The Stones of Silence_Cochrane's Company_Book One

by Peter Grant

  “Where the hell did they get hold of destroyers?” the third man wondered.

  “They probably bid through a front company to buy old warships listed for the scrapheap. Instead, they sent the hulks to this fleet they’ve got hidden somewhere. A repair vessel would take much longer than a shipyard to modernize them, but given time, it could do the job. As for their systems and weapons, they’re operating their own refinery ship, so they have access to precious metals. You can buy a lot if you’ve got enough of that, no matter how illegal the sale might be.”

  His colleague frowned. “So now Eufala’s got to face modernized warships. I wouldn’t like to be in one of their ancient patrol craft when that happens. From what the Captain reported, they’ve also been modernized, but not by much, and they’re still using real old missiles that aren’t all that reliable.”

  The team’s leader nodded. “I’m glad I’m not working for them at Mycenae. Things are about to get real interesting there.”

  20

  Preparation

  CONSTANTA

  Cochrane was buried in administrative issues when Jock Murray was announced. He pushed them aside with relief, clearing his terminal screen as he called, “Come in!”

  “It’s good to be back, sir,” Jock said as he walked through the door. “Got any coffee?”

  “In the pot.” He motioned to the carafe on the sideboard.

  Jock filled a mug, sipped, and scowled. “You’ve been letting these damned planetary coffee shops get to you, sir. This isn’t Fleet coffee!”

  “No, it’s not, but have mercy on my regular visitors. If they drank what we’re used to aboard ship, it’d strip the lining from their stomachs – not to mention keeping them awake for a week! Is the surveillance satellite up and running?”

  “It is, sir. It’s actually a constellation of four satellites, deployed in a tetrahedon formation, ten thousand kilometers apart, in Mycenae Primus Four’s L1 orbital position. It took Sue’s techs two weeks to iron out all the kinks. It’s not that there were any real problems, you understand; it’s just a complicated thing to install. Each satellite has six arms, five hundred meters long, with passive sensors spaced along them, set at ninety degrees to each other. There’s also the datalink to the constellation’s special Plot display on the depot ship. My techs had a hard time getting that up and running, but we got it right in the end.”

  “It sounds like a complicated job all round.”

  “It was, sir, even with robots to help. Still, it was worth it. Once we got the sensors dialed in, we could monitor a radius of four billion kilometers in every direction. It’s an amazingly sensitive system, even though it’s not real accurate at bearing and range over longer distances.”

  “Yes. It takes a system surveillance array to be more accurate, with multiple satellites millions of kilometers apart, for better cross-bearings and much longer range – out to three or four light-days. Those things cost anywhere from five to ten billion, though. They’re way outside our budget.”

  “How much did our system cost, sir?”

  Cochrane grimaced. “Nine hundred million francs.”

  Jock whistled in surprise. “Is it worth that much to us, sir?”

  “I think it will be. Up to now, everyone sneaking into Mycenae has coasted in silently, using their drives at the lowest possible power only when they needed to brake or maneuver. Shipboard sensors simply can’t pick that up, except at relatively close range. We need to know about them long before they reach us.”

  “Well, this’ll do that, sir. We sent Amanita out to five billion clicks, then had her come back using only five percent power. She’s got a very quiet, modern drive unit, but it picked her up and tracked her all the way in, no matter how she tried to evade. Ah… if you spent this much on it, sir, you must be expecting trouble?”

  “I am. Our mines killed an Albanian ship, and we confiscated that Callanish repair vessel. Both groups might want to get even. I would, if I were in their shoes. If they try, we need to know they’re coming before they reach us. As soon as we can afford it, I’m going to buy another of those satellite constellations to deploy in this system, too.” He stretched. “How’s Sue enjoying HCS Vulcan?”

  “She’s putting her new repair ship to good use, sir. She’s already run checks on Payara and Trairao, to make sure their old systems are holding up. So far, they seem to be. When I left, she was planning to do the same for Arapaima and Bicuda.”

  “I presume Commander Cousins is temporarily using their crews aboard Piranha, while they wait to get their own ships back?”

  “Yes, sir. Vulcan unloaded the fifth patrol craft as soon as she arrived, even before the satellites. Commander Cousins says he wants to wring her out thoroughly, because she was the worst deteriorated of all of them before being modernized. He wants more spacers out there, so he can crew all five ships at once.”

  “All in good time.”

  Jock grinned. “Sue’s still getting used to the stripes on her sleeve. She’s thought of herself as a Warrant Officer for so long, it’s a shock to find herself a Limited Duty engineer officer, especially a full Commander.”

  “She’s earned the rank if anyone has. You have, too, so why did you turn it down?”

  Jock shrugged. “I just don’t feel comfortable at the thought of being an officer, sir.”

  “Well, anytime you change your mind, let me know. Sue needed to be a Commander, because Vulcan’s skipper holds that rank too. He’s not her boss, after all – he just takes the ship to where she’s needed, and keeps her running. Sue’s responsible for all the work she does.”

  “Yes, sir. She and Commander Frith seem to be getting on well together.”

  “I thought they would. That’s why I appointed him to Vulcan. He’s got enough experience and common sense to know when he needs to exercise authority, and when to back off and let Sue have control. She’ll learn a lot from him about being a good officer. I’m glad Frank brought him to us.”

  “Ah… as a matter of interest, sir, how are you sorting out ranks and authority levels?”

  “Commander Cousins and I have been working that out for several months. Briefly, command levels will be Lieutenants in command of patrol craft, Lieutenant-Commanders of corvettes, and Commanders of frigates. A division of two to four patrol craft will be under a Lieutenant-Commander, two to four corvettes under a Commander, and two to four frigates under a Captain. Major auxiliaries like our depot ships, Vulcan, and the big store ships, will be skippered by Commanders, while the smaller freighters and courier vessels will have Lieutenant-Commanders.”

  “And you, sir?”

  “I’m going to promote Commander Cousins to Captain next month, because he’ll be in command of our Mycenae station and all the ships assigned there. As we expand, all major station commanders will be Captains. He suggested I promote myself to Commodore, as the commander of our whole fleet. For the sake of a clear chain of command, we’ll probably do that.”

  “Works for me, sir. You can have a salute from me anytime, no matter what your rank.”

  The first of the large freighters NOE was swapping for the patrol craft arrived at Constanta the following week. Cochrane immediately went out to look her over.

  As his gig approached the two-and-a-half-million-ton ship, he noticed a raised, elongated fairing on her spine, about two-thirds of the way toward her stern. It looked like a flattened hump. He asked the skipper of her passage crew about it as soon as he stepped aboard.

  “Oh, that’s her engineering spaces,” she told him. “Instead of having the reactor and gravitic drive compartments hanging down from the ship’s spine, protruding into the cargo holds, this ship’s designers put them above the spine, taking up no cargo space at all. It looks odd, I’ll admit, but it functions perfectly well.”

  “I see. Well, it makes naming this ship a lot easier.” She gave him an inquiring look. “We’re naming all our freighters after whale species on Earth. They’re the largest animals on that planet. Thi
s one practically begs to be christened Humpback!” She couldn’t help laughing.

  He had Grigorescu’ engineers and technicians go over Humpback from stem to stern, making sure she was in good order and condition. As soon as they gave her a clean bill of health, he ordered the long-term cargo stored aboard their second, hitherto unused fast freighter, now named Minke, to be transferred to the new arrival.

  While that was in progress, Frank returned with the leased freighter from a trip to Barjah and Goheung. He entered Cochrane’s office looking more than a little frustrated. Cochrane recognized the signs, and smiled inwardly. He’d been expecting this visit, and was prepared for it.

  “How did it go?” he asked cheerfully, leading his guest to a group of chairs in the corner.

  “It went fine, sir. We delivered the asteroid shipment, got the quarter payment for them in gold – it’s in our strongroom – and then took the patrol craft hulk to Goheung. Kang Industries promised to have it ready for delivery with our first two corvettes.” His face grew animated as he mentioned the warships. “I must admit, sir, I was impressed by their plans for that patrol craft. Fifty defensive missiles! That’s as many as a corvette carries. That’s really something, to shoehorn that many into so small a space, along with a modern weapon control system and sensors.”

  “Yes. To fit them in, they had to chop out most of her crew quarters; but they gave her a lot more automation to compensate. She’ll need only a dozen spacers for normal operations. She can be handled and fought by as few as four if necessary, although that’s obviously for emergencies only.”

  “I get it, sir. At first, I thought the idea was crazy, but now I’ve had a chance to think about it, it makes a lot of sense. If you can’t fit missiles to your ship, fit a smaller ship that can carry the missiles on its behalf. Are all our freighters going to have them?”

  “No, just the two big ones. Their cargoes will be very valuable, because of all the essential gear we’ll store aboard them – missile reloads, engineering and electronic spares, ration stockpiles, uniforms, you name it. That’ll justify the cost of protecting them. I’ll have the other two patrol craft hulks converted as well in due course. They’ll need shipyard maintenance from time to time, so we’ll rotate the three of them between the two freighters.”

  “Makes sense, sir.” He hesitated. “Sir, when are you going to get me out of that freighter and into something with teeth? I know I said I’d do anything you needed, but carrying cargo around the galaxy isn’t very exciting.”

  “You needn’t worry. I put you aboard her because I needed a trustworthy skipper to handle the asteroid shipments. You proved your discretion and ability during our early operations, so you were a natural choice. Let me tell you what I have in mind for you.

  “I want to use your experience to prepare the whole company for the expansion that’s about to hit us. Therefore, I’m going to give you command of our new armed fast freighter. Kang is making good progress with the conversion. She’ll have a frigate missile pod, plus a full fire control system, plus accommodation for up to two hundred entry-level and senior spacers under training, with classrooms and other facilities. She’ll patrol the Mycenae system from time to time, and handle sensitive shipments like taking our asteroids to Barjah and bringing back the payment for them. The trainees can carry on with their work during those voyages. She’ll be fully combat capable, with fewer missiles than a corvette, but they’re much more powerful and longer-ranged weapons.”

  “Laser cannon, too?”

  “Yes, four of them, the same as a corvette.”

  Frank began to smile. “Well, she’s not as nimble as a corvette, but she’ll be much more comfortable, given that she’s fifteen times their size.”

  “True. While you train our first batch of entry-level spacers, and teach our fire control teams how to use a frigate’s weapons and combat systems, I want you to start developing operational doctrine and tactics for the frigates. I’ll work on that with you from time to time. You’ll also deploy our robotic prospectors to stars that nobody’s claimed. We can leave some to explore their asteroid belts for a year or more, then go back to collect whatever they’ve found. You’ll deploy some space mines along with them, to protect them against intruders trying to steal them.”

  “But, sir, the reason a lot of those stars haven’t been claimed is that they don’t have resources worth exploiting. They’ve been checked out by survey ships, and found wanting.”

  Cochrane shook his head. “That’s not the whole picture. Survey ships go there for at most a year or two, including time out to return to base for crew rest and maintenance. They leave robotic explorers to carry on until they get back. They can’t possibly sample all the planets and asteroids in a system; only a few. If those come back negative, they give up and try somewhere else. There are enough stars out there that it makes sense to do it that way – cherry-pick the best of them, and ignore the others. However, that doesn’t mean there may not be some really good asteroids among the thousands in a typical system. It just means they weren’t identified by the survey.

  “I reckon, if we’re willing to let our prospector bots have their heads and range through the system on their own, they might find one in a hundred, even one in a thousand asteroids that’s worth recovering. We can sow the bots, then come back a year later to pick them up, along with whatever they’ve found. We might even do a quick survey from a mining boat, to identify potentially richer concentrations of asteroids, and sow the bots there. If we recover even, say, ten asteroids worth a few hundred million apiece, that’ll more than repay our investment.”

  Frank nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense, sir. OK, you’ll have me train our spacers in the frigates’ weapons and systems, patrol Mycenae from time to time, ferry asteroids and gold around, and maybe deploy a few bots here and there. That’s still a lot of routine, mundane stuff. When do I get to do more exciting things?”

  Cochrane smiled. “In less than two years, our frigate prototype will be ready for testing. You’ll already have more experience with her systems than anyone else in our fleet. Who better to command her, and wring her out thoroughly? The lessons you learn will lead to improvements in their final design. They’ll be built into the rest of the ships on the production line, while yours will be modified to include them. A couple of years after that, when enough frigates are in service, I’ll promote you to Captain, to command our first frigate division.”

  Frank’s eyes shone. “Now you’re talking, sir!”

  “I think you’re the right man for the job. Prove it to me. The Good Book says, he who is faithful in smaller tasks will be trusted with greater. You’ve been faithful in all I’ve asked you to do so far; so, every year or two, I’ll be giving you bigger jobs with greater responsibility.” He hesitated for a moment. “I think we’re going to have more trouble with those Albanians. If they keep coming at us, we’re going to have to do something about them; and the best form of defense is attack. I want us to be able to take the fight to them, rather than wait for them to attack us. That’ll be a big part of the doctrine and tactics you’ll help to develop for our frigates. The corvettes are patrol and defensive ships. The frigates will pack our big punch. If we have to deliver it, and if you’ve proved yourself, you’ll command it. After all, you have a personal stake in the outcome.”

  “I sure do! Thanks for trusting me, sir. I’ll be ready when the time comes, and I’ll make damned sure our ships are, too. Oh – that armed fast freighter. What’s her name, sir?”

  Cochrane explained about the new policy of naming freighters for whale species from Earth. “Since yours will be our only armed freighter, at least for now, her name was a no-brainer. I’ve christened her Orca.”

  “The killer whale? I like it!”

  “I thought you would. Now, let’s get down to brass tacks. I’m transferring you and your crew to Minke, our other fast freighter. As soon as you’ve offloaded her cargo, send your old command under a passage crew back to the bro
ker from whom we leased her. Take Minke as well, to bring back the passage crew. That’ll be a good shakedown cruise for her. After that, you’ll do a resupply run to Mycenae, then take another shipment of asteroids to Barjah, then head to Goheung to take delivery of Orca.”

  “Can I take my crew across to Orca with me, sir?”

  “I’ll try to let you do that, but I have to have a crew for Minke, too, so some of them may have to stay aboard her, at least temporarily. We’re hiring more spacers as fast as we can find trustworthy candidates and put them through screening. I’ll do my best for you.”

  To Cochrane’s surprise and pleasure, he received a call the following week announcing the arrival at Constanta’s system boundary of a communications frigate from Qianjin. Captain Lu was aboard. He hastened to clear his desk of the rest of the day’s tasks, to free up time to spend with her once she arrived, then headed to the space station to be there when she arrived.

  She wore her full uniform to meet him in the docking bay foyer, looking very smart but depressingly official. He felt a surge of attraction and desire as she halted a meter away, holding herself stiffly upright. “It’s good to see you again, Captain,” she said formally.

  “It’s very good to see you again,” he said warmly. Her lower lip trembled suspiciously before she caught herself. “Do you plan to stay in orbit, or may I escort you planetside? I can offer you a choice of accommodation. Hawkwood has bought a twenty-four-unit apartment block, in the interests of security. It’s well protected. I live there when I’m planetside, as do most of our senior people. It has two very comfortable guest apartments. Alternatively, we’ll gladly put you up at Constanta’s finest hotel, in a private suite.”

  “I’d like some time planetside,” she admitted. “I’ve been hard at work since we last saw each other, so I’ll be glad to relax for a few days. May I use one of your guest apartments?”