by Dietmar Wehr
Strider had doubts about that as a long-term solution. New bases could be established that the anti-raider coalition would have a hard time finding out about. He suspected that capturing or destroying some raider ships would send the message that raiding the Federation was a lot more risky. If the raiders were all privately-funded ventures, then some of those investors would want to cash out, and that should reduce the number of ships still operating. The bases could be used like fly paper if coalition ships waited near a base for a raider ship to show up and then ambush it on its way out again.
The challenge would be if there were other bases beside Olympus. They had learned that raider ships sometimes went on raids in groups of two or even three. If two raider ships returned to a base that was being stalked by coalition forces, then those forces would have to be strong enough to take on two ships and win without suffering a lot of damage. Two Haven heavy cruisers could take on two raider ships like Nemesis but probably not without taking some damage, which meant they wouldn’t be able to keep doing it for very long. Three heavy cruisers would be better, but leaving Haven wide open with only a couple of light cruisers to defend against an attack would not be attractive to Morningside, his admirals or the King. The bottom line was that both Haven and New Caledon needed more ships, and while captured raider ships would help, they weren’t really the complete solution either.
The little fleet’s arrival at New Caledon initially caused some consternation on the ground until Strider’s message explaining everything reached them. All three ships landed at the spaceport. Terrington was thrilled by the news that the AF now had a captured raider ship to play with, and the news about New Atlantis, Olympus and the proposed covert operation there got him even more excited.
Strider got permission to head home as soon as he was able. Samantha’s and Troy’s joy at him being home were so high that he waited until supper to tell them that he wouldn’t be home for long and might be gone for almost six weeks. Their reaction was as bad as he had expected. He knew that Samantha would realize that he really had no choice in being away from home in order to fight the raiders, but Troy didn’t yet really understand how military organization worked and what it expected from its officers. To soften the blow somewhat, Strider had gotten Terrington’s approval to take Troy on a tour of Nemesis before the covert operation began. That news was almost enough to make his son smile again.
The two of them went to the spaceport the next day and spent hours checking out every level and every room. Troy’s eyes opened wide when he saw the pile of precious metals and jewels in the cargo hold that still hadn’t been unloaded by that point. The raiders’ combat armored vehicles also fascinated him. They would boost the AF’s ground force capability considerably. It occurred to Strider that capturing a few more raider ships might actually be a bigger help than he had believed, just from the point of view of acquiring more of the contra-gravity combat vehicles.
On their way back home, Troy seemed to have gotten over his disappointment about his father heading out again soon.
“Dad, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, son.”
“It was nice of the Haven King to give us the captured ship, but why did they let us have all that gold and silver and platinum and stuff?”
“Well, that was the loot that the Nemesis’ crew took on raids, so it sort of belongs with the ship, but Haven’s King made out okay too. When his troops took control of the base, they found large piles of loot that other raiders had traded for stuff they needed. That base loot was taken back to Haven on the freighter, Haven’s Enterprise.”
Troy thought about that for a bit before asking another question. “After you come back from this reconsance mission, what will happen then?”
“You almost got that right. It’s reconnaissance. After we get back, the next step will depend on what we learn from that mission, so right now I can’t answer that question because I don’t really know.”
“And the Valhallans?” Strider was impressed by Troy’s apparent understanding that the situation was now even more complicated by the ambitions of the Valhallan Supreme Leader.
“Well…we gave them a bloody nose, and maybe that’ll be enough for them to focus on someone else instead of us, but in the long run, something’s going to have to be done about their leader and his empire-building ambitions.”
“Like maybe finding more friendly planets like Haven?” asked Troy.
Strider nodded. “That would certainly help.” He decided he wanted to shift the conversation away from grand strategy that could lead to thoughts of space combat and maybe his death to something else. “What part of the ship did you like the best?”
Troy started talking and Strider smiled. They chatted about the ship for the rest of the way home.
The New Caledon government was quite pleased by the ship and its cargo. The Senate even voted to award Strider and the other AF officers an amount of money totalling 5% of the estimated value of the loot and the combat equipment, and 1% of the estimated replacement cost of the ship. Strider’s share almost made him a millionaire. Jaeger, not being an Aerospace Force officer or even a New Caledonian citizen, did not get any reward, which Strider thought was unfair. Jaeger waved his objection off.
“I wasn’t supposed to tell you this, but I will anyway. My King has decided to reward every Haven person who participated in the Tubal raid, including me, based on the value of what was taken from the base itself and the ship too. Because the total is being divvied up among a lot more people, I won’t be anywhere close to being a millionaire, but it’ll make my eventual retirement a lot more comfortable than if I had to rely solely on my Navy pension.”
“Wait, how can he reward anyone for the ship when it was given to my government?”
Jaeger smiled. “Ah, but that’s exactly the point, Richard. The King approved of giving the ship to your planet. That means that it was his to give in the first place, and the reward was based on capturing the ship, not on whether he kept it.”
While the freighter was being loaded with food and other consumables for the recon mission, Terrington called Strider and Jaeger in for a quick chat. By now, both of them were wearing the hastily designed ‘civilian’ merchant uniform that all the officers and crew would wear when the ship reached Olympus.
“Have a seat, both of you,” said Terrington. He waited until they were seated. “I want to get some feedback from both of you before you leave on the mission. Planning for our new ships is proceeding rapidly, and being able to examine Nemesis will help the engineers quite a bit, but there’s something of a dilemma among the designers now. When the Government decided to stop building more ships after Fearless, the R&D funding was boosted instead, and some of that money went to research on radar and anti-radar improvements. That research discovered two interesting facts. First, collapsed-matter armor reflects radar waves far more efficiently than normal steel. Not surprising really, since a collapsed-matter armored ship has the same total mass as a much larger object. Either the raiders didn’t know that their ships are easier to detect by radar or they just don’t care. I suspect it’s the latter.
“The other discovery is that flat metal surfaces that are facing away from a radar source deflect the radar energy away from the source as well, whereas a spherical shape will always have some part of the hull that faces directly back to the radar source. So, an experiment was done with a hull design that had nothing but flat surfaces. Computer simulations show that a ship with that kind of hull would be able to get very close to an enemy ship without being detected by radar. If the enemy ship can’t see a flat-surface ship, then it can’t fire missiles at such a ship either.
“And here’s the dilemma. We know how to apply collapsed matter to a spherical hull, but tests applying CM on flat surfaces attached at angles to each other have resulted in curves on top of the joints where the angled surfaces meet. Those curved joints are small compared to the overall surface area, but they’re large enough to bounce radar wav
es in all directions, including back to the radar source. That would severely degrade the ability of a flat-surfaced hull that’s covered with CM to remain undetected. So, would you rather take a ship into combat with no CM armor but with a flat-surfaced hull, or a spherical hull covered with CM? You first, Richard.”
Strider had to think about that for a moment. “I like the idea of being able to fire missiles at a target and the target not being able to fire back because it can’t see me, but I think the designers are forgetting something, General.”
“Really? What’s that?”
“If my ship is using radar to find the enemy ship, the radar waves themselves will give away my ship’s bearing and possibly even the range. If I don’t use my radar, how will my missiles know where to go?”
“The designers did ask themselves that question. The answer is that a flat-surface hulled ship won’t use radar except in special circumstances. It’ll rely on optical detection of reflected sunlight from the enemy’s hull, plus use the enemy’s radar against them. It’ll be up to the missiles’ terminal guidance radar to pinpoint the target’s exact position. Simulations have shown that under those criteria, missile accuracy will drop about thirteen percent, but if the opposing ship can’t find a target, their accuracy effectively becomes zero, so the relative net impact is still highly favorable.”
Strider’s expression took on a big grin. “Well, in that case, I will definitely prefer an unarmored, flat-surfaced hull, General.”
Terrington nodded and turned to Jaeger. “And you, Karl?”
Jaeger was frowning. “I see the logic of how an unarmored ship would operate, but my gut is telling me that I’ll be safer behind a layer of CM. If an unarmored ship gets hit by a missile, it’ll be completely vaporized. An armored ship can still be damaged by an atomic warhead—I’ll grant you that—but maybe the answer is going the other way, with even thicker CM armor that can shrug off a direct hit.”
Terrington looked thoughtful. “Interesting idea. What’s your reaction to that, Richard?”
“Karl might be on to something there, General, but in order to keep the thicker armor from drastically slowing down acceleration, the ship will need bigger engines and bigger power plants. That either means less missile capacity or a bigger hull, and a bigger hull will result in even more armor. We’d have to have a computer figure out what kind of acceleration penalty would be involved with different sized hulls and different thicknesses of armor. A relatively small acceleration penalty could be tolerated, but I wouldn’t want to have my ship wallow around like a turtle compared to an enemy. Being able to outmaneuver an enemy ship is a huge advantage, and by the way, an unarmored ship should be significantly faster than an armored ship of the same size.
“But there’s another consideration too, Karl. I saw with my own eyes what concussion from a direct hit can do to a ship’s crew, and it’s not pretty. Being able to shrug off the blast effects of a direct hit won’t negate the concussion effects. If we were going to go with a bigger, more heavily armored—and by the way more expensive—ship, I’d want every person on the crew to have a seat or some kind of harness that does a much better job of protecting them from concussion injuries.”
“I agree, Richard,” said Jaeger. “Thicker armor by itself would not be enough.”
Terrington looked pleased. “I had a hunch that talking with two officers who had actual combat experience would provide the kind of feedback that trumps the theoretical, back-of-the-envelope thinking that desk-bound engineers love to do. If we had a big enough ship-building budget, I’d recommend building agile, unarmored, flat-surfaced ships and if the concussion issue can be solved, at least one much bigger, more heavily armored ship with a conventional hull. Unfortunately, right now the budget isn’t big enough. Therefore, my report will recommend that we build as many unarmored, flat-surfaced hulls as we can. The first one will be under construction by the time you get back from the recon mission. Thank you both. I’ll let you be on your way.”
Chapter Twenty-one
The trip to Olympus took almost four weeks. By the time the ship arrived at their destination, Strider was too relieved that the trip was finally over to be nervous about landing there. After the last micro-jump to the edge of the no-jump zone, the ship announced its identity to the Olympus spaceport traffic control, stating that it was an unarmed New Caledonian freighter looking for trading opportunities. The reply took longer than it should have but was friendly enough. Olympus welcomed them and provided landing instructions.
When the ship landed, it was apparent that the local day/night cycle was almost in sync with the ship’s. A ground car arrived to take Strider and Jaeger to the spaceport offices where they had to fill out some forms and get an overview of what life was like on Olympus, including what the locals used for money (gold coins), local customs, etc. Strider made inquiries about who they should see regarding buying and selling merchandise. The spaceport personnel set up meetings for them with local merchants for the next day and arranged for the exchange of gold bars that the ship had brought for gold coins that could be spent at local establishments. It would be normal for the crew to be granted liberty, and they would need local currency to pay for food, drinks, etc. All the crew had been briefed to casually try to elicit information about raiders from anyone they came in contact with.
Strider stayed with the ship that first evening, but Jaeger went out with most of the crew. He came back late and slightly intoxicated but without any useful information. The next day Strider and Jaeger attended three business meetings where they sold most of their cargo and bought the kind of things that someone from another planet might be interested in. It was in the last meeting that events took an unexpected turn.
As Jaeger was talking about the possibility of importing New Caledonian liquor, a well-dressed man entered the conference, and all the local merchants immediately stood up.
The well-dressed man laughed and waved his hand. “Oh, sit back down, please.” He looked at Strider and Jaeger. “I am President Sanderval. When I heard that a ship from New Caledon had arrived on business, I had to come and meet you.”
Strider and Jaeger stood up and introduced themselves, then took turns shaking Sanderval’s outstretched hand.
“How are you finding our business climate here, Captain Strider? Are our merchants treating you fairly?” asked Sanderval as he glanced at the seated merchants.
Strider smiled. “Your merchants are excellent negotiators, Mister President. We don’t mind paying a bit more than we’d like in order to establish trading relationships. We intend to come back here on a regular basis, about twice a year I should think. We’ll have some unique cargo to sell next time.”
“That’s just fine,” said Sanderval. “Is your planet conducting a lot of trade with other planets?”
“Well, we have about six ships like NC Enterprise looking for good trading partners now, and the plan is for the fleet to double in two years and then double again in two more years.”
Sanderval looked impressed. “Well, well. Twenty-four ships in four years time. That would be quite an accomplishment. I don’t know if anyone has told you this yet, but Olympus has a friendly relationship with raiders from New Atlantis. I made the decision that the only way to avoid being raided by them was to trade with them. I’d love for this planet to establish peaceful trade with other planets as well. I would just caution you to the fact that there is a raider ship here now, and you might want to be careful what you say about your planet’s trading plans in public. If the raiders hear how well your planet is doing, they might decide to pay your planet a visit if you get my meaning, Captain.”
“I do indeed, Mister President, and I thank you for that advice.”
“It’s the least I can do.” Sanderval paused before continuing. “I’m not sure if you’d be interested in this, but I’m hosting a reception this evening at my palace, and a lot of important people will be there. There may even be a raider captain. It would be a good opportunity f
or you to introduce yourselves to some of our wealthier citizens. You might even be able to conduct some business, but I think the main benefit would be expanding your network of contacts. Shall I tell my staff to expect both of you?”
Strider pretended to be undecided as he looked at Jaeger who nodded. “Ah, yes. I think we’d like to attend, and we’ll be careful about what we say and who we say it to,”
“Excellent! I look forward to seeing both of you tonight.” Sanderval started to turn away, then stopped and turned back to face Strider. “By the way, if you have personal weapons, pistols, ceremonial daggers, that kind of thing, you should wear them. With the kind of ego that many of these people have, I’ve found that they tend to be much more polite if they’re talking to someone who’s carrying a weapon. Everyone else will be armed, so you should be too. Good day, Captain Strider, Lieutenant Jaeger.”
After the President left, the meeting quickly finished, and Strider and Jaeger headed back to the ship. It was hours later, when he had just finished changing into a fresh, if plain, version of the merchant uniform, that Strider heard the buzzer denoting that someone was outside his quarters and asking to come in. He told the door to open and saw Jaeger enter, holding in each hand a black leather gun belt containing a handgun.
