General Paxton sighed and looked down at the rich mahogany table he was seated at during the emergency UTL security meeting. “Ok, from this point on, everything in this meeting is off the general record, we can’t let the population know about this, and definitely not the Nal’Shiar, talk about a diplomatic clusterfuck. Professor, how many people know about this?”
Professor Montague turned from his chalk board, “Just the first contact ambassadors. It was Simon who put the pieces together, he is a decorated war hero after all.” The general reached for his coffee mug and saw that it was empty.
He waved his hand over his mug and it was immediately refilled with steaming hot black coffee. “Alright Professor, this changes everything. That void is a month closer to the Nal’Shiar than we are, and even closer to the Hissar but further from the Ordavelli. But if it is a hive, it covers hundreds of galaxies, and an unknown number of Mothers. This means the construction of the Caplan Explorer will require military construction facilities and master plates.”
Ambassador Rachael sat down her tea before speaking, “Are we sure this is a hive, is there a chance it could be something else?”
Professor Montague sadly shook his head and looked down as he spoke, “I am afraid not, I detected an encoded string radio transmission after looking over the nearby probe logs. I almost missed it, as it seemed as though it were simply a decaying Gamma-Ray Burst, until I noticed it was too incoherent. Simon took the readings and verified it is a very advanced form of encoding similar to what the Jennifer’s used, but far more advanced.”
The Professor looked to up and to Doctor Mikoh, “Doctor Mikoh, I’m afraid you’ll have more work to do on your new string radio, this new threat will require more bandwidth, even if there is more latency. Once the Caplan Explorer reaches Nal’Shiar space we will need to begin building immediately, and that will require local oversight.”
Doctor Mikoh sat down her cup, “I will gather my team and we will begin work on modifications to S43. She stood and sighed, “I’d better get started now, are we still on for dinner Professor?”
The Professor beamed at Doctor Mikoh, “Of course my dear, I will have everything ready.” Doctor Mikoh simply nodded and vanished in a splash of pixels.
General Paxton laughed, “She really didn’t like your reference to your relationship during the ‘verse wide presentation Montague.”
Doctor Sebastian spoke up, “Um, yes, Professor, she did not look happy with you, were you in the doghouse?”
The Professor sighed, “She still worries that there will be a perception that she was put on the team because of her relationship with me. After all these Eons, she still doesn’t see that she is one of the most brilliant people in the ‘verse.”
Doctor Sebastian nodded as he put down his own mug, “Sadly, I think you may be right there, she is the undisputed master of string radio, but she doesn’t think that makes her the intellectual powerhouse that we all see her as.”
Ambassador Rachael looked across the table at Sebastian, “She is integral in my work, without the capacity to communicate across the ‘verse, I would be essentially useless. For me, she is the most important member of this team.”
General Paxton spoke up, “Don’t worry Ambassador, she’ll get your radio ready on time, but Sebastian, this also means changes to your skip drive. We’re going to have to up the mass of the Caplan Explorer, as we are going to need to add nano foundries as well as nano forges. It will also be carrying a large subspace storage capability that will be linked to the UTL cluster. I don’t think we’ve ever transported large amounts of mass through subspace storage over this far a distance, so we will need more than the output of the star. So, if we add 15% more mass, how much more power will you need Doctor?”
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Doctor Sebastian brought a tablet into existence and wrote on in for a few seconds, his hands moving in a blur, “General, if you increase the mass by 15% we’re looking at needing almost 60% more power to skip at the same rate. Best upgrade the total power output by 70%.”
The General nodded, “I’ll get with the shipyard boys and see how many Kugelblitz reactors we’ll need to add to the Explorer, my back of the napkin math says a couple of thousand, so we’ll see.”
Doctor Sebastian nodded, “I’ll get with my group and see about upscaling the drive for more mass, which means more thermal dissipation, and more shielding from the EM fields. How long do we have until we send you the design plates?”
The General pulled up a calendar as a hologram and sent it to all members of the team, “We begin work in two weeks, that means you have about three weeks until the plates have to be ready to lay down the foundations. Looks like your team will be running in frame-jack for the next few weeks, sorry.”
Doctor Sebastian nodded sadly, “It will be a lot of work, but it could not be foreseen, it simply must be done.”
The Professor waved his hand and his chalk board vanished, he then walked over to the table and sat down beside Doctor Sebastian, “General, I take it you will be building ships to defend the new species from any attack this hive may pose?”
The General sighed and ran his hands through his crew-cut hair and spoke softly, “I’m afraid not Professor, the logistics of fighting a war on the other side of the ‘verse puts us at a massive disadvantage. No, the construction will be primarily arks, able to transport the biological populations who do not want to be digitized back to the safety of Terran controlled space. We will of course build ships to hold back the swarm that they will undoubtably send, it will only be a delaying tactic.”
The Professor considered this, “General, I think you may need to start upgrading existing ships now with the blueprint plates you have from the good Doctor here now and send them, the sooner they can get there the better.”
General Paxton took a sip of his now cooled coffee, “Already ahead of you there Professor, the entirety of the standing fleet is using their onboard forges and foundries to upgrade themselves as we speak, we will be sending half to Nal’Shiar space by the end of the month.”
Doctor Sebastian nodded as he looked at his tablet, “This is good General, how many ships will you be sending and how long until they reach their destination?”
The General put down his mug and brought up another hologram that looked like a spreadsheet. “We’ll be sending four hundred thirty three thousand fleets, with varying numbers of ships, but the total should be around eight hundred million ships. They will arrive at different times as they are spread out across the ‘verse but should start arriving in about three months.”
Doctor Sebastian put down his tablet, “With that many ships, why even bother sending the Caplan Explorer at this point General?”
General Paxton leaned back in his chair, “Well, for one, those are warships, they are not built for biologicals. Each ship holds hundreds of thousands of crew members in their computer banks, who use a combination of automation, robotics, and artificial bodies to keep the ship running and fighting on a day to day basis. Ships the size of small moons require supplies to repair and replace components, but even for their size, they don’t have biological stasis pods, nor do they have room for such things. The hulls of our Dreadnoughts are over thirty kilometers thick in some places, every spare space on board goes towards raw materials, replacement parts, and weapons.”
At this revelation the Professor spoke up, “General, if you’re sending that many ships, and most ships have hundreds of thousands of crew, you’re sending billions of Terrans into a battle that you state will only be a delaying tactic. If they are overrun, what will happen to your people?”
The General sat forward in his chair, “Well, since the unification wars we have of course kept improving on warship design as well as crew safety. The core matrix sits inside the heart of the ship, and is surrounded by a kilometer of Warsteel, the miracle material that is making the Caplan Explorer possible. If the ship is destroyed, the core should hold out long enough to download the crew to the Nexus at Kaitaan where they will be brought back online and commissioned to another ship.”
Doctor Sebastian asked, “What happens if the string radio is damaged in the core, or they lose power, or the Warsteel doesn’t hold up?”
The General looked down, “Then the crew dies, or worse, are taken prisoner. Most will self delete before they allow a Jennifer to get their code into them, but some won’t be able to. Make no mistake, we will lose soldiers, this will be a war, and people die in wars.”