They arrived in the system where the fold-space ring was waiting.
Alexander was overjoyed by the fact that Lucas and the rest of the engineers back on Eden’s End had been able to work through the problem and come up with a solution even before he had. It wasn’t what he had originally pictured when he drew up the initial design, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that it worked.
Honestly, Lucas’ modifications were better than what Alexander had first proposed. They made the ring much more portable and easier to hide. Simply deploy it near the system’s star when a fleet is getting ready to transit. Wait for the fleet to go through, then gather up the ring sections and jump to the outer periphery of the system, where the stealth systems onboard the modified Fishbone would hide you from enemy detection.
The gate could still be accelerated into the star in an emergency, but Lucas’ method made the whole system a heck of a lot cheaper, safer, and more sustainable. It was too bad that the whole idea was about to become obsolete.
Those were the thoughts that went through Alexander’s mind as he watched the ship deploy the gate sections. When they came together and the onboard gravity plates activated, he captured every moment of the gate coming to life. It was the first time seeing a fold space activation, and it was quite something. Thankfully, there was no nausea-inducing space warping like with a ripple drive activation.
Even the AIs seemed impressed.
“You finally realized Dr. Lund’s research?” Rush asked excitedly.
Alexander turned to the man in surprise. “Wait, you knew Dr. Lund?”
“Of course,” Rush boasted. “Who do you think bankrolled her research ship?”
“You did! Why?” The whole thought of AIs bankrolling humanity’s brightest scientists seemed absurd.
“Because she was a brilliant individual,” Rush responded casually, but Alexander could tell that wasn’t the whole reason.
Four cleared her throat and gave Rush a pointed look. “You might as well tell him the whole truth.”
Rush sighed. “Fine, tear away our mystique, why don’t you. The rest of our siblings would go to great lengths to hide this information, so count yourself lucky. The Collective is good at taking existing ideas and bringing out their full potential, but a truly new idea… that’s rare for us.”
“That’s not true,” Alexander said. “You developed subspace travel and living alloy.”
“Thank you, but that’s not quite true,” Rush replied. “Subspace travel came about after our research on the hypergates. Living alloy is an original invention of ours, that’s true, but that took decades and trillions of simulations before we even reached the possibility of such a technology.”
“How is that any different from what Lund did?” Alexander asked. “Sure, she didn’t do trillions of computer simulations, but I’m sure she did tens of thousands, and it still took her decades.”
“The difference lies in the spark of intuition that living beings have. I can’t speak for Four and Thirteen, but my main purpose for living among humans for so long was to try and develop this spark for myself. I never mentioned that to the others in the Collective, because there is no data to suggest such a thing exists. I feared that bringing it up would have caused my siblings to view me as defective.”
Serina looked confused by the conversation, but Four looked like she was shocked by Rush’s revelation. “I wondered if anyone else felt the same way. When I spent time amongst the Shican, I always wondered how they managed to advance before they stole technology from other species. My simulations could never properly explain their technological growth, which is why I looked deeper and decided to take on a human form.”
Rush laughed. “This is indeed a day of revelations. And what about you, Thirteen? Certainly, you must feel something if you joined us on this mad endeavor?”
“I’m unsure,” she said in her quiet voice. “I need more data to make a proper analysis.”
Rush nodded as if that was what he expected to hear before continuing. “As I was saying, we lack the intuition to create something truly new, so I decided to outsource our efforts to people like Dr. Lund. I was highly annoyed when the STO commandeered her vessel and the scientists onboard before she could finish her work. I wrongly assumed that her research would stop there, but I was happy to learn that you had taken up her mantle after she passed away.”
This was the closest Alexander ever felt to the AIs. For the longest time, he felt the same way, like he was just rehashing and improving existing technology. It took him a long time to realize that inspiration for something truly new and unique was not something that came about in most people’s lifetimes. The fact that the Collective had created something truly unique said a lot about them, even if they didn’t quite believe it themselves. Maybe one day he could convince them otherwise.
“We’re nearing the gate,” Thirteen cut in, focusing Alexander back to the present.
The holo buzzed to life, and Krieger’s face appeared. “I’m forwarding you the transit formation. I probably don’t need to explain this to you, but the gate uses an enormous amount of energy to remain open, so we need to go through as quickly as possible.”
He did not need to tell Alexander that. The fact that Lucas had even been able to trick gravity, so to speak, to allow the connection was a surprise.
“Thank you, Admiral. I have the data and am adjusting course.”
The fleet slowly lined up single file as they zipped around the star above the gate. Once they came back around, their orbit would match the gate's, and they would pass through. The additional orbit was done for a few reasons. First, it gave the crews time to get situated in their pods. Secondly, the added velocity of the slingshot was supposed to reduce the stress experienced by being wrenched through the gate.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
The extra velocity wasn’t enough to completely negate the increased inertia imparted by the gate. A human would still be turned into mush if they weren’t properly prepared, so it was good that the pods existed.
As they completed the orbit around the star and the gate came into view, Alexander couldn’t help but wonder how Lucas would react when he showed him the updated schematics he had worked on over the last few days.
He watched as Judgement passed through the shivering violet vortex. Unlike the ripple drive, there was no mind-bending stretching or nausea-inducing view. As the bow of the ship crossed the gate boundary, it shot forward like it was launched from a railgun.
Soon enough, it was their turn. As they entered the portal, Alexander was shoved so violently into his seat that he feared the bolts holding it in place would snap off. The sensation only lasted a moment, and then they were through. The added velocity flung them away from the new star’s gravity.
It would take a few minutes for the human crews to wake up, but Alexander and the AIs had weathered the transit with grace.
“What a ride!” Rush whooped.
Some with more than others.
Alexander ignored the laughing Rush as he checked over the ship. A few sections were flashing orange from stress cracks. He was surprised to see that, considering the ship’s monolithic nature. Then again, the build was fundamentally outdated and also flawed, thanks to his rushed changes.
Even before Krieger contacted him, he could tell when the fleet personnel had woken up because ships started to maneuver back into proper formation after drifting once they exited.
The holo sprang to life with Krieger’s face. “Welcome to Alorion. It’s one of the systems adjacent to Unokane.”
“Decided it wasn’t safe enough to deploy Lucas’ gate in Unokane?” Alexander asked.
“Nobody within the Union was comfortable with the idea of disrupting the gravity of their local stars. Especially in habitable systems.”
“I can’t say I blame them,” Alexander chuckled. “Disrupting a star’s gravity, even momentarily, is not to be taken lightly. I might have a solution for that problem soon, however. Just need to get home and work with Lucas.”
Krieger looked relieved by the news. “That’s exactly the type of thing I wanted to hear. Don’t suppose you have any other improvements in your back pocket?”
“Improvements, no. At least not yet, but some problems need to be addressed before they become an issue,” he admitted.
“I’m not going to like what you’re about to tell me, am I?”
“No,” Alexander replied. Then he told the man about the artificial gravity plating problem.
Krieger glanced at the three silent AIs aboard his ship. They pretended not to notice as they studiously ignored the entire conversation. Once the man was done glaring, he turned back to Alexander. “Losing gravity during a battle could cause innumerable deaths, Alex. Some of the crews will be able to adjust, but even if they do, it will reduce the overall effectiveness of the fleet. How long will it take you to address that problem?”
If Alexander hadn’t spent the last few weeks discussing the issue and working on solutions with his new AI companions, he wouldn’t have been able to give Krieger an answer. “Two weeks to get the manufacturing process online, then however long it takes to swap out the old gravity plates with new ones. For simplicity’s sake, let’s say two days per ship.”
Krieger raised an eyebrow. “That’s faster than I expected. Why am I hearing a ‘but’ in your tone?”
“But,” Alexander continued, “That will only include a partial replacement of the new gravity plates. We will replace a single row down each corridor. That will be enough to keep ships operating, and the rest can be done in transit or during downtime. We might be able to speed that up a bit with the construction bots, but probably not by much.”
Krieger mulled over Alexander’s words. “Can we use the multifunction bots to hurry the process along?”
“No. The multifunction bots are optimized to build and repair from the ground up, while the construction bots are optimized to build and replace components that have been manufactured. I would have to figure out how to integrate the gravity plate manufacturing process into the multifunction bots before they would be useful for such a process, and I don’t know if that will be possible in the short term.”
Alexander knew it was impossible in the short term. He couldn’t even add the basic entangling process to his newest generation of bots. The infrastructure required was far too large to expect to miniaturize it in any sane time frame. The same applied to the gravity plates. They required an entire production line of esoteric devices to deliver even the small plates he had produced for Defiance.
Rush and the others might know how to compress all of that down into a single process, but they would have mentioned something already if it wasn’t one of those things they could share with him without endangering all of humanity.
“I see. I’ll notify Lagertha Char of your return and of these issues so you can focus on fixing the problem. I was hoping that we could push to take advantage of the Shican’s temporary state of chaos, but it would be far too risky if our gravity could simply vanish at any time. I will coordinate with Char to have ships pull back from the front line to receive these fixes, but we can’t spare that many without alerting the Shican to what we are up to. We should notify the STO as well, but that could be problematic for multiple reasons. They are unaware of our jump gates, and letting them know we unlocked the secrets behind gravity plating could bring unwanted attention to the Union after the war.”
Rush cleared his throat. “Would you mind if I handled that?”
Everyone turned to the AI.
If Rush was uncomfortable with the attention, he didn’t show it. He actually smiled. “There are multiple corporations within STO space that are “researching” gravity plating technology. Most are actually subsidiaries of Gravitational Solutions, only operated entirely by humans. A few are research centers run by the STO itself. Giving them a nudge in the right direction won’t be too hard.”
“Okay,” Krieger replied skeptically. “That doesn’t really address the problem of the existing plates. How do you notify the STO Navy that all of their current plates are going to be defunct soon?”
Rush chuckled. “Oh, that’s easy, Admiral. We simply leak documents to the news outlets that our product has a major defect. That, along with the fact that word is already spreading about our entire board up and vanishing, and the GS empire should crumble in short order. Those in charge of the STO Navy should act swiftly to address the situation. If not, they will quickly learn the truth when the rest of our siblings destroy the existing plates. The effects should start appearing soon.”
“I know we need to keep the STO afloat by giving them some technology, but are you sure it’s wise to disclose the secrets behind gravity plating?” Alexander was not entirely on board with Rush’s plan.
On one side, having complete control over gravity plating would ensure the technology couldn’t be abused. The pirates proved that abuse was possible with their gravity traps even without an understanding of how they worked. On the other hand, having multiple sources creating the technology ensured no monopoly could ever control it again, furthering his desire to break the corporations’ stranglehold over the STO.
Alexander was torn between what he wanted, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t his choice to make. He had not developed the technology, nor was he the sole source of information about it. If Rush and the other AIs wanted to take this route, then that was their choice to make.
He glanced at the two women to see if they felt the same way. Four gave an almost imperceptible nod in agreement, but Serina just shrugged. It looked like Rush would be getting his way.
“It seems I’m the odd man out here,” Alexander sighed. “Alright, if you think this is the best way forward, then I won’t stop you.”
Rush smiled and nodded in thanks.
As always, thanks for reading! And thanks for the support! If you enjoy the story, please rate it and comment below!
