Chapter 31

Sir James nodded at Rowan,

"Yours I think?" The Commodore gathered his thoughts and appeared more confident as he moved into the story.

"It was actually Aggy who lit the idea in my brain. Oh sorry, that's his nickname form his Academy days when he came over from RM Agriculture and Military. It was the night he fronted Diana, I had been detailed to be in the Wing to process him out – direct from Diana. He was looking a bit haggard – just a bit, he had been on "Pendragon" all day; she'd broken down and the Captain later told me Aggy has been instrumental in jury–rigging her so she got in under her own power. Escorted off her, barged in, left waiting for hour and a half in Diana's office, a ten minute reaming of a new one and over to me, I was having a mild piece of him when he went 'Caps in the corner'."

Sir James interrupted, "Explain that."

Rowan explained the Grenoble tradition.

"That would be ideal for full and frank discussion between officers but the junior would have to be certain of the ethics of his superior, aarrrgh, that I even think that let alone say it" and waved Rowan to continue.

"Aggy wanted that paper out in the open but wanted to give me plausible deniability. He was almost scathing of Diana, but, in almost a dismissive assessment, there would be significant loss of graser mounting vessels then made the comment "mobile energy mounts" swarming a big vessel and then ironically suggesting strapping a nest onto a cutter."

"Not that one again; gaming armed cutters in fleet exercises is always a disaster for the cutters." Milligan indignantly put in.

Rowan went on,

"Yes, but, we never swarmed with laser or graser armed cutters. He even suggested mounting a large number in a 'merchie'.".

Milligan and Sir James who also had not been given that point specifically, looked thoughtful as they considered the tactic.

Rowan went on,

"Scale down the targets and consider it again. Also let's go back to our Sandhurst College days. Remember we all studied that classic wet navy battle where the major elements never saw each other. The battle was decided by parasite vessels carrying projectiles to a fighting area. Remember the vids of those airborne parasites loaded down with externally mounted projectiles hurtling down a ship mounted runway. They dropped off the front end and I for one always held my breath until they reappeared. The multiplier benefit was enormous. Consider also the effect of VTOL parasites, one mounted on a smaller vessel. The exponential increase on the volume controlled. Carrying coms will allow the weapons carried by the major elements to reach farther still under command via the parasite. The ability of parasites to even destroy larger elements...

I think we need to look at the weapon system in the light of what I've indicated. To work on it, the things needed a new mind set and here I have that new mind who even in uncontrolled thought processes had actually brought the project into the open...

I came to Sir Laurence and he agreed to keep it under his personal hand...

This is so secret there is no paper on it. It is just in my mind with the knowledge of Sir James and Sir Laurence, DNI knows what's going down but not the rationale behind it...

This brings me to a point Aggy has passed up the chain. He wants additional workers who will not be in the research loop but can be trusted to work in the yard."

Rowan produced a holo projector and demonstrated GmBH's now extended yards. He then progressed onto the preliminary reports. He covered the hull design, hull material, power plant and ancillaries and proposed weaponry. This latter had been thoroughly discussed by four very senior naval officers and agreed that an energy mount was not feasible with that power plant even though it fully occupied the projected engine room. The compensator had to be shoe horned in. Endurance wasn't causing enthusiasms but as Rowan pointed out, as space vessels, they were not independent but tied to a mother ship. This compromise had been early established by the Flock. The Flock had suggested work would have to be done elsewhere in hangaring / mounting the HAC; they further suggested an investigation of the method used by merchies with their 'tainers. A summary paper on the "'Traders'" design was submitted.