Snippet #2025655

Colonel Grace Williams stood idly by, monotonously drumming her fingers across the hard metallic disk that encased the primary holo-projector at the center of the large circular form of the Siren’s Central Command Center. This central point was surrounded by raised circular tiers, emanating from the center in a way not unlike the ripples left in the wake of a rock breaking the surface of a pond. In fact, it could be said that this room was designed to invoke that very image.

Her long hair, black as space itself, was pulled up into a neat bun and covered by a black beret affixed with a golden pin that elegantly revealed the garment’s purpose. It was a subtle reminder that she had served in the Ares Corp prior to her commission with the UCOSA. Her uniform did little to contradict this image. Her white blouse was crisp and without a single wrinkle or stray fold. Her black jacket fell neatly over her shoulders, and seamlessly transitioned into a pair of pressed black trousers. Even her shoes, a pair of black oxfords, were shined and without defect.

“Twenty seconds, sir!” The nav officer somewhere to her right called out, announcing the imminent collapse of the warp metric wrapping the Ares class vessel and affording it the ability to break the universal speed limit, well relatively speaking anyway. From the strictest of viewpoints, the Siren was not moving at all. But such semantics had little consequence in the real world.

The Siren, along with the Navis craft Heron and Aegean, served as the escort for a pair of Hermes ‘galleons’, as they were colloquially termed, and their cargo of processed iridium metal. The convoy was carrying almost 100 cubic meters* of the platinum-group element for sale to the Ryuu. Though vulgar and warlike, they did have money, and so long as their gold lined the pockets of UCO business interests the UCOSA would be rented out to provide transport and protection for trade convoys.

Personally, Grace could not understand why such a backward nation as Ryuu would be purchasing iridium metal when so many facets of society were in such dire need. The UCO could provide them with irrigation systems, seeds, food, design specifications for factories, iron, and so many other materials that could directly benefit all walks of life in the nation, and yet they seemed only interested in material that’s only real use is that of military nature. Of course the mining conglomerates of the UCO weren’t complaining, with the gradual slowdown of ship production the demand for iridium was slipping, and they were looking for any available markets for their product.

“Ten seconds!” The call came again. Grace turned her attention to the space above the holo-projector. While it was, for the moment, occupied only by air, in a few seconds the space would begin to populate with holographic representations of objects in the system. One of the great disadvantages of travel by warp metric is that it rendered the vessel caught inside completely blind. It was only by virtue of the vector calculations done by the vessel’s navigational computers that Grace had any idea where the Siren was going to land after its voyage. Even the slightest variation in approach vector could cause a vessel to miss its destination by parsecs, and the crew wouldn’t know they were off course until they arrived.

Still, there was always the rush that accompanied arrival. Grace felt the slight shudders of anticipation run up her spine as the seconds counted down. Would they be at the right spot? And what rested just beyond the metric? This excitement was not in any way unique to Grace, or even unique to this voyage. The anticipation that accompanied the collapse of a metric was universal, and it never weakened.

“Metric is collapsing.” The navigations officer called out, signaling the end of the Siren’s journey. There was no apparent change in motion, but quite suddenly the CCC was abuzz with activity as the then till unused radar and XDAR arrays kicked into action and probed the surrounding system. While the slow speed of light ever slowed the process, an image of the system and its bodies began to appear, rendered beautifully in full color by the holo-projector.

“All craft are present and accounted for, Colonel Williams.” A young man manning one of the many radar stations called out, prompting a brief round of applause. It wasn’t unheard of for a miscalculation to split convoys apart during FTL travel, and while this was rarely dangerous it was very inconvenient to be forced to wait, potentially for days, for the lost elements to recalculate their trajectories and work their way to their intended destination.

“Good, order the convoy to form up on our position. Once we are assembled, lay in a course for the Ryuu capital world.” Grace ordered without so much as looking away from the holo-display. The relevant parties would carry out the orders without regard to whom she was specifically addressing. “And remember to keep all weapons systems powered down; we don’t want to do anything that could be seen as a challenge to the Ryuu people. So much as a misplaced stare could send them into a battle fury.”


*By order of the Council as stated in the Universal Charter for Inter-planetary Commerce, all shipments of iridium and other materials that fall into the category of "ultra dense" are to be sold by volume, not by mass, so as to ensure that buyers unfamiliar with this class of metals knows how much they are purchasing. A lot of 100 cubic meters of iridium has a mass of about 2,256,000 kilograms, or an Earth weight of about 2,500 short tons. An equivalent mass of iron would have a volume of over 280 cubic meters, so you can see the need for such a convention when dealing with merchants who are accustomed to the lower densities of common materials.