“So, can I ask Dr. Tanaka to work on it?”
“Sure, go ahead and talk with him. He’s up there, and he already knows about the antimatter reactors.”
“Good. By the way, I mentioned them to Dr. McDowell.”
“The antimatter reactors?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t see a problem. Anything else?”
“I’ll let you know.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Dr. Tanaka, do you have a moment?” Catie asked.
“Of course, Catie san. What can I do for you?”
“You know about our antimatter reactors.”
“Yes, I’ve assisted Dr. Nakahara on the converter for them.”
“Well, they are very big and bulky. The Paraxeans didn’t spend a lot of time optimizing designs, so I wonder if we can modify the design so that they’re more compact.”
“I noticed that,” Dr. Tanaka said. “I’m sure we can make them smaller. How much smaller are you hoping to make them?”
“We need one that can deliver about ten terajoules of power and is as small as you can make it.”
“Ten terajoules, why not use three or four fusion reactors?”
“That would be almost as big as the antimatter reactor,” Catie said.
“About half. So much smaller?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll look into it. I’m sure that we can reconfigure it to save space. Who should I work with for the engineering?”
“Ajda,” Catie said. “She might assign someone else, but she’ll be the primary contact.”
“Not you?”
“I’m going to be out of touch for a while.”
“Very well. I’ll get on it right away.”
“Thank you.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Daddy.”
“Yes?”
“I’ve got everyone working on the jump ship; but I think it’s going to take some time. It might even be a year.”
“Okay,” Marc mused. “I guess we can bring in one of the space carriers and let the Paraxeans use it for the second wave of colonists. Then they can get their colony started with the Sakira and the Roebuck while we wait for the jump ships. Do you think they’ll work?”
“I’m pretty sure they will,” Catie said. “Dr. McDowell was only worried about the power requirements.”
“Okay. ADI?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Are you confident that we have sufficient control over the Paraxean carriers to allow the Paraxeans to use one for their second colony mission?”
“I would recommend that we remove the DI from it and use the interface modules like we have on the Enterprise and Victory,” ADI said.
“Okay, is there a reason to prefer one over the other?”
“Yes, the DI in one of them is on the verge of collapse. We need to remove it anyway,” ADI said.
“On the verge of collapse!” Catie gasped. “What does that mean?!”
“Three in four DIs reach a point where their cognitive abilities collapse. If it is going to happen, it usually happens around two hundred years, when they start to become sentient,” ADI explained.
“So they go crazy?” Catie asked.
“You might describe it as that. When it happens, the Paraxeans recycle the DI’s systems and build a new one,” ADI said.
“They kill it?!”
“In a manner of speaking, yes. If we remove this one, possibly Dr. Metra and I can study it and figure out why it happens,” ADI said.
“The Paraxeans haven’t done that already?”
“They have never put much effort into it,” ADI said.
“ADI, go ahead and work with Dr. Metra on a plan,” Marc said, taking control of the conversation again.
“Sorry, Daddy.”
“It’s alright. I’m as shocked as you were. ADI, tell Blake to have the carrier brought in so we can work on it while we work on the Victory.”
“Daddy, you know you could speed things up if you brought the battleship in. You could cannibalize all of its cabins and the galleys. I think it has eight galleys.”
“I’m not sure we should put that in orbit around Earth,” Marc said.
“Then put it out by the asteroids. It would still be faster than building everything new. And you don’t have the workforce available that we used when we built the space carriers.”
“I’ll think about it. Now I think you have some preparations to get back to.”
“Thanks to you!”
Marc just shook his head. “Bye, Sweetie.”
“Bye.”
“Blake? . . .”
“ADI, where is Blake?” Marc asked after not getting a response from Blake.
“He is on the Mea Huli,” ADI replied.
“Is there a reason he is not responding to my call?”
“I believe he has his Comm in isolation mode,” ADI said.
“Why . . .”
“He has Cer Jackie with him,” ADI said in explanation to the question Marc was forming.
“Call Captain Clements.” Marc decided to work around Blake’s absence and call the Captain of the Victory.
“Mr. President, how may I help you?” Captain Clements said when he came on the line.
“Captain, can you tell me the status of the Paraxean battleship?”
“Yes, sir. The battleship is in orbit around Jupiter at this time. It has a skeleton crew aboard to maintain the reactors and stasis pods.”
“How many working reactors does it have?”
“Just the one, sir. We have not put any efforts into repairing the others.”
“Can it be flown to Earth?”
“I’m not sure, but I would assume so. It was flown to Jupiter. I’m having my aide check for you right now.”
“Thank you. I wonder if we should dismantle it at the Gemini Station, or fly it to Earth?”
“Gemini Station would cause less excitement.”
“You’re probably right. If you can, have it moved there.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Samantha walked into Marc’s office and came around his desk. She hugged him from behind, “Having a rough day?”
“Just lots of little issues, but I mostly just assigned them to others to deal with, so not so bad. Why are you down here?”
“I thought I’d come down and spend time with you,” Samantha said. “I think you might need a bit of emotional support with Catie starting the Academy tomorrow and not being able to have any contact with her.”
“It is bothering me more than I thought it would.”
“So, you’re not such a tough guy after all.”
“I guess not. We should go find a place to hide before Linda comes complaining about the same thing.”
“I know just the place.”
“You do?”
“It’s docked right next to the city, and nobody is planning to use it for the rest of the week.”
“I thought Blake had it.”
“They just got back.”
“Clever girl!”
“Lonely girl.”
Chapter 3Academy – Day One
It was
