Junkyard Dogs 1: The Scrapyard Incident (15 page)

Chapter 26

UTFN Reclamation Center, on board the wreck
of the
FNS Terrier
, October 6, 2598

A war council
took place on the bridge of the old ship. Carlisle and Hawkins, just back from
their scouting trip to check out the
Terrier's
ancient railguns, had removed their helmets, but were still in their space
suits.

"How much
time have we got before the raiders get back here?" asked Carlisle

"If my time
estimates are anywhere near accurate, at least fourteen hours, probably
more," answered Harris. "Obviously, that's not a lot of time. What do
you think about our chances of getting the gun to work, Hawk?"
 

"We'll have
to be runnin' a cable from the
Rover
to the starboard side capacitor bank," said Hawkins. "That should nay
be too hard, it only be about 20 meters or so from the life support module.
Maybe I can be powerin' up the turret, too."

"The gun may
be the least of our worries," said Harris. "How in space are we going
to make the rest of this plan work?"

"Let's have
a look," said Carlisle. She brought up a holo display from her wrist
computer. The display, part of the wealth of data which she had downloaded from
the tracking console, showed the most current configuration the artifacts in
the military section. "The raider ship will almost certainly come down the
main access corridor, right here," said Carlisle, pointing to the area in
question on the holo display. "We just need to position this ship
somewhere along the corridor. I'd say right about here."
 

She pointed to an
area near the corridor that contained a small cluster of ships and larger
pieces of scrap. "This cluster of junk would also be a good place to hide
the ship. If we clear out a couple pieces of scrap...there and there...If we
can get the gun to work, we'd have a clear shot at them if we need it."

"We'd have
to move the ship into position with one of the
Rovers
," said Harris.
"First things
first.
Let me get my suit on and let's go see what we need to do to get
that gun operational. Oh, before I forget, Ensign, I think I found the log
files. You can take a look at them as soon as you get some time."

Hawkins and
Carlisle helped Harris get his spacesuit on and then helped each other change
the air packs on their own suits.

"Okay, gang,
let's get on it!" said Harris. He headed for the airlock.

They began the
attempt to get the gun working with the men snaking a cable into the capacitor
bank area, leaving Carlisle on the
Rover
I
to help guide the cable off from the reel and through the first couple of
hatch doors. They soon ran into problems. On the small ship, there simply was
no room for either of the two men to access the connections to the capacitor
bank while wearing their utility suits. If the ship had been holding atmosphere
and the bulky suits not been necessary, the two skilled engineers could have
accomplished the task in a matter of just a few minutes. After five minutes of
frustration they called on Carlisle.

"Ensign?
Can you come in here for a minute?" asked
Harris. "I think we need you."

"Be right
there."

She followed the
cable that the two men had laid to its end and found them looking at the
capacitor bank.

"You'll be
rememberin' how you had to check connections for me when we were here earlier,
don't you Lass?"

"Yes, you
wanted me to look at the extra wiring."

"I think the
problem is fairly obvious, Ensign," said Harris, holding up the end of the
new power cable. "Neither one of us can fit into that tight space with
these suits on. Do you think you could slip in there and hook this up for
us?"

"I can sure
as hell give it a try. Just tell me what you need done."

"Can you
bring up a schematic with a wiring diagram for this capacitor bank on your
wrist computer?"

"I think so.
Give me a minute." She began speaking softly. By this time, her companions
could usually tell if she was communicating with her computer or free
associating using her customary thought processes.

"Orion Mark
IV...capacitor...wiring diagram...execute!"

The holo diagram
appeared in the void in front of them. They gathered around it and began to
discuss details.

"Last time you
went in there it was to check on some non-specification wiring," said
Harris. "Where exactly was it connected?"

"They had
patched it in right there." She pointed to the spot on the hologram.

Harris nodded his
head. "Okay, here's what we need you to do. We know that the non-spec wire
burned through but we think it's best if you disconnect it first anyway. No
need to take any chances. Once you've done that, we want you to connect three
of the wires in this cable to these terminals here, here and here." He
pointed to the terminals on the diagram. "Hawk has already stripped the
ones you'll need."

"Can do.
Anything else?"

"Yes, there
is. These are pretty hefty wires and they'll be bolted on securely. Have you
ever used one of these powered wrenches?"

"No, I
haven't."

"Hawk?"
said Harris.

Hawkins
demonstrated the function of the wrench.

"You're
weightless, Lass, so you gotta make sure you're properly braced, or it'll be
spinnin' you around and not the bolt. Whatever you be doin', you must
na
' hold it like this," he said, repositioning the
wrench to a somewhat awkward angle in his hand, "or you could be breakin'
a finger or even your wrist."

Carlisle shifted
into memory chant mode.

"Three
wires, Tamara...brace your body...don't be stupid when you use the wrench...
Okay, I think I'm ready."

She crawled back
into the smallish space, dragging the bulky cable behind her. In spite of
Hawkins' coaching, the hex nuts on the terminals proved to be very difficult
for her to get loose and she spent fully five minutes trying to find some sort
of position that would allow adequate bracing for her body without putting her
fingers and wrists at risk.

"Hooray!"
she called out, "I finally got one!"

Once she had
figured out the proper technique, the rest of the job was mercifully
straightforward. After another ten minutes, she had removed the old cable and
had the new one connected. She made her way back out to where her companions
were waiting.
The entire group
retraced their steps back through the ship and connected the cable to the
Rover's
power supply.

With the
capacitor bank connected, they then turned their attention to the other
assemblies of the gun emplacement.

"Okay,
Ensign, bring up that schematic again, let's find out if we can get power to
the turret while we're at it," said Harris.

Carlisle brought
up the hologram again and the three of them consulted it.

"It looks
like the turret machinery is on the deck just below us," said Harris,
"right down that hatch over there. Let's go check it out."

A quick search of
the area revealed the same problem they had encountered before, no room to work
while wearing a standard utility suit.

"Good thing
you'll be havin' that fancy suit, Lass," said Hawkins. "We could nay
do this without you."

After consulting
the schematics again, Carlisle slipped into the cramped space that contained
the turret machinery. Her disappointment was obvious.

"I don't
think we're going to be able to get this to work," she said.
"Whatever fried the capacitor banks also did a damned good job on the
motors for the turret. Everything in here is burned to a crisp!"

"Not
good," said Harris.
"Now what?"

"Can't we do
like the enemy does and just aim the entire ship?" asked Carlisle, as she
rejoined the two men.

"Looks like
we might have to," said Harris.

"We might be
able to be doin' better than that," said Hawkins. "If the damage in
there has nay jammed something, there
be
hand-cranked
manual overrides inside the turret. We can be usin' them to aim the gun. Come
on,
let's be seein' if they still work."

"Are you
sure, Hawk?" asked Harris. "That seems like an awful lot of mass to
move with a hand crank."

"It's nay so
as bad as you think, Lieutenant. There also be a release lever inside the turret
that disengages the motors and drive gears, in case there was bein' a loss of
power. We practiced with the manual system while I was onboard the
Belfast
and it worked pretty well."

The group made
their way up into the turret assembly. Hawkins disengaged the turret drive
system with a lever underneath a cover in the floor before sliding into the
gunner's seat. He pointed to and explained each of the controls. In addition to
the fire control periscope, there were cranks for each gun within easy reach of
the chair, each of them a wheel about thirty centimeters in diameter and each
equipped with a swivel handle for extra leverage. A horizontally-mounted crank
operated the side to side movement of the turret and vertically-mounted ones
elevated or depressed the guns. Hawkins fastened the still-intact safety
harness and, firmly braced in the gunner's chair, operated two of the cranks in
turn. To the immense relief of the defenders, the cranks moved freely. The
turret moved left and right and the starboard gun moved up and down. Because of
the masses involved, many turns of the crank were needed for left-right
corrections, and movement of the turret occurred with agonizing slowness. The
up and down corrections of the railgun barrel itself went much more quickly.

"That will
have to do," said Harris, relieved.

Finally they were
ready to attempt to charge up the capacitor bank. Hawkins remained sitting in
the gunner's chair and kept an eye on the charge meter for the capacitor while
Harris went back out to the
Rover I
and applied power to the makeshift cable. Carlisle stayed inside the turret
with Hawkins. In spite of the situation they were in, she hadn't forgotten her
research project and she couldn't help thinking that actually operating one of
the old projectile weapons would have been something she could never have
witnessed under normal conditions. She could barely contain her excitement.

"Do you
think it'll work, Hawk?"

"It would
nay surprise me," said Hawkins, almost gleefully. "This old
Terrier
, she
be
a bonnie Lass!" He watched as the charge meter swung over into the green
zone. "Okay, Lieutenant, the meter says she be havin' a full charge. I'll
be dry firin' it, and then we can be chargin' it again and see how long it
be
takin'."

"Sounds good, Hawk.
Anytime you're ready," said
Harris.

"Firin' in
three, two,
one
...fire!" said Hawkins, and he
pressed the firing stud.

All three of the
survivors felt a short, sharp tremor in the old ship.

"It
worked!" exclaimed Carlisle, her mouth wide open in wonder.

"Now we wait
for a few minutes, to see how long it takes to charge up," said Harris.

"I'll wager
it be somewhere around five minutes," said Hawkins.

"One shot
every five minutes?" asked Carlisle, looking over Hawkins' shoulder as she
watched the charge meter slowly creep back towards the green zone.

"One shot up
the drive tubes of a cargo ship with an explosive shell should be more than
enough, Lass. We just have to be hittin' it!" said Hawkins.

"Can you do
it?" asked Harris.

"Aye,
Lieutenant, that
I can. Cap'n Lovell made sure each of us
had cross trainin' on several jobs onboard ship.
Especially
jobs that be involvin' emergency or fightin' systems.
He
was wantin'
to be able to fight the ship even if he lost gun
crew or engineering crew or any critical personnel."

"You still
remember?" asked Carlisle.

"Aye, I
remember it well 'cause I really liked shootin' the guns. Here, Lass, hop in
the chair and I'll be showin' you."

Hawkins moved out
of the seat and Carlisle complied eagerly.

"Look
through the periscope." She did so. "You'll be seein' the cross
hairs?"

"Yes."

"You'll be
linin' them up on your target. Now turn the horizontal crank."

Carlisle grasped
the knob on the crank and began turning it rapidly.

"It moves so
easy!" she exclaimed. The crosshairs moved slowly until they were aligned
just above the wreck of a battlecruiser on the other side of the central
clearing. She switched to the other crank and a watched as the crosshairs came
down into perfect alignment with the bridge of the old cruiser.

"I got it
lined up with that cruiser over there," said Carlisle. "Like you
said, it isn't hard at all."

"It
be
even easier with the power controls up there on the
periscope housing. You got to remember that all this manual stuff, even the
powered controls, was just bein' backup, usually all the aimin' and firin' was
done from the fire control computer on the bridge."

"Okay, she's
charged again," said Carlisle, seeing the gauge go into the green zone.
"How long did it take?"

"About like
I
be
thinkin', four minutes forty-five seconds,"
said Hawkins.

"I think we
should try firing a live shell," said Harris. "We've got plenty of
ammunition and if we think we're going to use this gun, we'd better make sure
that it's actually working."

"How about I
be firin' an armor piercing shell at the cruiser that the Ensign sighted in on
over there?" asked Hawkins.

"Looks like
as good a target as any," said Harris.