[February 5, 2078]
After I finish my last meeting before lunch, Akari comes in and tells me that Jason called because he would like to see me about the HMS Fortune, and I tell her to have him meet me here for lunch. It’s a discussion that I’m more than happy to have with him once he tells me that they arrived safely.
[February 18, 2078]
Starting at midnight tonight, the military has begun picking up the selected colonists. The good thing about this time around is that everyone has nanites, and of course, they correct any genetic defects, so it’s simply a matter of picking people with the right job qualifications, and again, with no criminal history.
Thankfully, it goes smoothly, and the media doesn’t catch wind of it.
[February 20, 2078]
The HMS O’Neill and her escort fleet are scheduled to jump for Aurelia in Beta Hydri at noon today. Not counting the craft onboard the O’Neill, her escort fleet is nothing less than 150 of our newest ships. 60 strike fighter carriers and 90 escort dreadnoughts. Again, the colonists and military escort are made up of mostly females.
I, along with the husband and wife team governors I selected for the colony, Victor and Marina Petrovich, load up on my plane for the several-hour flight. When we finally arrive and land in the docking bay, Admiral Mason (Commander of the fleet), General Renée Tailler (Commander of the Armies), and Captain Lewis (Commander of the O’Neill) are there to meet us. They salute as I descend the ramp.
The docking bay is huge, much bigger than the ones for HighPoint Station and Lone Star Station. Just like the HMS Fortune, the O’Neill has 200 wings of F-50 fighters, 200 wings of F-60 strike fighters, 50 wings of AC-310 gunships, 500 wings of V-23 dropships, 100 wings of C-21 transports, and finally, the 16th, 20th, and 22nd Armies with all of their associated equipment, most of whom, again, are female.
As before, after they greet me, I’m led to the commander’s ready room, where I will address everyone onboard.
“Good morning everyone.
“I’m sure a lot of you are wondering why you all are here. Today, I’m going to clear that up for you. You were told you were being resettled for safety, but what you haven’t been told is that it won’t be in the Sol system. You are following our first colony ship, the HMS Fortune, to Beta Hydri. For those who are familiar with it, Beta Hydri is almost 12 light-years away and has several habitable planets and moons. The first colonists are settling on Eridan as we speak. You’ll be colonizing the second habitable planet there, Aurelia.”
I nod at the technician, and he displays scrolling pictures of Aurelia beside me on a split screen.
“As you can see, it’s gorgeous. Its climate is much like Earth, and while it’s larger than Earth, it only has slightly higher gravity. It’s not so much that you would have problems moving around, but to help you, the injections you were given when you boarded will increase your muscle and bone density. You’ll begin seeing the difference within 24 hours. The injections will also allow you to live in good health for approximately 200 years.”
I pause for a few seconds and simply look at the camera.
“Only a handful of people know where you are being sent. You’re going there to build another home for humanity, but you and the colonists on Eridan are also my safeguards, just in case the war goes badly. Your colonies are the most closely guarded secret we have because they’re my guarantee that humanity has a future.
“By the time you reach Aurelia, the Geoformers should have an Earth-like ecology, and the initial colony site built and waiting for you. Amongst you are farmers, ranchers, scientists, engineers, and all of the other professions you will need to begin a civilization. We’ve given you everything you could possibly need to accomplish that.
“I’ve chosen Victor and Marina Petrovich as my representatives and governors of Aurelia. Please, give them the same respect that you would give me. Victor and Marina are more than qualified, have proven themselves to be a more than capable team for leading the colony, and they will do anything to protect you and your rights, just as I do.
“On the trip to Aurelia, take the time to get to know your fellow colonists and develop the close bonds you’ll need to work together to build your new homes. Remember, no person can stand alone, and at no other time has the saying, ‘love your neighbor’ been so true.
“No one with any kind of criminal history was chosen as it would make things just that much harder if they fell back on what they’ve known. For the first year or so, you will live under martial law. Admiral Mason is in command, and let me be clear about this: break the law, and you will be dealt with harshly. Establishing yourselves will be difficult enough without a criminal element making it harder. I’m hoping that you will care for one another as much as I care about all of you. So, help one another when needed and build tight-knit communities because you’ll need your neighbors just as much as they’ll need you.
“God Bless each and every one of you.”
As we’re heading back to Earth, I watch as the HMS O’Neill and her escort fleet of strike fighter carriers and escort dreadnoughts disappear into jump space.
◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇
After the HMS O’Neill left, time seems to almost crawl by, even though the entire system is a beehive of activity as the Sol system creates the weapons we need. Much of our shipbuilding is concentrating on the new strike fighter carriers and escort dreadnoughts. Not only to have enough escort ships to send along with the HMS Artemis, but to send even more reinforcements to Epsilon Eridani, just in case the Alkarin are feeling froggy and attempt to recapture the system.
I should mention that Anne reported that many of the female colonists onboard the HMS Fortune, roughly 38%, are already well along in pregnancy. There isn’t a lot to do in jump space for 100 days, even if we did provide entertainment, along with some bars. Sex tends to be something that we humans fall back on, especially when alcohol is involved. Birth control is still illegal, and even if it wasn’t, the colonists would be banned from using it.
After all, I need their population to grow quickly. Anne and George, after much discussion over the link with me, have decided, at least on a temporary basis, to drop the age of majority to 16. The three of us are quite sure that will cause some consternation amongst the colonists, but at 16, they can’t really be considered children anymore. Regardless, most of them are mature enough at that age to hold their own jobs and have their own families to help out the colony. I’ll be holding the same conversation with Victor and Marina when they arrive.
Plans have been finalized for the upgrades for the fleet as well, and I must say, I’m more than pleased with the designs Jason brought over to show me. I believe when our upgraded ships meet with the Alkarin, they’ll be in for a rather rude surprise, although I do hope they don’t have any in store for us. Jason isn’t counting on that though. Slow they may be, but they do adapt. Even Jason thinks they will continue to have trouble considering how fast humans tend to change tactics.
Jason has sent the plans for all the latest generation of our ships, all new research, and for the CAIis along with the programming for the nanites to build them. For now, Cal won’t be needing them since they have other things to concentrate on. Though, he did tell Jason that all children would have their CAIis as soon as they have the nanite production facility make them.
In the conversation, Cal also requested scoop ships, asteroid/ice miners, capture ships, and cargo ships to be sent to him. Eridan and Aurelia are metal-poor planets, so it makes sense that they need to mine and transport metals from the asteroid belt. Not to mention that they will need He3 fairly soon to build more power plants. Cal says he wants to build a space elevator as soon as possible, and that’s why he needs the capture ships. Look, transport spacecraft are great and all, but they have nowhere near the lifting capacity of a space elevator, even if it does take slightly longer to get whatever into or out of orbit.
Jason then talked to me, and I approved it, only with AI pilots to take them to Beta Hydri. Of course, we also have to redesign some with higher capacity power plants, the new engine designs, better shielding, and jump engines. With the higher capacity power plants, they’ll be able to enter the gamma band in dimensional space.
Right now, in the beta band of dimensional space, the relative travel speed is 1.16 light-years per day. Being able to enter the gamma band means the relative speed will jump to roughly 105.7 light-years per day. In other words, instead of the trip to Beta Hydri taking about 21 days, we can now reach it in roughly 5.5 hours. Though our large ships, such as the colony and planetary assault ships, will only be able to reach the beta band since we still can’t come anywhere close to generating the power required for something that large to enter the gamma band. Even so, that is still a huge increase in speed.
Another idea that was submitted made Jason groan and slap his forehead because, as he said, it’s one that should have been thought of already: a dedicated anti-ship missile cruiser. So after a bit of tinkering with the standard cruiser design, they came up with the Aether class missile cruiser.
Aether class missile cruisers
CAG-xxx
225m x 175m x 100m.
Armaments:
- 2 100mm 6-barrel 2-gun turret-mounted antimatter Gatling gun. Dorsally and ventrally mounted.
- 6 50cm 2-gun turret 50-gigawatt laser cannons. Dorsally and ventrally mounted.
- 12 25cm 6-barrel antimatter Gatling guns.
- 14 CIWS 50 mm Gatling cannon/6-barrel 25 gigawatt pulse laser combination.
- 18 Anti-personnel CIWS 15 mm Gatling cannon/6-barrel 5 gigawatt pulse laser combination.
- 10 100-cell quick reload multi-role missile system.
- Defensive:
- Active and passive stealth systems.
- Primary: 120 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
- Secondary: 120 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
- Tertiary: 120 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
As you can see, it’s a bit larger than a standard cruiser, and not as heavily armed, but they aren’t meant to be part of the frontlines anyway, and it has more shielding to help protect it from any ships that manage to get through the fleet to be close enough to directly attack it.
In keeping with the JCS recommendation, a group has designed and we’re quickly producing the low-cost high-offensive power autonomous AI-controlled satellites. Each satellite will measure roughly 70m x 90m, and either have a 100mm antimatter Gatling gun or dual 150cm lasers. They have to be that big to contain a system drive, ammunition, and power supplies. Of course, they’ll be armored and shielded.
So far, several thousand have been produced and deployed around the system. Especially around the normal exit point outside the heliopause that the Alkarin have used all three times that they’ve come to the Sol system.
The Corps of Engineers has been busily choosing new personnel with construction and engineering experience from those who’ve been drafted and began building the underground cities. Taking a lesson from the American military, they first used tunneler nanites to make a lateral access tunnel 2km into the base of mountains, and then dug down 5km. After they reached the proper depth, they used them to make the huge caverns that will house the cities.
It took several months for the first phase, but once that was complete, they had the nanites use the resources they transported down to the cavern to surround the cavern with 20m of Duraminium composite armor as well as put in supporting pillars made of Duraminium composite. Suffice it to say, between the armor and almost 5km of bedrock, along with very heavy air defenses, any attackers will be hard pressed to damage the cities with standoff weapons.
A direct attack is problematic as well. The tunnel walls have 5m of Duraminium composite armor and armored doors with shields every 250m along the entire length of the tunnels. I didn’t even ask what the projected cost for each city is. I don’t want to know either because life is worth much more than mere money, in my opinion.
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