In 2075, humanity discovered it was not alone.
There were no mysterious transmissions, no dramatic requests to speak to a
leader, and no cities glassed from orbit. Instead, a craft the size of a
pre-space aircraft carrier slid up to the shipyards at L2, transmitted a
manifest, and requested docking. When a group of major world leaders attempted
to contact the aliens and determine exactly where their constituents would fit
in the inevitable New Galactic Order they were stunned to find that instead of
a diplomatic or exploratory craft they were dealing with the spacefaring
equivalent of a tramp freighter.
Freighter or no, there were shake ups to go
around. Along with a polite explanation of their true purpose, the ship sent
along a list of technical documents and scientific theories they were willing
to share… for a price. Companies hoping to get the edge on their competition
took one look at the costs and blanched. Not having any up to date industries
in galactic terms the price would have to be paid in heavy elements, and lots
of them; literal years of human production for a few data files. But the US and
Russo-Sino Alliance were together able to scrape together enough gold,
platinum, osmium, iridium, and palladium to buy four pieces of information. The
first was a rough map of the local galactic neighborhood complete with known
territories and dossiers of other civilizations. The second was a high
efficiency vacuum energy power plant design. Third involved plans for an
inertialess drive capable of several dozen G’s of acceleration. And finally,
there was the hyperdrive.
It turned out there were dimensions residing above
the one we fondly refer to as reality. Each had a higher energy level than the
last, but smaller overall size. So a ship traveling in one appeared to be going
much faster to ships on a lower dimensional band. About 2.7 times as fast, in
fact, for each band crossed. But the increased energy cost of breaking the
walls between dimensions put a limit on the speeds a ship could attain. The
highest levels Galactic ships could reach were the Kappa Bands with an
effective velocity multiplier of 8,100. The tech humans were given was
substantially slower.
Hyperdrives were not without problems. A ship in a
higher band could be detected by its “wake” while ships below were effectively
invisible. Translating in gravity wells became more and more difficult as the
field increased. Upper level bands were blocked within light days of a G2 like
Sol, and an Alpha translation would be impossible within 1.5 AU. Even gas
giants beyond that distance could block jumps nearby. And any ship in
hyperspace still had to provide its own acceleration. The dimensions only
increased effective velocity and did not create that velocity themselves.
Regardless of its drawbacks, hyperspace travel was
the only game in town, and humanity needed it. The governments of the US and
Russo-Sino Alliance held that key, and formed the Confederate Nations of Sol
(CNS) to represent Terran interests in the greater galactic community. And so
ships carrying human traders, soldiers, miners, spies, diplomats, and colonists
left the system of their birth. They brought with them their hopes and dreams,
and the overriding drive for the Human Race to grow to fill its rightful place
in the Universe.
83
Years after First Contact...
“Well, I suppose this was inevitable,” thought
Admiral Katelin Petrovich, commander of 1st Fleet in Jovian orbit. The CNS had
grown over the decades. Tau Ceti F was now formally known as Nova Terra and had
been the site of the first human colony. Just 10 years earlier Volantis B had
been renamed New Svalbard and became the second terrestrial world to colonized.
And there were dozens of outposts in 7 other systems including Alpha Centauri,
Wolf 359, and Epsilon Eridani. While no powerhouse, Humanity was a fast growing
species, and already known for their materials extraction, light manufacturing,
and mercenaries. The CNS had pushed technology heavily in those years following
the initial data dump. And things had come a long way from the CNSS Adventurer
plodding through the Gamma Bands at a mere six times the effective speed of
light. Now, human built craft could reach the Eta Band for an effective
velocity multiplier of 1,000x. Coupled with propulsive systems capable of
sustaining a maximum velocity of 0.6c, Humanity’s ships could sustain N-Space
speeds of about 1.8 lightyears per day.
“Not that that will do much for us here,” she
mused, ironically. “The Kuprics can reach the Theta Bands, and have at least a
15% edge on us in acceleration. Top speed is higher, too.” The Kupric
Collective, so known by humanity since their own name was unpronounceable by
human tongue or writing, was by no means a major Galactic player. Other powers
had tens and hundreds of times the weight in ships, armies to dwarf their
forces, and technology centuries ahead of the Kuprics. Unfortunately, those
powers were far too interested in what their peers were doing to worry about
what a few upstarts were doing as long as they didn’t try to start anything
with their betters. So the Kupric Collective had begun snapping up independent
star systems. When that drew no response besides a handful of “strongly worded
condemnations” they graduated to small interstellar polities. And humanity was
definitely on the small side, though still the largest “acquisition” by a
substantial margin.
Initially, there had been minor incidents. Ships
would appear at the edge of a system boundary and warp out just before forces
could reach weapons range. Comsats and unmanned probes were destroyed during
lightning passes through system by high speed craft. Jamming devices were
released from out system and allowed to drift into orbit around planets before
going active and disrupting communications until localized and destroyed.
Convoys reported being shadowed by unknown craft. And then, some convoys failed
to report at all. None of which could be directly blamed on the Kuprics, though
the CNS received numerous suggestions via diplomatic channels that the attacks
could be stopped by the “improved security" joining the Collective would bring.
This changed when then Commodore Petrovich led her
task force to mousetrap and destroy a raiding force around Wolf 359. Despite
heavy losses, human forces shattered both enemy destroyers and hammered the
sole cruiser nearly into scrap. Examinations of the captured cruiser showed
without a doubt its Kupric origin, complete with the original mission orders in
the central computer.
The Collective denounced the records as false, of
course. In turn, they produced documents showing the craft were on a diplomatic
mission that diverted in response to a human distress beacon. “Probably crewed
entirely by women and children with a cargo of neo-puppies,” one commentator
quipped. They further demanded the return of their cruiser and reparations equaling
an entire year of Earth’s Gross System Product. And Petrovich’s head. Quite
literally on that last point. Upon careful consideration, CNS HighCom did send
back the cruiser. Or its hulk, stripped of every bit of technology and so
structurally compromised as to be useless for anything but scrap. Inside the
derelict’s bridge was a copy of a copy of the citation that accompanied now
Admiral Petrovich’s award of the Navy Star.
They got the message.
Now, just a standard human month later, their
fleet had arrived at Sol. Xenopsychologists predicted this would be their first
target. When offended, Kuprics tended to go directly for the heart of their
prey, and the “return” of the cruiser had been a very deliberately crafted
insult. The response to that insult had massed about 25 light seconds beyond
Jupiter, just inside the invisible line preventing ascension into hyper, and
been moving closer for the past forty minutes. Humanity had always based its
fleet at Calisto Station. From that location they were shielded from surprise
attack by the gravity shadow of the gas giant, but able to trap any force
intent on invading the inner system between themselves and the array of orbital
defenses surrounding Mars and Earth. Rather than take the heavier losses a
direct attack on Terra would incur, the Kupric Fleet chose to engage the human
ships directly and hammer the planets at their leisure.
A pointed look from her flag captain broke the
Admiral’s contemplations. She looked at the display in time to see a fleet
outnumbering her own by three to two and with a substantial technological edge
approaching Point November. There was nothing particularly special about
November in and of itself, except it marked a section of space 9 light seconds
from the hyper shadow’s edge and 10 from her forces. Considering effective
energy weapons range was about a light second, it was as good a midway point as
any on inevitable Kupric advance. “About time, do you think captain?” she
asked.
“As good as it’s probably going to get,” Captain
Stanford replied. “Pity we’re not closer, though.”
“We wouldn’t last ten minutes, out there. But I
see your point. Still, there’s always the sensor feed.” Turning to look at the
communications officer, Petrovich ordered,” Transmit code Fulton, lieutenant.”
At her words, a superluminal broadcast was transmitted from the flagship. A few
seconds later, it was received and acknowledged. Then the battle began.
The Kupric fleet had no warning. One moment they
were hurtling through space, preparing for the skew turn they’d need to slow to
engagement velocity with the hated human fleet. The next, eight human ships
appeared at the interplanetary equivalent of knife fighting range and opened
fire with beams and heavy shipkiller missiles. Which should have been
impossible. There were no stealth systems in the universe capable of evading
sensors at those ranges! And even if they had somehow been able to make the
drop from hyper this close to a gas giant, they would have showed up like
beacons on sensors in that higher energy dimension. But there they were, and
their salvo had just destroyed a full tenth of the fleet and damaged twice that
many. An enormously larger, if somewhat ragged, wave of return fire rushed to
meet the interlopers and impacted… nothing. Missiles and beams crisscrossed in
space that had until seconds before contained machine and man, but there were
no hits.
Sensors focused on the area as confusion reigned
on the Kupric flag deck. There was absolutely no sign of those phantom ships in
this dimension or any one observable by sensors. What they did not know was the
ships weren’t actually in any dimension those sensors were capable of scanning.
While news of the new human weapon would travel
far and wide, the exact manner in which the ships operated remained a closely
held secret for some time. It was only much later that anything became known
beyond the basic facts. At that point, there was much wailing and gnashing of
teeth among scientists and defense contractors the galaxy over.
There was absolutely no new technology in what the
humans had done. Instead, they took a page from the great naval campaigns of
the 19th and 20th human centuries. Specifically, the submarines. Human
scientists focused on three major points concerning the structure of
hyperspace: ships in lower bands could observe ones in higher, but not vice
versa; gravity shadows tended to be less pronounced in lower bands; and lower
bands were slower than the higher ones. “So,” they wondered,” while everyone
else is interested in going higher and faster, could lower and slower – and
stealthier – be the way to go?”
From that research, humanity became the first
species to tap into subspace.
So, less than 90 seconds later, the ships
reappeared and launched yet another salvo. Again, the shots flew true and left
the fleet with just over two thirds of its craft in battle worthy condition.
The High Admiral in command frantically ordered a retreat. They couldn’t fight
ships that appeared as if from the mists of legends, only to fade away when
fired upon! They were sailors, not demon slayers! But the laws of physics were
inviolable, and having spent 40 minutes building velocity, the ships were
moving at a fair rate. A smart commander might have ordered all ships to
increase forward thrust in hopes of shooting through the kill zone as quickly
as possible. A calm commander would have kept in mind the standard human fleet
now accelerating towards his own when making his calculations. But, while
competent in most matters relating to squashing minor nations, the High Admiral
was neither calm nor particularly smart. Instead, he ordered a 180 degree
course change and full acceleration.
The ghost squadron appeared three more times to
rake the Kupric battlefleet with fire. Following their last run, a mere fifth
of the once might force were left capable of independent movement, and most of
those only slowly. Faced with the prospect of undetectable killers in their
ranks and the now larger and more powerful fleet moving in from their rear,
these ships promptly surrendered. At least their leader was spared the
humiliation of personally transmitting the message, his flagship having eaten a
three gigaton penetrator during the fourth attack by the human squadron.
Following the complete capture or destruction of a
fleet comprising half of the Kupric Collective’s effective space combat power
in such a spectacularly one sided manner, the Oligarchy in charge was promptly
overthrown. Not that this resulted in any real changes in how the nation was
run, the new leaders merely being the political rivals of the old. But it did
give eight systems the opportunity to break away from the Collective while its
capability to project power was heavily reduced. Each system signed mutual
defense treaties with the CNS, and at least two became outright signatories to
the Confederation charter. With their fleet in shambles, systems defecting, and
the one attempt to recapture territory turned back by the sudden appearance of
four human subspace ships the Collective sued for peace. And thus Human power
made its first true showing among the stars.
It would not be the last.
