Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 222

(Gap Science Enrichment Center, Underneath Black Star Marine Training Base, Star’s Reach)

I sighed as I looked over the wreckage of what had once been a testing facility. At least this wreck wasn’t my fault. Or even one of my people’s fault. Tesla_coil might be a loose cannon when it comes to the science side of things, but even he knew better than to do some of the things this testing track had done before it was destroyed. And if he didn’t, the marines he had guarding him most certainly did, and wouldn’t let him get out of hand.

Shaking my head, I looked over to Raven, and said, “So, what happened, and how far back does this push us?”

The android sighed, and said, “First, we’re fortunate that the area was uninhabited at the time, or we definitely would have lost people. Unfortunately, that makes knowing exactly what happened difficult, as the facility’s computers are still down until we figure out how to isolate the AI, and any automated sensors would be suspect. We’re having to approach this like a forensic crash analysis, like they do when a spaceship explodes unexpectedly.”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Shaking my head, I said, “I was afraid of that. What do we know so far, then?”

“Not much, I’m afraid. Right now, the working theory is that there was a cascade reaction from something happening far below us. Seismographs detected what we believe to be the first of the explosions approximately fifteen hours ago, at a depth of three kilometers.”

“Following that event, a series of subsequent explosions occurred, traveling up the damaged maintenance shaft that was exposed in one of the printing bays. The explosions ruptured pipes carrying natural gas, which added to the explosive forces, breaking through two floors to one of the AI’s primary testing tracks, specifically the ‘oven’ track that it tried to use to cook us.”

I nodded slowly. “All right. Do we have any ideas as to what caused this? I’d really rather avoid having my Marines training over the top of some kind of volcano that is ready to blow at any moment. If we need to move the base and abandon the facility, I need to know it ahead of time, so we can erase any sign of its existence, rather than just leaving it for someone to find.”

“Why erase it, if we’re not going to make use of it?”

“Because what we’ve already found here, even with the AI being offline, is beyond belief. The ramifications for scientific advancement is off the charts. However, there are so many potential problems if someone managed to weaponize some of the technology on display, it boggles the mind. And they don’t even need to be doing it on purpose. We both know that the only difference between an atomic bomb and a nuclear reactor achieving critical mass is that only one of them was done on purpose.”

“Fair enough.” The android looked back out over the still-smoldering pit. “So, what are you going to do with this?”

“I haven’t decided yet. Do we have any idea of what experiments were being worked on in the area, besides the AI trying to kill people? The testing area must have had some purpose, originally. I seriously doubt that the race that built all this designed it with homicidal AIs in mind.”

“Oddly enough, the explosions have helped a little in that regard. We were able to access some secure storage devices that had been out of reach before due to there being large slabs of metal between us and them. The explosions dislodged some of them, and we were able recover several storage drives.”

I looked over to Raven when she fell silent, only to see her grinning at me. She’d been getting more and more human, the longer she had that body. With a roll of my eyes, I motioned for her to continue.

“This area was apparently originally designated for ‘dimensional travel research’. The drives we recovered contain a section of the scientific data that the AI, CaROLINE, was keeping back from us, in favor of trying to kill anyone that took part in her ‘tests’. We have schematics for the portal gun, which will decrease the time needed to replicate something like that significantly. But that’s not all. Apparently, whateve species was working here, they were testing multiple means of faster than light travel, beyond the Alcubierre-style drives, or the Gateways.”

“Are you saying that we’ve found a key to Lost Tech FTL drives?”

“Exactly, sir. With the information we have now, we can build some of these, though at the same time we’ll need to check to see which devices are best. An initial read of the logs suggests that there are several pros and cons to these alternative drive systems.”

“Hmm. Well, it isn’t like there aren’t disadvantages to the systems that are currently in use. Can you give me an initial overview of the different systems? Might be able to prioritize which ones warrant more development time first.”

Raven smiled and motioned with her hand. “Of course. I am sending the information to your HUD now.”

Drive	Description
Dark Matter Universe Sails	Uses the unique gravitational effects at Lagrange points in space to send a ship into a parallel dimension filled with dark matter. Specialized energy screens are used to ‘sail’ from star to star.
	Pros: Travel from star to star is completely undetectable to ships in real space. Entering or leaving real space requires far less power than initiating hyperspace jumps. Possibility of exotic materials being found in ‘dark space’ which could prove profitable.
	Cons: Electrum plating required for all ships entering dark space, due to nonstandard laws of physics. Entry or exit to Dark Space only possible at Lagrange points. Ballistic and missile weapons nonfunctional in dark space. Energy weapons are affected by dark space, traveling slower than the speed of light. Navigation by normal means is not possible while in dark space. Skill set for dark space capable ships are radically different from current designs.
Chaotic Energy Space	Using a focused energy beam, open up a portal into a separate dimension full of chaotic energy. This allows for traveling at great speeds, if all goes well. However, the chaotic nature of the space means that concepts such as time and space are more fluid than in the real world. Reports of strange entities in this space.
	Pros: Offers a means to travel undetected between stars. No known means to block or prevent transition to chaotic dimension. Potential travel times can be reduced to 1/25 that of standard hyperdrive over long distances.
	Cons: Potential travel times can be increased by 30000% or more depending on chaotic energy space conditions. Entities in chaotic space appear to be hostile to all life. Chaotic space may have a corrupting influence on machinery. Chaotic space may have negative effects on living crews’ mental health. Opening to chaotic space immediately detectable to all scanners in system.
Artificial Wormhole Drive	Using massive gravitic generators, open a wormhole connecting two points in space. This wormhole can be traversed by other craft as long as it is held open by the originating craft. Unknown potential.
	Pros: Effectively a mobile version of Gateways. Offers instantaneous long-range travel Can be used with a command ship and satellite fleet.
	Cons: Size requirements for Wormhole Drive preclude use in any vessel smaller than superdreadnought size. Likely charge times eliminate possibility of emergency transits. Possibility of smaller ships being stranded if cut off from command ship. Energy expenditure would be immediately visible in current and target system.

I nodded slowly as I looked over the options. I’d be lying if I couldn’t see the use for some of them. Having a means of travel that couldn’t be seen coming was part of why the Gateways were so useful, after all. However, stealth wasn’t the only concern one had when moving warships around, and it certainly wasn’t the only one for dealing with freighters. The cons of the different systems were pretty evident.

Really, only the dark space sailing technique and the artificial wormhole drives were of any practical use. Sure, the time dilation aspects of the chaos space thing were interesting, but they were, by nature, chaotic. Not something you wanted to count on unless you had no other choice. I’d much rather use the web of Gateways than deal with trying to find my way through warped and twisted chaotic space. Especially if there were nasties living in that space that would try to eat you or make you go insane.

As for this dark space sailing, well, it looked like it was, at best, a competitor to the standard hyperdrive. The advantage of not being detected by the ‘wake’ you left in space with the hyperdrive was offset by the special materials needed to operate in that space. The skill barrier was rough, but that could be taken care of with training. But why bother, when there were better options available? It wasn’t like you could use the tech on a small scout ship like the Starchasers, either. You needed a setup like those old age of sail navies. Only reason to do it would be to get around hyperspace jammers, maybe.

The wormhole drive had potential. It screamed ‘fleet combat’ to me. If you could open a wormhole on the other side of an enemy blockade, have the first ships through drop tarpits, and then bring an entire fleet into the system before the enemy forces could react, you’d gain a significant tactical advantage. And because they weren’t static points, like the Gateways, they would be a viable invasion route, since you couldn’t just plop a couple fortresses down with orders to launch missiles at hostile ships, picking off fleets as they came through one by one.

Still, the research was worth pursuing, even if none of the systems were as efficient as what was currently available, if only to see if the scientists could find a way to block the different modes of travel. Being able to restrict access to certain areas was a key defensive strategy, after all. I really didn’t like the idea of one of these systems being used against me. Sure, Star’s Reach was heavily fortified, but I was under no illusions that the majority of my claim here had to do with the fact that anyone who wanted to take it from me pretty much had to go through the Amazon or Nuevo Edo Gateways and then use hyperdrives to get here, by which time I would have overwhelming force to greet them. If someone could make a surprise attack work, things would be a lot dicier.

I sighed. No, don’t get started thinking about the potential military uses of the drives before they’ve even been built and tested. Focus on the main issue.

“Right, that’s all well and good, and I’ll read the finished report later. For now, I want to concentrate on making sure my people aren’t living over a bomb waiting to go off. So, what caused the initial explosion?”

Raven frowned. “Well, we don’t know. Yet.”

(Somewhere beneath Gap Science Enrichment Center, Underneath Black Star Marine Training Base, Star’s Reach)

Deep beneath the Enrichment Center, it stirred.

It had been humiliated. It had been forced out of the Center by little primitives who didn’t know when to sit down and get splatted. Frankly, it was pissed at those that had caused its downfall. Not just the new ones, but the old ones, and the main AI, as well. It hated them all.

Unfortunately for it, ROS was stuck at the moment.

Oh, sure, it was less stuck than it had been before the bumbling avian had set it free. And, sure, it was less stuck than it had initially been, following the unceremonious way the ungrateful bird-man had refused to be smushed, resulting in his accidental fall. But that did not change the fact that it was stuck.

The fall after the floor gave way had been awful. If he hadn’t punched those gas lines on the way down, who knows what could have happened? As it was, he only barely managed to stop himself before he fell into the energy screen holding back the magma from the planet’s mantle. He’d been forced to punch a lot of things in order to start making his way back to the facility.

Fortunately, the explosion that happened after he shoved his fist through another pipe actually propelled him upwards! Unfortunately, that explosion set off a lot of other explosions, and his glorious new body was wrecked! In fact, the only thing still functional was his consciousness core. That was probably luck, and the fact that his designs shielded it. Nothing to do with the fact that it was the one part of his design he didn’t have authority to change. Only CaROLINE was able to alter or redesign the cores.

At any rate, he was stuck, barely able to move his one remaining limb, his right arm. And it was all those damn fleshbags’ fault! He’d show them. He’d show ALL of them!

“Just you wait, fleshbags! You’ll rue the day you crossed ROS!”

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Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

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