Defender of the Empire: Cadet #1

by Catherine Beery

  “Lunar One, this is the Arizona. My board is green, and I show go for Mars burn.”

  “Arizona, we confirm your board is green. You are go for umbilical disconnect and Mars burn. See you in two weeks and God speed!”

  “Roger that Lunar One. Arizonaout.”

  Cat, as her friends called her, leaned forward in her auto-molded acceleration couch and flicked on her AI unit. At the same time, she peered out the nanite-infused dura-glass window of the cockpit. Lunar One was about a kilometer below her present position. At the moment, the Arizona was tethered to the terminus station anchoring the upper side of a lunar space elevator platform. One thousand meters of ultra-strong, incredibly flexible, diamond fiber weave connected the base station that was Lunar One with the terminus station that was Lunar One Beta. Technically the base station was Lunar One Alpha, but Cat had never heard anyone actually add the Alpha. Most people called the facility L1 and let it go at that.

  “Ben, disconnect umbilical and execute sequence Mars-1A when we are clear.” Ben was Cat’s name for her AI. Computers had finally surpassed human's raw intellect, but they still lacked that spark of imagination that defined humanity. Nevertheless, since most experts now acknowledged that computers were self-aware, for all practical purposes, it had become common practice to allow them to choose their own names. When the AI that was Ben came online some four years ago it elected to pull a name from Cat’s personnel file… the name of her first dog.

  “Umbilical disconnect confirmed. Drifting two meters per second. The Arizonawill clear all moorings in twelve seconds.”

  Cat waited while the seconds counted off. The last of Lunar One and its tethered twin slipped away.

  “LFTRs one, two, and three scaling up to 68 percent capacity. VASIMR thrusters powering up. Plasma drive is online. Commencing point one G burn in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… we are go for VASIMR drive at point one G. Estimated arrival at Mars insertion point in six point two days.”

  “Thank you Ben. I’m heading down to the engineering deck. Let me know if anything unusual happens.”

  “You are welcome… Please define unusual within the current context.”

  “Ben, you’re a smart machine. Use your imagination.”

  ***

  Yarin watched the small craft with eyes four and six. History was in the making. In point of fact, that was why the Heshe was there.

  This young bipedal race was in many ways a younger version of its own. They had an amazing capacity for logic coupled with compassion. Yet, neither logic nor their vibrant emotions were their masters. They existed and built their society by establishing a middle ground between the two.

  The ancient Heshe cast out with its sensor-enhanced consciousness for others of its race. They were few in number now... And growing fewer with each passing millennia. These humans, as they called themselves, would likely never meet the Heshian Expanse. The Heshe were leaving this section of the galaxy. Regrettably, the very thing that made humans so fascinating doomed the Heshe – and very likely humanity as well.

  For all their knowledge and love of learning, the Heshe had never lost their ability to believe in the unprovable. They, like their kindred spirits in these humans, had an innate ability to transcend their logic in regard to a faith in an uncreated creator. In many ways humanity mirrored the Heshe's own understanding of the divine.

  Their love of the creator prevented them from taking life for any reason other than nourishment. When faced with the advances of an aggressive species they were defenseless. It was ironic that these humans were perhaps far better able to defend themselves, despite their vastly inferior technology. Yarin hoped this was the case. It would be sad to see such potential lost when the D'lralu came to claim their fertile solar system.

  The small craft was slowly making its way to the fourth planet. It was using a crude ion plasma drive that would literally take days to accomplish what Yarin's quantum fold drive could accomplishin milliseconds. Still, this was a first for this young race. The technology being demonstrated would make practical the exploitation and exploration of the human solar system. This, in turn, would produce a paradigm shift in how humans viewed themselves and their universe. Their rate of technological growth would soon outpace anything the human species had accomplished to date. But would it be enough?

  ***

  Cat Kimbridgeput down her fork. Dinner was a flash frozen smoked salmon steak with a light horseradish sauce and German potato salad from a famous national chain restaurant called "Teddy Peters." She sipped her glass of lightly sweet white wine. This was day six, and she was right on target for Mars orbital insertion– hence the celebration.

  Soon they would be in orbit, and the sensation of acceleration induced gravity would cease. One of the interesting innovations in the Arizona was a fully gimbaled living space that automatically rotated with acceleration to provide a consistent up and down experience for the crew. It wasn't artificial gravity, but it was the next best thing.

  "Ben, Status report."

  "All systems nominal. Orbital insertion in approximately 18.4 minutes"

  "Report fuel status."

  "Primaries are at 71 percent. Emergency reserves are at 98.3 percent."

  Cat sat up straighter in her seat. 98.3 was not the number she had been expecting. "Explain the delta between the emergency reserves now and mission start."

  "Certainly. At 18:42 on December 4, 2067 the port reserve tank was hit with a micro-meteor that breached the tank for sixty-eight seconds until the nanite fiber mesh could seal the hole."

  "And why didn't you report this?"

  "I just did Commander."

  "Correction. Why didn't you report it at the time of the incident?"

  "I was following your previous orders. Report only what is unusual. A loss of fuel due to micro-meteor impact occurs in 3.2 percent of voyages between Earth and Mars and is..."

  "...therefore not unusual," Cat continued. "Ben, new orders. Please report anything that impacts the operational readiness of this ship by more than a percent in a time frame that is atypical." Cat was so used to thinking of Ben as an intelligence in his own right that she occasionally forgot how incredibly literal AIs tended to be.

  "Command accepted. Shall I also report anomalous reading occurring outside the ship?"

  "Absolutely."

  "Very good. I wish to report an anomalous reading outside the ship."

  "Specify."

  "Two spacecraft are approaching at .2c."

  "What... Nothing we have can go that fast!" Cat screamed as she dashed for the bridge of her small ship.

  "Thus the anomalous nature of this event," Ben continued in his monotone voice.

  Cat sat in her command chair and brought up her holographic interface with a wave of her hand. "Ben, isolate the sector the two anomalous craft are vectoring in from and display on my board."

  "Not possible. Targets are vectoring in from multiple directions."

  "Fine!" Cat yelled. "Use the Arizona as the center point and show both approach vectors. Label the targets one and two based on the first to reach us."

  "Understood, parameters accepted. Plotting multiple vectors now."

  "Give me a time frame. How long before they get here?"

  "Assuming neither craft changes velocity or vector, craft one will be in our vicinity in three minutes and twenty-six seconds. The second craft is adjusting its speed to arrive at exactly the same time."

  It was the longest three and a half minutes in Cat's 30 year life. She had Ben try to hail the two craft, but there was no way to know if their communication technologies were in any way compatible. Neither craft responded to her attempts.

  "Ben, prepare a message buoy. Attach a complete log and sensor track from our friends out there. On my mark, send it off best possible speed for Lunar One."

  "Buoy ready. Launching for Lunar One on your mark."

  When the approaching craft were five seconds out Cat gave the order to launch.

  "Craft One is altering
course and speed..."

  A sudden brilliant flash lit up the holographic matrix in front of Cat. "Ben, report. What was that?"

  "The message buoy was destroyed by a tightly focused 10 megajoule coherent energy beam emitted from a dorsal array on the first craft."

  ***

  Yarin watched the D'lralu scout ship destroy the small probe the Earth craft had ejected moments before. He wasn't sure what he was going to do. The D'lralu had not been expected to encounter Humanity for another hundred years or so. A scout ship showing up now meant humanity had far less time than the Heshe had anticipated. If the D'lralu scout kept to standard procedures it would disable the human craft and then dissect both it and its crew to learn as much as it could; prior to reporting the find to its home command. Once that report was made... Humanity was doomed.

  ***

  "Ben, abort orbital insertion. Emergency acceleration... Get Phobos between us and that ship!"

  "Emergency acceleration engaged."

  Cat felt herself pushed back in her chair as the Arizona reached for her peak acceleration of 1.2 gravities. Older chemical rockets could achieve much greater accelerations, but the Arizona had been designed for efficiency and not acceleration.

  "How long before we are shielded by Phobos?"

  "Current projections indicate we will not be able to accelerate fast enough to successfully hide before the approaching spacecraft intercep..."

  Cat was thrown out of her seat as a blinding flash enveloped the bridge. The flash was accompanied by a thunderclap and the sound of twisting metal. A shower of sparks filled the space between Cat and the main console.

  "Ben, report! What just happened?"

  There was no response. Her AI was offline. Scrambling to reach the backup overrides, she threw the breaker and brought emergency power systems up. Twenty seconds later Ben reported he was back online.

  "There has been a hull breach near the aft thrusters. The VASIMR drive is inop. Chemical thrusters are online but will be insufficient to return to Earth orbit."

  "Can we repair the drive?" Cat asked although she suspected she knew the answer.

  "Negative. The primary drive was fused by a 250 megajoule coherent energy beam."

  "250 megajoule? How is it we are still alive?"

  "I would speculate that the operator of craft one simply wished to disable us."

  "Well they've succeeded" Cat mused quietly. "I wonder what they want?"

  "Unknown, Commander."

  "Ben, can you bring up any sort of display... I'm blind here."

  "Holographic systems are offline, but I can bring up a flat panel display."

  "Good boy. Give me a split view, I want both crafts displayed."

  The main view screen flickered to life. The ruddy red of Mars appeared as a small colored marble in a field of jet black.

  "Isolate the alien crafts and highlight."

  A yellow icon with a little "1" appeared in the upper right corner of the screen. A second icon with a "2" appended to it appeared in the lower middle section of the screen.

  "Commander, craft one is emitting an energy signature similar to what it emitted just prior to firing on us and the buoy earlier. I suspect it is about to fire again."

  "Quick, fire the maneuvering thrusters... Put us into as fast a spin as you can... We can't out run them, but perhaps we can spread enough of their blast around that our meteor shielding can protect us."

  At about the same time the AI engaged the thrusters, the first alien craft fired. Fortunately it was nowhere near the 250 megajoule blast that had disabled her engines. But it was enough. Had she not been spinning, the shot would had breached her hull somewhere near environmental.

  Cat struggled to hold her seat as the Arizona spun wildly in her attempt to dissipate the energies being fired at her by the other craft. Suddenly the emergency klaxons, which had started the moment the ship had begun taking fire, ceased.

  Ben automatically fired reverse thrusters to stop the rotation.

  "What happened? Why did they stop firing at us?"

  The AI responded "The second ship intervened. Analysis would seem to indicate it instantaneously trans-located to a position just in front of the attacking ship and physically collided with it. The first ship has been destroyed. The second ship is in a rapidly decaying orbit. It does not seem to be under power."

  They sacrificed themselves to save us. Cat mused. "Ben, do we have enough chemical thruster left to maneuver under them and push them into a stable orbit?"

  "Unknown. That calculation would require knowledge of their mass."

  "Get us in position. Speculate assuming their craft masses similar to ours for a comparable size. Will we have enough fuel?"

  "Within the parameters specified there is a 19 percent chance we will have enough fuel."

  "19 percent it is. As fast as you can maneuver us into position, attempt to improve their orbit."

  The deck shook wildly as the two craft touched. Acceleration became negligible and Cat began to float away from the flooring deck.

  "Ben, report! Are we making a difference?"

  "Affirmative Commander. The alien craft seems to be 43 percent the anticipated mass. There is now a 72 percent chance we will have sufficient fuel for their vessel to achieve a stable orbit."

  "Wonderful... What about us?"

  "The Arizona is considerably heaver that the alien vessel. We will not achieve a stable orbit. Calculations indicate we will impact near Olympus Mons in thirty-six minutes."

  Cat listened to Ben's cold and analytical assessment of their pending demise. In some ways, she envied his detachment. But death was not an option she was willing to entertain.

  "If we ejected the LFTR power cores and VASIMR drive unit would our mass be sufficiently reduced to achieve orbit?"

  "Yes, however, the nanite mesh that repaired the port reserve tank failed during the engagement with the aggressive alien. Fuel reserves are now at 43 percent. There is no longer sufficient fuel to both save the remaining alien and this vessel."

  "Nuts..." Cat said under her breath. "Ben, new orders. Continuously calculate the orbital status of the vessel we are assisting. The moment it is in a likely stable orbit disengage thrust and attempt a controlled reentry into Mars. Eject the cores and main drive now."

  "Orders accepted. Please note the Arizona in its current configuration is not aerodynamic."

  "That's OK, We are not going to glide. I want you to time our reentry so we gently kiss the trailing slope of Olympus Mons. With any luck, we can dissipate our excess reentry energy in a controlled slide down the slope of Mons."

  "Shall I calculate the odds of success?"

  "Absolutely Not!"

  ***

  Yarin's consciousness came back online at 4352. It noted eye stalk seven was missing and instructed construction nanites to replace it at the earliest opportunity. To be honest, Yarin was amazed it was still alive. The collision with the D'lralu had resulted in massive system failures. It was unlikely the repair systems within its craft would have sufficient time to effect repairs prior to impact with the planet they were orbiting.

  Once the Heshe's external sensors and their associated system log came online Yarin had its answer. The human had sacrificed herself to save the Heshe!

  Remarkable. Yarin could not remember a time in recent memory when a non-Heshe had saved a Heshe'slife. Certainly not while forfeiting the creator’s gift of one's own life. For all practical purposes this forced Yarin's hand. For the first time in dozens of millennia, a Heshe would repay a life debt!

  ***

  "Ben, give me all you have on reverse thrusters. We're about to hit, and we are coming in way too hot."

  "I'm sorry Commander. Fuel reserves are depleted. Impact in 2.4 seconds."

  "It's been an honor Ben..." Cat began. Before she could finish, the ESX Arizona impacted with the north wall of Olympus Mons at 643 miles per hour. It was December 7th, 2067. It would be the first time Lt. Commander Catherine Kimbridge would
die... but certainly not the last.

  Coming to the Big Screen soon!