The Decade Worlds

by Patrick McClafferty

  “A wise attitude Captain.” Shyrrik replied as the great frigate rose from the field and turned her nose to space.

  Chapter 10

  THE INTERDICTED WORLDS

  There was no flash of rainbow colored light as the frigate made the transition to Supra Luminal speeds. No stomach-wrenching twists of space. Shyrrik simply announced “Slipstream Drive has been engaged.” While not as fast as the drive systems in either the destroyer or in the transports, and taking considerably more power, the Slipstream Drive had one major advantage. Using Slipstream a ship could slide into a system undetected, gather intelligence, and leave just as stealthily without the flash of light or telltale burst of intense radiation that went with normal drives. A Slipstream Drive also gave a ship almost unfair tactical advantage when it came to lining up and taking the first shot. Gareth had learned that tidbit in his General Frigate Operation and Tactics Handbook that he had studied on his way out from Earth. “ETA in the Ceorean System is eleven hundred and fifty-two hours.” Gareth stared at the stars flowing by and marveled. “Your classes will begin in twelve hours, Captain.”

  He frowned. “Is there a classroom then?”

  “No Sir.” Shyrrik replied in a toneless voice. “You simply return to your quarters and recline in one of your two living room chairs. Your daughter can use the other chair for her own training. All training will be accomplished by neural and kinesthetic sensory induction. You will remember the use and feel of every nut and bolt on this ship, every room, crawlway and every mile of optic and neural pathways as if you had been there and installed them yourself.”

  Gareth frowned. “Neural?”

  “Yes Sir. Much of the processing ability of this ship is set up like the human brain. It makes things much faster than relying on wires and switches.” The AI paused. “Your first class will be Space Warfare and Tactics class, one of the literally dozens of different classes you will be attending. You should get something to eat now. Ell informed me that you have a tendency to skip meals, and that will stop here and now. You will find that I can nag unmercifully when the situation warrants, and since you are aboard a ship, you cannot escape me.” From the other side of the bridge Mairi snickered, and the rest of the bridge crew grinned.

  Gareth stood up. “Do I have an office on this tub?”

  “Yes Sir. It is four doors down on your right.”

  “Thank you Shyrrik. I’ll be there for a while, going over the crew records.”

  “As you wish, Captain. Shall I deliver your meal there?”

  He sighed. “That would be fine.”

  His office was a small, white, five by five by three meter box with an actual window that looked out into space. A desk, more of a computer workstation, sat against one wall, under the window, with a standard adjustable office chair. Two well-padded chairs, a small sofa and an oak coffee table filled the rest of the room. An empty bookcase occupied one entire wall. All in all, it was a sterile dead room. He grimaced. “Can I make a few changes?”

  “Within reason.” Shyrrik replied dubiously. “No screen doors.”

  Gareth chuckled. “Good enough. I’d like light blue walls fading to a gray ceiling. A picture of Mairi on my desk.”

  “Would you like one of Chiu?”

  Gareth felt a pang. “Not at this time. I would like a small Persian carpet under the coffee table, and a small vase of fresh flowers on the coffee table.” He thought for a moment more. “One last thing. I would like a forty-five-centimeter model of the original USS Maine on my bookcase, if I could.” The replica appeared.

  “Is that all?” Shyrrik asked.

  “Put a full dozen leather bound Harvard Classics in the bookcase, along with a random selection of light fiction. Do I have a PDA?” The item flashed into existence on the desk, and Gareth picked up the item with more than a little amazement. “Matter replication is amazing.” He muttered, more to himself than to the AI.

  “It is very high in energy usage, however.” Shyrrik clarified. “I usually reserve it for food and air processing, waste reclamation, and weapons stores regeneration. You and your daughter are extremely frugal however, and an extra here and there would be fine. You are, after all, the Captain.”

  “One of the small perks.” He said, grinning. “Before you deliver my meal, I’d like a few minutes to myself.” He sat down in one of the overstuffed chairs, and was surprised at how comfortable it was. “Could I please have a cup of green tea, hot?” A steaming cup appeared in the cup holder of the chair. He picked it up and sipped. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. Let me know when you’d like a meal.”

  He set the cup down. Athena, can you still hear me?

  Of course, I can hear you. She replied from the couch, smiling. You’re right beside me. The scent of lilac filled the air.

  He was stunned at the relief he felt at her presence. I thought that since we were in space and you were on Earth… He floundered.

  She rolled her wondrous violet eyes and stood, extending her hand for him to take. Come with me. She didn’t have to ask him twice. They were standing in the white walled, white ceilinged, white floored room he’d been in with Athena any number of times before. Athena waved in an offhand gesture, and the far wall seemed to stretch into the distance, until he could barely make it out. “It’s time for a lesson.” She looked at the far wall. “I’m going to go there. I want you to take one single step and join me.” She released his hand, turned, stepped, and seemed to stretch into the distance. She was standing by the far wall. Just take the step, and picture yourself beside me. He could just see her extend her hand to him. Gareth swallowed, pictured himself stepping beside her, and lifted his foot. Reaching out he took her hand.

  “Scheiße!” He gasped.

  “Very good.” She murmured from a distance of fifteen centimeters. Her breath was hot and sweet. “You have the technique. Time and space are irrelevant, if you have the technique.”

  “You mean if I’m on Ceorean, and I want to visit you I can just… step?”

  Her smile gave him chills. “It’s as easy as that… and one other thing. You have to have faith.” She touched his cheek. “You have faith in me, and I have faith in you, so for you the step works. We both have faith in Mairi, and I believe that she has faith in us, so the step would work for her too.” She frowned. “Others are not so far along, and may never be.”

  “Chui.” He sighed, and she nodded.

  He stood there a few moments more, reluctant to release her hand. “What are you, Athena? You look incredibly human, but you have the name of a goddess of our mythology. You know things, and can do things I can’t imagine.” Gareth blinked. They were standing on the outside hull of the USS Maine as it fled through interstellar space at many multiples of the speed of light. Her grip on his hand was warm, and with her other hand she pointed up.

  “See that bright dot to the left of the blueish star?”

  He had some difficulty keeping his perspective as he sighted down her slim perfectly rounded arm. “Yeah.” He gasped. “I see it.”

  “Your astronomers call it NGC 5102 in the Centaurus A Group. At three point four million parsecs from Earth, this galaxy was my home.” Her laugh was low, and somewhat bitter. “My original shape is not even vaguely human. You would call me a virus. Some friends of mine, call them co-workers, don’t have material bodies at all. Eventually you will discover that shape is just as fluid as time and distance.”

  Gareth chuckled. “Your current shape looks pretty damn good to me.”

  She gave him a small curtsey, there on the hull of the starship. “Thank you, Sir, but I will admit that I had some help selecting it, all those tens of thousands of years ago.” Her face grew serious. “This is my third body, by the way.” She glanced up at the passing stars. “You should probably go back to your office. They will miss you.” Her kiss was warm but brief, and then she was gone. Gareth stood on the hull for a moment before he began to swear.

  Alarms were ringing when he arrived
back in his office, and he had just opened his mouth to silence them when the door hissed open and three marines burst in, weapons covering the room that was empty but for him.

  “Can I help you gentlemen?” Gareth asked dryly. The weapons clicked off and Gareth let out the breath he’d been holding.

  “There was an intruder alert, Captain, from this room, and then the AI said that you vanished.”

  Gareth gave the marine a hard look. “I am here, and I am the only one in the room. You are to be commended on your prompt reaction. You may go, Corporal.” The young man glared at the room one final time before he turned and left. “Shyrrik!” Gareth growled into the air. “I know that you have access to at least eighth generation holographic systems on this ship, so I want to see you right here… right now!” He snapped, pointing to the deck before him. A sparkling blue figure appeared, dressed in a skin tight shipsuit. Slightly shorter than him, her hair was bobbed at shoulder length, and her features were slightly elfin. “What the hell do you think you are doing?” He asked in a hard voice.

  “I registered an alien presence in your office with you, and a moment later you disappeared from the ship sensors.”

  Gareth counted to ten. “What did Ell tell you about my special friend?”

  “The noncorporeal multi-dimensional being?”

  “Yeah, that’s the one.”

  “She can come and go to a ship under Slipstream Drive?”

  “We can come and go.” Gareth added bluntly. Shyrrik looked at the deck.

  “I understand, Captain. Your… friend… will be added to the crew manifest as an occasional advisor.”

  Gareth let a thin smile touch his face. “That should work. What do you think Athena?”

  “I would like to be your advisor, Gareth.” A voice purred out of the air. “It works for me.”

  Shyrrik looked up sharply, her eyes wide. “I don’t understand what’s happening.” She admitted, in a very small voice.

  “Join the club.” Gareth quipped tartly. “Now, how about something to eat.”

  ~~~

  It was a different crew that he was dealing with now. Members of the bridge staff sat at their positions with confidence, all controls before them fully functional. The science suites were manned, as were weapons and electronic countermeasures. Even Shyrrik, standing at Gareth’s side now, seemed more confident and assured. The hours of classroom study followed by drill after drill had accomplished what Gareth had at first deemed impossible.

  “We are approaching the Ceorean System now.” Shyrrik announced quietly. The stars resolved with startling clarity as they dropped from the Slipstream Drive, to begin the long slide down the gravity well toward the large red sun someone in the distant past had named Abraxas. “We are being scanned Captain, by old but serviceable defense installations.”

  “Are our stealth systems holding?”

  “Yes Captain. We have less than six percent electronic emissions in this mode. The drawback is that we cannot use active scanning, however the defense installations are putting out so much active scanning I can use their reflected signals to see what I need.”

  “Tactical.” Gareth said calmly, as they neared the fourth planet; a small blue world with several visible oceans and two moons.

  “Yes Captain.” Ensign Yong murmured as her fingers flew across her controls. Tactical control was one of the very few systems in the starship that was actually run by human beings while the rest were controlled by the ship AI. On the main screen red carats appeared indicating the defense installations. Four more red dots appeared in orbit about the planet, and one dot on each of the moons. “This is a surprisingly light defense for a major planet, Captain.” Her eyes never left the screen.

  “I agree Ensign.” The young Weapons Officer had grown into her position in the past few months, Gareth mused as he studied the screen. “Tag the defensive positions.” He frowned at the screen. “Are we displaying ships, or orbital traffic?”

  “There is no orbital traffic, Sir.” Several dozen small white dots appeared over the planet, crawling slowly across the surface. “All the sensors see are a few suborbital transports, and hardly any of those.”

  Gareth turned to XO. “Something’s wrong here. What are your ideas First Officer?”

  A frown creased Shaw’s usually placid face. “I have no idea. I would recommend caution, however.”

  Gareth snickered. “Really? Can we send out a drone a few thousand kilometers, and relay a tight laser through the drone to send to the planet below?”

  “Do you want the drone stealthed?”

  Gareth thought for a moment. “No. Let’s see what they do. The drone is too small to be a threat.” He turned to Mairi, who like Mei was now wearing a black shipsuit uniform with Ensign’s rank. “What does life science show?”

  Mairi frowned at her screen. “Sensors indicate a planetary population of two to three million, Captain.” Even his daughter had begun to refer to him as Captain, at least while they were on duty. “Shyrrik has informed me that the original population of Ceorean was four million on their arrival from Eldenworld. It should be several billion by now.”

  “Are we close enough for you to make out cities?”

  “Yes Captain, but the cities are strange, and not like cities on Eldenworld. These are great pyramid shaped structures capable of holding millions of residents and built adjacent to large tracts of automated farms. The rest of the world appears to be a park.”

  “Is there anything like a spaceport?”

  “There are no spaceport beacons, and no areas jump out at me as a spaceport. It seems that there is one major aerial port on each of the continents.”

  “Pick the largest, and begin compiling data on it. You can begin by telling me how many souls are aboard those suborbital transports we see.”

  Mairi laughed lightly. “That’s easy. None.” Gareth stared at the young woman. “The transports we see are computer-controlled freight-haulers. Nothing more, and their speed is barely two hundred kph. The ships are huge however, over three hundred meters long.”

  Gareth pulled his eyes back to the view screen. “What the hell is going on here?” He growled. “Shyrrik, send out the drone stealthed. When it reaches a thousand kilometers shut the stealth systems off, and begin broadcasting a universal greeting; the typical stuff, greetings from Earth, we come in peace, yadda, yadda, yadda. While you’re at it, sound general quarters. This is not a drill. And charge our shields.” He grinned at the sparkling blue figure beside him. “That’s called covering all bases.”

  A whooping alarm began to sound throughout the ship, and in the bridge the lights dimmed slightly, theoretically to make viewing displays easier, but Gareth had his doubts. On the view screen a black two-meter lozenge shaped drone pulled away from the ship, rapidly disappearing against the black of space.

  “Ready to begin transmission, Captain.” Shyrrik murmured.

  “Begin.” Gareth replied, leaning forward. It took perhaps one minute, before the orbital defense systems opened up on the unarmed drone. In one brilliant flash it was gone. “Scheiße!” He growled. “Weapons, target and destroy every one of the defense positions, whether or not they fired on the drone. I won’t have them shooting me in the back when I land. Clear them from my sky.”

  “Aye, aye Sir.” Ensign Yong replied, not bothering to disguise her feral smile. The lasers themselves were outside the visible spectrum, but on the view screen the computer animated laser strikes for the benefit of the human crew. The missiles were flickering streaks that were almost as fast as the lasers. The view screen turned white as the defensive positions disappeared in clouds of incandescent gas. The ship trembled slightly. “We have received return fire from one defensive satellite, with negligible damage to us. Shields still at one hundred percent. The defensive positions have now all been neutralized.” Ensign Yong proclaimed, no more than one minute later.

  Gareth turned to his daughter. “Do you have that information I asked for?”

&nb
sp; She gave him a smug smile. “Yes Captain. I’ve already sent the coordinates to Shyrrik. There appears to be a large meadow adjacent to the main runways. We can set the USS Maine down there, if you wish.”

  Gareth frowned. “I think I’ll keep the USS Maine as our ace up the sleeve, and leave her in orbit. We’ll take the shuttle down.” He received several glares at the word ‘we.’

  Gareth sighed. “I may be Captain of this ship, but I started this whole mess, and it was my task to accomplish. I will take my Science Officer with me, as well as a squad of marines headed by our own Sergeant Major Chihu.” He turned to his First Officer, who was giving him a dirty look. “You have the Con, Shaw Sai-Bo.”

  “I have the con.” She replied through clenched teeth.

  Sergeant Major Chihu and five other marines, all dressed in black special ops uniforms were waiting at the shuttle when Gareth and Mairi arrived. He had his Colt belted around his waist, and without a word, the Sergeant Major handed Mairi one of the Ecothiax super-rifles. “This is just a simple reconnaissance mission.” Gareth said as they boarded the shuttle. “I’ll have the hull cameras on, so all of you keep your eyes open for things that are strikingly odd. Mairi, you keep an eye on our sensors for people. I may have to resort to kidnapping to find out what is going on.” His daughter’s smile was grim as Gareth turned for the lowered ramp. He blinked as he reached the flight deck and noticed the silver sphere sitting between the two command seats. “I thought that you were running the USS Maine, Shyrrik.”

  The AI actually snickered. “If you think I’m going to miss this you are out of your mind.” Behind the marines the ramp thudded closed, and the shuttle lifted into the air. “The regular AI in the USS Maine is bright enough to handle the ship in most situations.”

  Gareth crossed his arms and glared at the sphere. “If you don’t mind.” The shuttle returned to the deck with a sharp thump. “Thank you. Remember protocol, Shyrrik.” He paused for effect. “You may take us down to the planet now. Land us beside what you judge to be the main terminal, if there is one.”