by Bob Blanton
“Are we ready?” Catie asked.
“Yes, Admiral,” the three captains, Baker, and Miranda informed Catie. Catie pressed the ready button and they received the dump of information about their position, speed, and mission objective. For this mission, they were to attack a waiting force in orbit around a star.
“We get to play the Paraxeans,” Catie thought, going back to the Paraxean war where they had fought to prevent the Paraxean rebel fleet from entering Sol’s system. “It’ll be interesting to see what they did wrong.”
“The standard engagement model is for us to establish an orbit just inside the gravity well and for the enemy to match that. Then we would be able to send sorties against them,” Catie said, as she and the team began to discuss tactics.
“How far apart?” Miranda asked.
“One to two hours of flight time for the fighters,” Catie said.
“But that’s not what you want to do,” Baker suggested.
“Right. I want to come in high above the ecliptic, but still with a significant velocity toward the planet. Once we can get a good read on their force deployment, I want to continue toward the planet at speed. Force them to try and catch us.”
“We shouldn’t go outside the ecliptic plane,” Jamison said.
“Why? Gravity is the same everywhere. We don’t need to catch one of their gas giants to use for acceleration, and we’ll get a better sensor read on their forces.”
“But . . . but,” Jamison stuttered, then he looked away, muttering to himself.
“It will leave us fully exposed,” Julie said.
“Yes, but we’re already fully exposed since we would be in an outer orbit, beyond any of their planets.”
After some further discussion, Catie gave the order to enter the system, ten degrees above the ecliptic plane. There would be fighters out for pickets, and a group surrounding each frigate in a tight cluster. The hope was that the fighters would shield the frigates from sensors.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Contact!” Miranda announced. “My picket fighter is relaying the sensor reading now.”
“They have two carriers,” Captain Castel reported. “They are traveling in orbit at fifty AUs on the ecliptic. One is currently ten million kilometers counter-orbit of us, the other twelve million kilometers further in the orbit.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Catie said.
“Commander Cordova, let’s get their attention.”
“Jamison, take a squadron and set an attack vector on the carriers,” Miranda ordered.
“What, I’m going to be a sacrificial lamb?! Bullshit!”
“You have your orders,” Miranda said.
“We should hold my squadron with the carrier to protect it!” Jamison complained. “We’ll lose points if we sacrifice a squadron of fighters.”
“You’ll barely be able to close the distance with all the in-system velocity you’ll have,” Catie announced. “We just want to cause a distraction.”
“Then fire missiles!”
“Relieve him,” Catie texted Miranda.
“Jamison, you’re relieved!” Miranda ordered.
“You cannot relieve me!” Jamison shouted just as his simulation table locked up. “Damn it, you cannot do that!” Jamison started toward Catie. “I know it’s you!”
“Stand down!” Catie ordered.
Jamison kept moving toward Catie until his feet shot out from under him. Baker had grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back and to the floor.
“You can either go back to your table and watch so you might learn something, or you can leave the room,” Baker snarled.
Jamison started to struggle, but Baker wrenched his arm up behind his back. “Make your choice or I’ll break your arm.”
“I’ll leave,” Jamison said.
“Good.”
“I’m going to report this!” Jamison shouted as he left the room.
“The one carrier has launched fighters to counter ours,” Miranda reported.
“Time to contact?”
“Three hours.”
“Captain Ivan Castel, match our speed to our fighters,” Catie ordered. “Julie and Hector make speed for the planet. Keep your fighter shields in place.”
“The second carrier is attempting to accelerate to close with the first carrier,” Ivan reported.
“Good. Let’s see how long we can keep their attention. Do we have a full read of the defenses?”
“Yes, ma’am. They have one small ship and a space station around the planet. The carriers seem to be their only large ships. We don’t have a good read behind the gas giant on this side of the system. I’m sending a probe to make sure nothing is hiding behind it,” Ivan reported.
“Thank you, Captain. Proceed.”
By the time the defensive forces realized that the two frigates were making for the planet, it was too late to catch them. They tried to do a highspeed flyby to take the frigates out, but the fighters were able to handle the missiles, and at the delta speed the enemy carriers’ lasers and plasma cannons were ineffective.
“I’ve taken out the enemy’s corvette,” Julie reported. “We’re ranging on the space station now.”
“Demand their surrender,” Catie ordered.
“They fired on us!”
“Then take it out!”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Alright, our first win!” Miranda started the celebration.
“Nice plan, Admiral,” Baker said. “I wonder what that tiff with Jamison will cost us?”
“I don’t know, but our score is coming in now,” Catie said. “We lost twenty points for not relieving him sooner.”
“My bad,” Miranda said. “I shouldn’t have hesitated. I was just so shocked.”
“Now let’s go find out if he really had a meltdown or if that was part of the simulation,” Catie said.
“It was not part of the simulation, Cer Catie,” ADI reported.
Jamison was waiting for everyone to leave the room. He walked up to Catie and got right in her face. “You bitch, I won’t let you get away with that!”
Catie pointed to her specs to let Jamison know that he was being recorded.
“I don’t care. You had no right! And remember this, I’m always going to outrank you! So just wait!” Jamison snapped, then he turned and stalked off.
“Not if he gets thrown out of the Academy,” Miranda said.
“Forget him. Let’s go celebrate our first win,” Catie said.
Chapter 17
Jump Reset
“Hi, Daddy,” Catie said as they connected via their Comms. “How’s Sam doing?”
“She’s doing fine. We’re both a bit stir crazy because we’re under lockdown.”
“Why are you under lockdown?”
“Oh, we’ve got an insect infestation we’re dealing with.”
“Why does that mean you have to be under lockdown?”
“Because when they sting you, they plant eggs under your skin. Those grow into larvae in a few days and then burst out of your skin and fly off to feed on our crops,” Marc said.
“That’s gross!”
“It is, which is why we’re locked down. You have to wear an exosuit to go out.”
“What are you doing about it?”
“Dr. Teltar has developed a trap for them. It simulates the perfect host. They sting it, plant their eggs, then die. The eggs are absorbed by the trap. He says we should have the infestation under control in another week.”
“That’s good. I guess colonizing another planet isn’t all fun and games.”
“Well, if this is the worst thing we have to deal with, we’ll count ourselves lucky.”
“Did you forget about the aliens that are heading your way?”
“No, I didn’t forget,” Marc sighed. “I just try to compartmentalize that into a separate category.”
“Hi, Catie,” Samantha said when she linked into the call.
“Hi, Sam. How’s the baby doing?”
“T
he baby is just fine,” Samantha said, patting her stomach. It was just barely pooching out. “I’m just five months. Now, how are you doing?”
“I’m fine.”
“I heard you were dating,” Samantha said.
“I just had a few dates with this guy,” Catie said, her voice sounded a little dejected.
“Are you still dating him?”
“No, we didn’t really click,” Catie said, not mentioning the fact that Braxton seemed to be more interested in getting her into bed that what was going on in her life.
“So, is there a reason for your call, or did you just want to check in with Sam and the baby?” Marc asked.
“That, for sure, but I’ve also just spent the weekend with Dr. McDowell. We have a little bad news.”
“Oh, what would that be?”
“The Paraxean asteroid is too big.”
“That’s terrible news,” Samantha said. “Oh, you have a solution, don’t you? You’re just being mean. You know shock is not good for the baby.”
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist. But I think I have an answer. When Liz described the asteroid to me after her trip to pick up the colonists, she said that their stasis pods were mostly in the same place. I’ve examined the images we have of it and it seems like that’s true,” Catie said.
“That’s my understanding,” Marc said.
“So we can make it smaller. I’ve drawn up a plan of what parts we should lop off, but we need a better survey done.”
“That’s not too bad. Why don’t you talk to your Uncle Blake, and he can send Jimmy Gaines out to survey it and figure out how to lop off those parts.”
“Okay. Bye, Daddy, bye Sam.”
“Bye, Sweetie.”
Once Catie was off the call, Marc turned to Samantha. “She sounded a little depressed about the guy.”
“I’m surprised you noticed, but yes, she did. She’ll have to get used to the ups and downs of dating.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Hello, Katya, aren’t you supposed to be making deliveries?” Dr. Teltar asked as he sat down next to her. Katya had set up on a hill overlooking the plain. A herd of gazelles was grazing off in the distance.
“Nope, Sabrina and Demi are taking care of it today.”
“Demi?”
“We hired her so we could get a day off.”
“And you decided to spend your day with me?”
“You decided to spend your day with me; I got here first,” Katya said.
“You’re right, I guess I have decided to spend my day with you.”
“I knew you were coming. I got here first because I rode my bike.”
“How did you know I was coming?”
“There’s a big cat out there stalking those gazelles. I subscribed to your alarm. When the probe detected the cat, I heard about it at the same time you did.”
“Clever girl.”
“Hey, why are girls smarter than boys?”
“You think girls are smarter?”
“Sure, the boys are running around screaming and acting crazy all the time, while we girls are studying things.”
“Oh, that’s how you see it.”
“Why else would the boys be acting crazy?”
“I think it’s because your culture is biased to the males doing all the crazy things, like being spies, warriors, and stuff like that. The boys are just behaving like the men they see on your TV.”
“Oh.”
“Not convinced?”
“No.”
“Well, you might be right. Girls are pretty smart. That’s a female out there hunting the gazelles.”
“I know. Why don’t the males hunt? They’re usually bigger.”
“Well, because they’re bigger, they’re not as fast.”
“That sounds dumb.”
“Well, the females like it that the males are bigger, because then they can fight off anything that threatens their pride. In exchange, they do most of the hunting.”
“Sounds like the females have to do all the work.”
“It does. I’m sure you won’t make a bargain like that.”
“Nope. I’m going learn Aikido and Krav Maga like Princess Catie. That way I can fight my own battles.”
“We’ll Princess Catie is a good role model. She certainly fights her own battles,” Dr. Teltar said.
“Do you know her?”
“I was on the mission that discovered Artemis with her. She was one of the leaders.”
“Cool.”
“Do you think the cat will get a gazelle?”
“I’m not sure. The gazelles all seem to be healthy, so I’m not sure the cat will be fast enough.”
Katya and Dr. Teltar had been sitting for over an hour watching to see if the big cat would get a gazelle. Katya was getting a bit bored so she decided to ask some questions. “How do we know that there isn’t any intelligent life on this planet?”
“There is intelligent life on this planet. That cat out there is very intelligent.”
“You know what I mean!”
“You mean sentient life.”
“Right.”
“We assume sentience requires high intelligence. There is a possibility that there was sentient life before the asteroid catastrophe but we don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“One would have expected a highly evolved intelligence to survive the catastrophe.”
“How do you know one didn’t?”
“No fire.”
“No fire?”
“Fire is one of the most powerful tools that an intelligent life can develop. It can keep you warm during the winter. Cooking your food, reduces the risk of catching a disease, and fire is very useful in making other tools.”
“So you’re saying fire is a requirement for smart animals.”
“No, but it is a significant indicator. Lots of animals use tools, only sentient animals use them to the extent that Humans and Paraxeans do. Learning and adapting to tools drives the evolution of the brain.”
“Then why are dolphins so smart?” Katya asked.
“Echolocation,” Doctor Teltar said.
“What?”
“Echolocation. Dolphins emit high frequency clicks, sound that bounces off of objects in the water. They use difference in the time it takes for the sound to return to each of their ears to determine where the object is. It’s like sonar.”
“So why does that make them smart?”
“I hypothesize that their brain’s growth was spurred by the enormous benefit that echolocation provided. The better they could interpret the signals, the more food they could acquire. Once their brain was big, there was plenty of extra capacity to start developing complex social interactions; that further spurred brain development and their evolution.”
“Then why aren’t bats smart? They use sonar.”
“They are pretty smart. But sound travels over four times faster than in water, so it takes more brainpower to interpret the signals.”
“I didn’t realize bats were so smart.”
“They are, but rats take the prize for intelligence among small mammals.”
“Yuck!” Katya squealed. “Why didn’t dolphins and whales get even smarter?”
“No hands. They can’t make good use of tools, so there was a limit to how much advantage they were able to garner by being smarter. So brain development was capped once they maximized the benefit from echolocation and social behavior.”
“So, is that why humans are so smart?”
“Yes, that and opposable thumbs mean humans can make use of complex tools. Complex tools require a lot of reasoning to maximize the benefit. So human development wasn’t capped. Being smarter continued, and continues to be an advantage.”
“Hmm.”
“They’re she goes!” Doctor Teltar yelled as the cat made a dash for one of the gazelles.
“It got away!”
“It was too healthy for the cat. Maybe next time.”
Chapter 18
&n
bsp; Board Meeting – May 2nd
“Let’s get this meeting started,” Marc said once everyone had joined the Comm conference call. “I assume everyone has been keeping up with the situation on our murder. ADI assures me that she’ll be convicted. Now, first order of business, Catie has an update on the jump ships.”
“Dr. McDowell has finished calibrating the drives and the jump ships. The good news is that they can handle the Victory and the other carriers, the bad news is that the Paraxean asteroid is too big,” Catie said.
“How much too big?” Liz asked.
“A lot too big. As you know, it’s not the mass, but the girth that matters. Uncle Blake has Jimmy Gaines looking at how to cut down the asteroid. It should be possible to make it small enough based on the locations of the stasis pods.”
“That’s a good thing, we definitely don’t want to have to move all those pods. It must have taken the Paraxeans a year to get them all moved to that asteroid,” Liz added. “When will Jimmy know?”
“He headed out two days ago. He should be there before the end of the week,” Blake said. “He thinks he’ll need about a week to map things out.”
“Catie, can you go back and explain about the Victory?”
“Sure. You know the problem with the jump drive is that the size of the drive goes up as a cube of the girth. The Victory would lose about a third of her internal space if we tried to put the drives in her, and even then, it’d be iffy. But with the jump ships, we can open a wormhole and expand it big enough for her to go through, they’re just one big reactor and a big gravity drive. The four ships make one huge jump drive. We’ve also learned that we can open a wormhole between two drive sets, which opens up some interesting possibilities.”
“Whoa, back up,” Blake said. “You can open a wormhole between two drive sets?”
“Yes, if we open a wormhole in a system that has a jump drive in it. When that jump drive goes active, the wormhole jumps to it.”