Chapter 12: More Training

I did take time to take two more sleep training sessions regarding the Goddess class ships. The concept actually made a lot of sense. Fixed turrets had the disadvantage that they would be limited in where they could fire and their locations could be isolated by any decent scanning system. In a prolonged battle an enemy could work to stay in locations where only a few turrets could shoot, and concentrate on taking those turrets out first. The Goddess class had mobile turrets that could maneuver freely on the skin of the ship. There were some issues. The guns absorbed power from the ship through their contact with the surface of the ship. This meant that battle damage could leave an area where no turret could operate. The ship could be rolled to move the damaged location. It would take an alert captain and a good helmsman to make it work.

The ship had a larger crew than I expected, but I soon found that the majority were there to help maintain the turrets and to man the large tracking section. Every turret needed real time access to targeting data, so the department needed a sizable number of people. The biggest issue was the quality of the gunners. These people needed incredible esprit de corps. There were only a few Goddess class ship in operation but casualties in the ranks of gunners were known to be high. It was possible for a ship to survive, but have few working gunballs at the end. I resolved that some kind of defensive training would be necessary and that all of my crew would be trained in recovery operations. If we could save a gunner, we would.

My two concubines kept trying to worship me. I worked hard to keep them from trying so hard. It was nice that they worked so hard, but I wanted them to feel free.

I had hoped that my friend Passion was really on the ship, but I had not heard from anyone claiming to be her master.

Two days later the AI finally informed me that the upgrade simulation room was ready. Bryn and Jade were relaxing in our new dance room. I looked in on them. The duo was lying in each other’s arms. I smiled and waved.

“The simulator room is open. I’m going to try out the first simulation,” I said.

“Can we watch?” Bryn asked.

“If you insist,” I said. “That’s not going to be how it works once I take over the ship.”

Bryn bounced to her feet. “I want to see. I want to see the real thing too, but I want to watch you in a simulation.”

I nodded. “Follow me then. I’m going to start the first simulation. I figure it’s the best way to get started.”

I turned and walked out of the room. I could hear Bryn and Jade rushing to follow me as we headed through the main room of the pod over to the simulation room. My two concubines chattered excitedly as they speculated as to how the simulation would look.

The door opened to a small chamber. I looked around and could see just three chairs. “This is less than the Patrician class has,” I noted.

“Correct,” the AI said. “Goddess class ships have a split bridge. This bridge has the main helm, the tracking station and the captain’s chair. The other bridge is near engineering and has an alternate helm, the damage control station and the first officer’s chair.”

“What about defenses?” I asked.

“The gunballs are your defense as well as offense. They are commanded by a lead gunner. You would provide targeting priority, but they control how they go about it,” the AI said.

“Wonderful. So we are going with tactics first. I guess that makes sense, but someone forgot the wisdom of Sun Zhu,” I muttered.

“What wisdom?” Jade asked. “I mean I know he wrote that one book that they study today, but what is his thoughts on tactics?”

“It was more the difference between strategy and tactics. He famously wrote the following wisdom. Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat,” I said.

“How are the two different?” Bryn asked. “And which chair is yours?”

The middle chair was illuminated. I laughed and moved to the chair. “Obviously this is mine. As for your question. Strategy is the setting of the overall goals. So, for a ship when combat starts, I’d be deciding what the win condition is. Tactics is the how. And I do agree that the gunners will need to make a lot of tactical decisions. My job is to see what needs to be done and give them the order we need to complete tasks.”

“Wow,” Bryn said. “How will you do that?”

I looked up at the ceiling. “AI, can we get a simple mission?”

“The initial training mission is to take the simulated ship on a simple patrol into a Sa’arm controlled system. Expected opposition will be a hive sphere under construction and several Sa’arm ships that will be defending it,” the AI said.

“Can we start it?” I asked.

“Tanya?” Jade asked. “How can you take on a mission like that? You’ve never commanded a ship before.”

I looked up at the view screens. The screens displayed a field of black with white lines flashing by. “Wow,” Bryn asked. “What are the lines?”

“A representation of how fast we are moving right now. We’re in jump space. The reality is that currently there is no visual view of where we are. We’re moving so fast there is no light to see outside the ship,” I said.

“Helm, how long until we emerge in our target system?” I called out. “Tracking make sure we are ready to scan the instant we break jump.”