I nodded, “Even just a shield would help a lot. Thanks for letting me know.”
She said, “Ironically, even with the shields, if we figure it out the new beam will still be the most effective against them compared to the rest of our weapons technology. I’ll submit a report you can share in four days, before you have to meet with the committee again, and of course a more detailed one for you. I just hope I have more to share in four days.”
It sucked that the enemy had it, but I thought using subspace energy as a weapon was a brilliant idea, taking the deadly example that the universe itself provided. Sure, not real subspace energy, but still. I was also fairly confident in my Diana, she’d bailed us out a number of times before, but at the same time I understood this was different. This wasn’t fixing or upgrading her own inventions or a technology she had all the specs for, this was something she didn’t know how to do at all, and her only lead was that the enemy figured it out.
“Dumb question, but I assume subspace shields wouldn’t help?”
She shook her head, “Normal ones? For FTL travel in subspace? That might delay your ship’s destruction for a millisecond or two. So, no.”
I smirked.
She added, “I suspect their weapons are highly dangerous even to themselves. It’s why they only shoot once a second, instead of every three tenths of a second which as you pointed out in your report, is how fast they can aim and fire. I imagine the other seven tenths of a second is required to re-strengthen the containment fields in the weapon, and then create the volatile energy itself. I suspect at that point, they have to fire within a few seconds, or it would break containment and destroy a part of their ship.”
I whistled, “Dangerous toys.”
She said, “I also fast-tracked the singularity missiles, if we get those working it’s game over. But, I have to admit we have a lot of things to overcome there, and that technology might take even longer than the subspace one.”
“Like?” I asked curiously.
She smirked, and then took another bite of her sandwich.
“A singularity requires a whole lot of dense mass and energy. We can actually make a micro-singularity in the lab, as long as the gravity emitters are extremely close and we’re feeding that intense gravity matter to keep it alive. As you know, the energy requirements go up geometrically to create a gravity field based on distance. The distances that ships fight at are just too far apart for any kind of beam weapon to be possible.
“Even locally, right next to the emitters, a contained gravity well that strong is on the very edge of our technological capability. Power isn’t a problem, not with vacuum energy, but how much power the emitters can handle is the bottleneck. Following me so far?”
I just nodded, and then waited as she took another bite, and a forkful of potato salad.
She said, “So in theory, we create a singularity on the missile, and when we release containment the heavy gravity not only sucks the enemy ship in and crushes it, but the energy of their shields as well. The only problem is it doesn’t work.”
I laughed, and she winked at me.
“The problem is the gravity field is what mimics all that mass and energy, so as soon as containment is dropped the missile itself is destroyed, those fields aren’t being maintained anymore. So, the singularity collapses before it can expand and eat the enemy ship, and even the missile itself is only crushed into a dense mass, not destroyed.”
I nodded, “So it seems like the only way would be to form that singularity from a distance, where the emitters would be safe from it, which you can’t do.”
She said, “Exactly. We have the power for it, but the systems can’t handle that much power throughput, and it’s what we’re working on. If we can project that singularity even half a mile, when the missile closes to that distance, it’ll eat the enemy ship, or at the very least crush it into a dense ball before the missile itself is drawn in and the emitters destroyed.
“I don’t think there could be a defense against that, nothing in our universe can escape a black hole, not matter and most energy forms anyway. Outside of killing the missile before it got close enough to activate, of course.”
“Except gravity shields that strong.”
She nodded, “Which would be a huge danger for the ship, unless they can be projected around the ship at a half a mile or more where a containment field would hold. But don’t hold your breath. Honestly, our best bet is to duplicate their technology and go with that, the singularity idea is a bit pie in the sky right now, but it’s worth investigating it anyway. We’re starting to bump up against the limits of the nanite technology, similar to how nanites couldn’t be used to form a fusion reactor.
“If we do lick the problem, it will be something similar that way. The nanites can’t handle more power throughput to strengthen our shields more, or to make our beams more powerful. We’re at the limits, and if our materials and circuit tech advances to handle more power, we might have to move away from nanite ships altogether.”
Melody said, “Not if we upgrade the nanites instead.”
My wife giggled, “Yes, there’s always that, but it may not be possible. The nanites wouldn’t work right if they were made of the super thermal-electric conductor the fusion reactors are made from, or that we require in our non-entangled quantum communicators. But yes, if it turns out to be possible that would be the best option. Of course, it would mean rebuilding all our ships and mini-platforms from scratch.”
Melody said, “Not if we just upgraded the associated systems. New ships yes, they should get all newly upgraded nanites, but we could just form the new nanites for the shield emitters and missiles on the old ships, non-critical systems and most of the ship’s mass can remain the same.”
She bit her lip, and then looked at me, “She’s not wrong. We could also create a stock supply in the center of the ship, in case any of it was destroyed and needed to be quickly reformed as the damaged nanites were sloughed off. But it’s all moot, as we don’t have any of that yet. We need to advance our materials technology first, then figure out if we upgrade the nanites using it, and only then follow that plan if those two steps work out.”
“You’ve got four days,” I said with faux casual confidence, as if all that was no big deal.
Melody giggled.
Diana glared, but she knew I was joking, so I wasn’t too worried about drawing her wrath.
While the news wasn’t great, at least she had an idea what was going on and had her intelligence on it, as well as a backup plan. Even if that backup plan was even more unlikely than the first.
Still, worse come to worst, I’d build an overwhelming force with current technology to meet them if I had to, but that was my option of last resort. If twelve thousand to one odds weren’t good enough for a decisive victory, I could always triple it, or more.
It’d been almost seven hours since I released the scout blitz on the enemy. So far not one scout had been destroyed by chance, and the software seemed to be working flawlessly. I did have to address one thing, we found three more galaxies with Vrok warships, so I updated our space charts to include them, spun out four point five billion new scouts and assigned them evenly to those three galaxies, and sent the extras already there to the galaxies outside of those.
I also had an accurate star count, which we really couldn’t get from several million light years away, but now that I’d been in the galaxies themselves for five hours or so the passive sensors alone were enough to get a total. Anyway, by that I figured out it would take just over four more days, so close to four and a half days in total including the seven hours already invested. The data was freely available in the joint command center as I promised, but just to cover all the bases I shot off a quick e-mail to the committee that the Vrok had twenty six galaxies instead of the assumed twenty-three, as well as the estimated completion time for the first wave and the estimated completion time for the second exhaustive search wave. Which was just over twenty-eight days from n
ow.
We weren’t in the best shape, but it could’ve been a lot worse.
I also hadn’t forgotten about Darrell, my daughter’s ship stealing independent A.I. But there really wasn’t anything I could except wait for him to come back, if he didn’t get himself killed that is. The optimist in me wondered if it might turn out to be a boon and benefit, while the pessimist in me said humanity was already toast, we just didn’t know it yet.
Really, reality would probably fall between those two extremes. It usually did.
I was far more worried the Vrok would launch another attack in truth, before we had a full picture of what we were facing.
Chapter Ten
The kitchen was full of people when I got home that evening, and Jayna gave me a warm hug and I shook Carmine’s hand firmly. My daughter and their son Brock had run off to play until dinner was ready, which Cassie and Diana were working on, despite the former not being able to eat it.
Jayna said, “Heard you started trouble with the neighbors. Getting in over your head again?”
I snorted, “Little bit. We’re working on it. So much for top secret?”
The world leaders hadn’t told anyone about it officially, to prevent a panic. We had it well in hand, and the only fighting had been over ten million light years away, so there was no need to panic.
Jayna smirked, “I have a lot of contacts being the secretary of communications, and it’d be hard for all the merchants to miss the mass buildup of mini-platforms going on right now in all the colonies and here at Earth.”
True. Maybe we should release something, before our allies got nervous, not just our civilian population. I sent out a message on that real quick to suggest that, but I wouldn’t go against the majority if the other world leaders resisted the idea.
Of course, my sister was another matter, and part of my government. So I took a few minutes to completely fill her in on what everyone else already knew.
Jayna nodded, “Seems like we have it in hand, if not perfectly. I’ll write up some press releases on it, if you decide to reveal it then they’ll be ready to go. Not just for Astraeus but our closest trading allies?”
“Thanks, that’s a great idea. I should’ve told you sooner, but the last three days have been a little crazy.”
As long as she was there, I filled her in on the Darrell situation too, at which point she started laughing almost in delight, but there was some concern in her eyes as well.
“What’s so funny?”
Jayna snickered, “She’s your daughter alright. Already getting in over her head.”
Diana agreed, “She didn’t get that from me. Fortunately, my brilliant husband has grown out of that impulsive behavior.”
Cassie said playfully, “Given he’s the most powerful leader in fifty galaxies and perhaps more, that’s a good thing.”
I rolled my eyes at my wife’s backhanded compliment and my sister’s and Cassie’s antics, and I retreated to the fridge to grab a beer. Of course, they weren’t wrong either. At my look Carmine nodded, so I tossed him one too. The ladies were all drinking wine, so I didn’t bother to ask them.
Diana winked at me, then said, “She already shows signs of growing out of it however.”
I interjected doubtfully, “Your influence and genes no doubt.”
Diana laughed, “Of course.”
My glare bounced off. It was inevitable though, it was hard to win against just one of them with witty teasing banter, all three of them were brilliant, but my sister, lovely wife, and honorary sister Cassie all together, I was far too outnumbered and just had to accept the loss.
In truth, I was self-aggrandizing enough to enjoy it to a certain extent, especially when it made my wife grin so much. She was beyond lovely. There hadn’t been all that much smiling the last few days, after all. I was more than willing to take the hits to improve morale so to speak.
Jayna said, “So, I hear I’m also going to be an aunt again, soon?”
“That’s the plan.”
I was a little surprised she’d already shared that around, but I didn’t mind either. I had no doubt it was just a matter of time, neither of us had fertility issues and she’d carried with no problems last time. Humanity was disgustingly healthy in this new age, after all.
Diana said lightly, “Dinner’s about done.”
I nodded, and rightfully took that as the subtle hint it was to go collect the kids. I knew my wife well and had picked up on a few things the last thirteen years…
The next four days passed relatively quickly, though it seemed to drag a bit from worry at the same time. We did wind up releasing a statement that humanity was once again at war, but far better protected than it had been against the Grays and becoming more so every day. People surprisingly took it in stride, and while there was some tension there were no outright violent mobs or looting in the cities like there had been when we were facing the Sonex, and then again when we faced off with the Grays in the two wars for our race’s survival.
I could only assume over the last thirteen years humanity’s psyche as a group had come to terms with the risks of interstellar war, and that they were confident in our superior technology and our leadership.
Our allies took it somewhat in stride as well, at least they weren’t treating us any differently or looking nervous because of the buildup in our solar systems. Of course, a lot of that reaction I couldn’t see, I could only go by rumor and what Threx and his boatload of cousins and other relatives passed along to us.
I also discovered I’d built almost the perfect amount, unlike the first time. Besides the second border with the Atans we’d be gaining, if we won the war and decided to defend another twenty-six-galaxy sized empire space, there were six other intergalactic empire borders to worry about based on the data I had by the second day.
I decided the Atans really weren’t a threat as long as they weren’t attacked, so I planned to just split the current fleet I had on them to watch from both border locations, two million ships each was still overkill for them.
Six more empires, and six fleets in the void which was currently my counter-invasion fleets, which worked out perfectly. I’d even have a spare fleet of four million, because once we claimed Vrok space, the border between their former empire and our fifty galaxies would no longer have to be picketed at all, there’d be no border. Those four million could be used to keep a protective eye on all the pre-FTL civilizations in the Vrok empire once we’d put the Vrok back into the stone age.
Assuming of course, that we won, that was my current long-range plan anyway. It was still sticky, but when the time came then I’d be running that by Cassie and the other world leaders. It was a lot of responsibility, and long-term temptation, but there were no other interstellar races there outside of the Vrok, and the idea of leaving all those primitive worlds to face the six aggressive empires around them while they fought for the space seemed… almost evil to me.
Really, we needed to know before then, like the Grays we needed to replace those fleets so the surrounding empires didn’t get any ideas to invade themselves. That meant immediately replacing them if they were recalled, or simply taking them out in the first steps of invasion and replacing them that way. We couldn’t just leave those borders unguarded while we discussed it in committee.
It was complicated.
That was it for the war for those four days, but of course regular life went on too. The threat of war hadn’t stopped the world turning, and I still had the regular jobs to take care of.
Those first three days I reviewed station security, and I kept an eye out for problems. I also did a new custom build for the spaceship selling business.
A merchant vessel, where the ship was actually multiple daughter ships all connected as one long piece that didn’t look all that different from most merchant ships with wormhole FTL capability. One of the challenges of a merchant was delivering cargo bays worth of materials or products to a planet, or in picking it up. That took hours even at t
he best of times, taking several trips via cargo shuttle.
The new ship, the cargo bays were ships, daughter ships. When the merchant vessel got to their target, the cargo bays with the products for that world would detach from the ship, and fly down to the surface, or if applicable a cargo bay in that planet’s space station. Once there, it would simply flow around and off the cargo and reform itself empty, to return to the ship. It could also flow around products and pallets to pick them up, and reform fully loaded in seconds and fly back to the ship.
It was kind of cool, if I say so myself.
I’d also come up with a few new items for amazon during the slow moments it’d come together in my mind. Sure, an automated dog walker that would clean the dog’s mess, and a self-cleaning and loading cat litter box a cat owner would never have to worry about again, wasn’t glamorous, but I was sure they’d sell like hot cakes to pet owners.
The dog walker besides leashing the dog, could also generate a low-level shield to prevent an idiot from attack the dog, or a short-tempered dog from attacking a bystander without their master nearby.
The third item I added was a fire suppression device. A low-level shield that would shield a fire at the base, and quickly exhaust the oxygen it needed, without the mess or bother of a fire extinguisher. The heat sensors on it were powerful enough to cover an entire house, and it was mobile. As a bonus, it’d also detect toxic levels of carbon monoxide. Fire alarm and fire suppression in one device.
Most of my Amazon products were like that, outside of the quantum paired phones and data device and the toys that is, just little conveniences to make the unpleasant maintenance chores of life a little easier, or a little safer.
Lastly, there were no more late nights for those days, so I got to spend a lot of time with Diana and Melody, and of course late at night was when Diana and I were working on child number two.
On the fourth day, we took a half day off for the morning, and did the beach on our island, which was always nice. By lunchtime it was time to get back to it. Diana first so I’d have something to tell the committee about our scientific efforts in addition to all the data on the enemy we now had.
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