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Chapter 11
The Adventures of the Beer Keg of Science![]
Office of the Brigadier
Niops Association Militia Command Complex
Feynman City, Niops VII 23 June 3158
Sitting at his desk, Brigadier Zeb Kindarps, commander of the Niops Association Militia, looked over his folded hands at his guest, who was presently less than thrilled with him, for reasons he did not fault her in the least. “I'm sorry, Captain. Ideally, I'd love to let the Keg go chasing off after aliens right away. But the Council of Chairpersons wants us to try walking before we run. So, we're going to have you stay close to home for a bit. Call it a dry run.”
Captain Leanansidhe Carpentier simply stared at him, expressionless, for several seconds. “Go on. Sir.”
Zeb simply stared back placidly. “Something you’d like to say, Captain?”
“Permission to speak freely, sir?”
Zeb simply nodded. “When have I ever stopped you?”
“Fair,” Lea agreed. “Empty night, why? We have conducted nearly every test we can think of without leaving, and proven we're ready. We even had our baptism by fire, and had to replace the irradiated armor plating to prove it. Our Independence program is far enough along that we should have sufficient coverage against additional stealth Caspars if they show up, and our analysis of the wreckage and our friends in the SLDF Navy in Exile have indicated that our attackers can't have many more, and are probably more worried about the Wolves and the Lyrans.”
“True,” Zeb agreed. “But we don't know that. Admittedly, you’re right, we may have enough Independence class with the anti-ship package and nukes that we can probably stave off another stealth ship, but there's no way to be sure of that. That’s not the main concern, though, and the Council agrees that the Keg being elsewhere may actually encourage our Wobbie remnants to look elsewhere. But they're still leery about sending you out too far right away.”
“This is quite possibly the most significant discovery humankind may ever make, Interstellar Expeditions is chomping at the bit to join us out there, and they aren't besides themselves with madness to get us out there, and are worried about sending us too far away. Why?” Lea asked, exasperated.
“In part, because we were asked to,” Zeb replied. “By the Lyrans. They found more evidence of what appear to be extraterrestrial colonies.”
“But not their homeworlds?”
“No, nor who wiped their colonies out with extreme prejudice, which appears to be what happened,” Zeb said, shaking his head, as if disagreeing with his own orders, despite the logic behind them. Perhaps, he mused, he did. “One outdated, undersized cruiser, no matter how many nukes you have, can't stand up to firepower of world-killing magnitude.” He paused for a moment before continuing, struggling not to drum his fingers against his computer’s keyboard. “So, we’re going to take our time on that, and make sure that when we do go after the aliens, we do it with support. Probably Lyran, hopefully Mac's cousins, maybe even with the Free Worlds League, but not alone. There's too much at stake for all of humanity for us to do that by ourselves. Besides…” he added, trailing off…
“Besides?” Lea asked.
“The Marians,” Zeb stated. “We're getting rumblings from them again. So, we also want you within shouting distance in the event the Marians decide to take another shot at us.”
Lea frowned. “I see. Where are we going, then? To do the Leaguer’s dirty work and drop in on one of their dead worlds?” At Zeb’s nod, she asked, “Which one?”
“Stettin,” he replied. “Believe me, we thought about heading things off and just having you drop your special physics packages on Alphard, but for now, you’re going to Stettin.”
“Not Frobisher?”
Zeb shook his head. “No, it’s too far away, especially since it's in the wrong direction for when we do resume the hunt for our aliens. Once the Pioneer is finished, she’ll be leading an IE expedition back to Frobisher to try to help them out. In the meantime, you’re heading to Stettin. There are closer lost FWL worlds out there, but Stettin is outside the redeclared borders of the Free Worlds League, so they agreed we won't need a League class destroyer as a chaperone, like we would at Izmir or Revel, and it's, what, three jumps away?”
Lea checked her compad, then shook her head. “It's 45.1 light-years away, so it's actually four jumps, but three jumps will put us close enough to do a good initial survey before jumping closer.”
Zeb nodded in agreement. “And you're only 64 light-years from Alphard. You could be there in five weeks if necessary, less if you push it with quick-charging.”
“Let's hope it doesn't come to that,” Lea replied unenthusiastically.
“You really believe that it won't?” Zeb asked her.
“No,” she admitted. “I expect all too soon we’ll be sharing canned sunshine with them. From orbit. Repeatedly. Have we talked to the League? If the Marians come after us, it will probably be to use us as a staging point for border attacks against them.”
“We have. They're discussing it.”
“Lovely. Glad to see some things haven't changed,” Lea said, with not just a note of sarcasm, but the whole melody.