The interception point with the Builders’ ship was estimated at what, by now, seemed like a short distance, a mere twenty light minutes from Earth. That interception point was on the opposite side of the sun, meaning that there would be a significant time lag in communications with Earth. Since the battle might need precision down to the millisecond, all major decisions would need to be made by tactical computer systems integrated directly into the weapons.
This went contrary to the prevailing desire to decide the actions months, if not years, in advance. The battles of this form of space warfare were better suited for long-term strategic planning because it could take months or years for the targets to be within range. Given the high speed of their target, decisions would need to be made almost instantaneously once the target came into range. Besides the time lag, any person or processor calling the shots would face the hazard of metadata inundation. According to the simulations, there could be up to several petabytes of data flowing in at once. Each byte of data needed to be sorted and distributed to the proper team, who would then decide what responses might need to be implemented. The decisions were prioritized and transmitted to the fleet via wide-spectrum laser, high-frequency wave, and microwave lines simultaneously. The fleet would then respond to whichever incarnation of the command signals arrived first.
Before being seen by the crew, however, these commands were first reviewed, evaluated, and compiled by onboard computers that filtered out commands that had already been executed or had become irrelevant based on real-time changes to the situation. Finally, any commands still left unexecuted and also still applicable were then organized and sent to the crew for interpretation or implementation.
“What an amazing facility,” Aki said, trying to show more than the minimal interest she felt. She respected how carefully the operational systems had been designed to process chaos and complexity, but could not help but notice that the strategic planning was all geared toward defense, not communication.
Director Robbins looked like he had not expected her to speak. He stared at Aki and weighed her comment carefully. “You must hate me,” he said.
“I apologize for turning down your invitation to the ceremony. It was childish of me not to accept.”
“It’s fine. I worried what might happen if you gave a speech in your current state.”
He placed two porcelain pedestal cups on a tray and poured coffee from a thermos.
“I’m a bit sad to know this entire facility will have no use within a few years. Having served in the Strategic Air Command for as long as I have, this kind of extravagant spending doesn’t faze me anymore. When we first scrapped the entire North African radar network, it bothered me to consider how many starving children we could’ve saved with the wasted money. At the end of the day, I accepted that we needed to do what was in the long-term best interest of the whole of humanity.”
Aki looked at her cup while sipping her coffee. It was a handpainted Nippon cup. It depicted a scene of a country farmhouse.
“It’s true that you saved the earth, Aki. In my book though, Mark Ridley is just as much the hero as you are. He was navy, right?”
“He is a hero in my book as well.”
“Then you understand when I say that I don’t want his sacrifice to be in vain.”
Aki looked up from the porcelain cup.
“I’ve gotten your attention. Let’s get down to business. We cannot accommodate your request to allocate three of our ships for the Contact Phase.”
He motioned for her to sit in the chair facing his desk, then pulled an envelope from the top drawer of his desk.
“There will be a single contact ship—the Phalanx. You will be in charge of that ship. You are the only one for the job.”
Aki tore the envelope open. It contained military orders requesting her to report for duty as commander of the UNSS Phalanx.
“Oh, and don’t think that we’re going to send you up in that bucket of bolts the way she was before. We’re doing major modifications, bringing her up to date, even adding an atomic second stage. Only the Phalanx will be capable of rendezvousing with the Builders’ craft. I’m taking a lot of flak from my superiors for making this decision.”
The Phalanx alone would meet the Builders’ ship and attempt to make contact. The other eight craft would be in position for interception. For the plan to succeed, the fastest ship needed to be her contact ship. The other eight ships needed payload capacity more than they needed speed.
“Your contact ship will be weaponless. As you can guess, it’ll have a high risk of being destroyed. You accept the position?”
“Without hesitation.”
“Excellent. Congratulations, even though there wasn’t any doubt. You’ll have a crew of five. A team of three—the Contact Team—will attempt to board the alien vessel. You, of course, must be one of them. The second will be a Marine guard for protection; you may select the guard, or we can assign one. The third should be another science expert, one with an engineering background. I would like you to decide who that one will be too. There is no need for an application process or approval by committee. This is a military mission: make your selection and it will be done.”
“Yes, sir.”
WHILE RIDING AWAY in yet another black limousine, Aki wondered what qualities to look for in the other two members of the Contact Team. She imagined that there were millions of people who would do anything for the chance to speak with the Builders. She thought of several dozen people she knew fairly well who had the drive and skill sets required to be part of the mission. Of them, there were only two whom she would want to have at her side at this incredible moment of truth. Of those two, only one of them was still alive.
Selecting him would cause talk, but this is too important for chatter to be relevant. I should ask him right now. She decided to ask him over the phone since calling him to her office by official request struck her as pretentious.
“Hi, Raul,” she said. “I wanted to thank you for your help the other day and your encouragement. I hope you’re glad to hear from me again.”
“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not,” said Raul. “Every time we talk, you give me something hard to do, crazy lady.”
“I bet I can change that maybe to a definitely.”
“Oh, yeah? How?” His enthusiastic reply was what she had hoped for.
“I want to invite you to come on a little mission with me, on my new ship.”
“Your new ship?”
“Yeah, I just got one. I am the commander of the fastest nuclearpowered space vessel in the solar system. Interested?”
The line was silent for a long time, but she knew he had not hung up.
CHAPTER 3: CONTACT
ACT I: MARCH 4, 2041
“WE HAVE IGNITION, ladies and gentlemen. Nine nuclear battleships are on their way! In the lead is the UNSS Phalanx, the contact ship commanded by Aki Shiraishi. The UNSS Rutherford and Chadwick are now leaving orbit. Let’s go to a live image from Christmas Island. It’s 5:15 in the morning there, so we would appreciate it if everyone remained quiet.”