Chapter 98

"Sundowner" returned to the disc and the "Starship" was configured with the three MCs. Clare organised leave parties initially using 737 as the transport. At any one time a third of the Sundowners were dirtside attending to their affairs. A space yacht, especially purchased for the purpose, was used to commute back and forth but Clare was adamant only one of the senior three was to be absent at a time.

To establish House of Tulip at Woodridge, A aft was cleared of its looms and stores and, with Bert, relocated to Woodridge.

The Colony had expanded and Bury became "infested"; the Newark sub-colony reinforced the contingent from "Sundowner". Hazel's Companion had retired from her position as Matriarch (but not as Companion – much too interesting) and the Matriarch ruled from the hangars of Woodridge. Strathlawn and Gantry were chosen and a cluster of arachnids overlooked the goings on at the day centre.

Once the Matriarch settled her Colony, she chose Julie. Gabrielle was also chosen.

With the increased numbers, Companions also rotated through "Sundowner".

Following his success with the nanotech for the investigation of the Gennies' tubal blockage, Cedric sought advice and direction from TJ and, with Threep's assistance was developing a DNA controlled atmospheric warmth powered eavesdropping device of near microscopic proportions. Cedric put the question of gathering any information obtained by the nano-spy aside for the moment.

TJ did an Archimedes – not from his bath but rather from his bunk on "Sundowner" as he had been drifting off after a bout of pleasurable exertion with The Daughters. The Daughters (and his other partners) had become familiar with his actions over the years and they unconcernedly nakedly traipsed about the mezzanine galley making the coffee and sangers which would be required and then returned to the cabin.

The two fifty six bit byte referred to by Midshipman George Burgess, aka George Sweeney, in the battle 'puter was a compromise. The battle 'puter required number crunching capacity but not of the order of the scientific astrological 'puters and it also required rapidity of conduction of bytes – the larger the byte the longer the time, relatively speaking, required for the duration of the signal either by line or by com. George and Sarnt had compressed the manoeuvring commands for missiles into one byte thus saving on time and to a lesser extent on bandwidth.

TJ made a few quick entries into his desk 'puter to satisfy himself that it was feasible and then began sketching a byte and entries to cover salvo number, frame /target designator, primary manoeuvring sub-programme, secondary manoeuvring sub-programme and individual instructions.

The byte commands could be transmitted by a single com frequency – not desirable as it could be jammed – either directly to the frames or by rebro in a scout using a tight beam link to the battle 'puter.

The latter was preferred as missiles heading to targets entered a white noise defensive environment and at the distances involved the ship's signal might not have enough power to burn through the white noise. A tight beam signal required less transmission power to burn through; the scout could blast its rebroadcast out at full power and a manoeuvring intermittently transmitting scout was a difficult target to locate and then neutralise.

TJ began working on the missile coms programme so that it would accept only those signals designated for it; by some adroit finagling he got it done and went back to his bunk to get the last hour of sleep.

At morning meal break, he set up a discussion group of the officers on board and to get them all in, it was held on the bridge. Shirley offered to run a simulation, programme and deploy some test missiles from the forward tubes and some scouts and then Morg and Cedric would download the missiles' instruction banks and the downloads to be checked against the battle 'puter's records. It took three days but it worked; Murphy got at a frame's internal connection to one missile, but other than that ... There was a small hassle returning the missiles to the magazines.

Shirley took the amendments up to A aft and ran a exercise; it went well and then officers and ratings were run through intense exercises using the new system.

...

Battle Fleet with Frontier Fleet reinforcements, numbering some two hundred and ten of the line began exercising in the PRD zone around Venus. Cedric had scouts monitoring them and assessment of the reports remarked upon the paucity of screening ships. The fleet was undertaking only the simplest of manoeuvres and that not efficiently.

The Frontier Fleet was forming up in the disc well out of the Solar System towards the Orion Perseus gap and a NOTAM advising of the declared training area warning merchant shipping heading for the galactic south was issued.

No one on "Sundowner" was surprised when a UVA arrived in hyper and dropped a capsule into n space to observe their activities. The hard space com chain carried the images both ways to Sol and to Mountserrat.

Baron Westlake passed on the information on the Frontier Fleet to the Noramcon CNO and he passed it on to the Triumvirate for information. TJ passed the information from Venus to the Admiralty.

The panel of critics formed in "Sundowner" gave the USN formations poor marks and as Cedric observed,

"Their report card should say quote is trying hard but must do better unquote." But the assessments of the Norlant forces were only somewhat better. Morg made the points,

"We were brought up in a fleet that was training for combat with more advanced weaponry on a galactic scale and we observed that fleet and its opponents over nearly two decades of combat so we have higher standards all round. This lot are still in the line of battle with energy weapons and torpedoes stage...

The conflict in Terrestrial n space is going to be a slugging match if push comes to shove as the Norlant fleet is tied to Chen...

The Mounties are working up those Chencon prizes and I'll take long odds their stealth and detection equipment is being fitted while they are working up. When Cunningham sails to meet the Frontier Fleet, although the ships themselves will be more evenly matched, she will have the tactical edge... 'Teeth, with the Mounties experience, they will have a near absolute tactical superiority. And if she doesn't have a couple of those River class Missile Carriers of her own, I'm sure McCock will lend his...

Those USN idiots don't seem to have learnt a thing from the disasters out in the south west...

I think we've got to be more concerned with the Chencon confrontation because if it gets out of hand, this planet will go up in flames"

TJ agreed,

"Yah. Norlant nearly matches the USN and if they actually come to blows it's going to be nasty and that balance will be gone. A lot of local grievances will be brought out if the Norlant / USN balance goes...

I don't have any time for Chencon, not since the Armada cut its swathe through the south, but I'm not going to stand and watch another Eridani occur - even to them – not if I can do something about it."

There was a general nodding of heads. Also nobody questioned the idea that the USN would violate the Eridani Convention not when the USN was in direct contravention of the USW Constitution by firstly involving itself in Terrestrial affairs and secondly dispatching an invasion fleet to attack Mountserrat without the Senate declaring war.

...

Cedric was in a thinking haze and Jane and Mary were working hard to keep his mind on his duties when he was on watch – they were doing this by continuously referring matters to him as OW which under usual circumstances they would have dealt with themselves; the other watch keepers were cooperating with them and Cedric was not allowed to "wander off". Cedric knew full well what was going on and ruefully admitted to himself their actions were necessary as the problem he was working on was one which had been exercising his mind for weeks while Threep and he constructed nano-spies; and that was the reason for the thousands of them being made – Cedric needed to keep his hands busy while he worked his way through the problem. He had worked out the theory of how to collect the records of the nano-spies but the practicality was flummoxing him; every solution he came up with required room sized equipment and power demands which would result in "Sundowner" coming to a metaphorical halt.

It was seven in another Cedric watch. Sandra Pendle was on coms and idly going through the check lists.

"When was the last time we tested the locator gear? We never put it on a schedule as it isn't really part of the running of the ship. It's a stand alone. Cedric?"

Cedric had been heavily involved in the development of the chips and their detection but he couldn't remember the last time it had been used – not for years.

"Clare's dirtside; Sandra, boot it up and locate her."

"Locate the Captain, aye Sir."

Sandra powered up the unit and ran through the start menu as it warmed up and then selected Clare's designator,

"I've got a return but at this range it ain't exactly precise – somewhere on Old Earth."

Cedric came to stand over Sandra's shoulder,

"Yah, not surprising. Enklan is on the other side. How are you getting that? You cant get it direct."

"I thought about that and sent the beam to that UVA over the Pole but once the signal bounces off the UVA the localising programmes don't work as I don't have a reference to enter" Sandra explained.

Cedric thought out loud as his problem surfaced on his brain and began flashing lights and waving flags to get the owner's attention back.

"Hmm ... The chip is not quite molecular in size ... Could make it now with a bio chip ... and I'd have to tune the unit..."

Cedric's PDA sounded "Revielle" – Jane's sense of humour this month – and he answered,

"Yah, Boss?"

"Cedric, is that you with the locator?"

"Affirmative, Clare, just testing; haven't done it for a while."

"Suits, the chip just tingled. No problems out there?"

"All quiet."

"Gillard clear."

Cedric spent the rest of the watch in a brown study and his handover to Dorothy was perfunctory, full report delivered abstractedly.

"When's the next run dirtside?" Cedric asked when they were settled in the mess restoring the stimulant levels.

"Your lot and us" Hazel piped up "four morning. Why?"