"It sounds like a reasonable approach," said Nesbitt.
"It's not bad," replied the Ensign, "This attack formation would give them an advantage in a surface battle as an airship with a single forward weapon being approached head on almost certainly has to choose one target or the other."
"What do you recommend?"
"If we want them to think their attack plan is working, our initial reaction should be to alternate fire between the two targets with our front battery. Then we do the unexpected."
"...And that would be?"
Sukamoto pointed to the plot on Nesbitt's command screen. "Draw a line from one of their ships to the other and you'll see that all we need to do is roll the ship so that the line connecting them becomes our new horizon and we've taken the high-low aspect out of the equation."
"Yes, I see that," whispered the Captain. "That will certainly help, but what about the port-starboard aspect?"
"More atmospheric tactical baggage," replied the ensign. "Here's what we need to do." He quietly described his solution to the Captain. She looked at him with new respect.
"Brilliant, Ensign, brilliant! Thanks, Sukamoto. You'd better get back to your station."
Sukamoto made his way back over to his tactical console.
"No need to make it easy for them," said Nesbitt, forcing her voice to a calm tone that most definitely did not reflect her inner feelings. "Helm? Continue on course for the time being. On my order give me a thirty degree roll to port and prepare to follow that with a ninety degree slew to starboard. The roll will position us onto a targeting plane where we can engage both ships simultaneously without having to make major changes in our projector elevation and the slew will allow us to take them both on with our full broadside. Rear battery? You'll take the starboard bogey after the slew maneuver. Front battery? I want to start this battle out just the way they expect us to with you splitting your fire between both bogeys. If we let them think we're confused, they'll be more likely to fall into our trap. After we reorient the ship, the forward battery will concentrate fire on the port side bogey! Does everyone understand?"
After hearing a chorus of "ayes" she gave the order to commence firing.
"Forward battery?" she said. "I know the range is a little long, but start firing as soon as you have a target. If either of you destroys their target first, go after the other bogey immediately. Don't waste precious time waiting for further instructions. Point defenses? Prepare to counteract missile fire!"
The Federation destroyer resolutely continued her on her original vector, as though she was bewildered by the intentions of her attackers. At extreme range, the Asimov's front battery began alternating fire between targets, firing one pulse bolt from each of her front projectors to port followed by rotating the turret and firing two pulses to starboard. As ordered, the front gunners would then rotate the turret back while changing the projector elevation to engage the other target and then repeat the process.
***
Heard's World Star System, on board Jasmine Republican Navy Shafra Class gunboat Falco, January 8, 2599.
On the bridge of the Falco, Lieutenant Morcos nervously reevaluated his battle plot every few seconds.
"All hands? Prepare for evasive attack maneuvers! Helm? Initiate evasive tactic two alpha!"
The Lieutenant immediately began to feel the effects of the maneuvers, even with the little ship's inertial dampers operating at maximum. He nodded in satisfaction as the destroyer, as expected, attempted to split her front battery fire between two targets.
"Approaching extreme pulse beam range...," the Commander announced, "...begin firing...Now!"
Both attackers began firing their main battery pulse weapons at the Asimov. Since Asimov wasn't making any particular attempt to avoid them, the two attacking ships began to score some occasional hits on the larger target.
"Missile launch? Have you got a missile lock yet?"
"We will be in the targeting envelope in another ten seconds," came the reply.
"Fire as soon as you have a lock."
"As you wish, Sir!"
"Farat? Prepare to fire your missiles!"
"Target acquired, Falco, firing missiles in five... four..."
***
Heard's World Star System, on board Onboard FNS Asimov, January 8, 2599.
"They are firing beam weapons, Captain."
"As expected, sensors. Keep me informed on our shield status."
"Aye, Sir!"
As if on cue, the Asimov was struck by a pulse beam from the starboard bogey.
"Shield status?" asked Nesbitt, still attempting to project a calm demeanor that she most certainly did not feel.
"Shields at ninety-five percent, Captain," reported Sukamoto. "Those bolts don't pack much punch at this distance."
"Thank you, Ensign. I expect it will get worse before it gets better!"
Another lurch of the ship marked another successful pulse bolt strike.
"Shields at ninety percent," said Sukamoto.
"Keep her steady, Helm," said the Captain. "How long before they get in missile range?"
"I make it about fifteen seconds at their present speed, Sir."
Nesbitt kept the ship on the same vector for another ten seconds, during which the destroyer was rattled by two more pulse strikes. Keeping a careful eye on her monitors, she waited for the opportune moment to seize the offensive.
"Helm? Prepare for that roll and slew maneuver on my mark." Nesbitt waited until the distance to the closest enemy ship was only two thousand kilometers. "Three...two...one...Mark!"
The helmsman on the Asimov used the attitude thrusters to roll the ship thirty-four degrees to port. As soon as that maneuver was complete, he skillfully applied power to the stern side thrusters to rotate the ship ninety degrees to starboard. The combination of these two maneuvers brought the destroyer into a position where she was hurtling through space towards her attackers sideways! This positioning brought both her fore and aft main batteries into the fight!
"Fore and aft batteries, engage bogeys! Extreme overload mode has been unlocked and authorized! Maximum rate of fire. Pour it to em' boys! Point defense? Prepare for imminent missile attack!"
The Asimov, now able to bring the full power of her broadside into the fight, stopped toying with the enemy and began discharging her weapons with extreme prejudice. Both front and rear batteries opened up on their selected targets at their maximum rate of fire!
***
Heard's World Star System, January 8, 2599.
The gunboats, with their less powerful weapons, continued firing, scoring an occasional hit on their easy to hit target. Both ships were using a sort of "corkscrew" evasion tactic which consisted of random rolls and turns. This tactic made them difficult to hit but also reduced the accuracy of their own fire.
As they came into the effective range of the destroyer's weapons, the two gunboat captains watched in horrified amazement as a skillfully applied blast of the destroyer's attitude thrusters rolled the ship slightly to port and another blip on the side thrusters brought her stern around to starboard. One moment they were attacking a destroyer head on, high and low on two radically different vectors. Within the space of five seconds, they were facing an enemy that was now hurtling through space towards them with her starboard side and her full broadside leading!
Up until this moment in the engagement, the two gunboats had been dodging an occasional two pulse volley from the almost lackadaisical fire emanating from the forward turret of the destroyer. The roll and slew maneuver enabled the Asimov to bring all four of her main battery projectors, fore and aft, to bear on the enemy. Gunners in both turrets acquired their designated targets and the Revolutionary forces were subjected to the full fury of one of the most modern ships in the Federation Navy. The latest generation of pulse beam projector systems combined with the extra high levels of power from the most powerful reactor ever put into a destroyer meant that the punishment she could dish out was devastating! Running th
e pulse beam projector system in extreme overload mode only served to intensify the mayhem!
Suddenly the space around both of the enemy gunboats was literally filled with a hail of pulse beam bolts as the Asimov's projectors began firing at the rate of four pulses per second from each turret. The gunners, aided by the computer augmented sighting systems, began to score hits. A lot of hits! The Farat, attempting to take evasive action, was almost immediately hit by two all but simultaneous pulses. Her shields went down and her evasive maneuvering ceased. With the ship briefly traveling on a very predicable course, the forward gunners on the Asimov locked solidly onto their target and tore it to pieces with more than ten pulse bolt strikes in the space of the next five seconds. The Farat turned into a streaking ball of expanding plasma.
The Falco had been luckier, she had so far managed to avoid all but a single pulse beam strike and though her shields were overloaded, she had pulled within extreme missile range and, in view of the sudden change in intensity of the Asimov's offensive fire, elected to empty both missile tubes and retreat. The two missiles, under the remote control of technicians on the gunboat and programed to take different routes to their target, left the Falco's missile tubes and streaked towards the Asimov.
In the meantime, the forward turret on the Asimov spun to acquire the new target and as the Falco flared away in an attempt to break off the engagement, she was suddenly subjected to twice as much firepower as she had barely been able to stay ahead of only seconds earlier. A hailstorm of pulses from both of Asimov's turrets stitched into her and, in that hellacious crossfire, she too exploded into a ball of expanding plasma.
Falco's missiles, now without any human guidance, continued on course towards their target before succumbing to the Asimov's state of the art point defenses. The new point defense system, which up till now had never been tested in battle, filled the space in front of each missile with literally thousands of five point five megajoule pulse bolts from two automated, point defense, ultra rapid-fire pulse cannons, one on each end of the Asimov. Both missiles detonated harmlessly a good safe distance from the destroyer.
Suddenly the battle was over and the space around the Asimov was empty and quiet. Captain Shirleen Nesbitt wanted to shout out loud in triumph and jubilation. She could see the relief and the disbelief on the faces of everyone on the bridge, including that of her first officer, Ensign Massa Sukamoto. Instead of shouting in jubilation, she calmly spoke into the PA system of the ship.
"Two enemy ships destroyed! Good job everyone!"
The entire ship erupted into the shouts of jubilation that the Captain would not allow herself to indulge in. Instead, she wore a huge smile and hoped her overwhelming sense of relief didn't show too much. She allowed the crew a few minutes to celebrate before bringing everyone back to reality.
"We still have a job to do, everyone. We need to go and check out the activity on that moon. Stage two communications? Get me the Istanbul at the Reclamation Center."
One other difference between the Asimov and almost every other ship of her class was that the Asimov was outfitted with a Stage II Whitney communications console. Since the ship made frequent trips between the Sol-Terra and Santana Quadrants and was often carrying high-ranking officers and Very Important Civilians, the ability to communicate directly and quickly with the authorities in either Quadrant was considered a necessity. The bow section of the destroyer had been extended by two meters over other ships of her class to accommodate the bulk of the large communications device. The Asimov's powerplant had also been upgraded slightly to provide the power to run the communicator while maintaining most of her other systems. The ship could not hyperjump or use shields while the communicator was being operated, however, such was the power demand of the Stage II communicator.
The communications tech activated the Stage II equipment.
Chapter 33.
"Le marchand de la mort, est mort. (The merchant of death is dead)..."
Naccobus/New Ceylon Star System, in the UTFN "Secret Scrapyard" near the L-5 point of the gas giant, Naccobus V, January 8, 2599.
Having obtained Commander Kresge's permission to proceed, the Secret Scrapyard salvage crew attempted to board the homely little ship they had discovered. Hawkins connected his portable battery pack to the docking port next to the airlock door of the ungainly looking craft. A number pad within the docking port just to the right of the power inlet port lit up.
"Do we have codes to unlock this main airlock, Ensign?" asked Harris.
Carlisle consulted her wrist computer. "Yes, Lieutenant." She read off a string of numbers. Harris punched the sequence into the keypad and pressed the "enter" button on the bottom of the pad."
The airlock door cycled open. Harris, Hawkins and Carlisle carefully entered the experimental ship. With nothing powered up, the ship was pitch black inside, just as the situation had been on the Mark V destroyer earlier. The salvagers had to rely on their suit lights to find their way.
"Do we have any kind of schematics at all on this creation?" asked Harris.
"All I have is a rough draft but I don't know how up to date it is," replied Carlisle, who had been in constant contact with her wrist computer." It doesn't look like they had a blueprint or anything."
As was so often the case when exploring an unpowered ship, the three of them were weightless. The gravity of the asteroid was so light as to be negligible. After they had pulled themselves through several hatches it became obvious that the ship they were on was definitely a prototype. The last hatch they had negotiated had gone through the double-walled bulkhead that marked the joint between the two halves of the ship. The level of the deck in the forward portion of the ship didn't quite match that of the aft portion. The aft floor was a noticeable five centimeters lower.
"It be lookin' like they was makin' most o' this up as they went," observed Hawkins.
"Prototypes are often like that," said Talbot, over their suit radios. He had remained in the cutter and was monitoring the exploration team's progress from there. "It looks like they needed the stern section from one cruiser and the bow of the other. In a way it makes sense."
"How so, Frank?" asked Harris.
"The aft section appears to be from one of the more modern classes of ship. That would give the hybrid considerably more power and provide more modern drive systems than using the older ship components would have. The bow section, from the Argus Class, originally carried a couple of big railguns. By removing all of the extra internal machinery that was originally installed to service the railgun emplacement, they had the necessary space to be able to retract the pulse beam turret. Ingenious, but it surely isn't pretty."
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Frank," said Harris.
"A cliché, Lieutenant but I agree. However, my statement still stands: that is one butt-ugly ship!"
"Maybe the enemy will be laughing so hard that they won't realize how dangerous she is until it's too late!" said Harris.
"Hope springs eternal," said Frank.
"That's sounds an awful lot like another cliché, Frank!"
"Hey, I'm an old man, original thoughts get harder to come by with each passing day!"
"We're in the engineering section now," said Harris. "Things actually look pretty good down here. Did you ever work with any of these cruiser power plants, Frank?"
"Not the ones on the class of the donor ship, but I don't think they changed them too much. If anything, the newer type would be more automated."
"Stand by for a bit, Frank. We're going to check on the reactors."
"Standing by."
Hawkins plugged a meter into a receptacle on the control panel for the old ship's starboard reactor. With absolutely nothing on the prototype ship powered up, the parameters he could access were limited to passive queries but this information should let them know whether or not there was any reason to continue their explorations. He was rewarded by a set of readings indicating that the reactor had plenty of fuel. He accessed a few more
of the limited options available and wasn't able to find any glaring reasons why they couldn't attempt a restart. He checked the port reactor and found that it was in similarly good condition.
"The reaction fluid reservoirs are nearly full," announced Harris, who had been inspecting the drive components. "Frank? I think it's time you came on board and helped us give this...'Foul Beastie' a more thorough inspection before we worry about trying to start either of the reactors. If everything checks out, then we can see about starting one of the power plants."
"I'll be there as soon as I can, Lieutenant. Give me about ten minutes."
After Talbot joined the rest of the crew, they performed a more in-depth inspection of the ship. A run-through of the other systems on the prototype ship didn't turn up any problems but they all realized that had learned about as much as they could learn without actually powering up her reactors. With the control systems, life support and other systems on the experimental ship appearing to be intact and therefore operational, the team made the decision to power up the port side reactor.
From what they could tell from their exploration of the ship and the sketchy information available on Carlisle's wrist computer, the port side reactor was used for propulsion, life support, artificial gravity and other necessary ship's functions. Output from the starboard reactor appeared to be dedicated totally to powering the shields and the weapon.
Having been through the reactor start-up sequences on several ships just within the last few weeks, the now well-seasoned salvage team had the old reactor up and running within about an hour and a half. With the reactor stabilized, they immediately activated life support and turned the heat on. While the ship was in the process of heating up and pressurizing, Carlisle and Talbot went around the bridge area, switching on the various consoles.
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