Retribution: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 2 Read Online Free PDF

vessels?  Any ideas?”
    The Science Officer responds: “There are all kinds of safeguards on a
warship, to keep that from happening.  There are automatic shutdown
mechanisms all along the process.”
    Shiela suggests: “You could blow up a bomb, next to it.”
    “That would work,” says the Admiral.  “That is how FTL breaches
happen in a battle.  A missile blows up next to the FTL drive and triggers
the FTL breach.  So all we need to do is to put a bomb next to a live FTL drive, or we could shoot a missile into one.  How could that happen?”
    “The original idea was for the ship to be hijacked in space; and then to rig
it as a bomb; and to return it to the Shipbuilding Facility, where it would
explode,” comments the Tactical Officer.  “I think that is a good
suggestion.”
    “I can imagine us hijacking a vessel, and rigging a bomb next to the FTL
drive, but how could we get the ship back to the Shipbuilding Facility?” asks
the Admiral.
    “You replace the AI, with one of your own,” says Shiela .
    “That would work,” comments the Admiral.  “But we don’t have a spare
AI, and even if we did I wouldn’t ask him or her to do a suicide mission.”
    Shiela comments: “We could control the ship remotely from the edge of the system with
a projector .  That AI that I told you about invented 2 kinds of projectors . 
One for AIs to
communicate with distant AIs ,
and another type for augmented humans to communicate through their
mind-links.  His worked all of the way from the edge of the system to a
planet close to the star.”
    “Wow,” replies the Admiral.  “I have got to meet that AI.  Do
we know how to make a projector , Shiela ?”
    “No, but I could brainstorm with the other AIs ,
tonight,” she responds.
    “Do that,” orders the Admiral.  “That kind of invention will come in
handy.  But for this project, I believe the old acronym KIS applies – ‘ K eep I t S imple’.  Does anyone have a lo-tech solution?”
    “We could purge the Verm AI, and attach an auto-pilot computer,” says the
Science Officer.  ”That would get the ship close to the Facility, and then
we could have the computer send a distress message, saying that communications
and steering are out.  The Facility would be familiar with that kind of
problem – that’s why they call them shakedown cruises.  They would
probably send a tug to pull the ship home.”
    “And we could have the bomb rigged to explode, when the ship reaches the
Shipbuilding Facility’s coordinates,” says the Tactical Officer.
    “Done,” says the Admiral.
    ***
     A team has been assigned to plan and build the equipment necessary
to auto-pilot the captured vessel, and to blow up the bomb.
    Now, the problem that needs a solution is ‘how to copy the destination
coordinates of the shakedown vessel?’  Admiral Meyers has guessed that the
Facility probably always uses the same destination for ‘FTL shakedown hops’,
because they are not expecting an attack.
    “Any ideas?” the Admiral asks.  
    “We can’t get a probe in close enough to record the coordinates without
being detected,” comments the Science Officer.  “But we could tag one of
the supply ships, which bring materials to the Shipbuilding Facility. 
They get freighter deliveries a few times a week.  Those supply ships
emerge at the edge of the system, and wait for clearance to approach the
Facility.”
    “We could place a number of small sensing modules in the emergence zone,
and wait for a freighter to emerge close to a module.   The modules
can be steered to the freighter by a compressed gas propulsion system – the
kind used for small hobby type models.  They could attach to the freighter
by the use of magnets – we could put magnets on every side.”  
    “The tag will be dormant until it nears the Shipbuilding
Facility.   If we are lucky the supply ship will be there when the
Facility launches a test flight.  The sensing module will record