Scimitar's Glory: A Swordships Odyssey Novel
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Scimitar’s Glory
By Dietmar Arthur Wehr
Amazon Edition
Copyright 2018 Non-Linear Visions Inc.
Illustration © Tom Edwards
Tom EdwardsDesign.com
Other books by the author (many of these books are also available as audiobooks):
The Synchronicity War Part 1
The Synchronicity War Part 2
The Synchronicity War Part 3
The Synchronicity War Part 4
The Synchronicity War Omnibus edition (complete series)
The Retro War (stand alone novel set in the Sync War universe)
Rumors of Glory (The System States Rebellion book 1)
Rumors of Honor (SSR book 2)
Rumors of Salvation (SSR book 3)
The System States Rebellion (complete series)
Empire in Crisis
The Last Valkyrie (A stand alone Space Opera novel)
The Thunder of War
The Thunder of Vengeance
The Tattooed Angel (A tale of the High Avenging Angel)
Contents
Other books by the author (many of these books are also available as audiobooks):
Cast of Characters (and rank as they first appear):
Glossary of Terms:
List of Ships:
Background information on the Swordships Odyssey universe:
Chapter One:
Chapter Two:
Chapter Three:
Chapter Four:
Chapter Five:
Chapter Six:
Chapter Seven:
Chapter Eight:
Chapter Nine:
Chapter Ten:
Chapter Eleven:
Chapter Twelve:
Chapter Thirteen:
Chapter Fourteen:
Chapter Fifteen:
Chapter Sixteen:
Chapter Seventeen:
Chapter Eighteen:
Appendix A (What the Heck are Gravity Cannon?):
Preview Chapters:
Chapter One:
Chapter Two:
Chapter Three:
Chapter Four:
Chapter Five:
Author’s Comments:
Cast of Characters (and rank as they first appear):
Carson (Angela) – Manager of General ElectroDynamics Corp. R&D base
Corrigan – Admiral and Chief of Space Operations for TOSF
Cortez (Hector) – Commander, Heavy cruiser Coral Sea
Dejanus (Tyler) – Commander, Light cruiser Excalibur
Koenig (Wolfe) – Executive Officer (XO) Light cruiser Excalibur
Molitor (Jake) – Commander, Support ship Reforger
Nakatomi – Commander, Light cruiser Durendal
Rostov – Admiral, 7th Fleet
Soriya (Eriko) – Senior Lieutenant, 3rd Officer, Light cruiser Excalibur
Steiner (Gregor) – Commander, Heavy cruiser Valley Forge
Torriega – Commander, Light cruiser Curtana
Truman (Marcus) – Commander, Super-heavy cruiser Corregidor
Tulagi (Jean) – Executive Officer, Super-heavy cruiser Scimitar
Glossary of Terms:
AstroComp – Computer programmed specifically for astrogational computations.
BDO – Bridge Duty Officer
ComComp – Computer programmed specifically for communications computations.
ECM – Electronic Countermeasures (used to jam/spoof or negate enemy radar)
EngSysComp – Computer programmed specifically to monitor engineering systems.
EVA – Extra-Vehicular Activity
Graser – short form for Gamma Ray Laser
MOE – Margin of Error
OAE – Optical Alignment Error
TacComp – Computer programmed for tactical computations.
TOSF – Treaty Organization Space Force
UETO – United Earth Treaty Organization
List of Ships:
Super-heavy cruisers:
Coral Sea
Corregidor
Scimitar (one of the swordships)
Heavy cruisers:
Ardennes
Barent’s Sea
Dogger Bank
Jutland
Kursk
Leyte Gulf
Lexington
Saratoga
Tassafaronga
Valley Forge
Yorktown
Light cruisers:
Javelin Class:
Javelin
Excalibur (one of the swordships)
Durendal (one of the swordships)
Curtana (one of the swordships)
Tizona (one of the swordships)
Stinger (one of the swordships)
Other LC Class ships:
Trafalgar
Gavutu
Support ships:
Reforger
Redeemer
Replenisher
Background information on the Swordships Odyssey universe:
Interstellar travel is based on jumps through hyperspace. Once a ship is in hyperspace, it will continue indefinitely until it bumps into a region where the fabric of space is stretched due to the gravity of a nearby star or, if large enough, potentially a planet. The distances that can be safely traversed in a single hyperjump are limited by how accurately a starship can aim itself at the gravity well of its destination star. The further away the destination star, the more difficult it becomes to hit its gravity well. Therefore, travelling over a long distance has to consist of a series of short hyperjumps, and after each one, the starship must travel around the star to get to the other side of the gravity well. Ships need to reach speeds of at least 15,000 kilometers per second before they can slip into hyperspace and only then if they are far enough away from the center of a star-generated gravity well: 508 million kilometers from a star the size of Earth’s sun.
Some regions of space have voids, the traversing of which is only possible when there are isolated star systems that can form a chain of shorter jumps in order to create a bridge.
The United Earth Treaty Organization (UETO) has primary responsibility for monitoring, supervising and safeguarding all extra-terrestrial colonies, stations and shipping. Its enforcement arm is the TOSF (Treaty Organization Space Force)
Commercial starships can accelerate in normal space at rates of up to 987Gs. TOSF ships can accelerate at 1597Gs. Missiles are long range weapons that can accelerate at 4,181Gs. Gamma ray lasers (grasers) are short range weapons capable of penetrating even thick hull armor.
The TOSF has made contact with two alien races on opposite sides of explored space. The Jabs are a race that has only recently achieved star travel. Their space is across a void that has three known bridges. They have asked for technical and military equipment assistance to defend themselves against another race on the opposite side from the UETO. The TOSF has transferred warships containing old technology to the Jabs who have secretly improved the technology and built a large fleet.
On the opposite side of human space are the Tongs, who are openly aggressive with a militaristic culture that glorifies battle. They are currently believed to be involved in a war with another race.
FTL communication is considered impossible by the scientific community.
The development of highly sophisticated but non-sentient AIs enables TOSF warships to have very small crews, typically a dozen technicians plus ten or less officers. The bridge usually has only one officer at a Command Station monitoring multiple AIs, each assigned to a specific task such as astrogation, communications, tactical, etc.
Chapter One:
Sub-Commander Wolfe Koenig w
oke with a start and realized that he had fallen asleep while on Bridge duty. There were no regulations that prohibited sleeping on Bridge duty—the TOSF having recognized the difficulty in staying awake while in the Command Pod—but it was not encouraged. Additionally, they built in safeguards such as constant monitoring of CP occupants’ brain waves. If they were about to drop into the deeper levels of sleep that took longer to awaken from, the Pod would wake them up. But that wasn’t what had happened. This time there was a status change in the recon data, and Koenig had reacted to the ping that always accompanied a status change.
A scan of the tactical data displayed within the pod showed movement in the space around the moon that the alien Jabs were using as their forward base. Koenig’s ship, Excalibur, was on a covert reconnaissance mission to keep an eye on the Jab military buildup, and because it was covert, the ship had to rely on sunlight reflected off the hulls of Jab ships as they orbited that moon. Determining an accurate number of ships was difficult because the reflections were constantly appearing and disappearing as the hulls changed their orientation relative to this system’s sun. It was already quite clear, though, that there were a lot of ships orbiting the moon, and now it appeared that they were on the move. A quick check of the larger astrogational situation confirmed his fears. The Jab fleet was not heading back into Jab territory, which meant that it was heading for UETO space along the narrow chain of star systems that made up one of three star-bridges that crossed the void between the Jab part of the spiral arm and the human part. If the Jabs were about to attack human colonies, the nearest one—and so far, only one—in this star-bridge was New Shangri-la, four jumps back. Excalibur had to get there first to warn the TOSF fleet stationed there, but it was not Koenig’s call to make. He was the Executive Officer, not the CO. He quickly activated the internal com system and called the CO’s quarters.
“Dejanus here,” said the CO.
“Sorry to wake you, sir, but the Jab fleet is on the move, and they’re not heading home.”
“How many ships, Wolfe?”
“TacComp has confirmed 21, but another 34 sunlight contacts that were being tracked in orbit have suddenly gone dark.”
There was silence as Dejanus processed what that meant. Thirty-four ships that had been moving in a predictable orbit around the moon were now moving in a complete different way that was not reflecting sunlight back to Excalibur. That had to mean they were also moving with the 21 that still could be seen, for a total of 55 ships headed for human territory.
“I see,” said Dejanus finally. “Have you taken any action yet?”
“Not yet, sir.”
“Then let’s turn this ship around and hightail it back to our fleet asap, XO. Call me if there is any change in the situation.”
“Understood, sir.” Koenig heard the channel disconnect. “Astro, this is the BDO. Determine a least-time trip back to New Shangri-la and execute immediately.”
“Jump parameters have been determined. Excalibur is maneuvering,” said the always calm, electronic voice of the astro AI.
Koenig took a deep breath. The Jabs had a head start in time since it had taken the reflected sunlight almost five minutes to reach Excalibur, but the ship was already positioned in the direction that the Jab fleet was more or less headed for. That meant there was a chance that Excalibur could stay ahead of the Jab fleet and maybe even increase the gap between them. A lot depended on how quickly the ship could maneuver around the stars in the intervening systems in order to be able to enter hyperspace again. There was also an element of risk. It was possible that Excalibur might emerge into normal space within detection distance of the Jab fleet or vice versa, and while Excalibur’s jet-black hull, flattened surfaces and state-of-the-art ECM could make it harder for the Jab ships to detect it, they might still be able to do so, and the combined firepower of 55 ships would make short work of one light cruiser.
The rest of Koenig’s duty shift went quickly; certainly he felt no temptation to doze off. This was the worst-case scenario that TOSF had worried about. With at least two potentially hostile alien races on UETO’s borders, the Space Force could not risk concentrating most of their ships in the New Shangri-la star system. The fleet there was intended to be just strong enough to avoid tempting the Jabs into attacking without being so strong that the Jabs would feel threatened. Apparently the TOSF planners had goofed, and the Jabs now appeared to be making the opening moves of a war. If there really were 55 Jab ships heading for New Shagri-la, then Admiral Rostov’s 20 ship fleet would be badly outnumbered even if the Jab ships individually were inferior to their TOSF counterparts. Would Rostov stay and fight with the resulting almost certain destruction of the fleet, or would he order a retreat that would leave the New Shangri-la colonists undefended and at the mercy of the Jabs? Koenig hated the idea of not trying to defend the colonists, but sacrificing a significant portion of the total TOSF fleet for nothing didn’t seem to be a rational thing to do. He was glad he didn’t have to make that decision. By the time his duty shift was up, Dejanus was on the Bridge ready to take over.
“Status,” she said in a calm voice.
“We’re on a least-time vector back to the New Shangri-la system. Sunlight contacts with the Jab fleet are intermittent now, but TacComp estimates they are 89 mega-klicks behind us. Their acceleration seems to be better than we would have expected, but they won’t catch us unless they boost a lot faster. ETA for our first jump is 12.2 minutes. ECM is on standby. We’re not being scanned.”
Dejanus nodded. “Very good. You’re relieved, XO. You can stay on the Bridge as an observer if you wish.”
Koenig nodded. “The CO is now the BDO,” he said formally for the benefit of the AIs. With that ritual out of the way, he got up, then stepped aside so that she could sit down in the Command Pod. He wasn’t tired, so he decided he would take her up on her offer to let him stay on the Bridge as an observer for a while, at least until the ship entered hyperspace. The pre-jump procedure to aim the ship as accurately as possible at the calculated position of the star they were jumping to went smoothly. This particular star was only slightly bigger than Earth’s sun. As part of this ‘bridge’ across the void, it had seen enough traffic to pinpoint its exact location for jump purposes. Merely aiming the ship at the center of the distant point of light wasn’t enough. The light that Excalibur was seeing now from that star had travelled at the speed of light for over four years, and during that time the star would have moved, taking its gravity well with it. Ships jumping to it, or any other star, had to aim at the point in space where the star would be by the time the ship got there.
Under the present circumstances, Koenig wished there was a red or blue supergiant along their intended path, one that had a gravity well so wide that longer jumps could be safely made with minimal risk of missing the gravity well and theoretically continuing to travel through hyperspace forever or until the ship happened to hit the gravity well of another star. There were a few ships that had disappeared over the years, and it was theorized that they had missed their gravity well targets. The jump to the next system would take 21.4 hours. Everyone could relax during the jump. Ships travelling between the same two stars at the same time could not detect or interact with each other.
It was Koenig’s turn as BDO once again when the ship hit the target star’s gravity well and dropped back into normal space. Dejanus was also on the Bridge but had not exercised her prerogative to take command. Koenig’s task now was to make sure the ship got to the other side of the gravity well as quickly as possible while also avoiding detection by the Jab fleet. That meant accelerating on a trajectory that got very close to this sun. The faster they were travelling, the closer they could get without endangering the ship and the sooner they’d be on the other side where the ship could line up for the next jump.
“Tactical, passive sensors only. Astro, we’ll wait for the sensor sweep before maneuvering.”
Both AIs acknowledged their orders. The sensor sweep took less than
30 seconds. No other ships were detected either visually or from EM transmissions. Either the Jab fleet had arrived far enough away to be invisible or more likely simply hadn’t arrived at all yet. Koenig gave the astrogation AI the nod to begin the high-speed flyby of this system’s sun. Koenig checked the distance where Excalibur would be at its closest point to the sun and his eyes widened in surprise. The astrogation AI was taking his order for a least-time path literally. The projected temperature impact on the ship would be enough to overpower the life support system, and the internal temperature would increase noticeably. He turned to look at Dejanus, and when she saw him looking at her, he gestured for her to come over to the Command Pod.
“The internal temperature is projected to spike high enough that some of the crew may pass out from heat stroke. I recommend adjusting the trajectory to give us a cooler flyby, sir.”
Dejanus looked at the data, and after considering the issue for a few seconds, shook her head. “No. A wider flyby will bring us back to the fleet a few minutes later, and if we do this for each jump, it could add up to enough lost time that it might make a huge difference to the outcome when the Jab fleet shows up. Leave the trajectory as is. I’ll advise the crew to take whatever precautions we can, but they’ll just have to suck it up and take it.”
The flyby turned out to be very difficult for the human crew. Two crewmen passed out from the heat in spite of the precautions. Koenig himself felt close to passing out during the worst of it. As the ship started putting distance between it and the sun, hull temperature began to drop and so did the internal temperature. With another close flyby coming up in less than 24 hours, Koenig had the idea of letting the interior of the ship get colder than normal in between the flybys. The ship was equipped with cold weather gear in case the crew had to land on a cold planet and which they could now use to stay warm. Dejanus approved the suggestion. The idea worked well enough that there was a noticeable difference at the second flyby’s closest point. No one passed out this time. There were two more jumps to go before they would arrive at New Shangri-la system.