Chapter 94

To say that they were surprised would be laughable. I watched them, some with their mouths actually gaping open, and as what I'd asked sunk in I could tell they were going over the available information that was in their new memory. I could tell some had come to a conclusion after about fifteen minutes, but I signaled for them to be patient while others were still working.

Nearly an hour later the last person signaled she was finished. I asked them to confer mentally and elect a spokesman. They did and I listened in on the process. Instead of vying for the honor, I realized they were trying to decide whom they could shame into taking it. Finally Hans, who Scotty had told me was the oldest living person on earth at thirty-nine, was convinced it was his duty. They then discussed their findings with Hans.

"Sir we have a conclusion," Hans spoke up.

"Pleas call me Jack, and please give me your results."

"The amount of data we have available is very small and our combined experience before we received the data is even smaller. With this limited knowledge we can find nothing that would prevent this weapon from working, none of us could discover a flaw in your plan. Of course we don't even have an inkling of where to start working toward the design," Hans told me.

"When I tell the drones they will be able to query all Alien science for deal killers. If they don't find any, I feel confident we won't have to worry with the details. If a project is feasible I will lobby for any of you that want to participate to be able to," I told them, and then dismissed them for now.

"Scotty, please examine the details of our meeting now. After considering what we talked about please check all Alien data that is denied us for prohibitory information," I told him.

Scotty went silent for nearly four minutes. When he came back I knew for sure he was excited.

"Jack, you must let me inform the Aliens at once. If there is anything to preclude the building of this weapon, I cannot find it and I assure you it is of vital concern to the Aliens. There is no way you could have realized it from the data you had available, but the weapon can be much more devastating than you imagined," Scotty told me.

I gave him permission at once and then began wondering what could be more devastating than a four thousand pound projectile, with maybe a small nuke inside, traveling at near light speed. I assumed I would find out later. Hell it was a good morning's work so I had Scotty put me out at the ranch for lunch.

"Hey lover, whatcha been up to this morning?" Nancy asked, when she saw me shimmer into the kitchen.

"Oh, just saving the Alien's bacon according to Scotty," I said, puffing out my chest a little.

"How?" Nancy wanted to know.

"I just told them how to make a cannon that could shoot nuclear bullets at light speed into the bandits that have been causing them the trouble lately," I said, as if it was nothing.

Actually it was nothing to me. It had just been a thought that popped into my head while talking to Scotty. Apparently Scotty thought it was something though.

"Well I hope they appreciate it. It isn't like they could give us anything more for it though. I can't even think of a thing I want or want done I can't have in just a few seconds," Nancy said.

"I'm afraid you're right. I can't even imagine anything else they could do for us, unless they can bring a few people back from the dead. In fact I can't even think of anyone I'd want back. There probably are some though. Anyway I don't think even the Aliens can pull off that trick."

"Maybe they'll tell us more about how things work," Nancy said.

"They'll probably let us in on the space travel now at least. Unless they find a snag in my idea Scotty didn't."

"Well we can always hope, I don't know if I want to go space traveling though."

"It might not be bad to have a little ship to take a spin around the moon or Mars or something," I said.

"Well maybe."

"Jack I have communicated with the Aliens. The research vessel will be back within twenty-four hours," Scotty spoke up.

"I guess they think it might work then."

"They knew at once it would work," Scotty told me.

"Wonder why they didn't think of it themselves?"

"It is similar to the virus and your communication with it. They should have known and actually were aware of all the facts. They just didn't consider a projectile weapon at all. In their defense they haven't used such a weapon in over eight billion years," Scotty said.

"Sometimes the old fashioned way is best," I told him, and nearly laughed at it.

"Are they gonna give us a little bonus for this Scotty?" Nancy asked him.

He must have had to look it up because it took him nearly two seconds to answer.

"Bonus? I'm afraid you don't fully understand the magnitude of this. They will give you planets if you want them. Solar Systems. They will give you probably anything you can imagine.

"They will put teams of scientist into research groups to help you think of things you want. If there really were a triple-breasted whore of Eroticon 6 she would be on her way to you now to be Jack's personal dick attendant for life as a token of the Alien's gratitude," Scotty said.

Nancy was shocked and frankly so was I. I had no idea a little cannon could cause such a stir.

"What's so important about a cannon Scotty?" I asked.

"It is more than a cannon Jack, but you are correct it is exactly a cannon. What is so important is there are now over one hundred thousand of our best researchers trying to think of a way of defending against it.

Currently we would have no defense. No shield has ever been constructed that could stop it. The cannon, when fired from real space, can deploy a projectile as massive as four thousand pounds, every twenty-two seconds. The main constraints are the recoil while in real space. If fired from a vessel, traveling in another dimension faster than light, into real space the rate of fire can increase to one projectile per second.

"Firing from real space into the other dimension, a projectile can be maintained in faster than light speed for slightly over a parsec, and it can be decelerated and allowed to return to real space within a mile of the intended target. This will leave the target about one 185,000th of a second to realize there is an incoming round.

They will in essence be destroyed before they even realize they are under attack. The impact of a four thousand pound projectile at that speed will deliver approximately 8.14e19 joules of energy upon impact, or in other terms 19,487 megatons." Scotty told me.

Hell even I was impressed and I'd thought it up. I'd had no idea they could even fire it during faster than light travel and it turned out they could do it even better that way.

I couldn't even imagine the effect of a strafing run by a faster than light vessel using a cannon that could fire two ton bullets at a rate of one per second.

"Scotty what does the velocity do to the mass of the projectile. Unless I missed it somewhere we mostly assumed that mass increased with velocity, I think," I asked him.

"That is partially correct Jack; however, it is not relevant to a mass which is entering this dimension at near light speed and decelerating.

Remember that in either case the projectile achieves its velocity in another dimension, even when it is fired from your space-time it is ejected into the other dimension to attain its velocity before it re-enters your space-time. Its mass is unchanged and surprisingly it conforms rather closely to Newtonian laws of physics," Scotty told me.

"I see," I said, though I didn't really.

I'm sure some of the three thousand or so that were in the meeting might be able to understand everything it meant, but I knew I didn't. Time for me to change the subject.

"How is the research vessel getting back so soon Scotty? I guess they weren't as far away this time," I said.

"They were farther away, they just started more promptly this time and they are also traveling with all available power," He told me.

"What's the rush?" I asked.

"That isn't even the rush Jack. There are seven StarCruisers headed here. The closest one was ordered to come at full emergency power without consideration to any damage it might do to its ability to generate power.

"They want it to arrive faster even if it can't fire when it gets here. The ship is to be here just for the effect its presence will have. There will be another one within an hour of its arrival and it will be fully functional when it arrives. The other five will all arrive within six hours," Scotty said, and I could have sworn he was boasting.