2039
"So this... Akademik Nikolay Basov is six thousands tons?" Admiral John Richardson asked. Lieutenant-Commander Nicholas Joyce, his intelligence officer, confirmed. "Yes, it's a new class, called Udaloy. The Russians claim that it's a science support vessel that will help the older Krivaks to survey solar wind effects and search for gravity waves and something like that. Look here", the spook pointed at the large image of the Russian ship displayed on the wall. "It has five sensor arrays that are identical to our geological survey sensors. But the Krivaks carry slightly different antennas. Russians have definitely improved their engines as Udaloy only has a single engine whereas the Krivaks have three, yet you can see the massive difference in thermals", Joyce paused as he brought up numbers. "Yeah, Krivak thermal output is twenty-two and half, whereas Udaloy has two hundred", he read out loud.
"Did you say two hundred?" Incredulous Vice-Admiral Michael Hood asked. "Yes, our Annies and Bisons have thermal output of five hundred but that's because they carry ten engines. Which means that either they've somehow boosted Nuclear Thermals to impossible levels or, more likely, they've cracked Nuclear Pulse engines way ahead of us", Joyce explained.
"That's not ideal. But the scientists assure me that they will catch up soon", Richardson allowed. "Sir, that's not the thing that has me worried. This is", Joyce continued, pointing to a large construct in the middle of the new Russian ship. "Measured by volume, it takes up a quarter of the tonnage and space of the ship. That's twenty-five percent of six thousand tons. Whatever that is, it's massive. And sir, I strongly suspect it has absolutely nothing to do with solar wind".
"Where are they now?" Richardson asked. Lieutenant-Commander Natasha Howarth, the operations officer, answered that question. "It departed Earth with both Krivaks on a heading towards Jupiter. We lost the group once they were far enough from Earth since Mars is currently on the wrong side but our listening station on Europa spotted them right on time. They are actually passing Jupiter by over fifty million kilometers. If they do not change course, they will right by the comet Borrelly, where we have a civilian mining op going on, soon after which we will lose them again, as Saturn's orbit has it in the wrong position. If they don't cut velocity, Europa can track the Udaloy's thermals for little over two hundred million kilometers. But as you all know, space is big so if they make a course change after we lose them, they could head anywhere and we would be none the wiser", she explained.
"Sir, this is why I am recommending sending the Patrol Flotilla to shadow them", Joyce picked up. "The SQR-105 on the Flowers can spot Udaloy from four hundred thousand kilometers and as far as we know, the Russians do not have any sensors better than Mark One Eyeball on them. They won't even know that our boys are on their tail", the spook said forcefully.
The admirals looked at each for a long moment, until Richardson nodded. "Very well. Ops, draft the order. PatFlo 1 is to shadow Udaloy at three-hundred fifty thousand kilometers as long as possible. Under no circumstances are they allowed to open fire at the Russians, except as a last resort for self defence. I emphasize that point, we do not need an international incident in space at this time", Richardson ordered.
"Yes sir, I've had Captain Gardiner keep the flotilla at high readiness, they are ready to depart inside an hour", Howarth answered.
***
As Patrol Flotilla One departs Earth at 2300 km/s velocity, Chinese and Russian observers dutifully note their real speed, that PATO mission control had painstakingly kept secret until now.
***
"Disappeared? What do you mean they disappeared?" The harried sensor tech could only shug his shoulders. "Sir, they were close to the edge of coverage and then they just vanished. We should have been able to track them for a few more klicks for sure, but if they cut down on their emissions, well", the tech shrugged again. "Patrol Flotilla One, this Europa Station. We've lost contact. I repeat, we've lost all contact", the station commander transmitted to the incoming six gunboat flotilla. Captain Gardiner wasn't happy but with the myopic thermal sensors that his gunboats carried, he saw no point in scouring the immense space beyond Jupiter's orbit. Finding the Russians now would be like finding a needle on a haystack.
***
Captain First Rank Yura Yuruev, captain of Akademik Nikolay Basov had the channel open to his junior colleagues, Captains Second Rank Karine Kryuchkov of Frunze and Borya Ponomaryov of Murmansk. He had fought off the nausea caused by the jump engine's activation and now stared silently at the main viewscreen. Realizing the gravity of the moment, he cleared his throat before speaking, knowing that every word was recorded:
"That was a small step for a ship, but a giant leap for the human race. For the first time ever, man has entered another solar system. Mother Russia is the first nation to cross the interstellar abyss. Today we have made history!"
He closed the channel and nodded to his helmsman. His ship would head towards the star and survey any planets discovered, as well as figure where the task group had actually jumped into. The gravitational survey ships would start on their job, finding additional jump points in this new system.
Soon information streamed in to the bridge. They had arrived at Luytens Star, a M4-V red dwarf slightly over 12 light years from Sol. At 0.26 Solar masses and 0.012 Solar luminosity, it was not much to look at. Two gas giants, a dwarf planet and a small asteroid belt formed the planetary system. The nearest gas giant was mere 16 million kilometers from the star. The second gas giant, the third companion of the star at 89 million kilometers - making it roughly as far from its parent star as Venus is from Sol - had twelve moons, mostly smaller ones but the second moon was terrestrial. It had a gravity of 0.83. Tide-locked to the gas giant, the moon was larger than Earth and still had a day-night cycle. Most surprisingly, it had an fully human-compatible atmosphere, though twice as thick as on Earth.
Yuruev rubbed his hands together. It was no paradise, but if rich deposits of TN minerals could be discovered on it, or on other bodies here, the system would be well worth investing in. It would take nineteen days for his ship to reach the innermost planet and begin the geological survey process.
***
When Akademik Nikolay Basov reached the moon in question and turned its sensors on, its crew received a shock, for humanity now encountered aliens for the first time. The race of vaguely marsupial creatures that inhabited the moon was seemingly in late-Medieval technological level with industrial revolution under way. The moon had no oceans or seas, though smaller waterways and lakes were present. Villages and towns dotted the surface, the largest being easily discernible as a city thanks to its grid-like layout. Stunned, captain Yuruev ordered all sensors to record. Unfortunately the aliens had no transmissions to record and Yuruev certainly did not dare to make landfall. And then, as if to make things even more complicated, fate threw up a surprise find: all eleven TN minerals were present on the moon, though some were at fairly small amounts and poor accessibility. Regardless, the moon was a jackpot - only a single jump from Sol, behind the nearest jump point, perfectly colonizable and with all necessary minerals present. Except that there were hundreds of millions of natives present. Yuruev had a feeling that he knew exactly what Kreml would do next.
***
Since the Russian survey group had spent several months at Luyten's Star, Jupiter had moved farther away from the jump point and thus Europa Station did not see their return and it was Ceres Station that spotted just few hours before Earth Station did. PATO analysts noted that the ships returned on an almost identical but flipped heading from where they had departed, proving that wherever they had been, the only course change was to correct for Earth's orbital motion.
***
Once again black limousines drove Very Important Persons from the nearby airfield into the bowels of Mount Yamantau. The ships had not transmitted any information electronically as they approached Earth - this already tipped the Russian leadership that they had found something important. To avoid the omnipresent electronic espionage of PATO, the three captains personally debriefed Russian Space Command and the crews of the three ships were placed in quarantine at one of the remaining Closed Cities behind Ural mountains. Kontr-admiral Ilya Zhukov represented RUSKOSMOS alongside Juia Borisov. General-mayor Yurik Demidov represented the Russian Army, while Administrator Pavlik Kiselyov - governor of Mercury - represented industrial interests and ambassador Senia Sokolov the foreign ministry. President Maksim Samoylov chaired the meeting.
"And this is a picture of what the aliens look like", Zhukov announced:
"So cute", Sokolov instinctively said before composing herself.
"Indeed they are but our ships witnessed large-scale fighting at one village so they are perfectly capable of violence. Appearances can be deceiving", Zhukov continued.
"So let me reiterate to make sure we've all understood this correctly. The moon is perfectly suitable for Russian habitation, even sort of resembling Russia, except for the red-black plant life, and all the Trans-Newtonian minerals we could desire are present. But there are millions of these critters present as well", President Samoylov spoke.
"Why is the plant-life coloured that way", asked Kiselyov and before Samoylov managed to shush him quiet, Borisov launched into an explanation: "it is due to the nature of Luyten's Star. As a red dwarf, most of its radiation is on the Infrared part of the EM spectrum, as well as the red-slash-magenta part of Visible Light part. Thus the plants have evolved to capture as much energy from the IR side as possible, and for that purpose the colour black is most advantageous"
"Thank you Julia, that was enlightening but we do not need to know such details to make the important decision. What are our options? Earth is almost out of Duranium and despite the best efforts of Kiselyov, Mercury will not save our industry. Luyten's Star smells like salvation", Samolyov stated. Nobody mentioned how the president's popularity largely hinged on the success of the 21st century space race.
"Regrettably the Army is not in a condition to organize an invasion on a planetary scale. We are barely strong enough to resist our enemies here on Earth. Fighting hundreds of millions of aliens, regardless if they are armed with swords or muskets, is simply a task an order of magnitude larger than what we can realistically plan for. Give me five years and unlimited funds, and things will be different", General Demidov stated.
"Before we even contemplate using nukes to pound these aliens into submission", started Sokolov carefully, "I would like to propose a more subtle approach. Let's try to communicate with them. Share the warning about extra-galactic invaders. Offer industrial and technological assistance. Turn the aliens into another Korea or Vietnam", she carefully avoided mentioning Afghanistan, "and in order to facilitate all this help, we naturally must establish a colony. And if we mine few tons of minerals that are useless to the natives, well, that's just our due reward for all the humanitarian assistance we are offering to them", she finished.
"I like that plan", Samoylov nodded approvingly.
"Except that sooner or later the Americans or Chinese will find out about our jump engine, send their ships to Luyten's Star and then we'll have to compete with cheeseburgers and sushi!" Kiselyov ranted.
"Perhaps not. Thanks to the work of Miss Borisov and her colleagues, we are ready to start constructing our first armed space ship. China has no military vessels and PATO has six gunboats. The boats that we'll have in service inside a year, is better than their Flower class", Zhukov offered.
Type 2037 Soobrazitelnyy class Gunboat 2 700 tons 74 Crew 277 BP TCS 54 TH 120 EM 0
2222 km/s Armour 4-17 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 12
Maint Life 4.27 Years MSP 64 AFR 58% IFR 0.8% 1YR 6 5YR 85 Max Repair 20 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Spare Berths 0
GAZPROM NPE-40 (3) Power 40 Fuel Use 85.5% Signature 40 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 250 000 Litres Range 19.5 billion km (101 days at full power)
D3-R10 Laser (4) Range 30 000km TS: 2222 km/s Power 3-2 RM 1 ROF 10 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
OLGA 32-2500 (1) Max Range: 64 000 km TS: 2500 km/s 84 69 53 37 22 6 0 0 0 0
ERGOSMASH Reactor (6) Total Power Output 9.45 Armour 0 Exp 7%
JULIA R60 (1) GPS 576 Range 4.5m km Resolution 60
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
The admiral pointed at the jump point on the map. "There is no other entrance into Luyten's Star and no way to sneak in. As soon as Kiev is ready, it will be parked on top of the jump point and Miss Sokolov will announce whatever convenient excuse we want to use. Then, when the other powers find out about jump points, we announce the existence of that jump point and declare that everything behind it is property of the Russian Federation and blocked to other countries. By then we should have multiple frigates guarding the jump point. The other will curse us but they will not start a war over it, because there are four other jump points available and they do not know what lies behind", the Admiral lectured.
"YES! YES! And we can move factories to the moon as well as laboratories, protecting them!" Kiselyov shouted, excitement obvious on his reddened face.
President Samoylov looked around but could not see anyone objecting.
"Very well. That is the plan. Please proceed. Meeting adjourned", he simply stated, leaving the details to lesser people.
***
"Something is happening in Russia", Joyce announced to Richardson. "They are building a new class in their military yard that has been idle for years. Meanwhile, the three science ships are under armed guard, and their crews have not made a single update on social media, or even called their families. This stinks boss", the spook continued.
"But do you have anything concrete", the admiral countered, to which the lieutenant-commander could only shake his head. "Then keep digging. I need something solid to take to the PATO Council before they will authorize anything, especially with the vote regarding self-rule for Mars is coming up soon and all the politicians focusing on that", Richardson ordered.
