“Yes, sir.”
“Elizabeth I want to send a time probe back to the point in time this thing was dismantling a star. Let's observe it in action and see what we can learn, and put one of the time probes in the ships harvesting and energy processing areas to find out all we can about that process.”
“Would you like to take a look at the future and see how this is going to turn out?”
“No, I don’t want our progress improved or impeded by what might come out of it, nothing good seems to come out of shortcuts” Inman replied.
“I don’t see the difference between looking back and looking forward,” Elizabeth thought to herself.
Both crews worked together for months studying the odd ship and her systems until they understood her origin, purpose, and energy processing methods.
The ship was from a star system a mere ten jumps from its present position. The ship converted energy from is nuclear form into what appeared to be giant cubes of plasma. The processing plant jettisoned the plasma toward the rear of the ship into what the crew believed was an artificial wormhole opened momentarily by the ship itself.
Ships records seem to indicate its present mission began hundreds of years ago; its crew had met with an untimely death within the first ten years of its operation.
Inman and Glack decided to journey to the ships planet of origin and attempt to negotiate the return of the ship and its crew’s remains. It Eagle’s battle group would stay behind while the Titan and her battle group made the short trip to the Star Eaters planet of origin.
On arrival, it was quickly clear the plasma energy cubes destroyed the planet, evidently falling into the planet’s atmosphere over a long period. The planet's population was held up in ten orbiters much like the one Inman commanded on earth hundreds of years ago.
As they did with Glake’s ship, Inman had a probe placed on the bridge of the nearest orbiter and began programming of the language translator. Within several hours Commander Inman made contact with the emasculated beings and discovered the nature of their demise.
They call themselves the Blotaah race. The commander of the orbiter identified himself as Russman, a short, stocky humanoid who looked to be in his sixties. The Blotaah people had once moved from fossil fuels to harvesting stars for the plasma energy the Star Eater ported back to their planet through the wormhole the Star Eater generated using the energy it had harvested from its star processing operations.
All was well until an accident on the plasma cube receiving station sent it hurling to the Blotaah home world in a gigantic ball of flame. The arrival of the next plasma cube went unimpeded to the planet’s surface where it ignited everything within ten square miles of its impact.
Blotaah leaders had one option, put as much of its population as it could into orbit and hope they would survive until the star mining operation fizzled out. Their hope was never realized as the efficiency of the harvesting ship relentlessly sent plasma cubes crashing into their home world for decade after decade. One hundred thousand people survived in the orbiters, but the plasma energy cubes killed billions on the planet.
Inman knew instinctively they would have to tow these people back to the rest of the fleet where they could be fed and brought back to health. The entire population was mere months from extension when Inman and Glack found them, but the numbers alone made this no small task.
Commander Russman communicated the intent of the human’s to each of the other nine orbiters spread out around the decimated planet and soon crews of the ships in the battle group where porting large quantities of food and medical supplies to each of the orbiters as they prepared to tow them back to the fleet.
Inman and Glack reported their findings and intentions to their respective crews.
Several months passed as they readied the Blotaah population and their orbiting homes for the journey. As the days past Inman became painfully aware of the corruption which had developed aboard the Blotaah orbiters. The week went without as the strong dominated them and deprived them of food and supplies. The corruption ran so deep and was so widespread that even the supplies ported to each of the orbiters were not reaching the poor and needy.
Inman was incensed at the corruption and took it upon himself to have the leadership of each of the corrupt clans ported directly to the battle groups brig where they were disarmed and given trial dates by commander Russman.
Inman’s battle group put the orbiters in tow and set out to rejoin the fleet.
During the short trip back to fleet Inman, Russman and Glack grew close friendships; they found common ground in their desire for adventure, exploration and the development of technology. Glack made contact with his home world where his government offered the Blotaah people residence on one of the Persidian's home worlds.
Upon arrival, Inman called his team together for a status report and to debrief them on the mission and the condition of the Blotaah people.
“Commander” John Cerro began, “we have learned some fascinating things about the Blotaah technology used in the conversion of nuclear energy into the plasma. The concepts are simple, and we now believe we can utilize the conversion technology to defend our ships from nuclear weapons; It is hard to believe we have never come up with a way to do it ourselves, rather ingenious.”
“The wormhole technology is not as promising” added Leo Bennett, “only matter in the form of energy can be transported through it, kind of like electrical wiring.”
“There are a few scientists with the Botaah people, but they unfamiliar with the development of the Star Eater and not able to convey any information about it. Their time aboard the orbiters was spent maintaining life support and trying to stay alive, corruption cost them all dearly” responded Inman.
“Sounds to me like we need to send these characters to the rehabilitation center on the new Woles home world” commented Terran Loken.
“I agree” replied Inman.
“I am curious Commander Loken, how it is your people rehabilitate the criminal mind?” queried John Cerro, “what is at the root of it, can it always be cured and how is it done?”
“It is simple in concept and very difficult in practice to accomplish any level of rehabilitation. It takes many years and an enormous amount of patience. In short, it is a belief system. We believe people have the ability to change from poor behaviors to good behaviors. We believe all people have the potential to do bad things and good things as a matter of behaviors. It is when they are acting from a place of “desiring to be bad” where we do not attempt what we refer to as healing. We refer to them as undesirables; you refer to them as evil, or criminals I believe.”
“How do you handle evil people?”
“We do the same thing you do; we put them away to protect society from them. The difference is we first determine if the criminal has correctable behaviors or is an undesirable” responded Loken.
“Cerro, Loken, while I appreciate the importance of the discussion, can I ask you to pick it up some other time please,” asked Inman.
“Of course” responded Cerro with a nod from Loken, “sorry commander.”
“Important stuff, but I want to get to the business at hand. We need to disassemble what we want to take with us and then destroy the rest of the Botaah ship” replied Inman.
“Already done sir, we have taken what we can use, you only have to give the word, and we will destroy it at a safe distance” replied Cerro.
“Were you able to retrieve the wormhole components” queried Inman.
“We weren’t planning on it, we can already port things” replied Cerro.
“If we can take all the components I would like to have them, I’ll explain later.”
“Aye aye, sir” replied Cerro.
Will Inman stepped into his home to a smiling wife and his two screaming children “Daddy pick me up, pick me up.” Will picked up and kissed Tricia and gave Will Jr a big hug and kiss as he fell on the floor dragging Evelyn with him.
After fifteen minutes
of wrestling and tickling his two energetic children, Will broke away to join Evelyn on the sofa to watch the kids play together (and eventually break into fussing with one another.)
“So when do we leave to drop off the Botaah people on the Persidian's home world?” queried Evelyn.
“Tomorrow, I want to give everyone a chance to gather themselves before we set out.”
“I have some concerns Will, the Botaah women and children are in really bad shape. Do the Persidians have the means or the will to nurse them all back to health, or will they just be dumped and forgotten?” queried Evelyn.
“I can take it up with Glack tomorrow before we depart” replied Inman, “they seem like a caring people.”
“How about taking a peek at how they treat their new guests, have the JRay send out a time probe and see how they fair.”
“Good idea, I’ll do it now.”
Will Inman had learned to trust the instincts of his brilliant wife, more often than not it paid to pay attention to her thoughtful questions, even when it came as prodding at times.
Will made his way to Terry’s Diner for some lunch deciding he deserved a greasy burger and fries after a busy morning. As he walked in, he found Bo sitting and having lunch and sharing small talk with Terry.
“Have a seat Will” requested Bo Stockman.
“Think I will” replied Inman, “how are you two doing?”
“We are great, just having some lunch with my ancient husband” Terry teased, “how are you doing?”
“Very well, having lots of fun with the kids and Evelyn keeps me hopping, no pun intended haha” replied Inman to the smiling couple.
“How about a hamburger French fries and chocolate shake Terry?” requested Will.
“Coming right up” Terry replied.
As Terry left to put in Will’s order, he leaned into Bo and teased him about being ancient. The two bantered about until Terry returned with Will’s lunch. Will was about finished eating when a page came through his comlink.
“Commander” paged Bo Jr, “we sent out the time probes, and we have a problem.”
Will motioned to Bo and Terry he was talking to Bo Jr.
“I am at your mom’s diner having lunch Bo; they said to say hi. So Evelyn’s instincts were warranted” replied Inman.
“It appears so sir” replied Bo.
Will and Bo Jr. went over the details of the probes investigation into how the Persidian people eventually enslave the Botaah. It was not a pretty picture; the outcome could not have been worse. The Persidian’s were a benevolent race for the most part, but the world the Persidian’s sent the Botaah to would be ruled by a completely separate governing system, and their patience with the corrupt Botaah mindset convinced them to put them under tighter and tighter control until their rule over them turned to outright bondage.
Will Inman and Ambassador Loken met with Glack and tactfully convinced him the Botaah people needed to settle on the Woles home world where they could prosper with a race used to dealing with broken people. Glack was in wholehearted agreement.
Glack and Inman agreed to leave the communications probe with the Persidian’s to keep their new friendships alive and to develop further diplomatic relations with the Persidian people. Glack and his crew said their goodbyes and began the long trip home, mission accomplished and new friendships established.
With their new friends in tow, the fleet headed back to the new Woles home world. It had been many months since they had left and Ambassador Loken and his family grew excited at the prospect of meeting up with old friends again.
The trip was uneventful except upgrades to the Hopper Drive interval. Bo Juniors team was able to speed up the fleet significantly. The integration of the Hopper Drive into the warp technology was touchy and had to be timed perfectly with other systems including the Warp Drive. The good news was the projections were showing the hopper drive interval had the potential to be narrowed to one hundredth of a second.
The Reeder drives operating at full capacity gave the fleet the potential to extend their exploration into a large part of the known universe. The JRay systems probing of space before them gave the fleet eyes and ears for what was ahead and communication capability with friends and family no matter where they were in the universe.
The reunion of family and friends was delightful, but Will Inman was getting itchy to put down the hammer and explore. His impatience met with some resistance from the Woles people. The Woles people were enjoying their new home which they had named Tutuan (which means “land of peace” in their native tongue) however they were not happy with the idea of taking on such a large race of emotionally broken people. And the fact they were also ethically and morally corrupt gave them future pause.
To further complicate things the majority of the Woles population on Tutuan had grown anxious about the convicts they needed to rehabilitate, claiming they were not capable of recovery and now requested repatriation into the fleet.
Without the additional Woles people and Botaah race towed to Tutuan, the fleet was spacious and more than able to feed and care for its considerable population with the hundreds of ships now in the fleet. However, the Botaah orbiters housing their entire population required replacement. And the addition of well over a hundred thousand more people meant having to be stationed at or near Tutuan for many years while the UB’s could construct enough ships to house, feed and care for the increased population.
Will Inman did not like his options; instead, he wanted to take on the small community of Woles people and leave the Botaah people behind on the planet to make a new life. His pleas went on deaf ears as almost every leader in the fleet including Evelyn and Bo Stockman wanted to stay and take on the new population.
When the dust had settled, the leadership team decided to station the UB fleet in an asteroid belt along with the supporting logistics ships and personnel where they would begin to build a large number of additional UB ships staffed with personnel from both the Woles and Botaah people. In turn, the enlarged UB fleet would construct new home ships for the Woles and Botaah people including civilian and military support ships.
Will did win one concession in the negotiation process. The Titan and Eagle battle groups equipped with the new Reeder Drive systems capable of intergalactic travel would be commissioned to explore neighboring galaxies during the fleet expansion project which would take at least two years.
The nearest galaxy was a little under thirty days away at top speed and a couple of months to explore and make new friends, the command also decided each galactic exploration mission would be no more than six months including travel time.
Before his departure, Will sat down with Cerro who would stay behind and supervise the construction of the new military ships.
“John, have you been thinking about how we might incorporate the Star Eater technology into our weapons systems?” queried Inman.
“Yes, I have. I think we can use the energy collection technology to possibly drain the energy right out of an aggressive enemy and leave them unable to attack.”
“Wow, I had not considered anything quite as efficient. I was thinking about the energy conversion capability. Do you think we could use the JRay system to position energy collection technology next to a star? Not to eat it, just to collect enough energy to create a cube large enough to send through one of the wormhole conduits and exit in front of an attacking enemy fleet where the plasma energy could, in turn, become a supersized directed energy weapon?”
“I like both of them!” exclaimed Cerro.
Good, let’s see if we can get the technology ready and equip our new military ships with these capabilities. When we return from our next mission, you can have both the Titan and Eagle battle groups outfitted with the weapons.
“Remember the size of the Star Eater? I think its size was due to requirements of the energy processing portion of the system. Fortunately, the harvesting system is small enough to be transported via an enhanced JRay system, I will have to veri
fy it, but I think it will work. The energy processing system will have to be aboard a specialty ship, not as big as the Botaah Star Eater, but large none the less” responded Cerro.
“Do you believe the benefit of having such weapons outweigh the investment we will have to make in them regarding manpower and resources?”
“I do. The Silirc overpowered us by the sheer size of their fleet the last time we faced them. Their size coupled with the relentless, and I might say fearless, pursuit left us very vulnerable, in fact, I believe if it had not been for your quick thinking and preparation we would have been in big trouble. These weapon systems just might give us what we need to give them pause. Of course, we will have a much larger fleet and many more battle groups the next time we meet them” replied Cerro.
“I agree, and because they are in our galaxy, I fear we are going to meet them again. We are going to meet up with the Silirc again, and when we do, we need to convince their leadership that we are too expensive to battle. My real concern is they learn the location of Earth and set out to conquer our planet.”
“I have had similar fears. I think maybe we should have a JRay probe system tracking their activity. We can probably narrow down the location of their fleet and monitor them. Their fleet has to be in the millions of ships; we have never been able to account for all of them. If we do send in JRay probes, we can learn more about them” replied Cerro.
“Do you fear they might be able to use a captured probe or find some way to use the JRay system to find where we are?” queried Inman.
“There is always a possibility, but I do not think it is very probable, I am more worried about them finding Earth, they could enslave our entire race, and we would not even know they were on their way. And we both know they have been studying how we attach and our weapons capability. They will not be the same enemy the next time we meet, and I agree, we will meet them again” responded Cerro.
“Ok, I will have Bo Juniors team find and track them” replied Inman.
A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy;
a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim. ~ Maya Angelou
Battle Group Titan: Beyond Warp ((Battle Group Titan Series Vol 1)) Page 15