The Tanith Gambit

by Dietmar Wehr

  “Are you still in video contact with Admiral Bargham?” Shefter looked at his comm. screen then shook his head.

  “Not anymore. There could be any number of reasons why. We’ll have to wait and see to what extent Dreadnought was damaged.” Simon nodded. He looked down at his hands and was startled to see that they were shaking. Must be adrenaline fatigue, he thought. Looking back up, he said,

  “Find out who was in command of that ship that fired at the last minute. He obviously didn’t wait for Bargham’s deputy fleet commander to take command and fired on his own authority. I want him decorated and his ship given a Unit Citation. Thank God he took the initiative!”

  “Yes, it’s fortunate that he did although our ground-based missile defenses probably would have neutralized that last enemy ship if it had gotten close enough to be a threat. As you know, the ground-based interceptors are huge compared with the shipboard version and have plenty of extra range.” Simon nodded and was about to say something when Shefter groaned and said,

  “Dreadnought has just gone ballistic and is starting to launch its lifeboats. The Captain, or whoever is now in command, has obviously ordered the crew to abandon ship. They must have really gotten plastered for one hit to do that much damage. I suspect that our after-action report will show that our 100 kiloton fission warheads are far less damaging than whatever Dreadnought got hit with. We needed multiple hits to knock out one of their ships and they only needed one hit to cripple one of our ships.” Simon nodded again. They would be learning a lot from this battle. Too bad it had to be learned the hard way. He hoped Bargham survived the battle. His initial doubts about the man’s reliability were clearly misplaced. Looking back at the Status Board, Lucas said,

  “Well, now it’s up to Captain Valkanhayn.”

  The first shots fired were from the loner that Star Knight and Red Thunder were approaching. Boake snorted with amusement when the target fired at a range of 1500 miles then quickly became serious when the tactical computer declared the incoming missiles to be a serious threat because of the fact that Star Knight and Red Thunder were moving towards the incoming missiles. His two ships would be within the 1,000 miles standard missile range by the time those missiles ran out of power. He should have figured that they’d fire first. By continually accelerating away from his ships, that enemy ship was now ahead of them and they were in a stern chase. Boake hated stern chases. The ship in front could fire from beyond 1,000 miles because both its missiles and the chasers would be closing the range but the ships doing the chasing had to get much closer than 1,000 miles in order to hit the target because the target was continually moving further away. On the other hand, he wasn’t really worried since his two ships had more than enough counter-missiles to handle anything the target ship could throw at them. It was just that he hated being fired on without being able to fire back effectively yet. Sure enough, the incoming fire was neutralized by counter-missiles. At least they had a significant velocity advantage. The loner would have been smarter to veer just far enough away from Marduk to avoid missile fire from the main body of defending ships. With the added acceleration, it would have flown past Boake’s two ships so fast that they would only have been able to fire one or maybe two volleys at it and with a little luck, it might have gotten away. As it was, that ship had traded velocity for a new vector that was over 90 degrees from its original course. So there was now no chance of it getting away. The only question was how quickly could Star Knight and Red Thunder either destroy it or cripple it?

  More missile volleys were coming at them now but all of the incoming missiles were taken out by counter-missile fire. When the range had dropped low enough that the loner was now inside their effective missile range, Boake gave the order to fire anti-ship missiles from both ships. The first volley of missiles clawed its way to the target. At a distance of about 350 miles, the loner started spitting out counter-missiles too. Here again, the geometry of the stern chase favored the leader. Its counter-missiles fire was more effective than usual because the incoming anti-ship missiles were encountering wave after wave of counter-missiles, that were coming to meet them. None of the first volley of anti-ship missiles from Boake’s two ships got through BUT the loner avoided getting hit only just barely. It wasn’t so lucky with the second volley. One missile did get through and they were close enough to see a fine explosion as the 1 megaton warhead hit the armored hull. By the time the blast cleared, Boake could tell that the loner had suffered some engine damage. Its acceleration had dropped from 6Gs to 4.2Gs. And because the blast had interfered with target acquisition by the loner’s counter-missiles waiting to be launched, the next wave of counter-missiles was delayed which allowed more of the next volley of incoming anti-ship missiles to get thru. The target took multiple hits and disappeared in cloud of atomic fire and small particle debris. The battle was over. There were still missiles from both sides in flight but they were either destroyed by counter-missile fire or self-destructed on command from Boake and Alvyn.

  Alvyn Karffard was surprised by Boake’s order to cut acceleration and coast. He would have expected to be ordered to return back to Marduk at least for a little while before returning home to Tanith. After a few minutes of coasting, Boake informed Alvyn that he had spoken with Prince-Protector Simon, who had congratulated them both for their fine performance and Boake had gotten Simon’s permission for his two ships to continue on to Tanith rather than return to Marduk first. They had done what their Prince had sent them here to do and they could now go home.

  Captain Kraggor breathed a sigh of relief when the Black Hawk broke out past Marduk’s no-jump zone. As the ship prepared to jump back to Xochtil, he congratulated himself for his decision to veer away from the main body of Viking ships and continue to accelerate plus his good luck when the two ships, that separated from Marduk’s defending fleet, chose to intercept the Viking ship Gorgon instead of the Black Hawk. He would have a lot to tell Prince Viktor including the fact that Estherson’s Damnthing had gone somewhere else when the 11 Viking ships left Xochtil. Kraggor would bet a year’s pay that Damnthing went to Tanith. The other interesting information, that Prince Viktor would hear, was Kraggor’s conviction that most of the defending fleet was made up of 2,000 ft. battleships, which Marduk would not have had time to build itself. And since Tanith couldn’t have built that many new ships that quickly either, that only left one possible explanation as far as Kraggor was concerned. Those had to have been captured Viking ships and since this raid was the first raid on Marduk that anyone could remember, those ships were obviously captured somewhere else and Tanith was the prime suspect. Prince Viktor would be VERY interested to hear about that.

  It was dark again by the time Simon left the Defense Center. As the airlimo took him back to the Palace, he reviewed the day’s events. All of the attacking fleet except for one ship, had been neutralized. Marduk’s ships had picked up a few survivors from the crippled wrecks and it was obvious now that this was a Space Viking raid. Simon said a silent prayer for his men, who died on the two ships that had been hit during the battle, Admiral Bargham among them. Dreadnought was a writeoff. The newly rechristened Paladin was still salvageable. Admiral Shefter would present him with a list of Captains that he deemed promotable to Admiral to fill Bargham’s shoes, for the Prince-Protector’s decision. The rapid rebuilding of the Fleet meant rapid promotion for lots of officers and crew. Marduk had won this battle but Simon hoped the next one was a long way away. The economy was still struggling to recover back to the level it was at before the civil war and defense production, particularly atomic warheads and missiles, was lagging far behind normal levels due to supply and personnel disruptions. Marduk’s navy was expanding so fast, it was causing indigestion but Simon would rather have too many ships than not enough of them. What was it some Old Terra warlord had said before the Atomic Era began? ‘Ask me for anything except time’.

  Chapter XI

  It was dark by the time Harkaman finished his debriefing session with
Captains Valkanhayn and Karffard with repeated playbacks of the tactical data from the battle. With both men now on their way to their own quarters, Harkaman decided that Lucas needed to hear what happened as soon as possible and called the Royal Quarters to see if the Prince was available. He was and would meet Admiral Harkaman in the Royal Study in ten minutes. That would be just enough time to take the elevator in the Administrative Tower down to ground level, walk the half mile over to the Executive Tower and take the express elevator up to the 144th floor.

  When Harkaman was shown in to the Royal Study and realized that Lucas hadn’t arrived yet, he ordered the bar robot to prepare two drinks and bring two cigars, both of which were ready by the time Trask arrived. As he accepted the drink and cigar from the robot, Trask laughed and said,

  “Good thinking, Otto. I have a feeling though that this isn’t going to be a short visit.”

  “Probably not.” agreed Harkaman as he stood up to greet Lucas. When both men were seated again, Trask said,

  “Let me guess. You’ve debriefed Boake and Alvyn and you’re here to bring me up to speed on the 2nd Battle of Marduk, right?”

  “Correct, Lucas.”

  “Why so glum, Otto? Our side won the battle if I understood the preliminary reports correctly.”

  “Oh we definitely won the battle but we didn’t win it well enough!”

  “How so?” Harkaman took a long swallow of his drink and said,

  “One ship managed to get away. That ship will have detailed radar data on all of the defending ships and it’ll be very clear, if they examine the data closely, which we have to assume that they will, that eight of the fourteen defending ships were 2,000 ft. battleships, which the Marduk Navy itself didn’t have at the first battle. We know from Captain Forvill, that Viktor took a hard look at Estherson’s tactical data from the first battle so Viktor knows that Tanith, Amaterasu and Beowulf had six ships left after the Battle of Marduk. There hasn’t been nearly enough time for anybody to build those extra ships and Viktor knows that so…he’ll come to the only conclusion that’s possible, which is that those extra ships are captured Space Viking ships and the source of those captured ships will be obvious too.”

  “Tanith.” said Trask.

  “Yes, Tanith and that means that our ambush operations are no longer a secret. Viktor knows and he’ll make sure that all the other base owners will know too which means that we should expect to get a sky full of Space Viking ships at some point. The question now is what do we do about it?” Trask took a deep breath and said.

  “Okay, tell me what YOU think we should do about it.” Harkaman nodded as he took a puff from his cigar.

  “Naturally I haven’t had a chance to think this thru fully so I’m going to be doing some thinking as I’m talking. We have to start with the lay of the land so to speak. Star Knight and Red Thunder just got back here today. Tanith is for all practical purposes, very close to being on a straight line from Marduk to Xochtil. Anyone stopping here on their way between those two planets would only add about six days to the total trip time. That means that the ship, that got away, won’t reach Xochtil for another thousand hours or so. Now we know from what Simon told Boake, that Simon intends to launch a retaliatory mission against Xochtil as soon as one can be organized. Since those ships would be passing relatively close to us on their way to Xochtil, it stands to reason that they would divert to Tanith to see if you wanted to add some of your ships to the attack force to improve its chances of success.” Before Harkaman could continue, Trask asked.

  “And would I want to do that?”

  “Yes, I think so. I’ll explain why as I go along.” Trask gestured for Harkaman to continue.

  “So let’s assume that Simon sends the Strike Force out a week after the battle. With additional ships from us, the combined Force would arrive at Xochtil roughly two weeks after that lone survivor gets back. Now we know from the timing of the attack on Marduk, that it took Viktor a lot longer than that to put together his attack force so it’s highly likely that we would catch him still in the process of organizing another attack force for his proposed second attack on Tanith. By the time Simon’s Strike Force gets there, Viktor might have 6-9 ships available for defense assuming that any visiting Viking ships don’t just simply bug out when we show up. So the Strike Force would have to be big enough to handle a potential defense like that and that’s why it would make sense for you to send about half of our mobile strength along with Simon’s ships. A few more ships are more likely to result in an overwhelming victory, especially if it prevents his ships from avoiding the battle altogether and spreading the news that Xochtil has been attacked. If our side is going to strike back at Viktor, we might as well try to set up an ambush at Xochtil to catch as many incoming ships as we can before they’re warned off. Keeping the Battle of Xochtil a secret would be highly preferable and if we’re really lucky, Viktor will have told the other base owners, that Xochtil would be the rally point for the massive raid on Tanith and the ambush will neutralize that threat as those ships trickle in to Xochtil. Somehow, however, I don’t think Viktor will make that mistake.” Trask leaned forward and said,

  “Okay you lost me, Otto. Why would using Xochtil as the rally point be a mistake, especially considering that Viktor would very likely be worried about exactly the kind of retaliatory strike that you’ve just described? I certainly would be if I were in his shoes.”

  “Because ships, coming in from the other bases, wouldn’t get to Xochtil in time, to defend it from Marduk’s Strike Force. I think we have to assume that Viktor would realize that. He’s actually in a bad position now. When I say now I mean when he gets word of the 2nd Battle of Marduk. His attempt to neutralize Marduk as a threat to Space Viking Bases has failed. Survivors of the attack force captured by Marduk will eventually tell them where the attack originated from and one of the main Civilized Worlds will then have the means and the motive to launch attacks on not just Xochtil but all the other bases too. The other bases can’t help him in time so what can he do? Well…he can hunker down at Xochtil and hope his defense forces can beat off Marduk’s inevitable attack. Or he can do what I would do in his shoes, which is acknowledge that Xochtil is a lost cause and shift his resources somewhere else while he still has time. If he does THAT, then wherever he goes to, then becomes the logical choice for the rally point AND will be a secret Viking Base from which Space Vikings can operate and neither we nor Marduk will know where it is.” Harkaman paused to see Trask’s reaction. He wondered if Lucas would realize where this train of thought eventually led. Trask leaned back again and took a puff from his cigar.

  “So let’s assume that he moves his base somewhere else. How much time do you think we’d have before we could expect our sky to be full of Space Viking ships?”

  “Well…he won’t get the word about the 2nd Battle of Marduk for roughly 1,000 hours. If he sends off messages to the other bases with the rally call, it’ll take a minimum of another 800 hours just to get to the nearest base. We should assume that ships will start to trickle in to the rally point about 850 hours later and if he wants a really big force, it will probably take him another…let’s say 500 hours at least, to build up that force, then the trip back to Tanith. So we should expect that force to arrive anytime after another 4,000 hours. Approximately 24 weeks from now.” When Trask spoke again, his voice was quiet.

  “And what kind of defense could we have ready by then?” Harkaman thought his reply over carefully, then said,

  “That all depends on how willing our allies are about sending ships to help defend us. If Marduk, Amaterasu and Beowulf send at least half of their ships, and I’m taking into consideration additional ships that we’re likely to capture between now and then, which can be repaired BUT also have to be crewed, I’d estimate we probably could have 15 battleships and with a little luck, maybe as many as 20 but don’t hold me to that. The big unknown is how many missile boats and long range missiles we’d have by then. The prototype should be fi
nished in about 3 weeks. The next one will take 10 weeks to complete and the one after that, 8 weeks. That means that we could have three missile boats to add to our battleships.” The next question was obvious.

  “Would 15 ships and 3 missile boats be enough do you think?” Harkaman raised his eyebrows and took a deep breath.

  “Viktor sent 10 ships to Marduk and failed. Whatever he may tell other Space Vikings about Tanith, to get them to participate in the raid, I have to believe that in the back of his mind, Marduk is really the main target. We’re just the excuse. So if he plans on attacking Marduk again after he’s finished with us, he would want a force large enough to knock us out and still have enough force to guarantee a crushing victory over Marduk. If I were him, I’d want at least 30 ships, 40 would be even better and with the word sent out to all the other bases, he might just get that many and maybe more. 20 ships plus three missile boats loaded with long range missiles might be able to prevent 30 ships from launching a missile attack on Tanith but I wouldn’t want to bet money on it. 15 ships plus missile boats against 40 ships would be a lost cause. I’ve been very conservative in my estimates, Lucas. We might have more time before the attack arrives. We might have more ships. We might have more missile boats. If all those things go our way, we can beat him off but that’s a lot of ‘ifs’ and realistically we can’t and shouldn’t count on that happening. The ugly truth is that Tanith will become just as vulnerable as Xochtil is now. It would be prudent to make contingency plans to evacuate the Base and maybe the people in Tradetown too.”