The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3)

by Kocho Trajchevski

Paterson smiled and taped him on the shoulder. The young man turned his gaze toward the sky and the shuttles that were rising.

  “If you ever need someone to talk I’ll be here.”

  The young man turned and looked at him with eyes filled with tears.

  “Thanks James… Thanks.”

  After this no one talked. They just looked at the dark sky and the four shuttles that were carrying the next set of equipment for the ship.

  They both knew that in just four months that ship will start its mission and that Edward was part of the team that was going.

  “You know that we might get some equipment from the ships soon.”

  Edward turned at his colleague.

  “You know as well as me that it will take time to study it. Whatever we find on that ship will be so advanced that we can hardly use it immediately. I doubt that there will be anything that we can use by the time they come, maybe the weapons. From what I read in the report they used antimatter missiles and rail guns. I think that considering that those are technologies we understand we can use them. And that is a maybe as well, because they are far more advanced than ours. The shots that hit the Georgia were moving with speeds that far exceed any speed we managed to achieve so far with our rail guns.”

  “Yes but maybe we can find a way to use their technology. And who knows we might find something we can use on those ships up there. That is why this project is so important and why everyone is investing so much. We have an advantage now since we know that they are coming. We can prepare.”

  The young man looked at the dark sky and the stars.

  “Yes we can.”

  Then they both turned and headed towards the main building. They knew that everyone in the command center was now concentrated on the shuttles and their flight as they were headed towards the space station and the ship. The ship was in the final stages of construction. All that was left were the engines. But that was also the hardest part of the entire project.

  The four nuclear reactors that gave the energy for the VASIMR engine and the hydrogen thrusters required extensive shielding. The engines were already up there and everyone waited on the four reactors so that the final construction can begin. If everything went as was planed the first reactor was suppose to lift in two weeks, and then every two weeks for the next one. After the reactors and the cooling systems are in place the completed VASIMR engine was going to be installed.

  The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket engine was a relatively new design, although like almost all other projects it was first envisioned in the end of the seventies of the previous century. It was first presented in 1977 but it took more than thirty years of research for it to be put in the final stages of development. Several probes that today were headed on missions in the Solar system used that kind of an engine although none had the power that the engine that was placed on the Deadalus had. They were operating with powers of 100 to 200kw. The main problem with every ion engine that humanity created so far was the low thrust. That is why every probe needed years to reach its destination. With the ever decreasing budget and the large power requirements there was no possibility to create an engine that can reach higher speeds. At least that was until the Long Shot project was approved.

  Even then everyone knew that it will take years to build the large vessel that was supposed to go to the closest star to the Solar system in forty five years.

  And there was the first manned mission to Mars that was planned for 2025.

  The Mars mission was supposed to use a model of VASIMR engine with nuclear reactor of ten megawatts power. That was so much less than the technology that was incorporated in this project. The four nuclear reactors were the first of their kind. Although they were similar with the reactors that were used in the submarines and the modern navy ships they worked on different principles. The massive cooling systems were the most important objects on the ship. They protected the crew from the heat that was going to be released by the VASIMR engine. The planed mission to Mars was supposed to reach a speed of 500km/s.

  And then there was the first real space ship that humanity created.

  The Deadalus was really the first of its kind, and the future of space travel. It was far larger than anything that was built so far. The largest project ever conceived was the Long Shot that had a mass of 350 metric tons. The Deadalus exceeded that.

  Any mission planed before was planned for a crew of maximum fifteen people. The Deadalus would have four times more. With the scientists, astronauts, and the soldiers the crew reached the number of sixty two people. That alone required much more space. And when you add the need for food and water storage, and the engines the total mass of the ship exceeded anything ever build before by a large margin.

  That is why even with four nuclear reactors with total power output of 2000 megawatts the ship was planned to reach a max velocity of 7500 km/s. And even with that speed the ship would need twenty days to reach to its objective. Even now without the engines the ship was massive and looked really big compared even with the massive space station to which it was attached. And when the modules that carried the hydrogen fuel were going to be added it would grow even more.

  Both scientists entered the building and headed on their posts to watch the final approach of the shuttles.

  10 December 2017 18:25

  Norfolk Naval Base

  Katrina looked at the engineers and scientists around her. After three months of intensive work and research they managed to research only a small portion of the alien ship. From all that they managed to see so far it was obvious that the technology which was used in its creation was far ahead of anything that humanity had, and would have in the next one, maybe two centuries. They all understood a great part of the technology but there was no way to replicate it. The only thing so far that they managed to use from the ship were the RCS thrusters that were installed on the Deadalus.

  And even that was a major breakthrough. The system was far better than anything that mankind had in that area. And according to Dr. Ivanov there was hope for at least a partial use of the shield technology. During the research they stumbled on the shield emitters and found out that they were not damaged. They were simply not working because they had no energy. And the reason for that was the massive damage to the reactors of the ship. As they looked through the engine room and the reactors there was almost nothing to be found. The plain crush and the torpedoes that impacted later totally destroyed those two sections of the alien ship. The same amount of damage was found in the places where the rail guns fired from the cruisers and the shots from the battleships impacted. This was most visible on the ships bridge that was totally destroyed from the fire of the main guns of the Missouri and Vanguard.

  She turned to the Russian scientist that was standing next to her. He was talking with the general and explaining some of the things that they managed to uncover so far.

  She had to admit that the discovery of the antimatter missiles and torpedoes really made the military happy. Those weapons were by a large magnitude more powerful than any weapons of that size that mankind had. And the power output they had of fifty megatons gave a much needed indication about the power of the ships shields and defenses. That was still based on a speculation but it gave hope to almost everyone that was involved in the project. They all knew that with the current technology mankind could produce a more powerful weapon. That meant that if a fifty megaton explosion was capable of damaging the alien ships mankind had a chance. They all knew that both the US and Russia and quite possibly several other countries in the world had in their inventor nuclear bombs that had power of fifty megatons. And both countries had made experiments with a hundred megatons hydrogen bombs. She shuddered at the thought of the damage that those weapons could inflict if they were ever used. And from the looks of it they would have to use them. They all hoped that they might manage to use the primary ships weapons, the massive graviton guns. There was no hope of using the other energy weapons. Both the lasers
and the plasma guns required too much power.

  She knew that there was still hope for the lasers. The military already experimented with lasers as weapons systems. And although they were weak compared with this several lasers were installed on the Deadalus.

  They were one way of using the excess heat that was going to be released by the VASIMR engines. And she liked the other option even more. They were hoping to use part of that power and energy for the shields. The tests were starting in several days and everyone hoped for a positive outcome.

  “So Ladislav you are saying that we might be able to use the shield technology.”

  At those words both the general and all military personal present in the room turned toward her and the old scientist.

  She held her gaze as they studied her. The Russian looked at her and smiled. He knew that she was going to bring that on this meeting. They both discussed it the previous day, and they both knew that it was to important not to be mentioned. If they could manage to have even minimal shielding it would be an immense advantage. The other subject was about the possible defense from the energy weapons that the aliens used as their primary weapon. The current armor that every soldier in Earth’s militaries used was useless against the plasma and laser weapons of the aliens. Luckily that was one part of the aliens technology that they could stop.

  The military technicians explained that armors that could resist those weapons already existed, and some were even talking about the possibility of creating a powered armor in the next couple of years.

  Admiral Simonson looked at the female scientist.

  “Did you say that we might be able to use the shield technology?”

  The Russian scientist turned toward the admiral again and with a smile on his face answered.

  “Yes general.”

  Beside the US admiral several other generals and admirals from England, France, Germany, Israel, Russia and China were also present. There were also other officers from other countries.

  It was obvious that those two words got their undivided attention.

  She noticed that several of them even smiled.

  Dr. Ivanov continued.

  “As I already mentioned before during the search we discovered that most of the shield emitters were not damaged. They were simply down because they had no power. Of course we can’t hope to power them with the same power that they had from the reactors of the alien ship. The level of that technology is way ahead of us for now. But there is a possibility that with the current nuclear reactors that we are using on our military ships we might be able to power them for a short time or even longer periods although we can’t hope that they will be able to sustain more than couple of hits from their weapons.

  Several tests are planned in couple of days. If they are successful we plan to install several emitters on the Deadalus. That will enable for a greater chance for a success of the mission. And it will also be the first real test for them as shields for our ships. If we can use them as shields for that ship we might be able to use them for other vessels as well.”

  When he finished he sat down. The excitement of everyone in the room was obvious. Several discussions broke out between the generals and the officers. Everyone was talking except Simonson. As she looked at him she noticed that he was thinking. Before everyone arrived both she and the other scientists had a chance to study their files.

  Simonson was one of the few that had a firsthand experience with the aliens. He was part of the naval group that was attacked and savaged by them. He commanded the USS Missouri and its escorts. He was young for his rank. With just forty three years he was one of the youngest admirals in the US Navy.

  A graduate from Annapolis (United States Naval Academy; USNA) first in his class he started his career on the destroyer USS Mahan. His first command was the destroyer Farragut. He got his rank as admiral two years ago and got the command of the newly formed battle group lead by the reactivated USS Missouri. And the performance of the ships under his command in the battle proved that every positive evaluation that he got and the rapid promotions were well deserved.

  From the report that the fleet admiral Johnson submitted the timely arrival of the ships under Simonson’s command and their excellent performance marked the turning point in the confrontation. And after seeing the damage on the cruiser she had to agree. The biggest damage was from the shells that the two battleships fired. It was obvious that that type of guns should be used by every ship that humanity planned to use against the aliens. And it seemed that the military knew it as well. All of the ships from the Iowa- class were being reactivated, and every navy in the world began reactivating the retired battleships.

  The young admiral raised his head and looked at the engineers and the scientists.

  “Dr. Ivanov you said that we might be able to use the shield technology.”

  “Yes.”

  “And what are the chances about replicating or reverse engineering it? Can it be done with the technology and materials that we have available?”

  The Russian looked at the admiral. It was obvious that he is pleased by his question.

  “I believe that you should ask Mr. Koenig about that.”

  At those words one of the engineers rose from his seat and cleared his throat.

  “You asked a good question admiral. The answer is yes. We can reverse engineer them. They are something that we can understand although none of the emitters that we will be able to produce will have the same power as these emitters. We don’t have the same materials from which they are made, and none of the ones we can use have the same power transmission and output as them. Our shields will be weaker but I believe that they will be useful. I hope that in future we’ll discover those materials or maybe technology that will enable us to create more powerful emitters from the materials that we have at our disposal. Now if we manage to use more powerful generators or reactors we will have more powerful shields. Ultimately the main thing they need is power. The more power we put in them the stronger they will be. And besides we have a good supply of emitters from this ship. They had a good reserve.”

  The admiral smiled.

  “Thank you Mr. Koenig. I hope that the tests prove successful. Having shields when the time comes will be extremely useful.”

  The next hour after that passed in several discussions about the other technologies that might be reversed. And when the officers departed the scientists returned to their jobs. They all knew that on their research and the things that they might discover, that those discoveries might decide about the future of their world.

  And that was the greatest motivation of all.

  21 December 2017 Pentagon. 19:00 hours

  Simonson poured scotch in six glasses, one for itch of the men that were gathered this evening in this office. He handed them their glasses and then finally he took his own and sat down on one of the chairs. As he looked at the others he smiled. He was the youngest man in the room. And not just that, but he was also junior in rank compared to everyone else.

  As he watched them he crossed eyes with Admiral Johnson.

  Johnson nodded and turned toward the man who gathered them here.

  General Taylor was reading the report about the progress of the research of the alien ship in Norfolk. The same report was in the hands of the British admiral Sir William Levin.

  Levin was his new commander in chief. With the decision to form the EDF (Earth Defense Force) which incorporated every army force of every country in the world and that included the ground forces, the navy and the air force new commanders were chosen. The top positions went to General Jack S. Taylor the CJCS of the US army forces and Sir William Levin. Taylor was responsible for the massive army formations that incorporated the soldiers from every army in the world, or better said he was the commander in chief of EFA (Earth Federation Army).

  The former commander of the British Royal Navy Sir William Levin became the new Fleet Admiral who commanded the EFN (Earth Federation Navy) which incorporated the n
avy fleets. It was planned to form two branches of the EFN one for the sea fleet, the EFSN (Earth Federation Sea Navy), and one new for the planned space fleet EFSF (Earth Federation Space Fleet).

  The other two men were General Carl M. Peters the new commander of EMC (Earth Marine Corps) and one civilian Charles Bentley the chief administrator of NASA. He smiled at the thought. Although Bentley wasn’t wearing a uniform his held the rank of General in the United States Air Force.

  When the treaty for forming a federation was signed everyone feared that the integrating of the militaries will be the most difficult task. As it turned out, that opinion proved groundless. The first thing that both Taylor and Levin did was to copy the NATO statute. The former military organization became the backbone for the newly formed EDF.

  The years of mutual cooperation, exercises and joined missions made the transition and the integration much easier. There was still much work to be done but the first real steps were already taken. It was the same thing for the Federation and its government. The United Nations Organizations practically became the first government of the newly formed Earth Federation. The presidency went to the men who first proposed the unification.

  Unary Samba became the first president of the Earth Federation. The political situation and unification was a lot more difficult than the military and from the way it looked it seemed that it will take couple of years for the Federation to really start to function. But no one had any doubts that that day will come. The only fear was that they might fail to stop the invasion. That was the only thing that they could not let happen. And in the next years everything else would come second when compared to that and to the needs of the military and especially the fleet.

  Simonson never looked at the report that the others were reading. He had no need because it was a report he wrote.

  After couple of minutes Taylor raised his head and looked at the others.

  “I think that now we can start the meeting. It was an excellent report Eliot.”