Chroniech!

by Doug Farren

  The Hess had promised to take appropriate retaliatory action. They did. Brighter than a thousand suns, a brilliant beam of light reached out and struck the defense shield of the juggernaut. Amazingly, the shield held off the attack. The power contained within that single beam must have been horrendous because the shield was flaming with deflected energy.

  A juggernaut's shield was unique. Because of the ship's size a single shield generator would have been immense and would have required more power than the juggernaut's reactors could have supplied. After years of research the Tholtaran's had perfected the only multi-faceted shield in existence.

  Spread out over the surface of the gigantic vessel were small blisters each one containing a reactor and a shield generator. These specially designed shield generators were built to interfere with each other so that instead of creating a multitude of spherical shields a series of hemispherical shields where created.

  The shield design gave the juggernaut a unique appearance. In operation, a defense shield appears as a silvery, perfectly spherical, surface. The juggernaut's unique shield design caused it to appear as if it had been surrounded by reflective bubble-wrap. The design also gave the juggernaut an unexpected advantage no other ship in the Alliance possessed. If an enemy managed to penetrate a shield and subsequently destroyed one of the shield generators, the surrounding generators could be adjusted to compensate for the one that had been lost.

  As Ken watched, the glaring rod of energy seemed to thicken. The shield failed allowing the deadly beam to strike the unprotected skin of the juggernaut. Like a surgeon with a laser scalpel, the Hess carved out huge chunks of the most powerful ship the Alliance had ever built. After an incredible, heart stopping 45 seconds, the beam finally winked into nothingness.

  Stricklen could not believe his eyes. The juggernaut had been neatly carved into three pieces. The rest of the Tholtaran battle fleet quickly retreated. The bridge was absolutely silent. Doug looked down to find he had been gripping the arm of the chair in front of him so hard his fingers were white. Relaxing his grip, he looked at Ken.

  Stricklen looked back and let out blast of air he had been unconsciously holding. "I'm glad they're on our side," somebody muttered under their breath. So complete was the silence that it was heard throughout the bridge as if it had been shouted.

  The communications watch noticed something on his panel and turned to investigate. After a moment he reported, "Message from the Hess. They have contacted the Tholtaran fleet and informed them that one ship will be allowed to return to recover any survivors."

  "Captain," someone at another console began.

  Instinctively, Stricklen turned around and was about to reply when he remembered he was not on the Komodo Dragon and the statement had been meant for Captain Mulgany. The General Patton's captain looked at Stricklen and let out a knowing chuckle. Turning to the person who had asked for attention he replied, "Yes Mr. Tong?"

  "Two items sir. First, the Chroniech probe has veered away and is exiting our sensor range. Second, CIC has analyzed the weapon which the Hess used and has reported it was traveling at FTL speeds. CIC estimates it to be about two hundred cee."

  Mulgany's jaw flopped open then snapped shut. What Mr. Tong had just stated was an absolute, beyond a shadow of a doubt, impossibility. Beam weapons had a propagation velocity of exactly one cee — no more, and no less. The mere possibility of a superluminal energy weapon would send physicists and weapons designers into a panic. Mulgany recovered enough to ask, "Are they certain?"

  "Yes sir. Several independent sensors have verified the fact. We did detect a small drive wake when the Hess opened fire but the signature was so odd that the computer attributed it to an unknown malfunction. They are attempting to perform an analysis of the weapon's beam structure at this time."

  Stricklen wanted to get back to the privacy of his own ship so he could think about what he had just witnessed. He motioned for the still stunned Scarboro to follow him. After saying their good-bye's to Mulgany, the two officers left the bridge. On their way to the shuttle bay Doug said, "I hope we're going to get one of those as part of our upgrade."

  Stricklen looked at his XO for a moment then replied, "I hope not. I don't want to be responsible for that kind of destructive power."

  In silence, the two officers boarded their shuttle. As soon as they were settled, the hatches were closed and the shuttle returned to the Komodo Dragon. The entire return trip was made in silence. Each person privately contemplating what they had just witnessed.

  Stricklen's thoughts were more toward the future. If the Hess, which was built thousands of years ago, possess weapons of such power, what kind of technology do the Kyrra have today? How will they react when a primitive, aggressive race tries to return one of their own?

  16 - Upgrades

  In light of the Hess' ability to protect them, Sorbith contacted sector command and canceled all reinforcements — the ships were badly needed elsewhere. The Tholtaran fleet left the area after retrieving the survivors of the now destroyed juggernaut.

  Upon arriving back at the Dragon, Stricklen gave his personnel officer a list of requirements for those who were to remain a part of the crew for the long trip ahead. The computer did most of the work but Stricklen had to override the machine's choices in several instances where a particular crew member was filling a critical position.

  After approving the transfer orders, Stricklen retired to his stateroom where he caught up on some missed sleep. While he slept, the crew complement of the Komodo Dragon was cut in half.

  Stricklen awoke feeling refreshed and in a surprisingly good mood. He was on the bridge when the Hess signaled it was ready for the Dragon to begin its decent.

  "Dragon," Stricklen said. "Access command stack omega-four and execute."

  "Command stack requires voice authorization," the machine replied.

  "Omega-four password is: We must all be crazy," Stricklen replied with a grin on his face.

  "Voice authentication of command stack omega-four verified. Executing… All navigational interlocks and warnings bypassed… All automatic defense systems deactivated… All weapons placed in safe storage mode… External sensors retracted and configured for space dock… Commencing main fusion reactor shutdown… Initiating shutdown of unnecessary auxiliary fusion reactors… All preparations for land-based dock complete. Command stack omega-four execution complete."

  The command stack which Stricklen had activated was one he had previously prepared and contained a series of instructions which caused the computer to place the ship's systems in the proper configuration for a planetary landing. If this had not been done, the computer would have automatically attempted to override the navigational controls to prevent the ship from getting too close to the planet. With the ship in the proper configuration, Stricklen told the Hess to begin.

  A very slight shudder was felt throughout the heavy-cruiser. "We've been seized by a tractor beam," the tactical officer reported.

  "Analysis?" Stricklen calmly asked.

  After working the controls on his console for a moment, the tactical officer replied, "The primary beam is a very finely structured, torsionally balanced, TR beam. It is encased within an open-ended force-field with an unknown matrix structure."

  The descent to the surface took forty-five minutes. When the Hess released them, the Komodo Dragon rested lightly on the surface of the Hess planet in a special dock designed to safely support it. As soon as the ship had settled to a stop, a force field was erected.

  Within a few minutes, the heavy-cruiser was surrounded by a breathable atmosphere for the first time in its twelve year history. Stricklen ordered the main hanger bay door interlocks to be bypassed and the ship was opened to the atmosphere. Moments later, an army of small robots descended upon them.

  The Hess wasted no time in beginning the alterations and repairs to the Komodo Dragon. As soon as the robots had started their work, the Hess lived up to its side of the agreement and transmitted the data
which had been promised to the Alliance central information system. Even at the incomprehensible speed of 38,000 times the speed of light, the data would not arrive at Almaranus for nearly a day and a half.

  A few hours after making planetfall, Stricklen toured his ship with his chief engineer at his side. Everywhere they went, the Hess robots were there doing something. Part of the interior of the ship was being rearranged to make room for food and spare parts storage. The navigational system was undergoing a complete retrofit. Weapons were being removed in preparation for replacement by more advanced designs. But, by far, the greatest changes were taking place in engineering. Stricklen was thunderstruck by what he saw when he entered the Dragon's engine room.

  The engine room was located at the very center of the ship. In the exact center of the engine room stood the massive, highly complex device known as the Kauffman stardrive. The stardrive was the heart of every starship. The power requirements of the Kauffman stardrive were supplied by a dedicated fusion reactor. The main reactor and the stardrive field generator were so closely linked that the two were inseparable.

  The Dragon's engine room was crowded with no fewer than forty of the fast moving, never stopping Hess robots. What appeared to the eye to be a confusion of work was actually a closely choreographed, highly efficient, operation, scheduled and carried out with mathematical precision. The stardrive itself was a massive device weighing over 975 tons and measuring almost 10 meters in diameter. Stricklen wondered out loud how it was going to be removed.

  "Believe it or not, the ship is actually designed to allow for a complete swap out of its stardrive," Skip replied. "It's something rarely seen since the Kauffman stardrive is one of the most reliable pieces of equipment ever put together, but it can, and has, been done.

  "The bulkheads above the drive are designed to be removed. The compartments along this path are either storerooms or other easily cleared compartments. In our case the drive will pass through machinery storage three, food storage eight, the main conference room, the mess hall, and finally the recreation room where it will reach the hanger bay. From there the drive can be easily moved off the ship."

  Stricklen continued to watch the robots as they dashed around performing their tasks. "The Hess claims the modifications will be complete in twelve days. How long would it take an Alliance space-yard working around-the-clock to perform the same modifications?"

  Skip rubbed his jaw as he contemplated the problem. "Hmmm… I would guess a minimum of five weeks to perform the grunt work and another two days to properly tune the stardrive to match the ship's gravimetric signature. Even with a crack crew I don't see how it could be done any faster."

  As he watched, it soon became apparent how the Hess could complete the job in the time specified. The robots were not only much faster and nimbler than people, but they could work in close proximity to each other without interference, always had the right tools with them, and were much stronger. The robots also worked without any breaks or hesitation between tasks.

  Ken watched as several of the amazing machines stood within a few centimeters of each other working so fast their movements were almost a blur. One of the robots, apparently finished with its task, moved over to another location a few meters away and immediately starting disassembling a piece of equipment. Shaking his head in amazement, Ken decided to take a walk around the rest of the ship.

  Stricklen finished his tour and headed for the bridge. Several robots were at work under the close scrutiny of a single marine guard. Since the ship was in a stand-down condition, the normal bridge watches had all been secured.

  Over the next several days Stricklen made daily tours of the ship. He watched the slow but steady transformation of his ship from a heavy-cruiser to a heavily armed, top-of-the-line, high-speed, extended-duration, spacecraft. With the Hess doing all the work there was very little for him to actually do.

  To pass the time, he tried to keep abreast of the growing problem with the Tholtarans and the Chroniech. The Grand Council had decided to punish the Tholtaran republic by excluding them from all non-Tholtaran Alliance planets, activities, and assistance. In order to be re-admitted to the Alliance, the Tholtaran's would have to agree to the same restrictions which had been placed on Humans immediately following the Human-Tholtaran war.

  For ten years following the war, all Human ships (both civilian and military) were required to carry a Tholtaran representative as part of the crew. Implanted within each representative was a miniature transmitter which was keyed to the representative's unique biological makeup.

  The Omel, supreme masters of biological knowledge, had designed and implanted the transmitters. This transmitter sent a continuous, encoded signal to a small device located in a tamper-proof enclosure. If the device stopped receiving the signal for a short period of time it would deactivate the ship's stardrive by permanently damaging the main reactor.

  The Human-Tholtaran war had created a bitter dislike between the two cultures that persisted to this day. The Tholtaran's believed the conditions imposed upon them by the Alliance to be far too harsh and demanded that the Grand Council reconsider. Tension between the Alliance and the Tholtarans and especially between Humans and Tholtarans was running very high. There had already been several instances of Tholtaran ships interfering with the movement of Human ships.

  The coordinated Earth government had lodged an official protest with the Grand Council and warned that if the harassment did not cease, they would consider providing military escorts for all Human ships passing near Tholtaran space even if it meant reducing the number of Human ships taking part in the defense of the Alliance against the Chroniech.

  The Chroniech push into Alliance space had been slowed due to the arrival of large numbers of ships from the interior of the Alliance. Star systems located in possible Chroniech attack areas were either being evacuated or reinforced with the additional ships.

  The Alliance was also constructing planetary defense systems where possible. It did not take long, however, for the Chroniech to change their strategy. Instead of attacking the strongly defended systems, they started targeting weakly defended systems.

  Stricklen learned of another Chroniech tactic which for some unknown reason made him very uneasy. It had recently been discovered that the Chroniech probes, which had been spotted all over the area, were dropping a type of passive monitoring device whenever they passed a star system. These devices were virtually impossible to detect. There was no telling how many had been planted within Alliance space.

  The Chroniech still had a tactical advantage in that their ships were faster than those of the Alliance and they had a virtually instantaneous communications system. Stricklen asked the Hess about the Chroniech's apparent ability to send signals across vast distances with almost no delay.

  According to the Hess, the Chroniech were most likely using some sort of hyperdimensional communications system. Such a method of communication was beyond the ability of the Hess. This was a surprise because it meant that in at least one area of technology, the Chroniech were superior to the Kyrra.

  The Alliance was working feverishly at building the new Hess FTL transceivers, but several technological hurdles needed to be overcome first. The best time estimate for being able to build a production model version of the new transceiver was three months. Similar problems faced the development of the faster stardrives — delivery of the first new drive was at least four months away.

  There was one ray of hope however. The advanced weapon system which the Hess had provided to the Alliance appeared to be fairly straight-forward to build. A prototype would soon be available for testing and shortly thereafter the weapon could go into large-scale production. Stricklen requested and received the technical specifications for this new weapon system. He was both impressed and scared at what he learned.

  The new weapon relied upon a property of matter which Alliance scientists still could not explain. Using a complex, oscillating field which, structurally, was very similar to
a stardrive matrix field, the weapon somehow converted normal matter directly into anti-matter.

  This conversion occurred only during certain phases of the field's cycle, which meant that if the field was applied to a beam of particles, it would convert that beam into a series of packets of alternating matter and anti-matter. When this beam struck a target, the packets would mix and the matter and anti-matter would annihilate each other releasing a huge amount of energy. The device could be added as a retrofit to all standard continuous-beam particle cannons. The addition of the retrofit would increase the destructive potential of the cannon by many orders of magnitude.

  Stricklen asked the Hess to provide him with a basic description of the types of weapons which were being installed on the Dragon. In addition to the shield penetrator which he had seen used on the Army of Humanity ships, Stricklen discovered that the Dragon would be armed with two of the matter/anti-matter particle beam cannons.

  His new weapons were not retrofits, but were complete units built by the Hess. These cannons were so powerful, Ken realized, that they would allow him to take on anything short of a juggernaut if he so desired. Carrying so much destructive power was an unsettling thought.

  Six days after beginning the modifications to the Dragon, the Kyrra made a completely unexpected proposal. Stricklen and Sorbith were discussing the growing Chroniech problem over a cup of coffee in the ship's mess when one of the Kyrra approached them. "May I intrude?" he asked.

  Sorbith offered a chair and replied, "You are not intruding Norgoola. Please — join us. Can I offer you a blue-petal fizz?" The drink, Stricklen recalled, was a favorite of the Kyrra. The ship's dietitian had learned how to create it using the various juices available from the Dragon's food stocks.