Chapter 46

After several hours Sally went back to her bed. McCock dozed fitfully on his bed and Polack stretched out on the carpet. Cowboy retrieved more paper from Polack's, Denny's, and his rooms. That was all used up. PDAs were booted up. Cowboy gave up after a time. McCock periodically checked on progress occasionally asking for clarification and rarely offering a suggestion which half the time was accepted; this latter was often when they were stuck and the Flock had gone into brain storming mode.

Strong sunlight was pouring through the gap in the partially closed curtains. Sally reentered and eyed the pair still at the table. She nudged the others awake and pointed then at their rooms to freshen up. Sally arranged replenishment of coffee and breakfast. This had just arrived when Slow turned to Denny,

"That should do it, I think."

Denny nodded in agreement.

"Finished?" Sally asked, "Give me those papers and lock your PDAs. Eat! How important is this?"

"Undetectable active detection."

Denny nodded confirmation. McCock said simply,

"Extremely."

"Crew Mess? Suit? Everyone eat and pack up. We'll leave in an hour. I'll alert the others" and walked out into the corridor.

Denny raised both eyebrows and looked quizically at McCock

"Makes a good XO, doesn't she?" McCock said and turned to pack.

Upon return to "Trader", McCock told his two electronics experts to move up to the first officer's cabin and organise their work. Sally was detailed with them to do the secretarial work and to keep control of their time cycles, feeding, sleeping, and exercising. McCock allowed that nature would force the two to answer its calls; but it was a close call.

With Slow and Denny in isolation, McCock decided to make several short 'hyper' runs with representatives of his Avers' workshop workmen. He left it to the original four men to organize and instruct on HCL. Hugh then called a family meeting in the lounge. They then sat down with McCock and put their plan.

The explanation came first. The Retirees were three helmsmen, five EW, five tac/nav weapons, one chef, one naval architect and the rest were engine space. The request was for four runs and that would cycle the lot through. Suit? Suits! Each group was given the lecture covering their proposed trip the day before the sortie. They were to rest up on the day of the sortie and take their places in the evening. The power barge acted as tug and the "Offspring" as tender. The engine space monitor station was over crowded; EW and Tac/nav were manned by Avers; Weapons and Power plant were well supervised; Sally was invited to be Chief of the Boat and the helmsman position taken over. There were a lot of questions and discussions except during the translations as the Avers brought themselves up to date on the modern equipment.

In return, some very practical tips were handed down – the things that never showed up in a manual and didn't seen to change with time or class of vessel. Sally was extremely pleased as her Coxswain's ticket was her second trade and her training had been basic. Her previous experience had basically consisted of ferrying herself about in a work boat running messages. Thereafter, for a little while, the groupings in the lounge were by trades and the Flock plus one were given snippets of knowledge that had been proven in service. The Avers were very good at this technique having used it on their own and been exposed to it themselves.

Slow and Denny had quickly arranged their documents and made the necessary entries in Flocks' PDAs. They were then sent into isolation again to make their modifications to the EW sets requested from the Naval Yard stores. The set was to be an additional as McCock had working proven equipment in his boat and liked it that way. While Slow and Denny were doing their work, Wayne was doing some modifications to fit the new detection equipment, to hard wire it in with separate selectors and to position the controls No one wanted to make mistakes there.

Hugh presented McCock with the reports of the Avers; HCL had no EVA suits, there was no small arms locker and that stern needed a defensive shield generator. The last one was presented as vital as half the secondary armament was there and at time of firing the after tubes the stern had to some extent be pointing at the enemy; there was minimal off bore capability in CL missiles and limited control of the missile once it left its tube. HCL was being modified as Hugh told McCock and the modifications noted for the other prototypes. They didn't get sent up to Rowan as Hugh was uncertain about the absolute need for the changes and the mods could be proven on the prototype.

The extra EW gear was fitted and statically tested. The night sortie to prove the undetectable detection gear was conducted about the local space. Having set the precedent, McCock couldn't object to supernumary Avers accompanying the Flock plus one; these were the EW Avers. McCock was not truly surprised to find an Avers helmsman aboard to salute him with a large grin. There was no notice given to the Port or Naval authorities of HCL intentions for this sortie. The Arrivals and Departures boards were noted; there were no delayed arrivals but the possibility existed of a tramp freighter translating into the n space of the harbour. The route was carefully planned to stay as far in harbour from the hyper limit as possible and to encounter as many of the approach radars as such a sortie could. The sortie departed to the south east and, out of range of the detection envelopes, went to 'hole in space' shield and doubled back around to the north west which was the direction most traffic used from and to Gorgipest.

The sortie had been planned to run into half energy range and then turn aside from the lane with the news detection gear painting the harbour. Good pictures were obtained from the passive system at this range. The result on active when Slow activated the news system was best expressed by a supernumary Aver as