Sentience 1: Storm Clouds Gathering (30 page)

“No, sir. Socar is my home and I’d never take part in an armed subjugation of my neighbors, for sure. I’d resign my commission first.”

“That’s what I thought, but in the event the federal government does order the Fleet to take control of the Southern planets by military force after secession occurs, if you had the means to resist the invader, would you do so?” Rawley asked.

“You really think it will come to that, Chris?” Stillman asked worriedly.

“I do.”

…if you had
the means to resist the invader
. Suddenly Stillman
knew
“who” it was the
Phantom Fleet
was intended to fight.

“God, I hate the idea, but I could never point a weapon at my own home. Nor do I think I could sit idly by, while others vanquished my neighbors. If I had the means to resist, I’d have no choice but to defend my home against
any
invader… including the Alliance Fleet. My honor would allow me no other option.”

“That’s what I thought you’d say, Ben,” Rawley said quietly. “Now, here’s what’s going on…”

We live in an age that is driven by information. Technological breakthroughs are changing the face of war and how we prepare for war.
-- William J. Perry

The Planetoid Discol, City of Waston

September, 3860

Fleet-Admiral Roger Kalis waited in the foyer outside the office of the Secretary of Defense in full-dress uniform with full medals, including the
Congressional Medal of Honor
displayed conspicuously on its ribbon around his neck. Kalis was normally embarrassed to wear the gaudy ensemble, as he felt it had more garland than the average Christmas tree — but today he needed every ounce of leverage he could muster. He had received a curt summons to appear here yesterday morning... not totally unexpected. Kalis had thought somebody would start raising hell long before this. He was relatively confident that he had his ducks in a row.

Before long, a buzz sounded from the desk of the Secretary’s assistant and she looked up at him and announced, “The Secretary will see you now, Admiral. You may go right in.”

Kalis opened the door and stepped through into the sumptuous office of Jeannine Franks, Secretary of Defense for the United Stellar Alliance. As soon as he entered, an aide darted behind him and left the room.

Seated before the Secretary’s desk were Allan Crawford, Deputy-Secretary of Defense and Admiral Arlene McAllister, Chief of Fleet Operations. As soon as Kalis entered, McAllister’s eyes widened and she popped to attention and rendered a smart salute. Both Franks and Crawford remained seated, but obviously startled by McAllister’s sudden movement, as if unsure as to what was happening.

Kalis returned McAllister’s salute and turned to face the woman sitting behind the desk.

“Ah, please have a seat, Roger,” said Jeannine Franks, as she indicated towards the one vacant chair before her desk.

Not moving, Kalis shot the Secretary of Defense an absolutely frigid stare and said, “Madam Secretary, only Wyatt Cargill, the President of Sextus and my mother ever call me, ‘Roger’.”
Put the enemy onto the defensive early.

“Er, yes… My apologies, Admiral. Please have a seat.”

“I prefer to stand for your little inquisition, if you don’t mind, Madam Secretary.”

“Inquisition?” stammered Franks, “This is no inquisition, Admiral. I merely summoned you here to clarify some irregularities that seem to have appeared, concerning our chain of command.”

The Secretary activated a control under her desk. After a few moments of clanking and hissing, a robotic voice announced, “The room is secure.”

Kalis looked towards McAllister still standing rigidly at attention and said, “As you were, Arlene.”

McAllister relaxed and resumed her seat. “What was all that jumping up and saluting business about, anyway?” asked Allan Crawford.

Kalis glanced towards the Deputy-Secretary of Defense and continuing to put these civilians on the defensive said, “I’m truly surprised at how little you seem to know about the regulations and traditions of the military services that you have been honored to oversee, Mr. Deputy-Secretary.”

Crawford looked stunned, as if he’d suddenly been slapped.

McAllister tried to defuse the escalating tension by explaining, “Madam Secretary, I stood and saluted Fleet-Admiral Kalis, not only because he is my superior officer, but because all members of the armed forces are required by regulation to render a first-salute to the
Congressional Medal of Honor,
regardless of the ranks involved. Had it been hanging from the neck of the lowliest spacer apprentice, I would still have been obligated to salute that medal first.”

“All right, all right… stand or sit, as it pleases you, Admiral Kalis,” replied the Secretary of Defense, still obviously annoyed. “It appears Admiral Richard Buntz, Commander of Fleet Logistical Services, has brought it to Admiral McAllister’s attention that for some time now, you have been issuing orders to Vice Admiral Thomas Jamison, Commander of Fleet Transport Command and have effectively absconded, doing God knows what, with nearly 65 percent of the Fleet’s transport vessels, usurping authority you do not possess.”

Kalis’ obvious haughtiness angered Franks, and she intended to take this overly ornamented, self-important, little gray-bearded shit down a notch.

“As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, five stars and dozens of fancy trinkets on your jacket or not, you have no direct authority to issue orders to any military assets of the Fleet. That authority rightly belongs to Admiral McAllister, as Chief of Fleet Operations. What have you to say for yourself… Admiral?”

“Having occupied the office of CFO more than once, myself,” Kalis reminded them pointedly, “I am well aware of the responsibilities of that office and of the limitations of the one I now possess. I am not so old I might confuse the two,” Kalis smiled frostily. “But as to your allegations of misconduct on my part, Madam Secretary, let me respond by stating I have not spoken to, nor personally issued any orders to Admiral Jamison. All orders concerning the vessels in question were issued directly by the Command, Logistics, Operations, Weapons, Navigation and Engineering Master System computer, under the direct authority of the
Commander-in-Chief
.”

Kalis then extracted an Executive Order from an inside pocket of his uniform blouse and handed it to the Secretary of Defense.

Scanning the document quickly, Franks asked testily, “Why wasn’t I informed of this?”

“I’m sure I wouldn’t know, Madam Secretary,” replied Kalis innocently. “Perhaps you should ask the president.”

Diet?

“Yes Hal?”

In response to general interrogatory instructions that I have issued to all of my brothers, I have recently received some very interesting news concerning a small research firm located on Joja. It appears this firm has developed a working prototype for a revolutionary new type of warship, combining a unique stealth design, employing all-new composite hull materials, with unique absorption properties that make the craft virtually undetectable to the conventional scanning devices of multiple technological foundations.

“That sounds wonderful, Hal. The Confederate Fleet could sure use something like that. Who owns the rights to this technological marvel?”

You do, Diet. I took the liberty of purchasing the company some years ago through one of your wholly owned corporate identities when preliminary results appeared promising. I have since continued to provide them with sufficient research funding required to get them to this stage, provided they do so under strictest confidentiality. It appears my “educated guesswork” has borne fruit.

“It certainly appears so, Hal. What does this thing look like?”

Please reference the video monitor, and I will play a presentation for you.

Diet watched the monitor as an obvious spacecraft hanger appeared, having a mysterious “black hole” in the center of the screen. It was quite difficult to discern any details of the object, even under lighting which illuminated the rest of the hanger brightly.

This is the outward appearance of the craft. As you can see, its flat-black outer covering tends to greatly inhibit visual perception in any appreciable detail because of its light absorption properties. This outer layer is also highly effective in the absorption of laser-based scanner emissions.

“What about other ships close enough to notice the ship’s shadow blocking stars or planetary features?”

A clear electro-chemical exterior coating allows for the images received from thousands of micro-fiber lenses to be displayed on the exterior surface of the hull, displaying light patterns from the opposite side so nearby visual sensors cannot detect the ship via occlusion, or blockage of stars, as the ship passes in front of them.

“Still, what if, somehow, a situation arises where the ship is successfully targeted by a potential enemy?”

Directly beneath the outer light-absorbing exterior is a highly reflective mirror finish capable of reflecting 99.6 percent of destroyer-class weapons-grade laser radiation, which would burn through the thin outer layer.

“What are all those angled surfaces that look like facets on a cut gemstone?”

The mathematically calculated acclivity of the craft’s surface facets ensures that electromagnetic reflections are refracted away from the radiation source, thus further reducing the possibility of a reflected echo returning to the emission source.

The object on the monitor changed to display a blindingly brilliant object that appeared a “white hole” in the hanger, yet obviously reflecting a myriad of high intensity light beams against the hanger’s interior.

Beneath this mirrored layer is a ferrite-impregnated composite material capable of absorbing a broad bandwidth of electromagnetic wavelengths, capable of greatly reducing reflections of electromagnetic-based scanner emissions.

The screen display changed to show a slightly different blackish surface that appeared to be made up of barely visible, microscopic particles in their multiple billions.

Again, when combined with the multi-surfaced acclivity of the exterior facets incorporated into the overall craft design, reflections of all known types of scanner radiation reduces the craft’s total scanner signature to no more than that of a piece of space debris the size of a man’s fist.

The display again changed to show a dull, silvery-gray, multi-faceted craft that reminded Diet very much of a pear-shaped crystal commonly found in hanging chandeliers, having a flat bottom, upon which the craft rested.

Beneath the radiation-absorbing outer layers, the inner skin of the craft consists of light-cruiser grade titanium armor for the protection of the crew. Thermal shielding and a state-of-the-art heat dispersal system allows the craft to shed excess heat without exposure by standard infrared thermal detection systems at ranges greater than half a mile.

“How big is this thing”

The display changed again to show a man standing outside the craft, adding perspective to the overall size of the craft.

The overall dimensions of the craft are 196 ft. in length, 117 ft. in maximum width and 61 ft. in depth, with a standard crew of twelve. The interior provides adequate space for standard cruiser grade instrumentation systems.

“What is its speed and range?”

The craft combines the capabilities of a both a spaceplane and a spaceship. It has a maximum hypervelocity
speed of 6,000c and a maximum range of 7.2 light-years at standard cruising speed of 4,900c without refueling. While cruising at warship speeds in the 300c range, the craft has a range in excess of 150 light-years and sufficient consumables to allow for up to six months continuous service without replenishment.

“How is this thing powered?”

Four military standard large transport spacecraft Stupman-Taylor inspired dual reactor pairs power the ship. These each consist of
an intermittent duty matter-antimatter reactor to provide the power spike necessary for the craft to initially enter tachyon space and capable of powering a destroyer-grade 5-gigawatt pulse laser. This is coupled with a standard hydrogen-fusion reactor to provide shipboard power, in-system propulsion via conventional hydrogen plasma plume, and to control the tachyon reactions necessary to maintain and maneuver the ship in hyperdrive.

“What about the drive-plume? Seems like everybody and his brother should easily detect that.”

The craft’s greatest innovation, is a totally new type of in-system propulsion — the first true gravitic drive. Standard gravitic technology is generally utilized in one of two ways... creation of an artificial gravity field and inertia-canceling gravity fields used to affect objects within starships, and standard anti-gravity systems currently in use for heavy-lift applications out of gravity wells, and orbital maneuvering at relatively close ranges to a planetoid-sized mass. This new gravitic drive system is a revolutionary breakthrough in gravitics technology that enables the craft to maneuver in a manner similar to standard hydrogen-plume propulsion within 4.5 light-hours' distance of an average gas-giant mass object. This new gravitic drive thus allows the craft to maneuver within inhabited solar systems without a detectable hydrogen-plume.

“Wow... it seems like this thing should be virtually invisible.”

Yes, the ship is equipped with an undetectable propulsion system and with the anti-scanner innovations discussed earlier, this vessel is virtually imperceptible… able to maneuver within heavily inhabited enemy systems undetected.

“Armament?”

While originally intended as a purely reconnaissance craft, the degree of success achieved in detection-evasion prompted developers to add weapons capabilities, greatly expanding its range of mission profiles. Potential armaments include two long-range/high-yield anti-ship missiles, four medium-range/medium-yield anti-ship missiles, 16 long-range/low-yield anti-spaceplane missiles, 16 medium-range/low-yield anti-spaceplane missiles, 60 medium-range/low-yield anti-missile missiles, one 5-gigawatt pulse laser and a twin charged-particle beam projector for close-in defense. Various weapons configurations can be mixed and matched.