It’s me again!
I convinced Adam he ought to let me do these introductions; he might be writing the stories I tell him, but I’m the one who lived them. Makes sense, right? Right!
Anyways, I think this is fun! It’s interesting to look back on things that happened – okay, minor diversion here. Who among the readers is an expert in time travel and speech? Specifically, the use of past/future tenses?
Here’s what I want to say. This book is written about events that happened – to me – many years ago. For you, it happens in about a century. So do I say, ‘things that happened’ or ‘things that will have happened’ or ‘things that have will be done’ or maybe something totally other?
Back on track now. The events chronicled in this book take place six months after the last events chronicled in The Road to the Stars. To say it was challenging would be an understatement; basically, it turned into a race between us and Artemis to see who could rebuild and re-arm first.
The problem, from where I stood, was escalation. From the day the Enterprise launched, we could have utterly destroyed Artemis City and all the other warrens in about an hour. Wiping out the rest of the Solarian Union would have taken longer, but there’s nothing they had which would have stopped us.
Except. I really didn’t want to go down in history as the biggest murderer since Mao, and that’s what I would have been, had I given the order. That’s how we ended up in this interplanetary game of chicken, seeing who was going to blink first.
I’ve been told the audiobook is progressing well. Here’s a poll question for you all: Do you want a separate weekly post with an audio chapter? Or are you happy to wait for it on Audible?
Okay. So now that you’ve voted, it’s time for your chapter. Don’t forget you can enter to win autographed paperbacks – sorry, I’m not signing, you have to settle for Adam – or you can just go ahead and buy the book now!
CHAPTER NINE
Habitat Njord
“Admiral, you wanted us to stay. Why?” Alley was always direct with Kendra.
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“How are we coming on Endeavour?” answered Kendra.
“May I bring Hecate in on this discussion?” asked Diana. Hecate was the Beta-class AI who supervised the construction bay, as well as the hangars and bays that comprised the internal spacedock.
“If that will help,” agreed Kendra.
“Hello Admiral, Captain, Commander, Director McAllister,” said a much younger-sounding voice. AI’s tended to choose voices, and appearances, which fit the name or job they did. Hecate was the junior AI aboard the Njord, and had fallen into the role of ‘younger sister’ readily enough. The image that came to mind when she spoke – she lacked the processing cycles necessary to project a hologram of herself – was of a girl, lanky and gawky, just on the edge of teenage rebellion, probably with skinned knees and pigtails. The fact that she managed the coming and going of massive quantities of ships and supplies, controlled traffic in the bay, and directed all the construction bots didn’t enter into that. That was the ‘look’ her voice projected.
“Hello, Hecate. I was asking how construction of Endeavour was proceeding.”
“It’s going very well, Admiral. My bots have completed the exterior and are assisting with the final interior work. Even allowing for slippage, construction will be complete in two weeks.”
“Two weeks? That’s quicker than I expected. Well done, Hecate.”
They could almost hear the AI blush. “Thank you, Admiral,” she said with a hint of electronically simulated shyness.
“That means we’ll be able to start systems testing soon,” said Alley.
“The hull is pressurized,” interrupted Hecate. “Systems tests can begin any time. Most of the remaining work is being done on furnishings and details of that sort, so the major systems can be tested whenever the personnel are available. My bots won’t have problems working around any humans aboard.”
“Like I said,” continued Alley. “We can start systems testing soon. That brings up another issue, though.”
“What’s that?” said Kendra.
“Crew. We’ve been concentrating on training new Wolf coxswains and engineers, and Direwolf pilots at the flight academy here on Njord. We have people running through the Academy for starship duty, but honestly we didn’t expect there to be a need so soon.” Alley shrugged. “They’re doing well, but they’re not ready to crew.”
This was something Kendra hadn’t considered. She’d always planned to have a Federation Naval Academy, equivalent to the various nations’ military academies, with a four-year term. The problem in establishing the FNA lay in the fact that there was only a single starship in Starfleet. The officers who would be teaching at the Academy were needed to run the starship; they couldn’t be spared from their duties yet. The flight academy on Njord was much more intense and considerably shorter in duration, as the training was for the small boats of the Federation.
She’d compromised by starting the FNA with basic coursework, physics, astronomy, optics, even warp theory, and others. She could find instructors for that, hiring from elite universities and from within the various Harriman companies. But practical instruction in astrogation, warp drives, the day-to-day operation of a starship, those required people with experience. Catch-22 with a vengeance.
“I think we’re going to have to pull the best of the cadets,” Kendra finally said. “If we spread them evenly between the two starships, and divide the current Enterprise crew