The Veritian Derelict (Junkyard Dogs) (24 page)

Harris tapped
several commands on the console in front of him. "Main...Utilities...Okay, got it," he replied.

"Access that
option on the menu and then select 'Perform uncharged diagnostic.' You should get a prompt that asks if you want to continue. After you select 'yes' the diagnostic should run automatically."

The two men followed her directions and
within a minute the computer system in the turret control console began running the automatic program. Harris and Hawkins responded to a few prompts as they appeared, but mostly the program just ran by itself. After about five minutes of various readouts, an announcement appeared on the screen.
Diagnostic completed. All systems nominal. Do you wish to charge capacitors?

Harris selected 'no' and, after looking things over very carefully one more time,
they turned the system back off. Hawkins went out to the
Rover
to cut the power feed to the temporary power cable. He returned a minute or so later and began disconnecting the cable.

"Everything look
s good so far," said Harris. "I guess we won't be able to learn much more until we get the weapon hooked up to a real power source."

"Aye, Lieutenant,
" said Hawkins, still working inside the console, "that be true but I think we'd best be lookin' at how we go about removin' this unit while we're still here."

"
That was going to be my next suggestion," said Harris.

Hawkins returned to the sled and, with his two companions guiding the now loose end of the cable, reeled it back onto the spool.

All three of them returned to the gun emplacement control room.

The
section of the turret containing the capacitors and the control section just above it, the one that the group was currently occupying, were both contained within the hull of the ship. An oval-shaped skirt, itself almost a meter wide, surrounded the external, rotating portion of the turret and sealed it to the hull. The skirt, welded to the hull, also provided an airtight seal against the moving portion of the emplacement. They would have to take careful measurements, but it appeared that an oval opening about four meters by six would be required to mount the emplacement on the
Greyhound
. Further inspection revealed that the internal portions of the turret were welded to robust mounting brackets that were themselves welded to the floor of the outer deck and to a bulkhead that ran just behind the mounting point. The installation was going to require a space within the hull of the old freighter that was not only deep enough to accommodate the emplacement but would have the necessary strength to withstand the additional stresses imparted to the ship. Removal would be something of a project, but not beyond the capabilities of the Scrapyard personnel or the current suite of equipment they had at their disposal.

"This doesn't look too bad," said Harris.

"Aye, Lieutenant, nay too bad at all," replied Hawkins. "The external skirt be the biggest challenge. Once we be gettin' that taken care of we just be needin' to cut the bottom and the bulkhead brackets to be gettin' the whole thing loose. Then we just be needin' to weld it all in to the
Greyhound
. Might need to fabricate a bracket or two and add some extra bracin' here and there though."

"That's what I was thinking too, Hawk," replied Harris.

"I've got video," said Carlisle, "and precise dimensions on these schematics i my wrist computer. We should get back and show this to Kresge and Murdock."

"
Agreed," said Harris. "If we're going to do this, the sooner we get started the better.

The trio
returned to the
Rover II
and headed back to the
Greyhound
to report on their progress. On the way back to the
Greyhound
, Carlisle was surprised to discover that much of the day had passed while they had been on their inspection tour.

***

Kresge was favorably impressed when he heard the report on the condition of the weapon and the feasibility of transplanting it onto the
Greyhound
but he and Murdock discussed the project with Harris, Hawkins and Carlisle for a good solid hour before Kresge and Murdock gave them the go ahead.

"Take as many people as you
want and anything else you think you might need," said Kresge. "This is now our number one priority. If this works out, we need to figure out if anything can be done with the
Istanbul
as well."

"Old weapons...engineering challenge...Ah, Do you think we could
ask Frank Talbot to help out again, Commander?" asked Carlisle. "He has more experience with these old weapons than any of us."

"
You must have read my mind," said Kresge, "I was just about to suggest that we get Frank involved again. Anything to move this project along!."

Harris
had a crew picked out and briefed before everyone retired for the evening.

Chapter
33.

Greyhound
, UTFN Reclamation Center, December 9, 2598
.

The first thing
the following morning Harris, Carlisle, Hawkins, Talbot, Steuben and several other workers began the weapon transplant. With Murdock in tow, they surveyed the
Greyhound
, looking for a suitable place to mount the weapons system. After looking the old ship over carefully and frequently consulting with the schematics on Carlisle's wrist computer, they decided to mount the weapon on the top surface of the ship, to the bow side of the bulkhead just in front of the compartment containing the ship's power plant. The short distance from the power source would simplify the routing of the necessary power cables and the location they picked had the additional advantage of being one of the sturdiest points in the ship's construction. Using Carlisle's wrist computer schematics again, they made an excursion to the outside of the ship to precisely mark the position where they would need to cut a rather large, oval opening in the
Greyhound
's outer hull. The dimensions and the location of the compartment within the
Greyhound
that would house the emplacement meant that no further cutting would be needed nor would any additional material need to be removed from the freighter.

Just as they had done when they were working on the power plant and drive replacement, t
he workers split into two crews, one to go about the business of removing the gun emplacement from the battlecruiser and another to perform the modifications to the
Greyhound
to get her ready to receive the transplant. Harris took over the team removing the gun system while Hawkins supervised the group making modifications to the
Greyhound
. Talbot, who had joined them that morning, stayed with the crew working on the
Greyhound
. Carlisle moved between both groups, providing assistance as needed piloting the
Rover II
as well as providing structural and other technical information about the two ships from her wrist computer.

By the end of the first day, Harris and his group had the gun emplacement ready for removal and Hawkins' group
, after careful measurements, had removed the oval chunk of hull material and were ready to begin the other modifications to the
Greyhound
necessary to mount the guns. Because depressurization of some areas of the freighter was temporarily unavoidable while the modifications were taking place, the repair group had sealed off several compartments in the old cargo ship. They decided to wait before cutting the ten centimeter hole through the engine room bulkhead for routing in the power cable until they actually had the turret mounted and the area repressurized to avoid having to depressurize the engine room as well.

The group had
also carefully considered how to handle the two large brackets that they'd had to fabricate to solidify the mounting of the gun. The brackets, too large to fit through the corridors and hatches inside the
Greyhound,
were placed in the compartment on the
Greyhound
where the gun emplacement was to be mounted through the new, oval opening in the ship's hull leaving them in position to be fitted during the final stages of the installation.

Finally
, both teams were ready to begin the transplant.

With
Carlisle piloting the
Rover II
and Hawkins operating the magnetic grappling system, they almost gently disengaged the gun emplacement from the battlecruiser. By simply attaching the magnetic grappler and three guide cables, they were able to lift the entire assembly straight up and out. Harris used the
Rover I
to provide counterforce to the wreck to keep it from shifting in response to the forces being applied to the emplacement. The final act of the operation was to disconnect the main power cable. Having been designed as a module that could be easily replaced, the main power cable was equipped with a standard male-female connector. Instead of disconnecting the emplacement at the connector joint, the group left both the turret and the shipboard connectors intact. They severed the main power cable about four meters upstream from the shipboard connector, leaving them a comfortable length of free cable to work with. They would need to integrate the shipboard connector with the systems on the
Greyhound
. If something went really, really wrong, they could decouple the connector as a last resort.

With the emplacement successfully removed, they transported
it through the Scrapyard and over to the
Greyhound
where they carefully positioned it over the new opening in her hull. In addition to the power cable for the capacitors, it was necessary to connect several other power lines and systems, for lighting and ventilation, to the emplacement from within the
Greyhound
before attaching cables to winch the gun into its new home.

Unfortunately, the curvature of the
Greyhound's
hull and that of the gun emplacement's skirt were not a perfect match. Two sizeable crescents of hull material had to be welded to the hull about a meter distant from both the port and starboard sides of the new opening to bridge the gap between the flatter contour of the skirt relative to the more rounded curvature of the
Greyhound'
s hull. The oval section of hull material, removed to receive the gun emplacement, provided the necessary material. Since the each of compensator crescents had to be assembled from three smaller pieces welded together to mate the unmatched contours of the emplacement skirt with the ship's hull while also accommodating the oval shape of the turret, this single aspect of the several fabrications necessary for the installation had been by far the most challenging.

Finally,
Hawkins ran a ten-centimeter wide bead of sealant on the outside of the
Greyhound's
hull around the oval opening and over the two compensator crescents. With great care, the crew used the
Rover II
to gently position the turret over the opening. Employing cables and winches to make the final alignments, they slowly began winching the gun assembly into place. The job was accomplished in stages with a crew inside the ship taking over the alignment and winching duties as more and more of the emplacement disappeared into the cargo ship. The skirt around the base of the armored turret overlapped the opening by about a meter but was more or less flush with the compensator crescents, just as had been intended. Finally the skirt settled over the bead of sealant and was winched down tightly.

B
y the end of the second day, they had the gun roughly in place and tacked on to the front of engine compartment bulkhead. They would finalize the sealing of the hull and the other internal construction the next day.

Chapter
34
.

Catskill-Soroyan system hyperlink jump zone, onboard the renegade destroyer
Minotaur.
December 10, 2598.

"This is Strike Leader Sarkis of the
Minotaur
calling Lieutenant Touma. Strike Leader Sarkis calling Lieutenant Touma..."

The Strike Leader repeated himself several more times before he finally received an answer.

"
Strike Leader? This is Corporal Tahan. Lieutenant Touma is not here at this time. He was on a mission with several of our number when we were attacked. We presume that he and Sergeant Boutros have been captured.
"

"Attacked? Captured? By whom?"

"
We believe it was Station Security, Strike Leader.
"

"Station Security?"

"
Yes, the Sergeant and the Lieutenant were in their battle armor standing guard while Private Cham and I were cutting through hatch doors on our way deeper into the station. The Lieutenant and the Sergeant went through the hatch door we had just cut open and they were attacked by a huge force.
"

"A huge force?"

"
Yes, Sir, from the number of pulse beams flying around, there must have been at least thirty of them.
"

"Did you see what happened?"

"
No Sir, Cham and I only had our pulse pistols. Our orders were to retreat if there was any trouble.
"

"How many of you are left?

"
Counting myself and Private Cham, there are a total of fifteen of us, Sir.
"

"Are you in any immediate danger?"

"
I...I can't be sure, Strike Leader. These defenders are always doing something unexpected.
"

"See if you can hold on for a while longer, Tahan. We'll be on our way in from the jump point as soon as we can. We'll see who has the upper hand then. Sarkis out."

***

"Deputy Hartmann? I just intercepted a ship to station signal. It was encoded though. I wonder if the reinforcements the Sheik promised us have arrived."

"The timing is about right. Let's get everyone rounded up and head down into the rock. With any luck, they'll come after us. Wouldn't that be entertaining?"

"I can't wait, Deputy Hartmann."

***

Greyhound
, UTFN Reclamation Center,
December 10, 2598.

After a night's rest, work resumed. Hawkins was just finishing up the final stages of welding the skirt to the hull of the
Greyhound
and other workers were finalizing some of the necessary internal modifications, when Kresge was notified by the
Istanbul
that they had received an urgent message on their stage II transceiver.

"
Harris?
" The inquiry from Kresge came over Harris' suit radio.

"Yes, Commander, what is it?" replied the
Lieutenant.

"
I need you to come to the bridge of the
Greyhound
as soon as you can. Something's come up.
"

The welder that Hawkins was using was mounted on the
Rover I
and Harris had been monitoring the power outputs of the welder and keeping track of the cables while the older man did the actual welding. Since Hawkins had only another meter or so left to weld, Harris decided that the final stages of the process could get along fine without him. He called Hawkins on his suit radio to let him know what was going on.

"Hawk?"

"What be it, Sir?"

"Something's up. Kresge
says he needs to talk to me inside. Can you finish up out here without me?"

"Aye, Lieutenant, it should nay be a problem."

Harris contacted Kresge as he left the utility sled.

"
On my way, Commander. I should be there in five minutes or so."

Harris
headed for the main airlock of the
Greyhound
and cycled through. Assuming he would be returning to work immediately after the meeting, he left his spacesuit on, removing only the helmet, and proceeded as quickly as possible to the bridge area of the cargo ship. Kresge, Helen Murdock and Sergeant Kelly were already in conference. Ambassador Saladin had joined them remotely and was displayed on the
Greyhound's
main viewscreen.

A
ll of them looked worried.

"Harris reporting as requested, Sir."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," said Kresge. The commander ran his hand through his hair and took a deep breath before plunging in. "We just got a distress call from the Governor of Nazareth on Heard's World. Take a look at this recording, and tell me what you think of it."

Kresge played back a recording of the communication
while Harris watched. The message was not directly from the Governor himself, it was from the communications platform in orbit around the planet. A Federation gift to the system, identical to several dozen others scattered throughout the Quadrant, the platform carried both stage I and stage II Whitney consoles. The man in the video, a communications tech from the orbital platform, was obviously very agitated and couldn't keep his voice from shaking as he recited the message.

"
Mayday! Mayday! Priority One! I am relaying a message from Governor Bradford of Nazareth on Heard's World. Terrorists came to his village yesterday and kidnapped Caleb and Hanna Jordan. He is convinced that the terrorists took Caleb because they needed him to help remove more weapons from the Succession War cruiser on the moon out here. The Governor requests any assistance you might be able to give. We can confirm that the terrorists have two ships and that they went to the village in a standard shuttlecraft. The Governor warns that these invaders are armed and dangerous. The terrorists claim that they are part of an Islamic revolution being led by someone called the Sheik of Barsoom. Since there are no defenses of any kind in our system, standard procedures dictate that the six of us here on the communications platform must evacuate back down to the planet. Repeat, we are boarding the escape shuttle and abandoning this communications platform."

The message ended
. Kresge turned to back to Harris.

"
We have not been able to establish any further communications. We don't know if the communications platform was attacked or simply abandoned. Here's my thought: it's only a single jump from Catskill-Saroyan to Heard's World. What do you want to bet that the rumors we've been hearing are true and those people want to restore the main batteries of that stolen Tunisian Destroyer, Lieutenant?" asked Kresge. ""

"
That seems like a pretty high probability," replied Harris.

"What do you think
we should do?"

"More armed
terrorists loose in the quadrant? This time with a real warship? It can't be good, Sir."

"I agree, Lieutenant," said Kresge. He thought for a moment. "
I don't know whether this situation constitutes a 'Priority One' emergency or not but that's the designation they gave it. We are obligated to respond if we can. We have also been ordered by Admiral Kingston to gather information on this Sheik of Barsoom person. How soon can we have the
Greyhound
ready to depart for the jump point? Heard's World is also only a single macrojump from New Ceylon. I don't know if we can do much of anything but at the very least, we need to know what's going on in that system."

Harris did some quick mental arithmetic and replied cautiously, "I think we could have everything properly sealed up and the compartments repressurized in an hour and half, two hours at the most. The guns will not be operational though."

"You'll have to work on them while you're in transit," said Kresge. "In the meantime, we aren't totally without any offensive capability. Sergeant Kelly, tell Harris what you've got."

Kelly cleared his throat. "
We've got six sets of the latest battle armor and a couple of portable assault pulse cannons. We've also got another five sets of the older battle armor that your forces captured during the terrorist occupation of the Orbital Station. We can put one of the assault cannons in the front cargo bay, if we need to. I'll leave half of my men here with the other cannon, just so the people here aren't totally without protection. It ain't the best situation but it'll put us in decent shape unless we come up against some pretty serious hardware. If you can get that new gun emplacement to work..."

"Then we'd be a match for anything short of a real military vessel," finished Harris.
He turned to Kresge. "If you are asking for an opinion, Sir, then I think we'd better do anything we can to stop these people from getting their hands on really effective weapons. We have enough problems out here in the remote corners of the quadrant as it is."

"I agree fully, Lieutenant," said Kresge.
He paused for a moment, not exactly sure how to proceed with the next phase of the plan. His look became grave. "As Commander of this Federation outpost, Lieutenant, my duty is clear. I have to stay here. Captain Murdock will remain in command of the
Greyhound
, but you're going to have to assume overall command of this mission." Harris looked at him and slowly nodded his head. Kresge continued, "I don't know if the Jordans are still alive or not. I suspect that they'll be needed and therefore alive at least until those weapons are restored. That means we probably don't have much time. We also know next to nothing about this Sheik of Barsoom." Kresge paused, "No heroics, Lieutenant. Do not engage any enemy ships unless you absolutely have to."

"
Duly noted sir," said Harris. "I'll go tell the crew to finish with the hull sealing and the bulkhead bracing for the turret. After that, we should be ready to go."

"Make it so, Lieutenant
," said Kresge. "All personnel not essential to this mission will be transferring over to the
Dingo
immediately." He added, "I know you can handle this, Ryan. Besides, I don't see where we have much choice."

"Thank you, Sir. I'll do my best."

"I've every faith in you, Lieutenant."

Harris
, looking somewhat shell shocked, departed to put his helmet back on and supervise the remaining work. Kelly left to organize his marines. Kresge looked at Murdock and the Ambassador and shook his head. The Ambassador nodded gravely back at him from the viewscreen.

"I suppose this means you'll be taking my historian again, doesn't it?" said the Ambassador.

"With your permission, Excellency," replied Kresge. "Oh, and Frank Talbot would be welcome to go along as well if he agrees to it. His expertise with these old engineering systems could be invaluable. I don't much like the thought of sending him into what could prove to be a dangerous situation, though."

"The success of this mission is of vital importance," observed the Ambassador." And, I'm not sure anywhere is particularly safe at the moment
."

"I'm afraid you're absolutely right about that, Excellency.
As I said, I'm not overly excited about it but I'll permit him to go along."

"That may
actually be for the best, Commander, he is a man hated and misunderstood by many people of many religions. He may, indeed, be safer on this mission than he would be remaining here on the
Istanbul
."