One Good Soldier

or heated discussions than Benny was.

'Joe, we've got reports from CDC and the STO that the Blair has popped into realspace and is QMTing troops and mecha dirtside left and right! They want to make sure the SIFs are set to block a teleported boarding party!' Technology Officer Lieutenant Commander Janet Wilbanks barked her report as she frantically typed in commands on her console.

'Yeah, I see that, Janet. Keep the structural-integrity field frequencies shifting on a random pattern. Any structure to it will allow some weisenheimer with a quantum computer to crack it. Set an AIC-to-AIC connection between your station and the air boss to allow any approved boarding to briefly run a standard SIF encryption pattern.' Joe thought about it as he replied. As long as the SIFs were allowed to vary in frequency at random, there would be no way anybody could hack the sequence and slip through. The shields would simply be impenetrable as long as they held—theoretically, of course. However, there wasn't any guarantee that the SIFs would prevent a QMT teleport. The quantum-membrane technology used in the teleport projectors was still very new and not well understood. Even though the U.S. Navy hadn't figured out a way to use a QMT teleporter to penetrate a ship when its SIFs were activated didn't mean the Seppies hadn't. And who knew what kind of bug the sim was going to throw at them?

'Roger that, Joe.' Janet turned about the work, and Joe didn't give it a second thought.

'Mira! Where are my main systems visual confirmations? Are we sure everything is working?'

'First visuals are coming in now, Joe. Everything is clicking hot! The bells are ringing and the whistles are blowin'.'

'All right. Don't make me ask next time. Every thirty seconds until you've got your station fixed!'

'Aye.'

'Aha! I've got you now, Buckley.' Benny laughed to himself and tapped in a ship-to-ship personal communications link.

'CHENG Blair. CHENG Madira.'

'Benny?' The Chief Engineer of the USS Anthony Blair's face popped up on Benny's holoscreen.

'Hey, Susan. How's your second doing?'

'Good, so far. What can I do for you?'

'Tell your captain that if she were to focus on our SIFs, we wouldn't know if they were down or not for about thirty seconds. They might be able to QMT a raiding party through the back door.' Benny smiled at his counterpart.

'Really? I'll pass that along. Appreciate the info, Benny.'

'Anything I can do for you, as always.' Benny leaned back in his chair a bit and relaxed his back muscles. The holoview shifted to compensate for his change in position.

'Well, if you put it that way.' Susan paused briefly and stared blankly into space. 'My second has a tendency to ignore secondary power conduits. In about three minutes Main Prop is gonna overheat and blow out a main power-transfer conduit. I want to see how long it will take him to find an alternative route while he's under duress. We'll be dead in the water for several minutes probably.'

'Got it. I'll pass that along to the bridge. They might be able to prolong your overheating problem.'

'Thanks, Benny. Knew I could count on ya.'

'Roger that, Suze. Benny out.'

Melissa, send a message to the CO that we're gonna be boarded in a few minutes and that the Blair is gonna be stuck in place about the same time, Benny thought as he looked over his ship through the DTM interface. Even though there was simulated damage, he was still keeping an eye on the real status of his beloved supercarrier. At least, it was still his for now. He hoped he'd have good hands to leave her in.

Roger that, Benny, his AIC replied.

Chapter 3

July 1, 2394 AD

Tau Ceti Planet Four, Moon Alpha, a.k.a. Ares

New Tharsis, Capital City of the United Separatist Republic

Friday, 7:40 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time