The Santana Nexus (Junkyard Dogs Book 3) (9 page)

Chapter 14.

"...When we trace our roots back to Old Earth, there are many traditions that have come down to us from across the centuries. One of these is the use of loyal and tenacious canines to guard collections of valuable artifacts. I am proud to say that this tradition is nowhere more alive and well than in our own little system. The references are simply too numerous to ignore; the resurrected
Terrier
, the
Rover I
, the
Rover II
, the
Greyhound
, the staff from Doebermann's. History will long remember the story of how the brave guardians of our famous Scrapyard came together with our own station security staff and other...concerned citizens... in our hour of need. In honor of all the tenacious canines gathered here to my right, I raise my glass. Ladies and Gentlemen: To the meanest Junkyard Dogs in the Galaxy!"

Hartwell Wristcomp reference note highlighted for further review by Amanda Steuben. Excerpt is from a speech delivered by New Ceylon Orbital Station Governor Charles "Chip" Larkin during the festivities associated with the signing of the Meridian-New Ceylon trade agreement.

UTFN Reclamation Center, onboard Federation Auxiliary ship
Greyhound
, January 2, 2599.

An emergency meeting to
brainstorm some kind of plan for the defense of the Scrapyard against this new threat was convened within an hour after the prisoner interrogations were concluded. All of the Scrapyard Command Staff were gathered in the front hold of the
Greyhound
, including Kresge, Harris, Carlisle, Murdock, Hawkins, Admiral Kingston, Lieutenant Nesbitt, Ensign Sukamoto and the two destroyer captains who had just arrived in the system, Bishara and Helmsford. The two mining ship Captains, O'Connell and Patrick and the Federation's civilian weapons technician, Caleb Jordan, were also present. The Ambassador and several of the
Istanbul's
command staff were linked in via a viewscreen in the front of the hold.

Kresge
called for order and when everyone had settled down, addressed the group. He went straight to the point. "I have some unwelcome news," he began, "We have just been informed that the Sheik of Barsoom is planning another attack on this system sometime during the next two or three days." His look was grim. "We are to expect a force consisting of up to ten destroyers and perhaps a Jasmine Republican Navy heavy cruiser to boot." He looked around the room. "Any ideas on how to best meet this threat? I know we can still run, if we have to, but I don't know for sure where we'd go and I really don't like the thought of simply handing over all the hardware contained in this Scrapyard to the Sheik of Barsoom and his 'glorious revolution.'"

"
How about we do the same thing you did this last time?" suggested Kingston, "Charge up some of the cruiser weapons and hide our ships in the Scrapyard? Only this time it looks like we'd better charge up a lot more of them!"

"I have considered that as a possibility,
and I think we will get started on that plan as soon as this meeting is adjourned." said Kresge, "In the meantime, I'm open to any other suggestions. Has anybody got an alternate plan or additional suggestions to ramp up the old one?"

"What we did last time worked, Commander," said O'Connell, "but maybe
you could make better use of our mining ships. Those mining lasers are pretty powerful, especially at close range. In the alley fight this next battle is likely to be, maybe me and Neil could do more."

"My thanks, Captain
O'Connell, you can be sure I'll factor that in as well."

"Could we wait until they
come into the Scrapyard and ram them with something?" someone suggested.

"Not a bad idea,"
another voice countered, "but what are you going to use to get your ram moving?"

Several o
ther less and less feasible suggestions followed. Over the next ten seconds, the room became abuzz with multiple conversations.

Carlisle
, who had been in intense concentration all the way through the discussion, finished consulting something on her wrist computer and tentatively raised her hand.

"
Order please," said Kresge, loudly enough that all could hear him.

The room quieted down.

"Ensign Carlisle?"

Carlisle came to her feet.

"Maximum impact...long range...I might have an idea, Commander."

"And that is
...?"

"We
've added a few ships to our defensive capability and we can surely find more cruiser weapons to charge up. With some luck, we might be able to fight off another attack...I see some problems, however."

From the other side of the room, Kingston frowned
at Carlisle's comments.

"How so?"
asked Kresge.

"W
e caught the enemy totally by surprise with those tactics last time. This time they'll not only know what to expect but they'll be bringing considerably more firepower. That cruiser is especially formidable, though how well they could fight with something that big inside the scrap cloud would remain to be seen." She gave Kresge a tortured look. "We need to win this fight, Commander! With the Quadrant cut off from Earth and the Nexus in the hands of the Sheik, we are once again effectively
the
Federation Authority for the entire Quadrant."

The room remained still for a long moment as that realization hung in the air and began to sink into the consciousness of all present.

Kresge nodded in understanding before he broke the silence. "So what are you proposing, Ensign?"

"I suggest that we come up with a
much more aggressive defense strategy, one that would not only meet this threat but could also provide long term protection for the Scrapyard."

"
That would sure as hell be nice," replied Kresge, "if we could pull it off! Continue, Ensign, you have my attention..."

"Charging up the weapons on those cruisers was an excellent idea,
and it worked as well as we could have expected it to, but we were only barely able to fight off that last attack. I say we go for something they will not expect."

"And that is?"

"How many personnel does it take to operate the power plant on a battleship?"

There soft buzz of
several individual conversations swelled up slightly as the personnel in the considered the suggestion. Kingston looked at the Ensign in open-mouthed wonder.

"Once you get it started and stabilized?"
asked Harris, who was the first to react, but then he probably had the most experience of any of them in dealing with Carlisle's unorthodox thought processes.

"Of course."

"I can't believe it would take more than ten people, maybe eight if they were experienced."

"How many personnel to operate one of the main battery turrets?"

"That I don't know," said Harris. "Caleb?"

"
Usually it takes at least eight to ten people," said Jordan. "You could get by with less, I'd say three or four would be the bare minimum and your rate of fire would be pretty slow. Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting, Ensign?"

"I was thinking that we could power up one of the battleships and use it to defend the Scrapyard.
I'm not saying that we actually try to operate the ship, mind you, we'd just need to position it someplace where it could cover any threat coming in from the Whitney jump zone. We'd only have to run one of the power plants to operate the systems we'd need like the main batteries, life support and shields but we'd only need to power up and pressurize a portion of the ship."

"
Something like we did with the
Terrier
, right?" asked Harris.

"Exactly, Lieutenant
, we pressurize and heat up only the necessary compartments."

"I think I see what you're going for,
" said Kresge. "There isn't any ship type in this entire quadrant that has the range and power of a battleship. We could pick off bad guys at more than twice the range that they'd need to be within to do any harm to us at all, even if they brought that heavy cruiser."

"What about miss
iles?" interjected Kingston, demonstrating that she wasn't completely ignorant of modern Naval warfare, "Those destroyers and the cruiser will almost certainly have missiles,"

"
That's a good point Admiral," said Kresge, "but if this plan worked, they'd have to be firing them from a long ways away. We should have plenty of time to react to any kind of long range missile attack. We have three destroyers of our own. Granted, the
Perseus
doesn't have her front main battery but all of our destroyers have operational point defenses. Besides, with all of the potential targets in the Scrapyard, a missile would have a hard time getting a lock on anything important. With the destroyers providing point defense and the battleship holding the enemy at extreme distance, they would never get near us. If we had battleship firepower protecting the Scrapyard, they'd think twice about ever attacking us again."

"There is one major problem though..." said Kresge.

"And that is...?" asked Kingston.

"Where in the hell am I gonna find twenty men to spare to run the power plant and the main batteries on a battleship?"

"I'm thinking we could maybe put Lieutenant Harris in charge of the power plant detail," said Carlisle.

"There's also Steuben, he worked electrical systems on the New Ceylon Station
," said Harris

"Don't forget we also have
the crew of the
Larkspur
," suggested Captain Helmsford.

"On the weapons end, we've got
Caleb," added Harris, "He was a weapons tech in the Federation Navy and he worked on the big guns."

"Oh, I'
d be counting on him," said Kresge.

"There is also the crew of the
Xerxes
, she isn't in any condition to fight or even operate without some major repairs," added Kingston, getting into the spirit.

"I wonder if we could get a few people from the
Xerxes
and combine them with some of our own and carry through with this plan?" said Kresge.

The Ambassador spoke up from the viewscreen,
"That last attack was a near thing," he said, "With more ships probably on the way, I agree with that we'd better be doing something more aggressive! I rather like Dr. Carlisle's suggestion."

Kresge made a decision,
"I propose a multi-part plan. We go ahead and make preparations to defend the Scrapyard as we did before, with charged cruiser weapons and ships hidden as well as we can hide them but we also need to check into the feasibility of this new option. Harris and Carlisle, you are in charge of checking this plan out with the intention of implementing it. Remember, we only have a couple of days to get ready."

"
We'll get started immediately!" said Harris.

Another voice came from the viewscreen,
"Do you have any objections to having me go with you?" asked Rahgib, the head engineer for the
Istanbul
, "Before my assignment to the
Istanbul
, I was on a crew that ran the main power plant for the Meridian Orbital Station. It was a very large power plant, much like the ones that power battleships."

"I certainly don't," replied Harris.
"Excellency? Do you mind if we borrow your head engineer for a while?"

"Take him with my blessing," replied the Ambassador.
"We'll get the rest of the crew back to work charging up gun emplacements. If you and your team are successful, perhaps we won't need them."

After Kresge handed out some other assignments, t
he meeting broke up with everyone dispersing, intent on getting their assignment done in the little time they had remaining. Admiral Kingston, left behind in the hold, shook her head in wonder at what she had just witnessed. These people, these "Junkyard Dogs" as they called themselves, were...simply put, nothing short of amazing! They had just been presented with what looked like an insurmountable problem but they had somehow shrugged it off and then teamed up to tackle it head on, brainstorming their way through the major issues to come up with what was an outrageous plan but one that just might work! She actually began to believe that they had a chance of survival.

It had not escaped her attention that it had been
Admiral Loftgren's misfit Spacer historian who had come up with the defense plan.

That one
would bear keeping an eye on!

Chapter
15.

Santana Nexus Station January 3, 2599.

The Sheik of Barsoom was addressing his ship captains as
the Revolutionists made their final preparations for the attack on the Federation's thrice-cursed Scrapyard. The Sheik could see Captain Kassab of the cruiser
Hercules
scowling at him from the back of the room

"We will be sending eight destroyers and five transports. The attacking forces will be led by...Captain Shaloub."

The Sheik
had known that this announcement would not be approved by all present. As expected, Captain Kassab of the
Hercules
came immediately to his feet.

"Captain, Kassab?" said the Sheik, "You have something to add?"

"You are not sending the
Hercules
? This is unbelievable! You leave your most powerful ship here, moldering away at guard duty?"

"Easy, Kassab," responded the Sheik,
who could be very diplomatic when it suited him to be so, "With all due respect, you have not been to this accursed Scrapyard; I have. The sheer number of wrecks and their density will render a large ship like the
Hercules
far less useful than you think."

"But, as the highest ranking officer here, I should be leading this attack, not Shaloub!"

"All in good time Captain Kassab," replied the Sheik, still using his most soothing tone, "You must not labor under the impression that your apparent inaction is in vain. We need your ship to power that special module. Indeed, it is your ship that is keeping the dogs of the Federation from interfering with our takeover of the Jasmine government!"

"I think you're making a mistake, but so be it," said Kassab.
Be at ease, Kassab
, he told himself,
You've made your point
.
Allow the old fool to fail at this,
it will only strengthen your legitimacy for the leadership role when the time comes
.

The Sheik finished
outlining his plans and proceeded on to make ship assignments. Kassab remained in the room but was only half paying attention.

He continued to plot his
eventual move against the Sheik.