Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (54 page)

Trey saw the news that the company had released through their approved media. He'd heard that they'd lost a couple shuttles but finding out that they'd been shot down was a blow. He winced, reading on.

“The report on the shuttles?” Alec asked, looking over his shoulder.

“Yeah.”

“I saw it this morning too,” Alec said. “I know we've got a lot on our plate.”

Trey looked up in alarm. It was one thing to design a ship for space or starflight …

“But I'd like to apply what I know to some tech I think they need.”

“And that is?”

“Force emitters. Specifically energy shields,” Alec said simply as he took his seat at the conference table.

Amber came in at the last sentence and paused in the doorway. She looked to Trey then to Alec. “Why would we need shields on the ships?” she asked.

Trey knew she'd taken the sentence out of context. Before Alec could respond, he waved a hand as he tossed the tablet onto the tabletop. “He's not. Though we might have to if it gets dirty in Earth orbit. We need to find out what those energy weapons have for a range,” he said, looking up to the ceiling. He scratched under his chin thoughtfully then looked at the duo as Amber slowly resumed her progress into the room. “He's proposing we figure out some sort of shielding for the shuttles.”

“I can see that is reasonable given what happened,” Amber said cautiously. “Though I'm having trouble imagining how we can miniaturize the emitters or a power plant small enough to mount on a shuttle. Remember, everything we add means we've got to take something away, which means payload,” she said, turning to Alec.

Alec grunted. She was right damn it, he thought. The shuttles that had gone down had been loaded with a bare squad of troops plus supplies. The emitters and power plants he had in mind would eat up that space totally. It wasn't just mass; it was volume as well—that and fuel for the damn reactor.

He eventually nodded as he turned the idea over and over in his head without finding any quick fixes. “I think I still want to look into it. At least explore it in case someone asks,” he said.

“Right,” Trey sighed, knowing that was a distinct possibility.

“What about the grav emitters in the floors?” Amber asked as Levare came into the room. “And the inertial sumps?”

“What about them?” Marisha asked, coming in behind Levare.

Amber turned to her. “I'm not an expert, but if we can figure out a way to use them …. We don't need a perfect shield, but something is better than nothing. Even a one shot I suppose. We just need to get them to the ground, right?”

“But what about going back up?” Alec asked.

“Um … lost here,” Levare said, one hand up in confusion.

“We're talking shuttles—improved shuttles,” Trey supplied.

“Or landing barges,” Marisha said. They turned to stare at her. She shrugged as she picked up the cover of the fruit tray and pulled an apple out. “What?”

“Landing barge?”

“Sure,” she said, getting a small paring knife from the kitchenette in the corner to eat her apple. “We want to drop a lot, right? We can do it with chutes and stuff I suppose, but if you want the craft reusable, we've got to think big. You can't land a thousand tons of cargo in piddly little twenty-ton-capacity shuttles right? We'd be at it for weeks!”

Trey grunted. He glanced at the others. Alec nodded slowly, then more enthusiastically as the idea caught on. Slowly Trey smiled as Levare grinned. “I guess we've got our work cut out for us then, right?”

“Maybe we should bring the small ship design people in on this?” Amber offered. That brought them up short. She shrugged at Alec's dyspeptic expression. “You know, they have the experience and all,” she said, “and they might be working on it already. No sense spinning our wheels, right?”

“Right,” Trey sighed. He pulled the tablet closer to him and tapped at it. “I'll make a call in a moment,” he said, irritated that he'd forgotten their network was no longer connected to the rest of the station net.

“We so need a receptionist to deal with the calls,” Levare groused.

“Another thing to think about,” Alec said, eying Trey.

“I'll make a note,” Trey said dryly as he rose. “The rest of you go over what we had planned to talk about first,” he said, holding up a finger, “before you go off on side projects. I'll be back after I put the call in.”

“Right,” Alec said, nodding. When he was gone, he grinned as he punched up the holo emitter built into the table top. He tapped out a command on his tablet and a shuttle appeared. It was a generic delta shaped lifting body, long famous for its utilitarian design. “So, how do we do this? Or should we start from scratch since the shield would mean we don't need flight characteristics?” he asked.

“Don't be daft, man,” Levare said with a sigh. “We need them in case the shields fail. You never count on one system to do all the lifting.”

“Can we get the drive to be force emitters too?” Amber asked, eyes bright as she stared at Alec.

Alec rubbed his chin. “I don't know, but I think we can look into it.”

<>V<>

Trey hadn't gone far; he'd stopped to listen from the hallway. He rolled his eyes when he heard they were jumping right on the shuttle idea without waiting. He shook his head in despair and continued to do so as he walked to the nearest communications terminal. He made a note to have someone hook one up in his office. They had to figure out a better way or be a tad less paranoid.

Chapter 20

October 29, 2200

For the first step in his plan, Boomer led two new teams back to the town in his truck and the vehicles that had been salvaged. The mechanic went with them to pick up more of her equipment and gear. She was a real treasure; she had equipment that was offline and therefore insulated against the virus. She was also a wiz at just about anything you put in front of her.

But with more mouths to feed, they needed more weapons and gear, and he needed to blood the team, train them on how to move and work as a unit. Shawn and Roger were turning into pretty good troops, though a bit green. He used them as drivers as well as guards. Hallis also acted as a guard, though he tended to get in the way of the haulers.

Each of the teams had a shopping list. They were to stick to it, but if they saw something of interest that was worth picking up they were to grab it if it was light or note it down for possible later pick up.

“Okay. Without the pumps though, we can't get the fuel out of the tanks,” Roger said, pointing to the gas station.

“I can't believe they still have one,” Shawn said, shaking his head.

“Some people cling rather stubbornly to the old ways. For now it's a good thing,” Boomer said, patting his truck. Shawn looked at it and then nodded. “That's a diesel station too. If we can't find a pump, I suppose we can do it the old fashioned way. Not that I want to.”

“Old fashioned way?” Shawn asked, wrinkling his nose. “Why do I think that sounds messy and a lot more work?”

Boomer snorted. “Because it is—a hose and good old lung power. But you have to be careful, if you inhale the fuel, it could kill you,” he warned.

“Oh. Shit,” Shawn growled.

“Yeah. Even a bicycle pump would do,” Boomer mused. “One used to inflate pool toys I suppose.”

“I've got something better,” Sora said with a smirk.

“You go, girl. The vehicles are your thing,” Boomer said waving her on. She nodded.

Sora estimated they had enough fuel for each of the vehicles to make three round trips as long as they drained the fuel from the gas station's containers as well. She whipped out a hand pump and showed them how to use it. Boomer made certain every vehicle was topped off with fuel each time they came to town.

Over the course of two days, they systematically stripped the town the best they could. During the process they found a couple starved horses, dogs, and cats to bring back. Sora fell in love with a rather scrawny blue-eyed, white lioness she trapped in the back room of a restaurant. She picked it up with a towel despite its squalls and fed it to calm it down. By the time they were ready to leave, the cat was in a cat carrier asleep.

“We don't have the food to feed them,” Hallis said disgusted. “A cat? Really?” he demanded. Sora gave him a dirty look but ignored him as she continued to load the moving van.

“You really want to eat kibble?” Boomer asked, looking at Hallis.

Hallis's face worked as he fought not to gag. “Not really no. I don't know; I mean …”

“We feed them. If we have to, we'll eat them later,” Boomer said. That made Shawn gag and Sora look up in alarm. “Trust me, meat is meat, except sloth,” Boomer said, face working in thorough disgust. “Don't
ever
eat that.”

“I won't,” Shawn said dryly, eying him and wondering if the boss man was pulling his leg. “I've had possum and road kill stew but …”

“Trust me, kid. When we're in a survival situation like this, beggars can't be choosers,” Boomer said, patting him on the shoulder. “Now get going,” he ordered. Shawn nodded.

“Maybe we should bring the people here instead? It'd be quicker,” Roger said. “I mean,” he looked around, “we could use all this. Rebuild I mean.”

“Yeah, but it's in the range of the robots at the warehouse,” Shawn said. “And no one wants that. It's also on the map.”

“Map …,” Roger frowned thoughtfully.

The E-maps online. The farm is just an address. Without a drone flying over or a satellite, they don't know we're there. I talked to Mister Aspin; he said the farm is on the outskirts of the drone's range.”

“So they can see us coming in and out but can't follow us?” Roger asked.

“Yeah, but that's just the warehouse. There is no telling if Skynet has access to another type of drone in the area. So we have to be on guard,” Boomer said. “And the sooner we get this stuff and get out the better.”

Sora nodded. “I'm tired of looking over my shoulder. The tin cans raided us periodically. It's ugly,” she said. “And there is no way in hell we can make this place defensible,” she said firmly. “No way,” she said.

“Right. So, we pack this up, get it to the farm, and let them unload as usual while we rest. Then repeat as needed. But we're not staying on the defensive. I want to take the fight to the enemy. I'm tired of getting shafted. It's time we do something about that,” Boomer growled.

The group all growled in ugly agreement.

“Maybe I can do something about that. If you can get me the right materials and tools,” Sora said thoughtfully. Boomer looked at her. She smiled evilly. “Give me the right gauge metal, a torch, and a welder and I can build you an effing tank,” she said.

Boomer grinned as Roger whistled and Shawn clapped.

“She hasn't done it yet, people,” Hallis said waving them down. “But I appreciate the idea.”

“Are we going to have enough food long term? What about more mouths to feed? And can we, um, relocate the greenhouses here?” Shawn asked, pointing to Molly's greenhouses.

Boomer looked at them, then scratched at his head. “I'm not sure,” he said slowly. “The glass …”

“Plexi,” Sora said.

“Oh.”

“I'll ask Molly. She might like the idea. She might know of more greenhouses around here too. Even the ones attached to buildings might help. You know customers and such,” Roger suggested. Boomer caught on and nodded slowly. “Are there any prefabs here? Could we
move
a building maybe?” Roger asked, eyes brightening.

Sora snorted and then started to giggle, hand over her mouth. When Roger turned to her, she turned away.

Shawn started guffawing. Boomer shook his head, lips quivering at the outlandish idea. “What? What'd I say?” Roger demanded.

“Dude, you don't think
small
do you?” Shawn asked.

“Oh. Yeah, but living in a tent or the barn sucks,” Roger said sheepishly. He shrugged as Shawn got his chuckles under control. “And yeah, I guess the trucks to move it are out.”

“Yeah. They require computers, and if they didn't get taken out then, well, they are probably out there running the roads, hunting people down,” Boomer said darkly.

“Lovely thought.”

“If they didn't run out of fuel or power by now,” Shawn said. “I think we're pushing our luck here with these runs. What if Skynet does send a couple trucks to run us down? Or worse, sends them with some robots to the farm? You can't stop a diesel truck. Not that easy,” he said, shaking his head.

Boomer frowned thoughtfully. “Barricades. We can look into different stuff later,” he said. Shawn opened his mouth but Boomer shot him a firm look. “I mean it. Focus on the job at hand.”

“Right.”

“The sooner we're packed and gone, the better,” Roger said. The others nodded.

<>V<>

Each time they unloaded, Boomer checked things out as he ate. The farm was finally fully organized. Molly had people eagerly helping her to plant in the greenhouses. Everyone knew their future survival depended on the produce there, so they all took turns, even those people who were all thumbs.