The Tanith Gambit

by Dietmar Wehr

  “That was a generous gesture, My Lord.” Trask noted that Boake was careful to show the proper respect when others were close enough to listen in.

  “I felt their warning deserved some kind of recognition. I want a pinnace sent off to Marduk within the hour, Admiral. I’ll record a message for Prince-Protector Simon. What kind of help can we follow that message up with?” Boake had the answer ready.

  “Unfortunately, not a lot with Nemesis and Corisande away. Star Knight is fully combat capable of course and Red Thunder is at about 90% of her normal combat capability. With the transfer of four more ships to Simon’s people, we now have five more captured ships in various states of repair, none of which I’d like to throw into a major fleet to fleet action and we don’t have full crews for them all anyway. On the plus side, Grendelsbane and Viking’s Gift are back, waiting for word on the situation on Dagon before they head there to set up their own trap. With Admiral Harkaman not expected back for another 400 hours at least, Grendelsbane and Viking’s Gift could hold down the fort here as the linchpin of our ambush forces, until Nemesis and Corisande get back, if you wanted to send Star Knight and Red Thunder to Marduk now.”

  “So it’s basically two ships. Marduk has 12 ships now, six smaller cruisers plus the six transferred battleships that need a lot of repair. If Viktor puts together a fleet of 10 or more battleships, he might just pull off a victory. Two more battleships on Marduk’s side could make the difference between victory or defeat.” Trask paused for a few seconds and then turned to look at Boake.

  “Grendelsbane and Viking’s Gift are both on the ground right now?”

  “That’s correct, My Lord.”

  “Good! Tell their captains that I’ll like to speak to them as soon as possible. While you’re doing that, make sure that Star Knight and Red Thunder have enough consumables onboard for a trip to Marduk. Princess Valerie won’t be happy being left behind but I can’t risk taking her along with me to Marduk.” Boake responded almost immediately.

  “Prince Lucas, I mean no disrespect but you can’t lead your ships to Marduk! You should send me instead.” Trask stopped walking and looked at his admiral who naturally had to stop as well.

  “Remind me again which one of us is the Sovereign of this planet and which one is the Admiral?”Boake sighed. Trask could be as stubborn sometimes as a Kregg bull.

  “You are the Sovereign Prince of Tanith and Sovereign Princes stay at home while their subordinates go out and get shot at. Why have admirals in the first place if you’re going to hog all the fun and also by the way jeopardize the future of Tanith by putting yourself in Harm’s Way? Remember what happened the last time you went to Marduk? What if Viktor brings his ships here instead of or on the way to, Marduk? What would happen to Princess Valerie then? Your place is here, My Lord and if you want to demote me for insisting on that, then go ahead but you know I’m right.” Now it was Trask’s turn to sigh. Boake was right but staying here when his friend Simon might be in mortal danger went against the grain. On the other hand, if Tanith were the subject of an attack and Marduk was sending help, he wouldn’t expect Simon to personally lead those ships. In spite of his renunciation of being a Space Viking, he was still thinking as a Space Viking.

  “You’re right, Boake and I’m not going to demote you. If Grendelsbane and Viking’s Gift are willing to remain here and enforce our ambush until Otto gets back, then you will take Star Knight and Red Thunder to Marduk and place your ships under the temporary authority of whomever Simon has put in charge of Marduk’s defense. Can you do that, Admiral?” To his relief, Boake nodded.

  “I can take orders from a Marduk Admiral…but only until the battle’s over.” Trask smiled. Boake had come a long way from the chicken-stealing, bottom feeder that he used to be all those years ago when Trask and Harkaman had arrived here at Tanith for the first time.

  “You do realize, that once you arrive at Marduk, you’ll have to revert to your permanent rank of Captain although you’ll still be senior to Captain Karffard.” Boake nodded glumly. Being an admiral, even just temporarily, was heady stuff but two admirals on the same side for a fleet of a dozen ships was one admiral too many.

  “Okay then, we both have things to do so let’s be about it, Admiral.”

  The conference with the two Beowulf ship captains went well. Both were willing to support Tanith’s ambush operations until relieved by Trask’s other two ships. Trask recorded a message for Prince-Protector Simon which accompanied the Star Knight pinnace that lifted off as scheduled. Star Knight and Red Thunder under Captains Valkanhayn and Karffard, who would see some action after all, departed 12 hours later. The extra 12 hours warning probably wouldn’t make much difference at Marduk but then again, it just might. The possibility that Viktor’s fleet might stop at Tanith on the way gave Trask a couple of sleepless nights since detouring to Tanith first then to Marduk would not increase the total transit time significantly but there was nothing Trask could do about it if Viktor did decide to check out Tanith first. Even if Boake’s two ships stayed at Tanith, they plus the allied ships plus the damaged ships would still be massively outmatched.

  Chapter IX

  Roughly 500 hours later, Corisande and Nemesis arrived back at Tanith. Harkaman was already on the viewscreen by the time that Trask sat down in his office. With the two light second time lag in transmissions, Harkaman waited for Trask to speak first.

  “Welcome back, Otto. What’s the news from Dagon? Harkaman smiled and took a deep breath.

  “Thank you, Prince Lucas. My news is a mixed bag of good and not so good. The good news is that we’ve recovered most of the robotic manufacturing equipment. We also have almost 500 of Barragon’s technical staff and their families, who’ve volunteered to relocate to Tanith and to swear allegiance to Your Majesty. They’re disillusioned about Barragon’s chances of putting his base back into operation and the reason for that is the bad news. Except for the robotic equipment, that I mentioned, NONE of the other equipment, that was taken during his raid on Tanith, arrived at Dagon after the raid. What I was able to discover is that our good friend, Prince Viktor, was the real mastermind behind that raid and he bribed the other Viking captains to take their stolen equipment somewhere else, probably Xochtil. Barragon wasn’t at Dagon when we arrived. Apparently he’s gone off to Joyeuse to try to find financial backing to replace the equipment that he still needs but he told his people before he left, that he felt betrayed by Prince Viktor.” Trask waited until he was sure that Harkaman was finished talking, then said,

  “Well, if we can’t get all our equipment back then the robotics are the best possible alternative and the technical staff will be welcome indeed! Good work, Otto. The information about Viktor is definitely a surprise. Prince Viktor’s been a busy boy. You were right about Captain Estherson taking the Damnthing to Xochtil. When he got there, he told Viktor about Marduk’s civil war and as expected, Viktor started organizing a massive Viking raid on Marduk! We found out about it 500 hours ago when Estherson convinced Captain Forvil of the Ragnarok, to come to Tanith with the warning. I’ve already sent off Boake and Karffard with the Star Knight and Red Thunder, to Marduk to bolster their defenses. Since Viktor was behind the raid on Tanith, that means that Tanith and Xochtil are now at war! Once you get your ships down and resupplied, I’m going to send both ships plus Grendelsbane and Viking’s Gift back to Xochtil to recover whatever stolen equipment may be there and also teach Viktor that Tanith is not to be messed with!” Harkaman frowned when the lagged response reached him. His reply was not what Trask expected.

  “I would advise Your Majesty to wait. Even with the robotic equipment we now have, it will take time to manufacture the electronics we need to finish repairing the captured ships. If you send off all four of your combat capable ships now, Tanith will be practically defenseless for a dangerously long time. My recommendation is that you should allow Grendelsbane and Viking’s Gift to proceed to Dagon as planned. Barragon will return sooner or later and if they
can capture or kill him, that’s one headache that you won’t have to worry about anymore. As long as he’s loose, he could potentially stir up all kinds of trouble for you. While those two ships will be waiting for him to show up, we can bolster your fleet with Marduk’s crews and the repaired ships. I’d estimate that by the time that Star Knight and Red Thunder return from Marduk, you’ll have enough ships to send a strike force to Xochtil AND adequately defend Tanith at the same time.”Trask paused to consider Harkaman’s advice. As usual, it was well thought out advice. Trask shuddered to think of where he’d be now if he didn’t have Otto Harkaman to save him from his own rash impulses.

  “Alright, Otto. We’ll hold off on the Xochtil reprisal raid for now. After you get settled and readjust to Tanith’s day/night cycle again, come and see me. We have lots to talk about. I’ll arrange for the equipment and the technical people to be taken care of. It’s good to have you back, Otto.” With that exchange out of the way, and almost an hour to go before touchdown, Harkaman decided to get a head start on getting used to Tanith’s day/night cycle again by taking a nap. The meeting with Trask took place 24 hours later. Harkaman arrived at Trask’s Executive Office to find Tanith’s Chief Engineer Daxtar Rolmington there as well. Trask waived both men over to the low table and comfortable chairs that were over in the corner by the floor to ceiling windows. After drinks were ordered from the bar robot, Trask said,

  “Otto, I’ve asked Chief Engineer Rolmington to sit in on this meeting. His people have done the initial survey of the equipment you brought back. After we hear that report, he’ll also brief both of us on a project that I asked him to work on. Go ahead with your report, Daxtar.”

  “Thank you, Your Majesty. I’ve good news to report about the robotic equipment. It’s in excellent condition and we should be able to get all of them back into operation within…48 hours. Now unfortunately, Barragon’s ship wasn’t able to take all of the robotic equipment, that we had and therefore we don’t have the same capacity to manufacture goods as we did before the raid. That can be reversed if we use the robotic equipment that we do have, to manufacture more robotic equipment. However there is a downside to that. Robotic manufacturing equipment is highly complex. The amount of time it takes to program a manufacturing unit varies exponentially with the complexity of the output.” Rolmington could see that Harkaman understood but that his Prince did not. He decided to clarify the concept. “If product A is twice as complex as product B, it will usually take four times as long to program a robot to make product A as it would to make Product B. Once you’ve got the robots programmed, they can produce 10 copies or 1,000 which is why for really complicated machinery such as electronic parts for ship repair or for new robotic units, it makes sense to produce extra copies that you can store for future use so that you don’t have to reprogram the robots again for a long time. If we’re going to program robots to make more of them, then my recommendation is that we make a LOT more of them. My staff estimates that if we devote a quarter of our current capacity, to the manufacture of more robotic equipment, we could quadruple our total capacity over a period of six months. That extra capacity will be needed if you want to proceed with the ah…other projects, Your Majesty. Any capacity, that is set aside for producing more robotic equipment, will obviously not be available in the short run to help repair ship damage. Therefore what Your Majesty needs to tell me, is how much of the existing manufacturing capacity should be allocated for ship repairs first and how much, if any, allocated for capacity expansion.” Trask nodded and looked over at Harkaman.

  “That’s excellent.” Trask leaned back in his chair. “But before I make a decision on that, I’d like you to brief Otto on the whole Missile Boat Project.” Rolmington smiled. Trask could tell that he was clearly excited by the scope of the project.

  “Certainly, Your Majesty. I’d be more than happy to brief Admiral Harkaman.” Turning to Harkaman, Rolmington continued. “Admiral, after you left for Dagon, His Majesty and I had a very interesting discussion about what to do with all the pinnaces that we now have. We’ve captured 14 viking ships so far. Six have been turned over to the Marduk navy with one pinnace each and that means that we now have 58 pinnaces in addition to our own, and as you probably noticed on your way down from orbit, they’re starting to take up a lot of space at the spaceport. As they’re currently designed, they’re only good for raiding and supporting ground assault operations. Marduk has no interest in that and we have more than enough for our own needs so His Majesty asked me if we could convert them to be used in an anti-ship combat role. The answer is that we could but…when His Majesty set the goal that two missile boats, as we call them, should be capable of outfighting a 2,000 ft. Battleship, the project became much more challenging. So challenging in fact, that my staff and I had to take a hard look at ship-to-ship combat strategies and tactics. Along the way we came to some surprising conclusions.” He paused to collect his thoughts then continued.

  “The stated goal, as I said, was to have two missile boats outfight a 2,000 ft battleship. Now as you know better than anyone, Admiral, a Viking ship as they’re presently designed, is a careful compromise among several competing design goals. They have to be able to fight other ships, as well as bombard planets either from orbit or close to ground level. They have to be able to carry auxiliary craft designed to support ground assault operations which means that between raids, the ship has to be able to accommodate up to 500 ground fighters with all their equipment. That means quarters for the fighters, mess and recreation facilities, the necessary life support, storage space for the combat vehicles plus more room for captured loot. We compared one of our Viking ships with one of Marduk’s 1500 ft. cruisers. Even though our ships have almost 2.4 times as much internal space because of their larger diameters, the Marduk Navy cruiser actually has more offensive capability in terms of missile launchers. On the other hand, they have minimal cannon and less missile storage capacity as well as less counter-missile capability. That means that they’d have to win a battle quickly before they run out of missiles. Now in terms of fleet versus fleet combat, Viking ships aren’t really designed for that. The missiles that are standard loads for Viking ships, have a short effective range. As you know, it’s less than 1100 miles. Counter-missile missiles have an effective range of less than 200 miles. Beyond those ranges, missiles and counter-missiles lose power and are unable to maneuver to hit a target. So…one way that two missile boats could take on a Viking battleship and win, is if they’re carrying missiles that have a much greater effective range, which would allow them to stand off and fire at the battleship, which would be too far away to fire back. In order to be able to keep the range open, the missile boats have to be able to accelerate and decelerate faster than the battleship and THAT means that missile boats have to be unarmored.” Harkaman’s reaction was one of complete surprise.

  “You must be joking! Without armor, a hit by just one atomic warhead would obliterate the entire missile boat!” Harkaman looked at Trask who was smiling.

  “Wait, Otto. I know this sounds counter-intuitive but there’s a method to the Chief Engineer’s madness. Finish hearing him out.” Harkaman looked skeptical but he shrugged and leaned back as he looked over to Rolmington.

  “Alright. I’ll hear him out. Go ahead, Chief Engineer.”

  “Thank you, Your Majesty and no, I wasn’t joking about getting rid of the collapsed matter armor. I agree with you that if an unarmored ship gets within missile range of a Viking ship, it won’t last long and that’s precisely why missile boats must not make the mistake of getting that close. It was easy to figure out that without the collapsed matter armor, a missile boat will be twice as fast as a Battleship but speed isn’t the only factor involved here. One of the hardest things to engineer is putting hatches and other openings in a collapsed matter hull. Ordinary metal isn’t strong enough to withstand the stresses when an armored cargo hatch, for example, is opened. The weight of the collapsed matter on that hatch would be too heavy.
That’s why the hinges on all openings including the covers for missile launch tubes and cannons, is also made from collapsed matter. Every external opening on an armored ship has to have its own armored hatch cover to avoid creating weak spots where the blast from enemy missiles could penetrate ordinary metal. But even with armored hatch covers, those areas are still vulnerable to having the hatch cover blown away, armor and all, if the enemy missile hits just the right spot. So ship designers over the centuries have learned to minimize the number of openings including missile launch tubes. Because of that, missiles have to be mechanically transferred from the magazine storage areas to the launcher and loaded into the launch tubes and it’s much easier to move and load a small missile compared to a larger one. Easier and faster too by the way. So the advantage of smaller missiles is that they can be moved around easier and fired faster. The disadvantage is that their range is limited.” Rolmington paused. He could see that Harkaman was starting to see where this was going.