Site Alpha, Kislev
The sluice gates opened with creaks and groans, the water that flowed into various channels had a deep brown color to it. The wood pulp mixed into it slowed it a bit, delaying the filling of the first layer by a tiny bit. Valera Morosov watched it, covered in blankets and shivered.
Close to Oberth Base, Mannslieb
The power line did not look like much, even with the insulation it was barely thicker than a human arm. Several pairs of hands guided it into the cable through that crossed the distance between two accelerator rings. The rings themselves had not deteriorated too badly, but the cables that provided power to them were really suspect after more than 22,000 years with neither replacement nor maintenance. Their remains had taken a bath in the moon base's Nano Forge and emerged as good as new. Once again, they consist of very long carbon nanotubes carefully doped with semiconductors. Now, they would again carry enormous electrical loads with next to no resistance.
The AI Hypatia had devoted an unheard of 20.5 seconds of its time to import and adapt the Old One's operating system to the German computers that replaced them. In due time, great banks of gigacaps would provide the surge of power and capsules would be hurled into space at a velocity that would allow them to be captured by the Warhammer World. Till then, a lot of work needed to be done but not today.
Today, the shift of the workers who laid the new power lines was over. They shuffled through Mannslieb's dust that settled as quickly as it rose till they reached several low containers which were partially buried by lunar dust. Most disappeared inside, one remained outside for a while. Making his way into the shadow of a container he gazed at the stars. He took his time standing there before making his way to his quarters. A simple door opened into a sparse interior. An antechamber allowed him to remove his reflective coverall without bringing dust into the main rooms. The high-tech fabric slid off bones and ligaments, revealing a skull under the hood.
The Nehekharan undead that rested in these dormitories were a boon to the German space program, at least as far as EVA work was concerned. These former scribes and engineers could be trained into performing a lot of the tasks that restoring and adapting the Old One moon base required with comparative ease. They did not need to suit up when working on Mannslieb's surface and nobody had to provide a pressurized shelter nearby. They needed neither food nor air and were working in the moon's blistering daylight temperatures as well as the frozen hell of the long night. They laid foundations, rerun cables, heaped soil on new structures and much more.
Asfohk the Devoted had loved star gazing when flesh still covered his bones and he still needed to breathe. So very many things had changed since then, and the vista at his new place could hardly be more spectacular than it was now. No atmosphere blocked the view, no nearby lights tried to outshine the distant stars. He loved this sight, but that would never have been enough to bring him or his kin into German employ so far from his home. Neither the god of learning and wisdom Tahot, whom he had revered so much in life nor the payment he received would bring him to that. The road to the price was within the container, a simple monitor and keyboard. It contained so much knowledge, so much lore to master and so many crafts to learn and practice working for the Germans. If he would excel in this he might very well be chosen for a project, a very special one.
The Germans were testing whether his kind of undead continued to function far from the Warhammer World and also checking to determine whether the Nehekharans could be brought to the level of competence required to maintain one of their marvels. And if all these questions would be answered the right way, they would build a very special ship. One that would be crewed by Asfohk's kind as they needed no sustenance and able to rest for long times. A special ship that would leave this world far behind. One that would be crewed by Asofhk's kind, with no need for sustenance and life support, where the crew would effectively be in stasis when not needed for routine maintenance.
If he would devote himself fully, if he studied as hard as he worked, Asfohk would no longer gaze at the stars. He would fly to them.
Lürssen Yard, Rendsburg
Aurelius of the House of Ethelorne clashed badly with his surroundings. He was an Asur and old age did not have the same grip on him than on humans. He had the slender figure of a being that practised with the sword and his clothes displayed millennia of good taste. The men around him were at least middle-aged, had the gray skin that came from staring too many hours at a computer monitor and their clothes probably met some uninspired guideline.
Not that these beings were aware of any of it as their eyes were all glued to the 3D-drawing of a ship projected on the wall before them. The ship had a triangular shape and seemed broader at its end than was usual. Only certain angles would reveal that this was a trimaran. It had a very clean superstructure with a huge bridge, sporting a single gun in a turret well forward, a superfire boxy missile launcher behind that and a huge landing deck aft.
"This was our proposal for the Medium Escort bid that became the Flensburg class for the Bundesmarine. We modified it to better meet your needs. This ship is considerably faster than the Flensburgs and needed only very little extra power. It uses a diesel-electric power plant, which makes it resilient, efficient and open to modifications. The trimaran layout allows for a landing deck bigger than the F125 frigate, and there is considerable space for additional equipment as the need arises and funds become available."
"We asked your company to consider alternative power plants, what became of that?"
"We checked the proposals carefully and found them difficult to impossible to implement. Yes, a steam plant with a fire elemental providing the heating is possible, we talked to the Meiningen Works about that. It is just that locomotive and naval plants are very different and nobody makes naval steam turbines at present. We could initiate something, but the costs for research and development would be prohibitive. And yes, the Gold Order makes turbines for the German armed forces. They fail after a year on average, which might be eight months or close to two years. They give a week or so of warning before that happens. A tank you can tow, and the power pack can be exchanged in 30 minutes if you have a competent crew and equipment. In an oceangoing vessel, this is not possible, at least to our thinking. Diesel fuel and bunkers are widely available these days and the engines are very reliable. We could use a Rune of Fire engine, but I not think this would be politically acceptable….."
"I understand Herr Jenssen and while I do not have to like what I hear, I have to admit that you are probably right. Please carry on."
"Armament-wise there is only a single 105 mm gun, but this one is fed by two 12-round drums which can be reloaded during combat operations. It can fire a round per second for the first 24 shots. Put them on target and there will be few things left floating on this world. Additional weapons include a 10-round IRIS launcher and three 27 mm MLG autocannons. These two systems will take care of any conceivable air threat and the cannons can be used against small combatants also. They have a small caliber, but have a rate of fire of more than 1,700 rounds per minute."
"Very nice Herr Jensen, and I am sure this would have met the Phoenix Kings approval last year. This year the DawiZharr have revealed their armored cruisers. Do you think that this ship can stand up to them?"
"Herr Ethelorne, we have discussed this question with the Defense Ministry as well as the Foreign Office. The best solution we can come up with is using some of the space reserved for a mission module and give the ship two three-round torpedo launchers."
"These may be very useful against submarines, but they seem a bit underpowered for this tasking."
"I am sorry for the misunderstanding ambassador. We are talking around two triple 533mm launchers here. The Federal Ministry of Defense would allow for a limited sale of SeaHake heavy torpedoes to be used with them. Provided you agree to the purchase you would receive the wake homing variant with three gigacap cells. These torpedoes have a range exceeding 20 kilometers at a speed of better than 50 knots. Given their guidance system they would likely explode under the ship`s stern, very few ships would survive that, let alone remain combat worthy."
"This indeed seems like an elegant solution to our needs. I still get this feeling that there is a problem."
"No problem as such ambassador. It is just that you specified a couple of rather advanced systems in an elaborate hull. This is going to cost a bit."
Aurelius of the House of Ethelorne blanched a minute later when the next slide hit the projector.
Site Alpha, Kislev
Jacub General had modified the plan, he had decided that the current pour would be cut in half. It still meant that thousands of tons of water went through the many sluice gates. They passed through pipes and channels. They settled in wells that wanted to become pillars, chasms that would turn into walls and formed lakes that were future decks. While the ship being built at Site Alpha was smaller compared to the Habbakuck, it was still immense. It dwarfed an aircraft carrier and so even a partial pour was an enormous mass of water and wood pulp.
It took what seemed like an eternity to pump and guide, but even that eternity passed and now the water had settled where it was needed. And that was a problem. It was held back by wooden scaffolding and great plastic foils. They could not hold back so much water for long, something had to happen and soon. Already the first seams leaked and small streams started in places they were not supposed to.
There were a lot of people present, far more than the pour needed. This was the make it or break it moment for the project, the moment where they all learned if they were to go from this place covered in shame or in glory and riches. And all of their hopes rested on a seemingly frail woman that looked at her task from underneath a couple of blankets. A pale face peered from the covers and her eyes were half-closed for quite some time before they flew open in a snap.
And nothing happened, nothing at all. The dirty water continued to leak here and there, and small waves crossed the surface of what was to become a deck. The tension around the construction site ratcheted up by the second and a low murmur became louder by the second. The small spot of still water was easy to overlook.
The huge body of water consisted of billions upon billions of water molecules that enjoyed great freedom. Each molecule has energy, and these energy expended by moving wherever the hands of fate moved them. They did not have much space to move before they hit one of their companions, both caroming off on altered courses that would bring them into contact with the next ones.
So this went on in countless places except for a very small spot. Something was siphoning the energy off the water molecules in this one spot, slowing them down more and more. With the reduced speed came less energetic collisions, keeping the participants together longer. Until the first of them remained stuck together. Given the increased mass, other collisions would not throw them as far and so they attracted even more molecules.
Given the geometry of the water molecules, they attached to each other in hexagons, forming a crystal of unseen beauty. It had taken more than ten seconds to form a single crystal in a multitude. It slowed the dance around it a bit and other crystals started to form in a chain reaction that blossomed out from the point where the first crystal had formed. More and more energy was thrown into the warp, more water settled down and formed bonds where none had been before.
And before disbelieving eyes, the still spot became larger with every second. Its border raced all over the huge construct, converting it into ice as hard as any rock.
The cheers rose to the heavens, everybody joined in. Well nearly everybody, but for an Ice Mage who quietly succumbed to her exhaustion and the young engineer that hustled to keep her from dropping from her chair.
