Chapter 52

The Board meeting in "Trader" several days later was a restrained affair. McCock and the Flock were exhausted. For the past three days, "Vector" was a veritable madhouse. Slow had taken her out to the northeast PRD area and McCock had the Harbourmaster issue a Notam for three days activation of the zone.

Denny had fully explored his decoy system and had been somewhat disappointed to find that there was only the one choice of decoy, a single electronic hologram of "Vector" which he could manoeuvre about space as if it was the real thing and he could cloak it in whatever degree of stealth he selected; his favourite was 'the lame duck' which was a somewhat distorted electronic signal of a damaged "Vector" with intermittently operating shields. The UVA fly-by (and one accidental fly through) both visually and electronically faithfully recorded a 'fully functioning' warship.

Slow and Denny burrowed deep into the programme which originated the simulacrum and were, very carefully, examining it with the stated intention of improving it. For Sir Henry's peace of mind, the pair had lifted a copy of the programme off the main 'puter onto the 'black' 'puter which had been retrieved from "Trader". Sir Henry had to pointedly remind Slow that she was a warship's captain with other responsibilities and she needed her sleep time. This actually worked out better because while Denny did the 'donkey' work, Slow's intellect was available for review and suggestions. The situation also turned up Spacer Peregrin Avers, of Mountserrat, one of the three young recruits and who was almost on the verge of termination of enlistment because of his ineptness. However, metaphorically lock Master Peregrin in an electronic clean room, keep others away and he turned into an electronic genius. Denny was awed by the lad and there was considerable progress on the venture. Another of the young spacers, William Avers, was co-opted for com skills as the signal emanating from the projector was to say the least complex. Denny and Slow were able to stand back a bit and take an over view and came to form an opinion that it had been the limitations of the com side of the system which had and did limit the full utilisation where adequate power was available, as was the case in "Vector". The only problem encountered occurred when a UVA passed through he signal from the projector. The simulacrum took several minutes to restore and the UVA 'puter had a nervous breakdown and went into automatic reboot.

McCock and Polack spent the three days crawling through the magazines and tubes getting gloriously covered in lube. DDD or the subcontractors must have had very good contacts in Mountserrat because the weapon system was made for MDMs and was similar to that which existed at the time of Blue Hill's attack which had resulted in the first armistice. It was a pre nest system design but considering that about half the local galaxy's warships were that design, neither of the two men was disappointed. And the fit of the intrinsic weapon system into "Vector" widened the operational envelope considerably.

The news at the Board meeting was almost equally heartening.

Sir Joshua had acquired Adama Atomics and its manufactury which was an orbital platform at the Azores station and was now being towed across to Chagos.

Chagos was up and running with several intergalactic freighters on its books already, with conventional fusion power packs. McCock was of a mind to keep the Adamas for his own builds as several of Bollard line vessels were approaching their replacements dates.

Pachristmas was rapidly being brought up to production status. There were tentative enquiries being made of vessels from that orbital dock. Nothing confirmed, but...

Sir Joshua had obtained dirtside facilities in the northern hemisphere in Scotchlan at Montrose, would you believe; there were a few smirks around the table at that information.

Bollard was keeping well in the black and was establishing routes off to the new Mountserrat territories well away from the war zones.

The subsequent intelligence briefing was less heartening, but not grim. The Chancon fleet was exercising and was momentarlly expected to translate into hyper. Otherwise the situation was unchanged. The U40 sweep across the Harbourian hegemony had not made any major discoveries, the 'local' RHN were all at a high level of alert and deployed defensively about their local planet. No indication as yet of a major R & D facility and dockyards. Politically, President Brooken gave the impression his regime was on an extended holiday. Nothing new from Sema and the "Dowager Lady" had been reported missing.

Gus and Sabjhi were in trouble again. Some of the less intelligent students at the University School had taken it upon themselves to attempt to put the two into their proper place which was considered to be the bottom of the heap. Said idiots were put out by the singular lack of attention paid to them by the duo. The Ghorkhali bodyguards, upon the very strong representations made to them by Gus and Sabajhi, separated from them at the School entrance and took up posts about the grounds. On this particular day, the idiots had decides to teach the duo to pay proper attention to their betters. The ignorance of the self appointed teachers was clearly demonstrated by their choice of ambush site, the freshers, and then allowing the duo to retreat in good order into a corner where the attackers could not develop their superiority.