The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict (30 page)

A few hours later they exited hyperspace in the Altian system. They had spoken on and off about the Alliance, Hiricula, and other current events. Each conversation topic eventually returned to Jack’s sense of being of being wronged by the Alliance. Lorano began to feel uneasy about Jack motives.

Lorano stopped for a moment to recap all of his lies, falsehoods, and outright fabrications. He was getting them confused in his mind.

1. Told to the galaxy – they had followed the published route from Earth to Conron. They succeeded in missing the asteroids because Lorano had manipulated time to allow the ship to pre-detect gravity fluctuations.

2. Told to Frank and Korno – a hyperspace route is nearly impossible to calculate manually, which is true for most beings he thought. The navigation system can have coordinates entered manually, which is completely true, but not widely known.

3. Also told to Frank and Korno – there are corrected coordinates for the last two jumps that are stored on the
Vista.
The correction is necessary to bypass the asteroid.

Lorano thought to himself, time for lie number four – or more possibly. He had probably forgotten some by this point. He said, “Jack, I will tell you a secret, the route we published is just a little bit false.”

Jack had been lost in thought, but he suddenly straightened up and stared at Lorano. Then he tilted his head to the side, pointed at his ear and said, “I’m all ears.”

Lorano told Jack to bring the freighter to a full stop. They were only traveling at .01 light, so this didn’t take long. When they were completely stopped, Lorano told Jack to calculate a micro-jump about 200 kilometers away.

Jack looked at him like he was silly. He said, “Do you want me to do it manually or use the navigation computer?”

Lorano said, “Use the computer.”

Jack calculated the jump, double checked the numbers, ran a simulation, and locked the coordinates in the navigation system. He then looked at Lorano. Lorano leaned over to the navigation computer and retyped the number sequence. The last two numbers had been 21. He retyped them as 12.

Jack looked at him questioningly. Lorano ignored him and pressed the engage button. They jumped approximately 170 kilometers to the location indicated by the 12, not the location 200 kilometers distant that had been locked into the navigation system.

Jack performed a quick scan, realized his ship’s position, and looked at Lorano in stunned disbelief. He said, “I reviewed your last two jumps on your published route from Earth to Conron. They didn’t make any sense. If you had actually followed them, you would have crashed directly into the asteroids.”

Lorano said, “Well, you definitely seem to be able to read a star chart. I am impressed.”

That is what you did, isn’t it? You manually reversed the last two numbers on your final two jumps,” Jack said suspiciously.

And now lie #4 was complete. Lorano raised his arms in mock ignorance. He said, “I would never intentionally enter false coordinates into a navigation system. I believe that is illegal.”

They continued on their journey through the Altian system. The system consisted of a single star that produced nearly the same heat and luminosity as the Earth. Jack said, “Hey, the Altian system has 9 planets just like the Earth system.”

Lorano considered correcting him. Scientists had recently reclassified the 9
^th
planet in the Altian system as a dwarf planet. The former planet, known as Otulp, was one of several large astronomical bodies orbiting in a large belt beyond the 8
^th
planet. The classification was important because now it could be laser mined. They looked at the monitor saw a large mining platform slowly arcing across the dwarf planet.

Lorano replied, “Yes. That is an interesting observation.”

Unlike the Earth system though, there were 3 planets in the system with atmospheres that were in the habitable temperature band. The middle planet was the Altian’s home world. Life had originated here. The Altians colonized the outer planet next and decades later colonized the inner planet.

The Altians changed the home planet’s name from Altia to Altian-1. They named the second planet to be colonized Altian-2. The final planet was named Altian-3. This naming convention has created friction between the naming purists and the astronomical purists for thousands of years.

The astronomical purists hated the fact that the planets were named in order from the sun Altian 3, 1, 2. They wanted to rename the planets Altian 1, 2, 3 starting from the closest planet to the sun. However, each time they proposed the change, the naming purists would block them. The people on Altian-1 did not want to lose a number and become Altian-2 and those on Altian-2 certainly did not want to be Altian-3. The astronomical purists even tried to compromise by naming the planets 3, 2, 1, but that was also blocked.

They were approaching the atmosphere of Altian-1 and Lorano asked Jack to circle the planet once before they landed. Lorano loved looking at his home planet from outer space. They flew over the city, over the countryside, and over the oceans. Altian cities were pre-planned and were a compromise between nature and civilization. Altians tried to create a synergy with nature. Their buildings were designed to enhance the nature around them, not subdue it.

A city section started with a primary building. This central building was huge by any standard. It normally 204 stories tall and was octagonal. The building was also extremely wide compared to Advranki skyscrapers. Each side of the building was typically 170 meters long. There is a large green space around the building in every direction.

The next skyscraper was exactly 840 meters away from that one on a direct line of sight. This means that looking out of any window; a being would only be able to see one other building. The central area was filled with grass, agricultural crops, trees, or sometimes wildlife.

In the large cities, the central area will be filled with buildings, but the buildings extend down, underground and their roofs are covered with grass. As a result, the city and countryside look exactly alike from overhead. This simple symmetry pleased Lorano.

They had passed over the ocean and were approaching Lorano’s favorite part of the planet. The government had left one section of the planet exactly as the ancients had lived thousands of years ago. Lorano looked down and saw the steel buildings and the large stone pyramids.

In ancient days, the pyramids used the motion of the planet to create electricity. This involved having the stone in the base of the pyramid capture tectonic motion from the planet. This was then converted into sound waves and funneled into narrower and narrower passages. It was then passed through quartz to convert the sound into electricity. Piezoelectricity was the Altian’s primary source of generating electricity until the invention and commercialization of deuterium based fusion.

They circled around the rest of the planet and back to the major spaceport just outside the capital city of Artum. After landing, Lorano thanked Jack and exited the
Jackal
. He wondered what Jack would do with the equipment in the 3
^rd
hold. Lorano didn’t particularly want the stuff and had given Jack no instruction on its storage or disposal. Lorano boarded an underground transport headed to the Academy of Science building.

Each skyscraper was linked to the one next to it via an underground transport. However, they really didn’t need to be connected since each skyscraper was designed to be a habitation unto itself. The lower levels typically contained shops, restaurants, and offices. Some even contained light manufacturing and fabrication. The upper floors were strictly residential.

Usually, an Altian lived in an apartment located in a residential floor above where they worked. Very few commuted in general, and those that did rarely traveled more than two buildings away. It was possible for an Altian to live his / her entire life in one skyscraper without ever leaving.

Although the exterior was carefully planned, there was no central planning for the building’s use. Some buildings contained an eclectic mix of shops while others seemed to be focused on a particular component or industry. There were two large restaurant chains that had a restaurant in every building. That was the only similarity.

There were some exceptions. Giant shopping malls, entertainment areas, government offices, and larger industrial firms were typically located in one particular building. The Academy of Science was another such example. Lorano exited the transport and took an electro lift to his new apartment on the 91
^st
floor.

Lorano immediately sent Crista, Victor, and Carank a message mentioning that he met Jack Dogbarks and had to modify their story. He told them about the additional corvette. He did not tell them about the transposed coordinates.

The next morning Lorano went to his new office on the 32
^nd
floor. He realized that he had been away for a long while and was on a new project, but his previous office had been on the 14
^th
floor. It seemed something of an embarrassment to be relegated to such an inferior and perceived insignificant floor. Plus, his new office was facing west. Scientists of his stature were typically allotted the prime offices on the North wall.

Lorano’s new assignment was to create a more powerful ion cannon without increasing its size. Lorano began by reviewing the specifications of ion cannons in general. An ion cannon’s primary (well only) function was to shoot a very large amount of energy at one’s opponent.

The cannon had four distinct parts – energy store, mass converter, collector, and aiming device. The cannon required an enormous amount of stored energy to function. On a ship, the primary generator would generate electricity and store it in large batteries. Next, the electricity would flow into a reaction chamber and superheat the atoms.

Inside the mass converter the superheated atoms are bombarded with radioactive polonium. This process then strips, or ionizes, the atoms by removing its positively charged electrons. The atoms are then collected in a large chamber. The charged atoms are then electromagnetically fired down a long barrel.

Lorano reviewed each function separately and as a group. He came to the same inescapable conclusion that hundreds and perhaps thousands of his predecessors had determined. There is a linear relationship between the size of the cannon and its power.

If one wants more power, he simply needs more electricity. More electricity requires bigger batteries. It also requires a bigger reaction chamber and collection area. The barrel was also important; the longer the barrel, the farther one can shoot the ion beam. The barrel had some minimal ability to rotate a few degrees, but for the most part, a ship’s ion cannon had to be pointed directly at the opponent to have any chance of hitting it.

The final variable was optics. If the beam was tightly focused, it would travel farther than loosely focused. However, the tighter the focus, the smaller the diameter of the ion beam and the less likely the beam would strike the target. The ship had to be close enough to the enemy to ensure that the enemy ship couldn’t dodge before the beam struck him.

There were curves that described the relationship between distance, speed, and ion diameter. Basically, the farther away one was, the less likely he was to hit a moving target. The weapon was perfect if one was facing a stationary enemy a short distance away. Lorano was beginning to realize why the Hiriculans had begun removing them from their cruisers. They seemed to have little benefit for their cost.

Two weeks had passed and Lorano had verified that the ion curves were essentially correct. He was starting a review of the collection chamber when a colleague entered his office. The colleague said, “Lorano, I am trying to calculate a hyperdrive fold string, but the answer is nonsensical. Can you review it?”

Lorano reviewed the calculation on the com pad. He noticed immediately that on the 214
^th
line he had forgotten a variable. Lorano circled it and handed the com pad back. He said, “You forgot to write a variable on this line.”

The colleague reviewed it and said, “Yes. I see now. This is an extremely difficult calculation.”

Lorano replied, “Yes, but your mistake was basic. Even a human can add 2 + 2 and get 4 a reasonable number of times.” The colleague left without further interaction.

He was also starting to feel stuck on Altian-1. The monotonous routine of going up and down an electro lift was bothering him. Once, he even exited the science building and walked across the grass to the next building over just to eat at a different restaurant. However, when he arrived he decided to save time and eat at the chain restaurant because he had a long walk home.

Lorano realized that he disliked his new project. There was no improvement possible. Realistically, the only improvement was to remove them from the ship design. He wanted to be part of an exciting new project such as designing a new ship or going to a planet filled with hostile aliens.

Lorano sent his patriarch, Alliance Senator Korno, a message summarizing his research and asking him for a new assignment.

……………………….

Frank was sitting through a boring Alliance Senate budget meeting when he had a sudden realization. He realized that he no longer wanted to be in the boring meeting, so he made an excuse and left.

He had recently been thinking about what to do with the human pilots if (when?) they returned from the mission to Hepitila. The bill to allow humans in the Alliance Navy was still a secret. The humans couldn’t be allowed to return to Advranki Prime or any other populated area without their existence becoming public knowledge.

Oh well, he thought. He would solve that problem later. First though, he wanted to check on another of his pet projects. He went into an empty antechamber, activated the privacy screen, and said, “Computer, call contact X. Invoke Senate security protocols.”

…Call placed, voice only, security in place, the call is not being recorded. Connecting now…

Frank didn’t wait for the other person to speak. He blurted out, “Well, were you able to get it?”