midway down one of the rear legs. "Attempt penetration here. Go one centimeter deep, extract a biopsy, and seal the wound with surgical cement."
The creature strained against the restraints as the probe entered. The computer recorded the relative strength of each limb as well as the force needed to penetrate the creature's exoskeleton. This information was added to the ever growin g – however gruesomely obtaine d – database on this species.
At some point the captive stopped struggling. Jeffries assumed it passed out because sensors in the lab continued to show conversion of O 2 to CO 2 indicating some type of respiration was continuing to take place.
Jeffries had no idea how to communicate with it , but he now knew a number of ways to kill it, and in his mind this was far better information to have.
Chapter Seven - Recovery...
Ken pulled at a piece of bent metal that was blocking access to corridor B5. It shifted easily. This corridor was the last passable one before the devastation caused by the drone explosion limited access to the hangar deck. Automated repair systems were minutes from sealing the hull breeches, at which point the ship's primary AI, Cal, would open the intervening corridors.
Sixteen crew were killed in the blast. Fortunately , medical nanites were able to save eleven of them. In some respects he was relieved that technology, which so often could be used to take life, was finally becoming as adept at saving life. But despite the truly unbelievable advances made because of the newly acquired access the GCP had to Heshe technologies, he would still be called on to perform his role as the ship's chaplain for five funerals. That they had died on his watch did nothing to help the situation.
To further burden his soul was the knowledge that his friends, not to mention his wife, were stranded several parsecs away. He was more than eager to get the Yorktown underway as soon as possible.
He had been in communication with Admiral Faragon. The Admiral was arriving by fast shuttle in an hour or so. He would take command of the Yorktown while Ken would assemble a combat ready team to go after the away team as well as any potential Heidman survivors.
He briefed Cat via a persistent entangled quantum link between her encounter unit and the Yorktown's Heshe AI. He was saddened to learn that the gregarious Ensign Matthews had been killed in an accident after Cat's shuttle had crash landed. Ken would stop by the galley as soon as he checked out the progress on the structural repairs. The ensign's fian c é was a second shift cook. She would be devastated by the news.
***
Admira l‘ Bu d ’ Faragonlooked out the port window of his admira l’ s yacht. The flagship of the Coalition, the GCP Yorktown hung dead in space. He had the pilot do a top down spiral around the ship so he could see the effects of the attack on the Yorktown . He had to admit, he was surprised by what he didn't see. The exterior damage was, just two hours after the initial explosion, barely discernible. The advanced nanite repair systems had done their work.
The Admiral still found humanity's new technologies almost beyond comprehension. Ten years ago, the task of building a starship the size of the Yorktown would have taxed the combined fabrication capabilities of each of the worl d’ s five superpowers. Even then the task would have been measured in decades, not weeks. With the gift of core Heshe nanite fabrication technologies and good old human ingenuity starships like the Yorktown could be assembled almost as fast as the raw materials could be collected. It represented an unbelievable paradigm shift in the way humanity, and by extension, the Coalition, viewed technology. This paradigm shift was a big part of the current thoughts that ran through the Admiral's mind as he inspected the damage.
Had the Heshe not shared their technology at the beginning of the D'lralu war, humanity would have been wiped out just as they took
The creature strained against the restraints as the probe entered. The computer recorded the relative strength of each limb as well as the force needed to penetrate the creature's exoskeleton. This information was added to the ever growin g – however gruesomely obtaine d – database on this species.
At some point the captive stopped struggling. Jeffries assumed it passed out because sensors in the lab continued to show conversion of O 2 to CO 2 indicating some type of respiration was continuing to take place.
Jeffries had no idea how to communicate with it , but he now knew a number of ways to kill it, and in his mind this was far better information to have.
Chapter Seven - Recovery...
Ken pulled at a piece of bent metal that was blocking access to corridor B5. It shifted easily. This corridor was the last passable one before the devastation caused by the drone explosion limited access to the hangar deck. Automated repair systems were minutes from sealing the hull breeches, at which point the ship's primary AI, Cal, would open the intervening corridors.
Sixteen crew were killed in the blast. Fortunately , medical nanites were able to save eleven of them. In some respects he was relieved that technology, which so often could be used to take life, was finally becoming as adept at saving life. But despite the truly unbelievable advances made because of the newly acquired access the GCP had to Heshe technologies, he would still be called on to perform his role as the ship's chaplain for five funerals. That they had died on his watch did nothing to help the situation.
To further burden his soul was the knowledge that his friends, not to mention his wife, were stranded several parsecs away. He was more than eager to get the Yorktown underway as soon as possible.
He had been in communication with Admiral Faragon. The Admiral was arriving by fast shuttle in an hour or so. He would take command of the Yorktown while Ken would assemble a combat ready team to go after the away team as well as any potential Heidman survivors.
He briefed Cat via a persistent entangled quantum link between her encounter unit and the Yorktown's Heshe AI. He was saddened to learn that the gregarious Ensign Matthews had been killed in an accident after Cat's shuttle had crash landed. Ken would stop by the galley as soon as he checked out the progress on the structural repairs. The ensign's fian c é was a second shift cook. She would be devastated by the news.
***
Admira l‘ Bu d ’ Faragonlooked out the port window of his admira l’ s yacht. The flagship of the Coalition, the GCP Yorktown hung dead in space. He had the pilot do a top down spiral around the ship so he could see the effects of the attack on the Yorktown . He had to admit, he was surprised by what he didn't see. The exterior damage was, just two hours after the initial explosion, barely discernible. The advanced nanite repair systems had done their work.
The Admiral still found humanity's new technologies almost beyond comprehension. Ten years ago, the task of building a starship the size of the Yorktown would have taxed the combined fabrication capabilities of each of the worl d’ s five superpowers. Even then the task would have been measured in decades, not weeks. With the gift of core Heshe nanite fabrication technologies and good old human ingenuity starships like the Yorktown could be assembled almost as fast as the raw materials could be collected. It represented an unbelievable paradigm shift in the way humanity, and by extension, the Coalition, viewed technology. This paradigm shift was a big part of the current thoughts that ran through the Admiral's mind as he inspected the damage.
Had the Heshe not shared their technology at the beginning of the D'lralu war, humanity would have been wiped out just as they took
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