Homeworld (Odyssey One) (7 page)

Gracen smiled. “Absolutely true. Let’s have a chat about my research and development budget first then, shall we?”

It was some time later when Weston was admitted to the admiral’s office for his appointment with her and Gordon. He saluted Gracen automatically, noting that she seemed a little tired when she returned the salute and nodded to the free chair.

“Take a seat, Captain,” she said. “Mr. Gordon has some questions for you and, as they happen to match some of my own, I elected to allow him to handle this debriefing.”

“I’ve already been debriefed, ma’am, and I put everything in my report.”

She nodded. “I’m sure you did, Captain. This is more about asking you to speculate on a few things we noted from your last mission report.”

Eric nodded slowly, not certain he understood but honestly knowing that he didn’t really have to. “Very well. What questions?”

“During your initial sortie against the alien ships, our Priminae allies made use of a particularly dirty nuclear device?” Gordon asked from where he was sitting.

Eric snorted. “Dirty doesn’t describe it. That thing was so filthy, it violated the laws of physics as we understand them. We were
light-minutes
from the detonation and, if anything, the radiation seemed to get worse as it spread out.”

Gordon nodded. “We’re interested in that technology, Captain.”

Eric grimaced. “I hope you don’t want to use it on any planet, let alone Earth. I asked about it afterwards, privately. They use some sort of material and technique that induces a chain reaction when it encounters new matter. So the radiation literally fed off the
Odyssey
’s armor until we changed to reflective shielding. Thank God that was enough to keep it at bay, but if you used that weapon inside a planet’s atmosphere…I don’t think you’d have a planet left, not worth inhabiting at least.”

“Yes. We’re aware. However we’re looking at it from other angles. Any information you can get on the technology would be appreciated.”

“Alright. I can speak with the Priminae if you want,” Eric said finally.

“Thank you, Captain.” Gordon nodded, then glanced at the admiral.

Gracen acceded to the wordless invitation and took over the questioning. “Let’s move on to the stellar object.”

“The Dyson Cloud?”

“Yes,” she said. “We’ve consulted our records. Based on the last observation of the James Webb Telescope, the enemy started construction just under a hundred years ago. That star only went dim sometime in the last ten years, give or take, local time.”

Eric curled up his lips, shaking his head. “God, that’s fast.”

“Indeed. It’s quite clear that this species handles construction much the same way they handle destruction,” Gracen said. “They must build self-replicating and self-organizing structures.”

Eric nodded. He’d come to much the same conclusions himself once he’d done some research and spoken with his people. The enemy, Drasin or whatever they called themselves, were in many ways a macro-sized version of the nanotechnology nightmare. The so-called grey-goo scenario, writ massively large.

“Would it be possible to capture some specimens of the alien forces intact?”

Eric turned slowly to stare wide-eyed at Gordon.

“What?” The man in the suit asked, looking around as the Captain just stared at him.

“Sir,” Eric said stiffly, “these things literally
eat
steel and excrete reinforcements. I’m not packing one of them on board my ship for any reason, and I would consider any orders to that effect to be both insane and illegal.”

Gordon held up his hands. “Calmly, Captain. I was just asking a question. We’ve made a lot of progress with self-replicating machinery, but these things are on a completely different level. It would be nice if we could even that playing field a little.”

Eric let out a breath, but nodded grudgingly. “I can understand that, but we don’t have any way of containing them. Putting them on board a ship is just asking for trouble in ways I can only begin to imagine. Further, we’ve never been able to determine anything about their anatomy.”

“No, not on dead samples,” Gordon acknowledged, “which is why I was asking about intact and living ones. Some of our researchers think that they must use fluid neural paths through the molten silicon in their bodies, some kind of nanotech self-assembling circuitry. We’d love to get a glimpse of it in action, if that’s the case.”

“Not on my ship,” Eric said flatly. “You want to mess with those things, I suggest using something expendable.”

“I can’t see how one of their drones would be a serious threat to the
Odyssey
,” Gordon told him dryly.

“One wouldn’t be, but keeping one around long enough to do tests is another matter entirely,” Eric said. “They eat
everything
they encounter and use it to reproduce. We don’t have any way to sedate them, and we don’t know just how invasive their self-assembly techniques are. Mr. Gordon, I’ll not have one of those things on my ship. Not alive. When we brought back the dead ones, I kept twenty-four-hour guards on them just in case they had active nanotech.”

Gordon sighed, but knew that there was no way he’d have the influence to force the matter just yet. With Weston being as clear on the matter as it was possible to be, the NAC wasn’t
likely to issue countermanding orders that might reasonably be expected to put a ship in jeopardy.

“Very well, Captain. For now,” Gordon acceded finally.

“Figure out a way to contain them, or even sedate them,” Eric said, “and then we can talk. I know how important this intelligence could be, Gordon. A risk is fine. I didn’t sign up for the safe life, but I’m no martyr either. Give me decent odds of at least bringing home useable intel and I’ll take a shot. Until then, I’m done talking about it.”

Gordon grimaced, but had to accede to the point. Killing the things was obviously not a huge problem, but holding them intact was a far different story. They needed information on what the things could and, more important, could
not
eat.

Whatever else these Drasin were, he was well aware that they were most certainly a technological, or possibly biological, nightmare. Honestly he didn’t know which they were, or if maybe they belonged to a third category, but the nightmare part stood.

Figuring out what do with a species like the Drasin running around the galaxy was now taking up almost his entire job. He used to split his time between the Block and various non-aligned nations that might be causing the NAC troubles. Now he found himself in the role of some science-fiction protagonist.

Frankly, Seamus Gordon preferred mundane wet work.

“Fine. We’ll have people look into that,” Gordon said after a moment. “Admiral, when will the
Odyssey
refit be complete?”

“The new weapon systems should be installed within a week,” Gracen said after a moment’s thought, glancing over at Eric. “Isn’t that right, Captain?”

He nodded. “Around that. We’ll have to run the standard tests before I’ll trust the new systems….”

“Not in Sol System, Captain,” Gordon said instantly.

“Pardon me?” Eric blinked.

He knew that the current treaties precluded weapon testing within set ranges of Earth space, but the entire system?

“The t-cannons are highly classified,” Gordon said. “I don’t know if you’ve been briefed, but we’re privately advising ship commanders not to test those systems anywhere within range of Block ships, stations, or drones.”

“He’s right, Captain,” Gracen said seriously. “The orders aren’t official, mostly because we don’t want the Block to know just how classified the t-cannons are. You’ll receive private orders to this effect before you clear the L5.”

“Understood.” Eric nodded. “Any ideas what my orders, officially, will be?”

“Most likely another diplomatic envoy to the Priminae,” Gracen told him. “The
Odyssey
, yourself, and your crew have a degree of respect there that is invaluable.”

Eric had guessed this was the case and honestly didn’t mind much. He liked the Priminae, and there were enough mysteries tangled up in them that he wouldn’t be getting bored anytime soon, unlike most other diplo-missions.

“We might have you pop into a couple systems that just hit our watch list, however, including Gliese 581,” she added.

“Any particular reason?” Eric was actually familiar with that star, in general terms at least. It had been on his original mission itinerary when the
Odyssey
was commissioned. Gliese 581 was on the list of star systems that had likely Earth-type planets in the so called Goldilocks Zone. That put it high up on the area of interest, given the system’s relative proximity to Sol.

“We tracked the recent Chinese FTL mission in that general direction. It’s one of the few systems they might take an interest in,” Gordon said blandly.

Eric just gaped at him.

“Excuse me? What Chinese FTL mission?” He looked sharply between the admiral and the spy. “Did they manage to steal transition tech?”

“No, they went another route,” Gordon answered. “It seems that they managed to bridge the Alcubierre equations.”

Eric scowled, thinking for a moment. He’d read up on Alcubierre briefly when he’d been posted to the
Odyssey
, but no one in the NACS had managed to quite make that theory practical. The power requirements were insane for one thing, though they had been cut down a lot from the original numbers. More important was that, unlike the transition system, you actually
travelled
through intervening space.

That was a big deal, as even the best instrument package wouldn’t be able to detect, analyze, and warn you about what was in front of you until you’d already plowed through it. Arguably it was a minor flaw, but from his own experience, Eric knew that he absolutely despised flying blind…even when he knew intellectually that the road in front of him was better than ninety-nine percent clear.

“Did they solve the navigation issues?” he asked, curious, as it was obvious that they must have solved the power issues.

“Unknown. We didn’t even realize that they’d solved any of the Alcubierre equations,” Gordon admitted sourly. “When the
Weifang
red-shifted beyond Pluto and vanished off our instruments, I’m pretty sure some guys in the tracking stations crapped their pants.”

“I’ll bet,” Eric mumbled.

“Our primary goal is still diplomatic exchange with the Priminae,” Gracen stressed. “However, any intel on the Chinese activities outside our solar system would be a very nice bonus.”

“Understood,” Eric replied. “The T-Drive must have lit one hell of a fire under them to have made this move so quickly.”

“Well, they’ve always had an edge on us in CM technology by at least a generation or two,” Gordon said. “We weren’t even close to cracking it until we stole the first-gen plans from one of their labs just before the war.”

“Their computers are usually better too,” Eric added sourly.

“No surprise there. Most of the industrial fabricators were in Block nations before the war, and a large percentage of the top designers were Block sympathizers.” Gordon sighed. “So it’s possible that they’ve worked out the instrumentation problems too.”

Eric nodded. “Yeah, better than just possible I’d say.”

Before the Block War, the United States had felt, in some ways rightly, that they were the top country on the planet. The problem was that while that was true for military power, the country had been yielding a lot of other top slots to Japan, Korea, China, and other nations with citizens willing to do work for pay at which a homeless person in the U.S. would openly laugh.

While Japan had actively opposed the Block, siding with the NAC, just about every up-and-coming industrial powerhouse had formed the foundation of the Block’s strength. From Korea to China to India, the industrial power that once belonged to the United States and its allies had systematically been moved overseas by U.S. corporations because it was cost effective.

That, combined with the fact that Western nations had been educating the smartest people from the Block nations only to have them take that education right back home with them…well, when the war kicked off, it didn’t start well for the NAC.

At the start of the war, the U.S. still controlled fully fifty percent of the naval power on the
entire planet
, but the edge in air power fell to the Chinese when they rolled out the first-generation counter-mass aircraft. Chinese Mantis fighters tore through the air defenses of the U.S.S.
Enterprise
carrier task group and left the most powerful warship on the planet in a smoking cinder as it slowly sank beneath the waves. Naval power was meaningless while the air was being contested, and the Block successfully ruled the skies for almost three months.

Right up until the Archangels made the scene over Japan.

So now the Block had made their dominance in CM technology evident again, but this time Eric was almost glad of it. He’d seen what was out there, and any human technological advancement was a good technological advancement.

Screw the national patriotism. We need every running gun we can lay our hands on.