Let’s get out there and humbly help bring about some genuine justice to the Empire! But let’s not forget the part about mercy either. I wonder if we could have been more merciful with the bugs?
October 3rd. We’ve been doing a lot of systematic recon work and have found more of those domes all over Cygnus Prime. Each dome has a portal. And each dome portal gate probably connects to a portal gate on or near another planet. We have counted 50 domes. There may be more. But we were thorough in our survey, using cloaked ports at high elevation. It’s not as though the domes are small.
We think each portal can only link to the one other portal to which it was set. We destroyed the portal gate linked to Darkside. So, the Empire portal linked to the Moon is dead. Of course, just to be sure, the Darkside portal gate has been disconnected from a power source and locked. The Empire can’t use it.
We can’t use it either. But our engineers can study the Darkside gate. The scientists and engineers can back-engineer it and make new portals. That’s the hope anyway. Then humanity can set up gates anywhere we want.
That could happen quickly if the tech guys develop a method to make gate sections small enough to allow personal teleportation. I suppose that would be asking an awful lot of the twins, to move gate sections all over the galaxy. They could give us a good start at least. To stop the Empire, we’ll need to move massive pieces of equipment, like warships.
We have one or two more days of spying on Cygnus Prime, before heading back to the office.
October 4th. There have been so many amazing things to see. I mentioned the skyscrapers that go miles high. They also have elevators running up to platforms in space. Way out in space from what we can tell. I bet there are apartments up there. Ships can resupply at platforms already in space, reducing the energy cost of breaking free of most of the gravitational pull. We’ve seen oversize elevators that are probably hauling product made in zero-G for use planet-side. With the sky elevators, people, equipment, and all kinds of things can get lifted to orbit at low cost. Smart.
And it’s something they’ve been working on back home. I bet even without Empire technology, or bug technology, we would have space elevators by the turn of the century. A space elevator is basically a cable tethered to the ground and running out something like 22,000 miles into space. The center of mass for the elevator needs to be in geosynchronous orbit. That’s why the center of mass is so far out in space. The cable runs straight up to that orbiting station. The station just hangs up there, all geostationary like. Straight up. And electromagnetic elevators ride up and down.
Humanity isn’t too far behind the Empire when it comes to space elevator technology. We’ll catch up fast with that and everything else. Or let Cygnus Prime help. A little recon, a little espionage, and we’ll help ourselves to their technology. Then, the entire galaxy awaits. One more task for tomorrow, then it’s time to go home. We have our eyes on a military officer. It is apparent he is of a fairly high rank. And he seems to be attached to the dome base that was destroyed. That invites an interrogation. Maybe we’ll even take him back with us.
October 5th. It’s time to check in on our subject and see if we can do some interrogation. There are gun emplacements, large weapons facilities, near each dome base. We think those provide defensive cover to the base when the dome is down. Maybe when a ship exits a portal gate and makes for another location in the Cygnus Prime system.
This particular officer has been outside the dome site we wrecked on a daily basis, working with crews who seem to be doing cleanup in preparation for reconstruction. There are robots moving all over the area inside the dome. They’re spraying some sort of foam, gathering debris. Decontamination and cleanup. No doubt it’s a radioactive mess in there. We have detected no radiation outside the dome however.
Anyway, this military guy seems to be in charge. We’ve checked in on him for the last couple of days. He seems to keep a tight schedule. First there is a visit with someone, it looks to be the foreman of the dome cleanup crew. After that, he hops in his aircar for a quick trip and visit to the nearby gun facility. Then he heads off to who knows where.
If he keeps the same schedule today, we’re going to make a grab for him when he gets into his car, after the facility visit. The plan is to grab him from the car. Its large and private, shielded from outside viewing and scanning. Well, our scanners can’t penetrate the shielding, and we assume the shielding was made to block Empire tech.
Mr. T, Roll, and I will port in under cloak. Roll is getting good at porting into tight spaces, feeling for any untangle shakes. He and I popped in under cloak for a quick look when the car was empty, to determine the layout.
The inside was a lot like a party-limo, the interior consisting of a big oval couch taking up the entire interior. There was a lot of legroom. We had hoped for an opportunity like this and had the foresight to bring a bag and some twisters.
What’s that Para? Oh, yeah, good idea. I should elaborate since bags and twisters are rather new tech. A bag basically looks like a hood. When set over a person’s head, it shrinks and wraps to conform to the persons features. It wraps tightly and effectively muffles any noise that a person might make. It blocks vision
