Blue Star Enterprises

"How are the supplies for the stealth coating holding up?" Alexander asked Lucas in their weekly meeting.

"They would be better if you weren’t using them on the missiles, but I can see the advantage to doing so."

Before Alexander launched the Stingrays, he wanted to give them another edge in battle. The simplest and most effective way to do that was to coat the missiles in Lucas’ stealth coating. Swapping out the exterior material for the material compatible with the coating wasn’t much of an issue since missiles did not need to be armored.

He had since switched all missile production to this new method, giving his pseudo-computronic controlled missiles an even larger advantage in avoiding interception.

"Can we increase production of the coating?" Alexander asked.

"Maybe," Lucas responded as he scratched his head in thought. "The nanotubes take a bit of effort to create, but that’s not really the hold-up. Getting them to align properly after the coating is applied is what takes the most time. It’s also why the coating isn’t exactly great. If we make the coating thinner, we can align more of the nanotubes, but then we have issues with them staying aligned until it hardens. Any thicker and it’s impossible to pull the nanotubes into alignment before the coating dries. I hate to say this, Alex, but I think this method is as good as it’s going to get."

"You say that like it’s a bad thing," Alexander chuckled. "The missiles are nearly invisible to all visual spectrum light and absorb nearly sixty percent of all sensors and targeting used on current ships. I would say that is more than adequate for a single-use weapon system."

Lucas couldn’t help but smile at the compliment. "Yeah, okay, I guess I did something pretty cool. Now if we can just figure out how to make the real thing, that would be way better. Are you sure the ship was grown?"

"As far as I can tell, the aliens grew the ship somehow."

Lucas sighed and rubbed his hand through his hair. "I don’t even know where to start with that."

"Me either," Alexander admitted. "I’m sure we’ll figure it out in time."

A knock interrupted their meeting.

"Come in," Alexander spoke.

When the door opened, Admiral Krieger and Headmaster Matthews stepped in.

"We’re not interrupting anything are we?" Archie asked.

"Nope. We were just discussing some production issues. Please, sit." Alexander gestured to the open chairs. "And what are you so happy about?" he asked Krieger.

"Oh, not much. It just seems like every time the three of us are together you have something new to show us."

Alexander sighed. "I guess that’s true. Yes, I have something new to show you and get some feedback on."

Since the fight with Harlow had gutted their forces, he had not had time to actively work on the project he was unveiling. Now that the pirate threat was over for the moment and construction and repair efforts were well underway, it was time to take a second look.

He flicked the data from his tablet to the holo-projector. "Gentlemen, meet the Shark class corvette."

They looked at him and then looked back at the rotating image.

"It looks like a bog standard civilian corvette," Krieger stated. "I was kind of expecting something unique, considering your design with the Stingray."

"I have to agree with the Admiral," Archie stated.

Alexander held up his hand to stall any more questions. "Think of this as the starting point. When I originally designed the ship, I designed it based on a pirate ship we pulled back to Eden’s End. I realized changing the design to fit my idea of what a warship should be would be a bad idea since I have very little in the way of actual combat experience."

The three didn’t comment on his admission as they looked closer at the design.

"Is this meant to be automated?" Lucas asked with a frown.

"Yes. It’s probably the largest ship we can fully automate with our current processing capabilities. If those change or improve, we can think about going up to frigates, but that will likely be some time off."

Krieger looked thoughtful. "If that’s the case, why even have internal space?"

Alexander was readying a reply when he paused and thought about it. "I guess the only reason to have an internal space is to maintain the environmental systems for the processors and fuel storage."

"Yeah, but can’t you simply wrap them in a much smaller pressurized compartment with thermal insulation and gain the same effect?" Archie asked. "I know you like ships to have multiple roles, Alex, and since this is likely to be a prototype, why not make the systems swappable? Test a bunch of configurations to find out what works best and then use that as the final design."

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Alexander once again paused to think about his friend’s words, but why even have a final design? "That’s a brilliant idea, but I’m going to make a slight modification to that suggestion. Hold on a second." He connected to his tablet and ran through the facility network until he connected to his workshop’s editing program.

He hadn’t told Lucas that he figured out how to bypass the facility’s security yet. The man would figure it out shortly.

It hadn’t been easy either. Alexander had spent many nights at home studying learning modules. Since those couldn’t occupy his entire attention, he also used that time to try to find a weakness in Lucas and Nova’s security system.

As the group watched, the ship changed as Alexander manipulated it from inside his mind space while connected to the program over the network.

Lucas’ grin at seeing him manipulate the file in real-time slowly turned into a frown. "Dammit, you got past the security?"

"I did," Alexander admitted.

The young man sighed. "Was it at least difficult?"

"Extremely," he stated matter of factly.

Alexander had been probing the network defenses ever since Harlow’s defeat. Because he didn’t try to brute force it like the first time, he never tripped the program trigger that would alert Lucas. He had also stumbled upon a possible improvement to their ECM capabilities, which he was planning on sharing with the young man, but he hadn’t gotten around to writing the document yet.

"That’s good at least," Lucas muttered dejectedly.

While Alexander felt a bit bad about overcoming Lucas and Lund’s hard work, he was glad he found the holes in their systems. He would just have to make it up to the man with something else. Maybe a first look at the new second-generation processor that he was working on would improve his mood. He would need to think about that, as that project was in the very early stages and far more complex than anything he had worked on so far.

Alexander refocused on the current work he was doing.

After a few minutes of fast-paced modeling, the new ship took shape in front of them.

"I don’t know if this form of modularity will work in the long run," he stated, "but it should speed up testing and improvements."

The new ship was much more aggressive looking than the previous design, resembling its namesake far more with these new changes. Alexander could have left the outer shape alone, but if he was going to design it, he might as well start now.

"How long is it?" Krieger asked.

"One hundred and fifty-seven feet long."

That seemed to surprise the group.

"That’s only half again as long as the stingray. What about weapons?" Krieger asked.

Alexander manipulated the image and the ship broke into exploded sections to show a centrally mounted laser cannon as well as a laser turret and two missile tubes instead of a corvette’s normally single launcher. Removing crew space had its benefits.

"With the captured tech from the corporations, I was able to use some of their integrated systems to shrink the power storage and supply components for our lasers. The centrally mounted cannon will provide the same punch as one of Vanguard’s current lasers, while the turret laser has the equivalent power of a frigate laser."

"Do you even need frigates with this thing around?" Archie asked.

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"Considering I can implement these same improvements into our current frigate lasers, I think they will still have a place. The downside is charging time and heat buildup. With this new layout, that should be less of a concern, but it’s still going to be an issue. The ship can also only carry six missiles. If we deploy these as fast-reaction scouts and interdiction ships for the war against Xin, we’re going to need automated supply ships to support them. I already have a fishbone ship module specifically for missiles, so we don’t need to make any changes there."

"Are you going to stealth coat these?" Krieger asked.

Alexander could see the man was pondering the possibilities of the ship.

"I don’t have any intention of doing that at the moment. The supply issues Lucas and I were discussing, pertained to the coating. I also don’t want to deploy these ships with subpar armor or weld on the material needed for the coating. In fact, with the changes you three suggested and the corporate composite armor, I think this Shark corvette might be a harder nut to crack than even the Eden frigates. We’ll be thoroughly testing that before we deploy it though."

"I was just about to suggest that," Krieger chuckled. "What about a manned corvette?"

"I thought about that, but is it even worth it?" Alexander asked. "Standard corvettes aren’t exactly known for being very tough or survivable. If I had to consider living space and environmental systems, I doubt I could make one much more durable than a standard corvette, even with corporate armor. There just isn’t enough room to pack that much armor on such a small ship without side effects."

"Hmm. You’re probably right," Krieger stated. "I honestly don’t even like frigates for the same reason, but the triple-armored hulls you integrated into the Eden ships certainly changed my mind. Since a manned corvette is off the table, when can we expect a manned frigate?"

Alexander smiled and shook his head. Having expected the question, he pulled up another design, one that was not based on any ship. It was instead the culmination of Alexander’s efforts to integrate Asgardian design philosophy into his own. There was certainly more work to do as the design was incomplete, but he might as well get input now.

"I see you took some cues from our new allies," Lucas chimed in.

Krieger grunted at that. "I appreciate the Asgardian ship’s ability to take a beating, but I can’t stand the cramped corridors. It’s like they abhor breathing room. Please tell me this design won’t be so confined."

"It won’t need to be. With the computer core, the ship can run on the same-sized crew as the Eden frigates. So instead of accommodations for two hundred personnel, it has sleeping compartments for fifty. It’s twice as many as needed for a full crew, but I figured it would be prudent to add extra in case we need to transport people that are being rescued or a small contingent of Hawks."

"While we’re on that subject, and Matthews is here, we should discuss the Hawks," Krieger stated.

"Oh, what about?" Alexander asked.

It was Archie who responded to the question first. "I think the Admiral is concerned about how gutted the company has become due to ou- their losses during the battle with Harlow," he managed to correct himself.

"That is my concern," Krieger admitted. "Any idea if they plan to pull out and return to STO space to recover?"

Alexander had spoken with Captain Bloomright after the battle, but it had been about repairing the significant damage to the Talon and not about the future plans of the Hawks. He was regretting that decision now.

"I haven’t spoken to the captain about their plans once the Talon is repaired. I’ll do that as soon as this meeting is concluded."

"Do you mind if I come with you for that discussion?" Archie inquired.

"Not at all. I’m sure Captain Bloomright would love a visit from her old commander."

They decided to put further discussion about the frigate on hold for now so he could speak with the Talon’s captain. The ship’s design wasn’t going to be ready for production for a few months anyway so a small delay to address a much more important matter wouldn’t hurt.