Chapter 6: Chapter Five Overdue Conversation

Countryman left the meeting with new markings on his uniform and a busy schedule. He was intercepted on the way out by a familiar young woman. It was Megumi Richards. The engineer he had been working with on optimizing the armor a few days ago. Since then, they had both been busy and not had much time to really talk.

She smiled, and Countryman tried not to think about the woman she reminded him of. She had her mother's hair, and her mother's gorgeous red eyes as well. It took a force of will to suppress the feeling the very sight of her evoked. Yet he managed, but he had many years of experience burying his feelings. It was a skill that he had needed many times over the decades. “So uh sir. I’ve been meaning to ask, but you aren’t that Countryman are you?”

Countryman blinked, and then chuckled, “If you mean the Countryman that once dated your mother? I am that person. I’d been meaning to talk to you about that. There is a lot we have to discuss.”

“So you really are him! I just never thought I would get to meet you in person. You know mom talked about you often, but for some reason, we never met.”

Countryman sighed, “that is a long story, and given the hour I am sure you are as hungry as I am. Join me in the mess hall, and we can talk about it over a meal.”

She giggled, “We’ve barely met, and you are already asking me out.”

Countryman chuckled. He said nothing though, and gestured down the corridor. The war room wasn’t far from the tram lift. Capital ships like the Enterprise needed the tram lifts to move personnel around quickly. Without them, it would take much longer to get where you are going on a ship this big. The tram lift was basically a combination between an elevator and a cable car. Although no cables were used. Instead, it used a grav rail to guide the car, be it vertically or horizontally. It was also fast, very fast, and quick to accelerate as well. As such the tram lifts had their own inertial dampers to protect the occupants.

The mess hall was a short hop for the tram lift. The Enterprise actually had several mess halls. He led Richards to the officer’s mess on deck five, the same deck both of them had quarters. The deck was reserved for officers, and even included the captain’s cabin. 

Stepping into the mess hall, the pair was greeted by rows of tables and chairs. All of which were anchored to the floor plates. The chairs themselves were anchored on rails so that they could be moved. The far wall was the divider between the mess, and the kitchens. Evenly spaced were several windows with counters. In front of which officers were lined up waiting their turn to order. Posted on screens above the windows was today’s menu. Several options were available to choose from. Countryman picked a line, and they waited their turn to order. It moved quickly, so it wasn’t long before they were sitting down to eat.

Megumi opened her mouth to speak, but Countryman was already speaking. “By the way, this isn’t actually the first time we met. You met me once before, not that you would remember it, you were only three at the time.”

She blinked, “We have?”

“Oh, yes.” he paused, and let out a breath, “What do you know about what happened between me and your mother?”

She frowned, “What does that have to do with anything?”

He sighed, “I guess she never told you that. Did she at least tell you about how we met?”

Megumi nodded, “Oh yes. It’s one of her favorite stories. As I recall she met you on Mars. At the Martian Academy of Applied Technical Sciences, you were there at the time looking for applicants for some project at the time.”

“Yes that is right. She actually impressed me then, and I snapped her up. She was invaluable for that project. Hina was quite something back then, quite the firebrand actually.”

Megumi shifted in her seat, and asked, “So how did mother and you end up dating?”

“That was her idea actually. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was working that day trying to figure out what had gone wrong with our latest iteration of a new thruster assembly when she asked me to dinner. That was honestly when our relationship started. It was slow at first, but it really did seem to be going somewhere.” he sighed, “Then it didn’t”

Megumi frowned. She had asked her mother a number of times but never got an answer for this. Maybe Countryman would answer, “What happened? Mother never told me why you two broke up.”

Briefly she noted a flash of emotion on the older man’s face. A mix of pain, anger, and something else. It vanished as soon as it appeared, and after a moment he lifted his arm. It suddenly opened up the skin splitting into plates as they retracted backwards to reveal an entirely mechanical arm beneath. An energy cannon emerged above the wrist on the forearm, but what she locked onto wasn’t the cannon. No her eyes focused on the band mounted to the emitter diode. It was a clean silver band with a glittering gemstone on it. It was a ring, and clearly not a cheap one either. Her heart fluttered when she saw it. Megumi had a feeling she knew who it was meant for.

With sadness in his voice, Countryman said, “I was going to marry her. I spent nearly half my life savings on this ring.” he paused a tear forming in his eye, only to vanish. He choked down something, and then said, “Only when I went to propose I found her in the arms of another man. She had passed me over for someone a hundred years younger.”

Megumi kind of regretted asking now. “I, uh, see.” she frowned, “I know you have been around awhile. I’m sure you have fascinating stories to tell about old ships like those from the first colonial wars.”

Countryman gave her a look. “I see what you are doing. I’m not a young man though. I can handle a little pain. Besides you deserve to know what happened between Hina and I. Not to mention it plays into why she came to visit me that day you and I met.”

“How does my mother betraying you play into that visit!?”

Countryman sighed, “She came that day to apologize to me, and she also wanted to know for certain who your father was.”

Megumi blinked, “She did? So who is my Father anyway? She never told me about that.”

Countryman picked at his fish, “She didn’t? Who did she tell you your father was?”

Megumi sighed, “Actually she deflected the question every time I asked. DO you know who my father is?”

He nodded, “Of course I know who he is.”

“Well who is my father?”

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“Now isn’t the time for that question. Perhaps I will tell you later when the shadows of sorrow and defeat are no longer looming over us.”

She giggled, “that is a poetic way to describe the current situation. I can wait, but I expect you to tell me eventually.”

“I plan to tell you. You deserve to know. It’s just that now is a bad time. Trust me.”

She gave him a look, “Anyway I would love to hear some of your insights on ships from previous eras. As an engineer I am sure it will be fascinating.”

He chuckled, “Changing the subject again are we? Well, no matter. I do have a few insights alright. The ships used in the first colonial war aren’t much to talk about. They lack many of the things we are used to. No grav plating, no regenerative life support, no inertial dampers, and that is just for starters. The ships didn’t have pulse wave drives either, and as such relied on nuclear powered ion engines instead for thrust. While better than old style chemical thrusters, they still left much to be desired. As such those ships were slow and unresponsive. At least by modern standards.”

“I have heard about that.”

“Yes I am sure you would have. Anyway those old ships achieved gravity through large rotating rings. Those rings did a good job of that, but they were also bulky, and fragile.”

She nodded, “I have seen a few in museums. I think a few were still in use out in the asteroid colonies.”

Countryman chuckled, “Not as warships, I can tell you that. The rings made putting any kind of armor on those ships complicated. It doesn’t help that they are basically fodder for any half-decent missile weapon, or any weapon really. There is a reason ships of that type aren’t used much anymore.”

Megumi nodded, “I guess there is. You know, I never really get to see those old ion engines outside of museums.”

“Well you aren’t missing much. They were rather bulky, but they were more efficient than older chemical engines. They were what made the colonization of the system feasible. Although if you asked me, I would say the most significant invention of the past century was grav plating.”

“Grav plating? Really I know it is convenient, but is it really that significant?”

Countryman nodded, “Oh yes. Humans don’t react well to long term exposure to microgravity. The grav rings were our first clumsy solution, but they had so many problems. Especially on a warship, where they caused even more problems for ship engineers, and their crews. Ships of that age simply couldn’t take hits, and the grav rings were a major part of that. Much of that was due to the limitations of the rings. They were large fragile devices that needed to stay in motion to function. Armor helped, but it could only do so much to compensate for the inherent structural weakness of the ring model.”

Megumi nodded, “I have seen a few diagrams. Those ships did have rather complicated internal mechanisms, and those rings do look fragile alright. Although I believe some of the later designs featured a hardened ring design.”

Countryman replied, “Yes the Olympia class cruisers were the last ship class of that age to use a ring design. They featured a reinforced and armored three-ring design around a central cylindrical hull with a forward hammerhead section. Unlike most ships of the age, those cruisers could take a hit, but they quickly fell out of favor with the major fleets after grav plating came by. The cruisers in service ended up sold to smaller colonies that could not afford newer ships.”

“Speaking of grav plating, you never did fully get into why you think it was so important.”

Countryman smiled, “Isn’t it obvious? The advent of grav plating allowed military ships to get rid of those fragile rings. This also allowed for more rugged and resilient ships to be built. Although the different colonies had different ideas on how a ship should be built without rings. Not only were ships sturdier, but grav plating was cheaper to install and maintain than the older rings.”

She put her plate aside, “I guess you are right about that. I think that also played into the proliferation of energy weapons as well.”

“It did alright. Mars started the trend when they first added lasers to their ships to carve through heavy ship armor. The other colonies soon followed, and before everyone knew it every ship had replaced their railguns with a battery of high-energy lasers. A fact that prompted the colonies to develop defenses specifically against lasers. Luna started putting ultra-reflective polymer coatings on their hulls, while Mars developed polarized hull plating. It kicked off a bit of an arms race, in fact.”

“That I am familiar with. Most of the technology on this ship is a direct result of that arms race. It’s why we were able to give as good of a fight as we did to those scaly bastards.”

Countryman stood up, “Yes, it was. The rest was actually developed during that war. Although work on this ship did begin before that war, by a few years actually.”

She stood up as well, and commented, “That much is obvious. The Enterprise may not be as big as the Yamato, but she is close enough in size to be compared. Although most of that time would have been development. The actual construction would have taken only a few months.”

“A year and a half actually. We laid down the starframe seventeen months ago to be more specific. Theoretical groundwork for the ship began much earlier though. Your mother and I actually worked on the initial concept for the ship together.” said Countryman as he walked off.

She stared at his retreating back, and then muttered, “That would have been decades ago.”

In her mind that statement raised some questions. Although the only person who could answer them just walked away. Glancing at her timepiece she realized she had somewhere to be. Likely why Countryman had left. She headed off, while thinking about what the ship was originally conceived to be. Megumi figured it was likely originally conceived as a ship of exploration. Decades was a significantly longer development period than most ships had. As most ships were taken from concept to completion within five years. Although larger ships were known to take longer. Even with the larger ships they typically weren’t much longer than five years.

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After leaving the mess hall Countryman headed up for the bridge. It was time they started on gathering what supplies they could from the remaining facilities in Earth orbit. What was left of the Lunar colonies showed promise based on long-range scans. There were also the dead wrecks of quite a few ships from both sides to search for supplies. They needed everything they could get for this journey. Fuel, food, water, spare parts, all of those would be needed. The more supplies they could gather and store before they started their journey, the better their chances.

Thankfully, this would be a simple task. He was more concerned about the journey ahead. If the Cathamari were any indication, it was a hostile universe out there, and they would only have three ships. Three ships upon which the fate of humanity lies. They would have to be cautious. Stealth would be key, and thankfully their ships were naturally hard to detect. It was a side benefit of their armor scheme, it was known to disrupt sensors. Primitive sensors like radar could not even penetrate that disruption. That benefit combined with the relatively low natural power signatures of their ships, allowed them to evade detection in most cases. That low power signature was deliberate on their own part though. A century of constant warfare between the colonies had taught them well. Once he was done with the Enterprise, it would be even harder to detect than normal for an Earth ship.

That was the other thing he had to worry about. Optimizing the ship’s systems for fuel-efficiency. Thankfully that was an easy task, just time-consuming. The protocols for it already existed in the ship’s computer, it would be a simple matter to switch the ship over to using them in favor of the standard protocols. Might require a few small code changes to the protocols as well, but they were there. That was a huge time saver for him.

 

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