CHAPTER 4 - INDOMITABLE

DATE POINT: DECEMBER 8th, 6 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, EARTH, NEVADA DESERT BLACK SITE S21

LIEUTENANT PAUL KARST

Paul sat back against the wall with his arms folded as he continued to play his role to push, prod, test, and provoke the captain as a means to verify their pick and the quality of his character. He had to admit that he had been developing a grudging respect for the man, in spite of his somewhat more aggravating qualities. He couldn’t afford to let up the pressure, however, not if he was to retain his air of authority throughout their upcoming mission.

“Welcome to my laboratory! Are you ready to meet your new ship?” Dr Washington asked, drawing Paul out of his reverie. In the center of the hologram emitting table popped up a three dimensional render of a massive ship.

“We have developed a new class of Dreadnought based around some experimental technology, which we call the Indomitable class. As you know, the NAU is nearing completion of a new dry dock at the L1 Lagrange point that will soon be producing the first official American designed warship, the Presidential class fleet carrier. We had to build a whole new other dry dock out of a dwarf planet at another black site that you will be briefed on shortly that will be where we launch your new ship for her shakedown run. This is the NAU’s first true warship.”

Henry was listening intently and staring at the ship render at the same time while the doctor continued her presentation. Paul felt glad that someone would finally be able to take the questions that he knew was coming.

“Much of the technology that is going to be standard in the fleet carrier actually was prototyped in the Indomitable Will, meaning you will be the first to command several new technologies including those that you are already familiar with when you were in command of your battlecruiser. The ship has a hybrid mission profile so you will have half your normal complement of marines, hover tanks, and gunships, a full half battalion. Attached to the superstructure of the main body is the drone bay, though your ship has only one instead of the two that the Presidential class has. These will be your primary offensive options against enemy ships, and when you need to provide orbital air support for your ground forces."

The screen changed to show a large sized LFTR powered bomber and 7 smaller flanker escorts, armament capabilities, technical data and more. Henry seemed to be enjoying himself immensely as the information washed over him. Paul just rolled his eyes, flyboys loved their tech, Paul was much more grounded in his wants and needs. Guns, whiskey, and someone cute and submissive to warm his bed when convenient were all he needed to be happy.

“The overall length of the Indomitable Will tops just over two kilometers making her the largest warship made by human hands. She has four capital ship grade LFTR fission cores, four TK drive cores and two null barrier cores. There are a total of eight frigate saddles on her exterior, with three screening frigates, and two stealth frigates accompanying you. The last three frigates are modular conversions, one to a mobile machine shop, one to a greenhouse ship, and the last is a drone mining and foundry ship. You will also have triple loads of key non-manufacturable spare parts where appropriate. Dr. Rousseau, would you care to take over explaining the FTL drive?”

“Absolutely. The alien FTL method uses a brand new, and dare I say, fiendishly clever means of energy efficient FTL travel. I am sure you are aware of dark energy and the expansion of the universe happening at an apparent rate that is faster than the speed of light, correct?”

Henry nodded, engrossed in what was being said.

“Fantastique, what we have discovered is a means to use an inversion of Null Barrier technology to not just draw upon the reserves of Null Matter existing on the other side of the baryonic barrier separating us from higher dimensions, but to widen and expand that hole in spacetime to actually allow a barrier-wrapped ship to slip into the flows and currents of dark matter and dark energy that flow between star systems and to thus travel through these higher dimensions. In combination with a modification of the telekinetic drive, we can hitch a ride on the expansion of the universe, and by extension, once in a dimension higher and outside of time, we can travel faster than the speed of light, all with our current technology levels.”

The holo emitter in the center of the room changed once more to show a model of the solar system and the nearest solar system to earth, the group containing Alpha and Proxima Centauri.

“Bear with my painfully oversimplified explanation, but just outside the heliopause where the solar winds meet and cancel out the interstellar medium‘s pressure, lies the edge of what we can only best describe as a series of electromagnetic tunnels through which our solar system travels. In between all solar systems and inside these EM tunnels flow currents of dark energy in all forms including Null Matter. Your mission will be to take the Indomitable Will and to ride these interstellar currents to complete mankind’s first successful faster than light journey and to return home a hero. Once we can successfully prove FTL travel can be accomplished with our current technology, the entire war effort will be forever changed, and the NAU will be hailed as the saviors of mankind.”

“We already are though, it was only through the sacrifice of American air power, sea power, and the blood of our soldiers that we pushed them off the surface of Earth. We all suffered the bombardments, but it was the US that bled most when they attacked. Sure, Joshua’s trick gave us the opportunity at that critical juncture, but in the end it was us, not them who turned the tide. After that, whose submarines formed the core for the first spaceships welded together in orbit? Sure, Quan-Tech reverse engineered the Telekinetic drive first, but it was the NAU that made the early days of the war for the solar system even possible. Despite that, somehow we still got shafted in the trade deals once the new Feds took over.”

“Told you he gets it.” Paul finally had his moment to interject, and by the look in Henry’s eye, he had scored a direct hit. He had him exactly where he wanted him.

“Have you ever heard of a breakaway civilization?” He stared Henry down. Henry narrowed his eyes as if studying Paul. Finally, after a tense silence, Henry spoke.

“Are we finally done beating around the bush Paul? If you have your briefing ready, speak it and be done with playing your games. There is a time to have to put away childish things, after all. Wouldn’t you agree?” Henry said, pushing back with a confident glint in his eye.

I hate this motherfucker. Paul thought as he wore his best amused grin.

“I wouldn’t know. I didn’t have a normal childhood. But you don’t have the clearance access to know anything about that. I do have a briefing for you though, now that these two have mostly had their say.” Paul looked at Dr. Washington, who had wanted to save the best for last. She nodded at him to go ahead, so Paul continued.

“The NAU has an insurance policy invested in the success of this FTL drive. If you succeed, you are to establish the first in a series of NAU secret colonies. The power to bootstrap an entire economy are within your ship’s capabilities, once paired with the frigates you carry. To boil down an incredibly complex plan, you have the means to build the tools to make the equipment to have anything you will conceivably need to be self-sufficient on board in a single trip. We needed to know your personality under assorted types of pressures before any of us would be actually comfortable with offering you this command. I think we are all in agreement that you have our endorsement."

A quick look around the room indicated a series of nods to continue. "Now, what say you, are you in?”

Henry stared Paul straight in the eyes with a smirk. “You’re goddamn right I am in.”

“That is what I like to hear!” Paul exclaimed. “So long as you keep your word and your secrecy, we have no reason to kill you. Succeed and the rewards will be great, but to the end of your days when you are a free man you must never, ever tell of the secret colonies of the NAU.”

Paul smirked. “So long as you never forget that requirement, we can be the best of friends. Oh, and I am coming with you, and I have operational command in the field while you stay with the ship in orbit.”

Henry closed his eyes for a minute and breathed deeply a few times before opening them back up again as he shook his head and began to laugh.

“You egotistical bastard, of course you would take that spot for yourself. Fine, come along, you can even play commander in field ops, but there are no field ops without my pilots, my marines, and without my agreement.”

“As if I would have it any other way. There will be no mutiny from me, so long as you are accomplishing the essential mission goals in your capacity as captain, I think there will be no reason to complain.” Paul narrowed his eyes to sell the point.

“I think we are in agreement then.” Henry reached out his hand to which Paul shook with a firm clench. Definitely the right man for the job, Paul thought. Sensing that he needed to pivot, he turned to the bouncing ball of enthusiasm off to his side.

“Excellent, Chantal over there is positively brimming with excitement to tell you about her personal addition to the Indomitable Will; the C.L.A.P.P.E.R.”

“What the hell did you just say?” Henry asked in disbelief. Chantal took the bait and ran with it.

“The Contained Linear Accelerated Plasma Packet Emitting Reactor, or the C.L.A.P.P.E.R!”

“You didn’t” Henry said, facepalming hard.

“Oh, she did!” Ariana slapped the embarrassed Henry on the back while laughing at his burning shame.

“What!? I love that name because anyone you shoot with it is getting their ass clapped hard! Oh! You should totally watch the test fire video! Now watch closely because you might miss it, this will be way slowed down, at first.” She laughed maniacally as she pushed a key. The wall display flared to life with a video of what looked like a metal sphere covered in dozens of manifolds and hoses which connected on one end with a long, straight tube entirely covered by thick coils of copper wire in bands running down the full length.

Next to the tube, a small diamond shaped drone hovered silently. Without warning, the end of the tube flashed brightly and belched forth a bright purple ball of fire which the drone captured in a null barrier. The drone then shot off with the barrier in tow towards an asteroid that could be seen in the distance. The screen changed to a second camera view, this time much closer to the impact target. The drone released the plasma from its null barrier before crashing with it into the surface of the asteroid, utterly obliterating them all in a bright flash.

Henry’s jaw dropped. “You invented a working guided fusion plasma cannon for my new badass warship?”

“You bet your sweet ass I did, mister! Now listen up, there are some important things to know about owning your very own C.L.A.P.P.E.R. It relies upon a Deuterium-Deuterium mix which we hyper compress using the negative mass properties of Null Matter to achieve a record energy efficiency in spherical compression to spark fusion. Said fusion is very short lived, and is mega-hot but it can be directed down a magnetic containment barrel before capturing it with a null barrier. You see, this allows it to retain its heat and cohesion for as long as the drone can keep the barrier active, which is a long damn time considering they are micro LFTR powered. This means you can fire off several C.L.A.P.P.E.R. rounds before the battle even starts and have them ready when you need them.”

Henry ran his fingers through his hair taking in this information. “Just how long can I have these things out there in standoff ready mode?”

“If you have an atmosphere handy to keep the drone cooled, upwards of a month before it runs through its fuel. In a vacuum and only able to rely upon radiation cooling? Maybe a day, though it will shine like a beacon on thermals long before that, so you don’t want to fire them too early without either a plan to rotate drones or without easy access to atmospheric cooling. The other thing, you only have six drones, and these are not field replaceable. There is a bit of a game of chicken with them, as the farther back you release the plasma, the more it dissipates outwards and the greater the chances the enemy can dodge. Release it too close, and the drone cannot dodge and return to you. You can always get more Deuterium, you cannot so easily replace a drone, so use them wisely. Of course, if you do run out, the Indomitable Will is hardly defenseless with a full complement of missiles, point defense laser arrays, sensor dazzlers, hacking and false signal missiles as well as nuclear and conventional tipped missiles, a fighter complement and half a battalion of marines.” Chantal delivered the last bit in a single breath

Dr. Washington delivered the message with a grin, loving her job and living her best life. Paul found himself oddly jealous for a moment before he realized he liked his life just fine.

“So… when are you going to tell the world that you cracked fusion?” Henry asked.

“That’s the rub… Each shot takes an absurd amount of energy even with the boost we get from using the Null matter to help squeeze the Hydrogen into fusion, so it is not quite energy neutral yet, but that’s not the point of the C.L.A.P.P.E.R. The point of the C.L.A.P.P.E.R is to….”

“I get it, please, not again!” Henry said, exasperated, “Can we maybe find a different name for it? Maybe the Starfire Cannon or something?”

“Nope, I invented it, I get to name it, when you invent a badass new cannon then you can call it the SunShot cannon or whatever, but if you want to use it, you have to call it by its proper name. Say it.” Chantal said in a no-nonsense tone. Paul found all of this simply delicious. He hoped that Henry liked the taste of crow.

“Fine, I cannot wait to use the C.L.A.P.P.E.R. in battle. Thank you for inventing it.” Henry laughed, giving in and somehow still denying Paul his expected glee. He snapped himself out of it, refocusing on the conversation and watching Henry's tells and cues.

“Mmmhmmm… I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you actually sound like you mean it. Also yes, when I can make it have a net energy surplus I will absolutely share it with everyone because then it will be useful for power generation. For now, be happy it’s on your starship.”

“Wow, that’s what this is, isn’t it? Humanity’s first true starship.” The enormity of the mission had fully dawned upon Captain O’Toole in that moment, Paul could tell.

"Yeah, so long as Doctor Rousseau's FTL drive works as well as the prototype does and we succeed rather than dying in some cataclysmic error." Ariana said, just in time to spoil the moment, typical.

"Relax, there are a million ways this life could kill us, most of which are far worse than a quick explosion." Paul said, though somehow his words didn't seem to bolster morale as he had hoped. He looked over at Henry. "It will be up to you to navigate us through these waters, captain. Be sure that you are ready."

Now only time would tell if the man would be up to the challenge. They had a full week’s worth of crash courses planned for the poor sod to get him ready, including relevant engineering updates, city planning, leadership courses, and a lesson on how to run a first contact, just in case Henry had to pass them all before he would ever get within a million kilometers of his new ship. They needed that time to get the last of their planned personnel out to S33 anyway to be ready for the shakedown run. A million sneaky moves across a whole solar system to squirrel away enough parts and people had culminated in this moment, and the threads of fate were shifting. Paul had every intention of twisting them in their favor.