Retreat And Adapt (A Galaxy Unknown) (20 page)

If the
Rio Grande
hadn't already been traveling at Light-9790, Commander Hodenfield would have ordered it.

* * *

"Admiral Kelakmius," the image of the Space Command officer on the bridge monitor said, "I'm Captain Steven Powers of the GSC Battleship
Hephaestus
. The Flordaryn president has accused you of holding some of his people aboard your ships. You will release them immediately or suffer the consequences."

"I am an admiral, Captain. I do not take orders from lesser ranked officers."

"My authorization comes directly from Admirals Carver and Poole. Admiral Carver says she warned you about starting trouble here and says that if you don’t release the Flordaryns immediately, you will never see the Tsgardi home system again."

Kelakmius bristled at the threat. "We will not return the Flordaryn workers until the Flordaryns return our torpedoes. They've left us defenseless up here. We must have our torpedoes back and our laser arrays functioning again before we release the workers."

"Admiral, you have one hour to comply with my directive. After that we will take action and reduce your ship to scrap."

"You wouldn't do that. You would kill the Flordaryns, as well as us."

"Never underestimate the power of Space Command, Admiral. We can reduce your ship to scrap without killing anyone. We'll start with your sub-light engines and when we're done, they'll never be of use to anyone again. One hour, Admiral. After that it will be too late."

* * *

"Come in, Barbara," Jenetta said from behind her desk as the computer opened the door to her office.

Captain Barbara DeWitt entered and gestured towards the beverage dispenser. Jenetta immediately nodded.

"How about you, Admiral?" DeWitt asked as her mug was filling with coffee.

"I'm fine," Jenetta said, looking up from her com screen. "I just prepared a fresh mug a few minutes ago."

DeWitt took her coffee and sat down in one of the chairs facing a desk large enough to host a small conference. Like everything in the Governor's Palace, it was meant to impress visitors.

Jenetta finished reading a report from Admiral Poole and looked up. "How's it going at South Island?"

"Everyone's tired, but we feel a real sense of accomplishment. We've completed the design of the bomb and we're ready to push ahead as soon as we can get the materials we need." Standing, she leaned over the desk and handed Jenetta a data ring. "Call up file BC01P."

Jenetta placed the ring on her keyboard's data spindle and accessed the file. She activated the room's large wall monitor and it filled with small images.

DeWitt stood, walked to the monitor, and touched one of the small images. It immediately expanded to fill the monitor. "This is the bomb. As you can see, the end is the necessary cap made from Dakinium that will allow the ship to build an envelope. We've designed it as you suggested, with a convex extension at the fore. The principal reason is, as you requested, for visual confirmation of firings and remaining weapons using sensors mounted on the hull. For the weapon itself, we've actually designed three different bomb strengths. They range from the power of a WOLaR torpedo down to one-tenth of one percent of standard nuclear torpedo strength. If you merely want to get their attention, you could use the lowest strength. If that doesn't give them pause, then you have the two full-strength weapons available. All three bombs are identical in size so they will fit into the same size cradle in the hull of the ship."

Touching the image again shrank it back to a tiny size. DeWitt touched another and the new image filled the monitor. "Here's the cradle we designed for the ship. It will be fitted into the hull to secure the bomb until release. It's made of Dakinium so the ship won't lose its envelope when a bomb is released. The bomb locks into position inside the cradle and cannot be released until the locking mechanism for that unit is retracted. Two tiny contact points activate the ejection jets in the bomb and the bomb becomes functional once it completely clears the cradle. Precision ejection jets are necessary so we can precisely time how long it takes for the envelope around the bomb to dissipate. From the time the bomb clears the cradle, there are four seconds before detonation. The bomb absolutely cannot detonate while in the cradle."

A touch on the monitor collapsed the image again and DeWitt returned to her seat.

"How soon can you go into production?" Jenetta asked.

"As soon as we can get the Dakinium components from the Jupiter foundry and the bomb components from whoever is selected to produce them. All the specs are on the data ring. In the meantime, we can begin cutting holes in the ship to accept the cradles and adapting the weapons computer so the bombs can be released on command from the bridge, and only when the ship is traveling at Light-9790."

"Did you say
holes
?"

"Yes, Admiral. We've decided that the ship should not be limited to just one bomb. It should be able to release as many as one hundred bombs before halting for reloading."

"That's a considerable number of holes."

"My team has agreed that one hundred is the optimum number."

"Why so many?"

"Mainly because the first pass may not do it. The ship will be traveling so fast that numerous misses are expected, despite our best efforts. I'm sure you understand just how small and insignificant a spaceship will seem when traveling at almost three billion kilometers per second. Second, the bomb cradles will have to be reloaded from outside the ship. An internal self-loading mechanism will have to be integral to the construction of the vessel and is something ship designers can plan for in the future if this armament system proves practical, but it's beyond our capabilities out here at present. Then there's the possibility that there may be dozens, perhaps hundreds, of enemy ships out there. We know of three, but what if there is a full fleet waiting to attack? Lastly, you may want to carry bombs of different strengths— a lightweight one, simply to get their attention, a mid-sized with a normal nuclear payload for small ships, and a very large one with a WOLaR payload for larger ships.

"To allow for testing, possible defects, and the actual units required for construction, we'll need a minimum of one hundred twenty Dakinium cradles— and I recommend one thousand bombs."

Jenetta nodded. "That's reasonable. What else will you need to move this project forward, besides the Dakinium components?"

"We'll need one hundred of the best ordnance engineers in the Second Fleet and a first-class machine shop."

"I can get you the one hundred best ordnance engineers posted on Quesann or aboard the ships in orbit. I can't promise they're the best in the Fleet because we have so many on ships out on patrol and other engineers that are posted to space stations in the region."

"I'm sure that will be fine. We'll evaluate their abilities as they work and assign the best of the group to assemble the most critical components."

"Anything else you'll need?"

"Fissionable material. We can either use fresh supplies from Region One stocks, or we can salvage material from our inventory of torpedo warheads. We'll also need a place to handle the material safely so no one is exposed to radiation."

"I'll arrange for the material from Region One rather than destroying usable torpedoes. We'll have to wait for the Dakinium cradles and bomb components anyway, so the time delay isn't a consideration. I'll find out if the nuclear ordnance center can be used for your purposes. If not, I'll get construction engineers working on a materials handling location remote enough that it won't endanger anyone else. I'll also attempt to have as much of the bomb assembly work completed in Region One as possible to take advantage of their greater production capability. That it?"

"Only that we're going to do our best, but I still have my doubts about being able to drop a bomb into a cargo container while traveling at Light-9790."

Jenetta smiled. "I know you always strive to do your best, and you've always delivered it."

* * *

Five months into her gender transformation, Nicole Ravenau had suffered through the most difficult stages. There had been weeks when the pain was so bad she'd wished she would just die. At times, even the sleep medication hadn't been powerful enough to let her lapse into unconsciousness, but the scientists had warned that stronger doses could have serious long-term consequences, so she had suffered and tried to lose herself in daydreams about the days to come.

When the ship arrived at Pelomious in two months' time, she should be able to walk without aids. There would still be pain, but it would be bearable. And over the following months it would lessen a little more each day. The thing that kept her going was keeping her eye on the prize. Within a year, she should have everything she had ever dreamed of.

* * *

"I'm bored already," Byers said as the five-member team sat down to dinner. "Do you have any idea where we're headed yet?"

"Nope," Vyx, who had just returned from the bridge, said pithily. "Our present course will take us close to dozens of systems. Our destination could be any of them or none of them."

"I wish that damn freighter was faster," Nelligen said. "Sitting in bars all day trying to overhear conversations isn't exactly stimulating, but it beats sitting around here all day."

"Funny you should mention that. The DeTect alarm that called me to the bridge was because the freighter suddenly sped up to Light-450."

"Light-450? That's as fast as their fastest warships used to be."

"Yeah, it looks like they're using the warship FTL drives in their new freighters since they're forbidden to make warships now."

"Can the link sections take the additional strain?" Brenda asked.

"They can if they're using tritanium now instead of titanium. I'm sure they considered that when they decided to use the FTL drive."

"We might as well turn around now," Byers said. "We can't hope to keep up with them."

"No?" Vyx said. "Remember that engine repair we had at Stewart just before we headed for Region Two?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"We didn't need an engine repair. Our FTL drive was upgraded to the same system used in the newest scout-destroyers."

"So we can achieve Light-450 now?"

"Light-487 actually. The original SD's were limited to Light-450 with a single envelope. The newest ones can travel at Light-487 with a single envelope, just like all of the recently modified warships in Space Command. Eventually, all of the ships will have that as their top single-envelope speed. The oldest ships in the fleet still can't be upgraded because their drive systems are too different from what we use now, but they'll probably be phased out in another decade."

"So our speed is even greater than the freighter we're following?"

"As far as I know. If they suddenly speed up beyond Light-487, we'll have to turn around, but I don't expect that to happen."

"That's great," Nelligen said, "but I'm still bored."

"Try reading a book," Brenda suggested. "That's what we do and the time seems to pass at FTL speed."

"Come on, nobody here believes that all you two do is read all day," Byers said.

"It is all we do all
day
," Vyx countered, "but it's certainly not what we do all
night
." He grunted as Brenda poked him in the ribs.

"I feel like a fifth wheel," Kathryn said. "I wish I had someone to read with all day and do other things with all night."

"You have your puppy as a companion," Brenda said.

"It's not a puppy. It's a Lyoxma wimlot."

"It looks like a puppy."

"It's cute, but it's not as cuddly and lovable. It's kind of finicky and aloof, like a cat, and jumps around like a monkey. I should have shelled out for a real puppy, or even a kitten, from Earth, but they were so expensive and lots of people were buying these."

"They probably would have been buying Earth puppies if they had been familiar with the species the way we are," Brenda said.

"That makes me feel better," Kathryn said sardonically.

Brenda giggled. "I'm sorry. I meant that they were buying what they were familiar with while you were buying because you thought they were knowledgeable pet owners and had a preference for the— Lyoxma wimlot over the Earth puppies."

"Okay. Point taken. I was too hasty."

"Nooo, that's not what I meant."

"Look," Vyx said. "If you haven't developed an attachment for the wimlot by the time we get back, sell it and buy an Earth puppy. I prefer Golden retrievers myself, but everyone's different."

"I like Beagles," Brenda said.

"I like Labs," Nelligen chimed in.

"I'm partial to Boxers," Byers said.

"Well, I like German shepherds," Kathryn said.

"Yeah," Byers said, "but what kind of
dog
do you like?"

Kathryn looked at him strangely for a second, then grinned and threw a dinner roll at him, hitting him in the forehead.

"No need to get violent," Byers said with a grin. "I was only curious."

"I think we're getting cabin fever," Vyx said. "I wonder what it's going to be like after we've been trailing this freighter for a year. Maybe we should have stayed in a hotel while we were on Uthlarigasset."

"And leave our love nest?" Brenda said. "No way."

"What makes you think we'll still be following this freighter a year from now?" Nelligen asked.

"Just an unshakable feeling."

* * *

"Good morning, Jen," Admiral Augustus Poole said as he entered Jenetta's office in the Region Two HQ Admiralty building."

"Good morning, Gus. What's up?"

"I just got a message from Steve Powers at Flordarya. The situation with the Tsgardi is resolved— at least for now. Steve put on his war face and threatened to blast the Tsgardi ships out of the sky if they didn't immediately release all the Flordaryn workers they were holding hostage aboard the five destroyers. The Tsgardi admiral blustered a bit, but in the end he had no choice. The Flordaryns were wise to offload their torpedoes and disable their laser arrays before they started repair efforts on the Tsgardi warships. It left the Tsgardi without a decent card in their hands when it came time to put up or shut up."