Temple of S.A.R.A.H. 7: Upgrades (3 page)

"AI Helen, show me everything we have within six hours of Novalus, please," he asked.

"Left lower monitor, Lord Admiral. Also, you have an incoming message from Admiral Toffin of the Simonian Home Guard."

"Open it in a central Monitor please." Vance replied.

"It is a busy day, Lord Admiral Vance," the large Simonian said by way of greeting.

Vance nodded agreement and kept reading the list Helen had given him. "That it is, Home Admiral. What can I do for you?" 'Home Admiral' was the title for the senior most Simonian military leader. He was also personally charged with the protection of the Simonian home world, which is why he was not on staff at Guardian Station.

"Although they will not arrive for eleven hours, I have divided my guards and have sent half to Novalus. To make up this difference, I am moving several ships from our colony fleets to the Home World. You should have that data any moment. I am calling to inquire where you would like my ships to arrive," the Admiral asked. "Currently, they are headed for the standard system entry point."

Half of the Simonian home fleet was a significant force; technically a fleet unto themselves numbering almost fifty ships. It could very well turn the tide of the battle if Novalus could hold out that long.

"I just got here myself, Home Admiral. Let me find out that information for you," Vance replied and asked for a secure comm to Lord Admiral Hearlis.

"It’s about to get messy here, what's up Vance?" Hearlis said.

"Home Admiral Toffin sent half his Guards to you. He would like to know where you would like them to drop out," Vance relayed. "He is on comms with me right now."

"Half! What is he gonna do if the Aracs attack Simonia?" Hearlis asked, shocked.

"Lord Admiral, there has not been so much as an Arac probe craft in our area. I feel safe undertaking this action. I am also pulling a few ships from various colonial fleets to make up some of the difference. It is my sworn duty to protect my people. I believe that includes humans and Shallans. Besides, we do have Simonians living on Novalus do we not?" the big ape grinned. "It is only an added benefit that this action will also protect our Veranorian allies as well."

Hearlis chuckled. "I can't argue with you, even if I wanted to, Home Admiral. Your assistance is gratefully accepted. I assume they have a standard entry vector plotted?"

"They do, however, that can be changed if you need them in another place," Toffin replied.

"Well, the fighting hasn't actually started here yet, so it is difficult to say where they will be needed. For now, I would say that they maintain course and we'll direct them once they arrive," Hearlis replied.

"If I might make the suggestion, Lord Admiral," Vance said. "Have the Simonian fleet arrive at a position close to the hyper-limit at solar north. The star's radiation will help mask their arrival, and the position will cut their transit time to whereever in the system they will need to go."

Hearlis looked thoughtful. "That is a very good idea, Vance. The heavier radiation might be a problem for them though; arriving that close to the star will undoubtedly cause at least a solar flare."

Toffin nodded agreement with Vance. "Even so Lord Admiral Hearlis, Lord Admiral Vance is correct. Any flare caused by their arrival will take time to arrive. In that time, the fleet can be moved. I will send the new destination to the commander immediately. It is dangerous, yes, but they will do you the most good arriving in this manner."

Hearlis nodded acceptance. "How long will they take to get here?"

Toffin looked away a moment. "Ten hours, fifteen minutes standard. I sent them the moment we heard of the attack. It has been one of our contingency plans for attacks on the Core Worlds."

Hearlis smiled. "I am sure they will be of great help in the coming battle. Thank you, Home Admiral."

Toffin nodded gravely. "I will let you get back to your duties now. Send word if we may be of more assistance. Altuis Denay my Lords."

Before either man could reply, the big ape broke the connection.

"That'll certainly help, we just have to hold out for another ten hours," Hearlis said.

"Actually, I'm doing the same thing Toffin is doing. I'm pulling one or two ships from different places that are close enough to get to you in a reasonable time. I don't know how much it'll be when we're done, but some is better than none." Vance replied. "I heard a rumor that transit times might not be as much of an issue soon."

"What do you mean?" Hearlis asked quickly.

Vance smiled tightly. "Some of the folks on Apollo are working on something called a hyperspace gate that will make long transits almost instantly. It's still theoretical, but knowing them, it'll be a reality pretty soon."

"Your people there have made so many innovations, so quickly, it's almost a wonder how the Alliance ever got along without them," Hearlis replied.

Vance chuckled. "I think the Synod was suppressing a great deal of research and breakthroughs. The folks at Apollo are just trying to get us caught back up. Many of the ideas they are working on have their origins in the Alliance."

"I can attest to the validity of those hyperspace missile turrets! The mass readings on the incoming fleet have been steadily dropping since they started firing. It's still a larger number than what we have here, but they have to be taking serious losses." Hearlis said. "AI Susan just gave me a report on the Galtar assault.

"These new hiver ships seem to be skewed heavily against physical weapons. A good deal of the ships' mass has to be all the layers of armor they are carrying. Their shields are comparatively weak while their weapons are slightly stronger. Targeting is much less effective as well. They have much stronger engines because of the mass of the ships, but they are not any faster than ours. Ship crew members are considerably smaller than a typical Arac. Which means they can get away with much weaker artificial gravity generators.

"So, how are the hyperspace missiles doing so well against them?" Hearlis asked.

"It's hyperspace. The missiles, after they enter hyperspace, actually react as if they are energy weapons because of the properties of hyperspace. If those ships were not in hyperspace, those missiles would not be doing the amount of damage they are doing now," Vance explained.

"Ah, that's right, I remember now. Something about energy state transference or some such. I really don't care how it does it as long as it does." Hearlis replied. "I'm going to mute you now, Vance. The bugs are dropping out in five minutes; I'm about to be pretty busy."

Vance nodded. "I'll have Helen listen for you, but I'd like to keep this channel open."

"Agreed. Let me know who you can get sent and how soon they are going to get here," Hearlis replied.

"Will do, good luck Hearlis."

"Thanks, we're going to need it," Hearlis said and muted the channel.

Alliance Apollo Base

Selene, Earth's Moon

Sol System

Because of the alert, all the labs were closed and any work being done was being done from home offices. I was more worried about what was going on in the outside world, so I was sitting with the rest of my family and our guests/guards, Lieutenant Tul-sa and two of her troopers. The two troopers were there to guard the door as well as escort us if someone needed to go somewhere. Apparently, the same service was being given to all department heads. Since there was no fighting going on, I didn't really mind that much, after all, the Marines had to be somewhere since their old barracks was now a plasma dynamics laboratory.

I did have an idea so I called Doctor Ced. He was one of the lead weapons systems designers for the Alliance and a good friend of mine. "Ced, are you keeping up with the events at Novalus?"

"Of course I am; I was born there you know," he replied worriedly.

I nodded. I hadn’t actually known that, but it was a good reason for him to be watching. "We watched the Arac assault on Galtar and it got me to thinking; what affect would plasma have on that heavy armor?"

Ced blinked a couple of times, thinking. "It would eat through it. If we knew what it was made out of we could even 'tune' the frequency of the plasma to be more effective. But how would we deliver it?"

"An old television show I used to watch had a weapon called a plasma torpedo. I have no idea how such a thing could be built, but if it would get plasma onto one of those ships maybe we should think about it," I offered.

"A Plasma Torpedo, huh?" He said thoughtfully. "A torpedo, unlike a missile, has only guidance thrusters and no main propulsion. It is a weapon fired much like a bullet from a slug thrower." He thought some more. "We'd have to build a launching mechanism for them, since the closest thing our ships have to that is the magnetic catapults for launching fighters."

"Okay, how about if we designed the plasma containment system to be mounted on a missile like a warhead. It might not be as effective as the torpedo, but it would still help put holes in that armor, right?"

"Yeah, it should. How is it you keep coming up with these ideas? Is it those old television shows you keep mentioning?" Ced asked.

I grinned. "I suppose a lot of them do, yeah. To tell the truth though, I just see something and get an idea about it. Most of the time I have no idea where it comes from."

"Well please, for the sake of the Alliance, keep watching this television!" he said with a straight face, although he knew that was a joke. "Say, I was meaning to call you about another issue. But, perhaps we should have a meeting instead. I think we may have discovered a good deal of the mystery behind why your AI reach sentience. Not the whole answer mind you, but a good start no less," Ced replied.

"Oh? I thought once we determined the safety parameters of the crystals that was dropped for other projects?" I asked.

"It was, officially. Some of the people we had working on it, all of them from Earth mind you, wanted to continue analyzing how the crystals work. I'm really surprised someone hasn't told you already since they've been working in the hardware side of your department." Ced explained as he took a drink. "I've been told that the Crystals are actually using something called quantum computing to handle data. Apparently it's a trick of the language you used when you wrote Sarah. Like I said, we should have a meeting about this, there is a ton of data behind all of this."

"I'll get it set up for tomorrow. Quantum Computing? I had no idea… wait, those types of computers work completely differently than the digital system I wrote, how could it be quantum? Also, when I first wrote Sarah's code, we hadn't begun to use the crystals yet." I replied. "She was on a cobbled together, digital architecture computer cluster."

"Ahh, but you see, it isn't the hardware that was doing it, it was the software! Like I said, there is a ton of data here for you to look over, frankly, it goes way past my knowledge of computing systems," Ced admitted.

I was stunned, and a little awed. "Well, let's just hope I know enough quantum theory to understand the explanation as well. Does Sarah understand it?"

"I can't believe you just asked me that," Ced replied. "Who do you think helped them gather and analyze the data? Has anyone ever given Sarah the Turing test?"

I nodded. "It was one of the first things the psychologists insisted on when we began studying AI behavior. She passed so well that the three people we had administering the test believed we had tricked them and she was really a human sitting in another room. I think one of them still believes that."

"Isn't that problematic?" Ced replied, concerned.

I shook my head. "No, it's actually a good thing. When dealing with psychology, it's good to have a doubter in the ranks. It forces us to question our theories and assumptions. This is a completely new area of research, so everyone's opinions are welcome."

Ced nodded. "Well, let me go take a look at this warhead idea you had, and see if I can come up with something. You know, as many ideas and suggestions as you've had for our defenses, you might want to consider learning more about weapons and control systems."

"Uh huh, you might want to start reading old science fiction stories and you'll soon discover where I get most of my ideas!" I replied. "I think my plate is pretty full with what I already have."

Ced smirked at me. "I'm serious Eric, with your knowledge of computer systems and programming, you could save millions of lives."

"Get to work you mad-scientist, or I'll tell Vance you were trying to recruit me!" I teased. However, his comment did stick with me, because I did have more ideas for weapons and control systems.

"He's right you know, Eric. You do have a knack for coming up with nasty surprises for the Aracs. You would be a major benefit in weapons design," Tul-sa added as the call ended.

I nodded to her. "You're probably right and I am thinking about it. In fact, I had another idea a couple of days ago that might be a good weapons system provided we have the time to develop it."

"Really? What is it?" Tul-sa asked grinning.

"A combat drone that could replace Marines on the field. We'll still need you to drive them, but you won’t be the ones actually in combat," I explained. "Sarah, could you show us the notes I made on the infantry drone?"