CHAPTER THE FORLORN HOPE
They entered the hanger and witnessed as the red destiny was being worked over by bots just as it had been before the previous mission. This particular work was grueling as the previous core was being cut out having been fused to the hull. The cannon blast stunt that Alexander pulled also damaged many subsystems not meant to handle such load and much had to be replaced.
Lester was interviewing Fae*Dra about the mission... he realized she didn't really understand what needed to be done but seemed confident in her ability to punch her way through her troubles. But he got most of his information from plans on file she shared with him.
"So the arks are going into a temporal fold....my understanding is that they will reemerge months or years later in another location having experienced almost no passage of time. Ok, that's good. But...looking at these readings something bothers me... it looks like the time dilation is such that they will unfold sometime after the end of the universe itself.... won't that be a problem?"
"We save them", Fae gave little nuggets of the plan that she didn't fully grasp.
"Yes, I see... a specific type of energy pulse (sorry this is not my field) will be used to dislodge the arcs near the Zell hatcheries and then the final battle will commence.... and how will that pulse be administered...."
"By the Ronin fleet" Fae*Dra was annoyed to have to tell him the obvious
"Uhm.... the Ronnin fleet is almost decimated.... there is no way anything can survive without folding and now we know the fold itself is a ticket to limbo"
"Stop being lazy TacEng" Fae commanded.
"Can the temporal fold variables be modified?"
"No"
We're gonna have to make a run for it then.... I know you love your ship, but maybe we would be better off in a cloaking vessel.
"The Red Destiny is Alexander's ship"
"I know but Alexander is..." He didn't want to get cleft in twain for dancing around that tricky subject....
"Tell me androsynth, what is your actuation number?"
"6"
Lester was annoyed, "No I meant your actuation number... the number of machines you can control besides your own body?"
"6" she said again.
"6? Hex? You are a Hex Actuator?"
"Affirm." Fae*Dra responded with muted robot pride
"Well now that's quite an asset" .... " Okay... we will make a run for it in the Destiny, but I will need modifications.. Using your credentials I have requisitioned a cluster of four boosters to zoom away. I'm replacing the core with a fusion core... antimatter is far more powerful but requires refueling. I am also having much of the inner battle equipment removed for we will instead need quarters for sleeping and eating and fabrication systems for repairing the ship in deep space... this ship is not made to fly a long mission like this without support after all.
Then a weird thing happened.... a hangar adjacent opened and an empty ship gently drifted to its moorings ready to be repaired and refueled. It looked exactly like The Red Destiny down to the last detail.
"What ship is that?" Lester asked.
"The Forlorn Hope"
"The Decoy ship used in the battle of ILLUS!" , Lester realized!
Well, this gives us quite a new asset. We might actually live through this. "Hmmm.... the forlorn hope...."