Theogony 1: Janissaries (14 page)

“That is why the Psiclopes have said that their decisions
are flawed, and why they do things the way that they do,” said Calvin. He had
asked his two XOs and his two senior enlisted leaders to come to his office to
pass on what he had learned about the Psiclopes. “They don’t want us to say
anything about their influence on Hinduism, as they kind of screwed up on that.”

“So basically, they have their own version of the ‘Prime
Directive?’” asked Bullseye.

Top looked confused. “What is the Prime Directive?” he
inquired.

“The Prime Directive is a concept that is common throughout
a lot of the science fiction TV shows and movies,” replied Bullseye. “It
forbids space-traveling races from interfering with developing civilizations.
Until a society develops space travel on its own, the societies that already
have it have to stay ‘hands off’ of them.”

“To answer your original question,” said Calvin, “yes, they have
their own version of the Prime Directive. And yeah, they ended up violating
it.”

“No kidding,” commented Top. “Hmmm...It would seem to me
that the Indian member of my squad, Rajesh Patel, might be able to use that to
get closer to the Psiclopes. Maybe he can learn something more about them. He
is a Hindu and would probably have at least a little more in common with them
than the rest of us. We wouldn’t have to tell him that the Psiclopes started
Hinduism, just that they seem to have beliefs that are similar in nature to
his.”

“Good idea,” said Calvin. “I’m sure the philosophies have
diverged a little in the intervening millennia, but they should at least share
a common perspective.”

“Sir, we really need to limit how much time you spend with Arges,”
said Ryan. “You’re starting to sound like him with your ‘intervening millennia’
and ‘common perspectives.’”

Captain James Deutch, formerly the commanding officer of the
United States’ cruiser USS
Vella Gulf
, walked onto the bridge of his new
command, the spaceship TSS
Vella Gulf
. He stopped to look at the picture
of the last Eldive commanding officer that still hung on the back wall. The previous
commanding officer looked vaguely like an archaeopteryx, the first bird on
Earth, and had three-fingered ‘hands’ on the leading edges of his wings. The
previous commander had a proud look, similar to an eagle, and Deutch wondered
if they had all looked that way. He would never know, as the race had decided
to commit suicide at the end of the last Drakul war. It was Deutch’s duty to
see that this mission came off flawlessly, so that same sacrifice wouldn’t be
required of humanity.

No pressure there. Much.

He had set the screens to show the lunar landscape around
the ship and watched as two of the Vipers launched on a training mission.
Although the Russians, and the Soviets before them, had developed cruiser-class
ships that carried aircraft, his ship was the first U.S. cruiser to carry more
than a couple of aircraft. While the ship’s name proclaimed it to be Terran, in
his heart it was still a U.S. ship, at least for the first time out. There may
be foreign nationals in its squadron and platoon, but the crew of the TSS
Vella
Gulf
was all American, and he was proud of them. Almost all of his men and
women had received their implants, and most of them were studiously going over
the new TSS
Vella Gulf’s
systems back in Norfolk onboard the USS
Vella
Gulf
. On a rotating basis, some of the sailors still continued to do the
‘normal’ things topside, like scraping and painting, to give the impression
that the ship was still preparing to go on cruise. In just three more weeks, though,
they would be working on the TSS
Vella Gulf
full time. His sailors would
come to work as normal, but would then shuttle up to the ship from a secluded
place on base like Deutch and the Viper pilots had just done. A few of his
crewmembers would stay in Norfolk, so that it would still look like the ship was
manned, but most of the crew would be spending their days on the moon.

He laughed to himself, remembering a day in early 2013 when
the head of NASA had said that America wouldn’t be returning to the moon within
their lifetimes. And yet, here Deutch stood, on the moon. It wasn’t as if the
view was so great, as it was only dust and craters (including the really
impressive crater that the platoon had made on the horizon), but
he was on the
friggin’ moon!

Solomon spoke, startling him. “
I don’t mean to intrude,
but is there something I can help you with?
”

“No,” said Captain Deutch, “I’m just looking at the view and
contemplating the next few months. Although I am looking forward to our
deployment, there is a lot to take care of before we go.” He paused for a
moment and then asked the ship’s AI, “What about you, Solomon? Are you looking
forward to going back out to the stars?”

“
I am not programmed for emotion,
” replied Solomon, “
but
if I were, I believe that I would say, “Yes.” I was created to be a warship,
not just a base to operate a transporter beam from. It is good to have people
back onboard again. There is an energy that they bring. It is also good to have
a purpose again. Like the other ships of my class, I was built to serve the
Eldive; however, I alone was not at their final battle. I have no wish to be
destroyed, but the loss of the Eldive has taken away my purpose, my reason for
being, leaving me somewhat...unfulfilled.
” Captain Deutch couldn’t tell if
the pause was a feature of Solomon’s programming or if the AI was actually
searching for a word to describe something going on inside it.

The AI continued, “
I am a warship, and I was meant to
fight. It is good to be going out to accomplish my primary mission, even if it
is no longer with the Eldive. I am...happy...to be going with you humans in
their place. I believe the Eldive would have approved of you; you are more
similar in nature than you might believe.
”

“Well, thanks,” said Captain Deutch, “but we’re not supposed
to fight. We’re supposed to explore and hopefully come back with a replicator
that will allow us to build additional warships. If we get into a fight and are
destroyed, it is likely that the human race will be destroyed, as well.”

“
I am familiar with the parameters of the mission
,”
replied Solomon. “
It is, however, unlikely that you will be able to avoid
fighting. Your race is weak, and there are many predators in the galaxy. It is
almost a statistical certainty that you will have to fight at some point.
”

“Can we win a fight?” asked Captain Deutch.

There was a long pause while Solomon ran scenarios. Finally,
he answered, “
It depends on what race we meet, as well as the number and
types of ships that they have when we meet them. One cruiser, no matter how
good, is no match for an entire battle fleet. It is likely that we will be
destroyed if we go out on deployment.
”

“Well, that’s comforting,” replied Captain Deutch.

“
While we will likely be destroyed if we deploy,
”
said Solomon, “
if we do not deploy, the odds are even greater that this
system will be found by an aggressive race within the next 20 years, and
humanity will either be enslaved or completely wiped out. Our mission has a
very small probability of success, but that is greater than no chance at all.
”

Captain Deutch sighed. Damned if you do; even more damned if
you don’t. And every day that passed increased the likelihood of an alien race
finding Earth. All his life, he had always looked forward to Christmas and
taking a break from work. For the first time in his life, he looked forward to
Christmas being over, so he could get off vacation and get his crew
back to
work
.

It was the moment Calvin had waited for. He was
finally
going to fly one of the Vipers.

As he plugged his suit into the receptacle that connected
him to the fighter’s oxygen and communications system, the ship’s display came
on at the right side of his vision. This was just too damn cool,
he
thought. It was all green, undamaged and working normally. Next to the picture
of the ship were indicators for all of the ship’s systems. Life support, power,
offensive and defensive systems, and inertial compensators were all in the
green.

“Welcome Calvin,” the ship’s AI said in a sultry female
voice. The AI was not as capable as Solomon, but it also had far fewer systems to
interact with and control. “What are we doing today?” asked the AI.

Calvin plugged the chip that held the mission profile into
the computer. “We’re going to go out and get some familiarization on what this
ship can do. I’ve tried it out in the simulator, but it’s time to do it for
real. We’re going to go to Venus and Mercury; Venus because it has an
atmosphere and Mercury because it doesn’t. Maybe we’ll do a few weapons passes
on Mercury when we’re done.”

Calvin ran through all of the engine startup checklists with
his weapon systems officer (WSO), Captain Imagawa Sadayo. The Japanese WSO was
a hardworking officer who had more time in the simulators than any of the
others and more flights, five.

It didn’t take Calvin long to get all of his systems turned
on and ready. The AI gave him the green light that everything was ready to go.
“All set?” he asked Sadayo.

Calvin had heard that, like the samurai of old, the young
Japanese man often spoke in haikus or other forms of poetry. This time was no
different. “Winter moon in front. Who can know what awaits us. Let us go find
it.” There was a pause and then he continued, “I am ready. All systems
operational.”

With no one yet in charge of the ship’s air/space
operations, Captain Imagawa called Solomon for clearance to launch. If nothing
else, Solomon would keep them clear of any other fighters ‘airborne’ at that
time. “
Solomon,
Viper One
is ready for launch.
”

“
You are cleared for launch,
” Solomon replied. “
There
are no other fighters in the area.
Viper Four
and
Viper Five
are
currently on the other side of the sun practicing combat maneuvering. Launch in
five...four...three...two...one...launch!
” Solomon released the ties to the
Calvin’s fighter and gave it a compressed air push away from the
Vella Gulf
.

Once he saw that he had separation, Calvin took control and
flew the fighter up and away from the moon’s surface. “Engage shields,” he said
to Sadayo over the intercom.

“Engaged,” replied the WSO. “Earth cannot see us.”

Calvin looked down at the
Vella Gulf
, realizing that,
despite his intentions on a couple of occasions, he had never actually seen it
from the outside before. The ship was a little larger than the aircraft
carriers that he previously flown from, with a length of 1,300 feet and a mass
of 202,100 tons. It was not quite cylindrical, as it was 160 feet wide and only
130 feet tall. Its Helium-3 engines could accelerate it at 375 G’s.

He could see the nine closed hatches on each side of the
ship that covered its 18 anti-ship missile tubes and knew that each had a
magazine of 15 missiles, for 270 total missiles. He could also see the smaller
hatches below these for its gamma-ray lasers (‘grasers’), its counter-missile tubes
and its point defense laser clusters. There were mounting points for six of the
Viper
-class space fighters and one of the
Reliable
-class shuttles
on both the front and the back of the ship, although it currently only had six space
fighters and two shuttles onboard.

He also got his first good look at the fighters that were
attached like parasites to the outer hull. Shaped like spades from a deck of
cards, they massed 14,300 tons and were about 150 feet long, with about 75 feet
sticking out beyond the
Vella Gulf
. The fighters were powered by an
innovative (at the time when they were initially designed, anyway) fusion plant
that could accelerate the little ships at 650 G’s. For armament, they each carried
a large 2.2’ aperture graser and could mount four large anti-ship missiles, two
under each wing. In addition to their offensive weapons, they also mounted a
4.7” defensive laser that could fire in any direction and carried a variety of
counter-missile decoys.

Time to go find out what this one can do, he thought, as he
accelerated toward the sun.

Viper 01
, Mercury Orbit, December 12, 2018

Three hours later, Calvin had a much better feel for the
Viper than he had with just the pilot implant download and simulator training.
Although getting the ‘muscle memory’ of how to fly the spacecraft would take
many more flights, he at least knew what the fighter could do now. He had flown
it in both space and through Venus’ hellish atmosphere and was comfortable in
both environments. Even though Venus had a surface pressure 90 times that of Earth,
with clouds of sulfuric acid moving at 220 miles per hour, he had found the
fighter to be nimble and full of power as he flew at low level along the seven
mile high Maxwell mountain range. The only thing that he hadn’t done yet was
use the fighter’s weapon systems, which was why he had come to Mercury.

Not only was Mercury close by, but also it was poorly
surveyed, as only one spacecraft had ever been to it. That spacecraft had only
mapped 45% of Mercury’s surface, giving him plenty of unsurveyed terrain to use
for target practice. As he flew over the planet, he saw a large rock that
projected from the middle of a relatively flat plain. The rock had several
large craters in close proximity to it. “Do those craters look fresh to you?”
he asked his WSO.

“It is hard to tell,” answered Sadayo, “but it looks like
many of them occurred recently. Do you think someone else has been here?”

“It’s hard to tell, but it looks like it,” replied Calvin.
“The ground around that rock kind of looks like the bombing ranges back home.”

Sadayo brought his targeting system online. “Someone has
definitely been here before us,” he agreed, zooming in on it with his targeting
optics. “There are laser burns on the rock, as well.”

“OK,” said Calvin, “mark that rock as our target, and we’ll
use it to make some weapons runs. When we get back, make sure that everyone
else knows about it, too. Rather than shoot up the entire planet, we’ll just
use this area as our target range.”

After an hour spent in weapons practice, Calvin turned the
fighter back toward the moon. He realized that Sadayo hadn’t said anything in a
while and looked over at him. Sadayo seemed lost in thought.

“What’s your story, Sadayo?” asked Calvin.

Sadayo shook himself out of whatever thought he had been
lost in. “What do you mean?”

“What I’m asking,” replied Calvin, “is why are you here? You
seem to spend a lot of time thinking. I’m just wondering how or why you became
part of this squadron.”

The Japanese man looked at Calvin intently. “Like the
samurai of old, I believe that warriors should live by a code, whether you call
that code bushido or some other name. I believe in loyalty and honor to the
death.” He smiled. “It is my calling to be here,” said Sadayo. “My goal in life
is to die a good death with my honor intact. That is the only thing that will
keep my soul from suffering in the afterlife. I have a feeling that it is my
destiny to die here.”

That is not the answer you hope to get from someone flying
with you, Calvin thought. “Umm, you’re not planning on doing that today, I hope?”

“No,” said Sadayo with a chuckle, “today is not the day.”

“Good,” replied Calvin. “Please let me know when it is, so I
can make sure someone else is on the flight schedule with you.”

* * * * *