Chapter 13

The words had hardly left JD’s mouth as his majestic space craft slowly pulled away from his home for the past several years. He was leaving a thriving colony, in the capable hands of a good leader; someone who would look after his home planetoid well, in the years to come.

“All crew report status.” He commanded, hoping that everything was operating normally. It would be embarrassing to limp back to the shipyard; so soon after his launch. As more reports came in, he started feeling more confident.

Yes, there will little problems. A leak indication in a fuel line, probably a loose fitting or a missing O-ring. The problem could be quickly isolated and a repair android dispatched to conduct a repair. A shut-off valve that failed to close. It was probably never installed properly. The link to the server motor might be missing of had come loose. With the fault isolated, it could be scheduled for repair later and a redundant service line operated. That was the key to safe space ship operation, multiple redundancies. Work arounds were known and practiced with each crew drill. Small anomalies were expected, especially in brand new machines, and certainly ones as complicated as an interstellar spacecraft.

Huge problems were possible. That’s why JD limited thrust to one-third impulse. He wouldn’t get too far away if a real problem presented itself. Nor would it take much thrust to slow the craft and manoeuvre for a return to the shipyard. Fortunately, there was no huge problems. For the next sixteen hours, JD exercised every attitude thruster on TL. Single, or in tandem, in opposition, at full open and at various smaller discharges. There was one that stuck open. I would have to be repaired later. The crew closed the fuel line leading to it and the thrust bled away. Another wouldn’t open all the way. They’d bypass it and use adjacent thrusters in tandem to make the same manoeuvre.

Several indicator lamps failed to illuminate properly. They had no effect upon spacecraft handling, but just made TL’s crew frustrated to have to find some other method to see what was going on with the fault. By the end of the first two shifts, the ship’s log had recorded over two hundred uncorrected minor faults.

Each had to be prioritized and addressed when the human crew or the android technicians were available. Some would require space walks, and unfortunately some would remain uncorrected for a long time, until resources and capabilities were available to fix them. Third shift came on duty and monitored a spacecraft making a third of maximum impulse power, headed for a gas giant that was still two days away. Since JG planned to reverse thrust and bring TL to a halt tomorrow, they would still be a couple of days away on the next third shift.

It was important to be able to stop, or slow down. Waiting till TL was conducting a critical manoeuvre to find out you couldn’t slowdown was foolish and irresponsible. Like all the other procedures, each one required some trial to see if it worked well at a low speed, before it was attempted at full throttle. It was like taking baby steps. Something everyone learned to do before they could actually run.

The next day went better. All manoeuvres were successful. The crew were getting more confident in themselves and their ship. I could tell they wanted to charge ahead confidently, but I stuck to my plan for the most part. The one big exception was to engage the fusion drives, alone and in tandem at low power.

With our reduced fuel situation, I had carefully planned for the consumption it would take and still leave us a safety margin. We had plenty to reach the gas giant and return to Thor Base. I doubted that we would encounter any threats, so I exercised both fusion drives to ten percent of their capacity. As one might have expected from their lateral displacement, the ship veered in yaw when only one drive was engaged, or when their combined thrusts were not balanced. I manoeuvred in roll to sort of corkscrew ahead, to compensate for this tendency. I was rather proud of my ingenuity; but realized how desperate our situation would become if TL was forced into such mode by battle damage or catastrophe.

Shutting down the fusion drives, we were significantly ahead of our schedule. Having reached our destination, we needed to enter an orbit around the gas giant. Once successfully accomplished, I asked all stations for a status check before dropping to the cloud tops to take on fuel. This could get bumpy and I was exercising an abundance of caution.

I needn’t have worried. TL accomplished re-fuelling flawlessly. Leaving the sprawling monster behind, TL headed for the outer reaches of the Alpha Centauri system for more manoeuvres. The next day I exercised the impulse drive at full power. Then cut it off, spun about, and came to all ahead full in reverse. This stopping and starting of the impulse engine, followed by maximum thrusts went nominally. Instead of moving onto the big fusion drives for their trials, I coasted through space and ordered a full range of diagnostics be performed on the shutdown impulse drive for the remainder of the day.

The next shift I manned, I started TL off with a gradual increase in fusion drive thrust to the maximum, on single units; then combined fusion drives. Both worked flawlessly, even when paused at idle then gunned to full power and repeatedly recycled through their full range of capabilities.

I knew that our pilots were just as anxious to ‘stretch their muscles’ as I was. Approaching a small moon which seemed to orbit one of the system’s most outer planetoids, I designated it hostile and allowed both fighters and long-range interceptors to attack it with kinetic energy missiles and lasers. That was a blast.

TL’s bridge display was soon swarming with symbols and showing missile tracks impacting on the moon. Chunks of the moon’s surface could be seen erupting from its crust then casually falling back to its surface in lazy arcs at full magnification.

After all those space craft had been recovered, I requested a status briefing in my conference room from the wing commander. He reported what was obvious to me, that all craft were operational, but one laser had malfunctioned. I directed him to plan for the long-range interceptors to get a re-fuelling in-flight exercise the next day.

All during those activities, the android crew worked on the long list of uncorrected faults that were logged by Alara. Soon that list had shrunk dramatically. With my confidence in TL’s worthiness, it was time to begin our explorations with a jump to the nearest star system. Proxima Centauri, only a few tenths of a light-year away. After all this time, I was about to move towards what was supposed to be Thor’s original destination.

On her maiden flight, Thor had dropped Warp and encountered those pirate craft attacking Meteor near there. With Meteor along and a captured pirate craft, I had changed course to Alpha Centauri on Naomi’s advice. Before departing at trans-Warp, I broadcast TL’s current status, position, and our departure intentions back to Thor Base.

Turning towards the helmsman, I commanded, “Lay in a course for Proxima Centauri, Full fusion drive power. Plot a Warp jump.”

“Con, Helm. All ahead full for Proxima Centauri, Warp standing by for engagement.”

“All stations, prepare for Warp jump.” “Helm, Execute.”

That gut feeling, we all felt, sure hadn’t gotten any better. But soon, it too passed. That familiar jump space emptiness shown on TL’s tactical screen. Instead of days or weeks, the drop jump projection shown was only hours away. Sensing my query, the helmsman reported. “For this jump, only a Warp 12 was anticipated due to the short duration before we were scheduled to drop out, Sir.”

“Carry on, Helm.” I replied.

Pressing the ship’s intercom panel, I spoke. “Fighter Control. Launch the fighters immediately upon arrival after we drop. I don’t expect any surprises, but want the pilots to get used to the routine. Optimum missile load for all long-range fighters.”

“Aye, Aye Sir.” ... was the reply.

TL’s drop from Warp was normal. The alert fighters had been launched and all were recovered. TL was cruising on impulse power towards the system’s star.

“Con, Sensors. Tracking unknown craft at maximum sensor range. Aspect ratio changes appear to indicate she is manoeuvring violently. Laser discharges are evident.”

“All stations, General Quarters. This is not a drill. Launch the alert interceptors. I want to know what is going on before we stumble into trouble here. Captain, out.” Almost immediately the alert fighter symbology appeared on the tactical screen with their flashing vector showing their increasing speed heading for the unknown symbology ahead.

Pressing the Fighter Control intercom button, JD stated. “Weapons tight, fire only in self-defence. Let me know what our pilots are reporting. Out.”

I knew that my crew was well trained and recognized the three weapons control conditions. Weapons Free allowed what you might expect, unrestricted engagements. Weapons Hold was our default status when not on alert. Weapons Tight was in between those two. It required the exercise of some pilot judgement.

Once a target was designated hostile, it could be engaged. If the unknown was conducting a hostile act, permission to engage had to come from TL. If our fighters were fired upon, they had a right to conduct their self-defence, unilaterally; without seeking TL approval.

We all knew this; I was just exercising an abundance of caution. Knowing that I was over-reacting and that Flight Operations would follow their SOP unless the situation warranted my intervention, I decided to stay off the intercom. I was micro-managing and that set a disturbing precedent; one that I didn’t want to happen. Reaching forward, I pressed the Flight Control intercom button again. “Belay that order, Flight Boss. Follow your SOP and use your discretion; unless I need to be in the loop. Captain, out.”

Feeling better, I sat back and sighed in relief. I had good people and I needed to trust their judgement.

It was two hours later before the situation was fully understood. Communications, even at the speed of light, takes more time at the extreme distances TL’s sensors were operating at. It took most of that time for the interceptors to close with the unknown. Whatever had happened near one of the planets within the habitable zone, was now concluded.

Our fighters pressed onward at full speed, reporting that two vessels had matched speed and course ahead. They seemed to be preparing to dock with one another.

Thirty minutes later came word that our fighters had been engaged by the unknown vessel and were taking evasive manoeuvres. I watched the tactical screen on the bridge and noticed four more fighters had been launched in response. Their speed vectors showed they were making maximum acceleration toward the unknown, now designated as hostile. Our first pair of fighters had wildly varying vector symbology indicative of dogfighting manoeuvres. For whatever reasons, the hostile craft turned tail and ran, with our newest four fighters trailing.

Display indications noted that we had fired some missiles from two of our reinforcing fighters. Each must have impacted, because the target was now coasting through space, no acceleration noted. One of our first fighters radioed back that it was damaged, but was investigating the unknown craft that was targeted by the hostile vessel.

An hour later, TL approached the scene of the engagements and reversed thrust to slow and match course with the combatants. The unknown was apparently a private vessel. We had no idea of its origin. The hostile was a privateer that had surrendered to our follow-on fighters after being disabled during the brief chase. Although significantly larger than our fighters, it lacked the missiles and manoeuvrability of our intercepting craft. With low fuel on our first fighters, I noted that one of our re-fuelling ships had been launched, and watched as the damaged fighter was recovered while still under its own power.

Word was passed to me that three survivors were aboard the private craft and it was being towed towards TL’s hangar bay. The privateer was boarded by Marines from our attack shuttle who were shot at by the privateer’s crew. The results were soon broadcast; eight KIA, one wounded aboard the privateer, no friendly casualties. Logs from both vessels were downloaded. A large stash of valuables was discovered aboard the privateer.

The survivors aboard the private vessel were all members of one family. Their dead were the flight crew and family’s father who perished during decompression. The others had climbed into rescue pods before their ship’s structure was compromised. Their ship, smaller than one of our shuttles, was taken aboard and placed into the vacated shuttle’s storage bay for repairs.

After recovering the privateer’s loot, she was taken in tow and cut up for salvage and recovery of metal components.

Once the surviving mother and her children were treated and released from sick bay, TL set course for the nearest inhabited planet to return the survivors.

The family, quite well off financially, were on a sight-seeing tour of their nearby space when they were set upon by the privateer. At first, they were able to evade and it looked like they would successfully escape. Then a laser shot punctured their hull and took out their engine.

Set adrift and tumbling through space. They could do nothing but wait as their pursuers caught up to capture them. They were quite surprised to learn that Thor’s Law Marines had rescued them and were towing their yacht to a ship, where repairs could be made.

The lone surviving privateer had managed to climb into a rescue pod before Marines gained entry into his craft. His fellow exo-suited crew had fired at our marines with chemically-powered, projectile ammunition from pistols. In the weightless conditions aboard their stricken vessel, such arms were worse than having nothing; as they soon discovered. The Marines used a battery-powered, electromagnetic rail pistols firing small graphite pellets. The super-sonic graphite projectile could easily pierce exo-suits, but would disintegrate before puncturing the interior walls or hull of the boarded ship.

The privateer booty was replicator refined and turned into ten-kilogram ‘bricks’ of gold, silver, and platinum. A few hundred kilograms of copper, zinc and other metals were recovered during the process. Once the family was landed on their home world, the precious metals were given to the next of kin of the deceased. The repaired yacht had actually flown back to the planet in a shuttle mode. The planetary governor had made a big deal about the return of his citizens, holding an awards ceremony and presenting the pilots with commendations and ceremonial ‘keys’ to his capital city.

Once festivities concluded, JD’s crew returned to TL and departed to the only occupied planet in that system. The next destination was Barnard’s Star, first discovered from Earth, over a thousand years before. One thousand and eighty-eight to be exact.

The journey to Barnard’s Star took five weeks and allowed TL to achieve its maximum Warp drive speeds. According to Alara, during a brief recorded period, TL made Warp 25.6, making the voyage much easier to endure.

Once TL arrived in system, they found no habitable planets in the Goldilocks Zone of the star. They did locate a gas giant and made a pit stop there before jumping to Alterra for their next stop. Before TL jumped, JD fired a message torpedo back to Thor Base, detailing a record of their journey to date.

Their arrival on Alterra was heralded with celebratory parades, lavish banquets, and endless interviews. Not just the media wanted to meet the arriving ship and its crew. The government was just as eager to learn what JD could tell them about life back at Thor Base and their native sons and daughters who resided there.

It was just their luck that a message torpedo from Thor Base arrived in system while TL was orbiting Alterra. Although the messages it contained were mostly for Alterran family members, Louis related the status of the colony briefly. He also mentioned that Max Owens had departed on a voyage back to Earth with another cargo of precious metals. He hoped to salvage whatever was left of Atlas, the first ship in the Leviathan class of battleships produced on Earth centuries before.

When JD was last on Earth, he hadn’t known that Atlas still existed. Now he was sure that Max had opened his safe and had read the documents that it contained. He probably should have briefed Max in more detail about life on Earth during the latter part of the thirtieth century, but he felt sure that Arlene could relate the history of Zeus, and even Atlas, better than he could. Max was in good hands. There was no question about that.

JD contemplated a visit to Wise, but decided against it until he could take his Edran colonists back for a visit on his next voyage from Thor Base. He wasn’t even finished with this voyage and he was already contemplating the next.

Well, there were still many worlds he had never been to.

That night JD presented his quandary to his ‘wives’, or to be more precise the mothers of his children. Naomi had travelled to several worlds on Meteor. Her crew also expressed their ideas and unanimously agreed that Lacaille 9352 should be our next destination. Not much was known about it except its classification as a red dwarf. It was thought to have a habitable zone planet, but no one knew its name or where it was located within the system.

JD’s exploratory interests were intrigued, but Maureen had other ideas. She related the status of her nanite injections of Anna, our android crew member. She had fared well and reported no adverse reaction from the injection of the microscopic sized machines. Blood tests revealed that the nanite population soon reached a therapeutic level and levelled off. Further testing indicated that all her body’s systems were function exactly like any human’s body should at her actual age, while my body had actually regressed to age twenty-four again.

Maureen related similar improved cell functioning, but her age regression was reduced only to her early thirties. There seemed to be a limit on nanite age regression, but in all cases, aging had ceased. Naomi related that all her fellow crew ladies had received nanite injections, but only after they had delivered my babies.

While I wasn’t thrilled to learn that Maureen had gone ahead with her experimental protocols, without his approval; JD realized that he would have given it once testing revealed no adverse side effects. At least Maureen had not jeopardized the babies development within any of his pregnant women.

JD’s surprises were far from over. Maureen kissed him and said. “I should be ovulating today. I need you to impregnate me. I want your daughter and can’t wait any longer.

I have spoken with the Edra and together we have concluded that nanites will cross the placental barrier unimpeded. Their presence won’t affect baby development and maturation of any offspring will continue to happen; at least until after puberty has been completed. It seems that the absence of human growth hormone production within the host, triggers the anti-aging response in the nanites. Thus, our child will mature to between sixteen to eighteen years of age normally, and stop there; or at least dramatically slow aging down.”