A Galaxy Unknown

by Thomas DePrima

  Following a full-year test of the new equipment, the Galactic Alliance Council decreed that all ships under power in GA space emit an identification signal within a specific frequency range in the newly established IDS bands for interstellar communications. Since Inter-Dimensional Spectrum signals travel at point-zero-five-one-three light-years each minute, this offered more than adequate warning to other ships. Each AutoTect signal, repeated every five minutes, gives the ship's current position, destination, course information, and a GST date/time stamp. Galactic System Time is the current time of day at the Galactic Alliance Council Center on Earth, and provides a universal time reference for astrogation in all of Galactic Alliance space. The universal reference time insures that out-of-date signals are ignored by a ship's AutoTect system, while valid signals are processed and passed on to the ACS processor. The ACS processor sorts out all the valid signals and determines which, if any, other ships pose even the remotest possible threat to the safety of the ship, then plots their position and course on a monitor located at the security or tactical station. A moderate threat causes an alarm to be sounded that the entire bridge crew can hear, and a serious threat actually shuts down the Light Speed drive, as had happened when Jenetta's life pod was spotted and plotted by the Vordoth's ACS.

  Stiff penalties were established for failure to properly transmit an AutoTect signal. Sentences could range as high as life imprisonment for anyone who either deactivates the equipment or deliberately sabotages it. Even smugglers understood the value of knowing when another ship traveling faster than light is headed directly at their bow. So while they might alter their signal to mask their true identity, they nonetheless broadcast a signal when underway. That is, they did so until a decade ago, when piracy on the interstellar routes became a way of life.

  Since awakening, Jenetta had learned that as law and order devolved, so had travel safety. In areas considered unsafe because of the Raider threat, ships were not only allowed to deactivate their AutoTect equipment, but actually encouraged to do so. The very information that made AutoTect so beneficial for safe travel, namely ship identification, course, and schedule, was equally useful to pirates looking to plunder unsuspecting vessels. Once again, hyperspace researchers were called upon to help advance travel safety in outer space. Although the top speeds of military warships were classified, estimates put the fastest ship speeds at three-hundred-twenty times the speed of light. The top scientists in the field of DATFA calculated that speeds one day could theoretically reach as high as eight-hundred-sixty-two times the speed of light, as improved methods of building temporal envelopes were developed, but most ship designers believed that number to be wishful speculation. A more practical limit seemed to be five-hundred-twenty-five times the speed of light. And it was assumed that even that speed wouldn't be realized for decades, if ever.

  Even so, the goal of the scientists working on detecting approaching objects was to find a method of seeing something traveling on a reciprocal course at one-thousand times the speed of light, while your speed was the same, and offering sufficient warning time for both to stop, or at least get out of each other's way. They finally found it.

  The incredible breakthrough wasn't intended to supplant the proven AutoTect system, but to supplement it. It would never be nearly as reliable and foolproof on its own, but until the AutoTect system could once more be universally employed, their solution provided a suitable alternative that would continue to have significant value when the original system was reinstated to everyday use. To send and receive communication signals in the IDS bands, proper equipment was necessary at both ends, but like radar, the DeTect system only required equipment at one end. Sent out on a special IDS band in the hyperspace layer closest to normal space, the end of the signal away from the transceiver actually drops back into normal space for a nanosecond, ‘sniffs' the electromagnetic properties of space there, and returns a value to the sending unit. A computer then assembles the millions of signals returned each minute.

  The DeTect system provides a four-billion kilometer early warning system with a proven reliability of ninety-nine-point-two percent. At one billion kilometers, the reliability jumps to ninety-nine-point-nine-nine percent. As intended by the designers, two spaceships headed towards one another at one thousand times FTL, would have up to six-point-six seconds of warning in which they could alter course or stop until the danger was past. A ship like the Vordoth, whose top speed is only one-hundred-fifty times the speed of light, would have up to twenty-eight-point-two-one seconds to take action if the fastest ship currently in existence was headed directly for its bow on a reciprocal course. Since DeTect signals are tied into the ACS, if one or both of the helmsmen fail to take appropriate action quickly enough, the ACS will shut down their Light Drives.

  * * *

  Scans hadn't disclosed any sign of other vessels within DeTect range during the morning, so at noon Jenetta felt comfortable leaving the bridge to have lunch. The crewman at the security station would continue to scan until relieved. In the officer's mess, just down the corridor from the bridge, both the doctor and a man whom Jenetta assumed to be the chief engineer were already enjoying a bowl of soup when she entered with the captain.

  "Ensign," Captain Lentz said as they approached the table, "this is Lieutenant Moresby, our chief engineer."

  "Call me Charley," Moresby said, smiling as he stood up and offered his hand, "or ‘Chief' if you can't remember my name. I don't like to use my rank in front of my guys."

  About forty-years-old and of average height, Charley had rugged good looks and a fit body. The close cut of his jet-black hair would pass a military inspection, and he looked fully capable of maintaining his authority over most crewmen under his command without the need to pull rank. Jenetta returned his smile and shook his hand with a firm grip as she said, "I'm pleased to meet you Charley. I'm Jen."

  "Hi, Jen. Welcome aboard the Vordoth."

  "Thanks, Charley. Hi Doc, how's the soup?"

  "Delicious. Our mess attendant, Anthony, has a fine touch on the food synthesizer. He won't tell us what he does, but he always manages to make the food taste better somehow. Today's soup is Petite Marmite."

  As they took seats at the table, both Jenetta and the captain ordered the soup of the day. Conversation was light as they ate but the looks passing between Charley and the doctor suggested to Jenetta that there was something more to their relationship than just shipmates and fellow officers. And Anthony's vegetable soup was delicious.

  After lunch, Jenetta resumed scanning the surrounding space while the regular crewmen were excused in pairs by the captain to grab lunch. Just before 1600, she left to meet Lieutenant Sabella at the door to her quarters for the guided tour.

  "Ready to go, Jen?" Gloria asked.

  "All set."

  "Okay, I'll start with the basics," she said as they turned and started down the wide, well-illuminated corridor. "Unlike the multi-megaton military transport ships used by the Space Command Quartermaster Corps, commercial freighters are not single hull designs. The military looks for better flying characteristics first, and utility second. With us, it's the reverse. Like the ancient tractor-trailers that used to ply the highways on Earth, our vessel is made up of separate sections, temporarily joined together for the trip. The main ship is like the tractor and naturally provides propulsion and directional maneuvering for the trip. Constructed like a human spine, some flexibility with the cargo section exists, but maneuverability is severely limited compared to that of ruggedly built military vessels.

  "The Vordoth is almost fifty-years-old now, and most freighters her age went to the reclamation center long ago. But thanks to Charley, and several refits, she has a lot of life left in her. He says that if she's properly maintained, she'll do another fifty. We have a Benson-Sparr ellipsoidal temporal field generator mounted on the bow to produce our DATFA envelope for Light Speed travel, and the rotating larboard and starboard nacelles contain twin McCannes Solarsys II engines that provide our
momentum in sub-light. We naturally have numerous deuterium acceleration thrusters within the hull for maneuvering and docking functions. The rest of the ship is devoted to command and control, crew quarters, engineering, and freight operations."

  "You have a Benson-Sparr? Are they still in business? They were barely hanging on when I graduated from the Academy in ‘56."

  "The Galactic Alliance Council stepped in to bail them out with a series of interest-free loans and some lucrative contracts, so they've been able to remain in business, but they're still not in the best of shape. According to the maintenance logs, it took more than a year to get the proper replacement parts the last time this ship had a serious problem with its field generator."

  "Who's the big kid on the block now?" Jenetta asked.

  "Allison-Wilson probably has the most dependable temporal field generator. Several of the company's ships have been retrofit with their units when it came time for a major overhaul. Our McCannes Solarsys II engines may not be the most elegant available, but they're good, dependable work engines for sub-light travel, with enough power to do the job even when we're topped off at ten kilometers of cargo."

  "Let's hope that the Benson-Sparr doesn't suddenly develop a problem while we're out here."

  "Our spare parts inventory includes most of the vital components, so Charley isn't too concerned. He's the best chief engineer in the company and I trust his judgment."

  "That's good enough for me," Jenetta said. "What about the rest of the ship?"

  "As many as four individual cargo containers are attached to a Lewiston link frame and then the link is attached to the ship, becoming an integral part once connections are complete. The containers themselves are a standard ten-meters wide by forty-meters long, but the height may vary because it doesn't affect link loading. They come in five, ten, fifteen, and twenty-meter heights, but since a twenty is the most economical size to ship when calculating volume versus cost, they make up the majority we handle. The next most popular size is the quarter-container, followed by half-containers. We see few three-quarter size. Most containers not designed to handle ore or other bulk cargo are internally divided into multiple levels and sections to protect cargo in transit from being crushed by the weight of other cargo during planetary atmospheric operations, while the ore containers are just one big reinforced box. Placed end to end when inserted into the link-sections, each link becomes one-hundred-sixty-meters wide, and increases the ship's length by twelve-meters as it's added. The extra two-meters come from the framework holding the containers. Each container has two hatches on the top, and with the container secured tightly in the link-section, we potentially have airtight access to every single container while in transit."

  "Potentially?" Jenetta queried.

  "Certain cargos don't lend themselves to inspection while in transit, such as ore shipments. As I said, those containers are built like one big, reinforced box. If we activate the gravity decking in the container, all you'll see will be the top of the material anyway. And if we don't activate the grav deck, the material is in suspension. It takes a pretty hardy individual to climb down into an ore shipment while the ore is in suspension, and then I don't know what you'd see. It would be like swimming in dirt and rocks."

  "Is the grav plating usually turned off in the containers?"

  "Yeah, to save energy. It doesn't require all that much, but when you multiply it by several thousand containers, it adds up. So most containers are no grav, no environment. It really cuts down on the stowaways."

  "Stowaways?"

  "Not people— vermin. Of course, the irradiation sweep should take care of that problem anyway. No freight hauler wants to be responsible for the kinds of things that happened on Earth when seagoing ships spread pestilence, vermin, and harmful non-indigenous life forms to every port they entered. Every container, except those that have been thoroughly inspected dirt-side by licensed inspectors and granted exemptions, such as for certain fresh foods, medicines, and biological products, is irradiated when it's accepted for shipment by the company. No known carbon based life form can survive the irradiation process.

  "And just like all other freighters, the Vordoth itself is sterilized annually, or immediately after it completes a multi-year run. Every person, pet, and potted plant is off-loaded and the ship is irradiated from the bow to the stern. Then everyone and everything is individually decontaminated before re-boarding. At least for a few days, we're as biologically clean as the cleanest ‘clean room' in a nanotechnology research facility. The air circulation system continually scrubs the air, but it's possible to bring back something when traveling down to a planet or stopping at a space station, so as a final safeguard we regularly receive injections to protect us from all known viruses, just like the military."

  "I'm afraid my vaccinations are hopelessly out of date."

  "If I know Rebecca, you received your vaccination booster before you even awoke in our sickbay, so that your body would begin to build antibodies immediately. Now, back to the ship. The frame links are like the vertebrae in a human spinal column. They have a hollow core near their center. When connected, they create a tunnel that runs down the ship's length. This provides a fully pressurized passage that extends from the stern of the main ship to the last cargo link-section. The ship can be as long as necessary to transport all of the cargo being shipped, in one run, but GA regulations restrict us to ten kilometers for safety reasons. A maintenance link-section is usually attached amidship.

  "Since the Raider attacks began, most cargo vessels have carried some form of laser weapon protection, and although they haven't stopped the attacks, at least the crews feel they can do something to fight back. Our phased laser arrays are mounted in special six-meter wide link-sections, inserted every half-kilometer along the entire length of our six-thousand-four-hundred-eighty-meter long cargo section. The first is the very first section attached to the ship, and the last is attached to the stern-most container link. Our total towed length on this run is six-thousand-five-hundred-seventy-meters, counting the array sections."

  "How many laser weapons in each section?"

  "Four. They give us 360-degree fire capability around the center axis of the ship and once the gun ports are opened and the arrays extended, each array has converging fire overlap at one-hundred-meters from the ship. They're all controlled from the bridge, or can be controlled individually within the section."

  "That means you have sixty arrays intermingled with the cargo?"

  "Exactly."

  "How powerful are your lasers?"

  "They're rated at sixty-two megawatts."

  Jenetta knew that such low powered units were normally only used as defensive weapons against torpedoes, but could also be used to dispatch most unarmored or lightly armored fighters. They'd be hard pressed to seriously damage the armor of a warship, although the pulses could ‘chip away' at it until a hole was made. Assuming an armored hardness of twenty kilojoules/cm², the laser would have to remain focused on the exact spot to be pierced for a full four-point-three seconds to punch through. Remaining on one precise spot for four and a half seconds requires a gunner with remarkably steady hands if both ships are stationary, and an incredible amount of luck if the ships are moving, even with computer tracking.

  "We'll stop into one of the weapon sections later so that you can take a look," Gloria added.

  "Is that your only armament?"

  "Not anymore. This ship was weapons retrofit just before this trip. Four torpedo tubes were mounted in the bow at that time. The openings are camouflaged and it's supposed to be a closely guarded secret, but everyone on board knows about them, which probably means that everyone we've had contact with recently knows also. The security station on the bridge doubles as the torpedo weapons console. They also mounted four laser arrays on the main ship. Our firepower is probably the only reason we were able to keep sufficient crew for the trip. As it is, we only have enough command officers for two bridge watches."

  "Only t
wo?"

  "Yes. The Captain has the first watch from 0600 to 1800, and then I take over from 1800 until 0600."

  Jenetta nodded. "That explains a lot. I wondered why the first officer had the watch until 0600, and why the Captain was still on the bridge more than eight hours into his watch. There are no other officers on board?"

  "Rebecca and Charley are both officers. But while each is a highly trained professional, they're not command officers. Normally, every interstellar freighter has a minimum of four command officers to cover the standard three watches."

  "At least you're well armed."

  "It might all be window dressing, if it comes to a fight."

  "What do you mean, ‘window dressing?'" Jenetta asked, her puzzlement obvious.

  "It's just that we don't have any experienced gunners aboard. In a fight, we may just be providing a light show for the Raiders. The hope is that any Raiders would pass us by if they see our laser array link-sections."

  "From the outside you must look like a light destroyer."

  "That's the idea. The company asked Space Command to put troops aboard to man the guns but they said that they couldn't post troops to a civilian ship. Against some military regulation or something."

  Jenetta nodded. "Probably Article 38 regarding command structure in non-military environments."

  "Yeah, I think that was it. Captain Lentz argued that it was done on Earth back in World War II when merchant ships were being sunk by Nazi submarines and aircraft, but the SC response was that things have changed considerably since then."

  "Space Command would never, ever, agree to place troops under the control of a civilian ship's captain. It would violate Article 38 and a whole bunch of lesser regs."

  "Our hard luck if we're attacked. But at least it's almost impossible to attack a ship while it's traveling faster then light. We just have to be extremely cautious before we drop our envelope. Okay— let's take a tour of Engineering and then we'll take hover sleds through the ship."