Thirty minutes later, Sandy had her key staff seated around an expanded table. Van Velder, her Chief of Staff, was at her right elbow, Penny and her computer Mimzy were at her left with her silent shadow cat. Around the table were Sandy’s Ops Chief, Mondi Ashigara, and admirals Benson, Kitano, Hawkings, Bethea, and Miyoshi.
Sandy quickly outlined what they’d discovered about the alien cruiser and their need to defend the jump points.
“That’s going to mean a total redo of . . .” Admiral Benson started.
Sandy cut him off. “I’ve got a meeting with Pipra and Abby set for later. You’re all invited to sit in. We will discuss the challenges this will make for the production people then. Right now, I want military options to solve a military problem. Nothing else.”
The table fell silent.
Penny finally spoke. “We’ve defended the jump points before. Mimzy, show Admiral Santiago how the Bird class held the jump points against speedsters.”
A hologram appeared over the table. Three small battlecruisers, maybe frigates, swung around each other in a three-pointed star. The ships were slightly off kilter; rather than the spindle and ship forming a straight line, the ships were about five degrees off.
“This arrangement of unarmored frigates stood alerts at each jump. The arrangement allowed at least one ship’s aft battery and another ship's bow lasers to take on a ship shooting out of the jump. Every thirty days or so we switched out the ships and brought them back for maintenance and crew rest. The spin only provided half a gravity, and the Coriolis force can drive you crazy. Based on this temporary fix, I’d recommend something with a much larger diameter. If you want to base a fast reaction force at these forts, you really need a bigger wheel.”
“Thank you, Captain, that’s the best explanation I’ve heard of your temporary fix. Okay, what do we need now?”
“If we just intended to put a fast reaction force out there, we could just do that,” Admiral Benson said. “Anchor twelve battlecruisers near the jump, have them swing around each other, and swap out with another twelve every couple of weeks or so.”
“We could, but I’m thinking of this as a fort,” Sandy said. “I’d like it armed and dangerous. Say 22-inch lasers to pop anything that came through. Maybe the beam guns. You say the ships are banged up bad. Why not park them out there and put a major 24-inch hurt on any battleship or mother ship that tries to force the jump?”
Admiral Kitano nodded. “Assuming we get more beam ships from the other side of the galaxy, I’d be a lot happier if we just parked those hulks and concentrated on keeping the reactors and beam guns working.
“How large a diameter do we need for this fort?” Sandy asked.
“You can get rough, simulated gravity in a cylinder-shaped station that is as little as a hundred meters in diameter,” Mimzy said from Penny’s neck.
“We need something bigger than that if we’re going to dock battlecruisers to them,” Amber said. “A hundred-meter-diameter can is moving too fast for a battlecruiser to catch the hook and be reeled into a pier. I’ve docked a battlecruiser, and a spinning station as big around as Canopus is not that easy to catch.”
“Maybe we need to step back and look at this a bit more analytically,” Sandy said. “We’re talking about a space station that can effectively dock ships with sufficient support and housekeeping facilities to keep the ships fit and ready to deploy at a moment’s notice. Second, we want a platform to support 22-inch lasers. Third, we want a platform to support beam weapons. Last, we need a platform that can move if the jump does. Can we do all four of these?”
“The lasers and beam weapons don’t fit together well,” Admiral Bethea said. “The 22-inch lasers have a range of 200,000 kilometers. The beam weapons have a . . . well, I don’t know if anyone knows their maximum range. Still, the 22-inch lasers need to be within a light second of a target. The beam weapon can be set up further back a few light seconds where it’s safer. Moving a space station is not something you want to do all that much, but if we want to guard a jump, you got to move with it if it moves. Does anyone else besides me see a conflict among all these requirements?”
“If the admiral won’t hit me up beside the head,” Admiral Benson said, “we really can’t afford to build more than one station or fort or whatever out there without really messing up the flow of goods down here.”
Sandy nodded. “You’re right, Ben, one station. Its main goal is to support the twelve assigned battlecruisers that are in one-hour alert status.”
“It will need more than six piers for your battlecruisers,” the Chief of Staff put in. “You’ll need docks for one or two repair ships. A couple of freighters. Twelve sounds good right now. Sixteen might sound better next month. I know this may appear like design creep, but we need to have enough to provide serious housekeeping support for this force and the five thousand sailors aboard those ships. Sixty-four hundred if we go to two complete squadrons.”
“Twelve battlecruisers was enough of a reaction force this time,” Sandy pointed out.
“Our target had three jumps with two possible outcomes, Ma’am. We sent out six sections of two. Will the next situation be the same size?”
“If we keep letting matters creep, we’d be basing a fleet out there?” Kitano snapped.
“Maybe someday we’ll wish we had?” the Chief of Staff said, not backing down.
Sandy shook her head. “Benson, what does sixteen verses twenty-four ships cost us?”
“If I may put in,” came from Mimzy. “If we settle for a station half the diameter of Canopus Station, with half the circumference, we can have four piers every two kilometers. A sixteen-ship station is two to three kilometers long. A twenty-four-ship station is five kilometers long. That assumes we dock a squadron by divisions, two ships to a pier, filling the forward side of the pier first, then the trailing side last.”
“A sphere three verses five kilometers long,” Sandy said.
“But the tin can may be the cheapest part of the station,” Benson pointed out.
“You’re saying we need to ask the production gurus before we trim our station?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Okay, that’s ships, what about guns?”
“We need to have the station within 22-inch laser range of the jump,” Amber said. “The beam weapons will pack a hell of a punch at that range, but the aliens will be within range of the station with their newer lasers too damn quick.”
“But we have to be able to take out fast moving suicide boats or even cruisers before they get too far into the system,” Bethea pointed out.”
“Whatever we do with the beam ships,” Ben put in, “we’ll need to segregate their Smart Metal from our own locally produced Smart Metal. There may be another complication if we use titanium extrusions for much of the station structures and decking.”
“You think this will have to be a hybrid structure?” Sandy asked.
“I don’t want to get into someone else’s rice bowl, but if we want these things quick and don’t want to completely wreck the economy out here, yeah, I think we’re going to have to make them a patchwork design,” the commander of Sandy’s base force said.
“Thank you all. I think we have defined our requirements. Penny, could you have Mimzy tell Mata Hari to ask Abby if she and Pipra could drop in sooner rather than later?”
“They are already on their way,” Mimzy said primly. “I may have been keeping them informed of what would be required of them.”
“Mimzy?” Penny said.
“This will just save you having to brief them and they know what you’ve tried and rejected.”
“You and I, as well as Mata and Abby will have to talk about this later,” Penny growled.
“Yes, ma’am,” almost sounded contrite.
A penitential computer. What will Alwa Station come up with next?