Phantom chapter 4 (standard:science fiction, 2051 words) [4/5] show all parts
Author: St George	Added: Mar 12 2003	Views/Reads: 2594/1981	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Chapter 4

Strict radio silence having been maintained since reception of the
attack order, the crew had yet to receive the news of the capture of 
ES-44529. Upon docking at Disciple Station, Archer was informed that 
there was insufficient anti-matter to refuel them and that a Neo Mir 
freighter would arrive in two days time (being an Anduril facility 
Disciple had no need of anti-matter). Following re-supply she was to 
head to SNI Athens and then embark on patrol, officially her third 
cruise, although one and two had been contiguous. This was the first 
time Phantom had been amongst so many big warships as she had been 
constructed in Mars orbit and had gone straight into operation, never 
visiting  Io space dock (the navy's main dock within the solar system). 
Docked at Athens the small ship gave the image of a kitten in a tiger 
enclosure. 

Before the start of the third cruise the crew were being given the
chance to enjoy seven days shore leave either on the lunar dock or the 
planet itself, and enjoy it they did. Although no-one in that part 
particular neck of the woods could claim to have the monopoly on war 
stories, Phantom's personnel had some of the most popular. There were 
very few in the audiences who had a problem with the destruction of 
lifepods, especially after the Megaeran's recent attack on an Anduril 
civilian mining colony which had left 800 dead. Indeed, it was 
suggested in some quarters that Phantom's next mission should be to go 
to the Megaeran homeworld and nuke every inch from orbit! 

Her actual orders, however, were rather less genocidal. Like cruise one,
it was a freighter search and destroy mission; timeframe, two weeks. If 
all went well they should be back just after the launching of the first 
of the Phantom MX2's. These were the same as the original, except that 
they were equipped with a normal hyperdrive actuator instead of the 
expensive, complex and highly unstable motivator unit. Under normal 
conditions 220 tons of anti-matter could last Phantom for almost 63 
days, but the motivator unit was so power hungry that every hyperjump 
used the equivalent of nearly three days fuel. With a normal actuator 
unit the new ships would have more fuel to spare, meaning that they 
could remain under EH for 25% longer. It also meant that the new ships 
did not require sentient computers. However, the Admiralty had not 
ruled out building additional MX1 models for specialist missions. 

“Chrysys.” said Archer, summoning the occasionally erratic sapient. “Yes
Captain.” “Chrysys, I've been going through the communications log 
before we depart and I came across a transmission made yesterday in 
your name.” “Yes Captain.” “It was 4.6 gigabytes, it took up a lot of 
bandwidth on the relays to Earth. I was just wondering what was in such 
a large message.” “It is no secret Captain, I will show you, though I 
doubt you could understand it.” “Why don't I be the judge of that.” “As 
you wish Captain.” On Archer's screen, text started to scroll down at 
high speed, every now and then pictures, diagrams and graphs also 
appeared. At the top were the words: ‘Methods of natural four 
dimensional fractal extrapolation and their practical use in 
interstellar navigation and gravity well cartography. By Dr. E Topp and 
Dr. Chrysys.' “Lieutenant Topp (the chief navigational officer) and I 
have developed a new method of mapping stellar and interstellar 
movements using fractal equations Captain.” “You're right Chrysys, I 
don't understand it.” “It's relatively simple Captain. Simply put a 
fractal is a complex pattern derived from simple equations. With me so 
far?” “I know that much Chrysys.” “If one has the fractal picture then 
the equations can be extrapolated, with enough computing power. But, 
the breakthrough came when we realised that any complex picture can be 
treated as a fractal, do you see?” “No, not really.” On Archer's screen 
a picture of the Mona Lisa appeared. “Although this picture is stored 
in my memory, it's not stored as a picture, it's stored as a string of 
equations which will make the picture when run. This is how large 
images can be compressed into small files.” “Oh.” “Now, consider a star 
system. One can draw a three dimensional picture of the planetary 
orbits and store the picture as a set of fractal equations in the same 
way. However, if we have a four dimensional picture of the same system, 
then the equations can be used to accurately predict the movements far 
into the future, by computers less powerful than would be necessary 
using traditional mathematics. Thus gravity wells can be pre-mapped and 
hyperspace navigation be rendered simpler .” “If you say so.” “I do 
Captain, and this is our paper proving the technique practical.” “When 
did you get your doctorate?” “I was spawned several months before 
construction of Phantom began. I took the time to study several fields 
and obtained my doctorate in mathematics with relative ease. I am, I 


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