Excalibur's Quest: A Swordships Odyssey Novel

by Dietmar Wehr

  “Send this reply. ‘We are interested in learning more about this proposed arrangement. What technology would you be willing to transfer to us, and what must we do for you in return?’ ”

  WE SEE THAT YOUR JUMP TECHNOLOGY DOES NOT HAVE THE ABILITY TO ADJUST YOUR TRAJECTORY WHILE IN THE HIGHER DIMENSION. WE CAN EQUIP YOUR VESSEL WITH THAT CAPABILITY. IT WILL ALLOW YOU TO MAKE MUCH LONGER TRANSITS WITH PERFECT ACCURACY. IN RETURN, WE ASK THAT YOU CARRY AND DEPLOY THREE COMMUNICATION MODULES IN STAR SYSTEMS THAT WE WILL DESIGNATE. THESE MODULES WILL THEN FIND THE NECESSARY RESOURCES TO EXPAND THEMSELVES TO THE OPTIMUM SIZE FOR EFFICIENT COMMUNICATION SPEEDS. THIS WILL EXPAND OUR NETWORK OF RELAY BUOYS SIMILAR TO THE ONE IN THIS SYSTEM AND WILL ALLOW FOR COMMUNICATION WITH NEW RACES. THE INSTALLATION OF THE MANEUVERABLE JUMP TECHNOLOGY WILL NOT AFFECT ANY OF YOUR VESSEL’S OTHER SYSTEMS. THE NECESSARY COMPONENTS CAN TO ATTACHED TO THE OUTSIDE OF YOUR HULL. IN ADDITION TO THE EQUIPMENT, WE WILL ALSO TRANSFER THE TECHNICAL DATA ON HOW THE EQUIPMENT WORKS AND HOW IT CAN BE COPIED. IS THIS ARRANGEMENT SATISFACTORY?

  “Astro, does this mean what I think it means? Will this technology allow us to modify our jump trajectory while in hyperspace?” asked Koeng.

  “That appears to be a correct assessment. However, it may be prudent to ask for clarification before agreeing to this arrangement.”

  Koenig nodded. “Good idea. Com, send this. ‘Before we decide on whether to accept your proposal, we wish to avoid any misunderstand by asking for clarification. Are we correct in thinking that this technology will allow our ships to change jump trajectory while in what we call hyperspace?’ ”

  YOU ARE CORRECT. WHAT YOU CALL HYPERSPACE IS THE SAME AS WHAT WE REFER TO AS THE HIGHER DIMENSION.

  Koenig’s heart was beating fast again. This sounded like a good deal. Being able to make very long jumps with perfect accuracy would help the war effort. The TOSF would be able to run rings around the Tong and the Jabs. Having the Vergon astrogational data on other races and their technology could also be potentially very valuable. He needed to make a decision but didn’t want to make it impulsively.

  “Com, send this. ‘May we have some time to discuss your proposal among ourselves?’ ”

  PROCEED

  Koenig breathed a sigh of relief. “What do you think, Eriko? If we can’t get the FTL com tech, at least we can bring back the maneuverable jump tech.”

  She was already nodding. “Yes, and their astro data. We should try for that too. What about asking for an extra com module to drop off in human space so that we can continue to communicate with them?”

  “Great idea. Okay, let’s compose a message that has the right tone. I don’t want us to sound too demanding or too compliant.” Ten minutes later, they had the final version of the message. It was sent, and a reply came, though not immediately. Apparently the Vergon needed time to discuss it amongst themselves too.

  YOUR PROPOSAL TO INCLUDE THE EXCHANGE OF ASTROGATIONAL DATA IS ACCEPTABLE. ONCE WE HAVE REVIEWED YOUR ASTROGATIONAL DATA, WE WILL DETERMINE WHERE WE WISH TO HAVE OUR COMMUNICATION MODULES DEPLOYED. THAT MAY OR MAY NOT INCLUDE HUMANS SPACE. IF YOU ACCEPT THIS CONDITION, THEN WE CAN PROCEED WITH THE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER.

  “Damn,” said Koenig quietly, as if the Vergon could hear him if he spoke too loudly. “I don’t want to leave that decision up to them, but if I push back and insist on deploying a com module in our space, they may withdraw the whole deal.”

  “But once the ship is equipped with the new tech, can they really stop us from deploying the com modules, or at least one of them, where we want?” asked Soriya.

  That was a very good question, Koenig thought to himself. They have no guarantee that we’ll perform that service the way they want or at all for that matter. Maybe this is a test of our trustworthiness. If we don’t fulfil our side of the bargain, they might simply not answer any communication queries we try to send to them.

  “I’m reluctant to agree to do something that I’ve already planned on not doing. Let’s try to avoid giving the Vergons a bad impression of human trustworthiness. Having said that, I see nothing wrong with letting them know that we have some conditions too. Com, send this. ‘We will attempt to deploy your com modules as close to your target star systems as possible without placing this vessel and its human crew in danger. If, in our opinion, deploying the com module in the designated target star systems represents a risk to the human crew, we reserve the right to choose an alternate deployment star system. Would this be acceptable?’ ”

  Koenig literally held his breath as he waited for the reply. It came quickly.

  YOUR CONDITIONS ARE ACCEPTABLE. ARE YOU READY TO ALLOW OUR ROBOTIC UNITS TO INSTALL THE HYPERSPACE EQUIPMENT NOW?

  Now that the possibility of alien robots doing things to his ship’s hull was about to be realized, Koenig felt nervous about going ahead. “It’s time to call or fold,” he said quietly. Then in a louder voice he said, “Com, tell them that we’re ready.”

  Chapter Three:

  The modifications to the hull went surprisingly quickly. When the alien robots were finished, a visual inspection by a remote unit showed that Excalibur’s stealthy hull geometry, which bounced radar and light in unexpected directions, was only slightly compromised by the protruding devices that, as Koenig found out, acted on the fabric of hyperspace the way speed brakes acted on the air passing over an aircraft body. The ‘drag’ caused by the activation of one or more of the devices had the effect of pulling the ship very slightly in the desired direction. The concept was surprisingly simple. It was the designing of the machines to make it work that had been difficult.

  During the construction period, both ships exchanged their astrogational data. Koenig and Soriya were stunned by the volume of space for which the Vergon had information. Not only did their data include the number and types of planets in each of thousands of star systems, it also included information on the home worlds of alien races, the extent of their exploration and notes on what types of technologies they had or lacked. The data was so extensive that the astro AI needed almost five minutes to examine all the records to identify which alien races humans might want to contact. That list, too, was tantalizingly long. There were two other races that had cloaking technology and three with FTL communication, including one that had a notation ‘superior interstellar communication’. When Koenig saw that notation, he asked the AI to show him where that race was. He was disappointed to discover it was on the far side of the very large volume of space that the Vergon data covered. Another race had a cryptic notation that Koenig didn’t understand.

  “Engineering, can you explain to me what the notation ‘multi-dimensional sequential atomic manipulation’ means?” he asked the engineering AI.

  “It means that large structures can be made by manipulating the atoms of raw materials beginning from one end of the structure and moving forward until it’s complete.”

  Koenig was about to move on to the next interesting race when Soriya interjected.

  “How large are we talking about?” she asked.

  “We do not have any data on what the upper limit, if any, is. I have requested and received enough additional data from my Vergon counterpart to be able to say that an object the size of Excalibur could be manufactured this way in a fraction of the time that it takes humans.”

  Koenig and Soriya exchanged wide-eyed looks.

  “So, this race could build a complete starship from basic raw materials in what…days or weeks?” asked Koenig.

  “Affirmative.”

  “And where is this race?” The star map on the display started flashing a gold dot while the map rotated to give Koenig a better understanding of the star system’s location. He shook his head in frustration.

  “Why do these breakthrough techs have to be so goddamned far away?” No one was able to answer the question. As Koenig stood in front of the display looking at the various locations of races that had tech that could be useful in fighting the Tong and Jabs, he wondered if there was a possibility of ar
ranging a three-way or perhaps even a four-way trade of technologies that would leave humans in possession of all of them. Then another thought, one that was disturbing in its implications, occurred to him.

  “These are all races that the Vergon have contacted somehow, correct Astro?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “So, why hasn’t the Vergon used their position at the center of the spider’s web, so to speak, to swap technologies for anything that they don’t already have? Is it because some of these races won’t give up their secrets for anything, or is it because the Vergon haven’t tried?”

  “Unable to reach a conclusion based on current data,” said the AI.

  When Koenig didn’t speak for almost a minute, Soriya tapped him on the shoulder. “I know that look, Wolfe. I can almost see the wheels spinning in your head. What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking…that if the Vergon haven’t bothered to ask these races what, if anything, they would trade their tech for, then maybe we should do it. We could maybe get a tech, say the ‘superior interstellar communication’ one first, then trade it for the cloaking tech, then trade that and the com tech for the atomic manipulation tech. The problem is Excalibur can’t do that now. We’ve committed to deploying the com modules, and that’s going to take long enough that I think we should head home afterwards. This hyperspace maneuvering system is worth exploiting as fast as we can. But when we do get home, I’m going to push for sending Excalibur back out here to see if we can leverage our way into hitting the tech jackpot. Let’s find out from the Vergon as much as we can about these high-value tech races. Astro, contact your Vergon counterpart, and ask for whatever information you can think of about them.”

  That exchange took less than three minutes. Koenig was continually amazed at how fast the AIs were able to exchange information with other AIs, and it didn’t seem to matter if the other AIs were the alien version so long as there was a commonly understood language.

  “The race with the atomic manipulation has not identified itself. What the Vergon have surmised about them is that they are highly aggressive to the point of being xenophobic. The Vergon believe that this race conquered a pacifist race that invented the atom manipulation tech. It seems that races near this xenophobic race have already become aware of them and feel highly threatened by them. The Vergon have not tried to exchange technologies with this race because of their assessment that the only tech they would be interested in are those that would make them even more powerful militarily, to the eventual detriment of their neighboring, and for the most part far more pacifist, races. My counterpart also let it be known that the Vergon would not let us use their communication network to acquire any military-type tech that the xenophobes might be willing to trade for. The Vergon have apparently concluded that we are interested in doing exactly that.

  “In terms of the other races, what has been confirmed is that the races that have the communication and cloaking techs do not have gravity weapon technologies. The communication tech races do not have any kind of cloaking or hull camouflage technology, and the cloaking tech races do not have FTL com technology. My counterpart warned me that both of the cloaking tech races are opportunistic in terms of capturing alien vessels in order to steal their technical secrets. They should be approached with caution.”

  With that last bit of information, it suddenly became clear to Koenig why the Vergon hadn’t tried to leverage their communication capability to gain even more technologies. They had little to offer the other races capable of FTL communication. Sending ships with technical information to the cloaking races risked having the ships captured, and letting the xenophobes become even more threatening was not considered a desirable outcome. Koenig wasn’t sure that trading with the xenophobes was a moral thing to do, but he also wasn’t sure that it wasn’t. At least that decision would be up to someone else.

  With the data exchange and hyperspace maneuvering modification out of the way, the only thing left was to find out where the Vergon wanted the com modules deployed, and Koenig was wondering what was taking them so long to share that information. Just as he was about to order the com AI to send a politely-worded query to the Vergon, they beat him to it.

  “Incoming message on the main display,” said the com AI.

  THE DEPLOYMENT TARGETS HAVE BEEN MODIFIED. AN EXISTING RELAY DEVICE HAS SUDDENLY GONE SILENT AFTER SENDING CONFUSING MESSAGES ABOUT THE LOCAL RACE EXPERIENCING SPONTANEOUS DNA MUTATIONS ON A MASSIVE SCALE AND A REQUEST FOR HELP. YOUR SHIP WILL TAKE ONE COMMUNICATION MODULE TO THE SYSTEM CONTAINING THE EXISTING RELAY DEVICE, ASCERTAIN THE STATUS OF THE DEVICE AND, IF NECESSARY, DEPLOY THE NEW MODULE TO REPLACE IT. IF YOU CAN ALSO DETERMINE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE LOCAL RACE THAT CALL THEMSELVES SENGALS, WE WILL REWARD YOU WITH TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL HELP YOUR RACE SURVIVE ITS WAR. BE AWARE THAT THE TARGET SYSTEM IS ONLY 89 OF YOUR LIGHT YEARS AWAY FROM THE ESTIMATED EXTENT OF THE XENOPHOBIC RACE. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THEY MAY HAVE REACHED THE SENGALS AND DEPLOYED A BIOLOGICAL WEAPON. WILL YOU ACCEPT THIS MODIFIED TASK?

  “I really don’t see that we have any choice,” said Koenig to Soriya. “Not only have we already agreed to help deploy the modules, but if we do run into the xenophobes, we just might be able to finagle a way to get their atom manipulation tech too. Com, tell the Vergon that we accept the task and will leave as soon as they can transfer the com module.”

  The transfer took less than half an hour. The com module was much smaller than Koenig had expected. How something that size could turn itself into a fully-functional relay buoy that was so much larger was the big question. With the module secured in the hangar bay and the Vergon craft on its way back to the larger ship, Koenig conferred with the astro AI on their next destination. He agreed with the AI’s recommendation that Excalibur undertake a series of gradually longer and riskier jumps in order to gain experience in and confidence with the new maneuvering technology.

  “Com, advise the Vergon that on our way to the target system we will be testing the hyperspace maneuvering technology with short jumps until we are confident that we can use it as intended.” To his surprise, there was no reply. He decided to assume that the lack of a reply meant the Vergon had no objection.

  The first jump was to an average-sized star a short distance away. The miss probability was less than 3%. Koenig wanted the ship to spend the usual amount of time lining up for the jump before giving the green light. As the ship got close to the destination star, the astro AI was able to report that the new technology allowed it to track the target star’s alignment with the ship’s trajectory. The plan was to make very tiny adjustments to that trajectory in order to verify that the new equipment and its controls were both calibrated properly. Excalibur dropped out of hyperspace virtually dead center in terms of the destination star. The next, longer jump was equally successful. Koenig decided to push the envelop a bit more by setting the following destination system as a blue giant sun that was three times further away than the previous jump. He rationalized his decision with the fact that the blue giant’s gravity well was easier to hit, even at that distance, than the much smaller yellow sun they had just jumped to. When the ship scored another bullseye on the blue giant sun, the astro AI confirmed Koenig’s suspicion that the new equipment and the control systems were working perfectly.

  “Okay, we need to start covering ground faster. At the rate we’ve been travelling, it’ll take us months to get to the target system. Astro, what is the longest jump from here that you would consider an acceptable risk?”

  “The test jumps to date have not provided enough data to calculate an accurate risk assessment for very long jumps using the maneuvering system. Recommend a jump to a super-giant star three times further away than the last jump, with a pre-jump velocity of twice the minimum.”

  Koenig felt like slapping his forehead. He had forgotten that the virtual velocity through hyperspace was proportional to the actual velocity in normal space at the time the ship jumped. In addition to saving time by not having to maneu
ver around a lot of stars to line up for another jump, they could save time— and lots of it—by travelling at faster hyperspace velocities. The super-giant’s larger gravity well would also boost the size of the otherwise smaller gravity well that was capable of stopping a faster ship. If the maneuvering systems worked just as well at high speed, the implications to interstellar mobility were stunning. The trip back to human space could potentially be accomplished in a couple of weeks or less instead of a couple of months. Maybe there would be time to visit one of the high-tech races before heading home, but first things first.

  “Your recommendation is approved.”

  Koenig was nervous during the trip but not out of fear. Rather, he was anxious to find out how well the maneuvering system would be able to handle the faster approach to the destination star. When Excalibur dropped out of hyperspace, it wasn’t aimed precisely at the super-giant’s center, but the variance was small enough that Koenig was happy with it. He hesitated for only a couple of seconds before approving the AI’s new recommendation to try an even longer jump at an even higher velocity. When the ship was back in hyperspace, Koenig checked the star map. In terms of actual distance travelled from X1, the progress was not that great, but in terms of the time taken to get this far, the progress was beginning to look impressive. Average distance travelled per day was increasing nicely.