The ship rocked a bit as she decelerated to sublight speeds. Something hit the shields and detonated. The shields fluctuated briefly, and a second something hit the hull. The resulting detonation tore a large hole in the hull plating, and knocked out the shield grid. No further impacts came, and her mechanical crew went about containing the damage, and scanning the system.

The ship was the first scout to return to the Zur system after the disastrous battle with species 11257. It was one of several scouts sent ahead of their fleet. A second fleet that had been put together to end the threat that 11257 represented. Already this mission was running into problems, namely the damage they had just taken dropping out of warp.

Their scans quickly discovered something surprising. In the two weeks it had taken them to return, 11257 had scattered mines throughout the system, and removed all evidence that a battle had ever taken place. There were no hulking wrecks in the system. No fields of broken metal, no debris of any kind. 11257 had been very thorough in scouring the system clean of debris. In its experience, only mechanical races were so efficient in salvaging debris fields. Then again, it already knew that 11257 didn’t bother to man the smaller ships in its fleet. Well most of them anyway. They had also demonstrated a rather alarming talent for hacking so it made sense they would have the computational ability to quickly and efficiently calculate how they should salvage the debris.

There was no sign of the fleet, but it began looking for any indication of which direction they went. If it had been fast enough, then there was a chance that it could locate their trail. If not then it would have to deploy scout ships in all directions. It already had a few search patterns in mind that should give it a decent chance of finding them. However it was a little short on scouts, so there would be gaps in the search net, and an equally decent chance that they would slip out of the net. It made a mental note to figure out a better detection method.

Countryman glanced at the screen. On it was displayed a list of names. Names of ships they had lost. With them, they had also lost a number of lives and while Countryman could be rather uncaring of other people. Especially those that he didn’t consider to be his friends or family. A fact he knew about himself, and often tried to keep in check. It mostly came about as a downside to being part machine. Those ships and their crews however were people he knew, and even the machines were things he cared about. As such losing so much was a bit distressing for him.

SFS Emperor SFR-06, Kingdom class- Lost with all hands, fighters recovered

SFS Kite SFR-15, Battlehawk class- Lost, escape pods recovered, fighters recovered

SFS Taka SFR-16, Battlehawk class- Lost, escape pods recovered

SFS Washi SFR-26, Battlehawk class- Lost, command module recovered, escape pods recovered

SFS Tsurugi SFR-30, Saber class- Lost with all hands

SFS Spatha SFR-33, Saber class- Lost, secondary hull recovered

SFS Tachi SFR-34, Saber class- Lost with all hands

SFS Nagamaki SFR-35, Saber class- Lost with all hands

SFS Nodachi SFR-36, Saber class- Lost, escape pods recovered, command module recovered

SFS Wakizashi SFR-38, Saber class- Lost, escape pods recovered

SFS Shikomizue SFR-39, Saber class- Lost with all hands, starboard nacelle recovered

SFS Bilbo SFR-40, Saber class- Lost with all hands

SFS Xiphos SFR-41, Saber Class-Damaged beyond repair, scuttled

SFS Kama SFR-42, Saber Class- Lost, escape pods recovered

SFS Briquet SFR-44, Saber class- Damaged beyond repair, scuttled

SFS Cinquedea SFR-45 Saber class- Lost with all hands

SFS Anelace SFR-46, Saber class- Lost, Escape pods recovered, command module recovered, main engine module recovered, port nacelle recovered

SFS Hachiwara SFR-48, Saber class- Lost with all hands

The current page on the screen didn’t list all the ships they had lost, but it just seemed so impersonal to him for those ships and lives to be summed up in this manner. He sighed and turned the screen off. He wanted a bit of a distraction. They were currently traveling through a nebula, and that meant there wasn’t much to see. At this hour there weren’t any games scheduled, and there weren’t any movies or shows airing today that he wanted to see.

He considered going for a walk, and touring the lower decks again. He had been doing that a lot lately, and everyone was feeling down after the attack. Some people even had friends or family on ships that had been lost during the battle. Morale was actually rather low on the ship, and he knew he would have to do something to change that. He already had a few officers planning a mass funeral ceremony for the departed. It wasn’t much, but he felt it would help morale a little.

Heading for the door of his office, he decided where he was going to go. Ruri had mentioned that she had something to show him, a few days ago. He had the time now, and figured it would make a good distraction.

He found Ruri in her lab. She had clearly been a bit busy, as her clothing was dirty. She had a number of stains, and as was often the case when she wasn’t expecting company her clothing was torn. At least none of the tears were in unfortunate locations like the last time he had dropped in on her unannounced. He still wasn’t sure how she had not noticed that her lab uniform was torn in such a fashion. How she had managed to tear them that way was even more of a mystery.

Her lab was a bit of a mess, but his attention was drawn to the devices on the table. They were a bit different in design, but they were quite obviously beam emitter. In fact, they seemed derivative of standard mining equipment. Mining lasers were an old reliable technology, and improvements had been made over the years. Current gen mining lasers used a resonant particle stream to break up rock at an impressive speed.

“Captain! If I knew you were coming I would have changed into something better,” said Ruri.

“I am sure you would have. Anyway, what have you been working on?”

“Several things, sir. Most of it not ready to be prototyped. Well aside from the mining lasers on my table.”

Countryman looked over the mentioned lasers, and asked, “What can you tell me about those?”

Ruri was practically giddy, as she began to describe them, “As you know, our current lasers use a resonant particle stream. They are great at breaking up rock and ore. However, they do have their weaknesses. Namely, they are power-hungry and the beam is ineffective past a few hundred meters. I adapted phase lance technology to our mining lasers. The result is a mining beam that can bore through solid rock without significant loss of power at extreme distances.

I was also able to improve the power efficiency of the beam, by about twenty-seven percent. My simulations showed that the beam could be used to drill shafts from orbit. Combined with a high power tractor beam, and a high-resolution scanner we can now orbitally mine the surface of a planet. Without having to land, and establish mining infrastructure.”

Countryman was a bit surprised. He knew a few labs were looking into ways to orbitally strip a planet of valuable resources they could use. A couple of years ago, they had developed a high power tractor beam that could be used to lift objects from the surface of a planet, and pull them into orbit. It did have a limit on the mass of said objects, and that was determine by the size of the emitters and available power. Every ship in the fleet used those modifications, and they were quite useful. “Sounds useful. How soon before we start production of the equipment?”

“A week maybe two. Still have some refining to do.”

“Now on to the big question. Can I scoop cities of the surface of planets with your new mining laser?” asked Countryman with a big grin on his face. He knew the reference was old, but some people still watched it, and a few even still watched the reboots. The reboots even kept good moments like that one.

Ruri clueless, said, “Not sure why you would want to do that, but it really depends on how big the city is. A small one shouldn’t be a problem, but ...”

Countryman interrupted her with a laugh. “You need to watch more old science fiction. Sometimes they have a good idea or two. Most of the time it is good for a laugh or two.”

She gave a confused look for a moment, and then suddenly her face lit up. “Oh, yes very funny sir. Also, I do watch a few of them, as they do have interesting ideas from time to time. Take Stargate, for example, the Lantean Drone weapons are quite interesting. Way beyond our current abilities to produce, but the basic principles are sound. We have been working on a new generation of light missiles that build on those same basic principles. I believe we have begun production of a prototype, but then again this is Lina’s project, not mine.

Lina designed an optimized micro pulse engine that allows for a small missile to make the rapid course adjustments and perform evasive maneuvers. Without losing the speed needed to gain on a target. The guidance systems needed some changes, and Lina planned to program them for swarm behavior. Naturally given the engine, they would be short-range weapons but should work quite well at engaging light craft.”

“No ripping capital ships to shreds?”

She giggled, and said, “Maybe if the missiles carried bigger warheads.”

“Well, it sounds like a step forward. Any other interesting projects?

She looked thoughtful for a moment, and said, “Not sure if you will find it interesting, but we have been working on a new cloning project. Well, it isn’t really cloning. Unlike cloning, we are experimenting with the controlled combination of new genes, and growing the result.”

Countryman interrupted her, “And thereby eliminating the normal problems associated with cloning. I guess we will need to make a decision later on whether or not to allow your new ‘cloning’ method on people.”

Cloning people was currently illegal. There were numerous logical and emotional reasons for it. Reasons that still held now, and were why they had not yet resorted to cloning to preserve their race. Mass cloning on that level had been considered, but to do it would cause as many problems as it solved. Stargate’s Asgard were a good example of the dangers of mass cloning. They cloned themselves so many times that their cloning ultimately caused their extinction. Like the Asgard, their own medicine could solve some of the problems cloning could cause, but frankly, it would not solve all of them. Most important of which were the social ones.

She awkwardly adjusted her stance, and said, “Well it isn’t really cloning, but I can see the problems.”

After a long discussion with Ruri, Countryman left the labs. Heading back up to the bridge he considered their current position. They had already left the Zur system behind. After the battle, they had salvaged everything they could and retrieved all their technology. Now they were using the nearby nebula as cover to hide from Cylovan ships. In addition, he had sent scouts ahead to look for a suitable system in which to conduct repairs. Hopefully, they would also have time to build new ships.