The Rise of Atlantis Pt. 02

"The strain on both my processing and memory resources would be so small I'd barely notice it. I could pilot all six ships, monitor all their systems around the clock, and still do everything I do here aboard the Victorious without using more than one thousandth of one percent of my current resources. Since all six ships would be moving under their own power I'd have to say the possibility of successfully moving them to the Beta Quadrant comes as close to one hundred percent as you can statistically get. Even factoring in the remote possibility of unforeseen events, there's still a ninety seven point eight percent chance of success. As a security precaution, I'd suggest using a separate digitally encrypted communications channel for each ship."

"The fleet has so many unused frequencies since the destruction of Atlantia and Cronus that assigning a different channel to each ship is definitely doable, Lain. I don't see a problem with that, and I agree with you. Taking precautions now will prevent unnecessary hassles later on. What about shipboard weapons? Would you be able to take command of the tracking and firing controls aboard each ship?"

"To some extent, yes. Aiming and firing the main and secondary batteries of each ship would only take a small revision of our current communications software. Although accuracy would depend on how well the onboard sensors were calibrated. The point defense systems are a different story. They're usually aimed and fired manually because they deal with smaller, faster craft like fighters and incoming missiles. The engineers would have to tie them into each ship's main targeting and firing system and the short range sensors as well. If that were done, my controlling all onboard weaponry would be easy."

"All right. Go ahead and make the necessary revisions to your communications software. When Kendra's finished with the Constellation, I'll have her get to work installing it and adapting the point defense systems on each of the six ships.

Oh and Lain, I need you to access the battle logs of every ship in the fleet that you're able to read. I want you to do a full analysis of the battle. I want to know exactly how and why we lost so many ships and lives in a battle where the odds were overwhelmingly in our favor. I need both a blow by blow 3D visual and a full oral analysis. If someone's fuck-up cost lives and ships, I want to know ASAP."

"Okay Lyssa, but I can't give you an accurate estimate of how long such an analysis will take yet. I don't know how many of the fleet's battle computers are still online. If I'm able to access at least half of them I may not have a report ready for you before tomorrow sometime."

"That's fine Lain, take as much time as you need. It's the end result that's important to me. I need to know everything you can possibly tell me about what exactly happened during that battle."

Ten minutes later Lain said, "Lyssa, my initial scans show every ship's battle computer still online and able to receive and transmit data. Every one of them kept recording until the last salvo was fired. A full analysis is gonna take twenty eight hours, seventeen minutes, twenty one seconds to complete. Do you want a preliminary report in the morning, or would you rather wait until I've compiled all the data?"

"Thank you, but no Lain, I'll wait. There's something I'm missing here and I'm not sure what it could be. I don't wanna jump to any early conclusions only to find out that I'm wrong later. I don't know why, but I've got a feeling this is too important to screw up. Just signal me by vibrating my COMS bracelet when you're through."

About fifteen minutes later Sue came strolling in. She sat beside Lyssa then said, "You were right about explaining things to Amy, Lys. She was a little worried about being stuck with Ensign Rodgers at first. But once I laid it all out for her, she was fine with it.

Also Ensign Rodgers has already been transferred to the Atlantia's Revenge. He wasn't too happy about being dismissed from the Special Security Services, or about his being moved to another ship. But he did understand that he brought it on himself and he took responsibility for his actions. He even went so far as to say thank you for giving him a second chance and promises he won't screw up again.

I was there when he reported in for duty. Amy's a tough cookie. The first thing she told him was that she wasn't gonna take any shit. If he got out of line just once, she'd toss his ass in her brig without thinking twice about it. But if he worked hard, did his best, and followed orders, she wouldn't hold the black mark in his record against him. She'd give him the same chance to move up the ranks as everyone else aboard her ship had. After that, she stuck out her hand and welcomed him aboard. She told him what you had in mind with the tachyon cannons and it turns out it's gonna be easier than we thought. Seems the Groms were planning on doing the same thing. Everything's already in place but the cannons themselves. Even the targeting and firing controls are there, though Ensign Rodgers says they need to be reworked because they're not efficient enough for one of Her Majesty's ships.

He's asked for, and I've approved two teams of engineers to work with him for the next five days. I've sent Amy one team from the Victorious and another from the Destructor. They've already reported for duty aboard the Atlantia's Revenge, and the battlecruisers Viper and Wasp are in orbit around Sylkar. According to the team leaders both ships are in perfect condition and are fully operational. The team leader aboard the Hornet says she'll be one hundred percent within the hour. "

"The team you sent Amy from the Destructor, was it a full engineering team?" Lyssa asked.

"Yeah it's a full team Lys. The Destructor's sickbay is finally empty. All of Ron's crew has already reported back aboard the Vengeance and they're getting ready for their transfer tomorrow night. Also, I talked to Dr. McGowan from the shuttle on my way back here. He reports that all eight head injury patients are doing extremely well. He rates their current condition as "good" and expects them to be out of the slime bath sometime tomorrow. He's asked for a few extra hours just to make sure they don't have any memory problems before he clears them for duty. I told him that he was the doctor not us, and to release them only when he was sure they were fit for duty."

"It sounds like you've got everything under control Sue. Thanks, I really appreciate all your help. It makes my life a hell of a lot easier. Now, if I recall our personnel situation correctly, as it sits right now, the Victorious, the Constellation, the Destructor, and the Atlantia's Revenge all have two full engineering teams aboard them. I don't see any reason we should be the only ship in the fleet that's not shorthanded. Pull the service records for all the members of both engineering teams and forward them to Amy. Effective immediately, they're all transferred to the Atlantia's Revenge on a permanent basis. Tell Amy to give them all an hour or so to return to their respective ships and pack their gear when they've finished work for the day. Then pass the word along to Lisa and Jim about the transfers as well."

"Will do Lys, but thanks aren't necessary. You're my sister and my queen. I'm happy to help in any way I can." After passing on Lyssa's orders Sue said, "I think Kendra's as excited about Amy's promotion as Amy is. Also, you were right about Ensign Davidson and his watch team too, Sis. They turned out to be very inquisitive. They were combing through files on the main computer aboard the Atlantia's Revenge looking for anything they thought might be of interest to you, and when they found the ship's manifest, they struck pure gold!

Deck nine is where her engineering section is and decks two through eight are passenger decks that are empty just as Ensign Rodgers told us. He simply assumed the rest of the ship was the same way. If he had gone down one more deck he would've known better. According to the manifest, decks ten, eleven, and twelve are filled with space based construction equipment and all the supplies we need for a good sized spacedock that could easily build three or four battlecruisers at a time.

Decks thirteen through fifteen are chock full of planetside construction equipment and supplies. There's enough to build housing, commercial, and government buildings for a five thousand person colony. It seems the Groms were planning on building wooden structures to begin with and the only thing missing is the lumber. The watch team didn't say anything because they wanted to make sure the manifest was accurate before filing a report. Their original plan was to do a deck by deck inventory then tell you what they had found. They realized that it wasn't feasible for a five man watch so they've been checking random sections on each deck and so far every single thing listed is exactly where it should be. Amy's arrival this morning may have caught them by surprise but the first thing Ensign Davidson mentioned was the manifest and their findings so far. I've had Amy forward a copy of the ship's manifest to your private computer so that you could go over it yourself if you wanted to."

"Thanks Sue, I WILL give it a look see. But not right now. It's seventeen thirty already and I haven't eaten since breakfast. I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

"I haven't had time to eat yet either Lys. I'm so hungry I think I could eat a whole cow if it was put in front of me right this minute. You got anything special in mind for dinner tonight?"

"No not really, Sue. I was just thinking I'd call down to the galley and find out what Cookie has on the menu for the crew's evening meal. If it sounds interesting, we can have him send us each up a plate. If not, I'm sure we can think of something quick he can throw together for us to eat."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Sue replied.

Lyssa tapped a button on her console and when the channel opened she said, "What's on the crew's menu tonight, Cookie?"

The cook laughed and said, "Well hello to you too, Your Majesty. The crew's been working their butts off today so I figured I'd give them a treat. Barbecued beef short ribs, and spaghetti salad for the main course, and double fudge brownies with walnuts, topped with ice cream and chocolate syrup for desert."

"Yummy, send three servings to my quarters in about fifteen minutes or so please. Also while you're at it, could you send up a pot of coffee? Make it the dark roast this time, along with some sugar and hazelnut creamer."

"It would be a pleasure, My Queen. You should join us for the evening meal again sometime. It's been about three weeks since you and I had one of our famous theoretical discussions that the crew loves to listen in on so much," he laughed.

"I know Cookie, and I will soon, I promise. But right now things are rather... complicated... to say the least."

The cook grinned and said, "I can't begin to imagine why that would be, Your Majesty. Your job's only about ten times harder than it used to be. I'll get your plates ready and send them to you in a bit."

"Thanks Cookie," Lyssa replied. After closing the channel, she turned to Sue and said, "Cookie is one of the few people aboard who didn't think I was too young for the job when I first took command. He's a sweet old grizzly bear that has a way of telling me like it is without being insubordinate about it. I'm really glad to see THAT hasn't changed at least," she laughed. "Oh and get on the horn to Kendra. Tell her I said to be here in ten minutes. She's joining us for dinner. It's the only way we can be sure she's stopped working long enough to eat," Lyssa said as she stood and headed to the bathroom.

When Lyssa returned to the table, Sue laughed and said, "Kendra's on her way. She said to tell you that you're right. She hasn't thought about eating at all today. She didn't even realize how hungry she was until I called her."

"That's about what I figured. I've watched her at work occasionally. She loses all sense of time. One quick question before she gets here. Your GO7 Guardian protocols had to be activated. What about Amy's and Kendra's?"

"Amy's Guardian protocols have been active since birth. Although Mom's modified them a few times over the years to fit whatever the current circumstances happened to be. Anyway her GO7 protocols have always been active. Mom made sure of that just in case something unforeseen happened. Kendra's GO7 protocols became active the instant you implemented General Order Seven. Don't worry Sis, they're both good to go."

"Well that's a relief. You damn near gave me a heart attack when you activated yours." Lyssa laughed then continued, "How much of this do Amy and Kendra know? I mean do they understand what was done to them and why? Do they know what they've become, what their roles in this whole mess are supposed to be?"

"It's impossible to answer those questions with any real certainty Lys. Amy's protocols were instilled in her DNA while she was still an embryo. Exactly how that changed her understanding of things is anybody's guess. She does know that she was specifically created to be a Guardian. But she's been guided and trained since birth, so to her it all seems normal.

Kendra, on the other hand is a different story. Before she was..." Sue made quotation mark motions with her fingers, 'accidentally...' Before Lyssa could say anything, Sue held up a hand palm out. "I'll get to that in a minute, let me answer your other questions first. Anyway, before she was 'accidentally' injected with Aunt Tara's serum, Kendra was just your typical eighteen year old girl next door. Pretty, but not considered beautiful, sexy, but not really hot, bright, but not exactly a genius, you get the picture. In other words there was absolutely nothing exceptional about her. But she did have a life. She was getting ready for her first year at Cronus City University, dating a freshman there, and partying away the summer before her classes began. Kendra knows exactly who, and what she's become. She's okay with it because Mom rewired Kendra's brain to think it was accidental. Please don't look at me like that. Before you say anything, let me finish explaining, okay?

Mom had to remap Kendra's neural pathways because it was the only way to save Kendra's life. Most of the rewiring of Kendra's brain occurred during her first day in the locked psionic ward of Cronus Metropolitan Hospital. As you know, psionic serums are usually designed to be slow acting. They can take weeks, even months to completely change someone. The serum Aunt Tara created was different. It was a fast acting solution that completed the transformation in less than a day. It wasn't ready for Atlantian trials and Aunt Tara swore the injection was purely accidental. Kendra's mind didn't see it that way and her body was rejecting the serum the only way it knew how, by shutting down her internal organs.

By the time Mom got there, Kendra's body was in pretty bad shape. Mom used some of her psionic energy to stabilize Kendra's body then went to work on her mind. Mom tried everything she could think of to get Kendra's mind to see things differently. But Kendra wasn't having any of it, the serum was just too strong.

The only thing left to try was to remap Kendra's neural pathways. Mom knew it was theoretically possible, but it had never been tried before, and the outcome was far from certain. Kendra wasn't in any shape to decide for herself, and at that point in time Mom wasn't sure if Aunt Tara was telling the truth or not. It was one of those do or die judgment calls that had to be made right there and then. Mom took it upon herself to do what she thought best and went ahead. It took Mom more than six hours to reroute Kendra's neural pathways but when she was done, Kendra's body was stable and Kendra was sleeping peacefully. Kendra slept for almost thirty six hours while her mind reoriented itself to its new neural network. During that time, Mom stayed inside Kendra's mind, reassuring Kendra that everything was gonna be fine; that it was her destiny to live, and her duty to serve the empire to the best of her ability. Mom meant it figuratively, but Kendra's mind grabbed on to it like a lifeline and took it literally.

Kendra woke up as a new woman, dedicated to her queen, and to the empire. Mom never told Aunt Tara exactly what she did to save Kendra's life. To this day she's not really sure whether Aunt Tara injected that serum into Kendra accidentally or not. Aunt Tara was too shocked and too pleased by the changes in Kendra's attitude to ask any questions. Kendra spent a total of five days in the hospital during which time Mom decided to add the GO7 protocols to Kendra's mind. It was the most logical thing to do. Mom needed to reinforce Kendra's new neural pathways and you needed a second GO7 guardian. That's it, that's the whole story. Now that you know everything, I hope you understand why Mom did things the way she did."

"Yeah I do. But I still have some questions. We'll have to finish this discussion later though. Kendra should be here any minute now and after what you've just told me, I don't want her overhearing anything about this."

The door chimed and when Sue yelled "enter", a food cart came rolling in being pushed by a grinning Kendra. "Hey Lyssa, hey Sue. Thanks for the invite to dinner. I don't know what's on this cart but it damn sure smells delicious. You were right Lyssa, I haven't eaten anything all day. In fact I didn't even grab breakfast before I got started. I'm hungry enough to wrestle the food right out of a grizzly's mouth then eat the damn bear whole too," she laughed.

"Sue and I haven't had time to eat either," Lyssa replied. "Let's get that cart unloaded so we can start stuffing or faces. We'll talk more after our bellies are full."

After they finished eating and had cleaned their faces and hands with the packet of wet wipes that Cookie had so thoughtfully provided with their meal, Sue leaned back in her chair with a satisfied sigh and said, "Those ribs were FANTASTIC! The barbecue sauce had the perfect blend of spicy to tangy sweetness. I ate so much, I feel like I put on about ten pounds."

Lyssa laughed then replied, "Yeah, I know what you mean Sue. I feel the same way. It's a good thing that one of the perks of being a high level psychic is having an extremely high metabolism. We burn calories so fast that they don't have time to produce body fat." She turned to Kendra and said, "Okay Kendra, tell me about the Constellation. Are you still on schedule to have her ready by tomorrow night?"

"Nope, I um... I actually think she'll be ready by about thirteen hundred tomorrow if not sooner. It turned out that her shield design was worse than I had originally thought. The spacedock engineers left a one yard gap between her forward and lateral shields, the idiots. Their theory was that they could increase shield strength by decreasing shield area. They figured that a one yard gap was too small for an enemy to take advantage of. They couldn't have been more wrong. All it took was a single, guided antimatter torpedo, eighteen inches in diameter to put the Constellation out of action and kill everyone aboard. The torpedo threaded right through that gap then took out the Constellation's life support system before taking out a dozen power couplings that controlled every one of her automatic response systems. The Groms knew exactly where and how to hit her to do the most damage.

Anyway, we scrapped her whole shield design and gave her one similar to the one the Victorious has. We had just finished testing it when Sue called me with the dinner invite. All that's left to do now is to automate some critical systems and the Constellation will be good to go."