Hawk Genesis: Peace (Hawk Flight), page 17
John’s shuttle edged into the immense hold of the second-generation carrier the Omnivore. It was an unusual name for a carrier, but this ship was also unusual. It carried fewer fighters than the Adams, but was actually larger than other new-build carriers. It had been designed with a large cargo capacity, and could operate without replenishment for as long as six months. Under normal circumstances, it would be accompanied by at least two destroyers, which would also be refueled and resupplied from the Omnivore. It represented a new class, and after its initial, shakedown assignment at Fujian ended, it was scheduled to begin the first of what were hoped would be many long-range journeys of exploration.
As soon as the shuttle settled onto its struts, the hold began airing up. It took several minutes, but as soon as the pressure equalized, one of the six shuttle cargo doors cycled open, providing a useful and very wide ramp into the main cargo hold.
John exited via a much smaller personnel hatch located in the nose of the craft and met Captain Fang-Hua in the echoing hold. She shook his hand and they talked for a moment before he gestured to the shuttle. She looked down it’s length and said, “Since you suggested that I would be interested in it, I asked my people to run some scans on it as you approached. It’s longer than any shuttle I’ve ever seen, and it’s also much harder to track, reminding me of a certain experimental attack craft I heard about, the Hawk.”
John said, “This is the very first production version of a Grenobian shuttle design, manufactured under license on Maya by Producciones Padilla. It’s got six cargo hatches rather than the usual two, a much more powerful power plant, explaining why you don’t know how we entered the system, it’s got a proprietary armor that explains why it’s hard to spot, it has a twin missile launch bay just behind the flight cabin, a standard 25 cm energy weapon, and could easily be modified to hold six heavy missiles on the insides of the cargo doors. In short, it’s a stealthy, armed, armored shuttle that can jump.”
She turned to John, “This is armed?” John nodded, “Not only that, its’ weapon systems allow it to operate much like the Indian carriers. They can share sensor data, coordinate launches, and hide their communications, making targeting by the enemy very difficult. It’s systems and weapons have been tested – the Navy allowed us to puncture an old destroyer. It is our belief that the missing destroyers and missile boats are going to show up in frontier systems, sixteen of which have no defenses other than the Navy, which will be abandoning them as they regain citizenship in the federation.”
He showed her around the interior of the ship, including the cramped missile room and the power plant. She said, “This is impressive. How many of these can you get for the cost of one destroyer?” John nodded, “Pertinent question: we think about seven, and seven of these can take on one second generation destroyer, and easily handle a first generation, maybe two. As a bonus, they can still function as shuttles. The next generation will be able to house a pair of fighters inside it’s hold, allowing it to operate those two fighters for as long as a couple of weeks without refueling or replenishment.”
She asked a large number of technical questions, and John ended up showing her the flight deck. He played back a copy of the sensor data from the attack against the destroyer, and she sighed, “The navy has always played catch up. This system is a generation better than what we have on our new destroyers. If we’d had it during the war, it would have ended sooner, and with less loss of life, at least to the federation.”
John replied, his feelings clearly showing, “We ran across evidence of some hidden meddling in the inner workings of the Navy and of system governments. We don’t know where the trail ends, but it leads back to earth. I have two very good spooks, and neither one has yet been able to trace the messages back to their owner. I’m told that there are only a very few installations that have that level of security. I’ve passed information on to…someone in the navy, and it’s possible but not probable that we’ll be able to get something accomplished. If you don’t know, earth has a vested interest in keeping all thirty-seven colony worlds dependent. The war we’ve just concluded made a few people a lot of money but it was still almost four years before we began to get decent ships. A great many people died, and we now have five years worth of hatred. I think that if we aren’t careful, we’re going to look back and wish we’d done a better job of healing the wounds, but we won’t have the time because we’ll be fighting again. Still.”
She nodded, “I’ve heard any number of stories about you, but this tops them all. Few people even consider that peace has to be won – they think we’ve already got it.”
She looked around the small command deck and turned back to face him, “Sir, I’ll do what I can. I would greatly appreciate it if you would put me on your mailing list, and as long as I can support you without violating my oath, I’ll do it.”
John smiled faintly, “Thank you Captain.”
He raised his voice, “Peter?” His brother poked his head around a hatch, “I’ve just sent a large packet of information.” He turned to address Captain Fang-Hua, “Captain, your ship’s security protocol is outdated, and you won’t be able to open my files until you update.”
She looked startled, and John said, “Captain, this is Peter Chamberlin, my older brother, and possibly more to the point, up until recently he was an intelligence specialist with the Army.”
She nodded her head, “You two look alike.” Peter walked over to shake her hand, “Ma’am, I’ve got the update, but as a guess, you’d prefer to get it through Navy channels. As it happens, couriers are the first craft to get the update, so the next time one shows up, you’ll be able to get current.”
She asked, “What was your rank, and where did you work?” Peter said, “I worked at Army headquarters on earth before I was separated. My rank was coronel, and I was the number four in intelligence, number two in the field.”
She asked John, “You said you had two former spooks.” John grinned, “I was kind of hoping you’d ask. His name is Michel Dubois, lately of Grenoble. Admiral Grigorivich couldn’t find out a single thing about the man, and he’s proven to be an excellent addition to our effort. He went with us to Nasser, demonstrating a certain dedication to the principle of peace, and right now he’s heading the effort to establish an organization downstairs.”
She shook her head, “Downstairs?” John grinned, “The caustic influence of my older, Army brother.” Peter stared in consternation, and asked, “You’re blaming me?” John smiled happily, “Absolutely.” Karl turned away, but not before a hint of a grin appeared on his lips. Through the open hatch John heard James snorting into laughter. Peter heard it too, and his face went through an interesting transformation as he realized that his middle brother was poking fun at him.
An hour later, their shuttle was moving back toward the planet. En route, Michel checked in. He didn’t talk openly, but via a simple code let John know he was on the way up to orbit, and that the effort had been successful.
They moved back to the station and as soon as the tube aired up the three men entered the shuttle.
An hour later, they were accelerating out of orbit.
Michel told the assembled gathering, “We had over five thousand vets. They asked about the source of my money, but didn’t press me – they are pretty desperate. I can see a big difference between just a few months ago and now. I think we have to move as fast as possible. I suggest that we split up into at least two teams.”
John nodded, “I should have thought of that. How many joined?” Michel said, “Virtually everyone. And that was after I told them that they would be part of an organization that spans all the planets, including federal veterans. One navy pilot told me, ‘I’ve got more in common with federal veterans than I do with the people on my own planet. The ones who stayed behind to ‘administrate’ don’t seem to have spent even one moment considering our needs and the sacrifices we made so they could make money and get our wives and girlfriends pregnant’.”
James asked, “Did you talk about a shuttle company?” Michel smiled, “Oh yeah. They all want to work on it. They got very quiet when I told them about the missing missile ship – they none of them want more war. Um, I think that we need to up the number of shuttles here. Right now, they’ve got two for the entire planet, and both of those are ancient. They’re depending on the Navy, and, well, they’re not happy.”
John looked at James, “How long until Grenoble can get around to this order?” James shrugged, “Two months?” John looked at Michel, “Let’s see if we can get them one or more shuttles right now, either from Grenoble or Maya. It would appear that the two companies are going to be busy just filling our orders.”
Peter asked, “How expensive is it to build a new production line?” John sighed, “Let’s first go to Grenoble, then home to Maya.”
Chapter 18
They jumped into Grenoble and sat down with company executives. The Consortium was jammed with orders, normally a good thing. Unfortunately, conditions in the federation were anything but normal, and John didn’t think they could afford to lose two or three months. As a result, he put up the money for a third Consortium production line. Since it would take several months – probably six – to construct the building and obtain the fabrication equipment, he still had a short-term problem. He hoped that Maya could help.
They returned home to Maya, and after an evening at home, he went for a run to the headquarters of Producciones Padilla.
After bringing Mr. Padilla up to speed, he shook his head, “I’m sorry John, but we’re in the same boat as the Consortium. They’re now able to produce most of their fusion plants, but they’re still buying some from us, and we’re struggling to fulfill our own orders. Your investment enabled us to begin construction of another production line, but we’re still a couple of months away from being able to bring it on line.”
John asked, “Do you think we could buy a few from, say, Elyse?” Mr. Padilla shrugged, “Only one way to find out – you go to Elyse; but is it that critical that you get them now?” John sighed, “Yeah, I think so. The idea of setting up shuttle companies in the various systems seems to be our best bet for putting veterans to work and helping their systems. Fujian is a real mess, but Michel really came through, and virtually all the veterans who attended the meeting signed on. Their system has exactly two ancient shuttles, and they have to depend on the Navy to transship most of their cargo between orbit and the planet. This just gives the feds another tool to use to punish the planet.”
“We’ve arranged for them to set up three facilities, one in each of their main cities, but that doesn’t help put them to work.”
John sat down with his brothers, Jessica, Rachel and Karl. They decided that Rachel and Karl would take the shuttle to Elyse and attempt to either buy some shuttles, or buy someone else’ reservation. John told them, “Get as many as possible, as long as you don’t have to pay too steep a premium.” Karl nodded, “How many is ‘as many as possible’?”
John shrugged, “Thirty?”
Peter asked, “What about the legal ramifications of buying shuttles from Elyse and sending them to Fujian?” John sighed, “It’s legal, but that only means that if someone wants to block it, they’ll go ahead and try to block it. That is why we have Kasdan and Kasdan. I’ll send them a heads up, see if they can prevent problems before they occur.”
Jessica asked, “Besides your shuttle program, what else do you have in the works?” John turned the tables on her, “Your idea for creating a clearinghouse for exchanging flora and fauna has merit. I’d like to see us proceed with it. We can work through the veterans associations. Would you like to be the lead on this?” She looked surprised, “Me? I…of course.” John smiled, “Good, ‘cause I already told some people you were taking charge.”
She laughed, “You did no such thing!” He shrugged and she hugged him, “I hate it when you’re gone.” He said, “It’s possibly a coincidence that I hate it when I’m gone.”
Out of the discussion they evolved a plan that would give John more free time at home, James a little less free time. Michel would continue to make trips to the former rebel worlds, and would attempt to train up some people to help open new planets. He didn’t have a family to leave behind, although John was hopeful that situation would change.
James flew to Elyse where he purchased nine Elysian shuttles and bought contracts for eight more. All seventeen would be delivered to Maya via freighter, and from there, they would be delivered to Fujian, a world John had come to believe was crucial.
Over the next three months, they opened nine more veterans associations. Five of these associations either didn’t need a shuttle program, or they were a long ways away from being able to undertake such a large effort. They were now at about the halfway point in setting up organizations, and the process was well underway to open most of the remaining systems.
Jessica worked on setting up procedures whereby systems could trade technologies, goods, plants and animals. It was a surprisingly complex question, as the introduction of a new species into one of the colony worlds’ highly limited ecologies could potentially cause severe disruptions.
All colonized planets had the basic microbes, worms, flying, burrowing and crawling insects, plants and grasses; in the oceans an amazing variety of plants and animals, including plankton, shrimp, and hundreds more, everything that was crucial to opening up an environment. A handful of planets were struggling with oxygen levels. The massive kill offs of life had to be balanced with new life forms that replaced the oxygen creating plants in the oceans and on the continents. In a few instances, the five years of war had interrupted the efforts necessary to bolster the fragile ecology. Those systems were in great need of “Johnny Appleseed” shuttles to help the natural process.
Three systems – two former rebel worlds, one federal – badly needed shuttles, but their veterans associations were not able to perform the tasks. John set out on a trip to visit the ex-rebel systems to see what could be done.
Hwanghaebuk-do, a Korean colony, was one such. It was the last colony to be formed, and had technically not reached the point where it could be considered even close to being self-sustaining. Despite that handicap, it had largely done just that, but it’s tiny population of just over thirty thousand was not in any position to undertake the ambitious task of assisting the natural process of the seeding of the environment.
Although it was ostensibly a former rebel world, it had not contributed much of anything to the war effort. Nonetheless, earth lumped it in with the others, and assumed control of the colony from its’ now former owners. Control didn’t seem to mean the same thing as support. Earth’s government had changed hands from liberals back to conservatives, who seemed to believe that colonists chose to be colonists, and would not mind dying from a lack of nutrients or a pirate’s missile. Either way, Earth didn’t seem to want to know about it, much less fund anything. Considering that the issue of establishing colonies had been at the core of the rebellion, John thought Earth’s disinterest strange.
It wasn’t truly lack of interest – it was exhaustion. Earth had monetarily carried the war effort, had built the vast majority of warships and had provided virtually all the military strategy, along with the bulk of admirals and captains who carried it out. Or not. It was a highly inconvenient truth that a very large percentage of those officers had seemingly lacked the courage of their convictions, or indeed, much in the way of any courage at all. Admiral Grigorivich was, from the moment of his elevation to AiC, a scythe who cut through the seemingly inexhaustible ranks of incompetents, cowards and political appointees. Many of them were his personal friends, but where they seemed to think that their position was little more than a photo opportunity, he believed that human civilization was on the line, and he allowed nothing, not friendships, not political affiliation, not the petty national jealousies that Earth had so carelessly exported out to the stars, to come between him and his vision of two potential futures. In his opinion, one, the favored potential future, led to a splintered, sundered society; the other was far, far worse, not only unthinkable, but unlivable.
Chapter 19
John first traveled to Fujian and picked up Mrs. Minh and a small science team from the planet’s sole university. They landed on a large and largely empty pad some distance from the town. There were no shuttles on the ground, and the only ones in the system belonged to the tiny Navy presence, consisting of two destroyers, one freighter and two shuttles.
Mrs. Minh was in no condition to walk the several kilometers into the small town that was literally the only one on the planet. Fortunately, they’d planned ahead and brought with them two vehicles, one for people, one for equipment.
James lowered one of the hatches and the vehicles trundled down onto the surface of a much colder environment than either Maya or Grenoble. The inhabitants, out of all the possible climates and locations, did what nearly all the other colonists had done – they settled in the one that most closely matched their distant homeland.
