Minutegirls

by George Phillies

  "I see that time is drawing short, your responses to my written questions have been circulated for further discussion, and therefore I am calling this session to a close."

  Chapter 22

  "This is not a drill..."

  Classical Navy Message, USN, mid-XX Century

  LARGE WARSHIP BELLEROPHON

  FLEET PRIMARY COMMAND BRIDGE

  CLARKSBURG WARP POINT

  November 18, 2174, 9:08 PM LST

  "Multiple breakouts," Angela Quava shouted. "Nominal bitransit torpedoes. Count is eight. Intense radar pulses. Off scale relative to prior sets. They're dropping back. Gone."

  "Manzikert squadron engaged," Josephine Wilmot said. "Interpret we got three torpedoes."

  "Clock count," Kalinin asked. "How long were they here?"

  "A shade under four seconds each," Quava said.

  "Fleet: Beat To Quarters," Kalinin ordered. "But if you're more than 130,000 leagues from the warp point centroid, you are not, repeat not, to light off drives or scans. Be patient. They did not have time for their radar to detect you."

  "Missile barges to roll?" Wilmot asked.

  "Negative. And signal Flag to Fleet, I estimate this is not an attack, it's the 'beat the brush and see what comes out' maneuver. They'll drop another group through, sooner or later, see what started moving, then decide to come through or not. So we sit back and be patient," Kalinin explained.

  Kalinin hoped his tension wasn't coming through in his voice. The battle plan was primarily guesswork. No one had ever defended a warp point, successfully or otherwise, and only the Lady knew what FEU tactics were for breaking warp point defenses. The FEU had never attacked a warp point. Indeed, it remained his guess that he was right to defend the warp point at all.

  American strategic analysis had historically focused on defending a system against a faster-than-light fleet able to attack along on an arbitrary axis. The warp net expanded exponentially outwards. Based on limited FEU data delivered under the Azores Conventions, the net did not readily turn back on itself. Short warpnet paths from Earth to Alpha Centauri were therefore highly unlikely. American analysis had presumed that an FEU fleet attacking Lincoln would have to start at Sol, cruise four light years in some substantial number of months, and need to win or withdraw. After all, that's how an American fleet would have had to attack Centauri. Lincoln picketed its warp points -- those being as good locations as any to defend the outer system -- but until recently no one expected an attack to come through one. He reminded himself that his French opposite was in precisely the same boat. The FEU had never attacked a defended warp point, and had only simulation data on how Americans might defend them.

  Four minutes. Ten. Twenty. Kalinin considered alternative fleet deployments. The current ones had been intensively gamed. Perhaps he would redeploy for the next battle, if there were one.

  Alarms shrilled. The primary holodisplay showed metric distortions around the warp point. "Multiple breakouts," announced Quava. "Pattern very close to the last set."

  "Manzikert and Hattin squadrons firing," Wilmot reported. "Blanketing inferred emergence zones with soliton torpedoes."

  "Breakouts. Sixteen of them," Quava announced. "Positions close to prior breakout locations -- some really remarkably close."

  "Multiple detonations," Wilmot said. "They're gone again. Got eleven this time."

  "This time they stayed a shade under four seconds," Bilodeau announced. "Our people inside two light-seconds had not changed."

  "Opinions?" Kalinin asked.

  "A bit of reinforcement around the warp point," Wilmot said, "and they get zero torpedoes coming back. Perhaps they cancel any attack. Perhaps that gets the diplomats time to do something."

  "They'll come through," Agrawal predicted. "They saw what we had close. If they were too weak, they wouldn't have wasted the second torpedo group. They saw nothing new, so they infer any reinforcements are a long ways off in-system. For them, coming through now is better than..." A massive distortion of the metric confirmed the imminent accuracy of Agrawal's predictions.

  "Estimate twenty ships incoming," Quava said.

  "Fleet: Execute plan gamma-three," Kalinin ordered. Even if they were all FEU battleships, the FEU would be outmassed twenty-to-one, not counting the Lincoln special reserves. Ship symbols on the primary display grew tiny colored arrows. Gauges reported what his senses did not. The Bellerophon's acceleration was increasing from nominal station keeping up to twenty gees.

  "Breakouts in progress," Quava said. "Total count is 24. Now 25."

  "Boron fusactors," El-Rifai said. "High-frequency radar. Spindle shapes. These are the novel FEU designs. And one," he marked a point on the screen, "Completely different design. Neutrino energies imply a CNO cycle fusactor."

  "How many new technologies...?" Kalinin began his question.

  "Ship twenty-six," Quava said quietly. "Under two thousand leagues from number 25."

  "...are they deploying?" a surprised Kalinin asked. Historically the FEU had been very conservative and consistent in its ship designs.

  "So far just another novel fusactor," El-Rifai said. "Peculiar hull designs. Images coming up. 80-foot-across dodecahedron, designation Chimera. 18 are nine-dodecahedra-in-a-line, estimated mass 60,000 tons, designation type Cambria. Another six are much larger, estimated 70 dodecahedra, rods fused side-to-side in the center, estimated 0.5 million tons, designation type Corvus. Large spindles are emerging very close to each other -- under 20 leagues."

  "Another innovation," Kalinin noted. "Ships that can transport in tight formation." What earthly good was that innovation? It couldn't be duplicated, but what good was it? There had not been a serious battle with the FEU in this half of the century. It had always been expected that the first few battles of the next war would involve a learning process; his preference was for someone else to do the learning.

  Kalinin frowned. His close defenses were down to a 7-to-1 hullweight advantage, not counting whatever was deploying with CNO fusactors. Gaming had shown that defeat in detail was a risk of his deployment. Letting raiders into the system was more of a risk, even allowing that Lincoln did not rely on spaceships for interplanetary cargo transport.

  "Now at thirty ships," Quava announced. "More CNO fusactors."

  "Spindle ships are maneuvering," Wilmot said. "Circularising on...I tag that as ship 29. Manzikert and Hattin squadrons are firing. Lake Superior and Sparrow Lake squadrons are closing and have opened fire."

  "Now at 31 ships," Quava said "Very regular in their appearance."

  "Data on the novel ships?" asked Kalinin.

  "Image on five,' El-Rifai answered. The screen showed a nearly featureless white object, most nearly resembling a clam. "Maneuvering -- not more than twenty-five gees, thusfar, but stochastic on all axes."

  "Signal from Manzikert," Huang reported. "Squadron hitting for effect. Images on three. Getting return fire. Gamma-ray lasers, eight MeV range, 20GW power." Kalinin glanced at the battle sequences. FEU ships of astonishingly narrow beam swam across the screen. Screens around sections of their hulls flared from violet to green down into the red, re-radiating the x-ray energy they had absorbed when struck by American fire. Once and again, the screens collapsed completely, hull and space behind collapsing into brilliant luminescence. Internal explosions swiftly followed.

  "Burn-through requires half of a CA broadside," El-Rifai noted.

  "Now at 35 ships," Quava reported. "Estimate the CNO ships are close to 100,000 tons, designate type Doormouse. Range of size apparent in drive signatures. That's interesting."

  "What? Kalinin" asked.

  "Regularities in CNO ship appearances. There! On two," Quava answered. The display showed a helix, the novel ships materializing along it one after the next, ships already through the warp point accelerating to hold positions relative to new appearances. "There's a unique transit point," she announced. "It has constant radial acceleration, constant linear velocity."

  "Advise Manzikert and Hatt
in," Kalinin ordered. He thought for a moment. "Transmit predicted breakout trajectory -- yes, it's accelerating -- to reserve squadrons. Reserve squadrons to fire immediately on estimated breakout location."

  El-Rifai said "They have heavy internal screens. They're losing a dodecahedron at a time. And the remaining ship components keep maneuvering after losing sections."

  "Gettysburg has heavy damage. Yorktown has shifted to auxiliary bridge," Huang said.

  "Ship thirty-seven coming through. Estimate took substantial hull damage before it got screens up," Quava said. "Explosive flare. Estimate that was Canandaigua with screen failure." There was a moment of quiet.

  "Count on enemy losses?" Kalinin asked.

  "Estimate 22 dodecahedra to xraser fire," Wilmot answered. "Missiles are still going in. Another 3-4 minutes before we see anything on that."

  "Bellerophon cleared for action," the ship annunciator repeated.

  "Engage now!" Kalinin ordered. Reserves were seldom useful in fleet actions, and this one was not developing well. For all that the Bellerophon had come up to full power and pulling over 20 gravities, they were still over 150,000 leagues from the battlefield. "Target emergence point. Signal Hattin, Manzikert, Lake Superior, Sparrow Lake, transfer all fire to Cambria and Corvus types."

  "Bennington reports chaos gate failure, not enemy action. Bennington has screens, but cannot fire," Huang reported.

  "No sign of expected breakout," Quava said. "Admiral, they seem to have a mass-to time correlation. The bigger the ship they send through, the longer the time delay."

  "So they've stopped sending ships through. Or they're sending something really really big. Or they're telling folks on the other side that 37 got hit, that the breakout path has to change." Kalinin shrugged. They'd find out soon enough.

  "I have details from Gettysburg," Huang reported. "They were attacked by estimated ten Cambria, two Corvus, two Doormouse. Cambria and Corvus estimated to match FEU Firenze and DeGaulle classes in firepower. Doormouse have only a few grasers each, estimate four, but very heavy-duty, estimate two trillawatts CW." Lips pursed around the deck. The best xrasers in the Lincoln PSDF did 100 bevawatts on a good day. Based on limited data, the best FEU xrasers delivered about three times that. These were approaching an order of magnitude more power.

  "Very hot, but very few beams," El-Rifai said. "From the images, separate port and starboard broadsides. Probably the same single-target applied power as an Isandhlwana." Which, Kalinin noted to himself, had fifteen times the mass of a Doormouse, and a single-facing broadside, multiple targets being attacked by rolling the ship and engaging seriatim.

  "Compliments of Hattin," reported Wilmot, "acceleration ellipses and jerk limits on Cambria and Corvus. On screen one."

  "They accelerate along their main axis?" a surprised El-Rifai said.

  "Weren't these omnidirectional?" Kalinin asked.

  "Those were smaller ships," fleet tactical answered. "Squadrons must be implementing; hit rate has more than doubled."

  "Another breakout," Quava interrupted. "Goddess preserve us, must be two million tons. Designate type Dragon. "

  "First missile volley should be closing soon," Wilmot said, more hopefully than realistically. The ship now breaking out was potentially a match for an armored cruiser squadron.

  "Breakout...right into our beams!" Quava tried not to shout. The command deck waited with bated breath.

  "Compliments of Manzikert," Huang said, "on two. FEU battlecruiser transited with screens up." Screen two showed a blank volume of space suddenly filled with turquoise-and-gold-weave, coalescing to a silvery sphere. Scarcely had the sphere appeared than it flared and vanished, to be replaced by a huge starship of unfamiliar design, its hull wracked with internal explosions. "Manzikert says it left our field of fire just after its screens went down." The unknown ship blew apart.

  "Very high breakout velocity," Quava reported. "Almost due sunwards."

  "Reserves to continue targeting the computed breakout point," Kalinin ordered.

  "Unknown weapon," El-Rifai reported. "Apparent anti-missile defense. Appears to be short range."

  "Lake Huron has blown up," Quava reported. "Antietam has blown up. Multiple missile hits on Cambria and Corvus classes."

  "Roll missile barges, series A," Kalinin ordered. The attack was clearly being made in force.

  "Lake Superior reports enemy ships are breaking up," Huang said. "Manzikert reports its entire squadron has moderate damage."

  "Breaking up?" Kalinin queried. 'Moderate' damage meant effectiveness was reduced, but the ship was still able to discharge its mission.

  "Image on four," Huang reported. The screen showed the 5000 foot spindle of a Corvus class. As Kalinin watched, individual sections of the ship pulled away from each other, fractured into component dodecahedra, and accelerated outwards.

  "Ship fragments match individual dodecahedra seen earlier," El-Rifai said. "Those large ships? They appear to be groups of small ships docked nose to tail. I'll have a count momentarily."

  "Another breakout," Quava said. "Another two-million-tonner. Got some damage. It evaded. Looks that its stern third lost whatever was outside. Can't tell if we had armor penetration on a flash burnthrough."

  "Estimate 550 dodecahedra. They're real small, about eighty feet across. Peak acceleration about 110 gees, omniazimuthal, 20 BW laser. Probably outside what our missiles can hit," El-Rifai said.

  "Single missiles," Wilmot corrected. "Evading a missile sheaf is a much harder."

  "Jerusalem reports engaging dodecahedron with soliton missiles," Huang said. "Took two dozen hits, but the enemy ship lost screens and blew up. All engaged squadrons are following lead."

  "Advise Lincoln we are facing close to 500 enemy ships, many quite small," Kalinin said, "and roll barges series B and C." He frowned. The missile barges would put very large numbers of antiship missiles into the battle at high speed, all at once. That speed depended on the acceleration of the barges, now a half-million leagues out. A design that sacrificed everything for acceleration, and confined the crew to a tiny volume near the drive generators, gave barges that could sustain 100 gee -- 3/5 of a mile per second per second -- accelerations for prolonged periods, almost always without serious injury to the crew. At the end of the attack run, the barges would sweep clean their missile racks. It was a wonderful attack, or would be in thirty minutes when it got here.

  "Another battlecruiser breakthrough," Quava reported. "Exactly where predicted. Massive explosion -- looks like ablative armor ablating, followed by hull armor, followed by some amount of bunkerage. Moving off-target."

  "Manzikert respectfully advises that on-point forces are substantially outnumbered, relative to standard," Huang said. "They inquire if withdrawal is in order."

  "Flag to Reserve squadrons," Kalinin said. "Execute rapidity transition to warp point as per plan Gamma-Four. Bellerophon will proceed under normal drive." He waited for the order to be passed. "Flag to all reserve ships: I'd love to be with you, but Bellerophon is irreplaceable." He frowned. You could have your rapidity drive active, or you could have your screens up, but not both. Ships making a transition were also largely confined to straight line motions, making them easy targets. Making a high-speed transition into a battle zone would likely cost the Lincoln PSDF more than one ship, and the Senate War Committee had ordered that Bellerophon not be the one.

  "Second Kabul squadron making transition," Quava reported. "Mogadishu squadron making transition. Battlecruisers under way." Kalinin held his breath. The next 20 seconds might lose him the battle. If the FEU forces had an effective way of tracking and firing on ships in transition, his reserve squadrons would be gutted.

  "Advise Manzikert," Kalinin said, "that we are attempting to bring up reserves, and that a withdrawal is not in order."

  "Commodore," Wilmot said, "Hattin advises that some of the FEU sloops are maneuvering slowly but not firing on us. These appear to be sloops that had torpedo near-misses while inside Corvus and
Cambria vessels. Hattin is redirecting fire against sloops that are still active."

  "Rapidity breakout," Quava reported. "Sturgeon Lake and Lake Chelan are showing moderate damage---apparently they took grazer fire. Alaska -- Alaska re-entered 50,000 leagues short of target, reports severe damage to three of five engine rooms, drives, xraser batteries. Alaska advises it can fire missiles."

  "Advise Alaska to fire all soonest and withdraw until emergency repairs are complete," Kalinin said. There was no sense in throwing away a repairable ship. On two engine rooms Alaska could maintain screens, maneuver, or operate antimissile defenses, but not all three.

  "Other ships show only light damage," Quava reported. "Another FEU battlecruiser transited. Hit a hole in our xraser patterning -- may have escaped without damage."

  "Neutron cannon," El-Rifai said. "Canandaigua was hit with neutron cannon that detonated its fusactors. Gettysburg is probably the same. Estimate a 20 GeV beam."

  "Recommendation?" Kalinin asked. He had heard of neutron cannon. Whenever Star Commando Jill needed an especially dangerous mission to raise ratings, some enemy had a test model of a neutron cannon that needed to be destroyed. There had been no evidence that such weapons, which might perhaps penetrate many screens, actually existed.

  "I infer that the CNO 2-million tonners carry the cannon, and that the effective range is short, under 10,000 leagues," El-Rifai continued. "Looks like the focusing is really lousy. Monitors should be okay -- two yards of water will absorb enough of it. Canandaigua always flew light, not with water armor loaded. Battlecruiser D screens are likely adequate. Armored cruisers have a significant problem here. Bellerophon carries 40 yards of ice on most of its outer hull -- the old fuel tanks -- so we're untouchable," answered fleet intelligence. Kalinin frowned. The armored cruisers were the largest part of his force. If they couldn't advance to short missile range against the strongest units of the enemy fleet, he had a serious problem.