2027
"Good morning sir", Lieutenant-Commander Nicholas Joyce greeted his boss as Admiral Richardson stepped in to the secure room. Hidden in the basement of the First Fleet Headquarters building, it was protected by a Faraday cage and had no electronic connection to the outside world. Any material discussed in here was printed out beforehand.
"Morning Nicholas. Did the alphabet agencies give you any trouble?" the Admiral asked. "Yes and no sir, they have finally come aboard but organizational paranoia and old habits die hard. Obvious space related stuff is forwarded to us quickly but peripheral things aren't and I need to go digging for it. But I'm managing", the intelligence officer replied and handed over a thin dossier.
"That's our most up-to-date summary of both China and Russia. We suffer from a lack of good HUMINT, which SIGINT can never truly replace, so we have solid data on their inventories and construction, while estimates on their plans and motivations are quite shaky, I'm sorry to say", Joyce explained. Richardson grunted and glanced over the summaries.
"Are you sure these numbers are correct? That PATO industry is this far ahead of them?" Richardson asked, surprised by the numbers.
"Yes sir, we are. Vast majority of Chinese manufacturing is still of very poor quality and tied down with producing junk for the consumer market, though they are shifting more and more of that to the Philippines and Vietnam. Russian industrial base has always been smaller than us once Soviet Union collapsed. While we could fairly easily upgrade our plants, they are playing catch up. We have roughly 2.17 times the construction capability of China and 4.6 times of Russia. In the mining sector, it's 2.36 times of China and 4.46 times of Russia. It is unlikely that these ratios change in the short term unless something drastic happens in the world."
Richardson nodded. Since such a large percentage of the industrial powers were working together under the PATO banner, it made sense.
"Both of them have a functioning Mass Driver and the Russians have a second one ready to go off-world. Don't ask where they will send it, we don't know. China has recently opened some ordnance factories for manufacturing TN missiles but they have been idle as far as we can tell. It might just be planning for future. Russians have not built any fuel refineries, which is curious. Obviously they have reserves, as they likely used conventional refineries, like we did at the start. Since their construction base is so limited, it is likely that they are prioritizing other projects first, relying on that reserve to see them through until they get refineries running", Joyce explained.
"What about the Chinese space port? The media has been raving about it being bigger than ours", Richardson asked and looked quite unhappy when Joyce confirmed it:
"It is true. Again, no idea why they went for such a massive construction right off the bat, when a smaller one would have suited them just fine to get things started. Russians have almost finished with their space port, which looks to be similar to ours."
"Fine. Let's move to shipyards. What's the status there?"
"Right. So we have Vollenhoven and Hilton on the commercial side for a total of forty thousand tons. China has Tan which has only one slipway but is twenty thousand tons on its own and then Chiang which is the same size of ours but again with only one slipway. Both are being expanded as well, though it looks like they are not making more slipways. So it's likely that the Chinese will be able to put out bigger freighters quicker than we can but only one ship at a time, while we can put out two. On the military side, NAVAL-1 has three slipways of thousand tons though it's being expanded now and NAVAL-2 has a single slipway of three thousand tons and another slipway under construction. The Chinese also have two military yards, named Shi and Zhau. The former is just one slipway of thousand tons while the latter has one slipway of two thousand tons. Both are being worked on and it seems that Zhau is going to be the big yard while Shi will get multiple slipways."
"And the Russians?"
"No shipyards yet and none under construction. We're certain of that, you can't hide anything that's up in orbit."
"Ground forces?"
"Both have created some TN-standard units but of pretty poor quality, intended for population suppression and defence. General Taylor don't have to worry about them for a while", Joyce smiled.
"Well that's something. Let's round this up with research. Do we know anything?" Richardson was curious - penetrating the research facilities of either country was notoriously difficult.
"Chinese are working on sensors and ground forces, Russians on space ship things. We don't know the details. We know the Russians are ahead of us in lasers, but aside from that, we're holding a comfortable lead on all fields", Joyce finished.
"Good, good", Richardson mused as he got up. "Thanks for the briefing Nicholas, keep up the good work", he commended the junior officer.
***
The raucous crowd erupted into yet another cheer. The other patrons in the pub seemed annoyed at their antics but nobody dared to say anything. If the Fleet uniforms hadn't been enough, the fact that everyone recognized the woman of the hour, Lieutenant-Commander Bethany Thompson. Her appointment as the commanding officer of
Niels Bohr, the second survey ship of PATO, had been front page news that day across all media.
"All right you monkeys, one more round and then I'm off to bed", she laughed, her face reddened by alcohol and laughter.
"I'm going to miss you Beth, you know", a statusque woman said to her. "As if Freya! You'll be watching over my shoulder as much as the comms allow now that you've usurped my place in the staff!"
"Well, maybe. Thanks again for mentoring me in, I know it was a hassle for you while you were preparing for this command", Freya Long said sincerely. Bethany just waved at her, lifting the pint to her lips: "Don't worry about it, it was my pleasure. How often do you get to train your successor?"
Their conversation was cut short as someone got the jukebox running and Spaceman started playing.
"Let's drink for the first human on Jupiter orbit!"
***
"What is on Corduba?" Hanson asked, annoyed that he couldn't remember off the top of his head. "Less than twenty thousand tons of duranium and about fourteen hundred tons of uridium", answered one of his assistants. "Huh", Hanson grunted.
"I guess Deep Space Industries doesn't want to keep all their eggs in a single basket. Approved and we'll buy the output, we can always use more duranium", Hanson thought out loud as he signed the paperwork.
"Oh and Mr Frost, congratulations. You're the best man to oversee that operation. Enjoy!" Hanson said, wide grin on his face. William Frost had a background both in naval construction and mining, and had been for some time considered as a possible successor to Hanson. Now the man could cool his ambition on some miserable asteroid.
Hanson laughed out loud when, that evening at his stately home, he checked Corduba out and found out that it was mere 106 km by diameter and floated outside Ceres orbit.
***
Bethany Thompson stared through the viewscreen at Jupiter. Despite spending over a week scanning the gas giant and finding no Sorium whatsoever, she wasn't disappointed.
Niels Bohr was enroute to Ganymede, so she could spare some time to once more take in the beauty of the Red Spot and the magnitude of being among the first humans to observe it first-hand. Some in her crew had grown bored of the view in just few days but not her. The fact that the stable, eternal storm was twice the size of Earth never ceased to amaze her.
"Entering Ganymede orbit in five minutes, ma'am", the helmsman announced. Thompson concentrated on her ship. The Jovian moons were fascinating as well as dangerous - some of them produced volcanic eruptions tens of kilometers high and the area was, astronomically, quite crowded. Crossing through the dust rings had been a visual feast.
"Very well helm. Take us in slowly. Survey, double check that all cameras are recording. We're going to see the largest moon in the system up close and the scientific community back home is salivating at the prospect. Let's make sure we're doing this properly", Thompson reminded everyone.
Disappointingly, the Jovian system was completely devoid of TN-minerals but at least the four Galilean moons were confirmed to be habitable, gravity wise. During the two weeks that it would take the ship to reach Saturn from Jupiter, Thompson had ample time to upload to Earth thousands of pictures and video across the EM-spectrum that her crew had taken.
***
Hanson signed off the application for Vibilia. Half way between Ceres and Jupiter, only carrying twenty thousand tons of Duranium, it was no prize location. Deep Space Industries did not care. Planetary Resources had steadily grown their operation on Mercury, so DSI - instead of focusing on their existing two sites - went for another asteroid. Once again Hanson bought their entire output for PATO use. He wasn't looking forward to telling Robert Gallagher that their poker nights couldn't continue but at least the younger administrator could bring his guitar with him.
The fact that two days later Thompson found over two hundred million tons of Sorium in the atmosphere of Uranus was just icing on the cake. Jupiter would have been so much better but Hanson could work with this.
"Note: increase priority for tugs and gaseous Sorium harvesting ships", he dictated to his personal computer.
***
"With
Italy online, we're reorganizing and forming a third division. Old first will become third division and Commander Charles Pritchard will assume command. Ali, you'll move from
America to
Italy and that platform will become the flag for the new first division. Once we have enough OWPs in orbit, we'll do a similar thing with Benjamin's second division. Questions?" Rear-Admiral Takei looked at the three men facing him. Captain Benjamin van Eekelen cleared his throat.
"Is there any schedule for the relocation to Luna and Mars?"
Takei shook his head: "None whatsoever. Rumours say that Hanson is trying to accelerate the tug program but who knows. It will not happen for at least six more months and probably will take longer."
Since the others had no questions, Takei stood up from behind his desk. "Well, let's go see this marvel of modern technology then. I was quite impressed by the specs, of putting four barrels on that turret instead of one and having increased the armour by fifty percent. I'm sure we would all like to see it personally, so shall we?"
Ali, van Eekelen and Pritchard enthusiastically agreed.
***
"Sorry to say boss but we found nothing.
Albert Einstein did too good of a job", Alex Sullivan explained to Vice-Admiral Woodcock. His team members were all military and vinced over the friendly attitude of their civilian-scientist team leader but Woodcock had long ago grown used to to peculiarities of Survey Command, like working with academics and other civilians.
"That's a damn shame Mr Sullivan. Now that Earth ran out of Neutronium, finding few million tons of it on Luna would have been godsend", the Vice-Admiral responded.
With a smirk, he continued: "I hope you enjoyed the amenities of Luna City. I assume you took part in the celebrations when the population passed the thirty million mark.
Einstein is enjoying some R&R at Earth, having finished with the asteroid belt, so I'll have it relocate your team to Mars. Easier to work there, with no distractions around!"
Sullivan groaned. He had a difficult conversation ahead of him with a certain coffee-shop waitress who would be hard-pressed to believe that he was genuinely being sent to Mars.
***
Lieutenant-Commander Olivia Willis was happy to gain her own command so early.
Isaac Newton was the third Einstein-class geological survey ship. Her sisters had done such an exemplary job of surveying that she was to be last of her class. There wasn't much left for Willis and her crew of sixty, mostly just comets and the distant planetoids past Neptune mixed with asteroids. That didn't bother Willis at all, in fact it excited her more. Ship captains had, over the years, become more and more tightly roped into networked systems and had to suffer under growing amount of micromanagement from their superiors. With a delay of hours in her communications, she would not be quite as cut off as her heroes from the Age of Sail but it was the closest thing available.
"Please find us some Neutronium out there and stay safe", Woodcock had said as he stepped off the ship. Willis had agreed.
"Helm, take us out. Navigation, plot a course to Halley's Comet, we'll start with that", she ordered.
***
"I hear congratulations are in order", Hanson said once the waiter had retreated from the table. Richardson looked at his civilian counterpart questioningly. "I meant that your spymaster caught the Chinese with their hand in the cookie jar", the administrator continued before savoring the succulent steak.
"Oh that. Yes, Joyce has been quite overjoyed, though credit goes to MI5. Though they do think that they managed to get some information sent back home before we caught up with them", Richardson explained. The admiral tried to be nonchalant while checking out their surroundings, he couldn't believe that Hanson would bring up such a sensitive topic while they were out in public.
"Relax, the acronym agencies are all leaking information to their political masters. Everyone in this place is either a government employee, a politician or a lobbyist", Hanson calmed him. "Or hell, maybe all three. Most of the people in here probably know the general outline of what happened anyway. So let's have a toast to the blundering foreign agents!" He raised his wine glass and reluctantly Richardson agreed.
"Oh, I'm sure your people will be happy to know that Vollenhoven is retooling for the tug and should finish constructing the first one next year. My eggheads finalized the plans for a troopship for Taylor's boys as well as for the tanker but we don't have the shipyard capacity to build them for a while. Hilton will be completely tied down for years. They've building two Buffaloes right now and I've placed an order for another two after that. That'll give Martin ten of them to tide him over until we get Bisons ready. There'll be ten of them, eventually", Hanson exclaimed, looking smug and proud.
"What about that third shipyard", Richardson asked. Hanson waved his fork: "Yeah, it's coming along but it will not be ready to build either class anytime soon. Maybe next Christmas if we're lucky."
Richardson focused on enjoying his steak as Hanson switched topics and the men stopped talking shop. Outside the panoramic windows, a light snowfall made London look almost magical.