Clidepp Requital (14 page)

"How about sheathing the Marine fighters in Dakinium? Then they could be attached to the outside of the CPS configuration and also provide the ultimate in protection for the pilots."

"That is also under consideration. It's been a matter of priorities. The demand for Dakinium is incredible. The Mars shipyard fights to get every ounce they can, and we've just recently completed outfitting every Marine and interdiction pilot in the service with personal body armor made from Dakinium. We have urgent requests for more Dakinium from weapons manufacturers and numerous other approved military suppliers. The fact is, we just can't produce all that's needed right now. Supreme HQ is working on plans to step up manufacture, but security is so tight around Dakinium facilities that it's difficult. We can't allow any to fall into the hands of unauthorized people. Every single ounce of produced Dakinium must be accounted for. The material gives us a considerable edge over every other nation and every criminal organization, and we're striving to maintain that. Eventually, someone will develop a similar product, but we're not going to do anything that will hasten that day. We'd love to see fighters sheathed in Dakinium, as well as
all
Space Command vessels, but it's just not possible right now. Most support ships, where Light-9790 isn't a priority, are still being sheathed in Tritanium."

"I see. Thank you," Sydnee said as she sat back down.

"Anyone else?" When no one spoke up, Halworth said, "Okay, let's proceed with the holographic presentation of the habitat modules."

"I can't wait to schedule some simulator time," Sydnee said excitedly to Jerry Weems as they walked to the officers' mess at lunchtime. "I haven't been at the flight controls of a small ship since we left Diabolisto in the
Babbage
. Even some simulator time would be great."

"Yeah, it's been about three months for me also."

"So, um, what do you think of the new CPS system?"

"It's amazing. A modular spaceship where the configuration can be changed in minutes to suit multiple purposes and which can be disassembled easily to fit inside, or attach to, a destroyer. It's only weakness seems to be a total lack of weapons, unless there's more to it than they're telling us at this point."

"Weapons would be easy to add."

"Really? How?"

"Remember the torpedoes the rebel freighter fired at us while we were attacking the
Glassama
?"

"Yeah," he said matter-of-factly, then realized what she was driving at. "Oh, yeah, a habitat unit could be outfitted with weapons and ordnance. If you're going into a hostile situation, you simply take a weapons unit in place of a habitat unit. They could even look the same so no one would know until and unless the weapons were needed."

"Yeah. And I hope they decide to use a disguised container to transport some Marine fighters as well. If we're going into a hostile situation like the one on Diabolisto, they'd be worth their weight in gold. Can you imagine if we'd landed there with a full CPS and habitat unit instead of just a MAT? We wouldn't have had to trudge through kilometers of swamp, and we could have wrapped up the whole operation in one day. We could have used a couple of the habitat units to hold the rebels in a lockdown and then gone looking for the
Perry
in the CPS."

"Assuming the entire habitat unit didn't disappear into a sink hole."

"Well, yeah, there's that."

"It seems that no matter how well prepared you are, there's always something you didn't count on or prepare for."

"I guess something unexpected is always a possibility. I sure never expected to be attacked by a man-eating Lampaxa Vorheridine."

"It did make for an exciting five-minute fight."

"Five minutes? Is that all it was?" With a sigh of exasperation, she added, "It seemed like an hour."

* * *

The two weeks of intense training was grueling, but it was finally over and the ship was ready to deploy for its space trials on time. The crew of Light Destroyers like the
Perry
had been officially established at five hundred, but because of the war in Region Two, the
Perry
had been limping along at a mere four hundred two. A full crew complement for
Lyon
-class Destroyers was established at nine hundred eighty-eight, but when the
Denver
deployed on its space trials, it was manned by only eight-hundred ninety-five. Space Command promised that the ship would have its full complement of SC and Marine staff when it left on patrol.

There were so many new faces aboard ship that Sydnee almost felt like she was on the wrong vessel. It was only when she reported for her watch on the bridge that the ship really began to feel like home because the bridge was fully staffed by the same old watch teams. Lt. Bronson was gone now, of course, and Milty was no longer the second officer. Milty had owed his third watch commander position to the officer shortage. A new SC Lt. Commander, Melissa Avery, would now be the second officer and Lt. Mark Milton became third officer until another new Lt. Commander reported aboard. As temporary third officer, Milton moved to first watch and would be the watch commander whenever Captain Lidden wasn't on the bridge.

At one time, a new ship, or one that had previously undergone considerable refurbishing or upgrades, would deploy for space trials for as long as six months. This was reduced to ninety days when the shortage of ships on patrol necessitated the cut. Now the space trials had been further cut to only sixty days unless severe problems or exposed potential problems demanded an extension. But rigorous pre-launch testing standards at the Mars shipyard had been implemented since the first Scout-Destroyer, the
Colorado
, had been built, and most new ships experienced few of the serious problems that occurred aboard that small ship in its early days. And none had ever experienced the massive electrical failure that left the
Colorado
adrift in deep space without power or communications.

In addition to the new crewmembers, a horde of test engineers and instructors were aboard the
Denver
when he deployed. The instructors were there to evaluate the crew's response to new technology and provide training if requested. A half dozen simulators were available for pilot testing and certification, although none of the new CPS-14s or new MAT-14s had been brought aboard. Nor was a single habitat unit attached to the
Denver's
keel.

* * *

"So, what do you think of our new home?" Captain Lidden asked his XO, Commander Bryant, during their daily status meeting.

"I've fallen in love. We tolerated the
Perry
, mostly because we had no choice, but the
Denver
is another matter entirely. He's everything I could have wished for. Even during these space trials, we haven't had one percent of the problems we'd see on a daily basis with the
Perry
. And the engineers can replace parts without constant worry that they're going to burn out during the first thirty seconds because they weren't designed for an ancient ship that should have been melted for scrap half a century ago."

"It's wonderful when things work the way they're supposed to. How about the crew?"

"Not a single complaint that I've heard, other than the fact that it takes too long to get anywhere because the ship is so much larger. And in reality, the time factor isn't even true— it just seems that way because we have to travel so much further. Yes, the ship is longer, but the transport cars can whisk you the entire length of the ship in under a minute. On the
Perry
it took four minutes for that trip in non-stop mode, and the ship was two hundred thirty-five meters shorter.

"I guess people will always look for
something
to complain about."

"I suppose. Even the yard personnel have only had minimum complaints."

"The yard personnel have been complaining about the
Denver
? This is supposed to be their show horse, their first opportunity to show the military that computers are better able to take care of their ship than people can."

"They're not complaining about the ship. Their complaint is with us. Most of the console operators on the bridge deactivate the computer control when they man their station at the beginning of their watch, if it's even active when their watch starts. The yard personnel are upset that no one trusts the computers and are running on manual, as allowed by Space Command."

Lidden laughed. "I've been so busy with other matters that I hadn't noticed."

"I haven't said anything to anyone, but I've noticed the console lights that indicate the link is activate are
always
dark. Everyone is running on manual."

"It will probably take awhile for the people trained to operate the ship to begin trusting a computer to do it. I imagine future generations will be less hesitant to trust them."

"I guess only time will tell."

"Tell me, Bry, were you in their place, would you trust the computer?"

"I trust it to gather and interpret the information flowing from sensors and to report that information to me, but putting my life and the lives of every member of the crew into the electronic 'hands' of a computer? I don't think so. Even so, I believe that under certain conditions, such as an envelope merge, the computer is far more capable of responding quickly and without emotion. I would definitely activate it in that situation."

"Let's hope we never have to perform a merge again. We got lucky the last time."

"We have a Dakinium hull now."

"We have a hull sheathed in Dakinium that's impervious to laser weapons and almost impervious to torpedoes. I'm not so sure how we'd fare if the ship impacted another ship. Would the Dakinium keep the steel bulkheads from collapsing? I asked a yard manager while we were at Mars and he sort of sidestepped the issue by saying that someday we'd have enough Dakinium available so that the entire framework would be constructed of it. I don't know if they've ever tested the current designs from the perspective of having the ship crushed."

"Then we'll just have to avoid using the envelope merge until we know."

"Yeah, that would be best. Anyway, there's one thing we know for sure— no one can get away from us now that we have Light-9790 speed."

"That's for sure."

~ November 23
^rd
, 2285 ~

The
Denver
returned to the Mars shipyard on schedule after completing its space trials. Everything had gone exceedingly well. Problems were far less than the ship's engineers were used to handling on any average day. There were complaints about temperatures in quarters exceeding the high or low settings, slight electrical problems with equipment failing to function, gel-comfort beds failing to maintain their settings, and lights not illuminating on command, but all were resolved quickly. The more serious problems were reports of leaking pipes and a lift with three crewmembers aboard who got stuck in the tube. The most serious problem was a defective sensor on the hull that required a team of engineers to suit up in EVA equipment and walk the hull to replace the defective unit. The necessary parts to fix all problems were available in the parts lockers, and the issues were always resolved quickly.

Most of the new crewmembers who hadn't been able to reach Mars before the space trials began were waiting to board the ship when it returned. They quickly settled in as final preparations for deployment were completed. The only personnel issue that affected the bridge crews was that Lt. Milton lost his temporary third officer command position when the new Lt. Commander reported aboard.

Three fresh-off-the-line CPS-14s arrived and were housed in a hangar bay. Sydnee was there to watch as they came aboard, and all three used the temporary air locks. Another bay accepted seven MAT-14s, while a third got a full squadron of twelve FA-SF4 Marine Fighters. Meanwhile, habitat units were being attached to the keel with special docking clamps. As with freight containers, each unit could be entered for inspection via a hatch in the roof of the habitat without having to suit up in EVA gear when it was locked into a link section. When placed on a planet, crew would enter or leave via an airlock located on the lowest level. Once victualing of the ship was complete and spare parts from the ship's lockers used during the space trials were replaced, the ship was ready to depart.

The
Denver
left the Mars shipyard late on the second day following its return. Its destination was the sector along the Clidepp border where the
Perry
had patrolled for the past six years.

* * *

"Underway at last," Kelly MacDonald said as she sat down to breakfast the next day.

"You're not kidding," Sydnee said. "I'm beat."

"Me too," Jerry Weems said. "The space trials were grueling. How many bridge simulations did we run anyway?"

"I think it was about ten thousand," Sydnee said.

"I think that might be a
slight
exaggeration, but it certainly feels accurate. I hope we get some sack time over the next few days. I'm headed to my rack as soon as I have breakfast." Looking towards MacDonald, he said, "You Marines had it easy."

"Easy?"she said. "While you guys were running battle simulations on the bridge twenty-four hours a day, we were learning everything about the new MAT-14, breaking in two new platoons just out of Basic, and repeatedly practicing assault tactics in an empty hangar bay. In our free time, we worked on the new practice range. There wasn't a single day I didn't have to drag my bones to the sack each night."

"I thought you couldn't start work on the new range until the space trials were over," Sydnee said.

"That's what I'd been told originally, but the Major gave the go ahead for us to start during the trials. In our spare time, of course. Martin is right. The new range is gonna be kick-ass."

"I can't wait to try it out. As tired as I am right now, I'd go down and run through one round if it was available. I suppose it's best that it's not available today. I really need to get some sleep. At least watches will be easier now that we're away from the congested space lanes around Earth."