The Veritian Derelict (Junkyard Dogs) (25 page)

Chapter
35.

UTFN Reclamation Center, on board Imperial Diplomatic Ship
Istanbul,
December 10, 2598.

T
he two youngest members of the Scrapyard community, Amanda and Faiza, had not been left totally on their own. Since both of them were still of school age, they were placed on a strict schedule of course work to continue their schooling. Both of them had announced their intentions to pursue a career in the military and Amanda was spending much of her time trying to get up to speed to pass the entrance exams for the Federation Naval Academy. To fulfill the mandatory military enlistment that was an obligation for all Meridians, Faiza would attempt to follow in her father's footsteps as a Naval officer in the Meridian Navy and was hoping to qualify for her government's equivalent institution, the Meridian Imperial Naval Academy. Because both of the young women were very intelligent to begin with and each was also imbued with a strong work ethic, they could be found in their quarters, hard at work, for a good eight hours or more in any given day.

While p
reparations for the departure of the
Greyhound
on the mission to Heard's World were proceeding at a fever pace, the two young women were surprised to receive a summons from Commander Kresge. They left their studies to get suited up for the short utility sled ride from the
Istanbul
to the
Greyhound
.

When they reported to the bridge of the
Greyhound
, they were surprised to find not only Commander Kresge waiting for them, but also Lieutenant Harris and Dr. Carlisle.

"Faiza, Amanda," said Kresge, with
a nod. "Thank you for coming. You both know Dr. Carlisle but I don't think Faiza has met Lieutenant Harris yet."

The two shook hands.

“It’s good to finally meet you, Lieutenant,” said the Ambassador's daughter. "I've heard a lot about you."

"I wonder who you've been talking to?" said Harris, glancing at Carlisle, who blushed slightly.

"I've called all of you here, this moment, for a reason," said Kresge. "By now it's no secret that Lieutenant Harris and Dr. Carlisle are going to Heard's World because we think that the Jordans have been kidnapped and someone, who probably doesn't particularly like us, is trying to arm another ship using parts from the wrecked Veritian Brotherhood cruiser that was stashed in the system."

Kresge
glanced back and forth at the two young women before continuing. "One of the downsides to this plan is that Dr. Carlisle will be taking her wrist computer and all of the information it contains with her. I don't have a particular problem with that; I expect that the crew of the
Greyhound
will have plenty of need for the information. However, I do have a backup plan for all that information and it includes the two of you."

The two young women, both a little perplexed
to begin with, looked at one another before returning their attention to Kresge. He continued, "Since both of you have wrist computers and you know how to use them, I want Dr. Carlisle to download all of the Scrapyard inventory and engineering files on her unit to the two wrist computers that will be remaining behind after she leaves. Faiza, Amanda, put your computers in receive mode."

The two young women did as they were commanded.

"
Receive mode enabled,
" came the muted audible signal from the units carried by each of the young women.

Kresge continued.
"Dr. Carlisle, initiate download of all Military and inventory files on your computer to these two computers. While you're at it, you might as well include the diplomatic information as well." Carlisle started the download. The entire process took less than a minute.

"
Download complete
," announced Carlisle's computer.

"Thank you,
Doctor," said Kresge. Then he turned back to the two young women. "I don't know if I can properly relay to you two how important the information you've just received is to our mission here. Consider this the beginning of your training for Naval Command. Naturally I want the two of you to continue with your regular studies but I want each of you to spend at least two hours a day, for the foreseeable future, going over and becoming familiar with the files you've just received. We are going to need personnel who know what's in those files and how to get at the information. Work together and work alone, compare notes. Do whatever it takes to become as proficient with those tools and that information as Dr. Carlisle is. By the way, from now on, you will both address me as 'Sir' when you are on duty. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir
!" said the two young women in unison.

"Any questions?" asked Kresge.

"What about our parents...ah...Sir?" asked Faiza.

"I checked with both sets of parents
an hour or so ago and everyone approved," said Kresge. "In fact, they thought it was good idea."

The two young women, both somewhat in shock
over the suddenness and the enormity of the responsibility they had just been handed, had no further questions.

"Alright, go and get started on this project. Right now
. Work on getting to know the
Istanbul
and the
Dingo
first." He stopped and looked at them sternly. "I will be quizzing you tomorrow."

The girls said goodbye to Harris and Carlisle before leaving the bridge
and returning to the
Istanbul
. Back in their quarters, they followed Kresge's orders and set to work immediately studying files pertaining to the two operational ship types that would be remaining in the Scrapyard, the converted heavy cruiser that was the
Istanbul
and the Bombardier Mark V Cargomaster that was the
Dingo
.

C
hapter 36.

On board UTFN Auxiliary Ship
Greyhound
, near the Whitney macrojump zone of the Naccobus Star System, December 10, 2598.

A
fter departing the Scrapyard, the
Greyhound
performed two short-duration microjumps to bring her into proximity of the Naccobus System's Whitney Hyperlink zone. Harris, Carlisle, Hawkins, Talbot and the other members of the crew stayed busy carefully monitoring the new drive systems and making occasional refinements to the settings. Work also continued on the transplanted gun emplacement in an effort to get it properly integrated into the old ship's systems.

All were understandably
concerned as the crew programmed the
Greyhound's
first macrojump since she had been outfitted with her new drive systems.

"Check those numbers again," said Murdock, "we don't want to mess this up."

Everyone went through the pre-jump routine yet another time. With all systems go, Murdock nervously gave the order to execute the jump.

"Okay, Helm, jumping in three...two...one...activate!"

There was a brief moment of disorientation as the
Greyhound
phased into hyperspace. The jump lasted just over twenty minutes and the drive, to everyone's relief, operated flawlessly the entire time.

The
Greyhound
flashed into the Whitney jump zone of the Heard's World system a half day of realtime after they had departed from the Scrapyard. The command group on the
Greyhound's
bridge immediately set to work scanning the system as best they could with the equipment on hand. Fortunately, the
Greyhound
had been outfitted with the
Terrier's
military grade sensing equipment, replacing the ancient commercial units that the
Greyhound
had been equipped with. Unfortunately, even this equipment was several generations out of date.

"I've got
three contacts, Lieutenant," said Perry Allen, from the sensor console. "One of them is the orbital platform near the planet where the distress communication came from. The other two appear to be parked right near a small moon that orbits the fifth planet." Allen tapped rapidly at the keyboard on the sensor unit, frowning at the display. "Okay...there is a high probability that one of them is military and the other is…," he frowned again at his display, "…not. I can't quite make out what it is. It doesn't appear to be a merchant either. Whoever they are, they aren't trying to hide themselves." He shook his head. "I'll keep analyzing."

"Caleb Jordan said that
the pulse beams for those two pirate ships came from a badly damaged cruiser that had landed on a small moon," said Harris. "He didn't tell me where the moon was but I'd be willing to bet it's the one with those ships next to it. See if you can get a better idea whether or not either of those ships is armed, would you Chief?"

"
I'll keep trying but I don't think the resolution of this equipment is good enough to do much better unless we get closer, Lieutenant," said Allen, as he continued to fiddle with the sensor displays.

"How
long would it take for us to rendezvous with that moon?" asked Harris.

Murdock
, who was also the ship's navigator, performed some quick calculations on the command computer. "It'll take a couple of microjumps and some maneuvering," she replied, "but I think we could get there in about an hour and a half, maybe two hours if we cut it close with the last microjump."

"
I don't know that we have enough experience with this new drive system to be cutting things too close, Captain," said Harris.

"I can't disagree with you,
Lieutenant," replied Murdock.

"
Why don't we take a single jump towards that moon and see if we can get some better information?" asked Carlisle. "That way we can jump back and get out of the system quickly if we need to."

"
You okay with that, Captain?" asked Harris.

"I guess so. It's sort of why we came here isn't it?"
said Murdock. She turned to Chief Allen. "Prepare to execute a jump protocol towards that moon if you please, Helm," said Murdock. "I'll give you the parameters."

Allen
worked the controls on the navigation console while Murdock provided the numbers she had just generated on the command computer."

"Jump
programmed, Captain," he said."

"
Execute microjump when ready, Captain Murdock," said Harris.

Helen Murdock made an announcement over the ship's intercom
to inform the crew that the ship would shortly be making another microjump. Two minutes later she performed a countdown and the refurbished
Greyhound
executed another perfect transfer. After a short interval while everyone recovered from the effects of the jump, Allen performed another scan of the ship contacts.

"I have a report, Lieutenant," he said.
"It's still hard to make out much."

"
Tell me what you can, Chief?"

"The one could be a small freighter, or large pleasure craft. The other
..."

"Is what, Chief?"

"It's a destroyer, Sir. It looks like an old one but..."

"But it's still a destroyer," said Harris.

The mounting spot for the transplanted gun emplacement had placed the control chamber for the pulse beams in the compartment just behind the bridge. Harris crossed the bridge to the rear bulkhead and called through the hatch to Hawkins. "Hawk? How are things going with that gun emplacement?" There was a short pause as Hawkins extricated himself from the workings in the lower part of the turret and poked his head up through the hatch in the floor.

"We still
be working on it, Lieutenant. But I think we be ready to start chargin' the capacitors on the starboard gun anytime Helen...er ...Captain Murdock be thinkin' it's okay."

Harris
looked at Murdock.

"Don't let me stand in the way," said
Murdock. "By all means, Lieutenant, give it a try."

"
Be givin' me another five minutes, Lieutenant," said Hawkins.

Harris
and Murdock heard Hawkins call something out to Talbot who was presumably somewhere down in the capacitor chamber of the gun emplacement. A few minutes later Hawkins poked his head onto the bridge.

"We
be ready, Lieutenant. As soon as Frank be gettin' down to engineering, we can be givin' it a go."

As if on cue, Talbot's voice came over the intercom. "We're ready down in engineering, Captain
!"

Hawkins
returned to the beam weapon control console and, after a short countdown, threw a switch. The lights on the bridge dimmed way down for about three seconds and ... went out completely. All of the ventilation fans stopped. Everyone became weightless as the artificial gravity cut out as well. After a few more seconds, emergency lighting flickered on.

"What the
...?" exclaimed Murdock.

"Ha
wkins? What in Murphy's name is going on?" shouted Harris.

The bridge crew could hear
Hawkins mumbling something, it sounded like cursing, but whatever it was, it was unintelligible to the people on the bridge. Again, Hawkins poked his head through the hatchway onto the bridge.

"
I be mortified, Lieutenant," he said, his anguish evident from his tone and his expression, "We must've tripped somethin'. main power be down. We need to be getting' down to engineering to be givin' Talbot a hand. Might you be comin' with me, Sir? Ah...the Ensign too, if you please."

"Let's go," said Harris.

"Do you have any idea what's going on, Hawk?" asked Harris as he and Hawkins and Carlisle made their way aft towards the engineering section of the ship.

"Nay, Sir, I don't
," replied the old technician. "It should'a worked just fine."

Minutes later the t
hree of them arrived in engineering.

"
What's going on, Frank?" asked Harris.

"It's got me baffled, Lieutenant," replied Talbot, glancing up only briefly while he continued to work feverishly at the
main engineering control console.

W
ith Carlisle consulting the information on her wrist computer, it took the team a little over five minutes to determine, to their great relief, that the power plant was fine. Something having to do with the gun emplacement had caused the main circuit breakers protecting the power plant to shut the system down. The engineering crew would have to initiate a partial restart.

"Are the capacitor systems for the gun disengaged from main power?" asked Harris.

"Aye, they are," replied Hawkins. "That were the first thing we did when the power be kickin' off."

"So, if we let thi
ngs cool down for another ten minutes or so, we should be able to restart the power plant?"

"I don't be seein' why we can't," replied Hawkins.

"I'll let you know as soon as the temperature gets low enough," said Talbot.

They waited
for almost ten minutes before Talbot's readings indicated that it was safe and initiated a restart of the
Greyhound's
power plant. Everything proceeded normally. There was a collective sigh of relief as the machinery settled in to the familiar, deep-throated hum they had all grown accustomed to hearing from it. After a long and harrowing forty-five minutes, the main lighting for the bridge area flickered again before coming back on and the whir of the ventilators resumed as well. Hawkins carefully phased the artificial gravity back on.

Harris, Murdock, Carlisle
, Talbot and Hawkins met on the bridge shortly after the power was restored. Hawkins looked more than a bit embarrassed. He also appeared to be more than a bit shaken by the incident.

"
Like I said before, I be mortified," he said. "That were unexpected."

"What
's going on, Hawk?" asked Harris.

"
I'm not being sure Lieutenant. We be connecting the pulse beam system to the same power outlets as the projectile weapons were hooked up to. It must be having something to do with that interface. It's a mite bit close, but we should be havin' enough power to charge the capacitors. This power system just don't seem t'be very well matched to these weapons."

"Are we going to be able to get it to work at all?"

"We'll be makin' it work, Lieutenant, but it'll be taking some more experimentin'. I just wished I knew how Caleb made those big pulse beams work on those freighters."

"I don't need to remind you that we
're a long way from home and we are in the presence of an unknown enemy out here, Hawk," said Harris. "I want those guns working as badly as you do but we don't dare try to charge up those capacitors until we're absolutely sure that we aren't going to lose power again. Meantime, we aren't totally without teeth. We can get Kelly and his marines with their assault cannon ready to go in the front cargo bay. Just keep at it. Let me know as soon as you think you have any kind of solution."

"Will do,
Lieutenant. Be comin' with me, Dr. Talbot. I be thinkin' that between the two us we can be makin' this old equipment work."

"Lead on, Mr. Hawkins," said Talbot. The two old engineers left
to resume working on the gun emplacement.