Nu Trilogy 1: The Esss Advance Read online

  Bunting nodded as he stirred his cup. “I was afraid of that. The Space Navy has not really caught up with the advances of medical science. Based upon your workout record in rehab, you are just as strong as or stronger than you were before the accident. But my hands are tied by regulations. Active duty personnel with prosthetic limbs are limited to non-combat positions.”

  “I think we need to protest and get those regulations changed, sir!” Sted replied in voice that filled the room with tension. “I want to get back on the bridge as a captain of my own ship!”

  “And just how long do you think it would take to get the Navy to make that kind of change?” Bunting asked sharply.

  Sted looked down at his coffee. “I really don’t know. But if we don’t start now, I’ll never be eligible to command the interstellar ship they’re about to build at HG Rickover Shipyard out in the belt!”

  “Fortunately, I anticipated this, and I have a few alternatives while we wait for the Navy to come around,” Bunting said. “Commercial ship captains are mostly ex-Navy. The majority of them work for one of the five mining companies in the belt. The remaining two jobs I have are as captain of two of the three new passenger shuttles that ferry construction crews and support staff to and from HG Rickover Shipyard.”

  Bunting pulled out his tablet and tapped a few buttons. “Let’s go over the openings. I’ve just sent you a brief description of each position as well as contact information.

  The two shuttle captain positions are with Lockheed Aerospace. The company runs a single shuttle between the moon and the naval shipyard, which is still under construction. However, they are getting close to opening the shipyard to begin building the first of three interstellar ships that you mentioned. That means traffic to and from the yard will increase significantly. They plan to have four shuttles running concurrently by the end of next year. Two of the three new shuttles are almost ready for trial workups, and crews are being assembled at Lockheed’s lunar base.

  “The next position is with Asteroid Mining Company. AMC is in stiff competition to find and mine the best sources of raw metal ore to sell to the foundries. The foundries output the refined metals required to build those interstellar ships. AMC has been building a new breed of fast assay ship that can jump from asteroid to asteroid and quickly determine if there are enough raw materials to lay a claim and begin a mining operation. As you know, claim jumping in the belt is all too common. Your time spent on the Revere patrolling the belt to keep some order out there makes you particularly qualified for this position. You know the dangers and have had to deal with claim jumpers as part of your duties.

  “I spoke directly with Cam Dunston at AMC, and he would love to have you on board as soon as possible to assist them directly in the final configuration of their new ship. They have built new defensive weapons systems to fight off claim jumpers until the Navy can arrive to help. Cam is currently at Tranquility Base specifically to meet with you before heading out to their lunar headquarters. I strongly suggest that you schedule some time with him today.”

  “Yes sir,” Sted replied. Neither position had the appeal of a true naval captaincy, but each had its pluses and minuses. “Let me go over the details of each offer, sir. Then I’ll contact each of the companies this afternoon. I’ll contact Mr. Dunston first and set up an appointment at his convenience. Then I’ll contact Lockheed and see what develops.”

  Sted stood up. “Thank you, sir, for all you have done for me over the last few months. I know the Navy did not have to go to these lengths with my rehab, so I want you to know that I owe you and the Navy a personal debt of gratitude. I will keep you informed about my progress, and I may call on you for advice in making my final decision.”

  “You are most welcome,” Bunting replied. “You never know when we may need your services in the future, especially if we can get that policy changed. We want to make sure you are properly positioned should that happen. If we call in that debt, we want you in top shape and within reach on short notice. I’m just sorry that you’re not interested in the current naval training positions on C8. Commander Jenssen will be very disappointed.”

  Once Sted left his office, Bunting had Lieutenant Hartman connect him with Cam Dunston.

  “Hello Cam. I just finished my session with Captain Richardson, and you should be hearing from him shortly. He is not thrilled to be anything short of a true naval captain, but perhaps you can convince him that his time spent with AMC will be useful in furthering his career.”

  “Don’t worry about that, Vice Admiral,” Cam replied. “When he sees what we’re trying to accomplish with our new Delta class ships, I think he’ll be hooked.”

  “Just remember our deal,” Bunting said. “If I need Sted back for any reason, you are to give him up willingly. Also, I’m going to hold you to your promise of passing his fitness reports back to me on a regular basis. I have a feeling we may need him sooner than later.”

  “I understand. I definitely don’t like it, but you have my word.”

  Chapter 19 – Interview with AMC

  “Welcome, Captain Richardson,” Cam said as he stood up from behind the small console desk in his guest suite. “I have been reviewing the condensed version of your fitness reports provided by the Vice Admiral, and I am quite excited to meet you in person.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Sted said as she shook Cam’s hand. “I have to admit that I’m interested to learn about you and AMC and to see what the Vice Admiral called your ‘new breed of fast assay ship’.”

  Cam smiled. “Of course.”

  He led Sted over to a small sitting area where they could sit comfortably while they chatted. On the small table were some snacks and carafes that contained coffee and tea. Several bottles of water were also on ice.

  “The first thing I need to know is how your recovery is going,” Cam said after they got settled. “I can see you are becoming very mobile on your new legs. Your walk seems almost natural in this lunar gravity. What that does not tell me, though, is how you are doing mentally. Do you recall anything about the accident in the air lock? That experience would certainly give me nightmares had I gone through it.”

  Sted looked at the table. “I have flashbacks, sir. They are not pleasant, and I don’t care to share the details of what I saw and felt beyond what is in my fitness report. Let’s just say that the Navy has worked with me extensively and qualified me for duty.”

  Cam nodded. “Vice Admiral Bunting told me you had quite a bout of depression after the surgery and before the new prosthetic legs were attached. If we come to a mutually agreed upon arrangement on your employment at AMC, I must insist that you have a full physical and psychological workup by our corporate staff to supplement the naval reports on your health. We have to be absolutely certain about the stability of the men and women we entrust with our ships and crew.”

  “I would insist on the same if I were in your position,” Sted replied. “Sometimes, I doubt my own abilities as captain. It might not be logical, but I keep thinking there must have been something I could have done to prevent that accident. The Navy tells me this is typical survivor’s guilt, but that doesn’t make it any less painful.”

  “Okay,” Cam said as he poured Sted a cup of coffee, “We’ll drop the discussion about the accident. There is, however, one more topic I would like to discuss before we get to the interview itself. I would really like a firsthand description of the incident on the asteroid 3554 Amun. I know our rival, United Asteroid Mining Company, was the first to establish a claim on the asteroid and that they were returning a great deal of ore in the platinum group to the moon for use at the Neil Armstrong Shipyard. UAMC has always been stingy with the details of what happened, and I thought you could fill in some of the blanks.”

  “Some of the information is still classified,” Sted replied. “What I can tell you is that the UAMC mining facility on the surface had loaded a dozen ore barges that had lifted off to be hauled back to the moon by three UAMC tugs. Four days after the t
ugs had gotten the barges on the right heading, they were attacked, and all three tugs were destroyed. The call came in from UAMC after they received a mayday from one of the tugs after the pirates appeared and before the attack. USpN Charger was the closest naval vessel to the asteroid, so we were called in to investigate.

  “We arrived on scene fifteen days after the attack and found only pieces of the tugs drifting on their original heading toward the moon. As first officer, I led the search party that found evidence of the missile strikes that had destroyed the tugs, so we knew this was definitely a pirate type of action.

  “Captain Landsted chose to follow a course similar to the direction of the original barges, hoping to catch up with the pirates before they could get back to either Earth or the moon. Active sweeps turned up the caravan a few days later. Hauling metal ore barges is a slow process, so they hadn’t gotten far. When we ordered what we thought were pirates to surrender, they attacked.

  “The skirmish was short-lived though, as the two courier class vessels were no match for a naval destroyer, and both vessels were severely damaged by return fire. We recovered several lifeboats that jettisoned from the vessels and interrogated the survivors. What we found is classified. I can only tell you that one of the governments on Earth had chartered those vessels to hijack the ore to support a clandestine ship-building facility at a location I cannot name. Needless to say, we redirected the pirate tugs to carry the cargo to the Neil Armstrong Shipyard and then raided and destroyed the clandestine shipyard. That is about all I can say without breaking the law by revealing classified information.”

  Cam nodded. “Fine. I appreciate the information you were able to share. Just so you know, that incident is one of the main reasons I’m so interested in hiring you. Your experience would be invaluable to our new approach to mining, as you will learn shortly, so let’s get to the meat of the interview.

  He leaned forward and picked up a remote control. “I have prepared a briefing with slides. If I can direct your attention on the wall screen across the room, let’s get started.”

  He waited for Sted to settle in before continuing. “We have been experiencing problems over the last couple of years with independent claim jumpers following our assay ships and cleaning out mineral deposits in the asteroids we find before we even get a chance to register a claim through the Navy. As you know, some foundries don’t ask point of origin when they purchase the materials that they process. We are currently losing slightly more than fifteen percent of all of the minerals we discover to these leeches.

  He clicked to a new slide. “Our first attempt at combatting the losses was a miserable failure. We had one assay ship, the AMC Pride, circle back on several of their discoveries. The first time they encountered one of the claim jumpers and warned them away, they were destroyed by a thermite missile that was fired without warning. We recovered the recordings from what remained of the Pride a month later. It took us the full month to realize they were not reporting in on schedule and to locate the positions of their last four reports. That allowed us to project their most probable next destination.”

  Cam turned away from the image and looked at Sted. “As you can probably surmise, we were terribly naïve in our approach to this poaching problem. That all changed once we discovered the wreckage.”

  He turned back to the visuals. “All subsequent slides contain classified corporate information that cannot be disseminated to any outside sources, including the Navy. As a former naval ship captain, I am depending upon your discretion to keep this information secret. Do I have your verbal agreement that you will do so?”

  “Of course, sir,” Sted replied. “You have my word as an officer and a gentleman.”

  “Thank you. We have recorded your response, so let’s proceed.” Cam clicked the remote. “This next slide is a schematic of our new Delta class assay ship. It has been redesigned from stem to stern with three things in mind.

  “First, this ship will be faster than any other commercial assay or mining ship by a factor of two. To accomplish this, we have used a fusion pellet process that will allow us to accelerate the propellant from the rocket nozzle at three times the speed of current commercial grade engines. I’m sure you are familiar with this concept, as it is based upon designs already in use by the Navy. What we’ve done is miniaturize the fusion containment bottle to allow it to be adapted to smaller ships.

  “Second, we’ve added two missile defense clusters to the design. We are employing the new laser technology for miniaturizing the fusion bottles in the laser defense clusters. This allows us to install a single laser generator for multiple applications. We will need your help in positioning the defense clusters for maximum coverage and in organizing the defense console for employing the lasers in an effective defensive mode.

  “Third, we have a double hull design with a gel between the hulls. If a missile breaches the outer hull, then the gel will transfer the impact from that breach to the entire inner hull, thus spreading the force over a much larger area and preventing an interior hull breach. We are hoping that with our new speed, this will allow us to disengage before the ship is destroyed by a second missile, if indeed any missile gets through the laser defense system.”

  He clicked to a new slide. “Of course, all of these changes have added to the mass of each hull. However, with the efficiency of the new engines, we are absolutely sure that we can obtain twice the acceleration of our current design.

  “The crew size for the Delta class will increase from eight to ten, a gain of two over the Gamma class ships. We currently employ two twelve-hour shifts with four per shift. We need to add a fifth technician to each shift to be in charge of the ship’s defense. We currently have a captain, co-captain, a pilot who also acts as the navigator, an engineer in charge of keeping the ship operational, plus one mining engineer and one medical technician. The last two are somewhat cross-trained but are available for either shift as necessary.”

  At this point, Sted felt he had to interrupt the presentation. “Sir, putting in only defensive systems will not really solve your problem. With future encounters, you will probably not lose your ship or crew, but the poachers will still maintain control of the asteroid and clean it out. I would highly recommend some offensive capability to destroy the claim jumpers, or at least chase them off.”

  “You are absolutely correct,” Cam replied. “What you may not realize is that each assay ship is already equipped with a mining laser that we employ to drill deep holes into an asteroid so that we can analyze the content from the spume coming out of the laser drill site. We don’t actually land on any of these asteroids for analysis. That mining laser can be a very effective weapon against a ship, because we can create many hull breaches given enough time. The defense clusters should be able to give us that time.”

  Sted nodded slowly. “That should work, but you will need to position your defense clusters around the mining laser so that the ship’s orientation can be maintained to apply the laser while defending the ship. Also, what are your plans when the independents employ two ships against your one? You know they will adapt after the first few encounters.”

  “This is exactly the kind of input we need from you, Sted. We’ve almost completed the prototype Delta class ship and are preparing to produce ten more as soon as we have some experience using it.”

  He changed to a slide comparing the Delta class and Gamma class ships. “Because the Delta class ships are relatively small, we’re hoping to have the prototype in operation in the next six months. As you can tell, we are in critical need of your expertise right now. What will it take to convince you to join our team and then take over as our first captain?”

  Sted thought for a moment before answering. “I agree that this would be a good fit for me and much better than the commercial shuttle pilot job for which I have an interview later this afternoon. What would you say if I go to the Lockheed interview and hear what they have to say? Then I’ll call you to schedule a meeting to discuss terms.
”

  “That would be great,” Cam replied. “I’m heading out first thing in the morning for our corporate offices, so we’ll need to meet this evening. Would you join me for dinner right here? I don’t want to meet at the hotel restaurant. There are too many eyes and ears that might pick up on our discussions.”

  Sted stood up. “That’s fine, sir. We can agree on a time when I call you this afternoon.”

  Chapter 20 – Remembering Northern Song

  As Sted headed over to the Lockheed Lunar compound, his mind went back to the incident with the pirates hired by the Chinese to steal UAMC’s ore barges. Based upon the trajectory of the barges when they were discovered, Captain Landsted surmised that their destination was the L4 Lagrange point in Earth’s solar orbit. Since the Chinese had established a major colony at L4 to bleed off population pressure on Earth, it was a good bet that the mined ore was headed directly into Chinese hands.

  Because the ore being hijacked was from the platinum group, it was obvious to everyone aboard the USpN Charger that the Chinese were back up to their old tricks of flaunting the C8 and building warships at a shipyard hidden amongst the many peaceful population platforms at L4. There was probably no better place to hide a shipyard and all the personnel required to operate it than right within a high-density space colony.