Chapter 70

"Caine? Peter Scott. Carlton and I want to see the Admiral, unofficially, next couple of days if you could find a time? Can't do it? Let me think."

Scotty turned to Carlton and got inspiration,

"When does she go to Gym? Ask her if she will have an informal chat with Carlton who will just happen to be getting fit again."

"Admiral" started Carlton as he passed a towel "Scotty coached me what to say." Carlton took a deep breath, looked upwards, closed his eyes and began,

"Commodore McCock has written a paper which appeared in the Journal. On the "Death of the Battleship"; co-authored with Earl Gold Roper. The Commodore is working on plans to modify his Riders into nest carriers. Aubrey Wamirant has them already in service. My Lady, Scotty says it will only take six weeks to get it together."

"Your Majesty,"

"Andrew". Elizabeth indicated the side table which had been prepared for an afternoon tea.

They took their places and the Queen decanted the beverage into delicate porcelain cups decorated by the personal arms of the House of Winsor. Both enjoyed the first taste of the delicate flavours of the brew; Andrew sniffed appreciatively the aroma. The cups were returned to saucers and placed gently on the table top. They relaxed back into the surprisingly comfortable delicate chairs.

"I wonder how much of my Kingdom's affairs are conducted by pillow talk," began the Queen, "particularly when my First Lord of the Admiralty, incidentally married to my only Admiral of the Fleet, asks for an informal audience about a possible operation of war. Those are matters which are handled by my Admiralty. So I suspect it is convoluted and nobody wants to make a decision. That is not like my Admiralty. So?"

Andrew had a small smile on his face,

"It's actually all Sir Victor Carlton's fault. He listens to things and can put them together. He bounced this one off Scotty who got it to Virginia, very unofficially, who looked into it as best she could and put it to me in our official personas. Working from the top down I have managed to pull the lid off a sewer. The ramifications are rather widespread and I'm afraid not good. It began when "The Queen's Own" appeared. Victor and Scotty got curious about McCock, as Carlton says he wanted to know who was covering his flank. Scotty investigated the more academic aspects and Carlton went after the more personal. McCocks' paper on "The Death of the Battleship" in the journal had been studied by them. Scotty borrowed time on one of the simulators and Carlton and he war gamed it using what goodies we now have plus a couple of the proposed ones in the paper. The pair of them got it to Virginia by back channel. Virginia invited the Commodore to an informal chat on her flagship. She can't explain why but she kept it one on one; not even Caine was present. McCock's plan, he says is based on a pre-Diaspora operation. By a surprise attack, first nation destroyed second nation's wet navy capital ships placing second nation on the back foot. A reserve officer carries out a plan using something like a CVHAC with parasites much larger than usually mounted. The CVHAC advances towards first nation and the parasites carrying gravity explosives of very low yield pass over several first nation cities catching first nation by surprise. The actual damage done was insignificant but the moral effect was huge. McCock has been working on this since he was in Paracelsus; he had that armed cutter of his and he predicted Recon Drone and Cruise missile. He got onto Cruise missile in Gorgipest – there was a store of them there which Higgins missed. That's how "The Queen's Own" has them hanging off their signal lights. Virginia pointed out the difficulty of getting a force of sufficient size in undetected. Virginia said McCock went into schoolmaster mode. The Riders, well out beyond the hyper limit and detection range throw out a Fleet load and a replenishment load of Cruise missiles. They are fired in the direction of a target and then shut down to continue ballistic – several days out. They are accompanied by a number of Cruise missile controllers which have been made mobile and manoeuvrable escorted by "The Queen's Own" of which "Vector" and the 'Grendles' have BC (N) 'puters capable of controlling the Cruise missiles via the powered unmanned Cruise missile controllers, KeyHACs. Up to date information is needed to be fed into the Cruise missiles. This is where the sewer lid lies. Your personal fleet has capabilities which do not exist anywhere in your Navy with one exception. Commodore Bender had it on "Mountserrat"; he was with Home Fleet and didn't take a hit. How he got it is another very interesting story. "The Queen's Own" make themselves into holes-in-space and now I know why that "Death Ride" of the original 119 was even thought feasible. They also have an active detection system which itself is undetectable. To continue with the operational side for the moment. McCock is working on plans for his Riders but they are six months to a year away. He is nearly ready to begin modifying them. He was working on the op plan whenever he could but he and his Flock have another major distraction, which I'll leave for the time being. This is where Carlton gets involved. He doesn't know about "The Queen's Own" capabilities but as I said Scotty and he did some war games at a time Carlton got the last piece of the jigsaw. When Virginia was up in Paracelsus on "Fairpath", Carlton helped a kid named Aubrey Wamirant. Wamirant is an electronic genius and he was that good the system failed him. Everyone he served under wanted to keep him as an electronic technician so instead of sending him to OCS, he was promoted. In the RMN he is Master Chief Warant Officer at an unbelievably young age. He ends up at the Trade School. He gets frustrated and takes a Renmark commission as Lt Cdr. They put him to work on a project of Virginia's to build passive nest carriers. I say passive because she just improved on the present Fleet Replenishment Ships. Instead of having general cargo vessels the idea was to leave the hull plates off, have a skeleton on which everything hung and a framework to attach two fleet loads of nests, which could be just released. The idea was then for Capital Ships with necessary 'puter power to take them under control. Did away with time consuming transfer from FRS to ships' magazines or for tractoring nests which is relatively restricting. Wamirant thinks he can do better. He can and convinces Mathews. The 'Vulcans' are now true warships. The nests can now be fired directly from the 'Vulcans'. Target information can be fed directly into the missiles and updated until firing. Once fired Cruise missile controllers on tractors as then envisaged took over. McCock has gone off to his experts, Denholt and Gort. Wamirant did not put any EW on the 'Vulcans'; he wasn't thinking of taking them into energy ranges as McCock was examining. Appears that 119's capabilities can be fitted to the 'Vulcans' in a matter of days. Incidentally, both Scott and Carlton want a piece of the action. Virginia pointed McCock at them and they are now seconded to "Vector". As an aside, Virginia thinks you should sort out Carlton and Wamirant. "The Queen's Own" runs its own OCS and Crusher. Millicent Utah and Anne Jones have had discussions with Lt Cdrs Kowalski and Arbuthson and are impressed. They have the files and are going over it more closely...