Commander

by Richard F. Weyand

  “Push me the specifications, Mr. Denny.”

  Denny pushed the file, and Dunham flipped through it. The simulation played it as if Denny had put a paper document on the desk and Dunham had picked it up and leafed through it.

  “Excellent, Mr. Denny. Add these units to your existing contract for HARPER units. Two per HARPER container, with enough initial production to update deployed systems.”

  “Yes, Sire. And the paperwork for that?”

  “I’ll take care of it, Mr. Denny.”

  “Yes, Sire. Thank you, Sire.”

  Fred Dunlop looked at the change request that had just come down from Projects. That was an unusual route for it, but it required only an addendum to the HARPER unit acquisition contract to implement.

  He drew up the addendum to the contract and sent it on to Sintar Specialty Services. They, in turn, sent it on to their contract management vendor, and soon the new units began coming off the assembly lines.

  Project X

  “OK, back to electronic countermeasures. So where are we at?” Denny asked.

  “The information we’ve been getting from the Navy is really helpful. They have a whole lot of testing data of weapons and sensors. Some of it backs up what we originally thought, and some runs counter to it.

  “First, firing off a nuclear weapon to confuse or blind the sensors doesn’t work very well. The offensive weapons are nukes, and so this is the environment the sensors are designed to work in. It actually confuses the offensive weapons’ sensors more than shipboard sensors, because they’re much smaller arrays and are working with weaker signals.

  “Similarly with EMP. This was expected in the sensors’ normal operational environment, so it was planned on from the beginning. Again, the offensive missiles themselves are more susceptible to the effect, because they are smaller systems with less room and power for shielding and mitigation.

  “That said, there are other opportunities. The sensor arrays include, among other things, active radar and lidar systems. If we can spoof them, by jamming the original reflection, and then rebroadcasting the incoming signal with a time delay, we can make the array think the missiles are further away.”

  “Wouldn’t they show up on the same bearing, though?” Narang asked.

  “Yes, but if the array thinks they’re out of range, it will delay firing until they get closer. We’ve shortened the engagement time.”

  “I can’t believe nobody’s done this before,” Denny said.

  “Oh, they have. The issue is that the sensor array processor looks for spoofed data by comparing the radar, lidar, and visual sensors. If you spoof one, it gets outvoted. Unless you spoof two, you get no effect.”

  “I would think the visual sensor would be the overriding one,” Narang said.

  “No, the visual sensor is there as a tie-breaker in the voting of the other two. They are much more accurate.”

  “OK, so we spoof two systems at once then, that’s the solution?” Denny asked.

  “Well, the problem with spoofing two is you end up with a ECM package that’s so big, you can’t put a warhead in the missile.”

  “Well, that would certainly be a disadvantage,” Denny said. “How do you get around that?”

  “We don’t. We have one warhead that does all the calculations for a group of missiles, and then sends them all instructions on what to do.”

  “It does all the calculations?” Narang said.

  “Yes. It decodes the chirp, jams the initial reflection, then sends the chirp to the rest and they add the delay it specifies.”

  “On both radar and lidar?” Narang asked.

  “Yes. They just need to have the radar and lidar emitters, and they are low power because they are simulating the reflected signal. That part’s easy.”

  “So what’s the hard part?”Denny asked.

  “Getting the parameters right on the ECM missile. How much jamming, on what frequency, what delays to use. All of that is going to take some tuning.”

  “Any other bad parts?” Denny asked.

  “Yes. It’s not that hard for someone to figure out what we did and redesign the sensor suite to defeat it. Probably a year for somebody like the DP, assuming some ships survive the encounter with good tactical recordings. Longer for the smaller nation states.”

  “Then why even do it?” Denny asked.

  “Because, for that period, whatever it is, the Navy will be unstoppable.”

  “And we can spend that time coming up with something else,” Narang said.

  “We still need more data, though. Do you think they may have more data they can share with us about these systems, Jared?” Liu asked.

  “I’ll ask.”

  “Good morning, Mr. Denny. What can I do for you today?”

  “Good morning, Mr. Dunlop. I need to ask for more information, but I’m not exactly sure how to ask for it. I mean, I’m not sure what information might be available, so I don’t know how to ask for anything specifically. I thought I might tell you what general area Project X is working on currently, and you could make a general inquiry.”

  “That works for me, Mr. Denny. No more than you need to tell me, please.”

  “Certainly, Mr. Dunlop. We need whatever information we can get on defensive measures and countermeasures. Specifically in missile battles between warships. Specifications, test results, after-action reports – anything like that.”

  “All right, Mr. Denny. I’ll pass it on and see what we can find for you.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Dunlop.”

  Dunlop passed the request down within his own organization. He also passed it up to Projects, as they might know of information that existed outside of the ship acquisition department.

  Dunlop’s Projects contact, having gotten the orders for Project X from the Co-Consul’s office, passed the request up the chain, where it passed across the desk of Amanda Peters.

  Denny got a VR call request under an Imperial header, but it was not the Emperor. It was the Empress. He went full immersive and found himself in a simulated conference room. The Empress sat at the table. Her avatar was her last public image, in her wedding dress, barefoot, with the crown jewels across her chest and multi-colored roses in her hair.

  “Be seated, Mr. Denny.”

  “Yes, Milady.”

  “I have something for you, but you must not say where you got it. And don’t even ask where I got it. It is for your group’s use alone. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Milady.”

  A large-format document, like a stack of blueprints, appeared on the table, and the Empress shoved it across to him, the VR’s method of simulating the file transfer that was the actual underlying action.

  Denny took one look at the title bloc on the first page of the thick stack.

  “Oh, my God,” Denny said.

  “Will that help your effort, Mr. Denny?”

  “Oh, yes, Milady. Thank you.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Denny.”

  The Empress cut the connection, and Denny found himself back in his home office. He was shaking.

  “Oh, you won’t believe what I just got,” Denny said.

  “What? What have you got?” Narang asked.

  “This.”

  Denny pushed the file to Narang and Liu, which the VR simulated as laying the document out on the table. The title block on the first page read, ‘Democracy of Planets, Freedom-Class Battleship – Defensive Sensors Suite – Specifications and Performance.’

  “Where did you get that?” Liu asked.

  “I was told not to say.”

  “Where did they get it?” Narang asked.

  “I was told not to ask.”

  Narang reverently turned the pages one at a time, with Liu hanging on every page.

  “Oh, my God. Look at this,” Liu said, pointing to the current page.

  Narang ran his finger down one of the columns.

  “It’s actually not as capable as ours. Our ECM should work pretty good on this setup.”


  “Yes, yes,” Liu said, “but it gives the frequencies.”

  “This is a big deal?” Denny asked.

  “Of course. Everybody uses frequency-agile radar. It makes jamming much harder. But not if you know their frequencies.”

  “Ah. So this will be helpful, then?”

  “Uh, yeah,” Liu said. “You could say that.”

  They were sitting in the living room reading after dinner that evening.

  “Oh, I meant to ask you,” Dunham said. “Did you give Mr. Denny the package I gave you?”

  “Yes. He seemed rather stunned by it.”

  “I would imagine so.”

  “What I don’t understand is why you wanted me to give it to him.”

  “If the document leaks out of Mr. Denny’s group – and I don’t expect it to, at least not until it doesn’t matter – I want to be able to honestly assure King Michael that I didn’t give it to them. At the same time, I don’t want to distribute the document to someone else to pass it to them. At this point, I trust Mr. Denny and his group to keep it confidential more than anyone else who could pass it on to them. Except you.”

  “I see. A bit of a misrepresentation to King Michael, then.”

  “A bit. But it’s in his best interest, too. That it is in his best interest, though, might not be well understood by him before it could be a problem, if it leaks. He won’t understand, can’t understand, until we use whatever it is Mr. Denny’s working on. And that is something I will hold in reserve. If this all goes as badly as it could, I want some hole cards.”

  “Which you are not going to tell King Michael about.”

  “Correct. He is going to be under tremendous pressure to act together with the other independent star nations. When it comes down to the crunch, he can be trusted to act in Estvia’s best interests without regard to his assurances to me, just as I can be trusted to act in Sintar’s best interests without regard to my assurances to him. We will both be forsworn to each other before we will abandon our primary obligations to our own nations. And we both understand that about each other. So he doesn’t get to see my hole cards.”

  “But, if there are problems, you will be able to tell him it wasn’t you.”

  “Yes. To smooth over the temporary problem, while acting in our mutual best interest overall.”

  “Convoluted.”

  “Oh, it will get worse before it gets better. The DP is sowing trouble all over. Who knows where it will end?”

  “May they reap what they sow.”

  “They will, Amanda. They will.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because making sure that happens is part of my job.”

  It Begins

  The SCV Queen of Commerce dropped out of hyperspace in the Phalia System, capital planet of the Kingdom of Phalia, and started making her way to the planet.

  As she built velocity to the planet, a ship that had been spacing across the system changed vector in her direction. This ship was not squawking a transponder code. As she neared the Queen of Commerce, the captain of the Queen of Commerce hailed her on open channels, asking her intent. There was no reply.

  The Queen of Commerce changed course to avoid her, but her 0.75g acceleration was no match for the unidentified ship, which was accelerating at a 1.5g warship acceleration level.

  When the unidentified ship was within a quarter-million miles, it fired a single missile at the Queen of Commerce. The big freighter went to evasive maneuvers, but the missile’s initial velocity from the warship’s impeller and its additional 10g acceleration made the Queen of Commerce easy pickings.

  The nuclear warhead shattered the big freighter’s massive engines, which resulted in a plasma explosion that gutted the ship, and she broke up.

  The Queen of Commerce was lost with all hands.

  “We are starting to see higher-than-normal loss rates among freighters traveling to other star nations, Your Majesty,” Saaret said.

  “Higher than normal, Mr. Saaret?” Dunham asked.

  “There are always some losses, Sire. Mechanical failures, navigational errors that result in the loss of the ship. It’s not many, but there are always some. But the numbers are way off in freighters spacing to other star nations.”

  “How many?”

  “At least half a dozen in the last month, Sire.”

  “Half a dozen total, Mr. Saaret?”

  “No, Sire. Half a dozen more than we would expect. Eight of the lost ships reported to their corporate headquarters their arrival at the destination star system on down-transition from hyperspace.”

  “Have we inquired as to whether the destination star nation knows anything about it, Mr. Saaret?”

  “Yes, Sire. We asked, through channels, and they say they didn’t see anything. The ships just didn’t show up.”

  “But they reported arrival, Mr. Saaret?”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  “And we don’t have any independent information the destination system governments are lying, Mr. Saaret?”

  “No, Sire. By sheer chance – or careful planning – there were no other Sintaran commercial vessels in the system that might have picked up anything.”

  Dunham checked the time in VR.

  “All right, Mr. Saaret. Why don’t you hang around for a few minutes. King Michael said this meeting wouldn’t take long in his mail requesting it.”

  “Of course, Your Majesty.”

  This was the fifth meeting between the Emperor Trajan and King Michael VI of Estvia, including the one that concluded the Wollaston Insurgency. At their last meeting, King Michael had given Dunham the plans to the DP warships he had purchased. At that meeting, they had also switched to using first names in private.

  “Good afternoon, Robert.”

  “Good afternoon, Michael.”

  They shook hands and sat in the two club chairs that were the only adornment of the VR simulation of a meeting room.

  “Robert, I wanted to let you know our commercial ships picked up sensor readings of two unusual events in other star nations. They appeared to be an attack on and destruction of a Sintaran commercial vessel by an unidentified warship.”

  “You know it was a Sintaran vessel?”

  “In both cases, the ship was transponding as a Sintaran freighter, and it maneuvered at freighter accelerations. The warship had no active transponder, but maneuvered at warship accelerations. In both cases, the warship fired one missile, destroying the freighter. The initial velocity of the missile indicated it was fired from a light cruiser.”

  “What systems were these in, Michael?”

  “Phalia and Bordain.”

  “Both of whom denied they saw anything in response to our inquiries about our missing ships.”

  “Yes, well it was hard to miss, even on commercial ship sensors. Planetary defense sensors would not have missed these incidents.”

  King Michael pushed sensor files to Dunham, which the VR simulated as handing him a pair of memory chips.

  “Here are the recordings.”

  “Thank you, Michael. I appreciate it.”

  King Michael nodded.

  “What will you do now, Robert?”

  “I think we’re going to be sending some company along with some of our freighters. Maybe we can teach people this is a bad idea.”

  “Warships, into a foreign star system?”

  “Absolutely. Michael, I will not curtail our commercial activities, which is what the DP wants. We’re hurting their trade numbers, and that may be the actual driver behind all of this. But I am not going to have Sintaran nationals be sitting ducks for pirates.”

  “It’ll be an escalation.”

  “No, it will be a response. First, though, we are going to go and retrieve the ships’ records.”

  “They probably have warships close to the debris field to prevent that, Robert.”

  Dunham looked up at King Michael, and his white-blue eyes were those of a predator.

  A hungry predato
r.

  “Then the lessons will begin early.”

  Dunham and King Michael said goodbye, and Dunham dropped out of VR back into his office, where Saaret waited. Saaret was reading in VR, and dropped out when Dunham addressed him.

  “Mr. Saaret?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “King Michael just gave me sensor recordings from Estvian ships that saw our freighters attacked in Phalia and Bordain.”

  “Indeed, Sire.”

  “Yes, Mr. Saaret.”

  Dunham pushed the sensor files to Saaret.

  “What do we do now, Sire?”

  “Go get the ship’s records.”

  “An incursion into Phalia and Bordain, Sire?”

  “No, Mr. Saaret. All eight of them.”

  “They will be resisted.”

  “Oh, I hope so, Mr. Saaret. I hope so.”

  “Admiral Leicester, we have been losing commercial vessels to commerce raiding that is being condoned by the governments of some independent star nations. I intend to do something about it.”

  “Yes, Sire. Did you have in mind reprisal attacks?”

  “No, Admiral Leicester. I have reason to believe the commerce raiders are not native to the systems where the losses occurred. They are being condoned by those governments, but they are not being carried out by them. And they’re lying to us about them.”

  “I had heard they denied any knowledge of losses in their systems, Sire. How do we know they’re lying?”

  “I have commercial sensor recordings from ships that were in the system when the attacks occurred, Admiral Leicester.”

  “From Sintaran ships, Sire?”

  “No, Admiral Leicester. From other ships, from a nation I will not name.”

  “Understood, Sire. What are my orders?”

  “Admiral Leicester, you are to send a ship with one of the updated HARPER systems to each of the eight star nations to find and pick up our freighter’s memory module, so we can have our own scans of what happened. You are to design the operation and provide that ship with such defenses as it needs to perform its task safely. They may be waiting for you.”