Ep.#15 - "That Which Other Men Cannot Do" (The Frontiers Saga) (5 page)

Jessica sat up straighter, one eyebrow going up. “And?”

“I told him that you’d been through a lot recently…”

“I don’t have post-incident stress dis…” Jessica protested.

“I never said you did,” Nathan replied, cutting her off. “I just said I thought you deserved a little leeway, that’s all. He
did
insist that I speak to you about it, though.”

“What the hell?”

“Look, Jess, we’ve got a lot of new volunteers coming in, most of which have zero military training. We have to set an example for them. A
good
example, not mouthing off and picking fights.”

“I’m fine,” Jessica insisted.

“I know you are…one friend to another. But as your CO, I have to tell you to knock the shit off, or else.”

“Or else, what?”

“Or else I’ll make you eat molo at every meal,” Nathan replied, a smile creeping onto his face.

Jessica laughed. “In that case, I’ll try to straighten up and fly right…sir.”

“
Attention, all hands. Prepare for docking,
” the copilot’s voice called over the ships intercoms.

“Gotta say, I rather like this luxury shuttle,” Jessica commented as she leaned back on the couch again. “Too bad she’s got a jump drive. Leaves you no time to enjoy the amenities. You should ask the admiral if Alliance captains are going to get their own personal luxury shuttles.”

“I did,” Nathan replied. “He laughed.”

“How did your visit with Dubnyk go?” Jessica asked.

“Fine, I guess. It was weird, though. He’s doing a lot better than I would have thought. He’s expanded and upgraded his residence, and has a lot of regular ‘students’ now.”

“‘Students?’”

“Yeah, I thought it was a strange choice of words as well,” Nathan said. “Especially when you see how they hang on his every word.”

“What can he possibly be teaching them?”

“History, philosophy, that kind of thing,” Nathan explained. “Best I can tell, they just sit around and speculate on the causes and effects of events in the past. Dubnyk makes like it’s some kind of deep intellectual exercise, one that helps young minds grow and become more enlightened. I think it’s just a way for him to keep them coming back for more, so as to keep his accounts full.”

“Whatever works for him, I suppose,” Jessica said. “Personally, I don’t know why you keep going back to see him.”

“I don’t know,” Nathan replied. “I suppose I feel like I have to check up on him from time to time, like I’m responsible for his welfare, or something.”

The ship shuddered slightly as it made contact with one of the Cetian shipyard’s many docking arms.

“Well, you’re not, you know,” Jessica told him. “You rescued him from certain death. That’s enough. Your responsibility for him ended once you put him off the ship.”

“
Attention, all hands. We have hard dock,
” the copilot’s voice announced over the intercoms.

Jessica rose from her seat. “Shall we go and take a look around?”

“I don’t know,” Nathan replied. “Are you going to be on your best behavior, or are you going to challenge Telles to a duel at twenty paces?”

CHAPTER TWO

“How was your tour?” Cameron asked as she sat down next to Nathan at the conference table in one of the Karuzara’s briefing rooms.

“Interesting,” Nathan replied. “The Jung sure know how to build a shipyard, that’s for sure.”

“The place was enormous,” Jessica added from Nathan’s other side. “Security is going to be a breeze, though. They’ve got cameras and sensors everywhere. You can’t get within a hundred kilometers without them knowing, and every point of entry is remotely monitored and controlled. The place even has its own point-defense system. Not big enough to defend against a full-scale attack, but more than enough to defend against an unauthorized boarding attempt. My biggest concern is the workers. Most of them are registering as dirty on Doc Galloway’s Jung-bug detector, although very few have enough nanites in them for the Jung to turn them into saboteurs. They’ve tagged those who do with tracking chips and refused them entry for the time being, until they come up with a way to remove the nanites that doesn’t cause excruciating pain. Unfortunately, if they find too many with high nanite counts, it’s going to cut into their workforce and slow things down.”

“Any word on how long that will take?” Cameron asked.

“Nope. All I know is that they are working on it,” Jessica replied. “I just hope they come up with something soon, because we’re finding a few among our people as well, especially among the newest volunteers from Earth.”

“If the Jung are not close enough to link to any person’s nanites, then those carriers aren’t a threat, are they?” Nathan suggested.

“Theoretically, no, but do you want to bet the ship on that assumption? For all we know, there could be Jung spies all over the place, each of them with their own personal bug-control device.”

“Could we block their signals somehow?” Cameron wondered.

Jessica shook her head. “Galloway says that we can jam the communications between the nanites within the host body, which would isolate them, but she doesn’t know if that will have any negative effects on the host, since the nanites
are
acting to help maintain the host’s health to some extent. She just isn’t sure as to
what
extent. She really needs to figure out how to reprogram them so that
we
control them instead of the Jung. Then we can give them orders to vacate as we replace them with Corinairan nanites.”

Admiral Dumar entered the briefing room, followed by the Karuzara’s station manager, Mister Bryant, along with three other men whom Nathan did not recognize.

“Attention on deck,” the guard ordered. Everyone in the room immediately rose to their feet and came to attention.

As the admiral and his entourage moved to the head of the table, two more people entered the room. President Scott and his daughter, Miri.

Nathan remained at attention, though he was surprised to see them. He had visited them both just over a week ago, and neither had mentioned that they would be traveling to the Karuzara. His sister had mentioned, however, that she had taken over the role as their father’s personal assistant, since his former assistant had a significant level of Jung nanites in his system. It was a scenario that had been occurring all over the Earth, as well as on Alliance vessels and stations. In fact, the more Jung nanite detectors that were built and distributed, the more they discovered Terrans infected with nanites.

Admiral Dumar stood at the head of the table until President Scott and his assistant reached their seats at the opposite end. “As you were,” he finally ordered, taking his seat. “Let it be noted that Captains Poc and Nash are unable to attend, due to the demands of their current assignments.” The admiral looked at the faces of everyone sitting around the conference table, then turned to the man sitting to his left. “Before we begin, I’d like to welcome Mister Aberdin. He is the director of operations for the Cetian orbital shipyards.”

“Thank you, Admiral,” Mister Aberdin replied, his Cetian accent barely noticeable.

The admiral turned his attention back to the rest of the people at the table. “This meeting has been called to discuss the current state of the Alliance forces in the Sol sector, and to consider our plans going forward. I have asked President Scott to attend this meeting, as he is the current leader of the Coalition of Nations on Earth. Before we begin our discussions, I shall ask each of you as to the status of your departments.” Admiral Dumar turned again to Mister Aberdin. “Mister Aberdin?”

“The Cetian orbital shipyards are back in full operation once again. We have had to restrict many of our technicians and specialists from returning to work, due to the high concentrations of Jung nanites in their bloodstreams. However, since we are only operating three of our four assembly bays, we are still able to meet the minimum staffing levels for those three bays. Unfortunately, due to the number of modifications that we are being asked to perform on the frigates as well as the battleship, work is progressing at a reduced pace on the two frigates that have yet to be completed. As it provides the best possible defense for the Tau Ceti system, we have been concentrating our efforts on repairing and modifying the captured Jung battleship, per your request.”

“How long until the frigates can be completed at your current staffing levels?” Admiral Dumar wondered.

“At current staffing levels, approximately six to seven months,” Mister Aberdin replied. “At full staffing levels, possibly as little as four months.”

“Can replacements be trained using Cetians with lower nanite concentrations?” the admiral asked.

“Building ships in space requires highly trained technicians. It takes many months,” Mister Aberdin explained.

“Hopefully, we will have an efficient way to remove the Jung nanites long before then,” the admiral commented before turning to the next person. “Captain Taylor?”

“The testing of our new broadside cannons yesterday went quite well,” Cameron began. “We still have a lot of work to do on our inner decks, including the new fighter launch operations deck, the conversion of the old fighter launch tubes into their new configuration, and the installation of the additional elevator systems between the main flight deck and the new hangar deck below. We are also preparing to install the secondary jump field generators and energy banks, once they are made available to us. However, all our weapons systems are fully functional, as well as our shields, and all flight systems. We are combat ready, sir.”

“How long until the remainder of your internal modifications are completed?” the admiral asked.

“Latest progress reports estimate thirty days,” Cameron replied.

“Captain Scott?” the admiral turned his attention toward Nathan.

Nathan leaned forward in his seat, placing his arms on the table. “The Aurora is currently in dry dock. Her nose has been opened, and installation of our mark five plasma torpedo cannons has begun. Repairs to the outer hull are nearly completed, and the installation of sixteen mark one plasma turrets on the underside of the hull has also begun. Reports from the dry dock manager and Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy indicate that everything is progressing according to plan, and that we should be ready to leave dry dock on schedule in fifty-five days. After that, another thirty days until all internal modifications have been completed, during which time the Aurora will, of course, continue to be combat ready.”

Nathan leaned back in his seat as Jessica moved forward slightly, expecting to be called next. However, the admiral instead addressed Captain Roselle who sat just beyond Mister Bryant to the admiral’s right.

“Captain Roselle, how goes the work on the Jar-Benakh?”

“We started installing the antimatter cores recovered from the engagement with the Eridani forces this morning. Those should all be online in about four days, at which time we will be back to full operating power,” Captain Roselle reported. “Repairs of the decks damaged by Scout Three’s escape jump and the subsequent Ghatazhak boarding will be completed tomorrow, after which we’ll start repairs on the outer hull in that area. Also, we’re starting the process of converting all the controls and displays on board from Jung into English. Most of the control consoles are touch screen and are easily reconfigurable. An operator will be able to choose either language, in fact. Anything that is hard-labeled will get secondary labels in English. As far as our combat readiness, we can fight as we are, but we’d be hard pressed to do anything other than basic maneuvers and firing our weapons. We simply don’t have the crew. When we begin switching out our big rail guns for big plasma cannons next week, we will do so one at a time, as requested, so that we will be able to respond to defend the Tau Ceti system if need be.”

“How long until you have more adequate staffing?” the admiral asked.

“Well, we have the same problem as Mister Aberdin,” Captain Roselle explained. “A lot of the qualified Cetians volunteering for service have unusually high concentrations of Jung nanites, so we have to turn them away. It’ll be a lot easier once we find a way to remove those little bastards. Regardless, I expect we’ll have at least one full shift manned and trained by the time we are ready to leave the shipyards, so, as long as you don’t send us on any long-duration missions, we should be okay.”

“Admiral,” Mister Aberdin interrupted, “if I may, once the Jar-Benakh is completed, many of the technicians currently working on her might be available to serve as crew, at least until such time as additional crew can be secured.”

“We’ll keep that in mind, thank you,” Admiral Dumar replied, as his gaze shifted to the next man after Roselle. “Ensign Tillardi?”

“We managed to correct the code that caused the Aurora’s jump KKVs to miss their target. It wasn’t so much an error as it was a couple of unnecessary subroutines designed to double-check course and speed prior to committing to the final jump to the engagement point. The additional code caused just enough of a delay so as to put the weapons far to the edge of the impact envelope. When the battleship dropped out of FTL and initiated a turn toward the incoming weapons, the weapons missed. The closest one missed by only a few meters at the most. However, the code has been altered, and subsequent tests simulating the exact same conditions have resulted in strikes in every simulation run. We did manage to receive confirmation that all four weapons self-destructed as designed, once they had determined that they missed their targets. It took a while to pick up their signals, but we eventually found them. Future versions will release a marker buoy just before detonation that will not only record the weapon’s destruction for verification purposes, but will also transmit a signal to enable us to retrieve verification more quickly.”

“Good idea, Ensign,” the admiral agreed. “I have to say, that was possibly the longest ten days of my life.”

“All of ours, sir,” Tilly agreed.

“Then you are ready to begin production?”

“Yes, sir. Once the assembly line is up and running, we should be able to push each conversion through in ten days, with two days at each station. So ten days after production begins, we will be rolling jump KKVs out the door at a rate of one every other day.”

“And how soon will the production facility be ready?” Dumar asked President Scott.

“Barring any problems or delays, it should be ready to begin production in just under two weeks.”

“Very well.” The admiral turned back to Ensign Tillardi. “Good work, Ensign. What about the jump missile project?”

“That one is a bit trickier,” Ensign Tillardi said. “The Jung missiles are smaller than ours, so there is less room for the jump drive. Our plan is to reduce the size of the propellant tank enough to house the mini-jump drive and energy storage. However, because of the space limitations, we can only fit a single energy cell. Unfortunately, they will only have a jump range of about three million kilometers. That means the attacking ship will have about ten seconds after jumping in to get those missiles locked on target, launched, and jumping toward their target, before the target detects the attacking ship’s presence and goes to general quarters and raises her shields.”

“Will shields stop those missiles?” Cameron asked.

“A few of them, even the nukes, yes. The battleships, definitely. It would take at least eight simultaneous nukes hitting the same shield segment at once to bring one of their shields down. Even more for a battle platform. A lot more.”

“What if you reduce the propellant storage even more?” the admiral asked.

“There’s barely enough left over to make final course corrections between arrival and impact as it is,” Tilly explained. “The Jung missiles are smaller because a lot of their acceleration is provided by their launchers. They only burn for about fifteen seconds after launch. The remaining propellant is used for course corrections.”

“Can you strap the energy cells on the outside of the missiles?” Nathan wondered.

“Yes, but then we’d have to completely revamp the launchers, as they’re made to launch the missiles as designed. And we were planning on pulling stock launchers to outfit the Aurora and the Celestia. Two from the Jar-Benakh and one from each frigate.”

“Can they spare them?” Cameron asked.

“We’ve got eight of them,” Captain Roselle said. “I think we can spare a couple, especially if the impact percentage will be higher. We won’t need to fire as many at a time.”

Admiral Dumar sighed impatiently. “Is this a viable concept or not, Ensign?”

“Yes, sir, I believe it is.”

“How soon will you know?”

“We’re using components left over from the jump KKV prototypes, so it shouldn’t take us more than a couple of weeks to get the prototypes ready for testing. Three weeks at the most.”

“I prefer the least,” Dumar replied flatly, one eyebrow raised.

“Yes, sir.”

“Miss Ta’Akar?” the admiral said, looking to Deliza next, seated next to Ensign Tillardi.

“The final modifications to Falcon One have been completed, and yesterday’s initial test flights were a success. We did uncover some minor modifications that need to be made, but nothing that will put us behind schedule. We’ll be doing more test flights over the next few days, but in the meantime, we will be proceeding with the modifications of the remaining Falcons. We believe that we will be able to get a total of eight Super Falcons operational. The last two will require the acquisition of additional engines. Captain Navarro has his people working on that back in the Pentaurus cluster.”