Chapter 13: The Cruiser

“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

—Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Jason cheerfully followed Cherry Singh, curious to see where she had entered his part of the ship. Singh began muttering, saying she couldn’t see the door where she expected it to be. She eventually found the door after she ran her hand along the bulkhead. Holographic panels obscured the door.

They passed through the bulkhead, walked for ten minutes, then joined the intelligence, cyber-warfare, and communications teams. Cherry Singh introduced him as the battle’s supreme military commander. Jason smiled, wondering if she was serious or pulling his leg.

“Sir, may we ask some questions of the Admiral before we begin?”

“Sergeant McAndrew, please save the questions for afterward. Our Commander has no rank and wishes to be addressed as Jason. He refers to himself as ‘the Accidental Commander,’” said Maj. Singh as the audience tittered.

“Thank you for your introduction, Major Singh.”

Jason explained what he had told the others about the passwords before continuing.

“I discovered disruptive and wasteful subroutines hidden in many of the ship AI’s programs. They seriously interfered with her efficiency. I used my modified hacking routines to search for reports and emails and look for passwords to switch off the interference. The next day, I discovered the priests reversed every repair I made. I tried unsuccessfully to find the superordinate program that controlled the sabotage. I found critical system passwords but couldn’t find the highest-level program that switched it all on and off.”

“Did you look in all the dimensions?” Asked the sergeant.

“I have the greatest difficulty working with trans-dimensional programming,” said Jason sadly.

Most of the thirty people were women. There were only four males.

A tall woman stood and raised a finger next to her neck. “What crystal do you have, and what is the difficulty you experienced?”

“I have no crystal. While it’s true that my family comes from the Empire, University education on Earth didn’t include trans-dimensional programming. We knew about different dimensions, but our knowledge was rudimentary. I learned trans-dimensional programming on the ship but couldn’t find out how to get a crystal.”

“You can’t do trans-dimensional programming without a crystal. Were you born with one?” she asked, squinting at Jason, her head tilted to one side.

“You may be surprised to learn that we, people from primitive planets, find ways to do the impossible! The only crystal I possess is the crystal memory and processor in my slate computer,” said Jason, “but I’m not sure what you are trying to ask or say.”

“So, how do you do trans-dimensional programming and programming analysis?” she asked him.

“I’ve struggled with trans-dimensional programming; it looks distorted, as I’m sure it does for you without a crystal; it gave me headaches.”

They looked at Jason, eyes wide. There were a few titters from the back.

“Earth is sixty-five thousand years behind the Empire. The Empire sent my family to Earth from the Empire without the benefit of any Empire technology. On Earth, the first computers were invented in my youth. I worked without a crystal.”

“Can you explain what you did and how you avoided headaches?” The same woman persisted.

“I’ll finish the story, which you will undoubtedly find amusing. People from an icy part of the planet used opaque glasses with narrow slits to prevent snow blindness from the reflection of light from snow and ice. I used a replicator to make a frame and cut a slot into a plastic board to reduce my field of vision. It helped me to work longer.”

“That’s truly remarkable,” said one of the other programmers. “I didn’t know anybody who could turn up so much information and progress so far into the AI systems without a crystal. Do you know if you have a slot?” she asked.

“I assume I have at least one slot. There’s a rumor my uncle, the Emperor, has more than one slot. If everyone from the Empire has a slot, I have one.”

Most were sitting with their mouths open, looking at him incredulously. Jason laughed. Many in the room laughed with him, breaking the tension.

“Jason, from what we understand, everyone has at least one slot for a crystal,” said Singh. “A crystal simplifies and facilitates our work in trans-dimensional programming. When you have a crystal, you can see the program or subroutines, much like other programs in this dimension. I’ve never encountered anyone who could do trans-dimensional programming without a crystal. You are the first person I’ve ever encountered who has used such a strange workaround. We don’t generate the programs ourselves. We tell the AI what we want to do, and the AI generates the code. Furthermore, we work together to debug code. The programming AI can find program anomalies quickly.”

“I wish I knew that. I asked around, but no one could help,” Jason explained.

“We will help you get a crystal. We find crystals in one of the rooms near the ship AI. We don’t know who puts them there or who creates them. The crystals are an AI that interfaces with our brains, but the crystal resides in another dimension,” said Singh. “We’ve all done it.”

“Which Marines get crystals?” Jason asked.

“All of us go into one of these rooms, one at a time, to find a crystal. It’s an uncomfortable experience and dangerous, much more so if two go in at a time. There are inhabitants of the dimension who are hostile. Time is of the essence when you are in a dimensional room. The longer you are there, the more dangerous it is.”

“How do I know which is the correct room?” Jason asked.

“We will take you to the correct dimensional room. You will put your crystal into a slot and leave as soon as possible. It is easier said than done. You walk on a plank to the table in the center of the room. The environment looks distorted until you put in the crystal. You leave as fast as you can. You will feel nauseous while in the room. It is much like the nausea we feel when weightless. Most of us take two days to a week to adapt to the crystal,” said Maj. Singh.

“Is there any way to reduce the risk?” Jason asked.

“No, no one else can help you. On the other hand, I can’t see any reason for you not to get a crystal. It would increase your effectiveness profoundly,” said Singh firmly, “I’ll discuss your plight with the Colonels.”

Jason, when asked, showed them where he obtained the passwords. Jason noticed several computer people used a single lens like a monocle to look at the passwords on a hologram. Singh explained that they were looking for trans-dimensional hooks containing hidden password components.

Soon there was a buzz around the room as people broke up into groups, looked at the passwords, and then went into the system and looked at the operation of the password generator.

“Major, please, may we ask some questions before Jason leaves?” Sgt. Lena McAndrew asked.

Jason nodded.

“Jason, we were told in our preliminary briefings that you are part of the royal family, and the Empress sent for you. Is that true?”

“The Emperor is my great uncle, and the Empress sent for me. My great-grandfather is an archduke and used to be a king.”

“Is it true that you defended the ship using communications satellites?” the question was from a thin and spindly but handsome man sitting near the back.

“Yes, I used them as the ship could not aim the artillery, and I only had four charges. The situation was bleak. I decided I’d rather use prohibitively expensive missiles against the pirates rather than give up and die or be captured. I knew how complex and expensive those satellites were, but what use would they have been if the pirates captured the ship? The battleship is expensive, and sending it for me was prohibitive. I had nothing else that could go trans-dim and damage the pirate ships,” Jason explained.

“We were here and had anti-ship missiles,” said another.

“The Marines and the fighters were not on my board. I have a routine simulation checklist, so I asked for the fighters and the Marines. Despite the fear and panic, I went through the routines I learned in the simulations. I’m pleased I did so for all of our sakes.”

“Does the empress know what is going on?” Asked yet another of the group.

“The saboteurs blocked me during a discussion with the Empress. I would appreciate it if you could help me communicate with her securely,” Jason added.

“Jason, we will discuss the options and get back to you. If you want to send her information, we can help. A conversation is a harder prospect,” said Cherry.

“Thank you,” said Jason, then said his goodbyes and returned to his stateroom.

Jason briefly read the recent emails from Lauren and watched a video of Chloe in a school play and one of Chuck playing football. He wrote a brief note about his recent experiences, underplaying them so he wouldn’t distress Lauren and his family. He missed home, but he was alive and felt full of life.

Jason turned his thoughts to the enemy cruiser.

The Colonels, along with Maj. Constance Ross arranged to meet with Jason after dinner in the boardroom and continued their discussion in the canteen while eating.

“Connie, what do we do next?” Janet Malone queried her friend and colleague.

“I’ll be interested to see how he approaches the attack on the Cruiser. I was thinking about what I’d do. Jason does like unconventional methods, according to Patton. He tries hard to minimize casualties and damage to his assets,” said Connie. “How do you like him?”

“I must say I do like him. He’s pleasant in a low-keyed manner, but I hope he doesn’t play hard to get, though hard by itself will be acceptable,” said Phoebe Harris giggling like a teenager.

“Phoebe, I hope you can rationally discuss a plan. You are besotted with him but hardly know him. I don’t want us to look like idiots,” said Janet Malone.

“Singh said he impressed the programmers with his work. Can you believe he doesn’t have a crystal and developed a method to do trans-dim programming without one?” Janet remarked. “He managed to extract all the critical passwords from the system. One of them is the password of Papa Zora. It will make it easier for us.”

“Now, girls, keep yourselves on track and stop thinking with your ovaries. Let’s talk about how we will attack the cruiser.”

Janet, Phoebe, and Connie made their way to the boardroom after dinner, surrounded by their Marine escort.

Jason patiently waited for them, the table in front of him replete with hot and steaming pastries. The smell of freshly baked pastries made his mouth water.

Jason poured orange juice into glasses and handed one to each.

“This is a fruit juice from Earth, and these are some sweet snacks Marie has baked for you. Be careful; they are hot on the inside. Shall we begin?”

Jason watched as they cautiously tasted the juice and sampled the pastries. They smiled at each other and ate voraciously despite having eaten a short while previously.

Maj. Constance Ross looked over at her colleagues, who nodded to her.

“Jason, we penetrated the Cruiser AI. We can extract information from their systems without detection. Papa Zora instructed them to capture you alive as he wants to use you as a hostage, but if they can’t, he wants them to kill you. The priests are in contact with The Mob and communicate regularly. Papa Zora and his priests are traitors.”

“What is the cruiser doing, and what are the priests doing with the Mob?”

“The cruiser has been waiting for two days. Before it came here, it patrolled near a planet two days away. There are no planets known to the Empire in this area. The cruiser rendezvoused with the Mob pirate vessels and dropped off the pods. We have not yet found the reason for the relationship or what they are planning.”

“How do you suggest we take over the ship?” Jason asked. “I am relieved you guys are around. I don’t have any experience dealing with space warfare. I hope to learn a lot.”

“We can briefly take over the ship through the AI, but we will lose control within a few minutes; we must use the opportunity we give ourselves. The crew will reboot the AI, which reverts to a nonvolatile memory system. During the reboot, they retain manual control of the ship and weapons. They won’t be able to aim the cannons properly and will load missiles slowly. We’ll have a short window until they re-start the AIs,” said Connie.

“I’ve spoken to Ship, and she tells me we’ll be ready to move within 6 to 8 hours. Let’s share our ideas and select a plan of attack on the Cruiser. Please go ahead and present your ideas first, as you are all more experienced than I am,” said Jason encouragingly, “then, if I can, I’ll see if I can add to your plan. The fact that I’ve been lucky once with a bizarre intervention shouldn’t make you think I know what I am doing!”

“Jason, we spent a few hours planning. We used ship AI and the battle AI to simulate how our ideas would work out,” said Col. Janet Malone.

“Surprise is on our side. We suggest blocking their sensors, getting close to them, and attacking. We tested several options to find the best time to block the AI. The most effective time is when the battleship is in missile range. We knock out their computer system and fire everything we have at them, and then the fighters leave the ship loaded with anti-ship missiles,” said Janet.

Janet, Phoebe, and Connie looked at Jason with their eyebrows raised.

“That plan would certainly work. I’ll bring Patton in on this conversation,” said Jason, “to help us evaluate any refinements we might consider.”

Jason brought Patton in on the conversation.

Patton started two holograms. One to simulate the attack options, the other containing his avatar. Patton wore a US general’s uniform and a helmet.

Jason smiled.

“Patton, I understand you’ve created simulations to evaluate the attacks on the Cruiser. Can you listen in to our ideas?”

“What did you talk about so far?” Patton asked.

“We discussed a head-on attack where we use missiles and cannons on the ship and deploy the fighters. I can see that approach is one distinct possibility.

“Major Ross, can you clarify if the cyber-warfare people have blocked communication with the priests on board the ship? I remain paranoid about the saboteurs. I want you to assure me, and Patton, you won’t communicate this conversation to the ship AI,” said Jason firmly.

“Jason, I can assure you that we blocked the priests from communicating with anybody. We stopped all communications from the ship to the priests. We are as cautious as you are and had the same discussion with Patton this afternoon,” said Connie calmly.

Jason nodded, thought for a moment, and then continued, “Patton, please estimate the worst-case estimates of damage from the proposed attack,” requested Jason.

“In the worst case, you will lose 30% of the fighters, and the ship will sustain damage that will take a month to repair. In the best case, you will lose 10% of the fighters and need two weeks for repairs,” said Patton confidently. Jason sat thinking momentarily while looking absently at his fingers, fiddling with a small silver fork Lauren had sent him.

The women watched the fork as it wove its way around his fingers. After an uncomfortable silence, he finally spoke.

“I’ve been thinking of a slight modification to minimize risks to the battleship and capture the Cruiser intact. If this modification does not work, we can revert to the original proposal,” said Jason. “We have two distinct advantages we can use: we have the advantage of surprise, and you have access to the ship’s AI. I suggest we put the crew to sleep and then take over the ship.”

The women looked at Jason with eyes wide. Phoebe’s mouth was open.

“I will describe my idea before we consult the engineers and doctors. First, we find a plan for the cruiser and then inject gas into the ventilation system to induce sleep. We ask the engineers to design a boarding gunship-based gas delivery system. When the delivery systems are ready, we feed the cruiser’s sensors false information so they don’t see our boarding gunships. We deliver the gas. When the crew loses consciousness, we take control of the AI and open the cargo doors.”

Col. Harris looked at Col. Malone and grinned.

“Patton, what is your estimate of the chances of success and risk of the approach I’ve suggested?” Jason asked.