Fiction: The Girassian Debacle Chapter 8: A History Changing Cruise

Picture Sunset on Cape May Point Beach, New Jersey, July 2022 by quigonjinnojiisan

Previous Chapter 7: A Great Team: https://onthebeachatnightalone.com/2022/12/28/fiction-the-girassian-debacle-chapter-7-a-great-team/

The collision of the Poseidon and Diomedes resulted in a change in plans that was convenient for Senator Vastatis’s secret work with Star Force. The disaster delayed Admiral Rankin’s departure with the Task Force. This delay gave Vastatis an unexpected opportunity.

Araden Vastatis made his fortune in Artificial Intelligence robotics developed at his company, Matadi Advanced Aerospace Enterprises. While security had always been high at his Matadi Research Institute -the MRI- it had gone extremely dark in the past five years. No one knew what they were working on. Rumors spread about the development of a new type of weapon or of a force field shield for protection of both large structures and of personnel. Another rumor circulated that he was working on an interstellar drive that would make the Portal obsolete. In the past year, the Senator had appeared particularly distracted when seen in public. 

A brilliant intellect shone from his eyes. He was cast by the media as a genius, sort of a mad scientist. But he did not play the role of a wild lunatic from a lab. Quite the contrary, a striking countenance, exaggerated by an attitude of easy-going arrogance, often allowed him to catch the eye of an attractive woman he chose to pay attention to. 

For more than a year he spent a fortune, and much of his political capital, to gain influence in the highest ranks of the Confederation of Southern America’s Star Force. He found a small cadre of officers aspiring to advance Confederation technology to equivalence with Emissary technology. They plotted to covertly integrate an unknown device into the Chicago’s impulse rocket drive core.  This was done by MRI personnel while the Chicago’s crew was on a prolonged earth leave. Only its engineering section knew about the installation as it was done under cover of a visit by the Senator. 

Vastatis named the technology a “cloaking mirror.” It generated a spherical field making an  object undetectable to electromagnetic scans.  But the device produced more than a stealth envelope that made the object invisible to all means of detection. The cloaking mirror projected an image of the object, an “alias” of the object. As the object moved away from a point in space, the alias could be projected to move away in the opposite direction.  The cloaking mirror hid the object while a false image appeared to be moving away from it. 

The cloaking mirror had been secretly tested many times on ever larger satellites,  in increasingly larger elliptical orbits around earth. Sometimes a second satellite would travel inside the stealth envelope. Because of all of this prior research, Vastatis was confident it would work when installed on the Chicago.  

His experiment with the Chicago called for great confidence in the cloaking mirror’s capability to project the image of an object as large as the Chicago, together with a second ship traveling inside the envelope. A successful experiment called for both ship aliases to move away from the Alpha One Base Station in a course opposite the course of the Chicago. The aliases would trace the course expected by the Operations Center, while the actual cloaked ships would have to move through traffic and avoid a second disastrous collision off Alpha One. 

Vastatis’s yacht, the Independence, would accompany the Chicago on a training mission set up for his private pilots to learn how to optimize their deceleration time from cruising speed. Vastatis maintained this special cruise was a reasonable perk for all of the support he gave Star Force as a Senator. The Independence, about half as large as the Chicago, would be an ideal sized ship to test whether two ships could be projected out of the stealth envelope. 

Because Vastatis insisted the technology remain secret for as long as possible, the original plan had been to test the cloaking mirror with a ship during the Task Force transit to Mars. Assuming it worked, only a select group of Star Force personnel would have become aware of the technology. Now, with an opportunity to test it before departure, his experiment would restrict knowledge of the device to an even smaller group, the Chicago’s bridge and its engineers, his own pilots and some Star Force officers in high commands. 

If the cloaking mirror did not work as hoped, he nevertheless hoped to  prove the effectiveness of the stealth envelope.  The news of his ability to cloak a ship would become general knowledge. While not preferable, he would take satisfaction in giving the Emissaries something to worry about.

__________

Vastatis arrived aboard the Chicago on his Independence which, as when transferring the cloaking mirror, directly docked with the corvair. In an ebullient mood, he bounced through the hatch into its docking bay. Not only was he going to test his stealth technology before the Task Force Renewal departed for Mars, he was going to witness the experiment in person.  

He looked around the bay.  “I thought Captain Plotckin would be here to greet me.”

“The Captain is running through check-out procedures for this cruise, Senator,” said the security officer of the watch. “With the collision of the Posiedon taking so much attention, she needs to help out the check-out if we are going to do this cruise with your yacht.”

On arriving on the bridge, he tried to impart his enthusiasm to Captain Plotkin.  He could not get past her polite, but somber, focus on operational data coming in from the different sections of the ship. “This is great! So much better than sneaking away from the Task Force while you are in transit.”

“This operation comes at a busy time for all of the ships in Renewal,” she said without turning away from a monitor she looked at over an officer’s shoulder. Everyone on the bridge was intent on the data they had coming in. The holographic display showed the Independence separating from the Chicago and moving several hundred meters away. 

Two cadets who arrived on the bridge. Given his desire for secrecy, he insisted on discovering why they were necessary on the bridge. He asked all about their careers at the Star Force Academy, paying close attention to the tall, raven-haired female cadet.  Plotkin came to their rescue, attesting they were top-of-class, senior cadets who were going to work on the bridge during the Task Force Mission and were only one cruise away from being commissioned. They both looked uncomfortable with his attention. While Vastatis lingered with the female cadet, with a look from Plotkin, she finally excused herself to join the bridge officer who was to coach her on communications operations.     

“If the separation of the aliases from us does not occur, the Alpha One Station’s Operations Center will see us disappear. Are you sure you are ready to reveal your cloaking technology?” Plotkin said, finally turning to Vastatis.

“I’m not worried about the projection of the ships’ aliases. I do wonder about the  communication lag between us and the alias and then back to the OC,” Vastatis said.

One of the things that Vastatis had to solve with his mirrored aliases was the complication that people would be trying to communicate with the false image. He solved this problem by developing the capacity of the projected aliases to serve as  both a receiver and transmitter. Communications directed towards the alias were instantaneously routed through the ship’s alias back to the cloaked ship which could then route a response back through the alias. To recipients of  a response, the signal would seem to originate from the projected alias.  

 “I perfected the alias to redirect communications. But we are limited by the speed of light. When we get as far away as the moon, there will be a delay as everything is routed back and forth through the alias.”

“How much of a delay?,” the communications officer asked.“ 

Vastatis looked at Plotkin. “That ought to be something you can figure out. But, depending on where we are in our cruise towards the moon, the lag could be from less than a second, up to two seconds from what they expect given the position of the alias. We cannot get around that.”

“Let’s count on the OC not needing to communicate with us during our run,” Plotkin said. “At least not until we are getting close to them on our return.”

 The Chicago received clearance to break away from its orbit of earth. Vastatis’s  Independence  joined it. As planned, the Independence intentionally moved too close to the Chicago.  Alpha One’s OC called the Independence and notified them to increase their distance from Chicago. While close to the Chicago, the cloaking mirror started and generated a stealth envelope engulfing  both the Chicago and the Independence. With ignition of the cloaking mirror, a stealth envelope hid the two ships while projected images of the two ships detached from the ships. The projected aliases of the ships moved along the course planned for the training run for the Independence’s pilots.

The pilot of the Independence acknowledged the order from the OC to back away from the Chicago. Everyone on Chicago’s bridge held their breath waiting for some communication from the Station indicating confusion over anomalies on their scanners. If two images of the Chicago or Independence became visible to surveillance systems, the experiment would be called off.  The cloaking having failed, the anomaly of two images would be explained as a Vastatis test to confuse radar systems.

“This is Alpha One OC. Chicago, we detected a fluctuation in your signal. We can check our systems but did anything happen to you?”

“We’ve had a power surge here,” Plotkin’s XO reported through the alias which was steadily moving away from the Chicago.  Again, they waited anxiously for some OC communication that might reveal confusion regarding where their response came from.

“This is the OC. You better check your drive core. Have a good test flight together in your higher orbit .”

“Thank you, Alpha One. Engineering is checking our power systems out. This is Chicago. Over and out.”

Vastatis let out a triumphant shout. “Yes. Yes!” He looked extremely satisfied with himself. As far as the OC of Alpha One could detect, they had spoken with the Chicago and Independence heading away into a higher earth orbit, while their actual, cloaked ships headed off in stealth mode in an opposite direction toward the moon. “I’m going to have to fix whatever caused the flicker. Captain Plotkin, your engineers need to do a full analysis of whatever happened in the drive core. I need to interrogate the core’s function against my cloaking mirror during its ignition.”

Plotkin looked at him blankly. “Yes, Senator. Engineering will do that. Thank you for your advice.”

The trip to the moon took much longer for the Chicago than London’s record trip run. The impulse rockets of the Chicago could not generate the same acceleration as the London’s impulse rockets because a large amount of power was bled from the drive core into the cloaking mirror. But the velocity achieved by the  Chicago challenged the Independence’s pilots to stay close and to then decelerate before reaching the moon. They did not receive any communications from Alpha One Station.

Surveillance systems on earth had not detected the two ships as they orbited the moon. Instead, earth systems continued to detect mirrored aliases of the ships in  their planned courses in high earth orbit. Navigators on the Chicago carefully modeled accelerations and decelerations for the aliases. It was evident to the Operations Center that Senator Vastatis was getting special training for his yacht’s pilots to optimize their decelerations. 

They had just come about and started back to the Station when Plotkin noticed Vastatis kept glancing towards the female cadet he had spoken with earlier. She was sitting at the communications console with the regular officer behind her. Plotkin sighed. 

“Senator?” she said. “Senator? May I have your attention?”

He turned to face the Captain. His look was too direct. She looked away clenching her jaw. “Senator, it is time to review our progress again. We are headed back to Alpha One. Our aliases have apparently remained on the Station’s imaging systems. We should prepare to call the Station through the aliases to confirm they continue to appear the source of the exchange. Does that meet your plan?”

As they got closer to Alpha One Station, they drew in the two aliases on their return course from high earth orbit.  When it was time to reunite the aliases with their ship, Plotkin had one of the cadets call the OC of Alpha One Station. “Alpha One Operations Center, this is ULE Chicago. Request permission to manually join Task Force Renewal in orbit.”

As the aliases and the actual ships were only ten thousand kilometers from the Station, the delay in relay of the communication back to the Chicago was small, but measurable.

“Chicago, this is OC. It is a bit early for you to be calling us. And why are you asking permission to join your Task Force? It is fifteen kilometers from Alpha One. No tug is needed to join your own group at this distance! ”

The Chicago’s Chief Navigation Officer stepped up to the navigation station. “Alpha One, this is the Chief Navigation Officer for Chicago. Our apology for the confusion. We are in training. We will sync with our Task Force independently when we arrive back to the Task Force.”

The XO smiled and winked at the cadet.  “Are all coms to Alpha One Station off.” 

“Yes, Sir,” she replied.

“Excellent job. You sounded very tentative, as you should have.”

“Bridge, this is AIC. We are dark to the OC.” Lieutenant Akhtar-Gatewood, the Chief Navigation Officer, lost his professional restraint and shouted. “It’s still working perfectly! Captain. Senator. They still think we’re in high orbit.” The rest of the bridge cheered.

Plotkin turned to Vastatis, giving in to a slight grin. “Almost there. Let’s see how good the mirroring holds as we close in and merge.”

“We know the cloaking is near perfect. There have been no communications from the OC regarding our trip to the moon.” Vastatis looked around the bridge triumphantly, settling his gaze on Plotkin. “Captain. You have just executed a history changing cruise.” 

“Thank you, Senator.” Still, Plotkin did not allow herself to exalt. “Now, we have to see if the cloaking works against Emissary cruisers and the Girassians.”

“It’s all right.” Vastatis said. “The way the cloak worked met my hopes. My surveillance station at the Matadi Research Institute has detected no communication from the Emissaries. They would have contacted us if there was communication indicating the Emissaries picked up the two of us heading to the moon. The Emissaries do not have technology that sees through our Cloaking Mirror.”

He put his hand on Plotkin’s shoulder in a familiar manner. She was gracious and did not jerk away.  “Angelique, you must come over to my yacht for a small celebration!”

She looked taken by surprise. “Senator, I am on duty.”

“You don’t have to be once you are back in earth orbit.” The members of the bridge turned away from the two of them and paid especially close attention to their consoles. 

“Come, this is a great, great moment!” Vastatis said. “Admiral Rankin and some of his staff will be there. We wouldn’t want you to miss the celebration. Your ship has changed the relationship we will have with the Emissaries.”

“Senator. In honor of your triumph, I will accept the honor of visiting your ship.”

“The honor will be mine,” he said.

The two cadets could not help themselves from turning around to look at the couple. Plotkin looked relaxed. She looked happy. That was strange.

__________

The reception on Vastatis’s yacht was a subdued affair. The two pilots of the Independence were in attendance. Rankin came over with his Chief of Staff and the XO of the Athena. They were the only Star Force officers who knew about the cloaking mirror. Captain Plotkin was a good partner in the subterfuge. She put the fear of God in her bridge crew and engineering who knew about the cloaking mirror. As far as the rest of her crew was concerned, they had just gone on a routine run to the moon and back.

Rankin and Vatatis spoke to one another at length, separate from Plotkin and the rest of the group. Rankin had a glass of wine which he barely touched. He looked worried. 

“Admiral, you looked concerned,” Vastatis said.

“I have mixed feelings about this, Senator. I am in awe of this device. I really can’t comprehend how your mirror is possible. And if we put it on our ships, I think the Emissaries will have to sit down with us as equals. But I do not like the fact that its first use will put one of my officers at risk. For your political purposes.”

“Admiral. The Star Force will become the force to reckon with in our known galaxy. One career is a small price to pay for this.”

“It may seem a small price to you. But betraying a fellow officer is a grave thing for us.” Rankin looked over at Plotkin who had just received a second glass of wine.

“Well, there is one thing we can be confident of,” Vastatis said. “Maureau seems to be able to take care of himself. His dealings with the pirates and flights with the London show him to be resourceful. I think he will come out of this just fine and keep his.”

“Putting his crew at risk for your political gain is difficult for me.”

“Admiral! Now that we are so close, I hope you’re not backing out. The mission will also test the mirror against the Emissaries and the Girassians.”

Rankin did not answer. He set his wine glass down. “Congratulations on, what seems to me, an unbelievable accomplishment. I think it will change history. Hopefully for the best.” He looked to his Chief of Staff and XO and nodded. The Star Force officers left.

“You’re not having doubts about this mission, are you?” Vastatis asked Plotkin.

“It’s going to be a hard mission to cleanly execute,” she said.  “But I know how I can get it done.” Plotkin 

“I’m confident you can, Angelique.”  

Plotkin stayed aboard the Independence long enough to finish a third glass of wine. When the pilots left, so did she, but not before taking a medication to clear her system of the alcohol. 

__________

Monica Presch sat in Vastatis’s office on earth. She sat in the chair opposite Araden’s his desk, her legs crossed beneath a dark maroon calf-length skirt. She wore a billowy white blouse. “I don’t know why you listen to that creep.”

Vastatis rubbed his face with both hands. “There are several reasons I listen to Yeoman. You know that. I think he has good ideas. His idea for promoting my Kings with a classical theme is a good one.”

“Well, you know I don’t appreciate the Vastatis Kings posing like they’re models for Ancient Greek statues. It’s just weird. It’s so old. That’s the only word I can come up with. Old. Your blitzball team is modern, taking on the Emissaries team. You and the Kings represent the unimagined future.”

“Monica, I respect your opinions. You know that. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this.”

She moved to the edge of her chair and placed Vastatis’s schedule for the next day on his desk. Her short hair was parted on the side and she looked at him with her shoulders thrown back.  

“But you have also let him influence you politically! All of the political capital you spent on the Star Force General Staff is absurd.” She caught herself. “That is too strong a word. I apologize.”

“You know I’m not sensitive to your criticism. Say what you believe, Monica. I agree I really did work hard to influence them.”

“This mission will be another problem for the CSA, not just Maureau. It’s all contingent on being able to convince the Emissaries it’s an accident.”

They both looked out the window at the Pacific Ocean. The sun was low on the horizon, a soft purple light bathing the office. Vastatis’s office occupied the pinnacle of a pyramid, thirty stories above the ocean. Vastatis rubbed his short cropped beard and squinted into the sunlight at Presch.  

“You have a darker lipstick than usual.”

“For God’s sake, Senator, that’s inappropriate. We are discussing the business of Yeoman.”

“Right. His aversion to the Emissaries is deeper than mine. But we share one more thing, more important than anything. You know that. It’s the reason I need to stay in touch with him.” 

“Just because Benjamin Maureau is your political opponent, doesn’t give you common cause to go after his son.”

“It’s more than that. More than just a plan to hurt Benjamin Maureau politically. Yeoman approached me and shared dreams he’s having about Anthony, how son. They’re identical to dreams I’m having. They are disturbing in their vividness. 

“I don’t have anything tonight, do I?” She shook her head. Vastatis stood up and went to an adjoining room where she could hear him pouring something. He came back with two tea cups and handed one of them to her. Presch cradled it in her lap without drinking any. He took a deep sip. 

“This is unique from an herbal plant only existing in my lab. It’s from DNA acquired in South American ruins thousands of years old. No stimulant. I find it allows me to have peaceful sleep.”

“Except for your dreams,” Presch said.

“We’re both having the same dreams, sometimes on the same day. It has happened numerous times. ”

“Next, you’re going to tell me you’re together with him in these dreams.” 

“I hate to admit it, but sometimes I am with Yeoman and we are dealing with Maureau together. And having the same dream on the same day.”

“You’re dreaming the same dream? And you’re together in it? I’d run away from him if that were happening to me. It’s so strange he approached to tell you about his dreams in the first place.” 

“Anthony Maureau is a key figure in these dreams, a leader opposing both of our plans. In the dreams, Maureau is very influential in the Star Force.”

“Very bizarre. Why did he suspect you were having the same dreams?”

Vastatis shook his head. “ I admit it’s strange.”

“Strange! I don’t think you should associate with him in any way, socially, politically, or commercially. You believe you  have the same goals?” 

“I do.”

“Araden, you are usually so pragmatic. So careful in your analysis. How can you associate with someone approaching you in the dream world?”

“I want to convince the Emissaries they need us as equals. I want to get us independent of them. Yeoman also wants to free us from them. I think our goals are aligned.”

She shook her head and finally took a sip of her tea. “I think you’re mistaken. I believe Yeoman will be someone who does not work with you, Araden. He will become your nightmare himself.” 

Go to Chapter 9: In a Numb Haze https://onthebeachatnightalone.com/2023/02/17/fiction-the-girassian-debacle-chapter-9-in-a-numb-haze/