Nu Trilogy 1: The Esss Advance (27 page)

When the news of the main alien ship heading toward Earth made it back out to the
Endeavour
, the ship was just a few days into its return trip back to Luna from Rickover. At first, everyone onboard was shocked into silence, but that ended quickly as the orders from the Admiralty came in just minutes after the receipt of the first transmission.

“
Endeavour,
this is Lieutenant Commander Bridgeman from Lunar Control. You are to alter course gradually so that you appear to be returning to Earth from Mars and not from Rickover. Since you are currently on the opposite side of the sun from Jupiter, and are heading in-system in the opposite direction from the alien ship, the shuttle itself should mask the output of your acceleration.

“Following this transmission, you will receive specific acceleration instructions to bring
Endeavour
past Mars and then onto a course for Luna. This change in course will lengthen your trip by thirty-five days, but it will mask the fact your point of origin was in the belt. We calculate that your supplies should be more than adequate for the extended trip based upon the number of passengers and crew on board.

“The aliens have also dispatched an interstellar ship heading away from sun in the general direction from which the aliens entered our solar system. You are to coordinate observations with
Discovery
over the next several weeks to determine where this ship is headed. The wide baseline from the two shuttles on opposite sides of the sun makes the two of you uniquely positioned to give us the most accurate observations. We have also included the coordinates from your current position that you can use to pick up the exhaust plume from the exiting alien craft.

“Again, we emphasize you are to use only point-to-point laser communication until advised otherwise. We have provided a list of each closest point of contact for these communications for your altered flight path. Bridgeman out.”

“Well, that was interesting,” Sted remarked from his stateroom office chair. He had been working with the communications officer on the bridge when the first transmission was received. At his request, the transmission had been routed simultaneously to his desk console. Recognizing the significance of what was happening, he had called Jessica into the office to listen as well.

“How do you think this will impact your work with AMC?” she asked.

“I really can’t say if the Admiralty will try to accelerate the development of the Epsilons or just mothball them for now because of higher priorities. We’ll just have to wait and see how things develop between the Navy and AMC down on Luna and take our cues from Cam. The report I was just trying to get routed to Cam will probably get transmitted in the next couple of hours, after the dust settles from all of this news. Meanwhile, I think I’ll see if I can be of any assistance with locating that alien ship heading out-system. I’m not sure who they have onboard with that type of experience.”

Jessica stood up. “Okay. I think I’ll bug that cute communications officer you were just talking to and see if we can get any idea of when to expect the aliens to reach Earth. I’m sure they will be there well before us, so it would probably be a good idea to see where
Endeavour
will be when they arrive.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sted replied, also standing up. “We can head out together since we’re going in the same direction.”

As they exited the cabin door, both speculated on how the extension of the trip would impact their personal lives and what might be in store for AMC when they finally reached Luna.

Since the intervention with Greece, AlbuTang had been pleased with the advancement of humanity’s war-making capabilities. No further interventions had been necessary. The formation of the Roman legions and the development of the extensive Roman Empire, however, appeared to be stifling the need for further advancement. It was time for another intervention.

Making direct appearances as gods to the Egyptians and the Greeks had been very successful in advancing humans into cooperative civilizations, particularly with the introduction of the written word. Now it was time to break those societies into factions that would vie with each other for dominance of each society.

AlbuTang decided to take on a new role in human society. Working from the bottom up instead of from the top down, the governor extruded a portion of himself into the baby of a simple young woman of the Jewish religion. It was time for the foretold Messiah to appear among humans. With many of the skills of the Nu bred into the Messiah, it would not be difficult to impress the humans with “miracle cures” for the sick or any other number of miraculous acts currently unattainable by the humans. The development of a new religion around the arrival of a miracle worker would attract the poor by the millions and would sow the seeds of destruction for the Roman Empire.

“Let’s call the meeting to order,” President Travers said. “We have asked Secretary Miller and Admiral Brooks to prepare a presentation for us on three specific topics: what are the possible motives of the aliens, what capabilities do we have, and what capabilities we might be able to develop to counter any alien threats to humanity. With that, I will turn the meeting over to Secretary Miller.”

Secretary Miller cleared her throat. “Thank you, Sir William. Let me start with what capabilities we have now and what is currently under development.

“As you all know, the original Council of Eight was formed to remove nationalistic control of space weapons technology from the hands of the United States, Russia, and China. Those forward-thinking business leaders commissioned the United Space Navy as the policing arm of their organization and refused to provide any space weapons technology to any of the individual countries.

“Since that time, the Navy has commissioned three space naval shipyards in Earth orbit, lunar orbit, and now in the belt. The Yuri Gagarin Shipyard in Earth orbit has produced thirty-eight Orbital class destroyers used for patrolling Earth orbit and lunar orbit activity. These destroyers have both orbit-to-ground and orbit-to-orbit missile capability as well as laser-based defenses.

“The Neil Armstrong Shipyard in lunar orbit has produced fourteen Asteroid class destroyers, three battleships, and three shuttles to move people and materials between the moon and the HG Rickover Shipyard in the belt. In addition, the Neil Armstrong Shipyard has produced four naval base platforms positioned in the belt to support our destroyers keeping the peace.

“The HG Rickover Shipyard was commissioned to produce three interstellar ships to allow humankind to spread its wings between the other stars in our galaxy. That shipyard has just come online over the past three months and was in the process of laying the keel of our first interstellar ship, we have named
Voyager III.

“To summarize, our current inventory of space-based naval ships is thirty-eight Orbital class destroyers, fourteen Asteroid class destroyers, three battle cruisers, and three shuttles.

“Individual mining companies have many smaller ships working in the belt, including mining platforms, foundry platforms, and small assay explorer ships used to locate appropriate materials on individual asteroids. Until recently, these ships would be considered insignificant compared to our current destroyer technologies. This is changing.

“The Navy has recently contracted with Asteroid Mining Company to produce a minimum of fifty Scorpion class ships based upon AMC’s Delta class assay ships. These Scorpion class ships will be small but potent weapons platforms designed for close-in fighting with bigger opponents, just as aircraft carrier jets were on Earth’s oceans.

“Rickover has already converted one of AMC’s Delta class ships and completed field testing over the past six months. They are converting four more of the Delta Class ships, and the conversions should be completed within the next two months.

“The AMC contract with the Navy calls for them to produce fifty additional Scorpion fighters at their lunar shipbuilding facilities over the next year. This is a rush development project. The Navy is providing the weapons and guidance systems so these ships can be incorporated into the fighters. These fighters have more than twice the speed of any of the other assay ships in the belt and have new defensive capabilities that should give them a decent chance to survive an encounter with the aliens in short engagements while hopefully inflicting serious damage on the alien ship.

“Our problem right now is getting the Scorpions into a battle. These ships are designed for short-range missions and require resupply after each mission. We have no space equivalent of the ocean-based aircraft carrier to bring these fighters to battle.

“We are repurposing
Voyager III
out at Rickover to take on the role of a space-based aircraft carrier instead of an interstellar exploration vessel. This is a much bigger project than developing the fighters themselves, and we estimate it will take a minimum of two years to get that ship operational.

“The Navy has no other weapons projects under development at this time. Fleet Admiral Brooks can field any technical questions you might have at this time on our current and future capabilities.”

“Thank you Madame Secretary,” President Travers said. “Ms. Schneider, this report was created overnight at your request, so I believe you should have first crack at questioning either Secretary Miller or Fleet Admiral Brooks. Let’s limit the questions to our capabilities for now. We should hold off questions concerning the possible motives of the aliens until after that part of the presentation.”

“I am very pleased to see that the Navy has seized the opportunity for building these Scorpion Class fighters,” Ms. Schneider said. “Fleet Admiral Brooks, how, specifically, do you plan on using fifty small fighters to take on that seven and a half kilometer behemoth coming our way?”

“We are currently in the process of developing strategies with Captain Sted Richardson, who is inbound from Rickover on the shuttle
Endeavour
. Captain Richardson assisted AMC in the development and deployment of their Delta class assay ships out in the belt and was a key architect in the refit of the five Deltas that are being worked into Scorpion class fighters. We have many tactical ideas under development, but they all have one goal in common. These assay ships supported one of humanity’s most powerful and advanced laser systems. These systems are used for boring holes in asteroids to determine their metal content as candidates for the accompanying mining platforms. If we can get a number of those lasers working together in close quarters with the alien ship, we should be able to drill some mighty big holes in it.”

“Thank you, Fleet Admiral,” Ms. Schneider replied. “I think we can leave the details in your most capable hands. Is there anything that the council can do to assist the Navy with these projects? And why are we limiting this to fifty ships?”

“If we think of anything,” Brooks said, “we will forward our requests through Secretary Miller for your consideration. Right now, we are in the planning stages. When we get to the development stages, we will probably need the Council’s assistance in both funding and removing stumbling blocks in our supply chains for acquiring the necessary materials for developing the fighters and the new carrier. As to why we ordered just fifty fighters, we have a limitation in the AMC construction facilities. These were designed to build commercial assay ships and mining platforms. They were not built for supplying the Navy. Those facilities would need to be expanded or a new facility opened to ramp up production any higher, and we simply don’t have the time.”

President Travers scanned the room. “Does anyone else have any questions regarding the first half of the presentation?” He paused for a moment. “Seeing no hands, I will return the floor to the Fleet Admiral for the second half of his report.”

“Thank you, sir,” Brooks said. “Speculating on the aliens’ motives is a risky business, because we know very little about them. The best we can do is consider what we might do if we were in their place.”

“As you all know, we were in the process of building our first interstellar space ship,
Voyager III.
Our plan was for
Voyager III
to proceed to some of our closer stellar neighbors and determine if there were any candidate planets that humanity could colonize. The overall goal is the expansion of the territory that humanity occupies in the stellar neighborhood.

“If we make the assumption that the aliens have the same basic motive, we can see how their actions support it. From what we have seen so far, every action the aliens have taken fits perfectly. We have seen them come into our system, refuel in Jupiter orbit, send sampling ships from Jupiter directly to Earth’s surface, and completely ignore every overture from us to communicate.

“It is the unequivocal opinion of our naval intelligence division that the aliens are planning to colonize Earth for their own purposes and humanity will be either ignored or destroyed if we get in their way. This is evidenced by the Lake Victoria debacle and the destruction of our camera-laden missile in Jupiter orbit.

“Furthermore, the dispatching of a smaller interstellar ship back to their point of origin suggests we can expect the appearance of more of these aliens sometime in the near future, depending on the distance that return ship has to travel to make contact with the alien base. We are trying to plot the course of that interstellar ship to give us some idea of their point of origin.

“We have no idea what to expect when the main alien vessel reaches Earth, but we are assuming the worst-case scenario. By ‘worst-case’, we mean the total extinction of the human race. We believe we may be entering a fight for our very existence.”

His report was met with stony silence.