Introduction“A little more to the right” US ordered the two drones carrying the big, bulky console. Obediently, they shuffled a bit in the indicated direction, groaning under weight.
“On second thought, rather move it over there” she said, pointing to the other side of what was soon going to be Swarm Hive’s new command chamber. The two drones groaned even louder. “And hurry, the launch is happening in less than an hour!”
The little corner of Lambda Hive that had been the previous Swarm Hive had been cramped back when all they had to do was manage a few factories and all the problems were dealt with on site, but a steady influx of volunteer infertiles and assigned drone workers meant that the tunnels were steadily overflowing more and more. Eventually, as efficiency began to suffer, Swarm Command was moved to an extension of the Academy. For obvious reasons, expanding on the surface was far easier than tunneling out new passages underground.
Of course, US hadn’t minded the bit of distance this gave her to the other queens at all. Security was a little better here and the proximity of Infertile students nearby gave IM a source of close, moderately trustworthy labour.
“US, the shipyards send word that they are almost ready for launch. If we want to watch, we are going to have to hurry” PC shouted from the doorway.
“Almost done, just need to get this screen connected” US replied. “Where’s IM?”
“Out back in the Memorial Garden.Again.”
“PC! I told you not to call it that. It’s just a pile of bloody rocks! Why is she moping around out there so much anyway? I swear the fresh air here on the surface is addling her brain.”
PC shook her head. “She isn’t moping, she’s… thinking. Puzzling even.”
“Well, whatever she’s doing, get her in here! She’s going to miss the launch!”
IM sat quietly on the ground, sipping water from a flask and breathing in the fresh air of the surface world as she stared at the small cairn of stones and pondered its meaning. It was nothing more than eight roundish stones stacked on top of one another, apparently in remembrance of HN-31 and her team. At least, that was what the drones had said.
The Henry Hudson had… been lost. Struck by a stray micrometeorite in deep space, IM and the rest of Swarm Hive could do nothing but listen powerlessly to the distress calls as the surviving crew slowly died from asphyxiation and cold. The Sir Francis Drake had taken over a month to reach the tumbling wreck and by then it was cold and silent. There had been no survivors, not HN nor any of her team that were being transported to their next survey location. Their bodies were only recovered long enough to make positive identifications before being ejected back out the airlock. To IM, it served as a brutal reminder of the harshness of space.
The little pile of stones was the real mystery, however. For even though everyone knew drones lacked the ability to take initiative or make decisions on their own, they had somehow gotten it into their heads to erect this little memorial. Nobody had told them to do it, not one of her infertiles and certainly not a Hive Queen. And yet here it stood.
The others were mostly ignoring it, even though the implications were mildly troubling. It meant that the drones understood the importance of what HN was doing and possessed the emotional investment to want it not to be forgotten. Perhaps most distressing was the fact that no order they had could in any way be interpreted to have them do this. They showed initiative, something they weren’t supposed to have.
‘And if they have their own initiative, for what do they need Queens, besides as egg factories? Why don’t they just lead themselves?’ IM wondered.
“IM!” a voice carried faintly from the entrance of the facility a few hundred meters away, breaking the silence and interrupting her thoughts.
“What?” IM shouted back, mildly annoyed, as the figure of PC came running over. Why the silly queen hadn’t just sent a drone was beyond her.
“You’re going to miss the launch!” PC shouted. “They aren’t going to wait for you!”
“I have time, it’s only…” IM replied and fished a chronometer out of a side pouch. Immediately she sprang to her feet. “Hell, have I been sitting here this long already? I’m on my way.”
A lot of things had changed in the last three years. Most important of them all, the first two prototypes of a new Transnewtonian engine had been delivered. Through some miracle of science, it converted raw nuclear energy directly into thrust. Not the safest proposition, but it worked like a charm. Soon, the first two ships mounting these engines would be completed and ready for operations in deep space. The first was the Myrkul II class freighter. Essentially the hull of the old Myrkul fitted with the new engines.
The second ship was the one that was really exciting. It had been a brand new design by PC, mostly, and it, the Balor class, was slightly larger than the old Swaard class survey ships at 2300 tons, but in that space it fitted roughly the same loadout that the Swaard had carried except for two (2!) of the fastest, sleekest, most powerful engines the Swarm had ever produced. It was, in reality, a big prototype. The exact capabilities of the engines were as yet unknown.
US watched as a drone crawled out from under the monitor and nodded at her. Everything was connected and ready to receive the data stream from the shipyard.
“US! Are we ready?” IM shouted down the corridor. The security doors hadn’t even been installed yet, but there was no time to wait for such luxuries.
“Almost, just booting up!” US shouted back and she could hear the skittering sounds of the others claws coming closer.
The screen flickered to life just as PC and IM rushed in and took their positions near the centre. The room was crowded with infertiles and drones, all curious to see the big event.
“Fuel valves are nominal” the emotionless voice of UU-78-OLP, assigned captain of the Endymion, the new Balor class vessel, echoed over the speakers. “Checking injectors… Fuel injectors nominal.”
They were in time, but only barely. The ship was already going over its final pre-launch checklist.
On the bridge of the Endymion, things were tense, to put it mildly. They were flying an untested ship with untested engines operating on untested principles based on untested theory. And if things went wrong…? Well, they were NUCLEAR thermal engines and nothing with the word nuclear in ever went wrong gently.
“Coolant systems nominal” UU-78 reported methodically over the comms system to the eggheads in the control room aboard the shipyard. The one comforting thought she had was that if things did go horribly, catastrophically wrong the moment the engines powered up, those same eggheads who built the thing should still be inside the blast radius.
“All systems good to go” was finally transmitted from command as she reported the last of her systems functional. “Two minutes to launch. Initiate drive power.”
“Power up the engines” she commanded, her claws digging into the sides of her command chair. The first place that things could go wrong was the moment those drives got a taste of power…
“Launch in 5… 4… 3…”
“I hope it doesn’t blow up!” PC quipped.
“2… 1… releasing clamps.”
As the ship was being launched from the shipyard already in space, the launch itself was nothing like the spine-jarring, filling-rattling ordeal that was a conventional planetside launch using rocket motors. Instead, it consisted of nothing more than a sequence of pops as the docking clamps blew off (in a very carefully calculated fashion so as not to accidentally propel the ship into its moorings) and a gentle tug as the maneuvering jets slowly pushed the ship out of its slipway.
A rousing cheer echoed through Swarm Hive from drones and infertiles alike. Nothing had exploded yet, and, all things considered, that was a very good thing.
IM quickly ordered silence as the captain of the ship spoke again. "We have cleared the yard. I repeat,Endymion is clear of the shipyard."
"Roger, Endymion, proceed with the first phase of testing."
Some activity became visible on the ship as it prepared for acceleration. At the moment it was doing little more than coasting.
"Why are we doing these tests anyway? I thought we already put this ship through its paces in the dock" one of the other infertiles asked.
IM turned to her. "Because this will be the first full scale test of this propulsion technology."
"And we have no actual idea how fast this thing will go" PC added. "Faster than the old Hecatesdefinately, but the question is how much faster?"
"How fast do you think?" US asked with a sly smile.
"Well... if I had to guess, we will probably reach five hundred clicks per second. It's designed for speed, though, so we might even make a thousand!"
"No way it will hit a thousand" another infertile said.
The concept of gambling was completely alien to the Wrix - since their concept of ownership was a bit off by our standards - but if it had not been, then at this point a furious frenzy of betting would have broken out, most likely with US-93 acting as bookie. As it was, they simply settled for arguing.
"Everybody shut up!" IM eventually shouted. "It's picking up speed!"
"Speed at hundred kilometres per second..." the pilot of the Endymion said impassively over comms. "Hundred and twenty... hundred and fifty... keep pushing the power up slowly... hundred and ninety... two hundred."
There was another short cheer from the command room. Two hundred was twice as fast as the fastest Wrix vessel had ever traveled and it had been phase one for the Endymion.
"Confirm, Endymion. Report power levels" the mission control unit ordered. In time this would fall under Swarm Hive's responsibility, but for ease of management, it had been left in the hands of the shipyard's own control centre for this test.
"Power levels at... holy crap! We're only using four percent of our juice!" the chief engineer on board the Endymion reported back, excitement creeping into her voice.
"Roger Endymion, but please give exact values."
"Uh, sorry, 4.5318% of maximum power."
"Roger. Proceed to phase two."
An undercurrent of murmured excitement was sweeping Swarm Command. Phase two involved pushing the engines up to half power or five hundred kilometres per second, whichever came first.
The pilot locked the throttle as the ship settled in at its new speed of 500 km/s.
"Hmph, that was easier than expected" UU thought to herself. The helmsdrone had, in anticipation of the somewhat larger power requirement that was going to be needed, pushed the engine power levels up quite quickly before realising that far less power was needed than was expected. The net result was that the targeted speed was reached far quicker than anticipated.
"Control, this is Endymion reporting phase two complete. Speed is five hundred, over" the captain reported.
"Report status and power levels, Endymion" Control responded.
"Nothing much to report, bit of vibration but nothing serious. As for power, it seems we are at..." UU checked her command console, "9.2543% of maximum. This bird has some serious power, I just hope the frame can hold it."
"Your concern is noted, UU-78. Continue to phase three."
Phase three was what scared UU-78 most. It involved pushing the engines to full power to see how fast the ship could go.
The speed went up and up. It passed a thousandkilometres per second without even noticing. Thousand one-hundred.Thousand two-hundred. Thousand three-hundred. And still there was more power to give.
In the control room aboard the Gamma Yards (bit of a misnomer as the shipyards had long been under the control of Swarm Hive. Still, the name had stuck) the atmosphere was tense as well. Though their lives weren't on the line as those on board the Endymion were, they all wanted to see success.
In the corner, mostly unnoticed, sat a drone manning a rather less than important console. Despite his unimportance to this endeavor, he was especially nervous.
"Confirm speed one point seven kilos per second, Endymion. Report status and power levels" the operations commander in the centre of the control centre said into her headset.
"40.144 percent power, Control" UU's voice came back. "But the shaking is starting to get noticable. I'm worried about our structural integrity if we go much faster."
"Do you believe your ship to be in immenent danger?"
There was a short pause over the line. "Negative, Control."
"Roger, Endymion. Continue to increase power."
The speed continued to increase, and with it the vibration on board the ship. It wasn't long before it started to get visible even over the comms link. At just over two thousand kilometres per second (back in Swarm Hive, a large cheer had erupted), the Endymion once again reported in.
"Control, we are at 2064 km/s and 73.725% power but the vibration has gotten so bad I feel it is unsafe to continue. Permission to abort phase three."
"Confirmed, Endymion. Your objections have been noted and you have per... please hold, Endymion. Emergency transmission from Gamma Hive inbound."
The drone in the corner blanched and held the little disc tighter in his hand. This was what they had been afraid of.
Gamma's face appeared on a second screen, next to that of the commlink to the ship.
"Endymion, ignore your previous orders from Control. You are to proceed with phase three at all costs" she stated simply.
"Gamma, your Majesty, with all due respect, this ship is not under your command and you cannot give orders here" UU replied carefully.
"Perhaps not, but we control Swarm Hive and Swarm Hive commands you. I am not alone: Kappa, Rho, Sigma and the entire Epsilon Conglomerate are in agreement with me on this. They should already be sending their confirmations of this."
Green checkboxes with hive names began appearing on the bottom of the screen, denoting hives who have signaled their agreement. A very notable red checkbox immediately appeared named 'Swarm' but everyone involved was aware how little that really meant.
"Your Majesty, please reconsider. This ship is valuable and this test..." UU tried but Gamma cut her off.
"This ship's only current value is in its capability to test these engines. Now increase power to 100% or don’t bother coming back!"
UU only stared at Gamma for a few seconds before finally shrugging. “I guess you are the boss. Endymion, confirming continuation of Phase Three. Helmsman, let’s die gloriously, shall we?”
The corner drone inside the control room was shaking as he slipped the disc into the slot next to his console. So much so, that the drone next to him grabbed his arm.
“Pull yourself together dammit! You’re going to arouse suspicion!” he hissed.
The corner drone pulled his arm away and hissed back, “Let go! I’m fine. This is my task.”
“Then what are you waiting for? Activate it. We are all ready.”
“Only if things go wrong. It might still be okay” the corner drone replied.
His neighbor only shook his head as he turned back to his own console. Over the comms system, they could clearly hear UU trying to keep the ship together as the speed climbed.
“2100 km/s, 81% power, but the shaking is really bad… 2110 km/s… 2120 km/s…”
An edge of panic was creeping into her voice. The word ‘NUCLEAR’ kept flashing through her head. If the engine shielding failed they wouldn’t even have time to realize it had done so before they all turned to gaseous form. Unless only the radiation shielding cracked, in which case they would get to experience a slow, agonizing radiation death.
UU shook her head and focused on the speed indicator again. “2130 km/s… about 88% power… 2140 km/s”
The speed was going up far slower now and the increased stresses on the ship frame made them squeal in complaint. Somewhere from deep inside the ship’s hull a loud clank echoed through the hull. UU just hoped it wasn’t something important.
“2150 km/s… I can’t believe we’re still alive… 2160 km/s… come on baby, just a little bit more… 2165 km/s, 95% power…”
So close… so close… her hearts were racing and her entire body would have been shaking if it wasn’t already being thrown around like a ragdoll by the shaking ship.
“2170 km/s, I think this is about it control, we are at 98% power…”
“Keep going!” Gamma commanded over the comms. She still hadn’t broken her connection.
“2171 km/s… 2172 km/s… 21…”
Suddenly, a massive jolt shook the entire ship, snapping off several of the less well fastened fixtures on the bridge and sending a number of drones tumbling. A cacophony of metal screeching and grinding against itself from somewhere deeper within the ship nearly deafened her.
“Shut it down! Shut down the engines!” she screeched above the noise, but the helmsdrone had already reacted and cut the throttle. The ship lurched a bit as the engines powered down and then everything was quiet and still.
“Damage report!” she demanded.
“We’re working on it” one of the drones responded, its arms tapping rapidly at its command console, “but with only backup power its slow going. Doesn’t seem like we had a catastrophic hull breach though, because we are still alive.”
“Thank you genius. I suppose next you’re going to tell me we lost comms?” UU replied sarcastically. The little comms screen on her chair was pitch black.
“Huh. Guess we did. I’ll add that to the list” one of the other drones said.
“No, sorry, that was me!” one of the infertiles on the bridge responded. “Pressed the wrong button. I’ll have it back up in a jiffy!”
“It’s time!” the second drone hissed at the first.
“Not yet! We don’t know what happened!” the corner drone hissed back. The entire command centre was in an uproar, drones and infertiles rushing everywhere as they tried to figure out what had happened. Nobody even paid attention to the argument in the remote corner of the room.
“I think it’s pretty obvious what happened! The Endymion is gone and it’s time for us to act!” He reached across to his partner’s console, but was batted away.
“It’s my job and I’ll do it! Just give me a second to prepare myself, dammit! This is a pretty big step for us.”
“Then press the damn button already!” the second drone shouted. In the confusion, nobody but an infertile rushing past on some errand even noticed. She stopped and stared at them for a few seconds, but when the two drones only stared back, she continued on her way.
“Look what you almost did!” the corner drone hissed, barely audible now.
“It was you, wasting time!” the other replied.
“No!”
“Yes!”
“Control, this is Endymion” the loud, if slightly haggard voice of UU-78 sounded over the comms speakers and the entire room went quiet. “We are alive, if a bit shaken up.”
“Roger, Endymion!” the Command infertile responded. “What is your status? Are you heavily damaged?”
“Umm, we’re still busy checking, but so far it seems the major damage occurred in one of the cargo bays. We’re not exactly sure why yet, but it seems some of our supplies got loose and smashed two bulkheads into the neighbouring cargo bays. There is some hull damage, but no major breaches so it seems we are okay. Ironically, part of our damage control network seems to be the only serious damage.”
“You’ll be able to bring the ship home?”
“Seems like it. We checked the engine and its shielding as best we good and it seems completely untouched. And after checking our computer records, we have some good news, Control.”
“What would that be Endymion?” the infertile asked eagerly.
“For exactly 0.3 seconds the Endymion was at one hundred percent power and reached a speed of 2173 km/s. Phase Three was a success.”
This elicited a round of laughter from those in the control room.
“Good job, UU. Bring her home as soon as you are ready.”
In the far corner, a drone breathed a sigh of relief and quietly slipped a disc back into its vest pocket.
After returning to dock it turned out that the damage to the Endymion was caused by a small part of the structure of the ship that hadn’t been properly installed and had given way under stress, causing some secondary damage when the stack of engineering supplies that had been attached to it suddenly became a kinetic missile. The sources of the vibration – some of them badly installed parts, some simply badly designed due to lack of experience with such high speed craft – were tracked down and eliminated with the help of the numerous sensors that had been installed all across the ship. In another ironic twist of fate, one of these very sensors turned out to be a major contributor to the problem. Within a matter of weeks, the Endymion was fully repaired and overhauled and on its following test easily reached 100% power with only very minor vibrations.
OOC
A bit of fun to commemorate my return. This all takes place before the actual start of my game and just serves as an introduction.
Obviously a few things have changed since we last saw the Wrix a few years ago. Most of the main players are still there, except, obviously, HN and her crew of geologists. RIP HN-31. The biggest change is that of the star system Home itself. By necessity, I was forced to reroll a new suitable system and populate it accordingly. The important worlds are still there, details can be found in the other thread (
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,5660.0.html).
The Wrix technology has improved a little in the few years that have passed and they now have access to Cryogenic Transport, Construction Brigade, Nuclear Thermal Engines and the two engine types currently fitted to the Balor class (Endymion) and the Myrkul II.
I have not really altered the industrial capacity of the Wrix, leaving their total factories and mines as is, but I have also not altered their mineral deposits or mineral stockpiles AT ALL. This means that industrially, the Wrix are nearly exactly where they were when I last left off. It was just simpler this way than trying to gauge how much production would have occurred.
The Wrix will start with three ships: the Sir Francis Drake with conventional engines, the new Balor class starship, the Endymion and the brand new Myrkul II class freighter, both fitted with the new Nuclear Thermal engines. The Hudson had been lost to a collision with some bit of space debris.
The Wrix have not yet had time to apply their cryo transport or con brigade technologies, but both of those will get implemented shortly, especially with the recoverable facilities on First Stop. In addition, if you had read the construction thread (where I built the system) you might have noticed that I had accidentally dropped a big fat ruin on Wrixom itself. By accident. For now, I’m going to ignore this ruin as the Wrix are not aware of it, but it does exist and may be found at some point in the future. I may either bring it in purely through the power of narrative, or I might create some arbitrary rule to determine when and if the Wrix discover this treasure trove. Who knows what direction my whims go?
The solar situation (sun cooling down) is still a narrative only mechanic and doesn’t actually exist in the game. I have, however, lowered the temperature of Wrixom slightly by altering the atmospheric composition to simulate the cooling planet. Still within tolerances, but its effect is noticeable. Since we last saw the Wrix, the Home star has slowed its rate of cooling, but nobody knows whether that will last.
The various research facilities work on improving the NT engine designs in order to increase fuel efficiency.
So… that’s it. I will probably only do fluff pieces occasionally as I am rather eager to progress the game and see what happens.
