Chapter 86

Cedric was standing behind the (his) EW screen on "Sundowner" using his pointer laser at the holo in the "battle pit" just forward of the bridge console,

"There are two SDs with a CL squadron and a flotilla of DDs sitting out there almost completely shut down to avoid detection. The scout got a sniff of a DD haring off somewhere and that's when Morg called me; he wasn't happy about that radiation null region. If they hadn't been so tightly packed together, no one would have noticed the anomaly."

It had started two days previously.

With less watch officers on "Sundowner", Shirley Wood's offer to stand anchor watch had been accepted by Clare. Clare had stood with Shirley for two watches to bring Shirley full bottle on "Sundowner" in more detail than she had had — Clare had to cover Dune, FTL Active, the defence triple shield with its modifications, the warp shield and the expanding defensive shield in detail as Shirley was not up on the details of their operation. Clare also had Shirley exercise the systems in the main simulator (Derrin's).

And, of course where Shirley went she was attended by her shiralees, the Middies.

(That nosey parker, Derrin, made herself aware of what went on and listened with interest as this was the first time she had had a concise briefing covering all the new systems on "Sundowner" — nobody had actually thought to give her a briefing from the human point of view assuming the bio-computer knew it all; she didn't, she picked up a lot but she needed education because "Good in - Good out" [GoGo] was just as true as "Garbage in — Garbage Out" [GiGo].)

Shirley took the opportunities to place the Middies at the discrete posts on the console with herself as "Captain" with the seats occupied with experienced POs (Tulip NCOs).

Using the simulator in the battle 'puter (primary bridge 'puter), Shirley put her augmented watch through its paces concentrating mainly on ship handling. To break the monotony of the instruction, Shirley got permission for two scouts to be released to her charge — two were already out in n space patrolling (now a standard procedure) even though "Sundowner" was in full Dune well out to the southwest of 'Pest.

On this occasion, Simmo was acting as OW, Sarnt as Nav/coms, George as Guns and Hazel had the EW console. As was usual when Guns was quiet and EW busy, Guns became Assistant EW.

The exercise was to put a scout into hyper with a second in n space as rebro to "Sundowner". The point of the exercise was to keep the n space scout within the refraction com cone of the hyper scout. The kids had remembered their Physics — when a beam from a less dense environment passes into a denser environment, the beam angles towards the normal. It was not practical to attempt tight beam as opposed to directional linkage through the barrier so transmitting power had to be controlled and monitored so as not to send the tx all over n space but tight beam from the n space scout to "Sundowner" was feasible and required. Shirley made it more difficult by having the Middies stay in manual for all stages of the exercise. (Neither Simmo nor Sarnt crowed at the difficulties their friends were experiencing as they knew they would get theirs sooner or later.)

Shirley played Captain directing the OW to search wide arcs and restricting the search modes to passive. Simmo, as OW, had to translate these commands into segments bound by radii in three dimensions. Hazel had to plot the treks of her scout keeping in mind that the n scout had to stay with the hyper scout and George and she had to co-ordinate as power settings in hyper produced higher velocities than in n space and the relationship was not linear.

(Shirley didn't play fair, she [and Derrin] had the graphs for the relationship — she just didn't tell the kids where they were. Sarnt - the other three were otherwise occupied - smelled a dead one and began a search which found the graph — for subsequent exercises.)

"Target" Hazel yelled.

Shirley had been monitoring the plot and broke in,

"Miss Comminantes, are you saying you have found something that might harm us and I should come to action stations immediately, hhmmm?"

"Ah, no, Ma'am. I've just got something here that looks strange."

"Good. Now you see the dilemma of all junior officers. Just what do you report; you don't want to refer everything to your superior as that makes you redundant, but you don't want to wait until the ship is about to be destroyed either — your superior will not thank you for that. This is what training is all about. To teach you judgement; when to deal with it yourself or when to pass it up the chain of command; or whether the situation is that dire, you have to act."

"Aye Ma'am. OW, I have a contact bearing ... zero three zero from the ship in the lower band of the hyper just above the layer. I can't get a range."

Simmo had watched vids and played it cool

"Very good, EW, designate as Contact one. Can you classify it?"

"Negative, OW, other than to say it is linear and disappears out of range on a heading of ... zero five five and stays level."

Simmo moved over to stand behind Hazel as the scout continued its trek.

"Its foreshortening" Hazel observed.

Shirley had also walked over to stand behind EW and she knew what she was seeing.

"Cut power on that scout, stat, and gently turn it back to us."

"Scout powered down, turned port rate one, aye Ma'am.

"EW, keep that area under observation..."

Shirley moved to the command chair

"Captain, we have a recent hyper trace of a DD bearing in the region of zero three zero at extreme passive range."

"I'll come up"

and within seconds was standing behind Hazel as Janice Dawson was finishing the call,

"Captain on the bridge."

"Seems to start no where to disappear off passive" Clare mused. "A DD in hyper? He can't see anything through the layer — our scouts have been on FTL active and not a sniff of anything in n space; that track is a day or so old by the look of it. Damn, Cedric is off in "Swagman" (she spoke into her earbug) Morg? Can you come up to the bridge?"

Morg took over a minute to arrive; he was wearing his gi and massaging a swollen cheek.

"What happened to you?" Clare demanded.

"I'm out of practice; winding down with the 'bot and allowed myself to get distracted by your com" Morg explained

"If you are not hurt, then it serves you right and if you are hurt, then next time be more careful" Clare admonished her XO. "Got a problem..."

and explained the situation.

"Suits, move over Hazel. Yah, closer forty eight hours than twenty four..."

"How can you tell that, Sir?" Hazel enquired.

"No mark in the layer. See, you were cruising in the alpha layer but you were under a hundred gravs so what little wake turbulence you generated disappeared within seconds but it might be spotted by someone who is on the ball, so you should have been a bit further out, From the size of that burn that was a DD and probably at full bore; 'can drivers have only two velocities — full chat or dead stopped — and even in the beta he's going to disturb the layer. Takes about a day to smooth over but the burn stays there depending on his acceleration. Most people never know about them because they never see them — into hyper, sails up and off they go. Not a bad idea really as there is no hiding where you entered hyper; in a ship that is. Our scouts slither in..."

While Morg had been instructing, he had put the rebro scout into auto to follow the hyper probe, eased the scout up into the beta and then began moving it towards the "free" end of the burn mark. He manoeuvred the scout at fifty gravs using only the passive detection systems. The modalities were varied as the scout progressed. Morg stopped everything and sat back gazing intently at the screen,

"I think its time for a risk assessment before I knock over the hornets' nest. No one has any idea what is going on? No? No! So why are we concerned — apart from inbred screaming paranoia, that is."

Shirley bluntly stated

"Purely because we don't know. That was a small warship. A DD. Which has no place shut down in hyper unless it's a sentry for a larger force or a courier. If it was an observer, you'd expect it to be in n space. Observing in hyper unless at a hyper point doesn't produce results. The only thing that fits is a guard ship or a courier — a rebro needs some asset in n space to make a link unless there is a transmitter on the planet which rotates under the DD and that happens only once a day."

"Could be both" Morg suggested. Shirley combined a shrug with a nod.

"With me" Clare began "it's a deeply held belief that Murphy has me always in his sights. I don't like things I don't know — they have this bad habit of biting me on the arse. Yeh, I'm paranoid and I have developed it to a fine pitch. Suits Morg, you know that so show us what you've got."

"Me? Get something and not show my beloved leader? Nevah! All I got is nothing. See! (The holo was solidifying as he spoke.) But I'm one who prefers to not stir things up. Discretion is the better form of valour and all that."

"Sir" Hazel started "can we get a temperature reading on that."

Morg stared at her,

"Sister mine, why do you have to ask questions like that?"

"Brother, dear, I have friends on this dirt ball and I'd like to continue to have friends on this dirt ball. Look you, no one knows "Sundowner" is in orbit or I presume so because no one was acting concerned before; sure we were maintaining watches but we were on full ship passive not active. "Shiralee / Swagman" is a merchie, new build going about normal activities. Suits, its loading machinery from dirtside — has no apparent connection to anybody except a legitimate shipping company. There is a destroyer which we know hasn't come from 'Pest; in hyper and its voyage begins at a hole in hyper, an electronic hole, something's blocking the background radiation there and I'll bet on I/R it glows."

"Yah. Glimmers more than glows — but it's higher than ambient. Something there but I wanted to know if we should get involved; you never know they might not be looking for us at all. Navy yards again, 119; take your pick. Do I need to remind anyone that we are no longer involved in this pissant war?'

"If you can guarantee me that it ain't looking for us," Clare stated, "I'll gladly sneak away. Except. Not if there is a possibility of a breach of the Eridani Conventions."

"Clare," Morg complained, "you don't fight fair. Suits we need TJ and Cedric."

"TJ?" Shirley asked.

"Yah, he might have picked up something from his 'net.

TJ hadn't.

He and Cedric were recalled and used the flivver; it wasn't shielded but was small enough that it would slip through most search systems.

The situation was explained and Cedric got to work. He exchanged the n space scout with a (Lone Ranger) scout fitted with two pods and then swapped places with the hyper scout. The pods were positioned on either side of the null area and were than moved backwards and forwards until the whole area had been sectioned like a galactic axial tomogram. Cedric then formed the three dee holo, added contrasting tints to make identification easier and gave his summary.

At first, no one had any idea of origin of the task force; they watched as TJ booted the EW data onto the weapons' screen and started manipulating it; Cedric began to pick the pattern of resonance of each of the hidden ships.

"Yah!" TJ said to Cedric "we've seen that before."

"The messenger capsule."

"Agreed"

Clare settled into the command chair and gazes about her bridge,

"So far, we've got a task group based on an SD division, smelling of Sema but not proven, lurking in hyper well to the south of 'Pest, been there at least two days. Could have been there longer but our scout tapes covering our arrival and our return are out of range of the anomaly since we approached from the north and the east and dropped into the near south west n space. Nobody has any idea what it is doing there apart from lurking. And I hate lurkers. Recommendations anyone.? Middies?"