Excalibur's Quest

by Dietmar Wehr

  “If we commence continuous cannon fire at where we think Tango2 is, how long can we keep that up?”

  “Not for more than six shots per cannon without causing premature component failure due to overheating,” said the tactical AI.

  Koenig didn’t need an AI to figure out that the odds of getting a lucky hit were not good. If Tango2 got close to jump velocity, he would order the barrage as a last resort, but they weren’t at that point yet. Missile fire was problematic too. The Mark 14 missile would need to use its own onboard radar for last minute course corrections, and with Tango2’s velocity advantage, it would have enough time to use the missile’s radar beams to target the missile with graser fire. The Mark 15 missiles could stand off and fire, but they needed to be able to ‘see’ what the concentrated beams of x-rays were trying to hit, in order to be effective.

  “Is there a way to maneuver a Mark 15 so that it has a good firing solution?” asked Koenig.

  “A Mark 15 missile may be able to get into a position where Tango2 is silhouetted against this system’s sun,” said the tactical AI.

  “Very good! Let’s get one…no, all six Mark 15 missiles loaded. We’ll fire two at a time. Program them to detonate simultaneously if they have direct line-of-sight to the target. Launch the first two when ready.”

  Koenig held his breath as he waited for the missile to fire.

  “Missiles one and two have been fired,” said the AI. The tactical display showed two green arrows accelerating quickly. At 4,181Gs, each missile would add one percent of light speed to its velocity every 73 seconds. Tango2’s head start in speed and distance would not be enough to allow it to reach jump velocity before the missiles got the required line-of-sight angle by flying in a huge curving trajectory that would put Tango2 between them and the sun.

  “Recommend firing missiles three and four as backup,” said the AI.

  “Recommendation approved,” said Koenig quickly.

  “Missiles three and four have been fired.”

  Koenig checked the chronometer and noticed that the speed at which the seconds were passing seemed to have slowed down. He knew that meant his sense of time was being affected by the adrenaline surging through his veins. Several TOSF ground troopers had told him that the timing effect could sometimes be so severe that they felt they were doing everything in slow motion.

  “Missiles one and two coming up on estimated detonation point,” said the AI. Was it Koenig’s imagination or did the AI’s electronic voice sound different too? As he watched the display, both green arrows for missiles one and two flared into tiny bright dots.

  “One and two have detonated. Unable to confirm hits. Tango2 has stopped radar scanning. We no longer have any data concerning Tango2’s position or velocity. Missiles three and four will be in detonation position is fifty-five seconds.”

  “Come on. Come on!” shouted Koenig. He wondered if he should order missiles five and six fired too. Mark 15 missiles were expensive, and the TOSF did not have a large inventory of them. He decided to hang on to them for now. When two more green arrows exploded, Koenig let out a yell.

  “Missiles three and four have detonated. Tango2 has been detected visually against background stars and appears to be tumbling, probably as a result of atmospheric venting resulting from energy beam hit,” said the AI.

  “Do we have a good enough visual fix to fire cannon?” asked Koenig.

  “Gravity cannon hit probability is now fifty-one percent per shot.”

  “Good enough. Fire sequential volleys, with enough time between shots to avoid over-heating.”

  “Commencing sequential cannon fire. Probable hit…probable hit…confirmed hit…confirmed hit. Tango2 is breaking up. Continue firing?”

  “NO! Astro, change our vector so that we’ll be able to see what’s left of Tango2 silhouetted against the sun.”

  “Eighteen minutes later, the zoomed-in opticals, using filters to dampen down the light from the sun, showed four large metallic pieces slowly tumbling. The last two cannon volleys had literally cut the Tong ship apart.

  Koenig felt light-headed from the sense of relief and adrenaline fatigue.

  “Okay, stand down from Battle Stations. Astro, let’s head for the base. Com, give me intercraft. This is the CO speaking. We’ve killed the second Tong ship and will now be heading to the GED base to see if it’s still there. Off-duty personnel are allowed to celebrate in the Mess Hall. Koenig out.”

  With Battle Stations now over, the Command Pod opened back up and Koenig got out for a stretch. He was pretty certain that there were no more Tong ships in this system, but just to be on the safe side, Excalibur would approach the base from an atypical angle and wait until it was less than a kilometer away before using a comlaser.

  Just as his Bridge duty shift was about to end, there was confirmation from the base that it was undamaged. Koenig let Vasily take care of the docking and cargo transfer. He desperately needed sleep now, and falling face down on his bed, he let the darkness embrace him.

  Chapter Fifteen:

  When Koenig awoke, he found that the cargo had been transferred, and there was a message from the Base Commander, congratulating him on his tactical victories and inviting him over for a celebratory meal. He quickly checked with the Bridge where BDO Chen assured him that all was quiet, then headed for the shower while he decided whether to accept the invitation. In the past, he and Angela Carson, the Base Commander and former GED Base Manager, had clashed over priorities. But he respected her ability to get things done when she realized that business as usual was not going to work insofar as winning this war was concerned. His orders were to return to Earth after delivering the salvaged atomic manipulation equipment, but they hadn’t specified any urgency. What harm could it do to spend a couple of extra hours conferring with Carson over a meal? Having finished his shower, he told the com AI to accept the invitation.

  The meal itself wasn’t anything special, nor was the room they were in, but the discussion while they ate quickly became interesting.

  “My tech staff are all agog at the new tech you’ve delivered, Commander. They keep talking about building extremely large stations or ships in a fraction of the time it would usually take. Can this tech really do that?” asked Carson.

  “It absolutely can. With my own eyes, I’ve seen complicated structures seem to appear out of empty vacuum a little bit at a time. It’s really quite amazing, but the key is keeping the assembly structure supplied with the right kinds and sufficient quantities of elements. Once we’ve programmed the assembly units to build something big, it’s keeping them supplied with raw materials that becomes the challenge. That’s why star systems with asteroids are ideal for exploitation of this tech.”

  She nodded. “And we’re giving this tech to the Tong if they agree to a ceasefire I understand. Does their home system have asteroids?”

  “Actually no. I’d be surprised if none of their explored systems had asteroids though. Even if they don’t, and they have to extract raw materials from larger bodies like a moon for example, they’ll still be far better able to build transport capacity fast enough to save a significant portion of their population before the super-wave hits. That’s if they’ve got the brains to realize how stupid continuing this vindictive war would be.”

  “Have you heard anything about what the High Command will recommend to the civilian leadership in terms of dealing with the super-wave?”

  Koenig shook his head. “No, nothing. I think the CSO and his staff haven’t really given a long-term solution any thought, and they won’t until the war with both the Tong AND the Jabs is over.”

  “Yes, of course. Silly of me to ask the question, but I’m sure you must have given it some thought while Excalibur was in hyperspace. What do you think humans should do?”

  Koenig grinned. “I think we should build REALLY BIG ships.” They both laughed. “When I initially learned about the super-wave, I though in terms of re-settling on planets far enough away that we’d hav
e plenty of time to advance technologically—and maybe even evolve biologically—enough to shrug it off when it finally did arrive. My XO suggested moving to planets behind the wave, which has some intriguing possibilities if we can find planets that were at one time inhabited but no longer are. There might be a complete civilization that was abandoned, and all we’d have to do is move in and turn everything on! That’s a nice fantasy, but I wouldn’t want to count on it happening. Lately I’ve been thinking in broader terms. We wouldn’t be the only sentient race trying to outrun the super-wave. Hell, there could be hundreds of other races, just in this little corner of the galaxy, that are looking for new places to call home. It occurs to me that competition for the best real estate might get intense. With that as a scenario, I’m coming more and more to like the idea of shifting humanity from a planet-based civilization to a permanently mobile, space-faring civilization. What if we built ships that could carry, and support indefinitely, millions, perhaps even hundreds of millions of people each? A fleet of ships could travel around exploring this and potentially other spiral arms in the galaxy and would never have to worry about this or any other super-wave again.”

  He saw her eyes open wide when he mentioned millions of passengers. “But that’s not realistically possible, is it?” she asked.

  Koenig shrugged. “I don’t know, or maybe I should say I don’t know how big is realistically possible, but the Xenos clearly believed that they could build a ship the dimensions of which were measured in kilometers. It was so big that Excalibur would have looked like a shuttle in comparison, and they hadn’t finished building it yet. Clearly designing a really big…ah, cityship for lack of a better word, would be a technical challenge in its own right. The life support system would have to be far more efficient in terms of keeping losses of air, water, etc. down to virtually zero for one thing. Just off the top of my head, I can think of other problems like controlling heat distribution, power supplies, food production and storage, even something as basic as how food gets distributed internally. And that doesn’t even include more complicated issues like backup systems, communication and control systems, repair systems. I don’t see cityships being built any time soon, but if we assume that a decision is made to explore that kind of strategic option, then my guess would be that a series of prototypes would be built, with each one ten times more massive than the previous one. As the earlier prototypes gain operational experience and reveal design flaws, those lessons could be incorporated into later designs.”

  Carson looked a bit overwhelmed. “Now that you’ve brought up those examples, I can think of some more design challenges myself. Yes, that’s a fascinating concept. Any thoughts on what the overall shape of a cityship would look like?”

  “Well, the shape that maximizes internal space for any given size is a sphere. I can imagine that maneuvering engines would be placed around the equator. If the ship wants to be able to acquire additional raw materials along the way to perhaps build smaller, auxiliary ships, then I can see the top of the sphere, which would be the bow, being permanently open so that the cityship could just scoop up small asteroids by the hundreds, the way that a whale scoops up tiny fish. Excess material could be jettisoned via a similar opening at the back end.”

  Carson was now staring off into infinity with a smile on her face as she conjured up the image of such a structure. “I would love to be involved in a project to build a ship like that. But I doubt it’ll happen in my lifetime.”

  The rest of the meal revolved around more mundane topics like staff and crew issues, dealing with red tape, etc. When Koenig was ready to leave, Carson offered her hand, and he shook it.

  “It was good to see you again, Wolfe. Let’s hope the next visit won’t be long in coming.”

  “You never know, I might be back here next month. Thanks for the meal, Angela.”

  Thirty minutes later, Excalibur had backed out of the base’s enclosure and was accelerating away.

  Koenig was ready to be handed another mission immediately upon arrival and was therefore pleasantly surprised to hear that he and his crew were being granted some R&R time. Tizona was not yet back from her mission, and Curtana and Sting were on sentry duty where they were likely to detect any Tong ships arriving in the system.

  The R&R went by too fast, but Koenig still felt refreshed when he reported for duty at HQ and was told to come to a briefing later that day. When he showed up at the specified conference room, he was surprised to see it full of officers. The COs and XOs of the other three swordships, one of whom was Eriko, were there, as were the senior officers of the Tassafaronga, plus officers from a couple of supply ships, as well as half a dozen HQ flag officers. The only person he expected to see who wasn’t there was Vasily, and as soon as he took a seat at the large oval table, she entered the room too.

  Tizona’s CO was seated directly across from Koenig, and since the briefing hadn’t started yet, he got the officer’s attention. “How’d it go with the Tong, Hanson?”

  Hanson smiled, shook his head and replied, “Sorry, not allowed to reveal that. I expect it’ll come up in the briefing. I hear you bagged a couple more bogeys at the Base. Congrats. From what I hear, that was nice shooting.”

  Koenig smiled and nodded. “Yeah, it helps to have superior tech and firepower.” Hanson looked like he was about to say something more when his XO, who was sitting beside him, touched his arm to get his attention. Koenig looked around the table and saw Eriko looking at him. She gave him a small smile and nodded. He did the same. Vasily, by this time, was seated next to him. He took a quick glance at her and noticed that she had a tan. Before either of them could stay anything, they heard Corrigan’s voice, as the CSO quickly entered the room.

  “I’d like to have everyone’s attention. This briefing will start right now.” Corrigan nodded to one of his fellow flag officers, who got up and stood over by the side of one wall, which was transforming itself into a star map, while Corrigan walked to the remaining empty chair at the back of the table.

  “For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Vice-Admiral Rochfort. I head the Strategic Planning department. Normally this kind of briefing would be held in the auditorium. The fact that we can cram every CO and XO in the active fleet into this conference room is a sad comment on the current state of the TOSF. However, I’m pleased to be able to impart some good news for a change. The Tong were offered a complete transfer of the atomic manipulation tech if they agreed to a cessation of hostilities and a de facto armistice. In other words, effectively the end of the war between the Tong and us. They have agreed to that stipulation.” Rochfort paused to look directly at Koenig. “This agreement was reached after Excalibur managed to defeat a two-ship, Tong ambush force at the GED Base system, so your actions there, Commander Koenig, will not undermine the agreement.

  “Our Intelligence people are convinced the Tong will honor their agreement if for no other reason than that their already depleted fleet has now lost two more ships, which means their ability to continue the war is, in the short run, minimal. We’re going to take advantage of this lull on that front and shift our attention to the Jabs. There are still almost one million humans living on planets in systems that the Jabs control. Why they haven’t pushed further into human space we don’t know. Perhaps they think we’ve given up on the idea of recovering our lost territory and people. If they do think that, they’re going to find out just how wrong they are.

  “There is one more piece of good news before I get to the details about our campaign against the Jabs. As most of you know, Excalibur brought back a communications device from the Vergon. That device has recently become operational, and we’ve been in contact with the Vergon. They have accepted our offer of transferring the atomic manipulation tech to them in exchange for their cloaking tech. That transfer has been accomplished, and our technical staff are of the opinion that they’ll soon be able to adapt that tech to one of our Javelins. Preliminary work has already begun on retrofitting the cloaking tech in plac
e of the hull camo on Excalibur. While that work is going on, Curtana will be sent on a special, quasi-diplomatic mission to the Jab home world system. She will deliver the message that the TOSF will forego any military retaliation against the Jabs if they agree to withdraw all their forces from star systems that contain human colonies. Once they’ve done that, we will be willing to negotiate over the future status of the system containing the New Shangri-la colony world. Now that we have the hyperspace maneuvering tech, retaining control of the three bridges across the Rift is no longer a priority for us, and we’re willing to let the Jabs have that system, but only after our people on that colony planet have the opportunity to leave and be re-settled elsewhere.

  “If the Jabs refuse to withdraw, then by the time Curtana brings that reply back, Excalibur should be ready to field test the cloaking tech in actual battle conditions and will be sent to the Roark’s Drift colony system, which is the nearest human star system the Jabs have taken control of. Excalibur’s mission will be to rid the system of all Jab ships, and if necessary, Jab military assets on the surface. That will be Phase One. She will also be deploying a new FTL com device that is even now being built. Roark’s Drift will once again be the location for our forward base, and with FTL communication with Earth, it’ll become that much more useful.