It also resulted in some traditions that even a native could occasionally find to be a peculiar mix. Bronze braziers scattered across the clearing spread the fragrant smoke of several varieties of incense, while paper lanterns floated overhead – lifted by electric heater-lights, not candles, aboard a starship.
Amidst the lanterns and incense were scattered tables loaded with food and – Kyle hoped! – non-alcoholic punch. Even he felt it was against the rules to not have alcohol at a Castle-style wake, but Navy regs restricted alcohol to the mess.
And it was now Kyle’s job to enforce those regulations.
He sighed, shaking his head. Normally, he would be in the middle of the wake, living up the party while trying to shake off the grief. With his new role, though, he felt awkward and out of sorts. Before, only the pilots had been expected to look up to him. Now the entire crew was supposed to see him as an example.
Since Kyle wasn’t sure what a good example was, he found himself on the edge of the wake with a glass of water, watching the party out of the corner of his eyes.
There was an underlying tension to the crowd he wasn’t sure how to address. With his pilots, he’d have tried by getting them all drunk – and acting like an idiot himself. With three thousand crew instead of three hundred, he didn’t think that would work quite as well.
A wake was supposed to honor the dead and encourage the living, but the crowd was quiet and subdued. Kyle figured most of them were considering the fact that they could easily be joining that list all too soon.
“I should have spiked the damn punch myself,” he muttered. Having a third of the crew drunk for a shift would do less damage than the eroding morale he could sense around him.
“Does that mean you won’t brig me if I admit I did?” a voice said from beside him. He glanced over to find Lieutenant-Commander Maria Pendez’s dark eyes looking up at him with a dangerous sparkle.
“Only if I didn’t hear you, and I swear my implant damage is causing my hearing to occasionally fritz out,” he told her. “Nonetheless, Commander, behave.”
She graced him with a smile, stunningly white against her dusky skin.
“I confess to nothing,” she told him. “But trying to get at least Mason and Stanford drunk was damned tempting.”
Something about her tone made Kyle look around for that pair. To his surprise, they were not hovering around each other pretending not to make googly eyes as they’d been doing since just after Thorn. Stanford was in one corner with the Flight Commanders, sharing a drink and a joke with Commander Rokos. Mason was on the precisely opposite side of the party, engrossed in a conversation with one of her Lieutenants.
People didn’t ignore each other that completely by accident.
“Shit,” Kyle said softly.
“It ain’t my job to watch ship morale – or morality, as everyone knows,” Pendez said virtuously with a wink. “But that pair… something’s up, and when I tried to lure Mason into ‘girl talk’ I got shut down so hard my ears still ring. You follow me, boss?”
“Thank you, Commander Pendez,” Kyle told her. “I’ll sort them out,” he finished with a sigh. “As soon as I work out what exactly they did.”
“That’s what Kleiner would do, so I figured it was your job,” Avalon’s Navigator told him cheerily. “My job, on the other hand, is to warp the very fabric of reality to take us all between the stars.”
“Speaking of which, we’re scheduled to initiate the Alcubierre drive at thirteen hundred. Unless I misread the schedule, that’s about an hour into your first watch on the bridge.”
She smiled toothily.
“Don’t worry boss, I’ll be gentle.”
En route out of Hessian System
13:00 September 11, 2735 ESMDT
DSC-001 Avalon – Bridge
For the first time in his life, Kyle occupied the single chair on the raised dais in the center of a warship’s bridge. Around him, Avalon’s afternoon watch continued about their ordinary duties, pretending to be unaware that the current acting commander of their starship had been a Navy officer for a grand total of three days.
As he’d suspected for a long time, most of the screens around him were redundant. Even with his reduced implant capability, he’d managed to link into the bridge’s network. Overlaid translucently on the walls and people around him was the view from Avalon’s exterior, as if he wasn’t surrounded by millions of tons of metal.
Of the ship’s senior officers, only Pendez was on the bridge. A junior Lieutenant-Commander who looked far too young for the gold circle on his collar manned the Tactical station. The Senior Lieutenant at the Engineering station actually looked older than the man controlling the carrier’s weapons.
Mixed in with the visual of the space outside the ship were multiple overlays of sensor data that would have been overwhelmingly complex if Kyle hadn’t been a starfighter pilot. As it was, the amount of data was actually less than what he’d handled as a pilot. Unlike then, he had to consciously process the information instead of just knowing it, but he was still easily able to tell when the starship passed far enough away from Hessian to be clear activating the Alcubierre drives.
Kyle took a deep breath, and brought the procedures up on his datapad. He reviewed them carefully – a few minutes wasn’t going to change their arrival time across a seven day voyage – and then looked over at Pendez.
The dusky-skinned Navigator was looking at him expectantly, and gave him a wink when she saw him look her way.
“Lieutenant-Commander Pendez, please confirm that we have cleared all detectable gravity zones,” Kyle asked aloud, sending an electronic request along simultaneously. It looked clear to him, but Pendez was the one with the measurements for imitation of the Alcubierre-Stetson drive.
“All identified gravitational objects are beyond effect range,” she replied, her voice crispy and formal. An electronic data packet flicked back to him in the network, a three dimensional model showing the source and magnitude of all gravitational forces on the carrier.
“Current gravitational force is beneath zero point seven picometers per second squared. We are prepared to warp space on your command.”
“Senior Lieutenant Reid, please confirm status of Class One mass manipulators,” Kyle asked the Engineering officer. He received the electronic download of the status of the massive exotic-matter-driven machines before he’d finished speaking, but waited for the verbal confirmation.
“All five Class Ones are at ninety-eight-plus percent,” the junior engineer finally reported. “Engineering reports prepared to warp space.”
Kyle triggered a prepared command on his datapad to open an all-hands channel to be heard across the ship.
“All hands, prepare for Alcubierre drive,” he ordered, taking a tiny thrill in the fact that Blair was leaving this important, if simple, evolution entirely to him. He knew the Captain was in his office, less than twenty steps from the bridge, but the trust being extended was real regardless.
“Navigation, please initiate interior Stetson stabilization fields,” Kyle ordered Pendez quietly after letting several moments pass.
The overlay of the exterior of the ship shimmered as the faint haze of the energy fields that would protect Avalon from the hellish interior of her bubble of warped space flashed into existence.
“Interior Stetson field active,” Pendez reported softly as she flipped a more detailed report to Kyle. “Exterior field on standby, mass manipulators on standby.”
There was a flicker showing on her report, a mild harmonic in the Stetson stabilization field, but the computer was sure it was within tolerance. Kyle made a mental note to speak to Wong about it later, and then turned his full attention to Maria Pendez.
“Lieutenant-Commander Pendez,” Kyle said formally. “You may initiate space warp at your discretion.”
All of the light around the carrier seemed to shiver and distort, warping around four separate points as four of Avalon’s five Class One mass manipulators spun
gravitational singularities into existence – and a second Stetson stabilization field prevented those singularities from wrecking orbits across the Hessian system.
“We have singularity formation,” Pendez reported. “Exterior Stetson field is active, no containment issues. Initiating warp bubble… now.”
In the sensors and system reports feeding to Kyle, the entire ship strained as it dumped enough power to fuel half a world into the manipulators. A moment later, a bright flash of blue light encapsulated the ship, and the Hessian system was gone, replaced by a flickering and chaotic glow of Cherenkov radiation.
One battle was behind them – and they were on their way to another.
26
Under Alcubierre Drive, near Hessian System
09:00 September 12, 2735 Earth Standard Meridian Date/Time
DSC-001 Avalon – Captain’s Office
Scientists had never managed to modify the two-way link of a pair of quantum-entangled particles to allow any form of multi-point communication. Telecommunication engineers, however, had simply shrugged and resurrected the ancient concept of the switchboard.
Avalon’s array of quantum-entangled bits were linked into three separate switchboard stations in Alliance space. Each of those station had its own arrays of entangled bits linked to other networks owned by Alliance powers, as well as many neutrals and even the Commonwealth itself.
This meant that the longest delay in the communication between the office Kyle was sharing with Captain Blair and the commander of Tranquility’s defenses was the time it took the man’s aide to confirm he was available for the scheduled call.
From Kyle joining his Captain in the office and placing the call, to the face of the First Admiral of the Tranquility Space Fleet appearing on the wall-screen, took about thirty seconds.
“Greetings, Captain, Commander,” the extremely pale-skinned, shaven-headed, man in a burgundy uniform announced calmly, bowing with his hands clasped together before looking directly at the two Federation officers with dark eyes.
“I am First Admiral Sagacity Wu,” he continued. “It is good to know that the Federation comes to our aid.”
“I am Captain Malcolm Blair, and this is Senior Fleet Commander Kyle Roberts,” Blair introduced themselves. “I appreciate you taking the time to speak with us this morning.”
Wu inclined his head slightly, the action shading the heavy folds of his eyes into an almost sinister hue against the paleness of his skin.
“My world is in danger, and your Federation sends us all that they can,” he said calmly and precisely. “One will always desire more ships, more aid, but I do not believe it is coincidence that brings Avalon to us once again, to honor the promises made upon the Flight Deck of your very vessel, Captain.”
Kyle started to reach for his datapad to research Avalon’s role in the original treaty with Tranquility, only to stop himself – hopefully before the Admiral noticed! What would once have been an instant query of his implant’s databanks would now actually take him time – and more importantly, be rude when dealing with the commander of an allied military.
“I wish we had more ships with us myself, Admiral,” Blair admitted. “At least we will beat the Commonwealth there by at least two days.”
Wu nodded sharply.
“Most likely, the Commonwealth forces have already left their bases,” he told them. “We have received no declaration of war or other statement of their intentions, but my own personnel have reviewed the intelligence retrieved from the Achilles. The High Council has agreed with Alliance Intelligence’s conclusions – the Commonwealth plans a sneak attack upon our world.”
There wasn’t much Kyle or Blair could say to that, and Kyle watched the Captain out of the corner of his eye to see how Blair responded.
“The Commonwealth believes the historical inevitability of their cause justifies much,” the Captain murmured. “We will place ourselves at your disposal upon our arrival, First Admiral, but can you brief us on the status of your defenses?”
“With pleasure, Captain,” Wu responded. He made no gesture or other visible command, but the screen suddenly split in two. On the left was the pale-skinned Admiral, and the right was an image of the Tranquility system itself.
Kyle realized quickly what made Tranquility unique – the planet was huge. He hadn’t a chance to review the statistics before, but Wu’s image of the system was rapidly overlaid with some of the basic statistics, and the planet was easily four times the diameter of Earth.
The planet’s crust was extremely poor in heavy metals, giving it a surface gravity lower than Earth’s, and extremely rich in phosphates, nitrates, and all of the other organic compounds useful for growing crops. Combined with a negligible axial tilt and near-circular orbit, something like seventy-five percent of the planet’s surface land area had perfect growing cycles for most human food crops.
The size of the planet had also resulted in something else Kyle had never seen before on a habitable world – Tranquility had rings. Three, in fact, extending out to almost a full light second away from the world in loose-knit collections of ice and dust.
Most of the system’s heavy industry was tied up in the asteroid belt, with a large complex tucked into the innermost of the four gas giants. A sixth world orbited halfway between Tranquility and its star, a fire- rock that held a few observatories and science stations, but nothing of real value.
“To begin with the most basic, the Tranquility Space Fleet commands three starships,” Wu told them. “Tranquility herself was built to order five years ago in the Castle system and is equivalent to one of your Victory class carriers. Sapanā and Mauna, our two cruisers, are old Imperial ships bought when Coraline was decommissioning them. They’ve been heavily refitted, but are twenty-five years old.
“We also possess twenty-four guardships for home security, eight each of the Śīlḍa, Abhibhāvaka and Rakṣaka classes,” Wu continued. “I will have a data package on all of our ships forwarded to you once we are done.”
“Our enemy has picked an excellent time from their perspective, I am afraid,” the Tranquility First Admiral admitted. “Sufficiently so that I wonder about their intelligence.
“We use a modified form of your Typhoon type fighter, the Hurricane. Like our cruisers, it has been heavily updated over time and the Hurricane-D was one of the first seventh generation fighters deployed by an Alliance power.
“However, our entire current strength of the class is aboard Tranquility,” he said calmly. “Tranquility is with the Alliance nodal fleet at Midori. Our cruisers and home defense squadrons are equipped entirely with the Hurricane-C, a rough equivalent to your Cobra design.
“The High Council gave us a choice between the budget to pay for Mauna’s refit, and the budget to replace all of our fighters with the D model,” Wu explained. “We chose Mauna’s refit, which brings us to why the Commonwealth’s timing is unfortunate.”
“Mauna currently has no internal power,” he said flatly. “Even if we could get her new reactors installed in time, half of her weapons are also being replaced. Without your vessel, Captain Blair, I would face an entire Commonwealth battle group with only the Sapanā and our guardships.
“I have faith in my men and women, but that is not a battle human courage and adherence to dharma can win for us,” he said quietly. “Your ship may seem old and small, Captain, but I believe that she is enough to turn the tide.
“And I know that it is right and correct for her to be here.”
Wu was as good as his word. Once they’d spent forty five minutes going through his plan to defend Tranquility, he’d sent over the full detailed specifications on every ship and starfighter the TSF had to defend their world with.
It was an odd mix.
Tranquility exported food to over fifty different star systems, and had money to burn. What they didn’t have was heavy industry. Tranquility itself was unusually poor in metals of almost every kind, and the asteroid belt was the only source of raw materia
ls.
They purchased all of their starships, freighters, cruisers, and carriers alike. Originally, they’d even purchased the starfighters to go aboard them, but eventually the High Council had agreed to fund the starfighter plant hidden on one of the moons of the innermost gas giant.
While most of the heavy industry was concentrated in the asteroid belt, close to where their materials were extracted, the gas giant’s cloud scoops not only fed the fusion plants for the starfighter plant, but also ran the one facility in the system that produced the exotic matter necessary for mass manipulators.
That plant was only a few years older than the starfighter factory, and had been the real turning point in the existence of a local ship-building industry. Tranquility could, if they spent the effort, even build Class One manipulators now.
Mostly, though, they built the higher class devices that fueled a modern civilization – and allowed the local industry to build half-megaton schooners for in-system travel, and the half-megaton guardships of the Tranquility Space Fleet.
Kyle realized that at least two of the three classes of guardship Tranquility had built were better than most of their type. The Abhibhāvaka and Rakṣaka – Guardian and Defender, if his datapad translated as well as his implant had – classes were designed as missile platforms, equipped with both Starfires and Jackhammers to engage at any range.
Wu’s plan called for hiding the two missile-heavy classes of guardship in Tranquility’s rings, where the dust and ice would shield them from most sensors while they pounded the Commonwealth squadrons.
The Śīlḍa – Shield – class ships were heavily armed with positron lances and anti-missile lasers, and rated for the same Tier 3 acceleration as starfighters. The plan called for them to go out with the starfighters, accompanied by a swarm of missiles launched by Avalon, Sapanā and the missile guardships.
Avalon Trilogy: Castle Federation Books 1-3: Includes Space Carrier Avalon, Stellar Fox, and Battle Group Avalon Page 22