New Neighbors

Chapter 18

Amy, Ted, Jake, and Russell finally got a chance to meet and compare notes as to what had happened and how to prevent it in the future. Ted had already told the UN how the "invaders" had gotten to Earth so quickly. What he had not known at the time, but found out later, was that somehow the Iberians had accessed a very old marker buoy that had been launched by the Progenitors and had been over looked. The buoy had since been deactivated. Amy had made sure that there were not any more "over looked" buoys left in the system. She and Ted agreed that now that the Iberians had a jump point reference they would probably try and use that reference point again. Any ship that did not have a Sol system IFF would be in for a surprise; not only had plans been made to place a cloaked drone close to the point, but now there were to be the same type drone shield around Earth and the Moon as was present at the edge of the system.

Ted told what had happened before Amy and Jake arrived. He told everyone about the ship found close to the Moon and it's destruction. Then expressed his sadness over the loss of the battleship and it's crew.

"When the Excelsor exploded I felt that the world had come to an end. I got sick to my stomach and then I got mad." Ted exclaimed. "I knew that we would lose men and ships eventually, but it really shook me up. I later found out that it was a mistake. The centers were armed and had targeted one of the enemy ships but Excelsor moved into the line of fire at the wrong time and was hit. I didn't even know that the centers were armed until later. It was only after AL talked to the AIs at the centers that he found out that the AIs had determined that the centers might need some type of defense and made the modifications on their own. AL has instructed them to send that type of information to him, or at least to the AI on the moon in the future so we don't have anymore surprises." Ted went on to explain.

"The center AIs weren't the only ones with surprises. It seems that when Carol programmed the space dock's AI she gave it a lot of latitude to decide what was needed. That AI had modified the dock so it was a lot more portable and had it's own drive for in system movement. Come to find out it had been using that drive to correct it's orbit and we never noticed. When the AI heard the alert it pulled itself together and prepared for emergency repairs. One of the improvements it had made was the production of remote controlled fighters, with a limited range, for self defense. As soon as it was prepared, it notified AL who told Amy, John, and I about it. So we decided to tow the dock here with AL. As soon as we came out of hyperspace the AI started putting the remote fighters out and ordered them to defend any and all Sol based ships." Jake explained.

Amy looked at Russell and said that they hadn't been formally introduced but she had heard a lot about him from Ted. She then asked Russell how he had managed to get inside the cities and retake them?

"Well, Madame, I was luck enough to be able to take advantage of that rapid learning thing on the Moon. I spent quiet some time studying the ground attacks of the past and noticed that the enemy had never changed their access codes in the past. When I had Ted's ship scan the force fields they were still using the old codes. So, it wasn't much trouble to gain access to the cities and take a squad of your Marines with me, after explaining what and how we were going to do. I used an old tactic from my time in the service to retake the cities, being very quiet and deadly to the enemy. But I can tell you now that those lizards are hard to kill when you are up close and personal. They are tough and strong but seemed to have limited intelligence." Russell explained.

Amy thanked Russell for his help with the invading forces on the ground. The four of them were talking and drinking either coffee or tea when an urgent message was announced for Amy. Amy took the message then asked how soon they could be ready to go to the Alpha sector as they had been attacked by a large force. Ted said his ship could be ready in about eight hours. Jake asked if they were going to take the dock with them or send it back to Mars. Amy said to send it back to Mars but to get the data it had used to change itself so that the dock in the Alpha system could be updated to the same specs. Jake also told Amy that another battleship would be ready in about three days to replace the Excelsor. If there were no objections, Jake would wait on this ship and bring it to the Alpha system when ready. Amy didn't like it but she agreed that another battleship might be useful to them in Alpha. Ted suggested that he stay as he had more experience with that type ship and would be a better captain for a new crew and ship. Jake could take the battleship he had been commanding. The crew was well trained and knew how to function with very little oversight. Everyone agreed that his was a better idea.

Amy sent a message to Jones that they would leave for Alpha in about sixteen hours and asked if they needed to bring anything special. The reply to her message was that everything was under control at that time but that Kate had been hurt. Kate was okay just a broken arm and leg and would be released from the hospital in a day or two. That news made Amy ready to go right then, but she would wait for Jake's ship to be ready.

Amy and Jake left for the Alpha system twelve hours later. Jake had been unmerciful in getting the ship ready; after he told the XO the problem the crew worked twice as hard and asked if they would be able to hunt bugs and lizards real soon. The consensus was that the bugs and lizards had attacked their friends and that was a big mistake. Ted had told Jake the crew was good but now Jake knew it first hand. On their way out of the system Amy stopped by Mars long enough to pick up John.

As soon as Amy and Jake popped out of hyperspace they were hailed and told to stand-by to be boarded. The hail sounded recorded and when Jake started forward there was shot across his bow and the warning repeated. Jake stopped. Amy hailed Jones but was told he was busy, she told them who she was and to get Jones NOW! It was only a minute later when a ship decloaked in front of them and asked for verification of their identity. Just as Jake was getting ready to become very aggressive Jones called and told them to proceed, they had two minutes to get past the drones before the drones fired. As Amy and Jake moved Amy asked Jones what the meaning of this was. Jones explained that they had changed the IFF signals on their ships and that Amy's wasn't being recognized by the drones or the patrol ships. Jones also apologized for the misunderstanding and said he would explain more when they got to the base, just follow their escort.

As soon as the ships were in orbit Jones was onboard AL via shuttle.

"I'm sorry about that misunderstanding Amy, I wasn't expecting you this soon. After the problems we had I have tightened system security.  We didn't want any more surprises coming in. We are still searching for any stray enemy on the ground. But please forgive me for not welcoming you to the Alpha system before this." Jones explained.

Just then, Jake called and said he was going down to check on Kate, Amy said she and Jones would meet him at the hospital. Once Jake and Amy had talked to Kate and found her to be okay, the four of them talked about what had happened in both systems. Jones apologized again for the way Amy and Jake had been greeted, but was told they understood now. Amy asked for an update on what had occurred here.

Jones told them about the large ship and the fact that it used some type of weapon to open a path for the rest of the invading ships. When he mentioned the Dreadnaught, Amy and Jake both asked what that was. Kate chimed in to explain that it was supposed to be a surprise for Amy. It was a new design that was very impressive in armor and especially weapons. Jones told them he would give them a tour whenever they wanted. Jones continued with his explanation to say that once Kate had launched the planetary defenses they decided to test the Dreadnaught against the invaders. It had been very good at what it was designed for, killing ships. While it's missiles were too big and powerful to use against fighters, it's self-defense guns worked very well. Jones explained that in order to remove the large moon-like ship the captain of the Dreadnaught had used his hyperspace missiles to get inside it's defenses. Jake asked what hyperspace missiles were and where they had come from. Kate explained that she remembered reading a story on the internet about someone using missiles that would travel through hyperspace and appear inside their target to explode. So she had the AIs here run many simulations and they had come up with a way to do just that, so the missiles were incorporated into the Dreadnaught's design and weapon system.

Kate told them that she wasn't too sure what happened after she was knocked out and that Jones and Turrini hadn't seen fit to tell her yet. Jones just smiled and told everyone that Turrini had already told Kate what happened but Kate had forgotten due to her concussion. Jones explained that after the big ship blew up the shock wave, or force wave, had caused much chaos and had damaged several ships. When the wave hit the planet it had caused "earthquakes" which was what accounted for Kate's injuries. He also explained that the force had caused several of the enemy fighters to crash. In fact, three of them had crashed directly into the compound where Blythe was being kept. A survey of that area had revealed that everyone was killed in the crash except one Iberian who died during capture. Blythe and all of his followers had been identified by DNA and accounted for.

Now that Amy and Jake were up to date, as well as Kate, Amy asked more about the Dreadnaught. Kate gave the story behind the ships design and the fact they had been very lucky in that some of the data recovered from the pods that had landed on the asteroid had shown that the Iberians and their allies were experimenting with armor and shields. The information had shown that the experiments had failed. But on close examination of the records she and the AIs had found what was a very simple mistake in the original calculations and once they corrected that mistake most of the things worked and the AIs were able to expand on a couple of the ideas. One of which was the armor and shielding. Her AIs had found that it was possible to have the shields to change quickly so that they were always reformed. This was made possible by the power source that AL and John had discovered. The armor used the power generated to reinforce the alloy used for the hull of the ship making it "reflect" any force that struck it away at an angle and then the shields used this force to as an added buffer to attack. Amy and Jake were very surprised and pleased with this new development.

Amy then told Jones to be sure and scan the whole system for hidden marker buoys as that was how the Iberians had gotten inside Sol's defenses and been able to attack the Moon and Earth. Jones said he would have the system inspected very closely and that might explain the strange signals they had noticed on occasions.

Now that he was sure that Kate was okay, or at least would be soon, Jake said he needed to get the updates done to the space dock and that he wanted to see if maybe the new missiles could be put on the battleship also. With that said Jake got up and left. Amy and Kate were both surprised at this until Jones explained that maybe it was Jake's way of dealing with Kate being hurt. Jones had seen this type of behavior before when he was in the service and said he felt sorry for anyone that Jake thought might try and hurt his sister again. This was a type of rage reaction. Jones also said he would make sure that the ships were updated as to their IFF protocols so there wouldn't be any more mistakes.

After talking with Kate for a little longer, Amy and Jones left her to rest. Amy told Jones that she didn't want to hurt his feelings but she had brought someone to oversee this system, as a kind of governor for the Alpha system. Jones just told Amy he was a military man and would welcome not having to deal with the bureaucratic BS that was involved with the day-to-day operations of the "civilians".  Jones' statement brought a smile to Amy's face. The two of them went back up to AL so Jones could meet this "governor". When Russell walked into Amy's office Jones stood and offered his hand. Then Jones surprised Amy by saying "Well if it isn't Nightwalker. You may not remember me but I was tasked with transporting you to a couple of your past assignments when I was on Earth and in the Navy. I was privileged to read a few of your 'After action' reports and have a lot of respect for your 'work'."

Russell just shook hands and tried to remember where he had met Jones before. After all the pleasantries were over, Amy informed Russell that as of that moment he was the "governor" of the Alpha system and that Jones would bring him up to date on what had occurred previously. Russell, to say the least, was a little surprised at this appointment. But after Amy mentioned that Ted had made the recommendation, Russell just said he would find a way to show Ted how much he appreciated that suggestion, and smiled in a wicked way.

Meanwhile, Jake had gotten access to the platform and had started the upgrade to it's programming. The AI for the platform almost seemed to enjoy the new data and very quickly started to make modifications to the platform, or at least start making droids to do the changes. With the update started and the changes being started, Jake next had his XO start the process to try and incorporate the hyperspace missiles into the battleship's armament. Jake happened to look out one of the ports as the dreadnaught pulled close to the platform and started docking. Now that was an impressive ship; Jake noticed that it had a little scorching on it's hull, probably from weapons fire.

Just as the ship was in position, there was an alert sounded and the big ship pulled back from the docking port. Jake inquired what was happening just as an automated voice announced incoming ships of unknown origin. Jake made for his own ship. Onboard AL; Amy, Jones, and Russell were notified that there was an alert. On hearing this Jones said he needed to go as he was the backup ship, or would be in about 15 minutes. As Jones left, Amy contacted Jake and was told that Jake was making ready to assist with the alert. Amy told him to wait as his ship didn't have the correct IFF and might be mistaken for an intruder. Jake wanted to argue until he was told that the alert was canceled. The ships had been identified as PDF ships with damage who were seeking repairs. But all ships were to remain ready in case of trouble. It took a couple of hours to get the ships lined up and assigned to docking ports and repair bays. During that time Amy had arrangements made for Russell to be introduced to the people of Alpha prime. Russell told everyone that the first order of business was to see about getting schools setup for the children and improving the way that problems were handled. Russell went on to say that they all needed to work together to accomplish their goal of settling this system, and reminded them that anyone could come to him with their problems or suggestions.

It was the next morning before  Amy and Jake could tour the dreadnaught, both were very impressed with the ship. John hadn't been idle, he had taken over the computer upgrades and was in the process of arranging for AIs for the ships that would be going into battle. His next project was to add the upgrades to Carol so future ships, platforms, and habitats would be on the same level. He also reviewed the data collected from the crashed ships and pods to see if maybe a fresh train of thought found anything new.

Amy asked Jones to make sure that all the PDF ships were ready to go within a week. That was her timetable for going to the Organo system to help rescue the PDF headquarters. That would also give Ted a chance to arrive with the newest battleship from Sol. That evening Amy, Jake, and John had dinner in Kate's room so the four of them could catch-up with each other.

When the talk drifted to the upcoming mission Kate asked how many ships would be taken to the Organo system. Amy told her that with the ships Kate and Jones had ready, the four ships from Sol, plus the thirty or so PDF ships there should be about 100 ships going to Organo. Everyone seemed to agree that should make a big impact on the battle. After a couple of hours Kate seemed to be getting tired again so everyone left, except Jake, so she could rest.