Chapter 66

The profits from the (diplomatic) tea party were sufficient to cover the expenses of the voyage from 'Pest to New Liege so the remainder of the stay was pure profit — a pleasing result which Allie passed on to the Sundowners who appreciatively voted bonuses for the non shareholder crew members.

The tea party was upstaged as a social event by a local magnate's coming out party for his daughter. House of Tulip scored wide public exposure with the young lady's gown.

The Embassy intel type spent several visits conversing with TJ probing each other for information and generally enjoying the professional skirmishing.

One gem the Embassy officer passed was that the local politicians were resisting the demands of their CI because "Sundowner" simply could not be a spy ship because the crew were all involved in the business of entertainment and fashion — they were independent spacers who had developed a niche for themselves after that shocking treatment they had received at the hands of those terrible Mounties. And "Sundowner" was open about its role as a survey ship for the USW Harbours and Space Marine.

Sir Hyram Wangfor confirmed Captain Dahlgren's orders formally requesting passage for the Captain and his wife and carriage of his belongings. Clare agreed with a proviso. She had brought up the matter at a crew conference where it had been agreed that the guests should be allowed the freedom of the ship with the caveat that questions be directed only to the officers who were not to include the petty officers.

Clare had had a previous conference with the officers where TJ pointed out that the only things on the ship which were not known to the USW were Dune and FTL coms and search. Dune was stealth technology which was considerably more effective than others but to become aware of that there had to be access to both searcher and target; and FTL only became apparent when known great distances were involved.

The List showed Dahlgren's speciality was weaponry. TJ went through the equipment — main armament and PD were of Solarian manufacture; multi drive missiles were obsolete Mounty manufacture and nests were used by both Mounties and Peeps; anti missile missile packs were based on CL missiles; 737 was an obsolete assault shuttle; HACs were heavily modified Mounty manufacture in a different role; and the main 'puters were GEC which had to be firewalled.

Cedric countered that the Mounty based kit was streets ahead of anything the USN or any other planet had and Dahlgren would be all over it. TJ agreed but the current attitude of the USN was that it was the ultimate in power projection.

Cedric made an extremely rude noise and pointed out that the Peep fleet that invaded Mounty Home Space would have taken out both Frontier and Battle Fleets combined on the day and those thirty eight RMN SDs had destroyed or captured the Peep survivors despite being outnumbered about five to one.

Morg had joined in saying the problem rested with the USN brass who were not inclined to accept the first hand knowledge of TJ Senior and Percy and certainly wouldn't accept Dahlgren's report.

Because they all agreed on that point, the conference closed.

"Ma'am, all stations manned for leaving harbour, Bosun on the helm, all gauges in the green and engine room answering bells. Airbridge clear and ship airtight. We have information Delta and all clearances to the hyper."

"Very well, Mr Cahlewis, I'll be up shortly."

"Captain on the bridge"

Clare and Cedric exchanges salutes.

"My ship, Mr Cahlewis."

"Your ship, Ma'am."

Captain Dahlgren saluted Clare as she settled in the command chair,

"Permission to be on your bridge, Captain?"

"Granted" as Clare returned the salute.

"Helm take us out."

"Aye, Ma'am"

Dorothy released the clamps, used side thrusters to warp "Sundowner" off the berth and used forward thrusters to ease her into the lane to the entrance. Dorothy was using her screen only as Clare had let it be known that she wasn't using the vids for departure.

"Compliments to the Entrance fort, please, Pilot."

"Done and answered, Ma'am" Morg reported.

As "Sundowner" eased past the fort, Dorothy made the call,

"Shields rigged for impellors, fifty gravs, Ma'am."

"Very good, Helm. Mr Cahlewis, we'll go to action stations as we clear the harbour and have EW dispatch the scouts for a hyper check."

"Action stations leaving harbour, Ma;am; scouts warming up."

Dahlgren remained po-faced but his mind was seething with surprise; he mentally noted the question in his midbrain.

As Dorothy called,

"Increasing to two fifty gravs"

Cedric hit the red button and the bongs repeated throughout the ship as he spoke into the tannoy,

"All hands, space action stations; all hands, space action stations."

Cedric listened on his ear bud before deactivating the alarm and then contemplated the EW screen,

"All stations closed up for action, Ma'am; and scouts away."

"Very good, EW."

"Scouts report the hyper clear, Ma'am."

"Thank you, EW. Retrieve the n space scout and when through the layer the hyper scout. Helm, when the first scout is secure take us through the layer."

"Scout coming back, Ma'am"

"Very good."

"Scout secure, Helm."

"Stand by for hyper" Dorothy broadcast "Stowing impellors and shields."

"Sundowner" eased through the layer and Cedric retrieved the scout.

"Mr Cahlewis, rig sails for hyper to Maureen's Moon and stand down from action stations. Your ship, OW. I'll be in my office.

Clare departed as Cedric began issuing the orders.

"Captain off the bridge."

Dahlgren waited until Cedric had completed his evolutions and settled into the command chair,

"Mr Cahlewis?"

"Cedric please, Sir. You are our guest."

"John... (then shook hands). Why action stations?"

Cedric explained the history of "Tulip" and "Sundowner" and Dahlgren understood.

"I think I'll ask your boss if I may borrow TJ to show me over a HAC. I am fascinated by them. I've read our Naval attaché's reports from Settlement but his are not first hand observations.

"You'll love them" Cedric enthused "they are nice pieces of kit but they are quite different from the RMN's — different role."

"Even more fascinating. Permission to leave the bridge, Sir."

"Granted, Sir."

"The control cabin is a bit spacious," TJ informed John Dahlgren; "the original design was for a combat crew of five for the role of ship killer. I always thought that was a bit over the top, but the Mounties proved me wrong though; only because their stealth is so good. They can't take out the big boys but CAs and smaller are fair game."

TJ and John were in the seats of Pigeon Four which was in the boat bay and so skinnys or hard suits were not needed.

"We envisaged them as an anti missile screen. We kept the laser as a missile is just slag if it gets hit by that; the PD pods are on automatic and controlled by the 'puter. We downsized the missiles from ship killers to AIMs (automatic interceptor missiles) and we have boucoup of them.

We re-engined them..."

"I thought the power plant was satisfactory."

"Very; the Mounties swear by them; but, for foreign purchasers, we get the down graded model and spares are a problem."

"Pull the other one, mate. TJ, there is a file I had to read about the business connections of your lot and foreign purchasers you aren't. Your subsidiary has an interest in the manufactury."

"Yah" TJ laughed "sprung. You are right but the problem is in getting spares from Renmark. My personal opinion is that the Renmark packs are a tad better than the Adama; Orville Jang, our Chief disagrees — he thinks the Adama pods outclass the Renmark packs. We both agree the external pods make us more manoeuvrable and that is better in the missile defence role."

"Can I get an endorsement?"

TJ wasn't surprised by the request,

"I'll speak to the Master Chief and then I'll pass it up the chain."

"Does Clare respond favourably to grovelling?"

"And you've got how many of them?"

John Dahlgren was standing in B deck missile magazine with Cedric who had drawn the short straw to guide John around the missiles. A Peep or a Mounty officer would not have been at all impressed but Dahlgren came from a space navy which had not yet made the leap from missiles as secondary short range weapons to long range primary ships' weaponry.

"Well, there are five hundred five missile frames here and another five hundred frames on D — a thousand frames. We've got another four hundred or so individual missiles in the fore peak, in frames, but they can be fired individually if we need to, same for another two hundred in the aft cone ... Oh and another one fifty or so under the false deck in C. The B and D deck missiles are the older generation Mounty MDMs and the others are even earlier MDMs."

They discussed, or really, Cedric lectured on, the missile capabilities leaving John Dahlgren aghast as he realised just how far behind the USN was. Cedric noticed John's expression and informed him succinctly,

"Yah. The USN would provide target practice for the Peeps or the Mounties. The only way you'd beat them would be if they ran outa missiles."

"I know I'm not going to like the answer to this one but couldn't we steer to avoid at extreme range until the missiles were expended?"

"NO! No! No! On numerous facets. Firstly the current generation of both Peep and Mounty SDs would run you down. Secondly, the fire control systems of both are so good the missiles could chase you all over the galaxy. And lastly, the line of battle of both consists of hollow cored ships which are effectively spacing missile magazines."

"How good is the fire control?"

"The Peep's is very good but the Mounty's latest is positively lethal."

"And your's."

"Every bit as good as the latest RMN and it might be just a touch better. The base missile of the RMN is still the MDM but the newest is tweaked for the better control. The Peep's are bigger but not as quite as effective as the MDM."

"Cedric, could you be over stating the situation?"

Cedric looked at the USN officer for a moment before speaking into the earbud,

"Boss, can I show John the tapes of the Home Space battle? ... He thinks I'm overstating the capabilities of missile control ... Suits. I'll do it in the Club; more volume."

Before Cedric and his guest had returned to the bridge, Dorothy had three projectors set up in the Club. Crew not on watch found their way to the Club and arranged seating. Cedric pulled the tapes and fed them into the 'puter; he then sent the data to the projectors.

Three holos were thrown.

The largest, which had the smaller scale, showed the Mounty Home Fleet heading toward the vastly outnumbering Peep Fleet which was spacing toward Gryphon and Styx on the far side of the star from the Junction. A swarm of HACs was seen rising from Mountserrat itself.

The second holo showed n space between the Junction and the battleground.

The third using the largest scale showed the Junction. A fort was seen to be moving at a ponderous velocity toward a squadron of Peep CAs and RMN DDs were at the periphery of the holo moving to ward the Peeps.

The Mounty Home Fleet moved to cut off the Peeps in their attack on Gryphon and Styx.

The Mounty fleet opened fire just outside the Peep's range and had several salvos in space before the Peeps returned fire. John Dahlgren was astonished at the number of missiles fired and was also by the effectiveness of the Mounty defences. Still numbers told.