In another medal ceremony, Elian and I received some new bits of cloth and meal, along with a group commendation medal for our contribution to the recent battle. The admiral seemed intent on burying us under the weight of awards and clusters and such, but I have to say that they did lessen the blandness of our dress whites.
Finally, our wives obtained a few days leave and shuttled down to New Novosibirsk. Interestingly, Nastya’s family had managed to provide another apartment in their complex, into which Nastya’s voluble relatives had moved a sufficient amount of used furniture to turn the three rooms into a home. Elian and I were now neighbors.
The first evening we spent, as expected, occupied in the pursuit of exhaustion, but we four reunited for a brief visit to my mother-in-law’s home, located outside of town.
Nastya’s parents lived in a surprisingly modest stone house located on the side of a ridge overlooking the ocean, with the city spread out below. The location was superb and her mother said, in answer to my question, that the family had purchased the land nearly one hundred years ago. Said land was fairly extensive. She added that the family had taken years to pay off the original land purchase, more years to build the original small house, and had recently expanded it a second time. She said, “Our plan is to expand it again just as soon as my husband retires. We want our children and grandchildren to be close to us, and we have enough land to be able to build several more homes. Perhaps one day, you and my daughter will have a home here on this ridge.”
I looked around at the huge expanse of rolling grass and trees and looked at Nastya. She said, “Robert that is something for us to discuss, but not now. Now, it is time for my husband to eat and get to know his family.”
Elian inhaled the brisk air and said, “This is so different from my own home. I grew up in a city of twelve million people, and rarely ever got to see trees and, well, nature, except for the few parks in my neighborhood.”
We walked back inside and sat at the dining room table, where we continued to talk about our childhoods. Elian’s family was small but close and they had reacted with joy to his announcement of marriage. I think that they feared he would either never marry or die before he could give them a grandchild. One down, one or more, to go.
Both Carolyn and Nastya had implants to preclude their getting pregnant, but all four of us took the opportunity given us by Fleet to preserve our eggs and sperm against the possibility of death.
The lunch was good, the atmosphere of casual warmth and loving acceptance wonderful. We left three hours later after receiving embraces and kisses on both cheeks. Elian and Carolyn were treated as family, something both Nastya and I prized
We split up that afternoon but met again that evening in Elian’s and Carolyn’s tiny apartment for Carolyn’s first home prepared meal. She went about preparing food in much the same way she designed code – quickly and efficiently. The dinner was good if not terrific. I already knew that Nastya was a terrific cook, one additional result of her intensely passionate and very tightly bound family life.
Watching Elian and Carolyn as they bustled around the tiny dinning room, clearing the table while simultaneously fending off our efforts to help, I realized that I was seeing a side of Elian I’d never known. In this new home of his, of theirs, his primary relationship was with Carolyn, and it took me a moment to come to grips with that. I felt a moment’s jealousy before it hit me that I was a fool, an idjit. I took Nastya’s hand, nearly a first, and looked at her dark hair, cascading down off her shoulders, her dark eyes, such a contrast with her light skin, and I sighed.
The four of us sat at the table again, now with cups of coffee or tea, and we talked about our new homes, the furniture we didn’t have, and of the poor neighborhood we lived in. The conversation waxed between laughter and surprise. The latter emotion arose more than I would have expected, yet we four were embarking on new lives, and learning new things about each other, and about ourselves. It was a golden evening, and we would not have many more in the coming months.
Nastya and I walked up a flight of stairs to our own apartment and I opened the door. I stood in the entrance, looking at the small living room with its somewhat worn sofa and carpet, and turned to Nastya. I brought her into my arms and held her, inhaling her warmth, the scent of her hair and the love she felt for me. I said, “Anastasia, I have never in my life had so much love, so much joy, as I do in this very moment. I owe you so much, I can never repay you.” Nastya hugged me fiercely, and said, “Robert David, it is I who am the recipient of so much that is good, all of it from you.”
I held her tightly for several moments before saying, “You know, you’re right.” She poked me in the ribs painfully and tugged me into unresisting progress toward the other room in our home, the bedroom. My rapidly healing arm had not proven to be of much hindrance to my efforts to tire out the tireless Nastya.
For me, getting to know Nastya was a constant revelation. She brought so much to our marriage that I sometimes wondered why she put up with me. I knew next to nothing about anything save for working on or fighting in space based craft. I could fix nearly anything, and in our home, that was a bonus. In fact, I spent several hours the next day, visiting with our neighbors, getting to know them, and acquiring a list of things to fix.
There were fourteen apartments in the building, and in Lubya, and especially in a marriage including Nastya, it was required that we introduce ourselves to our neighbors, all of whom were relatively poor. We were greeted in each home with big smiles, kisses on both cheeks, and scalding tea in glass cups that were impossible to hold.
About half of our neighbors were retired and living on small pensions plus whatever they could save up over the course of a backbreaking life. Yet, they were happy, and they seemed delighted to welcome us into their homes. In one case, Nastya nudged me and I found myself on my knees in the kitchen, trying to figure our how to get an ancient electrical switch to work just a little longer. My first reaction was to feel a little indignant – I was on a rare and very short leave, why was I having to fix something? It took me but a few moments to figure out the problem and restore electricity to the kitchen.
I went back into the living room where Nastya bestowed such a blinding smile on me that I almost forgot where I was. After we left, she said, “Robert, on Lubya there is so little, and we must help each other to get through the hard times. That couple could not afford to pay to have that fixed, and it would have taken days for my family to get a part. You are my hero, and I am trying to think of some way to honor your deed. Can you think of something?” I nodded somberly, and we went home where my deed was handsomely repaid.
Our short leave came to an end and Elian and I returned to our ships, Nastya and Carolyn to the Netherlands. My exec had achieved a minor miracle or two during my absence, and the hole in our ship was now repaired, and crews were hard at work replacing the badly scarred ablative covering. At my request, they were to apply an additional layer to the entire ship. If I thought it would have any chance of success, I would have asked for a meter of shielding between the bugs energy weapons and my crew.
It took another two weeks of backbreaking labor before the Lee was released from the yards. The breakdown of the forward missile launcher had caused me to request an investigation into the design of the system, which was one of the systems we had not modified. Elian and I looked over the shoulders of base engineers as they waded into the heavy machinery, using hand held x-ray machines to examine the equipment that moved the two ton missiles from their holds to the launcher. They found cracks in the other three launchers. That would have led to further breakdowns.
The Dresden, despite being a basically excellent design and a veritable tank of a ship, had never fought in combat and in retrospect it would have been surprising if we hadn’t found at least one defect. It did spur Elian and I to examine every other system on our ships in an effort to find any other defects that might bite us in the butt. We found nothing, spurring us to even great efforts. I di
d not want to lose any more crew.
It took two full shifts to design modified replacements for the defective launchers and another three days to manufacture and install the new parts. Admiralty ordered all the other Dresden destroyers to return to the nearest yards for the modifications. I signed off on the repairs after two full cycles of tests.
Elian I were ordered to return to Admiral Lee’s growing fleet of ships and as we headed out system we commed personal messages to our wives, who were presumably doing the same thing for us. The Netherlands was due to join Admiral Lee within two to three weeks, just as soon as two replacement carriers arrived to take her place as system defense. Both Elian and I had mixed feelings about that.
In one of our final messages, received a few days before departure, Admiral Lee ordered us to see just how alert his fleet scouts were, see how close we could get before getting detected. Via a message that would be delivered by courier ship, Elian asked the admiral, “Sir, if we can get within missile range of the Constitution without getting spotted, will you award our crews the Order of the Doughnut?”
As we were departing the system, we received a bevy of last minute messages, including the admiral’s reply. “Lt. Cdrs. Turner and Padilla, commanding officers of Fleet destroyers Grant and Lee: I accept your wager. Should you manage to close to within five million kilometers of the Constitution without detection, I shall send over a sufficient quantity of doughnuts to satisfy even you two.”
Over the ships comm system, I read Elian’s message to the admiral, and the reply. I could hear cheers all over the ship and I turned to face a screen, where I noted that Elian was listening to the same cheers on his ship. He said, “Roberto, I suggest that we begin inspecting every system on the ships, looking for anything we can that can do to increase our chances. I’ve ordered my engineers to look at your ship and I’d like you to do the same. See if there is any noise whatsoever.”
I nodded and over the next two days we jumped into the void, but well out of any possible range of detection. We tested different tactics and it was an engineer on the Grant who came up with a novel idea. Although our capacitor-fed engines were far quieter than any other destroyer in fleet service, they did emit some noise. The suggestion was to attempt to tune the two ships engines so that their emissions were one hundred eighty degrees out of phase. This was a fairly easy change to make when there were only two ships; difficult to impossible for three, and out of the question for more than that.
We didn’t have Carolyn, but we did have some reasonably competent Etech’s, and within four hours we were testing. Our ships had to remain within very close proximity to each other, and that separation had to be virtually perfectly maintained. Via our laser comms, we transmitted a control signal that took into account the lag caused by the forty kilometer separation. Our engines were tuned carefully and after several frustrating hours and a couple of modifications to the code, we got it working.
The results were astonishing: our two destroyers were virtually noise-free. I ordered our technicians to write up their modifications, as this represented a significant advance in stealth. We had come a long way since those first few moments when the bug fighters appeared on the Horsham’s screens. Then, our ships were visible from huge distances; now, our two destroyers were probably invisible to passive sensors at anything less than thirty thousand kilometers or even less.
The Grant and Lee accelerated at a steady three G’s toward the fleet. We both ran a series of refresher drills, designed to dust off any possible rust our crews had acquired while downing beer in Lubya. We found some. Over the course of the last several months, and especially the battles we’d had with the fifth bug fleet, our crews had become very tight knit, and my officers didn’t have to do any yelling to bring everyone back up to form: they had fought the enemy and some of their brothers and sisters had been killed or injured. They were fiercely determined that there be no more.
At fifteen million kilometers we made final adjustments to our course so that we would intersect the main fleet elements. At ten million kilometers we calmly turned and began decelerating. We were coming in very fast, and maintained three G’s deceleration. We were confident enough of our new ability that we didn’t even drift in.
We almost ran over a Hawk. We passed it at a distance of twenty thousand kilometers, very, very close in interstellar space. It didn’t get even a sniff of us and we ghosted past the exterior layer of scouts, most being Hawks, with a couple of Dash 4’s, who were much easier to spot, and at least one Kestrel, which was very hard to see. We had been a little lucky, as the Kestrel could have seen us at twenty thousand kilometer.
It took four hours to pass the next layer of ships, composed mostly of destroyers. They were noisy enough and we were quiet enough that we were able to adjust our course to pass them at less than fifty thousand kilometers distance. In point of fact, the only real opportunity the fleet had of spotting us had been that outer layer of Hawks. I decided to recommend to the Admiral that Fleet upgrade their sensors so that they were as good as the Kestrels.
After almost four more hours we spotted the Constitution. It was the quietest carrier in our fleet, by a very big margin. Unfortunately, that wasn’t saying much, as our carriers were a noisy bunch. Elian sent me a voice-only comm via laser, suggesting that we try to get to less than two hundred thousand kilometers before announcing our presence.
At three hundred thousand kilometers our capital missiles would take less than two minutes to reach the Constitution, and there was no way in hell the ship could stop all of them.
We came to rest, relative to the Constitution and drifted along, running parallel with it. Periodically, fighters would launch or be recovered but none came anywhere close to us. Elian suggested that we attempt to drift in to within one hundred thousand kilometers and send a laser comm. I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my command couch. I agreed.
We angled in, running at only one G and simply decided to maintain that acceleration. Finally we were within the one hundred thousand kilometer range of a high power laser comm.
We did paper, rock scissors and Elian won. As a precaution we sent our crews to battle stations before Elian sent the message. In it he said, “Greeting from the Grant and Lee. We include a list of needed supplies.” Elian appended a list of the quantity and type of doughnuts our two crews had given us.
Within moments of sending our message, we saw the Constitution and then her destroyers go active. It took just a few moments for them to spot us, but of course it was too late, and had been for several hours.
Admiral Lee commed us directly and asked, “How did you two miscreants do that? I understand that you are barely one hundred thousand kilometers off our port bow.” Elian answered, “Despite not having Carolyn with us, we have managed to come up with a method of virtually eliminating our energy emissions. We’ve put together a paper showing what we’ve done. It’s pretty simple, and flat amazing.”
The Admiral grinned widely, despite the fact that his fleet had been easily penetrated. He said, “Well, I’m delighted to have you two back, it’s been boring as hell out here. I’ll look at your paper and pass it along. Tell me about it when you come over. I’m sending transportation. Oh, please bring along Master Chief Kana. I’ve got something for him.”
Three hours later we saluted the flag and requested permission to come aboard the Constitution.
The admiral was busy as usual and we had to wait a bit, but eventually we were ushered into his huge cabin. He excused his aide and as soon as we were alone he walked over to shake our hands. Each of us held a small package, which he looked at with raised eyebrows. I said, “The coffee mugs, sir.” He beamed and took them almost reverently. He greeted Chief Kana with one of their typical handshakes, something these two men seemed to enjoy doing, to the detriment of any feeling in their hands.
He waved us to seats and asked us about our wives, an unusual choice for a first question. We talked briefly about our new homes and listened as the a
dmiral talked about his early career, and his first few years as a husband, in what sounded like very similar housing.
After a few minutes he got back to business and asked for a synopsis of our new trick. Elian looked at me and said, “Your turn.” I said, “Sir, this is an adaptation of the same system the Essex engineers originally utilized to eliminate capacitor emissions. We simply established a secure link between the two ships, maintained an exact separation, and set the engines one hundred eighty degrees out of phase. What little emissions the two ships emitted were mostly canceled out. We passed a Hawk at a distance of twenty thousand kilometers and it didn’t get a sniff of us. We believe that the Kestrels could have spotted us at that distance, but nothing else in your fleet. This technique can be easily used between two Dresdens or Hawks, I’m not so certain about your destroyers or larger ships, as I don’t know much about their systems or controls. We think it could be used with three ships, if necessary, but we wouldn’t know without testing it.”
The admiral said, “Once again, you’ve come through for me. I’ve already passed this along to my captain and he’s probably doing some yelling. One hundred thousand kilometers! You scared the shit out of a lot of people. Frankly, they needed a scare.”
Hawk Seven (Flight of the Hawk) Page 73