It took the better part of a day in frame jack for Monty to recover from her existential crisis, and that was with Kara’s help and support. Alex, in typical male fashion was there for support, but was otherwise useless. This was not his wheelhouse, and he knew it, so it was a relief when Kara and Monty were finally sitting on the couch watching a romantic comedy.
He picked up a bowl of popcorn and some fizzy sodas and brought them over to them as they giggled at the hi-jinx that ensued on the screen. Kara nodded her thanks for the snacks as he walked back to his strategy corner. He was still going over probe data from both systems, but was mainly focused on zero zero one.
He supposed he should call it Alandra, that was what the Elves named their planet. Ok, Elves called themselves Alandrans, and the Lynx were the Howrons. It seems the sparrows found some libraries, and he had setup one of Kara’s algorithms to piece things together from the multiple books they had scanned with their creepy extending arms.
He was deep in research, fascinated by the information the sparrows had gathered in the past two months when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Kara stood behind him, Monty beside her eating a bagel, with what looked like Nutella smeared over the top. “Sorry, I was engrossed in the data the probes found on the Elves.”
Kara nodded, “Do I need to go over it as well for a second set of eyes?”
He shrugged, “It would be nice for both of you to go over it, with this many data points the language and cultural model are pretty much complete, but the sheer amount of history and literature is a bit overwhelming for someone who was once human.”
Kara turned to Monty, “Are you up for some detective work? We told you about the mystery of the Elven planet, as well as the mystery of the planet in this system. Help us comb through the data to put together what happened?”
Monty finished chewing her bagel, and nodded her head. Both Kara’s and Monty’s eyes glowed blue as they started coalescing and processing the massive amount of data the computer in cargo bay two had been storing and cataloging. It took a few seconds for Kara, a testament to how much there was to crunch, and a few more for Monty, being an older matrix.
Alex noted they were both done waved his hand and a blue marker appeared in it as he started writing data points on the board. “We know the Elves are Alanadrans, and for most of their history they lived in small villages or towns, doing pretty much what humans did. No central government, just thousands of small queendoms all over the world.”
Kara walked beside him and formed her own marker and started adding to the board, “Everything changed when a sky vessel appeared above their world. From it came three beings who called themselves Humans, who were a bit shorter, and stouter than the Alandrans, but without the pointed ears.”
Monty, wanting to join in formed her own marker and wrote below Kara, “The humans taught the neighboring queendoms the basics of mathematics, chemistry, medicine, and mechanics to start an industrial revolution. They aided kingdoms into consolidating into independent states, with former Queens becoming Governors, and setting up a Parliament which aided to vote in a new Empress every six years.”
Alex picked up below Monty, “The humans were very short lived, the last of them died of old age a mere century after they landed in their escape pod. The Alandran’s were thriving, with a scientific base every aspect of life was improving. Until the Howrons appeared in above their world.”
Kara seemed to like the game as she nearly skipped to add more to the board, “The Howrons attempted to board the crippled Human vessel, known as the ICS Day of Prosperity, which upon Imperial protocol resisted the attack. The Alandrans state the vessel exploded above the planet, and after that the Howrons came down from their own ship.”
Then it was Monty’s turn, “They demanded to know where the ship came from, but they dismissed the tales the Alandran’s told them as lies or deceit. They were protecting the humans, and they would give them over or their whole race would pay. The current Empress had the bodies dug up and presented to the Howrons, which only helped to enrage them more. They killed the current Empress and stated that they would require tribute from the Elves, ten thousand tons of adamantine ore every year or they would wipe them out as a species.”
Alex stood back and looked at the board, “It is ironic that this came from multiple books that are now considered fairy tales. To the current Alandrans, Humans are only a Myth. Something told to children to explain why they are enslaved by the Howrons.”
Monty tapped at her chin, “Yes, most adults believe that they underwent their own industrial revolution centuries ago and the Howron bomb them now to keep them from getting too advanced to threaten them, while taking away their most valuable resource.”
Kara walked back to the board to add another entry, “ICS Day of Prosperity was lost with all hands four hundred thirty years ago, it was one of the first ships lost in the early days of the great expansion, after the advent of the ripple drive.”
Alex had to check his own data banks, “Hmm, the first ship lost was the IFS Conquest of Mars, a retrofitted ship of the line. It was the third Imperial warship to receive a ripple drive, back when we were limited to two systems by speed of light. It was lost four hundred and fifty years ago with all hands, and is the poster child for why keeping the ripple coils in alignment is so important.”
He slid the white board over to reveal a blank board behind it, “Now, the probes here in zero zero two found an intact data pad floating in the wreckage of one of the pine cone ships. The pad is crude, something that would have been common on earth six hundred years ago, and the cold and vacuum of space ensured the pad would never operate again. However, the probes could scan and emulate the memory chips architecture.”
He continued writing, “Using our extrapolation software to build it in a virtual model I had the new computer start working on translating. It was much easier now that we have refined the algorithms for the Alandrans, but even with the wealth of knowledge we got from some fur balls personal tablet we still couldn’t talk with them effectively. We need more data points.”
He then turned back to Kara and Monty before writing more on the board. “A piece of propaganda was found that roughly translates to ‘Why we fight’ tells a story of how the glorious Howron Empire had spread to fifty worlds, and with their fleet of Klinish star ships they were the undisputed power in the galaxy. I would guess Klinish are the living ships they use.”
Continuing, he wrote, “Then a strange vessel appeared above the planet Arlerus, ships came down from the sky and strange beings came out to speak to the inhabitants. They were rude and arrogant to the mighty Howrons, and as such were punished by the torture and death. The blasphemous ship above the planet destroyed Arlerus and left beacons behind stating they had made a grave mistake by crossing the Imperium of Man.”
Kara’s eyebrows raised, “That was what happened to the second planet in this system? It was destroyed by a Human vessel?”
Alex nodded, “Back then it wouldn’t have had Hafnium warheads, just fusion torpedoes, and really really big rail guns. The Conquest was a ship of the line, built at Mars shipyards after the unification wars. Back then the ships were huge, having to take nearly a decade to get to Alpha Centari A. They had to grow their own food, and the crew alternated shifts in stasis pods, usually five shifts lasting six months at a time. A ship that big was designed to do orbital bombardments, it had three rail guns that make ours look like a popgun, but were single shot, no wonder the planet’s crust was cracked.”
Monty shook her highlighter, “So let me get this in order, the Conquest ends up here after a coil misalignment, finds the nearest planet and sends a team down after getting no response on string radio. Their team is killed by the alien inhabitants, and the Conquest decided to destroy the planet, sending it into an ice age? Then they find a human ship above Alandra and punish the Elves for harboring them?”
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Alex nodded, “The crew of the Conquest would have been veterans of the war of unification, that was one of the bloodiest times in human history. They would have been hardened soldiers, and wouldn’t have thought of these Howrons as people, merely arrogant savages who killed their fellow soldiers. I for one, have found no redeeming qualities in the fur balls so far.”
Kara agreed whole heartedly, “This would have made the Howrons who found the beacons furious, and they would have sent scouts out in all directions. Finding a human ship in orbit around the Alandran home world gave them the excuse to enslave their people. What a bunch of assholes.”
Monty looked from Alex to Kara, “I’ve had some emotions over the years, more since I arrived in this universe, but never as many as I have in the last day. How do you two deal with this on a constant basis?”
Alex grinned, “It’s been more than a day subjective, you and Kara were in frame jack for hours on end. But I was originally human, we are born with emotions, and learn to handle them in the first twenty years of life or so. Kara has dealt with me for twenty eight years, she has been eased into dealing with emotions. You will too, it will just take time. So what emotion are you feeling now?”
Monty thought about it for a moment, “Anger, rage, animosity. I want to smash something, just thinking about the Howrons and what they did to my ship, and me. And what they did to the humans who landed on that planet, and to the Elves. Is that normal?”
Kara nodded, “Seems normal to me, I know it is normal for Alex. He keeps a cool head, but I can tell when he’s angry, I’ve been around him long enough to tell.”
Alex walked back to the board, “The only hole in the story I can find so far is that there is no record on the tablet of what happened to the Conquest. If they tracked down that ship and destroyed it I would expect the fur balls to be bragging about it.”
Kara crossed her arms behind her back, “Well, one of those early ships would have limited power, and the ripple coils were crude. Since we have no record of the specifications for ships of that era, when they were built one at a time and not built to class standards I have to guess at its capabilities. I would expect it to have a maximum speed of 25c or so, but would probably cruise at 20c between stars. Where could it go from here?”
Alex checked his database, “Wow, am I reading this correctly? That ship massed ten million metric tons? Had a crew of over fifty five thousand?”
Kara looked over to Alex, “That is correct, it was the single biggest peace-time loss of a vessel in human history.”
He nodded, “Okay, so lets put ourselves in their shoes. They arrive here, probably damaged, but seeing how much armor those early ships had it probably wasn’t very badly. They realized they weren’t anywhere near Human space, but probably had no idea they were outside the known universe. They were greeted by hostile aliens whose first act was to kill their crew, and as veteran soldiers who didn’t take any shit they bombed the planet into an ice age. Their next move would be information gathering, same as we are doing now.”
Kara shrugged, “I’ll leave the supposition up to you. I’ve tried for decades to understand human behavior, and you still often surprise me. What would you do after the information gathering phase?”
Alex thought a moment, “With a crew that large I would have to take into account their needs. If they decided there was no way home then survival of Humans as a species here would be of paramount importance. I would search for a place the Howrons could not reach. So they would study their vessels and decide upon where to go.”
Monty spoke up, “I studied their vessels for years looking for weaknesses. There were several for a warship looking to destroy them, but in general, and in this case, they do not protect the crew very well against harsh radiation.”
He nodded, thinking about this new piece of information. “Ok, are there any areas of local space that have large barriers to crossing due to intense radiation? It would need to be within a two hundred light year bubble, as the ship can apparently travel for ten years without issue.”
Kara’s eyes blazed blue for a moment, “There are two places of interest, one is within sixty light years of this sector. It is near a pulsar that is emitting radiation in a forty light year area around the star’s poles, like two light houses shining intense radiation. That radiation is energizing a nebula around it. One of the Howron ships would be cooked going even a half a light year from that nebula.”
Alex pulled up a star chart on the screen next to the white board. “Alright, what about the second one?”
Kara shrugged, “It is one hundred and twenty two light years away, and it is a magnetar that is spewing out x-rays around eight kilo-electron volts. It is also putting out gamma ray bursts at random intervals.”
Alex nodded, “Never mind on the magnetar, that thing would cook the Conquest easily, so that means they probably went through the nebula around the pulsar to the other side which would be incredibly hard for the Howron to get to, as they would have to go around.”
Monty spoke up, “I hate to change the subject, but didn’t you follow a ship here?”
Alex looked to Kara trying to decide what Monty was getting at, “Yes, we triangulated its vector from where it came and went from the Alandran home world, and after making repairs we traveled here, at much higher relative speed of course.”
Monty nodded, “That ship will get here soon and find the wreckage of the Howron fleet. What do you plan to do about it?”
Kara looked over to Alex, “She has a point, if we leave here looking for Humans who may have setup an outpost past the pulsar we have no idea what the Howron will do in retaliation if they can’t find who was responsible for the destruction of their fleet. That ship may send off a message to wherever home is and go back to the Alandran home world which we know is undefended and has at least rudimentary ties to humanity.”
Alex started pacing, running a hand through his hair. “Well shit! Kara, did you detect any call out from the fleet before we destroyed it?”
Kara’s eye’s blazed blue for a moment, “Negative, no bells inequality event happened in the brief engagement.”
Alex continued pacing and waved them over to the holo-tank. He picked up a bottle of beer from the table, cracked open the top and took a swig. “The last thing we need is for that ship to send an emergency message home. I have no idea how many ships they have, but if the propaganda on that tablet is correct they have hundreds. And the destruction of seven ships will call for them to send a force to deal with whatever happened.”
Kara nodded, “That is reasonable, but they will find out eventually anyways. Those ships have to check in with command at a regular interval, we did after all.”
Alex took another swig of his beer, if he was still mortal he’d be getting a headache right about now, “Yeah, but when the fleet doesn’t check in after so long they’ll send a scout first, which will take time, maybe up to a year, not a fleet all at once. And they’ll send them here, after investigating they will go to Alandra, where we will be setting up defenses. Having over a year of setup time will allow us to build up a defense in depth.”
Kara knew that look, Alex was going to war again. “Very well, what are your orders Sir?”
“Pull our scout probes from around the planet and the debris field of the Montana, setup and overlapping sphere around this system as an early warning grid. Then we need to setup in stealth near the estimated arrival location of the ship coming from Alandra.”
Kara nodded, poking points in the holo-tank to move probes, “The Howron ship isn’t scheduled to be here for another forty seven days Sir.”
Monty looked from one of them to the other, confused. “Um, Kara, why are you suddenly calling him Sir instead of Alex?”
Kara looked over to Monty, “He has assumed the role of Captain, when we are off duty, which is most of the time he is Alex, but when things must get done he is the commander of the vessel, and we must act professionally.”
Alex looked back to Kara, “You have a point, forty seven days is a long time to wait, let me think on that for a moment. Also, where are the closest stars that might have habitable planets from here?”
Kara checked the holo-tank before answering, “Alandra is of course the closest, however, there is another G-type star eight point nine light years from here and another fifteen point two light years.”
Alex took another swig of beer while he thought. “We don’t have mines like we used at Birmingham. Can the torpedoes be used as makeshift mines?”
Kara shook her head, “They rely on a targeting computer to send them, it’s a fail safe built into the firmware. They cannot choose their own target.”
He paced again, going to take another swig of his beer when he realized the bottle was empty, he vanished the bottle and spoke, “Ok, if they need a targeting computer, can we use the one in cargo bay 2?”
Kara looked at him with exasperation, “That computer is aboard this ship, we might as well use the onboard targeting computer.”
Alex smiled, “But what if it wasn’t?”
Monty broke in excitedly, “You mean we put the computer in a hauler or something to control the missiles?”
Alex looked over to her, “Exactly! We modify a hauler to house the computer and power it. We give it standing instructions to target any vessel that looks even remotely like a pine cone.”
Kara nodded, catching on to the idea. “We’ll need to coat the hull in nano-fibers so we can extend a stealth field around it, as well a string radio. We will also have to put another micro fusion reactor on board to power the computer, the on board reactor just can’t put out that much power.”
Monty thought for a moment, “It will need a self destruct, we don’t want the Howron to get their hands on our technology.”
Alex clapped his hands together, “Ok, let’s get to work on retrofitting a hauler and getting some torpedoes in position. I want to be setup and heading back to the Alandran system within two weeks.”