Tipping Point in the Alliance War (15 page)

***

Major
Dawkins greets the captured Confederation officers and gets straight to the
point.  She says, “We don’t have much time, so I will be brief.  We
have captured five more warships and we only have enough crew for two of
them.  The thought occurred to me that your sailors can ‘crew’ these three
extra ships. 

Arming
enemy sailors will create some security concerns for me, so in order to remove
any motive for attacking Alliance
vessels,
I will give
you permission to flee with the ships.  We will not fire upon you as you
flee, and we will not pursue you.  I feel comfortable in making this offer
because I know that you have no place to go – except to wander around the
cosmos looking for a home.  You have already made that decision, when you
agreed to sell the Brutus to the Alliance.

When
we arrive safely in Alliance space, you will receive the rewards that you have
already been promised.  If you also arrive with three more captured
warships, I believe that the Alliance government will be more than happy to pay
you a handsome bonus, to go along with your promised rewards.  I commit to
you that I will make every effort to influence that decision, to your benefit.

I will
now leave you alone to discuss the issue.  The ‘privacy’ setting on the
room’s security system will allow for a free dialog.  Regardless of your
decision, we will honor all previous promises.  Thank you,” she says, as
she makes her exit.

The
former POW’s spend over two hours making the decision.  They tell the
Major that they will recommend accepting the offer, but the final decision will
be made by the entire crew.  Major Dawkins expresses her thanks and agrees
that the crew needs to accept the decision. 

She
asks the former POW’s to ‘hurry’, because the ‘little fleet’ needs to vacate
these premises, before the Confederation Navy returns.  She also asks that
the planning process, on dividing the former POW’s into three crews, begin
“right now”.  The Alliance withdrawal needs to begin immediately following
the Confederation crew’s vote.  They will be leaving right away, with or
without those three ships.

***

On The
Mother Ship

The
mother-ship responds to Doctor Kei’s ‘tale of woe’ by expressing empathy and
nurture.  Mei Kei had envisioned a picture of herself being a lost little
girl.  The mother-ship’s computer had understood that the story was about
the entire humanoid group that is on the Courageous.  The mother-ship’s
computer realizes that these sentient beings are lost and need help.  The
SOS signal, which they used when they knocked on the hull, had been the truth
and their purpose on the mother-ship is non-threatening. 

The
computer still refuses to grant access to information about the ship’s
technology and control systems, but the computer opens access to information
that a passenger on the vessel might need.  Maps of the ship are
available.  Training videos are now accessible to any of the Courageous
crew, on subjects such as language and culture.  The videos are accessible
on view-screens, in the Learning Center area, and furthermore, the computer now
understands that the humanoids need to have the language expressed in sound
waves.  Now everyone can communicate with the mother-ship’s computer.

The
Courageous crew dives in, and everyone is actively soaking up information,
about the mother-ship’s creators.  Captain Niles is now able to ask the
computer questions and to get a response.  “Who are the beings in the
stasis chambers,” he asks?

The
ship’s computer answers, “They are ‘
warnby
’ and ‘
naftani
’ traveling to far-away star systems, for
colonization purposes.  The ‘
yetdicrn
’ occupied
the empty chambers.  They have already been delivered to their
destination.”

“Where
is the ship’s crew?” he asks.

“The
ship travels without crew, after entering warp,” responds the computer.

“You
are not in warp now,” continues the Captain.  “Why don’t you have a crew
now?”

“A
malfunction occurred and the ship exited warp.  The malfunction continues
and the ship cannot re-enter warp.  The ship must wait for help.”

“We
have engineers who know how to fix warp drives,” the Captain says. 
“Perhaps they could repair the malfunction.”

“Your
warp drives are primitive compared to the one on this ship.” says the
mother-ship’s computer. “Your engineers could not understand this warp drive.”

“Perhaps
they could understand
,
if you taught them.  The
problem may be simple and they may be able to find the problem and fix the
drive,” says the Captain.

“It’s
worth a try,” agrees the computer.  “Send them to me.  Give me the
ones with brain implants, and I will try to teach them.”

***

The Captain
is so excited that he almost forgets to say goodbye to the computer.  He
practically skips back to the Courageous.  How good is that?  Warp
technology hundreds, or thousands of years ahead of the current Alliance
technology, and the mother-ship’s computer is going to teach the theory to his
engineers.

Once
on-board he makes quick work, of ordering the three engineers with brain
implants to begin their training.  He escorts them to the closest
mother-ship computer terminal, and introduces the engineers to the
computer.  That is the last of the conversation that he can hear. 
The rest is going on thru the brain implants.

***

After
a week, the Captain asks the engineers how things are going.  They tell
him that they are ‘in over their heads’, but that the computer is only trying
to teach them the basic fundamentals of the mother-ship’s warp drive
theory.  After the lessons they are going to begin troubleshooting the
warp drive, as a system.  The computer is able to run diagnostics on the
individual pieces, but not on the system.  Their job will be to design and
produce test fixtures and measurement equipment, so that the warp drive system
can be broken into pieces, and tested - first as subsystems and then as a
system.

***

The
theoretical teaching is complete and the troubleshooting is to begin
tomorrow.  Captain Niles puts the mother-ship’s ‘warp drive repair effort’
at the top of the Courageous crews’ priority list.  Everyone is to support
the effort in any way they can.

As
soon as the engineers hear that they can have anything they need, they
conscript the medical personnel who have brain implants.  Besides having
the best minds on the Courageous, the medical team is very familiar with the
concepts of system testing - that is a big part of their jobs.

The
mother-ship’s computer is also pleased with the decision to bring the medical
personnel into the repair project.  The doctors are given an abbreviated
‘theory of warp drive’ education and are ready to begin diagnostics in three
days.  They have running implant conversations among the group of
humanoids and with the computer. 

(The
‘brain implant’ technology has never been used on this level before and the
medical personnel can see that it is time for some big improvements to that
technology – as soon as they get home.)

Captain
Niles has directed the entire crew to absorb as much of the alien technology as
they can.  They spend their time using educational tools, and simulation
equipment, and exploring the alien ships.  Everything is recorded using
holographic recorders, which each crew member wears.  They are only
allowed to turn the recorders OFF during private times.  Everything is
new, and everything is important.

One
thing that turns out to be important is a hissing sound, which is reported by
an explorer scouting the engineering complex.  It is unusual to hear any
kind of noise on the mother-ship.  A hissing sound, in a small room at the
back of the engineering section, sticks out like a sore thumb.  The
explorer reports the sound to his ‘team leader’; and the ‘team leader’ reports
it to the ‘exploration supervisor’; who reports it to the ‘liaison for
mother-ship investigations’; who reports it to one of the engineers.  For
an engineer, a hissing sound on a starship is definitely out of the ordinary.

After
further investigation, it is determined that nitrogen gas is leaking from a
pipe.  Probably nothing, but the engineer ask the mother-ship’s computer
about it, just to be certain.  The mother-ship’s computer describes the
proper method for repairing the pipe and then sets about trying to calculate
the effect that the gas leak might have on the ship’s systems.  The repair
to the pipe is completed within 2 hours. 

The
mother-ship’s computer cannot forget the small leak.  There are no ‘small’
problems on a Robotic-Long-Distance-Stasis-Transport-Ship.  There can be
no leaks or failures.  What could have caused the malfunction? 
First, there is a malfunction in the warp drive and now a malfunction in a gas
line - it is just too much.  There has to be a link between the two
malfunctions.  The mother-ship’s computer speaks with the engineers and
mentions that the probability of two unrelated malfunctions occurring, at the
same time on a ship of this type, is less than 1 in 390,000,000.  

This
conversation causes the engineers to consider the possibility that the ship’s
warp drive and the ship’s internal-piping-system both came under a ‘pressure
increase’, which caused both malfunctions - either simultaneously or
serially.  The ship’s computer begins to search for evidence of such an
event.

………..
She finds it.  There had been a ‘pressure increase’ that came in through
the warp drive.  That extra pressure, inside the warp drive, caused extra
pressure in all of the associated pressurized pipes.  The damage to the warp
drive is probably a leak in a pressure seal, which was caused by the ‘pressure
increase event’.  It is necessary to do a thorough check on all
pressurized systems, and to test for leaks.

What could
have caused a ‘pressure increase event’ in warp-space?  There is no
occurrence like that in recorded history.  The mother-ship’s computer is
relentless in her search.  She reviews the records of warp-space, and
real-space events close to the time that the ‘pressure increase’ hit her
ship.  ….. And there it is.  A ship launched a probe, or missile,
into warp-space where it exploded and disrupted warp-space for 50 light-years
in all directions.

The
mother-ship’s computer follows the course of the ship, which caused the
disruption, and observes that another explosion was caused some days
later.  The mother-ship’s computer is angry.  She searches again for
the vessel that caused the damage.  ……. She finds it. ….  She
destroys it, by causing all of the warp core material to implode and when it
has finished imploding, it explodes – with a big bang.  She believes in
‘guilt by association’, so she also destroys the 23 ships, which are traveling
with the culprit. 

With
her anger quenched, she converses with the humanoids
who
are inside of her ship, and tells them what happened.  The consensus
opinion is that it must have been the Confederation Navy testing a new
weapon. 

Meanwhile,
the ‘warp drive repair team’ is checking warp drive pressure seals.  Even
in the relatively primitive warp drives used in Alliance vessels the internal
pressures are astonishingly high.  There isn’t much hope that they will be
able to repair a pressure seal leak without a space station or ship building
facility.

……………
They do find the leak.  It is in the ‘main seal’ that separates warp-space
from real-space, as the transition is being made.  A little bit of
warp-space is leaking into real-space. 

What
to do?  Everyone thinks about the problem, and they have focus groups, and
discussion groups, and brainstorming sessions, and think tank meetings. 

The
housing for the pressure seal is in a small room just aft of the main
light-wave transformer.  Would it be possible to encase the entire
assembly in a substance such as
xlt-ypoxy
resin?  Would the resin hold under the pressure?  The ship’s computer
says that the resin will crack under the pressure, unless there is a hardened
enclosure to prevent the resin from expanding. 

The
Courageous crew begins the design and manufacture of a hardened enclosure,
which will surround the pressure seal. 
Xlt-ypoxy
resin will be injected to fill the void and then, it is hoped, the seal will be
good enough – at least for a temporary fix.  The chance of this ‘fix’
working is small, but it’s worth a try.

Captain
Niles speaks with the mother-ship’s computer and suggests that a temporary fix
will be good enough, if it lasts long enough to warp to Alliance Navy
Headquarters, where a permanent fix can be made.  The computer wants to
know about the local customs concerning payment, for the repair work.  The
Captain reassures the ship’s computer that there is plenty of wealth aboard the
mother-ship, to pay for the work and materials.  The computer can easily
pay with a transfer of information, which will give the Alliance new
technologies.  The ship’s computer is satisfied with that arrangement.

The
design and build of the hardened enclosure takes almost three weeks.  It
takes another four days to install the enclosure and another 2 days to inject
the
xlt-ypoxy
resin.  Then, six more days for
the resin to completely harden and they are ready to travel.