Ep.#15 - "That Which Other Men Cannot Do" (The Frontiers Saga) (35 page)

“A message? What kind of message?”

“They wish to discuss a cease-fire.”

“Absurd,” the general responded.

“That is the message they are sending to the leaders of Earth,” the communications officer explained. “However, there was another message. One intended for any Jung officers possessing regional command authority.”

“And what did it say?”

“The message contains orders,” the communications officer explained. “Orders for the nearest RCA officer to head for Earth to negotiate on behalf of the Jung.”

General Bacca’s brow furrowed, his mind racing. “The communications drone?”

“It is still in sub-light,” the communications officer replied, “awaiting our response.”

“Recall the drone and store it in our cargo bay,” the general ordered.

“Yes, sir,” the communications officer replied, turning to exit.

“Captain,” the general continued, “how long to reach Earth?”

“At maximum FTL, about twenty-one days,” the pilot replied.

“Set course for Earth, maximum FTL,” the general ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

“Have we been collecting signals intelligence all this time?” the general asked.

“Of course,” the pilot confirmed.

“Good, I wish to review all of it, as soon as I get cleaned up and get some food and water into me.”

“Are you sure you don’t wish to remain in stasis until we get closer?”

“Not a chance,” the general insisted. “I want to know everything that has happened while we’ve been in stasis, and I’ve got two hundred and forty-five days’ worth of signals intelligence from which to learn exactly that.”

CHAPTER TEN

Jessica leaned back in her chair and sighed in frustration. Her head fell back against the headrest, her eyes closed. “We’ve been at this for weeks, and we’re still no closer to finding the Jung homeworld than we were when we started.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Gerard disagreed. He continued staring at the view screens above the three-dimensional map hovering over the planning table in the Aurora’s intelligence office. When he realized that Jessica had not responded, he turned to look at her. She was staring back at him, a look of disapproval on her face. “Okay, maybe you’re right.” He finally conceded.

“I think we need more data,” Jessica suggested.

“Are you kidding? We’ve got tons of data.”

“What you need is a programmer,” Vladimir said.

“Jesus,” Jessica exclaimed with a start. “Where the hell did you come from?”

“Why is it so dark in here?” Vladimir wondered, moving from the doorway deeper into the room.

“We thought it might help us focus on the map and the data,” Gerard explained, gesturing to the view screens.

“What are you doing here?” Jessica asked.

“Nathan told me you needed a programmer,” Vladimir replied.

“And he sent
you
?”

“Thanks.”

“Jesus, I made that request hours ago,” she complained.

“Sorry,” Vladimir said, “but I do have a day job, you know.”

“You’re telling me you’re the only programmer on this ship?”

“The only one available right now. What is all this?” Vladimir asked, pointing at the same view screens.

“Arrivals and departures from about thirty different systems within the Sol sector,” Gerard explained.

“What are all the little lines?” Vladimir asked.

“Projected course on arrival, based on course after coming out of FTL,” Gerard explained.

“Fat lot of good it does us,” Jessica muttered.

“We’re trying to figure out the location of the Jung homeworld by studying shipping patterns. The problem is that the Jung rarely go directly to a system. Usually, they fly a course that skirts the destination system, then turn toward the system just prior to arrival.”

Vladimir looked confused.

“They do it to mask their point of origin,” Jessica added.

Vladimir nodded. “
Da, konyeshna
.” He studied the three-dimensional map for a moment. “Is that the only data you have?”

“It was,” Gerard said. “We recently managed to get shipping manifests from some of the systems we liberated. We thought if some of the ships were carrying the same equipment or supplies, and that stuff came from the same place…”

“Then it might reveal the point of origin,” Vladimir surmised. “Very clever. Of course, the number of combinations will be astronomical. You will need some sort of algorithm to do the work; otherwise, it will take you years.”

“Hence, the request for a programmer,” Jessica said. “So can you do it?”

Vladimir shrugged. “No problem.”

“Really?” Jessica sat up, suddenly interested. “How long will it take you?”

“Not long.” Vladimir pointed to a computer terminal on the side of the room. “I can use this terminal?”

“Sure,” Gerard said.

“How long is not long?” Jessica asked again.

“I will need more light.”

“How long?” Jessica pressed, growing more irritated, as Gerard turned the lights back up.

“Is this data already in the computer?” Vladimir asked.

“Yes.” Jessica replied irately. “How long?”

“A few minutes.”

“Are you serious?” Jessica yelled, her patience almost gone.

“Do you want to yell at me, or do you want me to write the algorithm?” Vladimir asked calmly.

“Please, do your stuff,” Gerard told him, gesturing at Jessica to back off.

Vladimir turned back to the computer terminal and started typing furiously. He mumbled to himself in Russian as he typed, making several different sounds of approval as he worked. “There are over seven hundred billion possible combinations, based on item, arrival point, and potential departure point. However, if you look at some of the items on these manifests, you will notice that they require not only certain materials, but certain conditions required by the manufacturing process.”

“What kind of conditions?” Gerard wondered.

“Microgravity, extreme temperatures, extreme temperature swings…”

“All of which can be created anywhere,” Jessica pointed out.

“True,” Vladimir agreed, “but only with great effort. Why not go where the conditions already exist?”

“And knowing that helps?” Gerard asked.

“Possibly,” Vladimir said as he continued to type. “You see,” he said, pointing at the screen, “we have already cut the number of combinations by half.”

“Great,” Jessica retorted, “only three hundred and fifty billion combinations to choose from.”

“What about the course changes?” Gerard wondered.

“We can reasonably assume that the Jung would not double back on their course, as that would require considerable propellant,” Vladimir explained. “Of course, they could perform a gravity-assist maneuver, but that adds time to what is likely an already long voyage. So, if we limit the course change to forty-five degrees, we can reduce the number of combinations to less than one billion.”

“We managed to get some of the propellant requests as well,” Gerard realized, sitting down at the terminal next to Vladimir to search for the data.

“Do we know the amount of propellant and the thrust performance parameters of those vessels?” Vladimir asked.

“A few,” Gerard said. “Uh, five of them.”

“It is better than nothing,” Vladimir said, reading the data off Gerard’s terminal as he continued typing. “Ah, see? Those ships could not have made it from their most likely points of origin with any more than a twenty-degree turn.”

“Is this actually going to work?” Jessica demanded.

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Vladimir admitted. “There are still so many variables to consider. For example, when did the ships turn? If you turn sooner rather than later, your course correction will be less…”

“But an earlier turn would not be as effective at hiding your point of origin,” Gerard surmised.

“Correct,” Vladimir replied. “So that helps us a bit in our assumptions, as a ship captain would want to make it appear that they were coming from a different world. A secondary course track that was achieved by an early turn would severely limit the number of worlds that the ship
could
have come from.”

“God, I’m dying over here,” Jessica complained.

Vladimir turned to look at her.

“What?” she snapped.

“It is done,” Vladimir said.

Jessica looked at the three-dimensional display, seeing nothing different. She looked back at Vladimir. “Well?”

“Turn down the lights,” Vladimir said. He waited for the room to darken again, and then pressed a single key.

The three of them watched as lines started appearing and disappearing at random all over the three-dimensional map.

“What the hell is it doing?” Jessica wondered.

“Calculating,” Vladimir said. A line appeared and stayed. It led from Tau Ceti to a point off the bottom of the map. “There,” Vladimir exclaimed. Another line appeared. “Another.”

Jessica slowly rose from her seat, entranced by the shifting lines as they rapidly appeared and disappeared. Gerard also moved closer to the display, unable to look away as more lines began to materialize. Vladimir just sat in his chair, arms crossed, smiling.

“There’s another,” Gerard exclaimed. “That’s six of them so far.”

“They’re all going off the map,” Jessica noted.

“We figured the Jung homeworld was not in the Sol sector, right?” Gerard said.

“I thought that was just an excuse, to be honest,” Jessica admitted. Another line appeared. “That’s seven.”

“Eight!”

“How long will this take?” Jessica asked Vladimir.

Vladimir looked at the computer terminal. “Fifteen minutes, I think. But I believe you already have your answer,” he said, pointing at the map.

Jessica reached up with both hands, placing them against the edges of the hovering three-dimensional map display, then simultaneously slid her hands upward. The map followed her movements, revealing more of the stars below. She repeated the gesture two more times, until she could see the point where the lines, of which there were now eleven of them, converged. She put both hands together at the point of convergence, and then spread them apart, causing the map to zoom in on the convergence point. “CP-60 424?”

“In the constellation Dorado,” Vladimir added. “Also known as GI 204.1…”

“I don’t care what names it goes by,” Jessica interrupted. “How far is it?”

“Sixty-three point eight light years from Sol,” Vladimir replied.

“So that’s it?” Jessica asked, pointing at the star on the three-dimensional map. “That’s the Jung homeworld?”

Vladimir glanced at his screen. “Currently a probability of eighty-seven percent.” Another line appeared on the map. “Make that eighty-nine percent, and climbing.”

“Oh, my God, Vlad, I could kiss you!” Jessica exclaimed, throwing up her arms in glee.

“Feel free,” he replied.

* * *

Jessica and Gerard sat patiently in Admiral Dumar’s office in the Karuzara asteroid base, while he studied their findings.

“How did you figure this out, again?” the admiral asked.

“We compared similar items on shipping manifests that we received from worlds the Alliance has liberated,” Gerard explained. “Then we analyzed the items based on where they might be manufactured…”

“Don’t forget about the propellant levels, and the turns…” Jessica interrupted.

Admiral Dumar looked confused.

“Once we put it through a computer algorithm, it started spitting out course projections,” Gerard continued. “Then it was just a matter of looking for the one point of origin that was most common among all places.”

“So, why did it take you three weeks?” Admiral Dumar wondered.

“We only recently got the shipping manifests,” Jessica told him. “We had been trying to analyze the arrival courses when the Jung came out of FTL, but they always make a turn before they…”

“I get it,” the admiral said, cutting her off. He took in a breath, letting it out in a sigh. “How sure are you of your analysis?”

“The algorithm says ninety-seven point four percent,” Gerard replied.

“And Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy created the computer algorithm?”

“Yeah, that made me a little doubtful as well,” Jessica admitted.

The admiral glanced at Jessica again, as he continued analyzing the data on the pad. Finally, he put the data pad down on his desk. “Obviously, we have to confirm this, and that involves no small amount of risk.” Admiral Dumar looked at Nathan, who was sitting in the corner of the office. “You’ve been suspiciously quiet through all of this, Captain. Do you doubt their conclusions?”

“Not at all,” Nathan answered. “Their conclusions make sense, and I trust Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy’s computer expertise.”

“Then the question is,
how
do we confirm this?” the admiral asked. “If indeed it
is
the Jung homeworld, there will be a lot of traffic in the area. Most likely there will also be a sensor net of some sort. So, we can’t exactly send a Super Falcon on a cold-coast. It would be suicide.”

“Could we send a sensor drone?”

“Yes, but it would probably be intercepted and destroyed,” the admiral said. “Also, we’d prefer that the Jung do
not
know that they’ve been reconnoitered. If they find out that we know the location of their homeworld, they’ll be on constant alert.”

“Then, you’re thinking of attacking the Jung homeworld?” Nathan wondered, surprised.

“I’m thinking I’d like to keep that option open, if possible,” the admiral explained, “and alerting them to the fact that we have discovered them would pretty much kill that idea.”

“Could we send the Jar-Benakh?” Gerard suggested. “We fooled them once. Maybe it would work again?”

“You fooled a bunch of soldiers on the surface, who had limited sensor capabilities, and their only other option was to stay on the surface and face annihilation,” the admiral clarified. “Besides, we can’t risk such an important asset.”

“What about using one of their fast-attack shuttles?” Nathan suggested. “They have FTL capabilities.”

“The Jung homeworld is sixty-four light years away,” Jessica reminded him.

“We could shuttle them closer, then they could FTL it into the Jung system,” Nathan explained.

“Even if it’s one of their own shuttles, they’re going to be suspicious,” Admiral Dumar insisted.

“They’ll probably recognize what ship the shuttle belongs to by its transponder code,” Gerard said.

“They’d only need a few minutes near the Jung world,” Nathan said. “Just get some quick sensor sweeps, then FTL it out again. We can pick them up on the far side.”

Admiral Dumar thought for a moment. “The less time they spend in the system, the better their chances.”

“If they can keep it under a few minutes, they might go unnoticed,” Nathan continued.

“Or the Jung might think it’s an error, or a sensor echo of some sort,” Gerard added.

“If we added a bunch of fixed array sensors, they could look in all directions at once, instead of making sweeps,” Nathan said. “That would get them out quicker.”

Admiral Dumar was intrigued, but unconvinced. “We can’t send the Aurora, or any other warship, though. First, it would take a day and a half just to get there. Second, I can’t afford to have an asset that far away from Alliance space, and that deep into enemy territory. It’s just too risky.”

“Use a boxcar,” Nathan suggested.

Admiral Dumar looked at Nathan and nodded with approval, considering the plan. “But who would we get to fly such a mission. It’s still incredibly risky, so it will have to be flown by volunteers.”

“Someone crazy,” Jessica muttered.

“I can think of a couple of pilots crazy enough to do it,” Nathan said with a wry smile.

“I’d like to go as well, Admiral,” Gerard said. “I speak fluent Jung, and I know their communications procedures and syntax. If they get into trouble, I may be able to buy them some time to get out alive.”

“It will take a few days to equip the shuttle with the additional sensors,” Admiral Dumar said. “I’ll get that started right away. In the meantime, Captain, why don’t you see how your two pilots feel about the idea.”

* * *

“You want us to do what?” Loki asked in disbelief.