by Bob Blanton
“Then a week to get here.”
“Right. I’d like to practice that high-speed jump at least once,” Blake said.
“You won’t have time. The only way you can reach the right speed in a ship with people on it is to cut across the system fringe-to-fringe at full acceleration. That takes three weeks,” Catie said.
“I know!”
“Sorry.”
“Forget about it. Yes, we won’t be able to do an actual full speed trial, but I’m going to have the Victory build up as much speed as we can so we can at least try it at high speed. I want you to set up a probe and the jump ships to do a full speed test.”
“Yes, sir!” Catie said.
“Have you picked the system you want us to come out of?” Blake asked.
“Yes,” Catie said. “We’re going to use Artemis Proxima. We’ll have to route you through another star system, so you enter on the right side, then we’ll be able to jump you when you’re ready.”
“How about our asteroid?” Blake asked.
“We’ll jump it from the same system. I’ve already put it there; it’s building up speed now. We don’t have to get it all the way up to quarter light speed, so we’ll be okay.”
“Just make sure you go over the numbers.”
“ADI and I are running them and looking for any chance of an error.”
“Good. Will you have the Roebuck coming from Artemis Proxima also?”
“Yes, he’ll get there about the same time as you get there.”
“Payne, do you know your part?”
“Yes, sir. I have my staff running simulations twice a day,” Lieutenant Payne said.
“Good man,” Blake said. “Okay, everyone knows their role. Call with questions, and I want a status report every day.”
“Yes, sir!”
Chapter 22
Board Meeting – June 6th
“Now that everyone is here, let’s begin,” Marc said.
“Sorry, I had a class,” Catie said, explaining why everyone had had to wait on her.
“It’s okay, we’re all a bit tense,” Marc apologized. “I’ve recorded our final message to the aliens. We’ll send it tomorrow. Blake, is everything ready?”
“We just jumped into Artemis Proxima; we’re starting our acceleration,” Blake said. “The Roebuck is jumping in tomorrow.”
“The Paraxean asteroid is ready to jump,” Catie informed everyone.
“Thanks, I’ve heard. But I want to wait until after this alien ship is taken care of,” Marc said. “I’ll tell Governor Paratar that we’ll take care of it next month.”
“Your funeral,” Blake said.
“Probably. Now, let’s review where we are with the U.N. Admiral Michaels?”
“The U.N. has committed to intervention in Somalia. They plan to cut the country in half, and focus on the area around Mogadishu. They’ll isolate the rest and let the arms embargo take effect,” Admiral Michaels said.
“How is that going to be enough?” Samantha asked.
“That’s where we come in. They’re asking us to provide two fusion power plants to Somalia and six for Egypt.”
“Egypt?”
“It’s a large, impoverished population; members of the security council are committed to putting in factories to raise employment. With the fusion plants, Egypt will be able to expand how much of the Nile basin they irrigate. They’ll be able to increase food production as well as cotton,” Admiral Michaels said.
“How does this help Somalia?”
“They will put parts plants in Somalia that will supply the factories in Egypt. They want to create a dependency between the two countries. With that established, they hope to bring Ethiopia and Sudan into the sphere.”
“Ambitious.”
“You have to start somewhere. Are you okay with delivering the power plants?”
“Yes,” Marc said. “Fred, can we find something to locate in that region?”
“I’ll look into it. We should have something that will work. We can at least put in a few assembly plants for solar panels.”
“Blake, where is the U.N. on dealing with colony planets?” Marc asked.
“They all must be watching Star Trek. They’ve finally figured out that they cannot control the other planets, especially once they realized that there are at least six other planets that we will eventually trade with. So now they want to form a Federation of Planets,” Blake said.
“And how do they envision that working?”
“The security council will appoint the ambassador to the Federation, the other planets will do the same. They intimated that they expect the Earth colonies to line up with Earth.”
“They would,” Marc said.
“They’ll expect economic ties and our common heritage to work in their favor,” Samantha said.
“They probably will. Blake, go on.”
“They would like you to propose it to the Paraxeans.”
“Of course they would. I’ll think about it. I suspect this is the right way to go.”
“It is, Daddy. We need a governing body to manage the rules of trade.”
“Says the girl with a monopoly on interstellar trade,” Marc said.
“We have to find a way to share that access. I have some ideas,” Catie said.
“No surprise there. Now, is the Galileo ready to head to Mangkatar?” Marc asked.
“Next week,” Fred said. “We’re just getting the colonists loaded up. Twenty thousand is a big crowd.”
“They’re getting twenty thousand into that thing!” Samantha said.
“Hey, I thought we weren’t going to pull any more colonists from the asteroid.”
“These are all the ones we already pulled out,” Fred said. “They originally wanted to bring thirty thousand, but Blake stopped them. There are lots of families, so it’s crowded. And Marc, there shouldn’t be a problem getting them unloaded in time to jump to Artemis if you need the Galileo. One of the flight bays might still have cabins in it, but the other three will be ready.”
“I think we’ll only need one flight bay anyway,” Blake said.
“Okay, I’m good with that,” Marc said. “Catie, we’re going to want another Skylifter.”
“Oh, you will?”
“Yes, and get those dollar signs out of your eyes. We’ll pay the same as we did last time.”
“But last time we had to use it. We’ve got our own now.”
“I’m sure you owe us for something,” Marc said.
“Okay, we’ll give you a break. I’ll have Ajda start building it now.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Four hundred colonists had decided to join Marc at Lake Diana. The level of the lake was rising noticeably now that the they had increased the delivery rate of the ice asteroids. Marc had declared a holiday and commissioned a large picnic at the lake. The rest of the colonists were taking the holiday, but had decided to watch the festivities from the comfort of a bar.
“Here comes one!” a young boy shouted, pointing to the Skylifter headed down toward the lake with an ice asteroid sitting on its tail.
“Yay!” shouted the other children as they gathered around to watch the asteroid drop into the lake.
The pilot had realized how much the children were enjoying the show, so he decided that this time he would give them something to really get excited about. At two hundred meters he rotated the Skylifter one hundred eighty degrees, letting the asteroid slip free and plummet into the lake. Dropping two hundred meters, the asteroid set up a huge splash, sending a virtual tidal wave toward the lake shores.
“Idiot,” Marc shouted as he rushed to the children. “Get back! Up the hill!”
When he reached the children, he realized he needn’t have worried, the lake was still too shallow to generate much of a wave. The water drew back from the shore about five hundred meters then the wave crashed onto the shore, but it was only able to swamp the lower part of the hillside that they were standing on. The lake was only fifty meters de
ep, and the top of the shoreline was another one hundred meters above that.
“Sorry about that,” the pilot said. “I guess I shouldn’t drop it from so far.”
“Yes! A twenty-meter drop should generate more than enough excitement,” Marc said.
“Not anymore,” Samantha laughed as she pulled Marc back to their picnic blanket. “Hey, if we’re getting over ten asteroids a day, why are they taking over two hours to drop one in the lake?”
“The Skylifter can’t bring that many of them down this far,” Marc said. “It’s dropping the smaller ones in the ocean, where it can do a ten-thousand-meter drop.”
“Oh, is that why you’re getting another Skylifter?”
“Yes, we have this lake to fill and another one like it on the southern continent to fill, plus we want to raise the ocean level by another foot or so.”
“That much?”
“We have a lot of water vapor to make up for.”
“How long will it take to fill this lake?”
“We’ll fill this one in about six months,” Marc said. “When we get the other Skylifter, we’ll start filling the other lake. Dr. Qamar says it will take two years to get the ocean level back to where we want it.”
“Will that make the planet less arid?”
“Some. The increased surface area of the ocean will reflect more heat, and the two lakes will do the same. But mainly they’ll affect the local climate. That will lead to more forest which will reflect more heat. We’ll eventually have more clouds, which will reflect more heat. And the forest along the equatorial regions will expand, absorb more CO2 and reflect more heat.”
“So how long?”
“Fifty years,” Marc said.
“Fifty years!”
“Hey, this area is already nice, it’ll get even nicer when the lake is full. We won’t need to expand much beyond this region for at least twenty or thirty years.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that,” Samantha said.
Marc was taking a nap when a child’s squeal woke him up. “What is that about?”
“Oh, just chasing each other around while they wait for the next drop,” Samantha said.
Marc shook his head as he sat up. “Doctor Z,” he called to the Paraxean doctor with the unpronounceable name. Dr. Metra had persuaded her to go Artemis Colony until their doctor was fully trained on Paraxean medical technology.
“Yes, Cer Marc?”
“Haven’t you Paraxeans figured out how to have a child’s voice change early, like around three?”
“You might not like hearing that high-pitched squeal, but I can assure you that any mother is happy that her child’s voice is so piercing. It is a comfort to know that when they get into trouble, they are able to get your attention from afar,” Dr. Z said.
“How about doing something so that it’s only piercing when they’re truly afraid?”
“That might be worth considering. I’ll look into it,” Dr. Z said, but her eyes said she was just humoring Marc.
◆ ◆ ◆
“This is your final message,” Marc said. “We warn you that if you don’t deviate your course toward the sun and away from the planet, we will be forced to assume your intentions are hostile and will destroy your ship. You must start decelerating as soon as you enter the sixty AU limit.”
The aliens were just days from entering Artemis Prime’s gravity well. Now it was clear that the course adjustment they’d made months ago had put their course vector pointing directly at Artemis. Marc really wanted to capture them so he could learn about them, but he was perfectly willing to obliterate the starship with an asteroid if that’s what it took to protect Artemis.
◆ ◆ ◆
“They dare to threaten us!” Captain Shakaban shouted. His face was livid with anger, and his grip on the arms of his command chair was crumpling the metal. “Prepare our missiles, we will be in their system in three days! Then we’ll teach them not to stand in our way!”
Chapter 23
Roadblock
“Captain, we are getting a sensor ghost ahead of us,” the alien sensor operator said.
“What do you mean, ‘ghost’?”
“There have been several small energy spikes off of our port bow. They are at extreme sensor range.”
“Several, how many?” the captain demanded.
“Five large spikes and hundreds of smaller ones since. The smaller ones look like signatures from gravity drives.”
“Our friends are probably trying to move into position so they can intercept us,” the captain said. “They will be very surprised when we fly right by them instead of slowing down. How long until our gravity drives will have enough power to maneuver?”
“Approximately two hours, sir.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Is everyone ready?” Blake asked. He was on the Victory which was approaching the fringe of Artemis Proxima.
“We’re ready, the wormhole is open and stable on my end,” Catie reported. She was at the Academy, in one of the simulation rooms where she would be able to control the jump ships.
“We’re ready, Admiral,” Captain Clements, the captain of the Victory said.
“The wormhole is open and stable here in Artemis Prime,” Lieutenant Payne of the Roebuck announced.
“Then, take us through!” Blake ordered.
Catie slowed the jump ships in Artemis Proxima so that the Victory plunged through the wormhole.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Captain, a huge vessel has just appeared off our port bow!” the sensor operator yelled.
“What, that’s impossible!” Captain Shakaban yelled back. “Check your sensors again!”
“It is there. It must be five hundred meters long and two hundred meters across!”
“How would they be able to move something that massive without us noticing?!” the captain demanded.
“I don’t know, but it is matching our course and speed, sir.”
“There is a message coming in,” the communication officer announced.
“Put it on the display.”
“Greetings, I’m Admiral Blake McCormack of the Delphi Starship Victory. You have been warned to adjust your course away from the planet or face being destroyed. Are you ready to comply?”
“We claim the right to Zagawani, and do not recognize your right to exclude us,” Captain Shakaban snarled.
“You might not recognize our right, but do you recognize this ship that is flying just off your port bow? We have five hundred space fighters on board her, and we intend to stop you from getting close to our planet.”
“You will find that we are not without teeth,” the captain said, giving a wide smile that showed lots of very sharp teeth.
Blake froze the Comm. “Catie, are you ready?” Blake asked.
“We’re ready.”
“Then go!” Blake ordered.
Catie and Lieutenant Payne had been decelerating the jump ships since the Victory went through. She had them aligned with the asteroid. She now slowed them enough that the asteroid went through. It would have a significantly lower velocity than the alien ship when it emerged on the other side.
“It’s through,” Lieutenant Payne announced.
Blake turned back to the display and had the communication officer reopen the channel to the alien space ship. “You will find that we are not without teeth either. But first, I think I should point out that you’re about to run into an asteroid.”
“Captain, an asteroid has appeared dead ahead!” the sensor operator shouted. “We will hit it in one minute!”
“Destroy it!”
“It is too big!”
“Then avoid it, you fool! Hard to starboard!”
The alien ship started spewing reaction mass from its port side while its gravity drives gave as much as they had. They managed to turn the ship two arcseconds, barely missing the asteroid.
“Put us back on course!” Captain Shakaban ordered.
“We do not have enough reaction mass to turn
back.”
“Use the gravity drives then!”
“We are still too far outside the gravity well; they do not have enough power.”
Captain Shakaban pounded the arm of his command chair. “Have the shuttle loaded with as many missiles as it can carry,” he ordered. Then he motioned the communication officer to reopen the channel to the Victory.
“I don’t know how you managed that, but rest assured we are not finished. We demand that you allow us access to Zagawani while we discuss our options.”
“Demand all you want. I don’t see how you’re going to be able to slow down enough to stay in our system,” Blake replied. “If you don’t surrender now and do a maximum deceleration, we will be forced to destroy you, or maybe we’ll just let you head out into open space. I wonder how many months of supplies you have.”
“You would risk the lives of your crew just to keep us out of this system?”
“You would risk the lives of your crew just to avoid surrendering? If your intentions are honorable, we will release you. We don’t trust you and until you comply, we have to assume you have hostile intentions.”
“What could we do to you? You have an entire planet, that huge space carrier you call Victory, while all we have is our one ship.”
“We don’t know, and we don’t intend to find out after you attempt it. Now decelerate!”
“Captain, the shuttle is ready to launch.”
“Then launch it!”
“Admiral, the aliens have launched a shuttle!” the Victory’s sensor operator announced.
“Commander Fitzgerald, launch your squadron!” Blake ordered.
“Launching now,” Commander Fitzgerald reported. “What do you want them to do?”
“Overtake that shuttle, order the aliens to evacuate it, give them five minutes, then destroy it,” Blake ordered.
“Yes, sir.”
Eight Foxes flew out of the back of the Victory and banked around her and headed toward the shuttle.
“Shuttle, this is Commander Fitzgerald. You are ordered to evacuate. We will give you five minutes, then we will destroy the shuttle!” Commander Fitzgerald announced over an open channel.
“Commander Fitzgerald, we cannot evacuate the shuttle, we do not have space suits.”