Nu Trilogy 1: The Esss Advance Page 16

AlvaResh had been very satisfied with progress until the last 100 million years. Life on the planet had seemed to be progressing into ever more complex and aggressive species. The entire Nu team was extremely happy with the aggressiveness of the microbial life. However, the evolution of a species that could take on and defeat the Esss had now become sidetracked. The current dominant species on the planet seemed to have reached a plateau, and there was no sign of real intelligence developing. The large animals were powerful, fast, aggressive, and, unfortunately, stable. They did not need intelligence to survive, and there was little chance they would ever evolve into something that could escape the planet’s surface.

  Reports had been received that the Esss had now arrived in the galaxy and were starting their march from the rim to the center. Something had to be done to accelerate progress in finding a species that would have a chance of defeating the Esss once they arrived.

  The solution to the problem was obvious but dangerous. Another major extinction event was necessary to topple the dominant species and allow some of the smaller, more agile species a chance to develop.

  AlvaResh consulted with several of the local caretakers, and it was decided to send a comet crashing into the planet that would kill off most, if not all of the larger land animals. The key was selecting the right-sized comet to get the result that was needed without completely wiping out all life.

  Chapter 55 – The Esss Arrival at the moon

  The scout leader directed the team to stream around the large moon on its way to the planet, recording everything they found on the moon. The leader took the path that would allow it to record the area where the local population was most concentrated. Any intelligence gathered here might assist with the larger assignment of mapping the planet.

  As the three scouts approached the moon, they were bombarded with low-level laser beams of the type used by the team for point-to-point communications. There did not appear to be any threat to the trio, so the scout leader reminded the others to ignore this as well as the radio frequency communications.

  As the leader approached the lunar base, it noted the many types of spacecraft both on the moon’s surface and in orbit. All of these ships were recorded, as was all of the activity around the base. So far, there appeared to be no hostile activity toward any of the scouts.

  Upon completion of the maneuver around the moon, the leader gathered all of the recorded data and beamed it back to the base ship still orbiting the large gas giant. Protocol called for updates to be sent after each encounter so that no data would be lost should the scout ships be compromised by the local population.

  Chapter 56 – Active Laser Scan

  “Bunting,” the vice admiral said as he accepted the call from Lunar Control. It was from said Lieutenant Commander Bridgeman.

  “Sir, we have a change in course for the three approaching ships. It appears they are going to put the moon between themselves and Earth. We estimate they will reach the moon in approximately twenty minutes.”

  “Thank you, commander. Have you seen any response to our radio or laser communication attempts?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Okay, I’ll be right up to monitor this encounter firsthand,” Bunting replied. Then he cut the connection.

  Being ignored was not a good sign. The discussions over the past two weeks between the Space Navy, the Council of Eight, and the major powers Earth-side had been heated and contentious. The Navy’s proposal to attempt point-to-point laser communications was opposed by the civilian leaders at first as being potentially threatening. The last thing the governments on Earth wanted was an angry alien wreaking havoc on their countries. When the Navy pointed out how harmless the low-energy light waves were and that they would simply be used to “flash” the alien ships with the reverse pattern of “3-2-1,” the C8 approved the approach over the objections of the French, Germans, and the NAU business leaders.

  The Navy’s suggestion to send its one squadron of battleships to intercept the aliens had been firmly denied by the C8. Instead, most of the Navy’s vessels were ordered into Earth orbit as a defensive shield, should it be needed. The politicians considered the lunar base expendable compared to protecting themselves.

  Bunting’s musings were put aside as he entered Lunar Control. “Report,” was all he said as the doors closed behind him.

  “Still no response, sir,” Bridgeman replied. “The three ships are beginning to separate as they approach. If I had to guess, sir, I would say they are going pass over the moon on equidistant paths. One of the paths will go directly over the base.”

  “Consolidate the real time video feeds from the tugs we put into orbit yesterday. I want that data pushed directly to the governor’s office where Governor Winton and Admiral Holcroft can see what is happening and report that back to Earth. I want to remind everyone here again that we are under orders to take no hostile action. We are in ‘record and forward’ mode only, so let’s do that job to the best of our ability. Give me a time check, commander.”

  “Three minutes to overpass. It appears they will be passing at about a thousand kilometers above the lunar surface, which will allow each ship to remain in line of sight with the other ships. Their speed is now down to thirty-two thousand kilometers per hour. Tug number four will get the best view of the vessel that will overpass the base. Tugs twelve and seventeen will get the best views of the other two vessels.”

  He turned to his communications officer. “Somers, get those three feeds included in the stream to the governor’s office.”

  “Yes sir,” Communications Officer Lieutenant James Somers replied. “We now have eight feeds in the stream. We have reached our max on that line. We continue to record all two-hundred-and-twelve feeds and can change the mix to the governor’s office as required.”

  “Let’s have the feeds from the three primary tugs put on the main screen,” Bunting said. “Also, I want to know immediately of any activity detected from any of the three ships as they pass. This could be a reconnaissance run, and I’d like to know what they’re using. Check for any active electromagnetic mapping techniques like radar or laser mapping.”

  Everyone in Lunar Control was on edge watching either the main screen or their other monitoring consoles as the ships closed the gap.

  “We have active laser mapping on the base, Rear Admiral!” Lieutenant Shirley Bascombe said. “Each camera is showing a consistent bright red flash of light as the vessel passes over its location. I hope nobody was looking directly into that light through a telescope as it passed over. That laser would be strong enough to blind them permanently!”

  “Pass a warning through the governor’s office,” Bunting said. “Ask Admiral Holcroft and Governor Winton to get the word out to the fleet and all civilian monitoring facilities right away.”

  “Yes sir.” Lieutenant Somers opened a voice channel to the governor’s office.

  “They have passed directly overhead, sir,” Bridgeman said. “Other than that laser bath we just received, we have no communications from the visitors. Orders, sir?”

  “Get everything we have down to intel for analysis. Keep monitoring their positions and flight directions and characteristics. If they’re going directly to the planet from here, I want estimates of their arrival time sent to the fleet currently in orbit.”

  Chapter 57 – The Esss Lunar Wrap-up

  After sending the recordings back to base, the scout leader took time to reflect on the last encounter. It was impressed by the locals’ level of technology. The added communications attempts using low-level point-to-point lasers mirrored their own, including using the near infrared bands. Also, there were many small craft orbiting the moon in a pattern that generated complete coverage of every approach. It still had little concern about the safety of the team though. The locals showed no sign of aggression and were still trying to establish some kind of communication.

  After full consideration of all it had learned so far, the leader gave orders establishing overlapping orbits
around the planet to map the entire surface. When mapping was complete, the leader would stay in orbit to monitor the other two members of the team. It would also capture one of the many communication satellites orbiting the planet to bring back to the base ship

  Chapter 58 – AMC Mantis Refit Review

  For the last four weeks, Sted had been working almost two full shifts per day. The demo part had been easy for the shipyard. The reconstruction was another matter. Once the new interior plans were complete, engineering went to work designing specifications for all of the new parts to be fit into the relatively small interior space.

  Sted was just emerging from the hatch of the Mantis after his second shift of the day and was looking forward to some quiet time with Jessica when Rear Admiral Cunningham approached him.

  “Hello, Captain. I would like you to give me a quick tour of the Mantis to see how close we are to squeezing everything in that we need. I’m getting some pressure from the Admiralty to get a final set of plans down to Luna so that AMC can begin working with us on the design of the Epsilon escort class.”

  “Yes Ma’am,” Sted replied as he dropped back into the Mantis, signaling for her to follow him inside.

  Once they were situated on the bridge, Sted began his tour. Since he had been involved in every phase of the new installation, he didn’t need any time to organize his thoughts. “As you can see, we have almost completed the bridge refit. I know you wanted to fly this fighter with a crew of two, but your decision to allow a third crewmember has made the bridge design much easier. We were able to retain the main laser console in its original form. We had some trouble adapting the newly-designed missile console into the same operational area, so we had to take it apart and then rebuild it on the spot. I’m sure Lenny has taken his onsite corrections back to engineering to have the plans corrected to match what he had to do to make it fit properly into the space.

  “Also, our double hull design has given the crew a few headaches, because they are not used to the restrictions imposed by having to maintain as much independence between the two hulls as possible. Every time the crew wants to run a wiring conduit or bolt down a new piece of equipment, they have to be reminded not to just forge ahead and drill holes wherever they need. We have to make absolutely sure that a breach of the outer hull does not find a weak point on the inner hull. Appropriate reinforcing has to be considered for even the most minor changes.”

  Rear Admiral Cunningham nodded. “We have to make thorough notes for the refit of the other four Deltas so that we can get it right the first time and cut down on the total refit time. However, I don’t see how this will impact the Epsilon design. What are your thoughts?”

  “I was thinking very seriously of a different approach for the Epsilons,” Sted admitted. “I think the new plans should take a radically different approach to the double hull design. I think the interior hull should be designed just like a normal exterior hull to allow for standard construction processes. Then the exterior hull could be manufactured and installed after the fact and configured by the Navy depending on the mission of the ship.

  “One exterior hull could be manufactured with stealth capabilities. A second exterior hull could be manufactured with multiple offensive and defensive laser clusters for combat. This would also accommodate any future needs by just reconfiguring the outer hull. Once the mission has been decided, we can slap on the correct outer hull configuration prior to launch and then pump the shock-absorbing gel between the hulls. If we design the hull attachments properly, this should allow a hull reconfiguration in about the same time it takes to restock the ship.”

  “I really like that approach, Captain,” Cunningham said. “I want to apologize for my earlier skepticism regarding your design capabilities. You obviously spent a great deal of time with the original design back at the AMC factory. Let me get our design team to work on the details. I’ll have them contact you with any questions. How much longer do you estimate it will take to get Mantis ready for its first trial run?”

  “Three, maybe four days until we are ready to pump in the gel and test inner hull integrity. I would say we need a week after that to get everything in the interior cleaned up and ready for the crew.”

  “Okay, Captain, I’ll let you go get some rest while I stay here and do a personal inspection of the ship over the next several hours. I will have a list of questions for you to review tomorrow. Thanks for staying a little longer to accommodate me. I must have a report ready to send in-system by the end of the week.”

  “No problem, ma’am,” Sted replied as he headed for the hatch.

  Chapter 59 – Intercept Above Earth

  The United Space Navy had only three fleets. The first fleet (and by far the largest) was stationed in Earth orbit. Its primary function was to maintain order in the near-Earth environs. The second fleet was moon-based, and the third fleet was based in Mars orbit but was responsible for maintaining order everywhere other than on Earth or the moon.

  At the moment, First Fleet was on the hot seat, and Fleet Admiral Joshua Brooks was feeling that heat. Brooks had been monitoring the alien flyby of the moon from his quarters aboard the USpN battle cruiser Invincible. When the feed from Governor Winton’s office made it painfully obvious that the visitors were just bypassing the moon and heading for Earth, he moved directly from his desk to the door opening into Fleet Control Center (FCC).

  As he entered FCC, his flag aide, Lieutenant Anthony Manzelli announced, “Admiral on the bridge,” even though this was not technically the bridge. In a weightless environment, everyone could not rise and stand at attention at the appearance of a superior officer. The Navy had developed new protocols whereby everyone not engaged in a critical task would turn toward their superior officer and slap their hand to their chest over their heart, similar to the old Roman legions.

  “As you were,” Brooks said, and the rustle of everyone turning back to their stations added a bit of normalcy to this otherwise bizarre situation.

  “Commander Santos, I need an update on when our visitors will cross our line of defense.”

  “Sir, the visitors are proceeding directly in system at approximately thirty-two thousand kilometers per hour and should reach our defensive perimeter in just over eight hours. If we maintain our current orbital configuration, B Wing will be at the approximate crossover point.”

  “I assume that means we will have just passed that point with B Wing coming up directly behind us?”

  “Yes sir. We will be about eighteen thousand kilometers past the intercept.”

  Brooks nodded. “Okay. Notify Captain Greene that I want A Wing to expand its orbit so that we will intercept the three ships just above B Wing. That way we will have at least two wings between them and Earth. Since they are ignoring all of our communications, I think we need to get a little more aggressive and interpose a few of our ships directly in their flight path. Have B Wing running with weapons hot below A Wing while we try to wake them up by blocking their path. I want three destroyers dispatched from A Wing, one for each of the alien vessels. They are to break from the wing ten minutes before intercept and head directly into the incoming flight paths. We are going to play a little game of chicken.”

  Chapter 60 – The Esss Change the Mapping Approach

  The scout leader detected numerous ships orbiting this planet in what appeared to be a spherical defensive perimeter. This could prove to be a problem, depending on the ships’ capabilities. Since its orders were not to engage with the locals, it would have to find a way through this rather thin picket line. Once through, however, each scout would have to deal with possible pursuit and disruption of the assigned tasks. It was time to split up and use their superior acceleration and speed to avoid any confrontation.

  The leader passed on specific orders to the other scouts. Instead of establishing orbits around the planet just above the atmosphere for completing the mapping, they would have to make multiple high-speed passes over the planet from slightly further out. This woul
d use up more fuel, but they had plenty to spare. The biggest disadvantage was that each of the scouts would have to remain in their acceleration tanks during the mapping process. Controlling the mapping equipment was easier from outside of the tanks but not impossible while immersed. Presetting the laser mapping controls before entering the tanks should be sufficient. If any fine adjustments became necessary, the scout leader would suspend the mapping process long enough to exit the tank, make the adjustments, and reenter the tank before the next high-speed pass over the planet.

  Interlude 8 – 4 Million Years Ago

  AlvaResh was ready to intervene. It was time to increase the intelligence levels of the bipedal species that was developing at the edges of the receding forests. A young male and female had been captured and brought aboard their reconnaissance ship and were sedated in the laboratory. The genetic code in the egg and sperm of these two specimens needed several small alterations. The first would increase the size of the hips. The second would increase the size of the brain cavity. The larger hips would allow for better balance in bipedal walking and easier birth of the larger heads. The larger brain cavity would allow for expanded neural connections to bring the species into a state of self-awareness.