Colonists - Leader, part 8
BREVITY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
Former Landing Zone command building
July 17, 2186
“As you can see, Advisor, the effort and diversion of equipment to construct a road leading to the hydro-electric plant along the Green River will make a more efficient energy delivery system,” said Esteban Tarifa, the lead civil engineer of the colony. “Once the road is laid down, power lines can easily be added using the metals we’ve been exhuming from the mine.”
“Why not more solar panels to power our habs?” Oum asked.
“Because we’re running very low on them, ma’am. Lower than I’d like to admit, really. I would prefer to keep the ones we have for replacements if our current panels we’re using get damaged. At this point we haven’t found any materials we can use to manufacture new panels. We may never, and having and endless supply of power - if not as efficient a supply - from the hydro-electric would reduce our dependency on the panels. Meaning they’ll wear out more slowly,” Tarifa explained.
The man had proven him as competent and an effective leader here on Nile. Oum knew he wasn’t exactly favored by the Brazilian Hegemony on Earth and had her concerns about his character when setting out on this expedition. Despite this, the last two years had proven he operated better when not under the thumb of whatever rulers he had back on Earth. While Oum made demands of him she had given him more unilateral authority in civil engineering matters than the Hegemony had. As such, he had excelled. Indeed the man had found his calling, she felt.
At least there haven’t been food riots, said the voice of Decatur in her mind. She had to admit that was largely due to the efficiency and guidance of Tarifa’s planning for farms, ranches, processing stations, power plants, and housing fabrications.
“Very well, Esteban. Draw up some more specific plans on how you’d like to route the road from the plant. I do want to be careful about where we place it. I don’t want to have us plant a road down right in the middle of some place where the local wildlife can destroy it and we sink more resources into maintaining the road than utilizing it,” she added.
“I agree. That’s why I was hoping to use one of the dropships to make survey flights between here and the hydro plant,” he explained.
“I see. That’s entirely the major’s decision, but I’ll set up a meeting with him,” she said then reconsidered. You don’t have to be the middle-man for everything. “Unless you’d just like to seek him out yourself and let me know what you two decide.”
“Um,” he seemed a little caught off guard by the offer, “Certainly, Advisor. I can do that.”
“Very good then. There was another-” Oum started to say when the comm on her desk began beeping with a red light. It was an emergency priority alert from the listening tower.
She tapped it on, “Oum here.”
“Advisor, we’ve got incoming communications from deep space, coming out near the hyperspace point. It’s an automated signal citing it’s from Earth Command, requesting a response,” said the person at the other end.
“I’m on my way, get Major Decatur,” she said and ended the call. “I’m afraid the road project will have to wait for a little bit, Esteban. I’ll get back with you as soon as I can.”
“Of course! What’s a message from Earth mean, ma’am?” he inquired.
“I’ve got no idea, though I’m sure we’ll know soon,” she said.
BREVITY LISTENING TOWER
July 17, 2186
“What’s the word, Specialist?” Oum heard Decatur ask as she cleared the last steps into the control room.
“It’s an automated repeating signal. It’s awaiting confirmation of receipt and is sending valid clearance codes, sir,” Hope Irizarri explained.
Decatur saw Oum enter and nodded at her, “Advisor.”
“Do we know anything else?” Oum asked as she nodded at Decatur.
“Yes, ma’am. The signal contains a schematic detailing the vessel. It’s identified as a Charon-XLS rocket, meaning ‘extended length supply.’ If the transmission is to be believed,” she added.
“Any reason to think it’s not legitimate?” Oum asked.
“No ma’am. The signal is on expected Earth Command frequencies. It has a text message as well stating it’s addressed to ‘Nile-colony command staff or colonial government’ adding that it’s an automated re-supply vessel from Earth Command,” Irizarri stated.
Decatur looked questioningly at Oum, “Might as well send a response.”
“You’re not concerned about the Kamikaze adapting new strategies - that this could be some kind of trick?” Oum asked him.
“It could be. But just a couple weeks ago we had a probe from Earth - maybe it was meant to establish itself as a homing beacon for this ship. Or maybe it carried a message telling us to expect this one. With how paranoid Earth Command is then they might send in this ship with a coded set of commands to expect a transmission from us. If it doesn’t receive one then maybe it hypers out back to Earth or another colony. Our window for operation here could be very tight, Advisor,” Decatur suggested.
“Indeed. If we’re just getting this message now then this vessel is probably 6 days away, assuming it hypered in at the same spot Brevity did. At light speed we’re talking a few hours - so sending a signal right now we’d be waiting the better part of a day to hear any reply from it,” she said.
“Very true. I say we do it. This doesn’t fit with the Kamikaze at prior tactics at all. They prefer to come in on a stealth trajectory and surprise attack undefended colonies using as few resources as possible. But they always attack, that’s been their M.O. for decades,” Decatur said.
“Very well then. I suppose being cautious to the point of paralysis is just as dangerous as acting reckless,” Oum agreed. She turned to Specialist Irizarri, “Send a reply, Specialist.” Decatur nodded at her.
“Yes, ma’am. Standard acknowledgment signal sent. It’ll be quite a number of hours before we hear a response. I’ll alert you you immediately as soon as we hear more,” Irizarri stated.
“Thank you. In the mean time,” Oum said turning back to Decatur, “Civil Engineer Tarifa would like to discuss using a dropship.”
BREVITY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
Former Landing Zone command building
July 17, 2186
It was late evening now. Oum’s comm beeped at her again, the red light flashing. She pressed the acceptance key, “Oum here.”
“Listening Tower ma’am, Specialist Irizarri here. We have a reply from the incoming ship. It’s got a data dump that it sent, including a couple video files addressed to you or the governing body. It also stated that it’s set a course to enter orbit and will arrive in approximately 5 days and 19 hours.”
“Very good, Specialist. Thank you. Can you save the video files to the network so I can access them?” Oum asked.
“Yes ma’am, give it about three minutes and they’ll be ready for you,” Irizarri said.
“Excellent, I’ll contact Major Decatur - no need for you to,” Oum added.
“Understood ma’am. I’ll keep you apprised of the situation,” Irizarri said before ending the communication.
Oum called Decatur and asked him to come over. Ilarion was the ever-present shadow, of course. Oum wasn’t... dissatisfied with him but she had started to see his presence as less necessary. Indeed she’d come to trust Major Scott Decatur and his Infantry implicitly. And the colony was, as a general term, in good spirits despite the minor incident at her public address after the Earth probe.
Decatur arrived and she pulled up the first video file which wasn’t encrypted. The image appeared and it was Admiral Bron, of the Allied Western Defense Initiative’s space navy. He was in his full dress uniform and he spoke in good spirits, “Greetings from Earth to our brothers and sisters on Nile. I sincerely hope this message and gift finds you in good health. Earth hopes that Nile is prospering and as a show of that hope we are sending a supply vessel with food, supplies, and parts. We have no way of knowing what you’ll need or how much of it - so we tried to anticipate the harder-to-come-by items such as spare parts for machinery or replacement parts for computers. Given Nile’s ecosystem we don’t believe you’ll have found it difficult to grow your own food but we included that as well. We also have a data dump of news from around Earth and the other colonies.”
Oum smiled at this and looked at Decatur, her spirits greatly lifted. The Major offered a smile as well as he nodded. Even Ilarion offered a smirk.
“This vessel is a one-way courier for you. Typically we have our supply ships run both directions, so they be reused. Given the necessity of the secrecy for our mission this specific vessel will crash itself into the Nile star once the cargo has been unloaded to the colony. The basic process for this is as follows: the vessel will enter orbit and send self-piloted landers loaded with supplies. You’ll call these down from the rocket at your discretion. Once the last one is unloaded the ship will then begin its self-destruct mission and leave orbit,” Bron continued. “There is a second message stored as well which is classified Top Secret under the Earth Command security protocol. I advise opening it in private but the decision is yours. Earth Command isn’t giving an order on that particular topic.
“Good fortune from Earth. And God speed to you one and all. Admiral Bron on behalf of Earth Command, over and out.” The video showed the Earth Command emblem and ended.
“Always good to get gifts from home,” Decatur couldn’t hide his smile.
“Very true,” Oum added. “It’s a relief. But I’m sure there’s less-than-good news on the second file.”
“It wouldn’t be Top Secret for news on a victory parade. I’m afraid the war with the Kamikaze is going badly,” Decatur confessed.
“Let’s find out,” Oum said as she opened the file. It prompted for her secret clearance code which had been sent with her from Earth Command. It wasn’t written down anywhere or stored on a computer - it was completely recalled from her memory.
The code was accepted and the video file opened after a short delay for the decryption. Admiral Bron’s image reappeared. “Governing body of the Nile colony. This message is classified as Top Secret by Earth Command. However, since we can’t exercise any authority over you it is your prerogative to keep this message that way.”
The video continued, “Several months after the Brevity left Earth one of our long-range scouting missions came across a system which contained a habitable world. However, it had already been decimated by the Kamikaze. Further investigating found that a large space conflict had occurred between a Kamikaze fleet and another force. A force that was not human in origin. With this news we know there is at least one other intelligent species among the stars. Closer inspection seems to indicate that there is at least two other intelligent species. The wreckage we could recover suggests two very different styles of design practice for these warships. And given the debris pattern we believe the two were allied against the Kamikaze in their confrontation.
“The habitable world did, at one time, have some kind of colony on it. It appeared there were three major settlement zones which were subsequently completely destroyed by the Kamikaze when the other alien space fleets were destroyed.
“This news comes as a mix of potential good and potential bad. Whether or not these aliens would be friendly towards us is unknown. They very well may be as equally xenophobic as the Kamikaze are. There’s no point to this information other than to let you know. Earth Command doesn’t like to keep its colonies too much in the dark except when it’s absolutely necessary. However, as it stands this is not known to the vast majority of other colonies. We wanted you to be aware.”
Bron continued, “As such we have an additional module on the Charon rocket we’ve sent to you. It contains a new prototype missile-defense system that will remain in orbit and is solar powered. You can call this module down to the surface with you if you prefer and use it as a land-based defense platform. If not, then before the Charon collides with the local star it will drop the defense platforms in a sustainable orbit. The choice is yours. God speed, Nile. Admiral Bron, over and out.”
Again the message the same as the other. Oum leaned back to look at her military commander. “Thoughts?”
“None good. Without more information I’d just as well take this as all bad news. Not one but two more alien species out there? Also fighting our enemy – which it sounds like they lost? I don’t think that bodes well for humanity,” Decatur said candidly.
“Indeed. So this new missile system: keep it in orbit or bring it down here?” she asked.
“Well...” Decatur paused, “I don’t know how to fight a space battle. Even so I don’t think one missile platform is going to do us any good. Hypothetically, if we were attacked by the Kamikaze - or another species in light of this news – they’d see the platform in orbit long before they arrived. A couple kinetic strikes from the deep solar system would blow it away before the missiles would do any appreciable damage. Hell, maybe before they could even return fire. I say bring it down here so we can deploy it how and where we want. And it gives us the option of maybe reverse-engineering those missiles to make more. We’ve found a lot of natural resources here and have a decent manufacturing hub: might be possible.”
“Seems like a sound idea to me,” Oum replied. She leaned back in her chair a bit, steepling her fingers, “Now what do we tell the people? Do we tell the people?”
Decatur put up his hands defensively, “I’m staying out of that one. If you want the Infantry on-hand to do crowd control I’ll order it. But if we should tell them now? I don’t know. I might wait a little bit. Let the supplies come down, get everyone in good spirits again before delivering the bad news – that way they’ll have their minds on something: news from home, maybe distant relatives sent mail, eating a favorite food we don’t have here, reading new stories, or playing new music: whatever.”
“Maybe you should be running this colony. Do you want to deliver this bad news as well?” Oum laughed, only half joking.
“A solid ‘no’ on both options,” Decatur said standing up. “You should tell the people we’re expecting resupply within the week. Carry on, business as usual in the mean time.”
Oum nodded, “Thank you, Major. I think I’ll take your advice.”
Image originally hosted on Pixabay at https://pixabay.com/en/science-fiction-starry-sky-space-1412096/ I am not the original artist nor do I own the image showed. The image used after being located under the Creative Commons license.