Commander

by Richard F. Weyand

  “Well, since the detailed design of the warships has been handed off to the competing shipbuilders, my company has been working on a related project. How are these ships going to be maintained in use?”

  “I assumed they would be refitted and repaired in spacedocks at Navy facilities during their downtime, Mr. Denny. Just as any other ship.”

  “Yes, for end-of-mission repairs, that’s exactly what I would expect, Mr. Dunlop. We were thinking more of the case of things that came up during deployment. What do we do if some electronics module fails, for example. Abandon the ship where it is? Normally those minor things are handled by the crew, but with no crew aboard, it becomes a problem.”

  “Ah, I see. What did you have in mind, Mr. Denny?”

  “We are trying to come up with a way for the crew to do those sorts of repairs on a remote basis. We could use some help in determining the exact needs.”

  “I would need to initiate a project to be able to respond to such a request, Mr. Denny. You could submit a proposal for such a project for consideration.”

  “It may come to that, I suppose. For the initial effort, however, I thought something more informal might be possible. If we could have a few days’ time of some senior enlisted, I think we could make really good progress toward understanding the requirements. They could volunteer their free time to participate, for that matter. What they would need from you is permission to participate, so they know it’s not improper in some way. Is that possible, Mr. Dunlop?”

  “I suppose. But I couldn’t compensate your company for this effort without a project number, either, Mr. Denny.”

  “The Navy has already remitted a large amount of money in prepaid royalties for the design award. Large for us, anyway. We wouldn’t need any additional funds to carry on with this project.”

  “In that case, I don’t see any problems with your plan, Mr. Denny. You have a lot of credibility around here at the moment. I’m told the Emperor himself has seen your VR battle simulations and was impressed. So that helps a lot. Do you know what sort of personnel you would want to interview?”

  “Actually, Mr. Dunlop, I think Senior Chief Gordon Willet would like to work on this. I would simply let him tap the people he thinks would be most helpful and he can work out the details with them.”

  “Very well, Mr. Denny. I will contact Senior Chief Willet’s superiors and make sure they know this is an approved activity, and that approval applies to people he might select to help him.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Dunlop. That would be a great help. Obviously we can come up with a much better system if we know what it needs to do.”

  “Well, thank you, Mr. Denny. It sounds like you identified a need before we recognized it. That’s always helpful. I will be most interested to see what you come up with.”

  “All right, you guys, thanks for comin’,” Willet said to the three dozen or so chiefs and senior chiefs he had asked to meet on the repair units. He had multiple people there from each of the specialties that would still apply to the unmanned ships. Propulsion, main armament, defensive armament, fire control, electronics, maneuvering, navigation. There were no specialties from environmental, airlocks and pressurization, control interfaces, or any of the others that would not be required on an unmanned ship.

  Everybody took their seats and quieted down.

  “Reason we’re here today is to think through how we repair these new and refitted ships under way. We’re all on the inside of the Navy’s plans to deploy remotely crewed vessels, and I suspect we’ve all been wondering just what the hell are we supposed to do when things break.

  “Well, the guys who came up with the winnin’ ship design had the same concerns we have, and they’re already workin’ on a solution. I met with the leader of that bunch, and not only is he smart, he’s got his head on straight.

  “What they’re lookin’ at is givin’ us little machines that can move around on the ship, that have cameras and manipulators and tools. The crew can VR into those little repair bots, see through their cameras, work their little hands, and do a lot of the stuff we would expect to do in person.

  “What they need from us is more information on what tools they need, what spares they need, what additional capabilities they need, like micro-manipulators or zoom-in microscopy or welding or what have you. So our task here is to come up with that list. The all-inclusive list of what we need to be able to do the stuff we’ve been doin’ with our hands all these years.”

  “Hey, Gordy,” one senior chief called out as he raised his hand.

  “Yeah, Fitz, what ya got?”

  “How is this different than the repair robot project that didn’t work out, back when you and I were kids?” Robert Fitzhugh asked.

  “Good question. Same one I asked. For you younger guys, the repair robot project didn’t work because you can’t anticipate everything that can go wrong. The difference here is there’s no brains in these little guys. The crew runs ‘em remote. So they don’t have to program in the problem and the solution, they just have to give us all the capabilities we need so the crew can do the brain work.”

  “Got it,” Fitzhugh said.

  “That actually oughta work, Gordy,” Sean McGill said.

  “I think so, too, Gilly. But they need to have a list. That’s our job. We come up with the list, they’ll put it in.”

  “All that stuff won’t fit on one bot, Gordy,” James Fordham said.

  “Doesn’t need to, Jim. I got the impression they were thinking in terms of a dozen or more of these on a ship, with different capabilities or groups of capabilities.”

  “OK, that could work then.”

  “All right, so if we’re all clear on what we’re doin’, why don’t we group up by specialty and start our lists. Then we can discuss ‘em all and combine ‘em later. That’s when we’ll also try to figure out which things have to be on the same bot with other things, and which things have to be on separate bots.”

  They worked on the list for two days. When he was happy with it, and the other chiefs and senior chiefs were happy with it, Willet contacted Jared Denny for another meeting.

  “Good morning, Senior Chief Willet.”

  “Good morning, Mr. Denny.”

  “Your message said you had a list for me, Senior Chief?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Denny pushed the list over on the conference table. As they were in VR – were, in fact, on different planets – the transfer of a paper list across the table was in fact a file transfer into Denny’s computer account.

  Denny scanned down the list. A lot of things here he had anticipated, some things he hadn’t considered.

  “Infrared vision, Senior Chief?”

  “That’s from the electronickers, sir. It turns out when there’s something wrong in the electronics, it’s often hotter than it should be. Or colder.”

  “I see. Well, that’s simple enough.”

  Denny continued scanning the list. Willet’s group had also included a list of things that had to be on the same bot, and things which shouldn’t be, at least not exclusively.

  “Cutting torch and high-powered arms not on the same unit, Senior Chief?”

  “It’s amazing how many times you say, ‘OK, I’ll cut this here, then you pull it out of the way,’ sir.”

  “Ah. Understood.”

  Denny finished the list and went through it one more time. When he was finished, he looked up at Willet.

  “Thanks, Senior Chief. This will help a lot. We’ll try to get you guys everything you need to keep those ships running.”

  “Thank you for that, sir. And, uh, Mr. Denny, I wonder if I could ask you a favor.”

  “Sure, Senior Chief. Shoot.”

  “I come up with a name for them, sir. Highly Adaptable Remotely Piloted Evaluation and Repair units. I wonder if you could use that name, sir.”

  “Highly Adaptable Remotely Piloted Evaluation and Repair. Let’s see, that would be H-A-R-P-E-R.”

  “Yes, sir.
HARPER units, sir.”

  Comprehension dawned on Denny. Bob Harper had been the Bosun First who had tamped his second satchel charge with his own body to clear the damaged plating from the breech of the big gun on Willet’s battleship nearly twenty years before.

  “I understand, Senior Chief. We can certainly do that. I would be pleased to do that.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Denny. No need to explain it to anybody. The guys who know the story, well, they’ll appreciate it, and the guys who don’t –” Willet shrugged “– well, it don’t matter to them, sir.”

  “This is a nice list,” Vipin Narang said.

  “Yeah, it even includes the ability for the units to repair each other. That’s something I hadn’t thought of, but it’s obvious once mentioned,” Liu Jiang said.

  “HARPERs. Is that what we’re calling them?” Narang asked.

  “Yeah,” Denny said.

  “That name’s as good as any, I guess,” Narang said. “Boy, there’s a lot stuff on this list. Is all of this available?”

  “Jane?” Denny asked.

  “Yeah, I’ve found all the modules we need. A couple of them are pretty expensive. Low production volumes. But those prices should come down with some volume.”

  “What about the carriages?” Narang asked.

  “I found those, too, in the different sizes required. It looks more and more like this is an integration problem, not a design problem.”

  “Which will shorten delivery time,” Denny said. “I like it.”

  “How do the carriages work for getting around on the ship?” Narang asked.

  “It’s kind of ingenious,” Liu said. “Little tank treads, with rare-earth magnets for the contact points. They grip like anything.”

  “Then how does it move?” Denny asked.

  “Each of the magnets has a coil around it. For the one coming off the surface, the coil is spiked with enough current to weaken the combined field of the magnet and the coil just enough for that magnet to pull clear.”

  “Oh, that’s clever,” Narang said. “So if it’s not moving, you get a real tight grip without any energy expenditure.”

  “Exactly,” Liu said. “It’s a nice unit.”

  “Wait,” Narang said. “Is all of this stuff qualified for deployment in space – vacuum and all?”

  Liu gave him an old-fashioned look.

  “Yes, of course,” she said.

  Narang held his hands up.

  “OK, just checking.”

  “Well, let’s buy a bunch of stuff and see if we can make it work,” Denny said.

  “The next question is, Where do we want it delivered? No two of us are on the same planet,” Liu said.

  “Who should assemble it?” Denny asked.

  “Probably Bob Fielding, don’t you think?” Narang said.

  “That works for me,” Liu said. “He’s a good hands-on guy. And he has access to prototyping facilities for all the brackets and stuff.”

  “OK, let’s send all the toys to Bob and see what he comes up with.”

  Another Unexpected Visit

  They met in a featureless simulated room in VR. There was not even a door in the walls. Two club chairs sat in the middle of the floor. Sector Governor Howard Walthers, formerly King Howard II, hereditary ruler of Pannia, was there early. King Michael VI, hereditary ruler of Estvia, showed up on time.

  “Hello, Howard. Thanks for meeting with me,” King Michael said as he shook Walthers’ hand.

  “Good afternoon, Your Highness. It’s good to see you again,” Walthers said.

  “Your Highness?”

  “My situation has changed, Your Highness. I am no longer royalty.”

  “Forget all that, Howard. I would prefer we stay on a first-name basis.”

  “Very well, Michael.”

  King Michael waved to the club chairs and they both sat.

  “So what’s up?” Walthers asked.

  “I actually had two things to talk to you about today,” King Michael said. “First one is, How is the annexation thing working out?”

  “Fantastic. Better than I had hoped, actually. It’s clear now it was the right decision. I tremble when I think of how close I came to not doing it.”

  “Really.”

  “Really. The Empire came in here with hundreds of freighters full of VR nodes and QE radios – all top-line stuff – and re-networked the entire sector. At the same time, their healthcare sector shipped in trillions of doses of VR nanites and contraceptive nanites. We’re getting everybody – the entire population – up in VR as fast as we can inject them. We started with the children, so they could get started in the Empire’s education system, but we’ve long since moved on to the adults. We’ll have the whole population on VR within the first year.

  “With the contraceptive nanites, there’s no such thing as unwanted pregnancy anymore. That’s a big poverty issue. If women can get their education before having children – if they can establish their economic independence before having children – it makes a huge difference to their life prospects.

  “And the education system is unbelievable. Parents are telling me they have to force their kids to stop doing schoolwork and go to bed.

  “I tell you, Michael, it’s the best damned decision I ever made.”

  “And people are happy to be subjects of the Emperor?”

  “Most are very happy about it. All they have to do is see the progress their kids and grandkids are making in school, and how excited they are about it. Of course, there are some – mostly the old nobility – who aren’t happy, but it’s a small minority.”

  “I understand your son and his associates were arrested and convicted of treason.”

  “Yes. I warned him this Emperor had no sense of humor about people who would try to aggrandize themselves at the expense of others. Like reversing the annexation and reinstalling the nobility, for example, which is what they tried. They were being watched by Imperial Police, of course, and they were caught. As you say, they were tried and convicted and sentenced to death. The Emperor suspended their sentences, but if they don’t keep their noses clean at this point, they’re going to be shot for treason.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, Howard.”

  Walthers shrugged.

  “Once they leave the house, they have their own lives to live, Michael. As I say, I warned him. That’s all I can do. If he wants to die against the wall, that’s his choice.”

  King Michael nodded.

  “What about defense of the sector?”

  “The Empire moved five Imperial fleets – twenty-three thousand warships – into Pannia before the annexation. The Emperor and I were afraid Berinia and Celestia would try something before the Imperial Navy could be in position to defend the sector.”

  “Yeah, Berinia and Celestia were pushing you pretty hard the last time you and I talked. I heard there was some action after the annexation.”

  “They tried a major incursion soon after the annexation went through. Celestia feinted from one side with a hundred warships, then Berinia attacked from the other side with forty-eight warships.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Yes. We would have taken serious losses against something like that without the Imperial Navy. But they have picket ships monitor hyperspace continuously, and they saw it coming. They responded with sixty warships within ninety minutes, and another hundred and twenty ninety minutes after that. They completely wiped out the Berinia ships. And do you know how many ships the Imperial Navy lost, Michael?”

  “No clue, Howard.”

  “Not one.”

  “Damn.”

  “Yeah, pretty much. Michael, if the Empire ever wanted to, they could go through every other navy out there in a week without raising a sweat.”

  “Which is a good segue to my next topic. Howard, last week the DP ambassador to Estvia dropped by. He asked for a one-on-one, off-the-record, in-person meeting with me, with no advance agenda.”

  “That’s pretty unusual.” />
  “I don’t know about you, but for us it was unprecedented. He wanted me to know they were picking up signs the Empire may be becoming expansionist.”

  “I’m on the inside, Michael, and I don’t see that. Not at all. The only thing this Emperor cares about is the welfare of the people of Sintar.”

  “The DP ambassador cited Sintar’s hiatus in manufacturing warships, designing a new generation of warships, and building a massive number of excess long-haul freighters.”

  “How does building freighters instead of warships add up to turning expansionist, in the DP’s view?”

  “Commercial dominance of the sector, followed up by forced annexations once the new warships are in place.”

  “Ah. I see. Kind of a stretch, that. It’s all nonsense, Michael, but some of our compatriots might fall for it.”

  “Oh, and he also cited the Empire’s annexation of Pannia, and hinted darkly it may not have been voluntary after all. The Imperial Navy moved in first, you see.”

  “Yes, we called them war games so Berinia and Celestia would wait to cause trouble until the Empire left. If they knew they would be here permanently, they might have caused trouble before the Navy was in position.”

  “As you’ve said. I believe you, Howard. Just passing on what he said. But the DP is trying to get people worked up against Sintar, and here’s the kicker. He offered to sell me DP warships. Retiring ones, granted, but not export models. Their front-line units. ‘Nations desiring peace need to stand together,’ he said.”

  Walthers shook his head.

  “Doubletalk. What do you think they’re up to, Michael?”

  “I wish I knew, Howard. I wish I knew. The one idea that pops into my head isn’t a pleasant one.”

  “That they want to foment a war out here, weaken all the players, and then step in and mop everybody up when it’s over.”

  “Exactly.”

  “That sure sounds like what they’re up to. I wonder how many other people they’re talking to.”

  “No way of knowing.”

  “If they do start a war out here, I’ll tell you with no hesitation Sintar will mop the floor with anybody and everybody who attacks it.”