Under Siege, page 10
“That’s smart thinking,” Amanda said. “Dropping sensor buoys wherever you want to keep an eye on an enemy force will give you a lot of data so long as you can get it out without being detected. How will you manage that?”
“A buoy can be designated as a controller. Just like the minefield can communicate with all the mines inside it using whisker lasers at very low power, the controller will keep in contact with each sensor buoy and make sure the data is sent in a way that is undetectable.”
David frowned at that. “And exactly how do they establish communication without sending a signal that can be detected? Unlike a minefield, these sensor buoys may be deployed quite a distance apart, and unless you deploy the controller first, the mines won’t know specifically where they need to report. Also, there probably needs to be more than one controller. What if something happens to the primary? There needs to be a means for multiple layers of control.”
“The plan is to drop the controller first, and then each subsequent sensor buoy will know where to turn to establish communications. They’ll send a series of low-power lasers that won’t be detectable much beyond the controller, and they will narrow down where each other is until the two are in communication and there’s no worry of an intercepted signal. Neither the Novarites nor the Tardans use lasers for communication, and since they’re invisible, they should be undetectable. Someone would literally have to be hit with a communications laser to know it’s there, and the buoys will see intruders far enough in advance to reroute communication to avoid that.”
“What about the Poseidon Group?” Amanda asked. “For that matter, what about the kingdom?”
“Everything I’ve been able to read about the kingdom indicates that they don’t use lasers at all. The Confederation hasn’t used them for communications in a very long time. In all, I believe this should be safe enough.”
“I suppose we won’t know unless we try it,” Amanda admitted. “That’s pretty amazing. Do you have any other surprises?”
“Just one. I created a series of missile batteries that use fighter-sized antimatter missiles sheathed in anti-sensor hull material and put them on my hull. If I need to shoot somebody, I’ll have something with a lot of firepower to do so. It’s a last resort but comforting nonetheless.”
“So long as you’re not using them when you don’t need to, I suppose that works,” David said. “If the small missile batteries work the way you expect, we might be able to use them in other ways. This is all very clever. Did you come up with these surprises on your own, or did Ringwald Engineering help?”
Lisa shrugged. “I came up with the general ideas, and they designed the systems to make it all work. If you can think of anything else I can do to make the ship safer and perhaps contribute in other ways to a fight, I’d appreciate you speaking up. That’s really why I asked the admiral to loan you to me for this operation, Amanda.”
The young officer nodded. “I’ll start thinking about it, but I don’t suppose we can do lunch first, can we? I’m starving.”
“Another surprise. I think you’ll be pleased with the automated kitchen Patrick built for me. It allows for someone with the appropriate skills to use all the equipment, but it can do everything by itself for people who just prefer heating things up like me. It seems a little paternalistic, but the food is good.”
Amanda threw an arm around her shoulder. “Never turn down the option of having someone else cook dinner, even if it is a machine. Let’s go give it a try.”
The three of them headed back through engineering and picked up their engineer on the way. Their next stop was the cabin where the professor was sleeping, and David pounded on the hatch to get him moving toward the mess.
The five of them would be together for a minimum of a week and potentially a couple of weeks during the deployment at Vesuvius. It behooved them to get to know one another and to test Specter out as completely as possible. If there were modifications that could be made, she wanted to get that accomplished as soon as possible.
As things stood—depending on what they found at Vesuvius—she could really ruin someone’s day, and that made her feel good. And once this dress rehearsal was done, she’d have the Confederation proper to prepare for. They really had it coming, and she’d be happy to deliver.
9
Jack exited the lift in the engineering compartment and walked around to where the new computers for the monitoring system had been installed. While the hardware was in place and everything was connected, the system wasn’t working, and he wanted to get an idea of what was going on and how long it might take to fix.
Kelly Danek and her people were going over everything they’d done while the professor and Lisa had worked on the software. None of them noticed his arrival in the large compartment where the computers resided, and he had an opportunity to watch them work.
It had taken until their arrival in the last system before Vesuvius before they were ready to bring the system online, and then everything had gone haywire. Not only had it failed to function, but it also seemed to be using all the processing power on all five computers while still accomplishing absolutely nothing.
That had made him pause their advance and summon their experts to get an idea of what was going on before they proceeded. While the new system wasn’t required for what they wanted to accomplish, he still wanted it working if possible.
The professor and Lisa were working at consoles set next to one another and were discussing something highly technical. The exact nature of what they were working on was outside his experience, so he decided to ask them directly what was going on. If they couldn’t get the system working in relatively short order, they’d proceed without it.
“What have you got for me?” he asked as he stepped up behind them.
The professor turned and smiled up at him. “A big mess, it seems. We thought we had everything worked out for using a controller to keep track of every star and assign them to the other computers for monitoring, but there’s something wrong with the code. It’s getting caught in an infinite loop.”
“Is that fixable?”
The older men nodded. “Of course. The problem is that it might not be functional immediately. Lisa has helped me narrow down the most likely area for the problem, and I believe I’m starting to get an idea of the parameters that need to change in order for this to function, but I can’t promise a fix in the short term. I might be able to correct the problem in a few hours, or it might take a couple of days. Hopefully, no more than that.”
Jack considered that and grimaced. It wasn’t the best news, but at least they had an idea of what needed to be done and were working on it. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to wait for them to sort out their problems. The mission needed to proceed, and the fix would come when it did.
“I’ll leave you to work on that, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to take Lisa away from you. She needs to be back aboard her ship doing the work she came here to do. Is that going to delay you?”
“Undoubtedly, but hopefully not that much. I believe I have a firm grasp of the nature of the problem, so it’s simply a matter of correcting the software so that it behaves in a fashion that does what I want it to do. This is the kind of thing that programmers do all the time, and I can make it work by myself.”
“Then we’ll leave you and Kelly to work on that. Keep Derek informed of your progress. Lisa, you’re with me.”
The young woman rose from her seat and patted the scientist on his shoulder. “You’ve got this. Focus on the areas we were working on, and I believe you’ll have this wrapped up shortly. This will end up being a simple fix once you locate where things are screwed up. I’ve seen this kind of thing before, and I have confidence you’ll have it working today.”
“We’ll see. Good luck with your scouting mission. Don’t let any of them see you.”
“That’s the plan.”
Once she was ready, Jack headed back toward the lift with her. He didn’t say anything until they were out of engineering and back in the central corridor. “Are you ready for this?”
She nodded. “I am. I’ve already gone over the best way to do this with David and Amanda, and I believe we’ve worked out a good plan. I’ll jump into the system well away from anything else and take an initial look. Once that’s done, I’ll move in closer and begin dropping sensor buoys inside the jump limit, but not too far in. There’s no way that any of the ships there can detect me, particularly if I stay away from where they’re operating, so it’s a simple matter to seed enough buoys to keep an eye on everything for us. David will be collating the data from the various platforms as needed to get a good picture of what we’re dealing with.”
“You’ll be doing the work without Amanda. Is that going to be a problem?”
“No. She helped me figure out ways to make the weaponry on the ship a bit more effective and suggested some other things that we can do to improve data collection, and I believe that’s probably the best we can expect at this point. If there’s anything else that needs to change, we’ll figure it out as we go.”
That was about what he’d expected to hear, so he nodded. “Hunter will be doing much the same from the other side of the system. It’s not that we don’t trust that you’ll give us the information we need, but I think it’s better to get data from multiple angles. There’s a somewhat higher chance that they’ll detect us, but that should be okay. I want to rendezvous with you after we’ve gotten our buoys laid. How long do you think it will take for you to get everything set up the way you want it to be?”
“No more than a couple of hours. Right now, we’re just getting an initial look and beginning to set the parameters of the observation array. We can take a break to get our acts together after that. Why don’t we say three hours to be conservative?”
“That sounds good. Head out and do what you need to do, and we’ll jump back out of the system and rendezvous here to share what we’ve learned. Don’t take risks that you don’t need to. You’re just gathering data.”
“You’ve got it. Remember that yourself. This isn’t the time to get into a fight until we know what’s going on. I’ll coordinate with your helm officer, and I’ll see you once we get back.”
Once she’d left, he headed for the bridge. As expected, his executive officers had the ship ready to depart. He took a few moments to bring them up to speed about the new sensor network and then waited for Lisa to coordinate everything with Jamie Singh.
After Specter had jumped into the Vesuvius system, he ordered Hunter to do the same. The universe twitched, and they were once again orbiting far outside detection range in the occupied system.
They’d already worked over the game plan, and he’d gotten the plans for the sensor buoys that Lisa had worked up with Ringwald Engineering. Using the new assembly lines to build more of them had been relatively straightforward, and they began laying some of them to keep a continuous eye on what was going on.
“What are we looking at, John?” he asked.
The young tactical officer half turned in his seat. “We’re still gathering data, but the Novarite warships are patrolling the inner system. I think there may be more of them. Maybe two or three times as many. That’s a lot of ships, sir. If they all came at us at once, we’d be in a world of trouble.”
“It’s not surprising that more waves of Novarites arrived while we were gone. Start tallying them, and try to assign sizes to each. Jamie, are we able to get any information about the main world from out here?”
The helm officer shook his head. “No, sir. We’ll have to go in much deeper. Rather, we’ll have to send probes in to gather detailed information before we make an assessment. Those new stealth satellites that our spy friend worked up would be perfect if we could get them into orbit undetected.”
Jack nodded and turned to his executive officers. “How would we go about doing that?”
“The easiest way would be to send her stealth cutter in to lay them in orbit,” Derek said. “That would be risky, so I can’t recommend it. The problem with satellites is that the orbital insertion needs to be just about perfect. Get it off by even a little, and you risk it entering the atmosphere or going high. Without a human right there to manage it, the chances of screwing things up are extremely high.”
“I agree with Derek,” Amanda said. “I’m afraid that we have to put off observation of the planetary surface until we have better options. That doesn’t mean we can’t get sensor buoys moderately close to the planet and at least see what’s going on in orbit. That should be achievable without putting any of us at risk.”
That’s about what Jack had expected to hear, but he’d wanted them to think everything through for themselves. “What are the likely Novarite responses if they detect any of these sensor buoys? For that matter, how can we be certain they won’t capture any of them?”
“They won’t get their hands on them,” Derek said. “We’ve modified the design slightly and can put a small amount of antimatter in each one. So long as it’s got power going, that’s not a risk. If it detects an unauthorized vessel closing with it—and we’ve set a short distance as the limit for that—it will self-destruct.”
“That will give the game away,” Amanda said, “but I think the odds of them spotting one of them as long as they are far enough away from the planet are very low. The buoys are about the size of a basketball and can’t be detected through normal means. They’d literally have to be almost on top of one to see it visually, and since it’s a dark black, that’s unlikely.”
Once again, Jack nodded. “It sounds like you’ve considered this thoroughly, and I approve. How do we go about beginning the process? Do we need to jump in closer?”
“Unfortunately, this is something Lisa will have to do,” Derek said. “If we come in close enough to begin deploying sensor buoys, they’ll detect us. We give off too much energy, and we’re too big. I think a better split of our time is us seeding sensor buoys outside detection range and Lisa focusing on getting deeper into the system.”
“Agreed. We’ve got three hours to get as much coverage around the system as we can before Lisa comes back. If we bring the cruisers into this, we should be able to cover the system from a distance a lot more quickly than otherwise. We’ll focus on what we can do and then refine our plan with her once we’re back in the previous system. Derek, you have the conn. Make it happen.”
He leaned back in his seat and let the young officer command the ship. He had utter confidence in Derek’s ability to get this done and to handle any problems that arose, but there was no replacement for spending time in command of a ship. That kind of experience was critical for someone who would be on his own in a month or two. Jack would miss the young helm officer, but he was sure that Derek was up to the task.
It was concerning that there were so many Novarite warships here, but they’d find a way to deal with that problem. The fact that the vast majority of the ships were inside the jump limit complicated what he intended to do, but he’d find a way.
It may very well be that this was one of those times when he tried talking before shooting. In the end, that wouldn’t change the tactical situation very much, and if this could be solved diplomatically, it would be better.
Not that he thought that was likely. The Novarites had dug in, and they wouldn’t give up the planet without a fight.
They wouldn’t be allowed to keep it, of course. If they’d harmed the civilian population, there would be hell to pay, and he’d see they got the bill. The best thing he could do was get all the information he could before the shooting started. Knowledge was power, and he’d use that to burn them to the ground.
10
David stood behind Lisa as she jumped Specter into Vesuvius. According to the plan they’d laid out, she’d used the independent quantum drive to emerge just outside the jump limit but above the plane of the ecliptic. The odds of being detected with her anti-sensor hull material were slim, but making sure the odds of encountering a Novarite vessel were low increased their opportunity to escape notice.
As usual, she only had her passive sensors running, but they were quite powerful, and the computers quickly determined there were no enemy vessels in their vicinity. In fact, the vast majority of them were situated deep inside the system, far away from the jump limit. To him, that seemed odd.
“It looks like there are a lot of ships inside the planetary orbit,” she said. “The computers are still tallying everything, but so far, I haven’t detected many further out. I wonder why.”
“We probably won’t figure that out in the short run,” he said. “While I’m not a military man, this certainly looks like a defensive formation. They’ve drawn in tighter to be certain they can’t be picked off by someone unexpectedly arriving at the jump limit.”
She nodded. “That makes sense, but it makes our jobs tougher. We’ll have to take risks to get probes and sensor buoys in where they are. I don’t have nearly as many probes as I do buoys, so we’ll have to be careful how we deploy them.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t remember you saying anything about the probes. Where are they?”
“In launchers on the hull. I can only deploy a dozen before I need to reload, but it isn’t like these are missiles. Sending the mechanicals out to restock my supply will be slow, but that won’t matter.”
“We don’t want to get too risky with the ship, so deploying them makes more sense. What kind of pattern are you thinking of?”
She brought up a diagram of the system on one of the side displays and began highlighting a couple of points near Vesuvius, and where a number of significant clusters of Novarite warships were in the inner system.
“We need to know what’s going on at the planet, and having an eye on these conglomerations of ships would be useful. It will take time to get the probes into position since they don’t move very quickly, but the fact that they use antigravity drives means they won’t be detectable the way a fusion drive would.”
