Chapter 6

"Giant" had hove to in the upper part of the epsilon hyperspace band. Captain Felix Arburthson had ever so carefully manoeuvred her to this position on the cosmos side of the Mountserrat system which sat in the outer edge of the Orion Cygnus arm of the Milky way.

He had direct coms with his Commodore and his Captain D; in fact, Aggy and his Flock were on the bridge of HMS "Infamous". He had TQO "Shriek" in company and there was a wide circle of UVAs around them. His vessel's two UVAs were hovering alongside. Felix sighed, banished mental pleas to his mother, and ordered

"Pilot, take U41 up and out as planned."

"Up and out, aye, Sir." The pilot visibly shook herself deeper into her command chair and began moving her controls. The screens showed U41 moving into the distance on its thrusters

First Officer who was monitoring both the Tac and the EW positions called

"TEW has U41 TX on all units. Outer UVAs report signals distorting, Sir."

"Mark" Felix ordered. Pilot called

"Turbulence, Sir. Slight but increasing." called Pilot.

"TEW shows outer UVA signals moderately distorted but readable, "Giant's" signal marginal distortion only, its not really much changed at all, Sir."

"Turbulence decreasing, Sir."

"Mark."

"Turbulence ceased and marked, Sir." grinned the pilot, "and the thrusters have stopped as planned."

"How thick is the layer?" enquired Felix.

"A touch over eleven thousand klicks, Sir; I would not want to run into that under power." observed the First Officer.

As programmed, U41 used thrusters to heave to at a layer's thickness above the boundary layer and Pilot so notified her listeners. The thrusters' energy used in penetrating the layer and then stopping was recorded.

"U41 to global active search one ping."

"UVAs, "Giant" and "Shriek" report U41 TX"

"Send up U42."

McCock ordered the 'puter to assess the rebro TX strength from U41 and the screen showed strength four out of five. The 'puter could have calculated the ratio to Diety only knows how many decimal places but humans being humans ... McCock ordered the U41 rebro direct to "Infamous" excluding "Giant" and "Shriek" from that net.

U42 was positioned one kay Perseus ward of U41 and was transmitting through U41's rebro to "Infamous"; U42 was then despatched, by McCock, under thrusters towards Renmark sending continuous active TX. The craft in the epsilon band lost it because of refraction. These data were recorded for later calculation of the refractive index. Both U41 and U42 were recording visual star maps and sending the data down to the battle 'puter in "Infamous". U41 conducted a multi frequency mapping of the stars in its range. U42 did only visual frequency mapping as McCock wanted to keep U42's transmitted signal at its most powerful without having to divert power. The map obtained by U42 was the information carried by its signal. The plan was for the U42 TX to change to pure tone FTL if it weakened at the receiver, U41, which would then transmit the instruction for U42 to change. The rate of change of signal strength was being recorded for later attempts to calculate velocities in hard space. Thrusters were stopped on U42 after an initial fifteen minute burn.

Both UVAs recorded no detectable turbulence, stationary or when in motion; they both were detecting the boundary layer and this was used to keep U42 skimming along. U42 reported loss of Mountserrat's albedo (total radiation output of the planet).

The signal strength was weakening and was nearly at the point of changing to pure tone, when U42 reported an albedo and that revervse thrust was in use. Not knowing the delay of signal in hard space, U42's 'puter was programmed that reverse thrust would be activated upon detection of an albedo. At sixty nine minutes, U42 reported stationary over the albedo source and the signals from it were being transmitted to U41 and retransmitted by it to "Infamous".

McCock, Slow, Denny and Polack were the only ones on "Infamous's" bridge and they were showing a truly restrained tension while comparing U42's signal of the albedo with available records of Renmark's radiation envelope. The albedo radiation was a horrendous mixture of everything from the star's output to that of repetitious signals exactly one minute apart. After several hours of the 'puter separating, sorting and categorising the signal, Mc Cock was seriously thinking of ordering a lunch break. That idea evapourated when Polack jumped to his feet, pulled out his earbud, and shouted at full power from that barrel sized chest,

"Bewdymatebewdy!"

The others turned to stare at his demented return to his console; much pushing of buttons, scrolling of images on his screen, manoeuvring of the pointer and then, with that taunting excreta eating grin of his, he slumped in the command couch, rotated to face them and triumphantly pushed a button. Over the bridge tannoy came the clipped dulcet tones of Yarragh.

"Good morning! This is the cee bee cee, with the Cunningham Holding Home Service."

Polack's grin had subsided to a quiet smile,

"I think, well done all."

Meanwhile, continuing with the protocol, "Shriek" was ordered through the layer. Lieutenant jg Algernon (Algy) Hardman, TQO, as Commander was a phlegmatic personality and wasn't interested in how he got to be there; he had researched the operation, discussed the parameters with the Commodore, and submitted his op-plan.