by Ian Miller
"Evenings on fatigues, two weeks," Klendor said flatly.
"Gunners?" Gaius commanded.
More quite despondent Ulsians stepped forward.
"You did nothing? Why not?" he paused again, and roared, "Don't look at me! Look forwards, and answer promptly!"
"The weapons weren't primed. What could we do?"
"What could we do, sir!"
"What could we do, sir?" came the now frightened gunner.
"Yell and scream!" Gaius offered. "Get the others to start doing their job. If you can't do your job because someone else hasn't done theirs, then get them off their backsides."
Gaius paused and addressed them all. "Basically, this was pitiful. Next time, do better." He nodded and stepped back.
"Or else!" Klendor added, as he stepped forward. "You may not know this, but this has been a remarkably tame ending for you all. Perform like this when we return, and you will learn something about the Old Ways of the Ulsian forces."
"Now," Gaius said in a quieter voice as he turned to address them again. "I rather suspect most of you are wondering why I am in control here, aren't you?"
There were some embarrassed and guilty looks, but nobody said anything.
"You are wondering what someone from my times could possibly contribute?"
Again there was silence, accompanied by guilt and embarrassed looks.
"The reason, I believe, is that I didn't lose battles. Now, the question is, why didn't I? Well, the answer is rather simple. Man for man, my soldiers were no braver than the enemy, and our weapons weren't particularly better. The difference was, my soldiers used what they had more efficiently. Every man knew exactly what sort of things they had to do, and they practised and practised until they could do it in their sleep. My men were better because things didn't go wrong, and they didn't go wrong because everybody had drilled so much they couldn't go wrong. That is what you are going to do. You are going to drill and drill until you do everything properly by reflex. Then you will win."
* * *
Word quickly spread, and in the next inspections of the other sites, the performance was not quite so dismal, but it was still depressing.
"The problem," Klendor said, "is that they expect the automated system to commence, and it is better than they are, so they expect to have nothing to do during a real attack."
"Explain these automated defences," Gaius frowned.
So Klendor explained that the system was programmed to respond to incoming ships, determine their origin, then destroy those which did not have permission, or refused to obey the protocols of standing off until their status was cleared.
"In principle," Klendor concluded, "there is enough power to readily destroy this inferred attack."
"And how long has this system been in place?"
"Hundreds of thousands of years."
"So the enemy would know about this system?" Gaius asked curiously.
"Of course," Klendor replied. "We have always let our defensive strength be known. It is more of a deterrent that way."
"But these M'starn ignored the outer defences."
"That is true," Klendor admitted. "For some reason, they offered little or no impediment."
"In which case," Gaius mused, "we can assume the M'starn have worked out a way to defend against your defences. They would never have launched their first attack unless they were reasonably confident of eventual success."
"I can't see how they can be confident," Klendor replied. "Even with these pathetic performances, the automated defences are still efficient, the enemy will be destroyed, and before you jump down my throat, I agree that is no reason not to get everyone up to speed."
"I'm not going to jump down your throat," Gaius smiled, "but the argument is interesting. Can we set this as a problem for some attack forces?"
"We can't just destroy our own forces," Klendor protested.
"Of course we have to switch the real cannon off," Gaius agreed, "but we still have to practice. In Rome we were continually practising with wooden swords instead of steel ones, so those not on top of things got bruised rather than killed. What I'm asking is can you make some sort of practice weapon, to make an illusory defence that . . ?"
"It would be more efficient to make an illusory attack," Klendor nodded, "Then everyone can fire real weapons. I shall coordinate it."
Chapter 19
A set of repeat exercises began. Everything was too slow, and when the gunners pointed out there were no targets, and wanted instructions, Gaius ordered no firing. It was the time taken to get ready for firing that counted. Then came a set of exercises in which there were planned malfunctions. At first, this threw the defenders, but eventually they set about repairing things. On one site, the malfunction did not work, and when Gaius asked why not, a rather sheepish looking engineer stepped forward and explained he had done some diagnostic tests well before Gaius had turned up, found the fault and fixed it. He waited for the punishment, but Gaius grinned, patted him on the shoulder, and congratulated him. He instructed the engineer to make up a full procedure of such diagnostic tests, and instructed engineers to be carrying these out almost continuously while no other activity was under way.
Then the tests with the fake attacks were carried out. By now the units were operating smoothly, and in no time, the great cannon destroyed the drones.
This was followed by simulated attacks with real ships from deep space by sections of an Ulsian Space Corps. These were promptly detected and immediately destroyed, at least in the electronic simulation. Time and again the attacks came, every trick in the Ulsian book was tried, but the defences were impenetrable.
"We now have a defence," Klendor nodded.
"No we don't," Gaius muttered.
"Why not?" Klendor seemed almost angry. In his eyes the ground crews had performed admirably, and the attack forces had tried everything conceivable. "What more could they have done?"
"I don't know," Gaius frowned, "and that's what bothers me. The M'starn will be expecting what we've seen, and they're still coming . . ."
"You think they're still coming," Klendor corrected.
"I know they're still coming," Gaius countered. "So far they've properly executed a brilliant strategy, if their goal is to strike at Ulse. If that isn't their strategy, why have they done what they have?"
"Could be a feint, to divert our attention," Klendor offered.
"Some feint!" Gaius snorted. "They've conquered nearly an eighth of the Ulsian federation, and their supply lines are overextended. They're not going to do that so competently, then stop with a spare strike force and say, what now?"
Klendor looked downcast, and muttered, "I suppose not."
"They found a way through the rather formidable outer defences as if they weren't there," Gaius added. "Take my word for it, they'll have a plan to get through these."
"How?" Klendor asked irritably. He was irritated at Gaius' superior attitude, and also that Gaius was seemingly oblivious to the effect this was having on him.
"I haven't got a clue," Gaius shrugged, "and it scares the living daylights out of me."
"Why?" Klendor was puzzled. "We're doing all we can."
"Our job," Gaius said bleakly, "is not to do what we can. It's to win, or at least to win our battle. The libraries must survive, we've got to make sure that happens, and I can't see what we're not doing."
"Maybe we need help," Klendor suggested. "Perhaps our scientists could suggest something."
"Then talk to them," Gaius suggested. "Believe me, we need every bit of help we can get."
* * *
Gaius sat down beside Klendor, and stared at the Ulsian scientists. He realized it was probably rude, but he could not help it. They looked rather different from Klendor. They really did have larger heads, which Klendor informed him really did mean they had bigger brains. However their overall bodies were smaller, their hands were quite delicate, their eyes seemed almost as if they had difficulty with long range vision, and they did not look at
all agile. It was almost as if they were a totally different species.
"So," the leading scientist started, "as a problem this is rather straightforward."
Gaius said nothing.
"We don't know what the M'starn's advantage is," the scientist continued, "but in this case, we don't have to."
"You don't?" Gaius said with a start.
"So our young alien has a voice," the scientist said. "No, young Terran, we don't. The problem can be simply addressed by logic."
"Just what Timothy would have said," Gaius muttered.
"Then your Timothy was correct." The scientist almost preened himself, then cackled at Gaius' look of disgust. "If what I've heard about you is correct, you can get to the problem, if not the solution."
Klendor looked at Gaius in puzzlement.
"Break down exactly what you have to do in steps," the scientist suggested.
"We've got to detect the enemy in time," Gaius said simply, "we have to properly lock the weapons onto them, then we have to shoot them before they can do whatever they wished to do."
"See! You're there already."
"But . . . but I still have no idea what to do!"
"Because you have no faith in yourself. Oh, I don't expect the technical answer, but you should know what sort of thing to do. What can go wrong?"
"If I knew that I'd . . ."
"Oh yes, you know, otherwise you wouldn't be here," the scientist said. "You just don't know you know. Think about why you can't destroy them?"
"The first thing, I suppose," Gaius said, "is if we hit their ships with our weapons and nothing happens. In that case . . ."
"Forget that," the scientist said. "If that happens you're always going to lose. There's no way we could develop a new weapons system in time, when we've made no advances in about nineteen million years."
"Backing off," Gaius frowned, "I suppose we could miss our targets, but that's what practice is for. To make sure we don't."
"Exactly. So that leaves?"
"We don't see them?" Gaius offered.
"They have to make their ships almost invisible," the scientist said. "Ulse can do that, so we have to assume they can."
"But we detected the Ulsian ships," Gaius frowned. "From what I can make out, you can always detect mass accelerating, or moving through a gravitational field, so that can't be it."
"Correct," the scientist smiled. "There is no way their mass won't be detected, so that leaves . . ?"
"There's nothing left!" Klendor protested, as he saw Gaius' frown.
"Well, young Roman?"
"I suppose we could detect the presence of their mass," Gaius said slowly, "but perhaps we couldn't see them specifically enough, or . . ."
"Or?" the scientist encouraged.
"I suppose the inertial detectors could put the ships in the wrong place," Gaius looked up questioningly at the scientist. "If that were possible we'd shoot, but we'd always miss."
"That, more or less, is all that's left," the scientist nodded.
"So what can we do about that?" Gaius asked, almost helplessly.
"There're actually two problems," the scientist said. "The first is to get some idea that they're there before it's too late. You've got to realize that gravitational waves carry incredibly little energy, so one strategy for them is to send in a small ship and transmit a background, and as the rest come through, reduce the background."
"They would have told us they're coming!" Klendor pointed out.
"But not when and where," Gaius muttered, "and that's the most important fact."
"We can deal with that strategy anyway," the scientist replied. "No, that's not the difficult problem."
"Well, what is?" Klendor asked.
"Suppose, when they come, they have some emitters. They know where our detectors are, so they can arrange some interference effects. We see them, but . . ."
"In the wrong place," Gaius nodded.
"That, in a nutshell, is your problem."
"And I came looking for an answer," Gaius shook his head in dismay.
"So you will get one," the scientist continued. "If you can't solve the first problem, consider the second, and you find if you solve this, you solve both."
"And that is?"
"How to aim weapons properly if you still can't see them," the scientist shrugged.
"And how do you do that?" Gaius asked.
"I'm not exactly sure," the scientist said, "but there are some fairly clear tactics to consider. You see," he explained, mainly to Klendor, "one of their weaknesses is, once one of their ships is hit, it will be irreversibly lit up, and if the others were in a formation, they can't leave the formation without turning, and creating patterns we can see."
"So we need to fire broad bursts?" Klendor asked.
"Yes, and not necessarily with much power," the scientist said. "Your first objective is to find them, so you wish to cover as much area as possible with some energy. Once you know where one of them is, then we need optimized patterns to maximize the chance of doing damage to as many ships as possible. Then we clean up the damaged ones with specific fire. We shall send you a variety of firing patterns and sequences. Fortunately, we have one further factor working for us." The scientist leaned back with a superior look on his face.
"And that is?" Gaius asked, after a pause. Whatever else he was going to do, he was not going to let them see any frustration on his part, but on the other hand, he needed an answer.
"To destroy a well-fortified installation, the ship has to hit it directly with non-dispersed weapons, or they have to land and do something with ground-based weapons," the scientist said, "and to do the first with certainty, it has to get reasonably close. So to do any effective damage, it has to come in either a straight or a curved line from where we detect it. To fly in a straight line, we will know when it will arrive, as long as we detected it in the first place." The Ulsian scientist paused, then gave Gaius a challenging look. "To fly in a curved line, it has to do what?"
"Exert force by imparting momentum to something within our reference frame," Gaius replied evenly. He felt rather pleased with himself. Something of the last few weeks at last looked like being of use.
"Interesting answer," the scientist said with a puzzled look. "Most Ulsians would say throw out a detectable exhaust, and while that is true to a point, it is far from complete. Anyway, yes, you are correct. And the action of that force is detectable, even if the ship is not."
"Always assuming you have detectors suitable for that force in the correct place," Gaius offered. "If the enemy destroyed the detectors first . . . "
"They won't even know where they are," the Ulsian scientist said in a superior tone, "and if they waste time looking for them, then you or the Space Forces can have some free shots at them."
"Suppose they stop the messages from the detectors?" Gaius asked.
"Much better question," the Ulsian said. There was a pause, then what Gaius realized was a smile of satisfaction passed over the Ulsian's face. "Yes, they could do that, and perhaps that is their strategy, to send blanket false signals saying nothing is there. That is good."
"Sounds bad to me," Klendor said in a dispirited tone.
"And what does our Terran think?" the scientist asked in a challenging tone.
"It depends on whether you can detect the source of their false signals," Gaius replied, after a moment's thought.
"It does indeed," the scientist replied, as he nodded towards Gaius in approval. "You see," he explained, almost to Klendor alone, "it is impossible to send any signal from a moving object without leaving a signature of that motion. We must work on that immediately."
"How long will it take?" Gaius asked.
"You can have some training simulations next week," the Ulsian scientist said. "You will get the detections systems and motion analysers as soon as possible. Perhaps, some simple ones in two weeks."
"We really need them yesterday," Gaius muttered, almost to himself.
"I know," the sc
ientist said, "but you also want ones that work. I promise you we'll work as hard as we can, as quickly as we can."
Gaius looked at the scientist and nodded. "I know," he smiled. "Nobody can do better than their best, but that may be what we need. But one more question?"
"Yes?"
"These dephasers I have been told about. Can they send a very weak signal over a very large volume and still work?"
"They can," Klendor said, "but the effect on the enemy would be minimal."
"And what does our Roman think about that answer?" the scientist said with a nod and a smile.
"If I have understood properly what I have been trying to learn," Gaius said slowly, almost with a touch of embarrassment that he was going to make a fool of himself, "if you could generate a general reaction inside all solid objects, they would get warmer and give out black body radiation, or at least grey body radiation, and we could see that, in principle at least."
"Yes, you could, and interestingly enough, that was the basis of some earlier detection systems. They would be worth regenerating. Now, I have things to do, so you can leave this in my hands.
* * *
"Well?" Klendor asked later.
"One more thing to do," Gaius replied. "Those scientists reminded me of something I should never have overlooked."
"Which is?"
"Lets suppose they get past our major weapons and land? They could neutralize our defences, then do what they wished."
"They're not going to get through," Klendor said firmly.
"You don't know that," Gaius said, "and the answer's simple. Find tunnels connected to the libraries, and have mobile ground forces stationed there."
"I'm not sure we can do that," Klendor frowned. "We don't have the authority."
"Did whoever ordered us to defend this place?"
"Most definitely," Klendor nodded. "I see the point. I'll see they get the request." He paused, then asked, "Anything else?"
"It's still not entirely satisfactory," Gaius shrugged, then he added wryly, "In war it is never entirely satisfactory until victory is inevitable."
"We're not quite there yet," Klendor agreed.
"Nevertheless," Gaius smiled, "I can now agree with your earlier position. Apart from more exercises, we have done what we can."