The Lost Fleet: Genesis: A Slaver Wars Novel by Raymond L. Weil

recalled how the beautiful AI had enjoyed flirting with
the male crewmembers on the ship. Several times Clarissa had been caught by
Katie adjusting her holographic figure to make it more alluring to the men on
the exploration dreadnought.
    “We’d better
get back,” Katie said as she turned away from the obelisk and gazed out at the
academy. “Ariel wants to brief us on her progress with the Originator ship and
Kazak.” Kazak was the Originator AI on board the five-thousand-meter warship Dominator in orbit around Gaia.
    “At least
Kazak is speaking to Ariel,” Kelsey said as they began walking down the broad
steps leading to the large parade ground below them. “When Kazak first learned
of the loss of the Distant Horizon and Clarissa, he didn’t speak for
weeks. Jeremy was concerned the AI might not respond to us at all without
Clarissa.”
    “Clarissa was
his friend,” Katie answered simply. “Just like Clarissa and Ariel were close
friends, Kazak and Clarissa had begun to form the same type of bond.”
    -
    Inside her
office, Rear Admiral Susan Marks was watching the two at the obelisk via the
viewscreen on the front wall of her office. She didn’t consider it spying; it was
part of her duty to keep an eye on any of the Special Five when they were at
the academy. With a sigh, she turned her attention away from the viewscreen and
began sorting through some of the many reports on her desk. Since taking over
the Fleet Academy, she had done everything in her power to model it after the
one on Earth’s moon. Standards had been set very high and she’d been careful to
choose only the best-qualified instructors. Many of the science classes were
taught by Altons, and even Ariel was teaching a class.
    They didn’t
have the population base the Human Federation of Worlds did, but they did have
one advantage. Nearly every person who had come to Gaia was in either the Fleet
or a colonist. Fortunately, that gave the academy a very brilliant group of
young people to pull from. Currently, the academy had Humans, Altons, and
Carethians enrolled as students. There was no doubt in Susan’s mind she would
be able to provide the future warships of Gaia with some very qualified officers.
    Looking back
up at the viewscreen, she saw Katie and Kelsey had made it to the bottom of the
stairs, stairs she made a habit of climbing once per week. The obelisk and the
two walls next to it contained the names of every member of the military who
had given their lives in the protection of Gaia. Susan was determined the academy
would always honor those who had fallen.
    -
    Fleet Admiral
Jeremy Strong was standing in the Command Center of the battleship Avenger .
The Avenger was the flagship of the fleet and currently in geosynchronous
orbit above Gaia near the Clan Protector and the Originator ship, Dominator .
The Clan Protector was the massive shipyard under the command of Daelthon, a
Carethian. The Clan Protector at one time had been a mobile shipyard, but since
arriving at Gaia had been tremendously expanded.
    The former
mobile shipyard was now nearly three kilometers in length, four kilometers wide
and two kilometers thick. It contained eight construction bays and six repair bays,
which could handle any of the fleet’s ships. The massive structure was also
heavily armed and protected by a powerful energy shield. There were power beam
emplacements as well as the more powerful and deadly particle beam cannons.
Dozens of dual energy turrets dotted the hull, ready to lay down a labyrinth of
defensive fire if needed. Securely closed hatches hid 50-megaton Devastator
Three missiles as well as the more deadly 100-megaton antimatter missiles, all
with sublight engines. A recent addition were the six massive ion beam cannons,
which could strip the energy shield of an attacking ship, leaving the hull
vulnerable to attack. The shipyard was now a virtual fortress.
    Even as Jeremy
watched, a full squadron of Talon fighters exited one of the shipyard’s