Colin explained how useful the AI was and over the following couple of hours managed to convince Dimitri the AI’s were a vital improvement to the ship.
Suddenly, Dimitri said, “Captain Gordon, I would be honoured if you allowed me to visit you on your ship and meet your AI. What is its name?”
“Of course, you may visit me on Theseus. The honour would be mine. And you may meet my AI, her name is Theseus. A new AI takes the name of the ship it is installed on, at least these ones do. I expect the one fitted to this ship will take the title, Ninja.”
“This is good, are you still in port tomorrow?”
“Yes, I’m trying to give my crew a break, rotating them to the planet for a couple of days’ leave.”
After that, Colin said goodbye and made his way back to Theseus and sleep. He woke next morning and did battle with the supply people who insisted his ship only had room for eighty missiles, not the 120 he was requesting. Colin persisted till they finally relented and started loading the weapons to top up his stocks. Colin barely finished with supply when he received a call from the airlock security detail to let him know Captain Molchaoff was at the lock requesting permission to see him. He made his way to the airlock to greet Dimitri. As they made their way inside, Dimitri noticed icons painted on the bulkhead just past the airlock. He stopped, looking at them for a few seconds then asked what they were for. Colin explained they were the ship’s score, the number of Pirates the ship destroyed or captured. Dimitri nodded in appreciation understanding the impact this one act would have on crew morale immediately. Colin offered to give him a tour. Dimitri eagerly accepted, so Colin showed him over the ship. When Dimitri saw the extra ordnance the crew were packing into Theseus’ holds, he wanted to know if Colin wanted to fight an entire Pirate fleet on his own. Colin replied with a straight face that he would if that was what it took to protect Cambridge from an invading enemy force.
When he said this, Dimitri gave him a long, considering look before replying, “You know Colin, I have seen your record, and I have heard about your exploits in Lahoshar. I believe you when you tell me you would fight the Pirates alone. But do not take unnecessary risks, the Federation needs more Officers like you, Officers who can think of new ways to fight their ships, new tactics to use and who can convince the others around them to do the same. You and people like you are the ones who will stop the rot within the Federation Navy, you will be the ones who turn the tide on the Pirates.”
The tour of the ship completed, Colin took Dimitri back to his office to introduce him to Theseus, the ship’s AI.
When he introduced them, Colin soon realized Dimitri liked her, he even called her ‘sexy lady’ which the AI seemed to be pleased with, she positively purred when she responded to the compliment because apparently, she knew it was a compliment. The three of them talked in Colin’s office for over two hours, mostly discussing the tactical and strategic situation. Dimitri even had a few good suggestions on ways to use the Cobras and Taipans, suggestions Colin made a note of for later analysis and work. By now, Colin realized Dimitri was generous with his knowledge and loyal to his friends and comrades, but he wasn’t someone to cross. You would gain a lifelong enemy if you did cross him. Dimitri was about to leave when Theseus informed them a single unidentified ship Jumped into the system, stayed near the Jump-Point for long enough to reverse course and recharge its Jump-Drives then exit. The ship didn’t have a valid Federation IFF and did not respond to hails. The two Cobras that were on duty gave chase and were gone from Cambridge for nearly a day before they returned, one sporting some minor battle damage. It seemed, the entire thing was an attempt to lure some of Cambridge’s defenders into a trap, the Pirates were trying to destroy the Jump-Capable Cobras and Cruisers. If the Cruisers had been the ships pursuing the Pirate, they might have very well succeeded. As it was, the Cobras didn’t emerge precisely where the Pirates expected, and the Shields were at about half strength when a salvo of missiles hit them. That knocked the Shields on one of the Cobras down long enough for some shrapnel to cause relatively minor damage, destroying two Point-Defense Lasers and several Shield-Nodes. The damage wasn’t terminal, and the other Cobra moved to cover its mate, so they had time to reset the Shield generators and bring the Shields up to nearly full strength. When both Cobras were ready, they unloaded everything they could on the Pirate force, destroying three of the six ships that opposed them. The other three escaped, mainly because the Cobras were nearly out of missiles by then.
If nothing else, this incident reinforced the opinion that the Pirates were up to something. A more concerning issue was that the Pirates were managing to contain the Navy in this sector within Cambridge System, meaning the rest of the Sector, with the exception of Lahoshar, was effectively swinging in the breeze, unprotected. Lahoshar at least had a credible defense though it was almost time to rotate two new Cobras and two new Taipans, along with replacement crews for the other two Taipans there. Sonya decided to delay the rotation till after two of the Cruiser upgrades were completed, or new Cobras were available. This would give them a little more breathing space if a major attack took place while the other ships were away.
Once Colin fine-tuned the placement of the additional stores Theseus carried, he recommended all the other Cobras and Taipans did the same. Having a few extra missiles could mean the difference between winning and losing if the Pirates hit Cambridge System with a large enough force. Gradually, the other Captains listened to him and began taking his advice. Every spare piece of space in all the Cobras was filled with munitions or food so they could keep going for a little longer before being forced to come back and resupply. Colin requested and was given permission to begin classes for the Officers detailing new tactics for the Taipans and Cobras, tactics that had already been successfully proven at Lahoshar. He also encouraged them to think outside the box, brainstorm ideas and then experiment with different things to see what worked. As time progressed, readiness gradually increased. There were always at least two Cobras far enough away from the gravity wells that they could almost immediately Micro-Jump to anywhere in the system. Whenever ships were in port, the crews were rotated to the planet, but they all knew they had to be contactable, even while they were off duty. During this time, there was a lot of churn within the Cobra and Taipan crews as people were rotated in to be given practical experience on a fighting ship while they waited for a new ship to be launched from the shipyards.
FNS Samurai was taken to the shipyards, and her upgrades began. In the end, those updates took the entire two months that were allocated, but she was a formidable adversary when she came out. They’d given her new, significantly stronger Shields, even stronger than those on the Cobras and Taipans. These new Shields came up in stages when the ship exited Jump. Samurai now had fifty percent more power from her Reactors than had been available with the old ones, the Laser turrets had double the power, and the thrusters and engines were upgraded and fine-tuned to give a better acceleration and upper, speed limit. Her Captain was delighted with her and the other two Cruiser Captains, jealous. They drew lots to see whose ship would be the next one upgraded. Dimitri won, so Ninja docked at the shipyards and the crew was given a couple of weeks’ leave, followed by intensive training in the systems their ship was being given.
Something nobody knew till much later, was that the AI’s were talking to each other, comparing notes, learning from each other's experiences, becoming better at their jobs. The need to help and protect their crew and obey their Captain was hard coded into their make-up, but they could learn better ways to achieve those goals by cooperating and learning from each other, and they did exactly that. In some ways, the AI’s were themselves in training for the confrontation everyone expected to happen sooner or later. During multiple practice runs, they learned exactly how close they could cut things before the maneuver became excessively dangerous. On more than one occasion a ship’s AI prevented a disaster by warning the Captain he was cutting things too close before it was too late.
The AI’s were also learning how to be a sentient being from their crews. During this time, the crews came to trust the AI’s and started to think of them as people. Perhaps they are, as far as anyone can tell, they show all the hallmarks of sentience. They seemed capable of original thought, they could hold a rational conversation, they appeared to care about the people who made up their crew. On occasions, they even seemed to be showing a sense of humour. Of course, these were a Sixth-Generation AI architecture. The Federation had developed AI’s over fifty years before, so a lot had been learned since then about the technology. Still, this was the first new generation for nearly two decades, and it only became possible because of some of the new optical processing techniques, and as ultra-high-speed networking became available.
Colin spent a lot of time, working with other Captains, fine tuning tactics. Two more Cobras were launched, and some of the other crews were shuffled around, so every ship had at least some experienced people mixed in with those who were less so. From time to time, the Pirates would send a ship or two into the system to see how they would react. The Pirates almost always came off second best from these encounters. The only times that didn’t happen was when the Pirate managed to escape before one of the Cobras could reach it. Colin didn’t mind the Pirates poking around in these small numbers too much, they were never able to stay in the system long enough to learn much about the System Defenses. It allowed nearly all the new crewmembers to gain real experience, not just simulated experience.
After the battle of Lahoshar, recruitment rates increased, most requesting recruitment to System Defense. The new recruits were run through the training, and as trained people became available, they were used to replace the people who’d been on duty for excessive periods of time, allowing adequate time to rest and recuperate before returning to duty.
Dave’s trial on Piracy related charges commenced. Even though he pleaded guilty, much of the evidence both against him and in his favour, still had to be presented to the Judges so they could hand down an appropriate sentence. Julia attended the court every day, tears in her eyes waiting to see what would be done to her friend and partner. Colin went along and testified to the judges about Dave’s cooperation, explaining how he’d never lied to them and how he willingly helped them on several occasions. Even Julia was put on the stand. She told the judges that even though he bought her as a slave, he’d never once treated her as anything other than an equal. She told them how he wanted to leave the Peschal Alliance behind but didn’t because he knew he’d end up on trial for Piracy if he came to the Federation.
After the testimony had been completed, the judges retired to consider an appropriate sentence. They consulted with the senior Navy Officer in the system, Commodore Sonya Nicholson. She suggested to them that a proper punishment would be for him to be remanded in the custody of the Federation Navy, to assist in combating the Pirates. They asked if he could be trusted in such a role. Her reply was that he’d already shown his trustworthiness on more than one occasion. In the end, the judges took Commodore Nicholson’s advice, remanding him into Navy custody for five years. Sonya had him on the official register within a few hours after sentencing. In the short term, he would be living in barracks, undertaking Cadet training. He wouldn’t have a lot of time to see Julia, but he was almost free, at least he was as free as military life ever allowed. Julia made inquiries about joining the military herself. They couldn’t accept her then, simply because of her lack of education. Being a slave and a woman in the Peschal Alliance controlled territories meant Julia was not entitled to education beyond that required for her to carry out whatever duties assigned by her master. The last thing the males in that society wanted was women thinking they were equal. Julia and Anne were quite good friends by then, so the next time she saw Anne, Julia asked how she could improve her education and gain enough qualifications to make her own way in Cambridge. Anne thought about it for a short while then introduced Julia to her friend Sarah Robinson. Before joining the Navy, Sarah qualified as a teacher and Anne thought she might know how to help Julia. In the end, they managed to enroll Julia in a school intended to specifically cater for refugees. Colin paid the fees because he believed she deserved a chance to shine. He could see she was intelligent and quick-witted, she was simply not very well educated.
The man who attacked Sarah faced a Court-Martial on the charges Sonya indicated to Colin after the attack and additional charges relating to misappropriation of Navy funds for his own use. The auditors found he managed to divert enough cash from the Navy coffers to finance a lifestyle far more luxurious than he could possibly have been able to afford on his usual Salary. Unfortunately for him, it cost his wife and family dearly when the home they lived in, and most of the other property they had accumulated was taken to help pay back some of the embezzled funds. They had to move into rented housing in a much poorer neighbourhood. To make ends meet, they all had to find employment though the children were only permitted to find jobs they could work in after school. Welfare was very limited on Cambridge, simply because there were more than enough jobs to go around for anyone who wanted to work, and almost all medical problems that might make it hard for someone to work could be cured or prevented beforehand. Sonya took some pity on the man's family and took steps to ensure they wouldn’t end up on the streets, making sure certain services and assistance were available to them even though technically, and legally, she could have cut them off completely. They really didn’t know their lifestyle was being financed by theft, but now his selfishness was hurting them quite badly. His wife filed for divorce soon after he was found guilty. At the trial, the woman found out what a truly duplicitous man her husband was, and she saw images of the injuries he inflicted on Sarah. She broke down and cried then, feeling responsible for Sarah even though she had nothing to do with it.
FNS Ninja’s upgrades were completed, and FNS Shikaku entered the shipyards for hers. Dimitri took Ninja for her shakedown cruise, escorting two Cobras and the Freighter with two Taipans and two extra Taipan crews to Lahoshar to relieve the force Commodore Nicholson had left there. On the way, they came across four Pirate Cruisers staking out a Jump-Point waiting for some unsuspecting ship to Down-Jump so they could attack it. One of the Cobras Micro-Jumped in behind the Jump-Point, blocking their escape while FNS Ninja came at them from the other direction. In the end, three of the Pirates were destroyed, and one escaped. FNS Ninja sustained some minor internal damage when a power feeder overloaded but was otherwise never in any serious trouble. By the time Ninja’s crew managed to patch up the damage, the Freighter was almost at the Jump-Point, so the two Cobras went through the Jump early to make sure the other side was clear. The Freighter followed thirty minutes later and FNS Ninja, ten minutes after that. By then, the escaped Pirate was a long way into the system, heading in the wrong direction for them to bother chasing after him.
The next Jump would take them all into the Lahoshar System. They worked their way across the System and once more, the two Cobras Jumped in ahead. Again, the Freighter Jumped through half an hour after the Cobras, and Ninja ten minutes later. They entered the system to see the tail end of a battle underway. The two Taipans undocked from the Freighter and escorted it towards the planet while the Cobras and FNS Ninja headed over towards the problem to see if they needed a hand. As it turned out, their arrival in the system was fortuitous because the Lahoshar System Defence Boats were nearly out of missiles when the new ships arrived in system. The three ships from Cambridge started accelerating towards the scene of the battle and Micro-Jumped closer as soon as their Jump Engines recharged. When they appeared nearby, the Pirates lost heart and began running to the Jump-Point. The new Federation Warships started after them while the Lahoshar ships departed for the planet merely because they didn’t have much ammunition left and needed to resupply. It was evident, the Pirates took a beating, they sent seven ships into the system, losing four destroyed, with the remainder all being damaged to varying degrees by the time they escaped. L
ahoshar System was becoming quite the graveyard for the Pirates. Still, they did escape, and the two Cobras and FNS Ninja turned towards Lahoshar.
Along with the new Taipans, the Freighter bought another load of supplies for the Cobras and Taipans staying in the system. These supplies needed to be unloaded, and all eleven Warships, rearmed. Dimitri traveled down to the planet to deliver a letter to Haliban Saudra, confirming that construction of the first ships Lahoshar ordered had begun. The Prime Minister was suitably impressed that their ships were underway so quickly. There’d been several small raids since Colin went back to Cambridge, but this most recent one was the biggest. A few days later, the returning ships departed for Cambridge. Their return trip went without incident.
Chapter 9
Commodore Sonya Nicholson sat at her desk, thinking. She knew her forces couldn’t stay bottled up in Cambridge forever. The Navy had to break out of the System, and they needed to do it soon. They needed to commence active and aggressive patrols, at least into the surrounding Systems and soon. Letting the Pirates poke their noses in here regularly, could only end with them assembling an overwhelming force eventually. She considered her options. There were now two upgraded Cruisers and six Cobras for her to use for patrolling and in defense of the System. The experience from the last resupply mission to Lahoshar showed the Cruisers and Cobras could work very well together, making an even more potent force. The Cruisers also had the capacity to carry some additional supplies enabling the Cobras to keep going a little longer. She realized Colin’s idea for a fast, well-defended ship carrying replenishment supplies for the Cobras held a lot of merits.
Sonya decided Colin on FNS Theseus and Siobhan commanding FNS Freyja should go on a short patrol into two of the Systems near Cambridge. There was a small Codai Colony, two Jumps back towards Sankarah that hadn’t been visited by anyone from Cambridge for about ten months. While there wasn’t any sign of the Pirates coming from that direction, the Commodore wanted to check on the Colony in case they needed help. It was clear now, the Peschal Alliance was actively probing quite deeply into the Federation, and they were doing so in force. Of course, Sonya regularly sent reports back to Sankarah but hadn’t had any replies yet. While Cambridge wasn’t exactly situated on the outskirts, it wasn’t at the core of Federation territory either hence this patrol. Carl, in Thor, would patrol in the other direction out away from Sankarah with Captain Simone Lister in the Cruiser Samurai and Captain James Black in the Cobra, Hiln.
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