Star Rover-Chosen to Die (Lens of Time) (17 page)

“You’re right, I have you here for another reason that has to do with the first question I asked you. I am going to implement a new maneuver that is not approved by fleet. I am going to explain that maneuver and see if any of you can find flaws in doing it. I could just do it but, in order for it to work, I need the entire crew working together to make it effective.” Mark pressed a button on his panel and all the monitors on the Jukebox split down the middle and a computer generated image of the Denver appeared on one half of the screen. “I’ve had the computer produce a video of the maneuver and I’m going to run it in slow motion. In this particular simulation, there are six Jukeboxes chasing us.”

The image of the Denver began moving and the crew saw it was on a high speed run from the six pursuing ships. The six ships were slowly moving in on the fleeing warship. “Here’s where it starts.” The crew saw the rear pulse blasters on the Denver launch a barrage toward the pursuers. The barrage was much wider than the Denver and was higher and lower than the ship’s profile. The pursuers couldn’t see the Denver for a moment as the barrage moved toward them.

The Denver suddenly turned and whipped the tail forward and the nose back. The rear thrusters stopped firing and the ten side thrusters started firing. The Denver was now flying away from the chasing ships sideways. Mark stopped the video and said, “Comments?”

McAfee looked at the image and shook his head, “You’re using the portside thrusters to accelerate the ship.”

“Yes, I am. How fast can those thrusters push the Denver?”

McAfee’s head started shaking, “I have no idea.”

Mark said, “What is the tactical advantage of this maneuver?”

Ensign Miller said, “If you can turn the ship into that position as fast as it was done on this video, the advantages are huge.”

“Go on and tell us why, Ensign Miller.”

“Notice that the pursuers have not come over and under the barrage that was fired at them. They think they are closing in on the tail of the Denver that only has eight blasters and three penetrator tubes. When they come around that barrage they’ll be facing two hundred blasters and sixty penetrator tubes.”

“Very good, Mr. Miller. Do any of you have any other insights?”

“That’s not going to work if they come around that barrage at a high velocity. They’ll be on us before we could target them.”

“That is the key to this working. Can the full power of the engines being diverted into the port thrusters keep the ship moving at a fast enough speed to allow us time to target the ships as they come around the barrage.”

“It might work anyway, Sir.”

Mark looked at Jillian, “Tell me what you see, Lieutenant.”

“If you launch six penetrators as soon as the ship comes around, they’ll arrive at the barrier at the same moment the pursuers move around the barrage.”

“Will they have time to lock on the pursuers?”

Jillian looked at Mark and he could see her mind was working furiously, “I don’t know. They would have to be close to the ships as they came around the barrage to hit them.”

Lt. Vaughn commanded the standard blaster teams and he said, “It still might work. We know in advance what our orientation is going to be and we can set out blaster’s targeting computers to lock on the first targets that appears and fire. I suspect we would do significant damage to the pursuers.”

Mark nodded, “Am I hearing you say that this maneuver might still be worthwhile even if we’re not accelerating at a high enough speed to stay ahead of those chasing us?”

The crew all looked at each other and either shrugged or nodded. Lt. Vaughn said, “I think we agree with that assessment, Sir. This is something that’s never been tried, at least I’ve not seen it in any of the fleet records, and I wouldn’t want to come over that barrage and face the full power of a broadside that the Jukeboxes can deliver.”

“Alright, I’m going to run the rest of the simulation so you can see how I envision the entire crew being used to defend the ship.”

The video started moving again and the bow and tail blasters fired pulse barrages to the sides of the ship. The Starboard side blasters were firing a barrage in front of the ship as the port side thrusters pushed it forward. “Notice that three sides of the Denver are being covered by barrages. The blasters that are facing the coming attackers are clear for engagement of the enemy ships as soon as they appear. They aren’t needed to fire barrages to defend the other sides.”

“Sir, what happens if a superior force comes after us from the sides or front of the ship?”

“The Pilot flying the ship is going to have to keep their full attention on modulating the port thrusters to keep the ship stable. The second Pilot will only be paying attention to the tactical display. If they see a superior threat approaching our ship, they will take control of the ship away from the first pilot and direct the thrust back into the rear thrusters and make an immediate escape. The second pilot could also jump the ship out of trouble if the situation calls for it.”

There was silence for a moment as the video replayed itself over and over. Mark smiled, “I’ve had the computer slightly modify your targeting systems. If control of the ship is taken by the second pilot, your boards will have a corner of your display immediately illuminate with a red light. Someone tell me what you should do if you see that light.”

“You drop any target you’re following and move your blaster back to standard defense posture.”

Mark nodded slightly, “You saw that quick, Mr. Daniels and you’re exactly right. The ship will no longer be flying sideways and there will be openings through our coverage if you don’t move back to standard blaster and penetrator coverage.”

“So when do we start practice, Sir?”

Mark looked at Tara and smiled, “First, do you think this maneuver is worth risking our lives to perform? Please poll your units and send your response in to my panel.”

Mark turned off the communication panel and leaned back in his chair. Jillian looked at him and shook her head, “What?”

Jillian whispered, “Sir, this is an incredible idea. I’ve asked the computer to make an estimate on the speed the side thrusters could push the ship and the best guess is there will be no appreciable loss of speed.” Jillian stared at Mark and saw a small twinkle in his eyes. “You already knew it.” Mark tilted his head and smiled. “Then why did you put this up to the crew?”

“I’ve found people will work harder on something they believe in, Lieutenant. The crew has to be totally behind this to make it work.”

Jillian’s eyes narrowed as she said, “Do you know everyone’s name on this ship?”

“I do, Lieutenant.” Jillian didn’t know whether to believe him or not. “When you command your own ship, you will as well.”

“Sir, that’s over nine hundred names.”

Mark nodded, “And you’ll be responsible for keeping them alive. You’ll know them all, Lieutenant, even if you don’t want to.”

• • •

Within thirty minutes, all units reported in and the poll was unanimous. Mark activated the ship’s intercom, “We will begin practice on this new maneuver in an hour. Get something to eat and take some time to relax. The bulk of the work is going to have to be done by myself and Lt. Connor as we try to break some learned behaviors. We do promise you that we won’t stop working until we are proficient at making this happen.”

Orton looked at the fifty sailors in the training room, “He’s not like I thought.”

“Something has changed him.”

McAfee looked at Midshipman Sadler, “Perhaps he was so tough initially to prepare us for what we are going to face.” The sailors thought about the observation and most of them agreed. This Captain was one smart cookie.

A week later, Mark took control of the ship away from Lt. Connor before the blaster crews could fire at the Rovers. He watched the status board and saw only fifty percent of the crews had moved their weapons to standard coverage within ten seconds. Jillian looked at the status board and shook her head. Mark said, “Computer, send the times on going to standard coverage to all the blaster crews.”

“Times sent, Captain.”

Mark leaned back in his chair and Tara said, “I’m surprised you’re not yelling at the ones that were tardy, Sir.”

“They’re probably yelling at themselves for being slow. My blaster crews are professionals; they won’t be late again.”

Mark activated his panel and said, “Lt. Walters, what have you determined about attacking the Denver?”

“Sir, we know what’s coming and still can’t do anything about it. If we’re in pursuit, we have to chase the ship at full speed. The barrage comes at us with an incredible closing speed. We can’t just allow it to hit us; it would probably destroy our ships. We can’t turn and run from it; it’s coming at us too fast. We’re forced to go over or under the barrage and no matter how hard we attempt to evade the Denver’s blasters, there are just too many of them.”

“Have you thought about jumping away?”

“Then we have lost the pursuit. Once you detect our jump, you’ll have the second pilot take the ship and move away from us. Better minds than mine will have to come up with a defense against this tactic.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant. I greatly appreciate your willingness to train these long hours.”

“Sir, if you’re willing to do it; I know my pilots will not complain.”

“Are you up for one more go?” Walters looked at Mark and smiled, “I’ll move to the starting location, Sir.”

“This time we’re going to make a slight change.”

“Oh, what is that?”

“We’re going to chase you.”

Lt. Walter’s smile was huge, “That should be fun, Sir.” Mark smiled and Walter’s found it wasn’t fun at all. The Denver could be flown sideways as fast as the Rovers could fly at top speed. They were forced to jump away or be knocked out of the exercise.

Lt. McAfee appeared on Mark’s display, “Sir, we’ve discovered something really interesting.”

“What is that, Lieutenant?”

“The effective range of the ship’s blasters is doubled when more than twenty hit a target. We should be able to take out any ship at double the range if we attack in a broadside approach.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“The computer confirms that one or two blasters will not take out a Jukebox beyond normal range; however, when twenty or more hit close together, the combination of the beams is three times more powerful than two beams at normal range.”

“We’ll start learning how to fly the ship using the side thrusters. You prepare your teams to work together on long range targets.”

“Yes Sir.”

The Denver’s crew was elated and now they belonged to their Captain. They believed in him and something special was born on that Union Warship.

• • •

Angel and her command team looked at Admirals Hull and Arvolo on the wall display. Katherine said, “Tell me what you want, Admiral.”

“Sir, we’re growing too fast. Our three units are now up to six thousand ships in each and maintaining control of that many in combat operations has become problematic. We need to divide the units half with the current commander controlling each.”

“What’s the problem?”

Angel shook her head, “Sir, what rank will the commander of the small units have?”

Katherine looked at Arvolo and he shrugged, “We don’t have a rank between Commodore and Captain, Sir.”

Angel nodded, “And it’s difficult to choose a Captain over another that has more seniority.”

“Are you saying the best candidates you have don’t have the most seniority?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Sir. You might remember that you were promoted over a large number of Admirals with more seniority when you took command of the Fleets. Even my father was incredibly young when he was promoted and it was kept secret because of his young age.”

Katherine looked at Dat, “Is she always this logical?” Dat took a breath, blew it out, and said, “She gets it from her mother.”

Katherine turned back to her monitor showing the four officers in the Wellington’s conference room, “Do you have the ones chosen you want to promote?”

“No Sir.”

“Don’t you think you might want to do that before you come asking for promotions?”

“It wouldn’t make sense to do it if you wouldn’t authorize it.”

“You’re concerned that if I promote you and your Commodores that the fleet might think I was giving you preferential treatment.” Angel looked at Admiral Hull and then nodded. “Well, I think we’ve seen from your readiness reports and the recordings of your fleet exercises that your fleet is the most prepared for combat. It’s my belief that you do what’s right and the truth will become obvious. I’ll issue a promotion for you to Vice Admiral which will keep you junior to our current Admirals. Your four Commodores will be promoted to Rear Admirals.”

Bret said, “Sir, I’m Admiral Arvolo’s Executive Officer and don’t require a promotion.”

Katherine saw Angel’s face turn red and knew there was something going on between her and her XO. Katherine looked at Angel, “If one of your Unit Commanders dies, who will replace them?”

Angel looked at Bret and said, “Commodore Stone would, Sir.”

“Then there’s no sense in not preparing for that eventuality. He will also be promoted. I’ll hold six open promotions for the Commodores you select. Notify General Robinson upon their selection.”

“Thank you, Sir.” The monitor went black and Angel said, “We’ve got to find the ones to command the Task Forces.”

Grest said, “What are the qualifications to be considered?”

“This entire fleet is built around flying skills. It would be difficult to have respect from those you command if you aren’t at least as good as the best in your Command. They would also require the leadership skills necessary to garner the respect of their ships.”

Dizzy said, “The first parts easy.” Everyone turned to her. “Have a competition and see who wins.”

Arve smiled, “I like that idea. How would we do it?”

“Set out a section of space and have all ships restricted inside the boundaries. They are all charged to remove all the other ships and let them have at it.”

Grest said, “You know that some of our best Captains might be eliminated strictly by bad luck.”