hank thought about that.
### In Saark orbit aboard Station One –
November 11 – C Day 438 ###
Hank had a chat with Franz and Jon saying, "That was an awesome bit of work down there. I think it is safe to say that your world is definitely back on track. You still have some work to do and I do like the idea of promoting an innovation and invention fair. You are also going to find that required schooling will advance your society very quickly. Our station in orbit will communicate with you whenever if you wish to bounce an idea off them. They are quite good at projecting where an idea may lead. They will also keep you informed of any potential trouble spots that may need the attention of your T-Raptors. Your resolution of the issue speaks well for your world. You do have a couple of issues that you will need to eventually address. One of those is to try to get all kingdoms to adopt a similar method of governance. You will also need to work on improving communications amongst the kingdoms. The stations will from time to time make suggestions about when you may wish to consider addressing an issue. None of that diminishes what you have done. I move around quite a bit and in fact I have to leave to address an old problem a great distance from here, but each time I am close I will contact you for a chat. Well done."
After Franz and Roz returned to Saark, Hank had a senior staff meeting. "Well folks, we have some unfinished business to take care of in the Arber system. When this all started, I had Stations 101 and 121 go to Gella and Blint to make sure that things were in hand. Negotiations there are underway for Space Inc. I had Station 141 proceed to Arber and Station 161 proceed to Artemis. We are off to Gar shortly and Stations 101, 121 and 161 will join us there after they have dropped in on Nimtam and the remaining new colony worlds."
Chapter 16: Orbital Station Acar
In Yannar Orbit – November 17 – C Day 444
Orbital Station Acar had been a fixture in the Yannarian sky for more than 700 years. It was originally built as an orbital fortress and as a power source to supplement Yannar’s meager production. The station was built as an immense multipurpose construct that orbited the planet Yannar at the same distance as its moon but in opposition. On average the position of Orbital Station Acar was 233,000 miles from Antor. The orbit was slightly elliptical with its closest approach to the planet at about 220,000 miles and its most distant at 345,000 miles. The orbit was selected to meet perceived safety concerns since the power for the station used multiple singularities to generate its power needs. The Yannarian High Command did not want the station any closer than was necessary to achieve its intended purpose.
Orbital Station Acar was in the shape of a cylinder with a hollow core. Orbital Station Acar was 30 miles in diameter and 70 miles in length. The core area was 4 miles across. Access to the interior of the station was through airlocks dotted along the surface of the core area starting two miles from either end of the orbital station.
The station’s most unusual feature was its entire outer shell and its internal supports were one continuous piece of the strongest alloy known. The alloy had a very low expansion/contraction coefficient. That shell was 500 feet thick at a minimum for all sections exposed to space except in the core area where the shell was 10 feet thick. Under current standards the dimensions of the hull was more than somewhat excessive but it was constructed before installation of the current shielding technology had been developed and was built to take direct hits from hostile fire while experiencing minimal damage. The station was originally intended to be an orbital defensive fortress and the designer/builder, Ardan Fann, never did properly represent the dimensions of the station for reasons he never disclosed. It was something of a moot point since he disappeared in an accident when the station was being placed into orbit. No attempt or discussion concerning any attempt to reduce the metallic content of the hull had ever been seriously considered primarily because the true dimensions were not what appeared on the station’s plans on Yannar. In effect, the additional material was an undisclosed reserve. If asked, the governing body would respond with a hull dimension of two feet thick but would not know the source of that misinformation.
The construction of the fabricators designed to build the station had taken longer to build than the station itself. After the station had been built, the fabricators had been dismantled and were stored in a section of the station that was primarily a raw materials storage area. This location was not on the station maps. There had been no further attempt to build anything approaching the scale of Orbital Station Acar because it was believed that the necessary source for raw material was no longer readily available or accessible in the Yannarian system. The fabricators were essentially forgotten. The core of the planet that became the system’s asteroid belt had provided the needed materials for Orbital Station Acar and the remainder had been sufficient to build a fleet of warships that enforced Yannar’s will in the 23 systems that comprised the Yannarian Hegemony, a large fleet. Ardan Fann managed to hide a significant chunk of the planets core so that there was enough material to build a substantial fleet of stations if needed.
Orbital Station Acar was designed to house and support a population of 15,000,000. Currently it had a population of about 250,000, all of whom were active military including their families or construction workers building new warships in the central core. There were about 3,000 political officers who were known for their ruthless suppression of any activity critical of or in opposition to the goals or positions of the High Command and particularly the High Councilor of Yannar, Darus Brondin. While all but the political officers, the military dependents and the construction workers were active military, only 110,000 were directly involved in the manning of its warships and might be termed active combatants including ground forces and space forces. The bulk of these were in the Space Navy and Marines. The remainder operated the orbital station, provided services, and workers in the ship construction facilities in and near the core area. Since the population of the station was considerably less than that for which it had been designed, it had a substantial surplus in its food production. For the most part, the excess was processed and used to resupply fleet vessels and the remainder was exported to other systems in the Hegemony.
Within the cylinder, the station contained multiple layers and segments, each with a specific general purpose but with sufficient capacity to perform backup services for other sections. The outermost area was designed for emergency shielding and contained the water supply for station inhabitants. The water supply was another apparent excess. The station had a layer of interior water tanks about three miles inside the outer hull. The tanks started about two miles from either end of the station and completely encircled the station. The tanks, like many other features in the station were excessive. The individual tanks were 1,600 feet long by 1000 feet wide and had a depth of 350 feet. All of the tanks
were baffled and interconnected. The water was constantly circulated. Any individual tank could be isolated and bypassed it that ever became necessary. Fifty feet above that layer of water tanks was a second layer of water tanks, isolated from the first layer. Station use of the two systems was alternated on a periodic basis. The water was maintained in liquid form at a temperature of 10 degrees Celsius. Adjacent to the water tanks were a system of small access tunnels in the event the water tanks required service. An army of automated machines provided any service, maintenance or repair required for the tanks. The tunnels were too small for humans and so the machines were built to perform any maintenance or repair task.
About four miles from the outer hull there are numerous transportation tubes. The area not taken up by the metallic hull, water tanks with maintenance access tunnels, power conduits, transportation tubes, artificial gravity components and the inner deck is comprised of rock, soil, stone, insulating materials and shielding materials. No repair task of any consequence has been required since construction of the station and the system was constantly monitored and tested.
Below the first level deck, the station's transportation system operates quietly and efficiently. This consists of two or four-person enclosed personnel carriers that can be called to any call point in the station. They were quiet and quick. For longer distance trips, there were routing connections that could assure that any destination in the station could be reached in less than 20 minutes. Generally, a carrier arrived at the pickup point within a minute of the call. For short distances, there were fixed walkways and moving walkways available. In addition there were cycling/exercise paths throughout the habitat area.
Gravity throughout the station is artificial and is maintained at 1G. It was found that this tended to avoid health issues that arose in a lesser gravity over time. There are sections where a lesser gravity is maintained such as the shipyards at the core, certain manufacturing facilities and the material storage areas.
Orbital Station Acar is divided into 5 sections. Section I is essentially identical to Section 5, Section 2 identical to Section 4, Section 3 is unique. Each section goes around the full circumference of the station.
Inside of the outer hull is the location where the power generation for the station and for transmission to Yannar occurs. The station has 100 power generation tubes distributed through the length of its hull. Each power tube contains a number of counter-rotating singularities. These singularities are magnetically controlled and produce a tremendous amount of power. Only four tubes are necessary to provide all of the power needs for the station. Another 10 are operated to deliver power to Antor. This leaves a 86 tube redundancy. Another example of overbuilding that fazed no one. Redundancy was taken for granted. For example there was a fuel supply aboard that in theory would furnish power for 500 years if all the tubes were in operation.
Sections 1 and 5 are at the ends of the station and each is 4 miles in width. Computing facilities and the general station control center is located in Section 1 with an identical backup facility located in Section 5. In addition, the portion of Sections 1 and 5 adjacent to the core is a beehive of launch tubes for vessels up to destroyer class in size. The station houses a formidable inventory of fighting spacecraft. A single launch from one end of the station would place 10 destroyers and 100 two man fighter craft in space. Launches can occur at 4 minute intervals for the destroyer class vessels and 1 minute intervals for the two man ships. In addition the station has a complement of 80 heavy cruisers and 20 super dreadnaughts that take a bit longer to put in space but still with impressive speed. All of this is in addition to the station’s offensive capability. Energy discharge points all along the outer hull provided the station’s primary offensive weapon and could easily engage multiples of the largest super dreadnaughts. Anyone taking on the station would be in for a nasty surprise.
Sections 2 and 4 are the locations of the military defensive and offensive material. This includes ships, arms, weapons, equipment, training areas, supplies, raw material storage, etc. The area within 2 miles of the core area is used by active or ready ships and equipment. The walls between Sections 2 and 3 as well as between 3 and 4 are specially reinforced and baffled to prevent incidents in the training areas from encroaching on the stations living areas. Sections 2 and 4 are each 6 miles wide.
The outer zone of Section 3 is the location of the living quarters and habitat for station residents. The inner zone contains the farms for food production and has multiple decks. The living quarters are generous in size and designed to give the appearance and feel of a planet based oversized apartment. This area also holds the social gathering places, entertainment areas, recreational areas, shopping areas, and more. Section 3 is 50 miles in width. Presently only a portion of Section 3 is occupied and in full use. The area from the outermost deck to the habitat ceiling is basically a huge farm. There are 100 decks of farms each about 200 feet apart and 11 decks of food processing plants and storage. Each deck is about 100 feet apart. The farm decks utilize both hydroponics and conventional soil based growing methods and are fully automated. The deck at the base of the habitat is a combination recreation area, community farms, camping, fishing, hiking area with plant growth ranging from grasses to trees. The terrain was varied to simulate mountains up to 4 miles in height. Spaces inside the “mountains” are used for processing the output from the farms on the lower decks, air recycling and waste recycling. The plants and growth help to cleanse and filter the air in the station giving it a planet based “taste.”
High Command believes that Orbital Station Acar was not built with space travel functions. High Command believes that it has limited maneuvering capability in order to maintain its position in orbit relative to Yannar.
Orbital Station Acar is a fully self-sustaining and self-supporting worldlet. Residents of the station took most of the day-to-day functions of the station for granted. The automated systems aboard the station operate flawlessly and are constantly monitored by automated maintenance machines that constantly test and check everything. It really did not occur to anyone that the things that were done on the station might be a bit beyond the capabilities of the computer systems to which they had access. The station Commander and his spouse had some suspicions and worries but nothing concrete. What no one knew or really even suspected was that Orbital Station Acar was alive, intelligent and had a few ideas of its own about how things should be and had capabilities that had not yet been revealed or demonstrated.
Chapter 17: General Brondin
On Station 1 in Gar orbit – November 18 – C Day 445
On arrival in Gar orbit, Hank contacted Lord Dranz saying, "It is a good time to reach closure on the Arber issue. Are you available for a T Raptor visit to Arber? It is time to see how that situation has developed.”
“Yes I am and it would be good to see what remains to be done.”
Hank had the same T-Raptor team together that had last visited General Brondin. When Lord Dranz and Meri arrived, Hank explained what he hoped to accomplish. He said, “the first thing on our agenda today is a discussion with Sean O’Connor and Maudie on Station 16 to see what his team has determined. Following that update we will then determine our next course of action. If you are all ready we can get on with this.” All agreed. “Ok, let’s enter into rapport. I will take us to Station 16.” This he did. “Good day to you Sean and Maudie. I hope all is well with you both. We have a regular mob scene with us and all are visible. I understand that you are ready to fill us in on what has happened here. We are all yours.” Hank reintroduced everyone on the team and than asked Sean O’Connor to take over the briefing.
“General Stone, Sam, Your Highness, Lady Meri, all of you, welcome back. Since last you were here, there have been a few developments. The main elements are:
We have reviewed every document on the planet and identified anything related to the machinations instituted by General Brondin. It is now certain that he is the culprit behind the late unfortunate busine
ss. He did have quite a bit of assistance in the things he had started. All persons complicit in his misadventure that we have been able to identify have been tagged by Maudie and incarcerated. We are reasonably sure that we have the lot of them but it still feels like something is missing. All that we know of are securely locked up.
All of the weapons have been destroyed and their spacefaring capability has been totally dismantled.
Anyone that was in jail that did not belong there has been freed.
Their fleet has been taken to Linan and we are having repairs and modifications performed there for redistribution of the ships.
The governing body is in place and they have reviewed the case against General Brondin and others. They claim to have tried him and others culpable. They have passed judgment on him and the others who willingly cooperated with General Brondin.
The ruling council appears to have things in hand though I do not trust them as far as I can throw them. Arber is going to need watching for some time to come. The Arberites can’t be trusted. There are at least two persons on the ruling council that we think have ties to Brondin but we cannot find proof.
The use of the bio-symbiotes by General Brondin on Arber was fairly limited. We find evidence of its use on about 20,000 persons in the last 600 years. He was pretty selective about who he needed to infect. The rest of the population was fairly complacent and unfortunately cooperative. It was also clear that a great number of people knew what was happening off planet but elected to do or say nothing. We found almost no record of a resistance except for the few who were jailed in the prison. The population appears to have little in the way of a moral imperative.
The population of the planet is relatively small for a planet that has advanced to this stage.