Light in the Dark Chapter 3 Encounters
Light in the Dark - Chapter 2 - Talks
Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton Earth, Sol May 2nd, 2254/3023
The office was different to what Richard had been expecting, but then again...
What could he expect from the office of a man who had been dead for centuries? There would not be many of the modern amenities he himself took for granted and what the people of Earth took for granted. There were no noteputers, or tablets around, but notebooks and pencils. Books sat on shelves and on the table. Something was scrawled on a slate blackboard behind the table with chalk.
It would not be much different from the offices of the other great men who had walked these halls around the same time. But this office was special, something that had been lost when Amaris bombed Princeton during the last invasion of Terra.
"Its still har to imagine that I'm standing in Einstein's office," he said in awe, turning back to Doctor Malika Bashir, who has a big smile on her face.
"Yeah," the Persian mathematician said with a nod. "It can be overwhelming to some when they see it for the first time. Well, to us homo sapiens at least."
Richard chuckled, but once again noted the strange peculiarity of these people using the scientific name for humans. He had been told that the word 'human' applied to pretty much all the 'sophont species' of local space, as the names for themselves pretty much translated to 'human' in meaning and use. It was going to be a bit hard to get used to something like that, he supposed. But he would at least have to get used to it, considering that he was now working at the IAS after his mother had roped him into it.
Malika chuckled and nodded towards the hallway.
"Come, Mike wants to meet you," she says.
"Mike?" he wondered as he stepped out of this famous office to follow his guide through the IAS.
"One of the best mathematicians you'd ever meet. He is a specialist for N-dimensional Minkowski Spaces and got three Fields Medals for his work."
They walked through the hallways and past other offices and Richard looked at them, sure that other famous men had worked in them, like Kurt Gödel or Johnny Von Neumann. It felt strange to walk through these hollowed halls of mathematics and physics.
"I bet he has a big personality," Richard noted drily and Malika snorted as they stepped out of the building.
"You have no idea how large it actually is."
Richard breathed in the warm spring air as they stepped out onto a pathway leading away from the building and through the almost park like campus of the IAS. It was peaceful and he could certainly see the appeal of working here, just immersing himself in astrophysics and not having to worry about grading papers or having to deal with students.
"Nevermore!" he heard a strange voice croak from nearby and stopped.
Malika stopped as well and nodded at a black bird that had landed on the path nearby, looking up at them.
"Oh, hey, Bright Eyes," Malika greeted the bird, who eyed Richard with a tilted head. There was a silvery gleam of something that seemed to hang around the birds neck.
"Showing around a new guy again?" a female voice suddenly came from the bird and Richard blinked. "You do see the ring and that he's married, right?"
Did the bird just talk?
Malika snorted and gestured to the bird.
"Richard, meet Bright Eyes, one of our assistant program managers and gossip central of the ISA. Without her, we'd miss half the gossip."
The bird, no, Bright Eyes hopped closer to Richard and looked up.
"Bright Eyes, this is Professor Richard Calderon, astro and quantum physicist and here to help out with Project Starscape. He's Taurian and from one of the planets outside Local Space."
"Oh..." Bright Eyes said and jumped into the air to land on Richard's shoulder, peering directly at him from up close. "I heard about that."
Richard moved his head away from the peering eyes of the bird and blinked.
"Another alien species?" he wondered out loud, making Malika chuckle, while the bird gave a cawing sound that sounded very much like laughter.
"Never seen a raven before, have you, Dick?" Bright Eyes said and now Richard could see that the voice came from the metallic sort of collar around the birds neck and a small speaker grill. "We're not aliens, 100% Terragen and evolved on Earth, together with you ground huggers."
Bright Eyes turned to look at Malika, who had started to walk again and Richard had to walk faster to catch up with her again, trying to ignore the raven's claws digging into his shoulder.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"We're going to see Mike, he wanted to talk to Richard," Malika answered and the raven peered at him closer again.
"Oh, this I just have to see," she said and Richard gave Bright Eyes a look from the side.
"What do you mean?" he wondered and the bird puffed up her feathers and made another cawing sound.
"You'll see."
That had Richard worried. Another intelligent alien? Sort of? That made five species he had encountered now. Were they all over this patch of space? How could that even be? No intelligent species safe for humanity had been encountered in a thousand years anywhere near the Inner Sphere and here there were five in just three systems...
Malika led him to a large building that seemed to be of more modern construction, light coloured concrete, wide windows and a large double door leading into it. As he stepped through, the first thing he noticed was the scent of salt water and the sea, making him blink.
Not far away from them was a large pane of glass, showing him the inside of the truly massive sea water aquarium, full of fish and plants, light streaming into it from above through large windows, casting mesmerising shadows in the water. But even with the clear water, he had a hard time seeing the back of the aquarium, let alone for ground.
"So," he asked and turned to Malika, "Why does the ISA have an aquarium? Especially one of this size?"
The woman smiled at him.
"Mike made it pretty much a requirement for him to work here," she said.
"He must be pretty important if you build something like this for him."
"You could say it like that," a deep male voice suddenly came from where the glass separated them from the water of the aquarium and Richard turned.
A massive black and white shape hovered in the water on the other side of the glass and Richard could see a pair of black eyes focusing on him. A large mouth opened, showing him a pinkish tongue and two rows of large teeth.
"Professor Calderon, I am called Mike. It is very nice to meet you," the voice said and Richard had no doubt that it came from this massive fish? "I hope that we can talk about these Kearny-Fuchida equations we have gotten from you."
Bottrop Habitat, Asari Ceres, Sol May 2nd, 2254/3023
Edward was pretty sure that he was going to die.
It was only the matter of how he would die.
Embarrassment? The glare his grandmother was directing at him? Or maybe it would be the Steiner Recon Lance of Atlas mechs that was step dancing on his brain.
He would gladly take death at this moment.
And his mouth was already tasting like something had crawled into it, died and was now in advanced stages of decomposition.
He did his best to keep his eyes closed and keep his breath shallow, but the crisp text boxes floating at the edges of his field of view was making hard.
"Let me get this straight, Doctor Wilhelmsen," his grandmother said with a voice that he was sure was deliberately louder than it had to be, just to punish him. "You people not only have advanced Direct Neural Interfaces, but you are selling them openly to everyone."
Dr. Wilhelmsen, the physician that had been recommended to them during their stay on Ceres, made a noise that sounded like 'mhm'.
"Yes," he said, also just a tad too loud for Edwards currently very sensitive ears and he was sure that one of the Atlasses had started to perform Riverdance. "They are something of a commodity around here."
His grandmother turned to glare at Edward for a moment.
"I have seen my children do a lot of stupid things when they got drunk, and I have no idea how far advanced your medical tech is, but I'm pretty sure that any physician would implant something that delicate into the head of a drunk kid."
Edward took a deep breath as those last two words hammered hard into his head, as if one or two of the Atlasses had decided to alpha strike his brain.
There wasn't all that much he remembered from the last part of yesterday evening. He had gone out, alone and in the knowledge that no one around here knew that he was the likely heir to the Taurian Concordat.
He had met a few kids around his age at a fast food joint, getting himself something called a Doner Kebab, and had struck up a quick conversation and then tagged along as they made their way through the Asari transit system to a club in another habitat, for a 'Classic EDM party'. There were some stops along the line and some shops he had checked out, but as soon as they had gotten to the club, all he remembered were hard beats, somewhat monotonous music and movement.
Oh, and drinking alcohol for the first time, because Ceres law said that he could get alcohol at age 16. And with money somewhat loose in his pockets, a few kids around to flaunt his wealth and buying rounds for them... At some point his memory left him.
But he was pretty sure that he would remember surgery...
Right?
"Ah... no."
His grandmother's look went back to Dr. Wilhelmsen.
"What do you mean no..."
"What I mean to say is that there is no implantation with an Interface. All someone has to do, it enter an electronics store, buy an Interface can and drink it. After twelve hours, the Interface is up for rudimentary tasks and some initial tutorials for its use. It'll take a week for it to fully connect to his brain."
Edward stared at the doctor with wide eyes for a moment, before a reflection made wince at the stab into his eyes. His grandmother drew in a sharp breath.
"What do you mean drink?" she asked, her voice clearly puzzled.
"I mean drink," the doctor answered. "The Interface is in essence a self organised network of medical smart dust that is designed for the environment that is the brain, a few hundred million tiny computers with mesh network connectivity that observe and interact with nearby neurons. They are delivered in a half liter can, not unlike a soft drink, inside a flavoured carrier solution. In the stomach and intestines, they migrate from the solution into the blood stream and from the blood stream they migrate into the brain and spinal cord."
Edward gaped and he suddenly remembered that he had been in an electronics store with those kids after the fast food joint. He had wondered why there had been refrigerated cans on sale and why those were around 150 Euros each.
Stupidly, he had then bought one, thinking it to be some sort of exclusive soft drink and drank it in one go, just to be a bit of an ass. He had been puzzled about their lack of a reaction just as much as why the stuff had been syrupy.
"What? You just... sell them like that?"
"Yes. We've had this technology for about two hundred years and it is mature. If it wasn't, we wouldn't allow 12 year olds to get an Interface if they want one."
The doctor looked at Edward for a moment.
"Though usually, they aren't drunk. And we wouldn't recommend it than at any case. The Interface integrations doesn't only make the headache of a hangover worse, it also drags it out."
Edward whimpered a little at hearing that, only to again wince at the Atlases starting to play football.
His grandmother looked at him, with pitiless eyes.
"Is there a painkiller that would work?" she asked, raising Edward's hopes.
"Yes, there is."
"Good," his grandmother said with a nod." Keep that in mind Edward, because you won't get any. And as soon as we are back at the house, we will have a long, long talk. There is a reason why the Taurian drinking age is 21."
Edward just whimpered again and his gaze dropped. It was only because of the headache, he told himself. Not because of embarrassment.
Unna Habitat, Asari Ceres, Sol May 2nd, 2254/3023
Everything had started out so well.
Commander Adrian Bedford looked like a large, angry storm cloud as he walked through the main concourse of Unna Habitat. The man following in his wake seemed more to be pulled along in his slipstream than following him, as the look on his face alone split the crowd of people in front of him, like Moses spread the Red Sea.
The Bright Star had jumped into this system four weeks ago at the Nadir Point, only to be welcomed by a mass of space ships he hadn't seen outside of fleet displays of the Snow Ravens, with at least three of those ships as large as a Texas. Thanks to the local 'guide', Ensign Davidov of Patrol Craft PC-02 of the SDFV Pentacost, they had been allowed to enter the system, though they were directed at Ceres, rather than allowed to go to Earth, apparently a security measure.
The Pentacosts prize, the former pirate jumpship Blood Eagle, which they had jumped in with the Bright Star had initially remained behind, only to be taken into tow by that Adrian was told was a 'fleet tender'. She arrived at Ceres a week later and pulled into one of the docks around the dwarf planet for something called Project Starscape. Apparently, they were currently taking the Invader apart bit by bit.
PC-02 on the other hand had made its way to Ceres on its own, arriving at the world much earlier, thanks to its small FTL drive. Adrian still had trouble imagining an FTL drive that was different from a jump drive and could be installed in such a small space craft.
Bedford had been welcomed and the talks with diplomats of the United Nations had begun, where he had some problems explaining his reasons to being in Local Space, as the locals called it. Thankfully, all had worked out well so far, especially with them helping Davenport out, to get the Blood Eagle to Ceres.
Pentacost had then arrived two weeks ago, to get into dock for a long overdue refit and he had met with Captain Walters. She had been pulled in and had then offered to play a somewhat local guide for Adrian.
It had allowed him to make more sense out of the things that were happening on Ceres. Like how these people understood everyone to be human, no matter their species or origin.
But it had been something of a hit to what remained of his self identification as a member of the Clans to learn that Earth was a copy of Terra. And that there had been no Western or Terran Alliances that had united all nations on Earth. Instead, there were several hundred nations on Earth alone and many more in this system, all cooperating to various degrees under the banner of the United Nations. And still there were smaller organisations, like the European Union or the Alliance of East Asian Nations, that allowed nations to come together. It was like the Inner Sphere, but at the same time smaller and larger.
Everything had been going well, until about half an hour ago.
Adrian and his second in command, Karl, had been in a meeting with some diplomats, when someone from the Bright Star had informed him that they had been called by the local police. Apparently four of the Elementals of his crew had gotten into a fight. Adrian had made his excuses to deal with the situation and the meeting had been postponed.
Karl, himself an Elemental, followed behind Adrian as they made their way towards where they had been told his people were held.
He came to a stop in front of the address, looking up. This couldn't be right...
Unna Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus. A Community Hospital, not the local law enforcement station?
Warily, Adrian opened the doors of the hospital, and felt hit by the scent of medical stations everywhere, a mix of human scents and disinfectants. Before he could walk through the lobby towards the information desk, two spacers wearing vests with 'Asari Police' written on them walked up to them.
"Commander Bedford?" one of them asked, his voice sounding almost Lyran, as far as he could tell.
"Yes," he answered simply as the man held out a hand.
"Sergeant Bernd Schöffer," the man introduced himself," this is Constable Menkel. I'm sure you want to collect your people."
"What did my people do?" Adrian asked wearily and Schöffer gave a snort.
"They thought it would be a good idea to take part in an Ultra Punch Up. But don't worry, they are not arrested or anything. We just wanted to make sure that you people collect them and to ensure they get proper treatment."
Adrian blinked. What was an Ultra Punch Up?
"What are the injuries?" he asked.
"Please follow us," Schöffer said and walked towards one of the corridors.
"Since you are new around here," he continued. "I'll explain. An Ultra Punch Up is something of a regular thing after a football game. Two Ultra fan groups meet after the match in an out of the way area of a habitat to beat the snot out of each other. Usually about a hundred people, but we've had Punch Ups with up to two hundred."
Adrian stopped and stared.
"That is a regular occurrence?" he asked incredulously. "What are you doing against them?"
Schöffer stopped and looked back at Adrian with a raised eyebrow.
"Nothing," he said." It's they want to beat the crap out of each other, that's their problem, as long as they do it somewhere out of the way. And usually there are some emergency first responders around anyway to treat any serious injuries. And it's a bit of a spectator sport. Can be fun to see a melee like that from time to time."
Schöffer shrugged.
"And it works out aggression from the Ultras, so they don't get into bar fights or something like that."
They reached a door to a treatment room and stepped in, allowing Adrian to catch sight of four Elementals. All of them were visibly bruised, one had a black eye, another two. There was one broken leg in a transparent, apparently inflatable cast and the fourth had his hand spread out, while a nurse set the bones.
It was not a sight Adrian had expected. Neither had he expected the huge grins on their faces and that they were chatting easily between each other.
"Your people," Schöffer continued," waded into the Punch Up and took part in it. Which was a bit of a bad idea. Which is why the EMTs got them here for treatment and we decided to call for you."
Adrian was about to say something, as he overheard the Elemental with the broken hand talk to the nurse.
"Why are you people so strong?"
"Spacer geneline," the nurse said." Its a side effect from the gene mods that increase muscle and bone density, to minimise the effects of micro gravity, like muscle and bone atrophy. Thanks to that, two gees are to us like one gee is to you guys."
The Elemental smiled.
"Nice. I cannot wait for the next Punch Up."
Behind Adrian, Karl cleared his throat.
"Oh, you can," Karl said and stepped around Adrian and into the line of sight of the four injured Elementals.
"Well," Schöffer said with a bit of an amused tone in his voice." I think you have things well in hand from here on out."
Docking Day 33, Port Rotterdam, Asari Ceres, Sol May 2nd, 2254/3023
Kamea didn't know what to think. But that seemed to be pretty much the norm for tDocking Day 33, Port Rotterdam, Asari Ceres, Sol May 2nd, 2254/3023he past few weeks.
Cordia City sat within a massive Docking Bay that was originally meant for what were smaller freighter craft for the locals and the Leopard seemed to be small next to the pressurised bay.
First it was aliens and now a system that seemed to be a direct copy of Terra's system, with the third planet the home world of the local humans, who all said that this little pocket of space had been transported here about two years ago.
Her hand moved to her chest, where a small data stick hung from a chain, containing the deeds for 250 million C-Bills, if the conversion rate the Emperor had given her was correct. The stick seemed to warm up for a moment as she thought about it and she pulled her hand away.
Her liaison with the Empire of Jerat and its Emperor stood next to her, an army officer.
And an alien.
Sub-Altern Miles Burstur, an Ormiold, originally born on Earth, from a Dromeao mother and an Ineryn, who had moved to Jerat at an early age and grew up on the planet and joined the Imperial Army, but retained connections to Earth.
So far, Miles was a decent person and had helped them along, from the moment they had entered the Sol system, smoothing over any problems that might have happened. He had been around to help them get into contact with the local government and some other larger organisations.
His latest idea had been to call in some external 'contractors', as he had called them. Apparently he knew a few retired military personnel who might be willing to help them out.
Alone the idea of possibly buying some of the local warships with the money she'd been given sends shivers down her spine. And she had to learn how to deal with them. Get people from the Coalition here to have them trained. Miles had been adamant about Kamea not wanting to be dependent on the good will of 'Local Space' any more than she really needed.
So now they were standing in the hangar of Cordia City and waited on the people Miles had called two weeks ago and had only recently arrived. And Alexander was dealing with getting supplies in Asari.
A woman came into view, walking up the ramp. She looked normal, almost plain, long brown hair and a pair of icy blue eyes. She couldn't be older than maybe 40 years and she wore what she had learned were pretty normal clothes around here. Back home, she'd have vanished in a crowd.
The woman looked around in the hangar and then whistled as her eyes fell on the only two mechs aboard Cordia City, her own Kintato and Alexander's Centurion.
"Oh, Big Stompy Robots. Mama likey."
The woman grinned as she walked up to her and Miles, giving a lazy salute, which was returned by a very sharp salute by Miles. At least what she interpreted as a salute.
"Brigadier," he said, "may I introduce Lady Kamea Arano."
The woman, a General?, held out a hand to Kamea.
"Charmed," she said. "I'm Brigadier Olivia Lethbridge-Stewart, formerly of the British Royal Army and commanding officer of the Royal Black Watch."
Kamea took in a deep breath hearing that, but had to remind herself that these people had their own Black Watch. It wasn't the Star League's Black Watch.
She took the woman's hand and shook it.
"You don't look like a retired General," she said, before biting her tongue for saying the first thing that came to mind. Her mother had trained her better than this. But perhaps it was her situation and the stress...
"That is because she's a Methuselah," a male voice said from behind the Brigadier. "She might look like she's 40, but she is really a 97 years old biddy."
The Brigadier snorted very un-lady like and turned her head.
"Hello to you too, Charlie."
The source of the voice was not human. Instead the person speaking looked more like a really large badger of some sort, wearing a wild coloured shirt and a pair of baggy shorts over his brown fur. He just rose up from all fours into a standing position and waddled the rest of the way over on a pair of short hind legs.
The furry face had something of a grin on it as he extended a hand.
"Charlie Fife," he said," first fork of the first human upload. And if I'm interested, I might be your guy for dealing with your naval situation."
Kamea blinked. Fork? Upload?
Miles made a sound that seemed to be him clearing his throat.
"Charlie is the 'copy' of the first human mind that was uploaded into a computer. Even if it was accidental in his case. He is using an artificial avatar body."
"Hey," Charlie made. "I'm not just some copy, you big turkey."
"Children," the Brigadier said with a chuckle, "unless we are waiting for someone else, we should sit somewhere and talk to see if either of us is interested in helping you out."
Docking Day 33, Port Rotterdam, Asari Ceres, Sol May 2nd, 2254/3023
"Okay, let me get this straight," Olivia said, leaning over the table in the mess of Cordoa City, her hand wrapped around a coffee bulb, as no one trusted the weak natural gravity of Ceres to keep the coffee in a mug. "Your own uncle couped you at the day you were supposed to be crowned the elected Lord of your patch of space, because you were NOT willing to become an absolutist monarch."
Kamea nodded and took a sip of her own bulb. After the first meeting down at the hangar bay, they had retreated into the mess so they could talk more and Kamea had told her story.
"Yes," she simply added.
"And all over the issue of diplomatic talks with the Taurians, so you could have closure about your state after they abandoned your world over a century ago."
"Not all of the that long ago, but essentially yes," Alexander corrected.
Her friend and advisor had finished his business in Asari and had returned earlier. He was a little more put together than Kamea, but she believed that he had been exposed to much more of the strangeness for longer.
"I'm willing to bet that your 'uncle'," Charlie said the last word with a sense of derision that was almost disgust," was just looking for an excuse. Strongmen usually are."
Kamea closed her eyes for a moment before nodding.
"And if he was willing to betray you like that, I'm not really sure if he saw you as real family, no matter what excuses he's trying to make even to himself."
"The possibility of getting power can corrupt people," Olivia noted.
They were silent for a long while.
"I've given you my 'resume'," Charlie said after a while. "If you want me in your merry little band to kick your 'uncles' ass, I have two conditions."
Kamea looked at him. He had told her that his 'root', as he called it, had been an Admiral in a blue water navy down on Earth, before his 'upload', who had worked in his country's admiralty. And Charlie, himself had studied space combat and specialised in what he called 'litoral' or orbital combat, and then taught it at a naval academy called Dartmouth.
She looked over to Alexander, before looking back at Charlie, nodding at him to continue.
"First, you listen to me and my reasoning when it comes to naval strategy and tactics. You have the final day in planning, but you listen to me, because I have the experience. I will give all the reasons why I think something is a good idea and give you alternatives if you need them or want them. I'm okay with discussion, because that makes a good commander, but I will be out if I think you are unreasonable. Though I hope that I can teach you a few things."
Kamea nodded again. It sounded reasonable, and quite frankly, with the amount of reading she had done and the number of warships these people had, and the warship she might soon have, she felt that the way war was waged would change.
"That goes double for training you and your people to operate our kind of technology, especially when you send Alex out to smuggle people out to help us."
Kamea nodded at that. She had hoped for that kind of thing. The last thing she wanted to be was to be dependent on people that had no real stake in the Aurigan Restoration.
"Second, I know a few people who might be up to join as well. An accountant, a medical specialist or two, and a few engineers who'd love to take a look at you mecha and this very drop ship. All I want is for you to look at them and listen to them. Whether or not you want them in is your choice, I just want you to invite them and hear what they might have to offer."
Again, that request was perfectly reasonable, especially if he didn't want her to just take them in on the threat of not becoming part of this.
She looked over to Alexander, who nodded in acquiescence. Turning back to Charlie, she held out her hand, which he took and shook. It was strange to shake hands with a machine body that was so life like and shaped like a somewhat cute critter.
"Welcome to the Arano Restauration, Admiral Fife."
He grinned and long fangs showed.
"In that case, I have one gift and one idea."
"A gift?" Alexander asked, his voice betraying a bit of suspicion.
"Yes, even if you hadn't taken me, I have given it to you. As an upload I am practically immortal and I don't really have much use for money, so I want to drop 150 million Euros into your war chest, without any strings attached."
Kamea blinked and leaned back, stunned.
"Dangerous," Olivia said and Charlie chuckled." Especially if this weasel says he has an idea... wrapped in a gift."
"Eh," he made," it's a somewhat good cause and she can certainly need the money. I'll make that back in a few decades."
Kamea closed her eyes for a moment, trying to come to grips with the idea of someone being able to live so long that neither money, nor time had much of a meaning to them anymore. At least Charlie was still human...
"What sort of idea," Miles asked and as Kamea opened her eyes, she saw her new Admiral grin.
"Well, like any good capitalists, Ceres Dockyards is willing to fund good ideas when their engineers see them. If someone comes to them with a request for specific modifications to an existing hull and they see potential in it, they are willing to give a discount for the one or two prototypes. And I've had an idea for a littoral and ground combat support version of the Type 27 for a long time now..."
Miles hmmmed.
"If you had that idea for a while now, why didn't you already set it up?"
"Because while I have written it down," Charlie said with a chuckle," the big nations don't need it because they have carriers specialised for that kind of thing and the smaller nations don't need the capability. So before now it was a neat idea, without any merit. But we do need that kind of thing."
Kamea knew that she was in over her head, but she nodded at her new Admiral. Olivia hmmed next to Charlie.
"Don't be a tease, Charlie, out with it."
Charlie pulled a puck sizes object from a pocket and put it on the table, where a hologram appeared over it. Kamea hadn't seen a hologram that sharp before, not such a small projector.
A truncated eight sided grey pyramid hovered over the projector, with visible turrets of some sort.
"The Type 27 Destroyer Leader, sometimes called a Heavy Frigate or a Light Cruiser," Charlie said in a lecturers voice." 44.6 ktonnes of mass, 8 main VLS bays, two hangar bays for three assault craft and two interceptors each and a small flag bridge."
Kamea felt a little light headed. That was as large as the largest military dropship she'd heard of...
"Now... My idea is to remove two of the main VLS bays for additional sensors and communication equipment for ground operations, and carriers for recon satellites to increase the sensor range. The flag bridge is converted into a command center for ground combat support."
Olivia nodded and her eyes were focussed on Charlie, who by now grinned broadly.
"But the big thing in this case is to replace the Assault and Interceptor craft with heavy Close Air Support Craft, like... say... the Lockheed-Martin SA-25 Warthog."
The former Brigadier hmmmed.
"What about interceptors and ground fire? Those are going to swat the Warthogs from the sky."
Charlie chuckled and made a gesture as if to point at the Leopard they were sitting in.
"This dropship is considered to be a mainstay of national armies, mercs and pirates. If this thing can land a bunch of mecha on a world, the Warthogs are going to be fine. At least until someone gets wide to them."
Olivia nodded with a grin on her face.
"What is a Warthog?" Kamea asked.
The holographic display changed showing something like a dropship, looking almost like a DRooST, just with guns in the front and along the sides.
"A 1.6 ktonne heavy CAS craft, about two thirds the size... of... this Leopard?"
Charlie slowed down at the last few words and got a far away look on his face. Kamea on the other hand swallowed as she tried to imagine the interceptors and ground fire needed to shoot down a Leopard. Sure it wasn't unheard of, but...
The hologram changed again, showing first the Type 27 again, before a part, one of the hangars, separated. Five of those DRooST like drop ships sat belly up inside the hangar, held by a multitude of connectors. The two that were directly beneath what Kamea believed to be hangar doors disappeared. In their place was a Leopard, belly up like the other ships and a smaller craft, maybe half the size of those Warthogs.
"Why don't we go further than just direct ground support here, to direct ground combat? Remove four of the Warthogs and replace them with two Leopards and two Stridsvagn."
Olivia chuckled and had a grin on her face.
"You really want me to join you, eh?"
"What's a 'Stridsvagn'?" Alexander asked, just as confused about the whole situation as Kamea.
"The Saab TP145 Stridsvagn," Charlie said," a 850 tonne fast response military transport. Designed to go in quick, drop troops quick and get out quick. It can transport up to 100 normal infantry and drop them in just 20 seconds. Or 60 heavy infantry or 50 mechanised infantry with IFVs. They can also drop off 3 MBTs. And of course rapid resupply runs of up to 250 tonnes of material."
"You are giving me ideas, Charlie..." Olivia warned, while Kamea looked at Alexander.
She suddenly felt like she was just observing a planning session as an external observer. Though it perhaps was for the time being, until she understood what was going on.
"What about the rest?" Miles asked." A single Type 27 isn't going to cut it."
Charles shook himself and then nodded.
"Sorry, sometimes I can get carried away when it comes to new ideas like this. I blame my child hood love for things like KSA."
He took a breath.
"You are right. The Type 27, especially a modified one like this is not going to cut it. Which is why I propose two Type 19 Destroyers as escorts. Unmodified to provide anti-shipping capabilities to the Task Force. And a Type 10 Supply Tender."
He paused and tapped his muzzle with a finger.
"That would be about 312 million Euro for that Task Force. I also think we should get two of those Task Forces."
"What?" Kamea asked with wide eyes and sat up quickly, only her magnetic boots keeping her from jumping up from the force of the movement and banging her head against the ceiling.
Charlie smiled and nodded.
"We might need to support two operations at once. Either in two systems or in two places in the same system or planet. And it would allow to focus both on the same target, if it proves to be too much for a single Task Force."
Olivia nodded.
"Indeed," she said and looked at Kamea." I'm in, if you'd have me. But I have one single demand."
Kamea nodded. Of course she had a demand, hopefully it would be reasonable...
"What?"
Olivia pointer a finger at Kamea, the coffee bulb in her hand.
"You, girl, are going to go and see a therapist to have your head shrunk. Even if I have to personally drag you to one. Loosing your parents and than being betrayed like that cannot have been healthy for your head."
Kamea sighed and nodded at Olivia. Being pushed with her nose at her own problems like that and told to do something... Yes, it would be a good idea to go and visit a therapist, she only wondered if she was going to find one around here.
"Good," Olivia said and then hmmmed. "Though now that I think about it, I have another demand. I want you and your people to go through basic infantry training and get Interfaces. I want you to be able to use our weapons and other systems."
"Interfaces?" Alexander asked." What is an Interface?"
"Direct Neural Interface," Charlie noted." You drink a silvery flavoured syrupy goop and in a day or two, you can connect to computers with your mind. And within a year or so, you can do mind-state backups and don't have to worry about dying."
The badger like upload grinned with a full view of his teeth.
"I've been told its quite liberating."
Kamea blinked.
"How important is it to have one?" she wondered.
Olivia leaned back and took a sip of her coffee bulb.
"Pretty important," she said." You need one for personal armour and to connect to a local battle net. And I hear that its very useful in a naval environment as well."
Charlie nodded.
"It is. While yopu can get away without an Interface, it makes things easier and faster."
He chuckles.
"Nothing beats just calling up a sensor map with just a thought."
"And this... personal armour?" Alexander asked again, glancing over at Kamea.
This time, it was Olivia, who called up a holographic display. Showing something that looked like someone had put some sort of medieval armour on top of a battle uniform.
"The OpenStandard Personal Powered Armour," she said." Its pretty much considered to be the base standard for infantry battlefield protection. Every single infantry soldier is equipped with one. The metal ceramic composite armour is equivalent to 20mm RHA, and that is on top of the CDU that are themselves rated PM 10 and the under suit with PM 2. And you can carry up to 400 kilos when you are wearing it."
Kamea gaped a bit at that. It was like an industrial exoskeleton with armour. But they were expansive and to equip every soldier with one...
"The OSPPA is two generations behind those used by the big powers though," Charlie added." But since its Open Source and in the Library of Alexandria, they are cheap to buy, maybe twenty thousand Euro a pop, since everyone can build it if they have access to a fabricator."
This... this was insane! What...
"Lady Arano?" the slightly panicked voice of one of her followers interrupted her train of thought. "There are some visitors?"
Her head turned to look at the man, who seemed to sweat proverbial bullets and she took a shuddering deep breath, before looking at the others.
Alexander was pale from the earlier revelations, Olivia had a frown on her face and Charlie raised an eyebrow.
She stood up and moved to leave the mess hall, the other following her. They entered the mech hangar, where several people were standing by the air lock, staring at something outside the door.
As Kamea came up and looked over them, she saw a pair of battlemechs entering the docking bay, followed by four smaller figures in heavy armour of some kind, and a ground car. They were all moving carefully due to the low gravity of Ceres.
The smaller of the two mechs looked like a Griffin, but there were things off about it. It was more angular and was missing the PPC on its right arm, with the LRM pod replaced by four smaller ones.
The larger mech on the other hand looked like someone had taken a Catapult and attached the PPC arms of a Marauder to it.
The four figures were walking besides the two mechs, reaching about to knee height, meaning they were quire large compared to normal people and it seemed like they were covered in heavy armour, with a pair of claws for hands and two pods on their left and right shoulders.
The ground car was simply an open jeep with four people sitting in it and some cargo on the back.
Both mechs and the figures had the same markings, a red dragon on a white and green background.
"That almose looks like the Welsh flag," Charlie noted as he looked at the procession with a raised eyebrow.
The two mechs stopped about fifty meters from the Cordoa City, and their pilots disembarked. The four armoured figures opened their helmets and Kamea could see that the people inside were quite large all by themselves.
There was a short discussion between the people, as the four in the car left it as well and soon the ten walked over towards them.
Kamea and the other had pushed through the crewman by this point as looked at the ten.
One of the mechwarriors, a tall muscular woman walked at the front and looked at them, but especially at Kamea and Alexander.
"My lady," the woman said in a clear contralto, "we, the Dragon Knights Errant are at your service."
It was Olivia, who responded to that claim, as Kamea stood there, unable to think.
"And you would come from the Bright Star, don't you?"
"We do," the woman answered with a nod." The ten of us, late of Clan Nova Cat, have come to serve Lady Arano as her Knights, following a vision quest given to us by the dragon god, who came to us for a year now."
Bottrop Habitat, Asari Ceres, Sol May 2nd, 2254/3023
I pressed the door bell of the small hab apartment complex that had been rented by the Taurian Expedition slash Mission on Ceres. I listened to the ring tone on the inside with a bit of amusement, as I thought about how out of their depth they had been when I first met them at the 'Jump Point' above one of 61 Virginis poles and how they had slowly become more sure of themselves during the stay at Cterin and the talks that happened there.
For the past month, they had been on Ceres, mostly because the UN hadn't thought it to be a good idea to let human from outside Local Space to come in, mostly on the base of epidemiologic concerns about unknown diseases. It was simpler to quarantine a set of habitats like Asari, than it was on Earth. Pandemics had shown that time and again. Not toention the good medical support structure of the Federated Districts.
It was also the reason the other visitors had been directed to Ceres, the Bright Star Expedition and the dispossessed princess of a 'small' star nation seeking support to get back to power.
And boy if the latter two hadn't kicked over some ants nests. The first one had come all the way through the Inner Sphere here, on a Vision Quest of some kind.
And the other had, somehow gotten the financial support of the Emperor of Jerat and was looking to build up a small force to take back her home from the uncle that had couped her out in the first place, apparently because she didn't want to take dictatorial powers, when she succeeded her dead father.
I had gotten a message from Charlie, that he was in on the girls little force. To get him in, as a fork of Charles Mountbatten was no mean feat. Maybe I was going to drop a bit of money into her pot, on the condition that she was going to get some therapy, maybe even with me. Maybe even a bit of money through the Prometheus Foundation.
I heard someone come to the door and a moment later it opened, revealing one of the Taurian mercenaries that worked security. Not Major Lenard himself though.
The woman did a bit of a double take as I looked up at her, before pulling herself together. It might take a while until they got really used to non-hominid body plans for humans. Or AGIs and ASIs for that matter.
I wonder if they met any furries or ravens yet.
"Ah, Professor Prometheus," the woman said with a nod." Lady Calderon is expecting you."
I gave a nod and stepped into the complex.
"Please follow me."
The women led me into a room that was set up as a conference room and I was met with Zarantha Calderon, her grandson Edward and Major Lenard. I noticed that Edward was looking somewhat worse to wear, but in a way that told me that he'd had a fun night out, if the bags under his eyes and the way he held into the mug of coffee were any indication.
"Professor Prometheus," Zarantha greeted me, standing up and I have her a nod. Given my morphology, a smile was out of the question.
"Lady Calderon," I returned and nodded at Edward and Lenard. " Edward. Major."
The response from Edward was a mumble, while Lenard have me a nod.
"Professor."
Zarantha featured to the seat opposite to her for a moment, before faltering. Being a former head of state, she was used to certain things andy shape alone was throwing her off her game. I simple jumped onto the seat and settled into a comfortable position, allowing her to collect herself.
"What can I do for you, Professor. Is it something about the UN?"
I opened my shoulder bag and withdrew a pair of folders and placed them on the table, as I had asked for the meeting.
"Oh," I made and looked at her," I'm not here as a diplomat. It is more that I was approached by a few business acquaintances, who asked me to approach you for a deal. Well, two deals."
Zarantha raised an eyebrow at me.
"I didn't take you for being a business man, Professor."
I gave a light chuckle at her slight hesitation at calling me a 'man'. It didn't happen often that I confused people anymore these days and I always enjoyed that.
"I've always been something of a business person," I noted." Partially by force to ensure that I could exist as an individual not needing the good will and protection of others."
I shrugged.
"Part of the curse of being the first recognised AI with personhood. But things got better of course. These days I am concentrating more on my academic career, rather than my business ventures. I own a single tech company, an investment fund and the Prometheus Foundation that helps set up new settlements and doing in depth surveys of systems."
Prometheus Services was the premier company for the development of physical Avatar systems for AIs and uploads.
Prometheus Investment in the other hand was an angel investment fund that put money into ventures that tried to make Local Space a better place, rather than just milking money from some new fad technology. And at most I wanted maybe five percent on the investment that Prometheus Investment made, or just a minority share, usually 10 to 15 percent, in the company. And I always used that share to push the company away from short term thinking into long term thinking.
All three were quite lucrative in the long run and allowed me to push most of the money into charities and support for AI, upload and other civil rights groups all over the system.
"I see, "Zarantha said and nodded, thinking for a moment or two." And what would those deals be?"
I took the first folder and pushed it over to her, making her take it up and look through it.
"There are some... Idle rich people," I said with a bit of disdain in my voice, as these people always reminded me of That Private Equity Fund." Who are rather interested in buying whatever cargo you have."
She narrowed her eyes at that and looked over the papers.
"Our cargo is mostly emergancy supplies and everything else needed to rebuild a settlent after a pirate attack. Food, medicine, diapers..."
I nodded at that.
"I know. But that doesn't keep some people from wanting it, because it's from outside Local Space. They want it for bragging rights in their social group. 'I've swaddled my boy in Taurian diapers' and stuff like that. People who'd buy double digit million sports cars to brag."
Edward snorted at that, only to wince at what I could only think was a headache. Even Zarantha and Leonard couldn't help but shake their heads. Though Zarantha have me a look.
"And you get a few for that, obviously."
I snorted.
"I have absolutely no interest in gaining anything here. I was just approached by a few aquanitences, to give them an in with you."
This time I did show off my teeth.
"If you do it right, you can get a lot more out of those supplies than you used to buy them. And I get in the knowledge that you are fleecing people that I despise."
She reached to last page of the folder, with the contacts of no less than five trading companies that I had helped fund at some point, but had fully pulled out of after they had established themselves. I really wouldn't get any money out of that deal.
With a nod the out down the folder and looked at me.
"I think I will have to contact these companies," she said." And the other deal?"
I looked at the second folder and then pushed it over to her.
"This is one I do have a financial interest on as the largest minority share holder of Ceres Dockyard Corporation GmbH AG," I said." Which would like to buy your dropships."
The room was suddenly so silent that you could have a needle drop.
"You want to buy our dropships..." Lenard said in a monotone.
"Yes," I said with a nod." The R&D section wants to taken the apart to see what makes them tick, especially the docking collar."
Which had turned out to be more than just a berthing/docking port, but rather integral to the way jumpships dragged Drdropship along through hyperspace jumps. With the damaged pirate dropships Bright Star had brought along going to Project Starscape, Ceres Dockyard thought they could be quicker to develop dropship collars for use in craft up to 100 ktonnes quicker from complete, undamaged examples.
Zarantha and Lenard looked at each other, before she looked at the folder.
"What would be the offer for any dropship?" Lenard asked sceptically.
I chuckled a little and nodded.
I could understand the scepticism. They needed the dropships to return back home. And for Lenard, his dropships was part of the way he made money as a mecha jockey.
"Free pick of a section of the storage yard of Ceres Dockyard. In this case FTP capable vessels up to 50 ktonnes, be they combat or civilian craft."
I paused for a moment as they stared at me and Zarantha then shuffled through the papers.
"Though craft in the storage yard are Ilin various stages of completion, usually 60 to 90 percent. The selection would include completion of the craft in question to modified specification you can select, and hopefully a newly developed dropship collar."
" Why are they incomplete?" Edward asked, the first time he had spoken, his voice a little strained from his hangover.
I gave the best imitation of a shrug I was capable of.
" Various reasons," I responded." Private buyers going belly up in a bankruptcy, a nation buying combat craft being politically pressured by allies to buy elsewhere, and in one memorable case a nation federating with a few others and the new nation deciding that they don't need the ordered flotilla anymore."
"Would training to use these new ships be included," Zarantha asked as she looked up from the folder and I nodded.
"Yes, as would be the necessary Interfaces, as well as any supplies and parasite craft."
This time it was Zarantha's turn to look at me suspiciously.
"Those are... Very... generous terms," she said stretching out her words and her eyes narrowed." What else do you get out of it?"
I nodded. I'd have been very disappointed if she hadn't noticed that Ceres Dockyard was offering a lot, even with parts of the hills she'd be offered already payed for by others.
"The potential entry into a new growth market for the products offered by Ceres Dockyard," I answered, using a bit of 'Corporate speak'." The upper Management of the company expects that they'd be able to get a new customer with the Taurian Concordant if they give such good conditions to the mother of the current head of state."
This made her snort.
"In short, a bribe. So that I can tell my son about how well your ships work."
I gave another chuckle.
"If you want to see it that way," I said." There is also the possibility of Ceres Dockyards willing to set up a dockyard in Taurian space as a joint venture with a local company. The distances involved are a bit much, don't you think?"
That got a chuckle out of her.
"Besides, as far as you told us, your son is seeking to grow the Taurian Navy for defense. And this would allow you to get in on the ground floor of adopting new technology and especially the HFEG FTL system as the first or second in the local area."
"First or second?" Edward wondered.
"Well, that Aurigans are likely interested as well."
That got Zarantha's attention.
"Espinosa has already sent someone?"
I tilted my head at that and did a short check. Huh, Carlie Fife had just donated 150 million to the Arano cause.
"Quite the opposite," I said." Kamea Arano has stumbled into Beta Hydri and the Emperor of Jerat decided to fun her warchest to the tune of 750 millio Euro, with a friend of mine giving her another 150 million."
I hmmed as there was a look of shock on Zarantha's face that quickly disappeared. Lenard showed the same disbelief, while Edward just looked uncomprehending.
"The Organisation for the Restoration of the Aurigan Coalition is set up to buy at least one Task Force of combat craft."
I nodded.
"If you wish I can try to set up a meeting between you and her."
Palais des Nations, Geneva Earth, Sol July 29th, 2254/3023
The Emperor of Jerat rose up from the pile of cushions they had been resting on and looked around the large conference room in the Palais des Nations and at the other delegates of the conference.
"Our fellow humans," the Emperor said in their strange voice, not using their native language, not English as they had during the rest of the conference. Instead they were speaking Esperanto. It lead to some muttering among the Earth delegates to the conference.
"We are here, gathered in the Palais des Nations, a building unique in its conception in three systems, a palace build for an idea," they continued after a short pause." The idea that peaceful cooperation between nations is not only possible, but required for the betterment of us all. That peace, prosperity and understanding of others can be reached if we just work for it. That zero-sum thinking is flawed, and that the gain of another nation does not hinder another. The first attempt on this world was flawed, but so were the attempts on Jerat and in the Iwrin system."
The Emperor paused before continuing.
"Yet, today we are here, and know that there are three organisations in our three systems that embody this idea. That show that the ideals of the idea can be reached."
"The United Nations on Earth and in Sol. Born out of the organisation that build these halls and put of a War worse than the one that created it's predecessor. An organisation flawed in the beginning, but which came into its own over the past 150 years in the wake of the destruction of Beijing, the economic devastation and the Third World War.
"The Union of Jeratir, a place where the six nations of Jerat could voice their grievances and talk to prevent war. Which had grown out of hole beginnings and the work of centuries to create what it is now, in the wake of nuclear Armageddon and t wars that followed.
"And the Iwrinai Cooperation, which started out as an alliance of every nation of Iwrinai against a single enemy with the most horrible biological weapon imaginable. And which became more than what it was meant to be, a way for people to meet and trade.
"Some might now say that it will take a devastating war for the idea of peace and international cooperation to flourish."
They stopped again and looked around at the other delegates on the massive round table, their solid while eyes focusing on every head of state and high class diplomat present in turn, ignoring the cameras of the press.
"But no, we are here so that there will not be war. So that we may hopefully stave off the need to go and fight others from outside our 'Local Space'. The Inner Sphere, as we now know, is home to five large star nations, where even the smallest has a population a thousand times larger than that of the largest of our own nations and a few hundred times larger than all of us together.
"So, we need to stand together and speak with a single unified voice when we are to treat with them, for if we do not, when we are merely a thousand tiny voices speaking at cross purposes, or even just the three voices of our three main systems, we shall be divided and conquered. We will need to bring together a single, unified force that can react decisively to any invasion that may come our way, rather than being defeated in detail, as we are attached one after the other and only unite when it is too late to change the outcome."
The Emperor took a deep breath and looked back over the room, their eyes for a moment hanging on the faces of a hand full of diplomats, from nations that had tried o steer the conference in their favour in one for or another.
"But we are not here to begin with thoughts of war and of conquest, for we have all learned the lesson that peace, prosperity and understanding are essential. So we will all work towards creating a new super-national organisation, which will not supersede either our own nations, nor the UN, the Union or Jeratir or the Iwrinai Cooperation, but to create another layer of this web of cooperation. One aimed towards outside of Local Space.
"Something that will hopefully be a light in the dark, a beacon to the kings in all but name that rule the inner sphere. That cooperation is the way towards prosperity and peace.
"And something that will keep those with belligerent goals towards us away. Or on the way to the refuse pile of history."
They nodded as they reached the end of their speech.
"May Providence be with us in the coming weeks of this conference, so we may form a stable and fair new 'League of Nations'.
"Thank you."
They bowed to the other delegates as the applause began and settled back onto their pile of cushions.
Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton Earth, Sol August 1st, 2254/3023
Richard felt a bit nonplussed and slightly detached from the barbeque in the gardens of the IAS, sitting in a rattan chair, holding a beer. Though he had to admit that it was also partially incomprehension.
"I have a really hard time wrapping my head around this," he said to his companion and sipped from the bottle.
Strangely enough, he felt it being easier to think of all the non-human s around him as human and establish good working relations and even the odd friendships or two.
"'This' being... what exactly?" Doctor Miles Swikwor asked, head tilted to one side.
The tawny plumed, Texas born Ormiold had become a fast friend the moment they discovered that they shared a sense of humour and a fascination with the cosmos. Now he sat on the chair next to Richard, holding his own bottle of beer and played with the bolo tie he habitually wore around his neck.
"The Fuchsia," Richard said. "It's... scary to think that the Project managed to not only make a complete scan of the Blood Eagles jump core, but also make a one to one copy of it in two months. In orbit around the Moon, deep inside a gravity well..."
That last thing alone was thought to be impossible, as the forging process for jump cores needed as little disturbance by gravity as possible to keep the number of defects in the internal lattice as small as possible.
"And then you just slipped some control systems, sensors and one salvaged drop ship collar on it and jumped it straight from the Earth-Moon pirate point to the Solar Zenith point..."
And now they were hot charging it with one of their fusion tractors to test it by jumping to the Nadir point, after which it would jump to ε Eridani and back. Only then, it would become a test bed for testing the home grown Dropship collar, Ceres Dockyard had developed using the dropships his mother had sold them.
Miles made a chuckling noise.
"Yeah, if you say it like that, Fabricators can be bullshit."
Richard gave the dinosaur a look. Still strange that, real living Earth related dinosaurs.
"'Can be bullshit?' Miles... You are able to build in one month what takes a purpose build foundary seven month in the Inner Sphere..."
A set of bright blue feathers on top of Miles head twitched, his version of a grin.
"And I bet we can drop it to one or two weeks with a specialised Fabricator and the normalised jump core."
Which was another thing...
Not only had they made an exact copy of the jump core on an almost atomic level, but they had them come and turned it into an idealized, or 'normalized' in their parlance, version without defects, which could be 'algorithmically generated at fabrication time'. And the first one was only a week from completion for a test bed already named Kearny. At least they gave proper honours to the right people.
Miles followed up with an exaggerated sigh.
"It would be so much simpler if these fucking Magic Constants weren't in the KF equations."
Richard added a sigh of his own.
"Preacher to the choir," he said. "Those things are the bane of KF theory. It could be so elegant without them."
Those Magic Constants had to be guessed to make KF theory Work sometimes, be it for drop ship collars or a new design of jump core. Was it a wonder then that there were only a certain number of jump ship designs out there? It was much easier for drop ship collars.
Not to mention that thanks to those Magic Constants, you had to add very generous safety margins to anything, so it would work every times. And guessing the right ones in the first place, was more of an art form than it was science or engineering. Without the bargains, it was theorised that the Invader could jump 25 percent more mass and jump 10 percent further.
Silently he tagged against the scientific community of Terrain in the early 21st century. Had Kearny and Fuchida managed to get more grants for their idea, who know what they could have found while working on those Magic Constants.
"I wish we could plug something in there," Miles said than paused and turned to Richard. "Do you think we could try to plug the Heim-Feynman equation in."
Richard blinked at that idea and hmmmed for a moment. The Magic Constant in KF theory were somehow related to magnetism, quantum effects and higher dimensions.
"Might as well try," he said and leaned back, pulling up a Jupiter document with his Interface and plugged away at it.
After first his nephew and than his mother had gotten their Interfaces, Richard had gotten his own and it had made work soooo much easier. Pull up documents only you had access to, connect to this World Wide Web to watch cat videos or follow the news cycle. And python with Jupyte were heaven sent to just try something out. 'Exploratory theoretical science' he had heard it being called.
It had waiting days or even weeks for two hours of computing time on the University of Taurus' mainframe beat. Or the two minicomputers in his department. Even not routers didn't have this convenience or compute power.
He wrote down the HF equations, pulled the data from the Fuchida from the ISA network and plugged them into the equations. The result came within a single mean deviations of the Magic Constants of the Invader jump core.
So far so good. But that didn't mean much, as the smallest change of those numbers could have huge effects. Plugging his results into the KF equations made him blink. They were spot on, the deviation lower than what he knew was the error or margin in the experiments used to determine the Magic Constanta for a new jump core.
"Huh," he made at the same time as Miles gave a surprised " What the frick?"
Richard looked over at him, with a questioning look and Miles looked up at him.
"The Feynman Equations fell out of the thing."
"What?"
Miles took a breath and shook his head.
"I plugged the HF equations directly into the KF equations and simplified them. The Feynman Equations are the result."
Richard hmmed and raised an eyebrow.
"I sense a Feynman story there," he said with a smirk and Miles have a snort.
"Oh, it is a Feynman Story alright."
Miles empties his beer bottle and steeled himself.
"So... Feynman was in hospital on his death bed..."
Richard snorted this time.
"Very morbid already."
"Heh," Miles made and continued. " Some colleagues from his old job at CalTech were visiting him and he told them that he had some interesting work back home, something involving a few strange fusion experiment results and that he wanted them to publish it for him. Posthumously obviously."
"Obviously."
"So, they rock up at Feynman's house and got in, finding that all floor were wet. Turns out a water pipe had burst in the upper floor. In a bathroom directly above Feynman's study. And when the went there, the water had dropped all over his desk. Which was full of now soaked and disintegrating paper. Where Feynman had written on with a fountain pen."
"Oh hell," Richard said andiles nodded.
"Their thoughts exactly. Whatever Feynman had worked on was washed away in water, with only the Feynman Equations left on his whiteboard. They published them as his last work, but noone ever found any use for them. Especially not in fusion research."
Richard took a last drag of his own bottle.
"You think he found the KF equations?"
Miles shrugged.
"I'd give it a 50-50, considering how easily the Feynman Equations fall out."
Richard nodded and looked into the still light evening sky. Just above the southern horlrizon he could make out the faint glimmers of the vast solar collector fields of Earth's growing orbital ring. Which seemed outright mundane compared to the orbital ring of Cterin.
He looked down again at his empty bottle and stood up with a slight grunt.
"I need another beer," he proclaimed. "And I think there is a burger with my name on it."
Miles snorted and hopped off his own chain.
"Yeah, we can properly look at this tomorrow and bother Mike to help us out."
He shivered.
"I think this shit goes right dimensional."
Richard chuckles.
"He'll help us out. He did complain the loudest, and wettest, about the Magic Constants after all."