The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1, Inception (15 page)

"Wouldn't that require duplication of my encounter unit?"

"
Affirmative
"

Cat looked at Ken. For his part her First Officer simply raised a quizzical eyebrow. "I'll bite" she said, "How?"

"
Your nanite systems are exceptionally versatile. With the proper source material and energy, they can replicate any of your systems... Biological or technological
"

"Do you mean to say if I lose an arm, my nanites can simply grow me a new one?"

"
Negative. They can, however, assemble a new one that is indistinguishable from your current one. They can also alter the permeability and/or hardness of your skin, muscles and skeletal structure.
"

Looking back at Ken she asked, "How again does this help me build an encounter unit?"

"
You simply need to ask me to do it. If I need additional source materials, I will ask you to provide them.
"

***

Cat spent the next thirty minutes collecting small amounts of carbon, sand, trace metals and, at Cal's absolute insistence, a steak. Cal had her place all the items on a table in the engineering lab. Ken and Thais watched with barely contained fascination. At her AI's instruction, Cat placed her hand on the small pile (including the raw steak), where she got the shock of her life.

Her hand shimmered with a metallic silver sheen which enveloped the raw materials on the table. The nanites rapidly reconfigured the mass into a white sphere, that exactly resembled the orb Yarin Prime had held in front of Cat several years ago.

As she watched, the orb continued to change. Two metallic nubs appeared on each side of the sphere. Cal explained the continuing changes.

"
I have instructed the captain's construction nanites to augment the original design of the encounter unit with interface nodes which will facilitate high-speed data transfers between the unit and the normal ships systems. This is preferable to the radio-wave interface currently being employed. As the internals within the unit are completed, I will clone my data modules, and then split the operation of my AI between the two units. This will substantially enhance my operational efficiency, while, at the same time, providing the Yorktown with a far more capable secondary AI
."  

The First of the First sat at his desk. He had arranged his schedule to free the entire afternoon for his favorite pastime... Planning the attack on a new species. He enjoyed the challenge. What were their capabilities? How would they respond to the threat of utter and unrelenting destruction? How hard and how fast would they run? The First's ability to anticipate and answer these questions, was a large part of why the masters had made him First of the packs... To fail them, would mean not only his downfall, but the downfall of the entire First sub clan.

The First of the First was frustrated. He was used to knowing more about the game his people hunted. The idea was to amass enough forces to ensure victory, while, at the same time, allowing the packs enough latitude that they could safely play with their food prior to killing it. This last was essential to the health of his people, as well as important for retaining their support for his leadership.

He slapped his two forward paws on the table. He needed more information. Damn Three of Nine for apparently dying before he could properly report his finding. The First made up his mind. A probe would be sent to this small yellow sun.

***

Admiral Faragon stood on the bridge of his new flag ship. The Yorktown was an extensively modified Bowman class vessel, despite the massive size differential. The Heshe data, provided by Cat's AI, allowed humanity to start building nanite factories. These fabrication facilities could now produce the components for a ship like this in weeks, rather than the years it would have previously taken.

The next round of ships would be something entirely new. There was talk of building the nanite fabricators directly into the ships, so that they could be reconfigured on the fly. The Admiral sighed.
We live in interesting times,
he thought.

Captain Cat Kimbridge was seated in her command chair. As far as the Admiral could tell she was multitasking. She had a constantly updating status report on a tablet in one hand. She was directing the various members of her bridge staff, as well as holding a conversation with Engineering. Her First Officer, Ken Kirkland, was double checking the reports from all the other stations on the ship, and routing the pertinent information to the tablet Cat held. Finally, Cat sat back with a smile on her lips. She turned to look at the Admiral.

"Sir, I still wish you'd let them install a seat for you up there."

"Nonsense, captain. I'd only get in your way on the bridge 95% of the time. No, my office, next to your Ready Room, is where I'm most comfortable. I just couldn't miss the launch of this fine lady."

"Well, Sir, then I have good news. All system are confirmed go.  We can disengage space dock on your command."

The Admiral smiled like a little kid at Christmas. "Consider the word given then, Captain"

Cat turned to the young African American man at the helm. "Lt. Carstairs, disengage all umbilicals; release all docking clamps, signal Orbital One that we are taking our lady out for a spin."

"Roger that, Captain. Umbilicals disengaged. Moorings are retracted." Reaching forward Carstairs toggled the port shields. "Orbital One, this is the Yorktown. We thank you for your hospitality. We are go for power up and flight testing."

Orbital One responded immediately. "Safe voyages, Yorktown. You have a lot of proud parents watching you. Be safe, and have a good flight. Orbital One out."

Cat nodded to the young woman at navigation. "Lt. Shelby, plot me a micro-jump course for Pluto. As long as we are going to kick the tires on this thing, let's take a look at whatever is left of that D'lralu ship"

"Aye, Captain... Course laid in."

Cat swiveled in her chair to face her First Officer. "Ken, let's try out those new hyper drive sensors."

"Sensors online, Captain."

"Helm... Take us out .5c relative."

".5c, aye, Captain," Lt. Carstairs answered.

The Yorktown surged forward, roughly fifteen hundred kilometers per micro-jump. At one hundred micro-jumps per second, the Yorktown effectively traveled at half the speed of light. True, she could jump directly to her destination, but by using the micro-jumps, a complete sensor picture could be generated along the flight path. The trip to Pluto took just a little over 11 hours.

***

Cat was twenty minutes into her jog when Cal, her AI, alerted her that the Admiral was requesting her presence. "Sir, I'm down in the gym... I was running some laps on the track. I can be there in a few minutes."

"No problem, Captain... Actually, if you're up for a little racquetball with an old man, why don't you join me at court three in fifteen minutes?"

"Fifteen it is... and I promise to be gentle... Sir"

Cat finished her run. Her nanites kept her body in top physical form, but she found the pace of the run helped her organize her thoughts. The ship was running smoothly, but already she could see areas where procedures could be tweaked to improve performance. The key to effective leadership, however, was to get the various team leads to see the changes for themselves, before she had to order them. Over the next several days she would schedule one-on-one meetings with all the section leads. She knew Ken, as her First Officer, was already doing the same thing, but this gave her a chance to take the measure of each of them. At the same time, she could guide the conversations to include process improvements.

She grabbed a towel off the rack, before heading toward the racquetball courts. The Admiral was just coming out of the locker room. He was dressed in white shorts and a tie-dyed shirt that was colorful, to say the least.

"If that shirt is an attempt to distract me from my game... You should know, Sir, that when I'm focused I don't give in to distractions."

Admiral Faragon wagged his finger at her. "Tisk tisk, Captain... I'm shocked that you would think so little of me, as to suspect that I would stoop so low... And even more disturbed to be found out so quickly, when I did!"

He grabbed a Spaulding racquet off the rack, and tested its fit in his hand. "Seriously, it was a gift from my granddaughter on Orbital One.  Now, Captain, I have a deal to make with you... When we are playing racquetball or cards, or otherwise engaged in informal activities, I will call you 'Cat', and you will address me as 'Bud' or 'Your Holiness', whichever you are more comfortable with"

Cat grinned and responded without missing a beat, "Yes, Your Holiness"

"You'll forgive me, Sir, if I skip the second option," a familiar voice said from behind.

Cat turned to see Ken and Sherry walk out of the locker room.

"I always make allowances for a man of the cloth, Father Ken," the Admiral said with a chuckle.

Cat looked at the other three and said, "I take it we're playing doubles?"

"Seniors against juniors... You don't seriously think I'd take on those Heshe enhanced reflexes of yours, when I have the option of teaming up with them?"

"Never occurred to me, Sir..." Cat saw his head cock and eyebrow raise in admonishment, "...Bud"

"Better... Now, let's teach these young pups some humility"

Cat turned her Heshe enhanced reflexes off for the duration of the match, but even so, her natural skill, coupled with her perfect physical condition, meant that Ken and Shelly only scored in those infrequent moments when the Admiral couldn't get back to a well-placed corner shot.

As they were resting between rounds, the Admiral took a moment to talk long term strategy.

"If you'll forgive me for interjecting a little business with play..." he began. “As you can imagine, the recent D'lralu situation has galvanized the world government as nothing before. It seems clear, that there is a high degree of probability, we will be fighting them anytime we meet... At least, until (and if) we can find a way to come to peaceful terms with them.

That said, the D'lralu have come here at least twice that we know of. The Admiralty Board would like an option to fighting them in our own backyard. That SJ round, the Bowman deployed, scared the 'CaJebees' out of them."

"Frankly Bud, it did me, too. It's one thing to know on paper what something will do, but it's quite another to actually see it happen..." Cat mused.

"If the Bowman had been a little slower getting around the curve of Pluto, it would have been the last thing any of us would have seen..." Ken commented dryly. "It's a good thing God seems to want our Captain alive."

The Admiral grinned, "Why do you think I always want her on my team?"

"Good point!"

Cat was getting uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation. “You mentioned 'wanting other options'"

"Exactly. Our current priority is protecting Earth and other population centers, but as we build up the fleet, we are going to begin looking for ways to contain the D'lralu threat. This may mean taking the fight to them. I just want you all thinking about this, and actively looking for opportunities as they present themselves... We all clear on this?"