Nu Trilogy 1: The Esss Advance (12 page)

Sted and his crew had been working this rich area of the belt for almost three months without incident. Apparently, the increased speed incorporated into the
AMC Scorpion
made following the ship very difficult for the independent claim jumpers. None of the eighteen mineral-rich asteroids his crew identified had been discovered by the independents. They could only follow the initial vector of the
Scorpion
into the belt, but it did them no good, because Sted never set out directly for his next intended target. Midcourse corrections were applied once out of range of any possible pursuers.

This was very satisfying for Sted and the crew. They really did not want to employ their new defensive capabilities and let the cat out of the bag too early. The more minerals the
Scorpion
could put into AMC’s mining coffers before the independents were alerted to their new capabilities, the more profit could be made while the remaining Delta class vessels were being completed.

In fact, a message received from Cam on their first resupply capsule indicated that the remaining Delta class ships were already on their way to the belt. Cam indicated that his spies at the foundries were only picking up rumors of AMC’s increased mineral ore deliveries, but apparently nobody had any idea of the cause. It just appeared to be a small increase in AMC deliveries and a small decrease in the independent deliveries. A real trend had not yet been established, and the independents were not yet saying much about their change in fortunes. This would not last long when all ten Deltas were deployed. The shift in fortunes would be obvious, and the search for the cause would begin.

Also in the note, Cam requested that Sted prepare his second in command for taking over as the
AMC Scorpion’s
captain. Sted was needed back at the lunar base to work with the design and engineering teams on the new Epsilon class. The ten additional Delta class vessels would have a huge impact in the belt over the next few years, but Cam wanted to be prepared when the independents began responding in kind to the new Delta class tactics. Cam was sending a replacement officer on the new Delta class
AMC Mantis
. The officer would take over as second in command on the
Scorpion
. Then the
Mantis
was to deliver Sted to the naval shipyard, where he would hop a ride back to the lunar base on the next shuttle.

The
Scorpion
had four weeks until the
AMC Mantis
arrived at the closest mining platform, so Sted planned to visit three more asteroids that were in their flight path to that platform. That was his mistake.

The successful tactic of not heading directly for the next target asteroid but correcting course midway was forgotten. The crew had been lulled into complacency by their continued success. After registering a claim through the mining platform for the first asteroid, Sted ordered the ship on a course directly for the second. This small M-type asteroid was shaped like a two-kilometer long peanut, as if two bodies had merged partially over the millions of millennia since the formation of the sun. AMC often found their richest deposits of tungsten in these small but dense planetesimals that may have resulted from collisions of larger bodies in the early stages of planet formation.

As the crew was winding up the analysis of the three drilling sites and preparing to depart for their last target, Julie picked up the signature of an inbound ship drifting toward them from the direction of their last claim.

“We have visitors approaching stealthily from the sunward direction,” she announced to everyone on the bridge.

“Well, that’s never a good sign,” Sted replied. “That usually indicates foul intentions. Bundy, I want you prepared for immediate missile defense. Bill, spin the laser capacitor back up. I want it at full charge in the next three minutes. Once that’s done, I need both of you to get into your vacuum suits while monitoring your consoles.”

With that, Sted switched to the all-ship channel. “All hands prepare for enemy engagement. This is not a drill.”

As soon as Sted donned his vacuum suit, he strapped himself into the command chair and turned to Julie. “Give me the latest on your contact.”

“Contact is at fifty kilometers and drifting toward us at one hundred kilometers per hour. I can’t get a good visual because of the sun, so I cannot identify the vessel’s class. They are, however, already in missile range for the type that destroyed the
AMC Pride.
”

“Okay, Julie. Prepare to come about. I want the prow facing the visitors as I hail them.”

“Bill, I need the main laser trained on their ship and dialed up to its highest setting. Be prepared to fire on my order.”

With that, Sted switched to the universal hailing frequency. As soon as Julie had the
Scorpion
facing their enemy, he activated the microphone in his helmet. “This is
AMC Scorpion
. Please identify yourself immediately.”

Five seconds after the transmission, Bundy Meacham looked up. “We have two inbound missiles. I am engaging laser defenses.” He paused for a moment. “We have two direct hits on the missiles and both have been destroyed.”

“Fire the main laser,” Sted to Bill Overton. “I want multiple holes in that ship immediately!”

With that, Bill sent three fifteen-second pulses through the drilling laser with only two seconds between each pulse. He began analysis of the laser hits immediately, but the sun made any confirmation difficult. “I can’t get a reading on the result of the drilling bursts,” Bill said. “I know we hit them hard, but the sun is masking any readings.”

“Julie, spin up the engines to half power and move us away from the asteroid to get a better angle for Bill’s analysis. Bill, prepare for another three pulses if necessary.”

Once again, Sted hailed the enemy ship. “This is the
AMC Scorpion
. This is your last chance to identify yourself. Please advise if you have casualties or need assistance.”

“
AMC Scorpion
, this is Powell Madigan aboard the
Falcon
. We have sustained significant damage and multiple casualties. We surrender and request immediate assistance. I repeat. We surrender and request immediate assistance.”

“Standby,
Falcon
.” Sted turned to Bill. “Can you get any better readings?”

“We definitely breached the hull, sir,” Bill replied. “I detect a significant plume of atmosphere streaming out of the ship.”

“
Falcon
, this is
AMC Scorpion
. We will be coming around and approaching from the stern of your ship. Any sign of resistance, and we will put more holes in your hull than you can count. Please let me know the number of personnel aboard and the number of casualties. We are only a mining assay ship and do not have the facilities to afford any relief. We can, however, contact our closest mining platform for assistance. They will contact the Space Navy to schedule a rescue mission. That assistance will be at least a week getting here. Monitor the emergency channel for updates on the rescue party.”

“
AMC Scorpion
, this is the
Falcon
. We have a crew of fifteen. We have seven dead from decompression when you ripped open our crew quarters. The remaining eight crew members should be able to survive at least three weeks on our remaining air, water, and food supplies.”

“
Falcon
, this is
AMC Scorpion
. We are now one kilometer to your stern. We have recorded all of your transmissions and will send these along with our request for assistance. We will advise the rescue party of your current state.
Scorpion
out.”

Sted turned to Julie. “Please contact the mining platform. Send along the contact recordings along with the coordinates of this asteroid and the condition of the
Falcon
. We also want to register our claim immediately. That asteroid is our biggest find to date. The platform may want to follow the Navy back here to begin their mining operations.”

AlvaResh was the only individual from “The Crossing” to return to review the results of their earlier efforts of building up the oceans on the target planet and to establish a permanent base in this star system. As such, he assumed the role of local governor. He would be stationed here throughout the development of a new warrior race.

As expected, the planet had cooled considerably in the interim, and all of the planetesimals they had sent in-system had long since impacted the planet. With this confirmed, AlvaResh, selected one of the planet-sized worlds in what would become known as the “Kuiper Belt” for their permanent base of operations. There, the Nu tunneled into the icy surface and solid rock core, creating large chambers to house both their interstellar ships and their newly arrived interplanetary ships. This was close enough to the central star to allow for easy access to the inner planets but far enough out not to be influenced greatly by the gas giants whirling around at such a frenetic pace.

While the base was being formed, AlvaResh tasked one interplanetary ship to go directly to the third planet to obtain measurements of the salinity of the oceans and to discover the mix and quantity of minerals available on the rocky surface. Decisions had to be made about the final set of asteroids that needed to be sent to impact the surface of the planet before seeding could begin. If too many of the heavier elements had been pulled into the molten core of the planet before the outer shell formed, then these elements would need to be replaced. A mixture of objects could be selected from both the Kuiper belt and from the band of asteroids circling the sun between the fourth and fifth planets. The abundance of material from which they could choose was what made this system so ideal. The stellar nursery had been very generous. AlvaResh wondered how many stars had self-sacrificed in this area of the galaxy to make this all possible.

HG Rickover Naval Shipyard was named after the longest-serving officer in US naval history. Admiral Hyman George Rickover served sixty-three years and was the man principally responsible for building and deploying nuclear reactors in both submarines and aircraft carriers that had allowed the United States to dominate the world’s oceans for decades. He was often called the “Father of the Nuclear Navy.”

The naming of the shipyard was intended to honor Admiral Rickover’s record of deploying so many ships without one reactor accident. With the job of building humanity’s first interstellar vessels, the Navy hoped to carry on the Admiral’s record of safety. The enormous size of these ships, by necessity, required an enormous shipyard. The large number of personnel involved in building and installing the various systems required a great deal of housing, hydroponic gardening, entertainment facilities, places of worship, meeting halls, office space, and every other facility found in a small city on Earth or the moon.

The Navy’s need for specialty raw materials to build the shipyard and then the ships was driving the mining industry to keep up with demand. Lifting anything out of Earth’s huge gravity well was not cost effective. This had been demonstrated with the development of the International Space Station (ISS) eighty years earlier. Each segment of the space station was assembled on Earth and then lifted, at great expense, into low-Earth orbit before being attached to the ISS framework. Little could be done in Earth orbit to change or improve on any of the module designs. The astronauts in their bulky suits were taxed greatly just trying to put the pieces together to form a viable living environment.

However, humanity learned a great deal from the effort required to assemble the ISS. The lunar naval shipyards had designed and built a core living environment in lunar orbit and then towed this shell out near the M-type asteroid 16 Psyche that would provide the basic iron and nickel needs of the project for the foreseeable future. Inside the shell were all of the tools necessary for taking the raw materials mined on 16 Psych and turning them into the bones and skin of a viable naval shipyard. Then those same tools could be turned toward the building of the first interstellar ships. After all, there was little difference between building an environment that remained permanently in orbit around the sun and an environment that could propel itself to the stars. Just strap on a propulsion system and reinforce the structure to handle the stress of acceleration, and you had an interstellar vessel.

As the Rickover shipyard grew, so did its demand for skilled labor. The Navy hired Lockheed Aerospace to build and operate a shuttle service between the Navy’s base on the moon and their base in the belt. What Lockheed built was more like one of the giant cruise ships plying Earth’s oceans than any shuttle ever deployed in space. This was necessary, because a round trip averaged about four months. For each two-month passage, all on board needed to be housed, fed, entertained, and allowed to communicate with their family and associates on Earth, the moon, and the new shipyard.

The initial shuttle was designed to handle 400 passengers with a crew of ninety on board. This was sufficient to handle the Rickover’s needs for the first ten years while the shipyard’s facilities were under construction. In fact, the first few years of shuttle operation saw very few passengers. Instead, a great deal of pre-manufactured foundry and factory equipment was shipped. Lockheed understood this would happen and designed the interior of the shuttle in a modular fashion. Initially, only one passenger module was utilized out of a total of eight modules contained within the shuttle framework. Over the ten-year life expectancy of the initial shuttle, the number of passenger modules climbed to seven out of eight, and Lockheed compensated by strapping cargo containers to the exterior.

Now, two newly designed Lockheed shuttles were coming into service. This would allow both a lunar-bound and a Rickover-bound shuttle to operate simultaneously. With the laying of the keel for the first interstellar ship, the personnel requirements at the shipyard were changing rapidly, as were the shuttle designs.

From stem to stern, the vessels were designed as true passenger ships that could accommodate the needs of a highly sophisticated clientele. The need for carrying cargo was now relegated to the original shuttle, which was configured once again with only one passenger module and seven cargo modules.

When the
AMC Mantis
arrived at the Rickover shipyard, Sted was treated with a beautiful view of the new shuttle
Endeavour
’s first docking. The shipyard had built a new docking facility specifically for the two new shuttles coming into service, so there were many “firsts” happening all at once. Sted hoped these new facilities and the new shuttle did not suffer from any startup glitches, because he was booked on the first return trip aboard
Endeavour
.

Cam had arranged for the
Mantis
to arrive in time for Sted to catch the return shuttle. At this point, the return journey would have far fewer passengers than on the outbound trip. Ramping up for shipbuilding talent meant that the shuttle was fully booked on the outbound leg. The return trip was less than half-full, as some of the personnel involved in expanding the shipyard facilities and manning the foundries and factories were completing their rotations at Rickover.

Sted was amazed at the progress of the expansion at Rickover. His last tour aboard the
Revere
had docked here more than two years before, and the yard had almost doubled in size. In fact, the docking facility for the two new shuttles was still in the planning stages at that point. Now that facility, along with a new commercial residential wing to house non-military personnel, gave the shipyard a whole new look. This was no longer a bare-bones outpost. In fact, Sted could see another new branch that looked to be dedicated to company offices for contractors working at the yard. The whole shipyard had the feel of a self-sufficient island in the middle of the ocean of space.