Star Force: Deception (SF11) Read online

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  October 2, 2092

  “Report,” Paul ordered as he stepped into the fleet command center, mug in hand. He sipped at the thick, syrupy concoction that the Archons had developed in conjunction with the Star Force nutritional scientists to be a low volume, high calorie replenishment option for between and during workouts when they couldn’t afford to fill their stomachs full of food. Over the years, as their bodies grew stronger and their workouts became more and more intense, eating had become an increasing priority…as well as a constant nag. The ‘Vivariquum’ had been one of their ideas to counter the problem.

  The command center was one large open room, with what looked like smooth boulders sticking up from the floor in orderly fashion to form workstations. Spread throughout were monitors on the walls, tabletops, and even an accurate and updating model of the Solar system floating in holographic splendor over a prototype generator, backwards engineered from the tech found in Antarctica. The image was grainy, with a lot of static and interruptions in the luminal transmission, but the valuable 3d perspective had warranted the inclusion of the prototype in the command center, even if it wasn’t ready for general distribution.

  Paul glanced up at the flashing icon on the hologram, nearby Mars, as he walked over to one of the 36 manned stations.

  “It’s the Aussies,” Parker-834 said, pulling up the distress call for Paul to read.

  “Damn,” Paul whispered as the rest of the fleet control staff went about their routine business, most of whom were not Archons. “So much for a successful first run.”

  “Could be worse,” Parker pointed out.

  “Do we have their transponder?”

  “Yes,” the level 4 adept said, bringing the location up on one of three theater-like wall screens. The prototype inter-planetary starship was the first such non-Star Force vessel attempted to be built by the nations of Earth, and though it wasn’t publically known Star Force had unofficially sent one of their engineers to observe the design project and nudge the Aussies in the right direction.

  Of all the space-faring nations, Australia wasn’t the most powerful. The Americans held a slight advantage over the field, with Russia running a close second, in terms of territories acquired and the size of their military and civilian fleets. After that pairing the Brazilians held a solid third, with the Japanese not far behind, and the Aussies coming in 5th, with approximately 60% of the Americans’ powerscore, as Star Force measured them by.

  Such a ranking was a significant achievement for the nation, given that it didn’t have the financial reserves of the 1st world countries, but what they did have was an eagerness to learn, and had taken Star Force’s generous advice to the letter and built up a sizeable offworld economy that actually exceeded that of Australia’s Earth-based economy by a factor of three. Of all the nations, Australia had devoted the largest percent of its GDP to the colonization efforts, tapping out at 58% during the 2060s. They’d been largely criticized for risking so much, but it had paid off in spades and their space-based colonies had elevated them to a major player, both economically and militarily, in the ongoing colonization push.

  While Star Force sold starships freely, it had not yet put inter-planetary starships on the market, meaning that all movement away from Earth’s micro-system either had to be accomplished through the Star Force transit network or by using inferior designs from competing starship production companies. While a few designs were in fact capable of traveling between the inner planets, they were slow and ponderous, without one truly being able to call itself an inter-planetary starship…though the rival marketing divisions did try to press that point, despite their lack of sufficient engine power.

  Australia had devoted the past 8 years to the project of designing and building their own model, knowing that it would open up greater opportunities if they were able to travel around the system at will, and Davis privately favored the Aussies over the others in the expansion race, but he couldn’t sell them technology that he didn’t offer the others…and in order to maintain control over the expanding colonization efforts, which had already reached Jupiter, he needed Star Force to be able to get to each planetary micro-system ahead of the others, meaning he couldn’t sell the longer-range ships to the Aussies either.

  His backdoor solution was the loaning of an engineer to their project, not to give them technology, but to steer them clear of problems while they rose to meet the challenge on their own merits. Given the vast experience of the Star Force engineering corps, even a few nudges here and there had proven extensively helpful to the Aussies.

  The ship that had transmitted the distress call was the prototype Aussie vessel, labeled Stargazer-class. It was oversized, heavy, and a third slower than the Star Force vessels, but according to specs it was a true inter-planetary starship…one that had made a significant fuel burn calculation error.

  According to the detailed distress call, the ship had successfully ramped up to speed heading away from Earth enroute to Mars, endured its coast phase without incident, then flipped over and began its breaking burn…only to find that it didn’t arrive in the Mars micro-system, but rather just outside it and moving away at significant speed, headed back towards Earth.

  “We can try to send a refueler after it,” Parker commented, “but with its latent speed, it’s going to be a distant catch.”

  Paul nodded, looking at the projected intercept point and agreeing that wasn’t the best course of action.

  “We’ll deploy a Cobra from here and intercept in the doldrums,” Paul decided, referring to the gravitationally weak areas that separated the planets, otherwise known as inter-planetary space where ships orbited the Sun rather than a local planet or moon. “Take an engineer and go with them. Track down the error and see that they get to Mars safely.”

  Parker’s eyebrows rose slightly. “You want me to go?”

  “You do want a field assignment?”

  “Of course I do, but isn’t this something that the ship’s captain can handle? I didn’t think you’d want to pull an Archon away from training.”

  “It’s an unfamiliar situation that requires some troubleshooting. The Cobra’s captain and an engineering crew could probably handle the problem, but I want you to go along to make sure there aren’t any more surprises. Last thing we need is the ship running through the Mars orbital bands and hoping it doesn’t hit any stations.”

  “When you put it that way…” Parker said, swinging out of his chair and walking off happily.

  Paul set his mug down and slid into Parker’s seat, issuing the appropriate orders to the few ships they had in Venus orbit, two of which were Cobras. He selected the Cobra-B and ordered two of the nearby tankers to transfer over additional fuel for delivery to the Aussie Stargazer, which also used hydrogen-based plasma engines.

  By the time Parker got up to them, they should be halfway through with the transfer and ready to depart not soon after.

  The Archon adept took to his solo assignment eagerly, packing a duffel with a variety of items that he’d need during the trip that the Cobra compliment couldn’t provide, such as ambrosia wafers, and headed out of the fleet command center via elevator across to the adjacent spaceport on the painfully hot surface of Venus. It serviced three other spur facilities, all of which were Star Force colonies, making the massive complex look like a four leaf clover sitting at the bottom of an ocean of thick air.

  It was the largest of three facilities on the planet, with the two smaller ones having been built to construct the colony. To date, Venus was closed to the public. Not even the starport in orbit was accessible, making the planet a Star Force only zone. The other nations were a bit peeved at that decree, but no major protest resulted, given
that the planet was useless to them. The atmospheric pressure was 92 times greater than that of Earth’s, making Venus seem like a baby gas giant, though the planet itself was almost identical in size to its habitable twin.

  With a mass and radius coming in just under that of Earth by a few percent, the planet would have seemed the perfect location for a colony, far better even than Mars, which was now home to more than 5 million colonists from varying countries…except that the surface temperature was above 800 degrees Fahrenheit, twice as hot as a kitchen oven. In addition there were high winds, stronger than any seen on Earth, along with cloud layers containing sulfuric acid. Not to mention that even the gentlest of wind, given the atmospheric density, would toss you about like a rag doll.

  Not exactly an ideal vacation spot, let alone someplace that you’d want to construct a colony.

  Star Force, however, liked a challenge, and in addition to the planet’s natural resources there was something that Venus had that both Davis and the Archons wanted badly.

  Gravity.

  Venus’s gravity was 90% that of Earth’s, compared with the 37% that was Mars, the 16% on Luna, and the 2.8% on Ceres. Mercury measured up at 37%, matching that of Mars but with a much smaller radius, achieving its gravity through denser ores and metals, making it an enticing mining target, though no nation had yet been brave enough to attempt a landing. Even Star Force had chosen to tackle the challenge of Venus first, while currently planning out their excursion to the inner planet, which saw vast temperature swings from night to day, due to its almost nonexistent atmosphere and being so close to the system’s star.

  Ironically, Venus’s surface temperature was hotter than that of Mercury, and surprisingly stable, due to the blanketing effect of its atmospheric clouds. And while the intense heat was certainly a challenge, varying parameters were more problematic, and the surface of Venus was anything but. The temperatures were high but stable, the winds were low and the air was clear, giving dramatic video-related panoramic displays of the desolate, rocky landscape under yellow skies to those living in the colonies and fleet command center, giving the deceptive appearance that the surface was habitable.

  Walk out onto the surface though, and it’d be a tossup whether the pressure, heat, or lack of oxygen would kill you first.

  Parker boarded a large, needle-like dropship that flew up from the surface on sharp, stubby wings, punching through the thick atmosphere and up into the turbulent winds and cloud cover that surrounded the planet at the upper altitudes. The hull of the dropship was heavily reinforced and ultra-aerodynamic, but it was still pushed around a great deal on the way up, only able to seriously accelerate once it had reached sufficient altitude and the atmosphere began to thin out.

  Using internally fed rocket engines, the dropship accelerated up to orbital speed, eventually docking with the corresponding starport and depositing its passenger, along with some odd cargo that had been sent along on the spur of the moment. From there Parker flew out to the parked Cobra via a Cougar-class ferry, passing by the enormous solar arrays in orbit that harvested the intense light from Sol, transferring the electricity produced into the water stores, breaking them apart into hydrogen and oxygen and making for the largest fuel production facilities Star Force had created to date, surpassing even those around Earth.

  Venus orbit was also resplendent with a number of small shipyards and other production facilities…all raw infrastructure with none of the extravagant, public-pleasing tourist and habitation stations that populated the orbits of both Earth and Mars. For Star Force, Venus was a work zone, with the three colonies on the surface inhabited purely by Star Force personnel, as both a base of operations to begin expanding Venus surface operations, as well as a test bed for project Canderous…something that Paul, Sara, and Davis had been diligently working on for the past two years.

  Once onboard the Cobra, Parker assumed command of the mission and watched the video screens from the bridge as the inter-planetary starship slowly accelerated away from Venus, with the white/brown cloudy planet shrinking behind them and the small, but distinct red planet visible ahead. Currently the two planets were nearing orbital passing, making them geographically closer to each other than to Earth, and meaning that the rescue ship would only take a day to arrive, assuming it was going to waste fuel accelerating rapidly, then turning around shortly thereafter for a subsequent braking burn…which is exactly what Parker ordered.

  With the help of the ship’s computer, the Cobra’s bridge crew plotted out the short trip and designated a rendezvous point with the now ballistic Stargazer. Confident that their math was accurate, Parker left the bridge and occupied his time with a few limited training exercises in lieu of the facilities that he no longer had access to.

  Keeping an eye on the clock, Parker caught a quick nap and headed back up to the bridge before the Captain could call for him, wanting to get an update and radar lock on the target before they got too close.

  A subsequent text message came in from the Aussies, reconfirming their status and position, along with a pulse from their transponder up beyond normal intensity to emphasize the point. Parker smiled at the unnecessary gesture…Star Force protocols mandated a power rating more than sufficient for this close a range on all transponders, with an extra large one for inter-planetary starships, given that their range of operation would make them more difficult to ‘see’ at distance.

  The Stargazer was the first non Star Force ship to carry the enhanced model, and it was already over the top powerful for short range. Yet one more reminder of the inexperience of the Aussie crew. They still had a long way to go yet before they could be labeled competent.

  “Position fix established,” the Cobra’s captain confirmed. “How aggressive an approach do you want?”

  “How good’s your pilot?” Parker challenged.

  The man at the helm turned around and frowned professionally.

  “Good enough,” the Captain answered diplomatically.

  Parker turned to face the man. “Make it quick, but if you scratch the paint I’ll throw you out an airlock.”

  The Captain laughed heavily, and even the pilot cracked a smile before goosing the engines into a brief, but heavy burst, angling the ship in towards its out of fuel sister ship. Given that their engines weren’t as efficient, the Aussies had only enough fuel reserves for a 1-way trip to Mars, whereupon they would refuel from their own depot in planetary orbit.

  Once both ships met up, Parker and the engineer transferred over to the Stargazer to assess where the problem had occurred while long refueling lines stretched out from the cargo sections of the Cobra and began depositing enough fuel into the Australian ship to get them over to Mars within a day’s time…which the Aussie’s would be charged for.

  It took all of three minutes for Parker and the engineer to locate the problem…or rather, half the problem, with the engineer heading off to check the status of varying components on the ship in order to track down the other half.

  Star Force protocol required all starships to maintain a 10% calculated fuel reserve whenever plotting out trips. How much fuel they had available then dictated how fast they had the option of moving. More fuel meant more available thrust and a quicker transit time. Less meant more coasting and little accelerating. Either way, the reserve was meant to cover any discrepancies in calculations as well as to keep a buffer for unexpected maneuvering, which usually involved steering around infrastructure near the arrival point.

  The Aussies had calculated a 1% reserve, so when the ship wasn’t able to make it to Mars for a still unknown reason, they didn’t have enough fuel left to correct the problem…which left them drifting in space.

  It was a rookie mistake for sure, and something that no Star Force crew would even think of screwing up, but the Aussies weren’t using Star Force protocols. They’d taken a lot of cues from them, but since they were having to build their own technology they were also having to write their own rulebook for using it, and with that came a
n annoying trial and error period, working out all the bugs so to speak.

  As far as space travel went, having navigational bugs could lead to disastrous collisions…fortunately the Australian prototype had avoided that fate.

  Later during the day, the engineer tracked back the source of the navigational error to the transponder system…not the beacon, but the receiver that read all the positions of the other broadcasting ships and stations. Within the software was a program to account for the orbital movements of those transponders and the signal stretching and compression that resulted from it. From that distortion, the relative speed of the source could be determined…in this case, the orbital speed of Mars.

  The program had therefore assigned a delayed position for where Mars would be several days into the future as it should have done, but those calculations were based off of the fixed position of Earth, or rather they should have been. The program erroneously used the current position of the ship as the base point, during a time when it was orbiting the Earth in the direction of Mars, thus adding the orbital speed into the calculation.

  So, as far as the program was concerned, Mars appeared to be moving slower than it actually was, meaning that when the ship’s fuel load ran dry the planet wasn’t quite where it was expected to be and the preprogrammed braking burn had been too much and too soon, actually sending the ship backwards.

  The engineer also discovered several small miscalibrations of the transponder and radar systems which had probably contributed to the navigational snafu, but none of which couldn’t have been corrected by a second burn, had the ship retained enough of a fuel reserve. It was a boneheaded mistake, and one which Parker thoroughly explained to the Captain, who took the criticism well. Technically it hadn’t been an error on his part, but rather on the established Aussie protocols, but he still was ashamed that on the maiden voyage of their prize ship they’d needed to call for help.

  Parker and the engineer also took the opportunity to give the Captain a thorough rundown on the changes that needed to be made, both in procedure and software, using the incident to teach the Aussies a bit more than they’d done before. The Captain understood the sleight of hand and made sure to ask as many questions as possible before the two ships departed, gaining quite a bit of technical data to send back home that the ‘observing’ Star Force engineer loaned to them for the project had not been free to share.