(Spera – Main Space – Day 1, 2317)
Vale inspected the stand he had just attached to the floor. As they had expected, the main deck Spera had been one large, empty space. There were lower decks, which held the communications relays and the fabrication/deployment area. Vale had declared those decks to be off-limits, except for maintenance. Above the deck with Gate were three more decks. Two decks up were the airlock and the bridge. The top and between decks were just empty space. Satisfied with the stand, he put the MALP remote – the model with a screen – in one of two specially designed slots. The other slot would hold the Mark Two Gate Remote that T’Zalo and Colson had developed. He put the Gate Remote in. Then he took a pair of cables and set to connecting the remotes to the main power grid. (There was a plug-in point in the floor.) The two remotes where then connected to one another.
“Now all we need is the diagnostic console and we have ourselves a Gate Room.” He said.
“Almost done.” Colson said, who was working on the diagnostic console. “I’m running the final checks now.”
“Diagnostics on the diagnostics consoles ?” Vale said with a grin.
They had turned the large space in smaller rooms by building frames of wooden beams with short metal pipes at each end. This was so they could be welded into place. Next, they had put fabric between the beams. There had been three layers of cloth, with space between them. They had then filled that space with a special foam the New Asurans had developed. It had hardened and made the walls as solid as they were going to get.
(Although – if they could get enough material and a supply of nails – Vale intended to add a layer of wood over the outer layers of fabric.) The Gate Room had two openings in the walls. One to the left, which lead to the Jumper Bay. And one directly across from the Gate. (They didn’t have enough material to make doors in all rooms, but that was also on Vale’s to do-list.) It was through this passage that Jennifer Hailey came in. And the look on her face was not encouraging.
“Why do I have a feeling you are not about to give me good news ?” Vale said.
“I have finished the math on the life-support.” Hailey began. “The number I got back was one-hundred and twenty permanent inhabitants, sir. Which means…”
“We cannot move Colonel Young’s crew here. Great.” Vale began. “Any good news ?”
“Nikita has started the program to crack the master code.” Hailey said. “He said that because this is the Alpha Site of the project, the code is probably not as complex as the one for Destiny. So it should be faster than cracking the original code was. Also, he figured that the reason this ship has only room for a hundred-and-twenty people, is because the official skeleton crew number for Destiny is one-hundred and twenty-five.”
“So the Ancients considered one-hundred and twenty the cut-off point ?”
“Yeah.” Hailey nodded. “Also, Porter has found the DSI Network interface. She’s already has the translation terminal up and running. So we can start sending things back and forth with Atlantis right away. And the refit work is on schedule. There should be enough room for all of the crew. But the rooms won’t be very big or luxurious.”
“So….what do you think we should do with the top deck ?” It was a small deck located above the bridge and then stretching back towards the airlock. “There have been several suggestions.”
“Well, I think we’ll need a briefing room. But we need all the space we have down here.” Hailey said. “And there should be just enough space left for a locker room, so that the teams can gear up there as well.”
“Do it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Hailey nodded and walked out, while Vale returned his attention to the Gate Room.
(Spera – Vale’s Quarters – Day 2, 0405)
Vale closed the door behind him. (It was not really a door, but a flap of fabric.) The refit was on schedule and he needed sleep. As Hailey had said, the room was indeed small and bare. His bags were against one of the walls. But he decided that he would unpack them later. He took off his shoes and coveralls. Then he got rid of his watch and lay down. He woke up four hours later. ~Better, much better.~ He rubbed his eyes and sat back up. ~Time to unpack those bags.~
He began unpacking his bags. The bulk of the stuff in there was standard issue gear, but one of the bags had personal stuff. There was a picture of his old Search and Rescue unit. Next came his old Roman uniform and sword. He took the sword from it sheath and ran his finger across it. The sword was still sharp. ~Hello, old friend.~ He smiled and put it back. The next object was a folder with several blueprints. He had one of the Beta Site, one of Nova Roma, one of Atlantis, one of Destiny and one of level twenty-eight of Stargate Command. Finally, there was a leather bomber jacket he had gotten from a World War Two veteran called Victor Peterson. Peterson had been one of his neighbors in New York. When he had died, he had left the jacket to Vale in his will.
“I wonder what you would say if you knew about this mission, Victor ?”
The old man probably would have volunteered for the mission, Vale realized with a smile. His room was just a few millimeters wider than the length of his bed. So he stood on his bed as he mounted the blueprints above it with tape. Next, he mounted his sword closer to the door. (He taped the sheath to the wall at an angle so that the sword did not fall out.) Finally, he taped the photo across from the sword. There was a locker from him to put his old uniform and the bomber jacket into. He put the helmet at the bottom of the locker. Finally, he put his three spare uniforms in there. The rest of the stuff would end up in the ship’s supply room, once they had it. He had just closed his locker, when there was a knock at the door.
“Enter.”
Aranov, Hailey and Porter came in. They all appeared a bit more relaxed than usual. Now that they were aboard the Spera, they could let their guard down a bit. Aranov was carrying a clipboard with a pile of paper.
“We’ve got a problem, sir.” He said. “We don’t have enough space.”
“How bad is it ?”
“We don’t have room for the hydroponics bay, mess hall, infirmary, isolation ward and kitchen.” He gestured at the room. “And you know that the quarters are not really roomy either.”
Vale nodded. Besides, the bed and the locker, there was no furniture in the room. He figured that his room was two, maybe three square meters. It had still not been easy to fit everybody on the two decks they had to work with. Vale scratched his face and walked out of his room, with the others following him.
“Okay, what’s the lay-out now ?”
“I made you some blueprints.” Aranov said. “They’re crude, but you’ll get the point.”
He studied the blueprints and realized that they had not wasted any space. The ship was simply too small. If they had made it here aboard Nova Roma, they would have been able to expand the ship. However, because they had lost the tower, that was not an option. And without these rooms, long-term survival would be a lot harder. Fortunately, they had realized that this might happen and had come up with a Plan B.
“Okay, break out the Rabbit Seed and plug it in.”
“Yes, there is something about that…” Porter said. “…we can do it. But it will cost us the airlock. We’ll have to start on the bridge deck, grow through the airlock and then up. So we won’t be able to dock with Destiny if we get there the old-fashioned way.”
“One problem at a time.” Vale said. “Get started.”
“You’re the boss.” Porter nodded and turned to Aranov. “Nikita, can you give me a hand ?”
“Sure.”
Porter and Aranov left. It would take several days to grow the expansion. But they had brought enough food and water for several weeks, so they would be fine. He turned to Hailey.
“Will we have enough power for all the equipment in the expansion ?”
“Yes.” She said. “The real sticky part is getting the expansion inside the FTL-field, so it doesn’t get ripped off when we go in and out of FTL. We’ll basically have to build an extra FTL module and tune it in with the existing drive. And any left over power will have to be channeled into the current drive as well.”
“If anybody can do it, you can.” Vale said.
“Thank you, sir.”
“If you need me, I’ll be on the bridge.”
Hailey nodded and Vale headed towards the bridge. There were two spiral staircases which connected the decks, along with a platform lift. The lift was too small to hold the Puddle Jumpers, but they had modified the unit into a means for moving wounded. He reached the bridge deck. The space between the bridge and the airlock was filled with supplies. They were on shelves and in lockers. Then he reached the bridge itself. It was separated from the rest of the ship by an airlock door, which opened as he approached.
“Nice.” He said
He had not been on the bridge yet. So he took his time exploring the place. The rear section of the room had three consoles, which were connected to a central device. This was not a console, but some kind of cooling and connection hub. There were a couple of steps down to the forward section. First came the command chair. It was a chair flanked by two C-shaped control panels. Vale ran his hand across the control panel. ~Nice.~
The chair was empty, so he sat down in it. In front of the Command Chair was a much larger C-shaped console. This console had three stations, each of which its own chairs. The left and middle consoles were the science consoles, while the right one was Flight Control. The Engineering functions were all handled by the three consoles in the rear section. Finally, there were two sets of steps flanking the Science and Flight Control set. These led to the most forward section of the bridge. There were two L-shaped consoles here. The right one was Flight Control Two, while the left one was a Tactical Station. This section also had two windows. These could be protected by closing a pair of blast shutters.
Vale leaned back in the Command Chair. Part of him still couldn’t believe that he was out here – in the middle of nowhere – in command of a spaceship, with some of the crew being aliens.
“You have come a long way.” A voice said. “In more ways than one.”
He turned to see his mother – Octavia Valerius the Elder - standing in the rear section. Vale got up and approached her. The woman who was standing there, looked like his mother. But there was something different about her. He tried to touch her, but his hand passed through her. And then he remembered that Destiny was run by an artificial intelligence. So why would Spera not have such a program as well ?
“Spera, I presume ?”
“Always on guard.” Octavia said with a smile. “But yes, I am Spera’s Artificial Intelligence.”
“Not I mind the company…” Vale began. “…but, why are you here ? Destiny’s AI only showed up after we cracked the Master Code. And we’re still working on that.”
“Well, the Ancients whom programmed me figured that
when I had to get to work, things would be pretty bad.” She said. “Since I am
what you call the Alpha Site of the project.”
“Makes sense to me.” Vale said. “So…anything specific you wanted to talk about ?”
“No.” Octavia said. “I just wanted to say hello. But you will see me again, Colonel.”
And with that, she faded out. Vale smiled and walked out of the bridge. There were eighty people aboard Spera, but it was now crystal clear that the old girl had a mind of her own. Yes, this would be a very different mission.
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