Chapter 56

"Aggy, I followed up that sniff and I think it is a Chencon courier who snuck out via the South Pole where we don't have cover. And nor does any body else. I have no idea where he went to but if he is coming our way he should be here within three or four days."

"Thank you, Henry. Do you think we need to put cover over the other ends of the planets we watch?"

Sir Henry answered thoughtfully,

"All things considered, Aggy, no, I don't. Originally, we placed the UVAs for sigint purposes and because of the Sollies' need to cover the planet with their newscasts, our uni-polar watch has proved adequate. The Chencons have attempted to keep their movements secret by moving into hyper via the poles — that is expensive in terms of increased energy costs and they are prepared to pay it for the secrecy they feel they can achieve vis-a-vis their Solarian neighbours. The Chencon fleet has departed; we know where it is; no other nation appears to be massing their assets although most of them are still undertaking major refits even though they must know the Chencons have departed somewhere. That courier going Antarctic polar is unusual but not rare for Old Earth. Considering that anything we are interested in will come here anyway, I don't think the major hassle of establishing a southern overwatch is now worth the effort."

"Suits. How far Earthwards does our cover extend from here?"

"Not far, Aggy; only out to the full range of the satcom's Period. The UVA cover is severely restricted by the effects of refraction and the distance from the layer our UVAs sit restricts their direct cover to a very small cone indeed especially in hyper. And before you suggest placing a UVA at a much greater distance out, allow me to remind you we have no experience of conditions further out. I have noticed that the UVAs we do have deployed outside the layer are suffering from exposure to cosmic radiation and while the power packs, coms and EW equipment are shielded the antennae are not. The UVAs were designed for work inside the galaxy and you didn't put defensive shields on them because of the small size. I am going to raise the matter with Denny and Polack because I, too, was considering UVAs further out into the cosmic tides."

"Follow up the idea for UVA shielding, please, Henry. We will eventually move out into cosmic and I would prefer to be able to reliably deploy a UVA screen around vessels that go there. Give some thought to the shielding of the UVA itself and the effects it might have on its functions as well as life span. What's the latest on the Chencon?"

"There seems to be a protocol for rebunkering as it is very structured. I'm tagging the various signatures for future reference. The tankers are easily identifiable as are the heavylift vessels. I've used Jane's to identify some FURS and the others being visited by shuttles from the warships which I'm guessing are general purpose merchies with victuals. There is a small cluster of ships in each supply division which are keeping out on the edges of their divisions and I'm tagging them separately — they could possibly be explosive carriers, missile replenishment or some such. It's all in the next summary for you."

"Thanks, Henry. McCock clear."

McCock stretched and decided to kill some training 'bots before lunch.

At the meal, he was joined by Sally and Evan who informed him that Polack and Denny had their heads stuck inside 'puter's entrails and missile firing machinery under Slow's directions. Sir Henry was working the battle 'puter end of the system and Peter Wison had dragged the information off the discs and directed his writer minions to collate it into readable format for mere humans. Sir Henry was also exercising his Gnat command table on the simulators and both Sally and Evan had been gaining experience in the Gnats and were nearly checked out in them.

McCock's moans that he didn't have time for fun anymore fell on unsympathetic ears as both of his listeners reminded him that aboard "Vector", their roles were constrained and anyway, McCock hadn't read the GmBH report which had been sitting on his desk all morning.

Sally brought him up to date on the home front. Cerise was definitely showing and her morning sickness had stopped; the foetuses were doing very well and Sir Lancelot was happily fussing about and studying the genetic information from the incubators' fluid tests; Sir Lancelot had obtained tissue scrapes from all the McCock children and their grandparents and had some long chats with Rosemary; Angie had tubed her daughter and Sir Lancelot was very pleased to have a female in his care; Cerise was, surprise, surprise carrying a boy and his genetic material had gone into Lancelot's study; Sally and Evan thanked Trojan and departed on their carefree ways leaving a grumbling McCock to read the reports.

McCock assistants were not as carefree as they pretended. Sally made her rounds each morning of the Ward room to catch up on the gossip, Sir Henry for recent developments and his thoughts on thing which had not appeared in the summaries, Rosemary to check that Sir Henry hadn't forgotten anything and on the status of Sidney Denari, the Officers of the Watch on the Bridge and in the Engine rooms and lastly of COB followed by a stroll through a different part of the ship each day except for Fly ops which she left to Evan. Evan used his insomnia (which had improved) to catch up on the report chips giving Sally a summary in the mornings, her nights being otherwise occupied. Evan had also established back channel links to the XOs and First Lieutenants of the group who kept him informed of things generally.