Castle Vroman

by Thomas DePrima

  "Yes, I have. It was a fast reacting, rapid-fire, twenty-millimeter Gatling gun, providing a last chance defense against missiles. It automatically detected, tracked, and fired upon any incoming threat using an advanced, forward-looking infrared detector with a unique search and track radar system. As I recall, the later models fired four-thousand five-hundred rounds per minute using a pneumatic gun drive, although the magazine only held fifteen-hundred-fifty rounds. The rounds were armor piercing with a depleted uranium sub-caliber penetrator initially, but later changed to a tungsten penetrator. The weapon's name comes from the fighting method developed by Philip II of Macedon where a formation of infantrymen, sixteen wide by sixteen deep, would overlap their shields and project their very long lances, called sarissae, through the defensive shield barrier. That defense made it almost impossible for warriors of the day to breach the square. The technique was used quite effectively, and quite often, by Alexander the Great."

  "I guess that means you're familiar with it," Jenetta said smiling.

  "Yes, Admiral," Barbara said, grinning.

  "Why don't we have something like that on Space Command vessels?"

  "It's a thorny issue. There's a faction in weapons procurement that wanted it, but another faction at Supreme Headquarters that was strongly opposed to it."

  "How could anybody be opposed to a purely defensive weapon?" Jenetta asked.

  "It's because of the laws of physics. The opposing viewpoint centers on the fact that we're in space, not on Earth. Any kinetic rounds fired from such a weapon will keep traveling at a constant velocity until they strike something, as opposed to the naval situation on Earth where expended rounds dropped harmlessly into the water after their velocity diminished sufficiently. The planetary atmosphere and gravity prevented them from becoming a permanent threat to innocent shipping."

  "The obvious solution seems to be the use of a laser pulse. Even at full-strength, alignment and optical phenomenon means that it's rendered harmless a few meters beyond the target."

  "The problem there has always been with the rapidity of fire," Commander DeWitt said. "We can't fire a laser array forty-five hundred times a minute because of the time needed to build the pulse charge, and the need for heat dissipation. The last time the two factions locked horns on this issue, we could only fire twenty-eight times a minute. SHQWR decided that a human gunner who could also use the same cannon for offensive purposes was a better use of resources than having the array dedicated only to defense."

  "And what's the normal fire rate of a human gunner manning a laser weapon now?"

  "Oh, no more than thirty pulses per minute if they're trying for a target lock, but it's extremely difficult to maintain a lock on a torpedo because they're usually sheathed in an energy-dampening material. Normally, the gunners just fire as rapidly as the cannon allows, so figure on the full hundred pulses per minute."

  "But even if a computer can't maintain a lock, once it's established an initial lock it's still got to be better at projecting a track than a gunner who's just firing wildly."

  "I see what you mean," Commander DeWitt said. "The improvements in laser array technology since this idea was last debated have perhaps made it a bit more feasible now. Unless being 'flown to the target' by one of our experienced specialists who can make slight course alterations until impact, most torpedoes follow a somewhat predictable trajectory. The newer automated systems might stand a much better chance of getting and maintaining a lock. That should be true even with stealth covering and controlled flight activity."

  "If we allow the human gunner to retain control of the array unless a specific level of torpedo threat is detected," Jenetta said, "we can have the best of both systems. Upon detection of an incoming torpedo, the weapons control system can override gunner control. Once it eliminates the threat, it relinquishes control to the gunner. Since movement of the guns is already controlled by servos, we only have to develop the sensors and computer tracking system."

  "Only, Admiral?" Commander DeWitt said, smiling.

  "I never said it was going to be easy, Barbara," Jenetta said, chuckling. "Perhaps you can get the data for the tracking system used with the Phalanx system from the archives and work from there."

  "Okay, Admiral. I guess the Milori laser cannons will have to wait."

  "Not necessarily. Perhaps their system can fire more pulses per minute than ours can. If you have sufficient staff, it's worth pursuing both."

  "Okay, I'll divide my people into two main teams and we'll work on both projects."

  "If your teams can find a way to track and destroy the enemy torpedoes without operator intervention, you'll be giving us an extremely potent weapon in our future engagements with the Milori. It was the torpedo strikes that caused so much damage and death aboard our ships, not the laser strikes."

  "It sounds like you expect them to return any day."

  "Let's just say I won't be too surprised when I receive word that they've been spotted heading this way again. They're bound to find out how I tricked them and they're going to be damned angry about my making them look so foolish. They won't succumb to mere trickery again, so we must have sufficient ships and weapons to stop them with brute force next time. It's going to be a fight to the finish— perhaps ours, unless your section can develop some super weapon that we can use."

  "I can't promise that, Admiral, but we'll do our best. We do have a few ideas for new weaponry that we've been kicking around."

  Jenetta nodded. "I know you always do your best. Thank you, Barbara. Dismissed."

  Jenetta had time to prepare another mug of coffee before her next appointment.

  "My recommendation would be to follow the same basic prioritization list that Commander Cameron established at the battle scene," recently promoted Commander Derrick Jacoby, chief engineer for Stewart SC Base, said. Older than his appearance suggested, the forty-three-year-old engineer with boundless energy had held the important position since Admiral Carver had commandeered the base from the Raiders and turned it into a first class Space Command base. The five-foot nine-inch officer with sandy hair and light brown eyes ate, slept, and breathed engineering.

  "We should concentrate most of our efforts on the battleships Prometheus, Chiron, Thor, and Bellona, first. Then we'll move to the cruisers Song, Plantaganet, Romanov, and Mentuhotep. The destroyers Geneva, Ottawa, St. Petersburg, and Beijing would be in the third group, and we'll tackle the destroyers Asuncion, Buenos Aires, and Cairo, the three ships needing the most work, last. The hull damage to those last three is extensive, but we have a formidable engineering staff right now, with our own base and repair-dock engineers, the engineers from the ships under repair, and the engineers that you borrowed from the ships already sent out on patrol. It would be great if we could keep it intact until all the work is done."

  "The ships going out on patrol must have at least half their normal engineering staff aboard when they leave this base," Jenetta said. "As soon as the four battleships are ready, they'll also be sent out, taking half their engineers with them. I'm afraid that your workforce will shrink with each ship successfully completed, but we need those ships out there on patrol, Derrick. And they must have a minimum level of support personnel when away from the base."

  "I understand, Admiral. Some of the new reinforcement forces should arrive soon, so perhaps we can borrow some of their engineers."

  "I'll see that you get as many as we can free up when the ships arrive. What's your best time estimate for the work, Derrick? I won't hold you to anything."

  "The heaviest part of the repair work was tackled immediately after the battle with the Milori so we should be able to have the battleships completed within three months. Now that we have our new foundry in operation, we can reforge damaged tritanium plating ten times faster than they can do it aboard ship. When we're done, you'll never know they just fought a major battle. We'll complete the cruisers in six months, and the first group of destroyers in nine. We should be able to complete the last
group in a year's time, if I assign a small crew to work on each of the three ships, beginning immediately. In nine months, we'll have the major structural repair work completed. When the full crew finishes on the other destroyers, they'll take over and complete the engine work, electronics, and interior work."

  "Okay, Derrick, let's get started."

  "We're already well underway, Admiral. If you wished to follow a different plan, we'd halt what we were doing and follow that instead. But nobody wanted to waste any time while the assessment was completed and presented to you for evaluation. It all has to be done anyway."

  Jenetta smiled. "Okay, Derrick. Is there anything else?"

  "Uh, yes ma'am. I wanted to speak to you about those Milori ships we took in battle."

  "What about them?"

  "That's my question, Admiral. Should we plan on repairing any of them and putting them into service for Space Command, as the Raiders used to do with ships they defeated?"

  "Are any salvageable?"

  "Oh, yes ma'am. I estimate that twenty-three are beyond any possible hope of repair. They were the ones closest to the detonation of our WOLaR weapons. But of the remaining ninety-two, I think that we could put at least sixty back together using the other fifty-five more seriously damaged ships for parts."

  "Sixty ships?"

  "Yes ma'am."

  "Would they be worth the effort?"

  "From what I can glean from their engineering manuals, their slowest ships are capable of Light-375, with the newer ships capable of Light-412 to Light-450. Their design isn't bad. The interior and life support systems are suitable for anthropomorphic creatures up to eight feet in height, so they'll even accommodate Nordakians, and the hulls are a lot more solid than those Raider ships we captured. They use a double layer of thousand mil Tritanium with self-sealing membrane for the entire skin, with the usual armor protection on the sides and keel. That's pretty similar to our own destroyers and frigates, and they're a lot faster. We also have twenty-six Tsgardi-built Raider warships in the yard, at least half of which could potentially be repaired and placed into service, but it might be a little difficult finding crews willing to staff them, given the severe shortcomings of their design and construction."

  "I wouldn't send any of our people out to fight in a Tsgardi-built warship, but they could be used for transport or light patrol duties in a pinch." Jenetta leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds. Sixty more warships as powerful as her Space Command destroyers and frigates could make a significant difference when the Milori returned. Even if they didn't return, it would substantially improve Space Commands ability to provide patrol coverage in the Frontier Zone. She straightened her chair up and looked at Commander Jacoby again. "We're already talking a year for repairs to the fifteen warships that we used to defeat those Milori ships in the first place. How long would it take to make them useful again?"

  "I estimate that it could take several years to get all sixty operational, but we can begin putting some into service within a few months after beginning work. The twelve ships damaged in the second confrontation aren't that bad at all; the damage looks far worse than it is. There was no laser fire. The minefield caused major breaches in the hull that depressurized large sections of the ship, overloaded electrical systems, and took out forward maneuvering thrusters. If the Milori had won the day, they definitely would have repaired them and put them back into service fairly quickly."

  "What about training crews to operate them?"

  "We'll have to change the signage over to Amer, of course, and adapt the controls for Hominidae hands instead of Milori tentacles and gripper claws, but that's about it. The control systems are compatible throughout, so once we design an adaptation for the first one we can mass-produce the rest. Then it's just a matter of learning the systems and the ship. Of course, you're going to need at least fifty thousand new officers and enlisted personnel to fully man the repaired ships if we go ahead."

  "We also have the problem of their design configurations. They don't look anything like Space Command ships. It could be difficult to discern who the enemy is if we use them to engage the Milori."

  "Outwardly, that's true, Admiral, but the adapted Milori ships would all be fitted with transponders that emit a Space Command vessel signature. They'd be immediately identifiable by other vessels in a battle and the emitted signature will prevent our gunners from even firing at them, if they're using the proper code."

  "Okay, Derrick, I'll approve the work on the condition that you get our fifteen SC ships completed first. Then you'll be free to tinker around with the Milori ships as much as you want, as long as all other normal repair work continues to receive top priority."

  Derrick smiled. "Absolutely, Admiral. I know every engineer in the station is eager to get their hands on the Milori ships, but it won't prevent them from doing the best possible job on our own ships first. In the meantime, we'll continue to have our engineering bots measure and evaluate every millimeter of the Milori ships. By the time we're ready to work on them, we'll have such complete plans that you'd think we'd designed and built them."

  Jenetta nodded and said, smiling, "Dismissed."

  * * *

  Chapter Three

  ~ November 30th, 2277 ~

  "The next group of topics concern Stewart SC base," Admiral Moore said to the nine other admirals sitting at the horseshoe-shaped table in the Admiralty Board's large meeting hall. The gallery seating was empty for this regular business session, and only the usual assortment of clerks and aides sitting dutifully behind their admirals were witness to the proceedings.

  Still fit at eighty-nine years of age, Admiral Moore didn't have a spare ounce of fat on his five-foot ten-inch frame. Straight silver-grey hair of regulation length still covered his head. He had always been a little vain about his hair, and hated the color and texture it had adopted over the past thirty years, but still refused to dye it to his original color of dark auburn. The Admiral of the Fleet normally projected the benign look of a loving grandfather, but people knew that you didn't trifle with him. Those who made that mistake lived to regret it. They'd either finished their career through early retirement, or at some remote location in the most inhospitable of places.

  "We should first discuss the request by Admiral Carver," Admiral Moore said, "for additional personnel needed to man the sixty Milori warships that she expects to repair and retrofit for our use. Her projected timetable for the completion of repairs is three years, although some will be available for use before the end of this coming year."

  "That is an absolutely preposterous request," Admiral Hubera said. Now in his early nineties, Hubera had long ago misplaced his sense of humor. A permanent scowl defined the face beneath a mat of silver-white hair. "We've already assigned ninety-six Space Command warships and three Nordakian warships to her command. Including her base staff and the crews of all her support ships, she commands over two hundred ten thousand Space Command personnel. Now we're supposed to send her another fifty thousand?"

  "We're not talking about sending them to her, Donald," Admiral Platt said, exasperation clearly noticeable in her voice. Unlike Admiral Moore, the eighty-eight-year-old Director of Fleet Operations had never hesitated to use the aids available for restoring her light brown hair to its original color. She was a little vain about her appearance and worked hard to maintain a trim figure. "We're talking about sending personnel to Stewart Space Command Base to man a fleet of ships that Admiral Carver has captured. She won't even be the base commander when these personnel arrive. Don't forget that Admiral Vroman is already on his way to Stewart to assume command when Admiral Carver's five-year duty tour is up next December. And sixty-five of the warships currently assigned to Admiral Carver's command won't arrive until the third quarter of next year, just a few months before she's relieved."

  "I support the proposal a hundred percent," Admiral Hillaire said. The ninety-year-old Director of Academies had always been among Jenetta's staunchest supp
orters. "If Admiral Carver can do as she says, and I don't doubt that she can, the sixty warships will expand our fleet by almost twenty percent. Our current ship construction schedule, even with the new emergency appropriation for ships that the Galactic Alliance Council passed after we learned of the Milori invasion plans, will only add twenty-five new warships per year, and it will take us six years to reach that level of output. This year we'll launch just sixteen new warships. Admiral Carver is exceeding our entire new ship building capability for the next three years."

  "And just where do you propose we get the fifty thousand personnel necessary to man this vaporific fleet, Arnold?" Admiral Hubera asked.

  "We must increase the number of graduates we accept from the Academies for shipboard duty. If we raise the percentage taken from each class from fifty to sixty percent, and accept reassignment applications from all similarly qualified graduates previously passed over for shipboard assignments because they weren't in the top fifty percent, we might be able to provide enough officers to man the ships. The senior line officers for this new fleet can come from the line officer ranks aboard the ninety-six ships already assigned to Stewart. We'll still have a sufficient number of new positions aboard the ships that we're constructing to keep the rest of the officer corps satisfied. And, since the Milori invasion, service recruitment numbers are way up, so our crew complement can come from the new recruits. It will take time to get them trained and out there, so we must act quickly."

  "Recruitment numbers may be up," Admiral Hubera said, "but they're not up fifty thousand a year. We're going to fall far short of the number we need for immediate training."

  "Then we'll clean out every base in Galactic Alliance regulated space and assign them to shipboard duty. We can't afford not to have every available ship manned and ready for the Milori invasion that we all know is coming."