Chapter 10

Admiral Sethton was having a formal dinner aboard the Battlesphere "Rising Dragon". It was for senior officers only. Earlier that day, he had been in an intelligence briefing and update, as well as a strategy planning session. Admiral Sethton had also named Admiral Maxine Gordon as Deputy Force Commander.

Admiral Gordon had been surprised, to say the least. However, being the professional that she was, she accepted the post with thanks. She had been at Lantree, training for the past month, with the Emperor's forces. She was very surprised to receive the second in command slot. The Terran Federation would never allow an outsider to command so vast a force. She was very impressed with Sethton and his officers. They accepted her as one of their own.

"Ladies and gentlemen, a toast!" Admiral Sethton's voice rang out as he stood.

Everyone quieted. Dinner was over, and toasts had already been made. So this was out of the norm.

"I have just been informed that the Emperor has married Vonda Preston. We now have an Empress. I ask you raise your glasses in a toast to our new Empress, Vonda Newcastle," he said.

Admiral Sethton stopped and looked. Everyone rose to their feet and raised their glasses. "THE EMPRESS!" was the strong response, and everyone drank.

"Be seated. Now then, I want to," he was interrupted at this point, by the Battlesphere's AI voice.

"Battle Alert! Battle Alert! Incoming hyper tracks show a large concentration of ships due to breakout into local space in twenty minutes. Breakout will be approximately four hours space normal flight time from here," stated the calm voice.

That was close indeed! Either it was an unscheduled reinforcement, or another invasion attempt. Either way, Sethton dismissed the officers to go to their departments and ships.

"Admiral Gordon, a word, please?" Admiral Sethton said to Maxine.

"Certainly, Sir," she replied.

"I don't want you going out to your command," He told her.

"Sir, I," she was interrupted.

"I know. I know. But I want you to stay on the orbital fortress, 'Barnaby'. You knew this was a possibility. Transfer your flag there. You are going to be Commander, here. Besides the ships that are dedicated for planetary defense you will be getting your original squadron of ten heavy cruisers, as well as 100 strike fighters, which I will have detached to your temporary command here. Your job is to mop up anything that gets by us should that situation arise. Any questions?" Sethton asked.

"No, Sir. I understand. I just wish I could be out there with my men and woman," Maxine said with a sigh.

"I know. It's one of the first things we learn as officers. We send our people out to live or die, and sometimes we can't be with them. It's the price of command," Admiral Sethton said gently.

"I understand, Sir. It's just that I have always been with my crew, until now. I won't let you down, Sir."

"I know you won't. Dismissed to your station. And good luck."

Vonda Newcastle entered the 'Briefing Room' in the palace. Emperor Richard Newcastle, her new husband for one month now, had a huge holovision tank on the far wall. It was filled with scenes, and it took her a moment to figure it out. He had split the screen into four sections, and was watching four different aspects of the recent invasion of Lantree.

"Richard? I realize how important this war is. Do you mind if I watch one of the combat logs you have? I want to get a feel for what you're doing," Vonda asked a bit hesitantly.

Richard 'paused' what he was watching. He got up and went to his desk, motioning Vonda to come with him. He did something with the desk computer. A small screen rose from the desk and the words, BATTLE LOG, HMS BRISBANE appeared.

"The Brisbane is a Battleship. It has a long and honored history in our navy. The Battle log starts automatically when a ship changes to a battle status. How much do you know of the armament of our ships, my dear?" he asked her.

"Not very much, I'm afraid. I never paid to much attention to what the Navy did," Vonda admitted.

"For shame! Is that any way for the Empress to act?" Richard said, with pretended outrage.

"Well, I wasn't Empress, then. So now I want to learn!" she responded with a light punch to his arm.

"Assault and battery of your Emperor can get you tossed into the dungeon, you know," Richard said ominously.

"Which would make for very cold nights in your bed," Vonda responded with the same tone.

They both broke up into laughter. Richard looked at his new wife and thanked whatever gods there were, that he had found her. She was bright, intelligent, had a good sense of humor, and was willing to learn 'the royalty business'. Best of all, the people accepted her with a great deal of enthusiasm. They, too, had fallen in love with this new Empress.

Richard looked her in the eye, and made mental contact with her. Once that was established, he sent ship information to her and watched as she absorbed it. She gasped at the realization of the new information she had just acquired. First, was the fact that she had been clueless, before. Now she had an understanding, as good an understanding as Richard had, of the ship types and weapons and armament of the Empire.

He also gave her a basic understanding of tactics and strategy. He watched as she struggled with these new concepts. New, at least, for her. She had not been interested in the military nor had she had any type of military training at all. Now she was understanding what she had never known, before. Never had she been interested, until now.

"So let me get this straight. We have four basic ship types: destroyers, at 1000 meters in length; cruisers, at 2000 meters in length; battleships, at 4000 meters in length; and dreadnoughts, at 6000 meters in length. Correct so far?" Vonda asked.

Richard nodded. Vonda went on.

"Now destroyers carry 10 missile pods of ten missiles per pod. And each destroyer can fire a broadside of 6 missiles? So that would be 106 missiles fired if a destroyer let loose all at once? Too bad the pods are not reloadable. THAT would be awesome," Vonda stated with a musing sort of tone.

"All ships carry the same type of missle tube. So fire, reload, and fire again is a 20 second job. A ship can get a broadside off once every 20 seconds. A destroyer fires at a rate of 18 missiles a minute," Richard said to her in an encouraging voice.

"A cruiser has 15 external pods. Same amount of missiles per pod as pods are standardized at 10 missiles per pod. Fires a broadside of 20 missiles. That's 60 missiles a minute with an opening salvo of 170 missiles? Wow!" Vonda exclaimed.

"You've got it. A cruiser is a double decker. Two rows of ten missile tubes. Battleships and Dreadnoughts are tripple deckers. 3 Rows of missile tubes. A battleship fires a broadside of 45 missiles once every 20 seconds. 15 missile tubes per row. That's 135 missiles a minute. They carry 20 external pods. So an opening salvo from a battleship would be 245 missiles.

"Dreadnoughts are the biggest ships with the exception of my battlesphere. They carry 30 pods and have three rows of missile tubes of 20 per row. Firing a broadside of 60 missiles per broadside. 360 missiles can be fired at once with pods and first broadside. At 180 missiles a minute of sustained fire, the dreadnought is the deadliest ship in space, with the exception of my battlesphere.

" Before you ask, yes, there was room for more tubes, however, remember that each ship has to have anti-missile missile tubes, which are much smaller than offensive missiles, and anti missile lasers. Ships also need sensors on the hull. So space is at a premium. You have to trade off constantly with a star ship. There is just so much space. Then you have your drive pods, life support, crew's quarters, engineering. The space used inside, can dictate how much room you have for missile tubes. Magazine space is also required. Feeder lines to the missile tubes, it goes on and on," Richard paused, letting Vonda take it all in.