by Dietmar Wehr
“Okay, Hardens, execute the program.”
“Roger that. I’m executing the program…now!”
Koenig saw the freighter begin to move at the same time he heard Soriya shout, “THE DELAY DIDN’T WORK!”
The freighter began moving first, but Excalibur was able to maneuver faster. Within two seconds, it was once again moving on a parallel course and keeping pace with the freighter.
“Graser One has the target,” said the tactical AI. “Firing now. Target hit.”
“Koenig to Hardens, can you hear me?”
“Affirmative, sir. I’m okay. I’m detaching the device now. I’ll be waiting in the airlock for the shuttle to catch up.”
“Very good. XO? What’s your status?”
“I’m on my way to the freighter now,” said Soriya in a calmer voice. “ETA is just under five minutes.”
Koenig canceled Battle Stations and told the astro AI to bring the ship back to where the wing ships were in orbit.
With the technician and the device picked up, Soriya requested and received permission to install the device on one of the wing ships. That operation took over an hour. The second device was still being put together and wasn’t ready yet.
Soriya was watching Mardens install the first device from the cockpit of the shuttle a few meters away when she looked around and noticed something unusual. She activated the shuttle’s external cameras and pointed them in the right direction.
“XO to Excalibur Actual.” Wolfe took his time answering. Soriya wondered if he had fallen asleep on the Bridge again.
“Go ahead, XO.”
“I’m seeing something here that you should see too. I’m relaying the view from the shuttle’s external camera. Do you see that gravity cannon?”
Koenig looked at the image on the main display. The gravity cannon looked like it was partially detached from the wing ship’s hull.
“I see it. If it’s partially lose, maybe we can get it completely free.”
“That’s what I was wondering too. It’s small enough that we could store it in the shuttle hangar. That way, if something happens to the wing ships along the way, we still have the weapon technology.”
“Okay, when Hardens is finished installing the device, have him take a quick look at the semi-loose cannon so that we have some idea of how it’s attached.”
Hardens’ verbal report upon returning to the ship was that the cannon seemed to be attached to the hull magnetically. He speculated that it might be possible to pry the rest of the weapon’s base free from the hull. No sign was seen of any kind of physical link such as cables or wiring. When Koenig’s duty shift on the Bridge was over, he found Soriya in the mess hall grabbing a bite to eat and a coffee.
“I’ve decided to try prying off that cannon before we jump,” said Koenig. “If it’s that loose already, accelerating to jump velocity might just cause it to fall off completely. If it’s going to come loose anyway, we may as well take it off and keep it.”
Soriya swallowed her mouthful of food and nodded. “Makes sense; however, actually accomplishing it might not be that easy. I doubt if muscle power is going to be enough to overcome whatever magnetic force is keeping one end attached, and the ship doesn’t have a lot of miscellaneous equipment lying around in the cargo hold just in case we need it.”
Koenig laughed. “How careless of the Logistics Division to neglect to provide us with the right equipment in case we came across some alien weapon technology.” When they both had finished laughing, he said, “I seem to recall that we do have some heavy-duty cable in storage, right?”
“I think you’re right, sir. Are you thinking of having the ship pull the cannon loose?”
“As a last resort maybe, but I was actually thinking of using the shuttle to pull it free. It has rings on the hull intended for pulling things. How soon can you get the shuttle ready?”
“Can I at least finish my sandwich and coffee first?” asked Soriya with a smile.
“Sure,” said Koenig in mock exaggeration. “Take as much time as you need…but hurry up.”
The shuttle attempt did prove successful, so much so that another cannon was pulled free after the first one was towed into the hangar bay and it was discovered that there was enough room for a second one. With both cannon secured and both wing ships modified, Koenig gave the order for all three ships to line up for the jump to G6. Excalibur attempted to match trajectories with the wing ships as precisely as possible while they accelerated. The jump itself lasted 4.1 days.
Koenig and Soriya were on the Bridge when the remaining jump time counted down to zero. Koenig was surprised at how relieved he felt when the external opticals showed a blue sun appearing more or less in front of the ship. They were off center again but not by a huge margin. The first order of business was to find the wing ships, which had been instructed to transmit continuous beacon signals to help Excalibur find them. Since all three ships arrived within a fraction of a second of each other, the fact that the com AI wasn’t detecting any beacon signals meant that the other two ships were far enough away that their signals hadn’t reached Excalibur yet. It was one more reminder to Koenig about how tiny humans were in relation to any star and in particular to blue and red giants and super-giants.
Just when he was beginning to wonder if the wing ships had maybe missed G6 altogether, their beacon signals were detected. Excalibur followed the signals until both wing ships were found. Koenig was impressed by the fact that the two ships had arrived only a few thousand kilometers apart and by the fact that they were pointed almost exactly at the sun’s center.
“That has to be because they’ve mapped this star before. I can’t believe that their jump drive technology is that much better than ours,” said Koenig.
“Let’s hope we can piggyback their accuracy all the way to G21,” said Soriya.
It took almost a full day just to get around the G6 sun to a point where they could see and line up on G7. AstroComp still calculated a miss probability for Excalibur by itself of 4.45% with reduction of 0.2 to 0.35% as a result of matching trajectories with the wing ships. After a jump with a miss probability of less than 4%, this next jump made Koenig even more nervous, in spite of the fact that the technicians had figured out how to instruct the wing ship auto-pilots to accelerate more slowly, thereby giving Excalibur more time to match trajectories.
The pre-jump line up took almost four hours. Excalibur was flying in formation with the two wing ships with an accuracy measured in millionths of a centimeter per minute. AstroComp said that was good enough, and Koenig gave the green light for all three ships to jump when they reached minimum velocity. This jump was 34 hours longer than the previous one.
Somehow, Koenig was less nervous when the countdown clock approached zero than he had been for the jump to G6. The G7 sun appeared right on schedule. Excalibur was further off center than with G6 but not by enough to worry Koenig, and this time the two wing ships were also further off center than before but also not by a lot. As a result of the additional data from two attempts to match trajectories with the wing ships, AstroComp revised the miss probability for G8 down from 4.9% to 4.3%.
Shortly after the G8 star became visible, as the tiny fleet made its way around the G7 sun, the astro AI reported a surprise development.
“The G8 star is far smaller than it should be.”
“How can that be?” asked Koenig. “You must be looking at the wrong star.”
“Negative. The star is exactly where it’s supposed to be, but it’s no longer a blue giant. Spectral analysis suggests that it exploded, and what we’re seeing now is the core left over from the nova. The light from the explosion has already passed this system but hasn’t yet reached G6.”
Koenig looked at Soriya and saw fear in her face. He suddenly understood why and a shiver of fear went down his spine. “Does that mean that the blast wave is still on its way here?”
“Affirmative, but it won’t hit this system for decades. The blast wave is trave
lling far slower than the light from the explosion. The problem with the blast wave is that it will affect neighboring stars in terms of their velocity and direction of movement, plus there’s the gravity wave generated by the impact on the space-time continuum from the collapse of the G8 core. That wave will be like throwing a rock into a pond. The expanding ripple of waves will go out in all directions. We’ll have to make a detour around G8. AstroComp is already checking for a path that will get us close enough to G9 for a direct jump.”
By the time the AI was finished explaining what happened, AstroComp had finished looking for a detour path. The AI projected the path on the main screen, and Koenig heard a moan. He looked at Soriya. Her expression was one of utter despair, and for good reason. The detour involved 22 jumps that would take almost a month. If they tried to go that route, they would never be able to get reinforcements to MR66 in time.
“That’s the shortest route to G9?” asked Koenig in a stressed voice that he barely recognized.
“Affirmative,” said the AI.
Koenig couldn’t think of anything except how this new path related to the milk run path. “Zoom out until I can see the milk run path and the Fleet’s expected position.” He was surprised to see how far apart the two paths were now. Both the gauntlet and milk run had been moving in divergent ways. Koenig felt Soriya touch his shoulder, and when he looked at her, her expression was now almost hopeful.
“I have an idea,” she said. “Astro, have AstroComp generate a new path that leads from G7 to human space using giant and super-giant stars.”
“Done and on the main display,” said the AI.
Both Koenig and Soriya gasped at the result. The new long jump path was completely different from the gauntlet. There would be 16 more jumps versus the 13 that would have remained if G8 hadn’t exploded, and the first three would actually take them further away in order to reach a new set of giant stars that would eventually arrive in human space 144 light years away from G21.
“Total time to reach human space compared to the pre-nova gauntlet?” asked Koenig.
“115 days minimum versus 99.”
“And compared to the detour around G8 with the rest of the gauntlet?”
“147 days minimum.”
That brought Koenig to the big questions. “Can a reinforcement fleet get to MR66 in time to meet 7th Fleet if we take this new long jump route?”
“The answer depends on how long it will take to organize the reinforcement fleet and where it starts from, but there is a small window of opportunity whereby the reinforcement fleet could arrive at MR66 within a week of 7th Fleet’s ETA.”
“They might be willing to wait a week,” offered Soriya.
Koenig nodded. “And that ETA was based on some optimistic assumptions. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Fleet takes longer to get there. XO, you look after programming the wing ships for the next jump to the new G8, and I’ll tell the crew.”
The new G8, or G2-8 as the astro AI chose to designate it, turned out to have its own surprise for the Excalibur crew. The ship dropped out of hyperspace right on schedule, and within less than a minute it picked up the beacons of the two wing ships. However, contrary to their programmed instructions, both wing ships were veering away and accelerating rapidly. They did not respond to signals sent by Excalibur, which was attempting to keep pace. Koenig was worried that if the ships’ auto-pilot was no longer paying attention to their instructions, it might also consider Excalibur a hostile ship if it got too close.
After chasing the two ships for over 15 minutes, two things became clear almost at the same time. Both wing ships were lining up for a jump to F1, and the com AI was reporting that F1 was broadcasting EM transmission across a whole range of frequencies. Koenig had a suspicion as to why that was, and the astro AI confirmed it. The transmissions, which were only arriving in this star system now, had been sent almost 30 years ago, before the plague had decimated the Arenian home world. The tactical AI speculated that the transmissions included instructions for Arenian warships in other parts of that system to return to the home world, and the two wing ships were simply obeying those instructions. Koenig and Soriya watched helplessly as they jumped away.
When Koenig got over his shock at losing those two ships, he quickly focused his attention on how this development would impact Excalibur’s movement along the G2 path. To his surprise, the miss probabilities of the next 9 jumps were less than 4% each. The astro AI explained why.
“The new path was selected while the ship was still in G7 of the old path. Because of the geometry of the new path with the retrograde curve and the wide detour of the old G8 system, AstroComp was able to get good data on all except the last six giant stars. As we move along the new path, AstroComp will be able to get more data on those last six stars as well. Data from the previous jumps in company with the wing ships has enabled AstroComp also to refine the calibration of Excalibur’s optical system to reduce the ship’s OAE by a further three decimal places. Because the next three jumps all have miss probabilities of less than 3%, the ship could enter jump at a 24.5% higher velocity and still keep the miss probability below 4%. That would decrease the time in hyperspace by a proportionate amount.”
“And increase the window of opportunity to rendezvous with 7th Fleet,” said Soriya.
“Damn right,” said Koenig. “Let’s get started on the next jump at the higher velocity. We’re going to make that rendezvous at MR66.”
Chapter Ten:
The long trek back to human space was finally over. Excalibur emerged from hyperspace into a star system, officially designated as Delta Tango13 and unofficially as Stone Alley, that contained an orbiting space station as a forward outpost of the TOSF. The station orbited a life-bearing world that was only marginally tolerable by humans and therefore did not have a permanent colony. But it did have a scientific station on the surface.
Koenig was on the Bridge, as was Soriya. The BDO was Senior Lieutenant Chen. The planet and its orbiting station were three quarters of the way around the sun. It would take almost an hour for a message to get there, but that was still quicker than waiting until the ship dropped into orbit. The TOSF had to get started on organizing a reinforcement task force as quickly as possible.
Before Koenig had a chance to tell the com AI to record a message, the AI spoke first. “The Hoffstetter Station is not transmitting its usual space traffic signals or any other EM transmission.”
Koenig and Soriya exchanged puzzled looks. “Any chance that the station is behind the planet?” asked Koenig.
“Possible but unlikely. Outposts usually have two or more relay satellites that ensure station signals are continuous in all directions at all times.”
“Send our standard IFF recognition code on a tight beam. Tactical, the ship will go to stealth mode.” Both AIs acknowledged their orders. “Sneaking in like this is unusual, but I’m not taking any chances,” he said to Soriya.
“Is it possible that the Jabs defeated us?” she asked.
Koenig shook his head slowly. “I can’t imagine that the Jabs would bother to come all the way over to the other side of human space just to knock out this station. Maybe the station was abandoned if the war prevented the TOSF from continuing to supply it, but I think it’s far more likely that the Tong have taken advantage of the shift in strategic assets away from their border to launch raids. They have to know where these kinds of outposts are by now, and knocking them off in a hit and run raid would minimize their own losses and would be exactly the kind of thing they’d think would intimidate the hell out of our High Command.”
“What will you do if that station is gone?” she asked.
Koenig pondered his options. If the Tong really had made a raid, then TOSF bases further in should be safe. They might also have the technical resources to attempt installing the two gravity cannons on Excalibur’s hull. The downside to that option was that going deeper into human space also meant it would take longer for the reinforcement task force to reac
h MR66 because it would have a longer distance to travel. The other option was to go to the outpost that was closest to MR66 and hope that it wasn’t also destroyed. If it was, then even more time would be lost. If Excalibur had been able to continue along the original gauntlet path, they would be at that other outpost by now, but there was no sense in agonizing over ‘what ifs’ when that path was no longer viable.
“I’ll wait until we know for sure what’s going on at the station, and then I’ll decide. How long until we’re in radar range of the station, Astro?”
“Five point six hours at max acceleration,”
“Then let’s do that. I’m due to relieve Lieutenant Chen in 90 minutes or so. That gives me just enough time to grab a bite to eat...and a game of chess if you’re up for it?” asked Koenig.
Soriya laughed. She and Koenig had played hundreds of chess games since missing Alpha9, and she had won almost all of them. Most people in Koenig’s position would have looked for other, less skillful players, but not him. He was willing to be beaten over and over again, and it didn’t seem to bother his ego as far as she could tell.
