Guardian Stone 1: Stone Genesis (6 page)

"We are going to need a good solid officer corps. Josh, This is where I offer you a job and see if you are interested. We need structure and we need to have good people to manage it."

Col. Adams replied, "My wife Rosie and I were sitting with Bill and Joann when they made their decision. I had been thinking about the same thing. My wife looked at me when this happened and said 'well' with that look that long married folks know too well. Yesterday I submitted my resignation/retirement papers effective immediately. So I am foot loose and fancy free as they say and I do want in but please, please, please, not as a buck private." This brought a round of laughter and one Antoran advisor joined the laughter after Alex Stone explained the meaning of the reference to him with a grin.

"That is even better than I hoped, General. I am going to need a rough out of the command structure we will need ASAP." 

Josh said, "General?"

"Yes, and that is with four of those nice shiny stars and the Eagle, Anchor and Starburst. I need someone I know and trust as my number 2. If you are going to throw at me the excuse I used that you don't have the knowledge base you need for that function, then I should tell you that starting this evening you will be sleeping in a training machine, in your quarters, that by the end of 30 days will give you everything we can jam into your head that is not already there concerning military structure, administration, space tactics, etc. You will have the equivalent of the content of every war college on the planet as well as some additional languages. Including Glarin. Rosie will probably hate me for this, but your night-time mind is going to be pretty occupied for the next month or two." There was more laughter from everyone.

Sam thought to Hank, <
why not get Rosie started on all the languages we expect to encounter
.>

He thought back, <
excellent idea
.> and then continued, " and just so Rosie does not feel left out, there is a second machine in your bedroom for her that will make her the most notable linguist there is. She will be supplementing the languages she knows, learning a bunch she does not know and that includes the primary languages from the other planets I referenced as well as Glarin. We might just take up to three months for the pair of you." A groan came from Josh and a grin from Rosie with more laughter.

"Josh, joking aside, the machine is painless, assimilation is automatic and seamless. When you wake up each morning you will feel thoroughly refreshed. Barana can guide you in testing what you have learned. By the way, there are two learning machines in every bedroom. There are also two learning/medical machines in every dwelling unit. The latter is needed for installing enhancements. We will also be installing Command enhancements. There are several levels of enhancement, but we can talk about that at another time. The manpower we draw on really needs to be multinational and even interstellar. We have four good worlds with candidates out there who we will need to draw from. Looking down the road, in a few hundred years there will be a fifth planet to draw from."

"Next related item is a civil issue that can dramatically impact military capability and efficiency. The Antoran civilization does not suffer from a problem we have on Earth, namely, crime. When we start mixing our various civilizations together, we have to be prepared for that eventuality. This is an issue that I believe we will have to deal with harshly. How we deal with it must be firm and even-handed. I would ask that Alex, Mary, James and Louise Stone take on this project with Fador and advisors of his choosing."

"My initial thought is eviction, restoration to physical condition prior to service on the station that includes removal of any enhancement devices but I am happy to defer to your decision. My view may be too harsh. I do not wish to return a criminal to Earth with advantages he or she did not have prior to coming here. This would result in a return to Earth normal longevity unless they elect colonization. The work skills gained are not likely to be usable in a society without the technological base to which it can be applied. I would ask you to work on a structure that deals with it. Drug use will not be tolerated. Repeated alcohol abuse will not be tolerated. Assistance and counseling will be offered. Drunkenness will not be an accepted excuse for activities committed while so impaired. You will have to define abuse. Barana has standing instruction that anyone with a blood alcohol content of 0.06 is to be transported to a holding cell in the military sector. Those are some of the basic tenets that I would ask you to flesh out. A code of conduct for both civilian and military personnel."

"Barana will be the provider of fact in such cases since she can provide full and indisputable evidence. The mere attempt to commit a crime is sufficient for eviction. This is an issue where we have to be pretty resolute. You will essentially be establishing a court system and determining what exceptions are acceptable. There will be a single court system for anyone living on station that is involved in a criminal act and that includes both civilian and military personnel. Strictly military issues will be dealt with via Captains Mast or Court Marshal. This will include such things as AWOL, desertion, dereliction of duty, conduct unbecoming, disobedience of a lawful order, striking a superior, and things of that nature. We will not protect troops for their misdeeds just because they are military. Also note that colonization is a potential option. Conditions will need to be established for that option."

"Now, that brings us back to where we started, the new group of Glarin. We have these questions that we started with and need to figure how we can get answers to them. Anyone have any thoughts on how we might proceed."

Fador rose and calmly stated, "Yes, I have a suggestion, let's go ask them." This startled almost everyone there except Hank, Josh and Bill. Fador continued, "You Americans have a saying that seems to fit this situation, something about going straight to the horse's mouth. I cannot perceive how we might resolve your questions short of a face-to-face confrontation. I think it is reasonable to go straight to the horse's mouth and ask. Our shields will prevent any opportunity for contamination or damage from them. We have the ability to kick them out of FTL where they are then vulnerable to the stations weapons. If they talk to us, we may get the answers we seek. If they fire upon us, that is an answer of sorts and you can respond in kind. In the meantime our AI's will be close enough to conduct a more thorough scan than we have had in the past. That alone is worth pursuing. That might give us our answers involuntarily or confirm or refute what they tell us. I would suggest we meet them with four - Type 2's and one Type 1. Use the Type 2's to bump them out of FTL. I understand that it should take them about 2 weeks to re-charge their capacitors sufficiently to let them again enter FTL and another 2 weeks to get back to top speed. That should get their attention. Their ships are considerably smaller than ours, about 10 miles long, as I understand it. While their capacitors are down, they will likely not have shielding capability. So unless they are suicidal, they should be willing to respond to a hail particularly when four vessels more than 9 times their size suddenly un-cloak before them and hail their fleet. The Type 1 would remain cloaked unless needed."

One of the Antoran advisors added, "I must agree, I am Ter-Amin and my specialty is scanning systems and analysis of data from those scans. The scans we have of the Glarin ships are old and were conducted from a distance of about 2 light years. This means that while we have a pretty good understanding of the ship and its contents, the fine detail is lacking. This suggestion would give us a basis for comparison to see where the differences lie. Honored Barana would you please display the scan of the Glarin vessel we have and show markers to provide scale. The review of this original scan convinced us that the maximum speed was 6xSL. I won't bore you with the details but these items are the capacitors and are an integral part of a number of systems but primarily drive and shielding. Their atmosphere and its controls appear to be on a separate system. Most interesting however are these areas highlighted in red. They contain stasis units for about 700,000 persons. It would appear that they expect flights of long duration and have replaced creature comforts with this arrangement or, they are originally designed as evacuation ships. When we release a power surge at or near them, it causes the type of capacitors they are using for FTL to discharge every bit of its energy that must then be recharged and that is a time consuming exercise. In the meantime, they sit defenseless in space. It would appear that their weapons do not require the same capacitor banks to operate so they may still have some teeth. The stasis system is also on a different system that would not be affected by the power surge. The stasis area appears to be separately shielded and contains a separate power source with backup. It also takes up a relatively small part of the total volume of the usable space in the ship, about tube near LM3 on the ship that is 904' in diameter and about 1800' long. That area is essentially a capsule within the ship. Why so many is still a puzzle. We need to be close enough to do the kind of precision scan that only proximity will allow. We should be able to read them down to the very circuit boards and controls they utilize. In theory we could fully replicate one of their ships. That would be most advantageous in dealing with the main group. It would allow for precision targeting that I am sure the Glarin do not suspect is even possible. I urge you to accept Fador's suggestion in this matter. The amount of knowledge we could acquire about our foe is huge." With that he sat down.

"Anyone else have any thing else to add to this suggestion" asked Hank. Josh rose and said, "I concur, Fador and Ter-Amin have posed an excellent argument for this course of action. It just makes good sense." He sat down.

Hank said, "I agree, let's do it. Now we have to get the personnel to operate our weapon systems should we need them."

"At some point, we will need to go public. We will need to recruit. Initially, I do not want a preponderance of greenhorns here just for the sake of filling slots but I am not going to rule out their inclusion. There are also many good people in third world countries that just do not have the education to be effective but we have the ability to provide them the necessary education and skills in a fairly short time. It is going to occur to the politicians down there that we are only selecting the cream of the crop. That is not going to sit well. Also we may be barred from the recruiting we need to do. However or whatever they feel, we are still going to recruit. I expect that I will be visiting heads of state and getting in the door may be a challenge. I think in some cases we may go for something spectacular. At the moment I am leaning toward a worldwide broadcast to let the people of Earth know what is coming, that we have the means to stop it but it will require their help. Otherwise we pack up our bags and move to the next system willing to help. I do not expect we would do that even if there is resistance but they do not know that. In any event, I am reluctant to play that card so it will stay on the back burner."

"We will need a good screening process. Sam and I will be working with Barana to assure we have something that is useful and effective. We do not want radicals or extremists on Station unless they are in stasis and are being shipped somewhere. Fador has agreed to furnish me with the list of candidates that have already been vetted so we can start with those as a core group to the extent they are willing to sign on. We are going to go for people that have been through a rigorous training regimen. That will provide some preference to those with Marine Corps, Navy Seal, or Special forces type training. We will initially recruit persons from the elite services regardless of nationality. We will have to be pretty careful to avoid unwittingly weakening a country to the point of leaving them vulnerable to their neighbors."

"I have given this quite a bit of thought and it occurs to me that many that fit this description are no longer in active service. Some have retired. Some have done an enlistment or time in service and moved on. Some may have been disabled and discarded. Some are war vets who were not able to regain full use of their physical abilities. As you know, the medical capabilities of this and other stations is so far beyond what Earth's best is capable of providing as to appear to be magical. We can identify such persons and offer them opportunities that they would have thought closed to them. If they meet our screening standards the offers will be hard to refuse. Do not mis-understand, I will not be in the business of breaking up families. If the offer is not attractive to the whole family, it will be taken off the table. The offer includes living on the station for the duration as a family unit. The offer goes to male and female. A great deal of the screening for this will be in Barana's able hands, figuratively speaking. Think on this because I do not wish to overly disrupt the world."

"I do want to have one Type 1 station and four type 2 stations ready for duty in one year with 10% of their warships manned and ready for use. I want to have another two Type 1 stations and eight Type 2 stations ready for duty in two years also with 10% of their warships manned and ready for use. We will build from there. I want to be fully ready to send out half of the fleet to confront the main force in 10 years."

"George, I have not left you out of the picture," he continued. "I need some guidance on who to approach and how. In some cases I will need someone to open the door for Sam and I. If you wish to move on station, I will assist you to assure that your employees are not left out in the cold. There should be more than enough jobs to assure they all are taken care of. I know that is your interest. If you wish to stay where you are in the short or long term, you will have security better than that of the president and no one will know it unless they try to penetrate it. We can talk about how you might like to proceed over dinner later this week."