“And where are we going to find the next generation of Junior Spacemen?” the CO asked. “It was one of those points Rickover never quite got around to addressing. So, what’s your recommendation, Astro?”
“I’ve set up a search pattern of the nearest stars, sir,” Bill replied. “My recommendation is that we enter on the outer periphery of each of the systems, do a chill while simultaneously looking for any indicators of Dreen presence, then jump around the periphery, slowly working inward. When we get to about one AU from the local star, we’ll have looked about all we can. Then we go to the next. With stops at each of the jump points to let the instruments really get in a good scan, I’d say about one full day at each star. We do that until we find something or you call it a bust.”
“All right,” the CO said. “XO, Set Condition One on each system entry. At each move inwards, we’ll go to GQ again, figuring that is the most likely point that we’ll encounter the Dreen. Tell the Marines to just sit tight. I don’t want them running around doing a drill when we could be going into battle at any time.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Let’s head outwards,” the CO said. “Astro?”
“Come to heading three-one-six mark neg dot two and head for the star,” Bill replied, pointing at the forward viewscreen.
“Make it so.”
Brooke checked the caller ID on her cell phone as it sounded out with “Sunshine and Summertime.” It was the Bergstresser’s home number, which could be good news or bad or none at all. She took a deep breath and answered the call.
“Brooke, it’s Amanda Bergstresser.”
Mrs. Bergstresser sounded cheerful. A good sign so far.
“Yes, ma’am?” Brooke said. “Have you heard from Eric?”
“We have indeed,” Mrs. Bergstresser said. “I know he wasn’t supposed to be able to send a message for at least ninety days, but you got a response to yours. It’s a bit cryptic, though.”
“Go ahead,” Brooke said, swallowing.
“In the quiet misty morning Eric. That’s it. Does it make any sense to you?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Brooke said, sniffling. “Yes, it does.”
“Brooke, I know all this is rather sudden and terribly dramatic, but I have a question: Do I need to start getting to know a future daughter-in-law?”
Brooke thought about that for a few seconds, then sniffled again.
“I sure hope so, Mrs. Bergstresser.”
“In that case, you’d better call me Amanda.”
13
“Adjusted to system Tycho 714-1046-1,” the pilot said, tiredly.
The ship had been doing an expanding sweep of the area for the last two weeks and it had been a very boring process. Most of the stars in the region, which was a fairly tightly packed local cluster, were within ten light-years of each other. Ten hours to reach a new system. About twenty hours scanning the system and then on to the next. And with GQ being called at least five times a day, nobody was getting any sleep.
“What do we have?” Spectre asked, his voice a bit too steady. The CO was on the ragged edge as well.
“G3V star, bit hotter than Sol but otherwise very main sequence,” Bill replied. “Waiting on readings, sir.”
“I’m getting a bit tired of waiting on readings,” the CO said bitterly.
“So am I, si—” Weaver paused and leaned forward, running his hand down one of the lines on his monitor. “Sir… ?”
“Conn, Tactical.”
“Go,” Spectre snapped.
“We’re getting some quirky readings on the particle detectors,” Tactical replied, clearly puzzled. “The system is just saying higher than normal background of neutrinos. I’m not sure what that means.”
“Weaver?” Spectre asked.
“Just… Give me a moment, sir,” Weaver said, opening up another screen and typing rapidly.
The CO walked over to look over the astrogator’s shoulder but the math he was working on was way over Spectre’s head. Another example of how difficult it was going to be to create a space navy. Too many times he simply had to go on his faith in Weaver’s knowledge.
“Concur on that, sir,” Weaver said after about a minute. “Furthermore, the extra neutrinos are generating from a point in the system. It’s at about six AU from the star on the far side from us. Something created a bunch of neutrinos there about nine hours ago. What, why and how I’m not sure. But I’d say that it’s probable that it was not a natural event. More than that… I can’t say without checking it out.”
“Can we do that quietly?” the CO asked. “Come in from the side or something? Maybe duck around a planet?”
“We still don’t have a planet map for the system, sir,” Bill said, checking the update from the astronomy department. Since it consisted of two overworked SF staff sergeants, he wasn’t expecting anything any time soon. Especially since their position was poor for finding planets. They usually didn’t get a good map until they moved in-system. “I would suggest moving in an arc across the outer fringes of the system, getting a look at the anomaly from another angle, then possibly moving in to no less than ten AUs from the anomaly for a visual.”
“Right,” Spectre said, rubbing his face. “Gimme a vector.”
“Heading zero-nine-six, sir,” Bill replied. “Warp Two for twenty-three minutes. Then come to normal space for another survey.”
“Pilot, make it so,” Spectre said, keying the 1-MC. “All hands. All hands. Ship remains at Condition One. There’s an anomaly in this system. We’re going to spend some time checking it out. Stay tight while we do that. Missile crews to ready positions.”
The second check had just repeated the first. Turning even their largest telescope towards the anomaly didn’t tell them anything.
“Astro, we’re going to go insystem unless you have another idea,” Spectre said.
“I actually do, sir,” Bill said, musingly. “We need to get farther away.”
“Say again?” the CO asked, rubbing his face. “What are we going to learn from farther away?”
“We can move faster than light, sir,” Bill replied, getting excited. “If whatever this was made a big enough signature, we can back out of the system and look at it. It’s sort of like going back in time. If that doesn’t work, we can still go insystem. We’re only talking about ten light-hours out in a direct line from the anomaly.”
“Okay, that’s just about weird enough to work,” Spectre said. “Gimme a vector and let’s do it.”
“Should be coming up pretty soon,” Bill said, looking at his chronometer. “If there’s going to be… whoa!”
It was almost pretty. Where there had been more or less empty space on the viewer, only the distant stars showing, there was suddenly a flurry of lights.
“Conn, Tactical,” the intercom chimed. “We’re getting a mass of particle readings from the direction of the anomaly. I’d say that multiple nuclear detonations are occurring.”
“Roger that,” Spectre said. “We’re watching it in—”
“Try ‘unreal’ time, sir,” Bill said, grinning. “Somebody was fighting somebody else. Who and why is the question, now.”
“Is this maximum magnification?” Spectre asked, walking over to the main viewer. “All I can see is the detonations.”
“They’re more visually obvious than whatever’s causing them, sir,” Bill pointed out. “That’s all we can get out of our systems: we’re not up to Star Trek level yet. And ours are as good as any that are made, sir. But at this distance, it’s like trying to pick out individual sand grains on Earth from a satellite. It’s easy to spot a spotlight pointed up. We’re going to have to go insystem to find out anything else.”