Enemy of my Enemy (Horatio Logan Chronicles Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  “Drop us an octave,” Captain Perth rumbled, rubbing his chin. He saw the rear admiral's nostril's dilate and looked at him. “If necessary, we'll drop a band if we have to do so. The safety of this ship is my responsibility," he intoned. "Better to get where we're going a little later than planned than not at all, sir,” he said.

  “I'm not arguing. The safety of the ship is in your hands as you said,” Zek replied with a nod. “I was actually going to suggest two octaves though.”

  “Well, technically the safety is in their hands,” the Neochimp said, nodding his chin to Lieutenant Brock and the helm team currently on duty. They turned to see the Walrus swimming in the grav tank. “I appreciate the effort to try to map the rapids to make it easier. I know we were hoping to let others take some of the load. Obviously, that's not going to happen,” he said.

  “No, sir.”

  “All right, drop us two octaves. Get a handle on the engineering problems, Chief. If you need to keep us at that speed, so be it. I want a straight assessment by the end of the watch,” the captain ordered.

  “Aye aye, sir,” Percy replied dutifully.

  “I'm still correlating the wear notes. I know most of it is on the bow, obviously. I see what you meant about wanting longer range sensors,” Horatio said, nodding to Lieutenant Brock. The navigator nodded grimly. “I'll put in a word, but it will have to be on another ship. Caroline can't shoehorn them in.”

  “I know, sir. It was worth a shot.”

  “Well, we can't stand around here pissing and moaning about the shouldas and the couldas. Commodore, are you running that sim through Mercury?” Percy asked. Horatio looked over to him and nodded. The Neodog grunted. “On a tablet I'm assuming?”

  “Yes, it's why it is taking so long.”

  “I know. Unfortunately, we can't spare the extra processors now. Even tactical's computers are being used by the helm team and navigators,” the XO said.

  “Kind of scary when we need all that computational power just to run the ship.” There was a slight shiver.

  “Sorry,” Tulimak said from his post. “Damn tendril …”

  All eyes fell on Lieutenant Brock. He grimaced. “It's a case of a menu of bad choices. We take the least bad. The grav sheer isn't the only problem. There are, I guess you could say tendrils that link the masses. Some thick, some thin almost as thin as a wire line. They loop and are a mixed-up web,” he explained. He pulled out his tablet, tapped at it for a few seconds, and then turned it to show them the current view.

  Horatio nodded. The tablet's limited graphics processors showed the section of hyperspace they were in as a gray mass of moving and shifting bodies. It was almost organic. It also explained why navigating it was a stone-cold bitch.

  “We're going to need an overhaul on each end at this rate,” Percy said shaking his head.

  “You're still here?” the XO asked. “Get on that report,” she said.

  “I'm waiting on the downward translation before I get started. It'll be a waste of time if I do it now,” Percy stated.

  “On it,” Brock said. He left the knot of officers to go over to the navigator's station. He murmured with his noncom assistant who had been manning the post. After a moment, Tulimak seemed to look up blindly.

  “Octave downward translation. Power … engineering? Where is my … ah, there it is. Nodes charged, hyperdrive shifting, we have translation,” he said. “Wowa!” he said, rearing back as the images being fed to his senses changed. “It's … easier but …”

  “The compression is slightly less. You've got more reaction time,” Lieutenant Brock stated.

  “I know that, but the translation caught me off guard. Set up for the next translation but run a sim of what I should expect beforehand. Please,” the Neowalrus said.

  “On it,” the Veraxin CPO said, looking up briefly from her board before she went back to work.

  “They've got this. How can you speed up that wear sim?” the captain asked, looking at Horatio.

  “I … suppose I can …” he turned and noted Percy had departed. He grunted. “I was going to say pull a computer or two out of storage and use them, but I'm not sure we have the spare power in reserve at the moment. I can probably daisy chain a couple tablets together to run the sim.”

  “Parallel processing might work. If you need an electronics tech to make it happen feel free to borrow an off-duty one,” the captain stated.

  The XO pursed her lips but didn't say anything.

  “I think I can draw on the passengers. They aren't busy and probably could use something to do, Skipper,” Horatio said, cocking his head as he gamed out what he'd need. “I'll need optical cables to link the tablets. Power cables too since they will draw a bit more power than normal.”

  “No problem. Check with engineering,” the captain said with a dismissive hand.

  Horatio nodded.

  When he left the bridge, he pulled Olson in on the project. He distracted the obviously worried flag lieutenant by having him access the ship's logs and assemble databases on usage and wear and tear to feed to Mercury. “Ordinarily I'd have you set-up a dog and pony show on the load on each node and such. We don't have that sort of time. Get it done,” he ordered.

  “Aye aye, sir. I've made a poor man's super computer once before for a college project. I think I can do it again,” Olson replied with a nod.

  “Good. Grab a tech if you need additional help. I'll be along shortly to lend a hand as well,” Horatio said. “If we have to speed it up, we might need to jack our own implants in and have them run with any unused processing cycles they've got.”

  “Jack in, sir? Not go WiFi?” Olson asked.

  “The WiFi nodes are tied into Ensign Caroline and require some processing to manage. The more we do this old school, the less she has to worry about it. Which reminds me, disable the WiFi routers for the moment. They don't need to be trying to pull extra processors into it,” Horatio ordered.

  “Aye aye sir.”

  “I'll go wrangle some help and as many tablets as we can find,” Horatio said. Olson nodded. Horatio clasped him on the shoulder and then left him to it.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Despite the statement about passing on the dog and pony show, once engineering and navigation was assured that taking the ship down a couple octaves had helped, the crisis seemed averted enough for Horatio to make good on his threat. He had Olson present Mercury's findings to the engineers, bridge officers, and passengers as good practice for later presentations.

  It was a bit tight in the officer's wardroom, standing room only for some, but they got everyone in. Well, all but V'l'r. The Veraxin preferred to stand in the open hatchway.

  The holo representation of the ship and her wear patterns said it all. Olson, however, was too close to the problem to understand the pattern though. “As you can see, the wear is the most significant on the keel emitters, it is heavy up towards the bow but tapers as we go further back,” Lieutenant Olson explained.

  “Why?” Percy asked. “I mean, it fits the patterns from before, but why there?”

  The flag lieutenant grimaced.

  “I can answer that,” Lieutenant Brock said. All eyes turned to him. “I've been watching and working with our helm team for awhile now. The Picians tend to turn to dart around trouble spots. The selkie take it on the belly. I think it's instinctive for them, like riding a wave,” he said slowly.

  “It is,” Qilaq stated with a head bob.

  “So, we're good for the rest of this trip though?” Captain Perth asked.

  “Yes, sir, as long as we maintain this speed. I'm afraid anything faster and we start running into problems. Our sensors just can't see far enough ahead for the computers and nav team to plot a course around the tangles easily,” Lieutenant Brock stated.

  “Very well,” Captain Perth stated with a nod. He turned to Lieutenant Olson. “Good work,” he said.

  Horatio hid a smile as the young man practically preened. “Thank you, sir. It was a team eff
ort,” he said.

  “Good work all of you too,” the captain said as he rose. “Get on what repairs you can, Percy. We'll have some time when we're out in subspace to make what external repairs you can there.”

  “Fortunately we've got techs on board to help with replacement parts,” Percy said.

  “Those parts are for Bek,” Lieutenant Dvorsky protested.

  “I'll sign off on their use,” Zek said quietly. All eyes turned to him. “And if we can use your replicators and machine shops, engineering can rework the old parts. They are still serviceable as examples,” he said.

  Horatio nodded in mute agreement.

  “Very well,” the captain said. “ETA to B-102C?” he asked, turning to Brock.

  “Thirteen days, sir,” the lieutenant answered instantly. There was a collective groan in the group. “I know; we lost a couple days due to the downward translations. It can't be helped.”

  “Very well,” the skipper said.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Once things had calmed down a bit, Horatio talked with Zek, Percy, and the captain about the ship's overall design. “She's a scout cruiser; that's what light cruisers are designed to do. We scout. We do long-range pickets, that sort of thing. I appreciate the powers that be's faith in our getting in and out of the Bek nexus, but I think a hardier ship might be in order,” the captain said.

  “Agreed,” Zek said with a nod.

  That led to a bit of a bull session with the chief engineer booting up Mercury to design such a shift. It had started out as a project to help him and the others unwind after a long shift. Zek seemed intrigued enough to run with it. Horatio tried to stay out of the design team but invariably got dragged into it when Zek sought out his comment.

  Since the design was taking place in the wardroom, others who stopped in got engaged with it. Noncoms came by after awhile to add their two credits.

  Zek seemed bemused by input from noncoms until he thought them over. He realized some were well thought-out, and these people were the ones who actually saw the hardware and used it on a daily basis. They knew how it all ticked. They were the ones who had to maintain it. Ideas to make certain parts easier to access and tricks were duly noted by Horatio to his surprise.

  “I don't think Mercury can handle the level of detail we're calling on it so I'm just logging things now,” Horatio said.

  “Yes sir,” Percy said. “Neat little program,” he said.

  “It is that. Admiral Irons created it. I think he went a bit overboard with the features though, feature creep I think they call it. That's why it is buggy. But it is a neat tool to have,” Horatio said.

  “Yes, sir, it is that,” Percy observed.

  “You have a copy in your files,” Horatio said as he finished tapping out the latest recommendation from Baxter.

  “I do, sir?” Percy asked.

  “Check. Search for Mercury.”

  “I …,” the chief engineer's nose and muzzle pointed to the ceiling as he used his implants. After a moment, they came down. “Well, I'll be dog on,” he said.

  That earned a chuckle from the group.

  “What?” Percy asked, then when he caught on he chuckled as well. “Okay, it's been a long couple of weeks,” he admitted.

  “But it's about over now. We are exiting hyperspace tomorrow morning,” a tech said.

  “Thank the gods,” a noncom muttered.

  “I'm for bed. We're going to be busy once the ship is secured and rigged for subspace sailing,” the chief engineer said. He knocked back the rest of his drink then rose. Others did so as well. Horatio nodded, but his eyes fell on the rear admiral. “Admiral?”

  “I want to … look over this a bit more. It's so … different. The way you just go into it like this. I mean, a project like this would have taken months and would have been reviewed by design boards and revised, then reviewed again, on and on …”

  “It probably will be, sir. We'll submit the design to Antigua when we get the chance. Hopefully, they have their own design in the running so they can take the two, merge them, and a better product will come out of it.”

  “Or a more bloated one. You did mention feature creep,” the admiral pointed out as he too rose to leave.

  “Yes, sir. It's not just software I suppose. We'll have to make a note of that I guess,” he said as he finished the last recommendation and rose. “I'll have Olson set-up a website for people to log their ideas, a suggestion box. But,” he paused and yawned, “in the morning.”

  “Definitely,” the admiral replied, suppressing his own yawn with a fist.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Even though he tried to go to sleep, it wasn't as easily said as done, Zek realized. The stimulating conversations and project had awoken something in his own mind. He kept feeling his mind go back to the design and what else they could do. The idea, the sheer fun and challenge of it …

  It wasn't until 0440 when he realized he hadn't slept a wink that he heard the ship's PA kick on to report the ship had begun her final downward translation to subspace. With that firmly in mind, he did his best to turn off his rambling mind and get what sleep he could.

  Chapter 16

  Captain Perth observed the officers as they had different reactions to the derelict fleet as they passed through the star system. Commodore Logan scoured the fresh sensor recordings and pestered the crew for more. He seemed fascinated by it, even though he'd seen the previous recordings. “We seem to find something new here each time we pass through, sir,” Captain Perth observed as he came up behind the commodore in CIC.

  “Pass me a copy of the map of what you've found,” Horatio said. He hadn't seen a warship, but he still was holding out some hope of finding one or hell, more than one. He highly doubted they'd find a big one; that was too much to ask the gods of space for. But, a cruiser or a destroyer … that might be nice. He wasn't certain what condition they'd be in, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

  He grimaced mentally. It would be nice but ultimately futile. He knew they didn't have the manpower to handle the ship, nor the time to find and return her to service … if that was even possible.

  “You need to keep busy, sir?” a sensor rating asked.

  “Something like that,” the commodore said, studying the readings.

  “We need to do something about this—at the least use it as target practice,” a Neobobcat CPO growled.

  “No, no, don't do that. Break them up and we'd have even more of a mess on our hands than we already do,” Lieutenant Brock retorted. “They are fine enough as they are.”

  “True,” Captain Perth said with a grumpy expression. “They are a hazard to navigation, but we can handle it.”

  “Clearing lanes would be nice, sir. But really, I know it's not kosher, I guess you could say, to think of restoring them, but wasn't that what we did in Pyrax? It's … it's just not right to just leave them like that,” the sensor rating said, indicating the drifting silent ships.

  “Why? They aren't going anywhere,” the CPO said.

  “No. But every year they take on more damage. I think … I think we can do better,” the rating replied.

  “I'm trying to figure out which ships would be the best to salvage and in what order,” Horatio murmured.

  “Now that's what I'm talking about,” the rating said with a broad smile. “Can I help, sir?”

  “You just volunteered,” the CPO said. “What did I tell you about doing that Amos?”

  “Not to. But …”

  “Leave him be. He's fine. I could use the help. We'll call the team in too. They are bored; they could use the mental exercise.”

  “We can't divert to go sightseeing, sir,” Captain Perth warned.

  “No, but you could deploy a couple sensor drones to check things out and then recover them. Purely as, oh, future mapping and self-protection,” Horatio said with a smile.

  “Protection from …,” the captain cocked his head and then slowly nodded. “Okay, if you are willing to sign off on the tim
e on the clocks, I'm game, sir.”

  “Awesome,” the sensor tech murmured.

  “Tactical, work with sensors to set it up,” the captain ordered. “Let me know if we find anything important.”

  “Will do,” the excited sensor tech said. “Um, I mean, aye aye, sir,” he said.

  “Better,” the captain murmured eyeing the young man with a moderate glower. The young man's shoulders hunched as he got control of his excitement. He ducked away, suddenly intensely interested in his sensor station.

  The captain slowly turned a look on the commodore, but the commodore merely smiled slightly then went back to picking out the various ships.

  “That one. She's a liner judging by the livery—blue, silver, and white. I wonder if she's in our records?” Horatio murmured, pointing to a slowly drifting massive ship several AU away.

  “Possible. If she was big enough and went missing with enough people on board, it had to have made the news, and it would have been on the missing ship bulletins,” the captain said. He flicked his fingers. “Ensign Caroline, if we get a name, run it against our historical files please.”

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Horatio felt a stirring of reluctance when Caroline arrived at the B104 jump point and made her final preparations to jump. Their time in the star system had been some of the busiest in recent memory for him. Not only had he been busy with the mapping project, but he'd also delved into the ship's repairs.

  Admiral Zekowitz had also had a hand in those repairs, and Horatio judged it had been good for the senior officer. He hadn't stepped outside the ship, but he had piloted remotes to oversee some of the work. And the admiral had taken a hand in their repairs or replacements once the pods had been pulled and brought into the ship's boat bay to be rebuilt.

  And that had been quite the chore, Horatio thought. The boat bay, like almost all of the ship's large areas, had been stocked with cargo, not to mention the ship's compliment of drones and shuttle craft. All of which had to be either strapped down or moved if it wasn't vacuum safe. The bosun had overseen the process. A lot of the cargo had been tripped on for days while the engineers got the nodes sorted out.