“Oh and while we’re talking logistics, the Resolute uses a new type of fuel.”
Rihan rolled her eyes.
“No this is good. Trust me. You should be able to operate for a year before refuelling.”
“It isn’t nuclear is it?” asked Dave.
“No, well not exactly. You don’t need to worry about radiation or any crap like that. You’ll get a brief later today.
Rihan gave an expression which said ‘that sounds good’. Phil smiled.
“There’s a lot more and you’re going to love the cloaking.”
“What active cloaking?” said Dave.
“For a capital ship?” asked Rihan.
“Yep and it can be programmed to come on just prior to exiting warp.”
“Shit hey!” said Dave. His mind was racing with possibilities.
“So we have an ambush capability?” said Rihan.
“Sure do” responded Phil. “Warp in, close, fire and then warp away.
“Brilliant” said Dave.
“Only one thing. It’s not been fully tested. In fact it’s never been actually tested on the Resolute because your ship hasn’t been launched yet.”
“So what have you tested it on?” asked Rihan.
“On the old Illustrious. It was 90% successful. They’ve made improvements and were due to test again next week.”
There was an uneasy feeling amongst them after that disclosure.
“So what, the Resolute hasn’t been launched AT all?” asked Dave.
“No. Your flight tomorrow will be its maiden. Don’t worry Dave I’m confident she’s ready.”
“How can you be confident it’s ready for combat operations when you don’t even know if it will fly?”
“Look we don’t have time for this little debate. We will lose Beta Phi if you don’t make this work. It’s that simple.”
Rihan was looking at Dave. He cut her a glance and saw that she was looking to him. So many lives would be on the line with an unproven ship but how many more lives would be lost on Beta Phi. ‘It’s always the greater good he said to himself.’ “OK we’ll make it work” and he looked to Rihan for her support. She nodded.
“Thank you” said Phil. “This is one difficult mission but I know you can do it.” He stood up. “I have to go. Good luck.”
Chapter 5. Tumos 1400, 12 May
Dave let Emilio organise the disembarkation from the shuttle. They were in the largest underground complex he had ever seen. Emilio took to the task in his usual style, an almost contradictory mix of high physical energy with a laconic tongue.
“Hey Art this is huge” said Dave.
Art was scanning the space. Without stopping his sweep he replied “Sure is. I thought that the Bane Metal complex was big but it’s a pup compared to this. It just barely fitted the Drakush inside it. Hell you could fit it in here ten times over.”
Talk of Bane Metal and the Drakush reminded Dave of their previous encounter with Kyle Bane, the traitor who hid the rogan capital ships at his underground complex on Xizu.
Art turned to Dave. “You know Dave if we ever get that scumbag Bane I’m going to bring him back here just to rub his nose in it.”
Dave laughed “He’s long gone Art. Let it go mate.”
“If you would come this way Captain Warner” said 1st Lt Maria Shriver. “I will be your liaison officer while you are here at Deathly Hollows.” Maria was a slender woman, with an upright posture. Her brown hair was in a French bun. She had a confident yet practical down to earth air about her.
As they walked off the runway to a series of buggies lined up on the apron Dave asked “So how did this place get its nick?”
“Sick joke Sir. The geek who designed the software for the automated manufacturing labs fell to his death in Lab 3 further down.”
“I see. Where are we going exactly?”
“To the briefing Sir.”
“Any chance we could take a look at our ship first?”
She smiled.
“Boys and their toys” added Rihan and Maria laughed.
“Let me check” said Maria. She made a call and hung up just as they got to the buggies. “Yeah we can do that but just for 20 minutes. OK?”
“Terrific. Let’s go” said Dave.
They drove along one of many internal roads, lit by columns of light that disappeared into the darkness way above them. After numerous turns Dave was lost. The 2m high Alpha Numerals emblazoned on the walls meant nothing to him. At T4 they reached a dead end until Maria hit a control on her console and the wall in front of them began sliding to the left revealing a tunnel that was much smaller in diameter than the one they had been on. This tunnel was much darker and the drivers put their headlights on.
After a few minutes Dave could see light emanating ahead. The lead buggy that he was in swung left as soon as they entered a huge cavern. But Dave wasn’t paying attention to what was ahead. His focus was to his right and the huge craft that almost filled the space. It was this giant midnight blue monster.
Rihan switched her gaze from the monster back to Dave. She smiled as she saw the huge grin on his face.
The buggy stopped and Maria got out and talked to the guard. She returned and said they should follow her. She led them to an open heavy lift elevator that seemed to go up forever. All the time Dave was craning his head to watch his new ship. The elevator came to a halt and they followed Maria out onto a gantry near the top of the cavern.
By this time Dave had no idea how high they were but his glance down convinced him it was a long way to fall. ‘Deathly Hollows indeed’ he thought. Soon conversations sparked up along the gantry as members of the party pointed out some feature or another. Dave glanced away from the craft and at his subordinates. A smile came to his face.
Aubrey came over. “She’s so sleek. There is not a jarring angle to her.” There was a big smile on her face. “If you look closely there are these lines all over her outer skin but no obvious hatches. Where’s the hatches?”
“All hatches are flush in line” said Maria. “It’s probably best we head back to the briefing now and you can see the schematics then. They’ll make it all clear.”
There was a lot of chatter still as they filed into the big briefing room fifteen minutes later. Dave had Emilio bring forward all of the crew. There was a big holo display in the centre and a small, slight man walked out to take centre stage for the briefing.
“Welcome to Deathly Hollows everyone. It’s an exciting day for everyone here. You will get your new ship and we will see our creation launch for the first time. My name is Dr Mani Govinda. I am the director here and I’m here to give you a briefing on your new ship. Alas because of the time constraints we’re not going to be able to cover everything in depth.”
He hit a control on his console and the holo display came to life showing the new Resolute. He started to list the specs for the new ship. “Oh enough of that” he said and with a smile added “Perhaps it’s best if I run this presentation.”
The presentation, using the holo display, fist gave them a cut away view of the interior decks and compartments. The ship was shaped like a big cylinder that had been sat on and flattened at the top and bottom, with the top portion overhanging the bottom. About one third of the way from the front was a half circular feature that Dave guessed was the command centre. It sloped down to the front from there.
There were nine decks altogether, connected by four large elevators, the first pair was about one third of the way from the front and the second pair about one third of the way from the back.
The decks were designated A to H. A or command deck was on top. It housed the command centre forward of the elevator in a large circular space. Forward and slightly below it on the forward sloping edge was the cockpit. Behind the elevators were offices, briefing rooms etc.
B, C and D decks were accommodation decks for officers, senior NCOs and other ranks. E deck housed the medbay and other services. F deck was a double height deck and was
the fighter hangar. G deck was a double height deck. It was for the ground force vehicles and shuttle hangar. H deck housed engineering and the droid pods.
As Dave scrutinised the schematics he confirmed that the circular feature at the top was indeed the command centre. The forward edge was sloped down at an angle of around 30 degrees. At the bottom of the craft the forward edge sloped up at around 20 degrees. The two sloping surfaces met at the front like a curved chisel but with a smooth curving surface. The rear end was almost flush vertical.
Every one craned forward. For many of the troops who had not actually seen the craft they were gobsmacked by its size.
“So that’s where the hangars are” said Aubrey out loud. “There are two hangar decks.”
Rihan leaned over to her and said in a much quieter voice “Shuttles and fighters.”
“Aah” said Aubrey.
But what got the most attention was when the Droid banks were shown. There were sixteen pods embedded into the belly of the ship before engineering. The presentation showed how these would jettison and then manoeuvre away from the ship. The words “fully automated” kept appearing throughout the presentation. ‘Whoever put the presentation together’ thought Dave ‘must have worked for one of the gun runners.’ His assessment was confirmed when it ended with a simulated launch of the droids, fighters and warthogs while missiles were released, pulse cannons fired and beam weapons engaged. It ended with the words “Bigger, faster, safer and more powerful.’
Mani checked his console for the time. “Alright then. Any questions?”
Dave was thrown by this. He thought there would be a lot more. He looked around to see a sea of faces looking at him. ‘OK I’ll go first’ he thought. “Dr Govinda what can you tell us about her active cloaking?”
“Ah yes. Good question” he said rather nervously. He steadied himself with a deep breath. “Well it promises to revolutionise current operational doctrine. You will have the ability to warp in undetected, manoeuvre undetected and then when you deem fit open up with whatever weapons system you so desire. Only then will you be detected and most likely remain so. You can then warp away minimising the risk to your ship from return fire.”
“Why will we remain detected?”
“Excellent question. Cloaking works by trapping all electronic emission from the craft and by deflecting or bending all active enemy transmissions such as radar. In effect it blinds your enemy’s sensors bar one. You are still visible. So once detected it’s a safe bet the enemy will train its visual scanning and tracking systems and these will follow you as you move. But also the enemy will be able to train its radar and other active sensors to identify your signature.”
“So won’t this mean that over time the enemy will be able to train its systems and then the cloaking will be useless?”
“Well it would except we’ve done some pretty clever things to mitigate that. Each time you activate the cloaking it will use a random seed to generate the cloaking signature. Each seed used will be stored and never used as part of the mix again. So you’ll never look the same twice, so to speak. It will be nigh impossible for the enemy to crack that.”
“So why can’t we just restart the cloaking and continue the battle.”
“Oh you can but there is a ten minute warm up required and you will be exposed for at least eight minutes, which is usually more than enough for a missile engagement.”
Dave nodded.
Mani had warmed to the occasion. “Even with this limitation, it’s brilliant really. For the first time our Fleet will have an ambush capability that can be deployed both offensively and defensively. The team that developed this is top notch.”
“Yes Doctor but as I understand it the last test was on the old Illustrious and there were still some bugs to iron out.”
Mani stuttered for a second but regained his composure. “Well yes that’s true Captain but the team has worked tirelessly since then and I am reliably informed that all the issues have been addressed.”
“But you haven’t tested these changes?”
“No. That’s correct Captain. That is why I am keen for you and your crew to get on board this magnificent ship, launch her and test it this afternoon.”
“Right.”
“My team will be there with you to confirm everything functions as it should. But look Captain time is of the essence. Perhaps it’s best if we wind this up here and get going.” Mani’s expression was almost pleading with Dave.
Dave really wanted more detail but he realised that he was not going to get it in this forum. He gave Mani a smile. “Excellent. Let’s get going.”
Mani relaxed and smiled. Maria took over and martialled everyone back out to the buggies.
When they arrived back at the cavern with the Resolute before them they found a small army of technicians waiting for them. Maria, to her credit thought Dave, had organised the whole ‘famil’ phase well. The crew were divided into their specialties and handed off to an appropriate specialist who led them on board and to their respective areas within the ship.
Dave, Rihan, Aubrey, Ivan, Chase and Crystal went with the command centre specialist. Val gave them a wave as she headed off with the quartermaster specialist. Her diminutive figure seemingly swallowed up by the bowels of the ship. Mary was already in deep conversation with the medical specialist. Dave saw her nearly run into a wall only saved when her specialist grabbed her. Li Nahn had his pilots in toe. They were all very excited to be getting their hands on the new Lightnings. Dave didn’t recognise the new Marine LCmd that was directed to follow yet another specialist. Introductions would have to wait.
There was a bottleneck at the forward elevators. Both were already in use. Dave could see Gunter with the new Engineering officer in a column to his left - another officer he was yet to meet. ‘It’s going to take time for us all to mesh’ he thought. ‘You can’t expect a well-oiled machine Dave’ he said to himself.
When they entered the command centre and saw the big holo display in the middle Aubrey let out a “Yes!”
Rihan immediately sat down in the captain’s chair. “Nice” she said as it automatically reclined.
Dave just laughed. Rihan looked up at him from her reclined position. “Possibilities captain?”
Aubrey raised her eyebrows with a smile while the rest laughed. Their specialist wasn’t sure what to make of it and so he coughed to get their attention. “Excuse me Sir but we need to get this on the road.”
“Right you are” said Dave and Rihan got out of the chair and was soon standing alongside the others with a suitable serious demeanour.
The specialist, thankfully, knew his stuff and after only half an hour he had them running through the first of five simulations that would consume the next hour. He allowed the staff to ask questions and handled it all with aplomb. The only question that he seemed uncertain about was Aubrey’s concerning the deployment of the droids.
“Actually Maam I have not had time myself to go through the system manual concerning the droids. We actually haven’t got them yet. In fact…”
Dave cut him off. “We’ll be picking up the droids shortly Aubrey. Brennon will explain everything.”
“Really?” said Aubrey. “He is a dark horse then.”
Dave gave a smile and nodded. The specialist seemed relieved even if he didn’t understand what was said.
Maria’s voice echoed over the ships intercom “Five minutes remaining specialists. Let’s wrap it up.”
Crystal got the specialist aside and was asking him some in depth questions about the battle systems. The rest were content for a short rest.
Dave made his way through to the cockpit where James Rao was firing one question after another at the pilot specialist. Dave pulled back, knowing that this last five minutes with the specialist might prove invaluable to his pilot.
“That’s all folks” said Maria over the intercom. “Will crew please move to their quarters, officers on B deck, senior NCOs on C deck and other ranks on D deck.
”
As the pilot specialist passed him Dave slotted next to James. “Are you confident you can fly this beast?”
James looked at his Captain with a steady eye. “Can’t wait Sir” and gave Dave a big grin. Dave slapped him on the back. He piled into the left elevator with everyone and they took it down one level to B deck.
“My god the walls are alive” said Chase as he observed the dynamic mural playing on the wall surfaces. At the moment, it was a calming image of a sub-tropical rain forest. He ran his hand over the wall’s surface, half expecting to feel the softness of the moss on display. But then he pulled it away with a slightly bashful look on his youthful face.
The other elevator just came up and out piled the fighter pilots.
“LCmd Li Nahn I presume” said Dave.
“Yes Sir, please to meet you. Let me introduce you to your top cover.”
“Excuse me Sir but we need to press on” said the officer deck specialist.”
“Right you are” said Dave to the specialist and turning to Li and his pilots said “Looking forward to it later.”
The specialist took them first to the officer’s mess. Dave and the other officer’s from the Hermes were gobsmacked at just how much space they had.
“Sheer bloody luxury” said Mary and everyone laughed.
Val jumped into one of the comfy lounges and with her best toffy accent said “Where’s my martini James?”
“This way if you please” and they all followed the specialist back into the main corridor. “Cabins on the left till halfway down, then they are on the right. Up here on the right we have the theatre, study and sim room. Back on the left we have the gym and pool.
“Bloody hell” said Mary again out loud.
“A pool” said Chase. “I’m never leaving.”
“I will leave you folks to sort out the cabin assignments” said the specialist. “Just enter the name on the door display and your kit will be brought up directly. We are all to be back at our stations in half an hour.”
“Thank you” said Dave. “Let’s have a wander folks.”
They walked down the corridor. The first lot of cabins already had titles on their display for the Captain, XO, Guest 1 and Guest 2. Dave turned to face his followers. “Looks like we have our rooms” he said. He then turned to address everyone there. “As far as I am concerned rank has its privileges when it comes to cabin selection. So it looks like you Art get first pick followed by Sue, Aubrey, Li and this fine fellow here who I have not had the pleasure of meeting.”
Insurrection: Book 3 of Warner's World Page 6
