Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer Read online

  While he spoke, Star manipulated the hologram adding the sections he was talking about and placing them where he pointed in the hologram.

  “I would add a three-D holographic tank for plotting battles and seeing the battle live in the tank. With such a configuration, my aides can stand around the tank with me, and see what I mean when I say it. They can also help me keep an eye on things during a battle.” He moved the captain’s chair out of the way, placing the tank where his chair had been. Then he rearranged the stations into a semi-circle around the tank. He replaced the command chair at one end of the tank and had her remove the attached terminals for the time being.

  “What do you think?” Ian asked.

  “It would might be more efficient considering the personalities of the people involved. I assume that you don’t intend to move the entire flight section up to the bridge?” she asked.

  Ian chuckled. “No, just a control section. The idea is to have operations and flight close together so if I order a strike, it gets drawn up and executed in the least amount of time. Basically, put the entire command section in one place.”

  “But what if the bridge does get destroyed? That would take out the command section would it not?” Star asked.

  “No, it wouldn’t. That’s the reason for the secondary bridge. Even if a strike temporarily takes the main bridge out of the loop, they can pick it up and never leave our people hanging. Think of it as a critical system redundancy.”

  “They had nothing like this in all of Talosian Defense Command. I wonder why?” Star asked. “I know for a fact that entire ships had been lost because the bridge had been destroyed, but the rest of the ship was still capable of fighting. In those cases, the ships were successfully evacuated, but the ship itself was lost,” Star explained. “If they had this redundant system, they could have saved the ship and possibly won the fight!”

  “Maybe we can get this incorporated into the refit being planned for after the fight. If we keep adding stuff, though, we are going to need to put into a dry dock!” Ian said grinning.

  Star nodded. “In order to do all of this, we might have to redesign this entire section. Your ready room will have to be relocated; any idea where you might want that?”

  “Why don’t we put it one level up, as a kind of loft overlooking the bridge, with a movable partition that can seal the balcony?” Ian suggested. “We can put stairs leading down to the bridge right here, but if there isn’t room for it, we could always use a spiral set.”

  Star nodded. “That is possible, and will give you immediate access to the bridge, and with the partition open, you can still listen to what’s going on down below. What about your quarters?”

  “Put them wherever they need to go. At this point, I think we can leave the rest of it up to the people that know what they’re doing,” Ian said still grinning.

  “I’ll forward this to the designers that are working on the refit and redesign of the systems involved,” Star said, agreeing with her commander.

  “I need to talk to Beth about it, but I think I have a better idea about the life boats too, but I won’t mention that until I talk to her,” Ian replied.

  “Actually, I think I might be one step ahead of you on that, Sir,” Star said. “I would like to down-size the current facility to only allow for the wounded from the Medical Center. The rest of the ship will have either localized units, or individually eject-able units that they can easily get to in the event of evacuation. Something like the ejection system my core is equipped with, only built for humans and capable of minor self-repair.”

  “Do you still feel responsible for that cryo unit failure with Talena?” Ian asked.

  “Well Sir, I do, but it has prompted me to think about ways to improve the system so it has less of a chance of happening again. This new system has the added benefit of the life pods being multiple, smaller targets for a hostile enemy that would destroy the current unit,” Star described.

  “That’s pretty much what I was thinking too, and I think it’s a great idea. Please include it in the suggestions you’re sending to the designers,” Ian replied smiling at her with pride.

  “I will Sir,” Star replied.

  Talos, New Mexico

  Earth (Sol III) Sol Sector.

  “Hey, Ty!” Alan Carlson called as he jogged after his friend.

  Seeing who it was calling to him, Ty smiled and waved, then waited for the man to catch up to him. “What’s up, Alan? I’m really sorry I haven’t had time to get caught up with you since you got back. We’ve been a little busy around here.”

  “I can see that, in a way, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. What the hell is going on? You guys look like you’re mobilizing for an invasion!” Alan replied.

  Ty chuckled. “We are.” Seeing the look on his friend’s face, he nodded toward the security building. “Come on, follow me to my office, and I’ll fill you in. You might want to think about catching the next shuttle out of here.”

  “Yeah? Where would I go?” Alan replied grinning back. “While I’m on planet, I can always walk away and claim I don’t know any of you crazy assholes! Seriously though, they wouldn’t attack in the open like this would they?”

  Ty nodded. “If it were just the guys here on the planet, I’d say no, but there’s a new player on the field, and he’s a big bastard. Command thinks they might hit us, just to prove a point to the rest of the planet.

  “The full pile of shit from the Intel folks up there is that they believe that the arrival of the Super Nova will signal a policy change on the part of the Caldarians. They believe that they are sending that big monster here to subjugate the entire planet, once and for all. One of the first places they’ll hit on planet is right here.

  “The Caldarians on planet know we are not normal humans, going about our business. They’ve also detected the fighters and other craft that have been flying around the system for the last year or so. They know there is an advanced presence here, but they don’t know how big, nor do they know exactly where in the system the ship is. But they do know where we are.”

  Alan was thoughtful, but nodding. “Yeah, I guess that does make sense. So why aren’t you all simply getting the hell out of here?”

  “You said it yourself, brother, ‘and go where’? There isn’t enough room for everyone off-planet, some of us would have to stay here, and right now, the only thing keeping people from getting picked up by ‘government investigators’ is the fact that they don’t leave here,” Ty shook his head. “No, we’re taking every precaution we can, and I think they will hit us, I just hope we don’t lose too many folks when they do.”

  Alan nodded. “I know I’ve only been here about three days total since I started working for you, but for the first time in a long time, I feel like I actually have a home. I’d have a hard time leaving this place too.”

  Ty chuckled. “Great! Follow me, and I’ll get you fitted for your very own set of armor and let you pick your weapon!”

  “Gee, thanks, Buddy!” Alan joked. “Seriously, how are you going to repel a strike here?”

  “Well, we do have an infantry, but we have some seriously big weapon systems built under ground here that will certainly surprise the hell out of anyone that tries to hit us. I don’t know if you saw it while you were down there, but we have our fighters as well as ground based lasers, mass drivers, rocket launchers, and on top of all of that, we have an energy shield that would be at home on a ship like Star Dancer. If they manage to get through all of that, we’re going to be in some serious shit,” Ty explained.

  “I have no idea what half that stuff you told me about even does. I know what a laser is supposed to do, as well as the rocket launchers, but what’s a mass driver, and how does the energy shield work?” Alan asked.

  Ty grinned. “Did you ever see the specs on that Rail Gun the Navy was playing with?”

  “Yeah, big monster, took all the power on the ship just to fire that pig,” Alan replied.

  Ty nod
ded. “A mass driver is similar to that, except it doesn’t use a rail, and ours are much more efficient when it comes to power, even though there is more power available for them. Plus, these suckers fire like Phalanx anti-missile cannons mounted on US Naval vessels, only with a muzzle velocity measured against the speed of light. We also have a much better tracking and targeting systems.

  “The shield is basically a wall of phased plasma or something like that. One of the egg-heads tried to explain it to me once, and failed completely. Just consider it to be one of the shields out of a sci-fi movie, and you’ll have it. I don’t have a clue how it works, but it does. It doesn’t make us invulnerable, but it makes us a hell of a lot tougher than anything else on this planet.”

  Alan nodded. I imagine since it lets light through, it’ll let lasers through, huh?”

  “Nope, too much energy in a laser. The shield is set so anything brighter than sunlight gets filtered out. Hell, when it’s actually on, you don’t even have to worry about getting sunburned out here, it blocks the excess UV radiation,” Ty replied.

  “So what are the ship and everyone up there doing to get ready?” Alan asked.

  “Too much to tell you about, really. There’s new fighters, unmanned weapons platforms, drones that can emulate the ship, and others that can emulate fighter craft or Centurions, and a whole shit load of other new weapons platforms that folks are trying to get built before the fighting starts. You know, that reminds me, you could do me a huge favor, Alan.”

  “Uh oh, now what do you want me to do? I hope it’s nothing like luring that pimp in Bangkok into a trap so we could free the women in his stable is it?” Alan replied.

  “Hey! I told you we had the help of the local police, how was I supposed to know that pimp was the police chief’s brother?” Ty said. “No, this isn’t anything like that. I just need you to jump on a shuttle to the moon and spend a day or so testing something one of the egg-heads developed.”

  “This isn’t something that can bite me is it?” Alan asked.

  “I don’t think so, if it is, you can back out anytime you want to. The way I understood it, you will be a remote pilot for a mobile drone. The drone will be outside the base, and you’ll never leave the lab,” Ty said. “You shouldn’t be gone very long since this guy is trying to get it finished to use in the upcoming fight.”

  “Okay, I’ll go, since I’m not doing anything right now, but if this bites me, I’m gonna kick your ass!” Alan teased.

  “As if you could! Seriously though, if it looks like something we could use, bring a dozen back with you!” Ty said.

  The men continued to talk while Ty worked. When it was time for the evening shuttle up to the moon, Ty walked Alan to it, and saw him off. Before he could leave the hanger and return to his office, he was pulled into a discussion on protecting the open end of the landing strip. Since it was covered by a hologram, and had closable blast doors, Ty didn’t see the issue, but the flight ops chief had some questions.

  Chapter 12

  F.S.S. Star Dancer

  Selene (Earth’s moon) Orbit

  Sol Sector.

  Combat location: Dark Palace

  “With respect Sir, to ignore that base would be a mistake,” Major Eischens said. “We have to consider it as a hostile target during the up-coming battle. We will have to develop a strategy for taking it out, otherwise it will continue to feed intelligence to the enemy.’

  “I understand that, Major, but stop and think about this a minute; what are we going to hit it with?” Ian replied. “Sure, we have craft that can function at that depth, but they are not designed for it, and none of our current weapons will even work. In order to take that base, we would have to do it with Marines in armor. We have no idea what’s in that base, nor do we know if the Caldarians will destroy the base in order to deny it to us. If that were to happen it would be the worst ecological disaster to ever hit the planet. I cannot consider any attack on that base until we have more intelligence, and a plan to contain the oil that could be spilled into the ocean.”

  Major Eischens sighed. “I understand that, Sir. That’s why I’m asking for permission to get the missing information, so we can develop a workable plan to take out that base. As for not having weapons and ships to do the job, there is a young scientist down on the moon that developed a fast DSV that could be converted to carry weapons.”

  “Major, you’re going to give me an ulcer,” Ian replied.

  “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t, Sir,” Eischens replied.

  Ian sighed, “Can you get the info without them knowing we have discovered their hiding spot?”

  “I believe so, Sir. A specially modified probe can be made to look like a rock, and simply dropped over the edge of the gorge down there. It’ll just happen to stop falling near the base, and we should be able to get a reading on it,”

  “If it actually discovers a base down there. You may simply be sending it to the bottom of the trench,” Ian replied.

  “None of us actually believe that, Sir. That oil has to be going somewhere, and if it were any shallower, someone would have detected it by now. Analysis of the freighter trajectories place the point of origin in this area. Besides, by dropping a probe down there, we’ll at least see which direction the siphon pipe leads. We can always follow that to the base,” Eischens reasoned.

  “Okay, if you can do this without it being tracked then you have my approval, but if they blow that base I’m sending you down there with a bucket and a sponge to clean up the mess, understand?” Ian replied.

  “Absolutely Sir. We won’t let you down,” the man replied and closed the comm.

  Ian sighed and sat back in his chair. Isn’t there enough to do without people wanting to add more? He rubbed his temples as he felt a headache coming on. Glancing at the monitor on his wall he looked at the timer counting down the arrival of the Super Nova.

  It will return to normal space on the far side of the sun in just under twenty-four hours. Ian and his people had less than one day to get everything they had been working on finished and deployed. One day. There was at least a week’s worth of work to do before people he cared about started dying.

  Kyle and his team had sent the upgrades down to Talos so they could upgrade their landing facilities to accommodate the Wasp fighter variant, as well as the refit specs for the Hornet fighters themselves. The last word he got from them was that not only were they still cranking out weapons platforms for seeding out in space, they would have all their fighters upgraded to the Wasp variant by the time the Caldarians arrived.

  He wasn’t sure whether to cry or cheer about that. Most of the pilots down there were the kids that Cindy and Talena had trained. There were still older pilots there, but he had need so many of them up here, that he had all but stripped Talos of pilots over the age of eighteen. At least they would have one of the newest fighters if they had to fight, but he would much prefer it if those kids stayed on the ground.

  Gold Squadron had been refitted with the upgrade, and silver squadron was currently being upgraded, with their completion being sometime this evening. That would leave one whole squadron left that was still in unmodified Hornets, while the other squadron was down at the moon base manning the Shadow fighters that had gotten built. Ian was considering sending his Hornet pilots down to the moon base to man the extra Shadows that got built when his door chime sounded. Without looking up, he said “Come!”

  Janet and Julie Laskar entered his office, and Ian quickly stood to help Janet to a chair. She looked like hell.

  “Janet, what’s wrong? You look horrible!” Ian asked gently.

  “It’s the nightmares, Ian. I haven’t slept in over a week,” the woman said quietly. “But something’s changed, I think I’ll be okay tonight.”

  “Please tell me its good news?” Ian asked, trying to get the woman to smile. It worked, she did.

  “Some of it is. The Caldarian will arrive here, and there will be a horrible battle. A few of them actua
lly. A lot of people are going to die. But I think we are going to win. It’s still fuzzy, so I can’t give you details, but I am sure it was that big ugly ship blowing up at the end and not us. There is something else going on there though, it isn’t bad, at least, I don’t think it’s bad. But something important is going to happen shortly after the big ship explodes. That is so fuzzy all I could get from it was a feeling, no details at all,” Janet replied. “I felt this was important enough to come and tell you before I checked in to Main Medical.”

  “I really appreciate that, Janet, but you could have called me, or had Beth call me down to medbay after you checked in,” Ian said. “In fact, Come on, I’ll take you there myself.” He took the woman’s hand, helped her up, and led her to the door.

  “Oh, Ian, you don’t have to do that, Julie can get me there!” Janet replied.

  “I am sure she could, but I’m going to make sure you get there safely anyway. We all owe you a great deal, young lady. We want to keep you around long enough to have a celebration in your honor,’ Ian replied.

  “Ian, I appreciate the thought, but... There won’t be any celebrations. In war, there are no winners, only survivors. We will be far too busy seeing to the survivors when this is over,” Janet replied, sadly.

  “Then it is my job to make sure there a lot of them to look after,” Ian replied softly, trying not to upset the woman any more.

  They rode the maglev in silence and Ian all but carried her down the short hallway to Main Medical. Ian honestly couldn’t tell if she were awake or not when he placed her on the floating gurney provided by one of the interns. But before he turned away, her eyes snapped open, and she grabbed his wrist. “Phoenix needs a bigger nest. Build a bigger nest, Ian,” Janet said and closed her eyes again.

  The interns pushed her back into the maze of hallways that was Main Medical, while Ian looked at Julie. “Any clue what she meant by that last bit?”

  Julie shook her head. “No, she’ll sometimes do it in the middle of the night, but we don’t even listen to her anymore. No one can figure out what she means.”