CHILDERS_Absurd Proposals

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CHILDERS_Absurd Proposals Page 30

by Richard F. Weyand


  "Couldn't happen to a nicer fellow," Turner said.

  "And with the Becker example, I think a lot of other unsavory fellows are going to be keeping their heads down now," Desai said.

  "Well, that was the whole idea behind Galactic Mail in the first place," Jan said.

  "It was a great idea," Desai said.

  "It was Bill's idea," Jan said.

  Turner laughed.

  "And yours. And Durand's," Turner said. "Really, Jan. You do need to give Miriam and I some credit for having heads on our shoulders."

  Fifteen Years On

  Jan and Bill were sitting on the porch, looking out over Galactic Mail's massive headquarters operation on Doma: the complex of headquarters buildings, research buildings, subdivisions, and warehouses, the acres of pads for shuttle operations, the terminal of the high-speed transit line from Nadezhda, dozens of small people-movers snaking through the site, all under lights at this time of the evening.

  "Fifteen years. Do you believe it?" Jan asked.

  "It's gone pretty fast. But the fourth shareholders meeting is later this year, isn't it?"

  "Yes. Every time the shareholders meeting looms, I wonder whether it's time for me to step down. Whether I've still got it for another five years or not."

  "You're in the middle of your second term, so it's not time for the board to act on a chief executive yet," Bill said.

  "No, but I can retire anytime I want. The question always is, Is now the time? Have I done enough? Will it endure?"

  They watched as a heavy cargo shuttle lifted off, burdened with a full rack of sixteen of the big containers, arranged in a four-by-four block. The whole assembly was as tall as a five-story building. It inched aloft, then sped up as it gained altitude, heading for the big transfer station in orbit.

  "How long has it been now since Galactic Mail has been challenged?"

  "Twelve years," Jan said. "There were those attempted attacks during the first shareholders meeting, thinking to capitalize on my absence. And then that one attempt on Dorset, one of the New Colonies, three years later."

  "That was a piracy attempt."

  "Yep. We took them all out in Dorset, then sent out a couple hundred survey drones to scan every system within a hundred light-years. Found their base and sent a half dozen warhead missiles and a couple of hunting parties of weapons drones. Cleaned them out."

  "And now we proactively scan systems routinely, just to head that sort of thing off," Bill said.

  "Yep. But that was the last one. Since then, nothing."

  "Most planets don't even maintain a navy anymore."

  "Two thousand New Colonies, and not one of them with a navy. That's amazing. And very gratifying," Jan said.

  "And a lot of the Outer Colonies don't maintain a navy anymore either. As of our last tally, it's just twenty-seven Outer Colony planets with a navy, and they're mostly ceremonial at this point. Neither does the Commonwealth or Earth, for that matter. Have a navy, I mean."

  "The Commonwealth government itself is mostly ceremonial at this point. It's almost forty-six years since I became a citizen of the Commonwealth and joined the Navy, and ultimately I was the undoing of both."

  Jan picked up her tea, sipped at it, set it back down.

  "I can't believe I'm pushing sixty," Jan said.

  "What about me? I'm dragging it along behind me."

  Jan chuckled.

  "Maybe it's time," Jan said. "You know Peggy and Max are going to leave. They're going to head for the New Colonies. I think they're trying to find the right time to tell us. But with her finishing residency, and him finishing up his doctorate in agriculture, they're loose. I think they're gonna bolt."

  "We could steal a march on 'em. 'Hey, kids, we're going to the New Colonies. Want to come along?'"

  Jan laughed.

  "I like that. Serve 'em right."

  "I'm serious," Bill said.

  Jan turned from the view of Galactic Mail and looked Bill in the eye.

  "So am I."

  "Where would we go?"

  "What about Horizon? I have friends there," Jan said.

  "You have friends everywhere."

  "Maybe so. But I've been corresponding with some people there, for years now, since the beginning. They send me pictures, tell me how things are going. It sounds like a nice place."

  The ground car pulled up in front of the big farmhouse. The car was a tall four-wheel-drive diesel beast with a winch on the front and jerry cans on the back, the minimum vehicle for a doctor in a colony where the rural roads were at best passable and at worst impossible.

  It was Sunday, and half a dozen children from ten to fifteen years old were playing ball in the big side yard between the house and the barns. The slight prevailing breeze was from the direction of the house, not the barns, and the air was thick with the smell of apple pies cooling and beef stew in the pot.

  Two men sitting on the porch watched the car pull up, then stood to greet their visitors. Peggy and Max got out of the front of the car and Bill and Jan got out of the back. They walked up to the house as the two men came down the stairs.

  "Afternoon, Admiral. Welcome to our farm," said Ashok Gonzalez.

  "Hi, Ashok. Call me Jan."

  Five Hundred Years On

  Most everyone knows that on the fringe of the Milky Way galaxy lies a planet, called Earth, from which the human race began its journey to the stars. Few people now, though, know that a mere sixty light-years from Earth lies a planet called Jablonka. Once the capital of a nation called the Commonwealth of Free Planets, it played a crucial role in the colonization of the galaxy. For it was here the hyperspace manifold was first calculated, and from here the technology spread.

  Compared to the hubs of galactic commerce and power, Jablonka is a sleepy backwater now, far removed from its glory days of five centuries ago. But there is one memento of its historic role.

  On Jablonka, in its ancient capital city of Jezgra, is a large park. Once the central fleet base of the Commonwealth Space Force, it is now a quiet refuge in the planet’s capital city. A plaza, still called the Navy Mall, runs through the middle of the park, and in the center of the plaza stands a statue.

  It is the statue of a middle-aged woman, in an old-style military uniform, her hands held cupped before her. Above her hands floats a three-dimensional holographic projection of the Milky Way galaxy.

  The inscription reads:

  JAN CHILDERS

  SHE GAVE US

  THE STARS

  Appendix

  Inhabited systems mentioned (capital city)

  Earth (New York City)

  Members of the Commonwealth of Free Planets:

  Anders

  Bahay (Kabisera)

  Bliss

  Boomgaard

  Calumet

  Courtney

  Hutan

  Jablonka (Jezgra)

  Kodu

  Meili

  Mountainhome

  Natchez

  Pahaadon

  Parchman

  Saarestik

  Shaanti

  The Yards [Doma]

  Valore

  Waldheim

  Outer Colonies

  Alpen

  Arramond

  Becker

  Brunswick

  Coronet (Jewel)

  Drake

  Epsley

  Feirm

  Ferrano

  Grocny

  Guernsey

  Lautada

  Melody

  Mon Mari

  New Carolina

  Nymph

  Oerwoud

  Paradiso (Corazon)

  Refugio

  Samara

  Seacrest

  Stadt (Dorf)

  Svobodo

  Tenerife

  Villam

  Wolsey

  New Colonies

  Dorset

  Horizon

  New Earth

  Notes on Navigational Notation

  The Commonw
ealth Space Force uses the following standards with respect to navigational bearings and distances.

  Navigational bearing and distance are specified as:

  rotation mark/minus elevation (on point) (at distance)

  All such references are with respect to a point, a baseline, and a plane.

  If no point is specified, the point is the ship, the baseline is the long axis of the ship projected through the bows, and the plane is defined by the plane of the ship with the command cylinder(s) considered to be 'up'.

  If another ship is specified as the point, such as 'on the enemy', the point is the enemy ship, the baseline is the vector of the enemy ship's velocity, and the plane is the plane of the ecliptic.

  If a planet is specified as the point, the point is the planet, the baseline is a line from the planet to the sun, and the plane is the plane of the ecliptic.

  If a sun is specified as the point, the point is the sun, the baseline is a line from the sun to the primary inhabited planet, and the plane is the ecliptic.

  If the galactic center is specified as the point, the point is the galactic center, the line is the line from the galactic center to the ship, and the plane is the plane of the galactic lens.

  Bearing angles are always specified as 'number-number-number'. Designations such as 'ninety-three' and 'one-eighty' are not permitted. These are correctly specified as 'zero-nine-three' and 'one-eight-zero'. An exception occurs for 'zero-zero-zero', which may be stated simply as 'zero', such as in 'zero mark zero' or 'zero mark one-eight-zero'.

  rotation is specified as 'number-number-number' in degrees clockwise from the projection of the baseline onto the plane when viewed from above. Leading zeroes are included, not dropped. number-number-number runs from zero-zero-zero to three-six-zero.

  If the point is the ship, 'above' means from above the ship with the command cylinder(s) considered to be 'up'.

  If the point is an enemy ship, a planet, or the sun, 'above' means from the north side of the solar system as determined by the right-hand rule: with the fingers of the right hand in the direction of orbit of the planets, the thumb points north.

  If the point is the galactic center, 'above' means from the north side of the galaxy, as determined by the right hand rule applied to the rotation of the stars about the galactic center.

  elevation is specified as 'mark/minus number-number-number' in degrees up/down from the plane. 'mark' is used for bearings above the plane, and 'minus' is used for bearings below the plane. 'Above' is defined as for rotation. Leading zeroes are included, not dropped. number-number-number runs from zero-zero-zero to one-eight-zero.

  distance is specified in light-units, most frequently in light-seconds.

  CSF ships mentioned, by class

  First ship in class is underlined

  Cruiser Destroyers (CD)

  CSS Athena

  CSS Devi

  CSS Enki

  CSS Freyja (Doma)

  CSS Hera

  CSS Isis

  CSS Ninhursag

  CSS Odin

  CSS Osiris

  CSS Shangdi

  CSS Shiva

  CSS Thor

  CSS Tian

  Battleships (BB)

  CSS Amazon

  CSS Artemisia

  CSS Boadicea

  CSS Cleopatra

  CSS Jean d'Arc

  CSS Kriegsmädchen

  CSS Lakshmibai

  CSS Tomoe

  CSS Zenobia

  CSS Alexander

  CSS Genghis Khan

  CSS Georgy Zhukov

  CSS Julius Caesar

  CSS Napoleon Bonaparte

  CSS Sun Tzu

  CSS Zheng He

  Heavy Cruisers (BC)

  CSS Aluna Kamau

  CSS Donal McNee

  CSS Gerald Ansen

  CSS Guadalupe Rivera

  CSS Hu Mingli

  CSS Ikaika Kalani

  CSS Jane Paxton

  CSS Jacques Cotillard

  CSS Manfred Koch

  CSS Matheus Oliveira

  CSS Mineko Kusunoki

  CSS Nils Isacsson

  CSS Patryk Mazur

  CSS Roman Chrzanowski

  CSS Sania Mehta

  CSS Willard Dempsey

  Light Cruisers (CC)

  CSS Aquitaine

  CSS Caribbean

  CSS Catalonia

  CSS Great Plains

  CSS Gujarat

  CSS Kansai

  CSS Midwest

  CSS Provence

  CSS Schwarzwald

  CSS Sichuan

  CSS Tuscany

  Destroyers (DD)

  CSS Brenau

  CSS Clermont (DD-ST)

  CSS Emery

  CSS Hamilton

  CSS Howard

  CSS Maryville

  CSS Middlebury

  CSS Pomona

  Galactic Mail ships mentioned, by class

  Cruiser Destroyers (CD)

  GMS Defense

  GMS Gallant

  GMS Oathkeeper

  GMS Peacemaker

  GMS Promise

  GMS Valiant

  CSF ship capabilities, by class

  Cruiser Destroyers (CD)

  Classes: Shiva

  Crew Complement: 600

  Maximum Acceleration: 2.6 gravities

  Guns, number: 4

  Guns, type: 'battleship-grade', 'super-heavy'

  Guns, range: 12 light-seconds

  Battleships (BB)

  Classes: Cleopatra, Alexander

  Crew Complement: 2400

  Maximum Acceleration: 1.1 gravities

  Guns, number: 6

  Guns, type: 'battleship-grade', 'super-heavy'

  Guns, range: 10 light-seconds

  Heavy Cruisers (BC)

  Classes: Gerald Ansen

  Crew Complement: 1200

  Maximum Acceleration: 1.4 gravities

  Guns, number: 3

  Guns, type: 'heavy'

  Guns, range: 7 light-seconds

  Light Cruisers (CC)

  Classes: Tuscany

  Crew Complement: 800

  Maximum Acceleration: 1.7 gravities

  Guns, number: 3

  Guns, type: 'medium'

  Guns, range: 5 light-seconds

  Destroyers (DD)

  Crew Complement: 400

  Maximum Acceleration: 2.1 gravities

  Guns, number: 3

  Guns, type: 'light'

  Guns, range: 3 light-seconds

  Major Awards and Decorations to Jan Childers

  The Commonwealth Charter Medallion

  Battle of Kodu

  CSF Combat Medal, with three clusters

  Battle of Parchman

  Battle of Feirm

  Battle of Kodu

  Battle of Earth

  CSF Science Medal, with cluster

  Calculation of the system periphery; hyperspace modulation

  Calculation of the inner and outer system envelopes

  Distinguished Service Medal, with three clusters

  Battle of Valore

  Battle of Saarestik

  Battle of Calumet

  Battle of Feirm

  Victorious Action ribbon, with one gold and one silver star

  Battle of Valore

  Battle of Parchman

  Battle of Saarestik

  Battle of Pahaadon

  Battle of Feirm

  Battle of Kodu

  Battle of Earth

  Theater of Service Ribbons

  Valore

  Parchman

  Saarestik

  Pahaadon

  Calumet

  Bahay

  Waldheim (with star)

  Courtney

  Natchez

  Meili

  Bliss

  Hutan

  Mountainhome

  Shaanti

  Kodu

  Jablonka

  The Earth Medal

  Acronyms and Terms

  AAR –
After Action Report.

  AO – Area of operations.

  ATO – Assistant Tactical Officer.

  ATS – Advanced Tactics School.

  below decks – cylinders on a ship containing enlisted quarters and mechanical areas such as propulsion, weapons control, etc.

  blue team – defender in a war game exercise.

  BMS – Brunswick Merchant Ship.

  bogey – an unidentified contact, such as on radar.

  BSF – Becker Space Force.

  BSN – Brunswick Space Navy.

  BTS – Basic Tactics School.

  building book – designing a book of maneuvers.

  bulkhead – wall on a spaceship.

  CCM – CSF decoration, Commonwealth Charter Medallion.

  CCS – ship prefix, Commonwealth Colony Ship.

  CFP – Commonwealth of Free Planets.

  CIC – Combat Information Center.

  Class 1 secured facility – the highest rated facility for the use or discussion of classified materials.

  CM – CSF decoration, Combat Medal.

  CNO – Chief of Naval Operations.

  Commonwealth – Commonwealth of Free Planets.

  CPS – ship prefix, Commonwealth Passenger Ship.

  CSF – Commonwealth Space Force.

  CSL – Commonwealth Star Lines, commercial passenger company.

  CSS – ship prefix, Commonwealth Space Ship.

  deadhead – make a trip aboard ship while not serving; guest; ferry.

  deck – floor in a spaceship.

 

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