Archaea 3: Red (42 page)

*****

“Dak, you’re going to have to decontaminate this place if you ever want to use it again”, I grumbled through my pinched nose. The crab was coated with a hard crust of slime, freeze-dried by vacuum, but steadily growing more and more unbearable as it humidified.

“It’s definitely ripe
, Gene”, he replied with a grimace. “Janis, can you task an assembler to clean the crab?”

“
Certainly sir”, she replied instantly. “It will be easier to accomplish with the cargo bay depressurized, however.”

“I understand, Janis. Folks, let’s get back to work.
Yak and Shorty, I suggest you take a shower.”

“Together?” Yak asked with a smirk, despite a solid left from Shorty smacking into his shoulder.

“If you must, but get clean.” He kicked up towards the forward lock. “Pauli, what do you have for me?”

Pauli replied on comms,
“We have a course track and have a good guess on their destination.”

“
How good of a guess, son?”

“
Well, it’s the only colony on track with their course, and pretty isolated. The colony is on a water world called Aquan—”

“I’ve heard of Aquan…
it’s a pretty well established colony. Is this a Mexaco holding?”

“
That’s correct, sir – we have a lot of data on this planet. Mexaco runs a number of semi-autonomous heavy metal processing stations on the surface. The planet itself is almost entirely under water, though there are still some polar mountains that are under ice caps, the rest is almost entirely ocean.”

“How long ago did they leave, and how long of a run is it?”

“They left 23 days ago, sir. Based on their capabilities, Janis thinks they’ll probably arrive at their destination soon.”

“
Janis, how soon do you think they’ll arrive? Are we thinking within the next few weeks, days… or hours?”

“Hours, sir” Janis replied somberly
. “I am afraid it is hard for me to determine the precise time of their arrival.”

“
Well, in any case, we’re going to really have to put a wiggle in it I guess. Gene, are you on station?”

“Almost, sir”, I replied as the aft lock hatch cycled me through. I kicked across the engineering deck
, took my station, and started working through screens as fast as my old bones could go.

“Pauli,
did you find out anything else?”

“
Not much else, sir – we do have solid confirmation that M2 was involved in the data wipe, but nothing about the disposition of the colony.” Pauli replied.

“Well, that’s more than enough.
If they were here, and if M2 wiped the orbitals, they were here with bad intentions, and I think it’s safe to assume those colonists weren’t eaten by critters. Gene, I am going to need absolute one-hundred-percent flank speed immediately-if-not-sooner. What’s your status?”

“I’m ready, Dak”, I replied, checking my screens and flashing greens to the helm station.

“Outstanding. Janis, you have the conn.”

“I have the conn, aye”, she replied.

“Janis, please shape the fastest possible route to intercept Aquan.”

“Fastest route, aye”, she replied and the Archaea immediately started rolling. Yak and Jane were probably wedged against a wall of their showers with water going up their nose, but the Captain wasn’t waiting around.

“We are aligned, sir” she replied after a few moments.

“Thank you Janis, I have the conn.”

“You have the conn, aye.”

He called on the 1MC, “Yak and Shorty, are you out of the showers?”

Shorty
replied after a brief moment of silence. “I am now, sir, can I get dressed first? Yak should be on the bridge in a few minutes”

“Very well, Shorty, take your time and get decent.”

The alarm honked, jolting me out of my thoughts as always. “All hands, secure for acceleration. Prepare for out-system burn in sixty seconds. We’re going to be pushing it pretty hard folks, but not for very long… hang on, please.”

Here we go again. My boards were clear, and I gave my plugs a solid shove to make sure they were in good and deep.

This time, there wasn’t much in the way of ramp-up; at the zero-point, he punched it wide open and hurled us up to speed, with maximum compensation. I held on tight, shut my eyes, and waited for the quiet dreams of unconsciousness to take me away from the horrendous screaming fury of my station.

Then suddenly, almost before I had a chance to realize it, he dropped the burn. A blinding stab of headache lanced between my eyes as I gasped for breath, trying to recover
.

He honked the collision alarm once and opened the 1MC. “All hands, secure for slipspace, flank speed in 3… 2… 1…”

I increased the discharge axis to max scale so I could get a sense for how much power this maneuver would require. Unlike our last slip however, power dropped almost immediately, noticeably.

I zoomed the scale bac
k out and watched it plummet in a smooth descending linear curve as Dak opened the flood gates and pushed the psuedomass emitters to their maximum. Whatever he had was doubled, as the stasis field protected us completely from the effects of acceleration – there was no need to use one of the emitters for compensation.

The end result was deeply impressive.

My mouth grew dry at the thought of how fast we were going. The tokamak started to cycle a little deeper, as the load backed through the system, but it handled the draw well. Tuned as it was, and as we started with a really decent mil-spec tokamac, I wasn’t very concerned with pushing it like we were.

At one point in time, not too terribly long ago, I would have rather died than see us push even a hundredth of a percent of the amount he was pushing now… but that was before. The Archaea was a different ship now. I guess it wasn’t just the ship, I was also different.  We had all changed… except Dak. He was the same indomitable leader he’s always been.

An orange flash caught my eye. The power band was flattening out now, dropping dangerously low in some areas.

“Shorty, are you on station?” I called on comms, getting no answer.

“Skipper, we’re running out of current and I need to manage this. Do we know what will happen if Shorty’s systems lose operational power?”

“Should be fine, Gene,” he replied tersely. “Make it happen. I need every last watt, mister. Make it dark if you have to, and we can suit up if needed.”

“No need for that, Dak”, I replied working through the system switches, routing all power to the emitters. “The amount of power you’d get by doing that wouldn’t affect our speed more than a billionth of a percent.”

“Good point, Gene… power anything down you can though, to get us the power that matters. We are going all out.”

“Aye skipper”, I replied. I routed turret charge through as well, though it didn’t make too much of a difference, it was about all I had left unless I unplugged the coffee pot.

After a few more moments, we were flatlined.

The captain came on the 1MC in a smooth, drawling voice. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have reached our maximum cruising speed, and are now moving well in excess of fifty thousand times the speed of light.”

He paused to let that sink in.

“We are currently at material condition yoke, and should be arriving in Aquan in roughly seven hours. I suggest you all get rest, stoke up, drink coffee and finish any remaining projects. Gene, I need you in the machine shop on the double.”

“On my way”, I replied, immediately unclipping and kicking for the lock. I was grateful
to have something to think about other than how fast we were moving at the moment.

*****

“What’s going on Gene?” I asked, coming in with my hair still wet. “Captain Smith said I was needed?”

“Hey Shorty”
, Gene waved me over. “Janis needs a consult on her armaments for the suits and crab.”

I smiled, and scrubbed the last drops of water out of my ears. “Outstanding… what can I do to help Janis?”

“Jane, I need you to review the output report for these systems. Please check your screen now. Gene is reviewing power and materials data.”

I swiped through the report on my handset, clucking like a mother hen. “Janis, this speed looks to be way too high for railers.”

“It is significantly more energetic than current magnetic-mode railers, Jane, but my models show that it will be well suited for the materials I’ve used.”

I looked at Gene, who shrugged. He was scribbling notes in a side screen, referencing his handset. “Could be, Shorty… I am not done just yet, but it is checking out so far.”

I took another look, and did some calculations of my own. “Janis, that may very well be the case, but these velocities would be incredibly dangerous. The energy returns… I am not entirely sure it would be plasmic. It might be something else entirely.”

“
You are correct Jane.”

I did some more thinking. This was more than a little faster than a
railer; it was on an entirely new scale. “What does this do in simulation, when fired at maximum?”

“My model shows a high propensity for a
n energetic fusion event, Jane. Because of the potential for catastrophic damage, I have implemented in a range safety to prevent the weapon from discharging at velocities that could result in negative conditions for the suit operator.”

Negative conditions, indeed…
I stared cross-eyed at the values for a little longer. Gene had stopped entirely, and was watching me with a concerned scowl on his face.

“Janis, this is on the scale of a thermonuclear return, though not a very big one. I’m a little apprehensive about the impact of firing this, to be honest.”

“You are correct Jane, though the yield does change somewhat depending on the projectile used, with a standard plasticine round, the maximum yield will be 5.8332 kilotons, TNT equivalent.”

Gene and I traded a look, the kind of look you trade when you want to see if the other person has a better idea than you do. We both came up empty.

“Janis”, he started, “do you think it’s safe for Shorty and Yak to wield this kind of power? Even with a range safety, what if something unexpected happened, like something moved into the way of their shot?”

The thought had occurred to me as well.

“Gene, it’s important to note that the range safety I am implementing is not the only safety feature. Much like a hand railer can be cranked up to kinetic speeds, or dialed back so they won’t depressurize a station, these railers will have the same ability. The main difference is a much greater range, with a much greater yield if needed.”

She paused momentarily. “While I deeply value and appreciate your assistance, it may be helpful for me to share that what you are concerned about does not happen. I will not fail in my mission Gene. I will succeed.”

I shrugged, and nodded to Gene’s puzzled scowl. “Janis, that is good to know. Have you run this past the Captain?” I asked after another moment staring at the charts.

“Not yet, Jane, though I will as soon as I am done meeting with you.”

“Well, Janis, I may not be one-hundred-percent accurate on my calculations, but the way this is designed, the materials you’ve used… they look like they can withstand the stresses. This is an incredible design, by the way, just amazing.”

I couldn’t agree more. Both Gene and I could see the quality in the implementation and selection of materials for these weapons. It was also clear why this process had taken her so long to complete – the workmanship was exquisite, truly beyond compare.

“Well, I guess the real question here, is do we let them go into the field as is, or do we limit them somehow”, I added after another moment.

“Would you actually want to shoot something like this, Shorty?” he asked, immediately regretting it.

Of course I did. Who wouldn’t?

“Gene, I like guns, as you may have notice
d”, I started, with a smile. “Although I admit this is a little out of my league, given the proper range to target, shielding, and available cover… yeah, I’d really like to shoot something like this.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “
I was afraid you’d say that.”

“Well, it’s the old ‘pick the right tool for the job’ sort of question. It depends on what is needed. If I am trying to stop a grounder, I’d want to be able to dial
this way back, and just plink at it a bit, maybe blow some bits off of it. If I am trying to stop a ship from lifting, or hitting something hardened like a bunker, being able to bring the heat up a bit would be pretty nice.”

“I understand, Shorty… I think it’s crazy as all hell, but I understand.”

I laughed. “Gene, we’re going flank speed right now… do you know how fast that is?”

He scowled deeply at
the reminder. “No, though I can tell you it is well in excess of 50,000 C.”