by R J Murray
Hobbs popped out of the lift and hurried to his chair.
“Situation?”
Steve went over the details as they knew them.
“Alright. Go to red alert, weapons hot. Report contact to Acadia. Move in on oblique course and let’s get scans going. Launch two probes, alpha type and a delta. Lay in an escape jump to five million kilometers.”
The ship accelerated, coming in across a sweeping curved path to get behind the object while probes were launched at one million kilometers.
“Stony asteroid one hundred and forty kilometers by ninety eight kilometers. Metallic structures underground and on surface. Radiation detected. Probable nukes. Under power, FTL equipped but not operating. Not even on standby.” Chang reported.
“Two hundred thousand kilometers and closing. It’s not doing anything but scanning ahead. No sign of any activity. One fifty thousand kilometers. Nukes located underground, none on surface.”
“Any signs of targeting?” Hobbs asked.
“Negative. No scans directed toward us at all. Delta probe shows no life sign, no nanobots. I’m having the probe emit a strong signal into the asteroid. No sign of any reaction. Probe entering base. Nothing Sir.”
“Continue closing. Call the Oristal and request they meet us here. We will follow but not engage more than we have until they arrive. Get the probe as deep into the base as you can without losing it. Get an emitter in there too.”
~~~~~~
John Smith wasn’t happy. His ship Oristal was not making the rendezvous with the Dalt Nevasht any time soon. He had been chased down and attacked by three Catroph ships.
“Keep firing. Prepare for micro jump to point Charlie seven and launch nukes. Broadcast on all channels so the others know what’s here. Jump now!”
The ship jumped, fired and jumped again. The nukes pounded into the aft section of the Catroph ship and the engines went up. For a few moments a star was born, the white light of an FTL going critical expanded until it encompassed an area of over twenty thousand kilometers.
A yell sounded through the bridge and the ship as the glow faded.
“Next! Micro jump to point alpha three zed relative and fire all tubes at the second ship.”
“Standby! Tubes loaded and ready.”
“Jump.” John ordered.
They appeared in front of the third Catroph ship, only a thousand meters away.
“Jump out! Emergency jump!” John yelled as the two ships collided at over ten thousand KPH relative. A second star bloomed as both ships went up.
~~~~~~
“You hear that? What happened?” Phyllis asked.
“Collision alarm. They must have gotten too close. Maybe a Catroph latched on to them.” Steve answered.
“Launch! Two nukes on plot.”
Two red points appeared less than five seconds away.
“Guns! Emergency jump!” Hobbs yelled.
The rail guns fired and the closest dot vanished. They were still firing at the second dot when the ship jumped.
“Detonate!” Hobbs yelled.
The delta probe stopped and the forty-megaton warhead it carried detonated inside the base. The base shuddered, lost power and began drifting as secondary explosions continued to rock the base.
“Head for the last known position of the Oristal. Maintain red alert and load all tubes.”
~~~~~~
“Yes Sir, we are on site and there’s nothing here but shreds of metal. It looks like two Catroph and the Oristal. FTL overload took out all three.” Hobbs reported.
“The Dorn is headed to your position. Hold there and keep your eyes peeled.”
“One ship. A big ship but just one. How long until they arrive?” Chang asked.
“A week I would say. These new ships are fast but it is still a week for us.” Steve answered.
“They will get here as fast as possible. We need to stay alert and maintain an even calm.” Keep scanning for ships. We know there was at least one more here.”
“Contact. Three FTL signatures. Four! Catroph engines. On plotter. Seventy thousand and closing.”
Four red dots appeared moving toward their position and spreading out.
“Alright. Fall back full thrust. Reverse our inbound course and make a micro jump ready.”
“Can’t we just run Sir? There’s four of them.” Steve asked.
“I’m considering that as a viable option. They will follow and if we miss the Dorn then sooner or later we will need to fight anyway. Unless you want to lead them to Acadia.”
“No Sir. We fight or run but not toward home.” Steve said.
“Then get ready for some blood and guts.” Hobbs answered. “Distance?”
“Holding at seventy thousand kilometers. They have spread out across almost a hundred kilometers. FTL signature. More Catroph closing to the right. Three ships on plot.”
More dots appeared.
“Maybe running isn’t such a bad idea. Seven seems a little uneven.” Hobbs said. “Launch a goblin at the first batch, then three zeeks. Aim the zeeks at the center ship on the right. Let’s make them nervous. Follow close on the zeeks with a small nuke, same ship.”
“Nervous. That would sure make me nervous. Goblin away. Globes dropping. Zeeks away. Nuke away.”
More dots on the plotter, yellow and green alternating showing friendly weapons.
“Angle away from them, all seven and drop course by seven points. Hold that for a full minute then change to a ninety-degree turn to starboard at full thrust. After we turn, send off another goblin and three nukes at the last ship on the left in the group of three. Follow up with four zeeks at the center ship on the left. Reload all tubes after firing.”
“Impact? We hit them with the zeeks, all three hit! Wow. How did they not know?” Chang asked. “Nuke impact on the same ship! She’s drifting!”
“They use radio still. Even if the last group we fought had sent a message, it would take three centuries to get here. They are ignorant of our tactics and weapons.” Hobbs answered.
“They are learning fast. They’re targeting the goblins. Taking out one after the other of the globes.”
“Launch another goblin and all nukes at the last ship on the right. Same group.” Hobbs said.
“Dalt Nevasht, you copy?”
“We copy. Under attack seven Catroph ships, one damaged and drifting.”
“On our way. We see you on plotter. Hold course and speed.”
“How can they see us?” Chang asked. A dot appeared on the plotter seventy thousand kilometers behind them, between the Catroph ships. Two of the Catroph suddenly blew apart and the dot vanished. It reappeared behind the group of three as the nukes from the Dalt struck. All three ships went up and the dot vanished again.
“Nice shooting Dalt. They never knew what hit them.” Came over the com.
The dot appeared in front of the Dalt slightly to one side. “On screen.” Hobbs said.
The Dorn filled the screen as it fired past the Dalt at the last ship, beam weapons, missiles and rail guns. The Catroph all died, the shattered hulls drifting aimlessly.
“Did you need anything else while we are here, Captain?” Eric’s voice came over the com.
“I think that will do it. We do appreciate the assist.”
“You took out two of them alone Hobbs. Not bad. Why didn’t you run? Seven was a bit unfair.” Eric asked.
“We thought about it, but we were having too much fun. You know how it is. In all seriousness, they were waiting for us. They took out the Oristal and waited for someone to come looking. I couldn’t let them find out where Acadia is and if we ran, well they would attack us wherever we dropped out of FTL. Besides that, we would have missed seeing you and your new ship in action.”
“Massive firepower is a nice thing to have. I knew I gave the right crew that ship. Let’s get back to Acadia. The planet can wait. This place is way too hot to stay. We get back, we have a few upgrades to your weapons.”
~~~~~~
>
“What we have to add is less. Fewer weapons, but more effective weapons, got it?”
Crew chief Andrea Macintyre was enthusiastic if nothing else. She fairly danced at the thought of upgrading weapons.
“We have standard forty millimeter rail guns, twin mount on turrets all over your ship. Six equatorial, six Tropic of Cancer, six Tropic of Capricorn and another four at sixty degrees north and south. Lot of fire power, but you need a lot of computing power and energy to track and fire all those, plus the ammunition is not like tiny, Okay, it is a huge factor and a lot of mass. All those controls and circuits and ammo weigh you down and make the ship less effective.
“First, we reduce your guns by half, one per turret. But we exchange those single barrel weapons with these.”
She took the tarp off, with an assist from another dozen of her crew, to unveil a monster. Six barrels with sixty millimeter bores.
“These barrels spin and in the process, pick up one of these each time a barrel passes this point and this point.” She stuck her hand inside the breech on either side and indicated the point. “This is a sixty mm round divided into seven separate projectiles. This means that the weapon fires twice each time a barrel rotates once, at twelve o’clock and six.”
“After this leaves the barrels, it separates into this. Three kilograms each at one gravity.” She broke the round open and handed the individual darts to the crew.
“Heavy. Speed at the muzzle?” Hobbs asked.
“Your ship velocity plus or minus. The round travels at almost forty thousand KPH in space, somewhat slower in an atmosphere. The barrels are vented to allow atmosphere to escape. Ten thousand rounds a minute out the muzzle gives you seventy thousand darts going at your target. Every third shot is a solid round so you are going to get an extra punch when that one hits a ship’s hull. Twenty two kilograms each.” She picked up a solid shot and handed it to Hobbs. He was impressed.
“It should go clear through to the crews quarters on a Catroph vessel. The smaller ones will punch through the hull if you are not in full flight away from them. OF course, if they are chasing you then it won’t matter. You will breech their hull in hundreds of places every minute you are on target.”
Eric stepped up and added. “You saw how fast we took out those ships? Ten seconds of fire from our rail guns. We have these and at close range, up to fifty kilometers, these go all the way through a ship. The concentration of firepower just shreds the hulls. Further away, they spread out and you lose some mass at point of impact, but these things do not slow down in space. Fifty meters or fifty thousand kilometers, if you aim right, these will kill your target. Those ships will bleed to death as they vent atmosphere.”
Chief Macintyre stepped up again. “We are also adding the new missiles. They have a smaller engine, a modified Holliman drive that is faster than the ones we use now and the big ones have FTL capability which means even in FTL you can shoot. We need to work on your targeting system for FTL and the new rail guns, but it won’t take long. Mostly we have the units built in stock and we just change out old for new. We need to check systems and do fine tuning but that only adds a few days. Total time for all is twenty days.”
“What about the new beam weapons we saw you use?” Hobbs asked.
“Power requirements mean we can’t mount them on any ship smaller than the Dorn. Just too much. We have the entire equator deck just for powering weapons. Planetary systems we are adding, here and on the other bases as well as the moon.” Eric answered.
“One last item and we are done. Your shields are now capable of deflecting enemy fire. Even nukes can be blocked for the most part, twenty megatons at least. Bigger and you will take damage. For this reason all ships not equipped with these shields and weapons are to be pulled from active service and possibly scrapped at our repair yard in the Latonia system. This means fewer ships until we can get or build more replacements. We curtail travel except for shipping to Earth and a few scouting missions. No ship travels alone. If we had done this sooner, the Oristal and her crew would still be alive. That decision was mine and the fault is mine. Never again.” Eric finished.
~~~~~~
“We have reports of a disturbing nature from our man on Acadia. Several new ships have joined the fleet and they appear to be of a size that dwarfs our ships.” Hazer said. “Five kilometers in diameter and there are three of them. He was unable to find out any other data on the ships. It seems that they are a secret from the populace and the administrator.”
“That size is ridiculous. We could build a ship that size, but the engines would be so large it wouldn’t hold the crew. Maneuvering would be at a snail’s pace and it would be an enormous target. A space station on the other hand would make more sense. Minimal maneuvering but large concentrations of weapons, heavier armor, yes. A space station I could see.” Cornelia, the director of the shipyards was adamant.
“These were reported as ships, not stations. It is possible that they have located more alien technology.” Hazer repeated.
“Ridiculous. Alien technology is still technology and must adhere to the laws of science. Are they coming and going or did they appear once and left, never to be seen again?”
“He reports he saw them once. That does not mean he will see them if they return. They could go into a polar orbit or stay far enough out to be hard to spot from the surface. Our man does not have access to any off planet facilities.” Hazer said.
“Why not?” Bofur asked.
“It is restricted to fleet personnel only. No one leaves the planet surface without reason. The fleet officers come to the surface for meetings if needed and all other communication is done over the com, just as we do. There is little he can do to investigate due to these restrictions.” Hazer answered.
“We will continue as planned. Three space stations will be taken out or taken over after we hold the planet. We have over fifty starships to their seven; they will be no match for us. A hundred thousand troops on the surface will take out any of their ground forces. We continue as planned.” The chair tapped his podium with the gavel and the meeting ended.
Hazer shut off his com and leaned back in the soft chair. He had a bad feeling about this. He looked at the report with the technical specifications of the new ships he had written for the chairman and paused. He rested his finger on the send button before moving to another and deleting the report. As the chairman said, the matter was closed, one way or another.
~~~~~~
“Why so many ships all of a sudden?” Lee asked. They were on a conference call, Horace, Eric, Juan and Amos. Hobbs was with Eric on the Dorn and Reed was on a training mission. Freighter captains were rarely involved with these meetings since they were usually on their way to or from Earth. “Juan, is your aide around?”
“No. I sent him on an errand and left the office myself. I am on my com at home with scrambler. I swept it for bugs earlier. I trust no one other than you all and sometimes not so much.”
“Nice. Fleet we trust and constabulary. Keep it that way. Ship numbers are scary. If we didn’t have these new ships and the guns Martha and the weapons shop are building, we would have lost two crews. At least nine Catroph ships and a base were involved. Definitely a buildup going on in near space. I think they know we are around and I think that worries me a great deal.” Lee summed up.
“How do we deal with it?” Eric asked. “I have restricted flights so we don’t lose any more crews but we can’t hide here and hope they go away.”
“First, we need data. We have probes and unmanned equipment. Set them up in a few systems and see what they find. Listening posts further out around our system, a lot of them. We should set them out a light year or more if you want my opinion. Cover space around us with equipment to just sit and wait for a ship to pass, then send us the data.” Lee suggested.
“Build big goblins FTL capable to release probes perhaps. Call them something else if you want. In the meantime, I take a few ships and patrol, leaving a few spy machi
nes behind in every system we enter.” Eric suggested.
“Sounds good. It may take some time to build a big goblin like you suggest. The shipyards are busy converting or upgrading every ship we have.” Horace added. “One of the big ships needs to remain in system at all times. If we team up, a five km ship with a three km ship, that gives us three teams right now. We have a total of ten FB’s orbiting in different places in this system and fifteen out there mining asteroids in other systems. That is a lot of firepower. Two of the ship teams go out at a time and we start planting probe and satellites around the systems near us and between systems to pickup any FTL travel. How many probes do we have that can pick up FTL passage?”
“None. Our new ships can but the probes can only detect FTL signatures when they drop back into normal space.” Eric answered.
“I wish to ask a question.” A voice said.
“Asi? Or Betty? You sound a little different.” Eric asked.
“We are one therefore we are attempting to find one voice to suit. It is difficult. We do not ask questions. We answer them. However, it is in our experience that humans or Otstrand do not ask the correct questions at the needed moment. Is it permitted for us to make suggestions or ask questions, from time to time?”
“Sure.” Eric said. He glanced at the others in the com. “You hear this? Any problems with them asking us stuff?”
No’s came back from all.
“Go ahead and ask or suggest.” Eric said.
“Our base in the Latonia system can build probes such as you require within a very short time frame, hundreds in a week. Why do you not ask them to begin this project. They have sat for a thousand years waiting for work. Give it to them and ask them to suggest other methods and technologies. I can do this for you quite efficiently and with greater speed than a human. Do you wish me to proceed?”
“Sure. Sounds great to me.” Eric said, mentally kicking himself. He kept forgetting these important things like the base.
“They agree and have downloaded a map of this arm of the galaxy. It contains suggested locations for the automated listening posts and autonomous probes. May I display it now?”
