by Damon Alan
The nanite net collecting individual molecules morphed its shape continuously to allow larger debris to pass without damaging the sensitive nanites. Days passed as it cataloged the Hive victory at Hamor.
It sensed a familiar taste in the midst of a radioactive debris field. It tested for several hours before coming to a conclusion. Binogi. It radioed to the Collective information about the destruction of the ship Binogi, and confirmed the taste profile with the larger database. An old enemy was eliminated.
Bn74x00 continued its sweep.
Another priority target fought here as well. Michael Stennis.
00 replayed a signal it had pulled from the background noise of a routine transmission by the enemy.
“Commander Gilbert, notify all surviving fleets that Seventh Fleet is retreating to rendezvous position gamma.”
Analyzing, the scout associated the voice with Sarah Dayson. To verify, it cross indexed the voice print with the chemical signature it was currently detecting. The voice print and chemical signature were a high probability match with the battlecruiser designated Michael Stennis and the master of that vessel, Captain Sarah Dayson. Sarah Dayson was currently designated fourth on the priority list for colonization or elimination. The Michael Stennis survived the battle. A significant debris field from the ship was detected, but the field didn't contain enough material to indicate the ship was destroyed. It was heavily damaged. Several ships were destroyed in close proximity, and cataloging the debris took significant time.
Bn74x00 assigned the location of the chemical traces matching the Stennis's exhaust profile top priority in its search. It used subsequent orbital passes to detect a projected path for the Michael Stennis.
The path was calculated. It was illogical. The course of the enemy vessel was well defined, but in an unexpected direction. That was not the only anomaly. The dispersal and composition pattern for the trail was different than usual, and the density of the chemical trail indicated an unexpected rate of travel, significantly above norms.
It replayed sensory data from some of the previous encounters with the Michael Stennis. Data retrieved at the last battle indicated no enhanced capabilities. The same for the last several battles Sarah Dayson commanded. There were no unusual patterns detected in previous FTL departures, unlike this time. Sarah Dayson had developed the Teplo maneuver, a tactic expensive in materials and effort to overcome. The probability this was new technology the Collective did not posses was high. The humans were innovative.
The investigator paused for several billion calculation cycles while it considered explanations for the anomalous data. It decided the limitations of its neural net required a larger network. It changed course and approached a mobile base for docking and network integration. Computational ability would increase orders of magnitude once docked.
After docking, Bn74x00 integrated itself into the larger neural net of the base. Moments later the scout jettisoned its propulsion unit. A decision was made. Captain Sarah Dayson and her fleet must have a new drive system, one with significantly greater speed with an undetermined range. An unknown base must also exist in the direction of her departure vector. Calculations indicated a high probability the base lay within the Abzurrin Abyss, a bubble of deep space with few stars near the mid-galactic periphery of the Sagittarius arm.
Bn74x00 was again outfitted with a new drive core, an extreme long range drive capable of several dozen jumps for the investigation. It departed Hamor to pursue the Stennis into the Abzurrin Abyss with a new mission of locating the base and directing a Collective fleet to destroy it.
Chapter 43 - An Accounting
29 ORS 15326
Sarah strapped into the seat at the head of her briefing room table.“Thank you all for coming, I know repairs are heavy, many of our wounded still need help, and we have concerns about operational status of the fleet ships. Let's get all that information organized so we can focus our attention on a priority list.”
Gilbert, Harmeen, Jannis, and Corriea looked at her expectantly.
“Let's start with the Stennis. After all, we have the FTL drive. If we are destroyed, the other ships are all doomed with us. Lieutenant Harmeen, give your status report.”
Harmeen looked surprised to be the first she called on. “Yes, Captain. First, I have confirmation that the drive core spin-up is real. I've not only never seen anything like it, nothing like it exists in the records we have on board. This has never happened before, at least not that's been reported.”
Gilbert looked at Sarah. “Nobody will know it happened to us either, most likely.”
Sarah nodded her agreement. “Continue, Mr. Harmeen.”
“Structurally the ship is sound. The central spar shrugged off the Samville impact nicely. The upgrade we got before Hamor might have saved us all.” Harmeen shuffled through a file, then launched into a long briefing on various systems, spare parts, and consumable supplies.
Sarah waited patiently for him to finish, although she'd never remember all of it. Going through it might help Harmeen see something new. “So, in summary, you say the Stennis is completely operational, but we're going to have to do a lot of work to repair the physical damages to living spaces and the rear armor.”
“No. There is one thing.” Harmeen looked nervous. “I wanted to tell you in private first—”
“This is private, Lieutenant. This is my command and bridge staff. At least most if it.”
Harmeen looked around at the faces staring back at him. “Okay, I didn't mean to offend anyone. I am concerned about reactor two.”
“In what way?” Sarah pressed.
“It's still damaged. The injectors are aligned the best we can get them. But I can't promise they'll hold up once we fire up the reactor to power the coolant pumps for the core when we drop to realspace.”
“Can't we use the other two reactors?” Gilbert asked.
Harmeen shook his head. “Not enough juice to power everything. That's the only moment when the ship needs all three fusion reactors. And, in what I think is a serious design flaw, reactor two is the only one wired to power the pumps.”
Sarah was astounded. “You can't shunt power from the others? We can't reduce power usage in other parts of the ship?”
“No, Captain, the ship isn't wired that way. The pumps use the power of a medium sized city for about ten minutes.”
“Damn. What will happen if you don't have the injectors aligned?”
“If they're not, there are three possibilities. The first is the reactor doesn't light, the pumps don't run, and the Stennis burns up. The second is the reactor explodes, which will take out the midsection of the ship and the pumps still won't run. Third is the reactors lights, runs, but doesn't make enough power, and you guessed it, the pumps don't run.”
“None of those are good. Make this your top priority for the duration of our jump. When you're not on the bridge, I expect you to be working on reactor two. At least until you tell me the injectors are aligned.”
“Since the automatic alignment system is fried, I can't ever tell you that for sure.”
“Do what you can. Can you steal the alignment system from one of the other two reactors?”
“Different types of reactors. I can research potentially adapting it, I suppose.”
“Okay, do whatever you need to do, just keep me informed.”
“Wilco, Captain,” Harmeen replied.
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Sarah said. “Dr. Jannis, you're next. Personnel?”
“I'm going to give you a ship by ship accounting, then go into medical issues I foresee,” Dr. Jannis answered. “First is the Stennis. We left Mindari with fourteen hundred crewman. We lost two hundred and seven at Hamor. The new armor plates we carry saved a lot of lives when that bomb detonated.”
“I've been in this situation before,” Sarah added. “We are very lucky for that.”
Jannis agreed. “Despite that, I'm expecting another seventy or so deaths from radiation poisoning. The aft compartments ne
ar the armor damaged by the Samville took a substantial dose.”
“The damaged compartments included the aft medical bay, which included surgery and intensive care. Medical suffered losses, I'm at half staffing. I have converted a storeroom into a temporary ward for the sick, but it's hardly a replacement for an intensive care ward. Improper care isn't helping survival rates. There is a fantastic med facility on the Yascurra, and another on the Fyurigan. But we're in highspace, so there isn't any getting to them.”
Crew dying from lack of proper care was the last thing anyone needed. “Is there anything we can provide to improve their chances?”
Jannis shook her head. “Not really. I lost medical machinery that can't be easily replaced until we get to a port. I can borrow some from the other ships once we drop out, of course.”
Sarah tapped her fingers on the table as she thought. There was probably no port for them where they were going. The equipment they have is all they'd have until they made their own spares. “We will borrow what you need as soon as we hit realspace.”
“The other ships have their own issues, of course. We have no communications with the Yascurra, so I don't know their situation. Some ships have zero casualties. Others heavy. The total crew of the ships we have in the bubble was over eleven thousand when we arrived at Hamor. We currently have about nine thousand, and that includes the Palino, and their survivors from Hamor. I've talked to the Palino's captain extensively about helping them ration their supplies for this long jump. Half rations for one hundred days. They're going to be hungry and malnourished when we drop out, but alive.”
Gilbert was the first to point out the obvious result of their long jump. “I don't envy trying to keep calm on that ship right now. But we're going to be glad we have those people if we find ourselves marooned and in need of a viable colony population. Our normal male to female ratio doesn't exactly favor the men.”
“Good point, Mr. Gilbert,” Sarah said. “We may well become colonists. Something to think about as we make contingency plans over the next two and a half months of this jump.”
“Do we have a viable number of colonists?” Corriea asked. “I mean, genetically?”
“Sure,” Dr. Jannis answered. “You can get by with far less with selective breeding. With this number people can pair off naturally.”
“Good question,” Gilbert encouraged. “That's the type of thing we need to be doing. Eliminating the things that aren't a problem for us, and concentrating on what is.”
“Agreed,” Sarah said. “Speaking of which, the mechanical condition of the fleet Mr. Gilbert?”
“Only a few ships are fully operational, but all are safe at the moment. EF2358 is untouched. The Palino is a brand new ship, and was to be a hot ore carrier before she picked up her human cargo. We know the Yascurra is heavily damaged, or…”
“Everyone is dead,” Dr. Jannis said. “We might as well admit that's possible.”
“Likely I think,” Harmeen added. “I hate to say it, but they were as close to the bomb as we were, and they have just enough shielding to protect them from cosmic background radiation. Not nuclear weapons.”
“We need to plan for that then,” Sarah said. “Start looking through the crews for qualified people to recrew the Yascurra as a contingency. Any chance she'll lose her ability to maintain jump position?”
“There's no telling,” Corriea said. “Right now something over there is keeping that ship on station. If it does lose station keep ability, it'll be strewn over several light years when it hits the edge of the bubble.”
“We'll plan as if it will stay on station. Get a crew ready for her,” Sarah ordered.
Gilbert volunteered. “I can take care of that. I'll see about getting some of the marines trained for double duty.”
“Good idea,” Sarah said.
“As for the other ships,” Gilbert continued, “the Amalli says some of their equipment is down, but overall the ship systems are working alright. The Schein and Hinden are as shielded as we are. Neither have casualties or damage.”
“And the Fyurigan?” Sarah asked.
“Was on the other side of the bubble,” Gilbert responded. “No physical damage, and although quite a few cases of radiation poisoning, none reported lethal. At least not yet.”
“Yet?” Sarah asked.
“They don't know what the final death toll will be,” Dr. Jannis added. “They've got top notch facilities and a good medical staff, so the mortality percentages will be low.”
Sarah nodded that she understood. “So we're a functional fleet. We don't have a tanker full of antimatter, which would be nice, nor do we have a hospital ship but the Fyurigan is probably the next best thing.”
“Agreed,” Gilbert said. “We're lucky it was assigned to us. And survived.”
“So what about stores? How long can we run on what we have?”
Corriea was responsible for inventorying the fleet. “We have food for about a year after we drop out of highspace since we'll have to supply the Palino. Being an engineering ship, Fyurigan can build bases for growing food if we can find the resources. Wherever we wind up, that has to be a top priority.”
“I do like to eat,” Sarah agreed. “It would be nice to get them building a space dock so we can repair ships that are damaged, but food comes first.”
“I have a store of DNA code for creating animal stock,” Jannis said.
That surprised Sarah. “What? Really? Why?” she asked. “Don't get me wrong, I'm glad, but—”
“I am not just a doctor, Captain,” Dr. Jannis interrupted. “I'm also a researcher. Non-human DNA is full of sequences that code for proteins that may or may not be useful in that research. In order to reproduce them at will, I carry a library of every genetically sequenced organism science knows of.”
Sarah had no idea Dr. Jannis was researching anything in her spare time. “Research? What kind?”
“Drug production, toxin mediation, things like that. We have no idea what we might find in space. Life is everywhere, and some of it might be dangerous to us.”
Gilbert scoffed. “Unicellular life? Dangerous? Take some antibiotics.”
Corriea jumped in to back the doctor. “With all due respect Commander Gilbert, you say that out of ignorance. Dr. Jannis is right. The code of life is so diverse we have no idea what we might encounter. Humanity has never met another intelligent species, and yes, nearly one hundred percent of the life we find is unicellular, but DNA has so many potential ways to produce hazards for us that I almost want to describe them as infinite.”
Dr. Jannis smiled at the young man.
Sarah laughed heartily as she watched Gilbert's face. He was stunned by the conviction with which Corriea took him on. The kid knows his science. “Looks like after all this time you've crossed your first line with the crew, Mr. Gilbert. Dr. Jannis has her supporters. And I don't pick my bridge officers for their timidness.”
“Woah, slow down.” Gilbert tossed up his hands in surrender. “Don't beat up the grunt. I can be educated.”
Corriea looked sheepish. He probably didn't realize the passion with which he knocked Gilbert down.
Sarah clapped her hands together, returning attention to her. “So we have all the ingredients to establish a colony if we need to do so. The engineers of the Fyurigan, a DNA database… have you checked that since the EMP doctor?”
“Safe and sound. I keep it in a Faraday cage. Ostensibly to keep it safe from environmental EM in the lab and the occasional stray cosmic ray, but it saved it from the EMP too. One digital bit damaged can cost me the DNA of an entire organism. Most of the data is holographic, of course, and EMP doesn't affect that, but the interface… that has to be kept safe.”
Sarah doubted the Fyurigan carried anything like the doctor's database, but they'd be able to build the means to use it if it was whole. Artificial wombs were a technology invented thousands of years earlier. “Great, let's keep it in there if you would, and please make a backup.”
Dr. Jannis nodded her agreement. “I already did. I transferred another copy to the Fyurigan via digital stream.”
“We know about reactor two. That's our bottleneck. Does anyone see any other obstacles to our survival besides the small possibility we'll drop out of highspace between the galactic arms?”
Corriea and Harmeen looked at each other.
“We weren't going to even mention that one, ma'am,” Harmeen said. “We're surprised you thought of it.”
Sarah didn't know whether to laugh or be offended. “Really? What did I do to deserve your intellectual scorn, Mr. Harmeen?”
Harmeen looked alarmed, so Corriea answered instead. “It's not that, Captain, it's just that most people don't think of the galaxy as anything but a contiguous disk of stars.”
“I was a navigator once, Mr. Corriea. Not to mention that I make every effort to know the important functions of nearly every job on the ship.” She pointed at the other attendees. “Something we should all be practicing.”
Corriea and Harmeen looked at each other again. They weren't sure how to respond.
Sarah laughed. “Junior officers have always underestimated their leaders, Lieutenant. I don't expect either of you to be any different. In a way it's a good thing. It's your job to make sure Commander Gilbert and I don't overlook anything.”
Gilbert arched his eyebrows. “Like how dangerous alien bugs are, apparently.”
Harmeen exhaled in relief. “We can do that, Captain.”
“I'd expect nothing less.”
Dr. Jannis harumphed. “Speaking of giving your best, I have an examination that I'd like to get done on you, Captain.”
“Meeting adjourned,” Sarah said. “Perfect timing, doctor. Let's go.”
Sarah followed Dr. Jannis to the medbay for her exam.
Dr. Jannis almost seemed disappointed that Sarah's liver enzymes were perfectly normal.
Chapter 44 - Out of and Into Darkness
28 MAPRI 15327
Harmeen had activated reactor two an hour earlier. It was running, and the power output was just inside the green zone for a successful drop to realspace. The real test, however, was upcoming. Nobody knew for sure if it would hold power levels under load.