The Santana Nexus (Junkyard Dogs Book 3)

by Nolte, Phillip

  The decision to make the weapons retractable does add some extra complexity to an otherwise simple design. The retraction mechanisms work but, at least in the prototype, the turret deploys too slowly. Once or twice it has actually become stuck in the open position, though we think we have corrected that problem by arresting the deployment of the turret before the retraction mechanism reaches the very end of its travel. As a precaution, the ship was simply operated with all of her weapons deployed during her trials.

  The Bofors pulse beams themselves are also experimental in that they are considerably more powerful than any of the standard Bofors units. Where a standard unit is powered by four capacitors that could be utilized in various combinations of one, two, three or four capacitors powering each pulse, these experimental units are powered by six much more robust capacitors which can also be mixed and matched in various combinations to regulate the strength of the pulse beams. Where the standard units have a maximum pulse strength of 2000 gigajoules, these special units were capable of 6000 gigajoules, which actually places them right in between the main battery strength of a light and a heavy cruiser. The prototype also carries a reasonably full complement of secondary weapons in the form of four twin-mount turrets of 5.5 gigajoule rapid fire pulse beams each. As mentioned previously, these are also retractable...

  ...All in all she is a bold design that didn't quite work out..."

  Hartwell Wrist Comp reference note highlighted for further review by Tamara Carlisle. Excerpt is from "Notes and impressions concerning the XC-89" by Captain Peter Haspel, Commanding officer of the XC-89 project. Captain Haspel's notes are included in the "Secret Scrapyard" files and are considered to be highly classified until further notice.

  UTFN "Secret Scrapyard," on board Federation prototype cruiser XC-89, January 9, 2599.

  Ensign Dr. Tamara Carlisle was discussing the XC-89 with her colleagues. She was partly reading from a wrist computer display and partly sharing her own thoughts.

  "It was a bold design that didn’t' quite work out," she quoted, "and yet it seems nearly perfect for our purposes. Your enemy wouldn't have a clue what she actually was until it was too late for them to do anything about it."

  "That's a good point," said Harris. "They'd probably think she was some kind of off-brand cargo ship, which is sort of what she looks like with her armament retracted.

  "With those two high-powered, rapid-fire Bofors projectors," added Talbot, "this could be, in many ways, the most powerful ship in the entire quadrant! With the dual power plants somewhat understressed, the theoretical rate of fire from her two pulse beam projectors is simply phenomenal.

  "Aye," said Hawkins, "and the shields should be a good bit stronger than you would expect for her size t'boot."

  "There are some concerns, however," said Talbot, ever the engineer

  "And these would be...?" asked Harris.

  "Reliability for one," replied Talbot. "She could prove to be extremely reliable but from the information we have, this prototype never got past a few preliminary trials before the Brass decided that the design was way too risky and way too unconventional and they moved on to other things. We already know that they had some serious reservations about the retractable turret design."

  "We have at least one more serious issue," said Harris.

  "And that is...?" asked Carlisle.

  "Where in the hell are we going to find a crew to man this beast?"

  "Now that is a good question," said Talbot.

  Chapter 39.

  Catskill-Soroyan System, Piedmont Mining Station, January 9, 2599.

  Hartmann and Fitzhugh carefully made their way back out of the restaurant and through several corridors to one of the elevators located in the central column of the station. They then took the elevator downward, out of the upper, artificial construct of the portable mining station and into the hollowed out living rock of the asteroid. Upon arriving at the elevator's lowest level, they disembarked and headed for the communications suite.

  Hartmann knew that the short period of disorientation that accompanied hyperlink travel meant that the crews of the recently translated ships would need a few minutes to recover before they could function properly. As Hartmann and the governor strode into the communications suite, the communications technician was monitoring a Stage I transmission from the newcomers that had just begun a few seconds earlier.

  "...is Captain O'Connell of the mining ship Donegal, calling the Piedmont station. Security Director Hartmann, are you there?"

  "Mining ship Donegal? This is the Aladdin, a patrol ship stationed here on behalf of the Sheik of Barsoon, long may he live! State your business, Captain O'Connell."

  "This is our home station; we've come here to check on our relatives and friends."

  "I suggest you turn back around and leave this system, Donegal, I must warn you that the Aladdin is armed and we have orders to maintain the security of this system."

  O'Connell paused for several minutes as though he was considering his options before responding. In the meantime, he received a radio communication from the mining station.

  Chris Hartmann, from his position down inside the asteroid, had sent a message to the Donegal on one of several private mining communications bands. The proprietary system was nothing more than old fashioned radio and was therefore subjected to cumbersome light speed delays, which was especially clumsy for two-way communications of any distance. The hyperlink zone for the Piedmont system was about one astronomical unit away from the mining station which meant that it had taken a little over eight minutes for the radio communication to reach the Donegal.

  The miners, O'Connell included, were accustomed to dealing with such delays and had learned to compensate by putting all of the information that they thought might be useful into each of their transmissions in the hope that whatever information was needed was included in the initial contact. While O'Connell was still in the process of deciding how to respond to the belligerent guard ship, he received Hartmann's communication which was packed with pertinent information.

  "Seamus, you old goat! Where the hell have you been? This is Chris Hartmann. We've been holed up back down inside the rock for about two weeks now. Be careful if you decide to come this way, this Aladdin is an armed merchant with what looks to be a single mount, one-hundred gigajoule pulse cannon mounted right behind her bridge. As soon as he got here, the Commander of the Aladdin ordered us to surrender the station. We refused and retreated down into the mines and it's been kind of a stalemate ever since. They've been taking pot shots with that cannon every time they think they think they detect any activity on the station. Needless to say, we're getting a little tired of it.

  With a little bit of help, I think we can get right up close to him with a mining sled and blow the airlock door or one of the holds and board the ship. They may have some hand weapons, because their original intent was to board the station but we think a dozen miners could probably take over that ship in a matter of minutes. If we could just get on board. We've been wondering how to set up some kind of diversion and the Donegal might be just what we need. If you could make your way in here to the mining station, I'm thinking that between our forces we can probably take care of that ship in no time.

  From what I know of your mining ships, the shields are strong enough to take a few pulses from that cannon. If you approach them head on, they'll never penetrate your front armor plating. Get within a kilometer and one short blast with your mining laser would pretty much put this arrogant bastard out of commission. I'm not ruling out such a direct attack but I'd really rather capture the ship intact so, for now, we keep that as a last resort. We think we can use a mining sled to get a force on board and capture her but we will need your help to make the plan work. If you microjump towards the station, we'll assume you got this message and we'll go ahead and start getting set up. As you get closer, and the communications lag gets shorter, we can refine our actions.

  Watching for you to jump. Hartmann out."
r />   With this new information in hand, O'Connell made his decision.

  "Aladdin? This is Donegal. I'm afraid that I will have to come into the mining station, I am low on reaction fluid and our sister ship Glendaloch is...having some problems with her attitude thrusters. We'll be microjumping within a few minutes."

  "Be warned Donegal, you will be boarded and interned. My orders are to allow no one to leave this station."

  "I hear and understand, Aladdin, we just don't have much choice."

  O'Connell and Patrick decided to leave the freighter City of Darwin out near the hyperlink point not only to keep her out of danger but also so she could transport out and report back to New Ceylon if anything went wrong.

  On his security monitors, deep down inside the rock, Hartmann had not only overheard O'Connell's reply over the Stage I communicator, he had also seen two distinct flashes indicating microjump activity.

  "Donegal and Glendaloch are on their way, Hank."

  Hartmann smiled in anticipation. His old friend was coming with not one, but with two mining ships! Things were about to get interesting!

  Chapter 40.

  UTFN "Secret Scrapyard," January 10, 2599.

  When Kresge had been informed about the condition and the potential capabilities of the XC-89, he approved the transfer of the ship to the Scrapyard for further evaluation. The project was deemed important enough that the Nasr was sent out to rendezvous with the salvage crew. When the Nasr arrived, some thirty members of the crew of the FNS Larkspur transferred over to the prototype and utilized the better part of the next morning familiarizing themselves with the workings of the ship. Frank Talbot and Angus Hawkins both remained onboard the prototype to help out with questions concerning the dual reactor set up and other aspects of the systems on a ship that was at least two generations older than anything that most of the destroyer crew was accustomed to. The fact that prototype had been created by the joining together of two different classes of ship didn't help matters at all.

  Captain Jennifer Helmsford was given command of the ship but couldn't make up her mind whether the assignment was an honor or a penance. With so few experienced Naval crewmen available to the Scrapyard forces, she had to admit that the Larkspur's old crew was probably the best choice of personnel to man the craft. At least they had a goodly amount of recent experience working with each other.

  With no conventional bridge in the normal topside position, the nerve center for the hybrid was situated in the Auxiliary control room that had been located near the very front portion of the back half of the ship, a location that placed the control room just about in the very center of the ship. If nothing else, the command staff would be well-protected.

  Captain Helmsford was sitting in the Captain's chair on the bridge of the prototype familiarizing herself with the workings of the ship and wondering what she had gotten herself into. She scanned her readouts one more time and keyed up the ship's intercom.

  "The time has come for us to take our new ship out of this asteroid and put her to work," she said to all hands. "I want a status report on all systems before we take her out for a test flight. I'll call off by sections and you reply when your section is called. Main power?"

  "Main power is go, Captain."

  "Hyperdrive systems?"

  "Hyperdrive units are go, Captain."

  "Reaction engines?"

  "Reaction engines ready, Captain."

  "Thrusters?"

  "Thrusters are go."

  "Life support?"

  "Life support operating at full capacity, Captain."

  "Gravity and inertial damping?"

  "Gravity and inertial damping are go, Captain."

  "Okay, let's take her out." She contacted Harris who was standing by outside. "Lieutenant Harris? Could you release the docking cables, please?"

  "Roger, Captain Helmsford, releasing docking cables."

  A team of eight workers, under the command of Harris, disconnected the cables that had held the ship stationary and tethered to the interior of the asteroid for more than four decades.

  "All four docking cables have been released, Captain Helmsford. You are go to maneuver on your own."

  "Thank you, Lieutenant. Helm? Lift the ship straight up fifty meters from the floor of this cavern, please."

  "Roger, Captain, raising ship fifty meters above the bottom of the cavern."

  The ship drifted upwards under minimum boost from her maneuvering thrusters.

  "Okay, now bring her around forty-three degrees to port. Easy now."

  "Roger, Captain, bringing ship around forty-three degress to port."

  Responding to her thrusters, the ugly little ship swung, surprisingly gracefully, to port.

  "Now rotate her on her stern and bring the bow up ninety degrees."

  The bow swung smoothly upwards until the prototype was pointed at the center of the opening that led out of the asteroid.

  "Ahead on quarter thrusters, Helm."

  "Roger, Captain, ahead on quarter thrusters."

  The ship began to accelerate gently upwards, towards the opening to the outside. Within a minute she had cleared the asteroid and was out into open space for the first time in decades.

  "Steady everyone, I think we'll just drift using this momentum for a few minutes to get well clear of the asteroid and to give the other ships of our group a chance to catch up to us."

  Five minutes later, the Nasr and the cutter containing Harris, Carlisle and several other Federation workers had joined the prototype.

  "Ahead one quarter on reaction engines, if you please," said Captain Helmsford.

  "Roger, Captain, ahead one quarter on reaction drive."

  The homely little ship leaped eagerly forward.

  "Easy everyone," said Helmsford. "My but she's a lively ship! I'm surprised; she accelerates a lot harder than our destroyer did!"

  "She's got the power of a cruiser and only masses a little more than a destroyer," said Talbot, from down in engineering, "She should be able to show her heels to a lot of different ship types."

  Captain Helmsford had her crew spend the next hour just "flying" the ship, in an effort to get the feel of her before they tried anything radical, like attempting a hyperjump, for instance. After checking the ship's performance by running through a set of standard maneuvers just like they had when training on the Larkspur, everyone on board had a much better idea of what to expect from their new ship.

  "Helm? Have you calculated the parameters for a microjump towards the Reclamation Center?"

  "Jump is programmed, Captain," replied the helmsman.

  "I'll inform the other ships that we're ready to jump," said Helmsford.

  "Lieutenant Harris? Captain Bishara? XC-89 is ready to microjump towards the Scrapyard."

  "We'll be right behind you," replied Harris.

  "Nasr is ready to microjump as well," said Bishara.

  "Microjumping in...three...two...one...Mark!"

  The stumpy prototype was visible one second and, after a bright flash, she was gone. The cutter and the Nasr flashed after her shortly afterwards.

  ***

  Catskill-Soroyan System, Piedmont Mining Station, January 10, 2599.

  The two mining ships flashed out of their microjumps about an hour out from the Piedmont Station. At this distance the conspirators were able to use the miner's radio comlink to converse in real time.

  "This is Donegal and Glendaloch on route to the Piedmont Station," radioed O'Connell on the private mining band. "What do you want us to do?"

  "I need you to keep that ship distracted while we get a couple of our mining sleds ready for a boarding exercise. I wonder if you could park between that ship and the mining station, maybe one of you to port and the other on his starboard side. In the meantime, we'll disguise what we're doing on the sleds by loading up the front of each them with a big scoop of ore. We thought we'd send an unoccupied sled out to his starboard side first to make him rotate that gun all the way over in that directi
on. If the Glendaloch could hold his attention and maybe keep that gun pointed over that way, we can sneak another sled out low and to his portside. That way we'll be under him so he won't be able to target us unless he moves the ship. With the Donegal on his port side, blocking the view, he probably won't even notice us."

  "With both of us that close to him, we could make this into a very short battle with either one of our mining lasers," said O'Connell, "I blew a hole clean through the front turret of a destroyer just a couple weeks ago."

  "A mining laser as a weapon!" said Hartmann. "I know, I watched you vaporize that shuttle craft a couple of weeks ago, remember? How about we do that as a last resort, Seamus? I'd really like to have a little talk with these bad guys and I really wouldn't mind having that ship."

  "We'll help out any way we can," replied O'Connell, "Just be damned careful."

  "What? And miss all the fun?" replied Hartmann.

  O'Connell smiled and shook his head. Once a marine, always a marine and from what he knew of Chris Hartmann, the security director had been a pretty damned good one!

  The Donegal and the Glendaloch were just coming into visual range of the mining station when they were contacted by the Aladdin again.

  "Two mining ships, Captain O'Connell? You didn't say there were two ships. I am disappointed in you though I guess it doesn't really matter. You will park your ship in the docking area and stand down for boarding. Tell your sister ship that she is to prepare to be boarded as well."