Memoirs of Kitty Siam Ch. 45

Memoirs of Kitty Siam -- (v = - a Tr(k)).

It took several days after my last contact with Angkor Maintenance Control to receive confirmation that portal travel between Angkor and Anora was possible. Several test modules were sent through from each end before both ends were certified for human travel. It was that evening that I decided to tell Raku, the monks and the village elders that I would be traveling back to Angkor for a day or so to prepare the villagers to return home. I asked them to be patient while I was gone. They did not understand how I could travel without a ship or vessel of some sort. I promised to show them if everything tested out ok after I made the journey myself. I asked the village leaders not to discuss this with the others and to especially not discuss this with the crew of the Shinawatra.

I so wanted to get more background on Neko, but her military duties and my exploration did not permit us the time to talk. I think that Major Jarro kept her a bit busy too but as often as I seen them at the river together, I never could catch them in the middle of an intimate act. I had tried a few times to sneak up on them but Neko's feline senses were as keen as mine and I was always discovered. I guess a threesome with the two of them was sounding better all the time.

I sent word to Neko of my travel plans via our shared wireless connection. It was good that we at least had that capability in common, though I was not sure how advanced her installed systems were since mine were upgraded directly by the Annunaki systems on Galora. We met up after the dinner hour and walked together to the river. Since we were out of earshot of everyone else I laid out what I had planned to do. At first she was surprised that I had found a way off the planet, then her surprise turned to distrust as I had held this information from her for too long. I tried to explain that I did not know if she would report what I had discovered to her military commanders. I emphasized that this was something that I did not want to happen as the PTB and the KC was keeping the portal travel a secret from the general population. I also mentioned that I did not think that a supply officer such as Colonel Danvers had the necessary clearance to know of this capability.

She began to accept the logic behind my with holding the information about the portals. As our conversation progressed I got the impression that she was unaware of the extent of the portal network, though she heard rumors of such a network. Her mouth dropped when I informed her that Major Jarro had been a traveler through the portals, but I asked her not to confront him about it, as this was a classified technology. I only mentioned this to her in case something happened to me along the way and I was unable to return. In the morning I took her with me to the temple and explained how things worked. Since she and I shared royal Annunaki DNA, she might as well be let in on the workings of the portal since she had the same level of access as me.

It was time for me to leave, but before I activated the portal I gave Neko a crash course in its operation and let her enter the coordinates for Angkor. Once the coordinates were confirmed as Central Command the command console asked for her DNA signature. She pressed her hand to the identification rectangle, her hand was scanned, her DNA recognized, and the portal opened. The heavy stone doors parted to reveal the swirling vortex on the other side that was the wormhole between the two worlds. When it was safe to enter a soft tri tone was heard and the lights above the portal door changed from a cautionary yellow to an approving green... it was then that I stepped into the vortex and took my leave.

A few seconds later I was stepping out of the vortex and into the portal chamber on Angkor. I found the place just as I had left it, except that I noticed that many if not all of the consoles had been redesigned to allow them to access the newly upgraded Central Core. I did not waste any time getting to work. The first thing on my list was to get the Sheba AI installed in the Central Core. The installation of the Sheba AI in the Core's operating system would be about a 40,000-year advance in the Central Core's operating capacity.

I connected by wireless and began the upload to the Central Core from my internally installed PDA. There was not enough storage capacity in the PDA to hold the compiled version of Sheba AI and its associated data. It took several hours to complete the transfer, and once the transfer was complete the compiler activated and began converting the raw code back into an executable application. I was advised that the compile process would take a little over nine hours. That gave me just enough time for a quality shower and eight hour of sleep in the royal bedchamber.

As I made my way to the Princess suit I checked on the progress of reassembling the Tenshi. The maintenance bots were making good progress but they were slowed by the need to reproduce some of the required parts and pieces from scraps collected from the dilapidated hulks that were left behind outside the temple when the Central Command was abandoned long ago.

While I was enjoying my shower I went over the specs of the Tenshi, which by my rough estimate was well over 40,000 years old. As I looked over the specs of the various vessels that had been downloaded into my PDA back on Galora to see if there were any ships similar to the Tenshi that were capable of a long distance space flight. The Tenshi was capable of short jumps in hyperspace but normally the ship was transported to the battle location by a carrier or command ship. It was possible to jump the ship from one solar system to another if they were really close to each other. I realized as I reviewed the specs and calculated the distance between Angkor and Anora that the distance was well outside the range of the Tenshi. I knew that I would not be able to use the portal to return to Anora due to the security in place for that site. Just as it took Neko and I to enter the facility from the temple, it would also take her and I to enter from the portal.

My shower was a bit hotter than it should have been, and slightly longer as well. When I finished toweling myself off I found that I was well relaxed and very sleepy. I did not bother to climb under the thin covers and elected to just flop down on the bed and stretch out. It was not long before I was fast asleep. It had been a long time since I had a good night sleep and once I was back in my own Royal bed my body took full advantage of the comfort that the real bed provided. When I awoke I found out that over sixteen hours had passed since I had finished my shower.

When I made my connection to the Central Core I was greeted by a familiar voice saying, "Good morning Princess, and congratulations on the promotion." It was clear that Sheba had taken over or was in the process of taking over the Central Core. I asked for a progress update and found that the Sheba AI was now 67% installed in the Central Core. She had taken over life support, defense, and maintenance functions so far. Realizing that she was in control of the maintenance bots I requested that she compare the Tenshi, Hasanto, and Koloth class assault, reconnaissance and fighter class ships and come up with a configuration that uses the technology of all three to accomplish the trip that I needed to make. I figured that the redesign of the Tenshi should not take so long as all three craft shared the same frame and many of the same avionics components. The main difference was in the engines and jump capability of each design. Sheba got right to work on the redesign while I made my way to the replication station for breakfast and a hot cup of the Annunaki version of coffee.

I got my coffee and breakfast sandwich to go and made my way along the corridors and up the stone steps that led to the temple plateau. I took a seat on the steps and watched the sun rise above the trees as I had my breakfast. As I was eating Sheba sent an alert tone through my internal wireless system that caught my attention immediately. She activated the temple's holographic system and displayed a diagram of the ship that she had designed for me. I had her enlarge the schematic of the ship to its actual size to allow me to walk around and inspect her work.

I had become familiar with most of the ships that the Annunaki had used, but I had never seen anything like this before. The airframe and exterior looked familiar but it was a completely different ship than what I was expecting. The weapons systems were standard Annunaki pulse disruptors, which were clearly visible as the protruded from the point where the swept Delta style wing met the fuselage.

The standard metallic hull was replaced by the same living skin that was on Galora One that we took from Galora to Udon, then to Mars. Sheba had taken the Tenshi as I knew it and advanced its technology and design by about 40,000 years.

I had Sheba remove the exterior surfaces of the ship so that I could get a look at the technology inside. Most of the Annunaki ships that I was familiar with were similar to the ships from Earth in that a matter/antimatter reactor of some sort powered them, but this ship was different. The power plant was similar to the one that powered the Central Command facility on Angkor, except that the containment field was greatly enhanced and protected by a multiphasic neutrillium shield. The courses that I was required to take in physics told me that this was impossible and could not exist in real time but here it was in front of me.

Where I expected to find a jump drive and sub light engine package, I found nothing that I could identify. There was a star drive of sorts there but I did not recognize it. It was time to let Sheba take me to school and teach me about what I was looking at and what it was capable of doing. Sheba began to scroll the specs of the engine and power plant but it was all too fast for me to read and comprehend the equations that were passing before my eyes. I know from my conversations with Neko that her education was more geared to theoretical and quantum physics while my education was more in flight, covert operations, and military matters. I took my share of engineering and physics courses but nothing that I took prepared me to understand what I was seeing.

As my mind tried to keep up I began to grow fatigued and had to put a stop to Sheba's display of data. I was trying too hard to read the data stream and compare it to what I was looking at, but it got to a point of sensory overload and I became a bit dizzy. I had Sheba stop the visual stream of specs and asked her to enable voice mode and describe to me what I was seeing and touching as I looked over the holographic representation of the redesigned Tenshi.

From Sheba's narration I learned that what I was looking at was called a Doyon drive, which was named after the planet, Doyon 3 where the technology was discovered by an Annunaki archeological team. Not only was I amazed by the technology of this drive, I was now in awe to learn that there was once an advanced culture that predated the Annunaki in our galaxy.

This Doyon drive was designed to stretch the immediate space around a vessel to create a wave that contracts the fabric of space ahead of the vessel and expands space behind. This causes a wave of sorts in space that the craft can use to "surf" through space for lack of a better term. The more Sheba told me about this drive the more it sounded like something that the scientists at the Drax Corporation experimented with for a while. Their theory used a series of nacelles to generate a so-called static warp bubble, which altered the space around the vessel. Unfortunately their attempts to push the bubble using engines powered by a matter/antimatter reactor failed. The ships that they constructed all disappeared in a blinding flash of light, never to be seen or heard from again. The scientists involved in this project soon ran out of test pilots and shortly after the loss of seven ships the funding dried up and the project was scrapped.

My next question was about the compatibility between the singularity power source and the Doyon drive. Sheba went on to describe that the physicists that studied this drive believed that there was another form of reactor that was used to power the drive, but to date the plans for such a power plant were never found. Sheba did inform me that the calculations support the theory that the increased shielding on the power plant should be sufficient to allow the drive to function properly. Sheba did suggest that should a more advance power source be found that the size of the wave could be increased which would allow for greater speeds.

It had been several hours since Sheba ran out of things to tell me about this drive system, and even though she was silent I still could not stop myself from walking around the exploded view of the drive and marvel at the level of technology. I knew that soon I was going to have to take this thing for a test ride and I needed to know as much about it as I could. Using the holographic image before me I began removing parts and pieces of it to learn the internal mechanics. I went over every inch of the craft and inspected the avionics and all associated control surfaces. Day turned into night, then back into day again and I was still marveling at the image in front of me.

As I tried to familiarize myself with all of the critical systems of this craft I noticed that there were no anti gravity pods mounted to the exterior as I was used to seeing on Earth ships and Annunaki ships that were similar to Galora One. I questioned Sheba about this and her reply was that the ship was capable of atmospheric flight with or without the anti gravity assist. The large delta wing provided enough lift to launch, fly, and land the craft in an atmosphere. There was also an advanced anti gravity system built in to the sub light engine that eliminated the need for heavy external pods that interfered with the ship's sleek aerodynamic design.

During my lusting over this craft I had Sheba display a holographic representation of the single seat cockpit and go over every control, and readout available. After an in depth study of the controls and technical displays Sheba informed me that she had made allowances in the design so that my internal wireless connection would be a suitable substitute for the manual controls and data displays. I swore right then and there that if Sheba were human and standing in front of me I would have bitch slapped her for wasting six hours of my time studying the damned manual controls. After I calmed down I came to the realization that its best to know everything there is about the ship you are flying, just in case something happens to the wireless system. In my mind I silently forgave Sheba as I calmed down.

Two days had gone by since Sheba presented me with the display of the redesigned Tenshi and I had learned everything that I could without actually putting fingerprints on the craft. There were several minor changes that I requested, most of them had to do with creature comforts. I also had Sheba make changes to the communication system that would allow me to communicate on the frequencies used by the KC and PTB, as well as those used by military units of the Pan Galactic Consortium (PGC) and what was left the Earth Alliance military. The final change that I requested was in the color of ship's living skin. It was currently set to a flat black and red design that gave it a stealthy look... it also gave the ship a look similar to the ships used by the Zeta and the last thing I wanted was to be taken for an enemy. Since the ship looked like a delta winged bird with a transparent canopy covering the cockpit I decided that a blue on white bird of prey pattern would be a smart design given the speed and intended purpose of the ship.

It did not take long for the maintenance bots to make the requested changes but it was now three days since I first set eyes on this new ship and I was wiped out physically and mentally. Everything from the lack of food and sleep caught up to me and I needed some rest before trying to fly any type of ship, especially this one.

I did not set a wake up alarm seeing as how I really had no scheduled departure or arrival time, nor was there a need to file a formal flight plan since there was no one around to file one with. Fourteen hours later I woke up, showered and prepared myself mentally for the trip to come. I made my way to the hangar bay and along the way I gave Sheba a few final instructions before I departed. I gave her the location of Anora Prime and told her that this was my final destination and asked her to make contact with the control center there and get a message by wireless link to Neko that I would be returning shortly. I was surprised when Sheba requested confirmation that my message was intended for Princess Neko Sato. I did not know Neko's family name, or that she had a family at all. From the time I met her I just figured that she had taken her name in the same way that I had taken mine. After a few seconds of thought I replied in the affirmative to Sheba's question.

I dressed in my white flight suit and put my hair up in a tightly wrapped bun on the back of my head and secured it with decorative steel pins. Of course they were the throwing kind... you never know which accessories will come in handy. While I was eating my breakfast I instructed Sheba to give the Tenshi one last diagnostic run to make sure that everything was in good working order for its maiden flight. Normally for a new craft such as this there was a great deal of testing that went on before it was allowed to fly, and then once it was able to fly there were months of space trials before it was certified for its first major trip outside the solar system. Since there were no galactic aviation authorities around to enforce PCG regulations, I was free and clear to do whatever I felt was necessary... after all, I was a Princess.

After breakfast I made my way to the hangar bad and did my customary walk around the Tenshi. Everything seemed in order but then this was my first experience with this craft. As I walked about I pressed my hand to the living skin that covered the hull and I felt a slight tingle. I kept my hand on the skin as I walked and as I moved the frequency and the intensity of the tingling sensation changed. It actually felt that somehow the living membrane was telling me that it was accepting me as its pilot.

I completed my external inspection then climbed into the cockpit using the built in retractable monopole ladder. I made myself comfortable and strapped myself in to the pilot's seat. Unfortunately since this was a single seat craft there would be no bathroom breaks unless I decided to land and make use of the nearest bush. Thankfully the matter of human waste was taken care of by the Annunaki flight suit that I was wearing. The ship was designed so that I would not need a ground crew to launch or to secure the craft after landing, though the maintenance bots could serve as a ground crew here, I was not sure where I would be landing on Anora so it was good that the ship was self sufficient and did not need a ground crew or external power source to initialize the flight systems.

The built in Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) was already running when I made my inspection and the final diagnostic finished as I was strapping myself in. All systems were showing green and true and ready for flight. I retracted the entry ladder and lowed the dark blue tinted canopy that covered the cockpit. As the canopy came to rest I heard the heavy latches click into place that locked me safely in the cockpit. Once the canopy was sealed the cockpit began to pressurize and there was a slight popping sensation in my ears. It was then that I manually donned my helmet and ordered the hanger bay doors to open. It seemed that just like their Earth counterparts, the Annunaki also chose to wear a helmet while flying in a single seat combat craft. I made sure that my helmet had a similar blue and white design to that of the ship's hull, and Sheba did a great job of illustrating a bird of prey on the helmet that matched the design on the outer hull.