Excalibur's Quest

by Dietmar Wehr

  After watching for a few minutes, the novelty started to wear off, and Koenig shifted his focus to the engineers. They were watching their displays, but not that intently, and were talking amongst themselves. One of them noticed that Koenig was looking at them. He grinned.

  “Getting tired of watching already, Commander?”

  Koenig shrugged. He was but didn’t want to admit it. “How long will it take to finish her?” he asked.

  “Oh, about thirty-eight hours, and then another day or two to checkout all her systems to make sure everything’s working okay. This is actually fast for us. If we had to build a ship from raw material, and I mean raw as in bars of metal coming straight from a smelter, then it could take weeks if the unit doesn’t have exactly the right kind of material at exactly the right time. That kind of stop and go is tricky. Building the first ship in a brand-new class will be even trickier. Did you know that HQ has got almost a hundred engineering AIs and EngSysComps working on converting the design specs for the Scimitar-class super-heavy into detailed programming instructions a unit like this can understand? We engineers keep telling anyone who’ll listen that the first ship of a new class built this way will have lots and lots of design snafus to fix, but the CSO is determined that eventually we’ll have super-heavies again, and that they’ll be built this way.”

  That news got Koenig’s heart beating faster. He hadn’t had the opportunity to see the finished Scimitar before she and his former CO, Tyler Dejanus, had sailed off into glory, but he knew enough about that class of ship to understand how deadly a Scimitar-class super-heavy cruiser could be. And if it was equipped with cloaking technology, it might be able to take on a whole fleet of enemy ships all by itself. As much as he loved conning a fast, light cruiser like Excalibur, he’d trade her for a super-heavy in a heartbeat. Maybe some day, he’d get one. With a little cajoling, he managed to convince one of the engineers to call up a computerized chess game for him to play with while Excalibur continued to be re-forged.

  After the ship was finished being rebuilt, he assisted the engineers in checking out her systems. The AIs had been removed before the process had begun and were now being re-installed. Their programming was so complex that even a few misplaced atoms could potentially degrade their performance. At first, he was of the opinion that the ship was exactly the same as before, but when he checked his quarters, he saw that one wall was panelled with something resembling wood, which Tizona had but Excalibur hadn’t. It was a minor cosmetic change that he knew he’d enjoy getting used to.

  Chapter Eighteen:

  R&R was over, and Excalibur’s crew were back on board. The new Durendal had a mostly new crew, although Nakatomi was once again its CO. Each ship now carried an assault shuttle, designed to be able to take out armored ground vehicles in case liberating Roark’s Drift or New Shangri-la resulted in the same kind of situation Excalibur had faced. Koenig and Nakatomi had received their official orders. The first task on the list was the recovery of the Roark’s Drift colony planet and system if Tizona and Curtana hadn’t already accomplished that. If they had and were waiting for reinforcements as ordered, then Koenig—as the Task Force Leader—would decide which ships he would take with him to New Shangri-la and which ships would stay in Roark’s Drift as a defensive force against renewed Jab incursions. Koenig had been surprised to learn of his temporary field promotion to Task Force Leader. All of the other light cruiser COs had longer terms of service in the TOSF and were therefore senior to him. Corrigan hadn’t bothered to explain why he had chosen Koenig, and Koenig hadn’t asked. Since both ships had hyperspace maneuvering capability, there was no need to jump together on parallel trajectories. Koenig had set a rally point in the Roark’s Drift system, and that’s where Durendal and Excalibur would rendezvous after proceeding there independently.

  The situation in the Roark’s Drift star system was unexciting. Tizona and Curtana had arrived to find six Jab warships in orbit around the planet. After carefully conducting cloaked reconnaissance, Tizona’s Hanson, the senior of the two COs, had designed and executed an attack scenario where all six Jab ships were hit by gravity beams at virtually point-blank range from behind. A few dozen Jabs had been able to abandon their wrecked ships via escape pods that had landed in the wilderness on the planet below. Whether any of them survived for very long was unknown, and neither Hanson or Koenig cared one way or the other. One good piece of news was that the Jabs hadn’t had time to bring forward additional ground forces. The Jab prisoners, who had been released when the Jab fleet had arrived in orbit, were quickly re-captured when the Jab fleet was cut to pieces.

  Koenig now had a difficult decision to make. When Excalibur had left this system, there were seven Jab ships still operational. He was convinced that one of the seven had been sent back to get reinforcements. Because the Jabs still had to make short jumps, it was highly likely that those reinforcements were on their way here and could arrive at literally any time. And given that they had already lost 16 ships here, it made sense that they would send a fairly large contingent of ships, perhaps more than what two swordships could handle.

  If he kept the task force together and waited here, they had a much better chance of defeating those reinforcements, with the added potential that the defenses in New Shangri-la might be depleted and easy to overpower by whatever part of the force he decided to send there. Hanson was confident that he and Curtana’s Torriega could handle anything the Jabs threw at them, but Koenig wasn’t so sure. Sneaking up on orbiting Jab ships that were easy to see at close range was one thing, but as he had discovered the hard way, intercepting an incoming fleet that was hard to target was quite a different situation. Nakatomi wanted to use the FTL relay, which the Jabs had not discovered, to ask HQ for instructions, but Koenig rejected that outright. What did HQ know that he didn’t? The answer to that question was nothing. He was the field commander on the spot, and asking for instructions would send the message to Corrigan that he had picked the wrong Task Force Leader. Koenig did send a report to HQ describing the situation in the system and the results of Hanson’s ambush. There was now lots of metallic debris that could be used as raw materials for an assembly unit. Koenig knew that Corrigan’s staff had come up with the idea of shipping the smallest possible assembly unit by freighter and then using enemy ship debris to have it make a larger copy of itself. Koenig’s report that the system was under human control would be the green light to execute that plan. It was while the task force was waiting to see if HQ sent a reply that Curtana initiated a video call. It was Torriega.

  “I have an idea on how we can improve the odds against a Jab reinforcement fleet. Suppose I take Curtana over to Alpha2 and set up shop as a sentry. Any Jab fleet has to come through there before they can jump here. When they show up at Alpha2, I’ll use Curtana’s superior hyperspace capability to beat them here in time for you to deploy the Task Force as you see fit. My suggestion would be to lie in wait just outside the gravity threshold on the side they’re most likely to arrive at and ambush them as they emerge from hyperspace.”

  Koenig found the idea tempting, but he could see cons as well as pros. If the Task Force waited outside the gravity threshold under cloak, they’d be able to detect the Jab ships all right, but the new detection system only gave approximate positions; they weren’t precise enough to base gravity cannon fire on. That meant his ships would have to get very close to each enemy ship before they could fire while cloaked, or they’d have to maneuver into positions where the enemy ships were silhouetted against the system’s sun and then decloak just long enough to aim and fire the cannons. That second option would put his ships at risk of return fire, and to Koenig that sounded too much like his previous battle with its negative outcome. There was also the problem related to communication between swordships while under cloak. Comlaser and tight beam microwave transmissions would be useless because the cloak would treat them like all other electro-magnetic emissions and curve them around the ship’s hull preventing reception.
He told Torriega that he wanted to look at the idea with his AIs and that he would get back to him.

  The first thing Koenig did was to check Torriega’s assertion that Jab warships would have to come through Alpha2. He told the astro AI to display the local starmap, including all three bridges across the Rift. Then he asked to see the comparison of the number of jumps and the time needed to cross the Rift for each of the three bridges. The results confirmed his suspicion that the bridge, which contained the New Shangri-la colony, was clearly the preferred choice, with less jumps and faster transit times. For Jab ships to take either of the other two routes would involve a deliberate and substantial detour that would only make sense if they knew or suspected that the preferred route was blocked or, at the very least, risky. Torriega’s idea of stationing a sentry in Alpha2 was one way to learn if a Jab fleet was close, but what would really help would be knowing where and how many Jab ships were in transit along the New Shangri-la bridge. If he had that information, he could shift the Task Force around confident that it would be in the right place at the right time. It was wishful thinking of course. Even if he deployed ships along the bridge, they’d have to leave their sentry positions in order to report back what they saw, and while they were away from their sentry systems, more Jab ships could pass through undetected.

  The solution popped into his head so suddenly that he felt like smacking his head with his hand. An FTL relay device could send the contact data back almost instantaneously if it were deployed along with the sentry ship. The Task Force didn’t have any spare FTL relays, because no one thought they’d be needed since Roark’s Drift system already had one. But each relay device had the capability to copy itself if given the right instructions and if the right kinds of raw materials were available. Koenig, checking the com and engineering AIs just to be sure, confirmed his suspicion that none of his ships had that information, but he could get it via the relay they were using to stay in contact with HQ.

  If he had relays that he could deploy anywhere, where should he deploy them? One place was obvious: New Shangri-la. A cloaked ship with a relay device could keep an eye on the system and report the comings and goings of any Jab ship or fleet. That would give plenty of warning insofar as defending Roark’s Drift was concerned but by itself did nothing to eliminate the risk of a surprise Jab attack on New Shangri-la. So, another relay had to be deployed further ahead. Koenig checked each star system in the bridge between New Shangri-la and the Jab home world. The relay could be deployed in any of them, but the home world system was particularly appealing. A cloaked sentry ship could give lots of warning of a departing fleet, as well as recon the entire system to pinpoint military and industrial targets for future attacks.

  Koenig’s heart started beating a bit faster at the thought of Excalibur moving around undetected in the Jab home system. His first reaction was to chide himself for putting his own desires ahead of the mission objectives. As Task Force Leader, he and Excalibur had to stay in Roark’s Drift to co-ordinate the movement of the other three swordships, didn’t he? It slowly dawned on him that the answer was no. If two more relays were deployed as expected, then he could control the Task Force from either of the other two relay systems just as well as Roark’s Drift. The strategic idea was enticing enough that he felt he needed to bring his AIs into the process.

  Ten minutes later, he had a plan that looked like it would work. AstroComp had enough data on the New Shangri-la system to be able to identify several small moons in the outskirts of the system, which the relay device could mine for raw materials to expand itself into operational size. There was far less data on the Jab home system, now designated as J1, but that didn’t matter if the swordship that deployed the relay unit there also carried all the necessary metals in sufficient quantity for the relay to become operational. As soon as the Roark’s Drift relay had assembled two more seed units, along with the necessary refined metals for them, Excalibur would take one to J1 and another swordship would take the other to New Shangri-la. One of the other two ships would take up a temporary sentry position in Alpha2, with the remaining ship staying here to defend the colony. Once both of the new relays were operational, it wouldn’t take long for the sentry ships to give Koenig the precise picture of Jab fleet movement he wanted. By then, it was entirely possible that additional swordships might have arrived from Earth too. It all sounded very good in theory, but he needed Corrigan’s approval in order to get the technical data that he would need to instruct the Roark’s Drift relay to begin making two more copies.

  The com AI was in the middle of preparing a comprehensive message describing the plan to be sent to HQ when HQ’s reply to his previous report arrived.

  CSO to TFL. Your update has been received. Tassafaronga has finally arrived back in Sol and is now being used to produce more Javelins. You can expect a fifth Javelin to join TF in approximately 10 days, with a sixth to follow approximately 15 days later. Do you have specific plans to move forward?

  Koenig grinned. Boy, did he ever. The additional Javelins would arrive just in time to beef up the defense, while Excalibur and the other ship headed for their destinations. It would take another three hours minimum before HQ’s response to his plan would get back, and he would be asleep by then. He left orders to start the relay construction immediately if the reply had that data and headed for his quarters wondering how Corrigan would react to the plan.

  Corrigan was just about to leave his office for the day when the com AI announced another incoming message from Koenig.

  “Put the message on the main display,” said Corrigan. He read it twice just to make sure he understood it correctly, and when he was done, he shook his head in admiration and said in a low voice, “Oh, that’s clever. Koenig, if you can pull this off, you’ll be adding a star to your collar.” He gave the necessary orders to send the data and composed a reply before leaving for home.

  Koenig woke up to find that the reply from HQ had the necessary data and that the existing relay was already busy working on the two seed units. There was also Corrigan’s personal message.

  CSO to TFL. Highly approve of your plan. Dejanus would have loved it. Proceed as you see fit. I expect to get regular updates of the strategic situation. Good hunting.

  Good hunting indeed. Koenig decided that as soon as he finished breakfast, he’d set up a video conference call with the other COs and brief them on the plan. There was no rush. It would take the relay another three or maybe even four days to complete the first of the two relay seeds. As soon as the briefing was over, Torriega could take Curtana to Alpha2.

  Chapter Nineteen:

  Things didn’t quite go according to plan. The first relay seed took almost a week to produce. Meanwhile, Durendal and Excalibur swapped shuttles. There was no point in Excalibur taking an assault shuttle to the Jab home system since liberation of the Jab home planet was not possible; therefore, Durendal, which would be heading to the New Shangri-la system, got both the assault shuttles. There was barely enough room in her hangar bay for them and for the relay seed.

  No sooner had Durendal jumped away than Curtana returned with news of an incoming Jab fleet of at least 10 ships. That made the odds ten to three. The fifth Javelin wasn’t due to arrive for another two days. Koenig sent a heads-up message to HQ and ordered his Task Force to take up positions outside of the gravity threshold on the side of the sun where the Jab fleet was most likely to arrive. All three ships were moving inward at 6% of light speed and would be within extreme gravity cannon range of the Jab ships when they appeared. The other two COs had detailed instructions since communication while cloaked would not be possible, and Koenig had decided that his ships would not decloak until all Jab ships were either crippled or destroyed. He made sure he was on the Bridge and in the Command Pod with the ship at Battle Stations when the Jab fleet was expected to appear. Curtana’s astro AI had calculated their arrival time almost exactly.

  Koenig nodded as the tactical display pinged for attention when the countdown time
r had five seconds left to go. The display was showing objects that the new system had detected. Nine, no, ten ships had just emerged from hyperspace. They were strung out in a haphazard formation along the gravity threshold. Only one was within Excalibur’s gravity cannon range—but that was expected—and Koenig had no intention of trying to hit that target at extreme range. His AIs already had the necessary orders, and they were executing them.

  “Nearest target designated as Romeo1,” said the tactical AI.

  “Excalibur is maneuvering to firing position on Romeo1 as ordered,” said the astro AI.

  Koenig said nothing as he watched the two green icons that represented Curtana and Tizona. The new detection system could detect them even while they were cloaked, thank god. He shuddered at the thought of collision with another cloaked ship if they couldn’t see each other. After a few seconds pause, the other two swordships also began maneuvering to take up firing positions on their nearest targets. Since the intention was to fire based solely on data from the new detection system, each swordship would have to get VERY close to the target in order to be able to aim accurately. Very close in this case meant within a mere 10 kilometers. Nothing like this had ever been tried before. At the velocities both ships would be travelling, a very tiny change in course by the target ship could cover that distance in the blink of an eye, and while the chances of a collision were small, they weren’t zero.