Dreadnought s-4

by Thorarinn Gunnarsson

  Valthyrra had to fuss over her ailing star drives every step of the way, but she managed to bring herself home on her earliest projected schedule of nine days and was still able to avoid damaging herself in the process. When she finally dropped out of starflight well inside the Alkayja system, she was not the only one to feel extremely relieved to have actually made it. She transferred full power to her two remaining forward drives, struggling to cut her tremendous speed with only half the thrust that should have been available to her.

  She had, of course, sent her full report on ahead to Alkayja by a tight-beam achronic message as soon as she had escaped from the Dreadnought, a week and a half earlier. Nothing that she had to say would come as a surprise, but Fleet Commander Asandi and his associates were still awaiting direct reports and observations, not only from her but Commander Gelrayen and Captain Tarrel as well. In fact, Asandi was in communication with the Methryn as soon as he was told that she was in system.

  “Commander Gelrayen, your ship seems to have done quite well for herself, ” Asandi began enthusiastically. “We will try to have a construction bay ready for you as soon as you can get here. I’m afraid that we are still working on getting all the replacement parts she needs, however.”

  “Thank you, Commander,” Gelrayen responded, standing over Captain Tarrel’s seat as he used the com on the upper bridge. If Valthyrra Methryn was very much in favor with Commander Asandi himself, that served as a good indicator about her future.

  “It seems a shame to have had our newest carrier damaged on her first flight, but we expected that,” Asandi continued, then paused. “Commander, why are all the members of your crew naked? Not that it really matters to me, of course. That is entirely your own business.”

  “Val, this was supposed to be audio only,” Gelrayen complained softly as he realizing that the ship must be supplying a visual image through her own camera pod. “Well, yes Commander. That was Valthyrra’s suggestion actually. We are keeping portions of the ship warmer than usual, for Captain Tarrel’s comfort.”

  “Very considerate, especially considering that we supplied her with self-warming clothing before the Methym departed,” Asandi observed, seeming to realize that someone had been having a little joke at the expense of the Starwolves, known for their unfortunate tendency to be a little too gullible. “We will be having a quick meeting to discuss your observations as soon as you can secure the Methryn in her bay. I might add that most of us do plan to dress for the occasion. I will see you soon.”

  “Thank you, Commander,” Gelrayen replied, then glared at the camera pod. “Valthyrra Methryn, I was worried enough about our credibility as it was.”

  “Commander, I never honestly expected you to go along with that silly idea in the first place,” Valthyrra told him. “You could have simply said no.”

  Actually, Valthyrra knew perfectly well that it was entirely her own fault. She had never taken advantage of anyone in her life, even as a jest, and she had found it impossible to resist. Digging into her vast archives of information, she had been able to tell Gelrayen that the Kelvessan had not been allowed to wear clothing, except for their armor, for the first five thousand years of their existence, a time when nudity had been a sign of their status as the property of the Republic as an artificial race. They had gotten into the habit of wearing clothes, and then only when it pleased them, simply because they were now allowed to. No member of the Methryn’s crew had thought to ask what relevance that had to the present situation. Being motivated by an instinct to be helpful, they had gone along with the scheme.

  For her own part, Captain Tarrel had done nothing to interfere. She was not entirely certain, but she believed that it had been good for them. Of the few known intelligent races, only humans and Kelvessan were in the habit of wearing clothes. The Kelvessan had no racial identity beyond the rather uncomfortable association of being an artificial race — property and genetic weapons of war but not real people — and they were very good at avoiding the question of what their true identity should be. As long as they could hide their alien and yet vaguely human forms in clothes, then they were able to wrap themselves in the illusion that they were in some obscure manner mostly human. Forcing them to look at themselves, in the collective sense and meaning no vulgar innuendoes that did not apply, also seemed to force them to think about just what it meant to be Kelvessan.

  Captain Tarrel had various reasons to be interested in this experiment, enough so that she had actually spoken privately with Valthyrra Methryn on the matter. Whether they knew it or not, the Kelvessan wanted a racial identity of their own. And if they came to feel secure and satisfied as a race in their own right, they probably would lose interest in maintaining the endless war that they had been bred to fight. Either they would go their own way and leave human space to deal with itself, or they would contrive a quick end to the war on terms they would be prepared to enforce. Whichever way things turned out, Tarrel believed that it would be best for everyone involved.

  Valthyrra had agreed that it did the Kelvessan good to face such questions, but she doubted that they would come to any sudden answers, although she did agree that beginning the process now would help them to work their way slowly toward a solution over the next few generations. As she pointed out, the real problem that the Kelvessan faced was only of physical appearance; the fact that they still looked vaguely human kept them trapped in the illusion that they needed to act human. The Aldessan of Valtrys, who had executed their actual genetic design, had done them no favor in failing to make their appearance alien and unique enough to differentiate them. Valthyrra was even prepared to suggest that they would be well served by some additional genetic modifications that would be passed through their entire race over the next few generations and slowly alter their appearance, perhaps changing the complete shape of their faces and giving them a full coat of fur.

  The Methryn was assigned a construction bay, the very same where she had spent the first six decades of her existence. Once she had dropped her great speed coming down from starflight and had installed herself in orbit, getting herself back inside the bay was simple enough. Such maneuvers were accomplished entirely on field drive, and that was her one function that was not impaired. Valthyrra settled herself into the docking brackets quickly and deftly.

  “Secure the ship, and stand by to switch over to external power as soon as the connections are complete,” Gelrayen ordered, then glanced up at the camera pod with a sour expression.

  “You might also decrease the ship’s temperature to the normal levels and ask the crew to dress for company.”

  “Perhaps they should,” Valthyrra agreed grudgingly. Captain Tarrel accompanied Commander Gelrayen and Valthyrra Methryn into the station only a few minutes later, giving them all just enough time to dress for the occasion. For the sake of convenience, Valthyrra had transferred one aspect of her awareness into a probe, one of the small remotes just like the one that had gone outside the ship with Captain Tarrel in the hopeless attempt to stop Walter Pesca from detonating the missile he had stolen. Valthyrra kept the small machine’s wings fully swept back, making it less cumbersome in the corridors of the station.

  Fleet Commander Asandi was waiting for them outside the meeting room, where the Commanders of the other carriers in system and many other Kelvessan had begun to gather as soon as the Methryn had arrived. “Captain Tarrel, I cannot tell you how sorry I am about your young companion.”

  “It was entirely my own fault,” she insisted. “I should have been more aware of his condition, but my thoughts were on other problems. I knew that he was having trouble, but I never realized how much.”

  “Well, we do appreciate what you have done for us,” Asandi assured her. “Valthyrra, I still feel very bad about asking you to go out and risk such damage on your first flight.”

  “It is my job,” the ship replied simply.

  “I will get you replacement components as soon as they become available,” he promised her. “Commander Gelr
ayen, I hardly recognized you.”

  Kelvessan did not blush, but Gelrayen still managed to look embarrassed. “That was actually Valthyrra’s idea.”

  “And a long story, no doubt. Perhaps it can wait until after this meeting is concluded.”

  They were hurried into the meeting room and took their seats; Valthyrra settled her probe on the arms of her own chair, having observed that the remotes sent by several of the other ships had done the same. Captain Tarrel was led to wonder about this apparent change of policy, since none of the ships had themselves been present at any meetings during her previous visit to Alkayja station. Valthyrra began the discussion with a detailed account of her own experiences with the Dreadnought, concluding with a display of the single image of the machine that she had captured when it had lost its shield.

  “I was given the opportunity to acquire additional information concerning many of those questions about the Dreadnought that we have been trying to answer,” she said. “I still do not believe that it is fully self-aware, or many of its actions would have been more subtle. But just how clever is it? None of its actions during this incident indicated that it is very clever at all. It responds most often in a very simple, automatic manner. But we have in the past seen it function in a more clever, even unpredictable manner. My own conclusion is that it is a machine, but one that we must be careful not to underestimate.

  “How fast is it, and just what type of drive can it be using inside that shield? My captured images show the back end of the Dreadnought, assuming that it even has a back or front in any conventional sense, and we can clearly see that it does not employ main drives or star drives as we know them. But I did observe evidence of unexpected speed. My own guess is that the Dreadnought uses a very refined version of a jump drive, technology that we do possess but never bothered to refine.”

  “But not a very powerful version of a field drive?” one of the Kelvessan engineers asked.

  “Even a field drive has a very strong static power emission, but I did not detect anything. Any final speculation about that drive must wait for one piece of information that my files do not possess. Can Kelvessan sense a jump drive in operation? My crew was able to sense the Dreadnought’s generators while its shield was down, but not a drive.”

  Not even any of the ships knew the answer to that question, but somewhere in that station were the records dating back to the time when the first jump drive had been tested aboard the carrier Valcyr, which had disappeared on her first flight.

  “There is one observation that I certainly would not have expected to have found,” Valthyrra continued. “I believe that the Dreadnought is nearly blind. Now it is only logical to realize that it is receiving no visual information through that light-consuming shield, but I now suspect that its ability to receive common scanner information is very limited. Once it had restored its shield, the Dreadnought pursued me at a following distance of less that a thousand kilometers. I was open to passive scan as well as being very visible against that planet, and yet it seemed unable to see me.”

  “Do you have any theories on that subject?” Asandi asked. “For that matter, I believe that I have proof. Meaning no criticism, I suspect that our scientists here at Alkayja invented an explanation for why it could use its scanners through its own shields, when in fact it cannot,” She began feeding images to the main viewscreen. “Because I did have the Dreadnought targeted clearly against the planet, I was able to get some detailed images of its shield. In these images, you can in fact see several relatively tiny objects protruding through the Dreadnought’s shield. Several are knob-like projections about a meter across coming only just through the shield, which I believe are scanner beam projectors. There are also dozens of whip antennas, coming through the shield to a length of four or five meters, which are probably active and passive scan detectors. When the Dreadnought is under attack or trying to evade detection, it draws these units back until they are obscured from scan by that shield, but this severely limits the effectiveness of these devices.”

  “In that event, if the Dreadnought was attempting to avoid detection by one carrier, a second carrier might be able to slip in close enough to fire cannons through those shields?” Trendaessa Kerridayen observed.

  “Yes, I believe so,” Valthyrra agreed. “And that brings me to one very encouraging observation about the Dreadnought. I suspect that it might not be as tough to crack as we feared. Once a cannon bolt finds a way through that shield, it seems to take damage very easily, if only temporarily. It also seems to get shaken, as if it cannot decide whether to take an offensive or defensive stance. These are things that we can exploit to our advantage.”

  Asandi nodded slowly. “Since you have fought the Dreadnought with reasonable success, what do you recommend?” “Is the Kerridayen fitted with an impulse scanner?” Valthyrra asked.

  “Yes, but the ship is not yet fully repaired.”

  “Then my suggestion is that the Kerridayen and myself coordinate an attack, luring or driving the Dreadnought within range of an ambush. Once it has come within moderately close range, two or three carriers could match frequencies with their main batteries until they pierce that shield, standing by with either missiles or conversion cannons when it fails. Once we know where it is, we should be able to find a place to arrange an ambush easily enough. I will admit that this plan is not perfect, but it is the best that we have at this time.”

  “And you believe that you should be allowed to fight the Dreadnought?” Asandi asked.

  “I believe that I should be allowed to coordinate the attack,” Valthyrra declared frankly. “I have a feel for how the Dreadnought operates and reacts. I think that I have proven that.” “One might also argue that you were lucky,” Asandi remarked. “It was my thought that we should have you repaired but held in reserve, in case our first major attack against the Dreadnought should fail. Captain Tarrel, what has been your impression of Valthyrra’s performance?”

  “Actually, I believe that she has done very well,” Tarrel insisted. “I hesitate to speak plainly in her presence, however.” “I prefer that you should,” Valthyrra told her.

  “Then the bad news first,” she continued. “Valthyrra still seems to be getting used to stressful situations and dealing with events beyond her own control, experiences she could not get sitting inside a construction bay. At the same time, she allows nothing to interfere with duty. When the time comes to act, she never foils to act cleverly and decisively. Although I must admit that my experience with the Starwolf carriers is limited, it did seem to me that she is more inventive and quicker to react than I found the Kerridayen to be. I believe that her desire to lead the fight against the Dreadnought has to be considered for the very reason she gave, although we must still consider all the alternatives.”

  “Some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them, and some are just built that way?” Asandi asked, amused. “Frankly, I do see reason to be impressed with our young ship. But regardless of her qualifications, the Methryn is still wrecked. Half of her main drives are out, her star drive is operating at half of normal efficiency, and a portion of her sensor array and her weapons have been destroyed. Will she be in any condition to fight any time soon? I cannot in all conscience send her into battle crippled.”

  “The star drives can be repaired easily enough,” Gelrayen said. “Those can be fully operational in a few days. She does have four heat-damaged main drives that will need weeks to rebuild, but we could replace those here in station in a matter of hours.”

  Asandi looked uncomfortable about that. “As it happens, we have a full set of eight main drives in surplus here at the station, and the Methryn will get the four she needs. Fortunately, she is the first carrier to come home needing replacement drives.”

  “All other repairs will be simple enough,” Gelrayen continued. “We can go out again in perhaps as little as four or five days.”

  “What do you think about your ship’s ability to fight?”

 
; “I learned very quickly that I can trust her completely. She was making all the decisions and giving the orders during that battle.”

  Asandi nodded slowly. “What about her ability to lead others, and to deal with people? Does she have the experience to deal with others?”

  Captain Tarrel smiled. “You saw the state her crew was in. Valthyrra talked them into that quite cleverly. That was, by the way, a little joke that turned into a philosophical experiment.” “A what?” Gelrayen asked, perplexed. “What does tricking several hundred Kelvessan into running around naked have to do with philosophy?”

  “Well, Valthyrra and I discovered that the most amazing thing happens when you take the clothes off a Starwolf,” Tarrel commented. “He begins to contemplate the meaning of his existence and his place in the universe.”

  “Oh, is that what causes it,” he said, looking greatly surprised. “Well, a Starwolf just has to be careful about the strange thoughts that seize the mind when he is naked.”

  “If you don’t mind…” Commander Asandi suggested, rubbing his face. “Captain, you need to be careful when you play games with my Starwolves.”

  “It was Valthyrra’s idea,” Tarrel insisted.

  “Was not!”

  “If you don’t mind,” Asandi interrupted, then shook his head slowly. “I would like to give Valthyrra what she wants, but I just do not feel that this is the time to stick out our necks and take a risk. I really believe that we should arrange a more conventional attack on the Dreadnought, at least this first time. Commander Daerran, the Kerridayen is in her bay, ready for battle. What do you think?”

  “It seems to me that the question really comes down to deciding between two options,” he answered. “No matter who leads the attack, the first question we have to ask is whether we plan to throw a majority of our resources into this first battle with the Dreadnought in the hope that it will be the last, or do we take only the ships here in station and leave the rest of the carriers running their patrols. ”