The Hades Connectionby Gabriel S. Timar |
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| Chapter 14 |
I inspected the so-called UFO. Thanks to Attila’s course in the most recent space-travel technology, one look revealed how it worked. It was not a very complicated device.
The little rocket was supposed to destroy the Nimrod on a command originating aboard the target ship, although it would allow a sixty-minute delay to permit cancellation of the order.
Obviously, when the soul exchange between Esther and Ivan started, Ivan had enough time to press the button. Gemma, our driard, was not as fast as Luce thought. Only the alertness of young Fedorov saved the mission.
One did not have to be a genius to figure out how the scheme worked. The rocket with a heavy nuke in its nose cone had been in a parking orbit around a planet somewhere along the route of the Nimrod. The rocket’s control device started when Ivan gave the order to attack. The UFO’s sensors picked up the planetograph echoes of the Nimrod, and the rocket carrying its lethal load began shadowing the ship.
If Ivan had not rescinded the attack order, the rocket would have closed in and fired the nuclear device. It would have vaporized us, turning the Nimrod and its crew into space dust.
The UFO, or as the crew called her, the “Baby,” had two independent systems of propulsion. One was a new device, the so-called neutron drive. Its discovery was the result of a long chain of events.
For a long time, the scientists had thought that the maximum speed by physical means was the speed of light. This was too slow for interstellar travel and too fast for interplanetary distances. When the gravac drive became state of the art and the conventional theories about the limits of speed collapsed, the search began to develop ever more efficient rocket engines. Thus the engineers discovered the neutron drive.
The first test ship equipped with the new drive was much faster than the conventional vessels using the gravac hydrogen rams. However, it was difficult to control the neutron drive during long trips. If the pilot were not careful enough, the drive could run away and generate G forces that would easily kill the crew. Therefore, very careful piloting of such ships was necessary. Although the neutron drive required a lot of energy, it became the most efficient technology to power robot vessels.
The second drive of the “Baby” was the newest. It was unknown to the Khomu engineers, and I had learned about it only during Attila’s course in space technology. They called it the inertia drive. The scientists of the First System discovered it when they looked outside the realm of physics for further scientific interrelations.
As the neutron drive used a lot of energy, the scientists and the engineers figured there had to be a better way. Someone started to think about combining physics with other seemingly unrelated sciences like parapsychology. Then the fundamental theory of the inertia drive popped up. It was simplicity in itself.
The astronomers and the astrophysicists agreed that every galaxy has a focal point — a center of gravity — and a main axis. Calendron, a physicist of the First System, established that any movement projected onto the main axis of the galaxy was the specific velocity of a body. Furthermore, he proved that the relationship of shape, mass, and specific velocity would define the inertia of a body. If any one of those components were zero, the inertia of the body would be also zero.
On impact of a force, an object without inertia cannot offer resistance and can travel an unlimited distance within its dimension. It was impossible to apply physical forces to an object without inertia.
As one can think about faraway places without having to wait for the thought to travel there, the parapsychologists assumed that a thought was an object without inertia. Consequently, the forces generated by the mind, the psychic energy, move it. Following this line of reasoning, the scientists concluded that only psychic energy could act on objects having zero inertia.
The theory turned out correct and the technology successful at the first try. It worked very well. However, two minor problems emerged. The scientists had to come up with an operational device to reduce the specific velocity of an object to zero and create a psychic energy generator. When those devices became available, the engineers miniaturized them and built them into spacecraft. Thus, the inertia drive quickly became a reality.
The “Baby” had the inertia drive as well, a simple device. It did not require a rocket scientist to figure out that it was strong enough to carry the Nimrod’s shuttlecraft piggyback. Some simple adjustments were necessary, and I was sure I could manage them.
If I took the shuttle with a skeleton crew of no more than ten people and clamped it onto the “Baby”, I would reach good old Terra within a few seconds. The quick trip would give me plenty of time to negotiate with the leaders of Earth.
When I was alone with the UFO in the shuttle bay, I took von Vardy’s Swiss Army knife and boosted the output of the “Baby’s” inertia drive. I also disabled the neutron drive. If we accidentally switched it on, we would easily lose control, the drive might run away, and the vessel’s acceleration would kill everybody on board. Besides, the gravac rams of the shuttlecraft were adequate to maneuver the combination vessel either on an interplanetary journey, or in orbit, or in the atmosphere of Earth.
It would be easy to turn the “Baby” into an efficient spacecraft, which could return to the mother ship. We had to feed the operating parameters of the planetograph echoes of the Nimrod into the computer on the shuttlecraft, and “Baby” would home in on the mother ship.
As this would have taken a new computer program, and it takes hours to write one, I deferred it. I put pleasure before computer programming, no matter how much fun programming was. It was time to visit Miss Forrest.
* * *
When it came to women, I was used to the high-strung nervous beauty, the strength and endurance of Cleo, the classic lewd curves and boundless imagination of Esther. Ann Forrest looked different.
If one is used to driving a Maserati or an Aston Martin all the time, one assumes that driving is a matter of skill, horsepower, concentration, and stress. It is the same with women. In comparison to the others, Ann Forrest was a brand new Chevy station wagon loaded with extras.
One cannot change his or her driving or lovemaking style easily; both come from deep in the soul. Although Esther had a different body this time, her own style was breaking through and slowly taking over the sluggish, perfunctory technique of Ann Forrest. The temporary change was refreshing to say the least. Obviously, the body of Captain von Vardy did not respond in the same way as mine, and at times we were lost; but we quickly recovered just like a couple of experts.
With all our carnal desires satisfied, Esther gave me a long look: “Now, tell me what I can do for you.”
As I’d hate to go into the details of what she had already done for me, I simply shrugged: “Pack up your essentials, my dear. We are taking another ship for Earth as soon as I can reprogram one of our portable computers. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“No kidding,” she replied. “We were supposed to travel on this vessel for a few weeks, perhaps months. and now you’re telling me that we would get there immediately. You haven’t made an error in your calculations by any chance?”
I smiled: “No, Esther, we just captured a fast little ship that can get us to Earth in a matter of minutes.”
She stood up, gave me a long look, and asked: “I assume the real work begins soon, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” I replied, “and it might not be easy.”
“I’m aware of that,” she said. “It worries me that I may not be able to help you as much as I wanted to.”
“Why?” I blurted.
“With this miserable body?” she said in a sad tone. “Nobody in his right mind would want me. I doubt I could seduce anybody for you with this equipment.”
“Can you imagine that someone may want you for your brains and not for your body?” I queried.
“Well,” she replied thoughtfully, “that would be a new experience. In the past my body was always the grand prize.”
“There is a first time for everything, my dear,” I remarked while pulling up the zipper on my uniform.
* * *
I returned to the bridge of the Nimrod, where Stewart Nelson-Sired ruled with a quiet air of competence. He gave me a questioning look, obviously wanting to relinquish the seat of the captain; but I shook my head and said: “Let’s go to my quarters, Stu. Mr. Fedorov, take the conn, if you please.”
We retired to my cabin. I had the commander sit down and gave him a drink to relax as much as any first officer can in the company of his captain.
“Stu, I need your expertise,” I said. “I’ve figured out the guidance system of the “Baby”.”
“Do you mean the UFO?”
“Yes,” I continued, “it was a rocket designed to destroy us; it was sent from a planet far, far away. It has a couple of strange propulsion systems. Neither is big enough to take the Nimrod to our destination, but one of them can take the shuttle to Earth in a matter of minutes. I will take a skeleton crew and fly the combination ship to the target. This way the negotiations can start much earlier.”
“There aren’t enough weapons on the shuttle to defend yourselves properly,” Stu remarked.
“Just to be on the safe side,” I replied, “we should boost the output of the shield generator and fit a small laser cannon on it. We will take a couple of self-propelled torpedoes and the nuke Fedorov salvaged from the UFO. Those weapons should be enough. I don’t think we will have to fight a battle anywhere. Nevertheless, if I were forced into a fight, I would rather run away, come back to the Nimrod, and prepare for a regular shooting war.”
“Fair enough,” Stu stated. “What are my orders?”
To be continued...
Copyright © 2004 by Gabriel S. Timar
