Atlantis Rising (8 page)

“This is your last chance to opt
out. If you don’t want to go to the base, stand up now and wait in the
reception room. We will make arrangements to get you back to the mainland.
Remember, for the time being this will function like a military operation. I’m
in command, and what I say goes. Those people holding a higher rank than you
are your bosses, so choose wisely.”

“There is no going back.”

on walked down the hall, passing one of the new engineers. The man
had a panel off the wall and was half hidden from view. Jon smiled to himself;
it was good to see people actually moving about the base.

“File six-a-three,” the man said.
“Think I got it now.”

Jon stopped and chuckled.

“Atlanta, can you give me a
reading on the power coupler on level four section twelve?” the man said.

“The readings have evened out,
looks like you got the fluctuation taken care of,” Atlanta’s voice said. “Good
morning, Commander. We need you in Command.”

“I’m on my way, Atlanta. Terri
relayed your message to me when I woke up,” Jon said.

A loud bang, followed by some
cussing, came from the panel as the man slid out.

He quickly got to his feet as he
spoke, “Sorry, Sir. I didn’t know you were here.”

The man saluted Jon as he came to
attention.

Jon saluted him back as he spoke,
“At ease, sailor.”

He relaxed.

“How is everything?” Jon asked.

“Well, the main power conduit…”
he started to say.

Jon held his hand up, “I meant,
with you. Are you adjusting well? Have you had any problems?”

“Oh! No, Sir. Everything is fine.
Actually, it’s better than fine. I used to have to wear glasses, but the
nanites corrected my vision. I woke up this morning, and felt like a new man,
the best I have felt in years,” he said.

“Good. Well, if you need
anything, let me know. Oh, by the way, you can access the information in your
head, by just thinking about it,” Jon said.

“Yes, Sir. I’m still getting used
to how the nanites work,” the Ensign said.

“I have to get going. Make sure
you attend all the classes, so you can get certified. Having the information in
your head, doesn’t replace experience. You need ‘hands on’ experience to learn
the things the manuals can’t tell you,” Jon said.

“Yes, Sir. I’ll make sure I’m at
all my scheduled classes,” he said.

Atlanta was holding classes for
all the divisions on base. She had told
Jon they
all needed practical experience. He even had to take
classes on tactics and strategy. He personally thought it was a good idea. He
even had people volunteering to teach classes to new recruits. Jon certainly
hoped they would be around long enough to recruit more people.

Jon continued down the corridor
and stepped into the transport tube to Command as he chuckled. He needed to
contact the department heads and have them all tell their people to relax. He
stepped lightly out of the tube on to the Command level.

Atlanta was standing at the
planning table talking to Mike. They were looking over the incoming fleet and
trying to come up with some type of plan.

“Commander on deck!” one of the
marines shouted as Jon stepped off the lift.

Jon cringed as everyone stopped
what he or she was doing and stood up. Jon gave the marine an evil stare as the
man stood up straight with a smile on his face.

“As you were,” Jon said.

Everyone resumed their duties as
Jon walked towards Atlanta and Mike. “Report,” Jon said.

“Last of the shuttles have
returned safely and are currently unloading,” Traffic Control reported.

“We’re still monitoring
communication bands. However, it doesn’t look like anyone knows this fleet is
inbound sir,” Communications reported.

“Shields are at 70% and climbing,
about another three hours until they’re fully charged. Offensive weaponry is
still offline, Sir,” Tactical reported.

Jon arched an eyebrow as he
walked up next to Mike, “Engineering, how long until we get those weapons
online?” Jon asked.

“We’re still trying to trace the
problem down, sir. We have most of the power fluctuations out of the system.
The second secondary reactor is almost completely assembled it will be ready in
two days. Those spider bots are amazing,” Engineering reported.

“Get those weapons online, that’s
the priority. I want everything else but the secondary reactor shelved,” Jon
said.

“Yes, Sir,” Engineering said.

“Nothing to report, Sir,”
Sciences said.

“Nothing to report, Sir,” Medical
said.

Jon studied the hologram, it
showed a patched outer
hull and
the
flooded compartments had been purged.

“What are these?” Jon asked. He
pointed to five little objects floating around the base’s exterior.

Mike smiled, “Those are the
Sensor Drones. Brad and I finished the code for them last night and he’s
running tests on them now.”

“Nice,” Jon said. To help
differentiate the drones, Brad and Mike numbered them one through five. Drone
five shot straight up from the base as Jon watched it. “Where’s that one going?”

“Which?” Mike said. He looked at
the hologram, “Oh, five?”

“Yeah, it just took off like a
bat out of hell,” Jon said.

“We can follow them. You can do
it by voice command. I haven’t gotten the neural commands added yet. Follow
five,” Mike said.

The hologram shifted to place the
drone in the center.

“Cool,” Jon said.

“The drone constantly updates the
computer with any information it gathers. Even if you can’t see it, the
computer sees what it sees. I still have a few things to do
so
they
can recognize dangers and report them. Right
now, they’re just useful for observation purposes,” Mike said.

The drone shot out of the Ocean
and up into the air about thirty feet.

“They use the same engines as the
shuttles, just on a smaller scale. We found the schematics for the engines in
the database,” Mike said.

“Those are going to be handy.
What is their range?” Jon asked.

“About a mile out of the water,
underwater well we don’t know. We’ve had them out as far as ten miles. The
water acts as an amplifier for their transmitters,” Mike said.

“Nice stuff,” Jon said. The
table’s hologram shifted back to the Invaru battle fleet.

“How long do we have before the
fleet reaches Earth?” Jon asked.

“Four hours,” Mike said.

Jonathan looked up at the display
it now showed four ships. Class marked them as: two battleships, and two heavy
cruisers. Jonathan gave a low whistle as he looked over their weaponry; it was
impressive.

“Can we hold out against their
weaponry?” Jonathan asked.

“I estimate that our shields, if
fully charged, will last twenty minutes,” Atlanta said.

“That long huh?” Jon said.

Atlanta and Mike nodded in
unison.

“There is however an idea on the
table to reinforce the shields,” Mike said.

“How?” Jon asked.

“We can route power from the
operational secondary reactor,” Mike said.

Atlanta crossed her arms, “And
I’ve told you that would be useless.”

“I know, but Brad and I think
it’s worth a try,” Mike said.

“Why would it be useless?” Jon
asked.

“If we routed power from the
secondary reactor into the shield systems it would buy us minutes and that’s
all,” Atlanta said. “Most likely it would overload the reactor and if we needed
it we wouldn’t have it available.”

“They did it on their starship
all the time,” Mike said.

“Yes, and if you had bothered to
research it you would have seen the systems on a starship are different than a
base,” Atlanta said.

“Oh,” Mike said.

“The base uses a particle shield,
to protect itself. Most space to ground weapons are weak against this type of
shield. Starships on the other hand use a particle, magnetic and thermal shield
system,” Atlanta said. She pulled up the schematics of the base’s shield system
and of a starship. “Not all ships routed their secondary reactors into their
shield and weapon systems. It was done only for those ships that had seen a lot
of combat.”

“I don’t understand. You’re
saying reinforcing one shield is less effective than reinforcing three
different shields?” Jonathan said.

“Ships had heavier duty shield
relays and emitters because they had to be able to handle the extra load,”
Atlanta said. “There was also something about the way the shields reacted to
each other; they created less stress on the emitters.”

“Oh, okay,” Jon said, even though
he understood about half of what Atlanta had said. “Well, let’s just hope they
have a hard time locating us and we manage to get the weapons online so we can
fight back if we need too.”

“Well, on a positive note, Terri
passed her shuttle exam,” Atlanta said.

“I bet she’s happier than a pig
in shit,” Jon said.

“No doubt, I ran into her this
morning and she talked me to death about going into fighter training,” Mike
said.

“Fighter training?” Jon said.

“Yes, the base carries four
squadrons of fighters,” Atlanta said. She pushed the hologram of the enemy
fleet down the table as she pulled up the specifications of the fighters.
“Daresen fighters, top of the line. Well, two thousand years ago that is, the
base's fighters were top of the line. The fighter's armaments include four
Polaron Gatling guns and twelve antimatter missiles. They can also be fitted
with torpedoes for anti-capital combat. Their hull is composed of a Titanium
Cardinium composite. Their shields are rated at class five, and they are
capable of Fold jumping.”

The fighter itself looked like a
large needle someone had hit with a hammer to flatten it. Two small fins on the
top of the vessel angled out from each other and the wings angled slightly
down. The cockpit sat just where the back end of the ship flared out, slightly
behind the midpoint.

“Now that is a wicked looking ship,”
Mike said.

“Very nasty looking,” Jon said.

“If we had the pilots we could
probably stop the incoming fleet without a problem,” Atlanta said.

“How long would it take to train
someone to fly one?” Jon asked.

“It does not take very long; the
fighters are thought controlled through the nanites. They do have back up
manual controls like the shuttles, though,” Atlanta said. “The problem isn’t
the training to fly. It’s the training to fly it effectively, and the tactics
that go with it. You can’t just toss someone into a fighter, and then right
into combat. We would lose every single person we sent up.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t
think about that,” Jon said. “I guess I was just grasping at straws.”

{
Commander.
} Marc said.

{
Go ahead.
} Jonathan
replied.

{
I have a ‘situation' in
Security.
}

Security was located mid-level in
the base. It connected all internal security monitoring and control at a
central point; someone could control everything from Security. The people in
Security could open or close bulkhead doors, force fields raised or lowered,
and monitor all personnel on a large central hologram, very similar to the
planning table in Command. The area also acted as a secondary command post and
along the walls of the circular room was a copy of all stations in Main
Command, they were manned at all times by security personnel in training.
Finally, base design tied all weapons into the main computer systems, yet
Security could disarm weapons at the touch of a button and even deactivate
armor.

Room access made even a bank
vault look shoddy. To gain access, you had to go through several checkpoints in
a long corridor. Voice-print, biometrics, and retinal scans had to match to get
through the checkpoints. Security dictates, allowed no weapons allowed. To move
past an access point, security had to deactivate a force field.

All personnel had to report to
Security before beginning their rounds. They checked out their weapons and any
other specialized
equipment they
might need. Armor was personal, and they kept that with them at all times. Marc
had made it mandatory that all personnel wear their armor at all times while on
duty.

{
What seems to be the problem?
}

{
Her name is Carla Taldage,
Sir. She seems to think she is in command of the Security Force.
}

{
Ensign Taldage, report to
Command, immediately. First Lieutenant Anders is in command of Security. We
went over this, already. You’re Command Staff.
}

{
But, Sir…
}

{
But nothing! Get your ass up
here on the double, and let him do his job.
}

{
Yes, Sir.
}

{
There, it’s taken care of,
Marc. I’ll
speak to
her about
it again. She really wanted your posting.
}