Ancient Relics (THE RIM CONFEDERACY Book 4) Page 5

  That struck Tanner as something that was different, but he held back from saying so.

  "Then, we'll take the full five-dollar tour, please," he said and smiled as he thought about how that kind of an anachronism might tax the AI.

  "Aye, Captain, the tour is okayed," the AI said and as the shuttle moved out a bit from the Atlas, they watched as the ship sailed by.

  A full minute later, they went by one of the shuttle bays, and looking inside and through the force field that held the bay secure, they could see at least two more docked shuttles, and then the area fell behind.

  Ahead of the bay was more of the same white steel alloy hull, and it seemed to go on forever. Many more view-ports went by, and it was then Tanner realized this ship was different from all the others he'd ever been on or knew.

  "Bram, see the view-ports and the way they line up?"

  The Adept officer nodded.

  "Then note that the decks run the full length of the ship—and not the width—along the axis of all other ships. It's like a full ninety-degree shift in deck layouts, and that is interesting. Wonder … well, here comes the bridge, I'd say …"

  As the shuttle continued to forge ahead along the huge length of the Atlas, they drew close to the front area. The bridge, Tanner thought, would lie behind that huge swatch of dark glass, or whatever, they'd used to allow the bridge to see ahead and out of the ship. Bram waved and they both smiled as the shuttle slowly cruised around the very front of the ship.

  "I note armaments, Captain," Bram said and he pointed at the very front of the Atlas.

  "Right," Tanner said, "I too see four plasma cannons, two of energy pulse arrays, a pair of energy lenses, and something I don't even recognize. Time will tell, I'd suppose," he said.

  The shuttle cruised down the starboard side of the Atlas and eventually dipped under the hull to come around to the shuttle bay. The AI piloted them in slowly, as the force field fell and then went up behind them once they'd passed through the field lock.

  Inside, the shuttle glided to a rest about a hundred feet more into the ship, and as they settled down, the AI chimed again.

  "Welcome aboard, Captain. Please do not leave the shuttle for a moment as we have your greeting party ready …"

  Bram smiled, stood, and moved to the doorway that was still shut.

  "Good to see that traditions last, even on brand new ships," he said and snapped to attention and held it while the shuttle door slid open.

  Outside stood a squad of marines led by Major Alver Stal, four Navy officers led by the brand new XO Lazaro, and a CPO who was obviously on Bosun duty this shift.

  Tanner stood and walked across the shuttle cabin and down the boarding ramp.

  "Ten-Shun," the XO barked out, and all came to attention with the needed salute to their new captain.

  "Sir," his XO said loudly, "we welcome you aboard the Atlas. You can spit on the mat and call the cat a bastard, Sir."

  Coming to a rest facing his XO, Tanner snapped a salute back, and all the crew followed suit as the Bosun piped him on board.

  Bram first grabbed his hand and shook it, and that started a flurry of handshakes and claps on the back.

  Tanner was pleased, but he did look at his XO and tilted his head.

  "Sir, yes … we were told we should be here before you to continue the piping on of a new captain, so we've been here for almost two hours. And Sir, you have not seen anything yet!"

  "Compliments of …" Tanner asked.

  "The Lady St. August arranged this, Sir. Said tradition was important in any man's Navy. Sir," he said and they slowly moved away from the shuttle and toward the far doors facing the front of the ship.

  The major smiled at Tanner, and then called his men to right dress. They quickly lined up and then marched off in close drill order.

  Noting the deck was the same as on all ships, Tanner walked with the others up to the doors, and they went through as the shuttle bay AI looked after it. He glanced at the XO and was rewarded with a nod.

  "Sir, just about every single thing you can think of that you 'used' to do, is now done by the ship’s AI. At least that's what we've learned so far, but they held off the big orientation meeting ‘til you arrived."

  "They?" Tanner said and noted the corridor running length of the ship along its axis was a long, long corridor with none of the usual curved layouts his previous ships had used.

  "Length of the deck from bay to bridge is about 500 feet or so, and yes, Sir … the ‘they’ are the ship builders and their training crew—the Seenra, Sir."

  Tanner was careful to listen to the tone of his XO, but he could detect nothing untoward in the man’s comments. He glanced at Bram who was busy talking to one of the lieutenants, yet he still nodded to his captain as an acknowledgment of the point, and they all continued on their way.

  Passing doorway after doorway, Tanner occasionally looked in, and they looked like normal ship rooms and offices, and once in a while, a surprised crewman would realize who was walking by and bark, “Ten-shun,” and Tanner would have to stop to acknowledge the salutes before continuing onward toward the bridge.

  "Seems like lots of you got here before me," he said dryly and the XO smiled back at him.

  "The Lady was most insistent with the base commander, Sir. We all came up just at first light, but some, as you can see, have already been shown their work or mission areas and are trying to familiarize so we can settle in. Those of us on the bridge have been waiting for you to arrive, and we're supposed to take you to the big conference room one deck down. Stairs," he said, "should be in the next fifty feet or so …"

  As they walked, Tanner noted the air was clean and cool and the corridor floor was padded with something that dulled their footsteps down to almost be silent. Doors slid into the walls so nothing would ever jut out and impede traffic. Along the coving between the walls and ceiling, there were panels that glowed to provide ambient light. Every fifty or so feet, there was a bright orange panel that had a palm plate for palm prints for security access only, and he wondered why there were so many of them, whatever they were.

  At the double wide doorway, also marked by the wide zebra-striped floor, they all moved to the port side of the steps and went down a full deck. They left the stairwell but Tanner looked up to see at least four more decks above and the same below.

  They turned again toward the front of the ship and moved steadily frontward. A couple of the lieutenants were yakking about something, and one of them laughed loudly, which sounded harsh in the lengthy corridor. Tanner said nothing as they walked on and on, and soon the XO stopped them at a doorway.

  Above the door on the lintel was the ship’s signage that named this room as 5-231, and Tanner realized he'd need a whole new brain to try to wrap his head around a new ship’s layout.

  Entering the large conference room, Tanner noted it'd been laid out audience style, like a theater, so there would be no note taking or desks to write on. He moved farther into the room, worked his way through the congratulating officers, and shook hands dozens of times until they reached the front row. Kondo pointed at his chair, and Tanner noted the lack of a dais, lectern, or microphone.

  Odd, he thought, but he was here as an audience member only—or so he'd been told.

  The ship’s AI chimed three times, and they took that as a request to be seated and did so slowly.

  From a door on the right-hand side of the room, an alien not more than five feet in height and not wearing a stitch of clothing other than a bag over one shoulder, entered and took a spot at the front of the room. He looked them all over, his little finger tapping on his chest.

  A Seenra, Tanner surmised, and waited … as did they all.

  #

  They didn't have to wait long.

  The alien moved up a little, looked over the room, took stock of the crowd, and then he spoke.

  "Welcome … welcome to the newest ship in the Barony Navy—the BN Atlas," he said and the crowd broke into widespread applause. Tanner clapped a bit and then stopped when the alien held up his hand.

  He knew that would stop us, which is interesting, Tanner thought, which means he's used to humans at least somewhat.

  "It is my pleasure, as the head of the ship training team, to greet you and hand over the official title and papers of this fine new ship to the Barony. Could the Lady St. August please join me here at the front of the room?" he said and looked over to the side door again as the Lady walked in.

  Tanner smiled since he didn't know she was expected to be here. In her bright red dress outfit, she looked very good. Brown boots clicked on the floor and her always-present EliteGuards matched her stride for stride and took up positions on either side of the front area.

  Reaching the alien, she stopped and to everyone's amazement, she dipped her head to the alien and then smiled at him.

  "Builder Yhosoom … it is my pleasure to be here and accept, on behalf of the realm of the Barony of Neres, this beautiful new ship, the BN Atlas.

  As she said that, a couple more aliens came in the side door and moved to join them at the front of the room, each carrying a large plaque.

  "We have the proper paperwork, of course, and while it will go through the normal channels, we thought that the commemoration of the sale of the ship to the Barony could be best served with a solid gold plaque showing this to anyone who ever entered the bridge. This is what we will put up later today," he said as the large plaque was held up for the room to see.

  On it was a 3D relief sculpture of the Atlas, cruising through outer space with stars in the background. Below the ship were details of the ship itself, length and tonnage, as well as the date of its delivery to the Barony, and the Baroness was prominently named too.

  Figures, he thought, that the o
ne who pays the bill, gets recorded in gold and put up on the wall.

  To his surprise, the Lady looked over at him and motioned for him to join her up at the front of the room, which he did quickly.

  "Builder Yhosoom, please let me present our first captain of the Atlas, Captain Tanner Scott. Captain Scott, this is Builder Yhosoom, the leader of the Seenra training team and your counterpart ‘til we sign off on the training sessions and shakedown cruise," she said.

  The alien held out his hand palm up, but Tanner noted, he'd yet to learn how to hold it out for shaking. He gently grasped the alien's hand with his left hand to move it ninety degrees to starboard, and then he grasped it with his own right hand and shook his hand.

  The alien looked at Tanner and didn't smile, but then Tanner realized he'd not know what that would look like anyways. Yet he did shake his hand a few times and then dropped it. Politeness done, he thought.

  He looked at the Lady and then Tanner. His nostrils flared a bit, and he looked back at the Lady, tapping his little finger on his side.

  "Lady, we will be starting our introductory classes in about an hour. May I give you and the captain a personal tour first?" he said and Tanner knew the alien certainly knew how to appeal to Royalty.

  The two other aliens moved toward the main aisle between the chairs, followed by Yhosoom and the Lady, so Tanner joined in at the end of the line. Well, maybe the end of the line wasn't exactly right, he thought as those two EliteGuards fell in behind him, and they left the room in a parade.

  Over the next hour, they were treated to a tour of the ship—well at least of the main areas. They got a quick look at the bridge, then of the long main corridor on Deck Five all the way back to the landing bays, and then farther down to Engineering. This last three hundred feet of the ship was a mass of heavy Perseus engines with walkways above and below the main number five deck. With three engines, the area was crammed, Tanner thought, yet he noted the Seenra technicians were able to get around easily. And yes, there were now even groups of humans—crewmen, who were being led and shown items too. Beyond the actual engine room were more doors their guide did not bother to show them, but Tanner figured they led to the actual TachyonDrive areas that were secure.

  As they finished off the tour back in the landing bay area, the Lady was kind enough to tilt her head to Tanner as she spoke.

  "From what we have just been shown, Captain, it appears you have a real lot of learning to do—and I know that the Seenra will be excellent teachers too. Learn away, Captain," she said as she turned and walked away with her EliteGuards toward her shuttle.

  “Learn indeed,” Tanner said to himself, and he followed the small group of aliens back up toward the bridge.

  #

  "Wait, let me see if I understand that—and let me use terms I understand instead of all this techie talk," Kondo said and received nods from almost everyone else in the room. Even Tanner nodded, as he was as lost as the rest of the more than sixty bridge officers who were now in their fourth hour of bridge orientation class.

  The Seenra, one of the "white lab coat" types, Tanner thought, nodded to the XO.

  "Yes, we shall listen to what you have gathered as knowledge on these matters," he said.

  Of course, that's if the alien was male—there was no way to tell. They didn't offer that information and there was no way to tell from outward appearances. All of the Seenra wore that shoulder bag, which held items they'd need, for whatever purpose no one knew. Once, one had brought out a small tablet-looking device when it had buzzed and gave it some attention but put it away right after. Tanner hadn't been close enough to see it, but he saw the alien looked like he had merely pushed buttons just as a human would do with a human tablet.

  Kondo rose, went to the large white board on the wall, and waved his hands over the whole schematic on the display.

  "All of this—the whole ship in fact—does not run on wired connections. Not a single copper wire connects anything to the bridge … there are no wired connections. In fact, the whole ship is not wired whatsoever. Instead, it's all … all … functioning on what you call a BioNeuralNet. And this Net is composed of biosensors—bags I guess you'd have to call them—of biogenetic materials that are hooked up only to power to make them run on this Net. But as you've just said, these bags have a shelf life too and will need to be constantly monitored, maintained, and yes, replaced as needed. All of which we argued with you meant unreliability, but you've answered with the fact that this BioNeuralNet will work faster than any hard-wired controls—that you have crammed thousands of commands and controls into these bags— biosensors—sorry about that. And the big point you just made is that you just tell the biosensor what to do and it does it—with no worries about security or speed. All are delivered by this Net, and all are available via what I'd call Wi-Fi. Oh, and from what I've gathered just now, this could be done by anyone off ship as well as on ship," he finished and looked out at the room full of Navy officers.

  He received many nods and even a couple of "yups" too. Tanner rose to add his own voice, looking at Bram and giving him a nod too. If he could see anything Tanner couldn't, that might help later on.

  "As the XO just added, this Wi-Fi from off ship worries me—anyone else?" Tanner asked and received more "yups" in reply.

  The Seenra at the front of the room waited until it was quiet again. They'd learned that one.

  "The BioNeuralNet is composed, as you have said, with biogenetic materials that are alive. We provided the best in genetic DNA and functionality to allow these nodes—not bags—with the ability to do what they are told to do instantly. But to get "in" to the BioNeuralNet is impossible unless you are a part of the Net itself. If the bridge helmsman pushes a bridge control to say ‘go to faster than light speed,’ that used to be a signal that would travel down a copper wire all the way from the bridge to Engineering to begin a whole process to ’light the candle‘ as you quaintly call it. And that takes time and is susceptible to issues with power and continuity of signal and then must be handled by a person in Engineering too," he said, and then using an obviously human trait, he pointed at the XO directly.

  "Not so on the BioNeuralNet where any such command from the bridge is relayed via our Net nodes directly onto the candle itself. No further need to consider anything less functional. This works, Mr. XO, and it works at the speed of thought—rather than signal-to-wire speeds … and as you've asked, this can only be done from one biogenetic node to another. And the only such nodes are on the ship itself … so no worry about anyone hacking or cracking the system to control the ship. No worries ever."

  The alien looked at the XO and then at Tanner as if to ask if he could go on, and Tanner nodded.

  "What we have delivered to the Barony is the RIM's first totally AI-operated ship—the Atlas is out at what you call the 'bleeding edge' of science, and we ought to know as the premiere ship builders in this whole quadrant. But that is not all … you've not yet heard about the armaments, about the twin wing squadrons and their capabilities, and the ship’s facilities too."

  Tanner nodded and motioned for the XO to re-take his seat. "Yes, uh, Builder—do I have that correct—let's continue, please …"

  As Tanner took his seat, the alien nodded, so Tanner figured he'd at least gotten close to the alien’s real name. He watched as the white board dissolved and another training movie started. They settled back to learn about armaments now. Claims that had been scuttlebutt about the new energy pulse weapons were soon answered. The new depth they would penetrate normal steel was now up to thirty feet, which got a whistle or two from the bridge crew among others.

  Still more came out, item after item, and Tanner worried about the simple fact there was so much to forget about what was Navy ship standards and so much to remember to learn new ones.

  Breaking soon for lunch would be good, he thought, but then it would resume quickly too … so much to learn … and that learning might one day be needed in a life and death situation …

  For the rest of the day and some days that followed, the crew, from captain all the way down to enlisted men, sat, watched, and asked questions. Some of Tanner’s questions were answered, but mostly it was learn, argue, re-argue, learn, and then commit to memory. The Atlas was a ship … a ship that was more than they'd asked for.