Chapter 96

Like all plans, the deeper the more problems surfaced.

The basic concept was to blast a hole in the wall and pour programmed frames through to attack the unshielded sides of the vessels forming the sphere wall. Cedric guaranteed the hole and the gaming confirmed the proposition; Morg had reservations because the parameters entered into the simulator were theoretical but he had to accept the results as they were the best estimates.

The flaw became evident. Once the missiles were inside, the turning radius at entry velocity was such that frames could not turn back to engage the vessels on the near side about the hole – actually just over a third of the wall about the entry hole was fire proof from the inside.

Back to the drawing board and slide rule or rather the planning holo and the PDA.

"Sir, contact, classified Chen courier coming up astern, point five cee, be up with us in nineteen minutes passing down our starboard" Sandra called from EW.

"Thank you, EW..." and walked over to make his own assessment. He studied the plot for a few moments then activated his ear bud.

"Boss? TJ. Chencon courier coming up fast."

"I'll come down."

"Captain on the Bridge"

"Watcha TJ?"

"Ma'am, contact is confirmed Chencon courier on direct track from North Pole hyper. Our diversion on the track to Bhute has put us to the west of his track so I don't think he'll sniff our trail."

"Where are the scouts?"

"One's inside the sphere getting a scan and the second is hyper ward of the sphere and relaying to a hyper scout above her."

"Courier is turning over, Sir."

"Thank you EW ... Edge of fleet AO?"

Clare made herself comfortable in the command chair and plugged her leash in to the side panels. TJ sauntered about the stations quietly observing the holo plot presently zoomed in to put the sphere at one end and a short distance behind "Sundowner's" marker at the other. He stopped at the EW console,

"Sandra, expand the holo to show the courier please."

"You got it."

The courier translated and took off again accelerating towards the east of the sphere.

"Sir, scout rebro, courier is transponding."

"Thank you Sandra. He wants to play with the big bo ... There they are. They are talking."

The courier marker turned towards the sphere and after ten minutes or so, turned over. The sphere opened to swallow the courier and the inside scout recorded her presence. The courier manoeuvred to join with one of the bigger vessels.

The watch changed, Cedric relieving TJ who placed himself at the Weapons console and began exchanging messages with Morg who was still gaming the break-in on the main simulator.

"Got it, thank you, EW" Clare spoke just as Susan Gort turned to report; Susan grinned at her Captain and returned to the EW screen. The sphere was unravelling into what appeared to be six lines of ships in a practised manoeuvre.

"They've done that a few times by the look of it" Cedric opined. "Very neat."

"I agree" Clare said "Now we wait and see."

The fleet shook down into six lines of wallers with CAs leading and DDs screening. A ragtag of service vessels tagged along behind sorting themselves out. The courier separated and thrust for the hyper. The DD screens began a progress towards the hyper as the courier translated between "Sundowner" and the fleet. The courier deployed sails and accelerated towards Old Earth.

"Action stations please, Mr Cahlewis. My ship."

"Your ship Ma'am (and selecting the tannoy) D'ye hear there, action stations; d'ye hear there, action stations."

And activated the gongs. There followed the ordered chaos of the dance required for manning their combat positions and donning hardsuits.

Clare stopped the gongs and spoke into the tannoy

"Do you hear there, this is the Captain. It looks as if the Sopac fleet is coming into hyper and if so, I intend to ambush them."

"Ma'am, ship closed up for action," Morg reported

"Very good, XO; take us up into the beta please and turnover."

"Up and over, aye Ma'am; helm, turnover into the beta please."

"Beta with turnover, aye Sir" Janice Dawson acknowledge as she pulled the stick back until the bow was over vertical and pushed the throttles to the gate. As "Sundowner" approached the beta layer, she pulled the stick back again until the bow was just disc side of parallel to the layer and as the movement washed off pushed the bow to parallel to the layer.

"Beta, Ma'am, and turn over executed."

"Very good, Helm and slow ahead."

"Slow ahead, aye Ma'am."

The momentum had taken "Sundowner", in the hyper, over the mid part of the wallers in n space.

"They could all come through the same point but they'd have to heave to and allow the turbulence to settle between translations. Thinking back to my Crusher days, the accepted manoeuvre was for the first ships to translate, rig sail and accelerate away. The ships still in n space are slower and by the time the next reaches undisturbed boundary, the hyper ships are ahead of that point...

Guns, deploy D magazine frames, say sixty, and hold them above our broadside line; ready forward tubes..."

TJ acknowledged and co-opted Dorothy on the nav console to "take over" the forward tubes while he got onto the rest.

" ... DDs coming through, six of them. Guns, let them get through and then open fire with the guns before they deploy sails. Save the missiles for the big boys and replenish from the magazine as necessary."

TJ acknowledged.

"Sundowner" had begun to regain positive velocity again and Clare ordered space idle settings as she did not want "Sundowner" to overshoot the hyper entry points.

It was a turkey shoot.

As the ships came through and the crews still confused, they were blown apart; the DDs by energy weapons and the heavier ships by framed missiles programmed for time on unshielded target.

The van translated; the main body translated; but the rearguard baulked.

The scouts were reporting increased com activity from the Rear Admiral of the Rearguard. Derrin translated;

"They have been expecting a com from the hyper screen They are asking if the rearguard is clear of the fleet in hyper. He is saying he will slow down and send a DD into hyper to reconnoitre."

"Thank you, Derrin. XO, take us into n space behind the train."

Morg spoke over the tannoy

"Do you hear there, ready for translation; do you hear there, ready for translation... ( then to Janice Dawson) Helm, full reverse thrust ... bow down thirty ... stop all, five four three two on..."

Morg slighty mistimed the count. TJ moaned louder than usual as most of the disturbed layer had nearly stabilised. Nearly.

"Dune, please EW" Clare ordered in a voice that sounded as she was trying to swallow as well as speak.

"Sundowner's" entry into n space created a slightly greater disturbance than usual which should have been detected – and would have been by RMN or even RHN warships who had honed their skills in a school where failure was costly.

Clare forced herself to fight her nausea down and concentrate on that rearguard's response. None. Nowt.

"EW, what have they got left."

"Ma'am," Cedric was a bit "gargly" "four DNs and two BCs on the ends of that line abreast, four DDs with the train – ah, an ultra large bulk carrier and four FURS."

"Very good. Guns, deploy frames to target those warships but leave the DDs. Aviation, eight HACs for those DDs. Fire when ready, Guns."

TJ's fingers flew over the screen selecting and targeting. The forward ramp was felt opening and the holo recorded missile markers heading for the warships who remained totally unaware. Transient flame and smoke marked their deaths with some larger debris tumbling away.

The boat ramp opened almost in unison with the magazine ramp closing.

The HACs streaked away and headed for the now alert DDs but until the grasers cut through their hulls, they didn't know who or where their attackers were.

A soft Gennie voice whispered through the ear buds,

"That's for Chien Liu and his people – dead and alive."

"XO, have the HACs form escort for those freighters."

Morg passed the instructions to Flight Control. When the holo showed the HACs in position, Clare spoke to the Nav-com watch officer, Dorothy Ember,

"Com, put me on guard, please..."

Dorothy acknowledged and made the connection. Clare broadcast

"Chencon freighters, all crews to gather in the tanker, take rations and water for the voyage to Old Earth. Leave the other ships intact. Do not scrub the 'puters. Do not in anyway sabotage the ships or equipment. You will be escorted back to Old Earth by two of my recon vessels. Should any of my crew as much as stub their toes on a deck seam, I will destroy you. In a heartbeat. Acknowledge stat."

The Chencon Commodore was not stupid and didn't waste time arguing,

"The evacuation will take time. We will need time to transfer our people, over."

"You will have some time. When you finish the transfers, recover the small craft back to their original ship except for one which I will have your escort destroy – as an example of what it can do. Get to it. Out."

(The Chencons in that ULRC were not completely stupid. They had heard the rumours about "Morning Cloud" and had no illusions about their possible fate. Several of the mariners had done their time in navy EW and coms and were delegated to maintain watch on the escorting scouts. The ULRC broke out of hyper and entered n space. To the tanker's joy the scouts broke off. And so did the tanker – they had not established coms and were not transponding. They re-entered hyper and set course to the southeast galaxy to make planetfall at Almond Marzipan where they traded reaction mass for victuals and a top up of water. They then departed for Paracelsus to fade into [relative]obscurity.)

"Out?" Dorothy looked puzzled.

"Old Earth terminology for "clear"..." Clare explained "Morg set up that demonstration; leave the guns and Space Flight closed up and stand the remainder down to stand by...

Prize crews. Dorothy as Commodore, The Daughters as Captains, the Midshipmen as First Officers, a Tulip as Bosun and three ABs, heavy on power plant experience. Dorothy, take three Trainees to man your runabouts...

Destination is Betelguese via hard space and the purpose is to transform three of those FURS into frame carriers. All the repair equipment, boats etcetera goes into the fourth. Orville can decide what he wants to keep and what we sell as salvage...

We upgrade the ships as best we can. I know, Cedric, you can't give me warp for them but you can get them up to high cee fractions in n and hyper...

Morg, I want the freighters to be remotely controlled from "Sundowner"; put the control suite under the clean room – Orville is gonna complain about the loss of his workshop space, tough – with secondary control to the main bridge console. Coms between Freighter Control and the bridge, of course...

Let Orville know..."

"He knows" Derrin interrupted.

"Thank you Derrin ... I'll be in my cabin. Your ship, Mr Windsor"

"Captain off the bridge" was Jane Foster's dazed call.

Morg blinked several times and then used the earbud coms

"You heard the lady. Let's get to it."

Clare poked her head back onto the bridge

"And TJ, I want coms from Betelgeuse to the 'Pest hard space chain."

And disappeared again.

TJ put his head in his hands and softly whimpered.

Murphy appeared briefly. Morg had set up two of the scouts to use their fifty centimetre lasers on the target shuttle but one of the scouts didn't fire. The fire from one scout was sufficient and as Morg had inadvertently not announced it was a two scout exercise, the Chencon mariners were suitably impressed.

The scout was replaced and a chagrined Orville repaired the fault – a broken lead in the control box of the laser. Orville and Wendy spent their spare time during the voyage to Betelgeuse inspecting and testing all the scouts particularly for that fault – just in case.

Art directed four suitably programmed robos to explore the FURS and reported no booby traps or the like. While the robos performed the search, Art visited each ship and plugged into the ships' 'puters to check for damage (none) and to load additional nav data. A robo was left aboard each FURS and Art returned to "Sundowner".