Yesterdas war 8 untime.., p.1
Yesterda's War 8 - Untimely Warriors, page 1
Untimely Warriors
Book Eight in the Yesterdays War Series
By Gerald Hall
Dedicated to my wife who is known to all as ‘Rev Bev’. She’s the good Shepherd that this old ‘sheepdog’ has been working together in love with for twenty-eight years. She has been and continues to be my ‘walking, talking miracle’.
Copyright Pending 2025, Gerald Hall
Image credits: Cover Art by NightCafe Studios
Edited by: Gerald Hall
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission by the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Novels by Gerald Hall:
Yesterdays War Series:
Yesterdays War
Untimely Designs
Untimely Losses
Untimely Excursions
Untimely Rivals
Untimely Allies
Untimely Warriors
Unwanted Gifts Series:
Unwanted Gifts
Hidden Gifts
Unexpected Gifts
Desperate Gifts
Parting Gifts
Eyes of Libertad Series:
Privateer’s Moon
Privateer’s Honor
Hard Case.
The President’s Little Demon
Psyche Mine
The Flying Cats
Prologue:
Cavill Industries Headquarters
Derby, Western Australia
November 27, 1990
“I can’t believe that Derby has grown so much since when our father first arrived here.” Judith Cavill-Singer said as she looked down from her office on the thirty-first floor of the Cavill Industries headquarters building. Two of her younger siblings were there with her that morning watching the growing city that was a sleepy little town only seventy years earlier.
“At our current rate of growth, we will soon pass half a million people living here or in the vicinity.” Her younger sister Sarah Court pointed out.
“There were only about a thousand people who were living here though when our father arrived,” Judith replied.
“Father put a lot of work into building this town into a place that now is beginning to rival Melbourne and Sydney. Without the investments that he made into the industries and infrastructure, including developing a reliable source of water, Derby would have remained a tiny pocket on the west coast.”
“Don’t forget that there are also close to a hundred thousand people living and working at Kalumburu as well.” Sarah’s twin brother James added after he had just poured himself a cup of coffee from a large insulated metal coffee container that was sitting on a nearby table.
“Oh, I am all too aware of this. If he hadn’t upgraded our port facilities and constructed the rail lines here, we would not be able to feed and supply all of these people. That’s not even including all of the new farms that are growing crops nearby with the help of irrigation that did not exist at all around here sixty years ago.” Judith explained.
“We have a lot to be proud of here. Not only with all of the technological advances that our family has brought to this world but also how much we have improved the standard of living for everyone here regardless of their race or where they came from.” Sarah replied as she sipped on a cup of coffee.
“But we still have a lot more to do. Father’s work regarding nuclear weapons didn’t prevent their development completely, only delayed their use and production. Who knows what is going on in all of those countries out there that we have no clue about.” James noted while he sat comfortably on the couch in Judith’s office with his twin sister.
“This is why we must continue to advance our space program. Space is the ultimate high ground in a great many ways. So we will help the Commonwealth with our spaceborne sensors and communication satellites directly. We are also developing defensive weapons designed to intercept ballistic missiles and potentially to destroy or disable adversary satellite platforms.” Judith pointed out.
“Of course, we have that ‘other program’ that we are working on as well that was based on something that a certain American science fiction writer and engineer described in one of his books.”
“It would be very dangerous for us if anyone were to know that we are actively working to place defensive weapons in space, much less the offensive orbital kinetic weapons that we are developing. Of course, that is why virtually all of the work is being done on our orbital facilities or the Moon.”
“That’s true. The ‘Brilliant Pebbles’ are relatively easy to test. We just put the sensors and thrusters on nanosats, launch them from our regular satellite launchers as part of a standard satellite deployment, and tell everyone that they are just tests for other functions. The same terminal kill vehicle design should be adaptable to place on ground-based anti-missile interceptors, perhaps with as many as three miniature kill vehicles in each missile.
But we still need to find a way to test the Thor projectiles under realistic conditions. We could do some tests on the far side of the Moon. But they won’t recreate the conditions of passing through the atmosphere at Mach 25 and hitting a point target without burning up.”
“That’s going to require mining, refining, and forging substantial amounts of tungsten or iridium on the Moon into long rod penetrators. Then we have to transport them into Earth orbit, fit them with survivable guidance systems, and package them into satellites clandestinely.”
“I know. That is going to require a lot of work, a lot of expense, and a lot of risk. It is also something that even we cannot accomplish overnight. In fact, it will take ten years or more to accomplish.
We will also have to compartmentalize virtually every element of the program. The hardest part of the program will be the penetrator rods. It’s not just the engineering of their manufacture. We will have to create a viable cover story for their purpose.”
“I still believe that we will have to use them for space station construction in some form, possibly as balancing masses that also serve to stiffen the rotating orbital structures.
I just wish that we didn’t have to begin this program in the first place.”
“I know. But we know that multiple nations have nuclear weapons programs in progress. At least two of them have already built nuclear weapons. If we learn that a nuclear war is about to start, we have to construct the means to quickly hit nuclear weapons storage sites and destroy them without employing nuclear weapons ourselves. The Thor orbital kinetic bombardment concept is the only one that we have determined to be viable. By keeping it highly secret, we also prevent potential adversaries from developing countermeasures against the system.”
“Well, those governments are not going to be very happy if we eliminate their nuclear weapons on our own. We will need to find some way to conceal our involvement if it comes to that. The last thing that we need is for someone to begin to attack us in retaliation.”
“Too bad that we can’t just direct a small asteroid to hit the target instead.” James interjected with a snort.
“I’m afraid that an asteroid simply would not achieve the sort of surgical precision that we would need. Plus, there is no way that we can get away with multiple asteroid impacts at the same time that just happen to destroy a nation’s nuclear weapons facilities.”
“Asteroid swarm?” James wryly asked with his sisters both giving him very dirty looks in response.
“We will just have to continue with the development of the Thor program and pray that we never have to use them. It is going to be hard enough to manufacture them because we can’t use simple steel for them because it will not survive the heat of reentering the atmosphere considerably faster than a conventional reentry vehicle. We have to make at least the forward part of the long-rod penetrator of a highly dense, friable material like tungsten. That is going to be very difficult to mine and process on the lunar surface because of the tremendous amount of energy required.” Judith explained.
“Why not just manufacture the forward part of the penetrator rod of tungsten here on Earth and then bring it up into orbit to mate it to a steel body manufactured on the Moon? The nose of the projectile will be the part that has to survive the worst of the reentry heat, not the rest of it.” Sarah asked.
“That’s still a lot of mass that we have to push into orbit. It would be far easier if we could do it all in orbit or on the Moon because of the much smaller gravity well as well as the security issues involved.” James pointed out.
“We will just have to keep working on all of these projects in a ‘black’ status for the time being. I would like to talk about our new modular nuclear reactor assembly line that we have recently brought online. Those reactors are going to be absolutely vital to the development of many of our facilities here. We will soon begin a second production line that will be producing micro nuclear reactors that will be fueled by waste from other older nuclear reactors. These micro-reactors will allow us to decentralize our power generation facilities and make them far more robust at the same time.
In addition to that, we have already had representatives from eight different countries outside of the Commonwealth, including the United States, who have shown great interest in our new reactor lines. While several of these countries want to purchase a license to manufacture our design, most
“We are only beginning to ramp up production of the reactors though. Plus we need them damned badly ourselves.” James pointed out.
“I’m sure that we are all aware of that, little brother. But we need those export sales though. Our bottom line is still pretty thin with all of the money that we are investing in local infrastructure and especially our space operations.” Judith retorted.
“Right now, we need to replace all of the coal-burning boilers with our modular reactors. This will give us sufficient power for our expansion plans for Derby and its surrounding area while improving the air quality of the area. We can also use the waste heat for a variety of other purposes, including water desalination so that we will have enough fresh drinking water for the city’s population. If the Saudis can run desalination plants with waste gas from their refineries to provide irrigation water for growing wheat, we can use waste heat from the reactors to provide clean water for people to drink. This is especially important during our dry season from April to November.” Sarah added in support of her twin brother.
“You’re right. But if we are going to satisfy all of these orders, we are going to have to find a way to increase production without sacrificing quality.” Judith emphasized.
“That will mean significantly expanding our production facilities and hiring more people, not to mention expanding our uranium and thorium mining operations so that we can fuel all of these new reactors.” James added.
“Those are all very important points that we have to consider. We have got a lot of irons in the fire right now. To be honest, I don’t know how we are going to be able to manage all of this and continue to filter in advanced technology from Father’s computer database into our engineering facilities without having a major incident.
We are going to need more help that we can trust with our secrets. Beatrice exiling herself to Mars hurt us terribly in that regard. Her help with this could have made a huge difference. Our children are growing up now, but we must be very careful in vetting which of them can be trusted. If this information falls into the wrong hands, especially if someone can recreate the conditions for the time portal, the world and all of humanity could be in peril.”
“I’m really worried about Benjamin though, James. We’ve done everything that we can to lead him in a productive direction, but it seems that wherever he goes, he finds something to get drunk with or high on. I don’t think that we are going to be able to trust him with Father’s secrets at all.” Judith pointed out.
“What else is he interested in?” Sarah asked her twin brother.
“Well, Benji has been enamored with Hollywood and celebrities all of his life. He wanted to even be a movie star, but at only 1.7 meters in height, Benji seems to have realized that he wasn’t exactly star material.”
“Well, at least he’s figured that part out.”
“Unfortunately, despite that realization, my son’s obsession with celebrity has also manifested itself in his emulating some of the toxic behaviors of many of the most notorious celebrities. He also keeps saying that he wants to get into show business, which is nowhere close to our family business’ normal interests.” James explained.
“Perhaps that is exactly what we need to let him do. I’ve put a lot of prayer into this issue. I’m sure that both of you have done the same.
If we can set him up in Canada with a small media production company, Benjamin can indulge his fancies far away from our more sensitive operations here and in the UK. I would imagine that a subsidy of perhaps twenty million dollars a year could keep him occupied. If he makes money producing a movie or television show, great. If he loses money, we can then use it as a tax write-off.” Sarah added.
“I suppose that we could do that. Who knows what he will do without my wife and me to keep an eye on him?” James asked.
“We could always have some of our security operatives with Benjamin to help keep him out of too much trouble as well as protect him from any general threats to our family.”
James sighed in frustration at his son’s problems. He wished that the family did not have to resort to essentially exiling Benjamin from the Cavill’s home and main operations. But even James could not see many viable alternatives. He just didn’t understand how someone who had been raised in the church could turn out so badly.
“I guess that we should go ahead and set things up. I have read that there is a thriving television and movie production industry in Vancouver. That is probably where we should begin to set up a media production company of our own for Benji to be the head of.” James noted.
“We will need to hire some very experienced and talented people to run the day-to-day operations though. We know that Benji wants to play a Hollywood mogul. But it is important that we still have some adults in charge. Who knows? Perhaps we can use this to benefit our overall goals.” Sarah said.
“That’s true. We could have Benji make a movie about our space program. I would also love for him to make a television series about our father, but I’m afraid that people might start asking too many questions about Father’s origins though if he did that.” James quickly suggested.
“Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here. The first priority is to get your son away from the ‘family jewels’ and hopefully away from the other negative influences that continue to get him into trouble. Then we will see if we can use this new entertainment group to create positive publicity for the issues that we support.” Judith warned.
“Then we will have to hire people who are willing to follow our guidance or at least our suggestions. We can’t afford to have them working at odds with what we want to achieve. There has to be a certain degree of pro-Western material within the products that our entertainment group creates.” James insisted.
“Of course. But this is only part of our overall diversification program that involves different industries that could have a synergetic effect on our mission, but also elements that we will not own or control outright.
We need to expand our program to quietly provide support for certain people internationally that will make a massive positive difference in the world in a variety of fields. Our quiet support for Elon Musk has already started to pay significant dividends. Even at his young age, he is already making the most of every opportunity that has come his way.”
“Give him just a few years and he will be building rockets that will be world-beaters. But we need to give him even more resources and incentive to proceed in the direction that we know he already wants to go.”
“What about his other companies that he has already started up? Just one of them for example, his idea for the mass production of all-electric vehicles is quite daring. How many people are going to be able to afford them, not to mention developing the infrastructure like a network of charging stations to support his Tesla vehicles?” James asked.
“With some climate scientists claiming that industrialization and the burning of fossil fuels are increasing worldwide temperatures and altering the ecosphere, there is going to be a growing push for the electrification of transportation and other elements of the world economy.” Judith noted.
“I know that. But there is going to have to be a reliable source of that electricity that doesn’t cause other forms of pollution that will have very negative impacts of their own. It doesn’t do a damned bit of good to build wind turbines and solar panels that will produce less power in their lifetimes than it will take to produce them in the first place. Then there is the problem of being able to recycle these technologies without causing even more damage to the environment.
The people who have been pushing these things so hard don’t have the foggiest idea what a ‘green technology’ really entailed.” Sarah complained.
“That’s why we have been working so hard on our new-generation nuclear reactors that literally breed more fissile and fertile nuclear fuel than they use. While wind turbines and solar panels have their place in electricity production, especially in a highly distributed network on rooftops for solar panels, they cannot be relied upon for base load. Mass energy storage has a massive problem in a variety of aspects in its own right.
