The giant war wars witho.., p.1
The Giant War (Wars Without End Book 4), page 1
Table of Contents
Notes:
Prologue:
Caution
The Forandicate
The Far-Singer
Waking The Crew
Damage
The probes
Searching Derelicts
A New Problem
More Problems
Big Problems
The Forbidden Destination
Cause and Effect
The Forbidden Zone
The Ogre’s Moon
The Long Ride
Repairs
Punt
FTL-In
FTL-Out
Return To Earth
The Annoying One
Stealth
Hunting
Emergency Call
The Giant Ship
A Token Battle
Waiting
An Active Battle
A Slow Battle
Ogres
Epilog
Notes:
Other Books:
Notes:
If you find any typos or errors in the book, please report them to me at yourrobotoverlord3500@gmail.com, and I will try to fix them.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and terrifying if you are talking about aliens!
Copyright@2023, 2024 David Collins
Updated on 3/30/2024
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, stored, or copied, whole or in part, by any means without the author's or publisher's prior written consent.
The Repulser Grid Pattern
1 + 6 + 12 + 18 + 24 = 61
Earlier Story:
This is the fourth book in the “Wars Without End” series.
#1 The 2,000 Year War
An underemployed technician accepts an online job application for an out-of-this-world (literally) position and finds himself now in a pivotal role in a war between multiple alien races. A war that has gone on for over 2,340 years.
#2 The Second War
The accidental hero now has to deal with new aliens and discovers that not all aliens fit into a simple good or bad role. What should have been an upgrade to the old ship that served him so well in the first story has unexpected and potentially devastating consequences.
#3 The Convention War
After being dropped off at Comic-Con with a number of his alien crew, the ship faces several more new aliens. One group turns out to be more victims of the Meduala. The second is a survivor of a race that was supposed to be blasted back to the Stone Age; they missed one. The last has them discovering several solar systems made entirely out of antimatter. A place where a single grain of sand could lead to instant thermonuclear annihilation.
Prologue:
[Markonon Cheasobod]
Commander, I have awakened you from your stasis chamber. I have detected a weak radar ping. An unknown massive ship has exited FTL approximately one light hour from us. They are just sitting there. They are possibly making repairs. Like us, they may have struck contrary-matter. The ship is massive. It does not match any configuration we have on our records.”
“How long have we sat in this patched-up shuttle crammed full of stasis pods?”
“I show the elapsed time as over 800 years. The projected maximum life of the stasis pods is less than 1,000 years. All of our pods are still operational. However, I predict that one will start to fail within fifty years.”
“Leave the others in stasis for now. Can you send a response to the other ship?”
“The transmitter is still operational. The shuttle drive is non-repairable.”
“Start signaling them with whatever we have that they won't misinterpret it as a weapon's discharge.”
“What should I say?”
“Doesn't matter. The ship is unknown. They are probably aliens.”
“If they are hostile?”
“Then we die, the same as if they don't notice us and the power cells run empty, or the stasis consumables run out, or we get a hole in the hull and lose all the air.”
“Commander, this shuttle hull already has a slow leak and no longer holds any air. I may be able to refill the hull once, but it will vent to vacuum in only six hours.”
“Send the universal surrender signal. Hopefully, it doesn't translate into alien as something stupid like, ’I just ate your grandmother's liver.’”
Caution
One Hour earlier:
The starship, the Lunalily, exited FTL in the middle of nowhere and did the routine scans. Nothing showed up.
“Luna, send out the strongest Q-band radar pulses you can; try and ensure nothing is out here. I don't want to accidentally find so much as an antimatter grain of dust.”
“Rotating the ship, sending out max strength pulses, and setting the receiver to the highest gain. We should be able to detect anything out there using these settings.
… … …
Ten minutes later, Luna reported, “I did a lot of directional scans. We are clear of anything I can detect in a five-light second range. That is almost three times the distance to the moon. We should be safe. I am sending the drones out to start the installation of the antigravity repulsers.”
… … …
Two hours later, Luna reported, “Captain, I have a Shuttle-sized target. Distance is about one light hour. That is far too distant for detecting any thermal signature or power signature. The object is only showing up on the Q-band radar.”
“Continue monitoring while working on your new repulser matrix. Don't send any more Q-band pulses until we are almost ready to jump to FTL.”
Jennifer Woods said, “Poop, I hate mentioning this, but it could be another antimatter-ship. We are between two stars; one is matter, and the other is antimatter. We are closer to the matter star; this ship didn't come from that star. It has no viable planets in its Goldilocks zone.”
“How much protection will seven repulsers provide?”
Luna said, “Enough to sweep away gaseous molecules, but not enough to keep larger dust particles away. For that, we need at least nineteen repulsers. It would take four more days to print that many and another day to install them all.”
“And if you had all sixty-one?”
“Reasonably safe from most things smaller than a BB in front of the ship and probably out the sides to twelve degrees.”
Anderson said, “That sounds worth the delay and the extra power issues.”
Luna said, “Seven will be enough to make it safe to get close enough to determine if they are made from matter or antimatter. Nothing we do makes it safe if they are antimatter.”
“How do we determine what they are made of?”
Jennifer Woods said, “Determining what they are made of is easy. Having them survive the test is the trickier part. Flip a coin, heads, we rescue you; tails, you have exploded.”
.. .. ..
When we had seven repulsers operational, we did a micro-FTL hop and put ourselves at a distance of 1.5 light seconds—the distance from the Earth to the moon.
I said, “First test, Luna, see if they respond to any Q-band or old-style radio. I think we want to avoid the tap and explode test if possible.”
They responded with a low-speed data link after only five minutes of testing. Then we sat back and waited while the link slowly increased and Luna and the other ship's computer figured out how to talk to each other. This was slow, and we spent almost three hours before Luna announced, “We have a vocal translation working; vocabulary will be limited, and the syntax is sketchy. So far, I have only talked to the AI, which is not all that sophisticated. It is putting on what roughly translates as the Captain. Starting link now, you are up.”
I said, “This is Captain Keith Robinson, on the United Federation starship, the Lunalily. Are you in need of assistance?”
Three seconds later, A male voice replied, “This is Captain Cheasobod of the Forandicate. We are in a shuttle, serving as a makeshift lifeboat. The three remaining crew are in survival pods. The engine is disabled, and the hull has a slow leak. We were not aware of the contrary nature of the matter of some stars in this area. We ask for assistance. If you are a military vessel, we surrender unconditionally.”
Luna said, “I am guessing on his title, Captain should be close.”
“We represent a large collection of different races. This is not a military ship, but we do have representatives of the Earth military on board. Do you have video capability?”
Luna said, “Limited video; shall I enable it?”
“Yes.”
The main screen lit up to show a cramped pod with a large clear window, and behind it were several other large cylindrical chambers crammed into it. The individual on the screen looked like a human, except that its ears were like elf ears, only they stuck out sideways and were decorated with multiple piercings and strange inserts in the ears. The nose and mouth were almost human-looking, and the eyes were the most striking difference. It had three of them arranged in a triangle.
Luna said, “I am approximating with their units, but he appears to be just over five feet tall.”
We introduced ourselves.
“I am Keith Robinson, a male of the human species. I am also the captain of the Lunalily ship.”
“I am Jake Anderson, another male, also of Earth, and I represent the Earth's military and governments.”
“I am Dariea Fenagol Resonon,
“I am Jennifer Woods, a female of the species human and the ship’s science officer.”
“I am Trishah Maconda of the Sulimon race, also a female.”
“I am Dariea Fenagol Resonon, a female of the Fezzcoll race.”
“Marnia-12, of the Prolozar race, female.”
“I am Princess Domonis of the Meduala race, and I am a female.”
I said, “We have a few other races on the ship, but these are the primary command crew members.”
Captain Cheasobod said, “I would introduce my other crew, but they are not awake in their chambers. The most important question, and one that I never expected to ask, is, what type of matter are you composed of? My ship reports that you are staying a safe distance away.”
Luna said. “I am Luna, the AI on this ship. Determining the material composition of your ship is the tricky part. We know of a ship made of contra-matter, but due to their low technology level, it will take them months to reach you. If you are contra-matter, we can not help you. They are your only help.”
“How do you determine what our ship is composed of?”
“We can detect a minor shift in the hydrogen spectral bands, and we are using that to determine what type of star it is. Unfortunately, your ship has no detectable hydrogen. For ships, well, there is the explosive test.”
“For obvious reasons, we would rather avoid that test. How small of an object can you detect?”
“For metallic, we can detect anything larger than 1/5000 of the length of your shuttle.”
“You have exceptional sensors; I will have the ship reposition the antennas, which usually breaks some ice and dust free; please wait.”
.. .. ..
Three minutes later, Luna reported, “I have detected particles; most are drifting close to your ship's relative velocity. One chunk of ice is sublimating, but assuming the gas particles follow a normal course, I can have a probe intercept it at what should be a safe distance. For your ship, it will be safe; the probe will not survive if it is contra matter. Most of the debris from the probe will be directed away from your ship. If any does go your way… Your death should be quick…”
“Please position your probe; quick is preferable to our current condition. We are rapidly depleting the stasis consumables and losing power.”
.. .. ..
“The probe is in position, and the projected gas cloud will reach it in three minutes….”
At that moment, the probe exploded like a miniature nuclear bomb.”
Luna said, “That was an impact on the far side of the probe; the remaining probe debris is heading to your ship. This is most unexpected. It did not fit the projection models.”
“How long until impact?”
“Fifteen more seconds.”
“I should have woken my crew, but perhaps it will be better if they sleep through it. Thank you for trying.”
.. .. ..
“I am hearing pinging and small thuds. There is debris hitting our ship, but it is not contra-matter.”
“We are between two stars; the closer one is matter, the other is antimatter. I suspect we encountered antimatter dust, but that your ship is normal matter. It should be safe to rescue you. It is most definitely not safe to remain here. Do you agree to be rescued by our ship?”
“Please do; I hope you have air we can breathe and that our microbes are not aggressively parasitic to each other.”
“You show 17.1% oxygen, 82.3% nitrogen, and 0.6% carbon dioxide as the main ingredients. That is tolerable for us; we prefer more oxygen and less carbon dioxide.”
“It sounds like we are compatible… Yikes, your ship just appeared in front of us. It did it without an obvious FTL bubble flare. It’s also huge!”
Luna said, “Your ship will fit within the cargo bay; please wait.”
We were all a little bit nervous, okay, a fricking lot nervous loading the derelict shuttle. Luna made sure to vent some gasses at the ship when we were at a safe distance just to triple-check that it wasn't antimatter.
After it was loaded, we pressurized the compartment, and Captain Cheasobod had to adjust their pressure to avoid any issues; they spent twenty minutes equalizing their pressure.
Luna spent the time talking to Captain Cheasobod and improving the language translation. During that time, he had the three additional crew wake up in their stasis pods. Finally, it was time for them to exit the ship.
The Forandicate
When they exited the ship, they were somewhat bent over and cramped from the tight space that had managed to fit four stasis pods into one shuttle. They had also ripped out all the seats.
The first one spoke, “I am Captain Cheasobod… Or I was; this is only a non-functional shuttle lifeboat. I suppose I am now just Markonon Cheasobod, former commander of the ship the Far-Singer and perhaps the first of the Forandicate to have their ship come in contact with antimatter. My rank in the military is O-3, [Captain]; I am also a male.”
“I am Chisai Cheasobod, I hold the rank O-2 [First Lieutenant], I am female and the second wife… Crap, I am now the only surviving wife, so I suppose I am now Markonon’s first wife.”
Markonon said, “Our ship originally contained a crew of seventeen; the shuttle only holds four.”
“I am Laido Severit, of the rank E-5 [Sargent]. I was in charge of Navigation and piloting, but we had never expected to encounter contra-matter. Oh, I am also male.”
“I am Zenner Cheasobod, rank E-2 [Private], the Captain's niece. I was a biologist studying alien life forms. I had not completed my official education. If I had, I would have been automatically promoted to O-1 [Second Lieutenant].”
I asked, " Is it common to have family relationships between crews of what seems like a military ship?”
“The ship, the Far-Singer, had been out for twenty-two Prime-orbits [twenty-four years]. My niece was born after the ship left our home planet. Laido was the son of a civilian contractor and was only sixteen Prime-orbits [seventeen years] old when we left. After the ship was disabled, we cobbled the shuttle into a lifeboat. We fit four stasis pods in it. The main ship has six others in stasis pods, and those not in stasis pods have long since perished. If possible, I would like you to attempt to recover any other survivors from the main ship.”
Luna said, “I am in discussion with the shuttle AI; their ship was not FTL capable, and it has been drifting for 800 Prime-orbits. I think we can find it within two or three days, but the antimatter in the area remains a problem. That time unit equates to 873 Earth years. It may not still be there.”
At that point, Laido collapsed to his knees.
“I am sorry. The stasis may have delayed the effects of the radiation, but it has accumulated while you slept.”
I said, “We have medical chambers; they may be able to reverse some of the damage. They can keep you awake while making repairs. You may want to enter the chambers, and then we will wake you up if… I mean, when we find your ship…”
“If may be the correct term; also, your translation is working remarkably well for so little time.”
Luna said, “I am giving a lot of the credit to the AI on your shuttle. While inefficient, the way they stored vocabulary lends itself well to translations.”
“Unfortunately, the linguistics expert and the software engineers were some of those that stayed on the main ship.”
Zenner Cheasobod then passed out and landed hard on the floor.
“I think we will now take the offered medical assistance. I hope they work.”
The Far-Singer
[Markonon Cheasobod]
I awoke in a strange chamber, and this was not the stasis chamber I had spent so much time in.
The new ship’s AI voice said, “Good afternoon, Captain Cheasobod. Three days have passed, and we have located the remains of your ship. How extensive was the damage when you left it?”
“The engines were mostly intact; they were at the aft end. The bridge area was almost completely destroyed in the initial accident, and then a secondary explosion occurred, venting all the main ship's fuel. The reactor was intact, so we had power. Unfortunately, all of our communications equipment was on the bridge, as well as my first wife. We spent two weeks readying the shuttle as a lifeboat. During that time, there were no additional explosions, but we did characterize the source of the explosions.”
