Delphi Challenge

by Bob Blanton

  “Oh, I’m sure he loves that.”

  “Definitely. And now, I’ve heard he’s saying something about female navigators and suggesting that you cheated.”

  “How could he say that?! There was another schooner that we just barely beat past the finish line.”

  “It doesn’t have to be true for him to say it. He’s just trying to distract from his failure.”

  “He is such an ass!”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Hey guys,” Catie said as she joined Yvette and Joanie for lunch. The discipline at the Academy was a lot more relaxed this semester so it was possible to have lunch off-campus. They were meeting at Giorgio's for pizza.

  “Hey, Alex,” Joanie said. “I’ve hardly seen you since Guatemala.”

  “I know. Everyone has been so busy. I’m glad they’re finally letting us off-campus. What have you two been talking about?” Catie asked.

  “We’re comparing notes on roommates,” Yvette said.

  “Oh, please!”

  “Do you know that after ten minutes, I know more about Joanie and her family than I know about you and yours,” Yvette scolded.

  “That’s because Joanie is a blabbermouth, and my life is boring,” Catie said.

  “Yvette just told me you went to a New Year’s Eve party and met a guy.”

  “There were lots of guys at the party,” Catie said.

  “But only one of them kissed you goodbye.”

  “Apparently, Yvette is also a blabbermouth.”

  “What would you ladies like to have today?” Giorgio asked as he handed Catie a menu.

  “I’m going to have the Hawaiian pizza and a glass of your house lager,” Catie said, handing the menu back.

  “And you ladies?”

  “We’re going to share a pepperoni pizza and I’ll have a glass of the lager as well,” Joanie said.

  “A glass of the Pinot Noir,” Yvette said.

  “Coming right up.”

  “So, have you gone out with him again?” Joanie asked.

  “When could I? We were out on those schooners for the first two weeks of the year,” Catie said.

  “Yeah, I’m still washing the salt out of my hair,” Yvette said.

  “We’ve been back two and a half weeks,” Joanie said. “What about tonight?”

  “He’s out at the asteroid belt,” Catie said.

  “What?”

  “His class is doing a design project on a new smelter design that will separate the platinum metals from each other while they’re being smelted. They’re out there working on it.”

  “Only Alex would pick up a guy who was leaving the planet,” Yvette said.

  “I didn’t pick him up.”

  “Keep telling yourself that. When is he supposed to be back?” Yvette asked.

  “They’re supposed to be back in February.”

  “That’s only three or four more weeks,” Joanie said. “Maybe we can double date.”

  “He probably won’t even call me,” Catie said.

  Yvette was nodding her head and rolling her eyes, letting Joanie know that Catie would probably be getting a call.

  “Alex, did you get your results from the combat strategy test?” Yvette asked.

  “Yes,” Catie said.

  “Well!”

  “I made the space fleet ops class,” Catie said. “How about you?”

  “I didn’t make it; but Miranda did,” Yvette said.

  “Miranda?” Joanie asked.

  “Miranda Cordova.”

  “You mean Cadet Colonel Miranda Cordova?”

  “Yes.”

  “How do you know she made it?” Joanie asked.

  “She told me,” Yvette said.

  “You’re friends with her?”

  “Yes, we were in the same class. Alex tutored us some. Miranda got an A, and she says it was because of Alex’s help.”

  “You tutored Miranda. On what?” Joanie asked incredulously.

  “Basic Structure of Starships,” Catie said. “I studied up on it when I was at UCSD.”

  “You are full of surprises. So, you’re going to be in the same class as Miranda.”

  “I don’t know. I think there are going to be three different classes,” Catie said. “They didn’t say how they were structuring it. There were over three hundred in the first two weeks of the lecture.”

  “What?!”

  “Let me explain,” Yvette said. “Alex skips over too much. The lecture was for all the First- and Second-Class Cadets as well as one hundred line-officers. Only the ones who got a good grade on the combat test last semester and scored well on the fleet strategy test that we just took, get to take the space fleet ops class, the rest of us will be taking a more basic class.”

  “Oh.”

  “Here are your drinks,” a waitress said as she set them on the table. “Your pizzas should be ready in five minutes.”

  “Did Baker make it into the advanced class?” Joanie asked. Cadet Major Baker had been Joanie’s and Catie’s squadron commander during basic training.

  “I don’t know, but I would think so,” Catie said.

  “The most important thing is that there will be older officers from the active fleet in the class,” Yvette said. “And our friend Alex will need to have them over to study.”

  “Oh, and I will probably need you to help me with one of my classes as well,” Joanie said. “I’ll have to come to your dorm room so you can help me study.”

  “But of course. Now, Chérie,” Yvette put her hand on Catie’s shoulder, “please, only the cute ones.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “First Mate, are we ready to jump?” Liz asked. They had finally crawled out of Sol’s gravity well and were now at the fringe. It had taken just under two weeks. This would be the first jump with the ship fully loaded, and Liz wondered if the extra mass would make a difference. “Well, the Sakira was really loaded, and she made it,” Liz thought.

  “Yes, Captain, jump is laid in, waiting for your order,” First Mate, Hayden Watson, replied.

  Liz checked her board; engineering and navigation showed green lights; they were ready.

  “Then engage,” Liz ordered.

  The stars went out, then winked back in. The transition took longer than Liz remembered from her experience on the Roebuck. “Well, this is a bigger ship,” she thought as she blew out a sigh of relief.

  “The next jump is a small one,” Hayden said. “We can make it now if you like.”

  “Are we ready to jump?” Liz asked.

  “Yes, Captain.”

  Liz checked her board, again it showed green for engineering and navigation. “Then launch probe,” Liz ordered.

  “The probe shows clear space on the other side of the wormhole,” the sensor operator reported.

  “Then, Hayden, take us through.”

  “Pilot, increase speed by ten MPS,” Hayden ordered.

  “Ten MPS, aye.”

  “Wormhole is closing,” the sensor operator reported.

  “Eight-hour recharge,” Hayden informed Liz.

  “Then give us some gravity, Cer Watson,” Liz ordered. “I’ll be in engineering.”

  Liz messaged Engineer Chief Griggs that she would meet her in the engine room, then she made her way off the bridge and took the elevator down to it.

  “Hello, Captain,” Arlean Griggs said as Liz made her way into the engine room.

  “Hey, call me Liz. How did the engines do?” Liz asked.

  “If you call me Arlean.”

  “Sure.”

  “The engines groaned a bit, but that’s to be expected,” Arlean said. “I was a bit surprised that we had enough in the capacitors to do a second jump.”

  “Me, too. How did they handle the acceleration profile?”

  “Not bad. We could have done a bit more, but then we wouldn’t have been able to keep the capacitors charged. And I’m sure the children wouldn’t have liked it. The 1.25Gs wasn’t too hard on them. Probably got everyone into a little
better shape.”

  “I’m sure it did. It definitely didn’t stop them from complaining about it,” Liz said. “I have to have lunch with a different group of colonists a few times a week. Their constant complaining does get old.”

  “Well, it is a bit boring being stuck inside a ship. At 1.25Gs, you’re not inclined to do much, and you’re not really set up for entertainment.”

  “Yeah, we should have added a few comics and music acts for the bars, maybe a magic show for the kids. Set ourselves up more like a cruise ship.”

  “That would have been expensive,” Arlean said.

  “Maybe, but I bet Marc would have paid.”

  “Come into my office, and we’ll have a drink to celebrate the first jumps.”

  When they got to Arlean’s office, she grabbed a bottle of scotch from her desk drawer and poured each of them a glass.

  “Scotch, you’re going to fit in just fine with the MacKenzie crowd. The McCormacks pretty much keep Glenlivet in business,” Liz said.

  “Oh, I didn’t know. Here’s to our first loaded jumps,” Arlean offered up the toast.

  “Hear, hear.”

  “Liz, tell me what you thought of the first outbound trip for the Dutchman?”

  “It wasn’t too bad. I was busy most of the time. Amazing how much paperwork there is.”

  “Paperwork. Why do we still use that term when it’s all e-documents?”

  “We still say hang up the phone instead of close the call,” Liz said.

  “But back to my questions: how is your significant other going to deal with you being out in space for six to eight weeks every couple of months?”

  “I don’t have a significant other,” Liz said. “So nobody complains. Well, except for Catie.”

  “Don’t you date?”

  “Well I swore off men for a while. Recently, I’ve been seeing a musician so you know how that is. Between his road trips and my cargo runs, we don’t see each other much. It’s just as well since I haven’t figured out what I want.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, if these Paraxean treatments do what we think they will, I’ve got well over one hundred years left, maybe two hundred,” Liz said. “I’m not sure I want to spend that with one person.”

  “Hmm, I love my husband, but I’m not sure I’m interested in another hundred years with him. What do the Paraxeans do?”

  “That’s interesting. Apparently, some of them don’t bother to extend their lives, and a lot of them can’t afford it. Dr. Metra says Paraxean youths are just like human ones, they have a hard time imagining being over thirty. Then when they get there, they get bored and figure why bother. Others, like Dr. Metra, have been around for hundreds of years.”

  “Hundreds?!”

  “Well, that’s because they go into stasis when they do interstellar travel. Or at least they used to. So she’s outlived a few husbands and is still only about ninety years old.”

  “Children?”

  “Yes, she’s got two sets, about eighty years apart.”

  “Interesting. I guess with long lives, we might wind up staying married just long enough to get the children raised,” Arlean said. “Then, we might just decide to separate and do something different, become a colonist.”

  “Or a starship engineer,” Liz said, raising her glass to Arlean.

  Arlean laughed. “I’m not doing this to get away from the family. But I didn’t think about multi-legged voyages. You could easily have a trip that takes eighteen to thirty weeks.”

  “Yes, we didn’t think about multi-legged voyages either. We’ll have to find another engineer so you can do every other trip,” Liz said. “I’m glad we’re doing a flyby cargo exchange with Paraxea.”

  “Yes, not having to go into their system is saving us four weeks, but I don’t think they’ll want to do that very often.”

  “Probably not. They must really want those quantum cables to agree to the extra hassle,” Liz said.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Catie entered the simulation room. This would be her first combat simulation for the strategy class. She would be acting as the commander of a convoy. She was a bit nervous, there would be a lot of moving pieces to keep track of.

  She moved to her assigned simulation table and began to set up the simulation. There were six tables in the room, which allowed the instructor to observe each student. There was another room with six identical tables, which allowed the simulation to be carried out between the two rooms.

  Captain Clark got everyone’s attention; he’d been their instructor for the past week. “Set up your convoy,” he ordered. “You’ve had a day to analyze your convoy and weapons.”

  Catie set her two carriers up forward with the four cargo ships behind them. Behind the cargo ships, she placed her two frigates. She put out the standard fighter pickets to provide early warning of any attacking force. She added another set of pickets, one at 45 degrees above their vector and another at 45 degrees below. She set her Comm up to manage the display via voice commands; she didn’t want to use her nanites since Captain Clark would be expecting to hear her talking.

  “Myrtle, verify all settings,” Catie ordered her Comm. She’d named it Myrtle the Turtle when she first got it, but almost never talked to it preferring to communicate to ADI who was always listening to her Comm.

  “Do you mind if I play?” ADI asked.

  “What are you doing?!” Catie messaged back.

  “I like these one-on-one simulations. They’re very interesting,” ADI said.

  “You can’t just watch?”

  “It’s more fun to be involved. Can’t I just be Myrtle for you?”

  “Okay. You’re so spoiled.”

  “I like it that way,” ADI said.

  “The simulation is going to run at one hundred times speed. We don’t want to be here all week,” Captain Clark announced. “It will slow down to 10X when you’re in sensor range, and four X during any engagements.”

  The simulation table provided Catie a three-D view of the space around her convoy. She quickly set up regions in the display to show her sensors, the position and speed of any fighter squadrons she sent out, the position of any missiles, and positions of any mines. The missiles were designed to operate either as a missile or a mine, so that simplified the logistics of arming the fighters.

  Captain Clark paused at her table and observed all of her preparations. After a few minutes, he moved on to another table.

  Ten minutes later, ADI announced, “Contact!” The simulation switched to 10X speed.

  “Where?”

  “Thirty thousand kilometers off our starboard. They’re approaching at sixty kilometers per second, accelerating with a 10G stutter profile,” ADI announced.

  “What’s their attitude?”

  “They’re aligned with our forward vector.”

  “Omega Squadron, drop missiles, use your fighters to give them a vertical velocity of 30 kps, do not engage their engines. Alfa Squadron, same maneuver but with opposite vector,” Catie ordered. The two squadrons of fighters that were out toward the enemy but up 45 degrees accelerated directly toward the enemy flight path, dropped their missiles, then accelerated back away. This left the missiles coasting along, coming in from above and below the enemy’s horizon.

  “Give me five squadrons to match the enemy fighters. I want them to accelerate at 8Gs. Go below the horizon for five minutes, then accelerate for point Charlie,” Catie ordered. She marked the point where she expected the two squadrons to intersect.

  “Aye-aye,” ADI answered as she sent fighters out from the two carriers. Soon forty fighters were racing toward the enemy formation. “So you are planning to have your coasting missiles intersect their fighters five minutes before our fighters arrive?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But our fighters will be going slower than theirs when they engage.”

  “It’s relative velocity, so it doesn’t matter.”

  “You don’t think they’ll adju
st their vector to take our fighters head-on?” ADI asked.

  “No, their target is the convoy, the fighters are just a distraction to them.”

  Six minutes later, the simulation alerted Catie that it had switched to 4X speed as the engagement approached.

  Catie watched as the two icons showing her the positions of her silent missiles approached the enemy fighters. They were almost on top of the fighter location when she ordered, “Weapons, take the missiles live!”

  The enemy fighter formation was decimated as it was hit from the top and bottom by the now active missiles. Within seconds, the screen showed only twenty enemy fighters still active while eighty were marked as burning hulks.

  Now the enemy’s velocity was against them as they tried to slow and turn back toward their fleet. Catie's fighters accelerated and tore into them. Only five enemy fighters escaped.

  “Impressive,” Captain Clark said. “You should give Jason a call. He thinks you’re mad at him.”

  “Wha . . .”

  “Female, right height and weight, three-dimensional thinker, it’s not hard to guess who you really are,” Captain Clark whispered. “Exceptional job, MacGregor!”

  “Busted,” ADI messaged.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Hi, Jason, I saw your father the other day, and it reminded me that we haven’t talked for quite some time,” Catie said.

  “Hey, Catie. Yeah, it’s been a while. I was wondering if I’d pissed you off somehow.”

  “What would make you think that?”

  “I don’t know, I bailed on your mission to build the Gemini station.”

  “You didn’t bail, Uncle Blake pulled you,” Catie said. “He pulled Kasper as well.”

  “But then you guys didn’t take me on the Roebuck.”

  “Uncle Blake and Liz made that call. I think it had to do with balancing out the experience they had here at Delphi City while we were away.”

  “Anyway, I just wondered.”

  “Well, I’m not mad at you. How are you and Annie doing?”

  “We’re doing fine. Still dating, if you can believe it. She’s in college now, going to Delphi University.”

  “How does she like it?”

  “She loves it. She likes that they let her do a lot of the classes virtually. She just has to go in for the tough ones. And they have a bunch of study groups that she can go to.”