CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
AEROTECH HEADQUARTERS, NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA, 30 JUNE 2064
Howard Sewell, who had just returned to Earth this very day from the Kappa Reticuli Star System, sipped a cup of hot coffee as he sat waiting in a conference room at the Aerotech headquarters building in Newport News, Virginia. Unlike the Spartan décor of conference rooms at the John Glenn Spaceport or aboard the warships of the Earth Defense Force, this one was welcoming…painted in a cheerful, very pale yellow, the walls decorated with several abstract paintings, with comfortable, well-padded leather chairs around a massive walnut table. But despite the cheerful surroundings, Sewell was not a happy man. As he sipped his coffee, he reflected back on the reasons for this meeting.
The twin battles of Kappa Reticuli and Iotia Horologii had been great victories for Earth and its allies, but the losses incurred in achieving that victory had been extreme. What was it that King Pyrrhus of Epirus said?, he mused. "Another such victory and I am ruined."He frowned. He shuddered to think what might have happened had the Earth/Colonial fleet encountered the Cylons alone, without the assistance of the Chigs. While the victory over the Cylons had been costly, it had not been Pyrrhic…or at least not quite. But it had been damned close. And it could have been much, much worse.
"Those damned shields," he muttered to himself. "We've got to do something about them, or the next encounter may be a disaster."
And that was the reason he had called this conference. Sewell knew that only Aerotech, of all the corporations on Earth, was capable of dealing with this threat. He would soon be joined by four of the greatest scientific minds on Earth…all employed by Aerotech, of course… to set that process in motion.
There was a knock at the door. Sewell called, "Enter!," and the door opened. The four scientists he had called to this meeting…Dr. Wilhelm von Schliessen, Dr. Yamigata Taro, Dr. Jeanne Stephenson, and Dr. Nicholai Andropov…filed into the room and, after stopping at the nearby buffet table to grab from a platter full of Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee, took their seats around the table.
"Krispy Kreme!," Dr. Stephenson, a middle-aged American woman with graying blonde hair and blue eyes, said as she took her seat. She brushed a bit of powdered sugar off her black business dress. "We're honored! You usually get those awful grocery store donuts." She took a bite of her donut.
Sewell laughed. "Well, sometimes even I get in the mood for a gooddonut, and since Krispy Kreme acquired Dunkin Donuts, they're the only game left in town."
"Ah, yes, Dunkin Donuts," Dr. Schliessen, a tall man with a balding head of brown hair and a thin mustache, conservatively dressed in a blue pinstripe business suit, said. "I remember them well. What has it been, ten years now that they've been kaput?"
"About that," Sewell said. He took a bite from his own donut, a chocolate glazed cake version.
"Well," Dr. Stephenson said, "I don't think you called us all here to discuss donuts."
"No, indeed," Sewell said, smiling. "Thank you for clearing your schedules to meet with me this morning."
"Your email sounded urgent," Dr. Andropov, a short, stout man with black hair and eyes and wearing a white lab coat, said in his heavily-Russian-accented English. "So of course I came at once. And, I must admit, I am curious as to exactly what is so urgent that you would call us together on such short notice." The others nodded in agreement.
Sewell nodded. "It is indeed urgent, possibly as urgent as anything else we've ever discussed before," he said. "All the people of Earth know of the Battles of Kappa Reticuli and Iotia Horologii is that they were victories for our forces, and have resulted in the signing of a peace accord with the Chigs. But that's all they know."
"I take it there's more to the story than has been released," Dr. Yamigata, a short Japanese-American man with steel-gray hair, wearing wire-rimmed glasses and, like Dr. Andropov, a white lab coat, said, picking up a glazed donut and taking a bite out of it.
"Yes," Sewell said, the smile leaving his face. "What I am about to tell you cannot leave this room. It will be publicly released, but Secretary General Hayden is of the opinion that the time is not yet right. Am I clear?"
"Yes," the others said, one after another.
Sewell nodded. "Then let me fill you in," he said. "Upon arriving at the Kappa Reticuli System, our forces discovered that the Chigs were already under attack, by the Cylons. After weighing which of the two represented the greatest threat to Earth, Admiral Williams decided to offer the Chigs a truce, and the assistance of our forces, against the Cylons. The Chigs accepted the offer, and our forces fought beside them, against the Cylons."
The other scientists could not have been any more shocked if Sewell had jabbed them with a cattle prod.
"Ach so!," Dr. Schliessen said. "Thatis how a peace treaty was so quickly concluded."
"There's more," Sewell said. "The Cylons have developed a way to shield their ships and provide them with much greater resistance to weapons fire than our own vessels enjoy. The only way to successfully engage them was to close to within almost point-blank range and overwhelm them with the fire of several ships, firing their KPWs simultaneously. We and the Chigs both took extreme casualties."
"What sort of shields?," Dr. Yamigata asked.
"Plasma shields," Sewell said.
"But, we abandoned that technology years ago as impractical," Dr. Stephenson objected.
"Yes," Dr. Andropov said, shaking his head in disbelief. "The cold plasma which forms the shield superheats rapidly when exposed to sustained weapons fire. Anyone inside a ship so protected would be incinerated within a short time. We were never able to find a way to counteract that effect."
"You're saying that the Cylons have developed a means to overcome that problem," Dr. Schliessen said.
"Yes," Sewell said. "It appears they have, and quite successfully."
"Was any data on how these shields worked recovered?," Dr. Yamigata asked. "Some working examples would be nice," he added, grinning.
"Unfortunately, the Cylon vessels which were destroyed were pretty much completely destroyed," Sewell said. "Bits and pieces of Cylon technology were recovered from the wreckage, but it was all severely damaged and will likely be fairly useless." He sighed. "But we did get some good sensor data which should prove helpful in developing our own version of the technology."
"Gut, sehr gut," Dr. von Schliessen said. "That will give us a place to start."
"Will we have the assistance of any Colonial scientists?," Dr Yamigata asked. "Especially the five Cylons who were so helpful in upgrading our FTL drives? Their knowledge of Cylon technology could be very useful."
"I'll see what I can do," Sewell said. "From what I understand, they're involved in a highly important project of their own right now. But there you have it. I'm assigning the four of you to develop our own plasma shields. Of if you can find a superior alternative, do that. You have my authorization to requisition any resources, whether in materiel or in personnel, that you might need. This is to be your top priority. Clear?"
"Yes," the others replied.
"Okay," Sewell said. "Let's get to work."
