Alien Enigma

by Bain, Darrell; Teora, Tony

  "Be damned! Does Wannstead know how we've remade this one?" Keane raised his head to look at the young man and tilted a brow.

  "Hell no, and damn few others do, either." He brushed at his hair again. "This is so highly classified I have to tape my mouth shut at night in case I talk in my sleep and be forced to kill my girlfriend." Jergens didn't have a girlfriend but that was no one's business.

  Keane chuckled, thinking of an ex-girlfriend whose mouth he'd once wanted to tape shut to keep her from talking about ex-boyfriends in her sleep. He dropped that thought and continued. "Show me the good stuff, things I know more about, like weapons."

  "Sure captain." Jergens picked up a newer looking TekPad from his desk, swiped his thumbprint, tapped a few icons, and a section of schematics drawn in red ink lit on the screen. He put the TekPad down on his desk saying, "Projector please." A hologram sprang into being with the office wall as a backdrop. "Now look at the weapon bays here and here," Jergens said, using a pointer on his TekPad that was faithfully reproduced in the hologram. "We've replaced the lasers Wannstead uses and put in heavier types that another of the gang just finished testing. They're for fine work, but there's also a module here that houses a plasma pulser we've been fooling around with the last couple of years. This seemed like a good chance to test it, seeing as how the ship is big enough to carry one of them. Besides, we had a bug put in our ears about how anything to enhance the weaponry would be more than welcome. You'll have to wait until you're in space to use it, though. It draws its power from the drive energy." He looked up and grinned like a boy who'd just outscored a long time rival at Edge of the Universe, an extremely popular game played by young techies.

  "What in the seven hells is a plasma pulsar? And what does it do?"

  "The plasma part you can probably guess, Captain Keane. The pulser ...well, just think of blobs of plasma being shot from the ship at speeds high enough that they don't dissipate much before reaching their target. In our atmosphere the range is fifty miles or so, depending on your weather. That's the minimum. The higher you are in atmosphere, the farther away you can hit a target and damage it. In space though, the range ought to be much greater since there's no atmosphere to slow the blobs down or dissipate the cohesion. Thousands of miles at least. Maybe tens of thousands."

  "Tens of thousands," the nearby weapons specialist said succinctly. "The bitch is aiming it over long distances but we're working on that. We're also looking at a double whammy for cutting though the atmosphere. We can use the laser cannons to cut a temporary hole in the atmosphere, then pulse our plasma behind it. Deadly combination-and increases the range of the plasma blast. We know of no other country that has that capability yet."

  "Great. I can't tell you where we're going but that ought to give us an edge, depending on what we run into."

  Jergens grinned as if he knew something Keane didn't, but continued his iteration of the upgrades. "That's not all. See these two indentations here? They'll be covered when not in use, but the lids slide into recesses when you need a twenty thousand kiloklick per hour rail gun cannon. It fires steel-coated depleted uranium slugs."

  "Rail guns? And that good? Hot shit!" Keane said enthusiastically. He knew the Navy had the fastest rail guns in the world-but not this fast. Rail guns used magnetic fields to accelerate projectiles and Keane knew from his special training at the Deep Star Program that speeds of 10K were possible. But these new speeds would allow his ship to bomb the bejesus out of a planet-and from a relatively safe distance. "By God, that'll give me three different ways to kill the boogers. I had no idea we were this far along in heavy rail-gun technology and the plasma pulser is completely new to me. I'm going to have to bone up on it." He paused reflectively for a moment, then added, "I hope someone's been training crews to operate these additions?"

  "Yes, sir. They'll be aboard. It took the overflow power produced by the quantum drive of the C class ships, plus our upgrades, to make both of them really effective. I don't know if Wannstead thought of it in those terms or not, but our intelligence spooks say his own ships carry weapons. I'm sure they aren't like anything we've put on this baby, though. Or will have by the time you take it out." His grin widened, then died. "I guess there's no reason other countries couldn't have upgraded their ships the same way as us, but I doubt anyone has weapons of the same caliber as ours unless they've hit on the drive modifications we have."

  "Good deal!" Keane's big frame stretched upright. He kept a straight face at the engineer's remarks. Jergens didn't need to know that when he received his initial briefing the same subject had come up. Russia and Brazil had indeed been modifying and weaponizing their ships for the last twenty years, and China almost that long. Navy Intelligence had a pretty good picture of the situation. Nor did he have the need to know just yet that some of the spooks in the intelligence services thought one of those nations was responsible for Wannstead's missing ships. "I want every damned advantage I can get."

  "Well, how about this?" He pointed to the cargo bay on the schematic. "I understand you won't be taking colonists so you'll have extra cargo capacity. Whatever you choose to stow there is up to you."

  "As it stands now, we'll be taking Marines and enough supplies to stay out for a long time. Funny how the drive works, isn't it? It can't be made smaller according to Wannstead, so after it's installed there's enough power there to make the ship pretty near as big as you care to. Makes it nice for colonization but also good for other reasons, huh?"

  "Damned straight. Do you want see the ship now?"

  "You bet!"

  "It's in the hanger. Let me call for transportation."

  "Fine." He nodded to the other two techs. "Thanks, guys. Lead on, Mr. Jergens."

  "Hang loose," Jergens said a few minutes later as Keane fitted his body into the passenger seat beside him. With his big frame, it left little room to spare. Once they were underway and out of hearing of the original driver he glanced over at the Captain. "I couldn't say anything in there. Those two aren't cleared for it, and it's not in the schematics, but there's one more innovation that's really and truly new. It's a spinoff from ...well, never mind from what. But it's similar in concept to the Earth's magnetosphere, which protects the Earth from radiation, except this baby will surround the whole ship, about a hundred meters out-and it's about million times stronger when it's on full power."

  "The ship already has adequate radiation protection Mr. Jergens-I don't understand the big deal."

  "Well ...it's not just for normal radiation protection, sir. We've finagled a shield of sorts, a plasma magnetospheric shield, or PMS, for your ship-but it's not installed yet. Sorry about the acronym-one of the DARPA guys named it that after the Secretary of the Navy kept complaining about 'needing some protection' to complement the ship's weapons." Jergens tried to attempt a nerdy smile but Captain Keane didn't seem to appreciate the joke.

  "So what exactly can this shield do for us?" asked Keane.

  "Sorry sir, I'll get to the point. It will stop a laser beam or plasma pulses ...in fact almost anything that's not solid matter, and your meteor shield should take care of objects that aren't too large, like rail gun slugs for instance. It's been enhanced, too, and it has been tested. No one we know has anything like this."

  "Very interesting. That ought to prove useful, but with all this new equipment and weapons I can see now we're going to be doing a hell of a lot of training on the way out if we have to leave soon."

  Jergens shrugged, causing the golf cart to weave a moment before he corrected. "There's the hanger. It's the largest building on the site. We prepared it beforehand, then as soon as the ship was accepted from Wannstead it was flown here and installed inside."

  "That must have been a neat piloting trick."

  Jergens grinned. "The side walls of the hanger are set on rails. The whole building moves. Man, when Wannstead brought these ships into service it sure caused a paradigm shift in space flight. Who ever dreamed we'd have interstellar ships that could land and take
off from planets twenty years ago?"

  "Or interstellar ships at all, for that matter. I sure didn't," Keane admitted with a chuckle. "I was a teenager then and hoping I'd get to Mars on a rocket in my lifetime, then Wannstead suddenly popped up with the quantum drive and the gravitic technology to control it. Was there anything else besides the shield I need to know, or was that the last of your little Christmas presents?" He reached up to catch his hat to keep it from blowing off in a sudden wind gust. Beneath it he wore his dark brown hair rather long for the military. Strands of it peeked from beneath his cover.

  "That's about it for deployed systems. We'll be there in a moment," Jergens answered. "I think you'll like what you see."

  The building loomed ever larger as they neared. It was like looking up at a mountain, Keane thought, reminiscing about previous ship duty. He had served as executive officer on Wanderlost for a year of exploration and already had a feel for the size of the interstellar ships. After that he'd thought he was going to be captaining the Spectre but an abrupt change of orders gave him this one. It made for a surprise when the golf cart entered the hanger and he saw that the new class loomed larger than he had imagined, even after seeing the specs. It was the third class of ship since Wannstead began building them and the largest by far. He could see already that he, and his astrogator and helmsperson, would all have to practice piloting it.

  "I'm impressed already," he commented as he stepped out of the cart and gazed upward at the bow end of the goliath. It was the size of a wet navy supercarrier and yet was able to land on earth. That aspect alone made the ship impressive. Contrary to its size, it carried a crew of only eight hundred as compared to four thousand or more for the big carriers that still plied the world's oceans. However, this particular ship was going to have about six hundred marines, almost a battalion, and all their supplies and ammunition, along with four assault shuttles to go with them.

  "Just wait until you see the inside. The control room has been redesigned to give you more space and a couple more workstations have been added, each of them with backup computers. The ship's AI also has two backups." He glanced slyly at Keane. "The Captain's cabin has been sized upward in proportion to the larger ship, too. I have a notion you'll appreciate that."

  Keane shrugged. "I'll take it, whatever the size."

  An improvised gangplank allowed entrance to the ship. It was being temporarily kept under low power from the base electrical system, allowing lighting and minimal use of facilities. An elevator took them to a passageway that led forward to where the control room was housed. Keane entered then stopped just beyond the hatch.

  "You were right. This is great!" He gazed around at the half circle where workstations were indented into a number of alcoves. There were three blank spots which could be used for future upgrades, a design philosophy he heartily approved of. Each of the stations contained two small side screens for auxiliary use, and controls to display both a holograph and a flat screen. Set well above the workstations, keyboards, input controls and other paraphernalia of the console arc, were three huge screens. The one in the center dominated but the other two were also large and placed for easy viewing by all personnel. At the very center of the consoles was an extra-large station containing a chair designed for both comfort and support while the ship was maneuvering. It had a half dozen small screens and one oversized one. Jergens grinned and showed him the controls that allowed the chair to be either locked into place or detached from its mooring so the captain could scuttle around in his seat if he didn't want to stand. The safety harness was unobtrusive but he was willing to bet it was just as much improved over its uncomfortable predecessor as other aspects of the new seat were.

  "Now look over here," Jergens suggested and led him to one of the stations. "This is the astrogation and astronomy station. We've incorporated another improvement, a larger and much more versatile telescope. This is basically the astrogator's workstation but an astronomer can fit in here as well. You can also call up a view of what's going on from the Captain's seat whenever you like. The telescope focuses or changes its viewing aspects depending on what wavelengths you want to utilize. I swear, that thing cost damn near as much as the ship!"

  Keane laughed at first then stifled it. An all-purpose telescope wasn't really a single instrument but several contained in the same package. He had no idea if the different lenses or receptors were all housed together or even whether there was just one computer controlling them all or separate ones for each type of view. Whatever, it was a fine addition to the array of sensors that included light, radar, lidar, visual and gravimetric mass detection. As a reciprocal, Jergens explained, from another station pulses or beams of various wave lengths and amplitude could be directed toward objects such as planets, asteroids or even other ships to determine composition, detect metals, measure temperatures and many other functions. It caused him to wonder how many science specialists he'd have aboard.

  He sat down in the Captain's chair to try it on for size. Even without power it fit him as well as his easy chair at home. He could only imagine what it would be like when he was able to adjust it-or was it self-adjusting? He sat there for a moment or two, looking around the huge arc of the consoles. He twisted around and the chair turned smoothly with him. He examined the rest of the control room with approval. There was a niche at the rear for coffee and snacks and another space that could be closed from view should the Captain or others need privacy for confidential conversations. The control room hatch had a heavily armored door for use if necessary. It was tucked neatly away during normal operations. A number of other little work spaces and alcoves were designed for secondary communications, auxiliary computers, petty officer stations, a specially equipped workstation for the Chief of Boat, a backup weapons station, a place for the engineer or his assistants, and several other stations thought necessary for a working interstellar space ship. He liked it. No, that wasn't quite right. He was going to love it. He turned back in his chair until he was again facing the consoles and stood up. There was one he didn't recognize.

  "Fred, what's the function of that console third from the end there, the one with all the bells and whistles?" He pointed.

  "Whoops! Sorry, sir. I forgot to tell you about it. This is the first interstellar ship I know of that has stealth technology and electronic warfare capabilities added to it. It's another spinoff from the increased capacity of the drive. Admiral Mullins had it built and installed in accordance with his orders from the Secretary: to protect the ship at any expense. Hence the stealth and weapon upgrades. The way I heard it, he told the design team that when the retrofit was completed, if the ship had to fight dragons he wanted it to be able to shoot fire with the best of them. And then serve dragon stew for the crew in the mess."

  Keane smiled. "That's pretty much the way I heard it, too."

  "Oh, the Admiral left some gifts. One's from the Navy Secretary." Jergens brushed back his hair and pointed to a laser-etched gold plaque and a black velvet bag that covered a bottle on his starboard captain's counter. Keane read the inscription on the plaque:

  The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.

  -Ulysses S. Grant

  That gift was definitely from the Admiral, who was a big fan of war novels and always quoted Generals and admirals saying things like: "Learn history so that you don't repeat its mistakes. And when in war, fight smarter than the devil, because that's your enemy." Keane picked up the velvet covered bottle and untied the string. He pulled out a forty year old bottle of Germain Robin XO Brandy. He smiled, glad that the Admiral didn't take it for his own stash. It was the Navy Secretary's favorite but rumor had it that the Admiral had acquired a taste for it, too. A note was attached. ' Godspeed Captain Keane. Good hunting.' It was a simple note, and simply signed, 'George'.

  The gifts and words elated Keane but looking around the ship and all its new weapons and systems brought him back
to reality. He grunted appreciatively and then spoke. "I hope I get a good officer to run that little EW nook. I won't know much about it until I get some study time in."

  Jergens looked at him askance. "No one told you?"

  "Told me what?"

  "Umm, well, I've been called back to active duty. You're looking at your EW officer, sir. I'm just out of uniform. That is, unless you want to request someone else?"

  "Mmm." He rubbed his chin and let a thin smile lift the corners of his mouth a millimeter. "How about the assault shuttles? Do they have stealth capability?"

  "Absolutely!"

  "Welcome aboard, then," he said and held out his hand. After shaking he glanced at his thumb watch. "I need to be getting back. The courier jet is picking me up in a little more than an hour. I've got a briefing scheduled in Washington."

  "Great. Maybe you'll find out when we leave."

  "Maybe," he answered, knowing the briefing was for more than to discuss schedules. There was some top secret information critical to the mission that would be passed. It was well beyond top secret, at a level of the President and his cabinet members. This intrigued the captain as much as the specially built warship. What was so secret about the mission?

  Chapter Three: The U.S.S.S. Doc Travis

  Always plan for the worst; that way, all your surprises will be pleasant ones.

  - Robert Jordan, The Dragon Reborn

  Olson Wannstead glanced up, then smiled broadly as his son entered his office at corporate headquarters. Ordinarily Brian would have been over in the engineering building, where he had been closely involved with starship construction since finishing his apprenticeship. He still preferred engineering even though he was being forced to pay much more attention to financing these days. At any rate, it was always a pleasure to see Brian for any reason. He was proud of the way he'd turned out. He had even served several years in the Navy and was still active in the reserves.