The Veritian Derelict (Junkyard Dogs) (23 page)

Chapter
31.

Onboard
Greyhound
, UTFN Reclamation Center, December 7, 2598.

Even though he was totally exhausted,
Oskar Kresge was lying awake in his quarters. Again. Irene lay sleeping peacefully, snuggled up next to him. Having his fiancé unexpectedly become a part of this mission was a great comfort but he still hadn't been sleeping well and he was pretty sure he knew why.

There were just too many
responsibilities and too many unknowns...

He realized that he wasn't the only one who had serious problems and was glad he wasn't the Meridian Ambassador dealing with the unavoidable and
relentless storm of political flak associated with the
Istanbul's
unorthodox escape from the Santana Nexus station. No, he wouldn't have traded places with the Ambassador under any circumstances but he realized that they were extremely fortunate to have access to the Stage II Whitney communications console on board the diplomatic ship.

With the
Istanbul
monitoring Stage II communications from all over the Quadrant, information concerning current events had continued to trickle in and not much of it had been good news. One of developments that disturbed Kresge the most was that during the relatively short time that was required for his personnel to complete the repairs to the
Greyhound
, several more reports had come in of remote outposts coming under attack. Two were known to have been forced to surrender while the fate of two others remained unknown because their long-range communications gear had fallen silent after each of the facilities had issued a distress call.

If
Kresge feared the worst, who could blame him?

Was the New Ceylon system next on the list?

What would they do if they were attacked?

He continued to cycle
through the ever growing list of complications in his mind. The identity and the strength of the hostile forces in this portion of the Quadrant remained unknown so, naturally, speculation as to who the enemy was ran rampant. The more he thought about the ramifications of all the hostile activity, the more apparent it became that something had to be done about the defense of the New Ceylon system.

He
had given the crew and residents of the
Greyhound
a day and a night to get settled back in and to rest up from their exertions. He made up his mind. First thing the following morning he would call a meeting in the front hold of the
Greyhound
to spell out some of his concerns and see if he and his personnel could come up with some solutions.

Having come up with a plan of action, even a pla
n to start making a plan, he relaxed enough that sleep claimed him a few minutes later.

***

Onboard
Greyhound
, UTFN Reclamation Center, December 8, 2598.

There were nearly
twenty personnel gathered in the front hold of the
Greyhound
in response to Kresge's call for an early morning meeting. After giving everyone a chance to get a cup of coffee and one of the excellent pastries available, if they were so inclined, the Commander began the planning session.

"
Excellent job on the engine and powerplant transplant, everyone," he began. "Thanks to you, the
Greyhound
can now run if she has to." He paused for a moment before continuing. "However, it's no secret that things haven't gone well for the Federation during the first few weeks of this new war or whatever it is we find ourselves in. We can run, that's a good start, but it's only a start. Now we need to be able to fight. As Dr. Carlisle suggested a few days ago, we need to discuss our options on how to go about arming the
Greyhound.
" Again, he paused for a moment and added, "If that goes well, we'll have to consider doing something similar with the
Istanbul
and possibly even the
Dingo
. There's no telling what kind of trouble we might run into in the next few months."

"
I take it you're suggesting that we mount a beam weapon on the
Greyhound
, like the Veritian Brotherhood did with the two ships that they attacked us with, Sir?" asked Harris.

"Essentially, yes," replied Kresge. "
But I'll bet we can do a better job of it with this group of personnel and the inventory we have at our disposal out here in the Scrapyard."

"
There should be plenty of weapons for us to choose from," said Harris. "There are literally dozens of light cruisers out here and some of their weapons would almost have to be functional."

Carlisle
spoke without looking up from a wrist computer display that was spinning slowly in the air in front of her. "...light duty...rapid fire...um...That's maybe the way to go for the
Istanbul
" she said, "but I'm wondering if we want to try going in a totally different direction for the
Greyhound.
I think we should be looking at battlecruiser or heavy cruiser armament."

Harris and Kresge
looked at each other before turning back to her. Kresge suppressed a smile. "What have you got in mind, Dr. Carlisle?" he asked. "Our new power plant is a lot more powerful than the ones that powered the beam weapons on those two raiders, but there's no way you could power up the main battery of a battlecruiser with it."

"I know,
Commander," replied Carlisle, finally looking up from her wrist computer display. "I'm thinking about some of the lighter-duty, secondary armaments. I've been doing some research and I found that the Scrapyard inventory includes two of the very last battlecruisers built before the Succession War ended. As you know, the pace of weapons development went very rapidly during that period."

"
Okay, Dr. Carlisle, I'll bite. What did you have in mind?" asked Kresge.

"Well
...the
Rigel
battlecruisers and the
Houston
Class heavy cruisers were equipped with the ultra-efficient, for the time, Bofors Mark XI rapid fire pulse beam system. Here...," at this point she enlarged the holo she had been studying so the entire group could see it, "...have a look at this display of the
Bismarck
."

She pointed to
a gun emplacement on the bow and rotated the image to show a similar one on the stern of the ship.

"T
he Bofors units are these small, flat turrets near the bow and stern of the ship. As you can see, they were twin mounts and while they weren't quite as powerful as the main battery of a light cruiser, they could fire those twin beams at more than fifty pulses per second. I haven't done more than rough calculations, but even with this powerplant, we could probably fire these beams at a rate of four or five pulses a minute, maybe even a little faster, if we alternate from one side to the other."

There was a silence while everyone absorbed the information.

"Huge power and a slow rate of fire, or about a fourth of the power but maybe ten pulses a minute?" asked Kresge.

"Th
ose would seem to be our choices, Sir," answered Carlisle.

"Who are we trying
to fool?" observed Murdock. "We don't have a prayer against a real warship no matter what we do to this old girl. We won't need the main battery from a heavy cruiser to do what we need to do. To me, that rapid fire system looks like the way to go. With halfway decent shielding and that beam system, we'd be a lot meaner than most anything we're likely to face. We might even have a chance against a destroyer, if it wasn't the latest design."

"I have to agree, Helen," said Kresge. "How
would we go about mounting the weapon."

"
We'll have to get the specifications and see just how big the emplacements are," said Harris, "but I think Dr. Carlisle may be on to something. I remember studying those units in weapons class. They were impressive! The Bofors people had learned a lot about beam weapons design by the time they got around to making them."

"How so?" asked Kresge.

"It's not just the efficiency and the rate of fire that made them different," Harris replied. "The weapon was a modular design with the capacitor system and the beam projectors together in one very compact unit. If the system got damaged in battle, you just swapped out the entire emplacement. You'd disconnect the power and fire control cables and pull the whole assembly out before slipping in a new one. Like most Naval weapons systems, there were also provisions for fighting the beam weapons locally, without central fire control. Each turret had its own periscope and manual control systems, just like the railgun turrets on the
Terrier
."

"I'll bet Hawk could operate it," said
Carlisle.

"I be willin' to try," replied Hawkins.

"I'm starting to like this plan better by the minute," said Kresge. "Get a team together and head out to those battlecruisers, check out those gun emplacements and get back to me with a report on the feasibility of this plan as soon as you can. Dismissed!"

Chapter
32.

"...
Bofors Mark XI light duty pulse cannon system.

Th
e versatile Bofors Mark XI light duty twin-mount rapid fire pulse cannon system was deployed during the final year of the War of Succession and was mounted on several of the
Houston
class heavy cruisers and on the
Rigel
class battlecruisers. Developed as a light duty weapon to supplement the much heavier main batteries of the two classes of warship, the Federation Navy had issued specifications for a weapon that could be used effectively on "softer" targets, such as merchantmen, older destroyers and smaller hostile craft such as gunboats. When not engaged in fleet action, these warship types, especially the heavy cruisers, were often used for patrol and police duty and thus required a weapon that could deal enough damage to stop or deter these smaller, less formidible types of ship but could be wielded in such a way as to not destroy such ships completely...

...
The Bofors pulse cannons were one of the first types developed wherein the power level of the individual pulses could be regulated. Because of this feature, the guns could be used with nearly surgical precision by an experienced crew. The two guns could also be independently configured to fire rapidly or more slowly with the ability to fire single pulses if the situation demanded it. Depending on the power level of the individual pulses, a fully charged capacitor bank could fire up to four individual pulses before the bank required recharging. When constantly being recharged by a powerful powerplant, the dual-beam emplacement system could sustain the remarkable rate of fire of fifty pulses per second. Even at the lowest power level, this intense rate of fire could only be sustained for a few minutes before excessive heat buildup would force the integrated safety systems to shut the weapons down, however...

...
The external swivel assembly which contained the pulse projectors and the internal, stationary portion of the turret, which contained the capacitors and the machinery to turn the emplacement as well as an integrated control room, were manufactured as a unit, enabling the rapid replacement of a damaged assembly with a new or refurbished unit. The projectors and the turret itself could also be aimed and fired manually from within the turret in the event that battle damage disabled central fire control...

...
These sturdy units saw service for more than thirty years until they were gradually superseded by the superb Vickers-Spandau single mount cannon which delivered nearly the same amount of firepower in an even less massive package and did so more cheaply while consuming considerably less power. Nonetheless, the Bofors units continued to be manufactured for almost a decade after the appearance of the V-S units and were gradually phased out against the resistance of a number of the more conservative Federation Naval authorities. The argument in favor of the older design was the extra security attributed to the Bofors unit being a twin as opposed to a single mount weapon..."

Hartwell Wrist Comp reference note highlighted for further review by Tamara Carlisle. Excerpt is fro
m
"
A Brief History of Naval Pulse Beam Weapons (Illustrated). By Nelson Barber.

UTFN Reclamation Center, Onboard
Reclamation Rover I
, December 8, 2598.

It was mid-morning before
Harris' salvage team completed all of their preparations and finally set out into the Scrapyard to investigate the Bofors rapid fire weapons systems. The huge old hulk of their destination, the battlecruiser
UTFN
Bismarck
, grew steadily in size as they approached it nearly head on. As they got closer to the wreck it became apparent that the rapid fire emplacement that was supposed to be on the bow portion of this particular ship no longer existed. In its place was a torn and jagged crater, clear evidence that the emplacement had been subjected to a very powerful pulse beam or missile impact. They continued their inspection, heading aft along the starboard side of the ship. As they came around the contour of the wreck and the aft portion of the ship came onto view, they were relieved to see that the flat, compact, twin-beam turret mounted on the stern appeared to be undamaged.

"
Hang on, everybody," said Harris, from the pilot seat of the
Rover I
, "I'm going to dock us right next to the turret."

As Harris skillfully brought the utility sled into contact with the old battlecruiser,
Carlisle and Hawkins lashed the two ends of the sled to the side of the enormous wreck using a couple of the ubiquitous cleats that studded the hull. The group found themselves only about twenty meters away from the turret they had come to inspect.

As before when the group was inspecting
the cargo ships and the
Terrier
, there was no artificial gravity on the wreck. Taking great care, and making sure that each of them was always connected to the wreck with at least one tether, they glided their way over to the gun emplacement. Up close, at approximately six by four meters, the turret was somewhat larger than any of them had imagined even though it was absolutely dwarfed by the nasty snouts of the old warship's aft main batteries that loomed threateningly overhead.

Like most of the warships in the Scrapyard, the
ancient battlecruiser was holed in many places and the salvagers had no difficultly gaining entrance to the hulk through one of the many non-standard openings. With great care to avoid any floating debris or jagged edges, they made their way through several compartments, using their suit lights and frequent referrals to Carlisle's schematics, until they came to the curved wall of the Bofors turret. Hawkins worked the wheel on the hatch that opened into the emplacement and the trio sent Carlisle inside, in her special suit, to perform a preliminary inspection.

"It looks
pretty damned good in here," she said, over her suit radio. "At least there isn't any apparent damage. It'll be a little cramped but it looks like there's room for all of us. Come on in." 

The two men followed her in and, after a quick inspection,
shared much the same impression. Hawkins shined his suit lights over the controls on an engineering console that was just over two meters in width, about a meter and half tall and about a meter deep. An electrical cable fully twenty centimeters in thickness came out of the back of the console and disappeared into the ceiling. Two swivel chairs, mounted to the floor, were positioned in front of a sloped surface that contained the console's controls and displays.

"Th
ese controls look t' be in good shape too," said Hawkins.

"
According to the schematics, the capacitor systems are below us, down that forward hatch," said Carlisle, as she shined her suit lights on the bow end of the turret control room. A short ladder ended about a meter up the wall. At the base of the ladder was a hatch in the floor.

Further
inspection revealed another short ladder that ran up the back of the control console and led upwards to a centrally-located hatch in the ceiling that presumably opened into the beam projector area of the turret. Power from the capacitors below was routed through this control console on the middle level of the turret. The short, very thick cable then connected the control console to the pulse beam projectors above. The external level of the emplacement, the level containing the two beam projectors, was the only part of the emplacement that pivoted around; the capacitors below and everything in the mid-level control room where the salvagers had entered, remained stationary, mounted solidly to the ship. There was no need to rotate the mass of the entire emplacement when all that was really required to move were the "stingers" or beam projectors themselves. Carlisle, as she had been before when the three of them had been stranded on the
Terrier
, was fascinated by the workings of the gun emplacement. She inspected everything very closely, a half smile on her face the entire time.

Harris braced himself
against the short ladder on the forward wall and worked the wheel on the downward-leading hatch. He swung the hatch door up to open it and locked it in the up position before pulling himself downward through the opening to inspect the capacitor room. He scanned the area with his suit lights and was encouraged when he found that there was no apparent evidence of damage.

Meanwhile, Carlisle
went up the short ladder and negotiated the central hatch, this one in the ceiling, to gain entrance to the projector compartment. What she saw as she swept the area with her suit lights was remarkably similar to the inner workings of the projectile weapons system she was familiar with from her introduction to such weapons on the
Terrier.
The interior of the projector compartment was equipped with a gunner's chair between the two beam projectors and a battle periscope that was very similar to the one on the
Terrier
. There were also the familiar knobbed-wheel cranks for manual port/starboard movement of the turret and for the elevation and depression of the beam projectors. Carlisle, remembering their experience on the
Terrier
, glided over to the gunner's chair, strapped herself down and began to work the manual controls. The turret moved back and forth easily and smoothly and the projectors moved up and down as well, just the way they were supposed to.

"The manual controls seem to be working
just fine," she announced. She reached up and pulled the periscope down to look though the oculars. "The periscope also appears to be undamaged," she announced. "I suppose that being mounted on the stern of the ship means this emplacement didn't suffer much battle damage," she observed.

"I'd say that's
probably about right" replied Harris. "Probably didn't get much use either. Can you check on your wrist computer and find us some information on how to run a diagnostic on this thing? It looks to be in pretty good shape but it doesn't make much sense to try and salvage it if it doesn't work."

"Let me see what I can find
," she replied.

Still
strapped into the gunner's chair, she tapped several strings of commands into her wrist computer using the virtual keyboard, frowned and tapped in several more strings. She continued to concentrate on the display but called out instructions to Hawkins.

"If we go back
into the central level of the turret, we should be able to access all of the turret information through the engineering console we saw on the way in. I'll be down in a minute," she said, unstrapping and heading for the central hatch. When she got back to the middle level, Harris had already returned from below and he and Hawkins were inspecting the control console more closely.

"We
be needin' t' power up this console," said Hawkins. "With your permission, Lieutenant, I'll be headin' back to the sled t' be gettin' a cable rigged up. Good thing we got the
Rover I
goin' again," he added. "It be a lot easier to run power from her than it be from the
Rover II
."

"I'll give you a hand,
Hawk," said Harris.

"
There should be an inspection panel on the back of the console that we can remove to get at the workings," said Carlisle, once again referring to her schematics. "I'll see if I can get it open," she added.

Carlisle
worked the Dzus fasteners on the inspection cover and had the panel removed before the two men returned, trailing a cable from the sled behind them.

"
For now, we just be needin' to get power to the console," said Hawkins. "There's nay enough power to charge up the capacitors even if we wanted to."

"I agree, Hawk," said Harris, "If the diagnostics don't come back clean, there's not much point in going any further."

Hawkins poked his head and shoulders into the console through the inspection portal that Carlisle had exposed and fussed around for perhaps five minutes before requesting that the other two pass the end of the cable to him. He worked for perhaps five more minutes before finally coming out.

"There, that
should be doin' it. I'll be goin' back out to the sled and turnin' on the power. Be hollerin' if you be seeing sparks or smoke or ought like that."

"Will do, Hawk," said Harris.

After a little over three minutes had passed, Hawkins called on his suit radio. "I be turnin' on the power...Now!"

There were no sparks and no smoke from under the console
or anywhere else.

Harris informed him.
"Looks good in here, Hawk."

Hawkins
returned to the turret. He and Harris strapped into the two swivel chairs intended for the console operators and prepared to monitor the diagnostic readouts while Carlisle consulted the information her wrist computer.

"Main power is the big red button right in the middle," she said. "Press and hold down for
five seconds."

Harris did
so and the trio was relieved to see all of the displays on the console flicker for a few seconds before lighting up and settling into a steady glow.

"To run a diagnostic, you'll need to toggle down through the main menu until you get to a section marked 'utilities.
'"