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All of sudden, it was launch day. The ship was fully manned and all systems had checked out. It was time to put her through her paces. The next 48 hours were spent going through a series of performance trials, including microjumps and gas giant refueling both by fuel shuttles and by direct skimming. Shiloh’s supersonic, intermittent scoop procedure was now the officially recommended way of skimming. With all trials completed and her fuel tanks full, Defiant set her vector for the Epsilon Eridani star system and the CFP manufacturing facility there in order to pick up her complement of fighters and A.I.s. With fuel to burn and the certainty of being able to refuel there, Shiloh ordered the ship to accelerate to a higher than usual velocity in order to minimize Jumpspace duration. His Astrogator told him they set a new record for the fastest jump from Sol to Epsilon Eridani. Shiloh suspected that his Astrogator was exaggerating but didn’t bother to check if it was true or not.
When Defiant arrived at Epsilon Eridani, they found 25 eager fighter A.I.s chomping at the bit to land on the carrier and see some action. After all were safely aboard, and Defiant was on its way to their first destination, Shiloh called a briefing of all senior officers, fighter support team leaders and by electronic means, all A.I. pilots.
As he stepped up to the podium, Shiloh said, “Remember this briefing, people. This is the first operational briefing for this ship, and you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren about it someday.”
There was general laughter at that, and Shiloh could have sworn that some of the laughter came from the A.I.s.
“As you may or may not know, we’re on our way to Bradley Base, but that will be a quick stop to refuel and check the status of enemy activity, if any. Our mission is not what I was hoping for, namely that we’d be sent to launch a counter-strike on enemy star systems. Unfortunately, there’s a more urgent task that only we can perform for the time being. HQ is convinced that the aliens have downloaded astrogational data from one of our captured ships, data that pretty much lays out all of human-explored space and the locations of all our colonies, and Earth.”
There was a groundswell of murmuring which quickly died down again.
“That means they could penetrate deep into our space using systems containing gas giants to refuel, and then strike at military or civilian targets. Right now we have no early warning system in place. Well, our job is to set one up. We’ll be deploying fighters in star systems with gas giants, in a buffer zone between our colonies and where we think the aliens are. This buffer zone will consist of five layers that are each about 10-12 light years wide. The Bradley Base star system is in the second layer. Layers one and two will have fighters deployed in them by tankers. We’ll take care of layers three to five. This means multiple jumps, and it will take us an estimated 65 days.”
That brought groans from the human personnel. Shiloh held up his hand.
“Yes, I know that doesn’t sound very exciting, but we need this early warning system. Each gas giant will have two fighters deployed to monitor any enemy activity near it and to report such activity by message drone. Monitoring fighters will avoid detection and especially combat, whenever possible.”
More groans, and this time Shiloh was sure that those were coming from the fighter pilots themselves.
“The intention here is to keep the enemy in the dark about our early warning system. If they find out about it, they’re likely to try to punch a hole in it by destroying the sentry fighters, and we want to avoid that. One out of each pair of fighters will be equipped with a refueling module so that it can refuel itself and the other fighter indefinitely, but I can assure you fighter pilots that you won’t be expected to stay on station out there forever. When you detect enemy vessels, you’ll observe their activity and, if possible, determine which star system they appear to be headed for next. Then you’ll send a message drone with that information to the nearest base, using the high speed boost maneuver that Iceman and Maverick perfected if necessary. Thereafter, you’ll continue to monitor your gas giant. Systems that have more than one gas giant will have more than one pair of fighters. If you’re detected, your orders are to disengage and leave the vicinity of the gas giant, and then send a message drone with that information. Fighters will each carry one and only one attack drone to be used when combat is unavoidable. The rest of the two payloads will be evenly split between message and recon drones. Detailed contingency plans will be downloaded to our fighters at the end of this briefing. That in a nutshell is the mission. Are there any questions?”
Naturally there were, and Shiloh did his best to answer all of them. When there were no more questions, he said, “Alright, then. This briefing is concluded. Let’s do this right. Our ship has a reputation that needs building. You’re dismissed.”
The trip to Bradley Base took just over 241 hours. Shiloh made sure that Defiant had enough fuel to skip past the star system where the convoy had been ambushed. When the ship dropped out of Jumpspace in the Bradley Base star system, which was designated as Omega 4, Shiloh was on the Bridge at his Command Station. The ship emerged at the extreme edge of the system at a distance from its sun that would have been beyond the orbit of Neptune if they had been in the Solar System. The gas giant, where the Base was located, was almost on the opposite side of the sun, which blocked a direct line-of-sight path between the base and Defiant. Even with their exit velocity of 500 kilometers per second, it would take days to reach the base traveling through normal space. That was why the Astrogator was already calculating a series of micro-jumps that would bring Defiant on an approach vector to the Base at a distance that should be just inside the detection range of the Base’s patrolling fighters. The three microjumps with vector changes in between took almost another hour. After the third microjump, Defiant sent a tight beam low-powered laser signal to the Base with a message announcing their arrival. The reply came eight minutes later. Defiant was cleared to enter orbit around the Base’s moon. No further enemy activity had been detected since the battle. There was no personal message from Base Commander Korolev, but there was from Iceman.
“Welcome back, CAG! Now that you’re back, we’ll see some action!”
Shiloh chuckled and made a mental note to respond to Iceman when they got closer. The trip into orbit was anticlimactically uneventful, which suited Shiloh just fine. After sending a greeting to Iceman and the other fighters that were on jump detection patrol, Shiloh discovered that Korolev was asleep, but Sejanus was awake. With Tanaka in charge on the Bridge, Shiloh went back to his quarters and had a confidential chat with Sejanus by video.
After the usual salutations, Shiloh said, “Listen, Marcus. I wanted to talk with you about Iceman and the others. You’ve got what ... 25 fighters here now?”
“That’s right, Sir. They made good our losses from the battle.”
“How evolved are the newcomers at this point? Have they displayed the same level of individuality as the veterans?”
Sejanus pondered that for a bit and then said, “I’m not sure they’re at the same level of eccentricities, but they definitely act as if they’re sentient.”
“The reason I’m asking is that I’ve got a ship full of rookies, for lack of a better word. They’re only just starting to evolve their own identities. I’m thinking of swapping half of your veterans for half of my rookies and pairing up one of each for the deployment we’ve been ordered to make.” He then went on to explain the buffer zone early warning network that Defiant was tasked with setting up.
“Yes, I can see how that would benefit things if the sentry fighters detected enemy activity. I’m not sure Korolev would agree to it, though,” said Sejanus.
“I’m not sure she would have any authority to veto it. You’re the Base CAG. Those fighters are your responsibility, not hers.”
Sejanus didn’t look happy. “Yes, but she’s not only the Base Commander, she's also the Task Force Commander, too, don’t forget, and my squadron of fighters is part of that Task Force.”
Damn, thought Shiloh. I did forget that.
“Okay, I guess she really does have a veto. I’ll talk with her when she’s awake and see if I can convince her to sign off on this. Now, on to other things. Has there been any sign at all of enemy activity? Anything?”
Sejanus shook his head. “Not a peep. I almost wish they’d send a few ships to recon the system or something. At least that would break up the boredom a little bit. I can’t help wondering if they’re planning something big.”
Shiloh snorted. “Oh, I’m pretty sure they are. The question is are they going to attack Bradley again or go after a new target. That’s why we’ve got to set this early warning network up pronto. When will Korolev be on duty again?”
“Well as you know, she doesn’t take regular shifts at Ops, but according to her normal schedule, I’d expect her to be up in about four to five hours.”
Shiloh smiled. “Good! That’ll give us time to practice fuel skimming the giant. By the time we’re done, we’ll be fully refueled, and Korolev will be awake. If she’s okay with the fighter swap, we can do that while Defiant is heading out for the jump to our first deployment target. I’ll leave her a message to call me when she’s available. It was good to see you again, Marcus. Shiloh clear.”
With the video call over, Shiloh decided to let Tanaka handle the refueling operation. It would be only her second time in charge of that operation, but she had handled the first one just fine, and he was confident she could handle this one too. He would observe the operation from the back of the Bridge, but let her keep command of the ship.
Switching the intercom channel to the Bridge, Shiloh said, “Bridge, this is Shiloh.”
Tanaka answered almost immediately. “Go ahead, Skipper.”
“Sumi? Take the ship out of orbit and into GG orbit to conduct a refueling operation.”
After a slight pause, she said, “Conduct refueling operations from the gas giant, yes Sir! Any other orders, Sir?”
“Not right now. Let me know when we’re about two minutes from contact with the giant’s atmosphere, would you?”
“Certainly, Sir.”
“Very good, Sumi. Carry on. Shiloh clear.”
The refueling operation went off without a hitch, while Shiloh watched. As Defiant, now back in orbit again, came out from the back side of the gas giant, Base Commander Korolev called. Shiloh was in command again since Tanaka’s duty shift was over.
When Korolev’s face appeared on the main display, Shiloh said, “Hello again, Commander. Thank you for responding to my message. Are you aware of Defiant’s mission?”
“Yes, Shiloh. I got the notification with the last resupply convoy. I was told to cooperate as much as possible.”
Hoho, thought Shiloh. That makes a difference. Howard didn’t tell me that part.
“Excellent. Here’s what I want to do.”
He explained the idea of taking half of the Base’s experienced fighters and replacing them with ‘rookies’ and why. Korolev, to her credit, didn’t show any negative emotion.
“I have no objections to that at all. In fact, you’d be doing me a favor if you take Iceman, Maverick and Hunter. Their cheekiness is starting to get annoying.”
Shiloh laughed. “I can understand that, and yes, I’ll be glad to take those cheeky bastards off your hands. I’d like to start the transfer right now while Defiant swings around to our jump vector. Okay with you?”
“Fine, fine,” said Korolev waving her hand. “I’ll have Sejanus coordinate that with your people. Anything else you need from me, Commander?”
“No. That’ll do nicely for now. We’ll see you on our return leg. Shiloh clear.”
Shiloh let Falkenberg make the arrangements with Sejanus’s deputy CAG and listened in to the exchange between the Base and those veteran fighters selected to transfer to Defiant. Iceman, Hunter and Maverick were borderline ecstatic. The others were pleased, too. Shiloh couldn’t help wondering if those three were starting to consider Korolev as annoying, too. It took almost three hours of acceleration before the incoming fighters all landed, transferred their jump detection gear to the rookies, who then launched to take their place in the patrol. Those fighters that stayed behind adjusted their trajectories to cover any temporary holes in the detection grid, until such time as the newcomers could take their stations.
As Defiant settled down on the vector that would allow it to jump to its first destination, Shiloh reviewed the deployment plan. The five layers of star systems were color coded, with red being the closest to the sphere of space inhabited by humans, the next being orange, then yellow, green and finally blue. Defiant would deploy this initial batch of fighters in the blue layer, with the first target system designated as Blue1. The path to Blue2 and the rest looked like random changes of direction, but Shiloh knew it actually represented a carefully calculated path that minimized the total amount of time required to jump between systems.
The deployment of the first pair of fighters in Blue1 went smoothly. Defiant didn’t even slow down very much while in the system. The deployed fighters accelerated towards the gas giant, and as soon as it was deemed clear of enemy ships, Defiant pointed her bow to Blue2 and re-entered Jumpspace.
As the ship emerged in the outer reaches of Blue2, Shiloh felt a chill run down his spine. He shrugged it off. Several hours later, Defiant was close enough for her two fighters to streak ahead and verify that this system’s gas giant was devoid of alien ships. Maverick and Hammer launched and began their high speed run to the gas giant. While they were on their way, Shiloh’s duty shift ended, and he returned to his quarters and went to sleep. It seemed to him that he had just shut his eyes when the Bridge called. Checking his chronometer, he realized that he’d been asleep for almost an hour.
“Shiloh here. What is it, Sumi?”
The XO’s voice was tense. “One of Maverick’s recon drones has detected what appears to be reflected sunlight off a metal hull. Maverick’s requesting permission to order the drone to determine distance with its rangefinder laser.”
Shiloh was instantly wide awake. “Only one contact?” he asked.
“Only one so far, yes Sir.” replied Tanaka.
Shiloh thought fast. The reflected sunlight, if that’s what it was, had been detected by passive optical sensors, but it only gave the drone a direction to the object, not a distance. The low-powered rangefinder laser that the latest version of recon drones had would fire a timed pulse of laser light and measure how long it took for the reflected laser light to return. That would tell them how far away the object was. The risk was that the enemy ship might detect the laser pulse, which would tip them off to the drone’s presence and eliminate any advantage Shiloh had for covert surveillance. But if they didn’t get a range determination, they’d have no way of knowing where the alien ship was headed or how fast it was going, and THAT information was critically important.
“Tell Maverick he has permission to determine the range. Send the ship to Battle Stations. I’ll be on the Bridge shortly. Shiloh clear.”
No sooner had he finished speaking then the Battle Stations klaxon sounded. Tanaka must have had her finger hovering over the activation button while they were talking. He put on a fresh uniform and sprinted for the Bridge, which was just down the hall. Tanaka saw him enter and unbuckled herself from the Command Station chair.
As Shiloh walked over to her, he said. “I have the Con, XO.”
“Yes, Sir. Maverick has the word. We should get a report back in about ... 90 seconds or so.”
Shiloh nodded as he sat down in the chair. He buckled himself in while the chair adjusted itself to his body.
“Good," he said.
Tanaka started to turn towards the entrance to head for Engineering where the Executive Officer usually went during Battle Stations, but Shiloh had other ideas.
“Not so fast, XO. I’m wearing two hats on this mission, and if we find ourselves in a shooting match, I don’t want to have to con the ship and fight the battle at the same time. So I want you to relieve Rodriguez at the Helm Station, and you’ll take back the Con while I concentrate on the bigger picture. Rodriguez can take your place in Engineering.”
Tanaka was clearly taken aback. “Well, if you’re sure you want to do that, Sir, I’ll comply with your orders.”
Shiloh smiled and said, “I know what I’m doing, Sumi. I’ve used this technique before when I was Squadron Leader, only this time I have a squadron of fighters instead of frigates.”
“Yes, Sir.”
She nodded and stepped over to the Helm Station. Rodriguez had heard the exchange and was already vacating his station.
As soon as Tanaka sat down, Shiloh said. “The XO has the Con.”
With the rest of the Bridge personnel now clear as to who was actually running the ship itself, Shiloh turned his attention to the displays that monitored the status of the fighters still in Defiant’s Hangar Bay. Most were showing the green light of ready-to-launch status. The Hangar Bay was in the process of depressurizing. All personnel there had already donned pressure suits.
“Iceman to CAG.”
The sudden voice made Shiloh jump.
“Make it fast, Iceman. I’m kinda busy now,” said Shiloh.
“Ah, roger that, CAG. If there’s more than one bogey out there, we’ll have a better chance of finding them if we launch more recon drones. Request permission to take Cobra Flight out for that purpose.”
Shiloh wasn’t ready to make that call yet. He needed more information first.
“I’ll take that under advisement, Iceman. Standby.”
The 90 seconds should be just about up by now, thought Shiloh. Sure enough, the data, relayed by Maverick from his drone to Defiant, showed that the bogey was almost six million kilometers away from the drone, and due to the geometry of Defiant’s relative position to the drone, the range to Defiant was just over nine million kilometers. The ship’s tactical computer took the range data, the drone’s position relative to Defiant, and displayed the tactical situation on the main display. Shiloh looked at it carefully. Nine million kilometers sounded like a lot, but compared to the size of your average star system, it was relatively close. It was the vectors that were going to complicate things. Defiant was on a vector that would cross the gas giant’s orbit while at the same time angle up from below the system’s ecliptic. The bogey was heading ‘downward’ and off to one side of Defiant’s vector. Defiant had enough speed left over from the jump to make it difficult to intercept the bogey or even just slide in behind it on a parallel vector. As Shiloh continued to evaluate his tactical options, he noticed that the contact status indicator beside the bogey’s icon on the Tactical display changed from ‘constant’ to ‘intermittent’. A beep from his console drew his attention to a smaller screen where Maverick had transmitted a text message.
[Sunlight reflection gone. Continuing to track bogey with laser. Active scanning?]
If the bogey were adjusting its attitude by rotating on its axis, that would change the angle of the reflected sunlight, and it would explain the loss of that contact. Maverick was asking for permission to order the drone to actively scan with radar, which would give them a clear picture of its course, speed, and any companions but also alert it to the human presence. Not yet, thought Shiloh. He transmitted the negative response to Maverick.
Turning to the Astrogation Station, he said, “Astrogator. Can you determine what system they’re lining up for, if any?”
The reply came seconds later.
“As far as we can tell with this triangulation, they’re most likely heading for Green4, Sir.”
Shiloh called up the 3D star charts for the immediate environment. Green4 had two gas giants, and from there the bogey could pick from one of two paths containing star systems that formed what looked like rivers of stars with empty gaps in between. One path led to the Nimitz Base, which was also in the same star system as the Avalon colony. The other path led to more heavily populated colony worlds deeper in Human Space.
“I need a projected course change for a jump to Green4. I also need to see how much fuel we’d have upon arrival for various transit times.”
“Okay, Sir. I’ll have that for you shortly.”
Why Green4, Shiloh thought to himself? It’s not that far away. The bogey’s vector seemed to indicate that it was leaving the vicinity of this system’s gas giant, which suggested that it had refueled here. Even an Exploration Frigate had enough fuel to jump to Green4 and then jump again without refueling. Suddenly Shiloh knew the answer. The aliens might have survey data on all human-explored star systems, but they couldn’t be sure if they’d encounter any human ships in these systems. So the safe thing to do would be to make a series of small jumps, refuel whenever possible, and if they encountered Human ships, they could always jump back the way they came. Far less risky than making long jumps into enemy held systems and not being able to refuel or jump away. So then the next question was, is this just one ship, which would suggest a recon mission of some kind, or are we seeing just one of a whole fleet of ships on a strike mission? The only way to answer that question without tipping his hand would be to arrive at Green4 first, ring both gas giants there with recon drones, and see what showed up. He’d have to wait for the astrogator’s data on the jump to Green4 before he could answer that question, but there were other questions, too.
He had to get a warning back, but that was easier said than done, and there were several options. One was to send a message drone back to Bradley Base. They could then boost another drone to high speed for a direct jump back to Omaha Base, which was further back and where Shiloh knew that Admiral Howard was in the process of building up a Task Force of combat frigates. They were to be used to intercept any mass incursion that the early warning network might identify. Another option was to send a high speed message drone directly to Omaha Base from here, or they could send a high speed drone to Sol. Sending a message drone back to Bradley and from there to Sol, would be easy but not quick. High speed drones sent to either Sol or Omaha would be quick IF they could boost the drone fast enough before it entered Jumpspace. That IF depended on multiple factors that Shiloh couldn’t even begin to evaluate. Before he could get any further in his thinking, the Astrogator put the requested data on the main display. Just as Shiloh had suspected. It would take so much fuel to bring Defiant’s current high speed vector over to the right heading, that they’d arrive at Green4 with dangerously low fuel reserves and with a lead time that might or might not let them refuel safely before the bogey arrived. But if Defiant refueled here, the delay would mean that they’d never be able to beat the bogey to Green4. He needed to get help in identifying options.
“Iceman, I’m going to ask the XO and Astrogator to step over to my station for a strategy conference. I want you to listen in. Feel free to offer suggestions.”
“Ah, roger that, CAG.”
Both Tanaka and the Astrogator heard him and were already standing nearby.
“Okay, here’s the problem. Our number one priority is to track this bogey or bogeys so that we find out where they’re likely to penetrate our space. Getting to Green4 far enough ahead of them to refuel first will be highly risky. Refueling here first means there’s a good chance we’ll lose contact with them by the time we get to Green4. We also have to send a warning to friendly forces as soon as the situation allows. A high speed, boosted message drone directly to either Sol or Omaha Base would be ideal, but would put at risk whatever fighters are tasked with that mission due to potential fuel exhaustion. I’m looking for options.”
Before either the XO or Astrogator could speak, Iceman jumped in.
“Green4 has two gas giants which now are almost at right angles to each other relative to the system’s sun. If we get there first and station fighter sentries at both giants, they can pinpoint which one the enemy will use to refuel and Defiant can then refuel at the other one, using microjumps to get to it. After refueling, the contact fighter can relay the enemy’s new jump vector, and Defiant will have enough fuel to boost to a high enough speed to arrive at the next system with plenty of lead time. While Defiant is boosting away from the Green4 GG, it can deploy a fully fueled fighter, which will then have enough fuel to send a message drone directly to Omaha Base and still make it back to the GG to refuel itself. Here’s what that would look like.”
Shiloh, the XO and the Astrogator turned to looked at the main display, which now showed a tactical representation of Green4 system with the projected arrival point for Defiant and two alternate paths to the gas giants depending on which one the enemy chose to refuel at. Shiloh turned to his Astrogator.
“What do you think, Martin?”
The Astrogator chuckled. “I think Iceman wants to put me out of a job! Without checking the numbers, I can’t be sure of course, but it looks doable, and I’m sure Iceman has calculated it down to the final decimal.”
Before Iceman had a chance to reply, Shiloh said, “XO?”
She sighed. “It sure beats my idea all to hell, Sir.”
It did look good, thought Shiloh. Damn good in fact, and Iceman came up with it FAST! Maybe A.I.s should be used as Astrogators.
There were still unknowns of course. If there was only one bogey, then one of the two gas giants would be free for Defiant’s use, but if there was more than one, and Shiloh was willing to bet there was, then it was conceivable that the enemy force might split up when it reached Green4 and refuel at both gas giants. Splitting up your force in potential enemy territory was not something that Shiloh would have done, but these were aliens after all, and who knew for certain how they thought? On the other hand, if the enemy force did split up, then Defiant’s remaining fighters stood a good chance of kicking the crap out of one group before the other group could come to its aid. That might convince the other group to abort the mission. They might suspect that these intervening systems were being monitored. Keeping that fact a secret, while nice in theory, was not an absolute priority, and an aborted attack would give Humanity more time to complete the network and beef up defenses. There was one more problem.
“How do we know when they’ll be arriving at Green4?” asked Shiloh to no one in particular.
Naturally Iceman spoke up first. “I have the answer, but I’ll let the Astrogator field this one if he wants to.”
Shiloh’s eyebrows went up. What a tactful way of letting Martin save some face. You continue to astonish me, Iceman. He could see from Martin’s expression that Iceman’s gesture wasn’t lost on him either.
“Thanks, Iceman. It’s actually simple, Sir. We line Defiant up for Green4, all the while keeping track of the bogey’s speed. When the bogey jumps, we’ll know exactly how fast it entered Jumpspace, and that will tell us when it’ll arrive at Green4. We then accelerate to a higher speed which will get us there first, with enough time to deploy sentry fighters and recon drones near both gas giants.”
“Very good. That’s what we’ll do. XO, bring the ship to a jump vector for Green4. Iceman, you contact Maverick and Hunter. Tell them what they need to do to keep tracking the bogey, and also make sure that the DCAG is informed as well. Both fighters will stay in Blue2 after the bogey jumps away, as per the original mission. Any questions?” No one had any. “Good. Carry on then.”
It took almost an hour for Defiant to swing around to a heading that it could use to jump to Green4. It and the bogey were now on parallel vectors, and while the bogey was further ahead, Defiant at this point was still traveling faster and was therefore catching up. At its closest point, the distance between them would still be more than a million kilometers. Defiant didn’t have to get close in order to beat the bogey to Green4. During that time, the half dozen recon drones controlled by Maverick and Hunter used a rapidly repeating series of rangefinder laser pulses to track the bogey. With Defiant now on the precise vector for the jump to Green4, it resumed acceleration. The bogey disappeared into Jumpspace 89 minutes later, and since Defiant’s speed was already greater, it jumped three minutes after that.
