“Yes, Commander, it is located on the ‘dark side,’ as humans refer to it.”
“Yes, I know through the chair. What I don’t know is what exactly it contains. Why is that, Harry? I thought I should have known everything by now.”
“No, Commander, I told you that you would know everything available to you here on Earth, not elsewhere.”
“I see. There are still secrets out there.”
“Yes, Commander.”
“Well the obvious thing to do is go to the Moon and see what’s there.”
But before they could make their preparations, Dick Carson called via his implant.
“Van, how are you two doing way out there in the mountains?” asked Dick before getting to his real points.
“Same as always, Dick. So much to do, so little time. What’s on your mind?”
“Right to the point as always, Van. Over the past few months I’ve noticed a lot of interest in a new spacecraft engine and its fuel. Is that something you and Harry have a hand in?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. Harry sent out the plans and processes after we dealt with Meier.”
“And you sent them to private companies and not to governments. Smart move.”
“I knew you’d approve. It falls in line with something I call the Daleth Effect.”
“The what?” Dick asked, confused.
“The Daleth Effect. I borrowed the term from a nineteen-seventies fiction book about an Israeli scientist who discovered something that would revolutionize travel in space. The problem was that the major powers found out about it and fought each other to gain access to the secret and dominate the world.”
“An apt term. Governments can’t be trusted with this sort of stuff. But there’s another reason I called.”
“From your tone of voice, I’m guessing this isn’t good news.”
“Perhaps not. Brice just had a hull survey done on the Argo, the ship we claimed after Meier’s death. We wanted to be sure she was in good shape below the waterline. What Brice found were two streamlined compartments against the hull. One held an underwater sled with air tanks. The other was empty.”
“Does that mean what I think it means—that Meier got away?”
“We don’t know that. It could be that there was only one sled to begin with.”
“But we are left with no body and a potentially missing sled.” Van’s mood began to sour. “I don’t like the implication.”
“Neither do I. We should all keep one eye open just in case. But that shouldn’t keep us from going about our normal lives and business.”
“Roger that. Thanks, Dick. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the progress with the engine and fuel.”
“Thanks, Van.” Dick ended the call.
From a console chair in the Site R Ops Center and with the introduction of the engine and fuel out of the way, Van turned the chair to face Harry. “Now tell me about this facility on the Moon.”
“Other than the fact that it is there, Commander, there is little more that I can tell you here. To learn more we must go there where I can access the Moon site database.”
“Would you say the Host were paranoid, Harry?”
“Not paranoid, Commander, just careful.”
“I guess I can see why, given that I was something of an unknown until now. So when can we go?”
“The Enterprise is ready when you are, Commander.”
“Is Dick privy to this conversation and the Moon site?”
“No, Commander.”
“OK. How long will it take to get there? As I recall when the Apollo flights were in progress, the flight time was nearly three days.”
“Three days, three hours, and forty-nine minutes to be exact, Commander. After that the fastest travel from Earth to the Moon was eight hours and thirty-five minutes by the New Horizon Pluto mission flyby. Our trip will only take about two hours. We will be going to the far side, which takes a little longer.”
“The Enterprise will use inertial dampening to counteract the acceleration, correct?” asked Van.
“Again you are correct, Commander. It will be a smooth ride.”
“Then let’s plan for an early morning departure tomorrow,” he said, relieved that his body wouldn’t be subject to the tortuous g-forces that would occur without the inertial dampening.
The next morning, the Enterprise was airborne and headed for the dark side of the Moon. Van noted that Harry, in his physical form, was carrying a black cylinder with a handle on the top.
“What’s that, Harry?” he said, pointing to the cylinder.
“It is a portable storage device that contains much of my data, including all my experiences on Earth, Commander. When we get to the Moon base, I will insert it into a receptacle and download my data into the Moon base central computer. On the one hand, it will be a safety precaution in case something happens to my Site R memory, and it will also allow me to fully function on the Moon as I do on Earth.”
Good plan, thought Van. That’s why he didn’t seem to know much about the Moon base and why he couldn’t access it from the Earth. He wasn’t linked in. The Host were paranoid. I don’t care what Harry says!
During the trip, Van recalled what most astronauts have said, that seeing the entire Earth from space gives one a truly different perspective. The blue-and-white globe appeared more fragile from space than when on Earth itself. It made him wonder why people and countries could not cooperate better, given that they all shared life on that, relatively speaking, small ball in space.
As Harry predicted, the flight was both smooth and, to Van, entirely too short. He was enjoying the view when Harry interrupted his reverie.
“We are turning to pass around the Moon and will soon be in shadow, Commander. I have programmed the Enterprise to approach the site before I issue the code for the main doors to open.”
“I am losing sight of the Earth now, Harry.”
Fifteen minutes later, Van felt a slight deceleration despite the dampeners. Suddenly red approach lights appeared in front of them, leading to be a tall mountain. But just when he started to worry a little, a crack of red horizontal light appeared at the base of the mountain and expanded to a large opening that was clearly a landing area.
As the Enterprise slipped into the landing bay, Van could swear that he saw a large but damaged and abandoned space vessel of some sort to the right of the landing lights. But it went by too fast for him to be sure.
“Harry?”
“Yes, Commander?”
“I think I just saw a damaged space ship of some sort at the entrance to the base. Was I imagining it?”
“No, Commander, it was not your imagination. I saw it as well. It is an old Host ship that apparently suffered damage before it could enter the base. We will find out more when I log into the facility database.”
With a ship like that out there, what are we going to find inside? Van wondered.
CHAPTER 3
The shuttle set down and Harry secured power. When the landing bay doors closed, the red lights went off and white lights came on, signaling that the space was now pressurized. The lights were nearly blinding after the dark trip. The shuttle cargo door opened, and both Van and Harry left the Enterprise.
To Van’s surprise, there was nothing here. Just a much larger version of Site R’s Level 1. He followed Harry to a control panel like the one at Site R.
Harry punched in a code and then turned to Van. “Commander, please place your palm on the reader.”
Van did so, and the same image of wings appeared on the screen that had appeared when he’d first accessed Site R. Then the red lights on the panel turned green.
“There, Commander. You are now recognized as the commander of this facility, as you are the sites on Earth. With both our coded log-ins, I was given complete access to the facility’s computer system. You will find that the basic design of the facility is much like Site R but much bigger. Living quarters are on Level 2 and can accommodate more than a hundre
d people if necessary. In addition, there is also a Host operations center on Level 2. Unlike the Earth sites, however, there is an adjacent site accessible by transport tube that is about the same size but dedicated to manufacturing, maintenance, and repair.”
“I suppose there’s another chair here that I’ll have to climb into?”
“Yes, Commander. The additional information for this facility was not contained on Earth for security reasons, and it will be transferred to you here.”
“I suppose Level 3 contains equipment and shuttles, and that the lower levels are for storage of materials for the fabrication machine and for power generation?”
“Yes and no, Commander. Level 3 does contain flight vehicles and other pieces of technology, but Level 4 is dedicated to food, water, and oxygen storage, recycling, and other life-support functions. There are other sources of power here, including geothermal and versions of the fusion engines and a few others, that you will learn about later.”
“OK, then let’s have a look at Level 3 and then the facility next door.”
As at Site R, an elevator took them to Level 3. When the doors opened, Van was only partially prepared for what he saw. Like Site R, there were two shuttles. But they were bigger. Much bigger.
“These are two of the Host’s medium-range combat shuttles,” said Harry. “They are similar in layout and design to the Enterprise, but much of the bulk contains more powerful engines no longer powered by fusion technology, except for one emergency engine. These and other engines like them are zero-point energy systems. They gather zero-point energy, or ZPE, from space, which gives the craft power for virtually unlimited flight without the need for refueling. In addition, and similar in theory to your Roschin and Godin magnetic energy converter, or MEC, on Earth, this system also allows for antigravity flight and even the creation of artificial internal gravity. A smaller version of this device is also used in the shuttles like the Enterprise on Earth.”
“Then these are faster-than-light capable?”
“No, Commander, they are very fast, faster than the Enterprise for example, but not FTL. As a measure of speed, they can go as fast as 0.1 the speed of light, which is as fast as necessary for this size of craft.”
“I suspect these are armed, correct?”
“Yes, Commander. Each shuttle can defend itself against ground forces and, to a limited extent, against attacks from small craft either in atmosphere or in space. They each have a nose-mounted plasma cannon and two side-mounted and gimbaled rail guns. They have proportional shield and stealth capabilities to the Enterprise and her sisters. Now that we have access to this site, we can even operate them remotely. You really need a session in this site’s learning chair to appreciate and understand what is here, Commander.”
“I know, but I’m still excited enough to want to see the other facility first. Then I’ll take the chair time.”
“Very well, Commander. The tube transport is this way. Just let me place my memory storage system in the access port against this wall.”
Van watched as Harry pressed a series of coded inputs into a small control panel and was rewarded with a faint hiss as two small doors opened. Harry placed his memory storage device in a custom indenture in a tray and it closed again. He then led Van to an open door, which led to a short platform next to what looked like a futuristic golf cart on a track of some sort. Harry explained that it was a maglev system that rode just above the central rail. In less than two minutes, the car stopped at a similar station, and Harry gestured for Van to exit and proceed with him straight ahead.
If Van was impressed in Level 3, he was speechless here. In front of him was a real, live, honest-to-God spaceship.
“Harry, this is amazing. Is it a warship?”
“Yes, Commander, this particular ship is an older Agora-class corvette, one of the smallest warships of the Host fleet. For weapons, it carries two laser cannons—one dorsal and one ventral—two forward-facing plasma cannons, two plasma torpedo tubes, and four rail guns. For detection missions, it carries up to five retrievable surveillance drones. The latter may be converted to attack drones with the exchange of a modular warhead to replace the surveillance modules. The corvette also uses ZPE for power and is capable of atmospheric as well as space flight. It has basic energy shields and stealth systems similar to but stronger than any of the shuttles.”
Van looked with admiration at the irregularly shaped fuselage with stubby wings on its lower section and a rounded but not quite pointed bow. At nearly eight hundred feet long and nearly one hundred feet wide, minus the wings, it was hard to think of this as a small ship. Part of the irregular shape consisted of bulges and blisters along the fuselage, which were probably weapons and sensor stations. This made it all the more impressive—or scary, depending on your point of view.
“How many of these are there here?” he asked.
“Just this one operational ship, Commander. It is the same class as the damaged and nonfunctional one we saw just outside the site as we entered. That one is in the process of being salvaged by site robots and may be made flyable at some point in the future.”
“I noticed you didn’t mention the speed, Harry. Is this one FTL capable?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes it is, Commander. However, the label of ‘FTL’ is something of a misnomer. The ship itself does not actually fly faster than light. The system is based on a theory like that proposed by your Miguel Alcubierre on Earth. That is, rather than exceeding the speed of light as measured by reference points, a spacecraft equipped with such a drive travels distances by contracting space in front of it and expanding space behind it, resulting in effective faster-than-light travel.”
“OK, I just barely understand what you said. Can you be more specific?”
“Yes, Commander. Think of the drive system as creating a space-time bubble around the ship. The ship does not actually move but the bubble does. In a sense, the ship falls forward in its space-time bubble and appears to move quickly from one point to another. Think of space-time as being warped.”
“Ah, it’s a warp drive! Something like the drive in the Star Trek movies.”
“If you are again referring to that video entertainment, Commander, it is a faint analogy,” said Harry in a way that sounded like disapproval.
“Can we go aboard?”
“Yes, Commander.”
The corvette sat on three large retractable skids, and the whole thing towered above Van and Harry as they approached.
“This is huge, Harry. And you say it’s the smallest warship from the Host fleet?”
“Yes, Commander. Capital ships of the fleet were twenty to fifty percent or more larger than this one.”
“Amazing,” Van said as they stood and stared up at the large ship. “How do we get in?”
“I am transmitting a boarding signal now, Commander.”
As Van watched, a panel on the underside of the ship slid back and a stairway lowered to the floor of the maintenance bay.
“This is one access point, Commander. There are others for cargo, engineering, and munitions access farther down the fuselage. This set of stairs gives us access to the forward part of the ship, which includes the bridge, weapons bays, and mechanical shielding, and access to command levels. We will start on the bridge and work our way aft,” Harry said, gesturing to Van to climb the stairs.
When they reached the bridge, Van stopped to take it all in. “What am I looking at?”
“In the center, Commander, is the captain’s control chair. The consoles that form a semicircle around the captain’s chair are for flight, astrogation, weapons and sensors, communications, and engineering. Several stations are open for future needs.”
“So it takes at least six people to fly this thing?” asked Van while continuing to stare.
“Technically, no, Commander. The minimum bridge crew could be as few as two, one for flight and one for astrogation. All the consoles are similar and can be used for any of the functions or multiple functi
ons at once.”
“But no bridge windows. How does the crew see to maneuver?”
“Unlike the Enterprise and the Truman, Commander, there are no windows on this ship or the combat shuttles. Hull thickness and the need for hull integrity preclude the capability or the desirability for windows. Each of the consoles can access various cameras both inside and outside the hull. In addition, arrayed in a semicircle around the bridge and above the control consoles are a series of screens that project whatever the captain wants to see. Often the scenes are taken from external cameras and displayed here in lieu of windows. The screens can also display tactical, communications, and other data desired or needed by the crew.”
“I assume that the ship has a computer core that automates much of the routine functions?” asked Van.
“Yes, Commander. Each of the Host ships has a controlling computer that reacts to both manual and voice commands. The core is not centralized, however. Instead, it is a distributed core with multiple locations. If there is battle damage to one portion of the computer, then there are redundant locations to take over. In optimum operations, they all work together.”
“Are they AIs like you?”
“No, Commander. The Host specifically did not design weapons or weapons systems that were directly controlled by artificial intelligence. There was too much concern of losing control of weapons systems.”
“What about you? Couldn’t you take over one of these ships like you do the shuttles?” Van asked with a tilt of his head.
“Yes and no, Commander. By plugging in a memory module as I did to the Moon site when we landed, I can maintain a fully functional presence on this ship. Ultimately, however, my programming does not allow me to exceed or counter the direction of my commander—in this case, you. If you will come with me, I will give you a brief tour.”
The tour took over two hours as they passed by the captain’s quarters, a meeting room, various other quarters, a galley and mess facility, a small recreation area, a medical facility, an armory, weapons stations, the hangar and cargo deck, and engineering.
Immortal Guardian: Hoast Saga Book 2 (Host Saga) Page 2