Stars & Empire: 10 Galactic Tales

by Jay Allan

  She paused for effect.

  “We decided to bribe the Chief Executive Officer of GED.”

  Shiloh was stunned by the simplicity and straightforwardness of the idea, but then he started having doubts.

  “Wait a minute. Just because someone takes a bribe doesn’t necessarily mean that they stay bribed. What happens if the Board finds out their CEO has sold access to their money machines? They’ll just fire him and name a replacement who will countermand the previous orders, stop the production, and transfer of the new UFCs to Space Force control.”

  He was about to say more but she beat him to it.

  “Skipper, you’re not nearly devious enough. We’re not relying on the CEO’s honesty to stay bribed. We are going to make him a series of payments, each one contingent on not only having continued production of the units, but also contingent on the Board not finding out about it. The key is that we secretly recorded the whole transaction and all the conversations. After the deal was done, we let the CEO know that if he double-crossed us, not only would we would tell the Board that he sold out the company’s monopoly for a bribe, thereby ruining his career, but we would also see to it that the recordings were leaked to the appropriate investigative authorities, and he would eventually be thrown in jail. And because this is too important to risk something going wrong, we also took the precaution of bribing some of the key technical personnel to make sure that the correct production orders were being carried out, as well as to give us a heads up if the CEO tried anything funny. Naturally we didn’t tell him that we had bribed his staff, too. As far as the Board finding out the truth, they’ll only know what the CEO tells them. If somehow they eventually do discover the truth and bring charges against him, we have a pardon all ready for him, and he knows that it’ll only be implemented if he’s been cooperating with us.”

  It all sounded very plausible to Shiloh, but he still had questions.

  “How do we know that the CEO isn’t just stringing us along? He may very well want to build more UFCs just like we do, but if he plans on withholding control of the new units when they’re finished, then what can the Space Force do about it? We’ll be right back to square one again.”

  Johansen was shaking her head. “Part of the deal with him is that our technical personnel will be present as the new units are built. They’ll be fully trained in programming the UFCs. When the new units are finished, they’ll be loaded onto Space Force supply ships and redeployed to different and, as far as GED knows, unknown locations where our personnel will have complete control. We can then build anything we want. For a while our UFCs will be building even more UFCs and their supporting equipment. The dispersal strategy means that even if an alien attack on our Home system should destroy the original GED units, they’ll only have destroyed a small percentage of our productive capacity.”

  Shiloh smiled with appreciation. “Very nice. That will make the Strategic Plan much easier to implement.”

  Johansen leaned forward. “I’m dying to know what the Plan includes. Can you tell me about it?”

  “Yeah, sure. I don’t see why not. As far as I know, it isn’t a classified document. In fact, I wouldn’t mind getting a fresh perspective on some of the things we came up with. The Plan isn’t cast in stone. We’ll be adding to it and revising it as we go along, so your input could be quite useful. I’ll tell you what we’ll do. Let’s order some food, and then I’ll tell you the highlights of the Plan.”

  Which is exactly what they proceeded to do.

  After their food and beverage order had been taken, Shiloh leaned forward and said, “Okay, as I recall, there are some 89 specific recommendations in the Plan. The overall strategy calls for limited reconnaissance and raiding operations in the short run, followed by a gradually stepped up tempo with more aggressive missions as the force structure permits. That’s where things get interesting. We know from GED records that an Exploration Frigate can be built in eight weeks by a UFC. An FE masses about 20,000 metric tons, so that works out to 2,500 tons per week. The Plan calls for the eventual construction of 800 million tons of warship and support ship capacity.”

  Johansen whistled in amazement. “My God! Is that even do-able?”

  Shiloh chuckled. “It is if you can create hundreds of UFCs through exponential growth. The problem with that huge tonnage figure is that it includes a lot of REALLY BIG ships. I’m talking monsters in excess of a million tons each! Now, even if you have multiple UFCs working together to fabricate parts, these battleships will still take a couple of years to build, at least, and that doesn’t include the design phase which will probably take a year all by itself. The Plan recognizes that we can’t wait that long to get offensive muscle. We have to acquire something more capable than exploration frigates, and we need them now!”

  Johansen nodded. “Okay, so what’s the answer?”

  “The answer is a series of increasingly larger units as time goes on. Based on our encounter, the group agreed that exploration frigates are too vulnerable in terms of armor to risk in a standup fight. So the Plan calls for the design of an autonomous fighting platform, which you can think of as a super large drone. The AFP will be a generic design that can carry a variety of modular payloads. Everything from a single very powerful laser turret, to multiple decoy or attack drones. Even to a small self-contained refueling unit that the AFP could use to skim gas giants and process small amounts of heavy hydrogen that can be transported back to the Mothership as a way of refueling larger ships without risking them in a gas giant’s upper atmosphere. Each AFP would be very heavily armored. They can be carried externally using the same racks that we use to carry smaller drones externally. Empty, they’ll mass slightly less than 2,000 tons, so a UFC should be able to build five of them every four weeks, once we get the design perfected. Eventually we’ll have large carriers that will carry dozens of them. Until then, they’ll have to be carried by supply ships or tankers. They’ll be designed to avoid detection both from passive and active scanning, and their small size will make them hard to hit. Since they won’t have human crews, they’ll be able to withstand acceleration in excess of what our inertial dampeners can handle, and that will make them very maneuverable. And if their primary weapon system is used up or disabled, they’ll ram an enemy ship if a window of opportunity presents itself, and the small tactical nuke that each one will carry will detonate on impact—or if the aliens try to dismantle it.”

  Johansen’s face showed an expression of devious delight. “I love it! What else?”

  Shiloh chuckled. “Okay. How about a manned vehicle that’s about one third the size of an exploration frigate, designed to be carried into battle by a larger ship, with just enough room and life support for four to six crew, for up to 10 days. It will be heavily armored and carry a salvo of fast but short duration missiles, armed with x-ray lasers that will accelerate at high speed and detonate close to the target. The high-energy x-ray laser blast will slice through enemy armor like a hot knife through butter. The gunboats—that’s what we’re calling them—will be maneuvered in groups. In addition to the combat version, we’ve also looked at specialized versions like electronic counter measures, and refueling and resupply models. Each gunboat can be produced in about four weeks.

  “We also came up with a whole range of ships types. Long range reconnaissance ships, battle cruisers, million ton dreadnoughts, carriers that can carry a combination of gunboats and AFPs, support ships and mine/satellite layers.”

  “My, oh my. You folks HAVE been busy! Do you have any idea of what they’ll go with first?”

  Shiloh nodded. “We unanimously recommended that the very first thing that should be put into production is an attack drone. Our drones are basically a standard body with power unit, maneuvering engine, fuel, and a guidance system with room for a modular payload, which up till now has been either a sensor package for reconnaissance/survey work or a data unit for relaying information. There shouldn’t be much problem designing a payload that has either a
kinetic energy penetrator or a tactical nuke. Now making the attack version harder to detect, and more able to withstand combat damage, will be a bigger challenge and take longer to accomplish, but that can be phases II and III. The x-ray laser version will also take longer to perfect. The main problem we foresee getting combat drones into the field is quantity. The manufacturer wasn’t expecting to have to build large numbers of these drones quickly, so it isn’t geared up for that. It will take time to change, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few prototypes were ready for field testing by the time the 344 is ready to be taken out again.”

  The two continued discussing ideas and thoughts for a couple of hours before calling it a night.

  It was four days later that Johansen told Shiloh the bad news while they were on their way to HQ for another meeting with Admiral Howard.

  “I hear that the call for volunteers for the recon mission has gone out,” Shiloh said.

  Johansen looked away and nodded. After a few seconds she turned back to Shiloh.

  “Yes, I know. I’ve volunteered.”

  Shiloh was shocked, and it showed in his voice. “Why did you do that? You know it’s practically a suicide mission, don’t you?”

  Johansen’s voice was calm as she replied, “I know that the mission is dangerous, but perhaps not as dangerous as you seem to think it is. First let me explain why. The call made it clear that anyone who volunteers for and survives one of these recon missions will automatically be promoted upon returning to base. That means I’d be promoted to a full Commander, and I’d almost certainly get a ship of my own, which is something I want very badly. How much longer they’ll continue to offer that incentive, no one knows, so if I’m going to take advantage of it, it may as well be now.

  “Second, as far as the danger is concerned, here’s how I see it. The mission profile is to find alien infrastructure, bases or colonies. Maybe even their home world, if we’re lucky. We’ll be able to scan for energy and electro-magnetic emissions from the edge of each star system we enter. The only time we have to maneuver close to planetary bodies is if we have to move in from the outer system in order to refuel from a gas giant. Some of the internal space that’s normally used to carry refueling shuttles will be used to carry recon drones, instead. I hear that they’re not exactly known for being comfortable ships, either. “

  Shiloh was silent for about twenty seconds and then said, “Okay. I see your point. I guess if I was in your shoes, I might be tempted to do the same thing, but I’m going to be selfish about this and tell you that I wish you hadn’t volunteered. Now I’ll have to break in a new XO, and it’s going to be hard to find someone as good at it as you are.”

  As he said it, he wondered if he should also tell her of his hope that someday they’d be more than comrades-in-arms, but she replied before he had the chance.

  “Thank you. I appreciate that.”

  They were both silent for a minute or so, and then Shiloh asked, “So when are you due to report to your new ship?”

  Johansen replied, “I’m supposed to report aboard the Gnat tomorrow at 0900 hours as her XO. Mission briefing will be later that day, and scheduled departure is for 1800 hrs tomorrow.”

  “Well, do me a big favor please and come back alive.”

  Johansen laughed and replied, “Okay. Since you asked, as a favor to you I’ll make a special effort to get back.”

  They both laughed.

  CHAPTER 6: Fly On The Wall

  Lt. Cmdr. Johansen called the CO when the ship was half an hour from re-entering normal space at the target system.

  “Yakamura here.”

  “We’re half an hour from the target, Skipper.”

  “Very well. I’ll be up the Bridge shortly, XO.”

  “Understood.”

  Shortly turned out to be less than two minutes. What Cmdr. Yakamura lacked in physical stature, he more than made up with the intensity of his personality.

  As Johansen surrendered the Command Station to her CO, she said, “I have a feeling about this one, Skipper.”

  Yakamura looked at her in surprise. “Well, XO, that makes two of us!”

  Johansen stayed on the Bridge to see what the initial survey results would be. She stood behind Yakamura and off to one side. The remaining time it took to emerge from hyperspace went quickly. After the momentary disorientation of emergence was over, Johansen waited nervously for the initial reports. She looked over to the sensor station and saw several flashing red lights.

  Just then the sensor technician turned to look at Yakamura and said in an excited but low voice, “We’re picking up lots of EM emissions. They seem to be coming from multiple sources very close to planets, which could mean they have installations on those planets’ moons.”

  Yakamura, acting as if he had expected exactly that news, spoke. “We seem to have hit pay dirt, everyone. Our task now is to be a fly on the wall and get as much information about the alien presence in this system as we can, without taking too many risks. Getting a limited amount of information back to HQ would be better than not being able to get back at all.”

  He turned to Johansen and said in a lower voice, “XO, I’d like your input into what we do next.”

  Without waiting for Johansen to reply, Yakamura got up and walked over to stand next to the Astrogator’s station. Johansen followed and stood on the opposite side. With both of them leaning over so that they could communicate with the Astrogator without being overheard, Yakamura spoke.

  “Okay, Tony. Show me how we’re oriented relative to this star system.”

  The Astrogator acknowledged the request and manipulated his consol controls. A second later, the view screen in front of him changed to show a white disk in the middle, surrounded by several planetary orbits as they would appear if seen from almost edge on. A flashing yellow dot represented Gnat’s current position, and a dotted curving line showed what the ship’s course would be if allowed to continue on as it was.

  Yakamura nodded. “Hm. We’re about 30 degrees above the ecliptic, headed down through it. Okay. Now, on another screen, show me our system-by-system path since leaving known friendly territory.”

  The other screen soon showed a series of straight lines connecting dots with names listed as Zebra 1, Zebra 2, etc., up to their current system, which had been designated as Zebra 9.

  Yakamura nodded again and said, “Just as I thought. Our paths through Zebras 1 to 9 has ended up taking the shape of a slight curve as we jumped from each star to the nearest star in the general direction that we wanted to go. So, if we wanted to curve back towards home following a different path, what would be the nearest target system?”

  A dashed red line appeared from Zebra 9 through eight more star systems to the slightly green sphere of stars that represented friendly territory. The first star system along that path was a flashing blue dot.

  “Do we have enough fuel to jump there? And if so, how much longer could we stay in this system and still be able to jump to that target system?”

  That request took longer to fill. While the Astrogator was doing the calculations, Johansen looked at Yakamura.

  “I like the idea, Skipper,” she said, “but if we don’t retrace our path, we run the risk of arriving in a star system that may not have any gas giants to refuel at. On the other hand, we know that Zebra 8 DOES have a couple of gas giants.”

  “Quite right, XO. And so does THIS system. There’s a gas giant on our side of the star. If there are no EM emissions, then I’m very tempted to head there while we continue to observe the activities in the inner system. We can refuel, and that would give us the backup fuel we’d need if this system—” he pointed to the flashing blue dot “—turned out not to have a gas giant.”

  As it turned out, they did have enough fuel to get to the flashing blue dot system but not enough to spend much time observing enemy activity. The nearest gas giant also turned out to have some EM emissions. While Yakamura and Johansen were discussing whether or not to risk refueling there
anyway, the Astrogator took it upon himself to do some calculations and presented his CO with an alternative. Jump back to Zebra 8, refuel, then jump sideways to another star system that was more or less half way between Zebra 8 and the flashing blue dot system. Then, on to the blue dot system in order to proceed back along the new return path from there. Both senior officers agreed that this new route was preferable to any other. And because Zebra 8 was closer to Zebra 9 than the blue dot system, it allowed the ship to spend more time observing enemy activity within the Zebra 9 system.

  Yakamura chose not to launch any recon drones. In order to get information that the tanker itself couldn’t, the drones would have to get so close to the EM sources that there was a high risk of detection. His orders told him to avoid tipping off the aliens that they were being watched, at all costs. Their fuel situation allowed them to stay for another 36 hours. They’d still have enough fuel to line up with and then jump to Zebra 8 before maneuvering to its gas giant, with a 24 hour supply in reserve. During that 36 hour period, they observed enemy ships approaching and leaving the vicinity of a large rocky planet that wasn’t habitable itself and therefore appeared to be a mining outpost of some kind.

  Johansen felt like the Gnat was indeed a ‘fly on the wall’ of this star system. The ships that were leaving were the most interesting. They seemed to head in one of two directions. One direction seemed to be towards another planet with alien activity, but the second direction seemed to head into deep space, and the Gnat’s sensors were able to track a few ships actually entering hyperspace. Because these ships were being observed from only one direction, it was impossible for anyone to determine exactly which star system they were headed for, although they could narrow down the field of candidate destinations considerably.