He Who Dares: Book Two (The Gray Chronicals 2) (54 page)

“CPO Blake, would you tell this person lying beside me to stop grinning like the village idiot!”  She huffed, seeing Conner shake his head.

“Who me?”  Mike asked, his face a mask of innocence.

“Yes, you,”  She glared at Mike, then looked at Conner, “I suppose I can rely on your discretion in this matter, Chief?”

“Milady, where the Captain is concerned, my lips are sealed.”

“How long have you known?”

“Since the rescue mission, Ma’am.”

“So much for keeping this affair a secret.”  She muttered darkly.

“It was bound to happen, Milady.”  Mike sighed.

“Speaking of secrets, sir, Leftenant Adam’s came dashing into the Wardroom this morning muttering something about ‘I’ve got it’ then said to tell you he off to the Gravatronics plant.”

“Did he say why?”

“No, sir, just grinning from ear to ear and jumping up and down like a bloody school boy that needed to go for a pee.”

“Odd.”

“Yes, sir, but I think he was working on that problem you discussed.”

“Oh, the one about the drive system.”

“Aye, sir.”

“What about the drive system, Mike?”  Lady Ann asked.

“Oh, just something we’re working on, a way to change the drive signature, or hide it.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you could.”

“Neither did we, but it seems that Leftenant Adams is onto something.”

In all, they managed to spend three days and night together before she had to get back to London, and the last was sad.  They did make love, but this time it was slow, each wanting to make it last as long as possible in an attempt to hold back the dawn.  For a long time they just lay there, looking into each other's eyes.  In the end, dawn came and found them, and as the sun poked its head above the horizon, she left, tears in her eyes that she hid from him.  The room felt dark and empty without her, and the memory lingered in the scent of her perfume on the sheets and pillow.  Mike lay there for a while after she left, watching the sunrise, thinking of where their love affair would go.  Could he dare think of asking her to marry him?  Lowly Leftenant don’t ask the Princess Royal, and potential heir to the throne to marry them.  So what did that leave?  There was no answer, and rather than lay there and ponder the impossible Mike returned to the ship.  In a way it was a good thing he did, as Adam came charging back, grinning from ear to ear like a schoolboy.

“New drive plates on the way, Skipper.”  He announced, bouncing into the Wardroom.

“What’s wrong with the old one?”  Mike asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Nothing really, just flat and inefficient as hell is all.”

“Oh, Okay, but how’s this going to help hide our drive signature?”

“Oh that, yes, did better than that, Skipper, I found a way to increase our top speed.”  He immediately launched into a technical diatribe about thrust vectors and distribution, most of which when right over Mike’s head.

“So, you are saying that we, and I mean most of the ship builder have been fabricating drive plates wrong for the last hundred years?”

“That’s about it, Skipper.  It’s like someone pointed out.  Up until now all the scientist and engineers have worked from graphic representation of what they think a drive plume looks like… well you can’t actually see gravitons, so it was always assumed that the way they acted.

“And?”

“I sort of built a detection… actually modified a sensor unit and have a direct look over the stern and wow, what a surprise.”

“Not what you expected to see, huh.”

“Not even close.  The gravitons were shooting out in all directions, and it was no wonder we can pick up on a ships drive trail hours after it long out of sensor range.  The gravity flux behind a ship leaves a trail a blind man could follow.”

“And your new drive plates do what?”

“Push in a straight line behind the ship, no flux or distortions, and therefore the local gravitons return to their normal state faster. QED  no drive trail to detect after a very short time.”  Mike immediately wonders just how long that was.

“How long will it take to install the new units, Adam?”  He asked at last, cutting him off in mid sentence, seeing weeks of dock time.

“Oh, about a week, sir, we only have to remove the old units and modify the stern to accept the modified ones.”

“I hope so, Cynthia tells me she will be finished in three weeks with the other changes.”

“Good, that means she can put a whole crew on installing the drive plates.”  His excitement was infectious, and they all started looking forward to the arrival date.  Mike fiddled around the ship for two days, bored out of his mind thinking of nothing else but Lady Ann.  It didn’t go unnoticed by Conner, or Adam.

“Hey, Skipper, how about a trip to dark side?”

“Dark Side?”  He asked, looking blank.

“Yes, sir.  The Dark Side of the Moon.”

“And why, pray tell, would I want to visit that particular part of the Moon?”

“Well, we could stop at the NASA Monument and pay tribute to the early pioneers, first.”

“Not a bad idea, but what is so interesting about Dark Side?”  In answer, Adam laid a slip of paper in from of him so Mike could see it.  ‘Dark Side R&D Facility’ was all it said.

“I’m told there is a wonderful interstellar observatory there that's worth a visit.”

“I’m up for it, when?

“How about 08:00 hundred tomorrow morning?”

“Sounds perfect.”  Mike answered, thinking it might help get his mind off a certain lady.

“So, why all the secrecy, Adam?”  Mike asked after they lifted off.

“Can’t say, Skipper.  The managing Director at Gravatronics sort of handed me the note in a handshake as I was leaving.”

“Odd.”

“I would say so.”

“So let’s go find out what this is all about.”

“Weapons, Captain?”  Conner asked.

“Of course.”

The trip out when well, and Conner, Adam and Mike did the tourist bit and visited the dome over the first moon landing site.  They did get deferential treatment as they were in uniform and didn’t have to go with a group of chattering tourist in the bright yellow soft skin vac suits.  Conner took them on a low-level skim and hop around to the dark side and they saw several H
3
mining operations along the way.  He didn’t take any chances once they reached Dark Side, but pull the scout car up above any possible hazards.  He brought the shuttle in on the flashing cross for a perfect landing.  The moment they touched down, the duty tech immediate dropped them into the underground hanger where they were met by a tall, aristocratic looking man in a tailored soft suit who came out to greet them as they stepped out of the shuttle and looked around.

“Leftenant Gray?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“I’m so glad you could find time to come and visit us.  My name is Houseman, how do you do.”

“Me too.  This is Adam Kincaid my engineering officer, and CPO Conner Blake my Senior Helmsman.”

“Nice to meet you.”  They shook hands all the way round.  “If you will follow me, I’ll show you around.”

And he did.  The R&D facility looked just like a hundred other labs they’d seen at one time or another, but they all kept politely silent until they passed through a thick security door and it slid silently closed behind them.  By now they were several hundred feet underground, having travelled down innumerable ramps on their tour in the little electric runabout.  Beyond the door, all three whistled in surprise.  Mr. Houseman had stopped on a Bridge on the other side of the security door, and they looked down a deep shaft that seemed to go right down to the center of the moon.

“It's not as deep as it looks, it's only two mile deep.”

“Only!”

Looking down, they could see bridges and galleries running off to the side at different depths, but what purpose they served was any one guess.

“So why are we here, and why are you showing us all this?”

“I have to thank you all for remaining silent until we reached this point, and to answer your second question.”

“I stopped here, to show you this, because it is quite possible the safest place in this system.  There is no way anyone can monitor us, or our conversation in any manner.”

“And the purpose of this conversation?”

“To show you the latest in ships offense weaponry.”

“Come again?”

“This facility is part of Gravatronics, not Ministry of Defense, and consequently not under their supervision or control.”

“I think I understand.”

“It means you can do your own R&D work without anyone from the Government telling you, you can’t, right?”

“Correct, Leftenant Kincaid.”  Mike was beginning to see the light.

“I take it, then, that my shiny new ship doesn’t have the latest and greatest in the main armament department then.”

“Precisely.  The first time there were far too many people taking an unhealthy interested in your ship building project.  We, the board of Directors thought it best not to give you the latest advancement just in case they managed to seize your ship before you completed her and got her into space.”

“Makes sense to me.  Don’t want your best falling into the wrong hands.”

“Precisely.  Now, however, you are off the radar, so to speak, and other than a select group of people, no one even knows your ship has returned.”

“Let us hope it remains that way.”

“I agree, and we are doing our best, mostly in the background to make sure it stays that way.”  Mr. Houseman smiled slightly, but didn’t offer any additional information on who might be involved.  “I must say, that I… we were somewhat surprised at the design you came up with.”  Mike shifted around in his seat, looking a little embarrassed.

“We took the liberty of making a holographic record of your ship the last time you were here to pick up ordinance.”  Mike didn’t have to ask it the record was safe.  Gravatronics had kept the secret of Ag material safe for a long time.”

“Your choice of a triangular hull had us puzzled at first, until we realized that the top of the inverted triangle could be used as a flight deck and a place to mount two, twin barreled weapons turrets.”

“Well, the shape was dictated by the need to land, both over water and any hard surface available.”

‘Yes, the larger units of the fleet, such as the Battleships and dreadnaughts were never intended to land.”

“As a first real attempt to build a warship from scratch, she isn’t half bad.”

“But?”

“I can do better now I’ve had a chance to see and feel her in action.  There are a lot of improvements I can make.  In fact, I think it’s possible to build a mini Battleship with the weapons and drives available.”

“That bring me to the extraordinary additions Mr. Kincaid and Mr. Bushman came up with.”  It was Adams turn to blush slightly.  “You insight into the design of the gravity drive plate is something our R&D team overlooked, as was the stealth coating Mr. Bushman came up with.”

“I have the feeling you have something to do with the yard stripping off the old coating and applying something different?”

“Yes, indeed.  Once we saw the implications, our research team improved on his basic design.”

“And now?”

“Better control of the effect, from slightly obscuring your radar signature to making you completely invisible a broad range of frequencies, except the visible spectrum, I’m sorry to say.”

“So, if an enemy ship gets close enough, they will see us.”

“Optically, yes, electronically, no.”

“Thank God they don’t have portholes on starships.”  Conner muttered.   

“ So what do you have for us now?”  Adam asked, sounding like an eager schoolboy.

“Let me show you.”

Mr. Houseman then took them on a tour of the real R&D facility, after which an elevator lifted them back up to a fire control center near the surface.

“I have held off testing our new pulse weapon until you arrived, so you could see for yourself.”

“I appreciate that.”

“If you will take a seat up here, you can see the whole operation.”

The three of them sat in the comfortable visitor’s seat, each casting the other a look.  Mike just shrugged and looked at the control room layout.

“Operations, launch the test vehicle.”

“We launched the test vehicle twenty minutes ago, sir, and it is now in position.”

“Good - Observation?”

“I have a clear scope out to one light hour, sir.”

“Tactical?”

“Target vehicle is now down range at 1400 nautical miles, 1600, 1800, 2000.  Vehicle is holding at 2000 nautical miles, sir.”

“Good.  Targeting?”

“I have a target lock, sir.”

“Power?”

“Full capacitors, sir.

“Stand by to fire.  Observation, final check.”

“No ships within detectable range at this time, sir.”

“Commence firing.”

They saw a woman reach over and lift the safety over a red button and press it.  After that, absolutely nothing happened.  There was no sound, no vibration, nothing to indicate anything at all had happened.  Yet, a spit second after touching the button, they saw the target vehicle disintegrate.

“Whoa!”  Adam exclaimed.

“Second target vehicle launched, sir.”

“Good, have number three and four standing by.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What size are the target vehicles, Mr. Houseman?”

“They are not a vehicle per se, but rather a densely packed cylinder of armor plate and heavy shielding with a drive and a nav unit,”  he thought for a moment, ‘I’d say they were about the size of a shuttle craft.”

“Fusion bottle?”

“No, just dense pack battery with sufficient power to get them to the target location,” he smiled, “we don’t exactly want to advertise what we are doing.”

“That’s where the observation teams comes in.”

“You are correct, Leftenant Gray.”

“But how do you...”  He stopped, wanting to keep the thought to himself at the moment.

“Target vehicle at 3500 nautical miles, 36, 38, 4000 nautical miles and moving at fifty thousand KPH, sir.”

“Targeting?”

“Target acquired and locked, sir.”

“Tactical?”

“Clear scope, sir.”

“Fired when ready, Cathy.”

“Yes, sir.  Firing.”  Again, she touched the button and a split second later the target vanished.

“How on Earth do you pack that much power into a beam at that distance?”

“It’s not a pulse cannon in the sense you mean, Leftenant.  It’s a modified tachyon pulse.”

“Wow, and what the Max effective range?”

“A quarter of a light second,”  Adam’s jaw dropped, “but that’s the extreme limit.  Operational range would be somewhere in the region of an eighth of a second.”

“How effective are shields against it?”

“Somewhat, Captain, but they are degraded.  Multiple hits on the shield of current units in service by us and other navies would degrade rapidly.”