Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer Page 6

  “Basically it accelerates the pilot’s commands to the ship. When your mind tells your arm to move the flight yolk, this system will tell the ship you are about to move the flight yoke, and start doing it. You will still need to move the flight controls, but the ship will already be responding to the commands. Over-all pilot reaction time is increased by a hundred and five percent, over-all. It’s lower on normal flight operations, and higher during combat,” she explained.

  “That’s pretty significant,” Ian said.

  “I hope it’s significant enough to save a few lives,” Stephanie said. “If I can get it to work the way I want it too, I hope to be able to use it in other applications as well.”

  “Okay, so as I understand this, even though the control systems of the fighters will be identical, the computers refuse to accept a pilot profile created on another machine, correct?”

  “Exactly. My plan was to have a profile created in the simulator during training, and save them to a central system. When the pilot was assigned to a fighter, the correct prolife could them be uploaded to the fighter, and off you go.”

  “Well, in order to proceed with fighter production, I’m good with having pilots assigned to specific fighters, but you might want to talk to Bill Laskar or one of his folks and see what they can come up with, since this sounds more like a computer issue than a design issue,” Ian suggested. “Just out of curiosity, what other projects did you see this system being used on?”

  “One of the bright boys from Talos has thought up a remotely controlled fighting drone that will have the fire power of a heavy tank. There is also the possibility of using this tech as a means to remotely control fighters during a battle as well. That way it reduces the risk to our pilots. When a fighter gets destroyed in combat, they can be immediately assigned another fighter, and sent back into the fight, provided that drone fighter was actually assembled and ready to fly,” Stephanie said. “But we have a long way to go before we get to that point.”

  “Okay, I am officially impressed. You are one very smart young lady!” Ian said.

  “I’d love to take all the credit, Ian, but a lot of these other ideas are from other people. The remote control drone fighter was actually Tara’s idea,” Steph said. “The ground assault drone is Hal Goodwin’s. I’ve even heard of an underwater attack craft that is being designed as a hobby.”

  “Well, like I said, contact Bill Laskar and see if he has someone that can give you a hand with the programming issues. Now, the other issue I wanted to talk about was the power. Did I read that right? Did Kyle say there was too much power?” Ian asked.

  “Yeah, but it’s a bit different. I’ll let Brittany fill you in since that’s her baby,” Steph said, and waved at someone off-screen. Brittany must have been close by because she was there in seconds. Stephanie said good-bye, and gave her seat to the new girl.

  “Good afternoon, Commander. Stephanie said you wanted to talk to me,” she said by way of greeting.

  “Yes, I was reading the report Kyle sent, and it said there was a problem with surplus power?” Ian asked.

  Brittany was nodding as he spoke. “Yes, I know it sounds strange, having too much power in a fighter craft. It’s the Enigma armor. It can’t be ‘shut off’ unless it’s in a completely dark room and grounded. There is also the question about what to do with the energy generated in flight. During a fight, the energy is channeled to the weapons, shields and even into the engines, but when it’s all over and it’s time to land, we’ll have a fighter with fully energized armor coming in contact with the ship. If any even touches it, it could kill them. I need to figure out a way to either discharge the armor or stop it from charging in the first place.”

  “That would definitely be a bad thing. Have you had any ideas on how to handle it?” Ian asked.

  “I’ve sent messages to Chief Dommer as well as Serin Vax, the lead engineer here on the base. I was about to put the issue out to the community at Talos to see what they have to say about it. The problem would apply to the upgrade I suggested to the Hornet fighters too. I’m afraid that until we figure out how to handle it, we can’t proceed with development of the Shadow.”

  Ian cocked his head to one side. “I was meaning to ask you folks, why did you pick that name?”

  “This fighter will be almost completely invisible to sensors. Remember, any energy that hits it will be absorbed, not reflected. Most scanning methods in use currently rely on reflected emissions of some kind. With the plasma recycling system Kyle built, it’ll even be hard for that to be tracked,” Brittany explained. “The Enigma armor itself is more reflective in appearance than chrome, so while in flight, it should be all but invisible with the naked eye appearing as little more than a distortion in the background of space.”

  “Well, I did have a couple of suggestions for Stephanie, but I can’t think of anything to help you out. However, if you would, please hold off on putting it out to the community. If you can get the bugs worked out of this, it might very well end up as the new armor for this ship as well,” Ian said.

  “Hmm, that would present a whole new set of issues. Star Dancer is really big, and there is no possible way to park it in a dark place like a hanger bay. We would have to find a way to be able to burn off all the energy she would generate on a continuous basis,” Brittany said, looking thoughtful. “Maybe if we fed it into the gravimetric drive systems, and simply took the load of the main reactor...”

  “Well, please keep me posted on what you discover. If either the chief or Engineer Vax don’t get back to you soon, let me know and I’ll call them for you. As I said, we need to get this moving,” Ian said, looking worried. Janet hadn’t contacted him again, but he felt that his time was running out.

  Brittany smiled. “Kyle wants to talk to you about that, he’s kind of excited.”

  “I could really use some good news about now,” Ian said.

  She got up while Ian had been talking and Kyle sat down. “Afternoon, Sir. You said to call if we needed anything?”

  Ian nodded. “Yes I did, what can I do for you?”

  “Could you send me a few pilots? We are at the point that we can begin their training. No, we still haven’t gotten ready to begin construction yet, but we do have the trainers ready. Remember though, I’ll need them in pairs,” Kyle said. “Of course, they all don’t have to be pilots, the weapons officer doesn’t have to be a pilot, but he does need to be in the trainer with his pilot.”

  Ian brightened up. If they were close enough to begin training it would help greatly since once the fighters were actually built, they could get them through the testing phase a lot faster. “How many at a time?” Ian asked.

  “I only have five simulators built so far, Sir, so for now, only five teams at a time. I wanted to get the first few simulators built myself before I handed it off to someone else. Once I get the first batch of pilots trained, I’ll know I got all the bugs out, and I can release it to training command,” Kyle explained.

  “I’ll get them down there by breakfast tomorrow! Damn good work, Kyle!”

  “Thanks you, Sir, I’ll pass that along,” Kyle said, beaming in pride.

  “Can the rest of them still hear me Kyle?” Ian asked.

  Kyle typed in something on the terminal. “Not anymore, Sir. What’s up?”

  “I know you’re doing your best. But if there is any way you can speed this up, please do it. I just can’t shake the feeling we are running out of time. Please don’t think I’m yelling at you, hell you’ve done wonders so far, but I just can’t shake this feeling.”

  Kyle nodded. “I understand, Sir. We won’t let you down.”

  “I never doubted that, Kyle. I guess I just needed to talk to someone,” Ian said.

  Kyle nodded. “You know, Sir. There are a few things going on down here you might not be aware of. With your permission, Sir, I might be able to get a few other items we’re going to need moving at a faster pace. Without telling them what’s going on of course.”

/>   “That would be great, Kyle. However, don’t hurt your own project to do it. If you can find the time, please let me know what you discover and who you get motivated. Maybe I can help get people going on it too,” Ian replied.

  “We’ll be ready, Sir. Somehow, we will do this,” Kyle assured him.

  “I hope so, Kyle. I really do, because if we don’t, Earth doesn’t stand a chance.”

  F.S.S. Star Dancer.

  Selene Orbit, (Earth’s moon)

  Earth, Sol Sector.

  “Engineering, Ensign Goldstein. How can I help you?”

  “Good afternoon, Ensign. This is the XO. I have a favor to ask of you or one of the other Engineers,” Jenny said.

  “I would be happy to help you if I can, Sir.” Goldstein replied.

  “I was wondering, is there a way to configure a probe for underwater work?” Jenny asked.

  “That shouldn’t be much of a problem, what did you have in mind, exactly?”

  “Well, I’m going to need a probe to follow the trans-Atlantic pipeline looking for any anomalies,” Jenny asked.

  “Ah, that’s going to be a little harder, but still do-able. If we put in a larger power unit, and replaced the thrusters with water jets... Yeah, I think I can do this, can you give me a couple of days?” the engineer asked.

  “Certainly, Ensign! This is actually for a hobby investigation I’m doing. I wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t also semi-official. Please let me know when it’ll be ready, and I’ll see about getting it a ride to where I’m going to need it,” Jenny said.

  “Will do, Colonel. I know you’ve probably heard it a thousand times, but congratulations on the new baby,” Goldstein added. “I just found out I’m going to be a father too.”

  “Thank you! Congratulations to you too!” Jenny replied.

  “I should be able to get on this later today; the new weapons systems are in final testing, so the Chief will probably be releasing a bunch of us,”

  “Excellent, like I said, it is kind of an official project, but it isn’t a priority yet. Thanks for your time,” Jenny replied to the friendly engineer.

  “Anytime, Sir. Engineering out.”

  Ian was just about to go off duty for the day when his door chimed a visitor.

  “Come!”

  Chief Dommer was, by nature, a very serious and dour man. Those who knew him would freely admit they had rarely, if ever seen him smile. Consistent with his appearance, his personality was very business-like and no-nonsense. When he entered Ian’s office, he actually had a small smile on his face. Ian was tempted to ask who he was and what he had done with the chief engineer, but thought better of it.

  “By the look on your face, Chief, I assume you have some good news,” Ian said by way of greeting.

  “Sir, I have to admit, when you called me to ask if I had time to speak to that weapons tech, I thought it was a waste of time, but, I was truly surprised,” Dommer said. “That weapon he designed is really neat.”

  “Did you get it set up then?” Ian asked. “I thought there was some problem with it?”

  “Well, there was at the beginning, but we got that handled as well as a couple of other issues that cropped up, and now I think anyone who attacks us is going to have a really nasty surprise,” the man said animatedly. “At first, I couldn’t think of a use for his weapons other than as a point defense cannon, but his design makes far more than that. Even though it’s a projectile weapon, it’ll do far more damage up close than our large lasers would.”

  “How so?” Ian asked.

  “The overall design was based on the Gatling-gun system used by the US Navy called CIWZ. (Pronounced see-whiz) but this little monster is far more devious. It uses a mass driver technology like a rail gun only without the rail. The projectile is accelerated by using rapidly cycling magnetic fields.

  “Originally, I was only going to place a few mounts on the ship to be used as point defense, but I got to thinking about the design. Did you know that he designed it so the projectile size could be varied as well as the velocity it can be fired at?”

  Ian did remember that, but chose not to interrupt the chief, so he nodded his head.

  “Well, the problem with a hyper accelerated particle in space is that it’ll keep going until something stops it. Let’s say you fire one small round at an asteroid with a muzzle velocity of point five light. Even if the mass of the round is low, say around an ounce, and it hit the moon, the damage could be measured in the megatons!

  “So the fix for that was a timed explosive based on time. None of the rounds fired will last longer than a set amount of time. So, think about this, what would happen to a fighter that was attacking the ship if just one of the rounds hit it doing two-thirds of light? It would blow right through the shield and just vaporize the ship!” Dommer said excitedly. “Even if it misses, it’ll cause massive confusion simply from the rounds popping! Like the old flak cannons from World War II!”

  “I didn’t realize that, will there be a danger to our fighters flying around out there?” Ian asked.

  “Not any more than they would be from the laser cannons we already use. The velocity we’re talking about here will only be slightly slower than that of the lasers. Honestly Sir, while I did mount a few extra, larger versions, the lasers are still the main weapons. I did put one of the nasty bastards right at the end of the landing bays, that way if the enemy tried to pull a fast one by going for the bays, they’ll have to get through those guns first!” Dommer said proudly.

  Ian chuckled at the Chief’s enthusiasm. “I take it you finished them up then?”

  Dommer nodded. “The only thing remaining is a live fire test. So, there you go, Sir, your new cannons are ready now.”

  Ian chuckled. “Thank you, Chief. I’ll have to give the test firing some thought. Would you like me to notify you so you can watch?”

  “I would really appreciate it, Sir. I’m dying to see what these things can do!” Dommer said, and rose from his chair. “By the way, Sir. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone that I smiled; I have a reputation to maintain after all.”

  “I didn’t see a thing, Chief!” Ian replied. “But it does look good on you.”

  “Thanks, have a good evening, Sir,” Chief Dommer said as he left the room, once again frowning and appearing deep in thought.

  Chapter 5

  F.S.S. Star Dancer.

  Selene Orbit, (Earth’s moon)

  Earth, Sol Sector.

  One of the items completed at the moon base was the small craft building and assembly area. It was semi-automated, in that there were no humans out on the assembly floor, but the various drones and bots were operated remotely by people. However, since personnel on the base was still low, most assembly was slow going as operators had to do more than one job.

  Even with that delay, the modified shuttle Ian had ordered built for Stellar Cartography had gotten finished, and from the report he was reading, it was performing its test flights. The survey drones it would carry had already been built and tested, and were currently on board the unmanned craft as it performed final runs.

  Ian notified Stellar Cartography and suggested they contact Navigation to get an optimal course plotted for it. Ian knew that everyone in the small department had been working on the programming for the probes ever since Ian had ordered the shuttle.

  Ian’s sense of foreboding was beginning to get to him. He thought that perhaps it was time he called a full staff meeting and let them in on what Janet had seen. She had stepped up recruiting quite a bit since she’d talked to him, and the ship was nearing its full complement, but there were still many positions elsewhere that needed to be filled, such as the afore mentioned assembly workers.

  Star Dancer, Ian mused, was more like a heavily armed carrier than it was a cruiser. Most of the big ship’s offensive capability was tied up in her fighters and the Centurions, although she had quite a number of other weapons as well.

  In the wet navies of the Earth, a cru
iser was more mission specific than Star Dancer was. The old star ship was more of a hybrid between a carrier and a battleship. Her missile batteries could be used in either ship to ship or space to ground roles. The same could be said for the large forty-centimeter lasers, and plasma cannons, but the small anti-fighter and point-defense lasers were strictly short-ranged weapons. With the addition of the mass drivers Mr. Kemp had designed, the ships offensive as well as defensive arsenal should be enough to give any enemy pause.

  But Ian had seen enough of the old records to know that there were some ships against which Star Dancer stood little to no chance in a stand-up fight. One of those ships had been built by the Caldarian Empire for the specific purpose of hunting down and destroying the Talosian heavy cruisers. A Caldarian Super Nova class battleship.

  The Caldarian was almost twice as large as Star Dancer. Being twice as wide, and one and a half times as long. The monster ship carried a ridicules amount of fire power. The first time he read about it, Ian wondered where they housed the crew it would need just to operate it. However, they must have had the room because it was very effective at its job.

  It carried fighters in a strange dual-parasitic method. The big ship docked up to ten smaller fighter-carriers, with six to ten fighters externally on its hull. It was assumed that the pilots and carrier crews lived aboard these smaller ships. It held no more than twenty of its own fighters internally along with ground assault craft, troops, and all of their equipment. So as far as fighters went, it matched Star Dancer in offensive capabilities, unfortunately, that’s where the similarities stopped.

  Star Dancer mounted forty-six multi-role missile tubes total, not counting hyper-missiles launched from her fighter bays. Fourteen large lasers turrets, eight phased plasma cannons, and various small lasers for point defense.

  The Super Nova on the other hand, carried much more. Unconfirmed reports said she had over a hundred missile launchers and forty-eight plasma/laser turrets. They also had huge tractor/presser emitters mounted on the sides so they could literally pull a smaller ship apart.