Nova Wars ChApTeR GaLaCtIc PoSiTiOnInG sYsTeM eXe FaIlUrE
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More beings that have been turned away for some perceived lack have gone on to win medals for honor, courage, and excellence than other group. It's the ultimate irony of the very standards that make a fighting force effective. - General No'Drak, Second Precursor War
Mwillik knew that for him to explain it would take too long, he'd get things wrong, and there were too many fine details only a ship captain would understand or even remember.
That limitation had been built into his mission preparation.
Rather than start speaking, he simply held up a thin plastic bar that held a datachip in one end.
"This will get you up to speed faster, Captain," Mwillik said.
His suit translated it into Treana'ad battle click. A language that was virtually unchanged for millions of years. Barring that, he had pre-Council/Confederacy Conflict Lanaktallan Military Common Speech loaded into his knowsoft.
The Captain took the plastic 'softstik' and pushed it against his temple.
Mwillik could hear the click as the software chip was loaded into the Captain's knowsoft jacks.
The Captain blinked a few times, his fingertips twitching, as Mwillik turned and moved to the door. The Puntimat checked the settings quickly, then turned back to the Captain.
"Good luck, sir," Mwillik said. He opened the door, the permeable forcefield over the doorway glimmering as it prevented the atmosphere from leaking out into the empty corridor beyond.
The Captain just nodded, still blinking with his fingers twitching.
Mwillik moved into the corridor, making a least-time course back to his target.
The mat-trans.
Again, he moved in and knelt down in the recovery position as the door silently swung shut. He reached down and tapped the button.
His brain froze.
The door closed and the mat-trans cycled.
-----
Aboard Confederate Space Force Little Winky, Captain Reltetak stared at the holotank as first one, then another, then another of the Terran fleet went from yellow to light blue, switching from 'possible threat' to 'starting to become under friendly control' as the Marine Raider kept doing his job.
"That's twenty-five," Commander K'Lerkik stated. "Anything after this from Mwillik is exceeding best possibly projections."
She closed her eyes and pinched to either side of her nostrils.
She had sent him on a suicide mission. She had known it when she sent him.
But then, not only had he known it was a suicide mission, he had volunteered and insisted upon it.
Mission parameters had allowed the Marine to break off after he 'captured' the five biggest flagships at any time he felt that the mission ran the risk of becoming suicidal.
Captain Reltetak made herself sit and watch as the fleet that the Slappers had hoped to salvage slowly began to switch from being in the Noocracy's control to the Confederacy's control.
She'd heard that Terrans could be completely cloned, have their mental engrams written onto the smooth brains of clones, and come back as if they had never been killed.
But, like many, she had just chalked it up to forty-thousand years worth the rumors about a species that left strange and bizarre artifacts, destroyed worlds and stellar systems, and had made such a mark on every species they met.
But she had watched the icons go from yellow to dark blue to light blue.
She appreciated that none of the commanders had tried to use 'secure' communication systems that had been developed 40,000 years ago and had been dissected and reverse engineered by the Noocracy for almost as long.
She appreciated the self-discipline and the adherence to regulations.
Still, the fact that the Terrans were sticking to obvious intelligence and protocol didn't make any of it any less stressful.
Another ship went dark blue.
"There the tugs go," Lieutenant Senior Grade Mik<clack>Kak said from her sensor station. The Akltak officer tapped a few keys and the icons for the tugs appeared in the tank. "They're going for the two super-colossus carriers."
Captain Reltetak just nodded silently.
"Once that happens, the whole thing will come apart," Guns, Chief Gunnery Officer Max Ikriktak, said. The big Treana'ad tapped his board. "We still don't have any data on the Noocracy stealth vessels."
"What's the status on the drones and buoys?" Captain Reltetak asked.
The Treana'ad didn't look up. "Ready for deployment."
"Stay on them. I want them activated before the order finishes leaving my speech cortex," Captain Reltetak said. She looked at the holotank again. "This is going to go sideways. I just know it."
-----
Mwillik moved into the mat-trans chamber, going down on one knee. He pressed the button and his brain froze. The door shut silently and the lights brightened and dimmed, pulsating, as a humming sound worked up as the quantum byproduct that looked like fog gathered.
Mwillik vanished.
His brain unfroze and he was still in the recovery position. He looked down at his chest, thumbing the 'you still alive?' button and getting back "Zzzzzz" for an answer.
He moved out of the room and stopped.
Normally, the control room would be empty. Obviously onboard a starship, close and claustrophobic, with dim lights and a heavy blast door at the far end. Only a handful of consoles to control the system should have been present, all of them locked out with a security warning onscreen.
Instead, the room was larger, almost spacious. The desks that the computers were sitting on had heavily armored panels facing him. The lights were bright, some type of glowing tube rather than the thin glowstrips that Mwillik was used to.
There was also a male Terran wearing dappled green clothing sitting at one of the desks. He had on shiny black leather boots that were on the desk, with a Treana'ad smokestick in one hand and a brown bottle in the other.
Mwillik froze in place. Everyone knew a Terran couldn't see you if you held still. Their vision was based on movement.
"I can still see you," the Terran said.
Mwillik still held still.
"Still can see you," the Terran said. He took a drag off the cigarette and then a drink off the bottle.
Mwillik moved slowly across the room.
"Still see you."
Mwillik went still again, slowly moving his hand up to press the button.
"Zzzzz" came back.
"I can literally see you moving," the Terran said.
Mwillik stopped. "Why are you here?" he asked.
"Mom sent me," the Terran said. He shook his head. "She wants to know why you think she should help you."
"Mom?" Mwillik asked.
"Mom. The Detainee. Not the Lady Lord of Hell. That's someone else. The Detainee, that's it," the Terran said.
Mwillik shook his head, reaching down to touch the button on his hip. "I am out of drugs and having a mat-trans dream," he said.
The Terran shook his head. "No. Not yet. You will soon though," he said. He shrugged. "Like most people, it will tear apart your mind and leave you either a drooling wreck or full of sound and fury but little thought."
"I am not afraid. I have been..." Mwillik started.
"Given your mission. Yes," the Terran said. "Mom figured out what it was," he shrugged. "My younger brothers are currently onboard other ships, carrying out identical missions to yours," he gave a sudden tooth baring grin. "It'll be a lot easier for my little brothers to do it than have you trying to appear aboard over a hundred thousand ships."
Mwillik shook his head. "Not quite that many are my target."
The Terran nodded. "Enough are," he pulled his boots off of the desk, sitting up. He reached down, grabbed a bottle, and set it down. That done, he leaned back and put his boots on the desktop again. "Have a beer. It'll help your headache."
Mwillik nodded. His head did hurt. It was getting worse and worse too.
This is just a mat-trans dream, he thought to himself as he moved forward and picked up the bottle. His suit's palm sensors reported it was silicate glass with minor impurities to give it a brown color by visible light. It was at four degrees scientific temperature calculus and contained twelve ounces of fluid. It had liquid H2O beaded on its surface due to condensation.
"It's beer," the Terran said.
Mwillik gave the 'beer' permissions and moved the rebreather out of his mouth. He put the bottle against his still masked mouth and took a 'drink' from the bottle. The data appeared in his vision, the chemical breakdown of the substance. The selectively permeable membrane that the suit was made up of would only allow gas, liquid, and solids to pass through it that were permitted.
"BEER" appeared in his vision. He blinked and the membrane allowed the liquid through and to his thirsty mouth.
He took a long drink, the cold and crisp taste easing his raw throat.
This mat-trans dream is very detailed, he thought to himself.
"Have a seat," the Terran said.
"All right," Mwillik wondered how the Terran, who had been extinct for 40,000 years, could speak Confederate Standard so easily.
Another data point that it was all a mat-trans dream.
Mwillik went over and sat down in one of the chairs, noticing that his feet were a good six inches off of the floor and he had to scoot forward in the chair. He frowned behind his mask.
It seemed like the dream would at least accommodate his small size.
"Now what?" Mwillik asked.
The Terran exhaled more smoke.
"Now we wait."
"For what?"
The Terran smiled, baring his meat tearing teeth again.
"For Mom."
-----
Captain Reltetak watched the holotank as nearly thirty ships went dark blue to signify the emergency captain system had been spun up. She got up from her chair and walked over, rewinding the footage and then running at high speed.
After the sixth boarding action other ships had gotten involved, obviously, and begun boarding ships at roughly two dozen at a time. They were able to bring up the emergency captain system within ten to fifteen minutes, then moved to another ship.
Over the past few hours hundreds of the ships had been brought online and were now pale blue.
"Tugs are on final approach," she heard.
"Go to battle stations," she ordered, moving back to her chair and closing her face shield.
-----
The ship was massive. Over a hundred kilometers long, twenty kilometers thick, sixty kilometers wide at the widest. It had dozens of flight bays, still sealed with armored door. It had scores of guns.
It had also sat derelict for 40,000 years before the Noocracy had found it in the system, just orbiting the gas giant silently. The computers keeping it in a holding patter along with over a hundred thousand other ships. The ships still had power, still had basic computer systems still running for maintenance systems.
A larger fleet than most star nations, just sitting there, in a parking orbit, in pristine condition and ready for use.
The discovery led to the Noocracy starting work on ship maintenance latticework around one of the smaller gas giants, using extraction methods reverse engineered from tantalizing technology.
The discovery had occurred only a decade prior to the Terran Re-Emergence.
Now, the Terrans were back and the priority was to take the ships and refit them for use by the Noocracy military forces in order to fight the Confederacy and the Terrans.
So, the tugs moved in on the marked airlocks with crews ready to take over the ships and move them to the repair berths. Equipment and supplies would have to be swapped out. Chairs, beds, medical systems, food systems, other parts would have to be removed and replaced.
The Noocracy was sure it could get the ships refitted within a year.
The only problem was keeping the Terrans or anyone else from defeating the Noocracy in open battle.
The system command was worried.
Two stealth vessels had been spotted by covert security vessels.
While the covert security vessels were sure they had destroyed both vessels before they could do anything, system command was still worried.
Which is why they had sent for a security detail from the space navy forces.
The tug extended the docking connector, which mated smoothly with the Terran airlock. Both the docking connector and the airlock were designed to connect with different types of systems, both of them adaptable enough to work together.
The atmosphere equalized between the ships.
The airlock opened up on the tug. An entire boarding crew trudged down the docking connector, then waited for the Terran ship airlock to cycle.
Once that was done, the airlocks closed and the ship disconnected, pulling back to move into proper placement to use its massive, oversized engines to pull the huge Terran vessel into position.
Once it was in approximate position, it ran a single 'ping' to ensure that there was no debris that might get in the way of the tractor beams.
-----
Captain Reltetak saw the sensor pulse from the tug.
It was strong enough it burned through stealth all over the system.
"Engage the enemy."