Exodus: Machine War 1 Supernova. by Doug Dandridge Page B

call them?  They won’t have this problem.”
    “At least that’s
what the people of Tsarzor call their species,” said Sekumbe, nodding his
head.  “The other language groups have a different name.”
    “You said there
were two factors, sir,” said Albright, curious to hear what else might be in
the works that the Klassekians might be able to aid the Empire in.
    “What I’m about
to tell you is Top Secret Cosmic,” said the Admiral, using the term for the
second highest level of secrecy in the Empire.  “No one in this room is to talk
about this out of this room, though we will be briefing all ship captains and
executive officers on this in the near future, since knowledge of this
development will help you to judge and evaluate tech and phenomenon you find
for possible inclusion into this project.”
    The Admiral
looked down for a moment, then back up, looking from eye to eye, including the
Marine Officer in the room.  “What do you know about inertia?  In particular,
the possibilities of an inertialess drive?”
    Albright looked
at the Admiral with a blank expression, as did the Phlistaran Marine.  Sekumbe
looked as if a light bulb had gone off in his mind.
    “I know there
was a lot of arguing going on about whether it was possible or not, sir,” said
the Exec.  “From what I remember, the majority of the experts thought it wasn’t
possible, though some big names thought it was.”
    “Well, now we
know, Commander,” said Captain Lee.  “And not only is it possible, but we have
a working system that gets our attack craft up to twice the speed of light.”
    “And as soon as
we have enough of them worked up into wings, we’re going to shock the Cacas
with something they’ve never seen before,” said the Admiral.  “And they will
not see it coming until it hits them.”
    “The only
problem is that the inertialess strike craft are, for all intents and purposes,
cut off from the regular Universe,” said Lee, pulling up a picture of the
inertialess attack craft, which looked like a much larger version of a standard
attack fighter.  “No radiation goes in through the bubble, and none comes out. 
So communications are more or less impossible.  They may spend several hours in
their bubbles, with no idea of what their targets are doing.  Ships can change
vectors.  And fighters can come of their bubble into an attack profile and find
their targets have moved by millions of kilometers.”
    “So you think
having Klassekians aboard each fighter, tapped into a tactical net with the
carrier, would allow them to receive the information they need to adjust to
target?” asked Sekumbe.  “That could be kind of rough on Klassekian sibling
units.”
    “We would only
use volunteers, those who would join our military establishment,” said Lee,
looking at Sekumbe with narrowed eyes.  “They would be forced into nothing. 
But, just maybe, they might feel grateful that we have rescued them from
annihilation as a species.”
    “And if these,
bubbles, cut them off from the rest of the Universe as well?” asked Albright,
playing devil’s advocate, even though she knew that the awareness of their
possible utility would push the Empire into saving as many of them as it could,
and not just a minimal breeding population.
    “They seem to
have passed every test you’ve given them,” said Lee, shrugging her shoulders. 
“If they pass the bubble test as well, great.  If not, they still offer us a
resource for regular fleet communications that we cannot pass up.”
    “I have sent one
of my couriers back to base in order to request all the aid we can get,” said
the Admiral.  “Normally, there would not be much available at this time.  But I
think we can shake some loose once Fleet hears about the potential of these
people.  I asked for a wormhole as well, though I really can’t say how much
luck I’ll have with that request.”
    “We’re still
having a problem with the natives cooperating with