Star Force: Fiddlesticks (SF65) Read Free

structures are quite different from
the samplers. They simply detect what’s there and transmit the data back up the
control conduit. The probe is just that conduit surrounded by an absorption
matrix and capped off with the sensor dome.”
    “What about an inefficient straight line tap? Beef up
the shields as much as you can and just try to get a handful of particles,
enough to build a single piece of equipment that can then be used to upgrade
that tap?”
    “Already tried it. When we reinforce the shield
matrixes we diminish the depth. I’ve pushed and pulled every angle I can think
of. 53 kilometers is the furthest I can get with any collection capability.”
    “Have you tried stirring the pot?”
    “Meaning?”
    “Bring the lower materials up to collection depth.”
    “The currents are already pretty rambunctious, but the
lower levels are unaffected. Different densities keep them separate. Even if I
could create a stirring mechanism near the filaments it wouldn’t pull the
deeper materials up, just move the higher ones around laterally. I’ve been
working on doing just that to facilitate the remixing of the saturation levels
around the collection points, but only on the drawing board at the moment.”
    “Shaken then, not stirred.”
    “Other than the Bond reference, I don’t see…”
Henderson said, cutting himself off as a thought occurred to him.
    “Boom,” Paul offered, seeing the twinkle in the tech’s
eye suddenly spark.
    “Shielded missile penetrating to depths then detonating,
creating a surge of heavier matter into the upper levels…wouldn’t be efficient,
and that sort of disruption would snap any shield matrixes we had in place…”
    “Deploy them after. What’s it take, less than 30
seconds?”
    “Depends how much we want to stretch, but most
deployment times are under 30.”
    “All we need is to sniff a little bit, right?”
    “4.78 kilograms of chori is
what we need to build heavier emitters. Get me that and I’ll get you twice the
depth. You got some spare warheads I could borrow?”
    Paul smiled. “Not onboard my ship. I’ll have to swing
by the vault to pick up some.”
    “What’s ‘the vault?’”
    “A little place in Sol where we keep all the cool tech
that we haven’t really found a use for. Stuff we built just to build to see if
we could…or for a rainy day. Military operations don’t call for bombs very
much, especially the big ones.”
    “How big are we talking? I’ve never been involved in
the munitions research.”
    A slight smile crept across Paul’s face as he accessed
the nearby control station and dug his way into the Star Force files, pulling
up a restricted section and waving Henderson towards the grocery list of
boom-booms.
    “Any of these big enough?”
    The tech looked through the list, pulling up several
and seeing their insane yields. “Explosive junkies.”
    “I’ll take that as a yes.”

 
 
    2

 
 
    May 7, 2739
    Merovingian
System
    Prometheus

 
    Paul’s ship approached the Star Forge for the second
time in 5 days, having just made the short jump over to Sol and back again,
this time carrying 15 warheads and an equal number of penetration vehicles, for
you couldn’t simply shoot a missile into a star and expect it to get very far
without being destroyed first. Each of the vehicles was the size of a dropship
and heavily shielded, having been built originally to get the fat bombs to
their targets before they could get knocked out of the sky by anti-air defenses.
    As soon as Paul’s warship came within range of the Prometheus he received targeting
coordinates from Henderson, then using the yield level they’d discussed
previously, the ship launched the remote craft with the trailblazer flying it
remotely down and into the star. He stayed with it as long as he could, but
eventually the control signal was cut off and both men had to wait to see what
would happen.
    Several long minutes followed, with Paul knowing it
would take time to