Guardian Stone 1: Stone Genesis (5 page)

Station 1 in Earth Orbit –

September 6 - C Day 7

"Well dear husband, today has to be some kind of new record. That wedding was amazing. Everything went on as though it had been planned for months. Thank you for all this day has been and will be. I am not sure how long it will take my parents to get over the shock of no longer having a 40 year old virgin on their hands. Now I am hungry for my husband so lets skip the grand tour until tomorrow and have some fun."

"That suits me to a T and I have asked Barana to shield these rooms from any telepathic leakage. Wouldn't want our neighbors influenced by what goes on here."

Sam grinned and said, "good thinking."

### September 7 – C Day 8 ###

Later the next day, Sam had been looking over the kitchen and returned to the bedroom, "I could use a shower and some lessons on how to use that kitchen out there, I could eat a bear. Seriously, I am now hungry for some food. Does this place have any restaurants we might occasionally use?"

"There is a really decent American fare restaurant down on level 4 and we can be there in five minutes from exiting our front door. Mind if I join you in the shower?" Two hours later and another shower, they exited the front door to get a meal.

After they returned to their lodging, Hank noted, "You know Sam, our lives are going to be pretty interesting together.  I kind of like the idea that our minds are an open book to each other. While on that subject, I suspect there is probably no limit to how far apart we are physically yet still being able to communicate with each other. I say that based on the Kajaki experience. You probably know Barana has provided me with enhancements that make me a walking tank. I would really like you to consider the same enhancements. One of the side benefits of the changes is a substantially increased life span. If I am going to live a long time, I would very much like to have you there with me. Barana tells me my expected lifespan is on the order or 10 to 15 times what it would have been without the enhancements. My folks have had the treatment and I would hope that George and Miriam consider them as well. What do you think?"

"I wondered about that, it makes sense if we are going to be living in space for any length of time, I would like that. The idea of what is possible with the little I know of this station just excites me. The notion of seeing new worlds literally is a dream. When do I start?"

"Barana chime in whenever you feel you should, but I have to start recruiting pretty soon and I was thinking that we should not wait too long, how about a week to 10 days. The process takes about a week to install and you can be in learning mode during that so you won't even know it’s happening until you use an enhancement. Barana damped down most of my capabilities until I was acclimated to them. I was enhanced a little over six weeks ago and am now on 100% capability. You have been using your telepathic capabilities for a long time and I suspect that will hasten your acclimation substantially. You should be at peak form in less than six weeks."

<
Samantha, I concur. You are as good a candidate as Henry for maximizing the benefits from enhancements and the telepathic capability improves the others.
>

"Barana, I should have said this before now, but please use Hank for me and Sam for Samantha when we are having these informal discussions. You are our friend and friends need not be so formal when talking with each other. It is appropriate to use the long form in more formal settings. One guide might be if the person addressing me is using Henry then it is probably safe to use the long form."

<
Very well, Hank and Sam it is.
>

Sam said, "Wait, did you hear that? There, there it is again. I have been hearing that sound in my mind for a bit now and here on the station I can hear it clearer."

"I heard something like a low frequency moan."

"Oh good, then I am not going crazy. Best I can tell is that it is coming from that direction, pointing past one of the mountain peaks. It has been driving my crazy, I couldn't figure what on Earth it could be."

"That is because it not on Earth. Earth is in that direction." he said pointing in the opposite direction. "Barana, we have a problem and I do not like my suspicions. Can you do a scan in the direction in which Sam is pointing and tell me what you come up with."

<
Working on it, the direction in which Sam is pointing is about 5 degrees off the course the Glarin are using to approach us and they are about 150 light years from us now. The source of the disturbance you are detecting is about 51 light years away and its signature is…. Is also Glarin. It appears to be a very small force and I am not sure we would have noted it for another three or four years, but regardless of size, it is significant. This means we are going to have to have some battle elements ready in less than three years. This is not good but it is still doable. I am also starting scans across that entire front to assure we have not missed something else
.
>

"Sam, this changes some things, we will still take our ten days but we will have to mix in some serious business as well. I am sorry about that."

"Well, that is no problem, it is why we are here, besides, I believe in that old saying about 'whither thou goest'" she responded.

He went on, "I really want you involved in the strategy meetings we need to have. You will see or hear things that I can miss because I am distracted with another point or have another viewpoint that needs to be aired." 

"Barana, are Josh Adams, his wife and the Reevers still on station?"

"Please give them and my parents, grandparents and Uncle Pete my regards and ask them to meet with Sam and me in the large conference room in 20 minutes. Please invite Fador and those senior Antoran advisors you think would be helpful in a strategy meeting. Try to limit that to about five to ten persons. Oh, one more, is Master Gunnery Sergeant Wall still here."

<
He left for a day to arrange for 35 days leave and returned to the station about an hour ago.
>

"Great, he's hooked, is his wife JoAnn with him?"

<
She is.
>

"Good, please invite them as well. That should give us a pretty good crew to work with. His wife has a doctorate in Psychology and is absolutely brilliant and unpretentious. Bill is one of the best I know to manage troops. Well Sam, shall we do this the slow way or the fast way?"

"Lets go the slow route, I want to try that elevator again. Never been on something that fast with inertial dampers. It's kind of fun."

Barana commented in a disappointed tone, <
Aw phooey, I was going to do a fanfare and make a popping sound as you arrived, maybe even a double pop.
> 

Sam said, "I hope that was a joke."

Barana directed a private thought to Sam, <
It was but I don't think he knows that yet. *chuckle*
>

Hank and Sam arrived five minutes ahead of schedule to find that everyone was already there. As they entered, Sgt. Wall came to attention and stated, "Commander on Deck."

All in the room came to attention and Hank said, "At ease everyone. That is going to be hard to get used to. Please, everyone be seated. Let's start with introductions all around, let us know who you are, what are your areas of expertise and interest, then we can get down to business."  After introductions, Hank continued, "Barana would you please give us a holo map showing us the position of the main force of the Glarin as well as our position along with a scale to show the distance between us. Also show us where they are expected to be in annual increments with a year marker to show location." The map came up instantly as he spoke adding the data as he requested.

"If you are wondering why Sam and I are here while still on our honeymoon, it is because we have new information that we feel should not wait. You folks are my primary advisors and general strategy group and we will be having more meetings over time to discuss developments, suggest alternatives and options. That assures the decisions I have to make are not done in a vacuum. Barana will be a part of this group as well. Most of you already know this, but some do not. Barana, is fully sentient and self aware, has access to mountains of data that we collectively could not begin to comprehend and is in fact the station. What the station feels, she feels. Barana is an equal partner in what we face. This is not common knowledge and will remain that way for a while. Frankly that is her preference and I happen to agree with it, though for slightly different reasons than hers. On a personal note, I can also attest to the fact that she is developing a wicked sense of humor."

Barana flashed a thought to Sam, <
he caught the fanfare comment.
>

Sam responded, <
I think you are correct and I did not tell him.
>

"About 30 minutes ago we received new intelligence, thanks to Sam, that may change some of our assumptions. There is a second, though considerably smaller force of Glarin approaching this system. Barana please add group B to the plot with the same incremental data. This new group as you can see is a lot closer to us than the main group. I think this is what we could loosely term, 'a revoltin' development.' Barana is currently running a scan of our entire front to see if there are any more surprises out there. This one was not discovered earlier because of its proximity to the path of the main force and its small size relative to the main group. Also, you can do the math but it certainly appears that this smaller group either started here a lot earlier than the main one or can exceed the 6xSL that we have assumed for the Glarin. At their current speed, the main force is 25 years away but the smaller force is only 8½ years away. We had hoped to be ready for an encounter when the main force was 3 years out and thought this would give us about 22 years to prepare. This new data gives us only 5½ years to be ready with a force sufficient to face the additional threat because we do not want to wait until they are actually in system before we react."

"If we assume that the maximum speed of the closer force is still at the Glarin maximum, 6xSL, then there are some questions that need to be answered, such as:

How is it they are where they are and why?

Is the intent of this group the same as the main group?

Are their capabilities similar?

Can they be turned around?

What is their relationship to the main group?

Barana tells me that emanations coming from this group are distinctly different than the main group but are still definitively Glarin."

"This also means that we have several major issues to resolve in order to prepare. We are still lacking a military structure and the needed manpower to provide the necessary defense. We have a General but no privates. Hmm, that doesn't sound good. I think that there is going to be substantial culture shock with our introduction of people from Earth to Antorans and vice versa. Joann, I am hoping you can help us there with help from our Antoran advisors, assuming you are willing to sign on. Billy I have a huge role for you to play but I need to know when your enlistment is up and if you are interested. I know you have your 20 in but this is going to be something you can really get your teeth into."

Wall responded, "as usual Gunny, uh, I mean General, oh hell, Hank, I am a half step ahead of you. Joann and I talked this over after the briefing following the wedding and decided there was no way we were going to miss this opportunity and that really does go for both of us. My enlistment runs out in 35 days and this morning I sent my retirement papers in and took terminal leave. We are here for the duration. I can gather my stuff any time in the next week or so. But I am here and ready to start on whatever you have in mind. Just please don't make me a private again."

"Hardly, you, my friend, are going to be my new Command Sergeant Major. That will not be an easy job. Consider that there are 20 Type 1 Stations, each of them has 20,000 warships and some a few more. In addition there are 20,000 warships on each of the 80 Type 2 stations. That gives us a total of 2,000,000 plus warships. Each ship has a crew of 24, 5 officers and 19 enlisted, with other command functions on every 25
th
ship that can add up to two additional officers and 1 enlisted on those ships. That puts us somewhere over 48,200,000 persons just to man the warships. The deck crews for the same ships amounts to 8 per ship, 1 officer and 7 enlisted. That's another 16,000,000. That is a lot of people just to man the ships and this is just a preliminary estimate."

"A sizeable number of the crews are not people who can 'pull the trigger' and those are usually Antoran. Persons involved in communications, navigation, intelligence gathering, science officer and other non-combatant roles will naturally evolve to the Antorans. That still leaves us with massive numbers to recruit. We will need to take steps to avoid rifts developing between combatants and non-combatants. Non-combatant Antorans will be going in harms way to support the combatants without the means to shoot back. For this they deserve our admiration, friendship and support. They are part of the team and will be so treated. Think of them in terms similar to the Navy Corpsmen and Chaplains who are embedded with Marine Corps units and face the same hazards that we do. The stations will also need to be manned. I need to do more of a review here but at least 50,000 will be needed on this ship just to man the guns, The Type 1B's will need on the order of 40,000.  We need to provide for the military command structure and this is not counting the administrative function."