The Missive of Dissent was a wreck. Armored plates were missing across her scoured hull, some holes vented what little atmosphere that was in the ship into space. Alex watched the holo-tank as the onboard repair bots worked on engine number three. “They’re almost finished with that part of the propulsion system. Did we have enough nannites to repair all the armor plating?”
Kara shook her head, “Afraid not, and until Monty gets the particle accelerator up and running we won’t have anymore for critical systems.”
“Well, I guess we’ll just look banged up, but I’d rather have bent warsteel plates than the graphene-ceramic mix we use in the frigates.” Alex said as he looked down at the treats on the table, and decided he wasn’t hungry. “How long until we’re fully operational?”
Kara’s eyes glowed blue for a moment, “If we can gather enough iridium for the replacement sensor suite, three months.”
“Not bad, as long as there wasn’t another fleet right behind that last one we should have brought ourselves some breathing room for a while.” He said looking over to his strategy corner. “There was one Ulraar vessel that didn’t make the trip here, and right now with three engines down, most of our sensors burned out, and half our point defense floating wreckage around us we would be hard pressed to fight it off. We’d have to rely on the frigates to melt it down.”
Kara nodded, swiping the holo-tank to show the Ulraar vessel as a wireframe, “Erin and Ally have gathered preliminary info on the Ulraar wreckage. Monty is helping them with the reverse engineering. It seems they have been using the adamantine the Howron provided them with to make armor alloy.”
The holo-tank image swapped to a broken piece of what was once triangular plate. Alex looked at the molecular composition, “Adamantine carbide alloy? I guess for weight?”
“It’s a little more complex than that, it isn’t just an alloy, it’s the molecular lattice that forms from the alloy. It’s about twice as strong as the stuff we use in the frigates for the same weight, not quite warsteel, but would be manufacturable in our forges and auto-factories without using nannites.” Kara stated looking over at Alex.
Nodding he sent a request to Kelly, “Seems like we’re going to need a good bit of adamantine then, best go to the source.”
A few mills later Kelly popped into the common VR, eyeing the table for cake. “What’s this about adamantine?” She asked while grabbing a small cupcake from the table.
Alex looked over to Kara before beginning, “We know what the Ulraar were doing with the vast amounts of the stuff the Howron were taking from you. It seems they figured out a way to make an alloy of it for their ship hulls, which is how they survived multiple torpedo hits even without shields.”
Nodding she asked, “I take it you know how they did it and want to start implementing it in future ship designs?”
“Exactly, however, I figure this stuff must be a political landmine to deal with, and as such, you would be the perfect person to figure out how to acquire it for us.” Alex stated.
Kelly walked around to the holo-tank, swiping it to show mines on the planet surface. “Those are the mines our people have worked for hundreds of years, even before the Humans or Howron came to our world. Some of them are owned by nobles and wealthy land owners who have used them for their own political ambitions for generations, others are owned by the office of the Empress and whomever holds that office. Getting some of the material won’t be a problem, getting vast amounts will be an absolute nightmare.”
Alex ran a hand through his close cropped hair, “Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t be just a question of asking for the material.”
Kelly cackled with not quite mirth as she swiped the holo-tank, “About a third of the mines are controlled by Ladies of the court who are at odds with the Empress. Some we believe had dealings with the previous uprisings with the New Beginnings group, although even the ministry of secrets were not able to find enough evidence to bring forth charges. It is doubtful we would be able to acquire any of the material from those mines.”
Kara leaned in, looking at planet in the holo-tank, sprinkled with dots. “So about a third are in hands of the office of the Empress and the other third in the hands of the Ladies of the court that would be open to working with us?”
“Yes, but even that isn’t going to be easy. Our government is… difficult to navigate at the best of times, with the civil unrest this war has brought we are more unstable than normal. For the first time in a century members of Parliament were put to death for treason. Lands have been stripped, chairs have been removed from the Parliament floor. Some are saying the Empress is making a grab for absolute power already.” Kelly sighed, cleaning her hand with a napkin from the table.
Alex grinned, “Which is why I’m delegating it to you. You would even be telling the truth about it being for the Alandran navy.”
“Every good lie has a grain of truth in it. While it would be primarily for us to build up our own navy, I’m sure you’ll use some for your own projects.” Kelly shrugged.
Alex nodded, “We need to build new ships for Erin and John as well as Luke and Ally. We’d like them to be the new cruiser class, which will go much faster if we’re not waiting for nannite production for warsteel fabrication of the armor. Once complete we will convert their old ships to biological compatible vessels for the Alandran navy.”
Kelly hesitated, “Monty hasn’t requested a ship?”
Alex looked over to Kara, who shook her head. “No, Monty has asked if we could transfer her matrix to her mad scientist lab at the first planet in your system, I believe you call it Nersis?”
Kelly thought for a minute, “So she plans on staying behind?”
“I think she means to bring it up to you soon. Both of your matrices are on board the Missive at the moment, but if we hear back from the New Human Republic we may decide to head there at some point, I think she plans to stay here.” Alex stated.
Kelly hugged herself, “I hope she does, I really do.”
_______________________________________
Luke looked over to John, “Sixteen stealth probes launched for the Lynx system. That should give us some early warning that something is coming. We should build a dozen more and put them at midpoints between the nearest systems to watch for anything coming in from odd angles to the ecliptic.”
“Agreed, I’ll load the next batch into the auto-factories, but after that we really need to start bootstrapping up. Kara gave us drones, and an auto-factory each for our projects, and it’s not enough for what we want to do.” John sighed looking around their garage man-cave.
It was based on the garage their dad had from their childhood. Tools lined the walls, diagnostic gear sat on every work bench, and in the back was an old two person planet hopper he never got working before the stroke killed him. They watched the holo-tank as sixteen blips left the system, rippling much faster than anything in their small fleet could hope to achieve.
“You know that’s going to put any new manufacturing on hold for weeks, making new auto-factories takes forever.” Luke groaned.
John opened the dirty shop fridge and offered Luke a beer before taking one for himself. After cracking it open and taking a big pull he answered, “Can’t be helped, we can’t borrow or steal from anyone else for our tasks. Kara is still using a group of her own equipment to produce ever more auto-factories and forges, hell, ours came from those.”
Luke took a swig, “Yeah, I think Monty is still using a batch of hers to make more too. It’s hard to get a good technology base going. Remember the first time we saw New Dallas? Literally millions of auto-factories and forges feeding hundreds of shipyards, billions of drones taking apart that dwarf planet. Man, what a sight!”
“Don’t forget about the accelerator ring around the star, I’m pretty sure all the warsteel plating on the Missive came from that system. Course, it took centuries to build up a manufacturing base of that size.” John said, waving his beer.
Luke eyeballed him, “Think the Humans here have their systems built up like New Dallas?”
John shrugged, “Who knows, they’ve had about three centuries to build it up.”
“How long until the probe gets to their system?” Luke asked.
Reaching over, John swiped the holo-tank. “Been underway for four months now, about another month until it arrives.”
“I hope the ancient Imperial hails don’t cause them to blast it on sight.” Luke said.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
John took another drink and shrugged, “Couldn’t come up with another idea to get their attention, I just hope they are feeling talkative.”
_____________________________________
Admiral Nar’Vala was sick of military parades, the Empress had sent her to every large city on the planet at this point to drum up more support for the Fleet. But today she was in the capital city Najicore, about to unveil a statue in the Central Park. After a few long winded speeches from several Ladies of the Realm who donated to the commission of the statue she took to the stage.
The podium was wood, and the microphone was of Alandran manufacture which in her eyes now looked primitive. She cleared her throat and nodded to now Captain Lar’Iel, who was ready with the Human equipment. “Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for attending our ceremony this morning. Today we dedicate this work of art to our first Fleet hero, a woman who gave her life to ensure her crew escaped her dying ship.”
Nodding to Chief Engineer Ura’Boron, who yanked the knots holding the cloth over the three meter statue, allowing it to fall off the bronze image of Captain Jan’Inar. She stood in Imperial salute, the last image Ura’Boron saw of her as her escape pod blasted away from the devastated IAV Rivendell before it was completely destroyed by Ulraar vessels.
Turning to the statue Admiral Nar’Vala issued it a crisp salute, followed by all the remaining crew of the Rivendell before she turned back to the microphone. “Captain Jan’Inar, Ensign Ori’Liun, and Ensign Yel’iun gave their lives in the battle for our freedom. This statue is the first commemorate heroes of the Fleet, but it will not be the last.”
Looking out to the surprisingly large crowd of onlookers and news ladies she continued, “Freedom isn’t won in a single battle, there will be more losses, and more statues to remember our fallen. I also want to use this opportunity to inform the public that we will be breaking ground on the new Fleet academy next month. With the help of our Human allies new ships are coming out of the shipyards soon, and crews will need to be prepared to defend our system.”
Nodding down to Captain Lar’Iel, who pressed the button on the Human made device. The air above the podium showed the view from a drone as it approached shipyard one. In its cradle sat a partially built Imperial Alandran Frigate. Thousands of other drones were zipping around, bringing parts or welding on pieces here and there. Then the drone dropped to show the bow of the vessel, The light gray paint over the bow armor displayed the name of the vessel in construction : IAV Jan’Inar.
The crowd erupted in cheers, it took some time for the crowd to calm down enough for Admiral Nar’Vala to continue. For a moment she noticed a familiar face in the crowd, “What was Kel’Taraan doing here?” She thought to herself before speaking into the microphone. “While we may have lost Jan’Inar the woman, her name will live on as the flagship of our Fleet!”
Cheers erupted from the crowd once more, after letting the crowd settle she looked out to the crowd but couldn’t find Kel’Taraan in the sea of faces. “Again, thank you for coming out this morning, remember to vote on the twenty forth!”
With her bit said, she saluted the crowd, then turned to salute the women of the Fleet who were present for the unveiling. Then she exited the stage as another woman took to the podium to finish up the ceremony. She nodded to Captain Lar’Iel who worked with her crew to gather up the Human equipment and took it to the sleek new vehicles the Fleet were now using to transport materiel.
After ensuring everything was loaded she climbed into the cabin beside an Ensign who was driving the new machine. “How do you like the new transport Ensign?” She asked.
The young lady grinned ear to ear, “It’s wonderful Ma’am, I can’t believe we can make such an amazing vehicle now!”
“Yes, it’s impressive how quickly Human innovation has come to our world. I don’t think these were even being built when I arrived planet side after the battle.” Nar’Vala commented.
The Ensign nodded as she put the vehicle in motion. “Our heavy industries received multiple auto-factories and forges shortly after the battle. The newspapers and radio have been going crazy about the new things we can build.”
Nodding to the Ensign she looked out the window as the sleek vehicle moved silently down the cobblestone streets of the ancient capital, “Why was the Spy-Mistress there?” She thought to herself.
_____________________________________
Kelly raised her hand to get the waitress’s attention, as usual the pub VR was busy. “The unveiling ceremony was a success, even if we did pad the number of people who showed up with ministry of secrets agents.”
“So do you think you have enough constituents to pass the Fleet initiative?” Erin asked as she stirred her soup.
Kelly placed her order with the waitress then turned back to the table, “I think we do, there are still some holdouts, but not supporting the Empress right now is becoming political suicide, and they know it.”
“Amazing what winning a huge battle for the fate of your peoples freedom does for your popularity.” Luke said from across the table.
“I can’t claim all the success, Kara and Monty offering portions of the the auto-factories and forges to the moguls of industry was pure genius. They’ve been building products from the prints you gave them at a startling rate. People are seeing their lives improve almost on a daily basis, and anyone getting in the way of that is not being looked kindly upon.” Kelly stated.
Alex stopped hugging up to Kara for a moment and raised his beer mug, “I offer a toast! To plenty of Adamantine to grow the fleet to a point where the Alandran’s can stand on their own in this universe!”
Monty popped into the pub VR and Kelly stood to hug her before they both took their seats next to each other. “What did I miss?”
Riven put down her wine glass, “Not much, just looks like we’ll be able to secure plenty of adamantine to build more ships of the fleet for the Alandrans.”
Monty looked to Kelly, “That’s great news! I’ll have to start working on the new templates for the auto-factories later.”
“So with you both being late, I assume your matrices are now online at your base in orbit above Nersis?” Izzy asked.
Blushing a little, Monty nodded her head. “Yes, we were getting everything situated, Kelly won’t let me have my mad scientist lab connected with her cabin.”
Kelly shrugged, “I don’t want to mix work with home, I don’t bring my ministry of secrets problems home, you don’t get to bring your mad ravings home.”
“Mad ravings?!” Monty bellowed.
“Oh boy, here we go again.” Valarie sighed as the two started arguing.
Then John and Luke both froze for a moment. Everyone at the table noticed, and turned their attention to them, even Kelly and Monty.
Once they unfroze Alex raised an eyebrow, “What was that all about.”
John looked to Luke before answering, “We need to pop into the common VR, our stealth probe just reached Human space and started hailing, we have a response awaiting in the cue.”
Alex popped into the common VR, followed by everyone else. “Uniform up people, we need to look professional, how long has it been John?”
“Less than three milliseconds, a biological wouldn’t notice us not answering yet.” John responded at once.
Looking around everyone was in matching uniforms except Kelly, who wore ministry of secrets black, and with her extremely lithe build and elven ears would never be mistaken for Human he connected to the probe in the holo-tank.
A tough looking middle aged woman appeared in the holo-tank. She was obviously on the command bridge of a warship. She had short brown hair streaked with gray on the sides, and judging by her face she didn’t put up with much nonsense. “This is Admiral Benton of the New Human Republic, we have received your hail from your stealth probe. Who are you and what business do you have with the Republic?”
Alex stood before the holo-tank, “I am Commodore Alex Smyth of the Missive of Dissent, beside me are Captain John Smyth and Captain Luke Smyth of the Eriador and Aldburg respectively. We have been stranded in this universe and have been looking for any vestiges of humanity.”
The Admiral was visibly taken aback at the apparent view on her screen. “You three are obviously related, were you part of the Imperial Navy?”
Wondering how he should respond, he figured telling the truth would probably be the best course of action. “No ma’am, we were not.”
The Admiral seemed to deflate a little, almost as if she were relieved? “We fought a civil war almost a century ago against those who wanted to continue to function as a Monarchy. We are a republic now, and any who arrive here and want to rejoin humanity must forsake the Imperium.”
“That won’t be a problem for us Admiral, we were rebels fighting the Imperium, before they wrecked everything.” Alex stated.
This brought a pause to the Admiral, “Has the Imperium fallen?”
Alex pressed a button sending a file to the Admiral, “I think you should see this, much of it is extrapolated, but it’s mostly accurate. I’ll let you read it, call me back once you do, I’ll understand if it takes you a while to process it. I sure did.” With that, he disconnected.
Once the connection was broken the VR environment automatically went back to millisecond resolution. Ally was the first to ask, “How long do you think it will take her?”
“I’d guess twenty minutes real time, she’ll have to pass it on to her superiors, then probably have a stiff drink.” Alex shrugged.
Thirty minutes later they received a hail from the NHR Day of Reckoning. The Admiral looked a little disheveled, she was no longer on her command deck, Alex would guess probably a ready room or private quarters. “This report is for real? You’re not pulling some sort of elaborate prank on us?”
“Afraid not Admiral, I’m sure it will take your people time to go through that much data, but I think you’ll find it is accurate.” Alex said.
Sighing the Admiral pulled out a small tumbler and pour something that looked like bourbon into the glass. “Hundreds of worlds, hundreds of billions of people?” She asked as she took a huge gulp.
Alex nodded, “Yes ma’am, we estimate only a few worlds would have been outside the range of the tear by the time the interstellar medium repaired space time. In the report we estimate only a few billion Humans left in the old universe.”
Admiral Benton leaned back in her chair. “Of all the things your hail could have been, I didn’t expect it to bring us news of the destruction of Human civilization in the other universe. Especially in the dire times we have ahead of us.”
Alex turned to Kara for a moment before turning back to the holo-tank, “I’m sorry Admiral, but we’re a little out of the loop, what dire times?”
“We’ve been pushed out of two of our three systems by the pulsar in the nebula. Evidently it goes through periods of instability, and we are in the middle of one. Our scientist estimate we have maybe five years before we have to abandon New Hope.” The Admiral said wearily as she poured more bourbon into her tumbler.
Alex took a mil to let that process before continuing, “Do you have a fallback plan?”
The Admiral leaned forward with her drink in hand, “We’re building ships as fast as the yards can spit them out, we should have enough transport to get our population out, the problem is where do we go? The Ulraar confederacy is watching our boarders continuously, and any other direction is hundreds of light years to get out of their sphere of influence to begin setting up our industrial base.”
“Oh, I don’t think the Ulraar will be a problem in the near future, we just eliminated a group of five of their vessels backed up by two dozen Howron ships.” Alex stated.
This caused the Admiral’s eyebrows to raise, “Three ships against twenty nine? I would love to see that battle report.”
Alex sent an instant message to the group, “Do we tell them about Alandra?”
Only Kelly answered him, “Tell her, better to fight with allies than face our enemies alone.”
“Well, we didn’t exactly only have three ships Admiral. I’m sending you over my after action report, and believe I have some good news for you.” Alex said with a smile.
A little bleary eyed, Admiral Benton looked through the holo-tank, “Well after the bombshell you dropped in my lap, I could use some good news.”
Alex reached over and pulled Kelly into view, “Admiral, meet Kel’Taraan, she is Alandran, and I think we have a new home for Humanity, we may just have to share for a while.