Chapter 38

Another day passed before the word was received that the RMN BC squadron was returning having found no enemy out to the southeast. At that point, "Vector" began recovering her assets preparatory to returning to the fitting out yard. The only mishap was a Gnat which missed the lights and richocheted off the hull. The Gnat controller was quite shaken; the Havildar tartly remarked that perhaps next time, if ever his grounding was rescinded, he might attend to his craft rather than the female beside him. The young man spent a long time on fresher duties before being returned to the village for further counseling from the Shaman.

After berthing of "Vector", McCock called a conference to discuss the recent operation. As junior, Commander Peter Lowell led,

"How did those CLs acquire us. We took out the first CL and almost immediately the other two were sending missile right at us?"

"The screens," explained Polack "specifically the defensive screens, showed a humongous surge of energy when the turrets fired. It was almost certainly detectable on every passive receiver in the near galaxy. If they were at action stations, and events say they were, their 'puter would have locked us in immediately and somebody only had to pull the trigger.

I gamed this on the way home and I don't have a good solution. We can fire with only holeinspace deployed with a very little chance of being detected; but, before you ask, it takes thirty nine seconds from 'cold' and eighteen seconds from 'standby' to activate the defensive shields. Just as an extra, it takes five seconds to raise holeinspace.

Those are long time frames for the defensive shield activation in a conflict environment.

Looking further, our armour is far better than a CA's but not quite up to a BC's and that is because of the plate used in this hull.

Powered missiles are detectable from time of light-off; ballistic missiles are virtually undetectable, not because they are stealthed but because they are small.

The hull would probably not be damaged by any thing from a CA or smaller. There is however, as Evan Cochrane used to delight in informing us, the chance of the "Golden Bee Bee" or as our beloved leader oft remarks, Murphy delivers."

"Thank you for that, Polack," snorted Slow, "you just made my job that much harder."

"Apologies, dear Lady" replied that gentleman, "but always remember, my body is not far enough away from yours for me not to take an interest in such boring matters as survival while I supply you deck types with power to allow you to play with your toys."

"Felix?"

"Algy says he could do with some more hands during busy times and I find I need two extra operators in flight ops."

"Gnat deck might spare two techs," offered Slow "from the Barge crew."

"That could be a problem," objected McCock, "that's my asset you are playing with and I had a mind for the Barge as a reccy asset."

"I can accept that, Aggy" Slow returned, "but in a conflict environment, that barge should be tucked up in its corner out of it."

"True. Suits, Felix double them up and we'll see how it goes down."

"Henry?"

"Just an observation without any specific relevance I can think of; that Harbourian force had to have departed from somewhere after the resignation of their CNO and before the Chencon courier arrived. I want a lot more evidence of disintegration of command before I'd seriously postulate that but I would point out that there has been no Naval activity at all, not even couriers, out of New Liege since that resignation. Fascinating, really. By the way, Rosemary reports "Chewy" was inquisitive about the recent surge of activity."

"Ask Rosemary to work her two prisoners a bit more; there is still the motive behind Chencon's possible actions. They don't fit with just an expansion of trade for P'nO; and where is Sema in this?" Sir Henry nodded and made an entry in his PDA.

"Polack?"

"Nothing, Aggy. Engines performed to specs. Maintenance up to date. If you plan a very extended op, say of longer than five years, I want to top up my reactor mass."

"Slow?"

"I need to work with my fly boys to tighten things up. Henry, how lucky were we with only a hundred nests?"

"Ah! An interesting question," replied Sir Henry, "one which exercised my mind on the trip back. On the one hand there was no luck in it at all and on the other extremely lucky to get out of it unscathed.

One hundred nests in a conflict environment is urinating into the wind as the enemy is alert and every thing is in readiness. In a successful ambush, just enough to do the job we did. Any larger enemy force and the planet would have been in trouble as we would have had to have allowed them further into the ambush and thus probably within range of the planet; we would have had to detail off the Gnats to deal with those missiles and we would have found out how efficient our shields were against two broadsides of CL missiles. If Murphy had put in an appearance, it would have got very messy indeed. In future, if you want to have a future, do not deploy without a missile carrier."

"Henry," Slow returned, "I never knew how happy I was in GmBH just tinkering with my toys. For the same unknown reason I joined the Navy, I always wanted to be in space, even to perhaps command a small ship; and now that I seem to have achieved my ambitions, I harbour fond thoughts of being back at GmBH. You got anything, Aggy? No. Felix, let's have a word together.

The meeting broke up leaving Sir Henry and McCock at the table.

"Now, Aggy, one for you. What's your ambition? It's just for my intel assessments, mind, as I've no intention of seeking safer climes, if only because I'm on the cutting edge of cosmic space investigations; but it is better if friendly intentions are factored into the assessments."

"You do walk convoluted paths, don't you, Henry? But it is a valid question.

When I withdrew my services from the Crown, I did not withdraw my loyalty. But I admit that I have placed my loyalty to 'my own', however that is defined, before that to the Crown. From the first, after presenting "The Queen's Own" to the Queen, and especially after New Liege, I felt I was not fully trusted. It was as if the government did not wish to be beholden to a mere mercenary.

My first thought after resigning, was to evacuate my people out of any conflict environment, as you so delicately phrase it, to a place of safety and the purpose of our trip to "Old Earth" was to find employment for them and a source of income to enable this to be done. My reaction to acquiring that behemoth was that I had a shuttle bus to lift my people out. My realization of my extended responsibilities makes me doubt that I can succeed fully.