Alicia Jones 3: New Frontier (6 page)

Kristi was speechless, so I ordered, “Analysis please Al.”

Al replied, “I think it was the ship moving slightly. 
Even at all stop there is some movement.  While the black hole is active,
it drags the dark energy along with it, contains it relative to the sides of
the reactor.  I believe if the shuttle had been stationary, the dark
energy would have eventually dissipated without harm.  The delay was
because the ship moved slightly, but the dark energy didn’t, when it encountered
the walls of the reactor, it overcame the forces holding matter together,
releasing a nuclear explosion.”

I frowned, that was really specific.

“What data are you basing that on Al?”

Al replied, “The delay before the explosion because the
sensors saw the ship’s drift rate, and the radiation indicating a nuclear
reaction detected by the missiles’ scans, and the scan that detected the
missiles EM shields holding back the explosion.  I am also sure the EM
field around Earth, or any life sustaining planet, could easily block that
radiation.  It was not that high a yield due to the materials involved.”

Kristi grunted, “Well, at least we won’t destroy any planets
on accident.  Note to self, don’t use plutonium for reactor containment.”

I snorted a laugh and nodded, “Also, unless there is
catastrophic failure, and we have some warning that the singularity is failing,
we can safely eject.  I suspect catastrophic failure is only likely if our
ship is being blown up, which kind of renders the point moot.  What do you
think?”

Kristi nodded, “I’d say patent your new converter and
wormhole generator, and start the upgrade on our ship at least, for those two
things and my plasma cannons, or do you not trust it enough to sit on one yet?”

I shrugged, “I think it should be fine.  The nanites
keep the gravity emitters in constant top condition, and we’d need to lose over
half of the emitters before we were screwed.  Since they’re powered from
the black hole itself, and also have a very large and proven fusion reactor to get
it started and as a backup in case the energy converter fails, I can’t see a
reason to wait.  Al, submit the patents and start all upgrades on this
ship.”

Kristi grinned evilly, “Plus it will make your admirals
jealous when you have twenty-four turrets, and wormholes, so they’ll help fight
for the upgrade.”

I snorted, “That’s so wrong, but true.  Even better, if
I turn out to be wrong about it being safe, we’ll never know it.  Unless
of course, there’s an afterlife.  Want to get some food?  Not sure
when Al will be done with calibrations.”

Kristi nodded and got up, “Explosions always make me
hungry.”

As we walked out I asked, “Al, put my toys away please, from
the shuttle test?”

Al replied, “Recalling shield missiles to lab ship.”

Kristi shook her head, “That’s uncanny.”

I nodded, “I’ve been challenging him, part of the
test.  It kind of proves he can figure out what I really mean, the old Al
would have patiently said he didn’t understand the command.  Understanding
figurative speech is fairly impressive.”

Al interrupted Kristi’s response, “Started fabrication, and
patents are pending.  I’m not finished testing yet, but I have a few
recommendations regarding the wormhole drive.”

I lifted an eyebrow, “What are they?”

Al replied, “There seems to be a point zero two percent
variation so far.  In other words, if we target something ten thousand
light years away, the destination aperture could show up exactly at that point,
or anywhere in a two light year spherical radius.  Because of that, I
suggest we never aim right at where we want to go, but at least two point five
light years outside our target solar system for every ten thousand light years
we attempt to travel.  I suggest that feature be automatic.  It
shouldn’t have much impact, even if we come out four light years away, that’s
less than a minute at full speed FTL.

“Secondly, I suggest each wormhole drive be calibrated
independently, and at least every three months because of the minor variations
in emitters and energy signatures even though each part is built exactly the
same under tight tolerance.”

“Fair enough, I agree.”

Coming out inside a sun or other planetary body was less
likely than winning the lottery, but why take the chance?

I waited a moment as we walked in the dining room.  He
didn’t have anything further to say so we grabbed some lunch…

I looked down on a planet that wasn’t pretty, but was at the
same time.  The water was a deep blue that lightened slightly around the
island chains.  There were two tropical storms I could see from orbit and
wondered if that would be a constant issue.  We could build for them, but
it would certainly make it harder to plant and farm.

About four fifths of the planet was covered in ocean, the
atmosphere was breathable, a little lower in oxygen than ours, and higher in
carbon dioxide, but not to toxic levels.  I’d imagine some light
terraforming, plant life, trees and the like, would change that.  The
atmospheric pressure was a little higher than Earth at sea level, and the gravity
was one point one of Earth’s gravity. 

The island chains seemed to be stable, and there was very
little apparent volcanic activity.  It actually made me wonder if the race
that had apparently seeded the galaxy with humanoid life, hadn’t had a hand in
the planets as well.  Mostly, the life giving worlds we found were
suitable for human habitation.  No thicker atmospheres, or gravity we
can’t live in, the list goes on.

I had no proof of course, but the coincidences associated
with life in the Milky Way galaxy just never seemed to end.  Even the
axial tilt was similar to Earth, although a little smaller.  It looked
like this planet would wobble between eighteen and
twenty
degree
tilt, opposed to the twenty-two to twenty-four degrees of
Earth.  That would, I believe, make the seasonal changes a little milder,
but the North and South poles a little less livable than on Earth.

That was the limit of what our sensors could tell us,
compositions, forces, and elements.  Several shuttles with scientists were
sent down for a survey, looking for any virus or bacteria that may be inimical
to human life or the kind of life, such as animal and plant, that we needed to
transport here to make it an independent colony.

The scientists of course would be wearing their skin suits
sealed up, and go through decontamination protocols when returning to the
ship.  I was curious to go down there, but didn’t see the point if I
couldn’t breathe the air, so I’d wait.  It shouldn’t take more than a
couple of days I’d imagine.

If the planet did pan out, and so far we’d seen no
indications it wouldn’t, the plans called for leaving behind twenty ships with
a rear admiral lower, and moving twenty platforms and five thousand Shield
missiles to the system.  At that point… the civilians would get a shot at
creating Earth’s first colony.  I was kind of excited about it, but at the
same time I knew I was getting ahead of myself, the planet needed to fully
check out first.

It would be about twelve hours.  The various groups
would release a cloud of medical grade nanites to check for anything that might
be poisonous and couldn’t be managed for humanity.  Without the power of
the human body, the nanites would run out of power in that time, but it was
plenty long enough for them to dig into and sample everything they came across.

Al said, “You have a priority call coming in.”

Priority call?  “Answer it, Hello?  This is
Admiral Jones.”

I was surprised by the voice of Vice President William
Tanner.  Although from the country where I was born, he wasn’t my favorite
member of the board, and he wasn’t around very much.  I could also tell by
his voice he was very angry.

“You have a damned leak.”

My mind immediately jumped to my latest round of inventions,
thanks to the power jump of dark energy.  But I dismissed it after a
moment as ridiculous.  Kristi would never betray me, and Al was incapable
of it.  No one else even knew yet.

After a few seconds I answered, “Could you explain that sir,
what was leaked?”

The VP said loudly, “The damned planet, what else would I be
talking about?”

Huh, I was at a loss, “So, what happened exactly, and what
do you want me to do about it?”

He growled, seriously.  Growled at me.  I rolled
my eyes, but only because it was an audio only call.

“Someone leaked we found a planet we could colonize to the
press.  It all snowballed from there, all the governments in the USFS are
being pressured by companies and individuals to allow them to go to the
colony.  All the board members are being pestered by calls to make sure
that their country is the first to be able to reach out to the stars. 
It’s a damned nightmare!”

Oh.  I was still waiting for him to tell me what he
wanted me to do about it.  I was in charge of space, by their authority,
rules, and laws.  What the hell did the problem have to do with me?

“So, what did you want me to do exactly?  Sir.”

I frowned at the silence, wondering if he was having a heart
attack or something.  Finally, he spoke.

“Find the leak, throw them in the brig, or out a damned
airlock.  I don’t care which.  We planned originally to have a
lottery of sorts, with seven entries, to decide who gets to go first.  I
don’t think that’s going to be possible now.”

To be fair, I had no idea what political pressure he was
under, but whatever was happening, he needed to get a grip.

“Alright, I’ll do my best to track it down.  The
problem is, I don’t think this information was classified at all.  It came
in as part of the scan data report, and I sent my admiral to handle it along
with twenty other ships.”

It was probably my fault, since I didn’t tell Sergei it
should be treated as sensitive.  Who knew the world would go crazy over
it?  Then again, it probably would have happened anyway, it wasn’t like
the information could have been hidden for long.  But then, if who was
going was announced with the information of the find, it probably would have
cut most of it off before it built up so much momentum.

Yes, I was completely waffling back and forth in my mind,
and arguing both sides.

He sounded a bit less mad, and tired, when he replied, “You
do that, let us know what you find out.”

He disconnected the call.

“Al, contact the other ship AIs, find out who made personal
calls right after I sent those orders out, and up to a half hour later please.”

Al replied, “On it.”

I grinned.  Not only was Al understanding imprecise
speech, he was using it.  Granted, on it wasn’t a very obscure way to say
acknowledged, but it was progress.  I pondered the dilemma, there were a
lot of large Island chains out there.  Maybe… we should just share the
first colony world.

I closed my eyes and sighed.  Right, and then we could
have a bonfire and sing songs together.

I spent a little time going through the news reports to see
for myself.  If anything the vice president was understating things a
bit.  There were a lot of commercial and private groups that actually had
vessels built and ready to go, sitting on the ground on Earth and waiting for
word to take off.  Apparently they were waiting with baited breath. 
Even worse, nationalism was resurging, rather than coming together when there
was an alien threat, the old competition to beat out and become the front
leading country was resurging.  Kind of like the race to the moon,
everyone wanted to be the first to start a colony.

I’d say it was a human thing, but hadn’t I just raced out
here to take my own look?

There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with that,
competition is the reason we advance so quickly, as opposed to the more sedate
races of humanoid live out in the galaxy.  However, it could be a problem
at this stage, we should be working together to reach out, and defend from
other races, even if those other enemies were a little shadowy right now.

I wasn’t worried war would break out on Earth or anything,
but I was worried the USFS could lose their mandate, if enough people demanded
change things may break down again.  The last thing Earth needed to do is
have seven plus space navies roaming the stars, anything they did would be
reflected back on Earth.  It was the one place we
had
to present a
united front, and I hoped I was worrying about nothing. 
Overreacting.  I guess I’d find out.

The planet checked out.  I also read the report I was
about to submit, with Sergei’s report appended.  It not only described the
planet, it also had the information the VP had asked for.  It turned out
to be more than one person.  At least three hundred people had called
someone, family, friends,
etc
…  None of them had
called the press directly, so I didn’t append any of the names or arrest
anyone.  After having time to think about it, I realized it wasn’t their
fault.

There was nothing from the board to say the scanning data
was top secret, but then it probably should have been, which means it was down
to a failure of communication, from the top.  I couldn’t tell them it was
their fault, and I would only admit to partial fault.  I should have
thought about it myself, but in truth, it never occurred to me.  I did
make some recommendations now, for them to send out official orders that discoveries
through the stealth sensor net be classified until they could be reviewed.

I’d have been happy to do it myself, to my vice admirals on
down, but it really needed to come from them.  However, thanks to the VPs
call, I did send out orders to classify any information gathered on the planet
until it could be reviewed and disseminated by the board.  Sure, it was
closing the airlock after the air was gone, but it would prevent it from
getting worse.

I sighed, wondering if I’d have a job this time tomorrow,
because I was sure the board would never admit they’d messed up to the various
world leaders, and that meant they needed a scapegoat.  I ordered Al to
send it anyway, what else could I do?  The one thing I wouldn’t do is
order any of my people locked up for violating orders that didn’t exist outside
of the vice president’s imagination.

Strangely, the idea of upgrading shields popped into my
mind.  Maybe the board would say no to that one, or for all I knew all the
upgrades Kristi and I had come up with would be shot down.  But in a weird
way, advancing science was what I lived for, and for me it was a lot like
comfort food would be.  Sure, I was a beautiful young woman, but I was
undoubtedly a huge geek.

“Al, access the double shields file and implement two more
levels on the test lab ship.  I want to see what the gains are in shield
strength with double and triple shielding.”

I shrugged to myself, even if the board wouldn’t buy it,
that doesn’t mean I couldn’t put it on my personal ships.  It might even
improve things with the old fusion reactors powering it, although it would
almost double the cost of each missile, even I flinched at that.  Still,
the ships that held actual people, it was hard to put a price tag on their
safety…

I took one more look at the planet, and decided I needed to
get back to Earth before the board called me down to yell at me, or shoot
me.  As long as I was in the doghouse, I compiled a presentation for
possible upgrades.  I knew we were at the point where my suggestions
wouldn’t be so readily accepted, and they’d think about it for a while before
deciding if they were necessary.

I put in that the dark energy reactor, and converter, were
necessary to the other upgrades, but also included that shield strength and
speed would double without changing anything else.  Then I talked about
the other upgrades separately that could be built upon those two initial
upgrades.  Wormhole drive, vastly more powerful plasma cannons, and newer
shield configurations.  I knew they would say no to that last one, but if
we ever met an enemy we needed them for, I wanted the option already known and
out there.

The old ships could take about ten missiles before failing,
all at the same time.  It would be more accurate to say they can take ten
missiles a second, because the shield is constantly being maintained and
regenerated.  With the more powerful power source, they can take twenty in
a second.  I still had to verify it, but the math indicated it would take
forty with dual layered shields, and sixty with triple layered shields. 
The shields were separate to a certain extent, but they were interdependent,
the second would equalize with the first, and the third would equalize with the
second, and they were all being constantly regenerated.

It also illustrates how strong the new plasma cannons
were.  What would in theory take sixty missiles, would be accomplished by
three plasma shots within a second.  Of course, none of it was necessary
for today’s threats, the question was what would humanity run into tomorrow, as
we continually mapped out the galaxy, and other races followed the path I was
taking?