May 17th, 063 SDE
Countryman stepped through the door into his new control center. It was a temporary command center where he and his crew could coordinate the defense of their makeshift shipyard here at Salvation, the little name they’d chosen to dub this fragment of a planet. Not only the defense, but also the refit of the Enterprise.
Over the last few days, they’d made significant progress in the stripping of systems from the Enterprise. Her hull plating had been removed, and both nacelle housings had been decoupled. Most recently they’d finished removing all eight of her fusion reactor modules, and her main engines as well. That process had been complicated by them being in the center of the ship, but they’d been able to remove them via the same channels that had been used to install the modules in the first place.
Today they were getting ready to decouple the secondary hull, and later this evening, they’d be blowing the bolts that connected the dorsal primary hull structure to the ventral primary hull structure. Countryman hadn’t designed the ship to be split in two like this, so they were taking their time to get it done right.
Greyman turned from a console to greet him. “Morning sir, not much of a place is it?” he said, gesturing around at the control center.
“No, but it will do, for now,” he replied. They’d simply set up a large dome with a series of monitors and strategic displays. All of it powered by their latest generation of computers. They’d made some refinements since Ruri and Jade Walstein had finished the first generation of crystal computers. Officially referred to as multi-optical computers, they functioned in multiple phases simultaneously, allowing for unparalleled processing of information. The computers themselves were more often referred to as crystal computers due the fact they were based on a crystalline substrate that resulted in huge arrays of crystal disks. Often directly connected to older systems, the main core of the Enterprise was a hodgepodge of dated optical systems connected to more modern crystal systems.
Now that they were doing a full rebuild, it was time to fix that. Countryman would have liked to preserve those old systems, but they were too large. Instead, they would have to content themselves with data preservation while they recycled the old systems into newer, better ones. Well either that, or recycled them for other applications. They were doing the same with a number of systems, as they worked to update the Enterprise. Even her main engines were slated for a rebuild. The main core crystals were going to be restructured and used to make larger engine cores, as her greater mass would require heavier engines. Doing it this way would save them some time and expense on building those engines.
Greyman spoke up, “The work crews are about ready to detach the secondary hull. They are simply waiting for the signal to blow the bolts.”
Countryman nodded, “Anything else?”
“We’ve finished setting up the long-range sensor array, and it will be coming online later today.”
“Excellent,” replied Countryman, glad for the update. He’d ordered the installation of a long-range array on Salvation using the main sensor module taken from the Enterprise. Once it was online and powered they’d be able to detect incoming ships as far out as twenty-five lightyears. A rather impressive improvement compared to what their long-range sensors used to be able to do.
He recalled a time in which they could barely see ships at any interstellar distance. Ruri’s multispatial sensors had revolutionized detection over the decades since she made the development. The first gen versions had been power-hungry devices, but they’d managed to bring it down to more reasonable levels. “It will be nice not being blind. Now, let's get started on the secondary hull. Are the shuttles in place?”
Xau followed the official into the building. Lieutenant Xermon was a step behind her, still sporting a bandage from his injuries sustained in the ambush a few days ago. Xermon wasn’t as badly injured as some of the other soldiers, just a few grazes from enemy bullets. Nothing that wouldn’t heal in a few days, or at least so he said. He’d also traded his usual combat uniform for a fancier one with the red and gold of the League. Xermon had also left his rifle behind and wore only an officer’s pistol on his hip.
At his urging, she’d also dressed up with some provided formal clothing, since in the rush she’d only had some basic clothing. Another soldier was with them holding a film case complete with a copy of the Mau’sar incident. She wasn’t entirely sure why she had to dress up, it was only a local governor.
Then a thought occurred to her, but it was so silly she immediately dismissed it. The official turned, “I’ll be leaving you here, the governor is through this door.” He sighed, “but first I need to double check your clearance papers. I know it's not normal, but nothing about this meeting is.”
Xermon handed him some papers, “Here you are.”
The official blinked, “Well everything looks in order.” He opened the door, announced them, then ushered the three of them through.
A middle-aged woman was in the room, settled behind a large desk. She was a real beauty with pale purple skin, a rarity around here, long silver hair held by a golden pin tipped with a sapphire to match her gleaming blue eyes. Xau couldn’t help noticing the fancy dress she was wearing, or the way it strained to contain her cleavage. The woman smiled, “Lady Xau Mai, welcome. I’ve heard you have something to explain the rather concerning state of Mau’sar?”
She nodded, “The soldier is carrying a copy of the film I took when the incident occurred. Aliens, gods, whatever you want to call it, but it's well beyond anything I ever thought possible.” She looked to the soldier, “Set up the film. My projector screen is right through there.”
They went into the next room, and the soldier set up the screen. Xau ended up watching the incident a second time, the only difference was the lack of color. Mau’sar looked different in shades of black and white. The strange object however looked strangely better in black and white without the off colors marring it randomly. Then the strange beam of light came, this time not in pulsating blue but a shining white light. It still pulsated strangely as it rained down on Mau’sar. Over the next couple of hours, Mau’sar cracked, erupted and then ultimately shattered.
When the film reached its end, the Governor with an odd look on her face asked, “What the hell kind of weapon is that?”
Xermon said shakily, “One we couldn’t defend against. What if we are next?”
“It’s been days, why haven’t they done so?”
Xau said, “Who can say what goes on in the minds of gods? I still can’t comprehend why they would destroy...”
The governor chuckled, “I wouldn’t think an Astronomer would be superstitious.”
She gestured at the film, “Well any theory is valid. Nothing I know explains that.”
“Right, well the Lieutenant is correct, we can’t defend against that and it doesn’t sit right with me. What if we are next?”
Xau had nothing to say, Xermon stood in the corner but said nothing more.
The governor took a breath, then produced something, “This is your new lab, you’ll be part of a growing team I’m putting together.”
“Huh?”
“I’d been briefed on the contents of the film but seeing it is something else,” she turned to look Xau right in the eye, “Your object proves that theories about space travel are in fact possible. Now we just need to figure out how and devise a way to defend against...” she gestured at the film, “that. I don’t expect you to have anything for the second item but your expertise might be useful for the former. Not to mention you are already briefed by virtue of witnessing the incident. Given all that, I’ve chosen you to be a member of the team.”
“I’m uh, honored, but um.”
“New disciplines always require a bit of exploration, you never know what will be useful.” she said while handing her some of the papers, “Do report on time. Your team will be focusing on getting people into space. I’ll have another team figuring out how we defend against a weapon like that. Don’t worry about funds, a rather significant budget has been approved.”
Xau didn’t know what to say or how to respond as events progressed.
Thrusters fired in brief bursts as final course corrections were applied. Sali watched the shuttles, her hand on the tractor beam control. Not something she was used to having on a 1204 but her fighter had been equipped with a tractor beam for this flight. A very useful tool and something she was glad the scientists had managed to reinvent. The Refuge used to use rather primitive mag tractors, which were similar, but required a stabilizer disk attached to the hull of the target. The one now mounted on her fighter was smaller, required less power and didn’t need a stabilizer disk. The main system had replaced part of her torpedo bay, and required a projector fitted on her ventral hull.
The module was mainly here for her job which was to escort the shuttles and be on standby in case they experienced a technical failure. They were afterall moving the recently decoupled secondary hull down to the surface. The large, half-disk-shaped piece of superstructure massed several million tons, and while the surface had reduced gravity compared to a full planet, that was still a huge chunk of mass to handle.
Sali checked the distance to the surface and their position. They were right on track for the module yard where large chunks of the Enterprise had already been stored. Everything from capacitor modules, sensor arrays, living quarters, fuel tanks, weapon systems, several torpedo bays, and more had all ended up in this module yard where teams of technicians were going over them, either to update or salvage the modules. The secondary hull was going to face the same fate.
Sali wasn’t sure how to feel about that, her mind flashed to the first time she saw the Enterprise. She’d been in the cockpit of a fighter at the time, just like she was now, only back then it had been a Valorian lancer and not a Refuge SF-1204, but those were details. Sali could remember it like yesterday, the Enterprise had been floating there in the black surrounded by asteroids, alien yet majestic. Not to mention powerful, a single shot from her beam array destroyed Sali’s former ship, and the Enterprise hadn’t even been trying to score a kill either, merely disable the cruiser.
All these years later, that once majestic ship that had saved her in ways she’d never expected at the time was now here in pieces. Awaiting a rebirth yes, but there was still something sad about taking a ship apart like this. Still no one could say the Enterprise didn’t need a rebuild, she just wasn’t sure why such a rebuild required taking the ship apart like that. Of course she wasn’t an engineer.
Her comm crackled, as one of the shuttle pilots spoke up, “We are getting ready to set her down, all ships stand by to use your tractor beams as required.”
She listened in and focused on the task. The secondary hull was carefully positioned over the empty slot for it. Sali found herself adding her own ship’s tractor power to the mix and the moment stretched on as she and every other pilot held their collective breaths. Until finally the module touched down in the empty slot with a gentle kiss. She let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding and flipped off the tractor beam. The secondary hull module remained where it was, a new fixture in the module yard. In moments, an army of techs would be moving in to begin their planned tasks.
Her comm came to life, “Sali get your squadron back into orbit, they are about to split the primary hull.”
“Understood,” she replied to Fujiwara and turned her fighter back up towards the Enterprise.
The flight up was mere moments and her eyes soon fell on the Enterprise. Missing both nacelles, her secondary hull and all of her armor, she looked very different. Very much like a ship under construction, when in fact they were doing the opposite and taking her apart before they built her back up. Regardless, there was something different about seeing her with her skeleton exposed to space. Yet her shape remained, a massive saucer with a towering superstructure that swept toward the rear and a series of thick struts that should have connected to her nacelles but those were gone and so was the secondary hull that usually sat on the end of her aft upper superstructure.
“All ships, separation in T-minus 20.”
She took her ship in closer, and kept an eye on the ship as the countdown continued. When it hit zero, she watched a series of small flashes occur starting towards the rear of the ship along her horizontal axis, and they rapidly went towards the front of the ship. The moment the last flash occurred the dorsal and ventral halves of the saucer were split.
Sali engaged her tractor beam alongside others, and as per the plan lifted the Dorsal section above the ventral until they had exactly six hundred meters of separation between the two halves. Room enough to work in the new hull sections, which would have a final height of 525 meters. Sali knew that meant she’d be out here with a tractor beam module helping shift the star frame back into position for the bolting process in a few weeks when the frame was finished.