Nu Trilogy 1: The Esss Advance (17 page)

The scout leader had slowed the ship down considerably to pass the locals at a speed that matched their outbound velocity. It was certainly slow enough. The lead ship had been transmitting the same simple message on many different frequencies, obviously looking for some kind of response. Orders were clear, however, that no response was allowed.

At the point of closest approach, the scout distinguished three different types of ships. The lead ship was the largest and probably housed the leaders of this expedition. Next came two slightly smaller vessels that brandished what appeared to be surface-mounted laser weapons. These were, perhaps, escorts responsible for the safety of the convoy. The final ship appeared to be a simple freighter or fuel ship. Perhaps the locals could not mine fuel from the gas giant and needed to bring enough fuel on the trip to allow the convoy to return safely to the third planet.

Regardless, the master chronicler’s orders were clear. Record everything and send it back immediately. Any analysis the scout leader might provide would be ignored anyway. It was, however, important to gather as much information as possible to assist with the scouting mission. This preliminary meeting was instructive. The locals in this convoy were not capable of traveling at speeds approaching anything near the top speed of their scout ships. That was a good sign for the success of this mission.

As soon as the scout was past the convoy, it sent a burst transmission back to base, reentered the acceleration tank, and then accelerated to catch up with the other two scouts. They must arrive together and depart back to the base ship together.

“Captain Richardson. I understand you’ve experience jockeying this small mining craft around the belt. Would you have any suggestions for turning this ship into a small fighter?”

The question was put to Sted by his immediate supervisor, Rear Admiral Deborah Cunningham. At age fifty, Cunningham was the most prominent ship designer in the Space Navy, and she was more than a little disgusted with her latest assignment. After all, she had been selected as the lead designer for humanity’s first interstellar ship. Admiral Bain had been quite clear, however, that she was to solicit suggestions from this reinstated captain on turning these tiny commercial ships into small fighters. What in hell was Bain thinking? Captain Richardson was neither an engineer nor a ship designer. And what use could there be for a small fighter craft if they got into a battle with an advanced alien race?

“What kind of suggestions are you looking for, Admiral?” Sted asked.

“We need to cut the crew size to make room for two external missile launchers and storage for at least a twenty missile magazines per launcher. If you look at the design of the craft, the only areas immediately adjacent to the external hull at its widest point are the crew quarters. Now, obviously we cannot eliminate the crew quarters, but perhaps we can limit the size of the crew. What would you suggest?”

Sted only had to think for a few minutes about the problem before the answer became obvious. “First of all, ma’am, the assay ships were designed for completely independent operations over long periods of time. That meant that we needed at least two full shifts on board and enough crew space and supply storage to support that crew size. If we’re going to treat the modified Delta like a fighter craft to be deployed from the space equivalent of an aircraft carrier, we can eliminate one full shift, cutting the crew size if half. We also don’t need supply space to support a crew for a sixty- to ninety-day mission. I would think that most missions can be handled in less than forty-eight hours. So, we can eliminate the supply storage completely, and we can add snack storage to the bridge. We can also reduce the reaction mass needed for propulsion over long duration flights.

“As far as the single shift crew size, we can eliminate the engineer, because that function can be handled on board the carrier. We can also eliminate the mining engineer and medical technician. That leaves the captain, the pilot/navigator, and the weapons specialist. I would recommend a crew of four and split the weapons specialist position into two: one specialist for defense, and one specialist to handle the offense, including the main laser and the new missile launchers.”

Cunningham was unimpressed. “So you would actually retain four crewmembers on a two-crewmember mission? That seems rather generous of you, captain. Fighter jets flying off of aircraft carriers have only one or two crewmembers. Why do you think we need a captain on a ship this small? I would think the pilot could handle flying the ship and deploying any of the offensive weapons and the navigator could handle the defensive weapons.”

“You asked my opinion, ma’am, and I stand by my analysis. You are obviously the most knowledgeable ship designer in the Navy, but you have not been in tooth and nail battles like I have. Winning battles requires critical thinking at critical times, and I believe that piloting a ship, firing weapons and exercising sound battle judgment is a little too much to ask of any one sailor. This is especially true when you consider the complexity of this powerful mining laser. That alone is a job for a specialist.”

“Thank you, captain,” Cunningham said in a dismissive tone. “I would like to see your recommendations in writing for consideration by the rest of my staff before we begin gutting the interior of the
Mantis
and rebuilding it to meet naval standards. Please have your report on my desk first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Sted replied with a crisp salute.

As Sted headed back to his quarters with steam coming out of his ears, he knew that Rear Admiral Cunningham was going to make a mess of a perfectly good fighter craft. He had to get in touch with Cam and let him know of the looming disaster and see what could be done from AMC’s end. If Cam was going to be building new fighters according to Navy specifications, he might want to influence some of those specifications in a positive direction. Otherwise, the whole project would be a complete failure.

“No, sir. No contact was made by the
Discovery
,” Lieutenant Commander Bridgeman said from Lunar Control. “We have data from both the initial pass of the first two visitors and the subsequent close pass of the third. All indications are that the third ship was simply getting a closer look at the convoy. As soon as it passed, it accelerated and caught up with the first two. They are now passing Martian orbit and should be here, assuming their max deceleration matches what we saw during that pass, in about two weeks.”

“Thank you, commander,” Vice Admiral Bunting said as he paced the length of his office, deep in thought. “Please let me know the minute we have a detailed assessment of these alien ships from both feeds from the convoy.”

“Yes, sir,” Bridgeman said as he cut the connection. He knew that the vice admiral probably didn’t even hear the signoff. He also knew he had orders to monitor the assessment team closely and to get back to the vice admiral with any new information. He sent a text message to the head of the intelligence group, passing on the vice admiral’s orders. The group was already hard at work breaking down all of the data from the feed and would get back to him as soon as they had any additional analysis.

Meanwhile, Bunting was organizing his thoughts for the next call he had to make. Assuming he had a response from intelligence within the next four hours, he would be able to put a presentation together by the end of the day for both Admiral Holcroft and Governor Winton. In this case, the time and place for the meeting should be up to the governor, who had a far busier schedule. As head of both personnel and intelligence, Bunting was on a fast track to become a full admiral and chief of operations at Tranquility Base.

“Get me the Admiral at his earliest convenience,” Bunting said to what appeared to be nobody. Actually, the voice recognition software installed everywhere at the base was programmed to accept orders and know who specifically to pass them on to. In this case, the message went directly to Bunting’s aide, just as if the aide had been standing in the office. Through clever programming and judicious setup by each individual, there was virtually no chance of any direct orders being routed improperly.

Just outside of Bunting’s office, Lieutenant Hartman received the orders and asked command headquarters to set up a call for his superior. As it turned out, Admiral Holcroft was available at that moment and came on the line immediately.

“Just one moment, sir,” Hartman said as he routed the call directly to Vice Admiral Bunting’s office. “I have Admiral Holcroft on channel one, sir.”

“Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, sir” Bunting replied.

“No problem, Albert,” Admiral Holcroft said. “I just got off the line with Governor Winton. He was pressing me about when we would have our analysis of the visitors, so the timing of your call could not have been more perfect. What do you have for me?”

“We have all of the data from both the
Revere
and the
Nathan Hale
, and it is being analyzed as we speak. The preliminary analysis received from the convoy gives us approximately two weeks until the ships reach us. We will, of course, refine those estimates. The reason I called was to request that you set up a meeting with Governor Winton for this evening where I can present the preliminary intelligence report. I’m sure he is under tremendous pressure from all directions to provide updates on what to expect from our visitors. I just don’t know how much we will be able to give him. The lack of response from the visitors after continuous attempts to communicate is not a particularly good sign.”

“Your preliminary assessment is already very helpful, Albert,” Holcroft said. “I’ll get right back to the governor’s office and will let Lieutenant Hartman know when we will meet this evening. I want you in my office thirty minutes before that meeting. We can ride over together, and you can give me an overview. I don’t want to be surprised when you make your full presentation.”

“Yes, sir,” Bunting said as Holcroft killed the connection.

“Do you realize what a stink you’ve caused down on Earth?” Governor Winton said to Admiral Holcroft and Vice Admiral Bunting. “I have not had a moment’s peace in the last several weeks, with visits from every ambassador assigned to our government. In particular, the new ambassador from the North American Union is raising holy hell that his predecessor on the
Discovery
is not being consulted on any of the decisions being made regarding the mission to Jupiter.”

“What would you suggest, Governor?” Admiral Holcroft asked.

“I think the Navy needs to consider including Ambassador Pauling in the decision-making circle on board
Discovery
. I have urged each of the other ambassadors on their many visits to consult with the NAU and to have any of their requests funneled out to the
Discovery
and presented by Ambassador Pauling to Captain Vasquez. Believe me, this was no easy task, but I’ve been making some headway with the NAU to act like a pool reporter and pool spokesman for the remainder of the governments around the globe. I’m afraid this visit has stirred up quite a hornet’s nest of fear and anxiety. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.”

“I’ll take your request back to the Council and recommend that they accept this change,” Admiral Holcroft said. “I can’t count the number of times you’ve made my job easier here on Luna, so let me see what I can do about helping you out. But be warned: when it comes to the safety of that convoy, Ambassador Pauling will have no say whatsoever. Captain Vasquez has supreme authority on the mission where safety is concerned.”

“I wouldn’t consider asking for any authority in that department,” Winton said. “Just being a part of the decision-making process will go a long way toward mollifying the people Earth-side. Now, what intelligence do you have to report?”

“The three ships they sent from Jupiter orbit will arrive in about two weeks’ time, and we have completely failed in establishing any communication with them,” Vice Admiral Bunting reported. “The code we are sending is simple and should be easy for them to pick up and return to us as a first step in establishing some kind of communication. So either they are oblivious to our attempts or they are receiving and ignoring them.”

He handed the governor a universal briefing chip. ““We have some intelligence regarding these ships that I have included in this report. I have also included the footage of the three ships as they passed the
Discovery
on their way here. You are free to release the footage to any of the world governments as you see fit. However, I think you and they should be prepared for some extreme reactions should the footage be made public. I’ll leave that in your capable hands.”

Governor Winton nodded. “Let me get this information back to all of the representatives who have come calling and see if they can come up with any suggestions. There is always the possibility that a good suggestion could be forthcoming. I will screen the responses and weed out the garbage and then get back to you with anything productive that turns up.”