Alicia Jones 3: New Frontier Read online

  I growled, “Yes Doctor Wilder. If the doohickey on the thingy is really leaky…”

  I shook my head, “I think I need a break, forget I said that.”

  Kristi snorted, “Send the design to me, I’ll take a quick look. Give yourself a break, it’s not like people design things to run and last forever every day. Even with known tech. It would be a lot easier with a reactor in it.”

  I nodded, “But it will eventually run out of reaction mass. I figured at the power this takes, it would last for fifty years. But who would want to service tens of thousands of these little sensors, much less into the millions a few hundred years from now when we’ve mapped out the whole galaxy. If I can’t figure it out, we’ll have to go to large probes, they can FTL to a gas giant and refuel themselves. But who would want to pay that bill?”

  Kristi shrugged, “What if you nix this design, make it a box where the flaps unfold, maybe a few times, all with solar cells. Sounds to me you just need four times the amount of solar cells as you have.”

  I frowned, “But the larger it is, the more energy would need to be used for EM shielding. Twice the size, four times the energy.”

  Kristi rolled her eyes like I’d just said coffee was black, and asked, “Could the nanites keep up with the degradation if the solar panels were unshielded? Just shield the little box part for radiation.”

  “Maybe, I’ll check.”

  I set up the new design, it looked like the size of a kids lunch box, against the sides the solar panels were folded twice, once unfolded twice sideways, they would unfold again up and down. Then I ran some simulations.

  “Huh, it will last a thousand years.”

  Kristi looked over, “Just a thousand? That’s a lot less than forever.”

  I laughed, “Yes, because the nanites will run out of spare material to perform maintenance. Who knows, by then we’ll have the tech to scan the universe with our minds, and won’t need it anymore.”

  Kristi snickered, “With our minds?”

  I shrugged, “I told you already, I need a break, possibly hours of sleep, let’s go eat.”

  She nodded and jumped up, “On the ship?”

  I shook my head, “Colorado Springs.”

  We took a flight down to Earth on the sports shuttle, and before I got out I broke a few things.

  Kristi looked at me with concern, “Are you okay?”

  I laughed, “Yes, I promise I’m not going nuts. I’m testing the nanites. If we are to include them in the probe, we need to make sure they work as good as they do in the simulations and get patented before I submit my plan for looking rimward. We’ll see if the shuttle is fixed after dinner, run diagnostics, and check and make sure it’s working right.”

  The next week was fairly quiet. Nothing changed, no new systems were added to the treaty, no one attacked anyone, or as far as I knew even stubbed a toe. I even finally got some sleep.

  The nanites proved out, and so far the AI upgrade seemed okay, if a little annoying at times. The new type of nanites were patented, and we’d started to fabricate our fleet of one hundred stealth sensor unmanned ships. They gave me a month to get it implemented, but rather than mess with the large fabricators building the rest of our fleet, I gave orders for one hundred ships to build one each. It should take a little under two days for their ship fabricators to build one, since they were already designed to replace Shield missiles all they needed was the new pattern.

  Caroline was still working on power systems for the nanites, but I wasn’t sure if her heart was really in it. For now, I’d let her just go with what she was doing though, and hope she either had an unexpected break through, or moved to something different on her own. I didn’t doubt the woman was brilliant. Her invention as it stood would already bring us both millions if not billions, I could afford to pay her salary while she wandered a bit before picking a new project.

  Shelly was successful, but the AI system was high end, so she was working on either making it run on slower hardware, or finding out a way to make the faster high end computers a little cheaper.

  Carmine was making slow yet sure progress on improving the terraforming technology we had. It wasn’t ready yet, but hopefully it wouldn’t take too much longer, I had a feeling we were going to run across a number of world’s that were almost but not quite compatible with human life.

  Kristi, besides being my best friend, and forcing me to be social and have fun, thank god for that, also had her own projects. I wasn’t sure what exactly she was working on, but I knew it was weapons related. She was my business partner, so I wasn’t going to butt in unless she asked for my help.

  Having everything in hand again since keeping up with the day to day was easy, I was able to spend more time going through the black hole scanning data and tried to make sense of it. There was a lot there, and it was confusingly different from anything else in our universe. Something about it was tickling my mind, but it still remained out of reach.

  I had a feeling it would be obvious in hindsight, but whatever it was, it was buried in so much data it could take me years to find it.

  I have to say, I was a bit nervous when the time finally came to launch our stealthy exploration. We couldn’t see the probes on our ship’s sensors, but that didn’t mean no one could, did it? Still, I hoped they would find a suitable planet to support human life, or even just a place to study that already had intelligent life living there. It was just a matter of time.

  Chapter 4

  “You busy?” I asked while I turned around.

  I suppressed a smile when I saw a website with a shoe sale on her monitor.

  Kristi replied, “Very, what’s up?”

  I couldn’t help it, I laughed.

  “Well, I think I might have figured what’s messing up this data so much, the black hole data I mean.”

  Kristi narrowed her eyes, “What’s wrong with it?”

  “It’s breaking up matter too quickly. Faster than can even be accounted for knowing the forces involved in such a high gravity and energy rich environment.”

  Kristi looked thoughtful for a minute, “Are you sure it’s not time dilation making it appear that way?”

  I shook my head, “I thought of that, but no. There is nothing there, which leads me to guess based on observation. I think it’s vacuum energy, maybe it is a universal constant, except where black holes are involved. It’s almost as if the binding forces on matter are weakened, so it gets pulled apart faster than we expect.”

  Kristi sighed and shook her head in faux despair, “Dark matter, really?”

  Ugh, I hated that appellation.

  “Maybe, yes. What do you say we test it out?”

  Kristi’s eyes narrowed, “How?”

  “We’ll build ourselves a ship, with a series of very powerful gravity emitters, to form a micro-singularity and contain it. Then we can perform tests, and see if there is any indication of a buildup of va… fine, dark energy.”

  I felt dirty, like I’d sold my soul to the devil.

  She snickered, “So a dark energy reactor? I have some bad sci-fi books you could borrow.”

  I frowned slyly, “Of course, and we would need to build an en…”

  She interrupted with a gasp, “Don’t you dare say it!”

  “What?” I asked with faux innocence.

  She said in a voice filled with horror, “Engine room,” and then shuddered as if I’d suggested torturing kittens. It was all I could do not to laugh.

  I shrugged, “We are just doing an experiment, who knows if it will yield anything. I also suggest we do testing with manufactured black holes in the void, outside of our galaxy, that’s the only reason I suggested building a ship. We need our lab to be mobile.”

  She rolled her eyes, “Fine, let me check out what you got before you start the build.”

  I started with a normal battle cruiser, and created an engine room in it, just a blank space. I rolled my eyes at myself, really it would be more accurate to call it a lab space, b
ut teasing Kristi was worth it, so I labeled it as Main Engineering.

  I designed a chamber surrounded by gravity emitters from twelve equidistant points, forming a sphere of sorts. Even if one or two failed, the singularity wouldn’t. Just in case it actual did accumulate dark energy above the universal constant, and the singularity failed, I couldn’t help but think the ship would fall apart, all the matter weakened and pulled apart by the mass of exploding dark energy.

  Of course, I was probably wrong, I was just guessing.

  Because it was artificial, and wouldn’t have actual mass, the gravity would be ridiculously strong, strong enough to collapse the ship, except that it wouldn’t, because the gravity would be confined to the field size of the emitters. I wasn’t sure if that would change, in theory it could capture any particles passing through, and eventually gain enough mass to start growing, but that would take a very long time. Still, it was a good enough reason to justify putting it in the void.

  I also created an ejection system, just in case it did start to run out of control, so we wouldn’t lose the ship due to an experiment. I was rich, but I wasn’t eager to throw away millions of dollars either, due to negligent planning. Then with an evil grin on my face, I labeled the containment system as the core. I knew the phrase, eject the core, would annoy the hell out of Kristi.

  Okay, maybe I needed to grow up, but I was having fun.

  I also built into the lab a great number of very sensitive sensors. I added the nanites and an upgraded AI as an afterthought. I would also launch the Shield missiles to run scans, just in case I missed something that causes a catastrophic failure. I couldn’t think of anything else, so I sent the design and testing parameters over to Kristi.

  It didn’t take her long, thirty seconds later she started to laugh.

  “You’re a bad friend, and an evil alien,” she said in a mirthful voice.

  A few minutes later she sent it back, “Looks good. I only fixed two things.”

  Of course, the two differences were she relabeled the stuff to lab, and singularity generator. I started fabrication on one of our personal fabricators on the asteroids we owned, it would take a few days, and then I went to track down my vice admirals to see how things were going. I’d been keeping up with reports, but I hadn’t seen them face to face in a while outside of very short conversations.

  They weren’t difficult to find this time of day. With a quick check I saw both were on the bridge. I wondered if I was being selfish keeping them with me on the command ship, should they have ships of their own? Surely, at some point, we would need to be in three different places at once. Anthony with the home fleet, Sergei with the exploration fleet going from post to post to check on his admirals, and me… wherever I needed to be.

  The truth was, I could run the fleet from my hot tub in a bikini with Al, an aural and a visual interface in my head, and not much else. I’d already done something similar for a month from my jail. But I was a soul reader, and I liked to see people face to face, hear what is in their soul along with what they wanted to share. Did that make me untrusting and nosy, or did it make me a better fleet admiral? I got the idea it was a little of both, I needed to give them their own ships, and then visit them, as they would visit those under their command.

  They both stood when I walked in and I waved them back down and took a seat nearby.

  Sergei asked, “What do you need ma’am?”

  I smiled, “Funny you should ask that, it’s the reason I’m here. The reports look good, officially everything is roses, but… is there anything either of you are concerned about?”

  Sergei frowned, “There have been some problems, nothing big enough to put anyone on report, but since the Knomen were put down the mixed crews are letting their…. Let’s call it nationalism. Their nationalism is coming to light.”

  I nodded, “That makes sense, the same thing is happening on Earth to an extent. Hopefully we’ll find a nice distraction soon, planets to investigate. Have the newest ships and crews had a chance to participate in maneuvers and training? Maybe we could make it a contest.”

  Anthony asked, “A contest?”

  I smiled, “Sure, bragging rights, best ship in the fleet. Instead of people saying the Japanese this, or the Russians that, they’ll be saying those bastards on this ship, or that ship, need to go down next time. It should be good for moral, and change the gossiping and complaining from nationality to ship, unit, and fleet. Surely Anthony, you’d like an opportunity to put Sergei here in his place as the best tactician.”

  Sergei laughed, “That’s a good idea, it won’t erase the problem of course, but it will help. But are you sure Anthony’s ego can take such a horrific loss?” he added slyly.

  Anthony snorted, “In your dreams.”

  I changed the subject, sure they would run with the idea without further discussion, “I was also thinking you both needed your own ships, a command ship for each fleet, and then of course the fleet admiral’s. So can you have two more command ships built out in the next rotation? They should all be able to interface together so we can stay in close touch. I have a feeling when we start finding new worlds the three of us will have to start splitting up, for obvious reasons. Anthony, you’ll have to remain here, and Sergei, you’ll be busy keeping an eye on a fleet spread out all over the place, and making in person inspections. You can both pick your own staffs, you can’t have mine.”

  I smiled to take the sting out, but it was true. Currently we were sharing the bridge staff here, and they sure as hell weren’t taking Kristi. They didn’t have any comments, but I could tell both of them were excited about getting their own flag vessels, like little boys on Christmas morning. I wisely decided not to comment on it.

  I asked, “Anything else going on I should know about, or even not know about officially but be aware of?”

  Both of them shook their heads, Anthony spoke, “No Ma’am, we’ll get on those ships, and the competition training idea right away. Maybe we could give out three day passes to the best ship, and give the best unit priority for their shore leave… or something.”

  “Okay, good ideas. I have one more thing, what about rotations. I don’t want our people getting bored patrolling the same spot in space all the time. We’ll also have to keep an eye toward shore leave, so how often does a stint last at watching over a colony world, or…”

  They both exchanged looks.

  Sergei said, “We’ve discussed this. We were thinking three month tours, after that long without a break efficiency and moral will plummet. We still have some things to iron out though, that’s why we haven’t brought it up with you yet. We were all so fired up to get the fleets going, and make sure Earth didn’t get knocked back down to rubbing sticks together for fire, that it hasn’t been an issue until recently. For some, it has been three months already.”

  I asked the obvious question, “What’s to iron out?”

  Anthony sighed, “I want to give the crews shore leave together. Some don’t have a family and will want to go out and cut lose with their shipmates. So that’s one out of every thirty ships will be unavailable at any given time, a little over three percent of the fleet. Sergei thinks that’s too much, and we should rotate shore leave inside ships instead. So each ship will have one or two people missing at any one time, but still be combat ready a hundred percent of the time.”

  I nodded, “Are you all confident in the executive officer’s ability to fight their ship?”

  They both replied without hesitation, “Yes.”

  “Then go with the latter, but work out the Captain’s leave per the former, so only one out of every thirty ships doesn’t have their captain at any one time. Does that work?”

  Sergei nodded, “Yes Ma’am, we’ll get you a leave schedule soon.”

  I nodded and stood up. Then made my way back to my office and work area. I could do my work on the bridge, but I didn’t want to give the impression I was always looking over their shoulder.

  Chapter 5
r />   It was only a couple of days later when we found our first worlds that supported life. Three of them, all within hours of each other. None of them were available to colonize, they already had intelligent life. I could hardly believe how fast, and how close, we had found them. Out of a hundred probes, three percent of them had found something, dropped off a stealth sensor, and moved on. I knew there were nosy scientists no doubt using those sensors to spy on our, until now, unknown neighbors, only a few hundred light years away.

  I suppose it wasn’t too surprising, there were thousands of pre industrial worlds inside the twenty-seven thousand light year stretch of the old Knomen empire. Only fifty in that vast space had achieved interstellar spaceflight. The galaxy was full of life, and I wondered if we’d ever figured out who, or what, had seeded humanity across the stars. We may not be exactly alike, but we were all too similar for any other possibility to be true.

  Two of them looked to be in an iron age. Swords, wagon parts, farming implements, and so much more, all made with a hammer and anvil. I think the most bizarre part is the pictures I took a look at looked… familiar. Like it could be Earth, if the people didn’t have red skin, or more compact bodies. The forges looked like something right out of the middle ages.

  The third was even more advanced, well into the industrial revolution. A lot like the nineteen fifties on Earth. They had no space presence yet, not even a satellite, but the sensors picked up weak television, radio, cars, dirigibles, and other such markers. The inhabitants had more body hair, and were a bit taller. I think they were more peaceful too, like most of the races that survived the Knomen, I didn’t see any signs of huge wars or a large military in the data.

  A small part of me wanted to go have a look, after all, I could even go down there and morph my body to look like a local. But it was a wishful thinking moment, I was happy where I was and with my life. The inventions and science more than the admiral part, but I liked being busy. Plus, I could always look into the scanner feed, and be one of those nosy scientists myself.