Warrior Chronicles 3: Warrior's Realm (9 page)

“I follow you so far. Go on, Captain.”

“What I said about saving time and space. We made the housing for the FTL drive the exact shape and size that is required for the black hole to operate. By adding or subtracting mass, we can control our sublight speed.”

“Okay, Captain. Tell me why it’s invisible though," Cort said.

“Oh, yes sir. Combined with the dark energy from the Alcubierre drive, the mass of the ship is well, neutrally buoyant, gravitationally speaking. When the black hole is perfectly balanced, it has no effect on the spacetime around it. It is even invisible on the other side of c. Tachyon nets cannot detect it either. We nullify the mass of the rest of the ship by altering the mass of the Hawking Drive anomaly or the dark energy from the Alcubierre drive, depending on our drive mode.”

“So the combined mass of the drive system is inverse to the mass of the ship,” Cort said.

“That’s
really
dumbing it down, but yes sir.” Book realized what he had said and blushed.

Cort decided to let the unintended jibe slide and moved on, saying, “You know Captain, back in my time I met Stephen Hawking. He was a smart-ass, but funny as hell.”

JJ turned to the General. “You met Stephen Hawking sir? How?”

“He was giving a lecture at Caltech and some bad people decided to kidnap him. My team resolved the situation.”

“Wow,” Book said.

“Why does her hull look like a Brillo pad?”

“A brillo pad, General?”

“The spongy surface of the ship.”

Book understood and said, “Ah. That is the ablative nanotube mesh. It absorbs energy and converts it for ship use. We got the idea from your HAWC suit. Not even photons can escape it.”

“One last question, Captain. You are clearly a scientist. As a rule, scientists aren’t willing to take life without thought. There will be times that you won’t be able to think about it when I give you an order. Can you follow me blindly?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Can you order the death of a planet? Can you kill other intelligent beings without a second thought?”

“Wow,” Book said before turning directly to Addison. “General, I do not know the answer to that question. Theoretically, yes. But I do not believe that is good enough for your purpose. I suppose I should stick to building the ships.”

“Does that mean you want to turn down the commission, Captain?” Jones asked.

“No sir. I do not want to. But I have to. I suppose we should bring that other crew on.”

“What about the rest of your people?” Jones asked.

Book was taken aback and said, “I’m sorry, we are all nerds, sirs. That being the case, you should probably stick to combat ready staff.”

“Keith,” Captain Jones said, “Do not ever apologize for being a nerd. Without nerds, men and women like the General’s fighters would be naked and hitting our enemies with sticks and rocks. And no matter how tough he is, General Addison cannot win with sticks and rocks. You give those of us on the front line a chance to win. Never forget that.”

“Thank you Captain Jones. General, if you will follow me, I will take you to your quarters. Captain Jones, the shuttle will return you to the
Remington
whenever you are ready.”

Cort said, “Wait, Captain. I want you to stay on board for the next couple of weeks. I will bring my own crew on, but I want you and your people to train them. You know my ship better than anyone else, and I want them to as well.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you. Now if you will follow me.”

--

“It’s good he knew his limits, JJ. And that he was willing to admit them makes him invaluable to us. I talked to him a bit as he showed me around the ship. He has no qualms about the war, he just knows he might not be the man to pull the trigger.”

“Agreed, General. But it brings to light another problem. We just don’t have the trained staff to man all the ships we have coming out of Phobos. Any suggestions?”

“Shadows. Put the trainees with active crews. Every person on every ship has a tagalong. Once you have every ship double staffed, split them and do it again. Pull the really good trainers aside and start a war college. I brought thousands of files from my time that teach strategy and tactics. Because we are in a three dimensional environment, pay special attention to the submarine training. That’s the closest analogy we have to the war we are in now. Fill the college with simulators and train your crews. I’ve got Mike Rage doing something similar with ground troops.”

“I am going to lose my ship, aren’t I?”

Cort decided not to tease her about her use of contractions. Like Rand, she was also adapting his speech patterns.She was too somber. “Not yet, Jade. Right now we don’t have a training platform. Until we do, you might as well use your ship. Continue your current mission, but find your replacement. I don’t even mind you staying in fleet, but you are the head of my navy. Right now that is a handful of ships that can work together, but I’ve got fifteen thousand people headed our way to man your ships. And that’s just the first wave. So once the last of the three
Remington
class ships is built, you become an admiral.”

“Fuck. That soon?”

“Yeah, but like I say, you can stay on a ship for awhile. Lots of Admirals float. You should keep Book at Phobos. He’s passionate about it. Make him an admiral, but keep him in the shipyards.”

“Yes, sir. Say, do you have any scotch on board with you?”

--

“I feel like I let the general down, sir," Book and Jones were in the wardroom having coffee when he made the confession to her.

“No, you did not. He hoped you would turn down the ship. You are too valuable building the Navy. Captains are easier to train than shipbuilders are. Your background makes you perfect for the job. The fact that your wife is an Addison helps too. He has no doubt of your commitment to this cause.”

“I married into the family before college. Chris was pregnant with our first. Once I was family, I found out the trust would pay for my education. But my wife and I both discounted the family legend. When he became public knowledge, we were shocked. A legend becoming reality inspires a lot of loyalty. That’s why I had to turn him down. I would not be able to forgive myself if I let that man down.”

“Keep building ships like the
Taurus
, and you will be just fine.”

“Yes, sir.”

AFS
Taurus

“Transition complete, passives coming online. Oh my gods!” On the main viewer, at zero magnification, was a massive ship. An angular barrel nearly a kilometer long and half that at its widest point, the giant cask was right in front of them.

Addison said, “Charge the point-defense railguns, but do not run them out.”

Five seconds later the tactical officer reported the weapons armed and charged. Cort turned to the sensor and communications officer and said, “Anything?”

“No sir. Passive sensors are clear, but I am recording everything. Wait. I am getting a signal from the target planet. I cannot decode it, but maybe the admiralty can do something with it. I do not think they know we are here. It appears Admiral Book did right by us, sir.”

“I want to blow the ship and transition to another part of the system at the same time. Suggestions?”

Navigation spoke. “It would take timing, but it can be done with the Gauss cannon, sir. I can program the ship to transition just as the plasma leaves the drive field. Where do you want to go?”

“Just inside the debris field. The one from the planet, not the ship.”

“Yes, sir. We will actually arrive before the slug impacts.”

“Do it, then.”

“Weapons and transition drive synchronized. Firing.”

The viewscreen changed to an image of the planet, then black space. The sensor officer said, “Twenty seconds until we have visual.”

“What?” Cort asked.

“Time delay sir. It has already happened, but the light from the explosion isn’t here yet. Ten seconds . . . Five. Four. Three. Two. One.” The screen lit up and immediately went dark again. “I am picking up multiple signals from the planet. I think they are launching ships.”

Cort said, “That was a quick response.”

Tactical responded to the General. “If they are the same species that diverted the crystal, we believe they utilize a tachyon detection system. If so, they knew the moment the explosion happened.

“It’s still damned fast. They had to have ships on standby.”
Who the hell are you bastards, and what do you want?
“Keep sensors going, and move us to the dark side of the planet. I want to get in close and get all the data we can. Then pull back to the planetary debris field,” Cort ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

An hour later the enemy formation returned to the planet and Cort ordered the
Taurus
back to the ship’s debris field. “I want to know everything we can without letting them know we are here.”

“We can drift around the debris and passively scan it, General. That should keep us black.”

“Do it. Then we will head back to the planet and you can drop my team.” Cort was impressed with the navigator who had taken temporary command of the ship just before the mission. The
Taurus
’s original captain had been killed when he opened the Jonah Drive System housing just hours before departure. A great tactician according to his record, he wasn’t a physicist and didn’t realize that once dark energy began generating the drive field, you could not open the chamber without being vaporized. After the ship was repaired, Admiral Cook ordered additional safety measures. Unfortunately, there was not a qualified captain available for the mission and General Addison made the decision to ship without one.

Three hours after returning to the wreckage of the alien ship, the
Taurus
had a complete image of the debris and was able to use the data to virtually reconstruct the ship like a child’s model. The navigator-turned-captain commed Cort and said, “General, this data needs to go back to the Federation. That puts us in a bind, because as much I would like to continue our stated mission, I think we need to go home, sir.”

“You got that much, Captain?” Cort asked as came fully awake.

“Yes, sir. We gathered so much data, I could sell these people spare parts. The only thing we are missing is what was in the path of the plasma slug, and we can extrapolate a lot of that. Admiral Cook and the weapons people really need this data sir. I could transmit it, but to do so could expose us to detection.”

“Alright, Neil. take us home. Drop me at Solitude on the way.”

“Yes, sir.”

Solitude Orbit

After the shuttle carrying Addison and his strike team left the bay, Neil Platt took a walk around the ship. He had already ordered the transmission of data to the Admiralty and was told to remain at General Addison’s disposal until further notice. He didn’t know how long he had to enjoy the command, but anything that kept him from Phobos also kept him from being replaced. Finally he made his way back to his quarters and began working on his log. The comm signal from Phobos shook him from a nap three hours later. “
Taurus
, Platt here.”

“Lieutenant Platt, this is Admiral Book. I apologize for contacting you at this hour, but you are needed at Argyre on Mars. Speral has agreed to transport you immediately.”

Here it comes. Goodbye, Taurus.
“Yes, sir. Who should I turn the ship over to?”