by Chris Hechtl
“Telepresence or A.I., take your pick.”
“I thought A.I. is banned? And isn't telepresence vulnerable to jamming or hacking?” she demanded.
“First, the A.I. are on board with us. They aren't going to quibble if the A.I. on a fighter is nonsentient. Obviously, you don't need emotions or much of a personality to fly a fighter. Definitely none to run a smart missile.”
“Okay,” Jan said, puckering her lips.
“Second, yes, you are right about the telepresence issues. It is why the idea needs tweaking.”
“I'll say!” she said with a definite nod.
“Right. So, four fighter designs, unmanned, general purpose, interceptor, and bomber.”
“We don't even know if the enemy has fighters of their own,” Jan mused.
“A point for and against designing fighters of our own,” he said as he pulled up the 3D renderings of the various fighter designs into each quadrant of his screen. They rotated slowly with their stats shown. “This is all tentative, too much unknowns. What we're thinking is a fighter would have a crew of one or two, interceptor a pairing, organic and A.I. since they need to reduce mass, and bomber a crew of three with an A.I. as well.”
“Again, not really a carrier, girl,” Jan said as she studied the designs. “So, I'll take your word for it.”
“Believe me, I know the feeling. Moving on,” Admiral Lewis said. “We need to nail down the differences in the naval package too. Long- or short-range combatants. There are arguments for and against both I admit.”
“Fight close so you know you'll get hits in, but accept you'll take damage as well. Or fight long to protect yourself but get less hits in and have a chance of shooting yourself dry,” Jan replied.
“And that's why you are also an admiral,” Admiral Lewis said.
“Stop buttering me up and get on with it,” Jan said. “Sir,” she added when he looked at her.
He pursed his lips but didn't say anything for a moment. Finally, he shook himself. “Another argument is the balance of offense versus defense, plus the operational range of the ship. We're going to have to find a compromise.”
“I hate the idea of having eggshells with hammers,” Jan murmured, looking down and away as she mentally gamed out the implications.
“It might come to that. Having a dozen smaller ships versus one big ship is appealing in a lot of ways. But, in the end, it's not up to us,” Admiral Lewis said ruefully. Jan looked up to him. He shrugged. “It's in the hands of our civilian masters—the bean counters among them.”
“Joy,” Jan muttered.
~~*^*~~
Roman was glad he had implants to keep a lid on his emotional state. That and years of training he reminded himself. Years of putting up with civilian oversight. Overbearing, condescending, and brutal oversight he thought as he took his seat at the desk in front of the military oversight committee.
Since the naval command structure was still being argued and Admiral Lewis hadn't been confirmed as a ranking officer, it was up to him to carry the ball again. He'd hoped to have the frocked admiral on hand at least as an adviser, but the admiral had been called away at the last minute.
It's just as well Lewis couldn't be here he thought. No sense souring the man from military service before he was actually given the rank he was entitled to.
He kept his face expressionless as the committee began to argue over the scope and size of the navy. He could feel they were making some headway, but some jackasses like Senator Calhoun were stubbornly digging their heels in.
Senators Dewalt and Wagner were coming on board since they were not totally politically tone deaf. But their argument was over what size combatants. That transitioned quickly into other things.
“For the moment, we are focusing on sublight warships,” General Taylor stated. I know there is an argument going on both here and in the military community about building starships. A starship is a vessel built to project power, to go on the offense while a sublight ship is purely for defense.” He paused when his throat went a bit dry to take a sip of water.
“And we must defend Sol or all is lost,” Senator Camp finished for him.
“Yes, sir,” Roman replied, feeling relief that the Neochimp had gotten back onto the military oversight committee. At least he had one friend in court. “For the moment, we're focusing on defense. Once we're certain Sol can be defended effectively, we can work on projecting power.”
“We don't need to borrow trouble, General,” Senator Calhoun stated.
“Ma'am, trouble can come to us anytime it wants. No war has ever been won on the defense. Eventually we're going to have to fight outside of Sol. And,” Roman's face quirked briefly as he leaned forward, “let me ask you this. Would you rather fight here in Sol,” he tapped the desk with his index finger, “or in someone else's backyard? Somewhere far away where our people here won't get hurt?” he demanded.
“He's got a point,” Senator Wagner said.
Senator Dewalt grunted. “Okay, so sublight ships for the moment,” the chairman said. “I think we can decide on that and move on for the moment. Now the question is, what class I believe?” he asked, looking at his notes. “Or classes?” he asked, looking up.
“The age-old argument of quantity and quality, sir. In this case, it's also a case of size matters,” Roman replied.
“As in the bigger the ship, the better the ship?” Senator Wagner riposted.
“Not quite what I had in mind. But a bigger ship can do a lot more. There is only so much you can fit into a smaller ship,” Roman replied. The senator's eyes brightened suddenly. He started to say something, but Senator Dewalt put a hand over his microphone for a moment.
“Okay, so ships. We don't have a price tag on each size, General,” he reminded Roman.
“We haven't been authorized to design one yet, Senator. We still need funding for that,” Roman reminded him. “The more and longer we argue, the more time we waste. We need to be building ships soon.”
“Well! We need to get this right, not half-assed!” Senator Calhoun stated. She was still against the idea of the navy and was hoping to drag out the design allowing the possibility of the public forgetting or losing interest and the whole thing blowing over. Personally, she thought it was all blown way out of proportion, but the hysterics had control so all she could do was go along for the ride.
For the moment at least, she vowed.
“Yes, ma'am, we do, but we need to get something going now. We can at least get the basic parts going then figure the frame out. And I recommend you listen to the people who know what they are talking about.”
“Well, since we've never had a naval battle, I hardly see anyone who does qualify.”
“Not for space navy, not an actual battle no. But we have run plenty of simulations and exercises over the years. There have been plenty of games and game theory. Pulling out what lessons we can out of both and plugging in what we know about the enemy we've been running simulations.”
“Oh?”
“Here is your option,” General Taylor said, showing them a video. An enemy battleship jumped in with a small task force. A force of Terran destroyers raced to it. “We've run the simulation several times. In each,” Roman said as they watched. The destroyers first came in piecemeal and were picked off. The second simulation played out with them coming in concentrated. The group fared better but took massive casualties. “ …It takes a lot of wolves to take the monster down,” he said.
“I don't see that as a problem,” Senator Dewalt said.
“I do considering the number of lives lost, Senator. If you notice, that heavy ship has a lot of armor and heavier weapons than a destroyer. Each destroyer is the equivalent of a man with a 6-shot revolver. He's the squad in a concrete bunker with a couple heavy machine guns and plenty of ammunition. Bravery is fine, but what you are calling for is tantamount to suicide.”
“I see the smaller ships worked on defense. Is that normal?” Senator Dewalt asked.
“Yes, sir. We're basing this simulation on past wet navy experience where the smaller ships defend the larger one. They can act as additional sensor and weapons platforms and can run enemy ships down. But they can't sustain hits. In that scenario, the enemy goes for the capital ship first since it is the greater threat, allowing the smaller ships to defend it.”
“Run them down? Ram them?” the senator asked, wrinkling his nose in confusion.
“He means run them to ground. Pin them so they can be caught or destroyed,” Senator Camp explained.
“Oh.”
“But we don't have the time or funds to build capital ships and go toe to toe with them!” Senator Dewalt pointed out.
“True. But we can lay the ground work now for them. What I'm proposing is a compromise,” Roman said. He changed the simulation to his optimal mix. “This isn't perfect, but what we are proposing is a mix of screening ships, destroyers, with cruisers and possibly carriers if we can swing it. The cruisers will have more defenses and magazine space so they'll survive longer and be able to do more damage.” He paused as the simulation played out. When it ended, the tonnage and estimated loss of life was half that of the first simulation. “If we have more time, we can pack in more ships and better weapons. For the moment, we need to go with what we've got.”
“Now, hang on, you said we can get the ball rolling now?” Senator Dewalt asked carefully.
“Yes, sir. We can start building the basic components now. Life support and reactors for instance. Electronic modules, all that. Most of that will be civilian grade. All plug and play, everything we currently have in use now. Modular, off the shelf and ready for rapid production.”
“In other words, no reinventing the wheel,” Senator Camp replied with a nod. “KISS principle.”
“No, Senator. We will need better sensors, drives, shields, and of course weapons.”
“True. Better sensors though?” Senator Calhoun asked, cocking her head. “I'd think off-the-shelf would work just fine.”
“Civilian sensors are cheap. They are limited in range and scope as well as detail. With military sensors, you want long range and detail. You want to be able to pick the missile coming at you through any clutter or the rail gun rounds coming at you while you have time to do something about them.”
“Oh. Thank you for explaining that,” Senator Calhoun said dryly.
General Taylor nodded. “Not a problem, ma'am.”
“I'm still having a problem with these sims. There is too much taken for granted,” Senator Wagner said peevishly. “There are a lot of qualifiers in the reports too. So much can go wrong.”
“For the moment, we have a lot of variables yes. We have to work with what we know and make some assumptions until we know more. We are playing the spectrum, worst case to optimum case here, and choosing somewhere in the middle. But we need to keep the worst case in mind.”
“All right, let's table the discussion on ship classes for the moment. You mentioned platform attrition and manning; that's something that confused me,” Senator Dewalt said firmly.
“It comes back to the classes, sir. A ship needs a certain minimum crew—officers, noncoms, and enlisted. Each ship needs those,” the general explained.
“What about a fortress? Couldn't we build them in orbit with defense platforms? Offense platforms? Control them remotely?” Senator Calhoun interrupted.
“Ma'am, a fortress can't maneuver. It's a sitting duck. It can be avoided. Also, the platforms are vulnerable to electronic counter measures as well as physical weapons. There is also a time delay between the fortress and the platforms. If they are too far dispersed, you have issues there as well.”
“But, we can defend Earth with them so much cheaper and easier!” the female senator insisted.
“And what about the rest of the solar system? We build them, then what?” Senator Camp snarled. Senator Calhoun blinked at the Neochimp and then flushed as she looked away.
“Just defending Mars and Earth isn't enough of an option. We'd sacrifice the yards and all of our orbital industry. They could sit back and attrition us, or they could divert comets and asteroids to hit us. Eventually they'd wear down the defenses until something got through,” General Taylor pointed out patiently.
“Or pushed something too big to divert,” Senator Wagner said with a nod to the general.
“Yes sir. A small moon for instance,” Roman replied with a nod. That made a few of the senators sit up and take notice he observed.
“Back to what you asked, platform attrition is a ratio. It is the number of platforms to do the job successfully and how many we'll lose. Now, a small ship needs let's say, a hundred people. A larger ship needs three hundred,” Roman explained.
“See! You can man three ships with the people for one big ship!” Senator Calhoun pointed out.
“But that big ship has ten times the firepower of those three ships combined. It has ten times the ammunition too and ten times the survival ratio. Also, it needs the same number of bridge watch officers as one of the smaller ships. The same for the other departments. Those other three ships each need a captain, executive officer, tactical officer, sensors, defense, maneuvering, chief engineer … each of those are costly to train.”
“In other words, you get away with fewer chiefs and more Indians on the larger ships over the number of smaller ships,” Senator Dewalt said with a puckering expression.
Roman nodded. “I believe that accurately sums it up, sir.”
“I think in this case we need to listen to the experts and let them make the call,” Senator Dewalt said as he looked at the others in his party on the dais. Senator Wagner nodded. Senator Calhoun's face worked as if she'd bit into something she didn't like.
“What about converting our existing shipping into warships?” Senator Wagner asked.
“We're exploring that as we speak. It isn't optimal, however; a warship is designed for compartmentalization and for dedicated spaces for weapons, magazines, and such. They are built to have armor and redundancy. They need extra power, fuel, life support, and engine capacity.” Roman shook his head. “If you tried to add extra armor and all the bells and whistles to an existing freighter, it will be slow—a turtle. It will fight poorly, have a low survival ratio, and cost nearly the same as a keel up-built warship.”
“Ten pounds of horse pucky in a five-pound pail in other words,” Senator Wagner said, pleased he'd gotten an earthy metaphor in for the day.
There was a titter from the audience. Roman's lips twitched. “Eloquently said, sir,” he said with a head nod.
“So, you are saying they are useless? That we spent all that money for nothing?” Senator Calhoun demanded, not willing to be put off. If she couldn't slow the project down, maybe she could score some points against it.
“No, we're using them until we have something better. They can move supplies and goods too; don't forget how important that is. Logistics is vital in any battle. The old saying about for want of a nail a battle was lost is something that is drilled into our people,” Roman replied. The senator blinked at him.
“I'll send you the original quote, Senator,” Senator Camp replied dryly. “Continue, General,” he said with a nod.
“Thank you, Senator. At least the ships we have in space, those that are not in mothballs, are something for the moment, and we can train our personnel on them. But they are paper tigers; they would be like moths to a flame against proper warships,” Roman said sternly, taking the time to lock eyes with each of the senators in turn. “We can take them apart for parts, but it'd be costly. As we add true warships, we'll put the converted ships into the reserves. But as I said, we can't convert all, we need some for logistics.”
“Understood.” Senator Dewalt nodded and looked at Senator Calhoun in the eye. “What he is saying makes sense, Tamera,” he said pointedly.
“To you,” Senator Calhoun said stubbornly. “I still don't see why we're panicking over this. It could very well be a misunderstanding. Going into
a war footing could provoke them into a war.”
“They aren't here so I don't see how they could be provoked. And if they did show up here, I'd see that as provocation all right, one on their part. For me, I'd like to have some gunslingers around to protect us should that need arise,” Senator Camp drawled.
There was a bit of grim agreement when he finished that sentence Roman noted.
Chapter 17
Roman warily entered the trophy room of the Senate. He knew many called it that because many a head was mounted on the walls, a few more sentient than otherwise. He nodded warily to Senator Dewalt. Senator Wagner was nearby, pompous and swirling a drink.
“Admiral, we asked you here to cut a deal,” Senator Wagner said.
“I'm a General, sir,” Roman corrected gently. He could tell from the color in the other man's cheeks that he'd gotten quite a few tied on before Roman had shown up.
“Ah, my mistake. Silly of me. Devil in the details. Perhaps you should take this, Marcelo,” Senator Wagner said to Senator Dewalt just as Senator Beatrix Nguyen came in from the bathroom.
Roman kept his face impassive. Senator Nguyen was another E1 senator, but she was not on the military oversight committee. She was on the financial committee however.
“It's a simple thing, we're here to play let's cut a deal,” Beatrix said.
“Bea,” Senator Dewalt protested.
“What? Cut to the point. I've got an appointment in an hour,” the woman replied.
“Okay,” Senator Dewalt replied with a grimace as he cut his glower of reproval short. He turned back to Roman. “Bea is right. We're ready to cut a deal. We're willing to divert funds from the Venus project and several other projects to fund your navy.”
“It isn't my navy, sir. It is the people's navy. I'm a Marine.”
“It is your baby,” Bea said.
Roman frowned as he gamed the scenario out. The Venus funds were minimum from the government. They were supposed to match privately-raised funding. Many wouldn't be happy at that. Most likely the Earth First party would be elated because it would put that project off without hitting their own pork trough he thought acidly.