Liberation (The Chronicles of Daan 3) by D Ward Cornell

Author:D Ward Cornell [Cornell, D Ward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

ENGINEERING

I enter and see Cal in the area he staked out for himself a long time ago. He hears me and looks up.

“Hi Jared. Are you going to be at the Assassin 3.0 test flight tonight?”

“Planning to be, yes.” I say, even though I’d forgotten about it until just now. “But I’m actually here for a different reason.”

“How can I be of help?” Cal asks.

“I want to bring a couple Confederation cruisers up to a higher standard.”

“You serious?” Cal asks doubtfully.

“Yes, I’m thinking about adding a couple layers of Tay’s super metal and installing a scaled-up version of your new combined cloak and Stadler drive.”

“You’re going to trust the Confederation with that much technology?”

“I trust that they won’t be able to reverse engineer either technology, so there’s not much risk. But it will give them some capability they can show off without giving them more teeth, which they could use to hurt us.”

Cal looks at me critically. “What’s going on, Jared? What you say is true, but it doesn’t add up.”

A flash probe reveals that I’ll have to explain myself if this is going to move forward.

“This has to stay between us.”

Cal nods.

“The Rufarven are coming. They say they’re coming in peace, but they’re really coming to assess us. If we’re too weak, they’ll ultimately attack us. If we’re too strong, they’ll attempt to collaborate with the Lepodred to quote, ‘defuse the human threat.’

“The Rufarven will not respect our stealth drone capability. If that’s all we have when they come, then they’ll likely try to conquer us. If we have enough drones in time, then they’ll be taught to show more respect. If we don’t, then all will be lost.

“On the other hand, if we appear too powerful, then they will ally with the Lepodred and slowly pick away at us.

“I need to find that sweet spot, where we ally with them, and together pick away at the Lepodred. Giving a couple Confederation ships the appearance of power, but no real teeth, is where the sweet spot will be.”

“Interesting idea,” Cal replies. “How long do we have to get this done?”

“Unknown. I doubt they can get here in less than three months, so that would be my target.”

“What kind of ship?”

“Either the Haiying class cruiser or the Pada’mae class fast attack ship. I’m thinking the cruiser, but I’m open to persuasion.”

“Let me check on it. Limited specs will be available on these ships on the exo-net. I can probably find the base dimensions and mass, which would allow me to estimate the surface area. From that I could figure out the amount of magic metal, the number of emitters, the size of the drive, and the overall power requirements.” Cal pauses to think a little more, then locks me with a stare. “You realize this will need to be done in space. None of us has any experience working up above the atmosphere. We’ll need a completely new assembly/ installation team.”

“I know. What can you give me in two hours?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me?”

“Sorry, this came up quickly.

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