by Chris Hechtl
“Well, they did let us have a couple test drives. Nothing too extreme, but I got a feel for her. She'll go like a raped ape if we ever get the chance to open her throttle up.”
“Well, maybe we'll get a chance for you sometime. At the least I don't see why you can't make regular runs around the sector to keep in communication with the other colonies,” Kirby said.
“Please pass that on to whoever is listening. I've tried but …,” the Asian captain grimaced.
“Okay, will do,” Kirby replied. “So, I've got an hour before I have to catch a ride to the Tauren derelict. I want a hard look at their main guns. We can't use them again, but I think we can reverse engineer them. But, since I'm here, how about I check out how outlandish your galley is and you can run me through more of the tour, okay with you?”
“Fine by me,” the older man replied with a brief smile and slight bow.
(@)()(@)
Sergeant Dorsi met with the navy spook. They shook hands and then the Sergeant shepherded the commander through security. When they got into the main compound, Commander Bently took a moment to soak it all in. It was one thing to see it on video, another to experience it firsthand. He realized he would remember this time for the rest of his life, the time he was face-to-face for the first time with the enemy.
“Broken Tooth, I'd like to introduce you to Commander Bently,” the sergeant said. “See, you and me, we've got a thing going because we're ground pounders. He's a sailor,” the sergeant said.
“Something like that,” the commander drawled. He fought the instinct to stick out his hand. “Broken Tooth?”
“Yes Alpha?”
“Oh, he's not an alpha. Commander is a rank but there are others higher up. I know that Terran rank is a bit confusing,” the sergeant replied with a wave of his hand. “Oh,” he snapped his massive fingers. “I just remembered. We got that shipment of flour in. Do you folks want to make your own stuff or try your hand at pretzels and bread again?” he asked.
“I don't know,” the Tauren said. “Your pretzels were good with beer. Better than the crackers. The pizza gave me gas,” the Tauren said.
The commander fought a frown as he listened to the translation. “Pizza?” He turned an amused look on the bear. “I heard you got them into sports and beer, but pizza and pretzels?”
The bear shrugged. “He says pie with red sauce and meat. It is translated. Yeah, I introduced them to pizza and pretzels. Good stuff. A guy's gotta eat, though explaining the cheese took a bit of a stretch. They prefer cheese from goats.”
“Ah,” the Neogorilla intelligence officer replied with a nod. “Gotcha.”
“Don't even get me started trying to explain meat like what's in pepperoni,” the bear said darkly.
“Okay, I won't,” the Neogorilla drawled as he looked around them. Obviously, there had been some changes. It looked more like an outdoor club. There was an aboveground spa, a big screen television behind a bar, some shade over both, plus smaller television sets further away. There were also areas for the Taurens to sleep or have some quiet time. They seemed to prefer to sleep together though.
“What game is on?” the commander asked, nodding to the big screen.
“Oh, I dunno,” the sergeant replied thoughtfully as he turned to the screen. He craned his neck to see. “Looks like another American-style football game. They like the rough and tumble stuff. Hockey is out; they get confused by the ice and pads. Soccer is a new trend. Forget baseball.”
“Cool,” the commander replied with a nod. He saw ceiling fans turning to keep a breeze going. He appreciated it since it was on the warm side outside. Obviously, both sides were getting comfortable with each other. He heard some grunting and turned to see some Taurens playing a game off a hundred meters away. They looked into it he noted as he shaded his eyes with a hand.
“They really took to sports once they understood the rules. It beats sitting around scratching your ass and such in the mud,” the sergeant said. “But, we can always sit on a stool and do that while chatting over some beers, right?” he asked, motioning for the others to follow him to the main screen room.
“Sure,” the commander drawled. This was going to be an interesting interview he realized when he saw a smaller bull with an apron going around busing tables.
Very interesting apparently he thought with a mental shake of his head.
(@)()(@)
Jan finished typing up her report and then filed it with Willard and Ensign Lex. Both would check it over, fill in any gaps she'd missed and then send her a copy for final approval.
They had already loaded one of her dispatch ships with the most recent logs from her ships as well as from the planet. As soon as her final report was ready she was going to send the ship back to Sol. Hopefully, Walter would have additional ships and resources in the pipeline.
Commander Bently was torn on the prisoners she knew. Some wanted them sent back to Sol. However, Bently was aware that having the intelligence resource on hand where they were at was critical, so he'd backed off on the request. That was fine with her.
Sending the dispatch ship off would reduce her number slightly. She didn't know if or when she'd have anymore replacements. Therefore, the captured Tauren ships were welcome additions, though she intended to use them only as a last resort. Kirby and his engineers had checked them out and were impressed with the changes that the Edenites had wrought within them. Each ship was crewed by a Terran crew and could theoretically move out at any time now that they had enough confidence in the interface. Not that they had a place to go.
Sending one of the ships to Janus as a scout was something a bone-headed armchair tactician would do. They could get in sure, but how deep would they get before they were discovered? And what then? No, she'd keep them in reserve.
That still left the other request she had on her plate. One of her mission statements was to secure each of the colonies. A couple of the captains had expressed concern for Protodon and Antigua and had asked if she was going to reinforce the picket. As tempting as that was, she didn't want to fritter away her resources.
Not when she intended to go on the offense shortly, she thought. As soon as Kirby's people had the production lines going strong and each of her warships restocked, they were going back on the offensive. That would give the Edenites time and incentive to stockpile as much hardware in their absence as they could.
Something told her it was all going to be needed before everything was said and done.
Chapter 31
Janus star system
The herd Alpha bull finally felt like their situation was beginning to improve, albeit slowly. The previous day they had accepted delivery of a second eight of fighters. More importantly, they were crewed by civilians from the ground so they didn't draw from his defenders ranks.
On top of that, repairs and refits to the ships were ongoing but had plateaued. Each of the warships were stocked with missiles. Work on refitting the ships to better launch them was an ongoing process, but one the engineering teams seemed to have gotten a handle on. They now had the process down to a simple refit of any new hull that came in. Not that there had been many, he thought grumpily.
But, he was pleased to see that Dreamer's first bomber design had started production on the planet. It would be several eight of days before the first was ready to fly, but the design was promising. He understood the need for a dedicated ship to launch such craft and why the Terrans had built one. He'd passed on such missives to Dreamer as well as in his dispatches to the home herd worlds.
Crops were growing well on the planet, including the use of the Terran breeds. New calves were being born and the security status was looking better now that a majority of the Terrans had died off or disappeared.
But there was that one nagging sour note to all of his good news. The knowledge that the enemy was out there, lingering and waiting to pounce. He couldn't shake that feeling. He wished he could do something about it, but he just didn't have the hulls to send out a spoiler raid.
And then there was the enemy's scouting mission to truly sour his mood.
His sensor people had shown him the spoor of two ships at the jump point leading north. They insisted something was going on there. He knew there had to be. One false reading was one thing, but two in the same area an eight of eight days apart was something else. It meant the enemy was scouting him.
Well, let them look. He was repositioning some of his forces to watch over them in turn.
He shook his head as he looked at the main plot, hand rubbing his bears before he reached up to touch his horns. They were getting a bit long; he would need to trim them soon. He banished the thought as he turned to the ships.
Everything that could be done was being done. It nagged at him that his people were pulling out all the stops here, in this star system, but the home herd worlds were not. There were reports of the fleet rushing to defend critical points leading into Tau, but no reports that they were implementing Dreamer's changes, nor many requests for clarification on those changes, and only one request to send Dreamer back home. The request was for him to face the thinkers and tinkers and explain his actions.
That wasn't what his people needed. They kept stubbornly clinging to the old ways, to what they knew instead of embracing innovations that may save the herd. He was tempted to send Dreamer back to the herd; the bull deserved a rest. But he had pleaded with the Alpha to allow him to remain. Apparently, he'd finally gained some ground with the chief thinker and tinker that had been dispatched to examine the alien colony and vessel.
The Alpha wished him luck. The bull was going to need every bit of it to get through the thick skull of the old bull.
(@)()(@)
Dreamer felt tired but cautiously optimistic as he and the chief tinker discussed the Terran thermal exchange technology once more. He thought he was making headway with the old bull, but he couldn't be sure.
He had come to realize belatedly that they had overlooked something critical in their examination and cataloging of the alien ship. One of the reasons their own species starships were so slow and inefficient compared to Terran designs was the radiators and supporting structure on the exterior hull. They had to keep the speed of the ship and any high-speed turns to a minimum in order to keep the radiators from breaking under gravitational stress.
The Terrans had figured out how to create a system of thermal exchanges that allowed them to turn infrared energy given off as waste back into electrical energy. It wasn't a perfect closed loop. No engineering system ever was, but it made their systems far more efficient. It also allowed them to maneuver at unprecedented speed.
There were also the differences in structural design, but for the moment they were intent on the individual systems they could reverse engineer.
The other ability the Terrans had was the efficiency of their force emitters and electronics. For the force emitters, it was not just in their shields, but in internal decks for life support and the ever-critical inertial dampening system. The systems were more delicate and required a computer to keep them in balance, but they were far more energy efficient.
“Little things add up over time. Some do not understand that the process of finding ways to reduce load may seem torturous and boring, but it serves a purpose,” the chief tinker rumbled.
“Agreed. If we save energy here and a little there, you can add it up to make an impressive amount for an additional gun turret or for jamming their sensors.”
“Or use a smaller power plant,” the chief tinker agreed with a nod.
“Possibly,” Dreamer said, uncommitted to such things. “I am unsure of the manufacturing processes employed here and in their electronics. Their electronics are on the molecular level in some cases. Quite impressive. They have far more data storage than required.” He made a note to further investigate the Terrans manufacturing processes.
“Aliens. They have a lot of data here because this is a colony vessel obviously,” the chief tinker said dismissively.
“Did you look at the new missile design? The Alpha bull asked for everyone to take a look before it goes into production,” Dreamer asked.
“Ah, no. I still do not like the robotic craft,” the chief tinker grumbled.
“It isn't so much a problem of like as a need to counter the enemy's use of them and build our own,” Dreamer said persistently. The chief tinker grunted but then turned away, a sure sign of his intransigence on the topic.
Dreamer sighed internally. They could find common ground in their curiosity, but the older bull was slow to try anything and refused to do much more than look and puzzle out how something functioned. He flat-out refused to work on the alien concepts. He did work on making things slightly more efficient however.
“What is this metal? It is a composite obviously but …,” the chief tinker tapped a fingernail on a piece of metal. He picked it up and hefted it. “So light. Nicely machined. Nice tolerances,” he said, taking out a caliper to check the openings and scale of the device. He took out a tablet and began making notations, drawing the device in a program.
Dreamer shook his head and left him to it. At least the bull wasn't actively opposing him anymore. He wished the Alpha bull would allow him to wake some of the Terran sleepers to interrogate. They might be able to learn more about the workings of their technology. At the least they could be put to work.
Not many in the herd on the world below knew there were alien survivors in detention on the ship as well as on the planet. Few, only a handful of eights and starving for those on the ground, but they were providing invaluable assistance to the healers as well as the growers and tinkers.
There had to be a way to get more out of the ship and technology. They needed to level battlefield and eventually tip it back in the herd's favor he vowed.
(@)()(@)
Captain Kendrick looked at the Tauren and then shook her head. The older ones, they disdained her. That one though, he had a keen interest in her and the others. She was of two minds about it. He tended to ask searching questions, questions that made her wonder at night why she answered them. Was it his curiosity? The desire to survive? To protect her crew? Was she betraying her own people by answering? She wasn't certain. She knew he could get the answers from the others or from the databases. At least he asked more or less nicely. They weren't using any sort of harsh persuasion methods.
It twisted like a knife in her heart though—the knowledge that he was figuring out to help his people fight hers. To possibly do what they were doing to the people on the ground. Every day she clung to life, for what? She wasn't certain anymore.
The new bull, he even made certain they had proper medical care and food. He'd gotten the bulls to move them to the enlisted quarters. Just being there with real beds instead of having to sleep on the floor had been a godsend in her eyes. And having a fresh head to use was great too. She shook her head as she finished up with the rewiring of the fan and then began to put the thing back together. She hoped and prayed she wasn't betraying her people.
(@)()(@)
The Alpha bull looked on to the ships with a small but growing sense that things were looking better again. Another pair of cruisers had turned up that morning. He now had eight once more, plus his two great defenders and four lesser defenders. He had moved most of his fleet to a gravitational anchor point on the same plane as the planet but closer to the northern jump point. His support ships and cruisers had towed in a series of rocks to use as raw material for the factory ships.
Another dispatch ship had been with them. The factories on the ground were picking up the pace now that Dreamer's innovations were taking hold. His people had always known about production assembly lines, but they had never dreamed to move at the pace the Terrans seemed to take for granted. Or to rely so much on robotics. He could see the simplicity of it though; it did make sense to hand off repetitive tasks to a machine to do. It could do the job far faster and with more precision than a member of the herd. And having a machine do the work freed that herd
tinker up to do things the robots couldn't do—the final assembly and testing for instance.
Another eight fighters and the first bomber were in the process of being tested on the ground. He had high hopes that they would be turned over to him within an eight of days.
His new concept was unfolding on the computer screen before him. Dreamer's changes to the ships were effective. So effective he had ordered they be made standard throughout the fleet. But the new efficiency and having the planet below made some of the support ships redundant. All but one of them was stuffed with cargo. One of the cargo ships could be returned to the herd home worlds with a cargo of herd members … if the life support was rigged up properly, or, he had something better in mind.
The cargo ship was built to move cargo in and out efficiently. That meant great arms that extended to connect to ships to transfer supplies, as well as boat bays for the shuttles to move bulkier cargo. With those in mind, he had the beginnings of an idea to modify one of the cargo ships into something like the Terran parasite carrier vessels he'd seen in the last two battles.
Giving the small craft a single launch point would invite defeat if their mother vessel was destroyed, but it would allow the tinkers and thinkers to streamline logistics to that one ship. Furthermore, they could outfit the crew with herd members who specialized in the small craft repair and maintenance. And the vast room onboard would give them a place to store the munitions, parts, fuel, and extra ships to allow them to function as a unit.
Yes, he thought as he nodded. Dreamer wasn't the only one infected by the Terran bug it seemed. His thick fingers flashed as he wrote up a design proposal. He knew his ship Alphas would pitch a fit, but so be it.
(@)()(@)
Dreamer explored how the Terrans could manufacture things so well and so small. As he explored the database, he found entries connecting to robotics. At first he ignored them, but more and more the links redirected him to something called nanotech. The word didn't translate well for him since it was not well known. It took a few tries to parse it out. Small technology? He clicked the link and then scanned the documentation carefully.