Tipping Point in the Alliance War (6 page)

***

The
Brutus disappears, and there is no explosion.  

“So
far, so good,” Captain Niles thinks.  

The
nuclear missile, which they are leaving for the Confederation Navy, is sitting
out in space waiting for the Courageous to leave, so that it can explode. 
No sense in keeping it waiting.  “Engage” he says to the Helm. 

Sometime
later, the Brutus has exited warp-space and is rocketing away from the
rendezvous, as ordered.

The
engineers on the Brutus are busy reducing the data from the warp trip and are
monitoring the warp drive temperature.  ‘Warp drive temperature’ is a
critical parameter that can mean the difference between life and death for the
fleeing Alliance warriors.  They have to wait for the drives to cool
before making another warp jump, but in the meantime, they have to run away in
real-space before the Confederation forces catch them.

Just a
few minutes later, the Courageous drops out of warp and
begins
to follow the Brutus, at the ship’s maximum safe speed. 

Captain
Niles orders the launch of the first faster-that-light information probe to
Alliance Navy Headquarters.  The probe has just faded from sight, as the
Confederation ships begin to emerge from warp.

The
Courageous and the Brutus are both prepared for a fight.  The usual plan
would have been to enter stealth-node and hide, but that won’t work this time,
because the enemy is right behind them.  They will have to do a running
battle, as their warp drives cool.  And they will have to get far enough
away from the enemy ships so that the gravity-well, which will be created by
the fleet of ships, doesn’t keep the Alliance vessels from going to warp.

Captain
Niles and Major Dawkins have worked on contingency strategies for just such an
encounter.  Everyone is at their Battle Station positions, and the
Marines, except for the Major, are dressed in Space Armor.

The
strategy takes advantage of the fact that ships are vulnerable when they first
drop out of warp.  The stealth systems, the shields, and the weapons
systems are offline, until a ship has completely emerged from warp.  The
plan is to hit them hard, as they are in the process of emerging.  Slice
them in two, before they can fire a shot.

The
ship’s computers are in charge of this battle.  Tactical Officers are too
slow for this job – there are just too many targets.  Courageous and
Brutus are too far away from the emerging ships to use missiles or rail
guns.  The Confederation ships would have completely emerged and their
defensive systems would be UP, by the time the projectiles would arrive. 
But laser canon energy travels at the speed of light. 

All
laser canons on the Courageous and Brutus will be firing continuously for the
first phase of the battle, because continuous-firing, as opposed to normal
pulsed-firing, will increase the effective power from the lasers by an order of
magnitude.  All non-essential electrical systems - including Lighting and
Life Support - have been shut down in order to provide the Laser Canons with
the necessary energy for continuous firing.  If additional energy is
required, it will be siphoned from the Thruster Engines.

Computers,
on the Courageous and Brutus, are targeting the spots where the enemy ships are
just beginning to emerge.  Laser Canon energy beams appear to be traveling
through empty space, until the enemy ships materialize enough to block the
light, and absorb the heat.  These ships are cooked from the inside out –
like a microwave oven. 

It is
carnage for the Confederation vessels, which emerge close to the Alliance
vessels.
 
To Captain Niles, it feels like a little bit of
retribution for the annihilation, which the Alliance fleet suffered in the
Capernic
system battle.  

The
Alliance vessels are on the run in real-space, with thrusters at maximum. 
Some of the Confederation ships are emerging at a great distance, and are
outside the range of the laser canons on the Courageous and Brutus. 

(Even
though the light from a laser canon travels at the speed of light, the energy
dissipates as an inverse function of distance.  This dissipation occurs
because of the inefficiencies in the laser canon design and fabrication. 
The energy from a ‘perfect’ laser canon, with a100 percent efficiency, in empty
space, would not dissipate over distance.)

The
Confederation fleet just keeps coming.  Captain Niles looks at the
computer count - there are 85 surviving Confederation ships, and they are still
coming.  The missiles from the Confederation ships are not a
problem.  By the time they catch up with the Alliance vessels, they are
moving – relatively - so slowly that you could hit them with a rock. 

 After
a short while the tide of battle turns, as the greatly outnumbered Alliance
duo, begins to receive more laser canon energy than their shields can
dissipate.  The combined energy from an increasing number of Confederation
warships is wearing down the Alliance ships’ defenses.

Captain
Niles contacts Major Dawkins on the Brutus’ bridge.  “Major Dawkins,” he
says.

“Here
sir,” responds the Major.

“We
have a green light on our ‘warp drive temperature’.  How is your warp
drive doing?” asks the Captain.

After
a brief conservation with her engineers, Major Dawkins says; “Not ready yet,
sir.  The engineers estimate 7 more minutes.”

“We’ll
stay with you as long as we can,
Major
.  But if
our shields fail, we will have to go without you.”

“Yes
sir.  That is exactly what you should do, sir,” replies the Major.

“Major,
leaving a nuke to hide our ‘warp signatures’ obviously didn’t work, but I have
a new plan.
  This time each of us is going to explode
three nuclear missiles, in the space around us, immediately before we go into
warp - making sure, of course, that the explosions are far enough away so that
the nukes don’t interfere with our warp drives.  My hope is that the
radiation will overwhelm the Confederation sensors long enough for us to get
out of here without a trace.  I have had my Navigation forward the
procedure to your Navigation and Helm,” says the Captain.

“Sounds
good, Captain.
  It just might work …… wait,” …
  says
the Major.  “Engineering says that the
‘warp drive temperature’ is almost green.  That’s good, because our
shields are down to 11% in the stern”

“That’s
good news!  We are moving away from you so that our nuclear warheads won’t
affect each other.  When your engineering gives you the green light, let
me know.  If we enter warp at the same time, our combined ‘nuclear warhead
trick’ might work even better,” says the Captain.

“Yes
sir.”

After
what seems like forever, Engineering says that the Brutus’ warp drive is ready
and Major Dawkins notifies Captain Niles.  Both ships give the order to
Tactical:  “Fire the nukes,” and the Tactical Officers push the buttons. 

Within
seconds, the space around the ships lights up like a flash bulb.  Both
ships’ Captains announce, “Engage”.  And the pair of ships melts away,
into the mist of warp-space.

***

A
Hiding Place

Things
don’t always go wrong but according to the ancient philosopher, Murphy, “things
will go wrong, and they will go wrong at the worst possible
time.”    

When
the Courageous arrives at the rendezvous, the Brutus is there, but she is ‘dead
in the water’.

“Status,”
says Captain Niles, over the ship-to-ship comm link.

“The
ship’s computer is offline.  Technicians are looking at the problem,”
answers Major Dawkins.

“We
need to get out of here,” says the Captain, to his Bridge and Engineering
crews.  “Engineering, can we tow the Brutus?”

“Yes
sir,”
comes
the quick response.  “We can use the
tractor beam, but we will have to start very slowly.  After we get through
the initial acceleration phase, the tractor beam will be able to handle the
load, easily.”

“Do
it.  And hurry,” orders the Captain.

Captain
Niles presses the ship-to-ship comm button and says, “We are going to tow your
vessel.  The tractor beam will be making contact shortly.  In the
meantime, I will send Science Officer
Basisht
, and
some computer technicians of his choosing, over by launch.  They will be
leaving momentarily.  Major, this is another crisis situation.  Have
your people ready for a quick extraction from the Brutus, in case we have to
leave her.”

“Yes
sir,”
comes
the reply.

Science
Officer
Basisht
overhears the conversation and salutes
the Captain - a non-verbal acknowledgement of the order - as he rushes off the
bridge.  He is on his way, with his people, in less than 4 minutes. 
As the launch to the Brutus is leaving, the Courageous and Brutus begin to move
in tandem.

After
those processes are set in motion, the Captain contacts his Chief Engineer,
Lieutenant Gnu, who is still in the infirmary recovering from a serious injury,
which he suffered in the
Capernic
battle. 
“Lieutenant Gnu, I know that this question is silly but I am going to ask it
anyway.  Is it possible for the Brutus to go into warp, while attached to
the Courageous?”

“Not
unless you can get the Brutus inside the Courageous’ hangar, with the hangar
door closed.” replies Lieutenant Gnu.

“That’s
what I figured, but I needed to ask anyway. 
Niles out.”

The
plan for this portion of the escape is that the Courageous and Brutus will look
for a system with planets and asteroid fields, so that they can find a place to
hide.  They are moving toward the closest system, but they won’t reach it
for ten days.  If the Confederation vessels are able to follow the ‘warp
signatures’, they will catch them long before that time. 

In
fact, according to their history, Confederation ships should be emerging right
about now.  They are not emerging, so that is reason to hope that the
‘multiple nuke detonation trick’ has worked.  “Hope so,” the Captain
thinks.  

The
Captain takes this opportunity to launch the second faster-than-light probe
toward Alliance Navy Headquarters.  “Keep them going out,” he
thinks.  “We can always make more.”

Captain
Niles is not one to relax when his ship is in danger.  He keeps looking
for options and begins asking the officers, on both ships, for ideas.  One
of the ideas is to look for an asteroid and hitch a ride, while in
stealth-mode.  

The
computer on the Courageous begins to search for anything natural, which is at
least one
klick
in diameter.  There is one
asteroid, which is a little larger than that, approximately 20,000,000 klicks
away.  It is large enough and has craters where the ships can hide. 
The Courageous can ‘run silent’ in stealth-mode, but the Brutus will not be
capable of stealth mode until the ship’s computer is fixed.  After
contacting the Brutus and hearing that there is no estimated time for fixing
the computer, the Captain gives the order to head for the lonely asteroid.

“Lieutenant
Gnu, here’s another silly question.” the Captain says.  “Is it possible
for the Brutus to be hidden by the stealth system on the Courageous?”

“Not
silly at all, Captain,” replies the Chief Engineer.  “If you are in a low
gravity environment, the Courageous can sit right on top of the Brutus. 
That will be possible on a small body, but not on some large body, such as a
moon.  In the case of the moon size body, the weight of the Courageous
would crush the Brutus.”

“How
about a small asteroid with a 1
klick
diameter,” asks
the Captain?

“That
should certainly work. The Courageous can get down in a crater, on top of the
Brutus, and we can instruct the stealth system to make us look like the
surrounding rock formations.”

“Get
it ready,” says the Captain.

‘Aye
aye sir,” replies the engineer.  “I’ll tell my crew.”

***

After
the Brutus is placed under the Courageous, and stealth-mode is activated, the
Captain speaks to the crews on both ships:

 “As
you all know, we are in hiding and we can expect to be this way, at least until
the computer malfunction on the Brutus is resolved.  We will be in ‘run
silent’ mode until further orders.  Only passive sensors can be
used.  And except for the necessary electronic noise made by the computer
repair crew, there will be no electrical or mechanical engines and no
electronics, except for life support.  The only communications will be between
senior officers on both ships.  Any other communications must have the
prior approval of one of the senior officers.  That is all.  Enjoy
the silence. 
Captain Niles, out.”

And
Captain Niles does intend to enjoy the silence.  He is on his way to the
Medical Department, to find Doctor Mei Kei.   And it will be just
fine with him, if they stay hidden for a week.