Crusade chapter 11 (standard:science fiction, 3219 words) [11/11] show all parts
Author: St George	Added: Mar 11 2003	Views/Reads: 2442/1876	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
chapter 11

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

well, in a moment I will instruct you to hand the ship over to 
demi-control, then you will begin sections one and two. These sections 
must be processed at the same time, you will probably complete section 
one first. Once you have completed sections one and two you will begin 
section three. Do you understand?” “I understand.” “Then turn the ship 
over to demi-control now.” Alecto announced through the ship that she 
would be off-line for an indeterminate time and then, reluctantly, 
handed over control to the demis. 

As the test began the monitoring screens suddenly showed a huge jump in
nutrient use, heat output and bioelectricity output. The two assistants 
each watched the screens on their own computers, one computer delivered 
section one, the other section two, both showed a green bar growing 
slowly indicating Alecto's progress. Presently the bar indicating 
section one was full and a time of 00:13:20:33 flashed up, then the 
display was wiped and another bar appeared, this one indicated the 
computer checking Alecto's answers against those in its memory, this 
took almost as long as Alecto had taken to complete the section and by 
the time it was done she had completed section two in 00:22:41:59. 
Although she assured the examiner that she could have completed both 
tasks quicker if she had attempted them one at a time, Captain Ai 
pointed out that the point of this part of the test was that it she was 
required to process both sections at once. Following that was section 
three which lasted only three minutes. Once the test was complete 
Captain Ai began to collate the results on one of the computers. “Well 
Alecto, your results break down like this. On section one you scored 
100% as expected and in a very respectable time, in section two your 
model was accurate to within 0.000723% of ideal parameters, though your 
time was more than expected, in section three you failed to answer 144 
questions within the time limit though all answered questions were 
correct and at your average answer speed you would have needed an extra 
15 seconds to answer the remaining questions. Your final rating is 
44,138, which places you as the second most intelligent Solarian 
computer! Congratulations.” “Who is the first?” asked Carver. “The most 
intelligent Solarian computer is Gia at Hellas. Alecto,” said Ai, now 
addressing Alecto again, “if you care to know, your Sire is rated at 
138,772.” 

It's a risky business creating sentient computers, their eventual
personalities are inherently unpredictable. Therefore it was the 
Anduril practise and the adopted human practice to create a new 
sentient computer by taking and culturing a biopsy of an established 
computer, in this way an element of the Sire's personality is 
transferred to the offspring. Gia was the stellar navy's main computer, 
ultimately responsible for all naval computing, and although she was 
created from scratch, with no Sire (along with the new stellar navy) 
Alecto, Chrysys and Galadriel (Neo Mir's main computer) were all Sired 
by Gia. 

The enemy weren't very happy to let the alliance rest on their laurels
and a little over a month later they turned their eye toward Athens. As 
soon as the unscheduled ship showed up on epdar a well rehearsed plan 
went into operation and SNS Ghost was immediately sent to investigate, 
she was one of the three new phantoms so far completed. What she 
revealed was worse than any feared. Five juggernaut freighters and 
each, according to the gravimetric mass sensor, carried a singularity, 
were in convoy with a fleet of warships, all travelling at minimum safe 
distance from the freighters and all bound for Athens. 

Commodore Sterling (commander of Athens and the first fleet) had few
choices. He could send SNS Grendel (the interdictor cruiser) to 
intercept in an attempt to buy more time, or he could send the fleet to 
attack. Both were suicide missions. Alternatively he could await the 
onslaught and fight it out under the guns of Hammer, still very risky, 
or he could retreat. Any reinforcements worthy of the name would arrive 
at least six hours after the enemy unless Grendel slowed them down, but 
she probably couldn't last even ten minutes against that force. There 
was only one option, he ordered the fleet to retreat to Messiah and 
scuttling charges to be detonated in Athens, Hammer and the shipyards. 

Though he saw the wisdom Carver hated the idea, not only would they lose
Athens but they were falling back to an Anduril stronghold. He may as 
well be walking around the Anduril homeworld with a sandwich board 
saying ‘humanity can't hack it'. Not only that but Crusader was full of 
civilians being evacuated from Athens and the planet's surface, which 
didn't make for an efficient fighting machine. If things looked grim 
though, they very rapidly got worse. By the time the first fleet 
reached Messiah station the enemy fleet had passed through the Athens 
system and had moved to a new course. 

“We have analysed their course and come to the following conclusion.”
said Commodore Sterling, addressing a gathering of officers hastily 
convened at Messiah. “Computer, map one please.” The station computer 
projected a 3-D map of space and through it ran a red line indicating 
the estimated course. “Computer, impose stellar navy grid overlay.” 
Suddenly green lines appeared showing the sectors that the red line 
passed through and there was a loud gasp. The red line passed straight 
through the centre of sector HU55, Earth! “Ladies and gentlemen,” 
continued the Commodore, “This is not a fleet, it's an armada. We don't 
know how but they know where earth is, and they are coming to visit. 
They have to go slow so that the freighters can keep up, that means we 
have twelve days.” 

The Megaeran plan seemed to be thus: attack Athens to destroy or drive
away the human's main fleet, then to move on to the homeworld. It was a 
good plan, it had worked before on the Tisiphones. Whether the 
freighters were there as a deterrent, to prevent attack, or they were 
actually planning to deploy them against earth was immaterial, the 
fleet had to be stopped. As soon as possible Neo Mir began to evacuate 
people. Of course they couldn't hope to remove any more than a tiny 
percent of the population, but they tried, they also began to remove 
things, art, books and artefacts, hoping to preserve something of these 
should the worst happen. Plans for this operation had been laid down 
soon after the navy's conception. 

Meanwhile preparations of a less high-minded kind were also going on.
Whilst Neo Mir ships were constantly taking people and things away from 
the Sol system, warships from all over were caning their engines to get 
to Bernard's star. After three day's Rathporr arrived with her mighty 
fleet, comprising the best ships and crew in the Anduril navy (and the 
best in the Anduril navy means the best there is). As they penetrated 
alliance space the ships in the enemy's armada were identified. This 
was it, this wasn't just a fleet, this was the Megaeran navy, according 
to Anduril estimates the armada comprised almost two thirds of the 
enemy's force. To compete, every ship that could be mustered was called 
in. Odds on whoever won this battle would win the war. 

The battle plan was simple. The interdictor cruisers would force the
armada into real space and then carrier borne Black Widows, escorted by 
Xçtals, would try to take down the freighters. There were no delusions, 
all the pilots knew that whether they succeeded or not this would be a 
one-way trip for most. There were seven human and Anduril carriers, the 
four human carriers each fielded 650 bombers scraped together from all 
over and if 5200 torpedoes couldn't take care of five freighters then 
nothing could. Once the freighters had done their work then it got even 
simpler, the warships would wade in and do their thing until one side 
or the other lost, apart from SNS Phantom, Ghost, Wraith and Spirit 
which would wait at the periphery under EH, ready to engage anything 
which tried to slip by. 

Carver stood upon the quarterdeck. “Most of you joined the stellar navy
from your own national armed services as is only right, we can't defend 
our own country unless our own planet is secure. Our planet, think 
about it, over six billion people back home are counting on us, we 
fight or they die. Now is the time that we must walk into peril knowing 
that we might, that we probably won't see the other end. We do this, 
not because it's honourable, not because it's brave and glorious, or 
even because it's right. We do it because it must be done, we will 
defend our Earth no matter what may come. Here a line will be drawn in 
the interstellar dust which none shall cross but by our death. We shall 
defend what we hold dear! We shall pay the debt that we owe to our 
Earth! We shall say no, this is ours you can't have it! This is the 
final roll of the dice. If they win then do you truly want to live 
under occupation? If they lose then our lives, or deaths will be well 
spent. Humanity knows a lot about killing, and now its time for a 
master-class!” 

Almost as soon as he finished, the armada was dragged into real space,
the bombers and fighters surged forth like a plague of locusts, there 
was a wall of flame as the leading edge was cut down and those behind 
swept forward to replace them, the armada scattered, no-one wanted to 
be near the freighters, and the front runners came into range of the 
fleet. Like dogs from the chain Crusader and Rathporr charged forward, 
and behind came ships of every class and type. “Mark!” cried Carver and 
from the previously quiet Solarian fleet came the vacuum silenced 
thunder of the Alpha strike, the terrifying tactic of having every ship 
fire every weapon system simultaneously. Sensors were blinded as the 
tidal wave of energy broke upon the foe, and then again as the slower 
torpedoes hit their mark. Fighters of both sides were battling for the 
freighters, the first line of each side was listing or open. “Fire at 
will! Helm ahead flank, papa gunnery target tango 554, sierra gunnery 
tango 92, all torpedoes fire, full spread, self target.” As the two 
great fleets locked horns, the real battle was over, the freighters 
destroyed, the singularities free, the birds gone. “Signal the fleet, 
pattern Yankee!” Responding to Carver's order the fleet attempted to 
pull off the manoeuvre, it meant driving straight into the middle of 
the enemy fleet and then half breaking port, the other starboard, 
drawing an imaginary Y and in theory dividing the enemy. Manoeuvring 
was impossible with both fleets trying to get the best positions and 
collisions were numerous, more than once there was the titanic thud of 
a ship, foe or friend, colliding with the unforgiving shield of 
Crusader. “We're open Sir, port and keel, starboards down to 20%.” 
There were now the gentle but incessant tremors which tell of inertia 
stabiliser problems, and “TORPEDO TOR...” the cry was cut short as the 
superstructure quaked and a crater was blasted in the great ship's 
flank, she quivered from stem to stern and warning lights flashed on 
many consoles. “Damage report!” “Sir, hull breach section five and six 
decks 88 through 166, papa turrets two and three offline, we're venting 
hydrogen, and atmosphere, sierra shield open....” Carver cut him off, 
“All hands abandon ship!” he shouted, Crusader was doomed. “Alecto, 
jettison your bio-cells.” Around him the bridge emptied as people ran 
to the lifepods but Carver stayed stolidly in his seat. “Negative 
Captain,” replied Alecto. “What do you mean, is there a problem with 
the ejector system?” “No Captain, I'm making a decision, look.” On the 
holoscape Alecto showed the Megaeran flagship barely fifty kilometres 
ahead. “Alecto, you don't have to do this, eject your bio-tanks, I can 
take care of that.” “I know I don't have to,” she said, disengaging the 
safeties and delivering an extra kick of power to the engines, “I don't 
have to but I am. I'm no longer a slave.” With that, her avatar drew 
her sword, stood to attention and from her audio library began to play 
the last four lines of Jerusalem, it had always been her favourite. 

AN END 

© Author 2002 

Things to look out for: many technologies portrayed above, such as
bio-computers and the Bussard ramscoop are based on real science, other 
things such as the Tunguska meteorite and the shutdown of the 
relativistic heavy ion collider actually happened and the ion drive 
powered space vehicle is already a reality. Other things such as 
hyperspace and ether are, to the best of my knowledge bunk. 

On the subject of aliens, I know that there is no reason why the
Andurils must breath oxygen/nitrogen, have two sexes and enjoy 
fructose. This story is about humans not Andurils and for this I make 
no apology. If you want detailed and insightful plots and worlds 
involving non-human characters then you should read some of my other 
(as yet unpublished) work. On the subject of measurements I usually use 
imperial (a much more elegant and infinitely superior system), but I 
think most people would agree with me that somehow yards and inches 
don't sound right when applied to a starship. In addition, I have 
included (where necessary) distances in miles as well as astronomical 
measurements, this is in response to a couple of e-mails I had on the 
subject. 

I always welcome feedback, but I would be especially pleased to hear
from people who have spotted the furie connection (if you've spotted it 
then you know what I'm talking about) and also from people who have 
spotted the son of Narsil connection (a bit cryptic unless you know to 
what I am referring). -Additional: No-one ever did mail me claiming to 
have decoded these subtleties, but I still have hope. 

Incidentally I know my gods and monsters as well as (if not better than)
the next man and I am aware of the minor irony of calling an enemy ship 
‘juggernaut', there is no hidden connection there. 

One last note, any suggestions or comments are welcome, don't worry I'm
pretty thick skinned so tell it like it is. 


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