by Doug Farren
“Captain on the bridge!”
Captain Colin Holbrook glanced around the bridge as he made his way to the captain’s chair. Everything appeared to be in order. He strapped himself in and said, “What is our status?”
The executive officer was floating about an arms-length away, tilted at a forty-five degree angle. “Final systems checks have been completed. We are ready to switch over to internal power. I’ve ordered engineering to light off all reactors and spin up the drive in preparation for departure. All stations are manned and ready.”
“Very well. I relieve you.”
“I stand relieved. I’ll be in engineering.”
The XO reached down and grabbed the back of the captain’s chair, intending to use it to push himself toward the rear hatch. “Hold on a moment Commander.”
“Sir?”
“Let’s make your trip a little easier, shall we? Engineering: Report on AG status.”
The engineer consulted his board and replied, “The reactor is lit and stable. We can put the generators on line any time.”
The captain touched a button on his chair and said, “Attention all hands! Stand by for initiation of artificial gravity.”
After giving the crew a few minutes to ensure they would not injure themselves when the ship suddenly found itself with an up and a down, the captain ordered, “Engineering: Bring the AG system online. Take it slow and watch your readings. Bring it up to a full gee.”
“Aye sir! Initiating artificial gravity; ramping from zero to one gee.” The engineer turned to his console and began to work the controls. A moment later, the executive officer started to slowly fall. He oriented his feet toward the floor and settled to a slow landing behind the captain’s chair. Thirty seconds later, the ship was comfortably under the influence of full gravity.
“AG stable at one gee,” the engineer reported. The first test of the ship’s newly installed technology had been successful. Many other technologies would be tested in the coming hours.
“Very well. Commander, have a safe walk to engineering. We will be breaking orbit in ten minutes.”
While the executive officer made his way to engineering, the captain continued the ship’s preparations to leave orbit. Ten minutes later, all stations were ready and a communications channel was opened to the military base on the surface.
“Tycho base this is X-ray zero one ready for departure on course one four zero mark six four. Request traffic advisory and departure clearance.”
“X-ray zero one you are clear for departure on course one four zero mark six four. No traffic is near your flight path. Good luck X-ray zero one.”
The captain shifted his command chair ten degrees to port and directed his next command at the officer sitting at the console in the front of the bridge. “Helm, set course one four zero mark six four. Ahead dead slow. Engineering, monitor the sublight engines and report if you detect any problems.”
The helmsman concentrated on working his controls while the engineer brought up several diagnostic screens on his own station.
A moment later, the ship began to slowly accelerate away from the orbiting space station above the moon. Unlike all other Human ships, this one did not use the fiery blast of fusion thrusters but instead utilized the interaction of complex fields of force that acted on space itself to produce thrust.
“This is going to take some getting used to,” the helm softly remarked.
The man at the communications console turned in his seat slightly and replied, “You got that right! No vibration; no roar of the fusion thrusters; just a smooth acceleration. It’s almost spooky.”
This was the initial shakedown cruise of Earth’s first faster than light warship. She was a test bed for the latest in Human military technology. It was unlike anything Earth had ever put into space before. It represented the culmination of a massive research and development project funded by the Earth Defense Ministry. Of course, the ships already in the service of the other races were vastly superior to anything Humans could put into space, but Earth had to start somewhere.
The World Council had awarded the contract to the only company capable of building such a ship—Advanced Space Technologies. Since AST was an American-based firm, most of the crew was American military. Those crew members that were not American were from countries closely allied with it.
This fact had created a heated debate at the United Nations. The reassurances from the American Alliance and the World Council that the warships would be used only to defend Earth and were not part of any specific country’s military did not seem to pacify those countries that had objected. In the end, several nations announced plans to build their own warships. They also stated that their ships would only be used in the defense of Earth. Despite the fact that Earth had a declared World government it seemed as if it was still politics as usual among the various nations.
Earth had profited greatly ever since the signing of the treaties of the Consortium. Most cancers would be curable within the next couple of years thanks to the incredible medical skills of the Omel. The predicted catastrophic eruption of the Yellowstone super-volcano had been prevented according to the Tholtaran geologists who were monitoring the situation. The sciences of astrophysics, medicine, metallurgy and a whole list of others had been catapulted decades ahead through the free sharing of information available to all members of the Consortium.
What had been most surprising was the tourism industry. Earth had suddenly become a tremendously popular tourist attraction. This was mainly attributed to the fact that it was a new member of the Consortium and therefore presented an opportunity for the traveling elite of the galaxy to visit a developing world. But, Earth itself also had much to offer.
The influx of non-Human tourists had brought with it large amounts of Consortium money. The credit, as it had come to be called, soon became more popular than the local currencies of many countries. In fact, several countries were considering dropping their local currency and switching entirely to credits.
Humans were embracing as much Consortium technology as they could lay their hands on. Some of the technology, however, was still beyond their ability to master. Those devices that Humans could not build themselves and had no military application were readily supplied by those races capable of building the desired machines. Anything that could even be remotely utilized in creating a viable warship, however, was unavailable. This included weapons, high powered shields, and advanced stardrives.
Despite their lack of some technologies, Humans were making significant progress in their effort toward developing a viable warship. The X-01 was a test bed for many of the newly developed technologies. AST's ultra-secret research facilities had even developed a weapon the likes of which no Consortium warship had ever faced.
“Engineering, report on engine status.”
“All indications are nominal. We can begin increasing speed any time you desire.”
“Helm, slowly ramp your acceleration to one hundred percent thrust,” the captain ordered. He then pressed a button on his command console causing the ship’s announcing system to come to life. “All hands, this is the captain. Prepare for high G acceleration while testing the sublight engine.”
The helmsman turned to his console and the ship’s acceleration began to slowly increase.
The captain felt himself being pushed back into his seat as the thrust produced by the sublight engine approached one hundred percent. After several minutes, a noticeable vibration could be felt and the sound of creaking support beams could be heard.
With CAIN’s help, Jay Kauffman had turned his newly acquired knowledge of continuum calculus into a drive system that utilized the interaction of fields of force instead of inefficient reaction drives. The two had also figured out how to build the artificial gravity generators now installed on the X-01. Their understanding of the equations, however, was still fairly limited and so far they only knew how to create a gravity field that produced a more or less normal up and down within the
ship. The level of manufacturing detail necessary to build an artificial gravity system that could also compensate for the force of acceleration from any angle did not currently exist.
Captain Holbrook leaned back in his chair and stroked his handlebar mustache. He had been born and raised in Bristol, England and had served as a test pilot in the RAF prior to being assigned to Tycho base. He had also been the captain of a world renowned sail boating team. In both of these jobs he was well known for his uncanny ability to ‘feel’ the machine around him.
He scratched an itch on the top of his head while he listened to the sound of the ship. He knew when a ship or aircraft was functioning smoothly and he also knew when something was not quite right. At the moment, everything felt right. He closed his eyes for a moment and listened. Although it was being pushed to the limit of its design strength, the ship still felt right.
“One hundred percent thrust; two point one eight gees.” the helm announced.
“Engineering?” the captain’s calm voice was clearly heard.
The engineer did not take his eyes off his various monitors as he replied. “Main reactor is at one hundred percent power with all indicators in the green. All sublight engine parameters appear nominal.”
Things were about to become more interesting. The captain once again activated the ship’s address system and said, “All hands, stand by for emergency transition to FTL.” Turning to his bridge crew he then ordered, “Helm; engineering, initiate emergency jump to FTL. Come to course one two five mark eight three. Velocity, 136c.”
This was a deviation from the approved test plan but Captain Holbrook had been instructed to give the ship a shakedown and he was determined to do just that. So far, the ship had responded very well to the rigors of high acceleration. Now he would see how it would perform under some more serious stress. He sat back in his chair and listened as the crew carried out his order.
“Charging accumulators,” the engineer announced as he made adjustments on his console. “FTL auto-sequence set for emergency transition to FTL. I am green across the board on the Kauffman core.”
The helm worked furiously at his console as he plotted the new course and made the requisite preparations to engage the Kauffman stardrive. “Course one two five mark eight three laid in. Stardrive is at speed and standing by. Sequence programmed and ready to initiate.”
It required eight seconds to charge the power accumulators from the auxiliary reactors. “Accumulators at full charge—Ready!”
The helm depressed a glowing button on his console activating a sequence of computer controlled events. Simultaneously, the sublight engine shutdown and the stardrive performed an emergency transition to FTL speeds. Under normal conditions, the stardrive was brought up to power over a period of several seconds allowing the matrix field to stabilize before the main field was established. An emergency transition required less than two seconds, however, it was disorienting to the crew and very hard on equipment.
It was like being on the ultimate roller coaster. The forward acceleration of over two gravities suddenly vanished. The recoil of compressed seat cushions and flesh momentarily pushed everyone forward. Two seconds later, the disorientation of the rapid transition to faster than light drive hit them. For a split second, the crew felt like their insides were being stretched in all directions. The feeling lasted only moments, but the memory and the nauseous feeling lasted far longer. When it was over, the captain nodded his head in silent approval. He was also quite pleased to see that nobody on the bridge had gotten sick.
“Transition to FTL complete,” the helm announced. “Course and speed as ordered.”
“Very good Mr. Townsend. Mr. Hashimoto, how’s the engineering plant holding up?”
The officer at the engineering station glanced at his bank of computer displays before replying. “Kauffman stardrive is operating within acceptable parameters. Main reactor is stable at thirty eight percent power.”
“So far she’s proven to be a good ship,” Captain Holbrook said to no one in particular. “Helm, maintain present course.”
The captain depressed a button on his console, paused a moment then said, “Attention all hands! This is the captain. Conduct ship-wide walkdown. Report any problems to the chief engineer on the bridge. Section managers report to me when all inspections in your area have been completed.”
For the next three hours the crew performed a detailed inspection of every system and every compartment of the ship looking for problems. A couple of minor leaks were found and fixed. As soon as the last section manager had reported that his area inspections had been completed, the captain turned to his bridge crew and ordered, “Tactical, report all contacts.”
Another recent advance that had emerged from project Thor had been the development of a long range sensor capable of detecting ships traveling under FTL drive. The system aboard the X-01 was even more advanced as it had the ability to work through an operating stardrive field. “None sir,” the officer at the tactical station reported.
This was good news to Captain Holbrook. The next test was something Earth wanted to keep to itself. The hope was that nobody else knew of the Human’s recently acquired sensor ability and therefore any ship monitoring the X-01 would not have thought to keep their distance and therefore would have been detectable. “Helm, coordinate with engineering and commence test to determine the new drive’s maximum speed.”
The helm and the engineer both acknowledged the order. They then turned to their respective control consoles and working as a team started to increase their speed. The X-01 had been equipped with the latest Kauffman stardrive. Its maximum theoretical speed was calculated to be nearly 1,100 times that of light (commonly expressed as 1,100c). This was a significant increase over anything that AST had been able to build in the past. Unfortunately, stardrives were complex and testing often revealed some things that the mathematics could not have predicted.
This advance had put Earth very close to being able to match the maximum known speed of a Tholtaran warship. If humanity were to have had to rely solely upon Jay Kauffman’s understanding of the complexities of continuum calculus, they might still be stuck with a stardrive an order of magnitude slower than what the X-01 was now testing. But humanity had created an entity that could understand such equations far better than any living being. Not long after Jay had returned from Nasu K’tral and had transferred all he had learned into CAIN’s prodigious memory a new stardrive had been born. CAIN had become humanities ace-in-the-hole.
Slowly, the speed of the ship was increased until the engineer finally announced, “The stardrive has reached its limits. Any further increase will cause it to become unstable. I’m seeing small instabilities in the field structure right now. They’re nothing to worry about unless we maintain this speed for any length of time.”
“Helm: Report our present speed.”
“Speed is now 994.32c.”
“Very well. Engineering: Let me know when you have collected enough data so the brains back at AST can figure out why we did not reach our maximum predicted velocity.”
“I have enough information now sir.”
“Very well. Helm, bring up command file thor delta six and execute. Set your speed at 320c.”
The helm entered a command into his console and a red warning flashed on his screen. “Command authorization is required sir.”
The captain pushed a button on his console causing one of his computer screens to be interfaced with that of the helm. He entered a series of letters and numbers into the terminal and the warning vanished. The helm read the instructions and made some calculations on the navigational console. He transferred the results into the helm control and soon the ship settled on its new course. “On course to designated coordinates,” the helm officer announced. “Speed—320c. ETA—35.59 hours.”
Captain Holbrook activated the ship’s address system and said, “Attention all hands! Our first round of testing is complete. So far the X-01 has lived up to what the
designers have anticipated. We are currently en-route to our next destination. We will arrive in just over thirty five hours. Until then, stand down to normal watch rotation.”
21
Weapons Range
Eleven months ago, a Human ship undergoing space trials in deep space had discovered what appeared to be a rouge planet floating in the dark void 1.3 light years from Earth. What was even more amazing was the planet (which was nearly the size of Mars) had six small moons. The existence of this planet was known only to a very select few.
Four of the moons were unbelievably rich in metals. The planet had no atmosphere and the surface was cratered and scarred. For the past ten months, the Earth Defense Ministry had been secretly constructing a massive shipyard on the largest moon. The X-01 was now approaching this outpost.
“Target coordinates achieved,” the helm calmly announced. “Dropping to normal space.”
The captain felt the familiar twisting sensation in his gut as the prototype reemerged into normal space. “Captain!” the tactical officer announced as he dealt with some readings that had suddenly appeared on his console. “I’m picking up a very large gravitational disturbance bearing zero nine three mark eleven distance 2.25 million kilometers.”
Captain Holbrook had been expecting this. “Very well Mr. Oshiro. Please designate the contact as Olympus base. Do not enter the contact into the database. This destination is classified.”
The captain entered a command into his console which caused a faint radio signal to be transmitted into space along a very precise and narrow beam. Twenty seconds later, the communications officer announced, “We are being hailed.”
“Thank you ensign.” The captain entered a few more commands into his console.
“Your identification has been verified x-ray zero one,” a voice from the console said. “Welcome to Olympus. You are cleared to approach.”
“Olympus, x-ray zero one, please be advised that we will be commencing our weapons testing as soon as we have arrived.”