I looked at Elian and almost laughed. He’d been hooked, good and proper. Still, it was one thing to be in love, and another thing entirely to decide to marry. I said, “Elian, you’ve called me an ‘idjit’, ‘super idjit’ and numerous other names over the last year and a half, but this time it’s my turn: if you don’t decide right now to marry Carolyn, I swear, it will be the first time you’ve ever failed to do the right thing. Shake the admirals hand, and thank him, you idjit.” Elian stood up and leaned over with his hand out. The admiral stood up with a huge smile and took Elian’s hand in both of his. He said, “Good thing you decided, I took the liberty of making a back channel request to have her sent here. She should be arriving in, oh, four or five days.” Elian froze and I laughed at the expression on his face.
The admiral said, “If you two will allow me, I’ll do what I can to protect you from your own sorry lack of self-preservation. We need men and women like you two, the chief, and Warrant Officer Kwan. Just don’t fail me. We need to know what threat we face, and we need to know it yesterday. OK?”
I stood up and we both said, “Yes sir!” Elian added, “Sir, we will move heaven and earth to get you that information.” The admiral said, “Good, that’s one little problem I can cross off my list. Now, if I can just figure out a way to get rid of a little more dead wood, get some new ships designed and built, get some corrupt civilian contractors put away for a few hundred years, and in general figure out how to keep our little federation safe for the next couple of decades, I’ll be able to get some sleep.”
We were given the temporary task of looking over the shoulder of the engineer who was overseeing the modifications to the battle cruiser, and offering assistance as requested, or not. This civilian was, in the words of Admiral Lee, three kilos in a two kilo container. He didn’t specify what those kilos consisted of, but we could guess.
Admiral Lee told us that we would have new orders cut in the next few days, assigning us to a couple of the last Dresdens to come out of the yards. He added, “By the way, command of this class of ship normally goes to a Commander, rarely to a lieutenant commander. You two are snotty lieutenants. There are going to be any numbers of eyes cast your way, so, as I said before, make this work. We need any information you can get us, and we need it two years ago, not yesterday. By the way, I’m looking into the possibility of bumping you up a grade. Don’t count on it, however, this fleet hasn’t totally caught on to the fact that we’re at war.”
Lieutenant Commander? We’d just become lieutenants. This was no longer a peacetime navy.
He said he would give us some leeway in structuring our little task force, and gave us ten days to give him our requirements. He said that finding experienced crews was becoming a real headache, but he had put one of his aides to work finding us a core of good, experienced people. He also added that there would be an official from the federal government who would be acting in the capacity of ambassador, just in case we achieved some success. He added that this diplomat had to be handled with extreme care, as he would be in overall charge of the mission. I expressed a non-verbal ‘oh shit!’
I asked very carefully, “Sir, how far will his authority extend?” Admiral Lee nodded his head and said, “He, or she, will have authority to open a dialogue with this race and negotiate treaties, including an offer of assistance, if such is requested. The ambassador will not have authority to tell you how to operate your ships, but he does call the shots on the overall mission. I warn you that you must exercise great care not to step on his possibly delicate toes. If you do, you had better have an extremely good reason. I will not be able to protect you if you screw the pooch on this. In addition to command of a Dresden, Robert will be the overall commander of the task force. I know that the two of you work more like a team, but one of you has to accept the blame. Before you leave, I’ll schedule an hour or two with you to iron out the details. Questions?”
We shook our heads, which were already reeling and he waved at the hatch, which we took to be our dismissal. Admiral Lee caught me looking at the box of doughnuts and waved his hand. I grinned, picked it up and we stood up.
We saluted and left, looking at our pads for the location of the engineer. He was in engineering, as expected, so we headed down and aft. This ship had two separate power rooms, each able to power the ship independently. Larger vessels had to be able to take a lot of damage and continue to fight, thus the two power rooms. Our engineer was in Alpha, which was up near the bow. We entered the heavily armored room and found him talking to two civilians, who seemed to be unhappy.
He saw us and waved us over. We saluted and after returning our salutes he said, “Lieutenant Turner, please explain to these civilian engineers the effect too many mag bottles has on a craft, such as the Dresden for example. Elian said, “It goes faster. What is the problem here?” One of the engineers, the more overweight one, said, “I’m the liaison representing Ledger Manufacturing. We’re the contractor for fleet mag bottles, and we have some serious reservations about this upgrade.” I said, “Have you seen the performance figures for the Dresdens?”
He nodded his head impatiently and said, “This isn’t a Dresden, it out masses those ships by a factor of ten, and more to the point, those weren’t our mag systems. We have never tested our products with this configuration. Before we can authorize anything like this, we need to see some performance figures, something that demonstrates it will work. All you’ve got are these uncertified drawings here.”
The engineer said, “We need to get this ship operational, not next year, but now. As you may have noticed, we’re at war. What you’re suggesting could take six months or longer.” The engineer said, “Without solid data, we can’t authorize these modifications to our equipment.”
I asked the representatives, “Will you excuse us for a moment?” They nodded their heads impatiently and turned away from us to examine a console that was opened up.
We moved out into a passageway. I asked, speaking quietly, “Can you go over their heads?” He shook his head wearily. I asked, “Can we use Anodyne Industries instead?” He shook his head and said, “No, this ship was designed with Ledger’s mag systems, and they would never authorize mixing the two systems.”
I thought for a moment and asked, “We know Anodyne’s equipment can handle this type of modification. Is there anything preventing you from stripping out Ledger’s systems and starting from scratch?” He looked startled for a moment, then the hint of a smile lit up his face. He thought furiously for almost five minutes, with a grin slowly spreading across his grizzled face.
He turned and walked back into the engine room. He said, “Gentlemen, here’s the situation: your systems cannot meet Fleet requirements for acceleration and weapons requirements, and as you refuse to allow us to modify those systems, I hereby notify you that we will be removing all of your equipment, starting right now. You will receive written notification before you leave the base.”
They stared at him in astonishment but before they could say anything, the engineer turned and walked out. Elian and I grinned and waved nonchalantly with doughnuts in hand and followed behind.
We caught up to the engineer and he stopped for a moment. He said, “Those two have been a complete headache since the day they arrived. We’ve made no headway at all in two weeks, and the admiral is ready to take off my head. It will take us another two weeks to strip out Ledger’s equipment, but it will be worth it, if for no other reason than that I won’t have to put up with those two any more. You know, when the federal government declared a State of Emergency, it was a Godsend to us. Those men thought they had us over a barrel, and were actually insisting on a six month testing phase of the proposed modifications before they would allow us to change anything. I would never have considered your suggestion BB, before the bugs, but time’s running out. I can get the authority to remove their equipment and replace it with Anodyne’s, who are much easier to deal with. I’d like to see the expressions on their boss’ face when he he
ars what we’re doing. Crap, I’d better comm the admiral, he’s going to be getting some nasty comms.”
I asked, “Is there an Anodyne rep here on base?” The engineer shook his head and said, “No, but I can get one up here by tomorrow. In fact, will you excuse me? I’ve got a lot to do.”
We took a self-guided tour of the ship, and it did indeed look very nice. It had a new type of target acquisition system for the lasers, which promised to be able to kill incoming missiles measurably faster. I thought of Carolyn, and said, “Since Carolyn’s coming, perhaps we could ask her to take a look at these systems.”
Elian looked at me out of the side of his eyes and I burst into laughter. I said, “Look, my honeymoon lasted for, what, ten hours? Why should yours be any longer?” Elian said, “If you haven’t noticed, I haven’t actually asked Carolyn to marry me.” I added, “Yet.”
He grimaced and said, quietly, “Look Robert, it was much easier for you than it is for me. I think Carolyn is just perfect, that’s not the problem. I like being single, I like flirting with women.” I thought about his statement for a moment and then asked, “So, what are you going to do about Carolyn?” He grinned wryly and asked, “What do you think I should do?” I stared at him, “Are you seriously asking me?” He nodded and said, “Robert, you are the most level headed man I know. You never do anything that isn’t well considered. That includes Nastya. She is wonderful, amazing, and I just know you two are going to last. I can’t say that about Carolyn.” I grinned at his comment about being level headed – on the subject of Nastya I’d barely engaged my higher faculties, simply went with what my heart demanded.
I said, carefully, “Elian, this is an unusual instance where you are the wrong-headed one, not me. I think that if you let yourself do what you really want to do, which is to ask Carolyn to marry you, you will be very, very happy, for a very, very long time. Besides, this is perfect: Carolyn and Nastya are already best friends, you and I put up with each other, so this is sure to work out. The first time one of us gets into a fight with his wife, she’s certain to go to her best friend and pour out her heart, and presto digito, one of us apologizes and everything is back to normal. Well, both of us apologizes.”
Elian laughed and nodded his head, “OK, you win.” I laughed and said, “You win, you idjit.” Elian asked, “So, just how does one go about getting engaged?” I stared at him once again, “You phony! All this time I thought you knew what you were doing, and now it comes out that you don’t have the slightest clue! Here’s a suggestion. You take her hand and ask, ‘Carolyn, will you marry me?’ Oh, first you tell her that you love her. Have you done that?”
Elian blushed and shook his head. I asked, “Do you, in fact, love her?” He nodded, mutely, amusing me, and admitted, “I do, but I haven’t told her. Not actually, in so many words. Mind you, she knows I love her, but...”
I said, “You are a Mark 65, my friend: you promise a lot, make a lot of noise and don’t reach your target. The first thing you do when she gets here, you take her off somewhere private, if that is possible on this rock, and you tell her how you feel about her. OK?” Elian said, “It can’t be that simple. There must be some sort of ancient rite or ritual one has to learn. You know, candles, symbols written on the floor, an ancient paper book, and incense. Yes, incense.”
It was clear that this discussion terrified Elian. It also seemed that he thought me an expert on it. I was going to laugh my ass off just as soon as I had an hour or so, but not now.
In retrospect Elian’s feelings were natural. I said, “Well, if it makes you feel better, if I’d have thought for even one second before blurting out whatever it was that I said, I would have been just as screwed up as you seem to be.”
We continued walking around the ship, but our attention was really somewhere else. However, we could see that the ship seemed to be very capable, save for the lack of any ablative armor or the ability to get out of its own way. I knew the former could be a big problem, and of course the latter problem would bring about the former.
From what we had been able to glean, the designers believed that the large quantity of lasers would protect it from missiles, and its own missiles would protect it from fighters. In our experience, the ship was going to take a beating against an enemy such as the bugs. In fact, our own relatively puny fighters, with their new improved lasers could hurt this ship badly if they could get within seventy thousand kilometers or less.
We went back to our quarters and put together a report that we sent off to the admiral, copied to base engineering. We told the admiral that the present power plants were getting scrapped in favor of Anodyne, who had worked so hard for us on the Dresden. We added that the battle cruiser lacked any sort of armor, not even against an energy weapon, and that in our opinion, this could seriously shorten its effectiveness or even its existence in the sort of engagements we had encountered.
Ten minutes later we got a reply back, telling us we had twenty four hours to come up with a solution. Elian said, “Now look what you’ve done! We have to save the world again.” I grinned and shrugged.
Elian and I spent the next few hours researching alternatives to the Hawk’s fabulously expensive armor. We came to the conclusion that the system the Essex engineers came up with would work. However, it would require extensive modifications to the virtual forest of sensors the ship mounted. It would be a real bitch to do, but it would not be my problem. We sent a message off to the admiral some twelve hours later, telling him that the only practical solution was to utilize a coating similar in nature to the one dreamed up by the Essex wonks. We included an engineering analysis, and a cost estimate, padding it severely due to those sensor mounts. The admiral commed back within fifteen minutes again, telling us we had approval to proceed. I asked, a little plaintively, “Doesn’t he have anything else to do with his time save read our reports? I mean, not even a coffee break and he’s given us another job.”
We went in search of the head engineer, and found him in Alpha again, which now looked much different. Numerous panels had been removed, including a large section of the outer skin, and the heavy mag bottles and capacitors were getting carefully lifted out. Our engineer said that the two engine rooms would require two to three weeks to empty. Elian and I looked at each other and asked, simultaneously, “Is that three calendar weeks, or fifteen shifts of work?” He laughed and said, “I’m having a hard enough time just getting workers for one shift per day. If you hadn’t noticed, there is a huge amount of work going on, most of it just like this – refurbishing and modifying old bastards. The difference here is that this ship isn’t an old bastard, its a brand new bastard.”
We grinned at him, and Elian said, “We’ve got approval to go ahead with applying an ablative coating to the skin. Is there any reason we couldn’t proceed with that at the same time?” He thought about that and said, “No, I don’t see why we couldn’t do both at the same time. They’d have to work around our engineers, but sure.”
We discussed with him how to go about getting the procedures ordered and he said, “Just tell the admiral’s aide, you know, the one with the nice legs? You tell her what you want done. She’ll handle everything. She’s magic, that woman.”
We decided to walk over and talk to her in person. She’s also cute and she liked us. We had all the information on the coatings, who manufactured it and how it had to be applied, making it somewhat easier for her than we thought, by perhaps one percent. We asked her what she thought it would end up costing, and she grimaced and said, “Something on the order of fifty million credits.” We were shocked, as our highly padded estimate was twenty-eight. We asked her what the ship cost. She said, matter-of-factly, “Slightly over three billion, give or take a few hundred million.”
The next few days were hectic. The admiral seemed to think that if we were simply busy, he was failing in his duty to us.
Finally, Carolyn showed up. To my intense shock, Nastya accompanied her. The admiral hadn’t mentioned that little
piece of information. The two women ran into our arms and the next few moments were a blur of kisses and caresses, Nastya’s unique scent and her whispered words of love and joy. I may have said something in the odd moment when my mouth had any freedom of movement.
We walked out of the landing pad and caught a scooter over to the BOQ and helped them lug their single duffel to their quarters. They were sharing, due to the huge influx of both military and civilian personnel onto the base. They asked us to meet them ‘out front’ in an hour. We kissed and left them to those mysterious things that women have to do. I was married and still didn’t have a clue.
In precisely one hour our two women came out and demurely kissed us, after checking for anyone who might be bothered by officers kissing each other. We walked with them to the officer’s mess and ate. It was a little strained, but I knew why, and I knew that this very evening that particular source of tension was going to be resolved. I was delighted to see Elian’s abject failure to appear to be at all normal.
Hawk Seven (Flight of the Hawk) Page 52
